OpenLLM-France/wikimedia huggingface dataset:
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Colbatch, John (d.1729)

​COLBATCH, Sir JOHN (d. 1729), physician, a native of Worcester, where he practised for some years as an apothecary, was admitted a licentiate of the College of Physicians on 22 Dec. 1696, was knighted by George I on 5 June 1716, and died on 15 Jan. 1728-9. His books are ridiculed in Garth's 'Dispensary,' canto v. He published:
* 'The New Light of Chirurgery,' 1695, 12mo.
* 'Physico-Medical Essays,' 1696.
* 'Causes and Nature of Gout,' 1697.
* 'Extraordinary Cure of the Bite of a Viper by Acids,' 1698.
* 'Collection of Tracts,' including the foregoing, 1700, 1704.
* 'Further Considerations concerning Alkaly and Acid,' 1698.
* 'Scheme for Methods to be taken should it please God to visit us with the Plague,' 1721.
* 'Dissertation concerning Mistletoe, & remedy in Convulsive Distemper,' 3rd ed. 1723.
* 'Dr. Colbatch's Legacy, or the Family Physician,' 1733.
His earlier tracts called forth 'Examination of John Colbatch, his books,' by Richard Boulton, 1699.
[Munk's Coll. of Phys. i.517; Cat. of Royal Medical and Chirurgical Soc.'s Library, i. 154, 264.]
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Coldock, Francis

​COLDOCK, FRANCIS (1530–1602), stationer and printer, 'by birth a gentleman' (so runs his widow's monument), was apprenticed to William Bonham, and made free of the Stationers' Company 2 Dec. 1657 (Arber, Transcript, i. 70), began to take apprentices 6 July 1668, was under warden in 1680 and 1682, upper warden in 1687 and 1688, and was twice master, in 1691 and 1595. The first entry to him in the Registers is for Bishop Bale's 'Declaration of E. Bonner's Articles in 1661, which, however, was printed for him by J. Tysdall. In the same year he was fined 2s. 'for that he ded revyle Thomas Hackett with unsemely wordes' (ib. i. 183), as well as on other occasions for keeping open on St. Luke's day and during sermon time. He was one of those who signed the petition setting forth their grievances from the various book monopolies, presented by the stationers and printers to Queen Elizabeth in 1577 [see Barker, Christopher]. He seems to have been more of a bookseller than a printer. Many volumes issued by him in conjunction with Henry Bynneman [q. v.] were very probably printed by the latter. He printed a few important books, among which may be mentioned the 'Æthiopian Historie' of Heliodorus, translated by Thomas Underdowne, who refers in the preface to his 'friend' Coldock. He first had a shop 'in Lombard strete, over agaynste the Cardinalles hatte,' and afterwards 'in Pawles churchyard at the signe of the greene Dragon.' He was a benefactor to the company, presenting on 4 Aug. 1589 'a spoone gilt poiz. 3 oz. 3s. or thereaboutes with his name on it,' on being made warden, and in 1591 'a silver college pot' on being made master.
On his widow's monument in the church of St. Andrew Undershaft is this inscription: 'Near … lieth Alice Byng, in a vault with her father, Simon Burton. She had three husbands, all bachelors and stationers. Her first was Richard Waterson, by him she had a son. Next him was Francis Coldock, by birth a gentleman; he bare all the offices in the company, and had issue two daughters, Joane and Anne, with whom she lived forty years. Lastly, Isaac Byng, pent., who died master of his company. She died the 21st day of May A.D. 1616, aged 73 yrs. 5 months and 25 days' (Stow, London, ed. Strype, 1754, i. 400). Coldock died 13 Jan. 1602, aged 72, and was buried in the vault of St. Faith, in the crypt of St. Paul's (Dugdale, St Paul's Cath., ed. Ellis, 1818, p. 86).
[Ames's Typogr. Antiq. ed. Herbert, ii. 918-922; Collier's Extracts from the Registers of the Company of Stationers (1667-70), 1848, 8vo; Watt's Bibliotheca Britannica, i.; Catalogue of Books in the British Museum printed before 1640; Timperley's Encyclopædia, 1848, pp. 411, 436; Nichols's Lit. Anecd. iii. 572, 590; Illustr. viii. 461.]
H. R. T.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Coldingham, Geoffrey de

​COLDINGHAM, GEOFFREY de (fl. 1214), historian of the church of Durham, was, according to the heading prefixed to the manuscripts of his book, sacrist of Coldingham priory, a ' cell ' or dependent establishment of the priory of Durham. Of his life nothing is known. His history begins with the death of Bishop William de St. Barbara in 1152, and ends abruptly with the election of Morgan (an alleged natural son of Henry II) to the bishopric in 1214. From this point the work was continued by Robert de Graystanes, afterwards himself bishop of Durham. Two manuscripts of Geoffrey's work are known to exist, one of them in the possession of the dean and chapter of York, and the other in the British Museum (Cotton Tit. A 2). The book was first edited, from the Cotton MS., by Wharton, in his 'Anglia Sacra' (1691); but the edition swarms with the grossest blunders, besides many important omissions. A satisfactory edition of Geoffrey is included in the volume 'Historiæ Dunelmensis Scriptores Tres,' edited by the Rev. J. Raine, and published by the Surtees Society in 1839.
[Raine's Preface to Hist. Dun. Script. Tres; Wharton's Anglia Sacra, i. 715.]
H. B.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Byrne, Anne Frances

​BYRNE, ANNE FRANCES (1775–1837), flower-painter, was born in 1775 in London, and was the eldest daughter of William Byrne, engraver [q. v.] She early became one of her father's pupils and assistants, etching for him and preparing his work. She also had some proficiency in fruit-painting, and exhibited a fruit-piece at the Academy in her twenty-first year, 1796, after which date pictures of hers appeared there from time to time, and at the British Institute, and Suffolk Street, down to 1832 (Graves's Dict. of Artists, p. 38). In 1805 Miss Byrne's father died. In 1806 she was elected associate-exhibitor at the Water Colour Society, which was followed by her election to full membership in 1809. Miss Byrne died 2 Jan. 1837, aged 62.
[Redgrave's Dict. of Artists of British School, ed. 1878.]
J. H.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Bynneman, Henry

1904 Errata appended.
​BYNNEMAN, HENRY (d. 1583), printer, was apprenticed to Richard Harrison, printer, on 24 June 1560. His master died in 1562, and he apparently served the remainder of his apprenticeship with Reginald Wolfe. He became a liveryman of the Stationers' Company 30 June 1578. He seems to have opened a shop in Paternoster Row as early as 1566. He afterwards moved to the sign of the Mermaid in Knightrider Street, and finally to Thames Street, near Baynard's Castle. Archbishop Parker encouraged him in many ways, allowed him to open a shed at the north-west door of St. Paul's, at the sign of the ‘Three Wells,’ and asked Burghley to allow him to print ‘a few usual Latin books for the use of grammarians, as Terence, Virgil, Tulley's offices, &c., a thing not done here in England before or very rarely’ (Strype, Parker, i. 552). In 1580 Bynneman was called to the bar of the House of Commons for having published in behalf of Arthur Hall, M.P. for Grantham, a libel on Sir Robert Bell, ​the late speaker of the house, and on other members. The book was suppressed. Bynneman gave his testimony against Hall. Hall alone was punished (D'Ewes, Journals of Parliaments under Elizabeth, pp. 291–309). Bynneman died in 1583.
Bynneman's publications were very numerous and of varied character. His name first appears in print on the title-page of Robert Crowley's ‘Apologie or Defence,’ in 1566. The ‘Manuall of Epictetus’ in English was his second publication, followed by the second volume of Paynter's ‘Palace of Pleasure’ in the same year. Bynneman was the publisher of George Turberville's ‘Booke of Faulconrie’ (1575) and ‘Noble Arte of Venerie’ (1575); of George Gascoigne's ‘Poems’ (1575–6), and of Gabriel Harvey's Latin works (1577–8). He printed the first edition of Holinshed's ‘Chronicles’ in 1574, and had licenses for printing several Latin and Greek books. In 1583 ‘the first foure bookes of Virgil's “Æneis,”’ by Richard Stanihurst, bears his imprint.
His usual device is a mermaid in an oval cartouch, with the motto ‘Omnia tempus habet;’ but he often employed in his earlier publications the device of a brazen serpent, which was the property of his master, Reginald Wolfe; in his later books he often used ‘a doe passant on a half wreath,’ with the motto ‘Cerva charissima et gratissima hinnulus prod.’
S. L. L.
Dictionary of National Biography, Errata (1904), p.47 N.B.— f.e. stands for from end and l.l. for last line
| Page | Col. | Line | |
| | | l.l. | Bynneman, Henry: for Ball read Bell |
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Byrne, Charles

​BYRNE, CHARLES (1761–1783), Irish giant, was born in Ireland in 1761. His father was an Irishman, and his mother a Scotchwoman, but neither of them was of extraordinary size. In August 1780 he ‘measured exactly eight feet; in 1782 he had gained two inches, and after he was dead he measured eight feet four inches’ (Gent. Mag. liv. pt. i. 541). He travelled about the country for exhibition; at Edinburgh he alarmed the watchmen on the North Bridge one morning by lighting his pipe at one of the lamps without standing even on tiptoe. In London he created such a sensation, that the pantomime at the Haymarket, produced on 18 Aug. 1782, was entitled, with reference to him, ‘Harlequin Teague, or the Giant's Causeway.’ He died (of, it is said, excessive drinking and vexation at losing a note for 700l.) at Cockspur Street, Charing Cross, on 1 June 1783, aged 22. His skeleton, which measures exactly 923/4 inches, is to be seen in the museum of the College of Surgeons in Lincoln's Inn Fields, where there is also a portrait of him. Two sketches of the giant by Kay will be found in the first volume of ‘Original Etchings,’ Nos. 4 and 164. Byrne has often been confused with Patrick Cotter, another Irish giant, who took the name of O'Brien, and died at Bristol in 1806.
[Kay's Original Portraits and Caricature Etchings (1877), i. 10–11, 417; Chambers's Book of Days (1864), ii. 326–7; Buckland's Curiosities of Natural History, 4th ser. pp. 19–21; Scots Mag. 1783, xlv. 335; Annual Register, 1783, app. pp. 209–10; Notes and Queries, 2nd ser. xi. 369, 396, 476, xii. 59; 5th ser. iv. 132–3.]
G. F. R. B.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Byrne, Letitia

​BYRNE, LETITIA (1779–1849), engraver, was born 24 Nov. 1779, presumably in London, being the third daughter of William Byrne, engraver [q. v.], and the sister of Anne Frances Byrne [q. v.] (Gent. Mag. vol. lxxv. pt. ii. p. 1071). As a pupil of her father, she exhibited landscape-views at the Academy when she was only twenty, in 1799. In 1810 she etched the illustrations for ‘A Description of Tunbridge Wells,’ and among other work entrusted to her were four views for Hakewill's ‘History of Windsor.’ She exhibited ‘From Eton College Play-fields’ at the Academy in 1822; and had other pictures there (twenty-one in all) down to 1848 (Graves's Dict. of Artists, p. 38). She died 2 May 1849, aged 70, and was buried at Kensal Green.
[Redgrave's Dict. of Artists of British School, ed. 1878, p. 66; Graves's Dict. of Artists, p. 38.]
J. H.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Byng, Thomas

1904 Errata appended.
​BYNG, THOMAS (d. 1599), master of Clare Hall, Cambridge, matriculated as a sizar at Peterhouse in May 1552; proceeded B.A. in 1556, was admitted fellow of his college 7 Feb. 1557-8, and commenced M.A. 1559, and LL.D. 1570. In 1564, when Elizabeth visited Cambridge, Byng made a Latin oration in her presence on the excellence of a monarchical government; the speech is printed in Nichols's 'Progresses' (iii. 63). He was proctor in the same year, and on 2 March 1564-5 became public orator. He was incorporated M.A. of Oxford on 6 Sept. 1566, while Queen Elizabeth was on a visit to that university. Byng became prebendary of York 18 Jan. 1566-7; master of Clare Hall, Cambridge, 1571; vice-chancellor of the university 1572; a member of the college of civilians 21 April 1572; regius professor of the civil law at Cambridge 18 March 1573-4; a special commissioner for the visitation of St. John's College, Cambridge, 13 July 1576; visitor of Ely Cathedral 6 Sept. 1593, and dean of the peculiars of Canterbury and dean of arches 24 July 1595. On 27 July 1578, with other dignitaries of the university, he visited the queen at Audley, and for a second time read a Latin oration in her presence. He died in December 1599, and was buried 23 Dec. at Hackney Church, Middlesex. By his wife, Catherine (1553-1627), he had ten sons and two daughters. Besides writing the orations mentioned above Byng edited Carr's translations from Demosthenes (1571), and contributed Latin and Greek verses to Wilson's translation of Demosthenes (1570), and to the university collections issued on the restoration of Bucer and Fagius (1560), and on the death of Sir Philip Sidney (1587). Many of Byng's official letters and publications are preserved among the university archives at Cambridge.
S. L. L.
Dictionary of National Biography, Errata (1904), p.47 N.B.— f.e. stands for from end and l.l. for last line
| Page | Col. | Line | |
| | ii | 9 | Byng, Thomas: for 1572 read 1572 and 1578 |
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Bain, Alexander

​BAIN, ALEXANDER (1810–1877), the author of several important telegraphic inventions, the chief of which was the automatic chemical telegraph, was born in the parish of Watten, Caithness-shire. After having served as apprentice to a clockmaker at Wick, he came up to London in 1837 as a journeyman. He was led, by lectures which he attended at the Adelaide Gallery, to apply electricity to the working of clocks, and was one of the first to devise a method by which a number of clocks could be worked electrically from a standard time-keeper, though the credit of this invention is claimed by Wheatstone as well as by Bain. It is doubtful, again, whether he was the inventor of the first printing telegraph, as this too is disputed. In both cases he was unquestionably very early in the field. He discovered independently the use of the earth circuit, but here he was certainly anticipated by Steinheil. Electric fire-alarms and sounding apparatus were also among his inventions. His most important invention was the chemical telegraph of 1843 previously mentioned. This apparatus could be worked at a speed hitherto impossible, and its invention certainly entitles Bain to the credit of being the pioneer of modern high-speed telegraphy. It is stated that the rate at which the apparatus was capable of working was discovered accidentally, in consequence of the breaking of a spring during an experiment. The machine ran down, but the message was nevertheless properly received. Perhaps the most valuable part of the invention consisted in the use of strips of perforated paper for the transmission of the message. This contrivance was long after adopted by Wheatstone, and is in use in all the existing high-speed systems of telegraphy. He received as much as 7,000l. for his telegraphic patents, but the money was wasted in litigation, and he died a poor man. Intemperance was another cause of his non-success in life. In 1873 he received a grant from the Royal Society of 150l., and at the time of his death he was supported by a government pension of 80l. a year.
H. T. W.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Bainbrigg, Thomas (d.1646)

​BAINBRIGG, THOMAS (d. 1646), master of Christ's College, Cambridge, was 'descended out of the North,' and was not improbably a native of Kirkby-Lonsdale in Westmoreland. He became master of Christ's College in 1620, and was vice-chancellor of the university in 1627. Thomas Baker, the antiquary, calls Bainbrigg 'a severe governor,' and supposes that during his mastership and by his authority the poet Milton was either expelled from the college or rusticated, whereby he missed a fellowship to which another candidate was admitted by royal mandate, 'a circumstance, as is supposed, together with his expulsion, that disgusted him first against the king, clergy, and universities.' Bainbrigg was a benefactor to his college, which flourished greatly under his government. He was accounted a witty man and a good preacher, and a funeral sermon by him, on 16 Oct. 1620, had the effect of seriously awakening the famous independent divine, Dr. Thomas Goodwin, who was originally of Christ's College, but subsequently became a fellow of Catherine Hall.
Dr. Burn (Hist. of Westmoreland, i. 258) states that Hawkin Hall, the most remarkable building in the parish of Kirkby Lonsdale, 'was built by Dr. Christopher Bainbridge, master of Christ's College in Cambridge, in the reign of King Charles I,' adding that 'Dr. Bainbridge was born at this place, and married at sixty years of age, and by his wife had nineteen children.' However improbable the latter part of the tale is, it seems of a piece with the whole; for the name of the master of Christ's College was not Christopher, but Thomas. There was indeed a fellow of the college named Christopher Bainbridge at that period, and it is just possible that he may be the person meant. The story of the nineteen children is repeated in the 'Critical Review' for 1778.
The master of Christ's College died at Cambridge in September 1646, and was buried in the parish of St. Andrew the Great on the 9th of that month. Duport has honoured him with a Latin epitaph.
[MS. Addit. 5821, f. 67, 5863, f. 78; Prynne's Tryal of Abp. Laud, 193; Peck's New Memoirs of Milton, 34, 35; Masson's Life of Milton (1881), 123 n., 239; Cambridge Antiquarian Communications, ii. 154; Critical Review, 1778, p. 258.]
T. C.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Baily, Thomas

​BAILY, THOMAS, D.D. (d. 1591), catholic divine, was a native of Yorkshire, and studied at Clare Hall, Cambridge, where he proceeded B.A. in 1546. Soon afterwards he became a fellow of that house, and in 1549 he commenced M. A. In 1554 he served the office of proctor, and in the following year subscribed the Roman catholic articles. He was appointed master of Clare Hall probably about November 1557. When Queen Elizabeth succeeded to the throne, he refused to comply with the change in religion; and on being deprived of his mastership he went to Louvain, where he was admitted D.D. He remained there till January 1576, when he removed to Douay on the invitation of Dr. (afterwards Cardinal) Allen, who employed him in the government of the English College, both at Douay and Rheims. In Allen's absence he was usually appointed regent of the college. He had the chief hand in managing the temporalities of the college, while Dr. Bristow regulated the schools, and Dr. Allen himself inspected discipline. Dodd remarks that 'the college was very prosperous under this triumvirate; but as a nation quickly finds the loss of a zealous and able ministry, so it happened to the English College, which, upon their decease, was oppressed with debts and divided by parties.' Dr. Baily, who was succeeded in the vice-presidency of the college by Dr. Worthington, became a prebendary of Cambray when Allen was advanced to the dignity of cardinal in 1587. He died at Douay 7 Oct. 1591.
[Dodd's Church Hist. ii. 46, 58, 382; Diaries of the English College, Douay (index, under 'Bayley'); Letters and Memorials of Cardinal Allen (index, under 'Bayly'); Cooper's Athenæ Cantab, ii. 108, 545; Lamb's Collection of Letters, Statutes, and other Documents, 175; MS. Addit 5863, f. 135 b.]
T. C.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Bainbrigg, Thomas (1636-1703)

​BAINBRIGG, BAMBRIDGE, or BEMBRIDGE, THOMAS, D.D. (1636–1703), protestant controversialist, son of Richard and Rose Bainbrigg, was born at Cambridge. He was educated at the university there, proceeded B.A. in 1654, M.A. in 1661, was incorporated M.A. of Oxford in 1669, became proctor at Cambridge in 1678, there graduated D.D. by royal mandate in 1684, and held for many years the posts of fellow and vice-master of Trinity College, Cambridge. He was sometime vicar of Chesterton and subsequently rector of Orwell. He died suddenly at Cambridge, and was buried in Trinity College Chapel, where there is a monument to his memory. In 1687 he published 'An Answer to a Book entitled Reason and Authority, or the Motives of a late Protestant's Reconciliation to the Catholick Church, together with a brief account of Augustine the Monk, and conversion of the English. In a letter to a Friend.' The 'Letter' does not bear Bainbrigg's name, but is generally ascribed to him. It is a courageous and pungent onslaught upon the accredited author of 'Reason and Authority.' The pamphlet assailed — an attack upon ​Tillotson's discourse against transubstantiation—was attributed to Joshua Basset [see Basset, Joshua], for a time master of Sidney College. Bainbrigg thinks that 'it is a grief to have an adversary so weak and yet so confident.' 'He names Pope Gregory and Bede,' he adds, 'but gives not any ground to think that ever he has read over Bede's History or consulted Pope Gregory's Epistles.'
[Chetham Society, Popery Tracts, pt. i.; Cooper's Annals of Cambridge; Gee's Catalogue of Discourses against Popery; Bloomfield's Collect. Cantabr.; Wood's Fasti Oxon.; Grad. Cantabrig.; Dodd's Church History.]
P. B. A.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Baily, John Walker

​BAILY, JOHN WALKER (1809–1873), archaeologist, brother of Charles Baily [q. v.], was born 9 Jan. 1809, and died 4 March 1873. He was head of the firm of William Baily & Sons, and master of the Ironmongers' Company in 1862–3. He is chiefly known to archaeologists as having formed an important collection of Romano-British and mediæval remains unearthed by excavations in the City of London during the years 1862–72. This collection was purchased in 1881 by the Corporation of London for their museum of City antiquities. In the same year his collection of arms and armour, formed 1835–45, became the property of the Baron de Cosson, of Chertsey.
[Information from Mr. W. Baily; Journal of British Archæological Association, xxx. 349–51; Nicholl's Hist, of the Ironmongers' Company, pp. 417 n., 507.]
G. G.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Doyle, Charles Hastings

​DOYLE, Sir CHARLES HASTINGS (1805–1883), general, eldest son of Lieutenant-general Sir Charles William Doyle, C.B., G.C.H. [q. v.], by Sophia, daughter of Sir John Coghill, was born in January 1805. He was educated at Sandhurst, and entered the army as an ensign in the 87th, his great-uncle, Sir John Doyle's, regiment, on 23 Dec. 1819. He was promoted lieutenant on 27 Sept. 1822, captain 16 June 1825, major 28 June 1838, and lieutenant-colonel on 14 April 1846. He went on the staff in 1847, after having served with his regiment in the East and West Indies and in Canada, as assistant adjutant-general at Limerick. He was promoted colonel on 20 June 1854, and was appointed assistant adjutant-general to the third division of the army, sent to the East in that year, but his health broke down at Varna, and he had to return to England without seeing any service in the Crimea. He next acted as inspector-general of the militia in Ireland, until his promotion to the rank of major-general on 15 Sept. 1860, and in the following year he was appointed to command the troops in Nova Scotia. Here he had several difficult questions to settle owing to the great American civil war, which was raging across the frontier, but he showed great tact in all the questions of emergency which arose, and received the thanks of the Canadian House of Assembly and of the English and American governments for his management of the Chesapeake affair. Lieutenant-governor of New Brunswick in 1866–1867, he was in 1867 appointed lieutenant-governor of Nova Scotia; in May 1868 became colonel of the 70th regiment; in 1869 K.C.M.G.; in 1870 promoted lieutenant-general and transferred to the colonelcy of his old regiment, the 87th. In May 1873 he resigned his governorship and left Nova Scotia. He acted as general commanding the southern district at Portsmouth from April 1874 to May 1877, and was in that year promoted general and placed on the retired list. He died suddenly of heart disease in Bolton Street, London, on 19 March 1883.
H. M. S.