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

​BAGWELL, WILLIAM (fl. 1655), a London merchant and writer on astronomy, is stated by Burke, in his pedigree of the Bagwells of Ireland, to have been a brother of Alderman Backwell, but his name is not mentioned in the Backwell pedigree, and the different spelling of the name would seem to militate against the supposition. As the inscription on his portrait in 1659 gives his age as sixty-six, he was probably born in 1593(Granger, Biog. Hist, of England, iii. 121). According to his own account in 'The Mystery of Astronomy made Plain,' he was bred a merchant of good quality, and skilfully furnished with knowledge. He had 'seen the world abroad,' and for several years had carried on an extensive trade, when losses beyond the seas led to his being sent to prison for debt. In 1654 he had been in and out of prison for twenty years. The tedium of confinement he relieved by writing an 'Arithmetical Description of the Celestial and Terrestrial Globes,' a treatise which he deemed too abstruse for popular use, but yet worthy to be placed in some university to be consulted by the learned. The manuscript is in the British Museum (MS Sloane 652). After being set at liberty in 1654 Bagwell was put by some friends in good employment, and in 1655 published 'The Mystery of Astronomy made Plain,' a simplification of his more elaborate treatise. Bliss, in a note to Wood (Fasti ii. 221), states that he dedicated his 'Sphinx Thebanus or Ingenious Riddle,' 1664, to the worshipful Humphry Brook, doctor of physic, his approved good friend and patron. So strongly was Bagwell impressed with the value of the discipline he obtained from his hard experiences, that in 1645 in 1645 he published 'The Distressed Merchant, and Prisoner s Comfort in Distress,' a lugubrious piece of doggerel, which is caricatured in 'Wil Bagnal's Ghost, or the Merry Devill of Gadmunton in his Perambulations of the Prisons of London,' by E. Gayton, Esq., 1655, and in 'Will Bagnalls Ballet,' in 'Wit Restored,' 1658. Bagwell also published another short poem, entitled 'An Affectionate Expostulation for the Pious Employment both of Wit and Wealth.' In 1652 there was published, by order of Cromwell, 'A Full Discovery of a Foul Concealment, or a True Narrative of the Proceedings and Transactions of the Committee for the Accompts of the Commonwealth of England with William Bagwell and John Brockedon, accomptants, Discoverers and Plaintiff's against the Committee of Hartford, the Treasurer and Paymaster there in the year 1643;' but possibly the William Bagwell of this title-page may be another person.
T. F. H.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Bailey, James

​BAILEY, JAMES (d. 1864), classical scholar, was educated at Trinity College, Cambridge. He graduated B.A. 1814, M.A. 1823, and obtained the Browne medals for Greek ode and epigrams, and the members' prizes in 1815 and 1816. He was for many years master of the Perse grammar school, Cambridge, from which he retired on a pension. In 1850 he received a further pension of 100l. per annum from the queen, on the recommendation of Bishops Maltby and Kaye. Besides his numerous contributions to the 'Classical Journal,' Bailey published 'An Annotated Edition of Dalzel's Analecta Græca Minora' (1835); 'Passages from the Greek Comic Poets,' which had been translated into English by R. Cumberland, Fawkes, and Wrangham, with notes (1840); proof-sheets of this work, with autograph letter to Archdeacon Wrangham, are in the British Museum; a work on the 'Origin and Nature of Hieroglyphics and the Greek inscription on the Rosetta Stone' (1816). He is best known for his edition of 'Forcellini's Latin Dictionary,' 2 vols. (1826), in which he translated the Italian explanations into English, incorporated the appendices of Forcellini with the main work, and added an extensive Auctarium of his own. Bailey died in London, 13 Feb. 1864.
A. G-n.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Bailey, Nathan

​BAILEY, NATHAN or NATHANIEL (d. 1742), lexicographer, published in 1721 'An Universal Etymological English Dictionary,' which was greatly esteemed in its day. The library of the British Museum contains copies of no fewer than twenty-five separate editions of this work. Of the compiler nothing is known beyond the fact that he belonged to the seventh-day baptists, being admitted to membership 6 Nov. 1691, and kept a boarding school at Stepney, where he died on 27 June 1742. A supplementary volume of his dictionary appeared in 1727, and in 1730 a folio, entitled 'Dictionarium Britannicum, collected by several hands. The Mathematical part by G. Gordon, the Botanical by P. Miller. The whole revis'd and improv'd with many thousand additions by N. Bailey.' This contains many technical terms. Thirty editions of the dictionary appeared, the latest at Glasgow in 1802, and it was reprinted by various booksellers. It is the basis of the English-German dictionaries of Arnold (3rd edition, 1761), A. E. Klausing (8th edition, 1792), and J. A. F. Krüger (11th edition, 1810). Lord Chatham is said to have read it through twice, and Chatterton obtained many sham-antique words from Bailey and Kersey. Johnson made an interleaved copy the foundation of his own. Bailey also published a spelling-book in 1726; 'All the Familiar Colloquies of Erasmus Translated,' 1733, of which a new edition appeared in 1878; 'The Antiquities of London and Westminster,' 1726; 'Dictionarium Domesticum,' 1736; Selections from Ovid and Phædrus; and 'English and Latin Exercises.' In 1883 appeared 'English Dialect Words of the Eighteenth Century as shown in the … Dictionary of N. Bailey, with an introduction by W. E. A. Axon (English Dialect Society),' giving biographical and bibliographical details.
[Watt's Bibl. Brit.; Gent, Mag. xii. 387; Chalmers's Biogr. Dict.; Notes and Queries, 5th series, i. 448, 514, ii. 156, 258, 514, iii. 175, 298, 509, iv. 276, vii. 447, viii. 52.]
A. H. B.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Bailey, Thomas

1904 Errata appended.
​BAILEY, THOMAS (1785–1856), topographer and miscellaneous writer, was born at Nottingham 31 July 1785. His education was received partly in a day-school in his native town, and partly in a boarding-school at Gillingham, Yorkshire. Afterwards he was for some time engaged in business as a silk-hosier at Nottingham. A liberal in politics, though not a radical, he came forward unsuccessfully, in 1830, as a candidate for the representation of the borough. In 1836 he was elected to the town council, and he continued to be a member of that body for seven years. In 1845-6 he became proprietor and editor of the 'Nottingham Mercury,' but his opinions were too temperate to suit the taste of his readers. The circulation of the paper declined, and at last, in 1851, the mass of the subscribers withdrew in wrath, on account of the editor's views respecting the original error of the Ecclesiastical Titles Bill, and his prophecies of its inevitable failure. In the following year the journal became extinct. Previously to this, in 1830, he had purchased a mansion at Basford, near Nottingham, where he spent the later years of his life, engaged in literary pursuits and in the formation of a choice collection of books and engravings. He died at Basford 23 Oct. 1856. His son, Mr. Philip James Bailey, is the well-known author of 'Festus,' and of other poems.
Thomas Bailey s works are: 1. 'What is Life? and other Poems,' Lond., 1820, 12mo. 2. 'The Carnival of Death,' a poem, Lond., 1822, 16mo. 3. 'A Sermon on the Death of Byron,' 1824. 4. 'Ireton,' a poem, Lond. 1827, 8vo. 5. 'Discourse on Political Revolutions,' 1830. 6. 'Recreations in Retirement,' a miscellany of poetry and prose, 1836. 7. 'The Rights of Labour,' a pamphlet, 1844. 8. 'The Advent of Charity and other Poems,' Lond. 1861, 16mo. 9. 'Annals of Nottinghamshire; a new and popular history of the county of Nottingham, including the borough,' 4 vols., Lond. 1852-55, 8vo, his most important publication. 10. 'Village Reform: the great social necessity of Britain.' being a letter to Lord Palmerston, Lond. 1854, 12mo. 11. 'Handbook to Nottingham Castle,' Lond. 1854, 8vo. 12. 'Handbook to Newstead Abbey,' Lond. 1855, 12mo. 13. 'Records of Longevity; with an introductory discourse on Vital Statistics,' Lond. 1857, 8vo.
T. C.
Dictionary of National Biography, Errata (1904), p.12 N.B.— f.e. stands for from end and l.l. for last line
| Page | Col. | Line | |
| 411 | i | 28 f.e. | Bailey, Thomas: for Gillingham read Gilling |
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Bailey, John (1750-1819)

​BAILEY, JOHN (1750–1819), agriculturist and engraver, was the son of William Bailey, of Blades Field, near Bowes, Yorkshire, where he was born in 1750. At an early age he manifested strong artistic tendencies, and while employed as tutor to his uncle's children devoted his leisure hours to engraving various pieces, which he afterwards ​published. Both in his artistic and mathematical studies he received valuable assistance from his uncle. After completing the education of his uncle's children he became mathematical teacher at Witton-le-Wear, and began also the business of a land surveyor. Shortly after his marriage he was appointed land agent to Lord Tankerville at Chillingham, a situation he retained till his death, 4 June 1819, in his sixty-ninth year. Bailey engraved several of the plates for the works of William Hutchinson, the topographer of Cumberland, Durham, and Northumberland. He devoted also much of his attention to the natural sciences, especially mineralogy, chemistry, hydraulics, and pneumatics, and his scientific acquirements were turned by him to excellent practical account in promoting improvements in rural economy, in 1795 he published an 'Essay on the Construction of the Plough,' in which he employed mathematical calculations to demonstrate the advantages of the alterations he proposed. He was also the joint author of the reports on the counties of Cumberland, Durham, and Northumberland, drawn up for the Board of Agriculture.
[Richardson's Local Historian's Tabie-Book of Durham, Historical Division, iii. 197; Mackenzie and Ross's View of the County of Durham, ii. 212.]
T. F. H.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Baikie, William Balfour

​BAIKIE, WILLIAM BALFOUR, M.D. (1825–1864), naturalist, traveller, and philologist,eldest son of Captain John Baikie, R.N., was born at Kirkwall, Orkney, on 27 Aug. 1825, and educated privately and at the grammar school there. After taking his degree in medicine at Edinburgh, he entered the royal navy in 1848 as assistant surgeon. He served on her majesty's ships Volage, Vanguard, Ceylon, Medusa, and Hibernia in the Mediterranean, and then became assistant surgeon at the Haslar Hospital from 1851 to 1854, when the influence of Sir Roderick Murchison procured him the post of surgeon and naturalist to the Niger expedition of 1854, and on the death of the captain at Fernando Po, Baikie succeeded to the command of the Pleiad, the exploring vessel. ​This first successful voyage, penetrating 250 miles higher up the Niger than had before been reached, is described by Baikie in his 'Narrative of an Exploring Voyage up the . . . Niger and Isadda,' London, 1856. After spending some months in arranging his African collections, and again serving at the Haslar Hospital, Baikie left England in 1857 on a second expedition, in which the Pleiad was wrecked, and the other explorers returned to England, and left him to carry on the exploration alone. He bought a site — Lukoja — at the confluence of the Quorra and Benue, and soon collected a considerable native settlement, over which he held sway and where he officiated in every capacity. He explored the country around, entered into relations with the King of Nupe, the next powerful sovereign to the Sultan of Sokoto, and induced him to 'open out roads for the passage of caravans, traders, and canoes' to Lukoja. Before five years were over he had opened up the navigation of the Niger, made roads, established a regular market for native produce, collected vocabularies of numerous African dialects, and translated parts of the Bible and Book of Common Prayer into Hausa. He died on his way home, on a well-earned leave of; absence, at Sierra Leone on 12 Dec. 1864, aged 39. A monument to his memory was erected in the cathedral of St. Magnus, Kirkwall. His earliest works related to Orkney: 'Historia Naturalis Orcadensis: Zoology, Part I. Mammalia and Birds observed in the Orkney Islands,' by W. B. Baikie, M.D., and Pt. Heddle, Edinburgh, 1848; and 'List of Books and Manuscripts relating to Orkney and Zetland,' &c., by W. B. Baikie, Kirkwall, 1847. His 'Observations on the Hausa and Fulfulde Languages' were privately printed in 1861; his translation of the Psalms into Hausa ('Letâfi ta Zabûra') was posthumously published by the Bible Society in 1881; and other translations were incorporated in Reichardt's 'Grammar of the Fulde Language' (1876). Dr. Baikie was also a contributor to the transactions of various learned societies.
S. L. P.
# Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology/Aceratus

​ACE΄RATUS (Ἀκήρατος γραμματικός), a Greek grammarian, and the author of an epigram on Hector in the Greek Anthology. (vii. 138.) Nothing is known of his life.[P. S.]
# Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology/Acca Laurentia

​ACCA LAURE'NTIA or LARE'NTIA, a mythical woman who occurs in the stories in early Roman history. Macrobius (Sat. i. 10), with whom Plutarch (Quaest. Rom. 35; Romul. 5) agrees in the main points, relates the following tradition about her. In the reign of Ancus Martius a servant (aedituus) of the temple of Hercules invited during the holidays the god to a game of dice, promising that if he should lose the game, he would treat the god with a repast and a beautiful woman. When the god had conquered the servant, the latter shut up Acca Laurentia, then the most beautiful and most notorious woman, together with a well stored table in the temple of Hercules, who, when she left the sanctuary, advised her to try to gain the affection of the first wealthy man she should meet. She succeeded in making Carutius, nn Etruscan, or as Plutarch calls him, Tarrutius, love and marry her. After his death she inherited his large property, which, when she herself died, she left to the Roman people. Ancus, in gratitude for this, allowed her to be buried in the Velabrum, and instituted an annual festival, the Larentalia, at which sacrifices were offered to the Lares. (Comp. Varr. Ling. Lat. v. p. 85, ed. Bip.) According to others (Macer, ’'apud Macrob. l.c.; Ov. Fast. iii. 55, &c.; Plin. H. N, xviii. 2), Acca Laurentia was the wife of the shepherd Faustulus and the nurse of Romulus and Remus after they had been taken from the she-wolf. Plutarch indeed states, that this Laurentia was altogether a different being from the one occurring in the reign of Ancus; but other writers, such as Macer, relate their stories as belonging to the same being. (Comp. Gell. vi. 7.) According to Massurius Sabinus in Gellius (l. c.) she was the mother of twelve sons, and when one of them died, Romulus stept into his place, and adopted in conjunction with the remaining eleven the name of fratres arvales. (Comp. Plin. l. c.) According to other accounts again she was not the wife of Faustulus, but a prostitute who from her mode of life was called lupa by the shepherds, and who left the property she gained in that way to the Roman people. (Valer. Ant. ap. Gell. l. c.; Livy, i. 4.) Whatever may be thought of the contradictory statements respecting Acca Laurentia, thus much seems clear, that she was of Etruscan origin, and connected with the worship of the Lares, from which her name Larentia itself seems to be derived. This appears further from the number of her sons, which answers to that of the twelve country Lares, and from the circumstance that the day sacred to her was followed by one sacred to the Lares. (Macrob. Sat. l. c; compare Miiller, Etrusker, ii. p. 103, &c.; Hartung, Die Religion der Römer, ii. p. 144, &c.)[L. S.]
# Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology/Acesander

​ ACESANDER (Ἀκέρσανδρος) wrote a history of Cyrene. (Schol. ad Apoll. 1561, 1750; ad Pind. Pyth. iv. ijiit. 57.) Plutarch (Symp. v. 2. § 8) speaks of a work of his respecting Libya (περὶ Λιβύης), which may probably be the same work as the history of Cyrene. The time at which he lived is unknown.
# Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology/Acesias

​ ACE'SIAS (Ἀκεσίας), an ancient Greek physician, whose age and country are both unknown. It is ascertained however that he lived at least four hundred years before Christ, as the proverb Ἀκεσίας ἰάσατο, Acesias cured him, is quoted on the authority of Aristophanes. This saying (by which only Acesias is known to us,) was used when any person's disease became worse instead of better under medical treatment, and is mentioned by Suidas (s. v. Ἀκεσίας), Zenobius (Proverb. Cent. i. § 52), Diogenianus (Proverb, ii. 3), Michael Apostolius (Proverb, ii. 23), and Plutarch (Proverb, quibus Alexandr. usi sunt, § 98). See also Proverb, e Cod. Bodl. § 82, in Gaisford's Paroemiographi Graeci, 8vo. Oxon. 1836. It is possible that an author bearing this name, and mentioned by Athenaeus (xii. p. 516, c.) as having wntten a treatise on the Art of Cooking (ὀψαρτικά), may be one and the same person, but of this we have no certain information. (J. J. Baier, Adag. Medic. Cent. 4to. Lips. 1718.)[W. A. G.]
# Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology/Acesas

​ A'CESAS (Ἀκεσᾶς), a native of Salamis in Cyprus, famed for his skill in weaving cloth with variegated patterns (polymitarius). He and his son Helicon, who distinguished himself in the same art are mentioned by Athenaeus. (ii. p. 48, b.) Zenobius speaks of both artists, but says that Acesas (or, as he calls him Aceseus, Ἀκεσεύς) was a native of Patara, and Helicon of Carystus, He tells us also that they were the first who made a peplus for Athena Polias. AVhen they lived, we are not informed; but it must have been before the time of Euripides and Plato, who mention this peplus. (Eur. Hec. 468; Plat. Euthyphr. § 6.) A specimen of the workmanship of these two artists was preserved in the temple at Delphi, bearing an inscription to the effect, that Pallas had imparted marvellous skill to their hands.[C.P. M.]
# Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology/Acco

​ACCO, a chief of Senones in Gaul, who induced his countrymen to revolt against Caesar, b. c. 53. On the conclusion of the war Acco was put to death by Caesar. (Bell. Gall. vi. 4, 44.)
# Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology/Accoleia Gens

​ACCOLEIA GENS is known to us only by coins and inscriptions. On a denarius we have the name P. Accoleius Lariscolus, and in two inscriptions a P. Accoleius Euhemerus, and a L. Accoleius Abascantus.
# Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology/Acerbas

​ACERBAS, a Tyrian priest of Hercules, who married Eiissa, the daughter of king Mutgo, and sister of Pygmalion. He was possessed of considerable wealth, which, knowing the avarice of Pygmalion, who had succeeded his father, he concealed in the earth. But Pygmalion, who heard of these hidden treasures, had Acerbas murdered, in hopes that through his sister he might obtain possession of them. But the prudence of Elissa saved the treasures, and she emigrated from Phoenicia. (Justin, xviii. 4.) In this account Acerbas is the same person as Sichaeus, and Elissa the same as Dido in Virgil. (Aen. i. 343, 348, &c.) The names in Justin are undoubtedly more correct than in Virgil; for Servius (ad Aen. i. 343) remarks, that Virgil here, as in other cases, changed a
​foreign name into one more convenient to him, and that the real name of Sichaeus was Sicharbas, which seems to be identical with Acerbas. [Dido; Pygmalion][L. S.]
# Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology/Acerronia

​ ACERRO'NIA, a friend of Agrippina, the mother of Nero, was drowned in b. c. 39, when an unsuccessful attempt was made at the same time to drown Agrippina. (Tac. Ann. xiv. 4 ; Dion Cass. lxi. 13.)
# Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology/Acersecomes

​ ACERSE'COMES (Ἀκερσεκόμης), a surname of Apollo expressive of his beautiful hair which was never cut or shorn. (Hom. Il xx. 39; Pind. Pyth. iii. 26.)[L. S.]
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Brewer, John

​BREWER, JOHN, D.D. (1744–1822), an English Benedictine monk, who assumed in religion the Christian name of Bede, was born in 1744. In 1776 he was appointed to the mission at Bath. He built a new chapel in St. James's Parade in that city, and it was to have been opened on 11 June 1780, but the delegates from Lord George Gordon's 'No Popery' association so inflamed the fanaticism of the mob that on 9 June the edifice was demolished, as well as the presbytery in Bell-tree Lane. The registers, diocesan archives, and Bishop Walmesley's library and manuscripts perished in the flames; and Dr. Brewer had a narrow escape from the fury of the rioters. The ringleader was tried and executed, and Dr. Brewer recovered 3,736l. damages from the hundred of Bath.
In 1781 the duties of president of his brethren called Dr. Brewer away from Bath. Subsequently Woolton, near Liverpool, became his principal place of residence, and there he died on 18 April 1822.
He brought out the second edition of the Abbé Luke Joseph Hooke's 'Religio Naturalis et Revelata,' 3 vols., Paris, 1774, 8vo, to which he added several dissertations.
[Oliver's Hist, of the Catholic Religion in Cornwall, 56, 508; Biog. Univ. Suppl. lxvii. 291.]
T. C.