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

​IDA (d. 559), the first Bernician king, the son of Eobba, began to reign in Northumbria in 547. Before his time the northeast coast appears to have been invaded and colonised by Angles under the leadership of ealdormen who fought with the Britons. The assertion that Ida was the leader of a new invading host which came with sixty ships and landed at Flamborough (De Primo Saxonum Adventu) is untrustworthy; his assumption of the kingship was a change which followed almost necessarily on the increase of the power of the invaders, and may have been the result either of general consent or of a victorious struggle (compare Bæda, Historia Ecclesiastica, v. c. 24, and William of Malmesbury, Gesta Regum, i. c. 44). Ida is said to have been in the prime of his life and vigour when he became king, and in common with all the founders of dynasties among the Teutonic invaders of Britain, he is given a descent from Woden. He built himself a fortress, called by the Britons Dinguardi or Dinguoaroy, and by the Angles Bebbanburch, the modern Bamborough, which was surrounded first by a hedge and later by a wall, and took its Anglic name from Bebbe, the wife of Æthelfrid, Ida's grandson, and one of his successors (d. 617?), Ida's immediate kingdom did not probably extend south of the Tees, though his power may have been felt beyond that river, for the ​kingship of Deira, between the Tees and the Humber, does not seem to have been founded until his death. It is quite possible that Ida's Bernicia did not extend as far as the Tees. He is said to have had six sons by queens and six by concubines (Florence) The consolidation and advance of the heathen power under him and his sons caused a widespread apostasy from Christianity among the Picts. He reigned twelve years, and died in 559. On his death Ælla (d. 588) [q.v.] became king in Deira, and is supposed to have extended his power over Bernicia (Skene). There, however, Ida's house retained the kingship, and six of his sons, Adda, Glappa, Hussa, Freodulf, Theodric, and Æthelric (d. 594?), reigned in succession over their father's kingdom. Ida is often said to have been called the 'Flame-bearer' by the Welsh poets (Green, Making of England, p. 72); for this there is no ground. The epithet (Flamddwyn), which is only to be found in two Bardic poems, is in both instances applied to his son Theodric (d. 587), famous for his conflicts with Urbgen or Urien and his sons (Skene).
[Bæda, Hist. Eccl. iii. cc. 6, 16, v. c. 24 (Engl. Hist. Soc.); Anglo-Sax. Chron. an. 547; Nennius, pp. 49–53 (Engl. Hist. Soc.); Symeon, Hist. Regum, c. 12 and De Primo Saxonum Adventu ap. Sym. Opp. i. 14, 374 (Rolls Ser.); Florence, i. 5 (Engl. Hist. Soc.); Will. of Malmesbury's Gesta Regum, i. c. 44 (Engl. Hist. Soc.); Hoveden, i. 3 (Rolls Ser.); Skene's Four Ancient Books of Wales, i. 6, 62, 265, 366, ii. 413, 418; Elton's Origins of Engl. Hist. pp. 380, 381, 2nd edit.; Guest's Origines Celticæ, ii. 273; Rhys's Celtic Britain, pp. 111, 145; Hinde's Hist. of Northumberland, i. 63–5.]
W. H.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Iago ab Idwal Voel

​IAGO ab Idwal Voel (fl. 943–979), king of Gwynedd, probably succeeded to the throne of North Wales immediately on the death of his father, Idwal Voel [q. v.], in 943, as joint ruler with his brother Ieuav. In 950, the year of the death of Howel Dda, [q. v.], a long struggle between the representatives of the royal houses of Gwynedd and Dyved commenced. In that year Iago and Ieuav fought a battle at Carno in Montgomeryshire against the sons of Howel, and two years later they carried the war into the latter's territory by making two raids on Dyved. In 954 Howel's sons marched as far north as Llanrwst, and a battle was there fought on the banks of the Conwy, and soon after the North Welsh made a return raid into Ceredigion (Cardiganshire) and laid the country waste, but, the 'Gwentian ​Chronicle' adds, they were driven back, with great slaughter, by the sons of Howel. Taking advantage of this domestic strife, the Danes, who were at this time established in Ireland and the Isle of Man, made frequent raids upon the coast. Towyn was laid waste by them in 963, and the sons of Herald, Marc and Gotbric (Gotffrid), harried Anglesea,and in 970 brought the whole of the island into subjection (Brut y Tywysogion, sub 970; William of Malmesbury). About 967 the English laid waste the lands of the sons of Idwal (Annales Cambriæ; Brut y Tywysogion), probably because Iago refused to pay the usual tribute to Edgar. Finally, it is said that the payment was commuted for a tribute of three hundred wolves' heads annually, but that this was paid only for three years, because in the fourth year there were no more wolves to be found (Brut y Saeson, in Rhys and Evan's Bruts, p. 390; William of Malmesbury, lib. ii. c. 8). In 967 Iago seized Ieuav, deprived him of his sight, and (according to Brut y Tywysogion) hanged Him. In 972 Edgar, after being crowned at Bath, proceeded to Chester, where (according to the meagre account of the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle) six underkings swore allegiance to him. Florence of Worcester (sub anno 973) and William of Malmesbury (i. 164) mention eight kings by name, among them Iago or Jacob, and they relate how Edgar was rowed down the Dee by them, while he himself steered (see also Brut y Saeson; Hoveden, s. a.) Iago's name also appears as Jacob, with the names of the other seven kings, as a witness to a very suspicious charter of Canterbury, dated at Bath at Whitsuntide 966 (Kemble, Cod. Dipl. No. 519).
Iago's brother, Ieuav, had left behind him a son, Howel, who watched his opportunity to avenge his father's wrongs. About the time of Edgar's visit to Chester, Howel succeeded, with Edgar's support, it is stated (Brut y Tywysogion, p.262), in seizing Iago's throne. Iago probably fled to Lleyn, where Howel and his English allies made a raid about 979. The following year Iago was captured by the Danes, who sailed in a fleet to Chester, and laid the city waste. Howel ab Ieuav thus acquired the complete sovereignty of Gwynedd, and Iago is not heard of again.
D. Ll. T.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Ickham, Peter of

​ICKHAM, PETER of (fl. 1290?), chronicler, is said to have derived his name from a small village near Canterbury; Bale and Pits state that he spent much time at the university of Paris, in close literary intimacy with Philip, the chancellor of the university (i.e. apparently Philippe de Grève, chancellor from 1218 to 1237). The compilers of the 'Hist. Littér, de la France,' xix. 432, ed. 1838, state, however, without mentioning their authority, that he was invited to France by Philip III, who was king from 1270 to 1285. On leaving Paris he seems to have become a monk at Canterbury. Bale and Pits quote Leland's ' Collectanea ' for the statement that he flourished in 1274, but the printed copies of Leland do not contain the passage; the name appears in a list of the monks of the priory of Canterbury under the year 1294 (Register in MS. Norwic. More., fol. 64, ap. Tanner). A Peter of Ickham, however, according to an obituary of the monks of Christ Church, Canterbury, by Thomas Cowston (Lambeth MS. 582, ap. Todd), died in 1289, but another manuscript in the same library (Wharton MS. iii. ap. Tanner) gives 1295 for the year of his death.
Ickham is usually regarded, apparently on the authority of Dr. Caius, as the author of the meagre and somewhat confused chronicle entitled 'Chronicon de Regibus Angliæ successive regnantibus a tempore Bruti' (or 'Compilatio de Gestis Britonum et Anglorum '), extant (with continuations) in thirteen or fourteen manuscripts (Cott. MS.Domit. iii. ff. 1-38; Bodl. MS. Laud. 730; C. C. C. Cant. MS. 339, 3, &c., see Hardy, Descript. Catal. iii. 272), terminating at various dates between 1272 and 1471; but the chronicle shows signs of having been written at Worcester rather than at Canterbury (Hardy, u.s.) Bale and Pits also ascribe to Ickham' Genealogies of the Kings of Britain and England, written in French during his stay in Paris. They probably refer to the two treatises called 'Le livere de reis de Brittame' and 'Le livere de reis de Engleterre,' which were edited by Mr. Glover in 1865 for the Rolls Series. They contain, however, no distinct indication of their authorship.
[Bale's Script. Illustr. Maj. Brit. Cent. iv. No. xliii.(ed. Basel); Pits, De Illustr. Script. Angliæ, p. 355; Tanner's Bibl. Script. Brit.-Hib. p. 787; G. J. Voss, De Historicis Latinis,p. 494, Leyden, 1651; Fabricius, Bibl. Med. et Inf. Latinitatis, v. 261; Bulæus, Hist. Univ. Paris, iii. 705, Paris, 1667-73; Hist. Litt. de la France; T. D. Hardy's Descr. Catal. of Brit. Hist. iii. (Rolls Ser.)]
J. T-t.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Ross, James (1837-1892)

​ROSS, JAMES, M.D. (1837–1892), physician, third son of John Ross, a farmer, was born at Kingussie in the highlands of Scotland on 11 Jan. 1837. He was sent to the parish school of Laggan, and thence to the Normal College for Teachers in Edinburgh, but soon went to study medicine at Aberdeen, where he graduated M.B. and C.M. with the highest honours in 1863, and M.D. in 1864. He made two voyages to Greenland in a whaler, practised as an assistant for two years, and then began general practice at Newchurch in Rossendale, Lancashire. He attained considerable success in the district. He wrote articles in the ‘Practitioner,’ and published in 1869 ‘On Counter Irritation,’ in 1872 ‘The Graft Theory of Disease, being an Application of Mr. Darwin's Hypothesis of Pangenesis to the Explanation of the Phenomena of the Zymotic Diseases,’ and in 1874 ‘On Protoplasm, being an Examination of Dr. James Hutchinson Sterling's criticism of Professor Huxley's Views,’ all essays of considerable ingenuity, but somewhat involved in statement. In April 1876 he removed to Manchester, and in August was appointed pathologist to the infirmary. Though late in beginning the practical work of pathology, he laboured in the post-mortem room with all the enthusiasm of youth, and in October 1878 was elected assistant physician to the infirmary. In 1881 he published ‘A Treatise on the Diseases of the Nervous System,’ in two large volumes, of which a second edition appeared in 1883. He begins by a classification of these diseases into three groups, Æsthesioneuroses, Kinesioneuroses, and Trophoneuroses, or changes of sensation, of motion, and of nutrition, and then describes the diseases of the several regions of the nervous system in detail. The book contains much recent information on the subject, and some original observations and hypotheses. It was the first large modern textbook in English on its subject and was widely read. It led to his election as a fellow of the Royal College of Physicians in 1882. In 1885 he wrote a shorter ‘Handbook of Diseases of the Nervous System,’ which appeared in America, and in 1887 an essay on ‘Aphasia.’ He was elected professor of medicine in Owens College, Manchester, in 1887; and in 1888 became physician to the infirmary. In 1890 his last illness, which proved to be due to cancer of the stomach, began, and he died in Manchester on 25 Feb. 1892. Besides numerous papers in medical journals and transactions on nervous diseases, he published in 1888 an address on evolution and in 1889 one on technical education He married, in 1869, Miss Bolton, niece of his predecessor in practice at Newchurch.
[Obituary notice in Lancet, 12 March 1892; Julius Dreschfeld's Speech, in Manchester Guardian, 27 Feb. 1892; Works.]
N. M.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Ross, Alexander (1742-1827)

1904 Errata appended.
​ROSS, ALEXANDER (1742–1827), general, born in Scotland in 1742, was the youngest of the five sons of Ross of Auchlossin. He entered the army as ensign in the 50th foot (now the royal West Kent regiment) in February 1760. He was gazetted lieutenant in the 14th foot (now the West Yorkshire regiment) on 18 Sept. 1765. After serving in Germany Ross returned to England in May 1775.
Lieutenant Ross became captain on 30 May, and served with distinction throughout the American war of independence. He was aide-de-camp to Lord Cornwallis [see Cornwallis, Charles, first Marquis and second Earl] and was sent home by him with the despatches of the battle of Camden on ​16 Aug. 1780. He was made major in the 45th foot (now the Derbyshire regiment) on 25 Oct. 1780. He represented Lord Cornwallis as commissioner in arranging the details of the surrender of Yorktown. In May 1782 he was sent to Paris to arrange for the exchange of Lord Cornwallis, which was only effected by the peace of 20 Jan. 1783. In August 1783 Ross was appointed deputy adjutant-general in Scotland, with the rank of lieutenant-colonel, and he served in a similar capacity in India under Lord Cornwallis. He became colonel on 12 Oct. 1793. In August 1794 he went with Earl Spencer and Thomas Grenville to Vienna on a special mission to arrange that Lord Cornwallis should command the allies against the French. Their efforts were unsuccessful. He accompanied Lord Cornwallis as major-general to Warley camp in April 1795, and two months later was nominated surveyor-general of the ordnance in succession to the Earl of Berkeley. Ross, who was promoted lieutenant-general on 29 April 1802 and general on 1 Jan. 1812, became colonel of the 59th foot (now the East Lancashire regiment) and governor of Fort George. He was one of the most intimate friends of Lord Cornwallis, whose correspondence, in three volumes, was edited in 1859 by his son, Charles Ross. He died in London on 20 Nov. 1827. On 15 Oct. 1795 Ross married Isabella Barbara Evelyn, daughter of Sir Robert Gunning, bart.
B. H. S.
Dictionary of National Biography, Errata (1904), p.239 N.B.— f.e. stands for from end and l.l. for last line
| Page | Col. | Line | |
| 255 | ii | 16-14 f.e. | Ross, Alexander (1742-1827): for brother of Andrew Ross . . . Sir John Ross [q. v.]. read the youngest of the five sons of Ross of Auchlossin. |
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Ross, George

​ROSS, GEORGE (1814–1863), legal writer, born 17 July 1814, was grandson of Sir John Lockhart Ross [q. v.], and third and youngest son of George Ross (1775–1861), judge of the consistory court of Scotland, and author of ‘The Law of Vendors and Purchasers of Personal Property,’ 1816 (2nd ed. by S. B. Harrison in 1826; cf. reprint in Philadelphia Law Library, vol. xii. in 1836). His mother, Grace, was daughter of Andrew Hunter, D.D., of Barjarg, Dumfriesshire. His eldest brother, John Lockhart Ross (1811–1891) (a graduate of Oriel College, Oxford, B.A. in 1833, and M.A. in 1836), was well known as vicar of St. George's-in-the-East, London (1863–73), and of St. Dunstan's-in-the-East (1873–1891), and published many theological tracts and handbooks.
George was called to the Scottish bar in 1835, and practised as senior counsel, making conveyancing his speciality. He acquired a considerable practice, notwithstanding his bad health and small talents as a pleader. His knowledge of case law was extensive. His legal works secured for him a high reputation, and he was appointed in 1861 professor of Scots law at Edinburgh University. He was an able lecturer. He died of diphtheria at his house, 7 Forres Street, Edin​burgh, on 21 Nov. 1863. He married, in 1843, Mary, daughter of John Tod, by whom he had five daughters.
Ross published: 1. ‘The Law of Entail in Scotland as altered by the Act of 1848’ (1848, 8vo). 2. ‘Leading Cases in the Law of Scotland’ (3 vols. 1849–51); reprinted in the ‘Philadelphia Law Library,’ vols. lxxxi.–iv. 3. ‘Leading Cases in the Commercial Law of England and Scotland, arranged in Systematic Order with Notes’ (2 vols. 8vo, 1853 and 1857); a third volume appeared in 1858 as ‘Analysis of the Titles to Land Acts’ (21 and 22 Vict. cap. 76). He also published in 1858–61 a revised edition, with additions, of W. Bell's ‘Dictionary and Digest of the Laws of Scotland.’
G. Le G. N.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Nicholson, Margaret

​NICHOLSON, MARGARET (1750?–1828), assailant of George III, daughter of George Nicholson, a barber, of Stockton-on-Tees, Durham, was housemaid in three or more families of good position, one of her places being in the service of Sir John Sebright (Memoirs of Sir R. M. Keith). About the time of her leaving her last place she was deserted by her lover, a valet, with whom she is said to have misconducted herself in a former situation. She then lodged in the house of a stationer named Fisk, at the corner of Wigmore Street, Marylebone, where she remained about three years, supporting herself by taking in plain needlework. Although Fisk afterwards stated that ‘she was very odd at times,’ neither he nor any of her acquaintances suspected her of insanity. However, in July 1786 she sent a petition, which was disregarded, to the privy council, containing nonsense about usurpers and pretenders to the throne. On the morning of 2 Aug. she stood with the crowd that waited at the garden entrance to St. James's Palace to see the king arrive from Windsor. As he alighted from his carriage she presented him with a paper, which he received, and at the same moment made a stab at him with an old ivory-handled dessert knife. The king avoided the blow, which she immediately repeated. This time the knife touched his waistcoat, and, being quite worn out, bent against his person. One of the royal attendants seized her arm and wrenched the knife from her. As she was in some danger from the bystanders, the king, who remained perfectly calm, cried out, ‘The poor creature is mad; do not hurt her, she has not hurt me.’ She was at once examined by the privy council, and, Dr. Monro having declined to state offhand that she was insane, she was committed to the custody of a messenger. It was supposed that she was at the time about thirty-six years old (Jesse). On her lodgings being searched letters were found directed to some great persons, and expressing her belief that she had a right to the throne. On the 8th she was again brought before the privy council, and two physicians having declared that she was insane, she was the next day committed, on their certificate, to Bethlehem, or Bedlam, Hospital, orders being given that she should work if in a fit state to do so. On the 18th she was reported to have been very quiet in the hospital, and to have been supplied ​with writing materials, which she had asked for. She remained in Bedlam until her death on 14 May 1828 (date kindly supplied by Dr. R. Percy Smith, chief superintendent of Bethlehem Royal Hospital). Early in 1811 Percy Bysshe Shelley [q. v.] and Thomas Jefferson Hogg [q. v.], then undergraduates at Oxford, published a thin volume of burlesque verses, entitled ‘Posthumous Fragments of Margaret Nicholson, edited by her nephew, John FitzVictor,’ Oxford, 1810, 4to.
W. H.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Nicholson, Richard

​NICHOLSON, RICHARD (d. 1639), musician, was the first professor of music at Oxford under the endowment of William Heather [q. v.] He supplicated for the degree of Mus. Bac. at Oxford in February 1595–6 9Wood), and about the same time became organist and chorus-master of Magdalen College. The music lectureship was founded in 1626, when he was appointed professor. He resigned his post of organist in 1639, and died in the same year. He composed several madrigals, one of which, ‘Sing Shepherds all,’ is printed in Morley's ‘Triumphes of Oriana,’ 1601.
J. C. H.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Nicholson, John (d.1538)

​NICHOLSON, JOHN (d. 1538), protestant martyr. [See Lambert.]
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Nicholson, Joshua

​NICHOLSON, JOSHUA (1812–1885), silk manufacturer and philanthropist, son of Joshua and Rachel Nicholson, was born on 26 Oct. 1812 at Luddenden Foot, near Halifax. He exhibited remarkable business aptitude during his apprenticeship to a draper at Bradford, and quickly filled a responsible position. From his earliest years he devoted much time to study. After leaving Bradford he resided for a short time in Huddersfield, and thence passed to Leek, Staffordshire, in 1837. For many years he travelled over the United Kingdom in the interests of the celebrated silk manufacturing firm, J. & J. Brough & Co., of Leek. He was soon indispensable to his employers; he was admitted to a partnership; the title was changed to J. & J. Brough, Nicholson & Co., and Nicholson ultimately became its head. He had worked up the business into the most important house in the trade.
Nicholson was a nonconformist from principle, and an earnest supporter of the independent or congregational churches. In politics he was a progressive radical, and for many years was president of the North Staffordshire Liberal Association. He believed in the efficacy of education, and in 1881 he announced his intention of building at Leek an institute, which was to include a free library, reading-rooms, art galleries, museum, and lecture-rooms and an art school, to be as nearly free as possible. The Nicholson Institute was completed in 1884 at a cost of 20,000l., and was opened in that year. In 1887 the town of Leek took it over in part under the Free Libraries Act, but Nicholson's family continued the endowment for ten years. The library contains eight thousand volumes, and 350 students attend the schools of art, science, and technology. Nicholson died on 24 Aug. 1885.
K. P.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Nicholson, Samuel

​NICHOLSON, SAMUEL (fl. 1600), poet and divine, was perhaps the Samuel Nicholson of Catharine Hall, Cambridge, who graduated B.A. 1597–8. He took orders, and describes himself in 1602 as M.A. Nicholson has been identified with the author of ‘Acolastus his After-Witte. A Poem by S. N.,’ London, 1600; privately reprinted by J. O. Halliwell, London, 1866, and by Dr. Grosart (1876). The ‘Epistle Dedicatory’ is addressed to ‘his deare Achates Master Richard Warburton.’ The poem consists of 446 stanzas, each containing six decasyllabic or hendecasyllabic lines, and is of much interest on account of the doubtless conscious plagiarisms from Shakespeare (‘Rape of Lucrece’ and ‘Venus and Adonis’), and in a smaller measure from Nash's ‘Pierce Penniless’ and other works (cf. J. P. Collier, Bibl. Account, ii. 46, and Grosart, Introd.) Nicholson, in his dedication to Richard Warburton, describes the work as ‘the first borne of my barren invention, begotten in my anticke age’ [i.e. sportive years]. Nicholson also published: ‘God's New Yeeres Gift sent into England, or the Summe of the Gospell contaynd in these Wordes, “God so loved the world that he hath given his only begotten sonne that whosoever beleaveth in him should not perish, but should have life everlasting,” John iii. 1; the First Part written by Samuel Nicholson, M. of Artes,’ London, 1602, small 8vo. It is a devotional treatise, puritan in tone, but not in sermon form.
W. A. S.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Scott, Helenus

​SCOTT, HELENUS, M.D. (1760–1821), physician, was born at Dundee, and studied medicine at Edinburgh from 1777 to 1779. He entered the medical service of the East India Company, and served chiefly in the Bombay presidency. On 24 July 1797 he was created M.D. by the university of Aberdeen. After thirty years in India he returned to England, and began practice at Bath. On 22 Dec. 1815 he was admitted a licentiate of the College of Physicians, and in 1817 began to practise as a physician in Russell Square, London. In the same year he contributed an interesting paper to the ‘Transactions’ of the Medico-Chirurgical Society on the use of nitromuriatic acid in medicine. He used it in a wider range of disease than is now customary, but its frequent employment in the treatment of enteric fever and other maladies at the present day originates in his advocacy of its merits. He attained to considerable practice, and died on 16 Nov. 1821.
N. M.