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

​BROOK, BENJAMIN (1776–1848), nonconformist divine and historian, was born in 1776 at Nether Thong, near Huddersfield. As a youth he was admitted to membership in the independent church at Holmfield, under the pastoral care of the Rev. Robert Gallond. In 1797 he entered Rotherham College as a student for the ministry. In 1801 he became the first pastor of the congregational church at Tutbury, Staffordshire. Here he pursued his studies, with great research, into puritan and nonconformist history and biography, and published the works on which his historical repute chiefly rests. Resigning his ministerial duties in 1830, from failing health, he went to reside at Birmingham, still continuing his favourite studies, and publishing some of their fruits. He was a member of the educational board of Springhill College, opened August 1838. At the time of his death he was collecting materials for a history of puritans who emigrated to New England. He died at the Lozells, near Birmingham, on 5 Jan. 1848, in his 73rd year. He is said to have been one of the last who retained among the congregationalists the old ministerial costume of shorts and black silk stockings. He published:
* 'Appeal to Facts to justify Dissenters in their Separation from the Established Church,' 2nd ed. 1806, 8vo (3rd ed. 1815, 8vo, with title 'Dissent from the Church of England justified by an Appeal to Facts').
* 'The Lives of the Puritans … from the Reformation under Q. Elizabeth to the Act of Uniformity, in 1662,' 1813, 3 vols. 8vo (a most careful and valuable collection, from original sources).
* 'The Reviewer reviewed,' 1815, 8vo (in answer to an article in the 'Christian Observer ' on the 'Lives').
* 'The History of Religious Liberty from the first Propagation of Christianity in Britain to the death of George III,' 1820, 2 vols. 8vo.
* 'Memoir of the Life and Writings of Thomas Cartwright, B.D. … including the principal ecclesiastical movements in the reign of Q. Elizabeth,' 1845, 8vo (this is inferior to his 'Lives;' Brook was better in biography than in general history).
[Congregational Year-Book, 1848, p. 214; Bennett's Hist. of Dissenters, 1839, p. 161 private information.]
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# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Blackmore, William

​BLACKMORE, WILLIAM (d. 1684), ejected minister, came of an Essex family, and was the second son of William Bluckmore of London, a member of the Fishmongers’ Company, whose elder son, Sir John Blackmore, knight, was in the confidence of Cromwell, and became governor of St. Helena after the Restoration, William was a member of Lincoln College, Oxford, and graduated M.A. there, although he is not. mentioned by Wood. Having been ordained deacon he was appointed in December 1645 to the rectory of Pentloe, Essex, sequestered from Edward Alston. On 1 Sept. 1646 his resignation of Pentloe was accepted by the committee for plundered ministers, and removed to London, and became curate to Thomas Coleman ('Rabbi' Coleman, who died March 1647) at St, Peter's, Cornhill. He was ordained presbyter by the Fourth London Classis on 20 Apri1 1647, but did not take the covenant, and was duly presented to the rectory of St. Peter’s by the corporation of London on 13 May 1656, after the death in 1655 of William Fairfax, D.D., sequestered in August 1643. On 1 Dec. 1646 the London presbyterians published a defence of their system, ‘Jus Divinum Regiminis Ecclesiastici,' &c., of which Blackmore wrote the part relating to ordination. Hetherington (Hist. West. Assemb. p. 298) describes the book as ‘the most complete and able defence of presbyterian church government that has yet appeared.' In 1648 Blackmore was one of the scribes to the London provincial assembly. He signed (probably on 20 Jan. 1649) the presbyterian remonstrance to Cromwell on the meditated death of the king. He was one of the thirteen clergy arrested on a charge of complicity in Christopher Love’s plot in 1651; being liberated through the influence of his brother Sir John, he rendered great assistance to Lore during his trial. In 1662 Blackmore seceded with the nonconformists, and retired into Essex, where he lived on his ample means and gathered a small flock. In April 1672 he was licensed as ‘a presbyterian teacher in his own house’ in Hornchurch, near Romford. He died at Hare Street, a hamlet within a mile of Hornford, in 1661, and was buried at Romford on 18 July. He married (1) on 1 May 1660 Mary Chewning, from Leeds, Kent, who died in November 1678, and (2) before 1681, Sarah Luttrell, who survived him. His only son, Chewning, Blackmore, born on 1 Jan. 1663, was educated for the ministry at the Rev. John Wondhouse’s academy, Sheriff-Hales. near Shifnall, Salop, settled at Worcester in 1688 as assistant to Thomas Badland (ejected in 1663 from Willenhall, Staffordshire, and died 1689), and remained there till his death on 2 Aug. 1737. He married in 1694 Abigail (died in April 1734), daughter of Edward Higgins, and left two sons: (1) Francis, presbyterian minister at Evesham (1728-30), Coventry (1730-42), and Worcester (1743-61), and (2) Edward Chewning, presbyterian minister at Stoke, near Malvern. ​
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# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Hewley, Sarah

​HEWLEY, SARAH, Lady (1627–1710), foundress of the Hewley trust, born in 1627, was the only daughter and heiress of Robert Wolrych (d. 11 Dec. 1661), bencher of Gray's Inn. Her mother, whose maiden name was Mott, had a fortune derived from her first husband, whose name was Tichborne. Sarah Wolrych married John (b. 1619), son of John Hewley of Wistow, near Selby, West Riding. Her husband was admitted of Gray's Inn, 4 Feb. 1638, and became recorder of Doncaster. He sat for Pontefract 1658–60, was knighted at Whitehall, 30 June 1663, and sat for York in 1678, 1679, and 1681. He encouraged letters, giving pecuniary aid in the production of Dugdale's ‘Monasticon’ and Poole's ‘Synopsis.’ He kept a presbyterian chaplain, who gathered a public congregation in York, for which a small chapel, cruciform ​ in shape, was built at St. Saviourgate in 1692 (registered 8 April 1693). Sir John Hewley died at his country residence, Bell Hall, near York, on 24 Aug. 1697, and was buried in St. Saviour's Church, York.
Dame Hewley, his widow, spent large sums in works of charity. In 1700 she built and endowed an almshouse at York for ten poor women of her own religious views [see Bowles, Edward]; in 1705 she contributed 200l. to charity schools founded at York by Archbishop Sharpe.
On 13 Jan. 1704–5 Dame Hewley conveyed to trustees a landed estate, of which the income was, after her death, to be devoted to benevolent objects, including the support of ‘poor and godly preachers for the time being of Christ's holy gospel.’ The benefactions were increased by a further deed (26 April 1707) and by her will (9 July 1707, codicil 21 Aug. 1710). The will was contested without result. Though the trustees were all presbyterian, grants were made to ministers of the ‘three denominations.’ By the end of the last century all the trustees and a majority of the presbyterian recipients were unitarian; but by a judgment of the House of Lords (5 Aug. 1842) three congregationalists, three orthodox presbyterians, and one baptist were appointed trustees. The income of the trust was then 2,830l., and has since increased.
Dame Hewley died on 23 Aug. 1710, and was buried with her husband. Portraits of Sir John Hewley and his wife are preserved in the vestry of St. Saviourgate Chapel. Their two children, Wolrych and John, died in infancy.
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# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Crowther, Jonathan (1794-1856)

​CROWTHER, JONATHAN (1794–1856), Wesleyan minister, was born at St. Austell, Cornwall, on 31 July 1794. His father, Timothy Crowther, and his uncles, Jonathan [q. v.] and Richard, were all methodist preachers of Wesley's own appointment. He was educated at Kingswood school, Gloucestershire, and began to preach when about the age of twenty. Having been principal teacher at Woodhouse Grove, near Bradford, Yorkshire, he was appointed in 1823 headmaster of Kingswood school. After this he was stationed from time to time in various Wesleyan circuits, and distinguished himself as a zealous defender of the principles and discipline of his denomination. In 1837 he was appointed general superintendent of the Wesleyan missions in India, and rendered important services to this cause in Madras presidency. Returning to England in 1843 on account of impaired health, he was again employed in the home ministry. In 1849 he received the appointment of classical tutor in the Wesleyan Theological Institution at Didsbury, Lancashire. He was a respectable scholar and successful teacher. To the acquirements necessary for his chair he added a good knowledge of Hebrew and several modern languages. He acted as examiner at Wesley College, Sheffield, as well as at New Kingswood and Woodhouse Grove schools. To the periodical literature of his denomination he was a frequent contributor. He was a man of no pretension, but of good judgment and much simplicity and sweetness of character. His health failed some time before his death, and on 31 Dec. 1855 he was seized with congestion of the brain while on a visit to the Rev. William Willan at Leeds. In this friend's house he died on 16 Jan. 1856, leaving a widow and family.
[Wesleyan Meth. Mag., 1856, pp. 191, 564, 846; also Minutes of Conf. same year.]
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# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Cook, John (1771-1824)

​COOK, JOHN, D.D. (1771–1824), professor of Hebrew, eldest son of the Rev. John Cook, professor of moral philosophy at St. Andrews, by Janet, daughter of the Rev. John Hill, was born 24 Nov. 1771. He graduated at St. Andrews in 1788. On 19 Sept. 1792 he was licensed for the ministry of the church of Scotland, and was ordained minister of Kilmany on 9 May 1793. He held this charge until 12 Oct. 1802; his immediate successor was Dr. Chalmers. Cook left Kilmany to fill the Hebrew and divinity chair in St. Mary's College, St. Andrews, a position which he occupied until his death. On 16 May 1816 he was moderator of the general assembly. He died on 28 Nov. 1824. He published ‘Inquiry into the Authenticity of the Books of the New Testament,’ Edin. 1821, 8vo (the substance of a course of lectures, on Bishop Marsh's plan).
[Hew Scott's Fasti Eccles. Scot.; Anderson's Scottish Nation, 1870, i. 680.]
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# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Campbell, Robert (d.1722)

​CAMPBELL, ROBERT (d. 1722), presbyterian minister, was a native of Scotland. He went over to Ireland and settled at Ray, co. Donegal, where he was ordained in 1671 by a presbytery then known as the ‘Laggan meeting.’ Its members got into trouble by proclaiming a ‘publike fast’ for 17 Feb. 1681. Campbell and three others were examined at Raphoe and Dublin, and, having been tried at Lifford assizes, were fined 20l. each and required to give a written engagement not to offend again. In default, they were detained in custody at Lifford, but after eight months' confinement were released (20 April 1682) on paying a reduced fine. While thus detained they were allowed to preach every Sunday in turn, and were occasionally let out surreptitiously by their keepers to hold services in the country. During the troubles of 1689 Campbell went back to Scotland, where he was called to Roseneath, Dumbartonshire, on 27 Aug. He accepted on 3 Dec., and officiated till Whitsunday 1691, after which he went back to Ray. He was called to Donaghmore on 21 Dec. 1692, but the Laggan meeting on 8 Feb. 1693 decided that he should remain at Ray. He was moderator of the general synod in 1694 at Antrim. On 2 July 1695 the Laggan presbytery placed his name first among three, one of whom was to act as a commissioner to William III in Flanders, to ask for ‘legal liberty’ and redress of grievances. It is not certain that this commission was ever carried out. Early next year his only publication appeared in London. An assistant and successor to him was ordained at Ray on 23 Dec. 1719. Campbell died on 5 Oct. 1722. He married Margaret Kelso, and had a son, Hugh, and a daughter, Agnes. He published ‘A Directory of Prayer for a gracious King, &c.,’ 1696, 18mo (eight sermons at fasts and thanksgivings during William's continental wars, and a funeral sermon for Queen Mary; preface, dated 13 Oct. 1695, by N. Bl., i.e. Nicholas Blakey, minister of the Scots church, London Wall).
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# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Moxon, George

​MOXON, GEORGE (1603?–1687), congregational divine, born near Wakefield, Yorkshire, about 1603, was educated at Wakefield grammar school, and at Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge, where he was reputed an excellent writer of Latin lyrics. Having been chaplain to Sir William Brereton (1604-1661) [q.v.], he obtained the perpetual curacy of St. Helen's, Lancashire, where he disused the ceremonies and got into trouble with his bishop, John Bridgeman [q.v.] Being cited for nonconformity in 1637, he left St. Helen's in disguise for Bristol, and thence sailed for New England, where he was pastor of the congregational church at Springfield, Massachusetts. He returned to England in 1653, and became colleague with John Machin (1624-1664) [q. v.] at Astbury, Cheshire, a sequestered living. Machin was a presbyterian; Moxon gathered a congregational church at Astbury, and supplied every other Sunday the perpetual curacy of Rushton-Spencer, Staffordshire. He was an assistant commissioner to the 'triers' for Cheshire. After the Restoration the rector, Thomas Hutchinson (d. 15 Dec. 1675), was reinstated, 21 Feb. 1661. Moxon retained his charge at Rushton till his ejection by the Uniformity Act of 1662. He seems to have preached for a time at a farmhouse near Rushton Chapel, where is still an ancient burial-ground.
In 1667 he removed to Congleton, in the parish of Astbury, and preached in his own house near Dane Bridge, which was licensed (30 April), under the indulgence of 1672, for a teacher of the congregational persuasion. Under James's declaration for liberty of conscience, a meeting-house was built for Moxon's congregation at Congleton, but he did not live to occupy it. He had been disabled by paralytic strokes and was assisted in his ministry from 1678 by Eliezer Birch (d. 12 May 1717). He died at Congleton on 15 Sept. 1687, 'ætat. 85.' He married a daughter of Isaac Ambrose [q.v.] The meetinghouse was first used on occasion of his funeral sermon by Birch; it was destroyed by a Jacobite mob in 1712, but rebuilt. The congregation is now Unitarian.
George Moxon the younger, son of the above, held after 1650 the sequestered rectory of Radwinter, Essex. At the Restoration the rector, Richard Drake, was reininstated, and Moxon became chaplain to Samuel Shute, sheriff of London (1681), who was his brother-in-law. He died at Shute's residence, Eaton Constantine, Shropshire.
[Calamy's Account, 1713, pp. 128 sq., 313; Newcome's Autobiography (Chetham Soc.), 1852, ii. 182; Urwick's Nonconformity in Cheshire, 1864, pp. 155 sq.; Pickford's Hist, of Congleton Unitarian Chapel, 1883; Head's Congleton, 1887, pp. 251 sq.; Davids's Evang. Nonconf. in Essex, 1863, pp. 445 sq.]
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# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Beza, Theodore

See also Theodore Beza on Wikipedia; and our 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica disclaimer.
​BEZA (de Bèsze), THEODORE (1519–1605), French theologian, son of bailli Pierre de Bèsze, was born at Vezelai, Burgundy, on the 24th of June 1519. Of good descent, his parents were known for generous piety. He owed his education to an uncle, Nicolas de Bèsze, counsellor of the Paris parlement, who placed him (1529) under Melchior Wolmar at Orleans, and later at Bourges. Wolmar, who had taught Greek to Calvin, grounded Beza in Scripture from a Protestant standpoint; after his return to Germany (1534) Beza studied law at Orleans (May 1535 to August 1539), beginning practice in Paris (1539) as law licentiate. To this period belong his exercises in Latin verse, in the loose taste of the day, foolishly published by him as Juvenilia in 1548. Though not in orders, he held two benefices. A severe illness wrought a change; he married his mistress, Claude Desnoz, and joined the church of Calvin at Geneva (October 1548). In November 1549 he was appointed Greek professor at Lausanne, where he acted as Calvin’s adjutant in various publications, including his defence of the burning of Servetus, De Haereticis a civili magistratu puniendis (1554). In 1558 he became professor in the Geneva academy, where his career was brilliant. His conspicuous ability was shown in the abortive Colloquy of Poissy (1561). On Calvin’s death (1564) he became his biographer and administrative successor. As a historian, Beza, by his chronological inexactitude, has been the source of serious mistakes; as an administrator, he softened the rigour of Calvin. His editions and Latin versions of the New Testament had a marked influence on the English versions of Geneva (1557 and 1560) and London (1611). The famous codex D. was presented by him (1581) to Cambridge University, with a characteristically dubious account of the history of the manuscript. His works are very numerous, but of little moment, except those already mentioned. He resigned his offices in 1600, and died on the 13th of October 1605. He had taken a second wife (1588), Catherine del Piano, a widow, but left no issue. He was not the author of the Histoire ecclésiastique (1580), sometimes ascribed ​to him; nor, probably, of the vulgar skit published under the name of Benedict Panavantius (1551).
See Laingaeus, De Vita et Moribus (1585, calumnious); Antoine la Faye, De Vita et Obitu (1606, eulogistic); Schlosser, Leben (1806); Baum, Th. Beza, portrait (1843–1851); Heppe, Leben (1861). (A. Go.*)
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Brenz, Johann

See also Johann Brenz on Wikipedia; and our 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica disclaimer.
​BRENZ, JOHANN (1499–1570), Lutheran divine, eldest son of Martin Brenz, was born at Weil, Württemberg, on the 24th of June 1499. In 1514 he entered the university of Heidelberg, where Oecolampadius was one of his teachers, and where in 1518 he heard Luther discuss. Ordained priest in 1520, and appointed preacher (1522) at Hall in Swabia, he gave himself to biblical exposition. He ceased to celebrate mass in 1523, and reorganized his church in 1524. Successful in resisting the peasant insurrection (1525), his fortunes were affected by the Schmalkaldic War. From Hall, when taken by the imperial forces, he fled on his birthday in 1548. Protected by Duke Ulrich of Württemberg, he was appointed (January 1553) provost of the collegiate church of Stuttgart. As organizer of the reformation in Württemberg he did much fruitful work. A strong advocate of Lutheran doctrine, and author of the Syngramma Suevicum (October 21, 1525), which set forth Luther’s doctrine of the Eucharist, he was free from the persecuting tendencies of the age. He is praised and quoted (as Joannes Witlingius) for his judgment against applying the death penalty to anabaptists or other heretics in the De Haereticis, an sint persequendi (1554), issued by Sebastian Castellio under the pseudonym of Martinus Bellius. An incomplete edition of his works (largely expository) appeared at Tübingen, 1576–1590. Several of his sermons were reproduced in contemporary English versions. A volume of Anecdota Brentiana was edited by Pressel in 1868. He died on the 11th of September 1570, and was buried in his church at Stuttgart; his grave was subsequently violated. He was twice married, and his eldest son, Johann Brenz, was appointed (1562) professor of theology in Tübingen at the early age of twenty-two.
See Hartmann and Jäger, Johann Brenz (1840–1842); Bossert, in Hauck’s Realencyklop. (1897). (A. Go.*)
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1912 supplement/Waring, Anna Letitia

​WARING, ANNA LETITIA (1823–1910), hymn writer, born at Plas-y-Velin, Neath, Glamorganshire, on 19 April 1823, was the second daughter of Elijah and Deborah Waring, members of the' Society of Friends. Her uncle, Samuel Miller Waring (1792-1827), a hymn writer, author of 'Sacred Melodies' (1826), had left the Friends for the Anglican communion; a desire for sacraments led his niece to follow his example; she was baptised on 15 May 1842 at St. Martin's, Winnall, Winchester. She early wrote hymns (her 'Father, I know that all my life' was written in 1846); her verse writing, continued to near the close of life, never lost its freshness, and exhibits at its best a real poetic vein, with a delicate purity of feeling and a ringing melody of diction. James Martineau writes of 'long-standing spiritual obligations' to her (Talbot, p. 27). She had learned Hebrew for the study of the poetry of the Old Testament, and daily read the Hebrew psalter. Her kindly nature was shown in her love of animals, her philanthropy in her constant visits to the Bristol prisons and her interest in the Discharged Prisoners Aid Society. Her friendships were few and deep. With an habitually grave demeanour she combined a 'merry, quiet humour.' She died unmarried on 10 May 1910 at Clifton, Bristol.
She published: 1. 'Hymns and Meditations,' 1850, 16mo; 17th edit. 1896; several American reprints. 2. 'Additional Hymns,' 1858, 12mo (included in subsequent editions of No. 1). 3. 'Days of Remembrance,' 1886 (calendar of Bible texts).
[The Times, 24 May 1910; Julian, Dict., of Hymnology, 1907, pp. 1233 sq., 1723; M. S. Talbot, In Remembrance of A. L. Waring, 1911 (portrait, additional hymns, and other verses); Joseph Smith, Cat. of Friends' Books, 1867, ii. 856.]
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