OpenLLM-France/wikimedia huggingface dataset:
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1901 supplement/Chambers, Robert (1832-1888)

​CHAMBERS, ROBERT (1832–1888), publisher, son of Robert Chambers [q. v.] and nephew of William Chambers [q. v.], was born at Edinburgh in March 1832, and was educated at Circus Place school and in London. 'Lines to a little Boy,' which were addressed to him by his father, appeared in 'Chambers's Edinburgh Journal' for 14 March 1840.
Chambers became a member of the publishing firm in 1853, and in 1862 wrote an excellent book on golfing ('A Few Rambling Remarks on Golf'). A poem on St. Andrews links was the joint work of Chambers and his father. In 1874, on the resignation of James Payn [q. v. Suppl.], he became editor of 'Chambers's Journal;' he occasionally contributed papers, and he conducted the magazine with great success. On the death of his uncle William in 1883, the whole responsibility of the publishing house devolved upon him, but he was assisted during the last two or three years of his life by his eldest son, Charles Chambers. He took an active part in the production of the first edition of 'Chambers's Encyclopædia' (1859-68), and helped in the preliminary work in connection with the new edition. He also assisted Alexander Ireland [q. v. Suppl.] in the preparation of the 1884 edition of his father's 'Vestiges of the Natural History of Creation,' in which was given the first authoritative information of the authorship. ​Chambers was for long in delicate health, and spent most of his time at North Berwick or St. Andrews. He died of an affection of the heart on 23 March 1888 at his house in Claremout Crescent, Edinburgh. He was a member of the St. Giles's Cathedral board, and, like his uncle, took much interest in the church. He was liberal-minded, and, with his genial temperament and fine burly frame, was very popular with his workmen and friends. By his marriage in 1856 with a daughter of Mr. Murray Anderson of London, he had three sons and three daughters, all of whom survived him.
[Athenæum, 31 March 1888; Scotsman, 23 March 1888; Glasgow Herald, 26 March 1888; Memoir of William and Robert Chambers, 13th ed. 1884.]
G. A. A.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1901 supplement/Chambers, Thomas

​CHAMBERS, Sir THOMAS (1814–1891), recorder of London, son of Thomas Chambers of Hertford, by Sarah, his wife, was born on 17 Dec. 1814. He was educated at Clare Hall, Cambridge, where he received the degree of LL.B. in 1846. On 28 April 1837 he was admitted student at the Middle Temple, and was there called to the bar on 20 Nov. 1840, and elected bencher on 7 May 1801 and treasurer in 1872. He had for many years a lucrative practice in the common law courts, and on 25 Feb. 1861 took silk. He was elected common serjeant in 1857, and in 1878 recorder of the city of London, having received the honour of knighthood on 15 March 1872. In 1884 he was elected steward of Southwark.
Chambers was returned to parliament in the liberal interest for Hertford on 7 July 1852, but lost his seat at the general election of March 1857. Returned on 12 July 1865 for Marylebone, he continued to represent that constituency until the general election of November 1885. As a reformer he was best known for his persistent advocacy of the inspection of convents and of the legalisation of marriage with a deceased wife's sister. By his death, at his residence in Gloucester Place, Portman Square, on 24 Dec. 1891, London lost an assiduous public functionary. His remains were interred (30 Dec.) in the family vault in All Saints' Church, Hertford.
Chambers married on 7 May 1851 Diana (d. 1877), daughter of Peter White of Brighton, by whom he had issue.
An 'Address on Punishment and Reformation,' delivered by Chambers at the London meeting of the National Association for the Promotion of Social Science in 1862, is printed in the 'Transactions' of the association. He was joint author with George Tattersall of ' The Laws relating to Buildings; comprising the Metropolitan Buildings Act, Fixtures, Insurance,' &c., London, 1845, 12mo; also, with A. T. T. Peterson, of 'A Treatise on the Law of Railway Companies in their Formation, Incorporation, and Government, with an abstract of the statutes and a table of forms,' London, 1848, 8vo.
[Foster's Men at the Bar and Baronetage; Grad. Cant.; Gent. Mag. 1861, ii. 79; Cussans's Hertfordshire ('Hertford'), ii. 84; Members of Parliament (official lists); Hansard's Parl. Deb. 3rd ser. cxxiv–cxliii., clxxxi–ccxcv.; Vanity Fair, 22 Nov. 1884; Times, 25 Dec. 1891; Ann. Reg. 1872 ii. 268, 1891 ii. 211; Law Times, 2 Jan. 1892; Law Journ. 2 Jan. 1892; London's Roll of Fame, pp. 345, 391.]
J. M. R.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1901 supplement/Champaign, John

​CHAMPAIN, Sir JOHN U. B. (1835–1887), general. [See Bateman-Champain.]
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1901 supplement/Chandler, Thomas

​CHANDLER or CHAUNDLER, THOMAS (1418?–1490), dean of Hereford. [See Chaundler.]
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1912 supplement/Knight, Joseph (1837-1909)

​KNIGHT, JOSEPH (1837–1909), landscape painter and engraver, son of Joseph and Eliza Knight, was born in London on 27 Jan. 1837. At the age of seven he met with an accident which necessitated the amputation of his right arm at St. Barthomew's Hospital. In 1845 the family removed to Manchester, where Knight spent the earlier part of his career as an artist, visiting France, Holland, and Italy. In 1871 he removed to London and in 1875 to North Wales, where he thenceforth chiefly resided. He made some reputation alike as a painter in oil and in water-colour, and as an engraver and etcher. Welsh scenery furnished the subjects of many ​of his pictures and engravings, and he was a member of the Royal Cambrian Academy. Knight exhibited from 1861 onward at various London galleries, contributing to the Royal Academy for the first time in 1869. He was elected in 1882 a member of the Royal Institute of Painters in Water Colours and an associate of the Society of Painter Etchers, of which he became a fellow on 13 April 1883. From 1883 to 1908 he sent 104 original mezzotint engravings, varied occasionally by etchings, to the exhibitions of the Painter Etchers; his work was rather monotonous and lacking in expression. He is represented as a painter in the Tate Gallery (Chantrey bequest), Victoria and Albert Museum, the City Art Gallery and Peel Park Gallery, Manchester, the Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool, and at Oldham; some engravings are in the British Museum. He died at Bryn Glas, near Conway, on 2 Jan. 1909. In 1859 he married Elizabeth Radford of Manchester, who survived him.
[Graves, Dict. of Artists and Royal Acad. Exhibitors, iv. 346; The Times, 6 and 11 Jan. 1909; private information.]
C. D.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1912 supplement/Knox, Isa

Isabella Knox in the ODNB.
​KNOX, Mrs. ISA, born Craig (1831–1903), poetical writer, only child of John Craig, hosier and glover, was born in Edinburgh, 17 Oct. 1831. In childhood she lost both parents, and was reared by her grandmother, leaving school in her tenth year. A close study of standard English authors developed literary tastes; and, after contributing verses to the 'Scotsman' with the signature 'Isa,' she was regularly employed on the paper in 1853. Coming to London in 1857 she was appointed secretary to the National Association for the Promotion of Social Science, and held the position till she married, in May 1866, her cousin, John Knox, an iron merchant of London. In 1858 she won with a resonant ode a prize of 50l. offered at the Crystal Palace for a centenary poem on Burns. There were 621 candidates, among them being Frederic William Henry Myers [q. v. Suppl. I], Gerald Massey [q. v. Suppl. II], and Arthur Joseph Munby [q. v. Suppl. II]. After her marriage she contributed occasionally to 'Fraser,' 'Good Words,' and the 'Quiver,' edited the 'Argosy' for a short time, and published some volumes of poems and juvenile histories. She died at Brockley, Suffolk, on Dec. 1903.
In verse Mrs. Knox produced nothing that surpassed the Burns ode. Her first volume, 'Poems by Isa' (1866), showed some promise, and some lyric Quality appeared in 'Poems: an Offering to Lancashire' (1863); 'Duchess Agnes, a Drama and other Poems' (1864); and 'Songs of Consolation' (1874). Dr. A. H. Japp edited a 'Selection from Mrs. Knox's Poems' in 1892. Of Mrs. Knox's prose work 'The Essence of Slavery' (1863) summarised F. A. Kemble's 'Journal of a Residence on a Georgian Plantation,' and 'Esther West' (1870; 6th edit. 1884) was a well-constructed story. Mrs. Knox's 'Little Folk's History of England' (1872) reached its 30th thousand in 1899, and the author adapted from it a successful 'Easy History for Upper Standards' (1884). 'Tales on the Parables,' two series, appeared in 1872–7.
[Rogers's Modern Scottish Minstrel; Grant Wilson's Poets and Poetry of Scotland; Edwards's Modern Scottish Poets, 2nd series, Brechin, 1881; Burns Centenary Poems, 1859; Miles's Poets and Poetry of the Nineteenth Century, vol. ix.; information from Dr. A. H. Millar, Dundee; Brit. Mus. Cat.]
T. B.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1912 supplement/Kinns, Samuel

​He also published: 1. 'Holy Trinity, Minories, its Past and Present History,' 1890. 2. 'Six Hundred Years, or Historical Sketches of Eminent Men and Women of Holy Trinity, Minories,' 1898; two editions.
[Pratt's People of the Period; Edw. Murray Tomlinson, IR)ly Trinity Muiories, 1907; Brit. Mus. Cat.; Crockford's Clerical Directory.]
C. W.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1912 supplement/Kitton, Frederick George

Frederic George Kitton in the ODNB.
​KITTON, FREDERICK GEORGE (1856–1904), writer on Dickens, born at Golding Street, Heigham, Norwich, on 5 May 1856, was son of Frederick Kitton, tobacconist, who made some reputation as a microscopist. His mother's maiden name was Mary Spence. Coming to London at seventeen to follow the occupation of an artist and wood-engraver, he served as apprentice on the staff of the 'Graphic' He attained much skill as an etcher, and contributed to artistic journals. Inheriting from his father a capacity for research, he soon turned to literary pursuits. With the exception of a few minor efforts, including memoirs of Hablot K. Browne (1882), of John Leech (1883), and of his father (1895), he mainly devoted himself with immense zeal to illustrating the life and works of Charles Dickens, in a long series of books, the chief of which were: 'Dickensiana, a bibliography of the literature relating to Charles Dickens and his writings' (1886); 'Charles Dickens by Pen and Pencil' (1890); 'Dickens and his Illustrators' (1899); 'Charles Dickens, his Life, Writings, and Personality' (1901), in which he supplemented Forster's biography; and 'The Dickens Country,' published posthumously (1905; 2nd edit. 1911). He also annotated the 'Rochester' edition of Dickens's works (1900), and at the time of his death he was working for a New York publisher upon the costly 'Autograph,' or 'Millionaire's,' edition, and with Mr. M. H. Spielmann on a like edition of Thackeray.
Kitton was one of the founders, and an active member of, the Dickens Fellowship, and compiled the catalogue of the Dickens Exhibition (1903).
From 1888 Kitton lived at St. Albans, where he helped to procure the purchase for the Hertfordshire County Museum of the Sir John Evans collection of books, manuscripts, drawings, etc., relating to the county; these he catalogued and arranged. Besides writing much on St. Albans and its neighbourhood, he helped to save from destruction many old buildings. Kitton died at St. Albans on 10 Sept. 1904, and was buried there. In 1889 he married Emily Clara, second daughter of H. A. Lawford, C.E., but had no children. His large Dickens library was purchased from his widow by a subscription organised by the Dickens Fellowship, as a nucleus for a national Dickens library, and was formally presented to the Guildhall Library by Lord James of Hereford on 7 Feb. 1908.
[Memoir by Arthur Waugh in The Dickensian, 1895, prefixed to Kitton's posthomous The Dickens Country, 1905; Athenæum, 17 Sept. 1904; Academy, lxvii. 192. 226 (article by Walter Jerrold); Hertfordshire Standard, 16 Sept. 1904; Brit. Mus. Cat.; Cat. of Guildhall Lib.]
C. W.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Weist-Hill, Thomas Henry

​WEIST-HILL, THOMAS HENRY (1828–1891), musician, son of Thomas Hill, goldsmith and freeman of the city, was born in London on 3 Jan. 1828. He showed an early taste for the violin, and, after appearing at Gravesend as an ‘infant prodigy,’ he in 1844 entered the Royal Academy of Music, where he studied under Prosper Philippe Catherine Sainton [q. v.], and in 1845 took the king's scholarship. He was subsequently a professor of the violin at the academy, and conducted its choir and orchestra. On leaving the institution he attached himself to the orchestra of the Princess Theatre, but he soon became known as a concert violinist, and was taken up first by Edward James Loder [q. v.], and then by Louis Antoine Julien or Jullien [q. v.] With the latter he toured in America, where he was the first to make known Mendelssohn's violin concerto, and later visited the principal continental cities. Returning to London, he was engaged as first violin by (Sir) Michael Costa [q. v.], under whom he played for many years in the Opera, Philharmonic, and Sacred Harmonic societies' orchestras. On the opening of the Alexandra Palace in 1873 he was appointed musical director, and in that capacity did good service by bringing forward new compositions by native writers, as well as by reviving forgotten works, such as Handel's ‘Esther’ and ‘Susanna.’ In 1878 he conducted the orchestral concerts of Madame Viard-Louis, at which several important works were heard for the first time in England. He was appointed principal of the Guildhall School of Music in 1880, and held that post till his death at South Kensington on 26 Dec. 1891. He was an admirable violinist and an able administrator. He wrote a few compositions, mostly for violin and 'cello, of which the ‘Pompadour Gavotte’ became popular.
J. C. H.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Welby, Henry

​WELBY, HENRY (d. 1636), ‘The Phœnix of these late Times,’ was the eldest son of Adlard Welby (d. 11 Aug. 1570) of Gedney in Lincolnshire, by his first wife, the daughter of an inhabitant of Hull named Hall. He was matriculated as a pensioner of St. John's College, Cambridge, on 24 May 1558, and was made a student of the Inner Temple in November 1562, ‘where, being accommodated with all the parts of a gentleman, hee after retyred himself into the countrye,’ purchasing the estate of Goxhill in Lincolnshire from Lord Wentworth. Wishing to enlarge his mind by travel, he ‘spent some few yeares in the Lowe Countreys, Germany, France, and Italy, making the best use of his time.’
In this manner Welby continued his blameless life until past middle age. About 1592 his younger brother, John, a dissolute youth, took umbrage at Henry's endeavours to reform his habits, and, after repeatedly threatening his life, attempted to shoot him with a pistol. Welby was deeply affected by this villainy, and, taking ‘a very faire house in the lower end of Grub Street, near unto Cripplegate,’ he passed the rest of his life in absolute seclusion, never leaving his apartments or seeing any living creature except his old maid-servant Elizabeth. In this manner he lived for forty-four years in the ​most abstemious fashion, while exercising a generous bounty towards his poorer neighbours. During that period he ate neither fish nor flesh, and never drank wine. He died on 29 Oct. 1636, and was buried in St. Giles's, Cripplegate. He married Alice, daughter of Thomas White of Wallingwells in Yorkshire and Nottinghamshire, by his wife Anne Cecil, sister of the first Lord Burghley. By Alice, Welby had one daughter, Elizabeth, his sole heiress, who was married at St. Giles's, Cripplegate, on 13 July 1598 to Sir Christopher Hildyard of Winestead in Yorkshire. She was buried at Routh in the East Riding on 28 Nov. 1638. The family of Hildyard established at Flintham Hall, near Newark, are her descendants (Burke, Landed Gentry, 1898, s.v. ‘Hildyard;’ Foster, Yorkshire Pedigrees, 1874, vol. ii. s.v. ‘Hildyard’).
A life so eccentric as that of Welby was the source of some notoriety, and in the year after his death a biography appeared entitled ‘The Phœnix of these late Times, or the Life of Mr. Henry Welby, Esq.’ (London, 1637, 4to). It contained commemorative verses by Shackerley Marmion [q. v.], John Taylor the ‘Water Poet,’ Thomas Heywood, Thomas Nabbes, and others, and had prefixed a portrait of Welby as he appeared at the time of his death, engraved by William Marshall. Two editions, with no important differences, appeared in the same year.
[The Phœnix of these late Times, 1637; Notices of the Family of Welby, 1842, pp. 48–54; Gibbons's Notes on the Visitation of Lincolnshire in 1634, pt. ix. 1898, pp. 193–207; Students admitted to the Inner Temple, 1547–1660, p. 47; Notes and Queries, 3rd ser. iii. 168, 197.]
E. I. C.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Welchman, Edward

​WELCHMAN, EDWARD (1665–1739), theologian, son of John Welchman, ‘gentleman,’ of Banbury, Oxfordshire, was born in 1665. He was matriculated as a commoner of Magdalen Hall, Oxford, on 7 July 1679. He was one of the choristers of Magdalen College in that university from 1679 till 1682 (Bloxam, Register of Magdalen College, i. 117). He proceeded B.A. on 24 April 1683, was admitted a probationer fellow of Merton College in 1684, and commenced M.A. on 19 June 1688. His college presented him in 1690 to the rectory of Lapworth, Warwickshire, and he was also rector of Berkeswell in the same county. He became archdeacon of Cardigan and a prebendary of St. David's on 7 Aug. 1727. Afterwards he became chaplain to the bishop of Lichfield, who collated him to the prebend of Wolvey in that cathedral on 28 Sept. 1732. He obtained the rectory of Solihull, Warwickshire, in 1736, and held it until his death on 19 May 1739.
His son John graduated M.A. at Oxford, and became vicar of Tamworth, Warwickshire. Another son kept an inn at Stratford-on-Avon, and used to boast that his father made the Thirty-nine articles (Spiritual Quixote, bk. xii. chap. x.).
His principal work is:
Among his other publications are:
* ‘A Defence of the Church of England from the Charge of Schism and Heresie, as laid against it by [Henry Dodwell] the Vindicator of the deprived Bishops’ (anon.), London, 1693, 4to.
* ‘The Husbandman's Manual: directing him how to improve the several actions of his calling, and the most usual occurrences of his life, to the glory of God, and the benefit of his soul,’ London, 1695, 8vo; 25th edit. London, 1818, 8vo; new edit. London, 1821, 12mo.
* ‘Dr. Clarke's Scripture Doctrine of the Trinity examined; to which are added some remarks on his sentiments, and a brief examination of his Doctrine,’ Oxford, 1714, 4to.
* An edition with notes of ‘D. Aurelii Augustini Hipponensis Episcopi Liber de Hæresibus ad quod-vult-Deum, una cum Gennadii Massiliensis Appendice,’ Oxford, 1721, 8vo.
* ‘A Conference with an Arian; occasion'd by Mr. Whiston's Reply to the Earl of Nottingham’ (anon.), Oxford, 1721, 8vo.
* ‘A Dialogue betwixt a Protestant Minister and a Romish Priest,’ 3rd edit. London, 1723, 8vo; 4th edit. 1735.
* ‘Novatiani Presbyteri Romani Opera, quæ extant, omnia, correctius longe quam unquam antehac edita, notisque illustrata,’ Oxford, 1724, 8vo.
[Addit. MS. 5883, f. 224 b; Brüggemann's Engl. Editions of Greek and Latin Authors, pp. 724, 747; Cooke's Preacher's Assistant; De la Roche's New Memoirs of Literature, 1725, ii. 122; Foster's Alumni Oxon., 1500–1714, iv. 1594; Le Neve's Fasti, ed. Hardy, i. 315, 320, 642; Wood's Athenæ Oxon. ed. Bliss, iv. 481.]
T. C.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Weiss, Willoughby Hunter

​WEISS, WILLOUGHBY HUNTER (1820–1867), vocalist and composer, the son of Willoughby Gaspard Weiss, professor of the flute and music publisher at Liverpool, was born there on 2 April 1820. He was a pupil of Sir George Thomas Smart [q. v.] and Michael William Balfe [q. v.], and made his ​first appearance in public as a singer at a concert of his own at Liverpool, 5 May 1842. He first appeared in opera as Oroveso in ‘Norma’ at Dublin on 2 July 1842, and subsequently became a useful member of the Pyne and Harrison and other opera companies. He was distinguished as a concert-singer, but he specially excelled as an exponent of oratorio music, in which his artistic feeling and rich voice found full means of expression. His first appearance at a festival was at Gloucester in 1844.
Weiss's chief claim to distinction rests upon being the composer of ‘The Village Blacksmith,’ set to Longfellow's words, a song which has had and still retains an extraordinary popularity. He composed it about 1854. He offered the copyright to a firm of music publishers for the sum of 5l., and, upon their declining to accept it on those terms, Weiss published the song on his own account, with the result that it brought to him and his descendants an annual income of no inconsiderable amount for upwards of forty years.
Weiss, who was of a genial, lovable disposition, died at St. George's Villa, Regent's Park, 24 Oct. 1867, and is buried in Highgate cemetery. He married, 15 Sept. 1845, Georgina Ansell Barrett (1826–1880), a native of Gloucester, who was favourably known as a singer. By her he left a daughter. In addition to ‘The Village Blacksmith’ Weiss composed many other songs and ballads, and arranged a pianoforte edition of Weber's Mass in G.
F. G. E.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Welch, Joseph

​WELCH, JOSEPH (d. 1805), compiler of ‘Alumni Westmonasterienses,’ was for forty years assistant to Mr. Ginger, bookseller to ​Westminster school. He prepared a list of scholars, which for many years he sold in manuscript. In 1788 he printed it under the title ‘A List of Scholars of St. Peter's College, Westminster, as they were elected to Christ Church College, Oxford, and Trinity College, Cambridge, from 1561 to the present time,’ London, 4to. To it he prefixed lists of the deans of Westminster, the deans of Christ Church, Oxford, the masters of Trinity College, Cambridge, and the masters of Westminster school. The work was republished in 1852, under the editorship of Charles Bagot Phillimore, with the addition of the Queen's scholars from 1663, and of copious biographical notes. The work is generally known as ‘Alumni Westmonasterienses.’ Welch died in April 1805.
[Gent. Mag. 1805, i. 389.]
E. I. C.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Weir, William

​WEIR, WILLIAM (1802–1858), journalist, was born in 1802 at Mount Hamilton in Ayrshire. His father, who was Mr. Oswald's ‘factor,’ died in 1804; his mother married again, and Mr. Oswald acted as his guardian, sending him to Ayr academy, which he left in August 1817 with the reputation of being ‘talented, honourable, kind-hearted, somewhat eccentric, and a most rapacious reader.’ His education was completed at the university of Göttingen. He became a member of the Scottish bar on 27 Jan. 1827. He was the first editor of the ‘Glasgow Argus’ (Glasgow Citizen, September 1858), and, removing to London, he contributed to the ‘Spectator.’ Many articles in the ‘Penny Cyclopædia’ and in Knight's ‘London’ were from his pen, and he wrote the chapter on manners during the reign of George III in the ‘Pictorial History of England’ (Knight, Passages of a Working Life, ii. 229, 259, 263).
Weir joined the editorial staff of the ‘Daily News’ when it was founded in 1846, and succeeded Frederick Knight Hunt [q. v.] in 1854 as editor. After a few days' illness he died on 15 Sept. 1858. Under his editorship the ‘Daily News’ flourished, the ‘Times’ writing after his death that he had conducted it in a way which ‘made it a worthy representative of the English press.’ The ‘Globe’ wrote ‘that he was master of the library of Europe;’ the ‘Athenæum’ that ‘in the ranks of literature there was not a nobler or more unassuming soldier than he;’ and the ‘Spectator’ that ‘his death is a public loss.’ He was credited by the ‘Glasgow Citizen’ with writing good verse as well as prose. The infirmity of deafness prevented him from playing a more conspicuous part in public life.
[Private information.]
F. R.