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

​MELDOLA, RAPHAEL (1754–1828), Jewish theologian, son of Rabbi Hezekiah Meldola (d. 1791), was born at Leghorn in 1754. His forefathers through many generations were eminent rabbis; his grandfather was Raphael Meldola, the author of a collection of responsa called ‘Mayim Rabbim.’ In 1791 he bewailed the death of his father, to whose memory he dedicated the first-fruit of his literary labours, ‘Korban Min‘hah’ (A Meal Offering), being a Hebrew commentary on the ‘abhodah’ (i.e. the description of the sacrificial service on the Day of Atonement). The commentary, which is concise and clear, was published in ‘Sepher ‘abhodath hammikdash’ (Additional Service for the Day of Atonement), at Leghorn in 1791. In 1797 a second work of his was published at Leghorn, viz. ‘‘Huppath ‘Hathanim’ (Laws and Regulations concerning the Conduct of Jews and Jewesses when Engaged or Married); in the Introduction he wittily but sharply depicts the poverty of the rabbis, whose income was as a rule very small. He officiated as ‘dayyan’ (i.e. judge or assistant rabbi) in the Jewish congregation of Leghorn.
On 7 Oct. 1804 the congregation of the Spanish and Portuguese Jews in London appointed Meldola to the office of ‘‘hakham’ or ‘rabbi.’ The congregation had been without a spiritual chief since 1784. The task of inspiring the London community with fresh life ​was beset with great difficulties, especially for a minister who could not speak English. But Meldola met with much success. He struggled hard to prevent the children of the poor from attending schools opened for them by conversionists, and endeavoured to maintain the sanctity of the Sabbath. During his pastorate the ancient synagogue of his congregation in Bevis Marks was restored in 1824, and he composed for the occasion of its reopening a Hebrew hymn, ‘Kol Rinnah’ (‘the voice of song’). He died 9 June 1828, and was buried, in accordance with his wish, beside the rabbi David Netto, in the Beth-‘holim cemetery at Mile End. His wife Stella died in London 20 July 1857. His son, David Meldola, officiated as dayyan or assistant rabbi in London, where he died 2 March 1853. In addition to the works named above, Meldola published ‘Derekh Emunah’ (‘The Way of Faith’); in 1848 the introduction and one chapter were edited by his son, David Meldola (London), the former in Hebrew, the latter in an English translation. The book was intended to be a graduated catechism of the Jewish religion.
[Gent. Mag. 1828, pt. ii. p. 377; J. Picciotto's Sketches of Anglo-Jewish History; The Way of Faith (Preface).]
M. F.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Mel

​MEL (d. 487), Irish saint, is believed by Irish writers and in the district to have been founder of the see of Ardagh, now in co. Longford, a part of the ancient kingdom of Teffia in Meath. The genealogists do not attach him to any great clan, but state only that his father was Conis and his mother Darerca, sister of St. Patrick. Except a visit to Britain, and the foundation of the church and monastery of Ardagh about 454, and the confirmation of St. Brigit, all the events of his life are miraculous or symbolical. St. Brigit turned water into beer for him to drink, he fished for salmon, when visited by St. Patrick, in the puddles of a ploughed field, he prophesied the greatness of Brigit before her birth. The chronicles mention his death in 487, and he is noticed frequently in the lives of St. Patrick and St. Brigit. No early life of him is extant. His feast is kept on 6 Feb.
[J. Colgan's Acta Sanctorum Hiberniæ, Louvain, 1645, vol. i.; Annals of Ulster, ed. W. M. Hennessy, 1887, p. 29; W. Stokes's Tripartite Life of St. Patrick, 1887, vols. i. and ii., and Three Middle-Irish Homilies, Calcutta, 1877, and Life of St. Brigit, pp. 182–200, in Lives of Saints from the Book of Lismore, Oxford, 1890.]
N. M.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Meilyr Brydydd

​MEILYR BRYDDYDD (i.e. the Poet) (d. 1140?), Welsh bard, was the son of Mabon ab Iarddur ap Mor, and dwelt at Trefeilyr, in the parish of Trefdraeth, Anglesey, a township which doubtless took its name from him (Lewys Dwnn, Heraldic Visitations of Wales, ii. 128, 139, 266). Three of his poems are preserved in the ‘Myvyrian Archaiology’ (2nd edit. pp. 140–2), namely: (1) an elegy on Gruffydd ap Cynan (d. 1137) [q. v.]; (2) a short poem on the battle of Mynydd Carn (1081), said to have been written in the army of Trahaiarn ap Caradog, there defeated; (3) the poet's death-lay, in which he prays that his bones may be laid in Enlli (Bardsey Island). Meilyr is the first of the ‘Gogynfeirdd,’ the mediæval bards whose poems can be approximately dated, as distinguished from the ‘Cynfeirdd,’ the half-mythical poets of the sixth century, of whose genuine work very little can have come down to us. He is the herald of the poetic revival which contact with Norman civilisation and success in arms brought ​about among the Welsh towards the middle of the twelfth century. From his elegy to Gruffydd ap Cynan we learn that he was ‘pencerdd’ (chief bard) under that prince (‘bum o du gwledig yn lleithiawc’ = ‘I sat by the monarch's side’—a privilege only enjoyed by the chief bard, Ancient Laws of Wales, edit. 1841, i. 74). On one occasion, we gather from the same source, he acted as envoy for the court of Aberffraw. His son, Gwalchmai, and his grandsons, Einion and Meilyr, also won renown as poets, and the family was for generations of consequence in Anglesey (Lewys Dwnn, ii. 108, 128, 202, 266; Record of Carnarvon, Record edit. pp. 45, 46, 48).
[Myvyrian Archaiology, 2nd edit. pp. 140–2; Stephens's Literature of the Kymry, 2nd edit. pp. 10–15.]
J. E. L.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Melbancke, Brian

​MELBANCKE, BRIAN (fl. 1583), euphuistic writer, was educated at St. John's College, Cambridge, where he graduated B.A. in 1579. In 1583 he described himself as ‘Student in Graies Inn,’ but his name cannot be found on the books.
He was the author of a book (now rare) entitled ‘Philotimus. The Warre betwixt Nature and Fortune,’ London, 1583. It is a close imitation of Lyly's ‘Euphues,’ and the many old proverbs and scraps of verse it contains render it quaint and interesting. On page 53 ‘Philotimus’ alludes to the story of Romeo and Juliet as well known and popular at the time. In an address to the ‘Gentlemen students in the Inns of Court and Chancerie, and the University of Cambridge,’ Melbancke acknowledges his failings in the use of the English tongue, and remarks that ‘if ever I had anything to vaunt … it was some small skill in other languages.’
In the registers of St. Olave's, Southwark, under date 3 June 1583, there is the entry, ‘Brian Mellebanke and Sara Baker married.’
[Cooper's Athenæ Cantabrigienses, i. 490; Addit. MS. (Cole MS.) 5885, f. 34; Sir Egerton Brydges's Brit. Bibliographer, ii. 438 et seq., where a full account of Philotimus, by J. Haslewood, is given. Ritson includes Melbancke in his Bibl. Poetica, p. 278, on account of the original verses scattered through his book.]
B. P.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Naish, John

​NAISH, JOHN (1841–1890), lord chancellor of Ireland, son of Carrol Naish of Ballycullen, co. Limerick, was born in 1841. He was educated at the Jesuit school of Clongowes Wood in Kildare, and, on leaving school, entered Dublin University, where he obtained numerous distinctions, including a non-foundation scholarship in science in 1861 (scholarships on the foundation being at that time open to none but members of the then established church), the Lloyd exhibition for proficiency in mathematics and physics (1862), and a senior moderatorship both in mathematical science and in experimental and natural science (1863). After graduating B.A., he entered the law school of the university, and was first prizeman in civil law in 1863, and in feudal and English law in 1864; also winning the single competitive studentship then given by the London Inns of Court. Called to the Irish bar in Michaelmas term of 1865, he joined the Munster circuit. His industry and knowledge soon brought him into good practice, and in 1870 he was retained in the important case of O'Keefe v. Cullen. In 1871, in conjunction with Mr. (now Judge) Bewley, he published a treatise on the Common Law Procedure Acts, which is still much used in Ireland. In 1880 he took silk, and became law adviser to the Castle, a post since abolished. In those troublous times the office entailed extremely arduous labours, and he was credited by his political opponents with having unearthed the now familiar statute of Edward III, which was put in force against the supporters of the Land League. He was appointed by Mr. Gladstone solicitor-general for Ireland in 1883, and in the same year stood as a liberal for Mallow, where he was beaten by Mr. William O'Brien, the nationalist candidate. In December of the next year he was promoted to be attorney-general, and was sworn of the Irish privy council in the January following. In May 1885, at the early age of forty-four, he was made by Mr. Gladstone's government lord chancellor of Ireland, in succession to Sir Edward Sullivan, being the second catholic chancellor since the Reformation; but he held the seals only until July, in which month the liberal government resigned office. He was appointed a lord justice of appeal in August of the same year, and became again lord chancellor when Mr. Gladstone returned to office in February 1886. But in June the government again resigned, and Naish with them. He thereupon resumed the duties of lord justice of appeal. In the summer of 1890 he went to Ems for his health, and he died there on 17 Aug. 1890, at the age of forty-nine. He was buried at Ems.
He married in 1884 Maud, daughter of James Arthur Dease of Turbotston, Westmeath, and had by her three children.
Naish was by no means a brilliant advocate, being naturally nervous and retiring; but he was probably the most eminent lawyer of his time in Ireland. His clear judgment and his immense learning gave great weight to his decisions in the court of appeal.
An engraving of him was published in London.
P. L. N.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Nangle, Richard

​NANGLE, RICHARD (d. 1541?), bishop of Clonfert, came of an old Irish family settled in Mayo and Galway, and early entered the order of the Austin Friars, from whom he received his education. He was subsequently created doctor of divinity, and became provincial of his order in Ireland. In 1508 his earnest solicitations led to the foundation of the Augustinian friary at Galway (Ruddiman, Hist. of Galway, p. 272). On the death of Denis More, bishop of Clonfert, in 1534, Rowland Burke was appointed his successor by papal provision; but Henry VIII, who had determined to assert his right as head of the church in Ireland, in 1536 appointed Nangle, who was recommended to him by Archbishop Browne as being ‘not only well learned, but a right honest man, and one will set forth the Word of God in the Irish tongue.’ Nangle, however, was expelled from the see, and forced to remain shut up in Galway ‘for fear of Burgh and his complices’ (Gairdner, Letters and Papers of Henry VIII, xii. i. 1052; Carew MSS.) Henry therefore directed the deputy, Lord Grey, to prosecute the intruder under the Statute of Provisors; but nothing was done, and Burke remained in possession of the see. Nangle died apparently in 1541, and Burke received Henry's assent to his election on 24 Oct. of the same year.
A. F. P.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Nalton, James

​NALTON, JAMES (1600?–1662), ‘the weeping prophet,’ born about 1600, son of a London minister, was educated at Trinity College, Cambridge, whence he graduated B.A. in 1619, and M.A. in 1623. According to Baxter, he acted for a time as assistant to a certain Richard Conder, either in or near London, and in 1632 he obtained the living of Rugby, in Warwickshire. In 1642 he signed a petition addressed to Lord Dunsmore respecting the appointment of a master to the grammar school, which was not only rejected, but was apparently the cause of his leaving Rugby. He subsequently acted as chaplain to Colonel Grantham's regiment; but about 1644 he was appointed incumbent of St. Leonard's, Foster Lane, London, where he remained, with a short interval, until his death. On 29 April 1646 he preached before the House of Commons at St. Margaret's, Westminster, on ‘The Delay of Reformation provoking God's further Indignation’ (London, 1646, 8vo), his fellow preacher on this occasion being Dr. John Owen [q. v.] In 1651 Nalton was indirectly concerned in Love's plot [see Love, Christopher], and had to take refuge in Holland, becoming for a short period one of the ministers of the English Church at Rotterdam; but he returned to England by permission at the end of six months, and resumed his work at St. Leonard's until he was ejected in 1662. He died in December of that year, and was buried on 1 Jan. 1662–3. His funeral sermon, entitled ‘Rich Treasure in Earthen Vessels,’ was preached by Thomas Horton (d. 1673) [q. v.]
Nalton is described by Baxter as a good linguist, a man of primitive sincerity, and an excellent and zealous preacher. He was called the ‘weeping prophet’ because ‘his seriousness often expressed itself by tears.’ He seems also to have been subject to an acute form of melancholia. ‘Less than a year before he died,’ writes Baxter, ‘he fell into a grievous fit, in which he often cried out, “O not one spark of grace! not a good desire or thought! I can no more pray than a post” (though at that very time he did pray very well).’
He was the first signatory of the preface to Jeremiah Burroughes's ‘Saint's Treasury,’ 1654, and he himself published several separate sermons. Twenty of these, with a highly eulogistic preface and a portrait engraved by J. Chantrey, were issued by Matthew Poole [q. v.], London, 1677, 8vo. Another portrait of Nalton preaching is mentioned by Bromley.
T. S.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Nairne, William

​NAIRNE, Sir WILLIAM, Lord Dunsinane (1731?–1811), Scottish judge, born about 1731, the younger son of Sir William Nairne, bart., of Dunsinane, Perthshire, by his wife, Emelia Graham of Fintry, Forfarshire, was admitted an advocate on 11 March 1755, and in 1758 was appointed joint commissary clerk of Edinburgh with Alexander Nairne. He was uncle to the notorious Katharine Nairne or Ogilvie, whose trial for murder and incest attracted great attention in August 1765. He is supposed to have connived at her subsequent escape from the Tolbooth. He succeeded Robert Bruce of Kennet as an ordinary lord of session, and took his seat on the bench, with the title of Lord Dunsinane, on 9 March 1786. He succeeded to the baronetcy on the death of his nephew William, the fourth baronet, in January 1790, and at the same time purchased the estate of Dunsinane from another nephew for 16,000l. On the resignation of John Campbell of Stonefield, Nairne was appointed a lord of justiciary, 24 Dec. 1792. He resigned his seat in the court of justiciary in 1808, and his seat in the court of session in 1809. He died at Dunsinane House on 23 March 1811.
Nairne was unmarried. The baronetcy became extinct upon his death, while his estates devolved upon his nephew, John Mellis, who subsequently assumed the surname of Nairne.
Nairne was not a rich man; and in order to clear off the purchase money of Dunsinane he had to adopt the most rigid economy. To save the expense of entertaining visitors, he is said to have kept only one bed at Dunsinane, and upon one occasion, after trying every expedient to get rid of his friend George Dempster, he exclaimed in despair, ‘George, if you stay, you will go to bed at ten and rise at three, and then I shall get the bed after you’ (Kay, i. 217–18).
Two etchings of Nairne will be found in ​Kay's ‘Original Portraits’ (Nos. xci. and ccc.) His ‘Disputatio Juridica ad tit. 4 Lib. xx. Pand. Qui potiores in pignore vel hypotheca habeantur,’ &c., was published in 1755, Edinburgh, 4to. He assisted in the collection of the ‘Decisions of the Court of Session from the end of the year 1756 to the end of the year 1760,’ Edinburgh, 1765, fol.
G. F. R. B.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Naish, William (1785-1860)

​NAISH, WILLIAM (1785–1860), quaker writer, son of Francis Naish, silversmith, by Susanna, his wife, was born in High Street, Bath, on 9 March 1785. Coming to London, he opened a haberdasher's shop in Gracechurch Street. He interested himself in the anti-slavery movement, and published a large number of tracts and pamphlets in favour of that cause. During 1829 and 1830 he opened a depository at his shop in Gracechurch Street for the sale of these and other publications. He afterwards lived at Maidstone and at Bath, where he died on 4 March 1860, ​aged 75. He was buried in the Friends' burial-ground at Widcombe Hill, near Bath. He married Frances, daughter of Jasper Capper, and sister of Samuel Capper, author of ‘The Acknowledged Doctrines of the Church of Rome,’ London, 1849. His son, Arthur John Naish (1816–1889), was co-founder with Paul Bevan [see under Bevan, Josephb Gurney] of the valuable ‘Bevan-Naish Library’ of Friends' books, now deposited in the library, Dr. Johnson Passage, Birmingham. Naish's chief publications, nearly all undated, are: 1. ‘The Negro's Remembrancer,’ in thirteen numbers; many of the later numbers ran to second and third editions. 2. ‘The Negro's Friend,’ in twenty-six numbers. 3. ‘A Short History of the Poor Black Slaves who are employed in cultivating Sugar, Cotton, Coffee, &c. Intended to make little Children in England pity them, and use their Endeavours to relieve them from Bondage.’ 4. ‘Reasons for using East Indian Sugar,’ 1828: this proceeded to a fifth edition. 5. ‘A Brief Description of the Toil and Sufferings of Slaves in the British Sugar Colonies … by several Eye-witnesses.’ 6. ‘The Negro Mother's Appeal’ (in verse). 7. ‘A Comparison between Distressed English Labourers and the Coloured People and Slaves of the West Indies, from a Jamaica Paper.’ 8. ‘Plead the Cause of the Poor and Needy.’ 9. ‘The Advantages of Free Labour over the Labour of Slaves. Elucidated in the Cultivation of Pimento, Ginger, and Sugar.’ 10. ‘Biographical Anecdotes: Persons of Colour,’ in five numbers. 11. ‘A Sketch of the African Slave Trade, and the Slavery of Negroes under their Christian Masters in the European Colonies.’ 12. ‘Sketches from the History of Pennsylvania,’ 1845. 13. ‘The Fulfilment of the Prophecy of Isaiah,’ &c., London, 1853. 14. ‘George Fox and his Friends as Leaders in the Peace Cause,’ London, 1859. A tale, ‘The Negro Slave,’ 1830, 8vo, is also attributed to Naish in the ‘British Museum Catalogue;’ but from the preface it is evidently the work of a lady.
C. F. S.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Nanmor, Dafydd

​NANMOR, DAFYDD (fl. 1400), Welsh bard, was a native of Nanmor, a valley near Beddgelert. From a poem by Rhys Goch Eryri (Gorchestion Beirdd Cymru, 2nd edit. p. 126) it appears he was a contemporary and neighbour of that poet, though possibly, as his successful rival in love, somewhat younger. Tradition has it that Rhys Goch gave Nanmor out of his estate of Hafod Garegog the holding subsequently known as Cae Ddafydd. His later years seem to have been spent in South Wales, where he sang in honour of the house of Gogerddan (Cardiganshire), and, according to one (not very trustworthy) account, won distinction at an Eisteddfod, said to have been at Carmarthen about 1443 (Cyfrinach y Beirdd, pp. 239, 240).
The poet Rhys Nanmor (fl. 1440) of Maenor Fynyw, Pembrokeshire, is generally believed to have been his son (Iolo MSS. 315), though Lewis Dwnn gives a different parentage (Heraldic Visitations of Wales, ii. 284). Rhys had again a son who was a poet, and bore the name of Dafydd Nanmor (fl. 1480), and much confusion has naturally arisen from this duplication of the title. ​Of the printed pieces attributed to the Nanmors, (1) the Cywydd to the Hair of Llio, daughter of Rhydderch ab Ieuan Llwyd of Gogerddan; (2) that to Llio's brother David; and (3) the elegy upon the bard's dead love (Cymru Fydd, iii. 22–3) appear to belong to the elder Dafydd. A poem referring to the troubles of the Wars of the Roses (‘Cawn o ddau arwydd barlamant cynddeiriog’), printed by Charles Ashton in ‘Cymru,’ ii. 85, is attributed to Rhys, and this seems also the better ascription in the case of the cywydd to Henry of Richmond, ‘when a babe in his cradle in Pembroke Castle’ (1457), which is printed in ‘Brython,’ iv. 221–2. The cywydd to Rhys ab Maredudd of Tywyn, near Cardigan, the ode to the same person and the elegy upon his son Thomas (all printed, with 1 and 2 above, in Gorchestion Beirdd Cymru, 2nd edit., pp. 132–42), must be assigned to the younger Dafydd, who was probably also the author of the poem to Henry VII, printed in the Iolo MSS. 313–5. The fragments of a cywydd to ‘Rhys of Ystrad Tywi,’ given in the introduction to Glanmor's ‘Records of Denbigh’ (pp. vii, viii), do not enable the critic to assign the poem to either Dafydd, and the chronology of the three poets' lives must remain somewhat uncertain, pending the publication of a complete edition of their poems, the great bulk of which are still in manuscript in various collections of mediæval Welsh poetry.
J. E. L.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Naish, William (d.1800)

​NAISH, WILLIAM (d. 1800), miniature-painter, was born at Axbridge, Somerset, and practised with success in London. He exhibited at the Royal Academy almost continuously from 1783 until his death in 1800. His portraits of Morton the dramatist and Mrs. Twisleton and Mrs. Wells, actresses, were engraved by Ridley for the ‘Monthly Mirror.’
F. M. O'D.