OpenLLM-France/wikimedia huggingface dataset:
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Polding, John Bede

​POLDING, JOHN BEDE (1794–1877), first Roman catholic archbishop of Sydney, was born in Liverpool on 18 Nov. 1794. Left an orphan early, he was adopted by his relative, Dr. Brewer, president of the English Benedictines. He was sent at eleven years old to be educated at Acton Burnell, the headquarters of the Benedictines. On 16 July 1810 he joined the Benedictine order, became a priest in March 1819, and was at once appointed tutor at St. Gregory's College, Downside, in Ireland. Many of his pupils were distinguished in later life. In his devotion to the work Polding declined the see of Madras in 1833.
On the decision to erect the vicariate-apostolic of Australia into a bishopric, Polding was selected for the office, and consecrated bishop of Hiero-Cæsarea on 29 June 1834. In September 1835 he arrived in Sydney and devoted himself to the organisation of the new diocese. In 1841 he revisited England, and thence went to Rome, where he was employed on a special mission to Malta, made a count of the holy Roman empire, and a bishop-assistant to the papal throne. He was appointed archbishop of Sydney on 10 April 1842.
Polding's return as an archbishop roused a storm among members of the church of England in Australia, but his calm and ​cconiliatory demeanour gradually disarmed opposition.
In 1846–8, in 1854–6, and again in 1865–1866, Polding visited Europe to further the interests of his see and bring out new helpers. He was constantly traversing the remotest parts of his diocese, which included Tasmania, and won the admiration and devotion of clergy and laity. In 1871 he left for Europe to attend the œcumenical council, but his health broke down at Aden, and he returned to Sydney. He died on 16 March 1877 at the Sacred Heart Presbytery, Darlinghurst, Sydney.
[Melbourne Argus, 17 March 1877; Heaton's Australian Dictionary of Dates.]
C. A. H.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Poingdestre, Jean

​POINGDESTRE, JEAN (1609–1691), writer on the laws and history of Jersey, born in the parish of St. Saviour in the island of Jersey, and baptised on 16 April 1609, was the eldest son of Edward Poingdestre, by his second wife, Pauline Ahier. He was among the first to obtain one of the scholarships founded at Oxford by Charles I on behalf of Jersey students, and in 1636 was elected a fellow of Exeter College, Oxford. He was always considered an accomplished classical scholar, and held the fellowship till 1648, when he was ejected by the parliamentary party. ​Meanwhile he received an appointment under Lord Digby, and on the outbreak of the civil wars returned to Jersey, where he took part, under Sir George de Carteret, in the defence of Elizabeth Castle against the parliamentarians. After the capitulation of this fortress in 1651 he went into voluntary exile until the Restoration. In January 1668–9 the bailiff of Jersey nominated him his lieutenant, and he also became jurat. In 1676, however, he resigned his appointment of lieutenant-bailiff in deference to complaints which were made of the unconstitutional way in which he had been appointed jurat, but he retained this latter post until his death. During the last years of his life he occupied himself chiefly in preparing various works relating to the history and laws of Jersey. He died in 1691.
Poingdestre's history of Jersey (‘Cæsarea, or a Discourse of the Island of Jersey’), written in 1682, and presented by the author to James II, is one of the most accurate works on the island, and forms the basis of all that is trustworthy in Falle's ‘History of Jersey.’ But it is as a commentator on the laws and customs of Jersey that Poingdestre deserves chief commendation; and his works on this subject are superior to those of Philip Le Geyt [q. v.] In so far as they relate to the law on real property his ‘Commentaires sur l'Ancienne Coûtume de Normandie,’ and ‘Commentaires sur la Coûtume Réformée de Normandie,’ are of the highest authority. In 1685 Poingdestre was nominated one of the committee commissioned to draw up an abstract of the charters granted by various monarchs to the inhabitants of Jersey, and this work, known as ‘Les Privilèges de l'Ile,’ is still extant in manuscript.
[Ahier's Tableaux Historiques de la Civilisation à Jersey, p. 342; Le Geyt's Works, Preface and vol. iv. p. 65 also MS.; Falle's Hist. of Jersey (Durell's ed.), p. 279; La Croix's Les Etats, p. 58; Payne's Armorial of Jersey; Commissioners' Report, Jersey, 1860; preface to ‘Cæsarea,’ Société Jersiaise, 1889.]
P. L. M.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Polack, Joel Samuel

​POLACK, JOEL SAMUEL (1807–1882), trader, and author of works on New Zealand, was born in London of Jewish parents on 28 March 1807. In early life he appears to have travelled both in Europe and America, to have done some work as an artist, and to have served under the war office in Africa in the commissariat and ordnance departments. In 1831 he emigrated to New Zealand, and, after living for a year at Hokianga, moved to the Bay of Islands, a settlement still in its infancy. There he opened a ship-chandler's store in connection with a broker's business at Sydney. He paid long visits to Sydney, for four or five months at a time, and travelled much about New Zealand. He learned the Maori language, gained the confidence of the natives, and purchased about eleven hundred acres of land. In May 1837 he returned to London. Next year he was a prominent witness before the select committee of the House of Lords on New Zealand. But his veracity being impugned by a writer in the ‘Times,’ Polack brought an action against the ‘Times,’ and on 2 July 1839 secured a verdict, with 100l. damages.
In 1838 Polack published ‘New Zealand: a Narrative of Travels and Adventures.’ It gained the notice of Robert Montgomery Martin [q. v.], editor of the ‘Colonial Magazine,’ who in 1838 proposed him as a member of the newly formed Colonial Society of London. A second and more ambitious work by Polack, ‘Manners and Customs of the New Zealanders,’ was published in London in 1840 (2 vols.). This book furnishes one of the earliest accounts of the natives of New Zealand, and displays considerable erudition and capacity for observation; the illustrations were drawn by the author.
Polack lived for a time with a sister in Piccadilly, but eventually went to the United States, and settled in San Francisco, where he married the widow of William Hart, who had also been a settler in New Zealand. He died in San Francisco on 17 April 1882.
[Polack's evidence before select committee of House of Lords on New Zealand, 1838; prefaces of Polack's works; Times, 2 July 1839, report of Polack v. Lawson; information obtained through the agent-general for New Zealand.]
C. A. H.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Reynes, John

​REYNES, JOHN (fl. 1530), stationer and bookbinder in London, carried on business at the sign of St. George in St. Paul's Churchyard. His name first appears in the colophon of an edition of Higden's ‘Polycronycon,’ issued in 1527, and he continued to publish books at intervals up to 1544. He is, however, better known as a bookbinder, and numbers of stamped bindings are in existence which bear his device. They have, as a rule, on one side a stamp containing the emblems of the passion, and the inscription ‘Redemptoris mundi arma,’ and on the other a stamp divided into two compartments containing the arms of England and the Tudor rose. His other stamps, about six in number, are of rarer occurrence. John Cawood, the printer, who was master of the Company of Stationers in 1557, was apprenticed to Reynes, and put up a window in his memory in Stationers' Hall.
E. G. D.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Reynold, Thomas

​REYNOLD, THOMAS (fl. 1555). [See under Raynalde, Thomas, fl. 1546.]
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Reynolds, Christopher Augustine

​REYNOLDS, CHRISTOPHER AUGUSTINE (1834–1893), first Roman catholic archbishop of South Australia, was born in Dublin on 25 July 1834. He was sent to study under the Carmelite brothers at Clondalkin, and showed an early bent towards theology. In 1852 he was removed to the Benedictine monastery of Lublace, near Rome, to be trained for the priesthood. For the benefit of his health he emigrated, when his training was over, to Perth, West Australia, going out with Bishop Serra early in 1855. There he entered on a period of probation, especially devoting himself to mission work among the aborigines. On 1 March 1857 he was transferred to South Australia. He completed his probationary studies under the jesuit mission at Sevenhills, and was ordained in April 1860, when he was granted a benefice in the city of Adelaide. Subsequently transferred to Morphett Vale, he conducted from that place the mission at the copper mines of Yorke's peninsula, and built the church at Kadina. Thence he was transferred to less exacting duty at Gawler.
On 2 Nov. 1873 he was consecrated bishop of Adelaide. He faced and overcame difficulties created by dissensions in his diocese, and the debt with which it was burdened. Despite imperfect means of communication, he constantly visited its remoter parts. Hard work broke down a constitution which was not naturally robust, but when on the point of resigning his see he was called by the pope, on 23 April 1887, to fill the archbishopric to which the see was elevated at the time. On 11 Sept. he was invested by Cardinal Moran in the cathedral at Adelaide. He visited Rome in 1890, but otherwise devoted the last six years of his life to his extended duties. He died on 16 June 1893.
A long list of churches and other religious or educational buildings marks the expansion of his diocese in the twenty years during which he governed it.
Reynolds had broad sympathies, but his interest was chiefly given to the practical education of the young and to the advocacy of temperance. He has been called the ‘Father Mathew’ of South Australia. His tolerance was a marked characteristic, but he was strongly opposed to the secular education of the South Australian government schools. He was a good classical scholar and preacher. His genuine kindliness was partly concealed by a certain austerity of manner.
[Adelaide Observer, 17 June 1893; Times, 13 June 1893.]
C. A. H.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Reynolds, George Nugent

​REYNOLDS, GEORGE NUGENT (1770?–1802), Irish poet, son of George Nugent Reynolds, a landowner of Letterfyan, co. Leitrim, was born there about 1770. His father frequently entertained O'Carolan the bard [see O'Carolan or Carolan, Turlough]. The elder Reynolds was murdered on 16 Oct. 1786 by an attorney named Robert Keon, who was executed for the crime (see Report of the Trial of Robert Keon, 1788, 8vo). Soon after 1790 the son began to ​write ballads and songs for the Dublin periodicals, many of them appearing in the ‘Sentimental and Masonic Magazine,’ 1792–5, W. P. Carey's ‘Evening Star,’ and in Watty Cox's ‘Irish Magazine,’ generally signed with his initials or ‘G—e R—s’ and ‘G—e R—n—lds.’ In Carey's paper appeared Reynolds's well-known poem, ‘The Catholic's Lamentation,’ otherwise called ‘Green were the Fields where my Forefathers dwelt O.’ The most popular of his short lyrics, ‘Kathleen O'More,’ ran through thirteen editions on its publication in 1800. In 1794 Reynolds published, in Dublin, ‘The Panthead,’ an heroic poem in four cantos. In 1797 a musical piece, entitled ‘Bantry Bay,’ referring to the attempted French invasion, was performed with success at Covent Garden, the music being by William Reeve [q. v.] The piece, which was loyalist in tone, was published in London in the same year.
Reynolds was at this time a yeomanry officer—popular, distinguished as a wit, and in the commission of the peace for Leitrim and Roscommon. But in or about 1799 Lord Clare deprived him of the latter office, on the ground that his loyalty was doubted. Reynolds retorted in an insulting letter, which afterwards appeared in Watty Cox's ‘Magazine.’ In 1801 he came to England to study law, intending to practise, but died early in 1802 at Stowe in Buckinghamshire, while on a visit to the Duke of Buckingham. He was buried at Stowe. Several pieces have been attributed to Reynolds which he did not write, including ‘Mary Le More,’ a series of three ballads which were composed by Edward Rushton of Liverpool, and ‘King James's Welcome to Ireland,’ a seventeenth-century lyric, given in Charles Mackay's ‘1,001 Gems of Song’ as the production of Reynolds. In 1830, long after his death, his relatives asserted that he was the real author of Campbell's ‘Exile of Erin,’ and that he wrote it about 1799. It was first printed in the ‘Morning Chronicle’ in 1801, and Campbell's claim to it, although warmly disputed by Reynolds's family and friends, has not been satisfactorily refuted (cf. Times, June 1830).
[Burke's Connaught Circuit, pp. 152–8; O'Donoghue's Poets of Ireland, p. 213; Brit. Mus. Cat. (of Music); Sentimental and Masonic Magazine, Dublin, 1792–5; Hardiman's Irish Minstrelsy, i. 46–7. For evidence respecting authorship of The Exile of Erin see Hercules Ellis's Memoranda of Irish Matters, Dublin, 1844; Barry's Songs of Ireland, Dublin, 1845; and Crinnelly's Irish Family History, Dublin, 1865.]
D. J. O'D.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Reynolds, Frederic Mansel

​REYNOLDS, FREDERIC MANSEL (d. 1850), author, was the eldest son of Frederic Reynolds [q. v.] the dramatist. Having received a good education, he drifted into a quasi-literary occupation, editing ‘The Keepsake’ from 1828 to 1835, and 1838–9. This annual, in which the engravings usually atoned for the general feebleness of the literary contributions, was produced with lavish expense, and was probably the best of its class.
Wordsworth contributed to Reynolds's ‘Keepsake’ a sonnet on the mysterious gravestone in Worcester Cathedral which bears on it the simple word ‘Miserrimus.’ Neither Wordsworth nor Reynolds was aware that the person commemorated was Thomas Morris (1660–1748) [q. v.] In ignorance of this circumstance, Reynolds composed a narrative of the crimes of a supposititious Miserrimus, told in the first person, under the title ‘Miserrimus: a Tale.’ It was originally printed for private circulation in 1832; was published anonymously in 1833, with a dedication to William Godwin, and reprinted in the same year. By most of the critics it was pronounced ‘impassioned,’ but it was denounced in the ‘Gentleman's Magazine’ as a libel on an innocent and helpless person. Jekyll, who called it ‘Young Reynolds's extravaganza,’ implied that it was the result of a nightmare (Correspondence, p. 311). In 1836 Reynolds brought out a companion novel entitled ‘The Parricide, a domestic Romance,’ but it did not meet with equal success. ‘The creation of a smile’ was his sole object in writing his novel, ‘The Coquette’ (1834, 3 vols.).
In his later years Reynolds suffered much from a nervous disorder, and resided mostly abroad. After a long illness he died at Fontainebleau, on his way to Italy, 7 June 1850. He left behind him a young wife ‘whom he had known from her childhood, and whose education he had superintended.’
Reynolds was a well-informed man, with a good taste in painting and music. His versification was graceful, but his prose style was forced and artificial.
W. P. C.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Reynolds, Barrington

​REYNOLDS, Sir BARRINGTON (1786–1861), admiral, born in 1786, son of Rear-admiral Robert Carthew Reynolds [q. v.], entered the navy in 1795, on board the Druid, with his father, whom he followed to the Amazon. In her he was wrecked in Audierne Bay on 14 Jan. 1797. On regaining his liberty he again served with his father in the Pomone, from which he was moved to the Indefatigable, with Sir Edward Pellew [q. v.], whom he followed to the Impetueux of 74 guns. While in her he was present in several boat actions, including that in the Morbihan on 6 June 1800, under the immediate command of Lieutenant John Pilfold [q. v.] He was afterwards in the Orion with his father, and on 18 Sept. 1801 was promoted to be lieutenant of the Courageux. In the following June he was appointed to the Hussar, and from August 1803 to September 1808 was in the Niobe, during the greater part of the time with Captain John Wentworth Loring [q. v.] on the coast of France. He was afterwards in the Russell, in the East Indies, and in December 1809 was appointed acting commander of the Arrogant hulk. His promotion was confirmed by the Admiralty on 3 Oct. 1810, and in the following February he was appointed to the Hesper, in which he took part in the expedition against Java, and in acknowledgment of his conduct was appointed acting captain of the Sir Francis Drake frigate. On 22 Jan. 1812 he was promoted, independently, by the admiralty, probably as a mark of their high appreciation of his father's services. In August 1812 he was moved by Sir Samuel Hood into the Bucephalus, which he took to England, and paid off in August 1813. Shortly after the peace he was offered the command of a frigate, ​which he declined on the ground of ill-health; nor did he accept any further employment till 1838, when, in October, he commissioned the Ganges of 80 guns for service in the Mediterranean, and commanded her on the coast of Syria during the operations of 1840. He had previously, on 20 July 1838, been nominated a C.B. On 8 Jan. 1848 he was promoted to the rank of rear-admiral, and was shortly afterwards appointed to the command-in-chief at the Cape of Good Hope and on the west coast of Africa; this he held till 1852, receiving the special thanks of the government for his activity and zeal in suppressing the slave trade. On 4 July 1855 he was promoted to be vice-admiral; on 4 Feb. 1856 he was nominated a K.C.B. From May 1857 to October 1860 he was commander-in-chief at Devonport. On 1 Nov. 1860 he was promoted to the rank of admiral, and on 28 June 1861 was made a G.C.B. He died at his seat, Penair, near Truro, on 3 Aug. 1861. He married, in June 1832, Eliza Anne, third daughter of Mr. M. Dick of Pitkerro, Forfarshire.
[O'Byrne's Naval Biogr. Dict.; Marshall's Royal Naval Biogr. ix. (suppl. pt. iii.) 13; Service Book in the Public Record Office; Gent. Mag. 1861, ii. 193, 327.]
J. K. L.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Rayner, Samuel

​RAYNER, SAMUEL (fl. 1850), water-colour painter, was an exhibitor at the Royal Academy and other exhibitions, commencing in 1821. He painted interiors of abbeys, churches, and old mansions, in a style closely resembling that of George Cattermole [q. v.] Five of his drawings were engraved for Britton's ‘Cathedral Antiquities,’ and there is a lithotint of his view of the Retainers' Gallery at Knole in S. C. Hall's ‘Baronial Halls of England.’ Rayner was elected an associate of the Society of Painters in Water-Colours in February 1845, but expelled six years later in consequence of a judgment in the court of queen's bench which involved him in a charge of fraud. His name continued to appear in exhibition catalogues until 1872. Rayner had five daughters, who all became professional artists. The eldest, Nancy, painted rustic figures and interiors, and was elected an associate of the Water-Colour Society in February 1850. She died of consumption in 1855.
F. M. O'D.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Read, Charles Anderson

​READ, CHARLES ANDERSON (1841–1878), miscellaneous writer, born at Kilsella House, near Sligo, was son of a gentleman who, after losing a competency, became a schoolmaster and settled at Hilltown, near Newry. Charles was apprenticed to a merchant of Rathfriland, subsequently becoming partner in and eventually proprietor of the firm; but the venture failed about 1863, and Read obtained an appointment in the London publishing office of James Henderson. To Henderson's journal, ‘Young Folks,’ he contributed stories from the classics and several successful serial stories, two of which, ‘Aileen Aroon’ and ‘Savourneen Dheelish,’ were afterwards printed separately. He also wrote for the ‘Dublin University Magazine,’ and produced some passable verse. Deeply interested in Irish literature, he spent several years in the preparation of his best known work, ‘The Cabinet of Irish Literature,’ which was published between 1876 and 1878, in four volumes. The last volume was completed by Mr. T. P. O'Connor. It comprises selections from the writings of the most prominent Irish authors, from the earliest times to the date of publication. ​Read died prematurely on 23 Jan. 1878, at Thornton Heath, Surrey.
D. J. O'D.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Raynold

​RAYNOLD. [See Rainolds, Raynalde, and Reynolds.]
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Read

​READ. [See also Reade, Rede, Reed, Reede, and Reid.]
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Read, Catherine

​READ, CATHERINE (d. 1778), portrait-painter, was for some years a fashionable artist in London, working in oils, crayons, and miniature. From 1760 she exhibited almost annually with either the Society of Artists, the Free Society, or the Royal Academy, sending chiefly portraits of ladies and children of the aristocracy, which she painted with much grace and refinement. In 1763 she exhibited a portrait of Queen Charlotte with the infant Prince of Wales, and in 1765 one of the latter with his brother, Prince Frederick. Miss Read resided in St. James's Place until 1766, when she removed to Jermyn Street. In 1771 she paid a brief visit to India with her niece, Helena Beatson, a clever young artist, who there married, in 1777, (Sir) Charles Oakeley, bart. [q. v.], governor of Madras. On resuming her practice, Miss Read settled in Welbeck Street. Many of her portraits were well engraved by Valentine Green and James Watson, and a pair of plates, by J. Finlayson, of the celebrated Gunning sisters, the Duchess of Argyll and the Countess of Coventry, have always been popular. She died on 15 Dec. 1778.
[Edwards's Anecdotes of Painters, 1808; Redgrave's Dict. of Artists; Cat. of National Portrait Exhibition, 1867; Chaloner Smith's British Mezzotinto Portraits.]
F. M. O'D.