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

​KING, HUMPHREY (fl. 1613), verse-writer, a seller of tobacco in London, was author of ‘An Halfe-penny-worth of Wit, in a Pennyworth of Paper. Or, The Hermites Tale. The third impression,’ London, 1613, 4to, pp. 48. No earlier edition is known, but it must have been printed some years previously. ‘Robin the Devil his Two Penniworth of Wit in Half a Penniworth of Paper. By Robert Lee, a famous fencer of London, alias Robin the Devil’ (London, for ​N. Ling, 1607, 4to), is mentioned in West's ‘Sale Catalogue,’ 1773, and may have been an earlier edition, but it is not now known to be extant. As early as 1599 Nashe had dedicated his ‘Lenten Stuffe’ to ‘his worthie good patron, Lustie Humfrey, according as the townsmen doo christen him, little Numps as the Nobilitie and Courtiers do name him, and Honest Humfrey, as all his friendes and acquaintance esteeme him, king of the Tobacconists hic & ubique, and a singular Mecænas to the Pipe and the Tabour;’ and at the end of the dedicatory epistle refers to the forthcoming ‘sacred Poeme of the Hermites Tale, that will restore the golden age amongst us.’ Prefixed to King's poem is a jocular dedicatory epistle to the Countess of Sussex. He acknowledges that his work is ‘a course homespun linsey woolsey webbe of wit;’ but, seeing his ‘inferiours in the gifts of learning, wisedome, and vnderstanding torment the Print daily,’ he is ‘the bolder to shoulder in amongst thē.’ The epistle is followed by an address to the reader, to which succeed three short copies of verses (the second being ‘In discommendation of the Author’), and three unsigned sonnets. ‘The Hermites Tale’ takes the form of a dialogue between a hermit and a young man concerning the vices and follies of the age. Complaint is made of the growth of luxury and decay of hospitality, and the puritans are vigorously assailed.
[Collier's Bibliographical Catalogue; Corser's Collectanea; Hazlitt's Handbook.]
A. H. B.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/King, John (1639-1677)

​KING, Sir JOHN (1639–1677), lawyer, of a Huguenot family of Rouen, originally named Le Roy, was eldest son of John King, M.D., of Aldersgate Street, London, by his second wife, Elizabeth, youngest daughter of Barne Roberts of Willesden, Middlesex. He was born at St. Albans on 5 Feb. 1638–9, and was educated first at the free school there, and then, from the age of thirteen, at Eton, where he obtained a foundation scholarship and became head of the school. He proceeded to Queens' College, Cambridge, in November 1655, and graduated B.A. Though personally desirous of taking orders, by his father's desire in November 1660 he was admitted a member of the Inner Temple, and on 9 Feb. 1667 was called to the bar. He became a bencher of the inn 31 Jan. 1674, and treasurer in 1675. He began his practice by appearing before the commission for the rebuilding of London after the fire, but soon obtained business in Westminster Hall, and eventually a very large chancery practice. He was made a king's counsel and attorney-general to the Duke of York, and on 10 Dec. 1674 was knighted. In 1676 his fees amounted to 4,700l. His fine memory, his polished eloquence, his affable manners, and still more his incredible industry, had secured for him an enormous amount of work, and he was in the front rank of his profession in nine years from his call. Burnet says of him that the court party were weary of ‘Sir William Jones [q. v.], Attorney-general, and were raising Sir John King to vie with him, but he died in his rise, which indeed went on very quick’ (Hist. of my own Time, fol. ed. i. 396). His health broke down under the strain of work, and in his later years he could not sleep more than three hours together. He died at his house in Salisbury Court on 29 June 1677. He was buried in the Temple Church on 4 July, where there is an inscription in the triforium and a stone in the churchyard to his memory.
King married, on 20 Feb. 1666–7, Joyce, daughter and heiress of William Bennett of High Rothing, Essex, by whom he had two sons and five daughters.
[From a family manuscript written by his father in 1677, and contributed to Gent. Mag. lii. 110, reprinted with additions in 1855; Roger North's Life of Lord Keeper Guildford; Chauncy's Hertfordshire, p. 467 a; Echard's History of England, ed. 1718, iii. 438.]
J. A. H.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Owen, Hugh (1761-1827)

​OWEN, HUGH (1761–1827), topographer, born in 1761, was the only son of Pryce Owen, M.D., a physician of Shrewsbury, by his wife Bridget, only daughter of John Whitfield, esq. He was educated at St. John's College, Cambridge, where he graduated B.A. in 1783, and M.A. in 1807 (Graduati Cantabr. 1846, p. 235). In 1791 he was presented by the Earl of Tankerville to the vicarage of St. Julian, Shrewsbury; in 1803 he was collated by Bishop Douglas to the prebend of Gillingham Minor in the cathedral of Salisbury; and in 1819 he was presented by the dean and chapter of Exeter to a portion of the vicarage of Bampton, Oxfordshire. He was a fellow of the Society of Antiquaries, and filled the office of mayor of Shrewsbury in 1819.
He was collated by Bishop Cornwallis on 27 Dec. 1821 to the archdeaconry of Salop, and on 30 March 1822 to the prebend of Bishopshill in the church of Lichfield. On the death of his friend John Brickdale Blakeway [q. v.] in 1826, he succeeded him as minister of the royal peculiar of St. Mary's, Shrewsbury, and he then resigned the church of St. Julian, though he continued to be portionist of the vicarage of Bampton. He died at Shrewsbury on 23 Dec. 1827. His only son, Edward Pryce Owen [q. v.], is separately noticed.
His principal work, undertaken in collaboration with Blakeway, is ‘A History of Shrewsbury,’ in two large volumes, London, 1825, 4to. He had already published, anonymously, ‘Some Account of the ancient and present State of Shrewsbury,’ Shrewsbury, 1808, 8vo, and 1810, 12mo, a work replete with information, especially in the ecclesiastical part. To Britton's ‘Architectural Antiquities’ (vol. iv.) he contributed, with Blakeway, descriptions of Wenlock Abbey, and of Ludlow and Stokesay Castles.
[Gent. Mag. 1826 pt. ii. pp. 321, 431, 1828 pt. i. p. 89; Le Neve's Fasti, i. 575, 591, ii. 681; Upcott's Engl. Topography, iii. 1141; Lowndes's Bibl. Man. (Bohn), p. 1750; Carlisle's Endowed Grammar Schools, iii. 395; Leighton's Guide through the Town of Shrewsbury, pp. 103, 184.]
T. C.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Owen, Hugh (1615-1686)

​OWEN, HUGH, verè John Hughes (1615–1686), jesuit, born in Anglesea in June 1615, was admitted a student of the English College at Rome on 25 Dec. 1636, was ordained priest in the church of St. John Lateran on 16 March 1640–1, and left Rome for England on 28 Sept. 1643. He entered the Society of Jesus at Watten, near St. Omer, in 1648, and returned to the English mission in 1650. In a catalogue of jesuits for 1655 he is mentioned as then serving the college or district of St. Francis Xavier, comprising South Wales, Monmouthshire, Herefordshire, and Gloucestershire. Subsequently he was stationed at Holywell, where he died on 28 Dec. 1686.
He was the author of: 1. A report, in Welsh, of Roger Whetstone's cure at St. Winefrid's well; manuscript at Stonyhurst College. 2. ‘On the Grievousness of Mortal Sin, especially of Heresy’ (anon.), London, 1668. 3. The prayer-book called ‘The Key of Heaven’ (anon.), London, 1670. 4. A catechism in Welsh, London, 1688.
[De Backer's Bibl. des Écrivains de la Compagnie de Jésus, ii. 1663; Foley's Records, iv. 518, vi. 343, vii. 560; London and Dublin Orthodox Journal, 1836, ii. 82, 83 n; Oliver's Jesuit Collections, p. 152.]
T. C.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Owen, Hugh (1639-1700)

​OWEN, HUGH (1639–1700), of Bronclydwr, Merionethshire, nonconformist preacher, born in 1639, was the son of Humphrey Owen, the son of John Owen, the son of John Lewis Owen, member for Merioneth in the third parliament of Elizabeth, and son of Lewis Owen (d. 1555) [q. v.] Hugh was intended for the church, and entered Jesus College, Oxford, matriculating on 21 July 1660 (Alumni Oxon. 1500–1714); but the passing of the Act of Uniformity in 1662 and the ejection of such clergy as would not conform disturbed his plans, and, after a short residence in London, he returned to Bronclydwr to spend the rest of his days as a nonconformist preacher. There being no independent church in his district, he was ordained a teaching elder of the Wrexham church (Palmer, Older Nonconformity of Wrexham, p. 44), with authority to preach where he could in Wales. His preaching tours, which extended into the neighbouring counties of Carnarvon and Montgomery, often lasted for three months at a time, and laid the foundation of the later nonconformist churches of the district. On the issue of the declaration of indulgence in 1672 his house was licensed for independent preaching, and in a few years a church had been formed there, of which Owen retained the oversight until his death. During the reign of James II he was for a short time confined in Powis Castle, but on the whole he was not subjected to much persecution. Owen bore a high character for temperance of life, generosity to the poor, and charity towards those who differed from him. He died on ​15 March 1699–1700, in his sixty-first year, according to the inscription on his tombstone in Llanegryn churchyard. Of his children, John (d. 27 June 1700) succeeded him as minister at Bronclydwr; one daughter married Edward Kenrick of Wrexham (who succeeded his brother-in-law at Bronclydwr), and another William Farmer of Whitley, Shropshire.
[Calamy's Nonconf. Mem. ed. Palmer, 1775, ii. 615–18; Rees's Protestant Nonconformity in Wales, 2nd edit. pp. 181, 188, 281–5; Traethodydd, 1852, pp. 290–7; Palmer's Older Nonconformity of Wrexham, pp. 55, 56.]
J. E. L.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Owen, Humphrey

​OWEN, HUMPHREY (1712–1768), Bodley's librarian and principal of Jesus College, Oxford, son of Humphrey Owen, gentleman, was born at Meifod in Montgomeryshire in 1712. On 15 Nov. 1718 he was admitted batellar of Jesus College, elected scholar 23 Dec. 1723, and fellow 13 June 1726. He took the B.A. degree in 1722, M.A. in 1725, B.D. in 1733, and D.D. in 1763. In 1744 he became rector of Tredington (second portion), Worcestershire, which he held till 1763, though recalled to Oxford by his election unopposed to the Bodleian librarianship on 10 Nov. 1747. In 1762–3 he was curate-in-charge of Kingston-Bagpuze, Berkshire, and having been, on 10 May 1763, elected principal of his college, was presented on 13 Aug. to the rectory of Rotherfield-Peppard, Oxfordshire. He died on 26 March 1768 (Oxford Journal, 2 April 1768), and was buried in Jesus College Chapel (Wood, Colleges and Halls, ed. Gutch, p. 589).
As Bodley's librarian, Owen is chiefly remarkable for his numerous appointments of Welshmen to subordinate posts. The best known of these was John Price [q. v.], who succeeded him, having been acting-librarian from 1765 to 1767. Owen superintended the removal of the Arundel marbles from the gallery to a special room in 1749, gave the rare St. Albans' ‘Fructus Temporum’ in 1750, and took over the valuable Clarendon and Carte papers, and the Walker, Ballard, Holman, and Rawlinson manuscripts; but the process of cataloguing, ‘generally inert’ in his time, was so completely paralysed by the last bequest, in 1755, that it is still in arrears (Clark, Cataloguing of MSS. in the Bodl. Libr. 1890). Letters are extant to Owen from Browne Willis and Rawlinson, 1748–1756 (Rawl. MS. C. 989); and it is clear that he was, like his correspondents, a Jacobite. There are other letters and notes to or by him in various Bodleian books, and a letter to Ducarel is printed in Nichols's ‘Illustrations of Literature’ (iv. 666).
[Foster's Alumni Oxon.; Macray's Annals of the Bodleian Library, passim; authorities above; notes from Jesus College books, kindly communicated by the Rev. Ll. Thomas, M.A., vice-principal.]
H. E. D. B.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Owen, Griffith

​OWEN, GRIFFITH (d. 1717), colonist and doctor, was son of Robert Owen (d. 1684) of Dolsereau, Dolgelly, by Jane, his wife, born in Merionethshire. Having been educated for the medical profession, he emigrated in 1684, with his parents, to Pennsylvania, where he was one of the first doctors in the new colony founded by William Penn [q. v.] He settled in Philadelphia, and became a member of the executive council, a justice of the peace, and a commissioner for the disposal of land. In the autumn of 1699, Philadelphia being visited by a malignant disease called by Isaac Norris ‘the Barbadoes distemper,’ which carried off 220 persons between August and 22 Oct., Owen and a son, who commenced practice at that time, distinguished themselves by their devotion and skill.
Owen undertook long journeys, both alone and with English ministers, to distant meetings of the quakers in America, and worked among the Indians. He was much esteemed in the colony, and Penn, when troubled about his son William, expressed his wish that the young man's confidence might be gained by ‘tender Griffith Owen, for he feels and sees’ (Private Life of W. Penn, Pennsylvania Hist. Soc. iii. 98). Owen died at Philadelphia in 1717. His son the physician died on 7 March 1731–2. Owen wrote, with some others, ‘Our Antient Testimony renewed,’ &c., against George Keith (1639?–1716) [q. v.], London: printed and sold by T. Sowle, 1695; reprinted in the appendix (pp. 31–40) to Gerard Croese's ‘History of Quakers,’ 1696.
[Morris's Contributions to Med. Hist. in Mem. of the Hist. Soc. of Pa. pp. 339–43; Journal of Thomas Story, pp. 173, 176–7, 227, 240, 241; Index to Obituary Notices in Pennsylvania Gazette; Pennsylvania Mag. x. 67, 237, 344, xiii. 169 n.; Penn and Logan Correspondence, Pennsylvania Hist. Soc. ix. 161, 162, 171, 177, 181, 201, 206, 214, 220, 250, 256, 268; Janney's Hist. of Friends, iii. 53, 187–8; Proud's Hist. of Pennsylvania, ii. 99, 100; Smith's Catalogue; Gordon's Hist. of Pennsylvania, p. 592.]
C. F. S.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Lowe, Edward William Howe de Lancy

1904 Errata appended.
​LOWE, EDWARD WILLIAM HOWE de LANCY (1820–1880), major-general, youngest son of Sir Hudson Lowe [q. v.] and his wife Susan, daughter of Stephen de Lancy, born in St. Helena on 8 Feb. 1820, was educated at the Royal Military College, Sandhurst, and on 20 May 1837 was appointed ensign in the 32nd foot (now 1st Cornwall light infantry), in which he became lieutenant in 1841, captain 1845, major 1 July 1857, and lieutenant-colonel 26 Sept. 1858. He served with the regiment in the second Sikh war of 1848-9, including the two sieges and capture of Mooltan and the battle of Goojeat (medal and clasps). He was with the regiment at Lucknow at the outbreak of the mutiny, and on 18 May 1857 was despatched with his company to Cawnpore. General Wheeler, on hearing the state of affairs at Lucknow, generously sent the reinforcement back some days later, which thus escaped the Cawnpore massacres. When Inglis [see Inglis, Sir John Eardlet Wilmot] assumed the chief command at Lucknow, on Sir Henry Lawrence's death, Lowe took command of the 32nd, which he held throughout the defence of the Lucknow residency. On 26 Sept. 1857 he commanded a sortie of a hundred and fifty men who captured seven guns, and he also commanded the party sent out to bring in the guns and stores with the rearguard of Havelock'e relieving force, which had arrived the day before. In these operations he was severely wounded. After the second relief by Colin Campbell, in October, Lowe commanded the 32nd at the defeat of the Gwalior rebels at Cawnpore on 6 Nov. 1857, and during the campaign in Onde, from Julv 1858 to January 1859 (thanked in despatches, brevet rank, C.B., and medal and clasp). After his return home he printed a short account of the defence of the residency, which was noticed in the 'Quarterly Review,' vol. ciii., and was largely quoted in the 'Notes' on the history of the 32nd light infantry in 'Colburn's United Service Magazine,' 1880. Lowe afterwards commanded in succession the 2nd battalion 21st royal North British fusiliers and the 86th royal County Down regiment. He retired on half-pay in 1872, and became a major-general in 1877. He married a daughter of Colonel Basil Jackson, who had served as a junior officer in the quartermaster-general's department under Sir Hudson Lowe in the Netherlands and at St. Helena. Lowe died in London on 21 Oct. 1860.
H. M. C.
Dictionary of National Biography, Errata (1904), p.186 N.B.— f.e. stands for from end and l.l. for last line
| Page | Col. | Line | |
| 189 | i | 11-10 f.e. | Lowe, Edward W. H. de Lancy: -for After his return . . . of the read Some private letters sent by him to his sister in the course of the |
| | | 9 f.e. | for which was noticed read formed the basis of an article |
| | | 8 f.e. | for was read they were |
| | ii | 1-5 | for a daughter of Colonel Basil Jackson . . . St. Helena, read Anne Louisa Russel, daughter of Maurice Peter Moore (1809-1866) of Sleaford, Lincolnshire, F.S.A., a solicitor, and clerk of the peace for Kesteven. |
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Lowe, Mauritius

1904 Errata appended.
​LOWE, MAURITIUS (1746–1793), painter, born in 1746, was reputed to have been a son of the Earl of Sunderland, from whom he had a small annuity, but he claimed connection with the family of John Lowe, bishop of Rochester in 1444. He was a pupil of G. B. Cipriani, R.A. [q. v.], and one of the first students in the school of the Royal Academy. In 1769, through the interest of Giuseppe Baretti [q. v.], Lowe was the first to obtain the gold medal awarded by the Royal Academy for an historical painting, his subject being ‘Time discovering Truth,’ and in 1771 he was the first student selected to receive the travelling allowance for study at Rome. He was, however, insolent in manner and irregular in his habits, and, as he failed to comply with the regulations of the Academy, he was recalled from Rome in 1772. He exhibited at the Society of Artists in 1776 and 1779, sending miniatures and a picture of ‘Venus.’ Lowe enjoyed the friendship and protection of Dr. Samuel Johnson, who left him a small legacy. In 1783 he sent a huge picture to the Academy, entitled ‘The Deluge—there were Giants on the earth in those Days.’ This was justly rejected, but at the earnest solicitation of Dr. Johnson it was ultimately admitted, though it was hung in an empty room by itself, and universally condemned. In 1777 he exhibited a drawing of ‘Homer singing the Iliad to the Greeks.’ Lowe married a servant-girl, and had a large family, to one of whom Johnson stood god-father. Madame d'Arblay in her ‘Diary’ (ii. 41) describes Johnson's efforts to obtain work as a portrait-painter for Lowe, and the state of filth and misery to which Lowe and his family were reduced. Lowe resided for some time in Hedge Lane, and later in a miserable lodging in Westminster, where he died on 1 Sept. 1793, leaving, by his wife Sarah, one son and two daughters. (For Johnson's god-daughter see Examiner, 28 May 1873.) In the print room at the British Museum there are three ​drawings by Lowe, two being for a large painting, representing ‘Royal Power, assisted by Wisdom and Virtue, defending the Constitution of Great Britain against the attacks of Sedition and Licentiousness,’ which was engraved by George Graham and published in 1793. Other drawings represent ‘Abraham offering up Isaac,’ ‘Adam and Eve,’ ‘Dædalus and Icarus.’ These drawings exaggerate the style of Fuseli, but are not wholly without merit.
[Redgrave's Dict. of Artists; Gent. Mag. 1793, ii. 867; Ottley's Dict. of Recent and Living Painters; Sandby's History of the Royal Academy; Northcote's Life of Reynolds; Boswell's Life of Johnson, ed. Hill, iv. 202 n.]
L. C.
Dictionary of National Biography, Errata (1904), p.186 N.B.— f.e. stands for from end and l.l. for last line
| Page | Col. | Line | |
| 195 | ii | 20 | Lowe, Mauritius: for Johnslowe read John Lowe |
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Lowe, James (d.1865)

​LOWE, JAMES (d. 1865), journalist and translator, began life as editor of a newspaper at Preston, and from 1843 to 1863 edited 'The Critic of Literature, Science, and the Drama.' He was also a contributor to the 'Field' and the 'Queen,' and was one of the secretaries of the Acclimatisation ​Society. He died of erysipelas late in October or early in November 1865.
Lowe projected a ‘Selected Series of French Literature,’ to consist of translations from memoirs and letters, of which the first volume, containing part of Madame de Sévigné's correspondence, appeared at London in 1853, 12mo; no more seems to have been published. In 1857 he published a translation of Victor Schoelcher's ‘Life of Handel,’ London, 8vo; 2nd edit. 1859.
J. M. R.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Lowe, James (d.1866)

​LOWE, JAMES (d. 1866), a claimant to the invention of the screw-propeller, was apprenticed on 2 Nov. 1813 to Edward Shorter, a master mechanic and a freeman of the city of London, who had in 1800 taken out a patent for propelling vessels, which he had named ‘the perpetual sculling machine.’ In 1816 Lowe ran away and joined a whaling ship named the Amelia Wilson, but after three voyages returned to his master. Later on he commenced business as mechanist and a smoke-jack maker, and henceforth occupied his spare time in experimenting on screw-propellers for ships. On 24 March 1838 he took out a patent, No. 7599, for ‘improvements in propelling vessels’ by means of one or more curved blades, set or fixed on a revolving shaft below the water-line of the vessel. His propeller was first practically used in the Wizard in 1838, and then in her majesty's steamships the Rattler and the Phœnix. On 16 Dec. 1844 he brought an action in the court of queen's bench against Penn & Co., engineers at Greenwich, for infringement of the patent. The evidence was contradictory, but it was shown that Lowe, although not the original inventor of propellers, was the inventor of a combination never before applied to the propulsion of vessels. This combination consisted of three parts, (1) a segment of a screw, (2) a segment of a screw applied below the watermark, so as to be totally immersed, (3) a segment of a screw applied on an axis below the water. The jury gave a verdict in his favour. On 19 Aug. 1852 he took out another patent, No. 14263, for his propeller. Lowe spent his wife's fortune of 3,000l. in his experiments, reduced himself to poverty, and never succeeded in obtaining any compensation for the use of his invention. On 12 Oct. 1866 he was run over by a wagon in the Blackfriars Road, London, and killed. He married, on 30 May 1825, the eldest daughter of Mr. Barnes of Ewell, Surrey. She died in 1872. Her daughter, Henrietta, who in July 1855 married Frederick Vansittart, of the 14th light dragoons, continued her father's experiments, and on 18 Sept. 1868 took out a patent, No. 2877, for a further improvement, which she called ‘the Lowe-Vansittart propeller.’ This was fitted to many government ships, and was found to be a valuable invention.
G. C. B.