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

​SOTHERTON, JOHN (1562–1631?), judge, born in 1562, was son of John Sotherton, who was from 16 June 1579 until his death, on 26 Oct. 1605, baron of the court of exchequer, by his second wife, Maria, daughter of Edward Woton, M.D., who was buried by the side of her husband in the church of St. Botolph, Aldersgate Street, London. The Sotherton family originally came from the village of Sotherton in Suffolk, and many members of it were mercers in London or Norwich. George Sotherton, master of Merchant Taylors' Company in 1589, was M.P. for London 1593–8. Nicholas Sotherton, sheriff of Norwich in 1572, was author of a history of John Kett's rebellion, preserved in Harl. MS. 1576, ff. 564 et seq. (cf. Russell, Kett's Rebellion in Norfolk, 1859, 4to).
John matriculated from Christ Church, Oxford, on 20 Nov. 1580, graduated B.A. on 22 Jan. 1582–3, being in the same year incorporated at Cambridge, and proceeded M.A. April 1586. He was admitted in November 1587 a member of the Inner Temple, where he was called to the bar in 1597, and elected a bencher in 1610. Appointed receiver-general for the counties of Bedford and Buckingham in July 1604, he was advanced to the post of cursitor baron of the exchequer on 29 Oct. 1610. He sat regularly as one of the commissioners of gaol delivery for the city of London, was joined with Sir Julius Cæsar, Sir Francis Bacon, and others in a commission of ways and means in August 1612, and at a later date was one of the assessors of compositions for defective titles and an inspector of nuisances for Middlesex (Rymer's Fœdera, ed. Sanderson, xvii. 388, 512, 540). He died, or retired, in 1631, his successor on the bench, James Pagitt, being appointed on 24 Oct. of that year (ib. xix. 34). By his wife Elizabeth, widow of Sir John Morgan of Chilworth, Surrey, he left an heir, who inherited the manor of Wadenhall, Kent, which he had purchased from the crown in 1600.
J. M. R.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Soulis, John de

Much revised in later editions.
​SOULIS, Sir JOHN de (d. 1318), ambassador and soldier, belonged to one of the Anglo-Norman families which settled in Scotland under Malcolm III [q. v.] In 1284 he negotiated a marriage between the Scots king and Joletta or Yolande, daughter of the Count of Dreux (Fordun, i. 309; cf. art. Alexander III). As an official under the crown, he received on 5 Feb. 1289 a fee of 20l. sterling from the chamberlain of Scotland (Stevenson, Documents relating to Scotland, i. 53). But he was also employed officially in England. In Feb. 1292 he was custodian of the lands of Hugh Lovel, a tenant-in-chief of the king of England, and in March received from Edward I a writ of protection while staying beyond seas for a year. On 14 Nov. he had sufficient influence with Edward to gain, along with William de Soulis, a pardon for Richard de Soulis (possibly brothers) for causing Richard le Tayllur to be taken by force from England to Scotland (Cal. Pat. Rolls, Edward I, 1281–92, pp. 474–81, 511). On 6 Nov. 1292 he, concurred as one of the arbitrators in Edward I's judgment in favour of Balliol's claim to the Scottish crown (‘Annales Regni Scotiæ’ in Rishanger, p. 264). When Balliol in 1295 decided to defy Edward, he sent de Soulis and three others to negotiate a treaty with France, which began a long alliance between the two countries (Rishanger, p. 151; cf. Stevenson, Documents, ii. 12). Sir John made his submission to Edward I in 1296 along with the rest, and witnessed a charter of that king at Northallerton on 10 Oct. (Stevenson Documents, ii. 112). But he did not keep his oath to Edward long. In 1299 he was appointed by John Balliol, who had escaped, co-guardian of the realm of Scotland with John Comyn the younger. Acting as if he were sole guardian, he sent envoys to Boniface VIII complaining of the conduct of the English king (Fordun, i. 331, 332). In the same year he went on an embassy to France, and in June, July, and August Edward commissioned ships to intercept Sir John and his companions on their return to Scotland (Cal. Pat. Rolls, Edward I, 1292–1301, pp. 422, 425). On the night of 7–8 Sept. 1301 Soulis and Sir Ingram de Umfraville made a fruitless attack on Lochmaban Castle (Stevenson, Documents, ii. 432). The terms accepted by the Scots in 1304 included Soulis's banishment for two years from Scotland and the country north of the Trent (Palgrave, Documents relating to Scotland, Rec. Comm. i. 281). Soulis was apparently in France at this time (Flores Hist. iii. 118, 315). In 1314 he was one of the leaders of a Scottish host which in August of that year ravaged Richmondshire and levied blackmail on Copeland and the bishopric of Durham (Chron. de Lanercost, Maitland Club, p. 228). He seems to have accompanied Edward Bruce on his ill-fated expedition to Ireland in 1315; he was slain with the latter near Dundalk 14 Oct. 1318 (‘Gesta Edwardi’ in Stubb's Chronicles of the Reigns of Edward I and Edward II, ii. 56).
W. E. R.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Sellar, William Young

1904 Errata appended.
​SELLAR, WILLIAM YOUNG (1825–1890), professor of Latin in Edinburgh University, third son of Patrick Sellar [q. v.], was born at Morvich, Sutherlandshire, on 22 Feb. 1825, and joined, at the early age of seven, the youngest class in the Edinburgh Academy, then under its first head master, Dr. Williams, the friend of Scott and Lockhart. At the age of fourteen he was ‘dux’ or head boy of the school. Thence he went to Glasgow University, where Edmund Law Lushington was professor of Greek and William Ramsay (1806–1865) [q. v.] was professor of Latin. Under these teachers and friends Sellar advanced in classical learning. He gained a Snell exhibition and a Balliol scholarship, matriculating 1 Dec. 1842, and was a contemporary of his friends Matthew Arnold and Principal Shairp, and a pupil and friend of Benjamin Jowett, later master of Balliol. After taking a first class in literæ humaniores, and graduating B.A. in 1847 (M.A. 1850), Sellar was elected to a fellowship at Oriel in 1848. He lectured for a short time in the university of Durham, whence he went to assist Professor Ramsay in the Latin chair at Glasgow (1851–3). From 1853 to 1859 he was assistant professor of Greek at St. Andrews. From 1859 to 1863 he held the Greek chair in that university, and from 1863 till his death was professor of Latin in the university of Edinburgh. He died at Kenbank, Dalry, Galloway, on 12 Oct. 1890. He married, in 1851, Eleanor, daughter of Mr. Dennistoun of Golfhill, and left issue.
The least permanent, though perhaps the most important, part of Sellar's work was academic. A sound though not, in his own judgment, a brilliant scholar, his appreciation of classical literature was keen and contagious. His modesty, humour, and generous sentiments conciliated the affection, while his learning secured the respect, of his pupils, many of whom have been distinguished. His published works were ‘The Roman Poets of the Republic’ (1863); ‘The Roman Poets of the Augustan Age: Virgil,’ 1877; and ‘Horace and the Elegiac Poets’ (edited by Professor W. P. Ker), 1892. He also contributed ‘Characteristics of Thucydides’ to ‘Oxford Essays,’ 1857. These are remarkable examples of sound and sensitive literary criticism.
[Durham Univ. Journal, ix. 89; Mrs. Sellar's Recollections and Impressions, 1907; private information.]
A. L.
Dictionary of National Biography, Errata (1904), p.244 N.B.— f.e. stands for from end and l.l. for last line
| Page | Col. | Line | |
| 226 | ii | 9 | Sellar, William Y.: for his death in October 1890 read his death at Kenbank, Dalry, Galloway, on 12 Oct. 1890 |
| | | 28 | after 1892. insert He also contributed 'Characteristics of Thucydides' to 'Oxford Essays,' 1857. |
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Seller, John

​SELLER, JOHN (fl. 1700), hydrographer to the king, compiler, publisher, and seller of maps, charts, and geographical books, was for many years settled at the Hermitage in Wapping (Notes and Queries, 7th ser. xii. 515); he had also a shop in Exchange Alley, near the Royal Exchange. In June 1667 he answered a set of magnetical queries propounded to the Royal Society (Phil. Trans. i. 478). In 1671 he published a folio volume of charts and sailing directions, under the title of ‘The English Pilot,’ and another called ‘The Sea Atlas,’ to which were prefixed letters patent from the king, setting forth ​that as he (Seller) had been for several years collecting and composing these works, it was forbidden ‘to copy, epitomise, or reprint’ the treatises of navigation; ‘to counterfeit any of the maps, plans, or charts’ in them, or to import them or any part of them from beyond the seas, ‘either under the name of Dutch Waggoners or any other name whatsoever,’ within the term of thirty years.
Notwithstanding the declaration on the title-page of the ‘English Pilot’ that it is ‘furnished with new and exact draughts, charts, and descriptions gathered from the experience and practice of divers able and expert navigators of our English nation,’ the maps and charts were taken from the Dutch, and were, in many instances, printed from the Dutch plates, from which the original Dutch title had been imperfectly erased, and an English title, with Seller's name, substituted. The ‘English Pilot’ ran through many editions, till the end of the eighteenth century, new maps from time to time taking the place of the old. The number of maps which Seller published was very great; some of them, no doubt, drawn by himself or under his direction; but there is no reason to suppose that he was a surveyor or hydrographer in any other sense than a compiler and seller of charts. Besides these, he published almanacs for the Plantations—for Jamaica and Barbados; a ‘Pocket Book containing several choice Collections in Arithmetic, Geometry, Surveying, Dialling,’ &c. (12mo, 1677); and ‘The Sea-Gunner, shewing the Practical Part of Gunnery as it is used at Sea’ (sm. 8vo, 1691). John Seller, jun., had a shop at the sign of the Star, near Mercer's Chapel in Cheapside, where the older man's publications were on sale.
J. K. L.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Selby, Walford Dakin

1904 Errata appended.
​SELBY, WALFORD DAKIN (1845–1889), antiquary, born on 16 June 1845, was the eldest son of Thomas Selby of Witley and Wimbush Hall, Essex, by his wife Elizabeth, youngest daughter and coheiress of Ralph Foster of Holderness, Yorkshire. His great-great-grandfather had taken the name Selby by royal license in 1783, but the family name was originally Browne, and they claimed descent from the Brownes, viscounts Montagu. Selby once preferred a claim to that dormant peerage, but abandoned it owing to his inability to prove beyond dispute a marriage on which the claim rested. He was educated at Brighton College, and then at Tunbridge School; on leaving the latter he was placed with Dr. Stromberg at Bonn to learn German and French. In 1867 he became a junior clerk in the Record Office, where he ultimately became superintendent of the search-room. In 1883, in conjunction with his friend, Mr. James Greenstreet, he founded the Pipe Roll Society, of which he was director-in-chief, and honorary treasurer till his death, which took place at his residence, ​9 Clyde Street, Redcliffe Gardens, S.W., on 3 Aug. 1889. He was buried on the 8th in Kensal Green cemetery.
Selby's career at the Record office was distinguished by unfailing courtesy and minute knowledge of the records under his charge. From 1884 to April 1889 he edited the ‘Genealogist,’ and he was a frequent contributor on literary subjects to the ‘Athenæum,’ ‘Academy,’ ‘Antiquary,’ ‘Antiquarian Magazine,’ and other periodicals. His papers on ‘The Robbery of Chaucer at Hatcham,’ and ‘Chaucer as Forrester of North Petherton, in the County of Somerset,’ were published as Nos. 1 and 3 in the ‘Life-Records of Chaucer,’ which Selby edited for the Chaucer Society, 1875 et seqq. He also compiled ‘The Jubilee Date Book,’ 1887, and edited
* ‘Bond's Book of Dates,’ 1875.
* ‘Lancashire and Cheshire Records,’ 2 pts. 1882–3.
* ‘Norfolk Records,’ 1886.
At the time of his death he was preparing a new edition of ‘The Red Book of the Exchequer,’ which was soon completed by Mr. Hubert Hall, an edition of Queen Elizabeth's manuscript translation of ‘Boethius de Consolatione Philosophiæ,’ and a new index to the ‘Inquisitiones post mortem.’
[Works in Brit. Mus. Libr.; The Genealogist, vol. vi. Introd. and pp. 65–7; Athenæum, 1889, vol. ii.; Acad. 1889, ii. 103.]
A. F. P.
Dictionary of National Biography, Errata (1904), p.244 N.B.— f.e. stands for from end and l.l. for last line
| Page | Col. | Line | |
| 211 | ii | 8 f.e. | Selby, Walford D.: for 1865 read 1867 |
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Sellon, Baker John

​SELLON, BAKER JOHN (1762–1835), lawyer, born on 14 March 1762, was second son of William Sellon (d. 1790), perpetual curate of St. James's, Clerkenwell. He was admitted into Merchant Taylors' School on 2 Nov. 1773 (Register, ed. Robinson, p. 137), whence he was elected to St. John's College, Oxford, on 11 June 1779, and graduated B.C.L. on 24 Oct. 1785 (Foster, Alumni Oxon. 1715–1886, 9. v.). His own wish was to have entered holy orders, but, at his father's request, he studied law, and was called to the bar from the Inner Temple on 10 Feb. 1792. After practising for several years with distinction, he was admitted a serjeant-at-law in Easter term, 1798, and became ultimately leader of the Norfolk circuit. Increasing deafness, however, obliged him to refuse a judgeship, and finally to retire from the bar. At his request Henry Addington, viscount Sidmouth [q. v.], appointed him in 1814 police magistrate at Union Hall, whence, in January 1819, he was transferred to Hatton Garden office. There he continued to act until his retirement in 1834. He died at Hampstead on 19 Aug. 1835. By his marriage, on 24 Jan. 1788, to Charlotte (d. 1832), daughter of Rivers Dickinson of St. John Street, Clerkenwell, he had a large family. His second daughter, Maria Ann, married, in 1819, John James Halls [q. v.], and his third daughter, Anne, married, in 1816, Sir Benjamin Collins Brodie the elder [q. v.]
Sellon was author of: 1. ‘Analysis of the Practice of the Courts of King's Bench and Common Pleas, with some Observations on the mode of passing Fines and suffering Recoveries,’ 8vo, London, 1789. 2. ‘The Practice of the Courts of King's Bench and Common Pleas,’ 2 vols. 8vo, London, 1792–6; 2nd edit. 2 vols. 8vo, London, 1798. A book founded upon George Crompton's ‘Practice,’ 1780 and 1786. 3. ‘Treatise on the Deity and the Trinity,’ 8vo, London, 1847, a posthumous work, edited by W. Marsh.
G. G.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Sellar, Patrick

​SELLAR, PATRICK (1780–1851), of Westfield, Morayshire, factor to George Granville Leveson-Gower, first duke of Sutherland [q. v.], was only son of Thomas Sellar of Westfield by Jane, daughter of the Rev. Patrick Plenderleath, an Edinburgh minister. After a legal education in Edinburgh, he became factor to the Duke of Sutherland, and was employed in the changes on the Sutherland estates that took place between 1807 and 1816. The middlemen were ​abolished, and, in consequence of the periodical failure of the crops in the straths or river valleys, the crofters were removed to settlements on the coast. On a charge of oppression in connection with these removals Sellar was tried at Inverness on 23 April 1816 before Lord Pitmilly, and was acquitted by the unanimous verdict of the jury.
Sellar retired from the Duke of Sutherland's service in 1818, but retained his sheep-farms on the estate till his death in 1851. In 1819 Sellar married Anne, daughter of Thomas Craig of Barmuckety, Elgin, by whom he had nine children. The third son, William Young Sellar [q. v.], is noticed separately.
His seventh son, Alexander Craig Sellar (1835–1890), graduated B.A. with a first class in literæ humaniores from Balliol College, Oxford, in 1859 (M.A. 1865), joined the Scottish bar in 1862, became assistant education commissioner in 1864, was legal secretary to the lord-advocate from 1870 to 1874, and was M.P. in the liberal interest for the Haddington Burghs from 1882 to 1885. In 1885 he was elected for the Partick division of Lanarkshire, and joined the liberal unionist party on its formation next year, when he was re-elected for the same constituency. In the new parliament he acted as whip of his party until 1888. He died on 16 Jan. 1890.
[Private information. A full account of the charges against Patrick Sellar, and a discussion thereof, will be found in Report of Trial (Edinburgh, 1816); reprinted in The Sutherland Evictions, by his son, Thomas Sellar (London, 1883); cf. Alexander Mackenzie's History of the Highland Clearings and Professor Blackie's Lays and Legends of the Highlands, to which works that of Thomas Sellar is a reply.]
A. L.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Reilly, Hugh

​REILLY, or more properly REILY, HUGH (d. 1695?), political writer, was born in co. Cavan, and became master in chancery and clerk of the council in Ireland in James II's reign. He went to France with James II, and is said to have been appointed lord chancellor of Ireland at the exiled king's court at St. Germains. In 1695 Reilly published ‘Ireland's Case briefly stated’ (12mo, 2 pts.), without place on the title-page; another edition, also without place, appeared in 1720. It gives an account of the conduct and misfortunes of the Roman catholics in Ireland from the reign of Elizabeth to that of James II, and complains of the neglect they suffered under Charles II. The statements throughout are general, and few dates or particular facts are given. The last speech of Oliver Plunket [q. v.] is added. It is said that James II, offended by the tone of Reilly's book, dismissed him from his service. He is believed to have died in the year 1695.
The ‘Impartial History of Ireland’ (London, 1754) is a reprint of Reilly's ‘Ireland's Case,’ and it was again issued under the same title at Dublin in 1787, and as the ‘Genuine History of Ireland’ at Dublin in 1799 and in 1837. Burke's speech at the Bristol election of 1780 is printed with the edition of 1787, and a memoir of Daniel O'Connell with that of 1837. The form, paper, and type show that it was intended for the populace in Ireland; it was long almost the only printed argument in favour of Irish Roman catholics.
[Sir James Ware's Works, ed. Harris, Dublin, 1764; Reilly's Ireland's Case. ]
N. M.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Reid, William (1764-1831)

​REID, WILLIAM (1764–1831), minor poet, born in Glasgow on 10 April 1764, was the son of Robert Reid, baker, and Christian Wood, daughter of a farmer at Gartmore, Perthshire. After leaving school he was apprenticed to a typefounder, and then learned bookselling with Messrs. Dunlop & Wilson, Glasgow. In 1790 he entered into partnership with James Brash, with whom he developed an excellent bookselling business, which flourished for twenty-seven years. Reid seems to have been a pleasant, sociable man. He died in Glasgow on 29 Nov. 1831. His wife, Elizabeth Henderson, daughter of a linen-printer, survived him, with two sons and five daughters.
Reid wrote humorous verse in Scottish dialect, some of which appeared in ‘Poetry Original and Selected,’ published by his firm between 1795 and 1798. He wrote supplementary verses to Burns's ‘Of a' the airts the winds can blaw’ and ‘John Anderson my jo’ (cf. Scots Mag. 1797), as well as to Robert Fergusson's ‘Lea Rig:’ and his ‘Monody on the Death of Burns’ is given with commendation in Hogg and Motherwell's edition of Burns (v. 282). He is said to have been on friendly terms with Burns, but the stories that the poet invited Reid's firm to publish his poems before the Kilmarnock edition appeared and that Burns encouraged him to make additional verses to some of his songs may be safely rejected.
[Johnson's Scots Musical Museum, iv. 212*, ed. 1853; Currie's Life of Burns; Scot Douglas's Burns, i. 268, ii. 225; Strang's Glasgow and its Clubs; Grant Wilson's Poets and Poetry of Scotland.]
T. B.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Reidfurd, Lord

​REIDFURD, Lord. [See Foulis, James, 1645?–1711, Scottish judge.]
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Reilly, Thomas Devin

​REILLY, THOMAS DEVIN (1824–1854), Irish revolutionary writer, was the son of Thomas Reilly, a solicitor, who obtained the office of taxing-master for his services to the liberal party. The younger Reilly was born in the town of Monaghan on 30 March 1824. He was educated there and at Trinity College, Dublin, but did not take a degree. In Dublin he renewed an early acquaintanceship with his fellow-townsman, Charles Gavan Duffy, and through him became known to the leading Young Irelanders. He sent contributions to the ‘Nation,’ and in 1845 joined its staff, writing in it fiery and eloquent articles. He became devotedly attached to John Mitchel [q. v.], but did not work well with the other members of the advanced nationalist party, and especially disliked Thomas D'Arcy McGee [q. v.] When Mitchel broke off his connection with the ‘Nation’ in December 1847, Reilly followed his example, and became early in 1848 a contributor to Mitchel's newly established paper, the ‘United Irishman.’ A violent article by Reilly, entitled ‘The French Fashion,’ which appeared in the paper on 4 March 1848, formed one count in the indictment on which Mitchel was subsequently tried. Mitchel declared Reilly's article, for which ‘he was forced to undergo all the responsibility—legal, personal, and moral’—to be ‘one of the most telling revolutionary documents ever penned.’ Reilly escaped from Ireland to New York in 1848, and contributed to the Irish-American papers. For two years he edited the New York ‘Democratic Review,’ and afterwards the presidential organ, the ‘Washington Union.’ He died suddenly in Washington on 6 March 1854, and was buried in Mount Olivet cemetery. In May 1881 a fine monument was placed over his grave by the Irishmen of that city. On 30 March 1850 he married Jennie Miller in Providence, ​Rhode Island. She died in Washington on 29 July, 1892.
Reilly, who could write forcibly, was one of the boldest and most impetuous of the Young Irelanders. Gavan Duffy severely condemns his hostility to D'Arcy McGee. Mitchel wrote of him as ‘the largest heart, the most during spirit, the loftiest genius of all Irish rebels in these latter days,’ who ‘in all the wild activity of his life, never aimed low and never spoke falsely.’
D. J. O'D.