OpenLLM-France/wikimedia huggingface dataset:
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Roe, John Septimus

​ROE, JOHN SEPTIMUS (1797–1878), explorer, seventh son of the Rev. James Roe, and his wife, Sophia Brookes, was born at Newbury, Berkshire, 8 May 1797. He was educated in the royal mathematical school at Christ's Hospital, and entered the navy as midshipman on 11 June 1813, being ‘apprenticed to Sir Christopher Cole, captain of H.M.S. Rippon.’ Under Captain Phillip Parker King he served in the expedition to survey the north-west coast of Australia in 1818, and again in King's fourth expedition in 1821. He was promoted lieutenant on 21 April 1822. He went through the Burmese war of 1825–7, for which he received the medal in 1851, and was engaged at the siege of Ava. In December 1828 Roe was appointed surveyor-general of Western Australia. Accompanied by his wife, he sailed in the Parmelia with Captain (afterwards Admiral Sir) James Stirling, and was one of the first to land, on 1 June 1829, in the colony of Western Australia. He held his appointment for forty-two years, and fulfilled its duties with eminent success, surveying and exploring the coasts and unknown tracts in the interior, until he made the long and eventful journey from the Swan river to the south coast at Cape Pasley in 1848–9. During the journey he received injuries that incapacitated him from further active work in the field. Accounts of this expedition, apparently the only productions from his pen, appeared in the ‘Journal of the Royal Geographical Society’ for 1852, and in Hooker's ‘Journal of Botany,’ vols. vi. and vii.
It was on Roe's advice that the sites for the capital, Perth and its port, Fremantle, were selected. He also founded the public museum at Perth and a mechanics' institute, of which he was for many years the president. He became a member of the executive and legislative council of the colony, was an associate of the Royal Geographical Society and a fellow of the Linnean Society (1 April 1828). He died at Perth, Western Australia, on 28 May 1878. He married in England, on 8 Jan. 1828, Matilda Bennett, who died on 22 July 1870.
[Proceedings of the Royal Geographical Society, new ser. i. 277; Mennell's Dict. Australasian Biogr.; Britten and Boulger's British Botanists; Tablettes Biographiques; Royal Society's Catalogue; information kindly supplied by Robert Little, receiver, Christ's Hospital, and by B. H. Woodward, curator of the Perth Museum.]
B. B. W.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Roderick, Richard

​RODERICK, RICHARD (d. 1756), critic and versifier, a native of Cambridgeshire, was admitted pensioner of Queens' College, Cambridge, on 20 Dec. 1728, and graduated B.A. in 1732. He subsequently became a fellow commoner of the college, and a grace was granted by the president and fellows for him to proceed to the degree of M.A. on 5 June 1736. On 19 Jan. 1742-3 he was admitted to a fellowship at Magdalene College, Cambridge, probably through the influence of Edward Abbot, master of Magdalene College (1740-6), who was his cousin. Roderick was elected F.R.S. on 21 June 1750, and F.S.A. on 6 Feb. 1752. He died on 20 July 1756.
Roderick was the intimate friend and coadjutor of Thomas Edwards [q. v.] in the latter's 'Canons of Criticism.' The 'Shepherd's Farewell to his Love,' from Metastasio, and the riddles that follow, which are inserted in Dodsley's 'Collection of Poetry' (ed. 1766, ii. 309-21), are by Roderick, and his translation of No. 13 in the Odes of Horace, book iv., is inserted in Duncombe's versions of Horace (ii. 248-9). Edwards dedicated No. xxxix. of his sonnets to Roderick.
W. P. C.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Rodington, John

​RODINGTON, JOHN (d. 1348), Franciscan, was probably a native of Ruddington, Nottinghamshire. He was educated at Oxford, where he graduated D.D., and at Paris (Budinzsky, Die Universität Paris und die Fremden an derselben im Mittelalter, 1876, p. 92). Entering the Franciscan order, he was attached to the convent of Stamford, and subsequently became nineteenth provincial minister of the order in England. He died in 1348, probably of the plague, at Bedford, where he was buried. He was author of: 1. ‘Joannes Rodinchon in librum i. Sententiarum;’ the manuscript is not known to be extant, but it was printed by Joannes Picardus in his ‘Thesaurus Theologorum,’ 1503. 2. ‘Johannis de Rodynton Determinationes Theologicæ,’ extant at Munich in Bibl. Regiæ, Cod. Lat. 22023, which also contains 3. ‘Quæstiones super quartum librum Sententiarum.’ 4. ‘Quæstiones super Quodlibeta,’ extant in Bruges MS. No. 503.
[Monumenta Franciscana, i. 538, 554, 560; Wadding, p. 153, and Sbaralea, p. 458; Pits, p. 462; Bale, vi. 27; Fabricius's Bibl. Med. Ævi Latinitatis, iv. 364; Tanner's Bibl. Brit.-Hib.; Little's Grey Friars in Oxford, pp. 171, 174.]
A. F. P.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Purdon, Edward

​PURDON, EDWARD (1729–1767), bookseller's hack, born in co. Limerick about 1729, was son of the Rev. Edward Purdon, M.A. In 1744 he entered Trinity College, Dublin, where he acquired Goldsmith's friendship. After dissipating his inheritance, he enlisted. Subsequently he settled in London, and became a ‘scribbler in the newspapers.’ Entering the service of Ralph Griffiths [q. v.], he translated for him Voltaire's ‘Henriade,’ which appeared in the ‘British Ladies' Magazine.’ Probably Purdon had a share also in the ‘Memoirs of M. de Voltaire,’ by Goldsmith, which accompanied the poem. In 1759 he was compelled to publish an apology in the ‘London Chronicle’ for an abusive pamphlet, in the form of a letter to David Garrick, against Mossop and other Drury Lane performers (Lowe, Theat. Lit. pp. 140, 273). He fell dead in Smithfield on 27 March 1767. Goldsmith's epitaph on him, for the Wednesday Club, has preserved his memory.
[Gent. Mag. 1767, p. 192; Notes and Queries, 4th ser. viii. 453, 558; Forster's Life of Goldsmith, i. 25, 168, ii. 60; O'Donoghue's Poets of Ireland, 211; London Chronicle, 13, 14, 15 Oct. 1759; Publ. Advertiser, 7 Feb. 1759.]
E. I. C.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Purfoy, Robert

​PURFOY, ROBERT (d. 1558), bishop of Hereford. [See Warton.]
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Purnell, Robert

​PURNELL, ROBERT (d. 1666), baptist elder and author, was probably a native of Bristol, where he was residing in 1653. He was in that year one of the chief founders of the first baptist church at Bristol, which subsequently became the Broadmead church. The pastor, Thomas Ewins, and Purnell were baptised in London by Henry Jessey, and Purnell became a ruling elder of the congre​gation. He died apparently in November 1666. A son was a member of the same church.
He wrote: 1. ‘Good Tydings for Sinners,’ London, 1649, 4to. 2. ‘No Power but of God,’ London, 1652, 2nd edit. 3. ‘Englands Remonstrance, or a Word in the Ear to the scattered discontented Members of the late Parliament … likewise a Word to the present Assembly at Westminster and the Councell of State,’ 1653. 4. ‘The Way to Heaven discovered,’ Bristol, 1653 (in favour of the doctrine of grace and the true love of God). 5. ‘The Church of Christ in Bristol recovering her Vail out of the Hands of Them that have smitten and wounded Her, and taken it away,’ London, 1657; the first portion is signed by Purnell and five other members of the church (p. 24). 6. ‘A little Cabinet richly stored with all Sorts of Heavenly Varieties,’ London [19 Aug.], 1657. 7. ‘The Way Step by Step to sound and saving Conversion,’ London, 8 Aug. 1659.
W. A. S.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Purcell, John

​PURCELL, JOHN (1674?–1730), physician, was born in Shropshire about 1674, and in 1696 became a student of medicine in the university of Montpellier, where he attended the lectures of Pierre Chirac, then professor of medicine, for whom he retained a great respect through life (Of Vapours, p. 48). After taking the degrees of bachelor and licentiate, he graduated M.D. on 29 May 1699. He practised in London, and in 1702 published ‘A Treatise of Vapours or Hysteric Fits,’ of which a second edition appeared in 1707. The book is dedicated to ‘the Honourable Sir John Talbott, his near relation,’ and gives a detailed clinical account of many of the phenomena of hysteria, mixed up with pathology of the school of Thomas Willis [q. v.] His preface is the latest example of the type of apology for writing on medicine in the English tongue so common in books of the sixteenth century. He shows much good sense, pointing out that there are no grounds for the ancient belief that the movement of the uterus is related to the symptoms of hysteria, and supports the statement of Sydenham that similar symptoms are observable in men. Their greater frequency in women he attributes to the comparative inactivity of female life. He recommends crayfish broth and Tunbridge waters, but also seeing plays, merry company, and airing in the parks. In 1714 he published, at J. Morphew's, ‘A Treatise of the Cholick,’ dedicated to his relative, Charles, duke of Shrewsbury, of which a second edition appeared in 1715. This work shows less observation than his former book, but contains the description of an autopsy which he witnessed at Montpellier, giving the earliest observation in any English book of the irritation produced by the exudation in peritonitis on the hands of the morbid anatomist. On 3 April 1721 he was admitted a licentiate of the College of Physicians of London. He died on 19 Dec. 1730.
N. M.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Purcell, Richard

​PURCELL, RICHARD (fl. 1750–1766), engraver, was born in Dublin, and there studied mezzotint engraving under John Brooks and Andrew Miller. Between 1748 and 1755 he executed in Dublin a few plates, all now extremely rare, which include portraits of Michael Boyle, archbishop of Armagh, after Zoest: William King, archbishop of Dublin, after Jervas; Oliver Cromwell, after Lely; Samuel Madden, D.D., after Hunter; and three of William III, after Kneller and Wyck. In 1755 or 1756 Purcell settled in London. His abilities were sufficient to have enabled him to take a high position in his profession; but his vicious and extravagant habits kept him in poverty, and delivered him into the hands of Sayer, the printseller, for whom he worked almost exclusively. Sayer employed him chiefly to execute copies of popular prints by McArdell, Watson, Houston, Faber, &c., from pictures by Reynolds and others, and on many of these he used the aliases Charles Corbutt and Philip Corbutt. Purcell's original plates comprise portraits of the Rev. Thomas Jones, after M. Jenkin; John, earl of Bute, after A. Ramsay, 1763; and John Wilkes, after R. Pine, 1764; various subject-pieces after H. Morland, R. Pyle, G. Dou, G. Metsu, G. Schalken, Rembrandt, and others; and some caricatures. Purcell also etched a portrait of a man seated with a print in his hand, from a picture by Rembrandt, 1766; this is the latest date on any of his works, and is probably the year of his death.
F. M. O'D.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Purchas, Samuel

​PURCHAS, SAMUEL (1575?–1626), author of the 'Pilgrimes,' son of George Purchas of Thaxted in Essex, was born about 1575. Having graduated from St. John's College, Cambridge, and taken holy orders, he was in 1601 curate of Purleigh in Essex. From 1604 to 1613 he was vicar of Eastwood in Essex; in 1614 he was appointed chaplain to George Abbot, archbishop of Canterbury, and from 1614 to 1626 he was rector of St. Martin's, Ludgate. He died in September or October 1626, aged 51. His will was proved on 21 Oct.
He married, in December 1601, Jane, daughter of Vincent Lease of Westhall, Suffolk, yeoman. In the marriage license, dated 2 Dec. 1601, Purchas is said to be twenty-seven, and he and his bride are described as household servants of Mr. Freake, parson of Purleigh. The ages as stated at marriage and death are not in exact agreement.
Purchas was the author of:
* ‘Purchas his Pilgrimage, or Relations of the World and the Religions observed in all Ages and Places discovered from the Creation unto this present’(fol. 1613; 2nd edit, 1614; 3rd edit. 1617; 4th edit. 1626).
* ‘Purchas his Pilgrim. Microcosmus, or the History of Man. Relating the Wonders of his Generation, Vanities in his Degeneration, Necessity of his Regeneration …’ (sm. 8vo, 1619).
But the work by which alone Purchas's name is now known is 3. ‘Hakluytus Posthumus, or Purchas his Pilgrimes, contayning a History of the World in Sea Voyages and Land-Trauells by Englishmen and others … ,’ with portrait on the title-page, ætat. 48 (4 vols. 4to, 1625; the fourth edition of the ‘Pilgrimage’ [No. 1 above], being exactly the same size, is frequently catalogued as the ​fifth volume of the ‘Pilgrimes’ it is really a totally different work). This work has never been reprinted, and its rarity, still more than its interest, has given it an exaggerated value to book collectors. The intrinsic value of the book is due rather to its having preserved some record of early voyages otherwise unknown, than to the literary skill or ability of the author. It may fairly be supposed that the originals of many of the journals entrusted to him, of which he published an imperfect abstract, were lost through his carelessness; so that the fact that the 'Pilgrimes' contains the only extant account of some voyages is by his fault, not by his merit. A comparison of what he has printed with such originals as remain shows that he was very far indeed from a faithful editor or a judicious compiler, and that he took little pains to arrive at an accurate knowledge of facts, He inherited many of the manuscripts of Richard Hakluyt [q. v.], but the use he made of them was widely different from Hakluyt's.
[Brown's Genesis of the United States, pp. 491, 974; Christie's Voyages of Fox and James (Hakluyt Society), vol. i, p. x; Notes and Queries, 3rd ser. xi. 57; Transactions of the Essex Archæol. Society, iv. 164.]
J. K. L.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Purdy, John

​PURDY, JOHN (1773–1843), hydrographer, the son of a bookseller at Norwich, was born in 1773. He early turned his attention to the study of naval charts and similar subjects. Before 1812 he succeeded De la Rochette as hydrographer to Messrs. Laurie & Whittle, of 53 Fleet Street, London, and in that year published a ‘Memoir, descriptive and explanatory, to accompany the New Chart of the Atlantic Ocean,’ 4to. This work went through many editions, the fifteenth appearing in 1894, edited by Mr. W. R. Kettle, F.R.G.S. Purdy does not seem to have taken part in hydrographic expeditions himself, and his work consisted in writing works and constructing charts based upon the reports of others; but eventually he became the foremost authority of his time on hydrography. He was mainly instrumental in bringing ‘Rennell's Current’ before the notice of navigators, and in 1832 Rennell's daughter, Lady Rodd, entrusted to Purdy the editing of his ‘Wind and Current Charts’ [see Rennell, James]. He died on 29 Jan. 1843.
Alexander George Findlay [q. v.], who succeeded to his position as a leading hydrographer, edited and improved a large number of Purdy's works. The more important of Purdy's writings are:
* ‘Tables of Positions, or of the Latitudes and Longitudes of Places,’ &c., 1816, 4to.
* ‘The Columbian Navigator,’ 1817, 8vo; other editions 1823–4, 2 vols., 1839, and 1847–8.
* ‘Memoir to accompany the General Chart of the Northern Ocean,’ 1820, 8vo.
* ‘The New Sailing Directory for the Ethiopic or Southern Atlantic Ocean,’ 1837, 8vo; 3rd edit. Findlay, 1844. Similar ‘Sailing Directories,’ dealing with many other regions, were also published by Purdy.
* ‘The British American Navigator,’ 2nd edit. 1843, 8vo.
A fairly complete list of Purdy's maps and charts is given in the ‘Catalogue of the Map Room of the Royal Geographical Society.’ The chief are: a chart of the Atlantic Ocean (1812); a ‘map of Cabotia, comprehending the Provinces of Upper and Lower Canada,’ &c. (1814); a map of the world on Mercator's Projection (1825); The Azores (1831); Jamaica (1834); the Viceroyalty of Canada (1838); Newfoundland (1844). Others published by Findlay, after Purdy's death, include the Indian and Pacific Oceans (1847); St. George's Channel (1850); the coasts of Spain and Portugal (1856). His nephew Isaac published a chart of the coasts of China in 1865.
[Works in Brit. Mus. Libr.; Cat. of Library and Map Room of Royal Geogr. Soc.; Review of British Geogr. Work, 1789–1889, p. 190; Proc. Royal Geogr. Soc. xix. 381; Athenæum, 1875, i. 657; Lowndes's Bibl. Man.; Allibone's Dict. of English Lit.; information supplied by Messrs. R. H. Laurie, Minories.]
A. F. P.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Wyon, Thomas (1767-1830)

Contains subarticle George Wyon (d. 1796).
​WYON, THOMAS, the elder (1767–1830), chief engraver of the seals, born in 1767, was the eldest of the four sons of George Wyon, the other sons being Peter, father of William Wyon [q. v.], George, and James.
George Wyon (d. 1796), the father of Thomas, was son of George Wyon, a silver-chaser, who was born at Cologne, and came to England in the suite of George I; he deserves commemoration as the ancestor of a talented race of medallists and seal engravers. The younger George was apprenticed to a goldsmith, and about 1775 was engaged by Matthew Boulton [q. v.] in the manufacture of articles of cornelian at Soho, near Birmingham. He was designer and modeller to the Silver Plate Company there, with which Boulton was also connected. The silver cup presented to John Wilkes in 1772 was embossed with the assassination of Julius Cæsar from a cast by George Wyon (reproduced in Gent. Mag. 1774, p. 457; cf. Nichols, Lit. Anecd. ix. 478). In 1780 he was residing at 79 Lichfield Street, Birmingham, but by 1785 he had removed to 2 Temple Street. He died in 1796 at Birmingham, where he had for many years carried on business as a die-engraver and chaser.
Thomas Wyon, about 1796, went into business in Birmingham with his brother Peter as a general die-engraver. They resided at Lionel Street in 1797. He engraved many dies for tokens, especially part of the Coventry series of buildings. From 1800 he carried on business in London, and on 30 Sept. 1816 was appointed chief engraver of the seals. He died on 18 Oct. 1830 in Nassau Street, London. He was the father of Thomas Wyon the younger [q. v.], of Benjamin Wyon [q. v.], and of Edward William Wyon, sculptor and modeller.
W. W.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Wynter, William

​WYNTER, Sir WILLIAM (d. 1589), admiral. [See Winter.]
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Wyon, Leonard Charles

​WYON, LEONARD CHARLES (1826–1891), chief engraver at the royal mint, born in 1826, was the eldest son of William Wyon [q. v.] He studied art under his father, and in his sixteenth year made various medals as studies (specimens in the British Museum). On the retirement of Merlin he was employed as second engraver to the royal mint, and in 1851 succeeded his father as chief engraver. Besides his work on the English coinage he was engaged on several colonial and foreign coinages, and executed many public and private medals, including most of the military and naval medals issued from 1851 onwards. He died on 20 Aug. 1891.
The following medals may be mentioned: 1846, the Rev. Theobald Mathew (Father Mathew); 1850, Edward VI (Bury St. Edmunds grammar school medal); Robert Stephenson (Menai Bridge); 1851, Truro prize medal, City of London School; 1853, ​South Africa medal (reverse); 1854, India medal, general service (reverse); 1854–5, Baltic medal (reverse); 1857, Arctic medal; 1857–8, Indian mutiny (reverse); 1863, the Albert medal and the society's medal of the Society of Arts; 1876, Arctic medal (reverse); 1882, Egypt medal; and 1885, Canada medal.
W. W.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Wyon, Benjamin

​WYON, BENJAMIN (1802–1858), chief engraver of the seals, born in John Street, Blackfriars, London, on 9 Jan. 1802, was the second son of Thomas Wyon the elder [q. v.] He received instruction from his elder brother, Thomas Wyon the younger [q. v.], and in 1821 gained the gold medal of the Society of Arts for a medal die of figures. He also gained the silver medal of the Royal Academy for a die with the head of Apollo.
On 10 Jan. 1831 he was appointed chief engraver of the seals and made the great seal of William IV. He subsequently produced many medals, his signature being ‘B. Wyon’ and ‘Benj. Wyon.’ He died on 21 Nov. 1858. He was the father of Joseph Shepherd Wyon [q. v.], Alfred Benjamin Wyon, and Mr. Allan Wyon. Among Wyon's medals may be mentioned: 1821, Visit of George IV to Ireland (obverse only); 1831, Opening of London Bridge; 1832, Passing of Reform Bill; 1834, Foundation of City of London School; 1842, Pollock Prize Medals; 1849, Opening of London Coal Exchange; 1851, Shakespeare Prize, City of London School; 1855, Visits of the Emperor of the French and of the King of Sardinia to the Guildhall, London.
[Gent. Mag. 1859, i. 97, 110; Daily News, 25 Nov. 1858; Wyon's Great Seals, p. 190; Welch's Numismata Londinensia; Frazer's Medallists of Ireland.]
W. W.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Wyon, Thomas (1792-1817)

​WYON, THOMAS, the younger (1792–1817), chief engraver at the royal mint, born at Birmingham in 1792, was the eldest son of Thomas Wyon the elder [q. v.] At the age of fourteen he was apprenticed to his father, and was instructed by him in engraving upon steel. About this time he joined the sculpture school of the Royal Academy and gained two silver prize medals. In 1809 he struck his first medal, a medal presented to Lieutenant Pearce, R.N. In 1810 he gained the gold medal of the Society of Arts for medal engraving; the die, representing a head of Isis, was purchased by the society and used for striking its prize medals. From this period he produced many medals for schools, societies, Pitt clubs, and other institutions.
On 20 Nov. 1811 Wyon was appointed probationer engraver at the royal mint, and was employed in making the bank tokens for England and Ireland, and coins for the British colonies and for Hanover. On 13 Oct. 1815 he was appointed chief engraver to the mint, being then only twenty-three. The next year he brought out the new silver coinage for the United Kingdom (half-crown, shilling, and sixpence), designing the reverses himself. In 1817 he struck the maundy money, and began to make his pattern crown-piece in rivalry of Thomas Simon [q. v.] Signs of consumption now began to appear, and Wyon—a modest and talented artist—died on 23 (or 22) Sept. 1817 at the Priory Farmhouse, near Hastings. He was buried in the graveyard attached to Christ Church, Southwark.
Among Wyon's medals may be mentioned: 1809, Pearce medal; 1810, Isis medal (re-engraved in 1813); medal of Wellington; 1812, Wooldridge medal; medal for Royal Naval College, Portsmouth; 1813, Manchester Pitt Club medal; ‘Upper Canada preserved;’ 1814, medals presented to the North American Indians; medal of the tsar of Russia struck during the visit of the Grand Duchess of Oldenburg to the English mint; treaty of Paris (published by Rundell & Co. from his ‘Peace checking the Fury of War,’ a design which had gained the gold medal of the Society of Arts); centenary of accession of house of Brunswick (for the corporation of Cork), and Liverpool Pitt club medal; 1815, Waterloo medal, with reverse, Victory, adapted from a Greek coin of Elis (Mayo, Medals, plate 22); and 1817, opening of Waterloo Bridge. Wyon also engraved (1813) seals for the Newcastle Antiquarian Society, the Chester Canal Company, and (c. 1815) the Limerick chamber of commerce.
W. W.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Wynzet, Ninian

​WYNZET, NINIAN (1518–1592), Scottish controversialist. [See Winzet.]