OpenLLM-France/wikimedia huggingface dataset:
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Cochrane, William

​COCHRANE, Sir WILLIAM, of Cowdon, first Earl of Dundonald (d. 1686), was the second son of Alexander Blair, of the ancient family of Blair of Blair, who, on his marriage to Elizabeth Cochrane, of the ancient family of Cochrane of Cochrane, assumed the name of Cochrane. By prudent management he came to be one of the largest proprietors in the counties of Ayr and Renfrew, and was returned member of the Scottish parliament for Ayrshire in 1644 ('Members of Parliament for Scotland' in Foster's Collectanea Genealogica, i. 7). For his services in behalf of the king he was created a peer by the title of Lord Cochrane of Dundonald, by patent dated Scarborough, 27 Dec. 1647, with limitation to heirs male of his body. When it was resolved to raise an army in behalf of Charles I, in 1648, he was sent over to Ireland to bring home the Scotch troops (Guthry, Memoirs, 268). In 1653 he acquired the lordship of Paisley, where he fixed his residence, and lived in great splendour. The following year he was fined by Cromwell for his loyalty 5,000l., which was reduced to 2,000l. (State Papers, Dom. Ser. 1655, p. 71), and afterwards to 1,666l. 13s. 4d. (ib. 116). At the Restoration he was appointed a privy councillor and one of the commissioners of the treasury, and for these services was created a peer by the title Earl of Dundonald, Lord Cochrane of Paisley and Ochiltree, 12 May 1669. His tremulous signature appears attached to Claverhouse's marriage contract in 1684. The same year an accusation was preferred against him on the ground that his son, Lord Cochrane, when he was dying in 1679, kept a chaplain who prayed God to bless the rebels in the west with success (Fountainhall, Decisions, i. 299). He died in 1686, and was buried at Dundonald. By his marriage to Eupheme, daughter of Sir William Scot of Ardross, Fifeshire, he had two sons, William, lord Cochrane, who died in his father's lifetime, in 1679, and Sir John Cochrane of Ochiltree [q. v.], and one daughter, Grrizel, married to George, tenth lord Ross. ​He was succeeded in the earldom by his grandson John, the son of William, lord Cochrane.
[Douglas's Peerage of Scotland, i. 471-2; Bishop Guthry's Memoirs; Fountainhall's Decisions; State Papers (Dom. Ser.), 1655, pp. 71, 116, 118; Memoirs of Graham of Claverhouse, Viscount Dundee.]
T. F. H.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Gordon, Elizabeth

​GORDON, ELIZABETH, Duchess of Gordon (1794–1864), was born in London on 20 June 1794. Her father, Alexander Brodie, was a younger son of Brodie of Brodie in the north of Scotland. Carefully educated, the heiress of great wealth, and possessed of a handsome figure and a bright, joyous disposition, she married on 11 Dec. 1813 George Gordon, marquis of Huntly, afterwards fifth duke of Gordon [q. v.] The marquis was twenty-five years older than herself. Her position gave her access to the best society, but revelations of unblushing vice in high quarters distressed her, and led her to study the Bible for solace under her grief. She became a most earnest believer, and after a time made a complete renunciation of the world. Becoming Duchess of Gordon in 1827, at the age of thirty-three, she deliberately began a life of earnest devotion. She became interested in schools, chapels, and other Christian undertakings among her own people, and when in 1836 the death of her husband, with whom she had lived in much affection, made her independent, her devotion became more intense than ever. Huntly Lodge, her residence, was situated in Strathbogie, one of the chief fields of the well-known conflict between the church and the civil courts previous to 1843, when the disruption of the church of Scotland occurred. The duchess was an episcopalian, but her sympathies were with those who were in conflict with the civil courts, though she was not disposed to identify herself with their movement. But in 1846 her view changed. Believing that the church of England was not constituted in accordance with the mind of the Lord, because it had no discipline, she left it after a long mental conflict, and joined the Free church of Scotland. The leaders of the Free church were her personal friends, and often visited her house and held religious meetings under her roof. She came to occupy among evangelical Christians in Scotland the position that in former years had been held the Countess of Leven and Viscountess Glenorchy. Her death took place somewhat suddenly at Huntly Lodge on 31 Jan. 1864, in her seventieth year.
[Burke's Peerage; Life and Letters of Elisabeth, last Duchess of Gordon, by the Rev. A. Moody Stuart, 2nd edit. London, 1865.]
W. G. B.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Gordon, Elizabeth (1765-1839)

​GORDON, ELIZABETH, Countess of Sutherland (1765–1839). [See Leveson-Gower, Elizabeth, Duchess of Sutherland.]
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Gordon, George (1761-1853)

​GORDON, GEORGE, ninth Marquis of Huntly (1761–1853), son and heir of Charles, fourth earl of Aboyne, and Lady Margaret Stewart, third daughter of Alexander, sixth Earl of Galloway, was born at Edinburgh on 28 June 1761. When Lord Strathaven he entered the army as ensign in the 1st regiment of foot guards, and was promoted in 1777 to a company in the 81st highland regiment of foot. In 1780 he was one of the aides-de-camp to the Earl of Carlisle, then lord-lieutenant of Ireland. In 1782 he had a troop in the 9th regiment of dragoons, and in March 1783 he was constituted major of an independent corps of foot, which was reduced at the peace of 1784. He was promoted lieutenant-colonel of the 35th foot in 1789, but exchanged with Lieutenant-colonel Lennox (subsequently Duke of Richmond) for his company in the Coldstream guards, after a dispute between the latter and his royal highness the Duke of York, then colonel of the Coldstreams. Lord Strathaven quitted the army in 1792, and was appointed colonel of the Aberdeenshire militia in 1798. He succeeded his father as Earl of Aboyne 28 Dec. 1794. At the general election of 1796 he was returned to parliament as one of the sixteen representatives of the peerage of Scotland. ​He was again chosen in 1802, 1807, and 1812. On 11 Aug. 1815 he was created a peer of the United Kingdom by the title of Baron Meldrum of Morven, and thenceforward took his seat in the House of Lords in his own right. He was made a knight of the Thistle in 1827. In 1836, on the extinction of the male line of the elder branch of his family by the death of George, fifth duke of Gordon [q. v.], he succeeded to the dignities of marquis and earl of Huntly. He was a tory in politics, and voted in the majority for Lord Lyndhurst's motion on the Reform Bill, which led to the temporary resignation of Earl Grey's ministry on 7 May 1832. The marquis married in 1791 Catherine, second daughter of Sir Charles Cope, and with this lady he acquired the estate of Orton Longueville, Huntingdonshire, which he very considerably enlarged by purchasing in 1803 the two adjoining parishes of Chesterton and Haddon. The marquis died at his residence in Chapel Street, Grosvenor Square, London, on 17 June 1853. He left a family of six sons and three daughters, and was succeeded by his eldest son, the tenth marquis, who sat for some years in the House of Commons, first for East Grinstead, and afterwards for Huntingdonshire.
[Ann. Reg. 1853; Gent. Mag. 1853.]
G. B. S.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Gordon, Edward Strathearn

​GORDON, EDWARD STRATHEARN, Baron Gordon (1814–1879), lord of appeal, eldest son of John Gordon, major of the 2nd regiment, by Catherine, daughter of Alexander Smith; was born at Inverness 10 April 1814, and educated at the royal academy in that town, and at the university of Edinburgh, and took his LL.B. from both the Glasgow and Edinburgh universities. He was called to the bar of Scotland in 1835, became a Q.C. 12 Nov. 1868, was appointed an advocate-depute, and served as sheriff of Perthshire from 26 July 1858 to 12 July 1866. He was senior counsel for Major Yelverton in the famous and long-contested Yelverton marriage case in July 1862. As solicitor-general for Scotland he was in office from July 1866 to 28 Feb. 1867, when he became lord-advocate of Scotland, which place he held to December 1868, and afterwards, on the return of his party to power again, from 26 Feb. 1874 to October 1876. Between these dates he held the office of dean of faculty, to which he was elected by the unanimous voice of his brethren of the bar in 1868, and resigned it in 1874. As a conservative he sat for Thetford, Norfolk, from 2 Dec. 1867 until that borough was disfranchised on 11 Nov. in the following year. He contested the seat for the Glasgow and Aberdeen universities with the Right Hon. James Moncreiff in 1868, receiving 2,020 votes against 2,067 given for his liberal opponent, and in the following year, on Moncreiff becoming a lord of session, Gordon was elected to fill the vacancy. On 17 March 1874 he was gazetted a privy councillor. On 6 Oct. 1876 he was created, under the Appellate Jurisdiction Act, a lord of appeal in ordinary, with the style and title of Baron Gordon of Drumearn in the county of Stirling, and a salary of 6,000l. a year, thus being among the earliest to hold a life-peerage. He was a careful and accurate, if not a brilliant lawyer. His health did not permit him to give full scope to his powers in the House of Lords, but the judgments which he did give there were invariably sound and carefully considered. For several years from 1859 he was a captain of the advocates' volunteer company, and was afterwards colonel of the 1st Edinburgh battalion. He sat in his place in the House of Lords until the end of July 1879, when, acting on the advice of his medical advisers, he set out for Homburg for the benefit of his health, but only reached as far as Brussels, where he died 21 Aug. 1879. He married in 1845 Agnes, only child of James MacInnes of Auchenreoch, Stirlingshire, with whom he received a large fortune.
[Journal of Jurisprudence, 1879, xxiii. 541-2; Times, 23 Aug. 1879, p. 11; Law Times, 6 Sept. 1879, p. 340; Scotsman, 23 Aug. 1879, p. 7.]
G. C. B.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Howe, Michael

​HOWE, MICHAEL (1787–1818), bush-ranger in Tasmania, was born at Pontefract in 1787. After serving for some time on board a merchantman, and incurring an evil reputation at home as a poacher, he entered on board a king's ship. Deserting from her he was tried at York in 1811 for highway robbery, and was sentenced to seven years' transportation. On his arrival in Van Diemen's Land he was assigned to a settler, from whom he ran away into the bush, and became the leader of a large band of ruffians. For six years he led this wild life, the terror of all decent people. Twice he surrendered on proclamations of pardon, but on each occasion was suffered to escape and return to the bush. Once he was apprehended, and under the guard of two men was marched towards the town, but killing both his guards escaped again. At last a reward of one hundred ​guineas was placed on his head, with a free pardon and passage to England if required. Howe's position became desperate; he had quarrelled with his associates; he attempted to free himself, by another murder, from the native girl who had lived with him. She fled and gave information of his hiding-places. With her assistance a party of three men, bent on obtaining the hundred guineas, tracked him, overtook him, and endeavoured to make him prisoner. After a desperate resistance he was killed by a blow from the butt-end of a musket. His head was cut off and carried into Hobart Town. In his knapsack was found a pocket-book, in which he had written with kangaroo's blood notices of miserable dreams, and a list of seeds, vegetables, &c., showing—it was thought—an intention to settle somewhere if he made good his escape.
[Quarterly Review, xxiii. 73, an article based on Michael Howe, the last and worst of the Bushrangers of Van Diemen's Land. Narrative of the Chief Atrocities committed by this great Murderer and his Associates during a period of six years. From Authentic sources of Information, Hobart Town, 12mo, 1818. It is said by the Quarterly Review to be 'the first child of the press of a state only fifteen years old;' Bonwick's The Bushrangers, illustrating the Early Days of Van Diemen's Land (1856), p. 47. The same author's Mike Howe, the Bushranger of Van Diemen's Land (1873), though a work of fiction, professes to be 'a narrative of facts as to the leading incidents of the bushranger's career.']
J. K. L.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Howel Vychan

​HOWEL Vychan, that is, Howel the Little (d. 825), Welsh prince, is said to have been son of Rhodri, a reputed descendant of Cunedda and king of Gwynedd or North Wales. But Rhodri died in 754, and nothing is heard of Howel or of his brother Cynan whom the tenth-century genealogy of Owain ab Howel Dda makes son of Rhodri, until over fifty years later. Possibly they were Rhodri's grandsons, who emerge from obscurity when the downfall of the Mercian overlordship gave Welsh kings a better chance to attain to power. In 813 there was war between Howel and his brother Cynan, in which Howel conquered. It apparently arose from Cynan driving Howel out of Anglesey, and resulted in Howel's restoration in 814. In 816 Howel was again expelled, but the Saxons invaded Snowdon and slew Cynan. This probably brought Howel back again. He died in 825. The name Vychan comes from a late authority.
T. F. T.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Howel ab Edwin

​HOWEL ab Edwin (d. 1044), a South Welsh prince,was son of Edwin, son of Eineon, who was the son of Owain, the eldest son and successor of Howel Dda [q. v.] In 1033, after the death of Rhydderch, son of Iestin, ruler of Deheubarth since 1023, Howel and his brother Maredudd succeeded to the government of South Wales as being of the right line of Howel Dda. The sons of Rhydderch seem to have contested Howel and his brother's claim, and next year a battle was fought at Hiraethwy between the rival houses, in which, if the 'Gwentian Brut' can be trusted, the sons of Edwin conquered. In 1035 Maredudd was slain, but before the year was out the death of Caradog [q.v.], son of Rhydderch, equalised the position of the combatants. After a few years of comparative peace Howel's son Meurug was captured by the Irish ​Danes in 1039. In the same year Gruffydd ab Llewelyn [q. v.] became king of North Wales, and after devastating Llanbadarn, drove Howel out of his territory. In 1041 Howel made an effort to win back his dominions, but was defeated by Gruffydd at Pencader. Howel's wife became Gruffydd's captive, and subsequently his concubine.
In 1042 Howel, who had called the Danes from Ireland to his help, renewed the conflict, and won a victory over Gruffydd at Pwll Dyvach. Gruffydd was taken prisoner by the pagan Danes, but he soon escaped and reoccupied Howel's territory. In 1044 Howel collected a great fleet of his viking allies, and entered the mouth of the Towy on another effort to win back his own. The final battle was fought at the mouth of the river (Abertowy, possibly Carmarthen or somewhere lower down the stream). Gruffydd won a complete victory, and Howel was slain.
[Annales Cambriæ (Rolls Ser.}(the dates have been taken from this exclusively); Brut y Tywysogion(Rolls Ser. or ed. J. Gwenogvryn Evans);a few additional details from Brut y Tywysogion (Cambrian Archæol. Assoc.)]
T. F. T.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Howe, William (1620-1656)

​HOWE or HOW, WILLIAM (1620–1656), botanist, born in London in 1620, was sent to Merchant Taylors' School on 11 Dec. 1632 (Robinson, Merchant Taylors' School, i. 134). He became a commoner of St. John's College at Oxford in 1637, when eighteen, graduated B.A. in 1641, and M.A. 21 March 1643-4, and entered upon the study of medicine (Wood, Fasti Oxon. ed. Bliss, ii. 2, 58). He took up arms in the king's cause, and for his loyalty was promoted to the command of a troop of horse. On the decline of the royal fortunes he resumed his medical profession, and practised in London, at first living in St. Lawrence Lane, and afterwards in Milk Street, Cheapside, where he died, after a few weeks' illness, on 31 Aug. 1656. By his own directions, he was buried at the left side of his mother, in the churchyard of St. Margaret's, Westminster, at ten o'clock at night. His will was proved by his widow Elizabeth, as sole executrix, on 22 Sept. of that year.
Howe published: 1.'Phytologia Britannica, natales exhibens Indigenarum Stirpium sponte emergentium,' London, 1650, an anonymous octavo of 134 pages, first attributed to Howe by C. Merrett in his 'Pinax,' 1666. It is the earliest work on botany restricted to the plants of this island, and is a very full catalogue for the time. In its compilation he was helped by several friends. 2. 'Matthiæ de Lobel Stirpium illustrationes, plurimas elaborantes inauditas plantas, subreptitiis Joh. Parkinsoni rapsodiis (ex codice insalutato) sparsim gravatæ. … Accurante Guil. How, Anglo,' London, 1655, 4to. The latter was a fragment of a large work planned by Lobel, and seems to have been published to discredit Parkinson, who is vindictively attacked by the editor in his notes, although he had bought the right to use Lobel's manuscript.
B. D. J.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Howe, Josias

​HOWE, JOSIAS (1611?–1701), divine, born about 1611, was the son of Thomas Howe, rector of Grendon-Underwood, Buckinghamshire. Howe told Aubrey that Shakespeare took his idea of Dogberry from a constable of Grendon (Brit. Mus. MS. Add. 24489, 250). He was elected scholar of Trinity College, Oxford, on 12 June 1632, and graduated B.A. on 18 June 1634, M.A. in 1638 (Wood, Fasti Oxon. ed. Bliss, ii. 96-97). On 26 May 1637 he was chosen fellow of his college. A sermon which he delivered before the king at Christ Church on Psalm iv. 7 was, it is said, ordered by Charles to be printed about 1644 in red at Lichfield's press at Oxford. Only thirty copies are supposed to have been printed, probably without a title-page. Hearne, who purchased a copy at the sale of Dr. Charlett's library on 14 Jan. 1723, has given an interesting account of it in his edition of Robert of Gloucester's 'Chronicle' (ii. 669). Howe's preaching before the court at Oxford was much admired, and on 10 July 1646 he was created B.D. Howe was removed from his fellowship by the parliamentary visitors in 1648 for 'non-appearance' (Register, Camd. Soc., p. 552), but was restored in 1660, and died in college on 28 Aug. 1701. He has commendatory verses before the 'Works' of Thomas Randolph, 1638, and before the 'Comedies, Tragicomedies, and other Poems' of Wm. Cartwright (London, 1651).
G. G.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Howe, Obadiah

​HOWE, OBADIAH (1616?–1683), divine, born in Leicestershire about 1616, was the son of William Howe, incumbent of Tattershall, Lincolnshire (Cox, Magna Britannia, 'Lincolnshire,' p. 1444). In 1632 he became a member of Magdalen Hall, Oxford, and graduated B.A. on 23 Oct. 1635 (Wood, Fasti Oxon. ed. Bliss, i. 478), M.A. on 26 May 1638 (ib. i. 501). At the time of the battle of Winceby (1643) he was rector of Stickney, Lincolnshire, and is said to have entertained the leaders of the parliamentary forces the day before the fight (Thompson, Hist. of Boston, ed. 1856, pp. 171-2). He was afterwards vicar of Horncastle and rector of Gedney, Lincolnshire. At the Restoration he again changed sides, and managed to obtain the vicarage of Boston (1660). On 9 July 1674 he accumulated his degrees in divinity at Oxford (Wood, Fasti, ii. 344, 345). He died on 27 Feb. 1682-3, and was buried in Boston Church (Thompson, p. 777). The well-known John Howe (1630-1705) [q. v.] was his nephew. Besides two sermons, he published:
* 'The Universalist examined and convicted, destitute of plaine Sayings of Scripture, or Evidence of Reason. In Answer to a Treatise entituled "The Universality of Gods free Grace in Christ to Mankind,"' 4to [London], 1648.
* 'The Pagan Preacher silenced; or, an Answer to a Treatise of Mr. John Goodwin entituled "The Pagans Debt & Dowry" … With a Verdict on the Case depending between Mr. Goodwin and Mr. Howe by the learned George Kendal, D.D.,' 2 pts. 4to, London, 1655. Goodwin, in the preface to his 'Triumviri' (4to, London, 1658), says of Howe 'that he was a person of considerable parts and learning, but thought so most by himself.'
[Wood's Athenæ Oxon. (Bliss), iv. 65-6.]
G. G.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Hutchinson, William (1715-1801)

​HUTCHINSON, WILLIAM (1715–1801), mariner and writer on seamanship, a native of Newcastle-on-Tyne, was at a very early age sent on board a small collier, where he was 'cook, cabin-boy, and beer-drawer for the men.' He gradually worked his way up, going through all the most active enterprising employments as a seaman.' His experiences were extremely varied. He speaks of himself as a 'forecastle man ' on board an East Indiaman in 1738-9, and making the voyage to China; as 'mate of a bomb's tender in Hyères Bay, with our fleet under Mathews and Lestock' about 1743; as commanding a ship at Honduras; as cruising in the Mediterranean during the French war, in the employ of Fortunatus Wright [q. v.], and apparently in command of a privateer in 1747. In 1750 he commanded the Lowestoft, an old 20-gun frigate sold out of the navy and bought by Wright, and in her traded to the West Indies and the Mediterranean. At one time (the date is not given) his ship was wrecked, he and his men escaping in a boat. They were without food, and cast lots to determine which one should die for the others. The lot fell on Hutchinson, but at the last moment he was saved by a vessel coming in sight. To the end of his life he kept the anniversary as a day of 'strict devotion.' In 1760 he was appointed a dock-master at Liverpool, and as dock-master or harbour-master he continued for upwards of twenty years, part of the time in conjunction with a younger Fortunatus Wright, a kinsman of his old companion. In 1777 he published a treatise on seamanship and the proper form and dimensions of merchant ships, of which an enlarged edition was published in 1781, with a fuller title. In the fourth edition, published in 1794, this ran: 'Treatise on Naval Architecture, founded upon Philosophical and Rational Principles, towards establishing fixed Rules for the best form and Proportional Dimensions in Length, Breadth, and Depth of Merchant Ships in general; and also the management of them to the greatest advantage by Practical Seamanship, with important Hints and Remarks relating thereto, especially both for Defence and Attack in War at Sea, from long approved experience.' His hints on the conduct of war at sea, specially addressed to a community of privateers, embody the recollections of his service with Fortunatus Wright during the war of the Austrian succession. He also kept a register of tides, barometer, weather, and wind from 1768 to 1793, which is still preserved in the Liverpool Library. He is said to have introduced parabolic reflectors into lighthouses, and to have superintended their fitting in those near the Mersey, using small reflectors of tin or glass, bedded in a sort of wooden bowl. He died at the age of eighty-five, on 11 Feb. 1801, and was buried in the churchyard of St. Thomas, Liverpool.
[His own works, as above; Brooke's Liverpool as it was during the last Quarter of the Eighteenth Century, pp. 101-2; information from the Rev. J. H. M. Barrow. See also Laughton's Studies in Naval History, pp. 207, 209, 217, 224.]
J. K. L.