OpenLLM-France/wikimedia huggingface dataset:
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Shadwell, Charles Frederick Alexander

​SHADWELL, Sir CHARLES FREDERICK ALEXANDER (1814–1886), admiral, born in 1814, fourth son of Sir Lancelot Shadwell [q. v.], was in 1827 entered as a scholar at the Royal Naval College at Portsmouth, and from it passed into the navy in 1829. In 1833 he passed his examination, and was made lieutenant on 28 June 1838. He was then appointed to the 36-gun frigate Castor, going out to the Mediterranean, where in 1840 he was present at the operations on the coast of Syria, including the capture of St. Jean d'Acre. In December 1841 he was appointed first lieutenant of the Fly, employed for more than four years in surveying in Torres Straits and on the northern coast of Australia [see Jukes, Joseph Beete]. On the Fly being paid out of commission, he was promoted to the rank of commander, 27 June 1846. He then studied for some time at the Royal Naval College, taking a certificate in ‘steam,’ and devoting himself more especially to nautical astronomy. In February 1850 he was appointed to the Sphinx, which he took out to the East Indies, and in her had an active share in the Burma war of 1852, for which he twice received the thanks of the governor-general in council; on 7 Feb. 1853 was advanced to the rank of captain, and on 5 Dec. 1853 was nominated a C.B.
In August 1856 he commissioned the Highflyer for the China station, where in 1857 he took part in the operations in the Canton river, leading up to the capture of Canton in December [see Seymour, Sir Michael, (1802–1887)], and in the disastrous attack on the Taku forts on 25 June 1859 [see Hope, Sir James, (1808–1881)], when, in leading the landing party across the mud flat, he received a severe wound in the ankle, which rendered him permanently lame. In January 1860 he was relieved from the command of the Highflyer, and returned to England.
From February 1861 to August 1862 he commanded the Aboukir of 90 guns in the Mediterranean and West Indies; from October 1862 to June 1864, the Hastings flagship of Sir Lewis Jones at Queenstown; and from June 1864 till his promotion to the rank of rear-admiral on 15 Jan. 1869 was captain-superintendent of the Gosport victualling-yard and of Haslar Hospital. From August 1871 to May 1875 he was commander-in-chief in China, and was made K.C.B. on 24 May 1873. From 1878 to 1881 he was president of the Royal Naval College at Greenwich, after which he lived in retirement at Melksham in Wiltshire, where he died, unmarried, on 1 March 1886.
Despite his long, and in some instances brilliant, service, Shadwell had rather the temperament of a student than of a warrior. He was deeply attached to the study of nautical astronomy, on different details of which he published a large number of pamphlets. For many years he was engaged on a work on the subject, which gradually assumed almost encyclopædic proportions without ever reaching his high ideal of completeness; and it was still unfinished at his death. He was elected F.R.S. on 6 June 1861, and was a fellow of the Royal Astronomical and Royal Geographical societies.
J. K. L.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Shadwell, John

​SHADWELL, Sir JOHN (1671–1747), physician, son of Thomas Shadwell [q. v.] and Anne, daughter of Thomas Gibbs of Norwich, was born in Middlesex, probably at Chelsea, in 1671. On 15 May 1685 he matriculated at Oxford from University College, whence he migrated to All Souls' College. He graduated B.A. on 1 June 1689 (3 Nov. 1688, according to the register at All Souls' College), M.A. on 26 April 1693, M.B. on 19 April 1697, and M.D. on 5 June 1700. As physician in ordinary to Queen Anne he was admitted a fellow of the College of Physicians on 22 Dec. 1712. On 30 Nov. 1701 he was elected a fellow of the Royal Society, and he was admitted on 3 Dec. He read one paper before the society, an ‘Account of an Extraordinary Skeleton’ (Philosophical Transactions, 1741, xli. 820). He was appointed physician-extraordinary to Queen Anne on 9 Nov. 1709, and on 9 Feb. 1712 was sworn one of the physicians in ordinary, in the room of Dr. Martin Lister [q. v.], being succeeded in his former office by Dr. Hans Sloane [q. v.] The accounts of the ​queen's illness in December 1713–14 in Boyer's ‘History of the Reign of Queen Anne’ are derived from Shadwell's letters to the Duke and Duchess of Shrewsbury. Boyer recorded Shadwell's opinion that the queen died of ‘gouty humour translating itself upon the brain.’ He continued to be physician in ordinary to George I and George II, and was knighted on 12 June 1715. He long resided in Windmill Street, and in 1735 withdrew from practice and retired to France, where he remained until 1740. He died at Windmill Street on 4 Jan. 1747. He was buried on 8 Jan. at Bath Abbey, where there is a tomb with an elaborate epitaph to his memory.
Sir John Shadwell was twice married; by his first wife, who died on 14 April 1722, he had issued one son and three daughters. He married, secondly, Ann Binns, at Somerset House chapel, on 12 March 1725; and on 29 June 1731 he made his will in her favour. Lady Shadwell survived until 1777.
W. W. W.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Shackleton, John

​SHACKLETON, JOHN (d. 1767), portrait-painter, is principally known as a painter of several portraits of George II, Queen Caroline, and other members of the royal family from 1730 onwards. In April 1749 he succeeded William Kent (1684–1748) [q. v.] as court painter. The portraits are stiff and uninteresting, usually in official robes, but they are by no means bad likenesses. In 1755 Shackleton was one of the original committee who drew up the first proposal for a royal academy of London for the improvement of painting, sculpture, and architecture. He exhibited portraits at the Free Society of Artists in 1766, and died on 16 March 1767. There are portraits by him in the National Portrait Gallery, the Foundling Hospital, Fishmongers' Hall, and most of the royal palaces.
L. C.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1901 supplement/Lamington, Baron (1816-1890)

​LAMINGTON, Baron. [See Cochrane-Baillie, Alexander Dundas Ross Wishart, 1816–1890.]
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1901 supplement/Layer, John (1585?-1641)

​LAYER, JOHN (1585?–1641), Cambridge antiquary, born in 1585 or 1586, probably at Lillings Ambo in the North Riding of Yorkshire, was the son of William Layer, a London merchant, by his wife Martha, daughter and heiress of Thomas Wanton. He was educated as a lawyer, but possessed sufficient wealth to enable him to devote most of his time to antiquarian pursuits. He resided at Shepreth in Cambridgeshire. His parochial history of Cambridgeshire is one of the earliest of the kind written. It was never published, but parts of it are still preserved in the British Museum among the Harleian MSS. (No. 6768), which contains a transcript of the portion relating to the hundreds of Armingford, Long Stowe, Papworth, North Stowe, Chesterton, Wetherley, Thriplowe, and among the Additional MSS. (Nos. 5819, 5823, 5849, 5954). Other portions of it are extant in the Bishop's Library at Ely, and at the library at Wimpole Hall, Cambridge. His extracts from the registers of the Bishop of Ely are in the British Museum (Addit. MSS. 5824-5828), and his Cambridge pedigrees are in the same library (Addit. MS. 5812). An autograph manuscript volume by Layer, licensed for printing and entitled 'The Reformed Justice, or an Alphabeticall Abstract of all such Articles and Matters as are incident and enquirable at the generall quarter Sessions of the Peace or otherwise belonginge to the knowledge and practice of a Justice of the Peace,' is in the library of Caius College, Cambridge. It is a handbook for justices of the peace, and is dedicated to Sir John Cutts, 'Custos rotulorum for the county of Cambridge' in 1633. In an epistle to the reader notice is taken of a book recently published, entitled 'The Compleat Justice,' of which Layer was the reputed author. This work is not extant, but a copy of a legal treatise by Layer entitled 'The Office and Duty of Churchwardens, Constables, and Overseers of the Poor' (Cambridge, 1641, 8vo), is preserved in the Bodleian Library. One of Layer's notebooks is among the Rawlinson MSS. in the Bodleian Library (B. 278), and another entitled 'Notes of the Foundation of several Religious Houses from the Collections of John Layer' is in Dodsworth MS. 90 (pp. 158-60).
Layer died in 1641. He married in 1611 Frances, daughter of Robert Sterne of Malton in Cambridgeshire. By her he had three sons and two daughters. He may be truly called the father of Cambridge archaeology, and William Cole (1714-1782) [q.v.] owed much to his industry. After his death his manuscripts eventually fell into the hands of his descendant, John Eyre, who sold his estate at Shepreth and came to London. Eyre was afterwards convicted of felony and transported, when the manuscripts were dispersed. Several, however, fell into Cole's hands and were incorporated by him in his collections. An undated letter from W. Fairfax of Yorkshire to J. Layer is among the Bodleian MSS. (Rawlinson, B. 450, f. 390).
E. I. C.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1901 supplement/Lacy, Edmund

​LACY, EDMUND (1370?1455), bishop of Exeter, born probably about 1370, was son of Stephen Lacy and his wife Sibilla, who were buried in the conventual church of the Carmelites at Gloucester. Edmund was probably a native of that city, and was educated at Oxford, where he graduated D.D. In 1398 he was master of University College, and is said to have presided over that society for five years (Wood, Hist. and Ant. ii. 59). On 4 Jan. 1400-1 he appears as canon of Windsor. He was installed prebendary of Hereford Cathedral on 25 Sept. 1412, and in 1414 also held the prebend of Nassington in Lincoln Cathedral. On 12 May 1409 he was sent as envoy to France, and on 22 May 1413 he was appointed agent to the papal court. In Henry V's reign he was dean of the chapel royal, and accompanied the king to Agincourt in 1415 (Nicolas, Agincourt, p. 389). On 8 Feb. 1416-17 he was granted, custody of the temporalities of the bishopric of Hereford; the pope assented to his election on 3 March, and Henry V was present at his consecration on 18 April. In 1420 he was translated to Exeter, the temporalities were restored on 31 Oct., and he was installed on 29 March 1421. In that year he preached before Henry V at Westminster (Walsingham, Hist. Angl. ii. 337). He was one of Henry V's executors, but seems to have taken little part in politics in the following reign, though he is mentioned in a political satire about 1450 (Bentley, Excerpta Historica, p. 162). He was bishop of Exeter for thirty-five years. In 1434 he was excused attendance at parliament on account of his bodily infirmities, but twenty years later he was fined eighty marks for not being present. He died at Chudleigh on 18 Sept. 1455, and was buried on the north side of the choir in Exeter Cathedral. His tomb, which still remains, was long the resort of pilgrims. His will, proved on 8 Oct. 1455, is lost, but his register, covering more than seventeen hundred pages, remains. He gave various books to his chapter, and made other benefactions to the diocese. His 'Liber Pontificalis' was edited from an original fifteenth-century manuscript (the title-page says fourteenth century) by Ralph Barnes and published in 1847 (Exeter, 8vo).
A. F. P.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1901 supplement/Lacy, Walter

​LACY, WALTER (1809–1898), actor, whose real name was Williams, the son of a coach-builder in Bristol, born in 1809, was educated for the medical profession, went to Australia, and was first seen on the stage in Edinburgh, in 1829, as Montalban in the 'Honeymoon,' was playing there again in 1832, and acted also in Glasgow, Liverpool, and Manchester. His debut in London was at the Haymarket on 21 Aug. 1838 as Charles Surface. At Covent Garden he appeared, about 1841, as Captain Absolute, and at Drury Lane as Wildrake in the 'Love Chase.' With Charles Kean [q. v.] at the Princess's he was, on 18 Sept. 1852, the original Rouble in Boucicault's 'Prima Donna,' and made a great success as Chateau Renaud in the 'Corsican Brothers.' With Kean he played John of Gaunt in 'Richard II,' Edmund in 'Lear,' Gratiano and Lord Trinket in the 'Jealous Wife.' On 30 June 1860 he was, at the Lyceum, the Marquis of Saint Evremont in 'A Tale of Two Cities,' and at Drury Lane on 17 Oct. 1864 was Cloten to Miss Faucit's Imogen. He was Flutter in the 'Belle's Stratagem' on 8 Oct. 1866 at the St. James's, where he was on 5 Nov. the first John Leigh in 'Hunted Down, or Two Lives of John Leigh.' In two Lyceum revivals of 'Romeo and Juliet' he was Mercutio. On 12 Aug. 1868 he was, at the Princess's, the original Bellingham in Boucicault's 'After Dark.' Other ​parts in which he was seen were Benedick, Comus, Faulconbridge, Malvolio, Touchstone, Prospero, Roderigo, Henry VIII, Young Marlow, Sir Brilliant Fashion, Goldfinch, Tony Lumpkin, Bob Acres, Dazzle, Flutter, Dudley Smooth, Megrim in 'Blue Devils,' Ghost in 'Hamlet,' My Lord Duke in 'High Life below Stairs,' Jeremy Diddler, and Puff. After a long absence from the stage, occupied with teaching elocution at the Royal Academy of Music, he reappeared at the Lyceum in April 1879 as Colonel Damas in Sir Henry Irving's revival of the 'Lady of Lyons.' He died on 13 Dec. 1898 at 13 Marine Square, Brighton, and was buried at Brompton cemetery on the 17th. Lacy was a respectable light comedian, but failed as an exponent of old men and was a wretched Sir Anthony Absolute. He was a familiar figure at the Garrick Club, which owns a portrait of him in oils, and was almost to the last a man of much vivacity, and of quaint, clever, unbridled, and characteristic speech. He married Miss Taylor, an actress [see Lacy, Harriette Deborah].
[Personal knowledge; Clark Russell's Representative Actors (supplement); Dibdin's Edinburgh Stage; Pascoe's Dramatic List; Scott and Howard's Blanchard; Hollingshead's Gaiety Chronicles; Era, 17 Dec. 1898; Cole's Life of Charles Kean; Era Almanack, and Sunday Times, various years; private information.]
J. K.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Stopford, James

​STOPFORD, JAMES (d. 1759), bishop of Cloyne, born in London, was the son of Joseph Stopford, a captain in the English army. He entered Trinity College, Dublin, in 1710, became a scholar in 1713, graduated B.A. in 1715, was elected a fellow on 25 March 1717, and proceeded M.A. in the following year. He was an intimate friend of Swift, who materially aided his promotion in the church, appointed him one of his executors, and bequeathed him a portrait of Charles I by Vandyck, which Stopford had formerly given him.
In 1727 Stopford resigned his fellowship on being appointed vicar of Finglas, near Dublin, by Lord Carteret, the lord-lieutenant. On 11 July 1730 he was installed provost of Tuam, on 10 July 1736 he was collated archdeacon of Killaloe, and on 8 Jan. 1748 he was instituted dean of Kilmacduagh. He held these preferments until 1753, when, in pursuance of letters patent dated 28 Feb., he was appointed bishop of Cloyne. He died on 23 Aug. 1759, and was buried at St. Anne's, Dublin, where a tablet was erected to his memory on the outside of the south wall of the church. He married, on 16 Dec. 1727, Anne, second daughter of James Stopford of Tara Hill in Meath, and sister of James Stopford, first earl of Courtown. By her he had three sons—William, James, and Joseph—besides other children.
E. I. C.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Stopford, Joshua

​STOPFORD, JOSHUA (1636–1675), divine, born in Lancashire in 1636, entered Brasenose College, Oxford, in 1654, and thence migrated in 1656 to Magdalen College, where he was one of the eight clerks on the foundation. He graduated B.A. on 23 Feb. 1657–8 and M.A. and B.D. in 1670. In 1650 he was appointed morning lecturer at the Old Church, Manchester, and in 1659 he took an active part in encouraging the insurrection in Cheshire under Sir George Booth. On 12 Sept. 1660 he was ordained deacon and priest by William Piers [q. v.], bishop of Bath and Wells; and on 7 Nov. 1660 he was collated by Archbishop Frewen to the prebend of Dunnington in the church of York. In 1663 he was presented to the vicarage of Kirkby Stephen, Westmoreland; on 7 Oct. the same year he was instituted to the rectory of All Saints, York, on the presentation of the king; and on 12 Sept. 1667 he was collated by Archbishop Sterne to the vicarage of St. Martin, Coney Street, York. He died at York on 3 Nov. 1675.
His works are: 1. ‘The Ways and Method of Rome’s Advancement; or, Whereby the Pope and his Agents have endeavoured to propagate their Doctrines,’ York, 1672, 8vo. 2. ‘Pagano-Papismus; or an exact Parallel between Rome-Pagan and Rome-Christian, in their Doctrines and Ceremonies,’ London, 1675, 8vo. The copy in the British Museum has copious manuscript notes; the book was re-edited in 1844 (London, 12mo).
[Bloxam’s Magd. Coll. Reg. ii. 70; Davies’s York Press, p. 84; Drake’s Eboracum, pp. 294, 327; Earwaker’s East Cheshire, i. 228; Foster’s Alumni Oxon. 1500–1714; Kennett’s Register, p. 309; Newcome’s Autobiogr. and Diary, passim; Palatine Notebook, i. 155; Wood’s Athenæ Oxon. ed. Bliss, iii. 1053, and Fasti, ii. 199.]
T. C.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Storer, Thomas

​STORER, THOMAS (1571–1604), poet, born in 1571, the son of John Storer, a citizen of London, was elected a student of Christ Church, Oxford, in 1587, and graduated B.A. on 27 March 1591, and M.A. on 13 May 1604. At Oxford, says Wood, ‘he was had in great renown for his most excellent vein in poesy.’ In 1599 appeared ‘The Life and Death of Thomas Wolsey, cardinall. … By Thomas Storer, student of Christ Church in Oxford. At London printed by Thomas Dawson,’ 4to. The poem, which is written upon the model of Churchyard's legend on the history of Wolsey in ‘The Mirrour for Magistrates,’ consists of three parts or cantos, ‘Wolseius aspirans,’ ‘Wolseius triumphans,’ and ‘Wolseius moriens;’ these contain respectively 101, 89, and 51 seven-line stanzas of decasyllabic verse (rhyming ababbcc). The volume is dedicated to John Howson [q. v.], Queen Elizabeth's chaplain, and there are introductory verses by Charles Fitzgeffrey [q. v.] and Thomas and Edward Michelborne [q. v.], and a poem in fifteen eight-line stanzas addressed to the author by his fellow-collegian, John Sprint. The poem is carefully based upon the narratives of Cavendish and Holinshed, and, sententious though it is, contains some happily expressed characterisations, notably that of Richard Foxe [q. v.], bishop of Winchester,
A man made old to teach the worth of age.
It was warmly praised by Dr. Alberic Gentilis in his ‘Laudes Academiæ Perusinæ et Oxoniensis’ (1605, p. 41), and Aubrey commends its historic veracity (Letters from the Bodleian Library, 1813, i. 145). Malone has unconvincingly conjectured that Storer's poem may have suggested the subject of Wolsey's fall to the dramatist when he wrote ‘King Henry VIII.’ Early in the eighteenth century Thomas Hearne, having long sought in vain for a copy, at length procured one for a shilling. In more recent times the price of a copy of the first edition has ranged from ten to twenty guineas (the British Museum has three copies, and there are also copies at Britwell, in the Huth Library, and in the Malone collection at the Bodleian). The ‘Life’ was reprinted in Park's ‘Heliconia’ (1815, vol. ii.), and reissued separately in 1826 from the press of Talboys at Oxford.
According to Wood, in addition to the ‘Life of Wolsey,’ Storer published some ‘Pastoral Aires and Madrigals,’ which ‘were afterwards remitted into a book called “England's Helicon;”’ but this appears to be a mistake. No lyrics by Storer are included in ‘England's Helicon,’ but in ‘England's Parnassus’ (1600) are a score or so of specimens of his workmanship; they are derived from the ‘Life of Wolsey,’ and display the elaborate style of metaphor in which the poet excelled. Some verses by Storer are prefixed to Sir William Vaughan's ‘Golden Grove’ (1600). He died in London in November 1604, and was buried in the church of St. Michael Bassishaw in the city.
T. S.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Storace, Stephen

​STORACE, STEPHEN (1763–1796), musical composer, born in London in 1763, was son of Stephano Storace, and brother of Anna Storace [q. v.] Stephen's progress as a violinist was so rapid that at twelve he was placed in the St. Onofrio Conservatorio at Naples, where he studied for several years. Subsequently he travelled on the continent with his sister Anna. In Vienna he became acquainted with Mozart, but was imprisoned owing to a brawl with an officer, and on being released the Storaces returned in 1787 to England. Stephen, finding no opportunity of earning a livelihood as a musician, taught drawing, but was soon engaged by Linley as composer to Drury Lane, and to superintend the production of opera at the King's Theatre. As a theatrical manager he met with some successes, but was driven to Bath by the intrigue and jealousy of his associates. On his return to London he adapted Dittersdorf's opera ‘Doktor und Apotheker’ for Drury Lane. In 1783 he resumed work for a short time at the King's Theatre, but ultimately devoted himself to Drury Lane, where he produced his first English opera, ‘The Haunted Tower,’ on 24 Nov. 1789, which was an extraordinary success. On 20 Nov. 1792 he scored another triumph with ‘The Pirate’ (libretto by Cobb), the finale to which is considered his best musical effort. In this his sister sang. In the same year he brought out ‘Dido,’ and for the next two and a half years he was constantly engaged in producing new operas, and operas composed of music by himself and others. On 12 March 1796 ‘The Iron Chest,’ by Colman and Storace, was produced, the music making a popular success; but the anxiety and labour attendant on its production at Drury Lane brought to a climax an illness from which Storace had previously suffered. He died in Percy Street, Rathbone Place, on 19 March 1796, leaving a widow, daughter of John Hall (1739–1797) [q. v.] the engraver, and children.
Storace had a good gift for the invention of melody, and many of his compositions enjoyed an enormous vogue at the time of their production. He wrote about twenty operas, and a string quartet, which was played in Vienna by Haydn, Dittersdorf, Mozart, and Vanhall. Sheridan is said to have declared that Storace had a fine literary talent. His ballads are good; one from Hoare's ‘No Song, no Supper’ (1790), has been often reprinted.
R. H. L.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Story, Edward

​STORY, EDWARD (d. 1503), bishop successively of Carlisle and Chichester, a native of the diocese of York, was admitted a fellow of Pembroke Hall, Cambridge, in or about 1444, and in 1450 was elected master of Michael House in that university. He was chaplain and confessor to Elizabeth, queen of Edward IV, chancellor of the university in 1468, and in the same year became bishop of Carlisle. He was again chancellor of the university from 1471 to 1473, and was translated to the see of Chichester in 1477. He officiated at Edward IV's funeral on 17 April 1485. He died on 29 Jan. 1502–3, and was buried in his cathedral. He is said to have founded the prebendal free school at ​Chichester (Knight, Life of Colet); but what he really did was ‘to procure the annexation to the school, which existed long before, of a canonry and prebend in the cathedral in 1498, and it is therefore still called the prebendal school’ (Leach, English Schools, i. 9). Story also erected the magnificent cross yet existing in the centre of that city.
[Cooper's Athenæ Cantabr. i. 5; Gairdner's Letters, &c., of Richard III and Henry VII, and Campbell's Materials (Rolls Ser.); Dallaway and Cartwright's Sussex, i. 67, 145, 168; Godwin, De Præsulibus; Hawes and Loder's Framlingham, p. 214; Jefferson's Carlisle, p. 207; Le Neve's Fasti (Hardy); Documents relating to the University and Colleges of Cambridge, 1852, i. 122, 143.]
T. C.