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

​GRIM, EDWARD (fl. 1170–1177), biographer of Becket, was a native of Cambridge, a clerk, and had attained the degree of Master at some university before the end of 1170, when he visited Thomas Becket on the latter's return to Canterbury. On the fatal evening, 29 Dec., Grim accompanied Thomas into the church, stood by him during his altercation with the knights, and shielded him from their violence, till, his own arm being nearly cut off by a stroke aimed at the primate, he fell to the ground, but was able to crawl away to the altar where the archbishop's other clerks had taken refuge, and thus escaped with his life. His ‘Vita S. Thomæ’ cannot have been finished earlier than 1174, as it contains an account of King Henry's penance; another passage seems to show that it was written not later than 1177 (Materials, ii. 448-9; cf. Magnusson, pref. to Thomas Saga, ii. lxxxii). As he appears to have had no personal knowledge of the archbishop till a few days before the martyrdom, his information is necessarily second-hand, except for the last scenes which he saw with his own eyes. A great part of his narrative closely resembles that of the French poet Garnier (or Guernes) de Pont-Sainte-Maxence, which was completed in 1175. Whether Grim ​copied Garnier or Garnier copied Grim is not certain, but the former is more probable. Grim was dead before Herbert of Bosham finished his work on St. Thomas, i.e. by 1186, or at latest 1189.
K. N.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Griffiths, Robert

​GRIFFITHS, ROBERT (1805–1883), inventor of a screw propeller, was born at Lleweny Farm, in the Vale of Clwydd, on 13 Dec. 1805. He showed an early inclination for mechanical pursuits, and was, on his own choice, apprenticed to carpentry in North Wales. When a boy he executed some highly creditable ornamental woodwork at Cefn, and constructed three harps, upon which instrument he became a skilful player. He afterwards went as pattern-maker in an engine works in Birmingham, where an uncle resided. In spite of some jealousy he did such good work that he speedily secured a foremanship. His name is first recorded in the patent office in 1835, as the inventor of a rivet machine. In 1836, jointly with John Gold, he patented a very successful glass-grinding and polishing machine; and, a year later, in collaboration with Samuel Evers of Cradley, he obtained a patent which greatly facilitated the making of hexagon nuts. In 1845 Griffiths patented a marked improvement in machinery for making bolts, railway spikes, and rivets. The same year, on account of his wife's ill-health, he migrated to France, and at Havre, in conjuntion with M. Labruère, founded engineering works, at which were manufactured most of the ironwork for the railway then being constructed from Havre to Paris. The revolution of 1848 having brought trade to a standstill, Griffiths parted with all his property to compensate and send home the mechanics who had accompanied him to France. Meanwhile Griffiths had been busy improving the atmospheric railway, and took out patents with Mr. Bovill, the leading features of which were the using of a vacuum on one side as well as a plenum on the other to act on the piston, and the closing of the atmospheric pipe. After the closing of his French works Griffiths experimented upon the screw propeller, and in 1849 took out a patent for an amended method of screw propulsion, which was largely adopted in the navy. Further improvements were patented by Griffiths in ​1853 and 1858, adding to the idea of separate blades and less vibration still further efficiency and reduction in cost. An improved form of 'protector' was Griffiths's last patent of note, though in 1878 he invented a serviceable plan of placing the screw propeller a distance equal to two-thirds of its diameter aft the end of the run. Griffiths secured other patents for an electric hair brush, intended to prevent hair turning white; supplementary improvements in bolt and rivet making; and an automatic damper for steam boilers, as well as a method of preventing scale in boilers, the two latter protectors being obtained jointly with Mr. C. W. Copeland. Griffiths read a number of valuable papers before the Society of Naval Architects and at the Royal United Service Institution, chiefly relating to his own original experiments. He died in June 1883.
J. B-y.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Griffiths, Thomas

​GRIFFITHS, THOMAS, D.D. (1791–1847), Roman catholic prelate, born in London 2 June 1791, was educated in the doctrines of the English church, but was converted to Catholicism by his mother, and sent in 1805 to St. Edmund's College, Old Hall Green, near Ware. In July 1814 he was ordained priest, and for the next four years he presided over the small ecclesiastical seminary in the 'Old Hall' in the rear of the college. In 1818 he removed with the students to the new college, of which he was appointed president in succession to Dr. Bew. For more than fifteen years he governed St. Edmund's with remarkable prudence. On the death of Bishop Gradwell he was appointed in July 1833 coadjutor, with the right of succession, to Bishop Bramston, vicar-apostolic of the London district, and he was consecrated on 28 Oct. at St. Edmund's College to the see of Olena in partibus. He succeeded to the London district on the death of Bishop Bramston, 11 July 1836. In 1840 Pope Gregory XVI increased the number of vicariates in England, and Griffiths was appointed by letters apostolic, dated 3 July, to the new London district. He entered into communication with the government on matters relating to the Roman catholic church in the colonies. He died at his residence in Golden Square, London, on 12 Aug. 1847, and was buried at St. Mary's, Moorfields.
Several of his Lenten pastorals and his funeral discourse on Dr. Robert Gradwell [q. v.], bishop of Lydda, have been published. There is a portrait of him, engraved by G. A. Peria, in the 'Catholic Directory' for 1848.
T. C.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Grigor, James

​GRIGOR, JAMES (1811?–1848), botanist, was the author of the ‘Eastern Arboretum, or Register of Remarkable Trees, Seats, Gardens, &c., in the County of Norfolk,’ London 18[40-]41, with fifty etched plates, issued in fifteen numbers. In the preface (dated Norwich, 1 Sept. 1841) he states that he had devoted ‘twenty years to practical botanical pursuits,’ and his work was highly praised by J. C. Loudon. He wrote a ‘Report on Trimingham and Runton Plantations in the county of Norfolk, belonging to Sir Edward North Buxton, Bart.,’ published in the ‘Transactions’ of the Highland Agricultural Society of Scotland, x. (new ser.) 557-74, for which he obtained a gold medal, and where he is described as ‘Nurseryman and Land Improver, Norwich.’ He died at Norwich, 22 April 1848, ‘about thirty-seven years old.’
[Norfolk Chronicle and Norwich Gazette for 6 May 1848; Notes and Queries, 7th ser. vii. 257.]
B. D. J.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Chamberlain, George

​CHAMBERLAIN or CHAMBERLAYNE, GEORGE, D.D. (1576–1634), bishop of Ypres, was the second son of George Chamberlain, and grandson of Sir Leonard Chamberlain or Chamberlayne [q. v.] He was born in 1576 at Ghent, where his father, a catholic exile, had settled. In 1599 he was admitted into the English college at Rome, where he was ordained priest. He became canon, archdeacon, and dean of St. Bavon in Ghent, and in 1626 succeeded, on the death of ​Anthony de Hennin, to the bishopric of Ypres. About that time his family resided at Shirburn in Oxfordshire. The estates having fallen to an heiress, she married John Neville, lord Abergavenny, and, Dr. Chamberlain, being the next heir male, came to England, not so much to put up his claim as to resign it, in order to confirm the title of the heiress, and to exclude pretenders. He governed his diocese till his death, on 19 Dec. 1634. He composed some poems and religious pieces in Latin.
[Sweertuis's Athenæ Belgicæ, 273; Wood's Athenæ Oxon. (Bliss). i. 585; Dodd's Church Hist. pt. 75; Foley's Records, vi. 213.]
T. C.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Chaloner, —

Richard Chaloner in later editions. 1904 Errata appended.
​CHALONER, —— (d. 1643), a chief actor in Edmund Waller's plot of 1643, is described in contemporary accounts as ‘an eminent citizen’ and linendraper of London. He lived in Cornhill, near the Royal Exchange, and had a partner named Norton. Together with Nathaniel Tomkins, secretary to the queen's council, and Waller's brother-in-law, he organised, early in 1643, a society which was intended to bring together all citizens desirous of effecting a peace between the parliament and Charles I. The king approved the plan; and on news of it reaching Pym (30 May 1643), Chaloner, Tomkins, Waller, and a few others implicated in it were placed under arrest. The Earl of Essex was directed by the House of Commons to appoint a council of war to try the prisoners, and on Friday, 30 June, the trial of Tomkins and Chaloner began at the Guildhall, before the Earl of Manchester. Both were found guilty on Monday (2 July), and the sentence of death was carried out on the following Wednesday (4 July). Chaloner was hanged in front of his own house. On the scaffold he timidly acknowledged the justice of his sentence, at the same time insisting on the pacific aims of his conspiracy. Hugh Peters attended him, and his father offered him a royal pardon, which he declined to touch. He and his friend Tomkins alone suffered capital punishment.
[See art. Edmund Waller (1605–1687), infra; Rushworth's Collections, iii. 2, 322–7; Clarendon's Hist. bk. vii. 71; Ranke's Hist. of England (English transl.), ii. 376; British Museum Coll. of Newspapers for 1643, vol. ii.; Chaloner's Speech on the Scaffold, 1643; A True Discovrie of the Great Plot, 1643.]
S. L. L.
Dictionary of National Biography, Errata (1904), p.60 N.B.— f.e. stands for from end and l.l. for last line
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# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Chamber, John (1546-1604)

​CHAMBER, JOHN (1546–1604), canon of Windsor and writer on astronomy, born at Swillington, Yorkshire, in May 1546, was educated at Merton College, Oxford, where he graduated B.A. in 1569 (Oxf. Univ, Reg. Oxf. Hist. Soc., i. 272). He was elected a fellow in the same year, being 'chosen purely for his merits.' He was well versed in Greek, and after taking the M.A. degree turned his attention to medicine, astronomy, and astrology. He lectured in the university on the Ptolemaic system, and applied to the authorities to be permitted to lecture on Hippocrates. Chamber was in holy orders from 1582, became fellow of Eton College, and in 1601 canon of Windsor. He died at Windsor on 1 Aug. 1604, and was buried at the entrance to the choir of St. George's Chapel. He left Merton College 1,000l. to buy lands in Yorkshire for the maintenance of two postmasterships for Eton scholars, to be called by his name.
Chamber's works are: 1. 'Scholia ad Barlaami Monachi Logisticam Astronomiam,' 1600, 4to. 2. 'Treatise against Judicial Astrology' (Lond. 1601, 4to), to which Sir Christopher Heydon replied in his 'Defence of Judicial Astrology' (Camb. 1603). 3. To Heydon's reply Chamber wrote an answer entitled ' A Confutation of Astrological Dæmonology in the Devil's School,' which was never printed, and is extant among the Savile MSS. at the Bodleian Library. The dedication to James I is dated 2 Feb. 1603-4. 4. 'Astronomical Encomium,' Chamber's Oxford lectures on Ptolemy in Latin and English, Lond. 1601. Chamber was a friend of George Carleton, bishop of Chichester [q. v.], who defended him from Heydon's attack in his 'Madnesse of Astrologes,' 1624.
[Wood's Athenæ Oxon., ed. Bliss, i. 744; Fasti Oxon. ed. Bliss, i. 181, 193; Brodrick's Memories of Merton College, p. 269; Brit. Mus. Cat.]
S. L. L.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Chamber, John a

Robert Chamber in the ODNB.
​CHAMBER, JOHN a, or CHAMBERLAYNE (d. 1489), rebel, a knight of great influence in the north, excited the people to join the rebellion headed by Sir John Egremond in Northumberland and Durham against the heavy subsidy of 1489. Henry, earl of Northumberland, who had orders to enforce the tax, endeavoured to persuade him to cease his agitation. Chamber would not hear him, and on 20 April the earl was slain by the rebels at Cock Lodge, near Thirsk. Then Thomas, earl of Surrey, was sent to put down the insurrection. He took Chamber and utterly routed the rebels. Chamber was executed at York 'in great state,' being hanged on 'a gibbet set on a square pair of gallows 'with his chief accomplices hanging 'upon the lower story round about him.'
[Fabyan's Chronicle, 683 (ed. 1811); Grafton's Chronicle, ii. 176-7 (ed. 1809); Bacon's Henry VII, 355-6 (ed. Bohn); Stow's Annals, 474 (ed. 1614).]
W. H.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Holworthy, James

​HOLWORTHY, JAMES (d. 1841), water-colour painter, exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1803 and 1804. In the latter year he was one of the foundation members of the (now Royal) Society of Painters in Water-colours, and he contributed constantly to their exhibitions till 1813, his subjects being drawn from Wales, the Lake district, and Yorkshire. He practised in London till 1822. In 1824 he married a niece of Joseph Wright of Derby, and retired to the Brookfield estate, near Hathersage in that county, which he had purchased. He died in London in 1841, was buried at Kensal Green. He was a friend of J. M. W. Turner, R.A. There are two drawings by him at the South Kensington Museum.
[Redgrave’s Dict.; Bryan’s Dict. (Graves); Grave’s Dict.; Catalogue of South Kensington Museum.]
C. M.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Holte, John

​HOLTE, JOHN (fl. 1495), grammarian, was a native of Sussex. He graduated B.A., was elected probationer of Magdalen College, Oxford, on 27 July 1490, and on 26 July 1491 was admitted perpetual fellow. About 1494 he was appointed usher of Magdalen College School, proceeded M.A., and became famous for his teaching. He resigned the ushership in 1495. Holte was author of the first Latin grammar printed in England, entitled ‘Lac puerorum. M. holti Mylke for Chyldren,’ 4to, Wynkyn de Worde, London (1510?), and Richard Pynson, London (1520), which was honoured with two commendatory epigrams by Sir Thomas More.
One John Holt was vicar of Piddletrenthide, Dorsetshire, from 1498 until his death in August 1506 (Hutchins, Dorsetshire, 2nd edit. ii. 484). In his will (P.C.C. 10, Adeane) he does not refer to his university.
Another John Holte succeeded Thomas Bele as suffragan to Fitzjames, bishop of London (1506-22), under the title of Bishop of Lydda. He lived mostly at Bury St. Edmunds, Suffolk. He was employed to lay the first stone of Cardinal Wolsey’s college at Ipswich on 15 June 1528. He died at Bury in August 1540. In his will (P.C.C. 10, Alenger) he desired to be buried in St, Mary’s Church, Bury, ‘in our Ladys. Ile, next to vnto the hedde of John holt, gent,’ and he possessed property at Barton, near Bury. He seems to have been a native of Suffolk, and cannot, therefore, be identical with the grammarian.
[Wood’s Athenæ Oxon. (Bliss), i. 14; Bloxam’s Reg. of Magd. Coll. Oxford, iii. 15-19, 43.]
G. G.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Holtzapffel, Charles

​HOLTZAPFFEL, CHARLES (1806–1847), mechanician, was the son of a German who in 1787 settled in London as a worker in tools and lathes. In addition to careful training in the workshop, Holtzapffel received a good English education, and by assiduous study and practice became a skilled mechanician. In 1838 he published his ‘New System of Scales of Equal Parts applicable to various purposes of Engineering, Architecture and General Sciences,’ followed by ‘List of Scales of Equal Parts’ suitable to his new method. His principal work, ‘Turning and Mechanical Manipulation, intended as a work of general reference and practical instruction on the Lathe,’ was designed to fill five volumes; but only three, published in 1843, were completed. The first of these treated of ‘Materials, their different Choice and Preparation;’ the second of ‘The Principles of Construction, Action, and Application of Cutting Tools;’ the third of ‘Abrasive and Miscellaneous Processes which cannot be accomplished with Cutting Tools.’ The two concluding volumes, which were completed by his son, set forth in order the ‘principles and practice of hand or simple turning, and those of ornamental or complex turning.’ Holtzapffel throughout displays a masterly knowledge of technical art and of the scientific principles underlying it.
Holtzapffel was a member of council of the Institute of Civil Engineers, and was chairman of the mechanics’ committee of the Society of Arts. He died on 11 April 1847, aged 41, leaving a widow and family.
[Ann. Reg. 1837; Proc. I. C. E. 1847; Gent. Mag. 1847, pt. ii. p. 213]
R. E. A.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Holyday, Barten

​HOLYDAY or HOLIDAY, BARTEN (1593–1661), dramatist, translator, and divine, son of Thomas Holiday, a tailor, was born in All Saints’ parish, Oxford, in 1593. He matriculated at Christ Church, 13 Dec. 1605, and was admitted B.A. 14 May 1612 and M.A. 15 June 1615 (Oxf. Univ. Reg., Oxf. Hist. Soc., II. iii. 311). Taking orders, he was esteemed a ‘most eloquent and quaint preacher,’ and two benefices in the diocese of Oxford were conferred upon him. In 1618 he went to Spain as chaplain to Sir Francis Steuart, who was in attendance on Gondomar. His ‘facete and pleasant way,’ says Wood, won Gondomar’s favour. Afterwards he was chaplain to Charles I, before 1626 became archdeacon of Oxford, and in 1642 was created D.D. by the king’s letters. At the time of the Commonwealth he submitted to ‘the examination of the triers or rather Spanish inquisitors’ (Wood), and was inducted into the rectory of Chilton, Berkshire. He gave up this living at the Restoration and returned to Iffley, near Oxford, where he lived on his archdeaconry. Wood, who knew him well, says that ‘had he not acted the vain man’ he might have had a bishopric, or at least a rich deanery. He died 2 Nov. 1661, and was buried in Christ Church Cathedral.
Holiday published in 1616, 8vo, a verse translation of Persius’s ‘Satires;’ it was republished in 1617, 1635, and 1673. The posthumous edition of 1673, fol., was accompanied by a new translation of Juvenal, line for line, and contains voluminous notes (Dryden's Works, ed. Scott and Saintsbury, xii. 96). ‘Τεχνογαμία, or the Marriages of the Arts. A Comedie,’ London, 1618, 4to (2nd edit. 1630), was acted in Christ Church Hall on 13 Feb. 1617-18. It was afterwards acted at Woodstock, 26 Aug. 1621, before James I, who found the performance very tedious. Whether the actors had taken too much wine before they began, or whether the subject of the play was distasteful, his majesty made several attempts to leave after sitting out the first two acts, but was finally induced to stay till the end. Some epigrams on the Woodstock performance were circulated by Cambridge wits, and Holiday’s Oxford friends (among them Henry King, afterwards bishop of Chichester) retorted. In 1653 he published: ‘All Horace his Lyrics, or His Four Books of Odes and his Book of Epodes Englished,’ 8vo. Wood remarks: ‘This translation is so near that of Sir Thomas Hawkins, or that of Hawkins so near this, that whether of the two is the author remains to be discovered.’ Holiday’s last work was ‘A Survey of the World in Ten Books,’ Oxford, 1661, 8vo, each of the ten books containing a hundred couplets. He published a Latin tractate, ‘Philisophiæ Polito-Barbaræ Specimen,’ 1633, 4to, and several sermons. Commendatory verses by Holyday are prefixed to the 1640 collection of Ben Jonson’s poems. A satirical epigram on him is printed in Huth’s ‘Inedited Poetical Miscellanies.’
[Wood’s Athenæ, ed. Bliss, i. xxiv, xliii, l, iii. 520-4; Hunter’s Chorus Vatum (Add. MS. 24489, ff. 56-8); Langbaine’s Dramatick Poets; Hearnes’s Diary, ed. Doble, i. 267; Nichol’s Progresses of James I.]
A. H. B.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Holyman, John

​HOLYMAN, JOHN, D.D. (1495–1558), bishop of Bristol, was a native of ​Coddington, near Haddenham in Buckinghamshire. He was educated at Winchester and New College, Oxford, and in 1512 became a fellow of New College. He graduated B.C.L. 1514, M.A. 1518, and B.D. 1526. He left his college about 1526, and became rector of Colerne, but for the sake of books and literary society settled in Exeter College, Oxford. Where he remained until he became a monk in St. Mary’s Abbey, Reading. There he soon acquired a great reputation for learning and sanctity. In 1530, by desire of Hugh Farindon, the abbot [q. v.], he applied to be excused from preaching at Oxford on taking his D.D. degree, in order that he might preach against the Lutheran heresy at St. Paul’s Cross (Wood, University of Oxford, ed. Gutch, ii. 32). In 1531 he proceeded D.D. He opposed the divorce of Henry VIII from Queen Catherine, advocating the validity of their marriage by writing and preaching (cf. Letters &c. of Henry VIII, vii. 38). He was obliged in consequence to remove to Handborough, near Woodstock, of which he appears to have been rector, In 1535 his abbey was dissolved, and for several years he lived in retirement, partly at Handborough and partly in Exeter College. He became vicar of Wing, Buckinghamshire, 3 May 1546.
On Mary’s accession Holyman was promoted to the bishopric of Bristol, and was consecrated in London on 18 Nov. 1554. In the Bristol Museum and Library are official manuscript copies (made in April 1823) of the original papal letters appointing Holyman to the bishopric (Nicholls and Taylor, Bristol, Past and Present, 68). Though a zealous Romanist, Holyman gave general satisfaction as a bishop. He was included in a commission to try Ridley and Latimer for heresy, and took part at Oxford in the disputation with Cranmer (1554) and in the trial of Bishop Hooper, but was never active in persecution. He refused to be present when Dalby, his chancellor, sent three men to the stake at Bristol for their religious profession.
In 1558 Holyman died and was buried in the chancel of Handborough Church. By his will, dated 4 June 1558, and proved 16 Feb. following, he bequeathed to Winchester College the works of St. Augustine, St. Jerome, and St. Cyprian, and others, which were afterwards chained in the library. He wrote, among other works, ‘Tract. Contra doctrinam M. Lutheri;’ and ‘Defensio matrimonii Reginæ Catharinæ cum Rege Henrico octavo.’
[Wood’s Athenæ Oxon. (Bliss), i. 275, ii. 779; Wood’s Fasti (Bliss), i. 40, 47, 74, 85; Foxe’s Acts and Monuments, ed. 1684, iii. 749, 855; Pryce’s Hist. of Bristol, p. 82; Nicholls and Taylor’s Bristol, Past and Present, vol. ii.; Evans’s Hist. of Bristol, p. 146; Coate’s Reading, p. 256; Lipscomb’s Bucks, iii. 526; Strype’s Cranmer and Eccl. Mem.; Kirby’s Winchester Scholars, p. 101]
B. H. B.