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

​CRABB, JAMES (1774–1851), Wesleyan methodist preacher, was a native of Wilton, Wiltshire, where his father was a cloth manufacturer. He learned the business of his father, for whom he travelled for two years, but afterwards became a teacher of a school at Romsey, Hampshire. Here he married a Miss Radden, whose pious beliefs led him to become a preacher among the Wesleyan methodists, and he ultimately became pastor of a chapel in Southampton, while at the same time retaining his school. At an early period he took an active interest in the welfare of the gipsies in the New Forest, whom he occasionally gathered together and entertained at his house, these ‘gipsy festivals’ being attended by many of the neighbouring gentry. Among various institutions in Southampton which owed their origin to efforts which he initiated were the Hampshire Female Penitentiary, the Kingsland Place Infant Schools, the earliest of the kind in the country, and a Bethel for sailors, with a school for children near the quay. He expounded the needs of the gipsies in a tractate entitled the ‘Gipsies' Advocate,’ and he was also the author of ‘Address to the Irvingites, in which many of their errors are exposed,’ 1838, and ‘Account of the Life and Experience of Captain John Bazin,’ 1838. Crabb is the missionary referred to by Legh Richmond as having brought the ‘Dairyman's daughter to a sense of religion.’ He died 17 Sept. 1851.
[Gent. Mag. 1851, vol. xxxvii. new ser. i. 659–660.]
T. F. H.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Crabb, George

​CRABB, GEORGE (1778–1851), legal and miscellaneous writer, was born 8 Dec. 1778 at Palgrave, Suffolk. He was educated at a school at Diss and under a private tutor. He commenced the study of medicine, but being unable to endure the dissecting-room resigned his medical studies to become assistant to a bookseller. This he also in a short time resigned to study for the ministry at Northampton, but a sudden change in his religious views rendered it necessary for him ​again to make choice of a new profession. In 1797 he came to London, and after his marriage to a Miss Southgate, who subsequently edited ‘Tales for Children from the German,’ became classical master at Thorp Arch School, Yorkshire. In order to acquire a mastery of the German language he went in 1801 to Bremen, where he supported himself at the same time by teaching English. On his return he published a ‘German Grammar for Englishmen,’ ‘Extracts from German Authors,’ and ‘German and English Conversations,’ all of which became very popular as instruction books, and passed through many editions. He also wrote an ‘English Grammar for Germans.’ In 1814 he entered Magdalen Hall, Oxford, as a gentleman commoner, and graduated B.A. in 1821 and M.A. in 1822, with mathematical honours. He was called to the bar at the Inner Temple in 1829, and adopted the practice of conveyancer and chamber counsel, but on account of his retiring manner was not very successful, although his ability as a lawyer is sufficiently shown by his various legal publications. The principal of these are a ‘History of English Law,’ 1829, founded on Reeves's ‘History of English Law;’ ‘Digest and Index of all the Statutes at Large,’ 4 vols., 1841–7; ‘Law of Real Property,’ 2 vols., 1846; ‘Series of Precedents in Conveyancing and Common and Commercial Forms,’ 3rd ed. 1845. He was also the author of various dictionaries which obtained wide popularity, including a ‘Dictionary of English Synonymes,’ ‘Universal Technological Dictionary,’ a ‘Universal Historical Dictionary,’ and a ‘Dictionary of General Knowledge;’ and the ‘New Pantheon or Mythology of all Nations.’ His later years were passed in eccentric seclusion, and he died 4 Dec. 1851.
[Gent. Mag. xxxvii. new ser. (1852), pp. 307–308; Brit. Mus. Cat.]
T. F. H.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Coxon, Thomas

​COXON, THOMAS (1654–1735), jesuit, was a native of the county of Durham. He entered the Society of Jesus in 1676, and became a professed father in 1694 (Foley, Records, v. 532, vii. 179). For many years (1695–1724) he was a missioner in England, and he died at the college of St. Omer on 6 May 1735. He prepared the splendid edition of Ribadeneira's ‘Lives of the Saints,’ London, 1730, fol., translated by the Hon. William Petre, whose version was first issued from the press of St. Omer's College in 1699 (Oliver, Jesuit Collections, 77; Lowndes, Bibl. Man. ed. Bohn, 2081).
[Authorities cited above.]
T. C.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Gage, George

​GAGE, GEORGE (fl. 1614–1640), catholic political agent, born after 1582, seems to have been son of John Gage of Haling, Surrey, and brother of Sir Henry Gage [q. v.], to whom he erected a monument (Collins, Peerage, ed. Brydges, viii. 256–7; Cal. Clarendon Papers, i. 166, 169). He was a great friend of Sir Toby Matthew, and seems to have received priest's orders with him from the hands of Cardinal Bellarmine at Rome on 20 May 1614 (Oliver, Jesuit Collections, p. 140). James I despatched him to Rome towards the close of 1621, in quality of agent to the papal court, to solicit a dispensation for the marriage of the Prince of Wales with the Spanish infanta. The jesuits strove to retard the dispensation, and if possible to prevent the completion of the match. The negotiations lasted for nearly six years, and ultimately came to nothing. A detailed account of Gage's part in them is given in ‘The Narrative of the Spanish Marriage Treaty’ (Camd. Soc. 1869); Tierney's edition of Dodd's ‘Church History,’ v. 119–64; and in Mr. S. R. Gardiner's ‘History of England, 1603–42.’ Gage is described in 1627 as ‘a prisoner in the Clink,’ being the agent of the Bishop of Chalcedon and of the seminary of Douay (Discovery of the Jesuits' College at Clerkenwell, Camd. Soc. Miscellany, ii.). He is referred to in the list of priests and recusants apprehended and indicted by Wadsworth and his fellow-pursuivants between 1640 and 1651. It is there stated that he was found guilty ‘and since is dead,’ from which it may be inferred that he died in prison (Lingard, Hist. of England, ed. 1849, viii. 646).
T. C.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Gabriel, Mary Ann Virginia

​GABRIEL, afterwards March, MARY ANN VIRGINIA (1825–1877), musical composer, the daughter of Major-general Gabriel, was born at Banstead, Surrey, 7 Feb. 1825. She was the pupil of Pixis, Döhler, and Thalberg, for the pianoforte, and of Molique and Mercadante for composition. Miss Gabriel married George E. March in November 1874, and died, from injuries received in a carriage accident, on 7 Aug. 1877. She had acquired great facility in composition, and published several hundred songs. Those entitled ‘When Sparrows build,’ ‘Ruby,’ ‘Sacred Vows,’ ‘Only,’ ‘The Forsaken,’ ‘Under the Palms,’ and ‘The Skipper and his Boy,’ became extremely popular. These drawing-room ballads may be said to stand midway between the bald jingle favoured by Miss Gabriel's early contemporaries and the attempted intensity of expression belonging to a later date; a music which, in spite of the composer's gifts of knowledge and imagination, does not attain to high artistic merit. Her operetta ‘Widows Bewitched’ was performed by the Bijou Operetta Company at St. George's Hall, 13 Nov. 1867, and held the stage for several weeks. Other similar works, ‘Shepherd of Cournouailles,’ ‘Who's the Heir?’ ‘Lost and Found,’ ‘A Rainy Day,’ about 1873 and 1875, were favourites in the drawing-room. The cantata ‘Dreamland,’ privately printed, was given in London about 1870; ‘Evangeline,’ produced at Kuhe's Brighton festival, 13 Feb. 1873, was very successful, and was heard at Rivière's Covent Garden Concerts of 24 Nov. and 1 Dec. Another cantata, ‘Graziella,’ closes the list of Miss Gabriel's longer compositions.
L. M. M.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Gadsby, William

​GADSBY, WILLIAM (1773–1844), particular baptist minister, the son of a labourer, was born at Attleborough in the parish of Nuneaton, Warwickshire, in January 1773. He went to Nuneaton Church school and to another school, and at thirteen was apprenticed to a ribbon weaver. As a lad he had the gift of public speaking, and often harangued his fellow workmen, ending with ‘preaching to them hell and damnation.’ In 1793 he met with a baptist minister named Aston from Coventry, and on 29 Dec. that year was formally baptised at the Cow Lane chapel, Coventry. Until he was twenty-two he worked as a ribbon weaver, and then went to Hinckley, Leicestershire, as a stocking weaver. In 1796 he married Elizabeth Marvin, and began business on his own account. Two years afterwards he commenced preaching regularly at Bedworth and Hinckley, but he continued his business, and used to carry his wares to market in a pack. At this time he was referred to as ‘a very tried man, bearing very blessed marks and evidences of divine teaching within, though clownish and illiterate, almost to the extreme.’ He settled at Manchester in 1805 as the pastor of the Back Lane baptist chapel, situate in George's, now Rochdale, Road, where he remained till his death. At first he met with considerable opposition, but gradually his sterling qualities were appreciated, and he attained great popularity. He had ready wit and quaint humour, and was an earnest and persuasive speaker, though he would often startle his hearers with some eccentric remark. ‘He was called an antinomian, and probably he did not speak with sufficient discrimination or exactness on the nature of moral obligation, but no minister in Manchester lived a more moral life, or presented to his hearers a more beautiful example of christian discipline or self-control’ (Halley). It is calculated that in the exercise of his ministry he travelled sixty thousand miles, and preached nearly twelve thousand sermons.
Between 1806 and 1843 he wrote frequently on religious subjects, and published a number of pamphlets, most of which were afterwards issued in a collective form in two vols. (1851) by his son, John Gadsby, who also in 1884 edited and published a volume of Gadsby's ‘Sermons, Fragments of Sermons, and Letters.’ Gadsby wrote many prosaic hymns and other verses, and published them in ‘A Selection of Hymns,’ 1814, in ‘The Nazarene's Songs,’ 1814, and elsewhere. He died at Manchester on 27 Jan. 1844, and was buried in the Rusholme Road cemetery. There is a tablet to his memory in his chapel, and a good portrait of him was engraved by W. Barnard after F. Turner.
C. W. S.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Gace, William

​GACE, WILLIAM (fl. 1580), translator, matriculated as a sizar of Clare Hall, Cambridge, in November 1568, and proceeded B.A. in 1572–3. He was author of the following translations: 1. ‘A Learned and Fruitefull Commentarie upon the Epistle of James the Apostle. … Written in Latine by the learned Clerke, Nich. Hemminge … and newly translated into English by W. G.,’ 4to, London, 1577. 2. ‘Special and Chosen Sermons of D. Martin Luther collected out of his Writings. … Englished by W. G.,’ 4to, London, 1578; another edition, 8vo, London, 1581. 3. ‘A Guide unto godliness, moste worthy to bee followed of all true Christians. … Written in Latin by John Rivius; Englished by W. G.,’ 8vo, London, ​1579. 4. ‘A right comfortable Treatise conteining sundrye pointes of consolation for them that labour & are laden. Written by D. Martin Luther to Prince Friderik, Duke of Saxonie; being sore sicke. … Englished by W. Gace,’ 8vo, London, 1580.
G. G.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Gage, Francis

​GAGE, FRANCIS, D.D. (1621–1682), president of Douay College, born 1 Feb. 1620–1, was son of John Gage of Haling, Surrey, by his second wife, Mrs. Barnes, a widow. He was half-brother of Sir Henry Gage [q. v.], governor of Oxford, of George [q. v.] and Thomas Gage [q. v.], missionary and traveller. He was a student in the English College at Douay from 1630 to 1641, when he went to Paris to pursue his theological studies under William Clifford [q. v.] at Tournay College, which had been granted by Cardinal Richelieu to the Bishop of Chalcedon for the education of the English clergy (Pref. to Clifford, Little Manual, ed. 1705). In 1646 he was ordained priest, and in 1648 appointed tutor to Thomas Arundel, then residing in Paris. He graduated B.D. at the Sorbonne in 1649, and D.D. in 1654. He then came to the English mission, was appointed archdeacon of Essex, and resided with Lady Herbert, whom he afterwards accompanied to France, whence he proceeded to Rome in 1659 as agent to the English chapter (Panzani, Memoirs, pp. 298, 301, 302). He remained in Rome until his recall in 1661, and then returned to the English mission. He was chaplain to Lady Strangford from 1663 to 1667, and afterwards tutor to Philip Draycot of Paynsley, Staffordshire, whom he accompanied on a continental tour. On 23 Jan. 1675–6 he was nominated president of Douay College, in succession to Dr. George Leyburn. The college flourished greatly under his management until 1678, when Oates's plot alarmed the English catholics, and made them very cautious in sending their children to the colleges abroad. But after the storm had subsided the number of students increased, being attracted to Douay by the fame of Gage's abilities. He died on 2 June 1682. Dodd, writing in 1742, says he was ‘a person of extraordinary qualifications, both natural and acquired. His memory was of late years very fresh in the university of Paris, where upon several occasions he had distinguished himself, especially by his flowing eloquence. In regard of his brethren he behaved himself with remarkable discretion in several controversies which required management’ (Church Hist. iii. 296).
He wrote ‘Journal of the Chief Events of his Life, from his Birth in 1621 to 1627,’ autograph manuscript, in the archives of the Old Chapter, Spanish Place, Manchester Square, London (Hist. MSS. Comm. 5th Rep. p. 463). It is believed he was the ‘F. G.’ who edited ‘The Spiritual Exercises of … Gertrude More, of the … English Congregation of our Ladies of Comfort in Cambray,’ Paris, 1658, 12mo.
T. C.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Gonell, William

​GONELL, WILLIAM (d. 1546?), scholar and correspondent of Erasmus, a native of Landbeach, Cambridgeshire, proceeded B.A. at Cambridge 1484–5, and M.A. 1488, and probably maintained himself by teaching at the university, for Pits speaks of him as a ‘public professor.’ He became an intimate friend of Erasmus, who probably recommended him to Sir Thomas More, in whose household he succeeded Dr. Clement as tutor. He is said to have been attached at one time to Wolsey's household. In 1517 West, bishop of Ely, collated him to the rectory of Conington, Cambridgeshire. Gonell announces the fact in an extant letter to his friend Henry Gold of St. Neots, inquiring if Gold can hire a preacher of simple faith and honesty, and endeavouring to borrow Cicero's ‘Letters’ for More's use (Brewer, Letters and Papers of the Reign of Henry VIII, ii. 2, App. 17). Six short letters from Erasmus to Gonell are extant, which indicate a close intimacy between the two. The earliest was written in 1511, the latest in 1518. Erasmus was in the habit of lending his horse to Gonell. Dr. Knight (Life of Erasmus, pp. 176–8) touches upon the chief points of interest in the letters, and summaries of them will be found in Brewer's ‘Letters and Papers of Henry VIII's Reign.’ According to Tanner, Gonell was the author of ‘Ad Erasmum Roterodamensen Epistolarum Liber,’ which Dodd may allude to when he speaks of Erasmus's ‘letters to him extant’ (Church History, i. 205). Dodd calls him ‘an universal and polite writer.’ There are forty-four lines addressed to him in Leland's ‘Encomia’ (1589, p. 28), entitled ‘Ad Gonellum ut urbem relinquat.’ In Cole MS. ix. 50 the will of Gonell names among the executors ‘my brother Master William Gonell, Pryest,’ this is dated ‘Ult. Jan. 37 H. 8.’ The exact date of his death is not known.
[Brewer's Letters and Papers of the Reign of Henry VIII, ii. 1, 106, 115, 203, ii. 2, 1270, 1528, App. 17; the index to Erasmus's Letters in the Leyden edition of his works, under ‘Gonellus;’ Cooper's Athenæ Cantabr. i. 94, 537, where a list of references is given; Pits, De Rebus Anglicis, App. 1619, p. 854.]
R. B.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Gooch, Benjamin

​GOOCH, BENJAMIN (fl. 1775), surgeon, was probably the son of Benjamin Gooch (d. 1728), rector of Ashwellthorpe, Norfolk, and his wife Anne Phyllis (d. 1701). He practised chiefly at Shottisham in Norfolk. He was appointed surgeon to the infirmary there by the founder, William Fellowes. In 1758 he published ‘Cases and Practical Remarks in Surgery,’ 8vo, London; re-issued as ‘A Practical Treatise on Wounds and other Chirurgical Subjects; to which is prefixed a short Historical Account of … Surgery and Anatomy,’ 2 vols. 8vo, Norwich, 1767. An appendix was called ‘Medical and Chirurgical Observations,’ 8vo, Lond., 1773. A collective edition of his works appeared in 3 vols. 8vo, Lond., 1792. On 9 Oct. 1771 Gooch was chosen consulting surgeon to the Norfolk and Norwich Hospital. At the request of Hayter, bishop of Norwich, he visited before 1759 all the great hospitals in London in order to observe their working, and his reports were of te greated service to the committee of for the Norfolk Hospital. Some surgical cases communicated by him to the Royal Society are in the ‘Philosophical Transactions’ (vols. lix. lxv.).
[Prefaces to works cited above.]
G. G.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Good, Joseph Henry

​GOOD, JOSEPH HENRY (1775–1857), architect, was a son of the rector of Sambrook, Shropshire, where he was born on 18 Nov. 1775. He received his professional training from Sir John Soane, to whom he was articled from 1795 to 1799, and early in his career he gained a number of premiums for designs for public buildings. His most noteworthy works for private clients were Apps' Court Park, Surrey, and the mansion of Horndean, Hampshire, and other buildings, designed for Sir William Knighton. In 1814 he was appointed surveyor to the trustees of the Thavies estate, Holborn, and some years later to the parish of St. Andrew's, Holborn, in which latter capacity he designed and carried out in 1825 the vestry hall, in 1830 the national school, and in 1831 the workhouse, Shoe Lane. He also in 1818 designed ​the interior decoration, &c., of St. Andrew's Church. In 1840 he erected the new hall in Coleman Street for the Armourers' Company, to which in 1819 he had been appointed surveyor. About 1822 he was appointed architect to the Royal Pavilion at Brighton, and from 1830 to 1837 erected several new buildings there, including the north and south lodges and entrances, additional stables,coach-houses, dormitory, &c. From 1826 to the dissolution of the commission he was architect to the commissioners for building new churches, from which he subsequently enjoyed a pension. In 1830 he was appointed, under the office of works and public buildings, clerk of works to the Tower, Royal Mint, Fleet and King's Bench prisons, &c., and on 4 Jan. 1831 succeeded, as clerk of works to Kensington Palace, to the official residence at Palace Green, which, in spite of the abolition of the office, he occupied by permission of the sovereign during the remainder of his life. He died there on 20 Nov. 1857, and was buried in Kensal Green cemetery. One of the original fellows of the Royal Institute of British Architects, he took a lively interest in the study and progress of architecture. Among his many pupils were Robert Wallace, Henry Ashton, and Alfred Bartholomew.
G. W. B.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Gondibour, Thomas

​GONDIBOUR or GOUDIBOUR, THOMAS (fl. 1484), prior of Carlisle—the only episcopal chapter belonging to the order of St. ​Austin in England—was prior (the twenty-eighth) from 1484 to 1507. During that time he made considerable additions to the monastery, erecting the refectory and other monastic buildings, only the foundations of which now remain, and was perhaps the most skilled architect ever in the priory. In the cathedral proofs of his great skill are still to be seen in the screen of St. Catherine's chapel, where his initials are on the scroll work. The screen which separated the choir from the aisles before 1764 was also his work. On an old chest in the vestry is the following Latin verse: ‘En domus hæc floruit Goudibour sub tegmine Thomæ.’ He and Castell, prior of Durham from 1494 to 1519, ‘are thoroughly identified with the use of an elegant and peculiar school of art,’ but it is impossible to say which of them had the priority (meeting of Society of Antiquaries at Newcastle-on-Tyne, 1863; Gent. Mag. 1864, i. 213).
[Dugdale, vi. 141; Burn and Nicolson's Hist. of Westmoreland and Cumberland, ii. 303; R. W. Billing's Hist. of Carlisle Cathedral, pp. 4, 27.]
E. T. B.
# Dainty Davie

* "Dainty Davie", in Select collection No. XXX (n.d.), a chapbook printed in Edinburgh
* "Now Rosy May", in The Highland Plaid (1818), a chapbook printed in Edinburgh
* "Dainty Davie", in Dainty Davie (1823), a chapbook printed in Glasgow
* "Dainty Davie", in The Book of Scottish Song (1843), edited by Alexander Whitelaw
* "Dainty Davie", in The Poetical Works of Robert Burns (1887), edited by Alexander Smith
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Evans, John (d.1832)

​EVANS, JOHN (d. 1832), miscellaneous writer, a native of Bristol, kept a school in that city for several years, first at Lower Park Row, and afterwards (by October 1815) at Kingsdown. During part of the time he officiated as a presbyterian minister at Marshfield in Gloucestershire. He eventually removed to London, where he had a school in Euston Square. There he died in 1832 (Gent. Mag. vol. cii. pt. i. pp. 372–3, 651; prefaces to his works). Besides some schoolbooks Evans wrote: 1. ‘An Oration on the Doctrine of Philosophical Necessity considered in reference to its Tendency,’ 8vo, 1809. 2. ‘The Ponderer, a series of Essays; Biographical, Literary, Moral, and Critical’ (originally published in the ‘British Mercury’), 12mo, London, Bristol (printed), 1812; another edit., ‘Essays,’ 12mo, London, 1819. 3. ‘The Picture of Bristol; … including Biographical Notices of Eminent Natives,’ 12mo, Bristol, 1814; 2nd edit. 12mo, Bristol, 1818. An abridgment, entitled ‘The New Guide, or Picture of Bristol, with Historical and Biographical Notices,’ was published as a ‘third edition,’ 8vo, Bristol (1825?). The historical account of the church of St. Mary Redcliffe appeared in a separate form, 12mo, Bristol, 1815. Evans also edited, with a memoir, the ‘Remains’ of William Reed of Thornbury, 8vo, London, 1815, and compiled the second volume of ‘The History of Bristol,’ 4to, Bristol, 1816, the first volume of which was written by John Corry [q. v.]
Evans is to be distinguished from John Evans (fl. 1812), probably son of Benjamin Evans of Lydney, Gloucestershire, a clergyman of the establishment, who matriculated 4 April 1789, aged 21, at Jesus College, Oxford, and proceeded B.A. 1792 (Foster, Alumni Oxon. ii. 28). He was author of: 1. ‘A Tour through part of North Wales in the year 1798, and at other times; principally undertaken with a view to Botanical Researches in that alpine country; interspersed with Observations on its Scenery, Agriculture, Manufactures, &c.,’ 8vo, London, 1800; 2nd edit. 8vo, London, 1802; 3rd edit. 8vo, London, 1804. 2. ‘Letters written during a Tour through South Wales in the year 1803 and at other times … containing Views of the History, Antiquities, and Customs of that part of the Principality,’ &c., 8vo, London, 1804. 3. ‘Monmouthshire’ in vol. xi. of Brayley and Britton's ‘Beauties of England and Wales,’ 8vo, London, 1810. 4. ‘North Wales,’ 8vo, London, 1812, being vol. xvii. of the same series. At the time of his last publication (April 1812) Evans was residing at Delancy Place, Camden Town, London. He had intended to write the account of South Wales for the ‘Beauties,’ but died shortly after the completion of the first part of his undertaking (Rees, preface to ‘South Wales,’ Beauties of England and Wales, vol. xviii.)
G. G.