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

​ORTON, REGINALD (1810–1862), surgeon, born at Surat, near Bombay, on 27 Jan. 1810, was the only son of James Orton, surgeon in the East India Company's service and inspector-general of Bombay hospitals, whose father, Reginald Orton, was rector of Hawksworth, near Richmond, Yorkshire. Reginald was educated at the grammar school, Richmond, under James Tate. He afterwards returned to Bombay, where he was bound apprentice to his father. He returned to England on the completion of his apprenticeship, entered at St. Thomas's Hospital as a medical student, and was admitted a member of the Royal College of Surgeons of England in 1833, and a licentiate of the Society of Apothecaries in the following year.
In 1834 he took charge of Mr. Fothergill's ​practice in Sunderland, purchased it, and in the same year married. He lived in Sunderland until shortly before his death, when he took a farm at Bishopwearmouth. He was surgeon to the Sunderland Eye Infirmary and consulting surgeon to the Seaham Infirmary.
Orton, although only locally conspicuous in his lifetime, brought about, by his energy, changes which affected the whole empire. Throughout his life he was a busy medical practitioner and an active reformer. Sunderland owes to his initiative its system of lighting by gas, its water-supply, its public baths, its library, and its institute. But his services were not confined to Sunderland. It was owing to his repeated protests, and to the public attention which he drew to the iniquity of taxing light and air, that the chancellor of the exchequer was at last obliged to repeal the duty which for many years had been levied upon glass and windows. Orton suggested to the government that, if light was still to be taxed, the duty should be regulated by the size of the panes, and not by the number of windows, as had hitherto been done; so that the wealthy and those who could afford large sheets of plateglass should pay more than their poorer neighbours. He also advocated the imposition of a moderate house duty, commencing at a certain rental, to make good the loss of revenue, if it was found that the duty could be entirely abolished. The latter scheme was eventually adopted. Orton also took a lively interest in maritime affairs, and turned his attention to the means and appliances for saving life at sea. He projected a new form of reel lifebuoy, and invented a lifeboat which was light, low in the water, open so that the sea passed through it (the crew being encased in waterproof bags), and practically incapable of being capsized; for these he took out a patent in 1845 (No. 10898). The boat was used on one or two occasions. Orton died on 1 Sept. 1862 at Ford North Farm, Bishopwearmouth. He is buried in the cemetery of that town. He wrote no book; the ‘Essay on the Epidemic Cholera of India,’ London, 1831, 8vo, is by his uncle of the same name as himself.
[Information kindly given by his daughter, Mrs. Modlin, the Rev. A. E. Rubie, head master of the Richmond Grammar School, Yorkshire, and R. B. Prosser, esq.; Sunderland Times, 10 Sept. 1862; Gent. Mag. 1862, xiii. 644–6.]
D’A. P.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Osbald

​OSBALD (d. 799), king of Northumbria, was, before his accession, one of the chief of the Northumbrian nobles, and was probably a member of the royal house. In December 779 he joined another ealdorman named Æthelheard in attacking Beam, son of Ælfwold, who had been made king the year before on the expulsion of King Æthelred. The two ealdormen are said to have burned Beam, setting fire, no doubt, to his house or fortress at Seletune (probably Silton, in the North Riding of Yorkshire). Alcuin, writing to King /Ethelred after his restoration in 793, addressed Osbald 'patricius,' and another ealdorman along with the king, the three being exhorted to good living. When Æthelred was murdered on 20 April 796, some of the nobles made Osbald king. After a reign of only twenty-seven days he was deserted by all the royal following and the nobles. He therefore fled the kingdom and was outlawed. He took refuge in Lindisfame, and while there probably received the letter sent him by Alcuin, reminding him that for the last two years the ​writer had urged him to fulfil his intention of abandoning the world and devoting himself to God, and praying him not to attempt anything on his own behalf, or add sin to sin by devastating the country. Osbald obeyed these exhortations, and sailed from Lindisfarne with a company of the brethren of the convent to the land of the Picts, became an abbot, died in 799, and was buried in the church of York.
[Sym. Dunelm. ii. 47, 57, 62 (Rolls Ser.); Flor. Wig. i. 270 (Engl. Hist. Soc.); Jaffé's Mon. Alcuin. pp. 185, 305.]
W. H.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Orum, John

​ORUM, JOHN (d. 1436?), vice-chancellor of Oxford University, was a member of University College, and graduated as D.D. He is mentioned on 29 Jan. 1399 (Boase, Reg. Exeter College, p. 25;, and in 1406 and 1408 was vice-chancellor or commissary for Richard Courtenay. Orum was made archdeacon of Barnstaple on 1 Nov. 1400, and held this office till 1429; he also appears as archdeacon of Cornwall in 1411 (Le Neve, Fasti Eccl. Angl. i. 398, 406). He held the prebend of Holcomb at Wells in 1408, and in 410 received a canonry there. On 4 Jan. he received the prebend of Fridaythorpe, York, which preferment he had vacated before October 1412 (ib. iii. 187). On 21 Dec. he received the church of Road, Somerset (Weever, Somerset Incumbents, p. 177), but exchanged it for Ashton Keynes, Wiltshire, on 18 April 1414. On 23 Feb. 1429 Orum became chancellor of Exeter (Oliver, p. 281 ; but Tanner says 18 Feb.) He seems to have resigned the chancellorship before 21 Sept. 1436, and probably died soon afterwards. In accordance with his will, dated 27 Sept. 1436, Orum was buried in the porch of Exeter Cathedral. He left 40s. for the perpetual chanting of an antiphon there, and gave a cope to the cathedral.
Orum was author of 'Lecturæ super Apocalypsim habitæ in Ecclesia Wellensi: 1, De ecclesia; 2, De avaritia; 3-6, De cantu.' These lectures are contained in Bodleian MS. 2722. Some of the other anonymous tracts in the same manuscript may possibly be by him.
[Tanner's Bibl. Brit.-Hib. pp. 562-3; Le Neve's Fasti Eccl. Angl. i. 398, 406, iii. 187, 471; Oliver's Bishops of Exeter, pp. 217, 281, 294, 346.]
C. L. K.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Rutherford, John (d.1577)

​RUTHERFORD, JOHN (d. 1577), divine, born at Jedburgh, studied under Nicolaus Gruchius at the college of Guienne at Bordeaux. He accompanied his teacher and George Buchanan (1506–1582) [q. v.] in their expedition to the new university of Coimbra, and thence in 1552 he proceeded to the university of Paris. His reputation attracted the notice of John Hamilton (1511?–1571) [q. v.], archbishop of St. Andrews, who offered him a chair in the college of St. Mary, which he had recently organised at St. Andrews (Hovæi Oratio, MS. in Archiv. Univ. St. Andr.); and, after teaching for some years as professor of humanity, Rutherford was translated in 1560 to be principal of St. Salvator's College in the same university. Soon after his admission to the university he was also made dean of the faculty of arts, although not qualified by the statutes. He had embraced the reformed doctrines abroad, and on 20 Dec. 1560 the assembly declared him one of those whom ‘they think maist qualified for ministreing and teaching,’ and on 25 June 1563 he was ordained minister of Cults, a parish in the gift of his college (Calderwood, Hist. of the Kirk, ii. 45; Keith, Affairs of Church and State, iii. 72).
Rutherford retained the provostship of St. Salvator's till a short time before his death, at the close of 1577. He had a son, John, who became minister of St. Andrews in 1584, and died of the plague in the following year.
Rutherford was the author of ‘De Arte Disserendi,’ lib. iv., Edinburgh, 1577, 4to: a work said by Thomas McCrie (1772–1835) [q. v.] to mark ‘a stage in the progress of philosophy in Scotland.’ He also wrote a reply to John Davidson's ‘Dialogue betwixt a Clerk and a Courteour,’ which was not printed; it incurred the censure of the assembly (Calderwood, iii. 310–12). There are further assigned to him ‘Collatio Philosophiæ Platonicæ et Aristotelicæ,’ ‘Collatio Divi Thomæ Aquinatis et Scoti in Philosophicis,’ and ‘Præfationes Solennes, Parisiis et Conimbriæ habitæ.’
E. I. C.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Rutherford, William

​RUTHERFORD, WILLIAM (1798?–1871), mathematician, was born about 1798. He was a master at a school at Woodburn from 1822 to 1825, when he went to Hawick, Roxburghshire, and he was afterwards (1832–1837) a master at Corporation Academy, Berwick. In 1838 he obtained a mathematical post at the Royal Military Academy, Woolwich, where he was popular with his pupils. His mode of instruction was practical and clear. Rutherford was a member of the council of the Royal Astronomical Society from 1844 to 1847, and honorary secretary in 1845 and 1846. He is said to have been well versed in both theoretical and practical astronomy, and interested in the proceedings of the society, but did not contribute to its ‘Transactions.’ He sent many problems and solutions and occasional papers to the ‘Lady's Diary’ from 1822 to 1869, and also contributed to the ‘Gentlemen's Diary.’ He always delighted in a ‘pretty problem,’ although his mathematical studies were quite of the old north-country type. He was a friend of Woolhouse. He retired from his post at Woolwich about 1864, and died on 16 Sept. 1871, at his residence, Tweed Cottage, Maryon Road, Charlton, at the age of seventy-three.
Rutherford was the editor, in conjunction with Stephen Fenwick and (for the first ​volume only) with Thomas Stephen Davies, of ‘The Mathematician,’ vol. i. 1845, vol. ii. 1847, vol. iii. 1850, to which he contributed many papers. He edited ‘Simson's Euclid’ (1841, 1847) and Hutton's ‘Course of Mathematics,’ ‘remodelled for R.M.A., Woolwich,’ 1841, 1846, 1854, 1860; Bonnycastle's ‘Algebra,’ with William Galbraith, 1848; Thomas Carpenter's ‘Arithmetic,’ 1852, 1859; Tyson's ‘Key to Bonnycastle's Arithmetic,’ 1860; and published: 1. ‘Computation of π to 208 Decimal Places (correct to 153),’ (‘Phil. Trans.’), 1841. 2. ‘Demonstration of Pascal's Theorem’ (‘Phil. Mag.’), 1843. 3. ‘Theorems in Co-ordinate Geometry’ (‘Phil. Mag.’) 1843. 4. ‘Elementary Propositions in the Geometry of Co-ordinates’ (with Stephen Fenwick), 1843. 5. ‘Earthwork Tables’ (with G. K. Sibley), 1847. 6. ‘Complete Solution of Numerical Equations,’ 1849. 7. The Arithmetic, Algebra, and Differential and Integral Calculus in ‘Course of Mathematics for R.M.A. Woolwich,’ 1850. 8. ‘The Extension of π to 440 Places’ (‘Royal Soc. Proc.’ 1853, p. 274). 9. ‘On Statical Friction and Revetments,’ 1859. Among several mathematical pamphlets he wrote one on the solution of spherical triangles.
W. F. S.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Horne, John

​HORNE, JOHN (1614–1676), puritan divine, was born in 1614 at Long Sutton in Lincolnshire, and was educated at Trinity College, Cambridge. After taking holy orders he was appointed to the living of Sutton St. James in Lincolnshire, and in 1647 was beneficed at All Hallows, Lynn Regis, Norfolk. Calamy (Continuation of Baxter, p. 634) says that he also held a living at Bolingbrook, Lincolnshire, and adds that he was not beneficed out of Lincolnshire at all; but Palmer (Nonconformist's Memorial, iii. 5) thinks that he was ejected from Lynn in 1662, and that he lived in that town until his death, a statement which is borne out by his publication of a sermon entitled ‘A Farewell to his Neighbours, the Parishioners of Lynn,’ n.d. His religious views were Arminian. His contemporaries state that he was ‘excellently skilled in Oriental languages.’ After his ejection he was accustomed to preach three times every Sunday in his own house, and to expound the Scriptures twice a day to any person who cared to attend. His piety and charity won him universal esteem. He died, apparently at Lynn, on 14 Dec. 1676.
Horne's principal works are:
* ‘Θύρα ἀνεῳγμένη. The Open Door for Man's Approach to God,’ &c., London, 1650, 4to.
* ‘Διατριβὴ περὶ παιδοβαπτισμοῦ, or a Consideration of Infant Baptism,’ London, 1654, 4to.
* ‘Essays about General and Special Grace,’ London, 1659, 4to.
* ‘A Brief Discovery of the Quakers,’ &c., London, 1659, 4to.
* ‘The Quakers proved Deceivers,’ &c., London, 1660, 4to.
* ‘Truth's Triumph,’ 1660, 4to.
* ‘Balaam's Wish, or the Reward of Righteousness in and after Death,’ London, 1667, 4to.
* ‘The Efficacy of the True Balme,’ &c., London, 1669, 12mo.
* ‘The Best Exercise for Christians in worst Times,’ London, 1671, 8vo.
* ‘A Comfortable Corroborative Cordial,’ &c., London, 1672, 8vo.
* ‘The Divine Wooer’ (a poem), London, 1673, 8vo.
* ‘The Brazen Serpent, or God's Grand Design,’ &c., London, 1673, ​4to.
* ‘The Reward of Murder, or a Relation of the Penitent Behaviour of Rose Warne of Lynn, a condemned Malefactor,’ n.d.
* ‘The Open Door, or a Vindication of the Extent of Christ's Death, in Answer to John Owen,’ n.d.
* ‘A Brief Discovery of some Pieces of close Idolatry in some pretending to Religion, with Independents and Presbyterians,’ n.d.
[Calamy's Cont. of Baxter, p. 634; Palmer's Nonconformist's Mem. iii. 5; Watt's Bibl. Brit.; Smith's Cat. of Friends' Books.]
A. C. B.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Horne, Robert (1565-1640)

​HORNE, ROBERT (1565–1640), divine, was probably the Robert Horne ‘pleb. fil.’ of Newcastle who matriculated, aged 16, 25 Feb. 1581, at Magdalen Hall, Oxford, and graduated B.A. 7 Feb. 1584, and M.A. 6 July 1587 (Oxf. Univ. Reg., Oxf. Hist. Soc., ii. ii. 95, iii. 119). From 1585 to 1595 the same Horne was chaplain of Magdalen College (Bloxam, Register of Magdalen, ii. 129). By 1613 the divine was settled at Ludlow, where he preached, and whence he dates his books. His will is dated in 1640, and he bequeathed a rent-charge of 10l. to the rector of Ludlow parish church.
Horne published:
* ‘God's gentle Remembrancer this last summer, anno 1613, or an Exposition on part of the Parable of the Lost Son,’ London, 1614, 8vo, dedicated to Richard Atkyns of Tuppe Leigh, Gloucestershire. A reference is made in the preface to Prince Henry's death and the plague.
* ‘Points of Instruction for the Ignorant, as also an Exposition on the Ten Commandments and the Lord's Prayer by questions and answers,’ 2nd edition, much enlarged, 1617 (Bodleian Library).
* ‘Certaine Sermons of the Rich Man and Lazarus,’ London, 1619, 4to, dedicated to Sir Thomas Chamberlain, chief justice of his majesty's council in the marches of Wales (British Museum and Bodleian Library).
* ‘The Shield of the Righteous, or the Ninety-first Psalme,’ London, 1625, 4to.
* ‘The History of the Woman of great Faith … treatised and expounded,’ London, 1632, 12mo.
The two last are in the British Museum, and the author's name is spelt Horn. In the Rawlinson MSS. (B. art. 151, Bodleian Library) is an unpublished collection of historical manuscripts belonging to Horne, relating to the reigns of James I and Charles I between 1618 and 1626, and transcribed by him at Clunbury, Ludlow, and Westthorpe in Shropshire. It contains copies of letters from Raleigh, Bacon, Sir Philip Sidney, besides proceedings in parliament from 1610 to 1626, and letters about the Spanish match.
[Wood's Fasti, ed. Bliss, i. 180; History of Ludlow, 1822, p. 155.]
E. T. B.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Horne, Thomas (1610-1654)

​HORNE, THOMAS (1610–1654), master of Eton College, son of William Horne of Cassall, Nottinghamshire, was born at West Hallam, Derbyshire, in 1610. He matriculated at Magdalen Hall, Oxford, in 1624, graduating B.A. 14 Feb. 1628, and M.A. 4 July 1633. He first kept a private school in London; was afterwards master of the free school, Leicester, for about two years; and was master of Tunbridge school from 1640 to 1648. In 1648 he succeeded George Goad [q. v.] as master of Eton College. Robert Boyle [q. v.] was educated under him there. Dying 22 Aug. 1654, he was buried (24 Aug.) in the college chapel. Two of Horne's sons became distinguished scholars, one, William, a scholar of Eton, graduated B.A. in 1660 and M.A. in 1664 from King's College, Cambridge; was elected fellow and became assistant master at Eton, and afterwards master of Harrow. The other, Thomas, also a scholar of Eton, graduated B.A. 1662 and M.A. 1666 from King's College, Cambridge, where he was elected a fellow; became chaplain to the Earl of St. Albans; was senior proctor at Cambridge in 1682, when he also was appointed fellow of Eton; he published several sermons.
Horne was the author of some popular classical school books:
* ‘Janua Linguarum; or a Collection of Latin Sentences, with the English of them,’ London, 1634, 8vo; chiefly a translation of ‘Janua Linguarum reserata—the Gate of Languages unlocked,’ by J. A. Komensky. Horne's translation was revised by J. Rowbotham, and again corrected and republished by W. D. (possibly William Dugard [q. v.]), with a ‘portal’ prefixed, London, 1659.
* ‘Manuductio in ædem Palladis, quâ Utilissima Methodus Authores bonos legendi indigitatur,’ London, 1641, ​8vo (Bodleian Library).
* ‘Rhetoricæ compendium Latino-Anglicè,’ London, 1651, 8vo. Wood adds that Horne published some learned observations on the ‘Epitome of the Greek Tongue’ written by Ant. Laubegeois.
[Wood's Athenæ, ed. Bliss, iii. 365; Wood's Fasti, i. 438, 469; Nichols's History of Leicestershire, i. pt. ii. 512; History of the Colleges of Winchester, Eton, &c. p. 60; Watt's Bibl. Brit.; Harwood's Alumni Eton. p. 79; Maxwell Lyte's History of Eton College; Hughes's Tunbridge School Register.]
E. T. B.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Horneby, Henry

​HORNEBY, HENRY (d. 1518), master of Peterhouse, was perhaps a native of Lincolnshire. He became a member of Clare Hall, and was afterwards elected to a fellowship at Michaelhouse. He took orders and proceeded D.D. in 1491. Horneby was appointed dean of St. Chad's, Shrewsbury, 2 Feb. 1492–3, rector of Burton Bradstock in Dorset, 12 Dec. 1495, prebendary of Southwell, holding the prebend of Normanton, on 1 March 1495–6, prebendary of Lincoln by the prebend of Nassington in the cathedral, 1501. At some time he was master of the college at Tattershall in Lincolnshire, certainly in 1503 and 1515. He was dean of the collegiate church of Wimborne, held the prebend of Netherhall in the church of Ledbury, Herefordshire, was rector of Over in Cambridgeshire, rector of Orwell in the same county from 1508, and in 1509 was chosen master of Peterhouse. All these preferments were not held together, but Horneby certainly kept Burton Bradstock, Over, Orwell, and the prebend of Normanton until his death.
Horneby was dean of the chapel, secretary, and chancellor to Margaret, countess of Richmond, the founder of St. John's College; was one of her executors, and greatly assisted the new college in its first years. He acted for some years as receiver for the estate which the countess had bequeathed for the founda- ​tion; took a prominent part in the opening ceremony; gave 10l. towards the glazing of the chapel, and a number of vestments also. But he did not neglect Peterhouse, his own college. In the chapel, now the church of St. Mary the Less, he founded a chantry, building the necessary chapel, and in 1516 providing vestments for the services. Horneby died on 12 Feb. 1517–18, and was buried in Peterhouse chapel. By his will he directed masses to be said for him and for the Countess of Richmond in various churches; he also gave 20l. to poor scholars in the university of Cambridge, 40l. to the master and fellows of Peterhouse, and 60l. to the poor scholars there. It is said that Horneby founded a school at Boston in Lincolnshire. A portrait in ecclesiastical dress is in the college library.
Horneby wrote, according to Tanner, besides other works of a devotional character: 1. ‘Historia Nominis Jesu.’ 2. ‘Historia visitationis Beatæ Mariæ Virginis.’
[Cooper's Athenæ Cantabr. i. 19; Willis and Clark's Arch. Hist. of the Univ. of Cambr. i. 57, 65, ii. 242, iii. 472; Baker's Hist. of St. John's Coll. ed. Mayor, pp. 66, 68, 72, 76, 77, 78; Cooper's Memor. of Cambr. i. 23; Cooper's Margaret, Countess of Richmond, ed. Mayor; Hutchins's Dorset, ii. 288; Baker MSS. vol. xx. (Brit. Mus. Harl. MS. 704) contains on p. 254 an abstract of Horneby's will. Egerton Charter 256 is a power of attorney given by Horneby as master of Tattershall College, dated 3 Sept. 1515.]
W. A. J. A.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Sheffield, first Earl of

​SHEFFIELD, first Earl of. [See Holroyd, John Baker, 1735–1821.]
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Sheldon, John

​SHELDON, JOHN (1752–1808), anatomist, was born in London on 6 July 1752, and was apprenticed to Henry Watson, who was elected in 1766 the first professor of anatomy at the Surgeons' Company. Sheldon studied and taught anatomy at Watson's private museum in Tottenham Court Road, which was afterwards wrecked by a mob. ​He received his diploma at the Surgeons' Company on 2 Nov. 1775. He lectured on anatomy at Great Windmill Street school under William Hunter (1718–1783) [q. v.], and in 1777 he opened a private theatre in Great Queen Street, where he spent his time in scientific researches and in teaching anatomy. He was surgeon to the General Medical Asylum in Welbeck Street, and on 18 July 1782 he was appointed professor of anatomy to the Royal Academy in succession to William Hunter. He was elected a fellow of the Royal Society on 29 April 1784, and on 20 April 1786 he became surgeon to the Westminster Hospital, a post he resigned two years later. His health broke down in 1788, and he removed to Exeter, his house in Great Queen Street being taken and his teaching continued by James Wilson [q. v.] Sheldon was elected surgeon to the Devon and Exeter Hospital on 25 July 1797.
Sheldon spent much time in studying the lymphatic system, and but for his ill-health his results would probably have surpassed those obtained by William Cumberland Cruikshank [q. v.] He also devoted much attention to the art of embalming. Both this and his work upon the lymphatics were due to William Hunter's inspiration, and Sheldon was engaged upon both at the time of his death. He believed that he had discovered an easy method of catching whales with poisoned harpoons, and he made a voyage to Greenland to test its efficacy. It is said that he was the first Englishman to make an ascent in a balloon, and his ascent from Chelsea in 1784 was the subject of a caricature by Paul Sandby. He died at his cottage on the river Exe on 8 Oct. 1808.
A life-size three-quarter-length portrait, by A. W. Devis (1763–1822), is in the conservator's room at the Royal College of Surgeons in Lincoln's Inn Fields. It is traditionally reported that Rowlandson introduced a portrait of Sheldon into his picture of ‘The Dissecting Room.’
His works were:
* ‘The History of the Absorbent System,’ London, 4to, 1784. The first part only was issued. It is stated at the end of the volume that ‘the French and German editions of this part are in great forwardness and will soon be published,’ and that many of the plates for the second part are engraved. The book is an excellent piece of scientific work, and is dedicated to Sir Joseph Banks.
* ‘An Essay on the Fracture of the Patella or Kneepan … with Observations on the Fracture of the Olecranon,’ London, 8vo, 1789; a new edit. London, 8vo, 1819. Sheldon also edited Lieberkühn's ‘Quatuor Dissertationes,’ London, 1782.
[Hallett's Catalogue of Portraits and Busts in the Royal College of Surgeons of England; Gent. Mag. 1808, ii. 957; information from the manuscript records of the Surgeons' Company, kindly given by the secretary of the Royal College of Surgeons of England.]
D’A. P.