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

​AYRTON, WILLIAM (1777–1858), musical writer, younger son of Dr. Ayrton, was born in London in 1777. On 17 May 1803 he married Marianne, the daughter of Dr. Arnold, the composer. In 1816 he went abroad to engage singers for the Italian opera at the King's theatre, of which he undertook the direction in the following year, producing for the first time in England Mozart's 'Don Giovanni,' and introducing to English audiences such great artists as Pasta, Camporese, Crivelli, and Ambrogetti. In spite of a very successful season Ayrton was obliged by the disputes of the company to retire from the direction. In 1821 he again (under the management of Ebers) took the post of musical director, but owing to the factious opposition he encountered from the committee he was again forced to resign. The remainder of his life he devoted entirely to literary pursuits, in which, both as a critic and writer in music, he occupied for many years a position far in advance of his contemporaries. From 1823 to 1833 he edited and contributed largely to the 'Harmonicon,' a periodical the value of which has hardly been exceeded by any of its successors. In 1834-5 he published his 'Sacred Minstrelsy,' and in 1834-5-6 the work known as the 'Musical Library,' one of the earliest and best cheap collections of vocal and instrumental music. Ayrton was a F.R.S., a F.S.A., and one of ​the original members of the Royal Institution and the Athenæum Club. He died at Bridge Street, Westminster, 8 March 1858.
W. B. S.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Donald VI

​DONALD VI (d. 900), son of Constantine I [q. v.], king of Celtic Scotland, succeeded Eocha and Grig (Gregory), who had reigned jointly, the latter, perhaps, being the representative of the northern Celts or Picts and the former a son of Run of the British race, but by his mother a grandson of Kenneth Macalpin. His reign, when the kings of Scone are first called kings of Alban and no longer of the Picts by the Irish annalists, was during the period of the great Danish Vikings, who now began to settle in instead of ravaging the coasts. Guthorm Athelstan about this period, defeated by Alfred, became a christian and settled in the eastern district called the Danelege. Halfdene, who commanded the northern half of the formerly united Danish host, attacked and settled in Northumbria. The Celts in Ireland succeeded in repelling the Danish invaders till 919, when Sitric, by their defeat at Rathfarnham, laid the foundation of the Danish kingdom of Dublin. Another band of northern Vikings, led by Hrolf (Rollo), sought the more distant shores of Normandy. Meanwhile Harold Harfagr was consolidating the kingdom of Norway, and a little later Gorm the old that of Denmark.
The less fertile Scotland had a short period of comparative quiet. Donald is said by Fordun to have made peace with Ronald and Sitric, his kinsman, the successors of Guthorm, Danish chiefs not clearly identified (Scotichronicon, iv. 20).
Sigurd, brother of Ronald, earl of Moire, the second earl of Orkney, indeed invaded northern Scotland and took possession of Caithness, Sutherland, Ross, and Moray, according to one account, as far as Ekkiallsakki (Burghhead, between the Findhorn and Spey), where he defeated Melbrigda Tönn (the Tooth), but died from a wound of the tooth of his defeated foe's head slung over his saddle, according to the Norse Saga. But this north-eastern part of Scotland had probably never been under the Celtic kings of Scone. According to the narrative of ‘The Wars of the Gaedhill with the Gael’ (Todd's edit. p. 29) a later attack, led by Sitric, son of Imhair, came further south, defeated the Scots, and (Skene, i. 338) slew Donald at Dun-fother (Dunottar) in Kincardine. But the Ulster annals, as well as the earliest Scottish historians, ignore this invasion, and record the death of Donald about 900, according to Fordun, at Forres, not in battle but from infirmity, brought on by his labour in reducing the highland robber tribes, though Fordun adds a doubt whether he may not have been poisoned. He was succeeded by Constantine, the son of Aedh the predecessor of Gregory.
Æ. M.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Donaldson, Stuart Alexander

1904 Errata appended.
​DONALDSON, Sir STUART ALEXANDER (1812–1867), Australian statesman, third son of Stuart and Betty Donaldson, was born on 10 Dec. 1812. John William Donaldson, D.D. [q. v.], was his brother. He was educated privately, and in 1832 was sent by his father to the Mexican silver mines to acquire some business training. While in Mexico he was present at the battle of Guanaxuato. Having returned to England in 1834, he went to Australia in the same year, joined his father's partner, Mr. William Jones, at Sydney, and soon afterwards was made a partner in the firm of Donaldson, Jones, & Lambert. In 1838 Donaldson was appointed a magistrate of New South Wales. He realised a rapid fortune in wool and sperm oil, and became the owner of a large sheep-run. He became keenly engaged in colonial politics, and on one occasion fought a duel with Mr. Mitchell, a political opponent. In 1848 he was appointed a member of the council of New South Wales, and sat in the council and assembly until 1859. After a visit to England, when he married Amelia, daughter of Frederick Cooper of Carleton Hall, Cumberland, he went back to Australia in July 1854, and became vice-president of the Council. Returned to the legislative assembly in 1856 for Sydney Hamlets, Donaldson ​was called to form, in accordance with the New Constitution Act of New South Wales, the first ministry responsible to the colonial parliament. The ministry was formed towards the end of April, Donaldson taking the offices of first minister and colonial secretary. Simultaneously with his taking office, he retired from his business firm, wishing to have his hands entirely untied. His re-election on taking office was keenly contested, but Donaldson was returned by his former constituency. In the assembly a vigorous opposition was soon organised, under the leadership of Mr. (afterwards Sir Charles) Cowper, professedly on liberal lines, and, after a brief existence, the Donaldson ministry came to an end on 21 Aug., ‘in consequence of the support accorded to them in the legislative assembly being feeble and uncertain’ (speech of Donaldson on 26 Aug. in the ‘Sydney Morning Herald’ of the 27th). On 3 Oct. of the same year he joined the Watson-Parker ministry as finance minister, and retired from office with his colleagues in the following year. In 1857 he was appointed commissioner of railways, and two years later he returned home and settled in London. He was knighted on 23 Aug. 1860. During the remainder of his life Donaldson was actively employed as director of the General Credit and other companies, and attempted to enter parliament for Dartmouth, Barnstaple, but without success. He died on 11 Jan. 1867, at Carleton Hall, Cumberland.
L. C. S.
Dictionary of National Biography, Errata (1904), p.101 N.B.— f.e. stands for from end and l.l. for last line
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# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Donald V

​DONALD V, Macalpin (d. 864), was king of Alban, the united kingdom of the Scots and Picts, whose centre was Scone, near Perth. His brother, Kenneth Macalpin, united the Scottish Dalriad monarchy of Argyll and the Isles, whose chief fort was Dunstaffnage, near Oban, or Dunadd on the Crinan moors, with the Pictish monarchy of northern and central Scotland, and Scone became the chief fort of this kingdom in the middle of the ninth century (844). Kenneth is called in Scottish chronicles a Scot, but in the Irish annals king of the Picts, as are also several of his successors. Alpin is supposed to have been a Pictish king who married a Scottish princess, and his maternal descent may account (as the old Pictish law deemed descent by the mother the test of legitimacy) for his successors tracing their lineage from the Scots and not from the Picts. The Picts are said to have been ‘almost extirpated by Kenneth,’ but the succession may have been more peaceful than the expression would indicate. Certain it is that the Pictish dialect did not radically differ from the Scottish. Still its supersession by the latter and the almost complete disappearance of Pictish names in subsequent Scottish history has not been satisfactorily accounted for.
Kenneth, a warlike monarch, had invaded Saxony, i.e. the Lothians, six times, burnt Dunbar, and seized Melrose. He removed ​some of Columba's relics to Dunkeld, and dying at Forteviot was buried at Iona. Donald, also a son of Alpin, and called in the ‘Annals of Ulster’ king of the Picts, succeeded, and reigned four years, or, according to another account, three years and three months. This was too short a period for many events, and although his reign has been amplified by Fordun, Boece, and Buchanan, the only fact handed down by the older annalists and certainly authentic is that along with his people the Gaels he established the rights and laws of Aedh, the son of Echdach, at Forteviot. ‘In hujus tempore jura ac leges Edi filii Echdach fecerunt Gvedeli cum rege suo in Fothur-tha-baichte, i.e. Forteviot’ (Skene, Chronicle of Picts and Scots, p. 8). These were the laws of Aedh, a Dalriad king of the eighth century, the exact contents of which are unknown, but probably included the custom of tanistry, the succession to the crown by the eldest and worthiest of the royal blood, perhaps also the right to exact certain dues from the Picts called Cain and Cuairt (Robertson, Scotland under her Early Kings, i. 41). Donald died in 864 at his palace of Kinn Belachoir (Pictish Chronicle) or Rath Inver Amon, or, according to another account, was killed at Scone, near which the other places named are, and was succeeded by Constantine I, son of his brother Kenneth, according to the rule of tanistry.
Æ. M.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Donaldson, James (1751-1830)

​DONALDSON, JAMES (1751–1830), the founder of Donaldson's Hospital, Edinburgh, was the son of Alexander Donaldson, an Edinburgh bookseller, who is frequently mentioned in Boswell's ‘Correspondence with the Honourable Andrew Erskine,’ and who incurred the wrath of Dr. Johnson by opening a shop in London where he sold pirated editions of popular works (Boswell, Life of Johnson, ch. xvi.). James Donaldson was born in Edinburgh on 10 Dec. 1751, and ten years later is said by Mr. Erskine to have very much wanted correction. ‘The eldest son, when I was there [at Donaldson's shop], never failed to play at taw all the time, and my queue used frequently to be pulled about’ (Letter ix. in Boswell's Correspondence with Erskine). His somewhat uneventful life was passed almost entirely in Edinburgh and the neighbourhood. From his father he inherited about 100,000l., and this sum he more than doubled by judicious investments in the funds. His town house was in Princes Street, Edinburgh, on the site now occupied by the New Club, and to his country seat, Broughton Hall, about half a mile from Bellevue Crescent, was attached a fine garden, which after his death was converted into Zoological Gardens. He was proprietor and editor of the ‘Edinburgh Advertiser,’ a tory bi-weekly newspaper founded about 1764, and now extinct; but it is uncertain when he first became connected with the paper. The earliest number in the British Museum is dated 13 May 1785, and is described as ‘printed by and for James Donaldson, and sold at his printing-house in the Castle Hill,’ and he was at that ​time a partner in his father's Edinburgh business. He died on 16 Dec. 1830. Donaldson was very benevolent, and perhaps rather eccentric. Once a week he caused money to be distributed to a large number of beggars, and on another night of the week the ‘waits’ or street musicians used to play in the lobby of his house; he invariably dressed in the costume of the eighteenth century.
Donaldson left the bulk of his fortune, about 220,000l., for the maintenance and education of three hundred poor children, much to the annoyance of some of his relatives, who attempted to set aside the will on the plea of madness. The building known as the Donaldson Hospital is in the Elizabethan style, and was designed by Mr. W. H. Playfair. In 1848 the governors decided that one side of the hospital, consisting of ninety-six beds, should be fitted up for the reception of deaf and dumb children, and it was opened in 1851. The ultimate fate of the charity is uncertain; but it has been proposed by the Scottish educational endowments commission that both the funds and the hospital should be devoted to the secondary education of women.
[Information from Mr. Donaldson's nephews, Mr. James Gillespie, M.D., and Mr. William Wood; Documents relating to Donaldson's Hospital, Edinburgh, 1851.]
L. C. S.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Donaldson, James (fl.1794)

​DONALDSON, JAMES (fl. 1794), writer on agriculture, resided at Dundee, where he practised as a land surveyor. He was also agent for the Earl of Panmure. His chief work is ‘Modern Agriculture; or the Present State of Husbandry in Great Britain,’ 4 vols. 8vo, Edinburgh, 1795–6. He also drew up for the board of agriculture the following county surveys: 1. ‘General View of the Agriculture of the County of Banff,’ 4to, Edinburgh, 1794. 2. ‘General View of the Agriculture of the Carse of Gowrie in the County of Perth, with Observations on the Means of its Improvement,’ 4to, London, 1794. 3. ‘General View of the Agriculture of the County of Elgin or Moray,’ 4to, London, 1794. 4. ‘General View of the Agriculture of the County of Nairn … and the Parish of Dyke, and part of Edenkeillie in the County of Elgin and Forres,’ 4to, London, 1794. 5. ‘General View of the Agriculture of the County of Northampton … to which is added an Appendix, containing a Comparison between the English and Scotch Systems of Husbandry as practised in the Counties of Northampton and Perth,’ 4to, Edinburgh, 1794. 6. ‘General View of the Agriculture of the County of Kincardine, or the Mearns,’ 4to, London, 1795.
G. G.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Donaldson, John (d.1865)

​DONALDSON, JOHN (d. 1865), professor of music at Edinburgh, was called to the Scottish bar in 1826. In 1845 he was elected to the Reid professorship of music. Donaldson found the chair inadequately paid, and the funds originally intended for its support diverted to other purposes. He received only 300l. a year, and could obtain no money for the necessary outlay for making the professorship practically useful. In 1850 the matter was brought before the court of session, which decided in Donaldson's favour. His salary was raised to 420l., with allowances for an assistant, yearly musical performances, and class expenses. A music room was built containing a fine organ, and Donaldson gathered together a remarkable collection of instruments, illustrating the history of music and acoustics. His lectures were, however, unsuccessful, for he was not a practical musician, but devoted himself chiefly to the investigation of more obscure questions of acoustics, to which less attention was then paid than now. Latterly his health became very bad, and he died at his house, Marchfield, near Edinburgh, 12 Aug. 1865.
[Scotch newspapers for August 1865.]
W. B. S.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Donaldson, Joseph

​DONALDSON, JOSEPH (1794–1830), author of ‘Recollections of the Eventful Life of a Soldier,’ was born in 1794 in Glasgow, where his father was in the employ of a mercantile house. With some school companions he ran away to sea and made a voyage to the West Indies, which disenchanted him of a sea-life, and he returned home and was again put to school by his father. Early in 1809 he again ran away, and without communicating with his friends enlisted in the old 94th (Scotch brigade). Joining his regiment, he accompanied it to Jersey, and afterwards to Spain, where it took part in the desperate defence of Fort Matagorda during the siege of Cadiz, and afterwards was with Picton's division in the principal battles and sieges in the Peninsula from 1811 to 1814. After the peace in 1814 the Scotch brigade was stationed in Ireland, where it was disbanded in 1818. In the meantime Donaldson married a young Irish girl, alluded to in some of his writings under the name of Mary MacCarthy, who subsequently bore him ten children. Early in 1815 he was discharged as sergeant, at the age of twenty-one, at the expiration of his limited-service engagement. Returning to Glasgow with his wife, he made a little money by the publication of his ‘Scenes and Sketches in Ireland.’ His hopes of obtaining employment in civil life having utterly failed, Donaldson went to London with his family, enlisted in the East India Company's service, and was employed as a recruiting-sergeant, at first in London and afterwards in Glasgow. This duty being very distasteful to him, he got himself transferred to the district staff, and was employed as head clerk in the Glasgow district staff office for some years, during which time he published his ‘Recollections of the Eventful Life of a Soldier’ and ‘Story of the War in the Peninsula.’ While in London he had found time to study anatomy and surgery, studies which he continued at Glasgow University. Having qualified as a surgeon, he took his discharge in 1827, and set up in medical practice at Oban in Argyleshire, where he remained until 1829. Failing of success, he left his wife and children in Glasgow, and, in the hope of improving his medical prospects, proceeded to London and afterwards to Paris, where he died of pulmonary disease in October 1830, at the age of thirty-six. Donaldson is stated to have been a frequent contributor of anonymous papers to the press. His three works above named, which give a vivid picture of soldier life in the Peninsula and in Ireland in his day, were republished in 1855 under the collective title of ‘Recollections of the Eventful Life of a Soldier’ (London and Glasgow, 8vo), for the benefit of his widow and a surviving daughter, then in distressed circumstances in Glasgow.
[Preface to Donaldson's Recollections, 1855.]
H. M. C.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Erskine, David (1772-1837)

​ERSKINE, Sir DAVID (1772–1837), dramatist and antiquary, the natural son of David Steuart Erskine, eleventh earl of Buchan [q. v.], was born in 1772. In early life he bore a captain's commission in the 31st foot, and also belonged to the York rangers. On the reduction of the 31st regiment, he was appointed a professor at the Royal Military Academy, Sandhurst. The Earl of Munster was there placed under his tuition, as were others of William IV's children, and at their request Erskine received the honour of knighthood, 11 Sept. 1830 (Gent. Mag. vol. ci. pt. i. p. 79). His father dying in 1829 bequeathed to him for life the whole of his unentailed estates, including Dryburgh Abbey, Berwickshire, which thenceforth became his permanent residence. Erskine, who was F.S.A. Scot., director of the Royal Academy of Edinburgh, and one of the founders of the Scots Military and Naval Academy in that city, died 22 Oct. 1837, aged 65. On 17 Nov. 1798 he married his cousin, Elizabeth, second daughter of Thomas, lord Erskine (ib. vol. lxviii. pt. ii. p. 993), and after her death, 2 Aug. 1800 (ib. vol. lxx. pt. ii. p. 804), he married secondly a Miss Ellis. He is the author of: 1. ‘Airyformia; or Ghosts of great note,’ 12mo, Kelso, 1825. 2. ‘King James the First of Scotland; a tragedy in five acts’ (and in verse), 12mo, Kelso, 1827. 3. ‘Love amongst the Roses: or Guilford in Surrey; a military opera, in three acts’ (and in prose), 12mo, Kelso, 1827. 4. ‘King James the Second of Scotland, an historical drama, in five acts’ (and in verse), 12mo, Kelso, 1828. 5. ‘Mary, Queen of Scots; or Melrose in ancient times … an historical melo-drama’ (in three acts and in prose), 12mo, Edinburgh, 1829. 6. ‘Annals and Antiquities of Dryburgh, and other places on the Tweed, second edition,’ 12mo, Kelso, 1836.
G. G.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Erskine, Edward Morris

​ERSKINE, EDWARD MORRIS (1817–1883), diplomatist, fourth son of David Montagu, second lord Erskine [q. v.], by Frances, daughter of General John Cadwallader of Philadelphia, was born on 17 March 1817. He entered the diplomic service as attaché to his father at Munich, and after filling subordinate posts was appointed secretary of legation at Turin in 1852. He was transferred to Washington early in 1858, and to Stockholm at the end of that year, in 1860 became secretary of embassy to St. Petersburg, and afterwards to Constantinople, and in 1864 was appointed minister plenipoten​tiary to Greece. During his stay there nothing of importance happened until the murder of Mr. Vyner, Mr. Herbert, and Mr. Lloyd, three English tourists, by Greek brigands, who had seized them on the plains of Marathon in 1870. His behaviour at this time was severely blamed by some English newspapers; he was said not to have exerted sufficient vigour, and to have unwisely rejected the overtures made by the brigands. Nevertheless the government approved of his action, for he was promoted to the legation at Stockholm in 1872, and made a C.B. in 1873. He remained at Stockholm until 1881, when he retired on a pension, and he died at Neville House, Twickenham, on 19 April 1883.
H. M. S.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Erskine, David Montagu

​ERSKINE, DAVID MONTAGU, second Lord Erskine (1776–1855), diplomatist, eldest son of Thomas, first lord Erskine [q. v.], the great orator, by Frances, daughter of Daniel Moore, M.P., was born, before his father was called to the bar, in 1776. He was educated at Westminster School and at Christ Church, Oxford, and was called to the bar at Lincoln's Inn in 1802. He did not, however, try to follow his father's profession, but was elected M.P. for Portsmouth on 19 Feb. 1806 in his place, when he was made lord chancellor, and then obtained the appointment of minister plenipotentiary to the United States of America in July 1806. He was well fitted for the duties of this post, as he had married in 1799 the daughter of General John Cadwallader of Philadelphia, the companion of Washington and one of the leaders of the American revolution. He returned to England in 1809, and succeeded his father as second Lord Erskine in November 1823, and he remained unemployed until 1824, when he was appointed minister plenipotentiary at Stuttgard, from which place he was promoted to the legation at Munich in February 1828. He remained at Munich for more than fifteen years, during which he had no opportunity of distinguishing himself, and retired on ​a pension in November 1843. Erskine then returned to England, and settled at Butler's Green in Sussex, where he died on 19 March 1855. He married three times, and left by his first wife a family of five sons [see Erskine, Edward Morris] and seven daughters.
[Gent. Mag. May 1855.]
H. M. S.