OpenLLM-France/wikimedia huggingface dataset:
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Gosset, Isaac (1713-1799)

​GOSSET, ISAAC, the elder (1713–1799), an able modeller of portraits in wax, was born in 1713, and belonged to a family that fled from Normandy to Jersey at the revocation of the edict of Nantes, and afterwards settled in London. He contributed to the first artists' exhibition in 1760 and was a member of the Incorporated Society of Artists, contributing twenty-four portraits to their exhibitions between 1760 and 1778. Several of his wax models are still in Windsor Castle, and some in Lady Charlotte Schreiber's collection in South Kensington Museum. Among these are cameo portraits of George II and the Princess Dowager of Wales. He made numerous portraits in wax of the royal family and of distinguished Englishmen. Among these may be mentioned: 1. Bishop Hoadly, 1756 (Nichols, Lit. An. iii. 140; and see Lit. Illustr. viii. 570). 2. Charles Townshend, chancellor of the exchequer. 3. Frederick, prince of Wales (Nos. 1–3 were in the possession of Horace Walpole: Notes and Queries, 3rd ser. vi. 516; Walpole, Works, 4to, 1798, ii. 432–3). 4. Richard Trevor, bishop of Durham (Nichols, Lit. An., ix. 241). 5. Francis Hutcheson the philosopher; from this model, produced under the direction of Basil Hamilton, earl of Selkirk, a cast medal was made by Antonio Selvi (Med. Illustr. ii. 621; T. Hollis, Memoirs, ii. 833). 6. General Wolfe. 7. Earl of Mansfield (from the models 6 and 7 John Kirk made medals, see Med. Illustr., ii. 706, and Cochran-Patrick, Cat. Med. Scot., pp. 105, 268, where the notice of ‘C. Gossett’ is erroneous). 8. Profile of Mrs. Delany, made about 1776. In 1862 this was in the possession of Lady Llanover (Autobiog. &c. of Mrs. Delany, 2nd ser., ii. 225). Peter Cunningham possessed four medallions, in yellow wax on a claret ground, of Henry Pelham, George Grenville, Robert Carteret (Lord Granville), and the Duke of Grafton, which he attributed to Gosset (Notes and Queries, 3rd ser., vi. 516). Gosset used a wax composition of his own invention, the secret of which he is not known to have divulged. His only son was Dr. Isaac Gosset, the bibliographer [q. v.] He died at Kensington on 28 Nov. 1799, and was buried in the old Marylebone Cemetery. He is described (Gent. Mag.) as a man of amiable character.
His uncle, Matthew Gosset (1683–1744), was also a modeller in wax. He was one of the gentlemen of the band of pensioners to King George II, and a member of the Spalding Society.
W. W.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Davis, Henry Edwards

​DAVIS, HENRY EDWARDS (1756–1784), opponent of Gibbon, was the son of John Davis of Windsor. He was born 11 July 1756, and educated at Ealing. On 17 May 1774 he entered Balliol, and graduated as B.A. in 1778. In the same spring he had the courage to attack the first volume of Gibbon's ‘Decline and Fall’ (published in 1776), in an ‘examination’ of the famous fifteenth and sixteenth chapters. Davis, it is said, ‘evinced more knowledge than is usually found at the age of twenty-one.’ David, however, was in this case no match for Goliath; and Gibbon's famous ‘Vindication,’ chiefly directed against Davis, justified his statement that ‘victory over such antagonists was a sufficient humiliation.’ Davis, in fact, had merely followed Gibbon's references without even the knowledge required for verification. Gibbon states that Davis was rewarded for the attack by a ‘royal pension.’ He took priest's orders in 1780, and became fellow and tutor of Balliol. His health broke down, and he died, after a lingering illness, 10 Feb. 1784. He is said to have been very amiable, poetical, and patient under sufferings.
L. S.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Davis, Henry George

​DAVIS, HENRY GEORGE (1830–1857), topographer, born on 14 Aug. 1830 at 4 Mills Buildings, Knightsbridge, was the son of J. Davis, master of St. Paul's parochial schools, Knightsbridge. He was educated at ​the Philological School in the Marylebone Road; became a writer for the local journal, the ‘West Middlesex Advertiser,’ to which he contributed a series of articles on ‘Our Local Associations;’ and prepared for the press ‘Memorials of the Hamlet of Knightsbridge, with Notices of its immediate Neighbourhood.’ This was published in 1859, two years after his death, by his brother, C. Davis. Two other works by Davis were left in manuscript unfinished, namely ‘Pimlico’ and ‘Recollections of Piccadilly.’ He bequeathed his collections to the London and Middlesex Archæological Society. Many antiquarian papers written by him will be found in ‘Notes and Queries.’ He suffered all his life from chronic pleurisy, caused by the carelessness of his nurse in his infancy, and died on 30 Dec. 1857.
[Gent. Mag. 1859, vi. 327; Preface by C. Davis to Memorials of Knightsbridge.]
R. H.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Davies, William (fl.1614)

​DAVIES, WILLIAM (fl. 1614), traveller, was a native of Hereford, and became a barber-surgeon of London. He states that he was a gentleman by birth, and served in many naval and military operations. On 28 Jan. 1597–8 he sailed in a trading-ship (the Francis) from Saltash, Cornwall, and reached Cività Vecchia, the port of Rome. He subsequently visited Algiers and Tunis. On leaving Tunis his ship was attacked by six galleys of the Duke of Florence. Davies was taken to Leghorn, where he worked as a slave for eight years and ten months. At the end of that period Robert Thornton, the English captain of a Florentine ship (the Santa Lucia), begged the duke's permission to take Davies with him as doctor on an expedition to the river Amazon. The duke demanded five hundred crowns as security for Davies's working under Thornton's orders, and the money was paid by William Mellyn of Bristol, who happened to be in Italy. Before leaving Leghorn the duke granted Davies an audience and received him with great kindness. Davies attributes the geniality of his reception to his perfect acquaintance with Italian. On returning to Italy Davies's ship was attacked by an English pirate, and an English sailor (Erasmus Lucas of Southwark) was fatally wounded. Davies landed with the body at Leghorn, and, declining to avail himself of the services of Roman catholic priests, proceeded to bury it by himself. While thus engaged he was arrested by the agents of the Inquisition; lived on bread and water in an underground unlighted dungeon for sixteen days, and after a first examination was removed to a large open prison. An English shipowner, Richard Row of Milbroke, helped him to escape, and after sailing about the Mediterranean he reached London in 1614 and wrote a full and interesting account of his travels, published in that year under the title of ‘A True Relation of the Travailes … and Captivitie of William Davies.’ It was reprinted in 1746 in Osborne's ‘Travels and Voyages,’ vol. i.
S. L. L.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Davis, David Daniel

​DAVIS, DAVID DANIEL, M.D. (1777–1841), physician, was born in 1777 at Carnarvon. He entered at the university of Glasgow in 1797, and graduated M.D. there in 1801. He settled in practice at Sheffield, where he was physician to the infirmary from 1803 to 1813. He removed to London in 1813, was admitted a licentiate of the College of Physicians 25 June 1813, and practised midwifery. Following the custom of the period, he delivered lectures on midwifery at his own house, 4 Fitzroy Street, London, and soon had a large class. He attended the Duchess of Kent at the birth of Queen Victoria, and attained large practice. He was obstetric physician to University College Hospital from 1834 to 1841. His first publication was a translation of Pinel's ‘Treatise on Insanity’ (Sheffield, 1806), with an introduction by himself, compiled from standard authors. His most important book appeared in 1836, ‘The Principles and Practice of Obstetric Medicine, in a series of systematic Dissertations on Midwifery and on the Diseases of Women and Children,’ 2 vols. 4to. It is a comprehensive treatise containing no discovery, but entitling its author to a high place among writers on midwifery of the second rank (Matthews Duncan). In 1840 Davis published ‘Acute Hydrocephalus, or Water in the Head, an Inflammatory Disease, and curable equally and by the same means with other Diseases of Inflammation.’ Acute hydrocephalus, now generally known as tubercular meningitis, is a disease invariably fatal, and Davis's view that it is curable is due to an imperfect acquaintance with its morbid anatomy, which prevented its distinction from other forms of inflammation of the membranes of the brain and of cerebral disturbance. His proposed methods of cure are large doses of mercury, emetics, and bleeding, but amidst many pages of quotation he only describes four cases seen by himself, and of these he tells enough to show that true acute hydrocephalus was absent in all. He had a son, John Hall Davis, who studied medicine and acted as a clinical assistant to his father. After a short illness Davis died at 17 Russell Place, Bedford Square, London, on 16 Dec. 1841. His portrait was painted in 1825 by John Jackson, R.A.
N. M.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Davies, William (d.1820)

​DAVIES, WILLIAM (d. 1820), book-seller, was for many years partner with Thomas Cadell the younger [q. v.] He held an important position in the employment of the elder Cadell, when he was selected by him in 1793 as a guide for his youthful son in the management of the business thenceforward carried on under the name of Cadell and Davies. The firm continued the former prosperity of the house of Cadell. The fourth to the eighth editions of Boswell's ‘ Life of Johnson’ were published by them, but G. Steevens, writing to Bishop Percy 9 Sept. 1797, proclaims that Cadell and Davies, ‘in spite of all their boasts, are not allowed to be at the head of their trade in the line of publication’ (Nichols, Illustrations, vii. 30). Nichols speaks of Davies as possessing superior abilities and as a liberal and straightforward man of business. These qualities were joined to a kindly disposition but rather pompous ​manner. He was for many years one of the stockkeepers of the Stationers' Company, and died 28 April 1820, leaving his family less well provided for than might have been expected from his commercial position. His wife, Mrs. Jessie Davies, died at Bushey, Hertfordshire, 14 Oct. 1854, aged 76.
H. R. T.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Davis, Edward (1833-1867)

​DAVIS, EDWARD (1833–1867), subject painter, was born at Worcester in 1833, and there acquired the rudiments of drawing, but afterwards entered the Birmingham School of Design, then under the management of J. Kyd. On the removal of this artist to the Worcester school Davis accompanied him and studied there during three years, and carried off several prizes. He died in Rome on 12 June 1867. He first exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1854, his address being 22 Foregate Street, Worcester. The subjects were ‘Meditation,’ representing an old villager sitting by a fireside, and ‘Parting Words,’ being a deathbed scene. In the following year Davis sent to the Academy ‘A Cottage Scene,’ and in 1856 he resided at 16 Russell Place, Fitzroy Square. Among some of his best works may be mentioned: ‘On the Way to School’ (engraved by William Ridgway), ‘Granny's Spectacles,’ ‘Doing Crochet Work’ (1861), ‘Words of Peace’ (1867), and ‘The Little Peg-top.’
L. F.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Davis, Charles

​DAVIS, CHARLES (d. 1755), bookseller and publisher, carried on a considerable business in Fleet Street, and afterwards in Paternoster Row and in Holborn, opposite Gray's Inn Gate. He was one of the earliest who issued priced catalogues of second-hand books. He also sold libraries by auction, among others that of Dr. John Hancocke and part of that of Thomas Rawlinson. He died 31 Aug. 1755. ​Lockyer Davis [q. v.], who succeeded to the business, was his nephew.
H. R. T.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Fell, Henry

​FELL, HENRY (fl. 1672), quaker, was a member of one of the numerous Lancashire families bearing his surname. The first mention of him is in 1656 as suffering much from the magistrates in Essex, and in the same year he went as a missionary to the West Indies, where he remained about a year. After his return to England he was engaged as a travelling preacher, and is referred to by his contemporaries as having been eloquent and successful. In 1659 he was seriously illtreated by some soldiers near Westminster Hall, and in 1660 Richard Hubberthorne, the quaker, represented to Charles II that at Thetford, Norfolk, Fell had been hauled out of a meeting, and, after being whipped, turned out of the town, and passed as a vagabond from parish to parish to Lancashire. In a letter to Margaret Fell (Swarthmore MSS.) Fell states that he was imprisoned for some time at Thetford. He was in London during the rising of the Fifth-monarchy men in this year, and was knocked down by the soldiers as a rioter, and Fox (Journal, p. 314, ed. 1765) says he would have been killed but for the interposition of the Duke of York. In 1661 he was ‘moved,’ in company with John Stubbs, to promulgate his views in ‘foreign parts, especially to Prester John's country and China.’ As no shipmasters would carry them, the quakers got a warrant from the king, which the East India Company found means to avoid. They then went to Holland, and, being unable to ​obtain shipping there, proceeded to Alexandria. The English consul banished them from the place as nuisances, and they were compelled to return to England. After spending some time in religious journeys, he again visited the West Indies, and a letter in the Shackleton collection states that in 1672 he was living in Barbadoes, that he was married, in debt, and much depressed. Nothing more is known of his life. Fell was a man of highly devotional spirit, and full of benevolence and courage. His few and brief writings show him to have received an education above the average; their style is good, and the language well chosen. He wrote: 1. ‘An Alarum of Truth sounded forth to the Nations,’ &c., 1660. 2. ‘To Charles, King of England, Scotland, and Ireland, from one who is in prison, a Sufferer for the Testimony of his Conscience,’ &c., 1660. 3. ‘A Plain Record or Declaration showing the Original Root and Race of Persecution,’ 1661.
[Bowden's Hist. of the Friends in America, i. 37; Fox's Journal, ed. 1765, pp. 314, 331; Besse's Sufferings of the Quakers, i. 193; Sewel's Hist. of the Rise, &c., ii. 216; Webb's Fells of Swarthmore; Smith's Cat. of Friends' Books.]
A. C. B.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Fell, Samuel

1904 Errata appended.
​FELL, SAMUEL (1584–1649), dean of Christ Church, was born in 1584 in the parish of St. Clement Danes, London and was educated at Westminster School. Thence he proceeded as a queen's scholar to Christ Church, Oxford, matriculating 20 Nov. 1601, and graduated B.A. 27 June 1605, M.A. 30 May 1608, B.D. 23 Nov. 1615, and D.D. 23 June 1619 (Oxf. Univ. Reg., Oxf. Hist. Soc. vol. II. pt. ii. p. 253, pt. iii. p. 256), He was elected proctor in 1614, and soon afterwards became rector of Freshwater in the Isle of Wight, and chaplain to James I. In May 1619 he was made a canon of Christ Church, and in ​1626 Lady Margaret professor of divinity, which he held, according to custom, with a canonry of Worcester Cathedral. These posts he held till 1637. At first his religious views were Calvinistic, but he changed his opinions and became an active ally of Archbishop Laud, who promoted him to the deanery of Lichfield in 1638, to the rectory of Stow-on-the-Wold in 1637, and to the deanery of Christ Church in 1638. Fell continued the architectural improvements in the cathedral and college projected by his predecessor, Duppa, and to his energy and taste the college owes the fine staircase leading to the hall. He was always active in university affairs. On 15 Aug. 1637 he wrote to Laud about the excessive number of alehouses and the like in Oxford, but on more than one occasion he incurred severe rebukes from Laud for setting his authority as head of a college in opposition to the proctors and other public officials of the university. On the outbreak of the civil wars he became a conspicuous royalist, and after serving the office of vice-chancellor in 1645 and 1646 was reappointed in 1647. Soon after his reappointment the parliamentary visitors came to Oxford. In September Fell was summoned before them; he declined to attend, was imprisoned, and on his release in November was deprived of all his offices in the university. He retired to the rectory of Sunningwell, near Abingdon, which he bad held since 21 Sept. 1625, and died there on 1 Feb. 1648-9 from the shock caused by learning of Charles I's execution. He was buried in his church. He rebuilt the front of his parsonage. He published : 1. 'Primitiae, sive oratio habita Oxoniae: in schola Theologiae, 9 Nov. an. 1626,' Oxford, 1637. 2. 'Concio Latina ad Baccalaureos die cinerum in Coloss. ii. 8,' Oxford, 1627. Fell married Margaret, daughter of Thomas Wyld, esq., of Worceester, by whom he was the father of John Fell [q. v.], dean of Christ Church and bishop of Oxford, and of several daughters. Fell's portrait is at Christ Church.
S. L. L.
Dictionary of National Biography, Errata (1904), p.121 N.B.— f.e. stands for from end and l.l. for last line
| Page | Col. | Line | |
| 298 | ii | 2 f.e. | Fell, Samuel: after James I. insert He had become prebendary of St. Paul's in 1613. |
| 299 | i | 8 | for 1638 read 1637 |
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Fellowes, James (fl.1710-1730)

​FELLOWES, JAMES (fl. 1710–1730), portrait-painter, is known for portraits of eminent clergymen of his time. In the print room at the British Museum there are portraits by him of Thomas Wilson, bishop of Sodor and Man (engraved by Vertue in 1726), Laurence Howell, the nonjuror, and Humphrey Gower, master of St. John's College, Cambridge (engraved by Vertue in 1719). Fellowes obtained notoriety as being the painter of the famous picture of the ‘Last Supper’ which was placed over the communion-table in the church of St. Mary, Whitechapel, by the Jacobite rector, Dr. Richard Welton. In this Dr. White Kennett [q. v.], dean of Peterborough, was portrayed as Judas Iscariot, no pains being lost to make the portrait unmistakable. This caused considerable offence, and the figure was altered by order of the Bishop of London, though the picture was allowed to remain.
[Redgrave's Dict. of Artists; Noble's Continuation of Granger's Biog. Hist. iii. 88; Kippis's Biog. Brit. (sub loc. ‘Kennett’).]
L. C.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Fellowes, James (1771-1857)

1904 Errata appended.
​FELLOWES, Sir JAMES, M.D. (1771–1857), physician, born in Edinburgh in 1771, was the third son of Dr. William Fellowes, physician extraordinary to the Prince of Wales and brother of Sir Thomas Fellowes [q. v.] He was educated at Rugby, and at Peterhouse, Cambridge. On obtaining a Tancred scholarship he migrated to Gonville and Caius College, where he became a Perse fellow, and graduated M.B. in 1797 and M.D. 1803. He was elected a fellow of the College of Physicians 30 Sept. 1805. He served in the medical service of the army before taking his degree, and afterwards became physician to the forces, and went with Admiral Christian's fleet to San Domingo. In 1804 he was sent to investigate and treat the pestilential fever which raged there. He returned to England in April 1806, and in 1810 was knighted by George III. Soon after he served at Cadiz as chief of the medical department of the army, and in 1815 retired from his majesty's service. In the same year he published ‘Reports of the Pestilential Disorder of Andalusia, which appeared at Cadiz in the years 1800, 1804, 1810, and 1813.’ The reports, though somewhat wanting in completeness, give an interesting account of these violent epidemics as observed at Cadiz, and also of the pestilential fever at Malaga in 1803–4, which was witnessed and described by Waterton the naturalist, with further account of the disease as seen at Gibraltar, and of the Walcheren fever [see Davis, Joseph Barnard]. The Spanish pestilence seems to have been a malignant form of typhus, with interspersed cases of relapsing fever, a combination also observed in London and in Ireland. The fever was highly contagious and the book shows that the author was not deterred from thoroughly investigating the subject by any fears for his own safety, and that he had sound views on the ventilation of barracks and sickrooms. The pathological part of the reports is defective. Fellowes long lived on his pension, and died at Havant 30 Dec. 1857.
[Munk's Coll. of Phys. iii. 24; Luard's Graduati Cantabrigienses; Works.]
N. M.
Dictionary of National Biography, Errata (1904), p.121 N.B.— f.e. stands for from end and l.l. for last line
| Page | Col. | Line | |
| 300 | ii | 22 | Fellowes, Sir James: for 1809 read 1810 |
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Fell, Leonard

​FELL, LEONARD (d. 1700), quaker, was the son of Thomas Fell, gentleman, of Beckliff, or Baycliff, Lancashire, and in his early life occupied some position of trust in the house of his relative, Thomas Fell [q. v.], at Swarthmore. He appears to have become a quaker in 1652. Between 1654 and 1657 he was repeatedly sent to prison for interrupting services, and in 1661 was imprisoned for some religious offence at Leicester. Most of his time seems to have been spent in preaching excursions, although till 1665 at least he retained his situation at Swarthmore, and in this year he was imprisoned in Lancaster Castle for being at an illegal conventicle. He had some property at Addingham, Cumberland, and in 1666 was sent to prison at the suit of the vicar of that place for refusing to pay tithes, but owing to the vicar's death he was discharged within a fortnight. He suffered a long imprisonment in 1668 for having attended a meeting at Swarthmore and then refusing the oaths, and in 1672 he was again imprisoned for refusing to pay tithes to Theo. Aimes, vicar of Baycliff, but was a second time released by the death of his suitor. For preaching at a meeting on the shore of Windermere he suffered distress to the value of 20l., and two years later was fined by the justices of Westmoreland a similar sum for the like offence. In the intervals between his imprisonments he was engaged in ministerial work, chiefly in the northern counties and in Wales, and his preaching is said to have been of an earnest and loving character rather than argumentative or doctrinal. In September 1684 he was sent to gaol for more than a month for absenting himself from the parish church, and immediately after his release was again arrested and incarcerated for about eight weeks for the same offence. He died while on a preaching excursion at Darlington in 1700, having been a minister nearly fifty years. He is known to have been married, but had no family. His character was amiable rather than strong, but on occasion he could be fearless. It is said that being once plundered by a highwayman, he said that though he would not give his life for his horse or money, he would for the robber's soul, whereupon the man returned both horse and money. Fell was a man of little education. His works were at one time popular, but are now entirely disregarded. He wrote: 1. ‘The Persecution of them People they call Quakers in several places in Lancashire’ ​(with W. Adamson), 1656. 2. ‘An Epistle for the Strengthening and Confirming of Friends in their Most Holy Faith,’ 1670. 3. ‘A Warning to England in general and the cities of London and Bristol in particular,’ 1693. 4. ‘My Testimony to my Dear, True, and Well-beloved Friend and Father in Christ, George Fox,’ written 1691, printed 1706.
[Holmes's Life and Works; Fox's Journal of his Life, Travels, Sufferings, &c. ed. 1765; Notes and Queries, 1st ser. vi. 223; Webb's Fells of Swarthmore, p. 352; Besse's Sufferings of the Quakers, i. 303, &c., ii. 16.]
A. C. B.