OpenLLM-France/wikimedia huggingface dataset:
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Sinclair, William (1804-1878)

​SINCLAIR, WILLIAM (1804–1878), rector of Pulborough, Sussex, the fifth son of Sir John Sinclair [q. v.], of Ulbster, Caithness, by his second wife, Diana Macdonald, only daughter of Alexander, lord Macdonald of the Isles, was born on 4 Sept. 1804. He was a brother of Catherine Sinclair [q. v.], authoress, of Sir George Sinclair [q. v.], and of Archdeacon John Sinclair (1797–1875) [q. v.] On leaving Winchester school he obtained, at the age of sixteen, a commission in the Madras cavalry, and distinguished himself by leading a forlorn hope at the siege of Kittoor. Returning to England, he matriculated from St. Mary's Hall, Oxford, on 29 Feb. 1832, and graduated B.A. in 1835 ​and M.A. in 1837. At Oxford he became president of the union when it numbered among its members Archibald Tait, Roundell Palmer, Edward Cardwell, and Robert Low. Thomas Jackson, in his preface to the Oxford squib, ‘Uniomachia, a Greek-Latin Macaronic Poem’ (5th edition 1877), states that while engaged on it he had a visit from Sinclair, his college friend, who, he says, ‘entered heartily into the scheme, and composed many of the best lines and notes.’ In 1837 Sinclair took holy orders, and accepted the parish of St. George's, Leeds, where, as a liberal evangelical, he laboured for twenty years with such ardour as seriously to undermine his constitution. From considerations of health he was then induced to accept the rectory of Pulborough, Sussex, where he rebuilt the church and rectory, and started schools and chapels in different parts of the parish. In 1874 he was appointed to a prebendal stall in Chichester Cathedral. He died on 8 July 1878. By his wife Helen, daughter of William Ellice, and niece of the Right Hon. Edward Ellice [q. v.] of Invergarry, Inverness-shire, he was father of (among other sons) Dr. W. M. Sinclair, archdeacon of London. Sinclair was author of: # ‘The Dying Soldier: a Tale founded on Facts,’ 1838.
* ‘Manual of Family and Occasional Prayers,’ 1854.
* ‘The Sepoy Mutinies: their Origin and Cure,’ 1857. He also edited the ‘Charges’ of his brother the archdeacon, 1876.
[Foster's Baronetage; Oxford Graduates; Men of the Time; Times, 9 July 1878.]
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Sinclair, John (d.1566)

​SINCLAIR, JOHN (d. 1566), bishop of Brechin, was the fourth son of Sir Oliver Sinclair of Roslin, and a younger brother of Oliver Sinclair [q. v.], who commanded at Solway, and of Henry Sinclair [q. v.], bishop of Ross. While rector of Shaw he was, on 27 April 1540, admitted an ordinary lord of session. He was afterwards dean of Restalrig, and under this title sat in the provincial council of Edinburgh. By Knox he is referred to in 1565 as one of Queen Mary's ‘flattering counsellors’ and a maintainer of her ‘abominations’ (i.e. the mass, &c.), and he is described ‘as blind of one eye in the body, but of both in his soul’ (Works, i. 235). Knox further explains that in 1558 Sinclair began to preach in ‘his kirk of Restalrig,’ and at the beginning ‘held himself so indifferent’ that many ‘had opinion of him that he was not far from the Kingdom of God’ (ib. 266); but that when the friars and others began to whisper against him, he ‘gainsaid the doctrine of Justification and of prayer which before he had taught,’ and ‘set up and maintained the Papistrie to the uttermost prick’ (ib.) His zeal for the old doctrines is supposed to have been further shown by the fact that when Adam Wallace, the protestant martyr, lay in irons waiting his execution, he visited him in prison and ‘reasoned with him after his wit’ (Foxe, Book of Martyrs); but it is not impossible that in doing so he was mainly influenced by a laudable desire to save Wallace's life. Knox includes him among those who instigated the French court to send an army against the protestants in 1560 (Works, ii. 131). He probably accompanied his brother, Henry Sinclair, bishop of Ross, to France in 1564, and returned again to Scotland. On 18 Sept. Queen Mary applied to Elizabeth for a pass for his return to France (Labanoff, Lettres, i. 227), and he is stated to have brought back with him to Scotland the materials which his brother had prepared for the continuation of Boece's ‘History of Scotland.’ The dean married Mary and Darnley in the chapel of Holyrood, 29 July 1565 (Diurnal of Occurrents, p. 80). Shortly afterwards he was promoted to the see of Brechin, but he died of fever in 1566. It is a matter of doubt as to whether he or his brother Henry is the author of Sinclair's ‘Practicks,’ a legal work in manuscript, preserved in the Advocates' Library, Edinburgh. Dempster credits him with ‘Additiones ad Apparatum Historiæ Scoticæ Henrici fratris.’
T. F. H.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Stokes, Peter

​STOKES, PETER (d. 1399), Carmelite, became a Carmelite friar at Hitchin, Hertfordshire, and, afterwards proceeding to Oxford, graduated there as doctor of divinity before 1382. During the religious troubles of that year Stokes acted as the representative of Archbishop Courtenay in the university. During Lent he had made an ineffectual complaint against Nicholas Hereford [see Nicholas], and in May he had a statement of Hereford's heresies drawn up by notaries (Fasciculi Zizaniorum, pp. 296, 305). On 28 May the archbishop sent him a list of twenty-four heresies extracted from Wiclif's writings, and directed him to publish it in the university. Robert Rygge [q. v.], the chancellor, opposed Stokes in the matter, and on 5 June, when Philip Repington [q. v.] preached at St. Frideswide's, Stokes was prevented from publication by fear of violence. On 10 June Stokes determined against Repington, but on the following day left Oxford at the summons of the archbishop. He had already reported what had happened in a letter to Courtenay on 6 June, and was now present in the council on 12 June, when Rygge was condemned. The royal letter of 13 July specially forbade Rygge to molest Stokes further. Stokes, however, appears to have withdrawn from Oxford to Hitchin, where he died on 18 July 1399. A contemporary rhymester describes Stokes as
Rufus naturaliter et veste dealbatus, Omnibus impatiens et nimis elatus.
(Pol. Songs, i. 267, Rolls Ser.). Stokes is credited with various quæstiones, conclusiones, and lecturæ. He also wrote a work in defence of William Ockham [q. v.], which Leland says was extant in his days, and ‘Præconia Sacræ Scripturæ,’ which the same writer describes as ‘opus non contemnendum.’ But the only one of Stokes's writings which seems to have survived is his letter to Archbishop Courtenay on 6 June 1382; it is printed in ‘Fasciculi Zizaniorum,’ pp. 300–1.
[Fasciculi Zizaniorum; Tanner's Bibl. Brit.-Hib. p. 674; Villiers de St.-Étienne's Bibl. Carmelitana, ii. 601–2; Wood's Hist. and Antiq. of Univ. Oxon. i. 502–5, 508, 510.]
C. L. K.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Stoddart, Thomas Tod

​STODDART, THOMAS TOD (1810–1880), angler and poet, was born on 14 Feb. 1810 in Argyle Square, Edinburgh. He was the eldest son of Captain (afterwards Admiral) Pringle Stoddart, a descendant of the Stouthearts of Liddesdale and Ettrick, and his wife Frances, daughter of James Sprot. At the age of ten he was sent to a Moravian school in Lancashire, but soon returned to attend the high school and the university of his native city. One of his professors was John Wilson, the celebrated ‘Christopher North,’ in whose house young Stoddart met De Quincey, Hartley Coleridge, the Ettrick Shepherd, Aytoun, Ferrier, Henry Glassford Bell, and others. He early began to evince a passion for angling, which afterwards became the chief business of his life. He was a very expert angler, having much delicacy of wrist, and a great knowledge of the haunts and habits of fish, besides being an adept at fly-making. In 1833 he was admitted a member of the faculty of advocates, but never practised. He busied himself with the preparation of papers on the ‘Art of Angling,’ which appeared in ‘Chambers's Journal,’ and were published in 1835 in book form—the first treatise of its kind that appeared in Scotland. In 1836 he married and settled in Kelso, where he found the surroundings so congenial for the practice of his art in the rivers Tweed and Teviot that it became his home for life. In 1847 he published ‘The Angler's Companion to the Rivers and Lakes of Scotland’ (3rd edit. 1892), which still remains an angling classic in Scotland, being distinguished from others by its Waltonian note of appreciation of natural scenery and literary excellence. His later life was devoted to fishing in his home streams, and in the Yarrow and other western rivers. He was much interested in the acts against the pollution of rivers, and several times gave evidence before the Tweed commissioners and parliamentary committees on these and kindred subjects. He died on 21 Nov. 1880, and was buried in Kelso cemetery. By his wife Bessie Macgregor, daughter of a farmer ​at Contin in Ross-shire, whom he met while on a fishing tour, he had two sons and a daughter Anna. Miss Stoddart became the biographer of her father and also of Professor Blackie. An engraved portrait by Charles Laurie is prefixed to ‘Angling Songs’ (1889) and a photograph to ‘Songs of the Seasons’ (1881).
Besides the works mentioned Stoddart was the author of: 1. ‘The Death-wake, or Lunacy: a Necromaunt in three chimeras,’ 1831, which was surreptitiously published in America in 1842 in ‘Graham's Magazine’ as ‘Agatha, a Necromaunt in three chimeras, by Louis Fitzgerald Tasistro’ (new edit. 1895). 2. ‘Angling Reminiscences,’ 1837. 3. ‘Angling Songs,’ 1839 and 1889. 4. ‘Abel Massinger, or the Aëronaut,’ 1846, a romance in prose. 5. ‘An Angler's Rambles, and Angling Songs,’ 1866. 6. ‘Songs of the Seasons,’ 1873; new edit. with autobiographical memoir, Kelso, 1881. He was also a contributor to ‘Bell's Life,’ ‘The Field,’ and the ‘Sporting Gazette.’
W. W. T.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Stokes, John Lort

​STOKES, JOHN LORT (1812–1885), admiral, born in 1812, was second son of Henry Stokes of Scotchwell. He entered the navy on 2 Feb. 1826 on board the Beagle, then fitting out under the command of his namesake, Commander Pringle Stokes, for the survey of the southern parts of America, in company with the Adventure, commanded by Captain Philip Parker King [q. v.] On the death of the commander in November 1828, Robert Fitzroy [q. v.] was promoted to the vacancy, and with him young Stokes continued till the return of the Beagle to England in 1830, and again, on the renewed commission of the Beagle, from 1831 to 1836, during which period Charles Darwin was naturalist on board the vessel. On 10 Jan. 1837 he was promoted to the rank of lieutenant, and when in February the Beagle was recommissioned by her former first lieutenant, Commander John Clements Wickham, for the survey of Australia, Stokes was again appointed to her. In March 1841 Wickham was obliged to invalid, and Stokes succeeded to the command, being confirmed in the rank on 16 Aug. following. For the next two years he was principally engaged in the survey of Timor and of New Zealand, and in September 1843 he arrived in England after a service in the Beagle of nearly eighteen years. During the years ​immediately following he wrote ‘Discoveries in Australia, with an Account of the Coasts and Rivers explored and surveyed during the Voyage of the Beagle, 1837–1843’ (2 vols. 8vo, 1846). On 4 July 1846 he was advanced to post rank, and on 14 Oct. 1847 he was appointed to the Acheron, steam vessel, employed for the next four years on the survey of New Zealand. In the end of 1851 the Acheron was paid off at Sydney, and for a few years Stokes was on half-pay. From 1860 to 1863 he was employed in surveying the coasts of the Channel. He became a rear-admiral on 9 Feb. 1864, vice-admiral on 14 July 1871, admiral on 1 Aug. 1877, and died on 11 June 1885. He was twice married and left issue.
[O'Byrne's Nav. Biogr. Dict.; Times, 13 June 1885; Proceedings of the Royal Geographical Society, new ser. vol. vii.; Fitzroy's Adventure and Beagle; Navy Lists; Pasco's A Roving Commission, 1897, p. 102, with a portrait at p. 124.]
J. K. L.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Stogdon, Hubert

​STOGDON, HUBERT (1692–1728), nonconformist divine, born at Bodicote, near Banbury in Oxfordshire, on 9 Jan. 1691–2, was eldest son of Robert Stogdon, presbyterian minister, by his wife, Elizabeth, daughter of Francis Hubert or Hubbard, nonconformist minister, who was disinherited by his father for his religious opinions. On the death of his father in 1697, Hubert went to reside with relatives in the neighbourhood of Exeter. He was first educated by the presbyterian minister at Withycombe Raleigh, and afterwards at the free school at Exeter. He entered the presbyterian ministry in 1715, and for a short time was chaplain to Sir John Davy, bart., at Creedy Park, near Crediton, and afterwards preached for two years at Thorverton, a village near Exeter. About this time, under the influence of Nicholas Billingsley [q. v.], he embraced semi-Arian views; and, as this occasioned some differences with his friends at Exeter, he accepted the pastorate of Wookey, near Wells, and was ordained at Shepton Mallett in August 1718. He remained in the neighbourhood preaching at Wookey and Coleford for seven years, and in 1721 married a gentlewoman of the neighbourhood. Towards the close of the period he became convinced of the expediency of baptism by immersion, and was rebaptised at Barbican in London. In spite of this, however, in 1724 he was called to Trowbridge in Wiltshire by a congregation of pædobaptists, and remained there until his death on 20 Jan. 1727–8. He was buried in the parish church. His wife survived him.
Stogdon was the author of: 1. ‘A Defence of the Caveat against the New Sect of Anabaptists,’ Exeter, 1714, 8vo. 2. ‘Seasonable Advice respecting the Present Disputes about the Holy Trinity,’ London, 1719, 8vo. 3. ‘Poems and Letters,’ ed. N. Billingsley, London, 1729, 8vo.
E. I. C.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Stokes, David

​STOKES, DAVID (1591?–1669), divine, born in 1590 or 1591, was educated at Westminster school, and was elected a queen's scholar, proceeding to Trinity College, Cambridge, in 1610, and graduating B.A. in 1614–15. After becoming a fellow of Peterhouse, he proceeded M.A. in 1618, and in 1624 became a fellow of Eton College. In 1625 he was appointed rector of Brinklow in Warwickshire; he was made canon of Windsor in 1628, precentor of Chichester in 1628, and in 1630 he took the degree of D.D. at Cambridge. He became rector of Binfield in Berkshire in 1631, of Everton in Northamptonshire in 1638, and vicar of Erchfont in Wiltshire in 1644. On the outbreak of the civil war he was, as a royalist, despoiled of all his preferments, and compelled to seek refuge in Oxford, where, in 1645, he was admitted ad eundem. On the Restoration he was reinstated in his livings, and died on 10 May 1669, shortly after resigning his canonry at Windsor. He was buried behind the altar in St. George's Chapel, Windsor. His will is in the Prerogative Office of Canterbury.
He was the author of: 1. ‘An Explication of the Twelve Minor Prophets,’ to which was prefixed a laudatory preface by John Pearson [q. v.], bishop of Chester, London, 1659, 8vo. 2. ‘Verus Christianus, or Directions for Private Devotions,’ Oxford, 1668, folio. 3. ‘Truth's Champion,’ 8vo, not known to be extant; besides two sermons.
E. I. C.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Sheehy, Nicholas

​SHEEHY, NICHOLAS (1728–1766), Irish priest, born at Fethard, Tipperary, in 1728, was educated in France. On his return to Tipperary he became parish priest of Clogheen. There he acted as a staunch adherent of the party hostile to English rule. He openly condemned the collection of church rates, and was especially zealous in the defence of prisoners charged with political offences. His parish was a centre of the Whiteboy organisation, and there can be no doubt that he had a full knowledge of their schemes, and lent his assistance to many of their undertakings. More than once he was unsuccessfully prosecuted under the Registration Act. In 1764, however, matters came to a crisis. An informer named Bridge disappeared in a manner which left little doubt that he had been murdered. Soon after some troopers conveying a prisoner to Clonmel gaol were attacked near Sheehy's house. He was charged with high treason, but he escaped those sent to arrest him, and a reward of 300l. was offered for his capture. He agreed to surrender, provided he might be tried in Dublin and not in Clonmel. The condition was accepted, and at his trial in 1765 the evidence broke down; he proved an alibi, and was acquitted. He was, however, immediately rearrested and, with his cousin Edmund, charged with complicity in Bridge's murder. In violation of the spirit of the government pledges, he was sent to Clonmel to be tried. There, in spite of the fact that the informer's body had never been discovered, he and his brother were found guilty, and were executed on 15 March 1766. There were serious flaws in the evidence against Sheehy, though a general complicity in Whiteboy proceedings was proved. In a letter to Major Joseph Sirr [see under Sirr, Henry Charles], who had befriended him, Sheehy admitted his knowledge of Bridge's murder, but asserted his innocence of the crime.
E. I. C.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Sheffield, George

​SHEFFIELD, GEORGE (1839–1892), artist, son of a draper at Wigton in Cumberland, was born there on 1 Jan. 1839. ​His uncle, George Sheffield, had been student at the Royal Academy, and had considerable local reputation as a portrait-painter. From him and from Henry Hoodless, also a Wigton resident, Sheffield obtained help in his youthful studies. While still very young he removed with his father to Warrington, where he received his first art teaching in company with Mr. Luke Fildes, R.A., in the art school of that town. At first he adopted the sea as a profession, but after a few years' experience of this life he settled at Manchester, studying in the school of art and becoming a pattern-designer. He soon turned his attention to landscape-painting, and from that time practised every variety of that art, painting with great facility, truth, and beauty, seascapes, coast scenes, and landscapes. He worked in both oil and watercolour, and produced some fine works in both mediums, but undoubtedly his forte was the use of monochrome. His drawings in sepia and black and white are unrivalled in their variety and delicate beauty of atmospheric effect. He worked with great speed, and produced a vast number of drawings. In 1869 he was elected an associate of the Manchester Academy and a full member in 1871. From 1868 he was a regular exhibitor at all the Manchester and other local exhibitions, and between 1872 and 1890 he showed six pictures at the Royal Academy and eleven at other London exhibitions. Nearly all his best pictures are in the collections of Mr. Robert H. Edmondson and other Lancashire connoisseurs. There are in the Manchester City Art Gallery two works by Sheffield—an oil painting, ‘A Hundred Years Ago,’ and a water-colour, ‘The Trough of the Sea’—but neither shows him at his best. There is an excellent portrait of Sheffield in ‘Momus’ (a Manchester periodical) for 26 Aug. 1880. Sheffield died in Manchester, 2 Oct. 1892. His wife predeceased him; eight children survived him.
[West Cumberland Times; Manchester Evening News, 3 Oct. 1892; Manchester Guardian, 4 Oct. 1892; information from R. H. Edmondson, esq., and personal knowledge.]
A. N.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Sheffield, Edmund (1611?-1658)

​SHEFFIELD, EDMUND, second Earl of Mulgrave (1611?–1658), born about 1611, was the grandson of Edmund Mulgrave, first earl of Mulgrave [q. v.] His father, Sir John Sheffield, who was drowned in 1614, married Grizel, daughter of Sir Edmund Anderson, chief justice of common pleas [q. v.] Mulgrave was appointed by the parliament vice-admiral of Yorkshire, in succession to his grandfather (13 Nov. 1646), and a year later one of the commissioners for the navy and customs (17 Dec. 1647) (Commons' Journals, iv. 721; Lords' Journals, ix. 582). In August 1647 he signed the engagement to stand by Fairfax and the army for the restoration of the freedom of parliament (Rushworth, vii. 755). On 14 Feb. 1649 he was elected a member of the council of state of the Commonwealth, but declined to accept the post from dissatisfaction at the execution of the king and the abolition of the House of Lords (Commons' Journals, vi. 140, 146). When Cromwell became Protector, Mulgrave was less scrupulous, and on 30 June 1654 took his place in Cromwell's council, at which he was for some years a regular attendant (Cal. State Papers, Dom. 1654, p. 230). In December 1657 the Protector summoned him to his new House of Lords, but Mulgrave never took his seat (Godwin, History of the Commonwealth, iv. 470, 475). He died on 23 Aug. 1658 (Mercurius Politicus, 26 Aug.–2 Sept. 1658).
A letter from Mulgrave to Fairfax is printed in the ‘Fairfax Correspondence’ (iii. 139), and two addressed to Thurloe among the ‘Thurloe Papers’ (iv. 523, vi. 716). His suits about the alum works in Yorkshire, and his dispute with his grandfather's widow about the property of the first earl, are frequently mentioned in the ‘Journals’ of the House of Lords (viii. 630, x. 243, 347; cf. Hist. MSS. Comm., 7th Rep., pp. 24, 27, 30, 32).
Mulgrave married Elizabeth, daughter of Lionel Cranfield, first earl of Middlesex [q. v.], and was succeeded by his son John, afterwards first duke of Buckingham and Normanby [q. v.]
C. H. F.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Sheepshanks, John

​SHEEPSHANKS, JOHN (1787–1863), art amateur and public benefactor, was born in 1787 at Leeds, of which city his father, Joseph Sheepshanks, was a wealthy cloth-manufacturer. His mother was Ann Wilson of a Westmoreland family. Richard Sheepshanks [q. v.], the well-known astronomer, was his younger brother. Until middle age he was a partner in his father's firm of York & Sheepshanks.
While engaged in business he developed a taste for picture collecting, at first acquiring copies of the Italian masters, but he soon resolved to form a representative collection of modern pictures by British artists. At the time there were practically only two others collecting on similar lines, John Julius Angerstein [q. v.] and Robert Vernon [q. v.] In 1857 Sheepshanks made over his collection to the nation as a free gift. It consisted of 233 pictures in oil, besides 289 drawings and sketches, many of the latter being developments at various stages up to elaborate completion of the painter's early ideas. Among artists represented are Turner, Stothard, Landseer, Linnell, Mulready, Constable, Leslie, Roberts, Stanfield, Wilkie, Creswick, Bonnington, Crome, and Nasmyth. The deed of gift was framed with a view to rendering the pictures a source of education to the rising generation of artists, and, with this end in view, they were housed in the South Kensington Museum, where they are accessible to students and the public. In a truly altruistic spirit he stated that it was not his desire that his collection should ‘be kept apart or bear his name as such;’ and there is a notable proviso that ‘so soon as arrangements can be properly made,’ the collection shall be open on Sunday afternoons. This provision was first carried out in 1896.
On retiring from business Sheepshanks settled in London, moving to Hastings about 1833, and then to Blackheath, where he devoted himself to horticulture, becoming a fellow of the Royal Horticultural Society. Later he built himself a house in Rutland Gate, in which the last years of his life were spent. He was of a retiring and unostentatious disposition, but his house was the resort of men famous in art and literature. He died unmarried on 5 Oct. 1863. ​His portrait was painted four times: by Jackson, as a young man; by A. Geddes, now at Winsley Hurst, near Ripley, Yorkshire; and twice by W. Mulready, R.A. One of Mulready's portraits is at South Kensington, and the other in the possession of a nephew, the Rev. Thomas Sheepshanks of Harrogate.
G. S. L.