OpenLLM-France/wikimedia huggingface dataset:
# Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology/Euripidas

​EURI′PIDAS, or EURI′PIDES (Εὐριπίδας, Εὐριπίδης), an Aetolian, who, when his countrymen, with the help of Scerdilaïdas the Illyrian, had gained possession of Cynaetha, in Arcadia (B. C. 220), was at first appointed governor of the town; but the Aetolians soon after set fire to it, fearing the arrival of the Macedonian succours for which Aratus had applied. In the next year, B. C. 219, being sent as general to the Eleans, then allied with Aetolia, he ravaged the lands of Dyme, Pharae, and Tritaea, defeated Miccus, the lieutenant-general of the Achaeans, and seized an ancient stronghold, named Teichos, near Cape Araxus, whence he infested the enemy's territory more effectually. In the winter of the same year he advanced from Psophis, in Arcadia, where he had his head-quarters, to invade Sicyonia, having with him a body of 2200 foot and 100 horse. During the night he passed the encampment of the Macedonians, in the Phliasian territory, without being aware of their vicinity; on discovering which from some foragers in the morning, he hastened back, hoping to pass them again, and to arrive at Psophis without an engagement; but, falling in with them in the passes of Mount Apelaurus, between Phlius and Stymphalus, he basely deserted his troops, and made his escape to Psophis, with a small number of horsemen, while almost all the Eleans were either cut to pieces by the Macedonians, or perished among the mountains. Philip then advanced on Psophis, and compelled it to capitulate, Euripidas being allowed to return in safety to Aetolia. In B. C. 217 we find him acting again as general of the Eleans, who had requested that he might be sent to supersede Pyrrhias. He ravaged Achaia in this campaign, but was pursued and defeated by Lycus, the lieutenant-general of the Achaeans. (Polyb. iv. 19, 59, 69—72, v. 94, 95.) [E. E.]
# Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology/Epicurius

​EPICU'RIUS (Ἐπικούριος), the helper, a surname of Apollo, under which he was worshipped at Bassae in Arcadia. Every year a wild boar was sacrificed to him in his temple on mount Lycaeus. He had received this surname because he had at one time delivered the country from a pestilence. (Paus. viii. 38. § 6, 41. § 5.) [L. S.]
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Crowder, Anselm

​CROWDER or CROWTHER, ANSELM (1588–1666), Benedictine monk, was a native of Montgomeryshire. He was among the earliest novices in the Benedictine monastery of St. Gregory at Douay, where he was clothed on 15 April 1609, and professed on 3 July 1611. He became subprior and professor of philosophy in that monastery, and was definitor in 1621. Afterwards he was sent upon the English mission in the south province of his order, and the titles of cathedral prior of Rochester (1633) and of Canterbury (1657) were conferred upon him. A document in the State Paper Office describes him as ‘sometime masquing in the name of Arthur Broughton.’ He was appointed provincial of Canterbury in 1653, and held that office until his death. His missionary labours were principally in or about London, where he established a confraternity of the rosary which was influentially supported, Robert, earl of Cardigan, being prefect of the sodality. The dean of this confraternity kept the relic of the Holy Thorn which had belonged to Glastonbury Abbey before the Reformation. Crowder died in the Old Bailey, London, on 5 May 1666. His works are: 1. ‘The First Treatise of the Spiritual Conquest; or, a Plain Discovery of the Ambuscades and evil Stratagems of our Enemies in this our daily Warfare. Enabling the Christian Warrier to presee and avoid them,’ Paris, 1651, 12mo, with curious cuts, in five treatises, each having a separate title-page. Other editions appeared at Paris 1652, 12mo; Douay, 1685, 12mo; London (edited by Canon Vaughan, O.S.B), 1874, 12mo. 2. ‘Jesus, Maria, Joseph, or the Devout Pilgrim of the Ever Blessed Virgin Mary, in his Holy Exercises, Affections, and Elevations. Upon the sacred Mysteries of Jesus, Maria, Joseph. Published for the benefit of the Pious Rosarists, by A. C. and T. V. [i.e. Thomas Vincent Sadler], Religious Monks of the holy Order of S. Bennet,’ Amsterdam, 1657, 12mo. Another contracted edition which appeared at Amsterdam in 1663, 16mo, is dedicated to Queen Catharine, and has an elaborate frontispiece containing her ​portrait. This prayer-book was a favourite with the queen. Gee, in his 'Foot out of the Snare,' 1624, sig. S. 1, alludes to a book with this title, and attributes it to Simons, a Carmelite, then in London, and he states that the work had lately issued from a press in London, and that the same author also wrote two other books, called 'The Way to find Ease, Rest, and Repose unto the Soul.' 3. 'The Dayley Exercise of the Devout Rosarists,' Amsterdam, 1657, 12mo; 6th edit. Dublin, 1743, 8vo; 8th edit. Cork, 1770, 12mo, frequently reprinted. In the dedication to Sir Henry Tichborne, bart., reference is made to the Tichborne dole, given to all comers on 25 March.
[Gillow's Bibl. Dict. of the Engl. Catholics, i. 604; Weldon's Chronological Notes, pp. 71, 89, 166, 189, 194, 196, 202, App. 4, 7; Snow's Benedictine Necrology, p. 62; Oliver's Catholic Religion in Cornwall, p. 510.]
T. C.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Crowder, Richard Budden

​CROWDER, Sir RICHARD BUDDEN (1795–1859), judge, eldest son of Mr. William Henry Crowder of Montagu Place, Bloomsbury, was born in 1795. He was educated at Eton, and afterwards at Trinity College, Cambridge, but appears to have taken no degree. In 1821 he was called to the bar at Lincoln's Inn, and joined the western circuit, and both on circuit and in London enjoyed a good practice, particularly through his aptitude for influencing juries. In 1837 he was appointed a queen's counsel, in August 1846 he succeeded Sir Charles Wetherell as recorder of Bristol, and for a lone time he held the appointments of counsel to the admiralty and judge-advocate of the fleet. In January 1849 he was elected in the liberal interest for the borough of Liskeard in Cornwall, in succession to Mr. Charles Buller, and he continued to hold the seat until March 1854, when he was appointed a puisne justice in the court of common pleas in succession to Mr. Justice Talfourd, and was knighted. In 1859 he was suffering from an inveterate ague, which affected his heart, and, although a long vacation at Brighton enabled him to resume his seat on the bench during the Michaelmas term, and even to sit at chambers on the day but one before his death, he died suddenly on 5 Dec. He never married.
[Foss's Lives of the Judges; Times, 6 Dec. 1859; Law Mag. new ser. v. 345; Jurist, 10 Dec. 1859; Ann. Reg. 1859.]
J. A. H.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Crow, Francis

​CROW, FRANCIS (d. 1692), nonconformist divine, came of a family seated at Hughhead in Scotland, within six miles of Berwick-upon-Tweed. He was born in Scotland, but received his education in France under the care of Louis du Moulin. For a while he acted as usher to a schoolmaster named Webb in the town of Berwick, and subsequently took the degree of master of arts, at what university is not known. Some time before the Restoration he was presented to the vicarage of Hundon, Suffolk, where he continued till the Act of Uniformity ejected him in 1662. After this he removed to Ovington in Essex, where he usually preached twice every Sunday between the times of worship in the parish church, and attracted a large congregation. He next fixed himself at Clare, a mile and a half from Ovington, and laboured there for many years. Once a month he preached at Bury St. Edmunds; indeed, ‘often would he preach up and down every day in the week.’ Towards the close of Charles II's reign, having suffered some persecution, he resolved to retire to Jamaica. Arrived at Port Royal on 30 March 1686, he ​found, to use his own words, ‘Sin very high and religion very low.’ By way of rebuking the islanders' gross superstition he wrote a little treatise entitled ‘The Vanity and Impiety of Judicial Astrology,’ &c., 12mo, London, 1690. At length, ‘upon K. James's liberty,’ he returned to England, and refusing the offer of a pastorate in London, he went again to his old people in Clare, with whom he continued till his death, which occurred in 1692 at the age of sixty-five. The year after appeared his ‘Mensalia Sacra: or Meditations on the Lord's Supper. Wherein the Nature of the Holy Sacrament is explain'd. … To which is prefixt, a brief account of the author's life and death,’ 12mo, London, 1693. This so-called ‘life’ is merely a pedantic rhapsody, and does not touch upon a single incident in Crow's career.
[Calamy's Nonconformist's Memorial (Palmer), iii. 266–70; Addit. MS. 19102, ff. 289–90.]
G. G.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Crow, Hugh

​CROW, HUGH (1765–1829), voyager, born at Ramsey in the Isle of Man in 1765, adopted a seafaring life, became captain of a merchant vessel, and was long engaged in the African trade. In 1808 he retired from active service, and resided for some years in his native town, but in 1817 he fixed his residence in Liverpool, where he died on 13 May 1829.
His ‘Memoirs,’ published at London in 1830, 8vo, with his portrait prefixed, contain interesting descriptions of the west coast of Africa, particularly the kingdom of Bonny, and of the manners and customs of the inhabitants.
[Memoirs mentioned above; Sutton's Lancashire Authors, p. 27.]
T. C.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Crow, Mitford

​CROW, MITFORD (d. 1719), colonel, is supposed by Noble (Biog. Hist. ii. 176) to have acquired an ascendency in politics by his relationship to Christopher Crow, who married Charlotte, daughter of Edward, earl of Lichfield, and relict of Benedict Leonard, lord Baltimore. He was M.P. for Southampton 1701–2. Crow was employed as British diplomatic agent in Catalonia, where he persuaded the Catalans to espouse the cause of the Archduke Charles of Austria, afterwards Charles V. Lord Fairfax made him one of the trustees under his patent for securing all wrecks occurring in the West Indies, and he was governor of the island of Barbadoes from 1707 to 1711. His name has not been found in the imperfectly kept military entry books of the period (Home Office Papers), and the colonial and other records furnish but scanty information concerning him. Letters from Christopher Crow, who was consul and prize agent at Leghorn (see Treas. Papers, xcv. 94, xcix. 94, cii. 118), and from Mitford Crow, who at one time sat for Southampton, are indicated in various volumes of ‘Hist. MSS. Comm. Reports.’ Crow appears to have been on terms of intimacy with Swift, and is frequently mentioned by the latter in letters from London in 1710–12. He died 15 Dec. 1719.
[Noble's Biog. Hist. vol. ii.; Calendar Treasury Papers, 1702–7; Swift's Works, ii. 267, 287, 385, iii. 11.]
H. M. C.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Crowe, Catherine

​CROWE, CATHERINE (1800?–1876), novelist and writer on the supernatural, was born at Borough Green in Kent about 1800. Her maiden name was Stevens. She appears to have principally resided in Edinburgh, and in her tract on spiritualism speaks of herself as having been 'a disciple of George Combe.' Her first literary work was a tragedy, 'Aristodemus,' published anonymously m 1838. She next produced a novel, 'Manorial Rights,' 1839, and in 1841 wrote her most successful work of fiction, 'Susan Hopley.' In 1844 'The Vestiges of Creation,' which Sedgwick had pronounced on internal evidence to be the work of a woman, was not unfrequently attributed to her, and she amused those in the secret by her apparent readiness to accept the honour. She was, however, employed upon quite a different class of investigation, translating Kemer's 'Seeress of Prevorst' in 1845, and publishing her 'Night Side of Nature' in 1848. This is one of the best collections of supernatural stories in our language, the energy of the authoresses own belief lending animation to her narrative. It has little value from any other point of view, being exceedingly credulous and uncritical. 'Lilly Dawson,' the most successful of her novels after 'Susan Hopley,' was published in 1847. The 'Adventures of a Beauty' and 'Light and Darkness' appeared in 1852, 'Linny Lockwood' in 1854. She also wrote another tragedy, 'The Cruel Kindness,' 1853; abridged 'Uncle Tom's Cabin' for juvenile readers; and contributed some effective tales to periodicals. In 1859 appeared a little treatise on 'Spiritualism, and the Age we live in,' with slight reference to the nominal subject, but evincing a morbid and despondent turn of mind, which resulted in a violent but brief attack of insanity. After her recovery she wrote little, but several of her works continued to be reprinted. She died in 1876. Mrs. Crowe will probably be best remembered by her 'Night Side of Nature,' but her novels are by no means devoid of merit. They are a curious and not unpleasing mixture of imagination and matter of fact. The ingenuity of the plot and the romantic nature of the incidents contrast forcibly with the prosaic character of the personages and the unimpassioned homeliness of the diction. Curiosity and sympathy are deeply excited, and much skill is shown in maintaining the interest to the last.
[Hale's Woman's Record; Men of the Time.]
R. G.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Curtis, Samuel

​CURTIS, SAMUEL (1779–1860), florist, was born in 1779 at Walworth in Surrey. In 1801 he married the only daughter of William Curtis, author of ‘Flora Londinensis,’ and founder of the ‘Botanical Magazine,’ thereby succeeding to its proprietorship. Not long after he removed to Glazenwood, near Coggeshall, Essex. The editorship of the ‘Botanical Magazine’ was resigned by Dr. Sims in 1826, Dr. (afterwards Sir William) Hooker succeeding him. In 1827 Curtis had the misfortune to lose his wife, the mother of a numerous family. About 1846 he sold his rights in the magazine, just when lithography was about to supersede the slow and costly plate-printing. He retired to an estate he bought, La Chaire, at Rozel in Jersey, where he died on 6 Jan. 1860.
[Bot. Mag. vol. lxxxvi. (1860), extra leaf, issued with No. 877, February.]
B. D. J.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Curwen, Thomas

​CURWEN, THOMAS (fl. 1665), quaker, was a useful and influential minister in the Society of Friends. In 1659 he is known to have been imprisoned, and suffered the distraint of his goods for non-payment of tithes, and also to have been imprisoned at Lancaster both in 1660 and 1663, probably for refusing to take the oath of allegiance. In 1665 he was again imprisoned at Lancaster for having created a disturbance in a church. In 1676 he ​and his wife Alice, also a well-known minister, visited America, and endeavoured to propagate quakerism in the New England States, when they were imprisoned and exposed at the whipping-post at Boston two years later. In 1679 his wife died, and he wrote a testimony to her memory (see A Relation of the Labours, Travails, and Sufferings of Alice Curwen, 1680). In 1683 he was committed to the house of correction in Whitechapel, charged, with several other Friends, with creating a riot and disturbance in the streets—that is, with attempting to preach. On trial he was fined five shillings and sent to Newgate, presumably in default of payment, which, as his name does not appear in Besse's list of those ‘who died under sufferings,’ he appears to have survived. When he died is unknown. He wrote ‘This is an answer to John Wiggan's Book spread up and down in Lancashire, Cheshire, and Wales, who is a Baptist and a Monarchy man,’ &c., London, 1665, a curious work of about 160 pages.
[Smith's Catalogue of Friends' Books, vol. i.; Besse's Sufferings of the People called Quakers, i. 303, &c., ii. 259, Curwen; A Relation of the Labours, Travails, &c., 1680.]
A. C. B.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Curtis, John

​CURTIS, JOHN (fl. 1790), landscape-painter, was a pupil of William Marlow [q. v.] at Twickenham. In 1790 he exhibited at the Royal Academy ‘A View of Netley Abbey,’ and was an occasional exhibitor in the following years. In 1797 he departed from his usual style, exhibiting a picture of the ​Indefatigable and Amazon frigates under Sir Edward Pellew engaging Les Droits de l'Homme, a French seventy-four. Nothing is known of his subsequent career. Some of his views have been engraved.
[Redgrave's Dict. of Artists; Graves's Dict. of Artists, 1760–1880; R. A. Catalogues.]
L. C.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Curtis, William (1746-1799)

​CURTIS, WILLIAM (1746–1799), botanist, was born at Alton in Hampshire in 1746. When but fourteen years old he was apprenticed to his grandfather, an apothecary. He appears to have acquired his taste for botany from an ostler, who had studied some of the popular herbals of that day. At the age of twenty, Curtis removed to London in order to finish his medical education. He associated himself after a short period with a Mr. Talwin, licentiate of the Apothecaries' Company, to whose practice he at length succeeded. Curtis soon made himself known as a botanist, and became a demonstrator of practical botany at the medical schools; his students frequenting a botanical garden which he planted at Bermondsey, though later in life he cultivated a more extensive establishment at Lambeth Marsh, and eventually he organised a still larger and more important garden in Brompton.
Curtis combined the study of insect life and their metamorphoses with his botany, his first published work being a pamphlet entitled ‘Instructions for Collecting and Preserving Insects.’ This was published in 1771, and in the following year he produced a translation of Linnæus's ‘Fundamenta Entomologiæ.’ These publications secured him a name, and in 1777 he commenced his ‘Flora Londinensis,’ which established his reputation. This work extended to six fasciculi of seventy-two plates each. In 1781 he undertook the ‘Botanical Magazine,’ which was long continued, and added to Curtis's income. In 1782 there was much alarm created by the appearance in vast numbers of the brown-tailed moth. Large rewards were offered for collecting and destroying them. Curtis carefully studied the natural history of this caterpillar, and wrote a pamphlet proving that there was no reason for fearing any increase in their numbers.
Curtis from time to time printed catalogues of his garden, and he published his ‘Lectures on Botany,’ which after his death were illustrated with beautifully coloured plates. His work also on ‘British Grasses’ was of great value to the farmer. He was one of the original fellows of the Linnean Society, and he furnished two of his most complete entomological papers to the transactions of that body, one on the ‘Silpha Grisca and Curculio Lapathi’ and the other showing that the aphides or lice of plants were the sole cause of the honey dew. This last paper was not published until after Curtis's death, on 7 July 1799. For a considerable time he had laboured under an organic affection of the heart and the vessels connected with it. He bore his affliction with much resignation, and died regretted by a large circle of scientific friends, who followed his remains to their resting-place in Battersea Church.
[Gent. Mag. 1799, lxix. 628; Rees's Cyclopædia; Transactions of the Linnean Society; Rose's Biographical Dictionary; Flora Londinensis.]
R. H-t.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Lees, Charles

​LEES, CHARLES (1800–1880), painter, born at Cupar in Fifeshire in 1800, studied art in Edinburgh, and received instructions in portraiture from Sir Henry Raeburn. He married early in life and went to Rome, where he studied for some years. On his return he settled in Edinburgh as a portrait-painter. Lees was elected one of the earliest fellows of the Royal Scottish Academy, and was a regular contributor to their exhibitions. He very seldom sent a picture to the London exhibitions. Besides portraits, he painted history, domestic subjects, and landscape, taking to the last late in life. Among his earlier pictures were 'The Murder of Rizzio,' 'The Death of Cardinal Beaton,' and 'John Knox in Prison.' He was fond of outdoor sports, and painted pictures of skaters, hockey players, and other sporting scenes. Two pictures by him of curling and golf matches were engraved; they contain a number of portraits of well-known performers at these games. A picture by him, 'Summer Moonlight — Bait-gatherers,' is in the Scottish National Gallery at Edinburgh. He also painted a large view of St. Mark's at Venice. Lees was for some years treasurer and one of the trustees of the Scottish Academy, and devoted much time to its affairs. He died on 28 Feb. 1880, of paralysis.
[Art Journal, 1880, p. 172; Builder, 1880, p. 294; Cat. of Nat. Gallery of Scotland.]
L. C.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Leeke, Laurence

​LEEKE, LAURENCE (d. 1357), prior of Norwich, was appointed prior by William Bateman (d. 1355) [q. v.], the bishop, on 24 April 1352. He was vicar-general for Bateman in 1352 and 1355, and died in December 1357. He composed 'Historiola de Vita et Morte Reverendi domini Willelmi Bateman Norwicensis episcopi,' once preserved at Trinity Hall, Cambridge, but now ​Apparently lost. It is printed in Peck's 'Desiderata Curiosa.' vii. 239-42.
[Tanner's Bibl. Brit.-Hib. p. 474; Dugdale's Monasticon, iv. 7; Blomefield's Hist. of Norfolk, iii. 603, 632.]
C. L. K.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Leeds, Edward (1695?-1758)

​LEEDS, EDWARD (1695?–1758), serjeant-at-law, born about 1695, was only son of Edward Leeds (1664–1729), citizen and mercer of London, and a prominent dissenter at Hackney (will of E. Leeds the elder, registered in P. C. C. 311, Abbott; Addit MS. 5734, f. 69). On 2 May 1710 he was admitted of the Inner Temple, and was called to the bar on 29 June 1718 (Inner Temple Register and Bar Book). He became eminent as a case lawyer, and enjoyed a large chamber practice. In February 1742 he was summoned to take the coif, and in Trinity term 1748 was made a king's serjeant. During vacation he lived chiefly on his estate at Croxton, Cambridgeshire. He retired from practice in 1755, and died on 5 Dec, 1758. In 1715 he married ​Anne (d. 1757), third daughter of Joseph Collett of Hertford Castle, formerly governor of Fort St. George, by whom he had issue two sons, Edward and Joseph, and two daughters; Henrietta (1716-1766), who on 26 April 1768 became the second wife of John Howard (1726?-1790) [q. v.] the philanthropist, and Anne, married on 31 May 1764 to John Barnardiston, solicitor (will registered in P. C. C. 374, Hutton). Cole (Addit MS. 6820, f. 66) describes Leeds as 'a heavy, dull, plodding man, but a great lover of antiquity.'
His eldest son, Edward Leeds (1728-1803), master in chancery, born on 30 Nov. 1728, entered the Inner Temple on 22 Dec. 1743, and was called to the bar. In 1765 he was appointed sheriff for Cambridgeshire (Gent. Mag. 1708, p. 46). He owed much to the patronage of Lord Hardwicke, by whom he was made a master in chancery on 21 Jan. 1773 (Hardy, Cat. of Lords Chancellors, &c, p. 101). According to Cole (loc. cit.) Leeds was a 'most impertinent, pragmatical mortal,' and so bitter against the clergy that Cole had to remind him that his family had acquired their property entirely from the revenues of the church. Greatly to his disappointment his party persistently refused to nominate him M.P. for Cambridge, of which town he was sub-deputy-recorder. He was a candidate for the deputy-recordership, but was defeated by Charles Nalson Cole [q. v.] At length, on 31 March 1784, he was elected M.P. for Reigate, but vacated the seat in 1787. He died unmarried on 22 March 1803, and was succeeded at Croxton by his brother Joseph (Gent. Mag. 1803, pt. i. pp. 294, 379).
[Woolrych's Serjeants-at-Law, ii. 539-41; Lysons's Magna Britannia, vol. ii. pt. i. p. 174; Addit. MS. 6808, ff. 44, 45.]
G. G.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Leeds, Dukes of

​LEEDS, Dukes of. [See Osborne.]