OpenLLM-France/wikimedia huggingface dataset:
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/O'Callaghan, Robert William

​O'CALLAGHAN, Sir ROBERT WILLIAM (1777–1840), general, second son of Cornelius O'Callaghan, first baron Lismore, and Frances, second daughter of Mr. Speaker Ponsonby, was born in October 1777. He was descended ‘from one of the very few native families that have been dignified by the peerage of Ireland.’ He was appointed ensign in the 128th regiment of foot 29 Nov. 1794, and was transferred as lieutenant to the 30th light dragoons 6 Dec. 1794, in which regiment he became captain 31 Jan. 1795. He was transferred to the 22nd light dragoons 19 April 1796. These three corps were all subsequently disbanded. He was appointed major to the 40th regiment of foot 17 Feb. 1803, and became lieutenant-colonel in the 39th regiment of foot 16 July 1803. In March 1805 he embarked in command of the first battalion of the 39th regiment, which had been selected to form part of the expedition destined for the Mediterranean under Lieutenant-general Sir James Craig, and subsequently proceeded from Malta to Naples with the flank companies. When those companies returned to Malta in February 1806, he remained in Sicily, and at the battle of Maida (4 July 1806) he commanded a grenadier battalion, receiving after the victory a gold medal. At the end of August 1811 he went with the first battalion of the 39th regiment from Sicily to join the army in the Peninsula. He was advanced to the brevet rank of colonel. At the battle of Vittoria (21 June 1813) he was placed in temporary command of the brigade, and his ​conduct was specially noticed in Wellington's despatches (vi. 541). He also commanded the brigade during the actions in the Pyrenees in July 1813, and was present at the passage of the Nivelle and Nive. His conduct in command of the first battalion of the 39th regiment at Garris (15 Feb. 1814) was again mentioned in Wellington's despatches (vii. 324). He was present at the victory of Orthes (27 Feb. 1814), and received a cross with two clasps for Maida, Vittoria, Pyrenees, Nivelle, Nive, and Orthes. He was promoted to the rank of major-general 4 June 1814, and was created a K.C.B. 2 Jan. 1815. He was appointed to the staff of the army in Flanders 25 June 1815, and to the staff of the army in France 22 April 1818. He commanded the troops in North Britain from 15 June 1825 to 22 July 1830. He was gazetted colonel of the 97th regiment 7 Sept. 1829, and was promoted to the rank of lieutenant-general 22 July 1830. He was appointed to command the army at Madras 4 Oct. 1830, and was made colonel of the 39th regiment 4 March 1833. In the spring of 1835, on the departure of Lord William Bentinck for England, he held for some months command of the troops in India, and was in command at Madras till October 1836. He was created G.C.B. 19 July 1838. He died unmarried in London on 9 June 1840.
[Napier's Peninsular War; Cannon's Historical Records of the 39th Regiment of Foot; Army Lists.]
B. H. S.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/O'Carroll, Maolsuthain

Máel Suthain Ua Cerbail in the ODNB.
​O'CARROLL, MAOLSUTHAIN (d. 1031), confessor of Brian (926–1014) [q. v.], king of Ireland, was probably son of Maolsuthain Ua Cearbhaill, or O'Carroll, who died at Inisfallen, in the lower Lake of Killarney, in 1009, chief of Eoghanacht Locha Lein, and famous for learning. Brian's brother Marcan was the chief ecclesiastic of Munster (Annala Rioghachta Eireann, 1009) in the time of the elder Maolsuthain, and it was perhaps through Marcan that the younger became attached to Brian. O'Carroll accompanied Brian in his journey round Ireland in 1004, and at Armagh wrote in the ‘Book of Armagh,’ on f. 16b, the short charter in Latin, which is still legible, and ends with the words ‘ego scripsi id est calvus perennis in conspectu briain imperatoris scotorum et quod scripsi finituit pro omnibus regibus maceriæ.’ ‘Calvus perennis’ is a version of Maolsuthain (maol = bald, and suthain = everlasting), while Maceria is a translation of the Irish word Caisil or Cashel, the chief city of Munster. There is no satisfactory evidence that O'Carroll wrote any part of the ‘Annals of Inisfallen,’ as is suggested by E. O'Curry (Lectures, p. 79) and E. O'Reilly (Irish Writers, p. 70). In a manuscript of 1434 there is a curious tale of O'Carroll, which has been printed by O'Curry (Lectures, p. 77, and App. p. xli). Three of Maolsuthain's pupils wished to visit Judæa. He told them they would die there, but gave them leave to go on condition that they should visit him after their deaths and tell him how long he should live, and what should be his doom after death. They died, asked the archangel Michael for the information, and thus learned that their tutor had three years and a half to live, and that at the day of judgment he would be sent to hell, for three reasons: The way he interpolated the canon, his profligate conduct, and his omission to recite the hymn of St. Columba known as ‘Altus prosator.’ His pupils returned as white doves, and communicated the gloomy intelligence. He announced his intention of abandoning vice and ceasing to interpolate the holy scriptures, of fasting three days a week, of performing one hundred genuflexions a day, and repeating the Altus seven times every night, and asked the doves to return on the day of his death. They came, informed him that heaven was now open to him, and flew off with his soul. His manuscripts, the tale adds, are still in the church of Inisfallen. He died in 1031.
N. M.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/O'Carroll, Margaret

Mairgréag Ní Chearbhaill
​O'CARROLL, MARGARET (d. 1451), hospitable lady, was daughter of Tadhg O'Carroll, and married Calbhach O'Connor Faly of Ui Failghe. As is still the custom in parts of Ireland, she retained her maiden surname after marriage. Twice in one year she gave a great entertainment—one on 26 March, and the other on 15 Aug. The first was at Killeigh, King's County; the second at Rathangan, both at the ends of Ophaly. Gillananaemh MacAedhagain, O'Connor Faly's chief brehon, wrote out for her a list of the learned of the time, beginning with Maoilin O'Maelchonaire, and she feasted 2,700 of them. Her husband approved, and rode round looking after the guests, who seem to have been entertained in the open air, near the church. She had two sons, one of whom, Feidhlimidh, died the day after her own death; and one daughter, Finola, who married, first, Nial Garbh O'Donnell, and then Aedh Buidh O'Neill, and died 25 July 1493. She built several churches, mended roads and made bridges, and gave two chalices of gold to the church of Dasinchell in Ophaly. She died of cancer of the breast in 1451.
[Annala Rioghachta Eireann, ed. O'Donovan vol. iv.]
N. M.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Wilkin, Simon

​WILKIN, SIMON (1790–1862), editor of the ‘Works of Sir Thomas Browne,’ born at Costessey (Cossey), Norfolk, in 1790, was son of William Wilkin and his wife Cecilia Lucy, daughter of William Jacomb of London. Losing his father in 1799, he went to reside at Norwich with his guardian, Joseph Kinghorn [q. v.], who superintended his education. He became proficient both in ancient and modern languages and in general literature. When of age he came into an ample fortune, and devoted himself largely to natural history, especially entomology, and his fine collection of insects ultimately came into the possession of the Zoological Society. He was elected a fellow of the Linnean Society, and a member of the Wernerian Society of Edinburgh. Through the disastrous failure of large paper mills with which he was connected he lost his property, and soon after established himself in Norwich as a printer and publisher, greatly raising the character of the Norwich press, and issuing some very erudite works. In 1825 he published a ‘Catalogue of the Public Library and City Library of Norwich,’ Norwich, 8vo. His edition of Sir Thomas Browne's works occupied the leisure of thirteen years, and he spared no pains in the collation of manuscripts and early editions so as to produce the best possible text; also in the examination and utilisation of Browne's vast correspondence in the libraries of the British Museum and the Bodleian. The work, which was published in 1836 in four volumes (London, 8vo), and was reissued in Bohn's ‘Library’ in 1852 (3 vols.), was pronounced by Robert Southey to be ‘the best reprint in the English language.’
Wilkin was the means of establishing the Norfolk and Norwich Literary Institution, as well as the museum which now holds a foremost rank among provincial collections. He also wrote the catechisms on the use of the globes for Pinnock's series of ‘Catechisms’ (2 parts, Norwich, 1823–6, 12mo), and contributed the introductory chapter and illustrative notes to the life of his guardian, entitled ‘Joseph Kinghorn of Norwich: a Memoir, by Martin Hood Wilkin,’ Norwich, 1855, 8vo.
In 1825 Wilkin married Emma, daughter of John Culley of Cossey, and in the latter part of his life he removed to London, residing at Hampstead until his death on 28 July 1862. He was buried at his native village of Cossey.
[Wilkin's Works in Brit. Mus. Library; Athenæum, 1862, ii. 182; private information.]
M. H. W.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Wilkinson, Charles Smith

​WILKINSON, CHARLES SMITH (1843–1891), geologist, was born in Northamptonshire in 1843, his father, David Wilkinson, being an engineer who had been associated with George Stephenson [q. v.] in designing the first locomotive. The family went out to Australia in 1852, settling in Melbourne, where the boy was educated. In 1859 he was appointed for a time on the geological survey of Victoria, and he surveyed the district from north of Bass Strait to Ballarat in 1861; the Cape Otway mountain in 1863; and worked in the gold district of the Leigh River in 1866. Here his health failed, and he spent three years in the Wagga district recruiting. In 1872 he passed the examination as a licensed surveyor, and, after reporting on the tin mines in the New England district, was appointed in 1874 geological surveyor to the department of lands, and the year following government geologist, both of them for New South Wales. After becoming a government official he took an active part, until his death on 23 Aug. 1891, in exhibitions and commissions of inquiry, and most of his best geological work is embodied in official reports, but a list of his separate papers will be found in the 'Australian Catalogue' (Etheridge and Jack). He was elected F.G.S. in 1876 and F.L.S. in 1881, was president of the Linnean Society of New South Wales in 1884, and of the Royal Society of that colony in 1888.
[Obituary notices Quart. Journ. Geol. Soc. xlviii. Proc. p. 54, Geol. Mag. 1891, p. 571 (with engraved portrait), and Mining Journ. 17 Oct. 1891.]
T. G. B.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Wilkins, Henry St. Clair

​WILKINS, HENRY ST. CLAIR (1828–1896), general, son of George Wilkins (1785–1865) [q. v.], archdeacon of Nottingham, was born on 3 Dec. 1828. After passing through the military college of the East India Company at Addiscombe, he received a commission as lieutenant in the Bombay engineers on 11 June 1847. The dates of his further commissions were: captain, 27 Aug. 1858; lieutenant-colonel, 1 March 1867; colonel, 15 Aug. 1868; major-general, 21 Dec. 1877; lieutenant-general, 31 Dec. 1878; general, 18 Jan. 1882, when he retired on a pension.
He served with the field force from Aden ​against the Arabs in 1858. He commanded the royal engineers throughout the Abyssinian campaign of 1868, was mentioned in despatches by Lord Napier of Magdala for his ‘invaluable and important services during the expedition,’ was appointed aide-de-camp to the queen, with the rank of colonel in the army, and received the medal.
An accomplished draughtsman and artist, Wilkins was employed in architectural and engineering works in the public works department of India, and his designs were remarkable for their fitness and beauty. Among them may be noted: at Aden, the restoration of the ancient tanks in the Tawella Valley, dating from about 600 A.D.; at Bombay, the government and the public works secretariats (he also won the first prize in a competition by his design for the European general hospital); at Puna, the Sassoon hospital, the Deccan college, the Jewish synagogue, and the mausoleum of the Sassoon family; at Bhuj, the palace of the rao of Kach; at Bhejapur, the restoration and adaptation of ancient buildings to the requirements of a new station.
Wilkins published ‘Reconnoitring in Abyssinia,’ 1868, and ‘A Treatise on Mountain Roads, Live Loads, and Bridges,’ 1879. He was engaged in the revision of the latter work when he died suddenly, on 15 Dec. 1896, at his residence at Queen's Gate, South Kensington. Wilkins married, in 1856, Violet, daughter of Colonel Colin Campbell McIntyre, C.B., of the 78th highlanders.
[Royal Engineers Records and Professional Papers, vol. xvii. (1869); Despatches; Times, December 1896; Memoir by General John Fuller, R.E., in Royal Engineers' Journal, 1897.]
R. H. V.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Wilkins, George (1785-1865)

​WILKINS, GEORGE (1785–1865), divine, born at Norwich in 1785, was son of William Wilkins (1749–1819), and younger brother of William Wilkins [q. v.] He was educated at Bury St. Edmund's grammar school; thence, in 1803, he passed to Caius College, Cambridge, graduating B.A. in 1807, M.A. in 1810, and D.D. in 1824.
In 1808 Wilkins became curate of Plumstead. Thence he proceeded to Hadleigh under Dr. Hay-Drummond, uncle of the Earl of Kinnoull, and married his daughter Amelia Auriol Hay-Drummond, in September 1811, having first run away with her to Gretna. He became vicar of Lexington on 1 Dec. 1813, of Lowdham on 19 Jan. 1815, and on 8 Nov. 1817 of the important parish of St. Mary's, Nottingham, which even then possessed a population of twenty-eight thousand souls. In 1823 he was collated by the archbishop of York to the prebendal stall of Normanton in Southwell collegiate church. Lord Eldon presented him to the rectory of Wing in 1827, mainly on the strength of his book ‘Body and Soul,’ and on 24 April 1832 Wilkins became archdeacon of Nottingham in succession to William Barrow [q. v.] In 1839 Wilkins resigned all his preferments involving cure of souls, and gave himself up to an assiduous discharge of his archidiaconal duties. He accepted, however, in 1843 the rectory of Beelsby, Lincolnshire, and held it till his death, but never resided there.
In Nottinghamshire Wilkins worked hard for more than half a century, building two chapels of ease in Nottingham itself, and commencing a third, while he collected 2,000l. to restore St. Mary's Church and provide sittings for two thousand people.
Tall, active both in body and mind, and of a fine presence, Wilkins was famous for his pulpit oratory. The latter part of his life was spent at Southwell as last canon residentiary. There he devoted himself for many years to the restoration both of the services and the fabric of Southwell church. He died at the Residence, Southwell, 13 Aug. 1865, and was buried south-east of the church. Of his sons, Henry St. Clair [q. v.] is noticed separately; another son, J. Murray Wilkins, was the last rector of Southwell collegiate church before it became a cathedral. Wilkins wrote, besides various sermons, charges, letters, and addresses: 1. ‘Lines addressed to Mrs. Hay Drummond,’ Hadleigh, 1811, 4to. 2. ‘History of the Destruction of Jerusalem as connected with the Scripture Prophecies,’ Nottingham, 1816, 8vo. 3. ‘Body and Soul,’ 1822, 8vo (this provoked some controversy, especially with Rev. J. H. Browne, archdeacon of Ely). 4. ‘A Brief Harmonised Exposition of the Gospel,’ 1823, 8vo. 5. ‘The Village Pastor,’ 1825, 12mo. 6. ‘Three Score Years and Ten,’ 1856, 8vo.
M. G. W.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/McNair, William Watts

​McNAIR, WILLIAM WATTS (1849–1889), traveller, was born 13 Sept. 1849. He joined the Indian survey department 1 Sept. 1867. His first twelve veers of service were passed with the Rajputana and Mysore topographical parties, and under Majors Strahan and Thullier he learned surveying thoroughly. In the autumn of 1879 he was selected to accompany the Khyber column of the Afghan field force, and was present during the fighting before Cabul and the defence of Sharpur in 1879–80. While in Afghanistan he made valuable maps, exploring the Lughman Valley and the route to Kafristan; and he was the first officer to traverse by the same valley the route from Cabul to Jalalabad. South of Cabul he penetrated to the Logar and Wardak valleys. After the war he was engaged in the Kohat survey under Major Holdich, tracing the frontier line from Kohat to Bannu, and, across the border, surveying part of the valley of the Tochi, and mapping some of the Khost district. He was soon transferred to one of the Beluchistan parties, and passed the remainder of life in surveying in that district; his main work was to carry a series of triangles from the Indus at Dehra Gazi Khan, near the thirtieth parallel, to Quetta. In 1883, hearing that a native explorer was about to visit Kafristan, he volunteered to accompany him disguised as a hakim, or native doctor. He obtained a year's leave, and the party crossed the frontier 13 April. They passed through the Dir country, and came by the Kotal Pass, at an elevation of 10,450 feet, to Ashreth, and thence to Chitral. He had intended to go northwards, by the Hindu Kush valleys, but after reaching the Dora Pass, and making observations in the Chitral district, he was compelled to return, owing to his identity having been disclosed by a native, Kafristan being very strictly secluded from Europeans. On his return he was officially reprimanded by the viceroy for crossing the frontier without permission. He read an account of his expedition before the Royal Geographical Society in London on 10 Dec. 1883, and was awarded the Murchison grant. He continued his survey work, but was in 1889 attacked by fever at Quetta, and moved to Mussooree, where he died 13 Aug. 1889.
[Memoir by J. E. Howard; Proc. Royal Geogr. Soc. 1884 p. 1, 1889 pp. 612, 684.]
W. A. J. A.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/McLaren, William

​McLAREN, WILLIAM (1772–1832), Scottish poet, was born at Paisley in 1772, became a hand-loom weaver, and at one period went to Ireland as a manufacturer, but had to return owing to a too strong expression of political opinions. Latterly he opened a public-house in Paisley, and died there 2 May 1832. He developed an early taste for literature, and became intimate with Robert Tannahill [q. v.], whose volume of verse, published in 1807, was dedicated to him. In 1815 he edited, with a memoir, 'Poems and Songs' by Tannahill; and in 1818, also with a memoir, the posthumous works of his relative, James Scadlock, a minor Paisley poet. He collected his own verse, most of which is of slight merit, in two volumes, entitled respectively ' Emma, or the Cruel Father; a Poetical Tale, with other Poems and Songs' (1817), and 'Isabella, or the Robbers' (1827). He wrote also several pamphlets of ephemeral interest.
[Brown's Poets of Paisley, i. 78, 98; Harp of Renfrewshire, 1st and 2ndser.; Rogers's Scottish Minstrel, p. 126.]
J. C. H.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/McLellan, Archibald

​McLELLAN, ARCHIBALD (1797–1854), coach-builder and amateur of works of art, born at Glasgow in 1797, was son of a large coach-builder in that city, and was brought up to and finally became partner in his father's business. He was for many years a leading citizen in Glasgow. He became a magistrate before the age of twenty-five, and reached the position of 'deacon' of his trade, subsequently holding the office of 'deacon-convener' in the Trades' House at Glasgow. He was for over thirty years a member of the town council, and though a strong conservative in politics, did much to assist the passing of the Scotch Municipal Reform Bill. In 1833 McLellan published a small volume entitled 'An Essay on the Cathedral Church of Glasgow,' in which he called attention to the neglect and dilapidation into which that building had fallen. He also took a great share in promoting its restoration. McLellan, however, was deeply interested in the fine arts. He was a friend of Sir David Wilkie, Sir Francis Chantrey, and other artists, and collected for himself a library and a collection of works of art, containing many pictures by the old masters of great historical and artistic value. These he intended to present or bequeath to the city of Glasgow to promote the study of the fine arts, and purchased a site in Sauchiehall Street, on which he commenced to build a gallery. McLellan died, before the works were completed, at his country residence, Mugdock Castle, Stirlingshire, on 22 Oct. 1854, in his fifty-eighth year, and was buried in the High Church burying-ground at Glasgow. He conveyed by deed of bequest his collections to certain trustees on behalf of the citizens of Glasgow. After his death, however, his affairs were found to be so much involved that the trustees were unable to carry out his bequest. Eventually the corporation of Glasgow agreed to purchase the ​collection of pictures and sculpture, with the buildings and other heritable property in or near Sauchiehall Street. Nevertheless, the fine collection remained unnoticed and sadly neglected for about thirty years, until it was in danger of being dispersed; attention was then drawn to it, and it was placed under competent guardians. It now forms the chief nucleus of the remarkable collection of works of art in the Corporation Galleries of Art at Glasgow. The collection is a great tribute to McLellan's taste and power of selection at a time when critical knowledge of works of art was very rare.
[Glasgow Herald, 27 Oct. 1854; Art Journal, 4855, p. 312; Cat. of Pictures and Sculpture in the Corporation Art Galleries, Glasgow; information from James Paton, esq.]
L. C.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/McNamara, Thomas

​McNAMARA, THOMAS (1808–1892), Irish catholic divine, was born near Slane, co. Meath, in 1808. He was educated at Navan Seminary and afterwards at Maynooth College, where he was ordained in 1833. In 1834 he and some associates established Castleknock College, in co. Dublin, and after affiliating the college in 1839 with the Congregation of the Mission, an order founded by St. Vincent de Paul, commenced to give missions throughout Ireland. McNamara took a great interest in the deaf and dumb, made a special study of the modes of educating them, and wrote pamphlets on the subject. In conjunction with others he founded the Catholic Institution for Deaf and Dumb Mutes at Cabra, near Dublin, in 1846. He was appointed superior of Castleknock College and visitor of the Irish Province of the Congregation of the Mission in 1864, and in 1868 was made rector of the Irish College in Paris, which post he filled for over twenty years, resigning it in 1889. He died at St. Joseph's, Blackrock, co. Dublin, on 8 March 1892, and was buried on the 11th in the cemetery at Castleknock.
McNamara was the author of the following works, which were written almost entirely for the catholic clergy: 1. ‘Programmes of Sermons and Instructions,’ Dublin, 1881, crown 8vo. 2. ‘Sacred Rhetoric, or the Art of Rhetoric as applied to the Preaching of the Word of God,’ Dublin, 1882, crown 8vo. 3. ‘Enchiridion Clericorum: being a Rule of Life for Ecclesiastics,’ Dublin, 1882, crown 8vo. 4. ‘Allocutions, or Short Addresses on Liturgical Observations and Ritual Functions,’ Dublin, 1884, crown 8vo. 5. ‘Pax Vobis: being a Popular Exposition of the Seven Sacraments,’ Dublin, 1886, crown 8vo.
[Freeman's Journal, 10 March 1892; Irish Daily Independent, 10 March 1892; College Chronicle (Castleknock), June 1892, pp. 5–6.]
P. L. N.