OpenLLM-France/wikimedia huggingface dataset:
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Clarke, Robert (d.1675)

​CLARKE, ROBERT (d. 1675), Latin poet, was a native of London, his real name being Graine. He was educated in the English college at Douay, where he became professor of poetry and rhetoric, and he was ordained priest in the chapel of the palace of the Bishop of Arras, 20 March 1627–8. On 16 July 1629 a Latin tragi-comedy, ‘The Emperor Otho,’ composed by him, was performed in the college refectory; and on 13 Sept. the same year another drama of his composition, ‘The Return of St. Ignatius, bishop and martyr, from Exile,’ was acted there before Anthony Mary, viscount Montacute. On 19 Sept. 1629 he was sent to the English mission with the ordinary faculties. The college entry, recording the circumstance, describes him as ‘non solum in humanioribus literis (quas per aliquot annos laudabiliter docuit) verum etiam in philosophia ac theologia doctus et eruditus.’ Being unequal, through ill-health and other causes, to encounter the difficulties and dangers then inseparable from the career of a missionary priest, he returned to the continent, and went from Douay in 1632 to join the English Carthusians at Nieuport, and he was a strict observer of the severe rule of that order until his death on 31 Dec. 1675.
He was author of an elaborate sacred epic in Latin, completed in 1650, and published under the title of: 1. ‘Christiados, sive De Passione Domini, libri 17.’ Bruges, 1670, 8vo; Augsburg and Dillingen, 1708, 8vo; Ingolstadt, 1855, 8vo. This last edition was prepared by Aloys Kassian Walthierer, parish priest of Böhmfeld, who had previously published a German translation of the poem, Ingolstadt, 1853, 8vo. The manuscript of a metrical English translation of ‘Christias,’ by Baron Edmund de Harold, was in 1855 in the library of his nephew at Trostberg. Clarke's other works, none of which have been printed, are: 2. Four books on the Imitation of Christ, in Latin iambics. 3. ‘Miscellanea.’ 4. ‘Dissertatio de dignitate confessarii.’ 5. ‘The Crown of Thorns,’ an English poem. The original manuscript was in 1855 in the possession of Baron de Harold.
T. C.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Clarke, Samuel (1625-1669)

​CLARKE, SAMUEL (1625–1669), ‘right famous for oriental learning’ (Wood), was a son of Thomas Clarke of Brackley in Northamptonshire, and at the age of fifteen entered at Merton College, Oxford, Lent term 1640. About four years later, when the city was being garrisoned in the royal cause, he left Oxford, but returned after the surrender, submitted to the parliamentary visitors, and took his M.A. degree (1648). In 1649 he was appointed the first architypographus of the university, adding the office of upper bedell of the civil law; but in 1650 we find him master of a school at Islington, and at the same time materially assisting Walton in the preparation of his polyglott Bible, notably in the Hebrew text, the Chaldean paraphrase, and the Latin translation of the Persian version of the Gospels. In 1658 he returned once more to Oxford, and was re-elected to both his former posts, which he retained till his death in Holywell, 27 Dec. 1669, and during this period showed himself ‘a most necessary and useful person in the concerns thereof belonging to the university’ (Wood). Besides his share in Walton's ‘Biblia Sacra Polyglotta’ (1657), he published ‘Scientia Metrica et Rhythmica, seu tractatus de Prosodia Arabica,’ Oxford, 1661, which appeared as an appendix (separately paged) to Pococke's ‘Lamiato 'l Ajam,’ and ‘Massereth Beracoth Titulus Talmudi​cus,’ Oxford, 1667, goes by his name. He also left in manuscript, at Cambridge, a ‘Septimum Bibliorum Polyglottum Volumen,’ and ‘Paraphrastes Chaldæus in librum Paralipomenon,’ which Castell used in the composition of his contemporary ‘Lexicon Heptaglotton.’ Fourteen of his manuscripts are preserved in the Bodleian Library at Oxford, including a transcript, in his own hand, with notes and various readings, of Abulfeda's Geography; a vocabulary of Arabic names of places; a transcript of the Psalms in Persian; and part of a Persian and Turkish dictionary—a list which sufficiently proves the breadth of his linguistic attainments, while their solidity and accuracy are attested by the united approbation of Walton and Castell. Two letters by Clarke (‘D. Samuel Clericus’) to Buxtorf the younger are included in the ‘Epistolæ clarorum virorum’ at the end of the latter's ‘Catalecta,’ and are dated Lond. 1656 and Oxon. 1662; but they present nothing of biographical importance.
[Wood's Athenæ, ed. Bliss, iii. 882–5; Buxtorfii Catalecta Philologico-theologica (1707), p. 450; Memorials of Merton Coll. (Oxford Hist. Soc.) 354; Bibl. Bodl. Codd. MSS. Orient Catal.]
S. L-P.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Clarke, Matthew (1664-1726)

​CLARKE, MATTHEW, the younger (1664–1726), independent divine, was the son of Matthew Clarke, the elder [q. v.], who was ejected in 1662 from Narborough, Leicestershire, and took up his abode in a solitary house in Leicester Forest; here on 2 Feb. 1664 his only son, Matthew, was born, and educated by his father, who undertook the preparation of a certain number of young men for the ministry. The father being a distinguished orientalist, Matthew's education, besides Latin, Greek, Italian, and French, included several oriental languages; he had the advantage of completing his education under the Rev. John Woodhouse of Sheriffhales, Shropshire, a famous tutor of the time.
In 1684, after a stay of two years in London under the pastoral care of the Rev. G. Griffith, to fit himself for pulpit duties, he began his ministry in Leicestershire as his father's assistant. A visit to London in ​1687 resulted in his taking the care of a congregation at Sandwich, Kent, for nearly two years; but in 1689 he returned to London and became joint pastor with the aged Stephen Ford of the independent church in Miles Lane, where a year or two later he was ‘solemnly ordained to the pastoral office with the imposition of the hands of several ministers.’ In 1694 Ford died, and in 1696 Clarke married a daughter of Robert Frith, several times mayor of Windsor, who bore him one son and one daughter. In 1697 Clarke was chosen to give the Tuesday morning lecture at Pinners' Hall, and from this time till the end of his life his influence among his brethren and his reputation as a preacher were constantly on the increase. Twice he was chosen by the protestant dissenters to represent them—in 1708, when he presented a message of condolence to Queen Anne on the death of Prince George, and in 1722, when he congratulated George I on the discovery of the Pretender's plot. In 1707 overwork brought on a severe illness, which left his health much shattered. A special thanksgiving service was held by his congregation on his recovery. In 1715 he broke his leg, but recovered easily. The later years of his life were much embittered by the ‘Salters' Hall’ controversy. It was proposed that all ministers should subscribe to the first of the Thirty-nine Articles. Clarke was a subscriber, but contented himself with preaching one doctrinal sermon on the subject, and refused to regard all non-subscribers as heretical. This caused his orthodoxy to be called in question, which in his weak state of health occasioned him much vexation. He died on 27 March 1726, and was buried in Bunhill Fields. Dr. Watts composed his epitaph.
Clarke published several sermons during his lifetime. In the year after his death these with some others not before printed, fourteen in all, were published with a memoir and his funeral sermon, by the Rev. Daniel Neal, M.A. From this memoir the lives in Wilson's ‘Dissenting Churches’ (i. 474) and Bogue and Bennett's ‘History of Dissenters’ (ii. 351) are taken.
[Neal's Memoir, 1727.]
R. B.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Percy, Peter

​PERCY, PETER (fl. 1486), alchemist, was a priest and canon of the collegiate church of Maidstone. He wrote a treatise on the philosopher's stone which was twice copied, in 1595 and 1600, and exists in the Ashmolean MSS. 1406, iv. 79, and 1423, iii. 10. It contains sixty-two alchemical recipes and experiments, and begins ‘Solidatura ad Y (i.e. ☾) R′ij partes Y,’ and ends ‘De isto pulvere mitte unam partem super 1000 ✣ (i.e. ☿) ut supra. Finis.’
M. B.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Percy, Henry Hugh Manvers

​PERCY, Sir HENRY HUGH MANVERS (1817–1877), general, third son of George Percy, fifth duke of Northumberland (d. 1867), by Louisa Harcourt, third daughter of the Honourable James Archibald Stuart-Wortley Mackenzie, was born at Burwood House, Cobham, Surrey, on 22 Aug. 1817, and educated at Eton. He entered the army as an ensign in the grenadier guards on 1 July 1836, and was present during the insurrection in Canada in 1838. As captain and lieutenant-colonel of his regiment he served during the eastern campaign of 1854–5, including the battles of Alma, where he was wounded, Balaclava, Inkerman, where he was again wounded, and the siege of Sebastopol. At the battle of Inkerman, on 5 Nov. 1854, he found himself, with many men of various regiments who had charged too far, nearly surrounded by the Russians, and without ammunition. By his knowledge of the ground, although wounded, he extricated these men, and, passing under a heavy fire from the Russians then in the sandbag battery, brought them safe to where ammunition was to be obtained. He thereby saved about fifty men and enabled them to renew the combat. For this act of bravery he was, on 5 May 1857, rewarded with the Victoria cross. For a short period he held the local rank of brigadier-general in command of the British-Italian legion in the Crimea. From 29 June 1855 to 10 Feb. 1865 he was an aide-de-camp to the queen. On the occurrence of the Trent misunderstanding with the United States in December 1861, he was sent to New Brunswick in command of the first battalion of the grenadier guards. He had been promoted to be major in 1860, and retired from active service on 3 Oct. 1862. As a conservative he sat in parliament for North Northumberland from 19 July 1865 to 11 Nov. 1868. He was rewarded for his military services by his appointment to the colonelcy of the 89th regiment on 28 May 1874, and was made a general on 1 Oct. 1877. On 24 May 1873 he was gazetted a K.C.B. He was found dead in his bed at his residence, 40 Eaton Square, London, on 3 Dec. 1877, and was buried ​in the Northumberland vault in Westminster Abbey on 7 Dec. He was unmarried.
G. C. B.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Llwyd, Gruffydd (fl.1370-1420)

​LLWYD, GRUFFYDD (fl. 1370–1420), Welsh poet, son of Dafydd ab Einion Llygliw, was family bard to Owen Glendower. Two poems by him, possessing considerable beauty, have been published. One, a spirited 'call to arms,' addressed to Glendower, appeared in an English translation, by the Rev. R. Williams of Vron, in Jones's ‘Welsh Bards, pp. 21-4, in Pennant's 'Tour in Wales' and later works. The subject of his other poem is the trial of Morgan Davydd Llewelyn of Edwinsford at the court of great sessions in Carmarthen, before Sir David Hanmer, on the charge of having killed Hanmer's predecessor on the bench. This is dated 1390; it was published with an English paraphrase in Iolo MSS. pp. 288, 679, and contains some valuable historical references to contemporary bards.
D. Ll. T.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Llywarch ab Llywelyn

​LLYWARCH ab LLYWELYN, otherwise known as Prydydd y Moch (fl. 1160–1220), Welsh bard, was author of many poems, chiefly addressed to chieftains of North Wales, including David and Rhodri, sons of Owain Gwynedd, who divided the sovereignty between them about 1170, and Llywelyn ab Iorwerth [q. v.], to whom nine pieces were inscribed. All contain valuable historical material. Thirty-two of his poems have been printed in the 'Myvyrian Archaiology of Wales,' pp. 199-217; one of these is an invocation when undergoing the fiery ordeal to exonerate himself from having any knowledge of the fate of Madog (fl. 1172) [q. v.], the son of Owain Gwynedd, who it was subsequently alleged had sailed for America, which he had discovered in 1170. Llywarch possessed more poetic genius than any of his contemporaries, and has been justly described as the most illustrious Welsh bard of the middle ages. Some of Llywarch's manuscripts are in the Hengwrt collection, others are at Mostyn, and a few poems are included in the 'Red Book of Hergest' at Jesus College, Oxford (Edward Lluyd, Archæologia, pp. 259, 261).
D. Ll. T.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Llwyd, Edward

​LLWYD, EDWARD (fl. 1328–1405), Welsh bard. [See Iolo Goch.]
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Llwyd, Gruffydd (fl.1322)

​LLWYD, Sir GRUFFYDD (fl. 1322), Welsh hero, is said to have been a son of Rhys, the son of Ednyved Vychan [q. v.], and to have been knighted by Edward I for bringing to him at Rhuddlan news of the birth of his son Edward at Carnarvon in 1284. According to the popular story, Gruffydd, after living long on good terms with the English, grew disgusted with their oppressions, and treated with Edward Bruce (d. 1318) [q. v.] in Ireland. This must have been before 1318, the year of Edward Bruce's death, but the story seems to put it in 1322. Failing in his negotiations with Bruce, Gruffydd rose in revolt, but was defeated by a great English army and taken prisoner and shut up in Rhuddlan Castle. This fact is proved by two poems addressed to him by Gwilym Ddu the bard (Stephens, Literature of the Kymry, pp. 443-9; Myvyrian Archaiology of Wales, pp. 276-6). Gwilym Ddu laments, in the usual exaggerated terms, the captivity of his chief. 'The summer is comfortless,' 'our country looks like Lent,' because of the imprisonment of the 'lion of Trevgarnedd.' Trevgarnedd in Anglesey was the name of Gruffydd's home, and the owners up to 1750 claimed descent from him. There is no further record of him, but he is an important figure with the later genealogists. The absence of any reference to him in the English authorities makes it probable that his political importance has been exaggerated by his panegyrists.
T. F. T.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Llwyd, Hugh

Huw Llwyd in the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography.
​LLWYD, HUGH or HUW (1533?–1620), Welsh poet, born about 1533, was the son of Owen (?) Llwyd of Ty obry Llanfrothen, by Lowry (Laura), daughter of Evan ab Gruffydd of Cynfael in the parish of Maentwrog, Merionethshire. He was well educated by clergymen at Dolgelly. He held for some time a commission in the English army, and saw some service abroad. A quatrain (englyn) which he wrote on his return has formed the basis of an English ballad introduced by Peacock into his work on 'Headlong Hall,' London, 1816, 12mo; 2nd edit. 1856, 8vo (see also Biographical Notes of T. L. Peacock, pp. 9-11). Settling at Cynfael, he obtained there a reputation for such extensive learning that he was regarded by many of his contemporaries as a magician. Numerous stories in which he figures in this ​ character are still current in the parishes of Ffestiniog and Maentwrog, and a tall column of rock in the middle of the river Cynfael, where he is believed to have spent much of his time, is still known as 'Hugh Llwyd's pulpit.' His best-known production is a 'Poem on the Fox' ('Cywydd i'r Llwynog'), printed in 'Cymru Fu,' i. 357. Among the Peniarth MSS. is a transcript of a medical work by him, and a few of his poems are also at the British Museum (Add. MS. 14974). He is said to have died at Cynfael in 1620, and was buried at Maentwrog. Edmund Prys [q. v.], who was rector of the parish, and whose name is associated with Llwyd's in many of the local traditions, composed on the occasion an 'englyn,' which is printed in 'Hanes Plwyf Ffestiniog.' Llwyd was either grandfather or uncle to Morgan Llwyd [q. v.]
D. Ll. T.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Llwyd, Richard

​LLWYD, RICHARD (1752–1835), poet, known as 'the Bard of Snowdon,' was the son of John and Alice Llwyd of Beaumaris, Anglesey, where he was born in 1752. The early death of his father, a small coast trader, left the family in necessitous circumstances. After an education of nine months at the free school at Beaumaris, Llwyd at twelve years of age entered the domestic service of a gentleman in the neighbourhood, but utilised every spare moment for his self-improvement. By 1780 he was entrusted with the duties of steward and secretary to a Mr. Griffith of Caerhun, near Conway, then the only acting magistrate in that district. He finally acquired a competency, retired to Beaumaris, and published there his best-known poem, entitled 'Beaumaris Bay,' 1800, 8vo, with many historical and genealogical notes. His other productions were 'Gayton Wake, or Mary Dod; and her List of Merits,' Chester, 1804, 12mo, with a portrait of the author; and 'Poems, Tales, Odes, Sonnets, Translations from the British' (with notes), 2 vols. Chester, 1804, 8vo. Early in 1807 he removed to Chester, where he died 29 Dec. 1835, and was buried at St. John's Church. On the south side of the church wall a tablet was placed to his memory. Early in 1814 he married Ann, daughter of Alderman Bingley of Chester. She died in 1834.
A collected edition of his works, with a memoir and portrait, and an engraving of his residence, known as Bank Place, Chester, was published in 1837, Chester, 8vo. The notes by Llwyd show him to have been well versed in heraldry, genealogy, and Welsh archæology.
D. Ll. T.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Maitland, John (1650?-1710)

​MAITLAND, JOHN, Lord Ravelrig, and fifth Earl of Lauderdale (1650?–1710), born about 1650, was second son of Charles, third earl of Lauderdale [q. v.], and younger brother of Richard, fourth earl [q. v.] He passed advocate at the Scottish bar, 30 July 1680. He afterwards received the honour of knighthood, and on 12 March 1685 was elected a commissioner to the estates for Midlothian. Unlike his relatives, he concurred in the revolution. He was sworn a member of the privy council, and on 28 Oct. 1689 was appointed one of the lords of session with the title of Lord Ravelrig. About the same time he was made colonel of the Edinburghshire militia. He succeeded to the earldom of Lauderdale on the death of his elder brother Richard in 1695, and on 8 March 1696 took the oaths and his seat in parliament. He was a supporter of the union. He died 30 Aug. 1710. Macky describes him as ‘a well-bred man, handsome in his person,’ and as also ‘meaning well to his country,’ but coming ‘far short of his predecessors, who for three or four generations were chancellors and secretaries of state for that kingdom’ (Memoirs, pp. 230–1). By his wife Margaret Cunningham, only child of Alexander, tenth earl of Glencairn, he had three sons and a daughter. Of the sons, Charles, sixth earl of Lauderdale (d. 1744), served under the Duke of Argyll at Sheriffmuir, was master of the mint in Scotland, representative peer of Scotland and lord-lieutenant of co. Edinburgh, and married Elizabeth, daughter of James Ogilvy, fourth earl of Findlater and first earl of Seafield; his sixth son, Frederick Lewis, is noticed under Maitland, Sir Frederick Lewis.
[Macky's Memoirs; Douglas's Scottish Peerage (Wood), i. 73.]
T. F. H.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Maitland, John Gorham

​MAITLAND, JOHN GORHAM (1818–1863), civil servant, born in 1818, was the son of Samuel Roffey Maitland [q. v.] He became a fellow of Trinity College, Cambridge, after having obtained the third place in the classical and the seventh in the mathematical tripos of 1839. He was called to the bar, but found little practice. He was the author of two pamphlets, ‘Church Leases,’ 1849, and ‘Property and Income Tax,’ 1853. He was secretary to the civil service commission in succession to his friend James Spedding [q. v.] from 1855 until his death in 1863. His wife Emma, daughter of John Frederic Daniell [q. v.], survived him with a son and two daughters.
F. W. M.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Haytley, Edward

​HAYTLEY, EDWARD (d. 1762?), painter, presented in 1746 to the new western wing of the Foundling Hospital two views by himself of Chelsea and Bethlehem Hospitals. With the other artists who presented works of their own at the same time, Haytley was elected a governor of the hospital. From their annual meetings arose the first public exhibition of the works of English artists in 1760, to which Haytley sent ‘A Boy giving a Bunch of Grapes to his Brother’ and a lady's portrait. He sent three portraits to the exhibition in 1761, but, as his name does not occur again, he probably died about that time. He painted a well-known full-length portrait of Mrs. Woffington, which was engraved in mezzotint by J. Faber, junior, in 1731, and the head separately in similar style by C. Spooner.
[Redgrave's Dict. of Artists; Brownlow's Hist. of the Foundling Hospital; Chaloner Smith's British Mezzotinto Portraits.]
L. C.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Hazeldine, William

​HAZELDINE, WILLIAM (1763–1840), ironfounder, was born at Shawbury, Shropshire, in 1763. His parents removed while he was very young to Sowbatch, near a forge at Moreton-Corbet, now Moreton Mill, about seven miles from Shrewsbury. In his early years he worked as an operative millwright. He was chiefly brought up by his uncle, an able millwright and engineer, who recommended Hazeldine about 1780 to superintend the erection of machinery at Upton forge, the property of the Sundorne family. Hazeldine afterwards became the tenant of this forge and of the adjoining farm. He subsequently removed to Shrewsbury, and entered into partnership with a clockmaker and mechanician named Webster. Their first foundry was in Cole-hall, or Knucking Street, in Shrewsbury. The business prospered, but Webster not caring to speculate to the necessary extent, a dissolution of partnership followed. Hazeldine then built a foundry at Coleham, Shropshire. He afterwards occupied a foundry near Ruabon, Denbighshire, ironworks at Calcott, in Bicton, Shropshire, and limeworks at Llanymynech in the same county. In 1788 he became acquainted with Thomas Telford. When Telford was engaged in constructing the Ellesmere and Chester canal, Hazeldine became the contractor for the Chirk (1796–1801) and Pont-Cysylltau (1795–1803) aqueducts. The erection of the locks on the Caledonian canal (1804–12) was entrusted to him. In 1820 he engaged to furnish the whole of the ironwork for the Menai Bridge (1819–25); he also supplied the ironwork for the Conway Bridge (1822–1826); and made the iron arch for Tewkesbury Bridge (1823–6). A list of his more important undertakings is given in the ‘Gentleman's Magazine,’ for 1841, pt. i. pp. 100–2. In 1832, when the Princess Victoria and the Duchess of Kent visited the Earl of Liverpool at Pitchford Park, near Shrewsbury, Hazeldine was deputed to explain to them the principles and construction of the Menai Bridge. He died at Dogpole House, near Shrewsbury, on 26 Oct. 1840, and was buried in St. Chad's churchyard. His monument in the church is surmounted by a bust by Chantrey. He married Miss Brayne of Ternhill, who, with one of his daughters, died before him.
[Gent. Mag. 1841, pt. i. pp. 100–2; Telford's Autobiography, ed. J. Rickman, pp. 222, 233, 257.]
G. G.