OpenLLM-France/wikimedia huggingface dataset:
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Taylor, Thomas (d.1848)

​TAYLOR, THOMAS (d. 1848), botanist, born in the East Indies, was the eldest son of Joseph Irwin Taylor, colonel in the East Indian army. He was educated at Trinity College, Dublin, graduating B.A. in 1807, and M.B. and M.D. in 1814. He was afterwards elected a fellow of the King and Queen's College of Physicians, and during his residence in Dublin acted as physician in ordinary to Sir Patrick Dun's Hospital. He acted as professor of botany and natural history in the Royal Cork Scientific Institution as long as that institution lasted, and then retired to Dunkerron, near ​Kenmare, co. Kerry. Here his medical knowledge and his purse were freely used for his poorer neighbours during the famine winter of 1847–8, and here he died early in February 1848. Taylor was elected a fellow of the Linnean Society in 1814, and was also an honorary member of the Royal Irish Academy. His botanical researches were mainly among the mosses, liverworts, and lichens. Besides ‘Muscologia Britannica,’ published by him in conjunction with Sir William Jackson Hooker [q. v.] in 1818 (2nd ed. 1827), he wrote much cryptogamic matter for the ‘Flora Antarctica’ of Dr. (now Sir) Joseph Dalton Hooker, and is credited with twenty-three papers, four written in conjunction with that botanist (Roy. Soc. Cat. v. 923–4). These include an important memoir, ‘De Marchanteis,’ in the ‘Transactions’ of the Linnean Society, and contributions to the ‘Transactions’ of the Botanical Society of Edinburgh, the ‘Phytologist,’ ‘Hooker's Journal of Botany,’ and the ‘Annals and Magazine of Natural History.’ His herbarium of over eight thousand sheets and his drawings were purchased at his death by John Amory Lowell of Boston, Mass., and presented by him to the Boston Society of Natural History.
His name was commemorated by Sir William Hooker in the genus Tayloria belonging to the mosses.
[Journal of Botany, 1848 pp. 162, 385, 445, 1849 p. 63; Dublin Quarterly Journal of Medical Science, 1848, v. 573; Proceedings of the Linnean Society, i. 379.]
G. S. B.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Taylor, Thomas Edward

​TAYLOR, THOMAS EDWARD (1811–1883), politician, of Ardgillan Castle, Dublin, born in March 1811, was the eldest son of the Rev. Edward Taylor, fourth son of Thomas Taylor, first earl of Bective. His mother was Marianne, daughter of the Hon. Richard St. Leger. Thomas Edward was educated at Eton, and in 1829 obtained a commission in the 6th dragoon guards. He attained the rank of captain on 2 Nov. 1838, and retired in 1846. From 1847 to 1874 he was lieutenant-colonel of the royal Meath militia, and afterwards filled the post of honorary colonel. In 1841 he was elected as a conservative to represent Dublin county, and continued to sit for the constituency till his death. He acted as whip of the opposition during the Palmerston administration of 1855–8, and Sir Mountstuart Elphinstone Grant Duff states that he was instrumental in bringing about the downfall of the government in February 1858. He had brought up the tories to support Palmerston against Sir Thomas Milner Gibson's vote of censure, but at the last moment, by the direction of Lord Derby, he instructed them to vote against the government (Grant Duff, Notes from a Diary, 1851–72, i. 99). In 1858–9 he was a lord of the treasury in the second Derby administration, and when the conservatives returned to office in 1866 was appointed patronage secretary. On 7 Nov. 1868 he became chancellor of the duchy of Lancaster and was sworn of the privy council. His services as whip during the reform debates of 1867–8 were so considerable that Disraeli was wont to say that Taylor was the real author of household suffrage. He acted as whip for seventeen years in all, during which he exhibited in a high degree the requisite combination of energy and conciliation. When Disraeli became premier in March 1874 Taylor was again appointed to the chancellorship of the duchy of Lancaster, though many thought that his services should have been recompensed by a more responsible office. On this occasion his re-election for Dublin county was opposed by Charles Stewart Parnell, whom he defeated by a considerable majority. He seldom spoke, but his advice was greatly valued by the conservative leaders; and he was popular with all parties in Ireland.
Taylor died at his sister's house in Fitzwilliam Place, Dublin, on 3 Feb. 1883, and was buried in the family vault at Balbriggan.
On 11 Nov. 1862 he married Louisa, second daughter of Hugh Francis Tollemache, rector of Harrington, and granddaughter of Louisa Tollemache, countess of Dysart. By her he had three sons and two daughters.
[Times, Freeman's Journal, and Irish Times, 5 Feb. 1883; Ann. Reg. 1883, ii. 124, 125; Army Lists; Burke's Landed Gentry.]
G. Le G. N.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Meara, Edmund

​MEARA or O'MEARA, EDMUND (d. 1680), physician, son of Dermod or Dermitius Meara [q. v.], was born in Ormond, co. Tipperary, and graduated M.D. at Rheims in 1636. He practised at Ormond and in Dublin, studied medicine at Oxford, where he appears, however, to have taken no degree, and was in December 1664 admitted an honorary fellow of the Royal College of Physicians. He published in 1665 'Examen diatribæ Thomæ Willisii Doctoris Medici et professoris Oxoniensis de Febribus … cui accesserunt historiæ aliquot medicæ rariores,' London, 8vo. The work, which contains a fine engraved title, and is dedicated to Sir Kenelm Digby, was keenly resented by Willis's friend and ally, Richard Lower (1631-1691) [q. v.] He at once produced a 'Vindicatio Diatribæ Willisii,' and 'therein,' says Ware, 'handles our Ormondian very coarsely' (Irish Writers, p. 190). This was followed by 'Willisius male vindicatus, sive medicus Oxoniensis mendacitatis et inscitiæ detectus,' Dublin, 1667, which was at least inspired by Meara. Lower's animosity was unextinguished in 1669, when in the dedicatory epistle to his 'Tractatus de Corde' he spoke bitterly of the ignoramuses who amused themselves by obstructing scientific progress with their blundering criticisms, 'inter quos summæ proterviæ et stuporis Meara quidam Hybernus, cæteris omnibus palmam præripere videtur.' Meara subsequently practised with much success in Bristol, where he died in 1680. Among his friends was John Maplet [q. v.], who also practised in Bristol, and in some important cases called in Meara for advice. He left three sons: William, who was also a physician, and prefixed a copy of Latin verses to his father's 'Examen:' Edmund, a Jesuit; and Francis. Francis, the second son, was named a burgess in James II's charter of 1687 to the town of Wicklow, and ​was granted a commission of horse in Tyrconnel's regiment in the same year. He was sheriff of co. Wicklow in 1688, and was killed at the battle of the Boyne, being then a major, on 1 July 1690.
T. S.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Mearns, Duncan

​MEARNS, DUNCAN, D.D. (1779–1852), professor of theology, was born on 23 Aug. 1779 at the manse of Cluny, Aberdeenshire, of which parish his father, Alexander Mearns, was minister. His mother was Anne, daughter of James Morison of Disblair and Elsick, provost of Aberdeen in 1745. At the age of twelve he entered King's College, Aberdeen, gaining the first bursary. After graduating M.A., March 1795, he entered the Divinity Hall, where he studied under Dr. Gilbert Gerard [q. v.] and Principal George Campbell [q. v.] At the age of twenty he was licensed by the presbytery of Kincardine O'Neil, and the same year (13 Nov. 1799), on the presentation of George, earl of Aberdeen, was ordained assistant and successor to the parish of Tarves, succeeding shortly after to the benefice. He became professor of divinity in King's College, Aberdeen, in succession to Dr. Gilbert Gerard on 12 Oct. 1816. There he carried on the traditions of the chair, and his learning and character quickly made him a leader of the 'moderate' party in the Scottish church during the long and growing controversy with the evangelicals or 'high-flyers.' In 1821 he was chosen moderator of the general assembly, and in 1823 was appointed one of George IV's chaplains for Scotland. During the ten years' conflict that ended in the secession of 1843, his faculty of direct and incisive speech was unsparingly employed in support of the establishment. He died, after a long and painful illness, 2 March 1852, aged 72. Mearns married Eliza Forsyth, by whom he had two sons and six daughters. His younger son, William Mearns, D.D., was minister of Kinneff, and died in 1891. Of his daughters, the eldest, Anne, married Dr. Robert Macpherson (1806-1867), who succeeded him in his chair of theology, and the second, Jane, married Dr. Hercules Scott, professor of moral philosophy, in the university of Aberdeen.
Next to Principal George Campbell Mearns was considered the most learned Scottish divine of his time. He published outlines of the Murray lecture on 'The Knowledge Requisite for the Attainment of Eternal Life' in 1825; and his 'Principles of Christian Evidence Illustrated' (1818), in which he sought to show that the views of Dr. Chalmers were subversive of natural theology, is an interesting exposition of the internal evidence of Christianity. After his death his son edited 'Scripture Characters,' 1853, 2 vols., discourses delivered at King's College, as Murtle lecturer on Practical Religion.
[Hew Scott's Fasti; family knowledge.]
R. M.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Medbourne, Matthew

​MEDBOURNE, MATTHEW (d. 1679), actor and dramatist, was a distinguished member of the company at the Duke's Theatre. He published (1667) 'St. Cecilie, or the Converted Twins,' a tragedy, dedicated to the queen consort, and (1670, reprinted 1707) 'Tartuffe, or the French Puritan, a Comedy, lately acted at the Theatre Royal, written in French by Molière, and rendered into English with much Addition and Advantage.' The first piece is said on the title-page to have been 'written by E. M.,' but according to Gildon it was supposed to have been the work of Medbourne, and a comparison of the two plays leaves no doubt as to their common origin. An epilogue to 'Tartuffe' by Lord Buckhurst (published in a 'Miscellany' of 1672) was spoken by Medbourne himself. According to an epilogue by Lord Buckhurst, written for the revival of Jonson's 'Every Man in his Humour,' it would appear that Medbourne was the author of ten plays, but no trace of the others remains. Medbourne was a Roman catholic, and his excessive zeal for his religion laid him under suspicion. He was arrested 26 Nov. 1678, upon the information of Titus Oates, and committed to Newgate, where he died 19 March 1679.
[Langbaine's Account of Dram. Poets, p. 366; Baker's Biog. Dram. i. 506.]
G. T. D.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Meara, Dermod

​MEARA, DERMOD or DERMITIUS (fl. 1610), author and physician, was a native of the district styled Ormonde, in the county of Tipperary, Ireland. He studied at Oxford, where, Wood tells us, 'he was esteemed a good poet.' 'In all my searches,' added Wood, 'I cannot find him matriculated, or that he took a degree.' An earlier Dermitius Meara, who had studied at Paris and Cambridge, supplicated for the degree of B.C.L. 3 July 1514 (Oxf. Univ. Reg., Oxf. Hist. Soc., i. 93). Meara practised as a physician in Ireland with high repute. In 1615 he published at London a panegyrical poem in Latin on the genealogy and career of Thomas Butler, earl of Ormonde and Ossory [q. v.], who had died in the preceding year. The title was ' Ormonius: sive illustrissimi herois ac domini, d. Thomæ Butleri, Ormoniæ et Osoriæ Comitis, Viscomitia de Thurles, Baronis de Arckelo … commemoratio, heroico carmine conscripta à Dermitio Meara, Ormoniensi Hyberno et insignissimæ Oxoniensis Academiæ quondam alumno.'
The poem is divided into five books, and occupies 144 pages 12mo. Prefixed are dedications to Thomas Butler and Walter Butler, earls of Ormonde and Ossory, with an epistle to the reader. The volume closes with an 'epicedion' by the author, anagrams, acrostics, and chronograms.
Meara in 1619 published at Dublin a volume (sm. 12mo) entitled 'Pathologia hereditaria generalis sive de morbis hæreditariis tractatus spagyro-dogmaticus. In quo generalis eorundem morborum radix natura et therapeutica indicatio ex utriusque medicinæ fontibus investigatur.' This treatise is in twelve chapters, and ends at page 128 with 'epilogus ad lectorem.' It was dedicated to Sir Oliver St. John, lord-deputy of Ireland, and prefixed to the work are two Latin epigrams by John Kelli, in praise of the author.
The precise date of Meara's death has not been ascertained. Edmund Meara [q. v.] was his son. Harris, in his edition of Ware's 'Works,' 1746, stated that Meara's poem on the Earl of Ormonde was translated into English verse by William Roberts, Ulster king-of-arms in the reign of Charles I. No mention of such a work is to be found either in the known writings of Roberts or in any authentic document at present accessible.
J. T. G.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Mede, Joseph

​MEDE, JOSEPH (1586–1638), biblical scholar. [See Mead.]
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Meath, Lords of

​MEATH, Lords of. [See Lacy, Hugh de, first Lord, d. 1186; Lacy, Walter, second Lord, d. 1241.]
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Webster, Thomas (1773-1844)

​WEBSTER, THOMAS (1773–1844), geologist, born in the Orkneys in 1773, was educated at Aberdeen, came to London early in life, and studied architecture and agriculture. He travelled through England and France, making sketches for illustrated works and obtained some practice as an architect, the Royal Institution in Albemarle Street being built from his design. It was probably this circumstance that brought him into association with Sir Benjamin Thompson, count von Rumford [q. v.] Webster's geological insight was shown in his classical memoir ‘On the Fresh-water Formations in the Isle of Wight, with some Observations on the Strata over the Chalk in the South-east of England,’ which was published in the ‘Geological Transactions’ in 1814, and led to his association as geologist with Sir Henry Charles Englefield [q. v.] in his ‘Description of the Isle of Wight’ (London, 1816, 4to). Though Webster is only credited with eight papers in the Royal Society's catalogue (vi. 296), all dealing with the geology of the Upper Secondary and Tertiary strata of the south-east of England, and dated between 1814 and 1825, they nearly all rank as loci classici on their respective subjects. Such are the memoirs on the Reigate stone and Nutfield fuller's-earth (1821), Hordwell Cliff, the strata at Hastings, and the Purbeck and Portland beds (1824). He edited the best edition of Imison's ‘Elements of Science and Art’ (London, 1822, 8vo), and, with Mrs. Parkes, Longman's ‘Encyclopædia of Domestic Economy’ (London, 1844, 8vo), which John Claudius Loudon [q. v.] had begun. In 1826 Webster was appointed house-secretary to the Geological Society and curator of the museum; in 1840 he was granted a government pension of 50l. a year for his services to geology, and in 1841–2 he was appointed professor of geology in the university of London (University College). He died in London on 26 Dec. 1844 at London Street, Fitzroy Square, and was buried in Highgate cemetery. He left more than a hundred volumes in manuscript dealing with a wide variety of subjects. His name is associated with a rare British mineral, Websterite, and with various fossils.
[Michaud's Biographie Universelle, vol. xliv.; Gent. Mag. 1845, i. 211; Builder, 1847, v. 115; Cansick's Epitaphs in Church and Burial Grounds of St. Pancras, 1872, ii. 20; Jones's Royal Institution, 1871, passim.]
G. S. B.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Webster, Thomas (1800-1886)

​WEBSTER, THOMAS (1800–1886), painter, was born in Ranelagh Street, Pimlico, on 20 March 1800. His father, who held an appointment in the household of George III, took the boy to Windsor, where he remained till the king's death. He showed an early taste for music, and became a chorister at St. George's Chapel, but abandoned music for painting, and in 1821 became a student at the Royal Academy. He exhibited a portrait-group in 1823, and gained the first prize for painting in 1825. In that year he exhibited at the Suffolk Street Gallery 'Rebels shooting a Prisoner,' the first of those pictures of schoolboy life by which he won his reputation. In 1828 he exhibited 'The gunpowder Plot' at the Royal Academy, and in 1829 'The Prisoner' and 'A Foraging Party aroused' at the British Institution. These were followed by numerous other pictures of school and village life at both galleries. In 1840 Webster was elected an associate of the Royal Academy, and in 1846 an academician. He continued to be a frequent exhibitor till 1876, when he retired from the academy. He exhibited his own portrait in 1878, and 'Released from School,' his last picture, in 1879.
From 1835 to 1856 he resided at The Mall, Kensington, but the last thirty years of his life were spent at Cranbrook, Kent, where he died on 23 Sept. 1886.
In the limited range of subjects which he made his own, Webster is unrivalled. Two good specimens of his work, 'A Dame's School' and 'The Truant,' were presented to the National Gallery in 1847 as part of the Vernon collection. The painter bequeathed to the nation the portrait of his father and mother, painted in the fiftieth year of their marriage, which he had exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1844. Six pictures by him, including 'The Village Choir' and 'Sickness and Health.' are in the Sheepshanks collection at the South Kensington Museum. Three more in the same museum formed part of the Jones bequest. 'The Smile,' 'The Frown,' 'The Boy with Many Friends,' are among the numerous pictures which are well known by engravings. Webster contributed etchings of similar subjects by his own hand to the following volumes issued by the Etching Club: 'The Deserted Village,' 1841; 'Songs of Shakespeare,' 1843; and 'Etch'd Thoughts,' 1844.
[Sandby's Hist, of Royal Academy, ii. 177; Catalogues of the National Gallery and of the Pictures in the South Kensington Museum; Times, 24 Sept. 1886; Men of the Time, 1884.1]
C. D.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Webster, Thomas (1810-1875)

​WEBSTER, THOMAS (1810–1875), barrister, born on 16 Oct. 1810, was the eldest son of Thomas Webster, vicar of Oakington, Cambridgeshire. From the Charterhouse he proceeded to Trinity College, Cambridge, and graduated B.A. as fourteenth wrangler in 1832, proceeding M.A. in 1835. In 1837 he became secretary to the Institution of Civil Engineers. In 1839 he resigned this post, but remained honorary secretary to the institution till 1841. In that year he was called to the bar at Lincoln's Inn, and joined the northern circuit. He soon acquired a large practice in connection with scientific cases, and for many years was recognised as a leading authority on patent law. His ‘Reports and Notes of Cases on Letters Patent for Inventions’ (1844) was long the chief textbook on the subject, and still remains a standard work of reference. It was largely due to his efforts that the Patent Law Amendment Act of 1852 was passed, an act by which the numerous abuses that had grown up round the ancient system of granting patents were swept away, the cost of a patent greatly reduced, and the system introduced that with certain modifications has worked well up to the present time. Webster ​had also a considerable parliamentary practice. He was one of the counsel engaged for Birkenhead in the great contests respecting the Liverpool and Mersey docks. In 1848 he published a handbook on ‘The Ports and Docks of Birkenhead,’ and in 1853 and 1857 he republished the reports of the acting committee of the conservators of the Mersey, and these books have been for many years the standard works of reference relating to that river. He was for long an active member of the governing body of the Society of Arts. He was in the chair at the meeting of the society in 1845 when the first proposal was made for holding the great International Exhibition of 1851, and formed one of the first committee appointed to organise that exhibition. He was elected a fellow of the Royal Society in 1847, and in 1865 he was appointed one of her majesty's counsel. He died in London on 3 June 1875.
Webster was twice married: first, in 1839, to Elizabeth, eldest daughter of Richard Calthrop of Swineshead Abbey, Lincolnshire; and, secondly, to Mary Frances, daughter of Joseph Cookworthy, M.D., of Plymouth. By his first wife he had three sons (the second of whom is Sir Richard Everard Webster, G.C.M.G., attorney-general) and two daughters; by his second wife he had one son and one daughter.
[Journ. Soc. Arts. xxiii. 665; Law Times, 12 June 1875; Times, 7 June 1875; personal knowledge; information furnished by Sir Richard Webster.]
H. T. W.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1901 supplement/Chapman, John (1822-1894)

​CHAPMAN, JOHN (1822–1894), physician, author, and publisher, was son of a chemist at Nottingham, where he was born in 1822. He was apprenticed to a watchmaker at Worksop, but, not staying long with him, went to his brother, a medical student at Edinburgh, who sent him out to Adelaide to start in business as a watchmaker and optician. Returning to Europe about 1844, he began studying medicine in Paris, and continued his studies at St. George's Hospital, London. After submitting a book on human nature to Green, a publisher and bookseller in Newgate Street, he was led to take over Green's business, which he transferred to 142 Strand. He acted as agent for American firms, and in his capacity of bookseller originated the allowance of 2d. in the shilling discount to retail customers. In 1851 he became editor and proprietor of the 'Westminster Review,' Robert William Mackay [q. v.] being for a time his associate. Mary Ann Evans [see Cross, Mary Ann] for two years resided with him as sub-editor at the publishing offices, 142 Strand. On 4 May 1852 Chapman convened a meeting of authors to protest against publishers' regulations which fettered the sale of books. Charles Dickens presided, and Babbage, Tom Taylor, Cruikshank, and Professor Owen were present. Emerson, of whom Chapman was an admirer, visited him in London, and he had social, literary, or business relations with John Stuart Mill, F. W. Newman, Louis Blanc, Carlyle, George Combe, J. A. Froude, G. H. Lewes, W. C. Bryant, Harriet and James Martineau, and Herbert Spencer. His receptions attracted especially religious, social, and political reformers, who found in him a warm sympathiser. On 6 May 1857 he took a medical degree at St. Andrews, and practised as a physician. He advocated the application of an ice-bag to the spine as a remedy particularly for sea-sickness and cholera. In March 1860 he handed over his publishing business to George Manwaring. In 1874 he removed to Paris, where he also gathered round him men of advanced views, still continuing, with his wife's assistance, to edit the 'Westminster Review.' He died in Paris on 25 Nov. 1894, from the result of being run over by a cab.
Chapman edited and published 'Chapman's Library for the People,' 15 nos. 1801-1854, and 'Chapman's Quarterly Series,' 7 vols. 1853–4. His original works include:
* 'Human Nature,' 1844.
* 'Characteristics of Men of Genius,' 1847.
* 'The Book-selling System,' 1852.
* 'Chloroform and other Anaesthetics,' 1859.
* 'Christian Revivals,' 1860.
* 'Functional Disorders of the Stomach,' 1864.
* 'Diarrhoea and Cholera,' 1865.
* 'Seasickness,' 1869. ​
* 'Medical Institutions of the United Kingdom,' 1870.
* 'Prostitution,' 1870.
* 'Neuralgia,' 1873.
* 'Medical Charity,' 1874.
[Personal knowledge; Athenæum, November, December, 1894, pp. 755, 790, 828; American Critic, September 1899, p. 782; New York Critic, September 1899, p. 782; Cross's Life of George Eliot.]
J. G. A.