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

​CALCRAFT, WILLIAM (1800–1879), executioner, was born at Baddow, near Chelmsford, in 1800. He was a shoemaker by trade, but at one time was watchman at Reid's brewery in Liquorpond Street (now Clerkenwell Road), London, and afterwards butler to a gentleman at Greenwich. At a later period, while obtaining a hawker's precarious living, he accidentally made the acquaintance of Foxton, the hangman, which led to his employment at Newgate to flog juvenile offenders, at ten shillings a week. On an emergency during 1828 he was sent to Lincoln, where he put two men to death. John Foxton, who had been the executioner in the city of London for forty years, died on 14 Feb. 1829. Calcraft was appointed his successor, and sworn in on 4 April 1829. The emolument was a guinea a week and an extra guinea for every execution, besides half a crown for every man he flogged, and an allowance to provide cats or birch rods. For acting as executioner of Horsemonger Lane gaol, in Surrey, he received a retaining fee of five guineas, with the usual guinea when he had to officiate on the scaffold; he was also at liberty to engage himself in the country, where he demanded, and was paid, 10l. on each occasion. During his tenure of office the act of parliament was passed ordering criminals to be put to death privately. The last public execution in England took place in front of Newgate 26 May 1868. The first private execution under the new law was in Maidstone gaol, 3 Aug. 1868. Calcraft's last official act was the hanging of James Godwin, on 25 May 1874. Old age then obliged him to retire from office, and he was pensioned by the city of London on twenty-five shillings a week. He died at Poole Street, New North Road, Hoxton, on 13 Dec. 1879. He was of kindly disposition; was very fond of his children and his grandchildren, and took a great interest in his pigeons and other pet animals. ‘The Groans of the Gallows,’ or ‘The Life of W. Calcraft,’ 1846, which ran to numerous editions, ‘The Hangman's Letter to the Queen,’ 1861, ‘The Heroes of the Guillotine and Gallows, Askern, Smith, and Calcraft,’ three publications of little worth, and not countenanced by the executioner, contain very few facts relating to his history.
[Arthur Griffith's Chronicles of Newgate (1884), ii. 272–3, 411–15; Daily Telegraph, 17 Dec. 1879, p. 5; Life and Recollections of Calcraft, with portrait, London, 1880.]
G. C. B.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Calcott, Wellins

1904 Errata appended.
​CALCOTT, WELLINS (fl. 1756–1769), author, was a native of Shropshire, the son of a member of the corporation of Shrewsbury. All that is known of his personal history is gathered from the preface to one of his books, from which it appears that he was induced to become an author by reverses of fortune. He published two books by subscription, and was enabled thereby to make advances towards a restoration of a settled life. The first edition of his ‘Thoughts, Moral and Divine,’ was issued in London in 1756. A second edition was brought out at Birmingham in 1758; a third at Coventry in 1759; a fourth at Manchester in 1761; and a fifth at Exeter in 1764. In 1769 he published ‘A Candid Disquisition of the Principles and Practices of the most ancient and honourable Society of Free and Accepted Masons,’ London, 8vo. This work is said to have been the means of leading many persons to join the society. It was reprinted in 1847 by Dr. George Oliver, who considered it the ‘gem of the period’ in which it was written.
C. W. S.
Dictionary of National Biography, Errata (1904), p.48 N.B.— f.e. stands for from end and l.l. for last line
| Page | Col. | Line | |
| 235 | ii | 26 | Calcott, Wellins: for Cheshire read Shropshire |
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Calcraft, John (1765-1831)

​CALCRAFT, JOHN, the younger (1765–1831), politician, was the eldest son of John Calcraft, the elder [q. v.] He was born 16 Oct. 1765, and as he inherited his father's instincts soon entered upon political life. Before he was twenty-one he was returned for the family borough of Wareham in Dorsetshire (15 July 1786), and sat for it until the dissolution in 1790. For ten years after this he remained out of parliament, but on a casual vacancy was again elected for Wareham (16 June 1800), retaining his seat until 1806. At this time he was identified with the principles of the whig party, and was numbered among the personal friends of the Prince of Wales, his attachment being shown by his motion in March 1803 for a select committee to inquire into the prince's pecuniary embarrassments. In the Grenville administration of ​1806 he was appointed clerk of the ordnance, and acquired considerable reputation for the efficient manner in which he discharged his duties. At the general election in that year he was returned for the city of Rochester, defeating Admiral Sir Sidney Smith both at the polling-booth and before the election committee of the House of Commons. For Rochester he sat until 1818, when he was again returned for Wareham, which he represented until 1831. Down to 1828 Calcraft had been a staunch whig, but on the formation of the Duke of Wellington's administration he consented to hold the post of paymaster-general (1828–30), and was created a privy councillor 16 June 1828. In 1831 he reverted to his old faith, voting for the Reform Bill when it was carried by one vote 22 March 1831, and at the subsequent dissolution he contested and carried the county of Dorset in the reform interest. Under the reproaches of the tories, with whom he had co-operated from 1828 to 1830, his mind became unhinged, and he committed suicide at Whitehall Place, London, 11 Sept. 1831. On 17 Sept. he was buried in the chancel vault of St. James's Church, Piccadilly, and at a later date a monument was erected to his memory in St. Mary's, Wareham. He married, 5 March 1790, Elizabeth, third daughter and coheiress of Sir Thomas Pym Hales of Bekesbourne, Kent. She died at Clifford Street, London, 2 July 1815, aged 45. Calcraft was one of the earliest reformers of the liquor traffic, his proposition being to ‘throw open the retail trade in malt liquor.’ There is in the British Museum ‘a dispassionate appeal to the legislature, magistrates, and clergy,’ by a county magistrate against this suggestion. The titles of numerous broadsides on Calcraft's election for Dorset in 1831 are printed in C. H. Mayo's bibliography of that county.
[Gent. Mag. 1790, pt. i. 273, 1815, pt. ii. 92, 1831, pt. ii. 465–6; Hutchins's Dorset (1861 ed.), i. 113, 534; Wilson's House of Commons, 1808, pp. 510–11; Le Marchant's Memoir of Earl Spencer, p. 303.]
W. P. C.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Caldecott, Thomas

1904 Errata appended.
​CALDECOTT, THOMAS (1744–1833), bibliophile and Shakespearean student, was educated at Winchester and New College, Oxford, where he obtained a fellowship and proceeded B.C.L. on 24 Oct. 1770. He was called to the bar at the Middle Temple; afterwards became a bencher, and was for many years a prominent member of the Oxford circuit. He published, in continuation of Sir James Burrow's ‘Reports,’ two volumes of ‘Reports of Cases relative to the duty and office of a Justice of the Peace from 1776 to 1785’ (2 vols. 1786, 1789). Caldecott died at the age of ninety, at Dartford, at the end of May 1833. He best deserves to be remembered as a book collector and Shakespearean student. He laid the foundations of his library at an early age, and at his death it was singularly rich in sixteenth-century literature. He was a regular attendant at the great book sales, and many of Farmer's, Steevens's, West's, and Pearson's books passed to him. He bequeathed to the Bodleian an invaluable collection of Shakespearean quartos, some of which cost him the merest trifle, but the bulk of his library was sold by auction by Messrs. Sotheby between 2 and 7 Dec. 1833. Dr. Dibdin, the bibliographer, described the ​rarest books in three papers contributed to the ‘Gentleman's Magazine’ for 1834 (pt. i. pp. 59, 195, 284). Caldecott had views of his own on Shakespearean editing. Dibdin describes him as ‘the last of the old breed of Shakespearean commentators of the school of Johnson and Steevens,’ and he certainly had characteristic contempt for Malone, Steevens, and the Shakespearean scholars of his own day. After many years' labour he published privately in 1832 a volume containing ‘Hamlet’ and ‘As you like it,’ with elaborate notes. This was intended to be the first instalment of a final edition of Shakespeare. But the compilation proved singularly feeble and was not continued. Caldecott was well acquainted with ‘honest Tom Warton’ and Bishop Percy, and entered heartily into the former's quarrel with Ritson, whom he styles in a letter to Percy ‘that scurrilous miscreant.’
S. L. L.
Dictionary of National Biography, Errata (1904), p.48 N.B.— f.e. stands for from end and l.l. for last line
| Page | Col. | Line | |
| 240 | ii | 33 | Caldecott, Thomas: for 1743 read 1744 |
| | | 35 | before New College insert Winchester arid |
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Calamy, Edmund (1697?-1755)

​CALAMY, EDMUND (1697?–1755), dissenting minister, the eldest son of Edmund Calamy, D.D. (1671–1732) [q. v.] by his first wife, Mary Watts, was born in London (date not ascertained), and, after passing through Westminster School, entered the Edinburgh University in 1714, and graduated M.A. on 15 June 1717. From Edinburgh he went to Leyden, where he entered 29 Sept. 1717. For some time he assisted his father at Westminster, but in 1726 he was chosen to succeed Clark Oldisworth, as assistant to Benjamin Grosvenor, afterwards D.D., at Crosby Square. He was a member of the presbyterian board (1739–48), and a trustee of Dr. Williams's foundations from 1740 till his death. In 1749 Grosvenor resigned his charge, owing to advancing years, and simultaneously Calamy retired from the ministry. He died on 13 June 1755, and was buried on 17 June in the chancel of St. Mary Aldermanbury. His son Edmund (b. 18 May 1743), who entered Warrington academy in 1761 as a divinity student, removed to Cambridge in 1763, and became a barrister of Lincoln's Inn. He was a member of the presbyterian board, and a Williams' trustee (1784–1812). Thomas Emlyn of London, barrister (grandson of Thomas Emlyn, whose unitarian views E. Calamy, D.D., had controverted), by will dated 20 July 1796 left lands at Syddan, co. Meath, to ‘Edmond Calamy, Esq., senior.’ In 1812 Calamy the barrister left London. He died at Alphington, near Exeter, on 12 May 1816, aged seventy-three. His son, Edmund, died 27 Aug. 1850, aged seventy. His younger son Michael, the last of the direct Calamy line, lived a very secluded life at Exeter, in a house filled with the family books and papers. He was educated for the ministry at Wymondley, and under John Jervis at Lympstone, and was always called reverend, but it is not known that he ever was ordained or held any charge. Occasionally he preached for the unitarians, at Exeter and Topsham. He is the author of hymn 93 in the supplement (1823) to Kippis's collection. He bore a strong resemblance to the portraits of Edmund Calamy, B.D. He died unmarried, at Baring Crescent, Exeter, on 3 Jan. 1876, aged eighty-five.
A. G.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Cleland, William (1674?-1741)

1904 Errata appended.
​CLELAND, WILLIAM (1674?–1741), friend of Pope, was of Scotch birth. He studied at Utrecht, served in Spain under Lord Rivers, and after the peace became a commissioner of customs in Scotland, and after 1723 of the land tax and house duties in England. He died on 21 Sept. 1741, in his sixty-eighth year, having been dismissed from his office (worth 500l. a year) two months previously. He is known chiefly from his connection with Pope. Pope presented a portrait of himself by Jervas, and a copy of the Homer, to Cleland, with the inscription, 'Mr. Cleland, who reads all other books, will please read this from his affectionate friend, A. Pope.' A letter, obviously written by Pope, but signed William Cleland (dated 22 Dec. 1728), was prefixed to later editions of the 'Dunciad.' Pope also made use of Cleland to write a letter to Gay (16 Dec. 1731) in contradiction of the report that 'Timon' was intended for James Brydges, duke of Chandos [q. v.] A note by Pope on the 'Dunciad' letter is the chief authority for the facts of his life; some writers at the time of its first publication had even denied Cleland's existence. There is no doubt of the facts mentioned, but other statements about Cleland are contradictory. Scott, in his edition of Swift, described him as the son of Colonel W. Cleland [q. v.], which is impossible, as Colonel Cleland was born about 1661. He is also said to have been the prototype of Will Honeycomb, which is improbable from a consideration of dates. Neither can he be identified with a Colonel Cleland with whom Swift dined on 31 March 1713. He and Mrs. Cleland are mentioned in Swift's correspondence by Mrs. Kelly and Mrs. Barber as known to Swift (Scott's Swift, iii. 195, xviii. 195, xix. 91). Pope (3 Nov. 1730) asks Lord Oxford to recommend a son of Cleland's, who was then at Christ Church, having been elected from Westminster in 1728. Another son was probably John Cleland [q. v.], a disreputable person, who was also at Westminster in 1722, and who was mentioned in his lifetime as the son of Pope's friend. His father's portrait, in the the fashionable costume of the day, is said always to have hung in the son's library.
[Carruther's Life of Pope (1857), 258-63, where all the evidence is given; Nichols's Lit. Anecd. ii. 457-8; Gent. Mag. 1735, P. 500, 1741, p. 500, 1789, p.180; Welch's Queen's Scholars of Westminster, 276, 281, 297.]
Dictionary of National Biography, Errata (1904), p.70 N.B.— f.e. stands for from end and l.l. for last line
| Page | Col. | Line | |
| 30 | i | 18-17 f.e. | Cleland, William (1674?-1741): for and after 1723 read until 1714 and from May 1724 till July 1738 |
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Clegg, John

​CLEGG, JOHN (1714?–1746?), violinist, is said to have been born in Ireland, and to have studied the violin under Dubourg and Buononcini. He travelled in Italy with Lord Ferrers, and made his first appearance in London in 1723, when he played a concerto by Vivaldi. For several years he stood at the head of his profession as an executant, but over-study drove him mad, and on 21 Jan. 1743–4 he was confined in Bethlehem Hospital, where during his sane intervals he was allowed to play on the violin. Burney relates that it was long ‘a fashionable, though inhuman amusement to visit him there … in hopes of being entertained by his fiddle or his folly,’ and adds that ‘no one who ever heard him would allow that he was excelled by any performer in Europe on the violin.’ He was discharged as cured 20 July 1744, but on 15 Dec. of the same year was readmitted, and remained in the hospital until 13 Oct. 1746, when he was again discharged, his condition at this time not being stated. His death is supposed to have occurred shortly afterwards. Before his admission to the hospital Clegg lived in the parish of St. James's Westminster.
[Burney, in Rees's Cyclopædia; Grove's Dict. of Music and Musicians, i.; Hawkins's Hist. of Music, v. 361; Burney's Hist. of Music, iv. 609; Chrysander's G. F. Händel, ii. 256; Records of Bethlehem Hospital, communicated by Mr. G. H. Haydon.]
W. B. S.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Cleland, James

​CLELAND, JAMES (1770–1840), statistician, was a native of Glasgow, and began life as a cabinet-maker, but having migrated to London, obtained in 1814 the post of superintendent of public works. In 1819 he was employed by the municipal authorities of Glasgow in taking a census of that town, the first ever taken in the United Kingdom. He was similarly employed in 1821 and 1831. He published : 1. 'Annals of Glasgow,' Glasgow, 1816, 8vo. 2. 'Rise and Progress of the City of Glasgow,' Glasgow, 1820, 8vo. 3. 'Enumeration of the Inhabitants of Glasgow,' Glasgow, 1832, fol. 4. 'Historical Account of Bills of Mortality of the Probability of Human Life in Glasgow and other large towns,' Glasgow, 1836, 8vo. 5. 'Description of the Banquet in honour of the Right Honourable Sir R. Peel, Lord Rector of the University of Glasgow, 13 Jan. 1837,' Glasgow, 1837, 4to. 6. 'Description of the City of Glasgow,' Glasgow, 1843, 8vo.
[Irving's Dict. of Eminent Scotsmen; Martin's Contributions to English Literature by the Civil Servants of the Crown; Brit. Mus. Cat.]
J. M. R.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Clement, Cæsar

​CLEMENT, CÆSAR, D.D. (d. 1626), catholic divine, born in the diocese of London, was great-nephew to Dr. John Clement [q. v.], president of the College of Physicians, and nephew to Margaret Clement, prioress of St. Ursula's convent at Louvain. When very young, he was sent to the English college of Douay, with which he removed to Rheims, and he completed his theological studies in the English college at Rome, where he was ordained priest in 1586. He was created D.D. in some Italian university, was appointed dean of St. Gudule's in Brussels, and vicar-general of the king of Spain's army in Flanders, and in 1612 was associated with Robert Chambers (1571-1624?) [q. v.] in the visitation of Douay college. He had great influence among the English catholics, and took a leading part in procuring an establishment for the English canonesses at Louvain. His death took place at Brussels on 28 Aug. 1626. A great many of his original letters were formerly in the possession of Dodd, the church historian.
T. C.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Cleghorn, James

​CLEGHORN, JAMES (1778–1836), Scottish actuary, was a native of Dunse, where he was born in 1778. For some time he followed the vocation of a farmer, but in 1811 he removed to Edinburgh, where he edited the 'Farmers' Journal.' In 1817, along with Thomas Pringle, he became editor of the 'Edinburgh Monthly Magazine,' of which only six numbers were issued, and regarding which the editors published 'Notice ot the Transactions between the Publisher and Editors of the "Edinburgh Monthly Magazine."' Subsequently he became connected with the 'Scots Magazine.' He was the author of a pamphlet on the 'Depressed State of Agriculture, 1822, and to the seventh edition of the 'Encyclopædia Britannica' contributed the article on 'Agriculture,' which was also published separately. Cleghorn was the projector and founder of the Scottish Provident Assurance Company, of which he was manager. He was also actuary of the Edinburgh National Security Savings Banks. He enjoyed a high reputation for his skill as an actuary and accountant, which was shown in his 'Widows' Scheme for the Faculty of Advocates,' his 'Report on the first Investigation of the Widows' Fund' of that body, and his 'Report on the Widows' Fund of the Writers to ner Majesty's Signet.' He died unmarried on 27 May 1838.
[Anderson's Scottish Nation; Modern Athenians; Catalogue of the Library of the Faculty of Advocates, Edinburgh.]
T. F. H.
# Des Moines National Bank v. Fairweather

* related portals: Supreme Court of the United States.
* sister projects: Wikidata item.
United States Supreme Court
263 U.S. 103
Des Moines National Bank v. Fairweather
Argued: Oct. 3, 1923. --- Decided: Nov 12, 1923
Mr. J. G. Gamble, of Des Moines, Iowa, for plaintiff in error.
Messrs. Ben J. Gibson and John J. Halloran, both of Des Moines, Iowa, for defendants in error.
Mr. Justice VAN DE VANTER delivered the opinion of the Court.

## Notes

This work is in the public domain in the United States because it is a work of the United States federal government (see 17 U.S.C. 105).
Public domainPublic domainfalsefalse
# Des Moines Navigation Company v. Iowa Homestead Company

* related portals: Supreme Court of the United States.
* sister projects: Wikidata item.
United States Supreme Court
123 U.S. 552
Des Moines Navigation Company v. Iowa Homestead Company
C. H. Gatch and Wm. Connor, for plaintiff in error.
George Crane, for defendant in error.
WAITE, C. J.

## Notes

This work is in the public domain in the United States because it is a work of the United States federal government (see 17 U.S.C. 105).
Public domainPublic domainfalsefalse
# Des Moines Gas Company v. City of Des Moines

* related portals: Supreme Court of the United States.
* sister projects: Wikidata item.
United States Supreme Court
238 U.S. 153
Des Moines Gas Company v. City of Des Moines
Argued: November 10 and 11, 1914. --- Decided: June 14, 1915
Messrs. Nathaniel T. Guernsey and George H. Carr for appellant.
[Argument of Counsel from pages 154-156 intentionally omitted]
Messrs. H. W. Byers, R. O. Brennan, and Eskil C. Carlson for appellees.
Mr. Justice Day delivered the opinion of the court:

## Notes

This work is in the public domain in the United States because it is a work of the United States federal government (see 17 U.S.C. 105).
Public domainPublic domainfalsefalse
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Collins, Samuel (1618-1710)

​COLLINS, SAMUEL, M.D. (1618–1710), anatomist, was the only son of John Collins, rector of Rotherfield, Sussex, who was descended from an ancient family settled in the counties of Somerset and Devon. He received his education at Trinity College, Cambridge, where he was elected to a scholarship, and afterwards to a fellowship. He graduated B.A. in 1638–9, M.A. in 1642. Then he travelled on the continent, and visited many universities in France, Italy, and the Low Countries, but found none to compare with our own. He was created M.D. at Padua 25 Aug. 1654, and was incorporated in that degree at Oxford in 1652, and at Cambridge in 1673. He was admitted a candidate of the College of Physicians of London in 1656, and a fellow in 1668. About the latter date he was appointed physician in ordinary to Charles II. Between 1671 and 1707 he was frequently elected to the office of censor in the College of Physicians; he was anatomy reader in 1684; and on 10 Sept. 1694 was appointed Lumleian lecturer, an office which he retained to his death. He was constituted an elect in 1689; was several times appointed consiliarius; and in 1695 was elected president of the college. He died 11 April 1710. To his 'memory' is inscribed the view of the interior of the nave of St. Paul's in Dugdale's 'History' of that church. The plate being dated 1658 is calculated to mislead as to the date of Collins's death. He married, first, Anne, eldest daughter of John Bodenham, esq.; and secondly, Dame Catharine, countess-dowager of Carnwath in Scotland, daughter of John Abington, esq., of Dowdeswell, Gloucestershire.
Dr. Munk says that Collins, who is mentioned in Garth's 'Dispensary,' was an accomplished anatomist, and stood foremost among his contemporaries, whether at home or abroad, in his knowledge of comparative anatomy. His great work, which embodies a full report of his original investigations, is entitled 'A Systeme of Anatomy, treating of the Body of Man, Beasts, Birds, Fish, Insects, ​and Plants. Illustrated with many schemes,' 2 vols. London, 1685, fol. It is often referred to by Boerhaave and Haller, the latter of whom writes thus of the author and his work: 'Anatomen comparatam amavit, ut ipse de se fatetur; hinc magna pars operis in zootome versatur, cujus praecipuus certe auctor est; et avium pisciumque imprimis copiosissimas figuras dedit, ad Peraltianum fere morem. Ex homine icones pauciores sunt. Anatomen practicam interponit, et physiologiam, anatomen, atque pathologiam conjungit.' Collins's portrait, engraved by W. Faithorne, is prefixed to his 'Anatomy.'
[Addit. MS. 5865, f. 65; Annals of Queen Anne, ix. 414; Garth's Dispensary, canto iv.; Granger's Biog. Hist. of England (1824), v. 225; Guillim's Display of Heraldry (1724), 431; Hutchinson's Biog. Medica, i. 213; Lowndes's Bibl. Man. (Bohn), 499; Munk's College of Physicians (1878), i. 355; Notes and Queries, 2nd series, x. 42; Rees's Cyclopædia; Wood's Fasti Oxon. (Bliss), ii. 172, 221.]
T. C.