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

​ARNE, CECILIA (1711–1789), the eldest daughter of Charles Young, organist of All-hallows, Barking, was a pupil of Geminiani. Her first appearance at Drury Lane took place in 1730, and in 1736 she married Dr. Arne. She took the part of Sabrina at the first performance of her husband's setting of 'Comus' at Drury Lane, 4 March 1738, and she also sang at Clieveden 1 Aug. 1740, when 'Alfred' and the 'Judgment of Paris' were produced before the Prince and Princess of Wales. In 1742 Mrs. Arne accompanied her husband to Dublin, where she sang with great success both in operas and concerts. On her return, 'Alfred' was performed for her benefit at Drury Lane, 20 March 1745. In the same year she was engaged at ​Vauxhall Gardens, where she increased her reputation by her admirable singing of her husband's songs and ballads. Soon after this she seems to have given up singing in public, as her place was taken by Dr. Arne's pupils, of whom Miss Brent was the most distinguished. She survived her husband, by whom she was left badly off, and died at the house of Barthelemon at Vauxhall, 6 Oct. 1789. In the judgment of her contemporaries, Cecilia Arne was one of the most pleasing of the English singers of her day. She was often called 'the nightingale of the stage,' and her voice was said to be 'unequalled for melody, fulness, and flexibility.'
[Grove's Dictionary, i. 84; Dibdin's Musical Tour, 1778; Davies's Memoirs of Garrick, ii. p. 171, 1808; Gentleman's Magazine, 1789; Genest's History of the Stage, 1832.]
W. B. S.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Arnold, Cornelius

​ARNOLD, CORNELIUS (1711–1757?), poetical writer, was born 13 March 1711, and entered Merchant Taylors' School in 1723. The statement that he became one of the ushers in the school is incorrect. In the latter part of his life he was beadle to the Distillers' Company. His works are: 1. 'Distress, a poetical essay,' dedicated to John, Earl of Radnor, London [1750?], 4to. 2. 'Commerce, a poem,' 2nd edit. London, 1751, 4to. 3. 'The Mirror. A Poetical Essay in the manner of Spenser,' dedicated to David Garrick, London, 1755, 4to. 4. 'Osman,' a tragedy. In a volume of poems published in 1757.
T. C.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Arnold, John

​ARNOLD, JOHN (1736?–1799), an eminent mechanician and one of the first makers of chronometers in this country, was born at Bodmin in 1736, and not in 1744, as is generally given; his tombstone in Chislehurst churchyard positively states that he died in 1799, ætat. 63. He was apprenticed to his father, a watchmaker in Bodmin, but a quarrel with him led to his going to Holland. In that country he is said not only to have acquired most of his knowledge of watchmaking, but to have learned German, a language which was afterwards of much use to him at court. Leaving the Hague, he came to England, and appears to have made a scanty living as an itinerant mechanic. By the help of a gentleman who was struck ​with, his mechanical powers, he was enabled to set up in business in Devereux Court, Strand, whence he afterwards removed to the Adelphi. He was introduced at court, and received assistance from King George III towards the cost of his experiment. Afterwards he presented the king with a very curious and very small watch, set in a ring. A full account of this ingenious toy is given in Wood's 'Curiosities of Clocks and Watches,' p. 327. The chronometer of Harrison had not long before Arnold's establishment in London been perfected, and had received the reward offered by parliament for a method of ascertaining the longitude at sea; Arnold took up the manufacture of chronometers (first so named by him), and, besides introducing certain improvements in them, he so systematised the arrangements for their production that he was able to reduce very considerably their originally high price. He made chronometers not only for the government, but also for the East India Company, then a still better customer than the government. Without going into technicalities, it would be impossible to describe Arnold's improvements in the chronometer; they are, however, set out very fully in the article on the chronometer in Rees's 'Encyclopaedia.' The chief improvements with which he is credited are the expansion balance, the detached escapement, and the cylindrical balance spring. All these, however, have been claimed for Earnshaw, and how much of the credit is due to each of the two rivals cannot be said. After Arnold's death the Board of Longitude, which had granted various sums to him during his life, awarded to his son, J. R. Arnold, and to Earnshaw amounts which, with the former grants, made up 3,000l. apiece to each inventor.
H. T. W.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Golding, Benjamin

​GOLDING, BENJAMIN, M.D. (1793–1863), physician, born in 1793 in Essex, was entered as a student of St. Thomas's Hospital, London, in 1813. He was a doctor of medicine of St. Andrews in 1823, and a licentiate of the College of Physicians in 1825. He was elected physician at the West London Infirmary, which, mainly by his energy and influence, was extended into the Charing Cross Hospital. The new building was erected in 1831, and he is justly regarded as its founder. In the medical school and the internal arrangements of the hospital Golding took an active interest, and he remained a director of the hospital till 1862, when failing health compelled him to resign. He died on 21 June 1863. Golding was the author of:
* ‘An historical account of St. Thomas's Hospital, Southwark,’ London, 1819, 12mo.
* ‘The … Charing Cross Hospital, London,’ ed. G. B. Golding, London, 1867, 8vo.
[Lancet, 25 July 1863; Munk's Coll. of Phys. iii. 309.]
W. F. W. S.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Golding, Richard

​GOLDING, RICHARD (1785–1865), line-engraver, was born in London of humble parentage on 15 Aug. 1785. He was apprenticed in 1799 to an engraver named Pass, but at the end of five years his indentures were transferred to James Parker, who died in 1805, leaving some unfinished plates, which ​were completed by his pupil. Golding was afterwards introduced to Benjamin West, who employed him to engrave his ‘Death of Nelson.’ He then executed a number of admirable book-plates, the best known of which are those after the designs of Robert Smirke for editions of ‘Don Quixote’ and ‘Gil Blas,’ and he also assisted William Sharp. In 1818 he completed a fine plate of the Princess Charlotte of Wales, after the painting by Sir Thomas Lawrence, who is said to have touched the engraver's proofs no less than thirty times. The reputation which he gained by this plate led to the offer of numerous commissions, and among the portraits which he subsequently engraved were those of Sir William Grant, master of the rolls, a full-length after Lawrence, General Sir Harry Calvert, bart., after Phillips, and Thomas Hammersley the banker, after Hugh Douglas Hamilton, as well as a portrait of Queen Victoria when princess, in her ninth year, after Richard Westall, and another in 1830, after William Fowler. He likewise engraved a large plate of ‘St. Ambrose refusing the Emperor Theodosius Admission into the Church,’ after the picture by Rubens in the Vienna gallery. In 1842, after having been without work for several years, he undertook to engrave for the Art Union of Dublin a plate after Maclise's picture of ‘A Peep into Futurity;’ but he had fallen into a state of desponding indolence, and at the end of ten years it was still unfinished. His powers and eyesight gradually failed, and he withdrew from all social intercourse, finding recreation only in angling. Although unmarried, and not without means, he died from bronchitis in neglected and dirty lodgings in Stebbington Street, St. Pancras, London, on 28 Dec. 1865. He was buried in Highgate cemetery; but owing to allegations that he had been poisoned by his medical attendant, who became possessed of the bulk of his property, his body was exhumed in the following September and an inquest held, which, however, terminated in a verdict of ‘Death from natural causes.’
R. E. G.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Goldar, John

​GOLDAR, JOHN (1729–1795), engraver, born at Oxford in 1729, is best known by his engravings of the pictures painted by John Collet [q. v.], in imitation of Hogarth. Four of these, published by Boydell in 1782, represent a series entitled ‘Modern Love,’ and among others were ‘The Recruiting Sergeant,’ ‘The Female Bruisers,’ ‘The Sacrifice,’ ‘The Country Choristers,’ ‘The Refusal,’ &c. Goldar also engraved some portraits, including those of the Rev. William Jay, James Lackington, the bookseller, Peter Clare, surgeon, and others. Goldar resided in Charlotte Street, Blackfriars Road, and on 16 Aug. 1795 he died suddenly of apoplexy while walking with his daughter through Hyde Park. In 1771 he exhibited an unfinished proof of an engraving after Mortimer at the exhibition of the Incorporated Society of Artists.
L. C.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Goldesburg, John

​GOLDESBURG, GOLDESBOROUGH, or GOULDSBOROUGH, JOHN (1568–1618), legal reporter, descended from a family living at Goldsborough, West Riding of Yorkshire, was born 18 Oct. 1568. He studied at Oxford (1584), entered the Middle Temple, and was called to the bar by that society. He enjoyed a good reputation as a lawyer, and was made one of the prothonotaries of the common pleas. He died 9 Oct. 1618, and was buried near the high altar in the Temple Church. After his death there were published: 1. ‘Reports of Divers Choice Cases in Law taken by those late and most Judicious Prothonotaries of the Common Pleas, Richard Brownlow and John Goldesborough, Esquires, with directions how to proceed in many intricate actions,’ &c., 1651; 3rd edit., 2 parts, 1675. 2. ‘Reports of that Learned and Judicious Clerk, J. Gouldsborough, Esq., sometimes one of the Protonotaries of the Court of Common Pleas, or his collection of choice cases and matters agitated in all the Courts at Westminster in the latter yeares of the Reign of Queen Elizabeth, with learned arguments at the Bar and on the Bench, and the grave Resolutions and Judgments thereupon of the Chief Justices, Anderson and Popham, and the rest of the Judges of those times. Never before published, and now printed by his original copy … by M. S. (M. A. Shepperd) of the Inner Temple, Esq.,’ 1653 (a copy in the British Museum has manuscript notes by Francis Hargrave). The prefaces to these works describe the attainments of Goldesburg in high terms; on the other hand, North says (Discourse on the Study of the Laws): ‘Godbolt, Gouldsborough, and March, mean reporters, but not to be neglected.’
F. W-t.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Armstrong, John (1771-1797)

​ARMSTRONG, JOHN (1771–1797), journalist and writer of verses, was born of humble parents, at Leith, in June 1771. After attending the Grammar School of that town and the High School of Edinburgh, he entered Edinburgh University, where he graduated M.A. In 1789 he published 'Juvenile Poems, with remarks on Poetry, and a Dissertation on the best means of punishing and preventing Crimes.' These poems, if stilted in style and hackneyed in sentiment, are characterised by general good taste and some artistic finish. Their publication obtained for him the honour of being invited to compose the words of the songs used in connection with the ceremony of laying the foundation-stone of the Edinburgh University buildings. While tutor in a family in Edinburgh, Armstrong pursued the theological studies necessary to qualify him to become a preacher in the church of Scotland, but in 1790 he removed to London, where he obtained employment on one of the daily papers at a small weekly salary. In 1791 he published a collection of poems, under the title 'Sonnets from Shakspeare.' His literary prospects continued gradually to improve, and he was in receipt of a considerable income, when his health began suddenly to give way. He retired to Leith, where he died of a rapid decline, July 21, 1797.
[Memoir in Edinburgh Magazine, new series, vol. x. pp. 254-5, which contains some additional details to those given in Monthly Magazine, vol. iv. pp. 153-4, and Gentleman's Magazine, vol. lxvii. part 2, pp. 731-2.]
T. F. H.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Armstrong, William (1602?-1658?)

​ARMSTRONG, WILLIAM (1602?–1658?), known as Christie's Will, a border freebooter, was the son or grandson of the Christie Armstrong referred to in the ballad of 'Johnnie Armstrong' as 'Kristy my son,' and inherited Gilnockie Tower. Having been imprisoned in the Tolbooth, Jedburgh, for stealing two colts during a marauding expedition, he received his release through the interposition of the Earl of Traquair, lord high treasurer, and henceforth became devoted heart and soul to the earl's interests. Some time afterwards a lawsuit, in which the Earl of Traquair was a party, was on for trial in the Court of Session, Edinburgh. The decision, it was supposed, would turn on the opinion of the presiding judge, Lord Durie, who was known to be unfavourable to Lord Traquair. Armstrong, therefore, kidnapped the judge at Leith Sands, where he was taking his usual exercise on horseback, and conveyed him blindfold to an old castle, the tower of Graham, on the Dryfe water, near Moffat. The judge's friends mourned for him as dead, the belief being that his horse had thrown him into the sea; but after the case was settled he was again conveyed blindfold to Leith Sands, whence he made his way home three months later than his horse. As Lord Durie was twice chosen president of the court, namely, for the summer session of 1642, and for the winter session of 1643, his capture must have taken place in one of these years. Armstrong is said also to have been employed by Traquair, during the civil war, in conveying a packet to the king; and on his return to have made his escape at Carlisle from the pursuit of Cromwell's soldiers by springing his horse over the parapet of the bridge that crosses the Eden, which was then in flood. It is not impossible that the tombstone discovered in the churchyard of Sark, ​supposed at one time to be that of 'Kinmont Willie,' may really commemorate 'Christie's Will.' The William Armstrong to whom it refers died in 1658 at the age of 56. The ballad of 'Christie's Will,' published by Sir Walter Scott in 'Minstrelsy of the Scottish Border,' is, according to Sir Walter, not to be regarded as of genuine and unmixed antiquity.
[Scott's Minstrelsy of the Scottish Border.]
T. F. H.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Armstrong, Robert Archibald

​ARMSTRONG, ROBERT ARCHIBALD, LL.D. (1788–1867), Gaelic lexicographer, was the eldest son of Mr. Robert Armstrong, of Kenmore, Perthshire, by his wife, Mary McKercher. He was born at Kenmore in 1788, and educated partly by his father, and afterwards at Edinburgh and at St. Andrew's University, here he graduated. Coming to London from St. Andrew's with high commendations for his Greek and Latin acquirements, he engaged in tuition, and kept several high-class schools in succession in different parts of the metropolis. He devoted his leisure to the cultivation of literature and science. Of his humorous articles 'The Three Florists,' in 'Fraser' for January 1838, and 'The Dream of Tom Finiarty, the Cab-driver,' in the 'Athenæum,' are notable examples. His scientific papers appeared chiefly in the 'Arcana of Science and Art' (1837 et seq.),and relate to meteorological matters. But his great work was 'A Gaelic Dictionary, in two parts — I. Gaelic and English, II. English and Gaelic — in which the words, in their different acceptations, are illustrated by quotations from the best Gaelic writers,' London, 1825, 4to, This was the first Gaelic dictionary published, as there previously existed only vocabularies of the language like those of Shaw and others. It is a most meritorious work, the affinities of the Celtic words being traced in most of the languages of ancient and modern times. To it is prefixed a Gaelic grammar, and there is a short historical ​appendix of ancient names, deduced from the authority of Ossian and other poets. Armstrong's dictionary will always be prized by Gaelic scholars, but it was partially eclipsed, three years after its appearance, by the publication of the still more comprehensive 'Dictionarium Scoto-Celticum,' compiled under the direction of the Highland Society of Scotland (2 vols. 4to, 1828). Mr. Armstrong sank his small fortune in the publication of his three-guinea quarto, and in a pecuniary sense he was a considerable loser by its publication. For about twenty-two years he maintained his family by establishing the South Lambeth Grammar School, and on his retirement from the head-mastership to Richmond in 1852 a representation of his necessitous condition was sent to Lord Palmerston, who obtained for him a civil list pension of 60l. This opportune assistance and a grant from the Literary Fund enabled him to recommence his scholastic business, which, though now of small proportions on account of his great age, he continued till he was struck down by paralysis about a week before he died. In 1826 he had been appointed Gaelic lexicographer in ordinary to the king, but the appointment was honorary and no salary was attached to it. He died in Choumert Road, Peckham Rye, Surrey, 25 May 1867. Lord Derby advised her majesty to cheer the last days of the veteran scholar by a grant of 100l. from the Royal Bounty Fund; and in 1869 the queen, on the recommendation of Mr. Gladstone, granted an annual pension of 50l. to his widow. Dr. Armstrong married, in 1842, Emma, daughter of Mr. Stephen Dungate, by whom he left issue three daughters.
T. C.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Arnall, William

​ARNALL, WILLIAM (1715?–1741?), political writer, was bred as an attorney, but took to political writing before he was twenty. He was one of the authors in Walpole's pay who replied to the 'Craftsman' and the various attacks of Bolingbroke and Pulteney. He wrote the 'Free Briton' under the signature of Francis Walsingham, and succeeded Concanen in the 'British Journal.' One of his tracts, in which he disputes certain claims of the clergy in regard to tithes, is reprinted in 'The Pillars of Priestcraft and Orthodoxy shaken.' 'A letter to Dr. Codex [Dr. Gibson] on his modest instructions to the Crown,' and 'Opposition no proof of Patriotism,' upon Rundle's appointment to the see of Londonderry, are attributed to him. The report of the committee of inquiry into Walpole's conduct states that in the years 1731-41 a sum of 50,077l. 18s. was paid to the authors of newspapers from the secret service money, and from a schedule appended it seems that Arnall received in four years 10,997'l. 6s. 8d. of this sum. It does not appear whether he received any part of this on behalf of others or for printing expenses. Arnall is also said to have received a pension of 400l. a year. He is said to have died at the age of twenty-six in 1741, though 'other accounts' say 1736. Pope attacked him in the 'Dunciad' (Bk. ii. 315), where his name was substituted for Welsted's in 1735, and in the epilogue to the 'Satires' (Dialogue ii. 129): 'Spirit of Arnall, aid me whilst I lie!'
[Chalmers's Biog. Dict.; Pope's Dunciad; Maty's Miscellaneous Works of Chesterfield, p. 5.]
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Arnald, Richard

1904 Errata appended.
​ARNALD, RICHARD (1700–1756), a distinguished divine, was born in 1700. He was a native of London, and received his education at Bishop Stortford School, whence; he proceeded in 1714 to Corpus Christi College, Cambridge. After graduating B. A., he removed to Emmanuel College, where he was elected to a fellowship on 24 June, 1720, and took the degree of M.A. While resident at Emmanuel he printed two copies of Sapphics on the death of George I, and a sermon (on Col. ii. 8) preached at Bishop Stortford school-feast on 3 Aug. 1726. In 1733 he was presented to the living of Thurcaston in Leicestershire, and was afterwards made prebendary of Lincoln. He published in 1746 a sermon on 2 Kings xiv. 8: 'The Parable of the Cedar and the Thistle exemplified in the great Victory at Culloden;' and in 1760, a 'Sermon on Deuteronomy xxxiii. 8.' The work by which he is remembered is his critical commentary on the Apocryphal books. This learned and judicious work was published as a continuation of Patrick and Lowth's commentaries. It embraces a commentary on the Book of Wisdom, 1744; on Ecclesiasticus, 1748; on Tobit, Judith, Baruch, History of Susannah, and Bel and the Dragon, with dissertations on the two books of Esdras and Maccabees, with a translation of Calmet's treatise on the Dæmon Asmodeus, 1752. An edition was published in 1822 under the care of M. Pitman. Arnald died on 4 Sept. 1756, and was buried in Thurcaston church. His widow died in 1782.
William Arnald, his son, was fellow of St. John's College, Cambridge, in 1767, and head-tutor in 1768. He became chaplain to Bishop Hurd in 1775, and precentor of Lichfield Cathedral. By Hurd's influence he was appointed in 1776 preceptor to the Prince of Wales and the Duke of York, and was made canon of Windsor. In January 1782 signs of insanity appeared, and he continued insane till his death on 5 Aug. 1802. It was, indeed, an unfortunate family. 'One of his brothers,' says Cole, 'was drowned, and his sisters ill married or worse.' By the directions in his will, a sermon that he had preached before the university (in 1781) was published in the year after his death.
[Nichols's Leicestershire, iii. pt. ii. pp. 1059, 1071; History of Corpus Christi College, Cambridge, 1831, p. 456; Cole's MS. Athenæ.]
A. H. B.
Dictionary of National Biography, Errata (1904), p.8 N.B.— f.e. stands for from end and l.l. for last line
| Page | Col. | Line | |
| 103 | i | 14 f.e. | Arnald, Richard: after was insert senior wrangler in 1766 |
| | | 9 f.e. | for preceptor read sub-preceptor |
| | | 7 f.e. | after canon of Windsor insert in 1779 |