OpenLLM-France/wikimedia huggingface dataset:
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Park, James Alan

​PARK, Sir JAMES ALAN (1763–1838), judge, son of James Park, an Edinburgh surgeon, was born in Edinburgh on 6 April 1763. He was brought up in England, whither his father had removed to take up a practice at Newington, Surrey. His education he received at Nottingham grammar school, and eventually he became a student of Lincoln's Inn, read with a conveyancer, and was called to the bar 18 June 1784. With the encouragement of his friend, fellow​countryman, and patron, Lord Mansfield, he published a ‘Treatise on the Law of Marine Insurance’ in 1787, largely based on Lord Mansfield's opinions and decisions. This proved useful and successful, passed through six editions in his lifetime, and early brought its author into practice, especially in mercantile causes. It reached its eighth edition in 1842. Though not an eloquent advocate, he was a lucid, earnest, and persuasive one, and his habit of constantly discussing cases with Lord Mansfield gave him considerable learning and experience in the application of principle. In 1791 he was appointed vice-chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster, in 1795 recorder of Preston, in Trinity vacation 1799 a king's counsel, in 1802 recorder of Durham, and in 1811 attorney-general of Lancaster. When Law left the northern circuit in 1802, to become attorney-general, Park obtained the lead of the circuit; and in London practice for many years Gibbs and Garrow were his only equals.
In public affairs he played a modest part. He joined his friend, William Stevens, treasurer of Queen Anne's bounty, in procuring the repeal of penal statutes against Scottish episcopalian clergy. He was one of the original members of ‘Nobody's Club,’ founded in honour of William Stevens [q. v.], and published a memoir of him on his death (privately printed, 1812; republished in 8vo, 1815). Personally a pious churchman, he published in 1804 ‘A Layman's earnest Exhortation to a frequent Reception of the Lord's Supper.’
At length, on 22 Jan. 1816, he was promoted to the bench of the common pleas, and was knighted. He sat in that court till his death, which took place at his house in Bedford Row, Bloomsbury, on 8 Dec. 1838. He was buried in the family vault at Elwick, Durham. As a judge, though not eminent, he was sound, fair, and sensible, a little irascible, but highly esteemed. Some stories of his bad temper are to be found in the memoir of him in the ‘Gentleman's Magazine.’ He was a fellow of the Society of Antiquaries, and received the degree of D.C.L. at Oxford on 10 June 1834. He married, 1 Jan. 1791, Lucy, daughter of Richard Atherton, a woollen-draper of Preston, one of the original partners in the Preston Old Bank, by whom he had two sons.
J. A. H.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Park, Henry

​PARK, HENRY (1745–1831), surgeon, son of a Liverpool surgeon, was born in that town on 2 March 1744–5, and received his early education under the Rev. Henry Wolstenholme. At fourteen he was placed with a surgeon at the Liverpool Infirmary, and when only seventeen had the care of a large number of French prisoners of war. He then went to London to enter upon an apprenticeship to Percival Pott [q. v.], and subsequently completed his studies at Paris and Rouen. In 1766, when he was about twenty-one, he settled in his native town, and in the following year was appointed surgeon to the infirmary, a post which he held for thirty-one years. He retired from work at the age of seventy-one, after a professional career of extreme activity, and with the deserved reputation of a bold, original, and successful practitioner. He is best remembered by his ‘Account of a New Method of Treating Diseases of the Joints of the Knee and Elbow,’ 1783, 8vo, which was translated into French in 1784 (Paris), and into Italian in 1792 (by Brera, Pavia). It was afterwards published with Moreau's ‘Cases of Excision of Carious Joints, with observations by J. Jeffrey,’ Glasgow, 1806. The operation which led to the writing of this book is described by the ‘Edinburgh Review’ (October 1872) as one of the greatest surgical triumphs of the time. Park died, near Liverpool, on 28 Jan. 1831.
He married, in 1776, the eldest daughter of Mr. Ranicar of West Leigh Hall, Leigh, Lancashire, by whom he had eight daughters and a son, John Ranicar Park [q. v.]
[Trans. Provincial Med. and Surg. Assoc. vii. 459; Picton's Memorials of Liverpool, 1875, ii. 237.]
C. W. S.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Parfre, Jhan

Jhon Parfre in the ODNB.
​PARFRE, JHAN (fl. 1512), is usually described as the author of a mystery-play entitled ‘Candlemas Day.’ The play, which was long quoted as ‘Parfre's Candlemas Day,’ was written in English verse in the fifteenth century, and was prepared for the great annual Corpus Christi exhibitions. It deals mainly with Herod and the massacre of the Innocents. From the unique manuscript which is in the Bodleian Library (Digby 133), it was printed for the first time in 1773 in Hawkins's ‘Origin of the English Drama,’ and was reissued by the Abbotsford Club in 1835 in ‘Ancient Mysteries from the Digby MSS.’ At the end of the manuscript appear the words ‘Jhan Parfre ded wryte thys booke Anno D'ni Mill'mo CCCCCXIJ.’ It is clear from these words that Parfre was the copyist of the Digby MS., and that he prefers no claim to be regarded as the author of the ​mystery, whose identity cannot be determined.
[Hawkins's Origin of the English Drama; Baker's Biogr. Dramatica; Ancient Mysteries (Abbotsford Club), 1835, Pref. pp. 3–30.]
S. L.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Park, John (1804-1865)

​PARK, JOHN (1804–1865), divine and poet, son of John Park, wine merchant, was born at Greenock on 14 Jan. 1804. He studied for the ministry at Aberdeen and at Glasgow University, where he formed a friendship with the son of the minister at Greenock, Alexander Scott, afterwards Edward Irving's assistant and principal of Owens College, Manchester. Licensed as a probationer in 1831, he was in turn assistant to Dr. Steele at West Church, Greenock, and to Dr. Grigor of Bonhill, Dumbartonshire. In 1832 he was ordained minister of Rodney Street Presbyterian Church, Liverpool, and in 1843 he became minister of Glencairn, Dumfriesshire. In 1854 he was transferred to the first charge of St. Andrews, and the St. Andrews University conferred on him the degree of D.D. He died suddenly from paralysis on 8 April 1865, and is buried in the grounds of the ruined cathedral.
Park was a man of versatile tastes and ability, and in Scotland he is widely known as a song writer and composer. One song, ‘O gin I were where Gadie rins,’ is the most popular of several versions written to the same chorus. Park gathered the tune from a country girl in Aberdeenshire. Other popular airs of his own composition are known as ‘Montgomery's Mistress’ and ‘The Miller's Daughter.’ Park played several musical instruments, and was also no mean artist. He published none of his songs in his lifetime. After his death his works were published under the title of ‘Songs composed and in part written by the late Rev. John Park,’ Leeds, 1876. This volume contains a portrait, and an introduction by Principal Shairp. It has twenty-seven songs of which both words and music are by Park, and thirty-seven settings by him of words from the great poets. A volume of ‘Lectures and Sermons’ appeared posthumously, Edinburgh, 1865. In 1842 Park visited Wordsworth at Rydal Mount, and a diary of the visit was privately printed by his nephew, Mr. Allan Park Paton, under the title of ‘A Greenockian's Visit to Wordsworth,’ Greenock, 1887. Mr. Paton contemplates publishing further selections from Park's manuscripts and journals, which include an account of a visit to Turner the artist.
J. C. H.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Moser, Joseph

​MOSER, JOSEPH (1748–1819), artist, author, and magistrate, son of Hans Jacob Moser, a Swiss artist, and nephew of George Michael Moser [q. v.], was born in Greek Street, Soho, in June 1748. He was instructed in enamel painting by his uncle, and exhibited at the Royal Academy from 1774 to 1782, and again in 1787, but after his marriage to a daughter of Peter Liege, an eminent surgeon of Holles Street, Cavendish Square, he abandoned the profession, and retired into the country. After an absence of three years Moser returned to London and devoted himself to literary pursuits. He wrote upon the topics of the day in the ‘European Magazine’ and other periodicals, and published many political pamphlets, dramas, and works of fiction, which enjoyed but a temporary popularity. About 1794 he was appointed a deputy-lieutenant for Middlesex and a magistrate for Westminster, sitting first at the Queen's Square court and subsequently at Worship Street. This post, the duties of which he fulfilled with zeal and ability, he held until his death, which took place at Romney Terrace, Westminster, 22 May 1819. Moser's writings included:
* ‘Adventures of Timothy Twig, Esq., in a Series of Poetical Epistles,’ 1794.
* ‘Turkish Tales,’ 1794.
* ‘Anecdotes of Richard Brothers,’ 1795, in which he exposed the pretensions of that enthusiast and his supporter, N. B. Halhed [q. v.]
* ‘Tales and Romances of Ancient and Modern Times,’ 5 vols. 1808.
He also wrote several slight dramatic pieces of little merit; they are enumerated in Baker's ‘Biographia Dramatica.’ Four seem to have been published, but none are in the British Museum Library. A memoir of Moser, with a portrait engraved by W. Ridley from a picture by S. Drummond, appeared in the ‘European Magazine,’ August 1803.
[European Mag. 1803, ii. 83; Gent. Mag. 1819, i. 653; Baker's Biog. Dram. i. 527; Royal Academy Catalogues; Lowndes's Bibl. Man.]
F. M. O'D.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Moser, Mary

​MOSER, MARY (d. 1819), flower painter, was the only child of George Michael Moser [q. v.] She received premiums of five guineas from the Society of Arts in 1758 and 1759, and exhibited with the Society of Artists from 1760 to 1768. Though extremely near-sighted, Miss Moser became celebrated for her pictures of flowers, which were gracefully and harmoniously composed and highly finished. She was much patronised by Queen Charlotte, who employed her to decorate an entire room at Frogmore, paying her more than 900l. for the work, and throughout her life she was on terms of ​ intimacy with, the princesses. When the Royal Academy was established, Miss Moser was chosen a foundation member, and frequently contributed to its exhibitions up to 1802, sending chiefly flowers, but occasionally a classical or historical subject. She was a clever and agreeable woman, and some lively letters from her have been printed, one of them addressed to Fuseli, for whom she is believed to have formed an unrequited attachment. On 26 Oct. 1793 Miss Moser married, as his second wife, Captain Hugh Lloyd of Chelsea, and afterwards only practised as an amateur. In 1805, when West was re-elected president of the Royal Academy, the only dissentient voice was that of Fuseli, who gave his vote for Mrs. Lloyd, justifying himself with the characteristic remark that he thought 'one old woman as good as another.' Surviving her husband several years, Mrs. Lloyd died in Upper Thornhaugh Street, London, on 2 May 1819, and was buried at Kensington. Her will, of which she appointed Joseph Nollekens [q. v.] and her cousin Joseph Moser [q. v.] the executors, is printed at length in Smith's 'Nollekens and his Times.' Portraits of Mrs. Lloyd and Angelica Kauffmann, the only two ladies ever elected royal academicians, appear as pictures on the wall in Zoffany's 'Life School of the Royal Academy,' engraved by Earlom.
[W. Sandby's Hist. of the Royal Academy; J. T. Smith's Nollekens and his Times; Gent. Mag. 1793, ii. 957, 1819 i. 492; Knowles's Life of Fuseli; Royal Acad. Catalogues.]
F. M. O'D.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Moses, Henry

​MOSES, HENRY (1782?–1870), engraver, worked throughout the first half of the present century, enjoying a great reputation for his outline plates, which are distinguished for the purity and correctness of the drawing. His art was peculiarly suited to the representation of sculpture and antiquities, and he published many sets of plates of that class; he was one of the engravers employed upon the official publication 'Ancient Marbles in the British Museum,' 1812-1845. Of the works wholly executed by himself the most important are: 'The Gallery of Pictures painted by Benjamin West,' 12 plates, 1811; 'A Collection of Antique Vases, Altars, &c., from various Museums and Collections,' 170 plates, 1814; 'Select Greek and Roman Antiquities,' 36 plates, 1817; 'Vases from the Collection of Sir Henry Englefield,' 40 plates, 1819; 'Examples of Ornamental Sculpture in Architecture, drawn by L. Vulliamy,' 36 plates, 1823; illustrations to Goethe's 'Faust,' after Retzsch, 26 plates, 1821; illustrations to Schiller's 'Fridolin' and 'Fight with the Dragon,' 1824 and 1825; Noehden's 'Specimens of Ancient Coins of Magna Graecia and Sicily,' 24 stipple plates, 1826; 'Works of Canova,' with text by Countess Albrizzi, 3 vols. 1824-8; and 'Selections of Ornamental Sculpture from the Louvre,' 9 plates, 1828. Moses also contributed many of the illustrations to Hakewill's 'Tour of Italy,' 1820, and 'Woburn Abbey Marbles,' 1822; he etched from his own designs 'Picturesque Views of Ramsgate,' 23 plates, 1817; 'Sketches of Shipping' and 'Marine Sketch Book,' 1824 (reissued by Ackermann, 1837); and 'Visit of William IV, when Duke of Clarence, to Portsmouth in 1827,' 17 plates, 1830. Moses's latest work was a set of twenty-two illustrations to 'Pilgrim's Progress,' after H. C. Selous, executed for the Art Union of London, 1844. He died at Cowley, Middlesex, 28 Feb. 1870.
[Redgrave's Dict. of Artists; Dodd's Collections in British Museum, Add. MS. 33403; Universal Cat. of Books on Art.]
F. M. O'D.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Mosley, Charles

​MOSLEY, CHARLES (d. 1770?), engraver, worked during the second quarter of the eighteenth century. He was much engaged upon book illustrations, and was employed by Hogarth, whom he assisted in his 'Gate of Calais,' 1749. Mosley's best plates are his portraits, which include Charles I on dorseback, after Vandyck; Nicholas Saunderson, after Gravelot; George Whitefield, after J. Smith; Theodore, king of Corsica, after Paulicino, 1739; Marshal Belleisle on horseback, and Mrs. Clive as the Lady in Lethe,' 1750. He also engraved 'The Proession of the Flitch of Bacon at Dunmow,' 1752, after David Ogborne; 'The Shooting of Three Highlanders in the Tower,' 1743; and, from his own designs, some popular satirical prints, dated 1739 and 1740. Mosley s said to have died about 1770.
[Redgrave's Dict. of Artists; Huber and Marini's Manuel des Curieux, &c., 1808; Dodd's manuscript Hist. of English Engravers in British Museum, Add. MS. 33403.]
F. M. O'D.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Moses, William Stainton

​MOSES, WILLIAM STAINTON (1840–1892), spiritualist, born in 1840, was eldest son of William Stainton Moses of Dorrington, Lincolnshire. He was educated at Bedford and Exeter College, Oxford, where he matriculated on 25 May 1858, graduated B.A. in 1863, and proceeded M.A. in 1865. He took holy orders, and was curate of Maughold in the Isle of Man from 1863 to 1868, and assistant chaplain of St. George's, Douglas, from 1868 to 1872, when he became interested in spiritualism, and resigned his cure for the post of English master at University College School. This office he held until 1890, when ill-health compelled his resignation. During his residence in London he devoted his leisure almost entirely to the exploration of the mysteries of spiritualism, to which he became a convert. He was one of the founders of the London Spiritualist Alliance, an active member and one of the vice-presidents of the Society for Psychical Research, a frequent contributor to 'Human Nature' and to 'Light,' and for some years editor of the latter journal. He died on 5 Sept. 1892.
Moses was a 'medium,' and conceived himself to be the recipient of spiritual revelations, which he published under the title of 'Spirit Teachings,' London, 1883, 8vo. He also wrote, under the disguised name 'M.A. Oxon.,' the following : 1. 'Carpenterian Criticism, being a Reply to an Article by Dr. W. B. Carpenter/London, 1877, 8vo. 2. 'Psychography, or a Treatise on the Objective Forms of Psychic or Spiritual Phenomena,' London, 1878, 8vo; 2nd edit. 1882. 3. 'Spirit Identity,' London, 1879, 8vo. 4. 'Higher Aspects of Spiritualism,' London, 1880, 8vo. 5. 'Spiritualism at the Church Congress,' London, 1881, 8vo. Moses also contributed introductions to 'Ghostly Visitors,' published under the pseudonym 'Spectre-Stricken,' London, 1882, 8vo, and William Gregory's 'Animal Magnetism,' London, 1884, 8vo.
[Light, 10 Sept. 1892; Foster's Alumni Oxon.; Clergy List, 1867; Univ. Coll. Cal. 1872-3, and 1889-90; Crockford's Clerical Directory, 1889; Kirk's Suppl. to Allibone's Dict. of Engl. Lit.; Proceedings of the Soc. of Psychical Research.]
J. M. R.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Moseley, Humphrey

​MOSELEY, HUMPHREY (d. 1661), bookseller, conjectured to be a son of Samuel Moseley, a Staffordshire man, who was a stationer in London (Arber, Transcripts, ii. 249, iii. 683), was admitted a freeman of the Stationers' Company in 1627 (ib. iii. 686), when he probably began business. He was 'clothed' of the same company on 28 Oct. 1633, and in July 1659 was chosen one of its wardens. The first entry of a book licensed to him in the 'Stationers' Register' is on 29 May 1630. He became the chief publisher of the 'finer literature' of his age (Masson, Milton, vi. 400). He published the first collected edition of Milton's 'Poems,' 1645, and prefixed an address to the reader, in which he said: 'It is the love I have to our own language that hath made me diligent to collect and set forth such pieces, both in prose and verse, as may renew the wonted honour and esteem of our English tongue.' He published also early editions of Howell, Waller, Crashaw, Denham, D'Avenant, Cartwright, Donne, Fanshawe, Henry Vaughan, and many other authors, as well as translations of Spanish and Italian novels and contemporary French romances. His shop was in St. Paul's Churchyard. He died on 31 Jan. 1660-1, and was buried in St. Gregory's Church. By his will he appointed his wife Anne and his only daughter Anne his executrices, and left bequests to his brothers Thomas and Charles Moseley and Richard Frampton, and 10l. for a bowl or cup for the Stationers' Company.
[Masson's Life of Milton, vi. 400; Arber's Transcripts of Stationers' Registers; Arber's List of London Booksellers, 1890; Smyth's Obituary (Camden Soc.), p. 53.]
C. W. S.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Nicholson, Brinsley

​NICHOLSON, BRINSLEY, M.D. (1824–1892), Elizabethan scholar, born in 1824 at Fort George, Scotland, was the eldest son of B. W. Hewittson Nicholson, of the army medical staff. After a boyhood passed at Gibraltar, Malta, and the Cape, where his father was stationed, he entered Edinburgh University in 1841, in due time took his degree, and finished his medical studies in Paris. Becoming an army surgeon he spent some years in South Africa, and saw service in the Kafir wars in 1853 and 1854. His careful observation and knowledge of the native tribes were shown in the genealogical tables of Kafir chiefs contributed by him to a ‘Compendium of Kafir Laws and Customs’ printed by the government of British Kaffraria at Mount Coke in 1858. During his long rides and lonely hours in these years the study of Shakespeare proved a constant solace. He was in China during the war of 1860, and present at the famous loot of the Summer Palace at Pekin; and in New Zealand took part in the Maori war, which ended in 1864. About 1870 he retired from the army, and, settling near London, he devoted himself seriously to Elizabethan literature.
In 1875 he edited, for the then recently formed New Shakspere Society, the first folio and the first quarto of ‘Henry the Fifth,’ and began the preparation of the ‘Parallel Texts’ of the same play, issued in 1877. This he was prevented from completing by severe illness. He afterwards read several papers at meetings of the New Shakspere Society, and, encouraged by his friend and fellow-student, Professor W. T. Gairdner of Glasgow, he brought out in 1886 an excellent reprint of Reginald Scot's ‘Discoverie of Witchcraft’ (1584). He subsequently worked on editions of Jonson, Chapman, and Donne; but he succeeded in bringing near completion only his edition of ‘The Best Plays of Ben Jonson,’ which was published posthumously in 1893, with an introduction by Professor C. H. Herford, in the Mermaid Series (2 vols.). His edition of Donne's poems was completed for the Muses' Library in 1895. He was an occasional contributor to ‘Notes and Queries,’ the ‘Athenæum,’ ‘Antiquary,’ and ‘Shakespeariana.’ Without being brilliant, his habits of accuracy and his full acquaintance with the literature of the period gave value to his criticism, and he was always ready to help a fellow scholar. He died 14 Sept. 1892. He had married in 1875, and his wife survived him.
L. T. S.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Nicholson

​ NICHOLSON. [See also Nicolson.]
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Nicholson, Francis (1650-1731)

​NICHOLSON, FRANCIS (1650–1731), theologian, son of Thomas Nicholson, was baptised on 27 Oct. 1650 at the collegiate church at Manchester, and admitted a servitor of University College, Oxford, early in 1666. He graduated B.A. on 18 Jan. 1669, and M.A. on 4 June 1673, and after his ordination ‘preached at Oxford and near Canterbury’ (Wood). Obadiah Walker [q. v.] was his tutor at Oxford, and from him he appears to have acquired his high church and Roman catholic views. A sermon in favour of penance, which he preached at St. Mary's Church, Oxford, on 20 June 1680, caused him to be charged before the vice-chancellor ​with spreading false doctrine, and he was ordered to recant. This, however, he declined to do, and his name was reported to the bishop, ‘to stop his preference.’ On the accession of James II he avowed himself a Roman catholic, and became an ardent champion of his adopted church. He attempted in vain to persuade John Hudson of University College to become an adherent of the king (Hearne). In 1688 he wrote an appendix to Abraham Woodhead's ‘Discourse on the Eucharist,’ entitled ‘The Doctrine of the Church of England concerning the substantial Presence and Adoration of our B. Saviour in the Eucharist asserted,’ &c. On the deposition of James II in 1688 Nicholson joined the English College of Carthusians at Niewport in the Netherlands, but the austerities of their rule obliged him about four years afterwards to leave the order, and he returned to England. Thence he shortly proceeded to Lisbon, in the service of Queen Catherine, widow of Charles II. He spent some years at the Portuguese court, formed a close intimacy with the heads of the English College at Lisbon, and afterwards retired to an estate which he had purchased at Pera, a suburb of Constantinople.
About 1720 he conveyed the whole of his property to the Lisbon College on the understanding that his debts should be paid, and that board and lodging, besides a sum of 12l. a year, should be allowed him for life. He died at the college on 13 Aug. 1731, aged nearly 81.
C. W. S.