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

​WINDHAM, JOSEPH (1739–1810), antiquary, born at Twickenham on 21 Aug. 1739, at a house which was afterwards the residence of Richard Owen Cambridge [q. v.], was related to the Windham family of Norfolk. He was educated at Eton, proceeding to Christ's College, Cambridge, but did not graduate. In 1769 he returned from a prolonged tour through France, Italy, Istria, and Switzerland. He had a strong interest in matters connected with art, was well read in classical and mediæval writers, and made numerous drawings both of natural objects and of antiquities. He was also an excellent Italian scholar. While residing in Rome he made many sketches and plans of the baths, which he presented to Charles Cameron, by whom they were published in 1772 in his work on the ‘Baths of the Romans’ (London, fol.) Windham contributed a considerable part of the letterpress of the work as well as most of the letterpress of the second volume of ‘Antiquities of Ionia,’ published in 1797 by the Society of Dilettanti. He also assisted James Stuart (1713–1788) [q. v.] in the second volume of his ‘Antiquities of Athens.’ Windham was elected a fellow of the Society of Antiquaries on 6 April 1775, and of the Royal Society on 8 Nov. 1781. He was also elected a member of the Society of Dilettanti in 1779. He possessed some knowledge of natural history, and acquired one of the best antiquarian libraries in the country. He died at Earsham House, Norfolk, on 21 Sept. 1810. He married, in 1769, Charlotte, daughter of Sir William de Grey, first baron Walsingham [q. v.] Windham's only publication in his own name was ‘Observations upon a Passage in Pliny's Natural History, relating to the Temple of Diana at Ephesus,’ which appeared in ‘Archæologia’ (vol. vi.).
E. I. C.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Windus, John

​WINDUS, JOHN (fl. 1725), author of ‘A Journey to Mequinez,’ was the historian of a mission despatched by George I in 1720 under Commodore Charles Stewart, with a small squadron and the powers of a plenipotentiary, to treat for a peace with the emperor of Morocco. The squadron sailed on 24 Sept. 1720, and in the following May a conference was held between the ambassador's party and the Basha Hamet Ben Ali Ben Abdallah at Tetuan. A treaty of peace, by which piracy was prohibited and the English prisoners released, was signed at Ceuta in January 1721, and Windus thereupon returned to England in Stewart's flagship, the Dover. Windus utilised the four months he spent on land in ‘Barbary’ to collect materials for an account of the Moors, and in 1725, with a dedication to ‘James, earl of Berkley, vice-admiral of England,’ he published ‘A Journey to Mequinez, the residence of the present Emperor of Fez and Morocco’ (Albumazer Muley Ishmael), London, for Jacob Tonson, 1725, 8vo.
No work on Morocco had hitherto appeared in English, with the exception of the somewhat meagre ‘West Barbary’ (1671) of Lancelot Addison [q. v.], and much interest was excited by Windus's book. An influential list of subscribers was obtained, and the volume rapidly went through several editions, and was pirated in Dublin. The author was assisted in his task by M. Corbière, who had at one time resided at the Moorish court, and the work was illustrated by engravings by Fourdrinier, the plates being dedicated to William Pulteney, Lord Cobham, the Duke of Argyll, and other distinguished persons. It was reprinted in the ‘Collection of Voyages’ of 1767, in the ‘World Displayed’ (1774, vol. xvii. 12mo), and in Pinkerton's ‘Collection of Voyages’ (1808, vol. xv. 4to). It was drawn upon to a large extent by Thomas Pellew [q. v.] in his ‘History and Adventure in South Barbary,’ written in 1739, and to some extent also in Thomas Shaw's ‘Travels or Observations relating to several parts of Barbary and the Levant’ (1738, folio). The description of the manners of the people and the methods of the government renders the book ‘a curiosity,’ as it was pronounced by James Boswell and by Stevenson (Cat. of Voyages and Travels, No. 598).
T. S.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Norie, John William

​NORIE, JOHN WILLIAM (1772–1843), writer on navigation, born in Burr Street, London, on 3 July 1772, was son of James Norie (1737–1793), a native of Morayshire, who, after being trained for the presbyterian church, migrated to London in 1756, and kept a flourishing school in Burr Street, Wapping. Norie's mother was Dorothy Mary Fletcher (1753–1840), daughter of a merchant in East Smithfield. The son, John William, resided, according to the ‘London Directory’ for 1803, at the ‘Naval Academy, 157 Leadenhall Street.’ At the same address William Heather carried on business as a publisher of naval books and dealer in charts and nautical instruments at the ‘Navigation Warehouse.’ Heather's name disappears in 1815, and the business was henceforth conducted by Norie with a partner, Charles Wilson, under the style of Norie & Wilson. The ‘Navigation Warehouse’ has been immortalised by Charles Dickens in ‘Dombey and Son’ as the shop kept by Sol Gills (cf. J. Ashby-Sterry's article ‘The Wooden Midshipman’ in All the ​Year Round, 29 Oct. 1881, p. 173). Norie retired about 1830, but the business was carried on in the same place until 1880, when the premises were taken down and the firm removed to 156 Minories, where the figure of the little midshipman which decorated Norie's house of business still exists. Norie, who is variously described as ‘teacher of navigation and nautical astronomy,’ and ‘hydrographer,’ died at No. 3 Coates Crescent, Edinburgh, on 24 Dec. 1843, and was buried in St. John's episcopal church.
Norie wrote:
* ‘Explanation and Use of the Planispherium Celeste, or Map of Zodiacal Stars,’ 1802.
* ‘Complete Set of Nautical Tables,’ 1803.
* ‘Epitome of Practical Navigation,’ 1805.
* ‘Sailing Directions for St. George's and Bristol Channels,’ 1816.
* ‘Naval Gazetteer,’ 1827, together with a number of charts and sailing directions for different parts of the world.
His books have gone through a large number of editions, and his ‘Navigation’ is still a standard work, and is in constant demand.
R. B. P.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Norman, Robert

​NORMAN, ROBERT (fl. 1590), mathematical instrument maker, was the author of ‘The Newe Attractive, containing a short discourse of the Magnes or Lodestone, and amongest other his vertues, of a newe discovered secret and subtill propertie concernyng the declinyng of the Needle touched therewith under the plaine of the Horizon,’ black letter, small 4to, 1581. This book was dedicated to William Borough [q. v.], then comptroller of the navy, to whose ‘encouragement, good counsel, accustomed courtesy, and friendly affection towards me, an unlearned mechanician,’ Norman attributes the working out of the subject. Borough added an appendix: ‘A Discovery of the Variation of the Compass,’ in the preface to which Norman is referred to as ‘the expert artificer;’ and a note at the end advertises that the instruments described ‘are made by Robert Norman, and may be had at his house in Radcliffe.’ The book was often reprinted, but the later editions want both the dedication and Borough's appendix. Norman also wrote ‘Safegarde of Saylers,’ 8vo, 1590 (1600 and later); a rutter, or sailing directions, translated from the Dutch.
[His own works, as cited; Whiston's Longitude and Latitude, found by the Inclinatory or Dipping Needle.]
J. K. L.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Normandy, Alphonse René Le Mire de

​NORMANDY, ALPHONSE RENÉ LE MIRE de (1809–1864), chemist, was born at Rouen on 23 Oct. 1809, and was originally intended for the medical profession. He devoted himself, however, to chemistry, and on the completion of his medical course he went to Germany and studied under Gmelin. He took out a patent in 1839 (No. 8175) for indelible inks and dyes, and in 1841 he patented a method of hardening soap made from what are known as ‘soft goods’ by the addition of sulphate of soda (No. 9081); but for some years he was prevented from using the process by the excise, who regarded the addition of sulphate of soda as an adulteration. The restriction was at length removed, and the patent was prolonged by the privy council in 1855 for three years to compensate him for the difficulties which had been thrown in his way (cf. Mechanics' Mag. lxiii. 56). In these two patents he is described as ‘M.D., of Rouen,’ with a temporary residence in London; but he seems to have come to England permanently about 1843, taking up his residence at Dalston, and subsequently at 67 Judd Street, Brunswick Square, London, where he lived until 1860. His apparatus for distilling sea-water to obtain perfectly pure water for drinking is very largely used on board ship, and formed the subject of a patent granted in 1851 (No. 13714). Further patents were taken out for improvements in 1852 (No. 275), 1856 (No. 1252), 1857 (No. 3137), 1859 (No. 459), 1860 (No. 786), and in 1861 (No. 1553). The great merit of the invention consists in conducting the operation at a low temperature, and causing the condensed water to absorb a large quantity of atmospheric air, which renders it palatable. A medal was awarded to him for this apparatus at the exhibition of 1862 (cf. Reports of the Juries, vii. B, 31, 32). The manufacture of these stills became an important business, which is still carried on near the Victoria Docks by Normandy's Patent Marine Aerated Fresh Water Company.
For some years he had a considerable practice as a consulting and analytical chemist, and in 1855 and 1856 he gave some startling evidence before a committee of the House of Commons on the adulteration of food with reference to the use of alum in the manufacture of bread. He was elected a fellow of the Chemical Society on 20 May 1854. He died at Odin Lodge, Clapham Park, London, on 10 May 1864.
Normandy published in 1849 a translation of Rose's ‘Practical Treatise on Analytical Chemistry,’ and he wrote: 1. ‘Guide to the Alkali-metrical Chest,’ 1849. 2. ‘Introduction to Rose's Chemical Analysis,’ 1849. 3. ‘Handbook of Chemical Analysis,’ 1850, 2nd ed. by Noad in 1875. 4. ‘The Chemical Atlas,’ 1855 (a French translation appeared in 1857). 5. ‘The Dictionaries of the Chemical Atlas,’ 1857. He contributed a ​paper ‘On the Spheroidal State of Water in Steam Boilers’ to the ‘Philosophical Magazine,’ 1854, vii. 283.
[Poggendorff's Biographisch-Literarisches Wörterbuch; Mechanics' Mag., 27 May 1864, p. 347; Journal of the Chemical Society, xviii. 345; Spon's Dict. of Engineering, iii. 1219.]
R. B. P.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Norgate, Thomas Starling

Contains subarticle Thomas Starling Norgate (1807–1893)
​NORGATE, THOMAS STARLING (1772–1859), miscellaneous writer, son of Elias Norgate, surgeon, and Deborah, daughter of Alderman Thomas Starling, was born at Norwich, 20 Aug. 1772. From 1780 to 1788 he attended the Norwich grammar school, where Dr. Samuel Parr was headmaster until 1785. In 1789 he was sent to the ‘New College,’ which had recently been established in the independent interest at Hackney, under the presidency of Dr. Thomas Belsham, and he was subsequently entered at Lincoln's Inn; but although he kept the requisite number of terms, he relinquished the chances of a legal career, and returned to his native city without any very definite views for the future.
While in London he was a frequent guest at the house of William Beloe [q. v.], and at his instigation he contributed to an early volume of the ‘British Critic.’ A year or two later, on the invitation of William Enfield, minister at the Octagon Chapel in Norwich, he became a regular contributor to the ‘Analytical Review’ until its death in 1799, and he supplied a few papers to the ‘Cabinet,’ a short-lived periodical published (1795–6) under the management of Charles Marsh, William Taylor, and other literary inhabitants of Norwich. He was a writer on various topics in the ‘Monthly Magazine,’ and supplied the ‘Half-yearly Retrospect of Domestic Literature’ from 1797 to 1807, when the publication was discontinued. To Arthur Aikin's ‘Annual Review’ (1802–8) Norgate was a large contributor, writing nearly one-seventh part of the whole work. Subsequently his intimate friend William Taylor introduced him to Griffiths, the editor of the ‘Monthly Review,’ for which he wrote for a time while living in retirement on his estate at Hetherset in Norfolk.
In 1829 he wrote the introductory chapter on the ‘Agriculture of the County’ for Chambers's ‘General History of Norfolk,’ 2 vols. 8vo, and in the following year, in conjunction with Simon Wilkin, F.L.S., and another friend, established the ‘East-Anglian,’ a weekly newspaper published at Norwich (1830–3). Norgate was assisted as editor by his eldest son, Elias Norgate, who also joined his father in founding (1829) the Norfolk and Norwich Horticultural Society. Norgate died at Hetherset, 7 July 1859, in the eighty-seventh year of his age.
His fourth son, Thomas Starling Norgate (1807–1893), born 30 Dec. 1807, was educated at Norwich grammar school under the Rev. Edward Valpy, and graduated B.A. from Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge, in 1832. He was curate successively of Briningham, of Cley-next-the-Sea, and of Banningham, all in Norfolk, and was collated rector of Sparham in the same county in 1840. He died at Sparham on 25 Nov. 1893. He was the author of three volumes of blank-verse translations of the Homeric poems: ‘Batrachomyomachia, an Homeric fable reproduced in dramatic blank verse,’ 1863, 8vo; ‘The Odyssey’ in dramatic blank verse 1863, 8vo; and ‘The Iliad,’ 1864, 8vo.
[Manuscript autobiographical memoranda and personal recollections.]
F. N.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Norman, John (1622-1669)

​NORMAN, JOHN (1622–1669), presbyterian divine, born on 15 Dec. 1622, was son of Abraham Norman of Trusham, Devonshire, and matriculated on 16 March 1637-8 from Exeter College, Oxford, where he was servitor to the rector, Dr. Conant. He graduated B.A. on 21 Oct. 1641, and received presbyterian ordination. In 1647, upon the expulsion of George Wotton, he became presbyterian vicar of Bridgwater, and remained there until ejected by the Act of Uniformity in 1662. He was the bosom friend of Joseph Alleine [q. v.], the ejected vicar of Taunton, whose sister Elizabeth seems to have been his first wife. Norman was probably the 'Pylades' to whom Alleine, under the signature 'Orestes,' wrote a very remarkable 'Letter from Bath' on 12 Oct. 1668, smoothing over some 'jealous passages' which had occurred between the writer and his old friend and 'covenant Pylades' (Life of Alleine, 1822, p. 432, letter xxxvii.) Soon after his ejectment, Norman was brought before Judge Foster for preaching privately to his people, and was sentenced to a fine of 100l. and to imprisonment until the fine was paid. He lay in Ilchester gaol for eighteen months, when Sir Matthew Hale [q. v.], on circuit, compounded the fine at sixpence in the pound. After his release he preached in private. He had good natural abilities, was an acceptable preacher, and was much respected in 'all the western parts of the kingdom' (Calamy). His works include 'Cases of Conscience practically resolved.' London, 1673, 8vo, to which an account of him is prefixed by William Cooper; an ordination sermon, 'Christ's Commission Officer,' London, 1658, 12mo; 'Christ confessed' ​(written in prison); and 'Family Governors exhorted to Family Godliness.'
He died at Bridgwater, and was buried at St. Mary's on 9 Feb. 1668-9. His wife Elizabeth had died in 1664, and he seems to have married a second wife, who survived him A son, John, born in 1652, matriculated from Exeter College, Oxford (8 May 1669). Henry Norman, master of Longport grammar school from 1706 to 1730, may have been the minister's grandson.
[Norman's Cases of Conscience; Palmer's Nonconformist's Memorial, iii. 169; Stanford's Joseph Alleine, his Companions and Times, 1861, pp. 101, 243, 359; Foster's Alumni Oxon. 1500–1714; "Weaver's Somerset Incumbents, p. 318; Notes and Queries, 8th ser. v. 149, by Mr. John Kent.]
J. C. H.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Norford, William

​NORFORD, WILLIAM (1715–1793), medical writer, was born in 1715, and was apprenticed to John Amyas, a surgeon in Norwich ‘of the first character and in full business’ (Letter to Sharpin). He began practice at Halesworth in Suffolk as a surgeon and man-midwife. In 1753 he published in London ‘An Essay on the General Method of treating Cancerous Tumours,’ 8vo, dedicated to John Freke [q. v.], senior surgeon to St. Bartholomew's Hospital. He had been encouraged to write by some remarks of Freke, and by the example of Dale Ingram [q. v.], also a country practitioner. He endeavours to establish rules for the treatment ​of cancer, which had, he believed, been successful in several cases. Some of his supposed cures were, however, followed by recurrence and death; and in others of his cases it is clear that abscesses or inflamed glands, but not cancers, were present. He discusses the views of Ledran, Van Swieten, and Wiseman, and states his own cases with fairness. He believed in a sulphur electuary and an ointment of his own. He married the daughter of a surgeon, and after some years moved to Bury St. Edmunds. He became an extra-licentiate of the College of Physicians on 26 Nov. 1761, and began practice as a physician. He had a quarrel with a Dr. Sharpin of East Dereham over a case of intestinal obstruction, and defended his own conduct in a sixpenny pamphlet entitled ‘A Letter to Dr. Sharpin in Answer to his Appeal to the Public concerning his Medical Treatment of Mr. John Ralling, apothecary, of Bury St. Edmund's in Suffolk.’ On the strength of his licence he styles himself Doctor. The letter is dated ‘Bury, Oct. 9, 1764,’ and the case, which is fully described, has considerable medical interest. In 1780 he published at Bury St. Edmunds ‘Concisæ et Practicæ Observationes de Intermittentibus Febribus curandis,’ 4to. He died in 1793. His portrait was painted by George Ralph, and engraved in 1788 by J. Singleton.
[Munk's Coll. of Phys. ii. 235; Works.]
N. M.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Norman, John (1491?-1553?)

​NORMAN, JOHN (1491?–1553?), Cistercian, was born soon after 1490, and graduated B.A. at Cambridge in 1514. He became abbot of the Cistercian house of Bindon in Dorset some time after 1523, in succession to John Walys. In 1536 Bindon, having a clear income of only 147l. 7s. 9½d. (Gairdner, Calendar of Letters and Papers of Henry VIIIs Reign, x. 1238), was suppressed among the lesser monasteries, but on 16 Nov. of the same year John Norman was formally reinstated abbot there by the patent of refoundation of the house (ib. xi. 1217; the patent is printed in full in Hutchins, Dorset, i. 356-8). Norman appears to have held the abbey of the king for some two years on the tenure of 'perpetual alms,' and then to have finally surrendered it to John Tregonwell, one of the clerks in chancery. The deed of surrender, preserved among the records of the court of augmentations, is dated 14 March 30 Henry VIII, 1539 (Deputy Keeper's Eighth Report, App. ii. p. 10), but the Close Roll gives the date as 10 March (Burnet, Hist. Reform. I. ii. 247, ed. 1865). To John Tregonwell, who had originally petitioned Cromwell for the farm of the abbey in 1536, Norman and his convent (1539) demised the farm of Hamburgh for the term of eighty-one years from 'Michaelmas last' (Gairdner, Letters and Papers of Henry VIII, x. 388), and Norman received a pension of 50l. a year, which he enjoyed until 1553.
[In addition to the authorities mentioned above, see Cooper's Athenæ Cantabr. i. 70; Rymer's Fœdera, xiv. 630; Tanner's Notitia Monastica, p. xl, 3 (ed. 1787); Dugdale's Monasticon, v. 656, ed. 1830; Willis's Mitred Abbeys, ii. 69; Dixon's Hist. of Church of England, ii. 114-15.]
A. M. C.-e.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Norgate, Robert

1904 Errata appended.
​NORGATE, ROBERT (d. 1587), master of Corpus Christi College, Cambridge, is said to have been born at Aylsham in Norfolk. He was educated at St. John's College in the same university, where he was admitted a scholar 1 Nov. 1561. He was admitted B.A. in 1564-5, and in 1567 was elected to a fellowship at Corpus Christi College. In 1568 he commenced M.A. He was probably aided in obtaining his fellowship by Archbishop Parker, whose chaplain he was, and to whom he was related by marriage, his wife, Elizabeth Baker, being the daughter of the archbishop's half-brother, John Baker M.A. The archbishop also presented him to the rectory of Latchingdon, with the chapel of Lawley in Essex, to which he was instituted 27 Jan. 1573-4. In 1575 he was presented by the crown to the rectory of Marsham in Norfolk. In 1576 he was one of the university preachers. On 29 Jan. 1577-8, he was installed prebendary of Decem Librarum in the cathedral of Lincoln. In 1578 he was presented by the crown to the rectory of Forncett in Norfolk. He was installed a canon of Ely 8 May 1579; was created D.D. in 1581; and filled the office of vice-chancellor of the university in 1584. On 10 Nov. in the same year he was appointed to the rectory of Little Gransden in Cambridgeshire, by the crown, and resigned about the same time the living of Latchingdon. He died on 2 Nov. 1587, and was buried in the ancient church of St. Benet.
Norgate appears to have discharged his duties as master with singular fidelity, and also in a thoroughly independent spirit. Although anxious on every ground to conciliate Burghley, he successfully resisted an attempt made by the latter to nominate, contrary to statute, one Booth to a fellowship. The numbers of the college increased considerably ​under his rule, and it was entirely due to his efforts that the new chapel was built in 1579. He himself, however, died so poor, that, according to Masters, 'his goods were sold by a decree of the vice-chancellor for the payment of his debts and funeral charges, there being then large arrears due to the college, which of many years were not cleared off' (Hist, of C. C. Coll., p. 118). He also is entitled to be gratefully remembered by all scholars for the care he took of Parker's magnificent library, for the reception of which he had a room constructed over the chapel, where the collection was safely housed until the erection of the new library in 1823.
His widow was married to Nicholas Felton [q. v.], afterwards master of Pembroke College, and bishop of Ely. His only son, Edward, is separately noticed.
[Masters's Hist. of Corpus Christi College, and Append. No. xxxvi.; Cooper's Athenæ Cant. ii. 18;Mullinger's Hist. of University of Cambridge, ii. 288.]
J. B. M.
Dictionary of National Biography, Errata (1904), p.207 N.B.— f.e. stands for from end and l.l. for last line
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