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

​COOPER, ANDREW or ANTHONY (fl. 1660), is best known as the author of ‘Stratologia, or the History of the English Civil Warrs in English Verse,’ London, 1660. The poem, written in lumbering heroics and in behalf of the royalists, contains (in the words of the title-page) ‘a brief account of all fights, most skirmishes, stratagems, and sieges in England, from the very first originall of our late warres till the martyrdom of King Charles the First of blessed Memory.’ The dedication to ‘Conyers Darcy, Lord ​Darcey, Meynell, and Conyers’ is signed ‘An. Cooper,’ and the title-page bears the initials ‘A. C.’ The author describes himself as an eye-witness of most of the incidents he details. On these grounds he has been identified with Andrew Cooper, the signature of a news-reporter who was with the king at York in 1642, and who published in London in August of that year ‘A Speedy Post, with more news from Hull, York, and Beverley,’ 1642. Mr. Corser gave Cooper the christian name of ‘Anthony,’ but Andrew is doubtless correct.
[Corser's Collectanea, iv. 441–5; Park's Restituta, iii. 331; Brit. Mus. Cat.]
S. L. L.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Crosly, David

​CROSLY, DAVID (1670–1744), baptist minister, was born in the neighbourhood of Todmorden, Lancashire, in 1670. He was brought up by a pious aunt, and in his youth worked as a stonemason at Walsden, employing his nights in preaching. He became acquainted with John Bunyan, and ‘travelled about into various parts of the country for the purpose of propagating his religious principles.’ In 1691 he preached a sermon at Mr. Pomfret's meeting-house in Spitalfields, which he published under the title of ‘Samson, a Type of Christ’ (London, 4to, 1691). Early in the following year he was at Bacup, Lancashire, where a meeting-house was built for him and his cousin, William Mitchell, and a few months later he was (according to Ivimey) baptised at Bromsgrove, Worcestershire, and formally called to the ministry on 26 Aug. 1692. He then returned to Bacup, but in May 1695 was appointed minister of a congregation at Tottlebank, near Lancaster. In 1705 he removed to London as pastor of the particular baptist church, Curriers' Hall, London Wall, of which Mr. Hanserd Knollys was the founder. Subsequently (before 1718) retiring into Lancashire, he was followed by unpleasant reports of indiscretions committed in the metropolis, and this habit of ‘notorious immorality,’ whatever it was, still clung to him, and caused his expulsion from communion by the Yorkshire and Lancashire Baptist Association. The scandal he at length overcame, and his personal earnestness and powers as a preacher attracted to him many adherents. At first he resided at Hapton, near Padiham, and subsequently at Goodshaw, where in his old age he kept a school. In 1696 he edited and published ‘The Old Man's Legacy to his Daughters, by N. T.,’ which he reprinted in 1736, with a few additional pages of his own. In 1720 he published a poem entitled ‘Adam, where art Thou? or the Serious Parley;’ and in 1743, ‘The Triumph of Sovereign Grace, or a Brand Pluckt out of the Fire’ (Manchester, 12mo, pp. 127), being the substance of a discourse occasioned by the execution of Laurence Britliffe of Cliviger. In 1744 he republished his sermon, ‘Samson, a Type of Christ,’ with the addition of a discourse on marriage, and a preface by George Whitefield, with whom he conducted a correspondence in his later years. A third edition was printed in 1851. Crosly was reputed ‘one of the largest men in the county,’ his weight for twenty years averaging twenty stone; and his voice must also have possessed considerable vigour, as his discourse on Britliffe was preached, when he was seventy-two, to an open-air audience of four thousand people. He died at Goodshaw in August or September 1744, in his seventy-fifth year. He was succeeded in the pastorate of the Curriers' Hall, Cripplegate, by John Skepp.
[Hargreaves's Life of Rev. John Hirst, 1816, pp. 32 seq.; Wilson's Hist. of Dissenting Churches, ii. 572; Parry's Hist. of Cloughfold Baptist Church, 1876, pp. 62, 202–15; Newbigging's Hist. of the Forest of Rossendale; Tyerman's Life of Whitefield, ii. 105.]
C. W. S.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Crosby, Thomas

​CROSBY, THOMAS (fl. 1740), author of ‘History of the Baptists,’ resided at Horselydown, where he kept a mathematical and commercial school. He was a deacon, and not as generally supposed the minister, of the baptist church at that place. He supplied Neal with much of the information regarding the baptists in the ‘History of the Puritans.’ He died subsequently to 1749, in which year his last work, ‘The Book-keeper's Guide,’ was published. His ‘History of the English Baptists, from the Reformation to the beginning of the reign of George I’ (1738–40, 4 vols. 8vo), is very valuable on account of the biographical notices of the earlier baptist ministers it contains, but in other respects it is almost useless by the studious disregard the author showed as to distinguishing the many and widely differing sections of the baptist body, which renders it never clear and frequently misleading. The work gave considerable offence to the baptists when it appeared, and subsequent historians of that sect have usually avoided giving the work as an authority. As a mere reciter of events Crosby is trustworthy. Most of the materials used were collected by Benjamin Stinton, a baptist minister (d. 1718), who had intended to write a history. Crosby also wrote ‘A Brief Reply to Mr. John Lewis's History of the Rise and Progress of Anabaptism in England,’ 1738.
[Crosby's Works; Wilson's Hist. Dissent. Churches (vols. iii. iv.); Watt's Bibl. Brit.]
A. C. B.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Crosdill, John

​CROSDILL, JOHN (1751?–1825), violoncellist, was born in London either in 1751 or 1755, and educated in the choir of Westminster Abbey under Robinson and Cooke. At Westminster he became acquainted with Lord Fitzwilliam, with whom a schoolboy friendship sprang up which endured during the greater part of his life. On leaving the choir he studied the violoncello with Jean Pierre Duport, and probably also with his father, who was a violoncellist of some fame. In 1764 Crosdill played in a duet for two violoncellos at a concert given by Siprutini. ​On 4 Dec. 1768 he was elected a member of the Royal Society of Musicians, and in the following year played at the Gloucester festival. According to Fétis (Biographie des Musiciens, ii. 396), in 1772 Crosdill went to Paris, where he remained some years studying with the elder Janson and playing in an amateur orchestra directed by the Chevalier de Saint-Georges. The same account states that he did not return to London until 1780, but as he played at the Three Choirs festivals regularly from 1769 until his retirement, with the sole exception of the year 1778, it is evident that Fétis's account cannot be correct. In 1776 he became principal 'cello at the Concerts of Antient Music, and on 10 March 1778 was appointed violist at the Chapel Royal, on the resignation of Nares, a post which he held until his death. About the same time he also became a member of the king's private band. In 1782 he was appointed chamber musician to Queen Charlotte; he also taught the violoncello to the Prince of Wales. In 1784 Crosdill was principal violoncellist at the Handel festival in Westminster Abbey. In July 1790 his father died at Nottingham Street, Marylebone, at the advanced age of ninety-two. About this time Crosdill married a lady of fortune, and retired from the profession, though he played at the coronation of George IV in 1821. For several years he lived in Titchfield Street, where Lord Fitzwilliam often stayed with him, and later in Grosvenor Square, with Beilby Thompson of Escrick, M.P. for Hedon, but after Thompson's death retired to his own house in Berners Street. He died at Escrick, Yorkshire, at the house of a nephew of Thompson, in October 1825. He left a considerable fortune to his only son, Lieutenant-colonel Crosdill, C.B., who, in fulfilment of his father's wishes, gave a sum of 1,000l. to the Royal Society of Musicians. There is a profile portrait of Crosdill engraved by Daniell, after Dance.
[Grove's Dict. of Music, i. 419; Gent. Mag. 1790, p. 1055; Parke's Musical Memoirs, ii. 231; Harmonicon, 1825; Annals of the Three Choirs Festivals, p. 46; Evans's Cat. of Portraits; Cheque-Book of the Chapel Royal.]
W. B. S.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Cross, John (1630-1689)

​CROSS, JOHN, D.D. (1630–1689), Franciscan friar, was a native of Norfolk, and his real name appears to have been More. He took the habit of St. Francis in or about 1646, and was declared D.D. on 12 Oct. 1672. On 10 May 1674 he was elected provincial of his order in England for three years, and being re-elected on 25 April 1686, he filled the office during an eventful period until 28 Sept. 1689, ‘summa cum laude et omnium satisfactione.’ In 1687 he obtained a ten years' lease of premises near the arches in Lincoln's Inn Fields, previously occupied by the Countess of Bath, and there he established a Franciscan community of ten members. Immediately after the landing of the Prince of Orange the mob made a desperate attack on this residence for a day and a night, and were eventually dispersed by a body of soldiers sent by the king. The rioters contemplated a renewal of the attack, but the king sent an order, through Bishop Leyburn, to the provincial, directing him and the rest of the fathers to retire from the place ‘for prevention of future dangers and inconveniences.’ This they did on 16 Nov. 1688, having first removed their goods and obtained a guard of soldiers from his majesty for the security of the house and chapel. In the ‘Franciscan Register’ is the following remark: ‘By this place 'tis incredible what we lost; perhaps if I should say upwards of 3,000l. I should not be much in the wrong.’ Cross died at Douay on 13 Oct. 1689.
His works are: 1. ‘Philothea's Pilgrimage to Perfection, described in a Practice of Ten Days' Solitude,’ Bruges, 1668, 8vo. 2. ‘De Dialectica.’ Three copies of this work on logic were to be given to every father, by the resolution of the Intermediate Congregation, 12 Oct. 1672. 3. ‘Contemplations on the Life and Glory of Holy Mary, the Mother of Jesus, with a Daily Office agreeing to each Mystery thereof. By J. C., D.D.,’ Paris, 1685, 12mo. Dedicated to the queen dowager. 4. ‘A Sermon preached before the King and Queen on the Feast of the Holy Patriarch St. Benedict,’ 1686. 5. ‘An Apology for the Contemplations on the Life and Glory of Holy Mary, Mother of Jesus. … By J. C.,’ London, 1687, 12mo. Dedicated to Queen Mary, consort of James II. 6. ‘De Juramento Fidelitatis.’
Dodd also attributes to him ‘some divine poems.’ In 1684 the chapter requested him to write a life of Father John Wall, who suffered death at Worcester in 1679, but it does not appear whether he accomplished this task.
[Oliver's Catholic Religion in Cornwall, p. 547; Luttrell's Relation of State Affairs, i. 477; Gillow's Bibliographical Dictionary of the English Catholics, i. 601; Dodd's Church History, iii. 490.]
T. C.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Crosby, Allan James

​CROSBY, ALLAN JAMES (1835–1881), archivist, educated at Worcester College, Oxford, where he graduated B.A. in law and history in 1858, was called to the bar at the Inner Temple on 1 May 1865, having some years previously obtained a clerkship in the Record Office. He assisted the Rev. Joseph Stevenson in the preparation of the ‘Calendar of State Papers’ (Foreign Series) for the period beginning in 1558, and succeeded him as editor in 1871. He carried on the work until the autumn of 1881, when his health broke down. He died on 5 Dec. in the same year.
[Athenæum, 1881, ii. 815; Times, 2 May, p. 14; Calendar of State Papers (Foreign), 1558–77.]
J. M. R.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Crosfield, George

​CROSFIELD, GEORGE (1785–1847), botanist, son of George and Ann Crosfield, was born in 1785 at Warrington, His parents removing from Warrington left him at the age of fourteen engaged in business there, a circumstance which gave a remarkable self-reliance to his character. He acted as secretary to the Warrington Botanical Society, and in 1810 published ‘A Calendar of Flora, composed during the year 1809 at Warrington, Lat. 53° 30′,’ in 34 pages, 8vo, with an Index generum, the nomenclature adopted being that of Sir J. E. Smith. At the age of thirty he became an elder in the Society of Friends, and in 1818 he published the ‘Letters of W. Thompson of Penketh,’ 12mo, to which a biographical notice is prefixed. This work went into several editions, and was followed by an edition of John Wilbur's ‘Letters to a Friend on the Primitive Doctrines of Christianity,’ 8vo, the preface to which is dated Liverpool, 1832; and by ‘Memoirs of S. Fothergill,’ Philadelphia, 1837, 8vo; reprinted at Liverpool in 1843, and at London in 1857. He died on 15 Dec. 1847.
[Annual Monitor, 1849.]
G. S. B.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Crosbie, Andrew

​CROSBIE, ANDREW (d. 1785), advocate at the Scottish bar, is stated to have been the original of ‘Councillor Pleydell’ in Sir Walter Scott's novel of ‘Guy Mannering,’ although Scott himself has given no sanction to the supposition, and in regard to this novel states that ‘many corresponding circumstances are detected by readers of which the author did not suspect the existence.’ Crosbie was famed for his conversational powers, and on Dr. Samuel Johnson's visit to Edinburgh was the only one who could hold his own ​with him (note by Croker to Boswell's Life of Johnson). Boswell describes him as his ‘truly learned and philosophical friend.’ During Johnson's visit Crosbie resided in Advocate's Close in the High Street of Edinburgh, but he afterwards erected for himself a splendid mansion in the east of St. Andrew's Square, which subsequently became the Douglas Hotel. He became involved in the failure of the Douglas and Heron Bank at Ayr, and died in great poverty in 1785. He had such a standing at the bar that had he survived he would have been raised to the bench. In March 1785 his widow made application for aliment, when the dean and council were authorised to give interim relief, and after consideration of the case had been resumed on 2 July the lady was allowed 40l. leviable from each member.
[Boswell's Life of Johnson; Anderson's Scottish Nation; Notes and Queries, 3rd ser. xi. 75, 145, 222, 261.]
T. F. H.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Ayres, Philip

​AYRES, PHILIP (1638–1712), the author of numerous books and pamphlets, flourished in the latter part of the seventeenth century; was born at Cottingham, and educated at Westminster, and St. John's College, Oxford. He became tutor in the family of Montagu Garrard Drake, of Agmondesham, Bucks, and lived in the family till his death, 1 Dec. 1712. His chief work is his 'lyric Poems made in imitation of the Italians,' 1687, a not uninteresting collection of original pieces and translations. One copy of verses is addressed to 'his honoured friend' John Dryden. The following is a list of Ayres's works in chronological order: 1. 'A short Account of the Life and Death of Pope Alexander VII, by P. A. Gent.,' 1667. 2. 'Pax Redux, or the Christian Reconciler. Done out of the French by P. A.,' 1670. 3. 'The Fortunate Fool, written in Spanish by A. G. de Salas Barbadillo. Translated by Philip Ayres, Gent.,' 1670. 4. 'Count Nadasdy's Hungarian Rebellion, translated by P. A. Gent.,' 1672. 5. 'The Count of Gabalis,' 1680, from the French of the Abbe de Montfaucon de Villars. 6. 'Emblemata Amatoria. Emblems of Love. In four languages, Lat., Engl., Ital., Fr.,' 1683. 7. 'The Voyages and Adventures of Captain Earth. Sharp and others in the South Sea, &c.,' 1684. 8. 'Vox Clamantis, or an Essay for the Honour, Happiness and Prosperity of the English Gentry,' 1684. 9. 'Mythologia Ethica, or Three Centuries of Æsopian Fables in English,' 1689. 10. 'The Revengeful Mistress, being an Amorous Adventure of an English Gentleman in Spain,' 1696.
A. H. B.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Ayscough, George Edward

​AYSCOUGH, GEORGE EDWARD (d. 1779), dramatist and traveller, was the son of Dr. Francis Ayscough, dean of Bristol, by a sister of the first Lord Lyttelton. For some time he held a commission in the Guards. In 1776 he produced at Drury Lane a version of the ‘Semiramis’ of Voltaire, Mr. Yates representing the chief character; an epilogue was provided by Sheridan. The tragedy obtained eleven representations, and the English author enjoyed three benefits on account of it. On the first performance Captain Ayscough's brother officers attended in great force and secured the success of ‘Semiramis.’ In the ‘Biographia Dramatica’ Ayscough is described as ‘a fool of fashion,’ ‘a parasite of Lord Lyttelton;’ and his tragedy is condemned as contemptible. He left England on account of his failing health, and afterwards published some account of his travels in Italy. He was the editor of the Miscellaneous Works of his uncle, Lord Lyttelton, published in 1774.
D. C.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Ayreminne, Richard de

1904 Errata appended.
​AYREMINNE, or AYERMIN, RICHARD de (d. 1340?), chancellor of the dioceses of Norwich and Salisbury, was a younger brother of William de Ayreminne, bishop of Norwich. He was probably in early life a clerk of the exchequer. On 26 May 1324 he was made keeper of the rolls in the place of his brother William [see Ayreminne, William de]. Between 16 Nov. and 12 Dec. of the same year he kept the great seal during the absence of the chancellor, Robert de Baldock, in Scotland. On 4 July 1325 Henry Cliff was substituted for Richard de Ayreminne in the keepership of the rolls, probably in consequence of the quarrel of his brother William with Edward II as to his right to the see of Norwich. In September 1325 Richard was appointed rector of Elveley (Alveley, co. Salop), and made by his brother chancellor of his diocese of Norwich. But shortly afterwards he, with another brother, Adam, left for France to join his brother William. In 1326 Edward II issued a writ complaining of the refusal of the brothers to appear before him, and directing the Archbishop of York to secure their attendance. After Edward III's accession in 1327 Richard was made clerk of the privy seal, and subsequently guardian of the Jewish converts for life. On 7 June 1339 he resigned this post. He was appointed chancellor of the diocese of Salisbury 16 July 1339; and since a successor to him was nominated in 1340, that year has been assumed to be the date of his death.
[Le Neve's Fasti; Blomefield's Norwich, i. 501; Rymer's Fœdera, iii. 791, iv. 61, 161, 804; Foss's Judges, iii. 214-15.]
S. L. L.
Dictionary of National Biography, Errata (1904), p.11 N.B.— f.e. stands for from end and l.l. for last line
| Page | Col. | Line | |
| 290 | i | 13 | Ayreminne, Richard de: after Norwich insert He became prebendary of York in 1316 |
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Ayrton, Edmund

​AYRTON, EDMUND (1734–1808), the most distinguished member of a race of musicians, was born at Ripon, where he was baptised 19 Nov. 1734. His father was one Edward Ayrton (1698-1774), a 'barber chirurgion,' of Ripon, who was appointed alderman of that town 14 Aug. 1758, and mayor 1 Jan. 1760. Edward Ayrton's eldest son, William (baptised 18 Nov. 1726), was organist of Ripon Minster from 7 June 1748 until his death, which took place 2 Feb. 1799. By his wife Catherine (who died at Chester 19 Sept. 1819) he had two sons, both of whom were organists of Ripon Minster. The elder of these, William Francis Morel, was born in 1778, and succeeded to his father's post on 25 June 1799. Soon after he moved to Chester, where he died 8 Nov. 1850. His brother, Thomas, was born in 1782, and was organist of Ripon Minster for nearly twenty years before his death, which took place 24 Oct. 1822. Edmund Ayrton, the second son of Edward Ayrton, the barber-surgeon, was originally destined for the church, but, displaying considerable musical talent, was placed under Dr. Nares, the organist of York Minster. He succeeded William Lee as organist, auditor, and rector chori of Southwell Minster in 1754. Here he married, on 20 Sept. 1762, Ann, the daughter of Benjamin Clay, by whom he had fourteen children, several of whom died in infancy. Ayrton became a member of the Royal Society of Musicians on 2 June 1765 (Records of Roy. Soc. of Musicians). In 1764 he was appointed a gentleman of the Chapel Royal, and soon after became a vicar choral of St. Paul's Cathedral, and a lay vicar of Westminster Abbey. He succeeded Nares as master of the children of the Chapel Royal in 1780. Ayrton took the degree of Mus. Doc. at Cambridge in 1784, on which occasion the anthem he wrote as an exercise was performed in the church of Great St. Mary's, and afterwards in London at the peace thanksgiving at St. Paul's on 29 July 1784. The Oxford degree of Mus. Doc. (ad eundem) was conferred upon him in 1788. Dr. Ayrton's wife died on 14 May 1800; he resigned the mastership of the children in 1805, and died on 22 May 1808, at 24 James Street, Buckingham Gate, Westminster, a large house with a garden of some three acres, but which had the reputation of being haunted, so that Ayrton had occupied it for many years at a low rent. He was buried in the west cloisters of Westminster Abbey on 28 May. His sister married Nicholas Thomas Dall, the Danish painter.
W. B. S.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Ayscough, Francis

1904 Errata appended.
​AYSCOUGH, FRANCIS, D.D. (1700–1766), divine, was born at St. Olave's, Southwark, in 1700, became a member of Corpus Christi College, Oxford, on 28 March 1717, and graduated M.A. in 1723. After taking orders he was admitted probationer fellow of his college on 16 Jan. 1727, and after two years of probation became a candidate for an actual fellowship. Without giving any reason the president and majority of the fellows voted against his admission; whereupon Ayscough appealed to the visitor, the Bishop of Winchester. The college pleaded that they had a right to make elections to fellowships without being responsible to the visitor, but the plea was overruled by the bishop, and the college was compelled to receive Ayscough and pay the costs of the proceedings. In 1735 he took the degree of D.D., and in the following year published 'A Sermon preached before the House of Commons on Friday, 30 Jan. 1735-6, being the anniversary of the martyrdom of King Charles I.' In 1740 he became clerk of the closet to Prince Frederick, and was presented by him to the rectory of Northchurch, Berkhampstead. The right of presentation was disputed by the chapter of Windsor, but the case was decided in the prince's favour. At Oxford he had been tutor to Lord Lyttelton, whose sister he married. By Lord Lyttelton's influence he was for a time preceptor to George III before his accession, and to his brother Edward, Duke of York. Finally he was appointed dean of Bristol. He was dead before October 1766, when a notice of him appeared in the 'London Magazine.' He left a son [see Ayscough, George Edward].
A. H. B.
Dictionary of National Biography, Errata (1904), p.11 N.B.— f.e. stands for from end and l.l. for last line
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| 294 | i | 11 | Ayscough, Francis: for 1766 read 1763 |
| | | 44-6 | for Bristol . . . . Magazine' read Bristol in 1761. He died 16 Aug. 1763 |