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

​CLERK, MATTHEW (1659–1735), Irish presbyterian minister, was born in 1659. He was in Derry during the siege (1689), and received a bullet-wound on the temple, leaving a sore, over which he wore a black patch to the end of his days. Not till after the siege did he begin his studies for the ministry. He was ordained in 1697 by the Route presbytery as minister of Kilrea and Boveedy, co. Derry. In 1721 he was the sole dissentient from the synod's 'charitable
​declaration' enjoining forbearance towards the nonsubscribers to the Westminster Confession. Next year he, with two others, entered a strong protest against any compromise with the non-subscribing party. This party attacked him in his own presbytery, but though the matter was referred to the synod, the nonsubscribers were too much occupied in defending themselves to proceed with it. Clerk's literary contributions to the controversy were the first on either side which appeared with the author's name. His friends considered his manner of writing not sufficiently grave in tone. 'I don't think,' writes Livingstone of Templepatrick to Wodrow, on 23 June 1723, 'his reasoning faculty is despisable, but I wish it were equal to his diverting one, for I think he is one of the most comical old fellows that ever was.' On 29 April 1729 Clerk resigned his charge and emigrated to New Hampshire. On landing he found that James Macgregor, formerly minister of Aghadowey, and founder of the township of Londonderry on the Merrimac, had died on 5 March. He succeeded him as minister, and also engaged in educational work. Clerk was a strict vegetarian, but his abstemious diet did not subdue his warlike spirit. Among the quaint anecdotes told of him is one of his criticising to this effect the prowess of St. Peter: 'He only cut off a chiel's lug, and he ought to ha' split doun his held.' Clerk died on 25 Jan. 1735. He was carried to his grave by old comrades at the Derry siege. He had been thrice married, his third wife being the widow of Macgregor.
He published: 1. 'A Letter from the Country to a Friend in Belfast, with respect to the Belfast Society,' &c. (Belfast), 1712 (misprint for 1722), 18mo (issued in June 1722). 2. 'A Letter from the Belfast Society to the Rev. Mr. Matthew Clerk, with an Answer to the Society's Remarks on ... A Letter from the Country,' &c. (Belfast), 1723, 12mo (the Belfast Society's Letter, signed by six of its members [see Bruce, Michael, 1686-1735], was sent to Clerk in October 1722).
[Reid's Hist. Presb. Ch. in Ireland (Killen), 1867, iii. 149, 162; Witherow's Hist, and Lit. Mem. of Presb. in Ireland, 1st ser. 1879, p. 241 sq.]
A. G.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Clerk-Maxwell, George

1904 Errata appended.
​CLERK-MAXWELL, Sir GEORGE (1715–1784), of Penicuik, second son of Sir John Clerk of Penicuik [q. v.], second baronet, and Janet, daughter of Sir John Inglis of Cramond, was born at Edinburgh in October 1715. He was educated at the universities of Edinburgh and Leyden. From his father he received in patrimony the lands of Drumcrieff in Annandale, and by marriage with Dorothea Clerk-Maxwell, daughter of his uncle William by Agnes Maxwell, heiress of Middlebie, Dumfriesshire, he obtained the lands of Middlebie, adopting thereupon his wife's name, Clerk-Maxwell. He was one of the commissioners of the customs, king's remembrancer in the exchequer, and one of the trustees for improving fisheries and manufactures in Scotland. Both in his private and public capacity he exerted himself with zeal and ability to promote the agricultural and commercial interests of the country. At Dumfries he erected at considerable expense a linen manufactory, and he set on foot a variety of projects for the mining of lead and copper in the county. In 1755 he addressed two letters to the trustees for the improvement of the fisheries and manufactures of Scotland, regarding the common mode of treating wool, which were published by direction of the board in 1756. He was also the author of a paper on shallow ploughing, read before the members of the Philosophical Society, and published in the third volume of their essays. He was a remarkably clever draughtsman, and etched a variety of views of Scotland. On the death of his elder brother in 1782, he succeeded to the baronetcy and estates of Penicuik. He died 29 Jan. 1784, and was succeeded in the baronetcy by his eldest son John. He had four other sons and four daughters.
T. F. H.
Dictionary of National Biography, Errata (1904), p.70 N.B.— f.e. stands for from end and l.l. for last line
| Page | Col. | Line | |
| | | 29 | Clerk-Maxwell, Sir George: after the customs insert in Scotland from 1763 till death |
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Clerke, Charles

1904 Errata appended.
​CLERKE, CHARLES (1741–1779), captain in the royal navy, circumnavigator, entered the navy about 1755, served continuously during the seven years' war, and was on board the Bellona when she captured the Courageux on 13 Aug. 1761. During the action Clerke was stationed in the mizen-top, and when the mizen-mast was shot away fell with it into the sea, happily, however, without any serious hurt. After the peace he was appointed midshipman of the Dolphin, and sailed with Commodore the Hon. John Byron [q. v.] in his voyage round the world (1764-6). On his return he communicated to the secretary of the Royal Society an account of the great height of the Patagonians, among whom he says they saw 'hardly a man less than eight feet; most of them were considerably more.' The paper was read before the society on 12 Feb. 1767, and published in the 'Philosophical Transactions,' lvii. 75. In 1768 he was appointed as master's mate to the Endeavour, with Captain Cook [see Cook, James (1728-1779)], and again sailed round the world in that expedition, 1768-71. He had been promoted during the voyage to the rank of lieutenant, and sailed as second lieutenant of the Resolution in Cook's second voyage round the world, 1772-5. On his return to England he was advanced to the rank of commander, and when Cook's third expedition was fitting out in 1776, Clerke was appointed to command the Discovery. On the death of Captain Cook on 14 Feb. 1779, Clerke succeeded to the vacant rank and the command of the expedition, which, however, he did not long enjoy, dying of a lingering consumption within little more than six months. During this short time he had given proofs not only of his zeal for the service in which he was engaged, but of his ability, energy, and devotion. He had taken the ship into high latitudes. The climate proved extremely trying to his fatal disease; but as his orders were to look for a north-west passage, he persisted until 'it was the opinion of every officer in both ships that it was impracticable, and that any farther attempts would not only be fruitless, but dangerous.' But it was then too late. He died in Avatcha Bay on 22 Aug. 1779.
[A Voyage to the Pacific Ocean during the years 1776-80, vol. iii. by Captain James King, p. 280 et seq.]
J. K. L.
Dictionary of National Biography, Errata (1904), p.70 N.B.— f.e. stands for from end and l.l. for last line
| Page | Col. | Line | |
| 46 | i | 10 f.e. | Clerke, Charles: after circumnavigator insert son of Joseph Clerke of Weatherfield, Essex, |
| | ii | 40 | after 1779. insert Clerke's sister married Paul Henry Maty [q. v.]) |
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Clerke, Francis

​CLERKE or CLARKE, FRANCIS (fl. 1594), civilian, after a short stay at Oxford, left the university and went to Doctors' Commons, and for about forty years practised civil law in various courts. In consequence of his having acted as senior proctor for the university he received the degree of B.C.L. without examination in 1594, having then practised in London about thirty-five years. He wrote 'Praxis tam jus dicentibus quam aliis omnibus qui in foro ecclesiastico versantur,' finished in 1596, but not published until after the author's death; an edition was published at Dublin in 1664, 4to (Brit. Mus.), and another by T. Bladen, dean of Ardfert, Ireland, 1666 (Wood), 2nd ed. 1684, 4to (Brit. Mus.); and 'Praxis curiæ ​Admiralitatis Angliæ,' Dublin, 1666 (Wood); London, 1667, 8vo; edited by F. Hargrave, 1743, 8vo; 5th edition, 1798, 12mo; also in Latin and English, 1722, and again translated with notes referring to American admiralty practice by J. E. Hall in the second part or his 'Practice and Jurisdiction of the Court of Admiralty,' Baltimore, 1809, 8vo.
[Wood's Athenæ Oxon. (Bliss), i. 657; Marvin's Legal Bibliography, 151; Brit. Mus. Cat.]
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Cunningham, Alexander (d.1488)

​CUNNINGHAM, ALEXANDER, first Earl of Glencairn (d. 1488), was descended from a family which obtained the manor of Cunningham, in the parish of Kilmaurs, Ayrshire, in the twelfth century. He was the eldest son of Sir Robert Cunningham (who received a charter of the lands of Kilmaurs from Robert, duke of Albany, and was knighted by James I) by his wife Ann, a daughter of Sir John de Montgomery of Eglinton and Ardrossan. He was created a lord of parliament by the title Lord Kilmaurs about 1450. In January 1477–8 he received a charter of the lands of Drip in the parish of Kilbride, Lanarkshire (Register of the Great Seal of Scotland, vol. i. entry 1,342). He was created Earl of Glencairn (a parish in the western part of Nithsdale, Dumfriesshire) by James III 28 May 1488, for the powerful assistance he had rendered against the rebel lords at Blackness. He was slain at the battle of Sauchieburn 11 June of the same year. By his wife Margaret, daughter of Adam Hepburn of Hailes, he had four sons. By the Rescissory Act passed by James IV 17 Oct. 1488, his eldest son Robert was deprived of the earldom and reduced to the rank of Lord Kilmaurs. It was, however, revived in the person of Cuthbert, third earl, in 1505.
[Acts of Parliament of Scotland, vol. ii.; Reg. Magni Sig. Scotl. vol. i.; Douglas's Scotch Peerage (Wood), i. 633–4.]
T. F. H.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Cunningham, Francis

​CUNNINGHAM, FRANCIS (1820–1875), commentator on Ben Jonson, born in 1820, was the youngest son of Allan Cunningham (1784–1842) [q. v.] In 1838 he joined the Madras army as ensign in the 23rd light infantry. He won distinction as field-engineer at the defence of Jellalabad, and after the withdrawal of the army from Afghanistan he was placed by Lord Ellenborough on the Mysore commission. He retired from the service in 1861. In 1870 he published an edition of Marlowe, and in the following year an edition of Massinger. He also published an edition of Ben Jonson in three vols. (1871), and revised the reprint of Gifford's Ben Jonson (1875). It had been his intention to edit Ben Jonson elaborately, and he had many qualifications for the task. His admiration for Gifford did not blind him to that great scholar's shortcomings, and his corrections of Gifford are much to the point. The text of Cunningham's Marlowe is not remarkable for accuracy, but he made some useful notes and happy emendations. He died 3 Dec. 1875. In his interesting library, which was dispersed shortly after his death, was Charles Lamb's famous copy of Beaumont and Fletcher, now in the library of the British Museum.
[Athenæum, 18 Dec. 1875.]
A. H. B.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Cunningham, Edmund Francis

Edward Francis Cunningham in the ODNB.
​CUNNINGHAM or CALZE, EDMUND FRANCIS (1742?–1795), portrait-painter, was the son of a gentleman of good family, and is stated to have been born at Kelso about 1742. His father, being involved in the Jacobite rebellion, fled from Scotland after the defeat of the Pretender in 1745, and settled in Italy, apparently at Bologna. Cunningham was brought up under the name of ‘Calze’ or ‘Calzo,’ doubtless from Kelso, his native place, and first studied painting at Parma, in the academy started by the duke at that town, taking Correggio as his principal model. Subsequently he worked at Rome under Raphael Mengs and Pompeo Batoni at Naples, where he studied the works of Solimena and Corrado, and also worked in the studio of Francesco de Mura and at Venice, where he studied the paintings of the contemporary painters there, and where he might have had considerable success himself had he not wished to continue his travels. He then visited Paris, and on this journey had the good fortune to paint a portrait of the king of Denmark, which brought him into great repute at court, and gained him numerous commissions. About this time he inherited his father's property, and seems to have resumed his family name; for a time he abandoned painting, but from his extravagance and irregular habits soon ran through his property, and another that also fell to him, becoming bankrupt in 1777. He was compelled to leave England, where he had resided for some years, drawing portraits in crayons, and occasionally exhibiting them and other paintings at the Royal Academy (1770–1781), always under the name ‘Calze,’ with sometimes the addition of ‘Il Bolognese.’ He then went in the train of the Duchess of Kingston to St. Petersburg, and, as he met with success there, quitted her service for that of the empress, Catharine II. In 1788 he went to Berlin, where he was extensively patronised by the court, and where he painted most of his best pictures in oil and in pastel. Subsequently he returned to London, where he continued to earn large sums of money; but his continued extravagance always kept him in debt, and he eventually died very poor in 1795. His finest portrait is generally reckoned to be that of ‘Frederick the Great returning to Sans Souci after the manœuvres at Potsdam, accompanied by his generals.’ Many of his portraits have been engraved, notably those of the Prussian court and nobility by ​D. Cunego, Haas, Townley, and others, and some of English ladies by Valentine Green. There is a portrait of the queen of Prussia by him at Hampton Court.
[Redgrave's Dict. of Artists; Nagler's Künstler-Lexikon; Seubert's Allgemeines Künstler-Lexikon; Edwards's Anecdotes of Painters; Heineken's Dictionnaire des Artistes; Chaloner Smith's British Mezzotinto Portraits; Royal Academy Catalogues.]
L. C.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Cunningham, James (1749-1791)

​CUNNINGHAM, JAMES, fourteenth Earl of Glencairn (1749–1791), the friend of Robert Burns [q. v.], was the second son of William, thirteenth earl, and the eldest daughter of Hugh M'Guire, a violin player in Ayr, and was born in 1749. Through the death of his elder brother, unmarried, in 1768, he succeeded to the earldom on his father's death in 1775. In 1778 he was captain of a company of the West Fencible regiment. He was one of the sixteen Scotch representative peers in the parliament of 1780–84. Glencairn was introduced to Burns by his cousin-german, Mr. Dalrymple of Orangefield, soon after the publication of the Kilmarnock edition of Burns's ‘Poems,’ to which his attention had been called by his factor, Mr. Dalziel. In a letter dated Edinburgh, 13 Dec. 1786, Burns numbers him among his ‘avowed patrons.’ Through Glencairn Burns was introduced to William Creech the publisher [q. v.], who had been Glencairn's tutor, and Creech agreed to publish the new edition of his ‘Poems.’ From the beginning of Burns's acquaintance with Glencairn he was strongly impressed by his ‘worth and brotherly kindness,’ and admitting that he owed much to Glencairn, he affirmed that the ‘weight of the obligation’ was a ‘pleasing load.’ In 1787 Burns composed ‘Verses to be written below a Noble Earl's Picture,’ which he wished to be allowed to insert in the forthcoming edition of his ‘Poems,’ to tell the world how much he owed, but apparently the earl withheld his consent. It was through Glencairn that Burns, at his own request, obtained a situation in the excise. In 1786 Glencairn disposed of the estate of Kilmaurs to the Marchioness of Titchfield. In 1790, owing to declining health, he was advised to pass the winter in Lisbon. The change failed to effect any benefit, and having decided to return, he died 30 Jan. 1791, soon after landing at Falmouth, and was buried in the church there. He was unmarried, and was succeeded by his brother John, on whose death, in 1796, without issue, the title became dormant. Burns wrote a ‘Lament’ on his death, concluding with the following stanza:
The mother may forget the child That smiles sae sweetly on her knee, But I'll remember thee, Glencairn, And a' that thou hast done for me.
In memory of his patron, Burns named his fourth son, born in January 1794, James Glencairn Burns.
[Douglas's Scotch Peerage (Wood), i. 640; Works of Robert Burns.]
T. F. H.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/De Morgan, Campbell Greig

​DE MORGAN, CAMPBELL GREIG (1811–1876), surgeon, was born at Clovelly in Devonshire in 1811, the youngest of the three sons of Colonel De Morgan of the Indian army, Augustus [q. v.] being his elder brother. He was educated at University College, London, and afterwards at the Middlesex Hospital. In 1842 he became assistant-surgeon there, and full surgeon on the retirement of Mr. Tuson. In conjunction with Mr. John Tomes he contributed a valuable paper to the Royal Society on the ‘Development of Bone,’ which gained him the fellowship, and was printed in the ‘Philosophical Transactions’ for 1852. He wrote the article ‘Erysipelas’ in Holmes's ‘System of Surgery,’ 1860, and in 1872 a work on the ‘Origin of Cancer.’ This was a subject to which he had paid great attention, having studied it during thirty-four years in the special cancer wards of the Middlesex Hospital. The versatility of his powers was shown by the lectureships he successively held. In 1841 he lectured on forensic medicine; in 1845 he succeeded Mr. Tuson in the chair of anatomy; afterwards he lectured on physiology; and on the retirement of Mr. Shaw became sole lecturer on surgery. In addition to his professional attainments he was a thorough musician, and had considerable artistic taste and ability. Under a somewhat cold manner he possessed great kindness and warmth of heart, and his last act was one of devoted attention to his old friend, Lough the sculptor. After sitting up with him through the night, he returned home in the cold of an early morning and caught a fatal chill. He died on 12 April 1876.
J. D.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/De Lancey, Oliver (1803-1837)

​DE LANCEY, OLIVER, the younger (1803–1837), Christinist officer, was the only son of General Oliver De Lancey [q. v.], barrack-master-general from 1792 to 1804, and was born in Guernsey in 1803. He entered the army as a second lieutenant in the 60th rifles on 30 March 1818, and joined the 3rd battalion of the regiment in India in the same year. He was promoted first lieutenant on 17 June 1821, and after serving as aide-de-camp to Lieutenant-general Sir Charles Colville, G.C.B., commander-in-chief at Bombay, was promoted captain on 7 Aug. 1829, and joined the 3rd battalion at Gibraltar, where he learnt Spanish and took a keen interest in Spanish politics and in the crisis which was rapidly approaching. His battalion returned to England in 1832, but De Lancey still kept up his interest in Spain, and was one of the first English officers who volunteered to join the Spanish legion which was being raised to serve under the command of Major-general Sir De Lacy Evans, K.C.B., against the Carlists. He sailed for Spain in 1835 with one of the first drafts from England, and on the way out showed his courage and presence of mind when his ship struck in a fog on the rocks off Ushant. On landing he was placed at the head of a regiment of the legion, and, after serving as acting adjutant-general at the action of Hernani, accompanied Lieutenant-colonel Greville in command of the expedition to relieve Santander, which was then hard pressed by the Carlists. The expedition was completely successful, and De Lancey received the cross of San Fernando and was appointed deputy adjutant-general to the legion. He distinguished himself throughout the defence of San Sebastian, and especially in the action of 1 Oct., and was sent on a delicate mission to Madrid, which he carried out to the satisfaction of his general. Not long after his return to San Sebastian the Carlists made a determined attack upon the town, on 15 March 1837, and in repelling it De Lancey was killed at the head of his regiment, just as his more famous cousin, Sir William Howe De Lancey, Wellington's quartermaster-general, was killed at Waterloo. His tomb is on the fort at San Sebastian.
H. M. S.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/De Ryck, William

​DE RYCK, WILLIAM (1635–1697), history painter, was born at Antwerp in 1635, and bred as a goldsmith, but took to painting when in England in the reign of William III. He died in London in 1697, but according to Nagler two years later. John Smith engraved in mezzotint his ‘Tarquin and Lucretia.’
[Redgrave's Dict. of English Artists.]
L. F.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/De Vere, Aubrey

​DE VERE, Sir AUBREY (1788–1846), poet, eldest son of Sir Vere Hunt of Curragh Chase, co. Limerick, first baronet, by Eleanor, only daughter of William Cecil Pery, lord Glentworth, bishop of Limerick, was born 28 Aug. 1788. His father, created baronet 4 Dec. 1784, was descended from Vere Hunt, a Cromwellian officer who settled in Curragh in 1657, and whose grandmother, Jane de Vere, was daughter of Aubrey de Vere, second son of the fifteenth Earl of Oxford. Aubrey Hunt was at a private tutor's at Ambleside, and afterwards a contemporary of Byron and Peel at Harrow. He succeeded to the baronetcy on the death of his father, 11 Aug. 1818, and took the name of De Vere by letters patent of 15 March 1832. He married, 12 May 1807, Mary, eldest daughter ​of Stephen Edward Rice of Mount Trenchard, co. Limerick, and sister to the first Lord Monteagle. By her he had five sons, the third of whom was the distinguished poet, Aubrey Thomas de Vere (1814–1902), and three daughters. De Vere led the life of a quiet country gentleman, and his modesty prevented him from publishing much in his lifetime. He was a man of high patriotic feeling, attached to no party, and, though inclining to toryism, averse to the old-fashioned prejudices of his party. His sonnets show his chivalrous sentiment, and were pronounced by Wordsworth to be the ‘most perfect of our age’ (with perhaps a tacit exception). He died at Curragh Chase 5 July 1846.
He published: 1. ‘Julian the Apostate, a Dramatic Poem,’ 1822. 2. ‘The Duke of Mercia, an Historical Drama, the Lamentations of Ireland, and other Poems,’ 1823. 3. ‘The Song of Faith, Devout Exercises and Sonnets,’ 1842. 4. ‘Mary Tudor, an Historical Drama’ (written in 1844 and published posthumously), 1847. The two first were republished together in 1858. The ‘Sonnets’ were republished in 1875, and ‘Mary Tudor’ in 1884, with a memoir by his son, Aubrey de Vere, prefixed to each.
[Memoir as above; Gent. Mag. 1846, ii. 317; Burke's Peerage and Baronetage under ‘Vere.’]
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Coyte, William Beeston

​COYTE, WILLIAM BEESTON, M.D. (1741?–1810), botanist, son of William Coyte, M.B., of Ipswich (1708–1775), by his wife, a daughter of the Rev. Edmund Beeston of Sproughton, graduated M.B. at Queens' College, Cambridge, in 1763. Like his father, he practised medicine at Ipswich, and interested himself in botany. His name appears in the lists of the Linnean Society from 1794 to his death. His garden at Ipswich was carefully tended, and a catalogue of its contents was published by him as ‘Hortus Botanicus Gippovicensis, or a systematical enumeration of the Plants cultivated in Dr. Coyte's Botanic Garden at Ipswich,’ Ipswich, 1796, 4to, followed by an ‘Index Plantarum,’ 1807. He contributed a paper to the ‘Medical Transactions’ (iii. 30) in 1785. He died at his residence 3 March 1810, in his sixty-ninth year. His younger brother, James (1749–1812), graduated B.A. at Caius College, Cambridge, in 1771, was rector of Cantley from 1779, and perpetual curate of St. Nicholas, Ipswich, from 1785 till 1812.
[Grad. Cantab.; Lists Linn. Soc. 1794–1809; Gent. Mag. lxxx. pt. 1. (1810), 389; Nichols's Lit. Illustr. vi. 877–8.]
B. D. J.