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

​WALTON, WILLIAM (1784–1857), writer on Spain, the son of William Walton who was consul for Spain in Liverpool, was born in 1784, and at an early age was sent to Spain and Portugal to study the languages and fit himself for a commercial career. Thence he seems to have gone to the Spanish American colonies, and became secretary to the British expedition which captured San Domingo from the French in 1802. He was taken prisoner by the French, but released. For some time he remained in that country as British agent, returning to England in 1809. He thenceforward devoted himself chiefly to writing on the current politics of Spain and Portugal, apparently residing first at Bristol and afterwards in London. For the most part he was against the policy pursued by the British ministers. He is said to have been deputed by the Mexicans in 1815 to offer their crown to the Duke of Gloucester. He took a great interest in the question of naturalising the alpaca, and wrote two or three essays on the subject, the latest being in competition for the medal of the Highland and Agricultural Society in 1841. He died at Oxford on 5 May 1857.
His works on his one subject are rather voluminous, but for the most part appear to ​lack a permanent value. He states that he had contemplated a history of the Spanish colonies, but lost the papers he had collected, partly as a prisoner, partly at sea. His chief works are: 1. ‘The present State of the Spanish Colonies, including an Account of Hispaniola,’ London, 1810. 2. ‘An Historical and Descriptive Account of the Four Species of Peruvian Sheep,’ London, 1811. 3. ‘An Exposé of the Dissensions of Spanish America,’ London, 1814. 4. ‘The true Interests of the European Powers and of the Empire of Brazil in reference to … Portugal,’ with other pamphlets, London, 1829 (the copy in the British Museum contains an autograph letter to the Duke of Sussex). 5. ‘Letter to Viscount Goderich respecting the relations of England and Portugal,’ London, 1830. 6. ‘Spain, or who is the lawful Successor to the Throne?’ London, 1834. 7. ‘Legitimacy the only Salvation of Spain,’ London, 1835. 8. ‘Revolutions of Spain,’ London, 1837. 9. ‘The Alpaca: a Plan for its Naturalisation,’ London, 1844. More than a dozen other letters to statesmen and similar political pamphlets, all on Spain and Portugal, are noted in the British Museum catalogue. Walton also translated two or three works from the French.
C. A. H.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Walton, John (d.1490?)

​WALTON, JOHN (d. 1490?), archbishop of Dublin, was probably the John Walton, regular canon of Osney, who graduated B.A. at Oxford on 6 June 1450, and D.D. on 24 May 1463 (Boase, Reg. Univ. Oxon. i. 11). He is confused by Tanner with John Walton (fl. 1410) [q. v.], the poet, and with John de Waltham, subdean of York in 1384 [see under Waltham, John de, d. 1395], and it is also improbable that he was the John Walton who was appointed vicar of Birch-magna on 3 July 1426 and vicar of Roding on 25 Jan. 1437. In 1452 he was made abbot of Osney, the temporalities being restored to him on 1 Nov. in that year (cf. Cartul. of S. Frideswide, i. 416). D'Alton says he was eighteenth abbot of Osney, and gives him an alternate name, Mounstern; Dugdale gives the name of the abbot at this time as Multon, and says he died in 1472, the date of Walton's election as archbishop of Dublin. Possibly he is the John Walton whose grant of the chantry of Clipston on 19 Dec. 1456 was confirmed by Edward IV on 18 Dec. 1461 (Cal. Patent Rolls, Edward IV, i. 57). Walton paid heavy fees to the papal court for his election to the archbishopric (Brady, Episcopal Succession, i. 325). He was consecrated in England in 1472, but does not appear to have obtained the restitution of his temporalities until 1477. In 1478 he procured from the Irish parliament the restitution of several manors alienated by his predecessors in the archbishopric, Richard Talbot [q. v.] and Michael Tregury [q. v.] During his tenure of that office Sixtus IV sanctioned the establishment of a university at Dublin (De Burgo, Hibernia ​Dominicana, p. 193), but the design was not carried out. Walton abstained from politics, being overshadowed by his suffragan William Sherwood [q. v.], bishop of Meath, and in 1484, being then blind and infirm, he resigned the archbishopric. He retired to his manor of Swords, the possession of which was assured to him by an act of parliament in the following year. On St. Patrick's day (17 March) 1489 he emerged to preach a sermon before the lord deputy in St. Patrick's cathedral. He died soon afterwards; his will, undated, is among the manuscripts of Trinity College, Dublin. He made various bequests to Osney Abbey, where he desired to be buried in the event of his dying in England.
A. F. P.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Walton, John (fl.1410)

Based on the ODNB this is the same person as Capellanus, John.
​WALTON, JOHN (fl. 1410), poet, is confused by Tanner with John Walton (d. 1490?) [q. v.], archbishop of Dublin, with John de Waltham, subdean of York [see under Waltham, John de, (d. 1395)], and with others of the same or a similar name. The poet appears to have been canon of Osney in 1410, when he completed his verse-translation of Boethius's ‘De Consolatione Philosophiæ.’ This work was undertaken at the request of Elizabeth Berkeley, possibly the daughter of Thomas, lord Berkeley (d. 1417), who patronised Walton's contemporary John de Trevisa [q. v.], and was afterwards wife of Richard de Beauchamp, earl of Warwick [q. v.] (cf. Smyth, Lives of the Berkeleys, ed. Maclean, ii. 22). Boethius's work had already been translated into English prose by Chaucer, and Walton makes considerable use of Chaucer's version. He refers to Chaucer as ‘the floure of rethoryk,’ and also mentions Gower.
Ten manuscripts of Walton's translation are extant; the best is British Museum Royal MS. 18 A xiii, which in Casley's ‘Catalogue’ is erroneously ascribed to Lydgate. Other manuscripts in the British Museum are Harleian MS. 44 (which contains numerous marginalia by Thomas Chaundler), Harleian MS. 43, and Sloane MS. 554. There are three copies at Oxford: Balliol College MS. B. 5, Trinity College MS. 75, and Rawlinson MS. 151 in the Bodleian; an eighth copy is in Cambridge University Library (MS. Gg. iv. 18), and a ninth in Lincoln Cathedral MS. i. 53. A tenth, which was in the Phillipps collection (No. 1099), is said by Todd (Illustr. of Gower and Chaucer, p. xxxi) to ascribe the translation to ‘John Tebaud, alias Watyrbeche.’
Walton's book was printed in 1525 with the following title, ‘The boke of Comfort called in Latyn Boethius de Consolatione etc., transl. into Englesse tonge by John Waltionem or Walton, Canon of Osney. Enprented in the exempt monastery of Tauestock in Denshyre by me, Dan. Thomas Rychard, monk of the sayd monastery,’ 1525, 4to (Cat. Bodleian Library, i. 287). There is a copy in the Bodleian Library, but it is very rare, and is not in the British Museum (cf. Lowndes, ed. Bohn, i. 229). Extracts from Walton's poem are printed in Wülker's ‘Altenglisches Lesebuch’ (ii. 56), in Skeat's edition of Chaucer (vol. ii. pp. xvi–xvii), and in the ‘Athenæum’ (1892, i. 565).
[Authorities cited; Tanner's Bibl. p. 753; Wood's Athenæ, ed. Bliss, i. 48; Hearne's edit. of Robert of Gloucester, ii. 78; Gough's Camden, i. 33; Warton's Hist. Poet. ii. 34; Dep. Keeper's 46th Rep. App. ii. 64; Ramsay's Lancaster and York, i. 142; Skeat's Chaucer, vol. ii. pp. xv–xviii; Wylie's Hist. of Henry IV, ii. 405, 454.]
A. F. P.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Walton, Thomas

​WALTON or WAUTON, Sir THOMAS (1370?–1437?), speaker of the House of Commons, born probably about 1370, was son of John de Walton of Great Staughton, Huntingdonshire, who represented that county in the parliament of January 1393–1394, and was present at a great council in 1401 (Nicolas, Proc. P. C. i. 158; Visit. Bedfordshire, p. 198; Visit. Norfolk, p. 304; cf. Harl. MS. 381, f. 168, where his father's name is given as Thomas). The family was widely spread in England, and Thomas seems to have belonged to an offshoot of the Essex branch; the Thomas de Wauton, clerk, who was secretary to Joan (1328–1385) [q. v.], mother of Richard II, was probably a relative (Cal. Patent Rolls, 1381–5; Palgrave, Antient Kalendars, ii. 12). Walton's grandmother Elizabeth, widow of Sir Thomas Wauton, married, as her second husband, John Tiptoft (d. 1369), and John Tiptoft, baron Tiptoft [q. v.], was her grandson. Possibly Walton owed his advancement in part to Tiptoft's influence. He entered parliament as member for Huntingdonshire in January 1396–7, and was re-elected in the September the same year, in October 1400, and September 1402. On 8 May 1413–14 he was returned for Bedfordshire, for which he may have sat in 1409–10 and 1411, the returns for those years being lost; he was re-elected in January 1413–14, but on 3 Nov. 1414 was returned for his former constituency, Huntingdonshire. On 1 Dec. 1415 he was made sheriff of Bedfordshire, and on 18 Sept. 1419 was again elected to parliament for that county, being now styled ‘chivaler.’ On 23 Nov. 1420 and 24 Oct. 1422 he was returned to parliament for Huntingdonshire; at Michaelmas in the latter year he was nominated sheriff of Bedfordshire, and on 30 Sept. was appointed chamberlain of North Wales. On 20 March 1424–5 he was once more elected for Bedfordshire; his parliamentary experience, extending over nearly thirty years, was probably the reason, and, not as Manning suggests, any connection with the law, for his selection as speaker in that parliament. The royal assent was given on 2 May, and on 14 July, the last day of the session, Walton declared the grant of a subsidy (Rot. Parl. iv. 262 a, 275 b; Stubbs, Const. Hist. iii. 100). He served as sheriff of Bedfordshire in 1428–9 and again in 1432–3. He was elected member for that county on 17 March 1431–2 for the last time, but was present at a council in April 1434, and was asked for a loan for the French war on 15 Feb. 1435–6. He probably died soon afterwards. By his wife Alana, daughter of one Barrey of Wales, who survived him till 1456 (Cal. Inq. post mortem, iv. 276), he had two sons and two daughters (Harl. MS. 381, f. 168; Visit. Bedfordshire, p. 198; Visit. Norfolk, p. 304).
A. F. P.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Muncaster, Barons

​MUNCASTER, Barons. [See Pennington, Sir John, first Baron, d. 1813; Pennington, Lowther, second Baron, d. 1818.]
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Muncaster, Richard

​MUNCASTER, RICHARD (1530?–1611), schoolmaster and author. [See Mulcaster.]
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Munden, John

​MUNDEN, Sir JOHN (d. 1719), rear-admiral, younger brother of Sir Richard Munden [q. v.], was with him in the Mediterranean, as a lieutenant of the St. David, from 1677 to 1680. He afterwards served in the Constant Warwick, the Mary Rose, and the Charles galley; and on 23 July 1688 was promoted to be commander of the Half Moon fireship. On 14 Dec. 1688 he was promoted by Lord Dartmouth to the Edgar, from which he took post. At the battle of Barfleur, 19 May 1692, he commanded the Lennox, in the van of the red squadron, under the immediate orders of Sir Ralph Delavall. In 1693 he commanded the St. Michael, in 1695 the Monmouth, in 1696 the Albemarle, in 1697 the London. In May 1699 he was appointed to the Ranelagh, but in July was moved into the Winchester, and sent in command of a small squadron to the Mediterranean, where he negotiated a treaty with the dey of Algiers for the regulation of ships' passes, and obtained the release of the English slaves (Playfair, Scourge of Christendom, p. 168). He returned to England in November 1700. On 14 April 1701 he was promoted to the rank of rear-admiral, and on 30 June was appointed commander of the squadron to escort the king to Holland. On the following day he was knighted by the king on board the yacht William and Mary, 'under the standard of England' (Le Neve, Pedigrees of the Knights, p. 477).
On 28 Jan. 1701-2, being then rear-admiral of the red, he was ordered to wear the union flag at the mizen, as commander of a strong squadron fitting out to intercept a French squadron expected to sail from Rochelle to Corunna, and from Corunna to the West Indies, with the new Spanish viceroy of Mexico. Munden sailed from St. Helen's on 10 May 1702, and coming off Corunna, on intelligence that the French ships were daily expected there, he cruised off Cape Prior, in hopes of intercepting them. On the morning of the 28th they were seen inshore, having slipped past him, to the eastward, during the night; and before he could come up with them they reached the harbour. Unable to follow them in, owing to the heavy batteries on shore, the narrowness of the entrance, and the impossibility of going in and out with the same wind, he cruised in the Soundings for the protection of trade till 20 June, when want of provisions compelled him to return to Portsmouth. On 13 July he was tried by court-martial at Spithead on a charge of negligence, but he was fully acquitted (Minutes of the Court-martial). Munden accordingly rehoisted his flag 21 July; but the government, yielding apparently to popular clamour, in the queen's name, by a singular and harsh exercise of the prerogative, ordered him to be 'discharged from his post and command in the royal navy.' He lived afterwards in retirement, at Chelsea, and died there on 13 March 1718-19.
[Charnock's Biog. Nav. ii. 179, and the references there given; commission and warrant books, &c., in the Public Record Office. Copies of the documents relating to his conduct in 1702 and of the minutes of the court-martial are in Home Office Records (Admiralty), vol. ii.]
J. K. L.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Munday, Henry

​MUNDAY, HENRY (1623–1682), schoolmaster and physician, was the son of Henry Munday of Henley-on-Thames, and was baptised there on 21 Sept. 1623 (par. reg.) He matriculated at Corpus Christi College, Oxford, on 20 May 1642, and afterwards became postmaster or portionist of Merton College. He graduated B.A. on 2 April 1647. After enjoying, according to Wood, 'some petit employment' during the civil wars and the Commonwealth, Munday was elected head-master of the free grammar school in his native town in 1656. To his work as a teacher he added the practice of medicine, and the school suffered in consequence. His death saved him from the disgrace of dismissal. He died from a fall from his horse as he was returning home from a visit to John, third baron Lovelace [q. v], at Hurley, on 28 June 1682, and was buried in the north chancel of Henley Church. His estate was administered for 'Alicia and Marie Mundy, minors.'
He published: 'Βιοχρηστολογία seu Commentarii de Aere Vitali, de Esculeutis, de Potulentis, cum Corollario de Parergis in Victu,' Oxford, 1680, 1685; London, 1681; Frankfort, 1685; Leipzig, 1685; Leyden, 1615.
[Wood's Athenæ (Bliss), vol. iv. col. 49; Wood's Fasti (Bliss), vol. ii. col. 101; Foster's Alumni Oxon. 1500-1714; P.C.C. Administration, July 1682; Henley parish register per the Rev. J. T. Maule.]
B. P.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Mundeford, Osbert

​MUNDEFORD, OSBERT or OSBERN (d. 1460), treasurer of Normandy, was son of Osbert Mundeford (d. 1456), by Margaret Barrett. The family, whose name is sometimes spelt Mountford or Montfort, had been long seated at Hockwold in Norfolk, where they held Mundeford's Manor; they had been honourably distinguished in the French wars. Osbert went abroad probably early in Henry VI's reign, and received various offices of importance, such as bailly-general of Maine and marshal of Calais. He also served as English representative on several occasions in the conferences which were held, notably in 1447, with reference to the occupation of Le Mans. In the re-conquest of Normandy, Mundeford occupied Pont Audemer, and was taken prisoner when it fell in 1449 ; he was ransomed for ten thousand crowns. He afterwards wrote an account of the siege, which has been printed in the 'Chronique de Mathieu d'Escouchy,' ed. De Beaucourt, iii. 354.
Mundeford was appointed treasurer of Normandy in 1448 in succession to one Stanlawe. After the expulsion of the English he seems to have lived in Calais and about 1459 sent thence a letter in French to his relative John Paston, which has been preserved. He seems to have been a strong Lancastrian, and in June 1460 he gathered together some five hundred men in the town of Sandwich 'to fette and conduc the Duk of Somerset from Guynes in to England,' but Warwick's men came and took the town, and carrying off Mundeford to Calais beheaded him and two of his followers at the Rise Bank.
Mundeford married Elizabeth, daughter of John Berney, and a relative of the Pastons, and left a daughter, Mary, who married Sir William Tindale, K.B., and carried the estates of the family into other hands.
[De Beaucourt's Histoire de Charles VII, iv. 295, &c., v. 6, &c., 420, 441; Chroniques de Mathieu d'Escouchy, ed. De Beaucourt (Soc. de l'Hist. de France), passim; De Reductione Normanniæ (Rolls Ser.), 64 n. &c.; Wars of the English in France, ed. Stevenson (Rolls Ser.), passim; Purton Cooper's App. to Report on Rymer's Fœdera, pp. 540-2: Paston Letters, i. 117, 439, &c.; Blomefield's Norfolk, ii. 181, &c.; Norfolk Archæology, vol. v.; Three Fifteenth-Cent. Chronicles (Camd. Soc.), p. 73; An English Chron. (Camd. Soc.), p. 85.]
W. A. J. A.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1912 supplement/Davies, Charles Maurice

​DAVIES, CHARLES MAURICE (1828–1910), author, born in 1828, was of Welsh origin. He entered Durham University as a scholar of University College in 1845, and graduated B.A. in 1848 with a second class in classical and general literature. He proceeded M.A. in 1852 and D.D. in 1864. Elected a fellow of the university on 1 Nov. 1849, he was ordained deacon in 1851 and priest in 1852. After serving various curacies Davies settled down to educational work in London. Meanwhile his religious views underwent a change. Once an active supporter of the tractarian movement, Davies soon adopted broad church principles, and published anonymously a series of sensational novels, attacking high church practices, among them being 'Philip Paternoster' (1858), 'Shadow Land' (1860), and 'Verts, or the Three Creeds' (3 vols. 1876). After holding the headmastership of the West London Collegiate School (1861-8) he devoted himself mainly to journalism. In 1870 he represented the ' Daily Telegraph' in France on the outbreak of the Franco-Prussian war, and was arrested as a suspected spy, while he was searching Metz for his colleague, George Augustus Sala [q. v.]. Amongst other contributions to the 'Daily Telegraph' was a series of independent studies of religious parties in the metropolis, which attracted attention. His articles were collected into a volume entitled 'Unorthodox London' (1873; 2nd edit. 1875). There followed on the same lines, 'Heterodox London, or Phases ​of Free Thought in the Metropolis' (2 vols. 1874), 'Orthodox London, or Phases of Religious Life in the Church of England' (2 vols. 1874-5), and 'Mystic London, or Phases of Occult Life in the Metropolis' (1875). On quitting the service of the 'Daily Telegraph,' Davies went out to Natal to work under Bishop J. W. Colenso [q. v.]. After 1882, however, he abandoned holy orders. On his resettling in London, he was employed after 1893 in superintending a series of translations, undertaken at the instance of Cecil Rhodes [q. v. Suppl. II], of the original authorities used by Gibbon in his 'Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire.' Davies retired from active work in 1901, and died at Harlesden on 6 Sept. 1910.
[The Times, 9 Sept. 1910; Durham University Calendar, 1850; Brit. Mus. Cat.; Sir T. Fuller, Life of Cecil Rhodes, 1910, p. 133 seq.; private information from Mr. A. L. Humphreys.]
G. S. W.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Webbe, Joseph

1904 Errata appended.
​WEBBE, JOSEPH (fl. 1612–1626), grammarian and physician, was English by birth and Roman catholic in religion. He graduated M.D. and Ph.D. at some foreign university, perhaps Padua. In 1612 he published at Rome an astrological work entitled 'Minae Coalestes Affectus segrotantibus denunciantes, hoc anno 1612,' 8vo. Before 1622 he returned to England, and in 1623 was residing in the Old Bailey. He strongly advocated a colloquial method of teaching languages, proposing to extend it even to the classical tongues, and to substitute it for the pedantic manner of grammatical study in general use. In 1622 he published, in support of his views, 'An Appeale to Truth, in the Controuersie betweene Art and Vse' (London, 4to), which he supplemented in 1623 by 'A Petition to the High Court of Parliament, in the behalf of auncient and authentique Authors' (London, 4to), in which he says that his system has received encouragement from James I, and that he wishes to receive a monopoly of the right to teach by his method. John Gee [q. v.], in his 'Foot out of the Snare,' describes him in 1623 as residing 'in the Old Bayly,' where 'he pretendeth to teach a new gayne way to learne languages, and by this occasion may inveigle disciples.' His latest work, dedicated to Charles I, appeared in 1626, entitled 'Vsus et Authoritas' (London, 12mo), a treatise on hexameters and pentameters. Webbe was also the author of a translation of 'The Familiar Epistles of Cicero' (London, 12mo), undated, but probably published about 1620.
[Webbe's Works; Foley's Record of the English Province of the Soc. of Jesus, i. 683.]
E. I. C.
Dictionary of National Biography, Errata (1904), p.277 N.B.— f.e. stands for from end and l.l. for last line
| Page | Col. | Line | |
| 110 | i | 19 f.e. | Webbe, Joseph: for 1626) read 1633) |
| | ii | 18 | after 1620. insert His letters and papers on languages, dating from 1623 to 1633, are in Sloane MS. 1456. |
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Webbe, Samuel (1770?-1843)

​WEBBE, SAMUEL, the younger (1770?–1843), teacher and composer, the son of Samuel Webbe (1740–1816) [q. v.], was born in London about 1770, and studied the organ, piano, and vocal composition under his father and Clementi. Webbe in his active interest in the glee clubs followed in the footsteps of his father. He composed many excellent canons and glees, but in 1798 he settled in Liverpool, as organist to the unitarian chapel in Paradise Street. About 1817 he joined John Bernard Logier [q. v.] in London in teaching the use of the chiroplast. Webbe became organist to the chapel of the Spanish embassy, before returning to Liverpool, where he was appointed organist to St. Nicholas and to St. Patrick's Roman catholic chapel. He died at Hammersmith on 25 Nov. 1843. His son, Egerton Webbe (1810–1840), wrote upon musical subjects; his daughter married Edward Holmes [q. v.]
Webbe published, in conjunction with his father, ‘A Collection of Original Psalm Tunes,’ 1800. He was also the author of several anthems, madrigals, and glees, besides a Mass and a Sanctus, and a Chant for St. Paul's Cathedral. He wrote settings for numerous songs and ballads. About 1830 he published ‘Convito Armonico,’ a collection of madrigals, glees, duets, canons, and catches, by eminent composers.
[Brown and Stratton's British Musical Biography, p. 437; authorities cited.]
L. M. M.