OpenLLM-France/wikimedia huggingface dataset:
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Gifford, James (1740?-1813)

​GIFFORD, JAMES, the elder (1740?–1813), unitarian writer, son of James Gifford, mayor of Cambridge in 1757, was born at ​Cambridge about 1740. Educated at Rugby, he entered the army at the age of eighteen, and, as captain of the 14th foot, served in Canada at the beginning of the American war. After giving up his commission he retired about 1788 to Girton, near Cambridge. A considerable legacy was left to him by Mrs. Elizabeth Rayner (d. 1800), a munificent patroness of the unitarians, to whose opinions Gifford had become attached through a perusal of the writings of John Jebb, M.D. [q. v.] His controversial publications brought him into friendly relations with George Dyer [q. v.], William Frend [q. v.], Theophilus Lindsey [q. v.], and others of the same school of thought. He died at Girton on 21 Jan. 1813, aged 73, and was buried in All Saints' Church, Cambridge, where there is a monument to his memory and that of his parents. He married, at Boston, U.S.A., Elizabeth Cremer, a native of Bury St. Edmunds, who died at St. Helier, Jersey, on 16 April 1840, aged 94. Among his children were (1) James, the younger [q. v.]; (2) William, major-general in the army, who died at Swansea on 9 Aug. 1825, aged 55; (3) Juliana Elizabeth, friend of Cobden, who died at St. Helier on 19 April 1858, aged 84; (4) George, captain in the army; (5) Lucius Henry, his sixth son, lieutenant R.N., who died 21 Sept. 1812, aged 29; (6) Theophilus John, his seventh son, lieutenant in the army, who died 14 March 1811, aged 23. He published: 1. ‘A Short Essay on the Belief of an Universal Providence,’ &c., Cambridge, 1781, 8vo. 2. ‘An Elucidation of the Unity of God, deduced from Scripture and Reason,’ Cambridge, 1783, 8vo; 5th edit., 1815, 8vo (edited by his son William). 3. ‘A Letter to the Archbishop of Canterbury,’ &c., 1785 (dated 27 Jan.); 3rd edit., 1815, 8vo, printed as appendix to 5th edit. of No. 2. 4. ‘Reflections on the Necessity of Death and the Hope of a Future Existence’ (not seen).
A. G.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Gifford, Humphrey

​GIFFORD, HUMPHREY (fl. 1580), poet, was probably the second son of Anthony Gifford of Halsbury, Devonshire. He published in 1580 ‘A Posie of Gilloflowers, eche differing from other in colour and odour, yet all sweete,’ 4to, of which a copy (supposed to be unique) is preserved in the King's Library, British Museum. One section is in prose, the other in verse. The prose is prefaced by a dedicatory epistle ‘To the worshipfull his very good Maister, Edward Cope of Edon, Esquier,’ whom Gifford describes as ‘the onely maister that euer I serued;’ and the poetry is dedicated ‘To the Worshipfull John Stafford of Bletherwicke, Esquier.’ Little interest attaches to the prose, which chiefly consists of translations from the Italian; but some of the poems (in particular a spirited war song) have merit. The poems, with selections from the prose, have been reprinted by Dr. Grosart in ‘Occasional Issues,’ and again in ‘Miscellanies of the “Fuller Worthies' Library.”’
A. H. B.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Gifford, James (1768-1853)

​GIFFORD, JAMES, the younger (1768–1853), rear-admiral, was born at Halifax, Nova Scotia, on 20 Nov. 1768. He was the son of James Gifford the elder [q. v.] Having entered the navy in 1783, he served under the broad pennant of Sir Charles Douglas on the Halifax station. He afterwards served in the West Indies, Channel and Mediterranean, and during the occupation of Toulon, in the St. George flagship of Rear-admiral John Gell [q. v.] In October 1793 he was promoted to be lieutenant, and shortly afterwards was appointed to the Lutine frigate, with Captain James Macnamara, in which he narrowly escaped capture by the French squadron under M. Richery, off Cadiz, on 7 Oct. 1795. After serving in the Pompée with Captain Vashon, and the Prince and Prince George, flagships of Sir Charles Cotton [q. v.], he was promoted to be commander on 7 May 1802. For a short time in 1803 he was acting captain of the Braave frigate; in 1804 was appointed to the command of the Speedy brig, which formed part of the squadron employed off Boulogne and Calais during that and the succeeding year. In 1808 he was appointed to the Sarpen, for service in the Baltic and North Sea, and in February 1812 to the Sheldrake, from which, on 12 Aug., he was advanced to post-rank. He had no further service afloat, and, following his father's example, devoted himself from this time to religious studies and labours in the cause of unitarianism. After the death of his father (1813), he seems to have lived for some time at Swansea, where he wrote ‘Remonstrance of a Unitarian, addressed to [Burgess] the Bishop of St. Davids’ (8vo, 1818), which won him a high place in the esteem of his brother sectarians, and quickly ran into a second edition (1820). Replies to this remonstrance were entitled ‘Unitarianism indefensible. A letter … to … James Gifford [by J. Garbett],’ London, 1818, 8vo, and ‘An Examination of the Remonstrance addressed to the Bishop of St. David's, with Answers to the Questions addressed to Trinitarians generally,’ London, 1822, 8vo. Gifford afterwards moved with his sister and mother to Jersey, where he lived in a very modest way, devoting the greater part of his small income to works of benevolence, and to furthering the cause of unitarianism. In 1845 he published as a pamphlet ‘Letter of a Unitarian to the Rev. S. Langston, minister of St. James's Church, Jersey;’ but his principal work lay in the silent and unpretending but effective devotion to the cause with which he had associated himself. In 1846 he became a rear-admiral on the retired list, but the promotion made no change in his life, beyond increasing his income and his ability to give. He was not married, and died at Mont Orgueil Cottage, near St. Helier, on 20 Aug. 1853. His mother had already died, at the age of 94, in 1840; his sister, Juliana Elizabeth, who had lived with ​him, survived him a few years, and died 19 April 1858, aged 84.
[O'Byrne's Nav. Biog. Dict.; Marshall's Roy. Nav. Biog. vii. (suppl. pt. iii.) 97; Christian Reformer, new ser. i. 821, x. 21, 98, xiv. 729; Monthly Repository, xx. 498.]
J. K. L.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Gifford, Richard

​GIFFORD, RICHARD (1725–1807), miscellaneous writer, was the second son of the Rev. John Gifford of Bishop's Castle, Shropshire. He entered Balliol College, Oxford, as batler in March 1744, and took the degree of B.A. in 1748. He did not proceed to the degree of M.A., owing, it is said, to some disagreement with the fellows of his college, arising from his holding strong whig opinions, while they were zealous tories. He published in 1748 a pamphlet entitled ‘Remarks on Mr. Kennicott's Dissertation upon the Tree of Life in Paradise’ (8vo, 1748), and, after studying theology for some time, took holy orders, and was appointed curate of Richard's Castle in Herefordshire. Later he became morning preacher at St. Anne's, Soho, and in 1758 domestic chaplain to the Marquis of Tweeddale. He was presented in the following year to the vicarage of Duffield in Derbyshire, and in 1772 to the rectory of North Okendon in Essex. He lived chiefly at Duffield, but resided at North Okendon for part of the summer, until rendered totally unable to do so by the effect of the Essex climate on his health. He satisfied his conscience on the score of his non-residence by preaching gratuitously in many churches in the neighbourhood of Duffield. He died there on 1 March 1807.
In 1753 he published anonymously ‘Contemplation, a Poem,’ four lines of which were quoted with considerable alteration in Johnson's ‘Dictionary’ under the word ‘Wheel,’ a fact which gave him great pleasure. Long afterwards, when at Nairn, Johnson repeated the lines to Boswell, restoring one of the original words (Birkbeck Hill, Boswell's Johnson, v. 117, 118, note). Gifford also wrote: ‘Outlines of an answer to Dr. Priestley's Disquisitions relating to Matter and ​Spirit,’ 8vo, 1781; the translation of part of Domesday in Nichols's ‘Leicestershire;’ and some contributions to the ‘Gentleman's Magazine,’ under the signature ‘R. Duff.’ Fourteen letters from him to Nichols are printed in Nichols's ‘Literary Illustrations,’ v. 182–97.
E. C-n.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Gigli, Giovanni

​GIGLI, GIOVANNI (d. 1498), bishop of Worcester, was a native of Lucca. He was a skilled ecclesiastical lawyer, entered the papal service, and was sent to England as papal collector by Pope Sixtus IV. He seems to have made himself useful to Edward IV, and was appointed a canon of Wells in 1478. Still he did not cease to serve the pope, and in the synod of London, 1480, he set forth that the pope had sold his jewels and melted his plate to provide money for the defence of Rhodes; but despite his eloquence the English clergy refused to tax themselves (Wilkins, Concilia, iii. 613, where Gigli appears as Joannes de Sighs). Gigli was a humanist of considerable attainments, and in 1486 wrote an epithalamium in Latin hexameters on the marriage of Henry VII with Elizabeth of York. In 1489 Gigli was employed by Pope Innocent VIII as his commissioner for the sale of indulgences in England. Soon afterwards Henry VII, who had reasons of his own for establishing intimate relations with the papacy, sent Gigli to Rome as his diplomatic agent. In 1492 Burchard (Diarium, ed. Thuasne, i. 490) calls him ‘orator antiquus regis Angliæ.’ Gigli's services were rewarded in 1497 by the bishopric of Worcester, to which he was appointed by a provision of Pope Alexander VI, dated 30 Aug. He was consecrated in Rome, appointed Thomas Wodyngton as his vicar-general, and was enthroned by proxy. He had no time to visit his see, for he died in Rome on 25 Aug. 1498, and was buried in the English College there, where a tomb was erected to him by his nephew, Silvestro. The inscription is given by Thomas, ‘Survey of Worcester Cathedral,’ p. 202.
Gigli's ‘Epithalamium,’ which is a good example of the complimentary verses of the period, is in the British Museum, Harleian MS. 336.
[To the sources quoted in the text may be added Wharton's Anglia Sacra, i. 538, and the manuscript Register of Bishop Gigli in the Worcester Diocesan Registry.]
M. C.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Gigli, Silvestro

​GIGLI, SILVESTRO (1463–1521), bishop of Worcester, was a native of Lucca, and succeeded his uncle Giovanni [q. v.] in the see of Worcester. It would seem that ​he had been trained by his uncle, and helped him in his diplomatic duties at the Roman court; for in the grant of the temporalities of his see by Henry VII he is called ‘archipresbyter Luccensis, causarum nostrarum in curia Romana solicitator’ (Thomas, Survey of Worcester Cathedral, Appendix, p. 130). He was appointed to the see by provision of Alexander VI, dated 24 Dec. 1498, and was enthroned by proxy in April 1499. He remained in Rome as resident ambassador of Henry VII, and as such took part in the ceremonies of the papal court (Burchard, Diarium, ed. Thuasne, iii. 354). At the end of 1504 he was sent by Pope Julius II as the bearer of some tokens of the pope's favour to Henry VII, and he distinguished himself by his eloquence before the king at Richmond (Bernard André, Annales Henrici VII, ed. Gairdner, p. 86). After that he seems to have stayed a few years in England, more engaged as a master of ceremonies about the court than in the work of his diocese (ib. pp. 122–3). When Henry VIII became more intimately connected with European politics, he sent to Rome as his ambassador Christopher Bainbridge [q. v.], archbishop of York, in 1509, but found it necessary to employ Gigli as well, and appointed him in 1512 one of his ambassadors to the Lateran council. Pope Leo X found Gigli a more congenial person than Bainbridge, who was not popular at the papal court. The two English ambassadors were not on good terms, and there were frequent disputes between them. So patent were their quarrels that when Bainbridge died in 1514, poisoned by a servant, Gigli was suspected of being the author of the murder (Ellis, Original Letters, i. Nos. 35–7). Pope Leo X inquired into the matter, and Gigli was acquitted. Wolsey supported him, and could afterwards count upon his gratitude. It is only fair to say that there was no evidence against Gigli; that Bainbridge's temper seems to have stung his servant to a desire for revenge and plunder; that the man was lightheaded, and committed suicide in prison. The accusation did not affect Gigli's credit, and he was Wolsey's confidential agent in securing the cardinalate and the grant of legatine powers. From this time Gigli was the chief diplomatic agent of Wolsey in Rome, and was in constant correspondence with him and Henry VIII. He was also a man of letters and a correspondent of Erasmus. He died in Rome on 18 April 1521.
[Thomas's Survey of Worcester Cathedral, pp. 202–3; Burchard's Diarium; Paris de Grassis, Diarium, Brit. Mus. Addit. MSS. 8440–4; Cal. of State Papers of Hen. VIII, vols. i–iii.; Brewer's Reign of Hen. VIII; Memorie per servire all' Istoria del Ducato di Lucca, ix. 140; manuscript Reg. in Worcester Diocesan Registry.]
M. C.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Blount, Thomas (d.1400)

​BLOUNT, Sir THOMAS (d. 1400), supporter of Richard II, was probably the son, by his first wife, of Sir John Blount, who was summoned to parliament in 1327 as Lord Blount of Belton. His father has been identified with the Sir John Blount who was custos or mayor of London from 1301 to 1307, engaged in the Scotch war of 1304, and was afterwards constable of the Tower; but the dates seem to make the identification doubtful (Srow's London, ed. Strype, v. 109; Liber Albus, ed. Riley, 5, 15, &c.). At Richard II's coronation Sir Thomas was deputy for John Hastings, earl of Pembroke, in the office of king's ‘naperer,’ or keeper of his linen, and he was in close attendance on Richard II throughout his reign. At its close he declined to recognise the claim of Henry IV to supersede Richard. After Henry's coronation (6 Oct. 1399) he joined John Holland, earl of Huntingdon, Thomas Holland, earl of Kent, the Earl of Salisbury, the Earl of Rutland, the Abbot of Westminster, and others in an insurrection. Sir Thomas, who is described by contemporary chroniclers as a noble and wise knight, met the leading conspirators at dinner with the Abbot of Westminster 18 Dec. 1399, and there they agreed to surprise Henry at a tournament at Windsor. But Henry discovered the plot through the treachery of the Earl of Rutland, and, summoning an army in London, advanced against the rebels, who had assembled in some hundreds near Windsor. The latter retreated before Henry, and managed to reach Cirencester, where many of them were captured (6 Jan. 1400), but Blount, with a few friends, fled to Oxford, and was taken and executed in the Green Ditch near the city (Wood, Annals of Oxford, ed. Gutch, i. 537). Eleven persons, described as Blount's servants, were condemned to outlawry at Oxford at the same time, and afterwards (19 Feb. 1400) pardoned. The revolting cruelty of Blount's death has been described at great length by many contemporary chroniclers. He was first hanged, then cut down and eviscerated, although still alive and replying to the taunts of Sir Thomas Erpingham, the king's chamberlain, who directed the horrible procedure; he was finally beheaded and quartered, and his head was sent to London. His large estates were forfeited to the crown, but some were bestowed on Sir Walter Blount (d. 1403) [q. v.], a distant relative, and his wife Sancha. With Sir Thomas Blount the Belton line of the Blount family became extinct.
Sir Thomas's cousin Nicholas, who aided him in the insurrection, escaped to Italy, and was outlawed. He entered the service of Galeazzo Visconti, duke of Milan, and fought with the Milanese against Rupert, emperor of Germany, from 1401 to 1404. He returned to England in 1404, and lived in concealment till Henry IV's death in 1413. On his return to this country he assumed the name of Croke. He married Agnes, daughter of John Heynes, by whom he became the ancestor of Sir John Croke [q. v.] and of Sir George Croke [q. v.]
S. L. L.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Blount, Thomas (fl.1668)

​BLOUNT or BLUNT, THOMAS (fl. 1668), colonel, born in or about 1604, was the second son of Edward Blount, of the Middle Temple and Wricklesmarsh, in Charlton, Kent, by his second wife, Fortune, daughter of Sir William Garway, knight, of London. During the rebellion his leanings were to the popular party, and he became, says Sir Roger Twysden, ‘a great stickler for the two houses of parliament.’ Being present at the meetings of the cavalier country-gentlemen at Maidstone, which resulted in the getting up the Kentish petition of March 1642, he turned informer, and gave an account of the proceedings in evidence at the bar of the house. His name appears in 1643 on one of the earliest lists of the committee of Kent. Upon the accession of Charles II Blount was promptly committed to prison, where he saw fit to modify his opinions, and his petitions for release were certainly not wanting in servility. Blount was a highly ingenious man, and lived in intimacy with the most distinguished fellows of the Royal Society, to which he was himself admitted in February 1664–5. He constructed with his own hands a carriage with an improved action, ‘for the ease of both man and horse,’ which at the time attracted considerable attention, and is often mentioned by ​Pepys. Both Pepys and his contemporary diarist Evelyn tell us of the colonel's experiments and inventions at his stately seat at Charlton—his vineyard, the wine of which was ‘good for little,’ new-invented ploughs, and subterranean warren. He was among the first to adopt the application of the way-wiser, or odometer, to a carriage. Blount was living in January 1667–8, when he withdrew from the Royal Society.
[Hasted's Kent (folio ed.), i. 36 (o); Berry's Kent Genealogies, p. 417; Archæologia Cantiana, i. 202, 204; Kemble's Introd. to Sir R. Twysden's Certaine Considerations upon the Government of England (Camden Soc.), pp. lv-lvii; Evelyn's Diary (ed. 1850–2), i. 281, 310, 313, 320, 332, 414; Pepys's Diary (3rd ed.), iii. 12–13, 80, 149, v. 243; Birch's Hist. Roy. Soc. ii.; Lysons's Environs of London, iv. 492; Cal. State Papers (Dom. 1660–2).]
G. G.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Cantelupe, George de

​CANTELUPE, GEORGE de (d. 1273), son of William, the third Baron Cantelupe (d. 1254) [q. v.], is styled Baron of Bergavenny. He was knighted by Henry III in 1272, on the occasion of the marriage of Edmund of Cornwall. He was put into possession of his lands on 23 April 1273, but died the following November. His sister Joanna married Henry of Hastings.
H. R. L.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Cantelupe, William de (d.1239)

​CANTELUPE, WILLIAM de, first Baron Cantelupe (d. 1239), was the son of Walter de Cantelupe, and had the office of seneschal, or steward of the household, under John. He executed the office of sheriff for the counties of Warwick, Leicester, Worcester, and Hereford during part of John's reign. He is especially mentioned by Wendover as one of John's evil counsellors, and was not one of the confederate barons in 1215. In the earlier portion of John's reign he was one of the justiciars before whom fines were acknowledged; his name is among those who witnessed John's charter of freedom of election to sees and abbeys. He was in continual attendance on John, taking his side through the interdict and the civil war. After the entrance of the barons into London and their threats against those who had not joined them he seems to have wavered (Wendover; Matt. Paris, ii. 588). On John's death, however, he took the side of the young Henry, was at the siege of Mountsorrel Castle, of the custody of which he had a grant, and at the relief of Lincoln. He was again made sheriff for the counties of Warwick and Leicester, and was justice itinerant in Bedfordshire in 1218. He had the custody of Kenilworth Castle, where he usually resided. In 1224 he joined Ranulf Blundevil, the earl of Chester, in his rising against Hubert de Burgh; but he submitted at Northampton and surrendered his castles with the other barons in opposition. He was with the king at the siege of Bedford Castle in 1224, and was one of those who signed the confirmation of Magna Charta in 1236. He died at Reading in April 1239, and was buried at Studley, where he had built a hospital.
[Annales Monast. i. 104, 112, iii. 31, 87, 100, 122, iv. 430; Matt. Paris, ii. 533, 588, 610, iii. 15, 18, 83; Dugdale's Baronage; Foss's Judges.]
H. R. L.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Cantelupe, William de (d.1251)

​CANTELUPE, WILLIAM de, second Baron Cantelupe (d. 1251), is mentioned by Wendover, with his father, Cantelupe, William de (d.1239), the first baron [q. v.], as one of John's evil counsellors. He was also with him at the relief of Lincoln, and took the same line in his siding with Ranulf Blundevil and his subsequent submission. In 1238, after the dismissal of Ralph Neville, he was one of those to whom the great seal was entrusted (Tewkesbury Annals, p. 110). Though this was only a temporary appointment, he evidently continued high in the king's favour, as after his father's death he was appointed guardian of the kingdom during the king's absence in 1242, and in 1244 was one of the messengers chosen by the king to induce the prelates to submit to his demands for a subsidy. In 1245 he was sent to Lyons to complain of the Roman exactions, and in company with his colleagues refused the papal demands of the best prebend from every cathedral church, and a church worth forty marks from every abbey and priory (Dunstable Annals, p. 167). Like his father he held the office of seneschal, and Paris speaks especially of the king's affection for him. He died on 22 Feb. 1251.
His widow, Millicent, had the charge of Margaret, queen of Scotland, on her marriage (Matt. Paris, v. 272). She died in 1260 (Oseney Annals, 127).
[Annales Monast. i. 110, 143, iii. 159, 167, 181; Matt. Paris, ii. 533, iii. 18, 83, iv. 365, 420, v. 224, 225; Dugdale's Baronage.]
H. R. L.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Cantelupe, Roger de

​CANTELUPE, ROGER de (fl. 1248), legist, was the son of Roger de Cantelupe, who was hanged for treason in 1225. He was sent by Henry III in 1231 to Rome, against Archbishop Richard. His false accusation against the bishops in the quarrel between the king and the earl marshal in 1234 is especially mentioned by Matthew Paris. It was fully answered by the bishop of Lichfield, Alexander Stavenby. It is probably the same person who held the prebend of Kentillers, or Kentish Town, in St. Paul's, London, in 1248. There is a letter from Innocent IV to him in 1248, directing him to protect the abbey of St. Albans from any further contributions to the Roman church.
H. R. L.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Cantelupe, Nicholas de

​CANTELUPE, NICHOLAS de, the third Baron Cantelupe by writ (d. 1355), lord of Gresley, Nottinghamshire, was the grandson of Nicholas, one of the younger sons of William, first baron Cantelupe [q. v.] He was with Edward II in Scotland in 1320, and was knighted by him in 1326. At the beginning of the reign of Edward III he was in Scotland, and was made in 1336 governor of Berwick-on-Tweed. In 1339 he was again in Scotland, and in the war in Flanders in the same year. In 1343 he was one of the ambassadors sent to treat for peace with France. In 1345 he was summoned to attend the king in the campaign that ended at Cressy. In 1352 he was appointed one of the commissioners for the defence of Lincolnshire against a threatened invasion by the French. He was summoned to parliament from 1337 to 1354; he died in 1355. He founded Cantelupe College, a college of priests to celebrate at the altar of St. Nicholas in the cathedral of Lincoln, in the Lincoln Close, and also Beauvale, a Carthusian house, at Gresley, Nottinghamshire. His widow Joan founded a college or chantry of five priests in honour of St. Peter in Lincoln, on the site of the house of the Friars de Sacco.
H. R. L.