OpenLLM-France/wikimedia huggingface dataset:
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Moore, Aubrey Lackington

​MOORE, AUBREY LACKINGTON (1848–1890), writer on theology and philosophy, born in 1848, was second son of Daniel Moore, vicar of Holy Trinity, Paddington, and prebendary of St. Paul's. He was educated at St. Paul's School (1860-7), which he left with an exhibition, matriculating as a commoner of Exeter College, Oxford, 1867, whence, after obtaining first class honours in classical moderations and literce humaniores, he graduated B.A. in 1871 (M.A. 1874). He was fellow of St. John's College, Oxford, 1872-1876; became a lecturer and tutor (1874); was assistant tutor at Magdalen College (1875); and was rector of Frenchay, near Bristol, from 1876 to 1881, when he was appointed a tutor of Keble College. He became examining chaplain to Bishops Mackarness and Stubbs of Oxford, select preacher at Oxford 1885-6, Whitehall preacher 1887-8, and hon. canon of Christ Church 1887. A few weeks before his death he accepted an official fellowship as dean of divinity at Magdalen, and when nominated simultaneously to examine in the final honour schools of theology and literce humaniores, accepted the latter post. He died after a very brief illness on 17 Jan. 1890, and was buried in Holy well cemetery. At Oxford Moore had a unique position as at once a theologian and a philosopher of recognised attainments in natural science, dealing fearlessly with the metaphysical and scientific questions affecting theology. He lectured mainly on philosophy and on the history of the Reformation. Though rendered constitutionally weak by physical deformity, he had great powers of endurance and hard work, was a brilliant talker and preacher, and distinguished as a botanist.
He married in 1876 Catharine, daughter of Frank Hurt, esq., by whom he left three daughters. A fund of nearly 1,000l. was subscribed to his memory by friends, from which an 'Aubrey Moore' studentship (for theological research), open to graduates of Oxford, was founded in 1890, and a posthumous portrait of him by C. W. Furse was placed in Keble College Hall in 1892 (cf. Report of Committee, June 1892).
He published, besides a few scattered sermons, a valuable essay on 'The Christian Doctrine of God' in 'Lux Mundi' (1889); 'Holy Week Addresses' on the 'Appeal and Claim of Christ' (1888); 'Science and the Faith,' 1889 (a series of essays on apologetic subjects contributed mainly to the ' Guardian' in which he had written constantly since 1883). His executors published a further selection of ' Essays Scientific and Philosophical' and 'Lectures on the History of the Reformation' in 1890, a volume of sermons on 'Some Aspects of Sin' in 1891, 'The Message of the Gospel' (ordination addresses) and 'From Advent to Advent' (sermons) in 1892.
[Memoirs in the Guardian, 29 Jan. 1890, by E. S. Talbot, D.D., and in the 'Oxford Mag. 22 Jan. 1890, by the Rev. W. Lock, both reprinted in Essays Scient. and Phil.; Gardiner's St. Paul's School Register, p. 340; Foster's Alumni Oxon.; Crockford; information from the Rev. W. Lock of Keble College.]
H. E. D. B.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Moor, James

​MOOR, JAMES (1712–1779), professor of Greek, was the son of Robert Moor, a schoolmaster in Glasgow, where he was born on 22 June 1712. In 1825 he entered Glasgow University, and distinguished himself especially in classics and mathematics. After graduating M.A., he was engaged for some time as teacher in a school in his native city, and subsequently travelled abroad as tutor to the Earls of Selkirk and Errol. He was afterwards tutor to William Boyd, fourth earl of Kilmarnock [q. v.], till 1742, when he became librarian of the university of Glasgow. In 1746 he was elected to the chair of Greek there, promotion which he owed to the assistance of Dunbar (Hamilton) Douglas, fourth earl of Selkirk. In 1745 Moor made a journey to London in an endeavour to obtain a pardon for his patron the Earl of Kilmarnock, who had been condemned for his share in the Jacobite rebellion. His efforts were unsuccessful.
At the request of the university, Moor, in conjunction with Muirhead, professor of humanity, superintended the production, in four folio volumes, of a magnificent edition of Homer, published by the Foulises of Glasgow. To insure the utmost accuracy of text every sheet was read six times before it was sent to press, twice by the ordinary corrector, once by Andrew Foulis [q. v.], once by each of the editors separately, and finally by both conjunctly. Copies of this edition (1747) are now very rare. For the Foulis press Moor also edited Herodotus and other classics. In 1761 he was appointed vice-rector of the university, and he received in 1763 the degree of Doctor of Laws. Owing to bad health Moor resigned his chair in 1774, and died in Glasgow on 17 Sept. 1779. During the period of his retirement Moor amused himself by writing Hudibrastic verses and epigrams, of which a number have appeared in 'Notes and Queries.' His valuable library and cabinet of medals were purchased by the university authorities.
Besides editing Homer, Herodotus, Tyrtseus, and other classical authors for the Foulises, Moor wrote several learned treatises, including: 1. 'Essays read to a Literary Society at their Weekly Meetings,' Glasgow, 1759. 2. 'On the End of Tragedy, according to Aristotle,' Glasgow, 1763. 3. 'Addison's Cato, done into Latin Verse, without the Love Scenes,' Glasgow, 1764. 4. 'On the Prepositions of the Greek Language,' Glasgow, 1766 (reprinted at Richmond, 1830). 5. 'A Vindication of Virgil from the Charge of Puerility imputed to him by Dr. Pearce,' Glasgow, 1766. 6. 'Elementa Linguæ Graecæ Pars Prima,' Glasgow, 1766; a favourite school-book in Scotland; it passed through many editions in Latin, and an English version by J. C. Rowlatt appeared in 1836.
[Chambers's Biog. Dict. of Eminent Scotsmen; Catalogue of the Advocates' Library; the Library, i. 93; Notes and Queries, 2nd ser. iii. 21, 121, iv. 104, vii. 453; Scots Mag. 1779.]
G. S-h.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Sinclair, Henry (d.1400?)

​SINCLAIR, Sir HENRY, Earl or Prince of Orkney (d. 1400?), was the eldest son of Sir William Sinclair or Saint-Clair (d. 1330) [q. v.], by Isabel—sometimes called Sperra—daughter of Malise, earl of Strathearn, Caithness, and Orkney. According to Hay, he built the dungeon of Roslin and other walls thereabout, together with parks for fallow and red deer (Sinclairs of Roslin p. 17). In 1379 he and a certain Malise Sperra laid claim to the earldom of Orkney, and the claim was decided in Sinclair's favour by Hakon VI of Norway (‘Diploma of Thomas, Bishop of Orkney and Shetland, addressed to Eric, King of Norway, respecting the Genealogy of William Saint Clair, Earl of Orkney,’ in the Bannatyne Club Miscellany). He held a sort of sovereign power over the islands under the king of Norway, and maintained a royal state.
In 1391 the earl was engaged in the conquest of Frislanda (the Faroe Isles), and fell in with the Venetian voyager, Nicolo Zeno, who happened to be wrecked there and was rescued by the earl (whose name appears in the Voyages of the brothers Zeno as Zichmi). The earl received Zeno into his service as captain of his fleet. After the conquest of the Faroe Islands Nicolo Zeno and his brother Antonio assisted the earl in wresting Shetland from the usurper, Malise Sperra, who was slain during the contest. Nicolo died some time afterwards, but Antonio remained in the earl's service, and undertook to make a voyage to verify the reports of some fishermen regarding the discovery of a rich and populous country in the far west, whither they had been driven by a storm. Sinclair accompanied Antonio on the voyage, and after, in consequence of a fog, drifting south till they touched land at Icara (possibly Kerry in Ireland), they sailed across the Atlantic to a harbour somewhere in Greenland. There Sinclair remained some time after Antonio Zeno's return, ‘exploring the whole of the coast with great diligence.’ He died about 1400. He was married, first, to a daughter of the king of Denmark (Olaus V), by whom he had no issue; and, secondly, to Jean, daughter of Walter Haliburton, lord Dirleton, by whom he had a son Henry (d. 1418) [q. v.], who succeeded him.
T. F. H.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Sinclair, Henry (d.1418)

Dates c.1375–1420 in the ODNB.
​SINCLAIR, HENRY, second Earl of Orkney (d. 1418), admiral of Scotland, was eldest son of Henry, first earl of Orkney [q. v.] by his second wife, Jean, daughter of Walter Haliburton, lord Dirleton. He was taken prisoner at Homildon on 14 Sept. 1402 (Cal. Documents relating to Scotland, iv. 403), but received his liberty before 28 May 1405, when he witnessed a charter at Linlithgow (Exchequer Rolls, iii. 634). When the king of Scotland resolved to send the young prince (afterwards James I) for greater security to France, the Earl of Orkney was chosen to convey him thither. The probability is that they set sail on 14 Feb. 1405–6 (Burnet's Preface to Exchequer Rolls, vol. iii.). On 13 March their ship was captured by an armed English merchantman, and the young prince was brought to London, where he was detained a prisoner. Burnet (ib.) supposes that the Earl of Orkney was not detained, but returned to Orkney on a safe-conduct which he and others had on 13 Jan. 1405–6 to go to England and return to Scotland; but the Sinclair who had this pass was not the Earl of Orkney, but Sir William Sinclair ​of Herdmanston. It was not until 13 Sept. 1407 that the Earl of Orkney had a safe-conduct to go to Scotland on his affairs, with twelve attendants on horse and foot, on giving security ‘to re-enter his person within Durham Castle on Christmas next’ (Cal. Documents relating to Scotland, vol. iv. No. 702). On 4 Jan. 1407–8 he obtained a safe-conduct for his ship to trade with England (ib. No. 744); in 1409 he received payment for travelling to England on the affairs of the king of Scots (Exchequer Rolls, iv. 102); and in 1412 he had a safe-conduct to him and the Earl of Douglas, with fifty horsemen, to pass through England to France or Flanders (Cal. Documents relating to Scotland, vol. iv. No. 834). He is stated by Fordun to have died in 1420, one of the earliest recorded victims of influenza in Scotland, but he was dead in 1418, when a papal dispensation was granted to his widow, Egidia, granddaughter of Robert II, king of Scotland, for her marriage to Alexander Stewart, third son of the Duke of Albany. By her he had a son William, third earl of Orkney and first earl of Caithness [q. v.], and a daughter Beatrice, married to James, seventh earl of Douglas (Fordun, Chronicle).
T. F. H.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Sinclair, George (1786-1834)

​SINCLAIR, GEORGE (1786–1834), botanical writer, was born in 1786 at Mellerstain in Berwickshire, and was descended from a Scots family which had long been devoted to gardening. His father, George Sinclair (1750–1833), gardener to the Hon. G. Baillie of Jerviswood, was in his earlier years considered one of the best horticulturists in the south of Scotland, and his uncle was superintendent of the grounds, gardens, and farms at Bonnington, near Lanark. The son was himself originally in the service of the Gordon family, and became, upon the duke's marriage with Lady Georgiana Gordon in 1803, gardener to John Russell, sixth duke of Bedford [see under Russell, Lord John, first Earl Russell], at Woburn Abbey. By the instructions of the duke, and under the direction of Sir Humphry Davy [q. v.], he conducted an extensive series of experiments, the results of which were embodied in the costly folio, ‘Hortus Gramineus Woburnensis, or an account of the results of Experiments on the Produce and Nutritive ​Qualities of different Grasses and other Plants used as the Food of the more valuable Domestic Animals,’ London, 1816. The basis of these experiments was formed not by the actual feeding of cattle, but by the chemical process (recommended by Sir Humphry Davy) of extracting by the action of hot water the soluble portions of the respective grasses, as these soluble constituents formed the bulk of the feeding material. This, of course, was not an absolute test, but as a comparative guide it had, and has since had, a material value. After having for seventeen years superintended the gardens at Woburn Abbey, Sinclair left the service of the duke, and entered into partnership about 1824 with Messrs. Cormack & Son, nurserymen and seedsmen, New Cross. He became on 26 March 1824 a fellow of the Linnean Society, and he was also a fellow of the Royal Horticultural Society and of other botanical organisations. He remained a partner of the firm of seedsmen for some nine or ten years, till his death in the forty-eighth year of his age, at New Cross Nursery, Deptford, on 13 March 1834.
The folio (1816) edition of the ‘Hortus’ was dedicated to John, duke of Bedford, and was illustrated by dried specimens of the respective grasses. A second and cheaper octavo edition, published in 1824, was dedicated to Thomas William Coke (afterwards Earl of Leicester of Holkham) [q. v.], and in it the dried specimens were replaced by plates. Other editions appeared in 1825, 1826, and more recently in 1869, in a somewhat altered form, and with a preface giving some particulars about the book and its author. The work was also translated into German by Frederick Schmidt (Stuttgart, 1826). Sinclair edited the ‘Hortus Cantabrigiensis’ of James Donn, the ‘Essay on Weeds’ of Benjamin Holdich (1825), and a ‘Treatise on Useful and Ornamental Planting,’ published by the Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge.
[Obituary notice in Gardener's Mag. 1834, 192; Quarterly Journal of Agriculture, 1843, xiii. 442; Britten and Boulger's English Botanists; prefaces and appendices to Sinclair's works.]
E. C.-e.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Sinclair, James (1821-1881)

​SINCLAIR, JAMES, fourteenth Earl of Caithness (1821–1881), son of Alexander, thirteenth earl, by Frances Harriet, daughter and coheir of William Leigh of Rushall Hall, Staffordshire, dean of Hereford, was born on 16 Aug. 1821. In 1856–8 ​and 1859–66 he was a lord-in-waiting. From 1858 he sat as a representative Scottish peer, until, on 21 May 1866, he was created a peer of the United Kingdom by the title of Baron Barrogill of Barrogill Castle, Caithness. He devoted much of his leisure to scientific pursuits, was a fellow of the Royal Society of London, and the inventor of a steam carriage for travelling on macadamised roads, a gravitating compass which came into general use, and a tape-loom by which a weaver might stop one of the shuttles without interfering with the action of the whole. In 1877 he published ‘Lectures on Popular and Scientific Subjects,’ which reached a second edition in 1879. He died suddenly, of paralysis of the heart, in the Fifth Avenue Hotel, New York, 28 March 1881, and was buried in the Chapel Royal, Holyrood. By his first wife, Louisa Georgina, third and youngest daughter and coheiress of Sir George Richard Phillips, baronet, of Weston, Warwickshire, he had a son George Phillips Alexander, who succeeded him as fifteenth earl of Caithness. By his second wife, Marie, duchesse de Pomar, widow of General le Comte de Medina Pomar and daughter of Don José de Mariategui, he left no issue.
T. F. H.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Sinclair, James (d.1762)

​SINCLAIR, JAMES (d. 1762), general, was the second son of Henry (1660–1723), eighth lord Sinclair, by his wife Grizel, daughter of James Cockburn of Cockburn. John Sinclair, seventh lord Sinclair, was his great-grandfather. On account of the attainder of his elder brother, John (1683–1750) [q. v.], master of Sinclair, for his share in the rebellion of 1715, the family estates were settled on James by his father, who died in 1723; but when his elder brother received pardon in 1726, he delivered them up to him. At an early age he entered the army, serving for some years in the regiment of foot-guards. On 26 June 1722 he became colonel, and 17 June 1737 he was appointed colonel of the first or royal Scots regiment of foot. On 25 Aug. 1741 he was named major-general, and on 4 June 1745 lieutenant-general, with the command of the British forces in Flanders. In 1746 he was appointed to the command of a force of six thousand men intended to act against Quebec; but the expedition having been delayed too long to permit of its sailing that season, it was resolved instead to employ it in a descent on the coast of Brittany, the final intention being to surprise Port L'Orient, where the French East India Company had its depôt of stores and ships. David Hume the historian, who was Sinclair's secretary during the expedition, affirms that Sinclair neither ‘proposed’ the expedition, ‘nor planned it, nor approved it, nor answered for its success’ (fragment of a paper, in Hume's own handwriting, describing the descent on the coast of Brittany, 1746, printed in appendix to J. Hill Burton's Life and Correspondence of David Hume). With a reinforcement of two thousand men, bringing the number up to eight thousand, and a powerful detachment of artillery, the expedition set sail from Portsmouth 15 Sept. 1746. On the 24th Sinclair was able to lay siege to Port L'Orient, but large reinforcements having been thrown into the town, he resolved to abandon the siege, and, after destroying the forts in Quiberon Bay, he re-embarked for England on 17 Oct. The comparative failure of the expedition caused much disappointment in England, but Hume affirms that Sinclair acted with the greatest energy and determination so long as ‘there was the smallest prospect of success,’ and that prudence left him no other alternative than to abandon the enterprise ‘when it appeared altogether desperate’ (ib.) Sinclair afterwards acted as ambassador to the courts of Vienna and Turin. On 10 March 1761 he was promoted to the rank of general. Although a great part of his life was spent in military service, he nevertheless sat for many years in the House of Commons, being chosen in 1722 and again in 1727 for the Dysart burghs, in 1736 and 1741 for the county of Sutherland, in 1747 for the Dysart burghs, and in 1754 and also in 1761 for the county of Fife. He died at Dysart 30 Nov. 1762, being then governor of Cork and major-general on the staff in Ireland. By his wife Janet, youngest daughter of Sir David Dalrymple of Hailes, and widow of Sir John Baird of Newbyth, he left no issue.
T. F. H.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Ponsonby, Emily Charlotte Mary

​PONSONBY, Lady EMILY CHARLOTTE MARY (1817–1877), born on 17 Feb. 1817, was the third daughter of John William Ponsonby, fourth earl of Bessborough [q. v.], by his wife, Lady Maria Fane, daughter of John Fane, tenth earl of Westmorland [q. v.] Frederick George Brabazon Ponsonby, sixth earl of Bessborough [q. v.], was her brother. From 1848 till 1873 she wrote a number of novels, mostly published anonymously; they contain some careful and good writing. She died, unmarried, on 3 Feb. 1877.
Her books are: 1. ‘The Discipline of Life,’ 3 vols., 1848; 2nd edit., 1848. 2. ‘Pride and Irresolution,’ 3 vols., 1850 (a new series of the former book). 3. ‘Clare Abbey; or the Trials of Youth,’ 1851. 4. ‘Mary Gray, and other Tales and Verses,’ 1852. 5. ‘Edward Willoughby: a Tale,’ 1854. 6. ‘The Young Lord,’ 1856. 7. ‘Sunday ​Readings, consisting of eight Short Sermons, addressed to the Young,’ 1857. 8. ‘The two Brothers,’ 3 vols., 1858. 9. ‘A Mother's Trial,’ 1859. 10. ‘Kathlenne and her Sisters,’ 1861; 2nd edit., 1863. 11. ‘Mary Lyndsay,’ 3 vols., 1863; published in New York, 1863. 12. ‘Violet Osborne,’ 3 vols., 1865. 13. ‘Sir Owen Fairfax,’ 3 vols., 1866. 14. ‘A Story of Two Cousins,’ 1868. 15. ‘Nora,’ 3 vols., 1870. 16. ‘Oliver Beaumont and Lord Latimer,’ 3 vols., 1873.
E. L.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Pomfret, Samuel

​POMFRET, SAMUEL (1650–1722), divine, born at Coventry in 1650, was educated at the grammar school of Coventry and subsequently under Dr. Obadiah Grew [q. v.], and under Ralph Button [q. v.] at Islington. When he was about nineteen his mother died, and he attained religious convictions. After acting as chaplain to Sir William Dyer of Tottenham, and afterwards of High Easter, Essex, he served for two years in the same capacity on board a Mediterranean trader. Upon his return to England Pomfret preached a weekly lecture in Lincoln's Inn Fields, until he received a call to Sandwich, Kent, where he remained seven years. At length he was arrested for nonconformity, but escaped his captors on the way to Dover Castle. About 1685 he opened a service in a room in Winchester Street, London, which was so crowded that eventually the floor gave way. A new meeting-house, capable of holding fifteen hundred people, was then erected for him in Gravel Lane, Houndsditch. The church was invariably crowded, and Pomfret administered the sacrament to as many as eight hundred communicants. The zeal which he displayed in itinerant preaching wore out his health, but when unable to walk he had himself carried to his pulpit in a chair. He died on 11 Jan. 1722. His assistant from 1719, William Hocker, predeceased him by a month, on 12 Dec. 1721. Thomas Reynolds (1664–1727) [q. v.] preached funeral sermons on and issued memoirs of both. Pomfret's wife survived him, but all his children died before him. Pomfret only published two sermons (1697 and 1701). ‘A Directory for Youth,’ with portrait, was issued posthumously, London, 1722.
[Works and Sermon, with portrait, in Dr. Williams's Library; Memoir by Reynolds, prefixed to Funeral Sermon, 1721–2, 2nd ed. 1722; another edition, entitled ‘Watch and Remember,’ London, 1721–2, differs slightly; Wilson's Hist. of Diss. Churches, i. 165, 397, 473; Bogue and Bennett's Hist. of Dissenters, ii. 341; Granger's Hist. of Engl., Continuation by Noble, iii. 158; Toulmin's Hist. of Prot. Dissenters, pp. 572, 245, 247; Meridew's Warwickshire Portraits, p. 48; Bromley's Cat. of Portraits, p. 226; Chaloner Smith's Brit. Mezz. Portraits, iv. 1701.]
C. F. S.