OpenLLM-France/wikimedia huggingface dataset:
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Taylor, William Benjamin Sarsfield

​TAYLOR, WILLIAM BENJAMIN SARSFIELD (1781–1850), painter of landscapes and military subjects, the son of John Taylor, a map-engraver in Dublin, was born in 1781. By his mother he was descended from Patrick Sarsfield [q. v.] John Sydney Taylor [q. v.] was his younger brother. He began life in the army commissariat, and, serving in the Peninsular war, was present at the siege of San Sebastian. Quitting the service, he devoted himself to art, though without any conspicuous success. He exhibited landscapes, sea-pieces, and military subjects at the Royal Academy and the British Institution between 1820 and 1847. He afterwards became better known as an art critic and writer, and published in 1841 ‘The Origin, Progress, and present Conditions of the Fine Arts in Great Britain and Ireland.’
Besides the works mentioned he was the author of ‘A Manual of Fresco and Encaustic Painting,’ 1843. He also published a translation of Mérimée's ‘Art of Painting in Oil and Fresco,’ 1839, and an abridged translation of the ‘Origin and Progress of the Penitentiary System in the United States,’ 1833, from the report of de Beaumont and de Tocqueville, which was well received (Athenæum, 1841, pp. 548, 573). His best known work, however, was his ‘History of Dublin University,’ which appeared in 1845, illustrated with coloured plates and with engravings. It contains biographical notices of many of the university alumni. Towards the close of his life he was curator of the St. Martin's Lane academy. He died on 23 Dec. 1850.
W. A.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Manning, William Oke

​MANNING, WILLIAM OKE (1809–1878), legal writer, born in 1809, was son of William Oke Manning, a London merchant, and nephew of James Manning [q. v.], serjeant-at-law. He was educated at Bristol under Dr. Lant Carpenter, who had been the colleague of his grandfather, James Manning, in the Unitarian ministry at Exeter.
After leaving school Manning entered his father's counting-house. In 1839 he published 'Commentaries on the Law of Nations.' There was then no English treatise on the subject (though there were two by Americans), and Manning's book was noticeable for its historical method, its appreciation of the combination of the ethical and customary elements in international law, as well as for the exactness of its reasoning and its artistic completeness. The book at first attracted little attention, but was gradually found useful by teachers, and was cited as an authority in the courts.
The new edition, issued in 1875, was revised and enlarged by Professor Sheldon Amos. Manning, then incapacitated by illness, wrote a preface. He also published 'Remarks upon Religious Tests at the English Universities,' 1846 (reprinted from 'Morning Chronicle'). He died, after much suffering, on 15 Nov. 1878, at 8 Gloucester Terrace, Regent's Park, aged 69.
[Obituary notice by W. B. Carpenter in Athenæum, 30 Nov. 1878; Standard, 19 Nov. 1878; Brit. Mus. Cat.]
G. Le G. N.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Manningham, John

​MANNINGHAM, JOHN (d. 1622), diarist, was son of Robert Manningham of Fen Drayton, Cambridgeshire, by his wife Joan, daughter of John Fisher of Bledlow, Buckinghamshire. On 16 March 1597–8 he was entered a student in the Middle Temple, and on 7 June 1605 he was called to the degree of an utter barrister. A fellow-student, Edward, son of William Curll and brother of Walter Curll [q. v.], afterwards bishop of Winchester, obtained for him the post of auditor of the court of wards. He was also befriended by a distant relative, Richard Manningham, who, born at St. Albans in 1539, made a fortune in London as a mercer, and in his old age retired to Bradbourne, near Maidstone. Richard Manningham died on 25 April 1611, and was buried in East Malling Church, where John Manningham erected a monument to his memory. To John, his sole executor, Richard left his house and lands in Kent. John made his will on 21 Jan. 1621, and it was proved by Walter Curll and a cousin, Dr. William Roberts of Enfield, on 4 Dec. 1622.
Manningham married, about 1607, Ann, sister of his friend Curll. By her he had three sons, Richard (b. 1608), John (b. 1616), and Walter, and three daughters, Susannah, Ann, and Elizabeth. Walter Curll, by his will of 15 March 1646–7, left legacies to his sister Mrs. Manningham and her son and his godson Walter. She was dead before 1656, when her eldest son Richard sold the property at Bradbourne to Thomas Twysden, serjeant-at-law (Hasted, Kent, ii. 213).
Manningham is the author of a diary now preserved among the Harl. MSS. (5353), and first printed by the Camden Society in 1868, under the editorship of John Bruce. It covers the period from January 1601–2 to April 1603; at the time the writer was a student in the Middle Temple. The work is an entertaining medley of anecdotes of London life, political rumours, accounts of sermons, and memoranda of journeys. The gossip respecting Queen Elizabeth's illness and death and the accession of James I is set down in attractive detail, and Manningham often supplies shrewd comments on the character of the chief lawyers and preachers of the day. He also gives an interesting account (p. 18) of the performance of Shakespeare's ‘Twelfth Night’ on 2 Feb. 1601–2 in the Middle Temple Hall. Collier, in his ‘Annals of the Stage,’ 1831, i. 320, in noticing this entry, first called attention to Manningham's work. The familiar anecdote of Shakespeare's triumph over Richard Burbage [q. v.] in the pursuit of the favours of a lady of doubtful virtue rests on Manningham's authority (p. 39). Sir Thomas Bodley, John Stow, and Sir Thomas Overbury are also occasionally mentioned by Manningham.
[Manningham's Diary (Camd. Soc.), ed. Bruce, Preface; ‘Visitation of County of Kent in 1619’ in Archæologia Cantiana, iv. 255.]
S. L.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Mannock, John

​MANNOCK, JOHN (1677–1764), Benedictine monk, born at Giffords Hall, Suffolk, in 1677, was second son of Sir William Mannock, the third baronet, of Giffords Hall, by his wife Ursula, daughter of Henry Neville, esq., of Holt, Leicestershire. On 24 Oct. 1693 he was admitted a student of the English College at Rome. He afterwards became a monk of the Benedictine order, making his profession at St. Gregory's Convent, Douay, 7 March 1700, taking in religion the name of Father Anselm. After being ordained at Liège he was sent to England on the mission, and from 1709 till 1759 he acted as chaplain to the Canning family at Foxcote, Warwickshire. He held several offices in his order, being appointed procurator of the southern province in 1729, definitor of the province in 1755, and definitor of the regimen and titular cathedral prior of Worcester in 1757. He was stationed at Kelvedon Hall, Essex, from 1759 until his death, which took place there on 30 Nov. 1764.
His works are:
* 'The Creed Expounded, or the Light of Christian Doctrine set up on the Candlestick of Orthodox Interpretation. . . . To which is premised a short Essay on Faith, byway of introduction,' London, 1735.
* 'The Poor Man's Catechism, or the Christian Doctrine explained. With short Admonitions,' London, 1762.
* 'The Poor Man's Controversy' [London?], 1769, pp. 136. A posthumous work, the manuscript of which is at St. Gregory's College, Downside, near Bath, where several other works by Mannock are also preserved in manuscript, including
* 'The Poor Man's Companion.'
* 'A Summary or Abridgment of the Christian Doctrine.'
* 'Annus Sacer Britannicus, or short Lives of the English Saints,' 3 vols.
* 'Thesaurus Praedicatorum.'
* 'A Commentary on the Bible,' 9 vols.
* 'An Historical Catechism of the Old Testament.'
* 'An Historical Catechism on the Life and Death of Christ.'
[Downside Review, iv. 156, vi. 137; Foley's Records, v.548, 549, vi. 443; Oliver's Catholic Religion in Cornwall, p.519; Snow's Necrology, p.114; Weldon's Chronicle, App. p. 12.]
T. C.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Manningham, Thomas

​MANNINGHAM, THOMAS (1651?–1722), bishop of Chichester, born about 1651 in the parish of St. George, Southwark, was son of Richard Manningham, rector of Michelmersh, Hampshire. He was admitted in 1661 scholar of Winchester (Kirby, Winchester Scholars, p. 191), whence he proceeded with a scholarship to New College, Oxford, matriculating on 12 Aug. 1669. He was fellow from 1671 till 1681, and graduated B.A. in 1673, M.A. on 15 Jan. 1676-7 (Foster, Alumni Oxon. 1500-1714). He became, says Wood, 'a highflown preacher, and for some time tutor to Sir John Robinson, bart., eldest son of Sir John Robinson, sometime lieutenant of the Tower.' In 1681 he was presented to the rectory of East Tisted, Hampshire. The king, who admired his preaching, promised him the prebend of Winchester, vacated by the promotion of Thomas Ken to the bishopric of Bath and Wells; it proved, however, to be in the gift of the lord keeper, and one Thomas Fox obtained it. In November 1684 Manningham was made preacher at the Rolls, and from about 1689 to 1692 was head-master of Westerham grammar school, Kent. He subsequently became rector of St. Andrew, Holborn, on 8 Sept. 1691; chaplain in ordinary to William and Mary; canon of Windsor on 28 Jan. 1692-3 (Le Neve, Fasti, ed. Hardy, iii. 405); rector of Great Haseley, Oxfordshire, 1708; and dean of Windsor on 26 Feb. 1708-9 (ib. iii. 376). On 21 Dec. 1691 the Archbishop of Canterbury created him D.D. He was consecrated bishop of Chichester on 13 Nov. 1709 (ib. i. 253), and dying on 25 Aug. 1722 at his house in Greville Street, Holborn, ​was buried in St. Andrew's, Holborn. The inscription on his monument, which is over the north gallery of the church, has long been illegible. His wife Elizabeth (1657-1714) was buried in Chichester Cathedral, where there is a monument to her memory (Le Neve, Mon. Angl. 1650-1718, p. 257, No. 529). In his will he mentions three sons—Thomas Manningham, D.D. (d. 1750), treasurer of Chichester in 1712 (Le Neve, Fasti, 1. 269), prebendary of Westminster in 1720 (ib. iii. 364), and rector of Slinfold and Selsey, Sussex; Sir Richard Manningham, M.D. [q. v.]; and Simon Manningham, prebendary of Chichester (1719-67) and vicar of Eastbourne (1720-34)—and two married daughters, Mary Rawlinson and Dorothea Walters, besides five other children.
Manningham printed a large number of his sermons between 1680 and his death, and was author of 'Two Discourses,' 8vo, London, 1681, and 'The Value of Church and College Leases consider'd' in Sir Isaac Newton's 'Tables,' 12mo, 1742.
[Wood's Athenæ Oxon. (Bliss), iv. 555; will registered in P. C. C. 176, Marlboro'; Nichols's Lit. Anecd. i. 207-11; Chester's Westminster Abbey Registers, pp. 339, 381; Notes and Queries, 3rd ser. ix. 278, 7th ser. iv. 192, 295.]
G. G.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Manning, Samuel (d.1847)

​MANNING, SAMUEL (d. 1847) sculptor, is perhaps identical with S. Manning, jun., who in 1806 exhibited at the Royal Academy a model of a young lady. He was possibly the son of Charles Manning, sculptor, who exhibited at the Royal Academy from 1801 to 1812, and appears to have died in that year or the next, as in 1813 an engraving of the monument to Captain Hardinge in St. Paul's Cathedral, executed by Manning, was published by Sarah Manning, probably his widow. Samuel Manning was a pupil and assistant of John Bacon the younger, and assisted in or carried out many of his works. Among these may be noted the monument of Warren Hastings in Westminster Abbey, for which Manning did the bust, and some memorial slabs to the Metcalfe family in Hawstead Church, Suffolk. In 1819 Manning sent a bust to the Royal Academy, in 1820 a statue of the Princess Charlotte, and in 1822 a model of a statue of John Wesley. There are three monumental slabs by him in St. Paul's Cathedral. Manning died in 1847, leaving a son, Samuel Manning the younger (d. 1846), who began to practise modelling in 1829. In 1830 he received a premium from the Society of Arts for a model of a bust from the antique, in 1831 a premium for a bust from the life, and in 1833 the gold medal for a model of a statue of Prometheus. This statue he subsequently executed in marble, and exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1845. It was engraved by B. Holl in the 'Art Union' for 1846. On 13 Aug. 1846 he married Honoria, daughter of Captain James Williams.
[Redgrave's Dict. of Artists; Art Union, 1846, p. 528; Royal Academy Catalogues; Gent. Mag. 1846, pt. ii. p. 528; information from the Rev. Leslie Mercer.]
L. C.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Sharp, Samuel (1814-1882)

​SHARP, SAMUEL (1814–1882), geologist and antiquary, son of Stephen Sharp and Anna Maria Bloor of Uppingham, was born on 18 July 1814 at Romsey in Hampshire. While still young he lost his father; his mother then removed to Stamford in Lincolnshire, and married the proprietor and editor of the ‘Stamford Mercury.’ Sharp, who for a considerable time aided his stepfather in conducting this newspaper, soon began to study geology. In 1857 he went to live near Northampton, where he continued his scientific work and increased his collection of fossils. He published two very valuable papers on the Northamptonshire oolites in the ‘Quarterly Journal of the Geological Society’ (xxvi. 354, xxix. 225), besides a few of minor interest, and a useful textbook, ‘Rudiments of Geology’ (1875), a second and enlarged edition being published in the following year. He was also a diligent student of local antiquities, formed a valuable collection of the coins minted at Stamford, and described them in the ‘Journal of the Numismatic Society.’ He was a fellow of that society, of the Society of Antiquaries, and from 1862 of the Geological Society. He married, in 1846, Caroline Ann Weldon, and died without issue on 28 Jan. ​ 1882, at Great Harrowden Hall, near Wellingborough, where the later years of his life were spent.
T. G. B.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Stewart, William (1481?-1550?)

​STEWART, WILLIAM (1481?–1550?), Scots chronicler and verse-writer, born about 1481, was great-grandson of one of the illegitimate sons of Alexander Stewart, earl of Buchan [q. v.], and was thus descended from Robert II, king of Scotland. He was educated like his namesake, William Stewart (1479–1545) [q. v.] (afterwards bishop of Aberdeen), at St. Andrews, where apparently he was a determinant in 1499, and first of the licentiates in 1501. He was destined for the church, and possibly some of the minor preferments assigned to the future bishop were really held by the chronicler. Before 1526 he became a frequenter of the court, and the treasurer's accounts in that and the succeeding years contain entries of various payments and presents to him from James V; in 1527 he held a pension of 20l. which was doubled before 1530. The last entry referring to him occurs in 1541, and he was dead before 1560.
Sir David Lyndsay, writing in 1530, mentions Stewart among the poets of James V's court, and John Rolland [q. v.], in his prologue to the ‘Seven Sages’ (1560), classes him with John Bellenden [q. v.] and Bishop Andrew Durie (d. 1558) among his ‘masters.’ The collections of George Bannatyne (1545–1608?) [q. v.] and Sir Richard Maitland, lord Lethington [q. v.], contain several poems ascribed to Stewart, but only one, beginning ‘This hinder nicht, neir by the hour of nyne,’ is inscribed with his name. But he had probably written much verse, which has been lost, before 1528, when he was commissioned by James V to prepare a metrical version of the history of Hector Boece [q. v.] This work had been published in Latin at Paris in 1527, and James requested Bellenden to translate it into Scots prose and Stewart into Scots verse. Bellenden's version appeared in 1536, but Stewart's, which was begun in 1531, remained in manuscript until 1858, when it was published in three volumes in the Rolls Series. It was edited by William Barclay Turnbull [q. v.] from a unique manuscript which, after being in the possession of Hew Craufurd of Cloverhill, Bishop Moore, and George I, was presented by the last-named to Cambridge University library (Kk. ii. 16). Stewart's style is rugged and ungrammatical, but his translation contains some graphic descriptions. He shows an acquaintance with the works of John Mair or Major, Froissart, and Fordun, and he made some notable additions to Boece's original—for example in the account of the siege of Perth by the Danes in 1041, in which he introduces Macbeth and Banquo (Turnbull, pref. pp. xvi–xxiii). Stewart's account is fuller than that of Boece. Holinshed, who is usually supposed to have been Shakespeare's authority, is far more meagre than either of his predecessors (Notes and Queries, 8th ser. xi. 321–2).
A. F. P.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Stewart, Robert Prescott

​STEWART, Sir ROBERT PRESCOTT (1825–1894), musician, born at Dublin on 16 Dec. 1825, was son of Charles Stewart, librarian of the King's Inn, Dublin. He was musically educated in the school attached to Christ Church Cathedral, of which church he became organist in 1844. He was also appointed in the same year organist to Trinity College, and in 1852 to St. Patrick's Cathedral, where he also was a vicar-choral. In 1846 Stewart became conductor of the Dublin University Choral Society, which presented him with his robes and a jewelled bâton when he graduated doctor of music in 1851. Ten years later he was created professor of music in Dublin University. In 1872 he declined an invitation to represent Ireland at the peace festival at Boston, U.S.A. In the same year he became professor of theory at the Royal Irish Academy of Music, and was knighted by Earl Spencer. In 1873 he was appointed conductor of the Dublin Philharmonic. He died at Dublin on 24 March 1894. He married, first, in 1846, Mary Anne, daughter of Peter Browne of Rahurs, Castlebar. She died on 7 Aug. 1887. Stewart married, secondly, on 9 Aug. 1888, Marie, daughter of Joseph Wheeler of Westlands, Queenstown.
Stewart was a remarkable organist and extemporiser, while his memory is said to have been phenomenal. His compositions, many of which gained prizes, are numerous, the most popular being his glees and church music. In 1870 an ode by Stewart was given at the Birmingham festival. The list of his published works includes a number of cantatas, songs, and organ music. Stewart delivered many series of lectures, including one on bagpipes, on which he was an acknowledged authority. To him belongs the credit of requiring candidates at Dublin for musical degrees to pass a literary test, an example followed some years later at Oxford and Cambridge. He was editor of the Irish ‘Church Hymnal’ (1876).
A portrait, painted by Sir T. A. Jones, belongs to the Royal Irish Academy of Music, and a statue was erected on Leinster Lawn, Dublin.
[Art. by Dr. J. C. Culwick in Musical News, 31 March and 12 May 1894; Brit. Mus. Biogr. 1897; Grove's Dict. of Music and Musicians, passim; manuscript life by O. J. Vignolles.]
R. H. L.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Stewart, William (1470-1545)

​STEWART, WILLIAM (1479–1545), bishop of Aberdeen, was the second son of Sir Thomas Stewart of Minto, of the family of Garlies, by Isabel, second daughter of Sir ​Walter Stewart of Arthurlie. His elder brother, Sir John Stewart of Minto, was killed at Flodden on 9 Sept. 1513 [see under Stewart or Stuart, Walter, first Lord Blantyre]. He was born in Glasgow in 1479, and educated at the university there, where he took the degree of B.A., being a determinant in 1494, and licentiate in the following year. In accordance with the custom of the period, he probably studied canon law and theology abroad. He was successively parson of Lochmaben, rector of Ayr, and prebendary of Glasgow; and in 1527 he was made dean of Glasgow. On 2 Oct. 1530 he was named lord high treasurer of Scotland, and at the same time he obtained the provostry of Lincluden. On 14 Nov. 1532 he was elected bishop of Aberdeen. On 3 March 1533–4 he left Scotland as principal ambassador, with a large company of attendants, to treat of a peace with England (Diurnal of Occurrents, p. 17), and he returned, after a satisfactory embassy, on 3 July (ib. p. 18). On 5 Aug. he left on an embassy to France to treat regarding a marriage between James V and Marie de Bourbon (ib.) He resigned the treasurership in 1537, and died on 17 April 1545. According to the ‘Album Amicorum Collegii Regii Aberdonensis’ (Fasti Aberd. p. 533), Bishop Stewart built the library of King's College, Aberdeen, and furnished it with a number of books, and also built the jewel- or charter-house, as well as the vestry or chapter-house.
T. F. H.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Stewart, Robert (1739-1821)

​STEWART, ROBERT, first Marquis of Londonderry (1739–1821), eldest son of Alexander Stewart of Ballylawn Castle, co. Donegal, and Mount Stewart, co. Down, M.P. for Londonderry, who died in 1781, by his wife Mary, sister and heir of Sir Robert Cowan, governor of Bombay, was born on 27 Sept. 1739. His family was very influential in the county Down; in 1769 he was elected one of the county members for the Irish parliament, and was re-elected in 1776, but lost the seat in 1783, and was a peer before the next election. He was undoubtedly a sagacious though never a prominent public man. During the Irish volunteer movement he was one of the delegates sent to the second Dungannon convention in 1783, and was one of its leading spirits. He was advanced to the peerage as Baron Londonderry on 20 Sept. 1789, having been previously sworn of the Irish privy council during Lord Lansdowne's administration, and appointed a trustee of the linen board. He was created Viscount Castlereagh on 6 Oct. 1795, Earl of Londonderry on 8 Aug. 1796, and was made Marquis of Londonderry on 22 Jan. 1816. He was also appointed in 1801 and 1803 governor and custos rotulorum of the county of Down and of Londonderry. His claims to be made a peer of the United Kingdom in 1800, in consideration of his son's services, though not pressed by himself or his son, were not unfavourably considered by the crown, and an assurance was given that if at any future time he or his descendants should desire a British peerage, their wish should be granted (Cornwallis ​Correspondence, ii. 273, iii. 274). Neither the father, however, nor the son claimed the fulfilment of this promise, probably to prevent Lord Castlereagh's removal from the House of Commons. He died at Castle Stewart on 8 April 1821. He was twice married: first, on 3 June 1766, to Lady Sarah Frances, second daughter of Francis Seymour Conway, marquis of Hertford [q. v.], by whom he had two sons, of whom Robert (1769–1822) [q. v.], the younger and surviving son, succeeded him; and secondly, on 7 June 1775, to Lady Frances, eldest daughter of Lord-chancellor Camden [see Pratt, Charles, first Earl Camden], by whom he had three sons and eight daughters. Of his second family, General Charles William Stewart (afterwards Lord Stewart and third Marquis of Londonderry) [q. v.], British ambassador at Vienna, was the eldest.
In private life Londonderry was not only a very charitable man, but also enlightened. He resided on his estates almost exclusively, and encouraged tenant-right; he remitted rents; he made work for the unemployed, and brought supplies into the district for the distressed. To his family, and especially to the training and fortunes of his son, Lord Castlereagh, he was deeply devoted.
J. A. H.