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

​TOWERSON, WILLIAM (1555–1577), merchant and navigator, made three voyages to the Guinea coast in 1555, 1556, and 1577. He started on the first venture from Newport in the Isle of Wight, on 30 Sept. 1555, with two ships, the Hart and Hind (masters, John Ralph and William Carter). On 22 Nov. he reached Cape Verde, on 12 Dec. began trading on the Guinea coast, and while engaged in this was attacked near St. George La Mina by the Portuguese (January 1556), but escaped destruction. He set sail for home on 4 Feb. 1556, and on 7 May sighted Ireland.
Towerson's second voyage was made in 1556 with the Tiger (120 tons), the Hart (60 tons), and a pinnace of 16 tons. He left Harwich on 14 Sept.; on 19 Dec. he was off Sierra Leone. On the Guinea coast he met five French ships, with which he entered into a trade agreement, on the basis of a common opposition to the Portuguese. The allies fought an indecisive action with the latter, traded with several native tribes, and left for home in March 1557, passing Cape Verde on 18 April. Near the mouth of the ​Channel Towerson was attacked by a French ‘pirate,’ but beat off his assailant.
His third voyage, in 1577 to West Africa, was made with four ships—the Minion, Christopher, Tiger, and a pinnace called the Unicorn. He started from Plymouth on 30 Jan.; next day fell in with two French ships, which he took and despoiled; he traded off the Guinea coast from April to June, fighting both with French and Portuguese. On 15 April Towerson tried to persuade his men to go on to Benin, but they refused, preferring to stay on the Mina coast, where they destroyed two native shore-towns of hostile negroes. On 25 June they set out for home; on 8 Sept. in 25° N.lat. they were obliged to abandon the Tiger as unseaworthy; and on 20 Oct. reached the Isle of Wight. The crew were reduced to great straits by sickness, and but for fear of a bad reception Towerson would have put into a Spanish port on his return.
C. R. B.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Tans’ur, William

​TANS’UR, WILLIAM (1699?–1783), psalmodist, stated to have been born at Barnes, Surrey, in 1699, and at Dunchurch, Warwickshire, in 1700, was baptised at Dunchurch on 6 Nov. 1706. The parish register describes him as ‘William Tanzer [sic], son of Edward and Joan Tanzer of Dunchurch.’ He seems to have become a teacher of music at an early date, and to have published his psalmodies in succession at Barnes, Surrey (1737), Cambridge (1754 and 1776), Stamford (1756 and 1759), and Boston (1761). He is said to have been living subsequently at Leicester. He can be traced at Witham, Lincolnshire, as well as at Market Harborough. The last forty years of his life were spent chiefly at St. Neots, where he was a stationer, bookseller, and teacher of music. He died there on 2 (or 7) Oct. 1783, and was buried on 9 Oct., aged 83. At Ware on 20 May 1730 he married Elizabeth Butler, who died there on 9 Jan. 1767. His son David was buried at Market Harborough on 8 Jan. 1743. Another son was a chorister at Trinity College, Cambridge, and afterwards joined his father as a teacher of music.
In later years Tans’ur adopted the name and style of ‘William Tans’ur, senior, musico theorico.’ He also called himself ‘psalmodist, philo music and theology, and professor, corrector, and teacher of musick above fifty years.’ Tans’ur's various publications contain the earliest known copies of what were formerly familiar psalm-tunes. His principal works are:
* ‘A Compleat Melody, or The Harmony of Sion’ (1736, preface dated 1734).
* ‘The Melody of the Heart,’ 1737.
* ‘Heaven on Earth, or the Beauty of Holiness,’ 1738.
* ‘Sacred Mirth, or the Pious Soul's Daily Delight,’ 1739.
* ‘A New Musical Grammar, or the Harmonical Spectator,’ 1746.
* ‘The Royal Melody Compleat, or the New Harmony of Zion,’ 1754–5; 8th ed., 1830.
* ‘The Psalm-singer's Jewel,’ 1760.
* ‘Melodia Sacra,’ 1772.
* ‘The Elements of Musick displayed,’ 1772.
[Love's Scottish Church Music, 1891; Grove's Dict. of Music; Brit. Mus. Cat.]
F. G. E.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Tannock, James

​TANNOCK, JAMES (1784–1863), portrait-painter, the son of a shoemaker, was born at Kilmarnock in 1784. He was apprenticed to his father's trade, but, eager from his boyhood to become an artist, he managed to exchange his uncongenial calling for that of a house-painter, and devoted his leisure to essays in portraiture. Persevering under difficulties, he was fortunate enough to get some instruction at last from ​Alexander Nasmyth [q. v.], after which he practised with considerable success at Glasgow and Greenock alternately, as a painter of portraits and of miniatures. In 1810 he came to London and established himself in Newman Street, contributing some forty-four portraits to the Royal Academy exhibitions between 1813 and 1841. He died in London on 6 May 1863. His portraits of George Chalmers, of Professor G. Bell, and of Henry Bell are in the Scottish National Portrait Gallery. His younger brother, William Tannock, also practised as a portrait-painter, and exhibited several works between 1820 and 1830.
[Redgrave's Dict. of Artists; Irving's Eminent Scotsmen.]
W. A.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Tanswell, John

According to the ODNB, his parent were Stephen Cock Tanswell and his wife Ann Nicholas.
​TANSWELL, JOHN (1800–1864), archæologist, sixth and last surviving son of Stephen Cock, who married Ann Tanswell or Taswell, a connection of the Rev. William Taswell, D.D., rector of St. Mary's, Newington, Surrey, was born at Bedford Square, London, on 3 Sept. 1800. He was bred to the law and admitted solicitor in Michaelmas term 1834, having offices at 5 King's Bench Walk, Temple. On the evening of 17 Oct., when returning from business, he was seized with apoplexy, and died at his home, Temple House, Nunhead, Surrey, on 18 Oct. 1864. He was buried at Nunhead cemetery, and, as he was unmarried, his property passed to his nephew, Thomas Pitt Taswell-Langmead [q. v.] Tanswell was a lover of archæological pursuits, and published in 1858 an excellent volume on ‘The History and Antiquities of Lambeth.’ The family of Taswell formerly resided at the old manor-house of Limington, Somerset, part of which still remains; and extracts from a paper by him on that parish appeared in the ‘Proceedings of the Somersetshire Archæological Society,’ vol. vii. pt. ii. pp. 1–8. He was an occasional contributor to ‘Notes and Queries.’
[Gent. Mag. 1864, ii. 793–4; Law List, 1864; information from Rev. S. T. Taylor-Taswell.]
W. P. C.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Tanner, Thomas (1630-1682)

​TANNER, THOMAS (1630–1682), historian, son of a London citizen, was born in the parish of St. Matthew in 1630. He was educated at St. Paul's school, and Pembroke Hall, Cambridge, where he graduated B.A. in 1649–50. He was incorporated at Oxford in the degree of B.A. on 4 Feb. 1650–1, and was made a fellow of New College by the parliamentary visitors in the same year. He took the degree of M.A. at both Edinburgh and Oxford in 1652. In 1660 he was chosen senior proctor of the university of Oxford, but soon afterwards, being ejected from his fellowship, he left the university. He was called to the bar from Gray's Inn in 1663. After travelling in Italy and in Flanders, where he served as a volunteer, he became vicar of Colyton, Devonshire, in 1666. Becoming afterwards chaplain to Dr. George Morley [q. v.], bishop of Winchester, he obtained from him the rectory of Brixton in the Isle of Wight in 1676. In 1679 he was transferred to Winchfield, Hampshire, and exchanged Brixton for North Waltham. He died in October 1682, and was buried in the church at Winchfield.
He was the author of: 1. ‘The Entrance of Mazzarini; or some Memorials of the State of France between the Death of the Cardinal of Richlieu and the beginning of the late Regency,’ Oxford, 1657; a second part, entitled ‘The Entrance of Mazzarini, continued through the first year's Regency of Anna Maria of Austria, Queen Dowager of France and Mother of the present Monarch Louis XIV,’ Oxford, 1658. 2. ‘Euphuia; or the Acts and Character of Good Nature,’ London, 1665. 3. ‘Primordia; or the Rise and Growth of the first Church of God described,’ London, 1683; and several single sermons.
T. F. H.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Tanner, Thomas Hawkes

​TANNER, THOMAS HAWKES (1824–1871), physician, son of Thomas Tanner, for many years secretary to the army medical board, was born on 9 July 1824. He received the greater part of his education at the Charterhouse, where he met with a severe accident, which rendered his health delicate for many years. He entered on his medical studies at King's College, London, in 1843, and graduated at St. Andrews University as doctor of medicine in 1847. He then commenced general practice in Charlotte Street, Bedford Square, and was shortly afterwards elected physician to the Farringdon Street dispensary. He was enrolled a member of the Royal College of Physicians in 1850, and entered upon consulting practice. In 1851 he was elected a physician to the hospital for women in Soho Square, and from that time he devoted his attention more particularly to gynæcology, though he was for some time lecturer on forensic medicine at the medical school attached to the Westminster Hospital. In 1858 he took a very prominent and active part in the foundation of the Obstetrical Society of London. He became one of its first secretaries, and much of the success of the society was due to his energy and perseverance. In 1860 the council of King's College, London, determined to appoint two assistant physicians for the diseases of women and children. Tanner was selected to fill one of these posts, and Alfred Meadows [q. v.] the other. This appointment he resigned under the pressure of increasing work in 1863. Tanner acquired a large practice, which overtaxed his strength. He was forced to leave London, and he died at Brighton on 7 July 1871.
Tanner was a voluminous and lucid writer upon many subjects of medical importance. His chief work was ‘A Manual of the Practice of Medicine,’ 1st edit. 16mo, 1854; the 7th edit., revised by (Sir) W. H. Broadbent, was issued in 2 vols. 8vo in 1875. This work had a very large sale both in England and in America. It evinced careful observation of disease and sound views in its treatment. Tanner's other works were: 1. ‘A Manual of Clinical Medicine and Physical Diagnosis,’ London, 16mo, 1855; 3rd. ed. revised by T. Fox, 8vo, 1876. 2. ‘A Practical Treatise on the Diseases of Infancy and Childhood,’ London, 8vo, 1858; 3rd edit., enlarged, by Alfred Meadows, 8vo, 1879. 3. ‘On the Signs and Diseases of Pregnancy,’ London, 8vo, 1860. 4. ‘Memoranda on Poisons,’ 1st ed. London, 32mo, 1848; 7th American edit. from the last London, 24mo; Philadelphia, 1892. 5. ‘An Index of Diseases and their Treatment, London, 8vo, 1st edit. 1866; the 4th edit., revised by Percy Boulton, 8vo, London, 1891. This work was translated into Japanese, 6 vols. 12mo, Tokio, 1874–7.
D’A. P.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Tapp, John

​TAPP, JOHN (fl. 1596–1615), writer on navigation, combined the editing and writing of books with the selling of them. The earliest work which bears his name is ‘The Arte of Navigation,’ translated from the Spanish by Richard Eden [q. v.] in 1561, and now ‘corrected and augmented with a Regiment or Table of Declination and divers other necessary tables and rules of common navigation … by J. T.,’ 4to, 1596. The preface is signed in full ‘John Tap,’ and the work has the imprint of ‘Edw. Allde,’ ‘to be sold by Hugh Astley, dwelling at Saint Magnus Corner.’ In 1602 he brought out ‘The Seaman's Kalender, or an Ephemerides of the Sun, Moone, and certaine of the most notable fixed Starres. … The Tables being for the most part calculated from the yeere 1601 to the yeare 1624 by I. T.;’ and this, printed also by E. Allde, for John Tapp, ‘was to be sold at his shop on Tower Hill, neere the Bulwark Gate.’ A third book is a ‘Treatise on Arithmatic,’ which is represented in the British Museum by a second and posthumous edition, brought out in 1658 by P. Ray, gent., under the title of ‘Tap's Arithmetick, or the Path-way to the Knowledge of the Ground of Arts,’ and dedicated to Maurice Thomson, governor of the East India Company, as the former edition had been to Sir Thomas Smith (Smythe) [q. v.] ‘The Arte of Navigation’ went into a third edition in 1615, when the author was still alive and had succeeded Astley in the shop at Saint Magnus Corner.
J. K. L.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Tanner, John Sigismund

​TANNER, JOHN SIGISMUND (d. 1775), medallist, was a native of Saxe-Gotha, and in early life practised carving and engraving for snuff-boxes, gun-locks, &c. He came to England about 1728, and in that year obtained, through John Conduit, employment as an engraver at the Royal Mint. He engraved dies for the gold coins of 1739, for the copper coinage of 1740, and for the silver coins, with the ‘old head,’ from 1743. He also engraved for Richard Arundell, master of the mint, dies in imitation of Thomas Simon's pattern-coins made for Oliver Cromwell (Henfrey, Numismata Cromwelliana, pp. 137 sq.), partly utilising the old punches. He retained his post at the mint for nearly forty years, and died in David Street, London, on 14 March 1775 (Gent. Mag. 1775, p. 151).
Among Tanner's medals may be mentioned: 1732, George II and the royal family (obverse by Croker); 1736, Jernegan's lottery medal, from Gravelot's design; 1736? Copley medal of the Royal Society; 1737, John Conduit, master of the mint (designed by Gravelot); 1737, Milton's monument medal, for William Benson. His signature ​is ‘T.’ and ‘Tanner.’ Walpole calls him John Christopher Tanner, and Nagler and Bolzenthal (Skizzen, p. 265), who have been probably misled by Walpole, distinguish between John Sigismund Tanner and John Christopher Tanner.
Tanner's puncheons and dies for medals, as well as those made by John Croker [q. v.], the medallist, were sold at auction by Gerard in Soho, London, on 18 June 1783 (Sale Catalogue in dept. of coins, Brit. Mus.)
W. W.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Stoughton, Israel

​STOUGHTON, ISRAEL (d. 1645?), colonist, born in England, emigrated to Massachusetts early in 1630, where he and his companions founded the town of Dorchester, of which he was admitted a freeman on 5 Nov. 1633. He was chosen representative (probably, but not certainly) for Dorchester in the assemblies of 1634 and 1635. But in the latter year, when the colony was disturbed by the antinomian disputes, Stoughton wrote a book which, as it would seem, reflected on the constitution of the colony and was displeasing to the general court. The author somewhat strangely petitioned that the book might be ‘forthwith burnt, as being weak and offensive.’ No copy is known to exist. In spite of Stoughton's submission, he was declared incapable of holding office for three years. This sentence, however, was remitted in 1636, and Stoughton was chosen assistant in 1637. In the same year he was intrusted with the command of the Massachusetts force against the Pequot Indians, and discharged it with no great credit to himself either for soldiership or humanity. Stoughton was annually chosen as assistant till 1643, and in 1639 he, together with John Endecott [q. v.], acted as a commissioner on behalf of Massachusetts to settle a boundary dispute with Plymouth. He visited England towards the end of 1643 or the beginning of 1644, returned to America, and crossed again towards the end of 1644. He was then appointed a lieutenant-colonel in the parliamentary army, and soon after died at Lincoln.
William Stoughton (1630?–1701), son of the above, born probably in England about 1630, graduated B.A. at Harvard and was called to the ministry, but soon abandoned it for civil life. He came to England, ​was incorporated at New College, Oxford, on 28 April 1652, and, after being elected fellow of that society, graduated M.A. on 30 June 1653. After the Restoration he was ejected from New College, and, returning to America, was continuously elected assistant from 1671 to 1686. In 1684, however, and again in 1686, he was so displeased with the general result of the election that he refused to qualify for office by taking the necessary oath. In the politics of his colony he was identified with the moderate party, whose general policy towards the crown was one of concession. In spite of this he seems to have retained the confidence of his fellow-colonists, as he was chosen one of the federal commissioners from 1673 to 1677, and again from 1680 to 1686. In 1677 he was appointed one of two agents to represent the colony in England in a boundary dispute with the proprietors of New Hampshire. In 1692 he was appointed lieutenant-governor under the new charter of Massachusetts, and held that office till his death. In the year of his appointment he presided over the court specially constituted for the trial of the Salem witches, and acted with great severity. He died unmarried at Dorchester, New England, on 7 July 1701. He was a liberal benefactor to Harvard University, founding a hall, called by his name, at a cost of 1,000l., and bequeathing twenty-seven acres of land.
J. A. D.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Phillips, John (fl.1792)

​PHILLIPS, JOHN (fl. 1792), writer on inland navigation, was a native of Essex. Brought up as a builder and surveyor, he devoted many years to the promotion of schemes for the construction of canals. His interest in the subject was aroused by a tour, ‘partly on business, partly on pleasure,’ while the Bridgwater Canal was in course of construction. He published:
* ‘A Treatise on Inland Navigation: illustrated with a whole-sheet plan, delineating the Course of an intended navigable Canal from London to Norwich and Lynn, through the Counties of Essex, Suffolk, and Norfolk,’ &c., London, 1785, 4to.
* ‘A General History of Inland Navigation, Foreign and Domestic,’ &c., London, 1792, 4to; this work contains much useful information on the canals at that time completed or in process of construction, the cost of construction, freights, &c.
* ‘Crosby's Builder's New Price Book, containing a correct Account of all the present Prices allowed by the most eminent Surveyors,’ &c., 25th edit. London, 1817, 8vo; corrected by C. Surman, surveyor.
[Phillips's Works; Watt's Bibl. Brit; Cunningham's Growth of English Industry and Commerce, ii. 379.]
W. A. S. H.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Phillips, John Roland

​PHILLIPS, JOHN ROLAND (1844–1887), lawyer and antiquary, was the only son of David Phillips of Cilgerran, Pembrokeshire, where he was born in June 1844. He received no regular education, but at an early age entered a solicitor's office in the neighbouring town of Cardigan. His legal studies led him to take a great interest in the history and antiquities of the district, and in August 1866 he won the prize offered at Cardigan Eisteddfod for the best essay on the ‘History of Cilgerran.’ The publication of the essay in an enlarged form early in 1867 (London) was followed by his settlement in London. He entered Lincoln's Inn in November 1867, and was called on 10 June 1870. Literary work still took up much of his time; he was employed by the Duke of Norfolk to put the Howard muniments in order; in 1874 appeared his ‘Memoirs of the Civil War in Wales and the Marches’ (London, Longmans), and, in conjunction with Mr. J. F. B. Firth, he was also employed in accumulating the evidence with regard to the history and management of the city companies which led to the appointment of the commission of 1880. He was the first secretary of the Cymrodorion Society, when revived in 1873. On the formation of West Ham as a separate police district, he was appointed (22 June 1881) its first stipendiary magistrate. To the second volume of Cobden Club essays on ‘Local Government and Taxation’ (1882), he contributed that on ‘Local Taxation in England and Wales.’ He died at South Hampstead on 3 June 1887, after a long illness.
Phillips's chief work is that on the civil war, which comprises one volume of narrative and another of illustrative documents. He also wrote an outline of the history of Glamorgan (privately printed), and a pamphlet on the Owens of Orielton, Pembrokeshire. His work was thorough, but of no marked originality.
[Times, 4 June 1887; Bygones, 8 June 1887; Law List for 1885; information kindly furnished by Mr. W. Cadwaladr Davies and Mr. Ivor James.]
J. E. L.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Phillips, Richard (1778-1851)

​PHILLIPS, RICHARD (1778–1851), chemist, born in 1778, was the son of James Phillips, quaker, and a well-known printer and bookseller, of George Yard, Lombard Street, London. Catherine Phillips [q. v.] was his grandmother. Richard was educated as a chemist and druggist, under William Allen (1770–1843) [q. v.] of Plough Court, but received his first instructions in chemistry from Dr. George Fordyce [q. v.] With his elder brother, William (1775–1828) [q. v.], the geologist, William Allen, Luke Howard, and others, he founded the Askesian Society.
In 1817 he was appointed lecturer on chemistry at the London Hospital, and he also delivered several courses of lectures at the London Institution. Soon after he was appointed professor of chemistry at the Royal Military College, Sandhurst, and lecturer on chemistry at Grainger's school of medicine, Southwark. He was elected a fellow of the Royal Society in 1822, and was offered the presidentship of the Chemical Society on its foundation in 1841, but declined it. He became, however, its president for 1849–50. In 1839 he was appointed chemist and curator of the Museum of Practical Geology, Jermyn Street, and he held the post till his death on 11 May 1851.
Phillips first attracted attention by his publication, in 1806, of ‘An Analysis of the Bath Water’ (cf. Tilloch's Phil. Mag.) His labours in mineralogical chemistry were characterised by great neatness and precision, and he discovered in 1823 the true nature of uranite; but it was in pharmaceutical chemistry that his services to science were most conspicuous. His acute powers and the perfect familiarity he possessed with the processes in use enabled him to detect the errors into which the compilers of the ‘London Pharmacopœia’ had fallen, and, though the keenness of his criticisms created much soreness, their justice was admitted, and he was specially consulted in compiling later editions.
He was the author of some seventy papers on chemical subjects. They appeared in various English and foreign journals, principally the ‘Annals of Philosophy,’ which he edited, in conjunction with Edward Edward William Brayley [q. v.], from 1821; and the ‘Philosophical Magazine,’ in which the ‘Annals’ was merged, and of which, as well as of the succeeding series, the ‘London, Edinburgh, and Dublin Philosophical Magazine,’ he was one of the editors. He was also author of all the chemical articles in the ‘Penny Cyclopædia.’
His separate works were, besides the book above mentioned:
* ‘An Experimental Examination of the latest edition of the Pharmacopœia Londinensis; with Remarks on Dr. Powell's Translation and Annotations,’ London, 1811, 8vo.
* ‘Remarks on the editio altera of the Pharmacopœia Londinensis,’ London, 1816, 8vo.
* A translation (with ​notes) of the ‘Pharmacopœia,’ London, 8vo, 1824, 1831, 1837, 1851.
[English Cyclopædia; Cates's Dict. Biogr.; Gent. Mag. 1851, ii. 208; Brit. Mus. Cat.; Royal Soc. List of Papers; Ronald's Cat. of Books on Electricity, &c., confuses Phillips with Sir Richard Phillips [q. v.]]
B. B. W.