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

​SEWARD, WILLIAM WENMAN (fl. 1800), writer on Irish politics and topography, published at Dublin:
* ‘The Rights of the People asserted, and the Necessity of a more equal Representation in Parliament stated and proved,’ &c., 1783, 8vo (a fervidly patriotic effusion, dedicated to ‘the Volunteers of Ireland,’ displaying, however, considerable knowledge of political and constitutional history).
* ‘The Hibernian Gazeteer,’ 1789, 12mo.
* ‘Topographia Hibernica … giving a Complete View of the Civil and Ecclesiastical State of the country: arranged alphabetically, with Appendices,’ 1795, 4to; it is dedicated to William Robert, duke of Leinster, and has for frontispiece an engraving of the Round Tower of Roscrea, Tipperary; for the ancient topography, Archdall and Ledwich were followed; a copy in the British Museum (interleaved) has manuscript notes by the author; among these is an alphabetical list of the English adventurers in Ireland during the first English invasion, under Henry II; the book is described in Peel's ‘Bibliotheca Hibernica’ as ‘a valuable topographical dictionary.’
* ‘Collectanea Politica; or the Political Transactions of Ireland, 1760–1803,’ 1803, 8vo (the British Museum has no copy).
[Seward's Works; Allibone's Dict. Engl. Lit. ii. 2000.]
G. Le G. N.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Masham, Damaris

​MASHAM, DAMARIS, Lady Masham (1658–1708), theological writer, born at Cambridge 18 Jan. 1658, daughter of Ralph Cudworth, D.D. [q. v.], was educated under his care, and was early distinguished for her learning. About 1682 she became acquainted with John Locke the philosopher, and under his direction she studied divinity and philosophy. Locke formed the highest opinion of her, and in a letter to Limborch, written in 1690–1, says: 'She is so well versed in theological and philosophical studies, and of such an original mind, that you will not find many men to whom she is not superior in wealth of knowledge and ability to profit by it.'
In 1685 she married Sir Francis Masham (d. 1723), third bart., of Oates, Essex, a widower with nine children, whose youngest son was Lord Masham, husband of Abigail Hill [see Masham, Abigail, Lady Masham]; and in June 1686 Francis Cudworth Masham was born, her only child (subsequently accountant-general to the court of chancery), to whose education she devoted herself. Her father died on 26 June 1688, and her mother then went to Oates and resided there till her death in 1695, when she was buried in High Laver Church (see Notes ​and Queries, 6th ser. x. 264). Lady Masham's stepdaughter, Esther, also lived at Oates, and to her many of Locke's letters are addressed.
In 1690 John Norris [q. v.] of Bemerton, the English Platonist, inscribed to Lady Masham his ‘Reflections upon the Conduct of Human Life.’ In the dedication he describes her as blind, a statement which was inaccurate, although her sight was weak (Locke, Familiar Letters). Lady Masham was subsequently on friendly personal terms with Norris. In 1691 Locke was forced to leave London on account of his health, and went to live at Oates with Sir Francis, the result being that Lady Masham adopted Locke's views, upon which her intimacy with Norris ceased. Locke continued at Oates till his death, 28 Oct. 1704. In 1696 Lady Masham published without her name ‘A Discourse concerning the Love of God’ (London, 12mo; translated into French by Coste in 1705), in which she answered some theories put forward by Norris and Mrs. Astell in ‘Practical Discourses of Divinity.’ Mrs. Astell replied to Lady Masham in ‘The Christian Religion as professed by a Daughter of the Church of England.’ About 1700 Lady Masham wrote ‘Occasional Thoughts in reference to a Vertuous or Christian Life’ (London, 1705, 12mo), an appeal to women to study intelligently the grounds of their religious belief. She has been placed on the long list of the supposed authors of ‘The Whole Duty of Man’ [see Pakington, Dorothy, Lady], but chronology is clearly against her claim (cf. Nichols, Lit. Anecd. vii. 529).
Lady Masham also wrote an account of Locke in the ‘Great Historical Dictionary.’ She died 20 April 1708, and was buried in the middle aisle of Bath Abbey.
[Ballard's Learned Ladies; Fox Bourne's Life of Locke; Familiar Letters of Locke; Burke's Extinct Peerages, p. 359; Brit. Mus. Cat.]
C. O.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Maschiart, Michael

​MASCHIART, MICHAEL (1544–1598), Latin poet, born in St. Thomas's parish, Salisbury, in 1544, became scholar of Winchester College in 1557, and a probationary fellow of New College, Oxford, 29 Jan. 1560, and perpetual fellow in 1562. He was admitted B.C.L. in 1567, and licensed D.C.L. 13 Oct. 1573, and was made an advocate of Doctors' Commons in 1575. In April 1572 he was appointed by his college vicar of Writtle in Essex, where he died and was buried in December 1598. Wood calls him ‘a most excellent Latin poet of his time, … an able civilian, and excellent in all kind of human learning;’ but it seems doubtful whether the ‘Poemata Varia’ attributed to him were ever published. Camden quotes from him a description of Clarendon Park, near Salisbury (Camden, Britannia, Holland's translation, 1610, p. 250).
[Kirby's Winchester Scholars, p. 134; Coote's Civilians, p. 52; Foster's Alumni Oxon. 1500–1714; Wood's Athenæ Oxon. ed. Bliss, i. 673, 738; Wood's Fasti, pp. 179, 194; Hoare's Modern Wiltshire, vi. 618; Boase's Register of University of Oxford, i. 268; Britton's Beauties of England and Wales, xv. 189; Antiquitates Sarisburienses, 1777, p. 238.]
R. B.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Yelverton, William (1400?-1472?)

ancestry.ca gives dates as 1386-1471
​YELVERTON, Sir WILLIAM (1400?–1472?), judge, born probably about 1400, was son of John Yelverton of Rackheath, Norfolk, by his second wife, Elizabeth, daughter and heiress of John Rede or Read of Rougham in the same county, and widow of Robert Clere of Stokesby. The father was recorder of Norwich in 1403, and William was educated for the legal profession, possibly at Gray's Inn, where he is said to have been reader. In 1427 he was justice of the peace for Norwich, of which he was recorder from 1433 to 1450. On 24 Sept. 1435, and again on 30 Dec. 1436, he was returned to parliament for Great Yarmouth, and at Michaelmas 1439 he was made serjeant-at-law. In 1443 he was appointed a judge of the king's bench, and, in spite of some apparent reluctance to recognise the new king (Paston Letters, i. 131, 150, 172), he was continued in this office by Edward IV, who knighted him before September 1461. His name occurs in many judicial commissions | in the early years of Edward's reign, and he was annually appointed justice of the peace for Norfolk and Suffolk (Cal. Patent Rolls, 1461-7, passim).
In 1459 Sir John Fastolf [q. v.] had appointed Yelverton one of his executors, and he thus became involved in the prolonged disputes about the disposition of Fastolf's property; he generally acted in concert with William Worcester [q. v.] in opposition to the Pastons, and there is frequent mention of his name in the ' Past on Letters.' When Henry VI was restored in 1471 Yelverton was transferred to the bench of common pleas (Cal. Rot. Pat. p. 316), but on Edward IV's return he disappears from the list of judges. He died on 27 March, probably in 1472, and was buried in Rougham church. The inscription on his tomb, printed by Weever, has no date. Rubbings of the monumental brasses to him and his second wife in the vestry of Rougham church are given in British Museum Additional MSS. 32478 ff. 50, 121, 122, 32479 H. 10.
Yelverton married, first, Joan, daughter of Sir Oliver Grose; and, secondly, Agnes, daughter of Sir Thomas Brewse, and widow of John Rands, who survived him, and died in 1489. His son John married Margery, daughter of William Mosley, and was father of Sir William Yelverton, who married, first, in 1477, Anne, daughter of John Paston (1421-1466) [q. v.] Sir Christopher Yelverton [q. v.] was descended from his second marriage with Eleanor, daughter of Sir Thomas Brewse. [Paston Letters, ed. Gairdner, passim ; Cal. Patent Rolls ; Dugdale's Origines ; Official Return of Members of Parl.; Foss's Lives of the Judges; Harl. MS. 1174, f. 4; Visitation of Norfolk, 1563; Blomefield's Norfolk; Weever's Funerall Mon.; Burke's Extinct Baronetcies.]
A. F. P.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Yelloly, John

​YELLOLY, JOHN (1774–1843), physician, was born at Alnwick, Northumberland, on 30 April 1774, and was the youngest and sole survivor of seven children. His father died when his youngest child was an infant, and Yelloly owed his home education to his mother, who was of the family of Davison of Whittingham, He was sent to the grammar school of Alnwick, and thence to the university of Edinburgh, where he graduated M.D. in 1799. He settled in London in 1800, and in 1807 became hysician to the London Hospital, an office which he retained till 1818. In 1805, with Alexander John Gaspard Marcet [q. v,], he was the originators of the Royal Medical and ​Chirurgical Society, and he and Charles Aikin were the first secretaries of the society. The formation of the library, now the best collection of medical books in London, was chiefly due to his exertions. He went to live at Carrow Abbey, near Norwich, in 1818, and became physician in 1820 to the Norfolk and Norwich Hospital. He retired from practice, being wealthy, in 1832, and then resided at Woodton Hall, near Norwich. He was thrown on to his head from a phaeton in April 1840, and became in consequence paralysed on the right side. On 28 Jan. 1842 this was followed by an apoplectic attack and paralysis of the left side, of which he died at Cavendish Hall, Norfolk, on 31 Jan. 1842. In 1806 he married the daughter of Samuel Tyssen of Narborough Hall, Norfolk, by whom he left issue. He was elected a fellow of the Royal Society, and published in the ‘Philosophical Transactions’ for 1829 ‘Remarks on the Tendency to Calculous Diseases,’ one of the numerous works which owe their origin to the fine museum of stones extracted from the bladder and preserved in the Norwich Hospital. He published a further work on the same subject in 1830, and a pamphlet ‘On Arrangements connected with the Medical Relief of the Sick Poor’ in 1837. He read before the Royal Medical and Chirurgical Society seven papers, of which the most valuable are two on a paralysis due to tumour of the brain (Transactions, i. 183), and on loss of feeling without accompanying loss of power of movement (ib. iii. 90).
N. M.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Yelverton, William Charles

​YELVERTON, WILLIAM CHARLES, fourth Viscount Avonmore (1824–1883), born on 27 Sept. 1824, was the eldest son of Barry John Yelverton, third viscount (1790- 1870), by his second wife, Cecilia (d. 1 Feb. 1876), eldest daughter of Charles O'Keoffe of Hollybrooke Park, Tipperary. Barry Yelverton, first Viscount Avonmore [q. v.], was his grandfather. William Charles was educated for the military service at Woolwich and entered the royal artillery. He attained the rank of major; served in the Crimea during the Russian war, received a medal and clasp for Inkerman and Sebastopol; and was created a knight of the fifth class of the Medjidie by the Turkish government. From 1859 until 1868 he was involved in litigation in regard to the validity of a marriage which it was alleged he had contracted in 1857 in Scotland and Ireland [see Longworth, Maria Theresa]. The House of Lords eventually decided against the marriage. In March 1861 Yelverton was suspended from all military duties, and on 1 April he was placed on half-pay. He succeeded his father ​as fourth viscount on 24 Oct. 1870, and died at Biarritz on 1 April 1883. He married on 26 July 1858, at the episcopal chapel, Trinity, near Edinburgh, Emily Marianne, youngest daughter of Major-general Sir Charles Ashworth [q. v.] and widow of the naturalist, Edward Forbes [q. v.] By her he had two surviving sons, Barry Nugent, fifth viscount (1859–1885), and Algernon William, sixth viscount. Yelverton's marriage episode was reproduced in the novel ‘Gentle Blood, or the Secret Marriage’ (Tait's Edinb. Mag. 1861), by James Roderick O'Flanagan, while Cyrus Redding [q. v.] based the plot of ‘A Wife and not a Wife’ (1867) on the story of Yelverton's Irish marriage.
E. I. C.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Yeowell, James

​YEOWELL, JAMES (1803?–1875), antiquary, born about 1803 in London, is said to have been employed in early life under the vestry of Shoreditch, and to have worked at indexing and kindred labours for the London booksellers. Soon after the establishment by William John Thoms [q. v.] of ‘Notes and Queries,’ Yeowell became sub-editor, and he filled this position for more than twenty years, retiring in September 1872. During this period Yeowell supplied by assiduous research at the British Museum the answers which appeared each week under the heading of ‘Queries with Answers.’ He lived at first in Pentonville, near the Sadlers' Wells Theatre, and then at Barnsbury.
On his retirement from ‘Notes and Queries’ he was nominated a poor brother at the Charterhouse by the Duke of Buccleuch at the suggestion of Thoms. He died at the Charterhouse on 10 Dec. 1875, being buried in Highgate cemetery on 14 Dec. He was ‘probably the last nonjuror, if not the last Jacobite, in England’ (Doran, London in Jacobite Times, ii. 354).
Yeowell was the author of: 1. ‘Chronicles of the Ancient British Church anterior to the Saxon Era,’ new ed. 1847; it originally appeared during 1839 in a monthly periodical. 2. ‘A Literary Antiquary: Memoir of William Oldys, with his Diary, Notes from Adversaria, and an Account of the London Libraries,’ 1862; this came out in ‘Notes and Queries’ during 1861 and 1862. He edited in 1853 the poetical works of Sir Thomas Wyatt and of Surrey for the Aldine series; compiled, with other index work, the general indexes to the first three series of ‘Notes and Queries,’ and an index to Strickland's ‘Queens of England;’ and he assisted Lord Braybrooke in the fourth edition of the diary of Pepys (1854).
Yeowell's books were sold with other collections by Sotheby, Wilkinson, & Hodge on 12 Nov. 1873 and five following days. His collections for the biography of Englishmen are now at the British Museum; they consist of eleven folio volumes, thirty-seven octavo volumes, and eight parcels.
W. P. C.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Yeo, Richard

​YEO, RICHARD (d. 1779), medallist, first came into public notice in 1746, when he produced the official medal for the battle of Culloden, a badge with an effective orna​mental border (Mayo, Medals, i. pl. 13, No. 2). In the same year he issued by subscription another Culloden medal, with a rather pretentious reverse, the Duke of Cumberland as Hercules trampling upon Discord. This was sold in silver for one guinea, and in gold for ‘two guineas, for the Fashion.’ Before producing these medals Yeo had engraved a seal with the head of the Duke of Cumberland, taken from the life. In 1745 he was lodging in London at a druggist's near Craven Street, Strand, and in 1746 in Tavistock Street, Covent Garden (Numismatic Chronicle, new ser. xv. 90 f.).
In 1749 Yeo was appointed assistant engraver to the Royal Mint, and in 1775 he succeeded John Sigismund Tanner [q. v.] as chief engraver. He was a member of the Incorporated Society of Artists in 1760, and was one of the foundation members of the Royal Academy, to whose first two exhibitions he was a contributor, sending in 1770 a proof impression of his five-guinea piece. He died, while still in office as chief engraver, on 3 Dec. 1779 (Gent. Mag. 1779, p. 616). His small collection of coins and medals was sold by auction at Langford's, Covent Garden, on 2 and 3 Feb. 1780, the sale including his graving tools and colours for painting, ‘among which (says the catalogue) is a quantity of his very curious and much esteemed lake’ (crimson, scarlet, and yellow).
The signature of this medallist is R. Yeo and Yeo. Besides the medals enumerated below he made two of the prize medals for Winchester College, and two of the metallic admission tickets for Vauxhall Gardens are signed by him (Numismatic Chronicle, 1898, pl. vii. 2, 5, &c.). Several other Vauxhall tickets may also be attributed to him, and if the well-known ‘Hogarth’ ticket for Vauxhall (ib. fig. 2, cp. pl. vii. 4) is rightly assigned to him, he must have begun to work as a medallist before May 1733, the date when Jonathan Tyers [q. v.] presented Hogarth with the ticket in question (W. Chaffers, Cat. of Forman and Browne Collection, 1892, p. 175, No. 3483).
The following medals may be mentioned: 1746, Culloden Medals; 1749, Freemasons of Minorca; 1750, Academy of Ancient Music; 1752, Chancellor's Medal, Cambridge; 1760, Captain Wilson's Voyage to China (Mayo, Medals, i. 97).
W. W.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Yester, Lord

​YESTER, Lord. [See Hay, William, d. 1576.]
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Thomason, Edward

​THOMASON, Sir EDWARD (1769–1849), manufacturer and inventor, son of a buckle manufacturer of Birmingham, was born in that place in 1769. At the age of sixteen he was apprenticed to Matthew Boulton [q. v.] of Soho, the engineer. In 1793, his father having retired from business, Edward commenced a manufactory of gilt and plated buttons, which was gradually extended to medals, tokens, works in bronze, and silver and gold plate. In 1796 he submitted to the admiralty the model of a fireship propelled by steam and steered automatically, with which he proposed to assail the French shipping in their own harbours. It met with considerable approbation, but was not adopted. On 25 Oct. 1796 and on 22 Dec. 1798 he took out patents (Nos. 2142 and 2282) for a carriage-step folding up automatically on the door of the vehicle being closed. At various times he patented improvements in gun-locks and corkscrews, and in the manufacture of hearth-brushes, umbrellas, whips, medals, tokens, and coins. He also produced many works of great artistic merit, among others a full-sized copy of the Warwick vase in metallic bronze. In 1830 he completed a series of sixty large medals on bible subjects from pictures by the old masters. He presented these medals to all the sovereigns in Europe, and in return received many marks of honour and magnificent gifts. He held on behalf of eight foreign governments the office of vice-consul for Birmingham, and was honoured with eight foreign orders of knighthood, including the Red Eagle of Prussia. In 1832 he was knighted by William IV. In 1844 he re​tired from business, and settled at Ludlow, whence he removed to Bath and afterwards to Warwick. He died at Warwick on 29 May 1849, and was buried in the family vault in St. Philip's, Birmingham. By his wife, Phillis Bown, daughter of Samuel Glover of Abercarne, he had one son, Henry Botfield, who died on 12 July 1843.
Sir Edward published an autobiography entitled ‘Memoirs during Half a Century’ (London, 1845, 8vo), consisting chiefly of an elaborate account of the various honours he had received. His portrait is prefixed, engraved by C. Freeman.
[Thomason's Memoirs; Colvile's Warwickshire Worthies, p. 743; Gent. Mag. 1849, ii. 430.]
E. I. C.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Thomas of Newmarket

Thomas Newmarket in the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography.
​THOMAS of Newmarket (fl. 1410?), arithmetician, graduated M.A. at Cambridge, and wrote a ‘Commentum in Computum Ecclesiasticum Dionysii’ (Exigui), which is in Digby MS. 81, f. 35, and in Peterhouse MS. 189. His ‘Commentum in Carmen Alexandri de Villa Dei de Algorismo’ is in Digby MS. 81, f. 11. A copy was formerly at Corpus College, Cambridge (Misc. Communications, pt. i. No. 3, Cambridge Antiq. Soc. publications, 4to ser.). The ‘Compotus Manualis’ in Digby MS. 81, f. 8, is perhaps also his, and the treatises ‘de Sphæra’ and ‘de Quadrante’ in the Peterhouse manuscript may be by him. Bale confuses his works with those of Thomas Merke [q. v.], bishop of Carlisle.
M. B.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Thomas of Ely

The ODNB casts some doubt on his existence, in the article on Richard of Ely.
​THOMAS of Ely (fl. 1175), historian, was a monk of Ely. His principal work was a history of Ely in three books. The first book carries the history to the time of King Edgar, and the remaining two down to 1170. The first book has been printed three times (Mabillon, Acta SS. ii. 738; Bollandists' Acta SS. Jun. iv. 493; D. J. Stewart, Liber Eliensis). The second book is printed in a shortened form by the Bollandists from a Douay manuscript (Jun. iv. 523–38), and by D. J. Stewart from an Ely manuscript with variants from the Trinity College, Cambridge, MSS. O. 2. 1, and O. 2. 41. Stewart erroneously printed as part of book ii. a prologue with the title ‘Libellus quorundam insignium operum B. Ædelwoldi Episcopi.’ This ‘libellus,’ with what follows in O. 2. 41, and Vesp. A. xix. (printed by Gale, Hist. Brit. i. 463), appears to be the work of an unknown monk, writing at the order of Hervey [q. v.], bishop of Ely, whose work formed the basis of Thomas's book ii. Thomas used also the work of a monk Richard, then dead, for his account of Hereward. This Richard must be distinguished from Richard (d. 1194?) [q. v.], prior of Ely, whose work formed the basis of Thomas's book iii. The third book has been printed by Wharton (Anglia Sacra, i. 678) from late versions. An earlier and longer form, enlarged with many additional charters and miracles, is in the Trinity MS. O. 2. 1 ff. 107–76. In this manuscript, as in Vesp. A. xix, the history of the bishops ends with the death of Nigel [q. v.], 1169. In O. 2. 1, an account of the death of St. Thomas of Canterbury follows. Thomas appears (ch. xcvi. cf. O. 2. 1) to have taken up the work left unfinished by Richard when he went to Rome (1151), and he refers to Richard as ‘dominus prior et monachus.’
Thomas also wrote an account of the second translation of St. Etheldreda in six chapters, which is interpolated between books i. and ii. of the history of Ely in Domitian A. xv. This appears as chapter vi. of book ii. in the Douay manuscript, and parts of it occur in chapters cxliii–cxliv. of the longer book ii. (D. J. Stewart). A third work by Thomas, an account of St. Etheldreda's miracles, is interpolated after the account of her translation in Domitian A. xv., and follows book ii. in the Douay manuscript (Acta ​SS. Boll. Jun. iv. 539–76). The writer states that he, Thomas, was cured of a fever by the saint's intervention. The miracles are brought down to the time of Geoffrey Ridel (d. 1189) [q. v.]
M. B.