OpenLLM-France/wikimedia huggingface dataset:
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Clark, Thomas (1820-1876)

​CLARK, THOMAS (1820–1876), landscape painter, born in Whiteside, Stirlingshire, 14 Nov. 1820, son of William Clark, W.S., sheriff-substitute of Clackmannanshire, was educated at Dollar. In the course of his school days he sustained an injury to his shoulder, the effects of which crippled him through life. Having early resolved to become a painter, he prosecuted at Edinburgh the necessary studies.
Clark exhibited first at the Royal Scottish Academy when twenty years of age, and was elected an associate of the Academy in November 1865. At that period he resided at No. 11 Castle Street, Edinburgh. He painted both in water and oil colours; his subjects were chiefly scenes in Scotland, but were sometimes taken from localities south of the border. He was in the habit of wintering in the south, a few years before his death, which took place at Dundarach, Aberfoyle, 7 Oct. 1876. Among his better works may be mentioned, 'Waiting for the Ferry,' 'A Quiet Morning on Loch Awe,' 'Spring,' 'Summer,' and 'The Farm Yard, Woodside, Surrey.'
[Private information.]
L. F.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Clark, William (1821-1880)

​CLARK, WILLIAM (1821–1880), civil engineer and inventor, was born at Colchester, 17 March 1821. He went to King's College, London, in 1842, and was elected an associate of the college in 1845. Soon afterwards he became a pupil of, and subsequently an assistant to, J. Birkinshaw, M. Inst. C.E., under whom he was employed for three years on the works of the York and North Midland railway system. In 1850 he was connected with Sir Goldsworthy Gurney in the warming and ventilation of the houses of parliament. In 1851 he entered into partnership with A. W. Makinson, M. Inst. C.E., the firm devoting special attention to the warming and ventilating of public buildings. He shortly afterwards obtained the appointment of surveyor to the local board of health of Kingston-upon-Hull, and devised a complete system of drainage for that town. In 1854 he entered the service of the East Indian Railway Company, and, after acting for a year as resident engineer on a portion of the East India railway, became the secretary and subsequently the engineer to the municipality of Calcutta. Clark devoted himself with zeal to his work, and very soon proposed a complete scheme for the drainage of the city, only imperfectly carried out owing to the expense. He also devised a system of waterworks, comprising three large pumping stations, with their filter beds and settling tanks. He returned to England in 1874, when he entered into partnership with W. F. Batho, M. Inst. C.E., and in the same year received the appointment of consulting engineer to the Oudh and Rohilkund Railway Company. In December 1874 he visited Madras, where he remained four months planning a system of drainage for that city. He was selected by the colonial office in 1876, in concert with the government of New South Wales, to advise and report upon the water supply and drainage of Sydney. During a residence of two years in the Australian colonies he prepared schemes of a like description for Port Adelaide, Newcastle, Bathurst, Goulburn, Orange, Maitland, and Brisbane, and afterwards for Wellington and Christchurch in New Zealand. Among Clark's inventions was his tied brick arch, of which examples exist in Calcutta and in other places in India; and he was joint patentee with Batho of the well-known steam road roller. Among his schemes was a proposal for reclaiming the salt-water lakes in the neighbourhood of Calcutta. He was elected a member of the Institution of Civil Engineers 2 Feb. 1864, and a member of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers in 1867. He died from an affection of the liver, at Surbiton, 22 Jan. 1880. He was the writer of ‘The Drainage of Calcutta,’ 1871.
[Minutes of Proceedings of Inst. of Civil Engineers, lxiii. 308–10 (1881); Proceedings of Inst. of Mechanical Engineers, 1881, p. 3.]
G. C. B.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Clark, William (d.1603)

​CLARK, WILLIAM (d. 1603), catholic priest, received his education at the English college, Douay, where he arrived on 6 Aug. 1587 (Records of the English Catholics, i. 216). Two years later he proceeded to the English college at Rome, and he was one of eight priests sent thence to England in April 1592 (ib. 298; Foley, Records, vi. 117). He took an active part in the violent disputes between the secular clergy and the Jesuits consequent on the appointment of Blackwell as archpriest, and he was one of the thirty-three priests who signed the appeal against Blackwell dated from Wisbech Castle, 17 Nov. 1600 (Dodd, Church Hist. ed. Tierney, iii. Append, p. cxliv). An unsuccessful attempt was made to give to the first clause of the breve of Clement VIII, in favour of the appellants (5 Oct. 1602), the appearance of restoring to them faculties which had been recently withdrawn, and at the same time to exclude Clark, Watson, and Bluet from its operation (ib. p. clxxxi). In 1602 he was an inmate of the Clink prison, Southwark. He and William Watson, another of the appellant priests, were induced to join the mysterious plot of Sir Walter Raleigh, Lord Cobham [see Brooke, Henry, d. 1619], and others against James I. On being apprehended Clark was committed to the Gatehouse at Westminster, and thence removed to the Tower. He and most of the other prisoners were afterwards conveyed to Winchester under a strong guard, where they were tried and condemned on 15 Nov. 1603. The leaders in the conspiracy were pardoned; but George Brooke [q. v.], Clark, and Watson suffered the punishment of traitors at Winchester on 29 Nov. Sir Dudley Carleton, who was present, says: 'The two priests that led the way to the execution were very bloodily handled.' He adds that Clark 'stood somewhat upon his justification, and thought he had hard measure; but imputed it to his function, and therefore thought his death meritorious, as a kind of martyrdom' (Hardwicke, State Papers, i. 387).
He wrote 'A Replie unto a certain Libell latelie set foorth by Fa. Parsons, in the name ​of the united Priests, intituled, A Manifestation of the great folly and bad spirit of certaine in England calling themselves Secular Priestes,' 1603, 4to, sine loco.
[Butler's Memoirs of the English Catholics (1822), ii. 81, 82; Records of the English Catholics, i. 225; Dodd's Church History, ii. 387, and Tierney's edition, iii. pp. 62, cxxxiii, clvii, clxxx, vol. iv. p. xlii; Cobbett's State Trials, ii. 62; Foley's Records, i. 28, 29, 35; Gardiner's Hist. of England (1883), i. 109, 138, 139; Gillow's Bibl. Dict. i. 488; Flanagan's Hist. of the Church in England, ii. 273.]
T. C.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Clark, Richard (1739-1831)

1904 Errata appended.
​CLARK, RICHARD (1739–1831), city chamberlain, was born in the parish of St. Botolph-without-Aldgate in March 1789. He was admitted an attorney, and obtained a considerable practice in his profession. In 1776 he was elected the alderman of the Broad Street ward on the resignation of Alderman Hopkins, and in the following year served the office of sheriff. At the bye election in September 1781, occasioned by the death of Alderman Hayley, he contested the vacant seat for the city but was defeated by Sir Watkin Lewes, the lord mayor, by 2,685 to 2,387. In 1784 Clark was elected lord mayor, and on 19 May 1785 was appointed president of Christ’s Hospital. On the death of Wilkes he was elected chamberlain of London, 2 Jan. 1798. In the same year he resigned his posts of alderman and president of Christ's Hospital, and was appointed president of Bridewell.
He was fond of mixing in literary society, and in 1785 was elected a fellow of the Society of Antiquaries. At the age of fifteen he was introduced by Sir John Hawkins to to Dr. Johnson, whose suppers at the Mitre Tavern in Fleet Street he used frequently to attend. He was also a member of the Essex Head Club, for which he had been proposed by Johnson himself. In 1776 Clarke married Margaret, the daughter of John Pistor, a woollendraper in Aldersgate, by whom he left two sons. In 1774 he purchased the Porch House in Guildford Street, Chertsey, famous as the last residence of Cowley the poet. Here Clark lived during the latter days of his life. He died at Chertsey on 16 Jan. 1831, in his ninety-second year, having held the post of chamberlain for thirty-three years. His bust, executed by Sievier in 1829, and his portrait, painted by Sir Thomas Lawrence are in the possession of the corporation at Guildhall.
[Gent Mag. (1831), ci. (pt. i.) 184-6, 652; Boswell's Johnson (Croker). iv. 202 n., v. 148; Brayley's Surrey (1850), ii. 216-17; Trollope's Christie Hospital (1831), p. 345. For a list of those who were presented with the honorary freedom of the city while Clark was chamberlain, see London's Roll of Fame (1884), chap. vi.]
G. F. R. B.
Dictionary of National Biography, Errata (1904), p.66 N.B.— f.e. stands for from end and l.l. for last line
| Page | Col. | Line | |
| 404 | i | 27 | Clark, Richard (1739-1831): for on 19 May read in May |
| | | 32-33 | for appointed president of Bridewell read was treasurer of Bridewell from 1781 till death. He was colonel of a regiment of City militia 1778-94 |
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Clark, William (1698-1780?)

​CLARK, WILLIAM (1698–1780?), physician, a native of Wiltshire, studied medicine at Leyden, where he graduated M.D. in 1727. He practised in London for some years, and removed to Bradford in Wiltshire in 1747. Retiring from practice in 1772, he lived at Colchester, dying there about 1780. His Leiden dissertation for M.D. was published in London in English in 1752, under the title 'A Medical Dissertation concerning the effects of the Passions on Human Bodies.' He also wrote 'The Province of Midwives,' London, 1751.
[Munk's Coll. of Phys. 1878, ii. 132; Clark's Works.]
G. T. B.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Nelson, Alexander Abercromby

​NELSON, Sir ALEXANDER ABERCROMBY (1816–1893), lieutenant-general, born at Walmer, Kent, in 1816, and educated at the Royal Military College, Sandhurst, was, on 6 March 1835, appointed ensign 40th foot (now 1st batt. South Lancashire), in which regiment his two brothers, and subsequently his son, also served. He became lieutenant on 15 March 1839, and was in sole charge of the commissariat of the Bombay column during the operations under Sir William Nott [q. v.] at Kandahar and in Afghanistan in 1841–2 (medal). He accompanied the Bombay column, under Colonel Stack, which proceeded from Ferozepore to join Sir Charles James Napier [q. v.] in Sind, was present at the battle of Haidarabad, 24 March 1843 (medal), and was thanked by the governor-general of India and the Bombay government for the manner in which the duties of the commissariat were performed. He was aide-de-camp to Sir Thomas Valiant at the battle of Maharajpore, 29 Dec. 1843, and had a horse shot under him (mentioned in despatches and bronze star). On 31 July 1846 he obtained an unattached company. He was appointed adjutant of the Walmer depot battalion, 7 April 1854, but immediately afterwards was made deputy assistant adjutant-general, and subsequently brigade-major, at Portsmouth, which post he held during the period of the Crimean war and the Indian mutiny. He became major unattached 6 June 1856, lieutenant-colonel 9 Dec. 1864, and colonel 9 Dec. 1869. In 1865, when deputy adjutant-general in Jamaica, he was appointed brigadier-general to command the troops at St. Thomas-in-the-East at the time of the insurrection, for his services in suppressing which he received the thanks of government, and was unanimously voted a sum of two hundred guineas for a testimonial by the Jamaica House of Assembly. He was lieutenant-governor of Guernsey from 1870 to 1883, and was a J.P. for Middlesex. Nelson became a major-general in 1880, and a retired lieutenant-general in 1883. He was made C.B. in 1875 and K.C.B. in 1891. He married in 1846 Emma Georgiana, daughter of Robert Hibbert, of Hale Barns, Altrincham, Cheshire. She died in 1892. Nelson died at his residence near Reading on 28 Sept. 1893.
H. M. C.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Neilson, Laurence Cornelius

​NEILSON, LAURENCE CORNELIUS (1760?–1830), organist, was born in London about 1760. At the age of seven he went with his parents to the West Indies, where his father died. Returning with his mother to London, he studied music under Valentine Nicolai, and began teaching at Nottingham and Derby. He was organist for two years at Dudley, Worcestershire, and in 1808 succeeded to the teaching engagements of Samuel Bower at Chesterfield, where he died in 1830. His compositions, none of which are important, include pianoforte sonatas, duets, songs, a 'Book of Psalms and Hymns,' and some flute music. His son, E. J. Neilson, was one of the ten foundation students of the Royal Academy of Music.
[Biographical Dictionary of Musicians, 1824; Brown's Dictionary of Musicians.]
J. C. H.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Neilson, John (1778-1839)

​NEILSON, JOHN (1778–1839), benefactor of Paisley, born in Paisley on 14 Dec. 1778, was the younger son of John Neilson, grocer in Paisley, and Elizabeth Sclatter, his wife. John entered his father's business, and before 1812 became, with his elder brother James, a partner in the firm, which was ​then styled John Neilson and Sons. James died on 12 Nov. 1831; John, continuing to carry on the business, amassed a considerable fortune, and purchased the lands of Nethercommon, where he died on 6 Nov. 1839. He was buried in the churchyard beside Paisley Abbey. A tombstone was erected to his memory and to that of his brother. He was a man of reserved habits, and entirely given up to business. By his deed of settlement he set apart a sum of 17,187l. ‘to form and endow for the educating, clothing, and outfitting, and, if need be, the maintaining of boys who have resided within the parliamentary boundary of Paisley for at least three years, whose parents have died either without leaving sufficient funds for that purpose, or who from misfortune have been reduced, or who from the want of means are unable to give a suitable education to their children.’ Although the trustees were required to feu or purchase a piece of ground in Paisley for the erection of an institution at any time within five years, yet they were forbidden to commence building till after the expiry of that time. As a site for the building the trustees secured the town's bowling-green, the most conspicuous situation in Paisley, formerly the prætorium of a Roman camp. On this they erected a building which forms one of the chief architectural adornments of the town. The John Neilson Institution is now one of the best schools in the west of Scotland. There have been nearly nine hundred pupils educated as foundationers. The attendance at the opening of the institution in 1852 was about five hundred; it is now over nine hundred. The trustees are invested with ‘the most ample and unlimited powers,’ the only restriction being that ‘the education shall be based on the scriptures.’ The school was incorporated in 1889 in a scheme made by the commissioners under the Educational Endowments (Scotland) Act, 1882.
G. S-h.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Neligan, John Moore

​NELIGAN, JOHN MOORE (1815–1863), physician, son of a medical practitioner, was born at Clonmel, co. Tipperary, in 1815. He graduated M.D. at Edinburgh in 1836, and began practice in his birthplace. Thence he moved to Cork, where he lectured on materia medica and medical botany in a private school of anatomy, medicine, and surgery in Warren's Place. In 1840 he took a house in Dublin, and in 1841 was appointed physi​cian to the Jervis Street Hospital. He also gave lectures on materia medica from 1841 to 1846, and on medicine from 1846 to 1857, in the Dublin school of Peter Street. He published in 1844 ‘Medicines, their Uses and Mode of Administration,’ which gives an account of all the drugs mentioned in the London, Scottish, and Irish pharmacopœias, and of some others. Their sources, medicinal actions, doses, and most useful compounds are clearly stated; and the compilation, though containing no original matter, was useful to medical practitioners, and went through many editions. He enjoyed the friendship of Robert James Graves [q. v.], the famous lecturer on medicine, and in 1848 edited the second edition of his ‘Clinical Lectures on the Practice of Medicine.’ In the same year he published ‘The Diagnosis and Treatment of Eruptive Diseases of the Scalp,’ which was printed at the Dublin University Press. He describes as inflammatory diseases herpes, eczema, impetigo, and pityriasis, and as non-inflammatory porrigo, and gives a lucid statement of their characteristics in tabular form; but he was ignorant of the parasitic nature of herpes capitis, as he calls ringworm, and seems not to have noticed the frequent relation between eczema of the occiput and animal parasites. From 1849 to 1861 he edited the ‘Dublin Quarterly Journal of Medical Science,’ and published many medical papers of his own in it. In 1852 he published ‘A Practical Treatise on Diseases of the Skin,’ and, like most men who attain notoriety as dermatologists, issued in 1855 a coloured ‘Atlas of Skin Diseases.’ His treatise is a compilation from standard authors, with a very small addition from his own experience. The subject is well arranged, and so set forth as to be useful to practitioners. It was much read, and led to his treating many patients with cutaneous affections. His house in Dublin was 17 Merrion Square East. He married in 1839 Kate Gumbleton, but had no children, and died on 24 July 1863.
N. M.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Neilson, Peter

​NEILSON, PETER (1795–1861), poet and mechanical inventor, youngest son of George Neilson, calenderer, was born in Glasgow on 24 Sept. 1795. Educated at Glasgow High School and University, he received a business training in various city offices, and then joined his father in exporting cambric and cotton goods to America. In 1820, on returning from a visit to the United States, he married his cousin, Elizabeth Robertson. From 1822 to 1828 he was in America on business, and amassed a store of information, which he published on his return in ‘Six Years' Residence in America,’ 1828. The loss of his wife about this time turned his thoughts strongly towards religion, and poems on scriptural themes—‘The Millennium’ and ‘Scripture Gems’—which he published in 1834, interested Dr. Chalmers and Professor Wilson.
In 1841 Neilson settled in Kirkintilloch, Dumbartonshire, where a maiden sister managed for him and his family of three daughters and one son. In 1846 he proposed improvements on the life-buoy, which the lords of the admiralty deemed worthy of being patented (Whitelaw, Memoir), but he shrank from the expense. Continuing his literary efforts, he wrote a remarkable little work on slavery, published in 1846, and entitled ‘The Life and Adventures of Zamba, an African King; and his Experiences of Slavery in South Carolina.’ Ostensibly only edited by Neilson, this work in some respects anticipated ‘Uncle Tom's Cabin.’ He also contributed to the ‘Glasgow Herald’ a series of practical articles on ‘Cotton Supply for Britain.’ On 8 Jan. 1848 he wrote a patriotic letter to Lord John Russell, suggesting iron-plated ships, and enclosing a plan of an invention by him. In 1855 he further corresponded on the subject with Lord Panmure and Admiral Earl Hardwicke, and apparently his proposals were adopted, though not formally acknowledged (ib.) After the building of the Warrior and the Black Prince according to his plan, Neilson suggested inside as well as outside plates, and summed up his views in ‘Remarks on Iron-built Ships of War and Iron-plated Ships of War,’ 1861. Shortly afterwards he published another pamphlet, on the defence of unfortified cities such as London. In his latter years he suffered from heart disease, and he died at Kirkintilloch on 3 May 1861, and was interred in the burying-ground of Glasgow Cathedral.
Neilson's ‘Poems,’ edited with memoir by Dr. Whitelaw, appeared in 1870. The pieces in this posthumous volume are vigorously conceived and marked by strong common​sense, but they are not specially poetical. The most ambitious effort in the book, ‘David: a Drama,’ is a somewhat slim expansion of the Bible story.
[Dr. Whitelaw's memoir as in text.]
T. B.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Pont, Timothy

1904 Errata appended.
​PONT, TIMOTHY (1560?–1614?), topographer, elder son of Robert Pont [q. v.], Scottish reformer, by his first wife, Catherine, daughter of Masterton of Grange, was born about 1560. He matriculated as student of St. Leonard's College, St. Andrews, in 1579–80, and obtained the degree of M.A. in 1583–4. In 1601 he was appointed minister of Dunnet, Caithness-shire, and was continued 7 Dec. 1610; but he resigned some time before 1614, when the name of William Smith appears as minister of the parish. On 25 July 1609 Pont was enrolled for a share of two thousand acres in connection with the scheme for the plantation of Ulster, the price being 400l. (Reg. P. C. Scotl. viii. 330).
Pont was an accomplished mathematician, and the first projector of a Scottish atlas. In connection with the project he made a complete survey of all the counties and islands of the kingdom, visiting even the most remote and savage districts, and making drawings on the spot. He died before 1625, probably in 1614, having almost completed his task. The originals of his maps, which are preserved in the Advocates' Library, Edinburgh, are characterised by great neatness and accuracy. King James gave instructions that they should be purchased from his heirs and prepared for publication, but on account of the disorders of the time they were nearly forgotten, when Sir John Scot of Scotstarvet prevailed on Robert Gordon (1580–1661) [q. v.] of Straloch to undertake their revision with a view to publication. The task of revision was completed by Gordon's son, James Gordon [q. v.], parson of Rothiemay, and they were published in Blaeu's ‘Atlas,’ vol. v. Amsterdam, 1654 (reissued in 1662 in vol. vi). The ‘Topographical Account of the District of Cunninghame, Ayrshire, compiled about the Year 1600 by Mr. Timothy Pont,’ was published in 1850; and was reproduced under the title ‘Cunninghame topographized, by Timothy Pont, A.M., 1604–1608; with Continuations and Illustrative Notices by the late James Dobie of Crummock, F.S.A. Scot., edited by his son, John Shedden Dobie,’ Glasgow, 1876.
T. F. H.
Dictionary of National Biography, Errata (1904), p.226 N.B.— f.e. stands for from end and l.l. for last line
| Page | Col. | Line | |
| 94 | i | 35 | Pont, Timothy: for (1560?-1630?) read (1560 9-1614?) |
| | | 57-58 | for between 1625 and 1630 read before 1625, probably in 1614 |
| | ii | 11 | for Bleau's read Blaeu's |
| | | 12 | for 1668 read 1654 (reissued in 1662, vol. ii.) |
| | | 17 | for Topographised read topographized |
| | | 18-19 | for Continuation . . . of Cumnock, read Continuations and Illustrative Notices by the late James Dobie of Crummock, |
| | | 20-21 | for Skelton Robie,' read Shedden Dobie,' |