OpenLLM-France/wikimedia huggingface dataset:
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Constable, Henry (d.1645)

​CONSTABLE, HENRY, Viscount Dunbar (d. 1645), was son of Henry Constable of Burton and Halsham in the West Riding of Yorkshire, sheriff of the county in 1556 and M.P. for Heydon 1585–8 and 1603–8, by Margaret, daughter of Sir William Dormer of Winthorp, Buckinghamshire (Drake, Yorkshire, p. 354; Willis, Not. Parl.) His mother was reputed an obstinate recusant, not to be ‘reformed by any persuasion, or yet by coercion’ (Strype, Annals, fol. iii. ii. 179 ad fin.) On the death of his father in 1608 he succeeded to the family estates. He was knighted at the Tower ​of London on 14 March 1614, and created Baron Constable and Viscount Dunbar in the peerage of Scotland by patent dated at Newmarket 14 Nov. 1620. About the same time he was appointed deputy-justice in eyre for Galtres Forest (Cal. State Papers, Dom. 1623–5, p. 219). He was charged with recusancy to the extent of not frequenting church in 1629, but obtained a stay of process and a letter of immunity from the king (ib. 1628–9, p. 522, 1635, p. 141). He was apparently much addicted to gaming, losing on one occasion 3,000l. at a sitting (ib. 1635–6, p. 462). He died in 1645. Constable married Mary, second daughter of Sir John Tufton of Hothfield, Kent. He was succeeded in the title and estates by his son John.
J. M. R.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Constable, John (fl.1520)

​CONSTABLE, JOHN (fl. 1520), epigrammatist, son of Roger and Isabel Constable of London, was educated at St. Paul's School during the mastership of William Lilly. Thence he went to Oxford and entered Byham Hall, of which John Plaisted was head. This hall stood in Merton Street, opposite the college church, and its site is now in the possession of Corpus Christi College. Constable took the degrees of B.A. in 1511, and M.A. in 1515, when, according to Anthony à Wood, he left the university with the reputation of a great rhetorician and poet. The titles of two books by him are known, but only one, it is believed, is now extant. ‘Joannis Constablii Londinensis et artium professoris epigrammata. Apud inclytam Londini Urbem. mdxx.,’ printed by Ric. Pynson. The epigrams are addressed to contemporary personages of note, among whom are Henry VIII and Catherine of Aragon, Sir Thomas More, Hugh Latimer, Lilly, his old schoolmaster, and others. A brother Richard and sister Martha are also mentioned. Wood prints two as specimens, one addressed to Plaisted, the master of Byham Hall, and the other to Constable's Oxford friends. This volume hardly justifies his reputation as a poet, as the epigrams are dull and pointless, though the versification is correct. There is a copy of this book in the Bodleian Library, which formerly belonged to Robert Burton, author of the ‘Anatomy of Melancholy’ [q. v.] His other work was entitled ‘Querela Veritatis,’ but nothing is known of it except that the first words were ‘Destinavimus tibi hunc nostrum.’ There was another John Constable, his contemporary, who was dean of Lincoln 1514–28, but he belonged to the well-known Yorkshire family, being the fourth son of Sir Robert Constable of Flamborough [q. v.] (see Cooper, Athenæ Cantabrigienses, i. 35, 527).
C. T. M.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Constable, Thomas (1812-1881)

​CONSTABLE, THOMAS (1812–1881), printer and publisher, youngest son of Archibald Constable [q. v.] by his first marriage to Mary, daughter of David Willison, was born at Craigcrook, near Edinburgh, 29 June 1812. He learned the business of a printer with Mr. C. Richards in St. Martin's Lane, London, and commencing on his own account in Edinburgh soon occupied a position of prominence. On 7 Sept. 1839 he was appointed her majesty's printer and publisher in Edinburgh. Shortly after the death of Dr. Chalmers in 1847 he purchased the copyright of Dr. Chalmers's works, and of the 'Life' by Dr. Hanna, for 10,000l. Although the undertaking resulted in loss, it did not deter him from further publishing enterprises. About 1864 he began to issue the series of schoolbooks still known as 'Constable's Educational Series,' among the more notable books of the series being Morell's 'English Grammar' and Clyde's 'Geography.' In the same year he published the first volume of the complete edition of Dugald Stewart's 'Works,' edited by Sir William Hamilton and extending to ten volumes. About 1866 he projected 'Constable's Foreign Miscellany,' consisting of translations of important foreign works in general literature. The series was continued for several years, but was not remarkably successful. Among other publications of Constable were Calvin's 'Commentaries,' the novels of Giovanni Ruffini, and the earlier works of Dr. John Brown, author of 'Rab and his Friends.' In 1860 he discontinued the publishing business, his stock being chiefly disposed of to Messrs. Edmonston & Douglas. In his later years Constable devoted his leisure to literary occupation. His life of his father, published under the title 'Archibald Constable and his Literary Correspondents,' 1878, while of permanent interest from the valuable materials he had at his disposal, displays both sound judgment and considerable literary skill. He was also the author of 'Memoir of Lewis D. B. Gordon, F.R.S.E., Professor of Civil Engineering and Mechanics in the University of Glasgow,' printed for private circulation, Edinburgh, 1877, and of a 'Memoir of the Rev. Charles A. Chastel de Boinville,' London, 1880. He died 26 May 1881. By his wife Lucia Anne, daughter of Alexander Cowan, papermaker, Valleyfield, near Edinburgh, he had issue. His son Archibald became partner with him in 1865, and received the appointment of printer to her majesty in 1869, the business being carried on under the designation of 'Thomas & Archibald Constable, printers to the queen and to the university of Edinburgh.'
[Notice in Scotsman by Dr. Walter C. Smith, 28 May 1881; private information.]
T. F. H.
# Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology/Cardianus Hieronymus

​CARDIA'NUS HIERO'NYMUS. [Hieronymus.]
# Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology/Carenes

[L. S.]
# Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology/Cheilonis 1.

CHEILO'NIS (Χειλωνίς). 1. Daughter of Cheilon of Lacedaemon, is mentioned by Iamblichus (de Vit. Pyth. 36, ad fin.) as one of the most distinguished women of the school of Pythagoras. [E. E.]
# Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology/Cheilonis 2.

CHEILO'NIS 2. Daughter of Leonidas II., king of Sparta, and wife to Cleombrotus II. When Leonidas, alarmed at the prosecution instituted against him by Lysander [Agis IV.], took refuge in the temple of Athena Chalcioecus, Cheilonis left her husband, who was made king on the deposition of Leonidas, and, preferring to comfort her father in his adversity, accompanied him in his flight to Tegea. Afterwards, when Leonidas was restored, and Cleombrotus in his turn was driven to take refuge in the temple of Poseidon, Cheilonis joined him in his altered fortunes, saved his life by her entreaties from her father's vengeance, and, again refusing to share the splendour of a throne, went with him into banishment; "so that, had not Cleombrotus," says Plutarch, "been spoilt by vain ambition, his wife's love would have made him deem his exile a more blessed lot than the kingdom which he lost." (Plut. Agis 11, 12, 16 - 18.) [E. E.]
# Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology/Carcinus

​CARCI'NUS, the father of Agathocles. [Agathocles.]
CARCINUS (Καρκίνος). 1. Suidas mentions three distinct poets of this name. The first he calls a native of Agrigentum in Sicily; the second an Athenian, and son of Theodectes or Xenocles; and the third simply an Attic poet. The first of these poets is not mentioned any where else, and his existence is more than doubtful. The investigations of Meineke on the poets of the name Carcinus have shewn incontrovertibly that we have to distinguish between two tragic poets of this name, both of whom were natives of Athens. The first, or elder one, who was a very skilful scenic dancer (Athen. i. p. 22), is occasionally alluded to by Aristophanes (Nub. 1263, Pax, 794, with the Schol.); but his dramas, of which no fragments have come down to us, seem to have perished at an early time.
The younger Carcinus was a son either of Theodectes or of Xenocles; and if the latter statement be true, he is a grandson of Carcinus the elder. (Comp. Harpocrat. s. v. Καρκίνος.) He is in all probability the same as the one who spent a great part of his life at the court of Dionysius II. at Syracuse. (Diog. Laërt. ii. 7.) This supposition agrees with the statement of Suidas, according to whom Carcinus the son of Xenocles lived about b. c. 380; for Dionysius was expelled from Syracuse in b. c. 356. (Comp. Diod. v. 5, where Wesseling is thinking of the fictitious Carcinus of Agrigentum.) The tragedies which are referred to by the ancients under the name of Carcinus, probably all belong to the younger Carcinus. Suidas attributes to him 160 tragedies, but we possess the titles and fragments of nine only and some fragments of uncertain dramas. The following titles are known: Alope (Aristot. Ethic. Nicom. vii. 7), Achilles (Athen. v. p. 189), Thyestes (Aristot. Poet. 16), Semele (Athen. xiii. p. 559), Amphiaraus (Aristot. Poet. 17), Medeia (Aristot. Rhet. ii. 23), Oedipus (Aristot. Rhet. iii. 15), Tereus (Stobaeus, Serm. ciii. 3), and Orestes. (Phot. Lex. p. 132.) As regards the character of the poems of Carcinus, it is usually inferred, from the phrase Καρκίνου ποιήματα, used to designate obscure poetry (Phot. Lex. s. v.), and is also attested by other authorities (Athen. viii. p. 351), that the style of Carcinus was of a studied obscurity; though in the fragments extant we can scarcely perceive any trace of this obscurity, and their style bears a close resemblance to that of Euripides. (Meineke, Hist. Crit. com. Graec. p. 505, &c.)
2. Of Naupactus, is mentioned by Pausanias (x. 38. § 6) among the cyclic poets; and Charon of Lampsacus, before whose time Carcinus must have lived, attributed to him the epic poem Ναυπάκτια, which all others ascribed to a Milesian poet.
[L. S.]
# Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology/Callimedon

​CALLI'MEDON {KaiiJL4Suv), sumained 6 K(xpa€os, or the crab, on account of his fondness for that kind of shell-fish (A then. iii. p. 100, c), was one of the orators at Athens in the Macedo- nian interest, find accordingly fled from the city to Antipater, when the Athenians rose against the Macedonians upon the death of Alexander the Great in n. c. 323. When the Macedonian supre- macy was reestJiblished at Athens bj' Antipater, Callimedon returned to the city, but was obliged to fly from it again upon the outbreak against Phocion in B. c. 317. The orators Hegemon and Pythocles were put to death along with Phocion, and Callimedon was also condemned to death, but escaped in safety. (Plut. Dein. 27, Phoc. 27, 33, 35.) Callimedon was ridiculed by the comic poets. (Athen. /. c. p. 104, c. d., viii. p. 339, f., xiv. p. 614, d.)
# Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology/Carcius

[L. S.]
# Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology/Cardea

[L. S.]
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Cunningham, Peter Miller

​CUNNINGHAM, PETER MILLER (1789–1864), navy surgeon, fifth son of John Cunningham, land steward and farmer (1743–1800), and brother of Thomas Mounsey Cunningham [q. v.] and of Allan Cunningham (1784–1842) [q. v.], was born at Dalswinton, near Dumfries, in November 1789, and was named after that Peter Miller who is generally recognised as the first person who used steam ​ in propelling boats. He received his medical education at the university of Edinburgh, and on 10 Dec. 1810 entered the royal navy as an assistant-surgeon, and in that capacity saw service on the shores of Spain, where the war was then raging. From August 1812 until promoted to the rank of surgeon (28 Jan. 1814) he was employed on board the Marlborough, 74, on the coast of North America. In 1816 he served in the Confiance, 32, on Lake Erie, where he became the close friend of the traveller, Hugh Clapperton [q. v.] After 1817 he made four voyages to New South Wales as surgeon-superintendent of convict ships, in which upwards of six hundred criminals were transported to that colony without the loss of a single life. The results of his observations during this period were embodied in his ‘Two Years in New South Wales,’ 1827, 2 vols., which was favourably noticed in the ‘Quarterly Review’ for January 1828, pp. 1–32. To the profits arising from this book he added his early savings while in the navy, and expended them in an attempt to open up a large tract of land in Australia, which he then fondly regarded as his adopted country. But the locality was perhaps badly chosen, the seasons were certainly unpropitious, and he soon abandoned the struggle, as far as his own personal superintendence was concerned. His well-earned reputation at the admiralty, however, speedily procured him employment, and on 22 Oct. 1830 he was appointed to the Tyne, 28, served on the South American station until January 1834, and had opportunities of observing the effects of tropical climates on European constitutions. He joined the Asia, 84, in 1836, and, proceeding to the Mediterranean, was present at the blockade of Alexandria in 1840. He left the sea in May 1841, and was placed on the list of medical officers unfit for further service in 1850. In addition to the work above mentioned he wrote two others: ‘On the Motions of the Earth, and on the Conception, Growth, and Decay of Man and Causes of his Diseases as referable to Galvanic Action,’ 1834; and ‘Hints for Australian Emigrants, with descriptions of the Water-raising Wheels in Egypt,’ 1841. He contributed an account of a visit to the Falkland Islands to the ‘Athenæum’ and was a frequent writer elsewhere. He was a man of remarkable powers of observation, greatly attached to his brother Allan, and very popular among his friends. He died at Greenwich on 6 March 1864, aged 74.
G. C. B.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Cunningham, John (1729-1773)

​CUNNINGHAM, Sir JOHN (1729–1773), poet, born in Dublin in 1729, was the younger son of a wine cooper in Dublin of Scottish extraction, who after winning a prize in a lottery set up as a wine merchant there, and eventually became a bankrupt. He ​was educated at Drogheda, and began at the early age of twelve to write poems, which were published in the Dublin newspapers. In 1747 he wrote a farce, ‘Love in a Mist,’ which was published in Dublin in that year, and acted at the Crow Street Theatre, and which supplied Garrick with many hints for his ‘Lying Valet.’ He went on the stage after the success of his piece, but was a very poor actor, and only successful in ‘petit maître’ parts and as a mock Frenchman. After travelling about a great deal as a strolling actor he eventually appeared at Edinburgh, where he became a great favourite with the manager, Mr. Digges, and the leading lady, Mrs. George Anne Bellamy [q. v.], and wrote many occasional prologues for them. It was at Edinburgh that he published his first poem, an ‘Elegy on a Pile of Ruins.’ It is a rather weak imitation of Gray's ‘Elegy,’ but had a great success, and caused him to be summoned to London by a company of booksellers, who, however, were bankrupt before he arrived. His brother Peter, who had by this time become a well-known statuary in Dublin, begged him to come and live with him, but he preferred a strolling actor's life, and continued at short intervals to publish small volumes of poems, which brought him a certain amount of reputation, but very little money. These volumes were ‘The Contemplatist, a Night Piece,’ published in 1762; ‘Fortune, an Apologue,’ in 1765, and ‘Poems, chiefly Pastoral,’ in 1766. His health at last broke down from his wandering mode of life, and he retired to Newcastle, where he died in the house of Mr. Slack on 18 Sept. 1773. He was buried in the churchyard of St. John's Church, Newcastle-on-Tyne, where it was engraved upon his tombstone that ‘his works will remain a monument to all ages.’
[Memoirs of John Cunningham in London Magazine, October 1773, pp. 495–7, which seems to be the only authority for the lives of him prefixed to the editions of his poems in Johnson, Chalmers, Bell, and Cook's Collections of English Poems, and in Baker's Biographia Dramatica.]
H. M. S.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Cunningham, John William

​CUNNINGHAM, JOHN WILLIAM (1780–1861), divine, was born in London on 3 Jan. 1780. He was educated at private schools, his last tutor being the Rev. H. Jowett of Little Dunham, Norfolk, where he formed an intimate friendship with his fellow-pupils, the Grants, one of whom became distinguished as Lord Glenelg, and the other as Sir Robert Grant, governor-general of Bombay. Cunningham entered St. John's College, Cambridge. He was fifth wrangler in 1802, and was elected to a fellowship at his college. After passing some months with the Grants at Edinburgh, he was ordained in 1802 to the curacy of Ripley, Surrey. On 30 July 1805 he married Sophia, daughter of Robert Williams of Moor Park, Surrey. He became curate of John Venn, vicar of Clapham, and a well-known member of the so-called Clapham sect, who was described by Cunningham as ‘Berkely’ in the ‘Velvet Cushion.’ In 1811 Cunningham became vicar of Harrow, the presentation to which had been bought by his father-in-law. He held this post until his death on 30 Sept. 1861. By his first wife (d. 1821) Cunningham had nine children; the eldest son, Charles Thornton Cunningham, was lieutenant-governor of St. Christopher's from 1839 till his death in 1847. In June 1827 Cunningham married Mary, daughter of Sir H. Calvert, and sister of Sir Harry Verney, who died in 1849. By her he had three children, of whom Henry Stewart Cunningham is a judge of the high court of judicature of Bengal, and Mary Richenda married Sir J. F. Stephen, judge of the high court of justice.
Cunningham was distinguished for courtesy and kindness of heart, and was a prominent member of the evangelical party in the church of England. He was elected in 1818 an honorary life-governor of the Church Missionary Society, and was editor of the ‘Christian Observer’ from 1850 to 1858. One of his books, the ‘Velvet Cushion,’ giving an account from the evangelical point of view of the various parties in the church of England since the Reformation, was very popular. The first edition was published in 1814, the tenth in 1816. He also wrote:
* ‘World without Souls,’ 1805 (6th ed. 1816).
* ‘Christianity in India’ (essay on duty of introducing the christian religion), 1808, 8vo.
* ‘Observations’ in reply to Dr. Maltby's ‘Thoughts on the Danger of circulating the Scriptures among the Lower Orders,’ 1812.
* ‘Church of England Missions,’ 1814.
* ‘De Rancé,’ a poem.
* ‘Conciliatory Suggestions on Regeneration,’ 1816.
* ‘Observations on Friendly Societies,’ 1817.
* ‘Sancho, or the Proverbialist,’ 1817.
* ‘Cautions to Continental Travellers,’ 1818.
* Two volumes of sermons, 1822–4, and many separate sermons.
[Christian Observer, November 1861; information from the family.]
L. S.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Cunningham, Richard

​CUNNINGHAM, RICHARD (1793–1835), botanist, brother of Allan Cunningham (1791–1839) [q. v.], was born at Wimbledon 12 Feb. 1793. After his school days at Putney, under the same master, John Adams, M.A., at fifteen years of age he, like his elder brother, was employed by the king's gardener, W. T. Aiton, on the ‘Hortus Kewensis.’ Six years later, on the completion of that work and its ‘Epitome,’ he was transferred from Kensington to Kew, where he acted as Aiton's amanuensis for eighteen years. In May 1832 Charles Fraser, colonial botanist and superintendent of the Botanic Garden at Sydney, died, and Cunningham was appointed his successor on the recommendation of Robert Brown, and embarked at Sheerness in August of that year. After eighteen weeks at sea he landed at Sydney 5 Jan. 1833 with a cargo of living plants and vines, the latter specially selected from France and Spain. A short time after H.M.S. Buffalo landed its charge of convicts, and embarked Cunningham to superintend the cutting of Kauri pine in New Zealand; here he found a friendly reception from the natives, whom his brother Allan on a previous visit had conciliated. In March 1834 he returned to the Bay of Islands and reached Australia by the Alligator. The next year he started with an exploring party to investigate the course of the Darling river, under Colonel Mitchell. He was found to have a singular faculty for losing himself in the bush when intent on botany, and on 17 April he was missing when the party encamped. Search was made for him during the next four days; then his track was found, showing that he was leading his horse; then its corpse was discovered, and on 2 May his handkerchief. It seems that on 24 or 25 April, when exhausted by hunger and thirst, he fell in with a party of natives, by whom he was fed; during the night his strange manner, the effect probably of his sufferings, exciting their alarm, he was murdered by them [see article on his brother, Cunningham, Allan].
[Hooker's Comp. Bot. Mag. ii. (1826), 210–21; Mitchell's Three Exped. i. 176–204, with map of search for Cunningham; Roy. Soc. Cat. Sci. Papers, ii. 105.]
B. D. J.