OpenLLM-France/wikimedia huggingface dataset:
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Williams, John (1757-1810)

​WILLIAMS, JOHN (1757–1810), lawyer, born at Job's Well, near Carmarthen, on 12 Sept. 1757, was the son of Thomas Williams of that town. He was educated at the grammar school of Carmarthen, matriculated from Jesus College, Oxford, on 19 Feb. 1773, migrated to Wadham College on 29 Sept., and was admitted a scholar on 23 Sept. 1774, graduating B.A. on 17 Oct. 1776 and M.A. on 11 July 1781. He was elected a fellow of Wadham on 30 June 1780. He filled the office of librarian in 1781 and 1782, and of humanity lecturer in 1782, and resigned his fellowship on 30 June 1792. He began his work, the study of law, as a student of the Middle Temple. He became a pupil of (Sir) George Wood [q. v.], at that time well known as a special pleader, and, after successfully practising as a special pleader on his own account, he was called to the bar by the benchers of the Inner Temple on 23 Nov. 1784. He went the Oxford and ‘Old Carmarthen’ circuits, the Oxford ending by arrangement before the ‘Old Carmarthen’ began. On 21 June 1794 he became a serjeant-at-law, and in 1804 a king's serjeant.
In conjunction with Richard Burn [q. v.] Williams brought out the tenth edition of Sir William Blackstone's ‘Commentaries’ (London, 4 vols. 8vo) in 1787, and the eleventh edition in 1791. Between 1799 and 1802 he also prepared the third edition of Sir Edmund Saunders's ‘Reports of Cases and Pleadings in the Court of King's Bench in the Reign of Charles II’ (London, 2 vols. 8vo), adding notes and references. His notes were highly valued and established the fame of the compilation. They ‘contained a lucid and accurate statement of the common law in almost every branch, more particularly as regards pleading.’ They were included in the editions of 1824 and 1845, and were issued separately with additions and an abridgment of the cases in 1871 by his son, Sir Edward Vaughan Williams.
Williams died in London, at Queen's Square, on 27 Sept. 1810. In 1789 he married Mary, eldest daughter of Charles Clarke of Foribridge, near Stafford. By her he had three sons—Charles; Sir Edward Vaughan, who is separately noticed; and John, a colonel in the royal engineers—and three daughters, of whom Mary was married to August Edward Hobart, sixth earl of Buckinghamshire.
E. I. C.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Williams, John (1727-1798)

​WILLIAMS, JOHN (1727–1798), nonconformist divine, the son of a tanner, was born at Lampeter in Cardiganshire on 25 March 1726–7. He was educated at the free school of the town, and entered the Cambrian academy at Carmarthen when nineteen years old, to qualify himself for the office of nonconformist minister. After completing his course he became classical tutor in the establishment of a schoolmaster at Bir​mingham, named Howell. In 1752 he became minister of a congregation at Stamford in Lincolnshire, and in 1755 removed to another charge at Wokingham in Berkshire. Here he completed a work which had cost him many years' labour, ‘A Concordance to the Greek New Testament, with an English Version to each Word, and short Critical Notes’ (London, 1767, 4to), which seventy-two years later was superseded by a similar compilation by George Vicesimus Wigram [see under Wigram, Joseph Cotton]. The ‘Short Critical Notes’ were chiefly furnished by Gregory Sharpe [q. v.] In 1767 Williams removed to Sydenham as minister to the congregation there, remaining till 1795, when, finding his congregation decreasing and the lease of the chapel having expired, he resigned the pastorate and spent the remainder of his life at Islington. In 1791 and 1792 he wrote two treatises on the Welsh tradition concerning the discovery of America, which by the interest they aroused may have stimulated Southey to write his poem ‘Madoc.’ Williams died on 15 April 1798 at his house in Canonbury Row, Islington.
Besides the ‘Concordance’ and several sermons, Williams, who had received the degree of LL.D., was the author of: 1. ‘A Free Enquiry into the Authenticity of the First and Second Chapters of St. Matthew's Gospel,’ London, 1771, 8vo; 2nd edit. 1789. The ‘Enquiry’ drew forth several replies, including one by Charles Bulkley [q. v.], and another by William Magee [q. v.] in the second volume of his ‘Discourses on the Scriptural Doctrine of the Atonement,’ 1801. 2. ‘An Address to the Opposers of the Protestant Dissenting Ministers' Application for Relief in the Matter of Subscription,’ London, 1772, 8vo. 3. ‘Thoughts on the Origin and on the most Rational and Natural Method of Teaching the Languages,’ London, 1783, 8vo. 4. ‘An Enquiry into the Truth of the Tradition concerning the Discovery of America by Prince Madog ab Owen Gwynedd,’ London, 1791, 8vo. 5. ‘Further Observations on the Discovery of America by Prince Madog, with an Account of a Welsh Tribe of Indians,’ London, 1792, 8vo. 6. ‘Clerical Reform, or England's Salvation,’ London, 1792, 4to. 7. ‘Remarks on Dr. W. Bell's Arguments for the Authenticity of the two First Chapters of Matthew and Luke,’ London, 1796, 8vo.
E. I. C.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Williams, John (1636?-1709)

​WILLIAMS, JOHN (1636?–1709), bishop of Chichester, born about 1636 in Northamptonshire, matriculated from Magdalen Hall, Oxford, on 24 June 1653, graduating B.A. on 14 Dec. 1655 and M.A. on 11 June 1658. He was incorporated at Cambridge in 1660, and was created D.D. of Cambridge, comitiis regiis, in 1690. On 4 Sept. 1673 he was instituted to the rectory of St. Mildred Poultry, and on 21 Sept. 1683 was collated to the prebend of Rugmere in St. Paul's. After the revolution he became chaplain to William and Mary, and was preferred to a prebend of Canterbury. In 1695 and in 1696 he was Boyle lecturer, publishing his sermons separately as they were delivered. A collective edition appeared in 1708. On 13 Dec. 1696 he was consecrated bishop of Chichester. He died in London in Gray's Inn on 24 April 1709, and was buried on 28 April in the church of St. Mildred Poultry.
William was well known as a voluminous controversialist, writing with equal vehemence against Roman catholics and dissenters. Among his works were: 1 . 'The History of the Gunpowder Treason,' London, 1678, 4to; new edits. 1679 and 1681. 2. 'A Catechism truly representing the Doctrines and Practices of the Church of Rome,' London, 1686, 8vo; 3rd edit. 1713, 12mo. 3. 'The Difference between the Church of England and the Church of Rome,' 1687, 4to (reprinted in 1738 and in 1836 in vol. iii. of the 'Enchiridion Theologicum ' of Edward Cardwell [q. v.] 4. 'A brief Exposition of the Church Catechism,' London, 1689, 8vo; new edit. 1841, 12mo; Welsh translation, 1699, 8vo. 5. 'A True Representation of the Principles of the Sect known by the name of Muggletonians,' London, 1694, 4to. Three letters from Williams to Strype are preserved among the Baumgarten papers in the Cambridge University Library (Cat. of MSS. v. 56, 88).
E. I. C.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Wallingford, John of

​WALLINGFORD, JOHN of (d. 1258), historical writer, gives his name to a chronicle of English history existing in Cottonian MS. Julius D. vii. 6, and printed by Gale in 1691 in his ‘Historiæ Britannicæ Saxonicæ Anglo-Danicæ Scriptores XV’ (called by him vol. i., though generally described as vol. iii. of Gale and Fell's collection). From internal evidence it appears that John of Wallingford became a monk of St. Albans in 1231, was in priest's orders, served the office of infirmarer, either composed or simply copied as a scribe (scriptor) the chronicle in question, and died at Wymondham, Norfolk, a cell of St. Albans, on 14 Aug. 1258.
John of Wallingford is confused by Gale in his preface, and by Freeman (Norman Conquest, i. 344 n.), with John, called de Cella, abbot of St. Albans, who studied at Paris, where he gained the reputation of being a ‘Priscian in grammar, an Ovid in verse, and a Galen in medicine.’ He was elected abbot of St. Albans on 20 July 1195, rebuilt the west front of the abbey church, and died on 17 July 1214.
The chronicle associated with John of Wallingford's name extends from 449 to 1035, and, as published, takes up only pp. 525–50; but it is longer in manuscript, for Gale, as he says in his preface, omitted some things and abridged in other parts, specially those dealing with hagiology; his omissions are more frequent than would be gathered from his text. The author evidently used several excellent authorities, such as Bede, the Saxon priest's ‘Life of Dunstan,’ Florence of Worcester, and the like; but, though he makes some attempts at comparison and criticism, has inserted so many exaggerations and misconceptions apparently current in his own time, and has further so strangely confused the results of his reading, that his production is historically worthless. More than once he speaks of his intention to write a larger chronicle.
W. H.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Wallis, George (1740-1802)

​WALLIS, GEORGE (1740–1802), physician and author, was born at York in 1740. He studied medicine, and, after gaining the degree of M.D., obtained a large practice at York. He was much attached to theatrical amusements, and besides other pieces composed a mock tragedy entitled ‘Alexander and Statira,’ which was acted at York, Leeds, and Edinburgh. In 1775 a dramatic satire by him, entitled ‘The Mercantile Lovers,’ was acted at York. The play possessed merit enough for success, but it sketched too plainly the foibles of prominent citizens of the town. Through their resentment Wallis lost his entire medical practice, and was obliged to remove to London, where an expurgated edition of the play appeared in the same year. In London he commenced as a lecturer on the theory and practice of physic, and in 1778 published an ‘Essay on the Evil Consequences attending Injudicious Bleeding in Pregnancy’ (London, 1781, 2nd edit. 8vo). He died in London, at Red Lion Square, on 29 Jan. 1802.
Besides the works mentioned, he was the author of:
* ‘The Juvenaliad,’ a satire, 1774, 4to.
* ‘Perjury,’ a satire, 1774, 4to.
* ‘Nosologia Methodica Oculorum, or a Treatise on the Diseases of the Eyes, translated and selected from the Latin of Francis Bossier de Sauvages,’ London, 1785, 8vo.
* ‘The Art of preventing Diseases and restoring Health,’ London, 1793; 2nd edit. 1796; German translation, Berlin, 1800.
* ‘An Essay on the Gout,’ London, 1798, 8vo.
He edited the ‘Works of Thomas Sydenham on Acute and Chronic Diseases,’ London, 1789, 2 vols. 8vo, and the third edition of George Motherby's ‘Medical Dictionary,’ London, 1791, fol.
[Gent. Mag. 1802, i. 186; Baker's Biogr. Dram. 1812; Watt's Bibliotheca Britan.; Reuss's Register of Authors Living in Great Britain.]
E. I. C.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Waller, William (d.1699)

​WALLER, Sir WILLIAM (d. 1699), informer, son of Sir William Waller (1597?–1668) [q. v.] by his second wife, Anne Finch, distinguished himself during the period of the popish plot by his activity as a Middlesex justice in catching priests, burning Roman catholic books and vestments, and getting up evidence. He was the discoverer of the meal-tub plot and one of the witnesses against Fitzharris (North, Examen, pp. 262, 277, 290; Luttrell, Diary, i. 7, 29, 69). In April 1680 the king put him out of the commission of the peace (ib. i. 39). Waller represented Westminster in the parliaments of 1679 and 1681. During the reaction which followed he fled to Amsterdam, of which city he was admitted a burgher (Christie, Life of Shaftesbury, ii. 452, 455). In 1683 and the following year he was at Bremen, of which place Lord Preston, the English ambassador at Paris, describes him as governor. Other political exiles gathered round him, and it became the nest of all the persons accused of the last conspiracy, i.e. the Rye House plot. ‘They style Waller, by way of commendation, a second Cromwell,’ adds Preston (Hist. MSS. Comm. 7th Rep. pp. 296, 311, 347, 386). When the prince of Orange invaded England Waller accompanied him, and he was with the prince at Exeter (ib. pp. 417, 423; Reresby, Diary, p. 410). William, however, would give him no employment (Foxcroft, Life of Halifax, ii. 215, 224). He died in July 1699 (Luttrell, iv. 538).
Waller is satirised as ‘Industrious Arod’ in the second part of ‘Absalom and Achitophel’ (ll. 534–55):
The labours of this midnight magistrate  Might vie with Corah's to preserve the State.
He is very often introduced in the ballads and caricatures of the exclusion bill and popish plot times (see Catalogue of Satirical Prints in the British Museum, i. 609, 643, 650; Roxburghe Ballads, ed. Ballad Society, iv. 155, 177, 181; Loyal Poems collected by Nat Thompson, 1685, p. 117). Waller was the author of an anti-catholic pamphlet, ‘The Tragical History of Jetzer,’ 1685, fol.
[Wood's Athenæ, iii. 817; other authorities mentioned in the article.]
C. H. F.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1901 supplement/Howe, Henry

​HOWE, HENRY (1812–1896), actor, whose real name was Henry Howe Hutchinson, was born of quaker parents in Norwich on 31 March 1812. After some experiments as an amateur under the name Halsingham, he made his debut at the Victoria theatre in October 1834 as Rashleigh Osbaldistone. At east-end and suburban theatres he played Antonio in the 'Merchant of Venice,' and Tressel in 'Richard III;' ​and at the Strand, under J. W. Hammond in 1837, was Winkle in a piece called 'Pickwick.' Many years later he played Mr. Pickwick in Albery's play at the Lyceum. The same year he acted with Macready at Covent Garden, and he participated in the original performance of the 'Lady of Lyons' (15 Feb. 1838). He also played Mark Antony in 'Julius Cæsar.' Joining the Haymarket under Webster, he remained there without a break in his engagement for the almost unprecedented term of forty years. Among innumerable original parts were: Brandon in Lovell's 'Look before you Leap' on 29 Oct. 1846, Ernest de Fonblanche in the 'Housed Lion' on 15 Nov. 1847, Lord Arden in Lovell's 'Wife's Secret' on 17 Jan. 1848. His characters included Fazio, Sir George Airy in the 'Busy Body,' Lord Townley in the 'Provoked Husband,' Archer in the 'Beaux' Stratagem,' Benedick, Joseph Surface, Sir Anthony Absolute, Sir Peter Teazle, Malvolio, Jaques, Macduff, Harry Dornton. He used to state that there were pieces (such as the 'Lady of Lyons') in which, during his gradual rise, he had played every male part from the lowest to the highest. On 16 Aug. 1879, at the Vaudeville, he was the first Rev. Otho Doxey in Richard Lee's 'Home for Home,' and played Farren's part of Clench in the 'Girls.' Soon afterwards he took (Sir) Henry Irving's role of Digby Grant in a revival of Albery's 'Two Roses.' On 26 Dec. 1881, as Mr. Furnival in same piece, he appeared at the Lyceum, with which his closing years were connected. Here he played characters such as Old Capulet, Antonio in 'Much Ado about Nothing' and 'Twelfth Night,' Germeuil in 'Robert Macaire,' Farmer Flamborough in 'Olivia,' Burgomaster in 'Faust,' and very many others. He accompanied Sir Henry Irving to America, where he died on 10 March 1896. He was a thoroughly conscientious actor, and an exceptionally worthy and amiable man, whose one delight was to cultivate his garden at Isleworth. His son. Henry A. Hutchinson Howe, musical and theatrical critic on the 'Morning Advertiser,' predeceased him, dying on 1 June 1894, aged sixty-one.
J. K.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1901 supplement/Huchown

​HUCHOWN (fl. 14th cent.), the author of several romances in the old alliterative verse, is described by Wyntoun as 'Huchown of the Awle Ryale' (in one MS. 'Auld Ryall'). Wyntoun eulogises him as 'cunnand in literature,' and ascribes to him three romances, 'The Gret Gest of Arthure,' 'The Awntyre of Gawane,' and 'The Pystyll of Swete Susan.' Of these 'The Pystyll of Swete Susan' can be identified beyond dispute. It exists in five manuscripts (two in the British Museum, one in the Bodleian library, a fourth at Cheltenham, and a fifth at Ripley), and was published in Laing's 'Select Remains,' 1822, and, besides several times by German editors, by the Scottish Text Society in 'Scottish Alliterative Poems' from the five manuscripts ed. F. J. Amours, 1896-7. Further, by means of an exhaustive comparison with the 'Pystyll,' Dr. Trauttnann (Der Dichter Huchown und seine Werke in Anglia, 1877) has established the identification of 'The Gest of Arthure' with the non-rhyming alliterative poem 'Morte Arthure' preserved in the Thornton MS. at Lincoln, and published, ed. Halliwell, 1847, and by the Early English Text Society, ed. E. Brock, 1865. The identification of 'The Awntyre of Gawaine' is still, however, a matter of dispute. Mr. F. J. Amours (Scottish Alliterative Poems) argues with some plausibility for the rhyming alliterative poem, 'The Awntyres of Arthure at the Terne Wathelyne,' preserved in the Thornton MS., in the Douce MS. in the Bodleian Library, and in the Ireland MS. at Hale, Lancashire, and published by Pinkerton from the Douce MS. in 'Scottish Poems,' 1792, under the title 'Sir Gawain and Sir Galaron of Galloway,' by David Laing in 'Select Remains,' 1822 (2nd ed. 1885) ; by the Bannatyne Club, ed. Sir F. Madden, 1839 ; by the Camden Society, ed. Robson, 1842 ; and by the Scottish Text Society in 'Scottish Alliterative Poems,' ed. F. J. Amours, 1896-7. This conclusion cannot, however, be regarded as more than probable; and there is even a possibility that it maybe the non-rhyming 'Sir Gawain and the Green Knight,' which is poetically of great merit.
As to the identity of the poet himself, since his name was Huchown (French Huchon), it has generally been supposed that he was the 'gude Sir Hew of Eglyntoun' mentioned in Dunbar's 'Lament for the Makeris.' A Sir Hugh of Eglinton, who flourished between 1348 and 1375, was married to Egidia, half sister of Robert II, and was for some years auditor of accounts. The name of no other Sir Hew of Eglinton occurs in public documents in the fourteenth century, and notwithstanding some ingenious arguments to the contrary, there is absolutely no reason for refusing to accept this Sir Hew as the poet referred to by Dunbar, and ​therefore in all probability 'Huchown of the Awle Ryale,' which two last words have, with at least plausibility, been interpreted as 'royal palace.'
T. F. H.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1901 supplement/Howard, Edward Henry

​HOWARD, EDWARD HENRY (1829– 1892), cardinal, born at Nottingham on 13 Feb. 1829, was eldest son of Edward Gyles Howard (grandson of the twelfth Duke of Norfolk), by his marriage with Frances Anne, eldest daughter of George Robert Heneage of Hainton Hall, Lincolnshire. He was educated at Oscott, and afterwards continued his studies at Edinburgh. In his youth he served the queen as an officer in the 2nd life guards, but he afterwards studied theology, was ordained priest by Cardinal Wiseman in the English College at Rome on 8 Dec. 1854, and attached himself to the service of Pius IX. He learned Arabic, Coptic, Hindustani, and Russian, and became an accomplished linguist. For about a year he was employed in India in connection with a mission to put an end to the Goa schism, and the rest of his ecclesiastical career was spent in Italy. His graceful and dignified bearing was familiar to frequenters of St. Peter's, in which basilica he held the office of archpriest's vicar. He was consecrated archbishop of Neocæsaria in partibus infidelium in 1872, and made coadjutor bishop of Frascati, an office which he retained for only a few weeks. He was created a cardinal-priest by Pius IX on 12 March 1877, the titular church assigned to him being that of St. John and St. Paul on the Coslian Hill. As protector of the English College in Rome to which he afterwards bequeathed his magnificent library he took possession of that institution on 24 March 1878. In December 1881 he was nominated archpriest of the basilica of St. Peter, and in that capacity he also became prefect of the congregation which has the care of the edifice itself. In the spring of 1884 he was raised by Leo XIII to the dignity of cardinal bishop, and ​translated to the suburbican see of Frascati. Having been seized with a serious illness in 1887, he was brought to England in the Spring of the following year. He died on 16 Sept. 1892 at Hatch Beauchamp, a villa on the London Road, in the extreme outskirts of Brighton, and was buried at Arundel on 1 Oct.
[Oscotian, 1888, p. 47, with portrait; Illustrated London News, 24 Sept. 1892, p. 390; Times, 17 Nov. 1892; Men of the Time, llth edit.; Tablet, 24 Sept. 1892, p. 481.]
T. C.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1901 supplement/Huish, Robert

​HUISH, ROBERT (1777–1850), miscellaneous writer, son of Mark Huish of Nottingham, was born there in 1777. He appears to have begun his literary career by writing a readable little treatise on bee-culture, which was afterwards expanded and issued in various forms. This was the one subject on which he may perhaps be termed an expert. His other works are nearly all poor examples of anecdotal, quasi-historical bookmaking. They occasionally embellish a blank space in biography with a great quantity of loose and fragmentary gossip, but the ‘Quarterly Review’ spoke of him with no great injustice as an obscure and unscrupulous scribbler. His fecundity was remarkable, as witnessed by his voluminous compilations during 1835-6. He executed a few translations from the German, and in his later years some novels of a very low type. He died in Camberwell in April 1850.
His works comprise : 1. ‘A Treatise on the Nature, Economy, and Practical Management of Bees,’ London, 1815, 8vo. 2. ‘Memoirs of her late Royal Highness Princess Charlotte Augusta,’ 1818, 8vo, with a separately issued supplement, 1818. 3. ‘The Public and Private Life of George III,’ 1821, 4to. 4. ‘An Authentic History of the Coronation of George IV,’ 1821. 5. ‘Memoirs of Caroline, Queen of Great Britain,’ 1821, 2 vols. 12mo. 6. ‘Authentic Memoir of ... Frederick, Duke of York and Albany,’ 1827, 8vo. 7. ‘Memoirs of George IV,’ London, 1830, 2 vols. 8. ‘The Historical Galleries of Celebrated Men’ (authentic portraits), 1830; only one volume published. 9. ‘The Wonders of the Animal Kingdom,’ London, 1830. 10. ‘The Last Voyage of Captain Sir John Ross ... to the Arctic Regions in 1829-33,’ London, 1835. 11. ‘The Travels of Richard and John Lander . . . into the interior of Africa,’ 1835 (with a résumé of previous African travel). 12. ‘A Narrative of the Voyages of ... Captain Beechey to the Pacific and Behring's Straits,’ London, 1836. 13. ‘The History of the Private and Political Life of Henry Hunt, Esq., his Times and Co-temporaries,’ 1836. 14. ‘Memoirs of William Cobbett, Esq.,’ 1836, 2 vols. 15. ‘The Memoirs, Private and Political, of Daniel O'Connell,’ 1836. 16. ‘The History of the Life and Reign of William IV, the Reform Monarch of England,’ 1837. 17. ‘The Natural History and General Management of Bees,’ 1844. 18. ‘The Progress of Crime; or, Authentic Memoirs of Marie Manning,’ 1849, 8vo. Nearly all his books exhibit violent anti-Tory prejudices.
T. S.