OpenLLM-France/wikimedia huggingface dataset:
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Cowper, William (1701-1767)

​COWPER, WILLIAM, M.D. (1701–1767), antiquary, was the third son of the Rev. John Cowper, M.A., of Overlegh, Cheshire, by Catherine, daughter of William Sherwin, beadle of divinity and bailiff of the university of Oxford. He was baptised at St. Peter's, Chester, on 29 July 1701, was admitted a student at Leyden on 27 Oct. 1719, and probably took his doctor's degree in that university. For many years he practised as a physician at Chester with great reputation. In 1745 he was elected mayor of Chester. He died at Overlegh on 20 Oct. 1767, and was buried at St. Peter's, Chester. He married in 1722 Elizabeth, daughter of John Lonsdale of High Ryley, Lancashire, but had no issue.
Cowper, who was a fellow of the Society of Antiquaries, published anonymously ‘A Summary of the Life of St. Werburgh, with an historical account of the images upon her shrine (now the episcopal throne) in the choir of Chester. Collected from antient chronicles and old writers, by a Citizen of Chester,’ Chester, 1749, 4to. This work is said to have been stolen from the manuscripts of Mr. Stone. He was also the author of ‘Il Penseroso: an evening's contemplation in St. John's churchyard, Chester. A rhapsody, written more than twenty years ago, and now (first) published, illustrated with notes historical and explanatory,’ London, 1767, 4to, addressed, under the name of M. Meanwell, to the Rev. John Allen, M.A., senior fellow of Trinity College, Cambridge, and rector of Tarporley, Cheshire. In this work Cowper takes a view of some of the most remarkable places around Chester distinguished by memorable personages and events. He was an intelligent antiquary and preserved many valuable manuscript collections of Williamson and others which would otherwise have perished. He also left several works of his own compilation relative to the ancient history of Cheshire and Chester. These manuscripts, which are frequently quoted by Ormerod, the Cheshire historian, are preserved in the family archives at Overlegh. They consist of various small volumes, most of the contents of which are fairly transcribed into two larger ones, containing memoirs of the earls of the palatinate and the bishops and dignitaries of the cathedral, lists of city and county officers, and a local chronology of events. In his Broxton MSS. he takes Webb's ‘Itinerary’ as the text of each township, adds an account of it transcribed from Williamson's ‘Villare,’ and continues the descent of property to his own time. He also wrote a small manuscript volume, entitled ‘Parentalia,’ containing memoirs of the Cowper family, and the account of the siege of Chester, which is printed in Ormerod's ‘Cheshire,’ i. 203 seq. This description of the siege had been printed twice previously at Chester (in 1790 and 1793), but with considerable alterations.
[Nichols's Lit. Anecd. v. 316; Gough's British Topography, i. 249, 253, 264; Ormerod's Cheshire, i. 293, 294; Peacock's Leyden Students, p. 24; Gower's Sketch of Materials for a Hist. of Cheshire, 61, 90; Notes and Queries, 5th ser., x. 388.]
T. C.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Cowper, William (1780-1858)

Date of birth 1778 in the ODNB.
​COWPER, WILLIAM, D.D. (1780–1858), archdeacon, born at Whittington, Lancashire, 28 Dec. 1780, took holy orders in 1808, held for a time a cure of souls at Rawdon, near Leeds, but having obtained the post of colonial chaplain left England for Sydney, where he landed on 18 Aug. 1809. There he held the benefice of St. Philip's. He was long connected with and chiefly concerned in organising the Australian branches of the Bible Society, the Religious Tract Society, the Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge, and the Benevolent Society. He paid a brief visit to England in 1842. On his return to Australia he was appointed archdeacon of Cumberland and Camden (1848). In 1852 he acted as Bishop Broughton's commissary during the absence of that prelate in Europe. His example and influence helped to raise the tone of society in the colony. He died on 6 July 1858. His son was Sir Charles Cowper [q. v.]
[Times, 6 Sept. 1851, col. 9; Heaton's Australian Dict. of Dates.]
J. M. R.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Cowton, Robert

​COWTON, ROBERT (fl. 1300), Franciscan, was educated at the monastery of his order at Oxford, and then at Paris, where he became doctor in theology of the Sorbonne. The only positive date in his life is given in an entry in the register of the bishop of Lincoln (ap. Tanner, Bibl. Brit. p. 204), which states that on 26 July 1300 he was licensed to receive confessions in the archdeaconry of Oxford, whereas all the biographers give his ‘floruit’ as 1340. Bale states that he was ultimately raised to the archbishopric of Armagh, but this is a mistake. Cowton is said ​by Pits (De Angliæ Scriptoribus, § 527, p. 443) to have borne the distinguishing title among schoolmen of ‘doctor amœnus.’ This, no doubt (as is the case apparently with all the other titles of its kind), was not given him by contemporaries. His ‘Quæstiones’ on the four books of ‘Sentences’ of Peter Lombard must have enjoyed a wide popularity, at least in Oxford, to judge by the large number of manuscripts which still exist there. He also wrote ‘Quodlibeta Scholastica,’ ‘Disceptationes Magistrales,’ and ‘Sermones ad Crucem Sancti Pauli.’ Cowton is quoted as one of those who engaged in controversy relative to the conception of the Virgin Mary. Bale speaks as though he opposed the higher (or modern) view on the subject; but it is evident, considering the share which the Franciscan order took in the development of the doctrine of the immaculate conception, that the presumption is the other way; and this is, in fact, stated by Pits (l. c. pp. 443 et seq.) and Wadding (Scriptores Ordinis Minorum, p. 209, ed. Rome, 1806). Cowton is also cited by Wycliffe as the author of an abridgment of the theological works of Duns Scotus (Wycliffe, De Benedicta Incarnatione, ed. E. Harris, 1886, cap. iv. p. 57).
Out of seven manuscripts of the ‘Quæstiones Sententiarum’ in the college libraries at Oxford which bear Cowton's name, six offer the spelling ‘Cowton,’ and the remaining one has ‘Couton.’ The forms ‘Conton’ and ‘Cothon’ are manifest blunders, which seem to make their appearance first in Pits.
[Bale's Scriptt. Brit. Cat. v. 65, p. 424; cf. Sbaralea, supplement to Wadding's Scriptt. Ord. Min. p. 638 b.
R. L. P.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Cox, Daniel

​COX, DANIEL (d. 1750), physician, proceeded M.D. at St. Andrews on 8 Nov. 1742, was admitted licentiate of the College of Physicians on 26 June 1749, elected physician to the Middlesex Hospital on 16 Oct. 1746, resigned 23 May 1749, and died in January 1750. He wrote ‘Observations on the Epidemic Fever of 1741, … with Remarks on the use of Cortex,’ published anonymously 1741; ‘with new cases, and on the benefit of the cool method,’ 1742; third edition, ‘with … the benefit of bleeding and purging,’ 1742. Cox is said by Munk to have died in January 1750; if so, he cannot have written, as Munk says, ‘An Appeal to the Public on behalf of Elizabeth Canning’ [q. v.], 1st and 2nd editions 1753; the introduction to L. Heister's ‘Medical and Anatomical Cases,’ 1755; letter on the subject of inoculation, 1757, 1758; and ‘Observations on the Intermittent Pulse,’ 1758. To this Daniel Cox, Munk and the compilers of the catalogue of the Library of the Royal Medical Society attribute ‘Family Medical Compendium,’ published at Gloucester. This appears to be an error; for the ‘Medical Compendium’ seems to have been first published about 1690, and an enlarged and improved edition in 1808, by D. Cox, chemist and druggist, of Gloucester. It is dedicated to Sir Walter Farquhar, and the 1808 edition ends with advertisements of the author's wares.
[Munk's Coll. of Phys. ii. 171; Cat. of Royal Medical Society's Library, i. 287; Brit. Mus. Cat.; Cox's New Medical Compendium, 1808.]
W. H.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Darby, George

​DARBY, GEORGE (d. 1790), vice-admiral, was promoted to be lieutenant in the navy on 7 Sept. 1742, and to be captain of the Warwick on 12 Sept. 1747. In 1757 he commanded the Norwich of 50 guns, in the West Indies; and afterwards, in 1759, in the Channel, when she formed part of the squadron which covered the bombardment of Havre by Sir George Rodney. In 1761 he commanded the Devonshire of 66 guns, at the reduction of Martinique by Rodney, who afterwards sent him home with despatches. In January 1778 he was advanced to be rear-admiral, and on 19 March 1779 to be vice-admiral. He then hoisted his flag on board the Britannia as second in command of the Channel fleet, and sat as president of the court-martial on Sir Hugh Palliser [q. v.] On the resignation of the command by Sir Francis Geary in August 1780, Darby was appointed commander-in-chief [see Barrington, Samuel]; and, still holding the command of the Channel fleet, was on 6 Sept. 1780, appointed also one of the lords of the admiralty. In the following April, with a fleet of twenty-nine ships of the line and some two hundred store ships, he relieved Gibraltar for the second time; and in August, when the combined fleets of France and Spain again invaded the Channel, Darby, with the English fleet, took up a position in Torbay, where the allied commanders did not consider it prudent to attack him. In October he was nominated rear-admiral of Great Britain. He was M.P. for Plymouth 1780–4, and an elder brother of Trinity House from 1781 till death. On the change of ministry in March 1782, he resigned the command, and had no further service at sea. He died on 26 Nov. 1790, having been twice married; his second wife died fourteen days before.
Darby's appointment to the high command which he held through the critical years 1779–81, can only be considered as one of the many political jobs perpetrated by Lord Sandwich, and apparently with the primary intention of insuring the acquittal of Palliser. The refusal of Harland to serve led to Darby's hoisting his flag in 1779, and the refusal of Barrington left him commander-in-chief in 1780. It was a period pregnant with danger, and the danger was increased by the command of the Channel fleet falling, at such a time, into the hands of a man of very slender abilities. That it was not a period of disaster was due to the internal weakness of the enemies' armament.
J. K. L.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Darcy, John

​DARCY, JOHN (d. 1347), baron, younger son of Norman, lord Darcy of Nocton, Lincolnshire, who died in 1296, and brother of Philip, the eighth and last Baron Darcy of Nocton, served in Scotland under Edward I, was sheriff of the counties of Nottingham and Derby under Edward II, and in 1327 was sheriff of Yorkshire. He was appointed lord justice of Ireland by Edward II, reappointed by Edward III, and in 1341 received a grant of his office for life. In 1333 he was with the king in Scotland, and about two years later wasted Bute and Arran. In 1337 he was employed in embassies to Scotland and France. He served in Flanders, in Brittany (Knighton), and in the war with France of 1346. He was steward of the king's household, and held a life-grant of the office of constable of the Tower. He died 30 May 1347. He married, first, Emmeline, daughter of Walter Heron, and granddaughter and heiress of William, baron Heron, who died in 1296, by whom he had two sons and a daughter; secondly, Joan, daughter of Richard de Burgh, earl of Ulster. His lands lay chiefly in Yorkshire and Lincolnshire, and he is generally styled Lord Darcy of Knaith, one of his manors, to distinguish him from the elder branch of the house. He was summoned to parliament first as ‘John Darcy le Cosin,’ and after the death of his elder brother's heir as John Darcy.
W. H.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Dargan, William

​DARGAN, WILLIAM (1799–1867), Irish railway projector, the son of a farmer, was born in the county of Carlow on 28 Feb. 1799, and having received an English education was placed in a surveyor's office. The first important employment he obtained was under Thomas Telford in constructing the Holyhead road in 1820; when that work was finished he returned to Ireland and took small contracts on his own account, the most important of which was the road from Dublin to Howth. In 1831 he became the contractor for the construction of the railway from Dublin to Kingstown, the first line made in Ireland. He next constructed the water communication between Lough Erne and Belfast, afterwards known as the Ulster canal, a signal triumph of engineering and constructive ability. Other great works followed—the Dublin and Drogheda railway, the Great Southern and Western and the Midland Great Western lines. By 1853 he had constructed over six hundred miles of railway, and he had then contracts for two hundred more. He paid the highest wages with the greatest punctuality, and his credit was unbounded. At one time he was the largest railway projector in Ireland and one of its greatest capitalists. He made arrangements in 1853 for the Dublin exhibition. He began by placing 30,000l. in the hands of the committees, and before it was opened, 12 May 1853, his advances reached nearly 100,000l., of which he ultimately lost 20,000l. At the close of the exhibition the Irish National Gallery on Leinster Lawn, as a monument to Dargan, was erected, with a fine bronze statue of himself in front, looking out upon Merrion Square. The queen, who had visited Mr. and Mrs. Dargan at their residence, Dargan Villa, Mount Annville, on 29 Aug. 1853 (Illust. London News, 10 Sept. 1853, p. 205), offered him a baronetcy, but this he declined. Wishing to encourage the growth of flax, he then took a tract of land which he devoted to its culture, but owing to some mismanagement the enterprise entailed a heavy loss. He also became a manufacturer, and set some mills working in the neighbourhood of Dublin, but that business did not prosper. Latterly he devoted himself chiefly to the working and extension of the Dublin, Wicklow, and Wexford railway, of which he was chairman. In 1866 he was ​seriously injured by a fall from his horse. While he was incapacitated for work, his affairs became disordered and he stopped payment, though it was believed that his assets would pay more than twenty shillings in the pound. His embarrassments, however, affected his health and spirits. He died at 2 Fitzwilliam Square East, Dublin, on 7 Feb. 1867, and was buried in Glasnevin cemetery. His widow, Jane, was granted a civil list pension of 100l. on 18 June 1870.
G. C. B.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Darcy, Abraham

Abraham Darcie in the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography.
​DARCY or DARCIE, ABRAHAM (fl. 1625), author, calls himself in his work on the Howard family ‘Abraham de Ville Adrecie, alias Darcie.’ According to the inscription on his portrait by Delaram, he was the son of Peter Darcie, and a native of Geneva. Fuller, speaking of his translation of Camden, says that he knew no Latin. He seems to have been attached to the households of the Duke of Lennox, of the Earl of Derby, and of the Howard family. He wrote: 1. ‘The Honour of Ladies; or a True Description of their Noble Perfections (a prose treatise),’ London, T. Snodham, 1622. Only one copy of this work is believed to be known, and that is in the British Museum. 2. ‘The Originall of Idolatries; or the Birth of Heresies. With the true source and lively anatomy of the Sacrifice of the Masse,’ translated by Darcy from the French. The original is attributed by the translator to Isaac Casaubon, but the French version has no name on the title-page, and Casaubon does not appear to be the author. 3. ‘Frances, Duchesse Dowager of Richmond and Lenox, &c., her Funerall Teares. Or Larmes Funebres … Françoise, Duchesse Dowagere de Richmond … pour la Mort … de son cher Espoux,’ in both French and English, together with an account of the Duke of Lennox's funeral in English; ‘Funerall Complaints,’ in French and English verse; ‘Funerall Consolations,’ in English verse alone; ‘An Exhortation to Forsake the World,’ in verse, and a homily on ‘The World's Contempt’ [London, 1624]. ‘A Monumentall Pyramide,’ published by Darcy in 1624, is another version of his elegy on the Duke of Richmond. 4. A translation (1625) of Camden's ‘Annals’ (1558–88), from the French of P. de Belligent, dedicated to James I. Elaborately engraved titlepages appear in all copies, and in some Delaram's valuable portrait of Darcy is printed on the last page. A second part, published in 1629, completes Camden's book; it was translated by T. Browne, and is usually bound up with Darcy's work. In a copy at the British Museum are two portraits of Darcy. Darcy is also credited with the following books, which are not in the British Museum:—‘Elegy on James and Charles, sons of Thomas Eger​ton, lord Ellesmere’ (Bridgwater Library); ‘Honour's True Arbour, or the Princely Nobility of the Howards,’ 1625; ‘Theatre de la Gloire et Noblesse d'Albion contenant la genealogie de la Famille de Stanley,’ n.d.; and (with Thomas St. Leger, M.A.) ‘Honour and Virtue's Monument in memory of Elizabeth, Countess of Huntingdon, daughter of Ferdinando, Earl of Derby,’ 1633.
S. L. L.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Darcy, Patrick

​DARCY, PATRICK (1598–1668), Irish politician, of Kiltolla, co. Galway, seventh son of Sir James (Riveagh) Darcy, was born in 1598. His family was Roman catholic. He was educated in the common law, sat for Navan in the Irish parliament of 1634, was an active and influential member of the House of Commons in the Dublin parliament of 1640, and strenuously resisted the king's proposal in 1641 to send the disbanded Irish army into foreign service. On the outbreak of the Irish rebellion he became one of the supreme council of confederated catholics at Kilkenny, and his signature was appended to all its official documents (J. T. Gilbert, Hist. of Irish Confederation, ii. passim). At a conference with a committee of the lords on 9 June 1641, he replied by order (5 June), and on behalf of the commons, to the answers made by the Irish judges to twenty-one constitutional questions propounded to them by the lower house. Darcy argues, in opposition to the judges, that no law of the English parliament is of force in Ireland unless enacted by the Irish parliament. Darcy's ‘Argument’ was published at Waterford by Thomas Bourke, printer to the confederate catholics of Ireland, in 1643. When the same question arose again in 1643 in relation to the Act of Adventurers, a manuscript book was widely circulated under the title of ‘A Declaration setting forth how and by what means the laws and statutes of England from time to time came to be in force in England.’ This work rehearses Darcy's argument, and is almost certainly from his pen. It was first printed by Walter Harris in his ‘Hibernica,’ pt. ii. (1770), and the original manuscript is in the library of Trinity College, Dublin. Harris ascribed it quite unwarrantably to Sir Richard Bolton [q. v.]
In 1646 Darcy and his nephew, Geoffrey Brown, with five others, were appointed by the general assembly of confederated catholics to arrange articles of peace with the Marquis of Ormonde. The treaty, which nominated Darcy and his friends commissioners of the peace throughout Ireland, was signed on 28 March in that year. At the Restoration Darcy complained of the injustice suffered by Galway at the hands of the royalists. He died at Dublin in 1668, and was buried at Kilconnel, co. Galway. He married Elizabeth, one of the four daughters of Sir Peter French, and left an only son, James (1633–1692).
A. W. R.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Kemp, Thomas Read

​KEMP, THOMAS READ (1781?–1844), founder of Kemp Town, was the only son of Thomas Kemp of Lewes Castle and Hurstmonceaux Park, M.P. for Lewes, by his wife Ann, daughter and heiress of Henry Read of Brookland. He was educated at St. John's College, Cambridge, where he graduated B.A. ​1805, and M.A. 1810. At a by-election in May 1811 Kemp was returned to the House of Commons in the whig interest for the borough of Lewes. He was re-elected at the general election in October 1812, but in March 1816 retired from parliament. Having seceded from the church of England with his brother-in-law, the Rev. George Baring, and others, he became a preacher. Their sect, however, after attracting some notoriety, fell to pieces. In June 1826 Kemp was again elected for Lewes, and continued to represent that borough until his final retirement from parliament in April 1837. He very rarely took any part in the debates. Kemp sold the castles of Lewes and Hurstmonceaux, and bought Dale Park, near Arundel, which he afterwards resold. He had a passion for building. He built a large house in the Montpelier Road, Brighton, which he called ‘The Temple,’ and another at the south-west corner of Belgrave Square, London, which was afterwards the residence of General Lord Hill. His great-uncle, John Kemp, in 1770 purchased one moiety of the manor of Brighthelmstone for 300l. This became his property on his father's death in May 1811, and about 1820 he commenced the building speculation to the east of Brighton known as Kemp Town, by which the whole of his large fortune was completely absorbed. He died suddenly at Paris on 20 Dec. 1844, aged 63. Kemp married, first, on 12 July 1806, Frances, fourth daughter of Sir Francis Baring, bart., a sister of Alexander, first baron Ashburton, by whom he had nine children. He married, secondly, on 26 Nov. 1832, Frances Margaretta, only daughter of Charles Watkin John Shakerley of Somerford Park, Cheshire, and widow of Vigors Hervey of Killiane Castle, co. Wexford, by whom he had one son, Frederick Shakerley Kemp. His second wife died at Tunbridge Wells on 28 Aug. 1860. Two portraits of Kemp are referred to in Evans's ‘Catalogue.’
G. F. R. B.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Kemp, John (1665-1717)

​KEMP, JOHN (1665–1717), antiquary, born in 1665, was possessed of private means, and resided in the parish of St. Martin-in-the Fields, London. He was elected F.R.S. on 20 March 1712 (Thomson, Hist. Roy. Soc. App. iv.), and died unmarried on 19 Sept. 1717. He had a fine museum of antiquities, chiefly formed by Jean Gailhard, a Frenchman, who was governor to George, first lord ​Carteret. Gailhard sold it to lord Carteret for an annuity of 200l., and Kemp subsequently bought it. By his will (P. C. C. 171, Whitfield) he directed that the museum (with books) should be offered to Lord Oxford or his son for 2,000l. The proposal was declined. Robert Ainsworth [q. v.] drew up an elaborate account of Kemp's antiquities entitled ‘Monvmenta vetustatis Kempiana, ex vetustis scriptoribus illustrata, eosque vicissim illustrantia,’ &c., 2 pts. 8vo, London, 1719–20. Professor John Ward furnished him with the descriptions of the statues and lares, with the discourse ‘De Vasis et Lucernis, de Amuletis, de Annulis et Fibulis,’ and with the ‘Commentarius de Asse et partibus ejus,’ which had been printed in 1719.
The collection was eventually sold by auction at the Phœnix tavern in Pall Mall on 23, 24, 25, and 27 March 1721, in 293 lots, for 1,090l. 8s. 6d. Six ancient inscriptions, bought by Dr. Richard Rawlinson, are now at Oxford, and appear in the ‘Marmora Oxoniensia.’
G. G.