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

​WADESON, ANTHONY (fl. 1600), playwright, borrowed, on 13 June 1601, twenty shillings of Philip Henslowe, the theatrical manager, on account of a play on which he was engaged, bearing the title ‘The honourable life of the humorous Earle of Gloster, with his conquest of Portugall’ (Henslowe, Diary, p. 183). The piece, which was to be acted by the Lord Admiral's company, is not known to be extant. But there is reason to believe that the play was the sequel of a comedy which still survives in print. A year before Wadeson was commissioned to write for Henslowe ‘The lyfe of the humorous Earl of Gloster’ there was published ‘A Pleasant Commodie called Looke about You. As it was lately played by … the Lord High Admirall his seruants’ (London, for William Ferbrand, 1600, 4to). In this effective, if somewhat bustling, comedy the ‘fantastical Robert [Earl] of Gloster’—obviously the hero of Wadeson's piece of 1601—was a leading character. At the close of ‘Look about You’ the ‘humorous earl’ announces that he is about to proceed to Portugal on a crusade against ‘the unchrist'ned Saracens.’ These words may be interpreted as a promise on the part of the author to treat in a sequel of the earl's ‘conquest of Portugal.’ Consequently Wadeson, who embodied that topic, according to Henslowe's ‘Diary,’ in his play of 1601, may be regarded as author also of ‘Look about You.’ That piece was probably written for Henslowe between 17 April and 26 May 1599—a period for which his diary is lost. It is reprinted in Dodsley's ‘Old Plays’ (ed. Hazlitt, vii. 385 sqq.).
Henslowe noticed in his ‘Diary’ under dates 9 July and 11 Sept. 1602 that he advanced money to ‘Antony the poet’ for a play (now lost) entitled ‘The Widow's Charm.’ It was suggested by Collier that Henslowe's client on this occasion again was Anthony Wadeson, but it seems more probable that the reference is to Anthony Munday [q. v.]
S. L.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Wadmore, James

​WADMORE, JAMES (1782–1853), connoisseur, was born on 4 Oct. 1782 in the Hampstead Road, London. His father, James Wadmore, was in the stamp office. The son, on leaving a school near Greta Bridge, Yorkshire, obtained a place in the same office, which he resigned to become a land-surveyor. On finishing his apprenticeship, he set up on his own account at Lisson Grove. He began early in life to collect pictures, and his first purchase of importance was Richard Westall's ‘Hagar and Ishmael.’ In 1815 he inherited a fortune from an uncle, and removed to 40 Chapel Street, Marylebone, where he collected pictures by modern English artists, Turner, Wilkie, Webster, and others, and also by old masters. He formed a good collection of English watercolours, as well as prints, books, and manuscripts. He passed the later years of his life at Upper Clapton, where he died on 24 Dec. 1853. He was buried at Highgate. His pictures, 186 in number, of which seventy-five were by old masters, the remainder by modern English painters, were sold at Christie's on 5 and 6 May 1854. The older pictures, with the exception of three by Ruysdael, Dow, and Carracci, fetched small prices. The English collection contained Vincent's masterpiece, ‘Greenwich Hospital,’ with other works by the same painter, and three important Turners—‘Cologne,’ ‘Dieppe Harbour,’ and the ‘Guardship at the Nore’—which realised over five thousand guineas.
C. D.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Wadeson, Richard

​WADESON, RICHARD (1826–1885), colonel, was born at Gaythorse, near Lancaster, on 31 July 1826. On 17 Nov. 1843 he enlisted at Plymouth in the 75th (Stirlingshire) regiment, now the 1st battalion of the Gordon highlanders. He was promoted to corporal on 27 Aug. 1846 and sergeant on 7 Nov. 1848, and embarked for India in the following year. He was sergeant-major of the regiment, to which rank he had been appointed on 24 Feb. 1854, when the Sepoy mutiny broke out in India. The 75th regiment made forced marches from Kussauli, in the Himalayas, to Umballa, where, in May, it formed portion of the ​force ordered to proceed to Delhi, then in the hands of the mutineers. On 2 June of this year, 1857, Wadeson was promoted to a commission as ensign in the regiment, without purchase, and was advanced to the rank of lieutenant on 19 Sept. following. He served with the regiment throughout the mutiny campaign, including the battle of Budleekerserai, when the 75th carried the key of the rebel position by assault. He was present during the siege operations before Delhi and the repulse of the sorties on 12 and 15 June, the repulse of the night attacks on the camp on 19 and 23 June, and 14 and 18 July. On the latter occasion his bravery was most conspicuous. When the regiment was engaged in the Subjee Mundee, at great personal risk he saved the life of a private who was attacked by a rebel sowar, whom Wadeson killed. On the same day he rescued another private of his regiment, who was lying wounded and helpless, and was attacked by one of the rebel cavalry. On this occasion also he slew his man. For these acts of gallantry he was mentioned in despatches, and received the distinction of the Victoria cross. He was with the regiment and was wounded at the assault of Delhi on 14 Sept. 1857; and at the close of the campaign received the medal and clasp.
On 11 March 1859 he was appointed adjutant of the regiment, which position he retained until promoted to captain on 9 Dec. 1864. He was with the 75th during the fenian disturbances of 1866–67, and served in Gibraltar, Singapore, Hongkong, Mauritius, and the Cape, until promoted to major on 11 July 1872. In 1873 the 75th returned home, and was quartered in England and Ireland, and there, on 18 Dec. 1875, he was promoted to the command of the regiment, which he held at home and in the Channel Islands until his promotion to a brevet colonelcy on 18 Dec. 1880. As a reward for his faithful service he was on 26 March 1881 given the appointment of major and lieutenant-governor of the Royal Hospital, Chelsea, where he died on 24 Jan. 1885. He was buried with military honours, and a brass tablet has been erected in the hospital to his memory.
R. H.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Wadsworth, James (1572?-1623)

​WADSWORTH, JAMES (1572?–1623), divine and jesuit, was elected scholar at Emmanuel College, Cambridge, on 12 March 1584, admitted sizar in 1585, and graduated M.A. in 1593, B.D. in 1600 (Hist. MSS. Comm. 4th Rep. App. p. 417). He was instituted in 1598 to the rectory of Pakefield (All Saints') in Suffolk (Suckling, Hist. of Suffolk, i. 285), and from 1600 he held in addition, at any rate until 1603, the livings of Cotton and Thornham Magna in the same county (Davy's ‘Suffolk Collections’ in Addit. MSS. 19089 f. 113, 19090 f. 180). He was also chaplain in ordinary to Dr. Redman, bishop of Norwich. He married while in Suffolk, and had issue four children. According to his son he was ‘perverted’ in 1604. In May 1605 he accompanied Sir Charles Cornwallis [q. v.] to Spain as chaplain; his brother Paul was consul in Andalusia (Cal. State Papers, Dom. 1644–5, p. 210). At Valladolid James fell under jesuit influence, and in August of the same year left the ambassador's house under pretext of a visit to the university of Salamanca, and never returned. Cornwallis, in letters to the Earl of Salisbury, 15 Sept. 1605 (Winwood, Memorials, ii. 109, 131, 136), suggests that ​‘perhaps through discontent of a shrewd wife, a burthen of children, and a benefice unequal to his desires, he brought his purpose out of England.’ Wadsworth became an officer of the inquisition in Seville, receiving from the king of Spain a pension of forty ducats a month. Five years later, in 1610, his wife and children arrived, and also joined the catholic faith. From 1615 to 1620 Wadsworth engaged in correspondence with his early college friend and neighbour in a Suffolk parsonage, William Bedell [q. v.], afterwards bishop of Kilmore, in support of his new beliefs. The argument is published in the rare ‘Copies of certain Letters which have passed between Spain and England in Matter of Religion,’ London, 1624, 4to. Reprinted in Gilbert Burnet's ‘Life of Bedell,’ London, 1692, 8vo; Dublin, 1736, 8vo. His interesting correspondence with Sir Robert Phelips [q. v.], chiefly about the Spanish match, from 1618 has not been published (Hist. MSS. Comm. 3rd Rep. App. xviii. 282, 284). Wadsworth became steward or agent to Sir Robert Shirley [q. v.], and, on the proposed Spanish match, was appointed English tutor to the Infanta Maria. In a letter to the Duke of Buckingham, written from Madrid, 11 Nov. 1623 (Goodman, Court of James I, ed. 1839, ii. 319), he reports that his pupil ‘proceeds very cheerfully to learn English.’ ‘A Grammar, Spanish and English,’ London, 1622, 8vo, of which Professor Knapp owns a copy, may have been prepared by Wadsworth for the infanta previous to this time. Wadsworth died of consumption on 30 Nov. 1623, and was buried at Madrid.
C. F. S.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1927 supplement/Shaw, John Byam Lister

Middle name given as Liston in the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography.
​SHAW, JOHN BYAM LISTER (1872–1919), painter and illustrator, was born at Madras 13 November 1872, the son of John Shaw, registrar of the high court of Madras, by his wife, Sophia Alicia Byam Gunthorpe. He came to England in 1878 and to London in 1879. He was educated privately, and, after having first studied at the St. John's Wood school of art, he entered the Royal Academy Schools in 1889. In 1893 he exhibited at the Royal Academy for the first time, when his picture ‘Rose Mary’, an illustration to D. G. Rossetti's poem, was shown. Among his more notable subsequent exhibits are ‘Whither?’ (1896), ‘Love's Baubles’, and ‘The Comforter’ (1897), and ‘Love, the Conqueror’ (1899). For the Canadian War Records Shaw painted a large allegorical picture, ‘The Flag’, which was shown at the Canadian War Memorials exhibition at Burlington House in 1919. Shaw also illustrated a great ​number of books, among them being Browning's Poems (1898), Tales from Boccaccio (1899), The Chiswick Shakespeare (1900), The Pilgrim's Progress (1904), and Poe's Tales of Mystery and Imagination (1909). As an art teacher Shaw was active at the school of art on Campden Hill which he established, in partnership with Rex Vicat Cole, in 1911. He was elected an associate of the Royal Society of Painters in Water Colours in 1913.
Byam Shaw has been called ‘a kind of belated pre-Raphaelite’. This description refers, however, mainly to the external trappings of his art, which, while showing the resourceful illustrator's inventiveness and considerable sleight of hand, is yet essentially of a somewhat superficial and scenic character.
Shaw married in 1899 Evelyn, daughter of J. N. Pyke-Nott, of Bydown, North Devon, by whom he had four sons and one daughter. He died in London 26 January 1919.
[A. Graves, The Royal Academy of Arts, Dictionary of Contributors, vol. vii, 1905–1906.]
T. B.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Vigors, Nicholas Aylward

​VIGORS, NICHOLAS AYLWARD (1785–1840), zoologist, born at Old Leighlin in 1785, was son of Nicholas Aylward Vigors ​(1755–1828) of Old Leighlin and Bellmount, co. Carlow, by his first wife, Catharine, daughter of Solomon Richards of Solsborough, Wexford. He matriculated from Trinity College, Oxford, on 16 Nov. 1803, and on 14 Nov. 1806 he was admitted a student of Lincoln's Inn. He left Oxford without taking a degree towards the close of 1809, and purchased an ensigncy in the grenadier guards. Of the diligence, however, with which he had pursued his classical and literary studies there is proof in his publication of ‘An Enquiry into the Nature and Extent of Poetick Licence’ (London, 1810, 8vo; 2nd ed. 1813).
He served with his regiment in the Peninsular war, and was severely wounded in the action at Barrosa, 5 March 1811. On his return the same year to England he quitted the army and resumed his studies at Oxford, graduating B.A. in 1817 and M.A. in 1818. He was created an honorary D.C.L. on 4 July 1832.
Vigors also devoted himself to the study of zoology, especially birds and insects, forming extensive collections. These in 1826, on the formation of the Zoological Society, which he assisted in establishing, he presented to that body. He was the first secretary of the society, and held the office till 1833. He had been elected a fellow of the Linnean Society in 1819, and contributed to their ‘Transactions’ an important paper ‘On the Natural Affinities that connect the Orders and Families of Birds,’ in which he sought to apply the quinary arrangement to the class Aves. He was elected a fellow of the Royal Society on 23 Feb. 1826, and was also a fellow of the Society of Antiquaries and of the Geological and Historical societies, as well as a member of the Royal Irish Academy and the Royal Institution.
On the death of his father in 1828 he succeeded to the family estate, and shortly after entered on his parliamentary career. On 15 Dec. 1832 he was returned for the town of Carlow. In 1835 he was defeated, but, a vacancy occurring for the county of Carlow, Vigors was returned, but was unseated on petition. On 18 Feb. 1837 he was again returned for the county, of which he was also deputy lieutenant, and continued to represent it till his death. He was an advanced liberal, and but rarely spoke.
He died unmarried at his house in Chester Terrace, Regent's Park, London, on 26 Oct. 1840, and was buried in the nave of the cathedral at Old Leighlin.
Vigors was author of some forty papers, mostly on ornithological subjects, that appeared in various scientific journals between 1825 and 1836, six being written in conjunction with others. He assisted Sir William Jardine [q. v.] and Prideaux John Selby [q. v.] in their ‘Illustrations of Ornithology’ (1825–39), and wrote the section ‘Ornithology’ for the ‘Zoology of Captain Beechey's Voyage’ (1839). He also, with Bell and others, edited vols. iii. and iv. of the ‘Zoological Journal’ (1828–35).
B. B. W.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Vidler, William

​VIDLER, WILLIAM (1758–1816), universalist, tenth child of John and Elizabeth Vidler, was born at Battle, Sussex, on 4 May 1758. As a boy he had a taste for reading, but was kept from school by ill-health, and was apprenticed to his father, a bricklayer. Brought up in the church of England, he became an independent through the preaching of George Gilbert of Heathfield, and himself began to preach in April 1777. He became a baptist under the influence of Thomas Purdy, a baptist minister at Rye, and, having received adult baptism in January 1780, he was set apart on 16 Feb. for the ministry, and formed on 28 March a small baptist church at Battle. In May 1791 he undertook to travel among baptist churches to collect funds for building a chapel. This introduced him to Arminian baptists and some few universalists. At the end of 1792 he professed universalism; his church divided; those who adhered to him were excommunicated by the local association in the summer of 1793. He accepted a call to assist Elhanan Winchester at Parliament Court, Artillery Lane, London, and began his duties on 9 Feb. 1794. Later in the year Winchester returned to America, and Vidler was appointed his successor, still giving half his time to Battle, till November 1796. He retained his ministry at Parliament Court till 1815, and was succeeded after a short interval by William Johnson Fox [q. v.]
Vidler's stipend was small, and from 1796 to 1806 he tried with indifferent success to increase his income as a bookseller. He was in partnership first with John Teulon; then in 1798, for a short time with Nathaniel Scarlett [q. v.], whom he left because Scarlett published ‘The British Theatre;’ he carried on business by himself in the Strand and (from 1804) in Holborn. In conjunction with Teulon he began in January 1797 ‘The Universalist's Miscellany,’ a monthly periodical. This brought him into connection with Richard Wright (1764–1836) [q. v.], who converted him to his unitarian views by 1802. In January 1802 the title of his magazine was altered to ‘The Universal Theological Magazine;’ it secured the co-operation of Robert Aspland [q. v.], and was continued to the end of 1805, when Aspland bought it out, and began in January 1806 ‘The Monthly Repository.’
Latterly Vidler did much propagandist work in connection with the Unitarian Fund (founded 1806). Always a bulky person, his corpulence became excessive, and gave rise to many odd adventures. He died on 23 Aug. 1816, and was buried on 28 Aug. in the graveyard of the unitarian chapel, Hackney. His portrait has been twice engraved. He married (1780) a daughter of William Sweetingham of Battle; she died on 22 Dec. 1808. His son, William Vidler (d. 24 March 1861), was for many years minister to the poor at Chapel Street, Cripplegate.
Besides single sermons and tracts, Vidler published: 1. ‘A Sketch of the Life of Elha​nan Winchester,’ 1797, 8vo. 2. ‘Letters to Mr. [Andrew] Fuller on the Universal Restoration,’ 1803, 8vo.
A. G.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Viger, Jacques

​VIGER, JACQUES (1787–1858), Canadian antiquary, only surviving child of Jacques Viger by his wife, Amaranthe Prevost, was born in Montreal on 7 May 1787, and educated at the college of St. Raphael. Denis Benjamin Viger [q. v.] was his cousin. Throughout the war (1812–15) he served as captain under Charles Michel de Salaberry [q. v.], and afterwards became lieutenant-colonel in the Canadian militia. For some time he was inspector of roads and bridges in Montreal, and did much to improve the sanitary condition of the city. He was chosen first mayor in 1833.
Forty years of his life were spent in collecting, co-ordinating, verifying, and annotating materials for the history of Canada, including rare pamphlets, manuscripts, maps, plans, medals, coins, portraits, and heraldic arms. His collection is of two divisions: ‘Ma Sabretache,’ of twenty-eight volumes, contains literary matter; the ‘Album’ contains paintings and engravings of French Canadian celebrities. His manuscripts were much consulted by Bibaud, Garneau, L'Abbé Faillon, Martin, La Roche-Heron, Parkman, and other historians. A part of his collection was printed in the ‘Proceedings’ of the Société Historique under the care of L'Abbé Verreau; another part was published by Michel Bibaud in the ‘Bibliothèque Canadienne’ and ‘Enclopédie Canadienne,’ but the great bulk of it still remains in manuscript in the possession of his family at Montreal.
Viger was founder and first president of the Société Historique of Montreal, was recommended for a seat in the special council by Lord Gosford, and enjoyed the honorary title of commander of the Roman order of St. Gregory. He died on 12 Dec. 1858.
On 17 Nov. 1808 he married Marie Marguerite de Chapt Lacorne de St. Luc, daughter of Chevalier de St. Luc.
The chief publications of Viger are:
* ‘Relation de la Mort de Louis XVI’ (notes), 1812.
* ‘Observations en amélioration des Lois des Chemins telles qu'en force dans le Bas-Canada en 1835.’
* ‘Rapports sur les Chemins, Rues, Ruelles et Ponts de la cité et paroisse de Montréal, avec notes,’ 1841.
* ‘Archéologie Religieuse du Diocèse de Montréal,’ 1850.
* ‘Souvenirs Historiques sur la Seigneurie de la Prairie,’ 1857.
[Tanguay's Dictionnaire Généalogique des Familles Canadiennes, vii. 465, 466; Sulte's Histoire des Canadiens Français, viii. 101–3; Bibaud's Panthéon Canadien, p. 308; Lareau's Littérature Canadienne, pp. 150, 240; Morgan's Bibliotheca Canadensis, p. 383; Parkman's Pioneers of France in the New World, ii. 5, 61.]
T. B. B.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Vidal, Robert Studley

​VIDAL, ROBERT STUDLEY (1770–1841), antiquary, born in 1770, the son of Robert Studley Vidal, formerly a solicitor in London, who died at Exeter on 2 Jan. 1796, was called to the bar at the Middle Temple. He had antiquarian tastes, and communicated two papers on trial by ordeal and on the site of Kenwith Castle, Devonshire, to the Society of Antiquaries, through his friend Henry Wansey [q. v.] (published in Archæologia, xv.). His chief work was the translation of Mosheim's ‘Commentaries on the Affairs of the Christians before the Time of Constantine,’ vols. i. and ii. 1813, vol. iii. 1835. His projected edition of Cudworth's ‘Intellectual System’ was not published. He formed a valuable collection of coins and medals, which was sold by Leigh & Sotheby in 1842 after his death. He kept a pack of harriers at Cornborough, near Bideford, Devonshire, where he died on 21 Nov. 1841. By his will he founded two scholarships of 20l. a year each at St. John's College, Cambridge, charged upon his manor of Abbotsham. He prepared the third edition of ‘A Treatise on Copyholds’ (London, 1821, 2 vols. 8vo) by Charles Watkins [q. v.], and the fifth edition of the work on ‘Tenures’ (London, 1824, 8vo) of Sir Geoffrey or Jeffray Gilbert [q. v.]
C. D.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Vigne, Godfrey Thomas

​VIGNE, GODFREY THOMAS (1801–1863), traveller, eldest son of Thomas Vigne of Walthamstow, Essex, was born in 1801. He entered Harrow school in 1817, and was admitted a student of Lincoln's Inn on 23 Dec. 1818. He was called to the bar in 1824. In 1831 he travelled in the United States of America, visiting New York, Washington, and Cincinnati, and thence proceeded down the St. Lawrence to Quebec. He published an account of his journey in 1832, entitled ‘Six Months in America,’ London, 8vo. In the same year he left Southampton for India, on 16 Oct., and, after passing through Persia, spent the next seven years in excursions to the regions to the north-west of India. In these journeys he visited Kashmir, Ladak, and other parts of Central Asia, besides travelling through Afghanistan, where he had several interviews with the amir, Dost Mohammed. He gave the results of his travels in ‘A Personal Narrative of a Visit to Ghuzni, Kabul, and Afghanistan,’ London, 1840, 8vo, and in ‘Travels in Kashmir,’ London, 1842, 8vo. His books give a valuable view of Northern and Western India immediately before the establishment of the British supremacy.
In 1852 and the following years Vigne visited the West Indies, Mexico, and Nicaragua, and passed northwards through New Orleans to New York. In Nicaragua he encountered the filibusters and made the acquaintance of General Walker, of whom he gives a vivid sketch. He died at the Oaks, Woodford, Essex, on 12 July 1863, while preparing an account of his most recent travels for the press. They appeared in the same year under the title ‘Travels in Mexico and South America,’ London, 8vo. Vigne was neither ‘a professional author nor a commissioned tourist.’ He travelled for amusement, saw much, and was assisted in his observations by the possession of some knowledge of science.
E. I. C.