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

​COPLEY, Sir GODFREY (d. 1709), founder of the Copley medal, was son of Sir Godfrey Copley of Sprotborough, Yorkshire, who was made a baronet 17 June 1661, and was M.P. for Aldborough in 1678 and 1681. Copley became second baronet on his father's death about 1684. Of his early life nothing is known. He was elected M.P. for Thirsk in every parliament between 1695 and his death. He took no active part in the debates, but in 1697 resisted the attempt to convict Sir John Fenwick of treason on the evidence of one witness; was a commissioner of public accounts in 1701; and in April 1704 became controller of the accounts of the army. He was elected a fellow of the Royal Society in 1691, and displayed great interest in its proceedings; aided his friend, Sir Hans Sloane, in forming his scientific collections, and himself brought together a valuable collection of prints and mathematical instruments. He died at his London house in Red Lion Square ‘of a quinsey,’ and was buried at Sprotborough. He married, first, Catherine, daughter of John Purcell of Nantriba, Montgomeryshire; and secondly, in 1700, Gertrude, daughter of Sir John Carew of Antony, Cornwall. The latter survived him, and remarried in 1716 Sir Coppleston Warwick Bampfield. Copley left an only daughter, Catherine, who became the wife of Joseph Moyle, in favour of whose descendants the Copley baronetcy was revived in 1778. The Moyles assumed the name of Copley in 1768. Copley's portrait by Sir Godfrey Kneller was engraved in mezzotint in 1692.
By his will, dated 14 Oct. 1704, and proved 11 April 1709, Copley bequeathed to Sir Hans Sloane and Abraham Hill ‘one hundred pounds in trust for the Royal Society of London for improving natural knowledge, to be laid out in experiments or otherwise for the benefit thereof as they shall direct and appoint.’ No award was made till 1731, when in that and the following year Stephen Gray received the prize for new electrical experiments; J. T. Desaguliers was the next recipient in 1734. On 10 Nov. 1736 the Royal Society resolved to convert the bequest into a gold medal, to be awarded annually. J. T. Desaguliers was the first winner of the Copley medal in 1736, and it has been awarded annually since that date.
[Noble's Biog. Hist. Continuation of Granger, i. 201–2; Burke's Extinct Baronetage; Luttrell's Relation, iv. v. vi.; Weld's Hist. of the Royal Society, i. 384–6, ii. 566; T. Thomson's Hist. of Royal Society; Nichols's Lit. Illustr. i. 478, iv. 74–6, where several letters from Copley to his friend Thomas Kirk are printed.]
S. L. L.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Arnway, John

1904 Errata appended.
​ARNWAY, JOHN (1601–1653), royalist divine, was of a Shropshire family and heir to a considerable estate. He was a commoner of St. Edmund's Hall, Oxford, and in 1635 rector of Hodnet and Ightfield. (For difficulties connected with these appointments see State Papers, Dom. 1634-5.) His abounding charity and devoted loyalty were conspicuous. When he repaired to the king at Oxford in 1642, the parliament garrison at Wem plundered his house so completely that (according to his own account) they left him neither bible, nor money, nor clothes. He was promoted to be archdeacon of Lichfield and Coventry and prebendary of Woolvey. Resuming his activity in the royal service, his estate was sequestrated and he imprisoned till after the king's death. He was then exiled, and took refuge at the Hague, where (in 1650) he published two pamphlets, (1) the 'Tablet,' a vindication of the king against Milton's 'Eikonoclastes,' and (2) 'An Alarum to the Subjects of England,' an account of the oppressions which he and others had suffered. He was compelled by poverty to accept an invitation to exercise his function among the English in Virginia, where he died, it is supposed in 1653. Both his tracts were reprinted in 1661 by William Rider of Merton College.
R. C. B.
Dictionary of National Biography, Errata (1904), p.9 N.B.— f.e. stands for from end and l.l. for last line
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# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Arthur, James

* related portals: James Arthur.
* sister projects: Wikipedia article, Wikidata item.
​ARTHUR, JAMES (d. 1670?), divine, was born at Limerick, and professed himself a Dominican friar in the abbey of St. Stephen, Salamanca. He was professor of divinity at Salamanca University for many years. He went thence to Coimbra, but after the separation of Portugal from Spain in 1640 was expelled for refusing an oath imposed upon all the professors to defend the immaculate conception of the Virgin. In 1642 he retired to the convent of St. Dominic in Lisbon, and there, according to Quetif and Echard, died on 1 Feb. 1644. Ware says that he survived till about 1670, referring to Nicolas Antonio, who,in the ‘Bibliotheca Hispana Nova’ (1672), says that he died ‘non dudum.’ The first volume of a commentary by Arthur upon the first part of Aquinas's ‘Summa’ was printed in 1655; another volume had been completed, ​but seems never to have been printed. Arthur was also preparing at the time of his death a commentary on the whole of Aquinas's work in ten volumes.
[Ware's Writers of Ireland, ed. Harris, p. 160; Quetif and Echard's Scriptores Ordinis Prædicatorum, ii. 536 b; N. Antonius, Bibliotheca Hispana, (1672) ii. 358, (edition of 1688) ii. 368.]
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Artaud, William

​ARTAUD, WILLIAM (fl. 1776–1822), portrait painter, was the son of a jeweller. In 1776 he gained a premium from the Society of Arts; in 1780 exhibited his first work, a ‘St. John,’ in the Academy; in 1784 and 1786 he sent portraits in oil to the same place. He gained the gold medal of the Academy for a picture from ‘Paradise Lost,’ and (in 1795) the travelling studentship. In 1822 his name appears as an exhibitor at the Academy for the last time. He painted portraits of Bartolozzi, Samuel Parr, ​Priestley, and other well-known characters. Nagler gives a list of engravings after his paintings. The date of his death is not known. ‘His portraits were cleverly drawn, and painted with great power. They have individuality of character, but want expression.’
E. R.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Arrowsmith, John (1790-1873)

​ARROWSMITH, JOHN (1790–1873), geographer, nephew of the elder Aaron Arrowsmith, came to London in February 1810, and for many years, with his cousins Aaron and Samuel, aided his uncle in the construction of his large collection of maps and charts. After his uncle's death in 1823 he commenced business on his own account in Essex Street, Strand, but finally succeeded to the honours of the house in Soho Square on the death of his cousin Samuel. His first publication was the well-known 'London Atlas' in 1834, fol., which has passed through three editions, thus reverting to the practice of Ortelius and Mercator of the sixteenth century. In constructing the sixty-eight maps for the latest edition of his 'Atlas' in 1858, he informs us in the preface that 'he examined more than 10,000 sheets of private maps, charts and plans, thereby rectifying all the labours of his predecessors.' His large maps and charts are:—India, in twenty sheets; England and Wales, in eighteen; Spain, twelve; World, ten; Pacific, nine; Atlantic, British Channel, Canada, and Ceylon, each in eight sheets; America, Australia, France, Germany, Wilkinson's Thebes, each in six sheets; Africa, America, Asia, Bolivia, East Indies, West Indies, and Italy, each in four sheets. To these may be added numerous smaller maps, illustrating expeditions in various parts of the globe, many of which are to be found in books of travel and the Royal Geographical Society's Journals. He retired from the more active pursuit of publication of his maps in 1861, but devoted some of his time to the improvement of his old maps, or to the illustration of other geographical work. Among the maps left unpublished at his death were some very fine ones of each of the Australian colonies, of Ceylon, and of other countries. Arrowsmith's last labour was a small map of Central Asia, on the scale of about ninety geographical miles to the inch, upon which he was working at the India Office up to the last week of his life. Arrowsmith died at his house in Hereford Square, South Kensington, 1 May 1873, aged 83. He was one of the fellows who aided in founding the Royal Geographical Society in 1830, and for many years was one of the council, and in 1863 he received the patron's gold medal for the important services he had rendered to geographical science.
By an order of the Court of Chancery the vast collections of the Arrowsmiths, consisting of maps, plates and manuscripts, were dispersed by public auction on 28 July 1874, and have since fallen into the hands of one of our most eminent map publishers.
C. H. C.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Crathorne, William

​CRATHORNE, WILLIAM (1670–1740), catholic divine, born in October 1670, was descended from the ancient family of Crathorne of Crathorne in Yorkshire. He was educated in the English college at Douay, where he was a professor for several years. On being ordained priest he assumed the name of Yaxley, and after he returned to this country on the mission he appears to have used the alias of Augustin Shepherd. The scene of his missionary labours was Hammersmith, where he died on 11 March 1739–1740.
He published: 1. ‘A Catholick's Resolution, shewing his reasons for not being a Protestant,’ 1718? 2. The ‘Spiritual Works’ of John Goter or Gother, 16 vols. Lond. 1718, 12mo. Bishop Giffard, with whom Crathorne resided, commissioned him to prepare this edition. 3. ‘Roman Missal for the use of the Laity,’ from the manuscript of Goter, 2 vols. Lond. n.d. 12mo. 4. ‘Historical Catechism,’ translated from the French of Fleury, 2 vols. Lond. 1726, 12mo. 5. ‘Life of St. Francis of Sales,’ from the French of Marsollier, Lond. 1737, 8vo. 6. ‘Life of our Lord Jesus Christ,’ from the French, Lond. 1739. 7. Several devotional works, including ‘The Daily Companion, or a Little Pocket Manual,’ 3rd ed. Lond. 1743, a prayer-book which has gone through innumerable editions.
T. C.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Cranstoun, James

​CRANSTOUN, JAMES, eighth Lord Cranstoun (1755–1796), naval officer, baptised at Crailing, Roxburghshire, 26 June 1755, entered the royal navy. He received a lieutenant's commission on 19 Oct. 1776. In command of the Belliqueux frigate of 64 guns he took part in the action fought by Sir Samuel Hood with the Comte de Grasse in Basseterre road off St. Christopher's on 25 and 26 Jan. 1782, and was promoted to a captaincy on the 31st. He commanded Rodney's flagship, the Formidable, in the celebrated action of 12 April 1782, which resulted in the total destruction of the French West India squadron. He was mentioned by Rodney in the despatches and honoured with the carriage of them to England. He commanded the Bellerophon, one of Vice-admiral Cornwallis's squadron of five ships of the line, which on 17 June 1795, off Point Penmarch on the west coast of Brittany, repulsed an attack by a French squadron consisting of thirteen ships of the line, fourteen frigates, two brigs, and a cutter, for which on 10 Nov. the vice-admiral and his subordinates received the thanks of parliament. Cranstoun's ‘activity and zeal’ were commended by the vice-admiral in his despatch. In 1796 he was appointed governor of Grenada and vice-admiral of the island, but died before entering upon his new duties on 22 Sept. at Bishop's Waltham, Hampshire, in the forty-second year of his age. His death was caused by drinking cider which had been kept in a vessel lined with lead. He was buried in the garrison church at Portsmouth. Cranstoun married, on 19 Aug. 1792, Elizabeth, youngest daughter of Lieutenant-colonel Lewis Charles Montolieu; she died at Bath on 27 Aug. 1797, aged 26, of a decline occasioned by her bereavement.
[Douglas's Peerage of Scotland, i. 369; Gent. Mag. 1782 p. 254, 1792 p. 960, 1796 pp. 798, 877, 1797 p. 803; Ann. Reg. 1796, pp. 80–1; Commons' Journals, li. 50.]
J. M. R.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Cranwell, John

​CRANWELL, JOHN (d. 1793), poet, graduated B.A. at Sidney College, Cambridge, in 1747, and M.A. in 1751. Having taken orders he was elected to a fellowship by his college, and received the living of Abbott's Ripton, Huntingdonshire, which he held for twenty-six years. He died on 17 April 1793. Cranwell translated two Latin poems in the heroic couplet, viz. (1) Isaac Hawkins Brown's 'Immortality of the Soul,' 1765, 8vo; (2) Vida's 'Christiad,' 1768, 8vo.
[Europ. Mag. (1793), p. 399; Brit. Mus. Cat.]
J. M. R.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Cranstoun, William Henry

​CRANSTOUN, WILLIAM HENRY (1714–1752), fifth son of William, fifth lord Cranstoun, and his wife, Lady Jane Ker, eldest daughter of William, second marquis of Lothian, was born in 1714. While a ​captain in the army he married privately at Edinburgh, on 22 May 1745, Anne, daughter of David Murray of Leith. In 1746 he disowned the marriage, but the lady insisted on its lawfulness, and the commissaries, on 1 March 1748, granted a decree in her favour, with an annuity of 40l. sterling for herself and 10l. for her daughter so long as she should be alimented by her mother. The cause of Cranstoun's conduct was that he had fallen in love with Miss Mary Blandy [q. v.], the daughter of an attorney of Henley-on-Thames. Mr. Blandy objected to Cranstoun paying his addresses to her on the ground that he was already married, and resenting his interference Miss Blandy poisoned her father on 14 Aug. 1751. She afterwards alleged that the powder she administered had been sent to her by Cranstoun from Scotland as a love-potion; but apart from her statement there was nothing to connect him with the murder. He died on 9 Dec. 1762.
[Life of W. H. Cranstoun, 1763; Douglas's Scotch Peerage (Wood), i. 368; Anderson s Scottish Nation; the authorities referred to in the notice of Mary Blandy, v. 202.]
T. F. H.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Cranstoun, George

​CRANSTOUN, GEORGE, Lord Corehouse (d. 1850), Scottish judge, was the second son of the Hon. George Cranstoun of Longwarton, seventh son of the fifth Lord Cranstoun, and Maria, daughter of Thomas Brisbane of Brisbane, Ayrshire. He was originally intended for the military profession, but, preferring that of law, passed advocate at the Scottish bar 2 Feb. 1793, was appointed a depute-advocate in 1805, and sheriff-depute of the county of Sutherland 1806. He was chosen dean of the Faculty of Advocates 15 Nov. 1823, and was raised to the bench on the death of Lord Hermand in 1826, under the title of Lord Corehouse, from his beautiful residence near the fall of Corra Linn on the Clyde. In January 1839, while apparently in perfect health, he was suddenly struck with paralysis, which compelled him to retire for the remainder of his life from his official duties. Lord Cockburn, while taking exception to the narrow and old-fashioned legal prejudices of Corehouse and his somewhat pompous method of legal exposition, characterises him as ‘more of a legal oracle’ than any man of his time. ‘His abstinence,’ he states, ‘from all vulgar contention, all political discussion, and all public turmoils, in the midst of which he sat like a pale image, silent and still, trembling in ambitious fastidiousness, kept up the popular delusion of his mysteriousness and abstraction to the very last’ (Memorials, i. 221). He possessed strong literary tastes, the gratification of which was the chief enjoyment of his leisure, both during the period of his engrossment with legal duties, and after his enforced retirement from the bench. His accomplishments as a Greek scholar secured him the warm friendship of Lord Monboddo, who used to declare that he was the ‘only scholar in all Scotland.’ While attending the civil law class in 1788 Cranstoun made the acquaintance of Sir Walter Scott, and the intimacy continued through life (Lockhart, Life of Scott, ed. 1842, p. 40). Scott read the opening stanzas of the ‘Lay of the Last Minstrel’ to Erskine and Cranstoun, whose apparently cold reception of it greatly discouraged him, until, finding a few days afterwards that some of the stanzas had ‘haunted their memory, he was encouraged to resume the undertaking’ (ib. 100). While practising at the bar Cranstoun wrote a clever jeu d'esprit, entitled ‘The Diamond Beetle Case,’ in which he caricatured the manner and style of several of the judges in delivering their opinions. He died 26 June 1850. His second sister, Jane Anne, afterwards Countess of Purgstall, was a correspondent of Sir Walter Scott, and his youngest, Helen D'Arcy, authoress of ‘The Tears I shed must ever fall,’ and wife of Professor Dugald Stewart.
[Kay's Original Portraits, ii. 438; Gent. Mag. new ser. xxxiv. 328; Cockburn's Life of Lord Jeffrey; ib. Memorials.]
T. F. H.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Cratfield, William

​CRATFIELD, WILLIAM (d. 1415), Benedictine, was camerarius and then abbot of Bury St. Edmunds. This latter appointment received the royal assent on 1 Feb. 1389–90; it was confirmed by the pope, and the temporalities of the abbacy were restored on 8 Oct. 1390. Cratfield is known solely as the compiler of a ‘Registrum’ of his house, which is preserved in the British Museum (Cod. Cotton. Tiberius B. ix. 2). From indications given by it we gather that Cratfield was a provident administrator. Thus it had previously been the custom for the abbot to pay three thousand florins to the papal curia for the confirmation of his appointment; from this obligation Cratfield obtained exemption on payment of a fixed sum of twenty marks a year, but it cost him nearly 800l. to secure the privilege. A similar liability to the crown was in like manner exchanged for a yearly tax under Cratfield's administration. It seems, however, from some remarks in Walsingham (Hist. Angl. ii. 180, ed. Riley), who calls the abbot Stratfield, that his financial arrangements were at the time considered to be disadvantageous to the monastery. During the latter part of his life Cratfield suffered from infirm health, and in 1414 had to transact the business of the abbey by a deputy. In the same year he resigned his office, and died on 18 June 1415. Dugdale, however, dates his death in 1418.
R. L. P.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Cranstoun, David

David Cranston in the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography.
​CRANSTOUN, DAVID (fl. 1509–1526), Scotch professor in Paris, was educated at the college of Montacute, Paris, among the poor scholars under John Major. He subsequently became regent and professor of belles-lettres in the college, and by his will, made in 1512, left to it the whole of his property, which amounted to 450 livres. He became bachelor of theology in 1519, and afterwards doctor. Along with Gavin Douglas he made the ‘Tabula’ for John Major's ‘Commentarius in quartum Sententiarum,’ which was published at Paris in 1509 and again in 1516. He is said to have written ‘Orationes,’ ‘Votum ad D. Kentigernum,’ and ‘Epistolæ.’ He also edited Martin's ‘Questiones Morales,’ Paris, 1510, another ed. 1511, and wrote additions to the ‘Moralia’ of Almain, Paris, 1526, and to the ‘Parva Logicalia’ of Ramirez de Villascusa, Paris, 1520. Of these three works there are copies in the library of the British Museum, but the last is imperfect.
T. F. H.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Cooling, Richard

​COOLING or COLING, RICHARD (d. 1697), clerk of the privy council, became secretary to the Earl of Manchester on that nobleman's being appointed lord chamberlain in 1660, and, being with the earl at Oxford when he was incorporated M.A. (8 Sept. 1665), received the same degree from the university. He was apparently on intimate terms with Pepys, to whom when in liquor he was communicative on the subject of the relations of the king with Lady Castlemaine, and other court gossip. He also acted as secretary to the Earl of Arlington during his tenure of the office of lord chamberlain (1674–80). On 21 Feb. 1688–9 he was sworn clerk of the privy council in ordinary. He died on 19 June 1697. Wood says that he ‘was originally, as it seems, of All Souls' College.’ He is described as Dr. Richard Cooling in the ‘Cal. State Papers’ (Dom. 1667), p. 28.
[Pepys's Diary, 5 July 1660 and 30 July 1667; Wood's Fasti (Bliss), ii. 285; Luttrell's Relation of State Affairs, i. 504, iv. 241.]
J. M. R.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Coombes, William Henry

​COOMBES, WILLIAM HENRY, D.D. (1767–1850), catholic divine, was born at Meadgate in the parish of Camerton, Somersetshire, on 8 May 1767. At the age of twelve he was sent to Douay College, where he was ordained priest in 1791. During the troubles consequent on the French revolution he and several of his fellow-collegians with difficulty escaped to England. Soon afterwards he was appointed professor of divinity at Old Hall Green. On 12 Dec. 1801 Pope Pius VII created him D.D. In 1810 he accepted the mission of Shepton Mallett, Somersetshire, which he held for thirty-nine years. In 1849 he retired to the Benedictine monastery at Downside, where he died on 15 Nov. 1850. Coombes, who was an accomplished Greek scholar, published: 1. ‘Sacred Eloquence; or, Discourses selected from the Writings of St. Basil the Great and St. John Chrysostom, with the Letters of St. Eucherius to his kinsman, Valerian, on the Contempt of the World,’ Lond. 1798, 8vo. 2. ‘The Escape from France of the Rev. W. H. Coombes, written by himself, with his Letter on the generous behaviour of the Duke of York to some of the students of Douay who escaped from Doulens,’ Lond. 1799, 8vo. Printed also in ‘The Laity's Directory for the Church Service’ (1800). 3. Letters on catholic affairs under the signature of ‘The British Observer,’ which appeared in Cobbett's ‘Register’ in 1804–6. 4. ‘Life of St. Francis of Sales,’ translated from the French of Marsollier, 2 vols. Shepton Mallett, 1812, 8vo. 5. ‘The Spiritual Entertainments of St. Francis de Sales, with an addition of some Sacred Poems,’ Taunton, 1814, 12mo, translated from the French. 6. ‘The Essence of Religious Controversy,’ Lond. 1827 and 1839, 8vo. 7. ‘Life of St. Jane Frances de Chantal,’ 2 vols. Lond. 1830, and again 1847, 8vo.
[Oliver's Catholic Religion in Cornwall, p. 272; Gillow's Bibl. Dict. i. 558; Cat. of Printed Books in Brit. Mus.]
T. C.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Cooper, Alexander

​COOPER, ALEXANDER (fl. 1630–1660), miniature painter, was elder brother of Samuel Cooper [q. v.], and, like his brother, instructed in the art of miniature-painting by their uncle, John Hoskins. Though he never attained the excellence that his brother did, he was very successful, being a good draughtsman, painting both in oil and water colours. Vertue states that a miniature he saw in the possession of Dr. Mead was painted in the style of the Olivers; and there was a miniature of a lady in the Strawberry Hill collection. He settled for some time in Amsterdam, where he met Joachim Sandrart, the painter and biographer, who narrates that Cooper showed him a great quantity of miniatures of the British court done by himself. He subsequently passed into the service of Queen Christina of Sweden, after which further details of his life are wanting. A miniature of this queen was exhibited at the special exhibition of miniatures in 1865. A portrait of William of Orange was engraved after Cooper by Hondius in 1641. It is stated that there was a picture by him at Burghley House, representing the story of Actæon and Diana. This would point to his having painted in other styles than miniature, and landscapes are also recorded as bearing his name.
[Redgrave's Dict. of English Artists; Nagler's Künstler-Lexikon; De Piles's Lives of the Artists; Heineken's Dictionnaire des Artistes; Sandrart's Deutsche Academie, vii. 328; Fiorillo's Geschichte der Mahlerey in Gross-Britannien; Weinwich's Dansk, Norsk, og Svensk Konstner-Lexicon; Catalogue of the Special Exhibition of Miniatures, 1865.]
L. C.