OpenLLM-France/wikimedia huggingface dataset:
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1927 supplement/Mair, William

​MAIR, WILLIAM (1830–1920), Scottish divine, the eldest son and fifth child in a family of twelve, was born at Savoch, Aberdeenshire, 1 April 1830. His father, the Rev. James Mair, was the parochial schoolmaster, a licentiate of the Church of Scotland; his mother, Christian Johnston, a cousin, was a member of a farming family long established there. From Aberdeen grammar school he passed to King's College and to Marischal College, Aberdeen, graduating with honours in 1849, and specially distinguished in mathematics.
‘I had never thought’, Mair writes in his autobiography, ‘of any other life-work than the ministry.’ But indifferent health kept him back for seven years; he was thirty-one at the time of his ordination to the mission church of Lochgelly, Fifeshire (October 1861). In 1864 he was translated to Ardoch, and in 1869 to Earlston, Berwickshire. He retired to Edinburgh in 1903, spending his remaining years in church work generally—constant committees, daily interviews, and correspondence on church law—but particularly in the cause of church union. He died in his sleep 26 January 1920, having lived over seventy years in fragile health by an extreme carefulness in diet, clothing, temperature, and exercise. He married in 1866 Isabella, daughter of David Edward, of Balruddery, Dundee.
Mair's remarkable vitality in the midst of bodily weakness, his wisdom in counsel, and his forthrightness in speech, his legal knowledge, his evangelical zeal, and, above all, his spiritual-mindedness, made him for many years a prominent figure in the Church of Scotland and in its General Assembly, of which he was moderator in 1897. His Digest of Laws and Decisions, Ecclesiastical and Civil, relating to the Constitution, Practice, and Affairs of the Church of Scotland, published in 1887, became at once, and remains, the standard authority on Scottish ecclesiastical law.
It is, however, as a pioneer in the cause of church reunion that Mair will be best remembered. A series of articles in Blackwood's Magazine and of pamphlets from 1904 onwards, prepared the way for ‘unrestricted conference’ between committees of his Church and the United Free Church. In 1907 Dr. Archibald Scott [q.v.] made the first public proposal for such conference; but Mair's had been the clear vision and the moving spirit from the beginning. His labours in connexion with the enlargement of the Assembly Hall in Edinburgh (1893–1894) are commemorated on a tablet in the vestibule, and were further acknowledged by the presentation of his portrait, painted by Sir George Reid, in 1896.
Of Mair's other writings the more important are: Speaking (1900), The Truth about the Scottish Churches (1891), Jurisdiction in Matters Ecclesiastical (1896), and My Life (1911).
[The Times, 28 January 1920; Scotsman, 19 November 1896 and 27 January 1920; Dr. W. Mair, My Life, 1911; personal knowledge.]
A. W. F.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1927 supplement/Mathews, Charles Willie

​MATHEWS, Sir CHARLES WILLIE, baronet (1850–1920), lawyer, was born in New York 16 October 1850, the son of William and Elizabeth West. His mother, who was an actress at Burton's Theatre, New York, known on the stage as Lizzie Weston, married secondly A. H. Davenport, an actor, and thirdly (in 1858), as his second wife, Charles James Mathews [q.v.], the actor and dramatist. Her son assumed his second stepfather's name by deed-poll. He was educated at Eton. On leaving school he became a pupil of Montagu Stephen Williams [q.v.], the criminal lawyer, who has left on record that Mathews was the best pupil he ever had. He was called to the bar at the Middle Temple 30 April 1872, and began practice at 5 Crown Office Row, whence he moved in 1880 to 1 Essex Court. His work was chiefly in criminal cases at the Old Bailey, and on the Western circuit, though he also appeared in a good many sensational civil cases. In 1886 he was appointed one of the two junior Treasury counsel at the Old Bailey, and in 1888 one of the senior. In 1892 he stood for parliament unsuccessfully at Winchester as a liberal. In 1893 he was made recorder of Salisbury, and in 1901 a bencher of the Middle Temple. In 1907, on the occasion of the opening of the new central criminal court by the King, he was made a knight. In ​1908 he was appointed director of public prosecutions, an office which he discharged until his death with ability and discretion. In 1911 he was made a K.C.B., and in 1917 a baronet. He died at a nursing home in London on 6 June 1920.
Mathews was pre-eminently what newspapers call a ‘famous’ lawyer, for he always appeared in criminal trials, or in notorious civil cases. He was learned in criminal law, an adroit advocate and cross-examiner, and a fluent speaker who had claims to be called really eloquent, though his style was histrionic, and he was hampered by a weak and unpleasing voice. He was a small man, with a dapper figure, and a precise manner. He was fond of riding, and of horses, and liked to attend race-meetings when he could. Socially ‘Willie’ Mathews, as he was familiarly known, was exceedingly popular, and his popularity extended to much wider circles than might be suggested by his membership of the Turf, the Garrick, and the Beefsteak clubs. There, and anywhere, he was an animated talker, always ready with some anecdote, in telling which he could act, as well as narrate. He was a modest man: he was once offered a brief before the Privy Council; he crept in to watch that tribunal at work, and then asked the solicitors to allow him to decline the brief as he did not consider himself equipped for the task.
Mathews married in 1888 Lucy, daughter of Lindsay Sloper, musician, who survived him. They had no children.
[The Times, 7 June 1920; Law Journal, 12 June 1920; Law Lists; private information.]
F. D. M.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/West, William (fl.1568-1594)

​WEST, WILLIAM (fl. 1568–1594), author of ‘Symbolæographia,’ was the son of Thomas West of Beeston in Nottinghamshire, by his wife Anne, daughter of William Bradbury of the Peak. He was admitted a student of the Inner Temple in November 1568, being then described as of Darley, Derbyshire. He made a fortune by practice in law, and settled at Rotherham in Yorkshire. In 1590 he published ‘Symbolæographia, which may be termed the Art, Description, or Image of Instruments, Covenants, Contracts, &c., or the Notarie or Scriuener’ (London, 8vo). This work, which was dedicated to Sir Edmund Anderson [q. v.], was a general practical treatise on English law under its several divisions, and was held in great esteem at the time. The demand for it was so great that West immediately began to prepare a second edition, practically rewriting the whole book. He divided his treatise into two parts, and divested it of many superfluous classical quotations with which he had encumbered the first edition, thus rendering it more suitable for practical lawyers. The first part of the new edition (which dealt chiefly with covenants, contracts, and wills) appeared in 1592 (London, 4to). It was reissued in 1610, 1618, 1622, and 1632. The second part, with a new treatise on equity appended, appeared in 1594. It was dedicated to Edward Coke. New editions were issued in 1611, 1618, and 1627. The date of West's death is unknown, and some of the later editions may have been edited by his sons. He was twice married: first, to Winifred, daughter of Adam Eyre of Offerton; and, secondly, to Audrey Mann. By his first wife he had two daughters and five sons, of whom William, the eldest, was a student of the Inner Temple.
West also edited ‘Les tenures du monsieur Littleton’ (London, 1581, 8vo) in Norman French.
E. I. C.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/West, Richard (fl.1606-1619)

​WEST, RICHARD (fl. 1606–1619), poet, was the author of several volumes of verse. In 1606 appeared ‘News from Bartolomew Fayre’ (London, 4to), of which a fragment is preserved at the Bodleian. The poem, though without much merit, is a lively description of the scenes at the fair and of the buyers and sellers who resorted to it. It was followed in 1607 by ‘The Court of Conscience, or Dick Whippers Sessions’ (London, 4to), a satire on the manners of the time. In 1619 a new edition of Francis Segar's ‘School of Vertue’ appeared with a second part by West; the second part was chiefly a summary recapitulation of Segar's precepts, and, like them, was in verse. It was frequently known as the ‘Booke of Demeanour.’ It was reprinted in 1677, and in 1817 in facsimile for the Roxburghe Club. In 1868 it was edited for the Early English Text Society by F. J. Furnivall together with ‘The Babees Book’ and other similar treatises. To West has also been attributed ‘The Wyttes A.B.C., or a Centurie of Epigrams by R.W., Bachelor of Arts in Oxon.,’ of which there is a copy in the Malone collection at the Bodleian, but the author of this work was undoubtedly a distinct person.
E. I. C.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/West, Robert

​WEST, ROBERT (d. 1770), artist, was born at Waterford, the son of an alderman of that city, and is said to have been trained in Paris. He for some years conducted a drawing academy in George Lane, Dublin, and when the Royal Dublin Society established a school of design in Shaw's Court was appointed the first master. This position he held until 1763, when, becoming mentally deranged, he was superseded by a former pupil, Jacob Ennis. On the death of the latter in 1770 West was reappointed, but died in the same year. He was an accomplished draughtsman and an excellent teacher.
Francis Robert West (1749?–1809), son of Robert, studied in Paris, where he was a pupil of Van Loo and worked in the French Academy. On 11 Oct. 1770 he succeeded his father as master of the Dublin school of design, and this post he filled with great success throughout his life. Like his father, he excelled as a draughtsman in crayons, having a profound knowledge of the human figure, which he could draw without models, but painted little in oils. There exists a set of ten plates of moral emblems, engraved from compositions by him, and dedicated to various Irish noblemen. West died at Dublin on 24 Jan. 1809. He had many good pupils, including Sir Martin Archer Shee [q. v.] His portrait, painted by his brother Robert Lucius, is in the Royal Hibernian Academy (Cat. Third Loan Exhib. No. 86).
Robert Lucius West (d. 1849) was a son of Francis Robert West, and for some years acted as assistant to his father. On the death of the latter in 1809 he succeeded to the mastership of the school, which he retained for about forty years. He painted portraits and historical subjects, and in 1808 exhibited at the Royal Academy in London a subject from Gray's ‘Elegy.’ He was a member of the Irish Society of Artists, and on the foundation of the Royal Hibernian Academy in 1823 was nominated an original academician. The National Gallery of Ireland possesses a portrait of J. H. Brocas, the landscape-painter, by West, also a miniature of the latter by himself. West died early in October 1849.
F. M. O'D.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/West, Thomas (1720-1779)

​WEST, THOMAS (1720–1779), topographer, was born in Scotland in 1720, received his education in the public schools of Edinburgh, and was for some time a mercantile traveller. He entered the Society of Jesus at Watten on 7 Sept. 1751, under the name of Daniel, made his higher studies and theology in the college of the English jesuits at Liège, and was professed of the four vows on 2 Feb. 1769. Being sent on the English mission, he was stationed first at Holywell, next at Ulverston, afterwards at Titcup Hall, near Dalton in Furness, and finally at Sisergh, Westmorland. He died at Sisergh on 10 June 1779, and was buried in the choir or chapel belonging to the Strickland family in Kendal church.
He was the author of: 1. ‘The Antiquities of Furness; or an Account of the Royal Abbey of St. Mary, in the Vale of Nightshade, near Dalton in Furness,’ London, 1774, 4to; new edit., with additions by William Close, Ulverston, 1805, 8vo; reprinted, Ulverston, 1813, 8vo. 2. ‘A Guide to the Lakes: dedicated to the Lovers of Landscape Studies, and to all who have visited, or intend to visit, the Lakes in Cumberland, Westmorland, and Lancashire,’ Lon​don, 1778, 8vo, pp. 203; 2nd edit., revised throughout and greatly enlarged, London, 1780, 8vo; 11th edit., Kendal, 1821, 8vo. He also wrote an ‘Account of Antiquities discovered in Lancaster, 1776,’ which appeared in ‘Archæologia’ (1779, v. 98), and a description ‘Of a Volcanic Hill near Inverness,’ printed in 1777 in ‘Philosophical Transactions.’
T. C.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1912 supplement/Wilson, William Edward

​WILSON, WILLIAM EDWARD (1851–1908), astronomer and physicist, born at Belfast on 19 July 1851, was only son of John Wilson, of Daramona, Streete, co. Westmeath, by his wife Frances Patience, daughter of the Rev. Edward Nangle. He was educated privately, and showed great interest in astronomy while still a boy. In 1870 he joined the British party under Huggins which went to Oran in Algeria to observe the total eclipse of the sun in that year, and on his return he set up a private observatory on his father's estate at Daramona, equipped with a twelve-inch refractor by Grubb. In 1881 he built a new observatory with a twenty-four inch silver on glass reflector, also by Grubb, and soon after added a physical laboratory. ​Thus equipped, he began in 1886 the investigations on the temperature of the sun and the radiation from sunspots, which were remarkable pioneer work. In 1894 he published, with Philip Leman Gray, his ‘Experimental Investigation on the Effective Temperature of the Sun’ (Phil. Trans. 185A, p. 361), in which he arrived at the result 6590° C. This, with other important papers, published in the Phil. Trans. and Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, and a selection of his admirable celestial photographs were collected in a volume, ‘Astronomical and Physical Researches made at Mr. Wilson's Observatory, Daramona, Westmeath,’ printed privately in 1900. Subsequent work included an examination of the effect of pressure on radio-activity, and an expedition to Plasencia to observe the solar eclipse of 1900. He was elected F.R.S. in 1896, and was made hon. D.S. of Dublin University in 1901.
Wilson, who mainly lived on his estate, was high sheriff of co. Westmeath in 1901.
He died at Daramona on 6 March 1908, and was buried in the family burying ground attached to the parish church of Streete, the village adjoining his demesne. There is a portrait in oils at Daramona, painted in 1886 by E. Marshall.
He married on 10 Nov. 1886, Caroline Ada, third daughter of Captain R. C. Granville of Grand Pré, Biarritz, and left one son, John Granville, and two daughters.
[Royal Soc. Proc., 83 A., 1910; Monthly Notices Roy. Astron. Soc., lxix. Feb. 1909.]
A. R. H.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1912 supplement/Wilson, Henry Schütz

​WILSON, HENRY SCHÜTZ (1824–1902), author, born in London on 15 Sept. 1824, was son of Effingham Wilson (1783–1868) by his wife, a daughter of Thomas James of The Brownings, Chigwell, Essex. The father, a native of Kirby Ravensworth, Yorkshire, after serving an apprenticeship to his uncle, Dr. Hutchinson, a medical practitioner of Knaresborough, founded at the Royal Exchange, London, a publishing business chiefly of commercial manuals, which is still continued; a zealous politician of radical views, he died in London in July 1868.
After education at a private school at Highgate, Schütz Wilson was for ten years in a commercial house in London and thoroughly mastered French, German, and Italian. Subsequently assistant secretary of the electric telegraph company, he retired on a pension when the business was taken over by the post office in 1870. He edited the ‘Journal of the Society of Telegraph Engineers’ from 1872.
Wilson divided his leisure between foreign travel or mountaineering and study or criticism of foreign literature and history. A profound admirer of Goethe's work, he published ‘Count Egmont as depicted in Fancy, Poetry, and History’ in 1863. In later years he wrote frequently in London magazines, and reissued his articles in ‘Studies and Romances’ (1873), ‘Studies in History, Legend, and Literature’ (1884), and ‘History and Criticism’ (1886). He was an early admirer of Edward FitzGerald's long-neglected translations from the Persian, and FitzGerald welcomed Wilson's encouragement (Letters, ed. Aldis Wright, 1859, i. 481).
Wilson, who was a member of the Alpine Club from 1871 to 1898, ascended the Matterhorn on 26–7 Aug. 1875 with Frederic Morshead and A. D. Prickard, and on 15 Aug. 1876 with Morshead. Melchior Anderegg was one of Wilson's guides, and he wrote on ‘Anderegg as a Sculptor’ in the ‘Alpine Journal’ (November 1873). He collected pleasant descriptions of his experiences in ‘Alpine Ascents and Adventures’ (1878).
Interested in both the English and the German stage, he was popular in literary and artistic society. He was a capable fencer and a zealous volunteer, becoming ​captain in the artists' corps. He died unmarried at the house of his nephew, Dr. J. Schütz Sharman, 2 Avenue Gate, Norwood, on 7 May 1902. His body was cremated, and the ashes placed in the Sharman vault in Norwood cemetery. His portrait by James Archer, R.S.A., was exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1898.
Wilson's three novels, ‘The Three Paths,’ ‘The Voyage of the Lady’ (1860), and ‘Philip Mannington’ (1874), were translated into German.
[Private information; The Times, 19 May 1902; Ann. Register, 1902; Morning Post, 9 May; Works; Brit. Mus. Cat. (Wilson's works incomplete); Allibone's Dict. Engl. Lit. vol. iii. and Suppl.]
G. Le G. N.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1912 supplement/Wilson, Charles Robert

​WILSON, CHARLES ROBERT (1863–1904), historian of British India, born at Old Charlton, Kent, on 27 March 1863, was only son of Charles Wilson, army tutor, by his wife Charlotte Woodthorpe Childs. Educated at the City of London School, where he gained the Carpenter scholarship on leaving, he was elected to a scholarship at Wadham College, Oxford, in 1881. He graduated B.A. in 1887, having been placed in the first class in mathematical moderations in 1883 and in the final classical school in 1886. On leaving Oxford he entered the Indian educational service in Bengal, being successively professor at Dacca and at the Presidency College, Calcutta, principal of the Bankipur College, Patna, and inspector of schools. In 1900 he was appointed officer in charge of the records of the government of India, an appointment which carries with it that of assistant secretary in the home department. Soon afterwards his health broke down, and he died unmarried at Clapham on 24 July 1904 and was buried in Streatham cemetery.
Wilson was a devoted student of the early history of the English in Bengal, ransacking the documentary evidence in India, at the India Office, at the British Museum, and wherever else it might be found. He was admitted to the degree of D.Litt. at Oxford in 1902. Apart from several articles in the ‘Journal’ of the Asiatic Society of Bengal, dealing chiefly with the tragedy of the Black Hole, his published works are:
* ‘List of Inscriptions on Tombs or Monuments in Bengal possessing Historical Interest,’ Calcutta, 1896.
* ‘Descriptive Catalogue of the Paintings, etc., in the Rooms of the Asiatic Society of Bengal,’ Calcutta, 1897.
* ‘The Early Annals of the English in Bengal,’ being the Bengal public consultations for the first half of the eighteenth century, vol. i. 1895; vol. ii. pt. i. 1900, and pt. ii. 1911, posthumous.
* ‘Old Fort William in Bengal,’ a selection of official documents dealing with its history, 2 vols. 1906, posthumous.
[Memoir by W. Irvine prefixed to vol. ii. pt. ii. of Early Annals.]
J. S. C.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Renwick, William

​RENWICK, WILLIAM (1740?–1814), naval surgeon and author, born about 1740, a native of Berwick-on-Tweed, was in August 1760, being then (according to his own statement) nineteen, appointed surgeon's mate of a regiment at Plymouth, through the interest of General John Crawfurd. In that capacity he was abroad on active service, apparently at the reduction of Belleisle (7 June 1761); and after a two years' absence was invalided, having temporarily lost his eyesight. In June 1763, consequent on the peace, he was reduced, and seems to have unsuccessfully endeavoured to form a medical practice in Berwick. In the by-election of January 1765 he was of some use to Sir John Hussey Delaval, who promised him his interest; on the strength of which, and with no more tangible means of subsistence, he married, in June 1765, Abigail, daughter of Arthur Hindmarsh of Berwick. Poverty pursued him, and for seven years (1766–1773) he left his wife, endeavouring to gain a livelihood as ‘journeyman apothecary’ in London, Wokingham, and elsewhere. When he rejoined his wife about 1774 his endeavour to establish a practice in Berwick met with small success; and in despair he published ‘Misplaced Confidence, or Friendship Betrayed’ (3 vols. 12mo, 1777), in which he openly related the story of his sufferings, and attacked his former patron, Delaval.
In October 1778, through the interest of the Earl of Lisburne, a lord of the admiralty, to whom he had been recommended, he was appointed surgeon of the Countess of Scarborough, which, on 23 Sept. 1779, was captured off Flamborough Head by the squadron under John Paul Jones [q. v.] and taken to the Texel. He wrote a magniloquent description of the engagement in heroic verse. On being exchanged Ren​wick was appointed to the Marlborough, and, when she was ordered to the West Indies, to the Egmont, in which he was present at the relief of Gibraltar, and in the rencounter off Cape Spartel in October 1782. In February 1784 he was surgeon of the Thorn sloop, and afterwards of the Merlin on the Newfoundland station, and of the Druid in the Channel and at Lisbon. In 1787 he was put on half-pay, and in 1788 published ‘The Solicitudes of Absence’ (London, 1788, 12mo), mainly composed of correspondence from and to friends at home. From 1795 to December 1800 he was surgeon of the Vulture; and of the Portland till February 1802, when he was put on half-pay. On 20 June 1804 he was, to his disgust, superannuated ‘for various infirmities,’ on three shillings a day.
He retired to Berwick, where he led a solitary and eccentric existence, until his death in October 1814, at the age of seventy-six; he was buried on 25 Oct.
Besides several pamphlets on the state of the medical service of the navy, and the two works already mentioned, he wrote ‘The Sorrows of Love, with other Poems’ (Alnwick, 1810, 12mo); ‘The Unfortunate Lovers, or the genuine Distress of Damon and Celia’ (London, 1771, 2 vols. 12mo), and probably ‘Damon and Delia, a Tale’ (London, 1784, 12mo). They are all largely autobiographical.
J. K. L.