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

​GILES, NATHANIEL (d. 1634), composer, was born in or near Worcester about the middle of the sixteenth century, and was a chorister at Magdalen College, Oxford, from 1567 to 1571. In 1577 he was clerk in the same chapel, but remained there only one year. He took the degree of Mus.B. at Oxford on 26 June 1585, and on 1 Oct. 1595 became organist and master of the choristers at St. George's Chapel, Windsor. In June 1597 he succeeded William Hunnis as a gentleman of the Chapel Royal and master of the children. Hawkins's statement that on the ​accession of Charles I he received the appointment of one of the organists of the Chapel Royal appears to be without foundation, as the Cheque Book contains no mention of such an appointment. He applied in 1607 for the degree of Mus.D., but, ‘for some unknown reason’ (Hawkins), declined to perform his exercise, and the degree was not conferred upon him until 5 July 1622, when it was proposed that he should dispute with William Heyther on three questions concerning music. The fact that the dispute did not take place may be perhaps explained by Heyther's insufficient knowledge of music, for it is beyond question that his exercise had to be written for him by his friend Orlando Gibbons [q. v.] It was certainly due to no lack of learning on Giles's part, for his ‘Lesson of Descant of thirtie-eighte Proportions of sundrie kindes’ on the plain-song ‘Miserere’ (quoted by Hawkins) is a monument of erudition, and is no doubt the cause of Burney's attack on him as a pedant and nothing else. Two inscriptions at Windsor show that he died on 24 Jan. and was buried 2 Feb. 1633–4. The longer of these gives various erroneous statements concerning the tenure of his offices; it also states that his wife was Anne, eldest daughter of John Stayner of Worcestershire.
Though few in number Giles's compositions seem to have enjoyed a wide popularity. His service in C and his five-part anthem ‘O give thanks unto the Lord’ were printed in Barnard's collection, and are found in many of the manuscript collections of church music. Blow's manuscript in the Fitzwilliam Museum at Cambridge gives a ‘new service’ (evening only) in ‘A re,’ and a verse anthem ‘I will magnify,’ besides the two more familiar works, and in the Brit. Mus. Addit. MS. 29372 there is a five-part madrigal, ‘Cease now vain thoughts.’ Giles was noted for his religious life and conversation. A son of his, of the same name, was canon of Windsor and prebendary of Worcester.
[Grove's Dict. i. 595; Bloxam's Registers of Magdalen College, i. 15, &c.; Hawkins's History, ed. 1853, pp. 573, 574, 961; Burney's History, iii. 324; Wood's Fasti, vol. ii. col. 405; Catal. Fitzwilliam Museum; Old Cheque Book, Chapel Royal.]
J. A. F. M.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Gilderdale, John

1904 Errata appended.
​GILDERDALE, JOHN (d. 1864), divine, was educated at Howden grammar school in Yorkshire. His tastes were early disposed towards a seafaring life, but he eventually adopted a literary and scholastic profession. On the completion of his school career he matriculated from St. Catharine's Hall, Cambridge, where he graduated B.A. in 1826, proceeded to his degree of M.A. in 1830, and to that of B.D. in 1853. He proceeded ‘ad eundem’ in the university of Oxford 25 June 1847. After leaving Cambridge he was appointed lecturer of the parish church of Halifax, Yorkshire, through the influence of Dr. Musgrave, archdeacon of Craven. This office, however, he resigned on being presented to the living of Walthamstow, where he was also principal and trustee of the Forest School in that parish. He died at Candle Stourton, Dorsetshire, on 25 Sept. 1864, in the sixty-second year of his age.
Gilderdale published:
* ‘An Essay on Natural Religion and Revelation, considered with regard to the legitimate use and proper limitation of Reason,’ London, 1837, 8vo. This work is dedicated to the Rev. William Dealtry, D.D. [q. v.], rector of Clapham and chancellor of the diocese of Winchester.
* ‘A Course of Family Prayers for one month, with Short Forms for several occasions, dedicated to the Ven. Charles Musgrave, Prebendary of York and Vicar of Halifax.’ London, 1838, 12mo.
* ‘A Letter to Lord Brougham on National Education,’ London, 1838, 8vo.
[Gent. Mag. 1864, pt. ii. p. 661; Foster's Alumni Oxon.; Guardian, October 1864.]
W. F. W. S.
Dictionary of National Biography, Errata (1904), p.135 N.B.— f.e. stands for from end and l.l. for last line
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# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Benet (d.1226)

appears to be duplicated at Sansetun, Benedict of
​BENET or BENEDICTUS, Magister (d. 1226), bishop of Rochester, first emerges into history in connection with the struggle between William de Longchamp, bishop of Ely, chancellor and chief justice, and regent of the kingdom during the absence of Richard I in the Holy Land, and the Earl of Moreton, afterwards King John. Upon the deposition of Longchamp from his offices in 1191, the custody of the great seal was given to Benet. The pope having authorised Longchamp to use the weapon of excommunication against his enemies, Benet was accorded a place at the end of the list of those upon whom the bishops were ordered to execute the papal mandate. The bishops, however, refused to comply, and the Earl of Moreton retaliated by confiscating the lands of the ex-chancellor. Benet was precentor of St. Paul's, and was appointed bishop of Rochester, 1214-15. He died 21 Dec. 1226.
J. M. R.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Benhyem, Hugo de

​BENHYEM, HUGO de, or BENHAM, HUGH (d. 1282), bishop of Aberdeen, succeeded Richard Pottock in the see in 1272. After his election he went to Rome, and was consecrated by Pope Martin IV. Shortly after his return to Scotland he was made arbiter of a dispute about tithes between the clergy and the laity of the kingdom, and in a provincial council held at Perth was successful in effecting an arrangement of the difference. He died in 1282 at Loch Goul (now called Bishops Loch, in the parish of New Machar), where the bishops had their lodging before the canonry was erected. Boethius ascribes his death to sudden suffocation from catarrh, but according to another tradition he was slain in an ambuscade. He was the author of 'Provincialium Statutorum Sanctiones' and 'Novæ Episcoporum Prærogativæ.'
[Boethius's Aberdonensium Episcoporum Vitæ, fo. iii.; Dempster's Hist. Eccl. Gent. Scot. (1627), p. 105; Collections for Aberdeen (Spalding Club, 1843), i. 161, 236, 268, 467, 469; Tanner's Bibl. Brit. p. 96.]
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Benefacta, Richard

​BENEFACTA, RICHARD. [See Fitzgilbert, Richard.]
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Benet (1563-1611)

​BENET, Father (1563–1611), Capuchin friar. [See Canfield, Benedict.]
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Benese, Richard

​BENESE, RICHARD (d. 1546), canon of the Augustinian priory of Merton, supplicated for the degree of B.C.L. at Oxford 6 July 1619 (Reg. Oxf. Hist. Soc. i. 110). He signed the surrender of the Augustinian priory of Merton to Henry VIII on 16 April 1538. He had previously written a book upon the art and science of surveying land, the title of which is as follows : 'This boke sheweth the maner of measurynge of all maner of lande, as well of woodlande, as of lande in the felde, newly invented and compyled by Syr Rycharde Benese, chanon of Marton Abbay besyde [L]ondon.' The book was prepared for the press by Thomas Paynell, also a canon of Merton, and was printed by James Nicholson at Southwark. Its probable date is 1537. This first edition is more complete than a later one, which omits the tables for the calculation of dimensions.
The subsequent history of the author is obscure. The name occurs as the holder of the following benefices and dignities, but whether this represents two or more different persons is uncertain: (1 ) clerk in the diocese of Hereford, 1514; (2) parson of Woodborough,Sarum dioc. 1511 to 1515; (3) precentor of Hereford, 11 Nov. 1538 to end of 1546; (4) prebendary of Farrendon, Linc., 20 April 1542; (5) parson of Longlednam, Lincolnshire; (6) rector of Long Ditton, Surrey, 11 Feb. 1542; (7) rector of All Hallows, Honey Lane, 11 Oct. 1540.
That the church of Long Ditton was in the patronage of Merton Priory, and that the next rector of All Hallows was Thomas Paynell,the editor of Benese's book, are reasons of some weight for supposing that these two benefices were held by the same person, the subject of this notice; but the will of the rector of Long Ditton (Alen. 31, 47), dated3 Nov. 1546, and proved 20 Oct. 1547, says nothing of the testator's holding other benefices. A brother, Edward, and a sister,Elizabeth, married to Ric. Skynner, are mentioned therein. It will be noticed that the precentor of Hereford died at the end of 1546,about the same time as the rector of Long Ditton. But it is hardly safe, without further evidence, to do more than point out these coincidences.
C. T. M.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Filbie, William

​FILBIE, WILLIAM (1555?–1582), catholic priest, was born at Oxford about 1555, and educated in Lincoln College, but not liking the established religion he forsook the university, and went to the English College of Douay, then temporarily removed to Rheims. On 25 March 1581 he was ordained priest in the church of St. Mary at Rheims, by the bishop of Châlons-sur-Marne, and soon afterwards he returned to England upon the mission. He was apprehended at Henley while incautiously attempting to speak to Father Edmund Campion, who was being conducted to London with other prisoners (Simpson, Edmund Campion, p. 228). They were all committed to the Tower, 22 July 1581. Filbie was arraigned and condemned on 20 Nov., together with three other priests. They were executed at Tyburn on 30 May 1582. While Filbie was under the scaffold the sheriff told him he had orders to reprieve him if he would own the crime he was charged with and conform to the established church, but Filbie refused to save his life on such conditions.
An account of his death, by an eye-witness, is printed in Cardinal Allen's ‘Briefe Historie of the Martyrdom of 12 reuerend Priests, executed within these twelue Monthes for Confession and Defence of Catholicke Faith, but vnder false Pretence of Treason,’ 1582, 8vo.
Filbie's name is included in the list of English martyrs who were beatified by a decree of Pope Leo XIII, dated 29 Dec. 1886.
T. C.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Fife, John

​FIFE, Sir JOHN (1795–1871), surgeon, was born at Newcastle-on-Tyne in 1795, his father being a medical man of Scotch origin, practising at Newcastle. After qualifying as a member of the London College of Surgeons, he was for a short time an army assistant-surgeon at Woolwich, but returned to Newcastle in 1815, and commenced practice with his father. As a practitioner, and especially as a surgeon, he took a leading position in his town and throughout the northern counties, being remarkable for his punctuality and for the long distances he would ride in all weathers. In 1834 he took an active part in founding the Newcastle School of Medicine, in which he long lectured on surgery, being also surgeon to the Newcastle Infirmary. He was a successful lithotomist and a very cool and confident operator. He became fellow of the College of Surgeons in 1844.
Fife's distinction as a local politician was even greater than his mark as a surgeon. He was an advanced liberal, and in his early days was stigmatised as a chartist. In 1831 he was active in forming the northern political union, which agitated in favour of the Reform Bill. Fife's stirring speeches had a great effect at this time. In 1835 he was elected one of the first members of the new corporation of Newcastle, and was immediately chosen alderman. In 1838–9 he was mayor, and when the chartist outbreak of July 1839 took place he displayed conspicuous courage and good judgment in suppressing it. For this he was knighted in 1840. In 1843 he was again mayor, and presided at a great meeting on 22 Jan. 1843, addressed by Mr. Cobden, in furtherance of the Anti-Cornlaw agitation. He continued a member of the corporation till 1863. He was one of the most influential promoters of the volunteer ​movement in Newcastle in 1859, and became lieutenant-colonel of the local regiment, resigning his post in 1868, and receiving a silver centrepiece value 100l. as a testimonial from the regiment. He was for some years president of the Newcastle Mechanics' Institution, and supported many educational and other measures for the benefit of the working classes. After a life of great activity, Fife suffered from stone in the bladder, which was removed by Sir W. Fergusson in 1870, but he was compelled to retire from practice. On 15 Jan. 1871 he was attacked by paralysis, and died next day at Reedsmouth, North Tyne, aged 75. He married a Miss Bainbridge, by whom he had several children, including four sons. Personally, Fife was held in warm regard by men of all parties. He was frank, openhearted, and generous, courtly in manner and neat in person.
G. T. B.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Fife, Earls of

​FIFE, Earls of. [See Duff, James, second Earl, 1729-1809; Duff, James, fourth Earl, 1776-1857; Macduff, Thane and Earl.]
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Filcock, Roger

​FILCOCK, ROGER (d. 1601), jesuit, a native of Sandwich, Kent, arrived at the English College of Douay, then temporarily removed to Rheims, on 15 June 1588, and was enrolled among the grammarians and batelers. On 29 Sept. 1590 he was sent with nine other students to colonise the seminary of St. Alban, which had just been founded at Valladolid by Philip II of Spain (Douay Diaries, p. 234). After his ordination he petitioned to be sent on the English mission. He had long desired to enter the Society of Jesus, but Father Henry Garnett, the superior, from prudential motives declined to admit him until he had had two years' experience of the English mission, to which he was sent in 1598. At the expiration of that time he entered the society and was about to proceed to Flanders for his two years' noviceship, when he was apprehended and committed to Newgate, where he made a brief probation of a few months instead. On 23 Feb. 1600–1 he was arraigned, under the statute of 27 Elizabeth, for being a priest and coming into this realm. He was convicted upon the bare suspicion of his being a priest, for he neither admitted nor denied that he was one, and no evidence was produced. He was executed at Tyburn on 27 Feb. 1601. Mark Barkworth [q. v.], a Benedictine monk, and Mrs. Ann Line suffered at the same time. Filcock's portrait has been engraved.
T. C.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Fiennes, John

1904 Errata appended.
​FIENNES, JOHN (fl. 1657), parliamentarian, was the third son of William, first viscount Saye and Sele [q. v.] At the outbreak of the civil war he commanded a troop of horse in the army of the Earl of Essex (Peacock, Army Lists, p. 55, 2nd ed.) He took part with his brother Nathaniel in the unsuccessful attack on Worcester in September 1642, and in February 1643 was sent with him to garrison Bristol (A Full Declaration concerning the March of the Forces under Colonel Fiennes, 1643, p. 1). He was present at the surrender of that city in the following June, defended his brother's conduct in capitulating, and assaulted one of the witnesses against him for impugning it (Prynne, A True Relation of Colonel Fiennes, his Trial, Depositions, p. 12). Some time during the summer of 1643 he obtained a commission as colonel of a regiment of horse, and is henceforth prominent in the civil war in the district round Oxford. He besieged Banbury from 27 Aug. 1644 to 25 Oct. of the same year, when the siege was raised by the Earl of Northampton and Colonel Gage (Sanderson, Charles I, pp. 729, 730; Mercurius Aulicus, 20, 25 Oct. 1644). In April 1645 Fiennes was for a time under the command of Cromwell, who specially commends him in a letter to the committee of both kingdoms, 28 April 1645: ‘His diligence is great, and this I must testify, that I find no man more ready to all services than himself. … I find him a gentleman of that fidelity to you and so conscientious that he would all his troop were as religious and civil as any, and makes it a great part of his care to get them so’ (Carlyle, Cromwell, Appendix, No. 7). At the battle of Naseby he fought on the right wing, under the command of Cromwell, and was entrusted with the duty of conducting the royalist prisoners to London (Rushworth, vi. 32). He was elected M.P. for Morpeth in 1645. In 1657 Fiennes was summoned by Cromwell to his House of Lords. A republican pamphleteer describes him as ‘such a one as they call a sectary, but no great stickler,’ and adds that he was entirely under the influence of his brother Nathaniel (Harleian Miscellany, iii. 486). He survived the Restoration, and escaped all penalties for his political conduct. Fiennes married Susannah, daughter of Thomas Hobbs of Amwell Magna in Hertfordshire. Lawrence, his son by her, became in 1710 fifth Viscount Saye and Sele (Collins, Peerage, ed. Brydges, vii. 22, 24, 32). Fiennes's wife died at Bath 22 July 1715, aged 58, and was buried at Broughton.
C. H. F.
Dictionary of National Biography, Errata (1904), p.122 N.B.— f.e. stands for from end and l.l. for last line
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# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Johnston, Alexander James

​JOHNSTON, ALEXANDER JAMES (1820–1888), puisne judge of the supreme court, New Zealand, eldest son of James S. Johnston of Wood Hill, Kinnellar, Aberdeenshire, was born at Kinnellar in 1820. He entered at Lincoln's Inn 12 Nov. 1838, migrated to the Middle Temple 21 Dec. 1842, and was called to the bar by the latter society 27 Jan. 1843. He practised for several years in Westminster Hall, and went on the northern circuit until 1857, when he was appointed deputy-recorder of Leeds. He went out to New Zealand in 1859; was appointed one of the judges of the supreme court in the Wellington district in the following year, and in 1876 was transferred to the Canterbury district. As judge he tried the greater part of the native prisoners during the Te Kooti and Tito Kowaru wars. He also tried the Mūngatapū murderers. Johnston occupied a dignified position during the Maori panic of 1869, opposing the outcry for summary trials by court-martial and quoting with great effect the words of Chief-justice Cockburn (in Regina v. Nelson and Brand) against lightly superseding the ordinary tribunals (see Rusden, History of New Zealand, ii. 551). He was chief justice of New Zealand for the two years, 1867 and 1886. He was a member of several commissions ​ appointed for legal purposes, the most important being the Statute Law Consolidation Commission, which met in 1879. Johnston returned to England for the benefit of his health in the spring of 1888, and died there on 1 June in the same year.
Johnston published: 1. ‘A Lecture on the Influence of Art upon Human Happiness,’ Napier, 1861, 8vo. 2. ‘Reports of Cases determined in the Courts of Appeal,’ 1867, 8vo. 3. ‘The New Zealand Justice of the Peace, Resident Magistrate, Coroner, and Constable,’ Wellington, 1879, 8vo.
T. S.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Johnson, Thomas Burgeland

​JOHNSON, THOMAS BURGELAND (d. 1840), writer on field-sports, was a printer in Liverpool, who after taking to literary ​pursuits removed to London in 1834, in the hope of improving his prospects, and died there on 5 May 1840. A wife and daughter survived him. He was an accomplished sportsman. His earliest published work, which appeared in 1814, was ‘An Impartial History of Europe from the Death of Louis XVI to the Present Time,’ 8vo; but he chiefly devoted himself to sporting subjects. In his ‘Shooter's Preceptor’ (no date) he mentions percussion caps, and praises the wire cartridge. ‘The Shooter's Companion’ appeared in 1819. ‘The Hunting Directory’ (1826) quotes largely from Somerville and Beckford, and treats of fox-hunting, with a chapter on wolf and boar hunting in France. His most valuable work, ‘The Sportsman's Cyclopædia’ (1831), is sensibly written, forms an epitome of sporting knowledge at the date of its publication, and contains excellent engravings by the Landseers, Herring, Cooper, and Reinagle. Johnson's portrait forms the frontispiece. ‘Physiological Observations on Mental Susceptibilities in Man and Brutes,’ a dull work by ‘T. B. Johnson,’ 1837, is also assigned to him, together with a novel entitled ‘The Mystery of the Abbey.’
M. G. W.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Johnston, Alexander (1816-1891)

​JOHNSTON, ALEXANDER (1815–1891), painter, born at Edinburgh in 1815, was son of an architect, who placed him at the age of fifteen with a seal-engraver in that city. He was a student in the Trustees' Academy there from 1831 to 1834, when he came to London with an introduction to Sir David Wilkie. In accordance with Wilkie's recommendation he entered the schools of the Royal Academy under W. Hilton in 1836. While in Edinburgh he had chiefly devoted himself to portrait-painting, and he brought with him to London some portraits of Dr. Morison's family, which he exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1836 and 1837. In 1838 he exhibited there his first subject picture, ‘The Mother's Prayer,’ and sent his ‘Scotch Lovers’ to the Society of British Artists. In 1839 his picture of ‘The Mother's Grave’ at the Royal Academy attracted favourable notice, while ‘The Gentle Shepherd’ (1840) and ‘Sunday Morning’ (1841) (formerly in the Bicknell collection and engraved by F. Bromley) established his popularity. In 1841 he exhibited his first historical picture, ‘The Interview of the Regent Murray with Mary Queen of Scots,’ which was purchased by the Edinburgh Art Union. In later years he was a frequent contributor to all the principal exhibitions. ‘The Covenanter's Marriage’ (1842) was engraved by C. Lightfoot for ‘Gems of Modern Art.’ ‘A Scene from the Lady of the Lake’ obtained a premium of 50l. from the Liverpool Academy in 1849, and ‘Prince Charles's Introduction to Flora Macdonald after the Battle of Culloden’ was awarded by the Glasgow Art Union a premium which the painter declined. In 1845 Johnston exhibited ‘Archbishop Tillotson administering the Sacrament to Lord William Russell in the Tower,’ which was purchased by Mr. Vernon, formed part of ‘The Vernon Gallery,’ and is now in the National Gallery (engraved by T. L. Atkinson and C. H. Jeens). Johnston was still an exhibitor in 1884. He died at 21 Carlingford Road, Hampstead, after a short illness, on 2 Feb. 1891. His son, Douglas Johnston, a musician of some promise in Glasgow, predeceased him.
L. C.