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

​BORLASE, HENRY (1806–1835), separatist clergyman, born at Helstone, Cornwall, on 15 Feb. 1806, was educated at Trinity College, Cambridge, graduating B.A. in 1828. After taking orders, he became curate at St. Keyne, near Liskeard, about December 1830. At the end of 1832 he resigned his curacy and withdrew from the established church. Taking up his residence in Plymouth, he joined a society, formed in 1831–2, which had received the name of Plymouth Brethren, a movement which has since assumed larger proportions, and developed many remarkable peculiarities. He has been spoken of as its founder, but this is incorrect; he was a great friend of Benjamin Newton, one of the originators of the society. Borlase considered that the established church, as a human institution, had fallen into apostasy, and that separation from apostasy was no schism. In 1834 he began the publication at Plymouth of a quarterly organ, the 'Christian Witness,’ which continued to exist till 1840. At the beginning of 1834 he broke a blood-vessel, and was subsequently in very precarious health. He died on 13 Nov. 1835, at Plymstock, near Plymouth. He married Caroline Pridham. His contributions to the ‘Christian Witness’ were included in a small publication, without date, ‘Papers by the late Henry Borlase, connected with the Present State of the Church.' Some biographical particulars are added by the anonymous editor.
[Notes and Queries (3rd ser.), v. 203; Cooper's Biog. Dict. 1883, p. 258; Registers of St. Keyne (per Rev. T. L. Symes); information from his sister, Mrs. Charles Grylls, and from R. N. Worth, F.G.S., Plymouth.]
A. G.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Bruce, Michael (1686-1735)

​BRUCE, MICHAEL (1686–1735), Irish presbyterian minister, eldest son of James Bruce, minister of Killeleagh [q. v.], born 27 July 1686, was licensed by the Doom presbytery at Downpatrick on 27 Oct. 1708, after subscribing the Westminster Confession, and promising not to ‘follow any divisive courses all the days of my life.’ He was ordained minister of Holywood, co. Down, on 10 Oct. 1711, and acquired the reputation of a quiet, solid preacher. He was a member of the ministerial club, founded in 1705, and subsequently known as the Belfast Society. This body, of which the mainspring was John Abernethy of Antrim [q. v.], exercised a powerful influence in liberalising the presbyterian theology of Ulster. When, in 1720, the nonsubscription controversy broke out, his father, James Bruce, became a subscriber. Bruce, who broke with Calvinistic orthodoxy, became a decided nonsubscriber, and in 1723 was one of the four ministers accused by Colonel Upton at the Belfast sub-synod as ‘holding principles which opened a door to lst all heresy and error into the church.’ In 1724 he protested against the exclusion of Thomas Nevin of Downpatrick for alleged heresy. He preached what was intended as a healing sermon, on 5 Jan. 1725, before the sub-synod. That same year he was placed with the other nonsubscribers by the general synod of Ulster in a separate presbytery (Antrim), and in 1726 the Antrim presbytery, of which Bruce was clerk, was excluded from the general synod, and became a distinct ecclesiastical body. A subscribing congregation was soon formed at Holywood, under William Smith, and most of Bruce's hearers deserted him. Woodrow says he had only ten or twelve families left, yielding a stipend of scarcely 4l. To improve his position, a fortnightly evening lecture was established in First Belfast, and Bruce was appointed lecturer, at 20l. a year. His reputation as a minister was high, but he wrote so little that it is difficult to form a judgment of his merits. He is believed to have had a principal hand in the nonsubscribers’ historical statement, ‘A Narrative of the Proceedings of Seven General Synods of the Northern Presbyterians in Ireland,’ &c., Belfast, 1727, 8vo (the preface is signed by Samuel Haliday, moderator, and Michael Bruce, clerk). He died 1 Dec. 1735, and was buried at Holywood, where Haliday preached his funeral sermon (Ps. xxxvii. 37) on 7 Dec. In 1716 he married Mary Ker, and had four children. Samuel Bruce [q. v.] was his son. He published only, ‘The Duty of Christians to live together in religious communion, recommended in a sermon,’ &c., Belfast, 1725, 8vo.
[Halliday's Funeral Sermon, 1735, Appendix to Duchal's Sermon for Abernathy, 1741, pp. 36 sq.; Bible Christian, 1841, p. 111; Witherow's Hist. and Lit. Memorials of Presbyterianism in Ireland, 1st series, 1879, pp. 295 sq.; Porter’s Seven Bruces, in N. Whig, 16 April 1885]
A. G.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Bruce, James (1660?-1730)

​BRUCE, JAMES (1660?–1730), Irish presbyterian minister, was the eldest son of Michael Bruce (1635-1693) [q. v.] He was called to Carnmoney, county Antrim, but preferred a settlement at Killeleagh, county Down (near Killinchy, his father's place), where he was ordained after 6 Nov. 1684. In April 1689 occurred 'the break of Killeleagh,' when the protestants were routed and Killeleagh castle deserted by its garrison. Bruce fled to Scotland, but returned in 1691 or 1692, when Ulster was at peace. In 1696 he secured, from the presbyterian proprietors of the Killeleagh estate endowments for the presbyterian minister at Killeleagh (and three others) in the shape of a lease of lands at a ​nominal rent. More important was his success in establishing at Killeleagh in 1697 a philosophical school for the training of the presbyterian ministry and gentry which proved obnoxious to the episcopalians and was closed in 1714. In 1699 Bruce was appointed one of the synod's trustees for the management of the regium donum and continued in this office till his death His congregation was large at his communion on 2 July 1704 there were seven successive tables and the services began at 7 a.m. and lasted till evening. A new meeting house was built for him probably in 1692. In the nonsubscription controversy 1720 6 Bruce sided with the subscribers himself signing the Westminster Confession in 1721 but was unwilling to cut off the nonsubscribers from fellowship. His presbytery Down was in 1725 divided into Down and Killeleagh those including Bruce who were against disowning the nonsubscribers being placed in the latter Bruce died on 17 Feb 1730. His will dated in February 1725 directs his burial at Killeleagh where he was interred on 24 Feb Tradition places the spot eastward of the episcopal church. He married 25 Sept 1685 Margaret died May 1706 daughter of Lieutenant colonel James Trail of Tullychin near Killeleagh by Mary daughter of John Hamilton brother of the first Lord Clandeboye. He had ten children of whom three sons and three daughters survived him. His sons Michael [q. v.] and Patrick were presbyterian ministers, William [q. v.] was a publisher. From his son Patrick (1692–1732) minister successively of Drumbo, co. Down Killallan, Renfrewshire, and Killeleagh, are lineally descended the Hervey Bruces of Downhill, baronets since 1804. Bruce published nothing In Daniel Mussenden's manuscript volume of sermon notes is an abstract of Bruce's sermon (Prov viii. 17) at a communion in Belfast, 20 Aug 1704, which is strongly Calvinistic
[McCreery's Presb. Ministers of Killeleagh, 1875, pp. 90 sq.; Porter's Seven Bruces in N. Whig, 16 April 1885; Reid's Hist. Presb. Ch. in Ireland (Killen), 1867, ii. 477, 519; [Kirkpatrick's] Historical Essay upon the Loyalty of Presbyterians, 1713, p. 506; Bruce's appendix to Towgood's Diss. Gent. Letters, 1816, p. 359; Disciple (Belfast) April 1883, p. 100; Belfast Funeral Register (presbyterian); manuscript extracts from Minutes of General Synod; Mussenden's manuscript sermon notes, 1704–20, in the possession of a descendant of Bruce.]
A. G.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Bruce, William (1702-1755)

​BRUCE, WILLIAM (1702–1755), publisher and author, the youngest son of James Bruce, minister of Killeleagh [q. v.], was born in 1702. He received a collegiate education, but entered business life. In 1730 he was at Dublin in partnership with John Smith, a publisher who had been educated for the ministry. In 1737 or 1738 he became tutor to Joseph, son of Hugh Henry, a Dublin banker (M.P. for Antrim 1715). With his pupil he visited Cambridge, Oxford, and probably Glasgow, for purposes of study. About 1745 he settled permanently in Dublin, and was an elder of Wood Street, his brother Samuel's congregation. He was certainly a nonsubscriber, most probably an Arian. In 1750 the general synod at Dungannon accepted a scheme of his origination for a widows' fund, which came into operation next year. In 1759 it became necessary to reduce the annuities, but it now yields three times more than was originally calculated by Bruce. In Dublin Bruce was distinguished as a public-spirited citizen. He published a pamphlet, 'Some Facets and Observations relative to the Fate of the late Linen Bill,' &c., Dublin, 1753 (anonymous, third edition), to show that the linen manufacture of the north of Ireland was exposed to a double danger by the projected closing of the American market, and the proposed abolition of the protective duties on foreign linens and calicoes. Bruce, who was unmarried, died of fever on 11 July 1755, and was buried in the same tomb with his intimate friend and cousin, Francis Hutcheson (died July 1746), the ethical writer. Gabriel Cornwall (died 1786) wrote a joint epitaph for the two friends in Latin. Bruce kept no accounts, and died richer than he thought. All his property he bequeathed to his friend, Alexander Stewart of Ballylawn, co. Donegal, afterwards of Mount Stewart, near Newtownards, co. Down (born 1699, died 22 April 1781; father of the first marquis of Londonderry). Stewart divided the property among Bruce's relatives, in accordance with a paper of private instructions. Bruce was the author, in conjunction with John Abernethy (1680-1740) [q. v.], of 'Reasons for the Repeal of the Sacramental Test,' which appeared in five weekly ​numbers at Dublin in 1733, and was reprinted in 1751 as the first of a collection of ‘Scarce and Valuable Tracts and Sermons’ by Abernethy.
[Essay on the Character of the late Mr. W. Bruce in a Letter to a Friend, Dublin, 1755 (by Gabriel Cornwall, dared ll Aug.; prefatory letter to Stewart by James Duchal, D.D.). reprinted, Monthly Rev. vols. xiii. xiv.; Armstrong's Appendix to James Martineau's Ordination Service, 1829. pp, 64, 96; Hincks's Notices of W. Bruce and Contemporaries in Chr. Teacher, January 1843 (also issued separately); Reid's Hist. Presb. Ch. in Ireland (Killen), 1867, ii. 405, iii. 234, 289 sq.]
A. G.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Adam of Caithness

​ADAM of Caithness (d. 1222), Scottish bishop, was probably a native of the south of Scotland. The tradition is that he was a foundling exposed at the church door. He first appears in 1207, when we find that he, already prior of the Cistercians at Melrose, became abbot. On 5 Aug. 1213 he was elected bishop of Caithness, and consecrated on 11 May 1214 by William Malvoisin, bishop of St. Andrews. In 1218 he went to Rome to receive the pallium, with the bishops of Glasgow and Moray. The interest of his life belongs to its tragic close, which is celebrated in Saga as well as recorded in church chronicle. It seems that the people of his diocese had reason to complain of the excessive exaction of tithes. The old rule was ‘every score of cows a spanin [12 lbs. Scots] of butter;’ Adam extorted the spanin from fifteen cows, from twelve, from ten. The Northmen remonstrated and appealed in vain; at length an angry mob sought the bishop at the episcopal manor of Halkirk in Thorsdale. He sent out Rafn the lawman to parley with them, but they began to use clubs, stones, and fire, and at length fell upon Adam and his deacon Serlo, a Cistercian of Newbattle, and murdered them both. This occured on Sunday, 11 Sept. 1222. The king, Alexander II, is said to have executed fearful vengeance on the murderers; the Saga says the hands and feet were hewn off eighty men. Adam was buried at Skinnet, but his remains were transferred to Dornoch in 1239.
A. G.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Scoffin, William

​SCOFFIN, WILLIAM (1655?–1732), nonconformist minister, born about 1655, was a self-taught man and a good mathematician. He was probably a schoolmaster, who obtained orders. John Rastrick [q. v.] appointed him curate of Brothertoft, a chapelry in the parish of Kirton, Lincolnshire. This curacy he resigned in August 1686, thus preceding Rastrick in nonconformity. Soon after the passing of the Toleration Act (1689) he became the minister of a nonconformist congregation at Sleaford, Lincolnshire, where for over forty years he preached with acceptance, and, though very poor, was noted for his charities. He died in November 1732, aged 77, and was buried on 12 Nov. He was married. He published:
* 'Two Funeral Sermons on … Katherine Disney,' &c,, 1692, 12mo (preached at Kirkstead and Swinderby on 18 and 20 May 1690).
* 'A Help to True Spelling and Reading; with … Principles of Religion in Easy Metre; a Scriptural Catechism' (Palmer).
* 'A Help to the Singing Psalm-tunes … with Directions for making an Instrument with one String … and a Collection of Tunes in 2 Parts' (ib.)
[Rastrick's Account of his Nonconformity, 1705; Calamy's Account, 1713, p. 401; Palmer's Nonconformist's Memorial, 1802, ii. 438 sq.; Dickenson's Nonconformist Register, ed. Turner, 1881, p. 312.]
A. G.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Miles, Henry

​MILES, HENRY, D.D. (1698–1763), dissenting minister and scientific writer, was born at Stroud, Gloucestershire, on 2 June 1698. He was educated for the dissenting ministry, probably in London. His first settlement was at Lower Tooting, Surrey, where he succeeded Francis Freeman (d. 17 Nov. 1726), a presbyterian. Miles was at this time an independent. He was ordained in 1731. In 1737, still retaining his Tooting charge, he became assistant to Samuel Chandler [q. v.], at the Old Jewry. From this time he ranked as a presbyterian. He held the double appointment till 1744, and for the rest of his life was minister at Tooting only, having John Beesley as his assistant from 1756. In 1743 he was elected a fellow of the Royal Society, and in 1744 he received the degree of D.D. from Aberdeen. His communications to the ‘Philosophical Transactions’ extend from 1741 to 1753, and relate to natural history, meteorology, and electricity, in which he made new experiments. He gave important assistance to Birch in his edition (1744) of the works of Robert Boyle [q. v.] To his pulpit work, for thirty years, he devoted two days a week, rising between two and three in the morning to write his sermons. He was a friend of Daniel Neal [q. v.], and Nathaniel Lardner [q. v.], and a correspondent of Philip Doddridge [q. v.], to whom he sent some criticisms of his ‘Family Expositor.’ In private life he bore the character of great amiability. He died on 10 Feb. 1763. His funeral sermon was preached by Philip Furneaux [q. v.] . His widow, Emma Miles (d. 1790), by deeds of 6 Oct. 1763 and 15 Feb. 1766, settled an endowment of 500l. on the ministry at Tooting, and conveyed the meeting-house to trustees for the use of dissenters of ‘the presbyterian or independent denomination.’ In 1880 the property became the subject of a chancery suit, which was decided on 1 March 1888 in favour of the independents.
A. G.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Adams, Richard (1626?-1698)

​ADAMS, RICHARD (1626?–1698), ejected minister, was the sixth in lineal succession of a family of ministers; his father was incumbent of Wirrall, Cheshire; his grandfather was rector of Woodchurch, Cheshire. He studied first at Cambridge, where he graduated M.A. on 26 March 1644; entered at Brasenose, Oxford, on 24 March 1646, aged about twenty, and graduated B.A. in 1648 and M.A. in 1651. He became fellow of Brasenose, but resigned in 1655, on being admitted to the rectory of St. Mildred's, Bread Street. From this he retired in 1662 as a nonconformist, and became pastor of a small congregation in Southwark. His ecclesiastical views were presbyterian; he was a practical preacher, a devout and quiet man. He died on 7 Feb. 1698, leaving a widow. He was the editor of the expositions of Philippians and Colossians in Matthew Poole's ‘Annotations upon the Holy Bible,’ 1683–5, a work based on the same author's ‘Synopsis Criticorum,’ 1669–76. He published a ‘Funeral Sermon’ for Henry Hurst, 1690; other sermons of his are in the ‘Morning Exercises at Cripplegate,’ 1660–90, reprinted 1844–5.
A. G.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Rowe, Thomas

​ROWE, THOMAS (1657–1705), independent divine and tutor, elder son of John Rowe (1626–1677) [q. v.], was born in London in 1657. He was probably educated, with his brother Benoni, by Theophilus Gale [q. v.] In 1678 he succeeded Gale, both as pastor of the independent church in Holborn and as tutor in the academy at Newington Green. He removed his congregation to a meeting-house at Girdlers' Hall, Basinghall Street, and took his academy successively to Clapham and, about 1687, to Little Britain. His ministry was successful; but it was as a ​tutor, especially in philosophy, that he made his mark. He was the first to desert the traditional textbooks, introducing his pupils, about 1680, to what was known as ‘free philosophy.’ Rowe was a Cartesian at a time when the Aristotelian philosophy was dominant in the older schools of learning; but while in physics he adhered to Descartes against the rising influence of Newton, in mental science he became one of the earliest exponents of Locke. The imperfect list of his students (none from the presbyterian fund) includes an unusual number of distinguished names; John Evans, D.D. [q. v.], Henry Grove [q. v.], Josiah Hort [q. v.], archbishop of Tuam, John Hughes (1677–1720) [q. v.], the poet, Jeremiah Hunt, D.D. [q. v.], Daniel Neal [q. v.], and Isaac Watts, who has celebrated in an ode his ‘gentle influence,’ which
bids our thoughts like rivers flow And choose the channels where they run.
Rowe was a Calvinist in theology, but few of his pupils adhered to this system without some modification. In 1699 he became one of the Tuesday lecturers at Pinners' Hall. He died suddenly on 18 Aug. 1705, and was buried with his father in Bunhill Fields.
Benoni Rowe (1658–1706), the younger brother, was born in London, and educated for the ministry. His first known settlement was at Epsom, Surrey, about 1689. He succeeded Stephen Lobb [q. v.] in 1699 as pastor of the independent church in Fetter Lane, and was a solid but not a popular preacher. He died on 30 March 1706, and was buried with his father in Bunhill Fields. He left two sons—Thomas (1687–1715), husband of Elizabeth Rowe [q. v.], and Theophilus.
[Wilson's Dissenting Churches of London, 1808 ii. 253, 1810 iii. 168 sq., 449 sq.; Jones's Bunhill Memorials, 1849, p. 245; Waddington's Surrey Congregational History, 1866, p. 202.]
A. G.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Alexander, John (d.1743)

​ALEXANDER, JOHN (d. 1743), presbyterian minister, was a native of Ulster, but connected with the Scottish noble family of the Alexanders, earls of Stirling. He was educated at Glasgow, and settled in England. Wilson identifies him with the John Alexander who was pupil of Isaac Noble and congregationalist minister at Gloucester 1712–18. It is certain that he was presbyterian minister at Stratford-on-Avon, where he educated students for the ministry. He afterwards removed to Dublin, where he was installed minister of Plunket Street presbyterian congregation in November 1730. He was moderator of the general synod of Ulster, 1734, and died 1 Nov. 1743. He was an excellent linguist and patristic scholar; he published ‘The Primitive Doctrine of Christ's Divinity … in an Essay on Irenæus …’ 1727. He left two sons, John and Benjamin: the former is noticed below; the latter, who died in 1768, was a doctor of medicine, and translated J. B. Morgagni's ‘De Sedibus’ (‘The Seats and Causes of Disease, investigated by Anatomy,’ 1769).
A. G.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Alexander, John (1736-1765)

​ALEXANDER, JOHN (1736–1765), commentator, born in Dublin 26 Jan. 1736, was the son of John Alexander, M.A., and Hannah, who died 5 Oct. 1768, aged 63. His mother was the daughter of Rev. John Higgs, of Evesham, who died in September 1728. He entered Daventry Academy in 1751, where he occupied the same room with Priestley; and the two, sensible of the linguistic deficiencies of Daventry [see Ashworth, Caleb], became hard students of Greek together. Alexander became one of the best Greek scholars of his time. He studied biblical criticism under Dr. George Benson in London. He became presbyterian minister of Longdon, twelve miles from Birmingham. He died suddenly on the night of Saturday, 28 Dec. 1765, just after finishing a sermon (afterwards published) on death. He contributed to ‘The Library,’ a magazine edited by Kippis (1761–2), essays of some humour on ‘Defence of Persecution,’ ‘Dulness,’ ‘Common Sense,’ ‘Misanthropy,’ ‘Present State of Wit in Britain,’ &c. Posthumously were published his ‘Paraphrase on 1 Cor. xv.’ and ‘Commentary on Rom. vi., vii., viii., with Sermon (Ecc. ix. 10),’ edited by Rev. John Palmer, 1766. A sermon of his appears in J. H. Bransby's ‘Sermons for the Use of Families,’ vol. i. 1808.
A. G.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Palmer, Samuel (d.1724)

​PALMER, SAMUEL (d. 1724), pamphleteer, was educated for the dissenting ministry under John Ker or Kerr, M.D., noted as a nonconformist teacher of philosophy at Bethnal Green (afterwards at Highgate). On the death of Henry Read Palmer succeeded him (about 1698) as minis​ter of the presbyterian congregation in Gravel Lane, Southwark. John Dunton describes him (1705) as an excellent preacher without notes, a diligent catechist, a good classic, and ‘beloved by all the clergy and gentlemen of the church of England who have had an opportunity to know him.’ In 1703, in the midst of the ‘occasional conformity’ agitation, Samuel Wesley (1662?–1735) [q. v.], father of John Wesley, published a ‘Letter’ to parliament censuring the dissenters' private academies. Palmer published anonymously a spirited ‘Defence of the Dissenters' Education in their Private Academies: in answer to Mr. W——y's … Reflections,’ 1703. In reply to Wesley's ‘Defence’ of his ‘Letter,’ Palmer issued in 1705, with his name, a ‘Vindication of the Learning, Loyalty, Morals, and most Christian Behaviour of the Dissenters towards the Church of England.’ This Dunton thought conclusive, and Matthew Henry [q. v.] wrote highly of it. Of Wesley's ‘Reply’ (1707) Palmer took no notice. Palmer's pamphlets throw important light on the aims and methods of nonconformist training. Between October 1706 and October 1709 Palmer took orders in the established church. Orton's Northampton manuscript of 1731 alleges that he thought himself neglected by dissenters. On 20 April 1710 he became vicar of All Saints' and St. Peter's, Maldon, Essex, and held this living till 1724, the year of his death, according to Morant. There is no entry of his burial at Maldon. Wilson cites a doubtful rumour that ‘his conduct became scandalous.’
He published, in addition to single sermons (1703–26?) and the pamphlets noticed, ‘Moral Essays on … English, Scotch, and Foreign Proverbs,’ &c., 1710, 8vo.
A. G.