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

​POLWHELE or POLWHEILE, THEOPHILUS (d. 1689), puritan divine, of Cornish extraction, was born in Somerset. He was entered at Emmanuel College, Cambridge, as a sizar on 29 March 1644, and was under the tutorship of William Sancroft, afterwards archbishop of Canterbury. In 1651 he took the degree of M.A. He was preacher at Carlisle until about 1655 (Dedication to Treatise on Self-deniall). In 1654 ​he was a member of the committee for ejecting scandalous ministers in the four northern counties of Cumberland, Durham, Northumberland, and Westmoreland. From that year until 1660, when he was driven from the living, he held the rectory of the portions of Clare and Tidcombe at Tiverton. The statement of the Rev. John Walker, in ‘The Sufferings of the Clergy,’ that he allowed the parsonage-house to fall into ruins, is confuted in Calamy's ‘Continuation of Baxter's Life and Times’ (i. 260–1). Polwhele sympathised with the religious views of the independents, and after the Restoration he was often in trouble for his religious opinions. After the declaration of James II the Steps meeting-house was built at Tiverton for the members of the independent body; he was appointed its first minister, and, on account of his age, Samuel Bartlett was appointed his assistant. He was buried in the churchyard of St. Peter, Tiverton, on 3 April 1689. His wife was a daughter of the Rev. William Benn of Dorchester. Their daughter married the Rev. Stephen Lobb [q. v.]
Polwhele was the author of:
* ‘Aὐθέντης, or a Treatise of Self-deniall,’ 1658; dedicated to the mayor, recorder, and corporation of Carlisle.
* ‘Original and Evil of Apostasie,’ 1664.
* ‘Of Quencing [sic] the Spirit,’ 1667.
* ‘Choice Directions how to serve God every Working and every Lord's Day,’ 1667; published by Thomas Mall as an addition to his ‘Serious Exhortation to Holy Living.’
* ‘Of Ejaculatory Prayer,’ 1674; dedicated to Thomas Skinner, merchant in London, who had shown him great kindness.
A catalogue of the ‘names of the princes with Edward III in his wars with France and Normandy,’ transcribed by him ‘att Carlisle the 21st Aug. 1655,’ from a manuscript at Naworth Castle, is in Rawlinson MS. Bodl. Libr. Class B 44, fol. 47.
[Boase and Courtney's Bibl. Cornub. ii. 517–518, iii. 1316–17; Dunsford's Tiverton, pp. 331, 371–2; Harding's Tiverton, vol. ii. pt. iv. pp. 47, 70; Calamy's Abridgment of Baxter's Life and Times, ii. 239, and Continuation, i. 260–1; Palmer's Nonconf. Memorial (1802 ed.), ii. 79–80; Greene's Memoir of Theophilus Lobb, p. 5.]
W. P. C.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Ponce, John

​PONCE, JOHN (d. 1660?), author, a native of Cork, studied at Louvain in the college of the Irish Franciscans. He became a member of the order of St. Francis, and, after further studies at Cologne, he removed to the Irish College of St. Isidore at Rome, where he was appointed professor of philosophy and theology. Ponce contributed to the Franciscan edition of the works of Duns Scotus, issued at Lyons in 1639. He published at Rome in 1642 ‘Integer Philosophiæ Cursus ad mentem Scoti,’ in two volumes 4to, containing upwards of fifteen hundred pages of small type in double columns. A third volume of about nine hundred pages was issued at Rome in 1643. Ponce dedicated the work to Cardinal Francesco Barberini, from whom he had received many favours, and who held the office of ‘protector of Ireland.’
Ponce disapproved of the courses pursued in Ireland by those who opposed the nuncio Giovanni Battista Rinuccini [q. v.] In the ‘Aphorismical Discovery of Treasonable Faction’ are preserved two letters written by Ponce at Paris in 1648 in relation to transactions in Ireland.
In 1652 Ponce published at Paris ‘Cursus Theologicus,’ in a folio volume. His views on affairs in Ireland were enunciated in ‘Richardi Bellingi Vindiciæ Eversæ’ (Paris, 1653), impugning the statements which had been promulgated by Richard Bellings [q. v.] ​and others of the Anglo-Irish party. Ponce was author also of the following works, published at Paris: ‘Philosophiæ Cursus,’ 1656; ‘Judicium Doctrinæ Sanctorum Augustini et Thomæ,’ 1657; ‘Scotus Hiberniæ Restitutus,’ 1660; ‘Commentarii Theologici,’ 1661.
Ponce died at Paris about 1660. A portrait of him is in St. Isidore's College, Rome.
J. T. G.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Pond, Edward

1904 Errata appended.
​POND, EDWARD (fl. 1623), almanac-maker, is described on the title-page of his almanac of 1601 as ‘a practitioner in the Mathematicks and Physicke at Bidarcay (?Billericay) in Essex.’ In this almanac he includes a diagram and description of ‘Man's Anatomy’ and ‘Physicke Notes.’ From 1604 he published an almanac each year in London under the title ‘Enchiridion, or Edward Pond his Eutheca.’ Subsequently the periodical issue was christened ‘An Almanac by Ed. Pond, student of Physics and Mathematics.’ In October 1623 the Stationers' Company petitioned the privy council against the infraction of their monopoly as almanac publishers by Cantrell Legge, printer to Cambridge University, but apparently without success, for from 1627 Pond's almanacs continued to be issued from the University press. Pond died at Peterborough, and was buried in the Church of St. John the Baptist in that city on 10 Sept. 1629 (SWEETING, Parish Churches round Peterborough). The popularity of his publication led to its continuance, under a slightly modified title, until 1709. The later series was prepared at Saffron Walden, doubtless by a relative of Pond, and each part was designated ‘Pond, an Almanac.’ This was printed at Cambridge until the close of the century, and in London during the early years of the eighteenth century. The rhyme,
My skill goes beyond The depth of a Pond,
a reference to Pond's popular reputation as an astronomer, occurs in Martin Parker's ballad ‘When the king enjoys his own again’ (Wilkins, Political Ballads, i. 11).
E. I. C.
Dictionary of National Biography, Errata (1904), p.226 N.B.— f.e. stands for from end and l.l. for last line
| Page | Col. | Line | |
| 76 | i | 10 f.e. | Pond, Edward: for (fl. 1623) read (d. 1629) |
| 76 | ii | 10-11 | for It is probable . . . after 1643. read Pond died at Peterborough, and was buried in the church of St. John the Baptist there on 10 Sept. 1629. |
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Pond, Arthur

​POND, ARTHUR (1705?–1758), painter and engraver, born about 1705, was educated in London, and made a short sojourn in Rome for purposes of studying art in company with the sculptor Roubiliac. He became a successful portrait-painter. The most notable of his numerous original portraits are those of Alexander Pope, William, duke of Cumberland, and Peg Woffington; the last is in the National Portrait Gallery. Pond was also a prolific etcher, and an industrious worker in various mixed processes of engraving by means of which he imitated or reproduced the works of masters such as Rembrandt, Raphael, Salvator Rosa, Parmigiano, Caravaggio, and the Poussins. In 1734–5 he published a series of his plates under the title ‘Imitations of the Italian Masters.’ He also collaborated with George Knapton in the publication of the ‘Heads of Illustrious Persons,’ after Houbraken and Vertue, with lives by Dr. Birch (London, 1743–52), and engraved sixty-eight plates for a collection of ninety-five reproductions from drawings by famous masters, in which Knapton was again his colleague. Another of his productions was a series of twenty-five caricatures after the Cavaliere Ghezzi, republished in 1823 and 1832 as ‘Eccentric Characters.’ He was elected a fellow of the Royal Society in 1752, and died in Great Queen Street, Lincoln's Inn Fields, 9 Sept. 1758. His collection of drawings by the old masters was sold the following year, and realised over fourteen hundred pounds. An anonymous etched portrait of Pond is mentioned by Bromley.
W. A.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Somers, Robert

​SOMERS, ROBERT (1822–1891), journalist and author, son of Robert Somers by his wife, Jane Gordon Gibson, was born at Newton Stewart in the county of Wigtown, on 14 Sept. 1822, being of English extraction on his father's side and Scottish on his mother's. In early life he was well known as a lecturer on social and political questions. In 1844 he published a pamphlet on the ‘Scottish Poor Laws,’ containing a criticism of the Poor Law Amendment Act then passing through parliament. After the publication of this pamphlet he accepted an offer of the post of editor of the ‘Scottish Herald,’ a weekly newspaper then being started in Edinburgh. The management of this journal was soon afterwards amalgamated with that of the ‘Witness,’ edited by Hugh Miller [q. v.], whose colleague and assistant in the conduct of the two papers Somers became.
In 1847 Somers proceeded to Glasgow to join the staff of the ‘North British Daily Mail.’ In the autumn of the same year he went to the highlands, as commissioner for that paper, to inquire into the distress in the north-west of Scotland occasioned by the failure of the potato crop in 1846. The results of his inquiry he published in ‘Letters from the Highlands’ (London, 1848). From 1849 to 1859 Somers was editor at Glasgow of the ‘North British Daily Mail’ and, for the next eleven years, of the ‘Morning Journal.’ He turned his attention especially to the study of monetary and commercial questions, in which he became a recognised authority; and from time to time he published pamphlets dealing with current phases of banking, educational, and labour questions.
In 1870–1 Somers travelled for six months in America investigating the effect on the economic condition of the southern states of the political changes introduced by the civil war. On his return he published ‘The Southern States of America’ (London and New York, 1871), a work of considerable research.
Somers died in London on 7 July 1891, after several years of impaired health. Besides the works mentioned he was the author of:
* ‘Sheriff Court Reform, or Cheap and Speedy Justice,’ Edinburgh, 1853, 8vo.
* ‘Results of an Inquiry into the State of Education in Glasgow,’ London and Glasgow, 1857, 8vo.
* ‘The Secular Theory of Education examined,’ Edinburgh, 1872, 8vo.
* ‘Scotch Banks and their System of Issue,’ London, 1873, 8vo.
* ‘The Martyr ​of Glencree,’ an historical romance, London, 1878, 8vo.
[Private information; Allibone's Dict. of Authors, supplement vol. ii.]
E. I. C.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Somercote, Lawrence

Laurence of Somercotes in the ODNB.
​SOMERCOTE, SWINERCOTE, or SOMERTON, LAWRENCE (fl. 1254), canonist, was born in the south of England. He was brother or kinsman of Cardinal Robert Somercote [q. v.], and became, like him, subdeacon to the pope. Walter, bishop of Norwich, appointed him his official in 1240, and instituted him to the vicarage of Woolpit. He was made canon of Chichester, and was official to the bishop there, Richard de Wyche [q. v.], in 1247. On Richard's death in April 1253, he wrote a ‘Treatise on the Canonical Election of Bishops,’ which he finished in July 1254. An account of the numerous manuscripts of this work and extracts therefrom have been printed in ‘Lincoln Cathedral Statutes’ (1897, pt. ii.) On 23 July 1254 Walter, bishop of Norwich, and John, bishop of Chichester, chose Lawrence to collect tithe in Ireland. Writing from Dublin on 20 May 1256, he begged to be relieved of his employment, declaring that he would not willingly stay in Ireland for double his salary.
M. B.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Somers, Edmund Sigismund

​SOMERS, EDMUND SIGISMUND (1759?–1824), physician, born in Dublin about 1759, was the son of William Somers, a mechanic. He entered Trinity College, Dublin, on 7 June 1779, and afterwards studied medicine at Edinburgh University, where he graduated M.D. on 12 Sept. 1783. After visiting the medical schools of Paris and Leyden he returned to Dublin, and was elected a member of the Royal Irish Academy. He was admitted a licentiate of the College of Physicians on 22 Dec. 1791, and began to practise in London. On 18 March 1795 he was appointed physician to the forces. In this capacity he proceeded to the ​Cape of Good Hope as director of hospitals. After several years he retired to England, served in the home district, and then went as staff physician to Jamaica. After two years he returned to England in ill health, and on recovery joined the army in the Peninsula, where the Marquis of Wellington in 1812 appointed him physician in chief to the allied forces. On 18 Jan. 1816 he was nominated a deputy medical inspector, and retired on half pay. He died in London in 1824.
Somers was the author of: 1. ‘Dissertatio Physico-medica Inauguralis de Sonis et Auditu,’ Edinburgh, 1783, 8vo. 2. ‘Medical Suggestions for the Treatment of Dysentery and Fever among Troops in the Field,’ London, 1816, 8vo (published in both Latin and English).
E. I. C.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Somercote, Robert

​SOMERCOTE or UMMARCOTE, ROBERT (d. 1241), cardinal, was kinsman, perhaps the brother, of Lawrence Somercote [q. v.], and was related to the family of Foliot (Bliss, Cal. Papers Reg. i. 196). He received his first advancement from Stephen Langton, who gave him a rent in the church of Croydon. Afterwards, while a student at Bologna, he received also the living of Caistor, Norfolk (Bliss, Cal. Papal Reg. i. 130). He entered the service of the papal curia, was a papal subdeacon in 1236, and auditor of papal literæ contradictæ in 1238 (ib. i. 154, 168). In 1238 Gregory IX made him cardinal-deacon by the title of St. Eustachius. He adhered faithfully to the pope in all his adversities; and when the Emperor Frederick advanced on Rome in 1240, Robert was one of the few who did not abandon Gregory. At the election of the new pope in September 1241 he was one of the supporters of Godfrey of Milan, afterwards Cœlestine IV. Matthew Paris, who describes Robert as the most eminent of all the cardinals, and says that some feared he would be elected pope, repeats a rumour that he had died during the conclave, not without suspicion of poison (v. 195). But, as a matter of fact, he seems to have died after the election, during the brief pontificate of Cœlestine, on 26 Sept. He was buried in the church of St. Crisogono (Ciaconius, where his epitaph is quoted). Robert Somercote preserved a kindly feeling for his native land. He had sharply censured Simon Cantelupe, called the Norman [q. v.], for reproaching the English for bad faith before Gregory (Matt. Paris, iv. 5, 64), and it was through his intervention that Haymo of Feversham [q. v.] was able to obtain a hearing from the pope during his suit against Frater Helias in 1239 (Monumenta Franciscana, i. 46). Christofori describes him as cardinal of St. Hadrian at Foro (Storia dei Cardinali, p. 235).
C. L. K.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Somer, John

1904 Errata appended.
​SOMER, SEMUR, SOMERARIUS, JOHN (fl. 1380), Minorite astronomer, belonged to the Franciscan house at Bridgewater, and was probably at Oxford in 1380. At the instance of Thomas Kingsbury, provincial minister of the order, he wrote a calendar with astronomical tables—‘Tertium Opusculum Kalendarii’—for Joan, princess of Wales, mother of Richard II; it is dated 1380. Of this there are many copies—the illuminated MS. Bibl. Reg. 2 B. viii. was perhaps the presentation copy. In it the cycles run from 1387 to 1462, but in the Cotton MS. Vesp. E. vii., which contains also some planispheres, the cycle is 1405 to 1481. Another copy, among the queen of Sweden's manuscripts at the Vatican, is dated 1384, and with it is a ​versification of the bible (Montfaucon, Bibl. Nova MSS. i. 46, No. 1423). Among the manuscripts of Alexandre Petau (Petavius) in the Vatican, the ‘Calendar’ is dated 1372, and the versification of the bible is ascribed, with the ‘Calendar,’ to John Semur (ib. i. 66). According to Bale, he wrote also a ‘Castigation of former Calendars collected from many sources’ (Scriptt. Brit. VII. viii.).
In the Cotton MS. Domit. A. II. is a ‘Chronica quædam brevis … de conventu Ville Briggewater’ ascribed to him. It contains only a slender chronology of early historical events, written in many hands into a calendar.
John Somer's ‘Calendars’ were used by Chaucer, who, in his ‘Treatise on the Astrolabe,’ declares his intention of making a third part that shall contain divers tables of longitudes and latitudes, and declinations of the sun after the calendars of the reverend clerks, John Somer and Nicholas of Lynne [q. v.] The third part, however, is wanting (cf. Chaucer, Works, ed. Skeat, iii. 353).
M. B.
Dictionary of National Biography, Errata (1904), p.254 N.B.— f.e. stands for from end and l.l. for last line
| Page | Col. | Line | |
| 218 | ii | 14 f.e. | Somer, John: after 1380. insert He was alive on 10 Oct. 1409 (cf . Wylie, Henry IV, iv. 47, 218). |
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Hardres, Thomas

​HARDRES, Sir THOMAS (1610–1681), serjeant-at-law, born in 1610, was descended from an old family possessed of the manor of Broad Oak at Hardres, near Canterbury, and was fourth son of Sir Thomas Hardres and Eleanor, sole surviving daughter and heiress of Henry Thoresby of Thoresby, a master in chancery. Thomas became a member of Gray's Inn, and was called to the bar. From 1649 until his death he was steward of the manor of Lambeth (Allen, Lambeth, p. 272). In the vacation after Michaelmas term 1669 he became a serjeant-at-law, in 1675 was appointed king's Serjeant (Wynne, Serjeants-at-Law}, and in 1679 was elected M.P. for Canterbury. He also received the honour of knighthood. In December 1681 he died, and was buried at Canterbury (Luttrell, Relation, i. 153). He was twice married, first to Dorcas, daughter and heiress of George Bargrave, who died in 1643; and secondly to Philadelphia, daughter of one Franklyn of Maidstone, and widow of Peter Manwood. His 'Reports of Cases in the Exchequer, 1655-1670,' was published in 1693.
[Woolrych's Eminent Serjeants; Burke's Extinct Baronetage, p. 242; Archaeologia Cantiana, iv. 56; Hasted's Kent; Lysons's London, ii. 462.]
J. A. H.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Hardy, Elizabeth

​HARDY, ELIZABETH (1794–1854), novelist, born in Ireland in 1794, was a zealous protestant. She wrote 'Michael Cassidy, or the Cottage Gardener,' 1845; 'Owen Glendower, or the Prince in Wales,' 2 vols., 1849; 'The Confessor, a Jesuit Tale of the Times,' 1854, and possibly some other works. All were published anonymously. Mrs. Hardy died on 9 May 1854, in the Queen's Bench Prison, where she had been imprisoned 'for about eighteen months for a small debt.'
[Gent. Mag. 1854, i. 670; Cat. of Advocates' Library; Halkett and Laing's Dict. of Anonymous and Pseudonymous Lit.]
F. W-t.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Hardwick, Charles (1817-1889)

​HARDWICK, CHARLES (1817–1889), antiquary, son of an innkeeper at Preston, Lancashire, was born there on 10 Sept. 1817. He was apprenticed to a printer, but on the expiration of his servitude he devoted himself to art, and practised as a portrait-painter in his native town. Having joined the Odd Fellows he took an important share in the reform of the Manchester Unity, and was elected grand-master of the order. He was a vice-president of the Manchester Literary Club, of which he was a founder. He died at Manchester on 8 July 1889.
His principal works are: 1. 'History of the borough of Preston and its Environs in the county of Lancaster,' Preston, 1857, 8vo. 2. 'The History, present position, and social importance of Friendly Societies,' London, 1859 and 1869, 8vo. 3. 'Traditions, Superstitions, and Folk-Lore (chiefly Lancashire and the North of England:) their affinity to others . . . their eastern origin and mythical significance,' Manchester, 1872, 8vo. 4. 'On some antient Battlefields in Lancashire and their historical, legendary, and aesthetic associations,' Manchester, 1882, 4to. He also was editor of 'Country Words: a North of England Magazine of Literature, Science, and Art,' 17 numbers, Manchester, 1866–7, 8vo.
[Sutton's Lancashire Authors, p. 48; Academy, 20 July 1889, p. 39.]
T. C.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Hardy, John Stockdale

​HARDY, JOHN STOCKDALE (1793–1849), antiquary, born at Leicester 7 Oct. 1793, was the only child of William Hardy, a manufacturer of that town. After receiving a good education in a private school at Leicester, he was admitted a proctor and notary public, i.e. a practitioner in the ecclesiastical courts of England. On the death of his maternal uncle, William Harrison, he succeeded him as registrar of the archdeaconry court of Leicester, of the court of the commissary of the Bishop of Lincoln, and of the court of the peculiar and exempt jurisdiction of the manor and soke of Rothley. In 1826 he was elected a fellow of the Society of Antiquaries. He retained all his legal appointments till his death at Leicester on 19 July 1849.
In pursuance of his will his 'Literary Remains' were collected by John Gough Nichols, F.S.A., and published at Westminster in 1852, 8vo, pp. 487, with a portrait of the author prefixed, engraved by J. Brown, from a drawing by J. T. Mitchell. They include essays relative to ecclesiastical law, essays and speeches on political questions, and biographical, literary, and miscellaneous essays.
[Memoir by Nichols; (Gent. Mag. new ser. xxxii. 433, xxxvii. 385.]
T. C.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Hardy, Francis

​HARDY, FRANCIS (1751–1812), biographer, a native of Ireland, graduated as B.A. in the university of Dublin in 1771, and was called to the bar in 1777. He acquired an intimate knowledge of Latin and Greek authors, as well as of continental literature. In politics he was an associate of Henry Grattan. In 1782, through the interest of the Earl of Granard, Hardy was returned as member for Mullingar in the parliament of Ireland. He co-operated with Lord Charlemont in the establishment of the Royal Irish Academy at Dublin in 1786, and in 1788 contributed to its publications a dissertation on some passages in the 'Agamemnon' of Æschylus. Hardy sat as representative for Mullingar from his first entrance into parliament till 1800. He was an effective speaker, but only took part in the House of Commons in important debates. In person he was short, with penetrating eyes, and a strong voice of much compass. Although in straitened circumstances, Hardy declined governmental overtures, by which it was sought to induce him to vote for the legislative union. After that measure had been carried Hardy retired to the country, and passed much of his time with Grattan and his family. The publication of some of the writings of Lord Charlemont, who had died in 1799, was projected by Hardy, and he subsequently undertook a biography of that peer, at the suggestion of Richard Lovell Edgeworth. For this work he received assistance from the Charlemont family, as well as from Grattan and others. It appeared at London in 1810, in a quarto volume entitled 'Memoirs of the Political and Private Life of James Caulfield, Earl of Charlemont, Knight of St. Patrick, &c.' An edition,with little alteration, was issued at London in 1812, in two volumes 8vo. The memoirs contain much interesting matter, but are rather diffuse, and not free from inaccuracies. Hardy was appointed a commissioner of appeals at Dublin in 1806. He died on 26 July 1812, and was interred at Kilcommon, co. Wicklow. An engraved portrait of Hardy was published in 1833.
J. T. G.