OpenLLM-France/wikimedia huggingface dataset:
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Finlayson, Thomas

​FINLAYSON, THOMAS (1809–1872), united presbyterian minister, second son of Thomas Finlayson, a farmer, was born at Coldoch, Blair Drummond, Perthshire, 22 Dec. 1809. He received his elementary education at the parish school of Kincardine in Menteith, and preparatory to entering college engaged in a special study of the classics at a school in the village of Doune in Kilmadock parish. At the university of Glasgow and at the theological hall of the united secession church he went through the usual course of training, and was licensed as a preacher of the gospel in April 1835 by the presbytery of Stirling and Falkirk. Part of his period of study was spent in teaching a school at Dumbarton, where he formed a friendship with the Rev. Dr. Andrew Somerville, who afterwards became the secretary of the foreign mission of the united presbyterian church. In November 1835 Finlayson was ordained minister of the Union Street congregation, Greenock, where he founded a missionary society, and in two years persuaded his people to pay off the large debt existing on the church. After twelve years of admirable ministerial work in Greenock he was called to be colleague and successor to the Rev. John m'Gilchrist of Rose Street Church, Edinburgh, and, having accepted the call, was inducted to the ministry there in September 1847. The congregation to which he now became minister was one of very few churches which at that time set an example and gave a tone to the whole church. They at once attached themselves to their new minister. He was elected moderator of the supreme court of his church in 1867, and shortly afterwards received the degree of D.D. from the university of Edinburgh. As one of the most ardent promoters of the manse fund, he was the chief agent in raising 45,000l., which led to the spending of 120,000l. in building and improving manses in two hundred localities. In the management of the augmentation fund he also took a deep interest. As a preacher he excelled in distinct and powerful exhibition of the truth; whatever he had to say came fresh from his own independent thought, went straight to the heart of the subject, and made an immediate impression on his hearers. The untimely death in 1868 of his eldest son Thomas, a promising advocate at the Scottish bar, caused him intense grief, from which he never fully recovered. On 7 Oct. 1872 his congregation celebrated the semi-jubilee of his ministry in Edinburgh. Having gone to Campbeltown to take part in an induction service there, he was suddenly attacked with failure of the heart's action, and was found ​dead in his bed on 17 Oct. 1872. He was buried in the Grange cemetery, Edinburgh, on 22 Oct. He married, in 1836, Miss Chrystal, by whom he had six children.
G. C. B.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Finlay, Kirkman (1773-1842)

​FINLAY, KIRKMAN (1773–1842), lord provost of Glasgow, the son of James Finlay, merchant, was born in Glasgow in 1773. He was educated at the grammar school and at the university, and at an early age entered on business on his own account. In 1793 he took a prominent part in opposing the monopoly of the East India Company in the cotton trade. He became a magistrate of Glasgow in 1804, and in 1812 he was elected lord provost of the city. He was M.P. for Glasgow from 1812 to 1818, and during this time distinguished himself as a political economist of an advanced type. In 1819 he was appointed rector of the university. He was really one of the founders of the commerce of Glasgow, on the wider basis which it took after the failure of the tobacco trade with America. He married Janet, daughter of Mr. John Struthers. He died in 1842, at Castle Toward, a residence which he built on the Firth of Clyde. George, the Greek historian, and Kirkman Finlay, both separately noticed, were his nephews.
W. B-e.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Finlayson, George

​FINLAYSON, GEORGE (1790–1823), naturalist and traveller, born of humble parents at Thurso in 1790, was clerk to Dr. Somerville, chief of the army medical staff in Scotland, and afterwards to Dr. Farrel, chief of the army medical staff in Ceylon, whence he was removed to Bengal, and attached to the 8th light dragoons as assistant-surgeon in 1819. In 1821-2 he accompanied the mission to Siam and Cochin China in the character of naturalist, returning with it to Calcutta in 1823. By this time his health was thoroughly broken, and he soon afterwards died. The journal which he had kept during the mission was edited, with a prefatory notice of the author, by Sir Stamford Raffles, F.R.S., under the title of 'The Mission to Siam and Hue, the capital of Cochin China, in the years 1821-2, from the Journal of the late George Finlayson, Esq.,' London. 1826, 8vo.
J. M. R.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Finlay, Kirkman (d.1828)

The ODNB casts doubt on the existence of this person.
​FINLAY, KIRKMAN (d. 1828), philhellene, was son of Captain-lieutenant John Finlay, R.E., F.R.S., who died at Glasgow in 1802 (Scots Mag. lxiv. 616), and brother of George Finlay [q. v.] His education was cared for by his uncle, Kirkman Finlay [q. v.], lord provost of Glasgow. When about twenty years of age, being in possession of a handsome fortune, he proceeded to Greece for the purpose of engaging in the war of independence. In February 1824 he became acquainted with Lord Byron and Prince Mavrocordatos, both then at Missolonghi, who entrusted him with conciliatory messages for Odysseus and other refractory chiefs. At Byron's request, Finlay with two comrades set out in March in charge of powder and other military stores, forwarded from Missolonghi to Odysseus for his war in Negropont. On crossing the stream of the Phidari, which had been much swollen by the rains, he missed the ford, lost the most valuable part of his baggage and papers, and very nearly his life. Finlay continued one of the few philhellenes, undaunted by disappointment and disgust, constant and persistent to the cause he had adopted. On that cause he spent his fortune, energies, and life. During a sortie of the Turks from the fortress of Scio on 29 Jan. 1828 he was shot through the head at the first attack, as he was attempting to rally a body of men under his command. He fell dead on the spot.
G. G.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Blackadder, William

​BLACKADDER, WILLIAM, M.D. (1647–1704), physician to William III, the eldest son of the elder John Blackadder [q. v.], was born in 1647. He was sent to the university of Edinburgh in 1665, and he graduated in medicine at Leyden in 1680. Having in Holland made the acquaintance of some of the principal political refugees of England, he was frequently employed by them in important negotiations. He accompanied the Earl of Argyle in his expedition to Scotland in 1685, and having, along with Spence, the earl's secretary, put ashore at Orkney to obtain information regarding the sentiments of the people, he was apprehended and sent for examination to Edinburgh. After landing at Leith he succeeded by signs in communicating to his sister, who had joined the crowd, the necessity of burning some papers amongst the luggage forwarded to his lodgings. A search therefore revealed nothing of a compromising character: but he was retained in prison for more than a year until, through a clever device of his brother, he obtained writing materials, and sent a letter to Fagel, the pensioner of Holland, who represented the case to the British envoy in such a way that King James ordered his liberation. Thereupon he went to Holland, whence, in 1688, he was sent to Edinburgh to carry on secret negotiations on behalf of the Prince of Orange. Having imprudently ventured into the castle, he was seized by order of the governor and committed for trial; but on the news of the landing of the Prince of Orange he was set at liberty. After the revolution he was, in reward of his services, appointed physician to King William. He died about 1704.
[Crichton's Memoirs of Rev. John Blackadder. 2nd ed. pp. 295–301, and Life and Diary of Lieut.-col. J. Blackader. pp. 28-31 ; Wodrow's History of the Church of Scotland, ed. Burns, iv. 231, 285, 313.]
T. F. H.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Blackader, Cuthbert

Robert Blackadder in the ODNB. 1904 Errata appended.
​BLACKADER, CUTHBERT (d. 1485), a chieftain of the Scottish border, received his surname and estate from James II in 1452 for his success in repelling the English marauders on the Scottish frontier. By his prowess he earned for himself the title of the 'chieftain of the south.' He and his seven sons who accompanied him on his expeditions were also named, from the darkness of their complexions, the 'Black band of the Blackaders.' When the kingdom was placed in a posture of defence against Edward IV, the Blackaders raised a force of two hundred and seventeen men, and also planted their castle with artillery, and left in it a strong garrison. During the wars of York and Lancaster Cuthbert and his sons took service in England, and fought under the banner of the red rose. In the fatal battle of Bosworth, 22 Aug. 1485, he and three of his sons were slain.
[Crichton's Memoirs of the Rev. John Blackadder (2nd ed. 1826), pp. 2-4.]
T. F. H.
Dictionary of National Biography, Errata (1904), p.28 N.B.— f.e. stands for from end and l.l. for last line
| Page | Col. | Line | |
| 116 | ii | 22 f.e. | Blackader, Cuthbert: for Cuthbert read Cuthbert or more correctly Robert |
| | | 21-19 f.e. | for received . . . his success read belonged to the family of Blackader which owned the barony of that name in co. Berwick, as vassals of the Earls of March through the 14th century. Charters of full ownership were granted to Robert Blackader of Blackader on 20 Jan. 1426, and again on 4 July 1452 by James I and James II of Scotland respectively (Scottish Register of Great Seal). Robert Blackader, the grantee of 1452, seems to have been carelessly misnamed 'Cuthbert' in Crichton's 'Memoirs of John Blackadder the elder.' He achieved his success |
| | | 12 f.e. | for the kingdom read Scotland |
| | | 6 f.e. | for Cuthbert read Blackader |
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Blackall, Samuel

​BLACKALL, SAMUEL (d. 1792), divine, was the son of the of the Rev. Theophilus Blackall, chancellor of the diocese of Exeter, and a grandson of Dr. Oflspring Blackall, bishop of Exeter. He received his education at Emmanuel College, Cambridge, of which he became a fellow and ​mathematical tutor (B.A. 1760, M.A. 1763, B.D. 1770). Cole, in his manuscript 'Athenæ Cantabrigienses,' says: 'This gent. in 1771, on Mr. Hubbard, a fellow of his college, and one to whom he had great obligations, preparing a Grace, or voting for it, contrary to the inclination and disposition of this person, publicly hissed him in the Senate House, which was a method so unusual and thought so indecent, that even he himself was, or pretended to be, ashamed of it, and made excuses about it. On the petitioners against the Liturgy and Thirty-nine Articles applying to parliament for relief, he was a busy and active petitioner and . . . wrote a spirited pamphlet against Dr. Hallifax's three sermons. He is a little black man, of no humane aspect, and carries his malignancy in his forehead; he is lame of one leg by some accident, and a great rower on the water; a lively and ingenious man, plays well on the harpsichord, sings well, and draws and etches not amiss. He is son to a dignitary of Exeter, and probably a degenerate grandson to a quondam bishop of that see. I think the Grace Mr. Hubbard opposed was that brought in by Mr. Jebb to abolish subscription in the university.' Blackall is mentioned in a silly poem called 'Pot Fair' (1780). On 12 July 1786 he was admitted to the valuable rectory of Loughborough in Leicestershire on the presentation of his college. He died there on 8 May 1792, and a monument to his memory was placed in the parish church of Sidmouth, Devonshire. Besides publishing some detached sermons he took part in the 'confessional controversy' by addressing 'A Letter to Dr. Hallifax upon the subject of his three discourses preached before the University of Cambridge, occasioned by an attempt to abolish subscription to the Thirty-nine Articles,' 1772.
[Addit. MS. 5864, f. 65; Cantabrigienses Graduati (1787). 40; Gent. Mag. xxvii. 531; xlii. 265, 446, 516, 572, xliii. 69. 1. 225, lxii. (i.) 483; Dyer's Hist. of the Univ. of Cambridge, ii. 390; Lond. Mag. 1757, p. 563; Lysons's Devonshire, 447; Nichols's Leicestershire, iii. pt. ii. 900.]
T. C.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Blackadder, Adam

​BLACKADDER, ADAM (fl. 1674–1696), covenanter, was second son of the elder John Blackadder [q. v.], brother of Dr. William Blackadder [q.v.], physician to William III, and of Lieutenant-colonel John Blackadder [q.v.] He was born about 1659. He was bred to t e mercantile profession in Stirling, and in November 1674, while still an apprentice, he was, along with several others, apprehended, because he had not subscribed e ‘Black Bond 'of history, and for attending conventicles. The entire household remained steadfast to their father. His eldest brother (Dr. Blackadder) presented a petition to the privy council, and obtained his temporary re- ​lease. He was at least twice subsequently imprisoned, once in Fife, and once in Blackness Castle. In the latter his and Welsh's dungeons are still shown. His seizure and imprisonment in Blackness was for having been present at his father's preaching near Borrowstownness (Linlithgowshire), on which occasion no fewer than twenty-six children were baptised. Compelled by persecution to be an exile, Blackadder is found next in Sweden. He was a merchant in Sweden for nine years. Haying married a Swedish lady, whom he had converted from Lutheranism to presbyterian Calvinism, they were obliged to fly the country. The penalty at the time for a Swede who changed to Catholicism or Calvinism was death. About the close of 1684 he was settled in Edinburgh. Twelve years later his name is found in the Darien Papers (Bannatyne Club, 1849) among the subscribers to the Darien Company — '26 March 1696. Adam Blackader, merchant in Edinburgh, as factor for his brother, Captain John Blackader, in Flanders, 100l.' He wrote a narrative of his fathers sufferings, worked into Dr. Crichton's full 'Life,' which he submitted to Wodrow. He is also known to have written a number of political tractates on the state of parties and the Darien scheme. The date of his death is not discoverable.
[Authorities cited under Blackadder, John; Anderson's Scottish Nation; Wodrow MSS.; Howie's Scots Worthies; Dodd's Scottish Covenanters; Gilflllan's Scottish Covenanters.]
A. B. G.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Blackadder, John (1664-1729)

​BLACKADDER, JOHN the younger (1664–1729), lieutenant-colonel of the Cameronian regiment, was the fifth son of John Blackadder the elder [q. v.], and was born ​in the parish of Glencairn, Dumfriesshire, 14 Sept. 1664. Notwithstanding the persecutions to which the father was subject, the son, after receiving from him the rudiments of classical learning, attended the courses of humanity and philosophy in the university of Edinburgh. Accustomed from infancy to frequent conventicles and communions, he acquired at an early period strong Calvinistic convictions and strict and stern views of conduct and duty. When the regiment raised by the covenanting Cameronians (now the 26th of the line) was embodied by the Earl of Angus in 1689, he volunteered into it as a cadet at the pay of sixpence a day. Probably through his intimacy with the commander, Colonel Cleland, who was an old college acquaintance, he was in a few months promoted lieutenant. The regiment, by the remarkable stand it made against the Highlanders at Dunkeld, did service of the highest importance in quelling the rebellion. After the reduction of the Highlands he embarked with the regiment for Flanders, and took part in the principal sieges and battles in the campaigns of the Prince of Orange until the peace of Ryswick in 1697. On the resumption of the war in 1702, Blackadder, who had previously obtained his captain's commission, served with his old regiment in the campaigns of Marlborough. In December 1705 he was promoted major, and in October 1709 raised to the command of the regiment. Shortly before the peace of Utrecht he sold his commission, and taking up his residence at Edinburgh, and afterwards at Stirling, he occupied much of his attention with ecclesiastical affairs, becoming a member of the Society for Propagating Christianity, and also of the general assembly of the church of Scotland. Upon the news of a rising in the north in 1715 in behalf of the Pretender, he was appointed colonel of the regiment raised by the city of Glasgow, which he posted at the bridge of Stirling to guard against an attack of the highlanders, who, however, were defeated at the battle of Sheriffmuir. In consideration of his services during the rebellion he was, in March 1717, appointed deputy governor of Stirling Castle. He died 31 Aug. 1729, and was buried in the West church of Stirling, where a marble tablet was erected to his memory.
[Life and Diary of Lieut.-col. J. Blackader. ed. Crichton, 1824.]
T. F. H.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Blackbourne, John

​BLACKBOURNE, JOHN (1683–1741), nonjuror, was born in 1683, and educated at Trinity College, Cambridge, where he became B.A. in 1700, and M.A. in 1705. His refusal to recognise the revolutionary settlement excluded him from clerical preferment. According to Dr. Bowes, who 'waited on him often in Little Britain, where he lived almost lost to the world and hid amongst old books,' Blackbourne 'lived a very exemplary, good life, and studied hard, endeavouring to be useful to mankind, both as a scholar and divine. To keep himself independent, he became corrector of the press to Mr. Bowyer, printer, and was, indeed, one of the most accurate of any that ever took upon him that laborious employ' (Nichols, Literary Anecdotes, i. 262). He was powerfully recommended to 'King James III' by Lord Winchelsea and other nobles of his faction, and was consecrated bishop of the nonjurors 11 June 1726 (Blunt, Theological Dictionary, 1872) by the nonjuring prelates, Spinckes, Gandy, and Doughty, with the last two of whom he took part in the consecration of Richard Rawlinson, 25 March 1728, and subsequently with Gandy and Rawlinson in the consecration of George Smith. Blackbourne belonged to that section of the nonjurors which, in respect to the 'usages,' adhered to the practice of the English church as it stood at the time of the separation, and who were known as 'nonusagers,' in contra-distinction to the 'usagers,' who wished to introduce chiefly into their eucharistic liturgy certain catholic practices. The two parties remained separate, each consecrating several bishops, from the year 1718 to 1733, when a reconciliation took place on the basis of a general adoption of the catholic 'usages;' but Blackbourne still refused, though 'almost alone, to relinquish the use of the communion office of the Anglican church. Blackbourne published an edition of Johan Bale's 'Brefe Chronycle concernyne the Examinacyon and Death of the Blessed Martyr of Christ, Syr Johan Oldecastell the Lorde Cobham. To which is added an Appendix of original Instruments,' 8vo, London, 1729; and an edition of 'The Works of the Lord Bacon. Francisci Baconi, Baronis de A'erulamio, Vicecomitis Sancti Albani, Magni Angliæ Cancellarii, Opera omnia, quatuor Voluminibus comprehensa; hactenus edita, ad autographorum maxime fidem, emendantur; nonnulla etiam ex MSS. Codicibus deprompta, nunc primum prodeunt,' fol. London, 1730. He is also credited with editing the 'Castrations to Holinshed's Chronicle,' 1728, fol. Blackbourne died 17 Nov. 1741, and his library was sold by auction in February 1742. He was buried in Islington churchyard. His widow, Philadelphia, after having contracted a second marriage with Richard Heybourne, a citizen of London, died 10 Jan. 1750, at the age of 70, and was buried by the side of her first husband.
[Graduati Cantab. 1787; Nichols's Literary Anecdotes; Lathbury's History of the Nonjurors, London, 1840; Blunt's Dictionary of Theology, London, 2nd ed. 1872; Lee's Glossary of Liturgical and Ecclesiastical Terms, London, 1877.]
A. H. G.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Black, William Henry

​BLACK, WILLIAM HENRY (1808–1872), antiquary, was the eldest son of John Black of Kintore, in Aberdeenshire, and was born 7 May 1808. From his mother, who came of a good family (the Langleys), possessing estates in Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire, he imbibed his love of religion, and also his thirst for antiquarian knowledge. He was educated at a private school, and at seventeen years of age became himself a tutor among families residing at Tulse Hill and neighbourhood.
As a reader at the British Museum he became acquainted with many literary men, through whose influence he obtained a situation in the Public Record Office, attaining at last to the position of assistant keeper. It was during the time he filled this post that he corrected the errors in Rymer's ‘Fœdera.’ He was a prolific writer, especially on antiquarian subjects. He prepared an edition of the British part of the ‘Itinerary of Antoninus’ (never issued), and contributed to Samuel Bentley's ‘Excerpta Historica.’ He catalogued the manuscripts of the Ashmolean Museum at Oxford, the Arundel MSS. in the library of the College of Arms, and Colfe's library at Lewisham, and left behind him a monograph on the Roman mile, which still awaits editing and publication.
At the time of his death he was in nomination for, and would have been elected on, the council of the Society of Antiquaries. He was one of the earliest members of the British Archæological Society, the Surrey, London and Middlesex, and Wiltshire Archæological Societies, and the founder of the Chronological Institute of London, Palestine Archæological Association, and Anglo-biblical Institute, besides being a member of the Camden Society.
His religious views were somewhat peculiar. He was the pastor of a small sect called the Seventh Day Baptists, whose chapel is in Mill Yard, Lemon Street, Whitechapel, and maintained that Saturday was the Sabbath. Black died 12 April 1872. As a conscientious and painstaking antiquary, he has had few equals in the present century.
[Private information.]
J. A.