OpenLLM-France/wikimedia huggingface dataset:
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Foster, John Leslie

​FOSTER, JOHN LESLIE (d. 1842), Irish judge, was the eldest son of William Foster, bishop of Clogher, who died in 1797, by Catherine, daughter of Henry Leslie, D.D., and grandson of Anthony Foster, lord chief baron of Ireland. He was admitted to Trinity College, Dublin, 1 March 1797, and graduated B.A. in 1800, LL.B. in 1805, and LL.D. in 1810 (Cat. of Graduates in Univ. of Dublin, 1591–1868, p. 205). He was called to the bar in Ireland in Michaelmas term 1803, but was for some time a member of Lincoln's Inn. In 1804 he published an ‘Essay on the Principles of Commercial Exchanges, particularly between England and Ireland,’ 8vo, London. He was afterwards appointed a commissioner for improving the bogs of Ireland. In 1806 he unsuccessfully contested Dublin University as a tory against the Hon. George Knox, LL.D., also a tory, but was returned the following year, and retained his seat until the general election of 1812. In March 1816 he again entered parliament as member for Yarmouth, Isle of Wight, was chosen advocate-general in Ireland in June of that year, and counsel to the commissioners of revenue in Ireland in April 1818. At the general election of 1818 he was returned for both Armagh and Lisburn, when he elected to serve for Armagh, and continued member until 1820. He was returned for the county of Louth at a by-election on 21 Feb. 1824, and again at the general election in 1826 (Lists of Members of Parliament, Official Return, pt. ii. 255, 264, 282, 298, 314). His two speeches in the House of Commons of 24 April 1812 and 9 May 1817, on Grattan's motion respecting the penal laws against the Roman catholics of Ireland, were published separately. On 4 Feb. 1819 he was elected F.R.S., being then member of the Royal Irish Academy and vice-president of the Dublin Society for the Improvement of Useful Arts. He was also king's counsel, and commissioner of the board of education in Ireland, and of the Irish fisheries. In 1825 he gave evidence ​before the select committee of the House of Lords appointed to inquire into the state of Ireland. He was appointed a baron of the court of exchequer in Ireland by patent dated 13 July 1830 (Gent. Mag. vol. c. pt. ii. p. 76), and was transferred to the court of common pleas a few months before his death, which took place at Cavan 10 July 1842, when on circuit (ib. new ser. xviii. 424). He married, 19 Aug. 1814, Letitia, youngest daughter of the Right Hon. James Fitzgerald [q. v.] (ib. vol. lxxxiv. pt. ii. p. 288), and by that lady, who survived him, he left issue.
G. G.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Foster, Augustus John

​FOSTER, Sir AUGUSTUS (1780–1848), diplomatist, second son of John Thomas Foster, M.P. for Ennis in the Irish House of Commons (nephew of Anthony Foster, lord chief baron of Ireland, and first cousin of John Foster, lord Oriel [q. v.]), by Lady Elizabeth Hervey, daughter of Frederick Augustus, earl of Bristol and bishop of Derry, was born on 1 Dec. 1780, and through the influence of his mother, who had remarried William, fifth duke of Devonshire, he was appointed secretary to the legation of the Right Hon. Hugh Elliot [q. v.] at Naples. In August 1811 he was nominated minister plenipotentiary to the United States of America. His manners were not conciliatory, and he did nothing to stave off the war which broke out in 1812. In that year he returned to England, and was elected M.P. for Cockermouth, and in May 1814 he was nominated minister plenipotentiary at Copenhagen. He remained in Denmark for ten years, during which nothing of importance happened, and in 1815 he married Albinia Jane, daughter of the Hon. George Vere Hobart, who received a patent of precedency as an earl's daughter when her brother succeeded to the earldom of Buckinghamshire in 1832. In 1822 Foster was sworn of the privy council, and in 1824 he was transferred to the court of Turin, and was knighted and made a G.C.H. in the following year. He was further created a baronet ‘of Glyde Court, county Louth,’ on 30 Sept. 1831, and he remained at Turin for no less than sixteen years, until 1840, during which period no event happened to bring his name into notice. In that year he retired from the diplomatic service. On 1 Aug. 1848 he committed suicide by cutting his throat, in a fit of temporary insanity, at Branksea Castle, near Poole, Dorsetshire.
H. M. S.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Foster, John (1787?-1846)

​FOSTER, JOHN (1787?–1846), architect, son of a builder and surveyor to the corporation of Liverpool, was born at Liverpool about 1787. He received his early professional training in the office of his father, which was followed by some years' study in the office of the eminent London architect, Wyatt. He assisted Charles Robert Cockerell [q. v.] in his investigations into the remains of ancient architecture in Greece, and while in that country discovered the sculptures of the pediment of the temple of Athene at Ægina. In 1814 he returned to Liverpool, and for a short time carried on along with his brother their father's private practice in that city. He was soon, however, called to his father's post of architect and surveyor to the corporation, which he held until the passing of the Municipal Reform Act in 1832, when he retired into private life, and died on 21 Aug. 1846. He was the designer of many of the handsomest public buildings of his native city, particularly the custom house, which has been extolled, perhaps extravagantly, by the German traveller Kohl as ‘unquestionably one of the most magnificent pieces of architecture of our age;’ the school for the blind, the railway station in Lime Street, the St. John's market, and the churches of St. Michael and St. Luke.
[Imperial Dict. of Biography.]
G. W. B.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Fosbroke, Thomas Dudley

​FOSBROKE, THOMAS DUDLEY (1770–1842), antiquary, born 27 May 1770, was the only son of William Fosbroke by his second wife, Hesther, daughter of Thomas Lashbroke of Southwark, and was a descendant of a family first settled at Forsbrook in Staffordshire (for the family history see Fosbroke, Brit. Monachism, 3rd ed. pp. 14–23). When nine years old he was sent to St. Paul's School, London, and in 1785 was elected to a Teasdale scholarship at Pembroke College, Oxford. He graduated B.A. 1789, M.A. 1792 (Catal. Oxf. Graduates). He was ordained in 1792, and was curate of Horsley in Gloucestershire from 1792 to 1810. From 1810 to 1830 he was curate of Walford, near Ross, Herefordshire, and from 1830 till his death was vicar of the parish. He died at Walford vicarage on 1 Jan. 1842. He married, in 1796, Miss Howell of Horsley, and had four sons and six daughters. His wife and seven of his children (see Gent. Mag. 1842, new ser. xvii. 216) survived him. There is a portrait of him prefixed to his ‘British Monachism’ (3rd edit.).
Fosbroke was elected a fellow of the Society of Antiquaries in 1799, and from about that time devoted himself to archæology and Anglo-Saxon literature, studying eight or nine hours a day. His ‘British Monachism’ was published in 1802 (London, 2 vols. 8vo), and was well received (also 1817, 4to; 1843, 8vo). His other chief work, the ‘Encyclopædia of Antiquities,’ a treatise on the elements of classical and mediæval archæology, was published in 1825 (London, 2 vols. 4to; also London, 1840, 1 vol. 8vo). He contributed many reviews to the ‘Gentleman's Magazine,’ and among his other publications are: 1. ‘Abstracts of Records and MSS. respecting the County of Gloucester,’ Gloucester, 1807, 2 vols. 4to. 2. ‘Key to the Testament; or Whitby's Commentary abridged,’ 1815, 8vo. 3. ‘History of the City of Gloucester,’ London, 1819, fol. 4. ‘Berkeley Manuscripts’ (pedigrees of the Berkeleys; history of parish of Berkeley, &c.), London, 1821, 4to. 5. ‘Companion to the Wye Tour: Ariconensia’ (on Ross and Archenfield), Ross, 1821, 12mo. He also made additions to Gilpin's ‘Wye Tour’ (see Brit. Mus. Cat.) 6. ‘The Tourist's Grammar’ (on scenery, antiquities, &c.), London, 1826, 12mo. 7. ‘Account of Cheltenham,’ Cheltenham, 1826, 12mo. 8. ‘Foreign Topography’ (an account of ancient remains in Africa, Asia, and Europe), London, 1828, 4to. 9. ‘A Treatise on the Arts, Manufactures, Manners, and Institutions of the Greeks and Romans’ (in Lardner's ‘Cabinet Cyclopædia’), 1833, 8vo.
W. W.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Barker, Edmond

​BARKER, EDMOND (1721–1780?), physician, was born in 1721; his birthplace and parentage are unknown. He studied medicine at the university of Leyden, whose register is the only authority for his age and nationality. The entry of his matriculation, on 16 Sept. 1743, describes him as an Englishman, aged 22. He took his doctor's degree in 1747, and settled to the practice of his profession in London. In the winter of 1749, Dr. Johnson, as yet uncelebrated, and only winning his way to recognition, established the Ivy Lane Club, which met weekly at a ‘famous beefsteak house’ near St. Paul's; to this conversational society Barker was introduced by a fellow-student, Samuel Dyer. Sir John Hawkins, in his ‘Life of Johnson,’ has left character portraits of some of the members of the club; he describes Barker as a dissenter by education, a unitarian by religious profession, and a disciple of Lord Shaftesbury in philosophy. According to the same authority, Barker was an acute reasoner on ethics, a deep metaphysician, an excellent classical scholar, and a student of the Italian poets. He was, however, ‘a ​thoughtless young man,’ so slovenly in his habits, dress, and appearance as to be a jest to his companions; and naturally he ‘succeeded ill in his profession.’ In this sketch there is one characteristic detail which may be accepted with a confidence that Hawkins does not always merit. Johnson, we are told, so often snubbed Barker for his unitarianism that his visits to the club became less and less frequent. Hawkins continues: ‘After leaving us’ [i.e. the Ivy Lane company] ‘he went to practice at Trowbridge, in Wiltshire, but at the end of two years returned to London, and became librarian to the College of Physicians in room of Edwards the ornithologist, and for some misbehaviour was displaced, and died in obscurity.’ The third part of Edwards's ‘Gleanings of Natural History,’ published in 1764, was translated by Barker from English into French, the work being printed in parallel columns in both languages. The books of the Royal College of Physicians show that he was ‘library-keeper’ to that body from 1760 to 1771; how much longer he held the position—which was one of small emolument, and probably consistent with the exercise of his profession—or for what reason he ceased to hold it, a gap in the college records prevents us from ascertaining. It appears, however, that by 1781 a successor had been found for him. Boswell knew nothing of Barker at first hand, and it seems almost certain that his intimacy with Johnson was not renewed after his return from Trowbridge. To the sombre sequel of his career as described by Hawkins no other evidence is opposed.
J. M. S.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Barker, Francis

​BARKER, FRANCIS (d. 1859?), Irish physician, graduated B.A. at Trinity College, Dublin, in 1793, and afterwards studied medicine at Edinburgh. He there became intimate with Sir Walter Scott. On taking a medical degree at Edinburgh he composed a thesis, ‘De invento Galvani,’ suggesting the identity of the nervous fluid and dynamical electricity. After residing in Waterford for five years, where he opened the first fever hospital in Ireland, he settled in Dublin; in 1808 was elected professor of chemistry there, and took the M.B. and M.D. degrees in 1810. He started the first Irish medical journal in conjunction with Dr. Todd. In 1804 he was elected senior physician to the Cork Street Hospital, and from 1820 to 1852 was secretary to the Irish board of health. He published many reports on fevers, and in 1821, in conjunction with Dr. Cheyne, a work on ‘Epidemic Fevers in Ireland.’ In 1826 he edited the Dublin Pharmacopœia. He died about 1859.
[Dr. Waller in Imperial Biog. Dict.; Cat. of Dublin Graduates, 1591–1868.]
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Barker, George (1776-1845)

​BARKER, GEORGE (1776–1845), benefactor to Birmingham, was born in 1776. Notwithstanding his arduous duties as a solicitor, he devoted a large portion of his time both to scientific pursuits and to benevolent and social enterprises. He exerted himself with great energy to extend the advantages of the General Hospital, in behalf of which he was one of the chief promoters of the Birmingham musical festivals. He was the founder of the Birmingham Philosophical Society, and by his lectures on chemistry gave a considerable impetus to certain special manufactures. From the first he took a special interest in the inventions of Watt and Boulton; and it was chiefly owing to his exertions that an act was obtained for that ‘gigantic absurdity,’ as it was called, ‘the Birmingham railway.’ In recognition of his scientific acquirements he was in 1839 elected a member of the Royal Society. He died 6 Dec. 1845. His statue in marble is in the General Hospital.
T. F. H.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Barker, George Robert

​BARKER, Sir GEORGE ROBERT (1817–1861), colonel in the royal artillery, after studying at the Royal Military Academy, Woolwich, was appointed second lieutenant in the royal artillery in 1834. Not happening to be employed in any of the colonial wars of the next twenty years, he had no opportunity of showing his qualities; but in the Crimea, whither, as captain, he proceeded at the beginning of the struggle, he speedily attracted the favourable notice of Sir Colin Campbell, afterwards Lord Clyde, to whose division he was attached. He commanded a battery at Alma and Inkerman, was in command of the artillery in the expedition to Kertch, and commanded the batteries of the left attack at the fall of Sevastopol. He returned to England a colonel, and when the news of the mutiny led to the despatch of a force of royal artillery to India, he was at once selected for service in that country. Under his old chief he served, with the local rank of brigadier-general, in command of the artillery at the siege and capture of Lucknow. Subsequently, at the head of a mixed brigade, he defeated the mutineers in force at Jamoo, and captured the stronghold of Birwah, for which services he was made K.C.B. After the suppression ​of the mutiny Barker was engaged in measures for the consolidation of the material of the royal and Indian artilleries, a work of considerable difficulty. A military career of much promise was cut short by his death, which occurred at Simlah in July 1861.
H. M. C.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Henniker-Major, John

​HENNIKER-MAJOR, JOHN, second Lord Henniker (1752–1821), born on 19 April 1752, was the eldest son of Sir John Henniker, knt., M.P., F.R.S., of Stratford-upon-Slaney, co. Wicklow, Newton Hall, Dunmow, and Stratford House, Stratford, both in Essex, who was elevated to the peerage of Ireland as Baron Henniker on 30 July 1800. His mother was Anne, eldest daughter and coheiress of Sir John Major, bart., of Worlingworth Hall, Suffolk (Foster, Peerage, 1882, p. 344). He was educated at Eton and St. John's College, Cambridge (M.A. by royal mandate 1772, LL.D. 1811), and was called to the bar in 1777 as a member of Lincoln's Inn. He was elected F.S.A. on 9 June 1785 (Gough, Chronolog. List Soc. Antiq. 1798, p. 40), and F.R.S. on 15 Dec. following (Thomson, Hist. Roy. Soc. Appendix iv. p. lix). On 10 Aug. 1792 he took the surname and arms of Major by royal license. He succeeded his father as second Baron Henniker on 13 April 1803. From January 1805 till 1812 he was M.P. for Rutlandshire in the tory interest, and from 1812 till his retirement in 1818 M.P. for Stamford, Lincolnshire (H. S. Smith, Parliaments of England, i. 205, ii. 13). He died on 4 Dec. 1821 at Stratford House, Essex. On 21 April 1794 he married Emily, daughter of Robert Jones of Duffryn, Glamorganshire, but by her, who died on 18 Dec. 1819, had no issue. He was succeeded in his title and estate by his ​nephew, John Minet Henniker, who resumed the additional surname of Major by royal license on 27 May 1822.
Henniker-Major was author of: 1. ‘A Letter to George, Earl of Leicester, President of the Society of Antiquaries’ [on some armorial bearings found at Caen], 8vo, London, 1788. 2. ‘Two Letters on the Origin, Antiquity, and History of Norman Tiles, stained with armorial bearings,’ 8vo, London, 1794. 3. ‘Some Account of the Families of Major and Henniker,’ 4to, London [1803]. To ‘Archæologia’ (xi. 255–66) he contributed in March 1793 an ‘Account of Bicknacre Priory, Essex.’
[Gent. Mag. 1821, pt. ii. 562; Brit. Mus. Cat.]
G. G.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Henniker, Frederick

​HENNIKER, Sir FREDERICK (1793–1825), traveller, eldest son of the Hon. Sir Brydges Trecothick Henniker of Newton Hall, Essex, bart., by his wife Mary, eldest daughter of William Press, and a grandson of John, first baron Henniker, was born on 1 Nov. 1793. He was educated at Eton and at St. John's College, Cambridge, where he graduated B.A. in 1815. He succeeded his father as second baronet on 3 July 1816, and subsequently travelled through France and Italy to Malta, and thence to Alexandria and Upper Egypt, Nubia, and the oasis Boeris. After revisiting Cairo he went to Mount Sinai and Jerusalem, returning home by Smyrna, Athens, Constantinople, and Vienna. While on his way from Jerusalem to Jericho he was severely wounded by banditti, and left stark naked. In 1823 he published an account of his travels under the title of ‘Notes during a Visit to Egypt, Nubia, the Oasis, Mount Sinai, and Jerusalem’ (London, 8vo); a second edition appeared, with a slightly altered title, in the following year (London, 8vo). In the spring of 1825 he canvassed Reading with a view of contesting that borough in the event of a dissolution, but withdrew his candidature, and died in the Albany, Piccadilly, on 6 Aug. 1825, in the thirty-second year of his age. He was buried at Great Dunmow, Essex. He was unmarried, and was succeeded in the baronetcy by his brother, the Hon. and Rev. Sir Augustus Brydges Henniker.
[Gent. Mag. 1825, vol. xcv. pt. ii. pp. 185–6; Ann. Reg. 1825, Chron. pp. 270–1; Georgian Era, 1834, iii. 473–4; Burke's Peerage, &c., 1890, p. 693; Foster's Baronetage, 1881, p. 306; Stapylton's Eton School Lists, 1864, pp. 60, 66; Grad. Cantabr. 1884, p. 248.]
G. F. R. B.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Hennell, Mary

​HENNELL, MARY (1802–1843), author of ‘An Outline of the various Social Systems and Communities which have been founded on the Principle of Co-operation,’ was born at Manchester on 23 May 1802. She was the eldest sister of Charles Christian Hennell [q. v.] Her essay on ‘Social Systems’ was first published in 1841, as an appendix to ‘The Philosophy of Necessity,’ by her brother-in-law, Charles Bray [q. v.]; it was afterwards printed separately, 1844. She wrote the article ‘Ribbons’ for Knight's ‘Penny Cyclopedia.’ She died at Hackney on 16 March 1843.
[Private information.]
J. M. S.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Hennen, John

​HENNEN, JOHN, M.D. (1779–1828), army surgeon, born on 21 April 1779, at Castlebar, co. Mayo, was the younger son of James Hennen, and descended from a family who had held land near Castlebar since the Cromwellian occupation. From school at Limerick he became medical apprentice to a near relative (his father?) at Castlebar. In 1796 he entered the medical classes at Edinburgh, was more gay than studious, and married, when under eighteen, Miss Malcolm of Dumfries. He qualified at the Edinburgh College of Surgeons in 1798, joined the Shropshire militia as assistant-surgeon, in 1800 was appointed to the 40th regiment, and went with it to the Mediterranean. He served through the Peninsular war in various regiments, and became staff-surgeon in 1812. He became known as a skilful operator and energetic officer, and was also noted for being never without a cigar in his mouth. He retired on half-pay in 1814, but had hardly settled at Dumfries when he was recalled to active service in Flanders. For his services after Waterloo he was promoted to the rank of deputy-inspector of hospitals, and placed on the home staff at Portsmouth. There he utilised his abundant notes of cases to write his ‘Observations on some important points in the Practice of Military Surgery; and in the Arrangement and Police of Hospitals,’ which he finished and published in 1818 at Edinburgh, whither he was transferred in 1817 as principal medical officer for Scotland. A second edition was published in 1820 with the title ‘Principles of Military Surgery,’ and a third edition with life by his son in 1829. At Edinburgh he attended the classes a second time, and graduated M.D. in 1819. In 1820 he was appointed principal medical officer in the Mediterranean, residing at Malta and Corfu. His ‘Medical Topography’ of these islands and of Gibraltar, in the form of reports to the army medical department, was brought out by his son in 1830. In 1826 he became principal medical officer at Gibraltar, and died there on 3 Nov. 1828 of a fever (yellow fever?) which he contracted in combating the disastrous epidemic which had broken out in the garrison in September of that year. A monument to him was erected by subscription at Gibraltar. He was twice married and left five children.
[Biography by D. O. Edwards in Lancet, 1828–9, ii. 44; Edinb. Med. and Surg. Journ. xxxi. 225, 1829; Life by his son, prefixed to 3rd edition of Military Surgery.]
C. C.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Henning, John

​HENNING, JOHN (1771–1851), modeller and sculptor, born at Paisley on 2 May 1771, was the son of Samuel Henning, a carpenter. He received at Paisley the only education he ever had. He followed his father's business, and while engaged in it began to model portraits in wax. In 1799 he went to Glasgow, and then, about 1802, to Edinburgh, where he studied in the Trustees' Academy under John Graham (1754–1817) [q. v.] Through the influence of his employer, James Monteith, he was commissioned to make busts of several prominent citizens of Edinburgh. In 1811 he came to London, and began to draw with enthusiasm from the Elgin marbles, and afterwards from the Phigaleian frieze. After twelve years he completed the modelling of a reduced copy of the Parthenon and Phigaleian friezes, with the missing parts restored. The work attracted attention at the time, but Michaelis (Der Parthenon, p. iv) says the restoration of the Parthenon frieze is quite arbitrary. Henning afterwards executed similar models in relief of the cartoons of Raphael. While in London he received sittings from several ladies, including Mrs. Siddons, and Princess Charlotte of Wales, to whom Henning says he recommended books on the Scottish reformation and the revolution (Notes and Queries, 3rd ser. viii. 305). Henning was one of the founders, and for many years a member of the Society of British Artists. In 1846 he was presented with the freedom of Paisley, and was entertained at a banquet there. He died in London on 8 April 1851, aged 80, and was buried in the cemetery of St. Pancras at Finchley. Redgrave says his works are ‘plaster miniatures modelled with great skill and minute accuracy.’
[Redgrave's Dict. of Artists of English School; Irving's Book of Scotsmen; Notes and Queries, 3rd ser. viii. 305; Nagler's Künstler-Lexikon, vi. 103, ‘Henning;’ Gent. Mag. 1851, ii. 213 (from the Builder); Athenæum, 26 April 1851, p. 458.]
W. W.