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

​LOOSEMORE, HENRY (1600?–1670), organist and composer, was born about 1600 in Devonshire. He was a chorister, and afterwards lay clerk, in one of the Cambridge College chapels (Grove), and graduated Mus. Bac. in 1640 (Cole, Athenæ). He was at one time organist of King's College. From about 1652 to 1660 Loosemore seems to have been resident organist and teacher of music at Kirtling, Cambridgeshire, where the grandchildren of Dudley, third baron North, then resided (cf. Jessopp, Introduction to Autobiography of Roger North, p. vi.) In 1660 he became organist of Exeter Cathedral. He died in 1670 suddenly, according to Wood, in a priory house abroad.
Two of Loosemore's Latin litanies (G minor and D minor) are printed in the second volume of Jebb's ‘Choral Responses.’ The compiler draws attention to the fact that services were occasionally performed in Latin at Peterhouse, Cambridge, before the rebellion, and surmises that these litanies were written for King's. Loosemore's English litany, in D minor, is essentially the same as the Latin in the same key. It was scored by Jebb from the manuscript organ copy in Ely Cathedral, and printed in vol. i. of ‘Choral Responses,’ without the ‘desk’ part, which has only lately been discovered at Ely.
In manuscript are: 1. Anthem, a 4, ‘Put me not to rebuke,’ at Ely. 2. Whole service in D minor, a 4, 5, and 6, at Ely, and in Tudway's ‘Collection,’ vols. i. and ii. (Harl. MSS. 7337 and 7338). 3. Anthem in G minor, a 2, with chorus a 4, ‘O, that mine eyes,’ at Ely, and in Flackton's ‘Collection,’ No. 92 (Brit. Mus. Add. MSS. 30932); the same duet, without chorus, is copied in A minor in Novello's ‘Collection’ (ib. 33234). At Ely Cathedral, more or less complete, are also 4. Anthem, ‘O God, my heart is ready’ (organ part); ‘Praise the Lord, O my soul’ (tenor part); ‘Tell the daughter of Zion;’ and ‘Unto Thee I lift up.’ At Peterhouse, Cambridge, are manuscripts of the above anthems, apparently in the author's autograph. Clifford's ‘Divine Services’ includes other anthems by Loosemore: ‘O, sing unto the Lord,’ ‘The Lord hath done,’ ‘Give the King Thy Judgments,’ ‘To Jesus Christ.’
Loosemore's son, George Loosemore (fl. 1660), organist and composer, was under his father as a chorister at King's College, Cambridge (Grove). In 1660 he was appointed organist to Trinity College, Cambridge, and in 1665 he graduated doctor of music (Grad. Cant.) In 1660 he also appears to have succeeded his father as organist at Kirtling, assisting John Jenkins [q. v.] in his teaching of Baron North's family until 1666. His anthem ‘Glory be to God,’ G minor, is in vol. iii. of Tudway's ‘Collection’ (Harl. MSS. 7339); the organ part of ‘Hear my crying’ is in manuscript in Ely Cathedral Library.
[See authorities under John Loosemore.]
L. M. M.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Looten, Jan

​LOOTEN (LOTEN), JAN (1618–1681), landscape-painter, born in 1618, appears to have been a native of Amsterdam, where he was married in 1643. He painted landscapes of a sublime or romantic description, with dark woods and waterfalls, in the style of Roelandt Roghman and Allart van Everdingen. There is a landscape by him in the picture gallery at Berlin, dated 1659, and three small landscapes painted by him on copper are in the gallery at Dresden. Looten also painted some views of the Alps in Switzerland. He came to London early in the reign of Charles II, and died there in 1681. There were three landscapes by him in James II's collection, and his pictures are to be met with, much darkened by age, in private collections in England. In the National Gallery is a gloomy and impressive ‘River Scene with Figures.’
[Walpole's Anecdotes of Painting, ed. Wornum; Woltman und Woermann's Geschichte der Malerei; Catalogues of the Berlin and Dresden Picture Galleries; Batho's Cat. of James II's collection; Kramm's Levens en Werken der Hollandsche en Vlaamsche Konstschilders, &c.]
L. C.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Lord, Henry

​LORD, HENRY (fl. 1630), traveller, born in Oxfordshire in 1563, matriculated from Magdalen Hall, Oxford, on 15 April 1580, but apparently did not graduate. In 1624, on the recommendation of Dean White, whom he had served as curate, he was appointed by the East India Company chaplain to the English factory at Surat for a term of five years, and at a salary of 60l. per annum. His trial sermon at St. Helen's having been approved, the directors further voted him 20l. ‘to buy him books’ (Cal. State Papers, Colonial, 1622–4, pp. 229, 232). While at Surat he acquired some knowledge of Hindustani and Persian, and studied the customs of the natives. On his return to England he published ‘A Display of two forraigne sects in the East Indies, vizt: the sect of the Banians, the ancient Natives of India, and the sect of the Persees, the ancient Inhabitants of Persia,’ … 2 pts. 4to, London, 1630, with a curi​ously engraved title-page by William Marshall. Lord dedicated his volume to the Archbishop of Canterbury, in the hope that his grace might see his way to repressing the natives' idolatrous practices. A French translation of the book by P. Briot appeared at Paris in 1667. It has been reissued in Picart's ‘Religious Ceremonies’ (French and English editions alike), in Pinkerton's ‘Voyages’ (vol. viii.), and in the various editions of Churchill's ‘Collection of Voyages and Travels.’
[Lord's Display; preface to the French translation, 1667; Brit. Mus. Cat.]
G. G.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Lookup, John

​LOOKUP, JOHN (fl. 1740), theologian, was a disciple of John Hutchinson (1674–1737) [q. v.], the philosopher. He wrote: 1. ‘The Erroneous Translations in the Vulgar Versions of the Scriptures detected in several instances taken from the Original. With a previous Essay upon the Doctrine of the Trinity,’ 8vo, London, 1739; 2nd edit. 1740. The ‘Essay’ was written in deprecation of a pamphlet by E. Johnson, entitled ‘A Plain Account of the Trinity from Scripture and Reason,’ 1739. 2. ‘Berashith, or the First Book of Moses, call'd Genesis, translated from the Original,’ 8vo, London, 1740, which is inscribed to John Potter, arch​bishop of Canterbury. Lookup had previously shocked the archbishop by his ‘incorrect sentiments’ on the doctrine of the Trinity. His translation is frequently felicitous, and shows him to have possessed a creditable knowledge of Hebrew.
[Lookup's Works; Allibone's Dict. of Authors.]
G. G.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Loosemore, John

​LOOSEMORE, JOHN (1613?–1681), organ-builder, brother of Henry Loosemore [q. v.], was born at Bishop's Nympton, Devonshire (Lysons, Magna Brit. vol. vi. pt. ii. p. 368), or, according to other authorities, at Exeter, about 1613. He was singer or lay clerk at Exeter Cathedral (Hawkins). In November 1660 he was paid 5l. by the chapter towards ‘the making of a sett of pipes to’ the temporary organ used in the cathedral until the new one was built; the old instrument had been broken by the rebels (Worth, Exeter Cathedral and its Restoration, 1878). Loosemore was sent at the expense of the chapter, 1663, to examine Harris's organ in Salisbury Cathedral, ‘the better to inform himself to make the new organ’ at Exeter, and in 1664 he visited London ‘about the church's business.’ In May 1665 the temporary organ in Exeter Cathedral was taken down, and may have been moved to the choristers' singing school attached to the cathedral (cf. Rimbault). Loosemore seems to have designed the case of the famous instrument, with its great double diapason and largest organ-pipe in England, that took its place (cf. Grove, ii. 592; Rimbault, History of the Organ, p. 62; Roger North, Life of the Lord Keeper). The greater part of the case still exists, but practically nothing remains of the mechanism except three or four dozen pipes (Worth; Hill, Organ Cases, p. 238; and Society of Antiquaries' Account of Exeter Cathedral, plate v.) Loosemore's autograph note of ‘what the organ cost’ gives 847l. 7s. 10d. as the total sum, owing to ‘not bying tinne in seson.’ Among other organs built by Loosemore was one for Sir George Trevilyan (Rimbault), the original document respecting which is still extant. Loosemore was also a maker of virginals, and, like other makers of his time, used boxwood for naturals in the keyboards. He died on 8 April 1681, aged 68. His epitaph on a gravestone in the transept of Exeter Cathedral, with that of ​Shearme, his son-in-law, is in Polwhele's ‘Devon,’ ii. 29.
[Grove's Dict. of Music, ii. 166, iv. 705; Hawkins's Hist. of Music, p. 771; extracts from Lord North's private account-book, 1652–1677, kindly supplied by Dr. Jessopp; parish registers of Bishop's Nympton, through the courtesy of the Rev. E. A. Lester; Dickson's Ely Cathedral Music Library; Burney's Hist. of Music, iii. 435; for account of Exeter organ see Hill's Organ Cases, preface; Woolcombe's Records, ii. 175; Lansdowne MSS. No. 213 (Brit. Mus.); authorities cited.]
L. M. M.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Lopes, Manasseh Masseh

​LOPES, Sir MANASSEH MASSEH (1755–1831), politician, a descendant of a family of Spanish Jews, and only son of Mordecai Rodriguez Lopes of Clapham, Surrey, by his wife Rebecca, daughter of Manasseh Pereira of Jamaica, was born in Jamaica on 27 Jan. 1755.
In 1802 he abandoned judaism, conformed to the practices of the church of England, and was returned to parliament for New Romney, and on 5 Oct. 1805 was created a baronet (Gent. Mag. 1805, ii. 1231), with remainder to his nephew, Ralph Franco, only son of his late sister, Esther, wife of Abraham Franco, and he obtained a license under the sign-manual to take the name of Masseh before his own. In 1812 he was returned to parliament for Barnstaple. Subsequently he arranged with one Hoare, a voter at Grampound in Cornwall, to procure his return for that constituency by dividing 2,000l. among the sixty freeholders of the borough. For this he was brought to trial at Exeter assizes before Mr. Justice Holroyd and a special jury on 18 March 1819, and on conviction was sentenced to two years' imprisonment and to pay a fine of 1,000l. This conviction of a baronet and a member of parliament for corruption marks a great advance in the public demand for electoral purity. Pending this trial he had been returned for Barnstaple in 1818. His return had been petitioned against; it was proved that he had spent 3,000l. in bribes, and had bribed sixty-three out of three hundred resident electors at 5l. each. The committee before which it was heard reported that it deserved the serious consideration of the house, 9 March 1819. The house thereupon unseated him, and on 2 April directed the attorney-general to prosecute him, and he was sentenced on 13 Nov. by the court of king's bench to a further fine and term of imprisonment. But this mishap did not exclude him from public life. On his release from gaol he was returned in 1823 for his pocket borough of Westbury, though he was very unpopular there, and again in 1826, but he resigned the seat, upon what consideration is unknown, to provide one for Peel on his rejection by the university of Oxford in 1829. He died on 26 March 1831 at his seat, Maristow House in Devonshire, leaving a fortune of 800,000l., principally in government and East India stock, but also in land near Plymouth. He was a magistrate for Devonshire and Wiltshire, and recorder of Westbury. He married Charlotte, daughter of John Yeates of Monmouthshire, by whom he had a daughter, Esther, who died on 1 July 1819. His nephew and heir, Ralph Franco, assumed the surname Lopes on succeeding to the baronetcy.
[Gent. Mag. 1831; Walpole's Hist. of England; Hansard's Parl. Debates, xxxix. 1390; Picciotto's Sketches of Anglo-Jewish History; Peel's Memoirs, i. 342.]
J. A. H.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Misaubin, John

​MISAUBIN, JOHN, M.D. (d. 1734), was born in France, and graduated M.D. at the university of Cahors on 7 July 1687. He settled in London, and became a licentiate of the College of Physicians on 25 June 1719. His foreign manner and accent sometimes excited ridicule, and though he was a regular licentiate his arrogance and method of practice caused him to be described and caricatured as a quack. In one print of the time he is represented as saying 'Prenez des pilules, prenez des pilules,' and Fielding relates (Tom Jones, bk. xiii. chap, ii.) that he 'used to say that the proper direction to him was to Dr. Misaubin "in the world," intimating that there were few people in it to whom his great reputation was not known.' He has left no writings, and his chief claim to recollection is that he is one of the four medical practitioners mentioned in 'Tom Jones,' the others being Dr. Sydenham [q. v.] and the surgeons John Freke [q. v.] and John Ranby [q. v.] He lived near Covent Garden, and died on 20 April 1734.
[Munk's Coll. of Phys. ii. 67; Fielding's Tom Jones, ed. 1749, v. 8; William Wadd's Nugæ Chirurgicæ, London, 1824.]
N. M.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Minton, Herbert

​MINTON, HERBERT (1793–1858), manufacturer of pottery and porcelain, second son of Thomas Minton, potter, was born at Stoke-on-Trent, 4 Feb. 1793. His father was a native of Shropshire, and was brought up as an engraver at the Caughley pottery works, near Broseley, under John Turner, who is stated to have discovered the art of printing in blue on china. He afterwards went to London and worked for Spode at his London house of business in Lincoln's Inn Fields. In 1788 he settled at Stoke and founded the concern which has since become celebrated.
Herbert Minton was educated at Audlem school, Cheshire, and in 1817 he and his elder brother were taken into partnership. The father died in 1836, and the brother entered the church. Herbert was thus left alone in the business. ‘Neither a man of profound research nor an educated artist,’ wrote Mr. Digby Wyatt, in a paper read before the Society of Arts, ‘neither an economist nor an inventor, by courage and ceaseless energy he brought to bear upon the creation of his ultimately colossal business such a combination of science, art, organisation, and invention as can be paralleled only’ in the case of ‘his great predecessor Josiah Wedgwood.’ Like Wedgwood, Minton surrounded himself with talented artists and ingenious inventors. Down to about 1830 nothing but earthenware and ordinary soft porcelain were made by the firm, but by the efforts of Minton and his partners the manufacture of hard porcelain, parian, encaustic tiles, azulejosor coloured enamel tiles, mosaics, Della Robbia ware, majolica, and Palissy ware was gradually introduced. The firm was fortunate in obtaining the patronage of the Duke of Sutherland, who lived at Trentham. Minton contributed a remarkable collection to the exhibition held in Birmingham in 1849 in connection with the meeting of the British Association. He was awarded a council medal at the Great Exhibition of 1851, and his specimens of majolica ware at the Paris exhibition of 1855 created great interest. About 1800 some fifty hands were employed at the works, but when Minton died the number reached fifteen hundred. The business was divided between his two nephews in 1868, Mr. C. Minton Campbell retaining the china and earthenware business, while Mr. M. D. Hollins took the encaustic tile manufactory. He lived for many years at Hartshill, near Stoke, where in 1842 he built and endowed a church and schools. The church is one of Sir George Gilbert Scott's early works. He died at Torquay, 1 April 1858, and was buried at Hartshill. The School of Art at Stoke was erected by ​Public subscription as a memorial to Minton. It was opened in 1860.
R. B. P.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Mirfeld, John

​MIRFELD, JOHN (fl. 1393), writer on medicine, whose name is written Marifeldus by Leland (Commentarii de Scriptt. Brit. c. 582), was a canon regular of St. Austin in the priory of St. Bartholomew in West Smithfield, London. He studied at Oxford, and there attended the medical lectures of Nicholas Tyngewich. He received medical instruction from a London practitioner, whom he calls ‘my master,’ but does not name, and who was a bold operator. He witnessed tapping of the brain and the healing of an incised wound of the stomach, as well as the partial cure of a paralysis due to cerebral hæmorrhage caused by a fall from a horse. John Helme, one of the brethren of the neighbouring foundation of St. Bartholomew's Hospital, taught him how to treat the plague. About 1387 he wrote a great treatise on medicine, entitled ‘Breviarium Bartholomæi,’ of which there is a fine manuscript copy, written in that year for the hospital of St. John the Baptist attached to the Abbey of Abingdon, in the library of Pembroke College, Oxford, and two imperfect ones in the British Museum, which both belonged to Dr. John Dee [q. v.] The ‘Breviarium’ is divided into fifteen parts, viz.: 1, fevers; 2, affections of the whole body; 3, of the head, neck, and throat; 4, of the chest; 5, of the abdomen; 6, of the pelvic organs; 7, of the legs; 8, of boils; 9, of wounds and bruises; 10, of fractures and dislocations; 11, of dislocations of joints; 12, of simple medicines; 13, of compound medicines; 14, of purgatives; 15, of the preservation and recovery of health. It contains many interesting cases and original remarks. He had read Gaddesden, the Arabians, and the ‘Regimen Sanitatis Salerni.' He tells how to make gingerbread, and gives the English names of many diseases, among them ‘smalpockes,’ one of the earliest citations of this term. He is an excellent teller of stories, and his accounts of the Augustinian canon thrown from his horse, of the fraudulent innkeeper's tricks, and of the doings of a mad dog are superior in detail and liveliness to the best narratives of Gaddesden. He also wrote ‘Parvus Tractatus de Signis Prognosticis Mortis’ (Lambeth Library MS. 444). In 1393 he appeared in a court of law to represent the convent of St. Bartholomew in West Smithfield.
N. M.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Minto, Lords

​MINTO, Lords. [See Elliot, Sir Gilbert, 1651–1718, first Lord; Elliot, Sir Gilbert, 1693–1766, second Lord.]
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Minto, Earls of

​MINTO, Earls of. [See Elliot, Sir Gilbert, 1751–1814, first Earl; Elliot, Gilbert, 1782–1859, second Earl.]
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Simpson, Jane Cross

​SIMPSON, Mrs. JANE CROSS (1811–1886), hymn-writer, daughter of James Bell, advocate, was born at Glasgow on 12 Nov. 1811. Educated by her father, she studied the classics as well as the ordinary subjects of a girl's training, and travelled much on the continent. For some years, from 1822 onwards, Bell was assessor and town-clerk of Greenock, when his daughter contributed frequently to the ‘Greenock Advertiser’ under the pseudonym of ‘Gertrude.’ In 1831, as ‘Gertrude,’ she wrote a noteworthy hymn on prayer, ‘Go when the morning shineth,’ for the ‘Edinburgh Literary Journal,’ then edited by her brother, Henry Glassford Bell [q. v.] She also contributed frequently, both in prose and verse, to the ‘Scottish Christian Herald.’ In 1837 she married her half-cousin, J. Bell Simpson, an artist and bibliographer, who was librarian of the Stirling Library, Glasgow, from 1851 to 1860; he published in 1872 ‘Literary and Dramatic Sketches,’ and died on 17 Dec. 1874. After her husband's death Mrs. Simpson resided with her married daughter, Mrs. Napier, successively at Portobello in Midlothian, Newport in Fifeshire, and Aberdeen. In her later years she wrote frequently for ‘Good Words,’ the ‘Christian Leader,’ and other periodicals. She died at Aberdeen on 17 June 1886. She was survived by two daughters out of a family of eight.
Mrs. Simpson published:
* ‘Piety of Daily Life,’ tales and sketches, 1836.
* ‘April Hours,’ a poem, 1838.
* ‘Woman's History,’ 1848.
* ‘Linda, or Beauty and Genius,’ 1859; 2nd edit. 1884.
* ‘Household edition of Burns's Works in Prose and Verse, edited by Gertrude,’ 2 vols. 8vo, 1870.
* ‘Picture Poems, and Linda and other Poems,’ 1879.
Her best hymns appeared in ​Rogers's ‘Lyra Britannica,’ 1867; Martineau's ‘Hymns,’ 1873; Prout's ‘Psalmist,’ 1878; and the ‘Scottish Evangelical Hymnal,’ 1878. Those on prayer, on the death of children, for those at sea, and for use at sea, are deservedly popular. Her longer poems are earnest and graceful.
[Information from Mrs. Simpson's daughter, Mrs. Napier (Aberdeen), and Mr. Beatson (Royal Exchange, Glasgow); Edwards's Modern Scottish Poets, 8th and 9th ser.; Christian Leader, 24 June 1896; Julian's Dict. of Hymnology.]
T. B.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Simpson, John (1782-1847)

​SIMPSON, JOHN (1782–1847), portrait-painter, born in London in 1782, was a student at the Royal Academy and for some years an assistant to Sir Thomas Lawrence, P.R.A. He obtained some success as a portrait-painter, and eventually a very large practice. From 1807 to his death he was a frequent exhibitor at the Royal Academy and other exhibitions. In 1834 he received a commission to go to Portugal, and painted portraits at Lisbon, where he was appointed painter to the queen of Portugal. Simpson was rather a skilful portraitist than an artist. His portraits are not without power, but lack instinct and penetration. One of John Burnet [q. v.], the engraver, is in the National Portrait Gallery. William IV and many notable persons in his day sat to him. Simpson died at Carlisle House, Soho, in 1847. He left two sons, who practised as artists, of whom Charles Simpson died young in 1848, having contributed a few landscapes to the London exhibitions. The other, Philip Simpson, was a student at the Royal Academy, and obtained some success for small domestic subjects from 1824 to 1857. One of these, called ‘I will fight,’ exhibited in Suffolk Street in 1824, is in the Townshend collection at the South Kensington Museum.
[Redgrave's Dict. of Artists; Graves's Dict. of Artists; catalogues of the South Kensington Museum, National Portrait Gallery, &c.]
L. C.