OpenLLM-France/wikimedia huggingface dataset:
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Bell, Robert Charles

​BELL, ROBERT CHARLES (1806–1872), line-engraver, was born at Edinburgh in 1806. At an early age he was articled to John Beugo, the friend of Burns, and whilein his studio he also attended the classes at the Trustees' Academy, then under the direction of Sir William Allan. After leaving Beugo he engraved a series of Scottish views and a considerable number of vignette portraits, the best known of which are those of Professor Wilson and Dr. Brunton; but the works which brought him more prominently into notice were 'The Rush Plaiters,' after Sir George Harvey, and the plates which he engraved for the Royal Scottish Association, among which were 'The Widow' and 'Roger and Jenny,' after Sir William Allan; 'The Expected Penny,' after A. Fraser; 'The Quarrel Scene in The Dowie Dens o' Yarrow,' after Sir J. Noel Paton; and 'Baillie McWhirter at Breakfast,' after J. Eckford Lauder. The largest and most important plate he ever undertook was 'The Battle of Preston Pans,' after Sir William Allan, upon which he was engaged at intervals for some years, and which he had only just completed at the time of his decease. Several of his best plates appeared in the 'Art Journal' between the years 1850 and 1872. They included 'The Duet,' after Etty; 'The Philosopher,' after H. Wyatt; 'The Bagpiper,' after Sir David Wilkie; and 'The Young Brother,' after Mulready, from the pictures in the Vernon Gallery; 'Teasing the Pet,' after that by Mieris in the Royal Collection; 'Sancho Panza,' after that by C. R. Leslie in the Sheepshanks Collection; 'Words of Comfort,' after Thomas Faed; 'Renewal of the Lease refused,' after Erskine Nicol; and 'Within a Mile of Edinbro' Town,' after John Faed. He died in Edinburgh on 5 Sept. 1872. His son, Mr. Robert P. Bell, A.R.S.A., is a well-known Scottish painter of figure subjects.
[Art Journal. 1872, p. 284.]
R. E. G.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Bell, John Gray

​BELL, JOHN GRAY (1823–1866), bookseller, was the son of Thomas Bell, d., 1860 [q. v.], house agent and surveyor of Newcastle-upon-Tyne. He was born at Newcastle 21 Sept. 1823, and married, in 1847, Dorothy Taylor of North Shields. In 1848 he went to London, and began business as a bookseller. He removed to Manchester in 1854, where he successfully followed his trade during the remainder of his life. He died there 21 Feb. 1866, aged 43. Bell was an earnest student of antiquarian literature, collected topographical books and prints, and issued many interesting trade catalogues. In 1850 he commenced the publication of a valuable series of 'Tracts on the Topography, History. Dialects, &c., of the Counties of Great Britain,' of which about sixteen came out, including original glossaries of Essex, Gloucestershire, Dorset, Cumberland, Berkshire. In 1851 he published ' A Descriptive and Critical Catalogue of Works, illustrated by Thomas and John Bell.' This was compiled by himself. Another of his works was a genealogy of the Bell and other families, printed for private circulation in 1866, and entitled 'A Genealogical Account of the Descendants of John of Gaunt, Duke of Lancaster,' &c.
[Notes and Queries, 6th ser. vi. 611, vii. 78; Bell's Descendants of John of Gaunt, 1866.]
C. W. S.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Bell, Maria

1904 Errata appended.
​BELL, Lady MARIA (d. 1825), amateur painter, the daughter of an architect named Hamilton, was the pupil of her brother William Hamilton, R.A., and received some instruction from Sir Joshua Reynolds, whose pictures she copied with much skill. She copied likewise the works of Rubens at Carlton House, among which was a 'Holy Family,' which was highly commended. between the years 1809 and 1824 she exhibited at the Royal Academy and elsewhere several figure-subjects and portraits, among the latter being in 1816 those of Sir Matthew Wood, Bart., lord mayor of London, and of her husband. She also practised modelling, and exhibited two busts at the Royal Academy in 1819. She married Sir Thomas Bell, sheriff of London, who was knighted in 1816, and died in 1824, and whose portrait was engraved by William Dickinson after a painting by her. Lady Bell died in Dean Street, Soho, on 9 March 1825. Her own portrait has been engraved by Edward Scriven from a miniature by W. S. Lethbridge.
[Gent. Mag. 1825, i. 570; Redgrave's Dictionary of Artists, 1878.]
R. E. G.
Dictionary of National Biography, Errata (1904), p.22 N.B.— f.e. stands for from end and l.l. for last line
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# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Bell, Patrick

​BELL, PATRICK (1799–1869), one of the first inventors of the reaping machine, was born at Mid-Leoch, a farm of which his father, George Bell, was tenant, in the parish of Auchterhouse, a few miles northwest of Dundee, in April 1799. When he was a young man studying for the ministry at the university of St. Andrews, he turned his attention to the construction of a machine which might lessen the labour of harvesting, This was in 1827, and in the following year a machine which he had made was tried on a farm in Perthshire belonging to his brother, Mr. George Bell. For a long time Dr. Bell was considered to be the original inventor of the machine, though claims were also put forward on behalf of McConnick in America. It has, however, been ascertained, with tolerable certainty, that John Common, of Denwick, was the first to produce a machine having the essential principles of the modern reaper. This was done in 1812, as is proved by an entry in the minutes of a committee of the Society of Arts in that year. There is also evidence to show that Common s machine was really the original of that brought out by McConnick, and shown in the Great Exhibition of 1851. It should be added that there were before this many experimental reaping machines; but those of Common and Bell seem to have been the only two which were in any way successful. Dr. Bell never took out a patent for his machine, but it was worked regularly from the time of its first construction until about 1868, when it was purchased for the museum of the Patent Office, where it now ​remains. A full account of the invention was given by Dr. Bell at the meeting of the British Association at Dundee in 1867; but unfortunately only a very brief report of the paper appears in the reports of the association. Dr. Bell was ordained in 1843, and became minister of the parish of Carmylie, Arbroath, which cure he held till the time of his death. As a recognition of his services to agriculture he was presented by the Highland Society with 1,000l. and a piece of plate, subscribed for by the farmers of Scotland and at others. He also had conferred on him the honorary degree of LL.D. by the university of St. Andrews.
[A fair account of Dr. Bell is given in Nichols's Register and Magazine of Biography, 1869, p. 473. It includes some particulars about the origin of the invention, evidently taken from the British Association paper. A short obituary notice appeared in Engineering for 30 April 1869. This seems to contain nothing beyond what is given in Nichols. For a description of his and other early reaping machines see Woodcrofts Appendix to Specifications of Patents for Reaping Machines, 1852 (published by the Patent Office). For an account of Common's machine see Soc. of Arts Journal, xxvi. 369, 419, 479, xxxi. 324.]
H. T. W.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Bell, John Montgomerie

​BELL, JOHN MONTGOMERIE (1804–1862), an advocate of the Scottish bar, and sheriff of Kincardine, was born at Paisley in 1804. He was educated at the grammar school of that town and at the university of Glasgow. He was called to the Edinburgh bar in 1825, and from 1830 to 1846 assisted, with conspicuous ability, in conducting the court of session reports. In 1847 he was appointed an advocate-depute, and in 1861 sheriff of Kincardine. In 1861 he published a 'Treatise on the Law of Arbitration in Scotland,' a comprehensive and perspicuous exposition of this branch of Scotch law, and the standard work on the subject. He died from the effects of an accident 16 Oct. 1862. In 1863 a poem, 'The Martyr of Liberty,' which he had written shortly after his call to the  bar, was published in accordance with directions left by himself.
[Catalogue of the Library of the Faculty of Advocates, Edinburgh; Scotsman, 23 Oct. 1862.]
T. F. H.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Bell, Jonathan Anderson

​BELL, JONATHAN ANDERSON (d. 1865), architect, second son of James Bell, advocate, was born in Glasgow and educated at Edinburgh University. The best account of him is preserved in a volume of poems ​ printed privately and posthumously in 1865. He showed, we there learn, an early fondness for art, and in the study of it spent the greater part of 1829 and 1830 in Rome. Returning, he decided to become an architect. He served his articles and remained for some years afterwards in the office of Messrs. Rickman & Hutchison of Birmingham. Mr. Rickman is well known as a prime mover in the English Gothic revival; Bell was his favourite pupil, and became his intimate friend.
As a result of this education and companionship, Bell acquired a remarkable knowledge of Gothic architecture. He was a correct and elegant draughtsman. Thirty of the engravings in Le Keux's 'Memorials of Cambridge' are from his drawings. His 'Dryburgh Abbey,' engraved by William Miller, is no less remarkable. For about twenty-seven years he practised as an architect in Edinburgh. 'His larger works were not numerous, but they are of great merit and evince refined taste. The country houses he erected were always justly admired. The extensive range of premises in Glasgow, known by the name of Victoria Buildings, which he designed for Mr. Archibald Orr Ewing . . . . exhibit a very pure specimen of Scotch Gothic, finely adapted to commercial purposes, and form one of the most imposing elevations in the city.' Bell was a member of the Institute of Scottish Architects. In 1839 he was appointed secretary to the Royal Association for the Promotion of the Fine Arts in Scotland. He was nominated for the office by the late Professor Wilson, and retained it until his death. In the printed reports of that society will be found graceful and sufficient tributes to the abilities and the zeal of its secretary. He was one of the leading witnesses examined by the select committee appointed to inquire into the subject of art unions. He was secretary also to the committee concerned with the direction of the Edinburgh Wellington Testimonial.
Bell had not only 'a learned knowledge of art all it a departments, but was himself a cultivated artist. . . . His water-colour drawings are of a high order of excellence and are finished with the greatest delicacy.' His poems were printed only for private circulation, 'in the belief that they possessed much originality and beauty.' He died, in his fifty-sixth year, on 28 Feb. 1865.
[Bell's Poems, printed 'in memoriam' and not for publication, 1865; Proceedings of the Royal Association for the Promotion of the Fine Arts in Scotland; Scotsman, 2 March 1865.]
E. R.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Bell, John (1782-1876)

​BELL, Sir JOHN (1782–1876), general, was born at Bonytoun, Fifeshire, 1 Jan. 1782, being the son of David Bell of that place. It was not until 1805 that he abandoned the more lucrative prospects of mercantile life open to him by family connections, and followed the bent of his own inclination by accepting a commission as an ensign in the 52nd foot on 15 Aug. in that year. He was ordered to join his regiment in Sicily in 1806. Throughout the Peninsular war he was actively engaged in the majority of the more celebrated actions, and was wounded at the battle of Vimeiro by a shot through the shoulder. He was appointed permanent assistant quartermaster-general during the later years of the war. He received the gold cross for the battles of the Pyrenees, Nivelle, Orthes, and Toulouse, and the silver war medal with six clasps for some other battles and sieges. He was employed for the last time in active service abroad against Louisiana, December 1814 to January 1815. From 1828 to 1841 he was chief secretary to the government at the Cape of Good Hope, and from 1848 to 1854 lieutenant-governor of Guernsey. The colonelcy of the 95th foot was awarded to him in 1850, which he exchanged for that of the 4th foot three years afterwards. He was nominated a C.B. as far back as 4 June 1815, and for his many services he was made a K.C.B. 6 April 1852, and a G.C.B. 18 May 1860. Immediately afterwards he became a general, and before his death he was the senior general in the army. He died at 55 Cadogan Place, London, 20 Nov. 1876, and was buried in Kensal Green Cemetery. He married, 14 June 1821, Catharine, the elder daughter of James Harris, the first earl of Malmesbury. She was born at St. Petersburg, 29 May 1780, and was named after her godmother, the Empress Catharine. She died in Upper Hyde Park Street, London, 21 Dec. 1855.
[Illustrated London News, lxix. 541 (1876), with portrait; Men of the Time, 1875; Army Lists, &c.]
G. C. B.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Halton, Immanuel

​HALTON, IMMANUEL (1628–1699), astronomer, born at Greystoke in Cumberland on 21 April 1628, was the eldest son of Miles Halton of Greenthwaite Hall, where the family had resided from the time of Richard II. Timothy Halton [q. v.] was probably a younger brother. Halton was educated at Blencowe grammar school in Cumberland, became a student at Gray's Inn, and thence entered the service of Thomas Howard, earl of Arundel. He transacted on his behalf affairs of importance in Holland, and on his return to England accepted and kept for twenty years the post of auditor of his household, involving onerous duties connected with commissions and arbitrations. In 1660 the successor of his patron made him a grant of part of the manor of Shirland in Derbyshire; he came to reside at Wingfield Manor in the same county early in 1666, and purchased some of the adjacent lands from the sixth Duke of Norfolk on 28 May 1678. Having heard of Flamsteed's astronomical proficiency, Halton called to see him at Derby during the Lenten assizes of 1666, and afterwards sent him Riccioli's 'New Almagest,' Kepler's 'Rudolphine Tables,' and other books on astronomy (Baily, Account of Flamsteed, p. 21). 'He was a person,' Flamsteed says (ib. p. 26), 'of great humanity and judgment, a good algebraist, and endeavoured to draw me into the study of algebra by proposing little problems to me.' Halton's observations at Wingfield on the solar eclipse of 23 June 1675 were communicated to the Royal Society by Flamsteed, who styled him 'amicus meus singularis' (Phil. Trans. xi. 664). In a letter to Collins of 20 Feb. 1673 Flamsteed mentioned that Halton was then translating Kinkhuysen's 'Moon-Wiser' into English, 'that I may have a view of it' (Rigaud, Correspondence of Scientific Men, ii. 160). A little later he speaks of observing with his quadrants, and on 27 Dec. 1673 told Collins that 'lately, in discourse with Mr. Halton, he was pleased to show me a straight-lined projection for finding the hour by inspection, the sun's declination and height being given' (ib. p. 171). Some of the sun-dials put up by him are still to be seen at Wingfield Manor; and a letter written from Gray's Inn in May 1650, describing a dial of his own invention, was published in the appendix to Samuel Foster's 'Miscellanea,' London, 1659. He married ​Mary, daughter of John Newton of Oakerthorpe in Derbyshire, and had by her three sons, two of whom left issue. Halton made several alterations and improvements in Wingfield Manor, and repaired the worst ravages inflicted upon it by the civil war. It remained the property of his descendants until a few years ago, when it passed by marriage to the Tristrams of Hampshire (E. Bradbury, All about Derbyshire, p. 286). He died in 1699, aged 72, and was buried in the church of South Wingfield. The inscription on his tomb states that 'the late years of his life were chiefly spent in the studies of music and the mathematics, in which noble sciences he attained a great perfection.'
A. M. C.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Hamboys, John

​HAMBOYS, JOHN (fl. 1470). [See Hanboys.]
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Hamey, Baldwin (1568-1640)

​HAMEY, BALDWIN, the elder, M.D. (1568–1640), physician, descended from Odo de Hame, who served under the Count of Flanders at the siege of Acre, was born at ​Bruges in 1568. His parents, though much impoverished by the exactions of Alva, sent him to the university of Leyden, where he graduated M.D. Soon after, in 1592, he was nominated by the university physician to the czar of Muscovy, Theodore Ivanovitz, in accordance with a request for a distinguished physician sent to the rector by that emperor. In 1598 he obtained leave, with difficulty, to resign his post in Russia and returned to Holland, where he married, at Amsterdam, Sara Oeils, and in the same year settled in London, where he was admitted a licentiate of the College of Physicians on 12 Jan. 1610, and practised with success till his death, of a pestilential fever, 10 Nov. 1640. He was buried on the north side of the church of All Hallows Barking, near the Tower of London, 12 Nov. 1640, and his three children erected a monument in the church to his memory. His eldest son, Baldwin [q. v.], became a physician, his second son a merchant in London, and his daughter married Mr. Palmer, whose descendants possessed Hamey's portrait by Cornelius Jansen. He bequeathed 20l. to the College of Physicians.
N. M.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Halsworth, Daniel

​HALSWORTH or HOLDSWORTH, DANIEL, D.D., LL.D. (1558?–1595?), classical scholar, born in Yorkshire in or about 1558, arrived from England at the English College of Douay, then temporarily removed to Rheims, on 22 June 1580, and was sent in the same year with a number of other students to the English College at Rome, into which he was admitted on 9 Sept. He was ordained priest by Thomas Goldwell [q. v.], bishop of St. Asaph in the reign of Queen Mary, in October 1583. He remained in the college till September 1586, and was one of those who petitioned for the retention of the Society of Jesus in the management of the college. When he left he was sent with others to collect alms for the Rheims college, and it was intended that he should afterwards proceed to the English mission, but, with the consent of Cardinal Allen, he remained in Italy to continue his studies in one of the universities of that country, where he was created a doctor of the canon and civil laws and of divinity. Pits, who had been his fellow-student in the English College at Rome, extols him highly for his learning. He distinguished himself in oratory, poetry, philosophy, and mathematics, and in his knowledge of Greek, Latin, and Hebrew. For some years he lived at the court of his patron, the Duke of Savoy, and afterwards was appointed theologian to St. Charles Borromeo, archbishop of Milan, with whom he resided both at Rome and Milan. On 22 Sept. 1591 he visited the hospice attached to the English College at Rome, and made a stay of five days. In the ‘Pilgrim-Book’ he is described as of Salop (Foley, Records, vi. 564). He died at Rome about 1595.
He was author of: 1. ‘Virgilii Maronis Bucolica, e Latino in Græcum Idioma versibus translata. Authore Dan. Alsvorto, Anglo,’ Turin, 1591, 8vo. The dedication to Cardinal Allen contains some curious remarks on the state of England. 2. ‘Avli Licinii Archiæ Poetæ tantopere à Cicerone celebrati Epigrammata. … A Daniele Alsuorto Anglo Latinis versibus fidelissime reddita,’ Rome, 1596, 8vo, dedicated to Cardinal Henry Cajetan, protector of the English nation. Reprinted in vol. ii. of ‘M. T. Ciceronis Orationum Commentaria Selecta virorum Germaniæ, Italiæ, et Galliæ, notis, scholiis, et annotationibus illustrata,’ Cologne, 1685, 8vo. 3. Several other works, both in prose and verse, which were never printed.
T. C.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Hambury, Henry de

​HAMBURY, HENRY de (fl. 1330), judge, was a son of Geoffrey de Hambury of Hambury or Hanbury in Worcestershire. Early in life he became an adherent of Thomas, earl of Lancaster, but received a pardon with consent of parliament at York for all felonies in that regard on 1 Nov. 1318. In 1324 he was appointed a justice of the common pleas in Ireland. He was promoted in the following year to be a judge of the Irish court of king's bench, and almost immediately afterwards to be chief justice; but in 1326 Richard de Willoughby was appointed chief justice, and Hambury returned to the common pleas. In 1327 he appears to have been chief justice of that court, when he was transferred to England, and in 1328 became a judge of the English king's bench (Cal. Rot. Pat. 94 b, 95 b, 96, 97, 99 b; the Irish Close Rolls, i. 34, 35, speak of him as chief justice of the Irish king's bench in 1327). He also was appointed to hold pleas of forest in Gloucestershire, Somersetshire, Dorsetshire, Wiltshire, and South Hampshire. He seems to have retired before 1338, as the 'Liberate Roll' does not mention him as a judge in that year, but he was still alive in 1352, when he is named in the herald's visitation of Worcestershire, in which county he had become possessed of the abbey of Bordesley in 1324. He founded a chantry at Hambury in 1346.
J. A. H.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Halton, Timothy

​HALTON, TIMOTHY, D.D. (1632?–1704), provost of Queen's College, Oxford, was probably the Timothy Halton, son of Miles Halton of Greenthwaite Hall, Cumberland, who was baptised at Greystoke Church 19 Sept. 1633, and in that case he was a younger brother of Immanuel Halton [q. v.] (Notes and Queries, 6th ser. iii. 45). He entered Queen's College as batler 9 March 1648-9, and was elected fellow April 1657 (Cal. State Papers, Dom. 1656-7, p. 338). He proceeded B.D. 30 April 1662, D.D. 27 June 1674 (Cat. Oxf. Grad. p. 288; see also Wood, Athenae Oxon. ed. Bliss, iv. 520). On 17 March 1661 Halton writes to Joseph Williamson that he had offers of chaplaincies from William Lucy, bishop of St. David's, and from the queen of Bohemia (Cal. State Papers, Dom. 1660-1, p. 535). Eventually he refused them both, preferring to retain his position at Oxford. The first offer, however, led to a Welsh connection (ib. pp. 551, 562, 572, 587). He became archdeacon of Brecknock 8 Feb. 1671-2 (Le Neve, i. 312), and was canon of St. David's (his epitaph). He was made archdeacon of Oxford 10 July 1675 (Le Neve, ii. 516), and provost of Queen's College 7 April 1677, succeeding Dr. Thomas Barlow [q. v.] He was also rector of the college living, Charlton-on-Otmoor, Oxfordshire. He was vice-chancellor in 1679-81 and 1685. He died 21 July 1704, and was buried in Queen's College chapel; his epitaph states that he was a considerable benefactor to the college. Numerous letters from Halton to Williamson, written between 1655 and 1667, are preserved in the Record Office (see Cal. State Papers, Dom. Ser.) Some references to him in Hearne's 'Collections' (Oxf. Hist. Soc. ii. 69, 224) seem to imply that he was a man of jovial habits. There is an engraved portrait of him by Burghers.
N. D. F. P.