OpenLLM-France/wikimedia huggingface dataset:
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Cokayne, Thomas (1587-1638)

​COKAYNE, THOMAS (1587–1638), lexicographer, born at Mapleton, Derbyshire, 21 Jan. 1587, was of the family of Cokayne or Cockaine, of Ashbourne, Derbyshire, and was son and heir of Sir Edward Cokayne, his mother being Jane, daughter of Nicholas Ashby of Willoughby-in-the-Wolds, Nottinghamshire (Cockayne Memoranda, i. 35). He was educated at Corpus Christi College, Oxford, which he left without taking a degree. About 1607 he married Ann, daughter of Sir John Stanhope of Elvaston, Derbyshire, by whom he had two sons and five daughters, the eldest being Sir Aston Cokayne [q. v.] He abandoned his wife and children at Ashbourne, and hid himself in London under the name of Browne. Lodging in Gray's Inn Lane, he died there in 1638, aged 51 (ib. 36), and was buried in St. Giles's Church, 27 Jan. In 1640 the inquisition into his property was held, this being the last of the kind in his family (ib. ii. 222 et seq.).
Wood says, that Cokayne published an ‘English-Greek Lexicon, containing the derivations and various significancies of all the words in the New Testament, with a complete index in Greek and Latin,’ in London, 1658, and printed with it an ‘Explanation on Romans II, with all the Greek dialects in the New Testament.’ This statement is accepted in the ‘Cockayne Memoranda.’ Wilson's assumption that Thomas Cokayne is confused with George Cockayne, independent minister, to whom he assigns the lexicon, is improbable. Wood states that ‘he had assistants in this work.’ No copy is in the British Museum.
[Cockayne Memoranda, 1889-73. i 222 et seq.; Wood's Athenæ Oxon. (Bliss), iii. 470; Wilson's Dissenting Churches, iii. 279-81.]
J. H.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Adam of Buckfield

appears to have duplicated article at Bocfeld, Adam
​ADAM of Buckfield (fl. 1300?), an English commentator on Aristotle, is praised by Bale and Pits for his love of this author and his subtlety in interpreting his works. Bale adds that he was accustomed to use Aristotle for the explanation of both natural and supernatural affairs. There still exists in Balliol College Library (MSS. ccxli.) a manuscript entitled ‘Adami Buckfield Commentarius super Aristotelis Metaphysicam.’ Coxe, in his Cat. MSS., assigns the handwriting of this manuscript to the fourteenth century; and, as the name of Alghazil, who died in 1111, occurs in it, we get two extreme dates within which Adam must have flourished. But, since Aristotle, till the thirteenth century, was known to Western Europe only as a logician (Bass Mullinger, History of Cambridge University), it is perhaps best to assign this commentator to the century in which his sole existing manuscript was written. Wadding reckons him as a Franciscan, and professes to have seen four other treatises upon Aristotle written by this Adam, besides the one above mentioned, which he had never come across. As regards the surname Buckfield or Buccenfeldus, there still remains a small village bearing the name of Buckingfield, not far from Morpeth in Northumberland; and as surnames had not yet lost all significance in the fourteenth century, it may have been the birthplace of our author.
T. A. A.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Adam of Barking

​ADAM of Barking (fl. 1217?), a Benedictine monk belonging to the abbey of Sherborne in Dorset, is praised by Leland for his great erudition, and his promise as a writer both in prose and verse. According to Bale and Pits, Adam was educated at Oxford, and was a model of all the christian virtues. As old age came on he devoted himself more and more to the study of the Scriptures and the work of public preaching. For the latter task he seems to have been peculiarly fitted, and his biographers make special mention of his eloquence and zeal in lashing the vices of the people. Bale and Pits say that he ​flourished about the year 1217, and this date may be fairly correct, as one of his works was dedicated to John, canon of Salisbury, who is doubtless to be identified with the far-famed John of Salisbury who died in 1180. Of Adam's writings, which embraced treatises on the Old Testament as well as the New, there were existing at Sherborne in Leland's time: ‘De Naturâ divinâ et humanâ’ (verse), ‘De Serie Sex Ætatum’ (verse), ‘Super Quatuor Evangelia’ (prose). According to Tanner a manuscript of this author is to be found in the library of Clare College, Cambridge. The names of other works of his are enumerated by Pits.
T. A. A.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Adam Anglicus

​ADAM Anglicus is identified by Tanner with Adam Angligena [see Adam Angligena]. Quetif, on the other hand, contends that he is none other than Adam Goddam, and in support of his position quotes the opening words of the so-called Adam Anglicus, ‘Commentarii in Magistri Sententias,’ which are almost exactly the same as the commencement of a similar treatise written by Adam Goddam as given by Wadding [see Goddam, Adam]. The very name of Adam Anglicus is unknown to Leland; but in Bale this author appears as ‘Adamus Scholasticus,’ and is by him assigned to the Dominican order on the authority of Peter Vincentinus (Bandellus), who describes him as maintaining that the Virgin Mary was born in original sin. But Bale's argument is very fallacious; for many of the writers cited by Bandellus, though adhering to the doctrines which in later times were so strongly upheld by the Dominicans, were most certainly not themselves members of that brotherhood. Indeed, it is part of Bandellus's argument to show what was the orthodox and early creed of the church on the above question; and so far is his list of names from being one of Dominicans exclusively, that we have the name of Maurice, bishop of Paris, quoted on the opposite page, and, only a few leaves before, that of Alcuin—both of whom flourished before the Dominican order was instituted; while just above the name of Adam Anglicus comes that of the fierce enemy of both the great mendicant orders, Richard Fitzralph, the archbishop of Armagh. Pits's account, which is plainly based upon that of Bale, adds to the list of his works certain ‘Quæstiones Ordinariæ;’ but in this assertion too he is merely following Bale, who gives us the additional information that Adam Anglicus won great fame for himself at Paris by his skill as a disputant and a teacher. Neither of our two English authorities knows anything respecting the age in which this writer lived. If we accept Quetif's theory, and then identify Adamus Scholasticus and Adamus Anglicus, as Pits has done, the writer will have to be considered a Franciscan, and to have flourished in the fourteenth century. Perhaps, on the whole, it is safer to acknowledge that we know nothing more of him than what Bandellus tells us, viz. that a certain ‘Magister Adamus Anglicus, doctor Parisiensis,’ wrote a Commentary on the Sentences of Peter Lombard.
T. A. A.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Bankes, William John

1904 Errata appended.
​BANKES, WILLIAM JOHN (d. 1855), traveller in the East, was second but eldest surviving son of Henry Bankes [q. v.], of Kingston Hall, Dorsetshire, and elder brother of the Right Hon. George Bankes [see Bankes, George, 1788-1856]. He was educated at Trinity College, Cambridge; was B.A. 1808, and M.A. 1811. From 1810 to 1812 he represented Truro in parliament. In 1821 he was returned for Cambridge University, but was defeated in 1825 by Lord Palmerston and Sir J. Copley. In 1829-31 he sat for Marlborough, and was returned by the county of Dorset to the first reformed parliament, but lost this seat in 1825, after which he did not again enter parliament. On the death of his great-uncle, Sir William Wynne, he succeeded to Soughton Hall in Flintshire, and on his father's death in 1835 he came into the family estates in Dorsetshire. Byron, his contemporary, describes him as the leader of the set of college friends which included C. S. Matthews and Hobhouse. Bankes was Byron's friend through life. Byron gave him letters of introduction when he was starting on an eastern journey in 1812. Bankes afterwards visited Byron in Venice. Byron speaks of him with affection. Several letters to him are given by Moore. Rogers says in his 'Table Talk' (ed. Dyce, p. 291) that he had known Bankes eclipse Sydney Smith by the vigour of his talk. He was known to the literary world by his travels in the East. He inspired or wrote a review of Silk Buckingham's work on Palestine, which appeared in the 'Quarterly Review ' for January 1822. He afterwards published a letter to Hobhouse, repeating charges against Buckingham, who had accompanied him in Syria, of appropriating his drawings. Buckingham obtained a verdict of 400l. damages for the libel, 26 Oct. 1826. He also translated from the Italian in 1830 an autobiographical memoir of Giovanni Finati, with whom he travelled in Egypt and the East. In 1815 he discovered an ancient Egyptian obelisk in the island of Philae, and had it brought to England for the purpose of erecting it in his own grounds at Kingston Hall. He died at Venice 15 April 1855, leaving no issue, and was succeeded by his brother the Right Hon. George Bankes.
[Gent. Mag. August 1855; Burke's History of the Landed Gentry; Bankes's Life of Giovanni Finati.]
G. V. B.
Dictionary of National Biography, Errata (1904), p.14 N.B.— f.e. stands for from end and l.l. for last line
| Page | Col. | Line | |
| 124 | i | 12 f.e. | Bankes, William John: after 1811 insert He was a tory like the rest of his family |
| | | 11 f.e. | for 1821 read 1822 |
| | | 9 f.e. | for 1825 read 1826 |
| | | 8 f.e. | for 31 read 32 |
| | | 5 f.e. | for lost this seat read voluntarily retired |
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Banks, Benjamin

​BANKS, BENJAMIN (1750–1795), a violin-maker, was one of the most prominent among the English followers of Amati. He began as a pupil of Peter Walmsley, of the ‘Golden Harp’ in Piccadilly, the great imitator of Stainer violins. Banks, following Daniel Parker, discarded the Stainer traditions, and copied the instruments of Nicholas Amati. His violas and violoncellos are excellent, but his violins are not so good. At an early period of his life he established himself at Salisbury. His business there was carried on after his death by his two sons, James and Henry, who subsequently migrated to Liverpool.
J. A. F. M.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Banks, Edward

​BANKS, Sir EDWARD (1769?–1835), builder, raised himself from the humble station of a day labourer to the chief control of the firm of Jolliffe & Banks, contractors for public works, and was the builder of Waterloo, Southwark, and London bridges. He owed his fortune principally to these contracts, which he took with the Rev. W. J. Jolliffe, under the superintendence of the Rennies. Among his other undertakings may be mentioned Staines bridge, the naval works at Sheerness dockyard, and the new channels for the rivers Ouse, Nene, and Witham in Norfolk and Lincolnshire. In June 1822 Banks received the honour of knighthood. He died at Tilgate, Sussex, the residence of his daughter, Mrs. Gilbert East Jolliffe, 5 July 1835, in his sixty-sixth year. While working as a day labourer upon the Merstham tram-road, he had been struck with the beauty of the neighbouring hamlet of Chipstead, and, when he died nearly forty years later, desired that he might be buried in its quiet churchyard.
G. G.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Banks, John (1709-1751)

​BANKS or BANCKS, JOHN (1709–1751), miscellaneous writer, was born in 1709 at Sonning in Berkshire. Losing his father early he was placed by his mother's brother at a private school, and taught by an ‘anabaptist’ minister. His teacher, jealous, it is said, of his abilities, pronounced him to be hopelessly dull, and his uncle accordingly removed him from school and apprenticed him to a weaver at Reading. Before his apprenticeship was finished an accident disabled him from following that employment, and he removed to London, buying with the proceeds of a small legacy left him by a relative a parcel of old books, and setting up a bookstall in Spitalfields. Stimulated by the patronage which ‘The Thresher’ of that poet of humble life, Stephen Duck, received from Queen Caroline, Banks produced, but without success, ‘The Weaver's Miscellany.’ Giving up his bookstall he entered as journeyman the service of a bookseller and bookbinder, and published by subscription poems, two sets of which, it is said, were ordered by Pope, who, it is also said, praised them and bestowed encouragement on their author. The poems bringing him some money and reputation, Banks became an author by profession. His next work was a large folio ‘Life of Christ.’ In 1739 he published anonymously his best-known book, ‘A Short Critical Review of the Life of Oliver Cromwell, by a Gentleman of the Middle Temple,’ although it does not appear that the author ever went to the bar. Several editions of this volume were called for during his lifetime, and on the title-page of the fifth, issued in 1767, it is described as being ‘by the late John Banks, Esq.’ The book is written with some vigour, and was one of the earliest in which was taken a view on the whole favourable of Cromwell's career and character. In his account of ‘the biographies of Oliver,’ prefixed to his ‘Oliver Cromwell's Letters and Speeches,’ Carlyle notes this peculiarity of Banks's work, which he pronounces to be ‘otherwise of no moment.’ In speaking of Banks as ‘a kind of lawyer and playwright, if I mistake not,’ Carlyle seems to confound him with John Banks the dramatist [q. v.] In 1744, when apprehensions of a landing of the Pretender and of a French invasion were entertained, Banks published a ‘History of the Life and Reign of William III, King of England,’ in tone and tenor strongly anti-Jacobite. In his latest years he is said to have conducted two London newspapers, ‘Old England’ and the ‘Westminster Journal.’
Banks died at his house at Islington on 19 April 1751, and is described as cheerful and good-natured. On the title-page of an edition of his poems in two volumes (London, 1738), his name is spelt Bancks.
[Cibber's Lives of the Poets (1755), v. 310; Gent. Mag. xxi. 187; Banks's Works in Brit. Mus. Libr.]
F. E.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Banks, John Sherbrooke

​BANKS, JOHN SHERBROOKE (1811–1857), major, was in 1828 nominated to a cadetship in the Bengal army by the Right Honourable Charles Wynn, at that time president of the board of control. Arriving in India in 1829, he was posted to the 33rd regiment Bengal native infantry, of which he became quartermaster and interpreter in 1833. He was subsequently employed for some time on civil duties in the Saugor and Nerbudda territory. In 1842 he served with General Pollock's army of retribution in the march upon Cabul, and shortly afterwards was appointed to a subordinate office in the military secretariat. In this office some years later he was brought into contact with the governor-general, the Marquis of Dalhousie, whose confidence and personal regard he speedily acquired. Owing to the absence of the head of the department on sick leave, it devolved upon Major (then Captain) Banks to make all the arrangements for the expedition which resulted in the conquest and annexation of Pegu. Shortly after the close of the war, he accompanied Lord Dalhousie on a visit to British Burmah, and subsequently became a member of the governor-general's personal staff in the capacity of military secretary. In July 1855 he was deputed upon a confidential mission to Lucknow, to communicate to Sir James Outram, the resident, the intentions of the governor-general regarding the annexation of Oudh.
When Lord Dalhousie left India, Major Banks joined the Oudh commission as commissioner of Lucknow, and soon became the trusted adviser and friend of the chief commissioner, Sir Henry Lawrence, by whom, on his death-bed, he was nominated to ​succeed as chief commissioner, but he survived his chief only a few weeks. In Sir John Inglis's memorable despatch on the defence of the Lucknow residency, the death of Major Banks was noticed in the following terms:—‘The garrison had scarcely recovered the shock which it had sustained in the loss of its revered and beloved general, when it had to mourn the death of that able and respected officer, Major Banks, who received a bullet through his head while examining a critical outpost on 21 July, and died without a groan.’
Major Banks was a man of excellent judgment and tact, able and industrious in the discharge of his official duties, a brave soldier, and an excellent linguist. His widow, a daughter of Major-general R. B. Fearon, C.B., received a special pension from the India Office in recognition of her husband's services.
[Bengal Army List; Despatch of Brigadier Inglis, commanding the garrison of Lucknow, 26 Sept. 1857; Times newspaper, 15 Oct. 1857; family papers.]
A. J. A.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Banks, George Linnæus

​BANKS, GEORGE LINNÆUS (1821–1881), miscellaneous writer, born at Birmingham 2 March 1821, was the son of John Banks, a seedsman. The father was a rigid methodist; he once took a ‘Robinson Crusoe’ from his son, and thrust it into the fire. When a boy George was totally blind for seven months, and was eventually cured by a quack, who applied leeches to the soles of his feet. He was sent to an engraver, but his eyes proved too weak for this work, and he afterwards went to a modeller, and, when neglected by his father, bound himself apprentice to a cabinet-case maker. His master failed, and he became, at the age of seventeen or eighteen, a contributor to newspapers and magazines, an amateur actor, and orator. He had a remarkable faculty for silhouette portraiture, and was also a rapid improvisatore. For years he was intimately associated with many of the movements for the political enfranchisement and social advancement of the masses of the people. One of his lyrics, called ‘What I live for,’ was frequently quoted by platform and pulpit orators, and is widely known. It is believed that it first appeared in a Liverpool newspaper. During his residence in Liverpool he wrote a play called ‘The Swiss Father,’ in which Creswick took the leading part. He also wrote for the negro actor, Ira Aldridge, a drama entitled ‘The Slave King,’ and in later years two smart burlesques for the Durham and Windsor theatres. These were ‘Old Maids and Mustard,’ and ‘Ye Doleful Wives of Windsor.’ He wrote the long popular negro melody ‘Dandy Jim of Caroline.’ ‘The Minstrel King,’ set by Macfarren, and ‘Warwickshire Will,’ are still sung at Shakespearean gatherings.
In 1846 he married Isabella Varley, of Manchester, the authoress of ‘Ivy Leaves’ and of several novels. Between 1848 and 1864 Banks was editor of the ‘Harrogate Advertiser,’ ‘Birmingham Mercury,’ ‘Dublin Daily Express,’ ‘Durham Chronicle,’ ‘Sussex Mercury,’ and ‘Windsor Royal Standard.’ For a time he had some share along with Mr. William Sawyer in the ‘Brighton Excursionist.’ He also wrote ‘Blossoms of Poetry,’ 1841; ‘Spring Gatherings,’ 1845; ‘Lays for the Times,’ 1845; ‘Onward,’ 1848; ‘Peals from the Belfry,’ 1853; ‘Slander, a Remonstrance in Rhyme,’ 1860; ‘Life of Blondin,’ 1862; ‘Finger-post Guide to London;’ ‘Staves for the Human Ladder,’ 1850; ‘All about Shakspere,’ 1864; and ‘Daisies in the Grass,’ 1865 (this is a volume of poems by Banks and his wife). He took part in the tercentenary of Shakespeare and the Durham Burns centenary. He was actively interested in the success of friendly societies and mechanics' institutes.
It was the intention of his wife to edit a complete collection of his poems, and to write a memoir of his active public career. Unfortunately in the later and clouded years of his life he destroyed much of the requisite material. He died after a long and painful illness, 3 May 1881, in London, and is buried in Abney Park Cemetery.
W. E. A. A.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Banks, John (fl.1696)

​BANKS, JOHN (fl. 1696), a dramatist of the Restoration, of whom very little is definitely known, is supposed to have been born about 1650. He was bred to the law, and was a member of the society of the New Inn. In 1677 he was tempted by the success of Lee's ‘Rival Queens’ to write a similar tragedy in verse, entitled ‘Rival Kings,’ and this was accepted and played at the Theatre Royal. In November 1678 another tragedy by Banks, the ‘Destruction of Troy,’ was acted at the Dorset Garden Theatre, and printed in 1679. In 1682 was brought out at the Theatre Royal the ‘Unhappy Favourite,’ a tragedy on the romantic fate of the Earl of Essex. This enjoyed considerable success, and Dryden wrote the prologue and the epilogue. It is a play which, although ill-written, showed a considerable power over the emotions of the audience, and Banks doubtless imagined that it was to be the precursor of a long theatrical success. He was, however, disappointed. In 1683 he wrote the ‘Innocent Usurper,’ a play founded on the story of Lady Jane Grey, but he failed to find for it either a publisher or a stage. He was scarcely less unfortunate with his ‘Island Queens’ in 1684, for that also was rejected at the theatres. He printed it, however, and twenty years later, on 6 March 1704, it was brought out at Drury Lane as the ‘Albion Queens,’ and so reprinted. For many years Banks did not appear before the public. In 1692 he brought out his ‘Virtue betrayed,’ a tragedy on the story of Anne Boleyn, which was the most successful of all his works, and held the stage until 1766. In October 1693 he again brought forward the ‘Innocent Usurper,’ but this time the play was prohibited. He published it in 1694. His last production was ‘Cyrus the Great,’ produced at Lincoln's Inn Fields in 1696. For some time the actors refused to act this play on account of its insipidity; their objections, however, were overruled, and the piece enjoyed a considerable success, but had to be withdrawn after the fourth night on account ​of the sudden death of Smith, the tragedian. Nothing more is known about Banks; it is reported that he was buried at St. James's, Westminster. He published nothing except the seven dramas mentioned above, all of which are tragedies in five acts and in verse. Banks is a dreary and illiterate writer, whose blank verse is execrable. It appears, however, that his scenes possessed a melodramatic pathos which appealed to vulgar hearers, and one or two of his pieces survived most of the Restoration drama upon the stage.
[Genest's History of the Stage, i. ii; Cibber's Lives of the Poets, iii. 174.]
E. G.