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

​BICKNELL, HERMAN (1830–1875), author, orientalist, and traveller, third son of Elhanan Bicknell [q. v.], born at Herne Hill 2 April 1830, received his education at Paris, Hanover, University College, and St. Bartholomew's Hospital. After taking his degree at the College of Surgeons in 1854, and passing the military medical examination, he joined the 59th regiment at Hong Kong in 1855 as assistant surgeon, whence he was transferred, in 1856, to the 81st regiment at Mianmír, Lahore. Whilst serving four years in India, throughout the period of the great mutiny, he assiduously studied oriental dialects, at intervals exploring portions of Java, Thibet, and the Himalayas. On returning to England, by the Indus and Palestine, he exchanged into the 84th regiment, and was soon placed on the staff at Aldershot, but speedily resigned his commission, that he might devote himself entirely to travel and languages. From this period he undertook many journeys of various duration and difficulty, extending from the Arctic regions to the Andes of Ecuador, and from America to the far East, more especially with the object of improving himself in ethnology, botany, and general science. In 1862 he started from London in the assumed character of an English Mohammedan ​ gentleman, and, without holding intercourse with Europeans, proceeded to Cairo, where he lived for a considerable period in the native quarter of the city. By this time so intimately acquainted had he become with the habits and manners of Islám, that in the spring of the same year he boldly joined the annual pilgrimage to the shrine of Mohammed at Mecca, and successfully accomplished a dangerous exploit which no other Englishman had achieved without disguise of person or of nationality. In 1868 he passed by Aleppo and the Euphrates to Shiráz, where he resided some months in 1869, employed in making himself thoroughly acquainted with the scenes and life of Persia, in order to carry out more efficiently the great work of his life, a metrical and literal translation of the chief poems of Háfiz, which, during fifteen years, had been under revision. But on 14 March 1875, before the manuscripts had received their final corrections, his life was abruptly terminated by disease, induced or hastened by the wear of constant change of climate, exposure in mountain exploration, and by an accident in an attempt to ascend the Matterhorn. He died in London, and was buried at Ramsgate. As a traveller he had great powers of endurance, he was a fair draughtsman, and as a linguist of unsurpassed ability; his varied accomplishments being also united with the happiest power of lucidly explaining the most abstruse theories of metaphysics and etymology, which his extensive reading had mastered. Besides the translation of Háfiz (posthumously issued) he published a few pamphlets.
A. S. B-l
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Bicknell, M

Margaret Bicknell in the ODNB.
​BICKNELL, M— 1695?–1723), actress, was sister of Mrs. Younger, an actress, who survived her some years. Mrs. Younger informed Mrs. Saunders, a well-known actress who had for some years quitted the stage, that her father and mother, James and Margaret Younger, were born in Scotland; that the former rode in the third troop of the Guards, and served several years in Flanders under King William, and that the latter was a Keith, ‘nearly related to the late earl marshall.’ The letter giving these facts is written from Watford to the author of the ‘History of the English Stage,’ obviously in response to a request for information, and is dated 22 June 1736. It does not appear whether the name of Bicknell, which is frequently written Bignell, was taken for the purpose of distinguishing the bearer from her sister, or whether it is that of a husband. On 7 Nov. 1706 we first hear of Mrs. Bicknell playing, at the Haymarket, ‘Edging, a Chambermaid,’ in ‘The Careless Husband’ of Cibber, her associates including Wilks, Cibber, Mrs. Oldfield, and Mrs. Barry. Subsequent years saw her appear as Miss Prue in Congreve's ‘Love for Love,’ Miss Hoyden in the ‘Relapse’ of Vanbrugh, Melantha (the great rôle of Mrs. Mountfort) in ‘Marriage à la Mode,’ and other characters of which sauciness and coquetry are the chief features. Her name appears to a petition signed by Barton Booth and other actors of Drury Lane Theatre, presented apparently about 1710 to Queen Anne, complaining of the restrictions upon the performances of the petitioners imposed by the lord chamberlain. She remained at Drury Lane from 1708 to 1721, on 14 Feb. of which year she ‘created’ the character of Lady Wrangle in Cibber's comedy, the ‘Refusal.’ Her last recorded appearance was on 2 April 1723. The ‘Daily Journal’ of 25 May following announces her death from consumption. Steele had a high opinion of her. In the ‘Tatler’ for 5 May 1709 he calls her pretty Mrs. Bignell, and in that for 16 April previous he says that in the ‘Country Wife’ she ‘did her part very happily, and had a certain grace in her rusticity, which gave us hopes of seeing her a very skilful player, and in some parts supply our loss of Mrs. Verbruggen.’ In the ‘Spectator’ for Monday, 5 May 1712, he talks of her ‘agreeable girlish person,’ and her ‘capacity of imitation,’ and in the ‘Guardian’ for 8 May 1713 he calls her his friend, and gives a singularly pleasant picture of her winning ways. Her signature to the petition mentioned above is M. Bicknell, suggesting that her name might be Margaret, like her mother.
[Genest's English Stage; History of the English Stage (Curll), 1741; Davies's Dramatic Miscellanies; Chalmers's British Essayists, vols, i., xi., 16.]
J. K.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Fleta

​FLETA, though sometimes loosely used as if it were the name of a person, is really the name of a Latin text-book of English law, which, from internal evidence, seems to have been written in 1290 or thereabouts. It was printed with a dissertation by Selden in 1647, and again in 1685. The one old manuscript in which it is found (Cotton MS. Julius, B. viii., fourteenth century) bears on its frontispiece the title ‘Fleta,’ and in the preface there is a statement to the effect that ‘this book may well be called Fleta, for it was composed in Fleta.’ This seems to mean that it was written in the Fleet prison, and the conjecture has been made that it was the work of one of the corrupt judges whom Edward I imprisoned.
F. W. M.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Fletcher, Abraham

​FLETCHER, ABRAHAM (1714–1793), mathematician, born in 1714 at Little Broughton, Bridekirk, Cumberland, was the son of a tobacco-pipe maker, who taught him his own trade, but gave him no higher instruction. The boy learnt to read, write, and cipher as he best could, applying himself particularly to the study of arithmetic, from which he proceeded to the investigation of mathematical theorems. After the day's toil in the workshop he would hoist himself by a rope into the loft over his father's cottage, in order to pursue his studies uninterruptedly. Having worked through Euclid he set up as a schoolmaster at the age of thirty, and acquired considerable reputation as a teacher of mathematics. He married early. His wife, like his parents, discouraged the pursuit of learning as an unprofitable thing. Turning his attention to botany, Fletcher studied the properties rather than the classification of plants; increased his income by the sale of herbal decoctions, and was known to his neighbours as ‘Doctor Fletcher.’ He also studied judicial astrology, and cast his own nativity, which Hutchinson found in one of his books. ‘This gives,’ says another astrologer, ‘seventy-eight years and fifty-five days’ duration of life. Fletcher lived seventy-eight years seventy-one days, dying on 1 Jan. 1793.
Fletcher published: 1. ‘The Universal Measurer; the Theory of Measuring in all its various uses, whether artificers' works, gauging, surveying, or mining,’ Whitehaven, 1753, 2 vols. 8vo. 2. ‘The Universal Measurer ​and Mechanic, a work equally useful to the Gentleman, Tradesman, and Mechanic, with copperplates,’ London, 1762, 8vo.
[Hutchinson's Hist. of Cumberland, ii. 324; Watt's Bibl. Brit.]
R. H.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Fenwick, Francis

​FENWICK, FRANCIS, D.D. (1645–1694), Benedictine monk, born in London in 1645, entered the convent of St. Edmund, Paris, where he was professed 1 Nov. 1664. He was created a doctor of the Sorbonne, and afterwards elected prior of St. Edmund's in ​1689. He was an eloquent preacher and in great repute with James II, who sent him as his agent to the court of Rome. Afterwards the general chapter of the order appointed him abbot-president of the college of St. Gregory at Rome. He died in that city on 30 Oct. 1694, and was buried in the chapel of the English College.
T. C.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Fenwicke, John

1904 Errata appended. Fenwicke died c. 1670 according to the ODNB.
​FENWICKE, JOHN (d. 1658), parliamentarian, was originally a tradesman of Newcastle-on-Tyne, but having proved himself ‘a person well affected to the parliament,’ was rewarded with the mastership of Sherborne Hospital on 30 Sept. 1644. He subsequently held a command in the parliamentarian army, and rose to the rank of lieutenant-colonel, was sent to Ireland in 1646, and there, on 24 May 1647, gained a signal victory over the rebels in the neighbourhood of Trim, co. Meath. On 2 July 1650 the mastership of Sherborne Hospital was, by vote of the House of Commons, settled on him for life, and on his son after him. He died of wounds received in the battle of the Dunes in June 1658 (Commons' Journ. iii. 645, iv. 612, vi. 435; Thurloe State Papers, vii. 175; Cox, Hist. of Ireland, ii. 195; Mackenzie, Durham, ii. 340).
He was the author of: 1. A tract, with the quaint title, ‘Christ ruling in the midst of his Enemies, or some first-fruits of the ​Church's deliverance budding forth out of the Crosse and Sufferings, and some remarkable Deliverances of a twentie yeares Sufferer, and now a Souldier of Jesus Christ,’ 1643, reprinted 1846. 2. ‘A great Victorie against the Rebels in Ireland near Trim on 24 May 1647, by Colonel Fenwicke's Forces.’
J. M. R.
Dictionary of National Biography, Errata (1904), p.121 N.B.— f.e. stands for from end and l.l. for last line
| Page | Col. | Line | |
| 332 | ii | 5 f.e. | Fenwicke, John: for iii. 175 read vii. 175 |
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Fenton, Richard

​FENTON, RICHARD (1746–1821), topographer and poet, born at St. David's, Pembrokeshire, in 1746, received his education in the cathedral school of his native city, and at an early age obtained a situation in London in the custom house. Afterwards he entered the Middle Temple, and studied for the legal profession. During his residence there he became acquainted with most of the literary and dramatic celebrities of the day. He knew something of Dr. Johnson, and of Goldsmith, as well as of Garrick, to whom many of his poems were addressed. After being called to the bar he attended the circuits in Wales for several years. The latter part of his life he devoted to literary pursuits. He was a very intimate friend of William Lisle Bowles and of Sir Richard Colt Hoare, whom he frequently visited at Stourhead. Fenton was a good Greek, Latin, and French scholar, and a gentleman who knew him well described him as ‘a man of indefatigable industry, of a fine poetical fancy, of a very cheerful disposition, of particularly gentlemanly and fascinating manners, and a person of the best information on almost every subject.’ He married the daughter of David Pillet, a Swiss military officer, the personal friend of the second Duke of Marlborough. By her he had a family who survived him. He died at Glynamel, near Fishguard, Pembrokeshire, in November 1821, and was buried at Manorowen.
His works are: 1. ‘Poems,’ Lond. 1773, 4to; 2 vols. 1790, 12mo. 2. ‘A Historical Tour through Pembrokeshire,’ Lond. 1811, 4to, with thirty plates and a map. Prefixed is the author's portrait, engraved by T. Woolnorth, from a painting by Woodforde. This is the work censured by Dr. Thomas Burgess, bishop of St. David's, and afterwards of Salisbury, in his ‘Bishops and benefactors of St. David's vindicated from the misrepresentations of a recent publication,’ 1812. Fenton's caustic reply to the bishop remains in manuscript. 3. ‘A Tour in quest of Genealogy through several parts of Wales, Somersetshire, and Wiltshire in a series of letters … interspersed with a description of Stourhead and Stonehenge … and curious fragments ​from a manuscript collection, ascribed to Shakespeare. By a Barrister,’ Lond. 1811, 8vo. 4. ‘Memoirs of an old Wig,’ London, 1815, 8vo (anon.), a humorous work. 5. A translation of the ‘Deipnosophistæ’ of Athenæus; manuscript deposited in the library of Sir R. C. Hoare at Stourhead. 6. Comedies in manuscript. 7. A great quantity of manuscript materials for the history of every county in Wales.
[Addit. MS. 15030 f. 107, 31142 f. 274; Biog. Dict. of Living Authors, p. 114; Cat. of Printed Books in Brit. Mus.; Evans's Cat. of Engraved Portraits, No. 3827; Gent. Mag. xci. pt. ii. p. 644, new ser. xxxvii. 218; Lowndes's Bibl. Man. (Bohn), p. 790; Notes and Queries, 1st ser. viii. 198, 3rd ser. ii. 331, 6th ser. v. 279, 339; Watt's Bibl. Brit.; Williams's Eminent Welshmen, p. 155; Williams's Biog. Sketch of the most eminent Individuals Wales has produced, p. 11.]
T. C.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Fenwicke, George

​FENWICKE, GEORGE, B.D. (1690–1760), divine, born in 1690, was educated at St. John's College, Cambridge, of which he was elected a fellow, 29 March 1710. He resigned his fellowship in March 1722, and was presented to the rectory of Hallaton, Leicestershire, which he held until his death in 1760, a period of thirty-eight years. Here, as a condition of holding certain land bequeathed many years previously to the rector, he had to contribute every Easter Monday to the edification and entertainment of the people a sermon, two hare-pies, a quantity of ale, and two dozen penny loaves. The provisions, after divine service and a sermon, were carried in procession to a mound called ‘Harepies Bank,’ thrown into a hole, and scrambled for by the men, women, and children assembled, causing no little disorder and some damage to the competitors (Nichols, Leicestershire, vol. ii. pt. ii. p. 600). Another bequest of 500l. from Mrs. Parker, a widow, the rector expended in providing a home for three poor women or poor men of the parish. Fenwicke published a visitation sermon in 1736, one on the small-pox in 1737, and two other sermons in 1738. He was also the author of 1. ‘The Friendly Monitor for Rich and Poor.’ 2. ‘Help for the Sincere in Plain Meditations,’ 12mo, London, 1737. 3. ‘Thoughts on the Hebrew Titles of the Psalms,’ London, 8vo, 1749; new edition, 12mo, 1855. 4. ‘The Psalter in its Original Form,’ 8vo, 1759. In Darling's ‘Cyclopædia Bibliographia’ Fenwicke is styled ‘a Hutchinsonian divine.’ He died 10 April 1760, according to the inscription on a mural tablet which is placed outside the church against the north wall of the chancel.
R. H.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Fenwick, John (1628-1679)

​FENWICK, vere Caldwell, JOHN (1628–1679), Jesuit, was born in 1628 in the county of Durham, of protestant parents, who disowned him when on arriving at mature age he embraced the Roman catholic faith. He made his humanity stndies in the college at St. Omer; was sent to Liège for his theology; and entered the Society of Jesus at Watten on 28 Sept. 1660. Having completed his studies, he was ordained priest, ​and spent several years, from 1662, as procurator or agent at the College of St. Omer. He was made a professed father in 1676, and was sent to England the same year. He resided in London as procurator of St.. Omer's College, and was also one of the missionary fathers in the metropolis. In the fourth year of his ministerial labours he was summoned, on the information of Titus Oates, to appear before the privy council, and committed to Newgate. While in prison he suffered so much from his chains and bolts, that once it was under deliberation whether one of his legs should not be amputated. After a long confinement he was tried for high treason with Father Ireland, but as the evidence was insufficient, he was remanded back to prison. He was arraigned a second time at the Old Bailey on 13 June 1679, before all the judges of England, together with four other Jesuit fathers. Oates and Dugdale were witnesses against them, and in accordance with the direction of Lord-chief-justice Scroggs the jury found the prisoners guilty. They suffered death at Tyburn on 20 June 1679. Fenwick's remains were buried in the churchyard of St. Giles-in-the-Fields.
An account of the trial and condemnation of the five Jesuits 'for High Treason, in conspiring the Death of the King, the Subversion of the Government and Protestant Religion' was published by authority at London, 1679, fol.
A portrait of Fenwick engraved by Martin Bouche at Antwerp is inserted in Matthias Tanner's 'Brevis Relatio felicis Agonis quem pro religione Catholica gloriosè subierunt aliquot è Societate Jesu sacerdotes,' Prague, 1683. A photograph of the print is in Foley's 'Records.' Fenwick is also represented in the print of Titus Oates in the pillory.
T. C.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Feologeld

​FEOLOGELD (d. 832), archbishop of Canterbury, was abbot of a Kentish monastery in 803, and was elected to succeed Archbishop Wulfred on 25 April 832; he was consecrated on Sunday, 9 June, and died on 30 Aug. In some early lists he appears as Swithred, which was perhaps a second name.
W. H.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Fenwick, John (1579-1658?)

​FENWICK or FENWICKE, Sir JOHN (1579–1658?), politician, was the son of Sir William Fenwicke of Wallington, Northumberland, by Grace, daughter of Sir John Forster of Edderstone in the same county. From his father and maternal grandfather he derived extensive estates in Northumberland, to which he added considerably by purchase. He held the command of Tynemouth Castle during the restraint of the Earl of Northumberland, of gunpowder-treason celebrity. His influence in Northumberland was immense, and appears to have been unscrupulously used. He is coupled with Lord Howard of Walden as one of ‘the great thieves of the county,’ in a letter of William Morton to Winwood in 1617 (Cal. State Papers, Dom. 1611–18, pp. 358, 465). He represented Northumberland in the Short parliament of 1623–1624, and in every succeeding parliament down to and inclusive of the Long parliament. In 1628 he bought the title of baronet (ib. 1628–9, p. 137). In November 1635 he was placed on a special commission appointed for the purpose of putting down crimes of violence in the border districts (ib. 1635, p. 510). He was a deputy-lieutenant of Northumberland, and in that capacity displayed such energy in mustering forces for the king, that on 9 March 1639–40 he was appointed muster-master-general of the army (ib. 1638–9, pp. 310, 437, 1639–40, p. 529). He was one of the members excluded from the House of Commons for deserting the cause of the parliament and adhering to the king, on 22 Jan. 1643–4 (Comm. Journ. iii. 374; Rushworth, Hist. Coll. v. 575). In December 1644 he was taken prisoner by the parliamentarian forces between Banbury and Northampton (Whitelocke, Mem. p. 121). He subsequently made his peace with the parliament, was appointed high sheriff of Northumberland, was readmitted to the House of Commons on 26 June 1646, and was a member of the commission for the conservation of peace between England and Scotland appointed in the same year (Thurloe State Papers, i. 79; Comm. Journ. iv. 588). He died about 1658. Fenwicke married twice. His first wife was Catherine, daughter of Sir Ralph Slingsby of Scriven in the West Riding of Yorkshire, by whom he had one son (John, who served in the royal army as a colonel of dragoons, and was killed at Marston Moor on 3 July 1644) and two daughters. His second wife was Grace, daughter of Thomas Lorain of Kirk-Harle, Northumberland, by whom he had two sons (William and Allan) and one daughter, Grace. His successor, Sir William, was father of Sir John Fenwick (1645?–1697) [q. v.]
J. M. R.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Mackay, James Townsend

​MACKAY, JAMES TOWNSEND (1775?–1862), botanist, was born in Kirkcaldy, Fifeshire, about 1775. After being educated at the parish school he was trained as a gardener, and having filled several posts in Scotland went to Ireland in 1803. He visited the west of the island in 1804 and 1805, and as a result published a 'Catalogue of the Rarer Plants of Ireland' in the 'Transactions' of the Royal Dublin Society for the following year. This catalogue he enlarged into the 'Catalogue of the Indigenous Plants of Ireland,' published in 1825 in the 'Transactions' of the Royal Irish Academy, which was again the basis of his 'Flora Hibernica,' published in 1836, the cryptogamic portion of which was by Drs. Harvey and Taylor. The governors of Trinity College, Dublin, having determined to establish a botanical garden, Mackay was recommended to them as a curator, and he held the post from 1806 until his death. Soon after his appointment he was elected an associate of the Linnean Society, and in 1850 the university of Dublin bestowed upon him the degree of LL.D. He was attacked by paralysis about 1860, and died of bronchitis in Dublin 25 Feb. 1862.
Mackay discovered several species of plants new to the British Isles, and contributed largely to Sir J. E. Smith's 'English Botany' (1790–1814). His herbarium is preserved at Dublin. Several unsuccessful attempts were made to perpetuate his name, which is now borne by a genus of seaweeds, Mackaya, so named by Dr. Harvey, and by a species of heath, Erica Mackaiana. Nine papers by him upon Irish plants, several from the reports of the British Association, are enumerated in the 'Royal Society's Catalogue,' iv. 161; but his only independent work was the 'Flora Hibernica.'
[Proc. Linn. Soc. 1862, p. cv; Journal of Horticulture, 1862, ii. 457.]
G. S. B.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Mackellar, Mary

​MACKELLAR, MARY (1834–1890), highland poetess, daughter of Allan Cameron, baker at Fort William, was born on 1 Oct. 1834. She married early John Mackellar, captain and joint-owner of a coasting vessel, with whom she sailed for several years, visiting many places in Europe, and being often shipwrecked. She settled in Edinburgh in 1876, shortly afterwards obtained a judicial separation from her husband, and dying on 7 Sept. 1890, was buried at Kilmallie, Argyllshire. For the last ten years of her life she tried to make a livelihood by her pen, and she was granted 60l. from the Royal Bounty Fund in 1885. Her 'Poems and Songs, Gaelic and English,' collected chiefly from newspapers and periodicals, were published at Edinburgh m 1880. The Gaelic poems show force and some fancy, but the English pieces, through which there is an undertone of sadness, are of no merit. She also wrote 'The Tourist's Handbook of Gaelic and English Phrases for the Highlands' (Edinburgh, 1880), and her translation of the queen's second series of Leaves from our Journal in the Highlands 'has been described as 'a masterpiece of forcible and idiomatic Gaelic.' A 'Guide to Lochaber' by her gives many traditions and historical incidents nowhere else recorded. She held the office of 'bard' to the Gaelic Society of Inverness, in whose 'Transactions' much of her prose, including her last work, appears. A monument is being erected to her memory at Kilmallie by public subscription.
[Scots Magazine, May 1891; Transactions of Gaelic Society of Inverness, vol. xvi., Introduction; Edwards's Modern Scottish Poets, 2nd ser. p. 196; Murdoch's Recent and Living Scottish Poets.]
J. C. H.