OpenLLM-France/wikimedia huggingface dataset:
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Finch-Hatton, Edward

​FINCH-HATTON, EDWARD (d. 1771), diplomatist, was fifth son of Daniel Finch [q. v.], sixth earl of Winchilsea and second earl of Nottingham. He proceeded M.A. of Trinity College, Cambridlge, in 1718, was elected M.P. for his university to every parliament that met between 1727 and 1764, and instituted with his fellow-member, Thomas Townshend, the Members' Prizes in the university for essays in Latin prose. He held a long succession of diplomatic posts. He was envoy extraordinary and minister plenipotentiary to Sweden; in the same capacity was present at the diet of Ratisbon, 1723, and went to the States-General in 1724. On 8 Feb. 1724–5 he was appointed to the court of Poland, and on 11 Jan. 1739 to that of Russia. On returning home he became groom of the royal bedchamber (1742), master of the robes (June 1757), and surveyor of the king's private woods in November 1760. He assumed in 1764 the additional name of Hatton, under the will of his aunt, Elizabeth (5 Oct. 1764), daughter of Christopher, viscount Hatton. He died 16 May 1771. In 1746 he married Elizabeth, daughter of Sir Thomas Palmer of Wingham, Kent, by whom he had two sons, George (b. 30 June 1747) and John Emilius Daniel Edward (b. 19 May 1756), besides three daughters. George William [q. v.], the eldest son of Edward Finch-Hatton's heir, George, succeeded as tenth earl of Winchilsea and sixth earl of Nottingham on the death of his cousin in 1826.
[Collins's Peerage, iii. 296–7.]
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Hopkins, Edward

​HOPKINS, EDWARD (1600–1657), governor of Connecticut, born at Shrewsbury in 1600, seems to have been the son of Edward or Edmund Hopkins; his mother was Katherine, sister of Sir Henry Lello, knight, of Ashdon, Essex. He became a Turkey merchant in London, ‘of good credit and esteem’ (Hutchinson, Hist. of Massachusetts, i. 82). In 1637 he emigrated to New England, and after making a short stay at Boston, removed to Hartford, Connecticut, where he was chosen assistant in 1639, and governor of the colony the following year, and thereafter in alternate years with John Haynes [q. v.], until he returned to England in 1652. In the expectation of his coming back he was again chosen governor in 1654. He assisted in forming the union of the colonies of New England in 1643. Cromwell appointed him a navy commissioner in December 1652, and an admiralty commissioner on 7 Nov. 1655. His brother, Henry Hopkins, left him, by will dated 30 Dec. 1654 (P. C. C. 41, Aylett), his office of warden of the Fleet and keeper of the palace of Westminster. He represented Dartmouth, Devonshire, in the parliament which assembled on 17 Sept. 1656. He died in March 1657, in the parish of St. Olave, Hart Street, London (Probate Act Book, P. C. C.). By his will, dated 17 March 1657 (P. C. C. 141, Ruthen), he founded three schools in Connecticut, one of which, the Hopkins Grammar School in Newhaven, has had an uninterrupted existence from that time; and he gave 500l. for ‘public ends,’ which was paid to Harvard College, under a decree in chancery, in 1710. With it a township of land was bought from the ‘praying Indians,’ which was called Hopkinton in memory of the donor. What is known as Governor Eaton's ‘Code of Laws’ was printed at London in 1656 under Hopkins's supervision. His widow, Ann, daughter of David or Thomas Yale, died on 17 Dec. 1698, having ​been insane for more than fifty years (cf. Cal. State Papers, Dom. 1656–7 p. 327, 1657–8 p. 457). Probably she had no children.
[Savage's Genealogical Dict. ii. 461; Winthrop's Hist. of New England (Savage), 1st and 2nd edits.; H. F. Waters's Genealogical Gleanings in England, vol. i. pt. i.; J. H. Trumbull's Public Records of Connecticut, i. 374, 578.]
G. G.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Hopkins, Charles

​HOPKINS, CHARLES (1664?–1700?), poet, elder son of Ezekiel Hopkins [q. v.], bishop of Londonderry, was born about 1664 at Exeter and was taken early to Ireland. He was educated at Trinity College, Dublin, and afterwards at Queens' College, Cambridge, where he graduated B.A. 1688. Returning to Ireland he engaged in military service. He subsequently settled in England, and gained some credit as a writer of poems and plays. His amiability endeared him to his friends, among whom were Dryden, Congreve, Dorset, Southern, and Wycherley. Dryden, in a letter to Mrs. Steward (7 Nov. 1699), described him as ‘a poet who writes good verses without knowing how or why; I mean, he writes naturally well, without art or learning or good sense.’ Giles Jacob (Poetical Register) says that he might have made a fortune in any scene of life, but that he was always more ready to serve others than to look after his own interests. By excess of hard drinking ‘and a too passionate fondness for the fair sex he died a martyr to the cause, in the thirty-sixth year of his age’ (ib.), about the beginning of 1700.
Hopkins is the author of 1. ‘Epistolary Poems; on several Occasions: With several of the Choicest Stories of Ovid's Metamorphoses and Tibullus's Elegies,’ London, 1694, 8vo, dedicated to Anthony Hammond. One of the epistles is addressed to Dorset; another to Walter Moyle. 2. ‘The History of Love. A Poem: in a letter to a Lady,’ London, 1695, 8vo, dedicated to the Duchess of Grafton; translations from Ovid's ‘Metamorphoses’ and ‘Heroides.’ 3. ‘The Art of Love: In two Books dedicated to the ladies,’ London, 8vo, a paraphrase of portions of Ovid's ‘Ars Amatoria.’ 4. ‘Whitehall; or the Court of England: A Poem,’ Dublin, 1698, 4to, dedicated to the Duchess of Ormonde; reprinted in Dryden's ‘Miscellany Poems’ under the title of ‘The Court Prospect.’ Hopkins was also the author of three tragedies, performed at Lincoln's Inn Fields: 5. ‘Pyrrhus, King of Epirus,’ 1695, 4to, to which Congreve contributed a prologue. 6. ‘Boadicea, Queen of Britain,’ 1697, 4to. 7. ‘Friendship Improved, or the Female Warrior,’ 1697, 4to. Before ‘Friendship Improved’ there is a dedicatory epistle, written from Londonderry (to Edward Coke of Norfolk), in which the author refers to his failing health: ‘My Muse is confined at present to a weak and sickly tenement; and the winter season will go near to overbear her, together with her household.’ In Nichols's ‘Collection of Poems’ are preserved some verses written by Hopkins ‘about an hour before his death.’
[Giles Jacob's Poetical Register; Baker's Biographia Dramatica, 1812; Scott's Dryden, 1821, xviii. 163.]
A. H. B.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Hope, Thomas Charles

​HOPE, THOMAS CHARLES (1766–1844), professor of chemistry in Edinburgh University, third son of John Hope (1725–1786) [q. v.], was born in 1766, and studied at the Edinburgh High School and University, where he graduated in 1787, and published his dissertation, ‘Tentamen Inaugurale quædam de Plantarum Motibus et Vita, complectens,’ &c., Edinburgh, 1787. In the same year he was appointed professor of chemistry at Glasgow University, but resigned after becoming in 1789 assistant professor of medicine. In October 1795 he was elected joint professor of chemistry at Edinburgh with Joseph Black [q. v.]. In 1799, on Black's death, he became sole professor, and for more than fifty years was a most successful teacher. He had learnt Lavoisier's and Dalton's views from them personally, and his lectures were marked by unusual clearness, while his experiments were elaborate and almost always successful. His class in 1823 included 575 students. Early in his career he made two important researches. The first, read 4 Nov. 1793 before the Royal Society of Edinburgh, was described in ‘An Account of a Mineral from Strontian, and of a Peculiar Species of Earth which it contains.’ The native strontium carbonate, discovered in 1787 at Strontian in Argyllshire, was at first regarded as barium carbonate. Dr. Crawfurd in 1790 suggested that strontian contained a peculiar earth; but the proof was given by Hope in 1791–2 in a classic series of experiments. His second important research established the fact that water attains its maximum density several degrees above the freezing point, although he placed it slightly too high (39.5° F. instead of 39.2°). This research is given in ‘Experiments on the Contraction of Water by Heat’ (Edinb. Roy. Soc. Trans. 1805, v. 379–405). Hope wrote a few other scientific papers, several being on the chemical and colouring matters in the leaves and flowers of plants; but his life was almost wholly given to teaching. Although an experimentalist he did not afford facilities for practical work to his students, and it was not till 1823 that the teaching of practical chemistry was begun by Dr. Anderson, his assistant. In 1828 Hope gave 800l. to found a chemical prize in the university. He resigned his professorship at the close of the winter session of 1842–3, and died at Edinburgh on 13 June 1844, aged 77.
[Kay's Edinburgh Portraits, ii. 450; Grant's Story of Edinburgh University, ii. 397; Life of Sir R. Christison, i. 57.]
G. T. B.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Hopkin, Lewis

​HOPKIN, LEWIS (1708–1771), Welsh poet, was born in 1708 at Hendre-Ifan-Goch, in the parish of Llandyfodwg in Glamorganshire. He is said to have been a relative of ‘Dafydd Hopkin o'r Coetty,’ who was presiding bard of the chair of Glamorgan in 1730. Hopkin was registered bard in 1760 of the same society, when Sion Bradford was president (Jones, Hist. of Wales, p. 226). The ‘Fel Gafod’ contains a poem describing a dream the poet had 30 Sept. 1771. He died 17 Nov. 1771, and was buried in Llandyfodwg churchyard. His friend Edward Evans (1716–1798) [q. v.] wrote two poems on his death, and Edward Williams (Iolo Morganwg) wrote another, which was published at Cowbridge in 1772 under the title ‘Dagrau yr Awenn.’
In 1767 Hopkin, in conjunction with Edward Evans, published a rhymed version of the book of Ecclesiastes (Rowlands, Bibliography, p. 497). This has since been published in all editions of Evans's ‘Works.’ Hopkin's fine translation of ‘Chevy Chase’ and several other poems were published in different numbers of the ‘Eurgrawn’ of 1770. His poetical works were collected and published at Merthyr Tydvil in 1813, under the title ‘Y Fel Gafod: sef Cywyddau, Englynion, a Chaniadau ar amryw achosion, gan y diweddar Lewis Hopkin, pris dau swllt,’ 118 pp. The editor was John Miles of Pencoed, Llanilid, Glamorganshire.
Hopkin's published works contain a short English poem by a son, described as the Rev. Lewis Hopkin, junior. Another of his poems is on the death of his son Hopkin Hopkin (1737–1754), famous as a dwarf, who died in Glamorganshire 19 March 1754. The ‘Gentleman's Magazine’ for 1754, p. 191, ascribes his death to ‘mere old age, and a gradual decay of nature,’ and gives his age as ‘seventeen years ​and two months.’ ‘The little Welchman’ (the notice proceeds) ‘[was] lately shown in London. He never weighed more than 17 lbs., but for three years past no more than 12 lbs. The parents have six children left, all of whom differ no way from other children, except one girl of twelve years of age, who weighs only eighteen pounds, and bears upon her most of the marks of old age, and in all respects resembles her brother when at that age.’
[Authorities cited above, and letters from Cadrawd Evans, Llangynwyd.]
R. J. J.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Hopkins, John (fl.1700)

​HOPKINS, JOHN (fl. 1700), verse-writer, second son of Ezekiel Hopkins [q. v.], bishop of Londonderry, and younger brother of Charles Hopkins [q. v.], was born on 1 Jan. 1675. A John Hopkins graduated B.A. in 1693, and proceeded M.A. in 1698 from Jesus College, Cambridge. Hopkins published in 1698 two Pindaric poems: ‘The Triumphs of Peace, or the Glories of Nassau … written at the time of his Grace the Duke of Ormond's entrance into Dublin,’ 8vo, and ‘The Victory of Death; or the Fall of Beauty,’ &c., 8vo, on the death of the Lady Cutts. In the following year he issued ‘Milton's Paradise Lost imitated in Rhyme. In the Fourth, Sixth, and Ninth Books: Containing the Primitive Loves. The Battel of the Angels. The Fall of Man,’ 8vo, apologising in the preface for his audacity on the ground that ‘when I did it, I did not so well Percieve the Majesty and Noble air of Mr. Milton's style as now I do.’ His last work was a collection of indifferent love-verses and translations (from Ovid), ‘Amasia, or the Works of the Muses … In three volumes,’ 1700, with a general dedication to the Duchess of Grafton, and dedications of particular sections to various persons of distinction. Referring in the preface to his brother's renderings of Ovid (‘very well performed’) he observes, ‘mine were written in another kingdom before I knew of his. The author's portrait, engraved by Van Hove and subscribed with his assumed name, ‘Sylvius,’ is prefixed. There is a derisive notice of Hopkins in ‘A Session of the Poets,’ 1704–5.
[Hopkins's Works; Chalmers's Biog. Dict.; Nichols's Poems; Graduati Cant.]
A. H. B.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Hopkins, John Larkin

​HOPKINS, JOHN LARKIN (1819–1873), organist and composer, born in Westminster on 25 Nov. 1819, sang for several years as chorister boy in the abbey, James Turle being then organist and master of the choristers. After leaving the abbey choir Hopkins devoted himself to the study of music, and particularly of the organ, with such success that in 1841, at the age of twenty-two, he was chosen to succeed Ralph Banks as organist of Rochester Cathedral. In 1842 he took the degree of Mus. Bac. at Cambridge, and in 1856 was elected organist to Trinity College, whereupon he resigned his appointment at Rochester, and took up his residence at Cambridge. He proceeded to the degree of Mus. Doc. in 1857. He died at Ventnor, Isle of Wight, on 25 April 1873.
His compositions include ‘Five Glees and a Madrigal,’ London, 1842; cathedral services in C flat and E flat, London, 1857; a collection of anthems [1845?]; and several other services, anthems, songs, glees, and carols. He was the author of ‘A New Vocal Tutor,’ London, 1855, and published in 1847, with the Rev. S. Shepherd, a collection of words of anthems used in Rochester Cathedral.
[Grove's Dict. of Music, i. 747; Brown's Biog. Dict. of Music, p. 331; Cat. of Music in Brit. Mus.]
R. F. S.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Wells, Henry Lake

​WELLS, HENRY LAKE (1850–1898), lieutenant-colonel of royal engineers, son of Thomas Bury Wells, rector of Portlemouth, Devonshire, was born on 8 March 1850. He received a commission as lieutenant in the royal engineers on 2 Aug. 1871, and attained the rank of lieutenant-colonel on 6 Nov. 1896. He was specially employed in the war office in 1873 and 1874, and went to India in 1875.
He served in the Afghan campaign of 1878–9, raised a corps of Ghilzai labourers and constructed a road across the Khojak, and was for some time in sole charge of the public works department at Quetta, where he built the native cantonments. He commanded detachments of Punjab cavalry and Sind horse in an engagement near the Khojak, where he was wounded. He accompanied General Biddulph's force down the Thal Chotiali route, took part in the action at Baghao, served with the Khaibar line force, was present at the action of Majina, and had charge of the positions at the crossing of the Kabul river. He was five times mentioned in despatches, Sir Donald Stewart recommending him to notice ‘for conspicuous gallantry and bravery displayed on the occasion of the attack on a robber encampment under Laskar Khan by a party from the Chamun post.’
He surveyed routes in 1879–80 in Kashmir and Gilgit for a line of telegraph, and in the latter year was appointed to the government Indo-European telegraph in Persia as assistant director. During many years spent in Persia he surveyed routes between Dizful and Shiraz, and contributed papers to the Royal Geographical Society, the Society of Arts and other learned societies, and to the professional papers of his own corps. He was repeatedly thanked for his services, especially for those rendered in the delimitation of the Afghan frontier in 1886, the army remount operations for India in 1887, in the cholera epidemic, and during the revolution in Shiraz in 1893.
Wells became director of the Persian telegraph in 1891. He was presented by the shah, Nasr-ud-Din, with a sword of honour, and by the present shah, Muraffer, with a diamond ring, and on 1 Jan. 1897 he was made a companion of the order of the Indian Empire. He died suddenly at Karachi on 31 Aug. 1898. Wells married, on 15 Jan. 1885, in London, Alice Bertha, daughter of the Rev. Hugh Bacon.
R. H. V.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Wells, John (1623-1676)

​WELLS, JOHN (1623–1676), puritan divine, son of Hugh Wells, plebeius, of London, was born on 29 Jan. 1622–3, and was admitted into Merchant Taylors' school on 11 Sept. 1634. Thence he proceeded to St. John's College, Oxford, where he matriculated on 3 July 1640. He was elected a fellow of his college in 1643, took the degree of B.A. on 7 May 1644, and was created M.A. on 14 April 1648. He was one of the London ministers who in 1648 declared, in a petition to General Fairfax, their abhorrence of all ​violence against the person of the king. For several years he held the vicarage of St. Olave Jewry, London, from which he was ejected for nonconformity in 1662. He died in June 1676.
His works are: 1. ‘A Prospect of Eternity; or Mans everlasting condition opened and applyed,’ London, 1655, 8vo (really published on 10 Oct. 1654). 2. ‘The Practical Sabbatarian: or Sabbath-Holiness crowned with Superlative Happiness,’ London, 1668, 4to. 3. ‘How we may make Melody in our Hearts to God in Singing of Psalms,’ printed in Dr. Samuel Annesley's ‘Supplement to the Morning-Exercise at Cripplegate,’ 2nd edit. 1676, p. 174. This and another ‘morning exercise’ by him on the ‘Fall of Man’ have been several times reprinted.
T. C.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Wells, William Frederick

​WELLS, WILLIAM FREDERICK (1762–1836), watercolour-painter, was born in London in 1762, and is supposed to have been instructed in drawing by John James Barralet [q. v.] He was an exhibitor at the Royal Academy, chiefly of views of Welsh scenery, from 1795 to 1804, when, in conjunction with Samuel Shelley [q. v.], he founded the Society of Painters in Watercolours, of which he was president in 1806-7. During the next few years he exhibited exclusively with the society, sending topographical views and rustic figures; but in 1813, in consequence of a resolution being passed to admit oil paintings, he severed his connection with it. When Addiscombe College was established in 1809 Wells was appointed professor of drawing, and he held that position for twenty years; he also practised successfully as a drawing-master in London. He was an intimate friend of Joseph Mallord William Turner [q. v.], to whom he suggested the idea of the 'Liber Studiorum,' and the first drawings for that work were made at his house at Knockholt. Between 1802 and 1805 Wells and John Laporte [q. v.] executed between them a series of seventy-two soft-ground etchings from drawings by Gainsborough, which were issued as a volume in 1819. A set of plates of female heads, engraved by George Townley Stubbs from studies by Wells, was published in 1800. Towards the end of his life he retired to Mitcham, Surrey, where he died on 10 Nov. 1836. His daughter Clara, who became Mrs. Wheeler, wrote and privately printed in 1872 a brief account of the circumstances attending the foundation of the Watercolour Society.
[Roget's Hist, of the 'Old Watercolour' Society; Redgrave's Dict, of Artists.]
F. M. O'D.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Wellsted, James Raymond

​WELLSTED, JAMES RAYMOND (1805–1842), surveyor and traveller, born in 1805, was in 1828-9 secretary to Sir Charles Malcolm [q. v.], superintendent of the Bombay marine. In 1830 he was appointed second lieutenant of the East India Company's ship Palinurus, then engaged, under Captain Moresby, in making a detailed survey of the Gulf of Akaba and the northern part of the Red Sea. She returned to Bombay early in 1833, and was then sent, under the command of Captain Haines, to survey the southern coast of Arabia, Wellsled being atill her second lieutenant. In January 1834 she crossed over to Socotra, and on the 10th anchored in the bay of Tamarida. Wellsted had obtained leave to travel in the island, and for the next two months he wandered through it returning to his ship on 7 March. The results of his journey were communicated to the Royal Geographical Society as 'Memoir on the Island of Socotra' (Journal of the Royal Geographical Society, v. 129). In November 1835 be had permission to travel in Oman, and went to Muscat on the 21st, in company with Lieutenant Whitelock, also of the Indian navy. The imam gave them every assistance in his power; and, starting from Sur on 28 Nov., they arrived at Sib on 30 Jan. 1830. They were both down with fever, but by 25 Feb. were so far recovered as to be able to make another start. The disturbed state of the country compelled them to return. The results of this journey were also laid before the Royal Geographical Society (ib. vii. 102). Wellsted seems to have made another attempt to explore Oman in the following winter, and to have arrived at Muscat on April 1837, in an acute stage of fever 'In a fit of delirium he discharged both barrels of his gun into his mouth, but the balls, passing upwards, only inflicted two ghastly wounds in the upper jaw.' He was carried to Bombay, and thence returned to Europe on leave. He retired from the service in 1839, 'and dragged on a few yean in shattered health and with impaired mental powers, chiefly residing in France' (Low, ii. 85-6), He died on 25 Oct. 1842, at his father's house in Molineux. Street, aged 37. Wellsted's papers read before the Geographical Society procured him immediate recognition in the scientific world, and he was elected a fellow of the Royal Society on April 1837. He was also a fellow of the Royal Astronomical Society. Besides the papers already mentioned and others in the 'Journal of the Royal Geographical Society,' he was he author of 'Travels in Arabia' (1838, 2 vols. 8vo), and 'Travels to the City of the Caliphs' (1840, 2 vols. 8vo), an account of the travels of his friend Lieutenant Ormsby.
[Wollsted's Works; Journal of the Royal Geographical Society, vol. xiii. p. xliii: Times, 12 Nov. 1842; Low's Hist. of the Indian Navy, ii. 70-88; Warkham's Mem. on the Indian Surveys; Gent. Mag. 1843, ii. 102.]
J. K. L.