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

​JEFFERY, JOHN (1647–1720), archdeacon of Norwich, was born of humble parentage on 20 Dec. 1647 in the parish of St. Laurence, Ipswich. After passing through Ipswich grammar school he was sent in 1664 to Catharine Hall, Cambridge, and graduated B.A. in 1668, M.A. in 1672, and D.D. in 1696. He was ordained to the curacy of Dennington, Suffolk, where he assiduously studied divinity. The parishioners, impressed by his preaching, unanimously elected him to the living of St. Peter Mancroft in Norwich in 1678 (Blomefield, Norfolk, 8vo ed., iv. 189). His blameless life and great learning soon won for him the regard of Sir Thomas Browne and the chief citizens of Norwich. Sir Edward Atkyns, lord chief baron, who then spent the long vacations in Norwich, gave him an apartment in his house, took him up to town with him, and introduced him to Tillotson, then preacher of Lincoln's Inn. Tillotson often engaged Jeffery to preach for him. In 1687 he became rector of Kirton and vicar of Falkenham, Suffolk, and on 13 April 1694 Tillotson, then archbishop of Canterbury, made him archdeacon of Norwich (Le Neve, Fasti, ed. Hardy, ii. 481). He died on 1 April 1720, and was buried on the 5th in the chancel of St. Peter Mancroft. He married, first, Sarah (d. 1705), sister of John Ireland, apothecary, of Great Yarmouth, Norfolk, by whom he had a son and four daughters; and ​secondly, in 1710, Susan Ganning (d. 1748), by whom he had no issue. Jeffery was an enemy of religious controversy, alleging ‘that it produced more heat than light.’
His portrait, engraved by Anthony Walker after the painting by L. Seeman, is prefixed to his ‘Collection of Sermons and Tracts’ (1751).
His chief writings are: 1. ‘Religion the Perfection of Man,’ 12mo, London, 1689. 2. ‘Proposals to the reverend Clergy of the Archdeaconry of Norwich concerning the reformation of manners and promoting the interest of true religion and virtue,’ 8vo, Norwich, 1700. 3. ‘The Religion of the Bible; or a Summary View of the Holy Scriptures, as the Records of True Religion,’ &c., 8vo, Norwich, 1701. 4. ‘Select Discourses upon divers important subjects,’ 8vo, London, 1710. His shorter works are included in ‘A Complete Collection of the Sermons and Tracts written by … J. Jeffery,’ 2 vols. 8vo, London, 1751.
Jeffery published from his friend Benjamin Whichcot's manuscripts four volumes of ‘Several Discourses,’ 8vo, London, 1701–7; ‘The True Notion of Peace in the Kingdom or Church of Christ,’ 8vo, London, 1717; and ‘Moral and Religious Aphorisms,’ 8vo, London, 1703, an edition of which appeared in 1753, 8vo, London, with large additions by Samuel Bath, D.D. He also edited a posthumous piece by Sir Thomas Browne, which he called ‘Christian Morals,’ 12mo, Cambridge, 1716.
[Memoirs in the Complete Collection by S. Jones; Birch's Life of Tillotson, pp. 326–7; Blomefield's Norfolk, 8vo edit., iii. 641; Cole MS. 5873, f. 7.]
G. G.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Norris, John (1734-1777)

​NORRIS, JOHN (1734–1777), founder of the Norrisian professorship at Cambridge, born in 1734, was the only son of John Norris, (d. 1761), lord of the manor of Witton in Norfolk, by his wife, a Suffolk lady named Carthew. He was educated at Eton and at Caius College, Cambridge, where he graduated B.A. in 1760 (Graduati Cantabr.) He was member's prizeman in 1761. On leaving the university he settled at Great Witchingham, Norfolk, and built a house which he partly pulled down on the death of his first wife in 1769. Coming to live at Witton, he began in 1770 to build Witton House and to lay out grounds. About 1773 Richard Porson [q. v.], who lived in the neighbouring village of East Ruston, was brought to his notice by the Rev. C. Hewitt. Norris caused Porson to be examined, and, on a favourable report, raised, and contributed largely to, a fund for sending him to school. By this means Porson went to Eton (J. S. Watson, Life of Porson). Norris died of fever on 5 Jan. 1777 (Gent. Mag. 1777, p. 47) at his house in Upper Brook Street, London. He was fond of inquiring into religious subjects. He is described as being of a gloomy and reserved disposition, and it is said (Europ. Mag. 1784, p. 334) that though he was ‘respected by all, there were few who were easy and cheerful in his society.’
Norris married first, in 1758, Elizabeth, only daughter of John Playters of Yelverton. She died 1 Dec. 1769, leaving one son, who died in infancy, and Norris erected a monument to her with an eccentric epitaph in St. Margaret's Church, Witton (Notes and Queries, 2nd ser. viii. 286). Secondly, on 12 May 1773, he married Charlotte, fourth daughter of Edward Townshend, D.D., dean of Norwich, and by her had one daughter, Charlotte Laura, who married, 17 Nov. 1796, Colonel John Wodehouse, afterwards second baron Wodehouse. By his will, dated 26 June 1770, Norris charged the Abbey Farm, in the parish of Bacton, Norfolk, with an annuity of 120l. for the foundation of a professorship of divinity at Cambridge, and of an annual prize of 12l. in money and books for an essay on a sacred subject, and also for providing a sermon at Great St. Mary's every Good Friday. The 105l. annually assigned to the professorship has since been augmented from other sources, and the prize is (by statute of 6 April 1858) now awarded every five years. The first ‘Norrisian’ professor was appointed in 1780, and the ‘Norrisian Prize’ was first awarded in the same year. Norris also left 10l. per annum to the vicar of Witton for the performance of service on every Sunday during Lent, and endowed two schools for twelve children each at Witton and Witchingham. Norris's estate of nearly 4,000l. per annum descended to his daughter.
[European Mag. May 1784, pp. 333–4; Cooper's Annals of Cambridge, anno 1777; Blomefield's Norfolk; Norfolk Tour, i. 237–9, ii. 966; Cambridge University Calendar; Potts's Cambridge Scholarships.]
W. W.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Norris, Isaac

​NORRIS, ISAAC (1671–1735), mayor of Philadelphia, was born in London on 21 July 1671. His father, Thomas Norris, emigrated to Jamaica in 1678. In 1690 Isaac was sent to Philadelphia to arrange for the settlement of the family there, but on his return to Jamaica found that they had all perished in the great earthquake at Port Royal. He then went back to Philadelphia, entered into business, and became one of the wealthiest proprietors in the province. During a visit to England in 1706 he assisted William Penn in his difficulties. On his return in 1708 he was elected to the governor's council. He sat in the assembly for many years, was speaker of the house in 1712, justice for Philadelphia county in 1717, and, on the establishment of the high court of chancery, became a master to hear cases with the lieutenant-governor. In 1724 he was elected mayor of Philadelphia, and in 1731 was unanimously chosen justice of the supreme court, but declined the office. It is recorded of him that ‘although a strict quaker, he lived in great luxury for that age, and drove a four-horse coach, on which was emblazoned a coat of arms.’ He owned the ‘slate-roofed house’ in which Penn resided during his second visit to Pennsylvania. His house on Fair Hill, ‘one of the handsomest buildings of the day,’ was burnt by the British during the revolution. For many years Norris was one of the chief representatives of the proprietaries, and by the will of Penn he was named a trustee of the province of Pennsylvania. He died in Philadelphia on 4 June 1735. In 1694 he married Mary, daughter of Thomas Lloyd, governor of Pennsylvania. Their son, Isaac Norris (1701–1766), was a prominent statesman in America.
[J. Parker Norris's Genealog. Record of the Norris Family (1865); Hepworth Dixon's William Penn (1851), p. 410; Appleton's Cyclop. of Amer. Biogr.]
G. G.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Norris, Robert

​NORRIS, ROBERT (d. 1791), African traveller, son of John Norris of Nonsuch, Wiltshire, and brother of William Norris, secretary to the Society of Antiquaries [q. v.], was a Guinea trader, whose personal knowledge of the African coast appears to have reached back at least to 1755 (Memoir, p. 120). In February 1772 he visited the king of Dahomey. He was well received, and gives a curious account of the country and its murderous ‘customs.’ He revisited it in December of the same year. In 1788, when, owing to the vigorous action of the advocates of abolition, a committee of the privy council was appointed to inquire into the slave question, Norris was delegated to lay before it the views of the Liverpool trade, a circumstance which probably led to the publication of his ‘Memoir of the Reign of Bossa Ahadée, King of Dahomey … with an Account of the Author's Visit to Abomey, the Capital, and a Short Account [2nd edition] of the African Slave Trade’ (London, 1789). His account of the slave trade is a defence of slavery. A map of the African coast between Capes Verga and Formosa is indexed under the same name and date in the British Museum maps. Norris died in Liverpool (from the effects of a damp bed on his journey from London) on 27 Nov. 1791.
[Brit. Mus. Catalogues; Gent. Mag. 1789 pt. i. p. 433 (review of book), 1791 pt. ii. p. 1161, 1792 pt. i. p. 88; Brydges's Censura Literaria, v. 222.]
H. M. C.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Leveson-Gower, John (1740-1792)

​LEVESON-GOWER, JOHN (1740–1792), rear-admiral, second son of John, first earl Gower, [see under Leveson-Gower, John, 1675-1709], by his third wife Mary, widow of Anthony Grey, earl Harold. He is said by Collins (Peerage, v. 248), in evident mistake, to have been born in 1743, the date of John's birth was 11 July 1740. ​In the early months of 1760 he was commander of the Kingfisher sloop, and on 30 June was promoted to be captain of the Flamborough frigate. From her he was quickly moved into the Quebec, which he commanded in the Mediterranean, till the peace. He Afterwards commanded the Africa on the coast of Guinea and the West Indies; Aeolus frigate in the Mediterranean, 1766-7; the Pearl on the home and the Newfoundland stations in 1769-72; and the Albion guardship in Plymouth in 1774. In 1777 he was appointed to the Valiant for service in the channel, and in the action off Ushant on 17 July 1778 was one of the Admiral's seconds, the other being Captain Jeryis in the Foudroyant. On the subsequent court martial Gower's evidence was strongly in Keppel's favour, and on Keppels striking his flag after his aquittal, also resigned his command, nor did he serve again until after the change of ministry in March 1782, when he was appointed first captain of the Victory with Lord Howe, and served in that capacity both in the Channel, and later on at the relief of Gibraltar and the skirmish off Cape Spartel. From January to April 1783 and again from December 1783 to July 1788 Gower was one of the junior lords of the admiralty with Lord Howe, continuing at the admiralty with the Earl of Chatham til January 1790. During this time he hoisted a broad pennant in the Hebe frigate in 1785, for a summer cruise around Great Britain with Prince William Henry; and in the Edgar in 1787, in command of the Channel squadron. On 24 Sept. 1787 he was advanced to be rear-admiral, and in the following summer hoisted his flag again in the Edgar in the Channel. During the Spanish armament in 1790 he was again first captain to Lord Howe. He died of an apoplectic fit on 15 Aug. 1792. He married in 1773 Frances, daughter of Admiral the Hon. Edward Boscawen, by whom he left a son.
J. K. L.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Levett, Robert

​LEVETT or LEVET, ROBERT (1701?–1782), ‘that odd old surgeon whom Johnson kept in his house to tend the out-pensioners,’ a native of Hull in Yorkshire, was born about 1701. Some part of his early life was spent in Paris. There he became a waiter in a coffee-house much frequented by French surgeons, who, pleased with Levett's inquisitive turn of mind, procured him instruction in pharmacy and anatomy. Settling in London he seems ​to have acquired some practice as a surgeon. Probably about 1746 he made the acquaintance of Dr. Johnson. In a letter to Baretti of 20 July 1762 Johnson speaks of him as recently married to a woman of the town, who, notwithstanding the fact that their place of rendezvous had always been a small coal-shed in Fetter Lane, had persuaded Levett ‘that she was nearly related to a man of fortune, but was injuriously kept by him out of large possessions.’ Goldsmith, alluding to this misfortune to Boswell in July 1763, said: ‘Levett is now become miserable, and that insures the protection of Johnson.’ It appears that Johnson was the means of effecting a separation between the pair, and some time in 1763 Levett became a regular inmate of his house. Boswell calls him ‘aukward and uncouth,’ but Johnson found him ‘useful and companionable.’ ‘Levett, madam,’ he said to Mrs. Thrale, ‘is a brutal fellow, but I have a good regard for him, for his brutality is in his manners, not in his mind’ (Mme d'Arblay, Diary and Letters, i. 63). After making tea for Johnson on the latter's rising at about eleven o'clock in the morning, Levett usually went round among his patients, then attended Hunter's lectures, and did not return until late at night. His relations with the rest of the household were somewhat strained. His chief failing was over-indulgence in drink, but this, as Johnson observes, was mainly the result of extreme prudence. ‘He reflected that if he refused the gin or brandy offered him by some of his patients he could have been no gainer by their cure, as they might have had nothing else to bestow on him. He would swallow what he did not like, nay, what he knew would injure him, rather than go home with an idea that his skill had been exerted without recompense.’
He died suddenly on 17 Jan. 1782, and was buried on 20 Jan. in Bridewell cemetery (Wheatley and Cunningham, i. 244). Writing of his loss some weeks after to Bennet Langton [q. v.], whom Levett had in the first instance introduced to him, Johnson remarked: ‘How much soever I valued him, I now wish that I had valued him more.’ In the ‘Annual Register’ for 1783 (p. 189) appeared some verses by Johnson on his humble friend, which make touching reference to Levett's good qualities. Some time before his own death Johnson discovered by means of advertisement Levett's brothers, who were living obscurely in Yorkshire, and divided his modest savings among them.
T. S.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Leveson-Gower, Harriet Elizabeth Georgiana

1904 Errata appended.
​LEVESON-GOWER, HARRIET ELIZABETH GEORGIANA. Duchess of Sutherland (1806–1866), third daughter of George Howard, sixth earl of Carlisle, and Lady Georgiana Dorothy Cavendish, eldest daughter of the fifth Duke of Devonshire, was born 21 May 1806. On 28 May 1823 she was married to her cousin George Granville Leveson-Gower, earl Gower (1786–1861), who had been elected M.P. for St. Mawes, Cornwall, in 1808, and succeeded his father as second Duke of Sutherland in 1833. He had previously been debarred from matrimony by a romantic attachment for Louise, the unfortunate queen of Prussia; but the union with Lady Harriet Howard proved one of affection. By the duchess's influence Stafford House, St. James's Palace, became an important centre of society (Lord Ronald Gower, Reminiscences, vol. i. chap. i.), and the starting-point of various philanthropic undertakings. There the protest of the English ladies against American slavery was framed in 1853. On the accession of Queen Victoria the duchess was appointed mistress of the robes, and held that post when the whigs were in office until her husband's death (August 1837 to September 1841, July 1846 to March 1852, January 1853 to February 1856, June 1859 to April 1861). From the queen's refusal to part with the duchess and her other ladies arose the bedchamber crisis of 1639, with the result that the whigs returned to office. ​Her majesty has given a sympathetic description of the duchess's character (Martin, Prince Consort, ii. 246), and after the death of the prince consort spent the first weeks of her widowhood with the duchess as her solitary companion. The duchess's last public appearance was at the Prince of Wales's marriage in 1863. In that year she was seized with an illness from which she never recovered. However, she was able to entertain Garibaldi, for whom she had great admiration, at Chiswick House and Trentham, Staffordshire, during his visit to England in April 1864. She died 27 Oct. 1868.
The duchess's letters, of which a selection has been published by her son Lord Ronald Gower in Stafford House Letters, pts.iv-vi., prove her to have been possessed of an affectionate disposition, with some sense of humour. She had also a taste for architecture and gardening. Her eleven children included George Granville William Sutherland, the third duke [see under Leveson-Gower, George Granville, first Duke]; of her daughters, Elizabeth (1824-1878) was married in 1844 to the eighth Duke of Argyll; Evelyn (1826-1869) to the twelfth Baron Blantyre in 1843; Caroline (1828-1687) to the fourth Duke of Leinster in 1847; and Constance (1838-1880) to the first Duke of Westminster in 1852.
[Lord Ronald Gower's Reminiscences, 1883; Stafford House Letters. edited by the same, 1891.]
L. C. S.
Dictionary of National Biography, Errata (1904), p.181 N.B.— f.e. stands for from end and l.l. for last line
| Page | Col. | Line | |
| 153 | i | 30 | Leveson-Gower, Harriet E. G., Duchess of Sutherland: for 1838 read 1832 and for the first Duke read Earl Grosvenor, afterwards first Duke |
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Levett, Henry

​LEVETT, HENRY, M.D. (1668–1725), physician, son of William Levett or Levet of Swindon, Wiltshire, was born in 1668. He was sent to the Charterhouse, which he left in 1686, entering 12 June at Magdalen Hall, Oxford. In the following month he was elected a demy of Magdalen College, and was present during the contest about the king's visitorial power in the autumn of 1687. He was probably expelled with most of the other demies during the winter, and on 30 June 1688 was elected a fellow of Exeter College. He graduated B.A. 24 Nov. 1692, M.A. 7 July 1694, M.B. 4 June 1695, and M.D. 22 April 1699. He settled in London, and was elected a fellow of the College of Physicians 23 Dec. 1708. On 29 April 1707 he was elected physician to St. Bartholomew's Hospital, and on 5 Jan. 1712–13 became physician to the Charterhouse, where he lived till his death on 2 July 1725. He rebuilt, at his own cost, the physician's house by the great gate in Charterhouse Square. The house is still standing, and the beautiful oak carving and panelling which he put up remain in the rooms. It is now the residence of the surgeon-apothecary to the foundation. He was censor of the College of Physicians in 1717 and treasurer for five years. Among his friends were Dr. William Wagstaffe [q. v.] and Dr. John Freind [q. v.], and he was throughout life an adherent of the high church party. Hearne wrote of him at the time of his death as ‘a sweet-tempered man, a most excellent physician, well-beloved, very honest as a complyer, and had an excellent study of books.’ His tomb, with an elegant Latin inscription commemorating his love for the Charterhouse, is in the chapel of the brethren in the Charterhouse, London. His widow remarried in 1729 Andrew Tooke (1673–1731), head-master of Charterhouse.
On 10 June 1710 Levett wrote, at Dr. Freind's request, a letter on the treatment of small-pox. In this he relates two cases, and expresses an opinion in favour of the use of cathartics. The letter, which is in Latin, is printed in the Latin edition of Dr. Freind's collected works, published in 1733. It seems probable that he also wrote the short memoir of Dr. Wagstaffe, prefixed to the first edition of the latter's ‘Miscellaneous Works’ in 1725. In the second edition (1726) the author of Wagstaffe's ‘Character’ is described as an ‘eminent Physician, no less valued for his skill in his profession, which he shewed in several useful treatises, than admired for his Wit and Facetiousness in Conversation.’
N. M.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Clarke, Samuel (1684-1750)

​CLARKE, SAMUEL, D.D. (1684–1750), theological writer, was born, 16 Dec. 1684, at Chelsea. His father, Benjamin Clarke (1653–1722), was the youngest son of Daniel Clarke (1609–1654), vicar of Kirk Burton, Yorkshire, a brother of Samuel Clarke (1599–1683) [q. v.] His mother was his father's cousin, Elizabeth (1656–1736), daughter of Samuel Clarke (1626–1701) [q. v.] Through reading the works of his great-grandfather, Clarke's mind received deep religious impressions, and he went through a course of preparation ​for the ministry. Though offered preferment in the church of England, he declined it on conscientious grounds. He became the pastor of a nonconformist congregation at St. Albans, where he was greatly esteemed for his consistent character and faithful labours. The first charity school in connection with a dissenting congregation was instituted by Clarke, giving gratuitous education in reading, writing, and arithmetic to thirty boys and ten girls. Though Clarke published some sermons, the work for which he is remembered is his ‘Collection of the Promises of Scripture,’ arranged systematically. It is a mere compilation, but it has been often reprinted, and is still a popular religious volume. Clarke was on intimate terms with Doddridge, Watts, and Orton, and of the same theological school. Doddridge was his special friend; it was in going to preach Clarke's funeral sermon that he caught the illness which caused his death (4 Dec. 1750). It is said that Clarke suggested to Dr. Doddridge some of the books which he published; in particular, his ‘Principles of the Christian Religion.’ Clarke married Sarah Jones, of St. Albans (1701–1757), by whom he had a son, Joseph (1738–1807), and other issue.
[The Saints' Inheritance; being a collection of the Promises of Scripture, arranged by Samuel Clarke, D.D., with notice of the author prefixed; Burke's Landed Gentry, i. 241.]
W. G. B.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Clarke, Matthew (1701-1778)

​CLARKE, MATTHEW (1701–1778), physician, was born in London in 1701, and became a medical student at Leyden in 1721. His inaugural dissertation for M.D. at Leyden, on pleurisy, was read in 1726. He was admitted M.D. at Cambridge in 1728, and fellow of the London College of Physicians in 1736, and was censor in 1743. He was elected physician to Guy's Hospital in 1732, and resigned that office in 1754. Soon retiring from practice, he resided at Tottenham till his death in November 1778.
[Munk's Coll. of Phys. 1878, ii. 131.]
G. T. B.