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

​PECHELL, Sir PAUL (1724–1800), first baronet and soldier, second son of Jacob Pechell and of Jane, daughter of John Boyd, was born at Owenstown, co. Kildare, in 1724. His father, Jacob, served in the British army and adopted the war-office spelling, Pechell. His grandfather, Samuel de Péchels (1645–1732), a native of Montauban, was ejected from his estate upon the revocation of the edict of Nantes in 1685. In a brief narrative (printed in Sussex Archæological Collections, xxvi. 116) he relates how, after the entry of the ‘missionary’ dragoons into Montauban, he was first imprisoned at Cahors, and then in 1687 conveyed to Montpellier, whence he was shipped to the French West Indies. He managed to escape from St. Domingo to Jamaica in 1688, and, after many hardships, reached England in the autumn of that year. In August 1689 he accompanied William III to Ireland as a lieutenant in Schomberg's regiment, and in January 1690 the king granted him a pension. He subsequently acquired the estate of Owenstown, co. Kildare, and, dying at Dublin in 1732, was buried in St. Anne's Church in that city.
Paul himself entered the army as cornet-en-second in the royal regiment of dragoons (1st dragoons), 17 March 1743–4. He was promoted to be captain in Brigadier-general Fleming's regiment (36th foot), now the second battalion Worcestershire regiment, 12 Dec. 1746. At the beginning of 1747 the 36th regiment embarked at Gravesend to join the army of the Duke of Cumberland in Flanders. Pechell was present at operations near the frontiers of Holland, which led to the battle of Laffeld or Val, near Maestricht, 2 July 1747. His regiment lost two officers, two sergeants, and twenty-two rank and file, and he was among the wounded. He received from the Duke of Cumberland ‘the greatest commendation’ (Lond. Gazette, 27 July 1747).
After the peace of Aix-la-Chapelle, 7 Oct. 1748, the establishment of the regiment was reduced on its return to England, and Pechell was gazetted captain in the 3rd dragoon guards, 31 May 1751. In the spring of 1752 this regiment furnished relays of escorts to attend George II to Harwich, where his majesty embarked on his way to Hanover, and for the next three years the regiment was on coast duty to put down the smuggling and highway robbery in Suffolk, Essex, and Devonshire. On 25 Nov. 1754 Pechell was gazetted guidon and captain in the second troop of the horse grenadier guards (now the 2nd lifeguards), lieutenant and captain 5 July 1755, major 7 Feb. 1759, and lieutenant-colonel 20 Jan. 1762.
He retired from the service on 24 June 1768, receiving a lump sum for his commis​sion. He was created a baronet on 1 March 1797, and died in 1800. He married, in 1752, Mary, only daughter and heiress of Thomas Brooke, of Paglesham, Essex, and left two sons and five daughters. His eldest son, Major-general Sir Thomas Brooke Pechell (d. 1826), was father of Rear-admiral Sir Samuel John Brooke Pechell, and of Admiral Sir George Richard Brooke Pechell, both of whom are separately noticed.
B. H. S.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Pecke, Thomas

​PECKE, THOMAS (fl. 1664), verse-writer, son of James Pecke, a member of the well-known family of his name settled at Spixworth in Norfolk, was born at Wymondham in 1637. His mother's maiden name was Talbot. He was educated at the free school, Norwich, under Thomas Levering, to whom he addresses one of his epigrams, and was admitted a member of Gonville and Caius College, 8 Oct. 1655. He apparently owed his maintenance at the university to his uncle, Thomas Pecke of Spixworth, but seems to have left it without a degree. He entered at the Inner Temple on 22 June 1657, when he was described as of Edmon ton, and was called to the bar on 12 Feb. 1664 (Register Books of the Inner Temple), Pecke was a friend of Francis Osborne (1593–1659) [q. v.], the author of 'Advice to a Son,' and when Osborne was attacked by John Heydon [q. v.] in his 'Advice to a Daughter,' replied to the latter in 'Advice to Balaam's Ass,' 8vo, 1658. Heydon also gave currency to the report that Pecke was the author of 'A Dialogue of Polygamy,' a translation from the Italian of Bernardino Ochino [q. v.], published in 1657, and dedicated to Osborne.
Pecke also published 'An Elegie upon the never satisfactorily deplored Death of that rare Column of Parnassus, Mr. John Cleeveland,' a folio broadside, 1658 (Brit. Mus.); 'Parnassi Puerperium,' 8vo, 1659, a collection of epigrams, original and translated from Sir Thomas More and others, upon the title of which he describes himself as the 'Author of that celebrated Elegie upon Cleeveland,' and a congratulatory poem to Charles II, 4to, 1660.
There is a portrait of Pecke prefixed to 'Parnassi Puerperium.'
G. T. D.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Peck, James

​PECK, JAMES (1773–1810?), musician, music engraver, and publisher, is stated to have been born in London in 1773 (Fétis), and would seem to be a member of a family of printers and booksellers residing at York and Hull. A musician named Peck died at Bath on 3 Feb. 1784, but his relationship with James cannot be traced. James composed 1. ‘Kisses,’ a glee for three voices, published by Preston about 1798. It was followed by 2. ‘Love and sparkling Wine,’ and 3. ‘Hail, Britannia,’ printed by himself at Westmorland Buildings about 1799. Some of his other publications were: 4. ‘Two hundred and fifty Psalm-tunes,’ in three parts, 1798. 5. ‘Peck's Collection of Hymn-tunes, Fugues, and Odes,’ chiefly original, in three and four parts, 1799. 6. ‘Peck's Miscellaneous Collection of Sacred Music’ … original and selected hymn-tunes and odes, printed at Westmorland Buildings, and (book iii.) at Newgate Street, 1809. 7. ‘Vocal Preceptor.’ 8. ‘Flute Preceptor.’ 9. ‘Advice to a young composer,’ 1810. 10. ‘Soft be the gently breathing notes,’ a hymn for two or three voices, with accompaniment for two flutes and pianoforte,’ 1810? 11. ‘Sacred Gleanings, or Hymn-tunes adapted for two flutes.’ 12. ‘Beauties of Sacred Harmony, or Vocalist's Pocket-book,’ 1824. 13. ‘Peck's Pocket Arrangement of Psalm and Hymn-tunes,’ 3 vols., 1833. The later works were probably published by John Peck, the organist at St. Faith's, and James Peck the younger.
L. M. M.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Peckham, George

​PECKHAM, Sir GEORGE (d. 1608), merchant venturer, was third son of Sir Edmund Peckham [q. v.] George succeeded to the paternal estate at Denham, and was knighted in 1570. In 1572 he was high sheriff of Buckinghamshire. In 1574 he, together with Sir Humphrey Gilbert [q. v.], Sir Richard Grenville [q. v.], and Christopher Carleill [q. v.], petitioned the queen 'to allow of an enterprise by them conceived ... at their charges and adventure, to be performed for discovery of sundry rich and unknown lands . . . fatally reserved for England and for the ​honour of her Majesty.' In 1578 a patent was granted to Gilbert, and in the enterprise, which finally took form in 1583, Peckham was the chief adventurer, Gilbert assigning to him large grants of land and liberty of trade. In November 1583 he published 'A true reporte of the late discoveries and possession taken . . . of the Newfound-landes . . . Wherein is also breefely sette downe her highnesse lawfull Tytle thereunto, and the great and manifolde commodities that is likely to grow thereby to the whole Realme in generall, and to the adventurers in particular. . . .' It is reprinted in Hakluyt's 'Principal Navigations,' iii. 165. Whether by unsuccessful ventures or otherwise, he afterwards became embarrassed in his circumstances, and in 1595 the estate and manor of Denham came to the queen 'by reason of his debt to the crown.' They were conferred on William Bowyer, in whose family they still remain. He died in 1608, the inquisition of his, property being taken on 21 June. He married, in 1554, Susan, daughter and heiress of Henry Webbe. She died in childbed, at the age of seventeen, on 11 Dec. 1555 (Lipscomb, ii. 544). By a second wife two sons are mentioned–Edmund the elder, who would seem to have predeceased him, and George, who was his heir.
J. K. L.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Meek, James

​MEEK, Sir JAMES (1778–1856), public servant, born in 1778, entered the public service in the commissariat department in 1798, and was employed by Lord Keith in collecting supplies in Sicily for the Egyptian expedition of 1800. He was afterwards secretary to several flag-officers on the Mediterranean station, and in 1830 was appointed comptroller of the victualling and transport services at the admiralty.
​ In 1841 he was employed by government to collect information of the cost and supply of agricultural produce at various ports in the north of Europe. His report was printed by command of parliament in the following year, and formed part of the material upon which Sir Robert Peel based his free-trade measure of 1846.
On his retirement from the public service Meek received the honour of knighthood, 3 Feb. 1851. He died at his residence, Ilfracombe, Devonshire, of which county he was in the commission of the peace, on 18 May 1856.
Meek married twice: first, a daughter of Edward Brown, lieutenant R.N.; secondly, in 1852 a daughter of Dr. Grant of Jamaica.
[Royal Kalendar, 1831, 1851; London Gazette, 3 Feb. 1851; Ann. Reg. 1856, App. p. 256; Gent. Mag. 1856, ii. 245; Parl. Papers, H. C., 1842, vol. xl. No. 7.]
J. M. R.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Meeson, Alfred

​MEESON, ALFRED (1808–1885), architect and surveyor, son of Edward Meeson and Elizabeth Collins, his wife, was born on 4 April 1808 at 67 Aldermanbury, London. He was educated in London, and spent the earlier part of his life in private practice as architect and surveyor in Wakefield, Yorkshire. In 1842 he came to London at the request of Sir Charles Barry [q. v.], to superintend the constructional and engineering details of the new houses of parliament, and continued to act as Barry's confidential assistant until the completion of the work. In 1853 he was appointed engineer in charge of the houses of parliament, with a residence in the building. On the abolition of that post he continued in private practice at 58 Pall Mall. Meeson had a great reputation as a surveyor and consulting engineer, and was employed on the international exhibitions of 1851 and 1862, and on the erection of Covent Garden Theatre, the Albert Hall, and other important public works. He was architect to the first Alexandra Palace on Muswell Hill, and on its destruction by fire was joint architect of the new building. Meeson died unmarried on 12 Jan. 1885, at 4 Harley Road, South Hampstead, London.
[Private information.]
L. C.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Medwall, Henry

​MEDWALL, HENRY (fl. 1486), writer of interludes, was chaplain to John Morton [q. v.], who was raised to the see of Canterbury in 1486. The only work of his extant is ‘Nature: a goodly interlude of Nature [cotilde]pylyd by mayster Henry Medwall, chapleyn to the ryght reverend father in god Johan Morton, somtyme cardynall and archebyshop of Canterbury,’ b. l. folio, 36 leaves. It is without date, place, or printer's name, but was probably printed between 1510 and 1520 by John Rastell, the supposed author of the interlude entitled ‘The Nature of the Four Elements.’ In the British Museum copy, from the Garrick collection, are bound up two duplicate leaves (c. i. and ii.). ‘Nature’ was produced before Morton in Henry VII's reign, and is thus one of the most ancient of our moralities or moral plays. Bale states that it was translated into Latin. Another interlude not now extant, but ascribed to Medwall, ‘Of the Finding of Truth, carried away by Ignorance and Hypocrisy,’ was diversified by the introduction of a fool, an innovation which commended it to Henry VIII when it was produced before him at Richmond, Christmas 1516. Apart from this feature the piece was misliked, and the king ‘departyd before the end to hys chambre.’
[Collier's Dramatic Poetry, i. 69, ii. 217–24; Warton's Hist. of Poetry, ed. Hazlitt, iii. 189, 292; Ames's Typograph. Antiq. ed. Herbert; Tanner, Bibl. Brit. s.v. Medwallus.]
T. S.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Meetkerke, Edward

​MEETKERKE, EDWARD (1590–1657), divine, born in St. Botolph, Aldersgate, and baptised in the Dutch Church, Austin Friars, London, on 29 Sept. 1590 (Registers, ed. Moens, p. 49), was only son of Sir Adolphus van Meetkerke (1528–1591) of Brussels, ambassador to England from the States-General, by his second wife, Margaret (1549–1594), daughter of John Lichtervelde of Flanders (Berry, Genealogies, ‘Hertfordshire,’ p. 190). He was educated on the foundation at Westminster School, whence he was elected to Christ Church, Oxford, in 1606, and matriculated on 16 Jan. 1606–7 (Foster, Alumni Oxon. 1500–1714, iii. 999). He graduated B.A. in 1610, was chosen student, and became ‘a most careful tutor’ in his college. In 1613 he proceeded M.A., was incorporated M.A. at Cambridge in 1617, and received the B.D. degree at Oxford with license to preach on 19 June 1620. He became D.D. on 26 May 1625. Meetkerke was elected to the regius professorship of Hebrew at Oxford on 8 Nov. 1620 (Le Neve, Fasti, iii. 514). He resigned it in 1626 upon being presented to the well-endowed rectory of Easton, Hampshire. On 9 Jan. 1631 he was installed prebendary of Winchester (ib. iii. 36). Under the parliament he was deprived of his stall and retired to his rectory, where he died in August 1657, and was buried in ​ the middle of the chancel of the church. Having inherited his father's estate and bought property in Hampshire, he died comparatively rich (cf. his will registered in P. C. C. 322, Ruthen). By his wife Barbara, daughter of the Rev. Dr. More, who survived him, he had a son, Adolf (1628–1664), M.A. of Christ Church, Oxford, and a daughter, Frances, married to Nathaniel Naper or Napier.
There are some poems by Meetkerke in the Oxford collections of 1619 on the death of Anne, queen of James I, and of 1625 on the death of James himself and on the marriage of Charles I. The first-mentioned poem is in Latin; the two latter are in Hebrew.
[Welch's Alumni Westmon. 1852, p. 75; Wood's Fasti Oxon. ed. Bliss, i. 423; Burke's Landed Gentry, 5th ed.; Clutterbuck's Hertfordshire, iii. 572; Cussans's Hertfordshire, ‘Odsey Hundred,’ p. 166.]
G. G.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Meggot, Richard

​MEGGOT or MEGGOTT, RICHARD (d. 1692), dean of Winchester, was a native of Surrey. He was admitted as a pensioner to Queens' College, Cambridge, on 4 March 1650, and graduated B.A. in 1653, M.A. in 1657, and D.D. in 1669. From 17 Nov. 1668 to 1686 he was vicar of Twickenham, being at the same time rector of St. Olave's, Southwark. He was appointed canon of Windsor on 18 July 1677, and on 9 Oct. 1679 he was installed dean of Winchester. As chaplain in ordinary he preached several times before the court at Whitehall, Hampton Court, and Windsor. James II, when at Winchester in September 1685, ‘lodged at the dean's (Dr. Meggot)’ (Evelyn, Diary, ii. 233). Evelyn heard several sermons by Meggot, and especially commends one preached on 7 March 1684 as an ‘incomparable sermon … on Hebrews xii. 15’ (ib. ii. 195, cf. ii. 7, 256, 262). He seems to have passed much of his time in London, and to have been on bad terms with the canons at Winchester.
Meggot died on 7 Dec. 1692, and was buried in Windsor Chapel. In the funeral sermon preached on him by Dean Sherlock at Twickenham on 10 Dec. 1692 the preacher said of Meggot: ‘He was abundantly furnished with all good learning, both for use and ornament. … He had true and clear notions of religion, and he was master of them. He knew why he believed anything, and was neither prejudiced nor imposed on by popular opinions. … He was an admirable preacher, not for noise and lungs, but for well-digested, useful, pious discourses, delivered with all that becoming gravity, seriousness, and a commanding elocution, as made them sink deep into the minds of his hearers.’ Ten of Meggot's sermons were printed together in 1699. Several of his letters are in Winchester Cathedral library.
Kneller twice painted Meggot's portrait. In one case it was engraved by White, in the other by Loggan. The latter engraving is described as ‘fine and very rare.’
[Granger's Biog. Hist. of England, iii. 258; Wilford's Memorials of Eminent Persons, p. 277; Le Neve's Fasti Eccles. Angl. iii. 22, 404; Luard's Grad. Cant. abridged, 1659–1823; Newcourt's Repert. Eccl. Lond. i. 758; Lysons's Environs of London, iii. 585; Wood's Athenæ Oxon. (Bliss), iii. 899, note, iv. 832; Brit. Mus. Cat.; Evans's Cat. Engraved Portraits, pp. 229, 276; information from Queens' College, Cambridge, and from the Dean of Winchester.]
G. Le G. N.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Mee, Anne

​MEE, ANNE (1775?–1851), miniature painter, eldest child of John Foldsone [q. v.], was educated at Madame Pomier's school in Queen Square, Bloomsbury, where she gave early proofs of artistic talent. She began to practise when very young, and her father dying prematurely, she became the sole support of her family. Miss Foldsone received much royal and aristocratic patronage; and Walpole, in his letters to Miss Berry of 1790 and 1791, mentions that she is at Windsor, ‘painting portraits of all the princesses to be sent to all the princes upon earth,’ and complains that she will not complete commissions for which she has been paid, having (as he has discovered) a mother and eight brothers and sisters to maintain. She married Joseph Mee, a man who ‘pretended to both family and fortune, without being possessed of either’ (Edwards, Anecdotes of Painting, p. 110). The prince regent gave Mrs. Mee much employment in painting portraits of fashionable beauties, and many of these are now at Windsor. Some of her portraits were engraved in the ‘Court Magazine,’ ‘La Belle Assemblée,’ and similar periodicals, and in 1812 she commenced a serial publication, ‘Gallery of Beauties of the Court of George III,’ with her own portrait prefixed, but only a single number was issued. Mrs. Mee exhibited occasionally at the Royal Academy between 1815 and 1837. She died at Hammersmith, 28 May 1851, aged, according to the ‘Gentleman's Magazine,’ 76, but more probably over 80.
Mrs. Mee's early miniatures are well drawn and executed, but those of her later time, which are on a comparatively large scale, are meretricious in character and of poor quality. A memoir of her, with a portrait engraved by H. R. Cook, appeared in the ‘Lady's Monthly Museum,’ January 1814. She had a son, A. P. Mee, who practised as an architect, and exhibited at the Royal Academy from 1824 to 1837.
[Redgrave's Dict. of Artists; Graves's Dict. of Artists, 1760–1880; Clayton's English Female Artists, 1876; Gent. Mag. 1851, ii. 202; Notes and Queries, 3rd ser. viii. 289, 424, and 7th ser. v. 368, 494; Correspondence of Horace Walpole, ed. Cunningham, vol. ix.]
F. M. O'D.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Meehan, Charles Patrick

​MEEHAN, CHARLES PATRICK (1812–1890), author and translator, was born at 141 Great Britain Street, Dublin, on 12 July 1812. He received his early education at Ballymahon, co. Longford, the native place of his parents. In 1828 he went to the Irish Catholic College, Rome, where he studied till he was ordained priest in 1834. Returning to Dublin in the same year he was appointed to a curacy at Rathdrum, co. Wicklow. After nine months he was transferred to a curacy at the parish church of Saints Michael and John, Dublin. In that position he continued till his death, which took place on 14 March 1890. Verses by Meehan appeared in the Dublin ‘Nation’ newspaper under the pseudonym of ‘Clericus,’ and he wrote many articles in Roman catholic periodicals, some of which were amplified and republished. He was a member of the Royal Irish Academy. Most of Meehan's productions were in connection with Irish and Roman catholic subjects, and intended for popular reading. They principally consisted of translations and historical compilations. His translations included the following: ‘History of the Geraldines, Earls of Desmond,’ from the Latin of O'Daly [see Daly or O'Daly, Daniel or Dominic], 1847; Manzoni's ‘La Monaca di Monza,’ a continuation of the ‘Promessi Sposi,’ 1847; ‘Life of Francis Kirwan, Bishop of Killala,’ from the Latin of Lynch, 1848; ‘Lives of the most Eminent Sculptors and Architects of the Order of Saint Dominic,’ from the Italian of Marchese, 2 vols. 1852. Meehan's chief compilations were as follows:
* ‘History of the Confederation of Kilkenny,’ 12mo, 1846.
* ‘Rise and Fall of Irish Franciscan Monasteries, and Memoirs of the Irish Hierarchy in the Seventeenth Century,’ 1869.
* ‘Fate and Fortunes of Hugh O'Neill, Earl of Tyrone, and Rory O'Donel, Earl of Tyrconnel,’ 1870.
Of most of these works, all of which appeared at Dublin, cheap editions were published there from time to time, but generally without dates. Meehan edited in 1883 and 1884 Davies's ‘Essays,’ James's Clarence Mangan's essays and poems, ‘Anthologia Germanica,’ and translations of Irish songs by Munster authors. He also re-edited Madden's ‘Literary Remains of the United Irishmen,’ 1887.
[Personal information; Irish Monthly, 1889; Catholic World, September 1890; notes supplied by P. A. Sillard, esq., of Dublin.]
J. T. G.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Pillement, Jean

​PILLEMENT, JEAN (1727–1808), painter, was born at Lyons in 1727, and there commenced his artistic studies, which he completed in Paris. He was for some years employed as a designer in the Gobelins manufactory, and before 1757 came to England, where he resided for some years. Pillement painted landscapes, marine pieces, and genre subjects, which he treated in a theatrical and artificial style, with bright colours and strong effects of light and shade. He worked to some extent in oil, but earned his reputation by his highly finished drawings in crayons and gouache, which, though mainly pasticci, derived from prints after Wouwermans and other Dutch artists, were suited to the taste of the day, and gained much admiration. Charles Leviez, a French dancing-master who had established himself in London and dealt largely in prints and drawings, was an extensive purchaser of Pillement's works, and employed Canot, Woollett, Ravenet, and other able engravers to reproduce them; the plates, two hundred in number, were all published in London between 1757 and 1764, and reissued in Paris by Leviez in a folio volume in 1767. Pillement exhibited with the Society of Artists in 1760, 1761, and 1773.
In the latter year he announced the sale of his pictures and drawings preparatory to his departure for Avignon on account of his health, but he probably revisited England, as he was a contributor to the Free Society's exhibitions in 1779 and 1780. He travelled much about Europe, and the latter part of his life was spent at Lyons, where he died in poverty on 26 April 1808. Examples of Pillement's work are in the Louvre and the galleries at Florence and Madrid. The engravings from his designs include ‘The Four Times of the Day,’ by Canot and Elliot; ‘The Four Seasons,’ by Canot, Woollett, and Mason; ‘La Chasse au Sanglier,’ by Woollett; ‘La Bonne Pêche’ and ‘La Mauvaise Pêche,’ by P. Benazech; ‘Le Gazette de Londres,’ by S. F. Ravenet; four views of the environs of Flushing, by Canot; ‘The Shepherdess’ and ‘The Villagers,’ by W. Smith; and several sets of plates of flowers and decorative Chinese subjects, by J. J. Avril and others. Pillement himself etched some groups of flowers. He held the appointments of painter to Queen Marie Antoinette and Stanislas, king of Poland. His son, Victor Pillement, was an able draughtsman and engraver.
[Edwards's Anecdotes of Painting; Redgrave's Dict. of Artists; Chavignerie's Dict. des Artistes de l'École Française; Bréghot du Lut's Biographie Lyonnaise, 1839; Nagler's Künstler-Lexikon; Graves's Dict. of Artists, 1760–1893.]
F. M. O'D.