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

​PRATT, Sir THOMAS SIMSON (1797–1879), commander of the forces in Australia, born in 1797, was son of Captain James Pratt, by Anne, daughter of William Simson, and was educated at St. Andrews University. He was gazetted to an ensigncy in the 26th foot on 2 Feb. 1814, and served in Holland in the same year as a volunteer with the 56th foot. He was present at the attack on Merxem on 2 Feb. and the subsequent bombardment of Antwerp. He purchased his captaincy on 17 Sept. 1825. He was with the 26th foot in the China expedition, and commanded the land forces at the assault and capture of the forts of Chuenpee on 7 Jan. 1841, and again at the capture of the Bogue forts on 26 Feb. In the attacks on Canton, from 24 May to 1 June, he was in command of his regiment, and was present also at the demonstration before Nankin, and at the signing of the treaty of peace on board H.M.S. Cornwallis. On 28 Aug. 1841 he was gazetted lieutenant-colonel, and from 5 Sept. 1843 to 23 Oct. 1855 was deputy adjutant-general at Madras.
From 1856 to 1861 he was in command of the forces in Australia, with the rank of major-general. During 1860–1 he was in New Zealand, conducting the war against the Maoris. From 8 Jan. 1860 to May 1862 he commanded the forces in Victoria, and was then appointed to the colonelcy of the 37th regiment. In October 1877 he retired from active service. He was made a C.B. on 14 Oct. 1841, and, for services in New Zealand, promoted to K.C.B. on 16 July 1861, being publicly invested with the ribbon and badge by Sir Henry Barkly, governor of Victoria, on 15 April 1862. This was the first ceremony of the kind performed in Australia. He was advanced to the rank of general on 26 May 1873, and died in England on 2 Feb. 1879. He married, in 1827, Frances Agnes, second daughter of John S. Cooper.
G. C. B.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1901 supplement/Fraser, Donald

​FRASER, DONALD (1826–1892), presbyterian divine, born at Inverness on 15 Jan. 1826, was the second son of John Fraser (d. 1852), a merchant and shipowner of Inverness and provost of the burgh, by his wife Lillias, daughter of Donald Fraser (d. 12 July 1836), minister of Kirkhill, near Inverness. He was educated by private tutors, and in his twelfth year became a student at the University and King's College, Aberdeen, residing at the same time at the boarding school of George Tulloch at Bellevue House, Aberdeen. He graduated M.A. in March 1842, and in the autumn sailed for America in the brig Retrench, joining his father at Sherbrooke in Lower Canada. For a short time he turned to commerce, but on the failure of a firm in which he was junior partner he found himself without a calling.
Having become increasingly absorbed in religious work, he entered the 'John Knox' theological college at Toronto in the autumn of 1848 to prepare for the ministry, and took his third session in theology at the New College, Edinburgh. Returning to Canada in 1851, he was licensed as a preacher by the presbytery of Toronto, and on 8 Aug. was ordained to the Free church, Coté Street, Montreal. Here he remained until 1859, when he accepted a call to the free high church of Inverness. In 1870 he removed to the Marylebone presbyterian church, London, where he continued until his death. For more than twenty years he took a leading part in the presbyterian church of England, and he was moderator of the synod in 1874 and in 1880. He was also prominently connected with many missions and charities, and was a vice-president of the British and Foreign Bible Society. In 1872 he received the honorary degree of D.D. from the university of Aberdeen. Fraser died on 12 Feb. 1892 at Cambridge Square, Hyde Park, and was buried near his mother on 19 Feb. in the chapel yard at Inverness. On 28 Feb. 1852 he was married at Kingston in Canada to Theresa Eliza, fourth daughter of Lieutenant-colonel A. Gordon. By her he had four sons and one daughter.
Besides sermons, Fraser was the author of: 1. 'Synoptical Lectures on the Books of Holy Scripture,' London, 1871-6, 8vo; 4th edit. 2 vols. 1886. 2. 'The Church of God and the Apostasy,' London, 1872, 8vo. 3. 'Thomas Chalmers,' London, 1881, 8vo (Men wort h Remembering}. 4. 'The Speeches of the Holy Apostles,' Edinburgh, 1882, 8vo (Household Library of Exposition). 5. 'Metaphors in the Gospels,' London, 1885, 8vo. 6. 'Seven Promises expounded,' London, 1889. 8vo. 7. 'Mary Jane Kinnaird,' a biography of Lady Kinnaird, London, 1890, 8vo. 8. 'Sound Doctrine: a Commentary on the Articles of the Faith of the Presbyterian Church of England,' London, 1892, 8vo. Fraser also contributed to the 'Pulpit Commentary.' His 'Autobiography . . . and Selection from his Sermons,' edited by the Rev. James Oswald Dykes, D.D., appeared in 1892 (London, 8vo).
[Fraser's Autobiogr.; Times, 15 Feb. 1892; Biograph, 1880, iv. 3-6; Scotsman, 15 Feb. 1892; Inverness Courier, 16 Feb. 1892.]
E. I. C.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1901 supplement/Fraser, Alexander (1827-1899)

​FRASER, ALEXANDER (1827–1899), landscape painter, son of Alexander George Fraser and his wife Janet W. Moir, was born at Woodcockdale, near Linlithgow, on 3 Nov. 1827. His father, a gentleman of private means, was an amateur of ability, and from him Fraser received some instruction in art before he entered the Trustees' Academy, Edinburgh, at the age of seventeen. But he learned more by working from nature and copying in the gallery and from his fellow-students than from masters. Among these early friends one of the closest was Sir William Fettes Douglas [q.v. Suppl.], with whom he made many sketching excursions. An earnest student of nature, and from very early in his career a remarkably able craftsman, his work soon attracted attention; in 1858 he was elected associate, and four years later full member, of the Royal Scottish Academy. Although he spent the winters of ten years (1847-57) in London, and for several seasons painted in Wales and in Surrey, where he did some of his most brilliant work, he lived and painted for the most part in Scotland. Loch Lomondside, Argyllshire, where he had spent part of his youth, and the Hamilton district, where in Cadzow forest he found material peculiarly suited to his taste, were favourite sketching grounds; but from 1885, after which he was partially disabled by a severe rheumatic affection, his subjects were taken principally from the neighbourhood of Edinburgh. On 24 May 1899 he died at Musselburgh, leaving a widow (Jean, daughter of Thomas Duncan [q. v.]), whom he married in 1859, a son, and a daughter.
Fraser wrote occasionally on art, contributing several papers to the 'Portfolio,' and prefacing a selection of photographs from the works of Horatio MacCulloch [q. v.] with a short life and a critical estimate.
A portrait of Fraser, painted in 1860 by Sir W. Fettes Douglas, belongs to the Scottish Academy; an interesting drawing of him as a young man, by T. Fairbairn, is in private hands; and a photograph of him at a later date is reproduced in the 'Scots Pictorial,' June 1899.
[Private information; The Scotsman, 25 May 1899; Scots Pictorial, January 1898; Armstrong's Scottish Painters, 1888; K.S.A. Report, 1899; catalogues of galleries and exhibitions.]
J. L. C.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1901 supplement/French, Thomas Valpy

​FRENCH, THOMAS VALPY (1825–1891), first bishop of Lahore, the eldest son of Peter French, vicar of Holy Trinity with Stretton, Burton-on-Trent, was born at the Abbey, Burton-on-Trent, on 1 Jan. 1825. Educated first at Reading grammar school, Burton grammar school, and Rugby, he matriculated from University College, Oxford, on 20 March 1843, graduating B.A. in 1846 and M.A. in 1849. In 1848 he won the chancellor's prize for a Latin essay, and in the same year was elected a fellow of University College. He was ordained deacon by the bishop of Ripon in 1848, and priest by the bishop of Lichfield in 1849. In 1850 he offered his services to the Church Missionary Society, and was sent out as principal of St. John's College, Agra. During the mutiny he was foremost in protecting native Christians. In 1858 he came home, but in 1861 returned to found the Derajat mission on the Indian frontier. In 1863 he came to England again, and was vicar of St. Paul's, Cheltenham, from 1865 to 1869. He then returned to India and founded the Lahore divinity school. After short incumbencies at Erith, Kent, and St. Ebb's, Oxford, he was consecrated first bishop of Lahore on 21 Dec. 1877, and received the degree of D.D. from Oxford University on 11 Dec. French was equally remarkable as an evangelist, an administrator, and a linguist. In 1887 he resigned his see, and in 1891 he went as a simple missionary to Muscat, where he died on 14 May 1891. He published a number of sermons.
[Birks's Life and Correspondence of T. V. French; Stock's History of the C.M.S., vol. iii.; Record, 1891, pp. 509, 510.]
A. R. B.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Trelawny, John

​TRELAWNY, Sir JOHN (fl. 1422), knight, who claimed descent of a family settled at Trelawne in Cornwall before the Norman conquest, was son of Sir John Trelawny, knt., by Matilda, daughter of Robert Mynwenick. The father held land in the vill of Trelawne by gift of his father, William, in 1366, was the first of the family to receive ​the honour of knighthood, and was alive in 1406–7 (8 Henry IV). The son John succeeded to the family estates in Cornwall and was elected M.P. for that county in 1413–14, and again in 1421. In the latter parliament another John Trelawny, possibly his son, sat for Liskeard. Sir John fought at Agincourt, and received from Henry V at Gisors a pension of 20l. a year, which was confirmed by Henry VI. He added to his arms three oak or laurel leaves. Under the figure of Henry V which was formerly over the great gate at Launceston was the inscription:
He that will do ought for me, Let him love well Sir John Tirlawnee.
Sir John was alive in 1423–4 (2 Henry VI). He married Agnes, daughter of Robert Tregodeck, and left two sons, Richard and John. Richard was M.P. for Liskeard in 1421–2 and 1423–4, and died in 1449, leaving daughters only. Sir Hugh Courtenay, ancestor of Henry, marquis of Exeter, who was attainted under Henry VIII, made a grant of lands, 6 Oct. 1437, to one John Trelawny and his heirs, at a yearly rent of twelve pence and suit to his court twice a year. The beneficiary seems to have been Sir John Trelawny's second son, John, who succeeded to the estates on the death of his elder brother without male issue; he was M.P. for Truro in 1448–9, and was sheriff of Cornwall in 1461–2. He was direct ancestor of Sir Jonathan Trelawny [q. v.]
[Betham's Baronetage of England, i. 324–5; Official Return of Members of Parliament; Burke's Peerage and Baronage; Boase and Courtney's Bibliotheca Cornubiensis, ii. 768; Thirtieth Report of the Deputy-keeper of the Records, 1868–9, App. p. 188.]
J. A. T.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Trelawny, Charles

1904 Errata appended.
​TRELAWNY, CHARLES (1654–1731), major-general, was fourth son of Sir Jonathan Trelawny, second baronet, by Mary, daughter of Sir Edward Seymour of Berry Pomeroy, near Totnes. Sir Jonathan Trelawny [q. v.], bishop of Winchester, was his elder brother. He served in Monmouth's regiment with the French army during the invasion of Holland, and at the siege of Maestricht in 1673. He received a commission as captain in Skelton's regiment (also in French pay) on 16 March 1674, and fought under Turenne on the Rhine. He became major in Monmouth's regiment on 1 Nov. 1678, and in the Earl of Plymouth's regiment, which he helped to raise, on 13 July 1680.
The latter regiment (afterwards the 4th or king's own) was formed for service at Tangier, and Trelawny went thither with it in December. He succeeded Percy Kirke [q. v.] as lieutenant-colonel of it on 27 Nov., and as colonel on 23 April 1682. It returned to England in April 1684, and part of it was at Sedgemoor.
At the end of November 1688 he was at Warminster with Kirke when the latter was arrested for refusing to march against William's troops, and Trelawny thereupon deserted to William with his lieutenant-colonel, Charles Churchill, and thirty men. James deprived him of his regiment, but William reinstated him on 31 Dec.
At the battle of the Boyne, 1 July 1690, he commanded the infantry brigade which passed the river at Slanebridge and turned the enemy's left. He was made governor of Dublin. In September he took part in the siege of Cork under Marlborough, and on 2 Dec. he was promoted major-general. On 1 Jan. 1692, at the time of the agitation against William's preference for foreign officers, he resigned his regiment, which was given to his brother Henry, afterwards brigadier-general [see Trelawny, Edward, ad fin.] When Tollemache was killed in 1694, there was a report that Trelawny would succeed him as colonel of the Coldstream guards; but Shrewsbury wrote to William that such an appointment would be greatly disliked by the whigs, and the regiment was given to Cutts. In May 1696 Trelawny was made governor of Plymouth.
He died at Hengar on 24 Sept. 1731, and was buried at Pelynt. He seems to have been twice married, but left no children.
E. M. L.
Dictionary of National Biography, Errata (1904), p.268 N.B.— f.e. stands for from end and l.l. for last line
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# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Tremayne, John

​TREMAYNE or TREMAINE, Sir JOHN (d. 1694), lawyer, eldest son of Lewis Tremayne, lieutenant-governor of Pendennis Castle, who married Mary, daughter and coheiress of John Carew of Penwarne in Mevagissey, was born in the parish of St. Ewe, Cornwall. He was brought up to the study of the law, by 1678 was a man to be consulted (Fitzherbert MSS., Hist. MSS. Comm. 13th Rep. App. vi. p. 8), and soon acquired considerable ​practice. His name frequently occurs in cases before the House of Lords from 1689 to 1693 (Lords' MSS. ib. 12th, 13th, and 14th Reps.); he was counsel for the crown against Sir Richard Graham, otherwise Lord Preston, and others for high treason, January 1690–1 (Howell, State Trials, xii. 646), was engaged for Sir John Germaine in the action brought against that adventurer by the Duke of Norfolk for adultery with the duchess (ib. xii. 883), and he acted for the crown on the trial of Lord Mohun, a brother Cornishman, for the murder of Mountford the actor, January 1692–3 (ib. xii. 950).
Tremayne was called with others to be serjeant-at-law on 1 May 1689, was made king's serjeant, and next day took the oaths, when he and his colleagues entertained the ‘nobility, judges, serjeants, and others with a dinner at Serjeants' Inn in Fleet Street,’ London. He was knighted at Whitehall on 31 Oct. 1689, and in 1690 was returned to parliament for the Cornish borough of Tregony. In June 1692 he was a candidate for the recordership of London, but was beaten at the poll. It is recorded by Luttrell on 20 Feb. 1693–4 that Tremayne was dead. He died issueless; his brother's descendant now lives at Heligan, near Mevagissey (where the serjeant rebuilt the family mansion), and inherits the ample estates in Cornwall and Devon (Courtney, Parl. Rep. of Cornwall, p. 173).
His useful volume, ‘Placita Coronæ, or Pleas of the Crown in matters Criminal and Civil,’ was published in 1723, many years after his death, when it had been ‘digested and revised by the late Mr. John Rice of Furnival's Inn.’ An English translation by Thomas Vickers came out in two volumes at Dublin in 1793. A collection by Tremayne of ‘entries, declarations, and pleadings’ in the reigns of Charles II and James II, numbering in all 182 pages, is at the British Museum (Lansd. MS. 1142).
W. P. C.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Reader, William (fl.1680)

​READER, WILLIAM (fl. 1680), portrait-painter, was a pupil of Gerard Soest [q. v.] He was the son of a clergyman at Maidstone, and was for a long time patronised by a wealthy nobleman in the west of England. He is chiefly known by a portrait of Dr. John Blow [q. v.], which was engraved in mezzotint by T. Beckett. There are no doubt other portraits by him under the names of more eminent artists. Reader died in poor circumstances as an inmate of the Charterhouse.
[Walpole's Anecdotes of Painting, ed. Wornum; Chaloner Smith's British Mezzotinto Portraits.]
L. C.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Reading, Burnet

​READING, BURNET (fl. 1780–1820), engraver and draughtsman, was a native of Colchester, and practised in London. He worked entirely for the booksellers, engraving chiefly portraits of contemporary celebrities, many of which appeared in Bell's ‘British Theatre,’ 1776–86, and the ‘European Magazine,’ 1783–93. Reading engraved a set of six portraits of members of the Royal Academy, from drawings by Peter Falconet [q. v.], and another of members of the American Congress, 1783; also some of the plates to Boydell's ‘Shakespeare,’ and a few fancy subjects, such as ‘Lavinia and her Mother,’ after W. Bigg, and ‘Charlotte at the Tomb of Werther,’ from his own design. In 1820 a set of twelve etchings by Reading, from drawings by Mortimer, of ‘Characters to illustrate Shakespeare,’ was published by T. and H. Rodd; and many of the plates in that firm's ‘Collection of Portraits to illustrate Granger's “History of England,”’ 1820 and 1822, were engraved by him. He was employed as drawing and riding master by the Earl of Pomfret at Windsor. A portrait of Reading was etched by Samuel De Wilde [q. v.] in 1798.
F. M. O'D.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Reader, William (1782-1852)

​READER, WILLIAM (1782–1852), topographer, eldest son of William Reader, farmer, who emigrated to America in 1804, was born at High Cross, near Rowington, Warwickshire, on 28 Dec. 1782. When about three years of age he was adopted by his great-uncle, the Rev. James Kettle, for forty years minister of the presbyterian chapel at Warwick, and he received a classical education in the academy of the Rev. John Kendall, vicar of Budbrooke. In 1797 he was apprenticed to Noah Rollason, printer and proprietor of the ‘Coventry Mercury,’ and in 1808 he entered into partnership with his master. In 1823 he was sworn a chamberlain of Coventry, and he obtained other local appointments. After his partner's death in 1813 he continued to manage the business, which in consequence of heavy losses he was obliged to relinquish in 1833; and in 1835, having disposed of the greater part of his freehold property in Coventry, he was compelled to leave that city. He at first removed to Birmingham, where he lost the remainder of his property and endured much adversity, and in 1837 he finally settled in London, where he died on 3 Oct. 1852. He was buried at St. John's, Hoxton.
His works are: 1. ‘An Authentic Record of the Lammas Grounds belonging to the City of Coventry, from the original record by Humphrey Wanley in the British Museum,’ 1810, 12mo. 2. ‘A Description of the Churches of St. Michael and the Holy Trinity, Coventry,’ 1815, 8vo. 3. ‘The Charter granted by James I to the Mayor, Bailiffs, and Commonalty of the City of Coventry in 1621,’ 1816, 8vo. 4. ‘New Coventry Guide, containing the History and Antiquities of that City,’ Coventry [1824?], 12mo. 5. ‘The History of Leofric, Earl of Mercia, and his Countess Godiva, from authentic records, with the Origin and Description of Coventry Show Fair,’ Coventry, 1827, 18mo; 2nd edit., 1830, 12mo; 3rd edit., 1834, 8vo. 6. ‘A Guide to St. Mary's Hall, Coventry,’ Coventry, 1827, 12mo. 7. ‘Persecutions at Coventry by the Roman Catholics from 1380 to 1557,’ 1829, 8vo. 8. ‘Description of St. Michael's Church, Coventry, with Inscriptions from the Monuments,’ Coventry, 1830, 12mo. 9. ‘Domesday Book for the County of Warwick, translated, with a brief Dissertation on Domesday Book, and Biographical Notices of the Ancient Possessors,’ Coventry, 1835, 4to; 2nd edit., with brief introduction by Evelyn Philip Shirley, Warwick [1879], 4to. 10. ‘A List of the Bailiffs, Sheriffs, and Mayors of Coventry.’
Reader published in the ‘Coventry Mercury’ many articles on the ancient and modern history of the city; he was an occasional correspondent of the ‘Gentleman's Magazine’ from 1809 to 1852; and he also made some contributions to the ‘Collectanea Topographica et Genealogica.’
T. C.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Reade, John Edmund

​READE, JOHN EDMUND (1800–1870), poetaster and novelist, born in 1800 at Broadwell, Gloucestershire, was the son of Thomas Reade of Barton Manor, Berkshire, by his wife Catherine, daughter of Sir John Hill (d. 24 Jan. 1837). His grandfather, Sir John Reade, was fourth baronet, being great-grandson of Compton Reade of Shipton Court, Oxfordshire, who was created a baronet on 4 March 1661.
John Edmund was educated at a school at Doulting Sheepslate, near Shepton Mallet. His first work, a collection of poems entitled ‘The Broken Heart,’ was published in 1825. From that time till the close of his life he devoted himself to authorship, and developed a remarkable capacity for plagiarism. Byron served for his chief model, but his poems and plays are full of sentiments and phrases taken undisguisedly from the best-known writings of Scott, Wordsworth, Ben Jonson, Croly, and others. His ablest work, ‘Cain, the Wanderer,’ was published in 1830. It bears traces of Byronic influence, and obtained for its author an introduction to Coleridge and a eulogy from Goethe. In 1838, after a long stay in the south of Europe, he published his longest poem, ‘Italy,’ which bears a close resemblance to ‘Childe Harold,’ reproducing even the dying gladiator.
Most of Reade's life was passed in Bath and the west of England, but he was in the habit of making long sojourns in central and southern Europe. He died on 17 Sept. 1870. He married his cousin, Maria Louisa, elder daughter of George Compton Reade, by whom he left a daughter, Agnes Coralie, who married Arnold Highton in 1881. After the marriage her husband assumed the additional surname of Reade.
Besides the works already mentioned, Reade published: 1. ‘Sibyl Leaves: Poems,’ 1827, 8vo. 2. ‘The Revolt of the Angels,’ an epic drama, 1830, 8vo. 3. ‘Catiline,’ a tragedy, 1839, 8vo. 4. ‘Prose from the South,’ 1846, post 8vo; 2nd edit. 1847. 5. ‘The Light of other Days,’ a novel, 1858, 8vo. 6. ‘Wait and Hope,’ a novel, 1859, 8vo. 7. ‘Saturday Sterne,’ a novel, 1862, 8vo, besides other poems and dramas. Several collective editions of his poems were published, the most complete being that of 1865, in 3 vols. 8vo.
E. I. C.