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

​MALVERN, WILLIAM of, alias PARKER (fl. 1535), last abbot of St. Peter's, Gloucester, was born between 1485 and 1490, and is said to have been of the family of Parker of Hasfield in Gloucestershire. He was probably educated at the Benedictine abbey of Gloucester, and was sent by the monks to Gloucester Hall, Oxford, where he supplicated for leave to use a 'typett,' 17 April 1507, being at that time B.C.L. He supplicated for the university degrees of D.C.L. 29 Jan. 1507-8, B.D. 1 July 1511, D.D. 17 May 1514; he was not admitted to the degree of D.D. until 5 May 1515. Meanwhile he had returned to Gloucester, and entered the Benedictine order at St. Peter's Abbey. Under the abbot John Newton, alias Brown, Malvern was supervisor of the works, and acquired a taste for building, which he was afterwards able to gratify. On 4 May 1514 he was elected abbot, and in that capacity frequently attended parliament. Wolsey visited the abbey in 1525 and found the revenues to be just over a thousand pounds. Malvern added a good deal to the buildings. He repaired and in part rebuilt the abbot's house (now the palace) in the city, and also the country house at Prinknash. At Barnwood he built the tower, and in the cathedral the vestry at the north end of the cross aisle and the chapel where he was buried. He is said to have been opposed to Henry VIII's ecclesiastical policy, but he paid 500l. as the premunire composition, and on 31 Aug. 1534 he subscribed to the supremacy. He seems also to have been friendly with Rowland Lee [q. v.], bishop of Coventry, and attended him when he was doing his best to support Henry's views (Letters and Papers of Henry VIII, ed. Gairdner, viii. 915). Henry himself seems to have been at Gloucester in 1535. During the year Malvern was charged by an anonymous accuser with having tried to hush up the scandal connected with Llanthony Abbey, about which Dr. Parker, the chancellor of Worcester, perhaps a kinsman of Malvern, had been appealed to in vain. The accusation is preserved in the Record Office. St. Peter's Abbey surrendered 2 Dec. 1539, and the deed was signed by the prior, but not by Malvern. He does not seem to have had a pension, and this gives credibility to the account that at the dissolution he retired to Hasfield, and there died very shortly afterwards. He was buried in the chapel he had built on the north side of the choir of ​Gloucester Cathedral; his tomb is an altar-monument with a figure in white marble.
Malvern wrote in 1524 an account in English verse of the foundation of his monastery, which Hearne printed in his edition of 'Robert of Gloucester' from a manuscript at Caius College, Cambridge.
[Letters and Papers of Henry VIII, ed. Gairdner; Hart's Histor. et Cartul. Monast. S. Petri Glouces. (Rolls Ser., iii. 296, 305, 307; Gasquet's Henry VIII and the Engl. Monasteries; Tanner's Bibl. Brit.; Dugdale's Monasticon, i. 536; Leland's Itin. iv. 77; Rudder's Hist, of Gloucestershire, p. 138; Hearne's Robert of Gloucester, Pref. p. vi, and ii. 578 sqq.]
W. A. J. A.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Maltby, William

​MALTBY, WILLIAM (1763–1854), bibliographer, born in London on 17 Jan. 1763, was youngest of the ten children of Brough Maltby, a wholesale draper, of Mansion House Street. Edward Maltby [q. v.], the bishop of Durham, was his cousin. He was educated under the Rev. James Pickbourne at Hackney, and there formed a life-long acquaintance with Samuel Rogers, a fellow-pupil. He was the youthful companion of Rogers in his assault upon Dr. Johnson's knocker in Bolt Court, and shared his terror-stricken flight before the great man's door could he opened. He proceeded to Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge, but, being a dissenter, did not take a degree. He practised law as a solicitor for several years in connection with his elder brother, Rowland Maltby, formerly clerk to the Fishmongers' Company. On 23 June 1787 he was called to the bar at Gray's Inn. His tastes were, however, literary, and on the death of Professor Porson in 1808 he succeeded him as principal librarian of the London Institution on 1 Feb. 1809. Here he was the means of making large additions to the library, more especially in the bibliographical department. He had an extraordinary memory, knowledge of books, and facility of quotation from classical and English literature. He twice superintended the removal of the books and twice directed their rearrangement — in 1811 from Sir Robert Clayton's house in the Old Jewry to King's Arms Yard, Coleman Street, and in 1818 to 11 Finsbury Circus. He assisted in the compilation of the original catalogue, as well as in the first volume of a new edition. In 1834 he was superannuated from active duty, but was allowed the use of his apartments. He died at the London Institution on 5 Jan. 1854, and was buried at Norwood cemetery, where a tablet was erected to his memory by his old friend Rogers. Maltby contributed to 'Recollections of the Table Talk of Samuel Rogers,' by the Rev. A. Dyce, 1866, an appendix entitled 'Porsoniana,' pp. 295–334.
[Times, 11 Jan. 1856. p. 8; Gent. Mag. 1854, pt. i. pp. 209-10; Clayden's Early Life of Samuel Rogers and Rogers and his Contemporaries.]
G. C. B.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Malverne, John

John Malvern in the ODNB. 1904 Errata appended.
​MALVERNE, JOHN (d. 1415?), historian, was according to Pits a student of Oriel College, Oxford; he was a monk of Worcester, and is no doubt the John Malverne who was sacrist, and became prior, 19 Sept. 1395 (Liber Aldus, f. 3806). There was a John Malverne who was ordained acolyte in Worcester in 1373 (Reg. Prior, et Conv. Wigorn. f. 171 ft). As prior of Worcester he was present in 1410 at the trial of the lollard, John Badby [q. v.], before the diocesan court (Foxe, Acts and Monuments, iii. 236). He seems to have died in or before 1415. Malverne was the author of a continuation of Higden's 'Polychronicon' from 1346 to 1394, which is printed in the edition in the Rolls Series, viii. 356-428, iv. l-283 from MS. 197 at Corpus Christi College, Cambridge : it is a work of considerable value. Stow makes him the author of ' Piers Plowman,' an error in which he is followed by Tanner [see Langland, William]. Prior Malverne's register from 1395 as far as 1408 is continued in the 'Liber Albus,' ff. 380-435, preserved in the muniments of the Worcester Cathedral chapter. The historian is clearly a different person from his contemporary and namesake the physician,
[Pits, p. 878; Tanner's Bibl. Brit.-Hib. p. 504; Lumby's Pref. to the Polychronicon; Newcourt's Repertorium, i. 134, 160,233; information kindly supplied by E. L. Poole, esq.]
C. L. K.
Dictionary of National Biography, Errata (1904), p.193 N.B.— f.e. stands for from end and l.l. for last line
| Page | Col. | Line | |
| 8 | i | 16 | Malverne, John: for (d. 1415 ?) read (d. 1414 ?) |
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Rowley, Charles

​ROWLEY, Sir CHARLES (1770–1845), admiral, born on 16 Dec. 1770, was youngest son of Sir Joshua Rowley, bart. [q. v.], and first cousin of Sir Josias Rowley, bart. [q. v.] He entered the navy in April 1785, served in different ships on the North American station, from November 1786 to October 1788 was with Prince William Henry—afterwards William IV—in the Pegasus and Andromeda; was again on the North American station, and in Newfoundland, with Vice-admiral Milbanke, by whom, on 8 Oct. 1789, he was promoted to be lieutenant and put in command of the Trepassy, where he remained till February 1791. In 1794 he went out to North America in the Resolution, flagship of Rear-admiral George Murray, by whom he was promoted to be commander on 20 April, and captain on 1 Aug. 1795. He then commanded the Cleopatra till May 1796, the Hussar till the following October, and from October 1796 to August 1798 the Unité in the Channel. In 1800 he was flag-captain to Sir Charles Cotton in the Prince George. From March 1804 to November 1805 he was in the Ruby, for the most part in the North Sea, and from November 1805 to May 1814 he commanded the Eagle in the Mediterranean, in the expedition to Walcheren in 1809, off Cadiz in 1810, and from 1811 in the Adriatic, where he repeatedly distinguished himself in engagements with the enemy's batteries, and especially at the capture of Fiume on 3 July, and of Trieste in October 1813. The Emperor of Austria conferred on him the order of Maria Theresa, which he received permission to wear. On 4 June 1814 he was promoted to be rear-admiral, and on 2 Jan. 1815 was nominated a K.C.B. From 1815 to 1818 he was commander-in-chief at the Nore, and at Jamaica from 1820 to 1823. He became a vice-admiral on 27 May 1825; was a lord of the admiralty in 1834–5; was made a G.C.H. on 7 Oct. 1835; a baronet on 22 Feb. 1836; a G.C.B. on 4 July 1840; and an admiral on 23 Nov. 1841. From December 1842 to September 1845 he was commander-in-chief at Portsmouth. He died at Brighton on 10 Oct. 1845. He married, on 7 Dec. 1797, Elizabeth, youngest daughter of Admiral Sir Richard King, bart. She died on 11 Jan. 1838, leaving issue.
J. K. L.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Rowley, William (1742-1806)

​ROWLEY, WILLIAM (1742–1806), man-midwife, son of William Rowley of St. Luke's, Middlesex, was born in London on 18 Nov. 1742. After apprenticeship at St. Thomas's Hospital he became a surgeon, and served in that capacity in the army from 1760 to 1765, and was at the capture of the Havannah in August 1762. In 1766 he began general practice in London, and on 23 April 1774 was created M.D. at St. Andrews University. He became a licentiate of the College of Physicians of London 25 June 1784. He matriculated from St. Alban Hall, Oxford, on 28 Nov. 1780, aged 38, and there graduated B.A. 9 June 1784, M.A. 24 May 1787, M.B. 17 July 1788, but was refused the degree of M.D. His practice in London was considerable. He describes himself on his title-pages as a man-midwife, and was on the staff of the Queen's Lying-in Hospital, but he also practised ophthalmic surgery and general surgery. In London he first lived in St. James's Street, then in Castle Street, Leicester Fields, then at 66 Harley Street, and finally in Savile Row, where he died of typhus fever on 17 March 1806. He used to give there three courses of lectures in the year, beginning January, April, and September. He wrote on dropsy in 1770, ophthalmia 1771, gonorrhœa 1771, diseases of the breasts 1772, midwifery 1773, sore throat 1778, gout 1780, nervous diseases 1789, scarlet fever 1793, hydrocephalus 1790, mental diseases 1790. In some controversial pamphlets he attacked Dr. William Hunter (1718–1783) [q. v.] for speaking severely of some cure for cancer practised by Rowley, and he wrote against vaccination. He also published a ‘Rational and Improved Practice of Physic in four Volumes,’ and in Latin (2 vols. 4to), ‘Schola Medicinæ Universalis ​Nova,’ a compendium of the subjects of medical education. His books contain nothing of value, and many of them are mere advertisements. There is an engraved portrait of him.
N. M.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Rowley, John

​ROWLEY, JOHN (1768?–1824), deputy inspector-general of fortifications, was born about 1768. He joined the Royal Military Academy at Woolwich as a cadet on 7 Oct. ​1782, entered the royal artillery as second lieutenant on 28 Jan. 1786, and was stationed at Woolwich. He was transferred to the royal engineers on 23 Aug. 1787 and went to Gosport, where he was employed on the fortifications for the next two years. He went to Jersey in the summer of 1789, was promoted first lieutenant on 2 May 1792, and in December 1793 accompanied the expedition under the Earl of Moira to assist the Vendeans. The complete annihilation of the Vendean army rendered the expedition abortive. After its return to England Rowley accompanied Lord Moira with ten thousand men to reinforce the Duke of York in Flanders. Landing at Ostend on 26 June 1794 they marched through Bruges to Alost, and after a severe contest with the French retreated to Malines, fell back behind the Neethe, and joined the Duke of York. Rowley was engaged in an affair with the French near Rosendael on 16 July, the fight at Boxtel in September, and the siege at Nimeguen in October and November. In January 1795 he retreated with the British army across the dreary waste of the Weluwe district of Holland to Bremen, where, after some fighting with the French in February and March, he embarked in April and arrived in England on 8 May.
On 15 May 1795 Rowley was appointed adjutant of the corps of engineers and military artificers at Woolwich, and continued to hold the appointment until September 1799, having been promoted captain-lieutenant on 18 June 1796. On 1 Oct. 1799 he became aide-de-camp to the chief engineer of the kingdom at the office of the board of ordnance. He was promoted captain on 2 May 1800; brigade-major of royal engineers at headquarters on 1 May 1802; regimental lieutenant-colonel and assistant inspector-general of fortifications on 1 July 1806; deputy inspector-general of fortifications on 6 Dec. 1811; colonel in the army on 4 June 1814; regimental colonel on 20 Dec. of the same year, and major-general on 15 March 1821. He served on various committees, and distinguished himself by his administrative ability in all the staff appointments which he held. He was a fellow of the Royal Society. He died at Spencer Farm, Essex, the residence of the Rev. Lewis Way, on 1 Dec. 1824, while still deputy inspector-general of fortifications.
The Duke of Wellington, on hearing of his death, expressed, in a minute, his ‘utmost concern’ at the loss of so zealous and able an officer, while the board of ordnance recorded his services and the general regret felt at his death.
R. H. V.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Rowning, John

​ROWNING, JOHN (1701?–1771), mathematician, born about 1701, was son of John Rowning of Ashby-with-Fenby, Lincolnshire. He was educated at the grammar school in Glanford Brigg. Entering Magdalene College, Cambridge, he graduated B.A. in 1724 and M.A. in 1728. He obtained a fellowship at his college and was subsequently appointed rector of the college living of Anderby in Lincolnshire. He was a constant attendant of the meetings of the Spalding Society. A brother was a great mechanic and watchmaker, and he is said himself to have had ‘a good genius for mechanical contrivances.’ ‘Though a very ingenious and pleasant man, he was of an unpromising and forbidding appearance—tall, stooping at the shoulders, and of a sallow, down-looking countenance.’ He died at his lodgings in Carey Street, near Lincoln's Inn Fields, in November 1771. An epitaph, by Joseph Mills of Cowbit, is quoted in Nichols's ‘Literary Anecdotes’ (vi. 109). Rowning was married and had one daughter.
Rowning's chief work was ‘A Compendious System of Natural Philosophy,’ in four parts, which went through seven editions between 1735 and 1772. He also wrote a ‘Preliminary Discourse to an intended Treatise on the Fluxionary Method,’ 1756, which is largely argumentative (see a notice in Monthly Review, 1756, i. 286); and published two papers in the ‘Philosophical Transactions:’ (1) ‘A Description of a Barometer, wherein the Scale of Variation may be increased at Pleasure,’ 1733; (2) ‘Directions for making a Machine for finding the Roots of Equations universally,’ 1770.
W. F. S.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Holmes, John (fl.1602)

​HOLMES, JOHN (fl. 1602), composer, and organist first at Winchester Cathedral and afterwards at Salisbury Cathedral (1602–1610), was the master of Adrian Batten [q. v.] ​and Edward Lowe. He wrote for Morley's ‘Triumphs of Oriana,’ 1601, the five-part madrigal, ‘Thus Bonnyboots the birthday celebrated.’ His manuscript anthem, ‘I will give laud,’ is in the library of the Royal College of Music; a short part-song for five voices, ‘Lift up your eies,’ is No. 37 of a collection of fantasies, &c. (Addit. MSS. 17786–91. His anthem, ‘I will sing,’ is in Flackton's ‘Collection’ (Addit. MS. 30932, No. 105).
Thomas Holmes, probably a son, was lay-vicar of Winchester in 1631, was a gentleman of the Chapel Royal in 1633, and died at Salisbury on 25 March 1638. Some of his catches appeared in Hilton's ‘Catch that Catch Can,’ 1652 and 1658. George Holmes (fl. 1673–1715) [q. v.] may have been his son or nephew.
[Wood's MS. Lives of Musicians; Rimbault's Old Cheque Book of the Chapel Royal, p. 210; Grove's Dict. of Music, i. 744.]
L. M. M.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Holmes, William (d.1851)

​HOLMES, WILLIAM (d. 1851), tory whip, was the son of a rich brewer in county Sligo, and of a family long settled in King's County, Ireland. He was born in Sligo, and graduated B.A. of Trinity College, Dublin, in 1795. He entered the army, served in the West Indies, and was there military secretary to Sir Thomas Hislop [q. v.] He left the army in 1807, upon his marriage with Lady Stronge, widow of the Rev. Sir James Stronge, bart., and daughter of John Tew of Dublin and Margaret Muswell. He entered parliament for Grampound, Cornwall, in May 1808, and sat for that place till 1812, for Tregony, Cornwall, from 1812 to 1818, for Totnes, Devon, from 1819 to 1820, for Bishop's Castle, Shropshire, from 1820 to 1830, for Haslemere, Surrey, from 1830 to 1832, and from 1837 to 1841 for Berwick-upon-Tweed. From 1832 to 1837 he was not in parliament, though in 1835 he unsuccessfully contested Ipswich. In 1841 he stood for Stafford, but was not elected, and he then quitted parliamentary life. For thirty years ‘Billy’ Holmes was the adroit and dexterous whip of the tory party, and his great knowledge of the tastes, wishes, idiosyncrasies, and family connections of all the members on the tory side of the house made him a most skilful dispenser of patronage and party manager. Though often violently attacked, his personal honour remained unquestioned in the midst of a life of intrigue, and he was not unpopular with his opponents. By special permission from the Duke of Wellington he was allowed in 1829 to give his vote against the ministerial Catholic Relief Bill. He was treasurer of the ordnance ​from 1820 to 1830, and was made a D.C.L. of Oxford on 5 July 1810. He died in Grafton Street, London, on 26 Jan. 1851, leaving one son, Thomas Knox Holmes.
[Foster's Alumni Oxon.; Lord Colchester's Diary, iii. 76, 527; Cyrus Redding's Recollections, iii. 248; Raikes's Journal, iv. 300; Lord Ellenborough's Diary, ii. 234; Le Marchant's Lord Althorp, pp. 48, 473; Ann. Reg. 1851; Gent. Mag. 1851, i. 315.]
J. A. H.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Holmes, John Beck

​HOLMES, JOHN BECK (1767–1843), Moravian bishop, was born at Copenhagen on 3 Nov. 1767. In 1780 he was sent to the academy at Uisky, and thence to the Moravian Theological Seminary at Barby. In 1791 he was appointed a teacher in Fulneck school, near Bradford, where he remained until 1799, in which year he entered on his duties as a pastor of the Moravian church at Wyke, Yorkshire. By 1818 he was pastor of the congregation in Dublin, whence he returned to Fulneck as bishop of the church there. He died on 3 Sept. 1843, and was buried at Fulneck (R. V. Taylor, Biographia Leodiensis, p. 401). Under the name of John Holmes he published: 1. ‘Historical Sketches of the Missions of the United Brethren for Propagating the Gospel among the Heathen, from their commencement to the present time,’ 8vo, Dublin, 1818. 2. ‘History of the Protestant Church of the United Brethren,’ 2 vols. 8vo, London, Bradford (printed), 1825–30, of which a trivial abridgment was issued in 1854.
[Holmes's Works.]
G. G.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Holmes, Robert (1765-1859)

​HOLMES, ROBERT (1765–1859), Irish lawyer, whose father was settled at Belfast, was born during a visit of his parents to Dublin in 1765, entered Trinity College in 1782, and graduated B.A. in 1787. He at first devoted himself to medicine, but he soon turned his attention to the law. In 1795 he was called to the bar, and married Mary Emma, daughter of Dr. Robert Emmet. She died of a brain fever after hearing of the execution of her brother Robert [q. v.] in 1803. In 1798 Holmes, during a parade of the lawyers corps of yeomanry, of which he was a member, threw down his arms on learning that the corps was to be placed under the military authorities, dreading lest he might have to act against the populace. To one Joy, a barrister, who had used insulting language to him respecting this circumstance, he sent a challenge, for which he suffered three months' imprisonment. In 1799 he published a satirical pamphlet on the projected act of union, entitled ‘A Demonstration of the Necessity of the Legislative Union of Great Britain and Ireland.’ With the rising of his brother-in-law, Emmet, on 23 July 1803, he had no connection, although he was arrested on suspicion and imprisoned for some months. This retarded his advancement, but his legal ability soon asserted itself. He declined to receive any favours from the government, refusing in succession the offices of crown prosecutor, king's counsel, and solicitor-general, and to the last he remained a member of the outer bar. Nevertheless he had for many years the largest practice of any member of the Irish courts, and was listened to with the greatest attention by the judges, although he was not always very civil to them. His great learning is conspicuous in his law arguments, which form a valuable set of articles in the ‘Irish Law Reports.’ He was also in great repute in cases submitted for his opinion. He was a powerful and impressive advocate, and several of his speeches to juries are fine specimens of forensic eloquence, notably his speeches in Watson v. Dill, in defence of the ‘Nation’ newspaper, and his oration on behalf of John Mitchel, tried for treason-felony on 24 May 1848. During the course of his practice he made over 100,000l. He published ‘An Address to the Yeomanry of Ireland, demonstrating the Necessity of their declaring their Opinions upon Political Subjects,’ and in 1847 ‘The Case of Ireland stated,’ an able work on the repeal of the union. When his age prevented his continuing on circuit, the members of the north-east bar presented him with an address, and placed his bust in the bar mess-room. After his retirement in 1852 he resided in London with his only child Elizabeth, wife of George William Lenox-Conyngham, chief clerk of the foreign office. Holmes died at 37 Eaton Place, Belgrave Square, London, on 30 Nov. 1859.
G. C. B.