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

​MOELMUD, DYFNWAL (fl. 500), Northern British prince, appears in the tenth-century genealogies of Harleian MS. 3859 (Cymmrodor, ix. 174) as a grandson of Coel Odebog. This is the sole reference to him which can be called historical. In later Welsh literature he plays a purely mythical part. He becomes the primitive legislator of the Britons, the deviser of all early British institutions. In this capacity he appears in the narrative of Geoffrey of Monmouth, who makes him the son of Cloten, king of Cornwall, and says that the laws drawn up by him were still in use among the English. Geoffrey's account is accepted by the compiler of the 'Venedotian Code,' who flourished about 1220; according to this writer, Hywel the Good, while altering greatly the old laws of Dyfnwal, left untouched the primitive land measurements (Ancient Laws of Wales, 1841 edit. i. 184). Dyfnwal is not mentioned in the two earlier sets of 'Historical Triads,' but is prominent in the third, having ​a place assigned him among the Columns, the Mighty Binders, the Primitive Instructors, and the Benign Monarchs of the isle of Britain (Myvyrian Archaiology, 2nd edition, pp. 400, 404, 406, 407). About the time when this series of ' Triads ' was composed, viz., in the sixteenth century, the legislator's fame stood so high as to induce a Welsh antiquary to give the name 'The Triads of Dyfnwal Moelmud' to the collection of legal maxims in which he had embodied his views as to ideal social relations in Wales. These 'Triads' form book xiii. in Mr. Aneurin Owen's edition of the Welshlaws. Attempts have been made to show that they contain remnants of ancient tradition (e.g. by Peter Roberts in an appendix to his translation of the 'Chronicle of the Kings of Britain,' 1811), but they are beyond doubt modern in form and substance. Professor Rhys treats even Dyfnwal himself as an entirely mythical person, classing him with the dark or Chthonian divinities of the Celtic pantheon (Celtic Heathendom, p. 449; Arthurian Legend, pp. 261, 394).
J. E. L.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Mocket, Thomas

​MOCKET, THOMAS (1602–1670?), puritan divine, born in 1602, matriculated as a sizar of Queens' College, Cambridge, 4 July 1622, and graduated B.A. in 1625, and M.A. in 1631. He was incorporated in the latter degree at Oxford in July 1639 (Wood, Fasti Oxon. ed. Bliss, i. 511). For some time he was chaplain to John Egerton, first earl of Bridgewater [q. v.], president of the marches in Wales, by whom he was favoured and promised preferment. He adopted puritan principles. In 1642 he was preacher at Holt, Denbighshire: and in or before 1648 he obtained the rectory of Gilston, Hertfordshire, ​on the sequestration of Christopher Webb, M.A., to whom he resigned the living on the Restoration in 1660 (Clutterbuck, Hertfordshire, iii. 171, 173 n.) He appears to have died in 1670.
His works are:
* 'The Churches Troubles and Deliverance, or certaine Sermons tending to shew the Reasons why the Lord doth sometimes bring his People into extremities,' London [12 Aug.], 1642.
* 'The Nationall Covenant. Or a Discourse on the Covenant. Wherein also the severall parts of the late Protestation are proved to be grounded on Religion and Reason,' London [20 Aug. 1642], 4to.
* 'A View of the Solemn League and Covenant for Reformation, Defence of Religion, the Honour and Happynesse of the King, and the Peace, Safety, and Union of the Three Kingdoms,' London, 1644, 4to. The copy in the British Museum is dated in manuscript, 21 Sept. 1643.
* 'The Covenanters Looking-Glasse; discovering his duty and dignity, &c.; also an Epistle containing a relation of all the most principal things done in the Parliament of England, since their first sitting to the present day,' London, 1644, 4to.
* 'A New Catechisme,' London, 1647, 8vo.
* 'Gospel Duty and Dignity. A Discourse of the Duty of Christians, and their Priviledges by Christ,' London, 1648, 4to.
* 'Christmas, the Christians grand Feast: its Original, Growth, and Observation, also of Easter, Whitsontide, and other Holydayes modestly discussed and determined, also the beginning of the year & other things observable,' London, 1651, 4to.
* 'Christian Advice to Old and Young, Rich and Poor,' London, 1671, 8vo. Prefixed is a portrait of the author, engraved by Cross at the expense of Edward Brewster.
T. C.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Moffatt, John Marks

​MOFFATT, JOHN MARKS (d. 1802), antiquary, was minister of a congregation of protestant dissenters at the Forest Green, Avening, Gloucestershire, at Nailsworth in the same county, and lastly at Malmesbury, Wiltshire. He died at Malmesbury on 25 Dec. 1802 (Gent. Mag. 1803, pt. i. p. 193), leaving a widow and seven children. His writings are: 1. 'The Duty and Interest of every private Person and the Kingdom at large at the present juncture,' 8vo, 1778. 2. 'The Protestant's Prayer-Book ... to which are added Hymns,' &c., 8vo, Bristol, 1783. 3. 'The History of the Town of Malmesbury and of its ancient Abbey,' 8vo, Tetbury, 1805, published posthumously for the benefit of the author's family.
[Monthly Mag. 1803, pt. i. pp. 96, 197; Watt's Bibl. Brit.; Reuss's Alphabetical Register, 1790-1803.]
G. G.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Modyford, James

​MODYFORD, Sir JAMES (d. 1673), merchant, colonial agent, deputy-governor of Jamaica, younger brother of Sir Thomas Modyford [q. v.], was, as a youth, at Constantinople in the service of the Turkey Company (Cal. State Papers, Dom. 30 June 1666). Afterwards he appears to have been settled at Chelsea as a merchant, and under the Commonwealth was employed in Ireland, presumably through the interest of his cousin George Monck, first duke of Albemarle [q. v.l On 18 Oct. 1660 he was appointed 'clerk of the first-fruits in Ireland,' was knighted about the same time, and on 18 Feb. 1660-1 was created a baronet in consideration of his having 'liberally and generously provided and sustained thirty men for three years for the care and defence of Ireland' (Patent roll, ​13 Car. II, pt. i. No. 2). In 1663 he was named as one of the Royal African Company (10 Jan.; Cal. State Papers, America and West Indies, p. 121). In that year he was in Jamaica, and sent home a survey and description of the island (ib. p. 177). In 1664, on the appointment of his brother as governor of Jamaica, he returned to England, and for the next two or three years was employed as agent for the colony (ib. 13 Oct., 29 Nov. 1664, 20 Feb. 1665, 1 March, 21 Aug. 1666, fee.) On 30 June 1666 he was recommended by the Duke of Albemarle for the embassy at Constantinople, as one 'who was bred up in the country, knows the language, and was formerly desired by the Turkey Company for the employment' (ib. Dom.) The recommendation was unsuccessful, and on 10 Nov. following he was appointed lieutenant-governor of the island of Providence, or Santa Catalina, then newly recovered by a party of buccaneers (ib. America and West Indies; cf. Morgan, Sir Henry). Having been detained for eleven weeks at Barbados, 'through the ignorance rather than the malice of Lord Willoughby,' he did not reach Jamaica till 15 July 1667, when he found that Santa Catalina had been recaptured by the Spaniards (ib. 29, 30 July, 3 Aug.) He was then appointed by his brother lieutenant-general, deputy-governor, and chief judge of the admiralty court at Jamaica. His commissions appear to have lapsed with the supersession of Sir Thomas in June 1671, but he remained at Jamaica about his private business, and died there in January 1672-3 (Addit. MS. 27968, f. 30).
Modyford married Elizabeth, daughter and heiress of Sir Nicholas Stanning of Maristow, Devonshire, and by her had issue a son, Thomas, who succeeded to the baronetcy, but died a minor in 1678, when the title became extinct. He left also two daughters, Grace and Mary. Elizabeth, lady Modyford, died 30 March 1724 at the age of ninety-four, and was buried in the church of Bickleigh, Devonshire.
[Calendars of State Papers, Domestic and Colonial; Burke's Extinct Baronetcies; Chester's Westminster Kegisters, p. 194; Marshall's Genealogist, v. 149.]
J. K. L.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Fitzgerald, Thomas (d.1477)

​FITZGERALD, THOMAS, seventh Earl of Kildare (d. 1477), deputy of Ireland, was son of John, sixth earl, and his wife, Margaret de la Herne (Lodge, i. 82). He succeeded to his father in 1427, when he must have been quite young. Between 1455 and 1459 he was deputy for Richard, duke of York, the lord-lieutenant. In 1459 he warmly welcomed York on his taking refuge in Ireland. The Lancastrian government in vain sought to weaken his position by intriguing with the native Irish against him. On 30 April 1461 Kildare was appointed deputy to George, duke of Clarence (Cal. Rot. Pat. Hib. 1 Edward IV, p. 268); and on 5 July the confirmation of a grant of Duke Richard's was Edward IV's further reward for his fidelity to the Yorkist cause (ib. p. 268 b). Next year he was superseded by Sir Roland Fitzeustace, but in January 1463 he was made lord chancellor of Ireland. In 1464 he and his wife Joan founded the Franciscan convent at Adare in county Limerick (Annals of the Four Masters, iv. 1035). In 1467 he incurred, with his brother-in-law Desmond [see Fitzgerald, Thomas, eighth Earl of Desmond], the hostility of the new deputy, John Tiptoft, earl of Worcester. Both were attainted at the parliament of Drogheda, but the reprisals which followed the execution of Desmond brought out so clearly the weakness of a government deprived of the support of the Fitzgeralds, that Kildare was respited. The Archbishop of Dublin and other grandees became his sureties, and on his promise of faithful service the parliament of 1468 repealed the attainder and restored him to his estates. In the same year he was reappointed deputy, but on the fall of Clarence, Tiptoft himself became lord-lieutenant, and Edmund Dudley his deputy. But on Clarence's reappointment Kildare became deputy again, and remained in office until 1475. By building a dyke to protect the Pale, and by excluding 'disloyal Irish' from garrisons, he sought to uphold the English rule. In 1472 eighty archers were provided for him as the nucleus of a permanent force, but he was expected to defray half the cost. In 1474 the archers were increased to 160, with 63 spearmen; and in 1475 a 'Brotherhood of St. George' was established for the defence of the Pale, of which Kildare was president, while his son Gerald was its first captain. This put a further force of 120 mounted archers, 40 men-at-arms, and 40 pages in his hands ('Carew MSS.,' Book of Howth, &c., p. 403). His government is an epoch of some importance in the history of the Irish coinage. In 1475 he was superseded by William Sherwood, bishop of Meath. He died on 25 March 1477 and was buried in the monastery of All Hallows in Dublin. By his wife, Joan, daughter of James, seventh earl of Desmond, and sister of Thomas, the eighth earl [q.v.], he is said to have left four sons and two daughters (Lodge, i. 83). He was succeeded by his eldest son, Gerald Fitzgerald, the eighth earl [q.v.]
T. F. T.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Fitzgerald, William Robert Seymour Vesey

​FITZGERALD, Sir WILLIAM ROBERT SEYMOUR VESEY (1818–1885), governor of Bombay, son of William, second baron Fitzgerald and Vesey, who died in 1843, was born in 1818. He matriculated from Christ Church, Oxford, 21 Feb. 1833, ​and migrated to Oriel, where he was Newdigate prizeman in 1835, and graduated B. A., being placed second class in classics in 1837, and M.A. in 1844. He was called to the bar by the Honourable Society of Lincoln's Inn at Hilary term 1839, and went the northern circuit. In 1848 he was returned for Horsham, Sussex, in the conservative interest, but was unseated on petition. He was returned again for the same borough in 1852, and retained his seat until 1865. He was under-secretary of state for foreign affairs under the Derby administration, in which Lord Malmesbury was foreign secretary, from February 1858 to June 1859. He was appointed governor of Bombay in January 1867, and was sworn in a member of the privy council, and made knight commander of the order of the Star of India the same year, and honorary grand cross of the same order in 1868; he was relieved in March 1872. In February 1874 Fitzgerald was returned to parliament for the third time for the borough of Horsham, and sat until November 1875, when he was appointed chief commissioner of charities in England. Fitzgerald, who was an honorary D.C.L. Oxon. (1863), and a magistrate and deputy-lieutenant of Sussex, died at his residence in Warwick Square, London, 28 June 1885. He married in 1846 Maria Triphena, eldest daughter of the late Edward Seymour, M.D., and by her, who died in 1865, left issue.
H. M. C.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Fitzgerald, William Thomas

​FITZGERALD, WILLIAM THOMAS (1759?–1829), versifier, was born in England of an Irish father (see preface to his 'Tears of Hibernia dispelled by the Union'), and claimed connection with the Duke of Leinster's family. He was educated partly at a school in Greenwich and partly in Paris, and entered the navy pay office as a clerk in 1782. 'On all public occasions,' as the 'Annual Register' for 1829 remarks, his 'pen was ever ready.' His more notable productions are either prologues for plays or appeals to England's loyalty and valour. These latter he was in the habit of reciting, year after year, at the public dinners of the Literary Fund, of which he was one of the vice-presidents. It is to this that Byron refers in the first couplet of 'English Bards and Scotch Reviewers' :-
Still must I hear? shall hoarse Fitzgerald bawl
His creaking couplets in a tavern hall ?
The 'Annual Register' for 1803 speaks of the company at the dinner for that year as being 'roused almost to rapture' by Fitzgerald's 'Tyrtæan compositions,' and says that 'words cannot convey an idea of the force and animation' with which he recited, 'or of the enthusiasm with which he was encored.' A collection of Fitzgerald's poems appeared in 1801 as 'Miscellaneous Poems, dedicated to the Right Honourable the Earl of Moira, by William Thomas Fitzgerald, esq.,' and they are very bad. Perhaps the one which most nearly approaches the famous parody in the 'Rejected Addresses' is the 'Address to every Loyal Briton on the Threatened Invasion of his Country;' but the 'Britons to Arms!' of a later date is almost of equal merit. Fitzgerald's 'Nelson's Triumph' appeared in 1798, his 'Tears of Hibernia dispelled by the Union' in 1802, and his 'Nelson's Tomb' in 1806. In 1814 Fitzgerald issued a collected edition of his verses in denunciation of Napoleon Bonaparte. It is, however, unquestionably in the 'Loyal Effusion' of the 'Rejected Addresses,' and the opening couplet of 'English Bards and Scotch Reviewers' that Fitzgerald will live. It is only just to record that this 'small beer poet,' as Cobbett called him, bore no malice against James and Horace Smith for their parody. Meeting one of them, probably the latter, at a Literary Fund dinner, he came to him with great good humour, and said, 'I mean to recite. . . . You'll have some more of "Gods bless the regent and the Duke of York."' Fitzgerald died at Paddington on 9 July 1829. A portrait appears in the 'European Magazine' for 1804.
F. T. M.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Nye, John

​NYE, JOHN (d. 1688), theological writer, was the second son of Philip Nye [q. v.] He is probably the John Nye who, on 4 Jan. 1647, was ‘approved on his former examination’ by the Westminster assembly. On 23 Feb. 1654 (being already married, and the father of two sons) he matriculated from Magdalen College, Oxford, and obtained his B.A. degree the same day. In 1654 he was a student of the Middle Temple, and was appointed (before June 1654) clerk or ‘register’ to the ‘triers,’ his father (with whom he is often confounded) being a leading commissioner. At the Restoration he conformed, and obtained the vicarage of Great Chishall, Essex, in 1661. Calamy says he was ejected from Settingham, Cambridgeshire; there seems no such place; ‘ejected’ would simply mean that he ceded some sequestered living. He was living at Cambridge in March 1662. On 27 Aug. 1662 he obtained the rectory of Quendon, Essex, vacant by the nonconformity of Abraham Clyfford, afterwards M.D. (d. 1676). In 1674 he obtained also the adjacent vicarage of Rickling, Essex. He died in 1688. He married the second daughter of Stephen Marshall [q. v.]; she seems to have died before 1655. His son, Stephen Nye, is separately noticed; another son, John (b. 1652?), was admitted pensioner of Magdalene College, Cambridge, on 27 March 1666, in his fifteenth year, and graduated B.A. in 1670.
He published: 1. ‘Mr. Anthony Sadler examined,’ &c., 1654, 4to (anon.; but assigned to Nye; it is a defence of his father in reply to Sadler's ‘Inquisitio Anglicana,’ &c., 1654, 4to). 2. ‘A Display of Divine Heraldry,’ &c., 1678, 12mo (preface dated ‘Quendon, 25 Oct. 1675;’ it is a reconciliation of the genealogies of our Lord, and a defence of the inerrancy of scripture, against Socinus).
[Calamy's Account, 1713, p. 119; Hustler's Grad. Cantabr. 1823; David's Evang. Nonconformity in Essex, 1863, pp. 285, 444 sq.; Mitchell and Smithers's Minutes of the Westminster Assembly, 1874, p. 318; Minutes of Manchester Presbyterian Classis (Chetham Soc.), 1891, iii. 391; Foster's Alumni Oxon. 1891, iii. 1083; will of Stephen Marshall at Somerset House; extract from Admission Book of Magdalene College, Cambridge, per F. Pattrick, esq.]
A. G.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Nutter, William

1904 Errata appended.
​NUTTER, WILLIAM (1759?–1802), engraver and draughtsman, was born about 1759 and became a pupil of John Raphael Smith; he practised exclusively in the stipple manner of Bartolozzi, and executed many good plates after the leading English artists of his time, a large proportion being from miniatures by Samuel Shelley. Nutter's works, which are dated from 1780 to 1800, include ‘The Ale House Door’ and ‘Coming from Market,’ after Singleton; ‘Celia overheard by Young Delvile,’ after Stothard; ‘Saturday Evening,’ and ‘Sunday Morning,’ after Bigg; ‘The Moralist,’ after J. R. Smith; ‘Burial of General Fraser,’ after J. Graham, and portraits of Princess Mary, after Ramberg; Captain Coram, after Hogarth; Lady Beauchamp, after Reynolds; Mrs. Hartley, after Reynolds; Martha Gunn, after Russell; and Lady E. Foster, Samuel Berdmore, and Nathaniel Chauncy after Shelley. Nutter exhibited some allegorical designs at the Royal Academy in 1782 and 1783. He died at his residence in Somers Town, 14 March 1802, in his 44th year, and was buried in the graveyard of Whitefield's Tabernacle, Tottenham Court Road.
[Redgrave's Dict. of Artists; Dodd's Collections in British Museum, Addit. MS. 33403; Gent. Mag. 1802, pt. i. p. 286.]
F. M. O'D.
Dictionary of National Biography, Errata (1904), p.207 N.B.— f.e. stands for from end and l.l. for last line
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| 278 | ii | 30 | Nutter, William: for 21 March read 14 March |
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Nye, Nathaniel

1904 Errata appended.
​NYE, NATHANIEL (fl. 1648), writer on gunnery, born in 1624, was author of (1) ‘A New Almanack for 1643,’ on the title-page of which he describes himself as ‘mathematician and practitioner of astronomy’ and of (2) ‘The Art of Gunnery, wherein is described the true way to make all sorts of gunpowder, gun-match [sic], the art of shooting in great and small ordnance, excellent ways to take Heights, Depths, Distances, accessible or inaccessible, either single or divers distances at one operation: to draw the Map or Plot of any City, Town, Castle, or other fortified place,’ 2 parts, 1647, 8vo. The author is styled Master gunner of the city of Worcester. On the title-page it is stated that the book is ‘for the help of all such, gunners and others, that have charge of artillery, and are not well versed in arithmetic and geometry;’ all the rules and directions ‘being framed both with and without the help of arithmetic.’ ‘The Art of Gunnery’ is dedicated, with a quaint preface, to the Earl of Lindsey, lord great-chamberlain of England. In a second preface, addressed to the reader, Nye writes: ‘Whatsoever thou findest in my Fireworks I do protest to thee that I have made and still do make practice of them myself; having by experience found them the best of all others that ever I have read of: or that are taught by Bate, Babington, Norton, Tartaglia, or Malthus.’ Several illustrations and plans are given. ‘The true Effigies of Nathaniel Nye,’ aged 20, drawn and engraved by Hollar and prefixed to the edition of 1647, is termed by Evans ‘fine and scarce.’ An edition of 1670 is in the library of Sion College.
[Nye's Works; Granger's Biogr. Hist. of England, ii. 338–9; Evans's Cat. Engr. Portraits.]
G. Le G. N.
Dictionary of National Biography, Errata (1904), p.207 N.B.— f.e. stands for from end and l.l. for last line
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| 279 | i | 5 f.e. | Nye, Nathaniel: after astronomy' insert (Nye also published an almanack for 1642 and two others in 1645) |
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Nyndge, Alexander

​NYNDGE, ALEXANDER (fl. 1573), demoniac, was apparently son of William Nyndge, and brother of Sir Thomas Nyndge, of Herringswell, Suffolk, where he was born about 1555–1557. Between January and July 1573 he was the subject of epileptic or hysterical attacks, and a narrative of his behaviour, which was attributed to demoniacal possession, was published, with curious woodcuts, by his brother and eye-witnesses. The title runs: ‘A Booke Declaringe the Fearfull Vexasion of one Alexander Nyndge: Beynge moste Horriblye Tormented wyth an euyll Spirit. The xx. daie of Januarie. In the yere of our Lorde 1573. At Lyeringswell in Suffolke. Imprinted at London in Fleetestreate, beneath the Conduite, at the Sygne of St. Jhon Euangelyste by Thomas Colwell, b.l., no date.’ It was reprinted as ‘A Trve and Fearefvll Vexation of one Alexander Nyndge: Being most Horribly Tormented with the Deuill, from the 20 day of January to the 23 of July. At Lyeringswell in Suffocke: with his Prayer after his Deliuerance. Written by His Owne Brother, Edward Nyndge, Master of Arts, with the Names of the Witnesses that were at his Vexation. Imprinted at London for W. B. and are to bee sold by Edward Wright at Christ-Church Gate, 1615.’
[Works mentioned.]
C. F. S.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Nutting, Joseph

Dates 1660 to 1722 in the ODNB.
​NUTTING, JOSEPH (fl. 1700), engraver, worked in London at the end of the seventeenth and beginning of the eighteenth century. His plates, which are not numerous, and have become scarce, are chiefly portraits engraved in a neat, laboured style, resembling that of R. White. The best are: Mary Capell, duchess of Beaufort, after R. Walker; Sir Edmund Berry Godfrey; John Locke, after Brownover; Thomas Greenhill, after Murray, prefixed to his ‘Art of Embalming,’ 1705; Aaron Hill, the poet, 1705; Sir Bartholomew Shower; Sir John Cheke; James Bonnell; the Rev. Matthew Mead; William Elder, the engraver; and the family of Rawlinson of Cark, five ovals on one plate. Nutting engraved about 1690 ‘A New Prospect of the North Side of the City of London, with New Bedlam and Moore Fields,’ a large work in three sheets, and a few other topographical plates.
[Redgrave's Dict. of Artists; Dodd's Collections in British Museum, Addit. MS. 33403.]
F. M. O'D.