OpenLLM-France/wikimedia huggingface dataset:
# A Short Biographical Dictionary of English Literature/À Beckett, Gilbert Abbott

​À Beckett, Gilbert Abbott (1811–1856).—Comic writer, b. in London, the s. of a lawyer, and belonged to a family claiming descent from Thomas à Becket. Destined for the legal profession, he was called to the Bar. In addition to contributions to various periodicals and newspapers, including Punch, The Illustrated London News, The Times, and Morning Herald, he produced over fifty plays, many of which attained great popularity, and he also helped to dramatise some of Dickens' works. He is perhaps best known as the author of Comic History of England, Comic History of Rome, Comic Blackstone, etc. He was also distinguished in his profession, acted as a commissioner on various important matters, and was appointed a metropolitan police magistrate.
# A Short English Constitutional History for Law Students/Preface

P r e f a c e
This little book has been written expressly for students taking the Preliminary Examination in Law at Oxford University at which a paper is set on English Political and Constitutional History, and it is hoped that it contains everything which is necessary for the paper so far as constitutional history is concerned. It should be suitable for Bar Students in their Constitutional Law paper and for Students at Cambridge University and those taking the Intermediate Examination of Law at the London University.
The author desires to point out that it is little more than a "cram book" and is not meant to take the place of such works as Taswell-Langmead's Constitutional History or Anson's Law and Custom of the Constitution; it should be read merely for the purpose of refreshing one's knowledge preparatory to taking an examination and if used for this purpose the author trusts and believes that it will fill a long-felt want which from his experience in coaching students he observes to exist.
E.H.
Oxford,
    December, 1919.
# A Short Biographical Dictionary of English Literature/Young, Edward

​Young, Edward (1683-1765).—Poet, s. of the Rector of Upham, Hampshire, where he was b. After being at Winchester School and Oxf. he accompanied the Duke of Wharton to Ireland. Y., who had always a keen eye towards preferment, and the cult of those who had the dispensing of it, began his poetical career in 1713 with An Epistle to Lord Lansdowne. Equally characteristic was the publication in the same year of two poems. The Last Day and The Force of Religion. The following year he produced an elegy On the Death of Queen Anne, which brought him into notice. Turning next to the drama he produced Busiris in 1719, and The Revenge in 1721. His next work was a collection of 7 satires, The Love of Fame, the Universal Passion. In 1727 he entered the Church, and was appointed one of the Royal Chaplains, and Rector of Welwyn, Herts, in 1730. Next year he m. Lady Elizabeth Lee, the widowed dau. of the Earl of Lichfield, to whom, as well as to her dau. by her former marriage, he was warmly attached. Both d., and sad and lonely the poet began his masterpiece, The Complaint, or Night Thoughts (1742–44), which had immediate and great popularity, and which still maintains its place as a classic. In 1753 he brought out his last drama, The Brothers, and in 1761 he received his last piece of preferment, that of Clerk to the Closet to the Princess Dowager of Wales. Four years later, in 1765, he d. The poems of Y., though in style artificial and sometimes forced, abound in passages of passion and power which sometimes reach the sublime. But the feelings and sentiments which he expresses with so much force as a poet form an unpleasantly harsh contrast with the worldliness and tuft-hunting of his life.
# A Short Biographical Dictionary of English Literature/Ælfred

​Ælfred (849–901).—King of the West Saxons, and writer and translator, s. of Ethelwulf, b. at Wantage. Besides being the deliverer of his country from the ravages of the Danes, and the restorer of order and civil government, Æ. has earned the title of the father of English prose writing. The earlier part of his life was filled with war and action, most of the details regarding which are more or less legendary. But no sooner had he become King of Wessex, in 871, than he began to prepare for the work of re-introducing learning into his country. Gathering round him the few scholars whom the Danes had left, and sending for others from abroad, he endeavoured to form a literary class. His chief helper in his great enterprise was Asser of St. David's, who taught him Latin, and became his biographer in a "life" which remains the best original authority for the period. Though not a literary artist, Æ. had the best qualities of the scholar, including an insatiable love alike for the acquisition and the communication of knowledge. He translated several of the best books then existing, not, however, ​in a slavish fashion, but editing and adding from his own stores. In all his work his main desire was the good of his people. Among the books he translated or edited were (1) The Handbook, a collection of extracts on religious subjects; (2) The Cura Pastoralis, or Herdsman's book of Gregory the Great, with a preface by himself which is the first English prose; (3) Bede's Ecclesiastical History of the English; (4) The English Chronicle, which, already brought up to 855, he continued up to the date of writing; it is probably by his own hand; (5) Orosius's History of the World, which he adapted for English readers with many historical and geographical additions; (6) the De Consolatione Philosophiæ of Boethius; and (7) a translation of some of the Psalms. He also made a collection of the best laws of his predecessors, Ethelbert, Ine, and Offa. It has been said "although King Alfred lived a thousand years ago, a thousand years hence, if there be England then, his memory will yet be precious to his country."
# A Short Biographical Dictionary of English Literature/Ælfric

​Ælfric (955–c. 1022).—Called Grammaticus (10th century), sometimes confounded with two other persons of the same name, Æ. of Canterbury and Æ. of York, was a monk at Winchester, and afterwards Abbot of Cerne and Eynsham successively. He has left works which shed an important light on the doctrine and practice of the early Church in England, including two books of homilies (990-94), a Grammar, Glossary, Passiones Sanctorum (Sufferings of the Saints), translations of parts of the Bible with omissions and interpolations, Canones Ælfrici, and other theological treatises. His writings had an influence on the formation of English prose. He filled in his age somewhat the same position that Bede did in his, that of a compiler and populariser of existing knowledge.
# A Naval Biographical Dictionary/Weld, Daniel

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​WELD. (Commander, 1825. f-p., 17; h-p., 37.)
Daniel Weld entered the Navy, in Feb. 1793, as Fst.-cl. Vol., on board the Amphitrite frigate, Capt. John Child Purvis; with whom, in the following month, he removed to the Princess Royal 98, bearing the flag of Rear-Admiral Sam. Cranston Goodall. In that ship he served as Midshipman at the occupation of Toulon, at the reduction of Corsica, and in Hotham’s partial actions, 14 March and 13 July, 1795. After he had been for nearly three years employed in the Channel and North Sea, off the port of Cadiz, and again in the Mediterranean, part of the time as Master’s Mate, in the Prince 98, flag-ship of Sir Roger Curtis, London 98, Capt. J. C. Purvis, and Ville de Paris 110, and Queen Charlotte 100, flag-ships of Lords St. Vincent and Keith, he was made Lieutenant, 10 Sept. 1799, into the Leander 50, Capt. Michael Halliday; in which ship, as First-Lieutenant in the Lynx sloop, Capt. Alex. Skene, and in the Zealous 74, Capt. Sam. Hood Linzee, he served continuously in the Mediterranean, North Sea, and Baltic, again off Cadiz, and in the West Indies, until July, 1802. While at Cadiz in the Zealous he was often engaged with the enemy’s flotilla. After he left her he was employed – from March, 1803, until March, 1804, in the Minotaur 74, Capt. Chas. John Moore Mansfield, in the Channel – from April, 1804, until Dec. 1805, in command of a squadron of gun-boats on the coast of Ireland – from Jan. 1806 until Aug. 1808 (with one or two intervals) in the Ocean and Queen 98’s, both commanded by Capt. Fras. Pender, Princess of Orange 74, flag-ship of Vice-Admiral John Holloway, and Valiant 74, Capt. Jas. Young, off Cadiz, and in the Downs, Baltic, and North Sea – from July, 1810, until Sept. 1812, as First-Lieutenant (a rank he had held in the Ocean), in the Banterer sloop and Mermaid 32, armée en flûte, Capts. Chas. Warde and Hon. Wm. Henry Percy, off Lisbon and again off Cadiz – and from 1 April until 19 Aug. 1815, in the Impress Service in London. He was advanced to his present rank “for long and active services,” 27 May, 1825; and was appointed an Inspecting-Commander in the Suffolk Coast Guard District about June, 1827. Since he left that service he has been on half-pay.
Commander Weld was left a widower 24 Jan. 1837.
# A Naval Biographical Dictionary/Weekes, William Burt

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​WEEKES. (Lieut., 1812. f-p., 28; h-p., 15.)
William Burt Weekes was born 22 Nov. 1790, at Nevis, in the West Indies. He is brother of Thos. P. Weekes, Esq., Member of the Bombay Medical Board.
This officer entered the Royal Naval Academy in March, 1804; and embarked, in Sept. 1807, as Midshipman, on board the Princess Charlotte 38, Capt. Geo. Tobin, stationed on the coast of Ireland; where he removed, in July, 1809, to the Jalouse 18, Capt. Henry Gage Morris. On 29 Jan. 1810, being in the Bay of Biscay, he took command of the cutter and, in company with the other boats of the Jalouse and those of the Phoenix frigate, went in pursuit, during a cahn, of Le Charles, a French privateer of 14 guns and 90 men, which, after a chase of three hours, was gallantly boarded and carried, the ships being at the time hull-down in the distance. On 21 March, 1812, at which period he had been serving for about 18 months in the Baltic in the Victory 100, flag-ship of Sir Jas. Saumarez, he was promoted to the rank of Lieutenant. His subsequent appointments were – 6 April and 31 Dec. 1812, to the Gloucester 74 and Echo sloop, Capts. Robt. Williams and Thos. Percival, stationed off Flushing and in the Downs – 28 April, 1815, for a few days only (he had left the Echo in July, 1813), to the Mastiff 12, Capt. Job Hanmer, lying at Plymouth – 3 Feb. 1818, to the Vengeur 74, Capt. Thos. Alexander, which ship, stationed at Portsmouth, was paid off in the following Sept. – and, 7 May, 1825, to the Coast Guard. In the latter service he remained until Aug. 1840. He has since been on half-pay.
Lieut. Weekes left the Coast Guard for the purpose of assuming the command, which he retained for some years, of a country ship of 11 hundred tons, in the East Indies. He married, 22 Feb. 1814, Grace, daughter of Peter Bunworth, Esq., of Mallow, co. Cork, by whom he has had issue two daughters. Agents – Messrs. Ommanney.
# A Naval Biographical Dictionary/Welch, Robert

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​WELCH. (Retired Commander, 1836. f-p. 18; h-p., 35.)
Robert Welch entered the Navy, 7 June, 1794, as Fst.-cl. Vol., on board the Galatea 36, Capts. Rich. Goodwin Keats and Hon. Geo. Byng; in which frigate, part of the force attached to the expedition to Quiberon in 1795, he continued employed on the French and Irish coasts until transferred, in June, 1798, to the Foudroyant 80, Capts. Sir Thos. Byard, John Elphinstone, Jas. Rich. Dacres, Wm. Brown, Thos. Masterman Hardy, Sir Edw. Berry, Stephenson, and Philip Beaver, flag-ship for some time of Lords Keith and Nelson. Under Sir T. Byard he witnessed the surrender, in Oct. 1798, of Le Hoche 74 and other ships destined for the invasion of Ireland; and under Sir Edw. Berry he assisted, during the blockade of Malta, at the capture, 18 Feb. 1800, of Le Généreux 74 and Ville de Marseilles armed store-ship; and, on 31 March in the same year, after a desperate conflict, in which the Foudroyant (in company at the time with the Lion 64 and Penelope 36) sustained a loss of 8 men killed and 64 wounded, of Le Guillaume Tell of 84 guns and 1000 men, bearing the flag of Rear-Admiral Decrès. Being nominated, 17 Dec. 1800, Acting-Lieutenant of the Experiment 44, Capts. John Griffin Saville and Geo. Chas. Mackenzie, he commanded the boats of that ship at the landing of the troops in Egypt, 8 March, 1801. The services he then rendered, as well as during the remainder of the campaign, procured him a gold medal from the Turkish Government. On leaving the Experiment (he had been confirmed to her 17 Nov. 1803) ​he joined, in Feb. 1805, the Saracen 18, Capts. Jas. Prevost and Buckland Stirling Bluett. In that vessel he was five years and five months employed, the last four years as Senior Lieutenant, in the Channel and West Indies, at the Cape of Good Hope, in South America (whence he returned with the naval and military despatches announcing the disastrous result of the attack upon Buenos Ayres in July, 1807), in the Mediterranean, and again in the West Indies; where he was next, in July, 1810, and April, 1811, appointed First of the Garland, Capts. Wm. Charlton and Thos. Graves, and Hebe, Capt. John Fyffe. He came home and was paid off in Aug. 1811; and was lastly, from Dec. 1812 until June, 1814, employed, again as First-Lieutenant, in the Ceres 32, flag-ship of Rear-Admiral Thos. Surridge at Chatham.
During his career afloat he acted a part in a variety of boat affairs. He accepted his present rank 18 July, 1836; and was admitted to the out-pension of Greenwich Hospital 9 March, 1849. Agents – Messrs. Stilwell.
# A Naval Biographical Dictionary/Welch, Robert Gregory

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​WELCH. (Commander, 1841. f-p., 25; h-p., 12.)
Robert Gregory Welch entered the Navy, 15 Sept. 1810, as Fst.-cl. Vol., on board the Tonnant 80, Capt. Sir John Gore, stationed off Lisbon. From March, 1811, until April, 1815, he was employed with the late Vice-Admiral Matthew Henry Scott, chiefly as Midshipman, in the Marlborough and Chatham 74’s, in the North Sea and Channel. After further serving on the Home station in the Astraea 36, Capt. Edw. Kittoe, Mutine sloop, Capt. Jas. Mould, and Vengeur 74, Capt. Thos. Alexander, he joined, in May, 1818, the Iphigenia 42, Capt. Hyde Parker. In the latter ship he sailed for Quebec with the Duke of Richmond, and then_ proceeded to the West Indies; where (he had attained the rating of Master’s Mate in Sept. 1818) he was nominated, 9 Nov. 1819, Acting-Lieutenant of the Confiance 18, Capt. Alex. Montgomerie. Four months after his promotion to the rank of Lieutenant, which took place 15 April, 1820, he returned to England. His subsequent appointments were – 28 June, 1822, for upwards of two years, to the Egeria 28, Capts. John Toup Nicolas and Sam. Roberts, employed at first in suppressing an insurrection among the keelmen in the river Tyne, and next on the Newfoundland station – 23 Feb. 1827, to the Hussar 46, flag-ship of Sir Chas. Ogle at Halifax – 23 Feb. 1831, to the Alfred 50, Capt. Robt. Maunsell, engaged on particular service – 14 July, 1831, and 22 Sept. 1832, to the Hyacinth 18, Capt. Wm. Oldrey, and North Star 28, Capt. Lord Wm. Paget, both in the West Indies, whence he returned in the summer of 1833 – 24 Jan. 1838, to the Hercules 74, Capt. John Toup Nicolas, which ship, stationed off Lisbon, he left in Jan. 1839 – and 1 Feb. 1840, to the Cambridge 78, Capt. Edw. Barnard, fitting for the Mediterranean. In the Alfred, Hyacinth, Hercules, and Cambridge, Mr. Welch filled the post of First Lieutenant. In the ship last mentioned he was present, in 1840, in the operations on the coast of Syria and at the blockade of Alexandria. He was superseded from her on the occasion of his promotion to the rank of Commander, 23 Nov. 1841. He was afterwards, from 3 July, 1843, until July, 1848, employed in the Coast Guard. Agents – Messrs. Stilwell.
# A Naval Biographical Dictionary/Weld, Richard

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​WELD. (Lieut., 1814. f-p., 12; h-p., 32.)
Richard Weld entered the Navy, 19 Nov. 1803, as Fst.-cl. Vol., on board the Illustrious 74, Capts. Sir Chas. Hamilton and Wm. Shield; the latter of whom, after having served in the Channel, in the West Indies, and on the coast of Spain, he followed, in July, 1806, as Midshipman (a rating he had already attained), into the Queen 98 and Malta 80. On his return in the latter ship from the Mediterranean with Capt. Robt. Waller Otway, he joined, in Nov. 1808, the Ville de Paris 110, bearing the flag of Hon. Michael De Courcy; under whom we find him, in Jan. 1809, assisting at the embarkation of the troops after the battle of Corunna. In the course of the ensuing month he removed to the Repulse 74, Capt. Hon. Arthur Kaye Legge, part of the force employed in the expedition to the Walcheren; and in Nov. of the same year he was received on board the Curaçoa 36, Capt. John Tower. In her he served for three years and nine months off Madeira and the coast of France, at the Cape of Good Hope, and in the Mediterranean, latterly as Master’s Mate; in which capacity and as Lieutenant (commission dated 29 Sept. 1814) he was employed, from Jan. 1814 until Aug. 1815, in the Leander 60, Capt. Sir Geo. Ralph Collier, in the Channel, again off Madeira, in the West Indies, and on the coast of North America. He has since been on half-pay.
# A Naval Biographical Dictionary/Weller, John Hotham

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​WELLER. (Commander, 1843. f-p., 21; h-p., 16.)
John Hotham Weller entered the Navy, 27 Nov. 1810, as Fst.-cl. Vol., on board the Royal William, Capt. Robt. Hall, bearing the flag of Sir Roger Curtis at Portsmouth. In Jan. 1811 he removed to the Formidable 98, Capt. Jas. Nicoll Morris, on the Lisbon station; and in Oct. 1814, after having served for three years and a half in the Mediterranean and North Sea, off the Western Islands, and in the Channel, part of the time as Midshipman, in the Centaur 74, Capt. John Chambers White (under whom he witnessed the fall of ​Tarragona in June, 1811, and the destruction, in April, 1814, of a 74-gun ship, three brigs-of-war, and several smaller vessels near Bordeaux), he joined the Queen 74, Capt. John Coode, again on the Mediterranean station, where he continued employed with the latter officer in the Albion 74, under the flag of Sir Chas. Vinicombe Penrose until May, 1819. He was present in the ship just mentioned at the bombardment of Algiers 27 Aug. 1816. In Sept. 1819 he was received on board the Owen Glendower 42, Capt. Hon. Robt. Cavendish Spencer, fitting for South America; on his return whence he was transferred, in Sept. 1822, to the Eden 26, Capt. John Lawrence, and sailed for the West Indies; on which station he was made Lieutenant, 16 July, 1823, into the Scout 18, Capt. Jas. Wigston. He left the Scout in Feb. 1824; and was subsequently appointed – 10 Feb. 1827, for upwards of 12 months, to the Gloucester 74, Capt. Joshua Sydney Horton, lying at Sheerness – 19 Feb. 1830, to the Coast Blockade, in which he remained for a short period, as Supernumerary Lieutenant of the Talavera 74, Capt. Hugh Pigot – 11 July, 1832, to the Castor 36, Capts. Sir Rich. Grant and Lord John Hay, under whom he was for a few months employed on particular service – 18 July, 1835, to the Coast Guard – 5 April, 1836, as Senior, to the Pembroke 74, Capts. Sir Thos. Fellowes and Fairfax Moresby, on the Lisbon station, whence he returned in the summer of 1837 – 10 Dec. 1839 and 1 Oct. 1840, to the Howe 120, and, as First, to the Camperdown 104, flag-ships of Sir Henry Digby and Sir Edw. Brace at Sheerness – and 7 Jan. 1843, in the capacity last named (after about a year’s half-pay), to the Tartarus steam surveying-vessel, Capt. Fred. Bullock. Since his promotion to the rank of Commander, which took place 25 Sept. in the latter year, he has not been afloat. Agents – Messrs. Stilwell.
# A Naval Biographical Dictionary/Wellesley, George Greville

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​WELLESLEY. (Captain, 1844.)
George Greville Wellesley passed his examination in 1834; obtained his first commission 22 April, 1838; and was appointed – 21 Jan. 1839, as Additional Lieutenant, to the Princess Charlotte 104, flag-ship of Hon. Sir Robt. Stopford in the Mediterranean – 30 March following, to the Castor 36, Capt. Edw. Collier, on the same station – and 17 Nov. 1841, to the Thalia 42, Capt. Chas. Hope, fitting for the East Indies. In the Castor, of which ship he became ultimately First-Lieutenant, he took part in 1840 in the operations on the coast of Syria, including the attacks upon Caiffa, Jaffa, Tsour, and St. Jean d’Acre. Previously to the bombardment of Caiffa he ably assisted in placing an Ottoman frigate in the position she was to occupy; he afterwards landed and aided, in full view of 500 of the Egyptian army, in throwing into the sea the 5 guns of a castle which commanded the town. In command of the guard-boats stationed at the pass of Narcourra, halfway to Acre, for the purpose of distributing arms to the mountaineers, he captured 2 officers and 43 men. While serving in the East Indies in the Thalia, Mr. Wellesley was made Commander, 16 April, 1842, into the Childers 16. Soon after the paying off of that vessel he was advanced, 2 Dec. 1844, to his present rank. Agents – Hallett and Robinson.
* ↑ Vide Gaz. 1840, p. 2601.
* ↑ Vide Gaz. 1840, p. 2608.
# A Naval Biographical Dictionary/Webster, William (b)

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​WEBSTER. (Lieutenant, 1837.)
William Webster (b) passed his examination in 1829; and was promoted to the rank of Lieutenant 27 Sept. 1837. His appointments have since been – 20 July, 1838, to the Edinburgh 72, Capt. Wm. Wilmott Henderson, from which ship, stationed in the Mediterranean, he was superseded in March, 1840 – 31 Oct. in the latter year, to the Iris 26, Capts. Hugh Nurse and Wm. Tucker, fitting for the ​coast of Africa, whence he returned in 1842 – and, 22 Sept. 1846, to the Coast Guard, in which service he continues.
# A Naval Biographical Dictionary/Weir, John

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​WEIR. (Lieutenant, 1811. f-p., 9; h-p., 35.)
John Weir entered the Navy, 22 Jan. 1803, as Sec.-cl. Boy, on board the Prince George 98, Capts. Joseph Sydney Yorke and Geo. Losack, stationed in the Channel. In Nov. 1806, two years after he had attained the rating of Midshipman, he removed to the Polyphemus 64, Capts. Peter Heywood and Wm. Pryce Cumby; and while in that ship, which bore the flags in succession of Admirals Geo. Murray and Bartholomew Sam. Rowley, he witnessed the unsuccessful attack made by Lieut.-General Whitelocke on Buenos Ayres in July, 1807, and assisted, as Master’s Mate, in the summer of 1809, at the blockade of the city of St. Domingo. Continuing in the West Indies he was there, 1 Dec. 1810, nominated Acting-Lieutenant of the Hebe frigate, Capt. John Fyffe. He was confirmed to that ship 29 April, 1811; and in the following Aug. he returned to England. He has since been on half-pay. Agents – Messrs. Stilwell.