OpenLLM-France/wikimedia huggingface dataset:
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Holmes, William Anthony

​HOLMES, WILLIAM ANTHONY, D.D. (1782–1843), chancellor of Cashel and rector of Templemore, in the same diocese, son of Joseph Holmes, was born in Drogheda, co. Louth, in 1782. He entered Trinity College, Dublin, 7 Jan. 1799; was elected a scholar in 1801; graduated B.A. 1803, and B.D. and D.D. 1834. Having taken holy orders, he became incumbent of Holywood, co. Down, in 1810. While there he took an important share in establishing the Mendicity Institution of Belfast. In 1818 he was promoted to the rectory of Ballyroan in the diocese of Leighlin; for some years he was preacher of Cashel Cathedral, and in 1822 became rector of Hore Abbey in the diocese of Cashel. On 22 May 1832 he was collated to the chancellorship of Cashel, and in 1837 to the rectory of Templemore. Archdeacon Cotton has described him as ‘an eloquent preacher, and a person of active mind and literary habits.’ He was twice married, and left issue. He died at Templemore, 30 Dec. 1843, and was buried in St. John the Baptist's churchyard, Cashel. Besides sermons and contributions to periodicals, Holmes was author of: 1. ‘A Plan for a Mendicity Institution,’ Belfast, circa 1818. 2. ‘Hints to the Proprietors of Loan Funds,’ Belfast, circa 1818. 3. ‘Statistical Account of the Parish of Holywood, County and Diocese of Down’ (printed in Mason's ‘Parochial Survey of Ireland,’ iii. 183–219), Dublin, 1819. 4. ‘The Time of the End; being a series of Lectures on Prophetical Chronology,’ London, 1833. 5. ‘The Heavy Blow and Great Discouragement of Protestantism: Correspondence between Lord Viscount Melbourne and the Bishop of Exeter; also between Lord Brougham and the Rev. Dr. Holmes,’ London, 1838. 6. ‘The Queen's Declaration against Popery, and the Coronation Oath discussed,’ London, 1843.
[Todd's Cat. of Dublin Graduates, p. 280; Ewart's Handbook of the United Diocese of Down and Connor and Dromore, p. 50; Cotton's Fasti Ecclesiæ Hibernicæ, i. 47; Blacker's Contributions towards a proposed Bibliotheca Hibernica, No. v., in the Irish Ecclesiastical Gazette, March 1876, xviii. 77.]
B. H. B.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Holmes, John (1800-1854)

​HOLMES, JOHN (1800–1854), antiquary, son of Nathaniel Holmes, who died at Derby on 18 Dec. 1840, aged 78, was ​born at Deptford in Kent on 17 July 1800, and brought up as a bookseller in the house of John Lepard, 108 Strand, London. He was afterwards for a short time in business at Derby on his own account. His catalogue of a collection of oriental books, and another of the Battle Abbey charters, compiled for John Cochrane, bookseller, 108 Strand, in 1830, recommended him to the notice of Lords Bexley and Glenelg, and through their interest he was, on 15 Jan. 1830, appointed a temporary assistant in the department of manuscripts, British Museum, where he was promoted to be a senior assistant in April 1837, and was assistant-keeper from 6 May 1850 until his death. In 1840 he contributed a biographical list of the French ambassadors to England to the ‘Gentleman's Magazine,’ xiv. 483–7, 608–10; in May 1843 he sent an article on ‘Libraries and Catalogues’ to the ‘Quarterly Review,’ lxxii. 1–25, and to ‘A Relation of England, translated from the Italian,’ edited for the Camden Society by Miss Charlotte A. Sneyd in 1847, he supplied an account of the Venetian ambassadors to England. He was the adviser of Bertram, fourth earl of Ashburnham, in the formation of his famous collection of manuscripts, which was sold in 1883–4. While at the Museum he compiled with great care catalogues of the Arundel, Burney, and other collections of manuscripts, and was at the time of his death engaged on a ‘Catalogue of the Manuscript Maps and Plans found dispersed in different collections and for the most part undescribed.’ He died at 4 Park Terrace, Highgate, on 1 April 1854. His library was sold by Puttick & Simpson on 15 June 1854. He married, 8 Sept. 1832, Mary Anne, eldest daughter of Charles Rivington, bookseller, of St. Paul's Churchyard, by whom he left four children. She died at Highgate on 8 Feb. 1870. The second son, Sir Richard Rivington Holmes, K.C.V.O., was royal librarian at Windsor Castle from October 1869, and keeper of the prints and drawings from 26 Feb. 1870; he retired in 1906.
Besides the works mentioned above, Holmes was author or editor of: 1. ‘A Catalogue of Manuscripts in different Languages, now selling by John Cochrane,’ 1829. 2. ‘Catalogue of the Manuscripts, Maps, Charts in the British Museum,’ 1844. 3. ‘The Life of Mrs. Godolphin. By J. Evelyn. With notes,’ 1847; another edition, 1848. 4. ‘The Life of Cardinal Wolsey. By G. Cavendish,’ 1852. 5. ‘Ecclesiastical Biography. By C. Wordsworth, with notes,’ 1853. 6. ‘Some Correspondence on the grant of 1,800l. to the National School of Highgate,’ 1853. 7. ‘A Letter explanatory of Correspondence on the grant of 1,800l. to the National School of Highgate,’ 1853.
[Gent. Mag. 1854, ii. 87–8; Athenæum, 15 April 1854, p. 465.]
G. C. B.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Selred

​SELRED or SÆLRÆD (d. 746), king of the East-Saxons, son of King Sigebert the Good, succeeded Offa (fl. 709) [q. v.] in or about 709, when Offa departed on his pilgrimage. Selred was slain in the thirty-eighth year of his reign, which would be 746 (as in A.-S. Chron.) He was succeeded by his son Swithæd. Bishop Stubbs suggests that until 738 he may have reigned conjointly with a king called Swebriht (d. 738) (Symeon, ii. 32). It has been held that Selred was king of East-Anglia and not of Essex (see Chron. of Melrose, an. 747), but this opinion must be rejected as contrary to the earliest authority, the genealogies of the kings (Stubbs).
W. H.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Selvach

​SELVACH (d. 729), king of Scottish Dalriada, was probably a younger son of Fearchair Fada (the Long) [q. v.] He appears in the fictitious list of Buchanan under the name of Solvathius as the sixty-fourth king, and in the rectified list of Father Innes as the twentieth king of the Scots of Dalriada. Our certain knowledge is limited to a few brief entries in the ‘Annals’ of Tighernach and of Ulster. The year after the death of Fearchair Fada, which took place in 697, his fort of Dunolly was burnt, and Ainbhealach, the elder brother of Selvach (latinised as Amberkelethus, son of Findanus, by Buchanan, who reckons five kings between him and Solvathius, the latinised name of Selvach), was expelled and sent in bonds to Ireland (Annals of Ulster). In 701 Dunolly ​was again and more completely destroyed by Selvach, and the sept of Cathboth, a branch of the tribe of Lorn, to another branch of which Selvach belonged, was slaughtered (ib.), and in the following year the Britons were defeated by the Dalriads at a place called Livingerhat (? Loch Artetit, east of Loch Lomond). In 712 Dunaverty (Aberte) was besieged by Selvach (ib.), who in 714 rebuilt Dunolly (Annals of Tighernach). In 717 the Britons were defeated by the Dalriads at a stone called Minverce (ib.), perhaps a place called Clach na Breattan in Glen Falloch at the head of Loch Lomond. In September 719 there was a battle at Finglen in Lorn, known by tradition as ‘the battle of the brothers,’ between the two sons of Fearchair Fada, when Ainbhealach, who, we may presume, had escaped from Ireland, was slain by Selvach (ib.) In October of the same year Duncad MacBecc and the tribe of Gabhran defeated Selvach and the tribe of Lorn in a sea fight at Ardannisby (ib.) Four years later, following a common Celtic usage of unsuccessful or ageing kings, Selvach became a priest (ib.), and in the entry which records this he is called king of Dalriada. His son Dungal reigned in his stead (Synchronisms of Flann Mainistrech), but in 726 was driven from his kingdom by Eochadh, son of Eochach of the tribe of Gabhran. Again following a usual custom of Celtic chiefs, Selvach came out of his monastic retreat and endeavoured by leading his tribe to recover the kingdom of Dalriada from the rival tribe of Gabhran. But a battle fought by him in 727 with that tribe at Rosfoichen, a headland near Loch Feochan, not far from Oban, was unsuccessful, and Eochadh retained the sovereignty over Dalriada till his death in 733. In 736 two sons of Selvach, Dungal and Feradach, were taken captive by Angus MacFergus, the great monarch of the Picts, who wasted Dalriada and occupied the fort of Dunad (Annals of Tighernach). The date of the death of Selvach is given as 730 (A.D. 729) in the ‘Annals of Ulster,’ the best authority for this period.
Æ. M.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Sempill, Francis

​SEMPILL, FRANCIS (1616?–1682), ballad-writer, son of Robert Sempill of Beltrees, Lochwinnoch, Renfrewshire [see under Sempill, Sir James, ad fin.], and his wife Mary Lyon, was born about 1616. Educated according to his position, he probably studied law. Like his ancestors, he ardently supported the Stuarts. The family estates were heavily burdened, and, failing to relieve them of debt, he in 1674 alienated to his son by deed the lands of Beltrees and Thirdpart. In 1677, when there was a process of ‘horning’ against Sempill, his resources further declined. He both sold and feued, granted the superiority over his estates to his neighbour, Crawford of Cartsburn, and resigned to his son the life-rent due to himself and his wife from certain lands. In 1677 Sempill was appointed sheriff-depute of Renfrewshire, and one of his decisions shortly afterwards involved him in a riot in which he was severely handled (Wodrow, Sufferings of the Church of Scotland, vol. ii. App. p. 8). According to Law (Memorialls, 1638–84), he died suddenly at Paisley, 12 March 1682. Sempill married, 3 April 1655, his cousin Jane Campbell of Ardkinlas, Argyllshire, who survived him, together with two sons, Robert and James.
The author of many occasional pieces on social and political subjects, Sempill was widely known as poet and wit. Through an intimacy formed with Cromwell's officers in Glasgow, he was early recognised in England as a song-writer (Johnson, Musical Museum). Sempill wrote complimentary verses on James, duke of York, and celebrated the births of his children. In his autobiographical poem, ‘The Banishment of Poverty by His Royal Highness J.D.A.’ (i.e. James, duke of Albany), he gives a lively narrative of his troubles, including his sojourn in the debtors' refuge at Holyrood. Sempill is also credited with a variety of fairly pointed poetical epitaphs, with a Christmas carol, and a sentimental lyric on ‘Old Longsyne.’
‘She rose and let me in,’ a song that is often attributed to Sempill, figures in D'Urfey's ‘New Collection of Songs’ (1683), and in Henry Playford's ‘Wit and Mirth,’ ​vol. i. (1698). While Alexander Campbell and other Scottish literary historians think the English song is ‘conveyed’ from Sempill, Ritson (‘Historical Essay’ prefixed to Scotish Songs) claims it for D'Urfey, asserting that the original English version was subsequently ‘Scotified.’ The Scottish version was doubtless by Sempill. He is also credited, somewhat indecisively, with the ballad of ‘Maggie Lauder.’ Whether Sempill is responsible for the ‘Blythsome Wedding,’ which is likewise claimed for Sir William Scott (1674?–1725) [q. v.] of Thirlestane, is open to question. The evidence is scanty and traditions conflicting. Its broad humour and manifest knowledge of the Scottish rustic are features that support Sempill's claims, which are stoutly asserted in family records.
[Campbell's Introduction to the History of Scottish Poetry; Paisley Repository, No. 5; Harp of Renfrewshire; Cunningham's and Chambers's Songs of Scotland; Laing's Fugitive Scottish Poetry; Paterson's Poems of the Sempills of Beltrees.]
T. B.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Sellyng, Richard

​SELLYNG, RICHARD (fl. 1450), poet, wrote in old age a poem, ‘Evidens to Beware and Gode Counsayle,’ in the Harleian MS. 7333, f. 36 a, which he submitted to the correction of John Shirley [q. v.] He is described in the title as ‘that honourable squier,’ and may be the Richard Sellyng who in 1432–1433 conveyed Bernham's Manor, Norfolk, to Sir J. Fastolf and John Paston (cf. Paston Letters, ed. Gairdner, i. 164, 228).
M. B.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Selwyn, William (1775-1855)

​SELWYN, WILLIAM (1775–1855), legal author, second son of William Selwyn, K.C. (who was treasurer of Lincoln's Inn in 1793), by Frances Elizabeth, daughter of Dr. John Dod of Woodford, Essex. George Augustus Selwyn [q. v.], the wit, was his father's first cousin. Born in 1775, William was educated at Eton and St. John's and Trinity Colleges, Cambridge, where he graduated B.A. in 1797, being first chancellor's medallist in classics, and senior optime in the mathematical tripos, and proceeded M.A. in 1800. At Lincoln's Inn, where he was admitted a student in 1797, he was called to the bar on 24 Nov. 1807, and elected treasurer in 1840. He went the western circuit, was recorder of Portsmouth from 1819 to 1829, and took silk in Trinity vacation 1827. Soon after the marriage of Queen Victoria he was chosen to assist the prince consort in his legal studies. In later life he became a chronic valetudinarian, and lived in retirement at Pagoda House, Kew Road, Richmond, Surrey, an estate inherited from his father in 1817. He died on 25 July 1855, while on a visit to Tunbridge Wells, being buried in the neighbouring churchyard of Rusthall.
Selwyn married, in 1801, Lætitia Frances (d. 1842), youngest daughter of Thomas Kynaston of Witham, Essex, by whom he left issue three sons—viz. (1) William Selwyn (1806-1875) (1806–1875) [q. v.]; (2) George Augustus Selwyn (1808–1878) (1808–1878) [q. v.], primate of New Zealand and bishop of Lichfield; (3) Sir Charles Jasper [q. v.]—and two daughters, viz. (1) Lætitia Frances, and (2) Frances Elizabeth, wife of George Peacock [q. v.], dean of Ely.
Selwyn collaborated with George Maule in the production of ‘Reports of Cases argued and determined in the Court of King's Bench,’ London, 1814, 2 vols. 8vo. He was author of ‘Abridgment of the Law of Nisi Prius,’ 3 successive parts, London, 1806–8, 8vo, a work of great merit, of which the latest 13th edit., by David Keane, Q.C., and Charles T. Smith, judge of the Cape of Good Hope, appeared in 1869, London, 2 vols. 8vo.
[Bigland's Gloucestershire, ii. 201; Rudder's Gloucestershire, p. 542; Cambridge Calendar, 1798; Gent. Mag. 1855, ii. 320; Tucker's Life of G. A. Selwyn, D.D.; Brayley and Britton's Surrey, iii. 108; Grey's Early Years of the Prince Consort, p. 361; Haydn's Book of Dignities.]
J. M. R.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Sempill, Hew

1904 Errata appended.
​SEMPILL, HEW, eleventh Lord Sempill (d. 1746), was the fifth son of Francis Abercromby of Fetterneir, Aberdeenshire, who was created Lord Glassford for life on 5 July 1685. His mother was Anne, baroness Sempill, daughter of Robert, seventh lord Sempill. He became ensign in July 1719, and although he succeeded to the peerage (taking his mother's maiden name), held by his mother, on the death of his brother John, tenth lord Sempill, in August 1716, he remained in the army, serving in Spain and Flanders under Marlborough and Ormonde. In 1718 he was promoted major of the 26th regiment or Cameronians, and in 1719 lieutenant-colonel of the 9th foot. On 14 Jan. 1741 he succeeded the Earl of Crawford as colonel of the Black Watch, then the 43rd and now the 42nd foot. In 1743 the regiment, originally raised to keep watch in the highlands, received orders to proceed south to England; and when a rumour reached the soldiers in London that they were to be sent to the West Indies, they immediately proceeded to return to Scotland, but were overtaken and compelled to turn back. Their destination was Flanders, and there, under Lord Sempill, they specially distinguished themselves in the defence of the town of Aeth when it was besieged by the French. So exemplary was the conduct of the regiment in Flanders that the elector palatine desired his envoy to thank George II for their behaviour, adding that for their sakes he would ‘always pay a respect and regard to a Scotchman in future.’ On 25 April 1745 Lord Sempill was appointed colonel of the 25th foot, and at the battle of Culloden on 16 April 1746 he acted as brigadier-general, his regiment occupying a place in the second line on the left wing. He died at Aberdeen on 25 Nov. 1746, while in command of the troops stationed there. Lord Sempill in 1727 sold the estates of Elliotson and Castle Semple, and in 1741 bought the estate of North Barr. By his first wife, Sarah, daughter and coheiress of Nathaniel Gaskill of Manchester, he had five sons and six daughters; he was succeeded by his eldest son John. His grandson Hugh, thirteenth Lord Sempill (1758–1830), was author of ‘A Short Address to the Public on the Practice of cashiering Military Officers without a Trial; and a Vindication of the Conduct and Political Opinion of the Author,’ London, 1793.
[Cannon's Hist. of the 42nd Regiment; Lieutenant-colonel Percy Groves's Hist. of the 42nd Royal Highlanders, 1893; Chambers's Hist. of the Rebellion of 1745; Collections for Renfrewshire, 1890; Douglas's Scottish Peerage (Wood), ii. 496–7.]
T. F. H.
Dictionary of National Biography, Errata (1904), p.245 N.B.— f.e. stands for from end and l.l. for last line
| Page | Col. | Line | |
| 235 | ii | 10-15 | Sempill, Hew, 11th Lord Sempill: Note that the author of 'A Short Address . . . . of the Author,' London, 1793, was not by the subject of this article, but by his grandson, Hugh Sempill, thirteenth Lord Sempill (1758-1830). |
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Russell, James (1790-1861)

​RUSSELL, JAMES (1790–1861), law reporter, born in 1790, was the eldest son of James Russell, esq., of Stirling. After graduating with distinction at Glasgow University, he was called to the English bar from the Inner Temple in June 1822. Having been introduced by Henry Lascelles, second earl of Harewood, to Lord Eldon, he was appointed in the following year a reporter in the courts of the lord chancellor and master of the rolls. In 1824 he became sole authorised reporter. He gradually acquired a large chancery and bankruptcy practice, and took silk in 1841. He had ceased reporting in 1834. He ultimately became leader of Vice-chancellor Knight Bruce's court, but overwork destroyed his eyesight, and for some years before his death he was blind. He was on four occasions asked to become a candidate for parliament, but declined each invitation. While not a brilliant pleader, Russell held a high position at the bar, owing to his learning and acuteness.
Besides contributing to the ‘Quarterly Review,’ Russell, together with his younger brother, John Russell (see below) of the Scots bar, was for some years editor of the ‘Annual Register.’ James Russell died at Roxeth House, near Harrow, on 6 Jan. 1861, and was buried at Kensal Green. He married, in April 1839, Maria, eldest daughter of the Rev. Robert Cholmeley, rector of Wainfleet, Lincolnshire, by whom he had issue three sons and five daughters.
Russell published: 1. ‘Reports in Chancery,’ 1826–8, 4 vols. 8vo, and 2 parts, vol. v. 1827–30. 2. With George J. Turner, ‘Reports in Chancery, 1822–4,’ 1832. 3. With James W. Mylne, ‘Reports in Chancery, 1829–31, with particular cases in 1832–3,’ 2 vols. 8vo, 1832–7. All these volumes were reprinted in America.
The reporter's brother, John Russell, published in 1824 an account of ‘A Tour in Germany and some of the Southern Provinces of the Austrian Empire,’ which was highly praised by Christopher North in ‘Noctes Ambrosianæ’ (August 1824), and by Chancellor Kent. A second edition appeared in 1825, in 2 vols., and an American edition at Boston the same year. In 1828 a reprint, with additions, formed vols. xix. and xxx. of ‘Constable's Miscellany.’ He was called by Lord Robertson ‘the Globe and Traveller,’ on account of his round bald head. His friend Jerdan says he was ‘exceedingly well informed, and a most agreeable companion.’
G. Le G. N.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Russell, John (1787-1863)

1904 Errata appended.
​RUSSELL, JOHN, D.D. (1787–1863), master of the Charterhouse, born in 1787, was son of John Russell (d. 26 April 1802), rector of Helmdon, Northamptonshire, and Ilmington, Warwickshire. He was educated at the Charterhouse school, where he was gold medallist in 1801, and matriculated from Christ Church, Oxford, on 3 May 1803. He graduated B.A. in 1806 and M.A. in 1809, took holy orders in 1810, and was appointed head master of the Charterhouse in 1811. Under his administration the school became extremely popular. In 1824 he had 480 boys under him. Among his pupils were George Grote, Sir Henry Havelock, and Thackeray, who immortalised the school as Grey Friars in the pages of ‘Vanity Fair,’ ‘The Newcomes,’ and other of his works, and outlined Russell's portrait in the stern but wise head master ‘of our time.’
In 1827 Russell was made a prebendary and afterwards canon residentiary of Canterbury, and resigned the head-mastership in 1832, on being presented to the rectory of St. Botolph's, Bishopsgate. He was president of Sion College in 1845 and 1846, and was treasurer of the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel, and a capable administrator of other societies. He held St. Botolph's rectory until his death, at the Oaks, Canterbury, on 3 June 1863. A Latin inscription to his memory, and that of two sons, is placed in the Charterhouse chapel.
By his wife, Mary Augusta, born Lloyd, a cousin of Charles Lloyd [q. v.], bishop of Oxford, Russell had four sons—John (d. 1836), Francis, William, and Arthur (d. 1828)—and two daughters: Augusta, wife of the Rev. G. Bridges More; and Mary, wife of General Hutchinson.
Although he was an admirable reader, he was not a great preacher. Besides separate sermons and school books, he published ‘The History of Sion College,’ London, 1859, 8vo, and edited for the first time ‘The Ephemerides’ of Isaac Casaubon [q. v.], with a Latin preface and notes, 2 vols. Oxford, 1850, 8vo.
[Foster's Alumni Oxon. 1715–1886, p. 1237; Register of Charterhouse Chapel, Harl. Soc. Publ. xviii. 71, 88; Mozley's Reminiscences, i. 162, 170, &c.; Times, 5 June 1863.]
C. F. S.
Dictionary of National Biography, Errata (1904), p.240 N.B.— f.e. stands for from end and l.l. for last line
| Page | Col. | Line | |
| 454 | i | 17 f.e. | Russell, John (1787-1863): for Mary Augusta, read Mary Augusta Lloyd (a cousin of Charles Lloyd, bishop of Oxford [q. v.]), |
| | | 15-14 f.e. | for one daughter, Mary. read two daughters: Augusta, wife of the Rev. G. Bridges More, and Mary, wife of General Hutchinson. |
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Newman, Samuel

​NEWMAN, SAMUEL (1600?–1663), concordance maker, was born at Chadlington, Oxfordshire, about 1600. Towards the end of 1616, being then aged 16, he entered at Magdalen College, Oxford; he removed to St. Edmund Hall, and graduated B.A. on 17 Oct. 1620. Subsequently he held a small living in Oxfordshire; owing to his persistent nonconformity he was subjected to prosecutions, to avoid which he removed from place to place. After his seventh removal he resolved on emigration to New England. He settled as minister at Dorchester, Massachusetts, about the end of 1636; removed to Weymouth, Massachusetts, in 1638; and in 1644 became the first minister of Rehoboth, Massachusetts. There he died on 5 July 1663.
He published with his initials, ‘A large and complete Concordance to the Bible … according to the last Translation. First collected by Clement Cotton, and now much enlarged,’ &c., 1643, fol. (‘Advertisement’ prefixed by Daniel Featley [q. v.]); other editions are 1650, fol.; 1658, fol.; Cambridge, 1683, 4to; 5th edit. 1720, fol. The work is often called the ‘Cambridge Concordance,’ and has been erroneously described as the first concordance to the English Bible; the first (1550) was by John Marbeck or Merbeck [q. v.] Cotton's (1631) was the first concordance to the authorised version.
A. G.