OpenLLM-France/wikimedia huggingface dataset:
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1901 supplement/Flatman, Elnathan

​FLATMAN, ELNATHAN (1810–1860), jockey, the son of a small farmer, was born at Holton St. Mary in Suffolk in 1810. In 1825 he walked with a small bundle to Newmarket and begged employment of William Cooper, the trainer, a request conceded upon the intercession of the trainer's wife, who was moved to compassion by the sorrowful appearance of the puny applicant. He was soon promoted to ride trials, and in the Craven Meeting of 1829 rode Lord Exeter's Golden Pin, in a race won by Sam Chifney upon Zinganee. Among the masters for whom he rode while in Cooper's stable were General Peel, Lord Strafford, Greville, Lord Jersey (upon whose Glencoe he won the Goodwood Cup in 1834), and Lord Chesterfield. Upon the latter's Carew he won the Goodwood Cup in 1837, and next year, upon the same owner's Don John, captured the Doncaster Cup. In 1839 his riding of General Gate's Gibraltar in the famous dead-heat with Crucifix for the Criterion established his reputation. For the next twenty years the 'Augustan age of the British turf his path having been cleared by the premature death of two formidable rivals, Arthur Pavis and Patrick Conolly Flatman was perhaps the most popular jockey in the field. In 1842 he rode for Lord George Bentinck, and during the next few years he won a notable series of successes for Lord Chesterfield and General Peel. Upon Peel's Orlando he was declared Derby winner (upon the disqualification of Running Rein) in 1844, but his greatest triumph was the winning of the Doncaster Cup in 1850, when upon Lord Zetland's Voltigeur he compelled the Flying Dutchman (ridden by Marlow) to lower his colours for the only time in his brilliant career. In 1848 he scored no less than 104 wins, in- ​cluding the Doncaster St. Leger upon Lord Clifden's Surplice. It was not until 1853 that he was 'headed' by Tiny Wells and subsequently by Fordham. In 1859 he was thrown violently upon Bath racecourse by the fall of Lord Ailesbury's Sudbury, which he rode in the Biennial. A splintered rib which pierced the jockey's lung was the consequence, and it laid the seeds of a rapid consumption. Flatman's end was probably accelerated by the kick which he received in the first October Meeting of 1859 from the Duke of Bedford's Golden Pippin. He died at Newmarket on 20 Aug. 1860, leaving a widow and five children, and was buried in All Saints churchyard. Honest, very reserved, not at all grasping according to later standards, Flatman talked, wrote, and understood his masters extremely well. At first he rode little over 6st., and during his prime 7st. 81b. He excelled in riding two-year-olds, and very seldom used the whip; but he owed his large practice to a steady course of good riding and good conduct, extending over many years, rather than to any more characteristic qualities of jockeyship. He is commonly referred to by sporting writers as 'Nat.'
[Illustr. London News, 23 May 1853 (portraits); Sporting; Times, 25 July 1885; Sporting Review, 1853 and 1860; The Druid's Post and Paddock, 1856; Rice's British Turf, i. 263 sq.; Boase's Modern English Biography, i. 1067.]
T. S.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1901 supplement/Foote, Lydia

​FOOTE, LYDIA (1844?–1892), actress, whose real name was Lydia Alice Legge, was a niece of Mary Anne Keeley [q. v. Suppl.] She made her first appearance at the Lyceum on 1 April 1852 as Edward, a child, in 'A Chain of Events.' She was subsequently at Sadler's Wells, the Victoria, and at Manchester, and made her first appearance at the Olympic, 31 Aug. 1863, replacing Miss Kate Saville as May Edwards in the 'Ticket-of-Leave Man.' On 1 Nov. 1864 she was the original Enid Gryftydd in Tom Taylor's 'Hidden Hand' ('L'Aieule'). She ​had an original part, Miss Hargrave, in Taylor's 'Settling Day' on 4 March 1863, played Mrs. Featherley in 'Everybody's Friend,' Maria in 'Twelfth Night,' Clara Vernon in Wilkie Collins's 'Frozen Deep,' and some original parts in burlesque. At the Prince of Wales's, Tottenham Street, she made, 6 April 1867, her great triumph as Esther Eccles in Robertson's 'Caste' (Times, 11 April 1867), was on 21 Dec. the original Lady Selina Raffleticket in Boucicault's 'How she loves him,' and on 15 Feb. 1868 the first Amanda in Robertson's 'Play.' At the Holborn on 5 Sept. she played the twin sisters Craddock in Byron's 'Blow for Blow.' At the Globe, in Byron's 'Minnie,' 29 March 1869, she was Minnie Vaughan, and 18 Sept. the heroine of Robertson's 'Progress.' At the Globe on 10 Feb. 1870 she was Philomel in Mr. Craven's 'Philomel,' and at the Holborn, 1 Oct., the heroine of Sefton Parry's 'Odds,' and 5 Dec. Madame d'Artignes in Boucicault's 'Jezebel.' In 1872 she was at the Gaiety, where she played Mary Thornberry in 'John Bull,' and was, 3 March 1873, at the Prince of Wales's the first Ann Silvester in Wilkie Collins's 'Man and Wife.' At the Princess's she was Ruth in the 'Lancashire Lass,' and 20 March 1875, at the Adelphi, Smike in 'Nicholas Nickleby.' On 30 Oct. she was Little Em'ly in a revival of the piece so named. At the St. James's she played Grace Harkaway in 'London Assurance,' and at the Adelphi Helen in the 'Hunchback' to the Julia of Lilian Adelaide Neilson [q. v.] in 1879. At the former house on 6 Jan. 1877 she was the first Anna in the 'Danischeffs;' at the latter, 30 Sept. 1879, the first Midge in Boucicault's 'Rescued,' and had, 21 Oct. 1880, an original part in Boucicault's 'O'Dowd.' On 5 Aug. 1881, at Drury Lane, she played an original part in 'Pluck' by Pettitt and Harris. She also took part at the Adelphi in many revivals. She died of cancer at Broadstairs 30 May 1892. Miss Foote was a good actress and possessed of remarkable pathos. Her Esther Eccles in 'Caste' and her Anna in the 'Danischeffs' could not easily have been surpassed.
[Personal knowledge; Pascoe's Dramatic List; Scott and Howard's Blanchard; Button Cook's Nights at the Play; Sunday Times, various years; Hollingshead's Gaiety Chronicles.]
J. K.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Sibley, George

​SIBLEY, GEORGE (1824–1891), civil engineer, born on 12 Aug. 1824, was son of Robert Sibley, one of the first members of the Institution of Civil Engineers. From 1831 to 1838 he received his education at University College school, London. After serving an apprenticeship with his father in London, he obtained employment in 1845 as assistant engineer on the Bristol and Exeter railway under Isambard Kingdom Brunel [q. v.], and afterwards under Charles Hutton Gregory. In 1851, through James Meadows Rendel [q. v.], he received the appointment of assistant engineer on the East India railway, and was placed in charge of the Chandernagore district. His promotion was rapid. In August 1853 he was placed in charge of the Beerbhoom district as resident engineer, and in this position designed the two largest brick arch-bridges in India, those over the Adjai and More. In December of the same year he was made a district engineer. About 1857 he was appointed deputy chief engineer under Turnbull, and in 1859 chief engineer of the North-West Provinces division. On the death of Samuel Power he became, in April 1868, chief engineer of the whole line and a member of the board of agency. During his service in the North-West Sibley completed the Allahabad Jumna bridge, then the largest railway bridge in the world, constructed the Delhi Jumna bridge, and designed all the works at Delhi connected with the railway.
In 1869 he was involved in a controversy with the Indian government, which had issued a notification implying that the civil engineers received commissions from others than their employers. The accusation does not appear to have been justifiable, and Sibley, with the other engineers, addressed a strong remonstrance to the government.
In January 1875 Sibley left India on furlough, and shortly after retired. In consideration of his services he was made a companion of the order of the Indian Empire. He resided in England in a house ​which he built on the summit of Whitehill, Caterham, devoting himself to literary and scientific pursuits. He died of heart disease on 25 Oct. 1891, leaving a considerable legacy for the purpose of founding engineering scholarships and encouraging native students at the university of Calcutta. Like his father, Sibley was a member of the Institution of Civil Engineers.
A brother, Septimus Sibley (1831–1893), physician, was for many years resident surgeon of Middlesex College Hospital, and was the first general practitioner elected to the council of the Royal College of Surgeons. Hee published ‘A History and Description of the Cholera Epidemic in London in 1854,’ besides papers in ‘Medico-Chirurgical Transactions’ (British Medical Journal, 25 Mar. 1893).
E. I. C.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Sibly, Manoah

​SIBLY, MANOAH (1757–1840), Swedenborgian, brother of Ebenezer Sibly [q. v.], was born at Bristol on 20 Aug. 1757. At a very early age he showed exceptional ability and power of application. On the death of his mother, when he was eleven, his father took him from school, and he thenceforth pursued his studies unaided. Before he was twenty he was able to teach Hebrew, Greek, Latin, and Syriac, as well as shorthand, and published ‘A Critical Essay’ on the Hebrew text of Jer. xxxiii. 16. On 7 May 1780 he married an orphan named Sarah, two years older than himself, and opened a bookshop. The business was chiefly managed by his wife, while Sibly himself set up a school, studied books on alchemy and astronomy, and for a time was employed as a shorthand reporter in the law courts. In 1787 he embraced the tenets of the Swedenborgians, and soon became known among them as a preacher. He accepted the charge of a congregation in 1790, and, after several migrations, a permanent place of worship was built for him in Friars Street, near Ludgate Hill, in 1803. In 1797 he obtained a situation in the Bank of England, which gave him increased leisure for his ministerial duties. In 1815 he became principal of the chancery office at the Bank, and remained in that position until within a few months of his death. He died on 16 Dec. 1840, and was buried in Bunhill Fields. By his wife Sarah, who died in 1829, he had eleven children, but only two daughters survived him.
Sibly, who had a large share in preparing the liturgy of the New church, was the author of: 1. ‘Twelve Sermons,’ London, 1796, 8vo. 2. ‘Hymns and Spiritual Songs,’ 1802, 12mo. 3. ‘A Defence of the New Church,’ London, 1815, 12mo. 3. ‘A Supplement to Placidus de Titis,’ London, 1790, 4to. He translated: 1. Placidus de Titis's ‘Astronomy and Elementary Philosophy,’ 1789, 8vo. 2. Placidus de Titis's ‘Collection of Thirty Remarkable Nativities,’ 1789, 8vo. He also revised Whalley's translation of Ptolemy's ‘Quadripartitus,’ London, 1786, 4to.
E. I. C.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Sibly, Ebenezer

​SIBLY, EBENEZER (d. 1800), astrologer, was the son of a mechanic and brother of Manoah Sibly [q. v.] He early devoted himself to medicine and more especially to astrology. He studied surgery in London, and on 20 April 1792 graduated M.D. from King's College, Aberdeen. In 1790 he was residing in Ipswich, and distinguished himself at the general election by his exertions on behalf of Sir John Hadley D'Oyly, the whig member. Sibly died in London about the beginning of 1800.
He was the author of: 1. ‘Uranoscopia, or the Pure Language of the Stars,’ London, 8vo. 2. ‘A New and Complete Illustration of the Celestial Science of Astrology,’ London, 1787, 4to; 12th ed. 1817. This work contains a collection of nativities with short memoirs of, among others, several of his predecessors in the science of astrology. 3. ‘Key to Physic and the Occult Science of Astrology,’ London, 4to. n. d. 4. ‘The Medical Mirror, or a Treatise on the Impregnation of the Human Female,’ London, 1796, 8vo. He also edited Culpepper's ‘English Physician and Complete Herbal,’ London, 1805, 4to. A manuscript of his, in the possession of Mr. Fraser Rae, contains the horoscopes of Pitt, Fox, and Sheridan (Athenæum, 4 July 1896).
E. I. C.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Sibbald, William

​SIBBALD, WILLIAM (d. 1650), royalist, of Scottish family, may be identical with William Sibbald who entered King's College, Aberdeen, in 1634, and graduated M.A. in 1639 (Fasti Aberdonenses, Spalding Club, pp. 462, 511). In early life he attached himself to James Graham, fifth earl and first marquis of Montrose [q. v.], from whom he received many favours. He served under Montrose in the cause of the covenanters. On 30 June 1640 Sibbald was entrusted with the charge of the house of Airlie, which Montrose had just taken from James Ogilvy, second earl of Airlie [q. v.] Within a week, however, the Earl of Argyll ordered Sibbald to deliver the place to him, and rased it to the ground. When Montrose became a royalist, Sibbald adopted the same cause, and in 1644 accompanied Montrose in his secret journey to Scotland. They left Carlisle on 18 Aug., accompanied only by Sir William Rollo [q. v.], Montrose being disguised as Sibbald's groom. Holding the commission of lieutenant-colonel, he accompanied the marquis on his highland campaign. At the close of the year, however, when Argyll brought Montrose to bay at Fyvie Castle, Sibbald, perhaps despairing of the cause, deserted to the enemy. On hearing this, Montrose, who was on the point of marching towards Badenoch, halted his troops and remained stationary for several days in order to discredit any information as to his plans that Sibbald might furnish to his opponents.
Whatever were Sibbald's motives for his desertion, he soon returned to his old allegiance, and readily obtained pardon for his pusillanimity. After the battle of Philiphaugh (September 1645) he sought refuge in Holland. In 1649 he crossed to Scotland, bearing letters from Montrose to Prince Rupert, James Butler, marquis (afterwards duke) of Ormonde [q. v.], and Sir George Monro [q. v.] He was also charged to foment the discontent which the Act of Classes had roused among the lowland gentry. But soon after landing he was arrested at Musselburgh. On his examination he refused at first to give information, but, being tortured, he is said to have confessed to a plot to seize Edinburgh Castle. He was beheaded, with Hay of Dalgetty, on 7 June 1650 at the Mercat Cross, Edinburgh. He had composed a dying speech, but did not deliver it. After talking a little ‘to the disorderly rabble about him,’ says one author, ‘he march'd to the block with such an heroick gesture as if he had been to act a gallant in a play’ (Montrose Rediv. pp. 175, 187).
E. I. C.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Siberch, John

Dates c.1476–1554 in the ODNB.
​SIBERCH, JOHN (fl. 1521–1522), the first printer at Cambridge, has sometimes been identified with Johann Syber or Sibert, who printed at Lyons between 1482 and 1498; but it is more probable that he came to England from Cologne. He set up the first printing-press at Cambridge in 1521, in which year and in 1522 he printed there nine or more books. The house in which he lived was between the Gate of Humility and the Gate of Virtue, within the precincts of Gonville and Caius College, and it bore the sign of the ‘Arma Regia.’ Siberch styled himself ‘primus utriusque linguæ in Anglia impressor,’ and it was on the title-page of his ‘Augustinus’ that Greek type was first used in England. He was probably the bookseller named as an old friend by Erasmus in a letter written from Basle on Christmas day 1525 to Robert Aldrich of Cambridge, afterwards bishop of Carlisle: ‘Saluta mihi ueteres sodales … Gerardum, Nicolaum, et Ioannem Siburgum bibliopolas.’ The art of printing was not again exercised at Cambridge until Thomas Thomas was appointed university printer in 1583.
The books known to have been printed by Siberch are, in order of date, as follows: 1. The ‘Oratio’ addressed to Cardinal Wolsey at Cambridge by Dr. Henry Bullock, 1521. Four copies of this, the first book printed at Cambridge, are known, viz. at the British Museum, Bodleian Library, Lambeth Palace, and Archbishop Marsh's Library, Dublin. 2. St. Augustine's ‘Sermo de miseria ac brevitate hujus mortalis vitæ,’ 1521, of which the only extant copy is in the Bodleian Library. 3. Lucian's ‘Opusculum περὶ διψὰδων,’ 1521, edited by Dr. Bullock, with the addition of his above-mentioned oration to Wolsey. Two copies are in the British Museum, and a third is at St. John's College, Cambridge. 4. Archbishop Baldwin's ‘Sermo de altaris sacramento,’ 1521 (Bodleian, Cambridge Univ. Libr. &c.). 5. Erasmus' ‘De conscribendis epistolis,’ 1521 (Brit. Mus., St. John's Coll., Cambridge, &c.). 6. Galen's ‘De temperamentis,’ translated by Thomas Linacre, 1521 (Brit. Mus., Bodleian, &c.). 7. Bishop Fisher's ‘Contio,’ delivered on the day of the public burning of the writings of Martin Luther, translated into Latin by Richard Pace, 1521 [1522]. Two copies are in the Bodleian Library, and another is in the Althorp collection. 8. Papirius Geminus’ ‘Hermathena,’ 1522 (Brit. Mus., St. John's Coll., Cambridge, &c.). 9. Two leaves only of an unknown edition of William Lily's ‘De octo orationis partium constructione,’ discovered in the library of Westminster Abbey. Facsimile reproductions have been published of Nos. 1, 2, 6, and 8.
R. E. G.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1912 supplement/East, Cecil James

​EAST, Sir CECIL JAMES (1837–1908), lieut.-general, born at Herne Hill, London, on 10 July 1837, was son of Charles James East, merchant, of London, by his wife Eliza Frederica Bowman. After private education he entered the army on 18 Aug. 1854 as ensign in the 82nd regt., and became lieutenant on 6 June 1855. He served with his regiment in the Crimea from 2 Sept. 1855, and was present at the siege and fall of Sevastopol, for which he received the medal with clasp and Turkish medal. Subsequently he took part in the war of the Indian Mutiny in 1857 and was severely wounded at Cawnpore on 26 Nov. 1857, when he was awarded the medal. Promoted captain on 17 Nov. 1863, he joined the 41st regiment, and served as assistant quartermaster-general with the Chittagong column of the Lushai expeditionary force in 1871-2; he was mentioned in despatches and received the thanks of the governor-general in council as well as the medal with clasp and brevet of major (Lond. Gaz. 21 June 1872). Through the latter part of the Zulu war of 1879 he acted as deputy adjutant and quartermaster-general, and was present at the engagement at Ulundi, receiving the medal with clasp and brevet of colonel (Lond. Gaz. 21 August 1879). During the Burmese expedition in 1886-7 he commanded the first brigade after the capture of Mandalay and was mentioned in despatches by the government of India (Lond. Gaz. 2 Sept. 1887), receiving two clasps and being made C.B. on 1 July 1887. From 1883 to 1888 he commanded a second-class district in Bengal and Burma, and a first-class district in Madras from 1889 to 1893, having been made major-general on 23 Jan. 1889. Leaving India in 1893, he was till 1898 governor of Royal Military College at Sandhurst. He was nominated K.C.B. on 22 June 1897, having become lieut.-general on 28 May 1896. After 1898 he resided at Fairhaven, Winchester, where he died on 14 March 1908, being buried at King's Worthy.
He married (1) in 1863 Jane Catharine (d. 1871), eldest daughter of Charles Case Smith, M.D., of Bury St. Edmunds, Suffolk, by whom he had issue one son and a daughter; (2) in 1875 Frances Elizabeth, daughter of Rev. Arthur Mogg of Chilcompton, Somerset, and widow of Edward H. Watts, by whom he had a daughter.
[The Times, 16 March 1908; selections from State Papers in Military Dept, 1857-8, ed. G. W. Forrest, 1902, ii. 383; Dod's Knightage; Hart's and Official Army Lists; Walford's County Families.]
H. M. V.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Strode, Thomas

​STRODE, THOMAS (fl. 1642–1688), mathematician, son of Thomas Strode of Shepton-Mallet, Somerset, was born about 1626. He matriculated from University College, Oxford, on 1 July 1642. After remaining there about two years, he travelled for a time in France with his tutor, Abraham Woodhead [q. v.], and then returning settled at Maperton, Somerset. Strode was the author of: 1. ‘A Short Treatise of the Combinations, Elections, Permutations, and Composition of Quantities,’ London, 1678, 4to, in which, besides dealing with permutations and combinations, he treats of some cases of probability. 2. ‘A New and Easie Method to the Art of Dyalling, containing: (1) all Horizontal Dyals, all Upright Dyals, &c.; (2) the most Natural and Easie Way of describing the Curve-Lines of the Sun's Declination on any Plane,’ London, 1688, 4to.
Another Thomas Strode (1628–1699), serjeant-at-law, born at Shepton-Mallet in 1628, was son of Sir John Strode of that place by his second wife, Anne, daughter of Sir John Wyndham of Orchard. He was called to the bar at the Inner Temple in 1657, became serjeant-at-law in 1677, and, dying without male issue on 4 Feb. 1698–9, was buried at Beaminster (Hutchins, Dorset, 1864, ii. 130).
E. I. C.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1912 supplement/McCoan, James Carlile

​McCOAN, JAMES CARLILE (1829–1904), author and journalist, born at Dunlow, Co. Tyrone, Ireland, on 14 July 1829, was only son of Clement McCoan of Charlemont, Armagh, by Sarah, daughter of James Carlile of Culresoch, Moy.
After education at Dungannon school and Homerton College, London, he matriculated at London University in 1848. Having entered at the Middle Temple on 15 November 1851, he was called to the bar on 17 November 1856, and joined the south-eastern circuit. But he did not seek practice in England. Engaging in journalism, he acted as war correspondent for the 'Daily News' during the Crimean war. At the close of the war McCoan travelled in Georgia and Circassia, and afterwards settled at Constantinople he practised in the supreme consular court until 1864, and founded and edited the first English newspaper in Turkey, the 'Levant Herald,' which was for a time subsidised by the English government. In 1870 McCoan disposed of the paper, and, returning to England, embodied full information which he had collected during visits to Egypt in his exhaustive and readable 'Egypt as it is' (1877). 'Egypt under Ismail : a Romance of History,' with appendix of official documents (1889), carried on the story. Some articles which McCoan contributed to 'Fraser's Magazine,' after the conclusion of the Anglo-Turkish convention of 1878, he expanded into 'Our New Protectorate: Turkey in Asia, its Geography, Races, Resources, and Government, with Map showing existing and projected Public Works' (2 vols. 1879).
McCoan represented Wicklow county as a protestant home-ruler in the parliament of 1880-5. In 1881 he volubly attacked the government's coercive legislation (cf. Lucy, Diary of the Gladstone Parliament, pp. 117, 118). On 3 February McCoan was among the home-rulers suspended for defying the authority of the Speaker. Subsequently he disavowed sympathy with the illegal action and unconstitutional methods of the Land League, and supported Gladstone's land bill, while endeavouring to amend it. Denounced for disloyalty to his party by Patrick Egan, treasurer of the Land League (cf. Hansard, 20 May 1881), McCoan thenceforth gave an independent support to the liberal government. He frequently spoke at length on the politics of the Near East, championing the Turks from personal knowledge.
McCoan was an unsuccessful liberal candidate for the Lancaster division in 1885, for Southampton in 1886, and for the Macclesfield division in 1892. He died at his residence, 42 Campden Hill Square, Kensington, on 13 January 1904, and was buried at Kensal Green.
He married on 2 June 1857 Augusta Janet, the youngest daughter of William Jenkyns of Elgin, and left one son, and a daughter who married the Rev. J. C. Bellew. Besides the works mentioned he was author of 'Protestant Endurance under Popish Cruelty : a Narrative of the Reformation in Spain' (1853), and 'Consular Jurisdiction in Turkey and Egypt' (1873).
G. Le G. N.