OpenLLM-France/wikimedia huggingface dataset:
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1927 supplement/Van Horne, William Cornelius

​VAN HORNE, Sir WILLIAM CORNELIUS (1843–1915), Canadian railway builder and financier, the eldest son of Cornelius Covenhoven Van Horne, lawyer, by his second wife, Mary Minier, daughter of Benjamin Richards, was born at Chelsea, Will county, Illinois, U.S.A., 3 February 1843. His father's ancestors had emigrated from Holland to New Amsterdam in 1635; on his mother's side he came partly of German, partly of French stock. From 1851 to 1857 he attended the common schools in Joliet, Illinois. He then became a telegraph operator on the Chicago and Alton Railway, one of the lines which was opening up the west, and by energy and ability rose steadily. From 1874 to 1879 he was general manager of the Southern Minnesota Railway, and from 1879 to 1881 general superintendent of the Chicago, Milwaukee and St. Paul line.
In 1881 Van Horne accepted the general managership of the newly-formed Canadian Pacific Railway, the construction of which was one of the terms upon which British Columbia had entered the Canadian federation. Such was his energy that, though the contract did not call for the completion of the transcontinental line until 1891, the last spike of the main line was driven on 7 November 1885. From the first he saw that settlement must go hand in hand with construction, and showed foresight and ingenuity in his methods of encouraging and assisting immigration. In 1884 he became vice-president of the company, and in August 1888 he was succeeded as general manager ​by Thomas George (afterwards Baron) Shaughnessy. From 1888 to 1899 he was president of the company, and from 1899 to 1910 chairman of the board of directors.
Van Horne became a naturalized Canadian in 1888, and in 1894 was created an honorary K.C.M.G. From 1883 onwards he lived in Montreal, but he travelled so constantly that he claimed to have covered more miles than any other living man. From time to time he intervened in Canadian political life, and he was influential in the defeat of reciprocity with the United States in 1891 and 1911. From 1900 till his death he was increasingly interested in the development of Cuba, was president of the Cuba Company, and was largely responsible for the railway law of that island. He died in Montreal 11 September 1915, after an operation for an internal abscess.
Van Horne was tall and strong, with great physical vitality and power of work. In his later years he became very corpulent, but his energy never slackened. After a hard day's work he would spend the night at chess or poker, and turn to the next day's work with unexhausted ardour. His interests were very wide; he had great natural talent as a water-colourist, and made large collections of old masters, pottery, and palaeontological specimens. He was a member of the Unitarian body.
Van Horne married in 1867 Lucy Adaline, only daughter of Erastus Hurd, civil engineer, of Galesburg, Illinois, who survived him. They had one son and one daughter.
[Walter Vaughan, Sir William Van Horne, 1920.]
W. L. G.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1927 supplement/Tinworth, George

​TINWORTH, GEORGE (1843–1913), modeller, the fourth son of Joshua Tinworth, wheelwright, by his wife, Jane Daniel, of Woolwich, was born in Walworth 5 November 1843. He worked in his father's shop until he was twenty-four, spending his evenings first at the Lambeth School of Art (1861), and later at the Royal Academy Schools (1864). In 1867 he joined the pottery works of Messrs. Doulton, of Lambeth, and he remained with the firm until his death. He exhibited at the Royal Academy from 1866 until 1885. Three large terra-cotta panels shown there in 1874—‘Gethsemane’, ‘The Descent from the Cross’, and ‘The Foot of the Cross’—are now in the Edinburgh Museum. In 1875 a number of his small reliefs were highly praised by Ruskin in his Notes on the Royal Academy, vi, and, as a result, Tinworth was engaged by the architect George Edmund Street to collaborate with him in the large panel of the Crucifixion for the reredos of York Minster, and in the twenty-eight panels for the Guards' Chapel in St. James's Park. These reliefs, which led to the execution of many others of a similar type, show the artist at a level of achievement which he maintained in all his subsequent works. In 1883 an exhibition of his works, many of them very large and elaborate, was held in London at the Conduit Street Gallery.
Owing to the early influence of his mother, a strict dissenter, the majority of Tinworth's reliefs were scenes from Biblical history. Although conceived as reliefs the larger works were in reality groups of figures separately modelled and fired, and placed against a background, the borders of the panels being incised with descriptive quotations from the Bible. His work is full of realism and shows much technical skill, but it is the creation of a man who took no pains to remedy his early lack of education, and Tinworth cannot in any sense be considered a great artist. He executed a number of statues, among which are those of Henry Fawcett in Vauxhall Park, Charles Bradlaugh at Northampton, and Dr. Spurgeon in the Stockwell Orphanage; other large works by him are a sacred group in Whitworth Park, Manchester, panels in the pulpit and reredos of the English church, Copenhagen, a statue in St. Augustine's, Stepney, and a relief in the church of the Mediator, New York. All these are modelled: Tinworth made no pieces of actual sculpture.
Tinworth was awarded many foreign medals and prizes, and was made an officer of the French Academy in 1878. He married in 1881 Alice, third daughter of William Digweed; they had no children. He died in the train on his way from his home at Kew to the studio at Lambeth, 10 September 1913.
[E. W. Gosse, A Critical Essay on the Life and Works of George Tinworth, 1883; G. Tinworth, From Sunset to Sunset, 1908; private information.]
R. P. B.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Wild, Charles

​WILD, CHARLES (1781–1835), water-colour artist, was born in London in 1781, and applied himself specially to architectural subjects from the beginning of his career. In early youth he was articled to Thomas Malton (1748–1804) [q. v.] In 1803 he began to exhibit in the Royal Academy with two views of Christ Church, Oxford, followed in 1805 by drawings of Westminster Abbey, and in 1808 of York Cathedral. On 15 Feb. 1809 he was elected an associate of the ‘Old Watercolour’ Society, becoming a full member on 8 June 1812. He soon gave up his membership of the society, but was re-elected on 12 Feb. 1821, being made treasurer in 1822 and secretary in 1827; the latter post he transferred to Robert Hills in the same year. The names of his various published works indicate the general nature of his subjects, though the illustrations, being mostly in outline, give no indication of his powers as a colourist. The illustrations which he supplied for Pyne's ‘Royal Residences’ (published 1819) were, however, reproduced in colour after the style of Ackermann's ‘Microcosm.’ The originals were among his earliest exhibited works.
His six series of works on the English cathedrals were published as follows; ‘Canterbury,’ 1807; ‘York,’ 1809; ‘Chester,’ 1813; ‘Lichfield,’ 1813; ‘Lincoln,’ 1819; and ‘Worcester,’ 1823.
His travels on the continent resulted in his ‘Examples of the Ecclesiastical Architecture of the Middle Ages chiefly in France,’ and in a volume, published in 1833, of sketches in Belgium, Germany, and France. A miscellaneous collection, entitled ‘Twelve Beautiful Specimens, from the Cathedrals of England,’ bears no date. ‘Architectural Grandeur’ appeared in 1837, and consists of continental sketches ‘etched by John le Keux and others under the direction’ of Charles Wild between 1827, when his sight began to fail, and 1832, when he became blind.
Wild died on 4 Aug. 1835 at 35 Albemarle Street, Piccadilly, where he had lived since 1820, leaving, besides other issue, James William Wild [q. v.]
[Roget's ‘Old Watercolour’ Society, 1891, passim; Redgrave's Dictionary; Bryan's Dict. of Painters and Engravers; Gent. Mag. 1835, ii. 441.]
P. W.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Wild, George

1904 Errata appended.
​WILD or WILDE, GEORGE (1610–1665), bishop of Derry, born 9 Jan. 1609–10, was son of Henry Wild, a citizen of London. He entered Merchant Taylors' school in 1619, and was elected scholar of St. John's College, Oxford, in 1628. He matriculated on 13 Nov. 1629, was elected fellow in 1631, and graduated B.C.L. on 7 Feb. 1634–5, being incorporated at Cambridge in the same year. Several plays by Wild were acted at St. John's College between 1635 and 1637, among them ‘Euphormus,’ a Latin comedy, ‘Love's Hospital,’ and ‘The Converted Robber’; these are preserved in MS. in Brit. Mus. Addit. 14,047. Wild was chaplain to Laud, who presented him to the vicarage of St. Giles, Reading, and in 1640 to the rectory of Biddenden, Kent. When the civil war broke out he became preacher to the king at Oxford, and the degree of D.C.L. was conferred on him on 23 Nov. 1647. Wild preached in St. Mary's before ‘the great assembly of the House of Commons’ on 3 March 1642–3, and published his sermon at Oxford. He was turned out of his fellowship by the parliamentary visitors in 1648, and was sequestered from his living at Biddenden, but continued to officiate wherever he could during the Commonwealth. He preached in London at St. Gregory's on 15 March 1654–5 (Evelyn, Diary), and again on 25 Nov., being the last sermon allowed in a church under Cromwell's proclamation. ‘So pathetic was his discourse that it drew many tears from the auditory’ (ib.) After this Wild conducted the church of England service and administered the communion regularly in a house in Fleet Street (ib. 3 Aug. 1656, 2 Oct. 1658; Mossom). After the Restoration he was made bishop of Derry, and was one of twelve prelates consecrated by Bramhall in St. Patrick's, Dublin, on 27 Jan. 1660–1. Jeremy Taylor preached. Wild resided in his see, to which he was an active benefactor, giving away 500l. a year and preaching constantly (Mossom).
Wild had been considered a wit in earlier days, but was somewhat of an ascetic in his old age. Visiting Dublin to attend parliament, he died of heart disease on 29 Dec. 1665, and was buried in the choir of Christ Church Cathedral. Wild was unmarried, and bequeathed the little he had to various charitable purposes.
[Robinson's Reg. Merchant Taylors', i. 99; Foster's Alumni Oxon. 1500–1714; Laud's Works; Ware's Bishops, ed. Harris; Cotton's Fasti Ecclesiæ Hibernicæ; Funeral Sermon by Robert Mossom, D.D., the dean, who succeeded Wild as bishop of Derry.]
R. B-l.
Dictionary of National Biography, Errata (1904), p.280 N.B.— f.e. stands for from end and l.l. for last line
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# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Wild, James William

​WILD, JAMES WILLIAM (1814–1892), architect, son of Charles Wild [q. v.], was born on 9 March 1814. In 1830 he was articled to George Basevi [q. v.], under whom he turned his attention to Gothic studies, and at the conclusion of his pupilage was entrusted by his master with the designing and building of a country church. Independent practice rapidly followed, and before 1840 Wild had built six churches, including Coates church, Whittlesea; St. ​Laurence at Southampton, and Barton. The first and last are of Norman type, St. Laurence is early English. At Christ Church, Streatham, he subsequently attempted a Byzantine manner used also by him in St. Mark's Church, Alexandria, and in St. Martin's schools, Endell Street, London. He relied on the simple decoration and wide brick-wall spaces appropriate to this style to secure a characteristic building at the low figure (4l. a sitting) to which his employers restricted him. As an artist he keenly regretted their desire to subordinate propriety to cost, especially as exhibited in the restriction of colour decoration and the demand for galleries.
In 1842 Wild joined the expedition which the king of Prussia sent out under Dr. Lepsius to Egypt. From that date until 1848 he was continually abroad, travelling and sketching in Egypt, Syria, Turkey, Greece, Italy, and Spain. He is said to have been the discoverer of the method upon which the great pyramid was constructed.
Returning in 1848, he resumed practice with the above-mentioned church at Alexandria and schools at Endell Street, building at the same time the water tower at Great Grimsby, also in the Byzantine style. In 1851 he was appointed decorative architect to the Great Exhibition, and in 1853 was retained by the South Kensington Museum as an expert on Arabian art. During this employment he designed and carried out the Bethnal Green Museum, the architectural courts at South Kensington, the British legation at Teheran, and the eastern and western galleries of the Horticultural Gardens. The Bethnal Green Museum is without the forecourt and campanile intended by the architect. He designed but did not see executed the consular buildings at Alexandria (Royal Academy, 1870), and the proposed exhibition buildings on the site of the Imperial Institute. In 1878 Wild was appointed curator of the Soane Museum in Lincoln's Inn Fields, which post he held till his death in that building on 7 Nov. 1892. Enlargements of the museum had been carried out under his directions and from his designs.
[Builder, 1892, lxiii. 384; R.I.B.A. Journal, 1893, ix. 275; Times, 11 Nov. 1892.]
P. W.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Kirke, John

​KIRKE, JOHN (fl. 1638), dramatist, may be the John Kirke who is described in the will of Edward Kirke [q. v.], Spenser's friend, as the testator's godson. He was author of a popular tragi-comedy, entitled ‘The Seven Champions of Christendome,’ which was licensed for the press on 13 July 1638 (Arber, Stationers' Reg. iv. 424). License was given at the same time for the publication of ‘The Life and Death of Jack Straw and Watt Tyler by John Kirke’ (ib.), but of this piece nothing is known. The play was published under the title ‘The Seven Champions of Christendome. Acted at the Cockpit and at the Red Bull in St. John's Streete, with a generall liking, and never printed till the yeare 1638. Written by J. K.,’ London, 1638, 8vo. The dedication is addressed to the author's ‘much respected friend, Master John Waite.’ It is written in both prose and verse, with a few songs interspersed, but it has few literary merits. It was reprinted in ‘Old English Drama,’ 1830. An unnamed play by Kirke was burned by Sir Henry Herbert, licenser of stage plays, in May 1642, for ‘the offence that was in it,’ but on 8 June following Herbert allowed Kirke's ‘Irish Rebellion,’ a play that is not now known to be extant. The dramatist was author of the dedication to Sir Kenelm Digby prefixed to Shirley's ‘Martyred Soldier,’ 1638.
[Hunter's Chorus Vatum (Addit. MS. 24492, f. 91); Fleay's Biog. Chron. of English Drama, ii. 256.]
S. L.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Kirke, Thomas

​KIRKE, THOMAS (1650–1706), virtuoso, born on 22 Dec. 1650, was the son of Gilbert Kirke of Cookridge, near Leeds, Yorkshire, by Margaret, daughter of Francis Layton of Rawden in the same county. He was a distant relative and the intimate friend of Ralph Thoresby [q.v.], whom he often accompanied in his antiquarian rambles. In May 1677 he started on a three months' tour in Scotland, and kept a journal of his adventures, which Thoresby transcribed and placed in his museum (Diary, i. 320, 380, 403, 406). At Cookbridge he devised a 'most surprising' labyrinth, which attracted visitors from all parts (Thoresby, Ducatus Leodiensis, ed. Whitaker, p. 158). He was elected F.R.S on 30 Nov. 1693 (Thomson, Hist. Roy. Soc., Appendix, iv. p. xxix). He died on 24 April 1706. By his marriage, on 11 July 1678, to Rosamund, daughter and coheiress of Robert Abbot, he had a son, Thomas, who died in January 1709. He helped his father in the formation of a fine library and museum, which were sold by auction in 1710.
Kirke published anonymously a coarse satire entitled 'A Modern Account of Scotland... Written from thence by an English Gentleman' 4to, 1679, reprinted in 'Harleian Miscellany', ed. Park (vi. 135-42). The 'Journal' already mentioned was printed as an appendix to 'Letters addressed to R. Thoresby' (ii. 403). 'Journeying through Northumberland and Durham in 1677' appeared in 1845 in vol. vii of M. A. Richardson's 'Historical Tracts.' The original was preserved among the Thoresby MSS. To the 'Philosophical Transactions' he contributed two letters giving an 'Account of a Lamb suckled by a Wether Sheep for several months after the Death of the Ewe' (xviii, 263-4). Some of his correspondence is printed in Nichols's 'Illustrations of Literature' (i. 478, iv. 72-6). In the British Museum there is a letter from him to Sir Hans Sloane (Addit. MS. 4050, No. 924); also a humorous poetical 'Dialogue betwixt the Ghost of Thomas Kirke de Cookridge, Esq. and Milo Gale, rectro ​de Kigley,' 8 July 1706 (ib. 4457, No. 90.) Thoresby, (Diary, i. 463) wrote memoirs of Kirke intended for insertion in what he called the historical part of his 'Leeds Topography,' but it was never completed.
[Thoresby's Ducatus Leodiensis (Whitaker), p. 543 sq.; Gough's Brit. Topogr. ii. 569; Nichols' Illustr. of Lit. iv. 886; Taylor's Biog. Leodinensis, p. 161 n.]
G. G.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Kirkham, Walter de

​KIRKHAM, WALTER de (d. 1260), bishop of Durham, was apparently of humble parentage, but became one of the royal clerks. His name first appears in 1225, when he is frequently mentioned in connection with the exchequer, was clerk of the wardrobe, and is spoken of as 'specialis et familiaris master' (Cal. Rot. Lit. Clerus, in Turri Londiniensi, ii. 9 b, 49, 70 b). He received much ecclesiastical preferment, was chaplain of Eastrington, Yorkshire, in 1225, dean of Pencric in Ireland in 1226 (ib. p. 161b.), parson of Rulby, Yorkshire, in 1228, and dean if St. Martin's-le-Grand, London, on 10 Oct. 1229. He also held the prebend of Bole at York, and was appointed archdeacon of Salop some time after 1232. In 1241 he became dean of York, and on 21 April 1249, on the resignation of Nicholas de Farnham, he was elected bishop of Durham, in preference to the royal nominee, Aymer (d. 1260) [q. v.] The king would not give his consent till 27 Sept., and Kirkham was not consecrated at York till 5 Dec. His episcopate was uneventful. He appears in some commissions on affairs with Scotland, and in 1257 was at Stirling. He was present at the parliament of April 1253, and took part in the excommunication of the violators of the charters. In 1255 he was attacked by John de Baliol, some of whose servants he had excommunicated. The king, however, interfered in his favour. In the 'Osney Annaly,' where he is called 'specialis regis,' he is said to have signed a blank charter at the king's request in 1255, and to have been sent by Henry with it to the Roman curia, where he pledged the English church for nine thousand marks (Ann. Mon. iv. 109, 110). In 1258 Kirkham quarelled with Henry, and refused to come to court (Matt. Paris, v. 675). He died, at a great age, at Howden, on 9 Aug. 1260, and was buried at Durham. He is described as of a generous and kindly disposition, and is said to have enjoyed a high reputation (Chron. Lanercost, p. 69; Flores Hist. ii. 454). He is, however, alleged to have connived at an attempt to deprive Bishop Farnham, his predecessor at Durham, of his share of the revenues of the see (Matt. Paris, v. 83). He had inherited a long lawsuit with the abbey of St. Albans, which he eventually composed (ib. vi. 326-32, 395; Flores Hist. ii. u.s.) He gave the chruches of Hartburn and Eglingham for the support of hospitalities at St. Albans (Matt. Paris, vi. 317-21). He compelled one of the barons of his palatinate, as a punishment for wrongdoing, to assign a sum of money for the support of Students of Oxford. Some 'Constitutiones' which he issued in 1233 are printed in Wilkins's 'Concilia,' i. 704-8.
[Graystone's Chroncles in Hist. Dun. Scriptt. Tres, pp. 42-4 (Surtees Soc.); Matt. Paris, Annales Monastici, Flores Historiarum (these three are in the Rolls Series); Chronicle of Lanercost (Bannatyne Club); Tanner's Bibl. Brit.-Hib. p. 458; Le Neve's Fasti, i?73, iii 121, 174, 287; Godwin, De Praesulibus, vol. Richardson, p. 742; Surtees's Hist. of Durham, i. p. xxix.]
C. L. K.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Kirkby, John de

​KIRKBY, JOHN de (d. 1352), bishop of Carlisle, was an Augustinian canon at Carlisle, and afterwards prior of the house. He was elected bishop of Carlisle on 8 May 1332, the royal assent was given on 18 May, the temporalities were restored on 9 July, and on 19 July he was consecrated by William de Melton, archbishop of York, at South Burton, near Beverley (Stubbs, Reg. Sacr. Angl. p. 53). He was present at the installation of Richard de Bury as bishop of Durham on 5 June 1334, and when Edward Baliol did homage for Scotland at Newcastle a fortnight later. In September 1337, in company with Thomas Wake and other barons, he plundered Teviotdale and Nithsdale during twelve days. When in October the Scots retaliated by invading England, and burnt the suburbs of Carlisle, the Lords Percy and Neville came to the rescue, and the Scots were defeated (17 Oct.). At the beginning of November the Scots besieged the English in Edinburgh; Kirkby and Ralph Dacre collected the men of Westmoreland and Cumberland, and marching into Scotland raised the siege. In 1341 the treasury was ordered to pay Kirkby 200l., part of arrears of 529l. 4s. due to him for carrying on the war with the Scots. Next year he accompanied Henry of Lancaster, earl of Derby, in an expedition to raise the siege of Lochmaben Castle. In 1343 he was a commissioner with Richard de Bury to treat for peace with Scotland (Fœdera, ii. pt. ii. p. 1230), and next year was directed to assist Edward Baliol (ib. iii. pt. i. p. 21). In 1345 the Scots, under Sir William Douglas, made a raid into Cum​berland, and were defeated by Kirkby and Robert Oggill; the bishop, who distinguished himself by his valour, was unhorsed during the engagement and nearly captured. According to Geoffrey le Baker, Kirkby was also one of the English leaders at the battle of Neville's Cross on 17 Oct. 1346 (p. 87, ed. Thompson). In 1348 he was sent to escort Joan, daughter of Edward III, to her affianced husband, Alfonso of Castile. Kirkby died in 1352; permission to elect his successor was granted on 3 Dec. 1352. His episcopate was a troublous one, owing to the frequent Scottish raids. He also suffered from disorders within his own borders, and on at least three occasions, in 1333, 1337, and 1342, was attacked by brigands in the neighbourhood of his cathedral city (Raine, Letters from Northern Registers, pp. 364–8, Rolls Ser.) As a consequence he was frequently compelled to hold his ordinations outside his diocese. Kirkby is said to have been engaged in many disputes with his chapter and archdeacons, and to have been excommunicated for the non-payment of tenths on certain lands to the pope.
[Walsingham's Historia Anglicana, i. 254, 266–7 (Rolls Ser.); Chron. Lanercost, pp. 276–277, 291–3 (Bannatyne Club); Nicolson and Burn's Hist. Westmorland and Cumberland, ii. 264–6; Jefferson's Carlisle, pp. 194–5; Le Neve's Fasti Eccl. Angl. iii. 235.]
C. L. K.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Sidney, Mary

​SIDNEY, MARY, Countess of Pembroke. [See Herbert, Mary, 1555?–1621.]
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Sidney, Dorothy

​SIDNEY, Lady DOROTHY, afterwards Countess of Sunderland) (1617–1684), 'Sacharissa.' [See Spencer.]