OpenLLM-France/wikimedia huggingface dataset:
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Lendy, Auguste Frederick

Auguste Frederic Lendy in the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography.
​LENDY, AUGUSTE FREDERICK (1826–1889), military tutor, and author, born in 1826, was at one time a captain of the French army staff, but came to England as military tutor to the Orleans princes. About the date of the Crimean war he set up a private military college at Sunbury House, Sunbury-on-Thames, where he was long known as one of the ablest and most ​successful of the much-abused army ‘crammers.’ He held a commission for twenty years in the 4th royal Middlesex militia (now 5th battalion royal fusiliers), in which he was appointed ensign in 1859, lieutenant in 1862, captain in 1866, retiring with the honorary rank of major 1 Feb. 1879. He died at Riverside House, Sunbury, 10 Oct. 1889, in his sixty-fourth year.
Lendy's special subject was fortification of the period prior to the introduction of the polygonal system, and his work on the subject was, in its day, by far the best text-book in the English language. He published:
* ‘Principles of War,’ London, 1853, 12mo.
* ‘Maxims, Advice, and Instructions in the Art of War,’ translated from the French, Paris, 1857, 16mo; New York, 8vo.
* ‘Elements of Fortification, Field and Permanent,’ London, 1857, 8vo.
* ‘Campaigns of Napoleon, 1812’ (campaigns of Wellington), privately printed, 19 parts, London, 1861.
* ‘Fortification: Lectures addressed to Officers reading for the Staff,’ London, 1862, 8vo.
* ‘Practical Course of Military Surveying and Plan-drawing,’ London, 1864, 8vo.
* ‘Marmont's Modern Armies,’ translated from the French, London, 1865, 8vo.
* A revised edition of Lavallée's ‘Military Geography,’ London, 1868, 8vo. Lendy was an active supporter of horticulture, and distinguished as an amateur grower of orchids.
[Broad Arrow, 19 Oct. 1889; Brit. Mus. Cat. Printed Books; Gardeners' Mag. 19 Oct. 1889.]
H. M. C.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Leng, John

​LENG, JOHN (1665–1727), bishop of Norwich, was born at Thornton le Dale, near Pickering, in Yorkshire, in 1665. He received his early education at St. Paul's School, and obtained an exhibition at Catharine Hall, Cambridge, where he was admitted a sizar 26 March 1683. He graduated B.A. in 1686. His subsequent degrees were M.A. 1690, B.D. 1698, D.D. 1716. He was elected fellow of his college 13 Sept. 1688, and subsequently became a very efficient tutor. He obtained great distinction as a Latin scholar. In 1695 he published the ‘Plutus’ and the ‘Nubes’ of Aristophanes, with a Latin translation, and in 1701 he edited the magnificent Cambridge Terence, adding a dissertation on the metres of the author. He also published a revised edition of Sir Roger L'Estrange's translation of Cicero's ‘Offices.’ At the consecration of the new chapel of his college by Patrick, bishop of Ely, in 1701, he preached the sermon. In 1708 he was presented by his old pupil, Sir Nicholas Carew, to the rectory of Beddington, Surrey, which he held in commendam to his death. In 1717 and 1718 he delivered the Boyle lectures, which were published the following year, his subject being ‘The Natural Obligations to believe the Principles of Religion and Divine Revelation.’ He became chaplain in ordinary to George I, and in 1723 was appointed bishop of Norwich. He was consecrated at Lambeth by Archbishop Wake on 3 Nov. of the same year. He held the see barely three years, having died in London of small-pox, caught at the coronation of George II, 26 Oct. 1727. He was buried in St. Margaret's, Westminster, where a mural tablet was erected to his memory in the south aisle of the chancel (Walcot, Hist. of St. Margaret's, p. 19). During his short episcopate Leng had gained the good opinion of his diocese as ‘a man of modesty and ​diligence,’ than whom ‘no one could be further from pride, or show more true humility in his station,’ and his premature death was much lamented. Whiston calls him ‘a good and learned man’ (Memoirs, p. 547). Leng was twice married. By his first wife he had no children. By his second, Elizabeth, daughter of a ‘Mr. Hawes of Sussex,’ he had two daughters, Elizabeth and Susanna.
Leng published fourteen single sermons, preached on public occasions, among which was one preached before the Society for the Reformation of Manners at Bow Church, 29 Dec. 1718. His ‘Boyle Lectures’ passed to a second edition. They were regarded as ‘solid and weighty, clear and concise in statement, well-reasoned throughout, enriched with the fruit of much learning, gracefully but not pedantically exhibited.’
[Blomefield's Hist. of Norfolk, vol. iii.; Abbey's The English Church and its Bishops, ii. 34.]
E. V.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Lacroix, Alphonse François

​LACROIX, ALPHONSE FRANÇOIS (1799–1859), missionary, born in the canton of Neuchâtel on 10 May 1799, was educated there under the care of his uncle until he was seventeen years of age. In 1816 he went to Amsterdam as a tutor, and while there was stirred by the news of the overthrow of idolatry in Tahiti to offer himself for missionary labour. He was first appointed an agent of the Netherlands Missionary Society at Chinsurah, near Calcutta, but on the cession of the settlement to the East India Company he transferred his services to the London Missionary Society, and became a British subject. He married at Chinsurah, and continued there until 1827, when he removed to Calcutta, the principal sphere of his labours. While at Calcutta he inaugurated a remarkable religious movement in the small but numerous villages to the south and east of the metropolis as well as in the district of the Sunderbunds. He also preached with success in Saugor Island, made various itinerant visits to the rivers Isamutty and Mattabhanga, and devoted his leisure to revising the Bengali scriptures and to training native preachers. During the thirty-eight years that he was thus honourably employed he paid only one visit to Europe, in 1842–3, when he spent his holiday in Switzerland, France, and England, and aroused an especial interest in his mission work throughout Switzerland, and particularly at Geneva. He pursued his pastorate of the native churches at Calcutta until his death there on 8 July 1859. He was tall and handsome, and of dignified presence, and was an animated, natural, and expressive preacher. He spoke English well, but felt more free in expressing himself on the continent in French, or at Calcutta in Bengali, of which language he was a perfect master.
[Brief Memorials of the Rev. Alphonse François Lacroix, by the Rev. Dr. Mullens, London Missionary Society; Chronicle of London Missionary Society, art. iv., by the Rev. E. Storrow, L.M.S., February 1882.]
S. P. O.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Lablache, Luigi

​LABLACHE, LUIGI (1794–1858), vocalist, son of Nicholas Lablache, merchant, of Marseilles, by an Irish lady, was born at Naples 6 Dec. 1794. He was educated from 1806 at the Conservatorio della Pietà de' Turchini, where Gentili taught him the elements of music, and Valesi instructed him in singing, while at the same time he studied the violin and violoncello. His voice was a beautiful contralto, and just before it broke he sang the solos in the requiem of Mozart on the death of Haydn in 1809. Before long he became possessed of a magnificent bass, which gradually increased in volume until at the age of twenty it attained a compass of two octaves from E flat below to E flat above the bass stave. In 1812, when only eighteen, he was engaged at the San Carlo Theatre, Naples, and appeared in ‘La Molinara’ of Fioravanti. Two years later he married Teresa Pinotti, the daughter of an actor. In 1817, at La Scala in Milan, he took the part of Dandini in ‘Cenerentola.’ The opera of ‘Elisa e Claudio’ was now (1821) written for him by Mercadante; his position was made, and his reputation spread throughout Europe. From Milan he went to Turin, returned to Milan in 1822, then appeared at Venice, and in 1824 at Vienna. Going back to Naples after an absence of twelve years, he created a great sensation as Assur in ‘Semiramide.’ On 30 March 1830, under Ebers's management, he was first heard in London as Geronimo in ‘Il Matrimonio Segreto,’ and thenceforth appeared there annually, also singing in many provincial festivals. His success in England was assured from the first. His voice was at all times extraordinarily powerful, but he could produce comic, humorous, tender, or sorrowful effects with equal ease and mastery. As an actor he excelled equally in comic and tragic parts. His chief rôles were Leporello (his greatest part), Geronimo the Podestà in ‘La Gazza Ladra,’ Dandini in ‘La Prova d' un' Opera Seria,’ Henry VIII in ‘Anna Bolena,’ the Doge in ‘Marino Faliero,’ and Oroveso in ‘Norma.’ Towards the close of his career he played two new characters of quite different types with great success, Shakespeare's Caliban and Gritzenko, the Kalmuck, in Scribe's ‘L'Etoile du Nord.’ At the funeral of Beethoven in 1827 he was one of the thirty-two torchbearers who surrounded the coffin. He taught singing to Queen Victoria. He died at Naples 23 Jan. 1858, and was buried at Maison-Lafitte, Paris.
G. C. B.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Lacy, Harriette Deborah

​LACY, HARRIETTE DEBORAH (1807–1874), actress, daughter of a London tradesman named Taylor, was born in London in 1807. Her parents acquiescing in her desire to go on the stage she received lessons in elocution from Mrs. Bartley, wife of the Covent Garden manager, and made her début as Julia in the ‘Rivals’ under the management of Bellamy at the Bath Theatre on 5 Nov. 1827, when she was described on the bill as ‘Miss Taylor from Richmond.’ She obtained almost instant popularity, and in the course of the two following seasons Bellamy assigned her such parts as Portia, Helen McGregor, Lady Macbeth, and Catherine in the ‘Taming of the Shrew.’ She first appeared in London at Covent Garden, where, on 30 Oct. 1830, she played Nina in Dimond's ‘Carnival of Naples,’ and ‘burst upon us,’ says the ‘Theatrical Journal’ of that date, ‘with a natural freshness and power that must at once secure her fame, and prove of signal advantage to the house.’ Subsequent parts were Rosalind, in which Bannister compared her to Mrs. Jordan, and Helen to Sheridan Knowles's Hunchback in his play of that name, in which her performance excited the author's warmest admiration. She played Aspatia, to Macready's Melantius and Miss Huddart's Evadne, in the ‘Bridal’ under Benjamin Webster's management at the Haymarket in 1837, and in the following year she joined the company with which Macready commenced his management of Covent Garden. There in August 1838 she played Lady Teazle to the Charles Surface of Walter Lacy, whom she shortly afterwards married. For twelve years further she ‘played leading comedy, tragedy, and Vestris business,’ mainly at Covent Garden. Among her best performances were Nell Gwynne in Jerrold's play of that name (with the once well-known song, ‘Buy my Oranges’), the original heroine in the same writer's ‘Housekeeper,’ and Ophelia, a part in which, according to Madame Vestris, she surpassed any actress of her time. She retired from the stage in 1848, making her farewell appearance at the Olympic. She died on 28 July 1874 at Montpellier Square, Brighton.
[Era, 2 Aug. 1874; Clark Russell's Representative Actors, Appendix, p. 441; Pascoe's Dramatic List, p. 242; Archer's Macready, pp. 107, 110.]
T. S.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Lacey, William

William Wolfe in the ODNB.
​LACEY, WILLIAM (1584–1673), jesuit, whose real name was Wolfe, born at Scarborough in 1584, was son of a tanner and leather dealer. He was sent to Oxford by an uncle, became a student in Magdalen College in 1600, and graduated B.A. on 2 July 1606 (Oxford Univ. Reg., Oxf. Hist. Soc., vol. ii. pt. iii. p. 264). Having become a convert to the Roman catholic religion, he was well received by the jesuits at St. Omer; was admitted an alumnus of the English College at Rome in 1608; and, after receiving minor orders, left for Lorraine 2 Sept. 1611, in order to enter the Society of Jesus in the novitiate at Nancy. After his tertianship at Ghent, and a course of teaching at St. Omer, he was sent to England, and in 1625 was a missioner in the Lancashire district. In 1633 he was in the Oxfordshire district, or St. Mary's ‘residence,’ and two years later in St. George's ‘residence,’ which comprised Worcestershire and Warwickshire. He was professed of the four vows 21 Nov. 1637. In 1649 he was again at St. Mary's, where he remained, as missioner at Oxford, until his death. He died at Oxford on 17 July 1673. He was buried in the parish church of Somerton, Oxfordshire. Wood says ‘he was esteemed by all, especially by those of his own opinion’ (Athenæ Oxon. ed. Bliss, iii. 995).
He was the author of: 1. ‘The Jvdgment of an Vniversity-Man concerning M. William Chillingworth his late Pamphlet, in Answere to Charity Maintayned,’ 4to (anon.), 1639. Probably printed at St. Omer. A reply to Chillingworth's ‘Religion of Protestants’ [see Knott, Edward]. 2. ‘Heavtomachia. M. Chillingworth against himselfe,’ 4to, pp. 46. Printed as an appendix to the preceding work. Wood and Oliver erroneously ascribe to him another attack on Chillingworth, ‘The Totall Svmme,’ 1639, 4to, which was the work of the jesuit Father John Floyd [q. v.]
[Birch's Life of Chillingworth; Dodd's Church Hist. iii. 320; Foley's Records, iv. 598, vi. 251, vii. 856; Oliver's Jesuit Collections, p. 128; Southwell's Bibl. Scriptorum Soc. Jesu, p. 315.]
T. C.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Lacy, Francis Antony

​LACY, FRANCIS ANTONY (1731–1792), Spanish general and diplomatist, born in 1731, was the son of an Irish officer who went to Spain with the Duke of Berwick, probably the Lacy who was a general at the Spanish siege of Oran in 1730. Francis Antony commenced his military career as ensign in the Irish infantry regiment of Ultonia in the Spanish service, during the disastrous campaign in Italy in 1747. He commanded the same regiment in the war with Portugal in 1762. As lieutenant-general he commanded the Spanish artillery at the famous siege of Gibraltar (Drinkwater, p. 167). After the peace of 1783 Lacy was sent as Spanish minister-plenipotentiary to the courts of Stockholm and St. Petersburg, where he was very popular. On his return he was made commandant-general of the coast of Grenada, member of the supreme council of war, and commandant-general and sole inspector-general of the artillery and of all ordnance-manufacturing establishments in Spain and the Indies. The Spanish artillery school of Segovia was indebted to him for improved discipline and the establishment of classes for chemistry, mineralogy, and pyrotechnics. In March 1789 he was made governor and captain-general of Catalonia, where he was conspicuous by his active efforts to prevent the spread of French revolutionary doctrines. He married a daughter of the Marquis d'Abbeville, by whom he had a son and daughter. He died at Barcelona 31 Dec. 1792.
​Lacy had the grand cordon of Charles III, was a commander of St. Januarius, and titular of the rich commandery of Casas Buenas, Merida. According to some he owed his success to his ready wit and imposing stature rather than to any military talent; but his conciliatory disposition and his unswerving loyalty to the country of his adoption are generally admitted. Lacy is stated to have been uncle of Don Luiz Lacy (1775–1817), Spanish general and governor of Catalonia, whose name often appears in histories of Wellington's Peninsular campaigns, and who was executed at the castle of Belver, Majorca, on 5 July 1817, after his abortive attempt, in conjunction with General Milans, to re-establish the cortes and proclaim a constitution on 5 April in that year. Three years later the Spanish cortes, to honour his memory, named his son first grenadier of the Spanish army (Biog. Univ. Nouvelle edit. xxii. 421).
[Printed Sketch-Pedigree of General Maurice De Lacy [q. v.] of Grodno, of which there are copies in the British Museum; Biog. Univers. vol. xxii., ‘Lacy, François Antoine,’ and ‘Lacy, Luiz;’ Grant's Cavaliers of Fortune, pp. 164–77; Drinkwater's Siege of Gibraltar, London, 1844 ed.]
H. M. C.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Lablache, Frederick

​LABLACHE, FREDERICK (1815–1887), vocalist, eldest son of Luigi Lablache [q. v.], vocalist, was born on 29 Aug. ​1815, and educated by his father. About 1837 he appeared at the King's Theatre, London, in Italian opera, and afterwards frequently sang at Manchester with Mario, Grisi, and Favanti. In 1844 he took a part in ‘Così fan tutte’ at Her Majesty's Theatre, and in 1846 in ‘Il Matrimonio Segreto.’ He played the part of Count Rodolphe to Jenny Lind's Amina on her first visit to Manchester, 28 Aug. 1847, and he also appeared with her in other characters under the management of Michael Balfe in 1849. About 1865 he withdrew from the stage, and devoted himself to teaching. He died at 51 Albany Street, Regent's Park, London, 30 Jan. 1887. His son, Luigi Lablache, is a well-known actor.
His wife, Fanny Wyndham Lablache (d. 1877), vocalist, whose maiden name was Wilton, was born in Scotland, studied at the Royal Academy of Music, London, 1836–7, and then made her début at the Lyceum Theatre, afterwards appearing at Her Majesty's Theatre. She was a serviceable vocalist and a teacher of much skill. After her marriage she retired from the stage, and died in Paris 23 Sept. 1877.
G. C. B.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Lachtain

Lachtín mac Tarbín in the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography.
​LACHTAIN (d. 622), Irish saint, whose name also appears in Irish literature as Laichtin (Martyrology of Donegal, p. 80), Lachtnain (Annala Rioghachta Eireann, i. 244), Lachtoc, and Molachtoc (Felire Œngusa, ed. Stokes, pp. 57, 64), belonged to the tribe called Muscraighe, who claimed descent from Conaire Mac Modhlamha, a king of Ireland in the second century. His father's name was Torben, and he was born in Munster. He became a disciple of Comgall [q. v.] of Beannchair and founded two churches, one in Ossory at Achadh-úr, now Freshford, county Kilkenny, the other at Bealach Feabbradh, of which the site is now uncertain. A later church, with an Irish inscription of the eleventh century over the door, represents his earlier edifice at Freshford, and near it is a holy well, called after him Tobar Lachtain. He died in 622. In the museum of the Royal Irish Academy, Dublin, is a silver reliquary, made in the twelfth century, to contain an arm of this saint. His feast is celebrated 19 March.
[Colgan's Acta Sanctorum Hiberniæ; Martyrology of Donegal, Irish Archæological and Celtic Society, 1864; O'Donovan's note in Annala R. E., i. 244–5; Leabhar Breac, facs. fol. 83; Dunraven's Notes on Irish Architecture, 1877, ii. 91; Mo Turas ar Lachtain, 1877.]
N. M.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Lackington, George

​LACKINGTON, GEORGE (1768–1844), bookseller, born in 1768, was a ‘third cousin’ of James Lackington [q. v.], and entered the latter's bookselling business in Chiswell Street, London, at the age of thirteen (J. Lackington, Confessions, 1804, p. viii). His father was a prosperous coal merchant, and provided his son with the necessary capital to purchase a share in Lackington, Allen, & Co.'s great shop, known as the ‘Temple of the Muses,’ in Finsbury Square. He became head of the firm in 1798. The first volume of their ‘Catalogue, Michaelmas 1799 to Michaelmas 1800,’ described upwards of two hundred thousand volumes; the second volume, which described upwards of eight hundred thousand volumes, was issued in 1803. Selling cheaply ​in large quantities for cash only continued to be the main feature of the business, to which were afterwards added many publishing speculations. Besides Lackington the other members of the firm were Allen, who possessed a great knowledge of books acquired from early training with James Lackington, and Hughes. The latter was also lessee of Sadler's Wells. Subsequent partners were A. Kirkman, Mavor, a son of Dr. Mavor of Woodstock, and Jones. In 1822 the business was conducted under the style of Lackington, Hughes, Harding, Mavor, & Lepard. On the retirement of Lackington, Joseph Harding became the chief partner, and the business was removed to Pall Mall East by Harding and Lepard. Many well-known booksellers received their training in this famous house. ‘The last of the Lackingtonians,’ Kanes James Ford, died 11 Dec. 1886, at the age of ninety-four (Bookseller, 16 Dec. 1886).
The Egyptian Hall in Piccadilly was bought by Lackington, and let for miscellaneous exhibitions (Wheatley and Cunningham, London Past and Present, ii. 7). He was usually known as the ‘nephew’ of the elder Lackington, and Nichols speaks of him as ‘well educated and gentlemanly’ (Lit. Anecd. iii. 646). In his later years he was an official assignee of bankrupts in London. He married a daughter of Captain Bullock, R.N., and left two daughters. He died at St. John's Wood 31 March 1844, aged 76.
[Nichols's Illustrations, viii. 516; Timperley's Encyclopædia, 1842, p. 862; Sir E. Brydges's Autobiography, 1834, 2 vols.; also Reasons for Amendment of Act 54 Geo. III, c. 156; Gent. Mag. 1817 pt. ii. pp. 153–5, 1818 pt. i. p. 350, May 1844 p. 549.]
H. R. T.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Halkett, Elizabeth

​HALKETT, ELIZABETH, afterwards Lady Wardlaw (1677–1727). [See Wardlaw.]
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Halkett, Samuel

​HALKETT, SAMUEL (1814–1871), librarian, was born in 1814 in the North Back of the Canongate, Edinburgh, where his father carried on business as a brewer. He was educated at two private schools, and was apprenticed at the age of fourteen. For five years he was employed by Messrs. Marshall & Aitken, and afterwards by Messrs. Abernethy & Stewart, with whom he remained until he entered into business for himself. His spare time was devoted to study, and his ‘philological genius’ and ‘extraordinary attainments’ were spoken of by Sir William Hamilton and others in supporting his candidature for the keepership of the library of the Faculty of Advocates, Edinburgh, in 1848. On being appointed to that office he found the library without an alphabetical catalogue, and at once commenced a slip-catalogue, which formed the basis of the valuable ‘Catalogue of the Printed Books in the Library of the Faculty of Advocates,’ Edinburgh, 1863–79, 7 vols. 4to. The printing was begun in 1860, but the labour was so great that at Halkett's death he had not proceeded further than the word ‘Catalogue.’ The work was completed on a scale somewhat less extensive than at first planned. A report by Halkett on the state of the library in 1868 is appended to a memorandum signed by J. Hill Burton on a proposed enlargement of the scope of the library (Edinburgh, 1868, 8vo). In 1856 Halkett wrote to ‘Notes and Queries’ (2nd ser. i. 129) that he had been collecting materials for a dictionary of anonymous English works; on his death his materials were handed over to the Rev. John Laing, librarian of the New College, Edinburgh, who continued the work until his death in 1880. The book finally appeared, with many additions, edited by Miss Catherine Laing, as ‘A Dictionary of the Anonymous and Pseudonymous Literature of Great Britain’ (Edinburgh, 1882–8, 4 vols. 8vo). Halkett contributed some articles to Chambers's ‘Cyclopædia.’ His knowledge of books and literature was very great, but he was chiefly distinguished for his remarkable linguistic acquirements. He died in April 1871, aged 57, and left a widow and four children.
[Death of Mr. Halkett, reprinted from the Edinburgh Evening Courant, 21 April 1871 (1871), sm. 8vo; Testimonials in favour of Mr. Samuel Halkett, Edinburgh, 1848, 8vo; Athenæum, 27 April 1871, p. 528; Notes and Queries, 4th ser. vii. 381, ix. 271, 403, 5th ser. vi. 447.]
H. R. T.