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

​HEINS, JOHN THEODORE (1732–1771), painter and engraver, born at Norwich in 1732, was son of John Theodore Heins, a German, resident at Norwich, who between 1736 and 1756 painted several portraits of eminent people at Norwich and Cambridge, and engraved a few portraits ‘ad vivum’ in ​mezzotint, including one of Dr. Gooch, master of Caius College, Cambridge. His will was proved 30 Aug. 1756 by his widow, Abigail. Heins the younger was apprenticed by his father to a stuff manufacturer at Norwich, but preferred to become a painter. Like his father, he painted several portraits of Norwich citizens in a flat, cold manner. He is better known as an engraver and draughtsman. He etched several small plates of portraits and costumes in the manner of T. Worlidge [q. v.], and engraved a few plates after J. Collet [q. v.], one in mezzotint. As a draughtsman he drew the views and monuments, engraved for Bentham's ‘History of Ely Cathedral;’ in 1768 he exhibited at the Society of Artists an inside view of the lantern in the cathedral. He exhibited a portrait with the Free Society of Artists in 1767, and two miniatures with the Incorporated Society of Artists in 1768. A miniature of the mother of Cowper, the poet, by Heins, which occasioned the ‘Lines on the receipt of my Mother's picture out of Norfolk,’ was in the National Portrait Exhibition at South Kensington in 1868. Heins died at Chelsea of a decline in 1771.
[Dodd's manuscript History of English Engravers (Brit. Mus. Addit. MS. 133401); Bryan's Dict. of Painters and Engravers, ed. Graves; Chaloner Smith's British Mezzotinto Portraits; information from Mr. T. R. Tallack.]
L. C.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Heighington, Musgrave

​HEIGHINGTON, MUSGRAVE (1690–1774?), musical composer, was son of Ambrose Heighington of White Hurworth, Durham, and of his wife, who was one of the four daughters of Sir Edward Musgrave, first baronet, of Hayton Castle, Cumberland. From the facts that his wife was an Irish lady, and that one of his most important works, ‘The Enchantress, or Harlequin Merlin,’ was produced in Dublin, it is supposed that he was settled there as a professor of music for some time. In 1738 he was appointed organist at Yarmouth, and was admitted a member of the Gentlemen's Society at Spalding. He was organist at Leicester in 1739, and while there composed the anniversary ode for the Spalding Society. In 1745 it appears from the rules of the Spalding Society that he was in the habit of giving concerts in the town hall there. He was organist before 1760 at the English episcopal chapel in Dundee. Bishop Pococke, in his ‘Tour through Scotland’ (Scottish History Society, 1887), when visiting Dundee in 1760, wrote: ‘They have a neat Chapel and Organ, of which Dr. Heyington, a very eminent Musitian (who took his degree in Musick at Oxford and Cambridge, and is about 80), is the Organist.’ His name, however, does not occur in the lists of Oxford and Cambridge graduates. Heighington died at Dundee about 1774. Besides the two works already named he published ‘Six Select Odes of Anacreon in Greek and Six of Horace in Latin, set to Music,’ said to have been performed in Fleet Street in 1745. He is described in the title as ‘sometime of Queen's College, Oxford.’ He also wrote several songs, and took an active part in the formation of the Dundee Musical Society, one of the earliest Scottish societies engaged in the study of classical music.
[Grove's Dict. of Music and Musicians; Nichols's Lit. Anecd. vi. 11, 32, 87; Notes and Queries, 4th ser. i. 435, 543; local information.]
A. H. M.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Hellins, John

​HELLINS, JOHN (d. 1827), mathematician and astronomer, was son of a labourer at Ashreyney, near Chumleigh, Devonshire, and after being bound as a parish apprentice to a cooper at Chumleigh, worked at that trade till he was about twenty years of age. Having meanwhile taught himself elementary mathematics, he became master of a small school at Bishop's Tawton, and made the acquaintance of Malachy Hitchins [q. v.], vicar of St. Hilary and Gwinear, Cornwall, through whose influence (Polwhele, History of Cornwall, v. 107) he was appointed an assistant in the Royal Observatory at Greenwich under Dr. Maskelyne. While so employed Hellins studied Latin and Greek and qualified himself for holy orders. He was curate of Constantine in Cornwall (1779–83) and afterwards of Greens Norton, near Towcester, and in 1790 was presented to the vicarage of Potterspury in Northamptonshire. Admitted fellow of the Royal Society in 1796, he gained the Copley medal in 1798 by his ‘improved solution of a problem in physical astronomy, by which swiftly converging series are obtained which are useful in computing the perturbations of the motions of the Earth, Mars, and Venus by their mutual attractions.’ Other important papers by Hellins, which appeared in the ‘Philosophical Transactions,’ were ‘Two Theorems for computing Logarithms,’ 1780; ‘New Method of finding the Equal Roots of an Equation by Division,’ 1782; ‘Dr. Halley's Method of computing the Quadrature of the Circle improved,’ 1794; ‘Of Rectification,’ &c., 1802.
In 1787 Hellins revised Fenning's ‘Young Algebraist's Companion,’ and in 1788 issued ‘Mathematical Essays containing new Improvements and Discoveries,’ London, 4to; and in 1791 wrote two of the tracts in Maseres' ‘Scriptores Logarithmici.’ From 1795 to 1814 he wrote a series of mathematical articles in the ‘British Critic,’ e.g. on Wales's ‘Method of finding the Longitude,’ vi. 413; Agnesi's ‘Analytical Institutions,’ xxiii. 143, xxiv. 653, xxv. 141; Keith's ‘Trigonometry,’ xxxi. 489; Baily's ‘Doctrine of Interest and Annuities,’ xxxviii. 622, xliii. 502. In 1800 Hellins graduated B.D. at Trinity College, Cambridge. In 1806, when Windham, the minister of war, was projecting his new military system, Hellins furnished all the calculations and tables on which it was based. Hellins died in March 1827, and was buried 9 April. On 10 Nov. 1794 he married Miss Anne Brock of North Tawton, Devonshire, and by her he left one son.
[Nichols's Lit. Illustr. vi. 40–3, vii. 626–7, 669; Polwhele's Hist. of Cornwall, ut supra; Boase and Courtney's Bibl. Cornub. i. 227.]
R. E. A.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Hellowes, Edward

​HELLOWES, EDWARD (fl. 1574–1600), translator, may have belonged to the family of Hallowes of Dethick and afterwards of Glapwell, Derbyshire (cf. Notes and Queries, 7th ser. ii. 485). He dedicated his earliest translation to Sir Henry Lee, master of the leash in Queen Elizabeth's household, who may perhaps be identical with Sir Henry Leigh of Egginton, high sheriff of Derbyshire in 1612. Hellowes certainly served as groom of the leash under Sir Henry Lee or Leigh as early as 1574 (see title-page of No. 1 below). Resigning that office in January 1597, he became groom of the chamber in the royal household, and on 27 Jan. 1599–1600 received a pension of 12s. a day for life (Cal. State Papers, Dom. 1595–7 p. 353, 1598–1601 p. 387). He translated three works from the Spanish of Guevara, and all were published in London by Ralph Newberrie. Their titles run:
* ‘Familiar Epistles of Sir Anthonie of Gueuara,’ 1574, 1577, and 1584; dedicated to Sir Henry Lee.
* ‘A Chronicle conteyning the liues of tenne Emperoures of Rome,’ 1577; dedicated to Queen Elizabeth. 3. ‘A Booke of the Inuention of the Arte of Navigation,’ 1578; dedicated to Lord Charles Howard of Effingham.
[Authorities cited; Hellowes's works.]
S. L. L.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Hegge, Robert

​HEGGE, ROBERT (1599–1629), miscellaneous writer, born at Durham in 1599, was the son of Stephen Hegge, notary public in that city, by Anne, daughter of Robert Swyft, LL.D., prebendary of Durham (Hegge, Legend, &c., ed. Taylor, introduction). On 7 Nov. 1614 he was admitted scholar of Corpus Christi College, Oxford, and graduated B.A. on 13 Feb. 1617 and M.A. on 17 March 1620 (Wood, Fasti Oxon. ed. Bliss, i. 372, 393). Wood says that he was ‘accounted, considering his age, the best in the university for the Mathematical faculty, History, and Antiquities, as afterwards for his excellent knowledge in the Sacred Scriptures.’ He was elected probationer fellow of his college on 27 Dec. 1624, but died suddenly on 11 June 1629, and was buried in Corpus Christi Chapel. Hegge wrote a ‘Treatise of Dials and Dialling,’ preserved in the college library, to which he also presented a manuscript of St. Augustine's ‘De Civitate Dei’ (Coxe, Cat. of Oxford MSS. Corpus Christi College, pp. 8, 14). Another treatise from his pen, entitled ‘In aliquot Sacræ Paginæ loca lectiones,’ was published at London in 1647 by his fellow-townsman, John Hall (1627–1656) [q. v.], who intimated that if it met with the approval of scholars, he had more ready for press. A third treatise by Hegge, entitled ‘Saint Cvthbert; or the Histories of his Chvrches at Lindisfarne, Cvncacestre, and Dvnholme,’ was written in 1625 and 1626. Richard Baddeley, private secretary to Morton, bishop of Durham, printed a poor edition of it from a copy in Lord Fairfax's library, and suppressed the name of the author; he called it ‘The Legend ​of St. Cvthbert, with the Antiquities of the Church of Durham. By B. R., Esq.,’ 12mo, London, 1663. A very correct edition was printed in quarto by George Allan at his press in Darlington in 1777, and another by John Brough Taylor, F.S.A., at Sunderland in 1816. Taylor's edition is printed from a manuscript, probably the author's autograph, which belonged to Frevile Lambton of Hardwick.
[Wood's Athenæ Oxon. ed. Bliss, ii. 456–8; authorities as above.]
G. G.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Heigham, Clement

​HEIGHAM, Sir CLEMENT (d. 1570), judge, of a Suffolk family, son of Clement Heigham of Lavenham, by Matilda, daughter of Lawrence Cooke, was admitted a member of Lincoln's Inn 20 July 1517, called to the bar there, became autumn reader in 1538 and 1547, and was a governor of the inn till 1557 (Black Book, iii. 77). In early life he was chief bailiff of the liberty of St. Edmund, under the monastery of St. Edmund's Bury (Arundel MS. Brit. Mus. i. fol. 54). His name, however, does not appear in the various law reports. He was a Roman catholic, and on Edward VI's death was at once (8 July 1553) summoned by Mary to Keninghall Castle, Norfolk, to advise her, and during her reign was a privy councillor, a member of parliament for Rye, Ipswich, West Looe, and Lancaster, and speaker of the House of Commons. On 27 Jan. 1555 he was knighted by King Philip (Machyn, Diary, p. 342), and on 2 March 1558 he succeeded Sir David Brooke as lord chief baron of the exchequer. He received a new patent on Queen Elizabeth's accession, but on 22 Jan. 1559 he was replaced by Sir Edward Saunders, and retired to his seat, Barrow Hall, Suffolk, where he died 9 March 1570, and was buried at Thurning Church, Norfolk. He married, first, Anne, daughter of John de Moonines of Seamere Hall, Suffolk, and secondly, Anne, daughter of Sir George Waldegrave of Smalbridge, and widow of Henry Buers of Acton, Suffolk, by both of whom he had issue.
[Foss's Lives of the Judges; Strype's Mem. iii. 14, 160, 288, 306; Stow's Annals, p. 610; Parl. Hist. i. 617–25; Wotton's Baronetage, iv. 373; Gaze's Suffolk; Collins's Peerage; Burgon's Life of Gresham, ii. 108; Fuller's Worthies, ii. 350.]
J. A. H.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Heigham, John

​HEIGHAM, JOHN (fl. 1639), catholic printer, writer, and translator, was probably descended from a younger son of the ancient ​family of Heigham or Higham, of Higham, Cheshire, who settled in Essex. He was a man of learning, and skilled in the Latin, French, Italian, and Spanish languages. He resided at Douay and St. Omer, chiefly in the latter city, where he appears to have been living in 1639. By his wife, Mary Garnett, he had a son John, who took holy orders, and left Rome for the English mission in 1649.
His works are: 1. ‘A Devout Exposition of the Holie Masse. With an Ample Declaration of all the Rites and Ceremonies belonging to the same,’ Douay, 1614, 12mo; St. Omer, 1622, 8vo; and again London, 1876, 12mo, edited by Austin Joseph Rowley, priest. 2. ‘A Mirrour to Confesse well for such persons as doe frequent this Sacrament. Abridged out of sundrie confessionals by a certain devout Religious man,’ Douay, 1618 and 1624, 12mo. 3. ‘A Method of Meditation,’ translated from the French of Father Ignatius Balsom, St. Omer, 1618, 8vo. 4. ‘The Psalter of Jesus, contayninge very devoute and godlie petitions,’ Douay, 1618, 12mo. This is a revised edition of Richard Whytford's ‘Psalter.’ It was reprinted, Douay, 1624, 12mo, with ‘A Mirrour to Confesse well’ and the four following works, in all six parts, each having a distinct title-page. 5. ‘Certaine very pious and godly considerations proper to be exercised whilst the … Sacrifice of the Masse is celebrated,’ Douay, 1624, 12mo. 6. ‘Divers Devout considerations for the more worthy receaving of the … Sacrament,’ Douay, 1624, 12mo. 7. ‘Certaine advertisements teaching men how to lead a Christian life,’ Douay, 1624, 12mo, translated from the Italian of St. Charles Borromeo. 8. ‘A briefe and profitable exercise of the seaven principall effusions of the … blood of … Jesus Christ,’ a translation from the French, Douay, 1624, 12mo. 9. ‘Meditations on the Mysteries of our holie Faith, with the Practise of Mental Prayer touching the same,’ from the Spanish of the jesuit father Luis de la Puente,’ St. Omer, 1619, 4to; reprinted, in a revised and corrected form, London, 1852, 8vo. This translation is distinct from that of Father Richard Gibbons [q. v.] in 1610. 10. ‘The True Christian Catholique; or the Maner How to Live Christianly,’ from the French of the jesuit Father Philippe Doultreman, St. Omer, 1622, 12mo. 11. ‘Villegas's Lives of the Saints translated, whereunto are added the Lives of sundry other Saints of the Universal Church, set forth by J. Heigham,’ St. Omer, 1630, 4to. 12. ‘Via Vere Tuta; or the Truly Safe Way. Discovering the Danger, Crookedness, and Uncertaintie of M. John Preston and Sir Humfrey Lindes Unsafe Way,’ St. Omer, 1631 and 1639, 8vo. In answer to the puritan divine Sir Humphrey Lynde's ‘Via Tuta.’
T. C.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Hele, John

​HELE, Sir JOHN (1543?–1608), serjeant-at-law, of a Devonshire family, fourth son of Nicholas Hele, of South Hele, Devonshire, by his second wife, Margery, daughter of Richard Down of Holsworthy in the same county, was born about 1543. He became a member of the Inner Temple and eventually Lent reader, and from 1592 to 1601 he was M.P. for Exeter, of which he was recorder from 14 July 1592 to the beginning of 1606. In November 1594 he became a serjeant-at-law, and was appointed queen's serjeant 16 May 1602. At the beginning of the next reign his patent was renewed, and he was knighted. So high did he stand in his profession that in 1600 or 1601 he was thought not unlikely to be the next master of the rolls. Attacks were, however, made, and probably not without reason, upon his character. He was alleged to be drunken, insolent, and overbearing. A petition was presented to the council by Garter king-at-arms accusing him of violent conduct to him in public, and Hele's answer practically admits the charge (see Cal. State Papers, Dom. 1601; Jeaffreson, Lawyers, ii. 95; Egerton Papers, pp. 188, 399). Nevertheless in 1602 he went circuit with Mr. Justice Gawdy in Sussex, Surrey, Kent, Essex, and Hertfordshire, ‘where,’ writes Chamberlain to Carleton, 2 Oct. 1602, ‘he made himself both odious and ridiculous,’ and again went circuit in the following year. In November 1603 Hele was employed as king's serjeant at the trial of Sir Walter Raleigh. On 8 Feb. 1608 he obtained a dispensation on the score of his age from attendance and service as serjeant. For thirty years he had been a justice of the peace. He amassed large sums, and though by the attainder of the Earl of Essex he lost 4,000l., he bought an estate at Wembury, near Plymouth, to build a mansion-house, costing 20,000l., and to found a boys' hospital in Plymouth. He also had a house at Kew, and owned the manor of Shirford, Knighton hundred, Warwickshire. Hele died on 4 June 1608, and was buried in Wembury Church, where the monument gives his age as sixty-six. His will was proved in the Prerogative Court of Canterbury 1 Oct. 1608.
Hele married Mary, daughter of Ellis Warwick of Batsborow, by whom he seems to have had eight sons and two daughters. The eldest son, Sir Warwick, was sheriff of Devonshire in 1618 and 1619, and another was ‘clapped up at Rome with other Englishmen in the inquisition’ in 1600 (Cal. State Papers, Dom. 1600). The statement that Hele had a second wife, Margaret, is not well supported.
[Woolrych's Eminent Serjeants; art. by Mr. Winslow Jones in the Western Antiquary, x. 1 (reprinted separately); Prince's Worthies of Devon, p. 484; Oliver's Exeter, p. 236; Dugdale's Chron. Ser.; Westcote's Devonshire, p. 534.]
J. A. H.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Hellier, Henry

​HELLIER, HENRY (1662?–1697), divine, born at Chew-Dundry, Somersetshire, about 1662, was the son of Henry Hellier. He became scholar of Corpus Christi College, Oxford, in April 1677, and graduated B.A. 1680, M.A. 1682, B.D. 1690, and D.D. 1697. He was ordained deacon at Christ Church on 25 May 1684, and elected fellow of his college in 1687. On 4 Dec. 1687 he preached before the university a sermon ‘Concerning the Obligation of Oaths’ (printed at Oxford, 1688), which was thought to reflect on James II for breaking his oath at the coronation. Hellier died by his own hand in December 1697, being at the time vice-president of Corpus (Hearne, Notes and Collections, Oxford Hist. Soc., i. 311). He was author of ‘A Treatise concerning Schism and Schismaticks; wherein the chief grounds and principles of a late Separation from the ​Church of England are considered and answered,’ 4to, London, 1697.
[Wood's Athenæ Oxon. ed. Bliss, iv. 620–1; works referred to.]
G. G.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Opicius, Johannes

​OPICIUS, JOHANNES (fl. 1497), panegyrist of Henry VII, is known only by his poems. Tanner thought it probable that he was an Englishman. He may possibly have belonged to the family of John de Opiczis or Opizis, papal collector in England in 1429, and prebendary of York in 1432, and of Benedict or Benet de Opiciis, ‘player at organs’ to Henry VIII (Fœdera, x. 415; Le Neve, Fasti Ecclesiæ Anglicanæ, iii. 173, ed. Hardy; Calendar of Letters and Papers of the Reign of Henry VIII, ii. 1472, 1477, No. 4193).
Opicius's poems, five in number, are contained in an illuminated manuscript in the Cottonian collection (Vespasian, B. iv.). They are: (1) an heroic poem in Latin hexameters on Henry the Seventh's French war, beginning ‘Bella canant alii Trojæ, prostrataque dicant;’ (2) a dialogue between Mopsus and Melibœus in praise of Henry, ‘sub prætextu rosæ purpureæ;’ (3) an exhortation to mortals to celebrate the birthday of Christ, which was made for Christmas 1497; (4) a hymn of praise for Henry's victory; (5) lines on the presentation of his book to the king. According to Mr. Gairdner, who has printed two extracts from them in the preface to the ‘Memorials of Henry VII’ (pp. xvii, lxi), ‘they have very little value except as illustrations of the classical style of the day.’
[Tanner's Bibliotheca Britannico-Hibernica, p. 562; Memorials of Henry VII (Rolls Ser.); Rymer's Fœdera, original ed.]
J. T-t.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Onwhyn, Thomas

​ONWHYN, THOMAS (d. 1886), humorous draughtsman and engraver, born in London, was youngest son of Joseph Onwhyn, a bookseller and newsagent at 3 Catherine Street, Strand, London. The elder Onwhyn published a number of guides for tourists, chiefly compiled from his own notes and observations—to the Highlands (1829), Killarney (1838), Wales (1840), &c. When the ‘Owl,’ a society newspaper appearing on Wednesdays, was started in 1864, the elder Onwhyn was selected as its publisher. The success of the paper, however, affected his reason. The son, Thomas Onwhyn, attained some note early in life by contributing to a series of ‘illegitimate’ illustrations to works by Charles Dickens. He executed twenty-one of the whole series of thirty-two ​plates to the ‘Pickwick Papers,’ which were issued in eight (though intended to be in ten) monthly parts (at one shilling each, 8vo, two shillings India proof 4to), by E. Grattan, 51 Paternoster Row, in 1837; they are for the most part signed with the pseudonym ‘Samuel Weller,’ but some bear Onwhyn's initials. In June 1838 Grattan issued a series of forty etchings by Onwhyn, illustrating ‘Nicholas Nickleby;’ these also appeared in parts, which were concluded in October 1839; some are signed with the pseudonym of ‘Peter Palette.’ After Onwhyn's death an additional set of illustrations to ‘Pickwick’ was discovered which Onwhyn had executed in 1847; they had been laid aside owing to the republication of the original illustrations in 1848; they were published in 1893 by Albert Jackson, Great Portland Street. Onwhyn also published illustrations, under the name of ‘Peter Palette,’ to two series of a work entitled ‘Peter Palette's Tales and Pictures in Short Words for Young Folks’ (1856). In his own name he contributed the illustrations to the humorous works of Henry Cockton [q. v.], such as ‘Valentine Vox’ (1840), ‘Sylvester Sound’ (1844), down to ‘Percy Effingham’ (1853). He also illustrated, among other works, the ‘Memoirs of Davy Dreamy’ (1839); the ‘Maxims and Specimens of William Muggins,’ by Charles Selby (1841); the ‘Mysteries of Paris,’ by Eugène Sue (1844); ‘Etiquette illustrated by an X.M.P.’ (1849); ‘Marriage-à-la-Mode;’ ‘Mr. and Mrs. Brown's Visit to the Exhibition, 1851;’ and ‘300l. a Year, or Single and Married Life’ (1859), &c. He sometimes etched the designs of others, as in ‘Oakleigh, or the Minor of Great Expectations,’ by W. H. Holmes (1843). Onwhyn was an indifferent draughtsman, but showed real humour in his designs. His fame was somewhat overshadowed by those of his most eminent contemporaries—Cruikshank, Hablot K. Browne, and others. Onwhyn, who drew also views of scenery for guide-books, letter-paper, &c., abandoned artistic work for the last twenty or thirty years of his life, and died on 5 Jan. 1886.
[Cook's Bibliography of Dickens; Westminster Gazette, 13 Dec. 1893; information from G. C. Boase, esq., G. S. Layard, esq., and M. H. Spielmann, esq.]
L. C.