OpenLLM-France/wikimedia huggingface dataset:
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Parsons, Philip (1594-1653)

​PARSONS, PHILIP (1594–1653), principal of Hart Hall (now Hertford College), Oxford, was born in London in December 1594. He was admitted to Merchant Taylors' School in 1606, whence he was elected to St. John's College, Oxford, in 1610. He matriculated on 26 June 1610, and was chosen fellow in June 1613. He graduated B.A. on 6 June 1614, and M.A. on 9 May 1618; in the latter degree he was incorporated at Cambridge in 1622. In April 1624 he was an unsuccessful candidate for the office of proctor at Oxford. Afterwards he went to Italy, studied medicine, and took the degree of M.D. at Padua. Returning to England, he was called to the bar of the House of Commons to make a profession of his religion, which he did on 2 April 1628. On 20 June 1628 he was incorporated at Oxford as M.D. of Padua. He was made principal of Hart Hall on 15 April 1633. In March 1649 the committee for the advance of money granted an order to John Maudit, the sub-rector of Exeter College, to summon Parsons to show his reason for the non-payment of rent due to the college. He died on 1 May 1653, and was buried in Great Barrington Church, Gloucestershire.
Between 1611 and 1621 Parsons wrote a Latin comedy in iambic verse, entitled ‘Atalanta,’ which he dedicated to Laud, then ​president of St. John's College. The scene is laid in Arcadia. The manuscript is in the British Museum (Harl. MS. 6924).
B. P.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Parsons, John (1742-1785)

​PARSONS, JOHN (1742–1785), physician, son of Major Parsons of the dragoons, who resided principally in Yorkshire, was born at York in 1742. He was educated at Westminster School, being admitted a king's scholar in 1756. In 1759 he was elected to Christ Church, Oxford, where he matriculated on 19 June. He graduated B.A. 27 April 1763, and M.A. 6 June 1766. As an undergraduate he contributed a Latin ode to the ‘Oxford Poems’ (1761) on the death of George II. He subsequently studied medicine at Oxford, London, and Edinburgh, evinced a preference for natural history and botany, and while at Edinburgh in 1766 was awarded the Hope prize medal for the best Hortus Siccus. In 1766 (or 1767) he was elected the first professor of anatomy on the foundation of Drs. Freind and Lee at Christ Church, Oxford, though still without a medical degree. He graduated M.B. on 12 April 1769, and M.D. 22 June 1772. He was elected reader in anatomy in the university in 1769, physician to the Radcliffe infirmary 6 May 1772, and first clinical professor on Lord Lichfield's foundation 1780–5. Under his direction a commodious anatomical theatre was built at Oxford. Parsons was admitted a candidate of the Royal College of Physicians on 30 Sept. 1774, and fellow exactly a year later, 30 Sept. 1775. In 1784 he delivered the Harveian oration.
He died of fever on 9 April 1785, and was buried in Christ Church Cathedral, Oxford, where there is a white marble gravestone to his memory. In July 1772 ‘Dr. John Parsons’ was married to Miss Anne Hough (Gent. Mag. 1772, p. 390).
W. A. S.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Wauton, Simon de

​WAUTON, WATTON, WALTON, or WALTHONE, SIMON de (d. 1266), bishop of Norwich, probably a native of Walton d'Eiville, Warwickshire (Dugdale, Warwickshire, p. 576), was one of the clerks of King John, and received from him the church of St. Andrew, Hastings, on 9 April 1206, and two other livings in the two following years. He acted as justice itinerant for the northern counties in 1246, and his name constantly appears in later commissions in eyre for various counties; a fine was levied before him in 1247, so that he may be held to have then been a judge of the common pleas, and in 1257 he was apparently chief justice of that bench (Foss). In 1253 he was presented to the rectory of Stoke Prior, Herefordshire, by the prior and convent of Worcester, and in 1254 received from them a lease of the manor of Harvington, Worcestershire; his connection with the convent doubtless being through Robert de Walton, the chamberlain of the house, possibly his brother. Walter Suffeld [q. v.], bishop of Norwich, having died on 18 May 1257, Wauton was elected to that see, and obtained confirmation from the king and the pope without difficulty, but is said to have spent a good sum through messengers sent by him to Rome who obtained the pope's license for him to retain the revenues of his other preferments along with his bishopric for four years. He was consecrated on 10 March 1258. Later in that year he was one of four bishops summoned to Oxford to settle a reform of the church, apparently with special reference to monasteries; but their scheme came to nothing. In common with the Archbishop of Canterbury and John Mansel [q. v.], he was commissioned by the pope to absolve the king and others from the oath to maintain the provisions of Oxford. His consequent action in that matter greatly irritated the baronial party, and when war broke out in 1263 he had to flee for refuge to the abbey of Bury St. Edmunds. He died at a great age on 2 Jan. 1265–6, and was buried in his cathedral church.
W. H.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Weale, John

1904 Errata appended.
​WEALE, JOHN (1791–1862), publisher, born in 1791, commenced business as a publisher at 59 High Holborn about 1820. He possessed a wide knowledge of art, and took a particular interest in the study of architecture. In 1823 he issued a bibliographical ‘Catalogue of Works on Architecture and the Fine Arts,’ of which a new edition appeared in 1854. He followed the ‘Catalogue’ in 1849–50 with a ‘Rudimentary Dictionary of Terms used in Architecture, Building, and Engineering,’ a work which reached a fifth edition in 1876. He was on intimate terms with many men of science. As one of the first publishers of cheap educational literature he did much for technical education in England. His rudimentary series and educational series comprised standard works, both in classics and science. They were continued after his death by James Sprent Virtue [q. v.] Weale died in London on 18 Dec. 1862. He was the father of the antiquary and historian, Mr. William Henry James Weale.
Besides the works mentioned he published:
* ‘A Series of Examples in Architectural Engineering and Mechanical Drawing,’ London, 1841, fol.; supplemental ‘Description,’ London, 1842, 12mo.
* ‘Designs of ornamental Gates, Lodges, Palisading, and Ironwork of the Royal Parks adjoining the Metropolis, edited by John Weale,’ London, 1841, fol.
* ‘The Theory, Practice, and Architecture of Bridges of Stone, Iron, Timber, and Wire, edited by John Weale,’ London, 1843, 2 vols. 8vo; a supplemental volume, edited by George Rowdon Burnell and William Tierney Clarke, appeared in 1853.
* ‘Divers Works of early Masters in Christian Decoration,’ London, 1846, 2 vols. fol.
* ‘The Great Britain Atlantic Steam Ship,’ London, 1847, fol.
* ‘Letter to Lord John Russell on the defence of the Country,’ London, 1847, 8vo.
* ‘London exhibited in 1851,’ London, 1851, 12mo; 2nd edit. 1852.
* ‘Designs and Examples of Cottages, Villas, and Country Houses,’ London, 1857, 4to.
* ‘Examples for Builders, Carpenters, and Joiners,’ London, 1857, 4to.
* ‘Steam Navigation, edited by John Weale,’ London, 1858, 4to and fol.
* ‘Old English and French Ornaments, comprising 244 Designs. Collected by John Weale,’ London, 1858, 4to.
He edited ‘Weale's Quarterly Papers on Engineering,’ London, 1843–6, 6 vols. 4to, and ‘Weale's Quarterly Papers on Architecture,’ London, 1843–5, 4 vols. 4to.
E. I. C.
Dictionary of National Biography, Errata (1904), p.277 N.B.— f.e. stands for from end and l.l. for last line
| Page | Col. | Line | |
| 89 | i | 4-2 f.e. | Weale, John: omit He was the father of . . . Henry James Weale. |
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Way, Albert

​WAY, ALBERT (1805–1874), antiquary, born at Bath on 23 June 1805, was the only son of Lewis Way of Stanstead Park, near Racton, Sussex, by his wife Mary, daughter of Herman Drewe, rector of Comb Raleigh, Devonshire.
The father, Lewis Way (1772–1840), born on 11 Feb. 1772, was the second son of Benjamin Way of Denham, and was elder brother of Sir Gregory Holman Bromley Way [q. v.] He graduated M.A. in 1796 from Merton College, Oxford, and in 1797 was called to the bar by the Society of the Inner Temple. He afterwards entered the church and devoted to religious works part of a large legacy left him by a stranger, named John Way. He founded the Marbœuf (English protestant) Chapel in Paris, which was completed by his son. He was active in schemes for the conversion of the Jews, but was not a ​little imposed upon by unworthy converts who became inmates of his house, hence Macaulay's lines:
Each, says the proverb, has his taste. 'Tis true  Marsh loves a controversy, Coates a play,  Bennet a felon, Lewis Way a Jew,  The Jew the silver spoons of Lewis Way.
He died on 26 Jan. 1840 (Trevelyan, Life of Macaulay, chap. i.; cf. Notes and Queries, 5th ser. xi. 453, 7th ser. i. 87, 137).
Albert Way was educated at home and at Trinity College, Cambridge, where he graduated B.A. in 1829, and M.A. in 1834. In early life he travelled in Europe and the Holy Land with his father. In 1839 he was elected fellow of the Society of Antiquaries, and was ‘director’ of the society from 1842 till 1846, when he left London to live at Wonham Manor, Reigate. He was a founder in 1845 of the Archæological Institute.
Way was a skilful draughtsman and a good English antiquary, who contributed much to the publications of the Society of Antiquaries and other societies. His principal publication was his well-known edition for the Camden Society of the ‘Promptorium Parvulorum sive Clericorum’ (1843–65, 4to), the English-Latin dictionary compiled by Geoffrey the grammarian [q. v.] Way died at Cannes on 22 March 1874. He married, 30 April 1844, Emmeline, daughter of Lord Stanley of Alderley, by whom he had a daughter. His widow presented to the Society of Antiquaries a hundred and fifty volumes of dictionaries and glossaries from his library, and two volumes of his drawings of prehistoric and other remains. She also presented to the society his fine collection of impressions of mediæval seals. The society possesses a wax medallion portrait of Way by R. C. Lucas.
W. W.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Wearg, Clement

​WEARG, Sir CLEMENT (1686–1726), solicitor-general, son and heir of Thomas Wearg of the Inner Temple, who married, in 1679, Mary Fletcher of Ely, was born in London in 1686, and baptised at St. Botolph Without, Aldersgate, where his grandfather, Thomas Wearg, a wealthy merchant, lived. He is said to have been at Peterhouse, Cambridge (Dyer, Privileges of Cambr. ii. 22). He was admitted student at the Inner Temple on 25 Nov. 1706, called to the bar in 1711, and became bencher in 1723, reader in 1724, and treasurer in 1725.
Wearg was a zealous whig and protestant. He acted as the counsel for the crown in the prosecutions of Christopher Layer [q. v.] and Bishop Atterbury, and was one of the principal managers for the commons in the trial of Lord-chancellor Macclesfield (State Trials, vol. xvi.). In 1722 he contested, without success, the borough of Shaftesbury in Dorset, but was returned for the whig borough of Helston in Cornwall on 10 March 1723–4, having been appointed solicitor-general on the previous 1 Feb. About the same time he was created a knight. He ​died of a violent fever on 6 April 1726, and was buried, in accordance with the request in his will, in the Temple churchyard, under a plain raised tomb, on 12 April. He married Elizabeth, only daughter of Sir James Montagu [q. v.], chief baron of the exchequer. She died on 9 March 1746, and was buried in the same grave with her husband on 14 March. They had no children.
A volume published in 1723 contained ‘The Replies of Thomas Reeve and Clement Wearg in the House of Lords, 13 May 1723, against the Defence made by the Late Bishop of Rochester and his Counsel.’ Curll advertised late in 1726 the publication of six volumes of ‘Cases of Impotence and Divorce, by Sir Clement Wearg, late Solicitor-General.’ Curll was attacked for this by ‘A. P.’ in the ‘London Journal’ on 12 Nov. 1726, and two days later swore an affidavit that a book produced by him, and entitled ‘The Case of Impotency as debated in England, Anno 1613, in Trial between Robert, Earl of Essex, and the Lady Frances Howard,’ 1715, was by Wearg. It was dated from the Inner Temple, 30 Oct. 1714. Wearg then had chambers in the new court (Notes and Queries, 2nd ser. iii. 501).
W. P. C.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Prence, Thomas

1904 Errata appended.
​PRENCE, THOMAS (1600–1673), governor of Massachusetts, whose name is also written Prince, but not by himself, was born in 1600 at Lechlade in Gloucestershire, where his family had been settled for some generations. His father was a puritan, and emigrated to Leyden while Thomas was still young. In November 1621 Thomas arrived at New Plymouth, with several distinguished colonists, in either the Fortune or the Anne. He brought a considerable fortune with him, and rapidly became a prominent citizen, though he always had a distaste for public office.
Having become a member of the court of assistants, Prence was elected to succeed Winslow as governor of Massachusetts in 1634, but resigned in the following year on removing his residence to Duxbury. In 1637 he did good service to the state in raising a corps to assist Connecticut against the Pecquot Indians, and in 1638 was urged to become governor again; he reluctantly consented, making it a condition that the law requiring residence at New Plymouth should be relaxed in his favour. At the ​end of the year he retired, but devoted himself to promoting the welfare of the colony. In 1641 the first barque ever constructed in New Plymouth was turned out under his guidance. In 1643 he and others obtained a grant and founded a new settlement at Nansett or Easthams. In 1650 he established the Cape Cod fisheries. In 1654 he was authorised by the court of assistants to constitute a new government in the settlement at Kennebec.
In 1657, on the death of Bradford, Prence was again chosen governor, and so remained till his death, through a period troubled by wars with the Indians and internal quarrels with the quakers. Besides being governor, he was at one time treasurer, and on various occasions a commissioner, for the united colonies. But his great work was the appropriation, despite much opposition, of public revenue to the support of grammar schools. He governed the colony with firmness and prudence, evincing energy, judgment, integrity, and religious zeal.
In 1665 Prence changed his residence from Eastham to New Plymouth, where he died on 29 March 1673.
He married, first, in 1625, Patience (d. 1634), daughter of Elder Brewster; secondly, in 1635, Mary, daughter of William Collier, who survived him. He left no male descendants.
[Collections of Massachusetts Historical Society; Morton's Annals of New England; Landmarks of Plymouth, p. 209.]
C. A. H.
Dictionary of National Biography, Errata (1904), p.226 N.B.— f.e. stands for from end and l.l. for last line
| Page | Col. | Line | |
| 299 | i | 32-33 | Prence, Thomas: for who survived him . . . descendants, read and thirdly in 1662 Mary, daughter of Constance Southworth and widow of Samuel Freeman. By his first wife he had six and by his second four children (cf. Landmarks of Plymouth, p. 209). |
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Prendergast, Thomas (1806-1886)

​PRENDERGAST, THOMAS (1806–1886), inventor of the ‘mastery’ system of learning languages, was born in 1806. His father, Sir Jeffery Prendergast, born at Clonmel in 1769, was in the service of the East India Company, becoming colonel of the 39th native infantry in 1825. He served in the Mysore war, was knighted in 1838, was promoted to be a general in 1854, and died in 1856, having married in 1804 Elizabeth, daughter of Hew Dalrymple of Nunraw, North Britain.
Thomas was nominated a writer in the East India Company's service on 23 June 1826, and became assistant to the collector of Tanjore, Madras presidency, in 1828. He was acting head assistant to the collector of Nellore on 16 Jan. 1829, and head assistant on 9 Feb. 1830. In 1831 he became acting sub-collector and joint magistrate of Nellore, in 1833 acting assistant judge at Guntoor, and on 8 Aug. 1834 assistant judge of Tinnevelly, where he remained until 1838. He was afterwards for many years collector and magistrate at Rajahmundry until his retirement on the annuity fund in 1859. On his return to England he settled at Cheltenham, and soon became totally blind. Despite this misfortune, he devoted himself to literary work, and invented what he called the mastery system of learning languages. This system is based upon the process pursued by children in learning to speak. They are impelled by instinct to imitate and repeat the chance sentences which they hear spoken around them, and afterwards to interchange and transpose the words so as to form new combinations. By frequently repeating conversational sentences Prendergast had himself acquired the Madras vernacular, Tamil, and Telegu. The system was to some extent a development of the Ollendorffian, but Prendergast elaborated its details on original lines. His success was considerable, and the various manuals in which he practically expounded his views went through numerous editions. He died at Meldon Cottage, The Park, Cheltenham, on 14 Nov. 1886, and was buried in the new cemetery on 18 Nov. His son, Sir Harry North Dalrymple Prendergast, G.C.B., V.C., was commander in Burmah in 1883–6.
His published works are: ‘The Mastery of Languages, or the Art of speaking Foreign Tongues idiomatically,’ 1864, 3rd edition, 1872; ‘Handbook to the Mastery Series,’ 1868, 5th edition, 1882; The Mastery Series, French, 1868, 12th edition, 1879; The Mastery Series, Spanish, 1869, 4th edition, 1875; The Mastery Series, German, 1868, 8th edition, 1874; The Mastery Series, Hebrew, 1871, 3rd edition, 1879; The Mastery Series, Latin, 1872, 5th edition, 1884.
G. C. B.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Pratt, Roger

​PRATT, Sir ROGER (1620–1684), architect, baptised at Marsworth, Buckinghamshire, on 2 Nov. 1620, was son of Gregory Pratt of London, and afterwards of West Ryston, Norfolk, by Theodosia, daughter of Sir Edward Tyrell of Thornton, Buckinghamshire, and widow of Edmund West of Marsworth. He was educated at Magdalen College, Oxford, matriculating there on 12 May 1637, and was entered as a student of the Inner Temple in 1640. He travelled in Italy, and at Rome made acquaintance with John Evelyn [q. v.] the diarist, whose friendship he renewed in England. Pratt took to architecture, and achieved a high reputation in the profession. In August 1666 Evelyn records that he, Dr. (afterwards Sir Christopher) Wren, Pratt, May (the architect), and others, went to survey the fabric of St. Paul's Cathedral, then in a dangerous condition, and that Pratt's views as to the preservation of the steeple were opposed to those of Evelyn and Wren. A few days later the cathedral perished in the great fire. After the fire Pratt took a considerable part in the preparation of designs and the actual rebuilding of the portion of London then destroyed. For these services he was knighted at Whitehall by Charles II on 18 July 1668. He built a magnificent house at Horseheath in Cambridgeshire for Lord Alington, and also the vast but short-lived palace known as Clarendon House, in Piccadilly, for Edward Hyde, first earl of Clarendon. Pratt eventually succeeded to the estate of West Ryston in Norfolk, where he died on 20 Feb. 1684, and was buried. His portrait, painted by Sir Peter Lely, belonged in 1866 to the Rev. Jermyn Pratt. He married Anne, daughter and coheiress of Sir Edmond Monins, bart., of Waldershare, Kent, who married, secondly, Sigismond Trafford of Dunton Hall, Tydd St. Mary's, Lincolnshire; she died in 1706, and was buried at West Ryston.
L. C.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Pratten, Robert Sidney

​PRATTEN, ROBERT SIDNEY (1824–1868), flautist, second son of a professor of music who was for many years flautist at the Bristol theatre, was born at Bristol on 23 Jan. 1824; his mother's maiden name was Sidney. On 25 March 1835, at Clifton, Pratten made an early début, playing Nicholson's arrangement of ‘O dolce concento.’ After an engagement as first flute at the Dublin Theatre Royal, he came in 1846 to London. The Duke of Cambridge and others were interested in his talent, and he was sent to Germany to study composition. Pratten's popular piece for flute, ‘L'Espérance,’ was published at Leipzig, 1847. Upon his return to London in 1848 Pratten soon rose to the front rank of his art. He played first flute at the Royal Italian Opera, English Opera, the Sacred Harmonic, Philharmonic, and other concerts and musical festivals. His tone was powerful, his execution brilliant. He wrote instruction books for his instrument, special studies for Siccama's diatonic flute, 1848, and for his own perfected flute, 1856, a Concertstück, 1852, and many arrangements of operatic airs. He died, aged 44, at Ramsgate, on 10 Feb. 1868. His younger brother, Frederick Sidney Pratten, contrabassist, died in London on 3 March 1873.
Pratten married, on 24 Sept. 1854, Catherina Josepha Pelzer, guitarist, born at Mülheim-on-the-Rhine. She made her reputation as a child artist in Germany, and in her ninth year appeared at the King's Theatre, London. Madame Pratten eventually settled in London as a teacher of the guitar, for which she composed a number of pieces. She died on 10 Oct. 1895.
L. M. M.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Pratt, Samuel (1659?-1723)

​PRATT or PRAT, SAMUEL (1659?–1723), dean of Rochester, is variously stated to have been born on 2 June 1659 and on 22 July 1658. He entered Merchant Taylors' School on 11 March 1666. Thence he probably proceeded to Cambridge; but his only recorded degree is that of S.T.P. per regias literas, in 1697. On 10 March 1682 he became rector of Kenardington, Kent. He resigned this benefice in February 1693, and on 23 Nov. came into residence as vicar of All Hallows, Tottenham High Cross. On 7 April 1697 he became minister of the Savoy Chapel. Pratt was also one of the chaplains of the Princess Anne, and, on the recommendation of Lord and Lady Fitzhardinge, was appointed sub-preceptor, under Bishop Burnet, to her son, the Duke of Gloucester. On 27 Nov. 1697 he was named a canon of Windsor; on 8 Aug. 1706 he was promoted dean of Rochester and clerk of the closet. From 15 Aug. 1709 till July 1713 he was also vicar of Goudhurst in Kent, and from 21 Jan. 1712 till his death vicar of Twickenham. He died on 14 Nov. 1723.
In addition to many sermons, Pratt published: 1. ‘The regulating Silver Coin made practicable and easie to the Government and Subject. Humbly submitted to the consideration of both Houses of Parliament, by a Lover of his Country,’ 1696. This was a contribution of more curiosity than value to the problem of the restoration of the currency undertaken in this year by Somers and Montagu in conjunction with Locke and Newton. 2. ‘Grammatica Latina in usum principis juventutis Britannicæ, cum notis necnon conjecturis tam veterum quam aliorum Grammaticorum … subjunctis,’ 1722, 2 vols. 8vo. 3. ‘Ejusdem Grammaticæ Compendium,’ 1723, 8vo. The grammar was severely criticised by Solomon Lowe in his ‘Proposals’ prefixed to his own grammar, 1722.
The dean left a son, Samuel Pratt, B.A. of St. Catharine's College, Cambridge, 1710 (cf. Atterbury, Correspondence, ed. Nichols, iii. 339–40).
G. Le G. N.