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

​PENNY, THOMAS, M.D. (d. 1589), prebendary of St. Paul's, botanist and entomologist, the son of John Penny or Penne of Gressingham, near Lancaster, was educated at Trinity College, Cambridge, where he matriculated as a sizar in 1550, and graduated as B.A. in 1551–2, proceeding M.A. in 1559. He took holy orders, and in 1560 was appointed to the prebend of Newington in St. Paul's Cathedral, being elected fellow of his college in the same year. Having been appointed in 1565 to preach one of the spital sermons, he was objected to by Archbishop Parker, who believed him to be ill affected to the established church. Soon afterwards he went abroad, visiting Majorca and the south of France, and residing for some time in Switzerland. He assisted Conrad Gesner, and was probably present at his death in December 1565, and assisted Wolf in arranging the plants and other collections left by Gesner. Letters from Penny to Camerarius, dated 1585, show his knowledge of insects to have been extensive, and it is probable that Gesner's drawings of butterflies passed into his hands, and at his death into those of Thomas Moffett [q. v.], whose acquaintance he had made at Cambridge. Moffett's ‘Insectorum Theatrum,’ published in 1634, is stated in its title to have been begun by Edward Wotton, Conrad Gesner, and Thomas Penny. While abroad Penny probably graduated M.D., and in January 1571 he was practising physic in London. At that time he failed to satisfy the College of Physicians of his qualifications; but by 1582 he was a fellow of the college. Meanwhile, in 1577, he had been deprived of his prebend for nonconformity. Penny died in 1589; by his will, dated 4 June 1588, he left a legacy to ‘the poor of Gressingham and Eskrigge, where I was born.’ He married Margaret, daughter of John Lucas of St. John's, near Colchester, master of requests to Edward VI. She died in 1587, and was buried in St. Peter-le-Poer, London.
Cornus suecica, discovered by Penny in the Cheviots, and other rare plants from both the north and the south of England, credited to him in L'Obel's ‘Adversaria’ (1570–1) and in Gerard's ‘Herball,’ show him to have been a diligent botanist. Gerard styles him ‘a second Dioscorides,’ and his friend Clusius, besides other plants, named the plant now known as Hypericum balearicum, Myrtocistus Pennæi in honour of its discoverer. In 1560 he wrote some Latin verses on the restitution of Bucer and Fagius.
G. S. B.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Penny, John (1803-1885)

​PENNY, JOHN (1803–1885), journalist, born on 16 Feb. 1803, was third son of Elias Penny, bookseller and publisher, of Sherborne, Dorset, and was educated at the king's school there. In 1828 he became proprietor and editor of the old ‘Sherborne Journal.’ In the columns of the paper he championed the cause of reform, and thus earned the gratitude of the whigs. In 1832 he published a pamphlet entitled ‘Dorsetshire emancipated from Tory Dominion,’ and was rewarded by Lord John Russell with the stamp-distributorship of Dorset. Soon afterwards he was promoted to a similar but more important post at Leeds. While there he wrote a drama, called ‘Stephen, King of England,’ 8vo, London, 1851, which was subsequently produced at the Leeds Theatre and favourably received. In 1858 he gave up the ‘Sherborne Journal,’ and subsequently retired from official life. He died at Bath on 7 Feb. 1885, and was buried at Exeter with his wife and only son, who had predeceased him. Penny's eldest brother, William Webb Penny (1799–1888), was proprietor and editor of the ‘Sherborne Mercury,’ one of the oldest papers in the west of England, from 1829 till 1842. His youngest brother, Charles Penny, D.D. (1809–1875), of Pembroke College, Oxford, was head master of Crewkerne grammar school from 1838 until 1875, and for many years rector of Chaffcombe, Somerset.
G. G.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Penny, John (d.1520?)

​PENNY, JOHN (d. 1520?), bishop of Carlisle, was educated at Lincoln College, Oxford, and at some unknown time became LL.D. of Cambridge. In 1477 he was a canon at the abbey of St. Mary de Pratis at Leicester; on 25 June 1496 he became abbot there. He was allowed to hold the Austin priory of Bradley, Leicestershire, in commendam after 14 Sept. 1503, and in 1504 he became bishop of Bangor. He was translated to the ​bishopric of Carlisle by a bull dated 22 Sept. 1508, but did not receive the spiritualities of his see until 29 June 1509. He was a man of active mind, and a letter preserved, which he wrote to Wolsey in 1519, shows that he was ready to support the cardinal in his scheme of reform. But he therein speaks of his illness, and he died at Leicester about 1519 or 1520, and was buried in the abbey. The tomb was afterwards moved into St. Margaret's Church. He had added to the abbey buildings, and gave lands towards a free school in St. Margaret's parish.
W. A. J. A.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Pennington, Montagu

​PENNINGTON, MONTAGU (1762–1849), biographer and editor, born in December 1762, was youngest son of Thomas Pennington, D.D., rector of Tunstall, Kent (d. at Deal, 26 Nov. 1802), who married Margaret, youngest child of Nicholas Carter, D.D. (she died 16 Feb. 1798), and sister of the ‘learned’ Elizabeth Carter [q. v.] He was educated at home by his aunt. His baptismal name was derived from his aunt's friend, Mrs. Elizabeth Montagu [q. v.], who showed him many acts of kindness, and he accompanied her on a four months' visit to Paris in 1776. On 23 Oct. 1777 he matriculated at Trinity College, Oxford, graduating B.A. 1781, M.A. 1784. Having taken holy orders, he was appointed in 1789 to the living of Sutton, near Dover, and to that of Westwell, near Ashford, in December 1803; but for nearly twenty years, beginning about 1788, he resided at Deal with his aunt, in a house which she left to him, and was curate-in-charge of the adjoining parish of Walmer (Elvin, Records of Walmer, p. 111). He was fond of travel, and in 1791 was at Lille, whence the revolutionary troubles drove him to Holland. In 1806 he became vicar of Northbourne, near Deal, and in 1814 perpetual curate of St. George's Chapel, Deal; both preferments he held until his death at Deal on 15 April 1849. He married Mary, widow of Captain Watts, R.N. She died at Deal on 24 March 1830, aged 67, without issue by her second husband.
Pennington was the sole literary acquaintance of Sir Egerton Brydges in his own neighbourhood, and was described by him as a good classical scholar, with a ‘great memory’ and admirable judgment. A manuscript note (probably by Pennington himself, as the copy was that given to him by Brydges) in Brydges's ‘Censura Literaria’ (cf. vol. viii. pref. and vol. x. pref.) at the British Museum states that Pennington contributed all the articles in the section called ‘The Ruminator,’ which are marked ‡*‡, and P.M., and one signed ‘Londinensis.’ Two further essays by him, probably Nos. 77 and 85, which are both signed P.M., are included in Brydges's separate publication, which is also called ‘The Ruminator’ (cf. i. 202–8 and Censura Lit. viii. 82–7).
Pennington was executor and residuary legatee to his aunt, Elizabeth Carter, who left him all her papers. He prepared for press her translation of Epictetus, 4th edit. 1807, 2 vols.; ‘Memoirs of Mrs. Elizabeth Carter, with a New Edition of her Poems, miscellaneous Essays in Prose,’ 1807, 2nd edit. 1808, 2 vols.; ‘A Series of Letters between Elizabeth Carter and Catherine Talbot, 1741–1770, with Letters from Elizabeth Carter to Mrs. Vesey,’ 1808 2 vols., 1809 4 vols.; ‘Works of Miss Catherine Talbot, 7th edit., first published by Elizabeth Carter, and now republished,’ 1809, 8th edit. 1812, 9th edit. 1819; and ‘Letters ​from Mrs. Elizabeth Carter to Mrs. Montagu, 1755–1800,’ 1817, 3 vols. His chief publication on his own account was ‘Redemption, or a View of the Rise and Progress of the Christian Religion,’ London, 1811, 8vo.
W. P. C.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Pennington, James

​PENNINGTON, JAMES (1777–1862), writer on currency and banking, born at Kendal, Westmoreland, on 23 Feb. 1777, was son of William Pennington, a bookseller, and his wife Agnes Wilson. Educated at first at Kendal grammar school, he afterwards became a pupil of John Dalton (1766–1844) [q. v.] of Manchester. Subsequently Pennington engaged in business in London. At the end of 1831 he was appointed by the president of the India board to investigate the accounts of the East India Company, but the appointment was cancelled on the change of administration. Thrown out of employment, Pennington devoted himself to the study of currency and finance, and attracted the favourable notice of Huskisson, Ricardo, and Tooke. On the recommendation of the last-mentioned, he joined the Political Economy Club in 1828; he also contributed appendices to Tooke's ‘Letter to Lord Grenville,’ 1829, and to his ‘History of Prices’ (vol. ii. App. C). When, on the emancipation of the negroes in 1833, it became necessary to regulate the currency of the West Indies, Pennington was engaged for that purpose by the treasury, and framed the measures which were adopted. In 1848 he published ‘The Currency of the British Colonies,’ 8vo, which was printed for official use, and which contains much that is of permanent value.
As early as 1827 Pennington had urged, in a paper submitted to Huskisson, the desirability of some restriction on the issue of notes by the Bank of England. He had further explained his views in ‘A Letter to Kirkman Finlay, Esq., on the Importation of Foreign Corn, and the Value of the Precious Metals in Different Countries. To which are added Observations on Money and the Foreign Exchange,’ London, 8vo, 1840. During the preparation of the Bank Act (1844) he was confidentially consulted by Sir Robert Peel. Though he accepted the principle of that measure, he was not in entire agreement with its advocates, and he disapproved of the separation of the banking and issue departments of the Bank of England. From this time until his death he was frequently consulted by the government on currency and finance, on which he was regarded as one of the leading authorities. He died, on 23 March 1862, at Clapham Common. He married, in 1811, Mary Anne, eldest daughter of John Harris of Clapham, by whom he had four sons and three daughters. His son, Arthur Robert, became canon of Lincoln and rector of Utterby, Louth.
W. A. S. H.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Pennycuick, John (d.1849)

​PENNYCUICK, JOHN (d. 1849), brigadier-general, entered the army on 31 Aug. 1807 as an ensign in the 78th highlanders, and became lieutenant on 15 Jan. 1812. He served in the expedition to Java, and was wounded in the attack on the entrenched camp adjoining the fort of Meester-Cornelis on 26 Aug. 1811. He was promoted captain on 14 June 1821, and took part in the Burmese war in 1825–6. He became major, unattached, on 25 April 1834, and on 8 May 1835 he obtained a majority in the 17th foot. With this regiment he made the campaign of 1839 in Afghanistan, including the capture of Ghuznee, and was afterwards employed in Beloochistan, under General Willshire, to subdue the khan of Khelat. He led the storming party in the capture of Khelat on 13 Nov. 1839, and was made C.B., having already obtained a brevet lieutenant-colonelcy for Ghuznee. He had been made a knight of the Guelphic order in 1837. He became lieutenant-colonel on 12 June 1840, and in 1841 took and destroyed some Arab posts near Aden. In 1848 he exchanged from the 17th to the 24th regiment. At the end of that year he served in the second Sikh war, and commanded a brigade, which consisted of his own and two native regiments, in Thackwell's division (afterwards Sir Colin Campbell's). He was in the force under Thackwell which turned the Sikh position on the Chenab, by crossing at Wazirabad, and he was eager to attack at once; but other councils prevailed, and the Sikhs were allowed to retire. When Lord Gough decided to attack them near Chillianwalla, on the afternoon of 13 Jan. 1849, his brigade led the attack. They were told to advance without firing, as the 10th had done at Sobraon. The 24th carried the Sikh guns with a rush; but that regiment had outstripped the two native regiments, and the men found themselves exposed, with their own arms unloaded, to a very heavy fire from the jungle round them. Pennycuick and Brooks, the other lieutenant-colonel of the 24th—‘two officers not surpassed for sound judgment and military daring in this or any other army,’ as Lord Gough wrote—were killed, and the brigade was driven back. The 24th lost twenty-two officers and 497 men. Among the officers killed was a younger son of the brigadier, a boy of seventeen, the junior ensign of the regiment. Seeing his father fall, he ran to his assistance, and was himself shot through the heart as he bent over his father's body. The brigadier's eldest son, John Farrell Pennycuick, is separately noticed.
E. M. L.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Pennington, Isaac

​PENNINGTON, Sir ISAAC, M.D. (1745–1817), physician, son of Paul Pennington, captain of a merchantman, was born at Longmire in Furness Fell, Lancashire, in 1745, and, after education at Sedbergh grammar school, entered at St. John's College, Cambridge, as a sizar, 12 Aug. 1762. He became a Lupton scholar on 4 Nov. 1766. He went out as thirteenth wrangler in 1767, one of his examiners being Richard Watson, whom he succeeded as professor of chemistry. He was admitted a fellow of St. John's, 22 March 1768, and so continued till his death, having on 18 Oct. 1775 been admitted to the faculty fellowship in medicine which enabled him to retain his fellowship. He graduated M.A. in 1770, and M.D. in 1777. He became professor of chemistry in 1773, and in 1793 resigned, and was appointed regius professor of physic. In 1785 he was elected physician ​to Addenbrooke's Hospital, and in 1796 was knighted. In the College of Physicians he was elected a fellow on 29 March 1779, and delivered the Harveian oration in 1783, but did not print his composition. He was unmarried, and by his will, proved 11 March 1817, he appointed the Rev. James Wood (master), Rev. Laurence Palk Baker (fellow), and Rev. Charles Blick (fellow and bursar), his executors. He bequeathed his property in St. Sepulchre's parish, Cambridge, to the master—this included the house (now 69 Bridge Street) in which he lived—and, after a number of small legacies to servants and friends, bequeathed the residue of his estate to the college, upon trust to pay 200l. a year to the master if he were also rector of Freshwater in the Isle of Wight, but if he be not rector of Freshwater, then the income to accumulate and be invested until he be rector, when he was to receive 200l. a year and the interest on the accumulations. He also founded exhibitions in the college, with a preference to candidates from Hawkshead and Cotton near his birthplace in Lancashire. He died on 3 Feb. 1817, and is commemorated by a tablet in the chapel of St. John's. Traditions of his popularity long remained in the university.
N. M.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Peacock, John Macleay

​PEACOCK, JOHN MACLEAY (1817–1877), verse-writer, son of William Peacock, was born on 31 March 1817 at Kincardine, Perthshire, the seventh of eight children. While his family was young the father died, and the struggle for existence became severe. Peacock was sent to work at a very early age, first at a tobacco factory, and afterwards at some bleaching works. Ultimately he was apprenticed to boiler-making, and this became his trade. Commercial fluctuations, and a strong natural disposition to travel, took him in the course of his lifetime to many parts of the world. Thus he gathered knowledge which went far to compensate for the want of school-training. He became a man of wide information, and a clear and original thinker. In both politics and religion he was always radical. He shared actively in the chartist movement, and afterwards, for many years, until his death, was an energetic secularist. For a considerable period he was employed at Laird's iron shipbuilding works, Birkenhead, where the Alabama was built; but this did not prevent him from openly advocating the cause of the north in the American civil war. Undoubtedly his outspokenness helped to keep him poor. Physically he was delicate, and, his occupation being arduous, in middle life his health failed; thenceforward he only earned a precarious income, chiefly as a newsvendor. He died in Glasgow of heart disease on 4 May 1877.
If Peacock's worldly circumstances had been better, or his disposition less modest, he might have become more famous, for wherever his work was known it was highly valued. At Birkenhead, at the Shakespeare tercentenary (1864), he was considered the ​most fitting person in the town to plant the memorial oak-tree. He directed much vigorous verse against what he regarded as theological superstition and political tyranny; but his finest poetical work was of a contemplative kind. Three volumes of his poems have been published, viz.: ‘Poems and Songs’ (1864), ‘Hours of Reverie’ (1867), and a selection of published and unpublished verse (to which is prefixed a portrait of Peacock), edited by the present writer for the benefit of the widow in 1880.
[Prefaces to Works and private information.]
W. L.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Peak, James

​PEAK or PEAKE, JAMES (1730?–1782?), engraver, born about 1730, practised in London as an engraver in the mixed etching and line manner of Thomas Vivares [q. v.] and others. He attained some eminence as an engraver of landscape, and his works are noteworthy in the history of English engraving. These are mostly from paintings by Claude Lorraine, G. Smith of Chichester, R. Wilson, J. Pillement, and other landscape-engravers. He also executed some spirited etchings of dogs and other animals. He is said to have died about 1782.
L. C.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Peake, Richard Brinsley

​PEAKE, RICHARD BRINSLEY (1792–1847), dramatist, son of Richard Peake, who was for forty years in the treasury office of Drury Lane Theatre, was born in Gerrard Street, Soho, on 19 Feb. 1792. He was articled to James Heath [q. v.] the engraver, and remained with him from 1809 to 1817, when he turned his attention to writing for the stage. His first production seems to have been ‘Amateurs and Actors,’ a musical farce, given at the English Opera House on 29 Aug. 1818, and revived at Covent Garden on 28 Oct. 1826. It was followed by ‘The Duel, or My Two Nephews,’ a two-act farce (Covent Garden, 18 Feb. 1823); ‘Presumption, or the Fate of Frankenstein,’ based partly on Mrs. Shelley's novel, and partly upon a French piece (Covent Garden, 9 July 1824); and ‘Comfortable Lodgings, or Paris in 1750,’ a farce, played first at Drury Lane on 10 March 1827 and on twelve subsequent occasions, with Liston in the chief part of Sir Hippington Miff. One of the best of Peake's numerous pieces, ‘The Haunted Inn,’ a two-act farce, appeared at Drury Lane on 31 Jan. 1828, and was played eighteen times. His farce ‘Before Breakfast’ was acted at Bath on 28 Feb. 1828, and ‘Master's Rival,’ which had proved an utter failure at Drury Lane in the previous February, was given with applause at Covent Garden on 6 May 1829. Peake is said to have written most of the later ‘At Homes’ given by Charles Mathews at the Adelphi from 1829 onwards. For about the last ten years of his life he was treasurer at the Lyceum Theatre. His last play, ‘The Title Deeds,’ an original comedy, in three acts and in prose, appeared in 1847, and Peake died on 4 Oct. in this same year, leaving a large family in somewhat necessitous circumstances. Besides those above mentioned, Peake's chief plays were: 1. ‘The Bottle Imp,’ a melodramatic romance, produced at Covent ​Garden on 17 Oct. 1828, and played several times. 2. ‘The Hundred Pound Note,’ a two-act farce [1829]. 3. ‘Court and City,’ a comedy, based upon Sir Richard Steele's ‘Tender Husband’ and Mrs. F. Sheridan's ‘Discovery’ [1830]. 4. ‘Uncle Rip,’ a two-act farce [1830]. 5. ‘The Chancery Suit,’ a comedy in three acts and in prose, 1831. 6. ‘House Room, or the Dishonoured Bill,’ a farcetta, 1836. 7. ‘Blanche of Jersey,’ a musical romance [1838]. 8. ‘Gemini,’ a farce, 1838. 9. ‘The Spring Lock,’ an operatic romance in two acts, 1838. 10. ‘The Meltonians, a perfectly illegitimate drama and extravaganza’ [1838]. 11. ‘The Sheriff of the County,’ a comedy, 1840. 12. ‘The Title Deeds,’ an original comedy in three acts and in prose, 1847. Peake also wrote the letterpress for ‘French Characteristic Costumes,’ 1816, 4to; Snobson's ‘Seasons,’ being annals of cockney sports, illustrated by Seymour, 1838, 8vo; the useful ‘Memoirs of the Colman Family,’ including their correspondence with the most distinguished persons of their time, 2 vols. 1841, 8vo; and ‘Cartouche, the celebrated French Robber,’ 3 vols. 12mo, 1844.
T. S.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Peake, Thomas

​PEAKE, THOMAS (1771–1838), serjeant-at-law and legal author, born in 1771, probably son of Thomas Peake, solicitor, of Southampton Buildings, Chancery Lane, gained celebrity in the legal profession by his unusually accurate reports of Lord Kenyon's decisions, viz. ‘Cases determined at Nisi Prius in the Court of King's Bench from the sittings after Easter Term, 30 Geo. III, to the sittings after Michaelmas Term, 35 Geo. III, both inclusive,’ London, 1795 and 1810, 8vo; American reprint, ed. T. Day, Hartford, 1810, 8vo; and ‘Additional Cases at Nisi Prius; being a Continuation of Cases at Nisi Prius before Lord Kenyon and other eminent Judges, taken at different times between the years 1795 and 1812, with Notes by Thomas Peake, jun.,’ London, 1829, 8vo. Peake was called to the bar at Lincoln's Inn on 6 Feb. 1796, and to the degree of serjeant-at-law in Hilary term 1820. He practised as a special pleader and on the Oxford circuit. He died on 17 Nov. 1838.
Peake married, on 21 Jan. 1800, Miss Budgen of Tottenham, by whom he had ​issue a son Thomas, who was admitted student at Gray's Inn on 15 April 1823, called to the bar at Lincoln's Inn on 19 June 1828, and died on 30 Jan. 1837.
Besides his reports, Peake was author of ‘A Compendium of the Law of Evidence,’ London, 1801, 8vo, a work which, though largely indebted to that of Sir Geoffrey Gilbert [q. v.], embodied considerable original thought and research, and was long in high repute on both sides of the Atlantic. The fifth edition, greatly enlarged, was published at London, 1822, 8vo; American reprint, ed. J. P. Norris, Philadelphia, 1824, 8vo.
[Gent. Mag. 1800 pt. ii. p. 587, 1837 pt. i. p. 329, 1838 pt. i. p. 106; Foster's Gray's Inn Admission Register; Law List; Marvin's Legal Bibliography; Brit. Mus. Cat.]
J. M. R.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Peacock, Lucy

​PEACOCK, LUCY (fl. 1815), bookseller and author, kept a shop in Oxford Street, and wrote tales for children, for the most part anonymously. Among the earliest of these were ‘The Adventures of the Six Princesses of Babylon in their Travels to the Temple of Virtue: an allegory’ (1785; 3rd edit. 1790), and ‘The Rambles of Fancy, or Moral and Interesting Tales’ (2 vols., 1786). In the following years she contributed to the ‘Juvenile Magazine’ similar tales, which were reissued in ‘Friendly Labours, or Tales and Dramas for the Amusement and Instruction of Youth’ (Brentford, 1815). Other of her publications were: ‘The Knight of the Rose’ (1793; 2nd edit. 1807); ‘The Visit for a Week’ (1794; 7th edit. 1812), which was translated into French in 1817 by J. E. Le Febvre; ‘Emily, or the Test of Sincerity’ (1816); and ‘The Little Emigrant: a Tale’ (4th edit. 1820).
Miss Peacock also translated from the French ‘Ambrose and Eleanor, or the Adventures of Two Children deserted on an Uninhabited Island’ (1796, 1812, by R. and L. Peacock), an adaptation of ‘Fanfan et Lolotte;’ Veyssière de la Croze's ‘Grammaire Historique’ (1802), and ‘Abrégé Chronologique de l'Histoire Universelle’ (1807).
[Literary Memoirs of Living Authors of Great Britain, 1798; Dict. of Living Authors, 1816; Brit. Mus. Cat.; Allibone's Dict. of Engl. Lit.]
G. Le G. N.