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# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Davis, William (1627-1690)

John Bennet in the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography.
​DAVIS, WILLIAM (1627–1690), highwayman, known as the ‘Golden Farmer,’ from his habitually paying with gold coin to avoid identification of his plunder, was born at Wrexham in Denbighshire in 1627, but removed in early life to Sodbury, Gloucestershire, where he married the daughter of a wealthy innkeeper, and had by her eighteen children. He was a successful farmer until the last month of his life, but used this trade as a cloak, having early taken to the road in disguise, and robbed persons returning from cattle fairs or travelling to pay rent. He was dexterous in gaining information, and his character was above suspicion. He became the captain and leader of a large gang, among whom was Thomas Sympson, alias ‘Old Mobb,’ born at Romsey in Hampshire, who robbed for forty-five years with no other companion than the ‘Golden Farmer.’ Davis robbed the Duchess of Albemarle in her coach on Salisbury Plain, after a single-handed victory over her postilion, coachman, and two ​footmen. He took three diamond rings and a gold watch, besides reproaching her for painting her face and being niggardly. Between Gloucester and Worcester he robbed Sir Thomas Day of 60l., after inveigling him into a declaration that the county would make good any money lost on the highway if ‘betwixt sun and sun.’
Davis had begun this career, as an experiment, after the king's death in 1648–9, when twenty-two years old. His wife had no suspicion of him, and in all the ordinary relations of life he was eminently respectable. His charming manners enabled him to secure the fidelity of accomplices and attract the confidence of his victims. He retired from his profession for a few years, but was tempted back to the highway, in hope of making up a large sum for purchase of adjacent land. He had fallen out of practice, and was recognised. Soon afterwards, being discovered in Salisbury Court, Fleet Street, at that time a sanctuary, he had a narrow escape, and shot a pursuing butcher. Being apprehended he was committed to Newgate, tried for the murder at the Old Bailey Sessions, 11–17 Dec. 1690, and his previous crimes became known. He was condemned to be hanged at the end of Salisbury Court (instead of Tyburn, as usual), where he had shot the butcher. He died on 22 Dec. 1690, in the sixty-fourth year of his age, and was afterwards hung in chains on Bagshot Heath. He had left affectionate messages for ‘Old Mobb,’ who was suspected of having betrayed him. Mobb was hanged at Tyburn on Friday, 30 May 1691.
According to George Daniel [q. v.] of Canonbury, the ‘Golden Farmer’ had been a corn-chandler in Thames Street, selling by day and despoiling the farmers at night. The contemporary ballad, his ‘Last Farewell,’ admits his close connection with ‘a gang of robbers, notorious hardy highwaymen who did like ruffians reign;’ also with housebreakers and burglars, clearing 500l. one time, in money and plate.
J. W. E.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Crosse, William

​CROSSE, WILLIAM (fl. 1630), poet and translator, was born in Somersetshire about 1590, ‘the son of sufficient parents,’ and educated at St. Mary Hall, Oxford, where he graduated B.A. on 14 May 1610, M.A. on 9 July 1613, and took orders. Soon after this he left Oxford and repaired to the metropolis, ‘where,’ according to Wood, ‘he exercised his talents in history and translation, as he had before done in logic and poetry.’ In 1612 he had contributed to ‘Justa Oxoniensium’ verses on the death of Henry, prince of Wales, and in the following year to ‘ Epithalamia,’ a similar collection in honour of the marriage of the Princess Elizabeth to Frederick, count palatine. In 1625 he published a poem of small worth but of much pretension, divided into two books, and entitled ‘Belgiaes Trovbles and Trivmphs. Wherein are … related all the most famous Occurrences, which haue happened betweene the Spaniards and Hollanders in these last foure yeares Warres of the Netherlands,’ &c., 4to, London, 1625, forty leaves. Crosse had accompanied the army as chaplain to the regiment of Colonel Sir John Ogle, and in his poem he celebrates events of which he was himself an eye-witness. In the dedication of the second book he acknowledges, with some modesty, that he has written ‘rather a discourse then a poeme,’ and professes to have treated events ‘truely and historically,’ without unduly indulging in poetic license. Wood knew nothing of this performance. Crosse was engaged to supply ‘A Continuation of the Historie of the Netherlands, from … 1608 till … 1627,’ which appears at page 1276 of Edward Grimestone's ‘General Historie of the Netherlands,’ folio, London, 1627. Grimestone was at first inclined to grumble at this division of labour, ‘the printer's hast preuenting myne owne desire, having had alwayes an intent to continue what I had begun;’ but in a subsequent passage he speaks very handsomely of his coadjutor's share in the undertaking. Crosse's last known publication was a translation of Sallust, in three parts, 12mo [London], 1629. In the dedication prefixed to the second part he makes quaint allusion to the fact that ‘the royall pen of Queene Elizabeth hath beene formerly verst in this translation, but this being like to herselfe, and too good for the world, was neuer published.’ His life was passed in poverty, no better preferment having apparently fallen to his lot than wretchedly paid army chaplaincies. In 1626 he appears as ‘preacher to Sir Edward Horwood's regiment in the expedition to Cadiz;’ in 1630 as ‘preacher to the company of the Nonsuch in the last expedition to Rochelle.’ Lord Herbert of Cherbury refers to Crosse in his autobiography (ed. 1886), p. 119.
[Wood's Athenæ Oxon. (Bliss), ii. 481–2; Corser's Collectanea (Chetham Soc.), pt. iv. pp. 533–9; Collier's Rarest Books in the English Language, i. 165–7; Cal. State Papers, Dom. 1625–6 p. 527, 1629–31 p. 227.]
G. G.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Crossman, Samuel

​CROSSMAN, SAMUEL (1624?–1684), divine and poet, son of Samuel Crossman of Monk's Bradfield, Suffolk (Wood, Athenæ Oxon. ed. Bliss, iv. 86), was educated at Pembroke College, Cambridge, where he graduated in arts, and B.D. in 1660 (Cantabrigienses Graduati, ed. 1787, p. 104). Taking orders, he obtained the rectory of Little Henny in Essex, from which he was ejected for nonconformity in 1662 (Newcourt, Repertorium, ii. 327, 328; Davids, Evangelical Nonconformity in Essex, p. 408). Subsequently he again conformed to the establishment, became one of the king's chaplains, and was appointed a prebendary of Bristol, by patent, on 11 Dec. 1667 (Le Neve, Fasti, ed. Hardy, i. 227). He succeeded to the deanery of Bristol on the death of Richard Towgood, B.D., about 1 May 1683, and was instituted on 1 July in that year (ib. i. 223). He died on 4 Feb. 1683–4, and was buried in the south aisle of the cathedral church of Bristol. After his death a broadsheet appeared under the title of ‘The last Testimony and Declaration of the Rev. Samuel Crossman, D.D., and Dean of Bristol, setting forth his dutiful and true affection to the Church of England, as by law established,’ with a preface by John Knight.
He published: 1. ‘The Young Mans Monitor, or a modest Offer toward the Pious and Vertuous Composure of Life from Youth to Riper Years,’ London, 1664, 16mo, reprinted by the Religious Tract Society, London, 1842(?), 12mo. 2. ‘The Young Mans Meditation, or some few Sacred Poems upon Select Subjects and Scriptures,’ London, 1664, 16mo, reprinted London, 1863, 8vo. 3. Various Sermons (Cooke, Preacher's Assistant, ii. 295; Watt, Bibl. Brit.)
[Authorities cited above.]
T. C.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Crosse, Robert

​CROSSE, ROBERT (1606–1683), puritan divine, son of William Crosse of Dunster, Somersetshire, entered Lincoln College, Oxford, in 1621, obtained a fellowship in 1627, graduated in arts, and in 1637 proceeded B.D. Siding with the presbyterians on the outbreak of the civil war, he was nominated in 1643 one of the assembly of divines, and took the covenant. In 1648, submitting to the parliamentarian visitors, he was appointed by the committee for the reformation of the university to succeed Dr. Sanderson as regius professor of divinity. He declined the post, however, and soon afterwards was instituted to the rich vicarage of Chew-Magna in his native county. At the Restoration he conformed, and as there was nobody to claim his living, he retained it till his death on 12 Dec. 1683. Wood says 'he was accounted a noted philosopher and divine, an able preacher, and well versed in the fathers and schoolmen.'
He had a controversy with Joseph Glanvill F. R. S., on the subject of the Aristotelian philosophy. A book which he wrote against Glanvill was rejected by the licensers, but Glanvill, having obtained the contents of it, sent it in a letter to Dr. Nathaniel Ingelo, who had a hundred copies of it privately printed under the title of the 'Chew Gazette.' Afterwards Crosse wrote ballads against Glanvill with the object of ridiculing him and the Royal Society. He was also the author of 'Λόγου ἀλογία, seu Exercitatio Theologica de Insipientia Rationis humanae, Gratia Christi destitutae, in Rebus Fidei ; in 1 Cor. ii. 14,' Oxford, 1656, 4to.
T. C.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Crosse, Lawrence

​CROSSE, LAWRENCE (1650?–1724), miniature-painter (erroneously called ‘Lewis’ by Walpole and others), had a high reputation as a limner in the reign of Queen Anne. He was a careful imitator, perhaps a pupil of Samuel Cooper (1609–1672) [q. v.] He signed his miniatures with his initials interlaced in gold, the monogram being very similar to that used by Sir Peter Lely, to whom some of Crosse's miniatures have in consequence been attributed. Crosse was extensively employed by royalty and the nobility, and his miniatures are to be met with in most of the great collections, notably the royal collection at Windsor and the collection of the Duke of ​Buccleuch; some from the latter were exhibited at the winter exhibition at Burlington House in 1879. He is stated to have been commissioned to repair a small portrait of Mary Queen of Scots in black velvet and ermine, in the possession of the Duke of Hamilton, with instructions to make it as beautiful as possible, and to have faithfully executed his commission, thus creating an entirely erroneous type of the features of that ill-fated queen. Crosse possessed a valuable collection of miniatures by the Olivers, Hoskins, Cooper, &c., which were sold at his residence, the ‘Blue Anchor’ in Henrietta Street, Covent Garden, on 5 Dec. 1722. He died in October 1724, being, according to Vertue, who knew him, over seventy years of age.
[Redgrave's Dict. of Artists; Walpole's Anecdotes of Painting, ed. Dallaway and Wornum; Brit. Mus. Addit. MSS. 23068–73; information from G. Scharf, C.B., F.S.A.]
L. C.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Crosse, Richard

​CROSSE, RICHARD (1742–1810), miniature painter, son of John and Mary Crosse, of an old Devonshire family, was born at Knowle, near Cullompton, Devonshire, 24 April 1742, deaf and dumb, an affliction from which one of his sisters also suffered. About 1778 he formed an attachment to Miss Cobley, who, however, refused him, and subsequently married Benjamin Haydon, and was mother of B. R. Haydon, the famous historical painter [q. v.] This was a great blow to Crosse, and was the cause of his living in retirement from general society. Having developed great abilities as a miniature painter, he came to London, and in 1758 obtained a premium at the Society of Arts. In 1760 he first exhibited at the Society of Artists, in 1761 at the Free Society of Artists, of which he was a member, and in 1770 at the Royal Academy, and continued to contribute miniatures to these exhibitions up to 1795. He resided during this time in Henrietta Street, Covent Garden, and in 1790 was appointed painter in enamel to his majesty. Shortly after this he gave up active practice, and retired to Wells, where he resided with Mr. Cobley, prebend of Wells, a brother of Mrs. Haydon. Here in 1808 he again encountered his old love. Haydon in his diary gives a touching account of the interview between his mother and Crosse, which was quite unexpected, and took place after an interval of thirty years; it was their last meeting, as Mrs. Haydon died on her journey to London from Exeter, during which she had stopped at Wells to see her brother. Crosse died at Knowle in 1810, aged 68. He ranks very high as a miniature painter, especially for delicate and natural colouring, and was held in great estimation by his contemporaries. He also tried painting in water colours, and exhibited in 1788 a portrait of Mrs. Billington in this manner. Some early portraits in oil of himself and his family are in the possession of Richard Reeder Crosse, his great-nephew, of Bolealler, Cullompton, and the Rev. R. B. Carew of Collipriest, near Tiverton, who also possess numerous miniatures by him. A miniature of himself was engraved by R. Thew, and published 1 Sept. 1792, and also a lady's portrait; another of the Marchioness of Salisbury was engraved by Benjamin Smith in 1791, and a portrait of Gregory Sharpe, master of the Temple, was engraved in mezzotint by Valentine Green in 1770.
[Redgrave's Dict. of Artists; Graves's Dict. of Artists, 1760–1880; Gent. Mag. (1810), lxxx. 397; Devonshire Association for the Promotion of Literature and Art, xv. 120; Taylor's Life of B. R. Haydon, i. 74; Catalogues of the Royal Academy, &c.; private information.]
L. C.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Crotty, William

​CROTTY, WILLIAM (d. 1742), a notorious highwayman and rapparee, ‘carried on his depredations in the south of Ireland early in the eighteenth century. His name is given to a cave and a lough among the Comeragh mountains. He was regarded as a man of desperate courage and unequalled personal agility, often baffling pursuers even when mounted on fleet horses. He frequented the fair green of Kilmacthomas, and openly joined with the young men in hurling and football on Sunday evenings, danced with the girls at wakes and patterns, and was familiarly received in farmers' houses. At length a Mr. Hearn, guided by the wife of one of Crotty's partners in crime, captured him after a struggle in which Crotty was shot in the mouth—a judgment, in the estimation of the people, for his having once shot a countryman through the mouth at his own fireside. Crotty and a confederate were outside the man's cabin, and the former wagered that the ball in his pistol would pass the peasant's mouth sooner than a potato they saw him lifting to his lips’ (Webb, Compendium of Irish Biography, p. 116). Crotty was hanged at Waterford on 18 March 1742, and for some time after his head remained affixed to the gaol gateway.
[Gent. Mag. xii. 163.]
G. G.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Green, James (fl.1743)

​GREEN, JAMES (fl. 1743), organist at Hull, published in 1724 'A Book of Psalmody; containing chanting tunes … and the Reading Psalms with thirteen Anthems and a great variety of Psalm tunes in four parts … [London], and sold by the booksellers at Hull, Lincoln, Lowth, and Gainsborough.' The volume opens with instructions. It reached its eleventh edition ​ in 1751. A hymn for two voices, 'When all Thy Mercies,' published about 1790, and four catches in Warren's 'Collection,' are ascribed to James Green, who is not to be confounded with Henry Green, the blind organist (d. 1741).
L. M. M.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Green, John (fl.1842-1866)

​GREEN, JOHN (fl. 1842–1866). [See Townsend, G. H.]
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Green, Jane

​GREEN, Mrs. JANE (d. 1791), actress. [See under Hippisley, John.]
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Green, John Richards

​GREEN, JOHN RICHARDS. [See Gifford.]
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Green, Jonathan

​GREEN, JONATHAN, M.D. (1788?–1864), medical writer, born about 1788, became a member of the Royal College of Surgeons of England on 7 Dec. 1810 (College Admission Book). His degree of M.D. was obtained from Heidelberg in 1834. In 1835 he was elected a fellow of the Royal Medical and Chirurgical Society. For some years he served as a surgeon in the navy, and acquired a reputation as a specialist in skin diseases. On retiring from the service he visited Paris in order to examine the fumigating baths established by order of the French government. On his return to London he opened in 1823 an establishment for fumigating and other baths at 5 Bury Street, St. James's. He also patented a portable vapour bath. In December 1825 he removed to 40 Great Marlborough Street, but was not successful in the end, and he became an inmate of the Charterhouse, where he died on 23 Feb. 1864, aged 76 (Gent. Mag. 1864, i. 537).
He is author of:
* 'The Utility and Importance of Fumigating Baths illustrated; or a Series of Facts and Remarks, shewing the Origin, Progress, and final Establishment (by order of the French Government) of the practice of Fumigations for the Cure of various Diseases,' &c., 8vo, London, 1823.
* 'A short Illustration of the Advantages derived by the use of Sulphurous Fumigating, Hot Air, and Vapour Baths,' 8vo, London, 1825.
* 'Some Observations on the utility of Fumigating and other Baths. … With a Summary of … Cases,' &c., 12mo, London, 1831; another edition, 12mo, London, 1835.
* 'A Practical Compendium of the Diseases of the Skin, with Cases, &c.,' 8vo, London, 1835.
* 'On the Utility and Safety of the Fumigating Bath as a remedial agent in Complaints of the Skin. Joints, Rheumatism,' &c., 24mo, London, 1847.
* 'An improved Method of employing Mercury by Fumigation to the whole body,' 8vo, London, 1852.
[Authorities as above; Brit. Mus. Cat.]
G. G.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Green, James (1771-1834)

​GREEN, JAMES (1771–1834), portrait-painter, born at Leytonstone in Essex, 13 March 1771, was son of a builder. He was apprenticed to Thomas Martyn, a draughtsman of natural history, who resided at 10 Great Marlborough Street. Here Green remained several years, and showed great talent in the imitation of shells and insects. Having higher aims in art, he made secret efforts to study, and at the expiration of his apprenticeship, entered the schools of the Royal Academy. He attracted the notice of Sir Joshua Reynolds, P.R.A., and copied many of his pictures. In 1792 he first exhibited at the Royal Academy, sending views of Oxford Market and Chapel; in 1793 he exhibited several views of Tunbridge Wells, and some portraits. He gradually attained a good reputation for his portraits in water-colour, the result of industry and careful observation rather than of great natural gifts. His execution was more elegant than powerful, but his portraits are not devoid of dignity. Many of them have been engraved, including those of Benjamin West, P.R.A., Sir R. Birnie, both engraved in mezzotint by W. Say; George Cook, the actor, as Iago, engraved in mezzotint by James Ward; Joseph Charles Horsley (the stolen child), engraved by R. Cooper. In the National Portrait Gallery there are portraits by him of Thomas Stothard, R.A., and Sir John Ross, the latter being Green's last work. The portrait of Stothard was sold at S. Rogers's sale in May 1856, as by G. H. Harlow, although it is signed 'James Green, 1830.' It was exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1830, and was lent to the Manchester Exhibition in 1857 by its owner, Mr. J. H. Anderdon, who eventually presented it to the National Portrait Gallery. It was engraved by E. Scriven for 'The Library of the Fine Arts,' April 1833. Green also painted large subject pictures in oil, including 'Zadig and Astarte,' exhibited 1826, and engraved in the 'Literary Souvenir,' 1828; 'Béarnaise Woman and Canary,' engraved in the 'Literary Souvenir,' 1827, and 'Belinda.' His picture of 'The Loves conducted by the Graces to the Temple of Hymen' was painted in water-colour. Green also was a frequent exhibitor at the British Institution, and in 1808 was awarded a premium of 60l. He was a member of the Associated Society of Artists in Water-Colours. Many of his pictures were commissions, notably from Mr. Francis Chaplin of Riseholme, Lincolnshire. He resided for many years in South Crescent, Bedford Square, and died at Bath on 27 March 1834. He was buried in Wolcot Church.
In 1805 Green married Mary, second daughter of William Byrne [q. v.], the landscape-engraver. She was a pupil of Arlaud, and was a well-known miniature-painter, exhibiting at the Royal Academy from 1795 to 1835. On her husband's death she retired from her profession, and died 22 Oct. 1845, being buried at Kensal Green. Her copies after Reynolds and Gainsborough were much valued. By her James Green was father of Benjamin Richard Green [q. v.] and of one daughter.
L. C.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Green, Matthew

​GREEN, MATTHEW (1696–1737), poet, is said to have belonged to a dissenting family, whose puritanical strictness disgusted him, so that he took up 'some free notions on religious subjects.' He held a place in the custom-house, where he discharged his duty very well; and died, aged forty-one, in 1737, at a lodging in Nag's Head Court, Gracechurch Street. A few anecdotes are recorded to show that he was a witty and pleasant companion. When an allowance for supplying the custom-house cats with milk was threatened by the authorities, he wrote a successful petition in their name. When a waterman insulted him as he was bathing by calling out 'Quaker,' and a friend asked how his sect could be detected when he had no clothes, he immediately replied, 'By my swimming against the stream.' His poem on 'Barclay's Apology' implies that he admired the quakers, though without belonging to them. His wit is shown more decisively by the 'Spleen.' The poem appeared posthumously in 1737, with a preface by his friend, Richard Glover [q. v.] Pope praised its originality, and Gray expressed a warm admiration for it. A poem called 'The Grotto' (on Queen Caroline's grotto at Richmond) was privately printed in 1732. These and three or four previously unpublished trifles were published in the first volume of Dodsley's collection (1748). They were afterwards in Johnson's poems and have since appeared in Chalmers's and other collections. An edition by Aikin in 1796 has a preface of twaddle without facts. The 'Spleen,' written in Swift's favourite octo-syllabic metre, is one of the best poems of its class. The line 'Throw but a stone, the giant dies,' is one of the stock quotations. The poem was a favourite with Gray and many good judges.
L. S.