OpenLLM-France/wikimedia huggingface dataset:
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Grey, John (1780?-1856)

​GREY, Sir JOHN (1780?–1856), lieutenant-general, colonel of the 5th fusiliers, was younger son of Charles Grey of Morwick Hall, Northumberland, and grandson of John Grey of Howick, youngest brother of Charles, first earl Grey [q. v.] He entered the army on 18 Jan. 1798 as ensign of the 75th foot, and became lieutenant on 8 May 1799. He served with the 75th in the war against Tippoo Sahib, including the battle of Malavelly and the storming and capture of Seringapatam (medal). He became captain in the 15th battalion, army of reserve, 31 Oct. 1803, exchanged to 82nd foot the year after, became major 9th garrison battalion 27 Nov. 1806, and exchanged to 5th foot, with the 2nd battalion of which he served in the Peninsula at the combat of El Bodon, the siege of Ciudad Rodrigo, including the scaling of the faussebraie and storming of the greater breach, which was carried by the 2nd-5th, during which operations he was twice wounded, and in the action at Fuente Guinaldo (Peninsular medal). He became lieutenant-colonel in 1812, and commanded the 2nd battalion of his regiment at home until it was disbanded in 1816. After many years on half-pay, Grey, who became a major-general in 1838, was appointed to a divisional command in Bengal, which he held from 1840 to 1845. At the head of the left wing of the `army of Gwalior' he defeated a force of twelve thousand Mahrattas at Punniar on 29 Dec. 1843, on which day the main body of the Mahratta army was defeated and broken by Gough at Maharajpore. For this service Grey was made K.C.B. He was commander-in-chief and second member of the council at Bombay in 1850-2.
Grey was appointed colonel of the 5th or Northumberland fusiliers on 18 May 1849, and became a lieutenant-general in 1851. He married in 1830 Rosa Louisa, only daughter of Captain Sturt, royal navy, by whom he had no issue. His elder brother (Charles Grey, captain 85th foot, killed at New Orleans in 1815) having predeceased him, the Morwick branch of the Greys of Howick became extinct at Grey's death, which took place at Morwick Hall on 19 Feb. 1856
H. M. C.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Grey, John de (1268-1323)

​GREY, JOHN de, second Lord Grey of Wilton (1268–1323), was the grandson of John de Grey (d. 1266) [q. v.], and the son of Reginald de Grey, the first lord Grey of Wilton. The father, having been justice of Chester, received in 1282 a grant of the castle of Ruthin, with the cantreds of Duffryn Clwyd and Englefield (Tegeingl), in the marches of North Wales; married Maud, daughter and heiress of Henry de Longchamp of Wilton; was summoned to parliament in 1297 and died in 1308. John had already been actively engaged in public life some years before his father's death. His acts are easily confused with those of his namesake, John de Grey of Rotherfield (d. 1312). He was, however, vice-justice of Chester in 1296 and 1297 (Welsh Records in Thirty-first Report of Deputy-keeper of Records, p. 202). In consideration of the son's good services to the crown Edward I remitted part of a debt which in 1306 Reginald the father owed to the king (Rolls of Parliament, i. 199).
John de Grey was first summoned to parliament on 9 June 1309. He had not yet become a prominent partisan when in March 1310 he was appointed one of the lords ordainers (Stubbs, Chron. Edward I and II, ii.37; cf. Const. Hist. ii. 328). His continued hostility to the court is also shown by his being one of the permanent council nominated in 1318 to keep Edward II in check as the result of Lancaster's triumph. He was, however, constantly acting against the Scots, and seems to have shown some activity in enrolling foot soldiers from his Welsh estates. On 15 Feb. 1315 he was also appointed justice of North Wales and constable of Carnarvon Castle (Breese, Calendars of Gwynedd, p. 125). In 1316 he was ordered to raise all the forces he could to put down the insurrection of Llewelyn Bren. In 1320 he was a conservator of the peace for Bedfordshire.
In 1322, when the final struggle between Edward II and Lancaster broke out, Grey seems to have abandoned his old associates for the royal cause. He was commanded to raise troops in Wales and join the royal muster at Coventry, and also sat in the parliament at York which consummated the king's triumph. He complained, however, that the Welsh tenants of the king had attacked Ruthin, plundered himself and the townsfolk, and almost succeeded in burning the town (Rolls of Parliament, i. 397 b).
Grey died in 1323. He is said to have married twice. His first wife was Anne, daughter of William Ferrers, lord of Groby, by whom he left a son named Henry, forty years old at his father's death, who became ​the ancestor of the Lords Grey de Wilton. By a second wife, Maud, daughter of Ralph, lord Basset of Drayton, he left a son, Roger de Grey [q. v.], the ancestor of the Lords Grey of Ruthin.
[Dugdale's Baronage, i. 713; Collins's Peerage, ii. 509-10, ed. 1779; Nicolas's Historic Peerage, p. 228; Parliamentary Writs, ii. iii. 950-1; Rolls of Parliament, vol. i.; Rymer's Fœdera, vols. i. ii., Record edit.; Stubbs's Chronicles of Edward I and II (Rolls Ser.)]
T. F. T.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Lawrence, Charles (1794-1881)

​LAWRENCE, CHARLES (1794–1881), agriculturist, born on 21 March 1794, was the son of William Lawrence (1758–1837), an old-established surgeon of Cirencester, Gloucestershire. His mother was Judith, second daughter of William Wood of Tetbury, Gloucestershire. Sir William Lawrence [q. v.] the surgeon was his eldest brother. In 1812 he attended lectures of Dr. Hugh on chemistry, and was from an early age interested in the applications of the science in agriculture. For more than half a century he was a prominent figure among scientific agriculturists. He owned for many years a farm adjoining that of the Royal Agricultural College at Cirencester (which he had taken a leading part in founding and organising between 1842 and 1845), and here ne conducted many valuable experiments, which led to the introduction of numerous improvements in agricultural machinery. Many visitors, among others Liebig, came at various times to inspect the farm. His endeavour was always to discover how the greatest fertility in land could be secured together with the greatest economy in working expenses. His farm was always open for the inspection of students of the Agricultural College. He was much beloved on account of his benevolence at Cirencester, where he died 5 July 1881.
Lawrence married, 26 May 1818, Lydia, youngest daughter of Devereux Bowly of Chesterton House, Cirencester, by whom he had a son and three daughters.
In the 'Transactions of the Royal Agricultural Society' are several papers by Lawrence. Some of the titles are: 'On Diminishing the Quantity of Roots used in Fattening Cattle.' xv. 488; on 'The Relative Value of Cattle-box Manure and Farmyard Manure.' xviii. 368; on 'Pulping Roots for Cattle Food.' xx. 453; on the 'Management of Clover Layers, the proper distance for Drilling Wheat, and the Ravages of Insects in Pines.' xxii. 447; on the 'Cultivation of Carrots and Cabbages for the Feeding of Stock.' xxiv. 216; on 'Swedes, Mangold, and the Steam Plough.' xxv. 248; 'On the Royal Agricultural College of Cirencester.' 2nd ser. i. 1; and on 'Kohl Rabi.' 2nd ser. i. 219. Besides these essays he published: 1. 'Practical Directions for the Cultivation of Cottage Gardens.' 1831. 2. 'A Letter on Agricultural Education addressed to a Youth who has resolved on Farming as his Future Occupation.' 1851. 3. In 1860 he issued a tract to his labourers full of sound practical advice, 'On the Economy of Food.' 4. Lawrence's best work is his 'Handy Book for Young Farmers.' 1859, in the form of a monthly calendar, with notes and observations. It abounds in sensible hints and economical suggestions, showing a mind well stored with orderly and practical information on the subjects of which it treats.
[Lawrence's Works; Burke's Baronetage; Times, 10 July 1867, 19 July 1881.]
M. G. W.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Lawrence, Giles

​LAWRENCE, GILES (fl. 1539–1584), professor of Greek at Oxford, a native of Gloucestershire, was a member of Corpus Christi College, Oxford, in 1539. He was a friend of Jewel, and became fellow of All Souls about 1542. He proceeded B.C.L., and afterwards (13 March 1555-6) D.C.L. In October 1550 he seems to have succeeded George Etherege [q. v.] as regius professor of Greek, but Etherege was professor again from November 1554 to 21 April 1559, when Lawrence was once more elected. In Queen Mary's time he was tutor to the children of Sir Arthur Darcy, and lived near the Tower of London. While here he assisted Jewel to escape to the continent. On 18 Sept. 1564 he became archdeacon of Wiltshire, and resigned before 10 Feb. 1577-8. In 1571 he preached Jewel's funeral sermon. On 30 Jan. 1580-1 he was appointed archdeacon of St. Albans and vicar of Rickmansworth, and resigned both preferments on 5 July 1581. The date of his death is uncertain, but he was living in 1584. John Harmer (1555?–1613) [q. v.] became the next regius professor of Greek in 1585. Lawrence has verses prefixed to Sir Thomas Wilson's translation of the 'Orations' of Demosthenes (1570), and a tract by him, 'De significatione verbi προσφερω et προσφερομαι.' is in manuscript at Corpus Christi College, Cambridge.
[Wood's Fasti Oxon. ed. Bliss, i. 209; Reg. Univ. Oxf. (Oxf. Hist. Soc.), i. 231; Le Neve's Fasti, ii. 345, 631, iii. 516; Nasmith's Cat. of the Parker MSS. p. 136; Jewel's Works (Parker Soc), xi. xxv.; Cussans's Hertfordshire, iii. 161.]
W. A. J. A.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Lawrance, Mary

​LAWRANCE, MARY, afterwards Mrs. Kearse (fl. 1794–1830), flower-painter, first appears as an exhibitor at the Royal Academy in 1795 with a flower-piece. She married Mr. Kearse in 1818, but up to 1830 she continued to exhibit studies of flowers, which were finely executed. During the years 1796 to 1799 she published a series of plates illustrating 'The Various Kinds of Roses cultivated in England.' drawn from nature, which are more remarkable for the beauty of their execution than for their botanical accuracy.
[Redgrave's Dict. of Artists; Graves's Dict. of Artists, 1760-1880; Lowndes's Bibl. Man.]
L. C.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Lawrence, Frederick

​LAWRENCE, FREDERICK (1821–1867), barrister and journalist, eldest son of John Lawrence, a considerable farmer at Bisham, Berkshire, who married Mary, daughter of John Jennings of Windsor, was born at Bisham in 1821. After being educated in a private school at St. John's Wood, London, he found employment with Messrs. Simpkin & Marshall, the publishers. In December 1846 he entered the printed book department of the British Museum, following the example of his friend, afterwards the well-known Serjeant Parry, and remained there in the task of compiling the general catalogue until May 1849, when, like Parry, he resigned, in order to qualify for the bar. He was called at the Middle Temple on 23 Nov. 1849, joined the Oxford circuit, and attended the Berkshire sessions, but subsequently practised with some success at the Middlesex Sessions and the Old Bailey. Lawrence frequently contributed to the periodical press, especially to the 'Weekly Dispatch' and 'Sharped London Journal,' to the last of which he contributed a series of articles on 'literary impostures' and on eminent English authors.
Social and political questions always interested him, and he acted as chairman of the Garibaldian Committee. While at Boulogne in the autumn of 1867 he was attacked by dropsy, which compelled him to return to London, and on 25 Oct. 1867 he died suddenly at his chambers, 1 Essex Court, Temple. He was buried at Kensal Green cemetery.
Lawrence is said to have edited at Guildford in 1841 three numbers, seventy-two pages in all, of 'The Iris, a Journal of Literature and Science.' He was author of: 1. 'The Common Law Procedure Act, 1852, with an Introduction' 1852. 2. 'The Life of Henry Fielding, with Notices of his Writings, his Times, and his Contemporaries,' 1855, a work of great research and taste, the ​substance of which originally appeared in vol. iv. new series, of 'Sharpe's London Magazine;' for a second edition he collected many notes. 3. 'Culverwell v. Sidebottom. A Letter to the Attorney-General. By a Barrister.' 1857; 2nd edit., with further matter, 1859. This related to a gambling case at the Berkeley Hotel in Albemarle Street, London. The volumes from 1864 to 1868 of the 'Lawyer's Companion' were edited by him for Messrs. Stevens & Sons, and he made large collections for a 'Memoir' of Smollett.
[Law Times, xliv. 46, 1867; Cowtan's British Museum, pp. 363-4; Olphar Hamet's Anon. literature, p. 205; Halkett and Lang's Dict. of Anon. Lit i. 548, ii. 1251.]
W. P. C.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Lawrence, Andrew

​LAWRENCE, ANDREW (1708–1747), engraver, known in France as André Laurent, was born in College Court, Westminster, in 1708. He was a natural son of Andrew Lawrence, apothecary to Queen Anne. While yet a child he showed a marked aptitude for art, and was placed under the tuition of Mons. Regnier, a drawing-master and printseller in Newport Street, Soho. He appears to have been a youth of ability, for besides painting in oil and drawing in crayons, he soon acquired a good knowledge of Latin, French, Italian, and German, and became proficient in music, especially on the violin and flute, and in every branch of science which could be of advantage to an artist. The death of his father placed him in possession of an ample fortune, but unfortunately he fell under the influence of one Riario, who induced him to experiment on the transmutation of the baser metals into gold. He soon lost his fortune, and left England a ruined man. He went first to Bologna, and thence to Paris, where he studied engraving under Philippe Le Bas, who employed him to etch plates for the scanty remuneration of thirty sous, or fifteenpence, a day. His etchings are executed with great taste, and among them are the 'Halte d'Officiers,' 'Les Sangliers forcés,' and 'Halte de Cavalerie' after Wouwerman, 'Le Soir' after Berchem, and 'Le Courrier de Flandres' after Both, which were finished, but not always improved, by Le Bas. He afterwards worked for Arthur Pond, the portrait-painter and engraver, and etched plates which were completed by Jean Auaran. One of these was 'La Moisson' after Wouwerman. He executed thirty-five works in all, of which 'Saul consulting the Witch of Endor,' after Salvator Rosa, was wholly engraved by him. He likewise etched 'Les Adieux' after Wouwerman, 'La Conversation.' 'L'Hiver,' and 'Le Joueur de Quilles' after Teniers, and also after Wouwerman 'The Death of the Staff.' which was finished by Thomas Major, who left in manuscript a memoir of Lawrence, written in 1785.
Lawrence died in Paris on 8 July 1747, and was buried in a timber-yard outside the Porte St.-Antoine, then the usual place of interment for heretics. Nagler (Künstler-Lexicon, vii. 334) and Le Blanc (Manuel de l'Amateur d'Estampes, ii. 605) are wrong in ascribing to this engraver 'La Bénédicité,' after Greuze, and some other plates, which are the work of Pierre Laurent.
[Athenæum, 1869, ii. 505; Bryan's Dict. of Painters and Engravers, ed. Graves, 1886–9; Redgrave's Dict. of Artists of the English School, 1878; Basan's Dictionnaire des Graveurs, 1789, i. 312; Nagler's Monogrammisten, 1868–79, i. 364.]
R. E. G.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Lawrence, Charles (d.1760)

​LAWRENCE, CHARLES (d. 1760), governor of Nova Scotia, was appointed ensign in Colonel Edward Montague's foot (afterwards 11th Devon regiment) in 1727, and in 1741 was promoted to captain-lieutenant in Houghton's foot (then raising as the 54th, since the 46th foot, and now 1st Derby). He became captain in the regiment in 1742, and major in 1747. In some Irish lists of the period the name of Stringer Lawrence [q. v.] is wrongly inserted in his stead. He accompanied the 45th to Nova Scotia; was appointed a member of council on 19 Oct. 1749, and the year after commanded a small expedition to Chinecto, which built Fort Lawrence at the head of the bay of Fundy. Lawrence's journal of the expedition is in British Museum Addit. MS. 32821, f. 345. Parkman (Montcalm and Wolfe, vol. i.) relates Lawrence's subsequent troubles with the unhappy Acadians in much detail. He succeeded General Hopson in the government of the colony in 1753, ​was appointed lieutenant-governor in 1754, and governor in 1766. He commanded the reserve in Lord Loudon's operations in 1757, became a brigadier-general 3 Dec. 1757, and commanded a brigade at the siege of Louisburg, Cape Breton. Lawrence died at Halifax, Nova Scotia, on 17 Oct. 1760, from a chill taken when heated with dancing at a ball. There is a public monument to him in St. Paul's Church, Halifax.
[Home Office Military Entry Books in Public Becord Office, London; Parkman's Montcalm and Wolfe, London, 1884, vols. i. ii. and references there given; B. Murdoch's Hist. of Nova Scotia, Halifax, 1857, ii. 148, 289, 485; Appleton's Encycl. Amer. Biog. vol. iii.; Lawrence's Papers, 1753-4, from Brit. Mus. Addit. MS. 19072; and abstracts of his letters, 1755, Addit. MS. 33029, ff. 221, 232.]
H. M. C.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Lawrence, George Alfred

​LAWRENCE, GEORGE ALFRED (1827–1876), author of 'Guy Livingstone.' was born at Braxted rectory, Essex, 26 March 1827. His father, Alfred Charnley Lawrence, was of Christ College, Cambridge, B.A. 1813, M.A. 1818, rector of Sandhurst, Kent, 1831-1857, and died about 1867. His mother was Emily Mary, third daughter of George Finch Hatton (1797-1868) of Eastwell Park, Kent. George Alfred, the eldest son, was entered at Rugby in August 1841; he matriculated from Ballioi College, Oxford, 29 Nov. 1845, but graduated B.A. 5 Dec. 1850 from New Inn Hall. He was called to the bar at the Inner Temple 17 Nov. 1852, but soon leaving his Profession gave himself up to literature. In 1857 he astonished novel-readers by his 'Guy Livingstone, or Thorough.' with its deification of strength and very questionable morality. The hostile critics depicted the hero as a mixture of the prize-fighter and the libertine, while the admirers of the book praised the disregard of conventionalities and personal daring of both the hero and the author, and a report that in the work the author had described his own boyhood and college life lent an additional piquancy to the book. It had a large sale, and from this time forward Lawrence produced a work of fiction nearly every alternate year. One of the best of these was 'Sword and Gown,' 1859, which has a coherence and an air of probability hardly to be found elsewhere in his writings. In 1863 appeared ​'Border and Bastile,' a record of a journey to the United States with the intention of joining the confederate army as a volunteer. But before he got near the confederate lines he was taken a prisoner and shut up in a guard-house, whence, after correspondence with Lord Lyons, the English ambassador at Washington, he was liberated on the condition of his immediate return to England. In his numerous books Lawrence's style is always vigorous, and he is never dull. He died, at 134 George Street, Edinburgh, on 23 Sept. 1876.
The following is a list of Lawrence's writings:
* 'Guy Livingstone, or Thorough.' 1857; 6th edit. 1867; this work has also been translated into French.
* 'Sword and Gown.' 1859; 5th edit. 1888.
* 'Barren Honour.' 1862, 2 vols., other editions.
* 'Border and Bastile.' 1863; 3rd edit. 1864.
* 'A Bundle of Ballads.' 1864.
* 'Maurice Dering, or the Quadrilateral.' 1864; 2nd edit. 1869.
* 'Sans Merci, or Kestrels and Falcons.' 1866, 3 vols.; 3rd edit. 1869; there is also a French edition.
* 'Brakespeare: Fortunes of a Free Lance.' 1868, 3 vols.; 2nd edit. 1869.
* 'Breaking a Butterfly: Blanche Ellerslie's Ending.' 1869, 3 vols.; 2nd edit. 1870.
* 'Anteros.' 1871, 3 vols.; 3rd edit. 1888.
* 'Silverland.' 1873.
* 'Hagarene.' 1874, 8 vols.; new edit. 1875.
The first of these works is anonymous, all the rest are stated on their title-pages to be by 'the author of Guy Livingstone.'
[Times, 2 Oct. 1876, p. 10; Law Times, 7 Oct 1876, p. 388; Spectator, 28 Oct. 1876, pp. 1345-1347.]
G. C. B.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Lawrence, George

​LAWRENCE, GEORGE (1616–1695?), puritan divine, son of George Lawrence of Stepney, was born in the county of Middlesex about 1615. He was a scholar of St. Paul's School under Alexander Gill, was Pauline exhibitioner at New Inn Hall, Oxford, from 1632 to 1640, proceeded B.A. 2 July 1636, and M.A. 2 May 1639. Wood (Athenæ, iv. 783) is unable to state whether he took holy orders from a bishop or not. He was a 'most violent puritan, and a great admirer of the Scotch covenant.' In 1640 he was lecturer at the church of St. George, Botolph Lane, but ceased to act by the end of the following year. In the churchwarden's accounts (1589-1675, No. 2), under date 19 Nov. 1641, there is a note saying that he is to be desired to preach no more, but proposing to pay his dues till Christmas if he will behave himself quietly. The last payment to him, however, seems to have been on 20 Dec. 1640, and the last allowance of coals on 30 June 1641. He afterwards took the covenant, and became lecturer in another church in London, and before 1650 was minister of the hospital of St. Cross, near Winchester, where he constantly preached against the king and the royalists. In the south choir chapel of the hospital are two slabs to the memory of a daughter and son of his who died respectively in 1650 and 1651. At the Restoration Lawrence was silenced and ejected. He remained some time in the neighbourhood of Winchester, and 'carried on the trade of conventicling, as he did afterwards at London to the time of his death' (Wood, Athenæ, iv. 783).
He published: 1. 'The Debauched Cavalleer, or the English Midianite. Wherein are compared, by way of Parallel, the Carriage, or rather Miscarriage, of the Cavalleeres, in the present Reigne of our King Charles, with the Midianites of old . . . Penned by G. L. and C. L, for publique good.' London, 1642 (anon.) In this pamphlet he was assisted by 'his dear brother.' Christopher Love [q. v.] 2. 'Laurentius Lutherizans, or the Protestation of George Lawrence . . . against certain Calumniations asperged on him by the Corrupt Clergie and their Lay-Proselytes ....' London, 1642. At the time of the publication of the pamphlet he was preparing for the press the sermons on the 'English-Protestation ' which had caused the 'calumniations.' Wood considers them to have been printed. 3. 'Pepium Olivarii, or a Good Prince bewailed by a Good People . . . Upon the Death of Oliver, late Lord Protector.' London, 1658. Lawrence dedicated his sermon to Richard Cromwell, and expresses his gratitude for his 'personal undeserved respects.' Wood erroneously ascribes to him a sermon on transubstantiation, really written by Edward Lawrence [q. v.]
[Gardiner's Reg. of St. Paul's School, pp. 36, 400; Palmer's Nonconformist's Memorial, Hi. 616-617; Wood's Athenæ (Bliss), iv. cols. 783-4; Wood's Fasti (Bliss), i. cols. 489, 508; Humbert's Memorials of St. Cross, p. 44; Brit. Mus. Cat; Cat. of Advocates' Library; Halkett and Laing's Dict. of Anonymous and Pseudonymous Literature.]
B. P.