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

​UPINGTON, Sir THOMAS (1845–1898), South African statesman, born in 1845, was the son of Samuel Upington (d. 1875) of Lisleigh House, co. Cork, by Mary (Tarrant). Though a Roman catholic, he was made welcome at Trinity College, Dublin, where he was admitted on 11 Oct. 1861, and whence he graduated B.A. in 1865 and M.A. in 1868 (Cat. of Dublin Graduates). He was called to the Irish bar in 1867, and a few years later was made a queen's counsel, having in the interval been appointed secretary to the Irish chancellor, Thomas O'Hagan, baron O'Hagan [q. v.]. In 1874 he settled in Cape Colony, was in 1878 elected to the representative assembly, and in the same year, upon the fall of the Molteno ministry, became attorney-general in (Sir) Gordon Sprigg's administration, and one of the most prominent politicians of the colony, identifying himself to a large extent with Sir Bartle Frere's policy; he resigned in 1881, and became leader of the opposition in the Cape parliament. In August 1883 he was chosen counsel for Patrick O'Donnell, the bricklayer who shot James Carey [q. v.], the informer, on his way to the Cape. He did all that he could to prevent O'Donnell's extradition, and was offered a big fee on condition of his returning to England to defend his client there; but he returned the brief (Critic, 17 Dec. 1898). In 1884 Upington became premier, taking office as attorney-general, with Sir Gordon Sprigg as his treasurer. Vigorous retrenchment had to be combined with such forward movement as the annexation of Walfisch Bay. Froude, who gives a personal description of Upington and his wife, both of whom he liked, interviewed Upington (by the latter's desire) during the term of his ministry, and was impressed by his opposition to Sir Charles Warren's expedition on the ground that it would widen the breach between the English and the Dutch, who were, as a whole, ultimately loyal to British sovereignty as knowing that it would be infinitely less irksome than any other (Oceana, 1886, pp. 65–7). In 1886 Upington resigned the premiership in favour of Sir Gordon Sprigg, but continued in the cabinet as attorney-general down to 1890. He was appointed puisne judge in the supreme court of the Cape in 1892, but resumed the attorney-generalship in succession to Mr. Schreiner in 1896. He was on the commission appointed to inquire into native laws and customs of the colony, and was a delegate at the colonial conference in 1887, when he was made a K.C.M.G. He died at Wyberg, near Capetown, on 10 Dec. 1898. He married, in 1872, Mary, daughter of J. Guerin of Edenhill, co. Cork, and left issue. A village and district in Bechuanaland are named after Upington (South African Gazetteer).
T. S.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Norris, William (1719-1791)

​NORRIS, WILLIAM (1719–1791), secretary to the Society of Antiquaries, was apparently son of John Norris, Nonsuch, Wiltshire, and matriculated from Merton College, Oxford, on 12 March 1735–6. Robert Norris [q. v.] was his brother. He was elected F.S.A. on 4 April 1754, and that year commenced to assist Ames as secretary to the society. On Ames's death, in 1759, Norris became sole secretary, and held the post till 1786, when he retired on account of ill-health. His secretaryship was characterised by great diligence and energy. Gough speaks of his ‘dragon-like vigilance’ (Nichols, Lit. Anecd. vi. 128). He was for several years corrector for the press to Baskett, the royal printer. In 1766 he appears to have been residing in Chancery Lane. He died in Camden Street, Islington, in November 1791, and was buried in the burial-ground of St. James's, Pentonville, on 29 Nov. Letters by him, written in 1756 to Philip Carteret Webb, are in the British Museum (Lansdowne MS. 841, ff. 86, 87).
[Gent. Mag. 1792, pt. i. p. 88; Foster's Alumni Oxon.; Nichols's Lit. Anecd. vi. 127; Hist. MSS. Comm. 5th Rep. p. 359; registers of St. James's, Pentonville, per the Rev. J. H. Rose.]
B. P.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/North, Charles Napier

​NORTH, CHARLES NAPIER (1817–1869), colonel, born 12 Jan. 1817, was eldest son of Captain Roger North (d. 1822), half-pay 71st foot, who had served in the 50th foot under Sir Charles James Napier [q. v.] His mother was Charlotte Swayne (d. 1843). On 20 May 1836 he obtained an ensigncy by purchase in the 6th foot, became lieutenant on 28 Dec. 1838, and served with that regiment against the Arabs at Aden in 1840–1. He exchanged to the 60th royal rifles, in which he got his company on 28 Dec. 1848, and served with the 1st battalion in the Punjab war of 1849 at the second siege of Multan (Mooltan), the battle of Goojerat and pursuit of the enemy to the mouth of the Khyber Pass (medal and two clasps). He landed at Calcutta from England on 14 May 1857, two days before the arrival of the news of the mutinies at Meerut and Delhi. He started to join his battalion, which had been at Meerut, and in which he got his majority on 19 June 1857, but on the way, on 11 July, obtained leave to join the column under Havelock [see Havelock, Sir Henry], and with it, first as a volunteer with the 78th highlanders, and from 21 July as deputy judge advocate of the force, was present in all the operations ending with the relief of the residency of Lucknow on 25 Sept. 1857, and the subsequent defence until the arrival of Sir Colin Campbell's force [see Campbell, Sir Colon, Lord Clyde]. North was thanked by the governor-general in council and by General Outram for ‘the readiness and resource with which he established and superintended the manufacture of Enfield rifle cartridges, a valuable service, which he rendered without any relaxation of his other duties, in the course of which he was wounded’ (medal and clasp, brevet of lieutenant-colonel, 1858, and a year's service for Lucknow). North wrote a ‘Journal with ​the Army in India’ (London, 1858), an accurate little narrative of personal observation from May 1857 to January 1858, when he was invalided home. He became colonel by brevet on 30 March 1865, and sold out of the army on 26 Oct. 1868. He died at Bray, co. Wicklow, on 20 Aug. 1869, aged 52. By his directions his remains were brought to England, and were laid by his old regiment in the cemetery at Aldershot.
[Information supplied by the war office; North's Journal with the Army (London, 1858); Army and Navy Gazette, August 1869.]
H. M. C.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Norris, Thomas (1741-1790)

​NORRIS, THOMAS (1741–1790), singer, son of John Norris of Mere, Wiltshire, was baptised there on 15 Aug. 1741 (church register). He became a chorister in Salisbury Cathedral under Dr. Stephens, and attracted the notice of James Harris [q. v.], the author of ‘Hermes,’ who wrote a pastoral operetta for the purpose of introducing him to the public. He sang as a soprano at the Worcester and Hereford festivals of 1761–2, and at Drury Lane in a pasticcio, ‘The Spring.’ In 1765 he was appointed organist of Christ Church and of St. John's College, Oxford, where, in the same year, he graduated Mus. Bac.; and in 1771 was admitted a lay clerk of Magdalen College. He appeared as a tenor at the Gloucester festival in 1766, and sang at the festivals of the Three Choirs until 1788. He was one of the principal singers at the first Handel commemoration festival in 1784, and his success then led to frequent engagements for oratorio in London. His last appearance was at the Birmingham festival of 1790, the strain of which caused his death, at Himley Hall, near Stourbridge, on 5 Sept. An early disappointment had driven him to convivial excesses, which greatly injured his voice and impaired his health. He was an excellent musician, a skilful performer on several instruments, and while at Oxford a favourite teacher with the students. His compositions include several anthems, one only of which has been printed; glees and other pieces, some of which are included in Warren's ‘Collections;’ and six symphonies for strings, oboes, and horns. A portrait was engraved ad vivum by J. Taylor in the year of his death.
[Dict. of Musicians, 1824, where he is erroneously called ‘Charles’ Norris; Parr's Church of England Psalmody; Love's Scottish Church Music; Grove's Dict. of Musicians; Abdy Williams's Degrees in Music, p. 89; information from the Vicar of Mere.]
J. C. H.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Norris, William (1670?-1700?)

​NORRIS, WILLIAM (1670?–1700?), composer, was born about 1670. In 1685 he was the last in procession, and therefore the oldest, of the children of the Chapel Royal, present at the coronation of James II (Sandford). In September 1686 he was one of the junior or lay vicars of the choir of Lincoln Cathedral, on 28 Oct. he became poor clerk, and in 1690 was appointed master of the choristers on probation, his appointment, ‘magister choristarum in arte cantandi,’ being confirmed in 1691, while John Cutts taught the boys instrumental music, and Hecht was organist. In 1693 the responsible post of steward of the choristers was given to Norris. His name does not occur in the chapter rolls after 1700 (Maddison). He is said, however, to have been the composer of a St. Cecilia's Festival Ode performed in 1702. A correspondent of ‘The Harmonicon’ had seen the autograph manuscript, which was afterwards sold with the other contents of Benjamin Jacobs's library. No trace of it remains (Grove).
Some of Norris's compositions extant in manuscript are: 1. ‘Morning Service in G flat, for verses and chanting.’ 2. Anthem for solo and chorus, ‘Blessed are those that are undefiled,’ with ‘I will thank Thee,’ in Tudway's collection (Brit. Mus. Harl. MS. 7340). 3. Anthems ‘Sing, O Daughter of Sion,’ solo and chorus (Brit. Mus. Addit. MS. 30932). 4. ‘My Heart rejoiceth in the Lord,’ in four parts (ib. 31444). 5. ‘I will give thanks,’ and ‘Hallelujah,’ soli and chorus, four voices on a ground. 6. ‘God sheweth me His goodness,’ in three parts (ib. 31445). 7. ‘In Jewry is God known,’ solo and chorus. 8. ‘Behold how good and joyful,’ in three parts (ib. 17840). Manuscript parts of several anthems and a setting of the ‘Cantate Domino’ by Norris are in Lincoln Cathedral library.
[Sandford's Hist. of the Coronation of James II and Queen Mary, p. 69; Grove's Dict. of Music, ii. 465; Husk's Musical Celebrations on St. Cecilia's Day, p. 51; Harmonicon, 1831, p. 290; the Rev. A. R. Maddison's Papers on Lincoln Cathedral Choir in Lincoln Arch. Soc.'s Reports, vols. xviii. and xx.]
L. M. M.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Rennie, George (1749-1828)

​RENNIE, GEORGE (1749–1828), agriculturist, son of James Rennie, farmer, of Phantassie, Haddingtonshire, and elder brother of John Rennie [q. v.], the engineer, was born on his father's farm in 1749. On leaving school he was sent by his father, at the age of sixteen, to Tweedside to make a survey of a new system of farming which had been adopted by Lord Kames, Hume of Ninewells, and other landed gentry of the district. In 1765 he became superintendent of a brewery which his father had erected. The elder Rennie died in 1766, and, after leasing the business for some years, the son conducted it on a large scale from 1783 to 1797, when he finally relinquished it to a tenant. Rennie then devoted himself to the pursuit of agriculture on the Phantassie farm, and in 1787 he employed Andrew Meikle [q. v.], the eminent millwright (to whom his brother, John Rennie, the engineer, had been apprenticed) to erect one of his drum thrashing-machines. This was driven by water. When Meikle's claims as the inventor were disputed, Rennie wrote a letter in his favour, which was printed in ‘A Reply to an Address to the Public, but more particularly to the Landed Interest of Great Britain and Ireland, on the subject of the Thrashing Machine.’ Rennie died on 6 Oct. 1828. He was one of the authors of ‘A General View of the Agriculture of the West Riding of Yorkshire. … By Messrs. Rennie, Brown, and Shirreff,’ London, 1794, 4to, written at the request of the board of agriculture. His son, George (1802–1860) [q. v.], is separately noticed.
G. S-h.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Rennie, George (1802-1860)

​RENNIE, GEORGE (1802–1860), sculptor and politician, born in 1802, was the son of George Rennie (1749–1828) [q. v.], agriculturist, of Phantassie, Haddingtonshire, and nephew of John Rennie (1761–1821) [q. v.], the engineer. In early life he studied sculpture at Rome, and exhibited statues and busts at the Royal Academy from 1828 to 1837. He also exhibited three times at the Suffolk Street Gallery during the same period. His most important works at the academy were: ‘A Gleaner’ and ‘Grecian Archer,’ 1828; ‘Cupid and Hymen’ and busts of Thorwaldsen and John Rennie, 1831; ‘The Archer’ (which he afterwards presented to the Athenæum Club) and bust of Wilkie, 1833; ‘The Minstrel,’ 1834; a group of four figures in marble, 1837. With a view to improving the state of the arts in this country, he turned his attention to politics. In 1836 he suggested to Sir William Ewart the formation of the parliamentary committee which led to the establishment of the schools of design at Somerset House, and assisted the efforts of Joseph Hume to obtain for the public freedom of access to all monuments and works of art in public buildings and museums. He was returned for Ipswich, as a liberal, in 1841. At the next general election (1847) he had every prospect of success, but retired in favour of Hugh Adair. On 15 Dec. in the same year he was appointed to the governorship of the Falkland Islands, and raised that small colony from an abject condition to one of as great prosperity as its limited resources allowed; while he offered a firm resistance to the extravagant claims of the United States, with​out provoking a rupture. He returned to England in 1855. He died in London on 22 March 1860.
[Athenæum, 31 March 1860; Royal Academy Catalogues.]
C. D.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Rennie, George (1791-1866)

​RENNIE, GEORGE (1791–1866), civil engineer, eldest son of John Rennie [q. v.], and brother of Sir John Rennie [q. v.], was born in the parish of Christchurch, Blackfriars Road, London, on 3 Dec. 1791. He was educated by Dr. Greenlaw at Isleworth, and was subsequently sent to St. Paul's School and to the university of Edinburgh. In 1811 he entered his father's office, where many great works were in progress. In 1818, on the recommendation of Sir Joseph Banks and James Watt, he was appointed inspector of machinery and clerk of the irons (i.e. dies) at the royal mint, which post he held for nearly eight years. On the death of his father in 1821 he entered into partnership with his younger brother John [see Rennie, Sir John], and for many years they were engaged in completing the vast undertakings originated by the elder Rennie. About 1826 he was entrusted with the construction of the Grosvenor Bridge over the Dee at Chester, from the designs of Harrison. He had considerable practice as a railway engineer, and made plans for lines to connect Birmingham and Liverpool, the Vale of Clwyd line, the railway from Mons to Manège, and the Namur and Liège railway, of which he was appointed chief engineer in 1846.
But Rennie's genius was chiefly mechanical, and he superintended the manufacturing business of the firm in Holland Street, where a great variety of machinery was turned out, including the first biscuit-making machinery, corn and chocolate mills for Deptford victualling yard, and the machinery at the Royal William Victualling Yard, Plymouth. Many orders for foreign governments were executed, and the firm were employed by the admiralty in making engines for the royal navy. He was much interested in the screw-propeller, and his firm built the engines for the Archimedes, in which Sir Francis Pettit Smith's screw was tried. Subsequently, in 1840, the firm built for the admiralty the Dwarf, the first vessel in the British navy propelled by a screw.
In 1822 he was elected fellow of the Royal Society, and contributed papers to the ‘Transactions’ in 1829 on the friction of metals and other substances. He also presented papers to the British Association and to the Institution of Civil Engineers, of which body he was elected a member in 1841. A list of his papers is given in the obituary notice in the ‘Proceedings.’
He died on 30 March 1866, at his house, 39 Wilton Crescent, from the effects of an accident in the street in the previous year, and was buried on 6 April at Holmwood, near Dorking. He married, in 1828, Margaret Anne, daughter of Sir John Jackson, bart., M.P., who survived him; by her he left issue two sons and one daughter.
[Obituary notice in Proceedings of the Institution of Civil Engineers, xxviii. 610; Gent. Mag. 1866, i. 749–50.]
R. B. P.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Renehan, Laurence

​RENEHAN, LAURENCE (1797–1857), president of Maynooth College, second son of Laurence Renehan and of Catherine (Borden), was born in 1797 at Longford Pass in the parish of Gurtnahoe, Tipperary. He was educated first at Freshfield, and afterwards at Kilkenny. In September 1819 he entered Maynooth College to study logic, and in 1825 was elected a Dunboyne student. On 15 Sept. of the same year he was appointed junior dean, and a few weeks later was ordained priest. On 27 July 1827 he was elected professor of scripture, and he held this chair till June 1834, when he reluctantly accepted the post of vice-president. From 4 June 1841 to 24 June 1843 he also filled the office of bursar, and succeeded in extricating the college from financial difficulties. In 1845, on the resignation of the Very Rev. Michael Montague, Renehan became president of Maynooth, retaining the position until his death on 27 July 1857. He made a large collection of records in connection with Irish ecclesiastical history, which he bequeathed to Maynooth College. They are now known as the Renehan MSS., and were partly ​edited by the Rev. Daniel Macarthy under the title of ‘Collections of Irish Church History,’ Dublin, 1861–74, 4to. The rest of his library was sold by auction on his death (cf. Bibliotheca Renehaniana in Brit. Mus.). He was the author of ‘Requiem Office’ and a ‘Choir Manual of Sacred Music,’ in addition to a short ‘History of Music,’ Dublin, 1858, 8vo.
[Gent. Mag. 1857, ii. 383; preface to Collections for Irish Church History; Freeman's Journal, 28 July 1857.]
E. I. C.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Rennie, James

​RENNIE, JAMES (1787–1867), naturalist, born 26 Feb. 1787, appears to have been the natural son of Thomas Rennie (or Rainey) of Aldenholme, Sorn, Ayrshire, by Margaret Edwards. He matriculated at Glasgow University in 1810, and gained prizes in logic, ethics, mathematics, and natural philosophy. He won prizes for essays on a ‘Comparative View of the Huttonian and Wernerian Systems of Geology,’ on ‘Improvements in the Art of Bleaching,’ and the ‘Application of Steam to the Purposes of Navigation.’ He graduated M.A. on 20 July 1815, and took holy orders. In 1821 he removed to London, and on 30 Nov. 1830 was appointed professor of natural history at King's College. The chair was, however, abolished on 1 Aug. 1834, owing to a dearth of students in the subject. Subsequently Rennie engaged in literary work without much pecuniary success. He set sail for New South Wales in 1840, and afterwards settled in South Australia. He died at Adelaide on 25 Aug. 1867.
Rennie was author of:
* ‘Insect Architecture’ [anon.], 12mo, London, 1830.
* ‘Insect Transformations’ [anon.], 12mo, London, 1830.
* ‘Insect Miscellanies’ [anon.], 12mo, London, 1831.
* ‘The Architecture of Birds’ [anon.], 12mo, London, 1831—reissued as ‘Bird Architecture,’ 1844.
* ‘Alphabet of Insects,’ 8vo, London, 1832.
* ‘A Conspectus of the Butterflies and Moths found in Britain,’ 8vo, London, 1832.
* ‘Notes of a Naturalist’ in ‘Time's Telescope,’ vols. xix.–xxi., 8vo, London, 1832–4.
* ‘Alphabet of Physics,’ 8vo, London, 1833.
* ‘Alphabet of Zoology,’ 8vo, London, 1833.
* ‘Alphabet of Scientific Angling,’ 8vo, London, 1833.
* ‘Alphabet of Scientific Gardening,’ 8vo, London, 1833; another edit. 1850.
* ‘Alphabet of Botany,’ 12mo, London, 1833; new edit. 1836.
* ‘The Domestic Habits of Birds,’ 12mo, London, 1833.
* ‘The Hand-book of plain Botany,’ &c., 16mo, London, 1834; 2nd edit. 1845; 3rd edit. 1857; 4th edit., enlarged by the ​Rev. J. G. Wood, 1869.
* ‘The Hand-book of Allotment Agriculture,’ 16mo, London, 1834.
* ‘Alphabet of Natural Theology,’ 8vo, London, 1834.
* ‘Alphabet of Medical Botany,’ 8vo, London, 1834.
* ‘The Hand-book of Gardening,’ 12mo, London, 1834.
* ‘The Faculties of Birds,’ 12mo, London, 1835.
* ‘The Menageries: the Natural History of Monkeys,’ &c. [anon.], 12mo, London, 1838.
* ‘Bird Miscellanies,’ 12mo, London, 1847.
* ‘Familiar Introduction to Botany,’ 16mo, London, 1849.
He also edited:
* ‘Montague's Ornithological Dictionary of British Birds … 2nd edit., with original observations by J. Rennie,’ 8vo, London, 1831.
* ‘The Magazine of Botany and Gardening,’ 2 vols. 4to, London, 1833–4.
* ‘The Field Naturalist,’ 2 vols. 8vo, London (1833–) 1835.
* ‘Walton's Compleat Angler,’ 1836.
[Information kindly supplied by the Rev. M. C. Begg, Mauchline, N.B.; W. J. Addison, of Glasgow University, and J. W. Cunningham, King's College, London; Sydney Morning Herald, 7 Sept. 1867; Athenæum, 30 Nov. 1867, p. 728; Brit. Mus. Cat. and Royal Soc. Cat.]
B. B. W.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Syme, Ebenezer

​SYME, EBENEZER (1826–1860), colonial journalist, son of George Syme, schoolmaster at North Berwick state school, was born at North Berwick in 1826, and educated first at his father's school, afterwards from 1841 to 1845 at the university of St. Andrews. His early inclination was to enter the ministry of the church of Scotland, but he could not subscribe literally to any generally accepted creed. He therefore began about 1846 to travel through Scotland and England as an independent evangelist. About 1848 he began to write for reviews, particularly for the ‘Westminster Review,’ then at the height of its influence; and, eventually coming to London, he assisted Dr. John Chapman for a short time in the editorial work.
In 1852 Syme emigrated to Victoria to take advantage of the journalistic opening afforded by the rush to the diggings. He first wrote for the ‘Melbourne Argus,’ then the ‘Digger's Advocate.’ Soon he was joined by a younger brother, and purchased the recently started ‘Melbourne Age,’ which he piloted though its early struggles till it became the leading liberal organ. His work had a marked influence on colonial politics; he attacked with particular vigour the O'Shanassy administrations of 1857 and 1858–9. In 1859 he relinquished the management of the ‘Age’ to his brother, and entered parliament as member for Avoca in the advanced liberal interest. He died on 13 March 1860 at Grey Street, St. Kilda, Melbourne. He ​was married, and a son succeeded to his share in the ‘Age.’
C. A. H.