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

​COVENTRY, WALTER of (fl. 1293?), historical compiler, gives his name to a volume of historical collections, entitled 'Memoriale Fratris Walteri de Coventria,' written soon after 1293. Nothing more is known about him. It is, of course, probable that he was a native of Coventry, and it has been conjectured from some slight indications in the 'Memoriale' that he was a monk of York. A manuscript in the Bodleian Library (355), entitled 'Walteri Coventrensis Chronicon,' has been wrongly ascribed to him; it is in a late hand (Hardy); nor does it appear that the Cottonian MS. (Vitell. D. v.) entitled 'Gualteri Conventriensis Historia,'and now destroyed, should have borne his name (Stubbs). 'The first part of the 'Memoriale' is of no historical value; the second part, which deals with the history of England from 1002 to 1225, is an abridgment and 'compilation from a compilation' from Florence. Henry of Huntingdon, and Roger of Hoveden, with a continuation derived from the 'Barnwell Chronicle,' which comprises the annals of the reign of John, and is of great value. This part of the work has been published in a mutilated form in the 'Recueil des Historiens' (Bouquet, xviii. 164), as a continuation of Hoveden; it was first edited in its entirety by Bishop Stubbs for the Rolls Series.
W. H.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Coventry, John (1735-1812)

​COVENTRY, JOHN (1735–1812), constructor of philosophical instruments, was born in Southwark in 1735. He made a position through the care with which his instruments were made. He was the inventor of a new hygrometer, more accurate than any which had been previously in use. This instrument was very generally employed by the chemists and other scientific men of his day. His telescopes were found to be more accurately adjusted than those usually employed, and the lenses with which they were fitted were more truly ground. His graduations were especially correct. He was a friend of Benjamin Franklin, who appears to have consulted him on questions connected with electrical apparatus. Coventry died in 1812.
R. H-t.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Coventry, Anne

Note: This biographical entry contains biographies of two separate women title 'Anne, Countess of Coventry'
​COVENTRY, ANNE, Countess of Coventry (1673–1763), religious writer, born in 1673, was the daughter of Henry Somerset, third marquis and first duke of Beaufort, by Mary, daughter of Arthur, lord Capel, and widow of Henry, lord Beauclerk. Before 1700 she married Thomas, second earl of Coventry, by whom she was the mother of Thomas, third earl. Her husband died in 1710 and her son on 28 Jan. 1712. She took up her permanent residence at her late husband's house at Snitterfield, Warwickshire, in 1726, and died there 14 Jan. 1763, aged 90, after a widowhood of fifty-three years. She was buried with her father at Badminton. The countess was renowned for her charity and piety. In 1707 appeared in duodecimo ‘The Right Honourable Anne, Countess of Coventry's Meditations and Reflections, Moral and Divine.’ A frontispiece by Berchet represents the authoress at prayer. Perfect copies of this volume are now very rare. The countess's friend, Richard Jago, vicar of Snitterfield, preached a biographical sermon after her death, which was printed at Oxford in 1763 under the title of ‘The Nature of a Christian's Happiness in Death.’
Another Anne, Countess of Coventry (1690–1788), born in 1690, was daughter of Sir Streynsham Masters of Codnor Castle, Derbyshire, and became the second wife of Gilbert, fourth earl of Coventry, shortly before his death in 1719. In 1725 she married Edward Pytts of Kyre, Worcestershire, by whom she had five daughters. She died on 21 March 1788, aged 98. This lady was the plaintiff in an important lawsuit which she brought against William, fifth earl of Coventry, a distant relative of the fourth earl, to compel him to give effect to a defectively executed settlement made on her first marriage. The suit, heard 18 May 1724, was decided in her favour. A full report was appended by Richard Francis to his ‘Maxims of Equity,’ 1728.
[Chambers's Worcestershire Biography, 322, 590; Gent. Mag. 1763, p. 277, 1788, pt. i. 277; Burke's Extinct Peerage; Brit. Mus. Cat.]
S. L. L.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Coventry, Francis

​COVENTRY, FRANCIS (d. 1759?), miscellaneous writer, a native of Cambridgeshire, was educated at Magdalene College, Cambridge, where he proceeded B.A. 1748 and M.A. 1752. He is the author of ‘Penshurst, a poem, inscribed to William Perry, esq., and the Hon. Mrs. Elizabeth Perry,’ 1750, 4to, reprinted in vol. iv. of ‘Dodsley's Miscellanies;’ and of the fifteenth number of the ‘World,’ 12 April, 1753, containing ‘Strictures on the Absurd Novelties introduced in Gardening.’ He also wrote a satirical romance, ‘Pompey the Little, or the Adventures of a Lapdog,’ 1751 (5th ed. 1773), which Lady Mary Wortley Montagu preferred to ‘Peregrine Pickle.’ Several characters were intended for ladies well known in contemporary society. He was appointed by his relative, the Earl of Coventry, to the perpetual curacy of Edgware, and died of small-pox at Whitchurch about 1759.
[Nichols's Lit. Anecd. v. 569; Cole's Athenæ.]
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Coventry, Henry (1619-1686)

​COVENTRY, HENRY (1619–1686), secretary of state, the third son by the second marriage of Thomas, first lord Coventry [q. v.], brother of Sir William Coventry [q. v.], uncle of Sir John Coventry [q. v.], and brother-in-law of Anthony Ashley Cooper, first earl of Shaftesbury [q. v.], after studying at All Souls College, Oxford, graduated in both arts and law. In the civil wars he adhered to the king's party, and accompanied Charles II in his exile, during part of which time he was employed as royalist agent in Germany and Denmark, in company with Lord Wentworth, until the concert was dissolved by a violent quarrel, leading apparently to a duel (Calendar of Clarendon State Papers, ii. 332; 6 April 1654). The notices of him at this date are very confused; Henry, his elder brother Francis, and his younger brother William being all attached to the exiled court and all commonly spoken of as Mr. Coventry. Before the Restoration Francis had ceased to take any active part ​ in public affairs, and William had devoted himself more especially to the service of the Duke of York, whose secretary he continued to be while the duke held the office of lord high admiral (Pepys's Diary). Henry remained in the service of the crown, and in Sept. 1664 went as ambassador to Sweden, where he remained for two years, ‘accustoming himself to the northern ways of entertainment, and this grew upon him with age’ (Burnet, Hist. of his own Time, Oxford, 1823, i. 531). In 1667 he was sent, jointly with Lord Holles, as plenipotentiary to negotiate the treaty of peace with the Dutch, which, after the disgraceful summer, was finally concluded at Breda. In 1671 he was again sent on an embassy to Sweden, and on his return was appointed secretary of state. In this office he continued till 1680, when his health, which was shattered by frequent attacks of gout, compelled him to retire from public life. According to Burnet ‘he was a man of wit and heat, of spirit and candour. He never gave bad advices; but when the king followed the ill advices which others gave, he thought himself bound to excuse if not to justify them. For this the Duke of York commended him much. He said in that he was a pattern to all good subjects, since he defended all the king's counsels in public, even when he had blamed them most in private with the king himself’ (ib. loc. cit.) It is to his credit that after holding public office for nearly twenty years he had not accumulated any large fortune; and though no doubt in easy circumstances, he wrote of himself as feeling straitened by the loss of his official salary on 31 Dec. 1680. He died in London on 7 Dec. 1686. He was never married. Writing to Sir Robert Carr on 12 Sept. 1676, and regretting his inability to fulfil some promise relative to a vacant post, he said: ‘Promises are like marriages; what we tie with our tongues we cannot untie with our teeth. I have been discreet enough as to the last, but frequently a fool as to the first.’
J. K. L.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Coventry, John (d.1682)

Date of death 1685 in the ODNB.
​COVENTRY, Sir JOHN (d. 1682), M.P. for Weymouth, was son of John Coventry, second son of Lord-keeper Thomas Coventry [q. v.] His mother belonged to a Somerset family named Colles. His father is described by his friend and brother-in-law the first Earl of Shaftesbury as ‘every way an extraordinary person,’ who ruined his great mental gifts by drink. The father John was first elected to the Long parliament for Evesham in 1640, and as a zealous cavalier was disabled from sitting in the House of Commons in 1645. The son John served in the royalist army, and his attachment to the crown was so well known that he was made a knight of the Bath on the coronation of Charles II in 1661. He was elected M.P. for Weymouth on 25 Jan. 1667, and though his uncles Henry and William were both in office, he at once went into opposition. In 1670 the opponents of the government proposed in parliament to levy a tax on playhouses, and in the course of the debate Coventry asked ‘whether did the king's pleasure lie among the men or the women that acted?’ The allusion was obviously intended to apply to Nell Gwyn and Moll Davies. The king's friends expressed great indignation and prepared to avenge the insult. On 21 Dec., while on his way home to his house in Suffolk Street, Coventry was taken out of his carriage by a band of ruffians, headed by Sir T. Sandys, and his nose slit to the bone. This deed caused the greatest excitement in the House of Commons, and a special act was passed (22 & 23 Car. II, c. 1) ​declaring nose-slitting or other mutilation of the person to be felony without benefit of clergy. Coventry's assailants were never captured. The act was known as the Coventry Act. Coventry was re-elected for Weymouth in 1678, 1679, and 1681, but made no mark in politics. He died in 1682.
H. M. S.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Grosvenor, Thomas (1764-1851)

​GROSVENOR, THOMAS (1764–1851), field-marshal, colonel 65th foot, third son of Thomas Grosvenor, M.P. for Chester (brother of Richard, first earl Grosvenor [q. v.], by his wife Deborah, daughter and coheiress of Stephen Skynner of Walthamstow, was born 30 May 1764. He was educated at Westminster School, and on 1 Oct. 1779 was appointed ensign 1st foot guards, in which he became lieutenant and captain in 1784, and captain and lieutenant-colonel on 25 April 1793. As a subaltern he was in command of the piquet at the Bank of England during the Gordon riots of 1780. He served with his battalion in Flanders in 1793, and again in Holland and in the retreat to Bremen in 1794–5, and in the expedition to the Helder in 1799. He became a major-general 29 April 1802, and held brigade commands in the west of England and in the London district during the invasion alarms of 1803–5. He commanded a brigade in the expedition to Copenhagen in 1807, and again in the expedition to Walcheren in 1809, when he was second in command of Sir Eyre Coote's division. He was appointed colonel 97th Queen's German foot in 1807, and transferred to the 65th foot in 1814. He became a lieutenant-general in ​1808, and general in 1819. On the Prince of Wales's birthday (9 Nov.) 1846 Grosvenor and Sir George Nugent, the two senior generals in the army, and the Marquis of Anglesey, their junior, were created field-marshals.
Grosvenor represented Chester in the whig interest in eight successive parliaments. He was first returned in 1795, on the death of his father, who had represented the city since 1755, and he vacated the seat in 1825 in favour of the Hon. (afterwards Lord) Robert Grosvenor. Grosvenor was returned for Stockbridge at the same election, and retired from parliamentary life at the general election of 1830. He was for many years a staunch and respected supporter of the turf. Grosvenor married first, in 1797, Elizabeth, daughter of Sir Gilbert Heathcote, bart.; secondly, in 1831, Anne, youngest daughter of George Wilbraham of Delamere House, sometime M.P. for Cheshire. Grosvenor died at Mount Ararat, near Richmond, Surrey, on 20 Jan. 1851.
H. M. C.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Grove, Mathew

​GROVE, MATHEW (fl. 1587), poet, is known only as the author of the very rare volume entitled 'The most famous and tragicall historie of Pelops and Hippodamia. Whereunto are adioyned sundrie pleasant deuises, epigrams, songes, and sonnettes. Written by Mathewe Groue. Imprinted at London by Abel Ieffs … 1587.' There are dedications in verse by Richard Smith, the publisher, who confesses to knowing nothing of the author, and in prose by the author, both addressed to Sir Henry Compton (d. 1589), father of William Compton, first earl of Northampton. The story of Pelops and Hippodamia is told in ballad metre. There follow many short pieces, chiefly dealing with a lover's joys and pains, and a few epigrams on moral subjects. There are some jesting verses entitled 'A perfect tricke to kill little blacke flees in one's chamber.' Only one copy of the volume is known; it is in the library of the Earl of Ellesmere. Dr. Grosart reprinted it in his 'Occasional Issues' in 1878.
In 1638 Henry Gosson published a work by one Mathew Grove, entitled 'Witty Proverbs, Pithy Sentences, and wise similes collected out of the Golden volumes of divers learned and grave philosophers,' London, 8vo (Hazlitt, Handbook, p. 246). No copy is in the British Museum or Bodleian Libraries. Mr. Hazlitt is of opinion that this author is to be distinguished from the writer of 'Pelops.'
[Dr. Grosart's reprint, 1878; Collier's Bibliographical Catalogue ]
S. L. L.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Grote, Arthur

​GROTE, ARTHUR (1814–1886), a younger brother of the historian, George Grote [q. v.], was born at Beckenham 29 Nov. 1814. He passed from Haileybury into the Bengal civil service in 1834, and, rising through the lower grades, held important offices in the revenue department from 1853 till he retired in 1868. He took an active part in the work of the Asiatic Society of Bengal (president from 1859 to 1862, and again in 1865), and later in that of the Royal Asiatic Society. He was a fellow of the Linnean and Zoological Societies, and was an occasional contributor to their 'Transactions.' He died in London on 4 Dec, 1886.
G. C. R.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Gordon, Robert (1791-1847)

​GORDON, Sir ROBERT (1791–1847), diplomatist, was fifth son of George Gordon, lord Haddo, and brother of George Hamilton Gordon, fourth earl of Aberdeen (1784-1860) [q. v.], and of Sir Alexander Gordon [q. v.], who was killed at Waterloo. In 1810 he was appointed attaché; to the British embassy in Persia, and afterwards became secretary to the embassy at the Hague. He was associated with the Duke of Wellington as minister plenipotentiary at Vienna in 1815, 1817, and 1821. In July 1826 he was sent to the Brazils as envoy extraordinary and minister plenipotentiary, being at the same time sworn a privy councillor. In 1828 he was sent to Constantinople as ambassador extraordinary with the object of re-establishing the friendly relations between this country and the Porte, which had been disturbed by the battle of Navarino. From this post he was recalled by Lord Grey's ministry in 1831, and took no further part in active life until he was appointed by Sir Robert Peel, in October 1841, ambassador extraordinary to Vienna, where he remained until he was replaced by Viscount Ponsonby in 1846.
Gordon was made a grand cross of the Royal Hanoverian Guelphic order in 1819, and a Civil Grand Cross of the order of the ​Bath in 1829. He died suddenly at Balmoral on 8 Oct. 1847.
E. J. R.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Gordon, William (1770-1820)

George Ross Gordon (brother)
​GORDON, WILLIAM (1770–1820), Gaelic poet, was born 20 Nov. 1770 at Creech in Sutherlandshire. When over twenty years of age he entered the army, serving in the Reay fencibles till their disbandment in 1802; he wrote his poems while his regiment was stationed in Ireland. On leaving the army Gordon returned home and married. The latter years of his life were spent as a teacher in a Gaelic school. He died in 1820. Gordon's poems, consisting of hymns and songs in Gaelic, were published in 1802 under the title, 'Dantadh Spioradal le Uilliam Gordon Saighidfhear ann an Reighiseamaid Gaidhealach Mhic-Aoi. Clodh-bhuailt air son U. G. le Deorsa Conolie, Leabharreiceadar Gaileadh.' Some of his hymns were reprinted in John Munro's collection ('Dana Spioradail ann an da Earrann,' Glasgow, 1819). Gordon also wrote an elegy on his brother Peter and a love-song, which were printed in a volume of poems by his brother, George Ross Gordon (see below). At his death he left a work in manuscript called 'Gleanings in the Field of Truth.' ​George Ross Gordon (fl. 1832), like his brother, entered the army and served in the 42nd regiment in Ireland. He was afterwards teacher of a Gaelic school at Morness in Sutherlandshire, and was living in 1832. His poems, also in Gaelic, were published while he was in Ireland in 1804-5. Besides his own poems, and the two by William Gordon referred to above, the volume includes two pieces by another brother, Alexander Gordon, who was a mason at Tain in Ross-shire. G. R. Gordon and A. Gordon both wrote other pieces, which do not seem to have been published.
C. L. K.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Gordon, William (1800-1849)

​GORDON, WILLIAM, M.D. (1800–1849), philanthropist, born at Fountains Hall, near Ripon, 2 Aug. 1800, studied medicine at London and Edinburgh, where he took the degree of M.D. 1841. Before this he had been engaged in medical work, chiefly at Welton in Northumberland. He also published in 1828 a small work on the practice of surgery, and in 1832 'A Critical Enquiry concerning a New Membrane in the Eye,' besides various fugitive scientific contributions. In 1832 he was elected a member of the Linnean Society. Upon taking his degree he settled in Hull, where he soon acquired considerable reputation by his active exertions in various philanthropic directions. He delivered a great number of popular scientific lectures, was president of the Hull Christian Temperance Society, and a strenuous temperance advocate. He also promoted such political measures as he conceived to be for the interests of the working classes, with whom he was specially popular. He devoted to them gratuitously much of his professional time. He died at Hull 7 Feb. 1849. Gordon was married and had one child, who married the Rev. Newman Hall. A work entitled 'The Christian Philanthropist triumphing over Death, a narrative of the closing scenes of the Life of the late William Gordon, M.D., F.L.S.' (1849), was published by his son-inlaw. It had a very large sale, was translated into Italian (1854) and republished in an abridged form (5th ed. 1851).
F. W-t.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Gordon, William (d.1577)

​GORDON, WILLIAM (d. 1577), last pre-reformation bishop of Aberdeen, was fourth son of Alexander Gordon, third earl of Huntly [q. v.], by his wife Johanna Stewart, daughter of John, earl of Atholl, and was uncle of George Gordon, fourth earl of Huntly [q. v.] who fell in 1562 at Corrichie. Educated first at Aberdeen and afterwards at Paris, he obtained on taking orders the rectory of Clatt, Aberdeenshire, and chancellorship of Moray. An effort to have him consecrated as coadjutor to William Stewart, bishop of Aberdeen, came to nothing, but on the death of that prelate (1545) he was nominated his successor, through the influence of Cardinal Beaton, and was consecrated in 1546. In the autumn of 1552 he was at Paris on public business, but he took no active part in politics. While he was bishop the church of Scotland was converted from Roman catholicism to protestantism. At first Gordon resisted the conversion, but he did not persevere. The dean and chapter of Aberdeen exhorted him (January 1558) 'for reformation to be made, and stanching of heresies pullulant within the diocie of Aberdeen … to shew good example … in special in removing … the gentlewoman by whom he was greatly slandered … without which being done,' they add, 'divers that are partners' (in similar guilt) 'say they cannot accept correction of one who will not correct ​himself.' Thirteen years later Gordon, with consent of his chapter, granted a charter of lands to Janet Knowles (probably the gentlewoman aforesaid) and to six persons who bear his surname, and were certainly his children. He made some efforts to protect the cathedral plate and jewels, and many of his alienations of the lands and revenues of the see were perhaps meant only to put them in safe keeping till the storm had blown over. He survived the Reformation (1560) seventeen years till his death, and exercised the temporal functions of his office. He gave charters of church lands, and sat in the Scottish parliament of 1567. When he died (6 Aug. 1577) he was buried in his cathedral. He was immediately succeeded by David Cunningham, sub-dean of Glasgow, the first protestant bishop of Aberdeen, who was consecrated 11 Nov. 1577. Spotiswood says of Gordon that 'he gave hopes at first of a virtuous man, but afterwards turned a very epicure, spending all his time in drinking and whoring.'
J. C.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Gordon, Theodore

​GORDON, THEODORE (1786–1845), inspector of army hospitals, was born in Aberdeenshire, and studied arts and medicine at King's College, Aberdeen, and at Edinburgh, at which latter he graduated M.A. in 1802. In 1803, when eighteen years of age, he was appointed assistant-surgeon in the army, and soon after joined the 91st highland infantry, accompanying the regiment to Germany in 1805. He saw service also in the Peninsula, and escaped shipwreck in the Douro (one of seven survivors) while in charge of invalids from Sir J. Moore's army. He became surgeon to the 2nd battalion 89th regiment, and afterwards to the 4th regiment (King's Own), along with which he joined Wellington in the Peninsula, was present at Salamanca, Vittoria, Badajoz, San Sebastian, and Burgos, and was promoted to the rank of staff-surgeon. Having been badly wounded in crossing the frontier into France, he was brought home and was invalided for a year. He resumed ​duty at Chelsea Hospital as staff-surgeon, had charge of a hospital at Brussels, after Waterloo, and joined Wellington's staff in Paris, where he was promoted to be physician to the forces. After the peace he was chosen by Sir J. MacGrigor to be professional assistant at the medical board of the war office, and spent the remaining thirty years of his life in that administrative capacity. In 1836 he attained the rank of deputy-inspector-general of hospitals. He died at Brighton on 30 March 1845. In 1822 he married Miss Barclay, niece of Major-general Sir R. Barclay, K.C.B.
[Gent. Mag. June 1845.]
C. C.