OpenLLM-France/wikimedia huggingface dataset:
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Jenner, David

​JENNER, DAVID (d. 1691), divine, was educated at Trinity College, Cambridge, where he proceeded B.A. in 1657–8. Afterwards he became a fellow of Sidney Sussex College, and took the degree of M.A. by royal mandate in 1662, and that of B.D., also by royal mandate, in 1668. He was installed in the prebend of Netherbury in the cathedral church of Salisbury 28 June 1676, and was instituted on 15 Oct. 1678 to the rectory of Great Warley, Essex, which he resigned in or about October 1687. He was likewise chaplain to the king. He died in 1691.
He published, besides two separate sermons (1676 and 1680):
* ‘Bifrons, or a new Discovery of Treason under the Fair Face and Mask of Religion, and of Liberty of Conscience,’ London, 1683–4, 4to; a reply to Dr. Daniel Whitby's ‘Protestant Reconciler,’ 1683.
* ‘The Prerogative of Primogeniture: shewing that the right of Succession to an Hereditary Crown depends not upon Grace, Religion, &c., but onely upon Birth-Right and Primogeniture; and that the Chief Cause of all, or most, Rebellions in Christendom, is a Fanatical Belief that Temporal Dominion is founded in Grace,’ London, 1685; dedicated to James, duke of York.
[Information from the Rev. H. R. Luard, D.D.; Addit. MS. 5873, f. 8; Bodleian Cat.; Cantabrigienses Graduati, 1787, p. 215; Le Neve's Fasti (Hardy), ii. 660; Newcourt's Repertorium, ii. 641; Wood's Athenæ Oxon. (Bliss), iv. 675.]
T. C.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Jenner, Edward (1803-1872)

​JENNER, EDWARD (1803–1872), botanist, born 13 March 1803, was for forty-seven years traveller to the printing-house of Baxter of Lewes, for the ‘Sussex Express.’ Although quite ignorant of Latin, he worked hard at entomology and botany, securing a close and critical knowledge of the fresh-water algæ. He was elected an associate of the Linnean Society in 1838. The cryptogamic ​portion of his admirable little ‘Flora of Tunbridge Wells,’ 1845, gives that volume a distinctive character. He died suddenly on 13 March 1872, his sixty-ninth birthday.
[Proc. Linn. Soc. 1871–2, p. 69; Gardeners' Chron. 1872, p. 398.]
B. D. J.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Jennings, Hargrave

​JENNINGS, HARGRAVE (1817?–1890), miscellaneous writer, born about 1817, contributed at the age of fifteen an anonymous series of sea-sketches to the ‘Metropolitan Magazine,’ then under the editorship of Captain Marryat. For many years he acted as secretary to Colonel Mapleson in the management of the Italian Opera. It is supposed that he was the original of the character of Ezra Jennings in Wilkie Collins's story, ‘The Moonstone.’ He died on 11 March 1890 at the residence of his brother, Mr. F. W. Jennings, Ambassadors' Court, St. James's Palace.
Jennings claimed to be the first explorer in various fields of occult learning. His writings include: 1. ‘My Marine Memorandum Book,’ a collection of marine sketches, 3 vols. 12mo, London, 1845. 2. ‘The Ship of Glass; or, the Mysterious Island; a Romance,’ with ‘Atcherley,’ a novel, 3 vols. 12mo, London, 1846. 3. ‘The Opera; or, Views before and Peeps behind the Curtain,’ 8vo, London, 1847. 4. ‘St. George, a Miniature Romance,’ 8vo, London, 1853. 5. ‘Pebblestones by Peregrine, edited by H. Jennings,’ 8vo, London, 1853. 6. ‘The Indian Religions; or, Results of the Mysterious Buddhism, by an Indian Missionary’ [anon.], 12mo, London, 1858; another edit. 1890. 7. ‘War in London; or, Peace in London. Remonstrance addressed to the People of England,’ 8vo, London, 1859. 8. ‘Curious Things of the Outside World. Last Fire,’ 2 vols. 12mo, London, 1861. 9. ‘The Rosicrucians, their Rites and Mysteries; with Chapters on the Ancient Fire-and Serpent-Worshippers,’ 8vo, London, 1870; other editions 1879, and 2 vols. 1887. The book originally occupied twenty years in composition, from 1850 to 1870. 10. ‘Live Lights or Dead Lights: (Altar or Table?),’ 8vo, London, 1873, written in conjunction with two members of the church of England. 11. ‘One of the Thirty: a Strange History, now for the first time told … edited by H. Jennings,’ 8vo, London (1873), a story of the thirty pieces of silver received by Judas for the betrayal of Jesus. 12. ‘The Obelisk: Notices of the Origin, Purpose, and History of Obelisks,’ 8vo, London, 1877. 13. ‘The Childishness and Brutality of the Time: some plain truths in plain language: supplemented by … ​Essays,’ 8vo, London, 1883. 14. ‘Phallicism, Celestial and Terrestrial, Heathen and Christian: its connexion with the Rosicrucians and the Gnostics, and its foundation in Buddhism; with an Essay on Mystic Anatomy,’ 2 vols. 8vo, with appendix of plates, London, 1884, issued to subscribers only. 15. ‘Charon: Sermons from Styx,’ 8vo, London, 1886. Shortly before his death Jennings was engaged in writing his reminiscences and completed them. He also wrote an introduction to the reprint of Dr. Everard's translation of ‘The Divine Pymander of Hermes Mercurius Trismegistus,’ 4to, London, 1884, one of the ‘Bath Occult Reprint’ series.
[Athenæum, 15 and 22 March 1890; Times, 13 and 14 March 1890.]
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Whatton, William Robert

​WHATTON, WILLIAM ROBERT (1790–1835), surgeon and antiquary, son of Henry Whatton, by Elizabeth, daughter of John Watkinson, was born at Loughborough, Leicestershire, on 17 Feb. 1790. He was admitted a member of the Royal College of Surgeons on 16 March 1810, and settled at Manchester about 1816, where he was afterwards surgeon to the Royal Infirmary. In January 1822 he joined the Manchester Literary and Philosophical Society, and was elected librarian in 1828. To the ‘Memoirs’ of that society he contributed in 1824 ‘Observations on the Armorial Bearings of the Town of Manchester and on the Descent of the Baronial Family of Gresley’ (printed for the author, Manchester, 4to). He was elected a fellow of the Royal Society on 5 June 1834, and was F.S.A. of London and Edinburgh. To ‘Archæologia’ (xxx. 595) he sent an ‘Account of the Discovery of an Ancient Instrument of Brass at Rochdale,’ and to ‘Archæologia Scotica’ (iv. 1) an interesting paper on certain furniture at Speke Hall, Lancashire. In 1828 he wrote ‘The History of Manchester School,’ and in 1833 ‘A History of Chetham Hospital and Library,’ which together form the third volume of Hibbert-Ware's ‘Foundations in Manchester.’ He projected a work on the worthies of Lancashire; but when Edward Baines [q. v.] announced his ​‘History of Lancashire’ he handed over his biographies, in completed form, to be incorporated in that work. In 1829 he published two pamphlets proposing the establishment of a university for Manchester to be engrafted on the Royal Institution of that town. This scheme of a Manchester university was again brought forward by Harry Longueville Jones [q. v.] in 1836, but not finally carried out until the Victoria university was founded in 1880.
His professional papers were confined to a contribution on ‘Spinal and Spino-ganglial Irritation’ to the ‘North of England Medical and Surgical Journal’ (1830), and ‘An Address to the Pupils of the Manchester Infirmary’ (1834).
He died at Manchester on 5 Dec. 1835. By his wife Harriet Sophia, daughter of William Seddon of Eccles, near Manchester, whom he married in 1822, he had a son and a daughter. His son, Arundel Blount Whatton (born on 22 Sept. 1827, died at Middlesex Hospital on 18 May 1862), became a clergyman, and published in 1859 a ‘Memoir of the Life and Labours of the Rev. Jeremiah Horrox’ (2nd edit. 1875; see Horrocks, Jeremiah).
C. W. S.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Wheatly, Charles

​WHEATLY, CHARLES (1686–1742), divine, born on 6 Feb. 1685–6, was the son of John Wheatly, a tradesman of London. His mother, whose maiden name was White, was a descendant of Ralph White, brother of Sir Thomas White [q. v.], founder of St. John's College, Oxford. Charles was entered at Merchant Taylors' school on 9 Jan. 1698–9, and matriculated from St. John's College, Oxford, on 28 March 1705. He was elected a fellow in 1707, and graduated B.A. on 23 Jan. 1709–10, and M.A. on 28 March 1713, resigning his fellowship in the same year. On 24 May 1717 he was chosen lecturer of St. Mildred-in-the-Poultry, and in 1725 lecturer of St. Swithin, Londonstone. On 23 March 1725–6 he was instituted vicar of Brent Pelham, and on 1 April 1726 vicar of Furneaux Pelham in Hertfordshire. He died at Furneaux Pelham on 13 May 1742, and was buried in the parish church. He was twice married: first, on 16 Aug. 1713, to Maria (d. 10 Dec. 1724), daughter of William Findall of the Clarendon Press; secondly, to Mary, daughter of Daniel Fogg, rector of All Hallows Staining. His second wife survived him.
Wheatly was an industrious divine. The work by which he is chiefly remembered is ‘The Church of England Man's Companion, or a Rational Illustration of the Harmony … and Usefulness of the Book of Common Prayer,’ which first appeared in 1710 (Oxford, 8vo), and went through many editions, the latest being that published at Cambridge under the care of George Elwes Corrie in 1858. Wheatly was also the author of:
* ‘Bidding of Prayers before Sermon no mark of Disaffection to the present Government,’ London, 1718, 8vo; new edit. London, 1845, 8vo.
* ‘The Nicene and Athanasian Creeds … explained and confirmed by the Holy Scriptures,’ London, 1738, 8vo.
* ‘Fifty Sermons on Several Subjects, and Occasions,’ ed. John Berriman, London, 1753, 8vo.
[Robinson's Register of Merchant Taylors' School, 1882, i. 343; Foster's Alumni Oxon. 1500–1714; Gent. Mag. 1742 p. 251, 1801 i. 109–111; Hutton's Hist. of St. John Baptist College, 1898, pp. 208, 239; Clutterbuck's Hist. of Hertfordshire, 1827, iii. 449, 455, 457.]
E. I. C.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Tisdale, John

​TISDALE, TYSDALL, or TYSDALE, JOHN (fl. 1550–1563), printer and stationer, began to print in 1550 ‘at Knight-Rider strete, nere to the Quenes Waredrop,’ London. At a later date he had ‘a shoppe in the upper ende of Lombard strete, in Allhallowes churchyard nere unto gracechurche,’ at the ‘sygne of the Eagles foote.’ He was an original member of the Company of Sta​tioners, and is mentioned in the first charter, 4 May 1556 (Arber, Transcript, vol. i. pp. xxviii–xxix), having been made free on 8 Oct. 1555 (ib. i. 34). The first entry to him in the ‘Register’ is in 1558 for a license ‘to prynte an A B C in laten for Rycharde Jugge, John Judson, and Anthony Smythe,’ which is the ‘first instance recorded in the “Register” of one printer printing for another’ (ib. i. 95). He began to take apprentices on 25 Dec. 1559 (ib. p. 119). One of his devices was an angel driving Adam and Eve out of Paradise; another was Abraham's sacrifice. He printed several of Bishop Bale's treatises. His last production is dated 1563, and the latest entry referring to him is one for taking an apprentice on 25 June of the same year (ib. i. 227). One John Tisdale, possibly a son, had a temporary partnership with John Charlewood [q. v.] ‘at the Saracen's Head, near Holbourn conduit: how long this lasted is uncertain, as nothing of their printing with a date’ is known (Ames, Typogr. Antiq., ed. Herbert, ii. 1093). Tisdale printed for Rafe Newbery and Francis Coldocke.
H. R. T.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Titley, Walter

​TITLEY, WALTER (1700–1768), envoy-extraordinary at Copenhagen, born in 1700, was son of Abraham Titley, a Staffordshire man. He was admitted a king's scholar at Westminster in 1714, and was three years later elected to Cambridge. While at Westminster he acted as ‘help’ to Osborn Atterbury, son of Francis Atterbury [q. v.], bishop of Rochester, and was afterwards his tutor. From Trinity College, Cambridge, he graduated B.A. in 1722 and M.A. in 1726. He laid down a regular plan of life, which was approximately carried out. The first thirty years were to be given to study, the next thirty to public business, and after the age of sixty study was to be resumed. Having entered the diplomatic service, he became secretary of the British embassy at Turin. On 3 Jan. 1728–9 he was selected to act as chargé d'affaires at Copenhagen in the absence of Lord Glenorchy, and on 3 Nov. 1730 was named envoy-extraordinary. In 1733 Richard Bentley (1662–1742) [q. v.], master of Trinity, appointed him to the physic-fellowship at that college. Titley resigned his diplomatic position to accept it, but had become so attached to his life at Copenhagen that he was unable to leave it. He accordingly resumed his post, and held it for the remainder of his life. On his application in 1761, the king of Denmark agreed to order the seizure and extradition of deserters from the British army and navy, on condition of a similar service being performed for him in England. Two years later, in 1763, Titley was, on the ground of age and infirmity, granted an assistant. He died at Copenhagen, greatly respected and lamented, in February 1768. He bequeathed 1,000l. each to Westminster school, Trinity College, and the university of Cambridge. Part of the last bequest was to be devoted to buildings.
Titley wrote an ‘Imitation’ in English of the second ode of the third book of Horace, which was much admired by Bentley, who ​parodied it (Croker, Boswell, iv. 24). Both imitation and parody are printed in Monk's ‘Life of Bentley.’ Some of his Latin verses are contained in ‘Reliquiæ Galeanæ.’ The poem ‘Laterna Megalographica,’ included in Vincent Bourne's ‘Works’ (1772), is also attributed to Titley.
G. Le G. N.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Tisdal, William

William Tisdall in the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography.
​TISDAL or TISDALL, WILLIAM (1669–1735), controversialist and acquaintance of Swift, born in Dublin in 1669, was the son of William Tisdall of Carrickfergus, by his wife Anna. He entered Trinity College on 8 April 1687, his tutor being Edward Smith [q. v.], afterwards bishop of Down and Connor, became scholar in 1692, fellow in 1696, and obtained the degree of D.D. in 1707. Swift seems to have made his acquaintance as early as 1695–6, while he was at Kilroot, during one of his estrangements from Sir William Temple. Swift sympathised with Tisdall's arrogant churchmanship and hatred of presbyterians, and thought a good deal of his capacity as a preacher. They corresponded, too, upon political questions, and were in agreement as to the desirability of passing a bill against occasional conformity. These relations were abruptly changed in 1704 when Tisdall announced to his friend that he had designs upon the hand of ‘Stella’ (Esther Johnson). Swift replied in a letter dated 20 April 1704, in which rage and irony are apparent enough beneath the studied calmness which he affected. The episode was very soon closed, but Swift never got over his grudge against the ‘interloper.’ When he wanted a contemptuous epithet for Steele, he called him a ‘Tisdall fellow.’ Tisdall consoled himself by marrying, on 16 May 1706, Eleanor, daughter of Hugh Morgan of Cottlestown, co. Sligo.
In 1706 Tisdall became vicar of Kerry and Ruavan, co. Antrim; he was appointed rector of Drumcree, co. Armagh, on 29 Nov. 1711, and was admitted vicar of Belfast in the following year. His reputation as a controversialist was already considerable in the north of Ireland. In 1709 appeared his ironical ‘A Sample of True-Blew Presbyterian Loyalty, in all Changes and Turns of Government’ (Dublin, 4to), which was followed in 1712 by his vigorous ‘Conduct of the Dissenters in Ireland.’ Tisdall declared jocularly (though the joke was not relished by Swift) that he had saved Ireland by this as Swift England by his ‘Conduct of the Allies.’ John McBride [q. v.] retorted in ‘A Sample of Jet-black Prelatic Calumny.’ Tisdall published two other small tracts, before the dominion of the whigs was definitely established in 1715. After this he was silent. His relations with Swift became closer again after Stella's death, and he was a witness to Swift's will. He died on 8 June 1735, being survived just a year and a day by his wife. A son William became vicar of St. James's, Dublin, married Lady Mary, daughter of Chambre Brabazon, fifth earl of Meath, and had issue (Burke, Landed Gentry and Peerage, s.v. ‘Meath’).
T. S.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Titiens, Teresa Caroline Johanna

​TITIENS (correctly TIETJENS), TERESA CAROLINE JOHANNA (1831–1877), operatic singer, born of Hungarian parents at Hamburg on 17 July 1831 (Riemann, Dict. of Music), was musically educated in her native town. Her voice was a soprano of singular sweetness and power, and in 1849 she made a successful début at Hamburg in the title part of ‘Lucrezia Borgia.’ From that year until 1856 she sang principally at Frankfort and Vienna, where she was engaged for Benjamin Lumley [q. v.] of Her Majesty's Theatre for the season of 1858. It is said to have been due to Lumley that her name was simplified to Titiens. On 13 April 1858 she appeared at Her Majesty's as Valentine in ‘Les Huguenots,’ with much success (Cox, Musical Recollections, ii. 318). Titiens's success in England induced her to make her home there. She ultimately became a naturalised British subject. For years she sang at Her Majesty's and Drury Lane under Mapleson and E. T. Smith, and also at Covent Garden and, later, at the Haymarket. Her best parts included Lucrezia, Semiramide, Countess Almaviva, Medea in Cherubini's opera of that name, and Lenora in Beethoven's ‘Fidelio,’ though in this last her triumph was vocal, since her figure was unsuited to the part. She also sang Ortrud in ‘Lohengrin.’
As a singer of sacred music Titiens was no less successful than as an opera singer, and her services for the provincial and Handel festivals were in continual demand. In 1863 she visited Paris, and during 1876 America. At the end of the last year she was accorded at the Albert Hall, London, her last benefit. In May 1877 she made as Lucrezia her last appearance on the stage, her health at that time being very weak. She died on 3 Oct. 1877, and was buried at Kensal Green.
R. H. L.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Tirechan

​TIRECHAN (fl. 7th cent.), bishop and saint, was brought up in co. Meath by Ultan, bishop of Ardbraccan, who educated him. His ‘Collections’ relating to St. Patrick, which are preserved in the ‘Book of Armagh,’ are derived partly from Ultan's information oral and written, partly from the ‘Confessio’ of St. Patrick, which he quotes as ‘scriptio sua,’ and another work concerning him called ‘Commemoratio Laborum,’ and partly from traditions communicated to him by ‘seniors’ and ‘wise ancients.’ He was moved to write by love of the saint and indignation at the wrongs done to his successors, the coarbs of Armagh, by ‘deserters and robber chiefs and soldiers.’
Tirechan is the earliest witness to assign the date 469 to the death of St. Patrick, and his testimony proves that the date long generally accepted (493) is a later tradition. The date of Tirechan is inferred from that of his benefactor, Ultan, who was a member of the third order of Irish saints, and died in 656. Tirechan's day in the calendar is 3 July.
[The Tripartite Life of St. Patrick (Rolls Ser.), ii. 302–23; Analecta Bollandiana, edidit R. P. Edmundus Hogan, S. J., Bruxelles, 1882, pp. 57–90; Ussher's Works, vi. 375, 534, 607; Martyrology of Gorman, p. 129; Todd's St. Patrick, Apostle of Ireland, p. 399.]
T. O.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Tirel, Walter

​TIREL or TYRRELL, WALTER (fl. 1100), reputed slayer of William Rufus, was identified by Freeman with a son of Fulc, dean of Lisieux, who bore the same name (Will. Rufus, ii. 322, 673). He was, however, the son and successor of a Walter Tirel, lord of Poix in Picardy (Feudal England, p. 476). William of Malmesbury (ed. Stubbs, p. 378) speaks of him as brought over from France by William Rufus, with whom he was on most friendly terms, but he was certainly the Walter Tirel who appears in ‘Domesday’ (ii. 41) as holding the manor of Langham, Essex, from Richard FitzGilbert, the founder of the house of Clare, whose daughter Adeliza he married (Feudal England, p. 469). He is mentioned just afterwards (1087) in an agreement with the Count ​of Amiens (ib. p. 476), and is found at the court of the French king in 1091 (Rouen Cartulary, f. 46 d). The part he took in the death of William Rufus (2 Aug. 1100) has been discussed at great length by Freeman (Will. Rufus, ii. 325–37, 657–70), who concludes that ‘no absolute certainty’ exists on the matter. That Walter was generally believed to have shot the fatal arrow is clear; but he seems to have denied the fact with great vehemence afterwards, when he had nothing to gain by doing so (ib. p. 674). It appears to have been this Walter who founded the priory of St. Denis de Poix, and built the abbey of St. Pierre de Selincourt (Feudal England, p. 476).
Adeliza, his wife, is mentioned on the Pipe Roll of 1130 (ib. p. 468); she retired as a widow to Conflans, a daughter-house of Bec (ib. p. 478). By her Walter left a son and successor, Hugh, lord of Poix, who sold Langham to Henry de Cornhill when leaving for the second crusade, 1147 (ib. p. 471).
J. H. R.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Sharples, James (1825-1893)

​SHARPLES, JAMES (1825–1893), blacksmith and artist, born at Wakefield in Yorkshire in 1825, was one of the thirteen children of a working ironfounder, and began work at Bury in his father's calling from an early age. He got but scanty education, but obtained practice in drawing from drawing designs of boilers on the floor of the workshop in which he was employed. He was encouraged at home to practise drawing, and became expert in copying lithographs and engravings. When aged 16 he entered the Bury Mechanics' Institution in order to attend a drawing class held there. With the help of Burnet's ‘Practical Treatise on Painting’ he made further progress during his leisure hours, and even tried painting in oils. Undeterred by failures, he continued to try and teach himself, making his own easel, palette, &c., and buying brushes and canvas with money which he earned by working overtime. Then, by studying Flaxman's ‘Anatomical Principles,’ given him by his brother, and Brook Taylor's ‘Principles of Perspective,’ he acquired sufficient skill to complete a picture of ‘The Forge,’ besides painting portraits. He soon found himself able to give up his work at the foundry, but returned to it on finding how uncertain the profession of an artist was. It being suggested that ‘The Forge’ should be engraved, Sharples set to work and engraved it himself by a process of his own, without ever having seen a plate engraved by anybody else. Another picture by Sharples, ‘The Smithy,’ has also been reproduced. He died in 1893 after a life of great industry.
[Smiles's Self-Help; Times, 15 June 1893.]
L. C.