OpenLLM-France/wikimedia huggingface dataset:
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1901 supplement/Kirkes, William Senhouse

​KIRKES, WILLIAM SENHOUSE (1823–1864), physician, was born in 1823 at Holker in North Lancashire. After education at the grammar school of Cartmel he was, at the age of thirteen, apprenticed to a partnership of surgeons in Lancaster, and went thence to St. Bartholomew's Hospital, London, in 1841. He was distinguished in the school examinations, and in 1846 graduated M.D. at Berlin. In 1855 he was elected a fellow of the Royal College of Physicians of London, and delivered the Gulstonian lectures there in 1856. Sir James Paget [q. v. Suppl.] was then warden of the college of St. Bartholomew's Hospital, and in 1848 he and Kirkes published a 'Handbook of Physiology,' which soon became popular among students of medicine. A second edition appeared in 1851, and further editions by Kirkes alone in 1856, 1860, and 1863. In 1867, 1869, 1872, and 1876 further editions by William Morrant Baker appeared. Vincent Dormer Harris was next joined with Baker in several editions, and then edited the book himself, with the assistance of Mr. D'Arcy Power. John Murray, the publisher, to whom it was a valuable property, next employed William Dobbinson Halliburton, under whose care no part of the original work of Kirkes, except his name on the outside cover, remained, and in this form the book goes through almost annual editions, and is still the most popular textbook of physiology for medical students. Kirkes was appointed demonstrator of morbid anatomy to St. Bartholomew's Hospital in 1848, and in 1854 defeated Dr. John William Hue in a contest for the office of assistant physician. He became lecturer on botany, and then on medicine, and in 1864, when Sir George Burrows [q. v. Suppl.] resigned, he was elected physician to the hospital. He died at his house in Lower Seymour Street of double pneumonia with pericarditis after five days' illness on 8 Dec. 1864 (Gent. Mag. 1865, i. 124). His most original work is a paper in the 'Transactions of the Royal Medical and Chirurgical Society of London' (xxxv. 281 ) on 'Embolism, or the carrying of blood-clots from the heart to remote parts of the body,' a pathological process then just beginning to be recognised.
[Memoir in British Medical Journal, 24 Dec. 1864; MS. Records at St. Bartholomew's Hospital; Works; Boase's Modern English Biogr.]
N. M.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1901 supplement/Knight-Bruce, George Wyndham Hamilton

​KNIGHT-BRUCE, GEORGE WYNDHAM HAMILTON (1852–1896), first bishop of Mashonaland. [See Bruce.]
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Robinson, William (1777-1848)

​ROBINSON, WILLIAM (1777–1848), topographer and legal writer, born in 1777, practised for many years as a solicitor in Bartlett's Buildings, Holborn, London, but was called to the bar by the Middle Temple on 25 May 1827. He was elected fellow of the Society of Antiquaries on 25 March 1819, and received the degree of LL.D. from the university of Aberdeen on 3 May 1822. He died at Tottenham, Middlesex, on 1 June 1848. By his marriage, on 28 Jan. 1803, to Mary, second daughter of William Ridge of Chichester, he had a large family. One of his daughters became the second wife of Sir Frederic Madden [q. v.]
Robinson was interested in the local history of Tottenham, the parish in which he owned property, and its vicinity, and he compiled several excellent volumes on the subject. Their titles are: 1. ‘History and Antiquities of … Tottenham,’ 8vo, Tottenham, 1818; 2nd edit. 2 vols. 8vo, London, 1840. 2. ‘History and Antiquities of … Edmonton,’ 8vo, London, 1819; another edit. 1839. 3. ‘History and Antiquities of Stoke Newington,’ 8vo, London, 1820; 2nd edit. 1842. 4. ‘History and Antiquities of Enfield,’ 2 vols. 8vo, London, 1823. 5. ‘History and Antiquities of … Hackney,’ 2 vols. 8vo, London, 1842–3. The value of these volumes is diminished by the want of proper indexes.
Robinson's legal writings include: 1. ‘The Magistrates' Pocket Book,’ 12mo, London, 1825; 4th edit. by J. F. Archbold, 1842. 2. ‘Lex Parochialis, or a Compendium of the Laws relating to the Poor,’ 8vo, London, 1827. 3. ‘Formularies, or the Magistrate's Assistant,’ 2 vols. 8vo, London, 1827. 4. ‘Analysis of and Digested Index to the Criminal Statutes,’ 12mo, London, 1829. 5. ‘Introduction of a Justice of the Peace to the Court of Quarter Sessions,’ 12mo, London, 1836. 6. ‘Breviary of the Poor Laws,’ 12mo, London, 1837.
A portrait of Robinson, drawn by F. Simonau, was engraved by J. Mills in 1822.
[Gent. Mag. 1803 i. 191, 1819 ii. 432, 1820 i. 44, 1828 i. 277, 1848 ii. 211; Robinson's Hist. of Tottenham, 2nd edit. ii. 66; Cat. of Lincoln's Inn Library; Sweet's Cat. of Law books, 1846.]
G. G.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Robinson, Thomas (d.1719)

​ROBINSON, THOMAS (d. 1719), writer on natural history, was appointed to the rectory of Ousby, Cumberland, in 1672. After service on Sundays he presided at a kind of club at the village alehouse, where each member spent a sum not exceeding one penny; he was also a warm encourager of village sports, especially football. His leisure he devoted to collecting facts about the mining, minerals, and natural history of the counties of Cumberland and Westmoreland, which he put before the world in a quaint ‘Anatomy of the Earth,’ London, 1694, 4to. This was followed by ‘An Essay towards a Natural History of Westmoreland and Cumberland, to which is annexed a Vindication of the Philosophical and Theological Paraphrase of the Mosaick System of the Creation,’ 2 pts. London, 1709, 8vo; and ‘New Observations on the Natural History of this World, of Matter, and this World of Life… To which is added Some Thoughts concerning Paradise, the Conflagration of the World, and a treatise of Meteorology,’ London, 1698, 8vo (the same, with a different title-page, London, 1699, 8vo). Robinson died rector of Ousby in 1719. He was married, and had eight children.
A. N.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Robinson, William (1799-1839)

​ROBINSON, WILLIAM (1799–1839), portrait-painter, was a native of Leeds, where he was born in 1799. He was at first apprenticed to a clock-dial enameller, but came to London in 1820, and was entered as a student at the Royal Academy. Robinson was also admitted to work in the studio of Sir Thomas Lawrence. About 1823 he returned to Leeds, and obtained a very considerable practice there and in the neighbourhood. He was commissioned to paint some large full-length portraits for the United Service Club in London, including one of the Duke of Wellington. He likewise drew small portraits, the heads being carefully finished, and the remainder lightly touched after the manner of Henry Edridge [q. v.] He died at Leeds, August 1839, in his fortieth year.
[Redgrave's Dict. of Artists; Graves's Dict. of Artists, 1760–1893; Catalogues of the Royal Academy, Amateur Art Exhibition (1896), and other exhibitions.]
L. C.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Robinson, Thomas (d.1747)

​ROBINSON, THOMAS (d. 1747), legal author, son of Mathew Robinson of Edgley, Yorkshire, was admitted on 14 April 1730 of Lincoln's Inn, but was never called to the bar. He died on 28 Dec. 1747.
Robinson was author of ‘The Common Law of Kent, or the Customs of Gavelkind; with an appendix concerning Borough English,’ London, 1741, 8vo—a work which concentrates much antiquarian learning in very small compass, and may almost rank as authoritative. A third edition, by John Wilson of Lincoln's Inn, appeared at London in 1822, 8vo; and a new edition, by J. D. Norwood, solicitor, at Ashford in 1858, 8vo.
J. M. R.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Robinson, William (1720?-1775)

​ROBINSON, WILLIAM (1720?–1775), architect, eldest son of William Robinson of St. Giles's, Durham, was born about 1720 at Kepyer, near Durham, came to London, and was on 30 June 1746 appointed clerk of the works to Greenwich Hospital, where he superintended in 1763 the building of the infirmary, designed by James Stuart (1713–1788) [q. v.] Between 1750 and 1775 he assisted Walpole in executing the latter's plans for Strawberry Hill. Simultaneously he was clerk of the works at St. James's, Whitehall, and Westminster, and surveyor to the London board of customs, for whom he designed, between 1770 and 1775, the excise office in Old Broad Street. In 1776 he was secretary to the board of works, an office which he retained until his death. He made a design for rebuilding the Savoy, but this was superseded, on his death, by Sir William Chambers's plan for Somerset House. He died of gout at his residence in Scotland Yard on 10 Oct. 1775, and was buried in the chapel at Greenwich Hospital. His brother Thomas (1727–1810) was master gardener to George III at Kensington, while another brother Robert was an architect in Edinburgh.
A contemporary William Robinson (d. 1768), architect and surveyor of Hackney, was author of two small technical treatises: ‘Proportional Architecture, or the Five Orders regulated by Equal Parts, after so concise a method that renders it useful to all Artists, and Easy to every Capacity’ (with plates, London, 1733, 8vo; 2nd edit. 1736); and ‘The Gentleman and Builder's Director’ (London [1775], 8vo), including directions for fireproof buildings and non-smoking chimneys. The writer is probably to be identified with the W. Robinson, surveyor to the trustees of the Gresham estate committee (appointed in August 1767 to superintend the expenditure of 10,000l. voted by the House of Commons for repairing the Royal Exchange). His death was reported to the committee on 13 Jan. 1768.
[Notes and Queries, 2nd ser. vi. 326, ix. 272; Papworth's Dict. of Architecture; Chambers's Civil Architecture, ed. Gwilt, vol. xlv.; Faulkner's Kensington, 1820, p. 214; Brit. Mus. Cat.]
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Robinson, William (1726?-1803)

​ROBINSON, WILLIAM (1726?–1803), friend of Thomas Gray, was the fifth son of Matthew Robinson (1694–1778) of West Layton, Yorkshire, by Elizabeth (d. 1746), daughter of Robert Drake of Cambridgeshire, and heiress of the family of Morris. Sarah, wife of George Lewis Scott, and Mrs. Elizabeth Montagu [q. v.] were his sisters. He was born in Cambridgeshire about 1726, and proceeded from Westminster School to St. John's College, Cambridge, where he graduated B.A. in 1750, and M.A. in 1754. On 16 March 1752 he was elected to a fellowship of his college, and held it until his marriage. He had a great love of literature, probably implanted in him by his relative, Conyers Middleton, and was an excellent scholar. He married in July 1760, when curate of Kensington, Mary, only surviving daughter of Adam Richardson, a lady, wrote Gray, ‘of his own age and not handsome, with 10,000l. in her pocket.’ Gray, on further acquaintance, called her ‘a very good-humoured, cheerful woman.’ Immediately after the marriage they settled, with an invalid brother of the bride, in Italy, and stayed there over two years, during which time Robinson became a good judge of pictures. On returning to England they dwelt at Denton Court, near Canterbury, and from 23 Nov. 1764 to 1785 Robinson held the rectory of the parish. His father had purchased for him the next presentation to the richer rectory of Burghfield in Berkshire, which he retained from 1768 to 1798. He died there on 8 Dec. 1803, leaving a son and two daughters, with ample fortunes, having inherited largely from his elder brother, Matthew Robinson-Morris, lord Rokeby [q. v.], who died on 30 Nov. 1800. Mary, the younger daughter, became the second wife of Sir Samuel Egerton Brydges, who wrote a cenotaph for the church of Monk's Horton in memory of his father-in-law (Anti-Critic, pp. 199–200).
Gray spent the months of May and June 1766 with the ‘Reverend Billy’ at Denton. At a second visit, in June 1768, Gray was ‘very deep in the study of natural history’ (Letters of Elizabeth Carter to Mrs. Montagu, i. 384). A letter to Robinson is included in the works of Gray, but he did not think Mason equal to the task of writing Gray's life, and he would not communicate any information. Long letters from Mrs. Montagu to Mrs. Robinson are in the ‘Censura Literaria’ (i. 90–4, iii. 136–49), and the correspondence of Mrs. Montagu with her forms the chief part of Dr. Doran's ‘Lady of the Last Century.’ From a passage in that work (p. 241) it appears that ​Robinson published in 1778 a political pamphlet.
[Gent. Mag. 1803, ii. 1192–3; Brydges's Autobiography, i. 11, 112, ii. 9–11; Hasted's Kent, iii. 318, 761; Gray's Works (ed. Mitford), vol. i. pp. lxxxiii–iv; Corresp. of Gray and Mason (ed. Mitford), pp. 193, 425, and Addit. Notes, pp. 506–508; Gray's Works (ed. Gosse), i. 135, iii. 57, 63, 161–2, 239–43, 265.]
W. P. C.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Oliver, Thomas (1734-1815)

​OLIVER, THOMAS (1734–1815), lieutenant-governor of Massachusetts, said to have been born in Dorchester, Massachusetts, on 5 Jan. 1734, was son of Robert Oliver by Ann, daughter of James Brown of Antigua. His father was living in Antigua in 1738, but had settled at Dorchester before 1747. Thomas graduated at Harvard in 1753. He probably resided at Dorchester until 1766, when he purchased an estate on Elmwood Avenue, near Mount Auburn, Cambridge, Massachusetts, and erected the mansion afterwards the residence successively of Governor Gerry, the Rev. Dr. Lowell, and James Russell Lowell. Being a man of fortune, he was not actively engaged in business, nor did he take much part in public affairs until March 1774, when he accepted the office of lieutenant-governor of the province and president of a council appointed by the king in a manner especially galling to popular feeling. The councillors were visited by bands of Middlesex freeholders, and one after another forced to renounce their offices. On the seizure by the royal troops of the public stock of powder provided for the militia, the yeomen of the neighbouring towns marched to Cambridge, some of them bringing arms. General Gage ​thereupon prepared to send troops against them. Oliver, after vainly endeavouring to persuade the people to turn back, hastened to Boston and prevailed on Gage to refrain from military action. On his return the resignation of his seat on the council board was demanded. He urgently requested delay, inasmuch as he could not with propriety renounce that office while he held that of lieutenant-governor; but when a threatening multitude surrounded his house on the morning of 2 Sept. he yielded, and signed a solemn engagement 'as a man of honour and a Christian' that he would 'never hereafter, upon any terms whatsoever, accept a seat at the said board, on the present novel and oppressive plan of the government.' He left Cambridge immediately and never returned. At the evacuation of Boston he accompanied the British forces, and soon afterwards took passage from Halifax to England. He was proscribed in 1778, and his estate confiscated.
Oliver died at Bristol on 29 Nov. 1815 (Gent. Mag. 1815, pt. ii. p. 641). By his marriage in 1760 to Elizabeth, daughter of Colonel John Vassall, he had a family of daughters. He is represented as being of a gentle, retiring disposition. It has even been suggested that his name was inserted in the commission by mistake instead of the name of Chief-justice Peter Oliver (1718-1791).
[Paige's Hist. of Cambridge, Massachusetts; Appleton's Cyclop. of Amer. Biogr.]
G. G.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Oliver, Thomas (d.1624)

​OLIVER or OLYUER, THOMAS (d. 1624), physician and mathematician, is said to have been educated at Cambridge. He certainly published his chief book at the university press, but his name does not figure In the university register, and no details respecting his connection with the university are accessible. Before 1597 he was settled at Bury St. Edmunds as a physician, and usually described himself as 'Buriensis Philiatros.' He practised his profession at Bury St. Edmunds until his death in 1624.
Oliver was a mathematician as well as a physician, and wrote learnedly in both capacities. In 1601 he published 'A New Handling of the Planisphere, divided into three sections … pleasant and profitable generally for all men, but especially such as would get handines in using the ruler and compasse, and desire to reape the fruits of astronomicall and geographicall documents without being at the charge of costly instruments. Invented for the most part, and first published in English, by Thomas Olyver,' London, by Felix Kyngston for Simon Waterson and Rafe Iacson, 1601, 4to. In a dedication dated from Bury St. Edmunds 6 Jan. 1600-1, and addressed to Sir John Peter of Thorndon, Essex, he acknowledges obligations to 'Clauius his Astrolabe.' Many diagrams appear in the text.
In 1604 Oliver published at the press of John Legate [q. v.] at Cambridge four separate tracts bound in a single volume, and usually known by the title of the first tract: 'De Sophismatum Præstigiis cavendis Admonitio,' dedicated to Henry Howard, earl of Northampton, from Bury, 23 Nov. 1603. This tract is succeeded by 'De Rectarum Linearum Parallelismo et Concursu Doctrina Geometrica,' dedicated to Lancelot Browne [q. v.], 'archiatro doctissimo,' and by 'De Missione Sanguinis in Pueris ante annum decimum quartum Diatribe medica,' dedicated to William Butler (1536–1618) [q. v.], 'medico et philosopho præstantiesimo amico suo charissimo Cantabrigiam.' The book concludes with 'De Circuli Quadratura Thesis logica,' dedicated to 'Adriano Romano equiti aurato in Academia Wurceburgensi Mathematicorum professori celeberrimo nunc medico Cæsareo,' 27 Aug. 1697. In Addit. MS. 4626 (art. 23 or 24) are two unpublished tracts by Oliver, respectively entitled 'Thomæ Oliveri Buriensis Tabula Longitudinum et latitudinum locorum memorabilium in Europa,' and 'Mechanica Circuli quadratura cum equatione cubi et sphæeræ.'
[Davy's Athenæ Suffolcenses in Addit. MS. 19165, f. 257; Wood's Fasti Oxon. ed. Bliss, i. 510; Oliver's Works.]
S. L.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Oliver, Robert Dudley

​OLIVER, ROBERT DUDLEY (1766–1850), admiral, was born on 31 Oct. 1766. He entered the navy in May 1779, on board the Prince George, carrying the flag of Rear-admiral Robert Digby [q. v.], and in her, during the early months of 1780, was shipmate of Prince William, afterwards William IV. Remaining in the Prince George, Oliver went in her to North America in 1781, and later on to the West Indies, where he was present in the operations before St. Kitts in January 1782 [see Hood, Samuel, Viscount] and at the defeat of the French fleet off Dominica on 12 April [see Rodney, George Bridges, Lord]. After further service in North America and in the Channel, he was in 1793 lieutenant of the Active in the North Sea; in 1794 in the Artois with Captain Edmund Nagle [q. v.], and after the capture of the Revolutionnaire on 21 Oct. he was promoted to be commander, taking seniority from the date of the action. In 1795 he commanded the Hazard sloop on the coast of Ireland, and on 30 April 1796 was posted to the Nonsuch, guardship in the Huinber, which he commanded till February 1798, when he was appointed to the Nemesis going out to Quebec with a large convoy. In March 1799 he joined the Mermaid, in which he went to the Mediterranean, and after an active and successful commission brought home Lord Hutchinson from Egypt in July 1802. On the renewal of the war he was appointed in March 1803 to the Melpomene, which during the next two years was actively employed on the coast of France. In September 1805 she was in dock at Portsmouth, and Oliver, calling on Lord Nelson, then on the point of sailing to resume the ​command off Cadiz, expressed his concern that his ship was not able to accompany him. 'I hope,' answered Nelson, 'you will come in time to tow some of the rascals.' The Melpomene joined the fleet off Trafalgar the day after the battle, and did help to tow off the prizes. Oliver was appointed to the Mara, vacant by the death of Captain Duff, which he commanded on the coast of France till September 1806. In May 1810 he commissioned the Valiant, in which, in 1813-14, he took part in the operations on the coast of the United States. He resigned the command In July 1814, and had no further service, though promoted in regular succession to be rear-admiral 12 Aug. 1819, vice-admiral 22 July 1830, admiral 23 Nov. 1841. He died at his residence, near Dublin, on 1 Sept. 1850. Oliver married, in 1806, Mary, daughter of Sir Charles Saxton, bart., far many years resident commissioner of the navy at Portsmouth, and by her had a large family.
[Marshall's Roy. Nar. Biogr. i. 725; O'Byrne's Nav. Biogr. Dict.; Gent. Mag. 1850, ii. 547; Return of Services in the Public Record Office.]
J. K. L.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Oliver (d.1219)

​OLIVER (d. 1219), bastard son of King John, by a mistress named Hadwisa, who must be distinguished from Hadwisa of Gloucester, John's first wife, is mentioned, along with such men as Hubert de Burgh, as a royalist champion during Louis's attack upon England in alliance with the revolted English iMironsin the last year of John's reign. The invaders, advancing on Winchester, found their progress barred (June 1216) 'by the great castle of the king, and that of the bishop, called Wolvesey,' overlooking the city, in which last was 'Oliviers, uns fils le roi de has, qui escuiers estoit.' Later on (March 1217), under Henry III, Oliver took part with Hubert de Burgh in the defence of Dover against the French. A grant was made him of 'unum dolium vini,' under date 8 Oct. 1215, by the king at Canterbury. The 'Castnim de Tonge' was given him at Rochester on 10 Nov. of the same year, and this was confirmed by Henny III on 23 June 1217. The 'Mansio de Erdington' was granted him on 17 July 1216, and the property of Hanedon or Hamedon on 14 March 1218, to hold 'until Eva de Tracy, who claims it, shall have made satisfaction for the same with sixty marks.'
Oliver left England in 1218 to join in the fifth crusade. Early in October 1218 he arrived at Damietta with the legate Pelayo, Earl Ranulf of Chester, Earl William of Arundel, and Lord William of Harecourt Matt. Paris). In the following year he died at Damietta, but whether by disease or in battle is unknown.
[Toumoi de Ham's Histoire des Dues de Normandie et des Rois d'Angleterre, pp. 173, 180 ; Close Rolls (Rotali Litterarum Clausarum), 1215. 1218. pp. 230 b, 234. 235 b, 266, 277 b, 207. 200, 312 A, 322, 355 [edit, of 1833] ; Oliveros Scholasticus in Eccard's Corpus Historicum Medii Evii. col. 1406 ; Historia Damiatana, sub ann. 1218 ; James of Vitry's Historia Orientalis, lib. iii. sub ann. 1218, in Gesta Dei per Francos; Matth. Paris. Chron. Maj. 1218, Rolls ed. iii. 41. For Oliver's mother, Hadwisa, refer to Close Rolls, A.D. 1217, p. 326. Grant of 2 Oct. from Lambeth mentions her, along with Eva de Tracy, as possessing Hamedon.]
C. R. B.