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

​JOAN or JOANNA of Acre, Countess of Gloucester and Hertford (1272–1307), third daughter of Edward I and Eleanor of Castile, was born at Acre in the spring of 1272, while her parents were on the crusade. In the following autumn she left the Holy Land with her father and mother, and the winter was spent in Sicily. In the spring of 1273 Eleanor took her to Castile, where she was left under the care of her grandmother, Joanna. Joanna remained for five years in Spain, where she had for her tutor, Suerus, bishop of Calixien. In 1277 Edward opened negotiations for a marriage between Joanna and Hartmann, the eldest son of Rudolf of Hapsburg, king of the Romans, and in the spring of 1278 despatched Stephen and Margaret de Penchester to bring the young princess home. The marriage was eventually arranged to take place in September 1279, Rudolf promising to try and secure his son's election as king of the Romans and of Arles (Fœdera, i. 536, 548, 555–6, 559, Record ed.). The performance of the marriage was, however, delayed, and eventually Hartmann was accidentally drowned in December 1282. Edward almost immediately arranged another marriage for his daughter with Gilbert de Clare, earl of Gloucester (1243–1295) [q. v.], who resigned his lands into the king's hands, and received them back with a settlement on his issue by Joanna, and failing such issue on her heirs, to the exclusion of his own. A papal dispensation for the marriage was granted on 16 Nov. 1289 (ib. i. 721), and the wedding took place on 30 April 1290, at Westminster Abbey (Oxenedes, p. 276, Rolls Ser.) Joanna ​lived with her first husband for nearly six years, and bore him a son and three daughters. In 1290 she took the cross with her husband, but neither of them went on the crusade (B. Cotton, p. 177, Rolls Ser.) On 7 Dec. 1295 Earl Gilbert died, and his estates reverted to Joanna, who did homage for them on 20 Jan. 1296. Very shortly afterwards Joanna fell in love with one of her squires, Ralph de Monthermer [q. v.], and she induced her father to knight him, and then married him privately early in 1297 (Hemingburgh, ii. 70). Edward learned of her intentions without discovering that they were already accomplished, and on 29 Jan. 1297 took all the countess's lands into his own hands. In March Edward endeavoured to arrange a marriage between her and Amadeus of Savoy (Fœdera, i. 861). Thereupon Joanna revealed the marriage. Edward was very wroth, and Monthermer was imprisoned, but the king eventually relented, and in July Joanna's lands were restored. Monthermer did homage on 2 Aug. (Parl. Writs, i. 297), and, assuming the title of Earl of Gloucester and Hertford, afterwards rose to high favour with the king. Joanna died at Stoke Clare, Suffolk, on 23 April 1307, and was buried in the Augustine priory there (Flores Hist. iii. 142). She left by her second husband two sons and a daughter.
[Fœdera, Record ed.; Hemingburgh (Engl. Hist. Soc.); authorities quoted; Green's Princesses of England, ii. 318–62, where many minor details of interest will be found.]
C. L. K.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Hyde, Robert

​HYDE, Sir ROBERT (1595–1665), judge, born at his father's house, Heale, near Salisbury, in 1595, was second son of Sir Lawrence Hyde, attorney-general to Anne, the consort of James I, by his wife, Barbara Castilion of Benham, Berkshire. Alexander Hyde [q. v.] and Edward Hyde (1607-1659) [q. v.] were ​his brothers, and Edward, first earl of Clarendon, his first cousin. He was called to the bar at the Middle Temple 7 Feb. 1617, was appointed Lent reader there in 1638, and became a serjeant-at-law in May 1640. In the time of Lord Coke he attended as reporter in the king's bench. He was recorder of Salisbury as early as 1638, when complaints were made against him for his remissness in collecting ship-money. He represented Salisbury in the Long parliament, professed loyalist principles, voted against the bill for the attainder of Strafford, and was accordingly included in the list of the minority, whose names were placarded as betrayers of their country. Having joined the king at Oxford, he was voted a malignant by parliament, and incapacitated from sitting in the house. He was committed to the Tower from 4 to 18 Aug. 1645, and on 11 May 1646 was deprived of the recordership of Salisbury, He then retired into private life. In 1651 Charles II during his flight from Worcester was sheltered for some days in his house at Heale (Clarendon, vi. 340; Parl. Hist. ii. 622, 756, iii. 219). During the protectorate he occasionally practised his profession, and his name occurs in the reports of Siderfin and Hardres. At the Restoration he was knighted, and appointed a judge of the common pleas, 31 May 1660, and on 14 June 1660 was reinstated in the recordership of Salisbury. He was also a commissioner upon the trial of the regicides, but took no part beyond advising upon points of law (see State Trials, v. 1030, xiv. 1312). Thanks to his cousin's influence, he was promoted to be chief justice of the king's bench on 19 Oct. 1663. He is said to have been an authority upon pleas of the crown, but was not learned otherwise. Upon the trials of Twyn for printing a book called 'A Treatise of the Execution of Justice,' and of Benjamin Keach at Aylesbury for publishing 'The Child's Instructor,' he took a tone very hostile to dissenters and seditious books (see Raymond, Reports, vi. 515, 700). He was not, however, always opposed to non-conformists (Cal. State Papers, Dom. 1663).
He died suddenly on the bench on 1 May 1665, and was buried in Salisbury Cathedral. His wife was Mary, sister of Francis Baber, M.D., of Chew Magna, Somerset, but he had no children. By the demise of his brother Lawrence he came into possession of the Heale estates in the Amesbury valley, and these, with his collection of heirlooms, he settled on the issue of his brother Alexander [q. v.], bishop of Salisbury.
J. A. H.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Hyll

​HYLL. [See Hill.]
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Hyde, Thomas (1524-1597)

​HYDE, THOMAS (1524–1597), Roman catholic exile, born at Newbury, Berkshire, was connected with the family to which Edward Hyde, earl of Clarendon, belonged [q. v.] He became at the age of thirteen (1537) a scholar of Winchester, and proceeded to New College, Oxford, where he was elected fellow in 1543, and graduated B.A. in October 1545 and M.A. in 1549 (Kirby, Winchester Scholars, p. 121; Oxf. Univ. Reg., Oxf. Hist. Soc., i. 211). He resigned his fellowship at New College in 1550, and in 1551 succeeded Everard as headmaster of Winchester. He was installed a prebendary of Winchester on 23 June 1556 (Le Neve, Fasti, iii. 33). As a fervent catholic, 'very stiff and perverse,' he was forced to resign his offices after Elizabeth's accession, and was ordered to the custody of the lord treasurer by the ecclesiastical commissioners in 1561 (Stype, Annals, ed. 1824, vol. i. pt. i. p.414). He, however, escaped abroad, and lived for some years at Louvain, where he was much esteemed by the other exiles. Cardinal Allen commends his counsel and abilities in a letter dated 1579. He afterwards removed to Douay, where he boarded with a printer's widow. He died there on 9 May 1597, and was buried in the lady chapel of St. James's Church. Pits praises his strict life and conversation, his great gravity and severity, his fierce hatred of vice and heresy.
While at Louvain Hyde published his principal work (Wood credits him with others, but does not name them): 'A Consolatorie Epistle to the Afflicted Catholikes. Being a Dissuasive against frequenting Protestant Churches, and an Exhortation to Suffer with Patience. Set foorth by Thomas Hide, Priest,' Louvain, 1579, 8vo; 2nd edition, with three woodcuts, 1580. A copy of the later edition only is in the British Museum.
E. T. B.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Hygdon, Brian

​HYGDON, BRIAN (d. 1539), dean of York, brother of John Hygdon [q. v.], was educated at Broadgates Hall, Oxford, of which he became principal in 1505. He proceeded D.C.L. at Oxford on 28 May 1506. In 1508 he appears to have been rector of Buckenhall, perhaps Buckenham, Norfolk, and was successively prebendary of Welton Ryval 29 Aug. 1508, Clifton 1513, and Ailesbury 26 June 1523, in the cathedral of Lincoln. On 3 July 1511 he obtained the living of Kirby juxta Rippingale, and from 12 Nov. 1511 till 1523 was sub-dean of Lincoln. On 18 Dec. 1513 he received the living of Nettleton, Lincolnshire. He became archdeacon of the West Riding of Yorkshire 26 May 1515, prebendary of Ulleskelf in York Minster 14 June 1516, and dean of York 21 June 1516; at his death he also held the prebend of Neasden in St. Paul's Cathedral. While prebend of Ulleskelf he built a pleasant house there (cf. Leland, Itin. ed. Hearne, vol. i. fol. 47). At York he was always busy, and a good servant to the crown. He was long on the council of the king's natural son, the Duke of Richmond, he made frequent journeys to various Yorkshire castles, and was regularly placed on the commission of the peace. In January 1525-6 he was a commissioner in company with Ralph Fane, earl of Westmorland, and Thomas Magnus [q. v.] to arrange for the signing of a treaty of peace with Scotland, and concluded the matter with great rapidity at Berwick, peace being proclaimed on Monday, 15 Jan. In a letter to Wolsey (20 May 1527) he ​complained of the custom of transferring ecclesiastical causes from his court to London; that he was a friend of the cardinal is clear from his conduct at the election of a prior at Selby in 1526 (cf. Letters and Papers Henry VIII, vol. iv. app. 73). A letter from him to Wolsey of 26 Jan. 1528 is valuable as showing the great poverty of the diocese of York at that time (ib. 3843). When Wolsey fell, Hygdon found no difficulty in maintaining friendly relations with Cromwell (cf. ib. v. 224, 237, 486). As he grew old his mind seems to have given way. Launcelot Colyns, the treasurer of the cathedral, wrote to Cromwell 12 Jan. 1536 that the dean was 'a crasytt;' a scheme for pensioning him fell through (ib. vii. 92, 163). He died 5 June 1539, and was buried in the south cross aisle of the minster, where there was a brass with an epitaph to his memory.
Hygdon gave a fine cope to the minster at York, and founded a fellowship at Brasenose College; his name appears several times as executor or guardian in local wills of the period.
W. A. J. A.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Hygebright

​HYGEBRIGHT (fl. 787), archbishop of Lichfield. [See Higbert.]
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Hygdon, John

​HYGDON or HIGDEN, JOHN (d. 1533), first dean of Christ Church, Oxford, was educated at Westminster School and at Magdalen College, Oxford, where he was elected fellow about 1495. He was lecturer in sophistry there 1498-9, and again 1500-1; senior dean of arts 1500-1 and 1503-4; bursar 1502-3; and vice-president 1504-5. He held the vicarage of Seeding, Sussex, from 1502 to 1504, and became rector of East Bridgford, Nottinghamshire, 20 Dec. 1504. On 30 Jan. 1513-14 he proceeded D.D. On 1 Dec. 1516 he was elected president of Magdalen. A letter written by the fellows to Wolsey after the election proves that Hygden owed his appointment to the favour of the cardinal. He was made prebendary of Milton Manor in the cathedral of Lincoln, 26 Dec. 1521, and prebendary of Weighton in the cathedral of York 2 Dec. 1524. When Wolsey founded Cardinal's College, he chose Hygden to be the first dean. On 6 Nov. 1526 he resigned his presidency and went to live in what had been the house of the prior of St. Frideswides (Browne Willis, Survey of Cathedrals, iii. 438). He energetically helped in completing the arrangements of the new foundation (cf. Letters and Papers Henry VIII, vol. iv. pt. i. pp. 990, 1137, &c.; pt. ii. pp. 2379, 3141, &c). He tolerated no heresy among his students; sought to improve the college services; and made progresses through the college estates. On 3 June 1528 he was appointed, with Stephen Gardiner and others, a commissioner to amend the statutes of Wolsey's colleges at Oxford and Ipswich. On 15 April 1529 he became prebendary of Wetwang in the cathedral of York. On Wolsey's fall, Hygden exerted himself to save the college from sharing its founder's fate. He and the canons petitioned the king in 1530, and he and Carter interviewed the king in London in the same year. Henry reassured them by saying, 'Surely we purpose to have an honorable college there, but not so great and of such magnificence as my Lord Cardinal intended to have had' .('Letter to Wolsey' in Letters and Papers Henry VIII, vol. iv. pt. iii. p. 6579). Hygden remained in Oxford through 1531 (ib. v. 6), and when Henry refounded the college he was appointed the first dean of Christ Church. On 30 Sept. 1532 he gave 180l. to found four demyships and four probationary fellowships at Magdalen College. On 15 Dec. 1532 Richard Croke, who hoped to succeed Hygden, wrote to Cromwell, 'There is no way but one with Mr. Dean, for he has lain speechless this twenty hours … his goods are all conveyed to Magdalene, Corpus, and New College, on which he has bestowed large sums, but nothing to this college [i.e. Christ Church], where he has had his promotion' (ib. v. 1632). He died 13 Jan. 1532-3, and was buried in Magdalen College chapel, where there is an epitaph in Latin and English. An effigy of Hygden was in the third window of the south side of Balliol College chapel. The letter from the canons to Cromwell, assigned to 20 Dec. 1532, alluding to his death, is apparently misdated. Hygden's brother (ib. v. 224), Brian Hygdon, is separately noticed.
W. A. J. A.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Russell, William (1740-1818)

​RUSSELL, WILLIAM (1740–1818), merchant and reformer, son of Thomas Russell (1696–1760), ironmaster, and Frances (1713–1767), daughter of Thomas Pougher of Leicester, was born in Birmingham on 11 Nov. 1740, and educated for a mercantile life. His business was the export trade from Birmingham and Sheffield to Russia, Spain, and the United States. As a Birmingham townsman he showed great public spirit. In politics he was a strong advocate for measures of reform, especially interesting himself in the agitation for the repeal of the Test and Corporation Acts. On the settlement of Joseph Priestley [q. v.] at Birmingham in 1780, Russell, who was a member of his congregation, became his generous supporter and intimate friend. The dinner of 14 July 1791, which led to the Birmingham riots, was mainly promoted by Russell, and, as he states, on commercial grounds, in the interest of the Birmingham trade with France (Letter in Priestley's Appeal, 1792, ii. 135). On the third day of the riots his house at Showell Green was burned by the mob. He went up to London with his family, arriving on 18 July, and, at an interview with Pitt, obtained assurance that the government would indemnify the sufferers. His letter (20 July) to the ‘Morning Chronicle’ gives an account of the dinner, in correction of an inflammatory article in the ‘Times’ of 19 July.
Soon afterwards Russell retired from business, and lived near Gloucester. In August 1794 he set out from Falmouth for the United States with his son Thomas and two of his daughters, intending to wind up matters connected with his American trade, and to look after his paternal estate in Maryland. His vessel was captured by a French squadron and detained in Brest harbour. He did not reach America till September 1795. Here he stayed nearly five years, seeing much of the leaders of American affairs, visiting Washington in his retirement at Mount Vernon, and beginning a correspondence with him. In 1802 he visited France on his way to England, and was detained, on the outbreak of war, at Ardennes, in Normandy, where his kindness to the needy gained him the name of ‘le père des pauvres.’ He ​returned to England after the peace, arriving on 26 Oct. 1814.
His last years were spent under the roof of his son-in-law, James Skey, at The Hyde, near Upton-on-Severn, Worcestershire. He died there on 26 Jan. 1818, and was buried on 3 Feb. in a family vault at St. Philip's Church, Birmingham. He married, in September 1762, Martha Twamley (1741–1790), and had a son, Thomas Pougher Russell (1775–1851), and four daughters.
[Memoir in Monthly Repository, 1818, pp. 153 seq.; Rutt's Memoirs of Priestley; Journal relating to the Birmingham Riots, in Christian Reformer, 1835, pp. 293 seq. (by Russell's eldest daughter); art. Priestley, Joseph; information from T. H. Russell, esq., Birmingham.]
A. G.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Russell, William Armstrong

​RUSSELL, WILLIAM ARMSTRONG (1821–1879), bishop of North China, son of Marcus Carew Russell, by Fanny Potts, was born at Ballydavid House, Littleton, co. Tipperary, in 1821, and was educated at Middleton school, Cork, and at Trinity College, Dublin. He was ordained by Bishop Blomfield in 1847, and as a missionary in connection with the Church Missionary Society went to China in that year in company with Robert Henry Cobbold, afterwards archdeacon of Ningpo. These two men were the first English missionaries in Ningpo. Russell translated into the local dialect of Ningpo the greater part of the New Testament, portions of the Old Testament, and the Book of Common Prayer, ​besides writing many tracts and essays. He was appointed the first missionary bishop of North China in November 1872, and on 15 Dec. was consecrated in Westminster Abbey. After his return to China he admitted four Chinamen to deacons' and priests' orders; he confirmed nearly three hundred Chinese Christians, and dedicated several mission churches. He died at Shanghai on 5 Oct. 1879. He married, in 1852, Mary Ann, daughter of Charles William Leisk.
He published ‘The Term Question, or an Enquiry as to the Term in the Chinese Language which most nearly represents Elohim and Theos, as they are used in the Holy Scriptures,’ Shanghai, 1877.
[Record, 17 Oct. 1879, p. 2; Times, 18 Oct. 1879, p. 8; Guardian, 18 Oct. 1879, pp. 1438, 1488; Dod's Peerage, 1879.]
G. C. B.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Russell, William Oldnall

​RUSSELL, Sir WILLIAM OLDNALL (1785–1833), chief justice of Bengal, born in 1785, was eldest son of Samuel Oldnall, rector of St. Nicholas, Worcester, and North Piddle, and Mary, daughter of William Russell, esq., of Powick. In 1816, in accordance with the will of his maternal grandfather, Sir William took the surname of Russell. He matriculated from Christ Church, Oxford, on 22 Dec. 1801, and was a student till 1812. He graduated B.A. in 1804 and M.A. in 1807. He was called to the bar from Lincoln's Inn in 1809, became serjeant-at-law on 25 June 1827, and chief justice of Bengal in 1832, when he was knighted. He died on 22 Jan. 1833. Russell's ‘Treatise on Crimes and Misdemeanours,’ which appeared in 2 vols. 8vo in 1819, was pronounced by Warren (Law Student, 2nd edit. p. 620) ‘the best general treatise in criminal law.’ A second edition appeared in 1827; a third, edited by C. S. Greaves, in 1843, with a supplement in 1851; a fourth, in 3 vols., in 1865; and a fifth, edited by S. Prentice, Q.C., in 1877. The American editions, of which seven were issued between 1824 and 1853, do not reproduce the whole work.
Russell also published: 1. ‘Practice in the Court of Great Sessions on the Caermarthen Circuit . . . also the Mode of levying a Fine and of suffering a Recovery. . . To which are added Rules of that Circuit, and some Precedents of Practical Forms,’ 3 pts. 8vo, 1814. 2. With (Sir) Edward Ryan [q. v.], ‘Crown Cases reserved and decided by Twelve Judges of England, 1799-1824,' 1825, 8vo; republished in J. W. Wallace's ‘British Crown Cases reserved.’
Russell married, in 1825, Louisa Maria, daughter of John Lloyd Williams, esq., and left issue.
[Grazebrook's Heraldry of Worcs.; Foster's Alumni Oxon. 1715–1886; Marvin's Legal Bibl.; Gent. Mag. 1836, ii. 445.]
G. Le G. N.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Russell, William (1777-1813)

​RUSSELL, WILLIAM (1777–1813), organist and composer, son of William Russell, organ-builder, was born in London on 6 Oct. 1777. From his eighth year Russell's instructors were the organists Cope, Shrubsole, and Groombridge. Between 1789 and 1793 he was deputy to his father, who was organist to St. Mary's, Aldermanbury. In 1793 Russell was appointed organist to the Great Queen Street chapel; cathedral services were performed there until 1798, when the chapel became a Wesleyan meeting-house. On 2 Sept. 1798 he was elected organist at St. Anne's, Limehouse. In 1801 he was elected to a similar post at the Foundling Hospital. About the same time he resumed his musical studies under Dr. Samuel Arnold [q. v.], through whose influence he obtained employment as composer and accompanist at theatres. In 1808 he graduated Mus. Bac. at Oxford. He died on 21 Nov. 1813 at Cobham Row, Coldbath-fields.
Russell was a clever, even powerful, executant, and a facile if not very original writer of scores. His organ voluntaries, in suite form, ‘generally contain a melodious fugue, with clever modulation and climax’ (Grove). Besides many songs, Russell wrote overtures or incidental music for theatrical entertainments. For Sadler's Wells he composed an overture to the ‘Highland Camp’ (1800); music to ‘Old Sadler's Ghost,’ to the ‘Great Devil’ (with Broad), to ‘Harlequin Greenlander,’ to ‘St. George,’ to ‘Zoa,’ and to ‘Wizard's Wake’ in 1802. For Covent Garden he wrote a dance in Busby's ‘Rugantino’ (1805), a new overture to ‘Wild Islanders,’ and music for ‘Adrian and Orilla’ (1806). For the Royal Circus he prepared music for pieces entitled respectively ‘Harlequin and Time’ and ‘False Friend’ (1806). He also composed music to Christopher Smart's ‘Ode on St. Cecilia's Day’ (1800) and the ‘Redemption of Israel,’ both of which were probably performed by the Cecilian Society, of which he was a member. A volume of psalms, hymns, and anthems was compiled for the Foundling Chapel in 1809. He further published ‘Twelve Voluntaries for the Organ or Pianoforte’ (1807?), and a ‘Second Book’ (1812), while ‘Job,’ an oratorio adapted for organ or pianoforte, by Wesley, was issued in 1826.
[Dictionary of Music, 1827, ii. 401; Grove's Dictionary, iii. 205, iv. 339; Baptie's Handbook; Abdy Williams's Musical Degrees, pp. 99, 100; Husk's Celebrations, p. 80; Gent. Mag. 1813, ii. 625; Collection relating to Sadler's Wells, vol. iii. passim.]
L. M. M.