OpenLLM-France/wikimedia huggingface dataset:
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Griffiths, John (1731-1811)

​GRIFFITHS, JOHN (1731–1811), congregationalist, was born in 1731 at Castellgarw, Llanglydwen, Carmarthenshire. It was intended that he should take orders in the established church, and he received a good preparatory education at the school of the vicar; but changing his views, he entered the presbyterian college, under the presidency of the Rev. Evan Davies, at Haverfordwest in 1752. During his stay a rupture led to the formation of the New Independent College at Abergavenny, whither he and three other students of orthodox sympathies removed (1755). For over fifty years he held the pastoral oversight of the independent church at Glandwr, Pembrokeshire, and of several other neighbouring churches. He laboured zealously, his churches were well filled, notwithstanding two secessions, due perhaps to his extreme Calvinism. He acted as a school-master, and young men often received episcopal and other ordination direct from his school. He was the founder of what are known in Pembrokeshire as expository classes. He studied medicine for the benefit of his people, and his knowledge was supposed by the ignorant to imply a mastery of the magic art. He was a successful translator of English hymns into Welsh. He published two editions of the 'Shorter Catechism' in Welsh, a revised edition of Matthias Maurice's translation of Dr. John Owen's 'Guide to Public Worship,' a translation of a work on domestic worship, 1791, and an elegy on Morris Griffiths, Trefgarn. He died 7 Nov. 1811.
R. J. J.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Griffith, Walter

​GRIFFITH, WALTER (d. 1779), captain in the navy, of an old family long settled in Merionethshire, was promoted to be a lieutenant in the navy on 7 May 1755, and served in that rank on board the Royal George when she carried Lord Anson's flag in the summer of 1758, and under Hawke in 1759 till 4 June, when he was promoted to the command of the Postilion sloop. On 23 June, writing from Sheerness, he reported his having taken up the command; on 24 June he acknowledged an order to command the Argo during the illness of her captain; and on 16 July wrote that, Captain Tinker being recovered, he had returned to the Postilion. These dates seem to throw great doubt on the accuracy of Charnock's statement that, on 24 June 1759, Griffith married the widow of Lord George Bentinck, who died 1 March 1759 (Collins, Peerage, ii. 138). In September 1759 he was appointed to the temporary command of the Gibraltar frigate, and, being attached to the grand fleet off Brest, was fortunate enough to fall in with the French fleet on 15 Nov. After watching it carefully, he despatched full intelligence to Hawke and to the admiralty, while he himself went to warn Admiral Brodrick, then blockading Cadiz. His conduct on this occasion called forth an unusually warm encomium from the admiralty, as well as a direct ​intimation that ‘he might very soon expect some mark of their favour’ (Minute on Griffith's official letter of 17 Nov. 1759). He was consequently confirmed to the command of the Gibraltar, his commission as captain bearing date 11 Dec. 1759. He continued in her till 1766, being employed in the Mediterranean till the peace, and afterwards on the home station. During the Spanish armament in 1770 he commanded the Namur for a few weeks, and in 1776 was appointed to the Nonsuch of 64 guns, in which, early in the following year, he joined Lord Howe on the North American station, where he took part in the defence of Sandy Hook against D'Estaing in July and August 1778. He afterwards sailed with Commodore Hotham for the West Indies, where he shared in the brilliant little action in the cul de sac of St. Lucia on 15 Dec. [see Barrington, Hon. Samuel], and in the battle of Grenada in the following July [see Byron, Hon. John]. When Byron resigned the command to Rearadmiral Parker, Griffith was moved into the Conqueror; but a few months later, on 18 Dec. 1779, was killed in a slight rencounter with the French in Fort Royal Bay. ‘The service,’ wrote Parker, ‘cannot lose a better man or a better officer.’
[Charnock's Biog. Nav. vi. 365; Official Letters in the Public Record Office.]
J. K. L.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Griffiths, Ann

​GRIFFITHS, ANN (17801805), Welsh hymn-writer, born in 1780, was the eldest daughter of John Thomas, a respectable farmer, living at Dolwar-fechan, Llanfihangel yn Ngwynfa, Montgomeryshire. She received a fair education, and was able to read English and to write. In her early youth she is said to have been of a lively disposition, fond of a dance and a song, and supposed to make little of religious customs. A great change came over her somewhat later, through hearing a sermon by the Rev. Benjamin Jones, the independent minister at Pwllheli. She attached herself to the independents, but eventually cast in her lot with the Calvinistic methodists. She possessed a retentive memory, and could generally repeat oft-hand any sermon she heard, and is said to have written out several of those of John Elias [q. v.] in full. Her hymns and religious verses are often lacking in rhythmic smoothness, but they are spirited, and indicate a deep piety and warmth of emotion. Her biographer says her songs, hymns, and letters are all worthy of preservation. She committed very few of her hymns to paper, and most of them have been preserved from the memory of the servant-girl to whom they were recited. They may be found to-day in the hymn-books of most of the popular churches. Her literary remains, with memoirs, have been published. She died in August 1805.
R. J. J.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Griffiths, Frederick Augustus

​GRIFFITHS, FREDERICK AUGUSTUS (d. 1869), military writer, entered the army as an ensign in the royal artillery on 13 Dec. 1813. He was gazetted lieutenant 8 Oct. 1816, captain 19 Aug. 1835, and major 28 Nov. 1854. He died in 1869. Griffiths wrote: 1. The Artillerist's Manual and Compendium of Infantry Exercise,' Woolwich, 1840; 10th edition 1868. 2. 'Notes on Military Law,' Woolwich, 1841.
C. L. K.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Griffiths, Michael

​GRIFFITHS, alias ALFORD, MICHAEL (1587–1652). [See Alford.]
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Bacon, John (1777-1859)

​BACON, JOHN (1777–1859), sculptor, was the second son of John Bacon, R.A. ​At twelve years old he entered the Academy schools, at fifteen he exhibited his first work, at sixteen he gained a silver medal, and at seventeen the gold medal of the Royal Academy. His prize work was a statue of Cassandra. The elder Bacon died in 1799, and John Bacon, junior, succeeded to his business. He finished such works as he found in progress, including the well-known statue of Lord Cornwallis, and was able, besides, to secure ample patronage for himself. He ceased to exhibit at the Academy in 1824. There are six of his monuments in St. Paul's Cathedral, and some in Westminster Abbey. He died in 1859. A brother, Thomas Bacon, also obtained some reputation as a sculptor. He exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1793, 1794, and 1795. The statue of William III in St. James's Square, erected in 1808, was his work.
[Allan Cunningham's Lives of the Painters, ii.; Redgrave's Dict. of Painters of the English School.]
E. R.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Bacon, John (1738-1816)

​BACON, JOHN, F.S.A. (1738–1816), spent nearly the whole of his working life in the first-fruits department of the office of Queen Anne's Bounty, and is now remembered by church antiquaries for his improved edition of Ecton's 'Thesaurus,' a detailed account of the valuations of all ecclesiastical benefices which were charged with first fruits and tenths. His first appointment in that branch of the office was as junior clerk to the deputy remembrancer, and he rose to become the senior clerk in 1778 and the receiver in 1782. With these offices he combined the duties of treasurer to the Corporation of the Sons of the Clergy. He obtained the leasehold interest, under the dean and chapter of St. Paul's, of the manor of Whetstone, or Friern Barnet, and when the Land Tax Redemption Act authorised them to effect a sale of their landed property, he purchased the reversion of the manor-house and the whole of their estate in the parish of Friern Barnet. A description of the house and the curiosities which it contained may be found in Lysons's 'Environs of London,' ii. 22. He died in the manor-house 26 Feb. 1816, and was buried in a small vault on the outside of the church. His tombstone in the churchyard records his second son and his son's wife; his only daughter, Maria, was married to Sir William Johnston, of that ilk, Aberdeenshire. His edition of the 'Liber regis, vel thesaurus rerum ecclesiasticarum' was published in 1786, and some severe, but not unjustifiable, comments were made at that time in the 'Gentleman's Magazine' on the omission of any mention in the title-page or the preface of the previous compilation of John Ecton.
W. P. C.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Bacon, John (d.1321)

​BACON, JOHN (d. 1321), judge, is first mentioned as acting in the capacity of attorney to Queen Eleanor in 1278-9, and is described in certain indentures of the exchequer, dated 1288, as 'clericus Regis' and 'custos rotulorum et brevium de Banco' and 'Regis thesauriarius et camerarius,' his business being to keep a list of the cases argued in the common pleas, and to transmit records thereof, and also 'pedes chirographorum,' i.e. memoranda of fines levied throughout the country, to the treasurers and chamberlains of the exchequer, of the receipt of which the indentures already mentioned were acknowledgments. The 'chirographa,' or fines in question, were fictitious suits, by means of which it was the custom to bar entails and convey the landed property of married women. Bacon seems to have held this post as late as 1309. In 1291 he was entrusted with the charge of Ledes Castle in Kent (a royal residence). In 1313 he was appointed to a justiceship of the common pleas, and in the same year we read of his being retained in London to advise the king upon some important matters. In 1314 he was made one of the commissioners of oyer and terminer for the counties of Norfolk and Suffolk, to try certain assessors and collectors of the revenue charged with breach of trust. In 1315 William de Beresford, the chief justice of the common pleas, being suddenly summoned to the king, the business of the court devolved upon Thrikingham and Bacon exclusively. We may conjecture that it was not very promptly or efficiently despatched, for it was but a short time since he had been enjoined to pay a more diligent attention to duty. In 1317 he was summoned with the rest of the judges to parliament at Lincoln, but the invasion of the Scots in that year caused the postponement of the parliament sine die. In 1320 he was placed on a commission to try certain persons charged with debasing and counterfeiting the coinage in the counties of Essex, Norfolk, and Suffolk, and in 1321 upon another directed to inquire into offences committed by sheriff's and other legal functionaries under colour of their official duties in the counties of Norfolk, Suffolk, Cambridge, and Huntingdon. He appears to have died in this year, Stonore being appointed justice of the common pleas in his place. He had landed property in Reston, Hemingston, Cleydon, and Akenham, places all of them in the county of Suffolk, and also in Essex, and at Shouldham in Norfolk.
J. M. R.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Ferrers, Joseph

​FERRERS, JOSEPH (1725–1797), Carmelite friar, born in 1725, was probably descended from a younger branch of the family of that name seated at Baddesley Clinton in Warwickshire. He was professed in one of the foreign convents in 1745, and ordained priest in 1749, after which he came on the English mission. He became provincial of the English Carmelites, and died in London 29 Aug. 1797, aged 72. He published ‘A Discourse pronounced … in the Chapel of his Excellency the Neapolitan Ambassador, in the Solemn Service celebrated 9 Feb. 1793 for Louis XVI, late King of France. In French and English,’ 8vo, London, 1793.
G. G.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Ferrers, Lord of Chartley

​FERRERS, Lord of Chartley. [See Devereux, Walter, d. 1558.]
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Ferrers, Henry de

​FERRERS, HENRY de (fl. 1086), Domesday commissioner, was the son of Walkelin, lord of Ferrières St.-Hilaire in Normandy, who was slain during the minority of William the Conqueror. Wace makes him, as ‘Henri le Sire de Ferriers,’ present at the battle of Hastings. He is found in ‘Domesday’ (1086) in possession of estates in fourteen counties, his chief possessions being in Derbyshire, where he held a hundred and fourteen manors. His principal seat was Tutbury Castle, Staffordshire, which had been previously held by Hugh d'Avranches, earl of Chester (Ord. Vit. ii. 222). He also had a grant of the lands of Godric, sheriff of Berkshire (Domesday Book). He is found acting in Worcestershire as one of the Domesday commissioners (Heming, fol. 135). Shortly afterwards he founded, in conjunction with his wife Bertha, Tutbury Priory (Mon. Angl. iii. 391).
J. H. R.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Ferrers, Earl

​FERRERS, Earl. [See Shirley, Laurence, 1720-1760; Shirley, Washington, fifth Earl, d. 1778.]
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Ferrers, Edward

​FERRERS, EDWARD (d. 1564), is described by Wood as a distinguished dramatist of the reign of Edward VI. Wood suggests, without advancing any proof, that he was educated at Oxford. His name does not appear on the register. We know that one Edward Ferrers of Baddesley Clinton, Warwickshire, died 11 Aug. 1564. He was the son of Henry Ferrers (d. 1526), married in 1548 Bridget, daughter of William, lord Windsor, and was father of Henry Ferrers [q. v.] the antiquary. He was buried in Tarbick Church, Worcestershire (Dugdale, Warwickshire, 1730, ii. 971–3). Another Edward Ferrers was one of the band of gentlemen pensioners at Elizabeth's court on 1 June 1565, when he was assessed in a subsidy roll as owner of forty shillings worth of land in the parish of St. Dunstan and ward of Farringdon, London. But there is no evidence that either of these men was a dramatist. Wood was clearly misled by the mistakes of Puttenham in his ‘Arte of English Poesie,’ 1589, and of Meres in his ‘Palladis Tamia,’ 1598, who both attributed to an Edward Ferrers or Ferris literary work which should have been placed to the credit of George Ferrers [q. v.] Ritson, while correcting Wood's chief errors, nevertheless maintained that there was probably a dramatist named Edward Ferrers as well as the poet George Ferrers; but Puttenham and Meres are clearly guilty of misprinting ‘Edward’ for ‘George’ Ferrers, and there is no evidence outside their testimony to show that Edward Ferrers as an author had any existence.
S. L. L.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Ferrers, Henry (1549-1633)

1904 Errata appended. The spelling "Heney" is a misprint, corrected in later editions.
​FERRERS, HENEY (1549–1633), antiquary, son and heir of Edward Ferrers [q. v.] of Baddesley Clinton, Warwickshire, by Bridget, daughter and heiress of William, lord Windsor, was born in that county on 26 Jan. 1549. He became a student at Oxford, probably as a member of Hart Hall, in the beginning of Queen Elizabeth's reign, but it is not known whether he took a degree. Afterwards he retired to his patrimony, and devoted himself to the study of heraldry, genealogy, and antiquities. He was the earliest collector of materials for the history of his county, with the exception of John Rous, and he intended to publish a ‘Perambulation of ​Warwickshire’ on the model of Lambarde's ‘Perambulation of Kent,’ but did not carry the design into effect. Camden says that he was ‘a man both for parentage and for knowledge of antiquity, very commendable and my special friend; who … hath at all times courteously shewed me the right way when I was out, and from his candle, as it were, hath lighted mine’ (Britannia, ed. Gough, ii. 331). Dugdale, who in writing the ‘Antiquities of Warwickshire’ made extensive use of Ferrers's manuscript collections, describes him as an eminent antiquary and ‘a man of distinguished worth, reflecting lustre on the ancient and noble family to which he belonged.’ Guillim writes that Ferrers was ‘a man very judicious in matters of honour.’ Some of his manuscripts are preserved at the College of Arms, others in the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford, and the British Museum (Lansd. MS. 860 a and b; cf. Colvile, Worthies of Warwickshire, p. 282). ‘He had also in his younger days,’ says Wood, ‘a good faculty in poetry, some of which I have seen scattered in divers books printed in the reign of qu. Elizabeth’ (Athenæ Oxon. ed. Bliss, ii. 572; see Ferrers, George). Ferrers was apparently the M.P. for Callington in 1597. He was an adherent of the Roman catholic church (Dodd, Church Hist. iii. 74). He died on 10 Oct. 1633, and was buried in the church of Baddesley Clinton. He married, in October 1582, Jane, daughter and coheiress of Henry White, esq., of South Warnborough, Hampshire, son of Sir Thomas White, knight, and by her (who died 7 Sept. 1586, aged 23) he had a son Edward and a daughter Mary.
The writer of the introduction to the ‘Archæologia’ conjectured that Ferrers was the author of ‘A Motion for erecting an Academy Royal, or Colledge of King James,’ manuscript written in 1617, but the real author was Edmund Bolton [q. v.]
T. C.
Dictionary of National Biography, Errata (1904), p.122 N.B.— f.e. stands for from end and l.l. for last line
| Page | Col. | Line | |
| 386 | i | 32 | Ferrers, Henry: after Clinton, insert He was apparently M.P. for Callington in 1597. |
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Ferrers, Benjamin

​FERRERS, BENJAMIN (d. 1732), portrait-painter, was deaf and dumb from his birth, and appears to have resided in Westminster. He painted a portrait of William Beveridge, bishop of St. Asaph, who was his kinsman, taken from the dead body of the bishop, who died at Westminster 5 March 1706–7; the portrait is in the Bodleian Library at Oxford, and was engraved by W. Sherwin, both in mezzotint and line, by Michael van der Gucht, as a frontispiece to his works, and by Trotter. Ferrers also painted a picture of the court of chancery under Lord-chancellor Macclesfield, with numerous portraits. This picture was in the possession of Dr. Lort of Cambridge, who gave it to the Earl of Hardwicke, and at the sale of the Wimpole pictures in 1888 it was purchased by the trustees of the National Portrait Gallery. Ferrers died in 1732, and a Latin panegyric on him was written by his friend, Vincent Bourne [q. v.], of Westminster School.
L. C.
# Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography/Iassus

​IASSUS, or IASUS (Ἴασσος, or Ἴασος: Eth. Ἰασσεύς), a town of Caria, situated on a small island close to the north coast of the Iasian bay, which derives its name from Iassus. The town is said to have been founded at an unknown period by Argive colonists; but as they had sustained severe losses in a war with the native Carians, they invited the son of Neleus, who had previously founded Miletus, to come to their assistance. The town appears on that occasion to have received additional settlers. (Polyb. xvi. 12.) The town, which appears to have occupied the whole of the little island, had only ten stadia in circumference; but it nevertheless actjuired great wealth (Thucyd. viii. 28), from its fisheries and trade in fish (Strab. xiv. p. 658). After the Sicilian expedition of the Athenians, during the Peloponnesian war, Iassus was attacked by the Lacedaemonians and their allies; it was governed at the time by Amorges, a Persian chief, who had revolted from Darius. It was taken by the Lacedaemonians, who captured Amorges, aud delivered him up to Tissaphernes. The town itself was destroyed on that occasion; but must have been rebuilt, for we afterwards find it besieged by the last Philip of Macedonia, who, however, was compelled by the Romans to restore it to Ptolemy of Egypt. (Polyb. xvii. 2; Liv. xxiii. 33; comp. Ptol. v. 2. § 9; Plin. v. 29; Stad. Mar. Magn. §§ 274, 275; Hierocl. p. 689.) The mountains in the neighbourhood of Iassus furnished a beautiful kind of marble, of a blood-red and livid white colour, which was used by the ancients for ornamental purposes. (Paul. Silent. Ecphr. S. Soph. ii. 213.) Near the town was a sanctuary of Hestias, with a statue of the goddess, which, though standing in the open air, was beheved never to be touched by the rain. (Polyb. xvi. 12.) The same story is related, by Strabo, of a temple of Artemis in the same neighbourhood. Iassus, as a celebrated fishing place, is alluded to by Athenaeus (iii. p. 105, xiii. p. 600). The place is still existing, under the name of Askem or Asýn Kalessi. Chandler (Travels in As. Min. p. 226) relates that the island on which the town was built is now united to the
COIN OF IASUS
mainland by a small isthmus. Part of the city walls still exist, and are of a regular, solid, and handsome structure. In the side of the rock a theatre with many rows of seats still remains, and several inscriptions and coins have been found there. (Comp. Spon and Wheler, Voyages, vol. i. p. 361.)
A second town of the name of Iassus existed in Cappadocia or Armenia Minor (Ptol. v. 7. § 6), on the north-east of Zoropassus. [ L. S. ]
# Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography/Iastae

​IASTAE (Ἰᾶσται, Ptol. vi. 12), a Scythian tribe, whose position must be sought for in the neighbourhood of the river Iastus. [ E. B. J. ]
# Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography/Iastus (2)

​IASTUS, a river mentioned by Ptolemy (vi. 14. § 2) as falling into the Caspian between the Jaik and the Oxus. It is only safe to call it one of the numerous rivers of Independent Tartary. [ R. G. L. ]
# Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography/Iatii

​IA'TII (Ἰάτιοι, Ptol. vi. 12. § 4), a people in the northern part of Sogdiana. They are also mentioned by Pliny (vi. 16. s. 18); but nothing certain is known of their real position. [ V. ]
# Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography/Iatra

​IATRA or IATRUM (Ἰατρόν), a town in Moesia, situated at the point where the river Iatrus or Iantrus empties itself into the Danube, a few miles to the east of Ad Novas. (Procop. de Aed. iv. 7; Theophylact. vii. 2; Notit. Imp. 29, where it is erroneously called Latra; Geogr. Rav.. iv. 7, where, as in the Peut. Tab., it bears the name Laton.) [ L. S. ]
# Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography/Iasus

​IASUS. [Oeum.]
# Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography/Iastus (1)

​IASTUS (Ἴαστος), a river which, according to Ptolemy (vi. 12), was, like the Polytimetus (Kohik), an affluent of the Caspian basin, and should in fact be considered as such in the sense given to a denomination which at that time embraced a vast and complicated hydraulic system. [Jaxartes.] Von Humboldt (Asie Centrale, vol. ii. p. 263) has identified it with the Kizil-Deria, the dry bed of which may be traced on the barren wastes of Kizil Koum in W. Turkistan. It is no unusual circumstance in the sandy steppes of N. Asia for rivers to change their course, or even entirely to disappear. Thus the Kizil-Deria, which was known to geographers till the commencement of this century, no longer exists. (Comp. Levchine, Hordes et Steppes des Kirghiz Kazaks, p. 456.) [ E. B. J. ]
# Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography/Iatrus

​IATRUS (in the Peut. Tab. Iantrus), a river traversing the central part of Moesia. It has its sources in Mount Haemus, and, having in its course to the north received the waters of several tributaries, falls into the Danube close by the town of Iatra. (Plin. iii. 29, where the common reading is Ieterus; Jornand. Get. 18; Geogr. Rav. iv. 7.) It is probably the same as the Athrys (Ἄθρυς) mentioned by Herodotus (iv. 49). Its modern name is Iantra. [ L. S. ]
# Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography/Iassii

​IASSII (Ἰάσσιοι), mentioned by Ptolemy as a population of Upper Pannonia (ii. 14. § 2). Pliny's form of the name (iii. 25) is Iasi. He places them on the Drave. [ R. G. L. ]