OpenLLM-France/wikimedia huggingface dataset:
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Spry, Henry Harpur

​SPRY, HENRY HARPUR (1804–1842), writer on India, born at Truro on 6 Jan. 1804, was son of Jeffery or Geoffry Spry (d. 1829) of the excise, by his wife Philadelphia, daughter of Joseph Knight of Bodrean, near Truro. Henry was educated as a surgeon, and entered the service of the East India Company, being appointed assistant surgeon on the Bengal staff on 10 April 1827. In 1841 he was elected a fellow of the Royal Society. He was also a fellow of the Geographical Society, and a member of the Asiatic Society, besides being secretary of the Agricultural and Horticultural Society of India. He died at Fort William, Calcutta, on 4 Sept. 1842.
He was the author of: 1. ‘Modern India, with Illustrations of the Resources and Capabilities of Hindustan,’ London, 1837, 12mo. 2. ‘Suggestions for the Introduction of Useful and Ornamental Plants into India,’ Calcutta, 1841, 8vo.
E. I. C.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Sprott, Thomas

​SPROTT or SPOTT, THOMAS (fl. 1270?), historian, was a monk of St. Augustine's, Canterbury, and wrote a history of that foundation. It is extant in the Cottonian MS. Tib. A. ix, f. 105, and in two late copies, Cottonian Vit. E. xiv. 243, and Harleian 692, f. 75. The first of these three is the more complete; it has a passage which is missing at the beginning of the others, and is continued to the end of the thirteenth century, while the other copies end in 1221; but it contains no ascription to Sprott, and is so badly damaged by fire as to be largely undecipherable. The Cottonian MS. Vit. D. xi., from which Dugdale quotes the opening passage, has been totally destroyed by fire.
Sprott's work was used and acknowledged by Thomas Elmham [q. v.] and William Thorne [q. v.] Thorne (in Twysden, Decem Script.) copies him freely to 1228, where he says Sprott's share ends (ib. col. 1881).
A fine manuscript from the library of St. Augustine's, in hands of the twelfth to fifteenth centuries, at one time belonged to one Thomas Sprott, and a Thomas Sprott is found connected with St. Augustine's in 1356.
Leland (Collectanea, ii. 51) mentions a chronicle by Sprott that extends to 1272, which Oudin (iii. 527) says was among the manuscripts of Walter Cope. A roll, with no title, in the possession of Joseph Mayer, F.S.A., containing brief chronicles from the beginning of the world to 1307, has been printed in facsimile and ascribed to Sprott, but probably on insufficient authority. It consists almost entirely of abstracts from the ‘Flores Historiarum,’ formerly ascribed to Matthew of Westminster [q. v.] A translation of the roll, with the title ‘Sprott's Chronicle of Sacred and Profane History,’ was issued by Dr. W. Bell (Liverpool, 1851). ​Distinct from the roll is the chronicle of general history from the creation to 1339, printed by Hearne in 1719 as Sprott's, with a number of ‘Fragmenta Sprottiana,’ from a manuscript of Sir Edward Dering. But the originals of these works are not forthcoming, and what was Sprott's share in them is not known.
M. B.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1901 supplement/Nairne, Charles Edward

​NAIRNE, Sir CHARLES EDWARD (1836–1899), lieutenant-general, born on 30 June 1836, was son of Captain Alexander Nairne, of the East India Company's service. He was educated at Addiscombe, and was commissioned as second lieutenant in the Bengal artillery on 7 Dec. 1855. He became lieutenant on 27 April 1858. He served in the Indian mutiny and received the medal, and in the Yusafzai expedition of 1863. He was promoted second captain in the royal artillery on 24 March 1865, and major on 2 Nov. 1872. From 1875 to 1880 he commanded a battery (now L battery of B brigade) of horse artillery, and served with it in the second Afghan war as part of the Peshawar Held force, receiving the medal.
He became regimental lieutenant-colonel on 1 May 1880, and in the Egyptian expedition of 1882 he commanded the horse artillery at the two actions of Kassassin and at Tel-el-Kebir. He was mentioned in despatches (London Gazette, 2 Nov. 1882), was made C.B. on 18 November, and received the medal with clasp, the bronze star, and the Medjidie (3rd class). He became colonel in the army on 1 May 1884. He was colonel of the depot staff of the horse artillery from 1882 to 1885, and commandant of the school of gunnery at Shoeburyness for the next two years. On 1 April 1887 he was appointed inspector-general of artillery in India, with the local rank of brigadier-general. He held this post for five years, and brought about a great improvement in the shooting of the field artillery (Roberts, Forty-one Years in India, p. 528).
He was promoted major-general on 6 Nov. 1890, and commanded a district in Bengal from 28 March 1892 to 4 Sept. 1893, when he was appointed to the chief command in Bombay. There it fell to him to carry out the reorganisation scheme by which the three presidential armies were to be merged in one, and he did this with tact and ability. He became lieutenant-general on 17 Nov. 1895, and was made K.C.B. on 22 June 1897. From 20 March to 4 Nov. of 1898 he was acting commander-in-chief in India. He left that country with a high reputation as an administrator, and he had just been appointed president of the ordnance committee when he died in London on 19 Feb. 1899. He was buried on the 22nd at Charlton cemetery with military honours. In 1860 he married Sophie, daughter of the Rev. John Dupré Addison, vicar of Fleet, Dorset. She survived him.
[Times, 21 Feb. 1899; Records of the Royal Horse Artillery; Lord Roberts's Forty-one Years in India, ed. 1898.]
E. M. L.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1901 supplement/Müller, Friedrich Max

​MÜLLER, FRIEDRICH MAX (1823–1900), philologist. [See Max Müller.]
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1901 supplement/Nimrod

​NIMROD, pseudonym. [See Apperley, Charles James, 1779–1843.]
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1901 supplement/Bridgett, Thomas Edward

​BRIDGETT, THOMAS EDWARD (1829–1899), Roman catholic priest and historical writer, third son of Joseph' Bridgett, a silk manufacturer of Colney Hatch, and his wife Mary (born Gregson), was born at Derby on 20 Jan. 1829. His parents were baptists, and Bridgett was educated first at Mill Hill school and then at Nottingham; but in 1848 he was admitted to Tunbridge School, and on 20 March 1845 was baptised into the church of England. He was in the sixth form at Tunbridge from 1845 to 1847, proceeding thence as Smythe exhibitioner to St. John's College, Cambridge, where he was admitted pensioner on 23 Feb. 1847. He intended taking orders in the Anglican church, but in 1850 he refused to take the oath of supremacy necessary before graduation, and was received into the Roman catholic church by Father Stanton at the Brompton Oratory. For six years he studied on the continent; he joined the Redemptorist Order, and in 1856 was ordained priest. Mission work is the chief function of the order, and as a missionary Bridgett was very successful. In 1868 he founded the Confraternity of the Holy Family attached to the Redemptorist church at Limerick.
Bridgett, however, found time for a good deal of literary and historical work, and produced several books of value, dealing mainly with the history of the Reformation. His earliest work was 'The Ritual of the New Testament,' 1873, 8vo. In 1875 he published 'Our Lady's Dowry,' which reached a third edition in 1890. His largest work was his 'History of the Holy Eucharist in Great Britain,' 1881, 2 vols. 8vo. In 1888 he published a 'Life of Blessed John Fisher' (2nd edit. 1890); in 1889 'The True Story of the Catholic Hierarchy deposed by Queen Elizabeth;' and in 1891 'The Life and Writings of Sir Thomas More.' He also edited the 'Sermons' (1876) of Bishop Thomas Watson (1513–1584) [q. v.]; 'Lyra Hieratica. Poems on the Priesthood,' 1896; and wrote 'The Discipline of Drink; an historical inquiry into the principles and practice of the Catholic Church regarding the use, abuse, and disuse of alcoholic liquors,' 1876, 'Historical Notes on Adare,' Dublin, 1885, 8vo, and 'Sonnets and Epigrams on Sacred Subjects,' London, 1898, 8vo. He died of cancer at the monastery of St. Mary's, Clapham, on 17 Feb. 1899, and was buried on the 21st in the Roman catholic cemetery at Mortlake. His youngest brother, Ronald, for many years consul at Buenos Ayres, died the day before him.
[The Eagle, xx. 577-84; Times, 20 Feb. 1899; Tablet, 25 Feb. 1899; Hughes-Hughes's Reg. of Tunbridge School, 1820-93, p. 61 Bridgett's Works in Brit. Mus. Libr.; information from R. F. Scott, esq., St. John's College, Cambridge.]
A. F. P.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1901 supplement/Bridge, John

​BRIDGE, Sir JOHN (1824–1900), police magistrate, only son of John H. Bridge of Finchley, Middlesex, was born on 21 April 1824. At Oxford, where he matriculated from Trinity College on 10 March 1842, he graduated B.A. (first class in mathematics) in 1846, and proceeded M.A. in 1849. On 10 April 1844 he was admitted student at the Inner Temple, and was there called to the bar on 25 Jan. 1850. He practised with some success on the home circuit, but in 1872 accepted the post of police magistrate at Hammersmith, where, as afterwards at Westminster (1880-1) and Southwark (1882-1886), he discharged the laborious duties of subordinate office with singular conscientiousness and discretion. Removed to Bow Street in 1887 he succeeded Sir James Ingham in 1890 as chief metropolitan magistrate, being at the same time knighted. During his tenure of this office he committed for trial several offenders whose names are well known to the public, among them Oscar Wilde (5 April 1895), Jabez Balfour, the fraudulent director of the Liberator Building Society, on his extradition by the Argentine Republic (16 April 1895), and Dr. Jameson and his associates in the Transvaal raid (15 June 1896). In the exercise of his summary jurisdiction he well knew how to temper justice with mercy. Few British magistrates have more happily combined dignity and firmness with judicious and unobtrusive benevolence. He retired from the bench early in 1900, and on 20 April in the same year died at his residence in Inverness Terrace, London, W. His remains were interred in the churchyard at Hedley, Surrey, in which parish his seat was situate. He married in 1857 his cousin, Ada Louisa, daughter of George Bridge of Merton, Surrey; she died on 1 March 1901.
[Foster's Alumni Oxon. 1715-1886, and Men at the Bar; Oxford Honours Register; Royal Kalendars, 1872, 1880, 1882, 1891; Ann. Reg, 1894 ii. 5, 1895 ii. 19, 25, 1896 ii. 33; Times, 28 April 1900; Law Times. 5 May 1900.]
J. M. R.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1901 supplement/Brewer, Ebenezer Cobham

​BREWER, EBENEZER COBHAM (1810–1897), miscellaneous writer, second son of John Sherren Brewer [q. v.], was born on 2 May 1810, in Russell Square, London, and educated by private tutors. He proceeded to Trinity Hall, Cambridge, in 1832, obtained the freshmen's prizes for Latin and English essays, was first prizeman in the next two years, and, though strongly advised to go out in mathematics, took his degree in the civil law (first class) in 1835. He was ordained deacon in 1834, priest in 1836, proceeded to the degree of LL.D. in 1840, and devoted himself to literature. For six years, from 1852, he resided in Paris. On his return to England he resided for a time in Bernard Street, Russell Square, and then moved to St. Luke's Villas, Westbourne Park. Failing health compelled him to retire into the country, and he lived for many years at Lavant, near Goodwood. He died on 6 March 1897 at Edwinstowe vicarage, Newark, where he had been residing with his son-in-law, the Rev. H. T. Hayman. In 1856 he married at Paris Ellen Mary, eldest daughter of the Rev. Francis Tebbutt of Hove.
His principal works are: 1. ‘A Guide to the Scientific Knowledge of Things Familiar,’ 2nd edit. London [1848], 24mo; 11th edit. [1857] 8vo. A French edition of this popular ‘Guide to Knowledge’ appeared under the title of ‘La Clef de la Science, ou les Phénomènes de tous les jours expliqués. Troisième édition, corrigée par M. l'Abbé Moigno,’ Paris, 1858, 12mo. A Greek translation by P. I. Kritides was published at Smyrna in 1857, 8vo. 2. ‘A Political, Social, and Literary History of France,’ London [1863], 8vo. 3. ‘Dictionary of Phrase and Fable, giving the Derivation, Source, or Origin of Common Phrases,’ London [1870], 8vo; 3rd edit. [1872-3]; 12th edit, revised [1881]; enlarged, 100th thousand, 1895. 4. ‘Errors of Speech and of Spelling,’ 2 vols. London, 1877, 8vo. 5. ‘The Reader's Handbook of Allusions, References, Plots, and Stories,’ London, 1880, 8vo; 3rd edit. 1882; new edit. revised throughout and greatly enlarged, London, 1898, 8vo. 6. ‘A Political, Social, and Literary History of Germany,’ London, 1881, 8vo. 7. ‘Etymological and ​Pronouncing Dictionary of Difficult Words,' London [1882], 8vo. 8. 'A Dictionary of Miracles, Imitative, Realistic, and Dogmatic,' London, 1884, 8vo. 9. 'The Historic Note-book, with, an Appendix of Battles,' London, 1891, 8vo.
[Men of the Time, 1884; Times, 8 March 1897, p. 11, col. 6; Ann. Reg. 1897, Chron. p. 147.]
T. C.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Scottow, Joshua

​SCOTTOW, JOSHUA (1618–1693), colonist, seems to have come of a Suffolk family, and to have been born in England in 1618. He went out to Massachusetts with his widowed mother, Thomasina Scottow, about 1634. He was admitted a member of the ‘old church’ at Boston on 19 March 1639, and allotted building land at Muddy River, or Brookline, the same year; he also owned property at Scarborough (in Maine). He became a shipowner and merchant of repute in Boston. His name (usually with ‘captain’ prefixed) frequently occurs in connection with municipal matters. In 1665 he was summoned, along with the governor and company of Massachusetts, in respect of some injury done to the ship Oleron. He was a pillar of his church, and prominent in its meetings for prayer. Sewall records ‘a brave shower of rain while Captain Scottow was praying after much drought.’ He died on 20 Jan. 1693 (Sewall, Diary).
Scottow married about 1643, and apparently his wife and four children survived him. One of his daughters married Thomas Savage, from whom descended James Savage (1767–1845) [q. v.], the antiquary.
Scottow was the author of some rare pamphlets: 1. ‘Old Men's Tears for their own Declensions mixed with fears of their and posterities further falling off from New England's Primitive Constitution. Published by some of Boston's old Planters and some other,’ Boston, 1691; in this he directly attributes the losses of New England by disease and Indian raids to visitation for the sins of the public. 2. ‘A Narrative of the Planting of the Massachusetts Colony, anno 1628, with the Lord's signal presence the first thirty years,’ Boston, 1694; reprinted in ‘Massachusetts Historical Records’ (4th ser. iv. 279 sq.).
[Collections of Massachusetts Historical Society, especially 2nd ser. iv. 100, 4th ser. viii. 631, and note.]
C. A. H.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Scougal, John

​SCOUGAL or SCOUGALL, JOHN (1645?–1730?), portrait-painter, is supposed to have been born in Leith about the middle of the seventeenth century, and to have been cousin of Patrick Scougal [q. v.], bishop of Aberdeen. The signature ‘Dd. Scougal’ appears upon a portrait dated 1654 at Newbattle Abbey, but this artist's relationship to John Scougall is undetermined. In 1670 Scougall painted a portrait of Sir Archibald Primrose, lord Carrington [q. v.], lord justice clerk, which now belongs to the Earl of Rosebery; and at Penicuik House there are two portraits which, from an entry in an old ‘Book of Accompts’ preserved in the Charter-room there, were paid for in November 1675. The entry is ‘To John Scougall for 2 pictures, 36l.’ Scougall lived at Advocates' Close, Edinburgh, in a house one of the floors of which he fitted up as a picture gallery. In 1698 he made the copy of George Heriot's portrait which hangs in the hospital from an original by Van Somer, now lost, and in 1708 a minute of the Glasgow town council confirmed the provost's purchase of full-length portraits of William III and Queen Mary from ‘Mr. Scowgall, Limner in Edinburgh.’ Four years later another minute ‘ordaines William Gow, the treasurer, to pay to John Scougall, elder, painter, fifteen pounds sterling money as the pryce of the picture of her majesty Queen Anne painted and furnished be him.’ Sir Daniel Wilson states that Scougall died at Prestonpans about 1730, aged 85 (Memorials of Old Edinburgh).
The two bust portraits at Penicuik are perhaps the finest of the authenticated portraits by Scougall, and show the influence of Vandyck in handling and colour. A portrait of John Scougall by himself is in the Scottish National Gallery.
Many inferior examples, influenced in style by Lely, are attributed to Scougall, and it is usually thought that there were two painters of the name. All the information we possess about the second, usually spoken of as the ‘younger Scougall,’ seems to be derived from one source, an article (said to be by the painter, Sir George Chalmers [q. v.]) which appeared in the ‘Weekly Magazine’ on 16 Jan. 1772. The writer says ‘the elder Scougal had a son George, whom he bred a painter. For some time after the revolution painters were few. The younger Scougal was the only one whose great run of business brought him into an incorrect stiff manner, void of expression. His carelessness occasioned many complaints by his employers; but he gave for answer that they might seek others, well knowing that there was none to be found at that time in Scotland.’ Portraits at Riccarton House and elsewhere attributed to the younger Scougall are certainly inferior to those at Penicuik, but beyond this and the article referred to there is nothing to go by.
J. L. C.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Scovell, George

​SCOVELL, Sir GEORGE (1774–1861), general, was born 21 March 1774. He was commissioned as cornet and adjutant in the 4th queen's own dragoons on 5 April 1798, became lieutenant on 4 May 1800, and captain on 10 March 1804. He exchanged to the 57th foot on 12 March 1807. He went to the Peninsula in the following year, and was employed in the quartermaster-general's department throughout the war. He was present at Coruña, the passage of the Douro, Talavera, Busaco, Fuentes d'Onoro, Ciudad Rodrigo, Badajoz, Salamanca, Burgos, Vittoria, the Pyrenees, Nivelle, Nive, the passage of the Adour, and Toulouse. He commanded the corps of guides and had charge of the postal service and the communications of the army till 1813, when he was appointed (on 15 June) to the command of the staff corps of cavalry. He had been made brevet-major on 30 May 1811, and lieutenant-colonel on 17 Aug. 1812, having been mentioned in Wellington's Salamanca despatch. At the end of the war he received the cross with one clasp, and on 2 Jan. 1815 was made K.C.B.
He was again employed in the Waterloo campaign as assistant quartermaster-general, and in command of the staff corps of cavalry; and during the subsequent occupation of France he was charged on different occasions with the duty of preventing collisions between the troops and the people. He received the medal for Waterloo and the Russian order of St. Wladimir (fourth class). On 25 Dec. 1818 he was placed on half pay, and on 23 March 1820 he was appointed to the command of the royal wagon train. He became colonel in the army on 27 May 1825, major-general on 10 Jan. 1837, lieutenant-general on 9 Nov. 1846, and general on 20 June 1854. He was lieutenant-governor of the Royal Military College, Sandhurst, from 25 April 1829 to 2 Feb. 1837, and governor from the latter date to 31 March 1856. He was given the colonelcy of his old regiment, the 4th dragoons, on 18 Dec. 1847, and received the G.C.B. on 18 May 1860. He died at Henley Park, Guildford, Surrey, on 17 Jan. 1861. There is a marble tablet to his memory in the church of the Royal Military College, and a portrait, painted in 1837, in the officers' room there.
[Gent. Mag. 1861, i. 349; R. M. Calendar, iv. 430; Wellington Despatches, Suppl. vols. vii.–xiv.]
E. M. L.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Scriven, Edward

1904 Errata appended.
​SCRIVEN, EDWARD (1775–1841), engraver, was born, according to his own account, at Alcester, Warwickshire, in 1775, but his name does not appear in the parish register of that place. He was a pupil of Robert Thew [q. v.], and became eminent as an engraver, chiefly of portraits, in the stipple and chalk manner. He worked mainly for the publishers of expensively illustrated books and serials, such as the ‘British Gallery of Portraits,’ 1809–17; ‘Ancient Marbles in the British Museum,’ 1814, &c.; Tresham and Ottley's ‘British Gallery,’ 1818; Lodge's ‘Portraits of Illustrious Persons,’ 1821–34; Dibdin's ‘Ædes Althorpianæ,’ 1822; Jerdan's ‘National Portrait Gallery,’ 1830–4; and Mrs. Jameson's ‘Beauties of the Court of Charles II,’ 1833. His few detached plates include ‘Telemachus and Mentor discovered by Calypso,’ after R. Westall, 1810; portrait of Rev. Richard Broomhead, after J. Allen, 1818; portrait of Thomas, lord Clifford of Chudleigh, after S. Cooper, 1819; ‘Miranda,’ after W. Hilton, 1828; and portrait of Dr. ​E. D. Clarke, after J. Opie, 1828. He also engraved a set of imitations of West's studies of heads for his picture of ‘Christ Rejected.’ Scriven worked with much taste and skill and extreme industry. He was a man of great active benevolence among the members of his own profession, and a zealous supporter of the Artists' Annuity Fund, in the establishment of which, in 1810, he took a leading part. He died on 23 Aug. 1841, leaving a widow and five children, and was buried in Kensal Green cemetery, where a stone was erected to his memory by the members of the Artists' Fund. A portrait of Scriven, painted by A. Morton, was engraved by B. P. Gibbon as an illustration to Pye's ‘Patronage of British Art.’
F. M. O'D.
Dictionary of National Biography, Errata (1904), p.244 N.B.— f.e. stands for from end and l.l. for last line
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