OpenLLM-France/wikimedia huggingface dataset:
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Mansel, Charles Grenville

​MANSEL, CHARLES GRENVILLE (1806–1886), Indian official, born in 1806, was appointed a writer in the East India Company's service on 30 April 1826. He was made assistant to the secretary of the western board of revenue in Bengal on 19 Jan. 1827; registrar and assistant to the magistrate of Agra and officiating collector to the government of customs at Agra on 10 July 1828; acting magistrate of Agra, 1830; joint magistrate and deputy collector of Agra, 15 Nov. 1831; acting magistrate and collector of Agra, 13 March 1832; secretary and superintendent of Agra College in 1834; magistrate and collector of Agra, 2 Nov. 1835; and temporary secretary to the lieutenant-governor in political, general, judicial, and revenue departments, 21 Feb. 1837. From December 1838 to April 1841 he acted as Sudder settlement officer in Agra, and in 1842 published a valuable ‘Report on the Settlement of the District of Agra.’ In 1841 he became deputy accountant-general in Calcutta, and in 1843 one of the civil auditors. From 1844 to 1849 he was on furlough, and on his return to India was appointed a member of the board of administration for the affairs of the Punjáb, under the presidency of Sir Henry Montgomery Lawrence [q. v.] In November 1850 he was gazetted the resident at Nagpur, where he remained till 1855, when he retired upon the East India Company's annuity fund. He is chiefly remembered as the junior member of the board to which was entrusted the administration and reorganisation of the Punjáb after its annexation. He died at 7 Mills Terrace, West Brighton, on 19 Nov. 1886.
[Malleson's Recreations of an Indian Official, 1872, p. 41; Edwardes's Life of Sir H. Lawrence, 1872, ii. 136 et seq.; Kaye and Malleson's Indian Mutiny, 1889, i. 37, 55, 61, 126; Sir Richard Temple's Men and Events of my Time in India, 1882, pp. 55, 64; Dodwell and Miles's Bengal Civil Servants, 1839, pp. 312–13; East India Registers, 1826 et seq.; R. Boswell Smith's Life of Lord Lawrence, 1885, i. 246, 318, 319; Times, 25 Nov. 1886, p. 6.]
G. C. B.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Schomberg, Meyer Löw

​SCHOMBERG, MEYER LÖW, M.D. (1690–1761), physician, whose name is sometimes spelt Schamberg, eldest son of a Jewish practitioner of medicine whose original name seems to have been Löw, changed later for Schomberg, was born at Fetzburg in Germany in 1690. He entered his name in the album of the university of Giessen on 13 Dec. 1706, and, after studying classics under Professor Eberwein, entered upon medical studies and completed the course for the degree. He then received a license ‘ad practicandum,’ and began practice at Schweinburg and Blanckenstein. In 1710 he applied to the authorities of the university of Giessen for a mandate to check the practice of a rupture-curer who was injuring him in his district (certified copy of original record in the album of the medical faculty at Giessen). The university was willing to support him, but recommended him to complete his degree, which he did on 21 Dec. 1710. He practised at Metz previous to his arrival in England about 1720, and was admitted a licentiate of the College of Physicians of London on 19 March 1722. On admission he obtained leave to pay his fees hereafter, and his bond is preserved in the college. He was a strong supporter of his son's action against the college. He was elected a fellow of the Royal Society, and admitted on 12 Jan. 1726. He lived in Fenchurch Street, and by 1740 had attained a leading practice in the city of London. He had six children, of whom Raphael or Ralph [q. v.], Isaac (1714–1780) [q. v.], and Sir Alexander [q. v.] are noticed separately. He died at Hoxton on 4 March 1761. A fine portrait belongs to a descendant. He bequeathed his property, by a will dated 23 Oct. 1759, in equal shares to his sons Isaac and Alexander. A Hebrew manuscript in his hand, dated 1746, has been exhibited (Anglo-Jewish Exhibition).
N. M.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Smart, Henry Hawley

​SMART, HENRY HAWLEY (1833–1893), novelist, son of Major George Smart, of an old Kentish family, by Katherine, daughter of Sir Joseph Henry Hawley [q. v.], the well-known sportsman, was born at Dover on 3 June 1833. His grandfather, Colonel Henry Smart, had been governor of Dover Castle early in the century. After education by a private tutor, he received a commission from Lord Raglan, and was gazetted ensign in the 1st regiment of foot (royal Scots) on 20 Oct. 1849, being promoted lieutenant on 6 July 1852, and captain on 15 May 1855. He served through the Crimean war, saw the fall of Sebastapol (medal and clasp and Turkish medal), returned to England in 1856, and sailed next year for India, where he served during the mutiny. In 1858 he exchanged into the 17th (Leicestershire) regiment, and went out to Canada. He left Quebec in 1864, sold out of the army, and, after experiencing some losses on the turf, devoted himself to novel-writing as a profession. His models were Lever and Whyte-Melville, and his first novel, ‘Breezie Langton: a Story of Fifty-two to Fifty-five’ (London, 1869, several editions), gave a promise of surpassing them which was not altogether fulfilled. Thenceforth he produced with great regularity two or even more novels a year, including ‘Bitter is the Rind,’ 1870; ‘A Race for a Wife,’ 1870; ‘Cecile, or Modern Idolaters,’ 1871; ‘False Cards,’ 1873; ‘Broken Bonds,’ 1874; ‘Two Kisses,’ 1875; ‘Courtship in 1720, in 1860,’ 1876; ‘Bound to Win,’ 1877; ‘Play or Pay,’ 1878; ‘Sunshine and Snow,’ 1878; ‘Social Sinners,’ 1880; ‘Belles and Ringers,’ 1880; ‘The Great Tontine,’ 1881; ‘At Fault,’ 1883; ‘Hard Lines,’ 1883; ‘From Post to Finish,’ 1884; ‘Salvage,’ 1884; ‘Tie and Trick,’ 1885; ‘Lightly Lost,’ 1885; ‘Struck Down,’ 1886; ‘Plucked: a Tale of a Trap,’ 1886; ‘Bad to Beat,’ 1886; ‘The Outsider,’ 1886; ‘A False Start,’ 1887; ‘Cleverly Won: a Romance of the Grand National,’ 1887; ‘The Pride of the Paddock,’ 1888; ‘The Master of Rathkelly,’ 1888; ‘Saddle and Sabre,’ 1888; ‘The Last Coup,’ 1889; ‘Long Odds,’ 1889; ‘A Black Business,’ 1890; ‘Thrice Past the Post,’ 1891; ‘Beatrice and Benedick,’ 1891; ‘The Plunger,’ 1891; ‘A Member of Tattersall's,’ 1892; ‘Struck Down,’ 1893; ‘Vanity's Daughter,’ 1893; ‘A Racing Rubber’ (posthumous), 1895. The plots are sometimes weak and the dialogue shallow, but there are force and truth in the racing and hunting sketches, while the military incidents are often graphically drawn from the writer's own experience. Smart died at Budleigh Salterton in Devonshire on 8 Jan. 1893, and was buried in Budleigh churchyard. He married, in 1883, Alice Ellen, daughter of John Smart, esq., of Budleigh Salterton, who survives him.
[Times, 10 Jan. 1893; Illustrated London News, 14 Jan. (with portrait); Athenæum, 14 Jan. 1893; Saturday Review, 20 Feb. 1869; Our Celebrities, No. 38, August 1891; Army Lists, 1850–64.]
T. S.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Smeeton, George

​SMEETON, GEORGE (fl. 1800–1828), printer and compiler, rose from a humble position to the proprietorship of a printing business in the neighbourhood of St. Martin's-in-the-Fields, Westminster. He became a strong ally of James Caulfield [q. v.], of Wells Street, Oxford Street, for whom he printed and published, in 1814, ‘The Eccentric Magazine,’ containing lives and portraits of misers, dwarfs, idiots, and singularities. In 1820 he issued, in two handsome quarto volumes, ‘Reprints of Rare and Curious Tracts relating to English History,’ containing sixteen seventeenth-century pamphlets, with some admirable reproductions of contemporary portraits and a few notes (cf. Lowndes, Bibl. Man., with contents table). The work, of which only 250 copies were printed, does credit to Smeeton's antiquarian tastes, and is now a prize for the collector, as many copies were destroyed by fire. Following in Caulfield's footsteps, Smeeton issued in 1822 his well-known ‘Biographia Curiosa; or Memoirs of Remarkable Characters of the Reign of George III, with their Portraits’ (London, 8vo; with thirty-nine portraits, and a plate of the ‘Beggars' Opera at St. Giles’). Commencing in 1825, he published four volumes of ‘The Unique,’ a series of engraved portraits of eminent persons, with brief memoirs. He was now living in the Old Bailey, whence he had removed to Tooley Street, Southwark, by 1828, in which year he issued ‘Doings in London: or Day and Night Scenes of the Frauds, Frolics, Manners, and Depravities of the Metropolis,’ London, 8vo, illustrated with designs engraved by Bonner after Isaac Robert Cruikshank [q. v.] This is a medley based to some extent upon Ward's ‘London Spy’ and the more recent compilations of Egan and Westmacott, while it anticipates in some respects the pictures of the debtors' prisons of that epoch given by Dickens and Mayhew.
[Lowndes's Bibl. Manual (Bohn), p. 2416; Allibone's Dict. of English Lit.; Brit. Mus. Cat.]
T. S.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Smart, John

​SMART, JOHN (1741–1811), miniature-painter, was born near Norwich on 1 May 1741, and obtained a premium from the Society of Arts for a chalk drawing in 1755. He became a pupil of Daniel Dodd [q. v.], and also studied at Shipley's academy in St. Martin's Lane. One of his best friends was Richard Cosway [q. v.], whose studio Smart seems at one time to have frequented. Cosway alludes to him often in his letters as ‘little John,’ ‘faithful John,’ or ‘good little John,’ and he is one of the few painters whom Cosway commends, though he found him ‘slow and a bit washy.’ Smart was an early member of the Incorporated Society of Artists, to the exhibitions of which he contributed from 1762 to 1783; in 1773, and again in 1783, he was a director of the society, and in 1778 was elected vice-president. Smart exhibited at the Royal Academy for the first time in 1784, and soon after went to India, where he practised for some years with great success in Madras and other cities. He returned to England before 1797, in which year he reappeared at the academy, sending a portrait of the nabob of Arcot; he continued to exhibit regularly until his death, which took place at his residence in Russell Place, Fitzroy Square, London, on 1 May 1811. Smart's miniatures are of extremely fine quality, unsurpassed for beauty of colour and delicacy of finish; he usually signed them with his initials, J. S., adding the letter I to those executed in India. His portraits of the Prince of Wales, Lord Amherst, Sir Henry Clinton, Sir Henry Boyd, Sir John Taylor, bart., and others, were engraved. Smart had a son John, who also practised as a miniaturist, and was an occasional exhibitor at the Royal Academy up to 1808; in that year he went to India, and he died at Madras on 1 May 1809.
[Redgrave's Dict. of Artists; Cat. of Miniature Exhibition at Burlington Fine Arts Club, 1889; Gent. Mag. 1810, i. 593; Williamson's Eighteenth Century Miniaturists, p. 49 (and note kindly supplied by the author); Exhibition Catalogues.]
F. M. O'D.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1901 supplement/Field, John (d.1588)

​FIELD, JOHN (d. 1588), puritan divine. [See Feilde.]
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1901 supplement/Fenner, Thomas

​FENNER, THOMAS (d. 1590?), naval commander, came of a Sussex family which produced several well-known seamen in the sixteenth century, the most notable of whom, besides Thomas, were George Fenner [q. v. Suppl.] and William Fenner (d. 1589), who was rear-admiral in Drake and Norris's expedition to Corufia in 1589, and died on his way home of his wounds. Thomas and George were both apparently natives of Chichester, but the family was a numerous one, and it is hardly safe to assume that the naval commander was the Thomas Fenner, a victualler, who was on 28 Jan. 1579-80 committed to the Fleet prison for exporting ordnance to Spain, was released on 7 Feb. following, and on 10 Nov. 1584 was returned to parliament for New Shoreham (Acts P.C. 1578–80, pp. 332, 380, 383; Off. Ret. Members of Part. i. 415). It is also probable that the exploits of Captain Fenner in the Azores in 1566, which Mr. Corbett ascribes in his 'Drake and the Tudor Navy' to Thomas, really belong to George Fenner.
Thomas Fenner, however, who is described as 'one of the most daring and experienced officers of the time' (Corbett, Drake and the Tudor Navy, ii. 12, 13), accompanied Drake as his flag-captain on board the Elizabeth Bonaventure on the Indies voyage of 1585, and he and Frobisher led the boat attack on Cartagena which was successful. In 1587, probably as rear-admiral, he commanded the Dreadnought in Drake's expedition to Cadiz, and in June was sent back to London with news of the burning of Philip's fleet. In the year of the armada he was placed in command of the Nonpareil and appointed Drake's vice-admiral and one of Howard's inner council of war. He strongly approved of Drake's design, early in July 1588, of taking advantage of the north wind and attacking the armada on the coast of Spain, and his memorandum embodying these views is still extant (State Papers, Dom. Eliz. ccxii. 10). The north wind failed, however, before the coast of Spain was reached, and on the way back Fenner was detached to cruise off the coast of ​Brittany and collect news of the armada. He rejoined Drake as the armada advanced, and fought with distinction in the action off the Isle of Wight and in the battle of Gravelines. For his conduct on the latter occasion Mendoza reported that Elizabeth had knighted him (Cal. Simancas MSS. 1587-1603, p. 392), but he does not occur in Metcalfe's 'Book of Knights' and is not so styled subsequently.
In 1589 Fenner was again commanding the Dreadnought, and as vice-admiral went with Drake and Norris's expedition to Coruna, an account of which he gave in a letter to Burghley (State Papers, Dom. Eliz. ccxxiv. 13). He had returned to Plymouth Sound by 14 July, and from there he wrote to Walsingham saying that he proposed to employ the remainder of his fortune in a 'journey' to the Indies. This is the last mention of his name, and if the 'journey' ever took place he probably perished in it.
A. F. P.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Vyner

​VYNER. [See Viner.]
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Vychan, Simwnt

​VYCHAN, SIMWNT (1530?–1606), Welsh bard. [See Simwnt.]
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Vychan

​VYCHAN (fl. 1230–1240), Welsh statesman and warrior [See Ednyved.]
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Vychan, Howel

​VYCHAN, HOWEL (d. 825), Welsh prince. [See Howel.]
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Morris, John (1810-1886)

​MORRIS, JOHN (1810–1886), geologist, was born in 1810 at Homerton, London, and educated at private schools. He was engaged for some years as a pharmaceutical chemist at Kensington, but soon became interested in geology and other branches of science, and ultimately retired from business. His published papers speedily attracted notice, and his 'Catalogue of British Fossils,' published in 1845, a work involving much critical research, added greatly to his reputation. In 1854 he was elected to the professorship of geology at University College, London, an office which he retained till 1877, when he was appointed on retirement emeritus professor in acknowledgment of his services. He died, after an illness of some duration, on 7 Jan. 1886, and was buried at Kensal Green. One daughter survived him.
In addition to his 'Catalogue of British Fossils' (of which a second edition appeared in 1854, and a third was in preparation but was left incomplete at his death) and to a memoir on the 'Great Oolite Mollusca,' written in conjunction with John Lycett, and published by the Palæontographical Society, Morris wrote numerous papers and notes on scientific subjects, mostly geological. He was elected 'F.G.S. in 1845, and, in addition to other awards, received the Lyell medal in 1876. In 1870 he was presented with a handsome testimonial in appreciation of his services to geology. He was president of the Geologists' Association, held various lectureships and examinerships, and was an honorary member of several scientific societies. In 1878 he was admitted to the freedom of the Turners' Company, and received in 1878 the honorary degree of master of arts from the university of Cambridge.
Morris was a born teacher, for he was not only full of enthusiasm, but also united to a memory of extraordinary retentiveness a remarkable power of lucid exposition; yet he was so singularly modest that it was often difficult to induce him to address an audience other than his class. His knowledge of geology was encyclopaedic, his critical acumen great, but he disliked the labour of composition. In imparting knowledge verbally he was the most generous of men.
[Short memoir (with portrait), Geological Magazine [2] v. 481, and further notice id. [3] iii. 95. See also obituary notice, Proc. Geol. Soc. 1886, p. 44.]
T. G. B.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Morris, Morris Drake

​MORRIS, MORRIS DRAKE (fl. 1717), biographer, born in Cambridge, was son of a barrister of Cambridge named Drake, for some years recorder of Cambridge, by Sarah, daughter of Thomas Morris, merchant, of London, and of Mount Morris in Horton, otherwise Monks Horton, Kent. After his father's death his mother married Dr. Conyers Middleton [q. v.] He was for some time fellow-commoner of Trinity College, Cambridge. On the death of his grandfather in 1717 he assumed the additional surname of Morris as the condition of succeeding to Mount Morris (will of Thomas Morris, registered in P. C. C., 141, Whitfield). He died without issue, at Coveney in the Isle of Ely, where he possessed property, and was buried at Horton, his death being accelerated by intemperance. The estate of Mount Morris went by entail to his sister, Elizabeth Drake, wife of Matthew Robinson of West Layton in Yorkshire, and mother of Mrs. Elizabeth Montagu [q. v.]
Morris compiled in 1715 and 1716, from very obvious sources of information, 'Lives of Famous Men educated in the University of Cambridge,' which he entered in two large folio volumes, and illustrated with engraved portraits. He presented them to Lord Oxford, and they are now Harleian MSS. 7176 and 7177. In 1749 Dr. Conyers Middleton, his stepfather, presented William Cole with Morris's rough drafts, which Cole indexed, and included in his manuscripts presented to the British Museum, where they are numbered among the Additional MSS. 5856-8.
[Hasted's Kent, folio edit. iii. 317; Brydges's Restituta, iii. 73; Addit. MS. 5876, f. 215 (Cole's Athenæ Cantabrigienses); Cat. of Harleian MSS. in Brit. Mus.]
G. G.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Sindercombe, Miles

​SINDERCOMBE or SINDERCOME, MILES (d. 1657), conspirator, was a quarter-master in the parliamentary army in the regiment of horse commanded by Colonel John Reynolds [q. v.] He shared the political views of the levellers, took part in the mutiny of his regiment in May 1649, and was made prisoner, but contrived to escape (Cromwelliana, p. 162). Under the Protectorate, Sindercombe enlisted as a private soldier in Colonel Thomlinson's regiment of horse, in order to propagate the principles of his party among the English army of occupation in Scotland. In January 1655, on the discovery of what was termed Overton's plot for seizing General Monck and inducing the army in Scotland to declare against Cromwell [see Overton, Robert], Monck discharged Sindercombe as being ‘a busy and suspicious person, and one who was forward to promote such ill designs.’ After he had let him go he discovered that he was one of the chief agents in the plot (Monck to Cromwell, 25 Jan. 1655, Clarke MSS.) In 1656 Colonel Edward Sexby [q. v.] engaged Sindercombe to assassinate Cromwell, and sent him money and other requisites from Flanders for the purpose. Sindercombe hired a house at Hammersmith, intending to shoot Cromwell on his way to Hampton Court, and lurked about Hyde Park and Whitehall to find other opportunities for assassination. Not finding a favourable occasion, he attempted to set fire to the chapel at Whitehall, hoping to get a better chance in the confusion that would ensue. The attempt was made on the night of 8 Jan. 1657, but was almost immediately discovered, and the next day Sindercombe and his assistant Cecil were arrested. He fought hard, and was not taken till he had been severely wounded (Cromwelliana, p. 160; Burton, Parliamentary Diary, i. 332; Clarendon State Papers, iii. 325, 327, 331). The confession of Cecil and the evidence of Toope (a soldier of Cromwell's lifeguards), with whom Sindercombe had tampered, furnished ample proof of the plot, and on 9 Feb. Sindercombe was tried before the upper bench and sentenced to death for high treason (State Trials, v. 841). He contrived to obtain some poison from his sister, and committed suicide in the Tower on the night of 13 Feb. 1657 (Thurloe, v. 774, vi. 53, 531; Cromwelliana, p. 162). Sexby, in ‘Killing no Murder,’ which was published a few weeks later, asserted that Sindercombe had been put out of the way by Colonel Barkstead, the governor of the Tower, and celebrated him as a Roman spirit. ‘Had he lived there, his name had been registered with Brutus and Cato, and he had had his statutes as well as they’ (Harleian Miscellany, ed. Park, iv. 304.
[Authorities given in the article.]
C. H. F.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Sinclair, William (d.1330)

​SINCLAIR or SAINT CLAIR, Sir WILLIAM (d. 1330), of Roslin, friend of Robert Bruce, was the son of Sir Henry Sinclair of Roslin [see under Sinclair, Sir William, (fl. 1266–1303)] by Alicia de Fenton. According to Father Hay, he received from Robert the Bruce the grant of Pentland Moor in free forestry and the office of great master-hunter of Scotland on account of the prowess of his two dogs, ‘Help’ and ‘Hold,’ in capturing a fleet white deer which repeatedly baulked the efforts of Bruce's hounds (Genealogy of the Sinclairs, p. 16). He was one of the knights chosen to accompany Sir James Douglas (1286?–1330) [q. v.] to the Holy Land with the heart of Bruce; and, in view of the service which he was expected to render him, received from Bruce a pension of 40l. (Exchequer Rolls, i. 209). He was slain, along with Douglas, on the plains of Andalusia by the Saracens on 25 Aug. 1330 (Wyntoun, Chronicle). By his wife Isabel—sometimes surnamed Sperra—daughter of Malise, earl of Strathearn, he had three sons and a daughter: Sir Henry Sinclair, earl or prince of Orkney [q. v.], William, David, and Margaret, who married first, Thomas, second earl of Angus, and secondly, Sir William Sinclair of Herdmanston.
T. F. H.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Singer, Elizabeth

​SINGER, ELIZABETH (1674–1737), poetess. [See Rowe, Mrs. Elizabeth.]
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Singer, George John

​SINGER, GEORGE JOHN (1786–1817), electrician, son of Thomas Singer, and younger brother of Samuel Weller Singer [q. v.], was born in 1786. In early life he was engaged in his mother's business of artificial-flower making. Every spare moment, however, he devoted to scientific study, more particularly to the investigation of electricity and electro-magnetism, then little known. He made almost the whole of his apparatus himself, and introduced several improvements, inventing, among other things, the gold-leaf electro-meter. He built, almost unassisted, a large room at the back of his mother's house in Prince's Street, Cavendish Square, where he gave courses of lectures on electricity and ​kindred subjects. Among his auditors were Faraday and Sir Francis Ronalds [q. v.] He died, unmarried, of consumption, induced by overwork, on 28 June 1817, at his mother's house. He published ‘Elements of Electricity and Electro-chemistry,’ London, 1814, 8vo, a work of considerable importance, which was translated into French (Paris, 1817), into Italian (Milan, 1819), and into German (Breslau, 1819). He also contributed several papers to the ‘Philosophical Magazine’ from 1813 to 1815, of which a list is given in Ronalds's ‘Catalogue of Books on Electricity, Magnetism,’ &c.
E. I. C.