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

​MARSHALL, GEORGE (fl. 1554), poet, is only known by one work, entitled 'A Compendious Treatise in metre declaring the firste originall of Sacrifice and of the buylding of Aultares and Churches and of the first receavinge of the Christen fayth here in Englande, by G. M. . . . Anno Domini 1.5.5.4. 18 Decembris' (printed by I[ohn] C[awood]). 'The Preface unto the Readers' applies the author's name in an acrostic. The dedication, in prose, in addressed to 'Rycharde Whartun, esquier.' The treatise is a poem in fifty-nine eight-line stanzas (rhyming a a b c c b d d), and describes the growth of Christianity, chiefly in England, till the accession of Queen Mary. The poet is a pious catholic, indulges in strong language concerning the heresies of Wiclif and Luther, and finally congratulates his countrymen on the restoration of the old faith under Mary. Two copies only are known, one in Mr. Huth's library, and the other at Lambeth. The author describes himself as 'emptye of learning,' but inserts references in side notes to Beda, Josephus, and Eusebius, as well as to the Vulgate. It was reprinted in 1875 in Mr, Huth's 'Fugitive Tracts,' 1st ser. No. xv.
[Tanner's Bibl. Brit.; Huth's Fugitive Tracta.]
S. L.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Stedman, Charles

​STEDMAN, CHARLES (1753–1812), military historian, was of a family that claims descent from Andrew Barton [q. v.] According to the Stedman tradition, Andrew Barton left an only son, Charles, who married Susan Stedman of Leith and took his wife's name. His descendants acquired land in Kinross-shire, and supplied many ministers to the kirk. Alexander (1703–1794), the father of the military historian, became an ​advocate and a Jacobite, but was compelled to fly the country after Culloden, together with two of his brothers. He found refuge at Philadelphia, where he was ultimately appointed a judge of the supreme court. On the declaration of independence he withdrew to England and died at Swansea in 1794 (cf. Appleton, American Biogr.) He married Elizabeth Chancellor, the daughter of an immigrant to America from Somerset, who had been captured during the Spanish war and brought up in a convent.
Charles, their second son, was born at Philadelphia in 1753, and educated for the law at William and Mary College in Virginia. Like his father, he remained loyal to the British crown, and, on the outbreak of hostilities, he was appointed commissary to the troops under the command of Sir William Howe. His knowledge of the German language, presumably acquired from early intercourse with the numerous German settlers in Pennsylvania, stood him in good stead, both as interpreter with the Hessian auxiliaries, and afterwards as commander of a rifle corps of colonists from the Palatinate. He was twice taken prisoner, and sentenced to be hanged as a rebel; but on each occasion he managed to escape, once from the same prison that held the ill-fated Major André. He was also twice severely wounded. On the conclusion of peace in 1783 he retired to England on the half-pay of a colonel. He was one of those appointed to examine and settle the claims of the American loyalists. In 1794 appeared his ‘History of the Origin, Progress, and Termination of the American War’ (2 vols. London, 4to, with folding maps and plans; and in the same year 2 vols., Dublin, 8vo), which still remains the standard work on the subject. It is dedicated to Lord Rawdon, earl of Moira, his former commander-in-chief. Shortly after it appeared Sir Henry Clinton printed ‘Some Observations upon Mr. Stedman's History’ (4to, 1794), which impugn the author's accuracy on minor points; but these strictures appear to have been prompted mainly by personal feeling. Through the influence of the Marquis of Cornwallis, Lord Rawdon's predecessor in the command, Stedman was in 1797 appointed to the office of deputy controller and accountant-general of the revenue of stamps, with reversion to the chief controllership, which, however, never fell in. He died on 26 June 1812, and was buried at Paddington. He married Mary Bowen, by whom he had one son, John, who became judge of the court of admiralty at Gibraltar, and compiled a genealogical memoir of the family (1857).
J. S. C.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Stedman, John Andrew

​STEDMAN, JOHN ANDREW (1778–1833), general in the Dutch army, was the son of William George Stedman. Both his father and grandfather, who belonged to the same family as Charles Stedman [q. v.] and John Gabriel Stedman [q. v.], were officers in the Scots brigade in the service of the States-General of Holland—a corps whose history extends from 1570 to 1783. Both of them married Dutch wives of noble blood. In 1783, when the Scots brigade was formed into Dutch regiments, and most of the officers resigned their commissions, Captain William George Stedman elected to be naturalised in the country of his adoption. John Andrew, his only son, was born at Zutphen in 1778, and received a commission in the Dutch army when only a child. At the early age of sixteen he first saw service with the allied forces, under the Duke of York and the Prince of Orange, which were employed in 1794 on the northern frontier of France. His next service was in 1799, when the Batavian republic was in alliance with France, and the Duke of York commanded the opposing army at Bergen. At a later date he again served against the English at Walcheren. Meanwhile he had held important staff appointments, and, on the incorporation of Holland with France, he became general of brigade in the French army. In this capacity he served for two years in Italy, and was present at the battles of Bautzen and Dresden. In 1814 he attached himself to the Prince of Orange, afterwards King William of Holland, and commanded the Dutch troops in reserve at Waterloo, with the rank of lieutenant-general. He died at Nimeguen in 1833. He married Nicola Gertrude van de Poll, granddaughter of the last reigning burgomaster of Amsterdam. Their only son, Charles John William Stedman, became a Prussian subject, settling at Besselich Abbey, near Coblentz. He was a member of the national assemblies of Frankfort and Erfurt, and received the title of freiherr or baron. He had a large family, of which nearly all the sons entered the Queen Augusta regiment of guards; they have reverted to the original family name of Barton.
J. S. C.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Stayley, George

​STAYLEY, GEORGE (1727–1779?), actor and playwright, was born at Burton-on-Trent on 1 March 1727. In 1745 he was adopted by his mother's brother, an attorney named Monk, who wished him to study law; but after five years his kinsman, perceiving he had no aptitude in that direction, left him to his own devices. After two years of idleness he landed in Ireland on 29 May 1752, and obtained employment at the theatre in Smock Alley as an actor. In 1760 Henry ​Mossop [q. v.] discharged him for giving political toasts while acting the part of Lovel in the farce of ‘High Life.’ The remainder of his life was spent in broils with theatrical managers and fellow-actors. Though a good actor he was inordinately vain, and had an unfortunate knack of irritating those with whom he came in contact. In the beginning of 1766 he proceeded to Edinburgh and appeared at the Canongate Music Hall, afterwards the Canongate Theatre Royal. Next year he was not re-engaged, but he was more appreciated by the public than by the management. A riot ensued in consequence on 24 Jan., and the theatre was wrecked. Stayley afterwards taught elocution, and died in obscurity before 1780.
Stayley published: 1. ‘The Court of Nassau,’ a comedy, Dublin, 1753, 4to. 2. ‘The Rival Theatres,’ a farce, Dublin, 1759, 12mo, a skit on the rivalry between Sheridan at Smock Alley and Barry and Woodward at Crow Street. 3. ‘The Chocolate Makers, or Mimickry Exposed,’ printed with the preceding. 4. ‘The Life and Opinions of an Actor,’ Dublin, 1762, 12mo, which contains also a number of short pieces in prose and verse. 5. ‘An Enquiry into the Natural Worth and Dignity of Man,’ Edinburgh, 1766, 12mo.
[Stayley's Life and Opinions of an Actor; Baker's Biogr. Dramatica, i. 683; Lowe's English Theatrical Literature, p. 321; Dibdin's Annals of the Edinburgh Stage, 1888, pp. 135–43; Hitchcock's History of the Irish Stage, 1788–94, passim; Jackson's History of the Scottish Stage, 1793, pp. 60–6.]
E. I. C.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Gresham, John

​GRESHAM, Sir JOHN (d. 1556), lord mayor of London. [See under Gresham, Sir Richard.]
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Grenville, Thomas (1719-1747)

​GRENVILLE, THOMAS (1719–1747), captain in the navy, seventh son of Richard Grenville (1678-1728) of Wotton Hall in Buckinghamshire, younger brother of Richard Grenville, second earl Temple (1711-1779) [q. v.], and of George Grenville (1712-1770) [q. v.], was born on 3 April 1719. Having passed rapidly through the lower ranks in the navy, he was, on 6 April 1742, posted to the command of the Romney, in which, off Cape St. Vincent in the following March, he had the good fortune to capture a French ship from Vera Cruz to Cadiz with an extremely valuable cargo. In a letter to his brother George, Grenville estimated his share as being probably between 30,000l. and 40,000l., but it does not seem to have actually amounted to more than half. In the beginning of 1745 he was appointed to the Falkland, on the coast of Ireland, and in the following year to the Defiance of 60 guns, in which, in the spring of 1747, he was ordered on an independent cruise, by the influence of his brother George, then one of the lords of the admiralty. Much to their annoyance, however, the ship was at the last moment detained and attached to the squadron under Anson [q. v.], who wrote to George Grenville, promising that the detention should be for as short a time as possible, and adding ‘if there should be any service, I know he would be glad to be in it.’ On 3 May Anson met and captured the French squadron off Cape Finisterre. The success was complete; but ‘the joy of it,’ wrote George Lyttelton, ‘is palled to our family by the loss of poor Captain Grenville, one of the most promising young men in the navy, and who, had he lived, would have been an honour not to his family only, but to his country.’ About two hours after the action began his left thigh was smashed by a huge splinter, and though the mangled limb was at once amputated, he died in the course of five hours. His body was brought to England, and buried at Wotton. A column to his memory was erected in the gardens at Stowe by his uncle, Lord Cobham.
[Charnock's Biog. Nav. v. 190; The Grenville Papers, vol. i. freq.]
J. K. L.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Gresham, James

​GRESHAM, JAMES (fl. 1626), poet, published in 1626 ‘The Picture of Incest: liuely portraicted in the historie of Cinyras and Myrrha,’ 12mo. This poem, written in heroic couplets, is a translation from book x. of Ovid's ‘Metamorphoses,’ and is a satisfactory performance. A reprint from the one known copy of the original edition, which is in the British Museum Library, has been made by the Rev.A.B. Grosart (1876). Gresham may be identical with the James Gresham who in 1631 married the widow of Roger Hurst, a brewer, and five years later petitioned the king for protection against the creditors of Hurst's estate (Cal State Papers, Dom. 1636, p. 30).
A. V.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Grenville, Richard Temple Nugent Brydges Chandos

[Gent. Mag. 1836 pt. i. p. 95, 1839 pt. i. pp. 309-10; Doyle's Official Baronage, i. 264.]
G. C. B.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Osborne, William

William Osborn in the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography.
​OSBORNE, WILLIAM, M.D. (1736–1808), man-midwife, was born in London in 1736, and received his medical education at St. George's Hospital. He practised for some years as a surgeon, and was elected man-midwife to the lying-in hospital in Store Street, London. On 10 Oct. 1777 he obtained the degree of M.D. in the university of St. Andrews, and was admitted a licentiate in midwifery of the College of Physicians of London 22 Dec. 1783. He became colleague of Dr. Thomas Denman [q. v.] in an annual course of lectures on midwifery in 1772, and after 1783 lectured by himself for a time, and then with Dr. John Clarke (1761–1815) [q. v.] He states that he had educated more than twelve hundred practitioners in midwifery. In 1783 he published 'An Essay on laborious Parturition, in which the division of the Symphysis Pubis is particularly considered.' Sigault and other Frenchmen had advocated the use of this operation, and in England Dr. William Hunter (1718–1783) [q. v.] had expressed a favourable opinion on it. Osborne thought it useless and dangerous, and subsequent experience has so far confirmed his view that it is now never performed. In 1792 he published 'Essays on the Practice of Midwifery in natural and difficult labours,' which is merely an enlargement of his former book. He was strongly opposed to the Cæsarian section, and had some difference with Denman on the subject. Like most of the writers on midwifery of the hundred years preceding 1860, he quotes scriptural texts in the body of his works. The men-midwives, who became extinct about that period, usually claimed merit for some instrument invented by themselves, and he took pride in a modification of the obstetric forceps, which measured 11¼ inches in length and had a breadth between the blades of 2¾ inches. It is depicted in his second work. A second edition of this, which is believed to have been surreptitious (Catalogue of Library of Royal Medico-Chiruryical Society, ii. 143), appeared in 1795. He attained considerable wealth, and died at Old Park, near Dover, on 15 Aug. 1808. His portrait was painted by J. Hardy, and was engraved by J. Jones in 1791.
[Munk's Coll. of Phys. ii. 336; Osborne's Works.]
N. M.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Osgoode, William

​OSGOODE, WILLIAM (1754–1824), Canadian jurist, son of William Osgoode of St. Martin's, London, was born in England in 1754. According to the French Canadian writer Garneau, who does not state any authority, he was a natural son of George II. Osgoode matriculated at Christ Church, Oxford, in 1768, graduated B.A. in 1772, and M.A. in 1777. He became a law student at Lincoln's Inn in 1773, and was called to the bar in 1779. In the same yearhe published 'Remarks on the Laws of Descent,' criticising the views of Mr. Justice Blackstone on this subject. In 1791, after the Canada Bill, Osgoode was appointed chief justice of Upper Canada. He sailed thither in April 1792, accompanied by General Simcoe, the lieutenant-governor of the Upper Province. In 1794 Osgoode was made chief justice of the province of Lower Canada, and settled at the capital, Quebec. Besides the chief-justiceship, he was given the office of president of the committee for the management of the public lands. He excited great dissatisfaction among the French Canadians by the partiality with which he assigned the largest grants to English settlers. The French settlers complained of Osgoode to General Prescott, who became lieutenant-governor of the Lower Province in 1797. The latter promptly took up their side, and a bitter dispute ensued between him and the chief justice. The executive council, which at that time held the supremacy in the colonial government, was closely allied with Osgoode. General Prescott was thus isolated, and his attempts to reform the management of the public lands proved a failure. Both parties eventually appealed to the Duke of Portland, home minister for the colonies, and, after a long correspondence, General Prescott was recalled in 1800. In 1801 Osgoode resigned his office of chief justice of Lower Canada, and returned home. He received a large pension, and lived for the rest of his life in London. He was a strong tory in politics, and on good terms with the chiefs of the government; but he took no part in law or politics beyond twice sitting on royal commissions on the courts of law. He died at his chambers in the Albany on 17 Jan. 1824. ​The building now occupied by the four superior courts at Toronto is known as Osgoode Hall.
[Garseau's Histoire du Canada; Morgan's Sketches of Celebrated Canadians; Foster's Alumni Oxon.]
G. P. M-y.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Oshere

​OSHERE (fl. 680), under-king of the Hwiccii, was perhaps a brother of Osric, who was also king of the Hwiccii [see Osric, d. 729]. Bishop Stubbs, on the other hand, thinks it probable that Oshere was a son of Oswald, the brother of Osric (Dictionary of Christian Biography, iv. 160, 164). This theory would, however, seem to put him a generation too late. On the first nypothesis, which is well supported, Oshere was a member of the royal house of Northumbria, and a nephew of the queen of Ethelred, king of the Mercians. Under Ethelred he ruled the Hwiccii, the people of the present Gloucestershire and Worcestershire, then subject to Mercia. In a spurious charter, granting land for a monastery at Ripple in Worcestershire in 680, Oshere is represented as calling himself king, though acting under Ethelred, and he is also described as King among the witnesses to a charter of 793, granting land for a monastery for the abbess Cutswythe. In another deed he appears as under-king and as a follower of Ethelred, and as counselling him to make a grant of land at Withington, in Gloucestershire. A letter from the abbess Egburga or Eadburh, apparently the second abbess of Gloucester and sister of the first abbess Kyneburga and of Osric and Oswald, to Bishop Wynfrith or Boniface, written 716-722, speaks of her brother Oshere as then dead. Oshere had at least two sons, Æthelward and Æthelric, who ruled over the Hwiccii, though they are not, as far as we know, described as kings.
[Kemble's Codex. Dipl. Nos. 17, 36,82,56, 57 (Eng. Hist. Soc.); Jaffe's Monumenta Moguntinn, p. 64; Dict. Chr. Biogr. iv. 160, art. 'Oshere,' by Bishop Stubbs.]
W. H.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Osburga

​OSBURGA or OSBURH (fl. 861), mother of Alfred or Alfred (849–901) [q. v.], king of the West-Saxons, daughter of Oslac, cupbearer of King Ethelwulf [q. v.], of the house of the leaders of the Jutes, who settled in the Isle of Wight in the reigns of Cerdic and Cynric, married Ethelwulf [q. v.], king of the West-Saxons, and had by him, as it seems, five sons—Æthelstan (d. 852?) [see under Ethelwulf], Ethelbald (d. 860) [q. v.], Ethelbert (d. 860) [q. v.] Æthelred (d. 871) [q. v.], and Ælfred the Great, of whom the last four became kings of the West-Saxons—and a daughter, Ethelswith or Æthelswyth, who married Burhred [q. v.], under-king of Mercia. Osburga must have been alive in 856, when her husband, Ethelwulf, brought home his young bride Judith, daughter of Charles the Bald; for a notice of her occurs which must belong to the year 861, when her youngest son, Alfred, was in his twelfth year. Up to that time he had not been able to read, but then his mother showed him and his brothers a book of 'Saxon' poetry, promising to give it to him who should first be able to read it. Ælfred, delighted with the beauty of the illuminated initial letters, went to a master, who read the poems over to him until he knew them by heart. It is impossible to believe that this story refers to Judith, who was a mere girl in 861 [see under Ælfred, u.s.] Osburga is said by Asser to have been a noble-minded and deeply religious woman.
[Asser (Mon. Hist. Brit.), pp. 469, 474; Ethelwerd (Mon. Hist. Brit.), p. 611; Will. of Malmesbury's Gesta Regum, i. 132 (Rolls Ser.); Green's Conquest of England, p. 100; Giles's Alfred the Great, pp. 80–4.]
W. H.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Osgod Clapa

​OSGOD CLAPA (d. 1054), a thegn in the service of Cnut, was no doubt a Dane by birth. He first appears as witness to a charter in 1026, when he is styled 'Osgod minister' (Codex Diplomaticus, iv. 748). His name occurs frequently witnessing charters down to 1046, generally under the title of 'minister,' but sometimes as 'miles,' In 1033 he is mentioned in conjunction with Tofig Pruda (ib. iv. 749). It was on the occasion of the wedding feast of Osgod's daughter, Gytha, and Tofig, on 8 June 1042, that Harthacnut died while drinking in Osgod's house at Lambeth. Freeman suggests that Osgod opposed the accession of Edward the Confessor, and that his subsequent exile was due to this. However, Osgod witnesses a number of royal charters in 1044 and 1045, and one in 1046 (ib. iv. 768-83). The last shows that the 'Abingdon Chronicle ' is correct in stating that it was in 1046, before midwinter, that Osgod was outlawed, and not in 1044, 1045, or 1047, as elsewhere stated. Osgod apparently went to Denmark, and took service with Swegen Estrithson. In 1049 there came news that he was at Ulp, on the coast of Flanders, with thirty-nine ships. Edward sent ships to watch him; but Osgod, having fetched his wife from Bruges, went back to Denmark with six ships, while the remainder harried the coast of Essex. In 1054 Osgod died suddenly in his bed (English Chron.) He had, as it would seem, come back to England, but 'we have no account of the time or circumstances of his return' (Norman Conquest, ii. 373). Heremann and Abbot Samson, in their narratives on the 'Miracles of St. Edmund,' relate how Osgod was miraculously punished for his pride in entering the abbey church armed with his battle-axe, when he once happened to be at Bury St. Edmunds with King Edward. Before this Osgod had been an enemy to the saint and his abbey, but afterwards he reformed his life and ways. Samson says he was of such power and repute as to be held second only to the king. Heremann calls him 'Major domus,' which is no doubt the equivalent of 'staller,' by which title he is once referred to in the 'English Chronicle' (Monuments Historica Britannica, p. 436). Osgod was a benefactor of Tofig's foundation of Waltham Abbey.
Clapham, Surrey, is said to owe its name to Osgod's house there.
[English Chronicle; Florence of Worcester; Kemble's Codex Diplomaticus Ævi Saxonici; Memorials of St. Edmund's Abbey, i. 54-6, 135-136 (Rolls Ser.); Freeman's Norman Conquest, ii. 90, 373, his William Rufus, ii. 268, and Old English History.]
C. L. K.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Osgar

​OSGAR, OSCAR, or ORDGAR (d. 984), abbot of Abingdon, was one of the clerks who left Dunstan's community at Glastonbury to go with Æthelwold [q. v.] when he was appointed abbot of Abingdon (Hist. Abingdon, ii. 258). He was sent by Æthelwold to Fleury on the Loire to learn the Benedictine rule, and returned with a written account of it. When Æthelwold became bishop of Winchester (963), he appointed Osgar his successor in the abbacy of Abingdon.
​Osgar was present at the expulsion of secular canons from Winchester, and made a speech on that occasion. In a letter from Fleury, written partly in cipher, apparently by a friend of Dunstan, or on behalf of Abbo, abbot of Fleury, an abbot is blamed for not returning a copy of Florus's commentary on St. Paul's Epistles ; the name Oscarus will be found to nt the cipher (Stubbs, Dunstan. p. 376), and the borrower is no doubt identical with the abbot of Abingdon. He purchased and obtained large tracts of land for his convent, and his name is appended to 43 genuine charters of the years 967-974, and to thirteen marked by Kemble as spurious. He died in 984, having finished the buildings begun by his master Æthelwold at Abingdon.
[Wulstan's Life of Æthelwold ; Migne's Pat. Lat. 137, cols. 89, 92 ; Chron. de Abingdon, ed. Stevenson ; Will. Malmesbury's Gosta Poutifieum, ed. Hamilton, p. 191.]
M. B.