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

​OSBORN, GEORGE (1808–1891), president of Wesleyan conference, was born at Rochester in 1808. His father, George Osborn (1764–1836), was a draper in Rochester, a class-leader among the Wesleyan methodists for twenty-one years, and a steward of the Rochester circuit (Wesleyan Methodist Magazine, October 1839, pp. 785–803). George was educated at Dr. Hulett's school at Brompton, and, entering the Wesleyan ministry in 1828, was in the following year appointed to the Brighton circuit, where he laboured successfully for two years. He was conspicuous as a debater very early in life, and rose rapidly in the estimation of his co-religionists. London in 1836–42 and 1851–68, Manchester in 1842–5 and 1848–51, and Liverpool in 1845–48 had the benefit of his ministerial services. Although an enthusiastic methodist, he was catholic in his sentiments, was friendly with the ministers of all evangelical denominations, and in 1845 was one of the founders of the evangelical alliance. In 1851 he was appointed one of the Wesleyan foreign missionary secretaries, and retained that office for seventeen years. The ​jubilee of the foreign missions took place in 1863. In the same year Osborn was elected president of the conference, and rendered great service to the missions by his advocacy of their claims in the large towns in England. On the retirement of the Rev. Thomas Jackson in 1868, he was elected professor of divinity at Richmond College, and continued to reside there till 1885. He was an able expository preacher, and was one of the most noted orators of his church. Originally he was strongly opposed to the admission of lay representatives to the conference, but when the matter had been carried against him, he at once acquiesced in the decision. In 1881 he was for the second time elected to the chair of the conference. From 1885 he was a supernumerary minister, and died at 24 Cambrian Road, Richmond, Surrey, on 19 April 1891.
His knowledge respecting the poetical writings of the Wesleys was exhaustive, and in 1868 he brought out ‘The Poetical Works of J. and C. Wesley, collected and arranged,’ an edition in thirteen volumes. His second important work was entitled ‘Outlines of Wesleyan Bibliography; or a Record of Methodist Literature from the beginning,’ 1869. He also printed a few sermons and addresses, and furnished prefaces to many books.
[Wesleyan Methodist Mag. June 1891, pp. 468–78; Illustr. London News, 6 Aug. 1881 pp. 124, 126, with portrait, 2 May 1891 p. 563, with portrait; The Fly Sheet, Test Act Tested, 1848.]
G. C. B.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Osberht

​OSBERHT, OSBRITH, or OSBYRHT (d. 867), under-king of Northumbria, was of the ancient royal house of that kingdom, and was reigning before 854 (Monumenta Historica Britannica, p. 675, note c). According to the story in the ‘English Chronicle,’ his subjects deposed him in 866, and took as their king Ælla (d. 867) [q. v.] During the dissensions the Danish host crossed the Humber from East Anglia, and the rivals then united to resist them. They attacked the Danes at York, and in the issue the Northumbrians were defeated and both the kings slain. Asser relates that when Osberht and Ælla approached York, the Danes took refuge within the city. The Christians forced their way in; and the Danes, turning on them in despair, defeated them and slew both the kings. This account is reproduced by other writers, as Ethelwerd, Florence, Henry of Huntingdon, and Simeon of Durham, without substantial variation. Gaimar, however, first relates that Osberht had seduced by violence the wife of Beorn the Bute carl or merchant of York, and that his subjects consequently rebelled against him; while Beorn went to Denmark and called in the Danes to revenge him. There are several variations of this legend: one story makes Beorn bring in the sons of Ragnar Lodbrog, and another, Guthrum; while, according to one version, it was not Osberht but Ælla who seduced Beorn's wife.
[The chief authorities are contained in the Monumenta Historica Britannica, see especially pp. 795–8; Green's Conquest of England, p. 92; Freeman's Old English History, pp. 108–9.]
C. L. K.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Osbern (d.1103)

​OSBERN or OSBERT (d. 1103), bishop of Exeter and chancellor, was son of Osbern the seneschal, who was guardian of Normandy for the future Conqueror. He was thus brother of William Fitzosbern, the earl of Hereford [q. v.], and a kinsman of Edward the Confessor (Will. Malm. Gesta Pontificum, p. 201). He came to England during the reign of Edward, and was one of the king's chaplains, and held land at Stratton, Cornwall, at the time of Edward's death (Domesday, iv. 216). As a royal chaplain he was present at the dedication of Westminster Abbey on 28 Dec. 1065, and after the conquest witnessed a charter to St. Martin's, London, in 1068, as ‘Osbernus Capellanus’ (Mon. Angl. vi. 1325). A little later he seems to have become the king's chancellor, but the only authority for Osbern in this capacity is a charter to St. Augustine, Canterbury, which is attested by ‘signum Osberti Cancellarii.’ This Osbert is no doubt the future bishop, whose name appears both as Osbern and Osbert (cf. Domesday, iv. 8, 61; Mon. Angl. iv. 16, 17). Osbern probably resigned the chancellorship on his nomination to the bishopric of Exeter. He was consecrated at St. Paul's, London, on 28 March 1072, by Lanfranc. As bishop of Exeter he was present at the councils held at Windsor in 1072 and London in 1075 (Wilkins, Concilia, i. 325, 364). He had some dispute with the monks of St. Nicholas, Exeter, but was afterwards reconciled to them, and became one of their benefactors (ib. i. 378; Oliver, Monasticon, p. 113). William of Malmesbury says that Osbern followed the English in choice of food and in other respects, and preferred English to Norman customs. ‘After the manner of ancient prelates, he was content with old buildings,’ so that the earliest work at Exeter dates from the time of his successor. He was liberal in mind and chaste in deed. Osbern was blind for some years before his death; William of Warelwast, who eventually succeeded him, endeavoured to have him deprived of his bishopric on this score; but Osbern died before the scheme could take effect in the latter part of 1103.
[William of Malmesbury's Gesta Pontificum, (Rolls Ser.), pp. 201–2; Freeman's Norman Conquest, iv. 378; Oliver's Bishops of Exeter, pp. 11–14, and Monasticon; Foss's Judges of England, i. 43; Dugdale's Mon. Angl. i. 144, iii. 141, iv. 16, 17, vi. 1325.]
C. L. K.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Osbaldeston, William

​OSBALDESTON or OSBOLSTON, WILLIAM (1577–1645), divinity professor at Gresham College, eldest son of Lambert Osbaldeston, haberdasher, of London, and brother of Lambert Osbaldeston [q. v.], was born in 1577, and, after attending Westminster School, was elected from that school to Christ Church, Oxford, whence he matriculated in February 1597-8, graduating B.A. on 24 Oct. 1601, M.A. on 24 July 1604, B.D. on 19 June 1611, and D.D. in May 1617. His name appears in the list of admissions to Gray's Inn on 1 Aug. 1619. He resided at Oxford for some years after taking his batchelor's degree, and contributed to the poems written at Christ Church on the visit of James I to that college in 1605. On 13 Dec. 1610 he succeeded George Montaigne [q. v.] ​as divinity professor at Gresham College. This post he resigned in the following year; but in 161 2, when desirous of returning to the college as rhetoric professor, he was unsuccessful in obtaining the post. In 1616 he became rector of Parndon Magna in Essex, and of East Hanningfield in the same county. Both livings he retained until about December 1643, when he was deprived, and his benefices were sequestered by the House of Commons. He died early in 1645. A Robert Osbalston, supposed to be his son, was rector of Parndon Magna from 1662 to 1679.
C. W. S.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Osborn, John

​OSBORN, JOHN (1584?–1634?), worker in pressed horn and whalebone, was born in Worcestershire about 1584, where he appears to have been engaged in making cases, sheaths, or small boxes in horn and other material. About 1600 he emigrated to Holland, possibly for reasons of religion, settling at Amsterdam. There, on 2 June 1607, he entered on a contract of marriage with Frances Cotton of Berkshire, in England, then living at Uilenburg, in Holland. Osborn became one of the principal workers in horn and whalebone in Amsterdam, and his works appear to have been highly valued. Such as have survived are portraits in pressed horn; two medallions, dated 1626, with portraits of Frederic Henry, prince of Orange, and Amalia van Solms, his wife, are in the British Museum; and a similar medallion, with a portrait of Henry VIII, is in the Ryks-Museum at Amsterdam. Osborn died about 1634, and appears to have left a son, Constantyn Osborn, who carried on his business. He also had a brother, Richard Osborn, engaged in the same trade, with whom, however, he had considerable litigation.
[Oud-Holland, v. 509; Walpole's Anecdotes of Painting.]
L. C.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Osbern, Claudianus

Osbern Pinnock in the ODNB.
​OSBERN, CLAUDIANUS (fl. 1148), scholar, was a monk of Gloucester under Hamelin, who was abbot 1148–1179. Leland says he was the best Latinist of his time; that he had a knowledge of Greek, was an exact theologian and well versed in philosophy, and that his teaching was much praised in the monastery (De Script. Brit. No. 151). Gilbert Foliot [q. v.], writing as abbot of Gloucester to his ‘dear son’ Osbern, ​directed him to manage a house in Wales, probably a cell of Gloucester (Migne, Patrologia, p. 190, col. 767). His writings are contained in the Latin MS. Bibl. Reg. 6 Dix., a folio of three hundred pages: (1) folios 1–72a consist of dialogues between Osbern and a monk Nicolas on the Pentateuch; (2) on folio 73a begins a treatise, in six chapters, on the Book of Judges, dedicated to Gilbert Foliot, bishop of Hereford, 1148–1163, whose corrections Osbern desires; (3) folios 174a–201a are on the incarnation; (4) folios 201a to 241b contain Osbern's book on the nativity; (5) folios 241b to 292b are on the sacrament of the passion; (6) folios 292b to 300b are on the resurrection.
Leland ascribes to Osbern a work called ‘Panormia quasi Vocabularium,’ addressed to Hamelin, beginning ‘Cum in nocte hyemali.’ It seems to have at one time formed part of the volume already described, and was in Leland's time at Gloucester, whence Henry VIII had taken the other parts of the manuscript (Nos. 1-6). Bale ascribes the ‘Panormia,’ no doubt wrongly, to Osbern of Canterbury [q. v.] The library of Rouen apparently contains a copy of part or of the whole of Osbern's work (Haenel, Cat. Lib. MSS. p. 421, Rouen, No. 387. Sex dierum tractatus, Osbernus de incarnatione et nativitate Domini).
[Authorities cited. Wright's Biogr. Brit. Lit. Norman period, p. 159; cf. Tanner's Bibl. Brit. s.v.]
M. B.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Wingham, Henry de

​WINGHAM or WENGHAM, HENRY de (d. 1262), bishop of London, was born at Wingham in Kent. He was probably at first a clerk in the exchequer, as 200l. was entrusted to him in 1241–2 to be expended in the king's service, and in 1245–6 he and John de Grey, justice of Chester, were assigned to assess the tallage of that city. He was then one of the king's escheators (Excerpt. e Rot. Fin. i. 458–64, ii. 4–36). He was appointed chamberlain of Gascony, and in 1252 he was sent to inquire into the complaints of the Gascons against the government of Simon de Montfort. The king seems to have suspected him of being too favourable to the Gascons, for he sent another commission to make renewed inquiry (Matt. Paris, v. 277, 288–9; Bémont, Simon de Montfort, p. 339). Wingham was also employed on two embassies into France. As early as 2 July 1253 he was probably connected with the chancery, and on 5 Jan. 1255 the great seal was delivered into his custody (Madox, i. 68–9; Matt. Paris, v. 485).
When, on 10 May 1256, the election of Hugh de Belisale to the bishopric of Ely was quashed by the efforts of the king and the archbishop of Canterbury, Wingham was recommended by Henry without his consent. He dissuaded the king from pressing the matter (Matt. Paris, v. 589, 635). He received, however, in 1257 the chancellorship of Exeter, and soon after ​wards was promoted to the deanery of St. Martin's. He was one of the twelve nominated on the king's side to draw up the provisions of Oxford in June 1258, and was continued in his office on swearing not to put the seal to any writ which had not the approbation of the council as well as the king.
On the flight of Ethelmar de Lusignan, bishop of Winchester, the king's half-brother, in 1259, the monks elected Wingham his successor. Anxious not to offend the king, he at first refused the honour, but afterwards prevailed on the king to accept him if Ethelmar did not succeed in obtaining consecration from the pope (Matt. Paris, v. 731). He soon afterwards, however, accepted the bishopric of London. He was elected on 29 June 1259, received back the temporalities on 11 July, was consecrated on 15 Feb. 1260, and on 18 Oct. retired from the chancery. The king allowed him to keep his deanery and ten valuable prebends and rectories. He died on 13 July 1262, and was buried in his own cathedral. Another Henry de Wingham was prebendary of Newington and archdeacon of Middlesex in 1267, when he died (Le Neve, ii. 327, 417).
[Godwin, De Præsulibus Angliæ (1616), p. 241; Hennessy's Nov. Rep. Eccl. Londin.; Le Neve's Fasti, ed. Hardy; Bémont's Rôles Gascons; Devon's Issues from the Exchequer; Madox's Hist. of the Exchequer; Foss's Judges of England, and authorities cited in text.]
W. E. R.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Wini

​WINI (d. 675?), bishop of London, was an Englishman, and probably a West-Saxon by birth, though consecrated by bishops of Gaul. He was made bishop of the western portion of the West-Saxons, with his see at Winchester, by Cenwalh [q. v.], king of the West-Saxons, though Agilbert already held the West-Saxon bishopric, having his see at Dorchester in Oxfordshire. Offended by this intrusion, Agilbert left his diocese, and Wini became sole bishop of the West-Saxons (Bede, Hist. Eccl. iii. 7). Wini's intrusion is given by the chronicler under 660, but he says that Wini held the see for three years; he was certainly holding it in 665, and Florence of Worcester dates his expulsion 666; Dr. Bright adopts the chronicler's date 660. Bishop Stubbs suggests 663, which is apparently with good reason maintained by Mr. Plummer. When, probably in 666, Ceadda or Chad [q. v.] came to him for consecration during a vacancy of the see of Canterbury, Wini performed the rite with the assistance of two British bishops, whom he invited to join him in spite of their holding to the Celtic Easter (ib. c. 28). He was expelled from his bishopric by Cenwalh in 666, for what reason is not known; he went to Wulfhere, king of the Mercians, and bought from him the see of London. He was not present at the synod of Hertford held by Theodore in 673. Rudborne preserves a legend that repenting of his simony he retired to Winchester, and lived there in penitence for the last three years of his life (Anglia Sacra, i. 192). This is exceedingly doubtful, for Bede says that he remained bishop of London until his death, which is supposed to have taken place in 675, the year of the consecration of his successor, Erkenwald [q. v.]
[Bede, as quoted, ed. Plummer, see notes in vol. ii. 146–7; A.-S. Chron. ann. 660, 664; Flor. Wig. ann. 660, 666, 675 (Engl. Hist. Soc.); Bright's Early English Church Hist. pp. 209–10, 241, 245, 247, 275, ed. 1897; Stubbs's Reg. Sacr. Angl. p. 5, ed. 1897; Haddan and Stubbs's Councils, &c., iii. 121 n.]
W. H.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Wotton, Thomas

​WOTTON, THOMAS (d. 1766), compiler of the ‘Baronetage,’ was the son of Matthew Wotton, who kept a bookshop at the Three Daggers and Queen's Head, near St. Dunstan's Church, Fleet Street. According to John Dunton [q. v.], the elder Wotton was ‘a very courteous, obliging man’ of the highest character, whose trade ‘lay much among the lawyers.’ Thomas Wotton succeeded to his father's business and carried it on for many years, but retired some time before his death. He was warden of the Stationers' Company in 1754 and master in 1757. Among the works published by him were Rushworth's ‘Historical Collections’ and editions of the works of Bacon and Selden. In 1727 he issued in three small (16mo) volumes his ‘English Baronetage. Being a Genealogical and Historical Account of their Families.’ It is dedicated to Holland Egerton of Heaton, Lancashire, son of Sir John, baronet, of Wrine Hall, Staffordshire. William Holman [q. v.] of Halstead, Essex, and Thornhaugh Gurdon [q. v.] of Norfolk had also placed their collections at his disposal; and great assistance had been given byArthur Collins [q. v.], who himself published a baronetage in 1720. The work is divided into five sections, containing respectively an account of the institution of the order by James I, the descents, creations, successions, and public employments of the baronets; correct lists of existing and extinct baronets, exact tables of precedence, and an account of the institution of the order in Nova Scotia and Ireland. An explanatory index of terms in heraldry is appended. In 1741 Wotton published in five octavo volumes a revised and enlarged edition, which is usually erroneously attributed to Collins. In it were incorporated the manuscript notes furnished by Robert Smyth, who had published a volume of corrections and additions. Peter Le Neve [q. v.], who published three folio volumes on the same subject, also rendered valuable assistance to Wotton in preparing this edition. Letters, notes, and pedigrees furnished to Wotton for his ‘Baronetage’ are in Brit. Mus. Addit. MSS. 24114–21.
In 1771, after Wotton's death, a further edition of the ‘Baronetage’ was issued in three volumes, under the editorship of Richard Johnson and Edward Kimber [q. v.] The copy in the British Museum has manuscript notes by Francis Hargrave. The arrangement of each edition is chronological. Wotton died at Point Pleasant, Surrey, on 1 April 1766.
[Nichols's Lit. Anecd. i. 62, iii. 440, 441 nn. 602, v. 48, 49 n.; Gent. Mag. 1766, p. 199; Dunton's Life and Errors, 1818, i. 210; Allibone's Dict. Engl. Lit.; Wotton's Baronetages; art. Collins, Arthur.]
G. Le G. N.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Woty, William

1904 Errata appended.
​WOTY, WILLIAM (1731?–1791), versifier, was possibly a native of the Isle of Wight, and among his poems is an elegy on his schoolmaster, who lived near Alton in Hampshire. He came to London as a clerk or writer to a solicitor, and soon began speaking in the debating societies and contributing small poems to the newspapers. Some one ‘published clandestinely in 1758, without his consent, in a borrowed name,’ a small piece of his composition called ‘The Spouting-club.’ He himself issued in 1760, under the pseudonym of ‘J. Copywell of Lincoln's Inn,’ a volume entitled ‘The Shrubs of Parnassus,’ consisting of the ‘poetical essays, moral and comic,’ which he had contributed to the newspapers, and after its appearance he subsisted for some years as a Grub-street writer. About 1767 he became companion and adviser in legal matters to Washington, earl Ferrers, who created for his benefit a rent-charge of 150l. per annum on the family estate in Leicestershire. In his intervals of leisure Woty continued throughout his life the production of small poetical pieces. The subjects of many poems in the ‘Shrubs of Parnassus’ testify to his devotion to the pleasures of the table. He died at Loughborough on 15 March 1791, aged about sixty.
Woty's other works included: 1. ‘Campanologia: a Poem in praise of Ringing’ [anon.], 1761. 2. ‘Muses' Advice addressed to the Poets of the Age,’ 1761 (cf. Monthly Review, xxv. pp. 478–9). 3. ‘The Blossoms of Helicon,’ 1763. It contained, with a hymn to good nature by Dr. Dodd, an amusing description by Woty of White Conduit House. These lines, which made their first appearance in the ‘Gentleman's Magazine’ for 1760 (p. 242), are quoted at length in Thornbury's ‘Old and New London’ (ii. 280) and in Wroth's ‘London Pleasure Gardens’ (pp. 132–3). 4. ‘The Poetical Calendar,’ a supplement to Dodsley's collection, 1763; twelve volumes, one for each month in that year. They were edited by Woty and Francis Fawkes [q. v.] 5. ‘Church Langton:’ a poem, n.d. [1768?], in praise of the charitable projects of the Rev. William Hanbury [q. v.] 6. ‘The Female Advocate:’ a poem, 1770, 2nd edit. 1771. 7. ‘Poetical Works,’ 1770, 2 vols.; dedicated to Washington, earl Ferrers. 8. ‘The Stage,’ n.d. [1770?]. 9. ‘Particular Providence:’ a poetical essay, 1774. 10. ‘The Estate Orators: a Town Eclogue’ [anon.], 1774; a satire on the London auctioneers. 11. ‘Poems on several Occasions,’ 1780; this contained reprints of several of his works. 12. ‘Fugitive and Original Poems,’ 1786, contains ‘The Country Gentleman: a Drama.’ 13. ‘Poetical Amusements,’ 1789, dedicated to Robert, earl Ferrers. It contained a Latin version of Gray's elegy; ‘Sunday Schools: a Poetical Dialogue between a Nobleman and his Chaplain;’ and ‘The Ambitious Widow: a Comic Entertainment.’
W. P. C.
Dictionary of National Biography, Errata (1904), p.285 N.B.— f.e. stands for from end and l.l. for last line
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