OpenLLM-France/wikimedia huggingface dataset:
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Palmer, Henry (d.1611)

​PALMER, Sir HENRY (d. 1611), naval commander, was of a family settled for some centuries at Snodland, near Rochester, whence they moved in the fifteenth century to Tottington by Aylesford. He is first mentioned as commanding a squadron of the queen's ships on the coast of Flanders in 1576. From that time he was constantly employed in the queen's service. In 1580 and following years he was a commissioner for the repair and maintenance of Dover harbour. In 1587 he had command of a squadron before Dunkirk, and in 1588, in the Antelope, commanded in the third post under Lord Henry Seymour in the Narrow Seas. When this squadron joined the fleet under the lord admiral before Calais on 27 July, Palmer was sent to Dover to order out vessels suitable to be used for fireships. Before these could be sent, fireships, hastily improvised, drove the enemy from their anchorage, and Palmer, rejoining Seymour, took a brilliant part in the battle off Gravelines on the 29th. When Seymour, with the squadron of the Narrow Seas, was ordered back from the pursuit of the Spaniards, Palmer returned with him, and continued with him and afterwards with the fleet till the end of the season. He remained in command of the winter guard on the coast of Flanders.
Through the next year he continued to command in the Narrow Seas, and in September convoyed the army across to Normandy. He was employed in similar service throughout the war, his squadron sometimes cruising as far as the coast of Cornwall, or even to Ireland, but remaining for the most part in the Narrow Seas, and in 1596 blockading Calais. On 20 Dec. 1598 he was appointed comptroller of the navy, in place of William Borough [q. v.], and in 1600 had command of the defences of the Thames. In 1601 he again commanded on the coast of Holland. After the peace he continued in the office of comptroller till his death. He died on 20 Nov. 1611 at Howlets in Bekesborne, an estate which he had bought. He was twice married: first to Jane, daughter of Edward Isaac, and widow of Nicholas Sidley; secondly, to Dorothy, daughter of — Scott, and widow of Thomas Hernden. By his first wife he had two sons, of whom the younger, Henry, succeeded his father as comptroller of the navy by a grant in reversion of 17 Aug. 1611. Howlets was left to Palmer's stepson, Isaac Sidley, who made it over to his half-brother Henry.
A portrait of Palmer, by Mark Gheeraerts the younger [q. v.], belonged to David Laing.
J. K. L.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Palmer, James Frederick

​PALMER, Sir JAMES FREDERICK (1804–1871), first president of the legislative council of Victoria, youngest son of John Palmer, rector of Great Torrington, Devonshire, and prebendary of Lincoln, and of Jane, daughter of William Johnson, was born at Torrington in 1804. His great-uncle was Sir Joshua Reynolds. He was educated for the medical profession, and for some years practised in London, where he was, till 1838, the senior surgeon to the St. George's and St. James's Dispensary. His health seems to have failed, and induced him to go out, in 1839, to New South Wales; he practised as a doctor at Port Phillip for some time, and then he began business as a manufacturer of cordials, eventually becoming a wine merchant.
Taking a prominent part from the first in the social and political life of the new settlement, Palmer was made mayor of Melbourne in 1846, and in that capacity laid the foundation-stone of the Melbourne hospital. In September 1848 he was elected to the legislature of New South Wales as member for Port Phillip, for which he sat till July 1849. On the separation of Victoria he became, on 29 Oct. 1851, member of the legislative council (the single chamber) for Normanby district, and was elected speaker, though he frequently left the chair and interposed in debate. On 23 Nov. 1855, when the constitution was altered, he was elected for the western province to the new legislative council, of which he became president on 21 Nov. 1856. He was re-elected five times, resigning in October 1870 on account of the ill-health which had compelled his absence in England from March 1861 to 18 June 1862. For several successive years he was chairman of the commissioners of education, and president of the board under the system instituted in 1862. He was knighted in 1857. On 23 April 1871, soon after his retirement, he died at his residence, Burwood Road, Hawthorn, and was buried at the Melbourne general cemetery.
Palmer edited, with notes, ‘The Works of John Hunter’ the anatomist, in 4 vols. 8vo, with a 4to volume of plates, 1835–7, and compiled, in 1837, a glossary to the ‘Dialogue in the Devonshire Dialect’ of his great-aunt, Mary Palmer [q. v.]
He married, in 1832, Isabella, daughter of Dr. Gunning, C.B., inspector of hospitals.
C. A. H.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Peart, Charles

​PEART, CHARLES (fl. 1778–1798), sculptor, first appears as an exhibitor at the Royal Academy in 1778, sending in that and the four following years various models in wax. In 1782 he obtained the gold medal of the Royal Academy for a group of ‘Hercules and Omphale.’ In 1784 he exhibited a plaster model of ‘Prometheus,’ and in later years was largely employed on monumental work, either in the style of classical or ​allegorical friezes, or memorial busts. He had a studio in the New (now the Euston) Road, in the vicinity of the chief stoneyards in that locality. The date of his death has not been ascertained, but he exhibited for the last time at the Royal Academy in 1798.
L. C.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Pechell, George Richard Brooke

​PECHELL, Sir GEORGE RICHARD BROOKE (1789–1860), vice-admiral, born on 30 June 1789, son of Sir Thomas Brooke Pechell, bart., and younger brother of Sir Samuel John Brooke Pechell [q. v.], entered the navy in 1803, served in the Triumph in the fleet off Toulon under Lord Nelson in 1804, and afterwards in the Medusa, at the capture of the Spanish treasure-ships off Cape St. Mary on 5 Oct. [see Gore, Sir John; Moore, Sir Graham]. In 1806 he was in the Revenge off Brest and Rochfort, and in 1809 in the Barfleur in the Tagus. On 25 June 1810 he was promoted to be lieute​nant of the Cæsar, from which he was moved in 1811 to the Macedonian, and in 1812 to the San Domingo, commanded by his brother, and carrying the flag of his uncle, Sir John Borlase Warren [q. v.], on the North American station. By Warren he was appointed to the acting command of the Colibri brig, and afterwards of the Recruit, in both of which he cruised with some success on the coast of North America. On 30 May 1814 he was promoted to the rank of commander, and in May 1818 commissioned the Bellette for the Halifax station, where he was employed in enforcing the treaty stipulations as to the fisheries. In October 1820 he was appointed by Rear-admiral Griffith to the command of the Tamar frigate, which, being very sickly, had come north from Jamaica, and had lost her captain and a large proportion of her officers and men. The commander-in-chief on the Jamaica station, however, claimed the vacancy, and the matter being referred to the admiralty, all the promotions were disallowed, and Pechell returned to the Bellette. While in the Tamar he had obtained the authority of the Haytian government for putting a stop to piracy committed by vessels pretending to be Haytian, and for searching all suspected vessels. He accordingly captured a large brigantine, with a crew of ninety-eight men, and forged commissions from the different independent states of South America. On 26 Dec. 1822 Pechell was advanced to post rank. In July 1830 he was nominated gentleman-usher of the privy chamber, and in April 1831 equerry to Queen Adelaide. In 1835 he was returned to parliament as member for Brighton, which he continued to represent in the whig interest during his life, taking an active part in public affairs, and especially in all questions relating to the navy, the mercantile marine, or the fisheries. On the death of his brother on 3 Nov. 1849 he succeeded to the baronetcy, and took the additional surname of Brooke; he became a rear-admiral on the retired list on 17 Dec. 1852, and vice-admiral on 5 Jan. 1858. He died at his house in Hill Street, Berkeley Square, on 29 June 1860. He married, in 1826, Katharine Annabella, daughter and coheiress of the twelfth Lord de la Zouche, by whom he had issue a son and two daughters. The son having predeceased him, the baronetcy passed to his cousin.
J. K. L.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Peat, Thomas

​PEAT, THOMAS (1708–1780), almanac-maker, was born in 1708 at Ashley Hall, near Wirksworth, Nottinghamshire, where his father held a farm. He early acquired a taste for learning, which his father strove to repress. A brother, a joiner in Nottingham, to whom he became apprenticed, gave him no more encouragement; but Cornelius Wildbore, a master-dyer, and like the Peats, a regular attendant at the presbyterian High Pavement chapel, noticed him, and supplied him with the means of obtaining books. Peat devoted himself chiefly to the study of mathematics and astronomy, and in 1740 he was one of the principal projectors of ‘The Gentleman's Diary, or Mathematical Repository.’ The first number appeared in 1741, with Peat as joint-editor; in 1756 he became sole editor, and filled that office until his death in 1780, his successor being a Rev. Mr. Wildbore, probably a son of Peat's early benefactor. In addition to the usual information contained in almanacs, ‘The Gentleman's Diary’ was largely devoted to the solution of mathematical problems. The original editions in the British Museum are not complete. A collected edition was published in 1814 (3 vols.) The numbers edited by Peat occupy the first two volumes.
Subsequently Peat became editor of the ‘Poor Robin's Almanac,’ which is erroneously said to have been started by Herrick (Notes and Queries, 6th ser. vii. 321–3). It was conducted anonymously. Peat's share in it ceased some time before his death.
Peat was also a surveyor, architect, and schoolmaster, using his almanacs as means for advertising himself in each of these capacities; he is also said to have been ‘not a bad censor of poetry.’ About 1743 he projected a course of fourteen lectures at Nottingham on mechanics, hydrostatics, optics, pneumatics, astronomy, and the use of globes; the price of a ticket for the course was a guinea, and a syllabus of the lectures was published at Nottingham. In 1770 he proposed to publish a map of Leicestershire, drawn from his own survey; at that time he was residing at Thringstone; in 1771 he removed to Swannington, both in Leicestershire, and in 1777 he returned to Nottingham, where he died, at his residence at Greyfriars' Gate, on 21 Feb. 1780, aged 72.
A. F. P.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Pebody, Charles

​PEBODY, CHARLES (1839–1890), journalist, the son of Charles and Eliza Pebody, was born at Leamington, Warwickshire, on 3 Feb. 1839. His parents removing to Watford, Leicestershire, where the family had lived for some three hundred years, Pebody went to the village school, and afterwards was taught privately by the schoolmaster. At the age of fourteen he came up to London, and entered a lawyer's office, but soon found work as a reporter, and afterwards joined the staff of the ‘Chelmsford Chronicle.’ At the age of twenty-one he was appointed editor of the ‘Barnstaple Times.’ From Barnstaple he moved to Exeter as editor of the ‘Flying Post,’ and from Exeter to Bristol as editor of the ‘Bristol Times and Mirror.’ It was while at Bristol that Pebody obtained ​in 1875 the prize of 50l. offered by Mr. James Heywood for the best essay ‘showing the expediency of an Address by the House of Commons to the Crown in favour of such a Rubrical Revision of the Services of the State Church as will abrogate the threat of everlasting Perdition to those of Her Majesty's Subjects who do not agree with the Doctrines contained in the Athanasian Creed.’ In 1882 Pebody was appointed editor of the ‘Yorkshire Post,’ a conservative morning paper published at Leeds. Under his direction it rapidly grew in circulation and influence, and before his death it stood in the front rank of provincial journals. Although an enthusiastic student of English political history, and profoundly interested in the course of public events, Pebody was not, apart from journalism, a political worker. In 1888 his health showed signs of failure; but after six months' rest he resumed work and organised a new evening paper. He died at Leeds on 30 Oct. 1890. Pebody brought to his work quick intelligence, unfailing industry, and high spirits; a singularly wide knowledge of literature and affairs, great organising power, and a marked capacity for making friends. He married, 22 Aug. 1859, Mary Ann Martyn, who survived him, and by whom he had one daughter.
He published, besides the essay noticed, 1. ‘Authors at Work,’ 1872. 2. ‘English Journalism and the Men who have made it,’ 1882.
A. R. B.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Peche, Richard

​PECHE, RICHARD (d. 1182), bishop of Lichfield, was son of Robert Peche, an earlier bishop of the see. Richard is said to have been archdeacon of Chester in 1135, and subsequently archdeacon of Coventry. In 1161 he was consecrated to the bishopric of Lichfield by Walter of Rochester (Gervase of Canterbury, i. 168; Rad. de Diceto, i. 305, Rolls Ser.; Wharton, Anglia Sacra, i. 435; Annales Monastici, i. 49, ii. 56, 238, iii. 18, Rolls Ser.) Peche is frequently, even in official documents, styled bishop of Chester on account of the removal of the see, for a short time, from Lichfield to Chester in 1075. He is said to have called himself only bishop of Coventry, to which place the seat of the bishopric had been for a second time removed before its final return to Lichfield (Anglia Sacra, i. 463). The title of Lichfield is rarely given to him by the chroniclers. Peche was at Westminster in 1162, at the settlement of a protracted dispute between the churches of Lincoln and St. Albans (Matthew of Paris, Hist. Angl. i. 318; Chron. Majora, ii. 219; Gesta Abbat. Monast. S. Albani, i. 139, 157; Roger of Wendover, i. 22, Rolls Ser.). In 1170 he made the grave mistake of sanctioning by his presence the coronation of the young prince Henry by the archbishop of York, in defiance of the rights of the church of Canterbury (Chronicles of Stephen, &c., iv. 245). The archbishop of Canterbury, Thomas Becket [see Thomas], was then in exile, but returned in the same year, and Peche was among the prelates who were at once suspended from their sees for their share in the coronation of the prince (Rad. de Diceto, i. 340; Annales Monastici, iv. 382; Matt. Paris, Hist. Angl. i. 357; Chron. Majora, ii. 277). He appears to have been soon forgiven and restored, for in 1171 he was one of the bishops chosen to reconcile the church of Canterbury, in which divine service had been suspended after the murder of the archbishop (Gervase of Canterbury, i. 236). About this time he made a grant of lands and rents to augment the deanery of Lichfield, which had been impoverished during the previous wars (Whitelocke, Hist. Lichfield, ap. Anglia Sacra, i. 448). In 1175 Peche attended the council of Westminster (Walter of Coventry, i. 239, Rolls Ser.) During his last years he was a liberal benefactor to, if not the actual founder of, the Augustinian priory of St. Thomas the Martyr at Stafford (Tanner, Notit. Monast. Staffordshire, xxiv. 2). He had a great affection for the house, and when, shortly before his death, he resigned his bishopric, it was to this foundation that he retired. He took the habit of the canons of St. Thomas, and died among them, 6 Oct. 1182. He was buried in the priory church (Annales Monastici, i. 52, 187, ii. 242, iv. 385; Rog. Hov. ii. 284).
A. M. C.-e.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Pearson, Thomas Hooke

​PEARSON, THOMAS HOOKE (1806–1892), general, was the son of John Pearson, advocate-general of India. He was born in June 1806, educated at Eton, and entered the army as a cornet in the 11th light dragoons on 14 March 1825. In November of that year he served at the siege of Bhurtpore under Lord Combermere; and when, owing to the scarcity of European infantry, volunteers were called for from the cavalry to take part in the assault, he was one of those who offered themselves. The arrival of an additional infantry regiment made it needless to use them, but the cavalry did good service in preventing the escape of the usurping rajah and his followers. When Lord Amherst, the governor-general, paid a visit to Runjeet Singh, Pearson accompanied him as aide-de-camp, and received a sword from the maharajah for his skill in mounting and riding a horse that was believed to be unmanageable. He obtained a troop in the 16th lancers on 16 Aug. 1831, and served with that regiment at the battle of Maharajpore, where Sir Hugh Gough defeated the Mahrattas on 29 Dec. 1843, and also in the first Sikh war. At Aliwal (28 Jan. 1846) he commanded one of the squadrons which broke through an infantry square. During the latter part of that day, and at Sobraon (10 Feb.), he was in command of the regiment; he was twice mentioned in despatches, and received a brevet majority 19 June 1846. He became major in the regiment 23 April 1847; but he saw no further service in the field, and was placed on half-pay 7 April 1848. He became lieutenant-general 1 Oct. 1877, and was then retired with the honorary rank of general. He had been made C.B. 2 June 1869, and on 4 Feb. 1879 he was given the colonelcy of the 12th lancers. He died 29 April 1892, leaving four sons and three daughters.
E. M. L.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Sothel, Seth

Date of death 1693/4 in the ODNB.
​SOTHEL, SETH (d. 1697), colonial governor, became one of the proprietors of South Carolina by purchasing Lord Clarendon's share. In September 1681 Sothel, in the capacity of senior proprietor, succeeded to the governorship of the settlement at Albemarle, which afterwards became North Carolina, but on his way out he was captured by Algerine pirates. He, however, escaped or was ransomed, and reached the colony in 1683. His misgovernment irritated the colonists into rebellion, and he was by them deposed and banished. He then went to South Carolina, where he fared better. Finding the colony in a state of rebellion against the government collector, he succeeded in getting himself recognised as governor by the colonists. This, however, was disallowed by the proprietors, and in 1691 he was definitely superseded by the appointment of Philip Ludwell. Sothel appears to have died in 1697, since on 20 Dec. of that year a letter from the proprietors refers to the vacancy caused by his death.
J. A. D.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Soulemont, Thomas

​SOULEMONT, SOLEMAN, or SOLME, THOMAS (d. 1541), French secretary to Henry VIII, a member of a prominent Guernsey and Jersey family (cf. Duncan, Hist. of Guernsey, p. 37), is said to have been born at Guernsey (Wood), but was more probably a native of Jersey (cf. Letters and Papers, ed. Gairdner, x. 226, g. 10, XIII. i. g. 190. 17). According to Wood he was educated at Oxford, and then entered the king's service. As a native of Jersey he was naturally a good French scholar, and before October 1532 he was appointed secretary of the French tongue to the king. In that month Nicholas Hawkins [q. v.] wished to take Soulemont with him on his embassy to Charles V, but Soulemont's services were required by Henry VIII in his interview with Francis at Calais. On 23 July 1534 he was collated to the prebend of Moreton Magna in Hereford Cathedral (Le Neve, i. 515, gives his name as ‘Colemount’), and on 25 April 1537 to the prebend of Knaresborough in York Cathedral. About the same time he became secretary to Cromwell, and in 1540 ​he was clerk of the parliaments. On 5 Jan. 1538–9 Thomas Wriothesley (afterwards first Earl of Southampton) [q. v.] received license to alienate to Soulemont the manors of Forwood and Fowey, Cornwall. On 13 July 1539 he was granted a lease of some buildings on the site of Greyfriars, London, and on 13 Dec. following he received the nunnery of Canonleigh, with the tithes of Hokeforde rectory and Burlescombe church, Devonshire. He died on 12 July 1541, his heir being his brother John Soulemont, aged forty years (Inquisitio post mortem, 35 Henry VIII, No. 212). His successor as clerk of the parliaments was (Sir) William Paget (afterwards first Baron Paget) [q. v.] Many of the ‘Letters and Papers of Henry VIII,’ calendared by Mr. Gairdner, are in Soulemont's handwriting, and letters between him, Wriothesley, Cromwell, and other statesmen of the time are among the state papers. Soulemont is also said to have been a learned antiquary. A work by him entitled ‘Select Antiquities relating to Britaine’ is quoted in Harrison's ‘Description of Britain,’ prefixed to the 1586 edition of Holinshed, p. 32, but neither it nor ‘The Acts and Ghests of St. Thomas of Canterbury,’ also attributed to Soulemont, is known to be extant or to have been printed. Leland has verses to Soulemont in his ‘Encomia Principum et Illustrium Virorum,’ ed. 1589, p. 31. Soulemont has invariably been confused with Thomas Some or Solme [q. v.]
A. F. P.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Southcote, John

​SOUTHCOTE, JOHN (1511–1585), judge, second son of William Southcote, by his wife, Alice Tregonnell, and grandson of Nicholas Southcote of Chudleigh, Devonshire, was born in 1511. He was a member of the Middle Temple, where he was autumn reader in 1556, and again on his call to the degree of serjeant-at-law, April 1559. He was made justice of the queen's bench on 10 Feb. 1562–3. In November 1566 he served on the committee for the final revision of the measure (8 Eliz. c. 1) confirming the ordinal of Edward VI. He sat with Chief-justice Catlin on the trial (9 Feb. 1571–2) of Robert Hickford, a retainer of the Duke of Norfolk, indicted for adhering to the queen's enemies, and as assessor to the peers on the trial of Thomas Howard, fourth duke of Norfolk [q. v.] He took part in the conference of November–December 1577 on the legal method of dealing with recusants. He retired in May 1584, when he was succeeded by John Clench. He died on 18 April 1585, leaving issue by his wife Elizabeth, daughter of William Robins, alderman of London, a son John and two daughters. His remains were interred in the church of Witham, Essex, in the neighbourhood of which he had his seat. On his descendant, George Southcote of Blyborough, Lincolnshire, was conferred on 1 Jan. 1661–2 a baronetcy, which became extinct in 1691.
[Harl. MS. 1154, f. 178; Visitation of Essex (Harl. Soc.), p. 491; Prince's Worthies of Devon, p. 562; Dugdale's Orig. p. 217; Chron. Ser. p. 91; Machyn's Diary (Camden Soc.), p. 195; Hist. MSS. Comm. 7th Rep. App. pp. 632–6, 661; Cal. State Papers, Dom. 1535 g. 149 (58), 1539 ii. 271, 1547–80 p. 507, Addenda, 1580–1625 p. 165; Strype's Ann. (fol.) vol. i. pt. p. 29, pt. ii. p. 528, Memorials (fol.) vol. iii. pt. i. p. 319, Parker (fol.) p. 190, Grindal (fol.) p. 232; Wright's Queen Elizabeth and her Times; Patent Roll, 13 Car. II, 17 Jan.; Cobbett's State Trials, i. 958, 1043; Burke's Extinct Baronetage; Morant's Essex, ii. 110; Foss's Lives of the Judges.]
J. M. R.