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

​BRODRICK, THOMAS (d. 1769), vice-admiral, entered the navy about 1723. In 1739 he was a lieutenant of the Burford, Vernon's flagship at Porto Bello, and commanded the landing party which stormed the Castillo de Fierro. In recompense for his brilliant conduct Vernon promoted him to the command of the Cumberland fireship, in which he in 1741 took part in the expedition to Cartagena. On 25 March he was posted into the Shoreham frigate, and continued actively employed during the rest of that campaign, and afterwards in the expedition to Cuba [see Vernon, Edward]. After other service he returned to England in 1743, and early in the following year was appointed to the Exeter of 60 guns. In March of the following year he was appointed to the Dreadnought, which was sent out to the Leeward Islands, and continued there till after the peace in 1748. In May 1756 Brodrick was sent out to the Mediterranean in command of reinforcements for Admiral Byng, whom he joined at Gibraltar just before the admiral was ordered home under arrest. He had meantime been advanced to be rear-admiral, in which rank he served under Sir Edward Hawke till towards the close of the year, when the fleet returned home. In January 1757 he was a member of the courtmartial on Admiral Byng [see Byng, Hon. John]; and was afterwards, with his flag in the Namur, third in command in the expedition against Rochfort [see Hawke, Lord Edward]. Early in 1758 Brodrick was appointed as second in command in the Mediterranean, with his flag on board the Prince George of 90 guns. On 13 April, being then off Ushant, the Prince George caught fire, and out of a complement of nearly 800, some 250 only were saved; the admiral himself was picked up, stark naked, by a merchant-ship's boat, after he had been swimming for about an hour. ​Brodrick and the survivors of his ship's company were taken by the Glasgow frigate to Gibraltar, where he hoisted his flag in the St. George. In the following February he was promoted to be vice-admiral, and was shortly afterwards superseded by Admiral Boscawen, under whom he commanded during the blockade of Toulon, and in the action of 18-19 Aug., culminating in the burning or capture of the French ships in Lagos Bay [see Boscawen, Edward]. When Boscawen returned to England, Brodrick blockaded the French ships at Cadiz so closely, that even the friendly Spaniards could not resist making them the subject of insolent ridicule. They are said to have stuck up a notice in some such terms as 'For sale, eight French men-of-war. For particulars apply to Vice-admiral Brodrick.' The French ships did not stir out till the passage was cleared for them by a gale of wind, which compelled the blockading squadron to put into Gibraltar. Brodrick then returned to England. He had no further employment, and died 1 Jan. 1769 of cancer in the face.
[Charnock's Biog. Nav. v. 69; Beatson's Naval and Mil. Mem. (under date); official documents in the Public Record Office.]
J. K. L.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Brodie, Peter Bellinger

​BRODIE, PETER BELLINGER (1778–1854), conveyancer, was born at Winterslow, Wiltshire, on 20 Aug. 1778, being the eldest son of the Rev. Peter Bellinger Brodie, rector of Winterslow 1742-1804, who died 19 March 1804, by his marriage in 1775 with ​Sarah third daughter of Benjamin Collins of Milford, Salisbury, who died 7 Jan. 1847. He early chose law as a profession, but in consequence of an asthmatic complaint from which he suffered, he devoted himself to conveyancing, and became a pupil of the well-known Charles Butler. He was ultimately called to the bar at the Inner Temple on 5 May 1815. He soon obtained a considerable share of business, and it increased so as to place him in a few years amongst the most eminent conveyancers of the time. One of the drafts by which he was earliest known was that of the Rock Life Assurance Company, 1806, which has ever since been considered the best model for similar instruments, and only departed from where some variation is rendered necessary, as in the charter of King's College, London, which he also drew in 1829. With the history of law amendment Brodie's name is intimately connected. He was one of the real property commissioners in 1828, and took a very leading part in their important labours. Their first report, which was made in May 1829, examined, amongst others, the important subjects of fines and recoveries. This part of the report was drawn up by Brodie, as was also the portion of the second report, June 1830, relating to the probate of wills, and the very able and learned part of the third report, May 1832, relating to copyhold and ancient demesne. The fourth report was made in April 1833, and no part of this was prepared by him. Soon after the presentation of the first report it was determined to bring in bills founded upon its recommendations, and Brodie prepared the most important of these, that for abolishing fines and recoveries, which was brought in at the end of the session 1830, and became law in 1838. Lord St. Leonards, in his work on the 'Real Property Statutes,' declares this act to be 'a masterly performance, reflecting great credit on the learned conveyancer by whom it was framed.' The preparation of his part of the reports, and especially of the bills, for a time almost deprived Brodie of his private business; but he recovered his practice by degrees, so as ultimately to have it fully restored. He was the author of a work entitled 'A Treatise on a Tax on Successions to Real as well as Personal Property, and the Removal of the House-tax, as Substitutes for the Income-tax, and on Burdens on Land and Restrictions on Commerce and Loans of Money,' 1850. He died at 49 Lincoln's Inn Fields, London, on 8 Sept. 1854. He was twice married: first, on 16 March 1810, to Elizabeth Mary, daughter of Sutton Thomas Wood of Oxford—she died on 9 May 1825; secondly, on 1 June 1826, to Susan Mary, daughter of John Morgan. She died in London on 4 Dec. 1870. The elder Sir B. C. Brodie was his brother.
[Law Rev. 1855, xxi. 348-54.]
G. C. B.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Brodie, William (d.1788)

​BRODIE, WILLIAM (d. 1788), deacon of the Incorporation of the Edinburgh Wrights and Masons, and burglar, was the only son of Convener Francis Brodie, who carried on an extensive business as wright and cabinet-maker in the Lawnmarket, Edinburgh, and was for many years a member of the town council. On his father's death Brodie succeeded to the business, and in the following year was elected one of the ordinary deacon councillors of the city. At an early age he acquired a taste for gambling, and almost nightly frequented a disreputable gambling-house in the Fleshmarket Close. In 1786 he became acquainted with three men of the lowest character, George Smith, Andrew Ainslie, and John Brown. With Brodie for their leader, these men formed themselves into a gang of burglars, and at the latter end of 1787 a number of robberies were committed by them in and around Edinburgh. No clue could be discovered to the perpetrators. On 5 March 1788 the gang broke into the excise office in Chessel's Court, Canongate. This undertaking had been wholly suggested and most carefully planned by Brodie. Though disturbed in their operations, they managed to get off with their booty undiscovered. Brown, however, who was under sentence of transportation for a crime committed in England, turned king's evidence. Brodie fled, and for a long time evaded pursuit. Through the means of some letters which he had incautiously written, he was at length traced to Amsterdam, where he was apprehended on the eve of his departure for America. He and Smith were tried at the high court of justiciary on 27 Aug. 1788, before the lord justice clerk and Lords Hailes, Eskgrove, Stonefield, and Swinton, and on the following morning the jury returned a verdict of guilty against both of them. In accordance with the sentence, they were hanged at the west end of the Luckenbooths on 1 Oct. 1788. Notwithstanding his profligate habits Brodie contrived almost to the last to preserve a fair character among his fellow-citizens. It is also a curious fact that he sat in the same court as a juryman in a criminal case only a few months previously to his own appearance there in the dock. A play written by Messrs. R. L. Stevenson and W. E. Henley, and founded upon the incidents of his life, was produced at the Prince's Theatre, London, on 2 July 1884, under the name of ​'Deacon Brodie, or the Double Life.' Two etchings of him by Kay will be found in the first volume of 'Original Etchings,' Nos. 105 and 106.
[Kay's Original Portraits and Caricature Etchings (1877), i. 96, 119, 141, 256-66, 399, ii. 8, 120-1, 286; Creech's Trial of Brodie and Smith (2nd edit. 1788); Scots Mag. (1788), 1. 358-9, 365-72, 429-37, 514-16; Gent. Mag. (1788), Iviii. pt. ii. 648, 829, 925.1
G. F. R. B.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Broghill, Baron

​BROGHILL, Baron. [See Boyle, Roger.]
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Broke

​BROKE. [See also Brook and Brooke.]
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Brodie, David

​BRODIE, DAVID (1709?–1787), captain in the royal navy, one of a collateral branch of the Brodies of Brodie, after serving for many years, both in the navy and mercantile marine, was promoted to the rank of lieutenant on 5 Oct. 1736. In 1739 he served under Vernon at Porto Bello, and in 1741 at Cartagena. On 3 May 1743 he was made commander, ​pointed to the Merlin sloop in the West Indies, and for about four years was repeatedly engaged with French and Spanish cruisers and privateers, several of which he captured and brought in. In one of these encounters he lost his right arm. Early in 1747 Rear-admiral Knowles appointed him acting captain of the Canterbury; but he was not confirmed in that rank till 9 March 1747-8, when, after the capture of Port Louis, he was appointed to the Strafford. In this ship he was present at the unsuccessful attempt on Santiago, and had a distinguished share in the battle off Havana on 1 Oct. 1748, when the one prize of victory, the Conquistador, struck to the Strafford. In the courts-martial which followed [see Knowles, Sir Charles] Brodie's evidence told strongly against the admiral's accusers; he maintained that the admiral had done his duty throughout. In 1750 Brodie was compelled to memorialise the admiralty, representing himself as incapacitated from further service, and praying for some mark of the royal favour. In 1753 he presented another and stronger memorial to the same effect, consequent on which a pension was granted to him. Nevertheless in 1762, on the declaration of war with Spain, he applied to the admiralty for a command. His application was not accepted, and accordingly when, in 1778, his seniority seemed to entitle him to flag rank, he was passed over as not having served 'during the last war.' This was then the standing rule, and was in no way exceptional to Brodie, although in his case, as in many others, it fell harshly on old officers of good service. On 5 March 1787 Brodie's claims were brought up in the House of Commons, and he was represented as a much-injured man, deprived of the promotion to which he was justly entitled. The house negatived the motion made in Brodie's favour. The case, however, led to a modification of the rule, and from that time captains who were not eligible for promotion when their turn arrived were distinctly placed on a superannuated list. Brodie died in 1787, and was buried in the Abbey Church at Bath.
J. K. L.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Brodie, William (1815-1881)

​BRODIE, WILLIAM (1815–1881), sculptor, eldest son of John Brodie, a shipmaster of Banff, was born at that place on 22 Jan. 1815. About 1821 the Brodie family removed to Aberdeen, where William was apprenticed to a plumber. He devoted his evenings, however, to scientific studies at the Mechanics' Institution, and developed a singular dexterity in making instruments for his own experiments. He amused himself in casting leaden figures of notable personages. He also seems to have painted in oil, and after his marriage in 1841 is said to have produced a considerable number of portraits. His peculiar talent for modelling medallion likenesses on a small scale attracted much attention, and especially that of Sheriff Watson and Mr. John Hill Burton, by the latter of whom he was encouraged to migrate to Edinburgh in 1847. There he studied for four years in the Trustees' School of Design; essayed modelling on a larger scale, and executed a bust of Lord Jeffrey, one of his earliest patrons. About this time Brodie spent some months at Rome, where he modelled a figure of Corinna, the lyric muse, exhibited at the Royal Scottish Academy, of which he was elected an associate in 1857, a full member in 1859, and secretary in 1876. He is believed to have executed more portrait busts than any other artist. His ideal works included the 'Blind Girl,' 'Hecamede,' 'Rebecca,' 'Ruth,' 'The Maid of Lorn,' 'Amy Robsart,' 'Sunshine,' 'Storm,' and 'Memory.' Brodie executed four busts of the queen, one of which is in Balmoral Castle, the colossal statue of the prince consort at Perth, and one of the representative groups in bronze for the Scottish memorial to the prince in Edinburgh. Amongst other works are the bronze statue of Dr. Graham, master of the mint at Glasgow, and of Sir James Young Simpson at Edinburgh, and the marble statue of Sir David Brewster in the quadrangle of the university building, Edinburgh, and of Lord Cockburn in the Parliament House of the same city. He executed portrait busts of most of the celebrities of his day. Not long before his death Brodie received a commission for a statue of the Hon. George Brown, a prominent Canadian politician, for the city of Toronto. After two years of decline Brodie died on 30 Oct. 1881 at Douglas Lodge in Edinburgh.
[Aberdeen Journal, 31 Oct. and 1 and 7 Nov. 1881; Scotsman and Edinburgh Courant, 31 Oct. and 5 Nov. 1881; Times, 1 Nov. 1881; Athenæum, 5 Nov. 1881; Art Journal, December 1881; Irving's Book of Scotsmen, 1881.]
A. H. G.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Brodie, George

​BRODIE, GEORGE (1786?–1867), historian, was born about 1786 in East Lothian, where his father was a farmer on a large scale, and a contributor to the improvement of Scottish husbandry. Educated at the high school and university of Edinburgh, he became in 1811 a member of the Faculty of Advocates. He seems to have done little at the bar. He was an ardent whig, and his political creed partly inspired the one work by which he is known, his 'History of the British Empire from the accession of Charles the First to the Restoration, with an introduction tracing the progress of society and of the Constitution from the feudal times to the opening of the history, and including a particular examination of Mr. Hume's statements relative to the character of the English government.' The 'statements' which Brodie undertook to refute were chiefly those in which Hume found precedents for the claims of the Stuarts in the action of the Tudor sovereigns. Brodie's history was by far the most elaborate assault on the Stuarts and their apologists, especially Hume and Clarendon, and the most thoroughgoing vindication of the puritans, that had then appeared. It was not of high historical value. It was reviewed in the 'Edinburgh Review' for March 1824, probably by John Allen of Holland House celebrity (see Lord Jeffrey's letter to him in Lord Cockburn's Life of Jeffrey, 2nd ed. 1852, ii. 217). While generally laudatory, the reviewer censured Brodie's indiscriminating partisanship. Guizot has expressed his surprise that so passionate a partisan should have written with so little animation (Preface to the Histoire de la Revolution d'Angleterre, 4th ed. 1860, i. 15).
In the Scotch agitation for the first Reform Bill, Brodie presided at a very numerous gathering of the working-men of Edinburgh held on Arthur's Seat in November 1831 against the rejection of the bill by the peers. In 1836 he was appointed historiographer of Scotland, with a salary of 180l, a year. In 1866 appeared a second edition of his History, with the original title slightly expanded into 'A Constitutional History of the British Empire,' &c. Besides the History, Brodie published an edition of Stair's 'Institutes of the Law of Scotland, with commentaries and a supplement as to mercantile law.' Lord Cockburn says of it and him (Journal, 1874, ii. 113): 'His edition of Stair is a deep and difficult legal book. His style is bad, and his method not good.' Brodie was also author of a pamphlet entitled 'Strictures on the Appellate Jurisdiction of the House of Lords,' 1856. He died in London on 22 Jan. 1867.
[Brodie's writings; obituary notice in Scotsman, 31 Jan. 1867; Gent. Mag., March 1867.]
F. E.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Brograve, John

1904 Errata appended.
​BROGRAVE, Sir JOHN (d. 1613), lawyer, was the son of Richard Brograve by his wife, daughter of —— Sares. He was probably educated at Cambridge. In 1576 he was autumn reader at Gray's Inn. He was elected one of the treasurers of that society in February 1579-80, and again in February 1583-4. In 1580 he was appointed her majesty's attorney for the duchy of Lancaster, and he continued to hold that office under King James I, who conferred upon him the honour of knighthood. He was nominated one of the counsel to the university of Cambridge in 1581. He resided at Braughing in Hertfordshire, of which county he was custos rotulorum for thirty years. [He was M.P. for Preston 1586, 1597, and 1601, and for Boroughbridge 1592.] He died on 11 Sept. 1613, and was buried at Braughing. By his marriage with Margaret, daughter of Simeon Steward of Lakenheath, Suffolk (she died 5 July, 1593), he had issue three sons and two daughters.
He is the author of 'The Reading of Mr. John Brograve of Grayes Inne, made in Summer 1576, upon part of the Statute of 27 H. 8. C. 10, of Vses, concerning Jointures, beginning at the twelfth Branch thereof.' Printed in 'Three Learned Readings made upon three very usefull Statutes, by Sir James Dyer, Brograve and Tristram Risdon,' London, 1648, 4to. (Cf. MS. Harl. 829, art. 3.)
[Clutterbuck's Hertfordshire, iii. 154, 157-159; Chauncy's Hertfordshire, 226-8; Dugdale's Orig. Jurid. (1680), 294, 298, 307; Cooper's Annals of Cambridge, ii. 610; Baga de Secretis, pouch 48; Addit. MS. 5821, f. 271; Lansd. MS. 92, art. 52, 1119; Wood's Athenæ Oxon. (Bliss), ii. 609, iii. 174; Burke's Extinct and Dormant Baronetcies (1841), 84.]
T. C.
Dictionary of National Biography, Errata (1904), p.37 N.B.— f.e. stands for from end and l.l. for last line
| Page | Col. | Line | |
| 385 | i | 13 f.e. | Brograve, Sir John: after years insert He was M.P. for Preston in 1586, 1597, and 1601, and for Boroughbridge in 1592 |
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Cary, John (d.1395?)

​CARY, JOHN (d. 1395?), judge, son of Sir John Cary, knight, bailiff of the forest of Selwood in Wiltshire, knight of the shire for Devon in 1362 and 1368, who died in 1371, by Jane, daughter of Sir Guy de Brien, knight, was put into commission as warden of the ports for Devonshire in 1373, and was made commissioner of array three years later. He was commanded by the king in 1383 to take the rank of serjeant-at-law, but refused. Three years later (5 Nov. 1386) he was created chief baron of the exchequer. In 1387–8 he underwent impeachment for having answered, in a sense favourable to the king, the interrogatories addressed to the judges at Nottingham in the preceding August, relative to the action of the parliament in dismissing Michael de la Pole, and vesting the supreme power in a council of nobles [see Bealknap, Sir Robert]. He was condemned to death, but the sentence having been commuted for one of banishment, he was transported to Waterford and confined within a circuit of two miles round the city, but was otherwise permitted to live at his own will, being allowed a pension of 20l. per annum for maintenance. He died about 1395 or 1396. His estates at Torrington and Cockington, which had been confiscated, were restored to his son, probably in 1402. By his wife, Margaret, daughter of Robert Holway of Holway in Devonshire, he had two sons, Robert (now represented by Robert Shedden Sulyarde Cary of Torr Abbey, Torquay) and John, sometime bishop of Exeter. The family has given origin to three peerages, of which one, held by Viscount Falkland, baron Hunsdon (b. 1803), is still extant.
[Cal. Inq. P.M. iii. 196, 308; Abbrev. Rot. Orig. ii. 281, 317, 323; Devon's Issues of the Exch. (Hen. III–Hen. VI), p. 236; Willis's Not. Parl. ii. 251; Foss's Lives of Judges; Rymer's Fœd. (ed. Clarke), iii. pt. ii. 976, 1046; Dugdale's Chron. Ser. 53; Hist. Angl. Script. Decem. Col. 2727; Cobbett's State Trials, i. 119–20; Rot. Parl. iii. 484.]
J. M. R.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Cary, Robert

​CARY, ROBERT (1615?–1688), chronologer, born at Cockington or Berry-Pomeroy, Devonshire, was the second son of George Cary of Cockington by Elizabeth, daughter of Sir Edward Seymour. He was admitted a commoner of Exeter College 4 Oct. 1631; became scholar of Corpus Christi College in October 1634, and graduated B.A. 1635, M.A. 1638-9. He was probably fellow of his college. His kinsman, William Seymour, marquis of Hertford, chancellor of the university, procured for him the degree of D.C.L. in November 1644, and afterwards promoted him to the rectory of Portsmouth, near Kingsbridge. He became intimate with the presbyterians and was made moderator of his division of the county. On the restoration, however, he was one of the first to congratulate the king, and was installed archdeacon of Exeter 18 Aug. 1662. He was 'frightened' out of his preferment by 'some great men then in power' in 1664, and retired to his rectory, where he lived quietly till his death, 19 Sept. 1688. His chief work was 'Palaeologia Chronica; a chronological account of ancient time, in three parts, (1) Didactical; (2) Apodeictical; (3) Canonical,' 1677—an attempt to settle ancient chronology. John Milner, B.D., of Cambridge, published, in 1694, a 'Defence of Archbishop Ussher against Dr. Robert Cary and M. Is. Vossius.' Cary also translated some of the hymns from the church services into Latin verse, and printed them on folio sheets.
[Wood's Athenae Oxon. (Bliss), iv. 243; Prince's Worthies of Devon, p. 198; Kennet's Register, (1728), p. 744; Le Neve's Fasti (Hardy), i. 396.]
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Cary, William

​CARY, WILLIAM (1759–1825), philosophical instrument maker, was a pupil of Ramsden, and set up before 1790 a separate business, which he pursued energetically until his death at the age of sixty-six on 16 Nov. 1825. He constructed for Dr. Wollaston in 1791 a transit circle—the first made in England—two feet in diameter and provided with microscopes for reading off. In 1805 he sent to Moscow a transit-instrument described and figured in Pearson's ‘Practical Astronomy’ (ii. 362–5), for the safety of which Bonaparte provided in 1812 by a special order. A circle of 41 centimetres, ordered from Cary by Feer about 1790, is still preserved at the Zürich observatory. He was, besides, the maker of the 2½-foot altitude and azimuth instrument with which Bessel began his observations at Königsberg, and of numerous excellent sextants, microscopes, reflecting and refracting telescopes, &c. A catalogue of the instruments sold by him at 182 Strand, London, is in the possession of the Naturforschende Gesellschaft of Zürich. His name occurs on the first list of members of the Astronomical Society, and he contributed for several years the Meteorological Diary to the ‘Gentleman's Magazine.’
[Wolf's Gesch. d. Astr. p. 562 (1877); Gent. Mag. xcv. (ii.) 475; Mem. R. A. Soc. ii. 532.]
A. M. C.