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

​CROMPTON, RICHARD (fl. 1573–1599), lawyer, was of a family settled at Bedford Grange in the parish of Leigh, Lancashire, and was educated at Brasenose College, Oxford, but did not proceed to a degree. He became a member and bencher of the Middle Temple, ‘a barrister and councillor of note,’ as stated by Wood; was summer reader in 1573 and Lent reader in 1578; and ‘might have been called to the coif, had he not preferred his private studies and repose before public employment and riches.’ In 1583 he edited and enlarged Sir A. Fitzherbert's ‘Office et Aucthoritie de Justices de Peace’ (R. Tottill, 8vo). This was reprinted in 1584 and 1593 by the same printer, in 1594 by C. Yetsweirt, and in 1606 and 1617 by the Stationers' Company. In 1587 he published ‘A Short Declaration of the Ende of Traytors and False Conspirators against the State, and the Duetie of Subjects to their Souereigne Governour’ (J. Charlewood, 4to), dedicated to Archbishop Whitgift. In 1594 appeared his chief work, ‘L'Authoritie et Jurisdiction des Courts de la Maiestie de la Roygne’ (C. Yetsweirt, 4to). In his dedication to Sir John Puckering the author states that this treatise was written after his retirement into the country and as a solace for the leisure hours of his old age. It was reprinted by J. More in 1637, and is commended in North's ‘Discourse on the Study of the Law.’ A selection of ‘Star-chamber Cases’ was made from this work and published in 1630 and 1641. His last work was issued in 1599, entitled ‘The Mansion of Magnanimitie: wherein is shewed the most high and honourable Acts of Sundrie English Kings, Princes, Dukes … performed in defence of their Princes and Countrie’ (W. Ponsonby, 4to). Another edition was printed by M. Lownes in 1608. William Crompton (1599?–1642) [q. v.], the puritan minister of Barnstaple, was his younger son.
[Wood's Athenæ Oxon., ed. Bliss, i. 634; Ormerod's Parentalia, Additions, 1856, p. 4; Brit. Mus. Cat. of Early English Books, i. 427, ii. 630; Ames's Typogr. Antiq. (Herbert), 1785, ii. 824, 1099, 1131, 1276; W. C. Hazlitt's Handbook, 1867, p. 130; Hazlitt's Collections and Notes, 1876, p. 109.]
C. W. S.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Whitaker, William (1629-1672)

​WHITAKER, WILLIAM (1629–1672), puritan divine, son of Jeremiah Whitaker [q. v.], was born at Oakham, Rutland, in 1629, and in his fifteenth year was admitted a member of Emmanuel College, Cambridge, where he became noted for his skill in the classical and oriental languages. Richard Holdsworth [q. v.], master of the college, set him the task of translating Eustathius upon Homer, and he performed it in a highly creditable manner. He took the degree of B.A. in 1642. Two years later he was admitted a fellow of Queens' College by virtue of a parliamentary ordinance, and in 1646 he graduated M.A. as a member of that college. In 1652 he took orders and became minister of Hornchurch, Essex. He succeeded his father in the living of St. Mary Magdalen, Bermondsey, in 1654, and he was one of the London ministers who drew up and presented to the king the memorial against the oppression of the Act of Uniformity. After his ejectment he gathered a private congregation, which assembled in a small meeting-house in Long Walk, Bermondsey. For many years his house was full of candidates in divinity, and he had many foreign divines under his care. He died in 1672.
He has two sermons in Annesley's 'Morning Exercises,' and in 1674 eighteen of his sermons, which had been taken in shorthand, were published by his widow, with a dedication to Elizabeth, countess of Exeter, and a sketch of the author's character by Thomas Jacomb, D.D.
[Funeral Sermon by Samuel Annesley, LL.D., 1673; Addit. MS. 5883, f. 164; Calamy's Life of Baxter, ii. 25; Silvester's Life of Baxter, pp. 285, 430, pt. iii. 87, 95; Palmer's Nonconf. Memorial, 2nd edit. pp. 157, 431; Dunn's Seventy-five Eminent Divines, p. 70.]
T. C.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Whitbread, Thomas

​WHITBREAD, THOMAS (1618–1679), Jesuit. [See Harcourt, Thomas.]
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/White, Adam

​WHITE, ADAM (1817–1879), naturalist, was born at Edinburgh on 29 April 1817, and educated at the high school of that city. When quite a lad he went to London with an introduction to John Edward Gray [q. v.], and became an official in the zoological department of the British Museum in December 1835. He held the post till 1863, when mental indisposition, consequent on the loss of his wife, necessitated his retirement on a pension.
He never permanently recovered, although, even when an inmate of one of the Scottish asylums, he edited and largely contributed to a journal the contents of which were supplied by the patients.
He was a member of the Entomological Society of London from 1839 to 1863, and a fellow of the Linnean Society of London from December 1846 to 1855. He died at Glasgow on 4 Jan. 1879. His work, except in a few instances in which he wrote to order, has proved, under the test of time, to be of exceptional value.
He was author of:
* ‘List of Crustacea in the … British Museum,’ London, 1847, 12mo.
* ‘Nomenclature of Coleopterous Insects in the … British Museum,’ pts. i–iv. vii. and viii., London, 1847–55, 12mo.
* ‘A Popular History of Mammalia,’ London, 1850, 8vo.
* ‘A Contribution towards an Argument for the Plenary Inspiration of Scripture. … By Arachnophilus,’ London, 1851, 8vo.
* ‘A Popular History of Birds,’ London, 1855, 8vo.
* ‘A Popular History of British Crustacea,’ London, 1857, 8vo.
* ‘Tabular View of the Orders and Leading Families of Insects’ (engraved by J. W. Lowry), London, 1857, and many subsequent issues undated.
* . ‘Tabular View of the Orders and Leading Families of Myriapoda, Arachnida, and Crustacea’ (engraved by J. W. Lowry), London, 1861, and many subsequent issues undated.
* ‘Heads and Tales; or Anecdotes … of Quadrupeds and other beasts,’ London and Edinburgh, 1869, 8vo; 2nd ed. 1870.
Between 1850 and 1855 he contributed parts iv., viii., xiv., xv., and xvii. to the ‘List of British Animals in the British Museum.’ He contributed notes on natural history specimens to numerous narratives of exploring expeditions published between 1841 and 1852.
He edited:
* ‘A Collection of Documents on Spitzbergen and Greenland’ [Hakluyt Society's works, No. 18], 1855.
* ‘The Instructive Picture Book, or Progressive Lessons from the Natural History of Animals and Plants,’ edited by A. White and R. M. Stark, 1857; 10th ed. 1877.
* ‘Spring … by R. Mudie,’ fifth thousand [1860].
He also wrote upwards of sixty papers, mostly on insects and crustacea, for various scientific journals between 1839 and 1861, and contributed ‘Some of the Invertebrata’ to the ‘Museum of Natural History,’ by Sir J. Richardson and others, Glasgow (1859–1862), 8vo; another issue (1868).
B. B. W.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/White, Alice Mary Meadows

​WHITE, ALICE MARY MEADOWS (1839–1884), composer, daughter of Richard Smith, lace merchant, was born in London ​on 19 May 1839. She studied under Sir William Sterndale Bennett [q. v.] and Sir George Alexander Macfarren [q. v.], and first attracted attention as a composer by a quartet performed in 1861 by the Musical Society of London. She had an exceptional musical faculty, and produced in rapid succession quartets, symphonies, concertos, and cantatas, many of which were heard at the concerts of leading societies. A setting of Collins's ode, ‘The Passions,’ was performed at the Hereford Festival of 1882. She also set the ‘Ode to the North-East Wind’ (1880) and Kingsley's ‘Song of the Little Baltung’ (1883). She composed many piano pieces, songs and duets, one of the most popular of which is the duet ‘Maying,’ for tenor and soprano, the copyright of which sold in 1883 for 663l. All her work bore the impress of high artistic culture. She was married to Frederick Meadows White, Q.C., in 1867, and died in London on 4 Dec. 1884.
[Times, 8 Dec. 1884; Musical World, 13 Dec. 1884; Musical Times, January 1885, where a list of her compositions, drawn up by her husband, is given; Grove's Dict. of Music; information from Richard Horton Smith, esq., Q.C., M.A.]
J. C. H.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Roach-Smith, Charles

​ROACH-SMITH, CHARLES (1804–1890), antiquary. [See Smith.]
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Robe, James

​ROBE, JAMES (1688–1753), Scottish presbyterian divine, son of Michael Robe, minister of Cumbernauld, was born there in 1688. He studied at Glasgow University, and was licensed by the presbytery of Linlithgow in 1709. In 1713 he was ordained to the parish of Kilsyth. In 1740 his ministry was signalised by a remarkable religious revival, following immediately upon a similar movement at Cambuslang, and extending to other districts in the west of Scotland. The movement gave rise to a controversy, especially with the associate presbytery, leading Robe to issue his first publication, entitled ‘A Faithful Narrative of the extraordinary Work of the Spirit of God at Kilsyth, and other Congregations in the Neighbourhood near Glasgow,’ published at Edinburgh, Glasgow, and London, 1742, 8vo, Glasgow, 1790, 1840, as well as a ‘Letter to Mr. Jas. Fisher,’ Edinburgh and Glasgow, 8vo, 1742. Robe's other works include ‘The Christian Monthly History,’ 6 numbers, Edinburgh, 1743–4; ‘Faith no ​Fancy,’ 1745, 8vo; and ‘Counsels and Comforts to Troubled Christians,’ Edinburgh and Glasgow, 1749. He continued at Kilsyth till his death, 26 May 1753. He married Anna Hamilton, who survived him twenty years.
W. G.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Roach, Richard

​ROACH, RICHARD (1662–1730), divine, son of Thomas Roach, of London, was born there on 18 July 1662, and admitted a scholar of Merchant Taylors' School in 1677. His senior schoolfellow by one year, Dr. Francis Lee [q. v.], remained through life his constant friend. Roach became head scholar, and was elected on 16 July 1681 to St. John's College, Oxford, graduating B.A. 1686, M.A. 1688. He was admitted to deacon's orders by Gilbert Ironside, bishop of Bristol, on 29 Sept. 1689, in Wadham College Chapel, took priest's orders on 16 March following, and graduated B.D. in 1695, having been appointed on 17 March 1690 rector of St. Augustine's, Hackney, where he remained until his death on 26 Aug. 1730. He was buried at St. Bride's, Fleet Street, on 30 Aug.
Roach was always inclined to mysticism, and when Lee devoted himself to the cause of Mrs. Jane Lead [q. v.], Roach followed. He assisted to write the ‘Theosophical Transactions of the Philadelphian Society’ in 1697, and contributed verses to be included in the mystical writings of Mrs. Lead, which were written from dictation and published by Lee. He edited ‘A Perswasive to Moderation and Forbearance in Love among the Divided Forms of Christians,’ of Jeremiah White, London, 8vo, no date; and published ‘The Great Crisis, or the Mystery of the Times and Seasons Unfolded,’ London, 1725 (not issued until 1727), 8vo, being preparatory to ‘The Imperial Standard of Messiah Triumphant. Coming now in the Power and Kingdom of His Father, to reign with His Saints on Earth,’ London, 1728, 8vo. In the latter extracts from Mrs. Lead's works are interspersed with verses by Roach. Rawlinson remarks of Roach ‘Nescio quâ fide obiit,’ but he adhered to the Philadelphian teaching.
C. F. S.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Rob Donn

​ROB DONN (1714–1778), Gaelic poet. [See Mackay, Robert.]
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Rob Roy

​ROB ROY (1671–1734), highland free-booter. [See MacGregor, Robert.]
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Robartes, Foulk

1904 Errata appended.
​ROBARTES or ROBERTES, FOULK (1580?–1650), divine, was born about 1580 (see funeral inscription in Blomefield's Norfolk, iii. 668). He was educated at Cambridge, proceeding B.A. from Christ's College 1598–9; he soon graduated M.A. 1602, and B.D. 1609 (Wood, Fasti Oxon. i. 400). He was incorporated B.D. at Oxford on 10 July 1621. In 1602 he was rector of St. Clement's at the Bridge, Norfolk (Foster, Alumni Oxon.), and from 1606 to 1607 vicar of Offley, Hertfordshire (Urwick, Nonconf. in Hertfordshire, pp. 660–2). On 16 Feb. 1615–16 he was installed prebendary of the fifth stall in Norwich Cathedral (Le Neve, Fasti, ii. 500). In addition to the prebend, he held the vicarage of Trowse and the rectory of St. Clement's, Norwich, and was also ‘minister’ of St. Saviour's, Norwich (Blomefield, Norfolk, iii. 365; Moens, The Walloons and their Church at Norwich, p. 67). On 10 March 1633 he signed the circular letter of the dean and chapter of Norwich to their tenants, pressing for the repair of the cathedral (Hist. MSS. Comm. 11th Rep. pt. vii.). In the preceding year he had strongly opposed the puritan demand of a lecturer for Norwich (ib. 12th Rep. pt. i. p. 465, 23 July 1632). Although a constant preacher, he was ejected from all his livings during the civil war, and lived in great poverty till his death on 1 April 1650. He was buried on the 10th on the west side of the south transept of Norwich Cathedral, where an inscription was erected to his memory. His wife, Anne, one of the twenty-one children of Richard Skinner, gent., died on 25 March 1627. Robartes wrote: 1. ‘The Revenue of the Gospel in Tythes due to the Ministry of the Word (by that word in Tim. i. 5, 18),’ Cambridge, 1613, 4to; dedicated to John Jegon, bishop of Norwich, and Sir Edward Coke, chief justice. 2. ‘God's Holy House and Service described according to the Primitive Form thereof,’ London, 1639, 4to.
W. A. S.
Dictionary of National Biography, Errata (1904), p.234 N.B.— f.e. stands for from end and l.l. for last line
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# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Robartes, Francis

1904 Errata appended.
​ROBARTES, FRANCIS (1650?–1718), politician and musician, son of John Robartes, first earl of Radnor [q. v.], by his second wife, Letitia Isabella, daughter of Sir John Smith, knight, of Kent, was born about 1650. He was admitted fellow-commoner of Christ's College, Cambridge, 2 May 1663, aged 13. In 1672–3 he was M.P. for Bossiney. Thenceforth until his death he sat for Bodmin and other Cornish boroughs, or for Cornwall. About 1705 he was appointed one of the tellers of the exchequer. Robartes, who became in 1673 F.R.S., died at Chelsea on 3 Feb. 1717–18. He married Anne, the widow of Hugh Boscawen of Tregothnan, and daughter of Wentworth Fitzgerald, seventeenth earl of Kildare. Their son John became the fourth and last earl of Radnor of that line, dying unmarried on 15 July 1757. ​Art and science were the pastimes of the Robartes family. During the mania for French forms of music which followed the Restoration, ‘all the compositions of the town,’ says North, ‘were strained to imitate’ Lulli's vein, but ‘none came so nere it as Robartes.’ Robartes's studies also extended to the scientific examination of certain similarities in the notes of the trumpet and those of the stringed instrument called the trumpet-marine. His ‘Discourse concerning the Musical Notes of a Trumpet’ was published in the ‘Philosophical Transactions,’ October 1692. Ambrose Warren, in the construction of his tonometer, 1725, largely availed himself of Robartes's calculations.
L. M. M.
Dictionary of National Biography, Errata (1904), p.234 N.B.— f.e. stands for from end and l.l. for last line
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# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Newcombe, Thomas

​NEWCOMBE, THOMAS, the elder (1627–1681), king's printer to Charles II, was born at Dunchurch, Warwickshire, in 1627. Between 1656 and April 1660 he was the proprietor and printer of the ‘Mercurius Publicus’ and the ‘Parliamentary Intelligencer.’ On 26 May 1657 he produced at Thames Street the first number of the ‘Public Advertiser,’ a weekly newspaper consisting almost entirely of advertisements and shipping intelligence. From about 1665 he reprinted the ‘Oxford Gazette’ under the title of the ‘London Gazette,’ which up to 19 July 1688 is entered in the ‘Stationers' Register’ as the property of ‘Thomas Newcombe of the Savoy.’ He was also the proprietor of the ‘Public Intelligencer.’ On 24 Dec. 1675 the patent of king's printer ‘for the printing of all bibles, new testaments, books of common prayer, of all translations, statutes, with notes or without, abridgments of the same, proclamations and injunctions,’ was granted to Thomas Newcombe and Henry Hills for thirty years, commencing after the various terms previously granted to Charles and Matthew Barker, which began 10 Jan. 1679, and came to an end 10 Jan. 1709. The patent of Newcombe and Hills consequently expired in 1739, when it was assigned by their executors to John Baskett [q. v.] and others.
The third volume of Dugdale's ‘Monasticon’ was printed by Newcombe in 1673. He was called to the bar of the House of Commons on 7 Nov. 1678 to account for a material error in a translation of the ‘Gazette’ into French (Journals of the House of Commons, ix. 534). He explained that the error was due to his translator, M. Moranville. He was an office-bearer of the company of Stationers, and left the company a silver bowl. He died 26 Dec. 1681, in his fifty-fifth year, and was buried at Dunchurch, where, in the south aisle of the church, a tablet was erected by his son. His widow, ‘Mrs. Dorothy Hutchinson,’ died 28 Feb. 1718.
Thomas Newcombe the younger (d. 1691), king's printer to Charles II, James II, and William III, son of the above, died 27 March 1691, and was buried at Dunchurch, Warwickshire. He left money to build almshouses at Dunchurch.
[Colvile's Warwickshire Worthies [1870] pp. 541–3; Dugdale's Warwickshire, 1730, i. 285; Andrews's History of British Journalism, 1859, i. 49, 65–6; Bourne's History of Newspapers, 1887, i. 23, 39; Hansard's Typographia, 1825, pp. 179–82; Timperley's Encyclopædia, 1842, pp. 525, 561–2; Nichols's Lit. Anecd. ix. 551, Illustr. Lit. Hist. iv. 204, Library Chronicle, ii. 165.]
H. R. T.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Newcourt, Richard (d.1716)

​NEWCOURT, RICHARD (d. 1716), author of ‘Repertorium Ecclesiasticum,’ was son of Richard Newcourt the elder [q. v.] He matriculated at Oxford as a servitor of Wadham College on 9 Dec. 1653, but did not graduate (Foster, Alumni Oxon. 1500–1714, iii. 1060). He became a notary public and proctor-general of the court of arches, and from August 1669 until May 1696 was principal registrary of the diocese of London. A few years before his death he retired to East Greenwich, where he was buried on 26 Feb. 1715–16, having survived his wife Mary only a few days. By his will (54 Fox), proved on 6 March 1715–16, he left his property to his sister, Mary Spicer. Hearne (Notes and Collections, Oxford Hist. Soc., ii. 265) calls him ‘Thomas’ Newcourt, and adds that he was ‘a nonjuror and a man of true integrity.’
Newcourt compiled from the records in his keeping an invaluable work, entitled ‘Repertorium Ecclesiasticum Parochiale Londinense; an Ecclesiastical Parochial History of the Diocese of London,’ 2 vols. fol. London, 1708–10, to which is prefixed his portrait engraved by J. Sturt, presumably after the painting in possession of Lord Coleraine. A copy of this book, with corrections and additions by William Cole (1714–1782) [q. v.], is in the Guildhall Library, London. In Tanner MS. cxlii. 176, 179, 191, is Newcourt's ‘Report to the Commissioners appointed by the Bishop of London to visit the registries of the Consistory and Commissary,’ 1669, together with a letter from Thomas Povey on the subject, dated 26 May 1669.
[Gardiner's Registers of Wadham College, pt. i. p. 201; Newcourt's Preface to ‘Repertorium;’ Noble's Continuation of Granger's Biog. Hist. i. 267–8.]
G. G.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Newcome, Peter

​NEWCOME, PETER (1727–1797), antiquary, born at Wellow in Hampshire in 1727, was son of Peter Newcome (1684–1744), rector of Shenley, Hertfordshire, and grandson of Peter Newcome (1656–1738) [see under Newcome, Henry]. He was educated at Hackney School, entered Queens' College, Cambridge, on 7 Nov. 1743, and graduated LL.B. in 1750 (College Register). He was instituted rector of Shenley, on his own petition, on 23 Dec. 1752, was collated to a prebend at Llandaff on 15 March 1757 (Le Neve, Fasti, ed. Hardy, ii. 268), and to a prebend at St. Asaph on 4 May 1764 (ib. i. 90). The last preferment he handed over to his brother, Henry, in 1766, on being presented to the sinecure rectory of Dârowen, Montgomeryshire. By the appointment of his friend, J. Heathcote, he twice preached Lady Moyer's lectures in St. Paul's, and was the last preacher on that endowment. In 1786 Sir Gilbert Heathcote gave him the rectory of Pitsea, Essex. He died unmarried in his sister's house at Hadley, near Barnet, Middlesex, on 2 April 1797 (Cussans, Hertfordshire, ‘Hundred of Dacorum,’ pp. 320, 323).
Newcome was author of: 1. ‘Maccabeis,’ a Latin poem, 4to, 1787. 2. ‘The History of the … Abbey of St. Alban,’ 4to, 1793–1795, in two volumes, a creditable compilation.
G. G.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Newcourt, Richard (d.1679)

​NEWCOURT, RICHARD, the elder (d. 1679), topographical draughtsman, was second son, by Mary Tucker, his wife, of Philip Newcourt of Tiverton, Devonshire. His father was third son of John Newcourt of Pickwell, in the same county, by Mary, daughter of Thomas Parker of North Molton, and widow of George Hext. Newcourt was baptised at Washfield, near Tiverton. On 23 Sept. 1633 he was granted admonition of the will of Sir Edward Hext, his father's half-brother, and on 16 May 1657 he received permission to act in a like capacity for Elizabeth, daughter of Sir Edward Hext and widow of Sir John Stawell of Cothelstone, Somerset. He became possessed of an estate at Somerton, Somerset, where he resided. Newcourt was a friend of Sir William Dugdale [q. v.], and drew some views of religious houses, which were engraved by Hollar for Dugdale's ‘Monasticon Anglicanum.’ Subsequently he undertook a very important work, entitled ‘An Exact Delineation of the Cities of London and Westminster and the Suburbs thereof, Together wth ye Burrough of Southwark And all ye Thorough-fares Highwaies Streetes Lanes and Common Allies wthin ye same Composed by a Scale, and Ichnographically described by Richard Newcourt of Somerton in the Countie of Somersett Gentleman.’ This is the most important map of London executed before the great fire. It was engraved by William Faithorne the elder [q. v.], published in 1658, and is so rare that only two examples of the original are at present known to exist. Newcourt died in 1679, and was buried with his wife at Somerton. In his will (89 King), dated 25 March 1675, and proved on 4 July 1679, he mentions his eldest son, Richard [q. v.]; his second son, Gerard, who succeeded him at Somerton; and his daughter, Mary, wife of Thomas Spicer of Somerton.
[Redgrave's Dict. of Artists; Fagan's Cat. of Faithorne's Works; Brown's Somersetshire Wills, 2nd and 3rd ser.]
L. C.