OpenLLM-France/wikimedia huggingface dataset:
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Wentworth, Thomas (1613-1665)

1904 Errata appended.
​WENTWORTH, Sir THOMAS, Baron Wentworth (1613–1665), eldest son, by his first wife, of Thomas Wentworth, fourth baron Wentworth of Nettlestead and first earl of Cleveland [q. v.], was born at Todding​ton, knighted on 2 Feb. 1625–6, and entered at Trinity College, Oxford, in 1628; in 1631 he was at The Hague, at the court of the Queen of Bohemia, who frequently mentions him in her letters (see Evelyn, Letters, passim). He was with his father at Berwick in 1640, and was in the same year returned to both the Short and Long parliaments; but on 25 Nov. 1640 was summoned to the upper house in his father's barony of Nettlestead. During the early part of the civil war (1642–5) he commanded a troop of horse, first under Charles, viscount Wilmot [q. v.], against whose dismissal he protested, and then under Lord Goring; was present at the battles of Cropredy Bridge and Newbury in 1644, and shared the revels and intrigues of Prince Charles's disastrous campaign in the west in 1645. In 1646, on Goring's flight to France, the chief command fell to Wentworth, who, according to Bulstrode (Memoirs, pp. 93–4, 149–53), ‘was not thought either of interest, experience, courage, or reputation enough for that trust.’ He was mainly responsible for the defeat and surrender at Torrington on 14 March 1646. He also presumed to talk ‘imperiously and disrespectfully’ to the prince; and, after being driven from his quarters at Ashburton, was placed as general of the horse under the chief command of Lord Hopton, with whom and the prince he eventually escaped to the Scilly Isles and Jersey. In 1649 he attended Charles to Paris, was with him in Scotland and at Worcester, and formed one of the council till the Restoration, being gentleman of the chamber and master of the ceremonies. His principal services were a diplomatic mission from Cologne to Denmark in 1653, and the organisation and command of the ‘royal regiment of guards’ in 1656, though he seems not to have been present at the battle of the Dunes in 1658. After the Restoration he retained this colonelcy, received 500l. from the king in November 1663, and died in his father's lifetime on 28 Feb. 1665. By his wife Philadelphia (d. 4 May 1696), daughter of Sir Ferdinando Carey, who was naturalised in 1662 and received a pension of 600l., very irregularly paid, he had an only child, Henrietta Maria Wentworth [q. v.], who succeeded his father in the barony. A portrait of Wentworth, painted in 1640, belongs to Mr. H. R. Clifton of Clifton Hall, Nottingham, and is reproduced in F. W. Hamilton's ‘Grenadier Guards.’ Lloyd credits him with ‘a very strong constitution and admirable parts for contrivance.’
H. E. D. B.
Dictionary of National Biography, Errata (1904), p.278 N.B.— f.e. stands for from end and l.l. for last line
| Page | Col. | Line | |
| 284 | i | 15 f.e. | Wentworth, Sir Thomas, Baron Wentworth: after expense. insert He died in his father's lifetime. |
| | | 10 f.e. | for succeeded him read succeeded his father |
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Werden, John

​WERDEN or WORDEN, Sir JOHN (1640–1716), politician, born in 1640 at Cholmeaton in Cheshire, was the eldest son of Robert Werden or Worden [q. v.], by his first wife, Jane Backham. He was called to the bar in 1660 by the society of the Middle Temple, and on 16 Nov. 1664 was admitted baron of the exchequer for Cheshire (Cal. State Papers, Dom. 1664–5, p. 73). He became secretary to the embassy in Spain and Portugal under the Earl of Sandwich, and at the close of 1669 was sent to Holland with instructions to Sir William Temple to moderate his zeal on behalf of the triple alliance, which Charles found embarrassing in face of his secret treaty with France (ib. 1668–9, p. 526; Courtenay, Memoirs of Temple, 1836, i. 322–3, ii. 400–3). In 1670 he went to Sweden as envoy extraordinary (Cal. State Papers, Dom. 1670 pp. 330, 378, 1671 p. 173), but in 1672 he was again in Holland (Hist. MSS. Comm. 1st Rep. App. ii. 9), and on 28 Nov. he was created a baronet. He was also secretary to the Duke of York, and in that capacity took a shorthand report of Oates's narrative before the House of Lords (ib. 7th Rep. App. p. 494). On 11 Feb. 1672–3 he was returned to parliament for Reigate in Surrey, retaining his seat until the dissolution in January 1678–9. On 22 May 1683 he received the honorary degree of D.C.L. from the university of Oxford.
After the accession of James II he was returned to parliament for Reigate on 27 March 1685, and on 2 April was appointed a commissioner of customs. On the dissolution of parliament in July 1687 he did not seek re-election. On 1 Oct. 1688 he was placed on the commission of the lieutenancy of London, but on the landing of William of Orange, like his father, he deserted the king, and in consequence was excluded by name from James's declaration of pardon in 1692 (ib. 12th Rep. x. 94). William continued him in the commission for the customs, but not in that for the lieutenancy of London (ib. 13th Rep. v. 46). In August 1697 he was removed from the customs, but was replaced on the accession of Anne. His tory principles found no favour with George I, and on his accession he finally retired from office and public life (Luttrell, Brief Hist. Relation, 1857, iii. 300, 353, v. 277, 313, 318). He died on 29 Oct. 1716, and was buried on 7 Nov. in the church of St. Martin-in-the-Fields. He was twice married: first, to Lucy Osbourne, daughter of a doctor of divinity, and secondly to Mary (d. 22 Aug. 1683), daughter of William Osbourne of Kenniford in Devonshire. By his second wife he had an only son John, whose daughter Lucy was married to Charles Beauclerk, second duke of St. Albans, and whose granddaughter, Lady Diana Beauclerk, was married to Shute Barrington [q. v.], bishop of Durham. On the death of Sir John Werden, without male issue, on 13 Feb. 1758, the baronetcy became extinct, and his estates passed to George Beauclerk, third duke of St. Albans. Some of the elder Sir John Werden's letters written while he was secretary of the Duke of York are preserved in the British Museum (Stowe MSS. 200 ff. 344, 208, 201 ff. 268, 365, 210 f. 327, 211 f. 210).
E. I. C.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Sumerled

​SUMERLED or SOMERLED, Lord of the Isles (d. 1164), was, according to the Celtic tradition, the son of Gillebrede, son of Gilladoman, sixth in descent from Godfrey MacFergus, called in the Irish chronicle Toshach of the Isles; but some suppose him of Norse origin. His father, a reputed thane of Argyll, is said to have been expelled from his possessions, and forced to conceal himself for a time in Morven; but having placed his son at the head of the men of Morven to resist a band of Norse pirates, the son defeated them, and the prestige thus won enabled him afterwards not only to regain his father's possessions, but to make himself master of the greater part of Argyll, of which he claimed to be lord or regulus. Along with the pretender to the maarmorship of Ross, he rebelled against Malcolm IV in 1153, but found it necessary to come to terms with him. About 1140 he had married Ragnhildis or Effrica, daughter of Olave the Red, king of Man, by whom he had three sons: Dugall, Reginald or Ranald, and Angus. By a former marriage he had a son Gillecolm; and, according to the ‘Chronicle of Man,’ he had a fifth son, Olave. After the death of Olave, king of Man, Thorfin, son of Ottar, one of the lords of Man, resolved to depose Godfred the Black, king of ​Man, as an oppressor, and offered to Somerled, if he would assist him, to make his son Dugall king in Godfred's stead. Somerled was nothing loth, and Thorfin carried Dugall through all the isles, except Man, and forced the inhabitants to acknowledge him, hostages being taken for their obedience. Thereupon Godfred collected a fleet and proceeded against the galleys of the rebels, reinforced and commanded by Somerled. As the result of a bloody and indecisive battle fought in 1156, Godfred was induced to come to terms by ceding to the sons of Somerled the south isles and retaining to himself the north isles and Man. Two years later Somerled invaded Man with fifty-three ships, and laid waste the whole island, Godfred being compelled to flee to Norway. The power wielded by Somerled aroused the jealousy of Malcolm IV, who demanded that Somerled should resign his possessions to him, and hold them in future as a vassal of the king of Scots. This Somerled declined to do, and, war being declared, he in 1164 sailed with 160 galleys up the Clyde and landed his forces near Renfrew. Hardly, however, had they disembarked, when they were attacked and put to flight with great slaughter, Somerled and his son Gillecolm being among the slain. According to one account, King Malcolm sent a boat to convey the corpse to Icolmkill, where it was buried at the royal expense, but according to another account it was buried in the church of Sadall in Kintyre, where Reginald, the son of Somerled, afterwards erected a monastery. According to Celtic tradition, while a son of Gillecolm became superior of Argyll, the isles were divided among his other three sons, Dugall, Reginald, and Angus.
T. F. H.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Sullivan, Timothy

​SULLIVAN, TIMOTHY (1710?–1800), Irish poet, called in Irish Tadhg Gaolach, or Irish Teague, was born in co. Cork about 1710, and, after school education, became an itinerant poet, living chiefly in Paoracha, a district of co. Waterford. He wandered from house to house composing panegyrics, of which the best known are ‘Nora ni Ainle,’ in praise of Honora, daughter of O'Hanlon; ‘Do Sheoirse agus do Dhomhnall O'Faolain,’ to the brothers O'Phelan of the Decies, co. Waterford; ‘Chum an athar Taidhg Mhic Carrthaidh,’ to the Rev. T. MacCarthy; and sometimes satires. The subject of one of his satires cast the poet's wig into the fire, whereupon he wrote the poem ‘Ar losga a liath wig,’ on the burning of his wig. He also wrote an address to Prince Charles Edward, called ‘An Fánuighe,’ the wanderer, and several laments for Ireland, of which that in which his country is personified as a beautiful young woman, ‘Sighile ni Ghadhra,’ was long popular in Munster. Later in life he wrote only religious poems, addresses to the Trinity, to Christ, and to our Lady, a poem on St. Declan, patron of Ardmore, co. Waterford, and in 1791 a poem on the world, entitled ‘Duain an Domhain.’ These were often set to popular tunes, and had a wide circulation throughout the south of Ireland. Sullivan died at Waterford in May 1800, and was buried fourteen miles off at Ballylaneen. His epitaph was written in Latin verse by Donchadh Ruadh MacConmara, a celebrated local poet and schoolmaster. A collection of Sullivan's poems was published as ‘A Spiritual Miscellany’ at Limerick during his life, and another at Clonmel in 1816. John O'Daly published a fuller collection as ‘The Pious Miscellany’ in Dublin in 1868, with a short memoir in English.
N. M.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Sullivan, Francis Stoughton

​SULLIVAN, FRANCIS STOUGHTON (1719–1776), jurist, the son of Francis Sullivan, was born at Galway in 1719. He was educated at Waterford and subsequently at Trinity College, Dublin, which he entered in 1731 as a boy of twelve. His academic career was most successful, and he achieved the unprecedented distinction of gaining a fellowship at nineteen in 1738. In the year following his vote at a parliamentary election for his university was disallowed by a committee of the House of Commons on the ground of his being a minor. In 1750 Sullivan became regius professor of law in the university of Dublin, and in 1761 professor of feudal and English law. He enjoyed a very high reputation as a jurist, and his book, entitled ‘An Historical Treatise on the Feudal Law, and the Constitution and Laws of England, with a Commentary on Magna Charta’ (London, 1772, 4to; 2nd edit. 1776; Portland, U.S.A. 1805, 2 vols. 8vo), was long recognised as an authority. Sullivan died at Dublin in 1776.
His son, William Francis Sullivan (1756–1830), born in Dublin in 1756, was educated for the church at Trinity College, but entered the navy upon his father's death, and served through the American war. In 1783 he settled in England. He produced a farce called ‘The Rights of Man’ (printed in the ‘Thespian Magazine,’ 1792); ‘The Flights of Fancy,’ a miscellaneous collection of poems, epigrams, and trifles, Leeds, 1792, 8vo; ‘The Union and Loyalty, or the long-threatened French Invasion,’ a patriotic poem, London, 1803, several editions; and ‘Pleasant Stories,’ London, 1818, 12mo. He died in 1830.
C. L. F.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Sullivan, Owen

​SULLIVAN, OWEN (1700?–1784), Irish poet, called in Irish Eoghan Ruadh, or Red-haired Sullivan, was born about 1700 in Slieve Luachra, co. Kerry, and was one of the chief jacobite poets of the south of Ireland. Poetry proved inadequate to sustain him, and he earned a living as an itinerant potato-digger, always continuing the studies which he had begun in a hedge school. The potato-digger, resting in a farm-kitchen, interposed with success in a classical dispute between a parish priest and the farmer's son, who had returned from a French college. The farmer set him up in a school at Annagh, near Charleville, but after a time he fell in love with Mary Casey, ​whose charms he has celebrated, and took to an idle life. He wrote numerous songs, of which many manuscript copies are extant, and several are printed in John O'Daly's ‘Reliques of Jacobite Poetry’ (1844). When he opened his school he issued a touching poem of four stanzas addressed to the parish priest. He wrote satires on the Irish volunteers and numerous poems denouncing the English. He died of fever at Knocknagree, co. Kerry, in 1784, and was buried at Nohoval in the vicinity.
N. M.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Sullivan, Robert

​SULLIVAN, ROBERT (1800–1868), educational writer, son of Daniel Sullivan, a publican, was born in Holywood, co. Down, in January 1800. He was educated at the Belfast Academical Institute and at Trinity College, Dublin, where he graduated B.A. in 1829, M.A. in 1832, LL.B. and LL.D. in 1850. On the introduction of national education into Ireland he was appointed an inspector of schools, and was afterwards transferred to the training department as professor of English literature. He died in Dublin on 11 July 1868, and was buried at Holywood.
Sullivan was author of: 1. ‘A Manual of Etymology,’ Dublin, 1831, 12mo. 2. ‘A Dictionary of Derivations,’ Dublin, 1834, 12mo; 12th ed. 1870. 3. ‘Lectures and Letters on Popular Education,’ 1842, 12mo. 4. ‘The Spelling Book Superseded,’ Dublin, 1842, 12mo; 130th ed. 1869. 5. ‘Orthography and Etymology,’ 6th ed. 1844, 16mo. 6. ‘A Dictionary of the English Language,’ Dublin, 1847, 12mo; 23rd ed. by Dr. Patrick Weston Joyce, 1877. 7. ‘The Literary Class Book,’ Dublin, 1850, 16mo; 11th ed. 1868. 8. ‘An Attempt to simplify English Grammar,’ 17th ed. Dublin, 1852, 12mo; 85th ed. 1869. 9. ‘Geography Generalised,’ 17th ed. Dublin, 1853, 8vo; 71st ed. 1887, 8vo. 10. ‘An Introduction to Geography,’ 23rd ed. Dublin, 1853, 12mo; 92nd ed. 1869. 11. ‘Manual of Etymology,’ 1860, 16mo. 12. ‘Papers on Popular Education,’ Dublin, 1863, 8vo. 13. ‘Words spelled in Two or More Ways,’ London, 1867, 8vo.
E. I. C.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Sullivan, Luke

​SULLIVAN, LUKE (d. 1771), engraver and miniature-painter, was born in co. Louth, his father being a groom in the service of the Duke of Beaufort. Showing artistic talent, he was enabled by the duke's patronage to obtain instruction, and Strutt states that he became a pupil of Thomas Major [q. v.]; but he was certainly Major's senior, and it is more probable that they were fellow-students under the French engraver Le Bas, whose style that of Sullivan much resembles. His earliest work was a view of the battle of Culloden (after A. Heckel, 1746), and soon afterwards he was engaged as an assistant by Hogarth, for whom he engraved the celebrated plate of the ‘March to Finchley,’ published in 1750; also his ‘Paul before Felix,’ 1752, and his frontispiece to Kirby's ‘Perspective,’ 1754. Subsequently Sullivan engraved a fine plate of the ‘Temptation of St. Antony’ (after D. Teniers), which he dedicated to the Duke of Beaufort. In 1759 he published a set of six views of noblemen's seats, viz. Oatlands, Wilton, Ditchley, Cliefden, Esher, and Woburn—all drawn and engraved by himself. Sullivan practised miniature-painting with considerable ability, and from 1764 to 1770 exhibited portraits with the Incorporated Society, of which he was a director. He led a disreputable life, and died at the White Bear tavern in Piccadilly early in 1771.
F. M. O'D.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Pickering, James

​PICKERING, Sir JAMES (fl. 1383), speaker of the House of Commons, was son of Sir John Pickering of Killington, Westmoreland, by Eleanor, daughter of Sir Richard Harington of Harington, Cumberland, and grandson of Sir James Pickering of Killington. The family had been established at Killington since 1260. It was probably the future speaker who was one of the knights of the shire for Westmoreland in the parliament which met on 13 Oct. 1362, and was again returned in the parliament of 20 Jan. 1365. On 20 Dec. 1368 he was a commissioner of array in Westmoreland, to choose twenty archers to serve under Sir William de Windsor in Ireland. Afterwards he accompanied Windsor to Ireland, and was employed as a justiciar; in this capacity he was charged, in 1373, with being guilty of oppression, and of having given Windsor bad advice (Fœdera, iii. 854, 977–80, Record edit.) On 13 Oct. 1377 he was again one of the knights of the shire for Westmoreland, and in the parliament which met at Gloucester on 20 Oct. 1378 he occurs as speaker. The protestation which, as speaker, he made for freedom of speech, and declaring the loyalty of the commons, was, on this occasion, for the first time recorded in the rolls (Rolls of Parliament, iii. 34 b). Pickering sat for Westmoreland in the parliaments of 24 April 1379 and 6 Oct. 1382, but is not described as speaker in the rolls. In the rolls for the parliament of 23 Feb. 1383 he is referred to as ‘Monsr. Jacobus de Pikeryng Chivaler qu'avoit les paroles pur la comune’ (ib. iii. 145 b), and his speech is again recorded. In this parliament, as in those of November 1384, September 1388, November 1390, and September 1397, he was one of the knights of the shire for the county of York. Pickering was an executor for William de Windsor in Sept. 1384 (Duckett, Duchetiana, p. 286).
Pickering married, first, Mary, daughter of Sir Robert Lowther, by whom he had a son James; and, secondly, Margaret, daughter of Sir John Norwood, by whom he had a son Edward, who was a controller of the royal household. Through his elder son he was possibly ancestor of the Pickerings of Titchmarsh, Northamptonshire.
C. L. K.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Pickering, John

​PICKERING, JOHN (d. 1537), leader in the pilgrimage of grace, was a Dominican, who proceeded B.D. at Cambridge in 1525. At that date he was prior of the Dominican house at Cambridge, but he was subsequently appointed prior of the Dominicans at York or Bridlington. He took part in organising the rebellion known as the pilgrimage of grace in 1536, and, after the failure of Sir Francis Bigod's insurrection, Henry VIII wrote that Dr. Pickering should be sent up to him. He had composed a song beginning ‘O faithful people of the Boreal Region,’ which seems, in spite of its first line, to have been very popular. It is often mentioned in the depositions. He was condemned and hanged at Tyburn on 25 May 1537.
Another contemporary Dr. Pickering was a priest and parson of Lythe, Yorkshire, whose father lived at Skelton; he also was suspected of complicity in the northern rebellion, and was sent to London, and confined in the Marshalsea in 1537. He probably gave information as to others, as he was pardoned 21 June 1537. A third John Pickering was a bachelor of decrees at Oxford, and became prebendary of Newington, 6 Jan. 1504–5.
W. A. J. A.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Pickering, Thomas

​PICKERING, THOMAS (d. 1475), genealogist, was presumably a native of Pickering in Yorkshire. In 1458 he was precentor of St. Hilda's monastery, Whitby, and on 16 March 1462 he was chosen abbot. His successor was elected on 17 Oct. 1475 (Burton, Mon. Ebor. p. 80, citing the ‘Register’ of W. Booth, p. 72; but Tanner, Bibliotheca, says he occurs as abbot in 1481, and cites Dodsworth MS. 131, f. 74).
Pickering compiled accounts of the family of the Tysons, lords of Bridlington, and the family of Ralph Eure. The latter was written in 1458 by Pickering at Eure's request. A copy of portions of these works was made by Francis Thynne, and this now forms part of the Cotton MS. Cleop. c. iii. f. 318. The same portion of the genealogies is found in a manuscript belonging to the Gurney family (cf. Hist. MSS. Comm. 12th Rep. pt. ix.). In both manuscripts Pickering's genealogies are bound up with a list of the bishops of Hereford 1066–1458; but Tanner's theory that this is also Pickering's work is not established. A third copy of Pickering's genealogies is in Harleian MS. 3648, f. 5.
M. B.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Pickworth, Henry

​PICKWORTH, HENRY (1673?–1738?), writer against the quakers, son of Henry Pickworth, a farmer of New Sleaford, Lincolnshire, was born there about 1673, and was in business in Sleaford as a tanner. After joining the quakers, he was appointed an elder and overseer by the Waddington monthly meeting. Hearing that Francis Bugg [q. v.] proposed coming, at the instigation of the bishop, to confute the quakers in Lincolnshire, Pickworth sent him a challenge to visit Sleaford, and hold with him an open dispute. Bugg arrived 11 Aug. 1701, and on the 25th the conference was held in the sessions house, before justices and clergymen. Pickworth seems to have cut a poor figure, and Bugg was given a certificate, dated 11 March 1702, that he had made good his charges. Two quaker books were publicly burned in the market-place. Both disputants issued their own version of the conference, and Pickworth attacked Bugg with vehemence in many pamphlets.
Pickworth was soon after completely won over to Bugg's views, and began writing against the quakers. Year by year he went punctually to the yearly meeting held in London in May and June, to present addresses, protests, and ‘testimonies,’ but was generally refused an audience. At last, on 9 June 1714, he was disowned by the quarterly meeting of Lincoln, ‘for that he has long been of a contentious mind, and has joined those called French prophets’ [see Lacy, John, and Misson, Francis Maximilian]. Pickworth vainly petitioned the lords and commons for another public conference. He then issued ‘A Charge of Error, Heresy, Incharity, Falshood, Evasion, Inconsistency, Innovation, Imposition, Infidelity, Hypocrisy, Pride, Raillery, Apostasy, Perjury, Idolatry, Villainy, Blasphemy, Abomination, Confusion, and worse than Turkish Tyranny. Most justly exhibited, and offered to be proved against the most noted Leaders, &c., of the People called Quakers,’ London, 8vo, 1716. In his abusive violence Pickworth sought to show that all quakers were papists, and that William Penn died insane. His book provoked replies from Joseph Besse [q. v.] and Richard Claridge [q. v.], to both of whom Pickworth retorted. Claridge, referring in his diary to Pickworth's vindication of 1738, describes him as ‘mendacissimus et invidiosissimus.’ In 1730 Pickworth sent another expostulatory letter to the yearly meeting, which he printed on their refusal to read it. He removed to Lynn Regis, Norfolk, before 1738, when he issued a defence of his indictment against the quakers. He died at Lynn some time after that date. He married, on 28 March 1696, Winifred, daughter of John Whitchurch (d. 1680) of Warwick Lane, London, by whom he had five sons, all born at Sleaford. His widow remained a minister of the society until her death at Lynn, 1 May 1752.
C. F. S.