OpenLLM-France/wikimedia huggingface dataset:
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Cooke, John (1731-1810)

​COOKE, JOHN (1731–1810), bookseller, was born in 1731, and began life as assistant to Alexander Hogg, one of the earliest publishers of the cheap ‘Paternoster Row numbers,’ or standard popular works issued in weekly parts. Cooke started for himself, and made a large fortune in the same way of business. Southwell's (or rather Sanders's) ‘Bible with Notes’ is said to have brought him 30,000l. (Gent. Mag. lxxx. pt. i. 386). The sum appears to be scarcely credible. ​Leigh Hunt tells us: ‘In those days Cooke's edition of the British poets came up. .. How I loved these little sixpenny numbers, containing whole poets! I doted on their size; I doted on their type, on their ornaments, on their wrapper, containing lists of other poets, and on the engravings from Kirk’ (Autobiography, 1860, p. 76). These editions were published in sixpenny whity-brown-covered weekly parts, fairly well edited and printed. They were divided into three sections—select novels, sacred classics, and select poets. A shilling ‘superior edition’ was also issued. Cooke died at York Place, Kingsland Road, on 25 March 1810, aged 79. His son Charles succeeded to the business at the Shakspeare's Head, Paternoster Row, but only survived him six years, dying 16 April 1816, aged 56. The son was a liveryman of the Stationers' Company.
[Nichols's Lit. Anecd. iii. 719; Nichols's Illustr. viii. 488; Timperley's Encyclopædia, p. 838; Book Lore, iv. 11.]
H. R. T.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Cooke, John (1738-1823)

​COOKE, JOHN (1738–1823), chaplain of Greenwich Hospital, born in 1738, was educated at Trinity College, Cambridge (B.A. 1761, M.A. 1764), and was presented to the rectory of Denton, Buckinghamshire, 2 Aug. 1773. He was also chaplain to Greenwich Hospital, and a commissioner from 1773 till his death on 4 May 1823. He published: 1. ‘An Historical Account of the Royal Hospital for Seamen at Greenwich,’ 1789, 4to. 2. ‘The Preservation of St. Paul from Shipwreck on the Island of Melita.’ A sermon preached at the opening of the chapel of the Royal Hospital for Seamen, 20 Sept. 1789. 3. ‘A Voyage performed by the late Earl of Sandwich round the Mediterranean. To which are prefixed memoirs of the noble author's life,’ 1799, 8vo.
[Gent. Mag. (1823), i. (1773), 415, 572; Brit. Mus. Cat.]
J. M. R.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Cooke, Robert (1550-1615)

​COOKE, ROBERT (1550–1615), vicar of Leeds, Yorkshire, was the son of William Gale, alias Cooke, of Beeston in that parish, where he was baptised on 23 July 1550 (Thoresby, Ducatus Leodiensis, ed. 1816, p. 209). He entered as student at Brasenose College in 1567, ‘where, with unwearied diligence, travelling through the various classes of logic and philosophy, he became the most noted disputant of his time’ (Wood, Athenæ ​Oxon. ed. Bliss, ii. 154). On 2 Dec. 1573 he was unanimously elected probationer of his college, and three years afterwards he graduated M.A. In 1582 he was elected one of the proctors of the university (Le Neve, Fasti, ed. Hardy, iii. 490). He graduated B.D. in 1584 (Wood, Fasti, i. 228), and was instituted to the vicarage of Leeds on 18 Dec. 1590, on the presentation of the parishioners. Thoresby states that the Reformation went on very slowly in Leeds, till ‘the deservedly famous Mr. Robert Cooke … revived a deep sense of true religion and piety.’ Cooke was collated by Dr. William James, bishop of Durham (to whom he dedicated his ‘Censura’), to the sixth prebend in that cathedral (Thoresby, Vicaria Leodiensis, pp. 55–60; Le Neve, Fasti, iii. 314). He died on 1 Jan. 1614–15, and was buried in the church at Leeds (Hobart, Reports, ed. 1724, p. 197). His younger brother, Alexander Cooke [q. v.], succeeded him in the vicarage.
His works are: 1. Six Latin orations delivered at Oxford, in a manuscript formerly in the possession of James Crossley. One of these orations was delivered on 10 April 1583, when he resigned the office of proctor. It gives a vivid picture of the state of Oxford at that time, and the difficulties and animosities which he had to encounter in the execution of the duties imposed upon him (Notes and Queries, 4th ser. xi. 465, 514). 2. ‘A Learned Disputation betwixt Robert Cooke, B.D., and a priest named Cuthbert Johnson, alias William Darrell, before his Majesty's Council and other learned Men at York, an. 1610.’ Manuscript formerly in Thoresby's museum at Leeds (Musæum Thoresbyanum, ed. 1816, p. 86). 3. ‘Censura quorundam Scriptorum, quæ sub nominibus Sanctorum, et veterum Auctorum, à Pontificiis passim in eorum Scriptis, sed potissimum in Quæstionibus hodie controversis citari solent,’ Lond. 1614, 1623, 4to.
[Authorities cited above.]
T. C.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Cooke, Robert (fl.1793-1814)

​COOKE, ROBERT (1768–1814), musician, was son of Dr. Benjamin Cooke the organist [q. v.] He became organist of the church of St. Martin's-in-the-Fields on the retirement of his father in 1793. He was elected master of the choir-boys at Westminster in 1806, and appointed organist at the abbey on the death of Dr. Arnold in 1802. He held this post until 1814, when he went mad, and drowned himself in the Thames. The most celebrated works which he left behind him are an ‘Ode to Friendship,’ which was sung on the first night of the British Concerts, an Evening Service in C, and several songs and glees, of which a collection of eight was published in 1805, and a song in imitation of Purcell, composed expressly for James Bartleman [q. v.]
[Grove's Dict. of Music; A Dictionary of Musicians, 1827, 8vo.]
E. H.-A.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Cooke, Thomas (1722-1783)

​COOKE, THOMAS (1722–1783), an eccentric divine, born 23 Oct. 1722, was the son ​of a shoemaker at Hexham in Northumberland. He received his education as king's scholar at Durham School, and afterwards entered at Queen's College, Oxford (22 Feb. 1742–3), where he never took a degree. He obtained the curacy of Embleton, Northumberland, and soon was brought into notoriety by the singularity of his religious notions. He maintained that the Jewish ceremonies were not abrogated by the christian dispensation, and insisted on the necessity of circumcision, supporting his doctrine by his own practice. At this period he assumed the names of Adam Moses Emanuel (Sykes, Local Records, ed. 1833, i. 328). On being deprived of his curacy he came to London, preached in the streets, and commenced author; but as his unintelligible jargon did not sell he was reduced to great distress. For two or three years he was confined in Bedlam (Richardson, Local Historian's Table Book, historical division, ii. 283). On his release he travelled through Scotland and Ireland. Ultimately he returned to the north of England, and until a few years before his death subsisted on a pension allowed him by the Society of the Sons of the Clergy. His last project was for establishing a grand universal church upon true evangelical principles. His death, which occurred at Newcastle-upon-Tyne on 15 Nov. 1783, is said to have been occasioned by his copying Origen too closely (Baker, Biog. Dram., ed. 1812, i. 146).
He wrote, besides a large number of published sermons: 1. ‘The King cannot err,’ a comedy, 1762. 2. ‘The Hermit converted; or the Maid of Bath married,’ a comedy, London, 1771, 8vo. No one but a lunatic could have written the dramatic pieces.
[Authorities cited above.]
T. C.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Mayart, Samuel

​MAYART, Sir SAMUEL (d. 1660?), Irish judge, was in 1624 a counsellor-at-law in Dublin. After the death, on 18 Oct. 1624, of Sir Gerald Lother or Lowther, second justice of the Irish common pleas (who must not be confused with Sir Gerard Lowther, chief justice in Ireland [see under Lowther, Sir Richard]), Mayart offered 300l. 'to him that shall procure him the said place modo et forma as the other held it.' He is described as 'a gentleman not to be excepted against, and of general good repute' (Cal. State Papers, Ireland, 1615-25, p. 546). He accordingly received a patent for the office dated 19 Jan. 1625 (Liber Mun. Hib. i. ii. 37). In this capacity he is frequently mentioned in the 'Journals of the Irish House of Lords' (1634-48 passim). He was knighted on 5 Nov. 1631 (Metcalfe, Book of Knights). In 1643 a pamphlet entitled 'A Declaration how and by what means the Laws and Statutes of England . . . came to be of force in Ireland,' and attributed without ground to Sir Richard Bolton, attracted the notice of the Irish Houses of Parliament. Mayart was employed as an intermediary between the lords and commons (Journal of the House of Lords, 1643, pp. 200-10), and soon after published an 'Answer to A Declaration, &c.,' printed in Harris's 'Hibernia,' pt. ii. 1778, from a manuscript in the possession of John Sterne, bishop of Clogher, subsequently presented to Trinity College, Dublin (Harris, Hibernia, vol. ii. Preface). A Colonel Mayart is mentioned by Gilbert as taking part against the Irish rebels, but this is more probably the Colonel John Mayart referred to in the 'Cal. State Papers' (Dom. Ser. 1651-2, p. 331, and 1652-3, p. 473). Samuel Mayart is said to have died in 1660.
A. F. P.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Mayer, Samuel Ralph Townshend

​MAYER, SAMUEL RALPH TOWNSHEND (1840–1880), miscellaneous writer, second son of Samuel Mayer, solicitor, Gloucester, was born at Gloucester in August 1841, and as he grew up bore a remarkable resemblance to the poet Keats. He was a ready and voluminous writer, and for several years a frequent contributor to the Gloucester newspapers, and to many serial publications. Removing to London, he founded and was secretary of the Free and Open Church Association from 1866 till February 1872. He edited the ‘Churchman's Shilling Magazine,’ the ‘Illustrated Review’ from January to June 1871, the ‘Free and Open Church Advocate,’ 3 vols. 1872–7, and was proprietor and editor of the ‘St. James's Magazine’ in 1875. In conjunction with J. B. Payne he established the Junior Conservative Club in 1870, and was the editor of the first report of the Metropolitan Conservative Working Men's Association, 1868. In ‘The Origin and Growth of Sunday Schools in England,’ 1878, and ‘Who was the Founder of Sunday Schools? Being an Inquiry,’ 1880, he attempted to prove that whatever credit belonged to Robert Raikes as the founder of those institutions, equally belonged to the Rev. Thomas Stock. Mayer died at Richmond, Surrey, on 28 May 1880. His wife Gertrude, daughter of John Watson Dalby, whom he married in 1868, was a great favourite with Leigh Hunt and B. W. Procter (Barry Cornwall). She wrote ‘Sir Hubert's Marriage,’ 3 vols. 1876; ‘The Fatal Inheritance and other Stories,’ 1878; ‘Belmore,’ 1880; and with J. C. Paget, ‘Afghanistan,’ 1878.
Besides the works already mentioned Mayer wrote: 1. ‘Amy Fairfax,’ a novelette, 1859. 2. ‘Fractional Supplement to Hotson's Ready Reckoner,’ 1861.
G. C. B.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Maydestone, Richard

​MAYDESTONE, RICHARD (d. 1396), Carmelite. [See Maidstone.]
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Mayers, William Frederick

​MAYERS, WILLIAM FREDERICK (1831–1878), Chinese scholar, son of the Rev. M. John Mayers, afterwards rector of St. Peter's, Winchester, was born on 7 Jan. 1831 in Tasmania. The father at his son's birth was colonial chaplain, but was subsequently appointed consular chaplain at Marseilles, where Mayers received the chief part of his education. After spending some years as a journalist in New York, Mayers in 1859 went to China as a student-interpreter, accompanying Lord Elgin to Pekin, and, after serving as interpreter to the allied commission charged with the government of Canton, was appointed interpreter to the consulate there. He filled various consular posts at Chinese ports until 1872, when he was made Chinese secretary of legation at Pekin. In the same year he visited England, and in August read a paper on the 'Pathays of Yünan' before the geographical section of the British Association at Brighton. He died on 24 March 1878 at Shanghai of typhus fever.
Mayers was an accomplished Chinese scholar, and his works are monuments 'of his industry and the completeness of his knowledge.' He wrote:
* 'The Anglo-Chinese Calendar Manual,' 1869, 8vo.
* 'The Chinese ​Reader's Manual,' Lond. 1874, 8vo.
* 'Treaties between the Empire of China and Foreign Powers,' 1877, 8vo.
* 'The Chinese Government,' Shanghai, 1878, 8vo.
In 1867, with N. B. Dennys and Lieutenant Charles King, he wrote 'The Treaty Ports of China,' and in 1877 translated the 'Pekin Gazette' for that year, Shanghai, 1878, 8vo. His official report on 'The Famine in the Northern Provinces of China' was published as a parliamentary paper. In 1861 he became fellow of the Royal Geographical Society; he was also a member of the Royal Asiatic Society, to whose 'Journal' in 1869 he contributed a paper on the 'Lamaist Septem in Tibet.' He was a constant contributor to periodical publications, especially the 'China Review,' published at Shanghai, and rendered valuable service to the British Museum by procuring for its library one of the few existing copies of the 'Imperial Encyclopedia of Chinese Literature' in 5,020 volumes.
[Works in Brit. Mos. Library; Journal of Royal Asiatic Society; Proceedings of Royal Geographical Society, 1878, pp. 326-7; Times, 6 May 1878.]
A. F. P.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Mayhew, Horace

​MAYHEW, HORACE (1816–1872), author, younger brother of Henry Mayhew [q. v.], was born in 1816, and, like Henry, early took to literature. He wrote a considerable number of farces and tales, and contributed to current journalism. In 1845 he was one of the brilliant staff of contributors to Cruikshank's 'Table Book.' For a time he was Mark Lemon's sub-editor on the staff of 'Punch.' In December 1847 his 'Plum Pudding Pantomime' was brought out at the Olympic. In 1848 he produced 'Change for a Shilling,' 'Model Men," Model Women,' and an edition of Cruikshank's 'Comic Almanac;' in 1849 'A Plate of Heads,' with Gavarni's drawings; 'The Toothache, imagined by Horace Mayhew and realised by George Cruikshank;' another issue of the 'Comic Almanac,' with Cruikshank's illustrations; and 'Guy Faux.' From 1852, in which year it passed under Douglas Jerrold's editorship, he became a frequent contributor to 'Lloyd's Weekly News.' In 1853 he wrote 'Letters left at the Pastry-cook's.' The death of his father about 1857 left him in easy circumstances, and he wrote little in later years. He was a handsome, captivating man, a brilliant talker and raconteur, and was very popular in society. He married about 1869, but had no children, and on 30 April 1872 he died suddenly at Kensington, of the rupture of a blood-vessel.
[Scott's Life of E. Laman Blanchard, p. 411; George Hodder's Memories of my Time; Athenæum, 4 May 1872; Times, 2 May 1872. A manuscript diary, giving a curious and particular account of Mayhew's daily expenditure, is in the possession of Mr. T. Seccombe.]
J. A. H.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Mayhew, Augustus Septimus

​MAYHEW, AUGUSTUS SEPTIMUS (1826–1875), author, born in 1826, was seventh and youngest son of Joshua Dorset Joseph Mayhew, attorney, of 26 Carey Street, Lincoln's Inn Fields, London, who died in 1858, and was brother of Henry and Horace Mayhew, both of whom are separately noticed. Like his brothers he devoted himself to literature from an early age, and in conjunction with his brother Henry he produced many popular works of fiction. The best remembered is 'The Greatest Plague of Life, or the Adventures of a Lady in Search of a Good Servant,' 1847, which displays much humour and power of acute observation, but is now chiefly sought after for Cruikshank's excellent plates [see for other joint writings under Mayhew, Henry]. A Dutch version appeared at Amsterdam in 1858. 'Paved with Gold, or the Romance and Reality of the London Streets,' 1857, and 'Faces for Fortunes,' 1805, 3 vols., are the best of his separate writings, which also include 'Kitty Lamere, or a Dark Page in London Life,' 1855; 'The Finest Girl in Bloomsbury,' a serio-comic tale of ambitious love, 1861; 'Blow Hot, Blow Cold,' a love story, 1862.
With Henry Sutherland Edwards he was joint author of six dramatic pieces: 'The Poor Relation,' 1851; 'My Wife's Future Husband,' 1851; 'A Squib for the Fifth of November,' 1851; 'The Goose with the Golden Eggs,' a farce, Strand Theatre, 1 Sept. 1859; 'Christmas Boxes,' a farce, Strand, 1860; and 'The Four Cousins,' a comic drama, Globe Theatre, May 1871. He also wrote for 'The Comic Almanac,' 1845-53, which he edited from 1848-50, and contributed to 'The Boy's Birthday Book,' by Mrs. S. C. Hall and others, 1859.
He resided at 7 Montpelier Row, Twickenham, but died in the Richmond Infirmary, whither he had gone to undergo an operation for hernia, on 25 Dec. 1875. He was buried in Barnes cemetery 30 Dec. He left an only son, Richard Mayhew.
[Academy, 1 Jan. 1876, p. 8; Era, 2 Jan. 1876, p. 15; Hodder's Memories of My Time, 1870, pp. 62–5; Times, 28 Dec. 1875 p. 7, 30 Dec. p. 6.]
G. C. B.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Newbery, Ralph

​NEWBERY, RALPH or RAFE (fl. 1590), publisher, carried on his business as both printer and publisher in Fleet Street, a little above the Conduit. Thomas Powell the publisher had been the previous tenant of the house, and Powell had succeeded Thomas Berthelet. Newbery was made free of the Stationers' Company 21 Jan. 1560 (Register, i. 21), was warden of the Company in 1583, and again in 1590, and a master in 1598 and 1601. He gave a stock of books, and the privilege of printing, to be sold for the benefit of Christ's Hospital and Bridewell. Newbery's first book, ‘Pallengenius’ (ib. p. 127), was dated 1560, and his name appears on many of the most important publications of his day, such as ‘Hakluyt's Voyages,’ ‘Holinshed's Chronicle’ (1584), a handsome Latin Bible, in folio (by Junius Tremellius, &c.), 1593, which he published in conjunction with George Bishop and R. Barker. Among the other productions of his press may be noted ‘Ecloges, Epitaphes, and Sonattes,’ written by Barnabe Googe, 1563; Stow's ‘Annals,’ 1592 and 1601; ‘A Book of the Invention of the Art of Navigation,’ London, 1578, 4to; ‘An ancient Historie and curious Chronicle,’ London, 1578. In 1590 he printed in Greek type Chrysostom's works. No book was entered on the Stationers' registers under his name after 31 May 1603, when he received a license, together with George Bishop and Robert Barker, to issue a new edition of Thomas James's ‘Bellum Papale.’ Ralph seems to have retired from business in 1605 (cf. Arber, iii. 162, and index). John Newbery, apparently a brother, was a publisher at the sign of the Ball, in St. Paul's Churchyard, from 1594 till his death in 1603, when his widow, Joan, continued the concern for a year longer. Nathanael Newbery pursued the same occupation from 1616 to 1634, chiefly dealing in puritan tracts.
C. W.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Newcastle, Hugh of

​NEWCASTLE, HUGH of (fl. 1320), Franciscan, probably entered the Minorite order at Newcastle-on-Tyne. He was sent to Paris, where he attended the lectures of Duns Scotus, and incepted as S.T.P., and perhaps as doctor of canon law. He attended the chapter of Perugia in 1322, and was one of those who issued the famous letter to the pope on apostolic poverty. He was buried in the convent at Paris.
He wrote a treatise, ‘De Victoria Christi contra Anti-Christum,’ which Bartholomew of Pisa calls ‘a very beautiful treatise on Anti-Christ and the last judgment.’ Manuscripts of this work are at Paris and Vienna. It was printed at Nüremberg in 1471. Of his ‘Commentaries on the Sentences,’ the last half is in manuscript at Vienna.
A. G. L.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Newbery, Thomas

​NEWBERY, THOMAS (fl. 1563), was author of ‘Dives Pragmaticus: a Booke in Englyssh Metre of the great Marchaunt Man called Dives Pragmaticus, very preaty for Children to rede: whereby they may the better and more readyer rede and wryte wares and implements in this World contayned. . . . “When thou sellest aught unto thy neighbour or byest anything of him, deceave not nor oppresse him.” Deut. 23, Leviticus 19. Imprinted at London in Aldersgate St., by Alexander Lacy, dwellyng beside the Wall, the xxv of April 1563.’ A unique copy is in the Althorp Library, now at Manchester, and it was privately reprinted in Huth's ‘Fugitive Tracts,’ 1875. It is a quarto of eight pages, especially compiled for children. It is entirely in verse, and the preface, to ‘all occupations now under the sunne,’ calls upon the men of all trades by name to come and buy of the wares of Dives Pragmaticus, to the end that the children may learn to read and write their designations, as well as their wares and implements. The names of the trades and of the wares offered are curious and interesting, shedding some side-lights on the manners and customs of the period.
The author may possibly be identical with a London publisher of the same name who issued in 1580 ‘A Briefe Homily … made to be used throughout the Diocese of Lincoln.’
Another Thomas Newbery (fl. 1656), a printer, published in 1656, at his shop, at the Three Lions, near the Exchange, ‘Rules for the Government of the Tongue,’ by E. Reyner.
C. W.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Newbald, Geoffrey de

Geoffrey Newbald in the ODNB.
​NEWBALD or NEWBAUD, GEOFFREY de (d. 1283), judge, is first mentioned as being appointed, on 24 Oct. 1275, an assessor in the counties of Norfolk and Suffolk of the fifteenth granted by the prelates, earls, and barons (Parl. Writs, i. 759). In Michaelmas term 1276 he was present in full council when judgment was given against Gilbert de Clare, earl of Gloucester [q. v.], in a suit concerning certain lands between him and the king; on 2 Nov. in the same year he was appointed a justice to hold pleas in the priory of Dunstable. On 20 Aug. 1277 he became chancellor of the exchequer, with a salary of forty marks (Cal. Rot. Pat. p. 47), an appointment which was confirmed two years later (ib. p. 48). Newbald also appears as ‘custos’ of the bishopric of Durham (Rymer, i. ii. 530), and was presented to the church of Ronbery (?Rothbury) in the same diocese. The bishop refused to admit him, and the issue of his petition to parliament is not recorded (Rolls of Parliament, Index). In 1278 he received grants of money to provide for the journey of Alexander, king of Scots, to Westminster, and was present there on 29 Sept., when Alexander did homage to Edward. In 1280–1 he was granted lands in Lincolnshire. He also held land in Kent, and in 1270 had some litigation with the proctor of Monks Horton priory (Archæologia Cant. x. 278). On 15 Nov. 1282 he was granted the prebend of ​Hunderdon in Hereford Cathedral (Cal. Pat. Rolls, Edw. I, p. 40; cf. Le Neve, i. 509, where the name appears as Newland). He was also dean of St. Martin's-le-Grand, London. He died in January 1283. Examples of his seal are preserved in the British Museum (MSS. Cat. of Seals).
[Foss's Lives of the Judges; Parl. Writs, i. 759; Calend. Rotul. Patentium, pp. 47–8; Rolls of Parliament; Rymer's Fœdera, 1816 edit. I. ii. 530, 563; Rotulorum in Scaccario Abbreviatio, i. 37; Dugdale's Chron. Series, p. 26; Madox's Exchequer, ii. 52, 62, 321; Archæologia Cantiana, x. 278.]
A. F. P.