OpenLLM-France/wikimedia huggingface dataset:
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Montagu, George Brudenell

​MONTAGU (formerly BRUDENELL), GEORGE BRUDENELL, Duke of Montagu of a new creation, and fourth Earl of Cardigan (1712–1790), eldest son of George Brudenell, third earl of Cardigan, and his wife Lady Elizabeth Bruce, eldest daughter of Thomas, second earl of Ailesbury, was born on 26 July 1712, and on the death of his father, 5 July 1732, succeeded as fourth earl of Cardigan. He married in 1730 the Lady Mary Montagu, third daughter and coheiress of John, second duke of Montagu, and last of that creation [see Montagu, John, second Duke of Montagu], and on the death of that nobleman in 1749 took the name and arms of Montagu. On 13 March 1762 he was made K.G. while beyond seas, this being the first investiture of a subject in absentia. In 1766 dukedoms were offered to Cardigan and Sir Hugh Smithson, both being husbands of daughters of dukes whose ducal honours had become extinct at their death. But George III proposed to limit the titles in entail to the issue in each case of the ladies whose ducal parentage suggested the new titles. Smithson accepted, and was at once made Duke of Northumberland, but Cardigan objected to the restriction, and soon after (6 Nov. 1766) received the dukedom of Montagu without the limitation (Walpole, Letters, vi. 209). In 1776 Montagu was appointed governor to the youthful Prince of Wales [see George IV] and his brother, the ​Bishop of Osnaburg [see Frederick Augustus, Duke of York and Albany]. At the time of his death the duke was master of the horse, governor and captain of Windsor Castle, a privy councillor, lord-lieutenant of Huntingdon, president of the London Hospital and of the Society of Arts. He died at his residence in Privy Gardens, London, on 23 May 1790, when the dukedom and marquisate became extinct, and the earldom of Cardigan devolved on his next brother, James Brudenell, fifth earl.
By his marriage the duke had four children, viz. a son, who was called to the upper house as Baron Montagu of Boughton, and died unmarried in 1775, and three daughters, one of whom, Lady Elizabeth, married in 1767 Henry, second duke of Buccleuch, while two died unmarried. The entailed estates (12,000l. a year) went with the earldom; but the personal estate (100,000l.), the family jewels (valued at 50,000l.), the plate, and various residences passed to the Duchess of Buccleuch. The duke directed in his will that his town house should be kept up, and their full wages paid to all his servants as long as they lived.
[Collins's Peerage, 1812 ed. iii. 498-9; Burke's Extinct Peerage; Gent. Mag. 1790, pt. i. pp. 482, 568.]
H. M. C.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Montagu, James (1752-1794)

​MONTAGU, JAMES (1752–1794), captain in the navy, third son of Admiral John Montagu [q. v.], and brother of Admiral George Montagu [q. v.] and of Edward Montagu (1755-1799) [q. v.], was born on 12 Aug. 1752. On 18 Aug. 1771 he was promoted by his father to the rank of lieutenant, and on 11 Sept. 1773 to be commander of the Tamar sloop. In her, and afterwards in the Kingfisher, he continued on the North American station, and on 14 Nov. 1775 he was posted to the Mercury. In December 1776 he was sent to England with the despatches announcing the capture of Rhode Island by Sir Peter Parker and General Clinton. He then returned to North America; but on 24 Dec. 1777, coming down the North (or Hudson's) River, the Mercury struck on a hulk which the enemy had sunk in the fairway, and became a total wreck. Montagu was tried by court-martial at New York, but acquitted of all blame, and in July 1778 he was appointed to the Medea frigate, which for the next two years he commanded on the home station, cruising in the North Sea, in the Channel, or occasionally as far south as Lisbon. In October 1780 he was moved into the Juno, and, after a year of similar service in the Channel, in February 1782 sailed with Sir Richard Bickerton [q. v.] for the East Indies. The Juno arrived at Bombay in August 1782, and on 20 June 1783 was present at the action off Cuddalore, the last between Sir Edward Hughes [q. v.] and the Bailli de Suffren. Montagu returned to England in the beginning of 1785, and being then unable to obtain employment afloat he went, in October 1786, to France on a twelve-months' leave. In October 1787 he was back in England, but had no employment till the outbreak of the revolutionary war, when at his own special request apparently on account of the name he was appointed to the 74-gun ship Montagu, one of the grand fleet under Lord Howe during the campaigns of 1793 and 1794 [see Howe, Richard, Earl]. In the battle off Ushant, on 1 June 1794, Montagu was killed. A monumental statue, by Flaxman, is in Westminster Abbey.
[Official letters and other documents in the Public Record Office; James's Naval Hist, ed. of 1860, i. 185.]
J. K. L.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Montagu, James (1568?-1618)

​MONTAGU or MOUNTAGUE, JAMES (1568?–1618), bishop of Winchester, fifth son of Sir Edward Montagu of Boughton,, Northamptonshire, by Elizabeth, daughter of Sir James Harington of Exton, Rutlandshire, was born about 1568, his eldest brother being Edward [q. v.], created Lord Montagu of Boughton in 1621, and his third brother being Henry Montagu, first earl of Manchester [q. v.]. He was a fellow-commoner of Christ's College, Cambridge, and was appointed first master of Sidney Sussex College (Le Neve,. Fasti, iii. 703), signing in 1596 a letter from the vice-chancellor and other heads to Lord Burghley, complaining of the teaching of Peter Baro [q. v.] He beautified the interior of his college chapel, and expended 100l. of his own money in purifying the King's Ditch in Cambridge (Willis and Clark). In 1603 he was installed dean of Lichfield, but resigned that office the next year on being appointed dean of Worcester (Le Neve, i. 56). Being already dean of the chapel to James, he was in 1608 elected to the bishopric of Bath and Wells, and, resigning his mastership, was consecrated on 17 April. He repaired the episcopal palace at Wells and the manor-house at Banwell, and vigorously took in hand the restoration of the nave of the abbey-church at Bath, spending, it is said, 1,000l. upon it. There is a story that Sir John Harington [q. v.] of Kelston, walking with him one day in the rain, took him into the abbey, then roofless, under pretence of seeking shelter, and, by this means impressing upon Montagu the neglected state of the building, stirred him to exert himself to repair it. On 4 Oct. 1616 he was translated to the see of Winchester. He died of jaundice and dropsy at Greenwich on 20 July 1618, at the age of fifty, and was buried in Bath Abbey, where a tomb with his effigy is on the north side of the nave. Over the west door of the church are the arms of the see impaling Montagu. He edited and translated the works of King James I [q. v.], published in English in one vol. fol. in 1616, and in Latin in the same form, 1619. Montagu's portrait is in the bishop's palace at Wells, and has been engraved by Renold Elstracke [q. v.] and Pass, and an engraving is also in the 'Herωologia Anglica' of Henry Holland [q. v.]
W. H.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Montagu, James (1666-1723)

​MONTAGU, Sir JAMES (1666–1723), judge, sixth son of George Montagu of Horton in Northamptonshire, by his wife Elizabeth, daughter of Sir Anthony Irby, was born on 2 Feb. 1665–6. His father was son of Sir Henry Montagu, first earl of Manchester [q. v.], by his third wife, and his brother was Charles Montagu, earl of Halifax [q. v.] James was entered at the Middle Temple, and called to the bar. In 1695 Montagu became member of parliament for Tregony, and for Beeralston in 1698, when he was also made chief justice of Ely. In 1704 he successfully defended John Tutchin [q. v.], indicted for a libel published in his periodical, ‘The Observator,’ and two years later he was leading counsel in the prosecution of Beau Feilding for bigamy in marrying the Duchess of Cleveland [see Feilding, Robert]. In 1705 he was committed by the House of Commons to the custody of the serjeant-at-arms for having in 1704 demanded a habeas corpus on behalf of the Aylesbury men, whom the house had committed to Newgate for bringing actions against the returning officer; Montagu pleaded strongly against the privilege claimed by the commons. He remained in custody from 26 Feb. to 14 March, when parliament was prorogued and afterwards dissolved. In April 1705 he was knighted at Cambridge, and made one of her majesty's counsel in November of the same year.
In the second parliament of Queen Anne Montagu was returned for Carlisle; he became solicitor-general in 1707, and was attorney-general from 1708 to 1710, when the queen granted him a pension of 1,000l. This pension was made the subject of a motion brought before the house in 1711, in which Colonel Gledhill represented it as intended to defray the expenses of Montagu's election at Carlisle; the charge was, however, disproved. As attorney-general Montagu opened the case in the House of Lords against Dr. Sacheverell. He received the degree of the coif on 26 Oct. 1714, was made baron of the exchequer on 22 Nov. 1714, and was lord commissioner of the great seal (on the resignation of Lord Cowper) from 18 April to 12 May 1718, when Lord Parker became lord chancellor. Montagu succeeded Sir Thomas Bury as chief baron of the exchequer in May 1722. He died on 1 Oct. 1723.
He married in 1694 Tufton Wray, daughter of Sir William Wray of Ashby, bart.; she died in 1712, and he married as his second wife his cousin Elizabeth, daughter of Robert, third earl of Manchester, by whom he had a son Charles, afterwards M.P. for St. Albans.
[Foss's Judges of England; parish register of Horton.]
L. M. M. S.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Gove, Richard

​GOVE, RICHARD (1587–1668), puritan divine, son of a Devonshire gentleman, was born at Tavistock in 1587. He entered Magdalen Hall, Oxford, as a commoner in March 1605, and studied logic and philosophy, proceeding B.A. 31 May 1608, and M.A. 4 July 1611. He was ordained on leaving the university, and became chaplain to John, lord Paulet, who in August 1618 presented him to the living of Hinton St. George in Somersetshire, where he also taught a grammar school. Gove was deprived during the Commonwealth, and was living in 1652 at East Coker in Somersetshire. Soon after this he was at Exeter, where Wood tells us ‘he closed so much with the presbyterians’ that he was made minister of St. David's Church. At the Restoration he returned to East Coker, and taught the grammar school, afterwards becoming rector of the church. He died on Christmas eve 1668, and was buried in the chancel of his church. Gove published some theological treatises between 1650 and 1654. His two principal works, written before the Restoration, are curious manuals of puritan feeling:
* ‘The Saints' Honeycomb, full of Divine Truths touching both Christian Belief and Christian Life, in two centuries,’ London, 1652, 8vo. This book was published very soon after he reached East Coker for the first time, and is a collection of religious extracts.
* ‘Pious Thoughts vented in Pithy Ejaculations,’ London, 1658, 8vo, a book of much the same description.
Besides these Gove published ‘The Communicant's Guide, directing both the elder and younger sort … how they may receive the Sacrament of the Lord's Supper,’ 8vo, no date; and ‘A Catechism,’ 8vo, no date.
[Wood's Athenæ, ed. Bliss, iii. 822; Wood's Fasti, i. 325, 342, ii. 280; Oxf. Univ. Reg. (Oxf. Hist. Soc.), II. ii. 280, iii. 278; Brit. Mus. Cat.; Bodl. Cat.]
E. T. B.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Gower, George

​GOWER, GEORGE (fl. 1575–1585), sergeant-painter, may with some probability be identified with George Gower, son of George Gower, and grandson of Sir John Gower of Stittenham, who married Elizabeth, daughter of Edward Goldsborough, and was ancestor of the present ducal house of Sutherland (Glover, Visitation of Yorkshire, ed. by J. Foster). At Milton House, Northamptonshire, the seat of Earl Fitzwilliam, there is preserved a portrait of him (wrongly named Thomas Gower) painted by himself in 1579, which was engraved by J. Basire, and published in Gough's ‘Parochial History of Castor’ (supplement to Rev. Kenneth Gibson's Commentary upon Part of the Fifth Journey of Antoninus through Britain) in 1819. The coat-of-arms on the picture leads to his identification, and the inscription informs us that Gower took to painting in middle life after a somewhat unprofitable youth. In 1584 he was sergeant-painter to the queen, and received a patent, granting him a monopoly of the privilege to ‘make or cause to be made all and all maner of purtraicts and pictuers of our person phisiognomy and proporcon of our bodye in oyle cullers upon bourdes or canvas, or to graue the same in copper, or to cutt the same in woode or to printe the same beinge cutt in copper or woode or otherwise,’ &c., with the exception of Nicholas Hilliard, who was allowed to make portraits of the queen ‘in small compasse in lymnynge only and not otherwise’ (Brit. Mus. Cott. Chart, iv. 26). Gower probably did not hold the office long, as shortly afterwards it was in other hands.
L. C.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Gower, Humphrey

​GOWER, HUMPHREY, D.D. (1638–1711), master of St. John's College, Cambridge, son of Stanley Gower, successively rector of Brampton Bryan, Herefordshire, and of Holy Trinity, Dorchester, and a member of the assembly of divines in 1643, was born at Brampton Bryan in 1638 and educated at St. Paul's and Dorchester schools, and St. John's College, Cambridge, where he graduated B.A. in 1658, was elected to a fellowship on 23 March 1658-9, and proceeded M.A. in 1662. Having taken holy orders, he was successively incumbent of Hammoon, Dorsetshire, to which living he was presented in April 1663, of Packlesham (1667-75), of Newton in the Isle of Ely (1675-7), and of Fen Ditton, to which he was collated on 4 July 1677. On 11 July 1679 he was appointed to the mastership of Jesus College, Cambridge, which he resigned for that of St. John's on 3 Dec. following, having in the meantime (1 Nov.) been appointed prebendary of Ely. He was vice-chancellor of the university in 1680-1, and in that capacity, on 18 Sept. 1681, he headed a deputation of dons which waited on the king at Newmarket. On the 17th he entertained Charles at dinner at St. John's, made him two Latin speeches, and gave him an English bible. There was much festivity both in town and university, and the conduits ran with wine. On 29 June 1688 Gower was appointed Lady Margaret's professor of divinity. In July 1693, twenty of the fellows of his college being nonjurors, a peremptory mandamus was issued against him requiring him to eject them. He refused on the ground that the mandamus should not have been made peremptory in the first instance. Steps were at once taken to indict him at the Cambridge assizes, but the grand jury threw out the bill. A mandamus nisi issued in the following October, but, the names of the nonjuring fellows having been omitted, Gower again refused to eject them, alleging that it did not appear who they were, and the court of king's bench declined to make the mandamus peremptory (Skinner, Rep. 360, 546, Modern Rep. iv. 233).
No further proceedings seem to have been taken. Gower died at St. John's College on 27 March 1711, and was buried in the college chapel. By his will he left 500l. towards providing livings for the college, and a considerable estate at Thriplow, with a house for the use of the master, subject to a rent-charge of 20l. per annum towards maintaining two indigent scholars, sons of clergymen, educated either at Dorchester or St. Paul's School. He also left his books to the college library.
Gower published: 1. 'A Discourse delivered in two Sermons in the Cathedral of Ely in September 1684,' Cambridge, 1685, 4to. 2. 'A Sermon preached before the King at Whitehall on Christmas Day, 1684,' London, 1685, 4to. He also wrote a biographical sketch of John Milner, the nonjuring vicar of Leeds, who died at St. John's College, Cambridge, on 16 Feb. 1702, which will be found in Thoresby's 'Vicaria Leodiensis,' p. 113.
J. M. R.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Gow, Nathaniel

​GOW, NATHANIEL (1766–1831), Scotch violinist and composer, youngest son of Niel Gow [q. v.], was born at Inver, near Dunkeld, Perthshire, on 28 March 1766. He gave early indications of musical talent, and after receiving some lessons on the violin from his father, he was sent to Edinburgh, where he studied first under Robert M'Intosh, and next under M'Glashan, leader of the fashionable bands in the Scottish capital. From Joseph Reinagle [q. v.] he had a course ​of lessons on the violoncello, as a player of which he made his first public appearance. In 1782 he was appointed one of his majesty's trumpeters for Scotland, having to attend royal proclamations, and to accompany the justiciary judges on their circuits. In 1791 he became leader of the band formerly conducted by m'Glashan. This band was in great request, and his memorandum books show that as much as a hundred and fifty guineas was occasionally paid for their services. He was frequently called to London, and on most of these occasions he had an invitation to play at private parties given by George IV, then Prince of Wales. In Edinburgh he had an extensive connection as a teacher of the violin and pianoforte, and commanded the highest fees in the profession. At one time he is said to have been worth upwards of 20,000l., accumulated solely from the proceeds of his balls and teaching. He started business as a music-seller on two separate occasions, first in 1796, in company with William Shepherd, and next in company with his son Niel. The later enterprise was unsuccessful, and in 1827 Gow became a bankrupt. He was in bad health; his friends raised a considerable sum by a ball for his benefit, and the noblemen of the Caledonian Hunt voted him besides an annuity of 50l. He died on 17 Jan. 1831, and was buried in Greyfriars churchyard, Edinburgh. Gow was twice married, and had a large family, one of whom was Niel, the composer of the popular air known as ‘Bonnie Prince Charlie’ (‘Cam'ye by Athol?’). Niel had been educated for the medical profession, but abandoned it in favour of music. He died in 1823.
As a violinist Nathaniel Gow had all the spirit and fire of his father, whom he greatly excelled in the performance of music of a slow and plaintive character. In Scotch dance music he was unapproached. He was a voluminous composer; upwards of two hundred original melodies were published by him during his life, and many were left in manuscript. While his father lived he assisted him in bringing out three volumes of music, published as the works of ‘Niel Gow & Son.’ He subsequently issued a fourth, fifth, and sixth ‘Collection’ of strathspeys and reels; three volumes of ‘Beauties’ (a reprint of the best airs in the first three collections, with additions); four volumes of a ‘Repository’ of Scots slow airs, strathspeys, and dances; two volumes of Scottish vocal melodies; two volumes of slow airs, dances, waltzes, &c., and a collection of ancient curious Scots melodies, besides many smaller publications arranged for harp, pianoforte, violin, and violoncello.
J. C. H.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Gower, Foote

​GOWER, FOOTE (1726?–1780), antiquary, son of the Rev. Foote Gower, M.A. and M.D., a physician at Chester, was born at Chester about 1726. He matriculated at Brasenose College, Oxford, 15 March 1743–1744, aged 18, and took his degrees of B.A. in 1747, M.A. in 1750, M.B. in 1755, and M.D. in 1757. He was rector of Chignall St. James and Mashbury, near Chelmsford, Essex, from June 1761 until about 1777, and he is stated to have practised medicine at Chelmsford, but this is doubtful. He made extensive collections for a history of Cheshire, and in 1771 printed ‘A Sketch of the Materials for a new History of Cheshire,’ London, 4to. This was anonymous, and was signed ‘a Fellow of the Antiquary Society.’ His intention was to issue his work in folio form at a subscription of ten guineas; but the project, although it seems to have received much encouragement, went no further than the reissue of his ‘proposals’ in 1772, with an additional ‘address to the public.’ He made collections also for a history of Essex, and a new edition of Horsley's ‘Britannia Romana.’ After his death, at Bath on 27 May 1780, his voluminous papers passed into the hands of Dr. Markham of Whitechapel, and subsequently the project was taken up by Dr. J. Wilkinson and William Latham, who, in 1800, republished the ‘Sketch’ with their own additions, but they in turn failed to publish, and the manuscripts were disposed of by auction, some going to the British Museum and some to the Bodleian.
He married a sister of John Strutt, M.P. His son, Charles Gower, M.D. (died 1822), was author of ‘Hints and Auxiliaries to Medicine,’ 1819. His youngest son was Richard Hall Gower [q. v.], naval architect.
C. W. S.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Gowan, Thomas

​GOWAN, THOMAS (1631–1683), writer on logic, was born at Caldermuir, Scotland, in 1631. About 1658 he went to Ireland, and became minister of Glasslough, co. Monaghan, enjoying, though a presbyterian, the tithes and other temporalities like others of his fellow-churchmen at the time. He was one of the sixty-one Ulster ministers ejected in 1661 for nonconformity (Wodrow, i. 325); but although he removed in 1667 to the neighbourhood of Connor, co. Antrim, and supplied that congregation with preaching, besides teaching languages and philosophy, the pastoral tie between him and Glasslough was not loosed till August 1672, when he was installed as minister of Antrim. Here he opened a ‘school of philosophy,’ which in 1674 was taken under the care of the church. A divinity school was added to it in 1675, in which Gowan was assisted by the celebrated John Howe, then chaplain at Antrim Castle. Both of these ministers were allowed, through an arrangement made by Lord Massareene, to officiate in the parish church. Gowan died 13 Sept. 1683, and was buried in Antrim churchyard, where a monument to his memory may still be seen.
He was the author of two treatises on logic, viz. ‘Ars Sciendi, sive Logica novo methodo disposita, et novis præceptis aucta’ (pp. 464, 12mo, London, 1681), and ‘Logica Elenctica, sive summa controversiarum quæ circa materiam et præcepta logicæ agitari solent, in qua etiam novæ aliquot quæstiones tractantur’ (pp. 505, 12mo, Dublin, 1683). Appended to the latter work is a small tract of twelve pages, entitled ‘Elementa Logicæ paucis aphorismis comprehensa, per eundem auctorem.’ He bases his logic, he says, ‘on the systems of Keckerman and Burgersdicius, but more particularly on the logic of Claubergius, and a French work, the “Ars Cogitandi,” by an anonymous author.’ He also appears to have written a book against the quakers (Minutes of Laggan, pp. 237, 246), but there is no record of its having been ever printed, and it is now lost.
T. H.