OpenLLM-France/wikimedia huggingface dataset:
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Forrester, Charles Robert

​FORRESTER, CHARLES ROBERT (1803–1850), miscellaneous writer, son of Robert Forrester of 5 North Gate, Royal Exchange, London, public notary, was born in London in 1803, and succeeded his father as a notary, having his place of business at 5 North Piazza, Royal Exchange; he afterwards removed to 28 Royal Exchange, where he remained till his death. His profession afforded him abundant means, and he employed his money and his leisure in the pursuit of literature. Adopting the pseudonym of ‘Hal Willis, student at law,’ he brought out in 1824 ‘Castle Baynard, or the Days of John,’ and in 1827 a second novel entitled ‘Sir Roland, a Romance of the Twelfth Century,’ 4 vols. In 1826–7 he contributed to ‘The Stanley Tales, Original and Select, chiefly Collected by Ambrose Marten,’ 5 vols. ‘Absurdities in Prose and Verse, written and illustrated by Alfred Crowquill,’ appeared in 1827, the illustrations being by Alfred Henry Forrester [q. v.], so that in this instance, as well as on succeeding occasions, the two brothers were conjointly using the same name. C. R. Forrester also wrote for ‘The Ladies' Museum,’ his first article in it being ‘The Ladye of the Sun,’ in the issue for April 1830, pp. 187–92. ‘The Old Man's Plaint, by the author of “Absurdities,”’ in Miss L. H. Sheridan's ‘Comic Offering,’ 1832, p. 70, was his first appearance in that annual. Under the editorship of Theodore Hook he was on the staff of the ‘New Monthly Magazine’ in 1837 and 1838, where he used the name of Alfred Crowquill, and inserted his first contribution, ‘Achates Digby,’ in xlix. 93–8. At the close of 1839 he became connected with ‘Bentley's Miscellany,’ in which magazine his writings are sometimes signed A. Crowquill and at other times Hal Willis, the former being illustrated by his brother. ‘Mr. Crocodile,’ in viii. 49–53 (1840), was the first of his long series of papers. In 1843 a selection of his articles in those two magazines was brought out in 2 vols. under the title of ‘Phantasmagoria of Fun.’ He was also the author of ‘Eccentric Tales, by W. F. von Kosewitz,’ 1827, ‘The Battle of the Annuals, a Fragment,’ 1835, and ‘The Lord Mayor's Fool,’ 1840, the last two of which were anonymous. He no doubt wrote other works, but his name is not found in the ‘British Museum Catalogue’ nor in any of the ordinary books on English bibliography. He was a good English classic and well acquainted with the Latin, French, German, and Dutch languages. His writings, like his conversation, have a spontaneous flow of wit. He died from heart disease, at his residence, Beaumont Square, Mile End, London, 15 Jan. 1850, and left a widow and four children.
G. C. B.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Dornford, Josiah

​DORNFORD, JOSIAH (1764–1797), miscellaneous writer, born in 1764, was son of Josiah Dornford of Deptford, Kent, a member of the court of common council of the city of London, and the author of several pamphlets on the affairs of that corporation and the reform of debtors' prisons. He studied at Trinity College, Oxford—B.A. 1785, M.A. 1792—and at Göttingen, where he took the degree of LL.D. He was called to the bar at Lincoln's Inn. In 1790 he published in three volumes an English version of John Stephen Pütter's ‘Historical Development of the Present Political Constitution of the Germanic Empire;’ the translation was probably executed at Göttingen, where Pütter was professor of laws. He also published in Latin a small volume of academic exercises by another Göttingen professor, the philologist Heyne, who, in a preface to this publication, speaks of Dornford as a ‘learned youth’ who had ‘gained the highest honours in jurisprudence in our academy.’ His only other known work is ‘The Motives and Consequences of the Present War impartially considered’ (1793), a pamphlet written in defence of the Pitt administration. In 1795 he was named inspector-general of the army accounts in the Leeward Islands, and the record of this appointment shows that he had served as one of the commissaries to Lord Moira's army. He died at Martinique 1 July 1797.
[Gent. Mag. 1795, p. 973; 1797, p. 800. In Brit. Mus. Cat. and in Watt's Bibl. Brit. Dornford is confused with his father.]
J. M. S.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Dougall, Neil

​DOUGALL, NEIL (1776–1862), Scotch poet and musical composer, was born in Greenock 9 Dec. 1776. His father, originally a joiner, having tried to improve his position by going to sea, was impressed into the naval service, and died in Ceylon when his only son was four years old. Mrs. Dougall married again, and Neil was kept at school till he was fifteen, when he was apprenticed as a sailor on board the ship Britannia. On the war breaking out with France in 1793, Dougall was transferred to the yacht Clarence, trading to the Mediterranean from the north of Scotland, and furnished with a letter of marque authorising reprisals on the high seas. When this vessel was lying at Greenock news was received, on 14 June 1794, of Lord Howe's great victory a fortnight earlier over the French, and, on a salute being fired in honour of the event, an accidental discharge from a mismanaged gun wounded Dougall terribly in the right side and permanently destroyed his eyesight. His right arm had to be amputated above the elbow, and but for his splendid constitution he must have sunk under his sufferings. Gradually recovering he speedily developed a musical talent, which he cultivated with such assiduity and success that he was soon a popular teacher of singing. He married in 1806, and by his teaching, together with his business as keeper of a tavern and then as head of a boarding-house, he was enabled respectably to rear a family of four sons and six daughters. He died at Greenock 1 Dec. 1862.
Dougall is the composer of about a hundred psalm and hymn tunes, of which ‘Kilmarnock’ (suggested by an experiment of R. A. Smith's on the Caledonian scale) won instant favour by its grave pathos and stately solemnity of movement, and has continued to be one of the standard melodies in the presbyterian church service. In 1854 Dougall published, through Joseph Blair, Greenock, a small volume of ‘Poems and Songs,’ containing twelve ‘miscellaneous pieces,’ eleven ‘songs,’ and thirteen ‘sacred pieces.’ Several of these were set to music by himself. The miscellaneous poems comprise various spirited imitations of the conventional pastorals of the eighteenth century, and a generously conceived and vigorously worked tribute to Burns, written a few days after the poet's death. The songs are generally easy and graceful, and one of them, ‘My Braw John Highlandman,’ by simplicity and directness of motive, and catching fluency of movement, reaches a level of comparative excellence. The sacred pieces are mainly written for Sunday scholars, and, while breathing a sympathetic and pious spirit, do not call for special notice. It is curious that recent works on Scottish poetry, such as Grant Wilson's and Whitelaw's, make no mention of Dougall.
[Biographical sketch prefixed to Poems and Songs; Greenock and Glasgow newspapers of 1862; private information.]
T. B.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Doubleday, Edward

1904 Errata appended.
​DOUBLEDAY, EDWARD (1811–1849), entomologist, brother of Henry Doubleday [q. v.], born at Epping, was the son of Benjamin Doubleday, a thriving grocer. When just of age he published his first paper, ‘Stygia, not a New Holland Genus,’ in the ‘Magazine of Natural History’ for 1832; and in 1833 he wrote, with E. Newman, an account of an ‘Entomological Excursion in North Wales’ for the ‘Entomological Magazine.’
In 1835 Doubleday visited the United States, accompanied by Mr. Foster, another member of the Society of Friends, with the sole object of studying the natural history of that country. After a stay of nearly two years he returned with immense collections, chiefly of insects, which he distributed to the British and other museums. Concerning this trip Doubleday wrote three papers, ‘The Natural History of North America’ (‘Entom. Mag.’ 1838); ‘Lepidoptera of North America, being the result of Nineteen Months' Travel’ (‘Mag. Nat. Hist.’ 1840); and ‘On the Occurrence of Alligators in Florida’ (‘Zoologist,’ 1843). Of the twenty-nine papers by Doubleday which are given in the ‘Catalogue of Scientific Papers’ published by the Royal Society, this ‘alligator’ paper is the only one not upon an entomological subject. Doubleday tried hard to secure an appointment as naturalist to the ill-fated Niger expedition in 1839. Fortunately disappointed in this he accepted a post as assistant in the British Museum in the same year. Here he had special charge of the collections of butterflies and moths, and he worked with such diligence that his department became one of the most complete in existence. It was at this time that Doubleday contributed an important series of papers on ‘New Diurnal Lepidoptera’ to the ‘Annals of Natural History,’ 1845–8. He also wrote a small book, published by Van Voorst in 1839, on the ‘Nomenclature of British Birds.’
Doubleday died at his house in Harrington Square, Hampstead Road, London, on 14 Dec. 1849. He was engaged on a ‘Catalogue of Diurnal Lepidoptera,’ and on a magnificent work, ‘The Genera of Diurnal Lepidoptera,’ with coloured illustrations by Hewitson, the issue of which was commenced in 1846 and completed in 1852. It was published by Longman at fifteen guineas per copy. At the time of Doubledy's death he was secretary of the Entomological Society. There is a good portrait of him in the possession of this society, painted by E. D. Maguire, and a lithograph was also published by G. H. Ford after a daguerreotype by J. W. Gutch.
W. J. H.
Dictionary of National Biography, Errata (1904), p.101 N.B.— f.e. stands for from end and l.l. for last line
| Page | Col. | Line | |
| 254 | i | 17 f.e. | Doubleday, Edward: for He also wrote read It was his brother Henry Doubleday [q. v.] who wrote |
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Dorset, Catherine Ann

​DORSET, CATHERINE ANN (1750?–1817?), poetess, was the younger daughter of Nicholas Turner, gentleman, of Stoke, near Guildford, and Bignor Park, Sussex. Her mother, Ann, daughter of William Towers, died shortly after her birth (1750?). The care of the child devolved upon an aunt. Her sister was Mrs. Charlotte Smith [q. v.] About 1770 she married Michael Dorset, captain in the army, probably son of Michael Dorset, M.A., incumbent successively of Rustington and Walberton, Sussex. In 1804 some poems by Mrs. Dorset appeared anonymously in her sister's ‘Conversations.’ About 1805 she was left a widow. In 1806 she sold the interest bequeathed to her by her father in Bignor Park. In 1807 her poem for children, ‘The Peacock “at Home,”’ was published, as ‘By a Lady,’ for No. 2 of Harris's ‘Cabinet Series,’ illustrated by Mulready (cf. Gent. Mag. 1807, ii. 946, 998, 1222). In the same year, also, and as a further number of Harris's ‘Cabinet Series,’ appeared ‘The Lion's Masquerade, by a Lady,’ probably by Mrs. Dorset. In 1809 was published her ‘Think before you speak, or The Three Wishes,’ from the French of Mme. de Beaumont. Mrs. Dorset published, unillustrated, also in 1809, revised versions of ‘The Peacock “at Home” and other Poems,’ with her name attached. The ‘Peacock’ was reprinted in 1849, illuminated by Mrs. Dorset's grandniece, Mrs. W. Warde; again in 1851; and by Mr. Charles Welsh (a careful facsimile of the original edition) in 1883.
In 1816 Mrs. Dorset was still alive. A son, an officer in the army, wrote some poems and military works.
J. H.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Dornford, Joseph

1904 Errata appended.
​DORNFORD, JOSEPH (1794–1868), rector of Plymtree, Devonshire, born 9 Jan. 1794, was the son of Josiah Dornford of Deptford, Kent, and the half-brother of Josiah Dornford, miscellaneous writer [q. v.] His mother, Mrs. Thomason, was a Cambridge lady who has been described (Mozley, Reminiscences, chap. lxxviii.) as the chief lady friend of the evangelical leader, Charles Simeon [q. v.], and as pouring out the tea for his weekly gatherings. Dornford entered young at Trinity College, Cambridge, which in 1811 he suddenly left to serve as a volunteer in the Peninsular war. Mozley says: ‘He would rather fly to the ends of the earth and seek the company of cannibals or wild beasts than be bound to a life of tea and twaddle.’ He saw some service, and on his return home he entered at Wadham College, Oxford, where he proceeded B.A. in 1816. In 1817 he was elected to a Michel fellowship at Queen's, and in 1819 to a fellowship at Oriel, where he graduated M.A. 1820. In that year he joined Dr. Hamel on the well-known ascent of Mont Blanc in which three guides were killed. He was successively elected tutor, dean, and proctor of his college. Succeeding Keble in the tutorship, ‘Keble's pupils felt it a sad let down. … Yet they who came after, as I did, found Dornford a good lecturer, up to his work, ready, precise, and incisive’ (ib.) In 1832 he was presented by his college to the rectory of Plymtree, and in 1844 he was collated by Bishop Phillpotts honorary of Exeter Cathedral. He published nothing save a few sermons. One of these, on ‘The Christian Sacraments,’ is contained in a volume edited by the Rev. Alexander Watson, ‘Sermons for Sundays, Festivals, and Fasts, and other Liturgical Occasions, contributed by bishops and other clergy of the church’ (1845). In his bearing Dornford was more of a soldier than a priest, and his talk ran much on war. He was a man of strong will, generous impulses, and pugnacious temper. He died at Plymtree on 18 Jan. 1868, aged 74.
[Gent. Mag. 1868, p. 391; Mozley's Reminiscences, chiefly of Oriel College and the Oxford Movement, chaps. lxxviii. lxxix. and lxxx.]
J. M. S.
Dictionary of National Biography, Errata (1904), p.101 N.B.— f.e. stands for from end and l.l. for last line
| Page | Col. | Line | |
| 250 | i | 22 f.e. | Dornford, Joseph: for college read university (1830-1) |
| | | 15 f.e. | for 1844 read 1847 |
| | | 14 f.e. | for an honorary canon read prebendary |
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Dougall, John

​DOUGALL, JOHN (1760–1822), miscellaneous writer, was born in 1760 at Kirkcaldy, where his father was master of the grammar school. He studied at Edinburgh University with a view to entering the Scotch church, but afterwards abandoned this intention, and travelled on the continent in the capacity of companion and private tutor. For some time he was private secretary to General Melville, but ultimately settled in London and devoted himself to literary work. He was the author of: 1. ‘Military Adventures.’ 2. ‘The Modern Preceptor, or a General Course of Polite Education,’ 1810, 2 vols. 8vo. 3. ‘The Cabinet of Arts, including Arithmetic, Geometry, and Chemistry’ [1821], 2 vols. 8vo. 4. ‘España Maritima, or Spanish Coasting Pilot, translated from the Spanish,’ 1813, 4to. He died 14 Sept. 1822.
[Gent. Mag. 1822, p. 570; Anderson's Scottish Nation.]
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Donnegan, James

​DONNEGAN, JAMES (fl. 1841), lexicographer, was a doctor of medicine of a foreign university, who practised in London from about 1820 to 1835. In 1841, being then in bad health, he was staying at Hindley Hall, near Wigan, Lancashire, as the guest of Sir Robert Holt Leigh, a classical scholar, to whom he expresses his obligations. His ‘New Greek and English Lexicon, principally on the plan of the Greek and German Lexicon of Schneider,’ 8vo, London, 1826, was commended by Bishop Maltby as ‘an important acquisition’ (Preface to Greek Gradus). On each subsequent edition (1831, 1837, 1842) the author bestowed much time and labour. An American edition, ‘revised and enlarged by R. B. Patton,’ was published at Boston in 1836; another appeared at Philadelphia in 1843.
G. G.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Doody, Samuel

​DOODY, SAMUEL (1656–1706), botanist, the eldest of the second family of his father, John Doody, an apothecary in Staffordshire, who afterwards removed to London, where he had a shop in the Strand, was born in Staffordshire 28 May 1656. He was brought up to his father's business, to which he succeeded about 1696. He had given some attention to botany before 1687, the date of a commonplace book (Sloane MS. 3361), but his help is first acknowledged by Ray in 1688 in the second volume of the ‘Historia Plantarum.’ He was intimate with the botanists of his time, Ray, already mentioned, Plukenett, Petiver, and Sloane, and had specially devoted himself to cryptogams, at that time very little studied, and became an authority upon them. He undertook the care of the Apothecaries' Garden at Chelsea in 1693, at the salary of 100l., which he seems to have continued until his death. Two years later he was elected fellow of the Royal Society. The results of his herborisations round London are recorded in his copy of Ray's ‘Synopsis,’ 2nd edit., now in the British Museum, which were used by Dillenius in preparing the third edition. He suffered much from gout, and appears to have been rather notorious for a failing which, although not specified, seems to have been intemperance. He died, after some weeks' illness, the last week in November 1706, and was buried at Hampstead 3 Dec., his funeral sermon being preached by his old friend, Adam Buddle [q. v.] His sole contribution as an author seems to be a paper in the ‘Phil. Trans.’ (1697), xix. 390, on a case of dropsy in the breast.
[Pulteney's Sketches, ii. 107–9; Trimen and Dyer's Flora of Middlesex, 376–8; Sloane MSS. 2972, 3361, 4043; Sherard MSS. (Roy. Soc.); Nichols's Lit. Illustr. i. 341–2, where the index has a misprint of ‘music’ for musci.]
B. D. J.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Downman, Hugh

​DOWNMAN, HUGH, M.D. (1740–1809), physician and poet, son of Hugh Downman of Newton House, Newton St. Cyres, Exeter, was educated at the Exeter grammar school. He entered Balliol College, Oxford, 1758, proceeded B.A. 1763, and was ordained in Exeter Cathedral the same year. His clerical prospects being very small, he went to Edinburgh to study medicine, and boarded with Thomas Blacklock [q. v.] In 1768 he published ‘The Land of the Muses; a poem in the manner of Spenser, by H. D.’ In 1769 he visited London for hospital practice, and in 1770, after proceeding M.A. at Jesus College, Cambridge, he practised medicine at Exeter, where he married the daughter of Dr. Andrew. A chronic complaint in 1778 compelled him to retire for a time. His best-known poem, ‘ Infancy, or the Management of Children,’ was published in three separate parts: i. 1774, ii. 1775, iii. 1776, London, 4to. A seventh edition was issued in 1809. In 1775 appeared ‘The Drama,’ London, 4to; ‘An Elegy written under a Gallows,’ London, 4to; and ‘The Soliloquy,’ Edinburgh, 4to. During his retirement he also published ‘Lucius Junius Brutus,’ five acts, London, 1779 (not performed); ‘Belisarius,’ played in Exeter theatre for a few nights; and ‘Editha, a Tragedy,’ Exeter, 1784—founded on a local incident, and performed for sixteen nights. These plays appeared in one volume as ‘Tragedies, by H. D., M.D.,’ Exeter, 1792, 8vo. He also published ‘Poems to Thespia,’ Exeter, 1781, 8vo, and ‘The Death Song of Ragnar Lodbrach,’ translated from the Latin of Olaus Wormius, London, 1781, 4to. He was one of the translators of an edition of Voltaire's works in English, London, 8vo, 1781. In 1791 he published ‘Poems,’ second edition, London, 8vo, comprising the ‘Land of the Muses’ (with a second version) and ‘Ragnar Lodbrach.’ He was also contributor to Mr. Polwhele's ‘Collections of the Poetry of Devon and Cornwall.’
Downman seems to have resumed medical practice at Exeter about 1790, and in 1796 he founded there a literary society of twelve members. A volume of the essays was printed, and a second volume is said to exist in manuscript. Downman wrote the opening address, and essays on ‘Serpent Worship,’ on the ‘Shields of Hercules and Achilles,’ and on ‘Pindar,’ with a translation of the 11th Pythian and 2nd Isthmian odes. In 1805 Downman finally relinquished his practice on account of ill-health. In 1808 the literary society was discontinued. On 23 Sept. 1809 he died at Alphington, near Exeter, with the reputation of an able and humane physician and a most amiable man. Two years before he died an anonymous editor collected and published the various critical opinions and complimentary verses on his poems, Isaac D'Israeli's (1792) being among them.
J. W.-G.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Downman, John

​DOWNMAN, JOHN (d. 1824), portrait and subject painter, was born (date unknown) in Devonshire, and studied for a time in London under Benjamin West, P.R.A., and afterwards in the Royal Academy Schools, in 1769. In 1777 he resided at Cambridge, but returned to London, contributing regularly to various exhibitions. In 1795 he was elected an associate; he then lived in Leicester Square. In 1806 Downman visited Plymouth; between 1807 and 1808 he practised at Exeter, and after again working in London for some years, settled at Chester in 1818–1819, and died at Wrexham, Denbighshire, 24 Dec. 1824, leaving many of his paintings and drawings to his only daughter. He also left two sons and was uncle of Sir Thomas Downman [q. v.] He exhibited in the Royal Academy, between 1769 and 1819, 148 works, both portraits and fancy subjects, as ‘Rosalind,’ painted for the Shakespeare Gallery; ‘The Death of Lucretia;’ ‘The Priestess of Bacchus;’ ‘Tobias ;’ ‘Fair Rosamond;’ ‘The Return of Orestes;’ ‘Duke Robert,’ &c. His first work at the Royal Academy (1769) was No. 377, ‘A small portrait in oil,’ and the last (1819), No. 622, ‘A late Princess personifying Peace crowning the glory of England—reflected on Europe, 1815.’ In 1884 the trustees of the British Museum acquired, by purchase, a volume containing numerous coloured drawings by Downman, among which are the following portraits, now separately mounted:—Miss Abbott, 1793; Charlotte Downman, mother of the artist; sketches of Mrs. Larkins's family; the Hon. Captain Hugh Conway, 1781; sketch for Lady Henry Osborne and son; Mrs. Wells; Mrs. Drew of Exeter; Miss Bulteel, 1781; Mrs. Byfield, 1792; Lady C. Maria Waldegrave, 1790; and Mrs. Downman (the last was engraved by H. Landseer in 1805). At Burleigh Court there are three or four volumes of drawings by Downman, executed in red and black chalk, of which Ralph Neville Grenville published a catalogue, privately printed at Taunton in 1865. Portraits in miniature size by Downman may be found not unfrequently in the country houses of Devon; some good specimens are at Sir John Duntze's residence, Exeleigh, Starcross; at the mansion of Mr. Henn Gennys, Plymouth, and at Escot, the seat of Sir John H. Kennaway, bart. In 1780 Bartolozzi engraved after him a portrait of Mrs. Montagu, in profile to the left; and in 1797 one of the Duchess of Devonshire, for the scenery at Richmond House Theatre. His portrait of Miss Kemble (afterwards Mrs. Siddons) was engraved by J. Jones in 1784.
L. F.