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

​HOWLEY, HENRY (1775?–1803), Irish insurgent, was a protestant, and worked as a carpenter in his native place, Roscrea, co. Tipperary. He took part in the rebellion of 1798 and in Robert Emmet's insurrection. While engaged in the latter plot he was the ostensible proprietor of the store in Thomas Street, and to him was assigned the task of bringing up the coaches by means of which Emmet designed to effect his entrance into Dublin Castle. While engaged, however, in carrying out this part of the programme, and as he was passing along Bridgefoot Street, Howley stopped to interfere in a common street brawl, which unfortunately ended by his shooting Colonel Lyde Brown. Compelled thereupon to consult his own safety, Howley left the coaches to their fate and fled. To this untoward accident Emmet chiefly ascribed the failure of his plot. Howley's hiding-place was subsequently betrayed by a fellow-workman, Anthony Finnerty, to Major Sirr. In the scuffle to arrest him Howley shot one of the major's men, and escaped into a hayloft in Pool Street, but was soon captured. He was condemned to death by special commission on 27 Sept. 1803, confessed to having killed Colonel Brown, and met his fate with fortitude.
[Madden's United Irishmen, 3rd ser. iii. 141; Saunders's News-Letter, 28 Sept. 1803.]
R. D.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Gordon, Adam de (d.1305)

​GORDON, Sir ADAM de (d. 1305), warrior. [See Gurdon.]
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Gordon, Alexander (1678?-1728)

​GORDON ALEXANDER, second Duke of Gordon (1678?–1728), son of George, first duke of Gordon [q. v.], and Lady Elizabeth Howard, eldest surviving daughter of the sixth Duke of Norfolk, was born about 1678. He was educated in the catholic faith and retained the family attachment to the Stuarts. On 31 Aug. 1715, on the eve of the rebellion, while he was yet Marquis of Huntly, an ‘Act for encouraging loyalty in Scotland’ received the royal assent. The design was to obtain security for the good behaviour of suspected persons, and summonses were issued to Huntly and others to repair to Edinburgh and give bail for their allegiance to the government, under pain of a year's imprisonment and other penalties. Huntly failed to appear, and proclaimed the Chevalier St. George at Gordon Castle. On 6 Oct., with three hundred horsemen and two thousand foot, he joined the Pretender's standard at Perth, and was at the battle of Sheriffmuir, after which he returned to his home at Gordon Castle. The Earl of Sutherland was employed during the winter in suppressing the rebellion in the ​northern districts. On 12 Feb. 1716 a company of his men took possession of Gordon Castle, and to him Huntly capitulated. He was brought to Edinburgh in April and imprisoned in the castle, but no further proceedings were taken against him, and he, with some others, obtained pardon ‘in regard of having quitted the rebels in time.’
During his father's lifetime Huntly went abroad and visited several European courts, where he was cordially welcomed. He formed a special friendship with the king of Prussia and the Grand Duke of Tuscany. He married Lady Henrietta Mordaunt, second daughter of Charles, earl of Peterborough and Monmouth, and his eldest son was named Cosmo in honour of the grand duke. At the death of his father, George Gordon, first duke [q. v.], in 1716, the marquis became second Duke of Gordon, and afterwards took up his permanent residence at Gordon Castle. He continued to correspond with the king of Prussia and the Grand Duke of Tuscany. The king sent him a full-length portrait of himself in the Prussian dress. The grand duke sent his bust in white marble, and a silver font for the christening of his godson, the young Marquis of Huntly, together with a fine suit of steel armour gilt. Pope Clement XII sent his portrait, with other valuable presents. Gordon had also been honourably treated at the court of the Prince of Anspach, father of Queen Caroline, and for him the queen always had a great regard. The duke lived chiefly at home, maintaining a princely style. He was handsome in appearance, kindly in disposition, liberal to his tenants, and generous to the poor. He died on 28 Nov. 1728. The duchess died at Prestonhall, near Edinburgh, 11 Oct. 1760. Her family of four sons and seven daughters were trained by her in the protestant faith, for which in 1735 she had a pension of 1,000l. from the government. General Lord Adam Gordon, fourth son, is separately noticed.
J. T.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Goranus, Gabhran

​GORANUS, GABHRAN (538–560?), king of Scotland, was the son of Domgardus (Domangart), son of Fergus Mor MacEarc, and is reckoned as the forty-fifth king of Scotland according to the fictitious chronology of Fordun and Buchanan, but, according to the rectified chronology of Father Innes and Mr. Skene, was fourth king of the kingdom of Dalriada, founded by his grandfather Fergus in 503. He succeeded his brother Congallus I [q. v.] in 538 (Tigernach), and is called, as his father and brother also are, Ri Albain, which may imply, as Skene suggests, that during their reigns the Dalriad kingdom had extended beyond its original bounds in Argyle and the isles. Buchanan gives, following Fordoun, a full but unreliable account of the events of the reign of Goranus, whom he makes the ally of Loth, king of the Picts, the eponymus of Lothian and the contemporary of Arthur. But almost all we really know of it is the brief notice of Tigernach in the year 560, when he records the death of Gabhran, king of Alban, and the flight of the men of Alban before Brude MacMailchon, king of the Cruithnigh (Picts). He was succeeded in Dalriada by Conall son of Congallus, his brother, who reigned till 574, when Aidan, Gabhran's younger son, was inaugurated king at Iona by St. Columba, in preference to his elder brother Eoganan, and through the influence of Columba obtained the recognition at the Council of Drumceat (515) of the independence of Scottish Dalriada from tribute formerly exacted by Irish Dalriada, although the Scots were to continue to assist the parent stock in war. From this king the Cinal (or tribe) Gabhran, one of the three powerfuls, i.e. powerful tribes, of Dalriada who occupied Kintyre, Cowall, and several islands on the coast of Argyle, derived its name. The other two were the Cinal Loarn in Lorn, and the Cinal Angus in Isla.
Æ. M.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Gordon, Adam de (d.1402)

​GORDON, Sir ADAM de (d. 1402), warrior, was son and heir of Sir John de Gordon, a knight distinguished in border warfare. In the ‘raid of Roxburgh’ (1377), when the Earl of March massacred all the English who had come to the annual fair, Gordon was a principal assistant, in revenge for which a band of English raiders broke in upon his lands and carried off his cattle. Gordon invaded the English side of the border and was bringing home a large booty with many prisoners when he was intercepted by Sir John Lilburn and his brother, with whom a battle was fought near Carham, Northumberland. Gordon was wounded, but victory was gained and the two brothers made prisoners. He was also in the division of the Scottish army which, under the young Earl of Douglas, invaded Northumberland in 1388, ending with the battle of Otterburn on 19 Aug., where Douglas with many other Scottish noblemen was killed. On 18 June the same year Robert II granted him a charter confirming to him and to his heirs the lands of Strathbogie given to Sir Adam de Gordon (d. 1333) [q. v.] by King Robert Bruce. Gordon was included in the grand army with which, in 1402, the Earl of Douglas invaded England. Though watched by the Earl of Northumberland and his son Hotspur, the Scots penetrated without hindrance to the gates of Newcastle. They had reached Wooler on their homeward journey when the approach of an English army forced them to take up a position upon Homildon Hill. They became impatient under the discharge of the English arrows. Sir John de Swynton, with whom Gordon had been at feud, called impatiently for a charge. Gordon fell on his knees, begged Swynton's forgiveness, and was knighted on ​the spot by his reconciled enemy. They charged the English at the head of a hundred horsemen, and inflicted much slaughter, but were overpowered and slain. Gordon left two daughters, one of whom died early; the other, Elizabeth de Gordon, married Alexander, son of William Seton of Seton, Edinburgh. On 28 July 1408 the Duke of Albany, regent of the kingdom, granted a charter confirming to Alexander Seton and Elizabeth Gordon, heiress of Gordon, the barony of Gordon and Huntly, Berwickshire, with other lands which had formerly belonged to Gordon there and in Aberdeenshire. From this couple descended the earls of Huntly, the dukes of Gordon, the dukes of Sutherland, and other noble families.
[Douglas's Peerage of Scotland, pp. 295-6; Gordon's History of the Family of Gordon; Gordon of Gordonstone's Genealogy of the Earls of Sutherland; Reg. Mag. Sig., printed 1814, p. 235; Wyntonn's Cronykil, book ix. c. ii. p. xxvi; Fordun's Scotichronicon, ed. Goodall, ii. 384, 434; Tytler's History of Scotland, iii. 15, 131.]
J. T.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Gordon, Adam Lindsay

​GORDON, ADAM LINDSAY (1833–1870), Australian poet, son of Captain Adam Gordon, was born in 1833 at Fayal in the Azores. He was educated at Cheltenham College, where his father was for some time professor of Hindustani, and after passing on to another school was for a short time at Woolwich, and afterwards kept some terms at Merton College, Oxford. After a somewhat stormy youth he left England on 7 Aug. 1853 for South Australia, where he joined the mounted police as a trooper. Leaving the police he became a horsebreaker, and in 1862 married a Miss Park. In 1864 he received some 7,000l. on his father's death, and in 1865 was elected to the colonial House of Assembly as a member for the district of Victoria. He was an occasional speaker in the house, but did not retain his seat long. In 1867 he migrated to Victoria and opened a livery stable at Ballarat. During this period of his life he was noted as an adventurous steeplechaser. In 1869 he went to Melbourne, and, with the desire of getting free from the associations of the turf, determined to settle at New Brighton. His first volume of poems, published in 1867, had achieved a considerable reputation, and there was every prospect that his succeeding years would be spent happily, when an unfortunate attempt to secure the reversion of the estate of Esselmont, in Scotland, ended in failure, and induced a return of his former morbid restlessness. In 1870 his second volume of poems was published, but, despite their success, on 24 June of the same year he committed suicide.
His chief works were the following:
* ‘Sea Spray and Smoke Drift,’ 1867.
* ‘Bush Ballads and Galloping Rhymes,’ 1870.
* ‘Ashtaroth: a Dramatic Lyric.’ A collected edition of his poems was published in 1880 under the editorship of Marcus Clarke.
Some additional poems, prose sketches, and his political speeches are printed in a memoir by Mr. J. H. Ross, entitled ‘Laureate of the Centaurs.’ As a poet he was vigorous and musical, but exhibited little true poetic originality.
[The Laureate of the Centaurs, a Memoir of Adam Lindsay Gordon, by J. Howlett Ross. 1888; Clarke's preface to his poems.]
E. C. K. G.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Gordon, Adam (1726?-1801)

​GORDON, Lord ADAM (1726?–1801), general, colonel of the 1st royal regiment of foot, governor of Edinburgh Castle, fourth son of Alexander, second duke of Gordon [q. v.], by his wife Lady Henrietta Mordaunt, daughter of the famous Earl of Peterborough, was born about 1726, and entered the army as ensign in the 18th royal Irish foot, in Scotland, soon after Culloden. In 1753 he became lieutenant and captain 3rd foot guards, and was returned to parliament as member for Aberdeenshire the next year. He sat for that constituency till 1768, and afterwards represented Kincardineshire from 1774 to 1788, when he vacated his seat. In 1758 he served with his company of the guards in the expedition to the French coast under General Bligh. In 1762 he became colonel 66th foot, and took that regiment out to Jamaica. Returning home in 1766 he was entrusted by the Florida (?) colonists with a memorial of grievances to lay before the secretary of state. He was made colonel of the Cameronians in 1775, governor of Tynemouth in 1778, and colonel first royal regiment of foot in 1782. The same year he was appointed commander of the forces in Scotland (North Britain), when he took up his residence at Holyrood Palace, which he repaired extensively. In 1796 he became a full general and governor of Edinburgh Castle. In 1798 he vacated the command of the forces in Scotland, in which he was succeeded by Sir Ralph Abercrombie, and died at his seat, The Barn, Kincardineshire, on 13 Aug. 1801.
Gordon married Jane, daughter of John Drummond of Megginch, Perthshire, and widow of James Murray, second duke of Athole, by whom he left no issue. She is said to have been the heroine of Dr. Austen's song ‘For lack o' gold she left me, O.’
[Anderson's Scottish Nation, ii. 319; Foster's Members of Parliament, Scotland, 150; Cannon's Hist. Record 1st Royal Regiment of Foot.]
H. M. C.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Breen, James

​BREEN, JAMES (1826–1866), astronomer, was the second son of Hugh Breen, senior, who superintended the lunar reductions at the Royal Observatory, Greenwich. He was born at Armagh, in Ireland, 5 July 1826, was engaged at the age of sixteen as a calculator at Greenwich, and exchanged the post for that of assistant in the Cambridge Observatory in August 1846. In 1854 he published 'The Planetary Worlds: the Topography and Telescopic Appearance of the Sun, Planets, Moon, and Comets,' a useful little work suggested by discussions on the plurality of worlds, showing considerable acquaintance with the history of the subject, as well as the practical familiarity conferred by the use of one of the finest refractors then in existence. After twelve years' zealous cooperation with Challis, he resigned his appointment towards the close of 1858, and cultivated literature in Paris until 1860, when he went to Spain, and observed the total eclipse of the sun (18 July) at Camuesa, with Messrs. Wray and Buckingham of the Himalaya expedition. In the following year, after some months in Switzerland, he settled in London, and devoted himself to literary and linguistic studies, reading much at the British Museum, and contributing regularly, but for the most part anonymously, to the 'Popular Science Review' and other periodicals. He had made arrangements for the publication of a work on stars, nebulae, and clusters, of which two sheets were already printed, when his strength finally gave way before the ravages of slow consumption. He died at noon, 25 Aug. 1866, aged 40, and was buried with his father at Nunhead. He had been elected a fellow of the Royal Astronomical Society, 10 June 1862. Extracts from his observations at Cambridge 1851-8 appeared in the 'Astronomische Nachrichten' and 'Monthly Notices.' He calculated the orbits of the ξ double star Ursæ Majoris, assigning a period of 63.14 years; of Petersen's third (1850), and Brorsen's (1851, iii.) comets (Monthly Notices, x. 155, xxii. 158; Astr. Nach. No. 786). His observations of Donati's comet with the Northumberland equatorial were printed in the 'Memoirs of the R. A. Soc.' xxx. 68.
[Monthly Notices, xxvii. 104; R. Soc. Cat. Sc. Papers, i. 594.]
A. M. C.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Bremner, Robert

1904 Errata appended.
​BREMNER, ROBERT (d. 1789), music publisher, was born in Scotland in the early part of the eighteenth century. He began life as a teacher of singing, but about 1748 set up in business in Edinburgh as a music printer and publisher, at the sign of the Harp and Hautboy, in High Street. Here he published, in 1756, a work entitled 'The Rudiments of Music; or, a Short and Easy Treatise on that Subject. To which is added, A Collection of the best Church tunes, Canons, and Anthems.' This book, which is characterised by its sensible directions for church singing at a time ​when ecclesiastical music was in a very corrupt state, was reissued in a second edition, published in 1763 at London, whither Bremner had in the meantime removed. His shop in London was at the sign of the Harp and Hautboy, opposite Somerset House in the Strand. Here he continued his publishing business with great success, besides bringing out several collections of 'Scots Songs,' the words of which were by Allan Ramsay, an instruction book for the guitar. 'Thoughts on the Performance of Concert Music,' 'The Harpsichord or Spinnet Miscellany. Being a Gradation of Proper Lessons from the Beginner to the tollerable (sic) Performer. Chiefly intended to save Masters the trouble of writing for their Pupils,' and 'Select Concert Pieces fitted for the Harpsichord or Pianoforte, with an Accompaniment for the Violin.' The last publication, of which several numbers appeared, contains a valuable collection of classical music. In the preface to it, Bremner mentions his having bought the celebrated manuscript wrongly known as 'Queen Elizabeth's Virginal Book' at the sale of Dr. Pepusch's library. For this he gave ten guineas: the manuscript passed from his hands into those of Earl Fitzwilliam, and is now preserved in the Fitzwilliam Library at Cambridge. In the latter part of his life Bremner lived at Kensington Gore, where he died 12 May 1789.
W. B. S.
Dictionary of National Biography, Errata (1904), p.36 N.B.— f.e. stands for from end and l.l. for last line
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# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Bremer, James John Gordon

​BREMER, Sir JAMES JOHN GORDON (1786–1860), rear-admiral, the son and grandson of naval officers, was entered as a first-class volunteer on board the Sandwich guardship at the Nore in 1794. This was only for a few months; in October 1797 he was appointed to the Royal Naval College at Portsmouth, and was not again embarked till 1802, when he was appointed to the Endymion as a midshipman under Captain Philip Durham. For the next fourteen years he was actively and continuously serving in different parts of the world. He was made lieutenant on 3 Aug. 1805, commander on 13 Oct. 1807, and ​captain on 7 June 1814, but had no opportunities of achieving any special distinction. On 4 June 1815 he was nominated a C.B.; and on 24 Oct. 1816, whilst in command of the Comus frigate, he was wrecked on the coast of Newfoundland. In February 1824 he was sent, in command of the Tamar, to establish a colony on Melville Island, Australia; after which he went to India and took part in the first Burmese war. On 25 Jan. 1836 he was made a K.C.H., and in the following year was appointed to the Alligator, and again went out to Australia, where, the colonising of Melville Island having failed, he formed a settlement at Port Essington. Thence he again went to India, where, by the death of Sir Frederick Maitland, in December 1839, he was left senior officer for a few months, till superseded by Rear-admiral Elliot in July; and again in the following November, when Admiral Elliot invalided, till the arrival of Sir William Parker in August 1841. Sir Gordon Bremer had thus the naval command of the expedition to China during a great part of the years 1840-1, for which services he received the thanks of parliament, and was made K.C.B. on 29 July 1841. In April 1846 he was appointed second in command of the Channel squadron, with his broad pennant in the Queen; and in the following November to be commodore-superintendent of Woolwich dockyard, which post he held for the next two years. He attained his flag on 15 Sept. 1849, but died a few months later, on 14 Feb. 1850.
He married, in 1811, Harriet, daughter of Thomas Wheeler, and widow of the Rev. George Henry Glasse, and left a family of two sons and four daughters, the eldest of whom married Captain (afterwards Admiral) Sir Leopold Kuper.
[O'Byrne's Nav. Biog. Dict.;Gent. Mag. (1850), N.S. xxxiii. 534.]
J. K. L.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Bregwin

​BREGWIN or BREGOWINE (d. 765), archbishop of Canterbury, the son of noble parents dwelling in the old Saxon land, came to England for the sake of the learning spread abroad here by Theodore and Hadrian. In this learning he is said to have excelled. He was elected archbishop in the presence of a large and rejoicing crowd, and was consecrated on or about St. Michael's day 759 (Flor. Wig. i. 57, ed. Thorpe; Anglo-Saxon Chron.; Eccl. Documents, iii. 397). In the account of the synod held at Clovesho in 798 there is a notice of a synod held by Bregwin, in which complaint was made of the unjust detention of an estate granted to Christ Church by Æthelbald of Mercia (Eccl. Documents, iii. 399, 512). A letter is extant addressed by Bregwin to Lullus, archbishop of Mentz, informing him of the death of the Abbess Bugge, or Eadburh (Epp. Bonif. ed. Jaffé, No. 113). From this letter it appears that Bregwin made the acquaintance of Lullus during a visit to Rome, ​where he had much friendly converse with him. The duration of Bregwin's archiepiscopate is variously stated; by the 'Anglo-Saxon Chronicle' as four, by Eadmer as three, and by Osbern as seven years. As he signs charters in 764 {Codex Dipl. civ., cxi.), the date of his death given by Osbern (25 Aug. 765) may be accepted as correct. The place of his burial was a matter of interest. His predecessor, Cuthberht, caused the custom of making St. Augustine's the burying-place of the archbishops to be broken through, and was laid in his cathedral church. This greatly angered the monks of St. Augustine's; for the miracles and offerings at the tombs of archbishops brought them both honour and profit. In order to secure the new privilege of their church, the clergy of Christ Church observed the same secrecy on the death of Bregwin as they had done in the case, and by the order, of Cuthberht. They concealed the illness of the archbishop, and on his death buried him before they rang the bell for him. When Jaenberht, abbot of St. Augustine's, heard of the death, he came down with a band of armed men to claim the body, but found that he was too late (Thorn, 1772-4). An attempt was made in aftertimes to deprive Christ Church of Bregwin's body. After the marriage of Henry I and Adeliza of Louvain a monk named Lambert came from the queen's old home to see her, and was lodged at Canterbury. He begged the body of Bregwin of Archbishop Ralph, who promised to allow him to have it to carry back with him. Finding that the archbishop repented of his weakness, Lambert set out for Woodstock to lay his case before the queen. On his way he died at London. This attempt to despoil the church of Canterbury was naturally followed by a vision, in which the departed archbishop expressed his indignation.
[Osbern De Vita Bregwini, Eadmer De Vita Bregwini, Anglia Sacra, ii.; Florence of Worcester; Acta SS. Bolland. Aug. v. 827; Epp. Bonif., ed. Jaffé; Haddan and Stubbs's Eccles. Documents, iii. 397-99; Kemble's Codex Dipl. i. 129-35, 137, 140; Chron. W. Thorn, ed. Twysden, 1772-4; Hook's Lives of the Archbishops of Canterbury, i. 234.]
W. H.