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

​WOODCOCK, MARTIN, alias Farington, John (1603–1646), Franciscan martyr, born in 1603 at Clayton-le-Wood, Lancashire, appears to have belonged to the Lancashire families of Farington or Woodcock, though it is not clear which was his real name, nor has his parentage been traced. He was educated first at St. Omer and then at Rome. He began his novitiate with the Capucins of Paris, but left within a year and was admitted among the Franciscans at Douai in 1631, and was professed in 1632. Towards the end of 1643 he was sent on the English mission, and landed at Newcastle, but was seized almost immediately while on a visit to his relatives in Lancashire. After more than two years' imprisonment he was tried at Lancaster in August 1646, condemned on his confession of being a Roman catholic priest, and executed at Lancaster on the 7th. Granger mentions a small quarto portrait of Woodcock (Biogr. Hist. ii. 207).
A. F. P.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Wood, William (1609-1691)

​WOOD, Sir WILLIAM (1609–1691), toxophilite, born in 1609, was for many years marshal of the Finsbury archers, who held their meetings in Finsbury Fields. He was probably knighted by Charles II for his skill in the use of the bow. In 1676 his society or regiment purchased a badge or shield to be worn by their marshal, and the decoration, known as the ‘Catherine of Braganza Shield,’ passed to successive marshals till 1736, when the office was abolished. Subsequently each succeeding captain of the Easter target held it till it passed into the hands of the Royal Toxophilite Society on its formation in 1781. This society also absorbed the few remaining Finsbury archers.
Wood died on 4 Sept. 1691, and was buried at St. James's, Clerkenwell, on 10 Sept. with archer's honours, three flights of whistling arrows being discharged over his grave by the regiment. A stone, with epitaph in verse (given in Stow's ‘Survey of London and Westminster,’ ed. Strype, iv. 67), was placed on the outside of the south wall of the church of St. James's, Clerkenwell, which on the rebuilding in 1791 was removed to the interior at the expense of the Royal Toxophilite Society.
Two portraits of Wood are in the possession of this society. They were originally decorations of the inner sides of the doors of a case made for the preservation of the Catherine of Braganza shield. One was engraved and published in 1793 (cf. Biographical Mirrour, London, 1793).
Wood was the author of a work on archery, entitled ‘The Bowman's Glory, or Archery revived’ (London, 1682, 1691). It was dedicated to Charles II. The second part, entitled ‘A Remembrance of the Worthy Show and Shooting of the Duke of Shoreditch,’ was reprinted at the end of Roberts's ‘English Bowman’ (London, 1801). In some copies of Wood's book a portrait was subsequently inserted by booksellers. None appeared in the original issue.
[Longman and Walrond's Archery (Badminton Library), pp. 184–9, 551–2; Hansard's Book of Archery, pp. 279–82; Pink's Hist. of Clerkenwell, p. 63; Gent. Mag. 1832, ii. 116; Registers of St. James's, Clerkenwell (Harl. Soc. Publ.), xix. 148; Roberts's English Bowman, p. xlii; Granger's Hist. of England, iv. 103; Bromley's Cat. of Engraved Portraits, pp. 192, 468; Guildhall MS. 193; Add. MS. 28801 (Brit. Mus.); information from Col. Walrond.]
B. P.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Wood, William (1745-1808)

1904 Errata appended.
​WOOD, WILLIAM (1745–1808), botanist and nonconformist minister, son of Benjamin Wood, a member of the Christian Society at Northampton, was born on 29 May 1745 (O.S.) at Collingtree, near Northampton. He was educated under Stephen Addington [q. v.] at Market Harborough, going thence at the age of sixteen to David Jen​nings's academy in London to be trained for the ministry [see Jennings, David]. After ordination he began his public services at Debenham, Suffolk, on 6 July 1766. The remainder of that year and part of the next he spent near London, but in September he settled at Stamford, Lincolnshire. He removed thence to Ipswich in November 1770, where he remained till the close of 1772. On 30 May 1773 he succeeded Joseph Priestley [q. v.] at the Mill Hill Chapel, Leeds, an appointment which he retained till his death.
In 1785 he began a series of lectures for the young, which, delivered once a fortnight, lasted for several years. These embraced a wide range of subjects; but he had paid much attention to natural history, especially botany, and became a fellow of the Linnean Society of London in 1791. He contributed the botanical articles to Abraham Rees's ‘Cyclopædia’ from B to C, and articles to James Sowerby's ‘English Botany’ (Nos. 57–775), as well as to the second edition of William Withering's ‘Botanical Arrangement of the Vegetables in Great Britain,’ while he furnished some articles on natural history to the ‘Annual Review,’ and a short account of Leeds to Aikin's ‘History of Manchester.’ He died at Leeds on 1 April 1808. He married, in 1780, Louisa Ann, second daughter of George Oates of Low Hall, near Leeds, by whom he had four children.
In addition to some published sermons he was author of:
* ‘An Abridgment of Dr. Watts's Psalms and Hymns’ (written with B. Carpenter), [1780?], 8vo.
* ‘A brief Enquiry concerning the Dignity of the Ordinance of the Lord's Supper,’ Leeds, 1790, 8vo.
* ‘Forms of Prayer’ (for his congregation at Leeds), Leeds, 1801, 12mo.
[Memoirs by C. Wellbeloved, 1809 (with a silhouette); Rees's Cyclopædia, vol. xxxviii.; Gent. Mag. 1808, i. 372, ii. 945; Brit. Mus. Cat.]
B. B. W.
Dictionary of National Biography, Errata (1904), p.283 N.B.— f.e. stands for from end and l.l. for last line
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# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Wood, William (1774-1857)

​WOOD, WILLIAM (1774–1857), zoologist and surgeon, was born in Kendal in 1774, and educated for the medical profession at St. Bartholomew's Hospital under John Abernethy [q. v.] He began practice as a surgeon at Wingham, near Canterbury. Turning his attention early to natural history, he became a fellow of the Linnean Society of London in 1798, and in 1801 contributed a paper ‘On the Hinges of British Bivalve Shells’ to the ‘Transactions’ of that society. He was elected a fellow of the Royal Society of London in 1812. About 1801 he removed to London, where he practised till 1815, when he entered into business as a bookseller in the Strand, dealing chiefly in works on natural history. He quitted business in 1840 and went to reside at Ruislip, Middlesex, where he died on 26 May 1857, leaving a son (28 May according to Gent. Mag. 1857, ii. 101).
He was author of:
* ‘Zoography; or the Beauties of Nature displayed in select Descriptions from the Animal and Vegetable, with additions from the Mineral Kingdom … with plates … by W. Daniell,’ London, 1807–11, 3 vols. 8vo.
* ‘General Conchology,’ vol. i., London, 1815, 8vo; reissued with a new title-page, 1835.
* ‘Index Testaceologicus,’ London, 1818, 8vo; 2nd ed. with supplement and list of plates, 1828–9; new ed. revised by Sylvanus Hanley [1855–]1856.
* ‘Illustrations of the Linnean Genera of Insects,’ London, 1821, 2 vols. 12mo.
* ‘Catalogue … of the best Works on Natural History,’ London, 1824, 8vo; new ed. 1832.
* ‘Fossilia Hantoniensia [by D. Solander] … Reprinted with a list of the figures … by W. Wood,’ London, 1829, 4to.
* ‘A complete Illustration of the British Freshwater Fishes,’ 3 Nos., London [1840?], 8vo and 4to.
* ‘Index Entomologicus,’ London, [1833–]1839, 8vo; new ed. with supplement by John Obadiah Westwood [q. v.], London, 1854, 8vo.
He edited Buffon's ‘Natural History,’ with a life of the author, London and York, 1812, 20 vols. 8vo. He also drew the figures for Hanley's ‘Illustrated … Catalogue of recent Bivalve Shells’ (1842), and helped to illustrate Charles Thorpe's ‘British Marine Conchology’ (1844).
[Proc. Linn. Soc. 1857–8, p. xl; Brit. Mus. Cat.; Nat. Hist. Mus. Cat.]
B. B. W.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Zoon, Jan Franz van

​ZOON, JAN FRANZ VAN (1658–1718?), painter. [See Van Son.]
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Zouche, Baron

​ZOUCHE, Baron. [See Curzon, Robert, 1810–1873.]
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Zoone, William

​ZOONE, WILLIAM (fl. 1540–1575), jurist and cartographer. [See Soone.]
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Zouch, Henry

​ZOUCH, HENRY (1725?–1795), antiquary and social reformer, was the eldest surviving son of Charles Zouch (d. 1754), vicar of Sandal Magna, near Wakefield, and elder brother of Thomas Zouch [q. v.] He was educated at Wakefield school under the Rev. Benjamin Wilson, and was admitted pensioner at Trinity College, Cambridge, on 9 April 1743. He graduated B.A. in 1746 and M.A. in 1750. The set of English verses contributed by him to the Cambridge collection on the peace of 1748 is included in the ‘Works of Thomas Zouch’ (i. 362–5). He translated into Greek a number of the odes of Horace. As a scholar he was much praised by Dr. Parr.
Zouch was vicar of his native parish of Sandal Magna from 1754 to 1789. Towards the close of his life the first stone of a new church at Wakefield was laid by him (Beauties of England, Yorkshire, p. 803), and from 8 June 1758 to 31 Dec. 1764 he was governor of Wakefield school. In 1788 he succeeded his brother-in-law, Sir William Lowther, in the rectory of Swillington, which he held until his death. He was also rector of Tankersley in Yorkshire, and chaplain to the Marchioness of Rockingham. Long letters of the marquis to him are in the thirteenth report of the historical manuscripts commission (pt. vii. pp. 136–9). As a magistrate of the West Riding his zeal never flagged, but he was of an odd nature. He died on 17 June 1795, and on 21 June ‘was buried in his own garden’ (Notes and Queries, 8th ser. iii. 125, 198). He married Elizabeth, daughter and heiress of William Spinke of Wakefield; she died in the spring of 1796, leaving no issue (Hunter, Familiæ, Harl. Soc. ii. 750, 783).
Zouch was author of:
* ‘Remarks upon the late Resolution of the House of Commons respecting the proposed Change of the Poor Laws’ [1776].
* ‘English Freeholder's Address to his Countrymen’ (anon.), 1780.
* ‘A few Words in Behalf of the Poor, being Remarks upon a Plan of Mr. Gilbert for improving the Police,’ 1782.
* ‘Account of the present Daring Practices of Night-hunters and Poachers,’ 1783.
* ‘Hints on the Public Police,’ 1786.
* ‘Remarks on a Bill of Sir William Young for preventing Vexatious Removals,’ 1789.
Lord Loughborough's ‘Observations on the State of English Prisons and the Means of improving them’ (1793) were communicated to and revised by Zouch.
Walpole's letters to Zouch (3 Aug. 1758 to 13 March 1787) were, through the favour of Lord Lonsdale (Zouch's kinsman and executor), added to the ‘Letters to the Earl of Hertford,’ edited by Croker in 1825. They are included in Cunningham's edition of Walpole's ‘Letters’ from vol. iii. p. 146.
[Whitaker's Loidis, i. 260; Gent. Mag. 1795 i. 534, ii. 700, 1796 i. 356; Peacock's Wakefield School, pp. 102, 211; Hist. MSS. Comm. 13th Rep. App. vii. 133–4, 151; information from Dr. Aldis Wright, Trinity College, Cambridge.]
W. P. C.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Zouch

​ZOUCH. [See also Zouche.]
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Seton, Christopher

​SETON, Sir CHRISTOPHER (1278?–1306), friend of Robert the Bruce, born about 1278, was the son of Sir Alexander Seton of Seton, descended from Philip de Seton, who obtained a charter of the lands of Seton and Winton in East Lothian from William the Lion, to be held in capite of the crown. Sir Alexander Seton (fl. 1311–1340) [q. v.] was probably his brother. He is mentioned on 25 May 1299 as being in the twenty-first year of his age (Cal. Documents relating to Scotland, vol. ii. No. 1091). On 4 Oct. 1298–9 he did homage to the king of England for his father's lands (ib. No. 1102), and he is mentioned as in the king of England's service, 13 March 1303–6 (ib. No. 1664), and again did homage on 12 Oct. of the same year (ib. No. 1697). But having married Lady Christina Bruce, third daughter of Robert, earl of Carrick, sister of Robert Bruce, he supported the claims of the Bruce to the Scottish crown, and was present at his coronation at Scone on 21 March 1306. At the battle of Methven on 13 June he saved Bruce when unhorsed by Philip de Mowbray. ​After this disaster he fled southwards, and shut himself in Loudoun Castle, Ayrshire, but it was captured by the English, and, being taken prisoner, he was carried to London, where he was hanged and quartered as a traitor. On learning his sad fate Bruce, who was then passing near Dumfries, caused to be founded, on the spot where he learned the tidings, a chapel to the Virgin, in remembrance of his fellow-in-arms and preserver of his life.
T. F. H.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Seton, Alexander (d.1542)

​SETON, ALEXANDER (d. 1542), Scottish friar and reformer, was educated at the university of St. Andrews, and is probably to be identified with a student of that name who was a determinant in 1516. According to Calderwood (History, i. 93), he was ‘brother to Ninian Seton, laird of Touch,’ and if so he was the youngest son of Sir Alexander Seton of Touch and Tullybody, by Lady Elizabeth Erskine, daughter of Thomas, second earl of Mar. It was probably about 1534 or 1535 that he began, according to Knox, to ‘tax the corrupt doctrine of the papacy’ (Works, i. 45), maintaining that the ‘law of God had of many years not been truly taught’ (ib.) His statements, reflecting especially on the conduct of the bishops, gave such offence that they accused him to James V, whose confessor he was, whereupon, dreading the king's anger, he suddenly left for England. From Berwick he sent the king a letter, in which he offered to return to Scotland and debate the matters in dispute in his presence before any bishop, abbot, friar, or secular he might name (printed in Knox, i. 48–52). According to Knox, he ‘taught the evangel’ in England for some years (ib. p. 54), but in 1541 he made a recantation at St. Paul's Cross in London, which was published with the title, ‘The Declaracion made at Paules Crosse in the Cytye of London, the fourth Sunday of Advent, by Alexander Seyton, and Mayster William Tolwyn, persone of St. Anthonyes in the sayd Cytye of London, the year of our Lord God MDXLI, newly corrected and amended. Imprinted at London in Saynt Sepulchres parysshe in the Olde Bayly by Richard Lant. Ad imprimendum solum.’ He was for some time chaplain to Charles Brandon, duke of Suffolk, in whose house he died in 1542.
T. F. H.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Seton, Alexander (1814-1852)

​SETON, ALEXANDER (1814–1852), lieutenant-colonel, born at Mounie in Aberdeenshire on 4 Oct. 1814, was the second but eldest surviving son of Alexander Seton of Mounie, by Janet Skene, his wife, daughter of Skene Ogilvy, D.D., minister of Old Machar, Aberdeenshire. He was descended from Sir Alexander Seton, lord Pitmedden [q. v.] Alexander was educated at home until the age of fifteen, and then studied mathematics and chemistry for some months under Ferdinando Foggi at Pisa. On 23 Nov. 1832 he was gazetted second lieutenant in the 21st or royal North British fusiliers, and next year he was sent with part of his regiment to the Australian colonies. He returned to Scotland on leave in 1838, and was promoted to a first lieutenancy on 2 March. He rejoined his regiment in India, and received a company on 14 Jan. 1842. Shortly after he exchanged into the 74th, and was stationed at Chatham. There he studied for two years in the senior department of the Royal Military College, and in November 1847 received a first-class certificate. In 1849 he proceeded to Ireland as assistant deputy quartermaster-general of the forces there. He held this post till 24 May 1850, when he was promoted to a majority. On 7 Nov. 1851 he obtained the rank of lieutenant-colonel, and about the same time was ordered to take command of the drafts destined for the Cape of Good Hope, where his regiment was engaged in the Kaffir war. He sailed in the steam troopship Birkenhead, which on the morning of 26 Feb. 1852 struck on a rock in False Bay, twenty miles south of Cape Town, and foundered in little more than ten minutes. In spite of the sudden nature of the catastrophe, Seton issued his orders with perfect calmness. The scene is said by an eyewitness to have resembled an embarkation, with the difference that there was less confusion. The boats could only contain the women and children, and out of 638 persons 445 were lost, Seton himself being killed by the fall of part of the wreck. He died unmarried, and his property descended to his younger brother, David. The heroism displayed by Seton and the rest of those on board the Birkenhead was commemorated by Sir Francis Doyle in a poem on ‘The Loss of the Birkenhead,’ in ‘The Return of the Guards and other Poems’ (1866; cf. R. L. Stevenson, Essay on Admirals, and Rudyard Kipling, Seven Seas).
E. I. C.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Seton, Alexander (d.1470)

​SETON, Sir ALEXANDER, first Earl of Huntly (d. 1470), was the elder son of Alexander Seton (second son of Sir William Seton of Seton), by Elizabeth Gordon, only daughter and heiress of Sir Adam Gordon, lord of Gordon, killed at Homildon, 14 Sept. 1402. On 20 July 1408 Seton and his wife received from Robert, duke of Albany, a charter, with remainder to their heirs, of the lands and baronies of Gordon, and other lands belonging to the late Lord of Gordon; and Seton was thereafter styled Lord of Gordon and Huntly. The son was one of the Scots nobles who attended Princess Margaret of Scotland to France in 1436 on her marriage to the dauphin Louis, son of Charles VIII; and in the following year he was sent to England to treat of a peace. In January 1445–6 he happened, on his way home from attending the court, to be the guest of the Ogilvys at Castle Ogilvy, when they were preparing for combat against the Crawfords, and shared in their defeat at Inverquaharity. Naturally, therefore, he supported the king against the league of Douglas with the Earls of Crawford and Ross, and, after the assassination of Douglas by the king in Stirling Castle in 1452, he was appointed (having in 1449 been created Earl of Huntly) lieutenant-general of the kingdom, and entrusted with the special task of subduing Crawford. On 15 March he encountered him near Brechin and totally defeated him, but not without severe loss, his two brothers, Sir William and Sir Henry Seton, being among the slain. During his absence his lands were wasted by the Earl of Moray, brother of the late Douglas; but on his return from his victory at Brechin he devastated the lands of Moray, and plundered and burnt the city of Elgin. Ultimately he succeeded in completely restoring order, and, having come to terms with Crawford, contrived during the king's progress in the north in 1453 that Crawford and his followers should appear before the king in beggarly apparel, when he so successfully interceded for them that they received a free pardon, ​and Crawford was restored to his estates and titles.
Huntly was one of the commanders at the siege of Roxburgh Castle in 1460, when the king was killed by the bursting of one of the siege guns. He died at Elgin on 14 July 1470. By his first wife, Jean, daughter and heiress of Robert de Keith, grandson and heir of Sir William de Keith, great marischal of Scotland, he had no issue. By his second wife, Egidia, daughter and heiress of Sir John Hay of Tulliebody, Clackmannanshire, he had a son Sir Alexander Seton, ancestor of the Setons of Touch, Stirlingshire. By his third wife, Elizabeth, daughter of William, lord Crichton, lord high-chancellor of Scotland, he had three sons and three daughters, who took the name of Gordon, the succession to the earldom of Huntly being settled on the issue of this marriage, by charter 29 Jan. 1449–50. The sons were George Gordon, second earl of Huntly [q. v.]; Sir Alexander of Midmar, ancestor of the Gordons of Abergeldie; and Adam, dean of Caithness and rector of Pettie.
T. F. H.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Seton, Alexander (1621?-1691)

​SETON, ALEXANDER, Viscount Kingston (1621?–1691), born about 1621, was the third son of George, third earl of Winton [q. v.], by his first wife, Lady Anne Hay, eldest daughter of Francis, eighth earl of Errol. On the visit of Charles I to Seton Palace in 1633, Alexander Seton, a youth of twelve, welcomed the king in a formal Latin oration. In 1636 he went to study at La Flèche in France, and afterwards he made a tour through a great part of France, Italy, and Spain. He returned to Scotland in 1640, but, to avoid subscribing the covenant, went in 1643 to Holland. Venturing to return some time afterwards, and still declining to subscribe, he was excommunicated in Tranent church on 8 Oct. 1644. He then crossed over to France, where for some time he remained in attendance on the young Prince Charles. After the coronation of Charles II at Scone, he was created Viscount Kingston and Lord Craigiehall by patent dated at Perth Saturday, the 4th day of January 1651 (Balfour, Annals, iv. 251). He wrote a continuation of Sir Richard Maitland's ‘History of the House of Seton’ (Bannatyne Club). He died on 21 Oct. 1691. By his first wife, Jean, daughter of Sir George Fletcher, he had a daughter, Jean Seton, married to James, third lord Mordington. By his second wife, Elizabeth, daughter of Sir Archibald Douglas of Whittinghame, he had three daughters and six sons. The sons were: Charles, master of Kingston; George; Alexander; Archibald, second viscount Kingston; John; and James, third and last viscount Kingston, who, for his share in the rebellion of 1715, was attainted by parliament. He was further married to Elizabeth Hamilton, third daughter of John, first lord Belhaven, and to Lady Margaret Douglas, daughter of Archibald, earl of Angus, but left no issue by either of these marriages.
T. F. H.