OpenLLM-France/wikimedia huggingface dataset:
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Horsford, Alfred Hastings

​HORSFORD, Sir ALFRED HASTINGS (1818–1885), general, son of General George Horsford, a distinguished West India officer, once lieutenant-governor of Bermuda, who died at Paris, 28 April 1840 (Gent. Mag. 1840, pt. ii. p. 430), was born at Bath in 1818, and was educated at the Royal Military College, Sandhurst. He was appointed a second-lieutenant in the rifle brigade, 12 July 1833. His subsequent military commissions were: first lieutenant 23 April 1839, captain 5 Aug. 1842, major 26 Dec. 1851, lieutenant-colonel 28 May 1853 (all in the rifle brigade), brevet-colonel 28 Nov. 1854, major-general 1 Jan. 1868, lieutenant-general 1874, and general 1 Oct. 1877. He served with the 1st battalion rifle brigade in the Kaffir war of 1847–8; returned to the Cape with the battalion as major in 1851; and commanded the battalion in the Kaffir war of 1852–3 (medal). He accompanied the battalion to the East in 1853, and served with it in Bulgaria and the Crimea, including the battles of the Alma, Inkerman, and Balaklava, and the early part of the siege of Sebastopol (C.B., knight of the Legion of Honour, British and Turkish Crimean and Sardinian medals). He was appointed one of the lieutenant-colonels of the 3rd battalion rifle brigade when formed at Portsmouth in 1855, and took a wing of the battalion out to Calcutta, where it landed in October 1857. Horsford commanded the battalion which formed part of Walpole's brigade at the battle of Cawnpore and in the advance on Lucknow. He commanded a brigade from February 1858 at the siege of Lucknow and in the operations in Oude and the Trans-Gogra. When Lord Clyde returned to Lucknow after the final defeat of the rebels at the Raptee, 30 Dec. 1858, Horsford's brigade was left to watch the Nepaul frontier at the point where the Raptee debouches from the mountains. He returned home soon afterwards; was deputy-adjutant-general at the horse guards 1860–6, brigadier-general at Aldershot 1866–9, major-general on the staff at Malta 1870–2, major-general commanding the south-eastern district 1872–4, and military secretary at the horse guards 1874–80. In 1874 he was sent ​to represent Great Britain at the international conference on the usages of war, held at Brussels. Horsford was made a K.C.B. in 1860, and G.C.B. in 1875. He was a special commissioner of Chelsea Hospital, and successively colonel of the 79th Cameron highlanders, the 14th foot, and colonel-commandant 2nd battalion rifle brigade. He died at Munlochy, near Inverness, 13 Sept. 1885.
[Hart's Army Lists; the Rev. Sir W. Cope's Hist. of the Rifle Brigade; Illustr. London News, 31 Oct. 1885 (will).]
H. M. C.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Horsfield, Thomas Walker

​HORSFIELD, THOMAS WALKER (d. 1837), topographer, was for some years minister of a dissenting congregation meeting at the Westgate Chapel at Lewes, Sussex, and more popularly known as the ‘Bull Meeting.’ He also took pupils. Horsfield compiled for John Baxter (1781–1858) [q. v.] ‘The History and Antiquities of Lewes and its vicinity … with an Appendix containing an Essay on the Natural History of the District by Gideon Mantell’ (with plates and a supplement), two vols. 4to, Lewes, 1824–7. This was followed by a more important undertaking, ‘The History and Antiquities and Topography of the County of Sussex,’ two vols. 4to, Lewes, 1835. In the compilation of the first volume, which contains East Sussex, Horsfield was assisted by William Durrant Cooper [q. v.]; the second volume, on West Sussex, is mainly an abridgment of the histories of Dallaway and Cartwright. In 1835 Horsfield was appointed to succeed Benjamin Rigby Davis as presbyterian minister at Chowbent, Lancashire, where he died on 26 Aug. 1837, leaving a widow and eight children (Gent. Mag. 1838, pt. i. 102). He was elected F.S.A. in 1826.
[Lower's Worthies of Sussex, p. 331.]
G. G.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Horsfield, Thomas (1773-1859)

​HORSFIELD, THOMAS (1773–1859), naturalist, was born at Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, United States, on 12 May 1773. His parents were Moravians, and he remained ​throughout life a member of that religious body. He studied medicine at the Pennsylvania Hospital, where he graduated doctor of medicine in May 1798, his thesis being ‘An Experimental Dissertation on the Rhus vernix, Rhus radicans, and Rhus glabrum,’ Philadelphia, 8vo. The following year he left America, went to Java, and took service under the Dutch government there and at Sumatra. When the English took temporary possession of the Malayan colonies of the Dutch in 1811, he permanently transferred his services to the British flag, and was despatched by Sir Stamford Raffles to the smaller island of Banca to investigate its natural history. A most valuable report followed. Horsfield left the East Indies in 1819, after nearly twenty years' service. In 1820 he was appointed keeper of the museum of the East India Company in Leadenhall Street, and held the post until his death. He died on 24 July 1859.
His name is botanically commemorated by the Horsfieldia of the Dutch botanist Blume. Besides numerous papers on scientific subjects, he published:
* ‘Descriptive Catalogue of Lepidoptera in the H.E.I.C. Museum,’ 2 pts. 1828–9, 4to.
* ‘Zoological Researches,’ 1821, 4to.
* ‘Plantæ Javanicæ rariores, quæ in insula Java 1802–18 collegit T. Horsfield; Descriptiones elaboravit J. J. Bennett, observationes adjecit R. Brown,’ fol., London, 1838–52, with fifty coloured plates.
* Catalogues of the mammals, birds, and lepidoptera in the museum under his charge between 1851 and 1854.
With Sir William Jardine he brought out ‘Illustrations of Ornithology’ in 1830, 4to, and a collection of annulosa brought by him from Java was described by W. S. Macleay in 1815.
[Proc. Linn. Soc. 1859–60, pp. 25–6; Introd. Plantæ Jav. rar.]
B. D. J.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/MacPhail, James

​MACPHAIL, JAMES (fl. 1786–1805), gardener, the son of a highland peasant, was born in Aberdeenshire in 1754. In his seventeenth year he obtained employment as a farm labourer. 'I ate and drank,' he says, 'at the same table as my master and mistress, for I was the only servant or labourer they kept' (Hints and Observations on the Improvement of Agriculture, 1794). His wages were 23s. 4d. for the half-year. After suffering many hardships as a farm labourer in Scotland, he migrated to England and became in January 1785 gardener to Lord Hawkesbury (afterwards second earl of Liverpool), at Addiscombe Place, near Croydon, where he remained twenty years. He invented a new method of growing cucumbers, and achieved great success in growing pines and melons.
MacPhail's chief works were: 1. 'A Treatise on the Culture of the Cucumber, &c., to which are added Hints and Observations on the Improvement of Agriculture,' London, 1794, 8vo. With the exception of some remarks on highland farming based upon MacPhail's early experiences, the 'Hints and Observations' consist of paragraphs reprinted verbatim, and without acknowledgment, from Adam Smith's 'Wealth of Nations' and Arthur Young's 'Tours,' and agricultural reports. They were reprinted separately in 1795. 2. 'Remarks on the Present Times,.. &c, being an Introduction to Hints and Observations,' &c, 1795, in which he met the accusation that had been made against him, 'and that, too, to no less a man than the. secretary of state,' of holding democratic principles. 3. 'The Gardener's Remembrancer, exhibiting the various Natures of Earth and Degrees of Climate best adapted for the Growth of Trees and . . . Fruits,' &c, London, 1803, 8vo; reprinted 1807; 2nd edit., improved, London, 1819, 12mo.
W. A. S. H.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Macarius

The ODNB gives no firm evidence of his existence.
​MACARIUS, called Scotus (d. 1153), abbot, is said to have migrated from Scotland to Germany in 1139, and to have in that year been appointed the first abbot of the Benedictine monastery of St. James, which had just been built in a suburb of Würzburg by Bishop Embrich. He is described as eminently holy, given to asceticism, constant in prayer, and both in life and after death a great worker of miracles. His most famous miracle, the turning of water into wine, was recorded on his tomb in his abbey church. It is said to have caused Bishop Embrich to make over a prebend in his cathedral to the Scottish monks of St. James's, and the prebend remained attached to the monastery until the sixteenth century. Macarius visited Rome, and was honourably received by the pope. He died in 1153. He wrote a book, ‘De Laude Martyrum’ (Eysengrein). Dempster, followed by Tanner, also ascribes to him ‘De Scotorum in Germania Monasteriis,’ and ‘Epistolæ ad Eugenium III papam.’
[Eysengrein's Catalogus Testium, ff. 95 b, 96; Tritheim's Ann. Hersaugienses, i. 400, 425; Dempster's Hist. Eccl. Gentis Scotorum, vol. xii. sec. 828 (Bannatyne Club edit. ii. 446).]
W. H.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Macalister, Arthur

​MACALISTER, ARTHUR (1818–1883), Australian politician, born in Glasgow in 1818, was brought up to the profession of a solicitor. He emigrated to Australia in 1850, and settled down to practice in Ipswich. But he soon found a congenial field in local politics. He supported the project for the separation of Queensland from New South Wales, and when the separation was effected, he took his seat for Ipswich on 10 May 1860 in the first parliament of the new colony, and at once became chairman of committees and one of the most prominent public men in the colony.
In the second Queensland parliament, in the government of which Mr. (now Sir Robert) Herbert, afterwards permanent under-secretary of state for the colonies, was the head, Macalister took office on 21 March 1862 as secretary for lands and works; and on 1 Feb. 1866, when Mr. Herbert left office, he became premier, still holding the same portfolio. On 20 July of the same year he resigned, on the refusal of the governor to assent to his scheme for the issue of legal tender notes. The difficulty was soon adjusted, and on 7 Aug. he returned as premier and colonial secretary, remaining in power for another year. During the session of 1868 he was chairman of committees in the assembly, and from 28 Jan. 1869, when the Lilley ministry came in, till 3 May 1870, he acted as secretary of works and goldfields. He was elected speaker for the session of 1870–1. But in the 1871 election he lost his seat, and was out of parliament for two sessions. At the end of 1872 he was again elected for Ipswich, and on 8 Jan. 1874 became for the second time colonial secretary, and the third time premier. He continued in power till 5 June 1876, combining for a few weeks with his other duties those of secretary for public works and mines.
Shortly before his retirement from office Macalister received the decoration of C.M.G. From 22 June 1876 till 16 Nov. 1881, he was agent-general for the colony of Queensland in London. The prominent part Macalister took in the politics of Queensland was due to his perseverance and devotion to the life, rather than to any commanding ability.
He retired to the neighbourhood of Glasgow in 1881, and died there on 23 March 1883. He was married, and left grown-up children residing in Queensland.
[Private information; Mennell's Dictionary of Australasian Biography; Queensland Parliamentary Debates.]
C. A. H.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Macarthur, Edward

​MACARTHUR or McARTHER, EDWARD (1789–1872), lieutenant-general, eldest son of John Macarthur [q. v.] of Camden Park, New South Wales, was born at Bath, England, in 1789, and accompanied his parents to New South Wales the year after. His early years were passed at Parramatta, near Sydney. On 27 Oct. 1808 he was appointed ensign in the 60th royal Americans, and with the old second battalion ​(now 1st battalion king's royal rifles) was present in the Corunna campaign. On 9 July 1809 he was promoted to a lieutenancy in the 39th foot. With the 1st battalion 39th he served in Sicily during Murat's threatened invasion from the opposite coast, joined Wellington's army in the Peninsula in 1812, and was present at the battles of Vittoria, the Pyrenees, the investment of Bayonne, and the battles at Nivelle, the Nive, Orthez, and Toulouse. During the latter part of the time he was on the personal staff of his old colonel, Sir Robert William O'Callaghan. He accompanied his regiment from Bordeaux to Canada in 1814, and was with it at the Pittsburg fiasco, and afterwards with the army of occupation in France. He became captain 8 Feb. 1821, and on 10 June 1826 was promoted to a majority on half-pay unattached. For some years he was secretary in the lord chamberlain's office at the House of Lords. In 1837 he was appointed an assistant adjutant-general in Ireland, and on 23 Nov. 1841 became a brevet lieutenant-colonel unattached, and was appointed deputy adjutant-general in the Australian colonies, a post he held until 1855. He became a brevet-colonel in 1854, and in 1855 succeeded Sir Robert Nickle in the command of the troops, with the rank of major-general, in Australia. On the death of Sir Charles Hotham [see Hotham, Sir Charles], Macarthur, as senior military officer, became acting-governor of Victoria, and administered the government of that colony from 1 Jan. to 31 Dec. 1856. He became a major-general 26 Oct. 1858. He held the military command in Australia until 1860, when he returned home and was made a C.B., and in 1862 K.C.B. and colonel of the 100th regiment or royal Canadians. He became a lieutenant-general 14 June 1866. He had the Peninsular medal and seven clasps. Macarthur died in London 4 June 1872, aged 82. He left property in England and Australia (for will see Times, 20 July 1872).
Macarthur married Sarah, third daughter of Lieutenant-colonel William Smith Neill, and sister of Brigadier James George Smith Neill [q. v.], who fell at Lucknow.
[Hart's Army List; Cannon's Hist. Rec. 39th Dorsetshire Regiment; Heaton's Australian Dictionary of Dates, p. 122.]
H. M. C.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Macadam, John

​MACADAM, JOHN (1827–1865), chemist, son of William Macadam, was born at Northbank, near Glasgow, in May 1827. He became a medical student in the university of Glasgow, where he took the degree of M.D. He first studied chemistry under Professor Penny, whose assistant he became, and subsequently entered the university of Edinburgh, where he worked under Professor Gregory. He went to Melbourne in 1855, to fill the post of lecturer on chemistry and natural science in the Scotch College of that city. He was one of the earliest members of the Philosophical Institution (since 1859 the Royal Society) of Victoria. He edited the first five volumes of the society's ‘Transactions,’ and occupied the post of secretary from 1857 until his election as vice-president in 1863. He represented the district of Castlemaine in the Legislative Assembly of Victoria from 1859 to 1864, and was postmaster-general during the latter part of the Heales administration (26 April till 14 Nov. 1861). He was appointed lecturer in theoretical and practical chemistry in the university of Melbourne during the session 1861–2, and also held the posts of government officer of health and public analyst to the city of Melbourne. In May 1865 he met with an accident which greatly enfeebled him. In the autumn, however, he sailed for New Zealand to give evidence in a murder case. Severe weather brought on an attack of sea sickness, of which he died on 2 Sept. 1865, on board the Alhambra. He left a widow and one son.
Macadam contributed two papers to the Royal Society, Victoria, ‘On Kerosene’ (abstract, Trans. Roy. Soc. Vict. vi. 61) and ‘On Dalton's Atomic Theory’ (not printed). He also assisted in drawing up a report on the resources of the colony of Victoria, presented to the Royal Society of Victoria in 1860.
[Besides the sources already quoted, Roy. Soc. Vict. Trans. and Proceedings, vols. i. and vi. vii. 113: Melbourne University Calendar, 1863-9; Heaton's Australian Dict. of Dates and Men of the Time; Gent. Mag. new ser., 1868, i. 141.]
P. J. H.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Bruce, Frederick William Adolphus

​BRUCE, Sir FREDERICK WILLIAM ADOLPHUS (1814–1867), diplomatist, was the youngest of the three sons of Thomas Bruce, seventh earl of Elgin [q. v.], and his second wife Elizabeth, youngest daughter of James Townshend Oswald of Dunnikier, Fifeshire. He was born at Bromhall, Fifeshire, on 14 April 1814, and on 9 Feb. 1842 was attached to Lord Ashburton's mission to Washington, returning to England with his lordship in September of that year. On 9 Feb. 1844 he was appointed colonial secretary at Hongkong, which place he held until 1846, when on 27 June he became lieutenant-governor of Newfoundland. His next change was to Sucre, with the appointment of consul-general in the republic of Bolivia on 23 July 1847, and on 14 April 1848 he was accredited as chargé d'affaires. He was named chargé d'affaires to the Oriental republic of the Uruguay on 29 Aug. 1851, and on 3 Aug. 1853 became agent and consul-general in Egypt in the place of the Hon. C. A. Murray. On his brother, James Bruce, the eighth earl of Elgin, being appointed ambassador extraordinary to China, he accompanied him as principal secretary in April 1857. He brought home (18 Sept. 1857) the treaty with China signed at Tientsin on 26 June 1858, and was made a C.B. on 28 Sept. His diplomatic tact was thoroughly appreciated by the home government, for he was appointed on 2 Dec. 1858 envoy extraordinary and minister plenipotentiary to the emperor of China, and on 1 March following chief superintendent of British trade in that country. His mission was prevented from proceeding to Pekin by the opposition made by the Chinese. The mission therefore returned to Shanghae, where it remained until the ratification of the treaty of 26 June 1858 at Pekin on 24 Oct. 1860. He proceeded to Pekin on 7 Nov. 1860, but withdrew to Tientsin for the winter, while arrangements were made for putting a residence in order for his reception. The mission was established at Pekin on 26 March 1861, but it was not until 2 April that Sir Frederick Bruce paid a visit to Prince Kung. On the removal of Lord Lyons from Washington to Constantinople, he was selected to fill the important office of British representative at Washington on 1 March 1865. He was made a K.C.B. of the civil division on 12 Dec. 1862, and received the grand cross of the order on 17 March 1865. He was appointed umpire by the commission named under the convention of 1864, concluded between the United States of America and the United States of Colombia, for the adjustment of claims of American citizens against the Colombian government. He died at Boston in the United States on 19 Sept. 1867, when his remains were embalmed, and, being conveyed to Scotland, were interred at Dunfermline Abbey on 8 Oct. The American press spoke in eulogistic terms of his amiable personal qualities and of the able manner in which he exercised his ministerial functions. He died unmarried.
[Gent. Mag. for 1867, pt. ii. 677–8; Hertslet's Foreign Office Lists, March 1868, p. 187; Boulger's History of China, vol. iii. (1884).]
G. C. B.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Bruce, James (1765?-1806)

​BRUCE, JAMES (1765?–1806), essayist, was born in the county of Forfar in or about 1765. After an honourable career at the university of St. Andrews, he went thence to Emmanuel College Cambridge. He graduated B.A. in 1789, and took orders ​ in the English church. About 1800 he was again in Gotland, where for a short time he officiated as a clergyman in the Scottish episcopal church. Towards the end of this period, in 1803, was published his only separate literary work, 'The Regard which is due to the Memory of Good Men,' a sermon preached at Dundee on the death of George Teaman.
In 1803 he came to London to devote himself to literature, and was soon a prolific contributor to the 'British Critic' and the 'Anti-Jacobin Magazine and Review,' the latter a weekly journal started almost contemporaneously with, and conducted on the same principles as, its more famous namesake the 'Anti-Jacobin' of Canning celebrity. A large proportion of the articles published in this review from 1803 to 1806 are from Bruce's pen. These articles, written with considerable ability, are chiefly on theological and literary subjects. The former are characterised by a keen spirit of partisanship, and are aimed especially against the Calvinistic and evangelical parties in the church. His contempt for the whole tendency of the thought of revolutionary France was most hearty, and helped to keep up the ' Anti-Jacobin ' tradition. For a list of the titles of the most important, see Anderson's 'Scottish Nation.'
Bruce's life in London was obscure, and probably unfortunate. He was found dead in the passage of the house in which he lodged in Fetter Lane, 24 March 1806.
[Anderson's Scottish Nation; Irving's Book of Scotsmen; Annual Register, 1806, p. 524.]
A. M-l
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Ferguson, James (1621-1667)

​FERGUSON, JAMES (1621–1667), Scotch divine, born in 1621, belonged to the Fergusons of Kilkerran. He graduated at Glasgow University in 1638, and was ordained minister of Kilwinning, Ayrshire, in 1643. He was a member of the assembly of 1648, and declined calls to both Edinburgh and Glasgow. He was so highly esteemed by the Earl of Eglintoun that, though appointed to the chair of divinity at Glasgow in 1661, he never left Kilwinning to enter on that office. He was a man of eminent piety, and at the same time ‘much admired,’ as a writer of his life in Wodrow's ‘Analecta’ says, ‘for his great and singular wisdom and prudence, being reckoned one of the wisest men in a nation, most fit to be a counsellor to any monarch in Europe.’ In the controversy between the resolutioners and protesters he adopted the side of the former, but it is recorded that he confessed before his death that he was wrong. Probably in consequence of the support of Lord Eglintoun, he was not interfered with at the Restoration in his ministry at Kilwinning. He died 13 March 1667. Ferguson is remembered and esteemed at this day as the author of a series of excellent commentaries on St. Paul's Epistles. In Charteris's ‘Catalogue of Scotch Divines’ he is called an author ‘of great reputation.’ Spurgeon characterises his commentaries as those of ‘a grand, gracious, savoury divine.’ His works are:
* ‘Expositions of the Epistles to the Philippians and Colossians,’ Edinburgh, 1656.
* ‘Expositions of the Epistles to Galatians and Ephesians,’ Edinburgh, 1659.
* ‘Exposition of the Epistles to the Thessalonians,’ Glasgow, 1675.
* ‘Refutation of the Errors of Toleration, Erastianism, Independency, and Separation,’ Edinburgh, 1692.
He also issued several sermons, and left in manuscript an essay on singing the psalms.
He married Jean Inglis (d. 1687), by whom he had two sons, James and Hew, and a daughter, Mary, wife of Robert Cheislie, an Edinburgh merchant.
[Scott's Fasti, pt. iii. 181; Wodrow's Analecta, vol. iii.; Wodrow's Church Hist.; Baillie's Letters, iii.; Candlish's Prefatory Note to republication of Refutation of Erastianism.]
W. G. B.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Ferguson, Robert (1750-1774)

​FERGUSON, ROBERT (1750–1774). [See Fergusson.]