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

​TOBIN, GEORGE (1768–1838), rear-admiral, second son of James Tobin of Nevis in the West Indies, and elder brother of John Tobin [q. v.], was born at Salisbury on 13 Dec. 1768. He entered the navy in 1780 on board the Namur, in which he afterwards went out to the West Indies and was present in the action of 12 April 1782. After the peace he was for some time in the Bombay Castle, guardship at Plymouth, in the Leander on the Halifax station, in the Assistance; and from 1788 to 1790 he made a voyage in a ship of the East India Company. On his return he was borne for a few weeks in the Tremendous during the Spanish armament, and on 22 Nov. he was made a lieutenant. During 1791–3 he was in the Providence with Captain William Bligh [q. v.] in the voyage to Tahiti and the West Indies, and on his return to England learned that by his absence he had escaped (as he then considered it) being appointed third lieutenant of the Agamemnon with Captain Horatio (afterwards Viscount) Nelson [q. v.], who, through his wife, was connected with Tobin's family. It seemed to him a much better thing to be appointed second lieutenant of the Thetis frigate with Captain Alexander Cochrane [q. v.] In the Thetis he remained. Some four years later, 12 July 1797, Nelson wrote: ‘The time is past for doing anything for him. Had he been with me, he would long since have been a captain, and I should have liked it, as being most exceedingly pleased with him.’
Tobin was not made a commander till 12 July 1798. He was advanced to the rank of captain in the large promotion at the peace, 29 April 1802, and in September 1804 was appointed to the Northumberland, flagship of his old chief, Cochrane, off Ferrol and afterwards in the West Indies; in September 1805 he was moved into the Princess Charlotte, a 38-gun frigate, and in her, off Tobago, captured the French corvette Cyane after a very gallant resistance. After much convoy service Tobin, still in the same frigate (renamed Andromache in 1812), co-operated during 1813–14 with the army in the north of Spain and the west of France. In July 1814 the Andromache was paid off, and Tobin had no further service at sea. On 8 Dec. 1815 he was nominated a C.B., became a rear-admiral on 10 Jan. 1837, and died at Teignmouth on 10 April 1838. He married, in 1804, Dorothy, daughter of Captain Gordon Skelly of the navy, widow of Major William Duff of the 26th regiment, and by her had issue one son and one daughter.
J. K. L.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Perceval, Arthur Philip

​PERCEVAL, ARTHUR PHILIP (1799–1853), divine, born on 22 Nov. 1799, was the fifth and youngest son of Charles George Perceval, second baron Arden, by his wife Margaret Elizabeth, eldest daughter of Sir Thomas Spencer Wilson, bart. He matriculated from Oriel College, Oxford, on 19 March 1817, graduating B.A. in 1820, and B.C.L. in 1824; from 1821 to 1825 he was fellow of All Souls'. On 18 June 1824 he was appointed rector of East Horsley, Surrey. In 1826 he became chaplain to George IV, and continued royal chaplain to William IV and Queen Victoria until his death. He warmly approved of the tractarian movement at Oxford, and in 1841 published a ‘Vindication of the Authors of the Tracts for the Times,’ principally defending Newman against the attacks made on his ‘Tract 90.’ On 24 July 1838, when preaching as royal chaplain at the chapel royal, St. James's, he took occasion to advocate high-church principles before the queen; the bishop of London (C. J. Blomfield), who was aware of Perceval's intention, is said to have preached for several Sundays in order to keep Perceval out of the pulpit, but the bishop broke his collarbone, and Perceval found his opportunity (Greville Memoirs, ed. Reeve, i. 116). Perceval died on 11 June 1853, having married, on 15 Dec. 1825, Charlotte Anne, eldest daughter of the Rev. and Hon. Augustus George Legge, fifth son of William, second earl of Dartmouth; she died on 21 June 1856, having had, with other issue, three sons and four daughters.
Perceval was a voluminous author, and the list of his works occupies three pages in the British Museum Catalogue, but most of them are letters, single sermons, and pamphlets. The more important are: 1. ‘The Roman Schism illustrated from the Records of the Catholic Church,’ 1836, 8vo. Lowndes (Bibl. Man. p. 1102) describes it as ‘of great utility and value.’ 2. ‘Origin of Church Rates,’ 1837, 8vo (cf. Edinburgh Review, lxvi. 295). 3. ‘Sermons preached chiefly at the Chapel Royal, St. James's,’ 1839, 8vo. 4. ‘An Apology for the Doctrine of Apostolical Succession,’ 1839, 16mo; 2nd edit. 1841. 5. ‘A Collection of Papers connected with the Theological Movement of 1833,’ 1842; 2nd edit. 1843. 6. ‘Results of an Ecclesiastical Tour in Holland and Northern Germany,’ 1846, 12mo. 7. ‘Plain Lectures on St. Paul's Epistle to the Ephesians,’ 1846, 12mo. 8. ‘Origines Hibernicæ,’ Dublin, 1849; in this he endeavours to prove that Ireland is the Patmos of Revelation, and that the Virgin Mary was buried on Tara Hill.
[Authorities quoted; works in Brit. Mus. Libr.; McClintock and Strong's Cyclop.; Darling's Cycl. Bibl.; Allibone's Dict. of Engl. Lit. ii. 1557–8; Foster's Alumni Oxon. 1714–1886, Index Ecclesiasticus, and Peerage s.v. Egmont; Liddon's Life of Pusey, i. 247, 264, ii. 178; Greville Memoirs, i. 116; Sheppard's St. James's Palace; Guardian, 1853, p. 414.]
A. F. P.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Perceval, Alexander

​PERCEVAL, ALEXANDER (1787–1858), sergeant-at-arms of the House of Lords, second son of the Rev. Philip Perceval of Temple House, Ballymote, co. Sligo, by Anne, daughter of Alexander Carrol of Dublin, was born at Temple House on 10 Feb. 1787, and was educated at Trinity College, Dublin. He was very well read, of courteous manner, and full of Irish humour and anecdote. In early life he resided on his ample Irish estates, served the office of a justice of the peace, and held a commission in the Sligo militia, a regiment which in due time he rose to command. As a conservative he sat for the county of Sligo from 17 May 1831 to September 1841. He brought before the House of Commons the fact that Lord Plunket, the lord chancellor of Ireland, had been charging the county magistrates throughout Ireland certain illegal fees, and so boldly and energetically denounced this abuse that the lord chancellor had to refund every shilling he had received. On the accession to office of Sir Robert Peel in December 1834 he became treasurer of the ordnance, a place which he held till April 1835, when Lord Melbourne came into ​power. He also served as a lord of the treasury from 6 to 16 Sept. 1841. He was treasurer of the Orange Association of Ireland; but, finding that the government were anxious for the sake of peace that it should not be continued, he acquiesced in the decision, and aided in dissolving the association. In 1841 he succeeded Admiral Sir George Seymour as sergeant-at-arms of the House of Lords, an appointment which he held till his death. On 13 June 1834 he was created a D.C.L. of the university of Oxford. He died at 28 Chester Street, London, on 9 Dec. 1858. He married, on 11 Feb. 1808, Jane Anne, eldest daughter of Colonel Henry Peisley L'Estrange, of Moystown, King's County. She died on 20 Jan. 1847, leaving issue (1) Philip Perceval, formerly a lieutenant in the royal horse-guards; (2) Henry Perceval; (3) Alexander Perceval; (4) Charles George Guy Perceval, and six daughters.
G. C. B.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Perburn, John

John Perbroun in the ODNB.
​PERBURN, JOHN (fl. 1316–1343), admiral, son of Robert Perburn, was a native of Yarmouth in Norfolk, and for many years collector of the customs at that port. Between 1312 and 1339 he was fourteen times bailiff of Yarmouth. He seems to have taken an active part in the private war which Yarmouth waged against the Cinque ports in the end of the thirteenth and beginning of the fourteenth centuries, and to have received the king's pardon in 1316. In May 1317 he was appointed admiral of the king's fleet north of the Thames, an appointment repeated in 1321, in which year the town of Lynn petitioned against his seizure of some fishing-smacks. In the same year and again in 1324 he was elected to parliament as one of the burgesses of Yarmouth. In 1326 he was ordered to attend the king's council to give information respecting vessels to be provided by Yarmouth. In 1327 he sided with Edward III, and on 2 April received pardon for his acquiescence in Mortimer's rule; in the same month he received a grant of the king's ship La Cristofore, and was confirmed in his post as admiral then and in 1333. In 1335 one of his ships was plundered by the people of Gascony, and at his instigation Edward III demanded restitution. In March 1340 he was one of those summoned to Westminster to advise the king on mercantile affairs. He probably fought at Sluys in the same year. He is last mentioned in 1343 as one of the burgesses for Yarmouth summoned to parliament.
[Rymer's Fœdera, orig. ed. iv. 647, Record ed. II. ii. 1114; Cal. Patent Rolls, 1327–30, passim; Rolls of Parl. i. 306 b, 406 a, 414 a; Palmer's Hist. of Great Yarmouth, i. 297–9, 326, ii. 5, 190, 247, 253, 294–5; Nicolas's Hist. of the Royal Navy, i. 418, 439–40, ii. 2, 6, 524.]
J. K. L.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Steevens, Richard

​STEEVENS, RICHARD (1653–1710), Irish physician, and Grizell his sister (1653–1746), were the twin children of John Steevens, an English royalist clergyman who settled in Ireland in the middle of the seventeenth century, and was rector of Athlone from 1660 to 1682. Richard Steevens received his education at the Latin school in Athlone and subsequently at Trinity College, Dublin, where he obtained a scholarship in 1674, graduated B.A. in 1675, and M.A. in 1678. Being intended by his father for the church, he took deacon's orders, but proceeded no further in the ministry, and devoted himself to the medical profession. In 1687 he received the degree of M.D. from his university, and thenceforward practised as a physician in Dublin, where he amassed a large fortune. He was a fellow of the Irish College of Physicians, and in 1710 was elected president of that body. He died before the close of his year of office, on 15 Dec. 1710.
By his will Steevens bequeathed the bulk of his property to his sister Grizell for her ​life, and directed that upon her death it should vest in trustees to be applied in building, and subsequently in maintaining, a hospital in Dublin, ‘for maintaining and curing from time to time such sick and wounded persons whose distempers and wounds are curable.’ Grizell Steevens, being ‘desirous that the said charitable bequest of her dear brother should begin to take effect in her lifetime,’ surrendered her estate to the trustees in 1717, reserving only 100l. a year, out of a rental of 600l., together with apartments in the hospital when built. She also gave 2,000l. towards the cost of building. The hospital, thus founded, and since known as Steevens's hospital, was completed in 1733 at a cost of 16,000l., and was the first public hospital established in Dublin, where it is still one of the foremost institutions of its kind. Dean Swift was one of its earliest governors, and ‘Stella’ (Esther Johnson) in her will bequeathed 1,000l. towards the maintenance of a chaplain of the hospital, so long as the church of Ireland should remain established. Another benefactor was John Sterne [q. v.], bishop of Clogher. Grizell Steevens survived till 18 March 1746. By her will she bequeathed the residue of her property to the governors of the hospital. Her remains are interred in the hospital chapel. Portraits of Steevens and his sister are in the board-room of the institution.
[Short History of Steevens's Hospital, by Samuel Croker King, 1785; History of Steevens's Hospital, by Cheyne Brady, 1865; Athlone in the Seventeenth Century, by Rev. G. T. Stokes, D.D.; Journal of the Royal Society of Irish Antiquarians; Todd's Graduates of Dublin University.]
C. L. F.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Stephanoff, Francis Philip

Philip Francis Stephanoff in the ODNB; date of birty there 1787/8.
​STEPHANOFF, FRANCIS PHILIP (1790?–1860), painter, was born in Brompton Row, London, about 1790. His father, ​Fileter N. Stephanoff, was a Russian who settled in England and found employment in painting ceilings, stage scenery, &c., until he died by his own hand about 1790; his mother, Gertrude Stephanoff, was an accomplished flower-painter, much patronised by Sir Joseph Banks, and died on 7 Jan. 1808. Francis became a popular painter of historical and domestic subjects, working both in oils and watercolours; he exhibited largely at the Royal Academy and British Institution from 1807 to 1845, and with the ‘Old Watercolour’ Society from 1815 to 1820. His best works were: ‘The Trial of Algernon Sidney,’ ‘Cranmer revoking his Recantation,’ ‘Poor Relations,’ and ‘The Reconciliation,’ which were well engraved; he also furnished many graceful designs for the ‘Keepsake’ and other annuals. For Sir George Nayler's sumptuous work on the coronation of George IV he drew in watercolours a series of costume portraits, which is now in the South Kensington Museum. At the Westminster Hall competition in 1843 Stephanoff gained a prize of 100l. for a scene from Milton's ‘Comus.’ The sudden death of his wife, Selina Roland, seriously affected his health, and he ceased the practice of his art many years before his death, which occurred at West Hanham, near Bristol, on 15 May 1860.
James Stephanoff (1788?–1874), elder brother of Francis, was born in Brompton Row about 1788. He worked exclusively in watercolours, and excelled in the representation of public ceremonies and historical incidents which required the skilful grouping of large numbers of figures; among his works of this class were ‘The Fair held in Hyde Park in 1814,’ ‘The Interior of the House of Lords during the important Investigation of 1820’ (engraved); ‘Interior of the House of Commons during the Reform Era,’ and ‘Reception of the Queen by the Lord Mayor on 9 Nov. 1837.’ He was elected an associate of the ‘Old Watercolour’ Society in 1819, and contributed constantly to its exhibitions up to 1859, sending chiefly subjects from the poets and novelists, some of which were engraved for the annuals. He executed some of the drawings for Pyne's ‘Royal Residences’ and Nayler's ‘Coronation of George IV,’ and in 1830 was appointed historical painter in watercolours to William IV. Stephanoff was one of the founders of the Sketching Society. He was much interested in antiquarian matters, and made drawings of St. Cuthbert's stole at Durham for the Society of Antiquaries. He resigned his membership of the ‘Old Watercolour’ Society in 1861 and retired to Bristol, where he died in 1874. By his wife, Lucy Allen, he had two sons and two daughters.
[Redgrave's Dict. of Artists; Ottley's Dict. of Painters and Engravers; Graves's Dict. of Artists, 1760–1893; Art Journal, 1860; Roget's Hist. of the ‘Old Watercolour’ Society.]
F. M. O'D.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Stenhouse, John

​STENHOUSE, JOHN (1809–1880), chemist, was the eldest son of William Stenhouse, calico-printer, Barrhead, Glasgow, and Elizabeth Currie. He was born at Glasgow on 21 Oct. 1809, and was educated at Glasgow grammar school and university, where he devoted himself to chemistry under Dr. Thomas Thomson [q. v.] He continued his studies at Anderson's College under Professor Graham, and at Giessen from 1837 to 1839 under Liebig with Mr. Lyon (now Lord) Playfair and Robert Angus Smith [q. v.] In 1839 he returned to Glasgow, where, by the failure of the Commercial Exchange, he lost the fortune left him by his father. In 1850 Aberdeen University made him LL.D. In 1851 he went to London as lecturer on chemistry at St. Bartholomew's, but resigned his post in 1857, owing to an attack of paralysis. He then proceeded to Nice, where he resided with his mother till her death in 1860. Returning to London, he fitted up a laboratory and started scientific investigation with great energy. In 1865 he succeeded Dr. A. W. Hofmann as non-resident assayer to the royal mint. That post he held till 1870, when it was abolished by the chancellor of the exchequer, Robert Lowe (afterwards Viscount Sherbrooke) [q. v.] In November 1871 a royal medal was awarded him by the Royal Society for his chemical researches. He was one of the founders of the Chemical Society in 1841, was elected fellow of the Royal Society in 1848, and became a fellow of the Institute of Chemistry in 1877. During the last four years of his life Stenhouse suffered acutely from rheumatism in the eyelids, which compelled him to live in a darkened room. He died on 31 Dec. 1880, and was buried in the High church new cemetery, Glasgow.
Stenhouse, either alone or in conjunction with Mr. C. E. Groves, wrote more than a hundred papers on chemical subjects for the Royal Society, the Chemical Society, ‘Philosophical Magazine,’ and Liebig's ‘Annalen’ (cf. Royal Society's Catalogue of Scientific Papers). Organic chemistry and the lichens occupied a large share of his attention. He was the discoverer of betorcinol, a homologue of orcinol. He was the author of many ingenious and useful inventions in dyeing (patents 13 Oct. 1855 and 12 June 1856), waterproofing (patents 8 Jan. 1861 and 21 Jan. 1862), sugar manufacture, and tanning; but he will always be known for his application of the absorbent properties of wood charcoal to disinfecting and deodorising purposes in the form of charcoal air-filters and charcoal respirators, which have proved of great value (patents 19 July 1860 and 21 May 1867). Among other patents which he took out was one for the manufacture of glue (7 May 1857) and another for the manufacture or preparation of materials for sizing or dressing yarns and textile fabrics (29 April 1868).
[Chemical Society's Journal, 1881, pp. 185–188; Proceedings of the Royal Society of London, vol. xxxi. pp. xix–xxi; Index to Specifications for Patents, 1854–80.]
G. S-h.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Stenhouse, William

​STENHOUSE, WILLIAM (1773?–1827), Scottish antiquary, was a native of Roxburghshire, and was born about 1773 (Laing). He became an accountant in Edinburgh. He published ‘Tables of Simple Interest and of Commission Brokerage or Exchange’ (Edinburgh, 1806). He died in Edinburgh on 10 Nov. 1827, and was buried in St. Cuthbert's churchyard.
Stenhouse was an antiquary with strong musical leanings. He is best known by his ​notes in the 1839 (Edinburgh) reprint of Johnson's ‘Musical Museum,’ which he edited. These notes, valuable yet inaccurate in many particulars, have been extensively quoted by biographers of the poet Burns and by editors of Scottish songs. They were reprinted, with additions, in David Laing's edition of the ‘Museum’ (Edinburgh, 1853).
J. C. H.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Knell, Paul

​KNELL, PAUL (1615?–1664), divine, graduated B.A. from Clare Hall, Cambridge, in 1635, and was incorporated D.D. at Oxford on 31 Jan. 1643. He was for some time ‘chaplain to a regiment of curiassiers in his majesty's army,’ a fact which he is careful to mention on the title of each of his sermons. He appears subsequently to have lived at Woodford in Essex, where in 1650 he joined other clergymen and gentry in a petition, ‘addressed to the charity of all good Christians,’ in behalf of ‘the King's servants to the number of forty, being in present distress by reason that their sole dependence was upon the late King's Majesty’ (Lysons, iv. 285). He became vicar of Newchurch, Romsey Marsh, in 1660, rector there in 1662, and vicar of St. Dunstan's, near Canterbury, in 1664. He died at St. Dunstan's, and was buried in the church 24 Aug. 1664 (Hasted, Kent, iii. 468, 594).
Knell published: 1. ‘Israel and England Paralelled (sic) in a Sermon preached before the Honourable Society of Grayes Inn, 16 April 1648. Addressed to all those who are friends to Peace and King Charles.’ 2. ‘The Life Guard of a Loyal Christian. Preached at St. Peter's, Cornhill, 7 May 1648,’ and preceded by a prayer for the king. 3. ‘A Looking-glasse for Levellers, held out in a Sermon preached at St. Peter's, Paul's Wharf, 24 Sept. 1648.’ A savage attack upon the army and the independents, anathematising in particular the conduct of Fairfax and his ‘bloodhounds’ at Colchester; this passed through several editions. These three sermons with two others were published collectively in 1660, and again in 1661, under the title ‘Five Seasonable Sermons, preached before the King's Majesty beyond the Seas, and other eminent Auditories in England, formerly prohibited, but now published and dedicated to his Majesty.’
[Wood's Fasti, ed. Bliss, ii. 58; Foster's Alumni Oxon. 1500–1714; Brit. Mus. Cat.]
T. S.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Knevet, Ralph

​KNEVET, RALPH (1600–1671), poet, was a native of Norfolk, and seems to have been closely associated as tutor or chaplain with the family of Sir William Paston of Oxnead. He is probably identical with the Ralph Knevet who was rector of Lyng, Norfolk, from 1652 till his death in 1671, at the age of seventy-one. He was buried in the chancel of his church (Blomefield, Norfolk, viii. 251–2).
Knevet published: 1. ‘Stratisticon, or a Discourse of Militarie Discipline,’ 1628, 4to, in verse. 2. ‘Rhodon and Iris, a Pastoral, as it was presented at the Florists' Feast in Norwich, May 3, 1631,’ London, 1631, 4to, dedicated to Nicholas Bacon, esq., of Gillingham, with an address to ‘the Society of Florists,’ and verses by Ri. Pert, Will. Dennye, and John Mingay. The scene is laid in Thessaly, and the metre is very irregular (Brit. Mus.). 3. ‘Funerall Elegies, consecrated to the Immortal Memory of the Right Hon. Lady Katherine Paston, late Wife to the truly Noble and Heroicke William Paston of Oxned, esquire,’ London, 1637, 4to, dedicated to Lady Katherine's sister, Lady Elizabeth Bertie, daughter of Robert, earl of Lindsey. The book is very rare. A copy is in the Grenville Library at the British Museum.
Among unpublished papers, now in the British Museum, of Sir William Paston and other members of the family, is a collection of sacred poems by Knevet, entitled ‘A Gallery to the Temple. Lyricall Poemes upon sacred occasions, by Ra. Kneuett’ (Addit. MS. 27447, ff. 11–67). The verse is imitated from George Herbert, and the collection is intended to form a supplement to Herbert's ‘Temple.’ Some of the poems are worth printing.
[Knevet's Works; W. C. Hazlitt's Bibliographical Handbook.]
S. L.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Knell, William Adolphus

​KNELL, WILLIAM ADOLPHUS (d. 1875), marine-painter, first exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1826, sending a view at Eastbourne. He was a clever painter of shipping and the sea, and a frequent contributor to the Royal Academy and the British Institution, sending to the former in 1835 ‘Folkestone from the Dover Road,’ in 1846 ‘Vessels off the Flemish Coast,’ in 1852 ‘The Action in which Van Tromp was killed,’ and in 1866 (the last year in which he exhibited) ‘Outward-bound Vessel entering Funchal, Madeira.’ Knell painted a picture of ‘The Landing of Prince Albert,’ which was purchased for the royal collection, and was engraved by Miller for the ‘Art Journal’ in 1857. He died on 10 July 1875, and was buried in the Abney Park cemetery, Stoke Newington.
[Redgrave's Dict. of Artists.]
L. C.