OpenLLM-France/wikimedia huggingface dataset:
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Jones, Griffith (1722-1786)

​JONES, GRIFFITH (1722–1786), writer for the young and journalist, was born in 1722, and served his apprenticeship to William Bowyer the printer. He was for many years editor of the ‘London Chronicle,’ ‘Daily Advertiser,’ and ‘Public Ledger.’ He settled at No. 7 Bolt Court, Fleet Street, as a printer, and in that capacity was associated with his neighbour, Dr. Johnson, in the ‘Literary Magazine,’ and with Smollett and Goldsmith in the ‘British Magazine;’ he published a great number of translations from the French, to none of which, however, was his name affixed. One little work from his pen, entitled ‘Great Events from Little Causes,’ had an extensive sale; another was a collection of ‘Nash's Jests.’ He died on 12 Sept. 1786, leaving three sons, Lewis (b. 1748), Griffith (b. 1758), and Joseph, and a daughter, Christian, the wife of his cousin, Stephen Jones. The two elder sons were educated at St. Paul's School.
Giles Jones (fl. 1765), Griffith's brother, wrote in conjunction with him many books for children, known as ‘Lilliputian Histories,’ among them being ‘Goody Two-Shoes’ (1765), ‘Giles Gingerbread,’ ‘Tommy Trip,’ &c. (cf. Notes and Queries, 4th ser. viii. 511). Giles was secretary to the York Buildings Water Company, and was father of Stephen Jones [q. v.], and grandfather of John Winter Jones [q. v.]
[Welsh's A Bookseller of the Last Century, pp. 44, &c.; Nichols's Lit. Anecd. iii. 465–6; will reg. in P. C. C. 479, Wake; Gardiner's St. Paul's School Reg. pp. 121, 148.]
G. G.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Jones, Henry (d.1727)

​JONES, HENRY (d. 1727), compiler, born at Langton, Dorset, was the son of the Rev. Charles Jones. He was educated on the foundation at Eton, whence he proceeded in 1712 to King's College, Cambridge, of which he was elected fellow, and graduated B.A. in 1716, and M.A. in 1720 (Harwood, Alumni Eton, pp. 292-3). He abridged the 'Philosophical Transactions' from 1700 to 1720, 2 vols. 4to, London, 1721; 2nd edition, 1731; 3rd edition, with the Latin papers translated, 1740. In his preface he is very severe on Benjamin Motte, a printer, who had issued a bad abridgment of the same portion just before his appeared. Motte published a 'Reply' in 1722 (Nichols, Lit. Anecd. i. 482-3). Jones died unmarried in January 1727 at the Red Lion, Kensington, whither he had gone for the benefit of his health (letters of administration in P. C. C., 26 Jan. 1727). On 18 June 1724 he was admitted F.R.S. (Thomson, Hist. of Roy. Soc. Append iv.)
[Authorities as above.]
G. G.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Payne, Thomas (1752-1831)

​PAYNE, THOMAS, the younger (1752–1831), bookseller, eldest son of Thomas Payne (1719–1799) [q. v.], by his wife Elizabeth Taylor, was born on 10 Oct. 1752. He was educated at the classical school of M. Metayer in Charterhouse Square, London, and was trained in modern and dead languages for the further development of the family business. After he had been for more than twenty years a partner with his father, the latter retired in 1790 in favour of his son. In 1806 he transferred the business to more commodious premises in part of Schomberg House, on the south side of Pall Mall, which also became a literary centre. He took into partnership in 1813 his apprentice and connection, Henry Foss, when Charles Lamb playfully designated the new firm as ‘Pain & Fuss.’ In 1817 he was the master of the Stationers' Company, but a few years later his health began to decline, and he could no longer travel on the continent in quest of books. About 1825 he was succeeded in business by his nephew John Payne, who continued the establishment, in partnership with Foss, until 1850. Thomas Payne was seized by apoplexy on 8 March 1831, and died at Pall Mall on 15 March. He was buried in St. Martin's-in-the-Fields on 24 March.
Payne, at the time of his death, was the father of the London booksellers. He possessed a vast store of literary anecdote. Among the collections which he sold were the libraries of Dean Lloyd and Rev. Henry Homer, and that of M. de Lamoignon, keeper of the seals of France. An account of the sale of the Borromeo collection of novels and romances, which Payne and Foss had purchased, and the details of their acquisitions at the Larcher, MacCarthy, and subsequent sales are given in Dibdin's ‘Bibliographical Decameron’ (iii. 149, 161–80, cf. ii. 172).
John Payne, after the cessation of the business in 1850, withdrew to Rome. He and his wife, Sarah Burney, received much foreign company, and were especially friendly with Cardinal Antonelli.
W. P. C.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Payne, William (fl.1800)

Dates 1760 to 1830 in the ODNB.
​PAYNE, WILLIAM (fl. 1800), watercolour painter, who is supposed to have been a native of Devonshire, held an appointment in the engineers' department at Plymouth Dockyard, and resided at Plymouth Dock (now Devonport) till 1790, when he came to London, and took up his residence in Thornhaugh Street, Bedford Square. He was already known as a landscape-painter, having exhibited at the Incorporated Society of Artists in 1776, and at the Royal Academy since 1786. Some of his views of slate quarries at Plympton had been praised by his fellow-countryman, Sir Joshua Reynolds, the president of the Royal Academy, and others, drawn in 1788 and 1789, were engraved for Samuel Middiman's ‘Select Views in Great Britain’ (1784-92). He had hit upon certain methods which considerably increased the resources of water-colour art, especially in the rendering of sunlight and atmosphere. His 'style,' as it was called, was one which was not only new and effective, but could be learnt without much difficulty, and he soon became the most fashionable drawing-master in London. Among the innovations with which he is credited were 'splitting the brush to give forms of foliage, dragging the tints to give texture to his foregrounds, and taking out the forms of lights by wetting the surface and rubbing with bread and rag.' He also abandoned the use of outline with the pen, but the invention by which he is best known is a neutral tint composed of indigo, raw sienna, and lake. A compound pigment called Payne's grey is still sold by artists' colourmen. His methods were regarded as tricky by the old-fashioned practicians of the day, but there is no doubt that he did much to advance the technique of water-colour painting, and was one of the first 'draughtsmen' to abandon mere topography for a more poetical treatment of landscape scenery. In 1809 he was elected an associate of the Water-colour Society, but left it on the disruption of the original society in 1812. During the four years of his connection with the society he sent seventeen drawings to their exhibitions. By this time his art had degenerated into mannerism. He was surpassed by better artists, and forgotten before he died. The date of his death is unknown; it is supposed to have been about 1815, but, according to Algernon Graves's 'Dictionary of Artists,' he was still exhibiting in 1830.
Four books, ‘Landscapes from Drawings by Payne,’ engraved by Black, are advertised at the end of ‘A Treatise on Ackerman's Water-colours,’ &c., 1801. There are examples of Payne's drawings at South Kensington Museum, the British Museum, and the Whitworth Museum at Manchester.
[Redgrave's Dict.; Redgraves' Century of Painters; Redgrave's Descriptive Catalogue of Water-colours at South Kensington Museum; Bryan's Dict. (Graves and Armstrong); Roget's 'Old' Water-colour Society; Art Journal, March 1849; Graves's Dict.; Somerset House Gazette, i. 133, 162; Alston's Hints to Young Practitioners in the Study of Landscape Painting; Monkhouse's Earlier English Water-colour Painters; Notes and Queries, 6th ser. i. 522, ii. 227.]
C. M.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Paynter, William

​PAYNTER or Cambourne, WILLIAM (1637–1716), rector of Exeter College, Oxford, born at Trelissick in St. Erth parish, Cornwall, and baptised at St. Erth on 7 Dec. 1637, was son of William Paynter or Cambourne, by Jane, sixth child of Richard Keigwin of Mousehole in that parish. He matriculated from Exeter College, Oxford, 29 March 1656, and was a poor scholar there from 27 Feb. 1655–6 to 3 July 1657, when he was elected to a fellowship. He graduated B.A. 3 May 1660, M.A. 21 Jan. 1662–3 (being incorporated at Cambridge 1664), B.D. 7 July 1674, and D.D. 27 June 1695. In 1669 he was suspended from his fellowship on the ground that, although a Cornishman, he had ‘succeeded to a Devon fellowship.’ He was appointed to the rectory of Wotton, Northamptonshire, on 24 July 1686, and vacated his fellowship in February 1687–8. On the deprivation of Dr. Arthur Bury [q. v.], he was elected to the rectorship of Exeter College, 15 Aug. 1690. The circumstances came before the court of king's bench, and on 11 Feb. 1694–5 the election was confirmed, whereupon he was again appointed fellow. He held the rectorship until his death, and he was vice-chancellor of the university in 1698 and 1699. Paynter died at Wotton on 18 Feb. 1715–16, and was buried on 22 Feb., an inscription to his memory being placed upon a freestone monument in the chancel, and his will being proved in the court of the chancellor of Oxford University on 2 April 1716. His first wife was Mary, daughter of John Conant, rector of Exeter College, and widow of M. Pool, M.D. She was born in 1657, and died on 7 May 1695, being buried at Wotton, near her two children, William and Elizabeth. His second wife was Sarah, daughter of Francis Duncombe of Broughton, Buckinghamshire. She was buried at Ilsington, Devon, 22 Sept. 1725, aged 76. ​When Paynter was rector of Exeter College a benefactor's book was begun, and in 1685 he inscribed a gift of 100l. The substance of some letters which passed between him and Kennett on the patronage administered by the college is in Boase's ‘Registrum Collegii Exon.’ (1894, p. 336). Among his pupils was Sir George Treby the lawyer. Antony Wood more than once applied to him for information. Letters to and from him are in Harleian MSS., Addit. MSS. 4055 f. 50, and 28886 f. 37.
W. P. C.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Paynter, David William

​PAYNTER, DAVID WILLIAM (1791–1823), author, son of Richard Walter Paynter, attorney, was born at Manchester in 1791, and educated at the grammar school of that town. He was intended for the medical profession, but early evinced a predilection for poetry and the drama, and became closely associated with James Watson, a local literary character, with whom he frequently figured in the magazines and newspapers as ‘Corporal Trim,’ while Watson called himself ‘Uncle Toby.’ His separate publications were: 1. ‘The History and Adventures of Godfrey Ranger,’ 1813, 3 vols., a sort of novel, in coarse imitation of Smollett. 2. ‘Eurypilus, King of Sicily: a Tragedy,’ 1816, 4to. 3. ‘The Muse in Idleness,’ 1819. This volume was the subject of a sarcastic article by James Crossley [q. v.] in ‘Blackwood's Magazine.’ 4. ‘King Stephen, or the Battle of Lincoln: an Historical Tragedy,’ 1822. 5. ‘The Wife of Florence: a Tragedy,’ 1823 (posthumous). In 1820 he edited Watson's literary remains, under the title of ‘The Spirit of the Doctor,’ to which he appended some of his own fugitive pieces, including letters from Lancaster Castle, where he was for some time a prisoner for debt. In the introduction to ‘King Stephen’ he tells of his efforts to get his productions put on the stage. After they had been declined by several managers he collected a company of his own, and brought out ‘King Stephen’ at the Minor Theatre, Manchester, on 5 Dec. 1821. This seems to have been the only occasion on which a piece of his was acted. He died at Manchester on 14 March 1823, and was buried at Blackley, near that city. He married in 1813, and left children.
C. W. S.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Longden, James Robert

​LONGDEN, Sir JAMES ROBERT (1827–1891), colonial administrator, youngest son of John R. Longden, proctor, of Doctors' Commons, London, was born in 1827. In 1844, two years after the establishment of a civil government, he was appointed government clerk in the Falkland Islands, and became acting colonial secretary the year after. In 1861 he was appointed president of the Virgin Islands, in 1865 governor of Dominica, in 1867 governor of British Honduras, in 1870 governor of Trinidad, and in December 1876 governor of Ceylon, which post he held until his retirement in 1883. He was made C.M.G. in 1871, K.C.M.G. in 1876, G.C.M.G. in 1883. After his retirement he resided at Longhope, near Watford, Hertfordshire, and took a very active part in county affairs. He was a J.P. and alderman for the county under the Local Government Act. He died at Longhope on 4 Oct. 1891. His funeral took place at Woking crematorium on 9 Oct. 1891.
Longden married in 1864 Alice Emily, daughter of James Berridge of the island of St, Christopher, West Indies.
[Dod's Knightage, 1891; Colonial Office List, 1891; Times, 5 and 10 Oct. 1891.]
H. M. C.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Longfield, Mountifort

​LONGFIELD, MOUNTIFORT (1802–1884), Irish judge, born in 1802, was son of Mountifort Longfield, vicar of Desert Serges or Desert Magee, co. Cork, by his wife Grace, daughter of William Lysaght of Fort William and Mount North, co. Cork. He was educated at Trinity College, Dublin, graduated as moderator and gold medallist in science in 1823, became a fellow in 1825, and proceeded to the degrees of M.A. in 1829 and LL.D. in 1831. In 1828 he was called to the Irish bar, but did not practise. When the professorship of political economy in Trinity College was founded in 1832, he was appointed the first professor; and in 1834 he resigned his fellowship and became regius professor of feudal and English law in the university ​of Dublin, an office which he held till he died, though from 1871 he ceased to discharge its duties, except by his deputy, N. Ritchie, Q.C. He was esteemed an especially learned real-property lawyer. In 1842 he became a queen's counsel, and in 1859 a bencher of the King's Inns. Upon the passing of the Incumbered Estates Act in 1849 he was appointed one of the three commissioners under it, and he held that office until the landed estates court was constituted in 1858, when he became a judge of that court, and continued to sit until 1867. He was an active liberal, and assisted to draft the Irish measures of the first and second Gladstone administrations. In 1867 he was sworn a member of the Irish privy council. He was appointed a commissioner of Irish national education in 1853, and on several occasions was an assessor to the general synod of the Irish church, and with Professor Galbraith principally arranged the scheme for the church's finance. He was an active member of the Social Science Congress and the Statistical Society. He died at 47 Fitzwilliam Square, Dublin, on 21 Nov. 1884. In 1845 he married Elizabeth Penelope, daughter of Andrew Armstrong.
[Law Mag. 4th ser. vol. x.; Law Times, 6 Dec. 1884; Solicitors' Journal, 29 Nov. 1884; Times, 24 Nov. 1884; Catal. Dublin Graduates; Annual Register, 1884.]
J. A. H.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Long, William

​LONG, WILLIAM (1817–1886), antiquary, born 15 Aug. 1817, was second son of Walter Long of Corhampton, Hampshire, by Lady Mary, eldest daughter of William Carnegie, seventh earl of Northesk [q. v.]. He matriculated from Balliol College, Oxford, 5 June 1835, graduated B.A. in 1839, and proceeded M.A. in 1844. He was a justice of the peace for Somerset, an F.S.A., and passed his life as a country gentleman and a local antiquary. He died, 14 April 1886, at Onslow Gardens, London. He married, 13 April 1841, Elizabeth Hare, only child of James Hare Joliffe, and left issue. He wrote: 1. ‘Abury Illustrated,’ Devizes, 1858, 8vo. 2. ‘Stonehenge and its Burrows,’ Devizes, 1876, 8vo, a valuable monograph. Both had appeared in a shorter form in the ‘Wilts Archæological and Natural History Magazine.’
[Foster's Alumni Oxon. (1715–1886); Times, 20 April 1886; Athenæum, 1886, i. 562; Wilts Arch. and Nat. Hist. Mag. xxiii. 98; Burke's Landed Gentry.]
W. A. J. A.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Longden, Henry Errington

​LONGDEN, Sir HENRY ERRINGTON (1819–1890), general, son of Thomas Hayter Longden, was born in January 1819. He was educated at Eton and at the Royal Military College, Sandhurst. He was appointed to an ensigncy without purchase in the 10th foot on 16 Sept. 1836. His subsequent commissions—all the regimental ones in the 10th foot—were lieutenant 1840, captain 1843, brevet-major 1849, major 1850, brevet-lieutenant-colonel 1856, lieutenant-colonel 1858, colonel 1859, major-general 1872, lieutenant-general 1877. He retired, with honorary rank of general, 1880. After taking a certificate of proficiency in higher mathematics and military drawing at the senior department, Royal Military College, in May 1842, he served with his regiment in India, and was present in the first Sikh war of 1845–6, including the battle of Sobraon (medal), and in the second Sikh war of 1848–1849, including the two sieges of Mooltan, where he commanded the regiment at the attack on the heights on 27 Sept. 1848, and was acting field-engineer at the fall of the city. He was also at the capture of Cheniote and the final victory at Goojerat (medal and two clasps and brevet of major), and he served in the mutiny in 1857–8. In September 1857, before Sir Colin Campbell advanced from Allahabad, he despatched Longden from Benares with a small field-force, to assist the Nepâl troops in driving the rebels from the Azimghur and Jounpore districts. Longden commanded a party of picked marksmen, covering Brigadier Franks's force in the advance to Lucknow [see Franks, Sir Thomas Harte], and was attached to the Ghoorkhas during the siege and capture of the city (mentioned in despatches). He was with Lord Mark Kerr at the first relief of Azimghur on 6 April 1858, and was chief of the staff of Brigadier (Sir) Edward Lugard's force at the second relief of Azimghur, and the operations in the Jugdespore jungles (medal and clasps). Longden afterwards retired on half-pay, and was adjutant-general in India in 1866–9.
Longden was a K.C.B. and C.S.I., and colonel in succession of the 2nd Hampshire regiment (late 67th foot) and of his old corps, the Lincolnshire regiment (late 10th foot). He died in London on 29 Jan. 1890, from a chill taken at the public funeral of his old friend Lord Napier of Magdala.
[Dod's Baronetage, 1889; Hart's Army Lists; Malleson's Indian Mutiny, 1889, iv. 104, 222–224, 325; Broad Arrow, 1 Feb. 1890.]
H. M. C.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Long, Samuel

​LONG, SAMUEL (1638–1683), speaker of the House of Assembly at Jamaica, born in 1638, was second son of Timothy Long (1610–1691), and was grandson of John Long (d. 1630) of Netheravon, Wiltshire. His mother, Jane, was only daughter of Oliver Brunsell, vicar of Wroughton in the same county (Burke, Landed Gentry, 7th edit. ii. 1133). He served as lieutenant in Colonel Edward D'Oyley's regiment, in the expedition, under Penn and Venables, which conquered Jamaica in 1655, and was appointed secretary to Cromwell's commissioners. He received large grants of land in Jamaica, and by 1661 ​was clerk of the House of Assembly (Cal. State Papers, Col. Ser., Amer., and the West Indies, 1661–8, p. 47). In November 1664 he was charged with treason by Sir Thomas Whetstone, acting on behalf of the king, before the governor, council, and assembly. He had, it was alleged, in May of that year caused himself to be unlawfully elected speaker of the assembly, and had later contrived illegally his appointment as clerk, and he had caused to be passed orders and votes with intention to seize the legislative power into his own hands, including an act for the establishment of a particular treasury of the island, with himself as treasurer, into which all the king's revenue was to be paid, and from which no moneys could be issued without order from the assembly. He had, moreover, it was said, done his utmost to 'infuse his traitorous principles' into the members. A warrant for his apprehension was issued, but popular feeling favoured Long, and no further steps were taken (ib. 1661–8, pp. 251, 277, 287). Long had in fact made a bold attempt to reform existing financial abuses. In 1671 he was acting as judge for the parishes of Clarendon and St. Elizabeth (ib. 1669–74, p. 251). He was elected to the assembly as member for Clarendon in January 1672, having then acquired the rank of captain, and on 1 Feb. following was chosen speaker on the nomination of the governor (ib. pp. 314, 326, 331). In May 1673, and again in February 1674, he was returned member for St. Katherine, and was reappointed speaker (ib. pp. 489, 554–5). On 14 Aug. 1674, being then colonel, he was sworn of the council and appointed chief justice (ib. p. 603). Long died on 28 June 1683, and was buried in the cathedral in St. Katherine's parish (Archer, Mon. Inscriptions of British West Indies, p. 53). By his wife, Elizabeth (who remarried John Towers, rector of Swaffham Bulbeck, Cambridgeshire, and died 1710), he had, with three daughters (of whom the eldest, Elizabeth, born 1670, married, first, Henry Lowe of Goadby Marwood, Leicestershire, and, secondly, Henry Smallwood), three sons, one of whom, Charles, born in 1679, alone survived. He was seated at Longville, Jamaica, and was a member of council and colonel of horse. Ultimately he came to England, settled at Hurts Hall, Saxmundham, Suffolk, became in 1716 M.P. for Dunwich, and died on 8 May 1723.
[Sharpe's Peerage, s.v. 'Farnborough;' authorities cited.]
G. G.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Gomersall, Robert

​GOMERSALL, ROBERT (1602–1646?), dramatist and divine, was born in London in 1602. He matriculated at Christ Church, Oxford, 19 April 1616 (Wood's date 1614 is wrong), proceeded B.A. 19 Dec. 1618, M.A. 14 June 1621, and B.D. 11 Nov. 1628 (Reg. Univ. Oxon. vol. ii. pt. i. p. 369, pt. ii. p. 348). Having taken holy orders he ‘became a very florid preacher in the university’ (Wood). In 1628 he published ‘The Tragedie of Lodovick Sforza, Duke of Millan,’ 8vo, a somewhat stiffly written play, which may have been privately acted at Oxford by students, but does not appear to have been put on the stage by any regular company. It was dedicated to Francis Hide of Christ Church. In the same year appeared a poem, ‘The Levites Revenge: containing Poeticall Meditations upon the 19 and 20 Chapters of Judges,’ 8vo, dedicated to Dr. Barten Holiday. Both volumes contain curious engraved frontispieces. The two pieces were reprinted together in ‘Poems,’ 1633, 8vo, with the addition of a small collection of miscellaneous verses. Some of the poetical epistles are dated 1625 from Flower in Northamptonshire. John Marriot the publisher, in an address to the reader, writes: ‘from hence forward you must expect nothing from him [Gomersall] but what shall relish of a bearded and austere Devotion. And this, I trust, will be no small incitement to thy approbatiō of the worke since it is the last.’ In Harl. MS. 6931 a short poem of Gomersall is preserved. His last work was a collection of ‘Sermons on 1 Pet. cap. ii. vv. 13, 14, 15, 16,’ London, 1634, 4to, dedicated to Sir John Strangwayes of Melbury, Dorsetshire. In 1639[–40] he prefixed to Fuller's ‘History of the Holy Warre’ a copy of commendatory verses signed ‘Robert Gomersall, Vicar of Thorncombe in Devon.’ Wood notices that ‘one Rob. Gomersall, who seems to be a Devonian born, died 1646, leaving then by his will 1,000l. to his son Robert.’
A. H. B.