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

1904 Errata appended.
​WIGLAF (d. 838), king of Mercia, succeeded to his throne on the death of Ludecan in 825 (Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, ap. Petrie, Monumenta Brit. i. 343). At the time when Mercia was exhausted by victories over East-Anglia, Egbert (d. 839) [q. v.], king of Wessex, was extending his rule over Southern Britain, and in 827 or 828 he overran Mercia and drove Wiglaf from his throne. Shortly afterwards, however, and probably owing to danger on the Welsh border, Wiglaf was restored to his throne by Egbert as an under-king of Wessex. He reigned thirteen years (Will. Malm. Gesta Regum, p. 132, Engl. Hist. Soc.), died in 838 (Flor. Wig. ap. Petrie, l.c. p. 549), and was buried at Repton (ib. p. 638). Wiglaf married Cynethryth, and left a son Wigmund (ib.)
Several charters of Wiglaf are extant (Wilkins, Concilia Mag. Brit. et Hibern. i. 176 seq.), including two to the monastery of Hanbury in Worcestershire, of which house Tanner supposes Wiglaf to have been the founder (Notitia Monastica, Worcest.)
[In addition to the authorities mentioned in the text, see Henry of Huntingdon's Hist. Angl. in Petrie's Mon. Brit. i. 733; Gaimar's L'Estorie des Engles, ib. p. 792; Ethelwerd's Chron. ib. p. 512; Dugdale's Monast. Angl. i. 588–9, ii. 109 seq.; Green's Conquest of England, pp. 48–9, and Making of England, p. 435.]
A. M. C.-e.
Dictionary of National Biography, Errata (1904), p.279 N.B.— f.e. stands for from end and l.l. for last line
| Page | Col. | Line | |
| 197 | i | 17 f.e. | Wiglaf: for Hambury read Hanbury |
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Wightwick, George

​WIGHTWICK, GEORGE (1802–1872), architect, son of William Wightwick (d. 1811) by his wife Anna Maria (1779–1864), daughter of Alexander Taylor, was born at Alyn Bank, Mold, Flint, on 26 Aug. 1802. He was educated at Wolverhampton grammar school, and privately under Dr. Lord at Tooting. After professional pupilage under Edward Lapidge and an educational tour (1825–6) in Italy, he entered the office of Sir John Soane, and in 1829 opened practice at Plymouth (where for a time he was in partnership with J. Foulston), having already erected Belmont House for John Norman in that neighbourhood. In 1836 he designed the South Devon and East Cornwall hospital; this was followed by works at Crediton church in 1838 and the restoration of the church at Helston. In Plymouth he carried out the town-hall (1839–40), the congregational chapel, Courtenay Street (1848), and the Cottonian Library (1850). He designed the episcopal chapel at Flushing, near Falmouth, in 1841, and St. John's Church, Treslothan, in 1844. Wightwick, whose terms for employment are to be seen in the ‘Journal of the Royal Institute of British Architects’ (1891, p. 161; reprinted from the ‘Architect,’ 1850, ii. 28), retired to Clifton in 1851, and subsequently to Portishead (1855), where he died on 9 July 1872. He was buried in Portishead churchyard on the 13th. He married, first, in 1829, Caroline (1808–1867), daughter of William Damant ​of Buckland Monachorum; and, secondly, in January 1868, Isabella (b. 1832), daughter of Samuel Jackson, who survived him.
He was a copious writer, and published, besides many pamphlets and two plays:
* ‘Select Views of Roman Antiquities,’ 1827.
* ‘Remarks on Theatres,’ 1832.
* Sketches of a Practising Architect,’ 4to, 1837.
* ‘The Palace of Architecture,’ 8vo, 1840.
* ‘Modern English Gothic Architecture’ in Weale's ‘Quarterly Papers on Architecture,’ 1845, 4to, pt. vii.
* ‘Hints to Young Architects,’ 8vo, 1846 (often reprinted).
His essay on Sir Christopher Wren won the medal of the Royal Institute of British Architects for the session 1858–9. He left various manuscripts to that body.
[Archit. Publ. Society's Dictionary; Redgrave's Dictionary of Artists; Boase and Courtney's Bibl. Cornub.; Boase's Coll. Cornub.]
P. W.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Wighard

​WIGHARD, WIGHEARD, or VIGHARD (d. 664), archbishop-elect of Canterbury, was a Kentish priest and one of Deusdedit's clergy. He was nominated to the archbishopric with the assent of the English church by the kings Oswy and Egbert, and was sent, bearing gold and silver vessels, to Rome for consecration. He died of the plague in Rome in 664, before his consecration. He is described as very learned in ecclesiastical discipline.
[Bede's Hist. Eccles. iii. 29, iv. 1; Haddan and Stubbs, iii. 110; Tanner's Bibl. p. 773; Dict. Chr. Biogr. iv. 1176.]
M. B.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Skirving, Adam

​SKIRVING, ADAM (1719–1803), Scottish song-writer, was born in Haddington in 1719 and was educated at Preston Kirk. He was a substantial farmer, and spent most of his life as tenant of Garleton, a farm not far from Haddington on the Gosford road. Although a Jacobite, and apparently a spectator of the battle of Prestonpans in 1745, ​he seems to have taken no other part in the rising than by singing ballads about it. He died in April 1803, and is buried in the churchyard of Athelstaneford, where a quaint rhyme on his tombstone tells of his local reputation as an athlete and wit. His son Archibald is separately noticed.
Few Scottish anthologies omit Skirving's taunting ‘Hey, Johnnie Cope,’ which he wrote in 1745 to an old tune common in his day, and of which there are now several versions (cf. Hogg, Jacobite Relics, 1821, ii. 111, 308 sq.). This and a similar ballad on the battle of Prestonpans are the only survivals of what was probably a collection of ballads which Skirving wrote for local amusement.
[Irving's Book of Scotsmen; Wilson's Poets and Poetry of Scotland, i. 187.]
J. R. M.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Skogan, John

​SKOGAN, JOHN (fl. 1480), jester. [See under Scogan or Scoggin, Henry.]
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Skirving, Archibald

​SKIRVING, ARCHIBALD (1749–1819), painter, son of Adam Skirving [q. v.], author of ‘Johnnie Cope,’ was born near Haddington in 1749. After studying both in Rome and London, he settled in Edinburgh, where he obtained some fame as a portrait-painter. His most successful portraits were executed in crayon. The best known is his crayon portrait of Robert Burns, executed partly from Nasmyth's famous portrait, and partly from Skirving's recollection of the poet, whom he met, it is said, at Edinburgh in 1786. This portrait was acquired by Sir Theodore Martin. Other of Skirving's sitters were Alexander Carlyle, D.D., of Inveresk, the mother of Jane Welsh Carlyle, Gavin Hamilton, Isabella Fraser-Tytler, Professor Dugald Stewart, and Dr. John Hunter, principal of St. Andrews University. Skirving was eccentric, and did not pursue his art industriously. In later life he seldom produced more than one picture a year, his price ranging about one hundred guineas. He died suddenly at Inveresk in 1819, and was buried at Athelstaneford churchyard. Some of his portraits are in the Scottish National Portrait Gallery, Edinburgh.
[Brydall's Art in Scotland, p. 169; Catalogue of Royal Scot. Acad. Exhibition, 1880; Cat. of Loan Exhibition of Old Masters and Portraits, 1883; Cat. of Scot. Nat. Portrait Gallery, 1891; Burns Chron. for 1892.]
A. H. M.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Skot

​SKOT. [See Scott.]
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Skrine, Henry

​SKRINE, HENRY (1755–1803), traveller, born in 1755, was the son of Richard Dickson Skrine of Warleigh Manor, Somerset, by his wife Elizabeth, daughter of John Tryon of Collyweston, Northamptonshire. The family resided at Warleigh since 1634. Henry entered Christ Church, Oxford, on 24 Jan. 1774, and graduated B.C.L. in 1781. Becoming a member of Lincoln's Inn, he was called to the bar in 1782.
Skrine chiefly spent his time in travelling through Great Britain, and in recording his experiences. The records of his expedition to the north of Scotland in 1793 are of especial interest, for at that period the country was little known. He died at Walton-on-Thames in 1803, having been twice married. By his first wife, Marianne, eldest daughter of John Chalié of Wimbledon, Surrey, he had one son, Henry. By his second wife, Letitia Harcourt of Dany-Park, near Crickhowell in Brecon, he had two sons—John Harcourt and Thomas—and three daughters: Isabella, Henrietta, and Catherine.
He was the author of: 1. ‘Three Tours in the North of England and in Scotland,’ London, 1795, 4to. 2. ‘Two Tours through Wales,’ London, 1798, 8vo; 2nd edit. 1812. 3. ‘Rivers of note in Great Britain,’ London, 1801, 8vo.
[Gent. Mag. 1803, i. 382; Foster's Alumni Oxon. 1715–1886; Burke's Landed Gentry.]
E. I. C.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Skippe, John

​SKIPPE or SKIPP, JOHN (1742?–1796?), amateur artist, was son of John Skipp of Ledbury, Herefordshire. His family had long been settled at Ledbury, a J. Skipp of that place having supported Sir Henry Lingen [q. v.] in 1646. He matriculated at Merton College, Oxford, in 1760, at the age of eighteen. After leaving the university he travelled in north Italy, and made many drawings, not without merit, from the old masters. A series of careful studies, done in 1773 from the frescoes by Andrea Mantegna in the church of the Eremitani at Padua, is in the print-room of the British Museum. Skippe is chiefly noted for his series of wood engravings in chiaroscuro, done in imitation of those works of Ugo da Carpi and other early Italian artists. He had probably seen the chiaroscuro engravings of John Baptist Jackson [q. v.]; but Skippe's are more artistic than Jackson's, and more nearly approach the work of the older masters. Drawings by Skippe of landscape, sacred and other subjects, executed in bistre with some vigour, are occasionally met with in collections and attributed to the old masters. Skippe died unmarried, 14 Oct. 1812.
L. C.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Whitehead, James

​WHITEHEAD, JAMES (1812–1885), physician, born at Oldham in 1812, was the son of John Whitehead, who had a wide reputation in the district as a herbalist and dealer in simples. James, after working as a boy in a cotton-mill, attended the Marsden Street school of medicine in Manchester, and was a pupil first of Mr. Clough of Lever Street, and afterwards of Mr. Lambert of Thirsk. He was admitted a licentiate of the Society of Apothecaries of London on 11 Sept. 1834, and on 15 Dec. 1835 he became a member of the College of Surgeons. He was admitted a fellow of the College of Surgeons after examination on 14 Aug. 1845. ​He graduated M.D. at the university of St. Andrews in 1850, and he became a member of the Royal College of Physicians of London in 1859.
Whitehead visited France and Germany in 1836, and on his return to England in 1838 he began to practise his profession in Oxford Street, Manchester. In 1842 he was appointed demonstrator of anatomy at the Marsden Street school of medicine, and in the same year he married Elizabeth, daughter of Thomas Hayward Radcliffe, who died on 20 Sept. 1844. In 1856 he founded, jointly with Dr. Schoepf Merei, the Clinical Hospital and Dispensary for Children, which became subsequently the Manchester Clinical Hospital for Women and Children. He was lecturer on obstetrics at the Royal School of Medicine, and for fifteen years he acted as surgeon to St. Mary's Hospital for Women and Children. In 1851 he moved into Mosley Street, where he conducted a large practice until 1881, when he retired to live on an estate he had purchased at Sutton in Surrey. He died, after a long illness, on 9 April 1885, and is buried in the Ardwick cemetery, Manchester.
Whitehead's works were: 1. ‘On the Causes and Treatment of Abortion and Sterility,’ London, 1847, 8vo; republished in America, 1848. 2. ‘On the Transmission from Parent to Offspring of some Forms of Disease,’ London, 1851, 8vo; 2nd edit. 1857. 3. ‘The Wife's Domain, by Philothalos,’ 1860, 8vo; 2nd edit. 1874. 4. ‘Notes on the Rate of Mortality in Manchester,’ 1863, 8vo. 5. Jointly with Dr. Merei, a report on children's diseases, being the first ‘Report of the Clinical Hospital,’ Manchester, 1856, 8vo.
[Obituary notice in the British Medical Journal, 1885, i. 870; additional information kindly given by Dr. David Lloyd Roberts, Dr. J. E. Platt, and the late Mr. Edward Lund of Manchester.]
D’A. P.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Whitehead, John (1860-1899)

​WHITEHEAD, JOHN (1860–1899), ornithologist, the second son of Mr. Jeffrey Whitehead of Newstead, Wimbledon, was born at Muswell Hill, Hornsey, on 30 June 1860. He was educated at Elstree under the Rev. Mr. Saunderson, and at the Edinburgh Institution under Dr. Ferguson, who greatly fostered his taste for natural history. Exposing himself too recklessly in the pursuit of his favourite science, he developed a weakness of the lungs, and was compelled to winter in the Engadine in 1881–2, and in Corsica in 1882 and 1883, when he began collecting, and discovered a bird new to science. On his return to England he prepared for a collecting trip to Mount Kina Balu, North Borneo, which lasted from October 1884 to August 1888. He brought back examples of many new animals, including no fewer than forty-five new species of birds. The results of this trip are fully set forth in his ‘Exploration of Mount Kina Balu,’ London, 1893, 4to. In December 1893 he set out for the Philippines. He made nine different trips in those islands, and discovered on Mount Data the first known indigenous mammalian fauna, returning to England in 1896. In January 1899 he started for those islands again, intending to complete his researches there; but the war between the United States and Spain put an end to the plan, and, after waiting a few weeks at Manila, he sailed for Hong Kong, and thence set out to explore the island of Hainau. The expedition was, however, attacked by fever. He with difficulty struggled back to the coast, and died at the port of Hoi-hou on 2 June 1899.
B. B. W.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Wyche, Richard de

​WYCHE, RICHARD de (1197?–1263), bishop of Chichester. [See Richard.]
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Wyatt, William

​WYATT, WILLIAM (1616–1685), scholar and friend of Jeremy Taylor, the son of William Wyat or Wyatt of ‘plebeian’ origin, was born at Todenham, near Moreton-in-the-Marsh, Gloucestershire, in 1616. He matriculated from St. John's College, Oxford, on 16 March 1637–8, but was prevented by the outbreak of the civil war from taking his degree in arts. His diligence as a scholar appears to have been noted by Jeremy Taylor while at Oxford in 1642, and at the close of 1644 he joined Taylor in Wales as an assistant teacher at his school, called Newton Hall (Collegium Newtoniense), in the parish of Llanfihangel-Aberbythych, Carmarthenshire. He seems to have spent a portion of his time, at any rate, with Taylor's family at Golden Grove, whence he dates the epistle dedicatory prefixed to ‘A New and Easie Institution of Grammar. In which the labour of many yeares usually spent in learning the Latine tongue is shortned and made easie. In usum Juventutis Cambro-Britannicæ. London, printed by J. Young for R. Royston … Ivie Lane,’ 1647, 12mo. Wyatt's epistle in Latin is addressed to Sir Christopher Hatton, and is followed by one by Taylor in English, addressed to Christopher Hatton, esquire, evidently one of the pupils. This curious little work, now exceedingly rare, was published in Taylor's name, but was mainly the work of Wyatt, with some aid from William Nicholson (1591–1672) [q. v.] and F. Gregory of Westminster school. Subsequently Wyatt, who was much sought after as a teacher, was tutor in a school at Evesham, and then assisted Dr. William Fuller (1608–1675) [q. v.] in a ​private school at Twickenham, Middlesex. By recommendation of the chancellor he was created B.D. at Oxford on 12 Sept. 1661, and when Fuller became bishop of Lincoln he made Wyatt his chaplain. He obtained a prebend in Lincoln Cathedral by Fuller's favour (installed on 13 May 1668, ‘vice William Gery, deceased’), and on 16 Oct. 1669 was admitted precentor of Lincoln. In 1681 he exchanged this preferment with John Inett for the living of Nuneaton in Warwickshire, and died there in the house of Sir Richard Newdigate on 9 Sept. 1685. A copy of Wyatt's grammar in Caius College, Cambridge, is described in some detail in Bonney's ‘Life of Jeremy Taylor’ (pp. 45 sq.).
T. S.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Wycheham, William de

​WYCHEHAM or WICKWANE, WILLIAM de (d. 1285), archbishop of York. [See Wickwane.]
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1912 supplement/Marsden, Alexander Edwin

​MARSDEN, ALEXANDER EDWIN (1832–1902), surgeon, born on 22 Sept. 1832, was son by his first wife of William Marsden [q. v.], surgeon. He was educated at Wimbledon school and King's College, London, and was admitted a licentiate of ​the Society of Apothecaries in 1853 and M.R.C.S. England in 1854; he graduated M.D. at St. Andrews in 1862 and became F.R.C.S. Edinburgh in 1868.
Entering the army in 1854 as staff assistant surgeon, he served in the Crimean war. For three months he was in the general hospital at Scutari; early in 1855 he was sent to Sevastopol with the 38th regiment, and he acted afterwards as a surgeon to the ambulance corps until the end of the war, when he received the Crimean and Turkish medals. On his return to England he was appointed surgeon to the Royal Free Hospital, London (founded by his father), where he was also curator of the museum and general superintendent. At the cancer hospital at Brompton (also founded by his father) he was surgeon from 1853 to 1884; consulting surgeon from 1884 until his death; trustee from 1865; member of the house committee from 1870, and chairman of the general committee from 1901.
In 1898 he was master of the City company of cordwainers, and on his retirement he presented to the company the service of plate given to his father in 1840 in recognition of his philanthropic work in opening the first free hospitals in London. Marsden died at 92 Nightingale Lane, Wandsworth Common, S.W., on 2 July 1902.
In 1856 he married Catherine, only daughter of David Marsden, banker.
Marsden published: 1. 'A New and Certain Successful Mode of treating Certain Forms of Cancer,' 1869; reissued 1874 (a collection of extracts, 1870). 2. 'The Treatment of Cancers and Tumours by Chian Turpentine,' 1880. 3. 'Our Present Means of successfully treating or alleviating Cancer,' 1889. He also edited in 1871 the fourth edition of his father's treatise on 'Malignant Diarrhœa,' better known by the Name of Asiatic or Malignant Cholera.'
[Men and Women of the Time, 1899; Lancet, 1902, ii. 118; Brit. Mod. Journal, 1902, ii. 157; private information.]
D’A. P.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1901 supplement/Bickersteth, Edward (1814-1892)

​BICKERSTETH, EDWARD (1814–1892), dean of Lichfield, born on 23 Oct. 1814 at Acton in Suffolk, was the second son of John Bickersteth (1781-1855), rector of Sapcote in Leicestershire, by his wife Henrietta (d. 19 March 1830), daughter and co-heiress of George Lang of Leyland, Lancashire. Henry Bickersteth, baron Langdale [q. v.], and Edward Bickersteth [q. v.] were his uncles; Robert Bickersteth [q. v.] was his brother. Edward entered Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge, graduating B. A. in 1836, M.A. in 1839, and D.D. in 1864. He also studied at Durham University in 1837. In that year he was ordained deacon, and in 1838 was curate of Chetton in Shropshire. In 1839 he was ordained priest, and became curate at the Abbey, Shrewsbury. From 1849 to 1853 he was perpetual curate of Penn Street in Buckinghamshire. In 1853 he became vicar of Aylesbury and archdeacon of Buckinghamshire. In 1806 he was nominated an honorary canon of Christ Church, Oxford. He was select preacher at Cambridge in 1861, 1864, 1873, and 1878, and at Oxford in 1875. In 1864, 1866, 1869, and 1874 he presided as prolocutor over the lower house of the convocation of Canterbury. During his tenure of office an address to the crown was presented by the lower house requesting that a mark of the royal favour should be conferred on him, but nine years elapsed before he was installed dean of Lichfield on 28 April 1875. As prolocutor he was ex officio member of the committee for the revised version of the Bible, and he attended most regularly the sittings of the New Testament section.
His chief achievement as dean was the restoration of the west front of Lichfield Cathedral, which was commenced in 1877 and completed and dedicated on 9 May 1884. He resigned the deanery on 1 Oct. 1892, and died without issue at Leamington on 7 Oct. He was buried at Leamington on 11 Oct. He was twice married : first, on 13 Oct. 1840, to Martha Mary Anne, daughter of Valentine Vickers of Cransmere in Shropshire. She died on 2 Feb. 1881, and on 12 Oct. 1882 he married Mary Anne, daughter of Thomas Whitmore Wylde-Browne of The Woodlands, Bridgnorth, Shropshire. She survived him.
Bickersteth, who was a high churchman, was the author of numerous sermons, charges, and collections of prayers. He also published:
* 'Diocesan Synods in relation to Convocation and Parliament,' London, 1867, 8vo; 2nd edit. 1883.
* 'My Hereafter,' London, 1883, 16mo.
He edited the fifth edition of 'The Bishopric of Souls' (London, 1877, 8vo), with a memoir of the author, Robert Wilson Evans [q. v.], and in 1882 contributed an exposition on St. Mark's Gospel to the 'Pulpit Commentary.'
[Lichfield Diocesan Mag. 1892, pp. 169–70, 185; Liverpool Courier, 10 Oct. 1892; Guardian, 12 Oct. 1892; Church Times, 14 Oct. 1892; Burke's Family Records, 1897, pp. 70–1; Men and Women of the Time, 1891; Simms's Biblioth. Stafford. 1894.]
E. I. C.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1901 supplement/Bickersteth, Edward (1850-1897)

​BICKERSTETH, EDWARD (1850–1897), bishop of South Tokyo, Japan, born at Banningham rectory, Norfolk, on 26 June 1850, was the eldest son of Edward Henry Bickersteth, bishop of Exeter (from 1885 till his resignation in 1900), and Rosa (d. 2 Aug. 1873), daughter of Sir Samuel Bignold. Educated at Highgate school, he obtained in 1869 a scholarship at Pembroke College, Cambridge, graduating B.A. in 1873 and M.A. in 1876. In 1874 he won the Scholefield and Evans prizes. He was ordained deacon in 1873 and priest in 1S74 by the bishop of London. From 1873 to 1875 he was curate of Holy Trinity, Hampstead. In 1875 he was elected to a fellowship at his college. Mainly through his exertions the Cambridge mission to Delhi was founded, and in 1877 he left England as its first head. The work grew under Ms care, and the influence of his example was felt beyond the limits of his own mission. He returned home in impaired health in 1882, and was appointed to the rectory of Framlingham, Suftblk. He had, however, resigned the living and was preparing for a return to Delhi when he was offered the bishopric in Japan. He was consecrated and sailed for his diocese in 1886. The same powers shown at Delhi were even more conspicuously displayed in the organisation of the Nippon Sei Kokwai, the native Japan church of the Anglican communion. Under the incessant work of the diocese Bickersteth's health again gave way. He came home, and, after a long illness, died on 5 Aug. 1897. Bickersteth represented a third generation of missionary zeal, but his churchmanship was more distinctively Anglican than that of Edward Bickersteth [q. v.], his grandfather. His position is well represented in his volume of lectures, 'Our Heritage in the Church,' London, 1898, 8vo.
[S. Bickersteth's Life and Letters of Bishop E. Bickersteth; Stock's History of the Church Missionary See, vol. iii.; C. M. S. Intelligencer, 1898, p. 24; Burke's Family Records, 1897.]
A. R. B.