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

​RATCLIFFE or RATLIFFE, THOMAS (d. 1599), divine, matriculated as a pensioner of Peterhouse, Cambridge, in June 1573, his christian name being erroneously given as Robert. He migrated to Trinity College, and proceeded B.A. in 1578. He afterwards studied divinity, and was elected in 1585 a chaplain of St. Saviour's, Southwark, where he officiated and 'caterkised on the Saboth day afternoon,' at a salary of twenty marks a year (Vestry Minute-books). When St. Saviours-with-St. Mary-Overie became the parish church, Ratcliffe continued to act as priest or minister. The preface of his 'Short Svmme of the whole Catechisme wherein the Question is propounded and answered for the greater ease of the common people and children of Saint Saueries in Southwarke,' is dated from Southwark, 22 Oct. 1592. The work is extremely rare. Watt and Ames (Typogr. Antiq. ed. Herbert, 1277) both mention an octavo edition published by William Barley, Gracechurch Street, London, 1594, which is presumably the first. The Bodleian Library contains another octavo edition, London, 1619, but the British Museum has only a copy of a later, possibly altered, duodecimo edition printed in London by Edw. Allde in 1620. Ratcliffe died at Southwark, and was buried at St. Saviour's on 6 Feb. 1599.
C. F. S.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Rathbone, John

​RATHBONE, JOHN (1750?–1807), artist, born in Cheshire about 1750, practised in Manchester, London, and Preston as a landscape-painter in both oil and watercolour. Although he gained the name of the ‘Manchester Wilson’ [see Wilson, Richard, (1714–1782)], his works in oil are opaque, flat, and ineffective. His works in watercolour, though in the light and washed style then practised, are well drawn and interesting. The British Museum possesses three of his watercolour drawings, all of which are landscapes with figures, and there is a cleverly drawn landscape by him in grey faded tints at South Kensington. There is a landscape in oils in the Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool, by Rathbone, and two hang in the Peel Park Art Gallery, Salford. Between 1785 and 1806 Rathbone exhibited forty-eight landscapes at the Royal Academy and two at the Society of Artists. He also exhibited three landscapes at the exhibition of the Society of Artists in Liverpool in August 1774. The catalogue states against his name ‘now at Preston.’ George Morland [q. v.] and Julius Cæsar Ibbetson [q. v.] were intimate friends, and many of the figures in his pictures are assigned to them. Rathbone died in 1807.
[Redgrave's Dict. of Artists; Graves's Dict. of Artists; Bryan's Dict. ed. Graves; Exhibition Catalogues; Mayer's Early Art in Liverpool.]
A. N.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Ratcliffe

​RATCLIFFE. [See also Radcliffe and Radclyffe.]
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Ratcliffe, Henry

​RATCLIFFE, HENRY (1808–1877), vital statistician, born at Tyldesley, Lancashire, on 4 Nov. 1808, joined the Chowbent division of the Manchester Unity of Oddfellows in 1833, became provincial grandmaster in 1836, then provincial secretary of his district, and finally, in 1848, secretary of the whole order. Ratcliffe soon displayed great financial ability, and with conspicuous success devoted himself to vital statistics, at the time a comparatively new study. In 1850 he brought out his ‘Observations of the Rate of Mortality and Sickness existing among Friendly Societies,’ which at once became a standard authority. The monetary tables which were appended were thenceforth known as the ‘Ratcliffe Tables,’ and the data dealing with thirty-one trades proved of permanent value. In 1852 Ratcliffe issued a supplement, giving further financial details, and recommending a quinquennial valuation of the assets and liabilities of all friendly societies—a suggestion which was adopted by government in 1870. In 1862 Ratcliffe republished his actuarial tables, basing them on far wider calculations. In 1871 he undertook a special valuation of his society, which his labours had placed on a sound actuarial basis. He was nominated a public valuer under the Friendly Societies Act of 1870. Ratcliffe, who was a congregationalist, died at the society's offices in Manchester on 25 May 1877, and was buried at Brooklands cemetery, near Sale, where the Manchester Unity erected a monument to his memory.
[Frome-Wilkinson's Mutual Thrift, 1891; information from the Rev. J. Frome-Wilkinson.]
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Ratcliffe, John (d.1610)

​RATCLIFFE, JOHN, alias Sicklemore (d. 1610), president of Virginia. [See Sicklemore.]
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Rastell, William

​RASTELL, WILLIAM (1508?–1565), judge, born about 1508, was elder son of the printer, John Rastell (d. 1536) [q. v.], by his wife Elizabeth, sister of Sir Thomas More. Rastell's sister Eliza married John Heywood [q. v.] In 1525 he went to Oxford. There, according to Wood, he learned much ‘logic and philosophy,’ but took no degree. After plying the printer's craft for some years he was admitted, on 12 Sept. 1532, a student at Lincoln's Inn; he was called to the bar in 1539, and was chosen autumn reader in 1547, and treasurer in 1555.
Like his father, a staunch catholic, Rastell quitted England soon after the accession of Edward VI, and resided at Louvain throughout his reign, suffering in consequence the forfeiture of his estate. He returned on the accession of Mary, was made a serjeant-at-law on 16 Oct. 1555, was joined with the bishops of London and Ely in a commission of inquisition into heresy on 8 Oct. 1556–7, and was advanced to a puisne judgeship in the queen's bench on 27 Oct. 1558. He was continued in office by Elizabeth, resigning office early in 1563.
His last days were spent at Louvain, where, in the church of St. Peter, he had buried in 1553 his wife Winifred, daughter of Dr. John Clement [q. v.] He died on 27 Aug. 1565, and was buried by the side of his wife.
Rastell edited ‘The Works of Sir Thomas More, knight, sometyme Lorde Chancellour of England; wrytten by him in the Englysh Tonge,’ London (Tottell), 1557, 2 vols. fol. He was credited with a life of Sir Thomas More, but, if written, this was either never published or perished at a very early date.
He also edited (1) Fitzherbert's ‘Natura Brevium,’ with Littleton's ‘Tenures,’ a ‘Chartuary,’ and other matter [see Fitzherbert, Sir Anthony, and Littleton, Sir Thomas, (1402–1481)], London (Tottell), 1534, 8vo; and separately in 1553, adding a new table of contents. (2) A translation of his father's ‘Expositiones Terminorum Legum Anglorum,’ entitled ‘An Exposition of certaine Difficult and Obscure Wordes and Termes of the Law,’ &c., London (Tottell), 1567, 8vo; reprinted 1579, 1602, and as ‘Les Termes de la Ley,’ 1641 and 1667. (3) ‘A Colleccion of all the Statutes from the beginning of Magna Carta until the yere of our Lorde 1557, which were before that yere imprinted. Whereunto be addyd the Colleccion of the Statutes made in the fourth and fift yeres of the reign of King Philip and Quene Mary, and also the Statutes made in the fyrst yere of the reyne of our Sovereyne Lady Quene Elizabeth,’ London (Tottell), 1559, 4to, a work afterwards continued by Ferdinando Pulton [q. v.] Rastell also compiled ‘A Table collected of the yeres of our Lorde God and of the yeres of the Kynges of Englande,’ London, 1561, 1564, 8vo; and ‘A Colleccion of Entrees, of Declarations, Barres, Replications, Rejoinders, Issues, Verdits, Judgements, Executions, Proces, Contynuances, Essoynes, and divers other matters,’ London (Tottell), 1566, fol., 1574, fol. (Yetsweirt), 1596, fol.
J. M. R.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Ratcliffe, John (d.1776)

​RATCLIFFE, JOHN (d. 1776), book-collector, kept a chandler's shop in the borough of Southwark, where he acquired a competency. Large quantities of books were brought him to wrap the articles of his trade in, and, after yielding to the temptation of reading them, he became an ardent collector. He took to spending whole days in the warehouses of the booksellers, and every Thursday morning the chief print and book collectors, including Askew, Croft, Topham Beauclerk, and James West, came to his house, when, after providing them with coffee and chocolate, he produced his latest purchases. His books were kept at his house in East Lane, Rotherhithe. He died in 1776, after spending thirty years in book-collecting.
His library was sold by Christie in Pall Mall, London, the sale beginning on ​27 March 1776, and lasting for nine working days. A priced copy of the catalogue ('Bibliotheca Ratcliffiana') is in the British Museum, and the collection, which comprised many old English black-letter books, thirty Caxtons, and some fine manuscripts, is described as 'the very essence of old Divinity, Poetry, Romances, and Chronicles.' There were only 1,675 articles, but many of them consisted of numerous volumes. Four lots (10 to 13) comprised 155 plays. The last article but one was 'Mr. Ratcliffe's Manuscript Catalogue of the rare old Black Letter and other curious and uncommon Books,' in four volumes, which fetched 7l. 15s. The entire collection would at the present day have realised more pounds than it actually produced shillings. The Caxtons fetched on an average 9l. each.
W. P. C.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Knowler, William

​KNOWLER, WILLIAM (1699–1773), divine, third son of Gilbert Knowler, gent., of Stroud House, at Herne in Kent, was baptised on 9 May 1699 (Nichols, Literary Anecdotes, ii. 129). He was educated at St. John's College, Cambridge, graduated B.A. in 1720, M.A. in 1724, and LL.D. in 1728. On leaving Cambridge, Knowler became chaplain to Thomas Watson Wentworth, then Lord Malton, who was in 1746 created Marquis of Rockingham. Lord Malton had inherited the papers of his great-grandfather, Thomas Wentworth, earl of Strafford [q. v.], and charged his chaplain with the task of publishing a selection from them. This appeared in 1739 under the title of ‘The Earl of Strafford's Letters and Despatches,’ London, 2 vols. folio. They were selected, says Knowler, in the dedication he addressed to his patron, by Lord Malton himself, and published according to his instructions, in order to vindicate Strafford's memory from ‘the aspersions of acting upon arbitrary principles, and being a friend to the Roman catholics.’ It is possible that the editor derived some assistance from an ‘Essay on Epistolary Writings with respect to the Grand Collection of Thomas, Earl of Strafford,’ which William Oldys had written in 1729, and dedicated to Lord Malton (Thoms, Memoir of William Oldys, 1862, p. viii; Bolton Corney, Curiosities of Literature Illustrated, p. 113). Knowler was presented by his patron, first to the living of Irthlingborough, or Artleburrow, between Wellingborough and Higham Ferrers, and afterwards to the living of Boddington, both in Northamptonshire (Nichols, Lit. Anecdotes, ii. 129). In 1766 he prepared for the press a translation of Chrysostom's ‘Commentary on St. Paul's Epistle to the Galatians,’ which was never printed (ib. ii. 130). He died in December 1773.
A pedigree kindly communicated by the Rev. T. W. Openshaw of Bristol describes Knowler as marrying Mary Dalton in 1749. Nichols, quoting the ‘Gentleman's Magazine’ (lxxv. 90), describes Mrs. Knowler as the daughter of Mr. Presgrove, surgeon in Westminster, and states that she died in 1805 (ib. viii. 401). This may have been a second wife. A letter from Knowler to the Rev. John Lewis is printed by Nichols in ‘Illustrations of Literature,’ iv. 427; others relating to the publication of the ‘Strafford Papers’ will be published in the next volume of the ‘Camden Miscellany,’ from manuscripts of Knowler's in the possession of the author of this article.
[Authorities cited.]
C. H. F.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Knowles, Gilbert

​KNOWLES, GILBERT (fl. 1723), botanist and poet, born in 1674, is known only for his ‘Materia Medica Botanica’ (London, 1723, 4to). This work is dedicated to Dr. Richard Mead [q. v.], and consists of 7355 Latin hexameters. Four hundred plants of the materia medica are described and their uses in medicine explained. Various episodes, some of which may yet be read with pleasure, are interwoven with the subject for the sake of ornament. Knowles alludes to his verses as being written ‘rudi Minerva,’ and evidently was a close student both of Virgil's style and matter.
A portrait engraved in mezzotint by John Faber from a painting by T. Murray, subscribed ‘Mr. Gilbert Knowles, ætatis 49, anno 1723,’ is prefixed to the volume.
M. G. W.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Knowles, James (1759-1840)

​KNOWLES, JAMES (1759–1840), lexicographer, born in 1759, was son of John Knowles of Dublin, by Frances, daughter of the Rev. Dr. Sheridan of Quilca, the friend of Swift. His mother's brother, Thomas Sheridan, author of a ‘Pronouncing Dictionary,’ and father of Richard Brinsley Sheridan, directed his education and intended him for the church; but an early marriage led Knowles to establish a school in Cork in 1780, which prospered until 1793. In that year Knowles, who was a liberal as well as a protestant, first signed a petition for catholic emancipation, and a little later went bail for the editor of a liberal paper, who had been prosecuted at the instance of the government. His pupils, who were the sons of protestant gentry, deserted him, and he went to London, where, according to his son's account, he was helped by his first cousin, Richard Brinsley Sheridan. He continued his career as a schoolmaster, and in 1813, mainly by his son's influence, he was appointed head-master of the English department in the Belfast Academical Institution. In 1816 he was dismissed by the directors, on the ground of inability to maintain discipline. Knowles declined to be dismissed, and prepared to resist ejectment; but eventually he gave way, and in 1817 published ‘An Appeal to the Dignified Visitors, and the Noblemen and Gentlemen, Proprietors,’ invoking the principles of the British constitution to prove that he had suffered injustice. Before leaving Belfast he received a testimonial from some of the leading citizens. He returned to London, where he appears to have carried on his profession as ‘teacher of reading, elocution, grammar, and composition’ for several years. In 1829 he seems to have joined his son in Glasgow, where he brought out a little book on ‘Orthoëpy and Elocution.’ About this time, though he was now seventy and suffering from a painful disease, he began the compilation of a dictionary. This was published in London in 1835, under the name of ‘A Pronouncing and Explanatory Dictionary of the English Language.’ A dispute with the printer led to a protracted lawsuit, of which most of the expenses were borne by his son, James Sheridan Knowles [q. v.] Knowles died at his son's house, Alfred Place, Bedford Square, London, on 6 Feb. 1840, and was buried at Highgate.
Knowles married, first, Jane, daughter of Andrew Peace, medical practitioner, of Cork, widow of a Mr. Daunt, and after her death, in 1800, a Miss Maxwell. James Sheridan was the offspring of the first marriage.
[R. B. Knowles's Life of James Sheridan Knowles; Gent. Mag. 1840.]
T. B. S.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Tovey-Tennent, Hamilton

​TOVEY-TENNENT, HAMILTON (1782–1866), soldier, born at Garrigheugh, Comrie, Perthshire, on 20 Aug. 1782, was the second son of John Tovey of Stirling, by his wife Hamilton, daughter of Sir James Dunbar of Mochrum and Woodside, third baronet, and judge-advocate of Scotland. He was educated at Stirling, and on 28 Dec. 1798 received the commission of lieutenant in the Bombay military service. In 1801 he was posted to the 24th regular native infantry at Goa, and was employed on active service against the Mahrattas. In 1805, while serving under Lord Lake at the siege of Bhurtpore, he was severely wounded in an assault on the town. On 17 Jan. 1811 he received the commission of captain. In 1813 he was placed in command of Ahmednuggar, and appointed brigade major at Poona. After more service against the Mahrattas, he was appointed in 1819 private secretary to Mountstuart Elphinstone [q. v.], governor of Bombay. He was promoted to the rank of major on 19 Jan. 1820, and accompanied Elphinstone on his tour through the province till November 1821, when he was compelled by the effect of his wounds to return to England. He retired from the service on 24 April 1824, being promoted to the rank of lieutenant-colonel. In 1832 he succeeded to the estates of his cousin, James Tennent of Pynnacles, Stanmore, Middlesex, and of Overton, Shropshire, and assumed his surname and arms. He died without issue, at Pynnacles, on 4 March 1866. In 1836 he married Helen, only daughter of General Samuel Graham, lieutenant-governor of Stirling Castle. Tovey-Tennent was a large contributor to charitable objects. Among other gifts he presented a site for a new church at Stanmore in 1854, and contributed 1,000l. to erect a school at Stirling. He was succeeded in his estates by his nephew, James Tovey-Tennent.
[Gent. Mag. 1866 i. 608, ii. 693; Burke's Landed Gentry, 1871; Dodwell and Miles's Indian Army List, Bombay Pres. p. 82; Colebrooke's Life of Mountstuart Elphinstone, 1884, ii. 11.]
E. I. C.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Towne, Charles

​TOWNE, CHARLES (d. 1850?), artist, son of Richard Town, portrait-painter of Liverpool, worked there originally as an heraldic or coach painter. In 1787 a small landscape by him appeared in an exhibition held in that town. His first appearance in London exhibitions was at the Royal Academy in 1799, when he had added a final ‘e’ to his name. Between that year and 1823 he exhibited twelve works at the academy, and four at the British Institute. From 1800 to 1805 he resided in Manchester, and is said to have then removed to London; but he had returned to Liverpool in 1810, where his name appears as a member of the Liverpool Academy in their first exhibition in that year. He was a vice-president in 1813, and resided in Liverpool until 1837, when he apparently returned to London. He died there about 1850. Towne painted landscapes and animals, and obtained great celebrity in Lancashire and Cheshire by his ​portraits of horses, dogs, and cattle. Many of his pictures were small, but occasionally he ventured on compositions of landscapes with cattle introduced of larger size. There is a picture of Everton village by him in the Liverpool Corporation gallery. He also painted in watercolour, and was a candidate for admission to the Watercolour Society in 1809. His work, though carefully drawn, is wanting in spirit and originality.
A. N.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Towerson, Gabriel (1635?-1697)

1904 Errata appended.
​TOWERSON, GABRIEL (1635?–1697), divine and theological writer, was the son of William Towerson, and probably born in London in or about 1635. He was educated first at St. Paul's school, proceeding thence to Queen's College, Oxford, where he was Pauline exhibitioner from 1650 to 1659. He matriculated on 27 Feb. 1650–1, graduating B.A. on 17 June 1654 and M.A. on 21 April 1657. In 1657 his father petitioned Richard Cromwell, then chancellor of the university of Oxford, to use his influence with the warden and fellows of All Souls' College to admit his son, who had studied for some years and devoted himself to the ministry, to one of the vacant fellowships. Towerson obtained his fellowship in 1660, and received the college rectory of Welwyn in Hertfordshire on the deprivation of Nicholas Greaves by the Act of Uniformity. He was admitted on 31 Oct. 1662, and retained the living until his death. He was created D.D. by Archbishop Sancroft on 1 Feb. 1678, and was presented to the rectory of St. Andrew Undershaft, London, on 20 April 1692. He died on 14 Oct. 1697, and was buried at Welwyn.
Towerson left his property to be equally divided among his seven children. His will, which was neither dated nor witnessed, was proved on 27 Oct. 1697.
Towerson published: 1. ‘A brief Account of some Expressions in the Creed of Saint Athanasius’ (anon.), Oxford, 1663. 2. ‘Explication of the Decalogue,’ London, 1676, reissued 1680, 1681, 1685. 3. ‘Explication of the Apostle's Creed,’ London, 1678, 1685. 4. ‘Explication of the Lord's Prayer,’ London, 1680, 1685. 5. ‘Of the Sacraments in General,’ London, 1686, 1687, 1688. 6. ‘Of the Sacrament of Baptism,’ London, 1687. 7. ‘Of the Sacrament of the Lord's Supper,’ London, 1688. 8. ‘A Sermon concerning Vocal and Instrumental Music in the Church,’ London, 1696. 9. ‘The Relative Duties of Husbands and Wives,’ and ‘The Relative Duties of Masters and Servants,’ in vol. iv. of ‘Tracts of Anglican Fathers,’ London, 1841–2. ‘An Explication of the Catechism of the Church of England’ (consisting of the forenamed explications and remarks on the sacraments) was published in 1676, fol., and again in 1685, &c. He contributed English verses to ‘Britannia Rediviva,’ Oxford, 1660, and to ‘Epicedia Academiæ Oxoniensis in Obitum Serenissimæ Mariæ Principis Aurasionensis,’ Oxford, 1661.
B. P.
Dictionary of National Biography, Errata (1904), p.267 N.B.— f.e. stands for from end and l.l. for last line
| Page | Col. | Line | |
| 98 | ii | 24 | Towerson, Gabriel (1635?-1697): for 1678, &c. read 1676, fol. |
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Tovey, De Blossiers

​TOVEY, DE BLOSSIERS (1692–1745), author of ‘Anglia Judaica,’ son of John Tovey, a citizen and apothecary of London, was born in the parish of St. Martin-in-the-Fields on 1 March 1691–2. He matriculated from Queen's College, Oxford, on 12 March 1708–9, and graduated B.A. in 1712. He was elected fellow of Merton College in the same year, and proceeded M.A. in 1715. He was called to the bar of the Inner Temple in 1717, and took the degree of D.C.L. at Oxford in 1721. He was ordained soon afterwards. From 1723 to 1727 he was rector of Farley, Surrey, and from 1727 to 1732 vicar of Embleton, Northumberland. In 1732 he returned to Oxford on his election as principal of New Inn Hall, and he held that office until his death in 1745.
Tovey was interested in history and ​archæology, and devoted much time to a history of the Jews in mediæval England. He freely utilised the numerous documents which Prynne had first published in his ‘Short Demurrer to the Jews' long-discontinued Remitter into England’ (1655), but he supplied additional information, and his treatise remains a standard contribution to an interesting byway of English history. The title runs: ‘Anglia Judaica; or the History and Antiquities of the Jews in England, collected from all our historians, both printed and manuscript, as also from the records in the Tower and other publick repositories,’ Oxford, 1738, 4to; it was dedicated to George Holmes [q. v.], deputy-keeper of the records in the Tower. A letter from Tovey to Rawlinson, dated 1744, ‘concerning a Roman brick found in Market Lane,’ was printed in ‘Archæologia’ (1770), i. 139.
[Foster's Alumni Oxon. 1500–1714; Rawlinson MSS. in Bodleian Library.]
S. L.