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

​HOLMES, JAMES (1777–1860), painter, born in 1777, was first apprenticed to an engraver. He made some progress in engraving, and in 1800 engraved in stipple a portrait of Thomas Clio Rickman after Hazlitt. On the termination of his apprenticeship he gave up engraving and turned his attention to water-colour painting. In 1813 he became a member of the Society of Painters in Water-colours, and sent two pictures, ‘Hot Porridge’ and ‘The Married Man,’ to their exhibition. He continued to contribute small-subject pictures and an occasional portrait to that exhibition until 1820. In 1819 he exhibited two miniatures at the Royal Academy, and about the same time was led to try painting in oils. In 1822 he ceased to be a member of the Society of Painters in Water-colours, and actively assisted to establish the Society of British Artists, who held their first exhibition in Suffolk Street in 1824. Holmes became a member in 1829, and a constant exhibitor, chiefly in miniatures, up to 1850, when he resigned his membership. He devoted himself latterly to miniature-painting, and had many distinguished sitters. He painted some miniature portraits of Lord Byron, two of which were engraved. Holmes's paintings were esteemed for careful finish and good colour. His genial character and musical talents gained him the personal friendship of George IV. Holmes retired to spend his later years in Shropshire, and died on 24 Feb. 1860. Some of his pictures were engraved for publications, such as ‘The Amulet,’ ‘The Literary Souvenir,’ &c.
[Redgrave's Dict. of Artists; Graves's Dict. of Artists, 1760–1880; Exhibition Catalogues.]
L. C.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Nunn, Marianne

​NUNN, MARIANNE (1778–1847), hymn-writer, daughter of John Nunn of Colchester, was born 17 May 1778. She wrote several sacred pieces, but is remembered solely by the hymn, ‘One there is above all others, O how He loves.’ This is a version adapted to a Welsh air of Newton's hymn beginning with the same line, and it has since undergone several changes at various hands. The original is printed in her brother's (Rev. J. Nunn) ‘Psalms and Hymns,’ 1817, which contains other pieces of hers. She died unmarried in 1847. A younger brother, William Nunn (1786–1840), wrote several hymns, two of which, ‘O could we touch the sacred lyre’ and ‘The Gospel comes ordained of God,’ are in occasional use.
[Julian's Dict. Hymnology; Horder's Hymn Lover; Miller's Singers and Songs, 1869.]
J. C. H.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Nutt, Joseph

​NUTT, JOSEPH (1700–1775), surveyor of highways, son of Robert and Sarah Nutt of Hinckley, Leicestershire, was baptised there on 2 Oct. 1700 (parish reg.). He was educated at the free grammar school, Hinckley, and afterwards apprenticed to John Parr, an apothecary in the same town. After studying in the London hospitals he settled in his native town, where he became successful and popular, frequently doctoring the poor for nothing. Having been chosen one of the surveyors of highways for Hinckley parish, he turned his attention to the roads, and introduced a system of periodically flooding them. The track thus became firm and substantial for saddle and pack horses, the latter then much used for transporting pit-coal from the mines, and the land on either side was also enriched.
Nutt's procedure was resisted, and he himself subjected to ridicule; but his opinion as a land valuer was sought by others, especially by Sir Dudley Ryder, attorney-general (1737–1754). John Dyer [q. v.], the poet, was on familiar terms with Nutt, and celebrated in his poem of ‘The Fleece’ the utilitarian talents of the ‘Sweet Hincklean swain whom rude obscurity severely clasps’ (edition of 1762, p. 27).
Nutt died at Hinckley on 16 Oct. 1775, and was buried in the churchyard.
By his will he left six oak-trees to build within forty years of his death, a new market-place for Hinckley, with a school and town-hall above it.
[Chalmers's Biographical Dictionary, xxiii. 273–4; Nichol's Hist. and Antiq. of Hinckley in the Bibl. Topogr. Brit. vii. 187–9.]
C. F. S.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Nuthall, Thomas

​NUTHALL, THOMAS (d. 1775), politician and public official, was a native of the county of Norfolk. He became a solicitor, and held the appointments of registrar of warrants in the excise office (1740), and receiver-general for hackney coaches (1749). From a letter written by him from Crosby Square, London, on 30 May 1749, to Lord Townshend, it appears that he transacted that peer's legal business. He was also solicitor to the East India Company; on the retirement in July 1765 of Philip Carteret Webb he was appointed solicitor to the treasury; and he succeeded Webb in 1766, when Lord Northington ceased to be lord chancellor, in the post of secretary of bankrupts. Nuthall had been for many years intimately acquainted with Pitt, whose marriage settlements he had drawn up in 1754, and he attributed his promotions to the friendship of Pitt, his ‘great benefactor and patron.’ He added that he would resign his offices when called upon to ‘do anything that I can even surmise to be repugnant to your generous and constitutional principles.’ Many letters to and from him are in the ‘Chatham Correspondence’ (ii. 166 et seq.); he was addressed as ‘dear Nuthall,’ and he was the medium of the communications with Lord Rockingham in February 1766 for the restoration of Pitt to power. In 1772, however, in consequence of some errors in their private business, probably due to the multiplication of his official duties, Nuthall fell under the censure of that statesman and of Lord Temple, the latter of whom, when writing to Pitt, dubbed him ‘that facetious man of business in so many departments, Mr. Thomas Nuthall, whose fellow is not easily to be met with; witness your marriage-settlements not witnessed.’
Nuthall seems to have been in partnership with a solicitor called Skirrow at Lincoln's Inn in 1766. In the same year, as ranger of Enfield Chase, he devised a plan for saving its oak-woods for the ​construction of the navy which met with the commendation of Pitt; but an act was passed in 1777 for dividing the chase, and it was disafforested. On returning from Bath he was attacked on Hounslow Heath by a single highwayman, who fired into the carriage, but no one was injured. Nuthall returned the fire, and the man hastily decamped. At the inn at Hounslow he wrote a description of the fellow to Sir John Fielding, and ‘had scarce closed his letter when he suddenly expired,’ 7 March 1775. He had married in 1757 the relict of Hambleton Costance of Ringland, in Norfolk. A passage in Horace Walpole's ‘Letters,’ 27 Oct. 1775, shows that his widow received a pension from the state.
Nuthall's portrait, by Gainsborough, was exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1771, and his signature is reproduced in plate xiv. of facsimiles of autographs in the ‘Chatham Correspondence,’ vol. ii. Numerous letters and references to him are in the ‘Home Office Papers,’ 1760–72.
[Gent. Mag. 1740 p. 93, 1749 p. 189, 1757 p. 531, 1765 p. 348, 1766 p. 391, 1775 p. 148; Nichols's Lit. Anecdotes, iv. 338; Chatham Correspondence, ii. 166, 325, 397; Grenville Papers, i. 128, iv. 537–46; Fulcher's Gainsborough, ed. 1856, p. 186.]
W. P. C.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Nunna

​NUNNA or NUN (fl. 710), king of the South-Saxons, joined his kinsman, Ine or Ini [q. v.], king of the West-Saxons, in his victorious war with Gerent, king of British Dyvnaint, in 710 (Anglo-Saxon Chron. sub. an.; Ethelweard, ii. c. 12). He first appears as confirming a charter of Nothelm [q. v.], king of the South-Saxons, in 692, where he is described as also king of Sussex; to the charter the names of Wattus, king, Coenred, king of the West-Saxons, and Ine are also appended (Codex Dipl. No. 995). He was no doubt an ætheling of the house of Ceawlin, and reigned in Sussex, which, since the invasion of Cædwalla (659?–689) [q. v.], had been under West-Saxon supremacy. The three charters of Nunna given in the ‘Monasticon’ and by Kemble (ib. Nos. 999, 1000, 1001) from the register of the dean and chapter of Chichester are of doubtful authority. In the first, dated 714, Nunna grants land to the monks of the isle of Selsey, where he desires to be buried; the second, dated 725, is a grant to Eadbert, bishop of Selsey, and the third a grant of land at Pipering to a ​‘servant of God’ named Berhtfrith, on condition that prayer should be offered there continually for the donor.
[Anglo-Saxon Chron. an. 710 (Rolls Ser.); Ethelweard, ii. c. 12 (Mon. Hist. Brit. p. 507); Flor. Wig. an. 710 (Engl. Hist. Soc.); Kemble's Codex Dipl. Nos. 995, 999, 1000, 1001 (Engl. Hist. Soc. v. 39, 41, 43); Dugdale's Monasticon, vi. 1162, 1163; Somerset Archæol. Soc.'s Proc. 1872, xviii. ii. 25, 26, 33, 45.]
W. H.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Nunneley, Thomas

​NUNNELEY, THOMAS (1809–1870), surgeon, born at Market Harborough in March 1809, was son of John Nunneley, a gentleman of property in Leicestershire, who claimed descent from a Shropshire family. He was educated privately, and was apprenticed to a medical man in Wellingborough, Northamptonshire. He afterwards entered as a student at Guy's Hospital, where he became intimately acquainted with Sir Astley Paston Cooper [q. v.], and served as surgical dresser to Mr. Key. He was admitted a licentiate of the Society of Apothecaries on 12 July 1832, in the same year obtained the membership of the Royal College of Surgeons of England, and in 1843 he was elected a fellow honoris causâ. As soon as he had obtained his license to practise, he went to Paris to increase his professional knowledge. He applied unsuccessfully for the office of house-surgeon to the Leeds General Infirmary on his return to England; but finding that an opportunity for practice offered itself in the town, he settled there, and was soon afterwards appointed surgeon to the Eye and Ear Hospital, a post he occupied for twenty years with eminent success. In the Leeds school of medicine he lectured on anatomy and physiology, and later on surgery, until 1866. He was appointed surgeon to the Leeds General Infirmary in 1864. For some years he was an active member of the Leeds town council. He died on 1 June 1870.
Nunneley was a surgeon who operated with equal ability, judgment, and skill, and is further remarkable as being one of the earliest surgeons outside London to devote himself to the special study of ophthalmic surgery in its scientific aspects. He was clear, vigorous, and logical as a writer, and of decisive character. These qualities made him a valuable professional witness in favour of William Palmer (1825–1856) [q. v.], who was convicted of poisoning J. P. Cook by strychnia in 1856, and against William Dove, who poisoned his wife with the same drug in the course of that same year.
Nunneley's chief work was ‘The Organs of Vision, their Anatomy and Physiology,’ London, 1858, 8vo. The book at the time it was published was of great value, but its sale was spoilt by adverse criticism in professional journals, which appears to have been due to personal animosity. Nunneley also published:
* ‘An Essay on Erysipelas,’ published in 1831, and reissued in 1841.
* ‘Anatomical Tables,’ London, 1838, 12mo.
* ‘On Anæsthesia and Anæsthetic Substances generally,’ Worcester, 1849, 8vo.
His portrait appears in ‘Photographs of eminent Medical Men,’ London, 1867, ii. 33.
[Obituary notice by Dr. George Burrows, the president, in the Proceedings of the Royal Medical and Chirurgical Society, vi. 354; Medical Times and Gazette, 1870, i. 648; information from Dr. J. A. Nunneley.]
D’A. P.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Nuttall, Josiah

​NUTTALL, JOSIAH (1771–1849), naturalist, son of a handloom weaver, was born at Heywood, Lancashire, in 1771. Early in life he became a collector of birds, a close observer of nature, and in time an expert taxidermist. For some years he was engaged in the museum of Mr. Bullock of Liverpool, and subsequently at the Royal Institution in the same town. He realised sufficient means to purchase property in his native village, where he retired with a good collection of British and foreign birds. Here he turned his attention to literary pursuits, and in 1845 published an epic poem in ten cantos, entitled ‘Belshazzar, a Wild Rhapsody and Incoherent Remonstrance, abruptly written on seeing Haydon's celebrated Picture of Belshazzar's Feast,’ a work as curious in itself as in its title. He died unmarried at Heywood on 6 Sept. 1849, aged 78.
[Manchester Guardian, 15 Sept. 1849.]
C. W. S.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Tayler, Charles Benjamin

​TAYLER, CHARLES BENJAMIN (1797–1875), writer for the young, son of John Tayler, was born at Leytonstone, Essex, in 1797. He was educated at Guildford under the Rev. William Hodgson Cole, and entered Trinity College, Cambridge, as a fellow commoner on 23 Oct. 1815, graduating B.A. in 1819 and M.A. in 1822. Taking holy orders, he was licensed to a curacy at Hadleigh in Suffolk in 1821, where he adopted strong protestant views and a rooted antipathy to Roman catholicism. He left Hadleigh in 1826, and successively served, each for a short time, curacies in Kent, in Surrey, and in Hampshire. From 1831 to 1836 he had the sole charge of the parish of Hodnet in Shropshire. In 1836 John Bird Sumner [q. v.], bishop of Chester, presented him to the living of St. Peter's in Chester, where he was also evening lecturer at St. Mary's, a large church in which he usually preached to twelve hundred persons. While at Chester he published from 1838 a series of ‘Tracts for the Rich.’ In 1846 he was appointed rector of Otley in Suffolk, which he resigned shortly before his death. Here he specially laboured among the young. He died at Worthing on 16 Oct. 1875. He ​married, while at Otley, Aldine, daughter of A. D. Lewis Agassiz of Finsbury Square, London.
His numerous books and tracts consisted either of warnings against the errors of the catholics, or of manuals of religious instruction for the young. The chief were: 1. ‘The Child of the Church of England,’ 1834; new edit. 1852. 2. ‘Facts in a Clergyman's Life,’ 1849. 3. ‘Sermons for all Seasons,’ 1850. 4. ‘Memorials of the English Martyrs,’ 1853. 5. ‘Legends and Records, chiefly historical,’ 1854. 6. ‘The Tongue of the Swearer: a Suffolk Story,’ 1861. 7. ‘The Race Course and its Accompaniments,’ 1867. 8. ‘Found at Eventide: the true Story of a young Village Infidel,’ 1870. 9. ‘Sacred Records in Verse,’ 1872.
His portrait, engraved by Thomas Goff Lupton from a painting by John Boaden, is prefixed to his ‘Record of a Good Man's Life,’ 1832. Another portrait is prefixed to ‘Personal Recollections,’ 1876.
G. C. B.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Philpot, John

​PHILPOT, JOHN (1516–1555), archdeacon of Winchester, third son of Sir Peter Philpot, was born at Compton, Hampshire, in 1516. He was educated at Winchester, where he had as a contemporary John Harpsfield [q. v.], with whom he made a bet that he would write two hundred verses in one night without making more than three faults, which he did. In due course he went to New College, Oxford, where he was fellow from 1534 to 1541. He graduated B.C.L., but on the enactment of the six articles in 1539 he went abroad and travelled in various countries. He fell into an argument with a Franciscan friar between Venice and Padua, and very narrowly escaped the claws of the inquisition in consequence. On his return he went to Winchester, where he read lectures in the cathedral, and, at some uncertain date, became archdeacon. He now fell to squabbling with his bishop, John Ponet [q. v.], whom the registrary Cook, ‘a man who hated pure religion,’ had stirred up against him. Cook even set on the archdeacon with his servants as if to murder him. When Mary came to the throne Philpot soon attracted attention. He was one who in the convocation of 1553 defended the views of the catechism, especially with reference to transubstantiation. In 1554 he was in the king's bench prison, and even there he found something to dispute about, as some of his fellow-prisoners were Pelagians. In October 1555 he was examined in Newgate sessions house, and, though Bonner did his best for him, he was convicted. He was burned at Smithfield, suffering with heroism, on 18 Dec. 1555. ​Philpot wrote: 1. ‘Vera Expositio Disputationis,’ an account of the proceedings in convocation, printed in Latin at Rome, 1554, and in English at Basle, and afterwards printed in Foxe's ‘Actes and Monuments.’ 2. ‘Examinations,’ published London, 1559. Foxe published a Latin translation of this abroad, and it appears in the ‘Actes and Monuments.’ To one edition of this was added 3. ‘Apologie of John Philpot,’ written for spitting upon an Arian; a second edition appeared the same year (1559). 4. ‘A Supplication to Philip and Mary,’ published by Foxe in the ‘Actes and Monuments.’ 5. ‘Letters,’ also published in the ‘Actes and Monuments,’ and separately 1564. 6. ‘Cælius Secundus Curio: his Defence of th' Olde and Awncyent Authoritie off Christe's Churche;’ this translation forms Reg. MS. 17, C. ix. 7. ‘De Vero Christiani Sacrificio.’ 8. A translation of Calvin's ‘Homilies.’ 9. ‘Chrysostome against Heresies.’ 10. ‘Epistolæ Hebraicæ,’ lib. i. 11. ‘De proprietate Linguarum,’ lib. i. The last five are lost. An exhortation to his sister and an oration which forms Bodl. MS. 53 are also small works. There are said to be some manuscripts written by Philpot in the library at Emmanuel College, Cambridge. All the extant works have been published, with an introduction, for the Parker Society by Robert Eden, London, 1842, 8vo.
W. A. J. A.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Phipps, Charles Beaumont

​PHIPPS, Sir CHARLES BEAUMONT (1801–1866), court official, second son of Henry Phipps, first earl of Mulgrave and viscount Normanby [q. v.], was born at Mulgrave Castle, Yorkshire, on 27 Dec. 1801, and educated at Harrow. He entered the army as an ensign and lieutenant in the Scots fusilier guards on 17 Aug. 1820, and ultimately became lieutenant-colonel (26 May 1837). On 22 Jan. 1847 he was placed on half-pay. He retired from active service on 11 Nov. 1851, and was thenceforth a colonel unattached. Meanwhile Phipps acted as secretary to his brother, Constantine Henry, first marquis of Normanby [q. v.], when governor of Jamaica, 1832-4, and in that capacity went from plantation to plantation, announcing to the slaves that they were to be free. When his brother went to Ireland as lord lieutenant in 1835, Phipps became steward of the viceregal household, and held the office until 1839. For a short time he was secretary to the master-general of the ordnance. On 1 Aug. 1846 he became equerry to the queen, and on 1 Jan. 1847 private secretary to the prince consort. He soon was appointed the prince's treasurer. On the death of C. E. Anson he was made keeper of her majesty's purse, 10 Oct. 1849. In these offices his integrity and zeal were highly appreciated by the queen and the prince consort. He became treasurer and cofferer to the Prince of Wales on 10 Oct. 1849, was nominated C.B. on 6 Sept. 1853, and K.C.B. on 19 Jan. 1858. He was made receiver-general of the duchy of Cornwall on 26 May 1862, and one of the council to the Prince of Wales in January 1803. On 8 Feb. 1864 he was appointed secretary to the Prince of Wales as steward of Scotland. He died of bronchitis at his apartments, Ambassadors' Court, St. James's Palace, on 24 Feb. 1866. As a testimony of the high esteem in which he was held, the court appointed for 27 Feb. was postponed to March, and, in obedience to the desire of her majesty, he was buried in the catacombs of St. George's Chapel, Windsor, on 2 March. He married, on 25 June 1835, Margaret Anne, second daughter of Henry Bathurst, archdeacon of York. She was granted a civil list pension of 150l. on 23 March 1866, and died on 13 April 1874. The issue of the marriage were two sons and two daughters, the eldest son being Charles Edmund, born in 1844, a captain in the 18th regiment of foot.
[Gent. Mag. April 1866, pp. 587-8; Men of the Time, 1865, p. 660; Illustr. London News, 1862, xlii. 399-400, with portrait.]
G. C. B.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Phipps, Joseph

​PHIPPS, JOSEPH (1708–1787), quaker, born at Norwich in 1708, was apprenticed to a shoemaker in London, where he frequented theatres and wrote a play which came into the hands of the Duke of Richmond; but, on his conversion shortly after, Phipps rescued the piece from the press, although he had been offered 100l. for the copyright. He also dallied with materialism, but, being induced by a pious fellow-apprentice to go to a quakers' meeting-house at the Savoy, he forsook his vanities, and joined the Society of Friends. In the summer of 1753 he accompanied a quakeress, Ann Mercy Bell, of York, on a street-preaching tour through the metropolis. Next year he published ‘A Summary Account of an Extraordinary Visit to this Metropolis in the Year 1753 by the Ministry of Ann Mercy Bell,’ London, 1754; 2nd ed. 1761. He died at Norwich on 14 April 1787, and was buried in the Friends' cemetery there. By his wife, Sarah, Phipps had a son, who died an infant, and three daughters.
His writings mainly consist of tracts in defence of the quakers, and replies to Samuel Newton of Norwich, who had attacked them. Among them are: ‘Brief Remarks on the common Arguments now used in support of divers Ecclesiastical Impositions in this Nation, especially as they relate to Dissenters,’ London, 1769, another edition, 1835; republished as ‘Animadversions on the Practice of Tithing under the Gospel,’ 1776, other editions, 1798, 1835; ‘An Address to the Youth of Norwich [1770?],’ Dublin, 1772, London, 1776, New York, 1808, and Newcastle, 1818; ‘The Original and Present State of Man’ (in answer to Newton), London, 1773, 8vo, Trenton, 1793, 8vo, Philadelphia, 1818, and in Friends' Library, Philadelphia, 1846, vol. x.; ‘All Swearing prohibited under the Gospel,’ London, 1781, 1784, 8vo; and ‘Dissertations on the Nature and Effect of Christian Baptism,’ London, 1781, 8vo, 1796, Philadelphia, 1811, and Dublin, 1819, 8vo, translated into German, Philadelphia, 1786. He also issued ‘The Winter Piece, a Poem. Written in commemoration of the Severe Frost, 1740,’ London, folio, 1763; and edited ‘The Journal of George Fox’ in 1765.
Another Joseph Phipps was responsible for ‘British Liberty; or a Sketch of the Laws in force relating to Court Leets and Petty Juries,’ &c.; 3rd ed. 1730, and ‘The Vestry laid Open; or a Full and Plain Detection of the many Gross Abuses, Impositions, and Oppressions of Select Vestries,’ 3rd ed. 1730.
[Works; Smith's Catalogue, ii. 411; The Irish Friend, iii. 54; Friends' Monthly Magazine, i. 767; registers at Devonshire House.
C. F. S.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Winefride

​WINEFRIDE (Welsh, Gwenfrewi) is the name of a legendary saint supposed to have lived in the seventh century. She is said to have been the daughter of Teuyth or Temic ap Eliud, of princely lineage, belonging to Tegengle, North Wales. Teuyth gave land to St. Beino, and put his daughter under his teaching. A chieftain, Caradoc ap Alaric or Alan, cut off the maiden's head, and when it touched the ground a spring appeared, namely, St. Winefride's Well or Holywell, Flint. The head was reunited to the body, and Winefride became abbess of Gwytherin.
There is no evidence that this legend is older than the twelfth century, in the course of which, about 1140, Robert of Shrewsbury [q. v.] found her relics, claimed them for Shrewsbury, and wrote her life. Leland's statement that a monk Elerius wrote a contemporary life is uncorroborated. A Welsh life, probably of the middle of the twelfth century (printed by Rees in Cambro-British Saints, pp. 16, 17, 198–209, 303), does not mention the translation of the relics, but otherwise closely resembles Robert's life.
M. B.