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

​CASTLE, THOMAS (1804?–1840?) botanical and medical writer, was born in Kent, and after leaving school became a pupil of John Gill, surgeon, at Hythe; in his third year he began his first book, which he finished before going to London to carry on his studies. He entered Guy's Hospital in 1826, and was a member of its Physical Society; the year following he was elected fellow of the Linnean Society, when he was living in Bermondsey Square. Subsequently he removed to Brighton, and in 1838 he signed himself ‘M.D., F.L.S., consulting physician to St. John's British Hospital and memb. Trin. Coll. Camb.’ His name is to be found in the medical list of the same year, but he seems to have died soon afterwards. Further particulars of his life are wanting; the above having been gleaned from his publications, which are as follows: 1. ‘Lexicon Pharmacopœlium,’ Lond. 1826, 8vo, 2nd edit., 1834. 2. ‘Modern Surgery,’ 1828, 12mo. 3. ‘Manual of Surgery,’ ed. by, 2nd edit. 1829, 3rd edit. 1831. 4. ‘Systematic and Physiological Botany,’ 1829, 12mo. 5. ‘Medical Botany,’ 1829, 12mo. 6. ‘Linnæan System of Botany,’ 1836, 4to. 7. ‘Essay on Poisons,’ 1834, 8vo, 7th edit. 1845. 8. ‘Pharmacopœia, Roy. Coll. Phys.’ trans. by, 1837, 8vo, 2nd edit. 1838. 9. ‘Table of Greek Verbs,’ Cambridge, 1832, 4to. He also edited two editions of Blundell's ‘Diseases of Women,’ 1834 and 1837, and with J. A. Barton published a ‘British Flora Medica,’ 1837, a second edition of which was edited in 1867 by J. R. Jackson.
[Castle's Works.]
B. D. J.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Catcott, Alexander (1725-1779)

1904 Errata appended.
​CATCOTT, ALEXANDER (1725–1779), divine and geologist, eldest son of the Rev. Alexander Stopford Catcott [q. v.], master of the grammar school of Bristol, was born at Bristol 2 Nov. 1725. He was educated at the grammar school; entered Winchester in 1739, and Wadham College, Oxford, in 1744. He graduated as B.A. in 1748. He published in 1756 his ‘Remarks on the Lord Bishop of Clogher's “Explanation of the Mosaic Account of the Creation and of the Formation of the World.”’ The bishop, Robert Clayton [q. v.], in this ‘Explanation’ expressed disbelief in the universality of the deluge. Catcott intended to follow up his ‘Tract’ by a second part devoted especially to the problem of the deluge. He was, however, compelled by the failure of ​ his eyesight to suspend his labours until 1761, when he published his ‘Treatise on the Deluge.’ He calls himself on the title-page ‘lecturer of St. John's Church, Bristol.’ Catcott contends that the Mosaic account is a full and complete explanation of the miracle of the Noachian deluge. He tries to prove, with much show of learning, that the deluge may be explained by the internal waters, which broke out and dissolved the whole earth. Catcott adopts in part the hypothesis of Woodward, but was strictly a follower of John Hutchinson, who, in his ‘Moses's Principia,’ contends ‘that the Hebrew scriptures, when rightly translated, comprised a perfect system of natural philosophy.’ In 1768 Catcott dedicated a second and enlarged edition of his ‘Treatise’ to the Earl of Buchan, and calls himself his lordship's ‘chaplain.’ He was now M.A., and spent, he informs his readers, some time in Oxford. From July 1766 till death he was vicar of Temple Church, Bristol. He pursued his inquiry with enthusiasm. He examined the ‘two Druidical temples of Abury and Stonehenge,’ the mines of Cornwall and of Derbyshire, and everywhere found proofs of the Deluge in geological remains. In the second part of the second edition of the ‘Treatise’ Catcott gives a ‘Collection of the principal Heathen Accounts of the Flood,’ which Sir Charles Lyell admits to be a very valuable contribution to our knowledge. He adds to this collection some important remarks on ‘The Time when, and the Manner how, America was first Peopled.’ Catcott died at Bristol 18 June 1779 (Gent. Mag. 1779, p. 327).
[Hutchinson's Remarks on Alexander Stopford Catcott's Sermon, 1737; Catcott's The Supreme and Inferior Elohim, 1735; Nicholls's Bristol Past and Present; Bristol Gazette, 24 June 1779; Taylor's Bristol and Clifton, 1878; information from Mr. W. George; Sir Charles Lyell's Principles of Geology.]
R. H-t.
Dictionary of National Biography, Errata (1904), p.57 N.B.— f.e. stands for from end and l.l. for last line
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# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Catesby, John

​CATESBY, Sir JOHN (d. 1486), justice of the common pleas, appears to have been the uncle of William Catesby [q. v.], the councillor of Richard III. The family had been for some time settled in Northamptonshire, and held also the manor of Lapworth in Warwickshire. His mother was a coheiress of William de Montfort. He was a member of the Inner Temple, then called the Inner Inn, and his name first appears in the year books in Michaelmas 1458. He received the coif in 1463, and was made king's serjeant on 18 April 1469. On 20 Nov. 1481 he was appointed justice of the common pleas, and next year he was knighted. His name appears in the commissions for the western circuit, as well as in those for Northamptonshire, during the reigns of Edward V and Richard III. His will shows that he was lord of the manor of Whiston in Northamptonshire. At the accession of Henry VII his reappointment as a judge was delayed for about a month after that of his brethren, probably in consequence of his nephew's attainder. That he was a worthy character we are justified in believing, from the fact that Bishop Waynflete in his will named him first among his executors. He died between 3 Nov. 1486 and Hilary term ​1487, the place of his death, according to a notice in the year-books, being eight leagues from London. According to Foss he married Elizabeth, daughter of William Green of Hayes in Middlesex. He was buried, as he had himself directed, in the abbey of St. James at Northampton, and left behind him seven sons and two daughters, who are all mentioned in his will.
[Foss's Judges, v. 42; Dugdale's Warwickshire, 788; Nicolas's Testamenta Vetusta, 389; Report ix. of Deputy-Keeper of Public Records, App. ii. Foss calls attention to a John Catesby who is referred to in a document of 1485 (Rymer, xii. 275), as having at some past date occupied a house called the ‘Grene Lates,’ adjoining Westminster Hall; but this could scarcely have been the judge, as he is not even designated knight, either there or in the Act of Attainder (Rolls of Parl. vi. 372), and in the latter he ought certainly to have been recognised, both as knight and justice.]
J. G.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Britton, John (d.1275)

​BRITTON, JOHN. [see Breton]
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Brixius

​ BRIXIUS. [See Bricie.]
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Broadfoot, George

​BROADFOOT, GEORGE (1807–1845), major, the eldest of three brothers who all fell in the service of their country, entered the Indian army as an ensign in the 34th regiment of Madras native infantry, in January 1826. The greater part of his earlier service was passed with his regiment. Returning to England on furlough in 1836, he held the appointment of orderly officer at Addiscombe for thirteen months. In May 1841 he was sent to Cabul in command of the escort which accompanied the families of the Afghan chiefs, Shah Sujah and Zemán Shah to that place. On reaching Cabul, a portion of the escort was formed into a company of sappers and miners, which, under the command of Broadfoot, marched with Sir Robert Sale's force from Cabul to Jellálabád in October 1841, Broadfoot being specially mentioned in the despatches for his gallantry in the actions with the Afghans between Cabul and Gandamak. At Jellálabád Broadfoot became garrison engineer, and by his skill and vigour speedily restored the defences of the town, which had been found in a ruinous condition. During the siege of Jellálabád by the Afghans, Broadfoot was the life and soul of the garrison, and aided by his friend Havelock, then a captain of foot [see Havelock, Sir Henry], was instrumental in preventing a capitulation, which at one time had been resolved on by Sir Robert Sale and a majority of the principal officers of the force. In one of the sorties made by the beleaguered garrison Broadfoot was severely wounded. He subsequently accompanied General Pollock's army of retribution to Cabul, again distinguishing himself in the actions which were fought at Mammu Khél, Jagdallak, and Tezín. At the close of the war he was created a companion of the Bath, and was appointed commissioner of Moulmein, from which office he was transferred to that of agent to the governor-general on the Sikh frontier.
While filling the latter post Broadfoot was present at the sanguinary engagements of Mudki and Ferozshah, in the last of which (21 Dec. 1845) he was mortally wounded. His death and his services were thus described in Sir Henry Hardinge's report on the battle: 'It is now with great pain that I have to record the irreparable loss I have sustained, and more especially the East India Company's service, in the death of Major Broadfoot of the Madras army, my political agent. He was thrown from his horse by a shot, and I failed in prevailing upon him to leave the field. He remounted, and shortly afterwards received a mortal wound. He was brave as he was able in every branch of the political and military service.'
[Annual Register, 1845; Kaye's History of the War in Afghanistan, vols. ii. and iii. 3rd ed. 1874; India Office records.]
A. J. A.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Briwer, William

​BRIWER, WILLIAM. [See Brewer.]
BRIXIUS. [See Bricie.]
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Brochmael, Ysgythrawg

Brochfael Ysgithrog in the ODNB, which regards his existence as problematic.
​BROCHMAEL, YSGYTHRAWG (fl. 584), king of Powis, is mentioned in Llywarch Hen's elegy (trip. 37), a poem which Dr. Guest (Origines Celticæ, ii. 289) has referred to the overthrow of Uriconium and the desolation of the Severn Valley by Ceawlin, king of the West Saxons in 584. The country of Kyndylan, the chief whose death Llywarch Hen bewails, is there called the land of Brochmael, and it is probable, therefore, that Brochmael was lord of that part of Britain, and that it was under his command that the Welsh (Britons) checked Ceawlin's career of conquest at Fethan-leag or Faddiley. When in 613 (Annales Cambricæ; A.-S. Chron. 607) Æthelfrith of Northumbria overthrew the Welsh at the battle of Chester, Bæda says that the monks of Bangor who had come to pray for the success of their countrymen were under the care of Brochmael, who stayed with them while the battle was fought, and who left them and fled when the victorious Æthelfrith attacked them. In this battle Selim, the son of Cynan, was slain, and as Cynan is said to have been the son of Brochmael, it is evident that he must have been an old man at the time, and 'therefore may very well have been king of Powis when Ceawlin [q. v.] attacked Uriconium' (Guest).
[Guest's Origines Celticæ, ii. 299, 308, 326; Annales Cambriæ an. 613, Rolls Ser.; Bæda, Hist. Eccl. ii. 2 (Eng. Hist. Soc.); Anglo-Saxon Chron. an. 584, 607, Rolls Ser.]
W. H.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Broadbent, William

​BROADBENT, WILLIAM (1755–1827), Unitarian minister, the son of William and Elizabeth Broadbent, was born 28 Aug. 1755. He was educated for the ministry at Daventry academy (August 1777–June 1782), first under Thomas Robins, who resigned the divinity chair in June 1781 from loss of voice, and afterwards under Thomas Belsham [q.v.] Broadbent became classical tutor to the academy in August 1782, and in January 1784 he exchanged this appointment for that of tutor in mathematics, natural philosophy, and logic. Belsham resigned the divinity chair in June 1789, having become a Unitarian, and the academy was removed in November to Northampton. Broadbent continued to act as tutor till the end of 1791, when he became minister at Warrington (he took out his license on 18 Jan. 1792), and removed to Cockey Moor. At this time his views were of the average Daventry type. But at Warrington he re-examined his theological convictions, and becoming a Unitarian of the Belsham school, he succeeded in carrying nearly all his congregation with him. Broadbent from his eighteenth year kept up a close friendship with Belsham ; in Williams's chaotic 'Memoirs' of Belsham (1833, 8vo) are some fragments of their correspondence. Biblical exegesis was Broadbent's favourite study, and textual interpretation played a prominent part in his preaching. He resigned his Warrington charge in the spring of 1822, induced by broken health and the depressing effects of the loss of his son. He died at Latchford, near Warrington, on 1 Dec. 1827, and was buried in the Warrington chapel on 6 Dec.
Thomas Biggin Broadbent (1793–1817), only child of William Broadbent, born at Warrington on 17 March 1793, entered Glasgow College in November 1809. After graduating in April 1813 he became classical tutor in the Unitarian academy at Hackney, an office he filled till 1816, preaching latterly at Prince's Street Chapel, Westminster, during a vacancy. His pulpit powers were remarkable. Resigning his London work, he returned to Warrington to pursue his ministerial training as his father's assistant. He died of apoplexy on 9 Nov. 1817. He prepared for the press, in 1816, portions (1 and 2 Cor., 1 Tim., and Titus) of Belsham's 'Epistles of Paul the Apostle,' published 1822, 4 vols. 8vo. He also edited the fourth edition, 1817, 8vo, of the 'Improved Version' of the New Testament, originally published 1808, 8vo, under Belsham's superintendence. Two of his sermons, published posthumously in 1817, reached a second edition.
A. G.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Broadwood, John

​BROADWOOD, JOHN (1732–1812), pianoforte manufacturer, was born at Cockburnspath, Dunbar, N.B., in 1732. He came of an old family of Northumbrian yeomen, who. in the sixteenth century owned land near Hexham, but in the eighteenth century moved into Scotland. Broadwood's grandfather was John Broadwood of Oldhamstock, East Lothian, who married (1679) one Katherine Boan. His youngest son, James, married Margaret Pewes, and their eldest son was the celebrated pianoforte maker. Broadwood is said to have walked from Scotland to London to seek his fortune as a cabinet-maker. He found employment and ultimately entered into partnership with Burkhardt Tschudi, a Swiss harpsichord maker, who came to England in 1718, and in 1732 had taken the house in Great Pulteney Street, which is still the place of business of his descendants. In 1769 Tschudi retired (reserving to himself certain royalties and the right of tuning harpsichords at the oratorios) in favour of Broadwood, who had married his daughter Barbara, though for some time longer the style of the firm remained Tschudi & Broadwood. After the death of Tschudi (in 1773) his son entered for a short time into partnership with Broadwood, but in 1783 the business was in the sole hands of the latter, and remained so until 1795, when Broadwood's eldest son, James Tschudi Broadwood, was taken into partnership with his father. The latter died in 1812 and was buried in the burial-ground of the methodist chapel in Tottenham-Court Road.
Without entering into technical details it is impossible to describe the changes and improvements introduced in the construction of pianofortes by Broadwood and his partners. The history of the firm during this period is practically the history of the pianoforte, and the instruments manufactured in Great Pulteney Street acquired a European reputation by means of their admirable qualities. Broadwood's first patent, dated 17 July 1783, is for a 'new constructed pianoforte, which is far superior to any instrument of the kind heretofore constructed,' but it is known that prior to this he was engaged in assisting ​Americus Backers in perfecting the so-called English or direct lever action, which was patented by Backers's apprentice after his master's death in 1777. Personally Broadwood was an amiable and cultivated man, and his society was sought after by many of the most influential personages of the day. He was a clear-headed man of business, and very independent and energetic. There is a portrait of him painted at the age of eighty by John Harrison, which was engraved by W. Say and published on 1 Aug. 1812.
[Grove's Dict. of Musicians, i. 278 a, &c.; Specifications of Patents relating to Music and Musical Instruments; information from Miss Broadwood and Mr. A. J. Hipkins; International Inventions Exhibition Catalogues, &c.]
W. B. S.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Kenrick, Daniel

​KENRICK or KENDRICK, DANIEL (fl. 1685), physician and poet, son of Samuel Kenrick of Leigh, Gloucestershire, was born about 1652, and entered as a servitor at Christ Church, Oxford, on 31 March 1666, whence he proceeded B.A. 1669, and M.A. 1674. At the age of thirty-two, when his portrait was engraved by R. White, Kenrick was practising as a doctor at his native town of Worcester, and was much esteemed there as ‘a man of wit and a jolly companion.’ Several poems by ‘Dr. Kenrick’ appear in ‘The Grove, or a Collection of Original Poems, by W. Walsh, Dr. J. Donne, Mr. Dryden, Mr. Butler, Sir John Suckling, and other eminent hands,’ London, 1721. Kenrick's ‘talents,’ it is declared in the preface, ‘seem equal in panegyrick, satire, and lyric. There is a fire and sprightliness of thinking which runs through all his copies, and to this perhaps he owed that haste in his writing which made him sometimes negligent of Harmony both in Rimes and Numbers.’ We gather from the same source that Kenrick was on terms of intimacy with Mrs. Behn and Purcell the musician, and that he died before the publication of ‘The Grove’ in 1721. There are some verses signed by Kenrick in the fifth vol. of Dryden's ‘Miscellany Poems,’ entitled ‘Upon a Giant Angling.’ These, however, are said by Granger, ‘on the information of Dr. John Wall,’ to have been freely borrowed from a work called ‘The Mock Romans,’ London, 1653, while in Pratt's ‘Cabinet of Poetry’ (1808) these same lines are assigned to Dr. William King (1663–1712) [q. v.] The preface to ‘The Grove’ declares that Kenrick took degrees in divinity as well as physic. He may therefore be identical with Daniel Kenrick, D.D., who preached the assize sermon at Worcester in 1688.
[Granger's Biographical Hist. iv. 326; the Dean's Entrance Book, Christ Church, Oxford; Dryden's Miscellany Poems, ed. 1727, v. 136; Brit. Mus. Cat., where, however, Kenrick is entered without christian name.]
T. S.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Kenny, William Stopford

​KENNY, WILLIAM STOPFORD (1788–1867), compiler of educational works, born in 1788, kept for many years a ‘classical establishment’ at 5 Fitzroy Street, Fitzroy Square, London. He was an accomplished chess-player. He died on 16 Nov. 1867, aged 79 (Gent. Mag. 4th ser. v. 113). His com​pilations include: 1. ‘Practical Chess Grammar,’ 4to, London, 1817; 2nd edit. same year. 2. ‘Practical Chess Exercises,’ 8vo, London, 1818. 3. ‘Why and Because, being a collection of familiar Questions and Answers on subjects relating to Air, Water, Light, and Fire, altered from the French,’ 12mo, London, 1830; 18th edit. 1854. 4. ‘The Manual of Science,’ 18mo, London, 1844. 5. ‘One Thousand Questions, with their Solutions, on Goldsmith's Grammar of Geography,’ 18mo, London, 1853. 6. ‘The Grammatical Omnibus; or, a Methodical Arrangement of the Improprieties frequent in Writing and Conversation, with Corrections,’ 8th edit. 8vo, London, 1853. 7. ‘The Improved French Word-Book … revised by J. Duprat Mérigon,’ 18mo, London (1854). 8. ‘The Improved Italian Word-Book,’ 18mo, London (1854). 9. ‘The Improved Italian Phrase-Book,’ 32mo, London (1854). 10. ‘Improved French Phrase-Book … revised by J. Duprat Mérigon,’ 12mo, London (1856?). 11. ‘School Geography … [with] a Treatise on Astronomy,’ 12mo, London, 1856. Kenny edited educational works by other writers, and translated, with notes, A. Danican Philidor's ‘Analysis of the Game of Chess,’ 12mo, 1819.
[Kenny's Works.]
G. G.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Kenney, Arthur Henry

​KENNEY, ARTHUR HENRY (1776?–1855), controversialist, born in 1776 or 1777, was the youngest son of Edward Kenney, vicar-choral and prebendary of Cork, by Frances, daughter of Thomas Herbert, M.P., of Muckross, co. Kerry (Burke, Landed Gentry, 1868, p. 686; Cotton, Fasti Eccl. Hibern. i. (1847), 221, 234). In 1790 he entered the university of Dublin, was elected a foundation scholar in 1793, and graduated B.A. in 1795. In 1800 he proceeded M.A., and was elected to a junior fellowship, which he vacated in 1809 for the college living of Kilmacrenan, co. Donegal. He became B.D. in 1806, and D.D. in 1812 (Dublin Graduates, 1591–1868, p. 317). On 27 June 1812 he was instituted to the deanery of Achonry, which he resigned in May 1821 on becoming rector of St. Olave, Southwark (Cotton, iv. 105). He soon became popular among his parishioners, but his living was eventually sequestered on account of pecuniary ​difficulties, and he was obliged to reside abroad during the last ten years of his life. He died at Boulogne-sur-Mer on 27 Jan. 1855, aged 78. He was twice married, and had issue by both marriages. Under the initials of A. H. K., Kenney edited the fifth edition of Archbishop Magee's ‘Discourses on the Scriptural Doctrines of Atonement and Sacrifice,’ 3 vols. 8vo, London, 1832. He also wrote a memoir of Magee prefixed to the latter's ‘Works,’ 2 vols. 8vo, London, 1842.
Kenney's own writings are:
* ‘An Enquiry concerning some of the Doctrines maintained by the Church of Rome: in Answer to the Charge of Intolerance brought by Members of that Church against Members of the Church of England,’ 8vo, London, 1818.
* ‘Principles and Practices of Pretended Reformers in Church and State,’ 8vo, London, 1819.
* ‘Facts and Documents illustrative of the History of the Period immediately preceding the Accession of William III, …,’ 8vo, London, 1827.
* ‘The Dangerous Nature of Popish Power in these Countries, especially as illustrated from Awful Records of the Time of James the Second,’ &c., 8vo, London, 1839.
* ‘A Comment, Explanatory and Practical, on the Epistles and Gospels for the Sundays of the Year, and on those for Holy Days immediately relating to Our Blessed Saviour,’ 2 vols. 12mo, London, 1842.
[Gent. Mag. new ser. xliv. 544–5; Taylor's Univ. of Dublin, pp. 445, 490; Brit. Mus. Cat.]
G. G.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Oxford, Earls of

​OXFORD, Earls of. [See Vere, Robert de, third Earl of the first creation, d. 1221; Vere, John de, seventh Earl, 1313–1360; Vere, Robert de, ninth Earl, 1362–1393; Vere, Aubrey de, tenth Earl, 1340?–1400; Vere, John de, thirteenth Earl, 1443–1513; Vere, John de, sixteenth Earl, 1512?–1562; Vere, Edward de, seventeenth Earl, 1550–1604; Vere, Aubrey de, twentieth Earl, 1626–1703; Harley, Robert, first Earl of the second creation, 1661–1724; Harley, Edward, second Earl, 1689–1741.]
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Oxinden, Henry

​OXINDEN, HENRY (1609–1670), poet. [See Oxenden.]