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

​ROTHERAM, EDWARD (1753?–1830), captain in the navy, son of John Rotheram, M.D., was born at Hexham in Northumberland, probably in 1753. His father shortly afterwards moved to Newcastle-on-Tyne, ​where he was physician of the infirmary for many years. Professor John Rotheram (d. 1804) [q. v.] was his elder brother. He is said to have first gone to sea in a collier. In April 1777 he entered the navy as able seaman on board the Centaur in the Channel. He was in a very short time rated a midshipman and master's mate. After three years in the Centaur he was moved, in April 1780, to the Barfleur, carrying the flag of vice-admiral Barrington, and on 13 Oct. 1780 was appointed acting-lieutenant of the Monarch, one of the ships which went out to the West Indies with Sir Samuel (afterwards Viscount) Hood [q. v.], was with Hood in the actions off Martinique on 29 April 1781, off the Chesapeake on 5 April 1781, at St. Kitts in January, and in the actions of 9 and 12 April 1782. In 1783 she returned to England, and on 19 April Rotheram was confirmed in the rank of lieutenant. In 1787 he was in the Bombay Castle; in 1788 in the Culloden; in 1790 in the Vengeance, all in the Channel. In October 1790 he was again appointed to the Culloden, and, continuing in her, was present in the action of 1 June 1794. When the French ship Vengeur struck, Rotheram was sent in command of the party which took possession of her, and when it was clear that the ship was sinking, Rotheram by his energy and cool self-possession succeeded in saving many of her crew (Naval Chron. xiv. 469; Carlyle, Miscell. Essays, ‘The Sinking of the Vengeur’). On 6 July 1794 Rotheram was promoted to the rank of commander. In 1795 and 1796 he commanded the Camel store-ship in the Mediterranean, and from 1797 to 1800 the Hawk in the North Sea and the West Indies. In the summer of 1800 he brought home the Lapwing as acting-captain, and was confirmed in the rank on 27 Aug. In December 1804 he was appointed to the Dreadnought as flag-captain to Vice-admiral Cuthbert (afterwards Lord) Collingwood [q. v.] On 10 Oct. 1805 he followed Collingwood to the Royal Sovereign, and commanded her in the battle of Trafalgar, 21 Oct. It is said that prior to the battle there was some bitterness between him and Collingwood which Nelson removed, saying that in the presence of the enemy all Englishmen should be as brothers. On 4 Nov. Collingwood appointed him to the Bellerophon, vacant by the death of Captain John Cooke; he commanded her in the Channel till June 1808, when she was put out of commission. Rotheram had no further service, but was nominated a C.B. in 1815, and in 1828 was appointed one of the captains of Greenwich Hospital. He died of apoplexy on 2 Nov. 1830, in the house of his friend Richard Wilson of Bildeston in Suffolk.
J. K. L.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Rotheram, John (1750?-1804)

​ROTHERAM, JOHN (1750?–1804), professor of natural philosophy at St. Andrews, son of John Rotheram, M.D., and elder brother of Edward Rotheram [q. v.], was probably born at Hexham about 1750. He received the rudiments of his education at Newcastle grammar school, his mathematical and philosophical studies being directed by his father, assisted by Charles Hutton [q. v.], who was then a tutor in the school. He pursued his education at the university of Upsala, Sweden, graduating there, and becoming a pupil of Linnæus and Bergmann. He returned to Newcastle previous to 1770, and some years afterwards he settled in Edinburgh. When William Smellie published his ‘Philosophy of Natural History’ (2 vols. 1790–5), he attacked the botanical system of Linnæus, and Rotheram replied to Smellie's strictures in a pamphlet which attracted some notice. In 1793 he became coadjutor to Professor Joseph Black in the chemistry chair at Edinburgh University. In November 1795 he was elected professor of natural philosophy at St. Andrews University. Here he discharged his duties with diligence and credit. He died at St. Andrews of apoplexy on 6 Nov. 1804. He is described as ‘a man of very extensive learning.’ His published works were: 1. ‘A Philosophical Inquiry into the Nature and Properties of Water,’ 1770. 2. ‘Sexes of the Plants Vindicated, against William Smellie's Philosophy of Natural History,’ 1790. 3. ‘Edinburgh New Dispensatory,’ 1794. He edited in 1797, from a manuscript in St. Andrew's University Library, George Martine's ‘Reliquiæ Divi Andreæ.’
A. H. M.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Rotelande, Hue de

​ROTELANDE, HUE de, or RUTLAND, HUGH of (fl. 1185), Anglo-Norman poet, was connected with the English district on the Welsh border. In his ‘Ipomedon’ (l. 10569) he says, ‘A Credehulle a ma meisun.’ The reference is no doubt to Credenhill, near Hereford, but De La Rue says wrongly Credenhill in Cornhill, and this mistake has been followed by Wright and others. It is questionable whether Rotelande can mean Rutland, and Mr. Ward conjectures that possibly Rhuddlan is intended. From an allusion in the ‘Ipomedon’ it is clear that Hugh wrote it after 1174. The ‘Prothesilaus’ contains lines in honour of Gilbert FitzBalderon, who died in 1190–1, and was lord of Monmouth and father of John de Monmouth [q. v.] In another passage of the ‘Ipomedon’ Hugh refers to Walter Map as a romance writer like himself [see under Map, Walter]. Hugh was the author of two Anglo-Norman romances in verse: 1. ‘Ipomedon,’ a poem, of about ten thousand lines, printed at Breslau in 1889 from Cotton. MS. Vesp. A. vii. and Egerton MS. 2515 in the British Museum, and a fragment in Rawlinson MS. Misc. 1370 in the Bodleian Library. Hugh professes to translate from the Latin. It is possible that he used the ‘Fabulæ’ of Hyginus. An account of the romance, with some extracts, is given in Ward's ‘Catalogue of Romances.’ A critical study of the text was published by Signor Adolfo Mussafia in 1890. 2. ‘Prothesilaus,’ a romance, by Rotelande, which is a continuation of the ‘Ipomedon,’ is preserved in a manuscript at the Bibliothèque Nationale at Paris.
C. L. K.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/M'Gauley, James William

​M'GAULEY, JAMES WILLIAM (d. 1867), was professor of natural philosophy to the board of national education in Ireland from 1836 to 1856. He appears to have then gone to Canada till about 1865, when he settled in England. He became a member of the council of the Inventors' Institute (of London), and took an active part in the executive committee of that body, and was one of the editors as well as a contributor to their organ, the 'Scientific Review.' At the time of his death, on 25 Oct. 1867, he was also managing director to the Inventors' Patentright Association.
M'Gauley's principal works were: 1. 'Lectures on Natural Philosophy,' 8vo, Dublin, 1840; 3rd edit. 1851. 2. 'The Elements of Architecture,' 16mo, Dublin, 1846. 3. 'A Key to the Treatise on Arithmetic . . . used in the Irish National Schools,' 16mo, Dublin, 1852. 4. 'A Treatise on Algebra,' 16mo, Dublin, 1854. He also wrote papers on 'Natural Philosophy and Chemistry,' which appeared in the ' Reports of the British Association,' the 'Philosophical Magazine,' the 'Chemical News,' and the 'Scientific Review,' between 1835 and 1867.
[Gent. Mag. 1867, pt. ii. p. 828; Athenæum, 26 Oct. 1867; Scientific Review, November 1867; Brit. Mus. Cat.; Roy. Soc. List of Scient. Papers.]
B. B. W.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/M'Mahon, Thomas O'Brien

​M'MAHON, THOMAS O'BRIEN (fl. 1777), miscellaneous writer, was a native of Tipperary and a Roman catholic. He published at London in 1774 'An Essay on the Depravity and Corruption of Human Nature,' 12mo, which was followed in 1776 by a supplement, called 'Man's Capricious, Petulant, and Tyrannical Conduct towards the Irrational and Inanimate part of the Creation inquired into and explained. His opinions were ridiculed in the 'Critical,' 'Monthly,' and 'London' reviews, and he retorted at great length in a pamphlet entitled 'The Candour and Good-nature of Englishmen in their deliberate, cautious, and charitable way of Characterising the Customs, Manners, Constitution, and Religion of Neighbouring Nations, of which their own Authors are ever produced as vouchers,' 8vo, London, 1777 (reprinted at Dublin in 1792 as 'Remarks on the English and Irish Nations').
[M'Mahon's Works; Watt's Bibl. Brit.]
G. G.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/M'Dowall, William

William McDowall
​M'DOWALL, WILLIAM (1815–1888), journalist and antiquary, born at Maxwelltown, Kirkcudbrightshire, 21 July 1815, was son of a traveller for a cabinet-making firm. Receiving a good school education in Dumfries, he learned bookbinding there, and enlarged his experience in Glasgow and ​London. 1843, on becoming a free churchman, he was appointed to the editorial staff of the ‘Scottish Herald,’ an Edinburgh free church paper, and was afterwards for a short time reporter on the ‘Banner of Ulster.’ In 1846 he became editor of the ‘Dumfries and Galloway Standard,’ and with a short interval, during which he edited a Sunderland paper, about 1853–4, M'Dowall conducted the ‘Galloway Standard’ till his death, raising it to an influential position. A public-spirited citizen, he was connected with all the leading institutions of his burgh, and in his ‘History of Dumfries,’ 1867 (enlarged in 1873), he produced a most valuable record. He died at Dumfries, 28 Oct. 1888. He was twice married, and his second wife survives him.
M'Dowall displays grace of fancy and expression in ‘The Man of the Woods and other Poems,’ published in 1844, 2nd edit. 1882. Two chapters of his ‘History of Dumfries,’ relating to Burns, were separately issued in 1870 as ‘Burns in Dumfriesshire.’ In 1876 he published ‘Memorials of St. Michael's Churchyard,’ a compilation of antiquarian and biographical importance. His ‘Mind in the Face,’ which appeared in 1882, and reached a third edition in 1888, is a substantial contribution to the literature of physiognomy. M'Dowall's sumptuous and exhaustive volume, ‘Chronicles of Lincluden, as an Abbey and as a College,’ was published in 1886, and his last work, issued in 1888, is a study of ballad-writers, entitled ‘Among the Old Scottish Minstrels.’
Dumfries and Galloway Standard, 31 Oct. 1888; Harper's Bards of Galloway.]
T. B.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/M'Ewen, William

​M'EWEN, WILLIAM (1735–1762), Scotch secessionist, born at Perth in 1785, studied divinity under Ebenezer Erskine of Stirling and James Fisher of Glasgow. In 1753 he was licensed to preach by the associate presbytery of Dunfermline, and in 1754 he was ordained minister of the associate congregation in Dundee. He died suddenly at Leith on 13 Jan. 1762, having been married two days before to the eldest daughter of John Wardlaw, merchant of Dalkeith. He was buried in Dalkeith churchyard.
M'Ewen was an attractive preacher and writer. He was author of: 1. 'Grace and Truth; or the Glory and Fulness of the Redeemer displayed in an Attempt to explain . . . the Types, Figures, and Allegories of the Old Testament,' 12mo, Edinburgh, 1763 (numerous editions). 2. 'A select Set of Essays, doctrinal and practical, upon Subjects in Divinity,' 2 vols. 12mo, Edinburgh, 1767; 7th edit., 'enlarged, with fourteen new Essays on the Perfection of God,' 1799.
[Life by John Patison prefixed to the various editions of M'Ewen's Works.]
G. G.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/M'Ian, Robert Ronald

​M'IAN, ROBERT RONALD (1803–1856), painter of historical subjects, born in 1803, was descended from the old M'Ians or Maedonalds of Glencoe, Argyllshire. In his early years he was an actor, a member of the Bath and Bristol company; and on the London stage he attracted attention by his spirited representations of such highland characters as the Dougal Creature in the 'Twa Drovers' of Scott. Meanwhile he had been diligently training himself in art. In 1835 and 1837, while acting in the English Opera House, he exhibited in the Suffolk Street Gallery, and in 1836 he sent a landscape to the Royal Academy. In 1838 he was engaged at Covent Garden, and in 1839 at Drury Lane, but in the latter year he abandoned the stage, and devoted himself entirely to art, entering upon the pursuit with all the energy of a particularly enthusiastic temperament, and deriving the subjects of his figure-pictures from highland history and familiar life. In 1843 he produced 'The Battle of Culloden' and 'A Highland Feud,' and in the same year his 'Highland Cearnach defending a Pass' was exhibited in the Royal Academy. One of his most ambitious efforts, 'An Incident in the Revolutionary War of America' (the Fraser highlanders at Stone-ferry), was exhibited in the Royal Scottish Academy in 1854. The national character of his subjects rendered the engravings from his pictures very popular in the highlands, and his work on 'The Clans of the Scottish Highlands/ illustrated from his original sketches of costumes, arms, &c, published in 1845, was reissued in 1857. He was elected an associate of the Royal Scottish Academy in 1852, and died at Hampstead, 13 Dec. 1856. Milan's wife, Mrs. Fanny M'Ian, was long a teacher in the female school of design, Somerset House, London (see Macready, Reminiscences, vol. ii.) She exhibited works, of a similar character to those of her husband, in the Royal Academy, Royal Scottish Academy, and the British Institution. Her 'Highlander defending his Family at the Massacre of Glencoe' has been engraved.
[Redgrave's Dictionary; Brydall's Art in Scotland; Exhibition Catalogues.]
J. M. G.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Mab, John

​MAB or MABBE, JOHN (d. 1582), chamberlain of London, eldest son of John Mab of Clayton in Sussex, and Joan Goble of Sussex, was born at Clayton, and afterwards became a citizen and goldsmith of London. His shop seems to have been in Goldsmiths' Row, on the south side of West Cheap, in the parish of St. Matthew, Friday Street, and he was probably succeeded in business by his son John, who, on 30 April 1576, received a license to sell certain jewels, notwithstanding the act of parliament regulating the sale of goldsmiths' work (Syllabus of Rymer's Fœdera, ii. 810). Mab was a freeman of the Goldsmiths' Company, and was elected chamberlain of London at a court of common council held on 13 Dec. 1577; having previously held an office connected with the chamber of London, in which he was succeeded by another goldsmith, Andrew Palmer (City Records, Journal xx. pt. 2, fols. 376 b, 389). Two years later Sir Christopher Hatton used his influence to obtain the appointment of chamberlain for Matthew Colclough. A new election took place on 1 Aug. 1579, when Mab was successful in retaining his office (ib. fols. 498, 504), which he quietly enjoyed until his death in 1582, his successor, Robert Brandon, being appointed on 1 Aug. 1583 (ib. Journal xxi. fol. 303). He died towards the end of 1582, and was buried in the church of St. Matthew, Friday Street, where a monument was erected to his memory, which perished in the Fire of London (Stow, Survey, 1720, bk. iii. p. 139).
Mab was married to Isabel, daughter of Richard Colley, of Shropshire, by whom he had six sons and two daughters. His will, dated 7 Nov. 1581, and proved in the P.C.C. by Isabel, his widow, as administratrix, on 15 Jan. 1582 (Rowe, 1), provided for his children John, Richard, Mary, and Susan already married, and Stephen, Robert, Edward, and Catherine, unmarried. Besides legacies to other relatives and to servants, he left to poor prisoners in the London prisons 30l., to students of Cambridge University 20l., to poor goldsmiths and their widows 10l., and other sums to the poor at his native village of Clayton and elsewhere. He received a grant of arms in 1577 (Harl. MS. 1507). A coloured drawing of them is preserved in ‘Liber Fleetwood’ (Guildhall Library MS. 85, fol. 15 verso), compiled by Mab's colleague, William Fleetwood, the recorder [q. v.]
He was the author of ‘Remembrances, faithfullie printed out of his own hand writing; the true copie whereof was found carefullie wrapped up with his last will and testament, and other writings of great weight; and by himself thus entituled, A declaration of my Faithe; mine opinion of religion; a thanksgiving to God for all his benefits; an exhortation to my children, wherein all such are to learn a good lesson, as the Lord hath crowned with any kind of blessing, and especially with bodilie issue,’ London, 1583, 16mo. The work was licensed for the press on 28 Jan. 1582–3 (Arber, Transcript, ii. 418).
[Visitation of London, 1568; Harleian Society, i. 39; Remembrancia, pp. 277–8; Records of the Corporation of London, and of the Goldsmiths' Company; authorities cited.]
C. W-h.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Maas, Joseph

​MAAS, JOSEPH (1847–1886), vocalist, descended from an old Dutch family, was born at Dartford, Kent, on 30 Jan. 1847. His voice was a fine treble. At the age of ten he became a chorister at Rochester Cathedral, and was soloist there for five years. Leaving the cathedral he became a clerk in Chatham Dockyard, but continued his musical studies. In 1869 he went to Milan, where he studied singing for two years under San Giovanni. In February 1871 he appeared for Mr. Sims Reeves at St. James's Hall with great success, and on 29 Aug. 1872 made his début on the stage at Covent Garden as Prince Babil in Boucicault's ‘Babil and Bijou.’ Soon after he joined the Kellogg English opera company in America, where he was well received. Returning to England in 1877, he became a member of the Carl Rosa company, with which he was connected as principal tenor for three years, and was next engaged by Mr. Mapleson for Her Majesty's Opera. In 1883 he appeared in Wagner's ‘Lohengrin,’ and that exacting music, it was generally admitted, had never been sung before with such admirable style and method. He appeared in Paris in 1884, and in Brussels at the Bach and Handel festival of 1885. In May 1885 he ‘created’ the part of the Chevalier des Grieux in Massenet's ‘Manon’ at Drury Lane. He was an indifferent actor, but he had a deliciously pure tenor voice, of considerable power and compass, which he managed with ease and feeling. In Handel's oratorios and in English ballads he was almost without a rival. In this capacity he was often engaged in London and the provinces, his last important appearance being at the Birmingham festival of 1885. He died in London of rheumatic fever on 16 Jan. 1886, and was buried at Child's Hill cemetery, Hampstead, where his grave is marked by a monument erected by friends and admirers to the memory of a great singer and good man’ (inscription). He was married to a daughter of Mr. J. H. Ball, J.P., of Stroud, by whom he had one daughter.
[Musical Times, February 1886, p. 93; Athenæum, 23 Jan. 1886; Musical Standard, 23 Jan. 1886; Grove's Dictionary of Music, iv. 706; personal recollections.]
J. C. H.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Mab, James

​MAB or MABBE, JAMES (1572–1642?), Spanish scholar, son of James Mab and Martha, daughter of William Denham of London, was born in Surrey in 1572. His grandfather, John Mab [q. v.], was chamberlain of London. He matriculated at Magdalen College, Oxford, 9 Feb. 1588, demy 1586–94, B.A. 8 Feb. 1594, fellow 1594–1633, M.A. 17 Oct. 1598. In 1605 he spoke an oration before Prince Henry upon the occasion of his matriculating at Magdalen College. He was junior proctor of the university in 1606, senior dean of arts 1607–8, junior dean of arts 1609–10. In 1609 he supplicated for the degree of D.C.L. He was bursar of his college in 1617, 1618, 1620, 1623, 1627, and 1630.
Mab accompanied Sir John Digby as his secretary when he went as ambassador to Madrid in 1611, and upon his return in 1613, although he was in orders, he was made one of the lay prebendaries of Wells. He was in residence at Magdalen College in 1626, but afterwards lived in the family of Sir John Strangwayes, at Abbotsbury in Dorset, where he died, and was buried about 1642. ​He employed as a pseudonym ‘Don Diego Puede-Ser’ (i.e. James May-be), and published the following translations from the Spanish: 1. ‘The Rogue, or the Life of Guzman de Alfarache,’ London, 1623 (some copies are dated 1622); reprinted, Oxford 1630, London 1634; to this were prefixed commendatory verses by Ben Jonson, William Browne, and others. 2. ‘Devout Contemplations Expressed in Two and Fortie Sermons Upon all the Quadragesimall Gospells Written in Spanish by Fr. Ch. de Fonseca, Englished by I. M. of Magdalen Colledge in Oxford,’ London, 1629. 3. ‘The Spanish Bawd Represented in Celestina: or the Tragicke-Comedy of Calisto and Melibea …,’ London, 1631; republished (not a new edition) with the third edition (1634) of ‘The Rogue’; reprinted in ‘Tudor Translations,’ 1894, and in Routledge's ‘Library of English Novelists,’ 1908. 4. ‘Exemplarie Novells; in Sixe Bookes. By Miguel De Cervantes Saavedra. .... Turned into English by Don Diego Puede-Ser,’ London, 1640. He also furnished an anagram and some Latin verses to Florio's ‘Queen Anna's New World of Words,’ 1611. According to Bolton Corney, he wrote commendatory verses signed I. M., prefixed to the first folio Shakespeare (Notes and Queries, 2nd ser. xi. 3); his authorship was accepted by Dyce, (Shakespeare, ed. Dyce, 2nd edition, i. 165). A folio MS. (Harl. MS. 5077), ‘Observations touching Some of the more solemn Tymes and festivall dayes of the yeare,’ is dedicated ‘To my worthy frend Mr. Jhon Browne’ (dedication dated from Magdalen College, ‘Decembr 27, 1626,’ and signed ‘James Mab’).
[Hunter's Chorus Vatum, Add. MS. 24488; Reg. Univ. Oxon., ed. Clark, vol. ii. pt. ii. p. 162; Bloxam's Magd. Coll. Reg., iv. 226; Fasti Oxon. ed. Bliss, i. 262, 278, 316, 334; Athenæ Oxon. ed. Bliss, iii. 53.]
G. T. D.