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

​NORTON, CHAPPLE (1746–1818), general, third son of Fletcher Norton, first baron Grantley [q. v.], born in 1746, entered the 19th foot, in which regiment, then serving at Gibraltar, he became captain in June 1763. In 1769 he was promoted to a majority in the 1st royal foot, and in 1774 became captain and lieutenant-colonel in the Coldstream guards. He served with the regiment in America, and distinguished himself in February 1780 by the capture of Young's House, near White Plains, an important American post, which cut off supplies from Sir William Howe's army in New York. He became brevet-colonel in November the same year, regimental-major in 1786, major-general in 1787, lieutenant-general in 1797, and general on 29 April 1802. He was appointed colonel of the 81st regiment in 1795, and of the 56th on 24 Jan. 1797.
Norton, who is described as a good and ​amiable man, was a great personal friend of the Duke of York. He sat for Guildford in the parliaments of 1784–90, 1796, 1802, 1806, 1807–12, and took an active interest in all matters relating to Surrey, where the Grantley estates are chiefly situate. His last regiment, the 56th (West Essex) foot, was raised to three strong battalions towards the close of the French war, chiefly by recruits from Surrey. He died at the family seat, Wonersh, on 19 March 1818, aged 72.
[Foster's Peerage, under ‘Grantley;’ Mackinnon's Coldstream Guards, vol. i.; Army Lists; Gent. Mag. 1818, pt. i. p. 472.]
H. M. C.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Norton, John (d.1534)

​NORTON, Sir JOHN (d. 1534), soldier, was eldest son of Reginald Norton of Sheldwich, by Catherine, daughter of Richard Dryland. He was a brave and adventurous captain, and on 11 July 1511 sailed with Sir Edward Poynings and fifteen hundred men from Sandwich, going into the Low Countries to aid Margaret of Savoy against the Duke of Guelders. In Guelderland they ‘conquered a little towne or twayne,’ but failed to take Venloo. According to Hall, Norton distinguished himself in this expedition. Henry VIII soon recalled the little force, and Margaret gave all the men before they returned coats of colours which combined her livery with that of Henry. Young Charles (afterwards the Emperor Charles V) knighted several of the captains, and among them Norton. They reached Calais on their homeward journey on 25 Nov. 1511. In 1522 Norton was sheriff of Kent, and in 1514 sheriff of Yorkshire. He held the office of knight of the body to Henry VIII. He went to France in 1514, and again in 1532. In 1532 he was a commissioner to protect the coast, and in 1525 he took part in the great funeral of Sir Thomas Lovell. In 1526 the king gave him a lease of lands in the Isle of Thanet. He was often in the commission of the peace. He died 8 Feb. 1533–4, and was buried in the Northwood chancel of Milton Church in Kent (‘Letters and Papers, Henry VIII,’ v. 812, seems misdated).
Norton married one of the two coheiresses of Roger de Northwood of Northwood in Milton, and left a son John, who was knighted on 22 Feb. 1546–7, was present at Henry VIII's funeral, and in 1551 went on an embassy to France. He married Alice, daughter of Edward Cobb of Cobb's Place, Kent, and left a son Thomas (Metcalfe, Knights, p. 94; Strype, Memorials, ii. i. 9, 507, ii. 328; Berry, Kent Geneal. p. 158). Sir John also left a daughter Frideswide, who married William, son of Sir John Fyneux [q. v.], lord chief justice.
[Letters and Papers, Hen. VIII, 1509–34; Hasted's Kent, vol. i. p. xc, vol. ii. pp. 625–6; Hall's Chron. pp. 523–4; Chron. of Calais (Camd. Soc.), p. 8; Wriothesley's Chron. (Camd. Soc.) ii. 111.]
W. A. J. A.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/O'Connell, Moritz

​O'CONNELL, MORITZ, Baron O'Connell (1740?–1830), Austrian officer, son of O'Connell of Tarmon, co. Kerry, and his wife, the sister of Murty Oge O'Sullivan Beare (‘Murty Oge’ of Froude), was born about 1740, and christened Murty (recte Muircheartach), which he subsequently changed to Moritz, as better suited to German orthography. He was cousin and the lifelong friend of Daniel, count O'Connell [q. v.] The young kinsmen went to the continent together in 1762, and served the last two campaigns of the seven years' war on opposite sides, Murty as an Austrian officer in Marshal Daun's regiment of horse. He attracted the notice of the Empress Maria Theresa, who soon transferred him from his military duties to the imperial chamberlain's department. He held the office of imperial chamberlain for fifty-nine years, under the Emperors Joseph, Leopold, and Francis. O'Connell's letters in the second decade of the present century show that by that time he had been created a baron, and attained the rank of general in the Austrian army. He had married and had a daughter, as much trouble appears to have been taken to establish the ‘sixteen quarterings’ required to qualify her for an appointment about the imperial court. O'Connell died in Vienna, early in 1830, in his ninety-second year, leaving his property to a kinsman, Geoffrey O'Connell of Cork.
[Information and letters to Count Daniel O'Connell in Mrs. O'Connell's Last Colonel of the Irish Brigade, London, 1892; Ann. Reg. 1831, Appendix to Chronicle, pp. 254–5.]
H. M. C.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/O'Connell, Morgan

​O'CONNELL, MORGAN (1804–1885), politician, second son of Daniel O'Connell (1775–1847) [q. v.], was born at 30 Merrion Square, Dublin, 31 Oct. 1804. In 1819 General Devereux came to Dublin to enlist military aid for Bolivia. He succeeded in embodying the Irish South American legion, and O'Connell was one of the officers who purchased a commission in it. The enterprise was mismanaged; there was no commissariat organisation on board the ships, and a part of the force died on the voyage. The remainder were disembarked on the Spanish main at Santa Margarita, where many deaths took place from starvation. A portion of the expedition, under Feargus O'Connor, effected a junction with Bolivar, and to the energy of these allies the republican successes were chiefly due. O'Connell returned to Ireland after a few years, but only again to seek foreign service in the Austrian army.
On 19 Dec. 1832 he entered parliament in the liberal interest, as one of the members for Meath, and continued to represent that constituency till January 1840, when he was appointed first assistant-registrar of deeds for Ireland, at a salary of 1,200l. a year, a place which he held till 1868. In politics he was never in perfect accord with his father, and his retirement from parliament was probably caused by his inability to accept the repeal movement. During his parliamentary career he fought a duel with William, second baron Alvanley, a lieutenant-colonel in the army, at Chalk Farm, on 4 May 1835. A challenge had been sent by Alvanley to O'Connell's father, who, in accordance with a vow he had made after shooting D'Esterre, declined the meeting. Morgan thereupon took up the challenge. Two shots each were exchanged, but no one was hurt. He afterwards, in December 1835, received a challenge from Benjamin Disraeli, in consequence of an attack made on Disraeli by Morgan's father. Morgan declined to meet Disraeli. Morgan O'Connell died at 12 St. Stephen's Green, Dublin, 20 Jan. 1885, and was buried in Glasnevin cemetery ​on 23 Jan. He married, on 23 July 1840, Kate Mary, youngest daughter of Michael Balfe of South Park, co. Roscommon.
G. C. B.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/O'Connor, Calvach

​O'CONNOR, CALVACH (1584–1655), Irish commander, eldest son of Sir Hugh O'Conor Don and his wife Dorothy, daughter of Tadhg Buidh O'Conor Roe, was born in 1584. He lived in the castle of Knockalaghta, co. Roscommon, and in 1616 married Mary, daughter of Sir Theobald Burke, and granddaughter of the famous sea-roving chieftainess of North-west Connaught, Graine Mhaol [see O'Malley, Grace]. On his father's death in 1632 he went to live in the castle of Ballintober, co. Mayo. He was a candidate for the representation of Roscommon in the parliament of 1613, but was defeated by Sir John King. In 1641 it was rumoured (Deposition of E. Hollywell) that he was to be made king of Connaught, and his castle of Ballintober was the centre of the confederate party. In June 1642 Lord Ranelagh attacked him outside Ballintober and routed his army, but did not capture the castle. He was specially excepted from pardon in the act of parliament as to Ireland in 1652, and died in 1655, leaving two sons, Hugh and Charles. His widow, as a transplanted person, obtained, at Athlone on 8 June 1656, a decree granting her seven hundred acres out of about six thousand.
The son, Hugh O'Connor (1617–1669), succeeded his father as chief in 1655. In 1641 he was appointed colonel in the Irish army, and at the siege of Castlecoote in 1642 was captured by Sir Charles Coote. He was examined in Dublin before Sir Robert Meredith, and described the origin of the rising in Connaught in 1641, and stated that he and Sir Lucas Dillon had been appointed to ask Lord Clanricarde to take the command of the army in Connaught. He was falsely accused of having murdered one Hugh Cumoghan, servant of Major Ormsby, but was not tried, and, after detention for a year, obtained his liberty, and in July 1652 was one of the Irish officers who entered into articles of surrender with the president of Connaught. In 1653 he was acquitted of the charge of murder, and went abroad and served as a captain in the Duke of Gloucester's regiment. After the Restoration he applied to be reinstated in his castle of Ballintober, co. Mayo, and an estate of ten thousand acres. He died in 1669, before his claim had been decided. He married Isabella Burke, and left a son Hugh, to whom, on 4 Aug. 1677, the commissioners of claims adjudged eleven hundred acres out of ten thousand which his father possessed before he took up arms for the king.
[Borlase's Hist. of Irish Rebellion; Calendar of Carew Papers, Ireland, 1603–24; O'Conor Don's O'Conors of Connaught, Dublin, 1891.]
N. M.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/O'Connell, Peter

​O'CONNELL, PETER (1746–1826), Irish lexicographer, was born in 1746 at Carne, co. Clare. He became a schoolmaster, and gave his spare time to the study of Irish manuscripts and to the preparation of an Irish dictionary. He was, of course, thoroughly versed in the spoken language, and became deeply learned in the older literary forms. He travelled about Ireland, and paid a long visit to Charles O'Conor (1710–1791) [q. v.] at Belanagare. In 1812 a Dr. O'Reardon of Limerick, who cared for Irish studies, gave him a home in his house and helped him in every way. O'Connell's ‘Dictionary,’ which he had begun in 1785, was complete in 1819; but, unfortunately, he had a difference with Dr. O'Reardon as to the method of publication, left his house, and carried the manuscript, and many others which he had collected, to the house of his brother Patrick at Carne. This brother died in 1824, and as the lexicographer had been able to find no means of publication, he sent his nephew, Anthony O'Connell, to Daniel O'Connell, the ‘Liberator’ [q. v.] of Tralee, at the time of the assizes, hoping that the great politician, who was an orator in Irish as well as in English, would aid the publication of the work. O'Connell declined, whereupon Anthony O'Connell pledged the manuscript in Tralee. Eugene O'Curry [q. v.] made efforts to recover it, but it became the property of James Hardiman [q. v.], who sold it and other Irish manuscripts to the British Museum. O'Connell's manuscript lexicon, which is of much philological value, is numbered Egerton 83, and is much consulted by editors of Irish texts. It consists of 330 leaves, and is written in English characters. Standish H. O'Grady has pointed out that the infixed pronoun in Irish, of which the discovery has sometimes been attributed to J. C. Zeuss (Grammatica Celtica, bk. ii. c. iv.), is clearly noticed and explained under the articles ‘rom,’ ‘ron,’ ‘ros,’ ‘rot,’ by Peter O'Connell. Three later manuscript copies of this dictionary exist: one in the British Museum (Egerton 84 and 85), made by John O'Donovan [q. v.]; one in Trinity College, Dublin (H. 5. 25. 26), copied from O'Donovan's copy; and one in the Royal Irish Academy, copied from the Trinity College copy. Eugene O'Curry and his brother Malachi both received instruction from O'Connell, and he was often a guest at their father's house at Dunaha, co. Clare, which is about ten miles from Carne.
[O'Curry's manuscript Catalogue of Irish Manuscripts in British Museum; Hardiman's manuscript note in Egerton 83 in Brit. Mus.; S. H. O'Grady's Catalogue of Irish Manuscripts in the British Museum; Egerton 83.]
N. M.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Peard, George

​PEARD, GEORGE (1594?–1644), parliamentarian, born about 1594, was the son of John Peard of Barnstaple, Devonshire. Peard ​was admitted to the Middle Temple on 23 June 1613, and represented his native town in the two parliaments called in 1640. In the Short parliament he attacked ship-money with great boldness, calling it ‘an abomination,’ an expression which he was obliged to explain and withdraw (Clarendon, Rebellion, ii. 68; Commons' Journals, ii. 9). In the Long parliament he took an active part in the proceedings against Strafford, and made long speeches against the etcetera oath imposed by the canons of 1640, and against Lord-keeper Finch (Speeches and Passages of this great and happy Parliament, 4to, 1641, p. 313; Notebook of Sir John Northcote, p. 98; Sanford, Studies and Illustrations of the Great Rebellion, pp. 339, 344). He signalised himself also by moving that the Grand Remonstrance should be printed, and by the disrespectful comments on the royal family (Gardiner, Hist. of England, x. 76; Clarendon, Rebellion, v. 178). In June 1642 he contributed 100l. towards raising an army for the defence of the parliament, and promised 20l. a year towards the expenses of the Irish war (Commons' Journals, ii. 544).
On the outbreak of the civil war Peard returned to Barnstaple, and became the guiding spirit of the preparations for its defence against the royalists. He was deputy recorder, and afterwards recorder, of the borough, and advanced various sums of money towards the cost of its fortifications. But the west in general fell into the power of the king's forces in the summer of 1643, and Barnstaple, in spite of ‘the petulancy of Master Peard,’ surrendered to Prince Maurice in August 1643 (Mercurius Aulicus, 27 Aug. 1643; Cotton, Barnstaple during the Civil War, p. 213). Peard fell ill soon after the surrender, is said to have been imprisoned for some time in Exeter gaol, and died during the following year. His monument, surmounted by a portrait-bust, is in St. Peter's Church, Barnstaple, and his epitaph is given at length by Cotton (p. 282).
C. H. F.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Peard, John Whitehead

​PEARD, JOHN WHITEHEAD (1811–1880), ‘Garibaldi's Englishman,’ born at Fowey, Cornwall, in July 1811, was the second son of Vice-admiral Shuldham Peard [q. v.], by his second wife, Matilda, daughter of William Fortescue of Penwarne. He was educated at the King's School, Ottery St. Mary, Devonshire, and at Exeter College, Oxford, where he matriculated 4 March 1829, and graduated B.A. 2 May 1833, M.A. 17 Nov. 1836. A youth of ‘great stature and extraordinary muscular strength,’ who when but nineteen years of age weighed fourteen stone, he was described by an old waterman at Oxford as possessing ‘the shoulders of a bull.’ As stroke of the college boat, he was famous on the river, and during the town-and-gown rows of his undergraduate days his height and skill in boxing made him an object of terror to the roughs (Tupper, My Life as an Author, p. 61). In 1837 he became a barrister-at-law of the Inner Temple, being called on the same day with Sir F. H. Doyle, who describes his draining on a gaudy day in hall a loving-cup ‘which held about two quarts of spiced and sweetened wine.’ For some time he went the western circuit, but life at the bar must have been irksome to him, and down to 1859 he was a captain in the Duke of Cornwall's rangers. During his frequent visits to Italy he had been cut to the quick by the brutalities of the Neapolitan officials. He therefore joined the forces of Garibaldi, with whose aims he was in thorough sympathy, and, as a ‘splendid rifle-shot,’ organised and commanded a company of revolving-rifle soldiers, who gave him much trouble. When Garibaldi made his expedition to Sicily he was joined by Peard, who distinguished himself at the battle of Melazzo (20 July 1860), and at its conclusion was raised to the rank of colonel. He also accompanied the troops of Garibaldi on their advance to Naples, and commanded the English legion. For these services he received from Victor Emmanuel the cross of the order of Valour, and was known throughout England as ‘Garibaldi's Englishman’ (cf. West Briton, 9 Aug. p. 6).
On the retirement of Garibaldi to Caprera Peard returned to England, and when Garibaldi visited England he paid a visit to his old comrade at his seat of Penquite, on the Fowey river, 25–27 April 1864 (cf. Journals of Caroline Fox, 2nd edit. ii. 290–1, and Frederick Arnold, Reminiscences, ii. 9). Peard was a J.P. and D.L. for Cornwall, and he served the office of sheriff in 1869. He was also a prominent freemason, becoming P.G.M. of Cornwall 26 Aug. 1879. He died at Trenython, Par, 21 Nov. 1880, from the effects of a paralytic stroke, and was buried in Fowey cemetery on 24 Nov. He married at East Teignmouth, Devonshire, 7 June 1838, Catherine Augusta, daughter of the Rev. Dr. William Page Richards, formerly headmaster of Blundell's school, Tiverton. She survived him.
A portrait is in the ‘Illustrated London News,’ 11 Aug. 1860 (p. 135).
W. P. C.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Pearce, Samuel

​PEARCE, SAMUEL (1766–1799), hymn-writer, the son of a silversmith, was born at Plymouth, Devonshire, on 20 July 1766. He studied at the Baptist College, Bristol, and in 1790 was appointed minister of Cannon Street Baptist Church, Birmingham. There he laboured successfully till his death on 10 Oct. 1799. He was one of the twelve ministers who, on 2 Oct. 1792, signed the resolutions founding the Baptist Missionary Society. In his ‘Memoirs,’ edited by A. Fuller, London, 1800, there are eleven poetical pieces, some of which have been included in nonconformist hymnals.
J. C. H.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Pearce, Thomas

​PEARCE, THOMAS (fl. 1755), legal author, was perhaps identical with the Thomas Pearse who was returned to parliament for Weymouth and Melcombe Regis on 24 April 1722, vacated the seat on being appointed chief clerk of the Navy Office on 13 Sept. 1726, and was subsequently, on 7 Sept. 1727, made commissioner of the navy. Pearce was author of: 1. ‘The Laws and Customs of the Stannaries in the Counties of Cornwall and Devon,’ London, 1725, fol. 2. ‘The Justice of the Peace's Pocket Companion, or the Office and Duty of a Justice Epitomised,’ London, 1754, 8vo. 3. ‘The Poor Man's Lawyer, or Laws relating to the Inferior Courts Laid Open,’ London, 1755, 8vo. 4. ‘The Complete Justice of the Peace and Parish Officer,’ London, 1756, 8vo.
J. M. R.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Pearce, William

​PEARCE, Sir WILLIAM (1833–1888), naval architect, was born at Brompton, near Chatham, on 8 Jan. 1833. He served his apprenticeship in the dockyard at Chatham, under Oliver Lang, and, continuing in the government service, was, in 1861, charged with the superintendence of the building of the Achilles, the first ironclad built in any of the royal yards. In 1863 he was appointed surveyor of Lloyd's registry for the Clyde district, and in 1864 became general manager of the works of Robert Napier & Son [see Napier, Robert, 1791–1876], who then built most of the vessels for the Cunard line. The vessels, however, which established Pearce's reputation were built in 1865 for the Compagnie Générale Transatlantique, and their speed excited much attention. In 1869, on the death of John Elder [q. v.], Pearce, in conjunction with Messrs. Ure & Jameson, carried on the business under the style of John Elder & Co. In 1878 his partners retired, and Pearce remained alone till, on his entering parliament in 1885, the business was turned into a limited company under the name of the Fairfield Shipbuilding and Engineering Company, of which Pearce was chairman. During these years, by his skill, energy, and talent for organisation, the building of iron steamers was developed in an extraordinary degree. The Arizona, Alaska, the ill-fated Oregon, the Orient, Austral, Stirling Castle, and more especially the Etruria and Umbria, were among his best known ships; he built all the steamers for the North German Lloyd's and for the New Zealand Shipping Company, as well as several for the Dover and Calais line, reducing the time of crossing to less than an hour. It was his ambition to built a vessel which should cross the Atlantic within five days, and in the summer of 1888 he exhibited in Glasgow the model of one calculated to do so. The admirable organisation of his works enabled him, on occasion, to produce most remarkable results, as when, in 1884, he built eleven stern-wheel vessels for service on the Nile in twenty-eight days, delivering them at Alexandria within the contract time, for which he received the thanks of the secretary of state for war. In 1885, and again in 1886, he was returned to parliament, in the conservative interest, by the Govan division of Lanarkshire; he was also chairman of the Guion Steamship Company and of the Scottish Oriental Steamship Company. He was a deputy lieutenant and justice of the peace for Lanarkshire, and in 1887 was created a baronet. The excessive strain of his gigantic and complicated business affected his nervous system, and gave rise to or aggravated a disease of the heart of which he died in ​London on 18 Dec. 1888. He was buried at Gillingham, Kent, on the 22nd. He left a widow and one son, William George (1861–1907), the second and last baronet.
J. K. L.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Pearce, Nathaniel

​PEARCE, NATHANIEL (1779–1820), traveller, born on 14 Feb. 1779, at East Acton, Middlesex, was educated at private schools, but, proving wild and incorrigible, was apprenticed to a carpenter and joiner in Duke Street, Grosvenor Square. He soon ran away to sea, and on his return was apprenticed to a leather-seller, whom he left suddenly to enlist on the Alert man-of-war. In May 1794 he was taken prisoner by the French; but after many attempts succeeded in escaping, and served again in the navy. Many adventures followed. Deserting from the Antelope in July 1804, he seems to have made his way to Mocha and adopted mahomedanism, but managed to reach, on 31 Dec. 1804, the vessel that was conveying Lord Valentia's mission to Abyssinia. Arrived at Massowa, he accompanied, in the summer of next year, Henry Salt [q. v.] as English servant on his mission to the court of the Ras Welled Selassé of Tigré. On Salt's departure in November, Pearce stayed behind in the service of the Ras. On more than one occasion he was compelled by jealous intriguers to quit the court, but by the autumn of 1807 he had made his position ​there secure. In 1808 he married the daughter of Sidee Paulus, a Greek. In 1810 he met Salt's second expedition, and escorted it from the coast and back. Pearce remained in Abyssinia till 1818, when he set out for Cairo on a visit to Salt. He reached Cairo in 1819, and, after a journey up the Nile, returned there and died at Alexandria from the results of exposure on 12 Aug. 1820, when his passage had been taken to England, the ‘R’ against his name in the navy list having been removed at the instance of his friends.
His journals, which are one long record of adventures, and contain a most minute and careful account of the habits and customs of the Abyssinians, were edited by J. J. Halls, and published under the title of the ‘Life and Adventures of N. Pearce,’ 2 vols. 12mo, London, 1831.
B. B. W.