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

​NIXON, JAMES (1741?–1812), miniature-painter, was born about 1741. He first exhibited with the Society of Artists in 1765, and from 1772 to 1805 was an annual contributor to the Royal Academy. Nixon was one of the ablest miniaturists of his time, and held the appointments of limner to the Prince of Wales and miniature-painter to the Duchess of York; in 1778 he was elected A.R.A. He painted Miss Farren and other theatrical celebrities, as well as fancy figures of Shakespearean characters. He sent to the Academy a few portraits in oil, and in 1786 a series of ten designs illustrating ‘Tristram Shandy.’ Nixon resided in London throughout his professional career, but died at Tiverton on 9 May 1812, aged 71. His portraits of Dr. Willis, the Duchess of Devonshire, Mrs. Hartley, and the Misses Jenny and Nelly Bennet have been engraved, as well as some fancy subjects.
[Redgrave's Dict. of Artists; Sandby's Hist. of the Royal Academy, i. 244; Gent. Mag. 1812, pt. i. p. 499; Royal Academy Catalogues.]
F. M. O'D.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Nixon, John

John Colley Nixon in the ODNB.
​NIXON, JOHN (d. 1818), amateur artist, was a merchant in Basinghall Street, London. He had some skill as an artist, and drew landscapes well. He also executed a number of clever caricatures, some of which he etched himself. He was a frequent exhibitor at the Royal Academy from 1784 to 1815. Nixon drew a number of views of the seats of the nobility and gentry in England and Ireland, which were engraved for a series published by William Watts [q. v.] the ​engraver. Nixon was for many years secretary to the Beefsteak Club, and died in 1818.
Another contributor to the same series of views was Robert Nixon (1759–1837), who was curate of Foot's Cray in Kent from 1784 to 1804, and was an honorary exhibitor at the Royal Academy and the Society of Artists from 1790 to 1818. He appears to have been brother of the above, and identical with the Robert Nixon, son of Robert Nixon of London, who graduated at Christ Church, Oxford, in 1780, became a bachelor of divinity in 1790, and died at Kenmure Castle, New Galloway, on 5 Nov. 1837, aged 78. He married at Foot's Cray, on 31 Jan. 1799, Ann Russell, by whom he was father of the Rev. Francis Russell Nixon [q. v.], bishop of Tasmania. It was in Nixon's house that Turner, when a boy, in 1793 completed his first painting in oils.
[Gent. Mag. 1818 pt. i. p. 644, 1838 pt. i. p. 104; Foster's Alumni Oxon.; Watts's Seats of the Nobility and Gentry; Royal Academy Catalogues.]
L. C.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Noake, John

​NOAKE, JOHN (1816–1894), antiquary, son of Thomas and Ann Noake, was born at Sherborne, Dorset, on 29 Nov. 1816, but came to Worcester in 1838 to work on ‘Berrow's Worcester Journal,’ and lived in that city until his death. He was afterwards engaged on the ‘Worcestershire Chronicle,’ and his last appointment was as sub-editor of the ‘Worcester Herald.’ About 1874 he severed his connection with the newspapers of the city, and devoted his energies to its municipal life and to the management of its principal institutions. He was in turn sheriff (1878), mayor and alderman (1879), and magistrate (1882) for Worcester. As mayor it fell to his lot to reopen the old Guildhall originally erected in 1721–3, which had been restored and enlarged at a cost of about 20,000l. For many years he was one of the honorary secretaries of the Worcester Diocesan Architectural and Archæological Society, and on his retirement in July 1892 he was presented with a handsome testimonial. He died at Worcester on 12 Sept. 1894, and was buried at the cemetery in Astwood Road on 15 Sept. He married, first, Miss Woodyatt of Ashperton, Herefordshire, by whom he had a son Charles, and a daughter, now Mrs. Badham; secondly, Miss Brown of Shrewsbury; thirdly, in 1873, Mrs. Stephens (d. 1893), widow of a Worcester merchant.
All the works of Noake related to his adopted county. They comprised:
* ‘The Rambler in Worcestershire; or Stray Notes on Churches and Congregations,’ 1848. It was followed by similar volumes in 1851 and 1854.
* ‘Worcester in Olden Times,’ 1849.
* ‘Notes and Queries for Worcestershire,’ 1856.
* ‘Monastery and Cathedral of Worcester,’ 1866.
* ‘Worcester Sects: a History of its Roman Catholics and Dissenters,’ 1861.
* ‘Guide to Worcestershire,’ 1868.
* ‘Worcestershire Relics,’ 1877.
* ‘Worcestershire Nuggets,’ 1889.
He contributed many papers on subjects of local interest to the ‘Transactions’ of the Worcester Architectural and Archæological Society, and of the Associated Architectural Societies. A careful examination and analysis of a mass of documents found by him in a chest in the tower of St. Swithin's Church at Worcester revealed much information on the history of the city.
[Berrow's Worcester Journal, 15 Sept. 1894; information from Mr. Charles Noake.]
W. P. C.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Nixon, Samuel

​NIXON, SAMUEL (1803–1854), sculptor, was born in 1803. In 1826 he exhibited at the Royal Academy ‘The Shepherd,’ in 1828 ‘The Reconciliation of Adam and Eve after the Fall,’ in 1830 ‘The Birth of Venus,’ and in 1831 ‘The Infant Moses.’ He was principally employed during the next few years on portrait and sepulchral sculpture. When Philip Hardwick [q. v.] the architect was engaged on building Goldsmiths' Hall, in Foster Lane, Cheapside, he employed Nixon to do the sculptural decorations; the groups of the four seasons on the staircase were especially admired. Nixon also executed a statue of John Carpenter for the City of London School, and one of Sir John Crosby, to be placed in Crosby Hall, Bishopsgate Street. His principal work was the statue of William IV at the end of King William Street in the city, on the exact site of the famous Boar's Head of Eastcheap, set up in December 1844. This statue, which is fifteen feet three inches in height, is constructed of two blocks of Scotch granite, and the difficulty of the work severely crippled Nixon's health and resources (cf. Gent. Mag. 1844, i. 179). Nixon's workshop was at 2 White Hart Court, Bishopsgate Street, and he died at Kennington House, Kennington Common, on 2 Aug. 1854, aged 51. A brother was a glass-painter of repute.
[Gent. Mag. 1854, ii. 405; Redgrave's Dict. of Artists; Royal Academy Catalogues.]
L. C.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Noble, George

​NOBLE, GEORGE (fl. 1795–1806), line-engraver, was a son of Edward Noble, author of ‘Elements of Linear Perspective,’ and brother of Samuel Noble [q. v.] and William Bonneau Noble [q. v.] The dates of his birth and death are not recorded. He engraved for Boydell's edition of ‘Shakespeare,’ 1802, a scene, ‘Borachio, Conrade, and Watchman,’ after Francis Wheatley, R.A., from ‘Much Ado about Nothing;’ ‘Bassanio, Portia, and Attendants,’ after Richard Westall, R.A., from the ‘Merchant of Venice;’ ‘Orlando and Adam,’ after Robert Smirke, R.A., from ‘As you like it;’ ‘Desdemona in bed asleep,’ after Josiah Boydell, from ‘Othello;’ and ‘Cleopatra, Guards, &c.,’ after Henry Tresham, R.A., from ‘Antony and Cleopatra.’ He engraved also the following subjects for Bowyer's sumptuous edition of Hume's ‘History of England,’ 1806: ‘Canute reproving his Courtiers,’ ‘Henry VIII and Catharine Parr,’ ‘Charles I imprisoned in Carisbrooke Castle,’ ‘Lord William Russell's last Interview with his Family,’ and ‘The Bishops before the Privy Council,’ after Robert Smirke, R.A.; ‘William I receiving the Crown of England,’ after Benjamin West, P.R.A.; and ‘The Landing of William III at Torbay,’ after Thomas Stothard, R.A. His works possess considerable merit, and include also eighteen oval portraits of Admiral Lord Duncan and other naval officers, from miniatures by John Smart, which form part of a large plate designed by Robert Smirke, R.A., and engraved by James Parker, in commemoration of the battle of Camperdown on 11 Oct. 1797; ‘Maternal Instruction,’ after Bochardt; portraits of Lady Jane Grey and Rosamond Clifford; and illustrations to Goldsmith's ‘Miscellaneous Works,’ from drawings by Richard Cook, R.A.
[Redgrave's Dictionary of Artists of the English School, 1878; Dodd's Memorials of Engravers in Great Britain, Brit. Mus. Add. MSS. 33394–407.]
R. E. G.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Nixon, Robert

​NIXON, ROBERT (fl. 1620?), the ‘Cheshire Prophet,’ who is stated by one writer to have been born in the parish of Over, Delamere, Cheshire, in 1467, and by another authority to have lived in the reign of James I, but about whose existence at all there exists some doubt, was the reputed author of certain predictions which were long current in Cheshire. All accounts point to his having been an idiot, a retainer of the Cholmondeley family of Vale Royal, and to his having been inspired at intervals to deliver oracular prophecies of future events, both national and local. These prognostications, generally of the usual vague character, were first published in 1714 by John Oldmixon. A further account of Nixon by ‘W.E.’ was issued in 1716. Innumerable subsequent editions have been published, and the various versions were collated and edited in 1873, and again in 1878, by W. E. A. Axon. Nixon is said to have attracted the royal notice, and to have been sent for to court, where he was starved to death through forgetfulness, in a manner which he himself had predicted. Dickens's allusion in ‘Pickwick’ to ‘red-faced Nixon’ refers to the coloured portraits which occur in some chap-book editions of the prophecies.
[Nixon's Cheshire Prophecies, ed. Axon, 1813 and 1878; Axon's Cheshire Gleanings, 1884, p. 235; cf. also ‘An Irish Analogue of Nixon’ in Trans. Lanc. and Chesh. Antiq. Soc. vii. 130.]
C. W. S.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Nobbes, Robert

​NOBBES, ROBERT (1652–1706?), writer on angling, son of John and Rachel Nobbes, was born at Bulwick in Northamptonshire on 21 July 1652, and baptised there on 17 Aug. (parish register). He was educated first at Uppingham school, admitted in 1668 to Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge, graduated B.A. in 1671 and M.A. in 1675. He was vicar of Apethorpe and Wood Newton in Northamptonshire as early as 1676, and as late as 1690. He was made rector of Sausthorpe in Lincolnshire on 4 Aug. 1702, and his successor was appointed on 1 June 1706.
He published ‘The Compleat Troller, or the Art of Trolling,’ London, 1682. His address ‘To the Ingenious Reader’ is in great part taken from the dedication of Robert Venables's book, ‘The Experienc'd Angler,’ London, 1662. Nobbes's book was republished in facsimile in 1790. It was reprinted in the ‘Angler's Pocket-Book,’ Norwich, 1800 (?), and again in a work with the same title, London, 1805; and in the 10th edition of Thomas Best's ‘Art of Angling,’ London, 1814. Chapters iv. to xiii. only were used by Best in the eleventh edition of his book, 1822. Nobbes's work is preceded by commendatory verses by Cambridge men, by some verses of his own, ‘On the Antiquity and Invention of Fishing, and its Praise in General,’ and by a few lines, ‘The Fisherman's Wish,’ of which he may also have been the author. In ‘Notes and Queries’ (2nd ser. iii. 288) there is an account of a manuscript volume of his, containing an article on fishing, the record of the baptisms of his children till 1701, and miscellaneous matter.
[Graduati Cantabrigienses; Blakey's Angling Literature, p. 321; information from Joseph Foster, esq., and from the Rev. H. S. Bagshaw of Wood Newton; admission registers of Sidney Sussex College, per the Master.]
B. P.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Robson, Charles

​ROBSON, CHARLES (1598–1638), first chaplain at Aleppo, of Cumberland parentage, was the son of Thomas Robson, master of the Free School of Carlisle (Wood, Athenæ Oxon. iii. 427). Born in 1598, having entered Queen's College, Oxford, as batler at Easter 1613, he matriculated thence on 5 May 1615, aged 17. He graduated B.A. 24 Oct. 1616, M.A. 21 June 1619, and B.D. 10 July 1629 (Clark, Oxf. Reg.; Foster, Alumni Oxon.) He was elected fellow of Queen's, 26 Oct. 1620 (College Regist.), but his habits were lax, and in February 1623 the college gladly gave him three years' leave of absence that he might become chaplain at Aleppo. He went out thither in 1624 upon the advice of one Fetiplace, a member of the Levant Company, who with some difficulty secured his formal appointment as preacher to the colony of English merchants at a salary of 50l. per annum. His leave was extended for another three years in October 1627, and Robson returned in 1630, Edward Pocock being appointed to succeed him in March. In the following year Robson was deprived of his fellowship at Queen's on account of his dissolute haunting of taverns and ‘inhonesta loca,’ and his neglect of study and divine worship. He was appointed by the university of Oxford in 1632 to the vicarage of Holme-Cultram, Cumberland, where he died in 1638.
Robson wrote: ‘Newes from Aleppo, a Letter written to T. V[icars], B.D., Vicar of Cokfield in Southsex (Cuckfield, Sussex) … containing many remarkeable Occurrences’ observed by Robson in his journey, London, 1628, 4to. Vicars was Robson's brother-fellow at Queen's. Upon his return to Oxford Robson presented some Oriental manuscripts to the Bodleian.
Wood is probably wrong when he identifies the chaplain of Aleppo with Charles Robson, prebendary of Stratford in Salisbury Cathedral in 1634. The latter was apparently of St. John's College, Cambridge, and incumbent successively of Weare, Somerset (1617), Buckland Newton, Dorset (1624), and Bagendon, Gloucestershire (1644). He was living at Salisbury in 1652, when his resistance to the order for the suppression of the prayer-book caused him to be stigmatised by the puritans as a ‘canonical creature,’ infamous ‘for his zeale to corrupt.’ He may have died in 1660, when the Stratford stall was filled by another (cf. Grey, Examination of Neal, iv. App. p. 24; State Papers, Dom. Charles I, ccccvi. 97; Hist. MSS. Comm. 13th Rep. app. i. 669).
[J. B. Pearson's Chaplains to the Levant Company, Cambridge, 1883, pp. 19, 26–7, 54; Nicolson and Burn's Westmoreland and Cumberland, ii. 180; Wood's Fasti (Bliss), i. 452; notes supplied by W. A. Shaw, esq., and (from the college archives) by the Provost of Queen's.]
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Robson, William

​ROBSON, WILLIAM (1785–1863), author and translator, was born in 1785. In early life he was a schoolmaster, but, when he was over fifty years of age, he devoted himself to literature. His earliest work, ‘The Walk, or the Pleasures of Literary Associations,’ London, 12mo, appeared in 1837, and was followed in 1846 by ‘The Old Playgoer,’ London, 12mo. This volume consists of a series of letters describing the British stage at the beginning of the nineteenth century. His criticisms are scholarly and his recollections are always interesting. His later works are of little value. Besides writing original books, Robson also translated, without much skill, many French works, including Michaud's ‘History of the Crusades,’ 1852, 8vo; Dumas's ‘Three Musketeers,’ 1853, 8vo; and Balzac's ‘Balthazar,’ 1859, 8vo. In later life Robson fell into poverty. Routledge the publisher raised, by public subscription, a fund to purchase an annuity for him, but before Robson could reap the benefit he died on 17 Nov. 1863.
​He was the author of:
* ‘John Railton, or Read and Think,’ London, 1854, 16mo.
* ‘The Life of Cardinal Richelieu,’ London, 1854, 8vo.
* ‘The Great Sieges of History,’ London, 1855, 8vo.
[The Reader, 1863, ii. 633.]
E. I. C.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Robson, James

​ROBSON, JAMES (1733–1806), bookseller, the son of a yeoman, was born at Sebergham, Cumberland, in 1733. He came ​to London at the age of sixteen, and entered the shop of his relative, J. Brindley, of New Bond Street, known as the publisher of a series of editions of the Latin classics. Robson succeeded Brindley in 1759, and carried on the business for nearly forty years with credit and success. Between 1765 and 1791 he issued many catalogues, some of auction sales, including the libraries of Dr. Mead, Martin Folkes, Edward Spelman, Prebendary Bland, Joseph Smith, consul at Venice, and others. He collected the papers contributed by George Edwards [q. v.], the naturalist, to the ‘Philosophical Transactions,’ and published them with the Linnean ‘Index’ and a life of the author in 1776. In 1788 he accompanied James Edwards [q. v.] and Peter Molini to Venice in order to examine the Pinelli library, which Robson and Edwards purchased for about 7,000l., and sold by auction in 1789 and 1790 for 9,356l. After the death of his eldest son Robson gradually withdrew from business. About 1797 he was appointed high bailiff of Westminster. He rebuilt, and was the sole proprietor of, Trinity Chapel in Conduit Street, a chapel of ease to St. Martin's, first erected by Archbishop Tenison.
Robson was an enthusiastic angler, and was nearly the last survivor of the monthly dining club at the Shakspeare tavern, among whose members were Cadell, Dodsley, Longman, Lockyer Davis, Tom Paine, Thomas Evans, and other well-known booksellers. It was under their auspices that Thomas Davies brought out his ‘Dramatic Miscellanies’ and ‘Life of Garrick,’ and among them was first started the proposal which led to Johnson's ‘Lives of the Poets.’ Robson died at his house in Conduit Street on 25 Aug. 1806, aged 73 years. His wife was a Miss Perrot, by whom he had James (1766–1785) and George (who took orders, and became in 1803 a prebendary of St. Asaph), other sons, and five daughters.
[Gent. Mag. 1806, ii. 783, 871; Nichols's Lit. Anecd. iii. 634, 661–3, v. 322–6, vi. 434–43; Nichols's Illustrations, iv. 881, vi. 678; Clarke's Repertorium Bibliographicum, 1819, p. 499; Timperley's Encyclopædia, 1842, p. 825.]
H. R. T.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Robothom, John

John Robotham in the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography.
​ROBOTHOM, JOHN (fl. 1654), divine, possibly descended from the Robothoms of St. Albans, Hertfordshire (see Urwick, Nonconf. in Hertfordshire, pp. 149, 180; Harl. Soc. xvii. 208, xxii. 87), may have been of Trinity College, Oxford. In 1647 he applied for ordination to the ministers of the fourth presbyterian classis in London. There were several exceptions against him, and the ministers, not having leisure to examine them, turned him over to the next classis meeting for ​ordination. He must almost immediately have proceeded to Sussex in some ministerial capacity (see dedication to No. 2, infra). In 1648 he was minister of Rumbold's Wyke, Sussex, and received an order from the committee for compounding for 20l. a year out of the composition of John Ashburnham of Ashburnham (Calendar of the Committee for Compounding, p. 1863, 29 May 1648). He continued in Sussex till 1651. In 1654 he was preacher of the gospel in Dover. He subsequently became minister of Upminster in Essex, but was dispossessed in 1660 (David, Nonconformity in Essex, p. 502; Calamy, Account, p. 313, and Continuation, p. 490).
He published: 1. ‘The Preciousnesse of Christ unto Believers,’ London, 1647 (7 Sept.) and 1669; the first edition is dedicated to Colonel Stapely and William Cawley, deputy-lieutenant of Sussex, ‘benefactores mei.’ 2. ‘Little Benjamin, or Truth discovering Error: being a Clear and Full Answer unto the Letter subscribed by forty-seven Ministers of the Province of London, and presented to his Excellency, Jan. 18, 1648,’ London, 1648, 4to. 3. ‘An Exposition on the whole Book of Solomon's Song, commonly called the Canticles,’ London, 18 Aug. 1651; dedicated to Colonel Downes, M.P., deputy-lieutenant of Sussex. 4. ‘The Mystery of the Two Witnesses unvailed … together with the Seaventh Trumpet and the Kingdom of Christ explained,’ London, 3 May 1654; dedicated to Cromwell.
Robothom saw through the press Walter Cradock's ‘Gospel Holinesse,’ London, 1651; and he is doubtfully credited with ‘Janua linguarum reserata sive omnium scientiarum et linguarum seminarium. The Gate of Languages unlocked … formerly translated by Tho. Horn, and afterwards much corrected and amended by John Robotham, now carefully reviewed,’ &c., 6th ed. 1643 (see Wood, Athenæ Oxon. iii. 366), and ‘Disquisitio in Hypothesim Baxterianam de Fœdera Gratiæ ab initio et deinceps semper et ubique omnibus induto,’ London, 1694, 1689 (Watt).
W. A. S.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Robson, Stephen

​ROBSON, STEPHEN (1741–1779), botanist, second son of Thomas Robson, linen manufacturer, of Darlington, Durham, and Mary Hedley, his third wife, was born at Darlington on 24 June 1741. He succeeded to his father's business on the death of the latter in 1771, together with the freehold of the house and shop in Northgate, Darlington, where he also carried on a grocery. Though entirely self-taught, he became a good Latin, Greek, and French scholar, and was especially interested in botany, astronomy, and heraldry. Among his intimate friends was Robert Harrison (1715–1802) [q. v.], of Durham, the orientalist, and he corresponded with William Curtis (1746–1799) [q. v.], the botanist. He printed privately ‘Plantæ rariores agro Dunelmensi indigenæ’ (Dawson Turner and L. W. Dillwyn, The Botanist's Guide, 1805, i. 247), which is now very scarce, and he wrote some poems, all of which he burnt. His chief book was ‘The British Flora … to which are prefixed the Principles of Botany’ (York, 1777, 8vo, with three indexes and five plates illustrating structure). This work, which is in English and evinces a thorough knowledge of botanical literature, coming as it does between the two editions of the ‘Flora Anglica’ of William Hudson (1730?–1793) [q. v.], and arranged upon the Linnæan system, is of great merit and considerable historical interest. The original manuscript, together with the author's ‘Hortus Siccus,’ in three folio volumes, is still preserved by his descendants. He died at Darlington on 16 May 1779 of pulmonary consumption, induced by his sedentary life. Robson married, on 16 May 1771, Ann, daughter of William Awmack, who survived him, dying on 20 July 1792; by her he had one son, Thomas, and two daughters, Hannah and Mary.
Edward Robson (1763–1813), eldest son of Stephen Robson's elder brother Thomas, and his wife Margaret Pease, was born at Darlington on 17 Oct. 1763. He is described as ‘an accomplished botanist and draughtsman’ (Hylton Longstaffe, History of Darlington, p. 369); he was a correspondent of William Withering and of Sir James Edward Smith; contributed various descriptions to the latter's ‘English Botany,’ the lists of plants in Brewster's ‘Stockton’ and Hutchinson's ‘Durham,’ the description and figure of an earth-star (Geaster) in the ‘Gentleman's Magazine’ for February 1792, and the description of Ribes spicatum in the ‘Transactions of the Linnean Society’ (iii. 240). He was elected one of the first associates of that society in 1789. He died at Tottenham, Middlesex, on 21 May 1813, and was buried at Bunhill Fields. He married, on 4 July 1788, Elizabeth Dearman (d. 8 Jan. 1852), by whom he had two sons and a daughter.
[Information furnished by the great-granddaughters of Stephen Robson; Backhouse's Family Memoirs, privately printed; Smith's Annals of Smith of Cautly, privately printed; Green's Cyclostyle Pedigrees, 1891; Longstaffe's History of Darlington; Britten and Boulger's Biographical Index of British Botanists.]
G. S. B.