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

​BEARBLOCK or BEREBLOCK, JOHN (fl. 1566), draughtsman, was born near Rochester about 1532, and was educated at Oxford. He is said to have become a fellow of St. John's College in 1558 and of Exeter College on 30 June 1566. He graduated B.A. 29 March 1561, and M.A. 13 Feb. 1564-5. Before the close of 1566 he was dean of his college, and was elected senior proctor of the university on 20 April 1579, his colleague being Thomas (afterwards Sir Thomas) Bodley. In 1570 he was granted four years' leave of absence, probably for study abroad, and in 1572 received the degree of B.C.L. from a continental university. Nothing further is ascertainable about his personal history.
In September 1566, on the visit of Queen Elizabeth to Oxford, Bearblock prepared small drawings of all the colleges, the earliest of their kind, for each of which his friend Thomas Neal, Hebrew reader in the university, wrote descriptive verses in Latin. The views, which were greatly admired, were displayed on the walls of St. Mary's Church for several days, and there examined by the queen. A carefully executed copy of them, which is still extant, was subsequently presented to the Bodleian Library by John More in 1630; but the original sketches, having been given to St. John's College, were granted in 1616 to Sir Thomas Lake, and apparently lost. Bearblock's drawings, with Neal's verses, were engraved in 1713, at the end of Hearne's edition of Dodwell's 'De Parma Equestri Woodwardiana Dissertatio.' In 1728 they were again engraved in the margin of a reproduction of Ralph Aggas's map of Oxford, first engraved in 1578, and in 1882 they were for the third time reproduced, with Neal's verses, in a volume privately printed at Oxford. Bearblock wrote an elaborate account of the queen's visit to Oxford in 1566 under the title of 'Commentarii sive Ephemeræ Actiones rerum illustrium Oxonii gestarum in adventu serenissimæ principis Elizabethæ.' The pamphlet was dedicated to Lord Cobham and to Sir William Petre, a munificent benefactor of Exeter College, but it was not printed until 1729, when Hearne published it in an appendix (pp. 251-96) to his edition of the 'Historia et Vita Ricardi II.' Bearblock refers to the exhibition of his drawings on page 283. A map of Rochester by Bearblock, of which nothing is now known, was extant in the time of Anthony à Wood. Tanner erroneously gives Bearblock's name as Beartlock.
[Boase's Registrum Collegii Exoniensis, pp. 45, 207; Wood's Athen. Oxon., ed. Bliss, i. 577; Fasti Oxon. i. 168; Annals of Oxford, ed. Gutch, ii. 159; Tanner's Bibliotheca, p. 82; Rye's England as seen by Foreigners, p. 208; Madan's introduction to the reproduction of the drawings in 1882; History of Rochester, ed. 1817, p. 73.]
S. L. L.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Beale, William (1784-1854)

​BEALE, WILLIAM (1784–1854), musician, was born at Landrake, in Cornwall, 1 Jan. 1784. He was a chorister at Westminster Abbey under Dr. Arnold until his voice broke, when he served as a midshipman on board the Révolutionnaire, a 44-gun frigate which had been taken from the French. During this period he was nearly drowned by falling overboard in Cork harbour. On his voice settling into a pure baritone he left the sea, and devoted himself to the musical profession. He became a member of the Royal Society of Musicians on 1 Dec. 1811. On 12 Jan. 1813 he won the prize cup of the Madrigal Society for his beautiful madrigal, 'Awake, sweet Muse,' and on 30 Jan. 1816 he obtained an appointment as one of the gentlemen of the Chapel Royal, in the place of Robert Hudson, deceased. At this period he was living at 13 North Street, Westminster. On 1 Nov. 1820 Beale signed articles of appointment as organist to Trinity College, Cambridge, and on 13 Dec. following he resigned his place at the Chapel Royal. In December 1821 he threw up his appointment at Cambridge, and returned to London, where, through the good offices of Dr. Attwood, he became successively organist of Wandsworth parish church and St. John's, Clapham Rise. He continued occasionally to sing in public until a late period of his life, and in 1840 he won a prize at the Adelphi Glee Club for his glee for four voices, 'Harmony.' He died at Paradise Row, Stockwell, 3 May 1854. Beale was twice married: (1) to Miss Charlotte Elkins, a daughter of the groom of the stole to George IV, and (2) to Miss Georgiana Grove, of Clapham. His voice was a light baritone, and he is said to have imitated Bartleman in his vocalisation. He was an extremely finished singer, though somewhat wanting in power. His compositions, which principally consist of glees and madrigals, though few in number, are of a very high degree of excellence, and often rival, in their purity of melody and form, the best compositions of the Elizabethan madrigalists.
W. B. S.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Beamont, William John

​BEAMONT, WILLIAM JOHN (1828–1868), clergyman and author, was born at Warrington, Lancashire, 16 Jan. 1828, being the only son of William Beamont, solicitor, of that town, and author of 'Annals of the Lords of Warrington,' and other works. After attending the Warrington grammar school for five years he was, in 1842, removed to Eton College, where he remained till 1846, bearing off Prince Albert's prize for modern languages, and the Newcastle medal and other prizes. He entered Trinity College, Cambridge, in 1846, took high honours, gained the chancellor's medal, and was awarded a fellowship in 1852. He graduated B.A. in 1850, and M.A. in 1853. After his election as fellow of Trinity he commenced a tour in Egypt and Palestine, and on being ordained in 1854 he spent some time at Jerusalem, where he engaged earnestly in the education of intending missionaries to Abyssinia, in Sunday school work, and in preaching not only to the English residents but to the Arabs in their own tongue. He afterwards acted as chaplain in the camp hospitals of the British army before Sebastopol. In 1855 Beamont returned home, and became curate of St. John's, Broad Street, Drury Lane, London, in which parish he worked with great zeal until 1858, when he accepted the vicarage of St. Michael's, Cambridge. He died at Cambridge, 6 Aug. 1868, at the age of forty, his death being hastened by a fever caught in the East. He was buried in Trinity College Chapel. Beamont's life was one of unremitting self-denying usefulness, and in addition to his successful parochial labours and his pioneer efforts for church extension in Barnwell and Chesterton, he was the main instrument of founding the Cambridge School of Art (1858) and the Church Defence Association (1859). He was also the originator of the Church Congress (1861), in the foundation of which he was aided by his friend, Mr. R. Reynolds Rowe, F.S.A. His published writings are:
* 'Catherine, the Egyptian Slave,' 1852.
* 'Concise Grammar of the Arabic Language,' 1861.
* 'Cairo to Sinai and Sinai to Cairo, in November and December 1860' (1861).
In conjunction with Canon W. M. Campion he wrote a learned yet popular exposition of the Book of Common Prayer, entitled 'The Prayer-Book Interleaved,' 1868. Among his pamphlets are the 'Catechumen's Manual,' 'Paper on Clergy Discipline,' and 'Fine Art as a Branch of Academic Study.'
[Information from Mr. W. Beamont and Mr. R. R. Rowe; Warrington Guardian; Cambridge Chronicle, 15 Aug. 1868; G. W. Weldon, in the Churchman, August 1883, p. 326.]
C. W. S.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Flammock, Thomas

​FLAMMOCK, THOMAS (d. 1497), rebel, usually described as a lawyer and attorney of Bodmin, was eldest son of Richard Flamank or Flammock of Boscarne, by Johanna or Jane, daughter of Thomas Lucombe of Bodmin (cf. Visitation of Cornwall, 1620, Harl. Soc. 71). The family is of great antiquity at Bodmin, having held the manor of Nanstallan in uninterrupted succession from the fourteenth to the nineteenth century (1817). In early times the name appeared as Flandrensis, Flemang, Flammank, and in other forms (Maclean). Thomas Flammock was the chief instigator of the Cornish rebellion of 1487. At the time Henry VII was attempting to collect a subsidy in Cornwall for the despatch of an army to Scotland to punish James IV for supporting Perkin Warbeck. Flammock argued that it was the business of the barons of the north, and of no other of the king's subjects, to defend the Scottish border, and that the tax was illegal. Working with another popular agitator and fellow-townsman, Michael Joseph, a blacksmith, he suggested that the Cornishmen should march on London and present a petition to the king setting forth their grievances, and urging the punishment of Archbishop Morton and Sir Reginald Bray, and other advisers of the king who were held responsible for his action. Flammock and Joseph modestly consented to lead the throng until more eminent men took their place. Rudely armed with bills and bows and arrows, a vast mob followed Flammock to Taunton, where they made their first display of violence and slew ‘the provost of Perin,’ i.e. Penryn. At Wells, James, lord Audley [see Tuchet, James], joined them and undertook the leadership. They marched thence by way of Salisbury and Winchester to Blackheath. London was panic-stricken; but the rebels had grown disheartened by the want of sympathy shown them in their long march. Giles, lord Daubeney, was directed to take the field with the forces which had been summoned for service in Scotland. On Saturday, 22 June 1497, Daubeney opened battle at Deptford Strand. At the first onset he was taken prisoner, but he was soon released, and the enemy, who had expected to be attacked on the Monday, and were thus taken by surprise, were soon thoroughly routed. Each side is said to have lost three hundred men, and fifteen hundred Cornishmen were taken prisoners. Audley, Flammock, and Joseph were among the latter. Audley was beheaded at Tower Hill. Flammock and Joseph were drawn, hanged, and quartered at Tyburn (24 June), and their limbs exhibited in various parts of the city. Most of their followers were pardoned. Flammock married Elizabeth, daughter of John Trelawny of Menwynick, and had a daughter Joanna, wife of Peter Fauntleroy.
S. L. L.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Flanagan, Roderick

​FLANAGAN, RODERICK (1828–1861), journalist, son of an Irish farmer, was born near Elphin, co. Roscommon, in April 1828. His parents, with a numerous family, emigrated to New South Wales in 1840, and settled in Sydney, where Flanagan received his education. At the age of fourteen he was apprenticed to a printer, and on the completion of his indentures became attached to the ‘People's Advocate.’ After contributing to the ‘Advocate,’ the ‘Empire,’ the ‘Freeman's Journal,’ and other newspapers for several years, he founded, in conjunction with his brother, E. F. Flanagan, a weekly journal called ‘The Chronicle.’ It had only a brief existence, and upon its cessation ​Flanagan became a member of the staff of the ‘Empire.’ He was subsequently chief editor of that journal, and during his connection with it published a series of essays on the aboriginals which attracted much attention. The writer dealt with the manners and customs of the natives, and severely criticised the treatment they had received at the hands of the colonists. In 1854 Flanagan joined the literary corps of the ‘Sydney Morning Herald,’ and in the columns of that newspaper he shortly began to grapple with the numerous events which tended to the making of New South Wales. For nearly four years he laboured arduously at his task of writing the history of the colony, and by November 1860 had made such progress in his undertaking that he left Sydney for London, bearing his manuscript with him. He succeeded in making arrangements for the publication of the work, but while engaged in revising the proof-sheets of the first volume was seized with illness, the result of over-exertion. He died towards the close of 1861, and was buried at a cemetery near London, where a public monument has been erected to his memory. Flanagan's work was posthumously issued in 1862, in 2 vols., under the title of the ‘History of New South Wales; with an Account of Van Diemen's Land (Tasmania), New Zealand, Port Phillip (Victoria), Moreton Bay, and other Australasian Settlements.’ While narrating the events which have marked the progress of New South Wales from the earliest times till beyond the middle of the nineteenth century, Flanagan also succeeded in bringing into one view the whole of the British Australasian territories. The work was pronounced to be the most comprehensive, moderate, and most generally accurate of any which had hitherto appeared dealing with the Australasian colonies.
G. B. S.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Flanagan, Thomas

​FLANAGAN, THOMAS (1814–1865), historical compiler, born in 1814, was educated at Sedgley Park School, Staffordshire, and at St. Mary's College, Oscott, where he remained as a professor, and was prefect of studies for many years. In 1851 he was appointed vice-president of Sedgley Park, and in August the same year he became the ninth president of that institution, in succession to Dr. James Brown, who, on the restoration of the catholic hierarchy by Pope Pius IX, had been advanced to the see of Shrewsbury. Flanagan was also nominated one of the original canons of the newly erected chapter of Birmingham. In July 1853 he resigned the presidentship of Sedgley Park, and returned to Oscott as prefect of studies. In 1854 he was appointed resident priest at Blackmore Park, and in 1860 he removed to St. Chad's Cathedral, Birmingham. He died on 21 July 1865 at Kidderminster, whither he had gone for the benefit of his health.
In addition to some controversial tracts, he wrote: 1. ‘A Manual of British and Irish History; illustrated with maps, engravings, and statistical, chronological, and genealogical tables,’ London, 1847, 12mo, 1851, 8vo. 2. ‘A Short Catechism of English History, ecclesiastical and civil, for children,’ London, 1851, 16mo. 3. ‘A History of the Church in England, from the earliest period, to the re-establishment of the Hierarchy in 1850,’ 2 vols., London, 1857, 8vo, the only work hitherto published which gives a continuous history of the Roman catholic church in England since the revolution of 1688. 4. ‘A History of the Middle Ages,’ manuscript, commenced at Sedgley Park, but never completed.
T. C.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Flattisbury, Philip

​FLATTISBURY, PHILIP (fl. 1500), compiler, was of a family members of which, from the thirteenth century, held important positions as landowners in the county of Kildare, Ireland, and occasionally filled legal offices under the English government there. Flattisbury appears to have been a retainer of Gerald Fitzgerald, eighth earl of Kildare [q. v.], deputy-governor of Ireland under Henry VII and Henry VIII. In 1503 Flattisbury made for that nobleman a compilation styled the ‘Red Book of the Earls of Kildare.’ This volume consists mainly of documents connected with or bearing upon the lands and possessions of the Geraldine house of Kildare. This volume was sought for eagerly, but in vain, by the governmental agents at the time of the attainder of the heads of the house of Kildare in 1537. It is now in the possession of the Duke of Leinster. A reproduction from it was given on plate lx. of the third part of ‘Facsimiles of National MSS. of Ireland,’ published in 1879.
Flattisbury also transcribed for Gerald, ninth earl of Kildare [q. v.], in 1517, a collection of Anglo-Irish annals in Latin, terminating in 1370 [see Pembridge, Christopher]. To them he appended at the end a few lines of additional matter, with a brief panegyric on the Earl of Kildare. The manuscript bears the following title: ‘Hic inferius sequuntur diversæ Cronicæ ad requisitionem nobilis et præpotentis domini, Geraldi filii Geraldi, deputati domini regis Hiberniæ, scriptæ per Philippum Flattisbury de Johnston juxta le Naas, anno Domini mdxvii. et anno regni Henrici Octavi ix.’ Edmund Campion, in his ‘History of Ireland,’ written in 1571, and Richard Stanihurst, somewhat later, referred erroneously to Flattisbury as the author of the annals of which he was the transcriber. Stanihurst did not record the date of Flattisbury's death, but mentioned that it took place ‘at his town styled Johnstown,’ near Naas, in Kildare, and observes that he was a ‘worthy gentleman and a diligent antiquary.’ The original annals, from which Flattisbury transcribed, were printed for the first time in 1607 by Camden, in his ‘Britannia,’ from a manuscript lent to him by Lord Howard of Naworth, and ​subsequently presented by Archbishop Laud to the Bodleian Library, where it is now preserved. A new edition from the manuscript used by Camden, and collated with fragments of an older one unknown to him, was published by the writer of the present notice in the appendix to the ‘Chartularies of St. Mary's Abbey, Dublin,’ Rolls Series, 1885.
[State Papers, Ireland, Public Record Office, London; Patent Rolls and Chancery Inquisitions, Ireland; MSS., Trinity College, Dublin; Holinshed's Chronicles, 1586; Hist. of Ireland, Dublin, 1633; Ware, De Scriptoribus Hiberniæ, 1639; William Nicholson's Historical Library, 1724; Hist. MSS. Comm., 8th Rep. 1881.]
J. T. G.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Flavel, John (1596-1617)

​FLAVEL, JOHN (1596–1617), logician, was born in 1596 at Bishop's Lydeard, Somersetshire, where his father was a clergyman. He matriculated, 25 Jan. 1610–11, at Trinity College, Oxford, and developed a turn for logical disputation. In 1613 he was made one of the first scholars of Wadham College. He graduated B.A. on 28 June 1614, and lectured on logic. Proceeding M.A. on 23 June 1617, he was in the same year chosen professor of grammar. He had skill in Greek and Latin verse. He died on 10 Nov. 1617, and was buried in Wadham College chapel.
After Flavel's death, Alexander Huish, of Wadham College, edited from his manuscript a logical treatise, with the title, ‘Tractatus de Demonstratione Methodicus et Polemicus,’ &c., Oxford, 1619, 16mo. The treatise, which is in four books, was not intended for publication. Huish dedicates it (1 March 1618–19) to Arthur Lake, bishop of Bath and Wells.
Wood mentions ‘Grammat. Græc. Enchyridion,’ 8vo (not seen), by Joh. Flavell, possibly the subject of this article.
[Wood's Athenæ Oxon. (Bliss), ii. 207, 355, 371; Flavel's Tractatus; Oxf. Univ. Reg. (Oxf. Hist. Soc.), II. ii. 321, iii. 328.]
A. G.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Leigh, Percival

1904 Errata appended.
​LEIGH, PERCIVAL (1813–1889), comic writer, son of Leonard Leigh of St. Cross, Winchester, was born at Haddington on ​3 Nov. 1818. He was educated for the medical profession at St. Bartholomew's Hospital, where he made acquaintance of his fellow-students, John Leech [q. v.], Albert Smith, and Mr. Gilbert à Beckett. He became L.S.A. in 1834, and M.R.C.S. in 1835, and resolved to practise his profession; but he soon abandoned medicine for literature. In 1841 he became a member of the 'Punch' staff very shortly after its formation, and he contributed to that journal until his death. Leigh was a good friend to Leech, whom he helped in many difficulties, and was also intimate with Thackeray. He was a good amateur actor, and with Dickens, Leech, and Jerrold was a member of the company which acted Ben Jonson's 'Every Man in his Humour' on 21 Sept. 1845, at Miss Kelly's Theatre, Dean Street, Soho (now the Royalty). Leigh played Oliver Cob. He never lost the interest in science which his early training had given him, and was jocularly known to his friends as 'The Professor.' Frith has noted his 'quaintly humorous conversation.' In 1850 Leigh lived at 10 Bedford Street, Bloomsbury, but before 1860 he had removed to Oak Cottage, Hammersmith, where he led a secluded life, and died on 24 Oct. 1889. He was the last survivor of the early writers in 'Punch.' His wife, Letitia Morrison, predeceased him.
Leigh's best-known work was 'Y$^e$ Manners and Customs of y$^e$ Englyshe. Drawn from y$^e$ Quick by Richard Doyle, to which he added some extracts from Mr. Pipe hys Diary,' London, 1849, 4to; 2nd edit., enlarged, 1876. This first appeared serially in 'Punch,' and owes much to Doyle's illustrations: but Leigh's application of ancient phraseology to affairs of an essentially modern character, such as a shareholders' meeting, made a decided hit. It is a clever, sarcastic chronicle of prevailing fashions and opinions. Leigh also wrote:
* 'Stories and Poems' in 'The Fiddle-Faddle Fashion Book,' London, 1840; a skit on contemporary fashion-books.
* 'The Comic Latin Grammar,' London, 1840, 8vo.
* 'The Comic English Grammar,' London, 1840, 8vo.
* 'Portraits of Children of the Mobility,' London, 1841, 8vo.
* 'Paul Prendergast, or the Comic Schoolmaster,' London, 1859, 8vo. This contains, besides Leigh's two previously published grammars, 'The Comic Cocker,' illustrated by 'Crowquill.' All these works excepting the last were illustrated by Leech.
[Information kindly supplied by John Tenniel, esq., and E. J. Milliken, esq.; Athenæum, 2 Nov. 1889; Frith's John Leech, vol. i. chaps, iii. and xiii.; Forster's Life of Dickens, i. 434; Everitt's English Caricaturists, p. 282.]
W. A. J. A.
Dictionary of National Biography, Errata (1904), p.179 N.B.— f.e. stands for from end and l.l. for last line
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# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Leigh, Thomas Pemberton

​LEIGH, THOMAS PEMBERTON, Lord Kingsdown (d. 1867). [See Pemberton-Leigh.]
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Leigh, Samuel

​LEIGH, SAMUEL (fl. 1686), author of a metrical version of the Psalms, born about 1635 (Wood), was son of Samuel Leigh of Boston, Lincolnshire. He was entered a commoner of Merton College, Oxford, in Michaelmas term 1660; left the university without a degree; retired to his patrimony, and was living in 1686 (ib.) He was the author of a solitary literary effort, 'Samuelis Primitiæ, or an Essay towards a Metrical Version of the whole Book of Psalms ' (London, 1661), in which his portrait appears. The book is dedicated 'to my most honoured father-in-law, Charles Potts, Esq., son to Sir John Potts, Knight and Barronet.' The title states that the work was 'composed when attended with the disadvantagious circumstances of youth and sickness.' The version, though eulogised by Dr. Manton and Gabriel Sanger, is of no value.
[Holland's Psalmists of Great Britain, ii. 54; Wood's Athenæ Oxon. ed. Bliss, iv. 478; Foster's Alumni Oxon.]
J. C. H.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Leigh, Oliph

​LEIGH, Sir OLIPH or OLYFF (1560–1612), encourager of maritime enterprise. [See under Leigh, Charles, d. 1605.]
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Leigh, Richard

​LEIGH, RICHARD (fl. 1675), poet, born in 1649, was younger son of Edward Leigh of Rushall, Staffordshire. He entered Queen's College, Oxford, in Lent term 1666, and proceeded B.A. on 19 June 1669. He afterwards went to London and became an actor in the company of the Duke of York, where other actors bearing the same surname [see Leigh, Anthony and John], from whom he is to be carefully distinguished, were engaged at the same time. He attacked Dryden in 'A Censure of the Rota in Mr. Dryden's Conquest of Granada,' Oxford, 1673. He also wrote 'The Transposer Rehearsed, or the Fifth Act of Mr. Baye's Play; being a Postscript to the Animadversions on the Preface to Bishop Bramhall's Vindication,' Oxford, for 'the assigns of Hugo Grotius and Jacob van Harmine, on the North Side of Lac Lemane,' 1673, which Lowndes describes as scurrilous and indecent. It is wrongly ascribed by Andrew Marvell to Dr. Sam Parker. Leigh also published 'Poems upon Several Occasions and to several Persons,' 1675.
[Gent. Mag. 1848, pt. ii. p. 270; Lowndes's Bibl. Manual; Wood's Athenæ Oxon. ed. Bliss, iv. 533; Scott's Life of Dryden; Biog. Brit. art. 'Dryden,' p. 1751; Foster's Alumni Oxon.]
T. B. S.