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

​PARSON, THOMAS (1631–1681?), dissenting divine, born in 1631, was second son of a Thomas Parson of London, and possibly a grandson of Thomas Parsonne of Wisbech in the Isle of Ely (see Sir T. Phillips, Cambridge Visitation, 1619). He was admitted to Pembroke College, Cambridge, on 19 June 1647. In 1650 he was nominated fellow by Cromwell. On 14 May 1654, being then M.A., he was publicly ordained by the fourth London classis at St. Bennet's Gracechurch (Minutes of the Fourth London Classis, transcript), and he accepted a call to the church of Chingford in Essex. In 1655 Robert Plume had taken his place as minister there (David, Nonconformity in Essex, p. 280). At the twenty-first synod of the provincial assembly of London, May–November 1657, Parson was a ministerial delegate of the sixth classis, and was then minister of St. Michael, Wood Street. At subsequent synods he acted successively as scribe and assessor, and at the twenty-fifth synod (1658–9) he was ordered, along with Mr. Pinchbeck, to draw up a form of a letter to be sent to the several ministers of London who were thought to be fitted for holding office in the synod, and present it to the grand committee for reformation. This may be the origin of ‘A Seasonable Exhortation of Sundry Ministers in London to the people of their respective congregations,’ which was published 23 Jan. 1659–60, and which Parson signs as minister of St. Michael, Wood Street. In the twenty-sixth synod (November 1659–May 1660) he was again chosen assessor.
According to Calamy, he was held in great esteem among the city ministers. He was ejected from St. Michael's, Wood Street, in 1662. After being silenced, ‘he took great pains in fitting the first edition of Gouldman's “Dictionary” for the press. The excellent epistle before it is his, and an index of authors was drawn up by him, and he searched and consulted them, though his name is not mentioned’ (Calamy, Account, p. 34; Continuation, p. 37). None of the subsequent editions of Gouldman's ‘Dictionary’ [for which see Gouldman, Francis] make any reference to Parson.
On 10 April 1681 Thomas Parsons, goldsmith, who may perhaps be identified with the divine, was buried at St. Mary Aldermary (Harl. Soc. Reg. vols. v. and vii.). On 25 Feb. 1669–70 Jane, the wife of Thomas Parsons, was buried at St. Michael's, Cornhill.
A sermon ‘of saving faith,’ by Parson, was printed in the ‘Morning Exercise,’ London, 1660; reprinted 1676, London, and again in the ‘Morning Exercise,’ 1845 (5th edit. v. 345 sq.).
W. A. S.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Ryall, Henry Thomas

​RYALL, HENRY THOMAS (1811–1867), engraver, was born at Frome, Somerset, in August 1811. He was a pupil of Samuel William Reynolds [q. v.], the mezzotinto engraver, but the style in which he at first worked was that known as ‘chalk’ or ‘stipple.’ He began his career by engraving plates for the editions in folio and in octavo of Lodge's ‘Portraits of Illustrious Personages of Great Britain,’ and for the series of ‘Portraits of Eminent Conservatives and Statesmen,’ as well as for Heath's ‘Book of Beauty’ and other works. His larger and more important plates, however, are a combination of line and stipple, which he brought to a degree of perfection it had never reached before. Foremost among these are ‘The Coronation of Queen Victoria,’ ​after the picture by Sir George Hayter, and ‘The Christening of the Princess Royal,’ after Charles Robert Leslie, R.A., the engraving of which procured for him the honorary appointment of historical engraver to the queen. He likewise engraved ‘Christopher Columbus at the Convent of La Rabida,’ after Sir David Wilkie, R.A.; ‘The Blind Girl at the Holy Well,’ after Sir Frederick W. Burton, the first publication of the Royal Irish Art Union; ‘Landais Peasants going to Market’ and ‘Changing Pasture,’ after Rosa Bonheur; ‘The Death of a Stag,’ ‘The Combat,’ ‘The Fight for the Standard,’ ‘Just Caught,’ and ‘Dogs and their Game’ (a series of six plates), after Richard Ansdell, R.A.; ‘The Halt’ and ‘The Keeper's Daughter,’ after R. Ansdell, R.A., and W. P. Frith, R.A.; ‘The Pursuit of Pleasure’ and ‘Home! The Return from the Crimea,’ after Sir Joseph Noel Paton, R.S.A.; ‘Knox administering the first Protestant Sacrament in Scotland,’ after William Bonnar, R.S.A.; ‘Queen Victoria and the Prince of Wales,’ after Robert Thorburn, A.R.A.; ‘The Princess Helena and Prince Alfred,’ after F. Winterhalter; ‘Adam and Eve’ (‘The Temptation and the Fall’), after Claude Marie Dubufe; ‘Devotion,’ after Édouard Frère; ‘A Duel after a Bal Masqué,’ after Jean Léon Gérôme; ‘The Prayer,’ after Jean Baptiste Jules Trayer; and the following, among other plates, after Sir Edwin Landseer, R.A.: ‘There's Life in the Old Dog yet,’ ‘The Reaper,’ ‘The Dairy Maid,’ ‘The Deerstalker's Return,’ ‘A Highland Interior,’ ‘Waiting for the Deer to rise,’ ‘Coming Events,’ and ‘The Hawking Party,’ from Sir Walter Scott's novel ‘The Betrothed.’ He engraved also Sir William Charles Ross's miniatures of Queen Victoria and the prince consort, and several other portraits. He painted occasionally in oils, and exhibited in 1846 at the Society of British Artists ‘Waiting for an Answer,’ and at the Royal Academy ‘A Reverie’ in 1852, and ‘The Crochet Lesson’ in 1859.
Ryall died at his residence at Cookham, Berkshire, on 14 Sept. 1867.
R. E. G.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Rutter, John

​RUTTER, JOHN (1796–1851), topographer, son of Thomas Rutter, a quaker, of Bristol, was born there on 10 April 1796. ​He was brought up as a quaker. About 1818 he settled as a bookseller and printer at Shaftesbury, Dorset. He obtained an introduction to William Beckford [q. v.], author of ‘Vathek,’ who invited him to Fonthill Abbey. Rutter published at Shaftesbury, in 1822 ‘Delineations of Fonthill Abbey and Desmesne, Wiltshire,’ which ran to a sixth edition in the same year. In 1823 there appeared a handsomely illustrated large-paper edition. Tom Moore, who visited Shaftesbury on 21 July 1826 (Diary, v. 92), describes Rutter, ‘the quaker bookseller,’ as thrusting a copy of ‘this splendid work’ into his carriage as he was driving off, saying it was a mark of his respect for the independent spirit Moore had shown in his life of Sheridan.
Rutter also published: ‘History of Wardour Castle,’ 1823, 8vo; ‘Guide to Clevedon,’ 1829; ‘Delineations of North-West Somersetshire,’ 1829, 4to; ‘The Westonian Guide,’ 1829, 8vo (republished as ‘A New Guide to Weston-super-Mare,’ 1840(?), 8vo); and ‘Guide to Banwell Bone Caverns,’ 1829, 8vo. Rutter's ‘Letters in Defence of the Bible Society to L. Neville’ appeared at London in 1836.
Rutter was a strong reformer in politics, and was fined 5l. for printing a circular note without putting his name to it during the election of 1830. An account of the election was published by Rutter anonymously.
Soon afterwards Rutter gave up his business and studied law. He eventually acquired considerable practice in Shaftesbury and the neighbourhood. He withdrew from the Society of Friends in 1836, at the time of Isaac Crewdson's publication of ‘The Beacon,’ but he attended quaker meetings all his life, and on his death, at Shaftesbury, on 2 April 1851, was buried in the Friends' burial-ground there. By his wife, Anne Burchell (1791–1879), he had six children.
[Smith's Cat. of Friends' Books, ii. 519; Nichols's Lit. Illustr. vi. 242; Allibone's Dictionary of English Literature, ii. 1904; Annual Monitor, 1880, p. 142; Registers at Devonshire House.]
C. F. S.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Rutter, Joseph

​RUTTER, JOSEPH (fl. 1635), poet, belonged to Ben Jonson's latest circle of friends. In 1635 he published ‘The Shepheard's Holy Day. A Pastorall Tragi Comœdie Acted before both their Majesties at White Hall. With an Elegie on the most noble lady Venetia Digby,’ London, 1635, 8vo. Rutter appears to have lived with Sir Kenelm Digby [q. v.] for a time after the death of his wife in 1633. To Rutter's work Ben Jonson wrote a preface addressed ‘to my deare sonne and right learned friend.’ Another is prefixed by Thomas May [q. v.] Rutter has an elegy on Ben Jonson in ‘Jonsonus Virbius,’ London, 1638, 4to. For some years Rutter was tutor to the two sons of Edward Sackville, fourth earl of Dorset [q. v.], lord chamberlain to Queen Henrietta Maria. At the earl's desire Rutter translated from Corneille ‘The Cid. A Tragi comedy out of French made English and acted before their Majesties at Court, and on the Cock pit stage in Drury Lane, by the servants to both their Majesties,’ London, 1637, 12mo. Part of the translation is said to have been the work of Rutter's pupils, Richard Sackville, afterwards Earl of Dorset, and Edward (d. 1645). The second part was published at the king's command in 1640, and both were republished at London, 1650, 4to. Some verses ‘On a Lady's tempting eye,’ attributed to a John Rutter in Harleian MS. 6917, f. 77, may probably be his.
[Ward's Hist. of Engl. Dram. Lit. vol. i. p. xlvi; Fleay's Biogr. Chron. of the English Drama, ii. 173; Baker's Biogr. Dram. i. 614; Dodsley's Select Coll. of Old Plays, ed. Hazlitt, xii. 361; Gray's Index to Hazlitt, p. 622; Cat. of Books before 1640, iii. 1334; Hunter's Chorus Vatum, Addit. MS. 24489, f. 294.]
C. F. S.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Rutty, William

​RUTTY, WILLIAM, M.D. (1687–1730), physician, was born in London in 1687. He entered at Christ's College, Cambridge, in 1707, and there graduated M.B. in 1712 and M.D. on 17 July 1719. He was admitted a candidate or member of the College of Physicians 30 Sept. 1719, and was elected a fellow 30 Sept. 1720. On 13 Aug. 1720 he was a candidate for the osteology lecture at the Barber-Surgeons' Hall, and again 30 Oct. 1721; and was successful when a candidate for the third time on 29 March 1721. On 20 Aug. 1724 he was elected to the viscera lectureship at the same place, and 15 Aug. 1728 to the muscular lectureship. In March 1722 he delivered the Gulstonian lectures at the College of Physicians on the anatomy and diseases of the urinary organs, and published them in quarto in 1726 as ‘A Treatise of the Urinary Passages,’ with a dedication to Sir Hans Sloane. The lectures contain a clear statement of the existing knowledge of the subject, and relate two interesting cases, not to be found elsewhere: one in the practice of John Bamber, lithotomist to St. Bartholomew's Hospital, of calcified concretions in the cæcum giving rise to symptoms resembling renal colic, and the other of double renal calculus in the daughter of Sir Hugh Myddelton [q. v.], from a note by Dr. Francis Glisson [q. v.] He was elected a fellow of the Royal Society 30 June 1720, and became second secretary 30 Nov. 1727. He died on 10 June 1730.
[Munk's Coll. of Phys. ii. 74; Young's History of the Barber Surgeons; Thomson's History of the Royal Society; entry in the manuscript matriculation lists at Cambridge sent by Dr. John Peile, master of Christ's College; Works.]
N. M.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Portman, William (d.1557)

​PORTMAN, Sir WILLIAM (d. 1557), judge, was the son of John Portman, who was buried in the Middle Temple Church on ​5 June 1521, by Alice, daughter of William Knoell of Samford Orcas, Dorset. His family belonged to Somerset, and he was in the commission of the peace for that county from time to time. He was a barrister who was successful enough to be personally known to the king. In 1533 Henry gave him a wardship, and he was one of the administrators of the will of Catherine of Aragon. He was made a judge in 1547, and knighted by Edward VI. When Richard (afterwards Lord) Rich [q. v.] was ill, Portman was one of those who, by patent of 26 Oct. 1551, were commissioned to despatch chancery matters; and in the following January he was commissioned to aid the lord-keeper, the bishop of Ely, in similar affairs. He seems to have been of the old way of thinking in religious matters. He found no difficulty in keeping office under Mary; and he followed Day, the bishop of Chichester, in persuading Sir James Hales [q. v.] to abjure protestantism in 1554. The same year he was made chief justice. He died early in 1556–7, and was buried, with a stately funeral, on 10 Feb. 1556–7 at St. Dunstan's in the West, London. He married Elizabeth, daughter and heiress of John Gilbert, and connected by descent with the legal family of Fitzjames. By her he had a son Sir Henry, who died in 1590, and a daughter Mary, who married John Stowell.
W. A. J. A.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Pory, John (d.1573?)

​PORY, JOHN (d. 1573?), master of Corpus Christi College, Cambridge, born at Thrapstone, Northamptonshire, was admitted to Corpus Christi College in 1520, and ​graduated B.A. in 1523–4, M.A. in 1527, B.D. in 1535, and D.D. in 1557. He was elected about 1534 fellow of Corpus and also of the college of St. John the Baptist at Stoke-by-Clare, Suffolk, where Matthew Parker [q. v.], to whose friendship Pory owed his preferments, was dean. In 1557 Pory was elected master of Corpus, and on 13 Dec. of the year following he became vice-chancellor of the university.
From 1555 to 1564 Pory was rector of Bunwell, Norfolk; from 1555 or 1556 till 1561 vicar of St. Stephen's, Norwich; from 1558 to 1569 rector of Landbeach, Cambridgeshire; from 21 Dec. 1559–60 prebendary of Ely; from 19 Aug. 1560 rector of Pulham St. Mary, Norfolk; and from 1 May 1564 prebendary of Canterbury, resigning this prebend in 1567 for the seventh stall at Westminster (Le Neve, i. 53, iii. 355).
On the visit of the queen to Cambridge in August 1564 he was one of the four senior doctors who held the canopy over her as she entered King's College Chapel (Nichols, Progresses of Eliz. i. 163). He also took part in the divinity act held before the queen on the thesis ‘major est scripturæ quam ecclesiæ auctoritas.’ He afterwards attended Elizabeth when she visited Oxford in 1566, and was incorporated there. During his mastership a new library was fitted up in the college, the north side of which was reserved for the manuscripts which Archbishop Parker was intending to present. Pory persuaded the archbishop to increase the endowments of his old college, and showed anxiety to turn them to a useful purpose. But he declined to resign his mastership when disabled by failing health from performing his duties, and Parker instigated complaints against him before the ecclesiastical commissioners. Much pressure was needed before Pory consented to withdraw. Thomas Aldrich was appointed master of Corpus on 3 Feb. 1569–70 (Parker Corresp. p. 356). Pory gave up all his preferments about the same time, and is held to have died in 1573. One John Pory acted as one of the two conductor yeomen at Parker's funeral on 6 June 1575.
W. A. S.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Portman, Edward Berkeley

​PORTMAN, EDWARD BERKELEY, Viscount Portman (1799–1888), born 9 July 1799, was son of Edward Berkeley Portman (d. 1823) of Bryanston and Orchard Portman, Dorset, by his first wife, Lucy, elder daughter of the Rev. Thomas Whitby of Cresswell Hall, Staffordshire. He was educated at Eton and at Christ Church, Oxford, where he graduated with first-class honours, B.A. 1821, M.A. 1826. As a liberal he sat for Dorset from 1823 to 1832, and for Marylebone from 12 Dec. 1832 to March 1833, being the first member to represent that constituency after the Reform Act. On 27 Jan. 1837 he was created Baron Portman of Orchard Portman, and raised to be Viscount Portman of Bryanston on 28 March 1873. For some time he was a prominent speaker in the House of Lords. He was lord lieutenant of the county of Somerset from 22 May 1839 to June 1864, a commissioner and councillor of the duchy of Cornwall on 19 Aug. 1840, a councillor of the duchy of Lancaster on 13 Feb. 1847, and lord warden of the stannaries and high steward of the duchy of Cornwall from 20 Jan. 1865 to his decease. He was an active supporter of the Royal Agricultural Society from its commencement in 1838, and served as president in 1846, 1856, and 1862. He was a considerable breeder of Devon cattle and of improved Alderney cows. He died at Bryanston on 19 Nov. 1888.
He married, on 16 June 1827, Lady Emma, third daughter of Henry Lascelles, second earl of Harewood. She died on 8 Feb. 1865, leaving,six children: William Henry Berkeley, who succeeded to the peerage; Edwin Berkeley, barrister-at-law; Maurice Berkeley, a member of the Canadian parliament; Walter Berkeley, rector of Corton-Denham, Somerset; and two daughters.
[Doyle's Baronage, 1886, p. 68; Times, 20 Nov. 1888, p. 10; Illustrated London News, 12 July 1862, p. 57, with portrait, 11 April 1863, p. 400, with portrait; Journal Royal Agricultural Soc. 1889, p. vi.]
G. C. B.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Pory, Robert

​PORY or POREY, ROBERT (1608?–1669), archdeacon of Middlesex, son of Robert Pory, was born in London, probably about 1608. He was educated at St. Paul's School under the elder Gill, and went up with his class-fellow, John Milton, to Christ's College, Cambridge, where he was admitted a lesser pensioner 28 Feb. 1624-5. He graduated B.A. 1628, M.A. 1632, B.D. 1639, D.D. (per literas regias) 1660. In 1631, on the birth of the Princess Mary, 4 Nov., he contributed to the 'Genethliacum' put forth by his university. On 20 Sept. 1640 he was collated to the rectory of St. Margaret's, New Fish Street, London (which he resigned before 18 Aug. 1660), and in November following to that of Thorley, Hertfordshire. On the breaking out of the civil war he was, according to Newcourt (Repertorium, i. 83 n.), 'plundered and sequestred,' but his name does not appear in Walker's 'Sufferings of the Clergy.'
At the Restoration preferments were showered upon him. On 2 Aug. 1660 he was made D.D. by royal mandate, along with Thomas Fuller and others (Bailey, Life of Fuller, p. 872 n.) On 20 July 1660 he was collated both to the rectory of St. Botolph, Bishopsgate Street, London (resigned before 22 May 1663), and to the archdeaconry of Middlesex (Le Neve, Fasti). The articles on his visitation in 1662 were printed. On 16 Oct. (but, according to Le Neve, 16 Aug.) 1660 he was installed prebendary of Willesden, in the diocese of London, and before the year was out was made chaplain to Archbishop Juxon. In February 1661 he was instituted to the rectory of Hollingbourne, Kent; in 1662 to that of Much Hadham, Hertfordshire; and in the same year to the rectory of Lambeth. On 19 July 1663 he was incorporated D.D. of Oxford. He died before 25 Nov. 1669, when Dr. Henchman was admitted to the rectory of Hadham. Pory was licensed, 21 Sept. 1640, to marry Elizabeth, daughter of Thomas Juxon of Chichester, a relative of the archbishop.
It is said that 'Poor Robin's Almanack,' the first edition of which appeared in 1663, was so entitled in derision of him. It professed to bear his imprimatur (Wood, Fasti, pt. ii. col. 267; cf. Peat, Thomas).
J. H. L.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Portman, William (1641?-1690)

1904 Errata appended.
​PORTMAN, Sir WILLIAM (1641?–1690), captor of the Duke of Monmouth, the descendant of an old Somerset family, was eldest son of Sir William Portman (1610–1648) of Orchard Portman, fifth baronet, by Anna, daughter and coheiress of John Colles of Barton. The father was returned for Taunton to both the Short and Long parliaments of 1640, but was disabled, as a royalist, to sit on 5 Feb. 1643–4. On his death in 1648, William succeeded him as sixth baronet. He matriculated from All Souls' College, Oxford, 26 April 1659, and at the Restoration was made a knight of the Bath. He represented Taunton in parliament from 1661 until 1679, and from 1685 till his death. From 1679 to 1681 he sat for the county of Somerset. Putting aside Sir Edward Seymour [q. v.], he was accounted as influential a tory as any in the west of England. He was a strong ‘abhorrer’ during the crisis in Charles II's reign, and while attending parliament in May 1685 he received a mysterious warning of Monmouth's impending insurrection in the west. He directed the search of post-coaches in the neighbourhood of Taunton, in the hope of intercepting treasonable correspondence, and took an active part in investigating the causes of disaffection, and later on in organising the militia. After the battle of Sedgmoor (6 July 1685) Portman, with the Somerset militia, formed a chain of posts from Poole to the northern extremity of Dorset, with a view to preventing Monmouth's escape. On 8 July he and Lord Lumley captured the fugitive near Ringwood in the New Forest, and did not trust him out of their sight until he was delivered safe at Whitehall.
Three years later Portman's affection for the English church proved stronger than his devotion to James, and in November 1688 he joined the Prince of Orange at Exeter with a large following. William is said to have intended him for high promotion, but he died at his seat of Orchard Portman, near Taunton, on 20 March 1689–90 (Luttrell). Sir William was elected F.R.S. on 28 Dec. 1664. He married thrice, but had no issue. He left ‘an estate of 8,000l. a year’ to his nephew, Henry Seymour (d. 1728), a brother of Sir Edward, who assumed the name and arms of Portman. William Henry Portman, a descendant from a collateral branch, gave his name to Portman Square (begun in 1764), and was ancestor of Edward Berkeley Portman, viscount Portman [q. v.] Bryanston Square is named after the seat and estate purchased by Sir William in Dorset shortly before his death.
T. S.
Dictionary of National Biography, Errata (1904), p.226 N.B.— f.e. stands for from end and l.l. for last line
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# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Post, Jacob

​POST, JACOB (1774–1855), quaker, son of John and Rosamund Post, was born at Whitefriars, London, on 12 Sept. 1774. He was educated at Ackworth school from 1782 to 1787, and subsequently settled at Islington. He was one of the founders of the North London and Islington Auxiliary of the Bible Society in 1812, and took a lively interest in it until his death at the age of eighty on 1 April 1855. His wife died on 14 Feb. 1844. A clever and promising son, Frederick James, died, aged eighteen, in 1837. His father edited, for private circulation, 'Extracts from his Diary and other Manuscripts, with a Memoir,' London, 1838.
Post's principal works, consisting of popular expositions of the history and belief of the Society of Friends, are: 1. 'Some Popular Customs amongst Christians questioned and compared with Gospel Precepts and Examples,' London, 12mo, 1839. 2. 'On the History and Mystery of (those called) the Sacraments: shewing them to be Jewish Institutions, and not Ordinances appointed by Christ to be observed in His Church,' London, 1846. 3. 'Some Reasons for continuing to refuse the Payment of all Ecclesiastical Demands,' 1849; a reply to Jonathan Barrett's 'Reasons for ceasing to refuse,' &c. 4. 'The Bible the Book for All,' 12mo, 1848; reprinted, with additions, 1849 and 1856. 5. 'Instructive Narratives for the Young, in a Series of Visions and ​Dreams from the Bible,' London, 1848. 6. 'A Summary of the Principles and Doctrines of the Christian Religion (as taught in the Bible),' 1849; reprinted, London, 1850. 7. 'Uncle's Visit at the Villa, or Evening Conversations with his Sister's Grandchildren on some of the distinguishing Peculiarities of the Society of Friends,' London, 1849. 8. 'A Popular Memoir of William Penn,' London, 1850. 9. 'The Origin, History, and Doctrine of Baptisms,' London, 1851. 10. 'A Brief Memoir of George Fox ... for the Information of Strangers,* London, 1854. 11. 'A Compendium of Christian Doctrine and Precepts, as taught in the Bible,' London, 12mo, 1854.
[Diary of Frederick James Post; Smith's Cat. ii. 428; Nodal's Bibl. of Ackworth School, p. 20; Annual Monitor, 1856 p. 155, 1845 p. 102; Registers at Devonshire House.]
C. F. S.