OpenLLM-France/wikimedia huggingface dataset:
# Dictionary of Indian Biography/Ball, George

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​BALL, GEORGE (1761–1811)
Colonel: served in Lord Lake's campaign, and described as a very meritorious and distinguished officer: died when Adjutant-General of the Bengal Army, Dec. 8, 1811: buried at Calcutta.
# Dictionary of Indian Biography/Ballard, John Archibald

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​BALLARD, JOHN ARCHIBALD (1830–1880)
Born June 20, 1830: son of a Calcutta merchant: educated at Addiscombe: joined the Bombay Engineers in 1850: on his way to England in 1854, he went to Constantinople, and joined the Turkish Army, as Lt-Colonel, at the siege of Silistria by the Russians, and in the attack on the Russians at Giurgevo: in the Crimean campaign, including the siege of Sebastopol, the operations at Eupatoria and the occupation of Kertch: he also commanded a Turkish Brigade in Omar Pasha's campaign in Mingrelia: was conspicuous for his cool bravery in action: C.B., 1856: served as A.Q.M.G. in the Persian war of 1856–7, and in the same capacity in the Indian mutiny in the Rajputana Field Force: was Mint-master at Bombay, 1861, and Chairman of the Bombay Port Trust: retired at end of 1878 as Lt-General: wrote articles for Blackwood's Magazine, on Indian subjects: LL.D. of Edinburgh: he died near the battlefield of Thermopylae April 2, 1880.
# Dictionary of Indian Biography/Banerjea, Durgagati, Rai Bahadur

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​BANERJEA, DURGAGATI, RAI BAHADUR (1838–1903)
Born Jan. 19, 1838: member of the Subordinate, and Provincial Executive Service, Bengal: Deputy Magistrate, 1856: Personal Assistant to the Commissioner of Patna for 15 years: Member of the Salaries Commission, 1885: Member of the Bengal Legislative Council, 1895: and of the Calcutta Corporation: Deputy Collector of Calcutta, Superintendent of Excise Revenue and Collector of Stamp Revenue, 1889–1901: retired, 1901: C.I.E., 1895: died March 26, 1903.
# Dictionary of Indian Biography/Ballantyne, James Robert

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​BALLANTYNE, JAMES ROBERT (1813–1864)
Born Dec. 13, 1813: educated at Kelso, Edinburgh New Academy and College: studied Oriental languages: taught them at the Naval and Military Academy, Edinburgh, 1839: in India was Principal of the College at Benares, 1845–61: became Librarian of the India Office: while in India studied the highest Sanskrit ethical and philosophical literature: published Sanskrit works and lectures on systems of Indian philosophy, also papers on Hindu philosophy and logic: wrote a Hindustani grammar and selections: and a Mahratti grammar: LL.D.: died Feb. 16, 1864.
# Dictionary of Indian Biography/Balrampur, Maharaja, Sir Drigbijai Singh, of

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​BALRAMPUR, MAHARAJA, SIR DRIGBIJAI SINGH, of (1818–1882)
Son of Raja Arjun Singh: descendant of a long line of chieftains of the Janwar clan of Rajputs: succeeded his brother Raja Jai Narain Singh, in 1836: spent his early years fighting with his neighbours, ​the Pathans of Utraula and the Chauhan Rajas of Tulsipur, also with the Oudh revenue officials: driven out of Balrampur by Raja Darshan Singh, who pursued him into Nipal territory: restored to his Raj: distinguished himself in the mutiny as one of the five loyal talukdars: received the fugitives from Sikraura and Gonda, 19 persons, and several children: sheltered and escorted them to Gorakhpur: remained faithful, and was proscribed by the rebels: joined the advancing British forces and remained in the field till the restoration of order: rewarded with the title of Maharaja Bahadur and vast landed estates confiscated from rebels, with a reduced land revenue assessed in perpetuity: in 1866, K.C.S.I.: salute of 9 guns, in 1877: Member of the Governor-General's Legislative Council: a great patron of education, instituting schools on his estates before their general introduction elsewhere: founded one of the first hospitals in Oudh outside Lucknow, and a medical school: a noted sportsman: a fall from an elephant hastened his death, which occurred on May 27, 1882.
# Dictionary of Indian Biography/Banerjea, Rev. Krishna Mohan

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​BANERJEA, REV. KRISHNA MOHAN (1813–1885)
Born 1813: son of Jiban Krishna Banerjea, a member of a high caste ​Brahman family in Calcutta: educated at the Hindu College: in 1829, became a teacher in the Hare School, Calcutta: came under the influence of Derozio and Dr. Duff, and was converted to Christianity in 1833: became a teacher in the C.M.S. School in Calcutta, and in 1837 was ordained a clergyman in the Church of England: from 1852 to 1868, was a Professor in Bishop's College, Calcutta: Fellow, 1858, of the Calcutta University: Doctor of Law, 1876: Examining Chaplain to the Bishop of Calcutta: Examiner in Sanskirt, Hindi, Tamil, and Uriya: M.R.A.S.B., also of the British Indian Association, Calcutta Corporation, and Board of Examiners: was made a C.I.E.: was in his later years regarded by Government as a Head and Leader of the Indian Community: wrote many books and pamphlets, chief among which are Dialogues on. Hindu Philosophy and Aryan Witness: he knew eleven languages well: his name will pass to posterity as a great scholar and linguist: died May 11, 1885.
# Dictionary of Indian Biography/Ball, Valentine

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​BALL, VALENTINE ( ? –1895)
Doctor: in the Geological Survey of India for 17 years: Treasurer of the Asiatic Society of Bengal, 1881: contributed papers on the Geology of the Nicobar Islands and of the vicinity of Port Blair: Professor of Geology at Dublin: F.R.S.: Director of the National Museum, Dublin, 1883: died June 15, 1895: wrote valuable works on geology and jungle life in India: edited, in 1889, J. B. Tavernier's Travels in India, 1676: C.B.
# Dictionary of Indian Biography/Bandula, Mengyee Maha

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​BANDULA, MENGYEE MAHA (? –1825)
Burmese Statesman and General: in Oct., 1819, he led a successful expedition against the chief of Manipur: in 1821 he attacked Assam: in 1823, the Burmese invaded British possessions near Chittagong, occupying the island of Shapuri on Sep. 24, 1823: in March, 1824, Bandula marched to Arakan, attacked an English force at Ramu, near Chittagong, and defeated it: Lord Amherst declared war against the Burmese. On May 11, 1824, the British. Army took Rangoon, but were unable to advance. Bandula was recalled from Arakan and ordered to proceed against the English forces. As C. in C., he approached Rangoon and stockaded his 60,000 men: but was attacked and defeated, Dec, 1824. He retired to Donabew, a strongly defended position, which the British Army under General Campbell reached on April 1, 1825. The siege of the place by the English had just begun when Bandula was killed by a shell from the British' Artillery, and the Burmese army fled.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Durie, John (d.1587)

​DURIE, JOHN (d. 1587), a Scotch jesuit, was ‘the son before he was abbat of the abbat of Dunfermling, brother to the lord of Duries’ (Thynne, Catalog of the Writers of Scotland, p. 463). He was born at Dunfermline, and educated at Paris and Louvain. He became a professed father of the Society of Jesus, and in 1582 he was residing at Clermont College in Paris, being then ‘presbyter et theologus.’ Father Anthony Possevin highly commends him for his learning and eloquence. Durie died in Germany in 1587. His only published work is entitled: ‘Confutatio Responsionis Gulielmi Whitakeri … ad Rationes decem, quibus fretus Edmundus Campianus … certamen Anglicanæ Ecclesiæ Ministris obtulit in Caussa Fidei,’ Paris, 1582, 8vo; Ingoldstadt, 1585, 8vo.
[Dempster's Historia Ecclesiastica (1829), i. 237; Tanner's Bibl. Brit. p. 242; Mackenzie's Scottish Writers, ii. 470; Southwell's Bibl. Scriptorum Soc. Jesu, p. 440; De Backer's Bibl. des Écrivains de la Compagnie de Jésus (1869), i. 1693; Dodd's Church Hist. ii. 141; Holinshed's Chronicles (1587), p. 463; Catholic Miscellany, ix. 33; Foley's Records, vi. 217, vii. pt. i. p. 217; Gordon's Catholic Mission in Scotland, p. 543; Oliver's Jesuit Collections, p. 20; Cat. of Printed Books in Brit. Mus.]
T. C.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Dusgate, Thomas

​DUSGATE, THOMAS (d. 1532), martyr, was born and educated in Cambridge, being scholar of Christ's College and fellow of Corpus Christi. He took his bachelor's degree in 1520–1, and that of master of arts in 1524. Feeling himself unable to endure the enforced celibacy of the priesthood, he went to Germany to consult Luther about his future life. The reformer dissuaded him from becoming a clergyman, and on his return to England he left Cambridge, changed his name to Bennet, and married. He went to live in Devonshire, and for some years kept a school, first at Torrington and then at Exeter in a street called Butcher Row. His intercourse with Luther had inclined him to accept the doctrines of the reformers, and he showed his sympathy to any persons in the diocese who were accused of heresy. He also put up bills on the cathedral doors at various times impugning the doctrines preached there. According to Foxe, the unknown blasphemer was publicly cursed, and Bennet was discovered to be the culprit by his inability to conceal his laughter. After his arrest a friar named Gregory Basset, a recanted heretic, tried hard to persuade him to follow his example. But Bennet was steadfast, and was in due course condemned and handed over to the secular power. The sheriff of Devon, Sir Thomas Dennis [q. v.], would have had the execution take place at Southernhay, but the chamber of Exeter refused permission, and he was therefore carried to Liverydole in Heavitree, about two miles from the city, and burned. This was on 15 Jan. 1531–2.
In remorse Sir Thomas Dennis afterwards built an almshouse on the spot. There is a brief and imperfect account of Dusgate's life and martyrdom, written by Ralph Morice, Archbishop Cranmer's secretary, among the Harleian MSS.
C. T. M.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Dussek, Sophia

​DUSSEK, SOPHIA (1775–1830?) musician, daughter of Domenico Corri [q. v.], was born at Edinburgh in 1775. She played in public when only four years old, and after her father came to London sang and played at the principal concerts. Her masters were her father, Marchesi, Viganoni, and Cimador. She was married to the pianist Dussek before she was twenty. The date of her marriage is uncertain, though it is generally said to be 1792. Under her husband's tuition she became an accomplished pianist and harpist, singing and playing in Ireland and Scotland, and also for one season appearing in opera. Dussek was obliged to fly from his creditors in 1800, and seems at the same time to have deserted his wife, who retired from public life and devoted herself to teaching. After her husband's death in 1812 she married a viola-player, John Alvis Moralt, with whom she lived at 8 Winchester Row, Paddington, where she established an academy for teaching the pianoforte.
Mdme. Dussek wrote a considerable amount of music; many of her sonatas, concertos, and less important pieces for harp, piano, and stringed instruments were published during the first quarter of the nineteenth century. The date of her death is unknown, but she was living in 1828. Her daughter, Olivia Buckley (1799–1847), was taught by her mother, and made her first appearance at the Argyle Rooms when eight years old. She was married to a Mr. Buckley, by whom she had ten children. In April 1840 she was appointed organist of the parish church, Kensington, a post she held until 1845, when an election took place, and Mrs. Buckley was reappointed unanimously. She died in 1847. Mrs. Buckley wrote some pianoforte music and songs; she was also the author of a little work entitled ‘Musical Truths,’ published in 1843. Among her compositions two books of ‘Fairy Songs and Ballads for the Young’ (1846) and a set of ‘Æsop's Fables’ (1847) are remarkable for their admirable title-pages, the work of Cruikshank.
W. B. S.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Duval, Charles Allen

​DUVAL, CHARLES ALLEN (1808–1872), painter, was born in Ireland in 1808. When a young man he went to Liverpool uncertain whether to turn his attention to art or to literature, but both were for a time cast aside for the rough life of a sailor. This, however, did not long prove attractive, and he settled as an artist in Liverpool, eventually removing to Manchester about 1833, where he continued to reside and practise as a portrait and subject painter till his death at Alderley, Cheshire, on 14 June 1872.
Duval exhibited at the Royal Academy from 1836 to 1872 (twenty pictures) both portraits and subject pictures, and as regularly in the local exhibitions at Liverpool and Manchester. His portraits are good likenesses, and have considerable artistic merit, particularly his chalk studies of children. One of the earliest commissions Duval received was from Mr. Daniel Lee for a portrait of Daniel O'Connell, who would only grant a sitting of two hours and a half; but the artist not only possessed a wonderful facility for catching expression, but also for rapid work, and the result was a characteristic portrait. He had previously painted a picture containing one hundred portraits of the leading Wesleyans in the ​United Kingdom, who met in Manchester to celebrate the centenary of methodism. Among his best-known productions in this branch of art are likenesses of the chief members of the Anti-Cornlaw League, which were afterwards engraved. He had a large practice in Liverpool and Manchester, and also in London. All his work was marked by great taste and beauty. Throughout his artistic career he never wholly abandoned subject picture painting. One of his first and best known works in this line is ‘The Ruined Gamester.’ It was purchased by a Manchester print-seller named Dewhurst, and engraved, earning for itself so great a popularity that a cartoon in ‘Punch,’ caricaturing Sir Robert Peel, was drawn from it, and an etching from the picture and some clever verses (both by the artist) appeared in the ‘North of England Magazine’ for June 1842. He afterwards exhibited ‘The Giaour,’ 1842, ‘Columbus in Chains,’ 1855, ‘The Dedication of Samuel,’ 1858, ‘The Morning Walk,’ 1861, and many others in local exhibitions. He also painted during his later years some clever sea pieces.
Duval was a witty and accomplished writer. Many papers by him will be found in the pages of the ‘North of England Magazine,’ and in 1863 he published five pamphlets on the struggle then taking place in the United States between the North and South.
A. N.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Durno, James

​DURNO, JAMES (1750?–1795), historical painter, was the son of the proprietor of a brewery at Kensington Gravel Pits, who was a native of the north of England. He was a pupil of Andrea Casali [q. v.], and also received instruction from Benjamin West [q. v.], whom he assisted in preparing repetitions of his pictures. In 1771 he gained a premium of thirty guineas at the Society of Arts, and was further successful in 1772 in gaining the first premium of a hundred guineas for the best historical painting. He was a member of the Society of Incorporated Artists, and subscribed their roll declaration in 1766. He contributed a few pictures to their exhibitions at Spring Gardens in 1769, 1772, 1773. He also assisted Mortimer in the ceiling which he painted for Lord Melbourne at Brocket Hall, Hertfordshire. In 1774 he went to Rome, where he resided until his death (13 Sept. 1795). Fuseli states that he employed himself ‘partly practising and partly dealing in art,’ and that ‘he once made an attempt at some grandeur of style in one or two Greek and Roman subjects, but soon dwindled into the meagre Gothic method exposed in his two pictures for the Boydell Gallery.’ These two pictures represented ‘Falstaff examining the Recruits’ and ‘Falstaff in disguise, led out by Mrs. Page.’ They were both engraved by Thomas Ryder, the former also by T. Hollis; the latter is now in Sir John Soane's Museum, Lincoln's Inn Fields. There is an etching by Durno in the print room at the British Museum, representing an ‘Antique Funeral.’
L. C.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Durie, Robert

​DURIE, ROBERT (1555–1616), presbyterian minister, was second son of John Durie (1537–1600) [q. v.] There is no real reason to doubt this relationship, although James Melville, who was son-in-law of John Durie, and an intimate friend and companion of Robert Durie, never explicitly mentions it. He studied at St. Mary's College, St. Andrews; visited Rochelle ; stayed with James Melville, whose wife is assumed to be his sister; accompanied Melville to the parliament of Linlithgow in December 1585, and to Berwick in September 1586; became subsequently assistant to the schoolmaster of Dunfermline, and minister of Abercrombie in Fife in 1588, and of Anstruther in 1590. He was one of those who, on the appointment of the church, visited the island of Lewis in 1598 to further a scheme for civilising and christianising the people there, hitherto little better than savages, and rearing ten parish churches among them. The attention of the church was at this time directed with much interest to the highlands, where an almost unlooked-for desire for protestant ordinances was manifesting itself. In 1601 Durie visited the Orkneys and Zetland, and gave an account of his journey to the assembly of 1602. In 1605 Durie attended as a member the general assembly at Aberdeen, which the king had prohibited, but which ​certain ministers, repudiating his jurisdiction, had persisted in holding. For this offence he was summoned before the privy council, and on 18 July sent to Blackness Castle. He and five others were tried at Linlithgow on 10 Jan. 1606 for treasonably declining the jurisdiction of the council, and being found guilty were banished from the kingdom. Durie, after landing at Bordeaux, proceeded to Holland, where he was admitted first minister of the Scotch church at Leyden, where he died in September 1616. He was one of the most intimate friends of Andrew Melville, who was in banishment at Sedan when Durie was at Leyden. At one time it was rumoured that a pardon had been accorded to Durie, but Melville warned him not to trust the rumour, having grounds for suspecting some foul play. He contributed a commendatory sonnet to James Melville's 'Spirituall Propine,' 1589. By his wife, Elizabeth Ramsay, Durie had five sons (John, Andrew, Eliezer, John, and James), and three daughters. The fourth son John is separately noticed.
W. G. B.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Canvane, Peter

​CANVANE, PETER (1720–1786), physician, an American by birth, entered as a medical student at Leyden on 4 March 1743. After graduating M.D. at Rheims he became a licentiate of the London College of Physicians in 1744. He practised for many years at St. Kitts in the West Indies, and afterwards settled at Bath. Later he retired to the continent, dying at Brussels in 1786. Canvane was a fellow of the Royal Society, and shares with Fraser, an army surgeon, the credit of introducing castor oil into this country, having had large experience of its beneficial employment in medicine in the West Indies. He published a pamphlet on the subject in 1766.
G. T. B.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Cantrell, Henry

​CANTRELL, HENRY (1685?–1773), miscellaneous writer, was born about 1685. His father was a resident from 1673 at Alstonfield, Staffordshire, and afterwards became master of the grammar school at Derby, dying in 1700. Cantrell's mother afterwards married Anthony Blackwall [q. v.], his father's successor in the Derby school, and there he was educated by his stepfather. He took his degrees at Emmanuel College, Cambridge (B.A. 1704, M.A. 1710). In 1712 he procured the perpetual curacy of St. Alkmund's, Derby, and when this benefice was created a vicarage, Cantrell was its first vicar, holding the living to his death. Before he came to St. Alkmund's the church was in a deplorable condition for want of maintenance, and service had not been performed for fifty years. Cantrell held strong views on the efficacy of episcopal baptism, and noted in his church register, that ‘dissenting ministers have no authority to baptize, and children sprinkled by 'em ought to be baptized after by an episcopal minister.’ In 1714 he wrote ‘The Invalidity of the Lay-Baptism of Dissenting Teachers proved from Scripture and Antiquity,’ Nottingham, 8vo. This was directed against an anonymous work entitled ‘The Validity of Baptism administred by Dissenting Ministers, by a Presbyter of the Church of Christ [Ferdinand Shaw, independent minister of Derby],’ Nottingham, 8vo. There were numerous books and pamphlets taking opposite sides of the question about this time. His next work was ‘The Royal Martyr, a True Christian; or, a Confutation of the late Assertion, viz. that King Charles I had only the Lay-Baptism of a Presbyterian Teacher,’ London, 1716, 8vo. In this treatise he gives an interesting account of Charles I's baptism from the Heralds' office in Edinburgh.
Hutton says ‘Cantrell drunk the Pretender's health on his knees’ on the famous march to Derby in 1745. In 1760 he communicated several interesting particulars of Derby and St. Alkmund's Church to Dr. Pegge. These are now in Pegge's collections at Heralds' College. He died in 1773. William Cantrell, rector of St. Michael's, Stamford, and afterwards rector of Normanton (1716–1787), was his eldest son. Another son, Henry, and a daughter, Constance, died young.
Nichols says ‘his widow became second wife of Anthony Blackwall, his successor in the Derby grammar school,’ but this was clearly his mother. Blackwall died in 1730. Cantrell's father (1659–1700?) was probably the Thomas Cantrell who graduated M.A. at Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge, in 1681.
[Lysons's Derbyshire, pp. 114, 121, 176; Nichols's Leicestershire, iii. 737; Nichols's Lit. Anecd. i. 119, 133; Nichols's Illust. viii. 441; Hutton's Birmingham, p. 117; Reliquary, 1870, p. 113; Cantrell's Royal Martyr, preface, pp. xxv–vi.]
J. W.-G.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Cantwell, Andrew

​CANTWELL, ANDREW (d. 1764), medical writer, was born in Tipperary, and studied medicine in Montpellier, where he graduated in 1729. Having failed in his endeavours in 1732 to secure the succession to the chair of medicine which had been left vacant by Astruc's migration to Paris, he also settled in Paris in 1733. After going through a further lengthened course of study there, he graduated M.D. of Paris in 1742. In 1750 he was appointed at Paris professor of surgery in the Latin language, in 1760 he became professor of the same subject in French, and in 1762 professor of pharmacy. He was one of the ​bitterest and most persistent opponents of inoculation against small-pox, and made a lengthened stay in England to study the practice and its results. He wrote a ‘Dissertation on Inoculation,’ Paris, 1755, an ‘Account of Small-pox,’ Paris, 1758, and numerous Latin dissertations on medicine, besides publishing other medical treatises, and several translations of English books, lists of which are given in Eloy (see below) and ‘Nouvelle Biographie Générale,’ Paris, viii. 1855. He was a fellow of the Royal Society of London, and contributions of his are to be found in the ‘Philosophical Transactions,’ vols. xl. xli. xlii. He died at Paris 11 July 1764.
G. T. B.