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

​MACDONLEVY, CORMAC (fl. 1459), physician, called in Irish MacDuinntshleibhe, was descended from the royal family of Ulidia, who were driven from their kingdom by John de Courcy [q. v.], and settled in Kilmacrenan, co. Donegal, about 1200, where they became hereditary physicians to the O'Donnells. Muiris MacDonlevy (d. 1395), son of Paul, who is called ' ollamh leighis chenel conaill,' professor of physic of the tribe of Conaill, i.e. of O'Donnell and his neighbours, is the first physician of the family mentioned in the chronicles. Cormac calls himself ' baisiller a fisighecht,' bachelor of medicine (Arundel MS. 883, fol. 113 b, in British Museum), and was a physician of the Arabian school. He travelled through Ireland in 1459, wrote at Cloyne, co. Cork (Sari. MS. 546, fol. 11), a translation into Irish of Gualterus on the doses of medicine, of which the original holograph copy is in the British Museum Library, 546 in the Harleian collection. He also translated into Irish a treatise on the organs of animals from Isaac's ' De Dietis,' a well-known mediaeval treatise. His original manuscript is in the British Museum, Arundel 333. He writes a clear, rather square Irish hand, using numerous contractions. He had read Gadaesden, Gordonius the Arabian, and Galen.
Subsequent members of the family mentioned in the ' Irish Annals ' are :
Donnchadh MacDonlevy, M.D. (d. 1526), physician, son of Eoghan, famous for his general learning and wealth. He died 30 Sept. 1526.
Eoghan MacDonlevy, M.D. (d. 1586), physician, son of Donnchadh, was believed to be the best physician of his time in Ireland, and was also famous for his general learning.
As the family originally came from Ulidia, the lesser Uladh, or Ulster, the members of it are often called in Irish writings, instead of MacDonlevy, Ultach, that is, Ulsterman, and from this the name of MacNulty, Mac an Ultaigh, son of the Ulsterman, is derived.
[Arundel 333 and Harleian 546 in Brit. Mas. ; Annals Rioghachta Ei rearm, ed. J. O'Donoran, vol. v. ; Norman Moore's Essay on the History of Medicine in Ireland in St. Bartholomew's Hospital Reports, vol. xi.]
N. M.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Macdowall, Andrew

Andrew McDouall in the ODNB.
​MACDOWALL, ANDREW, Lord Bankton (1685–1760), Scottish judge, born in 1685, was second son of Robert Macdowal of Logan, by his wife Sarah, daughter of Sir John Shaw of Greenock, bart. He was educated at the university of Edinburgh, and was admitted an advocate, 24 Feb. 1708. He succeeded John Sinclair of Murkle, Caithness, 5 July 1755, taking the title of Lord Bankton, and continued in that post until he died at Bankton, 22 Oct. 1760. From 1744 he had possessed the estate of Olivestob, formerly owned by Colonel Gardiner. He was author of 'An Institute of the Laws of Scotland in Civil Rights,' in four books, after the method of Lord Stair's 'Institutions,' 3 vols, fol., 1751-8.
[Brunton and Haig's Senators of the Royal College of Justice; Anderson's House of Hamilton, p. 330; Murray's Literary History of Galloway, 2nd ed. p. 165; Books of Sederunt; Scots Mag. 1760, xxii. 555; Catalogue of the Signet Library, Edinburgh.]
J. A. H.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Macfarlan, John

​MACFARLAN, JOHN (d. 1846), Scottish advocate, elder brother of Patrick Macfarlan [q. v.], was eldest son of John Warden (1740-1788), minister of the second charge, Canongate, Edinburgh, who took the additional name of Macfarlan after marrying Anne, daughter of Hugh Macfarlan of Kirkton or Ballencleroche. John, who succeeded to the family property, was brought up to the law, and obtained a good practice as an advocate. He was one of Sir Walter Scott's friends, and studied German with him about 1788. He was intimate with Dugald Stewart and Sir Henry Moncrieff, was interested in philosophy, and a good lawyer. He is mentioned in Cockburn's 'Memorials' as 'an apostle, and worthy of the best apostolic age.' He published two pamphlets, 'Who are the Friends of Religion and the Church?' 1838; and 'The Presbyterian Empire, its Origin, Decline, and Fall,' 1842. He died 18 Dec. 1846, leaving a son,
Macfarlan, James (1800-1871), who was born in 1800, licensed by the presbytery of Glasgow in 1831, and became minister of Muiravonside, near Linlithgow, on the presentation of William IV, in 1834. He was a Hebrew scholar, and published in 1845 an English version of the 'Prophecies of Ezekiel.' He married, 31 Oct. 1837, Matilda Marianne Christie, daughter of Captain Christie of the 78th regiment, and granddaughter of William Morehead of Herbertshire. By her he left, among other children, a son,
James Macfarlan (1846-1889), who was born 6 Jan. 1845, educated at the Edinburgh Academy (1858-61) and university (1861-4}, and licensed as a minister. From 1869 till 1871 he assisted at Dundee, and was appointed minister of Ruthwell by the Earl of Mansfield in 1871. He was an archaeologist, and by his exertions in 1887 the runic cross of Ruthwell, on which he wrote a monograph, 1885, was removed to the church. He died at Foulden, Berwickshire, 7 Oct. 1889, and was buried at Ruthwell. A memorial hall has been since built in commemoration of his work in the parish. He married a daughter of Professor Allan Menzies of Edinburgh University, and left several children.
[Information kindly furnished by Dr. Douie of Sevenoaks; Cockburn's Life of Jeffrey, i. 21, 113, ii. 26, 63; C. Morehead's Mem. of R. Morehead, pp. 6 et seq.; Cockburn's Memorials, pp. 1 50, &c.; Lockhart's Scott, p. 56; Hew Scott's Fasti; Dumfries and Galloway Standard, 9 Oct., and Dumfries and Galloway Courier and Herald, 12 Oct. 1889; Memoirs of James Macfarlan (1845-1889), 1892.]
W. A. J. A.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Phillips, Thomas (1801-1867)

​PHILLIPS, Sir THOMAS (1801–1867), mayor of Newport, Monmouthshire, and lawyer, eldest son of Thomas Phillips of Llanellan House, Monmouthshire, by Ann, eldest daughter of Benjamin James of Llangattock, Crickhowell, Brecknockshire, was born at Llanelly in 1801. From June 1824 till January 1840 he practised as a solicitor at Newport, Monmouthshire, in partnership with Thomas Prothero. On 9 Nov. 1838 he was elected mayor of Newport, and on 4 Nov. 1839 was in charge of the town when John Frost (d. 1877) [q. v.], at the head of seven thousand chartists, entered it with the intention of releasing Henry Vincent from gaol. While reading the Riot Act from the Westgate inn he was wounded with slugs in the arm and hip. A company of the 45th regiment then fired on the mob, which was completely routed, seventeen being killed and about thirty wounded. On 9 Dec. Phillips was knighted to mark ‘the high sense the queen entertained of the peculiar merits of Phillips's individual exertions in maintaining her majesty's authority.’ On 26 Feb. 1840 he was voted the freedom of the city of London, and admitted on 7 April.
Phillips was called to the bar at the Inner Temple on 10 June 1842, named a queen's counsel on 17 Feb., and a bencher of his inn on 5 May 1865. His principal practice lay in parliamentary committees, and many lawsuits were referred to him for arbitration. In Monmouthshire he acquired coal-mines, and became a large landed proprietor in Wales. While living in the plainest manner, he bestowed large sums in charities. At Court-y-bella, near Newport, he built and maintained schools for the education of the colliers. To him was mainly owing the success of Brecon College. He was well known as an earnest writer on Welsh education, and a champion of the Welsh church, and his volume on Wales, defending the principality from attacks made on it, is a standard work. It was entitled ‘Wales, the Language, Social Condition, Moral Character, and Religious Opinions of the People, considered in their relation to Education, with some account of the provision made for education in other parts of the kingdom,’ 1849. He was an active member of the governing bodies of King's College, London, and the Church Institution, and president of the council of the Society of Arts. In 1848 he became a member of the National Society, and devoted time and labour to the work of national education. He died of paralysis at 77 Gloucester Place, Portman Square, London, on 26 May 1867, and was buried at Llanellan. He was not married. He was the author of ‘The Life of James Davies, a Village Schoolmaster,’ 1850; 2nd edit. 1852.
[Morgan's Four Biographical Sketches, 1892, Sir T. Phillips, pp. 159–79; Greville's Memoirs, 2nd ser. 1885, December 1839, p. 249; Masters of the Bench of the Inner Temple, 1883, p. 118; Gent. Mag. July 1867, p. 107; Law Times, 1867, xliii. 48, 110; Times, 6 Nov. and 7 Dec. 1839; Bristol Mercury, 9 Nov. 1839, p. 4; Ann. Register, 1839 pp. 314–16, and Chronicle p. 128, 1840 pp. 203–19.]
G. C. B.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Phillips, Thomas (d.1815)

​PHILLIPS, THOMAS (d. 1815), historian of Shrewsbury, was a native of that town. His brother Richard (d. 1815) was mayor there in 1814. By the influence of Sir William Pulteney Thomas obtained a place in the customs. He died in London on 9 Jan. 1815. In 1779 he published, in quarto, with several plates, his ‘History and Antiquities of Shrewsbury from its Foundation to the present time, with an Appendix, containing several particulars relative to Castles, Monasteries, &c., in Shropshire.’ The book was, to a large extent, the work of a Mr. Bowen of Halston, Shropshire. It remained the standard history of Shrewsbury till Owen and Blakeway issued their ‘History’ in 1825, with acknowledgments to their predecessor. A second edition of Phillips's work formed the first volume of C. Hulbert's ‘History of the County of Salop’ (1837).
[Lit. Memoirs of Living Authors, 1798; Salopian Magazine, 31 Jan. and 29 April 1815; Gent. Mag. 1815, pt. ii. p. 187.]
G. Le G. N.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Phillips, Thomas (1760-1851)

​PHILLIPS, THOMAS (1760–1851), surgeon and benefactor of Welsh education, was born in London on 6 July 1760, and was the son of Thomas Phillips, of the excise department, a Welshman from Llandegley in Radnorshire. He went to school at Kempston in Bedfordshire, and was apprenticed to an apothecary at Hay in Breconshire. He afterwards studied surgery under John Hunter, and became a member of the Royal College of Surgeons. In 1780 he entered the medical service of the royal navy, serving first as surgeon's mate of the Danae frigate, and afterwards as surgeon of the Hind. In 1782 he entered the service of the East India Company, and went to Calcutta. In 1796 he was made inspector of hospitals in the new colony of Botany Bay. In 1798, when returning to England on leave, he was captured in the Channel by a French privateer, but liberated after being taken to Bordeaux. In 1800 he married Althea Edwards, daughter of the rector of Cusop, near Hay, and in 1802 he returned to India, where he became superintendent, surgeon, and finally a member of the ​Calcutta medical board. In 1817 he returned to England with a competent fortune. He took up his residence at 5 Brunswick Square, where he died on 13 June 1851, in his ninety-first year. He was buried in the catacombs of St. Pancras Church, beside his wife, who had died in 1841.
Phillips devoted himself to works of benevolence on a very large scale. Besides dealing liberally with his relatives (he had no children), he for many years made large and miscellaneous purchases of books at the London salerooms, and presented them freely to many public libraries. The majority he sent to Wales, to towns like Hay and Builth, with which he was acquainted, to the literary society at Hereford, and above all to the library of St. David's College, Lampeter, to which he is computed to have presented more than twenty thousand volumes. He established six scholarships, called the Phillips scholarships, at St. David's College, and bequeathed by his will the sum of 7,000l. to found a Phillips professorship in natural science in that institution. In 1847 he founded the Welsh Educational Institution at Llandovery in Carmarthenshire, which has since become one of the two most important public schools in South Wales. Besides an original endowment of 140l. a year, he gave seven thousand books to the library at Llandovery, and left it about 11,000l. in his will. He deserves remembrance as the only Welshman of his day who made large sacrifices in the cause of the education of his countrymen.
There is a bust of Phillips in the library of St. David's College, and a portrait is at Llandovery school.
[Gent. Mag. 1851, i. 655–6; Calendar, Charters, and Statute-book of St. David's College, Lampeter; Dodswell and Miles's Medical Officers of India.]
T. F. T.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Phillips, William (1775-1828)

​PHILLIPS, WILLIAM (1775–1828), mineralogist and geologist, born on 10 May 1775, was the son of James Phillips, a printer and bookseller in George Yard, Lombard Street, London, and a member of the Society of Friends. Catherine Phillips [q. v.] was his grandmother. William engaged in his father's business as printer and bookseller, and at his father's death succeeded to the full control. About 1796 he and his younger brother, Richard [q. v.], took a leading part in founding a society, called the Askesian (ἄσκησις), for the discussion of scientific and philosophical questions.
Though actively engaged in trade, he ‘devoted his leisure to the pursuit of natural knowledge,’ and attained a high position as a mineralogist, in which study he made great use of the goniometer, then recently invented by William Hyde Wollaston [q. v.], his success with it being mentioned by William Whewell [q. v.] in his ‘History of the Inductive Sciences.’ Later in life he endeavoured to popularise science by giving lectures at Tottenham, then his place of residence. He contributed about twenty-seven papers to the ‘Transactions’ of the Geological Society and other scientific journals, most of them on mineralogy, and several on Cornish minerals; but he also discussed the geology of the Malvern Hills, and of the French coast, opposite to Dover. But his most important contribution to geology was a 12mo volume published in 1818, entitled ‘A Selection of Facts from the best Authorities, arranged so as to form an Outline of the Geology of England and Wales.’ This became the basis of a joint work by the Rev. William Daniel Conybeare [q. v.] and himself, entitled ‘Outlines of the Geology of England and Wales,’ 1822. He was also the author of ‘Outlines of Mineralogy and Geology,’ 1815, the fourth edition of which appeared in 1826 (his last literary labour); and of the well-known ‘Elementary Introduction to the Knowledge of Mineralogy,’ 1816. This reached a third edition in 1823. After Phillips's death a fourth (augmented) edition, by R. Allan, was published in 1837, and a fifth, when the book was practically rewritten, by H. J. Brooke and William Hallowes Miller [q. v.], in 1852. William Phillips was elected a member of the Geological Society in 1807, and F.R.S. in 1827; he was also F.L.S. and an honorary member ​of the Cambridge Philosophical Society. He died 2 April 1828.
A portrait is at Devonshire House, Bishopsgate.
T. G. B.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Fenton, Edward Dyne

​FENTON, EDWARD DYNE (d. 1880), author, entered the British army as an ensign in the 53rd Shropshire regiment of foot in 1847, was advanced to a lieutenancy in 1849, placed on the half-pay list in 1857, obtained a captaincy in the 14th Buckinghamshire regiment of foot in 1858, and exchanged into the 86th royal County Down regiment of foot in 1860, with which he spent some years at Gibraltar. He retired from the army about 1870, and thenceforward resided chiefly at Scarborough until his death, which took place on 27 July 1880. He was well known as an amateur photographer, and very popular among his friends. He published:
* ‘Sorties from Gib. in quest of Sensation and Sentiment,’ London, 1872, 8vo (a collection of entertaining narratives of tours made in Spain during brief furloughs).
* ‘Military Men I have met,’ London, 1872, 8vo (humorous sketches, illustrated by Linley Sambourne, of types of military character).
* ‘Eve's Daughters,’ London, 1873, 8vo (a volume of slight sketches and stories illustrating female character).
* ‘B., an Autobiography,’ London, 1874, 8vo (a three-volume novel).
[Army List, 1848–9, 1850–1, 1858–9, 1861–2, 1868–9; Athenæum, 1880, ii. 178; Brit. Mus. Cat.]
J. M. R.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Fenner, William

​FENNER, WILLIAM (1600–1640), puritan divine, was educated at Pembroke College, Cambridge, where he took the degree of B.A. in 1618, and that of M.A. in the following year. In 1622 he was incorporated a member of Oxford University. He also took holy orders, and is believed to have been for a time chaplain to the Earl of Warwick, and to have ministered at Sedgley, Staffordshire, where ‘his labours were greatly blessed.’ He did much good at Sedgley, then described as a heathenish place. He was forced to leave this cure on account of his puritanical principles about 1626–7, and travelled about for some months, preaching from place to place, and Brook affirms (Lives of the Puritans) that ‘he was much resorted to as a casuist, and much admired by some of the nobility.’ In 1627 he proceeded B.D., and two years later was presented to the living of Rochford in Essex, where he laboured with much success until his death in 1640. Fenner was greatly appreciated as a preacher, one of his sermons being quoted by Williams in the ‘Christian Preacher,’ p. 454, and his writings enjoyed considerable popularity for some time, as they ‘discovered much acquaintance with religion in all its parts,’ and were plain in manner while zealous in tone. He wrote: 1. ‘The Soul's Looking Glasse, with a treatise of Conscience,’ &c., 1640 (edited by Edmund Calamy). 2. ‘Riches of Grace,’ 1641. 3. ‘A Treatise of Affections, or the Soul's Pulse,’ 1641. 4. ‘Christ's Alarm to drowsie Sinners, or Christ's Epistles to his Churches,’ 1646. 5. ‘A Divine Message to the Elect Souls’ (eight sermons), 1646. 6. ‘The Sacrifice of the Faithful; or a treatise showing the Nature, Property and Efficacy of zealous Prayer.’ 7. ‘The Spiritual Man's Directorie,’ &c., 1648. 8. ‘Practicall Divinitie, or Gospel Light shining forth in several choice Sermons,’ 1650. 9. ‘Hidden Manna, or the Mystery of Saving Grace,’ &c., 1652. 10. ‘The Danger of deferred Repentance discovered,’ &c., 1654. 11. ‘Four profitable Treatises very useful for Christian Practice,’ 1657. Collected editions of his works were published in 1651 and 1657.
[Wood's Fasti (Bliss), i. 408; Brook's Lives of the Puritans, ii. 451; Granger's Biog. Hist. ii. 182; Newcourt's Repert. Eccl. ii. 497; Notes and Queries, 6th ser. ii. 186.]
A. C. B.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Fenner, Edward

1904 Errata appended.
​FENNER, EDWARD (d. 1612), judge, son of John Fenner of Crawley, Sussex, by Ellen, daughter of Sir William Goring of Burton, was called to the bar at the Middle Temple, and was reader in the autumn of 1576. He was M.P. for Shoreham in 1572. He became a serjeant in Michaelmas term 1577, and enjoyed a large practice. He was appointed a judge of the king's bench on 26 May 1590, and was J.P. for Surrey. Though not a prominent member of the court, he was in the commission upon several state trials, and, before becoming a judge, was present as a justice of the peace at the trial of John Udall, January 1590. In 1593 he tried three witches in Huntingdonshire, and a pamphlet account of this trial was published. In January 1608 he received a grant of an annuity of 50l. during the time his services on circuit were discontinued. He died 23 Jan. 1612, and was buried at Hayes in Middlesex. He had one son, Edward, who died without issue in 1615.
[Foss's Judges of England; Dallaway's Parochial Topography of Chichester, i. 16; State Trials, i. 1297; Coke's Reports, p. 1; Green's Domestic State Papers, 1603–10; Notes and Queries, 3rd ser. i. 402.]
J. A. H.
Dictionary of National Biography, Errata (1904), p.121 N.B.— f.e. stands for from end and l.l. for last line
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# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Fennell, John Greville

​FENNELL, JOHN GREVILLE (1807–1885), artist, naturalist, and angler, was born at sea between Ireland and England in 1807. He began his career as an artist by winning the silver medal offered by the Duke of Sussex for a drawing of Hercules, and afterwards was a student at Finden's house, where he was intimate with Hablot K. Browne [q. v.], who was similarly employed. As a young man Fennell succeeded best in comic painting, but later in life was fonder of landscapes. In some of these, however, he was very careless, and was always unequal in his work. He drew pictures of the tournament at Eglinton Castle for the ‘Illustrated London News.’ His fondness for natural history displayed itself chiefly in observations on the habits of fish and waterside birds. These he carried on simultaneously with the practice of angling, of which he was a devoted follower, especially in the Thames. He was a member of the ‘Field’ staff from the commencement of that paper in 1853, and wrote week after week in it on fishing subjects; besides which he was a frequent contributor to the ‘Fishing Gazette’ and other sporting papers on angling and outdoor pursuits. He was author of ‘The Book of the Roach,’ 1870, an exhaustive treatise on angling for that fish; and contributed a paper called ‘Curiosities of Angling Literature’ to Mr. Cholmondeley Pennell's ‘Fishing Gossip,’ 1866. This is a discursive attempt at the humorous style in writing on angling topics, which was at that time fashionable. He also wrote ‘The Rail and the Rod,’ a meritorious guide-book to the favourite angling resorts of the Thames. Generous to a fault, and an excellent practical angler, Fennell was never so happy as when relating to a circle of friends reminiscences of Dickens, Thackeray, Douglas Jerrold, Mackay, and Harrison Ainsworth, with all of whom he had been on intimate terms. He lived long at Barnes, and late in life at Henley, at both of which places he was favourably situated for the pursuit of angling. At the latter town he died suddenly on 13 Jan. 1885, in the seventy-eighth year of his age, and was buried in Trinity churchyard, not a hundred yards from the house in which he spent his last two years, under the appropriate epitaph, ‘The fishers also ​shall mourn, and all they that cast angle into the brooks shall lament’ (Is. xix. 8).
M. G. W.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Tobias

​TOBIAS (d. 726), bishop of Rochester, is said to have been a native of Kent and to have been educated at Dover and Canterbury. He ‘was one of the scholarly ecclesiastics who had been trained in the great school at Canterbury’ (Bright, Chapters of Early Church History, 1897, p. 429). There he was a pupil of Theodore and Hadrian, and Bede describes him as ‘a man of multifarious learning in the Latin, Greek, and Saxon tongues’ (Hist. Eccles. v. 8, 23). He was consecrated ninth bishop of Rochester by Brihtwald in succession to Gebmund, who died probably in 696. The first genuine charter attested by him is dated 706; he was present at the council of Clovesho in 716, when King Wihtred promulgated his law against the alienation of church property (Bright, pp. 430–1). He died in 726 and was buried in St. Paul's Church in St. Andrew's Cathedral at Rochester (Thorpe, Reg. Roffense, p. 5; Shindler, Registers of Rochester, p. 64). Bale ascribes to him a book of homilies and Pits a book of letters; neither is known to be extant.
A. F. P.