OpenLLM-France/wikimedia huggingface dataset:
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Moncreiff, Henry Wellwood

​MONCREIFF, Sir HENRY WELLWOOD (1809–1883), Scottish divine, born at Edinburgh 21 May 1809, was eldest son of Sir James Wellwood Moncreiff, afterwards Lord Moncreiff [q. v.] He was educated at the Edinburgh High School and University, but (5 April 1827) matriculated at New College, Oxford, whence he graduated B.A. in 1831. While at Oxford he was on intimate terms with Mr. Gladstone. Returning to Scotland he studied divinity under Dr. Chalmers, and after completing his course was ordained minister of the parish of Baldernock in Stirlingshire in 1836. In the following year he obtained the more important charge of East Kilbride in Lanarkshire. Moncreiff took part in the controversy which ended in the disruption of the church of Scotland. He joined the free church in June 1843, and from that date till 1852 he was the minister of Free East Kilbride. He succeeded to the baronetcy and assumed the name Wellwood on the death of his father in 1851. In 1852 he became minister of Free St. Cuthbert's in Edinburgh, where his grandfather, Sir Henry Moncreiff (1750-1827) [q. v.], had passed fifty years of his ministry. He was appointed joint principal clerk to the free general assembly in 1855, was created D.D. by Glasgow University in 1860, and appointed moderator of the free church assembly in 1869. In 1862 he was appointed secretary of the Bible Board, and held that office at his death, which took place 4 Nov. 1883. Moncreiff was twice married, first, on 8 Feb. 1838, to Alexandrina Mary, daughter of George Bell, a surgeon in Edinburgh; and secondly in 1875 to Lucretia, daughter of Andrew Murray of Murrayshall in Perthshire. There was no issue by either marriage. His social position, knowledge of church law, and readiness to place his knowledge and experience at the disposal of his fellow ministers, rendered Moncreiff one of the most influential supporters of the free church. His published writings included 'A Vindication of the Free Church Claim of Right' (1877) and 'The Free Church Principle, its Character and History,' being the first series of the Chalmers Lectures (1883).
[Irving's Book of Eminent Scotsmen; Hew Scott's Fasti, ii. 291; some autobiographical information is contained in The Free Church Principle, its Character and History, publ. 1883, pp. 330-3 Memorials of E. S. Candlish, by Dr. W. Wilson, pp. 225-59.]
A. J. M. M.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Mure, William (1718-1776)

​MURE, WILLIAM (1718–1776), baron of the Scots exchequer, was eldest son and successor to William Mure of Caldwell in Ayr and Renfrewshire, by his wife Anne, daughter of Sir James Stewart of Coltness, lord advocate, and widow of James Maxwell of Blawarthill. He was born late in 1718. His father dying in April 1722, he was brought up at home by his mother, under the tutorship of Rev. William Leechman, afterwards professor of divinity in, and eventually by his influence promoted to be principal of, Glasgow University. He then studied law at Edinburgh and Leyden, and travelled during 1741 in France and Holland. Returning to Scotland in November 1742, he was elected member of parliament for Renfrewshire, a seat which he held without opposition during three parliaments till 1761, when he was appointed a baron of the Scots exchequer. He spoke rarely, and attended irregularly, his principal interest lying in the direction of agricultural improvements, upon which he became an acknowledged authority. He is principally known as the friend of Lord Bute [see Stuart, John, third Earl of Bute], and of David Hume. Through the services that he rendered to the former in connection with the management of the Bute estates he became his intimate friend and trusted adviser, and rising with his fortunes was eventually one of the most influential men in Scotland in regard to the management of its local affairs and distribution of Scottish patronage. Of Hume he was at the same time one of the oldest and most valued friends, and from 1742 onwards their letters are numerous. Mure's house at Abbey hill, near Holyrood, was one of Hume's favourite resorts. Apropos of his history Hume wrote Mure in 1756: 'If you do not say that I have done both parties justice, and if Mrs. Mure be not sorry for poor King Charles, I shall burn all my papers and return to philosophy.' Mure was well known in Scottish literary society, and published privately a couple of tracts on political economy. In 1764 and 1765 he was lord rector of Glasgow University, and was again put in nomination for that post in 1776, but was defeated. He died at Caldwell on 25 March 1776 of gout in the stomach. He married Anne, daughter of James Graham, lord Easdale, a judge of ​the court of session, by whom he had two sons and four daughters. Many of the letters addressed to him and other papers are published with a portrait in the 'Caldwell Papers,' vols. ii. and iii.
[Caldwell Papers (Maitland Club); Hill Burton's Life of Hume; Anderson's Scottish Nation.]
J. A. H.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Murphy, Francis (1795-1858)

​MURPHY, FRANCIS (1795–1858), first Roman catholic bishop of Adelaide, was born at Navan, county Meath, on 20 May 1795, and received his preparatory education in the diocesan seminary of his native town. In ​twentieth year he entered St. Patrick's College, Maynooth, and in 1826 was ordained a priest by Dr. Daniel Murray, archbishop of Dublin. After serving as missioner at Bradford in Yorkshire for three years, he in 1829 took charge of St. Anne's, Toxteth Park, Liverpool. In 1838 he went out to New South Wales with Dr. Ullathorne (afterwards bishop of Birmingham), and on the latter's recall to England in the same year succeeded him as vicar general of Australia. On 8 Sept. 1844 he was consecrated in St. Mary's Cathedral, Sydney, bishop of the newly established suffragan see of Adelaide, being the first bishop consecrated in Australia. His diocese at this period contained only fifteen hundred Roman catholics, and he came to it with only 150l. which had been subscribed in Sydney. He held service in a store in Pirie Street, Adelaide, until his sole assistant, Michael Ryan, obtained a site and erected a church in West Terrace. The discovery of gold in 1851 caused the dispersion of a large portion of his congregations, and his churches were only kept open by Mr. Ryan visiting the gold fields, and there collecting money from the Adelaide diggers. When the excitement had somewhat subsided, he commenced erecting a cathedral in Victoria Street, but did not live to see it finished. He, however, succeeded in establishing twenty-one churches, served by thirteen priests, and in the management of his diocese won general esteem. He died of consumption at West Terrace, Adelaide, on 26 April 1858, and was buried within the precincts of his cathedral.
[South Australian Register, 27 April 1858 ; Tablet, 24 July 1858, p. 467; Beaton's Australian Dict. of Dates, 1879, p. 149.]
G. C. B.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Murgatroid, Michael

Michael Murgatrod in the ODNB.
​MURGATROID, MICHAEL (1551–1608), author, born in Yorkshire in November 1551, was educated at the expense of his kinsman (probably uncle), Richard Gascoigne, a gentleman of that county. He matriculated as a pensioner of Jesus College, Cambridge, in June 1573, graduated B.A. in 1576-7, was fellow from 1577 until 1600, and commenced M.A. in 1580. He was Greek reader of his college, and subsequently became secretary to Archbishop Whitgift, then comptroller, and ultimately steward of his household, and commissary of the faculties. He died on 3 April 1608 at Waddon, near Croydon, Surrey, where he leased a farm from George and John Whitgift (Probate Act Book, P.C.C. 1605-1609), and was buried on the 12th in the chancel of Croydon Church, as near Archbishop Whitgift as possible. On the east wall of the chantry of St. Nicholas in the old church was his monument, having under a recessed arch his statue clad in a black gown, and kneeling at a desk, with inscriptions over his head and under his feet. By his marriage on 26 April 1602 to Anne, widow of a Mr. Yeomans and sister of Robert Bickerstaffe, he left a daughter, Mary. Another child was born posthumously (Nichols, Collectanea, ii. 294). A son-in-law, George Yeomans, he set up as a yeoman at Waddon. One of the witnesses to his will (P.C.C. 44, Windebanck) was his 'cousin,' George Gascoigne.
Murgatroid was author of: 1. 'Michaelis Murgertod de Græcarum disciplinarian laudibus oratio: cum epistolis 2; et versibus Johanni Bell, Collegii Jesus Cantab, præfecto, inscriptis; et Oratione cum Aristotelis Meteorologica exponeret habita;' it is Harleian MS. 4159. The first oration was delivered at college. 2. 'Memoirs of affairs in Church and State in Archbishop Whitgift's time,' among the Lambeth MSS. (No. 178, f. 1). 3. 'Ad Domini Richardi Cosini tumulum,' Latin verses in the university collection on the death of Dr. Cosin, 1598.
[Cooper's Athenæ Cantabr. ii. 480-1.]
G. G.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Murphy, Denis Brownell

​MURPHY, DENIS BROWNELL (d. 1842), miniature-painter, was a native of Dublin. He was a patriot and strong sympathiser with the cause of United Ireland in 1798, but in that year removed for professional reasons to Whitehaven in England with his wife and family. In 1802 they removed to Newcastle-on-Tyne, but in 1803 came to London, settling first at Hanwell. Murphy had considerable practice as a miniature-painter, and was in that capacity attached to the household of Princess Charlotte, being in 1810 appointed painter in ordinary to her royal highness. He copied one or two of Lely's famous ‘Beauties,’ then at Windsor Castle (now at Hampton Court), and by command of the princess completed a series of miniature copies of these, adding some from pictures not at Windsor. Murphy had apartments assigned him at Windsor during the progress of this work, which was from time to time inspected and approved by the royal family. The set was not completed at the time of the princess's death, which put an end to the work and to Murphy's connection with the court. The paintings were sent in to Prince Leopold, with a claim for payment, but to the painter's great disappointment were declined and returned. The set were, however, purchased by a friend, Sir Gerard Noel, and it was suggested that use should be made of them by having them engraved as a series, with illustrative text from the pen of Murphy's daughter, Mrs. Anna Brownell Jameson [q. v.] This work was successfully completed and published in 1833 under the title of ‘The Beauties of the Court of King Charles the Second.’ Murphy occasionally exhibited miniatures in enamel or on ivory at the Royal Academy from 1800 to 1827, but his work did not attain any great distinction. The latter part of his life was very closely connected with that of his more famous daughter, Mrs. Jameson.
Murphy died in March 1842, leaving by his wife, who survived him, five daughters, of whom the eldest, Anna Brownell, married Robert Jameson, and was the well-known writer on art [see Jameson, Anna Brownell]. Of the others, Camilla became Mrs. Sherwin, and died on 28 May 1886, at Brighton, aged 87, and Louisa became Mrs. Bate, while Eliza and Charlotte Alicia died unmarried, the former at Brighton on 31 March 1874 in her seventy-ninth year, the latter at Ealing on 13 June 1876, aged 71.
[Redgrave's Dict. of Artists; Mrs. Macpherson's Memoirs of the Life of Anna Jameson; private information.]
L. C.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Murphy, Edward

​MURPHY or MORPHY, EDWARD or DOMINIC EDWARD (d. 1728), Roman catholic archbishop of Dublin, belonged to a family settled in Carlow county. He was appointed bishop of Kildare and Leighlin on 11 Sept. 1715, on the recommendation of James II, and was consecrated on 18 Dec. by Edmond Byrne, archbishop of Dublin. He was translated to the archiepiscopal see of Dublin by a papal brief dated September in that year. He was consecrated before 5 Jan. 1725, and the dispensation to perform all the archiepiscopal acts without the pallium was demanded in the congregation of 5 April.
On 25 Nov. 1728 he applied for a coadjutor, and he died on 22 Dec. in the same year. His death was announced in the propaganda congregation of 13 Feb. 1729. The historian of Kildare in his dedication to the Rev. Dr. Magee of Stradbally, a descendant of Murphy, speaks of the latter as 'one of the noblest bishops elect that Kildare and Leighlin had just reason to be proud of.'
[O'Byrne's Eccles. Hist. of the Bishops of Kildare and Leighlin, p. 58; W. M. Brady's Episcopal Succession, i. 340, 356; Gams's Series Episcop. Eccles. Hibern. p. 219.]
G. Le G. N.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Oxley, Joseph

1904 Errata appended.
​OXLEY, JOSEPH (1715–1776), quaker, eldest son of John Oxley and Ann Peckover of Fakenham, Norfolk, was born at Brigg in Lincolnshire on 4 Nov. 1715. His parents dying before he was eight years old, he was brought up by an uncle, Edmund Peckover. After five years at a school at Sankey in Lancashire, he was apprenticed to a clockmaker at Scarborough. When about twenty-three he took a situation in London. Soon after he attended a large meeting held by George Whitfield [q. v.] on Kennington Common, and, being extremely short in person, was almost crushed to death, until noticed 'by a gentlewoman in a coach, who fanned him.' This event, he says, led to his conversion, and he shortly became a minister of the Society of Friends, making continual visits in that capacity to Scotland, Ireland, and all parts of England.
In 1741 Oxley returned to Fakenham and opened a shop. On 28 June 1744 he married Elizabeth Fenn of Norwich, where he established himself as partner in a prosperous woollen manufacture. In 1753 his wife died, and on 5 Jan. 1757 he married, at Huntingdon, Mary Burr, like himself a minister.
In July 1770 Oxley sailed for America, where he visited the meetings in many states. His letters, published by John Barclay as No. 5 of his 'Select Series,' under the title 'Joseph's Offering to his Children: being Joseph Oxley's Journal of his Life, Travels, and Labours of Love in the Faith and Fellowship of our Lord Jesus Christ,' London, 1837, contain much interesting information about the colonies of Virginia, Maryland, and New England. The work was reprinted in vol. ii. of the 'Friends' Library,' Philadelphia, 1838, &c.
Oxley returned to Norwich in April 1772, and died there suddenly on 22 Oct. 1775. He was buried in the Friends' burial-ground at Norwich.
[Journal mentioned above; Janney's Hist. of Friends, iii. 392; Piety Promoted, pt. ix. 1796, pp. 43-7; Smith's Cat. of Friends' Books.]
C. F. S.
Dictionary of National Biography, Errata (1904), p.213 N.B.— f.e. stands for from end and l.l. for last line
| Page | Col. | Line | |
| 19 | i | 12 | Oxley, Joseph: for Whitfield read Whitefield |
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Oxley, John

​OXLEY, JOHN (1781–1828), Australian explorer, born in England in 1781, entered the royal navy, in which he saw active service in various parts of the world, and obtained a lieutenant's commission on 25 Nov. 1807. He went out to Australia, and was appointed surveyor-general of New South Wales on 1 Jan. 1812. On 6 April 1817, in company with Cunningham, king's botanist [see Cunningham, Allan, 1791-1839], Charles Frazer, colonial botanist, William Parr, mineralogist, and eight others, he started on an exploring expedition in the interior of Australia. They returned on 29 Aug. to Bathurst, having during their nineteen weeks' travel traced the Lachlan and Macquarie rivers, named the Bell and Elizabeth rivers, Molle's rivulet, and Mounts Amyott, Melville, Cunningham, Stuart, Byng, Granard, and Bauer. On 20 May 1818 Oxley started, with some companions, on a second expedition. In this remarkable journey the party traversed the whole of the country between Mount Harris and Port Macquarie, carrying a stranded boat on their shoulders ninety miles of the way, discovering and naming the Peel and Hastings rivers and Port Macquarie. The results showed the need of finding a track to the Liverpool Plains, and to the problem of many mysteriously flowing rivers added the rumour of a great inland sea. On 23 Oct. 1823 Oxley started in the Mermaid, with Lieutenant Stirling and Mr. John Uniacke, to find a site for a penal settlement north of Sydney. They examined Port Curtis on 6 Nov. and Boyne river on 11 Nov., reaching Moreton Bay on 29 Nov.; there they found a white man named Pamphlet, who gave them information which led to the discovery of the Brisbane river, on which the capital of Queensland now stands. A settlement was formed there in August 1824. On 11 Aug. 1824 Oxley was made a member of the legislative council of New South Wales. He married the daughter of James Morton of New South Wales, by whom he had a family. He died on 25 May 1828.
Oxley was author of 'Narrative of Two Expeditions into the Interior of New South Wales, under the orders of the British Government, in 1817-18' (London, 1820), and of a 'Chart of Part of the Interior of New South Wales' (1822). His name has been adopted as the name of several places in New South Wales and Victoria.
[Heaton's Handbook of Australian Biogr. under 'Oxley' and 'Australian Land Explorers;' Oxley's Narrative.]
H. M. C.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Oxnead, John of

​OXNEAD, JOHN of (d. 1293?), chronicler. [See Oxenedes.]
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Oyley

​OYLEY. [See D'Oyley.]
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Pabo

​PABO (fl. 520?), North British king, was, according to the oldest Welsh genealogies (Harl. MS. 3859), the son of Cenau ap Coel Odebog (Cymmrodor, ix. 174, 179). Later documents make him the son of Arthwys ap Mor ap Cenau (Hengwrt MS. No. 536; Iolo MSS. p. 126), but he appears to have belonged to the beginning rather than to the end of the sixth century. In mediæval Welsh literature Pabo is styled ‘post Prydain;’ this title appears in the early genealogy as ‘p. priten,’ and is thus shown to be really ‘post Prydyn,’ i.e. the pillar of Pictland or the north, ‘Prydein’ for ‘Prydyn’ being a common mediæval mistake (Rhys, Celtic Britain, p. 296). Though a northern warrior, Pabo is alleged by tradition to have been buried at Llanbabo in Anglesey; the tombstone, bearing a representation of him in royal array, with a (now partially defaced) inscription, was discovered in the seventeenth century (Cambrian Register, ii. 486–7), and is ascribed by Longueville Jones (Archæol. Cambr. 1861, p. 300), Westwood (Lapidarium Walliæ, p. 193), and Bloxam (Archæol. Cambr. 1874, p. 110) to the reign of Edward III. Llanbabo (‘the church of Pabo’) is a chapel of Llanddeusant, and therefore is probably later than Pabo's time; it may, however, have been built to mark a spot already hallowed by his grave. Pabo is assigned a place among the Welsh saints in two of the printed lists (Iolo MSS. 105, 126), and the second gives some particulars of his history, but both, as Phillimore has shown (Byegones, 1890, pp. 482, 533–4), are quite untrustworthy. Rhys believes a misreading of ‘Pabo priden’ to be the source of the Palomydes of Malory (Arthurian Legend, p. 298). Pabo's festival was 9 Nov. (Iolo MS. 152).
J. E. L.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Pacifico, David

​PACIFICO, DAVID (1784–1854), Greek trader, calling himself Le Chevalier Pacifico and Don Pacifico, was a Portuguese Jew by extraction, but was born a British subject at Gibraltar in 1784. From 1812 he was in business in the seaport of Lagos, Portugal; afterwards he resided at Mertola; but, owing to the aid which he rendered to the liberal cause, his property was confiscated by Don Miguel. On 28 Feb. 1835 he was named Portuguese consul in Morocco, and on 5 Jan. 1837 Portuguese consul-general in Greece; but the complaints against him became so numerous that he was dismissed from the service on 21 Jan. 1842. Soon after this period he settled at Athens as a merchant. In that city it was customary to celebrate Easter by burning an effigy of Judas Iscariot. In 1847, out of compliment to Baron Rothschild, then residing there, the annual ​ceremony was prohibited; but, Pacifico's house happening to stand near the spot where the burning usually took place, the mob in a state of excitement tore down and burnt the dwelling and its contents. Pacifico claimed compensation, not only for his furniture, &c., but also for lost papers relating to his claims on the Portuguese government, and laid his damages at the exaggerated sum of 26,618l. At the same period Dr. George Finlay [q. v.], the historian of Greece, had also a claim against the Greek government. The Greek ministry delaying to make compensation in these and other cases, Lord Palmerston, in January 1850, sent the British fleet to the Piræus, when all the Greek vessels and other ships found within the waters were seized. The French government, then in agreement with England, sent a commissioner to Athens to endeavour to arrange terms. This attempt at conciliation, however, resulted in a quarrel between France and England, and the French ambassador, M. Drouyn de Lhuys, withdrew from London. The House of Lords, on 18 June 1850, by a large majority, passed a vote of censure on Lord Palmerston for his conduct in this matter, but the resignation of the ministry was prevented by a vote of the House of Commons on 29 June, when there was a majority of 46 in favour of the government. Ultimately Pacifico received one hundred and twenty thousand drachmas for the plunder of his house, and 500l. sterling as indemnity for his personal sufferings. Thus ended an event which nearly evoked a European war, and disturbed the good relations between England and France.
Pacifico, who finally settled in London, died at 15 Bury Street, St. Mary Axe, on 12 April 1854, and was buried in the Spanish burial-ground, Mile End, on 14 April.
G. C. B.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Paas, Simon

​PAAS, SIMON (1595?–1647), engraver. [See Pass.]