OpenLLM-France/wikimedia huggingface dataset:
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1901 supplement/Butt, Charles Parker

​BUTT, Sir CHARLES PARKER (1830–1892), judge, third son of the Rev. Phelpes John Butt of Wortham Lodge, Bournemouth, by Mary, daughter of the Rev. John Eddy, vicar of Toddington, Gloucestershire, born on 24 June 1830, was educated under private tutors. On 22 Jan. 1849 he was admitted student at Lincoln's Inn, where he was called to the bar on 17 Nov. 1854, and elected bencher on 11 Jan. 1869. Whilst acting as correspondent for the 'Times' at Constantinople he practised in the consular courts, where he gained an experience of mercantile and maritime law and usage which on his return to England stood him in good stead on the northern circuit and in the admiralty court. Though by no means a consummate lawyer he was an eminently skilful advocate, and, on taking silk (8 Dec. 1868), succeeded to much of the practice which was liberated by the advancement of Sir William Baliol Brett (afterwards Viscount Esher) [q. v. Suppl.] to the bench.
Butt unsuccessfully contested Tamworth in the liberal interest in February 1874, but was returned to parliament for Southampton on 6 April 1880. His maiden speech was an able vindication on broad constitutional grounds of Charles Bradlaugh's right to take the oath (1 July). On the Irish question, so long as he remained in parliament, he was an unwavering supporter of the government. He succeeded Sir Robert Phillimore as justice of the high court, probate, divorce, and admiralty division, on 31 March 1883, and was knighted on 20 April following. He succeeded Sir James Hannen as president of the division on 29 Jan. 1891, He was a member, but hardly a working member, of the royal commission appointed on 1 Nov. 1884 to investigate the causes of loss of life at sea. His health was already gravely impaired, and a painful malady, which latterly rendered continuous attention almost impossible, was complicated by an attack of influenza in the winter of 1891, and terminated in his death from cardiac paralysis at Wiesbaden on 25 May 1892. In such circumstances a greater lawyer must have failed to establish a reputation commensurate with his powers.
Butt married, on 23 Dec, 1878, Anna Georgina, daughter of C. Ferdinand Rodewald.
[Foster's Men at the Bar; Lincoln's Inn Records; Burke's Peerage (1892); Members of Parliament (official lists, App.); Hansard's Parl. Deb. 3rd ser. ccliii. 1302, cclvii. 313, cclxvii. 470; Parl. Papers (H.C.), 1 887, C. 6227; Vanity Fair, 12 Feb. 1887; Whitehall Rev. 28 May 1892; Times, 27 May 1892; Ann. Reg. 1892, ii. 174; Law Times, 4 June 1892; Law Journ. 4 June 1892; Solicitor's Journ. 28 May 1892; Men and Women of the Time (1891); Law Rep. App. Cases (1887) p. xviii, (1891) Memoranda.]
J. M. R.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1901 supplement/Bury, Viscount

​BURY, Viscount. [See Keppel, William Coutts, seventh Earl of Albemarle, 1832–1894.]
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1901 supplement/Butler, George (1819-1890)

​BUTLER, GEORGE (1819–1890), canon of Winchester, born at Harrow on 11 June 1819, was the eldest child of George Butler [q. v.], head-master of Harrow School, by his wife Sarah Maria, eldest daughter of John Gray of Wembley Park, Middlesex. He entered Harrow School in April 1831 under Charles Thomas Longley [q. v.], and after keeping four terms at Trinity College, Cambridge, was admitted at Oxford ad eundem, matriculating from Exeter College on 16 Oct. 1840. His father, who desired this migration, thought he had wasted his time at Cambridge, but in 1841 he won the Hertford scholarship at Oxford, and was elected a scholar of Exeter College. In 1842 he was elected Petrean fellow, and in 1843 he took a first class in classics, graduating B.A. on 4 Dec. 1845 and M.A. on 30 April 1846. Among his friends at Oxford were Lord Coleridge, James Anthony Froude, and Sir George Ferguson Bowen. In 1848 he was appointed to a tutorship at Durham University. In 1850 he returned to Oxford, where he was for several years a public examiner, and in 1852 he vacated his fellowship by marriage. In that year he introduced geographical lectures at Oxford, and afterwards gave lectures on art in the Taylor building, publishing his lectures in 1852 with the title ‘Principles of Imitative Art,’ London, 8vo. In 1854 he was ordained deacon as curate of St. Giles's, Oxford, and in 1855 priest. In 1855 he was classical examiner to the secretary of state for war, and in 1856 examiner for the East India Company's civil service. From 1856 to 1858 he was principal of Butler's Hall, a private college at Oxford, to which he gave the name, and from 1857 to 1865 he was vice-principal of Cheltenham College. In 1866 he was appointed principal of Liverpool College, where he remained until his instalment as canon of Winchester on 7 Aug. 1882. While at Liverpool he and his wife laboured actively for the abolition of the state regulation of prostitutes in connection ​with the army. Butler died in London on 14 March 1890, and was buried in the cemetery at Winchester. On 8 Jan. 1852 he was married at Corbridge in Northumberland to Josephine Elizabeth, fourth daughter of John Grey (1785–1868) [q. v.] She survived him, and published in 1892 'Recollections of George Butler,' Bristol, 8vo. He left several children.
Besides the work already mentioned, and several single sermons, Butler published: 1. 'Village Sermons,' Oxford, 1857, 8vo. 2. 'Sermons preached in Cheltenham College Chapel,' Cambridge, 1862, 8vo. He also edited: 1. 'Codex Virgilianus qui nuper ex bibliotheca Abbatis M. L. Canonici Bodleiame accessit, cum Wagneri textu collatus,' Oxford, 1854, 8vo. 2. 'The Public Schools Atlas of Modern Geography,' 1872, fol.; new edit. 1885, 8vo. 3. 'The Public Schools Atlas of Ancient Geography,' 1877, 8vo.
[Mrs. Butler's Recollections of George Butler; Harrow School Register, ed. Welch, 1801-9.3, p. 89; Boase's Register of Exeter College (Oxford Hist. Soc.), 1894, pp. 183, 222.]
E. I. C.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1901 supplement/Bufton, Eleanor

​BUFTON, ELEANOR (afterwards Mrs. Arthur Swanborough) (1840?–1893), actress, was born in Wales about 1840 and made her first professional appearance at Edinburgh as chambermaid in 'The Clandestine Marriage.' In 1854 she played at the St. James's Vanette in 'Honour before Titles.' Joining the Princess's company under Charles Kean, she was on 15 Oct. 1856 Hermia in 'A Midsummer Night's Dream.' On 1 July 1857 she was Ferdinand in the 'Tempest,' a curious experiment, said to have been made for the first time. She was also Regan in 'Lear.' From the Princess's she passed to the Strand, then and long afterwards under the management of Mrs. Swanborough, whose son Arthur she married. There she played Miss Wharton in Craven's 'Post-boy' on 31 Oct. 1860; original parts in 'Christmas Boxes' by Edwards and Mayhew, 'Observation and Flirtation,' the 'Old Story,' the 'Idle ’Prentice,' and many characters in burlesque. On 4 April 1866, at the St. James's, she was Hero in 'Much Ado about Nothing.' She was also seen as Julia in the 'Rivals,' Sophia in the 'Road to Ruin,' Mrs. Ferment in the 'School of Reform,' &c. At the Strand, on 5 Feb. 1870, she was Cicely Homespun in the 'Heir at Law.' On the opening of the Court on 25 Jan. 1871 she was the first Miss Flamboys in Mr. Gilbert's 'Randall’s Thumb,' and on 29 May the first Estella in the same author's adaptation of 'Great Expectations.' A railway accident, of which she was a victim, interrupted her career, depriving her to some extent of memory. She appeared, however, at the Lyceum in 1879, in 'Book the Third, Chapter the First.' She more than once supported Mr. J. S. Clark as Mrs. Bloomly in the 'Widow Hunt,' and was on 30 Oct. 1882 Mrs. Birkett in a revival at the Criterion of 'Betsy.' In December 1872 a benefit was given her at Drury Lane, when she played Constance in the 'Love Chase.' She died on 9 April 1893, and was buried in Brompton cemetery. Miss Bufton's good looks and tall straight figure made her very acceptable in the heroes of burlesque, and in 'Jonathan Wild,' 'Paris,' 'Tell,' and such pieces, she enjoyed much popularity. In comedy she never rose above the second rank.
[Personal Recollections; Morley's Journal of a London Playgoer; Cole's Charles Kean; Pascoe's Dramatic List; Scott and Howard's Blanchard; Era Almanack, various years; Sunday Times, various years; Era, 15 April 1893.]
J. K.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1901 supplement/Burgess, Joseph Tom

​BURGESS, JOSEPH TOM (1828–1886), antiquary, born at Cheshunt in Hertfordshire on 17 Feb. 1828, was the son of a bookseller at Hinckley, by his wife, a native of Leicestershire. He was educated at Hinckley at the school of Joseph Dare, and subsequently at the school of C. C. Nutter, the unitarian minister. While very young he became local correspondent of the 'Leicestershire Mercury,' and for a short time was in a solicitor's office in Northampton, but in 1843 he was engaged as reporter on the staff of the 'Leicester Journal,' and retained the post for eighteen months. At the end of that time he became a wood engraver at Northampton, and for some years divided his attention between landscape painting, wood engraving, literature, and journalism. In 1848 he went to London, but returned to Northampton in 1850 to study the arts.
He had attained some proficiency as a landscape painter when he agreed to accompany Dr. David Alfred Doudney [q.v. Suppl.] to Ireland to found a printing school at Bonmahon. Subsequently, after a hasty marriage, he became editor of the 'Clare Journal' for six years, distinguishing himself as a champion of industrial progress. He also collected materials for a county history, with the title 'Land of the Dalcassians,' but, though well subscribed for, the legendary part only was published, and was speedily out of print.
In 1857 he removed to Bury, where he undertook the editorship of the 'Bury Guardian.' Six years later he removed to Swindon and became editor of the 'North Wilts Herald.' The 'Herald' came to an end in the following year, and Burgess, who had suffered serious pecuniary loss, removed to Leamington in April 1865, where for thirteen years he was editor of the 'Leamington Courier.' In 1878 he accepted a more lucrative appointment as editor of 'Burrows's Worcester Journal,' and of the 'Worcester Daily Times.' Five years later, on the failure of his health, he removed to London, where he spent three years, chiefly in researches at the British Museum. He died in the Warneford Hospital, while on a visit to Leamington, on 4 Oct. 1886. On 1 June 1876 he was elected a fellow of the Society of Antiquaries. He was twice married, his second wife being Emma Daniell of Uppingham, whom he married in 1863.
Among other works Burgess was the author of:
* 'Life Scenes and Social Sketches,' London, 1862, 8vo.
* 'Angling: a Practical Guide to Bottom-fishing, Trolling, &c.,' London, 1867, 8vo; revised by Mr. Robert Bright Marston, 1895.
* 'Old English Wild Flowers,' London, 1868, 8vo.
* 'Harry Hope's Holidays,' London, 1871, 8vo.
* 'The Last Battle of the Roses,' Leamington, 1872, 4to.
* 'Historic Warwickshire,' London, 1876, 8vo; 2nd edit., with memoir by Joseph Hill, Birmingham, 1892-1893, 8vo.
* 'Dominoes, and how to play them,' London, 1877, 8vo.
* 'A Handbook to Worcester Cathedral,' London, 1884, 16mo.
* 'Knots, Ties, and Splices: a Handbook for Seafarers,' London, 1884, 8vo.
[Memoir prefixed to Historic Warwickshire, 1892; Leamington Spa Courier, 9 Oct. 1886.]
E. I. C.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1901 supplement/Buck, Adam

​BUCK, ADAM (1759–1833), portrait painter, elder son of Jonathan Buck, a silversmith of Castle Street, Cork, was born there in 1759. With a younger brother, Frederick, he studied art from an early age, and acquired some repute in youth in his native city as a painter of miniature portraits in water-colour. Coming to London in 1795, he settled at 174 Piccadilly, and soon gained popularity. He not only continued to paint miniature portraits in water-colour, but produced many portraits in oil and crayon of larger size. Between 1795 and 1833, the year of his death, he exhibited at the academy as many as 171 pictures. He also exhibited ten other works at the British Institution and at the Society of British Artists in Suffolk Street. But the pictures that he exhibited represent a small proportion of his labours. Numerous pictures by him were reproduced in coloured engravings, mostly in stipple, and had a wide circulation. Of extant coloured engravings after his pictures the originals of as many as forty or fifty are not known to have been exhibited. Among his sitters were the Earl of Cavan, the Duke of York, Sir Francis Burdett, Major Cartwright, John Cam Hobhouse, and John Burke, author of the ‘Peerage,’ and his family. His portraits were carefully finished, although they were stiff in treatment and design.
Buck was at the same time busily employed as a teacher of portrait painting, and in 1811 he brought out a volume entitled ‘Paintings on Greek Vases,’ which contained a hundred designs, not only drawn, but also engraved by himself. This work, which was planned to continue a similar compilation by Sir William Hamilton, is now extremely scarce.
In 1807 he moved from Piccadilly to Frith Street, Soho, and after several changes of residence died at 15 Upper Seymour Street West in 1833. Buck was married and left two sons, Alfred and Sidney; the latter followed his father's profession.
A miniature portrait of Buck by himself dated 1804, is in the Sheepshanks gallery of the Victoria and Albert Museum, London.
[Notes and Queries, 11 May 1901, by Colonel Harold Malet; Redgrave's Dict. of Artists.]
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1901 supplement/Buckle, Claude Henry Mason

​BUCKLE, Sir CLAUDE HENRY MASON (1803–1894), admiral, one of a family long distinguished in our naval records, grandson of Admiral Matthew Buckle (1716–1784) and son of Admiral Matthew Buckle (1770–1855), entered the Royal Naval College at Portsmouth in August 1817. In March 1819 he passed out, and after serving for a few months in the Channel was appointed to the Leander, going out to the East Indies. In her and in her boats he was actively employed during the first Burmese war and at the capture of Rangoon in May 1824. Returning to England in January 1826 he was appointed in April to the Ganges, going out to the South American station as flagship of Sir Robert Waller Otway [q. v.], and in her was promoted to be lieutenant on 17 April 1827. He afterwards (1829-33) served in the North Star and the Tweed, on the West Indian station; from 1833 to 1836 was flag-lieutenant to Sir William Hargood [q. v.] at Plymouth; and on 4 May 1836 was promoted to the rank of commander. From December 1841 to October 1845 he commanded the Growler, on the coast of Brazil and afterwards on the west coast of Africa, and in February 1845 led the boats of the squadron under the command of Commodore William Jones at the destruction of several barracoons up the Gallinas river. On returning to England he was advanced to post rank, 6 Nov. 1845. In January 1849 he was appointed to the Centaur as flag-captain to Commodore Arthur Fanshawe, going out as commander-in-chief on the west coast of Africa, where, in December 1849, being detached in command of the boats of the squadron, together with the steamer Teazer and the French steamer Rubis, he 'administered condign punishment' to a horde of pirates who had established themselves in the river Geba and had made prizes of some small trading vessels. Towards the end of 1850 Buckle was compelled by failing health to return to England; and in December 1852 he was appointed to the Valorous, steam frigate, attached during 1853 to the Channel squadron, and in 1854 to the fleet up the Baltic under Sir Charles Napier [q. v.], and more particularly to the flying squadron under Rear-admiral (Sir) James Hanway Plumridge in the operations in the Gulf of Bothnia. In the end of 1854 the Valorous ​was sent out to the Black Sea, where she carried the flag of (Sir) Houston Stewart [q. v.] at the reduction of Kinburn. On 5 July 1855 Buckle was nominated a C.B. From 1857 to 1863 he was superintendent of Deptford dockyard, and on 14 Nov. 1863 was promoted to the rank of rear-admiral. In November 1867 he was appointed commander-in-chief at Queenstown, where he remained until he retired, under Mr. Childers's scheme, in 1870. He was made a vice-admiral on 1 April 1870, K.C.B. on 29 May 1875, admiral on 22 Jan. 1877, and was granted a good-service pension on 30 Oct. 1885. He died on 10 March 1894. He married in 1847 Harriet Margaret, eldest daughter of Thomas Deane Shute of Bramshaw, Hampshire, and left issue one son.
[O'Byrne's Naval Biog. Dict., 2nd edit.; Times, 12 March 1894; Navy Lists.]
J. K. L.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/William the Clerk

​WILLIAM the Clerk (fl. 1208–1226), Anglo-Norman poet, was the author of five Norman-French works. The most important is a romance belonging to the Arthurian cycle, called ‘Frégus et Galienne, ou Le Roman du Chevalier au bel escu,’ which was edited by Francisque Michel for the Abbotsford in 1841 (4to). It relates the story of a shepherd youth named Frégus, who, struck with admiration of Arthur and his court as they passed on a hunt, persuaded his parents to allow him to try his fortunes as a knight of King Arthur. He went to court, and, though received with ridicule by some of the knights, was commissioned by Arthur to fight the gigantic ‘Chevalier au Lion.’ This he did, compelling the knight to go to court and submit. But in the course of his mission he had met with Galienne, who became so enamoured of him that when he coldly repulsed her advances she left her father's castle in despair. Stricken with remorse and awakened love he went in quest of her, and after various adventures found her. Returning to Arthur's court, Frégus and Galienne wind up the romance with their happy marriage.
William wrote also a ‘Bestiary’ (extant in MS. Royal 16 E. viii and MS. Cotton. Vesp. A. vii), in which in the article on the dove there is an allusion to the interdict in England which places the time of composition of the book in 1208. The ‘Besant de Dieu,’ a serious poem, which belongs to the end of his life, contains some outspoken strictures on the Albigensian crusade, and refers to the death of Louis VIII in his expedition to the south; a manuscript is preserved in the Bibliothèque Nationale at Paris. Both the ‘Bestiary’ and the ‘Besant’ are printed in Barbazon's ‘Fabliaux et Contes’ (Paris, 1808, vols. iii. and iv.). The ‘Besant’ has also been edited by Ernst Martin (Halle, 1869).
The two fabliaux he wrote must belong to an earlier period than this last. One, called ‘La Malle Honte,’ seems to be a kind of satire and directed against the king of England, the sting of it lying in the title. The same subject was treated by Hugh of Cambray. ‘Le Prêtre et Alison, ou La Fille à la Bourgeoise,’ relates the trick played by the parents of a girl on her priest-lover. They feigned assent to his advances, but substituted a prostitute for their daughter in her room. The priest did not find out his mistake till the morning.
The noteworthy feature about William's works is their democratic character. Frégus, a shepherd boy, becomes a knight and marries a lady of rank; the king is twitted with some shameful actions by the tale of ‘La Malle Honte;’ and in the ‘Besant de Dieu’ and ‘Le Prêtre et Alison’ the papacy and the priesthood are respectively attacked.
W. E. R.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/William the Trouvère

Adgar in the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography.
​WILLIAM the Trouvère (fl. 1220?), poet, was first called Adgar. Working at the instance of one Gregory, he translated some forty or forty-one tales into octosyllabic Anglo-Norman verse, from the Latin collection of ‘Miracles of the Virgin’ which he found in the ‘almarie’ or bookcase of St. Paul's. His work in the Egerton MS. 612 has been printed by Neuhaus in Förster's ‘Altfranzösische Bibliothek,’ 1886.
M. B.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Shacklock, Richard

​SHACKLOCK, RICHARD (fl. 1575), catholic divine, was possibly of Lancashire extraction, and descended from the Shacklock family of Mostyn (Booker, Hist. of Blackley, p. 183). He was educated at Trinity College, Cambridge, where he graduated B.A. 1555–6, M.A. 1559, and was elected fellow of his college in the latter year. Shortly after Elizabeth's accession his devotion to the catholic faith led him to retire to Louvain, where he devoted himself to the study of civil law. The date of his death has not been ascertained.
He published: A translation of the letter of Osorio de Fonseca to Queen Elizabeth, Antwerp, 1565, 8vo (running title, ‘A Pearle for a Prince’), answered by Hartwell (see Strype, Annals, i. ii. 84); and Cardinal Hosius's treatise, ‘De Heresibus’ under the title, ‘A most excellent treatise of the begynning of heresyes in oure tyme,’ Antwerp, 1565. He was also author of ‘Epitaphium in mortem Cuthberti Scoti quondam episcopi Cestrensis,’ which was translated into English and answered by Thomas Drant [q. v.]
W. A. S.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Shadrach, Azariah

​SHADRACH, AZARIAH (1774–1844), Welsh evangelical writer, was born on 24 June 1774 at Garn Deilo fach in the parish of Llanfair, near Fishguard, Pembrokeshire, being the fifth son of Henry and Ann Shadrach, natives of the neighbouring parish of Nevern. He had scarcely any educational opportunities, but when grown up he engaged himself as a farm servant to a local independent minister, who was reputed to possess a good library, on the condition that he should be allowed access to his employer's books after his day's work. At his master's suggestion he decided to enter the independent ministry, and in 1798 he went, as was then usual, on a preaching tour to North Wales, where he was induced by Dr. George Lewis [q. v.] to remain, undertaking the duties of schoolmaster, first at Hirnant, near Bala, and then at Pennal and Derwenlas, near Machynlleth. Towards the end of 1802 he was ordained pastor of the independent church at Llanrwst, at a salary of 5l. a year. Here he was largely instrumental in suppressing the wakes or ‘mabsantau’ which then flourished in the district. In November 1806 he removed to North Cardiganshire, where he had charge of the churches of Talybont and Llanbadarn. To these he added in 1819 the charge of a new church which he then formed at Aberystwyth, and for which, two years later, he built a chapel, becoming himself responsible for its cost. Owing to ill health he resigned his charges in August 1835, but continued to preach until his death on 18 Jan. 1844. He was buried at St. Michael's Church, Aberystwyth.
Shadrach was the author of no less than twenty-seven works, all, with one exception, written in Welsh. Some of them ran into several editions, and it is estimated that sixty thousand copies of his various books were sold altogether. They were mostly homiletic in character, being sketches of sermons he had previously delivered. Owing to his liberal use of allegory he has been styled, somewhat extravagantly, ‘the Bunyan of Wales.’ Perhaps his best work was ‘A Looking Glass; neu Ddrych y Gwrthgiliwr,’ &c. (Carmarthen, 1807, and numerous reprints), which was translated into English by Edward S. Byam, sometime chief magistrate of ​Mauritius, under the title ‘The Backslider's Mirror: a popular Welsh treatise, translated from the ancient British Language,’ London, 1845. Shadrach was credited with the possession of a prophetic faculty, and is specially remembered about Aberdovey on account of a curious ballad which he wrote in 1836, foretelling many unforeseen events which have since come to pass in the district. To his last work, ‘Cerbyd o Goed Libanus’ (Aberystwyth, 1840), are appended some autobiographical notes.
D. Ll. T.