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

​READE, ROBERT (d. 1415), bishop of Chichester, was a Dominican friar and master of arts who, on 9 Sept. 1394, was papally provided to the bishopric of Waterford and Lismore. He was translated by the pope to Carlisle, and received the temporalities of that see in March 1396. On 5 Oct. of the same year he was again translated by a papal bull to Chichester, and received the temporalities on 6 May 1397. Reade was a trier of petitions in the parliament of September 1397, and swore to observe the statutes then made (Rolls of Parliament, iii. 348, 355). He was one of the counsellors whom Edmund of Langley, duke of York, consulted as to opposing Henry of Lancaster in August 1399. In the first parliament of Henry IV he assented to the imprisonment of Richard II (ib. iii. 427). In 1404 he was again a trier of petitions, and in 1406 was a witness to the entail of the crown (ib. iii. 546, 582). During the reign of Henry IV Reade is occasionally mentioned as attending the council (Nicolas, Proc. Privy Council, i. 156, ii. 6, 98). He died in June 1415. His will, dated 10 Aug. 1414, was proved on 6 July 1415. His register, which begins on 10 Feb. 1396–7 and ends 14 April 1414, is the oldest of the ‘Chichester Episcopal Registers’ now preserved. Some notes from it are given in the ‘Sussex Archæological Collections’ (xvii. 197–9). The author of the ‘Annales Ricardi Secundi’ (p. 243), in recording Reade's action in August 1399, says he was ‘irreprehensibilis et sine querela,’ meaning that he had not been implicated in the political intrigues of 1397. There does not seem to be any evidence as to whether he was related to his predecessor, William Rede or Reade [q. v.]
[Le Neve's Fasti Ecclesiæ Angl. i. 244, ii. 236; Cotton's Fasti Eccl. Hib. i. 5; Godwin, De Præsulibus, p. 508, ed. Richardson; Sussex Archæological Collections, xvii. 197–9; other authorities quoted.]
C. L. K.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Reading, Robert de

​READING, ROBERT de (d. 1325), historian, was a monk of Westminster. His name occurs with that of John of London, who, like Robert, is connected with the ‘Flores Historiarum,’ in the infirmary accounts of the abbey in 1294 and 1298, and again in the list of monks tried on a charge of having plundered the royal treasury in 1303. He died in 1325 (Flores Historiarum, iii. 232). He was the author of the portion of the ‘Flores Historiarum’ from 1307 to 1325, which is contained in Chetham MS. 6712, and of which there is a copy in Cotton. MS. Cleopatra, A. 16. Dr. Luard says this history ‘must rank of equal authority with the other chronicles of the time. It appears to me independent of them all. The feeling, ​on the whole, is against the king; the writer is strongly opposed to Gaveston, strongly in favour of Thomas of Lancaster.’ Robert's style is inferior to that of his predecessors, being wordy and bombastic, with occasional insertions of foreign words, Greek, French, or English. This history was printed for the first time in Dr. Luard's edition of the ‘Flores Historiarum’ (iii. 137–232).
C. L. K.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Mackelvie, William

​MACKELVIE, WILLIAM, D.D. (1800–1863), united presbyterian divine, born in Edinburgh, 7 March 1800,was soon left fatherless, and spent his youth at Leith, where he became a draper's apprentice. A visit of the Rev. Leigh Richmond to Leith led Mackelvie to leave the established church of Scotland, with which he had been hitherto connected, to join the associate secession congregation of Kirkgate, under the Rev. Mr. Aitcnison, and to study for the ministry of that church. After the usual course at Edinburgh University and the Theological Secession Hall, Mackelvie in 1827 was licensed to preach by the fresbytery of Stirling and Falkirk. In April 1829 he was called to Balgedie, Kinrossshire, where he was ordained by the Dunfermline presbytery. He was one of the earliest promoters of the union between the secession and relief churches, which was consummated in 1847, and at the request of the united synod he drew up a narrative of ​ the union. He was appointed moderator of the synod of 1866, received the degree of D.D. from the college of Hamilton, Ohio, U.S.A.., and died in December 1868. In 1835 Mackelvie originated the Dick Club, before which he read an account of the poet Michael Bruce, whose birth and burial places were in the vicinity of Balgedie. This paper was extended and published in 1887 as 'The Life and Poems of Bruce,' It contains a biographv of the poet and an elaborate vindication of Brace's right to the authorship of certain of the 'paraphases' and 'odes' claimed by John Logan [q. v.] the divine. Mackelvie in 1850 edited the works of Dr. Hay of Kinross, with a memoir.
But the work for which Mackelvie is best known is the 'Annals and Statistics of the United Presbyterian Church. 'On this denominational encyclopaedia Mackelvie spent, from 1838 almost to his death, much time, money, and labour. It contains lists of students and sketches of congregations and of their ministers. When Mackelvie died the large mass of manuscripts was given to the synod by his widow and sons, and the synod appointed a large committee to arrange for the completion and publication of the volume. Dr. William Blair of Dunblane was appointed editor, and the work was published in 1873, under the synod's sanction. Mackelvie also wrote numerous articles for the 'United Secession Magazine,' the 'Voluntary Church Magazine,' and other periodicals.
[Sermons by the late William Mackelvie, D.D., with Memoir of the Author, by John Macfarlane, LL.D., 1865 ; Reminiscences of Mackelvie, in U.P. Magazine, 1864 ; Annals and Statistics of the United Presbyterian Church.]
T. B. J.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Mackenna, Nial

​MACKENNA, NIAL (fl. 1700), Irish poet and harper, was born in the Fews, co. Armagh. He afterwards settled at Mullaghcrew, co. Louth, and was the author of the words of a song known all over the northern half of Ireland from Louth to Mayo, 'Little Celia Connellan.' He also wrote 'Mo mhile slan duitse sios a Thriucha' ('A thousand healths to thee down at Triucha'), a well-known song to an ancient tune, as well as 'Ainnir dear ciuin' ('Pretty, gentle damsel'), and, among other pieces, 'Ni measamsa fein' ('I do not think myself).
[E. O'Reilly in Transactions of Iberno-Celtic Society, Dublin, 1820; information from Mr. Michael Callaghan of Creenane, co. Mayo.]
N. M.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Mackenzie, Dugal

​MACKENZIE, DUGAL (d. 1588?), Scottish author, was son of Dugal Mackenzie of Kishorn (natural son of John Mackenzie, ninth baron of Kintail). Dugal was educated at the school of Chanonry and the universities of Aberdeen (where he graduated M.A.) and Paris. On his return to Scotland, according to George Mackenzie (1669–1725) [q. v.], he was installed a regent in the university of Aberdeen, ‘with the unanimous applause of the whole masters of the University.’ Of this appointment there is no mention in the records of the university, which, however, are very imperfect for the sixteenth century.
Dempster, who styles him ‘David Makynius … vir magnæ et reconditæ eruditionis, memoria etiam in paucis rara,’ gives his date of death as ‘anno mdlxcviii,’ a possible misprint for mdxxcviii. The year 1588 is given by George Mackenzie, and agrees better with his parentage. According to Dempster he wrote ‘Carmina varia’ and ‘Epigrammata vtraque lingua.’ Tanner states that he published at Paris in 1578 ‘In Sibyllina Oracula,’ extracts from classical and patristic literature, 8vo.
[Dempster's De Scriptoribus Scotis, pp. 498–499; George Mackenzie's Writers of the Scots Nation, ii. 476–86; Tanner's Bibl. Brit. s.v. ‘Makynius;’ Alexander Mackenzie's History of the Clan Mackenzie, p. 116.]
P. J. A.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Mackenzie, Eneas

​MACKENZIE, ENEAS (1776–1832), topographer, was born in 1778 in Aberdeenshire, whence his parents removed to Newcastle-upon-Tyne when he was only three years old. After working with his father as a shoemaker, he became a baptist minister, and subsequently made an unsuccessful attempt to establish himself in business as a broker at Sunderland. Returning to Newcastle he opened a school, which he abandoned for his final occupation as a printer and publisher. He was chiefly instrumental in founding the Mechanics' Institution in Newcastle, where his bust is preserved. He was a liberal in politics, and one of the secretaries of the Northern Political Union. He died at Newcastle on 21 Feb. 1832. ​His works are : 1. 'An Historical, Topographical, and Descriptive View of the United States of America, and of Upper and Lower Canada,' Newcastle-upon-Tyne, 1820 (?), 8vo. 2. 'An Historical, Topographical, and Descriptive View of the County of Northumberland, and of those parts of the County of Durham north of the River Tyne, with Berwick-upon-Tweed, and brief Notices of celebrated places on the Scottish Border,' 2nd edit, enlarged, 2 vols. Newcastle-upon-Tyne, 1825, 4to. 3. 'A Descriptive and Historical Account of the Town and County of Newcastle-upon-Tyne, including the Borough of Gateshead,' 2 vols. Newcastle-upon-Tyne, 1827, 4to. 4. ' An Historical, Topographical, and Descriptive View of the County Palatine of Durham,' 2 vols. Newcastle-upon-Tyne, 1834, 4to. This work, left unfinished at Mackenzie's death, was completed by M. Ross. His portrait has been engraved.
[Richardson's Table-Book, historical division, iv. 112; Anderson's Book of English Topography.]
T. C.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Macken, John

​MACKEN, JOHN (1784?–1823), poet, born about 1784, was eldest son of Richard Macken, merchant, of Brookeborough, near Enniskillen, co. Fermanagh. In early life he carried on business at Ballyconnell, co. Cavan. He then came to Enniskillen, where he helped to establish, and was fellow-editor with his brother-in-law, Edward Duffy, of the 'Erne Packet' or 'Enniskillen Chronicle.' The first number was published on 10 Aug. 1808, and to it Macken contributed both prose and verse. In 1818 he went to London, and published at his own cost a volume of poetry, which proved a failure. After visiting Paris, Macken assisted in the compilation in London of the 'Huntingdon Peerage' (1821), published with the name of Henry Nugent Bell [q. v.] as the author. William Jordan [q. v.] wards issued several of his poems in the 'Literary Gazette,' and procured the publication of his third volume of poems, the 'Lays on Land.' Macken returned in bad health in 1821 to Ireland, where he resumed his position as joint-editor of the 'Enniskillen Chronicle.' He died on 7 May 1823, aged 39, and was buried in Aughaveagh parish church, where there is a memorial to him. Letitia Elizabeth Landon [q. v.] wrote a fanciful monody on his death in the 'Literary Gazette.'
Macken published: 1. 'Minstrel Stolen Moments, or Shreds of Fancy,' Dublin, 1814, 8vo (anon.) 2. 'The Harp of the Desert, containing the Battle of Algiers, with other Pieces in Verse. By Ismael Fitzadam, formerly able seaman on board the frigate,' 8vo, London, 1818; the pseudonym is wholly fanciful, and seems to have been resented by Lord Exmouth, the hero of Algiers, to whom, with the officers under his command, the book was dedicated. 3. 'Lays on Land,' 8vo, London, 1821, under the same pseudonym. Alaric Watts published several of Macken's poems in his 'Poetical Album' (1828-9), together with a long autobiographical letter from him, which is mostly apocryphal. At his best Macken is a very feeble imitator of Byron. A poem of some merit, entitled 'Napoleon Moribundus,' was long attributed to him; it was, however, written by Thomas McCarthy (d. 1820).
[Gent. Mag. for March 1870; O'Donoghue's Poets of Ireland, p. 148; Jerdan's Autobiography, iii. 39-45, and Appendices C and E.]
G. G.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1912 supplement/Veitch, James Herbert

​VEITCH, JAMES HERBERT (1868–1907), horticulturist, born at Chelsea on 1 May 1868, was elder son (by his wife Jane Hodge) of John Gould Veitch, the senior member of a family distinguished as nurserymen for a century. James Herbert's great-great-grandfather, John Veitch (1752–1839), came from Jedburgh to be land-steward to Sir Thomas Acland, and held nursery-ground at Killerton, near Exeter, in 1808. John Veitch's son James (1772–1863), James Herbert Veitch's great-grandfather, founded the Exeter nursery in 1832, employed the celebrated plant-collectors William and Thomas Lobb as gardeners there, and, in conjunction with his sons, purchased, in 1853, the business of Messrs. Knight and Perry at Chelsea. In 1864 the two gardens were separated, that at Chelsea being carried on by James Herbert's grandfather, James Veitch (1815–1869), and that at Exeter by the latter's younger brother Robert. In 1865 James Veitch took into partnership at Chelsea his sons, John Gould Veitch (1839–1870), James Herbert's father, and Harry James Veitch, James Herbert's uncle.
Veitch was educated at Crawford College, Maidenhead, and in technical subjects in Germany and France, beginning work at the Chelsea nursery in 1885. He was elected fellow of the Linnean Society in 1889 and was also fellow of the Horticultural Society. From 1891 to 1893 he made a tour round the world, going by way of Rome and Naples to Ceylon, thence overland from Cape Tuticorin to Lahore, thence to Calcutta, the Straits Settlements, Buitenzorg, Japan, Corea, Australia and New Zealand. Among the results of his journey was the introduction of the large winter-cherry, Physalis Francheti. A series of letters on the gardens visited during the journey was printed in the 'Gardener's Chronicle' (March 1892-Dec. 1894), and privately printed collectively as 'A Traveller's Notes' in 1896.
In 1898 the firm of James Veitch & Sons was formed into a limited company, of which Veitch became managing director. One of the first steps taken by the company, in accordance with the firm's earlier practice, was to send out Mr. E. H. Wilson to China and Tibet to collect plants. In 1906 Veitch prepared for private distribution, under the title of 'Hortus Veitchii,' a sumptuous history of the firm and its collectors, illustrated with portraits. The botanical nomenclature was revised by George Nicholson [q. v. Suppl. II]. Shortly afterwards Veitch retired from business, owing to failing health, his uncle, Mr. Harry James Veitch, resuming work in his place. He died of paralysis at Exeter on 13 Nov. 1907, and was buried there. Veitch married in 1898 Lucy Elizabeth Wood, who survived him without issue.
[Hortus Veitchii, pp. 89–91; Athenæum, 20 Nov. 1907; Proc. Linnean Soc. 1907–8, pp. 65–6; information supplied by the family.]
G. S. B.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1912 supplement/Vallance, William Fleming

​VALLANCE, WILLIAM FLEMING (1827–1904), marine painter, born at Paisley, on 13 Feb. 1827, was youngest son in the family of six sons and one daughter of David Vallance, tobacco manufacturer, by his wife Margaret Warden. William, whose father died in William's childhood, was sent at a very early age to work in a weaver's shop; but on the family's subsequent removal to Edinburgh he was apprenticed in 1841 as a carver and gilder to Messrs. Aitken Dott. During his apprenticeship he began to paint, and made a little money by drawing chalk-portraits; but he was twenty-three before he received any proper instruction. He then worked for a short time in the Trustees' Academy under E. Dallas, and later, from 1855, studied under R. S. Lauder [q. v.]. Vallance commenced to exhibit at the Royal Scottish Academy in 1849, but it was not until 1857 that he took up art as a profession. His earlier work had been chiefly portraiture and genre. After 1870 he painted, principally in Wicklow, Connemara, and Galway, a series of pictures of Lish life and character, humorous in figure and incident, and fresh in landscape setting. But a year or two spent in Leith in childhood had left its impress on his mind, and it was as a painter of the sea and shipping that he was eventually best known. His first pictures of this kind hovered between the Dutch convention and the freer and higher pitched art of his own contemporaries and countrymen. Gradually the influence of the latter prevailed, and in such pictures as 'Reading the War News' (1871), 'The Busy Clyde' (1880), and 'Knocking on the Harbour Walls' (1884) he attained a certain charm of silvery lighting, painting with considerable, if somewhat flimsy, dexterity. Probably, however, his feeling for nature found its most vital expression in the water-colours, often in body-colour, which he painted out-of-doors. Vallance was elected associate of the Royal Scottish Academy in 1875, and became academician in 1881. He died in Edinburgh on 30 Aug. 1904. On 2 Jan. 1856 he married in Edinburgh Elizabeth Mackie, daughter of James Bell, and by her had issue two sons and six daughters. His widow possesses a chalk portrait of him as a young man by John Pettie, R.A.
[Private information; Glasgow Evening News, 1888; catalogues and reports of R.S.A; Scotsman, 1 Sept. 1904.]
J. L. C.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1912 supplement/Vandam, Albert Dresden

​VANDAM, ALBERT DRESDEN (1843–1903), publicist and journalist, born in London in March 1843, was son of Mark Vandam, of Jewish descent, district commissioner for the Netherlands state lottery. Before he was thirteen he was sent to Paris, where he was privately educated and remained fifteen years. According to his own story, he was looked after in boyhood by two maternal great-uncles, who had been surgeons in Napoleon's army, had set up after Waterloo in private practice at Paris, enjoyed the entrée to the court of the second empire, and entertained at their house the leaders of Parisian artistic society. Vandam claimed that his youth was passed among French people of importance, and that he, at the same time, made the acquaintance of the theatrical and Bohemian worlds of the French capital (Vandam, My Paris Note-Book, pp. 1-3). He began his career as a journalist during the Prusso-Austrian war of 1866, writing for English papers, and he was correspondent for American papers during the Franco-Prussian war of 1870-71. Settling in London in 1871, he engaged in translation from the French and Dutch and other literary work, occasionally going abroad on special missions for newspapers. From 1882 to 1887 Vandam was again in Paris as correspondent for the 'Globe,' subsequently making his home anew in London.
Vandam's 'An Englishman in Paris,' which was published anonymously in 1892 (2 vols.), excited general curiosity. It collected gossip of the courts of Louis Philippe and the second empire of apparently a very intimate kind. Vandam wrote again on French life and history, often depreciatingly, in 'My Paris Note-Book' (1894), 'French Men and French Manners' (1895), 'Undercurrents of the Second Empire' (1897), and 'Men and Manners of the Second Empire' (1904), but he did not repeat the success of his first effort. He translated for the first time into English, under the title of 'Social Germany in Luther's Time,' the interesting autobiography of the sixteenth-century Pomeranian notary, Bartholomew Sastrow, which he published in 1902 (with ​introduction by H. A. L. Fisher). He died in London on 25 Oct. 1903. He married Maria, daughter of Lewin Moseley, a London dentist.
Other of Vandam's works, apart from translations, included:
* 'Amours of Great Men' (2 vols.), 1878.
* 'We Two at Monte Carlo,' 1890, a novel.
* 'Masterpieces of Crime,' 1892.
* 'The Mystery of the Patrician Club,' 1894.
* 'A Court Tragedy,' 1900.
[The Times, 27 Oct. 1903; Who's Who, 1903; Vandam's My Paris Note-Book and French Men and French Manners, 1894; private information.]
L. M.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Werburga

​WERBURGA or WERBURH, Saint (d. 700?), abbess of Ely, was daughter of Wulfhere [q. v.], king of Mercia, and St. Ermenhild. Her mother was daughter of Earconbert, king of Kent, and Sexburga (d. 699?) [q. v.], a sister of St. Etheldreda [q. v.] or Æthelthryth. Werburga was, according to Ely tradition, left by her mother as abbess of her convent in Sheppey when Ermenhild went to Ely, and at her mother's death succeeded her as abbess of Ely. Her uncle Ethelred of Mercia set her over some Mercian nunneries, as Trentham and Hanbury in Staffordshire, and Weedon in Northamptonshire. According to an early tradition (Flo. Wig., which says nothing of her very probable rule in Sheppey), she became a nun, and entered her great-aunt's monastery, where she worked miracles, on the death of her father Wulfhere in 675. She died at Trentham and was buried at Hanbury. The year of her death is given in the Chester annals as 690, though if there is any ground for the story that Ceolred of Mercia translated her body nine years after her death, when it is said to have been found incorrupt, she could not have died earlier than 700, which is generally given as an approximate date, for Ceolred's reign began in 709. There is no reason to doubt that her remains were carried to Chester during the Danish invasions, perhaps, according to tradition, in 875; it was believed that they then for the first time were subjected to decay, and that her body crumbled to dust. The assertion that she had lived as a nun at Chester in a monastery built by her father is probably ​a mere fable. The church of her shrine became a famous minster; it was restored by Earl Leofric [q. v.] in 1057, endowed as a Benedictine monastery by Hugh, earl of Chester [q. v.], in 1093, and is the church of the existing see of Chester. Her day in the calendar is 3 Feb., but William Worcester gives 21 June as the day of St. Werburga of Chester, and 3 Feb. as that of another unknown saint of her name. Goscelin [q. v.], who wrote a life of her, records two of her miracles. She was held specially to favour the prayers of women and children. A wholly fabulous story as to the foundation of Stone Priory, Staffordshire, represents her as solicited in marriage when a child by a heathen noble of her father's court named Werbod, who, in revenge for her rejection of his suit, caused Wulfhere to put her two brothers to death. Thirteen dedications to her of churches and chapels, not now all in existence, have been reckoned; seven are within the old Mercian kingdom. A life of St. Werburg in English verse was written by Henry Bradshaw [q. v.] in 1513.
W. H.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Werferth

1904 Errata appended.
​WERFERTH, WEREFRID, or HEREFERTH (d. 915), bishop of Worcester, was one of the little band of scholars whom King Alfred gathered round him, and to whom England owed the preservation of letters in the dark years of Danish invasion. On 7 June 873 (Wharton, Anglia Sacra, i. 471) he was consecrated bishop of Worcester by Archbishop Ethelred (d. 889) [q. v.], and is said, though doubtfully, to have been driven abroad by the Danes soon after, and to have gone into Gaul (ib. p. 474). Alfred seems to have called him to court about 884 (Sym. Dunelm ap. Petrie, Mon. Hist. Brit. p. 684), and to have given him a dignified position in his household, as one of his helpers in the restoration of letters in Wessex. Among other works Werferth, at the king's command, and probably after 890 (Anglia Sacra, i. 474), translated into Anglo-Saxon the ‘Dialogues’ of Pope Gregory; manuscripts of this translation are extant at Cambridge, London, and Oxford. He died in 915 (Flor. Wig. ap. Mon. Hist. Brit. i. 570).
A. M. C.-e.
Dictionary of National Biography, Errata (1904), p.278 N.B.— f.e. stands for from end and l.l. for last line
| Page | Col. | Line | |
| 297 | i | 23 | Werferth: omit now lost |
| | | 27-29 | for—a translation which Pits . . . in Cambridge. read Manuscripts of this translation are extant at Cambridge, Oxford, and London. |