OpenLLM-France/wikimedia huggingface dataset:
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Barret, William (d.1584)

​BARRET, WILLIAM (d. 1584), was British consul at Aleppo when Mr. John Eldred and his companion, William Shales, arrived there on 11 June 1584, and he died eight days after their arrival, as is recorded in Eldred's narrative. He wrote a treatise on ‘The Money and Measures of Babylon, Balsara, and the Indies, with the Customes, &c.,’ which occupies pp. 406 to 416 of the second volume of Hakluyt's ‘Collection of Voyages,’ folio edition, 1810. His notes have a certain value to metrologists, but the only generally interesting portion of his treatise is the paragraph recording the discovery of the island of St. Helena, and its use as a provision depôt for the ‘Portugale’ traders with India.
S. L-P.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Barret, John (d.1563)

​BARRET, JOHN, D.D. (d. 1563), Carmelite friar, afterwards a protestant clergyman, was descended from a good family seated at King's Lynn in Norfolk, where he was born. After having assumed the habit of a Carmelite, or white friar, in his native town, he studied in the university of Cambridge, where he proceeded in 1533 to the degree of D.D., which Archbishop Cranmer had previously refused to confer upon him. In 1542 he was appointed reader in theology at the chapter-house of Norwich, with an annual salary of 4l. After the dissolution of the monasteries, he obtained a dispensation to hold a living. Accordingly, in 1541 he was instituted to the rectory of Hetherset in Norfolk, which he resigned the next year. In 1550 he was instituted to the rectory of Cantley in the same county, and to that of St. Michael at Plea, Norwich. The last-mentioned benefice he resigned in 1560. He obtained the living of Bishop's Thorpe in 1558, and in the same year was installed a prebendary of Norwich. Bale asserts that in Queen Mary's reign Barret complied with the change of religion, and became a zealous papist; but, however this may be, he found no difficulty in professing protestantism under Queen Elizabeth. He died at Norwich on 12 July 1563, and was buried in the cathedral.
His works are:
* ‘Reformationes Joannis Trissæ.’
* ‘Ad Robertum Watsonum in carcere epistola,’ printed in the ‘Ætiologia’ of Robert Watson, 1556.
* Homilies in English.
* ‘Collectanea quædam in communes locos digesta ex eruditioribus celebrioribusque Germanorum protestantium scriptoribus.’ Three manuscript vols. preserved in the library of Corpus Christi College, Cambridge.
* ‘Annotationes in D. Paulum.’
* ‘Orationes ad Clerum.’
* ‘In canonicam epistolam primam S. Johannis.’
[MS. Addit. 5863, f. 160; Blomefield's Norfolk, iii. 663, iv. 13; Nasmith's Cat. of MSS. in Corpus Christi Coll. Camb. 166, 169, 387, 399; Bale; Pits; Dodd's Church Hist. i. 524; Tanner's Bibl. Brit. 73, 74; Mackerell's Hist. of Lynn, 192; Strype's Life of Cranmer, iii. 425; Strype's Eccl. Memorials, i. 286; Cooper's Athenæ Cantab. i. 224; Le Neve's Fasti Eccl. Anglic. (ed. Hardy), ii. 498.]
T. C.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Barret, Richard

​BARRET, RICHARD, D.D. (d. 1599), catholic divine, was born in Warwickshire, and entered the English college at Douay 28 Jan. 1576. He removed in 1582 to the English college at Rome, where he took his doctor's degree. In the same year, on the invitation of Dr. Allen, he went to Rheims, and was appointed to the important post of superintendent of the studies of the college which had been removed to that city from Douay. Allen, on being created a cardinal, continued for a time to govern the seminary, but during his absence in Rome dissensions arose, and it became necessary for him to appoint a resident superior. Accordingly, by an instrument dated Rome, 31 Oct. 1588, after mentioning that various ‘complaints had been made to him of scandals which had arisen among its members, and defects against the college discipline,’ he nominated Dr. Barret to be president of the college. This appointment, which is said to have been due to the influence of the Jesuits, was by no means a fortunate one, as the new president was far more fit to fill a subordinate post than that of superior. Nicholas Fitzherbert, who knew him personally, says (De Alani Cardinalis Vita libellus, 91) that ‘he was an excellent man, of great learning and piety, who had lived some years at Rome, and for a long time at Rheims under Allen's government, but he was naturally a little too severe and hot-tempered. This impetuosity, till then latent, showed itself more freely when he was raised to command, … and he thereby gave offence to many of the scholars, and roused such commotions that Allen was hardly able by many letters, reproofs, and punishments, to restore peace.’ In consequence of political troubles it was resolved to return to Douay, where the college still retained possession of the house and garden in which the work had originally begun. During the course of that year some of the students were sent to England, others to Rome, others to Spain; but the greater part of them migrated to Douay. On 23 June 1593 Dr. Barret left Rheims for Douay, where he continued to govern the college till his death on 30 May 1599. His successor was Dr. Thomas Worthington.
[Diaries of Douay College; Letters and Memorials of Cardinal Allen; Dodd's Church History, ii. 68; Catholic Magazine and Review, i. 684, ii. 261.]
T. C.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Guise, John Wright

​GUISE, Sir JOHN WRIGHT (1777–1865), general, born at Elmore, Gloucestershire, on 20 July 1777, was second son of John Guise of Highnam Court, Gloucestershire, who was created a baronet in 1783 (the family baronetcy of the first creation having become extinct in 1773), and died in 1794. His mother was the daughter and heirees of Thomas Wright. He was appointed ensign 70th foot on 4 Nov. 1794, and was transferred the year after to the 3rd foot guards, now the Scots Guards, in which he became lieutenant ​and captain in 1798, captain and lieutenant-colonel in 1805, and regimental first major in 1814. He served with his regiment at Ferrol, Vigo, and Cadiz in 1800, in Egypt in 1801 (medal), in Hanover in 1805-6, and accompanied it to Portugal in 1809. He was present at Busaco, and commanded the light companies of the guards, with some companies of the 95th rifles attached, at Fuentes d'Onoro (Gurwood, Wellington Desp. iv. 776). He commanded the first battalion 3rd guards in the Peninsular campaigns of 1812-14, including the battle of Salamanca, the capture of Madrid, the siege of Burgos and retreat therefrom, the battle of Vittoria, passage of the Bidassoa, actions on the Nive, the passage of the Adour, and the investment of and repulse of the sortie from Bayonne, on which occasion he succeeded to the command of the second brigade of guards when Major-general Edward Stopford was wounded (gold cross and war medal). Guise became a major-general in 1819, was made C.B. in 1831, became a lieutenant-general and K.C.B. in 1841, colonel 85th light infantry in 1847, general 1851, G.C.B. 1863. He married in 1815 Charlotte Diana, daughter of John Vernon of Clontarf Castle, co. Dublin, by whom he left issue William Vernon, the fourth baronet, and other children. He succeeded to the baronetcy on the death of his brother Berkeley William, the second baronet, in 1834. Guise was senior general in the 'Army List' at the time of his death, which took place at Elmore Court on 1 April 1865, at the age of 87.
H. M. C.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Guise, William

​GUISE, WILLIAM (1653?–1683), orientalist, born about 1653, the son of John Guise, came of a knightly family seated at Elmore Court, near Gloucester. He entered Oriel College, Oxford, in 1669 as a commoner, but graduated B.A. as a fellow of All Souls' College on 4 April 1674, proceeding M.A. on 16 Oct. 1677 (Wood, Fasti, ed. Bliss, ii. 343, 361). He was ordained, and continued to reside at Oxford 'in great esteem for his oriental learning.' In 1680 he resigned his fellowship on his marriage to Frances, daughter of George Southcote of Devonshire. He died of small-pox on 3 Sept. 1683, and was buried in the 'college' chancel in St. Michael's Church, Oxford, where a monument was soon afterwards erected to his memory by his widow. His will, dated 23 Aug. 1683, was proved at London on the following 16 Nov. by Frances Guise, his relict (registered in P. C. C. 124, Drax), his father, John Guise, and Sir John Guise, bart., being appointed the overseers.
He left issue a son John, a daughter Frances, and a child unborn. After his death Dr. Edward Bernard [q. v.], Savilian professor of astronomy, published 'Misnæ Pars: Ordinis primi Zeraim Tituli septem. Latinè vertit & commentario illustravit Gvlielmvs Gvisivs. Accedit Mosis Maimonidis Præfatio in Misnam Edv. Pocockio interprete,' 4to, Oxford, 1690. A few of Guise's manuscripts are among the Marshian collection in the Bodleian Library, such as a transcript of the Koran with a collation (No. 533), and several volumes of excerpts, historical and geographical.
G. G.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Guise, John

​GUISE, JOHN, D.D. [See Guyse.]
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Guise, John (d.1765)

​GUISE, JOHN (d. 1765), general, is described by Wotton (Baronetage, ii. 217) as grandson of John Guise, one of the brothers of Christopher Guise or Gyse, of Elmore, Gloucestershire, who received a baronetcy from Charles II, which became extinct in 1773. He is believed to have been the John Guise of Christ Church, Oxford, who took the degree of B.A. on 20 March 1701 (Cat. Oxf. Grad.) He was appointed captain and lieutenant-colonel 1st foot guards on 9 April 1706, and served under Marlborough. The regimental records show him as one of the captains present in the Low Countries at the opening of the Oudenarde campaign in 1708 (Hamilton, Grenadier Guards, ii. 28). A curious memorial, in which Guise prays the Duke of Ormonde to obtain restitution of three hundred guineas taken from his sister when embarking in the Thames for Holland in 1712 (see Cal. State Papers, Treasury, 1708-14), and an undated application to Ormonde for brevet rank (Hist. MSS. Comm. 7th Rep.), suggest; that Guise was still serving in the Low countries when Ormonde held command. Guise commanded the battalion of his regiment sent with the Vigo expedition of 1719 (Hamilton, ii. 71). He became regimental major on 20 June 1727, and in 1738 was appointed colonel of the 6th foot, then in Ireland. His regiment followed the expedition to Carthagena under Cathcart and Vernon, in which Guise held the rank of brigadier-general. With twelve hundred men he attacked the castle of St. Lazar, Carthagena. After carrying the enemy's outworks and withstanding a most disastrous fire for several hours, the attack was withdrawn with the loss of six hundred killed and wounded. Guise became a major-general in 1742, Lieutenant-general in 1745, and general in 1762. The 6th foot was in the north of Scotland in 1745, and is repeatedly alluded to in accounts of the early part of the rebellion under the name of 'Guise's' regiment. Horace Walpole speaks of Guise as a very brave officer, but an incorrigible romancer. He writes to Sir Horace Mann: ‘When your relative, General Guise, was marching up to Carthagena, and the pelicans were wheeling round him, he said, “What would Chloe [the Duke of Newcastle's French cook] give for some of these to make a pelican pie!” What a pity that a man who can deal in hyperboles at the mouth of a cannon should be so fond of making them with a glass of wine in his hand! I have heard him affirm that the colliers at Newcastle feed their children with shovels’ (Letters, ii. 398). Guise had a collection of paintings which he greatly valued and bequeathed to Christ Church, Oxford. Walpole says the university employed the son of Bonus, the cleaner of pictures, to repair them, and he repainted and utterly spoiled them all (ib. iii. 330). Guise died in London on 12 June 1765.
[Cat. of Oxford Graduates; Hamilton's Grenadier Guards, vol. ii.; Cannon's Hist. Rec. 6th Royal Warwickshire Foot; H. Walpole's Letters, vols. i. ii. iii. v.; Gent. Mag. 1765, 299.]
H. M. C.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Leslie, John (1698?-1767)

​LESLIE, JOHN, ninth Earl of Rothes (1698?–1767), born about 1698, was the eldest son of John, eighth earl [q. v.] Making choice of a military career, he had command of a troop of dragoons as early as 1715, was promoted to the command of a company of foot-guards two years later; and in 1719 was commissioned as lieutenant-colonel of the 21st regiment of foot. He succeeded as Earl of Rothes on the death of his father in May 1722, and retained his father's post as governor of the castle of Stirling. In the following year he was chosen as a representative peer for Scotland, and was re-elected in 1727, 1747, 1754, and 1761. Under the Heritable Jurisdictions Act he in 1747 disposed of the hereditary sheriffdom of Fife, which had long been held by the Rothes family, to the government, receiving in compensation the sum of 6,268l. 16s., though he claimed 10,000l. In June 1744 he was appointed to the office of chamberlain of Fife and Strathearn (Fraser, Memorials of the Family of Wemyss of Wemyss, i. 372).
Continuing in the army, he, on 25 May 1732, was appointed to the command of the 25th regiment of foot; was promoted to the rank of major-general 26 Feb. 1743, and acted in this rank at the battle of Dettingen. He received a commission as colonel of the 2nd troop of grenadier horse-guards on 25 April 1745, and took part in the battle of Rocoux in October of the following year, gallantly heading the charge of the first line of cavalry. In 1750 (16 Jan.) he was appointed colonel of the 2nd regiment of dragoons, and in April following took command of the 3rd regiment of foot-guards. During his later years he was attached to the Irish military staff, on which in the last-mentioned year he held the rank of lieutenant-general. On 3 March 1753 he was created a knight of the order of the Thistle, and became a full general in 1765. He rose to be commander-in-chief of the forces in Ireland, was governor of Duncannon Fort, and a member of the Irish privy council (Home Office Papers, 1760–5 pp. 88, 134, 1766–9 p. 203). He died on 10 Dec. 1767 (Linsay, Retours) at Leslie House, which during his time was destroyed by fire and rebuilt.
Leslie was twice married: first, on 25 May 1741, at London, to Hannah, second daughter and coheiress of Matthew Howard of Thorpe, Norfolk, who died at Dublin on 26 April 1761; and secondly, on 27 June 1763, at Tynninghame to Mary Lloyd, daughter of Mary, countess of Haddington, by a previous marriage. He left issue, by his first marriage only, two sons and two daughters, of whom the eldest son succeeded him as tenth earl. The Countess ​of Rothes remarried Bennet Langton [q. v.], the friend of Dr. Johnson.
[Douglas's Peerage of Scotland (Wood), ii. 434.]
H. P.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Gates, Bernard

​GATES, BERNARD (1685?–1773), musician, was the second son of Bernard Gates, gentleman, of St. Margaret's, Westminster, whose will was proved on 21 May 1718. His name appears in the list of children of the Chapel Royal in 1702. At the end of 1708 (after 1 Oct.) he was sworn a gentleman of the Chapel Royal in the place of J. Howell, who died on 15 July in that year. He held the sinecure office of tuner of the regals at court, and was a member of the choir of Westminster Abbey. He married before 1717, since on 6 June of that year his eldest child, a daughter named Atkinson, was buried in the north cloister of Westminster Abbey. This unusual christian name, which was borne by another daughter of Gates (buried 1736), was derived from a Mrs. Atkinson, who had been laundress to Queen Anne, and who had brought up Mrs. Gates, and made her her heiress. At some time before 1732 Gates was made master of the children of the Chapel Royal (the date given in Grove's ‘Dict.’ for this appointment is manifestly too late). On 23 Feb. 1732 Handel's ‘Esther’ was performed at Gates's house in James Street, Westminster, by the children of the chapel. The same singers sang the work at a subscription concert at the Crown and Anchor Tavern, and again at the room in Villiers Street, York Buildings. In 1734 Gates seceded from the Academy of Vocal Music, taking the children of the chapel with him. He had been a prominent member of the society from its in​auguration. Gates sang one of the airs in the first performance of the ‘Dettingen Te Deum’ in 1743. In 1737 (10 March) Mrs. Gates died, and in 1758 Gates moved to North Aston, Oxfordshire. He died there on 15 Nov. 1773, and was buried in the north cloister of Westminster Abbey on the 23rd of the month. The inscription on his monument, which is the authority for many particulars as to his family, &c., gives his age as eighty-eight. His will, dated 5 Oct. 1772, was proved on 28 Nov. 1773. Failing the issue of a nephew, Bernard Downes, to whom the estate at North Aston was left, he bequeathed his property to Dr. Thomas Sanders Dupuis [q. v.], who had been his pupil, with a further remainder to Dr. Arnold. He directed that his chaise horse should be kept on his estate at Aston without working, that it should never be killed, and that when it died naturally it should be buried without mutilation of any kind. Hawkins says that in his singing there was such an exaggeration of the shake as to destroy the melody altogether, and that the boys of the chapel had adopted the same habit. He also says that Gates introduced into the chapel the system, then lately revived by Pepusch, of solmisation by the hexachords. A tablet to his memory was put up in the church of North Aston, at the expense of his pupil, Dr. Dupuis.
J. A. F. M.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Gastineau, Henry

​GASTINEAU, HENRY (1791–1876), painter in water-colours, was a student at the Royal Academy. He commenced his artistic career as an engraver, but soon relinquished that branch of art for painting, commencing in oil, but eventually settling down exclusively to water-colour. He joined the Society of Painters in Water-colours in 1818, and then exhibited for the first time. In 1821 he was elected an associate, and in 1823 a full member. He continued to exhibit for fifty-eight years continuously, during which he worked unweariedly at his profession, and with unflagging powers. He exhibited eleven pictures when eighty-five years of age. As a contemporary of David Cox, Copley Fielding, G. Cattermole, S. Prout, and others, he adhered throughout his life to the old style and manner of water-colour painting. Though he cannot be said to have attained the first rank in his profession, he showed great taste and discrimination in the treatment of his subjects, and, if these indicated little variation, he exhibited so refined a feeling for nature that they are highly valued by artists and others as ex​amples of a thoroughly good workman in his art. Gastineau also devoted a great deal of his time to teaching, both privately and at various schools. Early in life he built for himself a house, Norfolk Lodge, in Cold Harbour Lane, Camberwell, and continued to reside there until his death on 17 Jan. 1876 in his eighty-sixth year. He was then the oldest living member of the Old Society of Painters in Water-colours. He left a family, one of whom, Maria Gastineau, was also a water-colour painter of some distinction. At the South Kensington Museum there are by him ‘Penrhyn Castle’ and ‘Netley Abbey.’ Few comprehensive exhibitions of water-colour paintings have been without some example of his art. Some views in Scotland by him were published in lithography, which he seems to have occasionally practised himself. His favourite subject was scenery of a wild and romantic character.
L. C.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Gast, Luce de

The ODNB regards the identification as without secure foundation.
​GAST, LUCE de (fl. 1199?), knight and lord of the castle of Gast, near Salisbury, is mentioned in preambles to many manuscripts of the great prose romance of Tristan. It is stated that he wondered that no one had translated into French the Latin book containing the history of the Saint Graal, and at length decided to do so himself, although in language he belonged rather to England, where he was born (MSS. 6768 and 6771 in Bibliothèque, and Add. MS. 23929 in Brit. Mus.) Only the first part of Tristan is ascribed to Gast, the second being assigned to Hélie de Borron. It is at least questionable whether either writer ever existed. Gast professes, and in this Hélie de Borron supports him, to have been the first to make use of the records of the Round Table, and to have chosen Tristan for his hero, as being the most puissant knight that was ever in Britain before King Arthur, or afterwards, save only for Lancelot and Galahad. But whereas the Tristan is full of allusions to the Saint Graal and to Lancelot, these romances never mention Tristan as an Arthurian hero; the romance of Tristan was therefore probably the later composition. Nor is there any proof of the existence of a Latin original. In all probability the prose romance of Tristan was founded on the lost poem of Chrétien de Troyes, which must have been written about 1160. It is also noticeable that in the Quest of the Saint Graal, the Records (of the Quest, at all events) are said to be kept ‘en l'aumoire de Salebères.’ It looks as if the whole story of the knight, his castle, and the Latin book were an invention intended to give an appearance of authority to the romance. The Tristan was first printed at Rouen in 1489, and afterwards at Paris by Antoine Verard in two editions without date; again at Paris in 1514, 1520, 1533 (Brunet, Manuel du Libraire, vol. v. col. 955). These printed copies follow the version as it was rearranged by writers of the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, and differ greatly from the original work. One manuscript (Bibliothèque 6976) ascribes to Gast the ‘Roman de Guyron le Courtois,’ which is more commonly assigned to Hélie de Borron. The name is variously spelt Gast, Galt, Gant, or Gay. It has been endeavoured to identify it with one of two castles called Gât in Normandy, but all the manuscripts clearly describe Gast as ‘voisin prochain de Salebères.’
C. L. K.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Gatacre, Thomas

​GATACRE, THOMAS (d. 1593), divine, was younger son of William Gatacre of Gatacre Hall, Shropshire, where the family had maintained an uninterrupted succession from the time of Edward the Confessor. His parents, zealous Roman catholics, intended him for the law, and he was admitted a student of the Middle Temple about 1553. John Popham, afterwards lord chief justice, was a fellow-student, and became his intimate friend. Some of Gatacre's kindred were ‘high in place,’ and while visiting them he was present at the examinations of protestant confessors, whose constancy impressed him in favour of their opinions. With a view to confirm him in the old faith, his parents removed him to the English college at Louvain, at the same time settling on him an estate which brought in 100l. a year. Finding him strengthened in his protestantism after six months at Louvain, his father recalled him to England, obtained his consent to the revocation of the settlement, and cast him off. Gatacre found friends, who provided him with the means of studying for eleven years at Oxford, and for four years at Magdalene College, Cambridge. There is no record of his graduation. In 1568 he was ordained deacon and priest by Grindal, bishop of London, and ​became domestic chaplain to Robert Dudley, earl of Leicester. On 21 June 1572 he was collated to the rectory of St. Edmund's, Lombard Street. In addition he was admitted to the vicarage of Christ Church, Newgate, on 25 Jan. 1577, but resigned this preferment in the following year. Fuller describes him as a ‘profitable pastor.’ His puritan principles are assumed by Brook, without much direct evidence. He died in 1593, his successor at St. Edmund's being instituted on 2 June in that year.
He married Margaret Pigott, of a Hertfordshire family, and left a son Thomas [see Gataker, Thomas].
A. G.