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

​DIROM, ALEXANDER (d. 1830), lieutenant-general, was the son of Alexander Dirom of Muiresk, Banffshire, by his wife, Ann Fotheringham (Burke, Landed Gentry, 1882, i. 461). His name occurs in the ‘Army List’ for the first time as a lieutenant in the 88th foot of 13 Oct. 1779. In 1790 he was acting as deputy adjutant-general of the forces engaged in the second Mysore war, which was brought to an end by the signing of the treaty of Seringapatam on 8 March 1792. During the voyage home he drew up ‘A Narrative of the Campaign in India, which terminated the war with Tippoo Sultan in 1792. With maps and plans, &c.’ [and an appendix], 4to, London, 1793. On 7 Aug. 1793 he married Magdalen, daughter of Robert Pasley of Mount Annan, Dumfriesshire, by whom he had a family (Scots. Mag lv. 412). He died at Mount Annan on 6 Oct. 1830 (Army List, November 1830, p. 88). Besides the above-mentioned work, Dirom published: 1. ‘An Inquiry into the Corn Laws and Corn Trade of Great Britain, and their influence on the prosperity of the Kingdom. … To which is added a Supplement, by Mr. W. Mackie, &c.’ (appendix), two parts, 4to, Edinburgh, 1796. 2. ‘Plans for the Defence of Great Britain and Ireland,’ 8vo, Edinburgh, 1797. 3. ‘Account of the Improvements on the Estate of Mount Annan,’ 8vo, Edinburgh, 1811. He was elected a fellow of the Royal Society on 10 July 1794, and was also a fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh and a member of the Wernerian Society of the same city.
G. G.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Disney, John (1779-1857)

​DISNEY, JOHN (1779–1857), collector of classical antiquities, born at Flintham Hall, Nottinghamshire, on 29 May 1779, was the eldest son of the Rev. John Disney, D.D. (1746–1816) [q. v.], by Jane, daughter of Archdeacon Blackburne. On 26 Dec. 1816 he came into possession of his father's estate, the Hyde, Ingatestone, Essex, inheriting with it the collection of antiquities formed in Italy by Hollis and Brand, chiefly from 1748 to 1753. Disney made additions to this collection, acquiring many of the smaller antiquities from Pompeii through a relative. In 1818 he began a catalogue of it, which he completed after his return from Rome in 1827, and afterwards published with corrections as ‘Museum Disneianum,’ London, 4to, pt. i. 1846 (sculptures); pt. ii. 1848; pt. iii. 1849. The book contains numerous engravings, but the text is not very critical: thus, Pl. lxvii., a mirror with handle, is described as ‘A stew-pan’ (cp. Gerhard, Arch. Zeitung, 1849, pp. 157–60; Wieseler, Göttingische gel. Anzeig. 1849, 441–62; Classical Museum, v. 262–72, vi. 71–91). Nearly all the marbles were bequeathed by Disney to the university of Cambridge, and they now form one of the principal sections of the Fitzwilliam Museum. The bronzes, terra-cottas, glass objects, vases, &c., remained at the Hyde. Professor Michaelis, who has redescribed (Anc. Marbles) the sculptures, considers that Disney showed more zeal than discernment as a collector, for, though a friend of Flaxman, Combe, and Christie, he acquired many poor or spurious marbles. Michaelis thinks the ‘Statuette of a Youthful Satyr’ the most graceful piece of statuary in the collection. In 1851 Disney founded the Cambridge University chair of archæology, called by his name. The professor is required to deliver at least six lectures annually on some subject connected with classical and other antiquities and the fine arts. The original endowment, amounting to 1000l., was increased in 1857 by Disney's bequest to 3250l. Disney held the honorary degree of LL.D. (Cambridge), and was a fellow of the Royal Society. He was barrister-at-law of the Inner Temple, and published: 1. ‘A Collection of Acts of Parliament relative to County and Borough Elections,’ &c., London, 1811, 8vo. 2. ‘Outlines of a Penal Code,’ London, 1826, 8vo. He unsuccessfully contested (as a liberal) Harwich in 1832 and North Essex in 1835. He died at the Hyde on 6 May 1857. Disney married on 22 Sept. 1802 his cousin-german Sophia, youngest daughter of Lewis Disney-Ffytche, of Swinderby, Lincolnshire, and had issue: John (d. 1819), Edgar (his successor, d. 1881), Sophia.
W. W.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Dingley, Thomas

​DINGLEY or DINELEY, THOMAS (d. 1695), antiquary, was the son and heir of Thomas Dingley, controller of customs at Southampton and the representative of a family of some position in the place (Her. Visit. of Hampshire, made in 1622). He was born about the middle of the seventeenth century, and, as he himself tells us, educated by James Shirley, the dramatist, who for some years kept a school in Whitefriars, London. In 1670 he was admitted a student of Gray's Inn (Adm. Book, 6 Aug.), but does not appear to have pursued his studies very regularly, as in the following year he became one of the suite of Sir George Downing, then returning as ambassador to the States-General of the United Provinces. He has left in manuscript a journal of his ‘Travails through the Low Countreys, Anno Domini 1674,’ illustrated by some spirited sketches in pen and ink of the places he visited. Subsequently he made a tour in France, and wrote a similar record of his journey, copiously illustrated. In 1680 he visited Ireland, perhaps in a military capacity, and the account of what he there saw, and his observations on the history of the country, were published in 1870, as a reprint from the pages of the journal of the Kilkenny and South-east of Ireland Archæological Society. The manuscripts of all these accounts of travel are in the possession of Sir F. S. Winnington at Stanford Court, Worcestershire. Henry Somerset, first duke of Beaufort, the lord president of the Principality, took Dingley with him in 1684 on an official progress through Wales. While thus engaged, Dingley was made an honorary freeman of the boroughs of Brecknock and Monmouth, and employed his pen and pencil with great industry and good effect. The manuscript of his journal is in the possession of the duke. Part of it, under the title of ‘Notitia Cambro-Britannica,’ was edited by Mr. Charles Baker in 1864, and printed for private circulation by the Duke of Beaufort. A reprint of the whole was privately issued in 1888.
Dingley lived much at Dilwyn in Herefordshire, and some fragments in his handwriting are to be seen in the register of that parish, but he was evidently a man of active habits and fond of travel. The ‘History from Marble,’ a collection of epitaphs, church notes, and sketches of domestic and other buildings (published by the Camd. Soc. 1867–1868), shows that he was well acquainted with most of the midland and western counties, and, from the administration of his effects, granted in May 1695, we learn that he was at Louvain in Flanders when death overtook him. Dingley's notes and sketches are extremely valuable, and were known to Nash and Theophilus Jones, who made use of them in their respective histories of Worcestershire and Brecon. The manuscript is in the possession of Sir F. S. Winnington at Stanford Court. There seems to be no doubt that Dingley's collections formed the groundwork of Rawlinson's ‘History and Antiquities of the Cathedral Church of Hereford,’ and they are certainly entitled to rank not far below ​the ‘Funerall Monuments’ of John Weever in interest and importance.
C. J. R.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Tyrrell, Frederick

​TYRRELL, FREDERICK (1793–1843), surgeon, fourth son of Timothy Tyrrell, remembrancer of the city of London, was born in 1793. He received his education at Henry VII's School, Reading, when Richard Valpy [q. v.] was headmaster, and in 1811 or 1812 he was articled to (Sir) Astley Paston Cooper [q. v.], and attended the practice of the united hospitals of Guy and St. Thomas. After the battle of Waterloo the hospitals at Brussels were crowded with the wounded, and Tyrrell with many other young Englishmen hurried over to afford assistance. He was admitted a member of the College of Surgeons in 1816, and he then proceeded to Edinburgh, where he spent a year. In 1820 he was appointed assistant surgeon to the London Eye Infirmary, now the Ophthalmic Hospital in Moorfields, and in 1822 he was elected a surgeon to St. Thomas's Hospital. In the same year he settled in New Bridge Street, where he resided until he moved into a larger house in the adjacent Chatham Place a few years before his death. When the two schools of St. Thomas's and Guy's Hospital were divided in 1825, Tyrrell accepted the lectureship of anatomy and surgery at the Aldersgate Street school of medicine. This position he gave up a few years later when he became lecturer on anatomy and physiology at St. Thomas's Hospital.
He was elected a member of the council of the College of Surgeons in 1838, and filled ​the office of Arris and Gale lecturer on anatomy and physiology from 1838 to 1841. In 1840 he published his only independent work, that on ‘Diseases of the Eyes,’ in two volumes. He died suddenly on 23 May 1843 at the City auction mart. In 1822 he married a daughter of Samuel Lovick Cooper, a niece of Sir Astley Paston Cooper [q. v.]
Tyrrell was an admirable surgeon, and was for many years the mainstay of his surgical colleagues at the hospitals to which he was attached.
Tyrrell edited Sir Astley Cooper's ‘Lectures on the Principles and Practice of Surgery,’ London, 1824–7, 2 vols. 8vo. The publication of these lectures led to the suit of Tyrrell v. Wakley (editor of the ‘Lancet’), in which Thomas Wakley [q. v.] was cast in damages to the amount of 50l.
D’A. P.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Tyrrell, John

1904 Errata appended.
​TYRRELL, Sir JOHN (d. 1437), speaker of the House of Commons, was the son of Sir Thomas Tyrrell of Herne in Essex by his wife Elianor, daughter of John Flambard. The family claimed descent from Walter Tirel [q. v.], the reputed slayer of William Rufus. John was returned to parliament for the county of Essex in 1411, and also sat in that which met at Westminster on 14 May 1413. On the outbreak of the French war he served under Henry V in France, was present at Agincourt among the king's retinue, and was appointed by him surveyor of the carpenters of the new ​works at Calais. He represented Essex in the parliaments of 1417 and 1419 and in the first parliament of 1421, and in those of 1422, 1425, 1427, 1429, 1431, 1433, and 1437. In 1423 he was appointed sheriff of Essex and Hertfordshire. In the parliament of 1427 he was elected speaker of the House of Commons, and was again nominated to the same dignity in 1431 (Rolls of Parl. iv. 317, 368). On 9 March 1430–1 he was appointed by the king to attend him as one of his council in France, and on 23 April he was allowed pay for two men-at-arms and nine archers (Nicolas, Acts of the Privy Council, iv. 82, 84). On 1 March 1431–2 he was acting as treasurer of the war in France, and on 13 July he is styled treasurer of the king's household (ib. pp. 109, 121). In April 1434 he took part in a great council held at Westminster by the Duke of Gloucester (ib. p. 212), and in 1437 he was chosen speaker of the lower house for the third time (Rolls of Parl. iv. 496). In March, however, he was compelled by illness to retire, and he was succeeded as speaker by William Burley [q. v.] Tyrrel died before 1 Sept. 1437 (Cal. Inquis. post mort. iv. 181). He was married to Eleanor, who was second daughter of Sir William de Coggeshall of Little Coggeshall Hall. He was succeeded in his estate by his son, Sir Thomas Tyrrell (d. 1476). Another son, William, was father of Sir James Tyrrell [q. v.], the alleged murderer of the princes in the Tower.
E. I. C.
Dictionary of National Biography, Errata (1904), p.268 N.B.— f.e. stands for from end and l.l. for last line
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# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Tymms, Samuel

​TYMMS, SAMUEL (1808–1871), antiquary, was born at Camberwell in Surrey on 27 Nov. 1808. Early in life he obtained employment on the staff of the ‘Gentleman's Magazine.’ He seems to have moved into Suffolk while still young, and almost the whole of his antiquarian work is intimately connected with that county, especially with the town of Bury St. Edmunds, where he was engaged on the staff of the ‘Bury Post.’ In 1857 he moved to Lowestoft, setting up a business as bookseller and stationer. There, in 1858, he began to edit and publish the ‘East Anglian,’ a local antiquarian magazine, which he continued to conduct until his death.
About 1840 he became a member of the Genealogical and Historical Society, and in 1853 a fellow of, and afterwards local secretary to, the Society of Antiquaries, in the ‘Proceedings’ of which institution his name not infrequently occurs. He also displayed considerable activity in the work of the West Suffolk Archæological Institute. Tymms died at Lowestoft on 29 April 1871. He married, on 10 July 1844, Mary Anne, daughter of John Jugg of Ely, and had five children.
He wrote:
* ‘The British Family Topographer’ (7 vols. 1832–43), giving an encyclopædic account of the antiquities of the different counties of England, classed according to the old English circuits.
* ‘Architectural and Historical Account of the Church of St. Mary, Bury St. Edmunds.’ This work appeared in instalments, beginning in 1848, and was reissued as a whole in 1854.
* ‘Bury Wills and Inventories,’ perhaps his best known work, which he edited for the Camden Society in 1850.
He also wrote many small antiquarian monographs, guide-books to Ely Cathedral and to Bury St. Edmunds, the latter of which has gone through several editions, and still maintains its position as a cheap handbook. A small treatise on ‘Peg Tankards’ (1827) may be noticed as a very early work. Mention should also be made of his contributions to the ‘Proceedings’ of the Suffolk Institute of Archæology, which he printed; as well as to the ‘East Anglian,’ which he both printed and edited.
There is in the British Museum Library an interesting folio volume consisting of newspaper cuttings—mostly of a biographical nature—extracted and arranged by Tymms, with manuscript notes added.
[East Anglian, 3rd ser. vii. 65 (May 1897)—biographical notice with portrait; Lowestoft Observer, 6 May 1871; Brit. Mus. Cat.; private information.]
E. C.-e.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Nichols, Philip

​NICHOLS, PHILIP (fl. 1547–1559), protestant writer, was possibly related to John Nichols, rector of Landewednack, or to the Nichols of Trereife in Madron (Boase, Collect. Cornub. p. 621). On 24 March 1547 Richard Crispyn, prebendary of Exeter and rector of Woodleigh (Cranmer's Letters, Parker Soc., p. 183), preached a sermon at Marledon against Luther's doctrine that the scriptures are the touchstone of truth. Nichols was present, and wrote Crispyn a letter of remonstrance. A conference followed ‘the Sunday after Corpus Christi day,’ at Herberton, near Totnes, where Crispyn was beneficed; and subsequently Nichols published: (1) ‘The Copie of a Letter sente to one Maister Chrispyne, chanon of Exeter, for that he denied ye Scripture to be the Touche Stone or Trial of all other Doctrines: Whereunto is added an Apologie and a Bullwarke in Defence of the same Letter.’ Colophon: ‘written the vii Novr. 1547. Imprinted at London.’ Dedicated ‘to his singular good maister, Sir Peter Carewe,’ who had instigated the printing. The work is strongly protestant and outspoken. Nichols afterwards issued in a like spirit: (2) ‘Here begynneth a godly newe Story of XII Men that Moyses by the Commandment of God sent to spye out the Land of Canaan, of which XII only Josua and Caleb were found faythful Messengers.’ Colophon: ‘Inprinted at London, 10 May 1548.’ On the thirty-third (unpaged) leaf he says: ‘The Lord hath given us a young Josias, which … shall … finish the building of the Holy Temple.’ In the later form of the work this passage is altered thus: ‘God hath given us a gracious Judith, which shall finish the building of the Holy Temple which her father began, according to the pattern that the Lord hath prescribed in the Gospel.’ This fixes 1558–9 as the date for this later edition, which bears the title: ‘The History of the XII Men that were sent to spye out the Land of Canaan; no less fruitful than true, and worthy to be read of all.’ No place or date; identical with No. 2, with the stated exceptions. Tanner also ascribes to Nichols the following: (3) ‘Ad Angliæ protectorem Edwardum,’ and (4) ‘Contra Cornubiensium Rebelliones,’ 1558. In their rebellion the Cornish papists had demanded that Richard Crispyn, Nichols's earliest opponent, should be sent to them (Strype, Cranmer, p. 265).
There was apparently another Philip Nichols, who was instituted to the church of Kympton (Kineton), diocese of Wells, 23 Nov. 1562, on the presentment of Sir Francis Knollys. Tanner credits him with the authorship of the ‘Relation of the Third Voyage of Sir Francis Drake,’ prepared for publication by Sir Francis Drake himself, with a dedication to Elizabeth, dated 1592. The work was first published by Drake's nephew, Sir Francis Drake, in 1626, with a dedication to Charles I, as ‘Sir Francis Drake Revived,’ &c., London, 1626, 4to; London, ​1628, 4to; and a much altered edition, London, 1652, 4to.
W. A. S.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Nichols, William Luke

​NICHOLS, WILLIAM LUKE (1802–1889), antiquary, born at Gosport, Hampshire, 10 Aug. 1802, was the eldest son of Luke Nichols, of that place, merchant. He matriculated at Queen's College, Oxford, on 28 Feb. 1821, and graduated B.A. 1825, M.A. 1829. In 1827 he was ordained in the English church, being licensed to the curacy of Keynsham, Somerset. While the cholera was raging in England, he had the undivided ​care, as curate in sole charge, of the enormous parish of Bedminster, near Bristol. From 1 Feb. 1834 to 31 March 1839 he was minister of the church of St. James, Bath; for twelve months he was stationed at Trinity Church, Bath; he was then in charge of a district church near Ottery St. Mary, Devon; and from 1846 to 1851 he held on his own nomination the rectory of Buckland Monachorum, near Plymouth. Nichols then returned to Bath, where he dwelt in the east wing of Lansdown Crescent, collected a valuable library, and acquired a great knowledge of literature. In 1858, and for several years afterwards, he lived at the Wyke, on Grasmere. For two or three years before 1870 he resided at the old Manor House, Keynsham, but from that date until his death his home was at the Woodlands, on the borders of the Quantocks, in Somerset, and midway between Nether Stowey and Alfoxden. Nichols travelled frequently in foreign countries, and was well acquainted with the scenery and antiquities of Spain, Italy, Sicily, Greece, and Palestine. He died at the Woodlands on 25 Sept. 1889, and was buried with his parents in the family vault in Gosport churchyard on 2 Oct. By his will he left the parish the funds for the completion of a campanile, or bell-tower, which he had begun to erect. It cost, with the bells, the sum of 2,500l.
Nichols had great knowledge of literature, and frequently contributed to periodicals. He published at Bath in 1838 a pamphlet entitled ‘Horæ Romanæ, or a Visit to a Roman Villa,’ which was suggested by the discovery, during the formation of the Great Western Railway, of the site of a Roman villa at Newton St. Loe, near Bath. The account of the excavations was followed by a poem of 120 lines in blank verse (cf. Scarth, Aquæ Solis, pp. 114–15). Nichols edited in 1866 the ‘Remains of the Rev. Francis Kilvert’ [q .v.] He was elected F.S.A. on 2 Feb. 1865. He printed at Bath for private circulation in 1873 a paper on ‘The Quantocks and their Associations,’ which he read before the Bath Literary Club on 11 Dec. 1871. It was interesting to the lovers of Coleridge, Wordsworth, Sir Humphry Davy, Thelwall, and Charles Lloyd. A second edition, revised and enlarged, with map and eleven illustrations, came out in 1891. Among the illustrations were photographs of the author and of his house, The Woodlands.
W. P. C.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Nichols, John (d.1538)

​NICHOLS or NICHOLSON, JOHN (d. 1538), protestant martyr. [See Lambert.]
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Nichols, Thomas

Identified in the ODNB with Nicholas, Thomas (fl.1560-1596).
​NICHOLS, THOMAS (fl. 1550), translator of Thucydides, was a citizen and goldsmith of London. In 1550 there was published ‘The Hystory writtone by Thucidides the Athenyan of the warre which was betweene the Peloponesians and the Athenyans translated oute of Frenche into the Englysh language by Thomas Nicolls citizeine and Goldsmith of London. Imprinted the xxv day of July in the yeare of our Lorde God a thousande fyue hundredd and fyftye.’ Prefixed is ‘the tenoure of the kynges maiesties most gracyous priuilege for seuen yeares;’ this is dated 24 Feb. 1549–50, and grants Nichols full copyright for the term specified. The work is dedicated to Sir John Cheke. Nichols knew no Greek, and depended entirely on the French version of Claude de Seyssel, bishop of Marseilles in 1510, and archbishop of Turin in 1517, whose translation was published at Paris in 1527. No other English translation appeared till Hobbes's version of 1682.
The printer of Nichols's volume is unknown. It has been assigned to the press of John Wayland; but this ascription is due to John Bagford, who pasted into his copy Wayland's colophon, cut from another book (cf. Harl. MS. 5929). Bagford's copy came into the possession of Herbert, who was deceived by Bagford's device, and gave currency to the statement that Wayland printed the volume (cf. Sinker, Sixteenth-Century Books in Trinity College, Cambridge; Ames, Typogr. Antiq. ed. Herbert).
Another Thomas Nichols (fl. 1554), a London merchant, went about 1554 to the Canary Islands as factor for Thomas Lok [see under Lok, Sir William], Anthony Hickman, and Edward Castelin, ‘who in those days were worthie merchants and of great credit in London’ [cf. art. Nicholas, Thomas]. Nichols spent seven years in the islands, and after returning home found so many errors in Andrew Thevet's ‘New founde Worlde,’ which appeared in an English translation from the French in 1568, that he placed his own observations briefly on record. His work was entitled ‘A Description of the Canary Islands and Madera, with their remarkable Fruits and Commodities.’ It was included in Hakluyt's ‘Principall Navigations,’ 1599 (vol. ii. bk. iv. pp. 3–7).
S. L.