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

​SHARPE, JAMES (1577?–1630), Roman catholic divine, born in Yorkshire about 1577, was perhaps connected with the family of Sharp of Little Horton. He became a convert to Roman catholicism, and, entering St. Alban's College at Valladolid on 21 June 1602, was ordained priest on 14 April 1604. He was admitted a member of the Society of Jesus in 1607–8, and for a time was professor of sacred scripture and Hebrew at the English Jesuit College at Louvain. In 1611 he was sent to England, where he made it his first endeavour to bring about the conversion of his parents. They, however, refused to listen to him, and kept him in strict confinement, seeking to reconvert him to protestantism. He obtained his liberty by proclaiming himself a priest, but thereby incurred the penalty of banishment. After a brief sojourn in Belgium he returned to England under the name of Francis Pollard, and was serving in the Yorkshire district in 1621. On 12 May 1622 he was professed of the four vows, and in 1625 he was labouring in Lincolnshire. In 1628 he had removed to Leicestershire; but he died in Lincolnshire, at the residence of St. Dominic, on 11 Nov. 1630.
He was the author of ‘The Examination of the Private Spirit of Protestants.’ The only edition of the complete work now extant is dated 1640. There was an earlier edition, for a second part, entitled ‘The Triall of the Protestant Private Spirit, the Second Part, which is Doctrinal,’ is dated 1635. Sharpe also left a manuscript endorsed ‘Annals of F. Polla[rd]. Divers examples of cruelty and persecution in England, especially about York, and of the constancy of Catholics in the time of King James, 1610, 14 Oct.,’ which is now at Stonyhurst College, and which has been printed in Morris's ‘Troubles of our Catholic Forefathers,’ 3rd ser.
[Foley's Records of the English Province of the Society of Jesus, ii. 617–25, v. 767, vii. 702, 1451; More's Hist. Prov. Angl. p. 359; De Backer's Bibliothèque de la Compagnie de Jésus, 1869, iii. 778.]
E. I. C.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Sharpeigh, Alexander

​SHARPEIGH, ALEXANDER (fl. 1607–1613), merchant and sea-captain, seems to have been in the opening years of the seventeenth century a factor of the Levant company at Constantinople (Lansdowne MS. 241, f. 188), in which capacity he probably acquired some knowledge of Arabic. Early in 1608 he was appointed by the East India Company to be captain of their ship Ascension, and general of the fourth voyage to the East Indies. The two ships, Ascension and Union, sailed from Woolwich on 14 March 1607–8, and from Plymouth on the 31st. Touching at Grand Canary and at the Cape Verd Islands, they arrived on 14 July in Saldanha, or, as it is now called, Table Bay. There they remained till 20 Sept., when they sailed to the eastward; but the night coming on stormy and dark, the two ships lost sight of each other and did not again meet. Touching on the way at the Comorro Islands, at Pemba, where her men had a severe conflict with the natives and some white Moors, and at Almirante, the Ascension came to Socotra on 29 March 1609, and on 10 April crossed over to Aden, where the governor, having invited Sharpeigh on shore, as though to a conference, kept him and his attendants close prisoners for six weeks, and released them only on payment of goods to the value of two thousand five hundred dollars. Getting away from Aden without further attempt to trade, Sharpeigh went to Mocha, where there was ‘a good market for English commodities.’ Thence he returned to Socotra in August and sailed for Surat. On 28 Aug. the ship arrived at Mowa, where they could have got a pilot for Surat for twenty dollars. The master, however, refused, saying that he was able to take the ship in himself. On the 29th he tried it, missed the channel, and stuck the ship on the bar, where in three days she broke up. With some difficulty the men got on shore to Gandavi, where they were kindly received by the governor. On 9 Sept. they reached Surat, but were not allowed into the town. They remained in a neighbouring village till the end of the month, and then set out for Agra, which Sharpeigh, deserted by most of his men, reached almost alone after a tedious journey, and was well received by William Hawkyns, then residing in that place [see Hawkins or Hawkyns, William, fl. 1595]. In October 1611 he embarked on board the Trade's Increase at Surat, with Sir Henry Middleton. It would seem that in 1613 he was agent for the company at Bantam (Calendar of State Papers, East Indies, 1513–1616, No. 646), but the notice is vague, and his name does not occur again.
[Purchas his Pilgrimes, vol. i. bk. iii. ch. ix.; Kerr's Collection of Voyages, viii. 314; Markham's Voyages of Sir James Lancaster (Hakluyt Soc.); Calendar of State Papers, East Indies, 1513–1616; Notes kindly supplied by William Foster, esq., of the India Office.]
J. K. L.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Sharples, James (1750?-1811)

​SHARPLES or SHARPLESS, JAMES (1750?–1811), portrait-painter, born about 1750 in England, of a Roman catholic family, was educated in France for the priesthood, but became a painter. From 1779 to 1785 he was an occasional exhibitor of portraits at the Royal Academy, residing in Cambridge. After marriage and the birth of a family he decided to remove to America. On the voyage his ship was taken by the French, and Sharples and his family were detained as prisoners for some months. About 1796 he landed in New York, where he seems to have been known as Sharpless. Sharples usually painted small portraits in profile, mostly executed in pastels. He drew at Philadelphia in 1796 a small profile portrait of George Washington from the life. This he and his wife often copied. A copy by his wife is in the National Portrait Gallery with a similar portrait of Dr. Priestley. Sharples used to travel about the country with his wife and family in a caravan of his own construction and design. He died at New York 6 Feb. 1811, aged about sixty, and was buried in the Roman catholic cemetery there. ​He left a widow, two sons, and a daughter. His elder son, Felix Sharples, remained in America, where he practised as an artist, and died in North Carolina. His widow, Mrs. Ellen Sharples (d. 1849), after her husband's death, returned with her younger son, James Sharples (d. 1839), and her daughter, Rolinda Sharples (see below), to England. They resided for some little time in London, and all three occasionally exhibited portraits at the Royal Academy. Eventually they settled at Bristol Hot-Wells, where they continued to practise their art. Mrs. Sharples, who survived her whole family, in 1845 gave 2,000l. towards the foundation of an academy for the promotion of the fine arts at Bristol, which, after her death in March 1849, was supplemented by a bequest of 3,465l. From these sums was erected the present Bristol Academy, which contains samples of paintings by various members of the Sharples family.
Rolinda Sharples (d. 1838), who was an honorary member of the Society of British Artists, painted some works on a larger scale, such as ‘The Trial of the Bristol Rioters’ (1832) and ‘Clifton Racecourse’ (1836), each picture containing a number of small portraits. She died at Bristol on 10 Feb. 1838.
[Redgrave's Dict. of Artists; Dunlap's Hist. of the Arts of Design in the United States; Baker's Engraved Portraits of Washington; Graves's Dict. of Artists, 1760–1893; information from Robert Hall Warren, esq.]
L. C.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Sharpe, Louisa

​SHARPE, LOUISA, afterwards Mrs. Seyffarth (1798–1843), watercolour-painter born in 1798, was the third daughter of William Sharpe, a Birmingham engraver. Her father brought her and her three sisters, who all practised art, to London about 1816.
Louisa, the most gifted of the four sisters, commenced as a miniature-painter, exhibiting portraits at the Royal Academy from 1817 to 1829, when she was elected a ​member of the ‘Old’ Watercolour Society. She then turned to costume subjects, and her domestic and sentimental scenes and illustrations to the poets were much admired for their graceful treatment and exquisite finish. Many of these were engraved for the ‘Keepsake’ and ‘Forget-me-not’ annuals and Heath's ‘Book of Beauty’ between 1829 and 1839. In 1834 Miss Sharpe married Professor Woldemar Seyffarth of Dresden, and thenceforth resided in that city, continuing to exhibit in Pall Mall until her death at Dresden on 28 Jan. 1843. Her daughter Agnes exhibited drawings occasionally at the Royal Academy and the Suffolk Street gallery between 1850 and 1859.
Charlotte Sharpe (d. 1849), the eldest of the family, painted portraits, beginning to exhibit in 1817. On her early marriage with a Captain Morris, she for a time gave up painting, but domestic troubles compelled her to resume the profession, at which she worked for the support of her family until her death in 1849.
Eliza Sharpe (1796–1874), the second sister, began her career as a miniaturist, and was elected in 1829 of the ‘Old’ Water-colour Society, to the exhibitions of which she contributed at intervals for forty years. Her drawings were of the same class as those of her sister Louisa, but inferior in composition and execution; some of them were engraved for the same publications. She retired from membership of the ‘Old’ Watercolour Society in 1872. Towards the end of her life Eliza Sharpe was employed in making watercolour copies of pictures in the South Kensington Museum, her last work being a set of copies of Raphael's cartoons. She died unmarried on 11 June 1874 at the residence of her nephew, Mr. C. W. Sharpe the engraver, at Burnham, Maidenhead. A humorous drawing by her of herself and two of her sisters is in the print-room of the British Museum.
Mary Anne Sharpe (d. 1867), the youngest of the sisters, exhibited portraits and domestic subjects first at the Royal Academy and afterwards with the Society of British Artists, of which she was elected an honorary member in 1830.
[Roget's Hist. of the Old Watercolour Society; Clayton's English Female Artists, 1876; Art Journal, 1874; Graves's Dict. of Artists, 1760–1893; private information.]
F. M. O'D.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Sharpham, Edward

​SHARPHAM, EDWARD (fl. 1607), dramatist, third son of Richard Sharpham of 'Colehanger', Devonshire, was admitted a member of the Middle Temple 9 Oct. 1594. He was author of two plays, ‘The Fleire’ and ‘Cupid's Whirligig.’ The former was acted at Blackfriars in 1605–6, and on several other occasions, by the children of the revels after they had lost their right to the name of the queen's revels. Four editions were published respectively in 1607, 1610, 1615, and 1631. The play resembles Marston's ‘Parasitaster.’ ‘Cupid's Whirligig’ was likewise acted at Blackfriars by the children of his majesty's revels in 1607. Four editions were published respectively in 1607, 1611, 1616, 1630). It is prefaced by dedicatory verses to Robert Hayman. The plot is borrowed in part from Boccaccio (Decameron, vii. 6).
Some verses, signed E. S., prefixed to Henry Peacham's ‘Minerva Britanna,’ have been ascribed to Sharpham without much probability; but a sonnet, ‘To my beloved master, John Davies,’ which serves as preface to Davies's ‘Humours Heav'n on Earth,’ is signed Edward Sharphell, and may have been written by Sharpham.
E. I. C.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Sharpe, Lewis

​SHARPE, LEWIS (fl. 1640), dramatist, lived in the reign of Charles I. He is known as the author of the ‘Noble Stranger,’ a comedy which was first acted ‘at the Private House in Salisbury Court, by Her Majestie's servants,’ and was printed, in 4to, for James Becket, of the Inner Temple Gate, Fleet Street. It is dedicated to ‘the Worthy Knight, Sir Edmund Williams,’ and is prefaced with eulogistic verses by Richard Woolfall. From these it appears to have been a popular piece, frequently acted. Langbaine speaks highly of the play, especially commending the parts of Pupillus and Mercutio. The British Museum contains two copies.
A younger contemporary, Roger Sharpe (fl. 1610), poet, is known as the author of ‘More Fooles yet. Written by R. S.—At London. Printed by Thomas Castleton’ (1610, 4to). An address to the reader is signed Roger Sharpe. The work, which consists of a collection of epigrams, is of extreme rarity. A copy is in the Malone collection in the Bodleian, which formerly belonged to Narcissus Luttrell [q. v.] ({sc|Collier}}, Bibliogr. Catalogue, pp. 340–2; Arber, Transcript of the Stationers' Register, iv. 196; Hazlitt, Handbook, p. 552).
[Langbaine's Account of the English Dramatic Poets, p. 335; Baker's Biographia Dramatica, i. 649, iii. 85; Fleay's Biogr. Chronicle of the British Drama, ii. 232.]
E. I. C.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Turner, Thomas Hudson

​TURNER, THOMAS HUDSON (1815–1852), antiquary, born in London in 1815, was the eldest son of Thomas Turner, a printer in the employ of William Bulmer [q. v.] The elder Turner was a man of culture, possessed considerable knowledge of English literature, and assisted William Gifford (1756–1826) [q. v.] in his edition of ‘Ben Jonson’ with many valuable suggestions.
The younger Turner lost his father at an early age. He was left in poverty and received assistance from Bulmer and from Bulmer's nephew William Nicol. He was educated at a school in Chelsea, where he was distinguished by his thirst for literary and antiquarian knowledge. In his sixteenth year he entered Nicol's office, and devoted his leisure to the pursuit of his favourite studies, but he soon obtained a post at the record office in the Tower, where he read and translated records. Taking advantage of his new opportunities for research, he commenced a history of England during the reigns of John and Henry III, which he did not complete. His labours were finally interrupted by his entering into an undertaking to collect materials for a history of London for Edward Tyrrell, the city remembrancer. In 1841 he edited for the Roxburghe Club ‘Manners and Household Expenses of England in the Thirteenth and Fifteenth Centuries’ (London, 4to), to which he wrote an admirable introduction. Subsequently for a short time he was resident secretary of the Archæological Institute. His principal work was entitled ‘Some Account of Domestic Architecture in England from the Conquest to the end of the Thirteenth Century’ (Oxford, 1851–1859, 3 vols. 8vo. The concluding portion, continuing the history from Edward I to Henry VIII, was by John Henry Parker [q. v.]). The book deals with a wide range of subjects, including furniture and household implements. Turner died in Stanhope Terrace, Camden Town, on 17 Jan. 1852. He contributed many papers to the ‘Archæological Journal,’ and made several communications to the Society of Antiquaries of Newcastle, printed in the third volume of ‘Archæologia Æliana;’ he also wrote an introduction to Lewis's ‘Life of Fisher’ (1855).
[Gent. Mag. 1852, i. 206; English Cyclopædia.]
E. I. C.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Turner, Samuel (d.1647)

1904 Errata appended.
​TURNER, SAMUEL (d. 1647?), royalist, was the elder son of Peter Turner (1542–1614) [q. v.] Peter Turner (1585–1651) [q. v.] was his younger brother. Samuel was admitted B.A. from St. Mary Hall, Oxford, on 11 Feb. 1601–2, and was licensed M.A. from St. Alban Hall on 22 Oct. 1604. He graduated M.D. at the university of Padua in 1611 (Sloane MS. 1729). On 16 Feb. 1625–6 he was returned to parliament for the borough of Shaftesbury in Dorset, and on 11 March he distinguished himself by an attack on Buckingham, telling the House of Commons that ‘that great man the Duke of Buckingham’ was the cause of all their grievances. In a series of questions he boldly accused him of having neglected to guard the seas against pirates, of having caused the failure of the Cadiz expedition by the appointment of unworthy officers, of having engrossed a large part of the crown lands, and of having sold places of judicature and titles of honour. He referred further to the recusancy of Buckingham's father and mother, and declared that it was unfit that he should enjoy so many great offices (Addit. MS. 22474, f. 11; cf. Gardiner, Hist. of England, vi. 76–7). On 14 March Charles sent a message to the house demanding justice on Turner. Turner was ordered by the commons to explain his words, which he did by letter, and was prevented from taking further share in parliamentary proceedings by a timely illness. He was not returned to the next parliament, nor to the Short parliament of 1640; but he resumed his seat in the Long parliament. On 3 May 1641 he was included among the fifty-nine members whose names were posted up by the mob as ‘Straffordians, betrayers of their country,’ because they had voted against Strafford's attainder (Verney, Notes of Proceedings in the Long Parl., Camden Soc., p. 55). On the outbreak of the civil war he took up arms for the king, and obtained a captain's commission. About the end of 1643 he defeated the parliamentarians in a skirmish at Henley. An account of the action which he sent his brother, then a prisoner in London, was published under the title ‘A true Relation of a late Skirmish at Henley upon Thames.’ On 24 Jan. 1643–4 he was disabled from sitting in the Long parliament for ‘being in the king's quarters and adhering to that party’ (Journals of the House of Commons, iii. 374). He sat for Shaftesbury in Charles's parliament at Oxford until its dispersal, and on 21 Nov. 1646 petitioned to compound, and was allowed to purge his delinquency by a fine. He died about 1647, leaving a natural son, Samuel Turner.
[Wood's Fasti Oxon. ed. Bliss, i. 303; Notes and Queries, 7th ser. xii. 428; Foster's Alumni Oxon. 1500–1714; Official Return of Members of Parliament, i. 469, 488.]
E. I. C.
Dictionary of National Biography, Errata (1904), p.268 N.B.— f.e. stands for from end and l.l. for last line
| Page | Col. | Line | |
| 354 | i | 7-6 f.e. | Turner, Samuel (d. 1647?): for According to Wood . . . . foreign university. read He graduated M.D. at the university of Padua in 1611 (Sloane: MS. 1729). |
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Turner, Samuel (1765-1810)

​TURNER, SAMUEL (1765–1810), Irish informer, born in 1765, was the son of Jacob Turner of Turner’s Glen, near Newry, a gentleman of good fortune in co. Armagh. He was educated at Trinity College, Dublin, where he entered on 2 July 1780, graduating B.A. in 1784, and LL.D. in 1787. Turner was called to the Irish bar in 1788, but does not seem to have practised, and became involved in the United Irish movement. He was closely associated with the northern leaders of the United Irishmen, and was a member of the executive committee when its principal leaders were arrested in 1798. Turner had escaped to the continent early in 1797, and spent the next few years at Hamburg, where he maintained the most intimate relations with the Irish patriots. He was included in the act of attainder in 1798 as one concerned in the rebellion ; but in 1803, on the death of his father, he returned to Ireland, and appeared at the bar of the king’s bench, when the attainder was reversed, with the assent of the attorney-general, on proof of Turner’s absence from Ireland for upwards of a year prior to the outbreak of the insurrection. Thenceforward he continued to reside in Dublin until his death, preserving to the end the reputation of a patriot among the popular party in Ireland, and enjoying the friendship of Daniel O’Connell.
The industry of Mr. W. J. Fitzpatrick has, however, conclusively established the treachery of Turner to the cause he espoused, ​and has identified him with the mysterious visitor to Lord Downshire mentioned by Froude in his ‘English in Ireland’ as having in 1797 betrayed important secrets to the Irish government, and with ‘Richardson,’ ‘Furnes,’ and other aliases under which he was known to the government, and by which he is mentioned in the ‘Castlereagh Correspondence,’ and elsewhere. For his services as an informer Turner was awarded a secret pension of 300l. a year by the government, which was subsequently increased to 500l. Sir Arthur Wellesley mentions him in a letter, dated 5 Dec. 1807, as having ‘ strong claims to the favour of the government for the loyalty and zeal with which he conducted himself during the rebellion in Ireland.’ According to Mr. Fitzpatrick, Turner was killed in the Isle of Man in a duel with one Boyce (Fitzpatrick, Secret Service under Pitt, p. 104). The exact date of his death is unknown. It is believed to have been 1810.
C. L. F.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Turner, Thomas (1749-1809)

​TURNER, THOMAS (1749–1809), potter, born in 1749, was the eldest son of Richard Turner (1724?–1791) [q. v.], vicar of Elmley Castle, Worcestershire, by his wife Sarah. Richard Turner (1753–1788) [q. v.] was his younger brother. It has been supposed that Thomas was brought up as a silversmith. He was, however, only formally apprenticed to his father, to qualify him for the freedom of the city of Worcester. It is probable that he was early connected with the Worcester china works. He was an excellent chemist, was a thorough master of the various processes connected with porcelain manufacture, was a skilful draughtsman, designer, and engraver, and was also a clever musician. He was a magistrate for Shropshire and Staffordshire, and a freeman of Worcester, Much Wenlock, and Bridgnorth. In 1772 he succeeded his father-in-law, Gallimore, at his pottery works at Caughley in Shropshire. The works, which were styled ‘The Salopian China Warehouse,’ had gained some repute as early as 1756. The earlier goods produced were not many degrees removed from earthenware, but gradually they assumed ‘a finer and more transparent character. Like the early Worcester examples, the patterns were principally confined to blue flowers, &c., on a white ground; and in this style and colour’ the goods in many respects excelled any contemporary productions.
On succeeding Gallimore, Turner set about enlarging the manufactory. He completed his improvements in 1775, and in 1780 visited France, in order to investigate the methods employed in the porcelain manufactories at Paris. He brought back several skilled workmen, who greatly aided him in his subsequent innovations. Immediately on his return he introduced to England the famous ‘willow pattern,’ and about ​the same time the ‘Brosely blue dragon pattern.’ In 1798 or 1799 Turner retired from the business, which passed into the hands of John Rose, a former apprentice, who carried it on, with his own works at Coalport, under the title Rose & Co. The works were finally abandoned in 1814 or 1815, chiefly owing to difficulties of transport and to the failure of the coal supply.
Turner died in February 1809, and was buried in the family vault at Barrow. He was twice married: first, in 1783, Dorothy Gallimore. She died in 1793 without surviving issue; and he was married, secondly, in 1796, to Mary, daughter of Thomas Milner and widow of Henry Alsop. She died at Bridgnorth on 20 Nov. 1816, leaving a son and daughter.
[Misc. Gen. et Herald. new ser. i. 158; Jewitt's Ceramic Pottery, 1883, pp. 159–64; Chaffers's Marks and Monograms on Pottery and Porcelain, 1897, pp. 740–2; Marryatt's Hist. of Pottery and Porcelain, 1868, p. 400; Art Journal, March 1862.]
E. I. C.