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

​FOWLER, RICHARD (1765–1863), physician, was born in London 28 Nov. 1765, and, though he lived to a greater age than any other member of the College of Physicians, was of feeble health when a child. He was educated at Edinburgh and studied medicine there, but while a student visited Paris in the times before the revolution. Returning to Edinburgh in 1790 he continued his medical studies, and graduated M.D. 12 Sept. 1793 with a dissertation ‘De Inflammatione.’ He was also a member of the celebrated ‘Speculative Society,’ to which he contributed essays. He was admitted licentiate of the College of Physicians of London 21 March 1796, and settled in practice at Salisbury, where he passed the remainder of his life. He was at once elected physician to the Salisbury Infirmary, and held the office till 1847. He was elected F.R.S. in 1802, and often took part in the meetings of the British Association, to attend which and to read a paper there he made the journey from Salisbury to Aberdeen in 1859, when close upon ninety-four years of age. He was successful in practice, and occupied a leading position in Salisbury for many years. He died 13 April 1863 at Milford, near Salisbury, in his ninety-eighth year, an age reached by very few persons in the annals of medicine.
Fowler always kept up an interest in science, without producing any notable original work. When a student in Edinburgh, after his return from Paris, he was interested in the recent discoveries of Galvani on the form of electricity called by his name, and made numerous experiments on the subject, which were published in a small volume entitled ‘Experiments and Observations on the Influence lately discovered by M. Galvani, and commonly called Animal Electricity,’ 8vo, Edinburgh, 1793. It contains, also, observations on the action of opium on nerves and muscles. Many years after Fowler published two small books on the psychology of persons in whom the senses are defective, viz. ‘Observations on the Mental State of the Blind and Deaf and Dumb,’ 12mo, Salisbury, 1843; 2nd edit. 1860; and ‘The Physiological Processes of Thinking, especially in Persons whose Organs of Sense are Defective,’ 12mo, Salisbury, 1849; 2nd edit. 1852. These works show some reading, and contain interesting observations, but are wanting in lucidity and in philosophical method. He also wrote ‘On Literary and Scientific Pursuits as conducive to Longevity,’ Salisbury, 1855, 12mo. Fowler appears to have written nothing on purely medical subjects, but contributed memoirs to the ‘Proceedings of the British Association,’ some of which were published separately.
J. F. P.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Fox, Caroline

​FOX, CAROLINE (1819–1871), diarist, born at Falmouth on 24 May 1819, was second daughter of Robert Were Fox of Penjerrick. From her earliest years she displayed great intelligence and refinement of mind. In 1835 she began to keep the journal which has rendered her celebrated, not so much from its considerable literary merits, as from its association with distinguished persons. Most of these were men of science, attracted by Robert Were Fox's scientific reputation, and his especial knowledge of Cornish mineralogy; but the most remarkable were thinkers and men of letters brought to her remote nook of Cornwall by their own delicacy of constitution or that of their friends. At the beginning of 1840 John Sterling was staying at Falmouth, partly on account of his own health, partly in attendance on his sick friend, Dr. Calvert; Stuart Mill's mother, with her daughters Clara and Harriet, was nursing her youngest son Henry in a hopeless illness, and was soon joined by Mill himself. Sterling and Mill soon became exceedingly intimate with the Fox family, especially with Caroline and her brother Barclay, to whom Mill wrote several letters published in the second edition of Caroline's journal. Caroline's account of their conversations is exceedingly interesting, and adds considerably to our knowledge of both, especially of Mill, who has not elsewhere found a Boswell. The intimacy was the means of introducing her to Carlyle and other remarkable persons, few of whom are mentioned without some bright touch of appreciative portraiture. Her tendency was always to admiration and sympathy, recognising what seemed to her excellent, ignoring or minimising points of difference; it would not be possible to point out a cavil or an ill-natured expression from one end of the record to the other. The intimacy with Mill gradually diminished, while that with Sterling increased in warmth, and his death in 1844 may not have been unconnected with the depression into which Caroline fell in that year, and which left its traces on all her subsequent life. From this time her diary becomes less copious and interesting, partly from the comparative infrequency of remarkable acquaintances, partly from the interruptions occasioned by ill-health, but partly also from a loss of buoyancy and a comparative limitation and timidity of thought. Every line nevertheless indicates the gentle, spiritual, and at the same time intellectual and accomplished woman, and it will always be valued as a highly important illustration of the most characteristic thought of the Victorian era. Caroline died on 12 Jan. 1871, having never married, or quitted her home except for occasional visits to the continent. With her sister, Anna Maria Fox (d. Dec. 1897), she translated into Italian several English religious works, of which the latest, ‘Il Mozzo Bertino,’ was published in Florence in 1867.
R. G.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Fox, Charles (1794-1849)

​FOX, CHARLES (1794–1849), line-engraver, born on 17 March 1794, was the son of the steward to Lord Stafford at Cossey Hall, Norfolk, where he was brought up in the gardens, spending his early years in agricultural and horticultural occupations. An accidental visit from William Camden Edwards [q. v.], the engraver, led to young Fox being placed by his father as a pupil with Edwards at Bungay in Suffolk. He had already received some instruction in drawing from Charles Hodgson at Norwich. On the completion of his engagement with Edwards, Fox came to London, and became an inmate of the studio of John Burnet [q. v.], the engraver, who was then engaged on his large plates after Sir David Wilkie's pictures, in which Fox assisted him. Fox's most important plates, of his own execution, were from pictures by Wilkie, viz. ‘Village Politicians’ and ‘Queen Victoria's First Council.’ He also engraved some illustrations by Wilkie for Cadell's edition of Sir Walter Scott's novels. He was employed on the annuals, then so much in vogue, Stark's ‘Rivers of Norfolk,’ and other works. Among other engravings by him were the full-length portrait of Sir George Murray, after Pickersgill, in which his best work was shown, ‘A Cauchaise Girl,’ after G. S. Newton, &c. He also ​painted in water-colours, mostly portraits of his friends. During his whole life Fox never ceased to take interest in floriculture, and was considered one of the best judges of flowers. When Dr. John Lindley [q. v.] was appointed superintendent of the Horticultural Society, Fox was chosen as judge and arbitrator, in which capacity he gained universal esteem. He superintended the illustrations of the ‘Florist.’ While on a visit to a friend at Leyton in Essex, Fox died from an affection of the heart on 28 Feb. 1849. He was engaged on an engraving of Mulready's ‘The Fight Interrupted,’ which remained unfinished at his death. A portrait of Fox was etched from a drawing by W. Carpenter, jun. for publication in the ‘Florist.’
L. C.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Fownes, George

​FOWNES, GEORGE (1815–1849), chemist, born on 14 May 1815, was educated first at Enfield in Middlesex, and afterwards at Bourbourg, near Gravelines, in France. He was intended for commerce, but at an early age he resolved to adopt chemistry as a profession. When seventeen years old he attended a philosophical class at the Western Literary Institution, a London society. In January 1837 he became a pupil of Professor Thomas Everitt at Middlesex Hospital, and afterwards studied at Giessen in Germany, where he became Ph.D.
Fownes was assistant to Professor Graham in the laboratory of University College, a post which he resigned about 1840 to become lecturer on chemistry at Charing Cross Hospital. In 1842 he became professor of chemistry to the Pharmaceutical Society, and in the same year he resigned his post at Charing Cross to succeed Professor Everitt as chemical lecturer at Middlesex Hospital. In 1844 Fownes delivered an able course of lectures at the London Institution. Symptoms of pulmomary disease compelled him to resign his post at Middlesex Hospital in 1845, and at the Pharmaceutical Society in 1846. But in 1846 he accepted the professorship of practical chemistry in the Birkbeck laboratory at University College, a post which he held till his death. He visited Barbadoes in search of health in the spring of 1847, but caught cold on his return in 1848, and died at his father's house in Brompton on 31 Jan. 1849.
Fownes was an excellent public lecturer, and at the time of his death was secretary of the Chemical Society, in whose journal many of his papers appeared. He also wrote a capital general text-book of chemistry, which was published in 1844, and which, under the careful editorship of Mr. Henry Watts, has since passed through twelve editions. He won the prize offered by the Royal Agricultural Society in 1842 for an essay on the ‘Food of Plants,’ and the Actonian prize of one hundred guineas for an ‘Essay on Chemistry, as exemplifying the Wisdom and Beneficence of God.’ He published eighteen papers in various scientific periodicals. The first of these, ‘On the Equivalent of Carbon,’ appeared in the ‘Philosophical Magazine’ for 1839; and the last, ‘On the Equivalent or Combining Volumes of Solid Bodies,’ in the ‘Pharmaceutical Journal’ for 1849. Of the others we may name those on the ‘Direct Formation of Cyanogen from its Elements’ (‘British Association Report,’ 1841); ‘Artificial Yeast,’ ‘Action of Oil of Vitriol on Ferrocyanide of Potassium,’ ‘Hippuric Acid,’ ‘Phosphoric Acid in Felspar of Jersey’ (all in the ‘Proceedings of the Chemical Society’). Organic chemistry was his special study. He succeeded ‘for the first time in the artificial production of a vegeto-alkali or organic salt-base (furfurine), and was also the discoverer of benzoline.’ For his researches on these substances (see Philosophical Transactions, 1845) Fownes was awarded a royal medal by the Royal Society.
[Journal of the Chemical Society for 1850, ii. 184; Royal Society's Catalogue of Scientific Papers, 1868.]
W. J. H.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Fowns, Richard

1904 Errata appended.
​FOWNS, RICHARD (1560?–1625), divine, ‘a minister's son and Worcestershire man born,’ was elected student of Christ Church, Oxford, in 1577, at the age of seventeen, and graduated B.A. 30 Jan. 1581, M.A. 3 April 1585 (Wood, Fasti Oxon. ed. Bliss, i. 217, 230). He took the degrees of B.D. and D.D. by accumulation, 16 May 1605 (ib. i. 306, 307). He became chaplain to Prince Henry, and in 1602 was rector of Stoke Severn, Worcestershire, in the church of which he was buried 25 Nov. 1625. His monument was ‘miserably defaced’ during the civil war. He was the author of: 1. ‘Concio [on 2 Thess. ii. 3, 4] ad Clerum celeberrimæ florentissimæq; Academiæ Oxoñ. habita Iulij decimo, Anno Domini 1606,’ 4to, London, 1606, dedicated to Henry, prince of Wales. 2. ‘Trisagion, or the three Holy Offices of Iesvs Christ, the Sonne of God, priestly, propheticall, and regall; how they ought of all his Church to be receiued. With a Declaration of the violence and iniuries offered vnto the same by the Spirituall and Romish Babylon,’ London, 1619, a stout quarto of 782 pages, inscribed to Prince Charles.
G. G.
Dictionary of National Biography, Errata (1904), p.129 N.B.— f.e. stands for from end and l.l. for last line
| Page | Col. | Line | |
| 91 | i | 10-11 | Fowns, Richard : for Stoke Severn read Severn Stoke |
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Hunt, John (1812-1848)

​HUNT, JOHN (1812–1848), missionary, the third child of a farm bailiff, who had previously been a soldier and a sailor, was born at Hykeham Moss, near Lincoln, on 13 June 1812. After a few years in a parish school, Hunt was put to farm labour at the age of ten, and worked for some years as a ploughman at Balderton, near Newark, and Swinderby. He became a methodist when about sixteen. At Swinderby he educated himself in his spare time, and preached there and afterwards at Potter Hanworth, near Lincoln. In 1835 he was sent to the Hoxton theological college for Wesleyan ministers; in 1838 he was ordained and sailed for Fiji as a missionary. Here he was very successful, making long journeys to the various mission stations on the islands, and working hard at translation. In 1848 H.M.S. Calypso visited Fiji, and Hunt made a long tour with the captain. He died of an illness the consequence of fatigue on 4 Oct. 1848, and was buried at Vewa, one of the mission stations. His wife, Miss Summers, of Newton-on-Trent, whom he had married on 6 March 1838, and several children survived him.
Hunt took part in translating the Scriptures into Fijian. The New Testament was published at Viti, Fiji, in 1853, 12mo, and the whole Bible in London in 1864-8, 8vo., He also wrote: 1. `Memoir of the Rev. W. Cross,' the life of a missionary, to which he added a short notice of the early history of the mission to Fiji, London, 1846, 12mo. 2. 'Entire Sanctification, in Letters to a Friend,' edited by J. Calvert, London, 1853, 12mo.
W. A. J. A.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Hunt, Nicholas

​HUNT, NICHOLAS (1596–1648), arithmetician, born in 1596 in Devonshire, was entered at Exeter College, Oxford, 12 April 1612, and graduated B.A. 19 April 1616. On the title-page of his first work (1628) he is designated 'preacher of Christ's Word.' According to Wood, he is identical with a Nicholas Hunt, born at or near Exeter, who lived at Camberwell, Surrey, in 1647, was for many years one of the `proctors of the arches,' and died in 1648.
Hunt's works are: 1. `The Devout Christian Communicant instructed in the Two Sacraments of the New Testament,' London, 1628. 2. `Newe Recreations, or the Mindes Release and Solacing,' London, 1631, 12mo. Another title-page of this book runs: `Judiciary Exercises, or Practical Conclusions,' London, 1631, dedicated to Charles I, and containing arithmetical conundrums and numerical problems. 3. `Handmaid to Arithmetick refin'd, shewing the variety and working of all Rules, in whole Numbers and Fractions, after most pleasant and profitable waies, abounding with Tables for Monies, Measures, and Weights, Rules for Commutations and Exchanges for Merchants and their Factors,' London, 1633. 4. `The New-borne Christian, or a Lively Patterne and Perfect representation of the Saint Militant Child of God,' London, 1634.
R. E. A.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Hunt, Thomas (1696-1774)

​HUNT, THOMAS (1696–1774), orientalist, was born in 1696, and educated at Hart Hall, Oxford, where he graduated M.A. in 1721, B.D. 1743, and D.D. 1744. He was one of the four senior fellows of Hart Hall when it was incorporated as Hertford College. Soon after Sir Isaac Newton's death in 1726, he became tutor in Lord Macclesfield's family. In earlier life Hunt was chiefly occupied with the study of the Old Testament. In 1738 he was appointed Laudian professor of Arabic at Oxford, and in 1747 he became regius professor of Hebrew and canon of the sixth stall in Christ Church Cathedral. Hunt was elected fellow of the Society of Antiquaries in 1757, and a fellow of the Royal Society in 1740. He died at Oxford on 31 Oct. 1774. There is a tablet to his memory in the north aisle of the nave of Christ Church Cathedral, Oxford. He was the intimate friend of Dr. Richard Newton, Dr. Kennicott, and Doddridge. For some years he was also closely associated in his oriental studies with Dr. Gregory Sharpe, and with him prepared an edition of Thomas Hyde's 'Dissertations' [see Hyde, Thomas, D.D., 1636–1703], but a quarrel took place between Sharpe and Hunt before publication in 1767, and Sharpe's name alone appears on the title-page. Hunt was a sound oriental scholar; Duperron wrote slightingly of his abilities in 1762, but was answered in 1771 by William (afterwards Sir William) Jones, who stated that he knew Hunt, and claimed that respect should be paid him.
Hunt's chief works are: 1. 'A Fragment of Hippolytus from two Arabic MSS. in the Bodleian,' printed in vol. iv. of Parker's 'Bibliotheca Biblica,' 1728. 2. 'De Antiquitate, elegantia, utilitate, linguæ Arabicæ,' 1739; his inaugural address as Laudian professor. 3. 'A Dissertation on Proverbs, vii. 22 and 23,' 1743. 4. 'De usu dialectorum orientalium,' 1748; a prefatory discourse to his lectures as regius professor of Hebrew.
In 1746 Hunt issued proposals for publishing a Latin translation of the 'History of Egypt' by Abd Al Latif, and, from Dr. Sharpe's prolegomena to Hyde's works, it would seem that the translation was actually completed. It remained unpublished, however, at Hunt's death, and the subscribers were compensated by receiving the posthumous 'Observations on several Passages in the Book of Proverbs,' 1775, edited from Hunt's papers by Bishop Kennicott.
Hunt also compiled a Latin grammar drawn up for the private use of Lord Macclesfield's sons, which was privately printed about 1730; and edited the complete works of his friend, George Hooper [q. v.], bishop of Bath and Wells, in 1757, fol., reprinted in 1855. Hunt had previously published in 1728 Hooper's 'De Benedictione Gen. 49 coniecturæ,' of which he only printed one hundred copies. In 1760 Hunt, together with Costard, published a second edition of Dr. Thomas Hyde's 'Historia veterum Persarum.'
E. J. R.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Hunt, Roger

​HUNT, ROGER (fl. 1433), speaker of the House of Commons, may have belonged to the same family as the Thomas Hunt who was prior of Walsingham in 1455 (Paston Letters, ed. Gairdner, i. 347, cp. i. 443). He was probably the son of Roger Hunt who was attornatus regis in 1406; he lived at Chalverston in Bedfordshire. He was returned to the House of Commons as member for the county of Bedford in 1414 and 1420, and afterwards sat for Huntingdonshire until 1433. In 1420 he became speaker, and held the office for that session and for the session of 1433; in the latter year the plague necessitated a prorogation. Hunt was a lawyer, and was counsel for John Mowbray, the earl-marshal, against the representative of the Earl of Warwick in 1425 in a dispute as to precedence. In 1438 he became a baron of the exchequer, and in 1433 a grant of 200l. was made to him from the customs of London. Hunt was married, and left a son Roger.
[Manning's Lives of the Speakers, p.65; Foss's Judges of England, p. 358; Return of Members of Parliament, vol. i.]
W. A. J. A.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Hunt, Thomas (1611-1683)

​HUNT, THOMAS (1611–1683), schoolmaster, son of Henry Hunt, was born in Worcester in 1611. He entered Pembroke College, Oxford, in 1628, and proceeded M.A. in 1636. He kept a private school for sometime in Salisbury, afterwards became master of the church school at St. Dunstan's-in-the East, London, and at a later date was master of the free school of St. Saviour's, Southwark. He died on 23 Jan. 1682-3, and was buried in St. Saviour's Church. He wrote:
* 'Libellus Orthographicus; or the diligent Schoolboy's Directory,' London, 1661; often reprinted.
* 'Abecedarium Scholasticum; or the Grammar-Scholar's Abecedary.'
[Wood's Athenæ Oxon. iv. 81; Chambers's Worcestershire Biog. p. 587.]
W. A. J. A.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Hunt, John Higgs

​HUNT, JOHN HIGGS (1780–1859), translator of Tasso, born in 1780, was educated at the Charterhouse. He matriculated from Trinity College, Cambridge, and in 1797 gained the Browne medal for a Latin ode. He graduated B.A. 1801, M.A. 1804, and was elected a fellow of Trinity. For some time he edited the 'Critical Review,' and wrote in the number of September 1807 a favourable notice of Byron's 'Hours of Idleness.' 'I have been praised,' wrote Byron, 'to the skies in the "Critical Review"' (Moore, Life of Byron, p. 58). Hunt was living at Kirkby Lonsdale, Westmoreland, in 1818, and had vacated his fellowship, probably by marriage, before that date. On 20 March 1823 he became vicar of Weedon Beck, Northamptonshire, and died there on 17 Nov. 1859. He published Tasso's `Jerusalem Delivered,' with notes and occasional illustrations, London, 2 vols. 1818, 8vo; the translation was commended in the 'Gentleman's Magazine' (1819, i. 541). It was reprinted in Walsh's `Works of the British Poets ' (vols. xlviii. and xlix.), Philadelphia, 1822. Hunt is also said to have written a work upon 'Cosmo the Great.'
W. A. J. A.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Hunt, Robert (d.1608?)

​HUNT, ROBERT (d. 1608?), minister at James Town, Virginia, was apparently a son of Robert Hunt, M.A., vicar of Reculver, Kent. He was educated at Trinity Hall, Cambridge, proceeded LL.B. in 1606, and took orders. In the same year he was chosen by Richard Hakluyt, with the approval of Archbishop Bancroft, to accompany the first settlers to Virginia. The expedition sailed from Blackwall on 19 Dec. 1606, and arrived in Virginia on 27 April 1607. During the voyage Hunt was seriously ill. A settlement having been formed at a place which was called James Town, Hunt on Sunday, 21 June, there celebrated the communion, that being the first occasion on which the ordinance was observed by Englishmen in America. By his efforts a rude church was soon afterwards erected, but it was burnt down, together with the greater part of the dwellings of the new colony, in the ensuing winter. Hunt lost his books and all that he had except the clothes on his back. A new church was reared in the spring of 1608, but Hunt did not long survive.
[Cooper's Athenae Cantabr. ii. 493-4; Anderson's Colonial Church, 2nd edit. i. 168-83.]
G. G.