OpenLLM-France/wikimedia huggingface dataset:
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Brailsford, John (fl.1712-1739)

​BRAILSFORD, JOHN, the elder (fl. 1712–1739), poetical writer, was educated at St. John's College, Cambridge (B.A. 1712, M.A. 1717), and, after acting as curate at Blaston in Leicestershire, became rector of Kirby in Nottinghamshire. He wrote 'Derby Silk-Mill, attempted in Miltonick Verse,' Nottingham, 1739, fol.
[Creswell's Collections towards the History of Printing in Nottinghamshire, 27; Nichols's Leicestershire, ii. 453; Graduati Cantab. (1823), 59.]
T. C.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Blair, James Hunter

1904 Errata appended.
​BLAIR, Sir JAMES HUNTER (1741–1787), was the son of John Hunter, a merchant in Ayr, where he was born 21 Feb. 1741. In 1756 he was apprenticed in the house of the brothers Coutts, bankers in Edinburgh, where he made the acquaintance of Sir William Forbes, and the two being admitted to a share in the business on the death of the senior partner of the firm, they gradually rose to the head of the copartnery. In 1770 he married Jane, eldest daughter of Mr. John Blair of Dunksey, Wigtonshire, and on his wife succeeding to the family estate in 1777, he assumed the name of Blair. On his estate he effected remarkable improvements, introducing to his tenants the most approved modes of farming, and nearly rebuilding the town of Portpatrick, at which he established larger and better packet-boats on the passage to Dnnaghadee in Ireland. In 1781 he was chosen to represent the city of Edinburgh in parliament, and again in 1784, but on account of the claims of his professional duties he resigned a few months afterwards. In the Fame year, however, he consented, at the urgent request of the town council, to accept the lord-provostship. It was chiefly due to his energy and public spirit during his term of office that several important schemes for the improvement of the city were successfully carried out. He did much to further the rebuilding of the university, and contrived a plan for obtaining funds to erect the South Bridge over the Cowgrate. Chiefly by his strenuous perseverance against strong opposition the scheme was successfully carried out, thus opening up a convenient communication between the southern suburbs and the city. He died of a putrid fever at Harrowgate, Yorkshire, 1 July 1787, and was buried in the Greyfriars churchyard. Hunter Square and Blair Street, Edinburgh, are named after him. He held the appointment of king’s printer.
Robert Burns, whose special regard for Blair was increased by his enlightened interest in agriculture, wrote an elegy on his death, a performance he acknowledged to be ‘but mediocre,’ although his grief was sincere. ‘The last time,’ says Burns, ‘I saw the worthy, public-spirited man, he pressed my hand and asked me with the most friendly warmth if it was in his power to serve me.’ In a letter to Robert Aiken of Ayr, enclosing the poem, Burns also wrote, ‘That I have lost a friend is but repeating after Caledonia.’
[Gent. Mag. lvii. pt. ii. 641–2; Edinburgh Magazine, vi. 43–4; Kay’s Edinburgh Portraits, 1838, i. 62–4; Arnot’s History of Edinburgh, pp. 256, 264; Works of Robert Burns.]
T. F. H.
Dictionary of National Biography, Errata (1904), p.29 N.B.— f.e. stands for from end and l.l. for last line
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| 162 | i | 14 f.e. | Blair, Sir James H.: after the city insert He was made a baronet in 1786 |
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Blagrave, Daniel

1904 Errata appended.
​BLAGRAVE, DANIEL (1603–1668), the regicide, was a nephew of John Blagrave of Reading, the mathematician [q. v.] He was born in 1603, and was bred for the bar. He sat in parliament 3 Nov. 1640 for the borough of Reading, and five years later was recorder of the same town, being dismissed the office in 1656, but reinstated in 1658. During the trial of Charles I he attended the high court of justice, and was one of those who signed the king’s death-warrant. He was appointed by the parliament to the office of exigenter ​of the court of common pleas, said to have been worth 500l. per annum, and also became a master in chancery. He was also parliamentary treasurer for the county of Berkshire, and in 1654 was named one of the commissioners for the ejection of scandalous and inefficient ministers, in which capacity he is accused by his enemies of using undue severity and of proving a vexatious persecutor of the clergy. By the means which he had acquired from his different offices he was able to purchase the fee-farm rent of the manor of Sunning, Berkshire, and other estates, as it is said on easy terms. He sat in the Convention parliament of 1658; but on the Restoration he fled the kingdom and settled at Aachen, where he died in 1668.
[Wood's Athenæ Oxon. (ed. Bliss), ii. 97; Noble's Lives of English Regicides, i. 95; Coates's Hist. of Reading, 1802, p. 433.]
E. M. T.
Dictionary of National Biography, Errata (1904), p.29 N.B.— f.e. stands for from end and l.l. for last line
| Page | Col. | Line | |
| 156 | ii | 8 f.e. | Blagrave, Daniel: for sat in parliament 3 Nov. 1640 read was elected to parliament 8 May 1648 |
| | | 7 f.e. | for five years later read three years before |
| 157 | i | 14-15 | for in the convention parliament of 1658 read in the parliaments of 1656 and 1658 |
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Blagrave, Thomas

​BLAGRAVE, THOMAS (d. 1688), musician, was a member of an old Berkshire family. Dr. Rimbault and Colonel Chester state that he was the eldest son of Richard Blagrave (eldest son of John Blagrave [q. v.] of Bullmarsh and Reading, Berkshire) by his third wife Anne, daughter of Thomas Mason of Northwood, Isle of Wight; but it is difficult to reconcile this statement with the very detailed family tree of the Blagraves in Berry's ‘County Genealogies of Berkshire’ (145–8). Blagrave's name occurs amongst the gentlemen of the chapel at the coronation of Charles II (23 April 1661), and about 22 Oct. in the following year he was appointed clerk of the cheque. He was also a member of Charles II’s private band, and Wood says that he was ‘a player for the most part on the cornet-flute, and a gentill and honest man.’ Blagrave's name occasionally occurs in Pepys’s ‘Diary.’ On 7 March 1662 by his means Pepys obtained admission to the Chapel Royal, Whitehall, and on 11 Sept. 1664 the same chronicler records that he had been ‘with Mr. Blagrave, walking in the Abbey, he telling me the whole government and discipline of White Hall Chapel, and the caution now used against admitting any debauched persons.’ Blagrave is also mentioned as one of the king's ‘musick’ at whom Pelham Humphreys laughed on his return from France in 1667, saying ‘that they cannot keep time nor tune, nor understand anything.’ On 14 Oct. 1645 Blagrave was married, at St. Margaret’s, Westminster, to Margaret Clarevell or Clairvox of Parson’s Green. He died 21 Nov. 1688, and was buried in the north cloister of Westminster Abbey on 24 Nov. By his will (dated 14 May 1686) he left to his widow his house and lands at Teddington, and bequeathed various sums to his kinsmen, among whom were another Thomas Blagrave, and John Blagrave, ‘my brother Anthony Blagrave's youngest sonne.’ A portrait by J. V. Souman of a Thomas Blagrave, which is preserved in the Music School at Oxford, has always been said to represent the subject of this biography; but this clearly cannot be the case, as the picture represents a boy, and bears the inscription ‘æt. 12, 1702.’ A few songs by him may be found in the publications of Playford and other contemporary collections.
[Chester's Registers of Westminster Abbey; Old Cheque Book of the Chapel Royal (ed. Rimbault); Probate Registers; Egerton MS. 2159; Hawkins's Hist. of Music (1853), ii. 767; Pepys's Diary (ed. 1848), i. 332, ii. 375, iv. 263.]
W. B. S.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Blair, John (d.1782)

​BLAIR, JOHN, LL.D. (d. 1782), chronologist, erroneously said to have been a descendant of the Rev. Robert Blair (1593–1666) [q. v.], really belonged to the Blairs of Balthayock, Perthshire. The date of his birth is unknown, but he was born and educated in Edinburgh. Leaving Scotland as a young man, he became usher of a school in Hedge Lane, London, in succession to Andrew Henderson, author of a well-known history of the rebellion of 1745. In 1754 he ​published, after elaborate preparations, his magnum opus, which he designated 'The Chronology and History of the World, from the Creation to the Year of Christ 1753, illustrated in fifty-six tables.' It was modestly dedicated to the lord chancellor (Hardwicke), and was published by subscription. In the preface he acknowledged great obligations to the Earl of Bute, and announced certain supplementary dissertations, which never appeared. The plan and scope of the work originated with Dr. Hugh Blair's scheme of chronological tables. The 'Chronology' was reprinted in 1756, 1768, and 1814. It was revised and enlarged 'by Willoughby Rosse in Bohn's 'Scientific Library,' 1856. In 1768 Blair published 'Fourteen Maps of Ancient and Modern Geography, for the illustration of the Tables of Chronology and History; to which is prefixed a dissertation on the Rise and Progress of Geography.' The dissertation was separately republished in 1784.
Blair's first book was well received. In 1755 he was elected a fellow of the Royal Society, and in its 'Transactions' appeared a paper by him on the 'Agitation of the Waters near Reading' (Phil. Trans. x. 651, 1755). He had previously obtained orders in the church of England, and in September 1757 was appointed chaplain to the Princess-dowager of Wales and mathematical tutor to the Duke of York. In March 1761, on the promotion of Dr. Townshend to the deanery of Norwich, Blair was given a prebend al stall at Westminster. Within a week the dean and chapter of Westminster presented him to the vicarage of Hinckley. In the same year he was chosen fellow of the Society of Antiquaries. In September 1763 he left with the Duke of York on a tour on the continent, and was absent until 1764. In 1771 he was transferred, by presentation of the dean and chapter of Westminster, to the vicarage of St. Bride, London, and again to the rectory of St. John the Evangelist, Westminster, in April 1776. He was also rector of Horton (Milton's Horton) in Buckinghamshire. He died on 24 June 1782. The statement that his last illness was aggravated by the sad death of his gallant brother, Captain Blair [see Blair, William, 1741-1782], is erroneous. They were only cousins. Blair's 'Lectures on the Canons of the Old Testament, comprehending a Dissertation on the Septuagint Version,' 1785, was a posthumous publication.
[Notes and Queries, 6th series, vii. 48; Anderson's Scottish Nation; researches in Edinburgh.]
A. B. G.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Blagrove, Henry Gamble

​BLAGROVE, HENRY GAMBLE (1811–1872), musician, was born at Nottingham 20 Oct. 1811. He was the eldest son of ​a professor of music, from whom, when only four years old, he received his earliest instruction in the violin. At the age of five he played in public, and in 1817 he appeared as a violinist at Drury Lane Theatre in an entertainment called ' The Liliputians,' as well as in a succession of concerts at the Exhibition Rooms in Spring Gardens. In 1821 he studied with Spagnoletti, and two years later, on the opening of the Royal Academy of Music, he entered that institution, where he became the pupil of Dr. Crotch and F. Cramer. In 1824 Blagrove was awarded a silver medal for his violin-playing, and in 1830 he received the appointment of solo-violinist in the royal private band, a post he held until 1837. Queen Adelaide took great interest in his career, and at her wish he went (in 1832) to Cassel, where he spent two years studying with Spohr. Subsequently he travelled on the continent for some time, playing with great success at Vienna and elsewhere. On his return to England he appeared as a soloist at the Philharmonic concerts, and in 1836 assumed the leadership of a string quartett party, the other members of which were H. Gattie, J. B. Dando, and C. Lucas, who gave a series of admirable concerts at the Hanover Square Rooms. At the coronation of Queen Victoria he led the State band, with which he was connected until his death. At about the same time he gave lessons on the violin to the Duke of Cambridge. On 17 Aug. 1841 Blagrove married Etheldred, daughter of Mr. Henry Combe, by whom he had three children. In the course of his long and brilliant professional career he was successively principal violin in Jullien's band, at both opera houses, at most of the provincial festivals, the Handel celebrations at the Crystal Palace, and the leading musical societies in London, besides teaching the violin at the Royal Academy of Music. In 1858 he was for a short time in Germany, and a few years later he played at the Lower Rhine Festival at Düsseldorf. On 8 Jan. 1869 Mrs. Blagrove died, and before long Blagrove began to show signs of declining health. He still, however, continued occasionally to perform, and in 1872 was presented with a public testimonial in recognition of his merits. In the December following he was seized with paralysis while playing at a private concert, and on the 15th of the same month died at his house, 224 Marylebone Road. He was buried at Kensal Green. Blagrove's published works comprise some valuable exercises and studies for the violin and a few solos. As a performer he ranked among the best of Spohr's pupils, his tone and execution being alike admirable. Personally he was very popular with all with whom he came in contact, and he was a most persevering and successful teacher.
[Information from Mrs. Murray ; Grove's Dict. of Music, i. 246 ; Musical Directory for 1874, 8.]
W. B. S.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Blague, Thomas

1904 Errata appended.
​BLAGUE or BLAGE, THOMAS (d. 1611), dean of Rochester, was of Queens' College, Cambridge. He was undoubtedly the author in early life of 'A Schoole of wise Conceytes. Wherein as euery conceyte hath wit, so the most haue much mirth, set forth in common places by order of the alphabet. Translated out of diuers Greeke and Latin wryters by Thomas Blage, student of the Queenes Colledge in Cambridge. Printed at London by Henrie Binneman. Anno 1572. Cvm Privilegio ' (12mo). He was admitted, 9 Sept. 1570, to the rectory of Braxted Magna in Essex. Local inquiries prove that he was non-resident. On 2 Sept. 1571, being A.B., he was presented to the church of St. Vedast, Foster Lane, London. Again, on 20 July 1580, he is found 'presented by the queen' to Ewelme, Oxfordshire, which he resigned in 1596. On 2 April 1582, at Oxford, being described as 'student in divinity' and one of the chaplains in ordinary to the queen he 'supplicated for D.D., but whether admitted appears not' (Wood, Fasti, i. 222). On 1 Feb. 1591, being then D.D., he was installed dean of Rochester in the place of John Coldwell, M.D. Wood erroneously states that at the time he was master of Clare Hall, confounding him with another dean of Rochester (Dr. Scott). In 1602 he, as dean, presented John Wallis (or Wallys), father of the more famous Dr. John Wallis, to the living of Ashford, Kent. In 1603 he printed and published a sermon on I Psalm i. 1-2, which had been preached at the Charter House. In 1604 he was appointed rector of Bangor, but never resided. He died 11 Oct. 1611. Wood, in recording the above solitary sermon, adds, 'and perhaps others;' but all appear to have perished. He had a son named John, who, in his father's lifetime, was a commoner of Oriel College, Oxford (Fasti, i. 222). Later a Colonel John Blague was the person by whom Isaac Walton restored to Charles II his 'George' that had been lost. Another Thomas Blague—perhaps another son—wrote the following tractate: 'A great Fight at Market Harborough in Leicestershire betwixt the Presbyterians and Independents, some declaring for his Excellency Sir Thomas Fairfax, others for the late elected Generals Maine and Poynts. With the number that were slain and wounded, and the manner how the Presbyterians were put to flight. By Thomas Blague,' 1647 ​(4to). He casually names a 'cosen Blague the surgeon' as 'attending on the wounded.'
[Le Neve's Fasti, i. 577; Reg. Abbot; Wood's Fasti, ii. 184; Reg. Whitgift, 3, 269; Reg. Grindall et Bancroft, Kennet; Wood's Fasti, i. 222, 227; communications from present Dean of Rochester, rectors of Bangor, Ewelme, Great Braxted, &c. &c.; Newcourt's Repertorium, ii. 91-2.]
A. B. G.
Dictionary of National Biography, Errata (1904), p.29 N.B.— f.e. stands for from end and l.l. for last line
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| 159 | ii | 30 | Blague, Thomas: for 1591 read 1591-2 |
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Blagrave, John

​BLAGRAVE, JOHN (d. 1611), mathematician, was the son of John Blagrave of Bullmarsh, near Sunning, Berkshire, by Anne, daughter of Sir Anthony Hungerford of Down-Ampney, Gloucestershire, knight. He was born at Reading, but the date of his birth is unknown. He received his early education in his native town, and afterwards entered St. John's College, Oxford. He did not, however, take a degree, but retired to his patrimony at Southcote Lodge, Reading, and devoted himself to his favourite study of mathematics, being esteemed, as Anthony Wood declares, 'the flower of mathematicians of his age.' He published four works, viz.: 1. 'The Mathematical Jewel, shewing the making and most excellent use of a singular instrument so called, in that it performeth with wonderfull dexteritie whatever is to be done either by Quadrant, Ship, Circle, Cylinder, Ring, Diall, Horoscope, Astrolabe, Sphere, Globe, or any such like heretoforth devised,' 1585. 2. 'Baculum Familliare Catholicon sive Generale: a booke of the making and use of a Staffe newly invented by the Author, called the Familiar Staffe, as well for that it may be made usually and familiarlie to walke with, as for that it performeth the Geometrical mensurations of all Altitudes,' &c., 1590. 3. 'Astrolabium Uranicum Generale: a necessary and pleasaint solace and recreation for Navigators in their long jorneying,' 1596. 4. 'The Art of Dyalling, in two parts,' 1609.
In private life Blagrave was distinguished for his charity. His father settled upon him in 1591 the lease for ninety-nine years of lands in Southcote, which he in turn bequeathed to his nephews and their descendants, of whom as many as eighty are said to have benefited. To his native town of Reading he left certain legacies, one of which provided annually the sum of twenty notes to be competed for by three maid servants of good character and five years' service under one master, to be selected by the three parishes of the town. The whimsical conditions of this bequest required that the maids should appear on Good Friday in the town-hall before the mayor and aldermen, and there cast lots for the prize. The losers had the right of competing a second and third time. Blagrave died on 9 Aug. 1611, and was buried, in the same grave as his mother, in the church of St. Lawrence, wherein an elaborate monument of himself, surrounded by allegorical figures, was erected. He married a widow, whose daughter is named in his will, but he left no issue.
[Wood's Athenæ Oxon. (ed. Bliss), ii. 96; Ashmole's Antiq. of Berkshire, 1723. ii. 371; Coates's Hist. of Reading, 1802, p. 430; Biog. Britannica; Chalmers's Biog. Dict.]
E. M. T.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Butler, John (d.1478)

​BUTLER, JOHN, sixth Earl of Ormonde (d. 1478), brother of James, fifth earl [q. v.], was with his brother attainted by the first parliament of Edward IV, but was soon afterwards pardoned and restored in blood by Edward, and to all his estate except his lands in Essex, which had been granted by the king to his sister Anne. The attainder by the Irish parliament at Dublin, 2 Edward IV, was not however repealed till 16 Edward IV. Previous to succeeding to the earldom he was known as Sir John de Ormonde, having been knighted at Leicester by the Duke of Bedford, the king's uncle, for adherence to Henry VI. Edward IV used to say of him that he was ‘the goodliest knight he ever beheld and the finest gentleman in Christendom; and that if good breeding, nurture, and liberal qualities were lost in the world, they might all be found in John, earl of Ormonde.’ He had a thorough mastery of every European language, and had been an ambassador to nearly every European court. He died in the Holy Land during a pilgrimage to Jerusalem in 1478. He was unmarried, and was succeeded in the earldom by his brother Thomas.
T. F. H.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Butler, Pierce (d.1539)

​BUTLER, Sir PIERCE or PIERS, eighth Earl of Ormonde and first Earl of Ossory (d. 1539), was descended from the Butlers, baronets of Poolestown, and was the son of Sir James Butler and Sawe (Sabina), daughter of Donnell Reogh MacMurrough Cavenagh, prince of his sept. He succeeded Thomas, seventh earl of Ormonde, in 1515. He took a prominent part in suppressing the Irish rebellions, and when the Earl of Surrey, who was his intimate friend, left the ​ kingdom in 1521, he was appointed lord-deputy. Owing to the representations of the Talbots he was removed from the government in 1524, but the king, to indicate his disagreement with the decision of the commissioners, created him on 13 May lord-treasurer of Ireland. At the special request of the king he surrendered the earldom of Ormonde to Sir Thomas Boleyn (or Bullen), grandson of the seventh earl of Ormonde and brother of Anne Boleyn, and in lieu thereof he was created Earl of Ossory by patent dated 23 Feb. 1527–8. By Lodge and other authorities it is stated that the earldom of Ormonde was restored to Sir Pierce Butler on 22 Feb. 1537–8, on the death of Sir Thomas Boleyn; but, as is shown by Mr. J. H. Round (Foster, Collect. Geneal. vol. i.), the grant of the earldom was made before the death of Thomas Boleyn, earl of Wiltshire and Ormonde, and that the earldom was a new one is sufficiently attested by the fact that it was limited to heirs male of his body. After its conferment ‘the Earl of Wilts,’ as is mentioned in the ‘Carew State Papers,’ ‘was content to be so named earl of Ormonde in Ireland, semblably as the two Lords Dacres be named the one of the south and the other of the north’ (Calendar, Carew MSS. 1515–1574, p. 127). The Earl of Ormonde manifested the sincerity of his loyalty by his activity in taking measures for crushing the insurrection of his brother-in-law, Lord Thomas Fitzgerald, and after the latter's execution he was rewarded by a large grant of lands. He afterwards turned his arms against the Earl of Desmond, who submitted and took an oath of fidelity. He died on 21 or 26 Aug. 1539, and was buried in the chancel of St. Canice's Cathedral, Kilkenny. He is stated to have been ‘a man of great honour and sincerity, infinitely good-natured.’ He brought over to Kilkenny artificers and manufacturers from Flanders and the neighbouring provinces, whom he employed in working tapestry, diaper, Turkey carpets, and similar industries. By his wife Margaret, daughter of Gerald Fitzgerald, earl of Kildare, he had three sons and six daughters. His second son, Richard, created Viscount Mountgarret, 23 Oct. 1550, was grandfather of Richard, third Viscount Mountgarret [q. v.] His eldest son, James, created Viscount Thurles in 1535, became ninth Earl of Ormonde, married Lady Joan Fitzgerald, daughter and heiress of James, eleventh earl of Desmond, was suspected of hostility to the English government, and was poisoned while in London at a supper at Ely House. He died on 28 Oct. 1546. His son Thomas (1532–1614) [q. v.] succeeded to the earldom.
T. F. H.