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

​NEALE, WILLIAM JOHNSON (1812–1893), whose full name was William Johnstoun Nelson Neale, lawyer and novelist, born in 1812, was second son of Adam Neale (d. 1832) [q. v.], and brother of Erskine Neale [q. v.] In 1824 he entered the navy, and for his services on board the Talbot at the battle of Navarino in 1827 was awarded a medal. On 17 Jan. 1833 he became a student of Lincoln's Inn, but subsequently migrated to the Middle Temple, where he was called to the bar on 25 Nov. 1836. He went the Oxford circuit, and practised also at Shropshire and Staffordshire sessions. In 1859 he was appointed recorder of Walsall. Neale died at Cheltenham on 27 March 1893. He married, on 12 Dec. 1846, Frances Herbert, daughter of Captain Josiah Nisbet, R.N., and eldest grandchild and coheiress of Viscountess Nelson.
Neale wrote several stirring sea stories, many of which achieved considerable popularity. Their titles are:
* 'Cavendish, or the Patrician at Sea' [anon.], 3 vols. 12mo, London, 1831 (reprinted in 1854, 1860 as vol. ccxix. of the 'Parlour Library,' and 1861 as vol. v. of the 'Naval and Military Library').
* 'The Port Admiral, a Tale of the War' [anon.], 3 vols. 12mo, London, 1833 (also included in vol. iv. of the 'Naval and Military Library,' 1861).
* 'Will-Watch: from the Autobiography of a British Officer,' 3 vols. 12mo, London, 1834.
* 'The Priors of Prague,' 3 vols. 12mo, London, 1836.
* 'Gentleman Jack, a Naval Story,' 3 vols. 8vo, London, 1837.
* 'The Flying Dutchman: a Legend of the High Seas,' 3 vols. 12mo, London, 1839.
* 'The Naval Surgeon,' 3 vols. 12mo, London, 1841 (reprinted in 1858, and again in 1861, in vol. vi. of the 'Naval and Military Library').
* 'Paul Periwinkle, or the Pressgang,' 8vo, London, 1841, with forty etchings by 'Phiz.'
* 'The Captain's Wife,' 3 vols. 12mo, London, 1842 (another edit, 1862).
* 'The Lost Ship, or the Atlantic Steamer,' 3 vols. 12mo, London, 1843 (another edit. 1860).
* 'Scapegrace at Sea; or, Soldiers afloat and Sailors ashore,' 2nd edit. 3 vols. 12mo, London, 1863.
* 'History of the Mutiny at Spithead and the Nore' (anon.), 8vo, London, 1842.
Neale wrote also 'The Lauread, a … Satire … Book the first' (anon.), 8vo, London, 1833 (two editions), and, with Basil Montagu, a handbook on the 'Law of Parliamentary Elections,' 2 pts. 12mo, London, 1839–40.
[Foster's Men at the Bar, p. 336; Law Lists; Brit. Mus. Cat.; Reynolds's Newspaper, 9 April 1893, p. 6; Cat. of Library of Advocates.]
G. G.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Neale, Erskine

​NEALE, ERSKINE (1804–1883), divine and author, born on 12 March 1804, was son of Dr. Adam Neale [q. v.], and brother of William Johnson Neale [q. v.] He was educated at Westminster School 1815–16, and at Emmanuel College, Cambridge, where he graduated B.A. 1828, and M.A. 1832. On 24 June 1828 he became lecturer of St. Hilda's Church, Jarrow, in the county of Durham, was appointed vicar of Adlingfleet, Yorkshire, on 19 Oct. 1835, rector of Kirton, Suffolk, in 1844, and vicar of Exning with Lanwade, Suffolk, in 1854. He possessed a very curious collection of autographs, including a number of letters written by the Duke of Kent referring to his public life, and elucidating the mutiny at Gibraltar. His knowledge of handwriting led to his being subpœnaed on the part of the crown at the trial of Ryves v. the Attorney-General in June 1866, when it was sought without success to establish the claim of Mrs. Serres, the mother of Mrs. Ryves, to be the Princess Olive of Cumberland. He died at Exning vicarage on 23 Nov. 1883, after an incumbency of twenty-nine years.
In his day Neale was a well-known author, possessing a ready and graphic pen and considerable stores of information. His chief work, 1. ‘The Closing Scene, or Christianity and Infidelity contrasted in the Last Hours of Remarkable Persons’ (1st ser., 1848; 2nd ser., 1849), ran to several editions, and was reprinted in America; but it is not a work of authority. He was also author of: 2. ‘The Living and the Dead,’ 1827; 2nd ser., 1829. 3. ‘Reason for Supporting the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts,’ 1830. 4. ‘Sermons on the Dangers and Duties of a Christian,’ 1830. 5. ‘Whychotte of St. John's, or the Court, the Camp, the Quarter-Deck, and the Cloister,’ 1833, 2 vols. 6. ‘The Life-Book of a Labourer: Essays,’ 1839; 2nd edit., 1850. 7. ‘The Bishop's Daughter,’ 1842; 2nd edit., 1853. 8. ‘Self-Sacrifice, or the Chancellor's Chaplain,’ 1844; 2nd edit., 1858. 9. ‘Experiences of a Gaol Chaplain,’ 1847, 3 vols.; three editions: a fictitious work. 10. ‘The Track of the Murderer marked out by an Invisible Hand: Reflections suggested by the Case of the Mannings,’ 1849. 11. ‘Scenes where the Tempter has triumphed,’ 1849. 12. ‘The Life of Edward, Duke of Kent,’ 1850; 2nd edit., 1850. 13. ‘The Earthly Resting Place of the Just,’ 1851. 14. ‘The Riches that bring no Sorrow,’ 1852. 15. ‘The Summer and Winter of the Soul,’ 1852. 16. ‘Risen from the Ranks, or Conduct versus Caste,’ 1853. 17. ‘My Comrade and my Colours, or Men who know not when they are beaten,’ 1854. 18. ‘The Old Minor Canon, or a Life of Struggle and a Life of Song,’ 1854; 2nd edit., 1858. 19. ‘Sunsets and Sunshine, or Varied Aspects of Life,’ including notices of Lola Montes, Neild, Hone, and Cobbett, 1862.
G. C. B.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Duval, Lewis

​DUVAL, LEWIS (1774–1844), the eminent conveyancer, born at Geneva on 11 Nov. 1774, was the second son of John Duval of Warnford Court, Throgmorton Street, London, a well-known diamond merchant of Genevese origin, by his wife Elizabeth Beaufel de Vismes of the Nowell, York. He was educated at Trinity Hall, Cambridge, where he took the degree of LL.B. in 1796, and was soon afterwards elected a fellow of his college. Duval was admitted a student of Lincoln's Inn on 18 June 1793, and on leaving Cambridge became a pupil of Charles Butler (1750–1832) [q. v.], in whose chambers he remained for rather more than two years. He then commenced practice as a conveyancer, and in the early years of his professional career was much employed by Butler, who entertained the highest opinion of the talents of his old pupil. Duval was afterwards called to the bar in Trinity term 1804. Unlike many eminent conveyancers, he owed his rise in the profession entirely to his skill as a chamber practitioner. He never published any legal work, and the hesitation in his speech, to which he was subject, prevented him from practising in court with any chance of success. Upon the retirement of Butler, Preston, and Sanders, Duval became the acknowledged head of his particular branch of learning. Though not an original member of the real property commission, he was subsequently appointed a commissioner, and wrote the greater portion of the second report, which related entirely to the establishment of a general registry of deeds (Parl. Papers, 1830, xi. 1–81). As a draughtsman Duval to a great extent followed Butler's forms; and being ‘endowed with a nice appreciation of language, and a clear understanding of the objects of legal instruments, he did much to improve their perspicuity and precision’ (Davidson, Precedents and Forms in Conveyancing, 1874, i. 8). Among his more distinguished pupils were Sugden, Christie, Bellenden Ker, Tierney, Loftus Wigram, Joshua Williams, and Charles Hall, who married Duval's niece, and afterwards became a vice-chancellor.
Duval died at St. Petersburg House, Bayswater Hill, on 11 Aug. 1844, in his seventieth year, and was buried at St. George's Chapel in the Bayswater Road. His portrait by Sir George Hayter and a bust by Sievier are in the possession of his nephew, Mr. Lewis Duval.
G. F. R. B.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Duval, Philip

​DUVAL, PHILIP (d. 1709?), painter, is stated to have been a native of France, a pupil of Charles le Brun, and to have studied painting in Venice and Verona, forming his style on the great painters of those towns. He settled in England about 1670, and practised for some years in London. In 1672 he painted for the Duchess of Richmond a picture of ‘Venus receiving from Vulcan the armour for Æneas.’ Having a taste for chemistry, he wasted most of his time and substance in the practice of it. He was assisted by the Hon. Robert Boyle [q. v.], who gave him a small annuity, but after that gentleman's death he fell into great want, and his mind became disordered. He is stated to have died in London about 1709, and to have been buried at St. Martin's-in-the-Fields. In the gallery of M. Boyer d'Aguilles were two pictures by Duval, representing ‘Europa’ and ‘Leda’ (both engraved by J. Coelemans). Mariette attributes these to Philip Duval, but it is probable that they should be ascribed to Robert Duval (1644–1732), born at the Hague, and a pupil of N. Wieling, who studied at Rome and Venice, especially in the style of Pietro da Cortona. He married a daughter of one of William III's chaplains, through whose influence he obtained the direction of the royal collections, and the superintendence of the buildings at the royal palace of Loo. He was sent over to England to assist in cleaning and repairing the cartoons of Raphael and other pictures; he returned, however, to the Hague, where in 1682 he was admitted a member of the Academy, and subsequently became director. The ceiling of the hall in the Academy was painted by him. He died 22 Jan. 1732, aged 88.
L. C.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Dwyer, Michael

​DWYER, MICHAEL (1771–1826), Irish insurgent, was born in co. Wicklow in 1771. He took part in the insurrectionary movement of 1798, joining Joseph Holt with a band of twenty or thirty insurgents from the Wicklow mountains, where he subsequently pursued a sort of bandit career on his own account. He is described as a handsome, intelligent Wicklow man, possessed of some fine traits of character. In 1803 he was concerned in Robert Emmett's insurrection, bringing five hundred men with him to Rathfarnham, but he refused to concur in Emmett's attempt upon Dublin. It was in the house of his niece, Anne Devlin, that Emmett lay for a time concealed after the failure of his plans. Dwyer surrendered to Captain Hume on 17 Dec. 1803. The ‘Belfast News-Letter,’ which calls him a ‘notorious mountain robber,’ gives a minute account of his appearance and manners. He was sentenced only to transportation, on the ground of the humanity he had displayed. Grattan erroneously says that he died on board the convict ship which was to convey him to New South Wales, before the vessel started. Webb wrongly gives 1815 as the date of his death. In that year he became high constable of Sydney. He died at Sydney in 1826, and was buried in the Devonshire Street cemetery there. He married Mary Doyle, a farmer's daughter; Ross dates the marriage in 1778, perhaps a misprint for 1788.
[Belfast News-Letter, 23 Dec. 1803, and 17 Jan. 1804; Grattan's Memoirs of Henry Grattan, 1842, iv. 397; Ross's Correspondence of Cornwallis, 1859, iii. 283; Webb's Compendium of Irish Biography, 1878, p. 162.]
A. G.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Dwight, Samuel

​DWIGHT, SAMUEL, (1669?–1737), physician, born about 1669, was the son of John Dwight, who has been identified with the potter noticed in the preceding article. A brother Philip was vicar of Fulham from 1708 till his death in 1729. Another brother, Edmund, was born in 1676. In July 1687 the father is described as being then of Wigan, Lancashire (Oxford Matriculation Register, cited in Welch, Alumni Westmon. 1852, p. 207). Samuel entered Westminster School in 1686, matriculated a commoner of Christ Church, Oxford, 12 July 1687, when eighteen years of age, and as a member of that house proceeded B.A. 23 May 1691, M.A. 14 Feb. 1693 (Oxford Graduates, 1851, p. 201). Some verses of his occur among the academical rejoicings on the birth of James II's son in 1688; others are in the collection celebrating the return of William III from Ireland in ​1690. He was admitted a licentiate of the College of Physicians 25 June 1731. On the title-pages of two of his medical treatises, published respectively in 1725 and 1731, he is represented as a doctor of medicine; but his degree was not recognised by the college (cf. Lists of Coll. of Physicians in Brit. Mus.) He practised at Fulham, and dying there 10 Nov. 1737, was buried in the church on the 17th (Lysons, Environs, Supplement, p. 150). Dwight was the author of: 1. ‘De Vomitione, ejusque excessu curando; nec non de emeticis medicamentis, &c.,’ 8vo, London, 1722. 2. ‘De Hydropibus: deque Medicamentis ad eos utilibus expellendos, &c.,’ 8vo, London, 1725. 3. ‘De Febribus symptomaticis … deque earum curatione,’ 8vo, London, 1731. This last treatise is dedicated to Sir Hans Sloane, whom Dwight was accustomed to consult in cases of more than ordinary difficulty (cf. his letter to Sloane, 21 Nov. 1721, Addit. MS. 4043, f. 226). Dwight is sometimes wrongly credited (cf. Gent. Mag. vii. 702) with the inventions in pottery made by John Dwight [q. v.]
G. G.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Holl, William

​HOLL, WILLIAM, the elder (1771–1838), engraver, born in 1771, was apparently of German origin. He was a pupil of Benjamin Smith, the engraver, and practised in ​the stipple method. He was especially noted for his engraved portraits, which were very numerous, some being executed for Lodge's ‘Portraits’ (1821); was employed in engraving Corbould's drawings of the antique marbles in the British Museum, and engraved, among other subjects, ‘The Boar which killed Adonis brought before Venus,’ after R. Westall. Holl was a man of retiring disposition, and his work often appeared under the name of others. He was an advanced liberal in politics, and at the time of the Spa Fields riots in December 1816 exposed himself to great risk by concealing the ringleader, Watson. Holl died in London, 1 Dec. 1838. He had four sons, Benjamin, who practised engraving for a short time; William [see below]; Francis [q. v.], A.R.A.; and Charles (d. 1882), who also practised as an engraver.
Holl, William, the younger (1807–1871), second son of the above, born at Plaistow, Essex, in February 1807, learnt engraving from his father, whose stipple method he adopted for some time, though he subsequently became a line-engraver on steel. He engraved numerous portraits for Lodge's ‘Portraits,’ Knight's ‘Gallery of Portraits,’ Finden's ‘Portraits of the Female Aristocracy,’ &c. He also executed plates for Blackie's ‘Bible,’ T. Moore's ‘Poems,’ and other works. He engraved after W. P. Frith, R.A., ‘An English Merrymaking,’ ‘The Village Pastor,’ ‘Ruth in the Field of Boaz,’ &c.; pictures after J. Absolon, C. Baxter, J. Faed, A. Elmore, B. West, and others; and a number of portraits of members of the ‘Grillion Club,’ drawn by G. Richmond, R.A. At the time of his death he was engaged on an engraving for the Art Union of ‘Rebekah,’ after F. Goodall, R.A., which was completed by his brother Charles Holl, and his assistant F. A. Roberts. Holl died in London, 30 Jan. 1871, after a long illness. He was an industrious worker, and his engravings are highly esteemed. He frequently worked in conjunction with his brother Francis Holl, A.R.A.
[Redgrave's Dict. of Artists; Dodd's manuscript Hist. of Engl. Engravers (Brit. Mus. Add. MS. 33402); Art Journal, 1871, p. 102; private information.]
L. C.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Holland, Abraham

​HOLLAND, ABRAHAM (d. 1626), poet, a son of Philemon Holland [q. v.], was educated at Trinity College, Cambridge, where he graduated B.A. in 1616–17 (Camb. Univ. Reg.) He published in 1622 ‘Naumachia, or Hollands Sea-Fight. Non equidem invideo,’ 4to, with a dedication to George, lord Gordon, son and heir to the Marquis of Huntly, and commendatory verses by Michael Drayton and others. ‘Naumachia’ gives a description of the battle of Lepanto; it is preceded by an amusing ‘Caveat to his Muse.’ Appended to the 1625 edition of John Davies of Hereford's ‘A Scourge for Paper-Persecutors’ is ‘A Continued Inquisition against Paper-Persecutors by A. H.,’ undoubtedly by Abraham Holland, and very similar in character to the ‘Caveat.’ He died 18 Feb. 1625–6. In 1626 appeared ‘Hollandi Posthuma. … The Posthumes of Abraham Holland, sometimes of Trinity College in Cambridge,’ &c., Cambridge, 4to, edited by his brother, Henry Holland [q. v.], who dedicated the volume to George, lord Gordon. The collection consists of elegies on King James and Henry, earl of Oxford, a poem on the plague of 1625, a poetical epistle to Philemon Holland, a ‘Resolution against Death,’ prose meditations and prayers, and his own epitaph composed by himself. The poem on the plague was appended in 1630 to ‘Salomon's Pest-House or Towre-Royall. … By I. D.’ In Ashmole MS. 36–7, fol. 157, is a poem by Holland ‘To my honest father, Mr. Michael Drayton, and my new, yet loved friend, Mr. Will. Browne.’
[Hunter's Chorus Vatum, Addit. MS. 24488, f. 262; Corser's Collectanea.]
A. H. B.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Holland, Charles (1768-1849?)

​HOLLAND, CHARLES (1768–1849?), actor, son of Thomas Holland of Chiswick, was a nephew of Charles Holland (1733–1769) [q. v.] After playing for some time in the country he appeared at Drury Lane, 31 Oct. 1796, as Marcellus in ‘Hamlet.’ At this theatre he remained until the season of 1819–1820, getting few chances and failing to improve his position. Some notice was taken of his opening performance, and his Trueman in the ‘London Merchant,’ in which character he supported Mrs. Siddons as Milwood, is said to have been ‘a chaste, manly, and feeling performance’ (Monthly Mirror, ii. 499). On the death of Palmer, who was replaced by Barrymore, he took, 15 Feb. 1798, the character of Count Wintersen in the ‘Stranger,’ and during the illness of Charles Kemble he performed Alonzo in ‘Pizarro,’ in which piece he was the original Centinel, 24 May 1799. He essayed also Palmer's character of Sydenham in the ‘Wheel of Fortune,’ and was said to have proved ‘that his talents were entitled to more attention and encouragement from the managers.’ He acted at Drury Lane many subordinate parts in unimportant dramas by Whalley, Cherry, S. Sotheby, Cumberland, and others. On 15 June 1800 he played Cassio, and on 20 Nov. 1800 the Dauphin in ‘King John.’ On 25 April 1801 he was the original Infirmier in ‘Julian and Agnes,’ by Sotheby. On 6 June 1809, as Steinfort in ‘The Stranger,’ he made his first appearance at the Haymarket, where, 25 July 1810, he was the original Henry Mortimer in Eyres's ‘High Life in the City.’ He accompanied the Drury Lane company in its migration to the Lyceum, and on the opening of the new theatre, 10 Oct. 1812, was Horatio to Elliston's Hamlet. Holland supported Kean in ​many plays, was York to Kean's Richard II, the original Hassan to his Selim in the ‘Bride of Abydos,’ the original Mendizabel to Kean's Manuel in Maturin's play of ‘Manuel,’ 8 March 1817, and Buckingham to Kean's Richard III, 8 Nov. 1819. He was the Earl of Angus in ‘Flodden Field,’ an adaptation of ‘Marmion,’ and Cedric in the ‘Hebrew,’ Soane's adaptation of ‘Ivanhoe.’ On 24 April 1820 he played Gloucester to Kean's Lear, repeating the character on several succeeding nights. Gilliland speaks of him as having a delicacy of nerve that interfered with his success, says his intellect was under the direction of a refined education, and adds that his figure was not ungraceful and his deportment not inelegant. A contributor to ‘Notes and Queries’ recalls him as a fine-looking man, and says ‘he died in 1849.’ His sister Elizabeth married Joseph Constantine Carpue [q. v.]
[Genest's Account of the English Stage; Thespian Dictionary; Memoirs of the Green Room, no date; Monthly Mirror, various parts; Gilliland's Dramatic Mirror, 1804; Notes and Queries, 7th ser. viii. 486, ix. 66, 138, 341.]
J. K.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Holland, Guy

​HOLLAND, GUY (1587?–1660), jesuit, who sometimes assumed the name of Holt, was born in Lincolnshire in or about 1587, and educated at St. John's College, Cambridge, where he graduated B.A. in 1605. On being converted to Roman catholicism he retired to Spain, and entered the English College at Valladolid on 26 Nov. 1608. He was ordained priest, and in May 1613 was sent to England, where he joined the Society of Jesus in 1615. He was arrested, with other fathers, in March 1627–8, at the London residence of the society. On 14 July 1628 he was professed of the four vows. For forty-five years he laboured on the English mission, chiefly in the London district, and in the ‘residence of St. Mary,’ or Oxford district, of which he was at one time superior. He died in England on 26 Nov. 1660, aged 73.
He is author of: 1. ‘Exceptions’ made against the ‘Discourse of the Infallibility of the Church of Rome,’ by Lucius Cary, lord Falkland, which appeared at Oxford in 1645, 4to. Lord Falkland replied in ‘A View of some Exceptions made against the Discourse,’ &c., Oxford, 1646, 4to. Bishop Barlow distinctly declares that Holland wrote the answer to the ‘Discourse’ (Wood, Athenæ Oxon., ed. Bliss, ii. 569), but in the British Museum Catalogue the authorship is ascribed to the Rev. Thomas White, alias Blackloe. Another reply to the ‘Discourse’ was written by Hugh Paulinus or Serenus Cressy [q. v.] 2. ‘The Grand Prerogative of Humane Nature. Namely, the Souls naturall or native immortality, and freedome from corruption, shewed by many arguments, and also defended against the rash and rude conceptions of a late presumptuous Authour, who hath adventured to impugne it. By G. H., Gent.,’ London, 1653, 8vo, pp. 134. Other works, left ready for the press, are said to have been stopped by the censors owing to one or two points in which the author deviated from the common opinion of the doctors.
[Addit. MS. 5871, f. 174; De Backer's Bibl. de la Compagnie de Jésus; Dodd's Church Hist. iii. 309; Foley's Records, i. 700, vii. 365; Gillow's Bibl. Dict.; Lewis's Lives of Lord Clarendon's Friends, i. 166; Nichols's Discovery of the Jesuits' College at Clerkenwell (Camden Society's Miscellany, vol. ii.), p. 48; Oliver's Jesuit Collections, p. 117; Southwell's Bibl. Scriptorum Soc. Jesu, p. 311; Wallace's Anti-Trinitarian Biography, i. 157; Watt's Bibl. Brit.]
T. C.