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

​POSTLETHWAYT, JOHN (1650–1713), chief master of St. Paul's School, born 8 Oct. 1650, was fourth son of Matthew Postlethwayt, and Margaret (Hunton). His father's family had long been settled at Bankside in Millom, Cumberland. After attending the neighbouring school of Whicham (Carlisle, Endowed Grammar Schools, i. 199), he went to Merton College, Oxford, where he graduated B.A. 1674, M.A. 1678. When Dr. Tenison, afterwards archbishop of Canterbury, established the school known by his name in the parish of St. Martin-in-the-Fields, of which he became rector in 1680, Postlethwayt was appointed master of it. In this office he showed such ability that in 1697, on the resignation of Dr. Thomas Gale [q. v.], he was chosen high master of St. Paul's. The strong recommendation given him by Tenison is printed in Stow, ed. Strype, i. 168. Evelyn, Bentley, and Wake, the future archbishop, also gave him testimonials.
He proved an eminent schoolmaster, and St. Paul's School prospered under his rule. When his strength failed, he taught in his sick-chamber. He died unmarried, 26 Sept. 1713, and was buried in St. Augustine's, Old Change, on the 30th. By his will, dated 5 Sept. 1713, he bequeathed the advowson of Denton rectory, Norfolk, which he had purchased of the Duke of Norfolk, to Merton College.
A voluminous mass of Postlethwayt's correspondence is in the possession of a collateral descendant, Mr. Albert Hartshorne, F.S.A., of Bradbourne Hall, Derbyshire. It shows, among other matters of interest, that the establishment of the lord almoner's professorship of Arabic at Oxford was due to Postlethwayt. Through Postlethwayt's influence with William III, Arabic studentships, as they were at first called, were established in Oxford in 1699. The first holders of these offices under the crown were two of Postlethwayt's pupils, John Wallis and Benjamin Marshall.
Matthew Postlethwayt (1679–1745), a nephew of the preceding, son of George and Elizabeth Postlethwayt, graduated B.A. 1702–3, M.A. 1706, from St. John's College, Cambridge. In 1703 he was ordained to the cure of Whicham. In 1707–8 he became vicar of Shottesham in Norfolk; and in 1714 rector of Denton, of which his uncle, John Postlethwayt, was patron, and where, in 1718, he rebuilt the rectory-house. In 1742 he was made archdeacon of Norwich and rector of Redenhall, Norfolk. He died in 1745. His portrait, by Cufaude, shows him to have been a tall, spare, dark-complexioned man. He was twice married, first, to Elizabeth Rogerson, and, secondly, to Matilda, sister of Sir Thomas Gooch, afterwards bishop of Norwich. He published two sermons. Some of his correspondence is in vol. 6209 of the Additional and Egerton MSS. in the British Museum, and much more in the possession of Mr. Hartshorne.
J. H. L.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Postlethwayt, Malachy

​POSTLETHWAYT, MALACHY (1707?–1767), economic writer, born about 1707, was elected F.S.A. on 21 March 1734. He devoted twenty years to the preparation of ‘The Universal Dictionary of Trade and Commerce,’ London, 1751, fol. (3rd edit. London, 1766, fol.; 4th edit. London, 1774, fol.), a translation, with large additions, from the French of J. Savary des Brulons. Postlethwayt collected much information, freely plagiarising other writers, but presented his results without method or conciseness. He died suddenly, ‘as he had often wished,’ on 13 Sept. 1767, and was buried in Old Street churchyard, Clerkenwell.
Postlethwayt also published: 1. ‘The African Trade the great Pillar and Support of the British Plantation Trade in America,’ &c., 1745, 4to. 2. ‘The Natural and Private Advantages of the African Trade considered,’ ​&c., 1746, 8vo. 3. ‘Considerations on the making of Bar Iron with Pitt or Sea Coal Fire, &c. In a Letter to a Member of the House of Commons,’ London, 1747, 8vo. 4. ‘Considerations on the Revival of the Royal-British Assiento, between his Catholic Majesty and the … South-Sea Company. With an … attempt to unite the African-Trade to that of the South-Sea Company, by Act of Parliament,’ London, 1749, 8vo. 5. ‘The Merchant's Public Counting House, or New Mercantile Institution,’ &c., London, 1750, 4to. 6. ‘A Short State of the Progress of the French Trade and Navigation,’ &c., London, 1756, 8vo. 7. ‘Great Britain's True System. … To which is prefixed an Introduction relative to the Forming a New Plan of British Politicks with respect to our Foreign Affairs,’ &c., London, 1757, 8vo. 8. ‘Britain's Commercial Interest explained and improved, in a Series of Dissertations on several important Branches of her Trade and Police. … Also … the Advantages which would accrue … from an Union with Ireland,’ 2 vols. 8vo, London, 1757; 2nd edit., ‘With … a clear View of the State of our Plantations in America,’ &c., London, 1759, 8vo. 9. ‘In Honour to the Administration. The importance of the African Expedition considered,’ &c., London, 1758, 8vo.
W. A. S. H.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Potenger, John

​POTENGER or POTTINGER, JOHN (1647–1733), master in chancery and author, born 21 July 1647, was the son of John Potenger, D.D., and Anne Withers. His father was headmaster of Winchester School from 1 Aug. 1642 to 1652, and died in 1659 (Foster, Alumni Oxonienses, 1st ser. p. 1187; Wood, Fasti, ii. 100; Kirby, Annals of Winchester College, pp. 318, 345). Potenger was admitted to Winchester College in 1658, and matriculated at Corpus Christi College, Oxford, on 26 May 1664, where he obtained a Hampshire scholarship. He took the degree of B.A. on 1 Feb. 1667–8, and was admitted to the Inner Temple in 1675. By the favour of Sir John Ernley, then chancellor of the exchequer, he was allowed to buy at the price of 1,700l. the office of comptroller of the pipe, and was sworn in in Hilary term 1676. On 2 July 1678 he married Philadelphia, second daughter of Sir John Ernley (Memoirs, p. 50; Chester, London Marriage Licenses, p. 1079). Subsequently he obtained the post of master in chancery, but sold it again for 700l. In the reign of James II he was removed from the commission of the peace for Middlesex for refusing to support the king's religious policy, but was restored again by William III. He died in 1733, his wife in 1692, and both were buried in the church of Broad Blunsdon in the parish of Highworth, Wiltshire.
Potenger was the author of ‘A Pastoral Reflection on Death,’ 1691, and of many unpublished poems. Nichols, in his ‘Select Collection of Poems’ (i. 213), prints an ode of Horace translated by Potenger, and adds in a note two letters from Dr. South praising his compositions (viii. 286). Potenger also published a translation of the ‘Life of Agricola’ by Tacitus (8vo, 1698). His memoirs of his own life were edited in 1841 by his descendant, C. W. Bingham, vicar of Sydling ​St. Nicholas, Dorset. Apart from their biographical interest they contain interesting information on the state of education at Winchester and Oxford during the seventeenth century. Extracts from the part relating to Oxford are reprinted in Couch's ‘Reminiscences of Oxford,’ p. 53 (Oxf. Hist. Soc. 1892).
[Authorities mentioned in the article.]
C. H. F.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Pott, Joseph Holden

​POTT, JOSEPH HOLDEN (1759–1847), archdeacon of London, was son of Percivall Pott [q. v.], the surgeon. He was born in 1759, in his father's house near St. Bartholomew's Hospital, was educated at Eton, and thence sent at an early age to St. John's College, Cambridge. He graduated B.A. in 1780, and proceeded M.A. in 1783. At Eton he had dabbled in verse, and up to 1786 four separate works, in verse and prose, appeared from his pen. Taking holy orders, he was collated by Bishop Thurlow, formerly dean of St. Paul's, to the prebend of Welton-Brinkhall in Lincoln Cathedral, 17 March 1785 (Le Neve, ii. 230). In 1787 he became rector of St. Olave, Old Jewry, and St. Martin, Ironmonger Lane. He was appointed archdeacon of St. Albans on 8 Jan. 1789.
In 1797 he exchanged his London rectory for the living of Little Burstead, Essex, which he left for the vicarage of Northolt or Northall, Middlesex, on 24 Feb. 1806. He next became vicar of St. Martin-in-the-Fields, London, 12 Dec. 1812, and exchanged the archdeaconry of St. Albans for that of London, 31 Dec. 1813. In 1822 (4 Oct.) he received a canonry in St. Paul's Cathedral, and on 13 July 1824 exchanged the vicarage of St. Martin's for that of Kensington. Finally he became canon and chancellor of Exeter, 2 May 1826. Resigning his archdeaconry and his vicarage in 1842, he held both canonries until his death, which took place on 16 Feb. 1847, at his residence in Woburn Place, Bloomsbury, London. He died unmarried, leaving considerable personalty and a valuable library, which was sold by auction in May 1847.
Pott assisted Nichols to some extent in the production of the ‘Literary Anecdotes,’ and he is mentioned with approval by Mathias in the ‘Pursuits of Literature’ in the phrase ‘as Gisborne serious, and as Pott devout.’ He was generally popular and respected. His portrait was painted by William Owen, R.A., and an engraving from it published in 1843.
His principal works, besides sermons, controversial tracts, and archidiaconal charges, of which he delivered twenty-six, were:
* ‘Poems,’ 1779, 8vo.
* ‘Elegies, and Seimane, a Tragedy,’ 1782, 8vo.
* ‘Essay on Landscape-painting, with Remarks on the different Schools,’ 1783, 8vo.
* ‘The Tour of Valentine,’ 1786, 8vo.
* ‘Testimonies of St. Paul concerning Justification,’ 1846, 8vo.
[Nichols's Literary Anecdotes, vii. p. 425, ix. pp. v, 73; Gent. Mag. 1847 pt. ii. pp. 210–11; Romilly's Grad. Cantabr. p. 306; Le Neve's Fasti; Foster's Index Ecclesiasticus; Life of Percival Pott in Works, ed. Sir J. Earle; Allibone's Dict. of Engl. Lit.; Lowndes's Bibl. Man.]
E. G. H.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Crompton, John

​CROMPTON, JOHN (1611–1669), non-conformist divine, younger son of Abraham Crompton of Brightmet, a hamlet in the parish of Bolton, Lancashire, was born in 1611. He received his academical education at Emmanuel College, Cambridge, where he proceeded M.A. After leaving the university he became lecturer at All Saints, Derby. In 1637, when a pestilence visited the town, and every one fled that could, Crompton remained at his post, and did what he could to allay the terror and confusion. From Derby he removed to Brailsford, a rectory seven miles distant, where he paid the fifth of the whole profits. He also gave the profits of Osmaston chapelry, which belonged to the rectory, reckoned at 40l. a year, to a clergyman of his own choosing, that he might attend wholly to his parishioners at Brailsford. When Booth rose in Lancashire, and White at Nottingham, for the king, Crompton went with his neighbours, with such arms ​as they could get, to assist at Derby. The attempt failing, he and some of his friends were placed for a while under strict surveillance by the parliament. At the Restoration Crompton was forced to give up his rectory, though a certificate testifying his worth and loyalty was signed by many influential inhabitants of Derby and adjacent places. He then retired to Arnold, a small vicarage near Nottingham, from which he was soon ejected by the Act of Uniformity. He continued, however, to rent the vicarage house at Arnold till the Five Mile Act removed him to Mapperley in Derbyshire, where he preached as he had opportunity. He died on 9 Jan. 1669, and was buried at West Hallam. His funeral sermon was preached by Robert Horn, the rector, who, dying himself some six weeks later, desired to be laid in the same grave. Crompton had, with other issue, two sons, Abraham, of Derby, who died in 1734, and Samuel, pastor of a dissenting congregation at Doncaster.
[Calamy's Nonconf. Memorial (Palmer), iii. 86–8; Burke's Landed Gentry, 6th ed., 1882, i. 395; Glover's Derbyshire, pt. i. vol. ii. p. 495.]
G. G.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Crompton, Charles John

​CROMPTON, Sir CHARLES JOHN (1797–1865), justice of the queen's bench, born at Derby on 12 June 1797, was the third son of Dr. Peter Crompton, whose father was ​a banker there. The Cromptons came of a Yorkshire puritan stock, connected with the Cheshire family of the regicide Bradshaw. Dr. Peter Crompton succeeded to an elder brother's inheritance, and at an early age married his second cousin Mary, daughter of John Crompton of Chorley Hall, Lancashire, a lady much admired by the poet Coleridge and often mentioned in his correspondence. Shortly after his third son's birth, Dr. Crompton removed from Derby to Eton House, near Liverpool, and there passed the rest of his days as a country gentleman, physicking the poor gratis and being noted for advanced liberal opinions at a time when it was not very safe to hold them. His son Charles (who never used his second name, John), having graduated with distinction at Trinity College, Dublin, was entered at the Inner Temple in 1817, after a short time spent in a Liverpool solicitor's office. He learned the art of special pleading (in which he became later a great adept) from Littledale and Patteson, and, being called to the bar in 1821, went the northern circuit. Practice came to him, if not very quickly, on the whole steadily, and he acquired in time the reputation of a learned and thoroughly sound lawyer, becoming an authority especially in mercantile cases and in questions arising out of the Municipal Corporation Reform Act. He became tubman and then postman in the exchequer, counsel for the board of stamps and taxes, reporter of exchequer decisions from 1830 to 1836 (first with Jervis, afterwards with Meeson and Roscoe), assessor of the court of passage in Liverpool from 1836, a member of the commission of inquiry into the court of chancery in 1851, and then, without having taken silk, was raised to the bench in February 1852 by Lord Truro, and knighted. A strong liberal in politics, like his father, he stood for parliament at Preston in 1832, and Newport (Isle of Wight) in 1847, but in both cases unsuccessfully. He proved an excellent judge, especially in banco, and was the author of many decisions still quoted. When he died, on 30 Oct. 1865, he was followed to his resting-place in Willesden churchyard with unusual marks of respect and affection from his professional brethren. He had a character as open and winning as it was upright and high-principled, with a lively humour that in youth was apt to brim over and later was sometimes rather caustic but which grew mellow with age. Through life he was an omnivorous reader, and amid the greatest press of work he always found time for the pursuits and interests of a highly cultivated mind. He married Caroline, fourth daughter of Thomas Fletcher, a Liverpool merchant, in 1832, and left four sons and three daughters.
[Foss's Lives of the Judges; Law Magazine, vol. xxiii. No. 45, art. 1, by Sir L. Peel; information from the family.]
G. C. R.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Crome, John Bernay

​CROME, JOHN BERNAY (1794–1842) landscape-painter, the eldest son of John (Old) Crome [q. v.], was born at Norwich 14 Dec. 1794. He was christened John Barney, after his father's christian and mother's maiden name, but in the record of the baptisms of other members of his family the mother's name is sometimes spelt Berney and Bernay. He was educated at the grammar school at Norwich under Dr. Samuel Forster and the Rev. Edward Valpy. He was brought up as an artist, assisted his father in teaching, and succeeded him in his practice. He painted coast and country scenes, and attained considerable local reputation as a painter and a teacher. He was a member of the Norwich Society of Artists, and between 1806 and 1830 sent 277 of his works to their exhibitions. Between 1811 and 1843 he exhibited seven works at the Royal Academy, thirty-five at the British Institution, and fifty-five at the Society of British Artists. He made frequent visits to the continent, and the subjects of some of his pictures were taken from places in France, Holland, Belgium, and Italy. Towards the close of his ​life he became celebrated for his moonlight pictures. In 1835 he left Norwich for Great Yarmouth, where he died, after much suffering, from an incurable disease, 15 Sept. 1842, aged 48. He was twice married, and left a widow but no children. His pictures are unequal in merit, but his best are so like those of his father that some of them have been exhibited and sold as such.
[Wodderspoon's John Crome and his Works, 2nd edit.; Norfolk Chronicle, 17 Sept. 1842; Norwich Mercury, same date; Redgrave's Dict.; information communicated by Mr. James Reeve of Norwich.]
C. M.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Cromleholme, Samuel

​CROMLEHOLME, SAMUEL (1618–1672), head-master of St. Paul's School, born in 1618 in Wiltshire, was the son of the Rev. Richard Cromleholme, who was rector of Quedgeley, Gloucestershire, from July 1624. He was admitted to Corpus Christi College, Oxford, 13 Nov. 1635, at the age of seventeen, and took the degrees of B.A. and M.A. in due course. He became master of the Mercers' Chapel school, London, and in 1647 was appointed sur-master of St. Paul's School, where he found a friend in the Rev. John Langley, the head-master, through whose recommendation he got the mastership of the Dorchester grammar school on 10 Oct. 1651. On 14 Sept. 1657 he succeeded Langley, who on his deathbed had recommended him as head-master of St. Paul's School. Pepys was intimate with him, and held him in honour for his learning, but in one place calls him a ‘conceited pedagogue’ for being ‘so dogmatical in all he does and says.’ He was a good linguist, and hence earned the name of πολύγλωττος. At the burning of the school in the great fire of 1666 he lost a valuable library, the best private collection in London it was reputed, and its loss was thought to have hastened his death, which took place on 21 July 1672. His remains were buried in the Guildhall chapel, and his funeral sermon was preached by Dr. John Wells of St. Botolph's, Aldersgate. His wife, Mary Cromleholme, survived him, but he left no children.
[Gardiner's Admission Registers of St. Paul's School, 1884, p. 49; Knight's Life of Colet, 1823, p. 325; Hutchins's Dorset, 1863, ii. 368; Obituary of Richard Smyth (Camd. Soc.), p. 96; Pepys's Diary, ed. Mynors Bright, 1875, i. 24, 38, 391, ii. 10, 46, 139, 205, iii. 125, iv. 94; Bagford's account of London Libraries in W. J. Thoms's Mem. of W. Oldys, 1862, p. 74; and in Notes and Queries, 1861, 2nd ser. xi. 403; information from Mr. J. W. Bone and others.]
C. W. S.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Crompton, Hugh

​CROMPTON, HUGH (fl. 1657), poet, was, according to his friend Winstanley, ‘born a Gentleman and bred up a Scholar.’ He probably belonged to the Lancashire family of Crompton. But his father's means failed, and he had to earn his own livelihood, ‘which his learning had made him capable to do.’ Misfortune still dogged him, and he employed his enforced leisure in writing poetry. Before 1687 he emigrated to Ireland. The date of his death is uncertain. His published works, which are very rarely met with, are: 1. ‘Poems by Hugh Crompton, the Son of Bacchus and Godson of Apollo. Being a fardle of Fancies or a medley of Musick, stood in four ounces of the Oyl of Epigrams,’ London, 1657, dedicated to the author's ‘Friend and Kinsman Colonell Tho. Compton.’ 2. ‘Pierides, or the Muses Mount,’ London, 1658?, dedicated to Mary, duchess of Richmond and Lennox. Many of Crompton's poems are fluently and briskly written; a few are obvious imitations of Waller, and others are unpleasantly coarse. Granger mentions a portrait of Crompton at the age of eighteen which was engraved by A. Hertocks. A second engraved portrait is prefixed to the ‘Pierides.’
[Winstanley's Lives of the English Poets, 191; Granger's Biog. Hist. iii. 100; Corser's Collectanea, iv. 521–6; Park's Restituta, i. 272, iii. 167.]
S. L. L.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Cromer, George

​CROMER, GEORGE (d. 1543), archbishop of Armagh, was an Englishman by birth. He succeeded Kite at Armagh in 1522. (The writ to restore the temporalities was of June 1522, and was retrospective to the time of Kite's resignation; Ware, Works on Ireland, Harris's transl.) He was attached to the faction of Gerald, earl of Kildare, through whom he was made lord chancellor of Ireland in 1532, after the removal of Kildare's enemy, Archbishop Allen of Dublin. He exercised this high office for two years, down to the rising of Kildare and the murder of Allen. Cromer is best known for the opposition that he attempted to the introduction of the English reformation into Ireland, into which course he was led partly by his friendship with the Geraldines, and his resentment at the ​severities used towards them at the end of their revolt. In 1536 Henry VIII imposed all the reformatory measures, that had been passed at Westminster, upon the parliament of Dublin: such as the act of supreme head, the act for first-fruits to go to the crown, the act for suppressing certain monasteries, and others (Irish State Papers, p. 526; Cox, Hibern. Anglicana, p. 248; Dixon, Ch. of Engl. ii. 181). At the same time a number of commissioners appeared, and the English reformation was actively enforced, especially by Browne, the new archbishop of Dublin. Cromer, as primate of Ireland, did what he could to oppose these proceedings. Summoning a meeting of some of his suffragans and clergy, he represented the impiety of acknowledging the king as supreme head of the church; exhorted them to adhere to the apostolic chair; and convinced them that Ireland was the peculiar property of the holy see, from which alone the English kings held their dominion or lordship over it, by the argument that it was anciently called the Holy Island (Leland, ii. 161). Soon afterwards Archbishop Browne informed the powerful minister Cromwell that Cromer was intriguing with the Duke of Norfolk, one of the heads of the old learning in England, to prevent the reformation in Ireland. ‘George, my brother of Armagh, doth underhand occasion quarrels, and is not active to execute his highness's orders in his diocese. The Duke of Norfolk is by Armagh, and the clergy desired to assist them, nor to suffer his highness to alter church rules here in Ireland’ (Cox, p. 257). He also warned him that Cromer had entered into communication with Rome. The latter had indeed despatched emissaries thither, to advertise the pope of the king's recent proceedings; and had received from the holy father a private commission, prohibiting the people from owning the king for supreme head, and pronouncing a curse on those who should not confess to their confessors within forty days that they had done amiss in so doing (Cox, ib., Browne to Crumwel, May 1538). Little came of this, and Cromer seems to have ceased to attract attention. He died in March 1542–3.
[Authorities cited, ad loc.]
R. W. D.