OpenLLM-France/wikimedia huggingface dataset:
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1912 supplement/Kane, Robert Romney

​KANE, ROBERT ROMNEY (1842–1902), writer on Irish land law, born at Gracefield, Blackrock, county Dublin, on 28 Oct. 1842, was eldest son of Sir Robert Kane [q. v.], first president of the Queen's College, Cork. His mother, Katherine, daughter of Henry Baily, of Berkshire, and niece of Francis Baily [q. v.], president of the Royal Astronomical Society, wrote (before her marriage) a well-known 'Irish Flora.' After attending Dr. Quinn's private school in Harcourt Street Kane passed to Queen's College, Cork, whence he graduated M.A. in 1862, and received in 1882 the honorary degree of LL.D. Becoming a member of Lincoln's Inn, he studied law in London in the chambers of an eminent conveyancing lawyer, W. H. G. Bagshawe, and in 1865 he graduated LL.B. with honours in London University. Being called to the Irish bar the same year he went the Munster circuit and soon enjoyed a good practice. In 1873 he was appointed professor of equity, jurisprudence, and international law at the King's Inns, and, acquiring the reputation of an authority on Irish land legislation, he was in 1881 appointed a legal assistant ​commissioner under the Land Law Act of that year. He retained that post till 1892, when he was made county court judge for the united counties of Kildare, Carlow, Wexford and Wicklow.
Kane collaborated with Francis Nolan, Q.C., in an admirable treatise on the 'Statute Law of Landlord and Tenant in Ireland' (1892). But the whole subject of Irish history, literature, and antiquities appealed to him. He was a member of the Royal Irish Academy, a fellow of the Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland, for many years one of the two honorary secretaries of the Royal Dublin Society, and a trustee of the National Library of Ireland. His edition of 'Lectures on Irish History,' by his friend A. G. Richey [q. v.], published in 1887 under the slightly misleading title of 'A Short History of the Irish People,' displayed wide reading, ripe judgment, and independence. After some years of feeble health he died at his residence, 4 Fitzwilliam Place, Dublin, on 26 March 1902.
Kane married on 29 Dec. 1875 Ellinor Louisa, second daughter of David Coffey, taxing master in chancery, by whom he had two sons and three daughters. The elder son, Harold, lieutenant in the 1st battalion of the South Lancashire regiment, fell in the Boer war while fighting against great odds on the summit of Mount Itala on 26 Sept. 1901 (Irish Times, 4 Oct. 1901).
[Information from Kane's lifelong friend and brother-in-law, Mr. Valentine J. Coppinger, Dublin; The Times, 28 March 1902; Ann. Reg. 1902.]
R. D.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Richter, Christian

​RICHTER, CHRISTIAN (1682?–1732), miniature-painter, born about 1682, was son of a silversmith at Stockholm. A brother, Benjamin Richter, who became a pupil of Karlsteen, the medallist at Dresden, and court medallist at Vienna, visited England for a short time, when he executed a set of medals of the members of the Swedish Club; some specimens of these are in the British Museum. Christian is said to have also been a pupil of Karlsteen at Dresden, and to have practised medal engraving and modelling in wax; but, not meeting with the support which he expected, he took to portrait-painting, especially in miniature and enamel. About 1702 he came to England, where he was patronised by his fellow countryman, Michael Dahl [q. v.], whose manner he imitated. He became an excellent copyist of Dahl's works, and also those of Vandyck, Lely, and Kneller. He had some skill as an original miniature-painter, but was hampered in his art by ill-health. He died in November 1732, aged 50, and was buried in the churchyard of St. James's, Westminster. A miniature by Richter of Viscountess Tyrconnel, painted in 1709, is at Wroxton Abbey.
L. C.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Richword, William

​RICHWORD, WILLIAM (d. 1637), jesuit. [See Rushworth.]
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Rickards, George Kettilby

​RICKARDS, Sir GEORGE KETTILBY (1812–1889), political economist, born in London on 24 Jan. 1812, was the eldest son of George Rickards of Ripley, Surrey, by Frances, daughter of the Rev. Samuel Kettilby, D.D. On 10 July 1823 he was admitted at Westminster School, but left in 1824 for Eton. He matriculated from Balliol College, Oxford, on 6 April 1829, but was elected scholar of Trinity in the same year. He obtained the Newdigate prize in 1830 with a poem on the ‘African Desert,’ graduated B.A. in 1833, taking a second-class in classics, and proceeded M.A. in 1836. From 1836 to 1843 he was a fellow of Queen's College. In 1837 he was called to the bar of the Inner Temple, and in 1873 was elected a bencher. In 1851 he was appointed counsel to the speaker of the House of Commons, and was made K.C.B. on resigning that post in 1882. Elected Drummond professor of political economy at Oxford in 1851, he held the chair till 1857. He made little mark in a professorial capacity, but published three general lectures on his subject in a volume in 1852, and a course on population and labour in 1854. For the last seven years of his life he resided at Fyfield House, Oxford. He died suddenly at Hawkley Hurst, Hampshire, on 23 Sept. 1889. He was twice married: first, in 1842, to Frances Phoebe, daughter of the Rev. John Henry George Lefroy of Ewshott House, Hampshire, who died in 1859; and, secondly, in 1861, to Julia Cassandra (d. 1884), daughter of the Rev. Benjamin Lefroy, rector of Ashe, Hampshire.
Rickards was the author of: 1. ‘Remarks on the Laws relating to Attempts against the Person of the Sovereign,’ London, 1842, 8vo. 2. ‘The Financial Policy of War,’ London, 1855, 8vo. 3. ‘The House of Commons, its Struggles and Triumphs: a Lecture,’ London, 1856, 8vo. He translated into blank verse Virgil's ‘Æneid,’ bks. i.–vi. (1871), and bk. xi. (1872); contributed an essay on ‘Church Finance’ to Halcombe's ‘The Church and her Curates,’ London, 1874, 8vo; and assisted to edit the ‘Statutes at Large’ in 1857 and following years.
E. I. C.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Richson, Charles

​RICHSON, CHARLES (1806–1874), educational reformer, was born at Highgate, Middlesex, in 1806, and became an usher in a school in Durham. At an unusually late age, he entered St. Catharine's Hall, Cambridge, and graduated B.A. in 1842, and M.A. in 1845. In 1841 he became curate at Preston parish church. He removed to Manchester in 1843 to be clerk in orders at the collegiate church, now the cathedral. This position he held until December 1854, when he was appointed a canon residentiary of the cathedral, and rector of St. Andrew's, Ancoats, Manchester. Subsequently he was ​also sub-dean of the cathedral and a proctor in convocation.
For nearly thirty years Richson was one of the most prominent public men in Manchester, especially devoting himself to education and sanitary reform. As secretary of the Church Education Society in 1843, he was largely concerned in establishing the Manchester commercial schools, which long held a foremost position among such institutions. He was the chief originator and supporter of the Manchester and Salford education committee, which insisted on the necessity of combining religious with secular instruction in elementary day schools. His zealous labours influenced subsequent legislation, and many of his views were embodied in Forster's Education Act of 1870. One of his last acts in this connection was the drawing up of an important report (February 1870) for the convocation of York on primary education. His efforts on behalf of sanitary reform were almost equally vigorous, and with a few friends he founded the Manchester and Salford Sanitary Association in 1853.
He wrote a large number of pamphlets on popular education, several lesson-books on drawing and writing, papers on decimal coinage and the ruridecanal organisation of dioceses, and some occasional sermons, including a remarkable one on the ‘Observance of Sanitary Laws,’ 1854. Some of his papers were printed in the ‘Transactions of the Manchester Statistical Society.’
He died, after a long illness, on 15 May 1874, at his house in Shakespeare Street, Manchester, and was buried at Birch Church, near that city. His wife, a daughter of Samuel Chambers of Briston, Surrey, survived him. He had no children.
C. W. S.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Richter, Henry James

​RICHTER, HENRY JAMES (1772–1857), painter, born in Newport Street, Soho, London, on 8 March 1772, was second son of John Augustus Richter. His mother was Mary Haig. The father, a native of Dresden, was an artist, engraver, and scagliolist, and was well known for his works in imitation of marble. A brother, John Richter, was a prominent politician, and shared the reform views of John Horne Tooke [q. v.], with whom he was committed to the Tower in 1794. Another brother, Thomas, was a director of the Phœnix Life Insurance Company.
Henry was educated in the Soho and St. Martin's schools, and received his early tuition in art from Thomas Stothard [q. v.] In 1788, at the age of sixteen, he exhibited two landscapes at the Royal Academy, where he was an exhibitor for many years. He became a student at the Royal Academy in 1790. Richter, who was a versatile artist, had some skill also as an engraver, working in line, etching, and mezzotint, and he engraved some of his own works. In 1794 he was associated with his father in an edition of Milton's ‘Paradise Lost’ illustrated with engravings. He was in 1809 an exhibitor with the Associated Artists (water-colour) in Bond Street, of which society he was a member in 1810, and president in 1811 and 1812. A picture, painted by Richter in 1812, of ‘Christ giving Sight to the Blind,’ was purchased by the trustees of the British Institution for five hundred guineas. In 1813 Richter was elected a member of the Society of Painters in Oil and Water Colours (the ‘Old’ Watercolour Society). He resigned his membership in December of the same year, and up to 1820 was represented only as an exhibitor with the society. In 1821 he was again elected a member, but did not exhibit till 1823, when his name appears as an associate exhibitor. In 1826 he was a ​third time member, but in 1828 was only an associate exhibitor. From 1829 until his death he was both a member and a frequent exhibitor. His subjects were mainly figures of a domestic nature, or scenes from Shakespeare, ‘Don Quixote,’ and the like, which he contributed to the annuals then in vogue. His paintings, which were executed in both oil and water colours, had great popularity, and many of them were engraved. They were exhibited under such titles as ‘The Brute of a Husband,’ ‘The Gamester,’ ‘The School in an Uproar,’ and ‘A Logician's Effigy.’
Richter was a student of metaphysical philosophy, a devoted disciple of Kant, and an intimate friend of William Blake. He wrote part of the article on ‘Metaphysics’ in the ‘Encyclopædia Londinensis,’ published a paper on ‘German Transcendentalism’ in 1855, and was engaged on translating a metaphysical work by Beck at the time of his death. In 1817 he published a curious work, entitled ‘Daylight, a recent Discovery in the Art of Painting, with Hints on the Philosophy of the Fine Arts, and on that of the Human Mind, as first dissected by Emmanuel Kant;’ an octavo pamphlet of sixty-four pages, fifty-two of which are explanatory notes.
Richter died at Lisson Grove, London, on 8 April 1857, aged 85.
L. C.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Rickards, Samuel

​RICKARDS, SAMUEL (1796–1865), divine, son of Thomas Rickards of Leicester, was born in 1796. He matriculated from Oriel College, Oxford, on 28 Jan. 1813, graduating B.A. in 1817 and M.A. in 1820. He was a fellow there from 16 April 1819 to 6 Oct. 1822, being contemporary with John Keble [q. v.] and other leaders of the ritualistic movement. He was Newdigate prizeman, 1815, writing on the ‘Temple of Theseus,’ and English essayist, 1819, writing on ‘Characteristic Differences of Greek and Latin Poetry.’ From 1822 to 1832 he was the curate in charge of Ulcombe, Kent. J. H. Newman, while on a visit to him in September 1826, wrote his well-known verses, ‘Nature and Art,’ and, during a second visit in October 1827, ‘Snapdragon, a Riddle.’ In 1832 he was presented by a college friend, Henry Wilson, to the rectory of Stowlangtoft, Suffolk, where he passed the remainder of his life.
At an early period he parted company with the Oxford movement, and wrote expostulatory and warning letters to Keble and Newman. He was instrumental in the publication of Keble's ‘Christian Year,’ a duplicate manuscript copy of which was lent to him by Keble, and, when Keble's own copy was lost in Wales, this was printed. To ​Rickards, as a sound theologian of high character, many of his clerical brethren looked up for counsel and guidance in the controversies by which his times were marked.
He died at Stowlangtoft rectory on 24 Aug. 1865. He married on 6 Oct. 1821, and left a daughter Lucy. He was the author of: ‘Hymns for Private Devotion for the Sundays and Saints' Days,’ 1825; ‘The Christian Householder, or Guide to Family Prayer,’ 1830; and other small devotional works, besides ‘Poems,’ 1870.
G. C. B.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Rickinghale, John

​RICKINGHALE, JOHN (d. 1429), bishop of Chichester, was educated at Cambridge, where he proceeded D.D. He was ordained acolyte at Ely in 1376, and was then described as of Little Shelford in Cambridgeshire. He was rector of Thorpe Abbots, Norfolk, from 1381 to 1399, and vicar of the mediety of Fressingfield, Suffolk, from 1399 to 1421. He was chancellor of York Minster in 1400, archdeacon of Northumberland in 1408, and dean of St. Mary's College, Norwich, 1405 to 1426. He was chancellor of Cambridge University from 1415 till 1422 (cf. Rashdall, Universities of Europe in the Middle Ages, II. ii. 550), and from 1416 to 12 July 1426 master of Gonville Hall, now Gonville and Caius College. He was confessor to John, duke of Bedford, and by his agency was consecrated bishop of Chichester at Mortlake church on 3 June 1426. He died in the summer of 1429, his will being made on 2 April, and proved on 14 July of that year at Lambeth (Lamb. Libr. II. 11. 95); in it he makes bequests to places he had been connected with, and mentions his nephew, John Mannyng. He was buried in the north aisle of the cathedral.
[All the important facts in the life of Rickinghale have been collected by Dr. Venn, who has very kindly allowed his materials (including his copy of the will) to be used; Sussex Arch. Coll. xxix. 8; Dallaway's Sussex, Chichester, pp. 60, 133, Paroch. Hist. p. 290; Godwin, De Præsulibus (epitaph).]
W. A. J. A.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Townshend, Charles (1728-1810)

​TOWNSHEND, CHARLES, first Baron Bayning (1728–1810) of Honingham, Norfolk, and Foxley, Berkshire, born on 27 Aug. 1728, was the only son of William Townshend (third surviving son of Charles, second viscount Townshend [q. v.]), by Henrietta, daughter of Lord William Paulet or Powlett, second son of Charles Paulet, first duke of Bolton [q. v.] He was educated at Eton and Clare Hall, Cambridge, and graduated M.A. in 1749. He was appointed secretary to the British embassy at Madrid on 17 Sept. 1751, and remained in Spain for five years. Henceforth he became known as ‘Spanish Charles,’ in contradistinction to his brilliant namesake and cousin, Charles Townshend (1725–1767) [q. v.] He returned to England in 1756, and at the general election of that year succeeded his cousin Charles as member for Great Yarmouth, which he continued to represent until 1784, and again from 1790 to 1796. He acted generally with the Rockingham whigs, but was not prominent as a speaker. He was present at the great gathering of whigs held at Claremont (Newcastle's house at Esher) on 30 June 1765, and was one of the minority who thought it unadvisable to take office without Pitt. When, however, Rockingham became premier, Townshend was made a lord of the admiralty on 30 April 1765. In Feb. 1770 he exchanged this office for a commissionership of the treasury in Lord North's administration. He was sworn of the privy council on 20 June 1777 and on 17 Sept. was appointed joint vice-treasurer of Ireland. In the coalition ministry of 1783 he held the office of treasurer of the navy. He was created a peer on 20 Oct. 1797, with the title of Baron Bayning of Foxley. In 1807 he was elected high steward of Yarmouth in succession to George, first marquis Townshend [q. v.] He died on 19 May 1810. A portrait of him at Honingham has been engraved (Evans, No. 12545; Manship, Hist of Yarmouth, ed. Palmer, ii. 333).
Bayning married, in August 1777, Annabella, daughter of the Rev. Richard Smith, by Annabella, granddaughter of Lord William Powlett. She became heir of her brother, Powlett Smith-Powlett of Sombourne, Hampshire, and died on 3 Jan. 1825. By her he had two sons, Charles Frederick Powlett Townshend (1785–1823) and Henry Powlett (1797–1866), who assumed by royal license the name of his maternal great-grandfather, William Powlett. Both sons died without surviving issue, and on the death of the younger in 1866 the peerage became extinct.
G. Le G. N.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Townshend, Chauncey Hare

​TOWNSHEND, CHAUNCEY HARE (1798–1868), poet, born on 20 April 1798, was the only son of Henry Hare Townshend (d. 1827) of Downhills, Tottenham, Busbridge Hall, Godalming, and Walpole, Norfolk, by his wife Charlotte (d. 1831), daughter of Sir James Winter Lake of Edmonton, baronet. He was educated at Eton College, whence he proceeded to Trinity Hall, Cambridge, as a fellow-commoner, graduating B.A. in 1821 and M.A. in 1824. In 1817 he obtained the chancellor's English medal for a poem on the subject ‘Jerusalem.’ He took holy orders, but was early disabled by illness from the active duties of his profession. Early in life he made the acquaintance of Robert Southey, and received an invitation to Greta Hall, Southey's residence in the vale of Keswick. Encouraged by the laureate's approbation, he published a volume of ‘Poems’ in 1821 (London, 8vo) which were generally praised. Notwithstanding the recognition he received, Townshend showed no anxiety for fame, and suffered thirty years to elapse before he produced his next volume of poetry, entitled ‘Sermons in Sonnets, with other Poems’ (London, 1851, 8vo), followed in 1859 by ‘The Three Gates’ (London, 8vo). Townshend was by no means deficient in poetic insight, but his verse was too often commonplace. His poems were frequently tinged by metaphysical speculation. His best known poem is the ballad of the ‘Burning of the Amazon.’ He drew and painted with some skill, and interested himself in collecting pictures and jewels. Much of his time was spent in travel, and the greater part of his later life was passed at his villa, Monloisir, at Lausanne. He died on 25 Feb. 1868 at his residence in Norfolk Street, Park Lane, London. On 2 May 1826 he married Eliza Frances, daughter of Sir Amos Godsill Robert Norcott, but left no issue. He bequeathed his collections of precious stones, coins, and cameos, and such of his pictures, water-colours, and drawings as might be selected, to the South Kensington Museum. Besides the works mentioned, Townshend was the author of: 1. ‘A Descriptive Tour in Scotland by T. H. C.,’ Brussels, 1840, 8vo; new edit. London, 1846. This work must not be confused with ‘Journal of a Tour through part of the Western Highlands of Scotland by T. H. C.,’ which is by a different author. 2. ‘Facts in Mesmerism,’ London, 1840, 8vo; 2nd edit. 1844. 3. ‘The Burning of the Amazon: a Ballad Poem,’ London, 1852, 12mo. 4. ‘Mesmerism proved True,’ London, 1854, 12mo. He also added a supplement to Lang's ‘Animal Magnetism,’ 1844. Some writings intended to elucidate his ‘Religious Opinions’ were published by his friend Charles Dickens, whom he made his literary executor (London, 1869, 8vo). He was a contributor to Knight's ‘Quarterly Magazine,’ 1823–4.
E. I. C.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Townshend, Horatio (1750-1837)

​TOWNSHEND, HORATIO (1750–1837), Irish writer, son of Philip Townshend of Ross, co. Cork, was born there in 1750, ​and entered Trinity College, Dublin, about 1768. He graduated B.A. in 1770, and M.A. in 1776. He was incorporated at Magdalen College, Oxford, on 15 April 1776. He took orders, and was given the living of Rosscarbery, co. Cork, where he resided for the rest of his life. His most important work is a ‘Statistical Survey of the County of Cork,’ which was first published in one volume in Dublin in 1810. A second edition of the work, in two volumes, was published in Cork in 1815. Another work by Townshend was ‘A Tour through Ireland and the Northern Parts of Great Britain,’ 8vo, London, 1821. He also wrote a good deal of local and ephemeral verse, a specimen of which may be found in ‘The Hippocrene’ (1831) by Patrick O'Kelly [q. v.] He wrote occasional articles for ‘Blackwood's Magazine’ under the signature of ‘Senex,’ and to ‘Bolster's Cork Magazine,’ 1828–31. He died on 26 March 1837.
D. J. O'D.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Townshend, Charles Fox

​TOWNSHEND, CHARLES FOX (1795–1817), founder of the Eton Society, born at Balls Park, Hertfordshire, on 28 June 1795, was the eldest son of John Townshend (1757–1833), member of parliament successively for Cambridge University, Westminster, and Knaresborough, by his wife Georgiana Anne, daughter of William Poyntz of Midgham [see under Poyntz, Stephen]. George Townshend, second ​marquis [q. v.], was his uncle, and John, the fourth marquis, was his younger brother. Charles Fox was educated at Eton (1807–12) under Keate. In 1811 he founded the ‘Eton Society.’ Its members were originally known as the ‘Literati,’ but afterwards the society was called ‘Pop,’ from ‘Popina,’ an eating-house, because its meetings were held in a room over the shop of Mrs. Hatton, a confectioner. In 1846 this house was pulled down and the club removed to the ‘Christopher.’ Keate approved the objects of the society, and the translation docti sumus, ‘I belong to the Literati,’ became one of his stock jokes.
The original number of members was twenty; it was increased to thirty, but by 1816 had sunk to four, and but for the protest of the founder would have probably become extinct. ‘Pop’ has included among its orators G. A. Selwyn, A. H. Hallam, Sir Francis Doyle, Gerald Wellesley, Sir E. S. Creasy, Sir John Wickens, the Earls of Derby and Granville, and W. E. Gladstone (elected 1825, æt. 15). The club, which at present numbers twenty-eight, possesses a bust of its founder. Townshend proceeded to St. John's College, Cambridge, and graduated M.A. in 1816. He died unmarried on 2 April 1817, while a candidate for the representation in parliament of Cambridge University, being then only in his twenty-second year.
T. S.