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

​USHER, RICHARD (1785–1843), clown, was born in 1785. His father, the proprietor of a mechanical exhibition, travelled in the north of England and in Ireland. The son at an early age took a share in the management of the exhibition, and inherited his father's talent in the construction of curious contrivances. A spirit of adventure soon induced him to start on his own account, and with a friend he gave exhibitions in Newcastle, Manchester, Liverpool, and other large towns. At Christmas 1807 he appeared as a clown at the Liverpool Amphitheatre under Mr. Banks's management. His success was immediate, his readiness in the circle supplied a fund of jokes, and no contrivance was too difficult for his inventive powers. In 1809, under John Astley's rule, he came out at Astley's Amphitheatre, London, where for many years he remained a great favourite. His annual benefit was an occasion on which extraordinary performances took place both in and out of the theatre. The most remarkable of these feats occurred in 1828, when in a washing-tub drawn by geese he sailed down the Thames from Westminster to Waterloo Bridge. He was then to have proceeded in a car drawn by eight cats to the Coburg Theatre, but the crowd in the Waterloo Road made this impossible, and he was carried to the theatre on the shoulders of several watermen. On boxing night 1828 he was at Drury Lane in W. Barrymore's pantomime, ‘Harlequin Cock Robin, or the Babes in the Wood.’ There were two clowns, Usher and Southby; Barnes was pantaloon, Howell harlequin, and Miss Ryall columbine. There were six scenes in the opening burlesque, eleven in the harlequinade, and the performance lasted from half-past six until midnight.
Usher was known in the profession as the John Kemble of his art, and in the ring was the counterpart of Grimaldi on the stage, never descending to coarseness or vulgarity; his manner was irresistibly comic, and his jokes remarkable for their point and originality. He was the writer and inventor of several stock pantomimes. With increasing years he gave up clowning, and confined himself to invention and design. When William Batty purchased Astley's and rebuilt the house in 1842, he refused to employ any architect, and the extensive buildings were constructed from Usher's plans and models. Usher died at Hercules Buildings, Lambeth, London, on 23 Sept. 1843. He married, first, Mrs. Pincott (the mother of Leonora Pincott, the wife of Alfred Sydney Wigan [q. v.]); and, secondly, a sister of James William Wallack [q. v.], who survived him with a family.
G. C. B.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Weston, Francis

​WESTON, Sir FRANCIS (1511?–1536), courtier, born about 1515, was the only son of Sir Richard Weston (1466?–1542) [q. v.] In 1526 he was appointed page at court, and frequent notices of him are found among the privy-purse expenses of Henry VIII. Most of these relate to small grants of money to himself and his servants, but others show him to have lived on terms of the closest intimacy with the king. Among these may be mentioned an entry of 6l. ‘paied to my lorde of Rocheford for thuse of Maister Weston for iiij games which he wanne of the kinges grace at Tennes at iiij angelles a game.’ Other losses of the king to Weston at dice, bowls, ‘Imperiall,’ and ‘pope July's game’ are recorded. A contemporary French account lays stress on Weston's skill at games, which, together with his ‘bonnes meurs et graces,’ caused him to be extremely popular. In 1532 he was appointed gentleman of the privy chamber; in the next year the office of governor of Guernsey was granted to him and to his father in survivorship. On 31 May of the same year (1533), during the festivities of the coronation of Queen Anne Boleyn, he was created knight of the Bath.
In 1536, however, Sir Francis was compromised by some confessions made by the queen the day after her arrest, and on 4 May was himself arrested and sent to the Tower. He pleaded not guilty at his trial on 12 May, ​but was condemned to death. Influential attempts, which at one time seemed likely to be successful, were made to obtain a pardon, not only by members of his family (which had hitherto been opposed to the party of the Boleyns), but also by the French ambassador, M. Jean de Dinteville. ‘If any escape,’ writes John Hussey to Lord Lisle, ‘it will be young Weston, for whome importunate suit is made.’ He was, however, executed on Tower Hill, 17 May 1536, and buried in the churchyard of St. Peter's in the Tower. His farewell letter to his parents and wife, appended to a list of debts which he asks them to discharge, and signed ‘by me a grete offender to God,’ is still extant.
In May 1530 Weston married Anne, daughter and heiress of Sir Christopher Pickering of Killington in Cumberland, an orphan who had been a ward of his father's since 1519. They had one son, Henry (1535–1592), who was restored in blood in 1550, served at the siege of Calais in 1557–8, was sheriff of Surrey in 1569 and 1571, and twice entertained Queen Elizabeth at Sutton. His son, Sir Richard (1564–1613), was father of Sir Richard Weston (1591–1652) [q. v.]
E. C.-e.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Weston, Richard (1466?-1542)

​WESTON, Sir RICHARD (1466?–1542), courtier and diplomatist, son of Edmund Weston, an adherent of Henry VII, was born about 1465–6. Sir William Weston (d. 1540) [q. v.] was his brother. Immediately after his accession, on 22 May 1509, Henry VIII appointed Richard to several offices, including that of governor of Guernsey. In 1511 he served under Thomas, lord Darcy [q. v.], in the English contingent sent to assist Ferdinand, king of Spain, in his campaign against the Moors. On his return Weston visited the court of Spain, and received considerable honour. He was knighted by Henry VIII in 1514, and from 1516 was in personal attendance on the king as knight of the body. On 3 Jan. 1518 he was dubbed knight of the Bath. Next year he was one of the four ‘sad and ancient knights’ who were ‘put into the king's privy chamber’ (Hall's Chronicle). In 1520 he followed Henry to the Field of the Cloth of Gold. Next year he sat on the jury which tried and condemned Edward Stafford, third duke of Buckingham [q. v.] (State Trials, i. 287). The manor of Sutton was granted to him on the day of the duke's execution (17 May 1521).
In 1523 Weston served under Charles Brandon, duke of Suffolk [q. v.], in France; in 1525 he became treasurer of Calais, and in 1528 under-treasurer of England. In 1533 Henry paid a state visit to Sutton, and a little later Thomas Cromwell was a guest there. In 1539 Weston was appointed to meet Anne of Cleves on her landing in England. He must then have been considerably over seventy years of age. In 1542 he surrendered his post of sub-treasurer of England ‘ob senectutem debilitatam et continuam infirmitatem’ (20 Jan.), and died on 7 Aug. He was buried in his family chapel in the church of the Holy Trinity, Guildford. ‘There is hardly a single state ceremony or event during the eighth Henry's reign in which he is not recorded to have part. A bare list of the offices he held would fill some pages. He is a soldier, seaman, ambassador, governor, treasurer, privy councillor, judge of the Court of Wards’ (Harrison).
He married Anne, one of Queen Catherine's gentlewomen, daughter of Oliver Sandys of Shere, by whom he had a son ​Sir Francis [q. v.] and two daughters, Margaret and Katherine.
E. C.-e.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Weston, Edward (1566-1635)

​WESTON, EDWARD (1566–1635), Roman catholic controversialist, son of William Weston of Lincoln College, Oxford, and afterwards a member of Lincoln's Inn, by his wife, daughter of John Story [q. v.], was born in London in 1566. Hugh Weston [q. v.] was his great-uncle. Edward matriculated from Lincoln College, Oxford, on 20 March 1578–9 (Foster, Alumni Oxon. 1500–1714). Afterwards he was put under the tuition of Dr. John Case, who, with license from the university, read to scholars logic and philosophy in his house in the parish of St. Mary Magdalen. Wood states that, under him, Weston ‘profited in several sorts of learning to a miracle, became a good disputant, and very well read in philosophical authors,’ but, after he had spent at least five years at Oxford, his parents, who were Roman catholics, took him from the university and sent him to France, where for a short time he settled in the English College at Rheims. Thence he was sent on 8 March 1584–5 to the English College at Rome, where he spent six years in studying philosophy and theology, and was ordained priest. He was created D.D. by the university of Monreale. Then he returned to Rheims, where, on 3 Nov. 1592, he began a course of lectures on cases of conscience. In 1593 the college was removed to Douay, where Weston lectured in divinity for about ten years. Afterwards he laboured on the mission in England, returning to Douay on 23 Sept. 1612. He maintained a correspondence with Cardinal Bellarmin, who held him in the highest esteem. His ‘exquisite writings’ gained for him so great a reputation that he was called from Douay and made canon of the collegiate church of St. Mary at Bruges, where, according to Duthillœul, he died in 1635.
His works are: 1. ‘De triplici Hominis Officio, ex notione ipsius Naturali, Morali, ac Theologica; Institutiones orthodoxæ, contra Atheos, Politicos, Sectarios,’ Antwerp, 1602, 4to. 2. ‘Juris Pontificii Sanctuarium. Defensum ac propugnatum contra Rogerii Widdringtoni in Apologia & Responso Apologetico Impietatem’ [Douay], 1613, 8vo. 3. ‘The Triall of Christian Truth by the Rules of the Vertues, namely these principall, Faith, Hope, Charitie, and Religion; serving for the discoverie of Heresie, and Antichrist in his Forerunners and Misteries of Iniquitie,’ Douay, 1614–15, 3 vols. 4to. 4. ‘Probatio, seu Examen Veritatis Christianæ,’ Douay, 1614, 4to. 5. ‘The Repaire of Honour, falsely impeached by Featlye, a minister; wherein (by occasion) the Apostles disciple S. Ignatius his religion, against Protestantisme, is layd open,’ Bruges, 1624, 8vo. 6. ‘Theatrum Vitæ civilis ac sacræ: sive de Moribus Reipub. Christianæ Commentaria,’ in 5 books, Bruges, 1626, fol. 7. ‘Jesu Christi Domini nostri Coruscationum, simulque earum vi dictorum, factorumque quarumdam Personarum, eodem Christo præsente, in Evangelica Historia recensitorum, Enarrationes philosophicæ, theologicæ, historicæ,’ Antwerp, 1631, fol.
T. C.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Westminster, Matthew

​WESTMINSTER, MATTHEW, is an imaginary name given to a supposed author of a chronicle called ‘Flores Historiarum;’ it is affixed to a manuscript of the ‘Flores,’ probably written early in the fifteenth century for Henry le Despenser [q. v.], bishop of Norwich, and now in the British Museum, Cottonian MS. Claud. E. 8 ff. 14–236, which begins ‘Incipit prologus in librum qui Flores Historiarum intitulatur, secundum Mathæum Monachum Westmonasteriensem.’ As early as 1826 Sir Francis Palgrave described Westminster as ‘a phantom who never existed’ (Quarterly Review, 1826, xxxiv. i. 250). Sir T. D. Hardy, in the introduction to ‘Monumenta Historica Britannica,’ 1848, p. 7, spoke of him as ‘a supposed person,’ but wrote somewhat uncertainly. Sir F. Madden in the preface to his edition of Matthew Paris's ‘Historia Anglorum’ (1866, vol. i. pp. xxi sq.) pointed out that the name Matthew Westminster was fictitious, Westminster being taken from the abbey to which the ‘Flores’ belonged, and Matthew being borrowed from Matthew Paris, whom he erroneously believed to have been the author of the earlier part of the chronicle, and the actual transcriber of the earliest manuscript of it. Nevertheless, Hardy in his ‘Descriptive Catalogue of Manuscripts’ (1871, iii. 313 sq.) was unwilling to allow that there was no such person as Westminster; and Luard in his edition of the ‘Chronica Majora’ (1872, i. pref. xxi n.) was unable to reject the claim made for ‘Matthew, a monk of Westminster,’ to the authorship of the ‘Flores.’ Luard, however, in his edition of the ‘Flores,’ prefaces to vols. i. and iii. 1890, finally settled the question, proving by a masterly exposition of the history of the book and the character and composition of each portion of it, that Matthew Westminster was an imaginary name given to a person that never existed, and that the ‘Flores’ was partly compiled and partly composed by various writers at St. Albans and Westminster.
The ‘Flores’ was first printed by Archbishop Parker, as the work of Matthew Westminster, in 1567, from a manuscript written at Merton early in the fourteenth century, and now belonging to Eton College, except an addition for 1307, which is taken from Trivet's ‘Annales;’ this edition is fairly faithful. Parker, having meanwhile become acquainted with some other manuscripts of the ‘Flores’ and with Matthew Paris's ‘Chronica Majora,’ put out a second edition in 1570, in which he made insertions from other books, and specially from the work of Paris. The edition published at Frankfort in 1601 is a reprint of that of 1570. Luard's edition of the ‘Flores’ in ‘Chronicles and Memorials of Great Britain,’ 1890, 3 vols., is founded chiefly on the earliest manuscript of the work, the Chetham MS. (Manchester) 6712, collated with that belonging to Eton, and gives the whole work, which ends at 1325, the earlier editions ending with 1307. He accordingly printed for the first time the part from 1307 to 1325, written by Robert of Reading, a monk of Westminster, who died in 1325, an original and contemporary authority for the reign of Edward II.
W. H.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Yaniewicz, Felix

​YANIEWICZ, FELIX (1762–1848), violinist and composer. [See Janiewicz.]
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Yarington, Robert

​YARINGTON, ROBERT (fl. 1601), dramatist, was author of ‘Two Lamentable Tragedies. The one of the murther of Maister Beech, A Chaundler in Thames-streete, and his boye, done by Thomas Merry. The other of a young childe murthered in a Wood by two Ruffins, with the consent of his Unckle. By Rob. Yarington. London. Printed for Mathew Lawe, and are to be solde at his Shop in Paules Churchyarde neere unto S. Austines Gate at the signe of the Foxe,’ 1601, 4to. Nothing has been discovered concerning Robert Yarington. In Henslowe's ‘Diary’ (ed. Collier, pp. 92–3) we find that in 1599 Haughton and Day wrote a tragedy called ‘The Tragedy of Thomas Merrye.’ This was clearly on the first subject of Yarington's play. The next entry in the ‘Diary’ refers to ‘The Orphanes Tragedy’ by Chettle, which was apparently never finished. This would seem to be the second subject of Yarington's play. Mr. Fleay conjectures that Rob. Yarington is a fictitious name, and that his play is an amalgamation of the two plays by Haughton, Day, and Chettle. Mr. A. H. Bullen republished the play with an introduction in ‘A Collection of Old English Plays’ (1885, vol. iv.).
[Bullen's Introduction discusses the literary qualities and affinities of the play; Fleay's Chronicle of the English Drama, ii. 285–6; Bullen's Introduction to Arden of Feversham, 1887.]
R. B.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Yarmouth, Earl of

​YARMOUTH, Earl of. [See Paston, Robert, 1631–1683.]
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Yarmouth, Countess of

​YARMOUTH, Countess of. [See Wallmoden, Amalie Sophie Marianne, 1704–1765.]
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Watson, George (1723?-1773)

​WATSON, GEORGE (1723?–1773), divine, born in 1723 or 1724, was the son of Humphrey Watson of London. He matriculated from University College, Oxford, on 14 March 1739–40, graduating B.A. in 1743 and M.A. in 1746. He was elected to a scholarship on the Bennet foundation on 13 Dec. 1744, and was chosen on 27 Oct. 1747 to a fellowship on the same foundation, which he resigned on 20 March 1754. While at University College he was the tutor and friend of George Horne [q. v.], afterwards bishop of Norwich. Although little known to his contemporaries, he possessed solid learning and a sound judgment. Such eminent divines as Horne and William Jones of Nayland, who also knew him at Oxford, speak of his attainments in high terms. He held the theological opinions of John Hutchinson (1674–1737) [q. v.], to which he introduced Jones and Horne. Watson died on 16 April 1773. He was the author of: 1. ‘Christ the Light of the World,’ Oxford, 1750, 8vo. 2. ‘A Seasonable Admonition to the Church of England,’ Oxford, 1755, 8vo. 3. ‘Aaron's Intercession and Korah's Rebellion Considered,’ Oxford [1756], 8vo. 4. ‘The Doctrine of the Ever Blessed Trinity,’ London, 1756, 8vo. These four sermons were reprinted by John Matthew Gutch [q. v.] in 1860, under the title ‘Watson Redivivus’ (Oxford, 8vo).
[Jones's Life of Horne, 1795, pp. 25-30; Horne's Discourses, 1803, ii. 119, iv. 370; Notes and Queries, 2nd ser. viii. 396, ix. 14, x. 154, xi. 217, xii. 334; Foster's Alumni Oxon. 1715-1886; Watt's Bibliotheca Britannica; Gent. Mag. 1773 p. 203, 1861 ii. 685.]
E. I. C.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Watson, James (1739?-1790)

​WATSON, JAMES (1739?–1790), engraver, was born in Ireland in, or more probably before, 1740, and came when young to London, where he is supposed to have been a pupil of James Macardell [q. v.] He became one of the leading mezzotint-engravers of his time, and produced many excellent plates from pictures by Reynolds, Gainsborough, Cotes, Catherine Read, Van Dyck, Metzu, Schalken, Rubens, and others. He engraved about fifty portraits after Reynolds, among the finest of which are those of the Duchess of Cumberland; the Duchess of Manchester, with her son; Countess Spencer and her daughter; Barbara, countess of Coventry; Anne Delaval, Lady Stanhope, and Nelly O'Brien. Watson published some of his works himself at his house in Little Queen Anne Street, Portland Chapel; but the majority were done for Sayer, Boydell, and other printsellers. He exhibited engravings with the Incorporated Society of Artists between 1762 and 1775, and died in Fitzroy Street, London, on 20 May 1790.
Caroline Watson (1761?–1814), daughter of James Watson, was born in London in 1760 or 1761, and studied under her father. She worked in the stipple method with much skill and refinement, and her plates are numerous. In 1784 she engraved a portrait of Prince William of Gloucester, after Reynolds, and in 1785 a pair of small plates of the Princesses Sophia and Mary, after Hoppner, which she dedicated to the queen, and was then appointed engraver to her majesty. Of her other works, the best are the portraits of Sir James Harris and the Hon. Mrs. Stanhope, both after Reynolds; Catherine II, after Rosselin; and William Woollett, after G. Stuart; S. Cooper's reputed portrait of Milton; ‘The Marriage of St. Catherine,’ after Correggio, and the plates to Hayley's ‘Life of Romney.’ For Boydell's Shakespeare Miss Watson engraved the ‘Death of Cardinal Beaufort,’ after Reynolds, and a scene from the ‘Tempest,’ after Wheatley. She also executed a set of aquatints of the ‘Progress of Female Virtue and Female Dissipation,’ from designs by Maria Cosway. She engraved several pictures belonging to the Marquis of Bute. She died at Pimlico on 10 June 1814.
[Redgrave's Dict. of Artists; Graves's Dict. of Artists, 1760–93; J. Chaloner Smith's British Mezzotinto Portraits; Le Blanc's Manuel de l'Amateur d'Estampes; Gent. Mag. 1814, i. 700; Thomas Watson, James Watson, and Elizabeth Judkins, by Gordon Goodwin, 1904.]
F. M. O'D.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Watson, David (1710-1756)

​WATSON, DAVID (1710–1756), translator of Horace, is believed to have been born in Brechin, Forfarshire, in 1710. He is said to have studied at St. Leonard's College, St. Andrews, and the title-pages of his books describe him as A.M. of that college; but the university records from 1720 onwards do not contain his name either as student or graduate. Nor is there any official evidence of the popular statements that Watson was ‘professor of philosophy’ in St. Leonard's and lost his chair in 1747, when the colleges of St. Leonard's and St. Salvator's were united. The professors ​of both colleges in 1747 seem to be accounted for, and not one of them is named Watson. Whatever he was, and howsoever educated, there is no doubt of his scholarship, and a practically contemporary manuscript note, inscribed on the copy of his Horace in St. Andrews University library, seems to leave as little uncertainty regarding his reputed dissipation. He ended his career in the neighbourhood of London in 1756, and his melancholy record closes with the tradition that he was buried at the expense of the parish in which he died.
Watson published in 1741, in two volumes octavo, the ‘Works of Horace translated into English Prose, with the original Latin,’ &c.; 2nd edit. 1747; 3rd edit. 1750. This is a monument of scholarship and literary skill, not only giving a critical text and a specially attractive version, but embodying Douglas's catalogue of nearly five hundred editions of Horace, and Bentley's various readings. Its popularity was instantaneous, although scholars protested against the presentation of Horace in prose (Nichols, Literary Anecdotes, i. 151 n.) Revised editions were prepared by Samuel Patrick, 1760, and William Crackelt, 1792. Watson also published in 1752 ‘A Clear and Compendious History of the Gods and Goddesses and their Contemporaries,’ which reached a second edition in 1753.
[Anderson's Scottish Nation; Irving's Eminent Scotsmen; information from Mr. J. Maitland Anderson, university librarian, St. Andrews; Allibone's Dict. of English Authors; Lowndes's Bibliographer's Manual, s.v. ‘Horatius.’]
T. B.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Watson, Christopher

​WATSON, CHRISTOPHER (d. 1581), historian and translator, a native of Durham, was educated at St. John's College, Cambridge, where he proceeded B.A. in 1565–6 (Cooper, Athenæ Cantabr. i. 434). For some time he resided with Thomas Gawdy (recorder of Norwich, afterwards a knight and a judge of the queen's bench) at his residence, Gawdy Hall, in Harleston, Norfolk. It was during this period that he appears to have composed his translation of Polybius, for the printing of which a license was granted by the Stationers' Company to Thomas Hackett in 1565; but no copy of an impression bearing that date is known to exist. He commenced M.A. in 1569, and his name occurs in the list of the opponents of the new statutes of the university in 1572 (Lamb, Original Documents, p. 359). It is supposed that he was in holy orders, and that he died before 12 June 1581, when the Stationers' Company licensed to Henry Carre ‘a lamentation for the death of Mr. Christofer Watson, mynister.’ A Christopher Watson was appointed rector of Bircham Newton, Norfolk, in 1573, and also resigned the rectory of Beechamwell in the same county before 1583 (Blomefield, vii. 294, x. 291).
Watson published: 1. ‘The Hystories of the most famous and worthy Cronographer Polybius: Discoursing of the warres betwixt the Romanes and Carthaginienses, a riche and goodly Worke, conteining holsome counsels and wonderfull devises against the incombrances of fickle Fortune. Englished by C. W. Whereunto is annexed an Abstracte, compendiously coarcted out of the life and worthy acts perpetrate by our puissant Prince King Henry the fift,’ London, 1568, 8vo, dedicated to Thomas Gawdy. 2. ‘Catechisme,’ London, 1579, 8vo. A tract of four leaves, without title-page or pagination, entitled ‘Briefe Principles of Religion for the Exercise of Youth: done by C. W.’ (London, 1581, 8vo), is assigned to Watson in the British Museum Catalogue. He also made some valuable collections on the history of Durham, which are extant in Cottonian MS. Vitell. C. ix. ff. 61 sqq.
T. C.