OpenLLM-France/wikimedia huggingface dataset:
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Law, James (1560?-1632)

​LAW, JAMES (1560?–1632), archbishop of Glasgow, son of James Law of Spittal, portioner of Lathrisk in the county of Fife, and Agnes Strang of the house of Balcaskie, graduated at the university of St. Andrews in 1581, and was ordained and admitted minister of Kirkliston in Linlithgowshire in 1585. During his incumbency there, he and Spottiswood, then minister of Calder, afterwards archbishop, were censured by the synod of Lothian for playing at football on Sunday. In 1600 he was put on the standing commission of the church, in 1601 appointed one of the royal chaplains, in 1605 titular bishop of Orkney, and in 1608 moderator of the general assembly. He preached before the Glasgow assembly of 1610 in defence of episcopacy, and was consecrated bishop of St. Andrews in 1611 by the archbishop of Glasgow and the bishops of Galloway and Brechin. He supported the cause of the people of Orkney against the oppression of Earl Patrick Stewart, and succeeded in getting the lands and jurisdiction of the bishopric separated from those of the earldom. Through the influence of Archbishop Spottiswood, 'his old companion at football and condiscipulus,' he was promoted to the archbishopric of Glasgow in 1615, where he completed the leaden roof of the cathedral. In 1616 he was appointed by the general assembly one of a commission to prepare a book of canon for the church. He died in 1632, and was buried in the chancel of Glasgow Cathedral, where there is a massive monument to his memory erected by his widow.
Law was a favourite of King James, and a zealous promoter of his ecclesiastical policy. He was a man of some learning, left in manuscript a commentary on a part of scripture, and was commemorated by Dr. Arthur Johnston in some Latin verses. He married: (1) a daughter of Dundas of ​Newliston, Linlithgowshire; (2) Grissel Boswell; (3) Marion, daughter of Boyle of Kelburn, Ayrshire; and had three sons: James, to whom he left the estate of Brunton in Fife, Thomas, minister of Inchinnan, Renfrewshire, George, and a daughter Isabella. Andrew Law, minister of Neilston, Renfrewshire, and ancestor of the financier, is supposed to have been a brother of the archbishop.
G. W. S.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Law, James Thomas

​LAW, JAMES THOMAS (1790–1876), chancellor of Lichfield, born in 1790, was eldest son of George Henry Law, bishop of Bath and Wells, by Jane, daughter of General James Whorwood Adeane, M.P., of Babraham, Cambridgeshire (Gent. Mag. 1846, i. 531). He was educated at Christ's College, Cambridge, graduated B.A. in 1812 as second senior optime, was chosen fellow, took orders in 1814, and proceeded M.A. in 1815. On 9 April 1818 he was made prebendary of Chester (Le Neve, Fasti, ed. Hardy, iii. 273), and on 18 July following prebendary of Lichfield (ib. i. 588). In 1821 he was appointed chancellor of the diocese of Lichfield, in 1824 commissary of the archdeaconry of Richmond, and in 1840 special commissary of the diocese of Bath and Wells. He took much interest in the Birmingham School of Medicine and Surgery, Queen's College, Birmingham, of which he was elected honorary warden in 1846, and in the Theological College, Lichfield. He was master of St. John's Hospital, Lichfield. Law died at Lichfield on 22 Feb. 1876. On 16 Dec. 1820 he married Lady Henrietta Charlotte Grey (d. 1866), eldest daughter of George Harry, sixth earl of Stamford and Warrington, and left issue.
Law published: 1. 'A Catechetical Exposition of the Apostles' Creed,' 8vo, London, 1825. 2. 'The Poor Man's Garden, or a few brief Rules for Regulating Allotments of Land to the Poor for Potatoe Gardens,' &c., 8vo, London, 1830; 4th edit. 1831. 3. 'The Acts for Building and Promoting the Building of Additional Churches in Populous Parishes arranged and harmonised,' 8vo, London, 1841; 3rd edit. 1853. 4. 'The Ecclesiastical Statutes at large, extracted from the great body of the Statute Law and arranged under separate heads,' 5 vols. 8vo, London, 1847. 5. 'Lectures on the Ecclesiastical Law of England,' pt. i. 8vo, London, 1861. 6. 'Lectures on the Office and Duties of Churchwardens,' &c., 8vo, London, 1861. 7. 'Materials for a Brief History of ... Queen's College, Birmingham; with a Supplement and Appendices, arranged by Mr. Chancellor Law,' 4to, Lichfield, 1869. He also published 'Forms of Ecclesiastical Law,' 8vo, London, 1831 (another edit. 1844); a translation of the first part of T. Oughton's 'Ordo Judiciorum,' with large additions from Clarke's 'Praxis;' together with various charges and pamphlets.
G. G.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Law, Robert

​LAW, ROBERT (d. 1690?), covenanting preacher, was the son of Thomas Law, minister of Inchinnan in Renfrewshire, by Jean, daughter of Sir Robert Hamilton of Silvertonhill, and the grandson of James Law, archbishop of Glasgow from 1615 to 1632. He studied at the university of Glasgow, graduating M.A. there in 1646. The parish of New or Easter Kilpatrick, Dumbartonshire, called him to be their minister in 1652; but as his trials were unsatisfactory the presbytery refused to induct him. On appeal to the synod, a committee of that court was appointed to try him anew, and he was admitted by them without the consent of the presbytery (Baillie, Letters, iii. 186, 294). Law inherited the lands of Balernok and others from his father in 1657, together with his library, valued at 366l. 13s. 4d. Scots. He took the side of the protesters, and, declining to conform to episcopacy at the Restoration, was deprived of his benefice by the act of parliament of 11 June 1662. On the charge of preaching at conventicles he was arrested in his bed on 9 July 1674, and after suffering imprisonment in Glasgow for eight days was removed to the Tolbooth at Edinburgh. He admitted having preached in the vacant church of Kilsyth on the invitation of the people, and was placed under caution of five thousand marks to appear before the council when required (Wodrow, History, ed. Burns, ii. 270). Law accepted the indulgence of 1679, and on the petition of some heritors was permitted to return to his parish, though it would appear that another minister retained possession of the benefice (New Statistical Account of Dumbartonshire, 'Parish of New Kilpatrick'). He was married, and had at least one son, John, who became a regent in the university of Glasgow. He must have died before 1690, as on 28 Feb. of that year his son was served his heir in Balernok. He was buried in Glasgow High churchyard (Monteith, Collection of Epitaphs, Scotland, p. 293).
Law was author of 'Memorialls, or the Memorable Things that fell out within this Island of Brittain from 1638 to 1684,' a work which was edited in 1818 by Charles Kirkpatrick Sharpe, who, in his extensive annotations, shows an entire want of sympathy with his author. Burns, the editor of Wodrow, states that the work was published by Sharpe to discredit Wodrow and the presbyterians, and the statement is fully borne out by the recently published correspondence of Sharpe.
H. P.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Law, Hugh

​LAW, HUGH, LL.D. (1818–1883), lord chancellor of Ireland, only son of John Law of Woodlawn, co. Down, by his wife Margaret, youngest daughter of Christopher Crawley of Cullaville, co. Armagh, was born in 1818. He was educated at the Royal School at Dungannon and at Trinity College, Dublin, where he was elected to a scholarship in 1837, and in 1839 graduated B.A., having obtained the first senior moderatorship in classics. In 1840 he was called to the bar and joined the north-eastern circuit, but he practised principally in the courts of equity in Dublin and in Irish appeals in the House of Lords. In 1860 he became a queen's counsel. Until the disestablishment of the Irish church was proposed, he took little part in politics, though generally he was believed to be a conservative, but he then sided with the liberal party, drafted the Irish Church Act, a monument of his knowledge and skill; he was also the draftsman of the Irish Land Act of 1870. He had been appointed legal adviser to the lord-lieutenant at Dublin in 1868; in 1870 he became a bencher of the King's Inns, Dublin, and solicitor-general for Ireland in 1872 in succession to Palles, who became attorney-general. In December 1873 he was sworn of the Irish privy council, and was appointed attorney-general, which office he held until the fall of the Gladstone ministry a few weeks later. He entered parliament for Londonderry in 1874, was re-elected in 1880, and became Irish attorney-general in Mr. Gladstone's second administration in April 1880. He conducted the prosecution in December 1880 of Mr. Parnell and the other traversers for conspiracy in establishing the Land League. In committee on the Land Bill of 1881 he was the premier's chief assistant, and proved himself very ready and conciliatory. It was he who, almost without discussion, accepted the 'Healy' clause (T. P. O'Connor, Gladstone's House of Commons, p. 212; and Parnell Movement). He succeeded Lord O'Hagan as lord chancellor for Ireland in 1881, and resigned his seat in parliament. As chancellor he and his decisions commanded universal respect. After a very brief illness he died of inflammation of the lungs on 10 Sept. 1883, at Rathmullen House, co. Donegal. He married in 1863 Ellen Maria, youngest daughter of William White of Shrubs, co. Dublin, who predeceased him in 1875.
J. A. H.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Law, John (1745-1810)

​LAW, JOHN (1745–1810), bishop of Elphin, born in 1745, was eldest son of Edmund Law, bishop of Carlisle, and brother of Edward Law, first lord Ellenborough, and of George Henry Law, bishop of Bath and Wells. John was educated at Charterhouse, and proceeding to Christ's College, Cambridge, graduated B.A. 1766, M.A. 1769, and D.D. 1782. He subsequently became a fellow of his college and took holy orders. He was appointed prebendary of Carlisle in 1773, and archdeacon there in 1777. Five years later, in April, he went to Ireland as chaplain to William Henry Cavendish Bentinck, third duke of Portland, lord-lieutenant. Within a few months (August) he was appointed to the see of Clonfert, was translated to that of Killala in 1787, and to that of Elphin in 1795. Dr. William Paley, his successor in the archdeaconry, accompanied him to Ireland and preached his consecration sermon, which has been printed (Cotton, Fasti, v. 294). Law died in Dublin 18 March 1810, and was interred in the vaults of Trinity College Chapel. He married Anne, widow of John Thomlinson of Carlisle, and of Blencogo Hall, Cumberland, but had no issue. Law published two sermons: 1. Preached in Christ Church, Dublin, before the Incorporated Society, 1796. 2. Preached in St. Paul's Cathedral, London, ​at the meeting of the charity school children, 1797. He founded prizes for the study of mathematics in Dublin University.
W. R-l.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Ker, James Innes-

​KER, JAMES INNES-, fifth Duke of Roxburgh (1738–1823), born at Innes House, Elginshire, in 1738, was second son of Sir Hary Innes, fifth baronet and twenty-eighth laird of Innes, by his wife Ann, daughter of Sir James Grant of Grant, and a sister of Jean, first countess Fife. During the insurrection of 1745–6 Elginshire was held by the Jacobites, and to escape falling into their hands young Innes was sent across the Moray Firth to Dunrobin Castle. He was captain of the 88th regiment of foot in 1759, and of the 58th regiment in 1779. On the death of his father in 1762 he, as the eldest surviving son, was served heir to the baronetcy 7 Feb. 1764. His family claimed to have held Innes since 1160, and at one time possessed the whole territory between the Spey and the Lossie, besides estates in Banffshire; but for a century their fortunes had been ebbing, and in 1767 Innes was obliged to sell his ancient barony of Innes to his first cousin, the second Earl of Fife. On 19 April 1769 he married his first wife, Mary, eldest daughter of Sir John Wray, bart., of Glentworth, Lincolnshire, by Frances, daughter of Fairfax Norcliffe of Langton, Yorkshire. His ​wife inherited the Langton estate soon afterwards, and Innes thereupon assumed by royal license the additional surname of Norcliffe; but on his wife's death without issue, on 20 July 1807, the Langton estate went to her nephew, and Innes dropped the name of Norcliffe. Eight days later he married his second wife, Harriet, daughter of Benjamin Charlewood of Windlesham, Surrey, by whom he had an only son, James Henry.
Meanwhile William Ker, fourth duke of Roxburgh, had died on 22 Oct. 1805, without surviving issue. Innes's great-grandfather, Sir James Innes, third baronet, had married in 1666 Margaret Ker, granddaughter by a second marriage of Sir Robert Ker, first earl of Roxburgh [q. v.] On the ground of this distant relationship Innes, who now called himself Innes-Ker, claimed to succeed to the dukedom and its estates. His pretensions were disputed by Lady Essex Ker, by Major-general Walter Ker of Littledean, Roxburghshire, and by John Bellenden Ker [q. v.], in whose favour the last duke had entailed the property. Lord-chancellor Eldon took three days (15, 16, and 20 June 1809) to state in the House of Lords the grounds on which he preferred Sir James Innes to the other claimants. The litigation continued till 11 May 1812, when the House of Lords finally granted the title to Innes-Ker, and in the following year the deeds by which the fourth duke had attempted to bequeath to Bellenden Ker the greater part of the property were set aside. The duke died, aged 85, at Floors, near Kelso, on 19 July 1823, and was buried in the family vault at Bowden. His widow re-married Colonel Walter Frederick O'Reilly, C.B., of the 41st regiment of foot (d. 1844), and died 19 Jan. 1855. His only son, James Henry (1816–1879), succeeded as seventh duke.
[The Familie of Innes, edited for the Spalding Club by Cosmo Innes; Douglas's Peerage; Reports of Cases decided in the House of Lords upon Appeal from Scotland, vol. v.]
J. C.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Ker, Patrick

​KER, PATRICK (fl. 1691), poet, has been supposed, with some support from internal evidence, to have been a Scottish episcopalian who migrated to London during the reign of Charles II. ‘Flosculum Poeticum. Poems divine and humane. Panegyrical, satyrical, ironical, by P. K. …’ (London, 1684, 12mo), a volume of ultra-loyalist verse, though assigned by Lowndes to P. Kirk (Bibl. Man. ii. 1252), may be safely attributed to him. Facing the title-page appears the triangle symbolical of the Trinity, which appears in another work, ‘The Map of Mans Misery,’ with the author's name, P. Ker, in full. The ‘Flosculum’ includes a grotesque cut of Charles II in the oak, accompanied by verses equally grotesque (p. 19), and a number of scurrilous rhymes and anagrams on Oliver Cromwell. The Luttrell Collection of Broadsides at the British Museum contains two elegies on Charles II, one dated 9 Feb. 1685, and signed P. K., the other dated 15 Feb., as well as a ‘Panegyrick Poem on the Coronation of James II,’ all of which are by Ker. In 1690 appeared his ‘Map of Mans Misery, or the Poor Man's Pocket Book. Being a Perpetual Almanack of Spiritual Meditations, or Compleat Directory for our Endlesse Week. … To which is added a Poem, entituled The Glass of Vain Glory. For Jn. Lawrence at the Angel in the Poultry,’ 1690, 12mo. The author's tory tendencies are here suppressed the work being dedicated to Rachel, lady Russell, and subscribed P. Ker, 24 Jan. 1689 (O.S.) In the following year was published ‘Λογομαχία, or the Conquest of Eloquence: containing two witty orations (in doggerel verse) as they may be read in Ovid's “Metamorphoses,” lib. xiii. By P. K.’ This is attributed in Heber's ‘Catalogue’ (p. 169), followed by Lowndes, to P. Kirk, but there is no apparent foundation for this theory of authorship. The last work traceable to Ker appeared in 1691. It is called ‘Πολιτικὸs μέγας. The Grand Politician, or the Secret Art of State Policy discovered Written originally in Latin by Conradus Reinking, Chancellor to his Electoral Highness the Duke of Brandenburgh, and now done into English.’ The so-called translation is supplementary to Machiavelli's well-known treatise, being addressed for the most part to statesmen and instructing them ‘How to Dissemble,’ ‘How to abrogate Privileges,’ ‘How to reveal a secret without giving offence to him who did inform you of it,’ ‘How to collect taxes without offending the subjects.’ The writer dedicates his ‘small treatise or wandering meteor’ to the Earl of Nottingham, and subscribes himself ‘Pat. Ker.’ This volume was published by Thos. Howkins, the publisher of the ‘Λογομαχία,’ with which work it was in some cases originally bound up. There seems little reason for supposing that Patrick Ker was identical with a Rev. Dr. Kerr, an eminent schoolmaster of Highgate, who is referred to by Dunton (Life and Errors, passim).
[Notes and Queries, 2nd ser. i. 281, 4th ser. ii. 102; Hazlitt's Bibl. Collections, 3rd ser. p. 132; Ker's works in Brit. Mus. Library, catalogued under K., P.]
T. S.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Prout, John Skinner

​PROUT, JOHN SKINNER (1806–1876), watercolour painter, the nephew of Samuel Prout [q. v.], was born at Plymouth in 1806. He was chiefly self-taught. In 1838 he published 'Antiquities of Chester' and 'Castles and Abbeys of Monmouthshire.' After some time spent in Australia he took up his residence in Bristol, and associated with a little coterie of Bristol artists, which comprised Samuel Jackson. William James Muller, James Baker Pyne, H. Brittan Willis, George and Alfred Fripp, and other. Some of his Bristol drawings were republished in 1893 with letterpress description, under the title, 'Picturesque Antiquities of Bristol.' Prout afterwards came to London, and became a member of the Institute of Painters in Watercolours, and a constant contributor to their exhibitions. He died in London on 29 Aug. 1876. There are several of his drawings at the South Kensington Museum.
Bryan's Dict. (Graves and Armstrong); Roget's 'Old Watercolour' Society; Cat. of Watercolours in South Kensington Museum.]
C. M.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Pryce, William

​PRYCE, WILLIAM (1725?–1790), antiquary, born about 1725, was said to be descended from Sir John Pryce of Newtown Hall, Montgomeryshire, who was created a baronet in 1638, and whose family in direct line and title became extinct in 1791. He prided himself on kinship with the Cornish family of Borlase. His father was Dr. Samuel Pryce of Redruth in Cornwall. Philip Webber of Falmouth was 'the indulgent father and protector of his orphan state during a long minority.' He claims to have 'dissected under the instructions of the accurate Dr. Hunter' (Mineralogia Cornub. p. 57), and from about 1750 he practised as a surgeon and apothecary at Redruth. He owned 'a small part' in the copper mine of Dolcoath in Cornwall. For ten years he was similarly interested in the adjoining mine of Pednandrea, which was worked for both tin and copper (ib. p. 130). Soon after the publication of his volume on mineralogy he 'became M.D. by diploma' (Polwhele, Cornwall, v. 119-21), and on 26 June 1783 he was elected F.S.A. He was buried at Redruth on 20 Dec. 1790. His portrait, a very good likeness, was painted by Clifford and engraved by Basire; a print is prefixed to the 'Mineralogia Cornubiensis.' He married Miss Mitchell of Redruth, and left two sons, William Pryce and Samuel Vincent Pryce, both of whom were surgeons at Redruth.
Pryce published his chief work, the 'Mineralogia Cornubiensis,' in 1778. It was the result of careful study of the mining world of Cornwall, and is still of value, both for historical purposes and for practical mining.
Pryce's second volume, the 'Archæologia Cornu-Britannica,' was published in 1790. The value of the work depended mainly on the vocabulary of sixty-four leaves and the Cornish grammar. Much of the matter was taken wholesale from the collections of Thomas Tonkin and William Gwavas; and Prince L. L. Bonaparte, who owned the original manuscript, accused Pryce of having disingenuously published the treatise as his own. But the preface records Pryce's obligations to both of these antiquaries.
[Boase and Courtney's Bibl. Cornub. i. 20, 136, ii. 535-6, 758; Polwhele's Cornwall, v. 119-21; Boase's Collect. Cornub. pp. 770, 1342; Henwood's Address to Royal Instit. Cornwall, 18 May 1869, p. 10; Medical Reg. 1779. pp. 68-9; Letter from Pryce to Emanuel Da Costa (Brit. Mus. Addit. MS. 28541) in the Western Antiquary (iv. 192).]
W. P. C.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Prowse, William Jeffery

​PROWSE, WILLIAM JEFFERY (1836–1870), humourist, born at Torquay on 6 May 1836, was the son of Isaac Prowse, by his wife Marianne Jeffery, a lady who had known Keats and published a volume of poems. On the death of his father in 1844, William was taken charge of by an uncle, John Sparke Prowse, a notary public and shipbroker, of Greenwich. At Greenwich he attended the school of N. Wanostrocht [q. v.], a well-known writer on cricket under the pseudonym of Felix, who inspired Prowse with his own enthusiasm for the game. Prowse was from youth deeply interested in all forms of sport and was devoted to the sea. Before he was twenty he developed a remarkable talent for humorous verse, and soon drifted into the profession of journalism. About 1856 he obtained an engagement on the ‘Aylesbury News,’ and in subsequent years contributed tales, descriptive articles, or verses to ‘Chambers's Journal,’ the ‘Lady's Companion,’ the ‘National Magazine,’ and the ‘Porcupine.’ In 1861 he was appointed a leader-writer on the ‘Daily Telegraph,’ and in that capacity mainly occupied himself with sporting topics. When in 1865, his friend, Tom Hood the younger, became editor of ‘Fun,’ Prowse contributed each week, under the signature of ‘Nicholas,’ a rambling article on horse-racing, into which he introduced much good-humoured satire on other subjects. In 1865 his health began to fail, consumption declared itself, and after passing the winters of 1867, 1868, and 1869 at Cimiez, near Nice, he died there on Easter Sunday 1870; he was buried in the protestant cemetery.
As a verse-writer Prowse had much of the wit and facility of Praed. His parodies were exceptionally successful, one of the best dealing with Coleridge's ‘Ancient Mariner.’ The references to his declining health in his latest efforts lend them a genuine pathos, which is well illustrated in his ‘My lost old Age, by a young Invalid’ (written in 1865 and reprinted in Locker's ‘Lyra Elegantiarum.’) His best comic piece was the ‘City of Prague,’ a vindication of bohemianism, with an attractively rhymed refrain.
Prowse was one of the six authors of ‘England's Workshops,’ 1864, and contributed stories to ‘A Bunch of Keys,’ 1865, and ‘Rates and Taxes,’ 1866 (Christmas volumes edited by Tom Hood). His contributions to ‘Fun’ were collected in 1870 as ‘Nicholas's Notes and Sporting Prophecies, with some miscellaneous poems.’ A portrait and a memoir by Hood are prefixed.
[Memoir prefixed to Nicholas's Notes, 1870; Prowse's writings.]
S. L.