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

​CORVUS, JOANNES (fl. 1512–1544), portrait painter, has recently been identified with Jan Rave, a native of Bruges, received master in that town in 1512, who subsequently came to England, and, like many of his fellow-countrymen, latinised his name. Vertue was the first to discover the fact of his existence, by finding the inscription ‘Joannes Corvus Flandrus faciebat’ on the frame of a portrait of Bishop Fox, the founder, at Corpus Christi College, Oxford, which he engraved for Fiddes's ‘Life of Cardinal Wolsey.’ In 1820 this portrait was placed in a new and gorgeous frame, and the old frame was destroyed. Vertue's statement is fortunately authenticated by the existence of a portrait of Mary Tudor, the daughter of Henry VII, which has a frame and inscription similar to that of Bishop Fox, as described by Vertue. This picture, after being ‘restored’ extensively while in the hands of dealers, was in the possession of the Des Vœux family, and subsequently in the Dent collection. In this portrait a peculiarity of execution occurs which is characteristic of Corvus's work; there is a groundwork of gold showing through the colour of the dress, which is painted over it. This makes it certain that the striking portrait of Princess (afterwards Queen) Mary in the National Portrait Gallery (dated 1544) is the work of Corvus, and it may safely be identified with the entry in the ‘Privy Purse Expenses of the Princess Mary’ (edited by Sir F. Madden), ‘1544: Itm, pd to one John that drue her grace in a table, v li.’ The portrait of Henry Grey, duke of Suffolk, in the same collection, may for similar reasons be ascribed to Corvus, who can claim a high place in the ranks of the portrait painters of that age.
[Walpole's Anecdotes of Painting (ed. Dallaway and Wornum); A. J. Wauters's Flemish School of Painting; Archæologia, xxxix, Additional Observations, by G. Scharf, F.S.A., on some of the Painters contemporary with Holbein; Cat. of the National Portrait Gallery, 1884; information from George Scharf, C.B., F.S.A.]
L. C.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Cory, Isaac Preston

​CORY, ISAAC PRESTON (1802–1842), miscellaneous writer, was a fellow of Caius College, Cambridge, proceeding B.A. in 1824 and M.A. in 1827. He was the author of: 1. ‘Ancient Fragments of the Phœnician, Chaldean, Egyptian, Tyrian, Carthaginian, Indian, Persian, and other writers, Greek and Latin,’ 2nd edit. 1832. 2. ‘Metaphysical Inquiry into the Method, Objects, and Result of Ancient and Modern Philosophy,’ 1833. 3. ‘Chronological Inquiry into the Ancient History of Egypt,’ 1837. 4. ‘Practical Treatise on Accounts, exhibiting a view of the discrepancies between the practice of the Law and of Merchants; with a plan for the Amendment of the Law of Partnership,’ 1839. He died at Blundeston, Suffolk, on 1 April 1842.
[Annual Register, lxxxiv. 261; Brit. Mus. Cat.; Notes and Queries, 5th ser. iv. 415.]
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Corrigan, Dominic John

​CORRIGAN, Sir DOMINIC JOHN, M.D. (1802–1880), physician, son of John Corrigan, a tradesman of Dublin, was born at his father's house in Thomas Street, a long and squalid thoroughfare, which is the way out of Dublin to the south of Ireland, 1 Dec. 1802. After receiving the rudiments of general education at the school attached to Maynooth College, and his first medical instruction from the village doctor, he was sent to Edinburgh and graduated M.D. there in 1825. He returned to Dublin and began practice. In 1833 he became lecturer on medicine in the Carmichael School, and from 1840 to 1866 was physician to the House of Industry hospitals. He attained large practice, and was made physician in ordinary to the queen in Ireland, and in 1866 was created a baronet. He was five times president of the Irish College of Physicians. In 1868 he contested the city of Dublin, and in 1870 was returned to parliament as one of its representatives, and sat till 1874. He supported the popular principles of the day, but had no knowledge of politics, and failed to command attention in the House of Commons. In his later years he suffered from gout, and died of hemiplegia 1 Feb. 1880. As a physician Corrigan has received more praise than is his due. He has been spoken of as the discoverer of the form of valvular disease of the heart known as aortic regurgitation, and as the first described of the peculiar pulse which accompanies it; but Corrigan's paper ‘On Permanent Patency of the Mouth of the Aorta’ was published in the ‘Edinburgh Medical and Surgical Journal’ for April 1832, while the disease had been described more fully by Hodgkin in 1827 and 1829 (London Medical Gazette, 7 March 1829), and the pulse by Vieussens in 1715. His paper shows that he ​had made some careful observations, but he cannot have made many, for he remarks (p. 244) that ‘assurance may be given against any sudden termination,’ while the fact is that this form of valvular disease is the commonest morbid appearance associated with sudden and immediate death, and that patients suffering from it are liable to death at any moment. His ‘Lectures on the Nature and Treatment of Fever’ in Dublin, 1853, support the views then becoming prevalent as to the distinction between typhus and typhoid fever. In 1866 he published some general remarks on cholera, and he wrote a few other medical papers of minor importance. His success was due to his good sense and large practical experience, but he was not a profound physician nor a learned one. He had received little general education, and had no knowledge of the writings of his predecessors, but he was the first prominent physician of the race and religion of the majority in Ireland, and the populace were pleased with his success, and spread his fame through the country, so that no physician in Ireland had before received so many fees as he did.
[Works; Lancet, February, 1880.]
N. M.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Bederic, Henry

​BEDERIC or DE BURY, HENRY (fl. 1380), theologian, was born at Bury, in Suffolk, from which place he derived his surname. Bale, whose account seems to have been followed both by Pamphilus and Pits, tells us that he embraced the monastic life very early by entering the Augustinian foundation at Clare, in Suffolk, sixteen miles south of Bury St. Edmunds, as the bent of his whole mind was towards letters. For the sake of increasing his facilities for study, we are told that he visited the most renowned resorts of the learned in England, a phrase which Tanner translates more definitely into several years' residence at Oxford and Cambridge. He then passed on to the Sorbonne divinity schools at Paris, where, according to Pits, after long studies and almost daily exercises in the schools, he took his doctor's degree. On his return to England he was appointed provincial of his whole order for this country, and Pits enumerates his many qualifications for this office — his uprightness of life and prudence in business. Bale praises his keen intellect and his readiness in public preaching ('declamandas e suggesto conciones'), but qualifies his admiration by adding that this was done in papist fashion. The chief works of this writer, as enumerated by the last-mentioned biographer, are: 'Lectures on the Sentences of Peter Lombard,' certain 'Quæstiones Theologiæ' 'Sermones de Beatâ Virgine,' and 'Sermones per Annum.' Bandellus, according to Bale, quotes him as an authority for maintaining that the Virgin Mary was conceived in original sin. Bale and Pits state that John Bederic flourished about 1380; but Pamphilus gives an account of his life under the year 1373.
T. A. A.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Bedford, Thomas (fl.1650)

​BEDFORD, THOMAS (fl. 1650), theologian, was prominent in religious controversy between 1620 and 1650, but little is known of his personal history. He was educated at Queens' College, Cambridge, took degrees in arts, and afterwards proceeded B.D. In a letter to Baxter (1650) he says that 'he sat at the feet of Bishop Davenant,' who was Margaret professor of divinity from 1609 to 1621, and master of Queens from 1614 to 1621. Davenant's successor in the professorship was Dr. Samuel Ward, and from these two divines Bedford affirms that his own theology was mainly derived. A Latin letter from Davenant to Ward on baptismal regeneration was copied by Bedford, and afterwards published by him, at Ussher's suggestion, as a preface to his thesis for the degree of B.D. held before Dr. Ward.
In the above-mentioned letter to Baxter Bedford explains that he was convinced of 'the efficacy of the sacrament to the elect' by reading a book of Dr. Burges. This letter was written because Baxter had appended to his 'Plain Scripture Proof of Infants' Church Membership' a refutation of what he considered Bedford's erroneous view of baptism, and Bedford's object was to show that their tenets were fundamentally the same. This Baxter admitted in a reply called 'A friendly Accommodation with Mr. Bedford' (1656).
In 1647 Bedford published an examination of antinomianism, the substance of which was taken from lectures he had given in the chapel of St. Antholine's parish, London. He received the rectorship of St. Martin Outwich in the city of London some short time before 1649, for in that year he dedicated his 'Sacramental Instructions' to the congregation as his 'first-fruits' to them; and Thomas Pierce, the former rector, had been sequestrated a little before (Walker, Sufferings of the Clergy). How long Bedford continued as rector is not certain, but Matthew Smalwood was appointed previously to the Restoration (v. Newcourt, Rep. i. 420).
The only political sentiment Bedford shows is when, in his 'Examination of the Compassionate Samaritan,' he urges the right and duty of the civil power to punish for heretical opinions. His theological writings are marked by a temperance alien to his time, and show an extensive reading, especially in the fathers of the church and in the continental theology of his time.
His works are:
* 'The Sinne unto Death,' 1621.
* 'A Treatise of the Sacrament,' 1638.
* 'Examination of some of the Chief Points of Antinomianism,' and appended to it 'An Examination of a Pamphlet entitled "The Compassionate Samaritan,"' 1647.
* 'Some Sacramental Instructions,' 1649.
* 'Vindiciæ Gratiæ Sacramentalis,' 1650.
[Davenant's Baptismal Regeneration, preface to Eng. trans.; Baxter's Works; Watt's Bibl. Brit.; Brit. Mus. Cat.]
A. G-n.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Bedeman, Lawrence

​BEDEMAN or STEVINE, LAWRENCE (fl. 1372–1410), supporter of Wycliffe, appears first, in 1372, as a scholar of Stapeldon Hall (now Exeter College), of which foundation he became fellow and ultimately rector, holding the latter office from 1379 to 1380. In 1382 he is mentioned as one of the principal advocates of Wycliffe's doctrines at Oxford. In June of that year he was suspended from preaching, in company with the other leaders of the party, by Archbishop Courtney, under circumstances which are noticed under Aston (John). A mandate was also issued against him in the same year by Bishop Brantingham, of Exeter, to whom complaints had been made of his activity as a preacher of false doctrine in Cornwall (Boase, xiv, sq.), Bedeman appears, however, to have held a less conspicuous position than his associates at Oxford, and was the first of them to make his peace with the church, being restored to public functions by a mandate of 18 Oct. 1382. After this he was made rector of Lifton, in Devonshire, and held this benefice as late as 11 June 1410, when he was licensed to preach in Latin or English. Foxe therefore is mistaken in reckoning him, on the authority of 'ancient writers,' among those who 'suffered most cruel death,' or else 'did forsake the realm,' on account of their attachment to Wycliffe's teaching (Acts and Monuments, iii. 96, ed. Townsend). ​ The name 'Bedeman' occurs more than once as 'Bedenam' or 'Bedmond' (Boase, 194); in the older editions of Foxe it is given as 'Redman.' Other documents style him 'Stevine' ('Stevyn' or 'Stephen'), the fuller description being 'Laurentius Stephyn, alias dict. Bedeman' (Wilkins, iii. 168).
R. L. P.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Bedford, John

​BEDFORD, JOHN (1810–1879), Wesleyan, son of John and Elizabeth Bedford, was a native of Yorkshire, having been born in Wakefield, 27 July 1810. His father died when he was about five years old. John was educated in Wakefield. He studied during several years in a solicitor's office, but, resolving to become a minister of the Wesleyan methodists, he was appointed by the conference in 1 831 to Glasgow. There he laboured hard to free the chapels from the heavy debts with which they were encumbered, and by which their growth and development were ​effectually hindered. In an essay on 'The Constitution and Discipline of British Methodism' he showed his mastery of the principles of church government. Althougn Bedford's ministry was afterwards mainly exercised in Manchester and adjacent towns, he also laboured with conspicuous success for a period of three years in each of the towns, Birminghan, West Bromwich, and Derby.
In 1860 Bedford was appointed by the conference secretary to the general chapel committee, and thenceforward lived in Manchester. His orderly habits were of immense service in administering the chapel affairs of the connection. He would tolerate nothing loose or irregular, and spared no pains to place the trust property of the methodist church on a secure basis. At the same time he kept abreast of the thought and theology of the day. His sermons were logical and impressive, and he especially excelled as a debater.
At the conference of 1858 he was elected into the legal hundred to take the place vacated by the death of Dr. Bunting. From that time to the end of his life Bedford was one of the foremost men in his own denomination, and his breadth of sympathy enabled him to exert a powerful influence upon the religious world in general. After being one of the secretaries of the conference for several years, he was in 1867 unanimously elected to the presidency of that assembly. A partial failure of health in 1872 led him to retire from the more onerous duties of his secretaryship, but he continued to give valuable counsel on chapel affairs and in other departments till his death. He died at Chorlton-cum-Hardy, near Manchester, 20 Nov. 1879, aged 69.
He published some occasional sermons and speeches, and also a controversial correspondence with the Rev. William Sutcliffe on the doctrine and system of the Wesleyan methodists, which he very ably defended.
He married Miss Maria Gledhill of Brighouse, in 1835, who, with two sons, survived him.
W. B. L.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Bedel, Henry

​BEDEL, HENRY (fl. 1571), divine, was a native of Oxfordshire. One Henry Bedel took the degree of B.A. at Corpus Christi College, Oxford, on 13 Feb. 1555-6, and M.A. 1566 (Wood, Fasti Oxon. (Bliss), i. 146, 172). Wood is not certain, but it seems probable from the dates, that this graduate was identical with the preacher of the same name. Bedel was collated to the rectorship of St. Pancras, Soper Lane, on 4 Oct. 1561, and preferred to the vicarship of Christ Church, London, on 28 Jan. 1567. The latter living he resigned in 1576 (Newcourt, Rep. i. 320, 519). While vicar of Christ Church he preached 'a sermon exhorting to pity of the poor, which treatise may well be called the mouth of the poor.' It was delivered on 15 Nov. 1571 and published in 1573. Waterland praises it as 'learned and elaborate.' This is his only extant work, although Wood says that he was the author of other sermons.
A. G-n.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Bedford, Thomas (d.1773)

​BEDFORD, THOMAS (d. 1773), nonjuror and church historian, was the second son of Hilkiah Bedford [q. v.], the nonjuror. He was educated at Westminster School, and proceeded to St. John's College, Cambridge, as sizar to Dr. Jenkin the master, matriculating in December 1730. In consequence of nonjuring principles he did not take a degree, nor did he enter the established church. He was admitted into orders by the nonjurors, and became chaplain in the family of Sir John Cotton, with whom he afterwards resided at Angers. His next home was in the county of Durham, where his sister was married to George Smith, son of Dr. John Smith, the learned editor of Bede. Here Bedford prepared an edition of Symeon of Durham's 'De Exordio atque Procursu Dunhelmensis Ecclesiæ libellus,' from what he supposed to be an original or contemporary manuscript in the cathedral library; from the same manuscript he added 'a continuation to the year 1164, and an account of the hard usage Bishop William received from Rufus,' and he prefaced the work with a dissertation by Thomas Rudd (Gough, Brit. Topography, i. 329). This book was published by subscription in 1732.
From Durham Bedford went to live in Derbyshire, at Compton,near Ashbourne, and officiated as minister to the nonjurors in the neighbourhood. He wrote an historical catechism in 1742. The first edition was taken from the Abbé Fleury's 'Catéchisme Historique,' but the second was so much altered that he omitted the abbé's name from the title-page. Bedford was a friend of Ellis Farneworth, the translator, and is ​said (Nichols, Anecdotes, ii. 392) to have translated for him Fleury's 'Short History of the Israelites,' published in Farneworth's name, in order to raise a few pounds for his friend when in pecuniary distress. Bedford lived at Compton till his death in February 1773.
A. G-n.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Church, John

​CHURCH, JOHN (1675?–1741), musician, is said to have been born at Windsor in 1675, and educated as a chorister at New College, Oxford. On 31 Jan. 1696-7 he was admitted as an extraordinary gentleman of ​the Chapel Royal, and on 20 July following he was sworn into the full place of a gentleman of the chapel, rendered vacant by the death of James Cobb. In 1712 a collection of the words of anthems used at the Chapel Royal was published under the direction of Dr. Dolben, the sub-dean. The compilation of this work has been ascribed by Dr. Rimbault on deficient authority to Church, but it was more probably the work of Dr. William Croft [q. v.] In 1723 Church published an 'Introduction to Psalmody,' which has now become rare. About the beginning of the century Church became lay vicar and master of the choristers at Westminster Abbey, and so late as 1740 (if an entry in the ‘Gentleman’s Magazine’ for 1741 is to be relied on) he became a vicar choral of St. Paul’s. He died 6 Jan. 1740-1, and was buried (10 Jan.) in the south cloister of Westminster Abbey. His wife Elizabeth and four children predeceased him. By his will (dated 3 July 1734, and proved 13 an. 1740-1) he bequeathed his entire property to be divided equally between his two surviving sons, the Rev. John Church and the Rev. Ralph Church. The former was later rector of Boxford, Suffolk, and died at Norwich 27 Oct. 1785, aged 80; the latter (who in 1738 published an edition of Spenser’s ‘Faery Queen’) was subsequently vicar of Pyrton and Shirburn in Oxfordshire, and died in April 1787, aged 79.
[Grove’s Dict. of Music, i. 356 b: Chapel Royal Cheque Book, 21, 22, 53, 89, 225; Westminster Registers, ed. Chester, 77, 78, 79, 250, 263, 273, 296, 337, 358; Gent. Mag. 1740, p. 38.]
W. B. S.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Church, Thomas

​CHURCH, THOMAS (1707–1756), divine and controversial writer, born at Marlborough 20 Oct. 1707, graduated at Brasenose, Oxford, B.A. 1726, M.A. 1731. He was vicar of Battersea from 1740 till his death, 23 Dec. 1756. He also held a prebendal stall at St. Paul’s Cathedral (3 Jan. 1743–4), and was lecturer at St. Anne’s, Soho. He was a diligent writer in defence of christianity. For his vindication, against Conyers Middleton, of the miraculous powers of the early church, the university of Oxford conferred upon him the degree of D.D. (1749). He criticised with equal zeal the philosophy of deism and the doctrines and practices of the methodists. His analysis of the works of Bolingbroke (who is stated to have been his patron) is marked by considerable terseness and ingenuity of argument. In a letter to Whitefield he reproaches him for his frequent absences from his cure of souls in Georgia, ‘though he often preached and expounded four times a day when he was on the spot.’ While treating Wesley with more respect, he pronounces unreservedly against his system as having ‘introduced ​many disorders, enthusiasm, antinomianism, Calvinism, a neglect and contempt of God's ordinances, and almost all other duties.’ Besides occasional sermons, he published: 1. ‘An Essay towards vindicating the literal sense of the Demoniacks in the New Testament,’ 1737 (anonymous). 2. ‘A short State of the Controversy about the meaning of the Demoniacks in the New Testament,’ 1739 (anonymous). 8. ‘A Serious and Expostulatory Letter to the Rev. Mr. George Whitefield, on the occasion of his late Letter to the Bishop of London and other Bishops,' 1744. 4. ‘Remarks on the Rev. Mr. John Wesley's Last Journal,’ 1745. 5. 'A Vindication of the Miraculous Powers which subsisted in the three first Centuries of the Christian Church, in answer to Dr. Middleton's Free Enquiry,’ 1750. 6. ‘An Analysis of the Philosophical Works of the late Lord Viscount Bolingbroke,’ London, 1755 Dublin; 1756 (both these editions, separately printed, were published anonymously).
[Brit. Mus. Cat.; Lysons's Environs, i. 39; Gent. Mag., December 1756; Rawlinson MSS. in Bodleian.]
J. M. S.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Churchill, Alfred B.

​CHURCHILL, ALFRED B. (1825–1870), journalist, born at Constantinople in 1825, succeeded his father in the proprietorship of the Turkish semi-official paper, the ‘Jeride Hawades,’ which he also edited. He promoted the cause of Turkish progress, in which he was a most useful coadjutor to Fuad and Ali Pashas; secured the co-operation of some able writers in the conduct of his paper; ‘much improved the character of Turkish printing, and also bestowed attention on the spread of popular literature, puhlishing several cheap works, which included romantic and poetical novels, biographies, descriptions of scientific inventions, and a cookery-book; some of these went through a large impression.’ When the late sultan visited this country in July 1867, Churchill ​attended as the official historiographer of the expedition. He died in the winter of 1870, at the age of forty-five.
[Athenæum, 17 Dec. 1870, p. 805.]
G. G.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Chudleigh, Mary

​CHUDLEIGH, MARY, Lady (1656–1710), poetical writer, daughter of Richard Lee of Winslade, Devonshire, was born in 1656. About 1665 she was married to Sir George Chudleigh of Ashton, in the neighbourhood; but the marriage was far from happy, and Lady Chudleigh found little pleasure, except in retirement and reading. Her first publication was a poem in 1701, 'The Ladies' Defence,' in answer to a sermon on 'Conjugal Duty' preached by Mr. Sprint. This was anonymous, but Lady Chudleigh put her initials to the epistle dedicatory. It made a stir, and was followed in 1703 by 'Poems on several Occasions,' dedicated to Queen Anne. Lintott desired to republish 'The Ladies' Defence;' Lady Chudleigh refused her consent, and he issued it unknown to her. Her next work was 'Essays upon several Subjects,' 1710, dedicated to the Electress Sophia, for which that venerable princess sent her an autograph letter of thanks in June. Lady Chudleigh died at Ashton the same year, and was buried without monument or inscription. Posthumous editions of 'Poems' were issued in 1713 and 1722, and selections from this work, with 'The Ladies' Defence,' were reprinted in 'Poems of Eminent Ladies,' 1755. Lady Chudleigh left also some unpublished works. She had three children — a daughter, whose death caused her great affliction, and two sons. 'Corinna' and she corresponded, her own poetical name being 'Marissa.'
[Ballard's Memoirs of Ladies, 409 et seq.; Preface to 'Three Children' in Poems; Letters to Corinna, Duke of Wharton's Poetical Works, ii. 109 et seq. These letters are also in Gwinnett's Honourable Lovers, 247 et seq.]
J. H.