OpenLLM-France/wikimedia huggingface dataset:
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Smith, James (1805-1872)

​SMITH, JAMES (1805–1872), merchant, son of Joshua Smith, was born in Liverpool on 26 March 1805. He entered a merchant's office at an early age, and, after remaining there seventeen years, commenced business on his own account, retiring in 1855. He studied geometry and mathematics for practical purposes, and made some mechanical experiments with a view to facilitating mining operations. His attention being called to the problem of squaring the circle, in 1859 he published a work entitled ‘The Problem of squaring the Circle solved’ (London, 8vo), which was followed in 1861 by ‘The Quadrature of the Circle: Correspondence between an Eminent Mathematician and J. Smith, Esq.,’ London, 8vo. This was ridiculed in the ‘Athenæum’ (1861, i. 627, 664, 674), and Smith replied in a letter which was inserted as an advertisement (ib. i. 679). From this time the establishment of his theory became the central interest of his life, and he bombarded the Royal Society and most of the mathematicians of the day with interminable letters and pamphlets on the subject. De Morgan was selected as his peculiar victim on account of certain reflections he had cast on him in the ‘Athenæum.’ ​Smith was not content to claim that he was able graphically to construct a square equal in area to a given circle, but boldly laid down the proposition that the diameter of a circle was to the circumference in the exact proportion of 1 to 3.125. In ordinary business matters, however, he was shrewd and capable. He was nominated by the board of trade to a seat on the Liverpool local marine board, and was a member of the Mersey docks and harbour board. He died at his residence, Barkeley House, Seaforth, near Liverpool, in March 1872. Besides those mentioned, his principal works were:
* ‘A Nut to Crack for the Readers of Professor De Morgan's “Budget of Paradoxes,”’ Liverpool, 1863, 8vo.
* ‘The Quadrature of the Circle, or the True Ratio between the Diameter and Circumference geometrically and mathematically demonstrated,’ Liverpool, 1865, 8vo.
* ‘Euclid at Fault,’ Liverpool, 1868, 8vo.
* ‘The Geometry of the Circle a Mockery, Delusion, and a Snare,’ Liverpool, 1869, 8vo.
* ‘Curiosities of Mathematics,’ Liverpool, 1870, 8vo; 2nd edit. 1870.
* ‘The Ratio between Diameter and Circumference demonstrated by Angles,’ Liverpool, 1870, 8vo.
[Smith's Works; Men of the Time, 7th edit. p. 741; De Morgan's Budget of Paradoxes, passim; Allibone's Dict. of English Literature.]
E. I. C.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Stewart, William (d.1588)

​STEWART, Sir WILLIAM (d. 1588) of Monkton, was the third son of Andrew Stewart, second lord Ochiltree [q. v.], by Agnes, daughter of John Cunningham of Caprington. Captain James Stewart of Bothwellmuir (afterwards Earl of Arran) [q. v.] was his elder brother. After the raid of Ruthven in 1582, Arran left his followers under Sir William when he went alone to Ruthven Castle, and they were routed by the Earl of Mar, Sir William being hurt and mutilated of two fingers (Calderwood, iii. ​637; Moysie, Memoirs, p. 37). Afterwards he was captured and sent a prisoner to Stirling Castle (ib. p. 38), but was released on 25 Oct. on condition that he should remain within the sheriffdom of Ayr (ib. p. 41). After the fall of Arran in 1586 he was taken prisoner by Lord Hamilton and sent to Edinburgh, but was there set at liberty (ib. p. 56). On 26 March 1587 he was sent to treat of a renewal of the league with France (Calderwood, iv. 612); and on his return he accused the master of Gray of having endeavoured to obtain a knowledge of the letters with which he had been entrusted to France, of having trafficked with France and Spain for the subversion of religion, and of having consented to the death of Queen Mary. Both were thereupon committed to ward in the castle of Edinburgh, but after further hearing of the case Stewart was set at liberty, the master being found guilty (ib. p. 613; Moysie, Memoirs, p. 63; Spotiswood, ii. 373). In May 1588 he was commissioned to pursue John, lord Maxwell [q. v.], and, after capturing him in a cave on 5 June, obtained the surrender of the castle of Lochmaben on the 9th, when the captain, David, brother of Lord Maxwell, was hanged, with five of his men, before the castle gate (Calderwood, iv. 678; Spotiswood, ii. 384; Moysie, p. 68). On 10 July 1588 he had a controversy, in the king's presence, with Francis Stewart Hepburn, fifth earl of Bothwell [q. v.], when each gave the other the lie; and, after the king crossed the Forth a brawl occurred on 30 July between them in the High Street of Edinburgh. Sir William stabbed one of Bothwell's followers, whereupon he was attacked by Bothwell, and, after being stabbed with a rapier, fled to a hollow cellar in the Blackfriars Wynd, where he was despatched (30 July 1588).
T. F. H.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Stewart, William (d.1402)

​STEWART, Sir WILLIAM (d. 1402), of Jedworth, sheriff of Teviotdale, was the son of John de Foresta, mentioned in a safe-conduct on 26 July 1368 (and descended from Sir John Stewart of Bonkyl, killed at Falkirk in 1298), by a daughter of Turnbull of Minto. A charter of the lands of Minto was granted by John Turnbull of Minto to Sir William Stewart his relative (‘nepos’) 8 Dec. 1390, and ratified by Robert III on 4 July 1390–1. The earls of Galloway trace their descent from this Sir William Stewart of Jedworth, and, on the ground that he is identical with Sir William Stewart of Castlemilk, they have been claimed as the representatives of the Darnley line since the death of Cardinal York in 1807 [see Henry Benedict Maria Clement]; but that the two Sir William Stewarts are different persons is clearly proved by the fact that the mother of Sir William Stewart of Castlemilk was Janet Keith, and by irrefragable evidence of their deaths at widely different dates. Sir William Stewart of Castlemilk, who has been claimed as the father of Sir John Stewart of Jedworth, and who was a son of Alexander Stewart of Darnley, was killed at the siege of Orleans on 12 Feb. 1428–9.
Sir William Stewart of Jedworth is mentioned in 1390 as an auditor of customs (Exchequer Rolls, iii. 219), and also, a little later in the same year, as clerk of audit (ib. p. 236). On 1 Oct. 1397 he received a command from Robert III to appoint a day for the English commission to meet on the marches for the redress of grievances and negotiation of a truce (Cal. Documents relating to Scotland, 1357–1509, No. 491), and in March 1398 he was named a deputy commissioner of the Scots to see to the observance of a truce agreed on until Michaelmas following (ib. No. 502). On 27 June of the same year he also received from Robert III a grant of a pension of forty marks annually for his life out of the customs of Edinburgh for loyalty and attachment (Exchequer Rolls, iii. 207). On 26 Oct. of the same year his name appears as a ‘borow’ of the Earl of Douglas for the bounds on the middle marches (Cal. Documents relating to Scotland, 1357–1509, No. 570), Sir William of Castlemilk being mentioned in November as ‘borow’ of Douglas for the west marches (ib. No. 512). Having been taken prisoner at Homildon Hill on 14 Sept. 1402, Sir William Stewart of Jedworth was accused by Hotspur of treason for having broken his allegiance to the English king. Two successive juries acquitted him of the charge, but Hotspur summoned a third, from which he succeeded in wringing a verdict in accordance with his wishes, and Stewart, having been sentenced to the death of a traitor, was immediately executed with appropriate tortures, his four quarters being placed on the gates of York. He left a son, Sir John Stewart, who married Marion Stewart, heiress of Garlies.
T. F. H.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Stewart-Mackenzie, Maria Elizabeth Frederica

​STEWART-MACKENZIE, MARIA ELIZABETH FREDERICA, Lady Hood (1783–1862), eldest daughter and coheiress of Francis Mackenzie, earl of Seaforth, and Mary, daughter of Baptist Proby, dean of Lichfield, and brother of Lord Carysfort, was born at Tarnadale on 27 March 1783. She married, on 6 Nov. 1804, Sir Samuel Hood (1762–1814) [q. v.], vice-admiral of the white, whom she accompanied to the East Indies when he commanded on that station. He died on 24 Dec. 1814, and in the following year she succeeded to the family estates on the death of her father, and became the chieftainess of the clan Mackenzie. Scott, who refers to her as having ‘the spirit of a chieftainess in every drop of her blood’ (Lockhart, Life of Scott, ed. 1845, p. 306), devotes some lines to her in his poetical ‘Farewell to Mackenzie,’ as one
Whom brief rolling moons in six changes have left  Of thy husband and father and brothers bereft.
He also describes her ‘as an enthusiastic highlander, and deep in all manner of northern tradition’ (Familiar Letters, i. 142); and he doubtless profited not a little by the tales with which her memory was stored. On 21 May 1817 she married the Right Hon. James Alexander Stewart of Glasserton, elder son of Admiral Keith Stewart (d. 1795), who was third son of Alexander Stewart, sixth earl of Galloway. On his marriage he added the name Mackenzie to that of Stewart. He was M.P. for Ross and Cromarty from 1831 to 1837. From November 1837 till 1840 he was governor of Ceylon, and from 1840 to 1843 lord high commissioner of the Ionian Islands. He died at Southampton on 24 Sept. 1843. His widow died at Brahan Castle on 28 Nov. 1862. By her second husband she had three sons, of whom the eldest was Keith William Stewart-Mackenzie (1818–1880), and three daughters.
T. F. H.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Varley, William Fleetwood

​VARLEY, WILLIAM FLEETWOOD (1785–1856), artist, younger brother of Cornelius Varley [q. v.] and of John Varley [q. v.], was born in 1785. He received his first art instruction from his brother, and began to exhibit at the Royal Academy in 1804. About 1810 he was teaching in Cornwall, and afterwards at Bath and Oxford. At the latter place, through the thoughtless frolics of some students, he was nearly burnt to death, and received a shock to his system from which he never recovered. He exhibited twenty-one landscapes at the Royal Academy between 1804 and 1818. He died at Ramsgate on 2 Feb. 1856. He was married, and left seven daughters and one son. He was the author of 'Observations on Colouring and Sketching from Nature,' of which an enlarged edition was published by W. Mason of Chichester in 1820.
C. M.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Vardy, John

​VARDY, JOHN (d. 1765), architect, published in 1744 the book of the 'Designs of Inigo Jones,' by William Kent [q. v.] He was a follower, if not a pupil, of Kent, and had a share after Kent's death in carrying out his design for the Horse Guards, a building of which Vardy drew and published two prints with plans (1752 and 1751-3). His appointment at this building dates from 1751 (Tregellas, Horse Guards Memoranda, 1880); and, though he is assumed to have been in supreme charge of the operations, he was associated with another clerk of the works, William Robinson (1720?-1775) [q.v.], at an equal salary (100l.), throughout the period ot building (1751-2 and 1756-60); and the same amount was paid to Isaac Ware [q. v.] as draughtsman (see original manuscript accounts in R.L.B.A. Library). Vardy probably held several like appointments concurrently, for he succeeded H. Joynes at Kensington Palace some time between 1748 and 1754, and in 1748 was clerk of works both at St. James's Palace and Whitehall. At the time of his death, 17 May 1765, he held a similur post at Chelsea Hospital. At Westminster he not only acted as superintendent for Kent, but is said to have designed (1753) the court of king's bench (Bloomfield, Renaissance Arch. in England, p. 247).
Vardy's principal work (1762) was Lord Spencer's house in St. James's Place, facing the Park, though the north front and part of the interior are attributed to 'Athenian' Stuart [see Stuart, James, 1713-1788]. It is a dignified palace in the Palladian manner (see Vitruvius Britanniens, ed. Wolfe and Gandon, plates 37-9), surmounted with statues by Michel Henry Spang. Vardy exhibited six drawings of the building at the Society of Artists of Great Britain, where he also showed a design (1751) for a building for the Society of Dilettanti; a design (1754) for the British Museum (by order of the trustees); designs (1748) for a palace at Whitehall and for a north front of St. James's Palace; a design (1753) for the court of king's bench in St. Margaret's Lane, Westminster; a coloured view of the 'Gothic hall' (Henry VIII's chapel) at Hampton Court (a print signed 'J. Vardy, 1749,' represents the same subject, but the dedication on the plates implies that it is after Kent); a design for a nobleman's stable and terrace near Hyde Park; an inside view of a bath for a gentleman in Suffolk; and a plan and elevation of Colonel Wade's house at Whitehall (see the Catalogue of the Society of Artists of Great Britain, 1761-2-3-4). With the exception of the court of king's bench, Lord Spencer's house, and possibly that of Colonel Wade, none of his designs are known to have been carried into execution. Uxbridge House in Burlington Gardens (now a branch office of the Bank of England), though attributed to Vardy, was built (1790-2) by another John Vardy, possibly his son, in collaboration with J. Bonomi (Britton and Pugin, Edifices of London, i. 80). Vardy engraved a print after Kent of the pulpit in York Minster, and another (original) of a vase in Hampton Court gardens (1749).
[Architectural Publication Society's Dict.; authorities mentioned in text.]
P. W.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Sewall de Bovill

​SEWALL de Bovill (d. 1257), archbishop of York, was a pupil at Oxford of St. Edmund (Rich), the future archbishop of Canterbury. Edmund, who was greatly attached to Sewall, is said to have foretold his friend's promotion and troubles. About 1240 Sewall became dean of York. He held the prebend of Fenton, in the same church, apparently as early as 1237. While dean he wrote to Innocent IV in support of the proposed canonisation of St. Edmund (Martene, Thes. Nov. Anecd. iii. 1838). Some constitutions made by him as dean of York, in 1252, are in Cotton MS. Vitellius A. ii. f. iii. Previously to 16 Jan. 1250 he was made archdeacon of York. On the death of Archbishop Gray in 1255 the canons elected him to the vacant see. The king refused his consent on the ground that Sewall was of illegitimate birth. On 1 Oct. the chapter determined to prosecute an appeal at Rome; eventually the pope granted a dispensation removing the defect of birth, and confirmed the election. The king was thus compelled to give his assent on 4 May 1256, and Sewall was consecrated at York on 25 July by Walter de Cantelupe, bishop of Worcester. Shortly after his consecration, Adam de Marisco [q. v.] addressed him a long letter of advice urging him to take Bishop Grosseteste as his example (Monumenta Franciscana, pp. 438–89). The pope claimed the right to appoint to the deanery on its vacation by Sewall, and in 1257 an Italian, Jordan, was by his authority fraudulently installed. Sewall resisted the intrusion, and as a consequence was suspended from his office and excommunicated. It does not seem clear whether Sewall was absolved before his death, but the dispute was apparently compromised by the provision of a pension for Jordan. On 20 July 1257 Sewall was one of the commissioners appointed to decide the dispute between Alexander of Scotland and his nobles (Fœdera, i. 362). He died on 10 May 1257 (Stubbs ap. Raine, Historians of the Church of York, ii. 405; but Matt. Paris, v. 691, gives the date as 2 May). He was buried in the south transept of York minster, where his tomb is marked by a marble slab bearing a cross.
Sewall's rule as archbishop was troubled by his quarrel with the pope, whom on his deathbed he summoned to judgment (ib. v. 692). But his sufferings and resistance to papal intrusion won him great popularity. Matthew Paris describes him as a humble and holy man, well skilled in law and other sciences (v. 516). Bale ascribes to him:
* ‘Breviloquium ad Alexandrum papam.’
* ‘Sermones et Epistolæ.’
* ‘Ad suos Sacerdotes.’
[Annales Monastici, Matthew Paris, Monumenta Franciscana, Raine's Historians of the Church of York (all these in Rolls Ser.); Chron. Lanercost, pp. 71–2; Bliss's Calendar of Papal Registers; Le Neve's Fasti Eccl. Angl.; Tanner's Bibl. Brit.-Hib. p. 664; Dixon and Raine's Fasti Eboracenses, pp. 295–9.]
C. L. K.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Seward, Thomas

1904 Errata appended.
​SEWARD, THOMAS (1708–1790), canon of Lichfield and of Salisbury, son of John Seward of Badsey, Worcestershire, born in 1708, was admitted a foundation scholar of Westminster school in 1723. He was elected by the school to scholarships at Christ Church, Oxford, and Trinity College, Cambridge, in 1727, but upon his rejection by both universities he became a pensioner of St. John's College, Cambridge, where he graduated B.A. in 1730 and M.A. in 1734; then he became travelling tutor to Lord Charles Fitzroy, third son of the Duke of Grafton, who died while on the tour in Italy in 1739 (cf. Walpole, Letters, ed. Cunningham, viii. 415). The Duke of Grafton subsequently promised some preferment for Seward. He became rector of Eyam, Derbyshire, and Kingsley, Staffordshire. He also obtained the prebend of Bubbenhall in the church of Lichfield, though the date of his admission does not appear, and on 30 April 1755 he was collated to the prebend of Pipa Parva in the same church. He was installed in the prebend of Lyme and Halstock in the church of Salisbury on 5 June 1755. He resided at Lichfield from 1754, and was acquainted with Dr. Johnson, whom he used to entertain on his visits to Lichfield. Boswell describes him as a great valetudinarian, and ‘a genteel, well-bred, dignified clergyman, who had lived much in the great world.’ In 1779 he was portrayed as the Canon in the novel ‘Columella,’ by Richard Graves (1715–1804) [q. v.] He died at the bishop's palace, Lichfield, on 4 March 1790. He married Elizabeth, daughter of the Rev. John Hunter, headmaster of Lichfield grammar school, and was father of Anna Seward [q. v.], the authoress, who caused a monument to be erected to her parents in Lichfield Cathedral. The monument was executed by Bacon, and the verses which form part of the epitaph were the composition of Sir Walter Scott. His portrait, painted by Wright of Derby, was engraved by Cromell for Miss Seward's ‘Letters,’ vol. ii.
Seward edited, in conjunction with Sympson, the ‘Works’ of Beaumont and Fletcher, and wrote the preface, 10 vols. London, 1750, 8vo. It was a poor performance; Coleridge exclaimed in his ‘Lectures on Shakespeare’ (p. 146): ‘Mr. Seward! Mr. Seward! you may be, and I trust you are, an angel, but you were an ass!’ ‘The Female Right to Literature’ and four other poems by Seward were printed in Dodsley's ‘Collection,’ ii. 296–308 (cf. Gent. Mag. 1780, p. 123). Seward also published:
* ‘The Conformity between Popery and Paganism,’ London, 1746, 8vo [cf. Middleton, Conyers].
* A curious sermon, preached at Lichfield in 1756, entitled ‘The late dreadful Earthquakes no proof of God's particular Wrath against the Portuguese.’
[Boswell's Johnson, ed. Hill; Gent. Mag. 1790 i. 280, 369; Graduati Cantabr.; Le Neve's Fasti, ed. Hardy, i. 588, 621, ii. 672; Nichols's Illustr. of Lit.; Nichols's Lit. Anecd.; Welch's Alumni Westmon., ed. Phillimore, pp. 281, 296.]
T. C.
Dictionary of National Biography, Errata (1904), p.245 N.B.— f.e. stands for from end and l.l. for last line
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# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Sewall, Samuel

​SEWALL, SAMUEL (1652–1730), colonist and judge, son of Henry Sewall and Jane, daughter of Stephen Dummer, was born at Bishopstoke, Hampshire, on 28 March 1652. Emigrating in childhood with his parents to Newbury, Massachusetts, he was educated at a private school and at Harvard, entering in 1667, and graduating B.A. in 1671 and M.A. in 1674. He was then ordained minister, but on his marriage in 1677 was induced to leave that calling, and, under the patronage of his father-in-law, started a printing-press at Boston. He soon became known in public life, and in 1684 was elected a member of the court of assistants for Massachusetts. In 1688 he came to England on business. In 1692 Sewall, as a justice of the peace, was concerned in adjudicating in the Salem witchcraft case, but afterwards bitterly repented of his share in the proceedings, and publicly announced the fact, henceforward spending one day annually in fasting and prayer. He afterwards became one of the regular judges of Massachusetts, and in 1718 chief justice. He retired in 1728, and died at Boston on 1 Jan. 1730.
Sewall married, on 28 Feb. 1676, Hannah, daughter of John Hull and Judith Quincy. He left a long line of descendants, the ‘loyalist’ branch of which changed the spelling of the name to ‘Sewell’ [see under Sewell, Jonathan]. Sewall's diary, an interesting and valuable source for the social history of the colony from 1674 to 1729, was first published in the ‘Collections of the Massachusetts Historical Society,’ 5th ser. vol. v. An engraving, from a supposed original portrait (date and artist unknown), forms the frontispiece. Sewall was also author of a pamphlet ​against slavery, entitled ‘The Selling of Joseph’ (1700).
C. A. H.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Sever, Henry

​SEVER, HENRY (d. 1471), first provost of Eton College and warden of Merton, was a member of Merton College, Oxford, in ​1427, when he served as senior proctor in the university. He graduated D.D., and subsequently became chaplain and almoner to Henry VI. By the charter of incorporation he was on 11 Oct. 1440 appointed first provost of Eton College (Bekynton Correspondence, ii. 274, 281, 286). In 1442 he was succeeded as provost by William Waynefleet [q. v.], and at the end of that year he became chancellor of Oxford University. In the following year he was specially recommended by the university to the favour of Eugenius IV. On 29 May 1445 he was collated to the prebend of Harleston in St. Paul's Cathedral, and in April 1449 he became chancellor of that church. In 1446 the college presented him to the chapel of Kibworth, which he resigned soon after, and on 19 Feb. 1455–6 elected him warden of Merton College. In the reign of Edward IV Sever is said to have held fourteen ecclesiastical preferments (Harwood, Alumni Eton. p. 2). He died on 6 July 1471, and was buried in the choir of Merton College chapel; a monumental brass placed over his tomb is now within the rails of the communion-table on the south side of the chancel. His will, dated 4 July 1471, is printed in ‘Testamenta Eboracensia’ (iii. 188–90); by it Sever made many bequests to Merton College. While warden he rebuilt or completed the warden's house and the Holywell tower, probably at his own expense; these services won him the title of second founder of the college. Sever has been frequently confused with William Senhouse [q. v.], whose name was generally but erroneously spelt Sever.
A. F. P.