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

​STEELE, ANNE (1717–1778), hymn-writer, daughter of William Steele (1689–1769), timber merchant and lay baptist preacher, was born at Broughton, Hampshire, in 1717. Her otherwise uneventful life was deeply affected by the drowning of her affianced lover a few hours before the time fixed for the wedding. She died on 11 Nov. 1778, ‘aged 61 years and 6 months’ (inscription on tombstone at Broughton).
Miss Steele wrote very many original hymns. In 1760 she published ‘Poems on Subjects chiefly devotional,’ under the signature of ‘Theodosia,’ and after her death this was reissued in three volumes (Bristol, 1780), with numerous additions and with a preface by Dr. Caleb Evans. Her complete works were published in one volume by Daniel Sedgwick [q. v.] (London, 1863), under the title of ‘Hymns, Psalms, and Poems by Anne Steele, with memoir by John Sheppard.’ They include 144 hymns, 34 metrical psalms, and about 50 poems on moral subjects. Few of the hymns can be placed in the first rank, but one or two, such as ‘Father, whate'er ​of earthly bliss,’ ‘Dear Refuge of my weary soul,’ and ‘Far from these narrow scenes of night,’ are constantly sung. Miss Steele's personal sufferings are reflected in her verse. Her manuscripts, including many unpublished pieces, are in the hands of a collateral descendant, Miss Bompas, at Broughton. Her poems were reprinted in America in 1808. Her hymns enjoy an extended vogue in America and among the baptists elsewhere.
[Memoir by Caleb Evans as above; Miller's Our Hymns, their Authors and Origin; Julian's Dict. of Hymnology; Christophers's Hymn Writers and their Hymns; Quiver, June 1879 (with facsimiles of handwriting); information from Miss Bompas.]
J. C. H.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Wilkes, Richard

​WILKES, RICHARD (1691–1760), antiquary and physician, born at Willenhall in Staffordshire on 16 March 1690–1, was the eldest son of Richard Wilkes (1666–1740) of Willenhall by his wife Lucretia (d. 24 July 1717), youngest daughter of Jonas Asteley of Woodeaton, Staffordshire. He was educated at Trentham and at Sutton in Warwickshire, and entered St. John's College, Cambridge, on 13 March 1709–10, being admitted a scholar in 1710. On 6 April 1711 he commenced attending the lectures of Nicholas Saunderson [q. v.], afterwards Lucasian professor of mathematics, and formed a close friendship with him. He graduated B.A. in January 1713–14 and M.A. in 1717, and was elected a fellow of St. John's on 21 Jan. 1716–17. On 4 July 1718 he was chosen Linacre lecturer at the college. He took deacon's orders, but, finding no preferment, he began to practise physic at Wolverhampton in February 1720, resigned his fellowship in 1723, and became eminent in his profession (cf. Nichols, Illustr. of Literature, iii. 275). In 1725 he received a fortune with his first wife, and settled on his paternal estate, where he died in 1760, and was buried at Bilston on 4 March.
He was twice married: first, on 24 June 1725, to Rachel, daughter of Roland Manlove of Leigh's Hill, Abbot's Bromley, in Staffordshire. She died in May 1786, and in October he married Frances (d. 24 Dec. 1798), daughter of Sir John Wrottesley, bart., and widow of Heigham Bendish of East Ham in Essex. He had no issue, and was succeeded in his estate by his cousin, Thomas Unett.
​Wilkes was the author of: 1. ‘A Treatise on Dropsy,’ London, 1730, 8vo; new edit. 1777. 2. ‘A Letter to the Gentlemen, Farmers, and Graziers of the County of Staffordshire on the Treatment of the Distemper now prevalent among Horned Cattle, and its Prevention and Cure,’ London, 1743, 8vo. He contemplated a new edition of Butler's ‘Hudibras,’ for which he made notes, and wrote part of a history of Staffordshire, which is preserved in manuscript in the Salt Library, together with a transcription by Captain Fernyhough, made in 1832. It was discovered by Stebbing Shaw [q. v.] in 1792, and incorporated by him in his ‘History of Staffordshire.’ Several letters, written between 1746 and 1755, from Wilkes to Charles Lyttelton [q. v.], afterwards bishop of Carlisle, are preserved in the British Museum (Stowe MS. 753, ff. 70, 242, 248, 286).
E. I. C.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Wilderspin, Samuel

​WILDERSPIN, SAMUEL (1792?–1866), joint-founder of the infant school system in England, was the son of Alexander Wilderspin, and was born at Hornsey, Middlesex, in or about 1792. He began life as a clerk in a merchant's office, but left this occupation to devote himself to the development of infant schools. He was not the originator of the system, the credit of which is generally given to Oberlin, pastor of Waldbach in Alsace, and, in Great Britain, to Robert Owen [q. v.] of New Lanark. But when Lord Brougham and others resolved to open an infant school at Brewer's Green, Westminster, Wilderspin threw himself into the movement, and opened on his own account in 1820 a similar institution at Spitalfields. The difficulties he and his devoted wife had to cope with in their first attempts are amusingly told in his ‘Early Discipline.’ From this time his life was spent in extending the system of infant schools over the United Kingdom. At the invitation of David Stow [q. v.] he gave some lectures at Edinburgh and Glasgow. For two years (1839–41) he was headmaster of the central model school in Dublin. He finally received a pension from government, and retired to Wakefield, Yorkshire, about 1848. He died there on 10 March 1866, and was buried at the neighbouring church of Thornes.
Wilderspin was twice married. By his first wife he had three daughters. His second wife, a widow named Dowding, survived him, and died in 1873. He was a man of small stature, but very alert, and in public speaking used a good deal of action. He was also a fearless rider, and the one recreation he allowed himself was occasionally to follow the hounds. Wilderspin wrote:
* ‘On the Importance of educating the Infant Poor,’ 2nd ed. London, 1824, 8vo; a third edition appeared in 1825 as ‘Infant Education; or, Remarks on the Importance,’ &c.
* ‘Early Discipline illustrated,’ London, 1832, 12mo; 3rd ed. 1840.
* ‘A System of Education for the Young,’ London, 1840, 8vo.
* ‘A Manual for the Instruction of Young Children’ (conjointly with T. J. Terrington), London and Hull, 1845, 8vo.
* ‘The Infant System for Developing,’ &c. (in this he calls himself ‘inventor of the system of infant training’), 8th ed. London, 1852, 12mo.
Disciples of Swedenborg maintain that it was from the ‘new church’ writings he formed his system.
[Leitch's Practical Educationists and their Systems, 1876, pp. 166–85; Wilderspin's own writings: Blackwood's Mag. xxv. 393; Robert Owen's Autob.; information from the Rev. W. C. Boulter, Mr. Christopher Todd of Loughborough, Mr. James Speirs, and Mr. S. J. Hodson.]
J. H. L.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Ross, Thomas (1575?-1618)

​ROSS, THOMAS (1575?–1618), libeller, born about 1575, was the third son of John Ross of Craigie in Perthshire, and his wife, Agnes Hepburn. The family had been established at Craigie since the days of David Bruce (Nisbet, Heraldry, i. 416). Thomas studied at Edinburgh University, where he graduated M.A., and was laureated on 10 Aug. 1595. Having resolved to enter the ministry, he was licensed by the presbytery of Perth before November 1602, and was presented by James VI on 26 July 1606 to the parish of Cargill in Perthshire. He continued to hold this charge till about 1615, when he resigned it, and went to England, bearing letters from some of the lords of secret council and the bishops, recommending him to James for a scholarship at Oxford. But he was disappointed in his hopes, and, being in a state of great destitution, and perhaps crazed by his misfortunes, in July 1618 he affixed a Latin thesis to the door of St. Mary's, Oxford, to the effect ‘that all Scotsmen ought to be expelled from the court of England, with the exception of his majesty himself, the prince, and a very few others.’ This main thesis was accompanied by ten appendices still more violent in their wording. The paper was instantly taken down by a scholar and conveyed to the vice-chancellor, who readily recognised the writing, because Ross had repeatedly solicited him for a license to beg money to carry him to Paris. Ross was arrested, and by James's order was sent to Edinburgh to be tried. His trial took place on 20 Aug. 1618, and, in spite of a plea of insanity, he was found guilty, and sentenced to have his right hand struck off, and afterwards to be beheaded at the market cross. He was respited till James's pleasure was known, but, as no reprieve was received, the sentence was carried out on 11 Sept. His head was set up on the Nether Bow Port, and his hand on the West Port. A copy of his thesis, translated for the benefit of James I, exists in the Advocates' Library at Edinburgh among Sir James Balfour's manuscripts.
Ross has been identified with Thomas Rosa or Ross who published an extremely eulogistic work on James I, entitled ‘Idæa, sive de Jacobi Magnæ Britanniæ Galliæ et Hyberniæ præstantissimi et augustissimi Regis, virtutibus et ornamentis, dilucida enarratio,’ London, 1608, 12mo (British Museum and Bodleian). The evidence as to the identity of the two cannot be considered conclusive.
E. I. C.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Rossetti, Lucy Madox

1904 Errata appended.
​ROSSETTI, LUCY MADOX (1843–1894), painter, was the only daughter of Ford Madox Brown by his first marriage, and half-sister of Oliver Madox Brown [q. v.] Her mother's maiden name was Bromley. Lucy was born at Paris, 19 July 1843; her parents brought her to England in 1844, and, after her mother's death in 1846, her father definitely established himself in England. She showed no special aptitude for art until in 1868 the failure of one of Madox Brown's pupils to execute a piece of work led her to volunteer to supply his place, and her success induced her father to give her regular instruction. A watercolour drawing, ‘Après ​le Bal,’ exhibited at the Dudley Gallery in 1870, attracted much attention, and was followed by ‘Romeo and Juliet in the Vault’ (1871); ‘The Fair Geraldine’ (1872) in water-colours, and ‘Ferdinand and Miranda playing Chess’ (1872), and ‘Margaret Roper receiving the Head of her Father’ (1873). In March 1874 she married Mr. W. M. Rossetti, and thenceforth her appearances as an artist were infrequent; but she gave some attention to authorship, contributing a life of Mrs. Shelley to the ‘Eminent Women Series’ in 1890, and a memoir of her father to the ‘Magazine of Art’ in 1889. Literature, however, was not her vocation; she was a genuine artist, who would have obtained an eminent place among painters but for the interruption of her career occasioned by domestic cares. She died at San Remo in April 1894, after a long illness.
[Clayton's English Female Artists, vol. ii.; Athenæum and Art Journal for 1894; Hueffer's Life of Ford Madox Brown; personal knowledge.]
R. G.
Dictionary of National Biography, Errata (1904), p.240 N.B.— f.e. stands for from end and l.l. for last line
| Page | Col. | Line | |
| 289 | ii | 9-7 f.e. | Rossetti, Lucy Madox: for and was brought up on the continent . . . brought her to England, read Her parents brought her to England in 1844, and after her mother's death, in 1846, her father definitely established himself in England. |
| 290 | i | 7 | for (1875) read (1873) |
| | | 8 | for 1874 read March 1874 |
| | | 13 | after in 1890 insert a memoir of his father to the 'Magazine of Art' in 1889, |
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Ross, William (1762-1790)

​ROSS, WILLIAM (1762–1790), Gaelic poet, was born at Broadford, Skye, in 1762. His father, a pedlar, settled for some time at Forres, Morayshire, where Ross was well educated. Afterwards the family removed to Gairloch, Ross-shire, his mother's native place. Ross made occasional excursions with his father, in the course of which he became proficient in the Gaelic dialects of the western highlands, and received impressions from scenery and character that stimulated his poetic powers. An accomplished musician, he both sang well and played with skill on several instruments. He was appointed parish schoolmaster at Gairloch, where he was popular and successful. He died at Gairloch in 1790, broken-hearted, it is averred, by the indifference of Marion Ross of Stornoway (afterwards Mrs. Clough of Liverpool), who rejected his advances. He celebrated her with freshness and force in his ‘Praise of the Highland Maid.’ His poetic range was considerable, and Gaelic scholars claim for him uncommon excellence in pastoral, descriptive, and anacreontic verse. Two volumes of his Gaelic poems were published—‘Orain Ghae'lach’ (Inverness, 1830, 12mo) and ‘An dara clòbhualadh’ (Glasgow, 1834, 12mo). Translations exhibit spirit, humour, and depth of feeling.
[Bibliotheca Scoto-Celtica; Rogers's Modern Scottish Minstrel.]
T. B.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Rossi, John Charles Felix

​ROSSI, JOHN CHARLES FELIX (1762–1839), sculptor, was born at Nottingham on 8 March 1762. His father, a native of Siena, was a medical practitioner at Nottingham, and afterwards at Mountsorrell, Leicestershire, though not a qualified member of the profession. Young Rossi was sent to the studio of Giovanni Battista Locatelli, an Italian sculptor in London. On completing his apprenticeship he remained with his master for wages of eighteen shillings a week, till he found more lucrative employment with Messrs. Coade & Seeley at Lambeth. He entered the schools of the Royal Academy in 1781, and gained the silver medal in November of that year In 1784 he gained the gold medal for a group, ‘Venus conducting Helen to Paris.’ In 1785 he won the travelling studentship, and went to Rome for three years. During that time he executed a ‘Mercury’ in marble, and a recumbent figure of ‘Eve.’ On his return to London in 1788 he obtained ample employment on monumental work, succeeding to much of the practice of John Bacon, R.A. He became an associate of the Royal Academy in 1798, and a member in 1802. His chief works are the monuments of military and naval heroes in St. Paul's Cathedral, including those of Marquis Cornwallis, Lord Rodney, Lord Heathfield, General Le Marchant, and Captain Faulkner. The Earl of Egremont commissioned Rossi to execute several works for Petworth; among others, ‘Celadon and Amelia’ and ‘The Boxer.’ He executed a colossal ‘Britannia’ for the Exchange at Liverpool, and a statue of the poet Thomson for Sir Robert Peel. The bust of Lord Thurlow at Burlington House and a bronze bust of James Wyatt in the National Portrait Gallery are by Rossi. The prince regent appointed Rossi his sculptor, and employed him in the decoration of Buckingham Palace, where one of the pediments and the frieze of ‘The Seasons’ beneath it are his work. He was also sculptor in ordinary to William IV. His works were in the classical style, as the taste of that time conceived it. The monuments in St. Paul's are overloaded with mythological details, inappropriate to their surroundings. Rossi was uninfluenced by the examples of Banks and Flaxman, who introduced a purer Hellenic style. His employment of Italian carvers took much of the individuality out of his work. In the later years of his life he suffered from ill-health and straitened means. He did not exhibit at the academy after 1834, and in 1835 the works which remained at his studio in Lisson Grove were exhibited prior to their sale by auction. He retired from the Royal Academy with a pension shortly before his death, which took place at St. John's Wood on 21 Feb. 1839. He was twice married, and had eight children by each wife.
[Redgrave's Dict. of Artists; Gent. Mag. 1839, i. 547; Sandby's Hist. of Royal Academy, i. 377–9; Brown's Nottinghamshire Worthies; English Cyclopædia; Royal Academy Catalogues; Smith's Nollekens and his Times, ed. Gosse, pp. 19,246, 399.]
C. D.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Thornhill, William

​THORNHILL, WILLIAM (fl. 1723–1755), surgeon, a member of one of the younger branches of the great Dorset family of Thornhull of Woolland, a nephew of Sir James Thornhill [q. v.] He was educated in Bristol under ‘old Rosewell,’ a noted barber-surgeon of the city. He was elected on 20 May 1737 at the surgeons' hall in the market-place to be the first surgeon to the Bristol Infirmary founded in 1735.
His attendance at the infirmary was so remiss that he more than once fell under the censure of the ‘house visitors,’ and in 1754 he was called upon to resign his office. He refused to do so, and it was not until June 1755 that he retired. His services were, however, recognised by a unanimous vote of the committee. He left Bristol and practised for a short time at Oxford, but without much success, and he finally retired to Yorkshire, where he died.
He married, in 1730, Catherine (d. 1782), daughter of Richard Thompson, a wine merchant of York, and by her had a daughter Anne, who married in 1749 Nathaniel Wraxall of Mayse Hill, near Bristol, and by him became the mother of Sir Nathaniel William Wraxall [q. v.], who wrote the ‘Historical Memoirs of my Own Time.’
Thornhill claims notice as one of the earliest English surgeons to adopt and improve the operation of suprapubic lithotomy. The records of his work, published by his colleague, John Middleton, M.D., prove that his experience in the operation and his success were greater than any contemporary English surgeon could show. He performed his first suprapubic operation on a boy privately on 3 Feb. 1722–3. In 1727, when his cases were recorded by Middleton, he had performed like operations thirteen times. He did not confine his attention to this part of his profession, for he was also celebrated as a man-midwife. He was a handsome man, of polished manners, and habitually wore an entire suit of black velvet with an elegant steel-handled rapier.
[Hutchins's History of Dorset, iv. 417; Foster's Yorkshire Pedigrees; Bristol Infirmary Records in sixteen manuscript volumes compiled by Richard Smith; Middleton's Essay on the Operation of Lithotomy, London, 1727; additional information kindly supplied by the late J. Greig Smith, M.B., Professor of Surgery at University College, Bristol, and by Harold Lewis, B.A.]
D’A. P.
# Discourse on the Method/Prefatory Note by the Author

[PREFATORY NOTE BY THE AUTHOR.]
If this Discourse appear too long to be read at once, it may be divided into six parts: and, in the first, will be found various considerations touching the Sciences; in the second, the principal rules of the Method which the Author has discovered; in the third, certain of the rules of Morals which he has deduced from this Method; in the fourth, the reasonings by which he establishes the existence of God and of the Human Soul, which are the foundations of his Metaphysic; in the fifth, the order of the Physical questions which he has investigated, and, in particular, the explication of the motion of the heart and of some other difficulties pertaining to Medicine, as also the difference between the soul of man and that of the brutes; and, in the last, what the Author believes to be required in order to greater advancement in the investigation of Nature than has yet been made, with the reasons that have induced him to write.
# Discourse on the Origin of Inequality Among Men

* information about this edition.
* sister projects: Wikipedia article, Commons gallery, Commons category, quotes, Wikidata item.
written for the Académie de Dijon's competition in 1754, is an attempt to answer the question "What is the origin of inequality among men, and is it authorized by natural law?" Rousseau had won a previous competition with his 1st Discourse and was not to be so lucky with the 2nd, but this work on inequality remains a fascinating study into differences among men.Warning: template has been deprecated. Translation published in 1913;
A DISCOURSE ON A SUBJECT PROPOSED BY THE ACADEMY OF DIJON:
WHAT IS THE ORIGIN OF INEQUALITY AMONG MEN, AND IS IT AUTHORISED BY NATURAL LAW?
Dedication Preface Part I Part II Appendix
This work is a translation and has a separate copyright status to the applicable copyright protections of the original content.
# Discourse on the Method/Translator's Preface

TRANSLATOR'S PREFACE.
With respect to the Tract, of which a translation is here presented, it may be proper to state, that what refers strictly to its matter has been reserved for the Introduction.
It may be necessary, however, here to mention, that the Discourse on Method is possessed of a twofold value and interest; firstly, on account of the doctrines which, viewed in itself, the Tract contains; and, secondly, from its being the general introduction to the works of Descartes, which, as is well known, were the means of eliciting the intense philosophical activity of the last two centuries, of determining the current of this activity, and of raising those problems with which philosophical schools continue at this hour to grapple.—The Translator would consider that an important end had been promoted were the present translation of the Method to aid in fixing the attention of those interested in philo​sophical pursuits on the other works of its great Author.
It is hoped, moreover, that the Method may prove a somewhat suitable accompaniment to the Logic of the Port-Royal. These treatises possess each, indeed, a separate utility: and, though the end sought by each is different, the realization of the ends of both is necessary to perfect knowledge. For while the practical end of Logic is the right ordering of the matter of thought, the end of the Discourse on Method is mainly to manifest the reality, and determine the sphere of knowledge and the latter process does not yield in importance or necessity to the former.
With reference to the translation, it is proper to state that, though the French work has been taken as the basis, the Translator has not considered himself bound to adhere, in every instance, to its text. The first, or French edition has, indeed, been carefully compared throughout with the Latin; and, as this edition is declared by Descartes to have been revised by himself, and to contain amendments on the original from his own hand, the preference has been accorded to it in all cases in which it has appeared to the Translator that the meaning is more perfectly given.
​The Translator is not aware of the existence of any previous English version of the Method.
The Translator willingly takes this opportunity of acknowledging his great obligations to Professor McDougall. To his minute revision of the translation numerous improvements are due.
Edinburgh, October 1850.