OpenLLM-France/wikimedia huggingface dataset:
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Stevens, Richard John Samuel

​STEVENS, RICHARD JOHN SAMUEL (1757–1837), musician, was born in London, 27 March 1757, and was a choirboy at St. Paul's under Richard Savage. At an early age he formed a friendship with Samuel Birch [q. v.], which lasted all his life, and was of great service to him. On the breaking of his voice Stevens studied the organ, and soon distinguished himself as a glee-composer, winning one of the Catch Club's prizes in 1782 with the serious glee, ‘See what horrid Tempests rise.’ In 1786 Stevens again took the prize for a serious glee, with his setting of ‘It was a Lover and his Lass.’ In the same year he was appointed organist at the Temple Church, in succession to John Stanley [q. v.], and published three sonatas for the harpsichord. These sonatas are in two movements, and are bright, spirited, and effective music, with not much invention. During the next few years were composed most of Stevens's glees, in the selection of words for which he was much helped by Birch. Stevens published three sets of glees, and in Warren's collections there are nine glees and a catch by him. In 1796 he became organist at the Charterhouse, and in 1801, by Birch's influence, he was appointed Gresham professor. These two posts he retained till his death. In 1802 he edited a collection of sacred music, in three volumes folio, intended for private performance, and dedicated to the archbishop of Canterbury. It was mainly drawn from Handel, Greene, Purcell, and Italian composers of the eighteenth century, and was an admirable selection, but the compositions are somewhat freely arranged. Stevens was for sixty years a member of the Royal Society of Musicians. He died, after a long illness, at Peckham, on 23 Sept. 1837. His valuable library, containing a collection of glees in sixteen volumes, and a quantity of rare old English musical literature, he bequeathed to the Royal Academy of Music.
Many of Stevens's glees retain their popularity, but they exhibit a feature (new in the composer's own day) which ultimately destroyed glee-writing. Instead of using the style practised by Webbe and his contemporaries, in which there is quite independent work for each individual voice, Stevens composed a melody for one voice accompanied in simple harmony by the others, thus approximating to the modern part-song. In one case he even added an obbligato accompaniment for the harp. Occasionally he followed the true glee style, but all his best known works, ‘From Oberon in Fairy Land,’ ‘Sigh no more, Ladies,’ ‘The cloud-capt Towers,’ ‘Crabbed Age and Youth,’ ‘Blow, blow, thou wintry Wind,’ show the tendency to a harmonised melody, to homophony rather than polyphony. In ‘Ye spotted Snakes,’ Stevens very cleverly adapted sonata-form to vocal music. Excellent remarks upon ‘Blow, blow, thou wintry Wind’ may be seen in G. F. Waagen's ‘Kunstwerke und Künstler in England’ (English translation, 1838, p. 71). Several of Stevens's glees have been arranged by Hullah and others for a mixed chorus, for which they are well adapted.
H. D.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Mitchell, John (fl.1556)

​MITCHELL or MYCHELL, JOHN (fl. 1556), printer, pursued his trade in St. Paul, Canterbury. From 'A Cronicle of Yeres' (1543 and 1544) he compiled, with large additions, 'A breviat Cronicle contaynynge all the Kinges from Brut to this daye, and manye notable actes gathered oute of diuers Cronicles from Willyam Conquerour vnto the yere of Christ a. M. V. c. 1. ii.,' 8vo, Canterbury, 1551; another edit. 1553. In a quaint dedication to Sir Anthony Aucher, master of the king's jewel-house, whom he asks to aid him in improving the next issue of the book, he implores his friends and brother-printers to suffer him quietly to enjoy the benefit of his labours. His request was apparently disregarded, as his book was reissued at other presses at London in 1555, 1556, 1559, and about 1561.
Mitchell printed at Canterbury:
* 'The Psalter … after the translacion of the great Bible,' 4to, 1549 and 1550.
* 'A Treatise of Predestination,' by John Lambert, 8vo, 1550.
* 'Two Dyaloges wrytten in laten by Desiderius Erasmus, translated in to Englyshe by Edmund Becke,' 8vo (1550).
* 'Articles to be enquired in thordinary Visitacion of ... the Lord Cardinall Poole's Grace, Archebyshop of Canterburie within hys Dioces of Canterbury, 1556,' 4to, 1556.
* 'A shorte Epistle to all such as do contempne the Marriage of us poor Preestes,' 16mo, undated.
* 'The spirituall Matrimonye betwene Chryste and the Soul,' 24mo, undated.
* 'An Exposytion upon the Epistyll of Saynt Paul to
* 'The Confession of Fayth, writtyn in Latyn by Ph. Melanchton … translated … by Robert Syngylton,' 8vo, undated.
* 'Newes from Rome concerning the blasphemous sacrifice of the papisticall Masse,' by Randall Hurlestone, 8vo, undated, but about 1560.
[Tanner's Bibl. Brit.; Watt's Bibl. Brit.; Cat. of Books in Brit. Mus. to 1640.]
G. G.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Mitchell, William Henry Fancourt

​MITCHELL, Sir WILLIAM HENRY FANCOURT (1811–1884), Australian politician, born in England in 1811, was son of George Berkley Mitchell, vicar of St. Mary's from 1813, and of All Saints' from 1820, both parishes of the town of Leicester. At an early age William was sent out to Tasmania, where on 2 April 1833 he was appointed writer in the colonial secretary's office, becoming on 1 Aug. 1839 assistant colonial secretary. In 1840 he went over to Port Phillip district (afterwards Victoria), and entered on an active squatter's life near Kyneton and Mount Macedon. On 1 Jan. 1853, when the discovery of gold in Port Phillip threw the whole district into disorder, he was specially invited by the lieutenant-governor to take the supreme command of the police. In this capacity, receiving almost unlimited powers, he reorganised the force on a new basis, restored order in the gold districts, and stamped out bush-ranging. In 1855 private affairs took him back to England.
On his return to Victoria in September 1856 he was elected to the legislative council as one of the five original members for the North-Western Province, and joined the Haines ministry—the first under responsible government—representing it for six months in the upper chamber without portfolio. In Haines's next administration he was postmaster-general from April 1857 to March 1858, and is credited with a complete reform of the post-office. In 1858 he was defeated at the polls and was out of parliament for a short time, but in 1860 he was again elected to the council for the North- Western Province, and in December 1861 became commissioner of railways in O'Shanassy's administration, which lasted till June 1863. Throughout the sessions of 1866-8 he devoted special attention to the bill respecting the constitution of the legislative council, which became law September 1868. In 1869 he was elected chairman of committees in the legislative council, and in 1870 the president of the council. In this capacity he served till his death, through a period of considerable anxiety, leading the opposition of the council to the assembly in the disputes with the government of Sir James McCulloch [q. v.] as to the protective tariff and the Darling grant, and again respecting payment of members. As president he distinguished himself by the vigour of his ruling.
In 1875 Mitchell was knighted. During his last years he used crutches. He died at his residence, Barfold, near Kyneton, on 24 Nov. 1884. The house of assembly as well as the council adjourned as a mark of respect—the first time that it had ever adjourned in ​consequence of the death of a member of the other chamber.
He was at the time of his death a large landed proprietor near Kyneton and the chairman of R. Goldsborough & Co.
C. A. H.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Mitchell, John Mitchell

​MITCHELL, JOHN MITCHELL (1789–1865), antiquary, was the second son of John Mitchell of Falkirk, where he was born in 1789. Sir Thomas Livingstone Mitchell [q. v.] was his brother. He was educated at the Polmont school in Falkirk, and subsequently at the university of Edinburgh. For nearly half a century he was engaged in business as a merchant at Leith, and for some time acted as consul-general for Belgium. Nevertheless Mitchell found time for the study of archaeology, natural history, and mineralogy, and was a student of Scandinavian languages and literature. He was fellow (and joint secretary for its foreign correspondence) of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland, of the Royal Physical Society, and the Royal Society of Northern Antiquaries of Denmark, contributing to the 'Transactions' of each many valuable papers. He lived on terms of friendly intercourse with the king of Denmark and the king of the Belgians, and received from the latter the gold medal of the order of Leopold. Mitchell died at his ​residence, Mayville, Trinity, near Edinburgh, on 24 April 1865. He was unmarried.
Mitchell's chief works were: 1. 'Mesehowe: Illustrations of the Runic Literature of Scandinavia,' Edinburgh, 1863, 4to, including translations in Danish and English of inscriptions found in the mound of Mesehowe in Orkney, opened in 1861. 2. 'The Herring, its Natural History and National Importance,' Edinburgh, 1864, 8vo, an elaborate work, embodying the study and research of many years, and constituting an authority on the subject to which it relates; it is an expansion of a paper which gained the medal offered by the Royal Scottish Society of Arts. He was also author of a pamphlet 'On British Commercial Legislation in reference to the Tariff on Import Duties, and the injustice of interfering with the Navigation Laws,' Edinburgh, 1849, 8vo; 2nd edition, 1852.
[Works in Brit. Mus. Libr.; Cat. Advocates' Libr.; Proc. Soc. of Antiquaries of Scotland, passim; Gent. Mag. 1865, pt. i. pp. 796–7.]
W. C. S.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Mitchell, Joseph

​MITCHELL, JOSEPH (1684–1738), dramatist, son of a Scottish stonemason, was born in 1684. After receiving (according to Cibber) a university education in Scotland, he settled in London, where he secured the patronage of the Earl of Stair and Sir Robert Walpole, and by his steady dependence earned the title of 'Sir Robert Walpole's Poet.' Constantly improvident, he speedily squandered 1,000l. received at his wife's death. Literary friends as well as noblemen helped him, and once in his distress Aaron Hill presented to him a one-act drama, 'The Fatal Extravagance,' which was performed at Lincoln's Inn Fields 21 April 1721, repeated at Dublin the same year, and printed in Mitchell's name in 1726 (Genest, iii. 63). Ultimately, however, Mitchell disclosed the transaction, which is something to set against Cibber's estimate of him as 'vicious and dishonest,' 'governed by every gust of irregular appetite.' Discourtesy seems to have been among his characteristics, for he returned to Thomson a copy of 'Winter,' together with the couplet,
Beauties and faults so thick lie scattered here,
Those I could read if these were not so near.
Thomson winced under his criticism, and writing to Mallet in 1726 called him a 'planet-blasted fool' (Appendix to Sir Harris Nicolas's 'Life of Thompson' in Aldine Poets). Cibber mentions that Thomson pinned Mitchell in an epigram as a critic with a 'blasted eye,' but on learning that his victim was really captus altero oculo he wrote—
Why all not faults, injurious Mitchell! why
Appears one beauty to thy blasting eye?
Pope is said, at Mitchell's own request, to have erased his name from the first draft of the 'Dunciad.' Mitchell died 6 Feb. 1738.
Mitchell's 'Poems on Several Occasions,' in 2 vols. 8vo, were published in 1729, and his opera, 'The Highland Fair, or the Union of the Clans,' was performed at Drury Lane 20 March 1731, and is described by Genest as 'a very pleasing piece' (iii. 290). Among his occasional verse a poem called 'The Shoe-heel' was 'much read on account of the low humour it contains;' another, on the subject of Jonah in the whale's belly (1720), was ironically dedicated to Dr. Watts on the ground that it 'was written to raise an emulation among our young poets to attempt divine composures.' His 'Sick-bed Soliloquy to an Empty Purse' appeared both in Latin and English, London (1735), 4to. A tragedy entitled 'The Fate of King James I,' upon which he was said by Mallet to have been engaged in 1721, was apparently never completed. He is represented by two songs in Ramsay's 'Tea Table Miscellany,' 1724; by one in Watts's 'Musical Miscellany,' 1731; by his 'Charms of Indolence,' in Southey's 'Later English Poets,' i, 361, and by several lyrics in Johnson's 'Musical Museum.' As a lyrist Mitchell is fluent, if not always melodious, and his heroic couplets are of average merit. His dramatic sense was not strong.
[Theophilus Cibber's Lives of the Poets, 1753, iv. 347 sq., v. 197; Baker's Biog. Dram. i. 520; Chalmers's Biog. Dict. vol.xxii.; Johnson's Scots Musical Museum, vol. iv. ed. Laing.]
T. B.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Mitchell, Thomas (fl.1735-1790)

​MITCHELL, THOMAS (fl. 1735–1790), marine-painter and naval official, was a shipwright by profession who also practised with some success as a painter of marine subjects. He first exhibited at the Free Society of Artists in 1763, when he was residing on Tower Hill. He exhibited there again in 1768 and the following years, when he was employed as assistant shipbuilder at Chatham dockyard. In 1774 he appears as builder's assistant at Deptford dockyard, and was afterwards employed in the navy office, becoming eventually assistant surveyor of the navy. He exhibited at the Royal Academy from 1774 to 1789. A number of drawings by Mitchell are in the print room at the British Museum, the earliest dated being a view of Westminster Bridge in 1735. Some of his drawings were engraved.
[Redgrave's Dict. of Artists; Graves's Dict. of Artists, 1760-1880; Catalogues of the Free Society of Artists and the Royal Academy.]
L. C.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Mitchell, Robert

​MITCHELL, ROBERT (fl. 1800), architect, resided in London, first in Upper Marylebone Street, and afterwards in Newman Street. In the Royal Academy Exhibitions of 1782 and 1798 he exhibited .designs for ecclesiastical edifices. He designed Silwood Park, near Staines (drawing of west front in Royal Academy Exhibition, 1796, and of staircase 1797, view in Neale, Seats, i. 1818); Heath Lane Lodge, Twickenham; Cottisbroke Hall, Northamptonshire (view in Bridges, Northamptonshire (Whalley), i. 554); Moore Place, near Hertford; Preston Hall, Midlothian (elevation in Royal Academy Exhibition, 1794); and, 1793-4, the Rotunda, Leicester Square, for Robert Barker (1737–1806) [q. v.], who exhibited there his panoramas. The building is now the Roman catholic school of Notre Dame de France.
He published: 'Plans and Views in Perspective, with Descriptions of Buildings erected in England and Scotland; and also an Essay to elucidate the Grecian, Roman, and Gothic Architecture, accompanied with ​Designs,' London, 1801, in English and French. The work contains views of the buildings mentioned above.
B. P.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Mitchell, William (1811-1878)

​MITCHELL, Sir WILLIAM (1811–1878), maritime writer, son of John Mitchell of Modbury in Devon, was born at Modbury in 1811. At an early age he came to London as a journalist, was for some time on the 'True Sun,' and from 1836 was chief proprietor and editor of the 'Shipping and Mercantile Gazette,' a daily paper which he established, and which at once took the high position it has since maintained. In 1840 he began to urge the importance, and indeed the necessity, of compulsory examinations for officers of merchant ships; and it was mainly in consequence of his action that the Mercantile Marine Act of 1850 was passed (13 & 14 Vict. cap. 93). In 1857 he was called on to advise with the registrar-general of seamen in the preparation of the measure for the royal naval reserve, which eventually took form in the act of 1859 'for the Establishment of a Reserve Volunteer Force of Seamen, and for the Government of the same' (22 & 23 Vict. cap. 40). He succeeded in introducing an international code of signals, which was gradually adopted by every maritime country, and in establishing signal stations for reporting the movements of all ships using the international code. In reward for his public services he was knighted in 1867, and in 1869 was nominated by the king of Sweden a knight commander of the order of St. Olaf. He edited ' A Review of the Merchant Shipping Bill, being a Series of Leading Articles . . . from the " Shipping and Mercantile Gazette,"' 1869, 8vo, and < Maritime Notes and Queries, a Record of Shipping Law and 1873-6, 4to. He died at Strode, near Ivybridge, Devonshire, on 1 May 1878. He married in 1835 Caroline, eldest daughter of Richard Andrews of Modbury.
[Men of the Reign; Times, 4 May 1878.]
J. K. L.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Lanyon, William Owen

1904 Errata appended.
​LANYON, Sir WILLIAM OWEN (1842–1887), colonel, colonial administrator, born in county Antrim on 21 July 1842, was eldest surviving son of Sir Charles Lanyon [q. v.], kt., of The Abbey, White Abbey, county Antrim, by his wife, Elizabeth Helen, daughter of Jacob Owen of the board of works, Dublin. He was educated at Bromsgrove, Worcestershire, and on 21 Dec. 1860 was gazetted ensign by purchase in the 6th royal Warwickshire regiment, with which he served in Jamaica during the native disturbances in 1865. The same year he was appointed aide-de-camp to the general commanding the troops in the West Indies. He purchased his lieutenancy, 6th foot, in 1866, exchanged to the 2nd West India regiment, and in 1868 purchased a company. He was aide-de-camp and private secretary to Sir John Peter Grant, K.C.B., governor of Jamaica from 1868 to 1873. In 1873, and until invalided in January 1874, he served as aide-de-camp to Sir Garnet (now Lord) Wolseley in the Ashantee campaign (brevet of major, medal). In 1874 he was despatched by the colonial office to the Gold Coast on a special mission in connection with the abolition of slavery, for which he was made C.M.G. The year after he was appointed administrator of Griqualand West (diamond fields). He raised and commanded the volunteer force there during the Griqua outbreak and the invasion in 1878 of the Batlapin chief, Botlasitsie, whom he defeated repeatedly and finally subdued. He received the thanks of the home government and the Cape legislature (C.B., Kaffir medal, brevet of lieutenant-colonel). He administered the Transvaal from March 1879 to April 1881, and in 1880 he was made K.C.M.G. for his services in South Africa. He served in the Egyptian campaign of 1882 as colonel on the staff and commandant on the base of operations (medal, 3rd class Osmanie and Khedive's medal). He also served with the Nile expedition of 1884–5. Lanyon died at New York, after a long and painful illness, on 6 April 1887, aged 45.
Lanyon married in 1882 Florence, daughter of J. M. Levy of Grosvenor Street, London; she died in 1883.
H. M. C.
Dictionary of National Biography, Errata (1904), p.178 N.B.— f.e. stands for from end and l.l. for last line
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| 141 | ii | 5 | Lanyon, Sir William O.: for 45 read 44 |
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Lanza, Gesualdo

​LANZA, GESUALDO (1779–1859), teacher of music, born in Naples in 1779, was son of Giuseppe Lanza, an Italian composer and author of '6 Arie Notturne con accomp. di Chitarra franc. e V. a piac.,' Naples, 1792, and of six trios, Op. 13, and six canzonets with recit. Op. 14 (London). The father resided during many years in England, and for some time was a private musician to the Marquis of Abercorn. From his father Gesualdo received his first instruction in music, and soon became known in London as a singing-master. Among his pupils may be mentioned Catherine Stephens (1807), afterwards countess of Essex, and Anna Maria Tree (1812), sister-in-law of Charles Kean.
In 1842 Lanza opened singing classes for the better explanation of his theories at 75 Newman Street; the fee was 15s. for twelve lessons. Later in the same year he announced a series of lectures, 'The National School for Singing in Classes, free to the public,' and on 5 Dec. 1842 he delivered 'A Lecture at the Westminster Literary and Scientific Institution illustrative of his new system of Teaching Singing in Classes.'
Lanza published in London in 1817 'one of the best works on the art of singing which has appeared in this country,' under the title 'The Elements of Singing familiarly exemplified.' His other works include 'The Elements of Singing in the Italian and English Styles' (London, 3 vols. 4to, 1809); 'Sunday Evening Recreations' (London, 1840); 'Guide to System of Singing in Classes' (London, 1842). He also composed a 'Stabat Mater,' which is preserved in the library of the Royal College of Music, solfeggi, and songs. He died in London on 12 March 1859.
R. H. L.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Lapidge, Edward

​LAPIDGE, EDWARD (d. 1860), architect, was brought up as an architect, and found employment in the neighbourhood of Hampton Court Palace, where his father was ​employed as chief gardener. In 1808 he sent to the Royal Academy a view of the garden front at Esher Place, in 1814 a drawing for a villa at Hildersham in Cambridgeshire, and a few other drawings in later years. Between 1825 and 1828 he was engaged in building the new bridge over the Thames at Kingston. In 1827 and the two following years he built the church of St. Peter at Hammersmith, and in 1832 the chapel of St. Andrew on Ham Common, Surrey. In 1836 he was an unsuccessful competitor for the new houses of parliament, and in 1837 for the Fitzwilliam Museum at Cambridge. In 1836–7 he made considerable alterations to St. Mary's Church at Putney, and in 1839–40 to All Saints' Church at Fulham. Lapidge was a fellow of the Institute of British Architects, and surveyor of bridges and public works for the county of Surrey. In the latter capacity he executed many works of minor importance. He died early in March 1860. Rear-admiral William Lapidge, who served with great distinction in the Channel squadron, and died 17 July 1860, aged 67, was his brother.
[Dict. of Architecture; Redgrave's Dict. of Artists; Gent. Mag. 1860, pt. ii. p. 324.]
L. C.