OpenLLM-France/wikimedia huggingface dataset:
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/McCombie, William (1805-1880)

​McCOMBIE, WILLIAM (1805–1880), cattle-breeder, born at Tillyfour, Aberdeenshire, in 1805, was younger son of Charles McCombie, a large farmer and cattle-dealer. He was educated at the parish school and Aberdeen University, but refused to follow any calling except that of his father. The beginning of railway traffic and the improvement of agricultural methods and stock convinced McCombie that the old method of cattle-dealing needed reform. In 1840 he began to breed black-polled cattle, and founded the herd with which his name is associated. He was the first Scottish exhibitor of fat cattle at Birmingham, and he won in all over five hundred great prizes, including the cup given by Prince Albert for the best animal of the French or foreign classes at Poissy in 1862, and a similar honour at the Paris Exhibition in 1878. In 1867 the queen visited Tillyfour to inspect the famous herd, when McCombie gathered together from his farms four hundred head of black cattle. Besides his cattle-breeding McCombie gave great attention to agriculture, and was one of the largest farmers in Aberdeenshire. In 1868 he was returned as a liberal without opposition to represent the western division of his native county in parliament, and was the first tenant farmer representative from Scotland. In 1874 he was re-elected by a large majority. Failing health compelled him to resign in 1876, and he spent the rest of his life at Tillyfour, which he had purchased in 1875, on the death of his eldest brother. He died unmarried on 1 Feb. 1880.
His work, ‘Cattle and Cattle-breeders,’ first published in 1867, reached a fourth edition in 1886.
Aberdeen Daily Free Press, 3 Feb. 1880.]
J. R. M.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/McCombie, William (1809-1870)

​McCOMBIE, WILLIAM (1809–1870), journalist, son of a small farmer, was born at Cairnballoch, in the parish of Alford, Aberdeen, on 8 May 1809. His only education was at parish schools, and at an early age he became a labourer on his father's farm. He soon showed a taste for literature, and local debating societies gave him an opportunity of cultivating his talents. His earlier essays were published in London in 1835, under the title of ‘Hours of Thought,’ and were recommended by Dr. Chalmers to his students. While still engaged in agricultural work, he began to contribute articles to newspapers and to the ‘British Quarterly Review.’ In 1849 he joined the staff of the ‘North of Scotland Gazette,’ and afterwards promoted the establishment of the ‘Aberdeen Daily Free Press,’ which first appeared in 1853 under his editorship. He held this position till his death in Aberdeen on 6 May 1870.
McCombie was for many years a mainstay of liberal politics in the north of Scotland, but his interests were very varied, as his works show. His ‘Hours of Thought’ reached ​a third edition in 1856. His other publications were: 1. ‘Unity and Schism,’ 1838. 2. ‘Moral Agency,’ 1841. 3. ‘Life and Remains of Alexander Bethune,’ 1844. 4. ‘Capital and Labour,’ 1846. 5. ‘Essays on Education,’ 1857. 6. ‘Modern Civilisation,’ 1864; and 7. ‘A Pamphlet on the Irish Land Question,’ 1869. He had been accustomed to preach occasionally in baptist and other pulpits, and after his death his daughter edited a volume of his sermons, 1871.
[Aberdeen Daily Free Press, 13 May 1870; Brit. Mus. Cat.]
J. R. M.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Chaucombe, Hugh de

Hugh of Chalcombe in the ODNB.
​CHAUCOMBE, HUGH de (fl. 1200), justiciar, was probably born at Chalcombe in Northamptonshire; at least, it is certain that it was from that place that he received his surname. He is first mentioned in 1108, in the Great Roll of Henry II, as having paid 30l. for relief of six knights' fees in the diocese of Lincoln, in which Chalcombe was then included. He next appears in the same record as having in 1184 been fined one mark to be released from an oath which he had taken to the abbot of St. Albans. During the last three years of Richard I (1196-8) he was sheriff of Staffordshire, Warwickshire, and Leicestershire. On the accession of John he was employed about the king's person, and accompanied him into Normandy. In September 1200 he witnessed a charter granted by John at Argentan, and sat as one of the judges in the king's court at Caen. In the same year the barons of the exchequer received instructions that a debt which Chaucombe owed to the king should be respited so long as he continued abroad in the royal service. The next mention of Chaucombe belongs to 1203, when he appears as having been charged with the duty of making inquisition at the ports with regard to the persons who imported corn from Normandy. During the next two years he frequently accompanied the king in his journeys through England, and several charters granted at different places are witnessed by him. In 1204 he acted as justice itinerant, fines being acknowledged before him in Hampshire and Nottinghamshire, and in July of that year he sat in the king's court at Wells. In the following October he was again appointed sheriff of Warwickshire and Leicestershire, jointly with one of the king^s clerks named Hilary, and was entrusted with the care of the royal castle of Kenilworth. He was also appointed to manage the revenues of Kenilworth Priory during its vacancy. In January 1206-7 he failed to appear to a suit brought against him by R. de Aungervile relating to the wrongful possession of some cattle, and orders were issued for his arrest. In the following July he was dismissed from his office of sheriff, being succeeded by Robert de Roppesley, to whom he was commanded to deliver up the castle of Kenilworth; and subsequently he had to pay a fine of eight hundred marks to the king. In 1209 he became a monk, and entered the priory at Chalcombe. By his wife Hodiema he had one son, named Robert, and two daughters, who were married to Hamund Passalewe and Ralph de Grafton.
[Rot. Cur. Reg. ed. Palgrave, 109, 112,128, 130, 429, 430; Madox's Exchequer, i. 171, 175, 316, 459, 497; Rot. Pat. i. pt. i. 33, 74; Placit. Abbrev. 7, 55 ; Fuller's Worthies, i. 575, ii. 314; Foss's Lives of the Judges, ii. 60; Baker's Hist. of Northamptonshire, 588, 591.]
H. B.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Cheape, Douglas

​CHEAPE, DOUGLAS (1797–1861), advocate and author, younger son of John Cheape of Rossie, Fifeshire, was born in 1797. Sir John Cheape [q. v.] was his elder brother. He studied law, and was admitted a member of the Faculty of Advocates, Edinburgh. In 1827 he was appointed professor of civil law in the university. This appointment he resigned in 1842, owing to 'domestic circumstances,' when the faculty recorded 'their high sense of the very able and efficient manner in which he had discharged the duties of the chair.' He introduced some useful reforms, the chief of which was the substitution of English for Latin in the class examinations; but his only publication on the subject was his 'Introductory Lecture on the Civil Law,' delivered in the university of Edinburgh (Edinburgh, 1827). He was engaged for the pursuer in a famous case, Southgate and Mandatory v, Montgomery, on which he wrote a once well-known squib called 'Res Judicata.' This with some other contributions of a like nature was published in the 'Court of Session Garland' (with Appendix, Edinburgh, 1839).
Other squibs of his were 'The Book of the Chronicles of the City; being a Scriptural account of the Election of a member for the City of Edinburgh in May 1834' (manuscript prefatory note to Museum copy), and (probably) 'La festa d'Overgroghi ' (viz. Over Gogar, near Edinburgh), a burlesque opera in Italian and English. Cheape died at Trinity Grove, Trinity, near Edinburgh, 1 Sept. 1861.
He married in 1837 Ann, daughter of General Rose of Holme, Nairnshire.
[Grant's Story of the University of Edinburgh, 1884; Irving's Book of Scotsmen; Scotsman, 3 Sept. 1861; Notes and Queries, 2nd ser. iv. 236; Blackwood's Mag. January 1871, pp. 111-112; Brit. Mus. Cat.; information from J. R. Stewart, esq., of Edinburgh.]
F. W.-T.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Chauncey, Charles

​CHAUNCEY, CHARLES, M.D. (1706–1777), physician, was the eldest son of Charles Chauncey, a London citizen, son of Ichabod Chauncey [q. v.] He went to Benet College, Cambridge, in 1727, and graduated M.B. 1734, M.D. 1739. In 1740 he was elected a fellow of the College of Physicians, and became a censor in 1740. He was elected F.R.S. on 29 Jan. 1740, but his chief reputation was as an antiquary. The portraits of Garth and of Mead at the College of Physicians were ​given to the college by Chauncey. He collected paintings and prints, coins and books. He died 25 Dec. 1777, and his brother Nathaniel, also a collector, succeeded to his collections. As a man fond of what was ancient, he is appropriately buried in the parish church which claims to be of the most ancient foundation of any in London, St. Peter's on Cornhill. Three sale catalogues, dated 1790, one of pictures, one of coins, and one of books, in the British Museum, are almost the only remaining records of the tastes and learning of Chauncey and his brother.
[Munk's Coll. of Phys. 1878, ii. 145; Thomson's History of Royal Society, p. xlii.]
N. M.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Chavasse, William

​CHAVASSE, WILLIAM (1785–1814), an officer in the East India Company's service, attempted, in conjunction with a brother officer, Captain Macdonald, to explore in 1814 the route traversed by the ten thousand under Xenophon. They penetrated as far as Ingra, near Bagdad, where they were captured by a Kurdish chieftain and imprisoned in a dungeon. They obtained their liberty by the payment of eight hundred piastres, but Chavasse was seized with brain fever and died. He was buried near Bagdad.
[Gent. Mag. lxxxiv. pt. ii. 498.]
J. M. R.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Chauncey, Ichabod

​CHAUNCEY, ICHABOD (d. 1691), physician and divine, the date and place of whose birth are unknown, was chaplain to Sir Edward Harley's regiment at Dunkirk at the time the Uniformity Act was passed. Shortly afterwards he obtained a living in Bristol, and, being ejected for nonconformity, practised physic there for eighteen years, and obtained a considerable practice. In his 'Innocence vindicated' he states that in 1684 he was a M.A. of thirty years' standing, and for twenty had been a licentiate of the London College of Physicians. In 1682 he was prosecuted for not attending church, &c. (36 Eliz. c. i.) His defence was that he accommodated his worship as nearly as he could to that of the primitive church, but he was convicted and fined. In 1684 he was again prosecuted under the same act, and was imprisoned in the common gaol for eighteen weeks before he was tried, when he was sentenced to lose his estate both real and personal, and to leave the realm within three months. From a declaration drawn up by the grand jury, he appears to have been in the habit of defending such dissenters in Bristol as were prosecuted under the various acts relating to religion; but from the 'Records of the Broadmead Meeting, Bristol,' his persecution appears to have originated in the private malice of the town clerk. Chauncey resided in Holland till 1686, when he returned to Bristol, where he died in 1691. His only work is 'Innocence vindicated by a Narrative of the Proceedings of the Court of Sessions in Bristol against I. C., Physician, to his Conviction on the Statute of the 36th Elizabeth,' 1684.
[Lempriere's Biog. Dict.; Records of a Church of Christ Meeting in Broadmead (Hanserd-Knollys Society); Calamy's Nonconf. Mem. iii. 778 (1805).]
A. C. B.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Morgan, William (1623-1689)

​MORGAN, WILLIAM (1623–1689), Jesuit, second son of Henry Morgan, by his first wife, Winefrid Gwynne, was born in Flint in 1623, and educated at Westminster School, where he was elected king's scholar, and passed on in 1640 to Trinity College, Cambridge, from which, after two years' residence, he was expelled by the Earl of Manchester for taking up arms in the royal cause (Welch, Alumni Westmon. ed. Phillimore, p. 115). He was taken prisoner at the battle of N aseby, and after six months' confinement in Winchester gaol, he was sent into banishment, and entered the Spanish service in Colonel Cobb's regiment. Having been converted to the catholic religion, he entered the English College at Rome in 1648. He was admitted into the Society of Jesus in 1651, and was professed of the four vows, 2 Feb. 1665-6. In 1661 he became a professor in the Jesuit college at Liege, ​whence he was sent in 1670 to the mission of North Wales. He was declared superior of the residence of St. Winefred in 1672, and in 1675 he was chaplain at Fowls Castle. He was specially noted in Titus Oates's list as an intended victim of the persecution, but in February 1678-9 he with difficulty effected his escape to the continent. In October 1679 he was appointed socius to Father Warner, the provincial, and subsequently, on visiting England, he was arrested and imprisoned. In May 1683 he was declared rector of the English College at Rome. He was appointed provincial of his order 22 Aug. 1689. and died a few weeks afterwards in the college at St. Omer on 28 Sept. 1689.
Dr. Oliver says Morgan wrote the beautiful account of the reign of James II beginning 'Anni Septuagesiini Octavi,' &c., but omits to state where this work is to be found.
[Foley's Records, v. 990, vii. 523; Oliver's Jesuit Collections, p. 144.]
T. C.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Morgan (fl.1294-1295)

​MORGAN (fl. 1294–1295), leader of the men of Glamorgan, appears, like his fellow-conspirator, Madog [q. v.], only in connection with the Welsh revolt which came to a head on Michaelmas day, 1294. In the 'Iolo MSS.' (p. 26) he is identified with Morgan ap Hywel of Caerleon,who belongs, however, to a much earlier part of the century (see Brut y Tywysoffion, Oxford edition, pp. 368, 370). His ancestors had been deprived of their domains by Gilbert de Clare, eighth earl of Gloucester [q. v.] Walter of Hemingburgh makes him, as well as Madog, a descendant of Llywelyn ap Gruffydd, but this is also a mistake. The movement led by Morgan resulted in the expulsion of Earl Gilbert, who then brought an army into Glamorgan, but failed to re-establish his power. About the middle of June 1295 the king appeared in the district, and soon restored order, receiving the homage of the tenants himself. Morgan submitted shortly afterwards, having been brought into Edward's power, according to Hemingburgh and the 'Iolo MSS.' (p. 26), by the northern leader Madog.
[Annals of Trivet (Engl. Hist. Soc.), 1845 edit.; Chronicle of Walter of Hemingburgh (Engl. Hist. Soc.), 1849 edit.; Annales Prioratus de Wigornia, Rolls edit. 1869; cf. arts, on Edward I and Madog.]
J. E. L.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Morgan Mwynfawr

​MORGAN Mwynfawr (d. 665?), regulus of Glamorgan, was the son of Athrwys ap Meurig ap Tewdrig (genealogies from Cymmrodor, ix. 181, 182, viii. 85), and may be the Morcant whose death is recorded in 'Annales Cambriæ' under the year 665 (ib. ix. 159). The charters contained in the 'Book of Llandaff' include a number of grants which he is said to have made to the church of Llandaff in the time of Bishops Oudoceus and Berthguin (Liber Landavensis, ed. Evans and Rhys, 1893, pp. 145, 148, 149, 151, 155, 156, 174). Other charters in the book of the time of Berthguin are attested by him (pp. 176, 182, 191), and an account is also given (pp. 152-4) of ecclesiastical proceedings taken against him by Oudoceus in consequence of his murdering his uncle Ffriog Though the Book of Llandaff' was compiled about the middle of the twelfth century (preface to the edition of 1893), at a time when the see was vigorously asserting disputed claims, it nevertheless embodies a quantity of valuable old material, and (details apart) is probably to be relied upon, in the general view it gives of the position of Morgan. He appears as owner of lands in Gower (p. 145), Glamorgan (p. 155), and Gwent (p. 156), and, since the latter two districts were afterwards ruled over by his descendants, was probably sovereign of most of the region between the Towy and the Wye.
It has been very generally supposed that Morgannwg a term of varying application, but usually denoting the country between the Wye and the Tawe (Red Book, Oxford edit. ii. 412; Cymmrodor, ix. 331) takes its name from Morgan Mwynfawr (Iolo MSS. p. 11). Mr. Phillimore, in a note to the Cymmrodorion edition of Owen's 'Pembrokeshire' (p. 208), suggests, however, that it is merely a variant of Gwlad Forgan [cf. art. on Morgan Hen], and that previous to the eleventh century the country was always known as Glywysing.
Morgan Mwynfawr, in common with many of his contemporaries, is a figure in the legends of the bards. He is mentioned in the ' Historical Triads ' as one of the three Reddeners (i.e. devastators) of the isle of Britain (Myvyrian Archaiology, 2nd edit. pp. 389, 397, 404) ; in the 'Iolo MSS.' (p. 11) he is said to have been a cousin of King Arthur and a knight of his court, while his car was reckoned one of the nine treasures of Britain, for 'whoever sat in it would be immediately wheresoever he wished' (Lady Charlotte Guest, Mabinogion, 1877 edit. p. 286).
[Liber Landavensis, ed. Rhys and Evans, 1893 ; Iolo MSS., Liverpool reprint.]
J. E. L.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Morgan Hen

​MORGAN Hen (i.e. the Aged) (d. 973), regulus of Glamorgan, was the son of Owain ap Hywel ap Rhys (Cymmrodor, viii. 85, 86), his father being no doubt the Owen, king of Gwent, mentioned in the 'Anglo-Saxon Chronicle' under the year 926, and his grandfather the 'Houil filius Ris,' of whom Asser speaks as 'rex Gleguising.' According to the 'Book of Llandaff' (edition of Evans and Rhys, pp. 241, 248), he was ruler of the seven cantreds of Morgannwg between Towy and Wye; other records in the book show, however, that there were contemporary kings in the Margam district (Cadwgan ab Owain, p. 224), and in Gwent (Cadell ab Arthfael, p. 223; Arthfael ab Hoe, p. 244). No doubt he was the chief prince of the region, and in that capacity attended the English court, where, until the accession of Edgar, he frequently appears as a witness to royal grants of land. He was with Athelstan in 930, 931, and 932, with Edred in 946 and 949, and with Edwy in 956 (Kemble, Codex Dipl., 1839, Nos. 352, 1103, 1107, 411, 424, 426, 451). During his reign a contention arose between him and the house of Hywel Dda as to the possession of the districts of Ewias and Ystrad Yw, a ​matter which we are told was settled in favour of Morgan by the overlord of the Welsh princes, King Edgar (Liber Landavensis, 1893 edition, p. 248; Gwentian 'Brut y Tywysogion' in Myvyrian Archaiology, 2nd edition, p. 690). Morgan's epithet implies that he lived to a great age, though the statement of the Gwentian Brut that he died in 1001, in his hundred and thirtieth year (p. 693), is of course to be rejected. He is probably the Morgan whose death is .recorded in one manuscript of 'Annales Cambrise' under the year 973.
Gwlad Forgan, the later Glamorgan, undoubtedly took its name from Morgan Hen. Even in the 'Book of Llandaff' the form does not appear until we reach eleventh-century grants, and, unlike Morgannwg, it always excludes Gwent, which was, it has been shown, no part of the realm of Morgan Hen.
[Liber Landavensis, 1893 edit.; Iolo MSS. Liverpool reprint; Gwentian Brut y Tywysogion in Myvyrian Archaiology; Annales Cambriae, Rolls edit.]
J. E. L.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Disney, Moore

​DISNEY, Sir MOORE (1766?–1846), general, eldest son of Moore Disney, esq., of Churchtown, co. Waterford, one of the Irish descendants of the family of Disney of Norton Disney in Northamptonshire, entered the army as an ensign in the 1st Grenadier guards on 17 April 1783. He served in America for the last few months of the American war of independence, and was promoted lieutenant and captain on 3 June 1791. He served with the guards throughout the campaign in the Netherlands under the Duke of York from 1793 to May 1795, and was promoted captain and lieutenant-colonel on 12 June 1795. He was promoted colonel on 29 April 1802, and served for a short time as a brigadier-general in the home district in 1805, but threw up that appointment in July 1806, in order to proceed to Sicily in command of the 3rd battalion of the 1st guards. He was made a brigadier-general in Sicily in August 1807, and was commandant of Messina from January to July 1808, when he started home to take command of a ​brigade in England. On his way, however, he touched at Lisbon on 6 Oct., and was at once begged by General Cradock to land and take command of a brigade consisting of the 2nd, 3rd, 6th, and 50th regiments, which Cradock wished to send to join the army of Sir John Moore in Spain. This brigade he led safely to Castello Branco by way of Abrantes, and there halted on 27 Nov., when he was ordered to hand over his brigade to Major-general Alan Cameron, and to join the main army under Sir John Moore. He reached Toro in safety, and was at once put in command of a brigade of Edward Paget's reserve, consisting of the 28th and 91st regiments. The reserve had to cover the famous retreat of Sir John Moore, and Disney greatly distinguished himself both at the action at Betanzos on 11 Jan. 1809, and in the battle of Corunna. For his services at that battle he received a gold medal, and was promoted major-general on 25 April 1809. In that year he commanded the first brigade of guards, attached to Hope's division, in the Walcheren expedition, and on his return to England was given the command of the home district. In 1810 he went out to Cadiz to act as second in command to General Graham, afterwards Lord Lynedoch, and in June 1811 he succeeded that general in the chief command there. He handed over the command at Cadiz to Major-general George Cooke in November 1811, and returned to England, and never again went on active service. He was promoted lieutenant-general on 4 June 1814, became colonel of the 15th regiment on 23 July 1814, was made a K.C.B. in 1815, and promoted general on 10 Jan. 1837. He died at his house in Upper Brook Street, London, on 19 April 1846, at the age of eighty.
[Sir F. W. Hamilton's History of the Grenadier Guards; Royal Military Calendar; Hart's Army List; Gent. Mag. for July 1846.]
H. M. S.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Dingley, Robert

​DINGLEY, ROBERT (1619–1660), a puritan divine, second son of Sir John Dingley, by a sister of Dr. Henry Hammond, was born in 1619. In 1634 he entered Magdalen College, Oxford. Having finished his university career and taken his degree of M.A., he took holy orders. On the outbreak of the civil war he took the parliamentary side. Dingley was presented to the rectory of Brightstone in the Isle of Wight during the governorship of his kinsman, Colonel Hammond, and enjoyed a high reputation as a preacher. He gave active assistance to the commissioners of Hampshire in rejecting ignorant and scandalous ministers and schoolmasters. He died at Brightstone on 12 Jan. 1659–1660.
Dingley's works were: 1. ‘The Spiritual Taste Described, or a Glimpse of Christ Discovered,’ 1649, republished as ‘Divine Relishes of matchless Goodness,’ 1651. 2. ‘The Deputation of Angels,’ 1654, London. 3. ‘Messiah's Splendour, or the Glimpsed Glory of a Beauteous Christian,’ 1654. 4. ‘Divine Optics, or a Treatise of the Eye discovering the Vices and Virtues thereof,’ 1655. 5. ‘Vox Cœli, or Philosophicall, Historicall, and Theological Observations of Thunder,’ 1658. 6. ‘A Sermon on Job xxvi. 14,’ 1658. For expressing himself unfavourably about the quakers he was attacked by George Fox in his ‘Great Mystery,’ 1659, p. 361. A portrait by T. Cross is prefixed to ‘The Spiritual Taste,’ 1649.
A. W. R.