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

​MADOG BENFRAS (i.e. Greathead) (fl. 1350), Welsh poet, was son of Gruffydd ab Iorwerth ab Einion Goch o Sonlli ab Ieuaf ap Llywarch [ab Ieuaf?] ap Nynniaw ap Cynwrig ap Rhiwallon. He and his three brothers, called ‘Brodyr Marchwiail,’ played prominent parts in the fourteenth-century movement for the revival of Welsh poetry. Madog, according to tradition, won the chair and the birchen wreath offered for the best love song in the third of the three ‘Eisteddfods of the Renaissance.’ He was the friend of Dafydd ap Gwilym, who playfully introduces him into one of his poems as ​the priest of his mock marriage with Morfudd (Barddoniaeth Dafydd ap Gwilym, Liverpool edition, p.94). We have Dafydd's elegy upon Madog as well as Madog's upon Dafydd (ib. pp. 335-8, 395-7), but the former is said to have been called forth by a false report of Madog's death. Madog's own production is of no particular merit,
J. E. L.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Madog ap Gruffydd Maelor

​MADOG ap GRUFFYDD MAELOR (d. 1236), prince of Northern Powys, probably succeeded on the death of his father, Gruffydd Maelor, in 1191, to the greater part of that principality, and in 1197, by the death of his brother Owain, became ruler of the whole. It was in the latter year that Gwenwynwyn [q. v.] inherited from his father, Owain Cyfeiliog, the southern half of Powys, so that the two regions, remaining for some twenty years in the hands of these two princes, came naturally to be known as Powys Fadog and Powys Wenwynwyn. ​ Madog was a contemporary of Llywelyn ab Iorwerth [q. v.], and is at all times found acting with the minor princes whom that great ruler controlled and occasionally drove into rebellion. He joined Llywelyn, Gwenwynwyn, and the South Welsh princes in writing to complain to Innocent III of the ecclesiastical tyranny exercised by England over Wales (Giraldus Cambrensis, De Jure et Statu Menevensis Ecclesiæ, Dist. iv.) In 1211, when John invaded Wales in order to humble Llywelyn, Madog was one of the band of princes who seized the opportunity to cast off the yoke of Gwynedd. Like the rest, he returned in 1212 to his old allegiance. His name appears in a list of Llywelyn's allies drawn up on 18 Aug. 1214 (Bridgeman, Princes of Upper Powys, document 9), and his household troops were with the Prince of Gwynedd in the South Welsh expedition of December 1215. In 1223 he was one of the princes who undertook, in case Llywelyn did not observe his promises to the king, to make good the default (Rymer, Fœdera, ed. 1739, tom. i. pt. i. p. 89). He died in 1236.
Madog was the founder of Valle Crucis (or Llan Egwestl) Abbey, the building of which began in 1200. The ‘Myvyrian Archaiology’ contains one poem in his honour by Llywarch ab Llywelyn (2nd edit. p. 209) and two by Einion Wan (pp. 232–3).
[Annales Cambriæ, Rolls edit.; Brut y Tywysogion, Oxford edit. of the Red Book of Hergest, vol. ii.; poems in the Myvyrian Archaiology.]
J. E. L.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Maddy, Watkin

​MADDY, WATKIN (d. 1857), astronomer, a native of Herefordshire, was educated at Hereford grammar school. He graduated as second wrangler in 1820 from St. John's College, Cambridge, proceeded M.A. in 1823, took orders, and in 1830 a ​degree of B.D. He was elected to a fellowship on 18 March 1823, received the office of moderator, and joined the Astronomical Society. He published at Cambridge in 1826 ‘The Elements of the Theory of Plane Astronomy,’ an excellent work, of which a new edition, enlarged by Dr. Hymers, appeared in 1832. About 1837 Maddy resigned his fellowship from conscientious motives, and with it his sole means of livelihood. He supported himself by teaching mathematics in London until his death, which occurred at Sutton Coldfield, near Birmingham, on 13 Aug. 1857. His character was of the highest stamp.
[Monthly Notices Royal Astron. Soc. xviii. 19; information kindly furnished by R. F. Scott, esq.; Gent. Mag. 1857, ii. 345; Luard's Cantabr. Grad.]
A. M. C.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Madog (fl.1294-1295)

​MADOG (fl. 1294–1295), leader of the North Welsh rebellion, is termed by Trivet ‘quemdam de genere Lewelini principis ultimi;’ Walter of Hemingburgh says he claimed to be descended ‘de sanguine principis Leulini;’ the ‘Annals of Worcester’ call him ‘Madocus ap Lewelin.’ Contemporary narratives of his rebellion only supply accounts of him, but it may safely be concluded that he was a natural son of Llywelyn, the last prince of Wales [see Llywelyn ab Gruffydd, d 1282.] The occasion of the rebellion was the heavy taxation levied in 1294 towards the king's projected expedition to Gascony. It broke out, as the result of a previous arrangement, in all parts of Wales on Michaelmas day, Madog being the leader in the north. At Carnarvon advantage was taken of the Michaelmas fair to fall upon the English suddenly; many were slain, including Roger Puleston, the sheriff of Anglesey, and the town and castle were burnt. Edward, after sending in November his brother Edmund, earl of Lancaster [q. v.], and Henry Lacy, third earl of Lincoln [q. v.], to quell the rising without much result, invaded North Wales himself. He reached the mouth of the Conway, and spent his Christmas in the town (Trivet). Owing to the division of his army, however, and the capture of his provision wagons, he was for a time reduced to great straits. On 5 March 1295 the Earl of Warwick greatly improved the position of the invaders by a night attack upon Madog's host, which had encamped on a plain between two groves. After a stubborn fight the Welsh were defeated and Madog forced to flee from the field, which henceforth was known as Maes Madog, i.e. Madog's field (Ann. Wig.) After Easter the king crossed over to Anglesey, began the building of Beaumaris Castle, and received the submission of large numbers of the men of the island. In May he travelled to South Wales. Madog still remained under arms, but his submission was not long delayed. According to some authorities (Trivet, Ann. Osen.) he was captured; the language of the ‘Annals of Worcester’ (‘Madocus ab Lewelin, ducente domino Johanne de Haveringe, venit cum sua familia ad pacem regis’) and of the ‘Annals of Dunstable’ (‘Maddoc … per dictum Johannem de Haverigge ad pacem regis venit’) rather implies that he came in voluntarily. Hemingburgh tells us that he made terms for himself by promising to deliver up his fellow-conspirator Morgan; but Morgan had already made his peace (Ann. Wig.) Madog's surrender took place on 31 July (ib.) Edward was able to meet the magnates of the realm in August with the news of the entire suppression of the rising. Of the insurgents only a certain Cynan was executed (ib.), though the rest were probably subjected to some confinement.
[Annals of Trivet (Engl. Hist. Soc.), ed. 1845; Chronicle of Walter of Hemingburgh (Engl. Hist. Soc.), ed. 1849; Annales Prioratus de Wigornia, Rolls edit. 1869; Annales Monasterii de Oseneia, Rolls edit. 1869; Annales Prioratus de Dunstaplia, Rolls edit. 1866; cf. art. Edward I.]
J. E. L.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Lyons, Robert Spencer Dyer

​LYONS, ROBERT SPENCER DYER (1826–1886), physician, born at Cork in 1826, was son of Sir William Lyons (1794–1858), a merchant there, who was mayor in 1848 and 1849, and was knighted by the queen on her visit to Cork, 3 Aug. 1849. His mother was Harriet, daughter of Robert Spencer Dyer of Kinsale. Robert was educated at Hamlin and Porter's grammar school, Cork, and at Trinity College, Dublin, where he graduated in 1848 as a bachelor in medicine. He became a licentiate of the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland in the following year, and in 1855 was appointed chief pathological commissioner to the army in the Crimea, where he reported on the disease then prevalent in the trenches before Sebastopol. On 8 Sept. 1855 he was awarded the Crimean and Turkish medals and clasps for Sebastopol. In 1857 he undertook a voluntary mission to Lisbon to investigate the pathological anatomy of the yellow fever which was raging there, and for his report on that subject received from Dom Pedro V the cross and insignia of the Ancient Order of Christ. He then joined St. George's Hospital, Dublin, where he took an active share in the education of the army medical staff. He was also professor of medicine in the Roman catholic university medical school, a senator of the Royal University, 1880, crown nominee for Ireland in the General Medical Council of the United Kingdom on 29 Nov. 1881, physician to the House of Industry hospitals, and visiting physician to Maynooth College. In 1870 he was invited by Mr. Gladstone's government to act on a commission of inquiry into the treatment of Irish treason-felony prisoners in English gaols, and in connection with this inquiry he visited many French prisons and reported on the discipline exercised in that country. He enthusiastically recommended the reafforesting of Ireland, and with concurrence of government collected information on forests from foreign countries, which was embodied in an article in the ‘Journal of Forestry and Estate Management,’ February 1883, pp. 656–9. He sat in the House of Commons for the city of Dublin as a liberal from April 1880 till the general election in 1885, and spoke ​on the Parliamentary Oaths Act 1 May 1883. He died at 89 Merrion Square, Dublin, 19 Dec. 1886. He married in 1856 Marie, daughter of David Richard Pigot, lord chief baron of the exchequer in Ireland.
Lyons was the author of:
* ‘An Apology for the Microscope,’ 1851.
* ‘A Handbook of Hospital Practice, or an Introduction to the Practical Study of Medicine at the Bedside,’ 1859.
* ‘A Treatise on Fever,’ 1861.
* ‘Intellectual Resources of Ireland. Supply and Demand for an enlarged System of Irish University Education,’ 1873.
* ‘Irish Intermediate Education and the Civil Service of Cyprus,’ 1878.
* ‘Forest Areas in Europe and America, and probable future Timber Supplies,’ 1884.
[Midland Medical Miscellany, 1 Feb. 1884, pp. 33–5, with portrait; Times, 21 Dec. 1886, p. 6; Freeman's Journal, 20 Dec. 1886, p. 5.]
G. C. B.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Lysaght, Edward

​LYSAGHT, EDWARD (1763–1811), Irish song-writer, born 21 Dec. 1763, was the son of John Lysaght of Brickhill, a gentleman of good protestant family in co. Clare. His mother was Jane Eyre, daughter of Edward Dalton of Deerpark in the same county. He was educated at Dr. Hare's school at Cashel and at Trinity College, Dublin, where he graduated B.A. He was incorporated in the same degree at Oxford (19 Oct. 1787) as a member of St. Edmund Hall, and proceeded M.A. at Oxford in 1788. In 1784 he became a student at the Middle Temple, London, and at the King's Inns, Dublin. In Easter term 1788 he was called to the English bar, joining the profession in Ireland later in the same year. He spent some years in England, being employed as counsel in many election petitions, and he acted in that capacity for Samuel, lord Hood [q. v.], in the petition arising out of the celebrated Westminster contest with Charles James Fox in 1784. Ultimately he abandoned the English for the Irish bar, and, becoming a member of the Munster circuit, enjoyed for a time considerable practice. He was appointed a commissioner of bankruptcy, and a few months before his death was made a police magistrate for Dublin.
The last seventeen years of Lysaght's life were spent mainly in Dublin, where he became a notable figure in society, especially in literary and theatrical circles, and achieved a reputation as bon vivant, wit, and improvisatore. He was also a political squib writer and pamphleteer. Barrington states in his ‘Personal Sketches’ that, though posing as an opponent of the union, he took 400l. from Castlereagh to write in the government interest. This statement wants authority, and was probably penned in revenge for a lampoon by Lysaght on Barrington's book in a paper called ‘The Lantern.’ Lysaght died in 1811 in very embarrassed circumstances. A subscription raised by the bench and bar of Ireland for the benefit of his widow and two daughters realised 2,484l. He was the godfather of Sydney Owenson, lady Morgan [q. v.], in whose praise several of his most felicitous complimentary verses were written. Lysaght's poems were published in 1811, after his death, by his son-in-law, Dr. Griffin, afterwards bishop of Limerick; but it is unfortunate that the patriotic songs, like ‘The Man who led the Van of the Irish Volunteers,’ which most contributed to his fame, were omitted from this collection. ‘The Sprig of Shillelagh,’ by H. B. Code, has been, with other popular songs, assigned to Lysaght in error. Many of Lysaght's authentic songs are preserved in Lover's ‘Irish Lyrics’ and other Irish anthologies. His serious songs are much in the manner of Thomas Moore, who said of him that ‘all his words were like drops of music.’
[Poems by the late Edward Lysaght, with prefatory memoir and portrait, Dublin, 1811; Dr. Lanigan and Irish Wits and Worthies, by W. J. Fitzpatrick, 1873; Foster's Alumni Oxon. 1715–1886; information kindly supplied by Mr. D. J. O'Donoghue.]
C. L. F.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Lyster, Richard

​LYSTER, Sir RICHARD (d. 1554), chief justice of the court of king's bench, was of an old Wakefield family. His grandfather, Thomas Lyster, was settled in that town in Henry VI's reign. His father, John, married one of the Beaumont family of Whitley, Yorkshire. Richard, being designed for the legal profession, entered the Middle Temple, where he was made reader in 1515, double reader in 1521, and treasurer the year following. From 8 July 1522 to 1526 he was solicitor-general. There is no distinct evidence of his being made attorney-general, but Foss thinks there can be no doubt that he succeeded Ralph Swillington in that office about 1526. On 12 May 1529 Lyster was ​raised to the bench as chief baron of the exchequer, and knighted. As chief baron his name frequently occurs on commissions (Gairdner, Letters and Papers, vols. x. xi.; Baker, Hist. of St. John's Coll., by Mayor, i. 352), but he seems to have taken no prominent part, even at such important trials as those of Bishop Fisher and Sir Thomas More. After continuing at the head of the exchequer for sixteen years he was advanced to the dignity of chief justice of the king's bench on 9 Nov. 1546. Before this time we find him residing at Southampton, and possessed of large property in Hampshire. Leland, who visited Southampton, writes: ‘The house that Master Lighster, chiefe Barne of the King's Escheker, dwellyth yn, is very fair’ (Itin. iii. 77). In the capacity of chief justice Lyster attested the submission of Thomas Howard II [q. v.], third duke of Norfolk (12 Jan. 1547), whom it was one of Henry's last acts to commit to the Tower. On the accession of Edward VI he was reappointed to his office, and his address to a body of new serjeants on their inauguration at Lincoln's Inn shortly afterwards is described by Dugdale as ‘a godly, thowghe sumwhat prolixe and long declaration of their duties.’ He resigned his office on 21 March 1552, and spent the remainder of his life at Southampton, dying there on 14 March 1553–4. Lyster was a sound but undistinguished lawyer.
His first wife was Jane, daughter of Sir Ralph Shirley of Westmeston, Sussex, and widow of Sir John Dawtrey of Petworth; her portrait, by Holbein, is in the queen's collection at Windsor. His second wife, Elizabeth Stoke, who survived him, erected in 1567 to his memory a monument in St. Michael's Church, Southampton, which was long believed to be the tomb of Lord-chancellor Wriothesley, first earl of Southampton, who died in 1550. The mistake was corrected by Sir Frederick Madden in 1845. By his second wife Lyster had a son, Michael, who died in London, and was buried on 22 Aug. 1551; and a daughter, Elizabeth, who became the wife of Sir Richard Blount. His will, dated 10 Oct. 1552, was proved on 16 April 1554.
[Sir F. Madden's Paper in the Proceedings at the Annual Meeting of Archæolog. Inst. at Winchester, September 1845; Foss's Judges of England, v. 305; Dugdale's Origines, 3rd ed. p. 329; Woodward and Wilks's General Hist. of Hampshire, ii. 285.]
J. H. L.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Lysons, Daniel (1727-1800)

​LYSONS, DANIEL, M.D. (1727–1800), physician, born on 21 March 1727, was the eldest son of Daniel Lysons of Hempstead Court, Gloucestershire, by Elizabeth, daughter of Samuel Mee of Gloucester (Burke, Landed Gentry, 4th edit. p. 921). He matriculated at Oxford as a gentleman-commoner of Magdalen College 2 March 1744–1745, graduated B.A. in 1750, M.A. in 1751, and was elected fellow of All Souls College, where he proceeded B.C.L. in 1755 (Foster, Alumni Oxon. 1715–1886), iii. 887). On 6 July 1756 he was licensed to practise medicine, and in 1759 he became D.C.L., which degree he commuted for that of M.D. on 24 Oct. 1769. He practised for a few years at Gloucester, and was physician to the infirmary there. About 1770 he settled at Bath, and in 1780 was elected one of the physicians to the Bath General Hospital. He died at Bath on 20 March 1800. By his marriage, on 6 Dec. 1768, to Mary, daughter of Richard Rogers of Dowdeswell, Gloucestershire, he had no issue.
He published:
* 'An Essay upon the Effects of Camphire and Calomel in Continual Fevers. … To which is added an ​occasional Observation upon … Inoculation,’ 8vo, London, 1771.
* ‘Practical Essays upon Intermitting Fevers, Dropsies, Diseases of the Liver,’ &c., 8vo, Bath, 1772.
* ‘Farther Observations on the Effects of Camphire and Calomel … Being an Appendix to Essays upon these Subjects formerly published,’ &c., 8vo, Bath, 1777.
[Gent. Mag. 1800, pt. i. pp. 392, 483; Brit. Mus. Cat.]
G. G.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Rawlinson, Christopher (1806-1888)

​RAWLINSON, Sir CHRISTOPHER (1806–1888), Indian judge, born at Combe on 10 July 1806, was second son of John Rawlinson (d. 1847) of Combe and Alresford, Hampshire, by his wife Felicia (Watson). He was educated at the Charterhouse and at Trinity College, Cambridge (B.A. 1828, M.A. ​1831). Called to the bar at the Middle Temple in 1831, he joined the western circuit in 1832, and was recorder of Portsmouth from 1840 to 1847, when he was appointed recorder of Prince of Wales Island, Singapore, and Malacca. In 1847 he was knighted. In 1849 he was appointed chief justice of the supreme court of judicature at Madras, and held that position till his retirement in 1859. In his charge to the grand jury on 5 Jan. 1859 he expressed the belief that great benefits would accrue from the recent transfer of the government of India from the East India Company to the crown, and refuted the assertion then commonly made by English officials in India, that no materials for self-government existed in the country. On 9 Feb. 1859 he was presented with a farewell address by the native community of Madras at an entertainment at which the governor, Lord Harris, was present. He died at 33 Eaton Square, London, on 28 March 1888.
On 27 May 1847 he married Georgina Maria, younger daughter of Alexander Radclyffe Sidebottom, barrister, by whom he had three sons—Christopher (b. 1850), Albemarle Alexander, late major 8th hussars, John Frederick Peel—and one daughter. In 1842 he published a work on ‘The Municipal Practices Act.’
[Madras Standard, 10 Jan. 1859; Times, 2 April 1888.]
S. W.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Rawlinson, William

1904 Errata appended.
​RAWLINSON, Sir WILLIAM (1640–1703), serjeant-at-law, second son of William Rawlinson, of Graithwaite and Rusland Hall, Lancashire, was born at Graythwaite on 16 June 1640. The father had been captain in a troop of volunteers in the parliamentary cause during the civil wars, doing good service at Marston Moor and Ribble Bridge. His mother was Elizabeth, daughter of Anthony Sawrey of Plumpton (Foster, Lancashire Pedigrees). William was admitted from Hawkshead School a pensioner of Christ's College, Cambridge, on 13 April 1655, aged 15; entered Gray's Inn on 20 Feb. 1656–7, and in 1667 was called to the bar. He obtained a fair practice as a chancery lawyer (Hist. MSS. Comm. 11th Rep. pt. ii. passim). In Easter term 1686 he obtained the dignity of the coif, and at the revolution of 1688 was appointed one of the three commissioners for the great seal. He helped to draft the amendments to the act which authorised the commissioners to execute the office of lord chancellor (March 1688–9) (ib. 12th Rep. vi. 67, 13th Rep. vii. 100), and was knighted by William at Hampton Court on 5 March 1688–9 (Luttrell, Relation, i. 506). In November 1690 he appeared before the House of Lords to give evidence against the bill for reformation of the abuses of the court of chancery, ‘a chair being allowed’ him on account of his infirmities (Hist. MSS. Comm. 13th Rep. v. 130; Luttrell, Relation, ii. 128).
Rawlinson acted as commissioner of the seal for three years, but in March 1693 Sir John Somers became sole keeper, and Somers successfully opposed the king's proposal to appoint Rawlinson chief baron of the exchequer in succession to Sir Robert Atkyns, on the ground that he was ignorant of common law. Rawlinson accordingly returned to the bar, where, as late as October 1697, he ​is found as serjeant pleading for the Duke of Devonshire. In 1695 Godolphin renewed former efforts to secure him promotion (Hist. MSS. Comm. 13th Rep. vii. 105), but they came to nothing. Rawlinson died on 11 May 1703, and was buried in the church at Hendon, where he had purchased an old mansion of the Whichcotes in Brent Street. In Hendon church there is a monument to his memory with a long Latin inscription.
He was twice married. By his first wife he had two daughters, Elizabeth and Ann, both of whom had descendants. By his second wife, Jane, daughter of Edward Noseworthy of Devon, and Honora, a daughter of Sir John Maynard (1602–1690) [q. v.], he had one son, who died an infant (Foster, Lancashire Pedigrees; Lysons, Environs of London, ii. 230). The second wife died in 1712, bequeathing 500l. for the purpose of establishing a school for girls. She was buried in Ealing church, and a monument was erected there.
W. A. S.
Dictionary of National Biography, Errata (1904), p.231 N.B.— f.e. stands for from end and l.l. for last line
| Page | Col. | Line | |
| 335 | ii | 22 | Rawlinson, Sir William: for 1696) read 1703) |
| | | 32 | before entered read was admitted from Hawkshead School pensioner of Christ's College, Cambridge, 13 April 1655, aged 15, |
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Rawson, George

​RAWSON, GEORGE (1807–1889), hymn-writer, was born at Leeds on 5 June 1807. Educated at Clunie's school, Manchester, he was articled to a firm of Leeds solicitors, and ultimately practised for himself. Retiring from business, he went to Clifton, and died there on 25 March 1889. Rawson wrote many hymns. His earliest efforts appeared anonymously, under the signature of ‘A Leeds Layman.’ A collection was published as ‘Hymns, Verses, and Chants,’ with his name on the title-page (London, 1877); and a small volume, ‘Songs of Spiritual Thought,’ embracing a selection from the earlier collection, was issued by the Religious Tract Society in 1885. There is much diversity of style and treatment in his verse, and his hymns, original in subject and form, are both poetic and devout. His best known hymn is one for the communion, ‘By Christ redeemed,’ but others are included in several church collections.
J. C. H.