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

John Lawerne in the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography.
​LAWERN, JOHN (fl. 1448), theologian, was a Benedictine monk of Worcester and a student at Gloucester Hall (now Worcester College), Oxford, where he graduated D.D. A volume which belonged to Lawern has been preserved, in which are two sermons preached by him, certain lectures of his on the master of the Sentences, 'Lectiones publice lectæ in Scholis theologiæ, Oxon. A.D. 1448, 1449,' and a number of letters to or from Lawern, or concerning subjects in which he was interested. From article 38 in this volume it would appear that he was afterwards sacrist at Worcester. The volume is now Bodley MS. 692.
C. L. K.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Lawless, Matthew James

​LAWLESS, MATTHEW JAMES (1837–1861), artist, a son of Barry Lawless, solicitor, of Dublin, was born near that city in 1837. He was sent to school at Prior Pack College, near Bath; but his education was interrupted by deafness and ill-health. On his parents coming to live near London he attended several drawing schools, and was for a time a pupil of Henry O'Neil, R.A. His first published drawing appeared in 'Once a Week' (i. 505), and he continued for some years to draw illustrations for that periodical, and afterwards for the 'Cornhill Magazine,' 'Punch,' 'London Society,' and for Dr. Formby's 'Life of St. Francis.' He exhibited one or two oil-paintings at the Royal Academy when only twenty years old. The last and best known of his pictures was 'The Sick Call' (1863); this was reproduced in the 'Illustrated London News' as one of the gems of the Academy exhibition in that year. He died of consumption at his father's residence in Pembridge Crescent, Bayswater, London, 6 Aug. 1864, and was buried in the Roman catholic cemetery at Kensal Green.
[Personal knowledge.]
E. W.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Lawder

​LAWDER. [See Lauder.]
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Falkner, Everard

​FALKNER, Sir EVERARD (1684–1758). [See Fawkener.]
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Falmouth, Earl of

​FALMOUTH, Earl of. [See Boscawen, Edward, 1787–1841, first Earl.]
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Fale, Thomas

​FALE, THOMAS (fl. 1604), mathematician, matriculated as a sizar of Caius College, Cambridge, in November 1578, removed to Corpus Christi College in 1582, went out B.A. in 1582–3, commenced M.A. in 1586, proceeded B.D. in 1597, and in 1604 had a license from the university to practise physic. His only known publication is entitled ‘Horologiographia. The Art of Dialling: teaching an easie and perfect way to make all kinds of Dials vpon any plaine Plat howsouer placed: VVith the drawing of the Twelue Signes, and Houres vnequall in them all. Whereunto is annexed the making and vse of other Dials and Instruments, whereby the houre of the day and night is knowe. Of speciall vse and delight not onely for Students of the Arts Mathematicall, but also for diuers Artificers, Architects, Surueyours of buildings, free-Masons, Saylors, and others,’ 4to, London, 1593 (other editions appeared in 1626 and 1652). It is dedicated in Latin to all lovers of mathematics in the university of Cambridge. There is also a prefatory letter to ‘my louing kinsman,’ Thomas Osborne, who had invented the instrument mentioned in the beginning of the book ‘for the triall of plats,’ dated from London, 3 Jan. 1593. The table of sines which it contains is probably the earliest specimen of a trigonometrical table printed in England.
[Cooper's Athenæ Cantabr. ii. 396; Notes and Queries, 2nd ser. iv. 282.]
G. G.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Falkner, John

​FALKNER, JOHN. [See Falconer, John, 1577–1656.]
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Falkner, William

​FALKNER, WILLIAM, D.D. (d. 1682), divine, received his education at Peterhouse, Cambridge, where he graduated B.A. in 1652, M.A. in 1656, and D.D. in 1680. On 23 July 1679 he was collated by the Bishop of Ely to the rectory of Glemsford, Suffolk (Addit. MS. 19077, f. 323 b). He was also town preacher at the chapel of St. Nicholas, King's Lynn, where he died on 9 April 1682. By his wife Susan, daughter of Thomas Greene, merchant and alderman of Lynn (who died on 30 Aug. 1680), he had several children.
He was a man of extensive learning, and a staunch champion of the church of England. His works are: 1. ‘Libertas Ecclesiastica, or a Discourse vindicating the Lawfulness of those things which are chiefly excepted against in the Church of England,’ 2nd edit. Lond. 1674, 8vo; 3rd edit. 1677; 4th edit. 1683. 2. ‘Christian Loyalty; or a discourse wherein is asserted the just royal authority and eminency which in this Church and Realm of England is yielded to the King. Together with the disclaiming all foreign jurisdiction, and the unlawfulness of subjects taking arms against the King,’ London, 1679, 8vo; 2nd edit. 1684. 3. ‘A Vindication of the Liturgies, shewing the Lawfulness, Usefulness, and Antiquity of performing the public worship of God by set forms of prayer,’ London, 1680, 8vo. This was in reply to John Collinges' ‘Reasonable Account why some pious Nonconforming Ministers in England judge it sinful for them to perform their ministerial acts in publick solemn prayer, by the prescribed formes of others.’ Collinges published a rejoinder to Falkner's reply in 1681. 4. ‘Two Treatises. The first concerning Reproaching and Censure. The second, an Answer to Mr. Serjeant's Sure-footing. To which are annexed three Sermons preached on several occasions, and very useful for these times,’ 2 parts, London, 1684, 4to. Prefixed is the author's portrait, engraved by J. Sturt. These posthumous treatises were edited and dedicated to the Archbishop of Canterbury by William Sherlock, who says that to Falkner he owed all the knowledge he possessed.
T. C.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Falkland, Elizabeth

​FALKLAND, ELIZABETH, Viscountess. [See under Cary, Sir Henry.]
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Falkner, Thomas

​FALKNER, THOMAS (1707–1784), jesuit missionary, son of Thomas Falkner, apothecary, was born at Manchester on 6 Oct. 1707, and educated at the Manchester grammar school. He studied medicine under Dr. Richard Mead, and, after practising as a surgeon at home, went out as surgeon on board the Assiento, a slave ship, belonging to the South Sea Company. He sailed to the Guinea coast of Africa about 1731, and thence to Buenos Ayres, where he fell dangerously ill. The jesuits there treated him with such hospitality and kindness that he resolved to change his religion, which is said to have been presbyterian, and became a candidate for admission into the Society of Jesus. He was duly received in May 1732, and afterwards spent thirty-eight years as a missionary, at first in Paraguay and Tucuman, and then, from 1740, among the native tribes of South America, between Rio de la Plata and Magellan's Strait, rendering conspicuous service to his order. His skill in medicine and surgery and his knowledge of mechanics aided him materially in his labours. In Paraguay he was looked upon as a Galen. In January 1768, on the expulsion of the jesuits from South America, he returned to England, and for a while stayed with friends in Lancashire and elsewhere. He joined the English province of the Society of Jesus about 1771, and acted as chaplain successively to Robert Berkeley (1713–1804) [q. v.] at Spetchley Park, near Worcester, to the Beringtons at Winsley in Herefordshire, and the Plowdens at Plowden Hall, Shropshire. He died at Plowden Hall on 30 Jan. 1784, aged 77.
He appears to have left the following works in manuscript, but their whereabouts is unrecorded:
* ‘Volumina duo de Anatome corporis humani, quæ plurimi sunt pretii apud artis peritos.’
* ‘Botanical, Mineral, and like Observations on the Products of America,’ folio, 4 vols.
* ‘A Treatise on American Distempers cured by American Drugs.’
A compilation from his papers, made by William Combe [q. v.], was published at Hereford in 1774 (4to, 144 pages), entitled ‘A Description of Patagonia and the adjoining parts of South America, &c.’ In the opinion of the Rev. Joseph Berington [q. v.] this work would have been ‘an amusing and interesting performance’ if Falkner had been allowed to tell his story in his own way, but ‘the whole spirit of the original’ was extracted by the compiler. It forms, nevertheless, a valuable record of observations in a hitherto comparatively unknown country. A German version ​by Ewald was published in 1775, two French translations came out in 1789, and a Spanish one in 1835. Other translations or abridgments have appeared in German and Spanish collections of travels.
Pennant had several conversations with Falkner, and wrote a paper entitled ‘Of the Patagonians. Formed from the Relation of Father Falkener, a Jesuit, &c.,’ which was printed at the private press of George Allan of Darlington in 1788, and reprinted in the appendix to Pennant's ‘Literary Life,’ 1793.
C. W. S.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Falkland, Viscounts

​FALKLAND, Viscounts. [See Cary, Sir Henry, first Viscount, d. 1633; and Cary, Lucius, second Viscount, 1610?–1663.]
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Ramsay, Charles Aloysius

​RAMSAY, CHARLES ALOYSIUS (fl. 1689), writer on stenography, descended from a noble Scottish family, was probably, like his father, Charles Ramsay (d. 1669), born at Elbing in Prussia. He received a liberal education, and studied chemistry and medicine. He was living at Frankfort-on-the-Maine in 1677 and at Paris in 1680.
He became widely known as the publisher of a system of shorthand in Latin, with a French translation. This appeared in 1665 according to Fossé, and in 1666 according to Scott de Martinville. It was the second French work on shorthand, that of the Abbé Jacques Cossard, 1651, being the first. It seems probable that Ramsay first learnt Thomas Shelton's Latin ‘Tachy-graphia,’ which was published in 1660, and, having slightly modified the system, put it forth as his own. A later edition of Ramsay's work is entitled ‘Tacheographia, seu Ars breviter et compendiose scribendi methodo brevissima tradita, ac paucissimis regulis comprehensa,’ Frankfort and Leipzig, 1681, 8vo; another edition has two title-pages, the second, in French, being as follows: ‘Tacheiographie ou L'Art d'Ecrire aussi vîte qu'on parle. … Par le Sieur Charles Aloys Ramsay, Gentilhomme Écossais,’ Paris, 1683. One half of this edition is occupied with a fulsome dedication to Louis XIV. An adaptation of Ramsay's system to the German language appeared under the title of ‘Tacheographia, oder Geschwinde Schreib-Kunst,’ Frankfort, 1678; Leipzig, 1679, 1743, and 1772.
Ramsay also translated from German into Latin ‘Johannis Kunkelii, Elect. Sax. Cubicularii intimi et Chymici, Utiles Observationes sive Animadversiones de Salibus fixis et volatilibus, Auro et argento potabili, Spiritu mundi et similibus,’ London and Rotterdam, 1678, 12mo; dedicated to the Royal Society of London.
[Biogr. Universelle, xxxvii. 58; Faulmann's Grammatik der Stenographie, pp. 185, 307; Gibson's Bibl. of Shorthand, p. 184; Jöcher's Allgemeines Gelehrten-Lexikon, iii. 1894, and Rotermund's Supplement, vi. 1314; Lewis's Hist. of Shorthand; Nouvelle Biographie Générale, xli. 566; Scott de Martinville's Hist. de la Sténographie, p. 42; Ziebig's Geschichte der Geschwindschreibkunst, p. 389, pl. 7.]
T. C.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Ramsay, George (1800-1871)

​RAMSAY, Sir GEORGE (1800–1871), philosophical writer, second son of Sir William Ramsay, bart., of Bamff House, Aylth, Perthshire, by Agnata Frances, daughter of Vincent Biscoe of Hookwood, Surrey, and elder brother of William Ramsay (1806–1865) [q. v.], professor of humanity at the university of Glasgow, was born on 19 March 1800. He was educated at Harrow and Trinity College, Cambridge, where he graduated B.A. in 1823, and M.B. in 1826. He succeeded his elder brother, Sir James Ramsay, as ninth baronet on 1 Jan. 1859, and died at Bamff on 22 Feb. 1871. He married, in 1830, Emily Eugenie, youngest daughter of Captain Henry Lennon of Westmeath, by whom he had issue three sons, of whom the eldest, Sir James Henry Ramsay, the historian, succeeded to the title. His youngest son, George Gilbert Ramsay, LL.D., was elected to the chair of humanity in the university of Glasgow in 1863.
Ramsay was a voluminous writer on philosophical topics, but made no contribution of importance to philosophical inquiry. His publications are: 1. ‘An Essay on the Distribution of Wealth,’ Edinburgh, 1836, 8vo. 2. ‘A Disquisition on Government,’ Edinburgh, 1837, 12mo. 3. ‘Political Discourses,’ Edinburgh, 1838, 8vo. 4. ‘An Enquiry into the Principles of Human Happiness and Human Duty,’ London, 1843, 8vo. 5. ‘A Classification of the Sciences,’ Edinburgh, 1847, 4to. 6. ‘The Philosophy and Poetry of Love,’ New York, 1848, 8vo. 7. ‘Analysis and Theory of the Emotions,’ London, 1848, 8vo. 8. ‘An Introduction to Mental Philosophy,’ Edinburgh, 1853, 8vo. 9. ‘Principles of Psychology,’ London, 1857, 8vo. 10. ‘Instinct and Reason, or the First Principles of Human Knowledge,’ London, 1862, 8vo. 11. ‘The Moralist and Politician, or Many Things in Few Words,’ London, 1865, 8vo. 12. ‘Ontology, or Things Existing,’ London, 1870, 8vo.
J. M. R.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Ramsay, Fox Maule

​RAMSAY, FOX MAULE, second Baron Panmure and eleventh Earl of Dalhousie (1801–1874). [See Maule, Fox.]
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Macfarlan, Patrick

​MACFARLAN, PATRICK (1780–1849), Scottish divine, younger brother of John Macfarlan [q. v.], was educated at the Edinburgh High School, was licensed by the presbytery of Edinburgh on 28 Dec. 1803, and was presented to the charge of Kippen in 1806 by David Erskine of Cardross. In 1810 he was transferred, on the presentation of George III, to Polmont, Stirlingshire; in 1824 he became minister of St. Johns, Glasgow, in succession to Chalmers; in 1825 minister of St. Enoch's, Glasgow; and in 1832 he was transferred, on the presentation of Sir Michael Shaw Stewart, to the west parish of Greenock, the richest living in the church of Scotland. He was examined on 20 and 25 March 1834 before the committee of the House of Commons on church patronage, and was moderator of the general assembly the same year. At the disruption he adhered to the protest, joined the secession, and was declared no longer a minister of the kirk on 24 May 1843. He was moderator of the free general assembly in 1845. He died on 13 Nov. 1849. Macfarlan married, on 8 Jan. 1808, Catherine, daughter of Robert Clason, minister of Logie; she died in 1815, and left a son John, a free church minister at Greenock, and two daughters.
His chief works were:
* 'Thoughts on Popular Election, Patronage, and Calls,' Edinburgh, 1833, 8vo.
* 'Letter to the Friends of the Established Church,' Edinburgh, 1842, 8vo.
* 'The Past and Present State of Evangelical Religion in Switzerland,' Edinburgh, 1845, 8vo; the first of a series of lectures on foreign churches.
* 'A Vindication of the Church of Scotland,' London, 1850, 8vo; an answer to the Duke of Argyll's 'Essay on the Ecclesiastical History of Scotland.'
In 1826-7 he engaged in a controversy with Greville Ewing [q. v.], occasioned by a speech of the latter at a meeting of the Glasgow Auxiliary Bible Society. He edited Warden's 'Essay on the Lord's Supper,' Leith, ​1808, and Thomas Brown's 'Sermons,' Glasgow, 1849.
[Hew Scott's Fasti, passim; Disruption Worthies; Free Church Mag. 1850.]
W. A. J. A.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Macdonnell, Alexander

​MACDONNELL, ALEXANDER (1798–1835), chess-player, the son of Alexander Macdonnell (d. 21 April 1843), a Belfast physician, born at Belfast in 1798, was bred to a mercantile life, and carried on an extensive business at Demerara between 1820 and 1830. He wrote several able pamphlets on economic questions, and was soon after 1830 appointed secretary to the West India Committee of Merchants, his duties being to watch the progress of bills connected with the West Indies through parliament. He was trained as a chess-player by William Lewis (1787-1870) [q. v.], but, having got over the odds of 'pawn and move,' Lewis refused to meet him on equal terms, and from the foundation of the Westminster Chess Club in 1833 Macdonnell was tacitly admitted to be the best English player. In June 1834 Louis Charles Mahe de Labourdonnais, secretary of the Paris Chess Club, and a pupil of the old French champion, Des Chapelles, ​came over to England and challenged Macdonnell's supremacy. Then commenced at the Westminster Club in Bedford Street, in the presence of a large concourse of amateurs, a famous series of encounters, the interest of which has remained unrivalled in the history of chess. La Bourdonnais spoke no English and Macdonnell no French, and the only word that passed between them was ‘check.’ The struggle began with three phenomenally long games, which were all drawn. Slowly, however, the Frenchman obtained the advantage, and of the eighty-eight games played won forty-four, fourteen games being drawn. The play of both men increased in brilliancy as this great contest proceeded. The duel was at length interrupted by Labourdonnais's recall to Paris, and before the antagonists could again meet Macdonnell died, at the boarding-house in Tavistock Square where he had long resided, on 14 Sept. 1835 (Gent. Mag. 1835, ii. 442). He was buried in Kensal Green cemetery, where five years later his great opponent was also interred. Macdonnell was unmarried.
With the exception of Howard Staunton [q. v.] there is perhaps no native British player who has displayed such a strong innate faculty for chess as Macdonnell, who is entitled to rank with Morphy, Paulsen, and Labourdonnais among the greatest masters of the game in modern times. A large number of his games are extant. A selection, including eighty-five of his games with Labourdonnais, was published by William Greenwood Walker, ‘the most enthusiastic of chess recorders,’ in 1836. Fifty of the match games had previously been issued by William Lewis (1835, 8vo), but Walker's version is the more trustworthy.
[Materials kindly furnished by the Rev. W. Wayte; Chess-Player's Chronicle, 1843, pp. 369–81; Chess-Player's Magazine, 1864, pp. 161–6; Le Palamède, 1836, vol. i. freq.]
T. S.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Macduff

The ODNB (article Dubh) suggests this person is a literary invention.
​MACDUFF, Thane or Earl of Fife (fl. 1056?), a half or wholly mythical personage, was, according to John of Fordun, the main instrument in advancing Malcolm Canmore [q. v.] to the throne held by the usurper, Macbeth [q. v.] The story is that, on his way through Fife, Macbeth saw a yoke of oxen belonging to Macduff fail in their task, and on being informed to whom they belonged expressed the opinion that Macduff himself should be put in the yoke. Fearful of the fate that might be in store for him, Macduff set sail for England, and Macbeth, on seeing his small vessel out at sea, captured and destroyed his castles, although the statement that he also murdered his wife and children is a later embellishment. Macduff ultimately persuaded Malcolm to return to Scotland to nght the usurper, and it was his forces chiefly that enabled Malcolm to defeat Macbeth at Lumphanan in Aberdeenshire, on 15 Aug. 1057. According to Wyntoun the person, 'never borne but of a mattyris wame was schorne,' who slew Macbeth was not Macduff, but one of his knights. In reward of his great services Malcolm, according to ​Wyntoun, bestowed on Macduff three privileges: that he or his successors should have the right of placing the king on his throne on coronation day; that they should lead the van in the battle wherever the royal banner was displayed; that if they or any of their kindred committed slaughter of a sudden or unpremeditated kind they should have a peculiar sanctuary or asylum to which they might flee, and should obtain full remission on payment of a certain ransom. The sanctuary of the Macduffs was, according 'to tradition, the ancient cross called the Cross Macduff, which stood to the north of Newburgh, in the pass leading to Strathearn. Only the pedestal of the cross now remains, the cross itself having been destroyed by the reformers in 1559. A portion of the inscription on the pedestal, now all but erased, has been preserved, but its import has greatly puzzled antiquarians.
Skene credits John of Fordun with the entire invention of the story of Macduff.
[Chronicles of Fordun and Wyntoun, which have been expounded and embellished by Boece; Stuart's Sculptured Stones of Scotland; Alexander Laing's Lindores Abbey and Newburgh.]
T. F. H.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Macfarlan, James

​MACFARLAN, JAMES (1832–1862), poet, of Glasgow, son of a weaver turned pedlar, was born at Glasgow, 9 April 1832. He received some school training at Kilmarnock and Glasgow, but was mainly self-taught. Stirred by a stray volume of Byron when twelve years old, he presently joined subscription libraries in various provincial towns visited in the wanderings of the family. At twenty, Macfarlan, then a professional pedlar, knew the standard English poets, and had himself written verse extensively. In 1853 he walked to and from London, securing the publication of a volume of lyrics, which gave him reputation, but little profit. For a short time subsequently he held a post in the Glasgow Athenæum, but relapsed into peddling, ne printed in Glasgow a second book with an ambitious dedication, but received scanty encouragement either from his patron or from the public. Struggling on against consumption, poverty, and neglect, getting and quickly losing some petty employment, he was at length engaged as police-court reporter to the Glasgow 'Bulletin.' Too erratic for this post, he successfully contributed short stones for a time to the weekly issue of the paper. Then he married, and his wife helped the income by dressmaking. Dickens, whom Macfarlan found 'a prince of editors,' printed several of his poems in 'Household Words;' and Thackeray, hearing Samuel Lover recite his 'Lords of Labour' in 1859, warmly exclaimed that he did not think 'Burns himself could have taken the wind out of this man's sails.' Meanwhile, Macfarlan's health rapidly failed, owing partly to his convivial habits. His fatal illness seized him when hawking his prose pamphlet, 'An Attic Study,' and he died in Glasgow, 6 Nov. 1862. He was buried in Cheapside cemetery, Anderston, Glasgow, and a tombstone was erected by his admirers in 1885. ​Macfarlan does not write in the Scottish dialect, but in fluent and resonant English. He shows originality and elevation of thought. His works are: 'Poems: Pictures of the Past,' 1854; 'City Songs, and other Poetical Pieces,' 1855; and 'Lyrics of Life,' 1856. Subsequently he published two tracts, 'The Wanderers of the West,' a poem, and a series of acute and suggestive prose reflections, entitled 'An Attic Study; brief Notes on Nature, Men, and Books,' 'The Poetical Works of James Macfarlan, with a Memoir,' appeared in 1882.
[Memoir by Mr. Colin Rae-Brown, prefixed to Poetical Works; Grant Wilson's Poets and Poetry of Scotland; Irving's Dictionary of Eminent Scotsmen.]
T. B.