OpenLLM-France/wikimedia huggingface dataset:
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1901 supplement/Drew, Frederick

​DREW, FREDERICK (1836–1891), geologist, born at Southampton on 11 Aug. 1836, was youngest son of John Drew [q. v.], astronomer, by Clara, daughter of Nicholas Peter Phené, solicitor, of Melksham, Wiltshire. He entered the Royal School of Mines in 1853, passed through it withdistinction, and joined the geological survey in 1855. He was employed for seven years in the south-east of England, and did much for the geology of the weald, especially in tracing out and describing the subdivisions of the Hastings sands. He contributed papers to the 'Journal' of the Geological Society in 1861 and 1864, and he wrote a memoir describing the Romney marsh district. His notes were used by William Topley in his 'Geology of the Weald' (Memoirs of the Geological Survey, 1875).
In 1862 he entered the service of the Maharajah of Kashmir, with whom he remained ten years. He was at first engaged in looking for minerals, was then charged with the management of the forest department, and was finally governor of the province of Ladakh. He acquired an intimate knowledge of the country and the people, and after his return to England he wrote 'The Jummoo and Kashmir Territories: a ​Geographical Account' (London, 1875, 8vo). It was provided with excellent maps, showing not only the physical features, but the distribution of races, languages, and faiths. A translation by Baron Ernouf was published at Paris in 1877; and in the same year Drew published a more popular account under the title 'The Northern Barrier of India.'
He had been elected a fellow of the Geological Society in 1858, and served on the council from 1874 to 1876. In 1875 he was appointed one of the science masters at Eton, and he remained there till his death on 28 Oct. 1891. He married Sara Constance, daughter of Alfred Waylen, one of the first settlers in West Australia, and he left two sons and two daughters. Sir Archibald Geikie has made mention of 'his gentleness, helpfulness, and entire unselfishness, and his quiet enthusiasm for that domain of natural science to which he had given the labours of his life.'
[Proceedings of the Geological Society: Anniversary Address, p. 50; private information.]
E. M. L.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1901 supplement/Duff, Robert William

​DUFF, Sir ROBERT WILLIAM, for some time styled Robert William Duff Abercromby (1835–1895), governor of New South Wales, born at Fetteresso in Kincardineshire on 8 May 1835, was the only son of Arthur Duff (d. 1859) of Glassaugh in Banffshire, by his wife Elizabeth (d. 1838), daughter of John Innes of Corvie, Kincardineshire. His father assumed the name of Abercromby on succeeding to the estates of his mother, Mary, wife of Robert William Duff (d. 1834), and only child of George Morrison of Haddo, by his wife Jane, eldest daughter of General James Abercromby (d. 23 April 1781) of Glassaugh. Robert was educated at Blackheath school, and in 1848 entered the navy. He attained the rank of sub-lieutenant in May 1854, and that of lieutenant on 5 Jan. 1856, and retired with that of commander in 1865. The death of his uncle, Robert Duff, on 30 Dec. 1870, made him owner of Fetteresso, and on succeeding him he discontinued the use of the surname Abercromby.
On 1 May 1861 he was returned to parliament for Banffshire in the liberal interest, and retained his seat until his appointment as governor of New South Wales. He was appointed junior lord of the treasury in 1882, acting as liberal whip, a post which he held until the defeat of the government in June 1885. On Gladstone's resuming office he was nominated junior lord of the admiralty on 15 Feb. 1886, going out of office in July. In 1892 Duff was made a privy councillor, and offered a post in the household, which he declined.
On 23 Feb. 1893 he was appointed governor of New South Wales as successor to Victor Albert George Child-Villiers, seventh earl of Jersey. He arrived at Sydney in ​the Paramatta on 29 May. Before leaving England he was created G.C.M.G. His term of office was chiefly marked by his permitting the premier, Sir George Dibbs, to obtain the prorogation of parliament on 8 Dec. 1893, after that minister had incurred a vote of censure. In July 1894, after his ministry had failed to carry the general election, Dibbs desired Duff to nominate several persons to the legislative council on his recommendation. Duff declined to accede to his wish on the ground that the ministry had been condemned by the colony, and in consequence Dibbs and his colleagues resigned.
Duff died at Sydney on 15 March 1895, and was temporarily buried in the Waverley cemetery on 17 March, his remains being afterwards removed to Scotland. After his death Sir Frederick Darley, the chief justice, was sworn lieutenant-governor. On 21 Feb. 1871 Duff married Louisa, youngest daughter of Sir William Scott, ninth bart. of Ancrum in Roxburghshire. By her he had three sons, the eldest Robert William, and four daughters.
[Sydney Morning Herald, 18 March 1891; Melbourne Argus, 16, 18 March 1895; Times, 16, 18 March 1895; Official Return of Members of Parliament; Foster's Scottish Members of Parl.]
E. I. C.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1901 supplement/Druid, The

​DRUID, THE, pseudonym. [See Dixon, Henry Hall, 1822–1870.]
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Winslow, Forbes Benignus

​WINSLOW, FORBES BENIGNUS (1810–1874), physician, ninth son of Thomas Winslow, a captain in the 47th regiment of foot, and his wife, Mary Forbes, was born at Pentonville in August 1810. His father was a direct descendant of Edward Winslow [q. v.] The family lost their American property in the war of independence and came to England. After education at University College, London, and at the Middlesex Hospital, where he was a pupil of Sir Charles Bell ​[q. v.], he became a member of the Royal College of Surgeons of England in 1835, and graduated M.D. at Aberdeen in 1849. He had to pay the expenses of his own medical education, and did so by acting as a reporter for the ‘Times’ in the gallery of the House of Commons, and by writing small manuals for students on osteology, and on practical midwifery. In 1839 he published anonymously ‘Physic and Physicians,’ in two volumes, a collection of miscellaneous anecdotes about physicians and surgeons; and in 1840 ‘The Anatomy of Suicide,’ an endeavour to demonstrate that most suicides are not criminal, but are victims of mental disease. This was followed in 1843 by ‘The Plea of Insanity in Criminal Cases,’ and in 1845 by ‘The Incubation of Insanity.’ He was now regarded by the public as an authority in cases of insanity, and in 1847 opened two private lunatic asylums at Hammersmith, where he employed the humane method of treating lunatics which is now universal, but was then regarded as on its trial. He founded the ‘Quarterly Journal of Psychological Medicine’ in 1848, and continued it for sixteen years. When the Earl of Derby was installed as chancellor of the university of Oxford, the honorary degree of D.C.L. was conferred on Winslow on 9 June 1853. He continued to write numerous papers on insanity and on its relation to the laws, and in 1860 published ‘On the Obscure Diseases of the Brain and Mind,’ a work containing many interesting cases. In 1865, after recovering from a serious illness, he wrote ‘Light and its Influence’ and a short essay ‘On Uncontrollable Drunkenness.’ He was examined before a committee of the House of Commons in 1872 on this subject. The frequent establishment of the plea of insanity in criminal cases was largely due to his influence, and he was called as a witness in many celebrated trials. He died at Brighton on 3 March 1874, and was buried at Epping. The ‘Medical Circular’ for 16 March 1853 contains his portrait, engraved from a daguerreotype. One of his sons, Lyttelton Stewart Winslow, graduated in medicine and pursued the same studies.
N. M.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Winnington, Francis

​WINNINGTON, Sir FRANCIS (1634–1700), lawyer, lineally descended from Robert Winnington, lord of the manor of Winnington, Cheshire, and only son of Francis or John Winnington, who settled at Powick, near Worcester, was born in Worcester city on 7 Nov. 1634. He was admitted commoner at Trinity College, Oxford, in 1655, and on 28 Nov. 1656 was entered at the Middle Temple. On 9 Feb. 1660 he was called to the bar ex gratia, chosen bencher on 24 June 1672, autumn reader 1675, and treasurer on 29 Oct. 1675. Winnington went the Oxford circuit, his family having considerable influence in the district, and his rise in the profession was rapid. Prince Rupert engaged him as standing counsel, and in 1672 he was created king's counsel and attorney-general to the Duke of York. On 17 Dec. 1672 he was knighted.
Winnington's fee-book from 1671 was preserved at his seat of Stanford Court in Worcestershire, and it shows that his income from the law in 1675 exceeded 4,000l. In December 1674 he was created solicitor-general, and by the king's command he was returned to Parliament for the borough of Windsor on 19 Feb. 1676–7. He supported in 1678 the exclusion bill, and for this vote was deprived in January 1678–9 of the office of solicitor-general, and at the dissolution in that month lost his seat at Windsor. He represented Worcester city in the three parliaments of February 1678–9, September 1679, and March 1680–1, and the borough of Tewkesbury from November 1692 to July 1698. He refused to be raised to the bench in April 1689, but he was chairman of ways and means in the parliament which ended in October 1695.
Winnington died on 1 May 1700, and was buried in the old church of Stanford, a monument being erected to his memory. By his first wife, Elizabeth Herbert of Powick, he had an only daughter, Elizabeth, married in 1676 to Richard Dowdeswell, M.P., his colleague in the representation of Tewkesbury. His second wife was Elizabeth, third and youngest sister and coheiress of Edward Salwey of Stanford Court, and their issue was four sons and two daughters. Thomas Winnington [q. v.] was his grandson. He purchased the shares of the elder sisters in the estate of Stanford, and in 1674 he bought the leasehold interest under the crown of the manor of Bewdley. The Elizabethan mansion of Stanford Court was burnt on 5 Dec. 1882, and the valuable books and manuscripts in the old library were destroyed (Hist. MSS. Comm. 1st Rep. app. pp. 53–5). An oval miniature portrait of Winnington in oil colours, by an unknown artist, is in the National Portrait Gallery, London; another portrait by Lely belonged in 1866 to the family (Cat. First Loan Exhib. No. 933).
He was famed until the age of sixty-four for his skill in riding and for his love of sport. Lord Somers was his pupil in the law, and had the run of his chambers. Winnington's success in pleading is coupled by Garth with that of South and Onely in preaching (Dispensary, canto v.). A letter from him is in Warner's ‘Epistolary Curiosities’ (1st ser. pp. 103–4).
W. P. C.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Roe, Richard

​ROE, RICHARD (d. 1853), stenographer and miscellaneous writer, doubtless graduated B.A. in the university of Dublin in 1789. In the early part of his career he may have been a mathematical and classical teacher. Afterwards he was in holy orders. He was residing in Dublin in 1821, and in 1835. He was a popular bass-singer, and gave in London some glee and ballad entertainments. He died in London in March 1853.
His principal works are: 1. ‘A New System of Shorthand, in which legibility and brevity are secured upon the most natural principles, with respect to both the signification and formation of the characters: especially by the singular property of their sloping all one way according to the habitual motion of the hand in common writing,’ London, 1802, 8vo; 1808, 4to. 2. ‘Radiography, or a System of Easy Writing, comprised in a set of the most simple and expeditious characters,’ London, 1821, 8vo. These works mark a new departure in the development of stenography. Roe was in fact the originator of that cursive or script style of shorthand which, though it has never found favour in this country, has acquired wide popularity in Germany, where it has been successfully developed by Gabelsberger, Stolze, Arends, and others.
Roe was also the author of: 3. ‘Elements of English Metre,’ London, 1801, 4to. 4. ‘Principles of Rhythm both in Speech and Music,’ Dublin, 1823, 4to, dedicated to the president and members of the Royal Irish Academy. 5. ‘Introduction to Book-keeping,’ London, 1825, 12mo. 6. ‘The English Spelling Book,’ Dublin, 1829, 12mo; a work of great value to the advocates of spelling reform. 7. ‘Analytical Arrangement of the Apocalypse,’ Dublin, 1834, 4to. 8. ‘Analytical Arrangement of the Holy Scriptures,’ 2 vols. London, 1851, 8vo; on the title-page he gives his name as Richard Baillie Roe.
The shorthand writer is sometimes confused with Richard Roe, a surveyor, skilled in mathematics, who died at Derby in July 1814, aged 56 (Gent. Mag. 1814, ii. 194; Biogr. Dict. of Living Authors, 1816, pp. 299, 446).
T. C.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Rodwell, George Herbert Buonaparte

​RODWELL, GEORGE HERBERT BUONAPARTE (1800–1852), author, musical director and composer, the brother (not the son) of James Thomas Gooderham Rodwell, playwright and lessee of the Adelphi Theatre (d. 1825), was born in London, 15 Nov. 1800. A pupil of Vincent Novello [q. v.] and Sir Henry Rowley Bishop [q. v.], Rodwell was in 1828 professor of harmony and composition at the Royal Academy of Music. Upon the death of his brother James in 1825, Rodwell succeeded to the proprietorship of the Adelphi Theatre. He mainly occupied himself with directing the music at the theatre, and in composition for the stage. His opera, ‘The Flying Dutchman,’ was produced at the Adelphi in 1826, and ‘The Cornish Miners’ at the English Opera House in 1827. His marriage with Emma, the daughter of John Liston [q. v.], the comedian, improved his theatrical connection, though, according to the ‘Gentleman's Magazine,’ the union proved ‘very unfortunate.’ In 1836 he was appointed director of music at Covent Garden Theatre, where a farce by him, ‘Teddy the Tiler,’ from the French, had been performed in 1830. The Covent Garden management sought popularity by anticipating the repertory of Drury Lane; and Rodwell, though friendly with Bunn, the Drury Lane manager, was somewhat unscrupulous in this regard. When Auber's opera, ‘The Bronze Horse,’ was announced at Drury Lane, he brought out at Covent Garden an opera on the same theme, with music by himself. In some cases Rodwell wrote the words as well as the music. His principal librettist was Fitzball; but Buckstone, James Kenney, and Richard Brinsley Peake also supplied him with romances, burlettas, operettas, and incidental songs for musical setting. He was fortunate to find exponents of his clever and tuneful ballads in artists like Mrs. Keeley, Mrs. Waylett, and Mary Anne Paton [q. v.] But his efforts to establish a national opera in England had no lasting result. For many years Rodwell resided at Brompton. He died, aged 52, at Upper Ebury Street, Pimlico, on 22 Jan. 1852, and was buried at Brompton cemetery.
Rodwell wrote some forty or fifty musical pieces for the stage, besides songs, works on musical theory, romances, farces, and novels. Among his publications were:
* ‘Songs of the Birds,’ 1827.
* ‘First Rudiments of Harmony,’ 1831.
* ‘Letter to the Musicians of Great Britain,’ 1833.
* ‘Memoirs of an Umbrella,’ a novel, 1846.
[Gent. Mag. 1852, i. 309; Grove's Dictionary, iii. 143; Baptie's Handbook; Musical Times, 1852, p. 337; Theatrical Observer, 1825–50, passim; Registers of Wills, P. C. C., St. Alban's, 4; Fitzball's Life, passim; Bunn's The Stage, ii. 9; Horne's edition of Croker's Walk … to Fulham, pp. 49, 76; Rodwell's Works.]
L. M. M.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Rodes, Francis

​RODES, FRANCIS (1530?–1588), judge, born about 1530, was son of John Rodes of Staveley Woodthorpe, Derbyshire, by his first wife, Attelina, daughter of Thomas Hewett of Wales in the West Riding of Yorkshire. The family traced its descent from Gerard de Rodes, a prominent baron in the reign of Henry II. Francis was educated at St. John's College, Cambridge, but did not graduate. In 1549 he was entered at Gray's Inn, and in 1552 was called to the bar. He was Lent reader at his inn in 1566, and double reader in 1576, and seems to have derived a considerable fortune from his practice. In 1578 he was raised to the degree of the coif, and on 21 Aug. 1582 he was made queen's Serjeant. On 29 June 1585 he was raised to the bench as justice of the common pleas, and in October 1586 he took part in the trial of Mary Queen of Scots at Fotheringay. He died towards the end of 1588 at Staveley Woodthorpe. His will, dated 7 June 1587, was proved on 28 April 1591; among numerous other benefactions he made bequests to St. John's College, Cambridge, and the newly founded grammar school at Staveley Netherthorpe. His 'Reports' were among the manuscript collections of Sir John Maynard (1602-1690) [q. v.], and are now in Lincoln's Inn library (Hunter, Cat. of Lincoln's Inn MSS.) His principal seat was at Barlborough, Derbyshire, where he built the hall which is still standing; he also purchased extensive estates—Billingsley, Darfield, Great and Little Houghton, all in Yorkshire.
Rodes married, first, Elizabeth, daughter of Brian Sandford of Thorpe Salvine, Yorkshire; and, secondly, Mary, eldest daughter of Francis Charlton of Appley in Shropshire. Her sister Elizabeth married John Manners, fourth earl of Rutland, who appointed Rodes one of his executors. Rodes was succeeded in the Barlborough estates by his eldest son by his first wife, Sir John Rodes (1562-1639), whose son Francis (d. 1645) was created a baronet on 14 Aug. 1641. The title became extinct on the death of Sir John Rodes, fourth baronet, in 1743. Darfield and Great Houghton passed to the judge's eldest son by his second wife, Sir Godfrey Rodes (d. 1634), whose son, Sir Edward Rodes (1599-1666), served as sheriff of Yorkshire and colonel of horse under Cromwell; he was also a member of Cromwell's privy council, sheriff of Perthshire, and represented Perth in the parliaments of 1656-8 and 1659-1660. Sir Edward's sister Elizabeth was third wife of Thomas Wentworth, earl of Strafford. Her portrait, by an unknown hand, belongs to the Earl of Crewe, who also possesses a portrait of her father, Sir Godfrey Rodes.
A. F. P.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Roe, George Hamilton

​ROE, GEORGE HAMILTON (1795–1873), physician, born on 18 May 1795 at New Ross, co. Wexford, was the eldest son of Peter Roe, a banker, and a cousin of George Roe, a distiller in Dublin. He began his medical studies somewhat late in life, after his marriage in 1817, and was admitted to the degree of M.D. in Edinburgh on 1 Aug. 1821, his inaugural thesis being ‘De respiratione.’ He then proceeded to Paris, returning later to London, where he was admitted a licentiate of the Royal College of Physicians on 25 June 1823. He was still pursuing his studies at Trinity College, Dublin, where he graduated as B.A., M.A., M.B., and M.D., the last degree being conferred upon him in 1827. He was incorporated upon this degree at Oxford in 1828, being at that time a member of Magdalen Hall, afterwards Hertford College. He was admitted a candidate of the Royal College of Physicians of London on 13 April 1835, and a fellow on 25 June 1836.
He was appointed a physician to the Westminster Hospital in 1825, and, after serving for some time as a lecturer on medicine, he resigned in 1854. He was also a physician to the Hospital for Consumption and Diseases of the Chest, Brompton, to which he attached himself upon its foundation in 1841. He was elected a fellow of the Royal Medical and Chirurgical Society in 1835, and served upon its council during 1841–2. He was Harveian orator at the Royal College of Physicians in 1856, and consiliarius in 1864, 1865, and 1866. He died on 13 April 1873, and was buried in the Brompton cemetery. His son, William Gason Roe, was a medical practitioner at Westminster.
Dr. Roe was an intelligent, well-informed, and practical physician. His decided manner won for him the confidence of his patients, but his private practice was small. He early gained the disapprobation of the members of his own profession by the promiscuous manner in which he gave advice gratuitously to those who could well afford to pay for it. He belonged to the Christian apostolic church.
He was the author of ‘A Treatise on the Hooping Cough and its complications, with Hints on the Management of Children,’ 8vo, London, 1836. The publication of this book gave rise to a fierce controversy between himself and Dr. Augustus Bozzi Granville [q. v.], who charged him with gross plagiarism.
[Obituary notices by Dr. C. J. B. Williams in the Proceedings of the Royal Medico-Chirurg. Soc. vii. 232; Autobiographical Recollections of the Medical Profession, by J. F. Clarke, London, 1874, pp. 506–9; Munk's Coll. of Phys.; Foster's Alumni Oxon.; information kindly given to the writer by Mrs. George Cowell, Dr. Roe's daughter-in-law.]
D’A. P.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Roden, William Thomas

1904 Errata appended.
​RODEN, WILLIAM THOMAS (1817–1892), portrait-painter, was born in Bradford Street, Birmingham, in 1817, and apprenticed to Mr. Dew, an engraver, who married an elder sister. He continued to practise engraving for about ten years, and then took to portrait-painting. As he succeeded in producing very good likenesses, Roden obtained plenty of employment in his native town. In the council house, among other portraits by Roden, there is a portrait of the Right Hon. W. E. Gladstone; in the Art Gallery portraits of Cardinal John Henry Newman [q. v.], Samuel Lines [q. v.], the painter and engraver, Peter Hollins [see under Hollins, William], the sculptor, and John Henry Chamberlain, the architect; and at Aston Hall portraits of Dr. Lloyd and Sir John Ratcliff. Other portraits are in the General Hospital, and for Saltley College he painted a portrait of George William, fourth lord Lyttelton [q. v.] He also painted three portraits of Lord Palmerston. Roden's work was almost entirely confined to his native town and its neighbourhood, where it was much esteemed. He died on ​Christmas day 1892, at his sister's house in Handsworth, after a long illness. He rarely exhibited works at the London exhibitions.
L. C.
Dictionary of National Biography, Errata (1904), p.237 N.B.— f.e. stands for from end and l.l. for last line
| Page | Col. | Line | |
| 79 | ii | 22 f.e. | Roden, William T.: for Mr. Dew, an engraver. read Mr. Tye, an engraver, who married an elder sister. Subsequently on Tye's recommendation he removed to London to become an apprentice to George Thomas Doo, R.A. |
| | | 20 f.e. | for then took to portrait-painting. read and produced, among much other work, a good engraving of Rubens's portrait of himself. He then abandoned engraving altogether for portrait-painting, and returning to Birmingham rarely left it thenceforth. |
| | | 4 f.e. | for three portraits of Lord Palmerston read two portraits of Lord Palmerston from life |
| 80 | i | 1 | for his sister's house read the house of his sister, Mrs. Tye |
| | | 2 | after illness. insert He married twice and left children by both wives. |