OpenLLM-France/wikimedia huggingface dataset:
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Saunders, George (1671?-1734)

​SAUNDERS, Sir GEORGE (1671?–1734), rear-admiral, born about 1671, was at sea for some years in the merchant service. He afterwards entered the navy in 1689 as a volunteer on board the Portsmouth, with Captain George St. Lo [q. v.], and became for a short time a prisoner of war when the ship was captured in 1690. In December 1690 he joined the Ossory with Captain Tyrrell, in which he was present in the battle of La Hague. On 28 Dec. 1692 he passed his examination, being then, according to his certificate, twenty-one, and having served in the navy for not quite three years. On 5 Dec. 1694 he was promoted to be lieutenant, and in January was appointed to the Yarmouth with Captain Moody. From 1696 to 1699 he was in the Pendennis with Captain (afterwards Sir) Thomas Hardy [q. v.]; in 1700 he was in the Suffolk; in 1701, in the Coventry, again with Hardy, and in 1702 was first lieutenant of the St. George, the flagship of Sir Stafford Fairborne [q. v.], with Sir George Rooke [q. v.] at Cadiz and at Vigo. He was then promoted to the command of the Terror bomb, which he brought home in November after a most stormy and dangerous passage. A few weeks later he was posted to the Seaford, a small frigate on the Irish station, in which, and afterwards, from January 1705, in the Shoreham, he continued till 1710, cruising in the Irish Sea, chasing and sometimes capturing the enemy's privateers, and convoying the local trade between Whitehaven, Hoylake, Milford, and Bristol on the one side, and on the other from Belfast to Kinsale. From 1710 to 1715 he commanded the Antelope of 50 guns in the Channel, and in 1716 was appointed to the Superbe, which in 1717 was one of the fleet in the Baltic with Sir George Byng, afterwards Viscount Torrington [q. v.] Byng, when appointed in the following year to the command of a fleet in the Mediterranean, selected Saunders as first captain of his flagship, the Barfleur. In that capacity Saunders had an important share in the defeat of the Spanish fleet off Cape Passaro, and in the subsequent operations on the coast of Sicily and Naples. On his return to England in the end of 1720 he was knighted, and in 1721 was appointed a commissioner of the victualling office, from which he was moved in 1727 to be extra commissioner of the navy, and in 1729 to be comptroller of the treasurer's account. The last office he held till his death on 5 Dec. 1734, undisturbed by his promotion, on 9 June 1732, to the rank of rear-admiral.
From 1728 Saunders was also member of parliament for Queenborough. The very strong resemblance of the handwriting, more especially of the signatures, suggests that Thomas Saunders, who in 1708–9 commanded the Seaford's prize, also on the Irish station, may have been a brother. In 1702 he wrote his name Sanders, but in 1703 and afterwards Saunders.
By his will in Somerset House (Ockham, 272), dated 20 Sept. 1732, proved 14 Dec. 1734, he left the bulk of his property to his wife Anne (d. 1740), with adequate legacies to his granddaughters, sister, niece, and executors, Thomas Revell and Seth Jermy of the victualling office.
J. K. L.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Saull, William Devonshire

​SAULL, WILLIAM DEVONSHIRE (1784–1855), geologist, was born in 1784, and was in business at 15 Aldersgate Street, London, which also was his residence. He accumulated there a large geological collection, together with some antiquities, most of the latter having been found in the metropolis (cf. Timbs, Curiosities of London, p. 600, 2nd edit.). He was elected F.G.S. in 1831, and F.S.A. in 1841; he was also F.R.A.S., and a member of other societies, including the Société Géologique de France. He read papers to the Geological Society in 1849, and to the Society of Antiquaries in 1841, 1842, and 1844; but they were not printed, for he was more enthusiastic than learned. His essays (a) on the coincidence of, and (b) on the connection between, ‘Astronomical and Geological Phenomena’ (published in 1836 and 1853 respectively) indicate the peculiarity of his opinions. He also republished—adding a preface—‘An Essay on the Astronomical and Physical Causes of Geological Changes,’ by Sir Richard Phillips [q. v.], attacking Newton's theories of gravitation. It was answered by Sampson Arnold Mackey in a ‘Lecture on Astronomy,’ 1832. He died on 26 April 1855.
T. G. B.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Yates, Joseph (1722-1770)

​YATES, Sir JOSEPH (1722–1770), judge, was the younger son of Joseph Yates of Stanley House, Lancashire, barrister-at-law, by his wife Helen, daughter of William Maghull of Maghull, and heiress of her brother Edward Maghull. The father served the office of high sheriff of the county in 1728, and by the will of a relative he succeeded in 1730 to the Peel Hall estate in Little Hulton in the same county, but, through the great expense incident on an attempt to develop the large coal-fields under the property, his affairs were seriously embarrassed.
The son Joseph was born at his father's house in Manchester, and was baptised at the collegiate church on 17 July 1722. He received his education at the Manchester grammar school when Henry Brooke [q. v.] was high master, entering in August 1737. Thence he went to Queen's College, Oxford, where his expenses were paid by his relative, Mr. Serjeant Bootle; he matriculated on 7 Dec. 1739, but left without a degree. He entered Staple Inn, where his arms are emblazoned on the south window of the hall, but removed to the Inner Temple, practising as a special pleader from Michaelmas 1748 till he was called to the bar in July 1753. He quickly attained a high reputation and extensive practice, and was employed by the crown in the litigation arising out of the militia riots of 1758, and in the proceedings against John Wilkes in 1763. In June 1761 he was made king's counsel for the duchy of Lancaster. After little more than ten years at the bar he was offered a judgeship of the king's bench, which he reluctantly accepted on 23 Jan. 1764. In anticipation he had received the honour of knighthood on 16 Dec. 1763, and in February 1765 he was made chancellor of Durham. Not holding at times the same opinions as his chief, Lord Mansfield, he exchanged his judgeship for one in the court of common pleas on 16 Feb. 1770. He died a few months later, 7 June 1770, and was buried near his residence at Cheam.
Yates was an able lawyer. The opinions which he advanced in his dispute with Lord Mansfield were subsequently shown to be correct, and were confirmed by the House of Lords. Subsequently Junius in his first letter to Lord Mansfield wrote: ‘The name of Mr. Justice Yates will naturally revive in your mind some of those emotions of fear and detestation with which you always beheld him. That great lawyer, that honest man, saw your whole conduct in the light that I do. After years of ineffectual resistance to the pernicious principles introduced by your lordship, he determined to quit a court whose proceedings and decisions he could neither assent to with honour nor oppose with success.’ Yates was a man of integrity and industry, and was of generous disposition. His punctilious regard for dress attracted much attention from the wits. By his wife Elizabeth, daughter of Charles Baldwyn of Munslow, Shropshire, a lady of ancient Scottish descent, he left one son, whose descendants have distinguished themselves in the legal profession, and one daughter.
A. N.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Yckham, Peter of

​YCKHAM, Peter of (fl. 1290?), chronicler [See Ickham.]
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Yates, John

​YATES, JOHN (fl. 1612–1660), puritan divine, was educated at Emmanuel College, Cambridge, where he graduated B.D. As ​early as 1612 he was curate or parish chaplain of St. Andrew's, Norwich. In 1622 he published ‘A Modell of Divinitie, catechistically composed, wherein is delivered the Matter and Methode of Religion according to the Creed, Ten Commandments, Lord's Prayer, and the Sacraments,’ London, 4to, dedicated to the mayor, officers, and citizens of Norwich. In the same year he was presented by Sir Nathaniel Bacon to the rectories of St. Mary with St. John Stiffkey in Norfolk. In 1624 Yates and Samuel Ward (1577–1640) [q. v.] complained to a committee of the House of Commons of the Arminian and popish opinions expressed by Richard Montagu [q. v.] in ‘A New Gagg for an Old Goose’ (1624). As the session was drawing to a close, the commons referred the complaint to George Abbot [q. v.], archbishop of Canterbury. Montagu himself referred the matter to the king in his treatise ‘Appello Cæsarem’ (1625), which was censured by the commons. In 1658 Yates was succeeded at St. Mary Stiffkey by William Mitchel. His son, John Yates, M.D. (d. August 1659), is buried on the north side of St. Nicholas Church, Yarmouth.
Yates assisted to edit a number of the treatises of Jeremiah Burroughs [q. v.] between 1648 and 1660. He was one of those who brought out William Bridge's works between 1649 and 1657. George Walker (1581?–1651) [q. v.] classed him with Hooker and others as ‘men of good note in our church’ (A True Relation, 1642, p. 6).
To a contemporary John Yates are to be attributed two theological works entitled ‘A Treatise of the Honor of Gods House’ (London, 1637, 4to), and ‘Imago Mundi et Regnum Christi’ (London, 1640, 4to).
E. I. C.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1912 supplement/Dillon, Frank

​DILLON, FRANK (1823–1909), landscape painter, born in London on 24 Feb. 1823, was the youngest son of John Dillon, of the firm of Morrison, Dillon & Co., silk mercers, of Fore Street, London, and the owner of a fine collection of water-colour drawings which was sold by auction in 1869.
After having been educated at Bruce Castle School, Tottenham, he entered the schools of the Royal Academy, and subsequently became a pupil of James Holland, the water-colour painter. He there began painting in oil-colours, and in 1850 sent to the Royal Academy a view 'On the Tagus, Lisbon,' and until 1907 was a fairly regular contributor to its exhibitions, as well as to those of the British Institution until its close in 1867. He was one of the ​original members of the Dudley Gallery, and after it ceased to exist he, in 1882, became a member of the Royal Institute of Painters in Water Colours. He travelled much, and as early as 1850 he published a folio volume of 'Sketches in the Island of Madeira.' He visited Egypt first in 1854, and many of his works were the outcome of this and subsequent visits to that country. Among these were : 'Rising of the Nile: Philse,' 'The Nile Raft,' 'Luxor, on the Nile,' 'The Sphinx at Midnight,' 'The Great Pyramid,' 'The Pyramids from Gizeh,' 'The Date Harvest, Egypt,' and 'The Granite Quarries of Syene.' He took a keen interest in the preservation of the Arab monuments of Cairo, and was active in opposition to the destruction of Philae. He also studied appreciatively the arts of Japan, spending a year in that country in 1876-7, and writing an introduction to the catalogue of the 'Exhibition of Japanese and Chinese Works of Art,' held at the Burlington Fine Arts Club in 1878.
In early life he was in full sympathy with the liberal movement of 1848, when he formed a lifelong friendship with Mazzini. He was intimate also with many of the leaders of the Hungarian revolution, and assisted them when in exile. Dillon died unmarried at 13 Upper Phillimore Gardens, Kensington, on 2 May 1909.
Eleven drawings by him of interiors of houses in Cairo are in the Victoria and Albert Museum.
[The Times, 5 and 8 May 1909; Athenæum, 8 May 1909; Art Journal, July 1909; Exhibition Catalogues of the Royal Academy, British Institution, Dudley Gallery, and Royal Institute of Painters in Water-colours, 1850-1907.]
R. E. G.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1912 supplement/Donnet, James John Louis

​DONNET, Sir JAMES JOHN LOUIS (1816–1905), inspector-general of hospitals and fleets, born at Gibraltar in 1816, was son of Henry Donnet, surgeon, R.N. After studying at the University of Paris, where he graduated B. ès L., and Anderson College, Glasgow, he became L.S.A. of London in 1838, L.R.C.S. of Edinburgh in 1840, and M.D. at St. ​Andrews in 1857. He entered the navy as assistant-surgeon in 1840. He was at once appointed to the Vesuvius and sent out to the Mediterranean, where, on the coast of Syria, he had his first experience of the realities of war, and where, after the capture of Acre, he was placed in charge of the wounded in a temporary hospital established on shore. Four years later he was medical officer and secretary of an embassy to the emperor of Morocco under (Sir) John Hay Drummond-Hay [q. v. Suppl. I], appointed in 1845 consul-general. Donnet was promoted to be surgeon, and in 1849 was in the Calypso in the West Indies during a violent outbreak of yellow fever. In 1850-1 he was surgeon of the Assistance in the Arctic with Captain (Sir) Erasmus Ommanney [q. v. Suppl. II], and helped to break the tedium of the long winter by editing 'an excellent periodical, entitled the "Aurora Borealis," to which the men as well as the officers contributed' (Markham, 113). In 1854 he was surgeon of the President, flag-ship in the Pacific, and in her was present at the disastrous attacks on Petropaulowski, on 29 Aug. and 7 Sept. (Clowes, vi. 429–32). In May 1867 he was promoted deputy inspector-general, and for the next two years was in medical charge of the hospital at Jamaica, years marked by an epidemic of yellow fewer. In 1870 he was appointed honorary surgeon to the queen, and in 1873-4 was placed in charge of the medical wards of Haslar, crowded with cases of smallpox, enteric fever, and dysentery after the Ashanti war. On 14 April 1875 he was promoted inspector-general. He was after this employed on various committees and commissions, including one in 1876 to select a site for a college for naval cadets and one in 1877 to inquire into the causes of the outbreak of scurvy in Sir George Nares' Arctic expedition (1875–6). He was awarded a good-service pension in 1878, and was nominated K.C.B. at the Queen's Diamond Jubilee. During his last years he resided at Bognor, where he died on 11 Jan. 1905. He married in 1852 Eliza, daughter of James Meyer, who died in 1903 without issue. He published 'Notes on Yellow Fever.'
[Royal Navy Lists; Who's Who; The Times, 12 Jan. 1905; Markham, Life of Sir Leopold McClintock, 1909; Clowes, Royal Navy, vol. vi. 1901.]
J. K. L.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1912 supplement/Douglas, Adye

​DOUGLAS, Sir ADYE (1815–1906), premier of Tasmania, son of an officer in the army, was born at Thorpe near Norwich on 30 May 1815, and was intended for the navy. He was sent to school in Hampshire, and then to Caen, Normandy, for two years. Returning to England, he was articled to a firm of solicitors in Southampton, and in 1838 was admitted to practice. He emigrated to Tasmania in 1839, and in the same year was admitted to the bar at Hobart. He was, however, soon (1840) tempted to try a squatter's life in Victoria, and there spent two years. Returning to Tasmania in 1842, he founded the legal firm of Douglas & Collins at Launceston, and became one of the leading lawyers in the colony.
In 1853, on the introduction of a regular municipal administration for Launceston, Douglas became an alderman of the town, of which he was subsequently five times mayor. It was about this time he made a name by his vigorous opposition to the system of transportation. He was defeated at his first attempt to enter the council, but in July 1855 he took his seat in the old legislative council as member for Launceston. He was from the first forward in urging the claims of Tasmania to a constitution of greater responsibility. In 1857 he revisited England for a time, and came back to Tasmania full of projects for introducing railways into the colony. In 1862, under the new constitution, he represented Westbury in the assembly. In 1863 he was delegate for Tasmania to the conference on intercolonial tariffs.
In 1871 he was elected member for Norfolk plains and in 1872 for Fingal. On 15 Aug. 1884, Douglas became premier and chief secretary of Tasmania, and after a somewhat uneventful period of office resigned on 8 March 1886 to go to England as first agent-general for the colony. He represented Tasmania at the Colonial Conference of 1887, but in October 1887 resigned his agency and returned, to Tasmania.
In 1890 Douglas re-entered the political life of the colony as member for Launceston in the legislative council, and represented Tasmania at the Federal Convention at Sydney in 1891. He served in the Dobson ministry as chief secretary from 17 Aug. 1892 to 14 April 1894, when he became president of the legislative council; this position he held for ten years, being knighted at the coronation of Edward VII in 1902. In May 1904 he was defeated at the elections for Launceston, and retired from public life. He died on 10 April 1906 at Hobart, where he had come to reside ten years before; he was buried at the Cornelian Bay cemetery.
Of striking personality, he gave the impression of being brusque and unsympathetic, until he was more intimately known.
[Tasmanian Mercury and Examiner, 11 April 1906; John's Notable Australians; information checked by the agent-general for Tasmania.]
C. A. H.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Kimber, Isaac

​KIMBER, ISAAC (1692–1755), general baptist minister, biographer, and journalist, was born at Wantage, Berkshire, on 1 Dec. 1692. He studied languages under John Ward, LL.D., professor of rhetoric at Gresham College, and went through a course of philosophy and divinity under John Eames [q. v.] His first settlement was early in 1722, as assistant to Joseph Burroughs [q. v.], at Paul's Alley, Barbican. He was a dull preacher, and very near-sighted, eventually losing the sight of one eye. He left Paul's Alley on 28 June 1724, and became assistant to Samuel Acton at Nantwich, Cheshire. Here he published (1727) a funeral sermon for Mrs. Milton, who is said to have been the third wife of the poet John Milton, Elizabeth, daughter of Sir Edward Minshull, who died at Nantwich March 1727. Milton's widow was certainly a member of his congregation, but her identity with the subject of the sermon has been disputed, as there were two other ladies of the same surname at Nantwich. He left Nantwich in 1727, and became assistant at the general baptist congregation in Old Artillery Lane, London, and also at a neighbouring congregation. On the amalgamation of the two places his services were dispensed with, and he left the active ministry. He started a periodical called ‘The Morning Chronicle,’ which lasted from January 1728 to May 1732. In 1734 Ward made over his school near Moorfields to Kimber and Edward Sandercock, but the school declined in a few years, and Kimber gave it up and took to writing for the booksellers, editing Ainsworth's ‘Latin Dictionary’ in 1751. He died of apoplexy early in 1755; his funeral sermon was preached at Paul's Alley by Burroughs on 9 Feb. He was unfortunate in his marriage, his wife being insane for twenty-three years. His son Edward is separately noticed.
Among his publications were: 1. ‘The Life of Oliver Cromwell,’ &c., 1724, 8vo (six ​editions); a French translation appeared in 1725. 2. ‘An Abridgement of the History of England,’ 1745, 8vo.
Posthumous were: 3. ‘Twenty Sermons,’ &c., 1756, 8vo. 4. ‘Sermons,’ &c., 1758, 8vo (with life). He edited the ‘Works,’ 1729, fol., 2 vols., of William Beveridge [q. v.], prefixing a ‘Life;’ and contributed the account of the reign of George II to the 1740 8vo edition of the ‘Medulla Historiæ Anglicanæ’ of William Howell (1638?–1683) [q. v.]
[Funeral Sermon by Burroughs, 1755; Life prefixed to Sermons, 1758; Wilson's Dissenting Churches of London, 1810 iii. 257, 1814 iv. 370; Urwick's Nonconformity in Cheshire, 1864, pp. 117, 134.]
A. G.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Kincaid, John

​KINCAID, Sir JOHN (1787–1862), of the rifle brigade, second son of John Kincaid of Dalheath, near Falkirk, and his wife, the daughter of John Gaff, was born at Dalheath in January 1787. He was educated at Polmont school, and served for a time as lieutenant in the North York militia. On the formation of the old 3rd battalion (afterwards disbanded) of the 95th rifles, now the rifle brigade, at Hythe, Kent, in 1809, Kincaid joined with a draft of militia volunteers from the North York, and received a second lieutenancy in the 95th, with which corps he served through the Peninsular campaigns of 1811–14 and at Waterloo (medal). He led the forlorn hope at one of the assaults of Ciudad Rodrigo; was severely wounded, and had a horse shot under him as acting adjutant at Waterloo. He attained the rank of captain in the rifle brigade in 1826, and retired by sale of his commissions 21 June 1831. For his Peninsular services he afterwards received the medal with clasps for Fuentes d'Onor, Ciudad Rodrigo, Badajoz, Salamanca, Vittoria, Pyrenees, Nivelle, Nive, and Toulouse. Kincaid was appointed exon of the royal bodyguard of yeomen of the guard on 25 Oct. 1844, and, on becoming senior exon in 1852, was knighted according to custom. In 1847 he was appointed government inspector of prisons for Scotland, and in 1850 Sir George Grey [q. v.] conferred on him the appointment of inspector of factories and prisons for Scotland, which he resigned through ill-health shortly before his death. He died at Hastings, unmarried, on 22 April 1862, aged 75.
Kincaid was author of ‘Adventures in the Rifle Brigade’ (London, 1830; 2nd edition, London, 1838) and ‘Random Shots of a Rifleman’ (London, 1835). Cope, the historian of the rifle brigade, says that, although written with too much levity, they contain many facts of interest, and the dates and ​statements are confirmed by more formal authorities.
[Dod's Knightage, 1862; Militia and Army Lists, under dates; Cope's Hist. of the Rifle Brigade (London, 1880); Preston's Hist. of the Royal Body Guard (London, 1887); Gent. Mag. 3rd ser. xii. 658.]
H. M. C.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Kindersley, Richard Torin

​KINDERSLEY, Sir RICHARD TORIN (1792–1879), vice-chancellor, eldest son of Nathaniel Edward Kindersley of Sunninghill, Berkshire, was born at Madras, where his father was in the civil service of the East India Company, on 5 Oct. 1792. He was educated first at Haileybury, with the intention of entering the Indian civil service, but subsequently he proceeded to Trinity College, Cambridge, where he was fourth wrangler, and graduated B.A. in January 1814. In October of the following year he was elected a fellow of his college, and proceeded M.A. in July 1817. He was called to the bar at Lincoln's Inn on 10 Feb. 1818, and after enjoying a considerable junior practice was appointed a king's counsel in January 1835. He took a leading position in the rolls court; in 1847 became chancellor of the county palatine of Durham, and in March 1848 a master in chancery. He was not a politician, and was recommended only by his deep learning and sound judgment. On 20 Oct. 1851 he was appointed a vice-chancellor and was knighted. His judgments are mainly reported in Drewry's ‘Reports,’ Drewry and Smale's ‘Reports,’ and the ‘Law Reports,’ Equity Ser. vols. i. and ii. He retired from the bench in 1866, when he was sworn of the privy council, and received a pension of 3,500l. per annum. He died at his residence, Clyffe, near Dorchester, on 22 Oct. 1879. He married in 1824 Mary Anne, only daughter of the Rev. James Leigh Bennett of Thorpe Place, Surrey, and by her had four children.
[Foss's Lives of the Judges; Times, 25 Oct. 1879; Law Times, 8 Nov. 1879; Law Journal, xiv. 657, 723; Solicitors' Journal, 1 Nov. 1879.]
J. A. H.