OpenLLM-France/wikimedia huggingface dataset:
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Barnard, Edward William

​BARNARD, EDWARD WILLIAM (1791–1828), divine, poet and scholar, was educated at Harrow and Trinity College, owing to his distaste for mathematics. In 1817 he published anonymously, 'Poems, founded upon the Poems of Meleager,' which were re-edited in 1818 under the title of 'Trifles, imitative of the Chaster Style of Meleager.' The latter volume was dedicated to Thomas Moore, who tells us in his journal that he had the manuscript to look over, and describes the poems as 'done with much elegance.' Barnard was presented to the living of Brantingthorp, Yorkshire, from which is dated his next publication, 'The Protestant Beadsman' (1822), This is described by a writer in 'Notes and Queries' as a ​'delightful little volume on the saints and martyrs commemorated by the English church, containing biographical notices of them, and hymns upon each of them.’ Barnard died prematurely on 10 Jan. 1828. He was at that time collecting materials for an elaborate life of the Italian poet Marc-Antonio Flaminio, born at the end of the fifteenth century, and had got together ‘numerous extracts, memoranda, and references from a wide range of contemporary and succeeding authors.’ The life was to accompany a translation of Flaminio's best pieces, but unfortunately the work was only partially completed at the author's death. Such translations as were ready for publication were edited for private circulation, along with some of Barnard's original poems, by Archdeacon Wrangham, the editor of Langhorne's ‘Plutarch.’ The title of this volume, published in 1829, is ‘Fifty Select Poems of Marc-Antonio Flaminio, imitated by the late Rev. Edw. Will. Barnard, M.A. of Trinity College, Cambridge,’ and a short memoir by Archdeacon Wrangham is prefixed. Mr. Barnard had also projected a ‘History of the English Church,’ and collected many valuable materials for the work. He married the daughter of Archdeacon Wrangham, and is said to have made a ‘most exemplary parish priest.’
[Notes and Queries, 2nd series, vols. iv., ix., x.; Moore's Memoirs and Journal; Lowndes's Bibliog. Manual; Gent. Mag. xcviii. p. 187; Brit. Mus. Cat.]
R. B.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Dewar, James

​DEWAR, JAMES (1793–1846), musician, born in Scotland 26 July 1793, became deputy leader of the band at the Theatre Royal, Edinburgh, in 1807, and was afterwards musical director. From 1815 to 1835 he was organist at St. George's Episcopal Church, Edinburgh; he also conducted the Edinburgh Musical Association. He died at Edinburgh on 4 Jan. 1846. An arrangement of Scotch airs for the piano, which he had orchestrated for the theatre, was published after his death. He also composed a little unimportant vocal music, which never obtained more than a local celebrity.
W. B. S.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Diamond, Hugh Welch

​DIAMOND, HUGH WELCH (1809–1886), photographer, eldest son of William Batchelor Diamond, a surgeon in the East India Company's service, was educated at Norwich grammar school under Dr. Valpy. His family claimed descent from a French refugee named Dimont or Demonte, who settled in Kent early in the seventeenth century. Diamond became a pupil at the Royal College of Surgeons in London 5 Nov. 1828, a student at St. Bartholomew's Hospital in 1828, and a member of the College of Surgeons in 1834. While a student he assisted Dr. Abernethy in preparing dissections for his lectures, and subsequently practised in Soho, where he distinguished himself in the cholera outbreak in 1832. He soon made mental diseases his speciality, and studied at Bethlehem Hospital. From 1848 to 1858 he was resident superintendent of female patients at the Surrey County Asylum, and in 1858 he established a private asylum for female patients at Twickenham, where he lived till his death on 21 June 1886.
Diamond interested himself largely in the early success of photography. While improving many of the processes, he is said to have invented the paper or cardboard photographic portrait; earlier photographers produced portraits only on glass. In 1853 he became secretary of the London Photographic Society, and edited its journal for many years. In 1853 and following years he contributed a series of papers to 'Notes and Queries' on photography applied to archæology and practised in the open air, and on various photographic processes. He read a paper before the Royal Society 'On the Application of Photography to the Physiognomic and Mental Phenomena of Insanity.' A committee was subsequently formed among scientific men to testify their gratitude to Diamond for his photographic labours, and he was presented, through Professor Faraday, with a purse of 300l. Collections made by Diamond for a work on medical biography were incorporated by Mr. J. C. Jeaffreson in his 'Book about Doctors' (London, 2 vols. 1860). Diamond was a genial companion and an enthusiastic collector of works of art and antiquities. Several valuable archæological memoirs by him appeared in the 'Archæologia.'
[Athenæum, 3 July 1886; Medical Directory, 1886; Notes and Queries, 1st ser. passim.]
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Dibben, Thomas

​DIBBEN, THOMAS, D.D. (d. 1741), Latin poet, a native of Manston, Dorsetshire, was admitted into Westminster School on the foundation in 1692, and thence elected in 1696 to a scholarship at Trinity College, Cambridge, of which he became a fellow in 1698 (B.A. 1699, M.A. 1703, B.D. 1710, D.D. 1721). On 16 July 1701 he was instituted to the rectory of Great Fontmell, Dorsetshire. He was chaplain to Dr. John Robinson, bishop of Bristol and lord privy seal, with whom he went to the congress of Utrecht, and who on being translated to the see of London collated him in 1714 to the precentorship of St. Paul's Cathedral. He represented the diocese of Bristol in the convocations of 1715 and 1727. Afterwards he became mentally deranged, left his house and friends, spent his fortune, and died in the Poultry compter, London, on 5 April 1741.
He published two sermons, one of which was preached at Utrecht before the plenipotentiaries 9–20 March 1711 on the anniversary of the queen's accession. As a Latin poet he acquired considerable celebrity. He wrote one of the poems printed at Cambridge on the return of William III from the continent in 1697, and translated Matthew Prior's 'Carmen Seculare' for 1700 into Latin verse. ​Of this translation Prior, in the preface to his ‘Poems’ (1733), says: ‘I take this occasion to thank my good friend and schoolfellow, Mr. Dibben, for his excellent version of the “Carmen Seculare,” though my gratitude may justly carry a little envy with it; for I believe the most accurate judges will find the translation exceed the original.’
T. C.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Devisme, Louis

Louis de Vismes in the ODNB.
​DEVISME, LOUIS (1720–1776), diplomatist, third son of Phillippe de Visme, a Huguenot, of distinguished family, who fled from Normandy to England after the revocation of the edict of Nantes, was born on 25 Sept. 1720. He was educated at Westminster School, and proceeded thence to Christ Church, Oxford, where he took the B.A. degree in 1743 and his M.A. in 1746. Being destined for the church he was ordained a deacon, but abandoned that career for the diplomatic service. In 1763, a few months after the second Catherine's accession to the throne of Russia, Devisme was appointed secretary to the British embassy at St. Petersburg. His next appointment was as minister plenipotentiary to the electorate of Bavaria. He was concurrently the representative of England at the diet of Ratisbon (1769–73), and in 1773 he succeeded Sir John Goodrich as envoy extraordinary and minister plenipotentiary at Stockholm, where he died, unmarried, on 4 Sept. 1776. Frederick the Great of Prussia allowed him, as a proof of esteem, to bear the Prussian eagle as a crest. Devisme's character for penuriousness peeps out in Lady Minto's ‘Memoir of Hugh Elliot,’ whose predecessor he was at the court of Munich (1775). ‘He had no secretary, contenting himself with a boy who understood no language but his own, merely to ​copy for him.’ He was also apparently shocked at Elliot's extravagance in giving a hundred louis to the widow of a kind friend, Baron Garny (Mem. of Elliot, pp. 46, 46).
R. H.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Dewsbury, William

​DEWSBURY, WILLIAM (1621–1688), an early quaker preacher and author, was born in 1621 at Allerthorpe, near Pocklington in the East Riding of Yorkshire. Up to his thirteenth year he was a shepherd's boy, and afterwards served his apprenticeship to a cloth-weaver at Holbeck, Leeds. He was a pious youth, and used to take down in shorthand the sermons he heard. When the civil war broke out he joined the parliamentary army, because its partisans said they fought for the gospel. His comrades were not like-minded with himself, and, feeling conscious of a command to put away his sword, he left the army and returned to his former calling. He heard George Fox preach at Balby in Yorkshire, and at once was in accord with him in the doctrine of the ‘inward divine reproving for that which is evil.’ He became a zealous preacher and went through great sufferings. He was imprisoned for no less than nineteen years for the sake of his religion. The places of his confinement were York in 1654, 1658, and 1661, Derby in 1654, Northampton in 1654, Newgate in 1660, and Warwick in 1660, and again there from 1663 to 1671, and from 1678, at the time of the popish plot, to April 1685, when he was set at liberty on the general proclamation of James II. He was taken ill in May 1688 in London, whither he had come to attend the yearly meeting of Friends, but returned to Warwick and died on 17 June 1688. He was twice married, first in 1646, and a second time in 1667.
Between 1654 and 1686 he wrote and published many tracts, which were collected in 1689 under the title of ‘The Faithful Testimony of that Antient Servant of the Lord and Minister of the Everlasting Gospel, William Dewsbury, in his Books, Epistles, and Writings, collected and printed for future service,’ 4to. Two Dutch epistles to Friends in Holland have never been translated into English.
C. W. S.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Devis, Arthur William

​DEVIS, ARTHUR WILLIAM (1763–1822), portrait and history painter, was born in London 10 Aug. 1763. He was the son of Arthur Devis [q. v.], the portrait painter, from whom he received his art education. When about twenty years of age he was appointed draughtsman in a voyage projected by the East India Company, and sailed in the Antelope packet, commanded by Captain Wilson. The vessel was wrecked off the Pelew Islands, on one of which the crew landed. The island was uninhabited, but the sailors formed a friendly intercourse with a neighbouring people, and took part in the wars of the natives. The Antelope crew having built a vessel, the king confided to Captain Wilson his son, Prince Lee Boo, and they sailed for Macao. On the voyage Devis received two wounds from arrows shot from the coast, one in his body, the other in his cheek; the latter caused a permanent injury to the jaw. On arriving at Macao the captain sold the little vessel and proceeded to Canton, whence, with the exception of Devis, they embarked with Prince Lee Boo for England. The prince died in London 27 Dec. 1784, aged 20. After having passed one year at Canton, Devis proceeded to Bengal, where he was noticed by Sir William Jones, Lord Cornwallis, and General Harris. In 1795 he returned to England and painted ‘The Conspiracy of Babington in the reign of Queen Elizabeth,’ engraved in mezzotint by John Bromley; ‘Cardinal Langton and the Barons forcing King John to sign Magna Charta;’ ‘Lord Cornwallis receiving the two sons of Tippoo Saib as Hostages;’ the portraits of Admiral Peter Rainier and Sir Isaac Heard, &c. After the battle of Trafalgar he went out to meet the Victory, and painted ‘The Death of Vice-admiral Lord Viscount Nelson, K.B., in the cockpit of H.M.S. Victory, 21 Oct. 1805.’ This picture, engraved by W. Bromley (1812), was presented by the Right Hon. Lord Bexley to the gallery of Greenwich Hospital in 1825 (size 8 feet 7 inches by 6 feet 4 inches). He also painted a commemorative picture on the death of Princess Charlotte. In 1812 Devis abandoned the Artists' Fund, to aid which he had made great exertions in 1810 and 1811. He fell a victim to apoplexy, and died in London 11 Feb. 1822, and was buried in St. Giles's churchyard. He exhibited sixty-five pictures at the Royal Academy between 1779 and 1821. His equestrian portrait of ‘Alexander Sinclair Gordon, Esq., captain and adjutant of the light horse volunteers of London and Westminster,’ was engraved by Anthony Cardon in 1805; ‘The Battle of Waterloo,’ engraved by John Burnet in 1819; ‘An Indian Interior,’ by P. W. Tomkins in 1797; ‘The Little Mountaineer,’ by E. Scriven in 1809, who also engraved Devis's illustrations to J. J. Howard's translation of the ‘Metamorphoses of Ovid,’ London, 1807, 8vo. There is in the department of prints and drawings, British Museum, a portrait of Arra Kovger in pencil by him, and at the National Portrait Gallery is his portrait of Governor Herbert, painted in 1791.
L. F.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Dibdin, Henry Edward

​DIBDIN, HENRY EDWARD (1813–1866), musician, the youngest son of Charles Dibdin the younger [q. v.], born at Sadler's Wells 8 Sept. 1813, was taught music by his elder sister, Mary Anne (b. 1800), afterwards Mrs. Tonna, who was an excellent harpist and musician, and the composer of several songs and instrumental pieces. Dibdin studied the harp with her, and afterwards with Bochsa. He also performed on the viola and organ. His first public appearance took place at Covent Garden Theatre on 3 Aug. 1832, when he played the harp at Paganini's last concert. In 1833 he settled at Edinburgh, where he remained for the rest of his life, holding the honorary post of organist of Trinity Chapel, and occupied with private teaching and composition. In 1843 he published (in collaboration with J. T. Surenne) a collection of church music, a supplement to which appeared in the following year. His best known work is the ‘Standard Psalm Book’ (1852), an admirable collection, with a useful historical preface. In 1865 he also compiled another collection, ‘The Praise Book.’ His remaining published works, about forty in number, consist of songs, pianoforte and harp pieces, and a good many hymn tunes. Dibdin was also a skilled artist and illuminator. His death took place at Edinburgh 6 May 1866.
[Information from Mr. E. R. Dibdin; Crawford and Eberle's Biog. Index to the Church Hymnal, 3rd ed. 1878; Grove's Dict. of Music, i. 444.]
W. B. S.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Ashurst, Henry

​ASHURST, HENRY (1614?–1680), a wealthy and benevolent merchant of London, noted for his gifts of money to pious or charitable purposes, the founder of the family of Ashurst or Ashhurst of Waterstock, Oxfordshire, was descended from an old Lancashire family, seated at Ashurst, in the township of Dalton and parish of Wigan, distant five miles north-west of that town. His father, Henry, a justice of the peace, is described as a wise and pious gentleman, zealous for the reformed religion in a part of the country where Roman catholics abounded. His mother was one of the Bradshaws of Bradshaw, near Bolton. Of the sons of this marriage William engaged in politics, becoming M.P. for Newton, Lancashire, in 1641, and for the county in 1654; John became a colonel in the civil war; and Henry, born about 1614, entered into trade; all being very zealous in the interests of the parliamentarians and presbyterians. A daughter, Mary, became the wife of Dr. Theophilus Howorth, of Manchester. Henry was apprenticed at the age of fifteen to a London draper; and his prospects were much advanced by a loan of 300l. from the Rev. James Hiet, of Croston, Lancashire, and by his marriage with Judith Reresby. He became a successful merchant, entered the common council, and, though ejected in 1662, subsequently became an alderman. In 1667 he was living at Lauderdale House, but at the time of his death, which occurred in November 1680, he is called of Hackney. He had the intimate acquaintance of Henry Newcome, of Manchester, Richard Baxter, who preached his funeral sermon, Matthew and Philip Henry, and others; and the writings of all these divines abound in references to him. His charities to his Lancashire countrymen were very extensive: he allowed needy ejected ministers in that county 100l. per annum, and liberally relieved the widows of ministers. He was deeply interested in Elliot's missionary efforts in North America, and that apostle to the Indians termed him his worthy and true friend. Ashurst acted as treasurer for the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel, was a trustee of Boyle's Lecture, and was a great patron of religious literature. Baxter describes him as 'the most exemplary person for eminent sobriety, self-denial, piety, and charity that London could glory of, as far as public observation, and fame, and his most intimate friends could testify.' His son Henry, also a tried friend of Baxter's, became a baronet; he was the builder of Waterstock. The second son, William, was knighted in 1689, and was lord mayor of London in 1693. Each brother received 20l. by bequest of Robert Boyle.
J. E. B.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Ashwell, John

​ASHWELL, JOHN (d. 1541?), prior of Newnham Abbey, in Bedfordshire, best known for his opposition to the principles of the Reformation, was a graduate of Cambridge University. In 1504 it is probable that Ashwell, who was then a bachelor of divinity, became rector of Mistley in Essex, and held in subsequent years the benefices of Littlebury and Halstead in the same county. In 1515 we know him to have been appointed chaplain to Lord Abergavenny's troops in France (Brewer's Letters of Henry VIII, ii. part i. 137), and six years later a prebendal stall in St. Paul's Cathedral was conferred upon him. He became prior of Newnham Abbey about 1527. In the same year he addressed a secret letter, written partly in Latin and partly in English, to John Longland, the Bishop of Lincoln, bitterly complaining of the heretical opinions held by George Joye, a bold advocate of Lutheranism, with whom he had lived on terms of great intimacy [see Joye, George]. The epistle unhappily fell into Joye's hands, and the reformer withdrew to Strasburg to escape the effects of the bishop's displeasure. There, however, he published Ashwell's letter, together with an elaborate reply to all the charges preferred against him. The pamphlet, of which very few copies are now extant, bears the title 'The Letter whyche Johan Ashwell, Priour of Newnham Abbey besydes Bedforde, sente secretly to the Byshope of Lyncolne in the yeare of our Lord MDXXVII. Where in the sayde Priour accuseth George Joye, that tyme beyng felow of Peter College in Cambridge of fower opinions; with the Answere of the sayde George unto the same opinions.' The colophon runs: 'At Strazburge 10 daye of June. Thys lytell boke be delyvered to Johan Ashwell at Newnham Abbey besyde Bedforde with spede.' One of the most singular passages in the book is Ashwell's earnest entreaty to the bishop 'that no creature maye know that I or any of mine do shew you of these thinges, for then I shal leusse the favor of many in my contree' — a passage clearly showing that the Reformation in England was eagerly expected by the prior's neighbours. A second edition of the pamphlet was published by Joye at Antwerp in 1531. Ashwell apparently somewhat modified his opinions with the times, and in 1534 he was among the first to take the oath of supremacy to Henry VIII as head of the church. But he appears to have resigned the post of prior of Newnham before 1539, when the monasteries were finally dissolved. His death took place shortly before 23 Aug. 1541, when the prebendal stall in St. Paul's Cathedral, which he had held for twenty years, was declared vacant and filled up.
S. L. L.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Ashton, Thomas de (fl.1446)

​ASHTON or ASSHETON, Sir THOMAS de (fl. 1446), alchemist, born in 1403, was the son and heir of Sir John de Ashton, of Ashton-under-Lyne [see Ashton, Sir John de], who died in 1428. Permission was granted by Henry VI to Sir Thomas to transmute the precious metals, and on 7 April 1446 a special order was issued (Rot. Pat. 2, No. 14), encouraging two Lancashire knights, Ashton and Sir Edmund de Trafford, to pursue their experiments in alchemy, and forbidding any subject of the king to molest them. Sir Thomas married Elizabeth, daughter of Sir John Byron, by whom he had eleven children. The eldest son, John, was knighted before the battle of Northampton, 10 July 1460, and died in 1508.
[Fuller's Worthies (ed. Nicholls), i. 555; Biographia Britannica; Foster's Lancashire Pedigrees; Baines's History of Lancashire (ed. Harland), i. 133.]
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Ashwardby, John

​ASHWARDBY, JOHN (fl. 1392), a follower of Wycliffe, is described by Tanner (Biblioth. Brit.-Hib. p. 53), no doubt by an inference from his surname, as a Lincolnshire man. He became fellow of Oriel College, Oxford, 'master of theology,' and vicar of St. Mary's church. Attaching himself to Wycliffe's party, he appears to have been active in preaching, lecturing, and writing, as an opponent specially of the mendicant orders, and he engaged in controversy with the Carmelite, Richard Maydeston, a chaplain of John of Gaunt. In spite of this, however, he filled the office of 'commissary' or vice-chancellor of the university in 1392 (Wood, Fasti Oxon. p. 33).
R. L. P.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Ashurst, James

​ASHURST, JAMES (d. 1679), divine, whose christian name was unknown to Calamy and Palmer, was vicar of Arlesey, in Bedfordshire, and had been episcopally ordained, but he could not comply with the new impositions of the Act of Uniformity, and hence quitted his living. He was very old, and his vicarage slender. Samuel Browne, the judge [q. v.], was one of his parishioners, and a great friend. 'The whole parish,' says Palmer (after Calamy), 'was well affected towards him for his worthy behaviour amongst them, and was entirely under the influence of the judge . . . and so, though he was legally silenced, he continued in his church a non-conformist. He read part of the morning and ​evening service, viz. the confession, scripture-hymns, the creed, and some of the collects. He was a considerable scholar and a hard student to the last; greatly esteemed and loved by all sober persons who knew him, for his extraordinary piety, humility, meekness, self-denial, and integrity. His contempt of the world and contentedness on a very small income were very remarkable. He took for his small tithes just what his parishioners were pleased to give him.' From the register-book of births, deaths, and marriages of the Parish of Arlesey, it is found that Ashurst became vicar between 27 Oct. 1631 and 4 Oct. 1632, and that he was married to 'Mary Baldocke, relict of Daniel Baldocke,' on 20 Nov. 1660. The same register informs us that 'James Ashurst, minister, was buried December y$^e$ 16, 1679' ('buried in woolen'). His neighbour, Read, of Henlow, preached his funeral sermon.
A. B. G.