OpenLLM-France/wikimedia huggingface dataset:
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Ferguson, Adam (1771-1855)

​FERGUSON, Sir ADAM (1771–1855), keeper of the regalia in Scotland, eldest son of Professor Adam Ferguson [q. v.], was born in 1771. At Edinburgh University he was one of the companions of Sir Walter Scott, who says that he combined the ‘lightest and most airy temper with the best and kindest disposition’ (‘Autobiography’ in Lockhart, Life of Scott). He was also one of the nineteen original members of the society, ‘called by way of excellence the Club,’ among the members of which, from the accident of a Newhaven fisherman mistaking him for a brother of the craft, he obtained the cognomen of Linton (see anecdote, ib.) It was in company with Ferguson that Scott in 1793 first visited the scenes in Perthshire on the highland border which he afterwards described in his poems and romances. About 1800 Ferguson entered the army; he became captain of the 101st regiment in February 1808, and afterwards he served in the Peninsular campaign under Wellington. Scott was in the habit of relating with special pride that the ‘Lady of the Lake’ having reached Ferguson in the lines of Torres Vedras he read to his company, while lying on the ground exposed to the enemy's artillery, the description of the battle in canto vi. In a letter to Scott in 1811 Ferguson expressed the resolve, should it be his fate to survive the campaign, to try his hand ‘on a snug little farm’ somewhere in Scott's neighbourhood. He was taken prisoner during Wellington's retreat from Burgos in 1812, and was not released till the peace of 1814. On 8 Oct. 1816 he went on half-pay. In 1817 he accompanied Scott in an excursion in the Lennox, and in the following year he and his sisters took up their residence in the mansion-house of Toftfield, which Scott had recently purchased, and on which, at the ladies' request, he bestowed the name of Huntly Burn. In the autumn of this year Ferguson, chiefly through the exertions of Scott, was appointed keeper of the regalia of Scotland, which then had recently been discovered. About this time Sir David Wilkie executed for Scott the picture in which Scott and his family are represented as a group of peasants and Ferguson as a gamekeeper or poacher. In 1819 Ferguson, in the capacity of secretary, accompanied Scott's friend, the Duke of Buccleuch, then in declining health, to Lisbon. In 1821 he married the widow of George Lyon of London, and daughter of John Stewart of Stenton, Perthshire (see humorous letter of Scott on the ceremony). On the occasion of the visit of George IV to Edinburgh he received the honour of knighthood 29 Aug. 1822. He died 1 Jan. 1855. Ferguson was famed as a narrator of Scotch anecdotes.
[Lockhart's Life of Scott; Gent. Mag. new ser. (1855) xliii. 195.]
T. F. H.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Meteyard, Eliza

​METEYARD, ELIZA (1816–1879), author, daughter of William Meteyard, surgeon, and his wife Mary, daughter of Zebedee Beckham of Great Yarmouth, was born on 21 June 1816, in Lime Street, Liverpool, in which town her father had been settled for a year. In 1818, on the appointment of her father as surgeon to the Shropshire militia, she was taken to Shrewsbury, and in 1829 removed to Thorpe, near Norwich, where she remained till 1842, when she settled in London. She began literary work in 1833 by assisting her eldest brother, a tithe commissioner, in preparing his reports relating to the eastern counties. She afterwards became a regular contributor of fiction and social articles to the periodical press, "writing in 'Eliza Cook's Journal,' the 'People's Journal,' 'Tait's Magazine,' 'Chambers's Journal,' 'Household Words,' 'Country Words,' and other journals. To the first number of 'Douglas Jerrold's Weekly Newspaper' she contributed a leading article to which Jerrold appended the signature of 'Silverpen,' which she afterwards used as her nom de guerre. She gained prizes for essays on 'Juvenile Depravity' and 'Omnibus Conductors.' Her first novel was written in 1840 for 'Tait's Magazine,' and republished in 1845 under the title of 'Struggles for Fame,' but her most popular novels were 'Mainstone's House keeper,' 1860, and 'Lady Herbert's Gentlewoman,' 1862. Between 1850 and 1878 she wrote a series of seven or eight charming ​stories for children. In 1861 she published an interesting volume on the 'Hallowed Spots of Ancient London,' and in 1865-6 her important 'Life of Josiah Wedgwood,' in two volumes. This was followed in 1871 by 'A Group of Englishmen (1795-1815), being Records of the younger Wedgwoods and their Friends.' In 1875 she wrote 'The Wedgwood Handbook, a Manual for Collectors,' and contributed the letterpress descriptions to 'Wedgwood and his Works,' 1873, 'Memorials of Wedgwood,' 1874, 'Choice Examples of Wedgwood Ware,' 1879, and a 'Catalogue of Wedgwood Manufactures.'
She died on 4 April 1879 at Stanley Terrace, Fentiman Road, South Lambeth. For several years she had enjoyed a pension of 100l. from the civil list. An excellent likeness of her in a marble medallion executed by G. Fontana, formerly the property of her friend Joseph Mayer [q. v.], who had aided her in bringing out the 'Life of Wedgwood,' is in the Mayer Public Hall at Bebington, near Birkenhead.
[Men of the Time, 10th edit.; C. Roach Smith's Retrospections, 1886, ii. 106; Manchester City News, 12 April 1879; Allibone's Dictionary of Authors,, iii. 1271.]
C. W. S.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Methuen, Paul (fl.1566)

​METHUEN, PAUL (fl. 1566), Scottish reformer, originally a baker in Dundee, was an early convert to the new doctrines. Although imperfectly educated, his eloquence and intimate acquaintance with scripture enabled him to render such good service to the protestant cause that he became obnoxious both to the prelates and the secret council; and the latter not only issued an order for his apprehension, but also forbade the people to listen to his orations or to harbour him in their houses. Methuen avoided arrest through the intrepidity of Provost Haliburton, and to show their disappointment at his escape, the secret council fined the town of Dundee in the sum of 2,000l. During the war between Scotland and England, which began in the autumn of 1556, and continued through the following year, the protestants enjoyed considerable liberty, and their numbers rapidly increased. Methuen, William Harlaw, John Douglas, and John Willock now began to preach with greater publicity in different parts of Scotland. On 10 May 1559 Methuen and other prominent reformers were placed on their trial before the justiciary court at Stirling for usurping the ministerial office, for administering without the consent of their ordinaries the sacrament of the altar in a manner different from that of the catholic church, in the burghs of Dundee and Montrose, and for convening the subjects of the realm in those places, preaching to them erroneous doctrines, and exciting seditions and tumults. Being found guilty, he was 'denounced rebel and put to the horn as fugitive'(Pitcairn, Ancient Criminal Trials, i. 406).
He was nominated by the lords of the congregation to the church of Jedburgh, Roxburghshire, 19 July 1560, in which year and the following he was a member of assembly. He was deposed from his incumbency, with some difficulty, towards the end of 1562, for adultery with his servant, and sentence of excommunication was also pronounced against him. Thereupon he fled to England and resumed his ministerial office there. In 1563 it was declared in the assembly that he was 'verie sorrowful for his grievous offence, and wald underly whatever punishment the kirk would lay upon him,' which declaration, on 27 Dec. 1564, 'the haill Assemblie with ane voyce are content to receive.' After an absence of up wards of two years the assembly, on 26 June 1566, ordained his public repentance. He was ordered to appear at the church door of Edinburgh when the second bell rang for public worship, clothed in sackcloth, bare-headed and bare-footed; to stand there until the prayer and psalms were finished; when he was to be brought into the church to hear the sermon, during which he was to be 'placeit in the publick spectakill [stool of repentance] above the peiple.' He was to repeat this procedure at Dundee and Jedburgh, where he had officiated as minister. Methuen went through a part of this discipline, but being overwhelmed with shame, or despairing to regain his lost reputation, he stopped in the midst of it, and again returned to England.
T. C.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Meyer, Jeremiah

​MEYER, JEREMIAH (1735–1789), miniature-painter, born at Tübingen, Würtemberg, in 1735, was the son of an obscure artist, who brought him to England in 1749. He studied in Shipley's academy in St. Martin's Lane, and during 1757 and 1758 was a pupil of C. F. Zincke [q. v.], to whom he paid 400l. for instruction and materials. He practised both in enamel and miniature with great ability, and was for many years without a rival. In 1760 and 1764 Meyer exhibited enamels with the Society of Arts, and in 1761 gained the prize of 20l. offered by the society for a profile portrait of the king, to be used for the coinage; engravings from this by MacArdell and others were very popular. He was naturalised in ​1762, and in 1764 became enamel-painter to the king, having already been appointed miniature-painter to the queen. Meyer was one of the original directors of the Incorporated Society of Artists, and in 1769 was chosen a foundation member of the Royal Academy. He contributed to the Academy's exhibitions until 1783, sending several portraits of members of the royal family. To Meyer's initiative was due the establishment of the Royal Academy pension fund in 1775. He was a friend of both Romney and Hayley, and brought them together in 1776. Meyer resided for many years in Tavistock Row, Covent Garden, and later at Kew, where he died of a fever on 19 Jan. 1789. He lies close to Gainsborough in Kew churchyard. A mural tablet to his memory, with a medallion portrait and some eulogistic verses by Hayley, is in Kew Church.
Meyer's art was strongly influenced by his study of Reynolds, and his miniatures are unsurpassed for truth and refinement. In private life he was much esteemed, and Hayley, in his ‘Essay on Painting,’ paid a warm tribute to his merits. He married in 1763 Barbara Marsden, a lady of some artistic talent, who survived him.
An unfinished portrait of Meyer, by N. Dance, R.A., was engraved after his death by W. Pether, and a profile of him is in the set of portraits of artists by D. Pariset, after P. Falconet. A portrait of one of his daughters, in the character of Hebe, painted by Reynolds, has been engraved in mezzotint by J. Jacobé.
[Chalmers's Biog. Dict.; Sandby's Hist. of the Royal Acad.; Redgrave's Dict. of Artists; Hayley's Life of Romney; Edwards's Anecd. of Painting; Lysons's Environs of London, i. 152.]
F. M. O'D.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Mey, John

​MEY, JOHN (d. 1456), archbishop of Armagh, was official of the court of Meath, and vicar of the parish churches of Delvin and Kilmessan, co. Meath, before 1444, when he was made by papal provision archbishop of Armagh; he was consecrated on 20 June, and enthroned by the dean, Charles O'Neillan, on 9 July 1444. Like his predecessors, he was much obstructed in the exercise of his primatial rights within the diocese of Dublin, and refused in consequence to attend parliament there. By a deed dated 19 Nov. 1455 Mey, with the consent of his dean and chapter, annexed his mensal tithes of Rathcoole to the choir of St. Anne's Chapel in St. Peter's Church, Drogheda, to which he also added his mensal portion of the tithes in Drummyng Church. About the same time the lord lieutenant, James Butler, earl of Ormonde and Wiltshire [q. v.], appointed Mey his deputy, but the archbishop did not maintain order very successfully. The English government ordered Ormonde to perform the duties himself, and on his refusal directed the Earl of Kildare to supersede him. Mey died in 1456.
[Ware's Ireland, i. 86; Cotton's Fasti, iii. 16; Gams's Series Episcoporum; Cox's Hibernia Anglicana, i. 163–4; Brady's Episcopal Succession, i. 215; Stuart's Armagh, pp. 198–9; Wright's Hist. of Ireland, i. 240.]
A. F. P.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Meyer, Henry

​MEYER, HENRY (1782?–1847), portrait-painter and engraver, was born in London about 1782. He was a nephew of John Hoppner [q. v.], and a pupil of Francesco Bartolozzi [q. v.], in whose dotted manner many of his plates are engraved. He worked also in mezzotint, and painted a considerable number of portraits, both in oil and in water-colours, of which he exhibited twelve at the Royal Academy between 1821 and 1826. He was one of the foundation members of the Society of British Artists, and to the first exhibition in 1824 he sent eight portraits, two sketches in chalk, and no less than forty-three engravings. In 1826 he exhibited a portrait of Charles Lamb, and in 1831 one of Benjamin Webster the actor. He became president of the society in 1828, but retired from it in the following year, and ceased to exhibit after 1833. In the later years of his career he devoted much attention to drawing portraits, and was very successful in his likenesses. He died on 28 May 1847, in his sixty-fifth year.
Meyer's engraved works consist chiefly of portraits, and include those of George IV; Prince Leopold, afterwards king of the Belgians, and the Princess Charlotte, full-lengths after A. E. Chalon, R.A.; Frederick William, duke of Brunswick, after J. P. Zahn; Admiral Viscount Nelson, and Earl Cathcart, after J. Hoppner, R.A.; Admiral Viscount Exmouth, after S. Drummond, A.R.A.; the Marquis of Wellesley, after a miniature by A. Robertson; Lady Leicester, afterwards Lady de Tabley, as ‘Hope,’ after Sir Thomas Lawrence, P.R.A.; Lord Byron, after a miniature by J. Holmes; Sir John Nicholl, dean of the arches, after W. Owen, R.A.; Miss O'Neill, as ‘Belvedera,’ after A. W. Devis; Charles Mathews, in five characters on one sheet, after G. H. Harlow; Alderman John Boydell, after Gilbert Stuart; Philip James de Loutherbourg, R.A., after John Jackson, R.A.; and Henry Tilson, portrait-painter, after himself. Among his other plates are ‘Mary anointing the feet of Jesus,’ after W. Hilton, R.A.; ‘Sir Roger de Coverley going to Church,’ after C. R. Leslie, R.A.; ‘The Proposal’ (three girls sitting under a tree), and ‘Congratulation,’ after G. H. Harlow; ‘Hesitation,’ after S. Drummond, A.R.A.; ‘The Approaching Checkmate,’ after A. E. Chalon, R.A.; ‘Exeter Change,’ after J. Northcote, R.A.; ‘The Blunt Razor,’ after E. Bird, R.A.; ‘The Stolen Kiss,’ after W. Kidd, R.S.A.; ‘The Dancing Bear,’ after W. F. Witherington, R.A.; and ‘I will fight,’ after the picture by Philip Simpson in the South Kensington Museum.
[Gent. Mag. 1847, ii. 665; Redgrave's Dict. of Artists of the English School, 1878; Exhibition Catalogues of the Royal Academy, 1821–6; Exhibition Catalogues of the Society of British Artists, 1824–33.]
R. E. G.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Monro, Alexander (1773-1859)

​MONRO, ALEXANDER, tertius, M.D. (1773–1859), anatomist, son of Alexander Monro secundus, was born at Edinburgh 5 Nov. 1773. He was sent to the high school there, and afterwards to the university, where he graduated M.D. in 1797, writing a thesis, 'De Dysphagia.' In 1798 he was appointed to assist his father in his lectures, but the appointment was nominal, as he went to London, and there worked at anatomy under Wilson. After also visiting Paris, he returned to Edinburgh in 1800, and was appointed conjoint professor (with his father) of medicine, surgery, and anatomy. From 1808 he delivered the whole course, and from 1817 to 1846 was sole professor. His lectures were less popular than those of his father and grandfather (An Answer to several Attacks which have appeared against the University of Edinburgh, 1819, p. 65), but among his pupils were Christison, Syme, Listen, Edward Forbes, Abercrombie, Bright, Marshall Hall, Sir Henry Holland, and Sir Humphry Davy. He published in 1803 'Observations on Crural Hernia;' in 1811, 'Morbid Anatomy of the Human Gullet, Stomach, and Intestines;' in 1813, 'Outlines of the Anatomy of the Human Body;' in 1814, 'Engravings of the Thoracic and Abdominal Viscera;' in 1818, 'Observations on the different kinds of Small-pox;' in 1827, 'Morbid Anatomy of the Brain,' vol. i., 'Hydrocephalus' and 'Anatomy of the Pelvis of the Male;' in 1831, 'The Anatomy of the Brain;' in 1840, 'Essays and Heads of Lectures of A. Munro ​secundus, with Memoir;' and in 1842, 'Anatomy of the Urinary Bladder and Perinseum in the Male.' None of his works are of permanent value, and those written when he was in the prime of life are as confused, prolix, and illogical as his senile productions. A basis of notes made by his more industrious father and grandfather is to be detected throughout, and to this he has added only imperfect observations and superficial reading. Thus in his account of lead colic he shows no acquaintance with the recent and admirable discoveries of Sir George Baker [q. v.] He died at Craiglockhart, near Edinburgh, 10 March 1859. He married first, in 1800, the daughter of Dr. Carmichael Smyth, by whom he had twelve children, one of whom, Sir David Monro, is separately noticed; and secondly, in 1836, the daughter of David Hunter, who survived him. A portrait by Kenneth Macleay is in the National Portrait Gallery, Edinburgh.
[Lancet, 1859, i. 331; Works.]
N. M.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Monro, Edward

​MONRO, EDWARD (1815–1866), divine and author, eldest son of Edward Thomas Monro, M.D. (1790–1856), physician to Bethlehem Hospital, grandson of Dr. Thomas Monro [q. v.], and brother of Henry Monro (1817–1891) [q. v.], was born at London in 1815. Educated at Harrow, he graduated at Oriel College, Oxford, with third-class honours in 1836, and was ordained shortly afterwards. From 1842 to 1860 he was perpetual curate of Harrow Weald, and from 1860 till his death vicar of St. John's, Leeds. Monro quickly attained a wide reputation as a preacher, and was select preacher at Oxford in 1862. Originally trained in the evangelical school, he was much influenced by the tractarian movement, which during his college life was in full tide, but the fervour of his religious zeal and his singular affection for the poor neutralised all party bias. Devoted to the welfare of boys in humble life, he established a college for them, called the 'College of St. Andrews,' at Harrow Weald, by the help of friends, such as Lords Selborne and Nelson, Bishop Blomfield, and others. The boys were boarded and received the education of gentlemen free of charge, and did credit to their training in after life, but the great expense of the college led the enthusiastic founder into pecuniary embarrassments, from which he was extricated with difficulty by friends and admirers. Monro had the rare talent of the Italian improvisatore, and most of the stories and allegories for which he became famous were delivered impromptu to village lads. The institution was without endowment, and the handsome and commodious buildings disappeared after Monro left Harrow Weald. At Leeds Monro put into effect on a larger scale the noble ideal of parochial work described in his books. The candidates for confirmation and communicants in his parish reached exceptional numbers. But his incessant labours affected his health, and he died at Leeds 13 Dec. 1866, after two years of illness. He was buried at Harrow Weald.
Monro's remarkable influence was extended by his writings far beyond the scene of his personal labours. Several of his stories and allegories passed through many editions, and are still in request. His chief publications are:
* 'The Combatants,' 1848.
* 'The Revellers,' 1850.
* 'The Dark River,' 1850.
* 'True Stories of Cottagers,' 1850.
* 'Sermons on the Responsibility of the Ministerial Office.
* 'View of Parochial Life,' 1851.
* 'The Parish,' a poem, 1853.
* 'Walter the Schoolmaster,' 1854.
* 'The Journey Home,' 1855.
* 'Daily Studies during Lent,' 1856.
* 'Leonard and Dennis,' 1856.
* 'The ​Dark Mountains,' 1858.
* 'Characters of the Old Testament,' 1858.
* 'Parochial Papers,' 1858.
* 'Parochial Lectures on English Poetry,' 1860.
* 'Pastoral Life,' 1862.
* 'Harry and Archie,' 1862.
Monro married in 1838 Emma, daughter of Dr. Hay of Madras. He had no children.
[Personal knowledge; John Bull and Churchman newspapers.]
M. B.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Monro, Alexander (d.1715?)

Date of death 1698 according to the ODNB.
​MONRO, ALEXANDER (d. 1715?), principal of Edinburgh University, was the son of Hugh Monro of Fyresh, a branch of the house of Foulis. He appears to have been educated at St. Andrews (Bower). In 1673 he was appointed minister of the second charge of Dunfermline, and was translated to Kinglassie in 1676, and to Wemyss in 1678. In 1682 he was created D.D. by the university of St. Andrews, and in the same year became professor of divinity in St. Mary's College there. In December 1685 he was appointed principal of Edinburgh University and minister of the high church, succeeding Andrew Cant in both offices. Said to have been originally a Roman catholic (Wodrow, Analecta, ii. 49), Monro, though professedly presbyterian, had strong leanings towards episcopacy, and was strongly attached to the cause of James II. Consequently, when the presbyterians came into power at the revolution, he resigned his ministerial charge, and was forced to demit his office of principal. In 1688 he was nominated bishop of Argyle by the influence of Viscount Dundee, but he was neither elected nor consecrated. The commission appointed to see the Privy Council Act of 1690 carried out in the Scottish universities made many charges against Monro, and his replies, given in his anonymously published 'Presbyterian Inquisition' (London, 1691), throw much light on the internal condition of Edinburgh University. It was one of the singular circumstances of the case that the declaration of the Prince of Orange was conveyed to the Edinburgh magistrates by Monro, instead of being sent directly to them by the government (Council Reg. xxxii. 297). His career subsequently to September 1690 cannot be definitely ascertained. According to Bower, after his expulsion from the university he acted as an Episcopal clergyman in Edinburgh, and died in 1715,' but there are doubts as to the correctness of the date (see Scott, Fasti). In 1673 he married Anna Logan, by whom he had two daughters and a son James [q. v.] As principal he proved himself a weak disciplinarian, or else he 'sacrificed discipline to ecclesiastical partiality' (Grant). His published writings, several of which are anonymous, include 'An Apology for the Church of Scotland,' London, 1693; 'Spirit of Calumny,' &c., London, 1693; 'Sermons preached on Several Occasions,' London, 1693; and 'Letter to Sir Robert Howard occasioned by his Twofold Vindication of Bishop Tillotson,' London, 1696.
[Bower's History of the University of Edinburgh, i. 309; Sir Alexander Grant's Story of the University of Edinburgh, ii. 254, 478; Grub's Eccl. Hist. of Scotland, iii. 291, 319; Apology for the Clergy of Scotland; Lawson's Hist. of the Scottish Episcopal Church from the Revolution to the Present Time; Keith's Catalogue of Bishops; Hew Scott's Fasti Ecclesiæ Scoticanæ, ii. 547, 562, 571; Fountainhall's Historical Notices (Bannatyne Club); Fernie's and Chalmers's Histories of Dunfermline; Wodrow's Analecta (Maitland Club); Wodrow's Correspondence (Wodrow Soc.).]
J. C. H.