OpenLLM-France/wikimedia huggingface dataset:
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Hepburn, Robert

​HEPBURN, ROBERT (1690?–1712), miscellaneous writer, was born at Bearford, Haddingtonshire, in 1690 or 1691. Giving promise of unusual powers, he was sent to Holland to study civil law, and returned in 1711 to pursue his profession in Scotland. On his return he started a periodical, of two pages in double columns, entitled ‘The Tatler, by Donald MacStaff of the North.’ Lacking the geniality of Steele, of whom he thus proclaimed himself an imitator, Hepburn became too satirical and personal, and his ‘Tatler’ reached only thirty numbers. There is a specimen copy in the Advocates' Library, Edinburgh, in a collection of miscellanies. Hepburn was admitted to the Faculty of Advocates in 1712, and died the same year.
Three posthumous works attest Hepburn's scholarship and literary faculty. In 1714 appeared at Edinburgh ‘Libellus singularis quo demonstratur quod Deus sit.’ This contains a preface and sixteen short Latin chapters, well and forcibly written, but embodying no novelty of argument. In 1715 was published ‘Dissertatio de Scriptis Pitcarnianis,’ characteristically dedicated to Addison—‘Illustrissimo viro Josepho Addisono Anglo Robertus Hepburnius Scotus S.’ Likewise, in 1715 at Edinburgh, appeared ‘A Discourse concerning a Man of Genius, by Mr. Hepburn; with a poem on the Young Company of Archers by Mr. Boyd.’ The discourse, displaying some power of observation and practical good sense, is in twenty-three brief sections, followed by the poem in heroic couplets.
[Lord Woodhouselee's Life and Writings of Lord Kames, i. 228; Chambers's Eminent Scotsmen; Anderson's Scottish Nation, i. 469.]
T. B.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Hepburn, James (1573-1620)

​HEPBURN, JAMES (1573–1620), in religion Bonaventure, linguist, born in 1573 in the shire of East Lothian, Scotland, was fourth son of Thomas Hepburn, rector of Oldhamstocks. He was educated in the university of St. Andrews, where, after completing his studies in humanity and philosophy, he applied himself to the oriental languages. He soon joined the communion of the Roman church, went to France and Italy, and subsequently travelled through Turkey and the East. He mastered so many languages that he was credited with being able to speak to the people of every nation in their own tongue. On returning to Europe he entered the order of Minims at Avignon. Afterwards he lived in retirement at Rome for five years in the French monastery of the Holy Trinity, belonging to his order. He was for six years keeper of the oriental books and manuscripts in the Vatican Library. He died at Venice in October 1620.
Dempster enumerates twenty-nine works by Hepburn, all of which he claims to have seen. They include Hebrew and Chaldaic dictionaries and translations from Hebrew manuscripts, many of which are not known in print. Hepburn published: 1. ‘Alphabetum Arabicum et Exercitatio Lectionis,’ an Arabic grammar, Rome, 1591, 4to. 2. A translation from Hebrew into Latin of the ‘“Kettar Malcuth” of Rabbi Solomon, the son of Tsemach,’ which Dempster entitles ‘Diadema Regni,’ printed at Venice. 3. ‘Virgo Aurea septuaginta duobus encomiis cœlata,’ a large print engraved at Rome in 1616, and dedicated to Paul V. At the top is a representation of the Madonna, beneath are seven columns, in the first and last of which the author explains in Latin and Hebrew his design of eulogising the Blessed Virgin in seventy-two languages, as well as in emblems.
[Dempster's Hist. Ecclesiastica Gentis Scotorum, p. 363; Mackenzie's Writers of the Scots Nation, iii. 513; European Mag. xxvii. 369; Watt's Bibl. Brit.]
T. C.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Medley, John

1904 Errata appended.
​MEDLEY, JOHN (1804–1892), first bishop of Fredericton, New Brunswick, son of George Medley of Grosvenor Place, Chelsea, was born 19 Dec. 1804. He was entered in November 1822 at Wadham College, Oxford, whence he graduated B.A. in 1826 in the second class in literis humanioribus. In the same year he was ordained deacon, and priest in 1829. He proceeded M.A. in the following year.
For the first three years of his ministry he was curate of Southleigh, Devonshire; in 1831 he became incumbent of St. John's parish, Truro. In 1838 he was transferred to the vicarage of St. Thomas, Exeter, and in 1842 became a prebendary of Exeter Cathedral. Having proceeded D.D. 15 March 1845, on 4 May he was consecrated to the bishopric of Fredericton, New Brunswick. On 11 June he was installed in the partly built cathedral of that city. He had come to a diocese full of dissension and strife, and he met his difficulties with vigour. In the summer of 1848 he returned to England to raise funds for the completion of his cathedral. In subsequent years he only occasionally left his diocese to attend meetings of the bishops in neighbouring dioceses. On 11 June 1879, as oldest bishop in the Dominion, he became metropolitan of Canada in succession to Bishop Oxenden. In the summer of 1889 he attended the Lambeth Pan-Anglican Conference, and was made an honorary LL.D. of Cambridge and D.D. of Durham. He died on 9 Sept. 1892, aged nearly 88.
He was the author of the ‘Episcopal Form of Church Government,’ 1835; of two volumes of ‘Sermons,’ 1845; and of a ‘Commentary on the Book of Job,’ 1860. With the Rev. H. J. Cornish he translated the ‘Homilies of St. John Chrysostom on the Corinthians’ (vol. iv. of the ‘Library of the Fathers,’ Oxford, 1838). He also composed a few anthems.
[Dr. W. Q. Ketchum's Life of Medley, St. John's, N.B., 1893; Toronto Mail, 10 Sept. 1892; Colonial Church Chronicle; Foster's Alumni Oxon.]
C. A. H.
Dictionary of National Biography, Errata (1904), p.198 N.B.— f.e. stands for from end and l.l. for last line
| Page | Col. | Line | |
| 205 | i | 25 | Medley, John: for entered the church read was ordained deacon |
| | | 7 f.e. | for 1035 read 1835 |
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Medley, Samuel (1769-1857)

​MEDLEY, SAMUEL (1769–1857), painter and one of the founders of University College, London, born on 22 March 1769, was son of Samuel Medley (1738–1799) [q. v.], the baptist minister. Adopting painting as his profession, he exhibited for the first time at the Royal Academy, in 1792 sending ‘The Last Supper.’ He painted several religious and historical subjects, but latterly devoted himself chiefly to portraiture, in which he gained considerable practice and reputation. In 1805, however, he found his profession injurious to his health, so he abandoned it, and went on the Stock Exchange, where he made a comfortable income, continuing to paint in his leisure hours. Medley was a member of a large baptist community in London, under the Rev. F. A. Cox, with whom, Lord Brougham, and some leading dissenters of education and position, he was associated in founding University College, London, in 1826. He resided for the latter portion of his life at Chatham, where he died on 10 Aug. 1857, and was buried there. Medley married, first, in 1792 Susannah, daughter of George Bowley of Bishopsgate Street, London; secondly, in 1818, Elizabeth, daughter of John Smallshaw of Liverpool. By his first wife he had three sons, William, Guy, and George, and three daughters, of whom the eldest, Susannah, married Henry Thompson, and was mother of Sir Henry Thompson, the eminent surgeon. A large group of portraits, representing ‘The Medical Society of London,’ painted by Medley, is in the rooms of that society in Chandos Street, Cavendish Square, London; it has been engraved by C. Branwhite [q. v.] Other portraits by him, including one of his father, are in the possession of Sir Henry Thompson, and show a firm, powerful touch; two of them, representing his children, were exhibited at the winter exhibition, Burlington House, 1887.
[Medley's Memoir of the Rev. S. Medley, 1800; Redgrave's Dict. of Artists; Royal Acad. Catalogues; private information.]
L. C.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Medland, Thomas

1904 Errata appended.
​MEDLAND, THOMAS (d. 1833), engraver and draughtsman, resided in London for many years, practising both in the line manner and in aquatint; he excelled in landscape work, and was chiefly employed upon topographical plates. He engraved many of those in Farington's ‘Views of the Lakes in Cumberland and Westmoreland,’ 1789, and ‘Cities and Castles of England,’ 1791; Harding's ‘Shakspeare Illustrated,’ 1793; ‘The Copperplate Magazine;’ Sir G. Staunton's ‘Embassy of the Earl of Macartney to China,’ 1797; ‘Select Views in London and Westminster,’ 1800; and Sir W. Gell's ‘Topography of Troy,’ 1804. Medland's most successful work was a set of illustrations to ‘Robinson Crusoe,’ from designs by Stothard, 1790, and his largest plate was ‘Evening of the Glorious First of June,’ after R. Cleveley. Among his aquatints may be noticed the series of nineteen plates of Egyptian monuments in the British Museum, after W. Alexander, 1807, and those in Captain Gold's ‘Oriental Drawings,’ 1806. Medland also practised water-colour painting, and exhibited views of London at the Royal Academy in 1777 and 1779, and later many transcripts of English scenery. When Haileybury College was founded by the East India Company in 1806, Medland appears to have been appointed drawing-master there, and from that time resided in the neighbourhood of Hertford. He continued to send drawings to the Royal Academy up to 1822.
[Redgrave's Dict. of Artists; Graves's Dict. of Artists, 1760–1880; Universal Cat. of Books on Art.]
F. M. O'D.
Dictionary of National Biography, Errata (1904), p.198 N.B.— f.e. stands for from end and l.l. for last line
| Page | Col. | Line | |
| 204 | i | 6 f.e. | Medland, Thomas: for (fl. 1777-1822) read (d. 1833) |
| | ii | 28 | after 1822. insert He died at Hertford 30 Oct. 1833 (Gent. Mag. 1833, ii. 476). |
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Medley, Henry

​MEDLEY, HENRY (d. 1747), vice-admiral, entered the navy in 1703; was in 1706 a midshipman of the Somerset with Captain Price at the relief of Barcelona; passed his examination on 8 Feb. 1709–10 (passing certificate); and on 5 Sept. 1710 was promoted by Sir John Norris [q. v.] to be lieutenant of the Fame, from which a few months later he was moved into the Stirling Castle. In 1717 he was a lieutenant of the Barfleur, flagship of Sir George Byng in the Baltic. Early in 1720 he was promoted to the command of the Poole fire-ship, and on 17 Feb. 1720–1 was posted into the York. In 1722, while commanding the Leopard in the Mediterranean, he seized a ship named the Revolution, lying within the mole of Genoa, on information of her being in the service of the pretender. He afterwards commanded the Leopard on the coast of Portugal and in the Channel till the end of 1728. From 1731 to 1735 he was employed on the home station; in 1741 he commanded the Nassau in the Channel fleet under Sir John Norris, and in 1742–3–4 was with Norris as captain of the fleet. On 19 June 1744 he was promoted to be rear-admiral of the white, and in the following winter commanded a squadron cruising in the Soundings for the protection of trade. ​On 23 April 1745 he was promoted to be vice-admiral, and sent out as commander-in-chief in the Mediterranean. The service was one of blockade and co-operation with the allied armies, who in the winter of 1746–7, having driven the French out of Italy, invaded Provence; but, after an unsuccessful attack on Antibes, were obliged to retire. On 15 July 1747 Medley was advanced to be vice-admiral of the red, but died, probably in ignorance of his latest promotion, on board the Russell, at Vado, on 5 Aug. 1747. His portrait, by John Ellys, has been engraved by John Faber, junior.
[Charnock's Biog. Nav. iv. 93; commission and warrant books and other documents in the Public Record Office.]
J. K. L.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Medhurst, Walter Henry (1796-1857)

​MEDHURST, WALTER HENRY (1796–1857), missionary, was born in London on 29 April 1796. In the register-book of St. Paul's School, where his admission stands recorded on 27 July 1807, at the age of eleven, his father is described as William Medhurst, innkeeper, of Ross, N.B. After quitting the school he found occupation as a printer, first at Gloucester, and afterwards with the London Missionary Society. In their service, after a few months' study and preparation under Dr. Collison at Hackney College, he embarked for China in September 1816 as a missionary printer. His destination was Malacca. On the way the ship in which he sailed put in at Madras, and there he found a wife to share his labours. While working at the printing-press he made rapid progress in the knowledge of the Malay and Chinese languages, and developed a faculty of preaching. He was accordingly ordained by Dr. W. Milne [q. v.] and his colleagues at Malacca on 27 April 1819. Of wiry frame, good health, and unfailing cheerfulness, he proved a most efficient missionary. Penang and Batavia were the scene of his earlier efforts. At Parapattan he established an orphan asylum. In 1836 he returned for a while to England. There he wrote his ‘China, its State and Prospects,’ published in 1838, with the view of stimulating interest in Chinese missions, and especially in a new version of the bible in Chinese, a work which, with the co-operation of friends, he was able to accomplish some years later. It is known as the ‘Delegates' Version.’ In 1838 he went back to Java. Thence, when the ports of Canton, Shanghai, and three others were opened to British merchants by the treaty of 29 Aug. 1842, he moved to Shanghai, and laboured there for fourteen years. On 10 Sept. 1856 he sailed with his wife and family from ​Shanghai to England in order to recruit his health. He landed at Southend on 21 Jan. 1857, and was just able to reach London, where he died on the evening of the 24th. He was buried in Abney Park cemetery on 31 Jan.
Medhurst's works were numerous. They exhibit unceasing activity of mind and a remarkable gift for languages. Besides the works mentioned above, he published in Batavia in 1830 an ‘English and Japanese Vocabulary,’ and in 1842–3 a ‘Chinese and English Dictionary,’ in two vols. 8vo; at Shanghai he published in 1844 ‘Chinese Dialogues,’ of which a new and enlarged edition was brought out in 1861 by his son, Walter Henry (afterwards Sir Walter) Medhurst [q. v.], and in 1847 a ‘Dissertation on the Theology of the Chinese,’ besides many lesser tracts.
The coloured frontispiece to his ‘China, its State and Prospects’ gives a portrait of him in conversation with Choo-Tĭh-Lang, attended by a Malay boy.
[Inscription on gravestone (No. 17572) in Abney Park cemetery; Gardiner's Admission Registers of St. Paul's School; obituary notice by the Rev. W. C. Milne in the Evangelical Magazine, September 1857; abstract of the same, with some few additional particulars, in the Congregational Year-Book for 1858, p. 215.]
J. H. L.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Medhurst, Walter Henry (1822-1885)

​MEDHURST, Sir WALTER HENRY (1822–1885), British consul in China, the son of Dr. Walter Henry Medhurst [q. v.] the missionary, was born in China in 1822, and in October 1840 entered the office of the Chinese secretary to the British superintendency of trade in China. Early in 1841 he was one of a party sent to inspect the newly acquired Hongkong. In August he was attached to Sir Henry Pottinger's suite, and on the renewal of the war was present at the taking of Amoy and Chusan. His knowledge of Chinese attracted the notice of his chief, and from October 1841 to December 1842 he was interpreter to the garrison at Chusan. He received the war medal for his services in this campaign, and was appointed consular interpreter at Shanghai on 7 Oct. 1843, when the ports were first opened for trade under the treaty. From April 1848 till August 1849 he also acted as vice-consul at Amoy. In August 1850 he became Chinese secretary to the superintendent of trade in China, and was also general secretary and registrar from July 1853 to 9 Nov. 1854, when he was appointed consul at Foo-chow-foo. On 21 Dec. 1858 he was transferred to Tang-chow, though he was temporarily employed in the succeeding years both at Foo-chow-foo and Shanghai. When the war broke out in 1861 he again rendered important services to the British troops, and was mentioned in despatches. On 25 Jan. 1864 he became consul at Hankow, and early in 1868 made an energetic stand there in defence of British treaty rights in conjunction with Captain Heneage of the Rodney. On 23 July 1868 he removed to Shanghai to act as consul, and was confirmed on 24 Jan. 1871. On 1 Jan. 1877 he retired, being presented with a testimonial by the Shanghai community, and on 20 March he was knighted. Medhurst was ‘a warrior consul,’ but he was distinguished for his command of the Chinese language, and his success with the natives gave him a special position among his countrymen.
In 1881 Medhurst threw himself heartily into the formation of the British North Borneo Company, and in its interest in 1882 returned to the East to organise a system of emigration from China into the company's territories. Accordingly for eighteen months he resided in Hongkong, where he was a frequent contributor to the local press. Having returned to England in 1884, he died at Torquay on 26 Dec. 1885. He was the author of the ‘Foreigner in Far Cathay,’ London, 1872.
[Foreign Office List, 1885; Times, 30 Dec. 1885; Hongkong Daily Press, 31 Dec. 1885.]
C. A. H.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Lindley, Robert

​LINDLEY, ROBERT (1776–1855), violoncellist, born 4 March 1776, and baptised 12 April, at Rotherham, Yorkshire, was son, according to the parish register, of Shirley Linley of Masbro'. The father was a proficient performer on the violoncello, and began to teach his son the violin at the age of five, and his own instrument at nine years old. It is extremely improbable that he played in the Margate Theatre when eight years old (Musical World, 23 June 1855). This performance, if it took place at all, was possibly after 1792, when he became a pupil of Cervetto, who brought him to the south of England. At the same period Lindley had an engagement at the Brighton Theatre, and while there played before the Prince Regent. In 1794 he succeeded Sperati as principal violoncello at the opera and at all important concerts, and in the following year, or at the end of that year, began an intimacy with Dragonetti, the great double-bass player, which lasted for fifty-two years. They played at the same desk at every orchestral concert of importance, as well as at the opera, and their performance of the accompaniment to the ‘recitativo secco’ from the figured bass was most elaborate and ingenious. Lindley was probably the greatest violoncellist of his time. His firm hand and brilliant full tone were his chief characteristics. His technical ability and his want of deep artistic sense are illustrated by the story that he would occasionally in private play the first violin part of a quartet, or of a Beethoven trio, on his violoncello. As a composer he was less remarkable. His concertos are described by a contemporary critic as ‘peculiar, and suited to every kind of audience,’ and his cadenzas are reproached with exaggeration (Quarterly Musical Review, vi. 480, vii. 12). His works include some thirty-five solos and duets for his own instrument, a trio for bassoon, viola, and violoncello, or two violas and violoncello, a ‘caprice Bohème’ for piano, and a handbook for the violoncello, published in the year of his death. In 1822, on the formation of the Royal Academy of Music, he was appointed one of the first professors. In 1826 he played a ‘concertante’ of his own with his son, William Lindley (1802–1869), a violoncellist of much promise, who was unable to take the position for which he was qualified, owing to extreme nervousness and delicate health. He retired in 1851, and died on 13 June 1855. His daughter married the composer John Barnett.
A portrait of him is stated to have been exhibited soon after his death at Walesby's private gallery of art in Waterloo Place, London.
[Grove's Dict. of Music and Musicians, ii. 142–3, iii. 455; Quarterly Musical Review. vi. 482, viii. 165, ix. 301, and references given above; parish register of Rotherham, Yorkshire; Musical World, 23 June and 21 July 1855; Brit. Mus. Cat.]
J. A. F. M.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Lindon, Patrick

Pádraig Mac Giolla Fhiondáin in the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography.
​LINDON, PATRICK (d. 1734), Irish poet, was born in the district called the Fews, co. Armagh, and belonged to the family known in Irish as Mac a Lionduinan. His songs continued to be popular as long as Irish was spoken in the district, and several are extant in manuscript. One addressed to a learned blind man, beginning ‘A leannan fire na snadh’ (O! true favourite of the learned), is in the British Museum (Addit. MS. 18749), and O'Reilly (Irish Writers, p. ccxxii) prints the first lines of six other poems. He died in 1734.
[Addit. MS. 18749, Brit. Mus.; O'Reilly's Transactions of the Iberno-Celtic Society, 1820.]
N. M.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Lindsay, Alexander (1785-1872)

​LINDSAY, Sir ALEXANDER (1785–1872), general, colonel-commandant royal (late Bengal) artillery, son of James Lindsay, was born in 1785, and at the age of nine received an ensigncy in the old 104th (royal Manchester volunteers) regiment of foot, in which he became lieutenant in 1795. The regiment was disbanded in the same year, and Lindsay remained on half-pay as a reduced officer to the end of his long life. He entered the Royal Military Academy, Woolwich, and passed out in 1803, as a cadet for the Bengal artillery, and received his first Indian commission as first lieutenant (on augmentation) 14 Aug. 1804. He became captain on 26 March 1813, major on 30 June 1820, lieutenant-colonel on 1 May 1824, colonel and colonel-commandant on 2 July 1835. He served with the Bengal foot artillery at the siege of Gohud in 1806; at the sieges of Komanur and Gunnowrie and other affairs in Bundelkund in 1807–8. While with the Dinapore division of Ochterlony's army in the Nepâl campaigns of 1814–16, he was very severely wounded at the siege of Harriarpore in 1816, a musket-ball shattering the forefinger and thumb of the right hand, and entering the right hip-joint. He took part, however, in the siege of Hattras in March 1817, and in the operations against the Pindarrees in 1817–18. He was subsequently superintendent of telegraphs between Calcutta and Chunar, and agent for the manufacture of gunpowder at Allahabad, until disqualified by promotion. He commanded the artillery of General Morrison's division engaged in Arracan during the first Burmese war. He became a major-general in 1838, lieutenant-general in 1851, general in 1859, was transferred to the royal army as a colonel-commandant with the Bengal artillery in 1860, and was made K.C.B. in 1862. He had the East Indian Company's war medal, with clasps, for Nepâl and Ava. Lindsay married in 1820 the daughter of Captain Donald Mackenzie of Hartfield, Applecross, Ross-shire; she died in 1863. Lindsay died at Earlybank, Perth, on 22 Jan. 1872, aged 87.
[Dod's Knightage, 1871; English and Indian Army Lists; Stubbs's Hist. Bengal Artillery (London, 1877), vols. i. ii. chaps. ix. x. xi. xii.; information supplied by the India Office.]
H. M. C.