OpenLLM-France/wikimedia huggingface dataset:
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Fraser, Simon (1738-1813)

​FRASER, SIMON (1738–1813), lieutenant-general, is described by Stewart as the son of a tacksman (Scottish Highlanders, ii. App. xxxi.). He was senior of the Simon Frasers serving as subalterns (not captain-lieutenant as stated by Stewart) in the 78th or Fraser highlanders, commanded by Simon Fraser (1726–1782), Master of Lovat [q. v.], in the campaigns in Canada under Wolfe, Murray, and Amherst in 1759–61. He was wounded at the battle of Sillery 28 April 1760. When the regiment was disbanded in 1763 he was placed on half-pay as a lieutenant. In 1775 he raised a company for the 71st or Fraser highlanders, then forming under the command of his old colonel, Fraser of Lovat. He became senior captain and afterwards major in this regiment, with which he ​served in America in the campaigns of 1778–1781. When the regiment was disbanded in 1783, he was again placed on half-pay. In 1793 he raised a highland regiment, which was numbered as 133rd foot, or Fraser highlanders, and which after a brief existence was broken up and drafted into other corps. He became a major-general in 1795, commanded a force of British troops stationed in Portugal in 1797–1800, became lieutenant-general in 1802, and was for some years lieutenant-general and second in command of the forces in North Britain. He died in Scotland 21 March 1813.
H. M. C.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Fraser, John (d.1849)

​FRASER or FRAZER, JOHN (d. 1849), poet, born at Birr, King's County, about 1809, was by occupation a cabinet-maker, but employed his leisure in literary studies. He wrote, under the nom de plume of J. de Dean, a considerable quantity of sentimental and patriotic verse of no great merit. He died at Dublin in 1849.
J. M. R.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Fraser, Robert William

1904 Errata appended.
​FRASER, ROBERT WILLIAM (1810–1876), Scotch divine and miscellaneous writer, son of Captain Robert Fraser, was born at Perth in 1810, and is said to have been educated at the Edinburgh University, though his name does not appear in the list of Edinburgh graduates published by the Bannatyne Club, 1858. He was, however, accustomed to append the letters A.M. to his name. He was licensed to preach by the Edinburgh presbytery in 1840, and in 1843 was presented to the parish of Burntisland, where he so greatly distinguished himself as a preacher that in 1844 he was chosen to succeed Dr. Thomas Guthrie as minister of St. John's Church, Edinburgh. Here his eloquence in the pulpit and his devotion to his pastoral duties attracted a large congregation, which he retained until his death on 10 Sept. 1876. Fraser was the author of the following works:
* ‘Moriah, or Sketches of the Sacred Rites of Ancient Israel,’ Edinburgh, 1849, 8vo.
* ‘Leaves from the Tree of Life. A Manual for the Intervals between the Hours of Divine Service in each Sabbath of the Year,’ Edinburgh, 1851, 2nd edit. 1852, 16mo.
* ‘The Path of Life. A Discourse delivered on the Anniversary of the Birthday of George Heriot,’ Edinburgh, 1851, 12mo.
* ‘Turkey, Ancient and Modern. A History of the Ottoman Empire. With Appendix,’ Edinburgh, 1854, 8vo.
* ‘Elements of Physical Science, or Natural Philosophy in the form of a Narrative,’ London, 1855, 12mo, 3rd edit. under the title of ‘The Handbook of Physical Science,’ London, 1866, 8vo.
* ‘The Kirk and the Manse. Sixty illustrative Views in tinted lithography of the interesting and romantic Parish Kirks and Manses in Scotland. With descriptive and historical Notices and an Introduction,’ Edinburgh, 1857, 4to.
* He edited ‘Ebb and Flow, the Curiosities and Marvels of the Seashore. A Book for young People,’ London, 1860, 8vo.
* ‘Head and Hand, or Thought and Action in relation to Success and Happiness,’ Edinburgh, 1861, 8vo.
* ‘Seaside Divinity,’ London, 1861, 8vo.
* ‘The Seaside Naturalist. Outdoor Studies in Marine Zoology and Botany, and Maritime Geology,’ London, 1868, 8vo.
* ‘Gladdening Streams, or Waters of the Sanctuary. A Book for Fragments of Time in each Lord's Day in the Year,’ Edinburgh, 1868, 24mo.
[Scotsman, 12 Sept. 1876; Brit. Mus. Cat.]
J. M. R.
Dictionary of National Biography, Errata (1904), p.130 N.B.— f.e. stands for from end and l.l. for last line
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# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Pell, Watkin Owen

​PELL, Sir WATKIN OWEN (1788–1869), admiral, son of Samuel Pell of Sywell Hall, Northamptonshire, and, on the mother's side, grandson of Owen Owen of Llaneyher, Denbighshire, entered the navy in April 1799 on board the Loire, and on 6 Feb. 1800 lost his left leg in the capture of the French frigate Pallas, supported by a battery on one of the Seven Islands (James, iii. 6). He was consequently discharged, and remained on shore for the next two years, at the end of which time he rejoined the Loire. After serving in various ships on the home and West Indian stations, he was promoted on 11 Nov. 1806 to be lieutenant of the Mercury frigate, then on the Newfoundland station, and afterwards in the Mediterranean, where, as first lieutenant in command of the Mercury's boats, he repeatedly distinguished himself in cutting out gunboats or small armed vessels on the coast of Spain or Italy, and on one occasion, on 1 April 1809, was severely wounded in the right arm (ib. v. 37). In August 1809 he was presented by the Patriotic Society with 80l. for the purchase of a sword, and on 29 March 1810 was promoted to the rank of commander. In the following October he was appointed to the Thunder bomb, and was during the next two years mainly employed in the defence of Cadiz. On 9 Oct. 1813, as he was returning to England to be paid off, he fell in with and, after a sharp engagement, captured the Neptune privateer, of much superior force, for which, and other good service, he was advanced to post rank on 1 Nov. 1813. From 1814 to 1817 he commanded the Menai frigate on the coast of North America. In May 1833 he commissioned the Forte, and in her acted as senior officer on the Jamaica station till March 1837. On his return to England he was knighted by the queen, and, in accordance with the intention of William IV, was nominated a K.C.H. by the king of Hanover. In 1840 he was appointed to the Howe, and in August 1841 to be superintendent of Deptford victualling yard, from which he was shortly after moved to be superintendent of Sheerness dockyard, and in December to be superintendent of Pembroke dockyard, where he remained till February 1845, when he was appointed a commissioner of Greenwich Hospital. He became a rear-admiral on 5 Sept. 1848, vice-admiral on 28 Dec. 1855, admiral on 11 Feb. 1861, and died on 29 Dec. 1869.
J. K. L.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Pellew, George

​PELLEW, GEORGE (1793–1866), theologian, third son of Edward Pellew, first viscount Exmouth [q. v.], was born at Flushing, Cornwall, in April 1793. He was educated at Eton from 1808 to 1811, and admitted as gentleman-commoner at Corpus Christi College, Oxford, on 20 March 1812, graduating B.A. 1815, M.A. 1818, and B.D. and D.D. in November 1828. In 1817 he was ordained in the English church, and in February 1819 he became, by the gift of the lord chancellor, vicar of Nazeing, Essex. In November 1820 he was advanced by the same patron to the vicarage of Sutton-in-the-Forest, or Sutton Galtries, Yorkshire. He subsequently was appointed seventh canon in Canterbury Cathedral (14 Nov. 1822 to 1828), rector of St. George-the-Martyr, Canterbury (1827–8), prebendary of Osbaldwick at York (15 Feb. 1824 to September 1828), prebendary of Wistow in the same cathedral (18 Sept. 1828 to 1852), rector of St. Dionis Backchurch, London (October 1828 to 1852), dean of Norwich 1828, and rector of Great Chart, Kent, 1852; and he held the last two preferments until his death. As dean of Norwich he had a seat in convocation, where he took a very active part in the debates, and threw in his influence with the moderate party. Pellew died at the rectory, Great Chart, on 13 Oct. 1866, and the east window of the church was afterwards filled with stained glass in his memory. He married, on 20 June 1820, Frances, second daughter of Henry Addington, prime minister and first viscount Sidmouth, and left issue one son and three daughters. The widow died at Speen Hill House, Newbury, Berkshire, on 27 Feb. 1870.
Pellew printed many sermons and tracts, the most important of which was a ‘Letter to Sir Robert Peel on the means of rendering Cathedral Churches most conducive to the Efficiency of the Established Church.’ Many of his sermons were included in two volumes printed in 1848, and entitled ‘Sermons on ​many of the leading Doctrines and Duties taught by the Church of England.’ In 1847 he published ‘The Life and Correspondence of Addington, first Viscount Sidmouth,’ his father-in-law. These volumes are of much value for the history of the first twenty years of the century, and are written with ‘good sense and unbiassed feeling.’
W. P. C.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Pellegrini, Carlo

​PELLEGRINI, CARLO (1839–1889), caricaturist, was born at Capua in Italy in March 1839. His father was a landed proprietor there, and on his mother's side he was descended from the house of Medici. He received a liberal education, and while still a youth led the fashion in Naples, and was courted and flattered by Neapolitan society, which he in return caricatured good-humouredly in thumbnail sketches. He was not long in dissipating the fortune his father left him, and on the outbreak of the Italian war of independence he became a volunteer in the ranks of Garibaldi, and fought with him at the Volturno and at Capua. An unfortunate love affair and the death of a sister were the causes of his leaving Italy and coming to England in November 1864. He never saw his native land again. His slender funds were soon exhausted, and he then began to turn to account his talent for humorous portraiture. It was in a very early number of ‘Vanity Fair’ (30 Jan. 1869) that there appeared his first published English caricature, a portrait of Lord Beaconsfield (then Mr. Disraeli). This bore the signature ‘Singe,’ which he soon discarded for that of ‘Ape.’ Mr. Gladstone, one of his best sketches, followed a week later, and was succeeded by several hundred portraits of statesmen and men of the day, drawn almost entirely from memory. He sought his subjects wherever they were to be found—at the club, in the theatre, on the racecourse, in church, and in the lobby of the House of Commons. He himself considered Baron Brunnow and Lord Stanley (afterwards Earl of Derby) to be the best of his cartoons; but those of General Gordon and Sir Anthony Panizzi were equally good. His statuette in red plaster of Robert Lowe (afterwards Lord Sherbrooke) [q. v.] standing on a matchbox, executed in Count Gleichen's studio in 1871, was very successful, and increased his reputation. He had at one time an ambition to excel in oils, but did little beyond painting portraits of Sir Edward Watkin, Sir Algernon Borthwick (Lord Glenesk), R. W. Macbeth, A.R.A., and other friends. He exhibited once at the Royal Academy, and occasionally at the Grosvenor Gallery.
Pellegrini, who was known among his intimate friends by the sobriquet of ‘Pelican,’ was of a gay and genial temperament. He died of lung-disease at 53 Mortimer Street, Cavendish Square, London, on 22 Jan. 1889, and was buried in St. Mary's Roman catholic cemetery at Kensal Green.
His portrait, by Arthur J. Marks, appeared as a cartoon in ‘Vanity Fair’ for 27 April 1889, and one by Dégas belonged to Louis Fagan, esq.
R. E. G.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Pellett, Thomas

​PELLETT, THOMAS, M.D. (1671?–1744), physician, was born in Sussex about 1671, and was admitted at Queens' College, Cambridge, on 8 June 1689. He graduated M.B. in 1694, and in 1695 went to Italy with Dr. Richard Mead [q. v.], and resided in the university of Padua. In 1705 he was created M.D. at Cambridge, and on 22 Dec. 1707 was admitted a candidate at the College of Physicians in London, where he began practice, and resided in Henrietta Street, Covent Garden; he was elected a fellow on 9 April 1716, was censor in 1717, 1720, and 1727, and president 1735–9. He delivered the Harveian oration on 19 Oct. 1719, and it was finely printed in quarto by S. Buckley of Amen Corner. It is remarkable as the only one of the published Harveian orations which is partly in verse, and the only one in which a knight of the Garter, John, second duke of ​Montagu [q. v.], a doctor of medicine of Cambridge, is congratulated on having become a fellow. The works of Linacre, Glisson, Wharton, and Harvey are well described, and the whole oration is both graceful and lively. Pellett edited Sir Isaac Newton's ‘Chronology of Ancient Kingdoms’ with Martin Folkes [q. v.] in 1728. He felt the difficulties of private practice keenly, and inclined to give his time chiefly to medical study and to general learning. He died in London on 4 July 1744, and was buried in St. Bride's Church, Fleet Street, where he is commemorated by an inscription on a brass plate. His portrait, painted by Dahl, hangs on the staircase of the College of Physicians, and was engraved by J. Faber (Bromley).
N. M.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Randall, John (1570-1622)

​RANDALL, JOHN (1570–1622), puritan divine, was born in 1570 at Great Missenden, Buckinghamshire, and sent when only eleven to St. Mary Hall, Oxford, where he matriculated on 27 Nov. 1581. He removed to Trinity College, and graduated B.A. on 9 Feb. 1585; was elected a fellow of Lincoln College on 6 July 1587, and proceeded M.A. on 9 July 1589. Among his pupils at Lincoln was the puritan Robert Bolton [q. v.] On the occasion of Queen Elizabeth's visit to Oxford, in August 1592, Randall was appointed to ‘frame and oversee the stage for the academical performance given’ in her honour. Afterwards Randall studied divinity, and was admitted B.D. on 28 June 1598. On 31 Jan. 1599 he was presented to the rectory of St. Andrew Hubbard, Little Eastcheap, London. There he made a reputation as a staunch puritan and effective preacher; but his health failed, and he died at his house in the Minories during May 1622. He was buried in St. Andrew Hubbard. By his will, signed 13 April, proved 9 June 1622, he bequeathed property to the poor of Great Missenden, All Hallows, Oxford, and St. Andrew's parishes; a tenement called Ship Hall to Lincoln College, Oxford, and other houses and moneys to his brothers Edward and Joshua, to his nephews, and to eight married sisters or their representatives. His wife and a daughter predeceased him. His portrait, painted when fellow of Lincoln College, hangs in the common room there.
In addition to separate sermons, issued posthumously by his friend William Holbrook, Randall left for publication ‘Three-and-Twenty Sermons or Catechisticall Lectures upon the Sacrament of the Lord's Supper, preached Monthly before the Communion,’ London, 1630, 4to; published by his executor, Joshua Randall.
C. F. S.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Randall, John (1715-1799)

​RANDALL, JOHN (1715–1799), organist, born in 1715, was a chorister of the Chapel Royal under Bernard Gates [q. v.] On 23 Feb. 1732 at Gates's house, Randall acted and sang the part of Esther in the dramatic representation of Handel's oratorio. In 1744 he graduated Mus. Bac. at Cambridge. In the following year he was appointed organist to King's College Chapel; in 1755 he succeeded Dr. Greene as professor of music in the university of Cambridge, and in 1756 he proceeded Mus. Doc. Assisted by his pupil, William Crotch, who joined him in 1786, Randall retained his appointments until his death at Cambridge on 18 March 1799. His wife predeceased him on 27 April 1792.
Randall set to music Gray's ‘Ode for the Installation of the Duke of Grafton as Chancellor of the University,’ 1768. He published ‘A Collection of Psalm and Hymn Tunes, some of which are new and others by permission of the authors, with six Chants and Te Deums, calculated for the use of congregations in general,’ Cambridge, 1794. Of these his six original tunes are said to be ‘Cambridge,’ ‘Trinity Church,’ ‘Garden,’ ‘Yelling,’ ‘King's,’ and ‘University,’ but Randall is best known by his two double chants (Grove). ‘The Hopeless Lover,’ London (1735?), and other songs are attributed to Randall.
L. M. M.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Randall, John (1755-1802)

​RANDALL, JOHN (1755–1802), shipbuilder, was son of John Randall, shipbuilder, of Rotherhithe. He received a liberal education, and on the death of his father, about 1776, successfully continued the shipbuilding business under his own management. He applied himself at the same time to the study of mathematics, in which, as well as in the principles and details of naval construction, he attained proficiency. In addition to the large number of ships which he built for the mercantile marine and for the East India Company, he built upwards of fifty for the government, including several 74-gun ships and large frigates—among them the Audacious, Ramillies, and Culloden, which were specially celebrated in the war of the French revolution. In the more theoretical part of his profession, he collected materials for a treatise on naval architecture, but on the publication of some French works he abandoned the design. He took a prominent part in founding the Society of Naval Architects. At the same time he maintained his youthful interest in literature and music.
During the revolutionary war shipwrights' wages had been largely increased, and when, with the peace, the pressure of work ceased, and Randall lowered them to the former standard, his men went out on strike. The admiralty permitted him to engage workmen from the Deptford dockyard, and offered to send a military force to protect them. Randall declined the offer, believing that his personal authority with the men on strike would be sufficient. But the Deptford men were forcibly prevented from working in his yard; and, in attempting to quell the riot, he was slightly wounded. His mortification at the action of his men, whom he had treated liberally, brought on a fever, of which he died, at his house in Great Cumberland Street, Hyde Park, on 23 Aug. 1802. He left a widow and family.
[Gent. Mag. 1802, ii. 879–80; European Mag. 1802, ii. 193.]
J. K. L.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Randall, William

​RANDALL, WILLIAM (fl. 1598), musician, is included by Meres in his list of England's ‘excellente musitians.’ He was in early life a chorister of Exeter Cathedral. In 1584 he entered the Chapel Royal as epistler. There he remained till 1603, when Edmund Hooper ‘was sworne the first of March in Mr. Randoll's roome.’ Of Randall's compositions there remain a good ‘In Nomine’ in the part-books of the Oxford Music School, and an anthem in six parts, ‘Give sentence with me,’ in Brit. Mus. Addit. MSS. 17792–6, f. 144 b. A word-book of anthems (Harl. MS. 6346), written just after the Restoration and probably intended for the Chapel Royal, contains the words of two verse-anthems by Randall, ‘If the Lord Himself’ and ‘O Father deare,’ the latter in metre. The music of neither of these is known to exist; and as none of Randall's works appeared in Barnard's ‘Selected Church Musick’ (1641), it is probable that his title to rank, as Meres puts it, among ‘excellente musitians’ rested more upon his powers as an executant than as a composer. Among the vicars-choral of Exeter in 1634 was a G. Randall, probably of the same family.
[Cheque-Book of the Chapel Royal, in Camden Society's Publications; Hist. MSS. Comm. 4th Rep. p. 137; Meres's Palladis Tamia, f. 288 b, manuscripts quoted.]
H. D.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Randolph, Charles

​RANDOLPH, CHARLES (1809–1878), marine engineer, son of Charles Randolph, bookseller and printer in Stirling, and author of a history of that city, was born there on 21 June 1809. He was first educated at the high school of Stirling, and subsequently at the high school and university of Glasgow. On showing a liking for mechanical engineering, he was apprenticed to Robert Napier (1791–1876) [q. v.] at Camlachie. He afterwards went to Manchester, where he worked in the leading millwright firms of Ormerod and Fairbairn & Lillie. In 1834 he returned to Glasgow, where he started business as an engineer and millwright. He was noted for his energy and ability, and was at once successful. From 1839 to 1842 he was joined in partnership by John Elliot, who died in the latter year. In 1852 he was joined by John Elder, the name of the firm becoming Randolph, Elder, & Co. Thenceforth Randolph turned his attention from millwright engineering to the manufacture of compound engines adapted to the propulsion of screw steamers. In 1858 the firm began shipbuilding on their own account, and 106 vessels had been built before 1886, together with 111 sets of marine engines, and three floating docks, one of which, at Saigon, was large enough to float the Gloire, then the largest ironclad in the French navy. Randolph retired in 1868. The firm was afterwards converted into the well-known Fairfield Shipbuilding Company, builders of the fast Atlantic liners.
On retiring from business, Randolph turned his attention by speech and pamphlet to the sewage question, the extension of Glasgow harbour, and the improvement of the Clyde navigation. He entered the Clyde trust, where he did yeoman service, was a director of the Glasgow and South-Western Railway, and also of the British and African Steam Navigation Company, and chairman of the British Dynamite Company, now Nobel's Explosives Company. He also devoted some of his leisure to the construction of a steam-engine for a family carriage, which was a familiar object in the Glasgow streets. Randolph died on 11 Nov. 1878, survived by his wife, Margaret Sainte-Pierre, who died on 19 Aug. 1894. He bequeathed to the university of Glasgow 60,000l., as well as the residue of his means and estate on the death of his widow. The Randolph Hall in the university was erected with a portion of the funds.
[Engineering, 22 Nov. 1878; One Hundred Glasgow Men, vol. ii (with portrait); Irving's Eminent Scotsmen.]
G. S-h.