OpenLLM-France/wikimedia huggingface dataset:
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/O'Moran, James

​O'MORAN, JAMES (1735–1794), lieutenant-general in the French service, was born in 1735 at Elphin, co. Roscommon, where his father is said to have been a shoemaker. Domiciled at Morin-le-Montagne, Pas-de-Calais, James was appointed a cadet in the regiment of Dillon in the Irish brigade on 15 Nov. 1752, and became a lieutenant-en-second on 14 Jan. 1759. He served in Germany in the campaigns of 1760-1, became sous-lieutenant on 1 March 1763, sous aide-major on 4 Feb. 1769, captain on 16 April 1771, captain-en-second on 5 June 1776, captain-commandant on 30 Jan. 1778, major on 20 Oct. 1779, mestre-de-camp (colonel) on 24 June 1780), lieutenant-colonel of Dillon on 9 June 1785, and colonel of the regiment on 25 Aug. 1791. He served as major in the trenches, and was wounded at the siege of Savannah in 1779. He was in Grenada, West Indies, in 1779-82, and in America in 1783. On 6 Feb. 1792 he was appointed maréchal-de-camp (general of brigade), in which capacity he served under Dumouriez in Champagne and Belgium. He captured Tournay and occupied Cassel. On 3 Oct. 1792 he was made a general of division (lieutenant-general). On the representations of the Division Ferrières, and apparently under suspicion of receiving English gold, he was arraigned before the revolutionary tribunal of Paris, was condemned as a traitor to his country, ‘en contrariant les plans au moment de l'exécution,’ and was guillotined on 16 Ventose of the year 2 (6 March 1794).
H. M. C.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/O'Mulconry, Fearfeasa

​O'MULCONRY, FEARFEASA (fl. 1636), Irish chronicler. [See O'Maelchonaire.]
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/O'Neil, Henry Nelson

​O'NEIL, HENRY NELSON (1817–1880), historical painter, was born of British parentage at St. Petersburg on 7 Jan. 1817. He came to England at the age of six, and in 1836 entered the schools of the Royal Academy, where he formed a close friendship with Alfred Elmore [q. v.]. with whom he afterwards visited Italy. His first picture, ‘A Student,’ appeared at the Royal Academy in 1838, and was followed in 1840 by ‘Margaret before the Image of the Virgin,’ and in 1841 by ‘The First Thought on Love’ and ‘Theckla at the Grave of Max Piccolomini.’ In 1842 he exhibited ‘Paul and Francesca of Rimini,’ and ‘Peasants returning from the Vineyard;’ in 1843, ‘Jephthah's Daughter: the last day of mourning,’ which was engraved in line by Peter Lightfoot, for the Art Union of London; in 1844, ‘Boaz and Ruth,’ which was purchased by the prince consort; and in 1846, ‘By the Rivers of Babylon, there we sat down, yea, we wept, when we remembered Zion.’ Subsequently his chief contributions to the Royal Academy were ‘Mozart's Last Moments,’ 1849; ‘Esther,’ 1850; ‘The Scribes reading the Chronicles to King Ahasuerus,’ 1851; ‘Katharine's Dream,’ 1853; ‘The Return of the Wanderer,’ a work which marked great progress, and was engraved in mezzotint by W. H. Simmons, 1855; ‘Eastward Ho!’ the most popular of all his works, engraved in mezzotint by W. T. Davey, 1858; ‘Home again,’ also engraved by W. T. Davey, 1859; ‘A Volunteer,’ an incident connected with the wreck of the Royal Charter, 1860, in which year he was elected an associate of the Royal Academy; ‘The Parting Cheer,’ 1861; ‘The Landing of H.R.H. the Princess Alexandra at Gravesend,’ 1864; ‘The Lay of King Canute,’ 1865; and ‘The Last Moments of Raffaelle,’ 1866. He exhibited also at the British Institution, where he had in 1840 ‘A Musical Party’ and ‘La Biondina in Gondoletta,’ and in 1843 a ‘Scene from Twelfth Night,’ and at the Society of British Artists. Latterly his work became very unequal, and it was often coarse of touch and crude in colour. He painted also landscapes and some portraits, among which were those of the Duke of Newcastle, John Phillip, R.A., Robert Keeley, and William Mackworth Praed. Some interesting portraits by him belong to the Garrick Club.
O'Neil published in 1866 his ‘Lectures on Painting delivered at the Royal Academy,’ and afterwards made some other attempts in literature. ‘Two Thousand Years hence’ appeared in 1868: ‘Modern Art in England and France’ in 1869; ‘Satirical Dialogues,’ in verse, in 1870; and ‘The Age of Stucco: a Satire in three Cantos,’ in 1871. He was also an amateur musician and a good violin player. He died at 7 Victoria Road, Kensington, London, on 13 March 1880, and was buried in Kensal Green cemetery.
[Art Journal, 1880, p. 171; Times, 15 March 1880, notice by Anthony Trollope; Athenæum, 1880, i. 384; Academy, 1880, i. 220; Royal Academy Exhibition Catalogues, 1838-79; Exhibition Catalogues of the Society of British Artists, 1838-43; British Institution Exhibition Catalogues, 1839-1861.]
R. E. G.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/O'Molloy, Francis

​O'MOLLOY, FRANCIS (fl. 1660), theologian and grammarian. [See Molloy.]
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/O'Meara, Kathleen

​O'MEARA, KATHLEEN (1839–1888), biographer and novelist, eldest surviving daughter of Dennis O'Meara of Tipperary, the son of Barry Edward O'Meara [q. v.], was born in Dublin in 1839. She accompanied her parents to Paris at an early age, and it is doubtful whether she afterwards visited her native land. She adopted the literary profession, and, under the pseudonym of 'Grace Ramsay,' became well known as a writer of works of fiction, which were remarkable for purity of tone, delicacy of feeling, and sympathetic language. Her biographical works also won her a high reputation. For many years she was the Paris correspondent of the 'Tablet' newspaper. She died in Paris on 10 Nov. 1888.
Among her works of fiction are: 1. 'A Woman's Trials,' a novel, 3 vols. London, 1867, 8vo. 2. 'Iza's Story,' 3 vols. London, 1869, 8vo, reprinted under the title of 'Iza: a Story of Life in Russian Poland,' London, 1877, 8vo. 3. 'The Battle of Connemara,' ​London, 1878, 8vo.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/O'Molloy, Albin

​O'MOLLOY, ALBIN, or Alpin O'Moelmhuaidh (d. 1223), bishop of Ferns, was a native Irishman, who became a Cistercian monk at Baltinglass, and eventually rose to be abbot of that house. In Lent 1186, when John, archbishop of Dublin, held a synod at Holy Trinity Church, Albin preached a long sermon on clerical continency, in which he laid all the blame for existing evils on the Welsh and English clergy who had come over to Ireland (Gir. Camb. Opera, i. 60). Albin was shortly afterwards made bishop of Ferns or Wexford, the see having been previously declined by Giraldus Cambrensis. He was present at the coronation of Richard I on 3 Sept. 1189 (Gesta Ricardi, ii. 79). On 5 Nov. he was appointed by Pope Innocent III, with the Archbishop of Tuam and Bishop of Kilmacduagh, to excommunicate the Bishop of Waterford, who had robbed the Bishop of Lismore (Cal. Papal Registers, i. 15). In 1205 Albin received 10l. from the royal gift, and on 3 April 1206 was recommended by the king to the chapter of Cashel for archbishop (Calendar of Documents relating to Ireland, i. 258, 291). In November 1207 Innocent addressed a letter to Albin with reference to persons who had been improperly ordained. On 17 June 1208 Albin was sent by the king on a mission to the King of Connaught. On 15 Sept. 1215 he had protection while attending the council at Rome; and on 5 Sept. 1216 received custody of the bishopric of Killaloe (ib. i. 385, 658,721). William Marshal, first earl of Pembroke [q. v.], while in Ireland between 1207 and 1213, seized two manors belonging to the Bishop of Ferns. For this Albin excommunicated him; but the earl pleaded that it was done in time of war, and retained the manors all his life. After Marshal's death, Albin came to the king at London and petitioned for the restoration of his lands. Henry begged the bishop to absolve the dead, but Albin refused to do so unless restoration were made. To this the younger William Marshal [q. v.] and his brothers refused their consent, and Albin then cursed them, and foretold the end of their race (Matt. Paris, iv. 492). The quarrel appears to have been at a crisis in 1218. On 18 April of that year Albin was prohibited from prosecuting his plea against William, earl Marshal, and on 25 June Honorius III directed the Archbishop of Dublin and the legate to effect a reconciliation between the bishop and the earl (Calendar of Documents relating to Ireland, i. 823; Cal. Papal Registers, i. 56). Albin died on 1 Jan. 1223 (Annals of Loch Cé, i. 267). Matthew Paris speaks of him as conspicuous for his sanctity. Albin consecrated the infirmary chapel at the Cistercian abbey of Waverley on 6 Nov. 1201, and dedicated five altars there on 10 July 1214. The monks of St. Swithin's, Winchester, made him a member of their fraternity. He appears as a witness to several charters in the ‘Chartulary of St. Mary, Dublin’ (i. 31, 142-3, 147-8, Rolls Ser.)
C. L. K.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Wansey, Henry

​WANSEY, HENRY (1752?–1827), antiquary, born in 1751 or 1752, was the son of William Wansey of Warminster, Wiltshire. He was by trade a clothier, but retired from business in middle life and devoted his leisure to travel, to literature, and to antiquarian research. He was a member of the Bath and West of England Agricultural Society, in which he served the office of vice-president, and in connection with which he published in 1780 ‘A Letter to the Marquis of Lansdowne on the Subject of the Late Tax on Wool,’ in which he pointed out the impolicy of the tax, and maintained that commercial restrictions of such a nature were generally injurious. In 1789 Wansey was elected a fellow of the Society of Antiquaries, in 1794 he visited the United States, and in 1796 he published his observations under the title ‘An Excursion to the United States of America,’ Salisbury, 8vo; 2nd edit. 1798. While residing at Salisbury in 1801 he turned his attention to the condition of poorhouses, and published in that year a pamphlet entitled ‘Thoughts on Poorhouses, particularly that of Salisbury, with a view to their reform.’ Wansey, however, principally occupied himself with the study of local antiquities, and for some years he laboured in conjunction with Sir Richard Colt Hoare [q. v.] in preparing the account of the hundred of Warminster for Hoare's ‘History of Wiltshire.’ The volume containing Wansey's labours was not, however, published until 1831, four years after his death.
Wansey died at Warminster on 19 July 1827. By his wife Elizabeth he had one daughter, Emma, who died in childhood.
Besides the works referred to, Wansey was the author of: 1. ‘Wool encouraged without Exportation,’ published by the Highland Society of Scotland, Edinburgh, 1791, 8vo. 2. ‘A Letter to the Bishop of Salisbury on his late Charge to the Clergy of his Diocese,’ London, 1798, 8vo. 3. ‘A Visit to Paris in June 1814,’ London, 1814, 8vo. He also contributed several papers to the ‘Archæologia’ of the Society of Antiquaries.
E. I. C.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Wanley, Nathaniel

​WANLEY, NATHANIEL (1634–1680), divine and compiler, was born at Leicester in 1634, and baptised on 27 March. His father was a mercer. He was educated at Trinity College, Cambridge, and graduated B.A. in 1653, M.A. in 1657. His first preferment was as rector of Beeby, Leicestershire. His first publication, ‘Vox Dei, or the Great Duty of Self-reflection upon a Man's own Wayes,’ 1658, 4to, was dedicated to Dorothy Spencer [q. v.], Waller's ‘Sacharissa.’ On the resignation of John Bryan, D.D. [q. v.], the nonconformist vicar of Trinity Church, Coventry, Wanley was instituted his successor on 28 Oct. 1662. He established the same year an annual sermon on Christmas day, endowing it with a fee of 10s., charged on a house in Bishop Street. He published ‘War and Peace Reconciled … two books,’ 1670, 8vo; 1672, 8vo; it is a translation from the Latin of Justus Lipsius. He was far from being out of touch with the prevailing puritanism of Coventry. With Bryan (who attended his services, though ministering also to a nonconformist congregation) he was closely intimate, and on Bryan's death in 1676 he preached his funeral sermon in a strain of warm appreciation honourable alike to both men. It was published posthumously, with the title ‘Peace and Rest for the Upright,’ 1681, 4to. Wanley died in 1680; he was succeeded by Samuel Barton on 22 Dec. His portrait ​is in the Bodleian Library at Oxford. He was married on 24 July 1655; by his wife Ellen (b. 30 April 1633, d. 28 June 1719), daughter of Humphrey Burton, coroner and town clerk of Coventry, he had five children, of whom Humfrey Wanley is separately noticed. Wanley gave or bequeathed to the grammar school library at Coventry a copy of the ‘Imitatio Christi,’ described as ‘Ecclesiastical Music, written on Parchment, about the time of King Edward IV.’
Wanley's opus magnum is ‘The Wonders of the Little World; or a General History of Man. In Six Books,’ 1678, fol., dedicated (17 June 1677) to Sir Harbottle Grimston [q. v.] The Coventry corporation gave him 10l., the Drapers' Company 6l., and the Mercers' Company 4l., in acknowledgment of presentation copies. The work, which is meant to illustrate anecdotically the prodigies of human nature, shows omnivorous reading and indiscriminate credence; it is well arranged, and the authorities are fully given and carefully rendered. Of later editions the best are 1774, 4to, with revision, and index; and 1806–7, 2 vols. 8vo, with additions by William Johnston, a coadjutor of John Aikin (1747–1822) [q. v.] in the ‘General Biography.’ Wanley compiled a history of the Fielding family, which is printed in Nichols's ‘Leicestershire;’ the original, written on fine parchment, is in the possession of Lord Denbigh.
A. G.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Warburton, George Drought

​WARBURTON, GEORGE DROUGHT (1816–1857), writer on Canada, third son of George Warburton of Aughrim, and younger brother of Bartholomew Elliott George Warburton [q. v.], was born at Wicklow in 1816. He was educated at the Royal Military College, Woolwich, and served in the royal artillery from June 1833. In 1837 he was sent with a detachment of the royal artillery to assist the Spanish legion in Spain, and was severely wounded in action. In the middle of July 1844 he embarked from Chatham for Canada, and wrote an agreeable description of the dominion, under its ancient vernacular name of ‘Hochelaga; or England in the New World.’ The work was published anonymously in 1846 in two volumes, as ‘edited by Eliot Warburton,’ and the fifth edition, revised, came out in 1854. It was also printed in New York, although the portion devoted to the United States was scarcely more complimentary to the manners of the republicans than the well-known work of Mrs. Trollope. He returned from Canada in 1846, and was afterwards stationed at Landguard Fort, near Harwich (Leslie, Landguard Fort, 1898, p. 80).
The success of his first book encouraged him to publish another anonymous work, ‘The Conquest of Canada,’ dated 1850, and also in two volumes. This passed through three editions in England, and was issued at New York in 1850. A compilation of a different kind, the ‘Memoir of Charles Mordaunt, Earl of Peterborough and Monmouth, by the author of “Hochelaga,”’ 1853, 2 vols., has through fresh research been superseded. He wrote with skill and spirit.
Warburton married at St. George's, Hanover Square, on 1 June 1853, Elizabeth Augusta Bateman-Hanbury, third daughter of the first Lord Bateman, and had an only daughter, who became the wife of Lord Edward Spencer-Churchill. In November 1854 he retired from the army as major on full pay, and resided at Henley House, Frant, Sussex. On 28 March 1857 he was elected by a large majority as an independent liberal member for the borough of Harwich in Essex. He was subject to severe pains and attacks of indigestion, and in a fit of temporary insanity resulting from these troubles shot himself through the head at Henley House on 23 Oct. 1857, aged 41. He was buried at Iffley, near Oxford. It was said of him and his brother Eliot, ‘their lives were sunshine, their deaths tragedies.’ In April 1869 his widow married George Rushout, third lord Northwick, and she was in 1886 the recipient of the ‘Dunmow Flitch’ (G. E. C[okayne], Complete Peerage, s.v. ‘Northwick’).
[Essex Standard, 30 Oct. 1857, p. 4; Athenæum, 1857, p. 1359; Burke's Peerage, sub ‘Bateman;’ Gent. Mag. 1853, ii. 305; information from Rev. Canon Warburton of Winchester, his surviving brother.]
W. P. C.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Smith, Thomas (fl.1600-1627)

​SMITH, THOMAS (fl. 1600–1627), soldier, of Berwick-upon-Tweed, as he styles himself on the title-page of the first edition (4to, 1600) of ‘The Art of Gunnery: wherein is set forth a number of serviceable secrets and practicall conclusions belonging to the Art of Gunnerie, by Arithmeticke skill to be accomplished: both pretie, pleasant and profitable for all such as are professors of the same facultie.’ In the dedication to Peregrine Bertie, lord Willoughby, ‘lord-governor of the town and castle of Berwick-upon-Tweed, and lord-warden of the east marches of England,’ he describes himself as ‘but one of the meanest soldiers in this garrison,’ though he claims to have been ‘brought up from childhood under a valiant captain in military profession, in which I have had a desire to practise and learn some secrets touching the orders of the field and training of soldiers, as also concerning the art of managing and shooting in great artillery.’ From the open preference which he gives to theory over practice it may be inferred that ‘he never buckled with the enemy in the field.’ In 1627 he published ‘Certain Additions to the Booke of Gunnery, with a Supply of ​Fire-Workes’ (4to), in which he still styles himself ‘Soldier of Berwick-upon-Tweed.’ He speaks also, in 1600, of having written ‘two or three years since,’ ‘“Arithmeticall Military Conclusions,” and bestowed on my Captain, Sir John Carie, knight: the which, God sparing my life, I mean to conect and enlarge and perhaps put to the press.’ It does not seem to have been published.
J. K. L.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Smith, Walter

​SMITH, WALTER (fl. 1525), wrote in verse an account of a roguish adventuress named Edyth, daughter of one John Hankin, and widow of one Thomas Ellys. Smith's work was entitled ‘The Widow Edyth; Twelue merry Gestys of one called Edyth, the lyeng Wydow.’ It was ‘emprinted at London at the sygne of the meremayde at Pollis gate next chepeside by J. Rastell 23 March MvCxxv.’ The printer notes that at the date of publication the heroine was still alive. The work is divided into twelve chapters, each called a ‘mery jeste.’ The coarse tricks which the widow is described as playing on tradesmen, tavern-keepers, and servants of great men, including the bishop of Rochester and Sir Thomas More, are sometimes diverting, but their narrator displays few literary gifts. The work is of the greatest rarity. A copy was noticed in ‘Bibliotheca Smithiana,’ 1686, and in the catalogue of the Harleian collection, but it is doubtful if any now survive. Of a reprint issued by Richard Jones in 1573, two copies are known—one in the Bodleian Library, and the other in the Huth Library. A modern reprint is in W. C. Hazlitt's ‘Old English Jest Books,’ 1864, vol. iii.
[Ames's Typogr. Antiq. ed. Dibdin, iii. 87; Collier's Bibliogr. Cat. ii. 357; Hazlitt's Bibliogr. Collections.]
S. L.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Smith, Thomas (1615-1702)

1904 Errata appended.
​SMITH, THOMAS (1615–1702), bishop of Carlisle, born in 1615, son of John Smith of Whitewell in the parish of Asby, Cumberland, after education at the free school, Appleby, matriculated from Queen's College, Oxford, on 4 Nov. 1631, aged 16. Having graduated B.A. in 1635 and M.A. in 1639, he became a fellow of his college and distinguished himself as a tutor. He was a select preacher before Charles I at Christ Church, Oxford, in 1645. When that city fell he ‘retired to the north,’ where he married Catharine, widow of Sir Henry Fletcher of Hutton in Cumberland, and only emerged on the Restoration, proceeding B.D. on 2 Aug. 1660, and D.D. by diploma in the following November. He was appointed chaplain to Charles II, and was rewarded with the first prebendal stall in Carlisle Cathedral (November 1660). Within a few months of this he was collated to a rich prebend in the cathedral of Durham, the prebendal house attached to which he restored. On the promotion of Guy Carleton [q. v.] to the see of Bristol, Smith was instituted dean of Carlisle (4 March 1671–2), in which capacity he rebuilt the deanery and presented the cathedral with an organ. In conjunction with his first cousin, Thomas Barlow [q. v.], bishop of Lincoln, and Randall Sanderson, he gave 600l. for the improvement of Appleby school.
The profusion with which he endowed Carlisle grammar school, the chapter library, and the cathedral treasury (as well as donations to his old college at Oxford and to the poor), made him highly popular. He succeeded Edward Rainbowe as bishop in 1684 (consecrated 19 June), and died at Rose Castle on 12 April 1702. A flat stone near the altar in the cathedral is inscribed to his memory. A number of his letters are calendared among the Rydal MSS. (Hist. MSS. Comm. 12th Rep. App. vii. passim). His portrait was engraved by J. Smith after an oil-painting by Stephenson, a full-length, now preserved at Rose Castle. He was succeeded at Carlisle by another fellow of Queen's, the great antiquary, William Nicolson [q. v.]
T. S.
Dictionary of National Biography, Errata (1904), p.254 N.B.— f.e. stands for from end and l.l. for last line
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# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Smith, Thomas (d.1767)

​SMITH, THOMAS (d. 1767), landscape-painter, was born and chiefly resided at Derby. He was self-taught, but attained to considerable proficiency, and, as one of the earliest delineators of the beauties of English scenery, enjoyed a great reputation in his day. He was generally called ‘Smith of Derby’ to distinguish him from the Smiths of Chichester. He painted views of the most interesting and picturesque places in Derbyshire, Yorkshire, and other parts, many plates from which, by Vivarès, Elliott, Scotin, and other able engravers, were published by himself and Boydell. A collection of these, with the title ‘Recueil de 40 vues du Pic de Derby et autres lieux peintes par Smith et gravées par Vivarès et autres,’ was issued in 1760. In 1769 Boydell published a set of four views of Rome, painted by Smith from sketches by James Basire (1730–1802) [q. v.]; also six plates from his designs illustrating the mode of training racehorses. Smith handled the graver himself, and in 1751 produced a ‘Book of Landskips;’ he also engraved from his own pictures a set of four views of the lakes of Cumberland, 1767. He died at the Hot Wells, Bristol, on 12 Sept. 1767. Smith had two sons, Thomas Correggio and John Raphael Smith [q. v.]; the former practised for some years as a miniature-painter, and died at Uttoxeter in middle life; the latter is separately noticed.
F. M. O'D.