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

​IMMYNS, JOHN (d. 1764), musician, became an attorney in youth, but a love of gaiety ruined his professional chances. Reuced to poverty, he was for a time clerk to a city attorney, but his predilection for music led to his appointment as amanuensis to Dr. Pepusch, the musician, and as copyist to the Academy of Ancient Music. He became an active member of the academy. When forty years of age he taught himself the lute, solely by the aid of Mace's 'Musick's Monument;' attained a certain degree of proficiency, and procured the post of lutenist to the Chapel Royal, in succession to John Shore. He was also an indifferent performer on the flute, violin, viol da gamba, and harpsichord.
Immyns's voice, a strong but not very flexible alto, was excellently suited for the performance of madrigals. In 1741 he founded the Madrigal Society. Its original members were mostly mechanics, Spitalfields weavers, and the like. At their meetings, which were held in an alehouse in Bride Lane, Fleet Street, to vary the entertainment of singing catches, madrigals, rounds, &c., Immyns would sometimes read by way of lecture a chapter of Zarlino translated by himself. In various years he filled the annual office of president of the society. In September 1763 a letter was written to him by the society exempting him from all offices, and asking him to allow his name to remain on the roll of members. He is stated to have been an enthusiastic collector of the music of the earlier composers, especially madrigal writers, but to have had no taste for the music of his time. He died of asthma in Coldbath Fields, 15 April 1764. His son John was for some time organist of Surrey Chapel.
R. F. S.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Impey, John

​IMPEY, JOHN (d. 1829), legal writer, was for over sixty years a member of the Inner Temple, although he practised as an attorney at 3 Inner Temple Lane, and was for many years, until 1813, one of the attorneys of the sheriff's court of London and Middlesex. John Thelwall [q. v.], the lecturer, spent three and a half years of his unsettled youth in his office, and acknowledged that Impey's 'only fault was swearing.' During the last three years of his life Impey lived in retirement at Hammersmith, where he died 14 May 1829. One W. J. Impey, who published 'Questions on the Practice of the Courts of King's Bench and Common Pleas,' may have been a son.
Impey's books contain the first systematic account of the practice of the two great common law courts, and he stood high as an authority on this subject even with the bench (Letter of Impey, 1797, Brit. Mus. Add. MS. 21507, fol. 311). He published:
* 'The New Instructor Clericalis, stating the Authority, Jurisdiction, and Practice of the Court of King's Bench,' London, 1782, 8vo; it reached a tenth edition in the author's ​lifetime (1823).
* 'The New Instructor Clericalis, stating the Authority, Jurisdiction, and Practice of the Court of Common Pleas,' London, 1784, 8vo; a seventh edition was published in 1826.
* 'The Practice of the Office of Sheriff,' London, 1786, 8vo, dedicated to Lord Ellenborough. To which was added in the second edition (1800) 'The Practice of the Office of Coroner' (5th edit. 1822).
* 'The Modern Pleader,'London, 1794, 8vo.
[Prefatory Memoir to John Thelwall's Fairy of the Lake, Hereford, 1801; Life of John Thelwall, by his widow, 1837; Thomas Lee's Dict. of Practice in Courts of King's Bench and Common Pleas (Pref. v.), 1825; Clarke's New Law List, 1803-28; Gent. Mag. 1829, pt. ii. p. 282.]
J. T-t.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Illidge, Thomas Henry

​ILLIDGE, THOMAS HENRY (1799–1851), portrait-painter, born at Birmingham on 26 Sept. 1799, belonged to a family resident near Nantwich in Cheshire. Illidge's father removed to Manchester, and dying early left a young family scantily provided for. Illidge was educated at Manchester, and was taught drawing. He was subsequently the pupil in succession of Mather Brown and William Bradley [q.v.] He tried landscape painting, but married early; and had recourse to portrait-painting as more profitable than landscape-painting. He was successful as a portrait-painter in the great manufacturing towns of Lancashire, painting many of the civic or financial celebrities of the locality. He was a frequent exhibitor at the Liverpool Academy from 1827. In 1842 he came to London, and was from that time a constant exhibitor at the Royal Academy. In 1844, on the death of H. P. Briggs, R.A., he purchased the lease of his house in Bruton Street, Berkeley Square, where he commenced practice as a popular and fashionable portrait-painter. He died unexpectedly of fever on 13 May 1851. There are portraits by him in many public institutions at Liverpool, Preston, and elsewhere.
L. C.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Imlay, Gilbert

​IMLAY, GILBERT (fl. 1793), author and soldier, was born in New Jersey about 1755, as may be inferred from an allusion in the preface to his account of Kentucky. He served in the American war of independence on the patriotic side, attaining the rank of captain. After its termination he went to ​Kentucky, where he was employed as 'a commissioner for laying out lands in the back settlements.' It is uncertain when he came to Europe, but in 1792 his 'Topographical Description of the Western Territory of North America' was published in London. It is in the form of letters to a friend, represented as the anonymous editor, but it may be doubted whether the person and the epistolary style were not equally a disguise. The book is full of information, evincing both knowledge and ability on the part of the writer; it was reprinted at New York in 1793 with a supplement by John Filson, and republished in London, with additions, in 1797. In 1793 Imlay published a three-volume novel, 'The Emigrants,' the writer, as an American observer of English institutions, proposing 'to place a mirror to the view of Englishmen, that they may behold the decay of those features which once were so lovely,' and in particular to induce them 'to prevent the sacrilege which the present practices of matrimonial engagements necessarily produce.' How Imlay worked these views out is uncertain, as the only accessible copy of his novel is imperfect. The scene is laid in America in districts familiar to him, the conduct of the story is artless, the style matter of fact, and he may be easily believed when he says that he 'was only induced to give the work the style of a novel from believing that it would prove more attractive to the generality of readers.' It may be doubted whether this anti-matrimonial performance promoted his connection with Mary Wollstonecraft, or was a consequence of it; probably the latter, as he writes in his preface as one no longer in England. He was certainly in France by April 1793, at which time he formed that memorable connection with Mary Wollstonecraft which has gained her the sympathy of all readers of her impassioned letters, and left him with the unenviable character of 'the base Indian who threw a pearl away richer than all his tribe' [see under Godwin, Mary Wollstonecraft]. Imlay was evidently inconstant, sensual, and unfeeling. He lived with Mary at Havre and in London for about eighteen months, and parted with her in the autumn of 1795. The last glimpse we have of him is in April 1796, when, as Godwin tells us, he and Mary Wollstonecraft 'met by accident upon the New Road; he alighted from his horse and walked with her for some time; and the rencounter passed, as she assured me, without producing in her any oppressive emotion' (Godwin, Memoir, 1798, p. 145). He probably returned to America; the time and place of his death are unknown.
R. G.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Kerr, William (1662?-1722)

​KERR, WILLIAM, second Marquis of Lothian (1662?–1722), eldest son of Robert, first marquis [q. v.], and grandson of William Kerr, third earl of Lothian [q. v.], was born about 1662. On the death of his kinsman Robert Kerr, third Lord Jedburgh, in 1692, he succeeded to that title, and sat in parliament as Lord Jedburgh. He was colonel of the 7th regiment of dragoons, 1 Oct. 1696, and a stout adherent of the revolution. On his father's death, 15 Feb. 1703, he became Marquis of Lothian, was created a knight of the Thistle in 1705, cordially supported the union, and was chosen a representative peer of Scotland in 1708. On account, however, of some informalities this election was cancelled, but he was re-elected in 1715. He obtained the command of the 3rd foot-guards, 25 April 1707, with the rank of lieutenant-general, 1708, and was deprived of his regiment on a change of administration in 1713, but afterwards became major-general on the North British staff. Macky, the court spy in the time of Queen Anne, describes him about the date of his succession to the marquisate in the following terms: 'He hath abundance of fire, and may prove himself a man of business when he applies himself that way; laughs at all revealed religion, yet sets up for a pillar of presbytery, and proves the surest card in their pack, being very zealous though not devout; he is brave in his person, loves his country and his bottle, a thorough libertine, very handsome, black, with a fine eye, forty-five years old' (Memoirs, pp. 197, 198). This character is generally borne out by references to him in letters of the period. He married his first cousin, Lady Jean Campbell, daughter of Archibald, ninth earl of Argyll, who was beheaded in 1685, and he did so purely from a chivalrous desire to befriend those who he believed were suffering wrongfully (ib.). The marquis died at London on 28 Feb. 1722, aged 60, and was interred in King Henry VII's Chapel in ​Westminster Abbey. A full-length portrait of Lothian, attributed to Scougal, is at Newbattle. He was succeeded by his son William, and left four daughters: Anne, married to Alexander, seventh earl of Home; Jean, married to William, fifth lord Cranston; Elizabeth, married to George, twelfth lord Ross; and Mary, married to Alexander Hamilton of Ballincrief.
H. P.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Kerr, William Henry

​KERR, WILLIAM HENRY, fourth Marquis of Lothian (d. 1775), the elder son of William, third marquis, and Margaret Nicholson of Kempney, was a captain in the first regiment of foot-guards in 1741. He acted as aide-de-camp to the Duke of Cumberland at Fontenoy, 30 April 1745, when he was severely wounded by a shot in the head. He also attended the duke at Culloden, having command there of the cavalry on the extreme left wing of the royal army, after which he was placed for a short time in charge of all the forces on the east of Scotland. In December 1746 he again accompanied the duke to the continent. On the death of his granduncle, Lord Mark Kerr, he was promoted to be colonel of his regiment, the 11th dragoons, and was, as lieutenant-general, with the duke in his expedition to the east coast of France in 1758. He was styled Lord Jedburgh until his marriage in 1735, when he assumed the title of Earl of Ancrum. He represented Richmond in parliament in 1747, and was reelected by the same constituency in 1754 and 1761, but resigned in 1763. He succeeded as fourth Marquis of Lothian on his father's death on 28 July 1767. In 1768 he was chosen one of the sixteen representative peers of Scot1and, and on the same day, 26 Oct., was invested as a knight of the Thistle at St. James's Palace. He was promoted to the rank of general in the army in 1770, and died at Bath on 12 April 1775. He married in 1735 Caroline d'Arcy, only daughter of Robert, third earl of Holderness. The marchioness died in October 1778. By her Lothian left a son and successor, William John, fifth marquis, and two daughters, Louisa, married to Lord George Henry Lennox, and Willielmina Emilia, married to John Macleod, colonel R.A.
H. P.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Ker, Walter

​KER, Sir WALTER (d. 1584?), of Cessfurd, eldest son of Sir Andrew Ker of Cessfurd [q. v.], by his wife Agnes, daughter of Robert, second lord Crichton of Sanquhar, was served heir to his father 12 May 1528. He had charters of various lands on 23 April and 21 Sept. 1542, and in 1543 he received the lands and barony of Cessfurd, with the castle of the same and their annexes (Reg. Mag. Sig. 1513–46, entry 2785). In October 1552 Sir Walter Scott of Buccleuch was killed in the High Street of Edinburgh in a nocturnal encounter with the Kers, headed by Sir Walter of Cessfurd. On 8 Dec. they petitioned the privy council regarding the ‘unhappy chance,’ offering to submit to anything to save their lives and heritages (Reg. P. C. Scotl. i. 133). It was decided that they should be banished to France, but on 16 May 1553 they received a full pardon (ib. p. 141). On 9 Aug. of this year Cessfurd, with John Ker of Ferniehirst and Andrew Ker of Hirsell, signed a bond to be ‘leill and trew men’ to John Hamilton, archbishop of St. Andrews, and James, earl of Arran, &c. (Hamilton MSS., Hist. MSS. Comm. 11th Rep. App. pt. vi. p. 39). On 28 Aug. 1559 he was appointed one of the commissioners to treat for the ransoming of prisoners taken by the English in the late war (Cal. State Papers, For. Ser. 1558–9, entry 1266). Cessfurd as a catholic sympathised with the queen-regent, but in April 1560 he came with Lord Home to the camp of the lords of the congregation (ib. Scott. Ser. p. 140). On the return of the young Queen Mary to Scotland Cessfurd was reappointed to his old office of warden of the middle marches (Reg. P. C. Scotl. i. 169). When the chiefs of the border clans were ordered in 1567 to enter the castle of Edinburgh on the pretext that they might hinder the success of Bothwell's expedition into Liddesdale, Cessfurd, ‘a weill-meaning man, suspecting nothing,’ was the only one except Ker of Ferniehirst who obeyed (Calderwood, ii. 360). He was one of the chief leaders against the queen at Carberry Hill (ib. p. 363), and also at Langside, where he fought side by side with Lord Home (Sir James Melville, Memoirs, p. 201). On 3 April 1569 he signed the bond of Teviotdale, promising obedience to the regent (Reg. P. C. i. 653), and he served under Morton at the siege of Edinburgh. When Ker of Ferniehirst and others of the queen's party advanced to plunder Jedburgh in 1571, the inhabitants sent to Cessfurd for assistance, and by his aid and that of Lord Ruthven they were completely routed (Calderwood, iii. 155). Cessfurd was one of those who, under Atholl and Argyll, took up arms against Morton in 1578. In 1582 he signed the bond which resulted in the raid of Ruthven. He died in 1584 or 1585. By his wife Isabel, daughter of Andrew Ker of Ferniehirst [q. v.], he had two sons: Andrew, who predeceased him, and William, warden of the middle marches; and two daughters: Agnes, married to John Edmonstoune of Edmonstoune, and Margaret, to Alexander, fourth earl of Home.
T. F. H.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Kerr, Mark (d.1584)

​KERR or KER, MARK (d. 1584), abbot of Newbattle, was the second son of Sir Andrew Ker of Cessfurd [q. v.], by Agnes, daughter of Robert, second lord Crichton of Sanquhar. In 1546 he was promoted abbot of Newbattle, and on renouncing popery in 1560 continued to hold the benefice in commendam. He was one of those who, on 26 April of this year, signed at Edinburgh the contract to defend the 'evangell of Christ' (Knox, ii. 64). Subsequently he was presented to the vicarage of Linton, Peeblesshire, by the abbot and convent of Kelso, and his presentation was confirmed by the commissioners 4 Aug. 1567, in opposition to one made by the crown. At a parliament held at Edinburgh on 15 Dec. of this year he was appointed one of a commission to inquire into the jurisdiction that should pertain to the kirk. On 20 April 1569 he was nominated an extraordinary lord of session, and he was also chosen a member of the privy council. By one of the articles of the Pacification of Perth in February 1572-3 he was nominated one of the judges for the trial 'of all attempts committed against the abstinence be south the water of Tay' (Reg. P. C. Scotl. ii. 195). At the fall of Morton in 1578 he was one of the extraordinary council of twelve appointed to carry on the government in the king's name (Moysie, Memoirs, p. 6; Calderwood, iii. 397). He was also one of the four delegates deputed on 28 Sept., after Morton had seized Stirling Castle, to meet Morton's delegates for the purpose of arranging the terms of a reconciliation. Receiving in 1581, after the second fall of Morton, a ratification of the commendatorship of Newbattle, he continued to be a steadfast supporter of Esmé Stuart, duke of Lennox. On 15 July 1581 he was appointed to hear and report on the case of Sir James Balfour, who was endeavouring to get reinstated in his rights of citizenship (Reg. P. C. Scotl. iii. 463). After the raid of Ruthven the commendator was, with Lord Herries, despatched by Lennox with offers of conciliation to the now dominant party. The proposals were rejected. Kerr died in 1584. By his wife, Lady Helen Lesley, second daughter of George, fourth earl of Rothes, he had four sons: Mark, first earl of Lothian [q. v.]; Andrew of Fenton; George, the catholic emissary, in whose possession the 'Spanish blanks' were found, and William; and a daughter, Catherine, married to William, lord Herries. There are portraits of Kerr and his wife, ascribed to Sir Antonio More [q. v.], preserved at Newbattle.
[Histories of Knox and Calderwood; Moysie's Memoirs (Bannatyne Club); Hist. King James the Sext (Bannatyne Club); Register of the Privy Council of Scotland, vols. ii. and iii.; Douglas's Scottish Peerage (Wood), ii. 130.]
T. F. H.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Kerr, Robert (1755-1813)

​KERR, ROBERT (1755–1813), scientific writer and translator, was born at his father's seat, Bughtridge, Roxburghshire, in 1755. His father, James Kerr, convener of the trades (1746) and M.P. for Edinburgh from 1747 to 1754, was great-grandson of Sir Thomas Ker of Redden, brother of Robert Ker, first earl of Ancrum [q. v.] His mother, Elizabeth Kerr, was grand-daughter of Robert Kerr [q. v.], first marquis of Lothian. He studied at Edinburgh High School and at the university with a view to the medical profession, and became surgeon to the Edinburgh Foundling Hospital, but relinquished a successful medical career for the management of a paper mill at Ayton, Berwickshire, which eventually proved a failure. He returned to Edinburgh about 1810, and occupied himself with historical and biographical work. His valuable translations from Lavoisier and Linnæus procured his election as fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh in 1805. He was also a member of the Scottish Society of Antiquaries. He died at Edinburgh 11 Oct. 1813.
The following is a list of his works:
* 'Elements of Chemistry' (from the French of Lavoisier), Edinburgh, 1790; 2nd edit. 1793.
* 'Essay on the New Method of Bleaching by means of Oxygenated Muriatic Acid' (from the French of Berthollet), Edinburgh, 1790.
* 'The Animal Kingdom, or Zoological System of Linnæus.' A translation of part i. of the 'Systema Naturæ,' with additions, Edinburgh, 1792, 4to.
* 'The Natural History of Oviparous Quadrupeds and Serpents' (from the French of Lacepède), London, 1802.
* 'Statistical, Agricultural, and Political Survey of Berwickshire,' 1809, 8vo.
* 'Memoirs of the Life, Writings, and Correspondence of the late Mr. William Smellie,' Edinburgh, 1811.
* 'The History of Scotland during the reign of Robert I, surnamed the Bruce,' Edinburgh, 1811, 8vo.
* 'Essay on the Theory of the Earth' (from the French of Cuvier), 1813, 8vo. Ker compiled vols. i-x. of 'A General History and Collection of Voyages and Travels,' London, 1811-24, 18 vols.
[Scots Mag. 1813, p. 880; Irving's Eminent Scotsmen, p. 254; Timperley's Anecdotes, pp. 788, 935; Donaldson's Agricultural Biography; Foster's Members of Parlt. Scotland; Watt's Bibl. Brit.; Brit. Mus. Cat.; Gent. Mag. May 1814 (pt. i. p. 524), where the date of death is wrong.
T. S.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Genest, John

​GENEST, JOHN (1764–1839), writer, was the son of John Genest of Dunker's Hill, Devonshire. He was educated at Westminster School, entered 9 May 1780 a pensioner at Trinity College, Cambridge, and graduated B.A. 1784 and M.A. 1787. He took holy orders, and was for many years curate of a retired Lincolnshire village. Subsequently he became private chaplain to the Duke of Ancaster. Compelled by ill-health to retire, he went to Bath for the benefit of the waters. Here he appears to have remained until his death, which took place, after nine years of great suffering, at his residence in Henry Street, 15 Dec. 1839. His body is buried in St. James's Church. During his stay in Bath he wrote ‘Some Account of the English Stage from the Restoration in 1660 to 1830,’ Bath, 10 vols. 1832, 8vo, a work of great labour and research, which forms the basis of most exact knowledge concerning the stage. Few books of reference are equally trustworthy, the constant investigation to which it has been subjected having brought to light few errors and none of grave importance. Genest is not undeservedly hard on his predecessors who followed one another in error. The index to the book is ample, but its arrangement does not greatly facilitate research.
J. K.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Geldart, James William

​GELDART, JAMES WILLIAM, LL.D. (1785–1876), professor of law at Cambridge, eldest son of the Rev. James Geldart, rector of Kirk Deighton, Yorkshire, who died 12 Nov. 1839, by Sarah, daughter of William Williamson of Linton Spring, Wetherby, Yorkshire, was born at Swinnow Hall, Wetherby, 15 Feb. 1785, and educated at Beverley grammar school. He was admitted at Trinity Hall, Cambridge, 5 May 1800, and became a scholar in December 1803. On 16 Feb. 1808 he was elected Skirne fellow of St. Catharine's Hall, but returned to Trinity Hall as a fellow and tutor on 4 Oct. 1809, and resided there as vice-master until 1820. He took the degree of LL.B. in 1806 and became LL.D. in 1814. On 28 Jan. 1814 he was admitted regius professor of civil law at Cambridge, on the nomination of the Earl of Liverpool, and continued to fulfil the duties of that post until 1847. After the death of his father, and on his own presentation, he became rector of Kirk Deighton in January 1840, and held that benefice until his death, which took place in the rectory house there on 16 Feb. 1876. He was buried in Kirk Deighton churchyard on 19 Feb. His literary work consists of ‘An Analysis of the Civil Law. By Samuel Halifax, bishop of Gloucester. A new edition, with additions, being the heads of a course of Lectures read in the University of Cambridge by J. W. Geldart,’ 1836.
Geldart married, 4 Aug. 1836, Mary Rachel, daughter of William Desborough of Kensingford Grey, Huntingdonshire, who survived him. He left two sons, the Rev. J. W. Geldart, rector of Kirk Deighton, and H. C. Geldart, who was sheriff of ​Cambridgeshire and Huntingdonshire in 1887–8.
G. C. B.