OpenLLM-France/wikimedia huggingface dataset:
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Salmon, William (fl.1745)

​SALMON, WILLIAM (fl. 1745), writer on building, was a carpenter and builder at Colchester, Essex, who wrote practical treatises on all the branches of his trade, including plumbers', plasterers', and painters' work, with which he claimed practical acquaintance. He published: 1. ‘The London and Country Builder's Vade Mecum, or the Compleat and Universal Estimator,’ 1745, 8vo; 3rd edit. 1755. 2. ‘Palladio Londinensis, or the London Art of Building,’ 1734, 4to; 5th edit., with alterations and improvements by Hoppus and others, and the ‘Builder's Dictionary’ annexed, 1755.
Salmon's son, of the same christian name, lived at Colchester, and wrote books of like character. The two are frequently confounded. In 1820 a William Salmon was ‘late surveyor to the corporation of the Law Association.’ The younger William Salmon published: 1. ‘The Country Builder's Estimator, or Architect's Companion;’ 3rd edit., corrected by Hoppus, 1746; 6th edit. 1758; 8th edit., with additions by John Green of Salisbury, 1770. 2. ‘The Builder's Guide and Gentleman and Tradesman's Assistant,’ 1759.
M. G. W.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Salmon, Eliza

​SALMON, ELIZA (1787–1849), vocalist, born at Oxford in 1787, was daughter of one Munday, and came of a musical family. Her mother's brothers, John Mahon (b. 1746) and William Mahon (1753–1816), were noted clarinettists. Their sisters (Eliza's aunts), Mrs. Warton, Mrs. Ambrose, and Mrs. Second (1777–1805), were excellent vocalists. Mrs. Second sang at the Three Choirs Festival in 1795, and on the Covent Garden stage in 1796. Her voice was of rare quality, and she ‘sang up to F in alt with ease’ (Parke).
Eliza Munday became a pupil of John James Ashley. On 4 March 1803 she made her first appearance in oratorio at Covent Garden, Miss Stephens having at that period the first place as a singer. Miss Munday, gifted with a voice of beautiful tone, a charming manner, and a face ‘of dazzling fairness,’ obtained immediate success; but her attempt to embellish her solo singing with inappropriate tricks was condemned by critics. After acquiring further experience Eliza Munday learnt to employ her executive powers more judiciously. She married, at Liverpool on 11 Feb. 1806, James Salmon, organist of St. Peter's, Liverpool, whose father, James Salmon the elder (d. 1827), was lay clerk of St. George's Chapel, Windsor, and whose brother William (1789–1858), after holding the same position, was lay clerk of Westminster and taught singing. In 1813 her husband enlisted and went to the West Indies with his regiment, where he died. Mrs. Salmon sang constantly at the Three Choirs Festivals from 1812 until 1824, and was soon deemed indispensable at oratorios and concerts in London. So numerous were her engagements that she had been known, in those days of difficult journeys, to travel some four hundred miles in six days, appearing at the large towns on the way. Her professional income during 1823 is said to have reached 5,000l. Suddenly, in a moment it was even said, during an Ancient music concert at the beginning of May 1825, Mrs. Salmon's voice collapsed. Her husband died before her voice failed. During her widowhood she sought for pupils, but in vain. She married for a second time a clergyman named Hinde, who died about 1840, leaving her destitute. After several years of poverty she died, aged 62, at 33 King's Road, Chelsea, on 5 June 1849.
L. M. M.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Salmon, Nathanael

​SALMON, NATHANAEL (1675–1742), historian and antiquary, born on 22 March 1674–5, was son of Thomas Salmon (1648–1706) [q. v.], who married Katherine, daughter of Serjeant John Bradshaw [q. v.] Thomas Salmon (1679–1767) [q. v.] was a brother. He was admitted at Corpus Christi College, Cambridge, on 11 June 1690. In 1695 he took the degree of LL.B., and, having been ordained in the English church, was curate at Westmill in Hertfordshire. Though he had taken the oath of allegiance to William III, he declined to acknowledge Queen Anne as his sovereign. He thereupon resigned his charge and adopted medicine as his profession, settling first at St. Ives in Huntingdonshire, and then at Bishop Stortford in Hertfordshire. A friend offered him a living in Suffolk, valued at 140l. per annum; but he refused, though in great poverty, to submit to the necessary qualifications. Soon afterwards he came to London and engaged in literary compilation. The publication of his ‘History of Essex’ is described by Gough as ‘his last shift to live.’ He died in London on 2 April 1742, and is said to have been buried in St. Dunstan's Church. He left three daughters.
Salmon paid particular attention to the study of Roman remains in Great Britain. His works consisted of:
* ‘Roman Stations in Britain upon Watling Street and other Roads,’ 1726.
* ‘A Survey of the Roman Antiquities in some of the Midland Counties of England,’ 1726.
These volumes were subsequently expanded into:
* ‘A new Survey of England, wherein the Defects of Camden are supplied,’ 2 vols., 1728–9. This work came out in parts, and was reissued with a new title-page in 1731. His observations were often acute, but were sometimes paradoxical and eccentric.
* ‘History of Hertfordshire,’ 1728. A copy in the British Museum has some manuscript notes by Peter Le Neve.
* ‘Lives of the English Bishops from the Restauration to the Revolution’ [anon.], 1733. It shows his nonjuring views and his hatred of Bishop Burnet.
* ‘Antiquities of Surrey, collected from the most Ancient Records,’ 1736.
* ‘History and Antiquities of Essex, from the Collections of Thomas Jekyll and others,’ 1740. Unfinished, ending at p. 460.
Gough says that, however extravagant his conjectures may appear, it was the best history of the county then extant (Brit. Topogr. vol. i. p. x). A ‘Critical Review of the State Trials,’ 1735, is assigned to him in the catalogue of the Forster collection at South Kensington, and he made some collections for a history of Staffordshire.
[Nichols's Illustr. of Lit. iii. 572, iv. 350, 668, viii. 580; Nichols's Lit. Anecdotes, ii. 132; Masters's Corpus Christi Coll. Cambr. p. 486; Bibliotheca Typographica Britannica, iii. 135–40, 149–54, 259; Stukeley Memoirs (Surtees Soc.), ii. 191–6; Gent. Mag. 1742, p. 218; Shaw's Staffordshire, vol. ii. p. vii; Letters of Eminent Lit. Men (Camden Soc.) p. 360.]
W. P. C.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Salmon, Robert

​SALMON, ROBERT (1763–1821), inventor, youngest son of William Salmon, carpenter and builder, was born at Stratford-on-Avon in Warwickshire in 1763. At an early age he entered the service of an attorney named Grey, residing near Leicester Fields, who aided him in his education. He soon displayed remarkable mechanical ability, and, being fond of music, made for himself a violin and other musical instruments.
A few years later he obtained the appointment of clerk of works under Henry Holland (1746?–1806) [q. v.], and was engaged in the rebuilding of Carlton House. In ​1790 he was employed under Holland at Woburn Abbey in Bedfordshire, and, attracting the notice of Francis Russell, fifth duke of Bedford [q. v.], became in 1794 the duke's resident architect and mechanist. In this capacity he effected many reforms in the management of the property. He designed the home farm at Woburn, the Swan Inn at Bedford, and many buildings and farmhouses on the Russell estates, all of which were models in their way. His services in the improvement of agricultural implements proved of the highest importance, and his numerous inventions attracted much attention when exhibited at the annual sheep-shearings at Woburn. In 1797 the Society of Arts awarded him thirty guineas for a chaff-cutting engine, which was the parent of all modern chaffcutters. In 1801 Salmon exhibited his ‘Bedfordshire Drill,’ which became the model for all succeeding drills. In 1803 he showed a plough, where the slade was replaced by a skew wheel, as in Pirie's modern double-furrow plough. In 1804 he brought out an excellent ‘scuffler,’ or cultivator, and two years later he exhibited a self-raking reaping machine, which was described in 1808 in ‘Bell's Weekly Messenger,’ and which embodied all the principles of the modern self-raker, introduced nearly sixty years later. In 1814 Salmon patented the first haymaking machine, to which modern improvement has added nothing but new details. He received at various times silver medals from the Society of Arts for surgical instruments, a canal lock, a weighing machine, a humane mantrap, and a system of earthwalls. John Russell, sixth duke of Bedford, father of Lord John Russell [q. v.], conferred on him the stewardship of his Chenies estate, that he might improve the system of plantation. He paid great attention to the proper method of pruning forest trees, for which he invented an apparatus, and made numerous experiments to determine the best method of seasoning timber.
Salmon continued his duties at Woburn until September 1821, when failing health caused him to resign his offices and retire to Lambeth. He died, however, within a month, while on a visit to Woburn, on 6 Oct. 1821, and was buried two days later in Woburn Church, where the sixth Duke of Bedford placed a tablet commemorating his ‘unwearied zeal and disinterested integrity.’
Salmon was the author of ‘An Analysis of the General Construction of Trusses,’ 1807, 8vo. He also contributed several papers to the ‘Transactions’ of the Society of Arts.
E. I. C.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Watson, Joseph

​WATSON, JOSEPH (1765?–1829), teacher of the deaf and dumb, born in 1765 or at the end of 1764, was educated at Hackney in the school of Thomas Braidwood [q. v.] Under the influence of his master he resolved in 1784 'to embrace the instruction of the deaf and dumb as a profession.' On the foundation of the asylum for the deaf and dumb in Kent Road, through the efforts of John Townsend [q. v.], Watson assisted by counsel and advice, and on its completion was appointed headmaster. He continued in this office for the remainder of his life, rendering important services by his personal instruction and by his writings on the subject. The well-known French teacher the abbé Sicard was much interested in his methods, and for some time corresponded with him concerning the management of the Kent Road asylum. His system was founded on that of Thomas Braidwood, with some developments and improvements. He died at the asylum on 23 Nov. 1829, and was buried at Bermondsey. He was the author of:
* 'Instruction of the Deaf and Dumb; or a View of the Means by which they may be Taught to Speak and Understand a Language,' London, 1810, 2 vols. 8vo.
* 'A First Reading Book for Deaf and Dumb Children,' London, 1826, 12mo.
* 'A Selection of Verbs and Adjectives, with some other Parts of Speech,' London, 1826, 12mo.
His son, Alexander Watson (1815?–1865), born in 1815 or the beginning of 1816, was educated at Corpus Christi College, Cambridge, graduating B.A. in 1837 and M.A. in 1840. Proceeding to Durham University, he passed as a licentiate of theology. He was ordained as curate of St Andrew's, Ancoats, Manchester; in 1840 he took charge of St. John's, Cheltenham, where he established excellent schools; and in 1855 became vicar of St. Mary Church-with-Coffinswell, Devonshire. Removing to the rectory of Bridestow and Sourton in 1855, he borrowed money which led to the sequestration of the living and to his quitting it at the end of two years for the incumbency of Bedford Chapel, Bloomsbury, London. Being involved in a chancery suit concerning the chapel, he became insolvent. During 1863-4 he assisted John Charles Chambers at St. Mary's, Soho, and in 1864 took charge of Middleton-on-the-Wolds, near Beverley. He died at Middleton on 1 Feb. 1865.
His writings are numerous, but of ephemeral interest. The most important are:
* 'Sermons on Doctrine, Discipline, and Practice,' London, 1843, 8vo.
* 'The Devout Churchman, or Daily Meditations,' London, 1847, 2 vols. 12mo.
Watson also took part in editing ' Practical Sermons by Dignitaries and other Clergymen of the United Church of England and Ireland,' 1845-6, 3 vols., and was sole editor of 'Sermons for Sundays, Festivals, and Fasts,' 1st ser., London, 1845, 1 vol. 8vo; 2nd ser. 1846, 3 vols.; 3rd ser. 1847, 1 vol. (Gent. Mag. 1865, i. 518; Guardian, 15 Feb. 1865).
[Gent. Mag. 1822 i. 305, 1830 i. 183; Pantheon of the Age, 1828.]
E. I. C.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Watson, John Forbes

​WATSON, JOHN FORBES (1827–1892), physician and writer on India, born in Scotland in 1827, was the son of an Aberdeenshire farmer. He was educated at the university of Aberdeen, where he graduated M.A. in March 1847, and M.D. on 5 Aug. 1847. After completing his medical studies at Guy's Hospital, London, and at Paris, he was appointed assistant surgeon in the Bombay army medical service in August 1850. He served with the artillery at Ahmednuggur and with the Scinde horse at Khangur, now Jacobadad, and was afterwards appointed assistant surgeon to the Jamsetjee Hospital and lecturer on physiology at the Grant Medical College, where for a time he also acted as professor of medicine and lecturer on clinical medicine. Returning to England on sick leave in 1853, he spent some time at the School of Mines in Jermyn Street, and in investigating the sanitary application of charcoal, on which he published a pamphlet in 1855. He was then appointed by the court of directors to conduct an investigation into the nutritive value of the food grains of India, the result of which formed the basis of public dietaries in India. In 1858 he was nominated by the secretary of state reporter on the products of ​India and director of the India Museum, appointments which he held till the transference to South Kensington of the India Museum at the end of 1879.
In connection with his department he established a photographic branch, in which numerous illustrations were executed depicting Indian life and scenery, and large maps of the country in relief. They were used to illustrate not only his own works, but also those of other eminent writers. In 1874 Watson submitted to government a proposal for the establishment of an Indian museum and library, together with an Indian institute in a central position, where candidates for the civil service might pursue oriental studies. His plea for an Imperial museum for India and the colonies was supported by the Royal Colonial Institute, and it assisted materially in the establishment of the Imperial Institute at South Kensington. He represented India at the international exhibitions held at London in 1862, at Paris in 1867, and at Vienna in 1873, and at the South Kensington annual exhibitions from 1870 to 1874. He retired from the India Office in 1880, and died at Upper Norwood on 29 July 1892. He was elected a fellow of the Linnean Society in 1889.
Watson was the author of:
* ‘The Textile Manufactures and the Costumes of the People of India,’ London, 1866, fol.
* ‘Index to the Native and Scientific Names of Indian and other Eastern Economic Plants and Products,’ London, 1868, 8vo.
* ‘International Exhibitions,’ London, 1873, 8vo.
He also drew up catalogues for the Indian departments at several of the international exhibitions, and with John William Kaye edited Meadows Taylor's ‘People of India,’ London, 1868–1872, 6 vols. 4to.
[Journal of the Soc. of Arts, 12 Aug. 1892; Men and Women of the Time, 1891; Allibone's Dict. of English Lit.]
E. I. C.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Watson, Lewis

​WATSON, Sir LEWIS, first Baron Rockingham (1584–1653), baptised in Rockingham church on 14 July 1584, was the elder son of Sir Edward Watson (d. 1 March 1615–16), by his wife Anne (d. 1611), daughter of Kenelm Digby of Stoke Dry, Rutland. The family of Watson was first established in Rockingham Castle about 1584, under Edward Watson (d. 1584), Lewis's grandfather. Lewis matriculated from Magdalen College, Oxford, on 24 May 1599, and in 1601 was entered as a student at the Middle Temple. On 19 Aug. 1608 he was knighted by James I. He was at that time a constant attendant at court, where he formed a fast friendship with George Villiers (afterwards Duke of Buckingham), and some years later became his security for a large sum of money. On 19 Sept. 1611 he received license to travel (Cal. State Papers, Dom. 1611–18, p. 75). In 1614 he was returned to parliament for Lincoln, a borough for which he also sat in the parliaments summoned in 1621 and 1624. On 21 July 1619 he received Rockingham Castle in fee simple, having previously held it on knight's service. On 23 June 1621 he was created a baronet, and on 16 Feb. 1627–8 was included among those to whom an order of the privy council was addressed, directing them to prepare commissions of martial law and of oyer and terminer for the county of Northampton (ib. 1627–8, p. 567). In 1632–3 he filled the office of sheriff of Northamptonshire; in 1634 he obtained the mastership of the royal buckhounds; and in 1638 he became verderer of Rockingham and Brigstock.
On the outbreak of the civil war Sir Lewis sided with the king, though his zeal does not seem to have been very ardent, as he was summoned before the council by a warrant dated 11 Sept. 1640 as a delinquent for failing ‘to show a horse’ at the muster at Huntingdon (ib. 1640 p. 610, 1640–1 pp. 45, 85). Before Rockingham Castle could receive a royal garrison, it was seized on 19 March 1642–3 by Thomas Grey, baron Grey of Groby [q. v.], who placed in it a parliamentary force. In May 1643 Sir Lewis himself was arrested by the royalist colonel Henry Hastings (afterwards Lord Loughborough) [q. v.] on the charge of neglecting to hold Rockingham for the king, ​and was imprisoned in Belvoir Castle. He cleared himself with Charles, and took up his residence at Oxford. On 29 Jan. 1644–5 he was created Baron Rockingham of Rockingham. After the surrender of Oxford he compounded for his delinquency for 5,000l. (Cal. of Proc. of Committee for Compounding, pp. 1435–7). He died on 5 Jan. 1652–3, and was buried in Rockingham church. Rockingham was twice married: first, in 1609, to Catherine, daughter of Peregrine Bertie, lord Willoughby de Eresby [q. v.] She died in childbed on 15 Feb. 1610. He married, secondly, on 3 Oct. 1620, Eleanor, daughter of Sir George Manners of Haddon Hall, Derbyshire. She died on 23 Oct. 1679, and was buried at Rockingham on 9 Nov. By her he had one surviving son, Edward, second baron Rockingham, and six daughters. The second baron's third son, Thomas, was grandfather of Charles Watson-Wentworth, second marquis of Rockingham [q. v.]
E. I. C.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Watson, John (1725-1783)

​WATSON, JOHN (1725–1783), antiquary, son of Legh Watson of Lyme Handley in the parish of Prestbury, Cheshire, by his wife Hester, daughter of John Yates of Swinton, Lancashire, was born at Lyme Handley 26 March 1725, and educated at the grammar schools of Eccles, Wigan and Manchester. He matriculated from Brasenose College, Oxford, 8 April 1742, graduating B.A. 1745 and M.A. 1748. On 27 June 1746 he was elected to a Cheshire fellowship of his college, and in the following December took holy orders and entered on the curacy of Runcorn, Cheshire, but removed three months afterwards to Ardwick, Manchester, where he was also tutor to the sons of Samuel Birch. From 1750 to 1754 he was curate of Halifax, Yorkshire, and in September of the latter year was presented to the perpetual curacy of Ripponden in Halifax parish. On 17 Aug. 1766 he was inducted to the rectory of Miningsby, Lincolnshire, which he resigned on 2 Aug. 1769 on being promoted to the valuable rectory of Stockport, Cheshire. It is believed that he owed this preferment to being ‘a fierce whig of the plus quam Hoadleian pattern.’ He was elected F.S.A. in 1759, and contributed six papers on Roman and other antiquities to ‘Archæologia.’ His two important works were ‘The History and Antiquities of the Parish of Halifax,’ 1775, 4to, a second edition of which was commenced in 1869 by F. A. Leyland, but left unfinished; and ‘Memoirs of the Ancient Earls of Warren and Surrey and their Descendants,’ Warrington, 1782, 2 vols. 4to. The latter, a beautifully printed and illustrated book, was a vain attempt to prove that Watson's patron, Sir George Warren, was entitled to the earldom of Warenne and Surrey. Two earlier editions, limited to six and fifteen copies respectively, were printed in 1776 and 1779. He also published four pamphlets between 1751 and 1764, one of them criticising the ‘absurdities’ of the Moravian hymn-book. He made extensive manuscript collections relating to local history, particularly of Cheshire, which are still preserved, and have been found of great value by Ormerod, Earwaker, and other antiquaries. Gilbert Wakefield, who was Watson's curate at Stockport and married his niece, describes him as one of the hardest students he ever knew, and a most agreeable man, ‘by no means destitute of poetical fancy, had written some good songs, and was possessed of a most copious collection of bons mots, facetious stories, &c, copied out with uncommon accuracy and neatness.’ In the ‘Palatine Note-book’ (i. 24) is an account of a visit paid to Watson in 1780 by Thomas Barritt [q. v.]
He died at Stockport on 14 March 1783. He was twice married: first, on 1 June 1752, to Susanna, daughter of Samuel Allon, vicar of Sandbach, Cheshire; secondly, on 11 July 1761, to Ann, daughter of James Jacques of Leeds. He left one son by the first wife, and a son and daughter by the second.
Good portraits of Watson are given in his ‘Halifax’ and ‘Warren and Surrey.’ The latter is reproduced in Earwaker's ‘East Cheshire.’
C. W. S.