OpenLLM-France/wikimedia huggingface dataset:
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Fergusson, James (1688-1759)

​FERGUSSON, Sir JAMES, Lord Kilkerran (1688–1759), Scotch judge, eldest son of Sir John Fergusson, first baronet, of Kilkerran (whom he succeeded in 1729), was born in 1688. He studied law possibly at Leyden (Index of Leyden Students, p. 35), and was admitted advocate 1711, was elected as member for Sutherlandshire 1734, and sat for that county till made lord of session, 7 Nov. 1735, when he took the courtesy title of Lord Kilkerran. He was made lord of justiciary 3 April 1749. He died at his residence near Edinburgh 20 Jan. 1759. Fergusson was married and had a large family, many of whom with his wife survived him. He collected and digested in the form of a dictionary the decisions of the court of session from 1738 to 1752. To these are added ‘a few decisions given in the years 1736 and 1737’ (advertisement). This was published by his son (Edinburgh, 1775).
In Tytler's ‘Life of Lord Kames’ (2nd ed. Edinb., 1814, i. 52–3) Fergusson is estimated ​as ‘undoubtedly one of the ablest lawyers of his time. His knowledge was founded on a thorough acquaintance with the Roman jurisprudence, imbibed from the best commentators of the pandects, and with the recondite learning of Craig, who has laid open the fountains of the Scottish law in all that regards the system of feudalism. … The decisions which he has recorded during the period when he sat as a judge of the supreme court exhibit the clearest comprehension and the soundest views of jurisprudence, and will for ever serve as a model for the most useful form of law reports.’
F. W-t.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Fergusson, James (1769-1842)

​FERGUSSON, JAMES (1769–1842), Scotch legal writer, eldest son of James Fergusson of Bank, afterwards of Monkwood, Ayrshire, was born in 1769; studied at the university of Edinburgh; became a member of the Speculative Society 9 Dec. 1788; was admitted member of the Faculty of Advocates 1791; was successively appointed one of the four judges of the consistorial court, one of the principal clerks of session, and keeper of the general record of entails for Scotland. Fergusson was married and had issue. He sold the estate of Monkwood to his brother, John H. Fergusson of Trochraigue. He died in 1842.
Fergusson wrote: 1. ‘Letters upon the Establishment of the Volunteer Corps and Domestic Military Arrangement of Great Britain,’ Edinburgh, 1806. 2. ‘Observations upon the proposed Reform in the Administration of Civil Justice in Scotland,’ Edinburgh, 1807 (regarding the introduction of trial by jury). 3. ‘Reports of some recent Decisions by the Consistorial Courts of Scotland in Actions of Divorce,’ Edinburgh, 1817. These decisions illustrated the power of the Scotch court to dissolve marriage for adultery, which power the English court did not then possess, and the ‘alarming collision between the respective jurisdictions of the two countries in the same island and state’ which had arisen therefrom. 4. ‘Observations upon the Provisions of the Bill presented to Parliament relative to the trial in a separate tribunal of issues of fact arising in actions instituted before the Supreme Civil Court of Scotland,’ Edinburgh, 1824. 5. ‘A Treatise on the present state of the Consistorial Law in Scotland, with reports of decided cases,’ Edinburgh, 1829. 6. ‘Observations on Entails and Entries of Heir-Apparent, cum beneficio inventarii, with an index of the registers of tailzies from A.D. 1685 to 1830,’ Edinburgh, 1830. 7. ‘Additional Observations on Entails,’ Edinburgh, 1831.
F. W-t.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Fergusson, Charles Dalrymple

​FERGUSSON, Sir CHARLES DALRYMPLE (1800–1849), fifth baronet, of Kilkerran, Ayrshire, and eldest son of Sir James, fourth baronet, by Jean, daughter of Sir David Dalrymple, bart. (Lord Hailes) [q. v.], was born at Fort George, Inverness-shire, in August 1800. He was educated at Harrow, and became an advocate in 1822, practising at the Scotch bar until his father's death. He was a member of the Speculative Society, and at its meetings read two essays, one on the ‘Origin and Progress of Criminal Jurisprudence,’ and the other on the ‘History of Painting.’ Fergusson was an active promoter of almost every scheme of usefulness throughout Scotland. The county of Ayr, in which his seat was situate, was especially indebted to his active aid in its agricultural, charitable, and religious institutions. He was the originator of the Ayrshire Educational Association, and at his own expense built many schools and churches. He was returned to the general assembly of the church of Scotland as a lay representative for Ayr. He did much towards extending the usefulness and efficiency of the church, and in the sittings of its legislative body his counsels had great weight. A decided conservative in his political principles, both in church and state, Fergusson was yet strongly averse to the strife and turmoil of political life, and was remarkably tolerant in his sentiments. Though repeatedly urged by his friends, he could never be induced to seek election for his native county. To the last he was an able and zealous supporter of the cause of protection. Himself a colonial proprietor, he severely condemned the free trade legislation of Sir Robert Peel, which he believed must have an injurious effect upon the British colonies. In 1837 Fergusson succeeded to the estates of his grandfather, Lord Hailes, in East and Mid Lothian, and in 1838 to those of his father in Ayrshire, on which he constantly resided. Fergusson married Helen, daughter of the Right Hon. David Boyle, lord-justice-general of Scotland, by whom he had eight children. He died at Inveresk 18 March 1849. His Ayrshire tenants raised a monument to his memory. Fergusson's estate of Hailes in Haddingtonshire and Mid Lothian descended to his second son, Charles, who assumed the name of Dalrymple, as representing his great-grandfather, Sir David Dalrymple, bart. (Lord Hailes), but the baronetcy of Hailes was extinct. In the title and estates of Fergusson of Kilkerran Fergusson was succeeded by his eldest son, ​the Right Hon. Sir James Fergusson, bart., M.P., sometime governor, successively, of South Australia, New Zealand, and Bombay, and subsequently under-secretary of state for foreign affairs, to which he was appointed in August 1886.
G. B. S.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Ferguson, William Gouw

​FERGUSON, WILLIAM GOUW (1633?–1690?), painter of still life, a native of Scotland, is stated to have first studied art in his own country, and then travelled in France and Italy. In 1660 he was residing at the Hague, where he hired a house, and in 1668 he was still there. Part of the contract for his house consisted in a promise to paint a picture every year for the proprietor of the house. In 1681 he was residing in the Batavier Graat, Amsterdam, and on 28 June he was betrothed to Sara van Someren of Stockholm (Oud Holland, 1885, p. 143). He acquired a good reputation in painting dead game and still life. There are good examples of his paintings in this style in the Ryks-Museum at Amsterdam and in the Berlin Gallery. He also painted pictures introducing ruins and fragments of sculpture, with figures in the Italian style, under strong effects of light and shade. An example of this style is in the National Gallery of Scotland. He is stated to have returned and to have died in London, but this does not appear certain; 1695 is stated to be the latest date upon his pictures, but this is doubtful, and the exact date of his death is unknown. His pictures are sometimes attributed to Weenix.
L. C.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Harland, John

​HARLAND, JOHN (1806–1868), reporter and antiquary, was born at Hull in 1806. He learned the trade of a letter-press ​printer, but, having taught himself shorthand, effected such improvements in the art, then far from its present perfection, as to become the most expert shorthand writer in the kingdom. A report in 1830 of a sermon by the Rev. J. G. Robberds led to his name being mentioned to John Edward Taylor [q. v.], of the 'Manchester Guardian,' who travelled to Hull to secure his services. Harland soon placed the 'Guardian' at the head of the provincial press in the department of reporting, and exhibited remarkable endurance in the pursuit of his profession, undertaking long journeys, and writing out the notes of the day in the stage-coach. He presided over the reporting staff of the 'Guardian' until 1860, when he retired, owing to lameness brought on by indisposition. He had for many years previously taken a leading rank among Lancashire antiquaries, and the leisure he had now obtained redoubled his exertions. Within thirteen years he edited fourteen volumes for the Chetham Society, and published independently collections of 'Lancashire Lyrics' and 'Lancashire Ballads,' and, in conjunction with Mr. Wilkinson of Burnley, 'Lancashire Folklore.' He also wrote the history of Sawley Abbey, near Clitheroe, Yorkshire, and was engaged upon an improved edition of Baines's 'Lancashire' at the time of his death, which took place at Manchester on 23 April 1868.
[Manchester Guardian, 25 April 1868.]
R. G.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Harkeley, Henry

​HARKELEY, HENRY (fl. 1316), chancellor of the university of Oxford from 1313 to 1316 (Le Neve, Fasti, iii. 464) and doctor of divinity, taught at Oxford in the early part of the fourteenth century. As chancellor he took part in February 1314 in the condemnation of eight articles which had been taught in the divinity schools (Wood, Hist. and Antiq. Oxford, i. 387, ed. Gutch). Several documents relating to his chancellorship are given in the 'Munimenta Academica' (Rolls Ser. i. 91, 95, 101). A mass was to be said for his soul on 25 June (ib. ii. 373). He wrote:
* 'Quodlibeta.'
* 'Four books on the Master of the Sentences.'
* 'De Transubstantiatione;' this work is quoted by Thomas Walden [q. v.] in his treatise 'De Sacramentis.'
* 'Quæstiones Theologiæ.'
* 'Determinationes.'
* 'Concio in laudem D. Thomæ Cantuariensis;' in Lambeth MS. 61, where there is a note that it was preached at Oxford in the year (1315) in which Piers Gaveston's remains were transferred to Langley. An extract from this sermon is printed in Wharton's 'Anglia Sacra,' ii. 524.
Harkeley is perhaps the Henry de Harclay who received the prebend of Rotesfen, Salisbury, in 1316.
[Bale, vi. 95; Pits, p. 562; Tanner's Bibl. Brit.-Hib. p. 379; authorities quoted.]
C. L. K.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Harland, Robert

​HARLAND, Sir ROBERT (1715?–1784), admiral, son of Captain Robert Harland of the royal navy, entered the service on 10 Feb. 1728-9 on board the Falkland of 50 guns, with Captain Samuel Atkins; and, after serving six years, in the Dreadnought with Captain Geddes, the Hector with Captain Ogilvy, and other ships on the home, Lisbon, and Mediterranean stations, passed his examination on 11 July 1735, when he was described as 'upwards of 20.' In February 1741-2 he was promoted to be lieutenant of the Weymouth; from her he was appointed to the Princessa, in which he was present in the action off Toulon on 11 Feb. 1743-4; and a few days afterwards was moved into the Namur. In January 1744-5 he was promoted to the command of the Scipio fireship; and on 19 March 1745-6 was posted to the Tilbury, in which he took part in Hawke's engagement with L'Etenduere on 14 Oct. 1747. He was then appointed to the Nottingham of 60 guns, in succession to Captain Philip Saumarez, who was killed in the action; and on 31 Jan. 1747-8, being in company with the Portland of 50 guns, commanded by Captain Charles Steevens [q. v.], had a prominent share in capturing the Magnanime, a remarkably fine French ship of 74 guns. After the peace he commanded the Monarch guardship at Portsmouth, and in 1755-6 the Essex, cruising in the Channel and the Bay of Biscay under the orders of Sir Edward Hawke or Vice-admiral Knowles. In May 1758 he was appointed to the Conqueror, one of the ships sent into the Mediterranean with Boscawen, but while at Gibraltar exchanged into the Princess Louisa on 15 Aug., a few days before the defeat and destruction of the French squadron off Lagos. On 18 Oct. 1770 he was promoted to be rear-admiral of the blue, and in 1778 was vice-admiral of the red, when he hoisted his flag-on board the Queen as commander of the Channel fleet in the second post, under Admiral Keppel [see Keppel, Augustus, Viscount], and held this command through the year, in the battle of Ushant on 27 July, and in the October cruise. Consequent on the courts-martial on Keppel and Palliser he resigned his command on 10 May 1779, being, he wrote, 'convinced it cannot be for the public service nor my own safety to serve with or to command men high in rank who differ so much in opinion with me on the great points of naval discipline, which I have been taught to look upon as unalterable and the security of all subordination.' He had no further command under Lord Sandwich's administration, but on the change of ministry was appointed on 30 March 1782 a member of the board of admiralty under Keppel. On 8 April he became admiral of the blue. He quitted the admiralty, with Keppel, on 28 Jan. 1783, and died on 21 Feb. 1784.
Harland married a daughter of Colonel Rowland Reynold, by whom he had issue three daughters and one son, Robert, born in 1765, who succeeded to the baronetcy, and died in 1848, without issue, when the title became extinct.
[Charnock's Biog. Nav. v. 454; Gent. Mag. 1 784, vol. liv. pt. i. p. 154, and new ser. viii. 531: Burke's Baronetage (previous to 1849); official letters in the Public Record Office.]
J. K. L.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Harley, Brilliana

​HARLEY, BRILLIANA, Lady (1600?–1643), letter-writer, was second daughter of Sir Edward (afterwards Viscount) Conway [q. v.], by Dorothy, daughter of Sir John Tracy and widow of Edward Bray. She was born about 1600 at the Brill in the Netherlands, of which place her father was at the time lieutenant-governor. Coming to England with her family early in 1606, she was naturalised by act of parliament in April of that year. On 22 July 1623 she became the third wife of Sir Robert Harley [q. v.], and lived chiefly at his country seat, Brampton ​Bryan Castle, Herefordshire. She devoted herself there to the care of her children, three sons and four daughters. Of a deeply religious temperament, she gathered round her puritan preachers, and, like her husband, sided with the parliament in the civil war. In 1643 she was dwelling, according to her wont, with her youngest children at Brampton while Sir Robert was in London, and her avowed sympathy with the roundheads soon led the royalists, under Sir William Vavasour and Colonel, Lingen, to lay siege to the castle. The siege began on 25 July 1643 and lasted for six weeks, till the end of the following August, when the royalists retired to Gloucester. Much damage was done by the besieging force in the neighbouring village. Lady Brilliana's religious faith enabled her to bear the trial with much fortitude, but the anxieties of her position injured her health. In October her castle was again threatened, and she died before the end of the month. The registers at Brampton are lost, and the exact date is not recoverable.
Two hundred and five letters written by Lady Brilliana between 30 Sept. 1625 and 9 Oct. 1643 are extant at Brampton Bryan, and were published by the Camden Society, under the editorship of the Rev. T. T. Lewis, in 1854. The first eight (1625-33) are addressed to her husband; the rest, with three exceptions, are addressed to her eldest son, Edward (afterwards Sir Edward) Harley [q. v.], during his residence at Oxford. The letters are chiefly remarkable for their proofs of maternal affection. They abound in domestic gossip, religious reflections, and sound homely advice.
[Letters of the Lady Brilliana Harley (Camd. Soc.), 1854; cf. art. Harley, Sir Egbert.]
S. L. L.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Harington, John Herbert

​HARINGTON, JOHN HERBERT (d. 1828), orientalist, entered the service of the East India Company at Calcutta as a writer on 1 Aug. 1780, was appointed assistant in the revenue department in 1781, revenue Persian translator in 1783, puisne judge of the Dewanny Adawlut, and ​magistrate of Dinajpore on 1 May 1793; sub-secretary to the secret department, and examiner and reporter to the Sudder Dewanny Adawlut on 6 Dec. 1793; registrar of the Sudder Dewanny and Nizamut Adawlut on 15 Feb. 1796; fourth member of the board of revenue on 3 June 1799; puisne judge of the Sudder Dewanny and Nizamut Adawlut on 1 April 1801; and chief judge of the Sudder Dewanny and Nizamut Adawlut on 17 Dec. 1811. He came home on furlough in 1819, and returned to India in 1822, when he was chosen provisionally member of the supreme council (21 Dec.), was appointed senior member of the board of revenue for the western provinces, and agent to the governor-general at Delhi on 1 Aug. 1823; was senior member of the Sudda special commission in the following October; and was chosen a member of the supreme council and president of the board of trade on 22 April 1825. He returned to England in 1828, and died at London on 9 April in that year.
Harington was also for some years honorary professor of the laws and regulations of the British government in India in the college of Fort William, founded by the Marquis Wellesley in 1800, and was afterwards president of the council of the college. He is best known as the editor of 'The Persian and Arabic works of Sa'dee,' Calcutta, 1791-1795, 2 vols., fol. He also published 'An Elementary Analysis of the Laws and Regulations enacted by the Governor-General in Council at Fort William in Bengal for the Civil Government of the British Territories under that Presidency,' Calcutta, 1805-17, 3 vols. fol. A volume of 'Extracts' from this work appeared at Calcutta in 1866, 8vo.
[Dodwell and Miles's Bengal Civil Servants; Brit. Mus. Cat.; Lincoln's Inn Library Cat.]
J. M. R.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Harkness, Robert

​HARKNESS, ROBERT (1816–1878), geologist, born at Ormskirk, Lancashire, on 28 July 1816, was educated at Dumfries and at Edinburgh University (1833-4). He resided at Ormskirk, pursuing scientific studies, until 1848, when he removed with his father to Dumfries. His first paper was read before the Manchester Geological Society in April 1843, on 'The Climate of the Coal Epoch.' His papers on the geology and fossils of south-western Scotland brought him into repute as a geologist, and in 1853 he was appointed professor of geology in Queen's College, Cork. In 1854 he was elected fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh, and in 1856 of the Royal Society of London. In 1876 he was required to add physical geography, zoology and botany, and mineralogy to his former curriculum, and this serious addition to his labours broke down his health; he had just resigned his chair, and was finishing his work when he died, on 5 Oct. 1878, of heart disease. Many of his papers on physical geology and palæontology are of much value. He clearly showed the existence of both lower and upper Silurian deposits in the south of Scotland, added considerably to the knowledge of the geology of the highlands, explored the remarkable sandstones and breccias of Dumfriesshire, most of which he identified as Permian, and elucidated the Silurian deposits of the Lake district of the north of England. In conjunction with Professor H. A. Nicholson, he did much to unveil the structure of the grapholitic deposits of the Coniston series. He was a sound reasoner, an acute observer, an excellent teacher, and an enthusiast in his work. A list of his scientific papers, over sixty in number, is given in the Royal Society's ' Catalogue of Scientific Papers.'
[Nature, 10 Oct. 1878; Geol. Mag. 1878, p. 576; president's address to Geol. Soc. London, 1879, pp. 41-4.]
G. T. B.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Hariot, Thomas

​HARIOT, THOMAS (1560–1621), mathematician. [See Harriot.]
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Hervey, James (1751?-1824)

​HERVEY, JAMES, M.D. (1751?–1824), physician, born about 1751, was the son of William Hervey of London. He matriculated at Oxford, from Queen's College, on 19 Nov. 1767, and proceeded B.A. 1771, M.A. 1774, M.B. 1777, M.D. 1781 (Foster, Alumni Oxon. 1715-1886, ii. 650). He was elected physician to Guy's Hospital in 1779, was admitted a candidate of the Royal College of Physicians on 1 Oct. 1781,and a fellow on 30 Sept. 1782. He was Gulstonian lecturer in 1783, censor in 1783, 1787, 1789, 1795, 1802, and 1809, registrar from 1784 to 1814, Harveian orator in 1785, Lumleian lecturer from 1789 to 1811, and elect on 4 May 1809. Hervey was the first appointed registrar of the National Vaccine Establishment. He died in 1824.
[Munk's Coll. of Phys. 1878, ii. 330.]
G. G.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Hervey, John (1616-1679)

​HERVEY, JOHN (1616–1679), treasurer of the household of Queen Catherine of Braganza, born on 18 Aug. 1616, was the eldest son of Sir William Hervey, knt., M.P., of Ickworth, Suffolk, by Susan, daughter of Sir Robert Jermyn, kt., of Rushbrook, Suffolk. Robert Sidney, second earl of Leicester, while he was ambassador in France in 1636, received him into his house, and ever after entertained a warm friendship for him (Sidney State Papers, ii. 680-l). At the Restoration Hervey was constituted treasurer of the household to the queen. On 7 Dec. 1664 he was elected F.R.S. (Thompson, Hist. of Roy. Soc. Append. iv. p. xxiv), but he never presented himself for admission. He was elected M.P. for Hythe on 6 May 1661, and sat for nearly eighteen years (Lists of Members of Parliament, i. 532). Though a great favourite of Charles II, he is said by Burnet to have once voted adversely to the court on an important division, and was in consequence severely rebuked by the king. Upon his voting the next day as the king wished, Charles said, 'You were not against me to-day.' Hervey answered, 'No, sir; I was against my conscience today' (Burnet, Own Time, Oxford ed., 1823, ii. 71). He was a patron of men of letters, and by his recommendation Abraham Cowley [q. v.] was taken into the service of his kinsman, Henry, earl of St. Albans. He died on 18 Jan. 1679. He married Elizabeth, daughter and heiress of William, lord Hervey of Kidbrooke [q. v.], but had no children.
[Authorities cited; Collins's Peerage(Brydges), iv. 149-51; Sprat's Life of Cowley.]
G. G.