OpenLLM-France/wikimedia huggingface dataset:
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Lyell, Charles (1767-1849)

​LYELL, CHARLES (1767–1849), botanist and student of Dante, born at Kinnordy, Forfarshire, 7 March 1767, was the eldest son of Charles Lyell of that place. He was educated at St. Andrews and at St. Peter's College, Cambridge, whence he graduated B.A. in 1791, proceeding M.A. in 1794. From 1797 to 1825 Lyell lived at Bartley Lodge in the New Forest, and devoted himself mainly to botany, especially to the study of mosses. Several species of these plants bear his name, besides the genus Lyellia of Robert Brown. He also contributed lichens to Smith's ‘English Botany.’ In 1813 he became a fellow of the Linnean Society. In 1826 he finally settled at Kinnordy, and seems subsequently to have been chiefly engaged on the study of Dante. Lyell died at Kinnordy, 8 Nov. 1849, leaving a valuable library of works relating to his two branches of study. He married in 1796 a daughter of Thomas Smith of Maker Hall, Swaledale, Yorkshire, by whom he had three sons and seven daughters. His wife died in 1850. His eldest son, Sir Charles Lyell, is noticed separately. A son Henry entered the army, and another, Thomas, entered the navy.
In 1835 he published, at his own expense, a translation of ‘The Canzoniere of Dante … including the poems of the Vita Nuova and Convito.’ In 1842 another edition of ‘The Vita Nuova and Convito’ was published in London, and in 1845 a collection of ‘The Lyrical Poems of Dante,’ translated by him. In 1847 he issued in Paris ‘Notes to J. Hardouin's “Doutes proposées sur l'âge du Dante.”’
[Athenæum, 1849, p. 1160; Proc. Linnean Soc. 1850, ii. 87; Proc. Geol. Soc. 1876, p. 53; Life of Sir Charles Lyell, 1881; Britten and Boulger's Index of British and Irish Botanists, 1893.]
G. S. B.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Lyle, Thomas

​LYLE, THOMAS (1792–1859), Scottish poet, born in Paisley 10 Sept. 1792, was educated at Glasgow University, where he took the diploma of surgeon in 1816. He practised at Airth, Stirlingshire, and in Glasgow, where he died 19 April 1859. He was the author of several lyrics, but is remembered solely for the beautiful song, 'Let us haste to Kelvin Grove, bonnie lassie, O,' first published anonymously in the 'Harp of Renfrewshire' (1820), Some controversy arose as to the authorship, owing to a subsequent editor of the 'Harp' having in the index ascribed the song to John Sim, but Lyle made good his title to it. He contributed to R. A. Smith's 'Irish Minstrel,' and edited 'Ancient Ballads and Songs,' London, 1837. The latter work contains several of his own songs, including a version of 'Kelvin Grove,' somewhat different from the original; but the most valuable portion consists of 'Miscellaneous Poems, by Sir William Mure, Knight of Howallan' [q.v.]
[Grant Wilson's Poets and Poetry of Scotland, ii. 129; Brown's Poems of Paisley. i. 260; Roger's Modern Scottish Minstrel, iv. 261; Macdonald's Rambles around Glasgow.]
J. C. H.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Lynam, Robert

​LYNAM, ROBERT (1796–1845), miscellaneous writer, son of Charles Lynam, spectacle-maker, of the parish of St. Alphage, London Wall, was born in London on 14 April 1796. He was admitted to Christ's Hospital in March 1806, passed thence as a Grecian in 1814 (Trollope, Hist. of Christ's Hospital, p. 307), graduated B.A. from Trinity College, Cambridge, in 1818, and proceeded M.A. in 1821. He was appointed assistant mathematical master at Christ's Hospital in 1818, and was promoted in 1820 to be fourth grammar master—a post which he resigned in 1832 for that of assistant chaplain and secretary to the Magdalene Hospital, having previously taken orders. He was St. Matthew's day preacher at Christ's Hospital in 1821 and 1835, and was subsequently curate and lecturer of Cripplegate Without until his death in Bridgewater Square, London, on 12 Oct. 1845. He left a widow and nine children. Lynam's portrait was engraved by Adlard, after Hervé.
Besides some sermons Lynam published: 1. ‘The History of England during the Reign of George III,’ London, 1825; short and perspicuous. 2. ‘The History of the Roman Emperors from Augustus to the Death of Marcus Antoninus,’ 2 vols. 8vo, London, 1850, with portrait; published after the author's death by the Rev. J. T. White, a master at Christ's Hospital; though based too exclusively on Tacitus and Suetonius, it is not without merit, but had the misfortune to appear almost simultaneously with Merivale's ‘Romans under the Empire,’ and never attracted the slightest attention. Lynam is chiefly remembered as an editor. He edited with a memoir, and revised 1. The fifteenth edition of the translation of Charles Rollin's ‘Ancient History,’ 8 vols. 1823. 2. ‘The Complete Works of Philip Skelton, rector of Fintona,’ 6 vols. 1824, dedicated to John Plumtre, dean of Gloucester. 3. ‘The Complete Works of William Paley, with Life and Extracts from his Correspondence,’ 4 vols. 8vo, 1825. 4. ‘The Works of Samuel Johnson,’ 6 vols. 1825. 5. The ‘Edinburgh Mirror’ (1779–80), with introductory preface and notices of the chief contributors [see Mackenzie, Henry, ‘The Man of Feeling’], London, 1826. 6. ‘The British Essayist, with Prefaces Biographical, Historical, and Critical, with Portraits,’ 30 vols. London, 12mo, 1827; a sound compilation, which, however, never succeeded in supplanting ​Chalmers's ‘British Essayists’ (1803 and 1823) as a library edition.
[Lockhart's Christ's Hospital Exhibitioners, 1885, p. 40; Graduati Cantabrigienses, 1884, p. 334; Gent. Mag. 1828 ii. 637, 1845 ii. 542; Lynam's Works in British Museum Library.]
T. S.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Lyle, Robert

​LYLE, ROBERT, second Baron Lyle (d. 1497?), justiciary of Scotland, was only son of Robert, first Baron Lyle, by his second wife, Margaret Wallace. In 1471 it appeared that he had been wrongly put in possession of Gaithop in Ettrick Forest by Lord Boyd, to the prejudice of George Tait, to whom it had been let. He must have acquired the lands before November 1469, the date of the overthrow of the Boyds. In March 1472 he was an ambassador for the conclusion of a truce with England, and was probably on intimate terms with James Douglas, ninth earl of Douglas [q. v.], then a pensioner at the English court. Lyle was soon afterwards accused of treasonable correspondence with Douglas, but on 22 March 1481–2 he was tried before an assize in parliament and acquitted. In 1484 and 1485 he was engaged on embassies to England (cf. Letters and Papers illustrative of the Reigns of Richard III and Henry VII, ed. Gairdner, i. 59, 61, 64), and received charters of lands in Renfrewshire and Forfarshire. In 1485 he was a lord in council. In May 1488 he is stated to have been one of those (chiefly lowland nobles) opposed to James III, and went to England with others under a safe-conduct; he was in England when James was killed on 11 June 1488, and returned before 25 July. Lyle now became great justiciary of Scotland, and was one of the commissioners for opening parliament on 18 Oct. 1488. He was one of those entrusted with the charge of Renfrewshire, the Lennox, and the lower ward of Clydesdale during the king's minority (Acts of the Parliaments of Scotland, ii. 208), but he joined the great conspiracy headed by Mar, Lennox, Forbes, and the Master of Huntly to avenge the ​death of James III, and was forfeited on 28 June 1489. His forfeiture was, however, rescinded on 5 Feb. 1489-90; he became justiciary again, and had further charters of lands given him. On 26 Feb. 1490-1 he appointed ambassador to Spain about the young king's marriage. In 1492 he was one of the auditors of the exchequer (see his signature reproduced in Accounts of the Lord High Treasurer, 1493, p. 192). The last mention of his name seems to be the notice sent to him in 1497 of an intended English raid, and he is presumed to have died in that year. He is said to have married a daughter of John, master of Seton, but if so she must have died very early, as he married before 1458 (Excheq. Rolls of Scotland, vi. 456) Elizabeth Douglas, daughter of Archibald, fifth earl of Angus. He left Robert, third lord Lyle, George Nicholas, John, and three daughters.
[Douglas's Peerage of Scotland, ed. Wiyd, ii. 164; Acts of the Parliament of Scotland, vol. ii. passim; Reg. Magni Sigilli Regum Scot. 1424-1513; Exchequer Rolls of Scotland, vols. vi-x.; Anderson's Scottish Nation.]
W. A. J. A.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Lyford, William

​LYFORD, WILLIAM (1598–1653), nonconformist divine, son of William Lyford, rector of Peasemore, near Newbury, Berkshire, was born there in 1598. He entered Magdalen Hall, Oxford, as a commoner on 26 April 1615, became a demy of Magdalen College in 1617, and graduated B.A. on 16 Dec. 1618. He proceeded M.A. on 14 June 1621 (incorporated at Cambridge 1623), and B.D. 12 May 1631. On the presentation of John Digby, earl of Bristol [q. v.], he became vicar of Sherborne, Dorset, in 1631. His Calvinistic views left him undisturbed during the civil war; he was chosen member of the Westminster assembly, but did not sit—a fact which perhaps accounts for the mistaken assumption that he was a royalist (Walker, Sufferings of the Clergy, p. 419). In 1653 he was allowed an annuity of 44l. 18s. out of Lord Digby's estate. Lyford died at Sherborne on 3 Oct. 1653, and was buried under the communion table in the chancel of the church. By his wife Elizabeth he left issue. By his will he bequeathed 120l. to Magdalen College, because, he says, he had in 1633 received 40l. for resigning his fellowship 'according to the corrupt custom of those days;' the money was really a compensation for not taking a college living.
Lyford published: 1. 'Principles of Faith and Good Conscience digested into a Catechistical Form,' London, 1642, 8vo; 5th edit. Oxford, 1658. 2. 'An Apology for our Public Ministry and Infant Baptism,' London, 1653, 4to; 3rd edit. 1657. Posthumous were; 1. 'The Plain Man's Senses exercised to discern both Good and Evil,' London, 1655, 4to, with a funeral sermon by W. H., D.D., which was also issued separately. 2. 'William Lyford his Legacy, or a Help for Young People to prepare them for the Sacrament,' London, 1656, 8vo; 2nd edit. 1658. 3. 'Cases of Conscience propounded in the Time of Rebellion resolved,' London, 1661, 8vo. Lyford edited in 1634 the second edition of William Pinke's 'Tryall of a Christians syncere Love unto Christ.'
W. A. J. A.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Lyle, David

​LYLE, DAVID (fl. 1762), stenographer, was the author of an ingenious treatise entitled ‘The Art of Short-hand improved, being an Universal Character adapted to the English Language, whereby every kind of subject may be expressed or taken down in a very easy, compendious, and legible manner,’ London, 1762, 8vo. He describes himself on the title-page as a master of arts, having probably taken that degree in one of the Scotch universities. His name is not to be found in the lists of graduates in arts at Cambridge, Oxford, Dublin, and Edinburgh. In the dedication of his work to the Earl of Bute he states that by his lordship's good offices he was enabled to bring his new mathematical instruments to great perfection, and that he had completed a set of them for the use of the king. The introduction to his method of stenography contains a masterly exposition of the theory of the art and trenchant criticisms of the systems of Weston, Macaulay, and Annet. He was by no means successful, however, in reducing his theory to practice; for although his beautifully engraved tables of words present an imposing and ornamental appearance from their neatness and brevity, a close examination reveals the fact that their shortness is produced, in the majority of instances, by omitting words and syllables necessary to the sense. His vowel scheme, on a strictly phonetic basis, was more extensive than any previously attempted. But the merits of the system are purely theoretical.
[Gibson's Bibliography of Shorthand, pp. 122, 180; Lewis's Hist. of Shorthand, p. 128; Rockwell's Teaching, Practice, and Literature of Shorthand, 2nd ed. p. 105; Shorthand, i. 7, 22, 40, 62.]
T. C.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Dillon, William Henry

​DILLON, Sir WILLLAM HENRY (1779–1857), admiral, son of Sir John Talbot Dillon [q. v.], by a daughter of Henry Collins, was born in Birmingham on 8 Aug. 1779. Entering the navy in May 1790, he served as a midshipman under Captain Gambier in the Defence, and was stunned by a splinter in the action of 1 June 1794. He was present in Lord Bridport's action off Ile de Groix on 23 June 1795, and at the reduction of St. Lucie in May 1796, when he carried a flag of truce to take possession of Pigeon Island. Having become an acting-lieutenant in the Glenmore (1798), he co-operated with the army at Wexford during the rebellion, where he succeeded in arresting the Irish chief Skallian. As senior-lieutenant of the Africaine, with a flag of truce from Lord Keith to the Dutch commodore, Valterbach, at Helvoetsluys, he was (20 July 1803) made, most unjustifiably, a prisoner, handed over to the French, and detained in captivity until September 1807. In the meantime (8 April 1805) he had been made a commander, and on obtaining his release he took the command of the sloop Childers, carrying only fourteen 12-pound carronades and sixty-five men, and in her on 14 March 1808, on the coast of Norway, after a long action, drove off a Danish ​man-of-war brig of twenty guns and one hundred and sixty men. In this service he was severely wounded, and his gallant conduct was acknowledged by the Patriotic Fund at Lloyd's by the presentation of a sword valued at one hundred guineas. After obtaining his post commission (21 March 1808) he served at Walcheren, on the coasts of Portugal and Spain, at Newfoundland, in China, India, and finally in the Mediterranean, in command of the Russell, 74, when he rendered much service to the Spanish cause. He obtained flag rank on 9 Nov. 1846. He was nominated K.C.H. on 13 Jan. 1835, on 24 June following was knighted by William IV at St. James's Palace, and in 1839 received the good-service pension. He was gazetted a vice-admiral of the blue on 5 March 1853, and of the red in 1857, and died on 9 Sept. 1857, leaving in manuscript an account of his professional career, with a description of the many scenes in which he had been engaged.
[O'Byrne's Nav. Biog. Dict. p. 290; Gent. Mag. October 1857, p. 460; Times, 22 Sept. 1857, p. 12.]
G. C. B.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Dilly, Edward

​DILLY, EDWARD (1732–1779), bookseller, the second of the three brothers, was born at Southill, Bedfordshire, 25 July 1732. He had an extensive business at 22 in the Poultry, London, and carried on a large American export trade, especially in dissenting theology. On the return of his brother Charles [q. v.] from a trip to America he took him into partnership. He was an admirer of the politics (as well as the person, it is said) of Catherine Macaulay, and published her writings. Boswell includes a couple of his letters, one descriptive of the origin of the edition of the poets, in his ‘Life of Johnson,’ and in a communication to Temple (Letters, p. 240) describes his death, which took place 11 May 1779, at his brother John's house at Southill. He was a pleasant companion, but so loquacious and fond of society that ‘he almost literally talked himself to death,’ says Nichols (Literary Anecd. iii. 191).
[Gent. Mag. xlix. 271; Boswell's Life of Johnson (G. Birkbeck Hill), iii. 110, 126, 396; Boswelliana, ed. by Dr. Ch. Rogers, 1874; Nichols's Literary Anecd. iii. 190–2; Timperley's Encyclopædia, p. 744.]
H. R. T.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Dillon, Thomas (1615?-1672?)

​DILLON, THOMAS, fourth Viscount Dillon (1615?–1672?), was the second son of Sir Christopher Dillon, president of Connaught, and Lady Jane, eldest daughter of James, first earl of Roscommon. He was bred a Roman catholic, but when, at the age of fifteen years, he succeeded his nephew, Theobald, the third viscount, 13 May 1630, he declared himself a protestant. He was present in the parliament of Dublin 16 March 1639–40, and in 1640 was made a lord of the privy council. In November 1641 he was ap​pointed, along with Lord Viscount Mayo, joint governor of county Mayo. On 13 Feb. 1641–2, he was chosen, along with Lord Taaffe, by the Irish parliament to present their grievances to the king (‘Apology of the Anglo-Irish for Rising in Arms’ in Gilbert, Contemporary History of the Irish Confederation, i. 246–53). Soon after landing in England they were imprisoned by the parliament there as ‘agents employed by the rebels of Ireland to the king,’ but gradually obtaining the liberty of London, they made their escape after four months, and came to York, whither a messenger from the House of Commons followed them and demanded them as prisoners. The king, however, took no notice of their escape, and having volunteered to serve with the troops, ‘they behaved themselves with good courage, and frankly engaged their persons in all dangerous enterprises’ (Clarendon, History of the Rebellion, Oxford edition, ii. 218). After his return home, Dillon was made a lieutenant-general, and, along with Viscount Wilmot, was appointed lord president of Connaught. Subsequently he joined the Marquis of Ormonde in command of the army of the confederates, and was left by him with two thousand foot and five hundred horse to block up the city of Dublin in the north. He maintained Athlone till 18 June 1651, when articles of agreement were arranged between him and Sir Charles Coote. At the time of the Commonwealth his estates were sequestrated. In consideration of a sum of money he resigned in 1662 the presidency of Connaught to Charles II, by whom he was appointed custos rotulorum. He died in 1672 or 1673. By his wife, Frances, daughter of Nicholas White of Leixlip, he had six sons.
[Borlace's Reduction of Ireland; Gilbert's History of the Confederation, vols. i. and ii.; Contemporary History of Affairs in Ireland, 1641–52, ed. Gilbert; Clarendon's History of the Rebellion; Gardiner's Hist. of England, vol. x.; Lodge's Peerage of Ireland (Archdall), iv. 184–9.]
T. F. H.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Dillon-Lee, Henry Augustus

​DILLON-LEE, HENRY AUGUSTUS, thirteenth Viscount Dillon (1777–1832), writer, eldest son of Charles, twelfth viscount Dillon, K.P., by the Hon. Henrietta-Maria Phipps, only daughter of Constantine, first lord Mulgrave, was born at Brussels on 28 Oct. 1777. On 1 Oct. 1794 he obtained the rank of colonel in the Irish brigade, and on a vacancy occurring in 1799 he was returned to parliament for the borough of Harwich. At the last general election of 1802 he was chosen one of the knights for the county of Mayo, and was re-elected in 1806, 1807, and 1812, and continued a member of the House of Commons till 9 Nov. 1813, when he succeeded to his father's title. He became colonel of the Duke of York's Irish regiment (101st foot) in August 1806.
Dillon inherited through his grandmother, Lady Charlotte Lee, daughter of the second of the extinct Earls of Lichfield, the estate of Dytchley, with its beautiful hall built on the site of the mansion once occupied by Sir Henry Lee of Dytchley. He married in 1807 Henrietta Browne, sister of the first Lord Oranmore, by whom he had five sons and two daughters. He died, after much suffering, on 24 July 1832, at Brook Street, Grosvenor Square, London. Dillon published the following works:
* ‘A Short View of the Catholic Question,’ 1801, a pamphlet advocating the catholic claims.
* ‘A Letter to the Noblemen and Gentlemen who composed the Deputation of the Catholics of Ireland,’ 1805.
* ‘A Commentary on the Military Establishments and Defence of the British Empire,’ 2 vols. 8vo, 1811–12.
* An edition of ‘The Tactics of Ælian,’ with notes, 4to, 1814.
* ‘A Commentary on the Policy of Nations,’ London, 2 vols. 8vo, 1814.
* ‘A Discourse upon the Theory of Legitimate Government,’ London, 12mo, 1817.
* ‘Rosaline de Vere, a Romance,’ 2 vols. post 8vo.
* ‘The Life and Opinions of Sir Richard Maltravers, an English Gentleman of the 17th Century,’ London, 1822, 2 vols. 8vo, a fiction in which the author endeavoured to show the difference of manners at the time in which he lived and those of which he wrote, a comparison not very flattering to the Georgian era.
* ‘Eccelino da Romano,’ a poem, 1828, 2 vols. 8vo.
[Lodge's Genealogical Peerage; Gent. Mag. 1832, vol. cii. pt. ii. p. 175; notice on fly-leaf of Life and Opinions of Sir Richard Maltravers; Allibone's Dict. of English Literature.]
R. H.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Dillon, Thomas (1613-1676?)

​DILLON or DE LEON, THOMAS (1613–1676?), jesuit, was born in Ireland in 1613 and educated in Spain. He entered the novitiate of the Society of Jesus at Seville in 1627 and afterwards became a professed father. He taught philosophy for six years and scholastic and moral theology for twenty-two years in the colleges of his order at Seville and Granada. In 1640 he was professor of humanities at Cadiz. He was residing in the college at Granada in 1676, being then in ill-health and afflicted with dimness in the eyes. Dillon was skilled in Greek, Hebrew, and Arabic, and Athanasius Kircher (Œdipus Ægyptiacus, vol. ii. class. xi. sect. 4) pronounced him to be ‘linguarum orientalium et abstrusioris doctrinæ veterum explorator eximius.’ Probably he is the person whom Peter Talbot, archbishop of Dublin, calls Thomas Talbot, alias De Leon, ‘the oracle of all Spain, not only for his profoundness in divinity, but for his vast extent of knowledge in other sciences, and his great skill in the languages’ (The Frier Disciplined, p. 45).
He was the author of:
* ‘Leccion sacra en la fiesta celebre que hizo el collegio de la Compagnia de Jesus de la ciudad de Cadiz en hazimiento de gracias a Dios Nuestro Señor por el complimiento del primer siglo de su sagrada religion,’ Seville, 1640, 4to.
* ‘Commentary on the Books of Maccabees. MS.’
[Antonio's Bibl. Hispana Nova, ii. 307; Backer's Bibl. des Ecrivains de la Compagnie de Jésus (1869), i. 1599; Foley's Records, vii. 203; Oliver's Jesuit Collections, p. 243; Southwell's Bibl. Scriptorum Soc. Jesu, p. 762; Ware's Writers (Harris), p. 164.]
T. C.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Marsham, Thomas

​MARSHAM, THOMAS (d. 1819), entomologist, became a fellow of the Linnean Society in March 1788, and was elected secretary the same year. He continued to hold this office till 1798, when he was elected treasurer, which post he resigned in May 1816. He died on 26 Nov. 1819. Marshman began a work upon British insects, under the title of 'Entomologica Britannica.' Of this, however, only vol. i. 'Coleoptera Britannica,' 8vo, London, 1802, appeared. Nine papers on various entomological subjects were read by him before the Linnean Society, and published in their 'Transactions,'
[Information kindly supplied by J. E. Harting, assist sec. Linn. Soc.; Gent. Mag. 1819, pt. ii. p. 569; Roy. Soc. List of Papers.]
B. B. W.