OpenLLM-France/wikimedia huggingface dataset:
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1912 supplement/Lister, Arthur

​LISTER, ARTHUR (1830–1908), botanist, born at Upton House, Upton, Essex, on 17 April 1830, was youngest son in a family of four sons and three daughters of Joseph Jackson Lister [q. v.]. Joseph, afterwards Lord, Lister (1827–1912) was his elder brother. A member through life of the Society of Friends, Lister was educated at Hitchin. Leaving school at sixteen to engage in business, he soon joined as partner the firm of Messrs. Lister and Beck, wine merchants, in the City of London. He retired from the concern in 1888.
Lister's name is specially identified with painstaking researches on the Mycetozoa. From 1888 onwards he published many valuable memoirs in the 'Annals of Botany' the 'Journal' of the Linnean Society, and the 'Proceedings' of the Essex Field Club, in reference to the species and life-history of these organisms. His principal work, 'A Monograph of the Mycetozoa' (with 78 plates), issued by the trustees of the British Museum in 1804, is an exhaustive catalogue of the species in the national herbarium. He was also the compiler of the museum's 'Guide to the British Mycetozoa' (1895).
Elected F.L.S. on 3 April 1873, he served on the council (1891–6), and was vice-president (1895–6). He became F.R.S. on 9 June 1898, and was president of the Mycological Society 1906–7. He was a J. P. for Essex. Lister died at Highcliff, Lyme Regis, on 10 July 1908, and was buried at Leytonstone. He married on 2 May 1855 Susanna, daughter of William Tindall of East Dulwich, by whom he had issue three sons and four daughters. The eldest son, Joseph Jackson Lister, was elected F.R.S. in 1900.
[Proc. Linn. Soc. 1909; Bradford Scientific Journal, vol. ii. 1909; Stratford Express, 25 July 1908 (with portrait); Nature, 6 Aug. 1908; The Times, 22 July 1908, 1 Sept. (will).]
T. E. J.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Wilson, Thomas (1563-1622)

​WILSON, THOMAS (1563–1622), divine, born in the county of Durham in 1563, matriculated from Queen's College, Oxford, on 17 Nov. 1581, aged 18, graduated B.A. on 7 Feb. 1583–4, and was licensed M.A. on 7 July 1586 (Clark, Indexes, ii. 102, iii. 119). He was elected chaplain of the college, apparently before he was ordained, on 24 April 1585. In July 1586 he was appointed rector of St. George the Martyr at Canterbury through the influence of Henry Robinson (1553?–1616) [q. v.], provost of Queen's College and afterwards bishop of Carlisle, to whom Wilson also owed his college education (cf. the epistle dedicatory to the Christian Dictionarie). He remained at Canterbury for the rest of his life, preaching three or four sermons every week, and winning the affections of the puritan section of his people, although more than once complained of by others to Archbishop Abbot for nonconformity. He was acting as chaplain to Thomas, second lord Wotton, in 1611.
Wilson died at Canterbury in January 1621–2, and was buried in his own churchyard, outside the chancel, on the 25th. A funeral sermon was preached (London, 1622, 4to) by William Swift of St. Andrew's, Canterbury, great-grandfather of Dean Swift. His portrait, engraved by Cross, prefixed to the ‘Commentarie,’ shows him to be a lean, sharp-visaged man; he was married and left a large family.
Wilson's chief work was his ‘Christian Dictionarie’ (London, 1612, 4to), one of the earliest attempts made at a concordance of the Bible in English. Its usefulness was soon recognised, and it ran through many editions. The fourth was much enlarged by John Bagwell (n.d., London); the fifth appeared in 1647; the sixth (1655, fol.) was still further augmented by Andrew Symson. Over his ‘Commentarie’ on Romans, a work written in the form of a dialogue between Timotheus and Silas, Wilson spent seven years. It was reprinted in 1627 (fol.), and reached a third edition in 1653 (4to). In 1611 he published in octavo a volume containing (a) ‘Jacob's Ladder; or, a short Treatise laying forth the severall Degrees of Gods Eternall Purpose,’ (b) ‘A Dialogue about Jvstification by Faith,’ (c) ‘A Receit against Heresie,’ and two sermons. Besides some further sermons and other works apparently lost, he wrote ‘Saints by Calling; or, Called to be Saints,’ London, 1620, 4to.
[Brook's Lives of the Puritans, ii. 282; Granger's Biogr. Hist. i. 369; Hasted's Kent, iii. 471; Chalmers's Biogr. Dict.; Registers of St. George the Martyr, Canterbury, ed. Cowper, 1891, pp. iii, vii, 19, 20, 21, 23, 182; information from the Provost of Queen's College, Oxford.]
C. F. S.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Wilson, William (1799-1871)

​WILSON, WILLIAM (1799–1871), botanist, second son of Thomas Wilson, a druggist, was born at Warrington on 7 June 1799. He was educated at Prestbury grammar school and under Dr. Reynolds at the Dissenters' Academy, Leaf Square, Manchester, and was then articled to a firm of solicitors in Manchester; but intense application to the study of conveyancing brought on headaches which were followed by serious illness. This led to his taking much outdoor exercise, in the course of which he acquired his love of botany, and ultimately, when he was about five-and-twenty, his mother gave him a small allowance so that he could devote himself entirely to this pursuit. As early as 1821 he had discovered the Cotoneaster on Great Orme's Head. This brought him into correspondence with Sir James Edward Smith [q. v.], who encouraged him to devote himself to botany. In 1827 Professor John Stevens Henslow [q. v.] introduced him to Professor (afterwards Sir William Jackson) Hooker [q. v.], and at the invitation of the latter he joined a five days' excursion of the Glasgow botanical students in the Breadalbane Hills. He afterwards spent nearly two years in Ireland, where, no doubt under Hooker's influence, he attached himself to the study of mosses, which from 1830 engrossed his whole attention. From 1829 onward he is frequently quoted in Hooker's ‘British Flora;’ and, becoming well known as a bryologist, he entered into correspondence with such specialists as Lindberg of Helsingfors and Schimper of Strasburg, and was entrusted with the description of the mosses collected in the voyages of the Erebus and Terror and the Herald, before the publication of his magnum opus. This work, the ‘Bryologia Britannica,’ intended as a third edition of the ‘Muscologia Britannica’ (first issued in 1818) of (Sir) W. J. Hooker and Thomas Taylor (d. 1848) [q. v.], ‘but substantially a new work of the highest merit’ (Jackson, Guide to the Literature of Botany, p. 241), was published in 1855 (London, 8vo), and was pronounced by Lindberg ‘one of the most exact works in botany.’ Nevertheless over a hundred new species of British mosses were added to the list between its publication and his death, and he is reported to have said that ‘the only thing he wished to live for was to bring out a revised edition,’ which, however, he was unable to do.
Wilson died at Paddington, two miles from Warrington, on 3 April 1871, and was buried in the nonconformist burial-ground, Hill Cliff, Warrington. He married in 1836 a widowed cousin, Mrs. Lane.
Besides the Cotoneaster, Wilson added a new species of rose, a fern, and many mosses to the British list, the rose Rosa Wilsoni being named after him by William Borrer, and the Killarney filmy fern named Hymenophyllum Wilsoni by Sir W. J. Hooker. Wilson described many new species of exotic mosses in the ‘Journal of Botany,’ his papers being enumerated in the Royal Society's ‘Catalogue’ (vi. 389, viii. 1249), and his herbarium and botanical correspondence preserved at the Natural History Museum.
G. S. B.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Wilson, Thomas (1773-1858)

​WILSON, THOMAS (1773–1858), Tyneside poet, was born at Gateshead Low Fell on 14 Nov. 1773, the eldest son of George and Mary Wilson. The father was a miner, and both parents were devout Wesleyans. He received very little education, and was early sent to work in the mines. After devoting his scanty leisure to study, and making two efforts to establish himself as a schoolmaster, he was from 1799 to 1803 employed in the office of John Head, a Newcastle merchant and underwriter. In 1803 he entered the counting-house of Losh, Lubbin, & Co. (afterwards Losh, Wilson, & Bell) of Newcastle. Within two years he became a partner, and remained in the business till near the end of his life. In 1835 he was elected one of the first town councillors of Gateshead, to which he returned after a residence of some years in Newcastle. Throughout his life Wilson devoted as much time as he could spare to intellectual pursuits, and collected an excellent library, which was especially rich in chapbooks. He contributed to the local ‘Diaries’ for sixty years, and made himself acquainted with every aspect of mining life and character. ‘The Pitman's Pay,’ his chief literary work, appeared originally in Mitchell's ‘Newcastle Magazine’ in the years 1826, 1828, and 1830. It was reprinted by G. Watson of Gateshead, but this incorrect edition was soon out of print. Other poems were contributed to the ‘Tyne Mercury,’ and some of them were reissued with notes by John Sykes, compiler of ‘Local Records.’ A collective edition of Wilson's works, entitled ‘The Pitman's Pay, and other Poems,’ was issued in 1843, and reprinted in 1872. The second edition contains some additional poems and notes by the author, with a portrait and memoir. ‘The Pitman's Pay’ is a metrical description, much of it in mining patois, of the incidents and conversations of the colliers on their fortnightly Friday pay nights. The poem enjoys a wide popularity in the north of England. Some of Wilson's compositions show him to have made a close study of Burns, and the poem entitled ‘On seeing a mouse run across the road in January’ is a highly creditable imitation. In the ‘Tippling Dominie’ Wilson is perhaps seen at his best.
Wilson died at his home, Fell-house, Gateshead, on 9 May 1858. He was buried in the family vault at St. John's, Gateshead Fell, the mayor and town council attending his funeral. He married, in 1810, Mrs. Mary Fell, who died in 1839.
A bust by Dunbar is in the large room of the Gateshead Fell public rooms.
[Gent. Mag. 1858, i. 667–9; Ann. Reg. App. to Chron. p. 410; Memoir prefixed to the Pitman's Pay, 1872.]
G. Le G. N.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Wilson, Thomas (1747-1813)

​WILSON, THOMAS (1747–1813), master of Clitheroe grammar school, son of William and Isabella Wilson, was born at Priest Hutton, in the parish of Warton, near Lancaster, on 3 Dec. 1747, and educated at the grammar schools of Warton and Sedbergh. At the latter school he was an assistant under Dr. Wynne Bateman from ​1768 to 1771. He was ordained deacon at Westminster on 13 Jan. 1771, and priest at Chester on 2 Aug. 1772. In the following June he was licensed as headmaster of Slaidburn grammar school, and in June 1775 became master of the Clitheroe grammar school, Lancashire, and incumbent of the parochial chapel of the town. In 1779 he entered himself of Trinity College, Cambridge, and took the degree of B.D. there in 1794, under a statute now abolished. In 1807 he was appointed rector of Claughton, near Lancaster. Towards the end of the eighteenth century he formed an intimate acquaintance with Thomas Dunham Whitaker [q. v.], and joined a literary club formed by him. He was a successful schoolmaster, a ready versifier, and a social favourite on account of his amiability, genial wit, and copious fund of anecdote. His besetting weakness was punning.
He died on 3 March 1813, and was buried in the chancel of Bolton-by-Bowland church, where a tablet was afterwards erected with a Latin inscription by Whitaker, copied from a monument erected by Wilson's pupils in Clitheroe church. He married, on 29 April 1775, Susannah Tetlow of Skirden, widow of Henry Nowell, rector of Bolton-by-Bowland. She was forty-four, and he only twenty-eight. A portrait of Wilson, painted by J. Allen, is engraved in the Chetham Society's volume. Another portrait by the same artist was engraved by W. Ward in Wilson's lifetime; and a third portrait came out as a lithograph.
His only literary publication, in addition to two assize sermons (1789 and 1804), was an ‘Archæological Dictionary, or Classical Antiquities of Jews, Greeks, and Romans,’ 1783, 8vo, dedicated to Dr. Samuel Johnson; but his ‘Lancashire Bouquet’ and other occasional verses were circulated in manuscript, and were collected and printed, along with his correspondence, by Canon F. R. Raines for the Chetham Society in 1857.
[Raines's Memoir, prefixed to Wilson's Miscellanies; Gent. Mag. 1819, i. 291.]
C. W. S.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Wilson, William (1801-1860)

​WILSON, WILLIAM (1801–1860), poet and publisher, born in Perthshire on 25 Dec. 1801, was the son of Thomas Wilson, by his wife, Agnes Ross. At an early age he was imbued with a passionate love of poetry derived from his mother, who sang with great beauty the Jacobite songs and ballads of Scotland. While a schoolboy he lost his father, so that Wilson's early life was accompanied by many privations, including the completion of his education. At twenty-two he became the editor of the Dundee 'Literary Olio,' a large proportion of which, both in prose and verse, was from his pen. In 1826 he removed to Edinburgh, where he established himself in business. His contributions were welcomed in the 'Edinburgh Literary Journal,' thirty-two of his poems appearing in its columns in the course of three years. At this period the young poet was well known to the leading literary men of the day, including his kinsman Professor John Wilson ('Christopher North'), and he was a constant visitor at the house of Mrs. Grant of Luggan, who possessed his portrait by Sir John Watson Gordon, now owned by his son, General Wilson. In 1833 he removed to the United States and settled at Poughkeepsie, on the Hudson, where he engaged in bookselling and publishing, which he continued till his death. Wilson was the lifelong friend and correspondent of Robert Chambers (1802–1871) [q. v.], and he was one of the few persons in the secret of the authorship of the 'Vestiges of Creation.' He died on 25 Aug. 1860. He was twice married: first, to Jane Mackenzie, and, secondly, in 1830, to the niece of James Sibbald (1745–1803) [q. v.]
In the New World Wilson occasionally contributed in prose and verse to American periodicals, and sometimes sent a contribution to 'Blackwood's,' 'Chambers's Journal,' and 'Fraser's Magazine.' Selections of his poems appeared in the 'Cabinet,' 'Modern Scottish Minstrel,' Longfellow's 'Poems of Places,' and his son's 'Poets and Poetry of Scotland;' but he never issued them in a volume nor even collected them, and it was not until 1889 that a portion of his poetical writings was published, with a memoir by Benson J. Lossing. A second edition with additional poems and a portrait appeared in 1875, and a third in 1881. Willis pronounced 'Jean Linn,' one of Wilson's poems, 'the best modern imitation of the old ballad ​style that he had ever met with;' and Bryant said that 'the song in which the writer personates Richard the Lion-hearted during his imprisonment is more spirited than any of the ballads of Aytoun.'
[Rogers's Modern Scottish Minstrel; Wilson's Poets and Poetry of Scotland, vol. ii.; Memoirs of William and Robert Chambers; Appleton's Cyclopædia of American Biography.]
    J. G. W.
# Don-A-Dreams/Part 3

PART III
THE IDEALIST
* Chapter 1
* Chapter 2
* Chapter 3
* Chapter 4
* Chapter 5
* Chapter 6
* Chapter 7
* Chapter 8
* Chapter 9
* Chapter 10
* Chapter 11
* Chapter 12
* Chapter 13
# Dollar Savings Bank v. United States/Dissent Bradley

* Court Documents
* Case Syllabus
* Opinion of the Court
* Dissenting Opinion Bradley
United States Supreme Court
86 U.S. 227
Dollar Savings Bank v. United States
Mr. Justice BRADLEY, with whom concurred Mr. Justice FIELD, dissenting:
I dissent from the judgment of the court, on the ground that an action will not lie for a tax of the kind in question in this case, unless it be first entered on the assessment-roll. The assessment-roll should be regarded as conclusive as to the persons or things liable to taxation. If it is not, if the matter is left open so that any person or corporation may be prosecuted for taxes at any time, it leaves the citizen exposed to many hazards, and to the mercy of prying informers, when the evidence by which he could have shown his immunity or exemption has perished. If an action of debt without an assessment can be brought, what is the limit of time within which it must be brought? To what statute of limitations is the government subject? It seems to me that the decision introduces a new principle in the system of taxation, dangerous to the rights of the citizen and the peace and security of society.

## Notes

This work is in the public domain in the United States because it is a work of the United States federal government (see 17 U.S.C. 105).
Public domainPublic domainfalsefalse
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1927 supplement/Stirling, James

​STIRLING, Sir JAMES (1836–1916), judge, was born at Aberdeen 3 May 1836, the eldest son of the Rev. James Stirling, minister of the George Street United Presbyterian church, Aberdeen, by his wife, Sarah Irvine. He was sent to the grammar school and to the university of Aberdeen, where he showed marked ability as a mathematician. Proceeding to Trinity College, Cambridge, he was senior wrangler and first Smith's prizeman in 1860. The fact that he was not a member of the Church of England prevented his election to a fellowship. Having read in the chambers of Charles Turner Simpson, a well-known conveyancer, he was called to the bar at Lincoln's Inn in 1862.
After serving on the staff of the New Reports, Stirling joined that of the newly-founded Law Reports in 1865, and reported chancery cases in the Rolls court under two masters of the Rolls, Lord Romilly and Sir George Jessel. He did not give up this occupation till 1876. Meanwhile, unlike most reporters, he acquired a considerable practice at the bar. Learned and industrious, he was at the same time diffident and distrustful of his powers. It was said of him that his opinion was the best in Lincoln's Inn if one could only get it. In 1881 (Sir) John Rigby, the attorney-general's ‘devil’, became a Q.C., and Sir Henry James (afterwards Lord James of Hereford) selected Stirling as his successor. For the Treasury work which now fell to him he was well suited. In 1886 Sir John Pearson died, and Lord Herschell appointed Stirling to the vacant chancery judgeship. As a judge, he was careful and painstaking to a fault, and the slowness of his methods was a subject ​of criticism; but his judgments were seldom reversed. With the bar he was exceedingly popular. In 1900 Lord Alverstone became lord chief justice of England, Sir Archibald Levin Smith succeeded him as master of the Rolls, and Stirling was promoted to the court of Appeal. As a lord justice, he was inclined to defer unduly to his colleagues, whose opinion was not always as good as his own. In one well-known instance (the case of Farquharson v. King, 1902) the House of Lords preferred Stirling's dissenting judgment to those of the majority in the Court of Appeal. From time to time he found himself sitting with two other senior wranglers, Lords Justices Romer and Moulton.
Stirling retired from the bench in 1906. Thereafter he spent most of his time at his country house, Finchcocks, at Goudhurst, Kent, taking no further part in legal affairs. Knighted on his appointment to the bench, he was sworn of the Privy Council when he became a lord justice. He died 27 June 1916 at Goudhurst.
Stirling married in 1868 Aby, daughter of John Thomson Renton, of Bradstone Brook, Shalford, Surrey, who survived him. They had one son and two daughters.
An oil-portrait by Sir William Orpen is in the possession of the family, and there is a caricature by ‘Spy’ in Vanity Fair.
[The Times, 28 June 1916; Law Journal, 1 July 1916; personal knowledge.]
T. M.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1927 supplement/Sutton, Martin John

​SUTTON, MARTIN JOHN (1850–1913), scientific agriculturist, born at Reading in 1850, was the eldest son of Martin Hope Sutton, senior partner in the seed firm of Sutton and Sons, which was founded by John Sutton in 1806. Martin John Sutton was educated at Blackheath Proprietary School until he reached the age of sixteen. He then entered the family business as a junior and, having become familiar with the work of every department, he was taken into partnership in 1871. In 1887 he became senior partner on his father's retirement. Before his time the firm already had a high reputation for its care in selecting and testing seeds, and for experimental work (inaugurated by his father) on the improvement of the potato and of agricultural grasses. He continued and extended these investigations in a thoroughly scientific spirit. He made searching field-trials both on the nursery grounds of the firm and on his private farms. He succeeded, by the help of the researches of the French botanist Vilmorin, in improving the methods of seed-selection, and he collaborated with Dr. J. A. Voelcker in experiments on grass-lands. Some of his results were stated in his standard book on Permanent and Temporary Pastures (sixth edition; 1902), to which a gold medal was awarded at the Paris Exhibition of 1900. Under his guidance the firm of Sutton became celebrated for numerous and important new strains of farm and garden plants. His own interests centred in practical agriculture. He was a successful amateur breeder of cattle, sheep, and horses. He published important papers on wheat-growing and on agricultural education. He served for twenty-three years on the council of the Royal Agricultural Society and was a leading member of the Smithfield Club and of the London Farmers' Club. He was also a fellow of the Linnean Society, and a chevalier of the legion of honour and of the ordre du mérite agricole.
In politics Sutton was a conservative, with some characteristic reservations. He refused to stand for Reading in 1898 because he disapproved of his party's attitude towards the questions of liquor control and of religious teaching in elementary schools. He took his share in the work of county and municipal administration, and served as mayor of Reading in 1904. He was a staunch churchman of the evangelical type, sat for the diocese of Oxford in the Canterbury House of Laymen, and took part in founding the Imperial Sunday Alliance (1908). He was a generous supporter of religious, philanthropic, and educational institutions, especially in Reading and its neighbourhood.
Sutton was twice married: first, in 1875 to Emily Owen (died 1911), daughter of Colonel Henry Fouquet; secondly, in 1912 to Grace, eldest daughter of Charles Thomas Studd, the African missionary. By his first wife he had two ​sons and a daughter, who survived him. He died of heart-failure on 14 December 1913, while staying at a London hotel, and was buried at Sonning.
[Obituary notices in The Times, Daily Telegraph, Record, Evening Standard, and Nature; private information.]
H. W. C. D.