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

​PRUJEAN, Sir FRANCIS, M.D. (1593–1666), physician, whose name was often spelt Pridgeon, son of Francis Prujean, rector of Boothby, Lincolnshire, was born at Bury St. Edmunds in 1593, and educated by his father. He entered as a sizar at Caius College, Cambridge, on 23 March 1610, and graduated M.B. in 1617, and M.D. in 1625. He became a licentiate of the College of Physicians of London on 22 Dec. 1621, and was elected a fellow in 1626. He practised in Lincolnshire till 1638, and then settled in London. In 1639 he was elected a censor at the College of Physicians, and again from 1642 to 1647. He was registrar from 1641 to 1647, and president from 1650 to 1654, in the last of which years he was chosen, on the special recommendation of William Harvey, M.D. [q. v.], who declined the office. He was treasurer from 1655 to 1663. He had a large practice, and was knighted by Charles II on 1 April 1661. When Queen Catherine had typhus fever in October 1663, he attended her, and her recovery was attributed to a cordial prescribed by him (Pepys, Diary). Evelyn describes (ib. 9 Aug. 1661) his laboratory and collection of pictures, and mentions that he played on the polythore. He was married twice: first to Margaret Leggatt (d. 1661), and secondly, on 13 Feb. 1664, to Margaret, the widow of Sir Thomas Fleming, and daughter of Edward, lord Gorges. By his first wife ​he had an only son, Thomas Prujean, who graduated M.D. at Cambridge in 1619. He died on 23 June 1666, and was buried at Hornchurch, Essex. Dr. Baldwin Hamey the younger [q. v.] composed a Latin epitaph for him, in obedience to a clause in his will. His portrait was painted by Streater, and is in the College of Physicians, having been purchased by that society in 1873 from Miss Prujean, his last surviving descendant. He lived by the Old Bailey, and the place of his residence was named after him Prujean Square (Notes and Queries, 8th ser. vol. v. passim).
[Munk's Coll. of Phys. i. 185; Pepys's Diary, ed. Braybrooke, vol. ii. 6th edit.; Chester's Westminster Abbey Reg.]
N. M.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Prout, John (1810-1894)

​PROUT, JOHN (1810–1894), agriculturist, born 1 Oct. 1810 at South Petherwin, near Launceston, Cornwall, was the son of William Prout, farmer, who had married, in 1808, his cousin, Tomazin Prout. John was educated at a school in Launceston, and brought up to farming under his father; but, dissatisfied with the position of a tenant-farmer on the small holdings of his native land and with the antiquated restrictions of land tenure, he emigrated to Canada and purchased land at Pickering, Ontario, which he farmed from 1832 to 1842. He then returned to England, and joined his uncle, Thomas Prout, in his business at 229 Strand, London. On the death of his uncle, Prrout carried on the business. In 1861 he bought Blount's farm, Sawbridgeworth, Hertfordshire, which he cultivated till June 1894.
Prout had married, about 1841, Sophia (d. ​1893), niece of Colonel Thomson of Aikenshaw, Toronto. He died when residing with his married daughter at Wimbish Vicarage, Saffron Walden, Essex, on 7 Dec. 1894.
To Prout is due the credit of teaching a practical lesson in scientific farming by his thirty-three years' successful cultivation of Blount's farm, and his experience has been of great value to agriculturists in this and other countries. His system was based on his Canadian experience and his study of Sir John Lawes's experimental plots at Rothamstead. He demonstrated that successive crops of cereals could be raised on heavy clay-land if drained well and deeply ploughed, and dressed with properly prepared chemical manures.
In 1881 he published a report of his methods, entitled 'Profitable Clay Farming under a just System of Tenant Right;' this was translated into French and German.
[Cable, August 1893, p. 313, with portrait; Times. 11 Dec. 1894; Field, 15 Dec. 1894; Agricultural Gazette, 10 Dec. 1894; Herts Essex Observer, 15 Dec. 1894; information kindly supplied by his son, W. A. Prout.]
B. B. W.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Pryce, George

​PRYCE, GEORGE (1801–1868), historian of Bristol, born in 1801, was for the most part self-educated. He was at first engaged in a school, but subsequently became an accountant at Bristol. He devoted his leisure to the study of archæology, and was regarded as an authority on the early history of Bristol. In April 1856 he obtained the city librarianship there. It was chiefly through his exertions that the valuable collection of local literature in the library was brought together. He died on 15 March 1868. His portrait hangs in the reference room of the Free Library at Bristol.
Pryce was elected fellow of the Society of Antiquaries on 30 April 1857. To 'Archæologia' (xxxv. 279) he contributed a paper 'On the Church of St. Mary Redclifle, Bristol.' His chief work, entitled 'Popular History of Bristol,' 8vo, Bristol, 1861, is marred by many absurd theories. Besides articles in local papers, he also wrote: 1. 'Notes on the Ecclesiastical and Monumental Architecture and Sculpture of the Middle Ages in Bristol,' 8vo, London, 1850. 2. 'Memorials of the Canynges' Family and their Times, with inedited Memoranda relating to Chatterton,' large 8vo, Bristol, 1854. 3. 'Westbury College, Redcliffe Church, and Chatterton,' undated, but published between 1854 and 1858. 4. 'Fact versus Fiction: a Descent among Writers on Bristol History and Biography,' 12mo, Bristol, 1858.
[Information from E. R. Norris Mathews, esq., city librarian, Bristol; Daily Bristol Times, 18 March 1868; Bristol Daily Post, 17 March 1868; Bristol Mercury, 21 March 1868.]
G. G.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Seres, William

​SERES, WILLIAM (d. 1579?), printer, is said by Ames to have been in partnership with John Day (1522–1584) [q. v.] as a printer as early as 1544, but the earliest known book published by Seres is dated 1548. He also printed in connection with Anthony Scoloker [q. v.] and William Hill. Day and Seres separated about 1550, and the latter established himself at ‘St. Peter College’ in St. Paul's Churchyard. When that building was occupied by the Stationers' Company, Seres set up at the sign of the ‘Hedge Hog’ at the west end of St. Paul's Churchyard. The use of this device—the badge of Sir Henry Sidney—has led to the assumption that Seres was Sidney's servant. It is more probable that he was in the service of Cecil, who on 11 March 1553–4 procured for him a patent to be sole printer of all primers (i.e. forms of private prayer) and psalters. On the accession of Mary, Seres, who had published a large number of protestant books, was deprived of his patent and thrown into prison (Egerton Papers, Camden Soc., p. 140). Elizabeth, however, renewed the patent, including in it Seres's wife and son. Subsequently Seres parted with some of his rights to Henry Denham, and this led to a protracted dispute between Denham and Seres's widow (Ames, ed. Dibdin, iv. 194–5; Timperley, Typogr. Encycl. pp. 362–3). Seres took an active part in the affairs of the Stationers' Company; he was a member of the old company existing before the charter of 1556; in the new company he was master five times, namely, in 1570, 1571, 1575–6–7; he was also a generous benefactor to the company. He died between March 1577–8 (Arber, ii. 676) and June 1580 (ib. ii. 682). The business was carried on under the name of his son, William Seres, junior, until 1603. Dibdin enumerates more than sixty works printed by Seres between 1548 and 1577. Among the more important were Sir John Cheke's ‘Hurt of Sedition,’ 1549 and again in 1569, and Sir Geoffrey Fenton's ‘Monophylo,’ 1572. In 1562 he published a verse translation of ‘A Prayer,’ by himself, and apparently he was also author of an ‘Answer to the Proclamation of the Rebels in the North,’ 1569, in verse (Maitland, Index of English Books at Lambeth, p. 98; Ames, ed. Dibdin, iv. 216; Notes and Queries, 8th ser. viii. 345). He must be distinguished from one William Seres, a Scot, who ‘departed out of Scotland because he had stolen away the sheriff of Linlithgow's wife, the Lord Semple's daughter; after that he was three years in Almaine with the Palsgrave and the emperor; then with others he came by a ship and was taken in Brittany and condemned to the galleys’ (Cal. State Papers, For. Ser. 1566–8, No. 183). Having been released, he was actively concerned in the rebellion of 1569, and afterwards lived abroad (Murdin, Burghley State Papers, pp. 215–7; Hatfield MSS. ii. 17, 26; Notes and Queries, 8th ser. viii. 345).
A. F. P.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Sergison, Charles

​SERGISON, CHARLES (1654–1732), commissioner of the navy, born in 1654, entered the service of the crown as a dockyard clerk in July 1671. In 1675 he became clerk to the clerk of the acts, whose office was then held jointly by Thomas Hayter and John Pepys, a younger brother of Samuel Pepys [q. v.] John Pepys died in 1677 and was succeeded by James Sotherne, who, after March 1680, held the office by himself till 25 Dec. 1689. Sergison was then appointed in Sotherne's room, and remained clerk of the acts for thirty years, for the most part single-handed, but from 1701 to 1706 jointly with Samuel Atkins, formerly clerk of Samuel Pepys. During this period, which included the war of the Spanish succession, as well as the little war of 1718, the work of the navy board was excessively heavy, and Sergison won the highest opinion of the several administrations with whom he acted. The emoluments of the office were large, though rather by perquisites and fees than by pay, and in 1691 Sergison was able to purchase Cuckfield Park in Sussex. During the reign of Anne he more than once asked for permission to retire, but was told that he could not be spared. Afterwards, when he was superseded at the age of 65, in 1719, he seems to have felt it as an undeserved insult. During the rest of his life he lived at Cuckfield Place, and there he died on 26 Nov. 1732. He was buried in Cuckfield church, where there is a tablet to his memory. Sergison married Anne, daughter of Mr. Crawley of the navy office; she predeceased him; and on his death without children the estate passed to his grand-nephew, Thomas Warden, who took the name of Sergison. He also died, leaving no children, and was succeeded by his brother Michael, who assumed the name of Sergison. In his family the estate still remains.
Sergison formed a large collection of manuscripts relating to the navy; and though many of these have been dispersed, many are still at Cuckfield Place. He had also a fine collection of models, which has been preserved entire and in beautiful condition.
J. K. L.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Serle, Ambrose

​SERLE, AMBROSE (1742–1812), Calvinistic writer, was born on 30 Aug. 1742, and entered the navy, in which by 1795 he had attained the rank of captain (Ann. Reg.) When William Legge, second earl of Dartmouth [q. v.], became secretary of state for the colonies in 1772, Serle was appointed one of his under-secretaries, and in January 1776 he was made clerk of reports. He went to America in 1774, accompanied the British army from 1776 to 1778, and during part of that time had control of the press in New York. His knowledge of American affairs was considerable, and his letters throw much light upon the course of events (cf. Hist. MSS. Comm. 14th Rep. App. x. passim). On returning from America in 1780 he settled at Heckfield, Hampshire. In 1795 the latter was a commissioner of ‘the transport service and the care of prisoners of war,’ and was reappointed in 1803 and 1809. He died on 1 Aug. 1812, and was buried in the churchyard at Broadwater, near Worthing. He was married, and a daughter Jane (1780–1792) was Mrs. Romaine's goddaughter.
In 1764, while living in or near London, Serle became a friend of William Romaine [q. v.] Other friends were John Thornton, John Newton, Toplady, and Legh Richmond. Soon after 1780 he published his ‘Horæ Solitariæ’ (2nd edit. 1787) and the ‘Christian Remembrancer’ (1787). A series of letters from Romaine (Works, vol. viii.) shows the deep affection and entire accord in religious matters which subsisted between him and Serle. Nowhere does the conviction of the vital importance of Calvinism as of the essence of the gospel appear more strongly than in Serle's books. The ‘Horæ Solitariæ’ and the ‘Christian Remembrancer’ passed through many editions. Romaine circulated them broadcast. Other works by Serle are: 1. ‘Christian Husbandry,’ 1789. 2. ‘The Christian Parent,’ 1793, often reprinted. 3. ‘Charis,’ 1803. 4. ‘The Secret Thoughts of a departed Friend,’ written while the author was suffering from paralysis in 1812, and designed for posthumous publication, 1813. 5. ‘The Church of God,’ 1814.
H. L. B.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Sermon, William

​SERMON, WILLIAM (1629?–1679), physician, born probably in 1629, was ‘nearly related’ to one Edmond Sermon, a native of Naunton-Beauchamp, Worcestershire. He seems to have gained his first medical experience ‘in the armies.’ About April 1666 his ‘occasions’ called him to Bristol, ‘and the physicians there leaving the city,’ owing to the plague, he was, by desire of the mayor, ‘shut up at the Mermaid Tavern upon the Back, and after that at Mr. Richard Winstone's house in the county of Gloucester, near the city aforesaid, in which infected houses,’ he says, ‘I continued the space of three months, and cured all of the Pest that took my Directions.’ He now obtained ‘a sufficient practice upon the worst of diseases,’ and remained at Bristol till 8 June 1669, when he was summoned to Newhall in Essex to attend George Monck, duke of Albemarle [q. v.], for dropsy. On 12 July Monck gave him a certificate of his cure, and Charles II, on 6 Aug., sent letters to the university of Cambridge requesting them to grant Sermon a medical degree (Cal. State Papers, Dom. 1669, October to December, p. 441). In 1670 he accordingly graduated M.D.
On 9 Sept. 1669 an advertisement appeared in the ‘London Gazette,’ stating that Sermon had ‘removed from Bristol, and may ​be seen at his house in West Harding Street, in Goldsmith's Rents, near Three-legged Alley, between Fetter Lane and Shoe Lane’ (ib. p. 486). He now gained a considerable practice, and was made physician-in-ordinary to the king. In 1672 appeared the eighth edition of his ‘Advertisement concerning those most famous and safe cathartiques and diuretique Pills … wherewith was cured the late Lord-general Monck of the Dropsie.’ Sermon denies that Monck eventually died of the dropsy, ‘as many enviously report’ (cf. Gumble, Life of Monck, pp. 246, 254, 476). Much of the book is repeated in ‘The Ladies Companion, or the English Midwife’ (1671, 8vo), which is illustrated with sixteen copper cuts, giving ‘the various forms of the childs proceeding forth of the womb.’ The author complains of ‘the great rage of black-mouth'd envy’ excited by his success. A third work, issued in 1673, was ‘A Friend to the Sick, or the honest English Man's preservative … with a particular discourse of the Dropsie, scurvie, and yellow jaundice.’ Prefixed to it are some Latin hexameters by P[ayne] Fisher [q. v.], and some English laudatory verses by various friends, including William Winstanley [q. v.]
Sermon died at his house in the parish of St. Bride's, London, in the winter of 1679. A portrait of him, drawn and engraved by William Sherwin [q. v.] in 1671, represents him in a doctor's gown at the age of forty-two. Under it are some doggerel lines, referring to his cure of Monck. It is prefixed to both ‘The Ladies Companion’ and the ‘Friend to the Sick.’ Wood calls him ‘that forward, vain, and conceited person.’
G. Le G. N.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Service, John

​SERVICE, JOHN, D.D. (1833–1884), Scottish divine, son of John Service, engraver in the calico works of Robert Dalglish, M.P., at Lennoxtown, was born at Campsie on 26 Feb. 1833. He received his education at the Campsie parish school, and then entered the calico works as a clerk. At fifteen he was sent to Glasgow University to study for the church. For several years afterwards he was engaged in literary work, editing the ‘Dumbarton Herald’ in 1857, and from 1858 till 1862 he was sub-editor under Patrick Edward Dove [q. v.] of Mackenzie's ‘Imperial Dictionary of Universal Biography.’ He was ordained in the church of Scotland in 1862, and for ten months performed ministerial work at Hamilton, near Glasgow. Shortly afterwards he spent eighteen months in Australia owing to failure of health. At the end of the period he was inducted to St. John's presbyterian church (May 1866) at Hobart Town in Tasmania.
He returned to Glasgow in May 1870, and in 1871 he became assistant to Charles Strong at Anderston, which position he left on being presented by the Earl of Stair to the parish of Inch, near Stranraer. While there he wrote a novel, which, after running through ‘Good Words’ under the title of ‘Novantia,’ was issued in 1875 as ‘Lady Hetty: a Story of Scottish and Australian Life.’ A volume of sermons and essays, entitled ‘Salvation Here and Hereafter,’ appeared in 1877, and caused a sensation in Scotland on account of its broad-church views. Service also wrote much in the ‘Glasgow Herald’ and other newspapers. In 1871 he contributed to the ‘Contemporary Review’ an article entitled ‘The Spiritual Theory of Another Life.’ On 30 April 1877 Glasgow University conferred on Service the degree of D.D., and on 19 Dec. 1878 he was appointed minister of the new west-end church at Hyndland, Glasgow, a position he occupied until his death on 15 March 1884.
On 29 April 1859 Service married Jessie, second daughter of James Bayne, teacher of music in Glasgow, by whom he had four sons and two daughters.
A volume of ‘Sermons’ by Service was published in 1884, with a prefatory notice and portrait of the author. His ‘Prayers for Public Worship’ appeared in 1885. In 1880 he contributed an essay on Burns to Mr. T. H. Ward's ‘English Poets.’
[Notice prefixed to Service's Sermons, 1884; private information.]
G. S-h.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Serres, Dominic

​SERRES, DOMINIC (1722–1793), marine-painter, was born in 1722 at Auch in Gascony, and was educated in the public school there. He is said to have been nephew of the archbishop of Rheims. His parents intended him for the church, but, this not suiting his taste, he ran away from his native town, and made his way on foot into Spain. He there shipped on board a vessel for South America as a common sailor, and eventually became master of a trading vessel to the Havannah, where he was taken prisoner by a British frigate and brought to this country about 1758. After his release he married and lived for a time in Northamptonshire. He had received some instruction in drawing, and commenced life in England as a painter of naval pieces, for which the wars of the period furnished abundance of subjects. He received some assistance from Charles Brooking [q. v.], and soon established a position. In 1765 Serres became a member of the Incorporated Society of Artists, and exhibited with them for two years. On the establishment of the Royal Academy in 1768 he was chosen one of the foundation members, and was a constant contributor up to the time of his death. Between 1761 and 1793 he exhibited eight works at the Society of Artists, twenty-one at the Free Society, and 105 at the Royal Academy. Among the latter were ‘The Siege at Fort Royal, Martinique’ (1769), ‘The Royal George returning from the Bay’ (1771), ‘The Burning of the Town of Gimras’ (1772), ‘The Thésée sinking while engaging with the Torbay’ (1777), and ‘The Engagement between the Serapis and the Countess of Scarborough with Paul Jones and his Squadron’ (1780). Serres was a good linguist. In 1792 he succeeded Wilton as librarian to the academy. He was also appointed marine-painter to George III, but he did not long hold these offices. He died in 1793, and was buried at St. Marylebone Old Church. He married about 1758, and left two sons, who followed his profession, John Thomas [q. v.] and Dominic, and four daughters, two of whom were honorary exhibitors at the Royal Academy. Paul Sandby was his friend and next-door neighbour.
There are several large sea-pieces by Serres (in bad condition) at Greenwich Hospital and at Hampton Court Palace; they do not sustain the reputation he enjoyed in his lifetime. A few of his water-colour drawings are at South Kensington Museum.
C. M.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Thom, Alexander

​THOM, ALEXANDER (1801–1879), founder of ‘Thom's Almanac,’ was born in 1801 at Findhorn in Moray.
His father, Walter Thom (1770–1824), miscellaneous writer, was born in 1770 at Bervie, Kincardineshire, and afterwards removed to Aberdeen, where he established himself as a bookseller. In 1813 he proceeded to Dublin as editor of the ‘Dublin Journal.’ He died in that city on 16 June 1824. He was the author of a ‘History of Aberdeen’ (Aberdeen, 1811, 12mo) and of a treatise on ‘Pedestrianism’ (Aberdeen, 1813, 8vo). He also contributed to Brewster's ‘Encyclopædia,’ to Sinclair's ‘Statistical Account of Scotland,’ and to Mason's ‘Statistical Account of Ireland.’
His son Alexander was educated at the High School, Edinburgh, and came to Dublin as a lad of twenty to assist his father in the management of the ‘Dublin Journal.’ In this capacity he learned the business of printing, and on his father's death he obtained, through the influence of Sir Robert Peel, the contract for printing for the post office in Ireland. In 1838 he obtained the contract for the printing for all royal commissions in Ireland, and in 1876 was appointed to the post of queen's printer for Ireland. In 1844 Thom founded the work by which he has since been known, the ‘Irish Almanac and Official Directory,’ which in a short time superseded all other publications of the kind in the Irish capital. Its superiority to its predecessors was due to the incorporation for the first time in a directory of a mass of valuable and skilfully arranged statistics relating to Ireland, and the ‘Almanac’ has ever since maintained its position as by far the best periodical of its kind in Ireland. Thom continued personally to supervise its publication for thirty-seven years, and until within a few months of his death. In 1860 he published at his own expense for gratuitous distribution ‘A Collection of Tracts and Treatises illustrative of the Natural History, Antiquities, and the Political and Social State of Ireland,’ two volumes which contain reprints of the works of Ware, Spenser, Davis, Petty, Berkeley, and other writers on Irish affairs in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries.
Thom, who was twice married, died at his residence, Donnycarney House, near Dublin, on 22 Dec. 1879.
[Obituary notice of the late Alexander Thom, Queen's Printer in Ireland, by W. Neilson Hancock, LL.D., in Journal of the Statistical Society of Ireland, April 1880; Historical and Bibliographical Account of Almanacks and Directories published in Ireland, by Edward Evans, 1897.]
C. L. F.