OpenLLM-France/wikimedia huggingface dataset:
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Corbaux, Marie Françoise Catherine Doetter

​CORBAUX, MARIE FRANÇOISE CATHERINE DOETTER (1812–1883), painter and biblical critic, usually called Fanny Corbaux, was daughter of an Englishman who lived much abroad, and was well known as a statistician and mathematician. When she was very young her father was reduced from affluence to poverty, and she was obliged to turn her talents for painting to account. Having studied at the National Gallery and the British Institution, she received in 1827 the large silver medal of the Society of Arts for an original portrait in miniature, the silver Isis medal for a copy of figures in water-colours, and the silver palette for a copy of an engraving. In 1828 an original composition of figures in water-colours again obtained the silver Isis medal, and a portrait in miniature, exhibited in 1830, won the gold medal. In the latter year she was elected an honorary member of the Society of British Artists, and for a few years she exhibited small oil pictures at its gallery. Subsequently she joined the New Society of Painters in Water Colours, and became a regular contributor to its annual exhibitions. She designed the illustrations for Moore's ‘Pearls of the East,’ 1837, and for ‘Cousin Natalia's Tales,’ 1841. As a biblical critic she gained some reputation by her communications to periodicals and literary societies on subjects relating to scripture history. Among these were ‘Letters on the Physical Geography of the Exodus,’ published in the ‘Athenæum.’ Another series, giving the history of a remarkable nation, called ‘the Rephaim’ in the Bible, and showing their connection with the political and monumental history of Egypt and that of the Exodus, appeared in the ‘Journal of Sacred Literature.’ She likewise wrote an historical and chronological introduction to ‘The Exodus Papyri,’ by D. I. Heath, 1855. In 1871 she received a civil list pension of 50l. She died at Brighton, after many years of suffering, on 1 Feb. 1883.
[Men of the Time (1879), p. 268; Vapereau's Dict. des Contemporains (1880), p. 468; Athenæum, 10 Feb. 1883, p. 192; Cat. of Printed Books in Brit. Mus.]
T. C.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Corbet, Edward

​CORBET, EDWARD (d. 1658), divine, born at Pontesbury in Shropshire, 'of the ancient family of the Corbets in that county,' was educated at Shrewsbury and Merton College, Oxford, of which house he was admitted a probationer fellow in 1624. Meanwhile he had taken his B.A. degree on 4 Dec. 1622, and became proctor on 4 April 1638. At Merton he distinguished himself by his resistance to the attempted innovations of Laud, and subsequently gave evidence at the archbishop's trial. 'Being always puritannically affected,' he was chosen one of the assembly of divines, and a preacher before the Long parliament. In the latter capacity he published: 'God's Providence: a sermon [on 1 Cor. i. 27] preached before the Hon. House of Commons, at their late solemne fast, 28 Dec. 1642,' 4to, London, 1642 [O.S.] For this discourse he received the thanks of the house, and by an ordinance dated 17 May 1643 was instituted to the rectory of Chartham, Kent. He held this living until 1646, when he returned to Oxford as one of the seven ministers appointed by the parliament to preach the loyal scholars into obedience, which office he found little to his liking. He was also elected one of the visitors of the university, 'yet seldom or never sat among them.' On 20 Jan. 1647-8 he was installed public orator and canon of the second stall in Christ Church, in room of Dr. Henry Hammond, who had been ejected by the visitors, but being, as Wood observes, 'a person of conscience and honesty,' he resigned both places in the following August. The same year he proceeded D.D. on 12 April. At length in the beginning of 1649 he was presented, on the death of Dr. Thomas Soame, to the valuable rectory of Great Hasely, near Oxford. Corbet married Margaret, daughter of Sir Nathaniel Brent [q. v.], by whom he had three children, Edward, Martha, and Margaret. He died in London on 5 Jan. 1657-8, 'aged fifty-five years or thereabouts,' and was buried on the 14th in the chancel of Great Hasely near his wife, who had died in 1656. By his will he left 'to the publique Library of the uniuersitie of Oxford Bishop Robert Abbot's Comentaryes on the Romans in fower Volumes in manuscript,' besides gifts of books to Shrewsbury and Merton.
G. G.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Coppock, Thomas

​COPPOCK or CAPPOCH, THOMAS (1719–1746), Jacobite, a native of Manchester, was educated in the free school there and at Brasenose College, Oxford (B.A. 15 Oct. 1742). Afterwards he took holy orders. He joined the army of Prince Charles Edward at Manchester, and was one of those left behind at Carlisle. Having been tried and condemned for high treason, he was drawn, hanged, and quartered at Carlisle on 18 Oct. 1746. An absurd report was circulated that the Pretender had nominated this young clergyman to the see of Carlisle, and one of the witnesses at the trial, improving the story, stated that Coppock received that appointment from Hamilton, the governor of the town for the prince. In contemporary journals Coppock is seriously spoken of as ‘the titular bishop of Carlisle.’ It has been said that Coppock led a very irregular and immoral life; but no reliance can be placed on these statements. They emanated from his political enemies, and are to be found in the following pamphlets: ‘An Authentic History of the Life and Character of Thomas Cappoch, the rebel-bishop of Carlisle,’ London, 1746, 8vo, reprinted in the ‘Carlisle Tracts,’ 1839; ‘The Genuine Dying Speech of the Rev. Parson Coppock, pretended Bishop of Carlisle,’ Carlisle [1746], 8vo. This pretended speech is an obvious fabrication. What is probably a correct version of Coppock's last words is given in ‘True Copies of the Dying Declarations of Arthur, lord Balmerino, ​ Thomas Syddall,’ and others, Edinburgh, 1750, 8vo.
[Pamphlets cited above; Chambers's Hist. of the Rebellion of 1745–6 (1869), 462; Cat. of Oxford Graduates (1851), 151.]
T. C.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Belfour, John

​BELFOUR, JOHN (1768–1842), was an orientalist and miscellaneous writer, of whom little is recorded, except that he was a member of the Royal Society of Literature, and that he died in the City Road, London, in 1842, at the age of seventy-four. His works are:
* 'Literary Fables imitated from the Spanish of Yriarte,' London, 1806, 8vo.
* 'Spanish Heroism, or the Battle of Roncesvalles; a metrical romance,' London, 1809, 8vo.
* 'Music; a didactic poem from the Spanish of Yriarte,' London, 1811, 8vo.
* 'Odes in honour of His Royal Highness the Prince Regent; with other poems,' 1812; only twenty-five copies printed.
* 'The Psalms of David, according to the Coptic version, accompanied by a literal translation into English, and by the version of the Latin Vulgate, with copious notes, in which the variations from the original text are noticed, the corruptions in the Egyptian text pointed out, and its numerous affinities with the Hebrew for the first time determined,' 1831; manuscript in British Museum, 1110 E. 31.
* 'Remarks on certain Alphabets in use among the Jews of Morocco,' 1836. In the 'Transactions of the Royal Society of Literature of the United Kingdom,' iii. 136-142, with plates. Belfour also revised, corrected, and augmented the fifth edition of Ray's 'English Proverbs,' London, 1813, 8vo.
[Biog. Dict. of Living Authors (1816), 19; Gent. Mag. N. S. xviii. 213; Watts's Bibl. Brit.; Cat. of Printed Books in Brit. Mus.]
T. C.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Belet, Michael (fl.1182)

​BELET, MICHAEL (fl. 1182), judge, was sheriff of Worcestershire 1176-81 and again in 1184, of Wiltshire 1180-82, of Leicestershire and Warwickshire in conjunction with Ralph Glanvill 1185-87, and alone 1189-00. He appears as a justice itinerant for Warwickshire and Leicestershire in 1177, in the following year for Lincolnshire, and in 1179, on the redistribution of circuits which then took place, he was assigned for the eastern circuit.
On several occasions between the latter years of Henry II's reign and the third of John, 1201-2, we find him acting as tallager in various counties. He is classed as a baron in the record of a fine levied before him in the exchequer in 1183, and in 1189-90 we find him acting with the barons in assessing imposts in the midland counties. He was lord of the manor of Shene in Surrey, and of that of Wroxtun in Oxfordshire. He married Emma, daughter and coheir of John de Keynes, by whom he had several sons, of whom the eldest was named Hervey after his grandfather, and the second Michael [q. v.]. The last fine recorded by Dugdale as having been levied before him is dated 1199. Probably he died early in the thirteenth century. On his death his estates passed to his eldest son, Hervey, who, however, dying in 1207-8 without issue, was succeeded by his brother Michael, who paid a fine of 100l. upon the succession.
J. M. R.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Beleth, John

​BELETH, JOHN (fl. 1182?), the author of the often-printed 'Rationale divinorum officiorum,' is somewhat hesitatingly claimed as an Englishman by Pits. According to Tanner, however, his cognomen was Anglicus. He is said by Henricus Gandavensis (d. 1293) to have been rector of a theological school at Paris. Albericus Trium Fontium (fl. 1241) describes him under the year 1182 as flourishing in the church of Amiens (Chron. Alberici apud Leibnitz, ii. 363). Possevinus, apparently quoting from Essengrenius, has assigned him a very different date — 1328 — which has been adopted by Pits, and, according to Oudin, by some later writers. The latest author quoted by Beleth seems to be Rupert Tuitiensis, who died in the year 1135 (see Rationale, c. 123). The chapter in the 'Rationale' on the feast of the Invention of St. Stephen, instituted in the fifteenth century (Migne), is evidently a late insertion. Besides the 'Rationale,' two other works have been attributed to Beleth — a collection of sermons, and a treatise entitled 'Gemma Animæ.' The 'Rationale' seems to have been printed several times during the course of the sixteenth century, and at various places. In later years it has been issued in Migne's 'Patrologiæ Cursus,' vol. ccii. Many manuscripts of this work used to exist in England. Pits mentions two in the private libraries of Baron de Lumley and Walter Cope. Tanner adds two others, to be found respectively in the Royal Library at Westminster (now in the British Museum), and in the Bodleian at Oxford.
T. A. A.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Belfour, Hugo John

​BELFOUR, HUGO JOHN (1802–1827), author of poems signed St. John Dorset, was born in or near London in 1802. He was the eldest child of Edward Belfour, of the Navy Office, by his wife Catherine, daughter of John Greenwell, of the India House (Gent. Mag. May 1801). Before the completion of his nineteenth year, Belfour produced 'The Vampire, a Tragedy in five acts, by St. John Dorset,' 8vo, London, 1st and 2nd editions, 1821. The scene is laid in Egypt. The second edition was inscribed 'To W. C. Macready, Esq.,' to whom the work had been submitted in manuscript. Belfour also wrote 'Montezuma, a Tragedy in five acts, and other Poems, by St. John Dorset,' 8vo, London, 1822. In May 1826 he was ordained, and 'appointed to a curacy in Jamaica, with the best prospects of preferment' (Gent. Mag.). He died in Jamaica in September 1827.
[The Vampire, a tragedy, 1821; Gent. Mag. May 1801, January 1816, September 1818, and December 1827; Halkett and Laing's Dictionary of the Anonymous and Pseudonymous Literature of Great Britain, Edinburgh, 1882.]
A. H. G.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Bell, Alexander Montgomerie

1904 Errata appended.
​BELL, ALEXANDER MONTGOMERIE (1808–1866), writer on law, was the son of John Bell, a manufacturer of Paisley, and was born there 4 Dec. 1809. He studied at Paisley grammar school and at the university of Glasgow. In 1835 he was admitted a member of the Society of Writers to the Signet, and in 1856 was appointed professor of conveyancing in the university of Edinburgh. In this chair he distinguished himself by the thoroughness and clearness of his expositions of the law of conveyancing, and by the mastery which he showed over some of the more difficult departments, ignorance of which had been a fruitful source of litigation. Bell died 19 Jan. 1806, and at his own suggestion his lectures were afterwards published. They still form the standard treatise on the subject, a third edition having been issued. According to the 'Journal of Jurisprudence' (August 1867), the book 'is by far the most trustworthy and useful guide in the ordinary business of the lawyer's office which has yet been produced.' 'In these volumes,' said the 'Glasgow Herald' (4 May 1867), 'the student will find Scottish conveyancing treated with singular clearness and fulness, or rather exhaustiveness, and those in practice will find information sufficient to guide them, and to guide them in safety, along the thorniest and most perplexing paths of every department of the art.'
During the greater part of his professional life Bell was a partner in the firm of Dundas & Wilson, C.S., and was engaged mostly in dealing with matters of conveyancing, for which the large business of that firm furnished unequalled opportunities. Combining much research and thoughtful study with the practical administration of conveyancing, he came to be regarded as facile princeps in the department. Personally, he was of quiet retiring habits and sincerely religious temperament. In a minute entered on his death in the records of the Society of Writers to the Signet, he was spoken of as one 'who by his talents, assiduity, and great practical knowledge was well qualified to discharge the important duties devolved upon him [as ​a professor], and who was deservedly esteemed by all to whom he was personally known.'
[Journal of Jurisprudence; Glasgow Herald; Records of Society of Writers to the Signet; Edinburgh newspapers, 20 Jan. 1866; notes furnished to the writer by Professor Bell's son, John M. Bell, Esq., W.S., Edinburgh.]
W. G. B.
Dictionary of National Biography, Errata (1904), p.21 N.B.— f.e. stands for from end and l.l. for last line
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| 148 | ii | 13 | Bell, Alexander M.: for 1809 read 1808 |
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Beler, Roger de

​BELER, ROGER DE (d. 1326), judge, was son of William Beler, and grandson of Roger Beler, sheriff of Lincolnshire in 1256. His mother's name was Amicia. That the family was settled in Leicestershire we know from a license obtained by the judge in 1316 to grant a lay fee in Kirkby-by-Melton, on the Wrethek in that county, to the warden and chaplains of St. Peter, on condition of their performing religious services for the benefit of the souls of himself and his wife Alicia, his father and mother, and ancestry generally. In the civil dissensions of the period, in which Piers Gaveston lost his life, Beler was of the Earl of Lancaster's party, and in October 1318 was included in the amnesty then granted to the earl and his adherents. Shortly afterwards he received a grant of land in Leicestershire as the reward of undefined 'laudable services' rendered by him to the king. In the same year the offices of bailiff and steward of Stapleford, in Leicestershire, of which apparently he was already tenant, were entailed upon him. In this year he was one of a commission for the trial of sheriffs and other officers accused of extortion in the counties of Buckingham, Bedford, and Northampton. In 1322 he was created baron of the exchequer in the room of John de Foxle, and placed on a special commission to try ​ certain 'malefactors and disturbers of the peace' who had forcibly broken into and pillaged certain manors belonging to Hugh le Despenser (amongst whom were Ralphand Roger la Zousch), and upon another commission for the same purpose in the following year. In 1324 he sat on a commission for the trial of persons charged with complicity in a riot at Rochester. On 29 Jan. 1325-6, whi1e on his way from Kirkby to Leicester, he was murdered in a valley near Reresby by one Eustace de Folville and his brother. A commission for the trial of the murderers issued next month, Roger la Zousch of Lubesthorp and Robert Helewell being indicted as accessories. They fled from the kingdom, and their goods were confiscated. One Eudo or Ivo la Zousch was 'appealed of' the murder by Alicia, and, being also threatened with death by Hugh le Despenser, made his escape to France, and died in Paris at Martinmas. Process of outlawry issued against him unlawfully after his death, for the removal of which his son William petitioned parliament next year (1327). Alicia survived her husband by nearly twenty years, dying in 1344. The judge left an heir named Roger, who, being an infant, became a ward of the crown. Alicia was placed in possession of the estates in Leicestershire during his minority. The judge was buried at Kirkby in the church of St. Peter, where a monument in alabaster, representing him as a knight in complete armour, was extant at the date of publication of Nichols's 'History of Leicestershire' (1795), though the lines of the drapery were with difficulty traceable.
J. M. R.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Belet, Michael (fl.1238)

​BELET, MICHAEL (fl. 1238), judge, second son of Michael Belet, the judge of Henry II's reign, is commonly styled Magister Michael Belet on account of his profession of civilian and canonist. He was presented in 1200-1 by the king to the living of Hinclesham in the diocese of Norwich. In the roll De Oblatis for 1201 occurs the curious memorandum, of which the following is a translation: 'Master Michael Belet offers the lord the king, on behalf of his sister, 40 marks for the hand of Robert de Candos, which is in the gift of the lord the king. And Geoffrey Fitz Peter is authorised to accept the aforesaid fine of 40 marks, provided it be for the profit of the king so to do, because if that be so, it is granted to him because he is in the service of the king.' In 1203-4 he was presented by the king to the living of Setburgham (now Serbergham, near Hesket, Newmarket) in the diocese of Carlisle. At a subsequent period, the precise date of which cannot be fixed, he incurred the 'ill will' (malevolentia) of the king, who caused him to be ejected from his manor of Shene in Surrey, which he held upon the tenure of 'sergeanty of butlery' to the king, and only re-instated him (in 1213) upon payment of a fine of 500 marks. He was not at the same time restored to the office of royal butler, of which he had also been deprived. On the whole, however, Belet seems to have been a faithful servant of the king, and in 1216 he received the lands of one Wischard Ledet, who is described as being 'with the king's enemies.' In 1223 he was appointed receiver of the rents of the see of Coventry, and in ​1225 auditor of the accounts of the justices to whom the collection of the quinzime was assigned, and himself assigned to collect it in Northamptonshire. This is probably the reason why Dugdale includes him among the barons. He is mentioned by Matthew Paris in 1236 as playing his part with due solemnity as royal butler on the occasion of the banquet in honour of the marriage of the king with Eleanor of Provence. Some few years previously, probably in 1230, he founded at Wroxton a priory for canons regular of the order of St. Augustine, endowing it with the manors of Wroxton and Balescote. The grant was confirmed by a charter of Henry III. The priory or abbey, as it came to be called, continued in existence till the dissolution of religious houses in Henry VIII's reign. The property afterwards came into the family of the earls of Downe. The present tenant, the Baroness North, is a descendant of the lord keeper Guilford, who married a sister of the last earl of Downe. A few fragments of the original building are preserved in the existing structure, which was erected between 1600 and 1618 by the earl of Downe of that day.
J. M. R.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Bell, Andrew (1726-1809)

​BELL, ANDREW (1726–1809), engraver, was born in 1726, and began his professional career in the humble employment of engraving letters, names, and crests on plates and dog-collars. Though a very indifferent engraver, he rose to be the first in his line in Edinburgh. He engraved all the plates to illustrate his friend Smellie's translation of Buffon, which appeared in 1782. His success in life, however, is to be attributed rather to the result of a fortunate speculation than to his powers as an engraver. This was the publication of the 'Encyclopædia Britannica,' of which he was originally the half-proprietor, and to which he furnished the plates. The first edition of this book (the ninth edition of which is now in course of publication) was completed in 1771, and consisted only of 3 vols. quarto. The plan was Smellie's, and all the principal articles were written or compiled by him. On the death of Colin McFarquhar, an Edinburgh printer, in 1793, Bell became sole proprietor of the 'Encyclopædia.' By the sale of the third edition, which was completed in 1797 in 18 vols., and consisted of 10,000 copies, the sum of 42,000l. was realised. Though Bell did not enjoy a liberal education in his youth, yet by means of extensive reading and constant intercourse with men of letters he became remarkable for the extent of his information. In his personal appearance he was noticeable for his smallness of stature, the immense size of his nose, and the deformities of his legs. He bore these personal peculiarities, however, with philosophic equanimity, and they constantly formed the subject of his own jokes. He died at his house in Lauriston Lane, at the age of eighty-three, on 10 May 1809, leaving two daughters and a handsome fortune, which was mostly derived from the profits of the 'Encyclopædia.' A sketch of him, with his friend Smellie, by John Kay, the miniature painter of Edinburgh, will be found in vol. i. of 'The Original Portraits,' No. 86.
[Kay's Original Portraits and Caricature Etchings (1877), i. 13, 210; Kerr's Memoirs of the Life of William Smellie (1811); Encyclopædia Britannica (8th edit. 1860), pp. v-xxix.]
G. F. R. B.