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

​SYMES, MICHAEL (1753?–1809), soldier and diplomatist, born about 1753, entered the army about 1787, and went to India in the following year with the newly raised 76th (now 2nd battalion West Riding) regiment. He served as aide-de-camp to Major-general T. Musgrave at Madras in 1791, became captain in 1793, and lieutenant-colonel in 1800. In 1795 he was sent by the governor-general (Sir John Shore) on a mission to Burma (Calcutta Gazette, 21 Jan. 1796), and obtained from ‘the Emperor of Ava’ a royal order permitting a British agent to reside at Rangoon to protect the interests of British subjects. In 1802, his regiment being then at Cawnpore, he was sent by Marquis Wellesley on a second mission to Ava to protest against the demand made by the Burmese governor of Arakan for the surrender of fugitives who had sought refuge in the British district of Chittagong. Proceeding to the capital, he obtained a verbal assurance that the demand should be withdrawn. On the journey back to Calcutta, where he arrived in February 1803, he was treated with scant civility by the Burmese governor of Rangoon (East India Military Calendar). His regiment returned to England in 1806, and was sent in 1808 to Spain. Symes behaved with great gallantry during Sir John Moore's retreat to Coruña, but suffered from the hardships of the campaign, and died on the way home, on board the transport Mary, on 22 Jan. 1809. His body was taken from Portsmouth to Rochester, and buried in St. Margaret's Church on 3 Feb. 1809.
When on leave in England Colonel Symes married, on 18 Feb. 1801, Jemima, daughter of Paul Pilcher of Rochester. Symes's widow married Sir Joseph de Courcy Laffan [q. v.], and died on 18 Aug. 1835, aged 64.
Symes wrote: ‘An Account of an Embassy to the Kingdom of Ava sent by the Governal-General of India in 1795,’ London, 1800.
[European Mag. 1809; Calcutta Gazette; East India Military Cal.; Official Memo. by Arthur P. Phayre, Rangoon, 5 Nov. 1861.]
S. W.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Symington, Andrew

​SYMINGTON, ANDREW (1785–1853), Scottish divine, eldest son of a Paisley merchant, was born in that town on 26 June 1785. After attending the Paisley grammar school for four years he entered Glasgow University, where he carried off the first honours in mathematics, natural philosophy, and divinity, and graduated M.A. in 1803. Being destined for the ministry of the reformed presbyterian church, of which his father was a member, he studied theology under the Rev. John Macmillan. On being licensed to preach he accepted a call from his native town, and was ordained in 1809. In 1820 he was appointed professor of theology in the reformed presbyterian church, as successor to John Macmillan, his old instructor. In 1831 he received the degree of D.D. from the Western University of Pennsylvania, and in 1840 he obtained the same degree from the university of Glasgow. He died at Paisley on 22 Sept. 1853. By his wife, Jane Stevenson, of Crookedholm, Riccarton, Ayrshire, whom he married in 1811, he had fourteen children, of whom three sons and three daughters survived him.
Besides numerous tracts and sermons, Symington wrote:
* ‘The Martyr's Monument,’ Paisley, 1847.
* ‘Elements of Divine Truth,’ Edinburgh, 1854, 8vo.
He also ​contributed ‘The Unity of the Heavenly Church’ (1845) to ‘Essays on Christian Union,’ wrote memoirs of Archibald Mason and Thomas Halliday, which are prefixed to the collected editions of their discourses, and supplied an article on the Reformed Presbyterian church to the ‘Cyclopædia of Religious Denominations,’ 1853, 8vo.
[Anderson's Scottish Nation, iii. 548; Funeral Sermon by William Symington; Preface to Symington's Elements of Divine Truth.]
E. I. C.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Syme, John (1795-1861)

​SYME, JOHN (1795–1861), portrait-painter, nephew of Patrick Syme [q. v.], was born in Edinburgh in 1795, and studied in the Trustees' academy. He became a pupil and assistant of Sir Henry Raeburn [q. v.], whose unfinished works he completed, and subsequently practised with success as a portrait-painter in his native city. Syme was an original member of the Scottish Academy, founded in 1826, and took an active share in its management. He died in Edinburgh on 3 Aug. 1861. Of his many excellent portraits, that of John Barclay, M.D., which was exhibited at the London Royal Academy in 1819, and is now in the Scottish National Gallery, is a good example. It was well ​engraved in mezzotint by T. Hodgetts, as were also those of John Broster and Andrew McKean. Syme's portrait, by himself, is in the possession of the Royal Scottish Academy.
[Redgrave's Dict. of Artists; Scottish Royal Acad. reports; information kindly furnished by James Caw, esq.]
F. M. O'D.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Syme, John (1755-1831)

​SYME, JOHN (1755–1831), friend of Burns, born in Edinburgh in 1755, was son of a writer to the signet who owned property in East Galloway. Educated in Edinburgh, and trained as a lawyer, he served for a short time in Ireland as an ensign in the 72nd regiment. Retiring in 1774, he settled on his father's estate of Barncailzie, Kircudbrightshire, devoting himself to gardening and agriculture. The father, however, being involved in the affairs of the disastrous Douglas and Heron bank, Ayr, had to dispose of his property, and Syme signalised in verse his involuntary departure from his rural retreat. In 1791 he was appointed distributor of stamps at Dumfries, where he was noted for business capacity and lavish hospitality. Burns's first residence in Dumfries was over Syme's office, and the two men speedily became close friends. Burns was an honoured guest on great occasions, and privately a close and sympathetic companionship existed. At Syme's house at Ryedale one afternoon, in a momentary ebullition of anger caused by an interminable lecture from Syme (on the subject, it would appear, of temperance and moderation), Burns drew his sword, which as an excise officer he wore habitually, and promptly threw it down again. This trifling scene—the ‘sword-cane incident,’ as it is called—was somewhat too seriously regarded by Scott when reviewing Cromek's ‘Reliques of Burns’ in the ‘Quarterly Review’ for 1809 (Scott, Miscellaneous Works, xvii. 242, ed. 1881; see Peterkin, Review of the Life of Burns, 1815, pp. lxv sq.).
In July 1793 Syme accompanied Burns through the stewartry of Kirkcudbright (cf. Scott Douglas, Burns, vi. 89). Syme was one of the executors appointed by Burns in his will, and he zealously defended the poet's reputation and promoted the subscription raised in the interests of his family. He also spent some time at Liverpool assisting Currie with his edition of Burns's ‘Works.’ He died at Ryedale on 24 Nov. 1831, and was buried in the parish churchyard. In certain characteristic epigrams—as in that on a tumbler at Ryedale, in a letter of 17 Dec. 1795—Burns eulogises Syme's ‘personal converse and wit’ (ib. p. 174).
[Dumfries Courier, 6 Dec. 1831; M'Dowall's Burns in Dumfriesshire; Rogers's Book of Robert Burns, ii. 257; Life and Works of Burns, 1896, iv. 217–19.]
T. B.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Syme, Patrick

​SYME, PATRICK (1774–1845), flower-painter, was born in Edinburgh on 17 Sept. 1774, and there educated. He occasionally practised portraiture, but is best known as a flower-painter, and in the early Scottish exhibitions, which began in 1808, his flower-pieces were much admired. In 1803 he took up his brother's practice as a drawing-master, and subsequently his time was largely devoted to teaching. In 1810 Syme published ‘Practical Directions for Learning Flower Drawing,’ and in 1814 a translation of Werner's ‘Nomenclature of Colours.’ He was one of the associated artist members of the Royal Institution, but took a leading part in the foundation of the Scottish Academy, occupying the chair at the first meeting in May 1826, and was one of the council of four then appointed to manage its affairs. Towards the close of his life he was art master at Dollar academy. Syme was a student of botany and entomology, and made many excellent drawings of natural history. In 1823 he issued a ‘Treatise on British Song Birds.’ He married a daughter of Lord Balmuto, the Scots judge, and died at Dollar, Clackmannanshire, in July 1845.
[Redgrave's Dict. of Artists; information kindly furnished by James Caw, esq.]
F. M. O'D.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Whitaker, Jeremiah

​WHITAKER, JEREMIAH (1599–1654), puritan divine, was born at Wakefield, Yorkshire, in 1599. After being educated at the grammar school there under the Rev. Philip Jack, he entered Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge, as a sizar in 1615, two years before Oliver Cromwell. In 1619 he graduated in arts, and for a time was a schoolmaster at Oakham, Rutland. In 1630 he was made rector of Stretton, Rutland; and on the ejection of Thomas Paske from the rectory of St. Mary Magdalen, Bermondsey, in 1644, Whitaker was chosen in his stead. When the Westminster assembly of divines was convened in June 1643, he was one of the first members elected, and in 1647 was appointed moderator. In the same year he was chosen by the House of Lords, along with Dr. Thomas Goodwin, to examine and superintend the assembly's publications. Whitaker died on 1 June 1654, and was buried in the chancel of St. Mary Magdalen's Church, Bermondsey. His epitaph is ​printed in 'A New View of London,' 1708 (p. 389). While at Oakham he married Chephtzibah, daughter of William Peachey, a puritan minister of Oakham. William Whitaker (1629-1672) [q. v.] was his son.
Whitaker was a good oriental scholar, and unremitting in his labours, preaching, when in London, four times a week. A letter from him to Cromwell is preserved among the Sloane manuscripts in the British Museum (No. 4159, art. 380); he writes to excuse himself from attending in person to present a book to the Protector, 'being confined to my chamber under extreme tormenting paines of the stone, which forceth me to cry and moane night and day.'
[Living Loves between Christ and dying Christians, a funeral sermon by Simeon Ashe, 1654: Brook's Lives of the Puritans, 1813, iii. 190: Bailey's Life of Thomas Fuller, 1874. p. 111; Peacock's History of Wakefield Grammar School, 1892, p. 122; Manning and Bray's Survey, i. 209, 214.]
J. H. L.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Whitaker, John (1776-1847)

​WHITAKER, JOHN (1776–1847), composer, and a member of the music publishing firm of Button, Whitaker, & Co., St. Paul's Churchyard, was born in 1776. He was a teacher of music, and organist to St. Clement's, Eastcheap. In 1818 Whitaker collected and published ‘The Seraph,’ two volumes of sacred music, for four voices, of which many pieces are original. He was better known as a writer of occasional songs introduced in musical plays at the principal theatres between 1807 and 1825. Among those which attained great popularity were: ‘Fly away, dove,’ sung by Miss Cawse on her début in the ‘Hebrew Family;’ ‘O say not woman's heart is bought,’ ‘Go, Rover, go,’ ‘Remember me,’ ‘The Little Farmer's Daughter,’ ‘My Poor Dog Tray,’ ‘The Lily that blooms,’ ‘Paddy Carey's Fortune,’ and ‘Hot Codlins.’
A more lasting claim to celebrity is afforded by Whitaker's beautiful glee, originally written for three voices, ‘Winds, gently whisper.’ He died at Thavies' Inn, Holborn, on 4 Dec. 1847.
[Grove's Dict. of Music, iv. 450; Genest's Hist. of the Stage, vols. viii. ix.; Quarterly Musical Magazine, 1825, p. 259; Gent. Mag. 1848, i. 105; Whitaker's preface to ‘The Seraph.’]
L. M. M.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Whitaker, Tobias

1904 Errata appended.
​WHITAKER, TOBIAS (fl. 1634–1661), physician, was born probably in 1600 or 1601. He practised physic first in Norwich, and in 1634, while residing in that town, published ‘Περὶ ὑδροπωσιας,’ London, 12mo. Between 1634 and 1638 he removed to London, and in 1638 brought out his most important work, ‘The Tree of Humane Life, or the Bloud of the Grape, proving the Possibilitie of maintaining Humane Life from Infancy to Extreame Old Age, without any Sicknesse, by the Use of Wine’ (London, 8vo). This defence of wine, which he regarded as a universal remedy against disease, was republished in 1654, and translated into Latin under the title ‘De Sanguine Uvæ’ (Frankfort, 1655, 8vo; Hague, 1660, 1663, 12mo). In September 1660 he was appointed physician in ordinary to the royal household with a salary of 50l. a year (Cal. State Papers, Dom. 1660–1, p. 281). In 1661 he published ‘An Elenchus of Opinions concerning the Smallpox,’ London, 12mo, to which was prefixed his portrait engraved by John Chantrey; another edition appeared in 1671. Whitaker died early in 1666, before 21 May (cf. ib. 1664–5 p. 129, 1665–6 p. 406).
‘The Tree of Life’ is ascribed by Wood to William Whitaker, a candidate of the Royal ​College of Physicians, who died in the parish of St. Clement Danes in January 1670-1 (Wood, Fasti Oxon., ed. Bliss, ii. 178; Foster, Alumni Oxon., 1500-1714; Munk, Royal Coll. of Phys. i. 268).
E. I. C.
Dictionary of National Biography, Errata (1904), p.279 N.B.— f.e. stands for from end and l.l. for last line
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# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Whitaker, Edward William

​WHITAKER, EDWARD WILLIAM (1752–1818), divine, historian, and philanthropist, son of William Whitaker of London, serjeant-at-law, born in 1752, was matriculated at Christ Church, Oxford, 2 April 1773, and graduated B.A. 4 Feb. 1777. He was instituted to the rectory of St. John's, Clerkenwell, in 1778, afterwards to the rectory of St. Mildred, Bread Street, London, and from 1783 until his death he held the rectory of St. Mary-de-Castro with that of All Saints, Canterbury. He was the founder of the Refuge for the Destitute. For many years he resided at Egham, Surrey, where he kept a school. He died at Breadstreet Hill, London, on 14 Oct. 1818.
His numerous works include:
* 'Four Dialogues on the Doctrine of the Holy Trinity, taught throughout the Scriptures, and on other points which have of late been subjects of … discussion,' Canterbury, 1786, 8vo.
* 'Sermons on Education,' London, 1788, 8vo.
* 'A Letter to the People of the Jews,' London, 1788, 8vo.
* 'A General and Connected View of the Prophecies relating to the times of the Gentiles, delivered by our blessed Saviour, the Prophet David, and the Apostles Paul and John; with a brief account of their accomplishment to the present age,' Egham, 1795, 12mo. An enlarged edition was published under the title of 'A Commentary on the Revelation of St. John,' London, 1802, 8vo.
* 'Family Sermons,' 2nd edit. London, 1801-2, 3 vols. 8vo.
* 'The Manual of Prophecy,' Egham, 1808, 12mo. 7. 'An Abridgment of Universal History,' London, 1817, 4 vols. 4to.
[Biogr. Dict. of Living Authors, 1816, p. 382; Darling's Cycl. Bibl. pp. 3180, 3181; Foster's Alumni Oxon. 1715-1886; Gent. Mag. 1818, ii. 474; Pinks's Clerkenwell, p. 229; Watt's Bibl. Brit.]
T. C.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Rishton, Nicholas

​RISHTON, NICHOLAS (d. 1413), diplomatist, was presumably a native of Rishton, Lancashire, and was, like others of his name, educated at New College, Oxford, where he was fellow in 1407 (Kirby, Winchester Scholars, pp. 29, 35). On 9 June 1391 he was one of the clerks who were engaged at the Roman curia on the suit of John de Waltham, bishop of Salisbury, with his chapter (Fœdera, vii. ​702). He held the prebend of Pole at Crediton till 1410, and in 1399 he obtained the prebend of St. Stephen, Beverley. He was one of the English commissioners to negotiate with France on 28 April 1403, and was employed in negotiations with the French and Flemings during the greater part of this and the following two years. The French and English representatives could not agree on the basis for negotiations, and in October 1404 Rishton crossed over to England to lay the matter before the king at Coventry. On 12 Nov. he and his colleagues had fresh instructions for treating with France and Flanders (ib. viii. 301, 327, 344, 375–7; Hingeston, p. 404; Nicolas, Proc. Privy Council, ii. 240–2). Rishton returned to Calais on 5 Dec., and the negotiations proceeded through the spring without much result. At the end of 1408 he went with Sir John Colvil and John Polton on a mission to Pope Gregory, and appears to have been present as one of the English representatives at Pisa. Rishton had papal graces sub expectatione in 1406 for prebends at York, Salisbury, and Lincoln. He was prebendary of Nether Avon, Salisbury, from 4 June 1408 till his death in June 1413. In 1404 he is described as doctor utriusque juris and auditor of causes in the holy apostolic palace. A number of letters written by Rishton and his colleagues in connection with his missions in 1403–4 are printed in Hingeston's ‘Royal and Historical Letters during the Reign of Henry IV’ (cf. pp. ciii–cx). For seven of the letters Rishton is solely responsible. Rishton also wrote some sermons, and a treatise ‘De tollendo Schismate,’ which Leland says was formerly in the library at Westminster Abbey (Collectanea, iii. 48). There was another Nicholas Rishton, who was rector of St. Dionys Backchurch in 1430 (Newcourt, Repertorium, i. 330), and who may be the person of that name who had a grace to incept in canon law at Oxford on 25 Jan. 1443.
C. L. K.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Rising, John

​RISING, JOHN (1756–1815), portrait and subject painter, had a large practice in London, and was a regular exhibitor at the Royal Academy from 1785 until his death. Among many distinguished persons who sat to him were William Wilberforce, Lord Melville, Lord Nelson, Sir William Blackstone, Arthur Young, and Robert Bloomfield. His portraits are pleasing in colour, and executed with great truth and vigour; many of them have been engraved. Rising also painted various fancy and domestic subjects, such as ‘Juvenile Employment,’ ‘Ballad Singers,’ the ‘Sentimental Shepherd,’ and the ‘Infant Narcissus,’ some of which were mezzotinted by W. Ward, J. Jones, and others. His portrait of Blackstone is in the Bodleian Library, that of the first Marquis of Downshire at Hatfield, and that of Wilberforce in the possession of the Earl of Crawford. Rising is said to have at one time assisted Sir Joshua Reynolds with the backgrounds of his pictures. He died in 1815, aged 59.
F. M. O'D.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Ritschel, George

Georg Ritschel in the ODNB.
​RITSCHEL, GEORGE (1616–1683), divine, eldest son of George Ritschel, a Bohemian, by Gertrude, his wife, was born at Deutsch Kana in Bohemia on 13 Feb. 1616. He was educated at the university of Strasburg (1633–40), and subsequently, on the expulsion of the protestants from Bohemia, relinquished his paternal inheritance to his younger brother rather than conform to catholicism. Travelling to England, he arrived in Oxford, and was admitted into the Bodleian Library on 3 Dec. 1641. On the breaking out of the civil wars he left England and visited The Hague, Leyden, and Amsterdam. He obtained the post of tutor to the sons of the Prince of Transylvania, and in 1643 he travelled in Denmark and spent above a year at Copenhagen and Sora. In 1644 he visited Poland, and from Danzig returned to England, where, after a stay in London, he settled in Oxford, at Kettel Hall, as a member of Trinity College. He was appointed chief master of the free school at Newcastle-on-Tyne, on 29 Aug. 1648 (Brand, Hist. of Newcastle-upon-Tyne, i. 91), and in the following year the common council of the town voted him an addition of 10l. to his salary in consideration of his industry and ability. In 1655 or 1656 he was appointed rector of Hexham, Northumberland, and as ‘pastor’ there signed the address to the Protector from the ministers of Newcastle and the parts adjacent in August 1657 (Thurloe, vi. 431; Diary of Ambrose Barnes, Surtees Soc. p. 418). He died in possession of the vicarage of Hexham on 28 Dec. 1683, and was buried in the chancel of his church, where an inscription was erected to his memory on a blue marble stone in the choir (Mackenzie, Northumberland, ii. 280; Wood, Athenæ Oxon. iv. 124). Of his sons, George (1657–1717), B.A. of St. Edmund Hall, Oxford, succeeded him in the vicarage of Hexham; while John, of Trinity College, Oxford, and subsequently of Christ's College, Cambridge, was rector of Bywell St. Andrew, Northumberland, from 1690 to 1705 (Foster, Alumni Oxon.)
Ritschel wrote:
* ‘Contemplationes Metaphysicæ ex Natura Rerum et Rectæ Rationis lumine deductæ,’ &c., Oxford, 1648; dedicated to Sir Cheyney Culpeper and Nicholas Stoughton, esq.; reprinted at Frankfort in 1680, under the care of Magnus Hesenthalerus.
* ‘Dissertatio de Cærimoniis Ecclesiæ Anglicanæ, qua usus earum licitus ostenditur et a superstitionis et idolatriæ crimine vindicatur,’ London, 1661, 8vo; this book gained Ritschel credit with his diocesan, Dr. John Cosin, and is favourably mentioned by Dr. Durell in his ‘Ecclesiæ Anglicanæ Vindiciæ,’ and by Kennett (Register).
Ritschel further sent to Hesenthalerus at Würtemberg his ‘Ethica Christiana,’ in 2 vols. 4to, with another Latin quarto called ‘Exercitationes Sacræ.’ Their fate is uncertain. He also left at his death, in his son's charge, two manuscripts ready for the press, one ‘De Fide Catholica,’ the other ‘Against the English Quakers,’ both in quarto and in Latin.
[Wood refers to a funeral sermon on Ritschel preached by Major Algood, rector of Simonbourne in Northumberland.]
W. A. S.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Ritchie, William (1790-1837)

​RITCHIE, WILLIAM (1790–1837), physicist, was born about 1790. Educated for the church of Scotland, he was licensed to preach; but, abandoning the church for the teaching profession, he became rector of the Royal Academy of Tain, Ross-shire. After saving a little money, he provided a substitute to perform his duties and went to Paris, where he attended the lectures of Thénard, Gay-Lussac, and Biot. He soon acquired great skill in devising and performing experiments in natural philosophy. He became known to Sir John Herschel, and through him he communicated to the Royal Society papers ‘On a New Photometer,’ ‘On a New Form of the Differential Thermometer,’ and ‘On the Permeability of Transparent Screens of Extreme Tenuity by Radiant Heat.’ These led to his appointment to the professorship of natural philosophy at the Royal Institution, where he delivered a course of probationary lectures in 1829. In 1832 he was appointed professor of natural philosophy in the London University. Shortly afterwards he published two small treatises on geometry (1833; 3rd edit. 1853) and the differential and integral calculus (1836; 2nd edit. 1847). He communicated to the Royal Society—of which he was elected a fellow—papers ‘On the Elasticity of Threads of Glass and the Application of this Property to Torsion Balances,’ and also various experimental researches on the electric and chemical theories of galvanism, on electromagnetism, and voltaic electricity. His memoirs were more remarkable for the practical ingenuity shown in the contrivance and execution of the experiments than for theoretical value. Ritchie was subsequently engaged on experiments on the manufacture of glass for optical purposes, and a commission was appointed by the government to inquire into his results. A telescope of eight inches aperture was constructed by Dollond from Ritchie's glass, at the recommendation of the commission, but its performance was not so satisfactory as to sanction further expenditure on the experiments. He died on 15 Sept. 1837 of a fever caught in Scotland. Though the traces of an imperfect education are too manifest in his theoretical researches, he was an experimenter of great ingenuity and merit. He was ‘a man of clear head, apt at illustration, and fond of elements.’ Abstracts of his papers read before the Royal Society will be found in the ‘Philosophical Magazine’ and ‘Annals’ (new ser.) (vi. 52, viii. 58, x. 226, xi. 448) and ‘London and Edinburgh Philosophical Magazine’ (iii. 37, 145, x. 220, xi. 192). Papers contributed to the ‘Philosophical Magazine’ will be found in vols. i.–xii.
G. S-h.