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

​LEBWIN, LEBUINUS, or LIAFWINE, Saint (fl. 756), born of English parents, received the tonsure in youth, and, after being ordained priest, determined to follow in the steps of Willibrord and Boniface, and go as a missionary to the Germans. He arrived at Utrecht shortly after the death of Boniface (d. 756), and was received by Gregory, the third bishop of the city, who gave him as a companion one of Willibrord's disciples named Marcellinus or Marchelm. Having taken up his abode by the river Yssel, in the borderland between the Franks and the Saxons, where he lodged with a widow named Abachahild, he preached with success in Overyssel, and built two oratories or churches, one apparently at Wilp or Velp, near Deventer, and another with a house to the east of the river. Opposition arose; the heathen Saxons declared that he dealt in magic, and burnt his church and house. He resolved to appear at their national assembly held at Marklo, near the Weser, and probably in the district of Hoya. There he stayed with a noble named Folchert, who tried to persuade him not to venture into the assembly. Nevertheless, he clothed himself in his priestly vestments, and taking a crucifix in one hand, and the gospels in the other, he appeared before the assembled Saxons when they were engaged in sacrificing to their idols. He made an oration, in which he is said to have warned them that if they did not desist from their idolatry a king would be sent to punish them. Enraged at his words, they prepared to slay him with stakes which they tore from the thickets and sharpened, but he escaped from them. Then an old noble named Buto addressed the assembly, and, urging that Lebwin's escape proved him a messenger from God, persuaded his fellow-countrymen to decree that no one should hurt him. After this Lebwin went on with his work undisturbed, leading a life of holiness and self-mortification until his death on 12 Nov. When he was dead, his oratory at Velp was burnt by the heathen. It was rebuilt at Deventer, and his body was discovered and deposited there. The great collegiate church at Deventer is dedicated to his memory.
[The chief authority for Lebwin's life is the Vita S. Lebuini of Hucbald (918–76), printed in Mon. Hist. Germ. ii. 361 sq. (Pertz), and by Surius, vi. 277–86, who also gives the Ecloga et Sermo of Radbod, bishop of Utrecht, concerning Lebwin, ib. p. 839; Hucbald's work is freely translated in Cressy's Church Hist. of Brittany, xxiv. c. 7; Acta SS., O.S.B., sæc. iv. pp. 21, 36; Mon. Hist. Brit. p. 257 n. (Hardy); Butler's Lives of the Saints, xi. 226 sq.; Dict. Chr. Biog., art. ‘Lebuinus’ (2).]
W. H.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Ledward, Richard Arthur

​LEDWARD, RICHARD ARTHUR (1857–1890), sculptor, born at Burslem, Staffordshire, in 1857, was son of Richard Perry Ledward, of the firm of Pinder, Bourne, & Co. of Burslem. Ledward was employed as modeller by that firm, and studied in the Burslem school of art; on obtaining a national scholarship he continued his studies at South Kensington. There he ​obtained a gold medal for modelling from the life, and was appointed a master of modelling in the schools. Subsequently he became modelling master at the Westminster and Blackheath schools of art. He exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1882 and the following years. One work of his, 'A Young Mother,' showed great promise and attracted favourable notice. He executed several busts of merit, including those of Mr. Broadhurst, M.P., Right Hon. W. E. Gladstone, M.P., Sir Philip Cunliffe Owen, and others. Ledward resided in Chelsea, and died of rheumatism on 28 Oct. 1890. He was buried at Periyale Church, near Ealing. In 1883 he married Miss Wood, sister of Ambrose Wood of Hanley, and by her had four children.
[Private information.]
L. C.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Ledwich, Thomas Hawkesworth

​LEDWICH, THOMAS HAWKESWORTH (1823–1858), anatomist and surgeon, was born in 1823 at Pembroke, where his family temporarily resided. His grandfather was Edward Ledwich [q. v.], the Irish antiquary. His father, Edward Ledwich, was an attorney who practised in Waterford. His mother's maiden name was Catharine Eleanor Hawkesworth. Thomas was educated at Waterford, and after having been apprenticed for some time to a medical practitioner in that city studied medicine in Dublin. He became a fellow of the Irish College of Surgeons in 1845, and immediately devoted himself to teaching and to anatomical research. In 1847 he became lecturer on anatomy at a private school of medicine in Dublin, then known as 'The Original School of Medicine, Peter Street.' and he remained attached to that institution till his death. He was very popular and successful as a teacher, and was the most active and prominent man in his school. In lecturing he was remarkable for the clearness of his exposition and the vividness of his delivery. He wrote a number of minor contributions to surgical literature, of which the most noticeable were those in which he explained the views of the French school with reference to the drainage of wounds. He was also an industrious reviewer. He was a good pathologist, as pathology was understood in Ireland in his time, and he formed a valuable pathological museum. His great work, however, was a treatise on 'The Anatomy of the Human ​ Body.' which he wrote in conjunction with his brother, Dr. Edward Ledwich, and published in 1852. This book did not contain any remarkable discoveries or new views, but it was a sound and trustworthy compendium of anatomy as then taught, and therefore has value as a landmark, For many years it was a favourite students' text-book, and it remains a popular work in Dublin.
In July 1868 his rapidly rising reputation was recognised by his appointment to the post of surgeon to the Meath Hospital, Dublin, in succession to Sir Philip Crampton [q. v.] On 29 Sept. in the same year he died rather suddenly of pulmonary apoplexy at his residence, York Street, Dublin, and was buried in the Mount Jerome cemetery. From early youth he suffered from heart disease and asthma, and his health was always bad. Not long before his death Ledwich married Isabella, daughter of Robert Murray of Dublin. The teaching body with which he had been connected changed the name of their school from the 'Original' to the 'Ledwich School of Medicine' in his honour shortly after he died. This title it retained till its amalgamation in 1887 with the school of the College of Surgeons. The personal influence and popularity of Ledwich were undoubtedly great.
[Sir G. Cameron's Hist, of Coll. of Surgeons in Ireland; Ormsby's Hist, of Meath Hospital; notices and papers in Dublin Quarterly Journal of Medical Science.]
C. N.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Lederede, Richard de

Richard Ledred in the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography.
​LEDEREDE or LEDRED, RICHARD de (fl. 1360), bishop of Ossory, an English member of the order of St. Francis, was appointed to the see of Ossory in Ireland in 316 by Pone John XXII. By the pope's order he received consecration from Nicholas, bishop of Ostia. Soon after his installation at Kilkenny Lederede convened a synod of the diocese, the acts of which are extant in the manuscript styled 'The Red Book of Ossory,' and by order of Edward II he caused a valuation of his diocese to be made for purposes of taxation. Lederede, about 1324, engaged in proceedings against Alice Kyteler [see Kettle, or Kyteler, Dame Alice], whom he accused of heresy and sorcery. He also instigated a prosecution on similar charges against Arnold le Poer, seneschal of Kilkenny, and became involved in intentions with the chief administrators of the English government in Ireland. He was publicly excommunicated by his metropolitan, Alexander de Bicknor, archbishop of Dublin, who brought many charges against him. Lederede retorted with accusations against De Bicknor, appealed to the pope, and absented himself nom Ireland for some years, in contravention of the king's orders. He eventually obtained pardon from the king and absolution from the pope (cf. J. T. Gilbert, History of the Viceroys of Ireland).
Lederede after his return to Kilkenny had again recourse to violent measures. A petition was addressed from his diocese to Edward III for his removal on the ground that he was an insatiable extortioner and affected by disease and insanity. He died at Kilkenny in 1360, nearly one hundred years old, and was buried in his cathedral, in decorating which he is said to have expended considerable sums.
Latin verses ascribed to Lederede are extant in the 'Red Book of Ossory.' A memorandum states that they were composed by the bishop for the clergy of the cathedral, and that they were to be sung on great festivals and other occasions instead of secular songs. The pieces are sixty in number, and devoted mainly to the nativity, sufferings, and resurrection of Christ, and the virtues and afflictions of his mother. The author, in some verses, prays for temporal as well as spiritual favours, and in others descants on the wickedness of the age and the transitory character of worldly grandeur. These verses were published for the first time by the author of the present notice, in the tenth report of the Historical Manuscripts Commission, App. v. (1885). A reproduction of the initial page of the verses in the 'Red Book of Ossory' is given in the 'Facsimiles of National MSS. ​of Ireland,' 1884, pt. iv. p. 2, Appendix, plate xxiii.
[Red Book of Ossory, manuscript; Ware's Scriptores, 1635; Wadding's Script. Ord. Min. 1650; Hist, of Bishops of Ireland, 1739; Proceedings against Kyteler (Camd. Soc.), 1843; Theiner's Vet. Monumenta, 1864; Clyn's Annals, 1848; Hist of St. Canice's Cathedral 1857; J.T. Gilbert's Viceroys of Ireland, 1865; Chartularies of St. Mary's, Dublin (Rolls Series), 1884]
J. T. G.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Niemann, Edmund John

​NIEMANN, EDMUND JOHN (1813–1876), landscape-painter, was born at Islington, London, in 1813. His father, John Diederich Niemann, a native of Minden in Westphalia, was a member of Lloyd's, and young Niemann entered that establishment as a clerk at the age of thirteen. In 1839, however, a love of painting induced him to adopt art as a profession. He took up his residence at High Wycombe in Buckinghamshire, and remained there until 1848, when the foundation of the ‘Free Exhibition,’ held in the Chinese Gallery at Hyde Park Corner, of which he became secretary, led to his return to London. He began to exhibit at the Royal Academy in 1844, when he sent an oil painting, ‘On the Thames, near Great Marlow,’ and a drawing of ‘The Lime Kiln at Cove's End, Wooburn, Bucks.’ He continued to exhibit at the Academy until 1872; but more often his works appeared at the British Institution and the Society of British Artists, as well as at the Manchester, Liverpool, and other provincial exhibitions. His pictures, some of which are of large dimensions, illustrate every phase of nature. They are characterised by great versatility, but have been described as at once dexterous and depressing. The scenery of the Swale, near Richmond in Yorkshire, often furnished him with a subject. One of his best and largest works was ‘A Quiet Shot,’ afterwards called ‘Deer Stalking in the Highlands,’ exhibited at the British Institution in 1861. Among others may be named ‘Clifton,’ 1847; ‘The Thames at Maidenhead’ and ‘The Thames near Marlow,’ 1848; ‘Kilns in Derbyshire,’ 1849; ‘Troopers crossing a Moss,’ 1852; ‘Norwich,’ 1853; ‘The High Level Bridge, Newcastle,’ 1863; ‘Bristol Floating Harbour,’ 1864; ‘Hampstead Heath,’ 1865, and ‘Scarborough,’ 1872. He suffered much from ill-health during the last few years of his life, and there is a consequent falling off in his later works.
Niemann died of apoplexy, at the Glebe, Brixton Hill, Surrey, on 15 April 1876, in the sixty-fourth year of his age. Many of his works were exhibited at the opening of the Nottingham Museum and Art Galleries in 1878. The South Kensington Museum has a landscape by him, ‘Amongst the Rushes,’ and four drawings in water-colours. A ‘View on the Thames near Maidenhead’ is in the Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool.
R. E. G.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Nicolls, Ferdinando

​NICOLLS, FERDINANDO (1598–1662), presbyterian divine, son of a gentleman of Buckinghamshire, was born in 1598. He matriculated from Magdalen College, Oxford, on 10 Nov. 1615, graduated B.A. on 15 Dec. 1618, and M.A. on 14 June 1621. On 9 May 1629 Sir Allen Apsley, lieutenant of the Tower, writing to Secretary Dorchester, described him as ‘of Sherborne.’ Nicolls had applied for permission to see some of Apsley's prisoners, and to speak to them at the windows, but had been prevented.
On 12 Nov. 1634 he was collated by Bishop Hall to the rectory of St. Mary Arches, ​Exeter. In 1641 he convened a parish meeting, ‘by order of the House of Commons,’ to obtain signatures to a solemn ‘Protestation’ against popery, and later on was presented to the vicarage of Twickenham by the Westminster assembly. In November 1645 he was experiencing difficulties in obtaining the profits of his vicarage, and was granted an order for payment by the committee for plundered ministers. In 1648 he took the covenant and signed ‘The Joint Testimonie of the Ministers of Devon … unto the Truth of Jesus,’ London, 1648; but complaint was made by the council of state on 1 April 1650, in a letter to Major Blackmore at Exeter, that he was active in stirring up the people to disobedience by intemperate declarations in the pulpit. An examination was ordered, but Nicolls remained in undisturbed possession of his living. In 1654 he became one of the assistants to the commissioners of Devonshire and the city of Exeter for the ejection of scandalous ministers. In 1656 when, in pursuance of an act for the uniting of parishes in Exeter, St. Mary Arches was one of the four churches retained for public worship and the service of the Directory, Nicolls was reinstituted and received a presentation to the enlarged parish on 11 Aug. 1657. In 1662 he was unable to conform to the Act of Uniformity, and was ejected, and soon after died. An almost illegible inscription on a stone in the church of St. Mary Arches gives the date of his death as 10 Dec. 16. (1662?). There is no entry in the parish register. The interment appears to have taken place in the following April during the night. No minister was present, and resistance was offered when one arrived, so that ‘a dozen men were bound over April 13 1663 for disturbance of the public peace.’
Nicolls was an able and fluent preacher, and intolerant of inattention to his sermons in church. He is said to have sat down on perceiving some of his congregation asleep, and to have continued his discourse when the noise of the people rising awakened them. He published ‘The Life and Death of Mr. Ignatius Jourdain [q. v.], one of the Aldermen of the City of Exeter,’ London, 1654, 1655, which was afterwards printed in Clarke's ‘Collection of Lives,’ 1662, pp. 449–487.
B. P.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Nicolson

​NICOLSON. [See also Nicholson.]
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Nicols, Thomas

​NICOLS, THOMAS (fl. 1659), writer on gems, was a native of Cambridge, being son of John Nicols, M.D., who practised as a physician in that town. He studied for some time at Jesus College, Cambridge. He wrote a curious work on precious stones, which was thrice published in his lifetime, each time with a different title, viz.—
* ‘A Lapidary, or the History of Pretious Stones, with Cautions for the undeceiving of all those that deal with Pretious Stones. By Thomas Nicols, sometimes of Jesus-Colledge in Cambridge. Cambridge: printed by Thomas Buck, printer to the universitie of Cambridge, 1652.’
* ‘Arcula Gemmea: a Cabinet of Jewels. Discovering the nature, vertue, value of pretious stones, with infallible rules to escape the deceit of all such as are adulterate and counterfeit. By Thomas Nicols, sometimes of Jesus-Colledge in Cambridge. London: printed for Nath. Brooke … 1653.’
* ‘Gemmarius Fidelius, or the Faithful Lapidary, experimentally describing the richest treasures of nature in an historical narration of the several natures, vertues, and qualities of all pretious stones. With an accurate discovery of such as are adulterate and counterfeit. By J. N. of J. C. in Cambridge. London, printed for Henry Marsh … 1659.’
[Cooper's Annals of Cambridge, iii. 475; Gent. Mag. 1842, ii. 430, 594.]
T. C.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Nield, James

​ NIELD, JAMES (1744–1814), philanthropist. [See Neild, James.]
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Morse, Henry

​MORSE, HENRY (1595–1645), Jesuit, known also as Claxton (his mother's name) and Warde, was born in Norfolk in 1595, and studied law in one of the inns of court in London. Harbouring doubts concerning the protestant religion, he retired to the continent, and was reconciled to the Roman church at Douay. Afterwards he became an alumnus of the English College there. He entered the English College at Rome 27 Dec. 1618, and having completed his theological studies, and received holy orders, he was sent from Douay to the English mission 19 June 1624. He entered the Society of Jesus in the London novitiate in 1625, and was soon afterwards removed to the Durham district. Being apprehended, he was committed to York Castle, where he remained in confinement for three years. In 1632 he was at Watten, acting as prefect of health and consultor of the college. In 1633 he was minister and consultor at Liege College, and in the same year he became a missioner in the London district. He was again apprehended, committed to Newgate, tried and condemned to death in 1637, but the sentence was commuted to banishment at the intercession of Queen Henrietta Maria. In 1641-2 he was camp missioner to the English mission at Ghent. Two years later he had returned to England, and again appears as a missioner in the Durham district. He was arrested, carried in chains to London, tried, and, being condemned to death as a traitor on account of his sacerdotal character, was executed at Tyburn on 1 Feb. (N.S.) 1644-5.
In Father Ambrose Corbie's 'Certamen Triplex,' Antwerp, 1645, is an engraved por-
​trait, which is photographed in Foley's 'Records' [see Corbie, Ambrose]; two other portraits are mentioned by Granger (Biog. Hist. ii.207).
A copy of Morse's diary, entitled 'Papers relating to the English Jesuits,' is preserved in the British Museum (Addit. MS. 21203).
His elder brother, William Morse (d. 1649), born in Norfolk in 1591, was likewise a convert to the catholic faith, became a Jesuit, and laboured on the English mission until his death on 1 Jan. 1648-9.
[An account of Morse's execution, entitled Narratio Gloriosæ Mortis quam pro Religione Catholica P. Henricvs Mors è Societate Iesv Sacerdos fortiter oppetijt Londini in Anglia. Anno Salutis, 1645. 1 Februarij stylo nouo Quem hic stylum deinceps sequemur, Ghent, 1645, 4to, pp. 21; a memoir appears in Ambrose Corbie's Certamen Triplex, Antwerp, 1645, 4to, pp. 95–144. See also Challoner's Missionary Priests, ii. 180; Dodd's Church Hist. iii. 120; Florus Anglo-Bavaricus, p. 82; Foley's Records, i. 566–610, vi. 288, vii. 527; Oliver's Jesuit Collections, p. 146; Tanner's Societas Jesu usque ad sanguinis et vitæ profusionem militans.]
T. C.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Morten, Thomas

​MORTEN, THOMAS (1836–1866), painter and book-illustrator, was born at Uxbridge, Middlesex, in 1836. He came to London and studied at the painting school kept by J. Mathews Leigh in Newman Street. Morten was chiefly employed as an lustrator of books and serials, mostly of a ​ humorous nature. The most successful were his illustrations to an edition of Swift's 'Gulliver's Travels,' published in 1864, which ran into several editions. Morten also practised as a painter of domestic subjects, and was an occasional exhibitor at the Royal Academy, sending in 1866 'Pleading for the Prisoner.' His affairs, however, became embarrassed, and he committed suicide on 23 Sept. 1866.
[Redgrave's Dict. of Artists; Graves's Dict. of Artists, 1760-1880.]
L. C.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Morrison, Thomas

​MORRISON, THOMAS (d. 1835?), medical writer, studied at Edinburgh in 1784, but subsequently removed to London, Where he became a member of the Royal College of Surgeons. In 1798 he was in practice at Chelsea, but by 1806 appears to have settled in Dublin. In the ‘List of Members of the Royal College of Surgeons’ in 1825 his address is given as Vale Grove, Chelsea. His name disappears from the lists before 1829. He died apparently at Dublin in 1835 (Post Office Directory of Dublin, 1807 and 1835). He published: 1. ‘Reflections upon Armed Associations in an Appeal to the Impartial Inhabitants of Chelsea,’ &c., 8vo, London, 1798. 2. ‘An Examination into the Principles of what is commonly called the Brunonian System,’ 8vo,London [1806] 3. ‘The Pharmacopœia of the King and Queen’s College of Physicians, Ireland, translated into English with observations,’ 8vo, Dublin, 1807. He also contributed two papers to Duncan’s ‘Annals of Medicine,' 1797 (ii. 240 and 246).
[List of Members of the Royal College of Surgeons, 1825; Reuss’s Register of Authors; Watt’s Bibl. Brit.; Dict. of Living Authors, 1816.]
G. G.