OpenLLM-France/wikimedia huggingface dataset:
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Hodges, Edward Richmond

​HODGES, EDWARD RICHMOND (1826–1881), orientalist, born in 1826, became, while a London apprentice, a student of Hebrew, and, after being for a short time a scripture reader, was sent as a missionary by the Society for Promoting Christianity among the Jews, first to Palestine, and afterwards to Algeria, which he quitted in 1856. A few years later he severed his connection with the society, and for some time he acted as a minister of the reformed episcopal church; but he subsequently became a clergyman of the church of England. He died at his house in Tollington Park, London, on 9 May 1881, aged fifty-five, leaving a widow and six children. He was well known as a scholar in oriental languages, and assisted George Smith (1825–1876) [q. v.] in his cuneiform researches. He published, in addition to numerous articles in magazines: 1. ‘Ancient Egypt,’ 1851. 2. An edition of Craik's ‘Principia Hebraica,’ 1863, fol. 3. An edition, with notes, of Cory's ‘Ancient Fragments of the Phœnician … and other Authors,’ 1876, 8vo. He also revised Mickle's translation of the ‘Lusiad’ of Camoens for Bohn's ‘Standard Library,’ 1877, 8vo. Hodges assisted Dr. Gotch in the preparation of his Paragraph Bible, and wrote on American languages in the ‘English Cyclopædia.’ At the time of his death he was engaged upon an English version of the ‘Armenian History’ of Moses of Khorene.
[Private information; Morning Post, 9 June 1881; Academy, 18 June 1881, by Prof. Sayce.]
W. A. J. A.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Hoddesdon, John

​HODDESDON, JOHN (fl. 1650), religious writer, published in 1650 ‘Sion and Parnassus, or Epigrams on severall Texts of the Old and New Testament. To which are added A Poem on the Passion, A Hymn on the Resurrection, Ascention, and Feast of Pentecost,’ London, 1650. There is a dedication to the author's uncle, Christopher Hoddesdon, ‘secundary of the upper bench.’ Among those whose commendatory verses are prefixed is ‘J. Dryden of Trin. C.’—the poet Dryden—who credits ‘his friend’ Hoddesdon with first awakening in him an appreciation of poetry. A fine portrait of Hoddesdon at the age of eighteen, with verses by R. M[arsh] subscribed, forms the frontispiece. Granger says that the plate was engraved by Fillian. It is missing in many copies. Hoddesdon's verse is contemptible, but the volume with the portrait and Dryden's contri​bution is valuable. Hoddesdon also wrote ‘Tho. Mori vita & exitus, or the History of Sir Thomas More … collected out of severall authours,’ dedicated to Christopher Hoddesdon, London, 1652, 8vo.
[Corser's Collectanea; Granger's Biog. Hist.]
S. L.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Moysie, David

​MOYSIE, MOISE, MOYSES, or MOSEY, DAVID (fl. 1590), author of the 'Memoirs of the Affairs of Scotland, 1577-1603,' was by profession a writer and notary public. The earliest record of him is his notarial attestation of a lease in 1577 (Memoirs, Bannatyne Club, p. xiii). From 1582 he was engaged as a crown servant, first as a clerk of the privy council, 'writing of the effairis' under the superintendence of John Andrew, and giving 'continewale attendance upon his Heines at Court' (Treasurer's Accounts, 1586), and afterwards, about 1596, in the office of Sir John Lindsay of Menmuir, king's secretary. On 3 Aug. 1584 he obtained a grant under the privy seal of 32l. Scots from the mails of certain lands of the kirk of Dunkeld for his son David, 'for his help and sustentatioun at the scolis, and education in vertew and guid lettres.' On the death of his son, soon after, he had the gift ratified in his own favour on 19 Feb. 1584-5. The only other references occur in three letters written to Sir John Lindsay the secretary in 1596—one from Moysie, the others from John Laing and George Young, secretary-deputes, from which it appears that Moysie had been complaining, but to little purpose, of the inadequacy of his annual salary of a hundred merks.
The 'Memoirs,' if devoid of literary merit, are interesting as the record of an eye witness, to whose official habit and opportunities we are indebted for many details not to be learned from the more academic historians of his time. They are extant in two manuscripts, one in the Advocates' Library, the other at Wishaw House. They were printed by Ruddiman (Edinburgh, 1755), and edited for the Bannatyne Club (Edinburgh, 1830).
G. G. S.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Moxon, Walter

​MOXON, WALTER, M.D. (1836–1886), physician, son of an inland revenue officer who was remotely related to Edward Jenner [q. v.], the discoverer of vaccination, was born 27 June 1836, at Midleton, co. Cork. After education in a private school he obtained a situation as a clerk in a merchant's office in London, and by work out of hours succeeded in passing the matriculation examination of the university of London. He gave up commerce and entered Guy's Hospital in 1854. While there he passed the several degree examinations with honours and graduated in the London University, M.B. 1859, M.D. 1864. He was appointed demonstrator of anatomy before he took his degree and held the office till 1866, when he was elected assistant physician to Guy's Hospital, as well as lecturer on comparative anatomy. In 1864 he read at the Linnean Society a paper on 'The Anatomy of the Rotatoria,' in 1866 published in the 'Journal of Microscopic Science' a paper on 'Peripheral Terminations of Motor Nerves,' and in 1869 one on 'The Reproduction of Infusoria' in the 'Journal of Anatomy and Physiology.' He was elected a fellow of the College of Physicians of London in 1868, and in 1869 lecturer on pathology at Guy's Hospital. He contributed many papers to the 'Transactions of the Pathological Society,' published 'Lectures on Analytical Pathology' and edited in 1875 the second edition of Dr. Wilks's 'Lectures on Pathological Anatomy.' He was next appointed lecturer on materia medica, and so great was his expository power that ​his lectures on this jejune subject were crowded. In 1873 he became physician to Guy's Hospital, and in 1882 lecturer on medicine. He was the author of (Lancet, 30 Aug. 1884) a biography of his colleague, Dr. Hilton Fagge, and wrote many papers in the 'Guy's Hospital Reports,' 'Medico-Chirurgical Review,' and 'British Medical Journal.' In 1881 he delivered the Croonian lectures at the College of Physicians 'On the Anatomical Condition of the Cerebral and Spinal Circulation.' He married in 1861, lived first at Hornsey and then at Highgate, having consulting rooms in Finsbury Circus, London. He was a fluent and emphatic speaker and always commanded attention in the College of Physicians. He died 21 July 1886, poisoned by a dose of hydrocyanic acid which he drank in his rooms at Finsbury Circus after visiting his mother's grave at Finchley and while depressed by a delusion that he was developing symptoms of an incurable illness. A medal to commemorate his attainments in clinical medicine is awarded every year by the College of Physicians.
[Memoir in British Medical Journal, 7 Aug. 1886; Lancet, 1886, vol. ii.; extract from Records at Guy's Hospital by Dr. J. C. Steele; Guy's Hospital Reports; General Index to Pathological Transactions; Medico-Chirurgical Society of London Transactions, 1887; personal knowledge.]
N. M.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Moyle, John (d.1714)

​MOYLE, JOHN (d. 1714), naval surgeon, after serving many years at sea in merchant ships and ships of war, and having been ‘in most of the sea fights that we have had with any nation in my time,’ was superannuated about 1690 on a pension of apparently 40l. a year, and applied himself in his old age to writing his surgical experiences for the benefit of younger sea-surgeons. What he wrote was not, he said, collected out of other authors, but was his own practice, the product of real experience. He nowhere mentions any officer with whom he had served, any ship or any particular battle which he had been in, though he refers some of his experiences to ‘the last Holland war,’ to ‘one of the last fights we had with the Hollanders’—that is in 1673; or to ‘before Tripoli in Barbary, when we had wars with that place’—that is, in 1676. Similarly he speaks of having been at Newfoundland, and at many places in the Mediterranean; Alexandria, Scanderoon, Smyrna, and Constantinople are incidentally mentioned. He describes himself in 1693 as ‘being grown in years and not capable to hold it longer in that employ,’ as surgeon at sea. He seems to have lived for his remaining years in Westminster, where he died in February 1713–14. His published works are: 1. ‘Abstractum Chirurgiæ Marinæ, or An Abstract of Sea Surgery’ (12mo, 1686). 2. ‘Chirurgus Marinus, or The Sea Chirurgion’ (12mo, 1693). 3. ‘The Experienced Chirurgion’ (12mo, 1703). 4. ‘Chirurgic Memoirs’ (12mo, 1708). This last has a portrait in full flowing wig.
He left a widow, Mary, and three children, a son, John, and two daughters, Mary Nozet, and Susanna Willon, apparently by a former marriage. To these he bequeathed one shilling each, ‘to debar them from claiming any interest in or title to any part of my real or personal estate.’ To a grandson, James Willon, ‘now beyond the seas,’ he left 10l. subject to the condition of his demanding it in person within seven years. The rest of the property was left to the widow, ‘sole and only executrix’ (will in Somerset House, Aston, 32, dated 1 March 1702–3, proved 17 Feb. 1713–14). One of the witnesses to the will is Edward Ives, who may probably have been the father of Edward Ives [q. v.], the naval surgeon and traveller.
[His works, as named in the text; Pension list in the Public Eecord Office.]
J. K. L.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Moyle, Matthew Paul

​MOYLE, MATTHEW PAUL (1788–1880), meteorologist and writer on mining, second son of John Moyle, by Julia, daughter of Jonathan Hornblower [q. v.], was born at Chacewater, Cornwall, 4 Oct. 1788, and educated at Guy's and St. Thomas's Hospitals. He became a member of the Royal College of Surgeons in 1809, and was afterwards in practice at Helston in Cornwall for the long period of sixty-nine years. A considerable portion of his practice consisted in attending the men accidentally injured in the tin and copper mines of his neighbourhood, and his attention was thus led to mining. In 1814 he sent to Thomson's ‘Annals of Philosophy’ ‘Queries respecting the flow of Water in Chacewater Mine;’ in the following years he communicated papers on ‘The Temperature of Mines,’ ‘On Granite Veins,’ and ‘On the Atmosphere of Cornish Mines.’ During a series of years he kept registers and made extensive and valuable observations on barometers and thermometers, and ​ in conjunction with Robert Were Fox [q. v.] he wrote and communicated to Tilloch's ‘Philosophical Magazine’ in 1823, ‘An Account of the Observations and Experiments on the Temperature of Mines which have recently been made in Cornwall and the North of England.’ In 1841 he sent to Sturgeon's ‘Annals of Electricity’ a paper ‘On the Formation of Electro-type Plates independently of any engraving.’ He died at Cross Street, Helston, 7 Aug. 1880, leaving a large family.
G. C. B.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Moyle, Walter (d.1470)

​MOYLE, Sir WALTER (d. 1470?), judge, was third son of Thomas Moyle of Bodmin. In 1454 he was resident at Eastwell in Kent, and was commissioner for Kent to raise money for the defence of Calais ( ​Proceedings of the Privy Council, vi. 239). When he was called to the bar does not appear, but he was reader at Gray's Inn, in 1443 became a serjeant-at-law, and a king's Serjeant in 1454 (Wynne, Serjeants-at-Law, pp. 35, 36). In the same year he was the bearer of a message from the lords to the commons, refusing to interfere on behalf of the speaker, Thorpe, imprisoned by process of law, and on 9 July he was appointed a judge of the king's bench (Cal. Pat. Rolls, p. 296). This office he held till his death. In 1459, 1460, and 1461 he was appointed by parliament a trier of petitions from Gascony and parts abroad. He was one of those knighted in 1465 on the occasion of the coronation of Edward IV's queen, Elizabeth. He died about 1470, seised of numerous lands in Devonshire and Somerset, and his will was proved on 31 July 1480. Through his wife Margaret he acquired the manor of Stevenston in Devonshire. His son John was father of Sir Thomas Moyle [q. v.]
[Foss's Lives of the Judges; Stevenson's Letters and Papers temp. Hen. VI (Rolls Ser.), vol. ii. pt. ii. p. [284] , Rot. Parl. v. 240; Dugdale's Origines, p. 46; Hasted's Kent, vii. 392; Collins's Peerage, iii. 379, viii. 510.]
J. A. H.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Moyle, John (1592?-1661)

​MOYLE, JOHN (1592?–1661), friend of Sir John Eliot, was son of Robert Moyle of Bake in St. Germans, Cornwall (buried 9 May 1604), by his wife Anne, daughter of Henry Lock of Acton, Middlesex (buried 12 April 1604). He matriculated from Exeter College, Oxford, on 10 June 1608, 'aged 16.' Among his contemporaries at Exeter was John (afterwards Sir John) Eliot, to whose father Moyle on one occasion communicated ​some particulars of his son's extravagance. Eliot thereupon went hastily to Moyle's house to express his resentment, and in a fit of passion drew his sword and wounded Moyle in the side. This act was unpremeditated, and Eliot expressed extreme sorrow for what he had done. The story was narrated in an erroneous form, on the authority of Dean Prideaux, by Laurence Echard (History of England, ed. 1718, ii. 26-7), and repeated from him by Isaac D'Israeli (Commentaries on Charles I, new ed., i. 319, 531-3). Its true character is set out in the ' Gentleman's Magazine ' (1837, pt. ii. p. 483), by Lord Nugent in his work on ' John Hampden ' (i. 152-6), and by Forster in his ' Life of Sir John Eliot ' (i. 3-9, ii. 630-2). Moyle and Eliot became fast friends. The former was sheriff in 1624, and, to fill a vacancy in the Long parliament, was returned for the Cornish borough of East Looe, and ordered to be admitted on 5 July 1649. He died at Bake on 9 Oct. 1661, and was buried at St. Germans on 17 Oct. In 1612 he married Admonition, daughter of Edmond Prideaux of Netherton, Devonshire, who was buried at St. Germans on 3 Dec. 1675. Of his numerous sons, Sir Walter Moyle of Bake (1627-1701) was knighted at Whitehall 4 Feb. 1663, became sheriff of Cornwall 1671, and was father of Walter Moyle [q.v.]
Some of Moyle's correspondence with Sir John Eliot is quoted in Grosart's edition of his 'Letter-book,' pp. 109-10, 143-8, and in Forster's 'Eliot,' ii. 630-2. Papers relating to him are in the Addit. MSS. Brit. Mus. 5494, f. 79, and 5497, f. 162.
[Foster's Alumni Oxon.; Courtney's Parl. Repr. of Cornwall, p. 116; Boase and Courtney's Bibl. Cornub. i. 373 ; Vivian's Cornwall Visitations, p. 334.]
W. P. C.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Potter, Richard

​POTTER, RICHARD (1799–1886), scientific writer, was son of Richard Potter, a native of Westmoreland, who became a corn merchant and afterwards a brewer at Manchester. Born in that town on 2 Jan. 1799, he was educated at the Manchester grammar school, which he entered in 1811 and left in 1815. On leaving school he went into a Manchester warehouse, and was for some years engaged in mercantile life, but without success. His leisure time was devoted to scientific pursuits, more especially the study of optics and chemistry. In one or both of these subjects he had Dr. John Dalton [q. v.] as his tutor. In 1830 he wrote an article on metallic mirrors in Brewster's ‘Scientific Journal,’ and at the first meeting of the British Association in 1831 he read three papers. The next year he read two papers, and in 1833 three others. The attention given to these contributions induced the author to prepare himself for admission to one of the universities. He accordingly early in 1834 commenced to study classics under a private tutor, with the view of entering Queens' College, Cambridge. He obtained a scholarship at that college, and graduated B.A. in 1838, being sixth wrangler. In January 1839 he was elected a foundation fellow of his college, succeeding to the medical scholarship, then vacant, as he intended to study medicine. He proceeded M.A. in 1841, being then a licentiate of the Royal College of Physicians. He never practised medicine, but devoted himself to the teaching of the physical sciences. He was professor of natural philosophy and astronomy in University College, London, from October 1841 to April 1843. In the latter year he went to the university of King's College, Toronto, Canada, but in August 1844 returned to London, where he resumed his professorship at University College. This appointment he retained until July 1865. The remainder of his life he spent at Cambridge, where he died on 6 June 1886, aged 87. He married, on 11 April 1843, at St. Pancras Church, London, Mary Ann, daughter of Major Pilkington, of Urney, King's County, Ireland. She died, without children, on 16 April 1871.
He published the following works, in addition to fifty-nine or more contributions to journals and transactions of scientific societies:
* ‘Elementary Treatise on Mechanics,’ 1846.
* ‘Elementary Treatise on Geometrical Optics,’ 2 parts, 1847–51.
* ‘Physical Optics: Nature and Properties of Light,’ 2 parts, 1856–9.
* ‘Treatise on Hydrostatics and Hydrodynamics,’ 2 parts, 1859–87.
[Manchester School Register (Chetham Soc.), iii. 82; Manchester Guardian, 18 June 1886; Royal Society Cat. of Scientific Papers; Brit. Mus. Cat.]
C. W. S.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Potter, John Phillips

​POTTER, JOHN PHILLIPS (1818–1847), anatomist, only son of Rev. John Phillips Potter (1793–1861), was born on 28 April 1818 at Southrop, Gloucestershire, while his father was acting as curate there. He was partly educated (for three years) at Brentford, and partly at the Kensington proprietary school. He entered University College as a student in 1831, and in his first year attained a distinguished position in the class of experimental and natural philosophy, while in 1834–5 he was awarded the gold medal for chemistry. In 1835–6 he became a pupil of Richard Quain (1800–1887) [q. v.], professor of anatomy. He obtained the highest class honours in the session of 1836–7; spent three years in the wards of the hospital, and became house-surgeon to Robert Liston [q. v.] In 1841 he took the degree of bachelor of medicine with the highest honours at the London University, and in 1843–4 was appointed junior demonstrator of anatomy. On 3 May 1847 he was appointed assistant-surgeon to the North London (University College) Hospital. But he unhappily received a poisoned wound while dissecting a pelvis for Liston, and died of pyæmia a fortnight later. Potter was an excellent teacher, and helped to raise the medical school of University College to the high position which it has since maintained. A bust by Thomas Campbell, dated 1847, is in the anatomical museum of University College.
D’A. P.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Potter, George

​POTTER, GEORGE (1832–1893), trade-unionist, was born at Kenilworth in Warwickshire in 1832, and served his apprenticeship to a carpenter at Coventry. In 1854 he came to London, and was elected a member of the Progressive Society of Carpenters. He first became prominent in the lock-out in the building trades of London in 1859. On 11 April 1864 he headed the deputation of workmen of London who welcomed Garibaldi, and rode on horseback by the side of his carriage. In recognition of his public services he was presented by the combined trades of London and the provinces with an illuminated address and a purse of 300l. With Howell, Allan, Coulson, Applegarth, and the other leaders of trade-unionism he was seldom in agreement, and they in their turn denounced him as an aider and abettor of strikes. He started in 1861 a paper, ‘The Beehive,’ which exercised some little influence, but he never held any important position in the trade-union world. He was elected to the London school board for the Westminster district on 27 Nov. 1873, and served for nine years. He was the first member of the board who brought before his colleagues the question of free education, and he had the satisfaction of moving for and obtaining the appointment of the educational endowment committee. In his attempts to enter the House of Commons he was not successful; he contested Peterborough in 1874 and Preston in 1886. ​In August 1886, as president of the London Working Men's Association, he opened the trade-union congress held in St. Martin's Hall, Long Acre, London. His last public appearance was at the demonstration against the Local Veto Bill in Trafalgar Square, London, in March 1893. He died at 21 Marney Road, Wandsworth, Surrey, on 3 June 1893.
Though a self-taught man, he was an able writer on labour questions, upon which, from time to time, he contributed articles to the ‘Times’ and the ‘Contemporary Review.’ He in 1861 published ‘The Labour Question: an Address to the Capitalists and Employers of the Building Trade, being a few Reasons on behalf of a Reduction of the Hours of Labour.’
[Holyoake's Sixty Years of an Agitator's Life, 1893, ii. 194; Webb's History of Trade Unionism, 1894, pp. 213, 230, 237, 256, 282; Times, 5 June, 1893, p. 10.]
G. C. B.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/King, Edward (1795-1837)

​KING, EDWARD, Viscount Kingsborough (1795–1837), born on 16 Nov. 1795, was eldest son of George, third earl of Kingston, by Lady Helena Moore, only daughter of Stephen, first earl of Mountcashell (Burke, Peerage, 1891, p. 789). After his father succeeded to the earldom in 1799 he was known by the courtesy title of Viscount Kingsborough. He matriculated at Oxford from Exeter College on 25 June 1814, and in Michaelmas term 1818 gained a second class in classics, but did not graduate (Foster, Alumni Oxon. 1715–1886, ii. 794). In 1818 and again in 1820 he was elected M.P. for Cork county, but resigned his seat in 1826 in favour of his younger brother Robert (Lists of Members of Parliament, pt. ii.).
The sight of a Mexican manuscript in the Bodleian Library determined King to devote his life to the study of the antiquities of that country. He promoted and edited, with copious notes, a magnificent work entitled ‘Antiquities of Mexico, comprising facsimiles of Ancient Mexican Paintings and Hieroglyphics preserved in … various Libraries, together with the Monuments of New Spain, by M. Dupaix, with … accompanying Descriptions. The whole illustrated by many valuable Manuscripts by Augustine Aglio,’ 9 vols. imperial fol., London, 1830–48, including sixty pages of a projected tenth volume. Four copies were printed on vellum, with the plates coloured. It is said that the work was undertaken by the encouragement and with the advice of Sir Thomas Phillipps, in whose collection many of the manuscripts and drawings used in it were preserved (Macray, Annals of the Bodleian Library, 2nd edition, p. 322). The drift of King's speculations is to establish the colonisation ​of Mexico by the Israelites. The book cost King upwards of 32,000l. and his life. Oppressed with debt, he was arrested at the suit of a paper manufacturer, and lodged in the sheriff's prison, Dublin, where he died of typhus fever on 27 Feb. 1837, and was buried at Mitchelstown. He was unmarried.
[Gent. Mag. new ser. vii. 537–8; Ann. Reg. 1837; Webb's Compendium of Irish Biog. p. 275; Allibone's Dict.]
G. G.