OpenLLM-France/wikimedia huggingface dataset:
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Allen, James C.

James Charles Allen, baptised 1790?, died 1833 in the ODNB.
​ALLEN, JAMES C. (d. 1831), line-engraver, the son of a Smithfield salesman, was a native of London. He was a pupil of William Bernard Cooke, in whose studio he worked for several years after the termination of his apprenticeship, and in conjunction with whom he engraved and published in 1821 ‘Views of the Colosseum,’ from drawings by Major-General Cockburn, and in 1825 ‘Views in the South of France, chiefly on the Rhone,’ from drawings by Peter De Wint, after original sketches by John Hughes. He likewise engraved a spirited plate of the ‘Defeat of the Spanish Armada,’ after P. J. de Loutherbourg, for the ‘Gallery of Greenwich Hospital;’ ‘St. Mawes, Cornwall,’ after Turner, for Cooke's ‘Picturesque Views on the Southern Coast of England;’ ‘Portsmouth from Spithead,’ after Stanfield; and ‘The Temple of Isis,’ after Cockburn. He excelled especially in etching, and was much employed on illustrations for books. Weak in constitution and eccentric in his habits, he died in middle life soon after 1831.
R. E. G.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Allen, John (1771-1839)

​ALLEN, JOHN (1771–1839), dissenting layman, was born at Truro in 1771, educated there by Dr. Cardue, and afterwards kept an academy for thirty years at Hackney, where he died on 17 June 1839. His chief work was called ‘Modern Judaism; or a Brief Account of the Opinions, Traditions, Rites, and Ceremonies of the Jews in Modern Times’ (i.e. since the christian era), 1 vol. 8vo, 1816. It was reprinted in 1830. He also published in 1812 an anonymous volume called ‘The Fathers, the Reformers, and the Public Formularies of the Church of England in Harmony with Calvin and against the Bishop of Lincoln’ [Dr. Tomline]; ‘Memoirs of Major-General Burn,’ 1815; and translated Calvin's ‘Institutes’ (1815, 2nd edition 1838); some sermons of D. de Superville, 1816; and ‘Two Dissertations on Sacrifices’ from the Latin of William Owtram, 1817.
[S.D.U.K. Dictionary; Gent. Mag. N.S. xii. 210; Courtney and Boase's Bibliotheca Cornub. i. 3–4.]
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Allen, James Mountford

​ALLEN, JAMES MOUNTFORD (1809–1883), architect, was son of the Rev. John Allen, vicar of Bleddington, Gloucestershire, formerly master of Crewkerne Grammar School, Somersetshire. He was born at Crewkerne 14 Aug. 1809. After studying architecture for five years at Exeter under Mr. Cornish, he came to London at the age of 21, worked for some time in Mr. Fowler's office, and settled down into general practice till he was 47, when he returned to Crewkerne, where he carried on an extensive practice as a church architect till his death in 1883. A considerable number of churches, rectory-houses, and schools, either new or restored, passed through his hands, in addition to gentlemen's residences. The little church at Cricket Malherbie, near Ilminster, is much admired, and the reredos at Chardstock is well known and has been reproduced in other churches in the neighbourhood.
T. C.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Allen, Anthony

​ALLEN, ANTHONY (d. 1754), lawyer and antiquary, was born at Great Hadham, Hertfordshire, towards the close of the seventeenth century. He was educated at Eton, and went thence to King's College, Cambridge, where he took his B.A. degree in 1707, and his M.A. in 1711. He was afterwards called to the bar, and by the influence of Arthur Onslow, speaker of the House of Commons, became a master in chancery. A few years later he was made an alderman of the corporation of Guildford, and a county magistrate. He died 11 April 1754, and was buried in the Temple church. He formed a biographical account, in five folio volumes, of the members of Eton College, which, by his will dated 1753, he ordered to be deposited in the libraries of Eton College and King’s College, Cambridge, and a third copy he bequeathed to Mr. Onslow. He also collected materials for an English dictionary of obsolete words, and of those which have either changed their meaning or assumed a proverbial usage.
[Harwood's Alumni Etonenses, 1797, 286; Gent. Mag. 1754, xxiv. 191; Nichols's Literary Illustrations, 1831, vi. 704.]
T. F. T. D.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Boys, John (1749-1824)

​BOYS, JOHN (1749–1824), agriculturist, only son of William Boys and Ann, daughter of William Cooper of Ripple, was born in November 1749. At Betshanger and afterwards at Each, Kent, he farmed with skill and success, and as a grazier was well known for his breed of South Down sheep. He was one of the commissioners of sewers for East Kent, and did much to promote the drainage of the Finglesham and Eastry Brooks. At the request of the board of agriculture he wrote 'A General View of the Agriculture of the County of Kent,' 1796, and an 'Essay on Paring and Burning,' 1805. He died on 16 Dec. 1824. By his wife Mary, daughter of the Rev. Richard Harvey, vicar of Eastry-cum-Word, he had thirteen children, eight sons and five daughters.
[Berry's Pedigrees of the County of Kent, p. 446; Gent. Mag. xcv. (pt. i.) 86-7.]
T. F. H.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Boys, Edward (1785-1866)

​BOYS, EDWARD (1785–1866), captain, son of John Boys (1749-1824) [q. v.], entered the navy in 1796, and after serving in the North Sea, on the coast of Ireland, and in the Channel, was in June 1802 appointed to the Phoebe frigate. On 4 Aug. 1803, Boys, when in charge of a prize, was made prisoner by the French, and continued so for six years, when after many daring and ingenious attempts he succeeded in effecting his escape. On his return to England he was made lieutenant, and served mostly in the West Indies till the peace. On 8 July 1814 he became commander; but, consequent on the reduction of the navy from its war strength, had no further employment afloat, though from 1837 to 1841 he was superintendent of the dockyard at Deal. On 1 July 1851 he retired with the rank of captain, and died in London on 6 July 1866. Immediately after his escape, and whilst in the West Indies, he wrote for his family an account of his adventures in France; the risk of getting some of his French friends into trouble had, however, made him keep this account private, and though abstracts from it had found their way into the papers it was not till 1827 that he was persuaded to publish it, under the title of 'Narrative of a Captivity and Adventures in France and Flanders between the years 1803-9,' post 8vo. It is a book of surpassing interest, and the source from which the author of 'Peter Simple' drew much of his account of that hero's escape, more perhaps than from the previously published narrative of Mr. Ashworth's adventures [see Ashworth, Henry]. Captain Boys also published in 1831 'Remarks on the Practicability and Advantages of a Sandwich or Downs Harbour.' One of his sons, the present (1886) Admiral Henry Boys, was captain of the Excellent and superintendent of the Royal Naval College at Portsmouth 1869-74, director of naval ordnance from 1874-8, and second in command of the Channel fleet in 1878-9.
[O'Byrne's Dict. of Nav. Biog.; Berry's Kentish Genealogies.]
J. K. L.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Boys, Thomas (1792-1880)

​BOYS, THOMAS (1792–1880), theologian and antiquary, son of Rear-admiral Thomas Boys of Kent, was born at Sandwich, Kent, and educated at Tonbridge grammar school and Trinity College, Cambridge. The failure of his health from over-study prevented his taking more than the ordinary degrees (B.A. 1813, M.A. 1817), and, finding an active life necessary to him, he entered the army with a view to becoming a military chaplain, was attached to the military chest in the Peninsula under Wellington in 1813, and was wounded at the battle of Toulouse in three places, gaining the Peninsular medal. He was ordained deacon in 1816, and priest in 1822. While in the Peninsula he employed his leisure time in translating the Bible into Portuguese, a task he performed so well, that his version has been adopted both by catholics and protestants, and Don Pedro I of Portugal publicly thanked him for his gift to the nation. In 1848 he was appointed incumbent of Holy Trinity, Hoxton; but before that he had established his reputation as a Hebrew scholar, being teacher of Hebrew to Jews at the college, Hackney, from 1830 to 1832, and professor of Hebrew at the Missionary College, Islington, in 1836. While holding this last post, he revised Deodati's Italian Bible, and also the Arabic Bible. His pen was rarely idle. In 1825 he published a key to the Psalms, and in 1827 a 'Plain Exposition of the New Testament.' Already in 1821 he had issued a volume of sermons, and in 1824 a book entitled 'Tactica Sacra,' expounding a theory that in the arrangement of the New Testament writings a parallelism could be detected similar to that used in the writings of the Jewish prophets. In 1832 he published 'The Suppressed Evidence, or Proofs of the Miraculous Faith and Experience of the Church of Christ in all ages, from authentic records of the Fathers, Waldenses, Hussites … an historical sketch suggested by B. W. Noel's "Remarks on the Revival of Miraculous Powers in the Church." 'The same year produced a plea for verbal inspiration under the title 'A Word for the Bible,' and 1834 'A Help to Hebrew.' He was also a frequent contributor to 'Blackwood' of sketches and papers, for the most part descriptive of his Peninsular experiences. The most important of these was 'My Peninsular Medal, which ran from November 1849 to July 1850. his acquaintance with the literature and antiquities of the Jews was very thorough, but perhaps the best proofs of his extensive ​learning are to be found in the numerous letters and papers, sometimes under his own name, and sometimes under the assumed name of 'Vedette,' contributed to the second series of 'Notes and Queries.' Of these the twelve papers on Chaucer difficulties are a most valuable contribution to the study of early English literature. He died 2 Sept. 1880, aged 88.
[Times, 14 Sept. 1880; Men of the Time, 1872 ; Brit. Mus. Cat.]
R. B.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Boys, John (1561-1644)

​BOYS, JOHN (1561-1644). [See Bois.]
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Boys, Thomas Shotter

​BOYS, THOMAS SHOTTER (1803–1874), water-colour painter and lithographer, was born at Pentonville on 2 Jan. 1803. He was articled to George Cooke, the engraver, with the view of following that profession, but when, on the expiration of his apprenticeship, he visited Paris, he was induced by Bonington, under whom he studied, to devote himself to painting. He exhibited at the Royal Academy for the first time in 1824, and in Paris in 1827. In 1830 he proceeded to Brussels, but on the outbreak of the revolution there returned to England. Paying another visit to Paris, he remained there until 1837, and then again came to England for the purpose of lithographing the works of David Roberts and Clarkson Stanfield. Boys's great work, 'Picturesque Architecture in Paris, Ghent, Antwerp, Rouen,' &c., appeared in 1839, and created much admiration. King Louis-Philippe sent the artist a ring in recognition of its merits. He also published 'Original Views of London as it is,' drawn and lithographed by himself, London, 1843. He drew the illustrations to Blackie's 'History of England,' and etched some plates for Ruskin's 'Stones of Venice.' Boys was a member of the Institute of Painters in Water Colours, and of several foreign artistic societies. He died in 1874. The British Museum possesses two fine views of Paris by him, drawn in water-colours, and another is in the South Kensington Museum.
[Ottley's Biographical and Critical Dictionary of Recent and Living Painters and Engravers, London, 1866, 8vo; MS. notes in the British Museum.]
L. F.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Coke, George

​COKE or COOKE, GEORGE, D.D. (d. 1646), bishop successively of Bristol and Hereford, was brother of Sir John Coke [q. v.], secretary of state, and son of Richard Coke of Trusley, Derbyshire, by Mary his wife, daughter and heiress of Thomas Sacheverell of Kirby, Nottinghamshire (Wood, Athenæ Oxon. ed. Bliss, ii. 882). He was educated at Pembroke Hall, Cambridge, where he obtained a fellowship, and in 1605 he was junior taxor of the university (Addit. MS. 5865, f. 65 b). After taking orders he obtained the rectory of Bygrave, Hertfordshire, where, Fuller quaintly observes, ' a lean village (consisting of but three houses) maketh a fat living ' (Worthies, ed. Nichols, i. 255; Chauncey, Hertfordshire, ed. 1700, p. 45). On 10 Feb. 1632-3 he was consecrated bishop of Bristol (Godwin, De Præsulibus, ed. Richardson, pp. 497, 565), and in July 1636 he was translated to the see of Hereford (Le Neve, Fasti, ed. Hardy, i. 216, 471). During the rebellion he was one of the protesting bishops, and was imprisoned on that account. When Colonel Birch [see Birch, John, 1616-1691] took the city of Hereford in 1645, he rifled the bishop's palace and after wards took up his habitation there till the Restoration. Moreover he had great part of the revenues of the see to his own use, 'and to this day,' wrote Walker in 1714, 'the manor of Whitborn, by the sorry compliance of some who might have prevented it, continues in his family' (Sufferings of the Clergy, ii. 94). The bishop died at Quedgley, Gloucestershire, 10 Dec. 1646, and was buried in Erdesley parish church. After the Restoration a handsome altar-monument was erected to his memory in Hereford Cathedral (Rawlinson, Hist. of Hereford, p. 218).
[Authorities cited above; also Lloyd's Memoires (1677), p. 600; Fuller's Church Hist. lib. xi. 183; Heylyn's Cyprianus Anglicus (1671), pp. 214, 459, 460.]
T. C.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Coke, Roger

​COKE, ROGER (fl. 1696), political writer, third son of Henry Coke of Thorington, Suffolk (fifth son of Sir Edward Coke), by his wife Margaret, daughter and heiress of Sir Richard Lovelace of Kingsdown, Kent, was born some time after 1626. He was educated at Queens' College, Cambridge, where he 'became well vers'd in several parts of learning.' He did not take a degree. He is described as of Thorington on 17 April 1672. By his wife, Frances, he had a daughter, Mary, baptised at Mileham, Norfolk, on 6 Feb. 1649. Coke is now only remembered by 'A Detection of the Court and State of England during the four last Reigns and the Interregnum, consisting of private memoirs, &c. … Also an Appendix discovering the present State of the Nation,' 2 vols. London, 1694, 8vo, a work written in an easy gossiping style and abounding in curious anecdote. It attained a second edition in 1696. A fourth edition, ' continued … to the death of Queen Anne,' 3 vols. London, 1719, 8vo, was issued after the author's death. To this edition (i. xiii) the anonymous editor has added a few lines of introduction which, although incorrect in some particulars, give what is probably the only known account of Coke's latter days. ' Tho', in his day, he had good speculative notions in trade, he was not so successful in the practice of it, which, with some other incidences, brought him into distresses, and the best support he had, was an hundred pounds annuity out of the grand estate of the family, which, if I mistake not, was settled upon him by his nephew, not long after he came into the possession of it; so that he liv'd for some years within the rules of the Fleet, and died … about the seventy-seventh year of his age.' Coke's ​other writings are:
* 'Justice vindicated from the false fucus put upon it by Thomas White, Gent., Mr. Thomas Hobbs, and Hugo Grotius. As also Elements of Power and Subjection,' &c., '2 parts, London, 1660, fol.
* 'A Discourse of Trade, in two parts,' London, 1670, 4to.
* 'A Treatise wherein is demonstrated that the Church and State of England are in equal danger with the Trade of it. Treatise I. (Reasons of the Increase of the Dutch Trade. Treatise II.),' 2 parts, London, 1671, 4to.
* 'England's Improvements. In two parts: in the former is discoursed how the Kingdom of England may be improved in strength, employment, wealth, trade. In the latter is discoursed how the navigation of England may be increased. Treat. III. (-IV.),' 2 parts London, 1675, 4to.
The above four treatises are praised by McCulloch.
* 'Reflections upon the East Indy and Royal African Companies : with animadversions concerning the naturalisation of Foreigners,' London, 1695, 4to.
[Carthew's Hundred of Launditch, pt. iii. pp. 109, 110, 111; McCulloch's Lit. of Polit. Econ. p. 40.]
G. G.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Clarendon, Roger

​CLARENDON, Sir ROGER (d. 1402), was reputed a bastard son of the Black Prince, and, being regarded as a possible pretender, was hanged by order of Henry IV in 1402. His execution was made the subject of one of the articles exhibited by Scrope against the king in 1405.
[Walsingham's Hist. Angl. (Rolls Ser.), ii. 249 ; Trokelowe et Anon. Chron. (Rolls Ser.), 340; Eulog. Hist. iii. 389; Stubbs's Const. Hist. iii. 36, 49.]
J. M. R.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Clare, Walter de

​CLARE, WALTER de (d. 1138?), founder of Tintern Abbey, was probably son of Richard de Clare (d. 1070?), founder of the house of Clare [q. v.] In Dugdale’s ‘Baronage’ (i. 207) he is also son of Gilbert, a brother of the Richard de Clare who died about 1070. His history is sadly confused. The few facts related concerning him have been mainly taken from two documents (Mon. Angl. v. 269-70), of which the one, his ‘Genealogia,’ is clearly based upon the continuation of William of Jumièges (viii. 37), itself inaccurate, but is sadly garbled; while the other, a chronicle, is even more erroneous. From these we gather that he was a son of Richard FitzGilbert, that he had possession of Nether-Went (the valley of the Wye), and that he founded Tintern Abbe in 1131. In addition to this we find a Walter de Clare defending Le Sap against the Angevins in October 1136 with his brother-in-law, Ralph de Coldun (Ord. Vit. vi. 71), and a Walter de Clare, brother of Earl Gilbert and Rohaise (and, therefore, son of Gilbert FitzRichard), present at Striguil (Chepstow) on 1 Nov. (Mon. Angl. iv. 597), in a year which Mr. Eyton (Add. MS. 31942) dates ‘1138-47,’ but Mr. Wakeman ‘1125-1130’ (Journ. Arch. Assoc. x. 280), and at Stamford, with Stephen (as ‘W. FitzGilbert’) in 1142 (Great Coucher, vol. ii. fo. 445). Mr. Marsh, who has analysed the evidence in the fullest detail (Chepatow Castle, cap. ii.), denies that he was ever lord of Striguil, and deems him to have been only a turbulent adventurer (p. 29). He strongly insists that this Walter was the son, not the grandson, of Richard FitzGilbert, and such, indeed, is the accepted view. It would seem, however, by no means improbable that this view is wrong. Walter dying without issue, his estates passed to his nephew. Mr. Ormerod, in his pedigree of the family, gives the date of 1138 for his death; but this date, though quite possible, is only a deduction from the chronicle printed (ut supra) in the ‘Monasticon.’ His abbey of St. Mary at Tintern was founded for the Cistercian order. No fragments of it now remain, the existing building being the ‘nova ecclesia’ founded by Roger Bigod in 1269 (see on this point Chepstow Castle, p. 30, with Sir J. Maclean's note).
[Ordericus Vitalis (Société de l’Histoire de France); Monasticon Anglicanum (new ed.); Journal of the Archaeological Association, vols. x. xxvii.; Marsh’s Chepstow Castle; Ormerod's Strigulensia; Archaeological Journal, vol. xxxv. ; Addit. MSS. (British Museum); Tintern Abbey (Saturday Review, xliv. 75, 21 July 1877); The Great Coucher (Duchy of Lancaster Records).]
J. H. R.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Clare, Richard de (d.1136?)

​CLARE, RICHARD de (d. 1136?), was son and heir of Gilbert FitzRichard [see Clare, Gilbert de, d. 1115?], and was probably the first of his family who adopted the surname of Clare. He is generally believed to have been also the first of the earls of Hertford, and to have been so created by Stephen (Const. Hist. i. 362), if not by Henry I (Chepstow Castle, p. 44). It may be doubted, however, whether there is ground for this belief (cf. Journ. Arch. Assoc. xxvi. 150-1). It is as Richard FitzGilbert that he figures in 1130 ​ (Rot. Pip. 31 Hen. 1), when are Pipe Roll reveals him in debt to the Jews, an under the same that he appears when surprised and killed by the Welsh near Abergavenny on his way to Cardigan (Iter Cambrense, pp. 47-8, 118), either in 1135 (Brut, p. 105), or more probably 1136 (Ann. Camb. p. 40), on 15 April (Cont. Flor. Wig.) His death was the signal for a general rising, and his castles were besieged by the rebels. His widow was rescued by Giles of Gloucester, but his brother Baldwin, whom Stephen despatched to suppress the rising and avenge his death, failed discreditably (Gesta, pp. 10-13). Richard, who was buried at Gloucester, was founder of Tunbridge Priory, and about 1124 removed the religious house which his father had founded at Clare to the adjacent hill of Stoke (Mon. Angl. vi. 1052). He married a sister of Randulf, earl of Chester, whose name is said by Brooke to have been Alice (but cf. Coll. Top. et Gen. i. 389; Journ. Arch. Assoc. xxvi. 151). By her he left, with other issue, Gilbert, earl of Hertford (d. 1152), and Roger, fifth earl [q. v.]
[Florence of Worcester and his Continuator (Roy. Hist. Soc.); Gesta Ste hani (ib.); Annales Cambrenses (Rolls Ser.); Rrut y Tywysogion (ib.); Gerald`s Iter Camhrense (ib.) ; Monasticon Anglicanum ; Cullectanea Top. et Gen.; Pipe Roll, 31 Hen. l; Brooke’s Catalogue of the Nobility ; Journal of the Archæological Association; Stubbs’s Constitutional History ; Marsh’s Chepstow Castle.]
J. H. R.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Claris, John Chalk

​CLARIS, JOHN CHALK (1797?–1860), journalist and poet, was born at Canterbury, where his father was a bookseller and publisher, about 1797. He was educated at the King's School. Canterbury, and about 1826 became editor of the ‘Kent Herald’ there. This post he held till 1865. He was in bad health some time before his death, which took place at Best Lane, Canterbury, 10 Jan. 1866. He was survived by a wife and family. Claris was a man of cultivation. As a journalist he was devoted to the cause of reform, and wrote eagerly in favour of catholic emancipation and the first Reform Bill. Under the name of 'Arthur Brooke' he published the following poetical works: ‘Juvenile Pieces,’ 1816; ‘Poems,’ 1817: ‘Durovernum,’ ‘The Curse of Chatterton,’ and other poems, 1818; ‘Thoughts and Feelings,’ 1820; ‘Retrospection’ (with portrait), 1821 (?); ‘Elegy on the Death of Percy Bysshe Shelley,’ 1822; he also contributed to Adams's 'Kentish Coronal,’ 1841.
[Kent Herald, 11 and 18 Jan. 1866; Notes and Queries. July and August 1872, pp. 29, 95; Gent. Mag. March 1866, p. 439; Brit. Mus. Cat.]
F. W-t.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Clarembald

​CLAREMBALD (fl. 1161), abbot-elect, although he was a secular priest, was forced on the monks of St. Augustine’s, Canterbury, as their abbot by Henry II in 1161. He was one of the king's clerks, and must have been trusted by his master, for he was one of the justices commissioned in 1170 to hold an inquiry to the conduct of the sheriffs. The monks were angry at his appointment, and would not allow him to enter the chapter-house, celebrate mass, or perform any other sacred function in their church. During the quarrel between the king and Archbishop Thomas (Becket) they were forced to forbear prosecuting their appeal against the kings appointment, and the abbot-elect wasted the property of the convent. At last, in 1176, ​ after fifteen years of intrusion, Clarembald was removed from his office by order of Alexander III. During the time he claimed the abbacy, St. Augustine's was for the most part destroyed by fire.
[Chron. W. Thorn. 1815–19; Gervase, 1410; Dugdale's Monasticon, i. 122; Foss's Judges, i. 224.]
W. H.