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

​ULTAN (d. 656), Irish saint, called of Ardbrecain to distinguish him from eighteen other saints of the same name in the Irish calendar, was the tribal bishop of his clan, the Dal Conchubhair, whose country lay round Ardbrecain in Meath. As his episcopal jurisdiction in later times became part of that of Meath, he is considered an ecclesiastical predecessor of the bishops of that diocese. The mother of St. Brigit [q. v.], who was Broicsech of the Dal Conchubhair, was his kinswoman. In the ‘Tripartite Life of St. Patrick’ Ultan is said to have made collections for the ‘life’ of St. Patrick, and Tirechan in the ‘Book of Armagh’ is made to say that Ultan told him, as an eye-witness, of Patrick's life. This error has led to the statement that Ultan was aged 189 when he died in 656. He is mentioned in later writings as a biographer of Brigit, and the Irish hymn (Liber Hymnorum, i. 110), ‘Brigit be bith-maith’—‘Brigit, woman ever good’—is attributed to him, as is the Latin hymn (ib. i. 14), ‘Christus in nostra insola quæ vocatur Hibernia,’ but in each case other authors are possible. Besides his literary occupations, Ultan is always mentioned as feeding and teaching orphans, and as addicted, like St. Erc of Slane, to bathing in cold water. His well at Killinkere in Cavan, near the borders of Meath, was long a place of pilgrimage; 4 Sept. is celebrated as the day of his death. A hymn in his honour is printed by Dümmler in his ‘Poetæ Latini Ævi Carolini.’
[Colgan's Trias Thaumaturga, 1645; Liber Hymnorum, ed. Bernard and Atkinson (Bradshaw Society), 1897; Whitley Stokes's Tripartite Life of St. Patrick (Rolls Ser.) 1887, and Lives of Saints from the Book of Lismore, 1890; O'Donovan's Martyrology of Donegal, and Annala Rioghachta Eireann, vol. 1.]
N. M.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1912 supplement/Wellesley, George Greville

​WELLESLEY, Sir GEORGE GREVILLE (1814–1901), admiral, born on 2 Aug. 1814, was third and youngest son of Gerald Valerian Wellesley, D.D. (1770–1848), prebendary of Durham (the youngest brother of the duke of Wellington), by his wife Lady Emily Mary, eldest daughter of Charles Sloane Cadogan, first Earl Cadogan. He entered the navy in 1828, taking the course at the Royal Naval College, Portsmouth. He passed his examination in 1834, and received his commission as lieutenant on 28 April 1838. In Jan. 1839 he was appointed to the flagship in the Mediterranean for disposal, and on 30 March was sent from her to the Castor frigate, in which he served for over two years, ending the commission as first lieutenant. In her he took part in the operations of 1840 on the coast of Syria, including the attacks on Caiffa, Jaffa, Tsour, and St. Jean d'Acre; he was twice gazetted and received the Syrian and Turkish medals with clasp. In November 1841 he was appointed to the Thalia, frigate, going out to the East Indies, and from her was, on 16 April 1842, promoted to commander and appointed to the Childers, brig, which he paid off two years later. On 2 Dec. 1844 he was promoted to captain, and in that rank was first employed in the Daedalus, which he commanded in the Pacific from 1849 to 1853. In February 1855 he was appointed to the Cornwallis, screw 60 gun ship, for the Baltic, and commanded a squadron of the fleet at the bombardment of Sveaborg. He received the Baltic medal, and in February 1856 the C.B. The Cornwallis then went for a year to the North America station, after which Wellesley was for five years in command of the Indian navy. He was promoted to rear-admiral on 3 April 1863, and in June 1865 was appointed admiral superintendent at Portsmouth, and held the post for four years. On resigning it he was appointed, on 30 June 1869, commander-in-chief on the North America and West Indies station, and on 26 July following became vice-admiral. He returned home in September 1870, and from October 1870 to September 1871 was in command of the Channel squadron. In September 1873 he again became commander-in-chief on the North America station, where he remained till his promotion to admiral on 11 Dec. 1875. From November 1877 to August 1879 he was first sea lord in W. H. Smith's board of admiralty. In June 1879 he was awarded a good service pension, and retired on 2 August of the same year. He was raised to the K.C.B. in April 1880, and to the G.C.B. at the Jubilee of 1887. In 1888 be became a commissioner of the Patriotic Fund. He died in London on 6 April 1901.
Wellesley married on 25 Jan. 1853 Elizabeth Doughty, youngest daughter of Robert Lukin. She died on 9 Jan. 1906, leaving a daughter, Olivia Georgiana, wife of Lieut.-col. Sir Henry Trotter, K.C.M.G.
[O'Byrne's Nav. Biog. Dict.; The Times, 8 and 12 April 1901; R.N. List; Burke's Peerage; a photographic portrait was published in Illus. London News, 1901.]
L. G. C. L.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1912 supplement/Westall, William

​WESTALL, WILLIAM [BURY] (1834–1903), novelist and journalist, born on 7 Feb. 1834 at White Ash, near Blackburn, in Lancashire, was eldest son of John Westall, a cotton spinner of White Ash, by his wife Ann, daughter of James Bury Entwistle. Richard Westall the painter [q. v.] belonged to the same stock. After being educated at the Liverpool high school, Westall engaged in his father's cotton-spinning business. But about 1870 he retired, lived much abroad, and devoted himself ​to journalism. While at Dresden he sent articles to ‘The Times’ and ‘Spectator,’ and moving to Geneva in 1874 acted as foreign correspondent both to ‘The Times’ and the ‘Daily News,’ besides editing the ‘Swiss Times,’ of which he became part proprietor. His first book, ‘Tales and Traditions of Saxony and Lusatia,’ appeared in 1877, but his earliest success in fiction, ‘The Old Factory,’ a story of Lancashire life with strong local colouring, was issued in 1881. His later novel, ‘Her Two Millions’ (1897), amusingly depicts the conditions of Anglo-continental journalism in Geneva, where Westall became acquainted with Russian revolutionaries, particularly with Prince Kropotkin and with S. Stepniak (i.e. Sergyei Mikhailowitch Kravchinsky). He persuaded the latter to settle in London, and collaborated with him in translations of contemporary Russian literature, and of Stepniak's book on the aims of reform, ‘Russia under the Czars’ (1885). Westall was long a prolific writer of novels, drawing freely on his experiences alike in Lancashire and on the continent and further afield. He extended his travels to North and South America and to the West Indies, but finally returned to England, making his residence in Worthing.
He died at Heathfield, Sussex, on 9 Sept. 1903, and was buried there. He had just completed his latest novel, ‘Dr. Wynne's Revenge.’
Westall was married twice: (1) on 13 March 1855 to Ellen Ann, second daughter of Christopher Wood of Silverdale, Lancashire, by whom he had two sons and one daughter; and (2) at Neuchâtel on 2 Aug. 1863, to her elder sister Alicia, by whom he had two sons and two daughters.
A portrait—a bad likeness—belongs to Westall's daughter, Mrs. Chadwick, Clyde House, Heaton Chapel. A large photograph hangs in the Whitefriars Club.
Westall's numerous novels, which are of old-fashioned type, mainly dependent on incident and description, comprise, besides those mentioned:
* ‘Larry Lohengrin,’ 1881 (another edition, ‘John Brown and Larry Lohengrin,’ 1889).
* ‘The Phantom City,’ 1886.
* ‘A Fair Crusader,’ 1888.
* ‘Roy of Roy's Court,’ 1892.
* ‘The Witch's Curse,’ 1893.
* ‘As a Man sows,’ 1894.
* ‘Sons of Belial,’ 1895.
* ‘With the Red Eagle,’ 1897.
* ‘Don or Devil,’ 1901.
* ‘The Old Bank,’ 1902.
[The Times, 12 Sept. 1903; T. P.'s Weekly, 18 Sept. 1903; Who's Who, 1903; Brit. Mus. Cat.; private information.]
E. S. H-r.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Lancaster, Henry of

​LANCASTER, HENRY of [See Henry IV.]
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Lancaster, Hume

​LANCASTER, HUME (d. 1860), painter, showed great promise at one time as a painter of the sea, of scenes on the French and Dutch coasts, and of views on the Scheldt. From 1836 to 1849 he was an exhibitor at the Royal Academy, the Society of British Artists, of which he was elected a fellow in 1841, and at the British Institution. He lived in retirement and poverty, and died at Erith in Kent on 3 July 1850. Some of his pictures were engraved in the London 'Prize Annual of the Art Union' for 1848.
L. C.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Lancaster, Nathaniel

​LANCASTER, NATHANIEL (1701–1775), author, born in 1701 in Cheshire, was in early life a protégé of the Earl of Cholmondeley, who introduced him to polite society. He was appointed rector of St. Martin's, Chester, on 12 June 1725, and in January 1733 was made a chaplain to the Prince of Wales. In the following February he was created D.D. by the Archbishop of Canterbury (Gent. Mag. 1864, i. 637). On 17 Feb. 1733 he married the widow of Captain Brown, ‘a lady with a fortune of 20,000l.’ In September 1737 he obtained the rectory of Stanford Rivers, near Ongar, Essex. He died there on 20 June 1775. In his later years he acted as justice of the peace (see two letters of his describing his administration of justice, Gent. Mag. liv. 345). He was considered a brilliant conversationalist, but earned a reputation for extravagance and impecuniosity, ‘which urged him to indecent applications for the supply of his necessities.’
Lancaster wrote:
* 'Public Virtue, or the ​or the Love of our Country,’ London, 1746.
* ‘The Pretty Gentleman, or Softness of Manners vindicated from the false ridicule exhibited under the character of William Frible, Esq.,’ a pretended reply to Garrick's ‘Miss in her Teens,’ but in reality a veiled and caustic satire on the softness of manners which Garrick was ridiculing; reprinted in ‘Fugitive Pieces,’ London, 1761, 1765, 1771; Dublin, 1762. The identification of it as Lancaster's is due to a letter of Dodsley's to Shenstone (see Fugitive Pieces, 1771).
* ‘The Plan of an Essay upon Delicacy, with a Specimen of the Work in two Dialogues,’ London, 1748.
* ‘Methodism Triumphant, or the Decisive Battle between the Old Serpent and the Modern Saint,’ London, 1767, 4to, a long rhapsodical poem.
[Nichols's Lit. Anecd. ii. 379, repeated verbatim in Chalmers, and taken verbatim from Hull's Select Letters, i. 70, ii. 132; Gent. Mag. vols. iii. v. vii. xlv. liv.; Ormerod's Cheshire; Watt's Bibl. Brit.]
W. A. S.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Lancaster, John

​LANCASTER, JOHN (d. 1619), bishop of Waterford and Lismore, possibly a member of the Somerset family of Lancaster, was chaplain to James I. In June 1607 he went over to Ireland with a letter from the king to the lord deputy giving Lancaster the bishopric of Ossory should it be vacant (Cal. State Papers, Dom. Irish Ser. 1606–8, p. 197). A later letter gave him any see that should become vacant before Ossory (ib. p. 249). He was consecrated bishop of Waterford and Lismore in 1608. In consequence of the small revenues of the bishopric, he had license in 1610 to hold no less than twelve prebends in commendam, as well as the treasurership of Lismore. He was considered to be well inclined to the Romanists, and gave offence to the citizens in June 1609, because he would not allow the mayor to hold up his sword in the cathedral precincts (ib. 1608–10, p. 214). In July 1611 he was reported to the Archbishop of Canterbury as being ‘of no credit’ in his diocese (ib. 1611–1614, p. 81). In 1618 he received a thousand acres in the Wexford plantation (ib. ​He was married, and had several children, one of whom, John Lancaster, was a clergyman in Ireland,
[Cotton's Fasti. vol. i, passim, ii. and v.; Ware's Bishops, ed. Harris.
W. A. J. A.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Lancaster, John of

​LANCASTER, JOHN of. [See John Duke of Bedford.]
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1927 supplement/Bainbridge, Francis Arthur

​BAINBRIDGE, FRANCIS ARTHUR (1874-1921), physiologist, was born 29 July 1874 at Stockton-on-Tees, the elder son of Robert Robinson Bainbridge, chemist, of that town, by his wife, Mary Sanderson. Educated at the Leys School, College, Cambridge, where he studied physiology and took a first class in both parts of the natural science tripos; (1895-1897). He then entered St. Bartholomew’s Hospital, London, obtaining his M.B. degree at Cambridge in 1901 and the M.D. in 1904.
Bainbridge’s work at this period, excellent though it was, gave no suggestion of the abilities which he was later to display. Medicine did not appeal to him, and for a time, seeing no opening in pure physiology, he devoted himself to pathology and bacteriology. In 1905 he became Gordon lecturer on pathology at Guy’s Hospital, and in 1907 he went as assistant bacteriologist to the Lister Institute of Preventive Medicine, where his work on food-poisoning bacilli gained wide recognition, and was later embodied in his Milroy lectures at the Royal College of Physicians (1912). In 1911 he became professor of physiology at Durham University and was now able to give undivided attention to the subject which he loved best. His success here was immediate, and when, in 1915, a chair of physiology was instituted at St. Bartholomew’s Hospital, he was recalled to fill the post, which he occupied till his premature death, which took place in London on 21 October 1921. He was elected F.R.S. in 1919. He married in 1905 Hilda Winifred, daughter of the Rev. Edward Thornton Smith, of Bickley, Kent, by whom he had one daughter. Bainbridge was of slight physique and had indifferent health. He was not an impressive teacher, though his lucidity of mind rendered him a very successful one. But he was a brilliant experimenter, bestowing careful thought beforehand on a proposed research, and possessing both ingenuity in devising experiments and high technical skill in carrying them out. Thus his contributions to physiological science were of lasting value. Chief among them were his early work on the mechanism of lymph formation, that on urinary secretion and on the effect on the body of partial removal of the kidneys, and, above all, his later studies on the circulation, in which he established the law that increase of pressure on the venous side of the heart accelerated the rate of the beat. Apart from numerous scientific papers, his most important publication was a monograph on The Physiology of Muscular Exercise, a masterly review of the subject (1919).
[The Times, 29 October 1921; Proceeding of Royal Society, vol. xciii, B, 1922; private information; personal knowledge.]
F. W. A.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1927 supplement/Barbellion, W. N. P.

​BARBELLION, W.N.P. (pseudonym), diarist and biologist. [See Cummings, Bruce Frederick.]
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1927 supplement/Balfour or Burleigh, sixth Baron

​BALFOUR or BURLEIGH, sixth Baron (1849-1921), statesman. [See Bruce, Alexander Hugh.]
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1912 supplement/Bodda Pyne, Louisa Fanny

​BODDA PYNE, Mrs. LOUISA FANNY (1832–1904), soprano vocalist, born in London on 27 Aug. 1832, was youngest daughter of George Pyne, alto singer (1790–1877), and niece of James Kendrick Pyne, tenor singer (d. 1857). She studied singing from a very early age under (Sir) George Smart, and in 1842, at the age of ten, made a successful appearance in public with her elder sister Susan at the Queen's Concert Rooms, Hanover Square. In 1847 the sisters performed in Paris, and in August 1849 Louisa made her debut on the stage at Boulogne as Amina in 'La Sonnambula.' Lablache offered to take her to St. Petersburg and Moscow, but she declined because the engagement would have involved her singing on Sunday, to which she had a strong objection. Some years later Auber made her an advantageous offer to appear at the Opera Comique in Paris, which she refused on the same grounds. Her first original part was Fanny in Macfarren's 'Charles II,' produced at the Princess's Theatre on 27 Oct. 1849. On 14 Aug. 1851 she performed the Queen of Night in Mozart's 'II Flauto magico' at Covent Garden, and during the season fulfilled many important oratorio and concert engagements. In August 1854 she went to America with William Harrison (1813-1868) [q .v.], and was received there with great enthusiasm, staying through three seasons. On her return to England in 1857 she went into partnership with Harrison, lessee of the Lyceum and Drury Lane Theatres, for the performance of English opera. The Harrison-Pyne enterprise was inaugurated with success at the Lyceum on 21 Sept. 1857, and was transferred to Covent Garden next year, where the performances continued each winter till 19 March 1862. No other undertaking of the kind lasted so long. Nearly a dozen new operas, by Balfe, Benedict, Glover, Mellon and Wallace were produced, but the success of the venture was not maintained. Pungent, not to say derisive, notices in 'The Musical World' finally assisted to kill the enterprise. Subsequently Miss Pyne transferred her services to Her Majesty's Opera House and the Haymarket. In 1868 she married Frank Bodda, the baritone singer. She then retired from public life and successfully engaged in teaching in London. Her husband died on 14 March 1892, aged sixty-nine. She received a civil list pension of 70Z. in 1896, and died without issue in London on 24 March 1904. Her sister Susan, who married Frank H. Standing, a baritone vocalist known as F. H. Celli, died in 1886.
F. C.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1912 supplement/Bloomfield, Georgiana

​BLOOMFIELD, GEORGIANA, Lady (1822–1905), author, born on 13 April 1822 at 51 Portland Place, London, was sixteenth and youngest child of Thomas Henry Liddell, first Baron Ravensworth, by his wife Marion Susannah, daughter of John Simpson of Bradley Hall, co. Durham. She was educated at home, and in December 1841 became maid of honour to Queen Victoria, resigning in July 1845. On 4 Sept. 1845, at Lanesley church, co. Durham, she married John Arthur Douglas, second Baron Bloomfield [q. v.], and accompanied her husband on his diplomatic missions, going at first to St. Petersburg, thence to Berlin (1851-60), and to Vienna (1861-71). There were no children of the marriage, and after her husband's death at his residence, Newport, co. Tipperary, in 1879, Lady Bloomfield settled at Shrivenham, in Berkshire, to be near her sister, Jane Elizabeth, widow of the sixth Viscount Barrington. When Lady Barrington died on 22 March 1883, Lady Bloomfield removed to Bramfield House, about two miles from Hertford. Here she exercised much hospitality and interested herself in the affairs of the village.
In 1883 she published 'Reminiscences of Court and Diplomatic Life' (2 vols.), 'a constant ripple of interesting anecdote,' as Augustus J. C. Hare described Lady Bloomfield's conversation (cf. Story of My Life, 1900, vol. vi.). She edited in 1884 a 'Memoir of Benjamin, Lord Bloomfield' [q. v.], her father-in-law, in 2 volumes. Her last work, 'Gleanings of a Long Life' (1902), collected extracts from her favourite books.
Lady Bloomfield, a 'grand dame' of an old school, kept up her friendship with Queen Victoria and her family, and delighted in social intercourse with all classes. While deeply religious on old, low church lines, she was tolerant and charitable. She founded in 1874 the Trained Nurses' Annuity Fund, and built and endowed almshouses on her husband's estate near Newport, co. Tipperary. She sketched well in water-colours, and her sketches formed a sort of diary of her journeys. She was an accomplished musician, playing the organ; was a good billiard player, and an excellent gardener.
She died, after a long illness, at Bramfield House on 21 May 1905, and was buried in the family mausoleum beside her husband in the churchyard of Borrisnafarney, King's County, Ireland.
[Lady Bloomfield's Reminiscences of Court and Diplomatic Life, 1883; The Times, 23 May 1905; Allibone, Dict. of Eng. Lit., Suppl. 1; Burke's Peerage, 1907; private information.]
E. L.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1912 supplement/Blouet, Léon Paul

​BLOUET, LÉON PAUL ('Max O'Rell') (1848–1903), humorous writer, born in Brittany on 2 March 1848 and educated in Paris, served as a cavalry officer in the Franco-German war, was captured at Sedan, set at liberty early in 1871, and severely wounded in the second siege of Paris. In 1872 (having been retired on account of his wound) he came to England as correspondent to several French papers, and four years later became French ​master at St. Paul's school, wrote several manuals and edited texts. In 1887, under the pseudonym of 'Max O'Rell,' which he permanently adopted, he dedicated to John Bull his 'John Bull et son Île,' a vivacious picture of English eccentricities and racial characteristics. It was translated by his English wife (born Bartlett) and achieved a success so rapid as to determine the writer to abandon his teaching career, successful as it had hitherto proved, for one of popular writing and lecturing. There flowed from his pen in rapid succession 'John Bull's Womankind' (1884), 'The Dear Neighbours' (1885), 'Friend Macdonald' (1887), 'Drat the Boys' (1886), in collaboration with Georges Petilleau, 'John Bull, Junior' (1889), 'Jonathan and his Continent' (1889), 'A Frenchman in America' (1891), 'John Bull and Co.' (1894), 'Woman and Artist' (dedicated to his wife, 1900), 'Her Royal Highness Woman' (dedicated 'to the nicest little woman in the world,' 1901), 'Between Ourselves' (1902), and 'Rambles in Womanland' (1903). All of these were written originally in French and were produced almost simultaneously in English. Many were translated into other languages. In 1887 and 1890 he lectured in America; in 1893 with his wife and daughter he made a round of the English colonies, his readiness as a speaker and lecturer ensuring him a welcome everywhere from people who like to see their foibles presented in a humorous light. In 1902 he settled in the Champs Elysées quarter of Paris as correspondent of the 'New York Journal' and wrote in the French 'Figaro' in support of the entente cordiale between England and France. He died of cancer in the stomach at 9 Rue Freycinet on 25 May 1903, and was buried in the church of St. Pierre de Chaillot. A tolerant, shrewd, and on the whole impartial observer, on lines inherited from Voltaire, About, Taine, and Jules Verne, Blouet mixed a good deal of flattery with his smart and witty banter, and with the leverage thus gained was able now and again to tell an unpalatable truth, not entirely without effect.
[The Times, 26 May 1903; Illustr. Lond. News, 30 May 1903 (portrait); Nouveau Larousse; Men and Women of the Time; Blouet's works.]
T. S.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1912 supplement/Blumenthal, Jacques

​BLUMENTHAL, JACQUES [JACOB] (1829–1908), composer of songs, born at Hamburg on 4 Oct. 1829, was son of Abraham Lucas Blumenthal. Destined from youth for the musical profession, he studied under F. W. Grand in Hamburg and under C. M. von Bocklet and Sechter in Vienna. He entered the Paris Conservatoire in 1846, studying the piano under Herz, and also under Halevy. In 1848 he settled in London, becoming pianist to Queen Victoria and a fashionable teacher, and was naturalised as a British subject. He published numerous fugitive piano pieces and a very large number of songs, some of which, such as 'The Message' and 'The Requital' (1864) and 'We Two' (1879), achieved a lasting popularity. His more ambitious attempts at composition attracted no attention. A pianoforte trio and a 'Morceau de Concert for Piano,' both early works, were printed; but his published 'Albums of Songs' alone represented his characteristic work.
He died on 17 May 1908 in Cheyne Walk, Chelsea. He married in 1868 Leonie Souvoroff Gore, leaving no issue. In accordance with his wish, his widow assigned the valuable copyrights of his songs to the Royal Society of Musicians. His portrait, painted in 1878 by G. F. Watts, R.A., was presented by his widow to the Royal College of Music.
[Grove's Dict.; Musical World, June 1908; Musical Times, June 1908; personal inquiry.]
F. C.