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

​HARPER, THOMAS (1787–1853), trumpet-player, was born at Worcester on 3 May 1787. As early as 1798 he was in London, where he studied the trumpet and the horn under Eley (Grove, i. 687), and soon joined the East India Company volunteer band, of which his master was director. Harper was afterwards appointed inspector of musical instruments to the company, and held this post until his death. He played in small London theatre orchestras until, in 1806, he was engaged as principal trumpet at Drury Lane and at the Lyceum English opera. In 1820 he distinguished himself at the Birmingham Festival, in 1821 he succeeded Hyde at the Ancient Concerts and at the Italian Opera, and from this time it may be said that he took part in every important orchestral concert or musical festival in town and country. Harper was an active member of the Royal Society of Musicians, and was first trumpet at the Philharmonic Concerts till 1851. His aid could always be counted upon for charitable concerts.
Harper was a very fine instrumentalist. 'For purity and delicacy of tone and for wonderful facility of execution no rival has approached him. His imitation of the voice part in "Let the bright Seraphim" may be pronounced one of the greatest achievements in the whole range of musical executive art' (Musical Times, i. 133). He used the slide trumpet, and has left a book of instructions for 'the Trumpet (with the use of the chromatic slide), the Russian Valve Trumpet, the Cornet and Keyed Bugle' (1836). Harper was seized with illness at Exeter Hall during the rehearsal of the Harmonic Union, 20 Jan. 1853, and died a few hours later at a friend's house in the neighbourhood (cf. Musical World, 29 Jan. 1853, p. 83).
[Authorities cited.]
L. M. M.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Harper, John (1809-1842)

​HARPER, JOHN (1809–1842), architect, was born at Dunkenhalgh Hall, near Blackburn, Lancashire, on 11 Nov. 1809. He studied his profession under Benjamin and Philip Wyatt, and when with them prepared the designs for Apsley House, York House, and the Duke of York's Column. He commenced practice as an architect at York, and was employed by the Duke of Devonshire at Bolton Abbey, by Lord Londesborough, and others. His best-known works are the proprietary school at Clifton, York, the Roman catholic church at Bury, Lancashire, and the Freetown and Elton churches in the same town. When travelling in Italy for the purpose of studying art, he caught a ​malarial fever in Rome. While still in a weak state he ventured on a voyage to Naples, where he died on 18 Oct. 1842. He enjoyed the intimate friendship of William Etty, R. A., who writes of him: 'His sketches of scenery, antiquity, and architecture are in taste, facile elegant execution, and correct detail of the first rank.' David Roberts and Clarkson Stanfield were among his friends, and the latter painted a fine picture from one of Harper's sketches. During his short career he made many clever sketches, nearly all of which belong to his brother, Mr. Edward Harper of Brighton. His portrait by Etty is in the same collection.
[Gilchrist's Life of William Etty, R.A.; Redgrave's Dict. of Artists of the English School; private information.]
A. N.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Harper, William (1806-1857)

​HARPER, WILLIAM (1806–1857), minor poet and biographer, was born at Manchester in 1806. He was originally intended for the ministry, but devoted himself to commercial pursuits, engaging also in the public work of the local conservative association, and in the organisation of Sunday schools. For many years he contributed verses to the 'Manchester Courier,' writing also the weekly trade article in the same paper, and in 1840 he published his first volume, 'The Genius and other Poems.' A second collection was entitled 'Cain and Abel; a Dramatic Poem, and minor Pieces,' Manchester, 1844, 8vo. His poems are chiefly of a religious nature, marked by a refined style, and containing good and even lofty lines. Some of his pieces are given in the 'Festive Wreath,' 1842, and the 'Manchester Keepsake,' 1844. He wrote also a 'Memoir of Benjamin Braidley' (Manchester, 1845, 12mo), who was a boroughreeve of Manchester. Harper died at Lower Broughton, Manchester, on 25 Jan. 1857, aged 50.
[Procter's Lit. Reminiscences, 1860, p. 121; Manchester Quarterly, art. by G. Milner, July 1889 ; Evans's Lane. Authors, 1850, p. 113.]
C. W. S.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Cooke, William (1711-1797)

​COOKE, WILLIAM (1711–1797), provost of King's College, Cambridge, was born in St. James's, Westminster, 15 Oct. 1711. He was sent to Harrow in 1718, and placed ​upon the foundation at Eton in 1721. In 1731 he became a scholar, and in 1734 a fellow, of King's College, Cambridge. He graduated B.A. in 1735, and soon afterwards became an assistant-master at Eton. In May 1743 he was unanimously elected head-master, but found his health too weak for the place, and in 1745 took the college living of Sturminster-Marshall, Dorsetshire. In 1748 he was elected fellow of Eton College, and resigned Sturminster on being presented to the rectory of Denham, Buckinghamshire; he was also bursar of Eton. In 1765 he proceeded D.D., and was appointed chaplain to the Earl of Halifax. In 1768 he accepted the rectory of Stoke Newington. On 25 March 1772 he was unanimously elected provost of King's College, Cambridge. He was vice-chancellor of the university in 1773. In April 1780 he received a prebend in Ely, and on 9 Aug. was appointed to the deanery. He died at Bath 20 Oct. 1797.
He married Catherine, daughter of Richard Sleech, canon of Windsor, in January 1746, and had by her twelve children. His second daughter, Catherine, married Bishop Samuel Hallifax [q. v.], whose epitaph was written by Cooke. Cooke published a few sermons, and in 1732 a small (anonymous) collection of poems called ‘Musæ Juveniles,’ including a Greek tragedy upon Solomon, called Sophia Theēlatos. In one of the sermons (1750) upon the meaning of the expression in the second Epistle of St. Peter, ‘a more sure word of prophecy,’ he defends Sherlock against Conyers Middleton, and produced a little controversy. He composed an epitaph for himself in a south vestry of King's College Chapel, attributing whatever he had done to the munificence of Henry VI. One of his sons, Edward Cooke [q. v.], became secretary at war in Ireland. Another son, William Cooke, was fellow of King's College, Cambridge, professor of Greek at Cambridge from 1780 to 1792, and rector of Hempstead-with-Lessingham, Norfolk, from 1785 till his death, 3 May 1824. He published an edition of Aristotle's ‘Poetics’ in 1785, to which was appended the first translation of Gray's ‘Elegy’ into Greek verse, a performance which had many imitators at the time (Nichols, Lit. Anecd. ix. 154–5). Mathias praises Cooke's translation as equal to Bion or Moschus, and calls the author an ‘extraordinary genius’ (Pursuits of Literature, Dial. iii.); but De Quincey in ‘Coleridge and Opium Eating’ declares that ‘scores of modern schoolboys’ could do as well. In 1789 he also published ‘A Dissertation on the Revelation of St. John,’ comparing the Apocalypse to the ‘Œdipus Tyrannus’ of Sophocles and to Homer. He verified the old saying as to the result of such studies by afterwards becoming deranged (Gent. Mag. for 1798, p. 774, and 1824, ii. 183).
[Nichols's Lit. Anecd. ix. 629, 630; Harwood's Alumni Etonenses, p. 50; Le Neve's Fasti, i. 349, 357; Gent. Mag. 1797, ii. 901, 953.]
L. S.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Cooke, William (1757-1832)

​COOKE, WILLIAM (1757–1832), legal writer, second son of John Cooke, was born at Calcutta, where his father was a member of the council, in 1757, and was educated at Harrow and Caius College, Cambridge, graduating B.A. in 1776. He was admitted a student of Lincoln's Inn on 19 Nov. 1777. He was called to the bar there in November 1782, and in 1785 published a small treatise on the ‘Bankrupt Laws.’ He soon obtained a considerable practice in chancery and bankruptcy, and in 1816 was made K.C. and bencher of his inn. In 1818 he was commissioned by Sir John Leach, V.C., to proceed to Milan for the purpose of collecting evidence concerning the conduct of Queen Caroline. He reached Milan in September of that year, and reported the result of his investigations in July 1819. The report, which was forthwith laid before the cabinet, led to the introduction of the celebrated ‘Bill of Pains and Penalties against Her Majesty.’ About this time Cooke began to be much troubled by frequent attacks of gout, and abandoned court practice. He continued, however, to practise as a chamber counsel until 1825, when he retired from the profession. He was one of the witnesses examined before the commission on chancery procedure in 1824. During the last few years of his life he resided at his house, Wrinsted or Wrensted Court, Frinsted, Kent, where he died on 14 Sept. 1832. His work on the ‘Bankrupt Laws’ passed through eight editions, and was during his life the standard authority on the subject. It has long been superseded by more modern treatises, and the successive modifications which the law of bankruptcy has undergone during the last fifty years have rendered much of it entirely obsolete. It still, however, retains a certain value for the practitioner as an eminently lucid and virtually exhaustive digest of the earlier law. The fourth edition appeared in 1797, and the eighth and last, revised by George Roots (2 vols. 8vo), in 1823. Cooke is often erroneously credited with the works of William Cook [q. v.], miscellaneous writer.
[Legal Observer, iv. 375 (a very inaccurate account, partially corrected in vii. 101); Ch. Com. Rep. App. A. No. 6; Hansard, ii. 266; Twiss's Life of Lord Eldon, ii. 401; Gent. Mag. cii. pt. ii. 286; Lincoln's Inn Reg.; Hasted's Kent, ii. 512.]
J. M. R.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Cooke, William Bernard

​COOKE, WILLIAM BERNARD (1778–1855), line engraver, was born in London in 1778. He was the elder brother of George Cooke [q. v.], and became a pupil of William Angus, the engraver of the ‘Seats of the Nobility and Gentry in Great Britain and Wales.’ After the termination of his apprenticeship he obtained employment upon the plates for Brewer's ‘Beauties of England and Wales,’ and then undertook the publication of ‘The Thames,’ which was completed in 1811, and for which he engraved almost all the plates. His most important work was the ‘Picturesque Views on the Southern Coast of England,’ chiefly from drawings by Turner, which he produced between 1814 and 1826, conjointly with his brother, George Cooke, and for which he executed no less than twenty-two plates, besides many vignettes. He also engraved after Turner ‘The Source of the Tamar’ and ‘Plymouth,’ and in 1819 five plates of ‘Views in Sussex,’ which were published with explanatory notices by R. R. Reinagle. Besides these he engraved ‘Storm clearing off,’ after Copley Fielding, for the ‘Gallery of the Society of Painters in Water Colours,’ 1833, as well as plates for Rhodes's ‘Peak Scenery,’ 1818, De Wint's ‘Views in the South of France, chiefly on the Rhone,’ 1825, Cockburn's ‘Pompeii,’ 1827, Stanfield's ‘Coast Scenery,’ 1836, Noel Humphreys's ‘Rome and its surrounding Scenery,’ 1840, and other works. He likewise published ‘A new Picture of the Isle of Wight,’ 1812, and ‘Twenty-four select Views in Italy,’ 1833. He was an engraver of considerable ability, and excelled especially in marine views, but the works which he published did not meet with much success. He died at Camberwell, of heart disease, 2 Aug. 1855, aged 77.
[Gent. Mag. 1855, ii. 334; Art Journal, 1855, p. 267; Redgrave's Dict. of Artists of the English School, 1878.]
R. E. G.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Cooke, Thomas (1763-1818)

​COOKE, THOMAS (1763–1818), writer on physiognomy, was born at Sheffield on 20 March 1763. He was engaged in trade early in life, but when twenty-two years old he began the study of physiognomy, of which ‘science’ he became a devoted enthusiast and expounder. He died at Manchester on 26 July 1818, and in the following year his papers were collected and published under the title of ‘A Practical and Familiar View of the Science of Physiognomy.’
[Memoir prefixed to work cited.]
C. W. S.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Cooke, William (d.1553)

​COOKE, WILLIAM (d. 1553), judge, was born at Chesterton, Cambridgeshire, and educated in the university of Cambridge. He studied law first at Barnard's Inn and subsequently at Gray's Inn, of which he was admitted a member in 1528. He was called to the bar in 1530. In Lent 1544 he was elected reader at Gray's Inn, but in consequence of an outbreak of the plague did not read. On 2 Dec. 1545 he was elected recorder of Cambridge. He was also counsel to King's Hall, and steward of Corpus Christi College, Christ's College, Trinity Hall, and Gonville Hall. In autumn 1546 he was again elected reader at Gray's Inn, having received in the previous Trinity term a writ of summons to take the degree of serjeant. The ceremony took place on 3 Feb. 1545–6, Cooke receiving from Gray's Inn a present of 8l. towards the expenses connected therewith. The usual feast was held at the invitation of Lord-chancellor Wriothesley in Lincoln's Inn Hall. He was appointed king's serjeant on 22 Oct. 1550, and on 15 Nov. 1552 received a puisne judgeship in the common pleas. He died on 24 Aug. 1553. He was buried in the church of Milton, Cambridgeshire, where a brass with two Latin inscriptions still preserves his memory.
[Cooper's Annals of Cambridge, i. 429, 435, 452, v. 265; Dugdale's Orig. 117, 137, 293; Chron. Ser. 88, 89; Foss's Lives of the Judges; Cooper's Athenæ Cantab.]
J. M. R.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Cooke, William (d.1780)

​COOKE, WILLIAM (d. 1780), a writer on numismatic and antiquarian subjects, was instituted to the vicarage of Enford, Wiltshire, in 1733, and held it until his death. He was also rector of Oldbury and Didmarton, Gloucestershire, and chaplain to the Earl of Suffolk. He published: 1. ‘The Works of Sallust translated into English … ,’1746, 8vo. 2. ‘An Inquiry into the Patriarchal and Druidical Religion, Temples, &c., … with an introduction in vindication of the several Hieroglyphical figures described and exhibited in the course of the work,’ London, 1754, 4to. 3. Second edition of No. 2, with additions, and the title, ‘An Inquiry into Patriarchal and Druidical Religion, Temples, &c., being the substance of some letters to Sir Hildebrand Jacob, Bart., wherein the Primæval Institution and Universality of the Christian Scheme is manifested; the Principles of the Patriarchs and Druids are laid open and shown to correspond entirely with each other, and both with the doctrines of Christianity …’ Illustrated with copper-plates. Second edition, London, 1755, 4to. 4. Boyse's ‘New Pantheon,’ sixth edition, revised and corrected by W. C., 1772, 12mo; another edition, 1777, 8vo.
Cooke died at Enford on 25 Feb. 1780. For some time previously he had suffered from ill-health, but managed to compile and send to press a laborious numismatic work, which was corrected and published by his son in 1781, with the title, ‘The Medallic History of Imperial Rome, from the first triumvirate … to the removal of the Imperial seat by Constantine the Great … ,’ 2 vols., London, 1781, 4to. Cooke applies coins to the illustration of Roman history and the lives of the emperors. The plan of the book is good, but the engravings are very poor. Most of the coins seem to have been previously published in other works.
[Gent. Mag. 25 Feb. 1780, vol. l.; Nichols's Lit. Anecd. ii. 264–7; Hoare's Wiltshire, s. v. ‘Enford;’ Brit. Mus. Cat.]
W. W.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Gibson, Solomon

​GIBSON, SOLOMON (d. 1866), sculptor, younger brother of John Gibson, R.A. [q. v.], passed his life in Liverpool, where he practised as a sculptor. At the age of sixteen he modelled a small figure of Mercury, which is his best-known work. A copy of this he presented to Sir Thomas Lawrence, who sent him ‘as an encouragement’ a ten-pound note. John Kemble greatly admired this work, which he saw Gibson modelling. Lord Colborn bought a bronze cast of the figure from a curiosity dealer in Holland, and showed it to John Gibson as the work of an unknown genius, when to his great surprise Gibson informed him it was by his brother. Gibson was a man of eccentric character. Though well versed in the Greek and Latin classics, and with a good knowledge of ancient Welsh literature—on which subject he wrote many papers—‘there was an absence of purpose in the direction of his studies, and he passed through life a strange and useless though not a commonplace man.’ For many years he was dependent on the bounty of his brother. In January 1866, hearing of his brother's illness in Rome, he determined to go to see him, and set out, but only reached Paris, where he was taken ill and died three days afterwards, on 29 Jan.
A. N.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Gibson, Thomas (1647-1722)

​GIBSON, THOMAS, M.D. (1647–1722), physician, was born at High Knipe, in the parish of Bampton, Westmoreland, in 1647. After attending Bampton school he was sent to Leyden University, where he graduated M.D. on 20 Aug. 1675. He was admitted a licentiate of the Royal College of Physicians on 26 June 1676, and an honorary fellow on 30 Sept. 1680. He was a presbyterian, and a visit which he and his second wife paid to his nephew John, provost of Queen's College, Oxford, is sourly described by Hearne (Hearn. Reliq. ii. 105). On 21 Jan. 1718–19 he was appointed physician-general to the army. He died on 16 July 1722, aged 75, and was buried in the ground adjoining the Foundling Hospital belonging to St. George the Martyr, Queen Square. He married, first, Elizabeth (1646–92), widow of Zephaniah Cresset of Stanstead St. Margaret's, Hertfordshire, and third daughter of George Smith of that place (Clutterbuck, Hertfordshire, ii. 214); and secondly, Anne (1659–1727), sixth daughter of Richard Cromwell, the lord protector (ib. ii. 97), but left no issue. Edmund Gibson [q. v.] was his nephew and heir. Gibson published ‘The Anatomy of Humane Bodies epitomized,’ 8vo, London, 1682 (6th edition, 1703), compiled for the most part from Alexander Read's work, but long popular.
G. G.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Gibson, Thomas (1680?-1751)

​GIBSON, THOMAS (1680?–1751), portrait-painter, drew portraits well, and the accessories as well as the expression were attractive. According to the painter Highmore, Sir James Thornhill [q. v.] sometimes applied to Gibson to sketch for him in his large pictures figures in difficult action. Vertue, who was on terms of great friendship with Gibson, says that other artists were offended with Gibson because he refused to raise his prices. He further says he was a man of most amiable character, but suffered from ill-health, and for this reason about 1730 disposed of his pictures privately among his friends, and re​tired from practice to Oxford. He subsequently returned to London, and is said to have resumed his practice. He died in London on 28 April 1751, aged about 71. At the Society of Antiquaries there is a portrait of Vertue by Gibson, painted in 1723 (engraved by Vertue himself); at the Royal Society a portrait of Flamsteed the astronomer; at the Bodleian Library, Oxford, portraits of Flamsteed and John Locke; and at the National Portrait Gallery a portrait of Archbishop Wake. Many of his portraits were engraved by J. Faber, J. Simon, G. White, G. Vertue, and others, including Sir Robert Walpole, Admiral Sir Charles Wager, Dr. Sacheverell, Robert, lord Molesworth, and the Rev. Samuel Clarke.
L. C.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Gibson, Thomas (d.1562)

​GIBSON, THOMAS (d. 1562), printer, medical practitioner, and theological writer, was a native of Morpeth, Northumberland, and Wood conjectures that he received his education at Oxford, ‘because that several of both his names and time were conversant with the muses in that university’ (Athenæ Oxon. ed. Bliss, i. 331). It is certain, however, that a Thomas Gibson took the degree of M.B. in the university of Cambridge in 1511 (Cooper, Athenæ Cantabrigienses, i. 217). He was noted for his extraordinary success in curing diseases, and also for his strong antipathy to the Roman catholics. He wrote much, and from 1535 to 1539, or afterwards, carried on the business of a printer in London (Ames, Typogr. Antiquities, ed. Herbert, pp. 490, 676). With one exception all the known productions of his press were compiled by himself. Bishop Latimer on 21 July 1537 recommended him to Cromwell for employment in printing a book, and says: ‘He ys an honeste poore man, who will set ytt forth in a good letter, and sell ytt good chepe, wher as others doo sell too dere, wych doth lett many to by’ (State Papers, Henry VIII, ii. 564). In the reign of Mary he fled to the continent with his wife and daughter. They became members of the English protestant congregation at Geneva on 20 Nov. 1557 (Burn, Livre des Anglois à Genève, p. 11). On the accession of Elizabeth he returned, and in 1559 had a license from the university of Cambridge to practise physic. He died in London in 1562.
The following works are attributed to him: 1. ‘The concordance of the new testament, most necessary to be had in the handes of all soche, as desire the communicacion of any place contayned in the new testament,’ London, 1535, 8vo. This is the earliest printed concordance in the English language. The epistle to the reader, written by Gibson, intimates that he was the compiler. 2. ‘A treatise behoouefull, as well to preserue the people from the pestilence, as to helpe and recouer them, that be infected with the same; made by a bishop and doctour of phisick in Denmark; which medicines haue been proued in many places in London,’ London, 1536, 4to. 3. ‘The great Herball newly corrected,’ London, 1539, fol. 4. ‘A breue Cronycle of the Byshope of Romes Blessynge, and of his Prelates beneficiall and charitable rewardes, from the time of Kynge Heralde vnto this day,’ London, printed by John Day, n.d., 12mo. In English verse. 5. ‘The sum of the actes and decrees made by diverse bishops of rome,’ translated from the Latin, London [1540?], 8vo. 6. ‘Treatise against unskilful Alchimists.’ 7. ‘Treatise of curing common diseases.’ 8. ‘De utroque homine.’ 9. ‘Of the ceremonies used by Popes.’ 10. ‘The various states that Britany hath been in.’ In five books or parts, left unfinished.
T. C.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Gibson, William (1664-1702)

​GIBSON, WILLIAM (1664–1702), miniature-painter, was nephew of Richard Gibson, the dwarf [q. v.], from whom he received instruction. He was also a pupil of Sir Peter Lely, and was very successful in his copies of Lely's works. He attained great eminence as a miniature-painter, and was largely employed by the nobility. At the sale of Lely's collection of prints and drawings by the old masters, Gibson bought a great number, and added considerably to them by subsequent purchases. He resided in the parish of St. Giles-in-the-Fields, and died of a ‘lethargy’ in 1702, aged 58. He was buried at Richmond in Surrey.
[Walpole's Anecd. of Painting, ed. Dallaway and Wornum; De Piles's Lives of the Painters; Brit. Mus. Addit. MS. 19131 (Davy MSS.) fol. 257; Manning and Bray's Hist. of Surrey, i. 433.]
L. C.