OpenLLM-France/wikimedia huggingface dataset:
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Dunlop, Alexander (1684-1747)

​DUNLOP, ALEXANDER (1684–1747), Greek scholar, eldest son of William Dunlop [q. v.], principal of Glasgow University, born in Carolina in 1684, was appointed professor of Greek in the university of Glasgow about 1706. He published in 1736 a Greek grammar, which for many years was in general use in Scottish schools. In consequence of failing sight he resigned his chair in 1742 on the terms that his salary and house should be secured to him during life. His successor, Dr. James Moor, was appointed on 9 July 1742. Dunlop died on 27 April 1747.
[Glasgow Journal, 27 April 1747; Notices and Documents illustrative of the Literary History of Glasgow (Maitland Club), p. 128.]
J. M. R.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Dunlop, Frances Anne Walker

​DUNLOP, FRANCES ANNE WALKER (1730–1815), of Dunlop, friend of Robert Burns, descended from a brother of William Wallace, the Scottish patriot, was the last surviving daughter of Sir Thomas Wallace of Craigie, by his wife Eleonora Agnew, daughter of Colonel Agnew of Lochryan. She was born on 16 April 1730. Her only brother died before her father, and on her father's death in 1760 she inherited the property. Previous to this she had, at the age of seventeen, become the wife of Mr. John Dunlop of Dunlop, Ayrshire. She made the acquaintance of Burns in the winter of 1786, shortly after the publication of his first Kilmarnock volume. Having read the ‘Cottar's Saturday Night’ in a friend's copy while recovering from a severe illness, she was so delighted with it that she immediately sent off a messenger to Mossgiel, fifteen or sixteen miles distant, for half a dozen copies, and with a friendly invitation for Burns to call at Dunlop House. Her relationship to Wallace was also mentioned, and Burns in his reply warmly expressed his gratification at her noticing his attempts to celebrate her illustrious ancestor. From this time they became fast friends and frequent correspondents, Burns's letters to her being often on the more serious themes. He was also in the habit of enclosing poems to her, among the more remarkable sent her being ‘Auld Lang Syne,’ ‘Gae fetch to me a pint of wine,’ and ‘Farewell, thou fair day.’ In his last years she deserted him, and he sent her several letters without ever receiving any explanation. In his last written to her, 12 July 1796, he says that having written so often without obtaining an answer, he would not have written her again but for the fact that he would soon be ‘beyond that bourne whence no traveller returns.’ When Currie proposed to write the ‘Life of Burns,’ Mrs. Dunlop refused to permit her letters to Burns to see the light, but agreed to give a letter of Burns for every one of hers returned. As Burns wrote several to her without obtaining an answer, these were not recovered. She died on 24 May 1815. She had seven sons and six daughters. Burns, in her honour, named his second son Francis Wallace.
T. F. H.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Dunkarton, Robert

​DUNKARTON, ROBERT (fl. 1770–1811), mezzotint engraver, born in London in 1744, was a pupil of Pether. He practised as a portrait-painter at first, but discontinued exhibiting after 1779. In 1762 he was awarded a premium by the Society of Arts. His works in mezzotint bear dates from 1770 to 1811. He scraped over forty portraits, among which were: Henry Addington, after Copley; William, lord Amherst, after Devis; Sarah and Jeffery Amherst, after Robert Fagan; Elizabeth Billington, after Downman; Anne Catley, after Lawranson; James, earl of Fife, after Devis; James, lord Lifford, after Reynolds; Lady Philadelphia Wharton, after A. Vandyck, &c. To these should be added numerous plates, published in 1810–15, in Woodburn's ‘One Hundred Portraits of Illustrious Characters,’ and, in 1816, ‘Fifteen Portraits of Royal Personages.’ Other portraits were sold at Richardson's sale, 22 April 1814, as portraits to illustrate Clarendon and Burnet.
[Smith's British Mezzotinto Portraits, pt. i. p. 221.]
L. F.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Brerewood, Thomas

​BREREWOOD, THOMAS (d. 1748), poetical writer, was son of Thomas Brerewood of Horton, Cheshire, and grandson of Sir Robert Brerewood [q. v.], justice of the court of common pleas. He led the life of a country gentleman at Horton, and died in 1748. Some pieces of poetry by him were printed in the earlier numbers of the 'Gentleman's Magazine;' after his death there appeared a work by him in rhymed verse of little merit (with a eulogistic preface by an anonymous editor), entitled 'Galfred and Juetta, or the Road of Nature, a Tale in three cantos,' London, 1772, 4to, pp. 56.
[Gent. Mag. vii. 760, xiv. 46, xvi. 157, 265, xxiv. 428, lxi. 714; Universal Catalogue for 1772, art. 78; Lipscomb's Buckinghamshire, iv. 511.]
T. C.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Brereton, Thomas (1691-1722)

​BRERETON, THOMAS (1691–1722), dramatist, was descended from a younger branch of the noble family of Brereton in Cheshire, his father being Major Thomas Brereton of the queen's dragoons. He was born in 1691, and after attending the free school of Chester, and a boarding school in the same city, kept by a Mr. Dennis, a French refugee, he matriculated at Brasenose College, Oxford, 16 April 1709, proceeding B.A. 14 Oct. 1712. His father died before he reached his majority, leaving him a considerable fortune, which, however, he soon dissipated, his wife and family being compelled by destitution to retire to their relations in Wales in 1721. The same year he received from the government a small office connected with the customs at Chester. In connection with the election of a relative as member of parliament for Liverpool he wrote a libellous attack on the rival candidate, and to escape prosecution was advised to abscond. To baffle pursuit he determined to cross the Saltney when the tide was coming in. In the middle of the stream he quitted his horse, resolving to trust to his remarkable powers as a swimmer, but he was unable to reach the shore. His death took place in February 1722. Brereton was the author of two tragedies, or rather English adaptations of French plays, but they were never acted and do not possess much merit. They are:
* 'Esther, or Faith Triumphant, a sacred Tragedy in Rhyme, with a chorus after the manner of the ancient Greeks; translated with improvements from Racine,' 1715; and
* 'Sir John Oldcastle, or Love and Zeal, a Tragedy,' 1717, founded on the 'Polyeucte' of Corneille. To 'Esther' he prefixed a 'large dedication to the Lord Archbishop of York, in defence of such compositions against the rants of Tertullian and Mr. Collier.' He also published 'A Day's Journey from the Vale of Evesham to Oxford, to which are added two Town Eclogues,' no date; 'An English Psalm … on the late Thanksgiving Day,' 1716; 'George, a poem, humbly inscribed to the Right Honourable the Earl of Warrington,' 1715; and 'Charnock Junior, or the Coronation, being a Parody on Mack Flecknoe, occasioned by Dr. S——l's late exploit at St. Andrews,' 1719. This had been published in 1710, badly printed and without the author's knowledge. It is a burlesque on Dr. Sacheverell's progress after his trial.
He married Jane (b. 1685), daughter of Thomas Hughes of Bryn Griffith, Mold, Flintshire, on 29 Jan. 1711. Two daughters survived him. His wife died at Wrexham on 7 Aug. 1740. She wrote a good deal of verse in the 'Gentleman's Magazine' and elsewhere, which was collected after her death and published, together with some of her letters (1744).
[Rawlinson MSS. 4to, i. 379; Jacob's Poetical Register (ed. 1723), i. 283; Biogr. Dramatica (ed. Baker), i. 63-4; Brit. Mus. Catalogue; Mrs. Jane Brereton's Poems.]
T. F. H.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Brerewood, Robert

1904 Errata appended.
​BREREWOOD, Sir ROBERT (1588–1654), judge, belonged to a family of respectable citizens of Chester, who had held municipal office. His grandfather, Robert, is called a wet-glover by trade, and was once sheriff, in 1566, and thrice mayor, in 1584, 1587, and 1600, in which last year he died in office. His father, John, the eldest son of Robert the elder, was sheriff of Chester, and his uncle Edward [q. v.] was a scholar of eminence, the first Gresham professor of astronomy. Two of Edward Brerewood's treatises were published by his nephew in 1614, on the author's death. Robert Brerewood was born in Chester in 1588. In 1605, at the age of seventeen, he was sent to Oxford, and matriculated at Brasenose College, and two years later was admitted a member of the Middle Temple. Probably he was his uncle's heir, for in dedicating one of Edward Brerewood's posthumous works to the archbishop of Canterbury, he says of him, 'Succeeding him in his temporall blessings I doe endevour to succede him in his virtues.' He was called to the bar on 13 Nov. 1615, and continued to practise for two-and-twenty years. He also turned his attention to literature, and published some of the works of his uncle Edward. In 1637 he was appointed a judge of North Wales, probably through the local influence of his family, as he had constantly maintained his connection with Cheshire, and in 1639 he was elected recorder of his native town. He had been appointed reader at the Middle Temple in Lent term 1638, and in 1640 was raised to the degree of serjeant-at-law. In Hilary term 1641 he was appointed king's serjeant, was knighted in 1643, and raised to the bench about a month after, on 31 Jan. 1644. The king being then at Oxford, he was sworn in there. Though he continued to sit until the end of the civil war, he never sat in Westminster Hall, and after the execution of Charles I he retired into private life. He died on 8 Sept. 1654, and was buried in St. Mary's Church, Chester. He was twice married: first to Anna, daughter of Sir Randle Mainwaring of Over Peover, Cheshire, and second to Katherine, daughter of Sir Richard Lea of Lea and Dernhall, Cheshire, and had several children by each of his wives.
[Foss's Lives of the Judges; Dugdale's Orig. 220; Wood's Athenæ (Bliss), ii. 139-40; Gent. Mag. lxi. 714; Books of the Middle Temple; The Vale Royal of England (Smith and Webb), p. 85; Ormerod's Cheshire, i. 181, 182; Archaeologia (Soc. Antiquaries), i. xx n.]
J. A. H.
Dictionary of National Biography, Errata (1904), p.36 N.B.— f.e. stands for from end and l.l. for last line
| Page | Col. | Line | |
| 274 | i | 15 f.e. | Brerewood, Sir Robert: after law insert He was M.P. in the same year for Chester in the short parliament |
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Hollings, John

​HOLLINGS, JOHN M.D. (1683?–1739), physician, born about 1683, was the son of John Hollings, M.D., of Shrewsbury, and formerly fellow of Magdalene College, Cambridge. After attending Shrewsbury grammar school, he entered Magdalene College as a pensioner on 27 March 1700, and proceeded M.B. in 1705 and M.D. in 1710 (College Register). He was admitted a candidate of the Royal College of Physicians on 25 June 1725, and a fellow on 25 June 1726, having on 16 March previously been elected F.R.S. (Thomson, Hist. of Roy. Soc. Append. iv. p. xxxvii). He rose to be physician-general to the army and physician in ordinary to the king. He died in Pall Mall on 10 May 1739 (Probate Act Book, P. C. C., 1739; Gent. Mag. ix. 272). By his wife Jane he had a son, John Hollings, M.D., who died on 28 Dec. 1739 (Gent. Mag. ix. 661), and two daughters, Mrs. Champernowne and Margaret (will in P. C. C. 106, Henchman). Hollings's reputation for classical scholarship and general culture was considerable. His only publication was the Harveian oration for 1734, entitled ‘Status Humanæ Naturæ expositus in Oratione coram Medicis Londinensibus habita,’ 4to, London, 1734, of which an English translation appeared the same year.
[Munk's Coll. of Phys. 1878, ii. 94.]
G. G.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Holles, William

​HOLLES or HOLLIS, Sir WILLIAM (1471?–1542), lord mayor of London, was a son of William Holles, citizen and baker of London. He was admitted to the freedom of the Mercers' Company on 17 Sept. 1499, and became master of the company in 1538. He was elected sheriff of London in 1527, being chosen by the commonalty of the city, his colleague having been nominated by the lord mayor. On 31 March 1528 he was elected alderman of Aldgate ward, from which he was translated to Broad Street on 27 Aug. 1534. He was knighted by Henry VIII in 1533, and became lord mayor on St. Edward's day, 13 Oct. 1539. During his mayoralty he caused the moor ditch to be cleansed (Stow, Survey of London, 1598, p. 18). On 3 Jan. 1539–40 he received in great state Anne of Cleves, on her way through the city, before her marriage with Henry VIII (Baker, Chronicle, 1643, Henry VIII, p. 50). On 4 Feb. Holles and the aldermen accompanied the king and queen by water to Westminster (cf. Hall, Chronicle, 1809, p. 837). Holles was a wealthy merchant, and besides his house in Bishopsgate Street, somewhat west of Sir Thomas Gresham's dwelling, where he kept his mayoralty, and another in the parish of St. Mary-le-Bow, was possessed of several manors in Derbyshire, Nottinghamshire, and other counties (Brit. Mus. Add. 6118, pp. 486–488, Inq. p. m.) He also was the owner of Clement's Inn in the Strand (Hatton, New View of London, 1708, p. 646). He died at his house in London on 13 Oct. 1542, and was buried in St. Helen's, Bishopsgate, where a monument formerly stood to his memory in the middle of the north aisle. By his will, dated 25 Dec. 1541, and proved in P. C. C. 18 Dec. 1542 (Spert, 14), he bequeathed 200l. to the mayor and aldermen of Coventry to make a new cross for that city, and other bequests to the Company of Mercers and the church of St. Helen's.
Holles married Elizabeth, daughter of John Scopeham, by whom he had three sons, Thomas, William, and Francis, and two daughters, Anna and Joanna. By his second son, William, he became the ancestor of the earls of Clare and the dukes of Newcastle. Lady Holles died on 13 March 1543, and was buried in St. Helen's. By her will she endowed six almshouses for that parish, leaving the care of their erection to her executor, Sir Andrew Judd.
[Cox's Annals of St. Helen's, Bishopsgate, 1876, pp. 234–40, 249, 250 n.; Stow's Survey of London; Corporation Records; Orridge's Citizens of London and their Rulers.]
C. W-h.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Hollins, John

​HOLLINS, JOHN (1798–1855), painter and associate of the Royal Academy, born in Birmingham, 1 June 1798, was the son of a painter in that town. He showed an early devotion to art, and in 1819 sent two portraits to the exhibition of the Royal Academy, and three more in 1821. In 1822 he removed to London. From 1825 to 1827 he was in Italy. On his return he resumed practice ​in London, and became a frequent exhibitor at the Royal Academy and the British Institution. Besides portraits he painted numerous historical subjects from the works of Shakespeare, Goethe, and other writers. Later in life he applied himself to landscapes and figure subjects. He was successful in his colour and grouping, and his portraits were considered good likenesses. In 1842 he was elected an associate of the Royal Academy. Hollins painted a picture (engraved by J. H. Robinson) called ‘A Consultation previous to an Aerial Voyage from London to Weilburg in Nassau on November 7th, 1836,’ in which he introduced portraits of Messrs. W. Prideaux, W. M. James, T. Monck Mason, Charles Green, the aeronaut, Robert Hollond, M.P. for Hastings from 1837 to 1852, and himself. In 1854 he painted and exhibited (in conjunction with F. R. Lee, R.A.) a picture called ‘Salmon Fishing on the Awe,’ in which he introduced portraits of several noted persons at the time. In the National Portrait Gallery there is a portrait of Lord Tenterden, copied by Hollins from a portrait by W. Owen. Hollins died unmarried in Berners Street, 7 March 1855. William and Peter Hollins [see under Hollins, William] were his cousins.
[Redgrave's Dict. of Artists; Ottley's Dict. of Painters; Royal Academy Catalogues.]
L. C.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Hollins, William

​HOLLINS, WILLIAM (1754–1843), architect and sculptor, born in 1754, settled early in life at Birmingham. He was self-educated, and his own instructor in art. A close study of Vitruvius led him to practise architecture. He had a strong predilection for the simple classical style. As an architect he obtained much employment in Birmingham, and designed the older portion of the library, the public offices, and the prison. He also restored Handsworth parish church, and executed considerable alterations and additions to the Earl of Shrewsbury's house at Alton Towers. He declined an offer to enter the service of the empress of Russia at St. Petersburg, but made the plans for the royal mint in that city. Hollins was also distinguished as a sculptor, and exhibited some busts and other works at the Royal Academy. He executed many mural monuments. He devoted several years' study to a code of systematic rules for the formation of the capital letters in the Roman alphabet, based on mathematical rules. These he embodied in a work entitled ‘The British Standard of the Capital Letters contained in the Roman Alphabet.’ Hollins died at his house in Great Hampton Street, Birmingham, in 1843, in his ninetieth year. He left a daughter, Mrs. Bown, who died in January 1891.
Hollins, Peter (1800–1886), sculptor, elder son of the above, born in 1800 in his father's house in Birmingham, received his education as a sculptor from his father, and took lessons in drawing from John Vincent Barber [see under Barber, Joseph]. He assisted his father in many of his works, including those at Alton Towers. He worked for a short time in Chantrey's studio. About 1828 Hollins removed to London, and settled in Old Bond Street. He obtained many commissions, and his work was much admired. At the Royal Academy he frequently exhibited busts, allegorical groups, and historical subjects. On the death of his father he returned to Birmingham, and restored the tower front of St. Philip's Church there in his father's memory. He executed many important works for the town, including the statues of Sir Robert Peel and Sir Rowland Hill, and the busts of David Cox, Recorder Hill, and William Scholefield in the Art Gallery. There are fine monuments executed by him in Malvern Priory Church, Lichfield Cathedral, and Weston Church, Shropshire. Hollins was a devoted friend and member of the Society of Artists in Birmingham through all its vicissitudes, and was one of its vice-presidents. He died in Great Hampton Street, Birmingham, on 16 Aug. 1886. Hollins was well known and universally popular in Birmingham. A portrait of him by W. T. Roden was purchased by subscription and placed in the Art Gallery.
[Art Union, 1843, p. 17; Redgrave's Dict. of Artists; Birmingham Daily Post, 18 Aug. 1886; Royal Academy Catalogues; information from Mr. Charles Radclyffe.]
L. C.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Hollings, Edmund

​HOLLINGS, EDMUND, M.D. (1556?–1612), physician, born in Yorkshire in or about 1556, matriculated at Queen's College, Oxford, in 1573, when he was aged 17, and was admitted B.A. on 7 Feb. 1574–5 (Oxf. Univ. Reg., Oxf. Hist. Soc., II. ii. 56, iii. 49). Renouncing protestantism, he withdrew to France, and was, 14 May 1579, received into the English College of Douay, then temporarily removed to Rheims. On 21 Aug. of the same year he left the college to proceed on foot to Rome, in company with five other students, who were admitted into the English College there in the following October. Hollings, however, does not appear to have become a member of the college, though he certainly resided there for several years, and became an intimate friend of Pits the biographer. An English spy, in his report to the government, stated that Hollings was one of the pope's scholars in the college in 1581 (Records of the English Catholics, i. 358). From Rome he proceeded to Ingolstadt in Bavaria, when he was created M.D. and appointed professor of medicine. He was ‘highly venerated for his great knowledge, and the success he obtained in that faculty’ (Wood, Athenæ Oxon. ed. Bliss, ii. 114). He died at Ingolstadt on 26 March 1612.
His works, all of which were printed at Ingolstadt, are:
* ‘De Chylosi Disputatio,’ 1592, 8vo.
* ‘De Salubri Studiosorum Victu,’ 1602, 8vo.
* ‘Theses de Medicina.’
* ‘Poemata Varia,’ 8vo.
* ‘Orationes et Epistolæ,’ 8vo.
* ‘Medicamentorum Œconomia nova, seu Nova Medicamentorum in classes distribuendor. ratio,’ 1610 and 1615, 8vo.
* ‘Ad Epistolam quandam à Martino Rulando, Medico Cæsario, de Lapide Bezoar; et Fomite Luis Ungariæ,’ 1611, 8vo.
[Pits, De Angl. Script. p. 815; Dodd's Church Hist. ii. 430; Gillow's Dict. Engl. Cath.; Records of the English Catholics, i. 153, 155.]
T. C.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Holliday, John

​HOLLIDAY, JOHN (1730?–1801), author, was admitted a student of Lincoln's Inn on 5 May 1759 and was called to the bar on 23 April 1771. He had an extensive practice as a conveyancer, was a fellow of the Royal Society, and an active member of the Society of Arts. Holliday died at his house in Great Ormonde Street, London, on ​9 March 1801, aged 71. A fine portrait of him, by Romney, is in the possession of Lord Churston at Lupton House, Brixham. Holliday married the daughter of Mr. Harrison of Dilhorne Hall, Staffordshire, an attorney-at-law, by whom he had an only child Eliza Lydia, who married on 2 June 1791 Francis Buller-Yarde, M.P. for Totnes, afterwards Sir Francis Buller-Yarde, bart., and died on 1 Nov. 1851, aged 77. Holliday is said to have left in manuscript a translation of the first eight books of Virgil in hexameter verse, and a valuable collection of conveyancing precedents. He was the author of the slight memoir of Owen Salusbury Brereton [q. v.], which appeared in the 19th vol. of the ‘Transactions of the Society of Arts’ (pp. iv–vii), and of some lines on a ‘Favourite Norfolk Bantam’ in the ‘Gentleman's Magazine’ for 1800 (vol. lxx. pt. ii. pp. 1081–2). He also published:
* ‘The Life of Lord Mansfield,’ London, 1797, 4to.
* ‘Monody on the Death of a Friend’ [Thomas Gilbert of Cotton, Staffordshire, M.P.], anon., 1798.
* ‘The British Oak, a Poem, dedicated to Horatio, Lord Nelson, in grateful remembrance of his Lordship's signal Victory near the mouth of the Nile,’ anon., London, 1800, 4to.
[Nichols's Lit. Anecdotes, ix. 194–5, 203–4, 235; Gent. Mag. 1791 pt. i. p. 582, 1801 pt. i. pp. 283–4, 1851 pt. ii. 670; Foster's Peerage, 1883, s.n. Churston, p. 154; Lincoln's Inn Registers; Brit. Mus. Cat.]
G. F. R. B.