OpenLLM-France/wikimedia huggingface dataset:
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Johnston, George (1797-1855)

​JOHNSTON, GEORGE (1797–1855), naturalist, was born at Simprin, Berwickshire, on 20 July 1797. In his infancy his family removed to Ilderton in Northumberland. Johnston was educated first at Kelso, then at Berwick grammar school, and finally at the university of Edinburgh. He was apprenticed to Dr. Abercrombie, and in 1817, qualifying as a member of the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh, he went to London, but in 1818 he began for life practice at Berwick. In 1819 he graduated M.D. of Edinburgh, and in 1824 became F.R.C.S.E. He was thrice mayor of Berwick, and became LL.D. of Aberdeen. He retired from practice in 1853, and died at Berwick on 30 July 1855.
Johnston's works display a wide sympathy with nature, great power of observation, caution in inference, and fluency and poetical feeling in style. He was one of the founders of the Ray Society and of the Berwickshire Naturalists' Club, and was from 1837 one of the editors of the ‘Magazine of Zoology and Botany,’ afterwards the ‘Annals and Magazine of Natural History.’ To that periodical, to the ‘Edinburgh Philosophical Journal,’ to Loudon's ‘Magazine of Natural History,’ to the ‘Transactions of the Natural History Society of Newcastle,’ and to the ‘Proceedings of the Berwickshire Naturalists' Club,’ he contributed an aggregate of ninety papers (cf. Royal Society's Catalogue, vols. iii. and viii.). His chief independent works were:
* ‘Inaugural Dissertation,’ Edinburgh, 1819.
* ‘Flora of Berwick-upon-Tweed,’ 12mo, vol. i., 1829, vol. ii., dealing with cryptogams, 1831.
* ‘Address to the Inhabitants of Berwick on Cholera,’ 1832, 8vo.
* ‘History of British Zoophytes,’ from the ‘Transactions of the Newcastle Natural History Society,’ 1838, 8vo; 2nd edit. 1847.
* ‘The Molluscous Animals,’ in the English edition of Cuvier's ‘Animal Kingdom,’ 1840, 8vo.
* ‘The History of British Sponges and Lithophytes,’ 1842, 8vo.
* ‘Introduction to Conchology,’ 1850, 8vo, reprinted from Loudon's ‘Magazine,’ in which it bore the title ‘Natural History of Molluscous Animals.’
* ‘Terra Lindisfarnensis: the Natural History of the Eastern Borders, vol. i., Botany, with the popular names and uses of the plants, and the customs and beliefs which have been associated with them,’ 1853, 8vo (no more published).
* ‘Catalogue of the British non-parasitical Worms in the Collection of the British Museum,’ completed just before Johnston's death, but not published by the trustees until 1865.
* ‘Catalogus animalium et plantarum quæ in insula Lindisfarnensi visa sunt mense Maio, 1854,’ printed in the ‘Proceedings of the Berwickshire Naturalists' Club,’ 1873, vii. 46.
[Gent. Mag. 1855, pt. ii. p. 323; Proceedings of Berwickshire Naturalists' Club, iii. 202, with bibliography, p. 215.]
G. S. B.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Peel, Lawrence

​PEEL, Sir LAWRENCE (1799–1884), chief justice of Calcutta, third son of Joseph Peel of Bowes Farm, Middlesex, who died in 1821, by Anne, second daughter of Jonathan Haworth of Harcroft, Lancashire, was born on 10 Aug. 1799. His father was younger brother of the first Sir Robert Peel (1750–1830) [q. v.], and he was thus first cousin of the statesman, the second Sir Robert Peel (1788–1850) [q. v.] He was sent to Rugby in 1812, and removing to St. John's College, Cambridge, graduated B.A. 1821 and M.A. 1824. After his call to the bar at the Middle Temple on 7 May 1824 he went the northern circuit, and attended the Lancaster, Preston, and Manchester sessions. He served as advocate-general at Calcutta from 1840 to 1842, and in the latter year, on being promoted to the chief-justiceship of the supreme court at Calcutta, was knighted by patent on 18 May. During 1854 and 1855 he was also vice-president of the legislative council at Calcutta. He gave away in public charity the whole of his official income of 8,000l. a year. He was consequently very popular throughout his career in India; and on his retirement in November 1855 a statue of him was erected in Calcutta.
After his return to England he was sworn of the privy council, and was made a paid member of the judicial committee on 4 April 1856. He was elected a bencher of the Middle Temple on 8 May 1856, and became treasurer of his inn on 3 Dec. 1866. From 1857 he was a director of the East India Company, and in the following year was created a D.C.L. of the university of Oxford. In January 1864 he became president of Guy's Hospital, London. He was for some years a correspondent of the ‘Times’ on legal and general topics. He died, unmarried, at Garden Reach, Ventnor, Isle of Wight, on 22 July 1884.
He wrote ‘Horæ Nauseæ,’ 1841, poems translated and original (the latter are probably juvenile productions) and ‘A Sketch of the Life and Character of Sir R. Peel,’ 1860.
[Times, 23 July and 1 Aug. 1884; Foster's Baronetage, 1883, p. 501.]
G. C. B.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Peel, John

​PEEL, JOHN (1776–1854), Cumberland huntsman, came of an old yeoman or ‘statesman’ family of Caldbeck in Cumberland, where he was born on 13 Nov. 1776. As a youth he eloped with Miss White of Uldale to Gretna. It was a happy union. Of their thirteen children, only one died young. Peel's love of hunting was remarkable, even among a race keenly attached to field sports. For fifty-five years he maintained, at his sole expense, a pack, usually of twelve couples, of hounds, and generally kept two horses. He had a faultless knowledge of the country and of hunting, and was long aided by his eldest son, ‘Young John.’ The worldwide reputation he has won is attributable to the song celebrating his prowess as a hunter by his friend John Woodcock Graves. This was written under the following circumstances. Peel and Graves were planning a hunting expedition one evening in the parlour of the inn at Caldbeck when a casual question from Graves's daughter as to the words sung to an old Cumberland rant (tune), ‘Bonnie Annie,’ caused Graves to write impromptu ‘D'ye ken John Peel,’ the five verses of which he sang to the ancient air. Graves jokingly prophesied that Peel would ‘be sung when we've both run to earth.’ Few songs of modern date have so firmly established themselves in popular estimation. Late in life Peel's neighbours and friends, including Sir Wilfrid Lawson and George Moore the philanthropist, presented him with a sum of money in acknowledgment of his long services. Besides his patrimonial estate at Caldbeck, Peel acquired, through his wife, a property at Ruthwaite, on which his last years were spent. Here he died on 13 Nov. 1854. He was buried, and a headstone erected over his grave, ornamented with emblems of the chase, in the churchyard at Caldbeck. There is a good portrait of him in the possession of his descendants. Graves, who was born in a house next to the Market Hall in the High Street of Wigton in Cumberland, on 9 Feb. 1795, emigrated to Tasmania in 1833, settling in Hobart Town, where he died on 17 Aug. 1886, leaving a large family. He published ‘Songs and Ballads of Cumberland,’ and a ‘Monody on John Peel.’
A. N.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Peebles, David

​PEEBLES or PEBLIS, DAVID (d. 1579), musician, was one of the canons of St. Andrews before the Reformation. In 1530 he set ‘Si quis diliget me’ as a motet for five voices, and presented it to James V. Thomas Wood, who in 1566 (and again in 1592) copied out the famous St. Andrews harmonised psalter, recorded that the tunes were ‘Set in iiii partes be a Notable cunning man, David Peables i. s., Noted and Wretin.’ The words ‘Noted and Wretin’ suggest that Peebles had also versified the psalter. Some of the other pieces which Wood included in his collection are also by Peebles. David Laing, who wrote an admirable account of Wood's part-books, could not give a complete example, as the contratenor volume was then missing from both of Wood's copies; all the treble and bass volumes, and one of the tenors, are at Edinburgh, and a supplementary volume is at Dublin. One of the missing contratenors, bound with a second copy of the supplement, has since been acquired by the British Museum (Addit. MS. 33933); it is, unfortunately, defective, but most of the psalter can now be completed by its help, and the result proves Peebles to have possessed great skill in pure diatonic harmony. He died in December 1579. During the short-lived episcopalian establishment set up by Charles I, Edward Miller, canon of Holyrood, published in 1635 a harmonised psalter, declaring that the settings were by ‘the primest musicians that ever this kingdome had, as John Deane Angus, Blackhall, Smith, Peebles, Sharp, Black, Buchan, and others, famous for their skill in this kind.’
H. D.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Peel, Paul

​PEEL, PAUL (1861–1892), Canadian painter, was born at London, Ontario, where his father was a marble-cutter. He received his first training at the College of Fine Arts, Pennsylvania, and afterwards studied in Paris under Gérôme. His apprenticeship over, he settled in Paris, making occasional short sojourns in his native country. His art was entirely French in character. He was a successful exhibitor at the salon, gaining the gold medal in 1890 for his picture ‘After the Bath.’ His favourite subjects were taken from the nursery, but during the summer months he used to work en plein air in the northern provinces of France. He was an excellent colourist and a master of delicate effects of light. He died in October 1892, leaving a widow and one son.
[Times 28 Oct. 1892; private information.]
W. A.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Marsden, John Buxton

​MARSDEN, JOHN BUXTON (1803–1870), historical writer, born at Liverpool in 1803, was admitted sizar of St. Jonn's College, Cambridge, on 10 April 1823 (College Admission Register), and graduated B.A. in 1827, M.A. in 1830. He was ordained in 1827 to the curacy of Burslem, Staffordshire, whence he removed to that of Harrow, Middlesex. From 1833 to 1844 he held the rectory of Lower Tooting, Surrey, during the minority of his successor, R. W. Greaves, and from 1844 to 1851 he was vicar of Great Missenden, Buckinghamshire. In 1851 he became perpetual curate of St. Peter, Dale End, Birmingham. Marsden was a sensible, liberal-minded clergyman. At a meeting of the clergy at Aylesbury on 7 Dec. 1847 to protest against the appointment of Renn Dickson Hampden [q. v.] to the see of Hereford, he moved an amendment, and in a vigorous speech (printed in 1848) denounced the unfair treatment of Dr. Hampden. For five years before his death ill-health incapacitated him from engaging in active duty of any kind. He died on 16 June 1870 at 37 Highfield Road, Edgbaston, Birmingham (Guardian, 22 June 1870, p. 724).
Marsden was author of three very meritorious works, entitled:
* 'The History of the Early Puritans, from the Reformation to the Opening of the Civil War in 1642,' 8vo, London, 1850.
* 'The History of the Later Puritans, from the Opening of the Civil War to 1662,' 8vo, London, 1852 (cf. Gardiner and Mullinger, Introd. to ​English Hist. pp.. 326, 368).
* 'History of Christian Churches and Sects from the earliest ages of Christianity,' 2 vols. 8vo, London, 1856; new edit. 1858.
Marsden's other writings include:
* 'The Churchmanship of the New Testament: an Inquiry … into the Origin and Progress of certain Opinions which now agitate the Church of Christ,' 12mo, London, 1846.
* 'Memoirs of the Rev. Samuel Marsden of Paramatta,' 12mo, London (1858); he was not related to Samuel Marsden [q. v.]
* 'Memoirs of the Rev. Hugh Stowell of Manchester,' 8vo, London, 1868.
He likewise published various volumes of sermons and lectures, contributed a 'biographical preface' to a posthumous work of the Rev. Edward Dewdney called 'A Treatise on the special Providence of God,' 16mo, 1848, and edited, with preface and notes, J. F. Simon's 'Natural Religion,' 8vo, 1857. From 1859 to 1869 Marsden was editor of the 'Christian Observer.'
[Information from R. F.Scott, esq.; Birmingham Daily Gazette, 17 June 1870; Christian Observer, August 1870, pp. 633-4; Crockford's Clerical Directory.]
G. G.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Marriott, Wharton Booth

​MARRIOTT, WHARTON BOOTH (1823–1871), divine, seventh son of George Wharton Marriott, J.P. for Middlesex and barrister of the Inner Temple, was born at 32 Queen Square, St. George's, Bloomsbury, London, 7 Nov. 1823, and was educated at Eton, 1838-43. He matriculated 12 June 1&43, from Trinity College, Oxford, where he was a scholar 1843-6. He was elected a Petrean fellow of Exeter College 30 June ​1846, but vacated his fellowship by marrying, on 22 April 1851, at Bletchingley, Surrey, Julia, youngest daughter of William Soltau of Clapham. His degrees were B.C.L. 1851, M.A. 1856, B.D. 1870, and he was select preacher in the university of Oxford 1868, and Grinfield lecturer on the Septuagint, 1871. From 1850 to 1860 he was employed as an assistant-master at Eton; he never held any benefice, but was a preacher by license from the bishop in the diocese of Oxford. He regarded many ecclesiastical ceremonies of his time as modern inventions, and viewed the ancient church vestments as simply the ordinary dresses of the period. These opinions he fully stated in 'Vestiarium Christianum: the Origin and Gradual Development of the Dress of Holy Ministry in the Church,' 1868, 'The Vestments of the Church, an illustrated Lecture,' 1869, and 'The Testimony of the Catacombs and of the Monuments of Christian Art from the Second to the Eighteenth Century, concerning Questions of Doctrine now disputed in the Church,' 1870. On 30 May 1857 he was elected a fellow of the Society of Antiquaries, and a member of the council in 1871. He died at Eton College on 16 Dec. 1871, and his wife died in the following year.
Besides the works already mentioned, Marriott wrote and edited:
* 'The Adelphi of Terence, with English Notes,' 1863.
* 'Eἰρηνίκα, The wholesome Words of Holy Scripture concerning Questions now disputed in the Church,' 1864-5, 2 pts.
* 'Selections from Ovid's Metamorphoses, with English Notes,' second edit. 1868.
* 'The Doctrine of the Holy Eucharist as set forth in a recent Declaration: a Correspondence between W. B. Marriott and the Rev. Thomas Thellusson Carter, Rector of Clewer,' 1868-1869, two parts. A promised third part apparently was not printed.
Marriott was also a contributor to Smith's 'Dictionary of Christian Antiquities.'
[Hort's Memorials of W. B. Marriott, 1873, with portrait; Boase's Reg. of Exeter Coll. 1879, p. 136; Eton Portrait Gallery, 1876, pp. 195-6; Proc. of Soc. of Antiq. 1870-3, v. 309.]
G. C. B.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Marrowe, George

​MARROWE, GEORGE (fl. 1437), alchemist, was an Augustinian canon at Nostell, Yorkshire, and is said to have written in English a treatise on the philosopher's stone, of which a copy is preserved at the Bodleian Library, in MS. Ashmole, 1406, p. iv: 'The trewe coppie of an auncyent boke written on parchement by George Marrowe, monk of Nostall Abbey in York sheire, anno D'ni 1437,'
[Tanner's Bibl. Brit.-Hib. p. 512; Black's Cat. of Ashmolean MSS.]
C. L. K.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/McHenry, James

​McHENRY, JAMES (1785–1845), poet and novelist, son of a merchant in Larne, co. Antrim, was born there on 20 Dec. 1765. After attending a. local school, he studied medicine and begun practice in his native town, whence he later removed to Belfast. In 1817 he emigrated to the United States, where he lived successively in Baltimore, Pittsburgh, and Philadelphia. Re settled in the last-named place in 1824, both trading; and practising medicine. From 1842 till his death he was United States consul in Londonderry, Ireland. He died at Larne, 21 July 1845. his son James, who died in 1891 at Kensington, was a well-known financier. His daughter Mary married Mr. J. Bellargee Cox of Philadelphia.
McHenry had strong literary interests. His first work, 'The Pleasures of Friendship,' a poem, appeared in 1822, and was reprinted with other poems at Philadelphia in 1836. In 1824 he became editor of the 'American Monthly Magazine,' and in its pages 'O'Halloran, or the Insurgent Chief,' the novel by which he is probably best known, first appeared. His other prose works are:
* 'The Wilderness, or Braddock's Times: a Tale of the West,' 2 vols. New York,1823.
* 'The Spectre of the Forest,' 2 vols. 1823.
* ' The Hearts of Steel: an Irish Historical Tale of the last Century,' 2 vols. Philadelphia, 1825.
* 'The Betrothed of Wyoming,' 1831.
* 'Meredith, or the Mystery of the Meschianza,' 1831.
In verse he published:
* 'Walthani: an American Revolutionary Tale,' New York, 1823.
* 'The Usurper: an Historical Tragedy,' Philadelphia, 1829.
* 'Jackson's Wreath,' written in honour of Andrew Jackson, 1829.
* 'The Antediluvians, or the World Destroyed,' 1840.
[Appleton's Cyclopædia of American Biography.]
T. H.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/McGlashan, Alexander

​McGLASHAN, ALEXANDER (d. 1797), Scottish violinist, flourished in Edinburgh about the, end of the last century. He was an able and spirited leader of the fashionable bands in Edinburgh, and had some reputation as a composer of Scottish music. He edited 'A Collection of Strathspey Reels, with a Bass for the Violoncello and Harpsichord' (Edinburgh, 1780), and 'A Collection of Scots Measures, Hornpipes, Jigs, &c.' (1781). He was generally known as 'King McGlashan,' a name which he acquired from his stately appearance and showy style of dress (Chambebs). He died in May 1797 (Glen).
[Johnson's Scots Musical Museum, Edinburgh, 1853, i. 66; Browns Dictionary of Musicians, p. 406; Chambers's Eminent Scotsmen, ii. 482, s.v. 'Gow;' Glen's Coll. of Scottish Dance Music, Introduction, Edinb. 1891.]
J. C. H.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/McGlashan, John

​McGLASHAN, JOHN (d. 1866), legal author, was a solicitor in Edinburgh. He joined in 1824 the Society of Solicitors-at-Law, and was one of the solicitors before the supreme courts from 1831. About 1855 he went to New Zealand, where he died in 1866. In 1831 he published 'Practical Notes on the Act of Sederunt,' which, under the title given to the second edition, 'Practical Notes on the Jurisdiction and Forms of Process in Civil Causes of the Sheriff Courts of Scotland,' reached a fourth edition. 'The Law and Practice in Actions of Aliment' appeared in 1837, and a 'Digest of the Laws relating to Pawnbrokers' in 1844.
[Scottish Law Lists; Oliver and Boyd's New Edinburgh Almanac; Brit. Mus. Cat.]
J. R. M.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/McGregor, John James

​McGREGOR, JOHN JAMES (1775–1834), historian and topographer, born at Limerick on 24 Feb. 1775, was brought up among the methodists, and became an ardent supporter of their religious principles. At an early age he became editor of the 'Munster Telegraph,' published at Waterford. Subsequently he removed to Dublin, where he became editor of the 'Church Methodist Magazine,' a quarterly publication, and in 1829 he was appointed literary assistant to the Kildare Place Education Society. He died in Dublin on 24 Aug. 1834.
His principal works are: 1. 'History of the French Revolution, and of the Wars resulting from that event,' 11 vols, in 12, Waterford and Dublin, 1816-27, 8vo. 2. 'Narrative of the Loss of the Sea Horse Transport, Captain Gibbs, in the Bay of Tramore . . . Also some Account of the Wreck of the Lord Melville and Boadicea Transports,' Waterford, 1816, 8vo. 3. 'New Picture of Dublin,' with map and views, Dublin, 1821, 12mo. 4. 'The History, Topography, and Antiquities of the County and City of Limerick, with a View of the History and Antiquities of Ireland,' 2 vols. Dublin, 1826-7, 8vo (conjointly with the Rev. P. Fitzgerald, vicar of Cahercornev). 5. 'True Stories from the History of Ireland,' Dublin, 1829-33, 3 vols. 12mo, in the manner of Sir Walter Scott's ' Tales of a Grandfather.' His portrait has been engraved by S. Freeman from a miniature by Purcell.
[Memoir by his son, John James McGregor, M.D., Dublin, 1840; Lowndes's Bibl. Man. (Bohn), p. 1437 ; Gent: Mag. new ser. iii. 111.]
T. C.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/McGrigor, James (1819-1863)

​McGRIGOR, JAMES (1819–1863), lieutenant-colonel in the Indian army, son of Charles McGrigor or McGregor, who retired from the service as lieutenant-colonel 70th foot, and died barrackmaster at Nottingham in 1841 (see Gent Mag. 1841, pt. ii. p. 93), and nephew of Sir James McGrigor, bart., M.D. [q. v.], was born in 1819, educated at the East India Company's military academy at Addiscombe, and in 1834 received a Bombay infantry cadetship. On 24 Feb. 1835 he was appointed ensign in the late 21st Bombay native infantry, in which he became lieutenant 18 July 1839 and captain 24 Jan. 1845. As a lieutenant he served under Sir Charles James Napier [q. v.] in the Sind campaigns, and for a time was adjutant of the Guzerat irregular horse. He became brevet-major 28 Nov. 1854. In September 1857 McGrigor, still a captain and brevet-major, was in command of the 218t Bombay infantry at Karachi. The Indian mutiny was at its height, and Bartle Frere had just sent away every available European and Balooch soldier either to Multan or the South Maratha country [see under Frere, Sir Henry Bartle Edward]. Only 147 Europeans remained at the station in addition to the native garrison. Shortly before 11 p.m. on 16 Sept. 1857 McGrigor was warned by two faithful native officers that a mutiny of the regiment and a massacre of Europeans was arranged for twelve o'clock the same night. Mrs. McGrigor at once most courageously decided to leave her husband's hands free by making her way alone to a place of comparative safety. Snatching a couple of sheets from the bed and wrapping them round her, in the guise of an ayah sue escaped unmolested. McGrigor hurried to the authorities, and a troop of the Bombay European horse artillery, under Colonel (afterwards Lieutenant-general) Sir George Hutt [see under Hutt, Sir William], galloped down to the 21st lines, arriving a few minutes before the time appointed for the outbreak. When, on the stroke of midnight, McGrigor ordered the 'assembly' to sound, the regiment found itself confronted by the battery, with guns loaded and ready for action. In answer to a short but forcible appeal from McGrigor the 21st laid down their arms, which were removed on the artillery wagons. The regiment was disbanded, and some of the ring-leaders, who had fled, were brought back by the Sind police, tried by a court-martial of native officers, and executed, not one escaping. McGrigor received the thanks of the government, and on 20 July 1858 was appointed major of the (late) 30th Bombay native infantry, one of the new regiments then raised in Sind. On 1 Jan. 1862 he was promoted to lieutenant-colonel of the 15th Bombay native infantry. He had been stationed for some months with his battalion at Aden, passing much of his time on shooting excursions in Arabia, when he was accidentally drowned while bathing, on 28 June 1863.
McGrigor married a sister of Lieutenant-general Graeme Alexander Lockhart of Castlehill, Lanarkshire, and late of the 78th highlanders.
[Indian Army Lists and Registers; Gent. Mag. 1863, pt. ii. pp. 247, 510.]
H. M. C.