OpenLLM-France/wikimedia huggingface dataset:
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Baron, Geoffrey

​BARON, or BARRON, GEOFFREY (d. 1651), Irish rebel, elder brother of Bonaventure Baron [q. v.], acquired eminence in Ireland as a scholar and a lawyer in the reign of Charles I. He engaged actively in the affairs of the Irish confederates in 1642, and was appointed as their delegate to the court of France. Baron acted for a time as treasurer for the Irish Confederation, and throughout his career enjoyed a high character for probity and sincere devotion to the cause of his Roman catholic countrymen. He strongly opposed the surrender of Limerick to the army of the parliament of England in 1651, and was consequently one of those excepted from pardon for life and estate by a special clause in the treaty of capitulation. When the parliamentarian troops entered Limerick in October 1651, Baron voluntarily surrendered himself, and was sentenced to death by a court of officers presided over by the lord-deputy, Henry Ireton. Edmund Ludlow, lieutenant-general of the horse, mentions that, in reply to Ireton, Baron answered ‘that it was not just to exclude him from mercy, because he had been engaged in the same cause’ as the parliamentarians ‘pretended to fight for, the liberty and religion of his country.’ ​Baron was executed at Limerick, and met his fate with great intrepidity.
J. T. G.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Baron, Richard

​BARON, or BARRON, RICHARD (d. 1766), republican, was born at Leeds, and educated at Glasgow 1737–40, which he left with a testimonial signed by Hutcheson and Simpson. Baron became a friend of Thomas Gordon, author of the ‘Independent Whig,’ and afterwards of Thomas Hollis, whom he helped in collecting works defending the republicanism of the seventeenth century. He edited in 1751 a collection of tracts by Gordon, under the title, ‘A Cordial for Low Spirits,’ 3 vols. 8vo; and in 1752 a similar collection by Gordon and others, called ‘The Follies of Priestcraft and Orthodoxy shaken,’ in 2 vols. An enlarged edition of the last, in four volumes, including tracts by Hoadly, Sykes, Arnall, and Archdeacon Blackburne, was prepared by him, and published in 1767 for the benefit of his widow and three children. In 1751 he also edited Algernon Sidney's ‘Discourse concerning Government,’ and in 1753 Milton's prose works (for which he received 10l. 10s.). An edition by Toland had appeared in 1697, and one by Birch in 1738. Baron afterwards found the second edition of the ‘Eikonoklastes,’ and reprinted it in 1756. He also edited Ludlow's ‘Memoirs’ in 1751, and Nedham's ‘Excellency of a Free State’ in 1757. Hollis engaged him in 1766 to superintend an edition of Marvell; but the plan dropped upon Baron professing his inability to supply the necessary information, and it was afterwards taken up by Captain Thompson in 1776. Baron is described as an artless and impetuous person, whose imprudence kept him poor. He died in ‘miserable circumstances’ in 1766.
L. S.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Baron, Robert (1593?-1639)

​BARON, ROBERT (1593?–1639), divine, was at St. Andrews, where he is said to have distinguished himself in a disputation held before James I in 1617 (Preface to Metaphysica). He was minister of Keith in 1619, and was professor of divinity in the college of St. Salvator, St. Andrews, where he published ‘Philosophia Theologiæ ancillans,’ 1621. He became professor of divinity in Marischal College, Aberdeen, and minister of Greyfriars in 1624. In 1627 he received his D.D. degree, and published on this occasion his ‘Disputatio theologica de formali objecto fidei, hoc est, de Sacræ Scripturæ divina et canonica authoritate.’ This was answered by Turnbull, a Scotch Jesuit, to whom he replied in 1631 in a treatise called ‘Ad Georgii Turnebulli Tetragonismum Pseudographum Apodixis Catholica, seu Apologia pro disputatione de formali objecto fidei.’ In 1633 he published a ‘Disputatio theologica de vero discrimine peccati mortalis et venialis.’ In 1635 he contributed a funeral sermon to the collection called ‘Funerals of … Patrick Forbes, Bishop of Aberdeen.’ He took part in a famous debate against the covenanting commissioners in 1638, and on 20 March 1639 fled by sea to England, with other Aberdeen doctors, on the approach of Montrose, and was nominated by Charles I to the see of Orkney. He died at Berwick on his return, 19 Aug. 1639, aged about forty-six. He left a widow, who was forced to allow the inspection of his library by the presbytery of Aberdeen. She and her children received compensation for their sufferings on the Restoration. Besides the above, he is the author of ‘Metaphysica generalis: accedunt nunc primum quæ supererant ex parte speciali; opus postumum ex musæo A. Clementii Zirizæ,’ London (1657?), and Cambridge, 1685. He left various manuscripts, some of which are preserved in the King's College library, Aberdeen. For a full account of these writings see Gordon's ‘Scots Affairs,’ iii. 236–9, note.
L. S.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Barnham, Francis

​BARNHAM, Sir FRANCIS (d. 1646?), parliamentarian, was the eldest son of Martin Barnham, of London and Hollingbourne, Kent, by his second wife Judith, daughter of Sir Martin Calthorpe of London, and was a nephew of Benedict Barnham [see Barnham, Benedict]. His father was sheriff of London in 1598, was knighted 23 July 1603 (Nichols's Progresses of James I, i. 214), and dying 12 Dec. 1610, aged 63, was buried in St. Clement's, Eastcheap (Stow's London (ed. Strype), ii. 183). Francis Barnham was knighted at Whitehall on James I's acccession at the same time as his father (Nichols's, ut supra), and represented Grampound in the parliaments of 1603 and 1614. In 1613 he inherited from Belknap Rudston, the brother of his father's first wife, the estate of Boughton Monchelsea, with which genealogists always identify him. He married Elizabeth, daughter of Sampson Lennard, of Chevening, Kent, an antiquary of some eminence. With his father-in-law, he was nominated a member of the Academy of Literature projected with the approval of the court in 1617, but subsequently abandoned (Archæologia, xxxii. 143). In the parliaments of 1621 and 1624 under James I, of 1626 and 1628–9 under Charles I, and in the succeeding short and long parliaments of 1640, Sir Francis represented Maidstone. Sir Henry Wotton speaks of him as one of his ‘chiefest friends,’ and a man ‘of singular conversation,’ and describes, in a letter to a friend, a meeting with him at Canterbury in 1638 (Reliquiæ Wottonianæ, ed. 1685, p. 575). Barnham was also intimate with Sir Roger Twysden, who writes of him as ‘a right honest gentleman.’ During the civil war Sir Francis supported the parliamentarians. On 13 June 1642 he announced his willingness to lend 100l. for ‘the defence of parliament’ (Notes and Queries, 1st series, ix. 424). In 1646 a new writ for Maidstone was issued, to fill a vacancy stated to be caused by Sir Francis's death; but in Twysden's diary he is mentioned in 1649 as urging the release of his eldest son Robert, imprisoned by the Kentish committee. Sir Francis was the father of fifteen children, of whom the fifth son, William, was mayor of Norwich in 1652, and died in 1676. Robert, his eldest son, who apparently opposed Cromwell's party at the close of the wars, took part in the Kentish rising of 1648, sat in the first parliament of Charles II's reign as member for Maidstone, received a baronetcy 14 Aug. 1663, resided at Boughton Monchelsea, and died in 1685. He was succeeded in his title by a grandson, with whose death, in 1728, the baronetcy became extinct. The Rev. Joseph Hunter (Archæologia, xxxii. 143) states that Sir Francis Barnham was the author of an unprinted history of his family. A letter from him to Mr. Griffith, the lord privy seal's secretary, dated 3 July 1613 (Lansd. MS. 255, No. 155), and some account of his connection with Boughton Monchelsea (Harl. MS. 6019), are among the manuscripts at the British Museum.
S. L. L.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Barningham, John

​BARNINGHAM, JOHN (d. 1448), theologian, was educated at Oxford and Paris, in both of which places he is said to have taken his degree as master in theology. In later years he was appointed prior of the White Carmelites at Ipswich, where we are told that he died ‘a wondrous old man’ on 22 Jan. 1448. His older biographers praise his skill in disputation. Bale saw in one of the Cambridge libraries four great volumes of this author's works beautifully written; and Pits adds that his writings had been collected by one of his friends at Oxford, who, after having them carefully copied out, had them conveyed to Cambridge for preservation. Barningham's writings consisted of ‘Treatises on the Sentences,’ ‘Sacræ Conciones,’ a treatise entitled ‘De Enormitate Peccati,’ and similar theological commentaries.
T. A. A.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Barnston, John

1904 Errata appended.
​BARNSTON, JOHN, D.D. (d. 1645), divine, was the second son of William Barnston of Churton, Cheshire. He was educated at Brasenose College, Oxford, and became fellow of his college. In 1600–1 he was appointed to ​the prebend of Bishopstone, Salisbury, and in 1615, being chaplain to Lord Ellesmere, then chancellor of England, he received the degree of D.D. from his university. In 1628 he bestowed certain property in the Strand, London, ‘sometime a common inn (White Hart), but in 1674 made into a street,’ to provide 6l. yearly for a lecturer in Hebrew at Brasenose College, Oxford. He seems also to have bestowed certain properties on the town of Salisbury. Fuller says that he was ‘a bountiful housekeeper, of a cheerful spirit and peaceable disposition,’ and tells an anecdote in proof of his assertion. Wood says that he lived to see himself ‘outed of his spiritualities.’ There are tablets in memory of his wife, who died in 1625, and of himself in Salisbury Cathedral. The inscription says of John Barnston, ‘Vixit May 30, 1645; mutavit sæcula, non obiit.’
[Ormerod's Cheshire, vol. ii.; Fuller's Worthies of England; Hoare's Modern Wiltshire, vi. 415, 448; Wood's Fasti (Bliss), i. 363; Wood's Annals of Oxford University; History and Antiquities of Salisbury, London, 1723.]
R. B.
Dictionary of National Biography, Errata (1904), p.16 N.B.— f.e. stands for from end and l.l. for last line
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# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Baron, Bernard

The initials "E. E." are a typographical error for "E. R."
​BARON, BERNARD (d. 1762), engraver, son-in-law and pupil of Nicholas Tardieu, was born in Paris about 1700. He came to London with Dubosc and other engravers. In 1729 he returned for a short while to Paris, and there engraved a plate after Watteau, and sat for his portrait to Vanloo. He engraved a vast number of works. Heineken mentions Vandyck, Kneller, Hogarth, Rubens, Titian, Watteau, David Teniers, Gravelot, and Vanloo, with many more, as artists whose works were reproduced by Baron. Amongst the best of his engravings may be mentioned ‘The Family of the Earl of Pembroke’ (1740), ‘King Charles I on horseback, with the Duke d'Epernon’ (1741), ‘The King and Queen, with two Children,’ and the ‘Nassau family,’ all after Vandyck. He lived the greater part of his life in London, and died there, in Panton Street, Haymarket, 22 Jan. 1762. He engraved in a rough bold manner, with little precision. There are five of his prints in the ‘Recueil des Nations du Levant,’ and some more in Dalton's ‘collection of Antique Statuary.’
[Dussieux's Les Artistes Français à l'étranger; Walpole's Anecdotes of Painting, iii. 979; Strutt's Dict. of Engravers; Heineken's Dictionnaire des Artistes; Füssli's Künstler-Lexicon, 1806; Bryan's Dict. of Painters and Engravers; Nagler's Künstler-Lexicon, 1835; Huber and Rost's Handbuch für Kunstliebhaber und Sammler, viii. 99.]
E. R.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Drummond, Alexander

​DRUMMOND, ALEXANDER (d. 1769), consul, author of ‘Travels through the different Countries of Germany, Italy, Greece, and parts of Asia, as far as the Euphrates, with an Account of what is remarkable in their present State and their Monuments of Antiquity’ (London, 1754, fol.), was son of George Drummond of Newton, and younger brother of George Drummond, lord provost of Edinburgh [q. v.] Of his early years there is no account. He started on his travels, viâ Harwich and Helvoetsluys, in May 1744, reached Venice in August and Smyrna in December that year, and Cyprus in March 1745. His observations by the way, and in excursions, made in the intervals of what appear to have been commercial pursuits, during residence in Cyprus and Asia Minor in 1745–50, are given in his book in the form of letters, mostly addressed to his brother, and accompanied by some curious plates. In one of these excursions he reached Beer, on the Euphrates. Drummond was British consul at Aleppo in 1754–6. He died at Edinburgh on 9 Aug. 1769. A portrait of him is catalogued in Evans's 'Engraved Portraits' (Brit. Mus. Cat., subd. v.), London 1836–53).
H. M. C.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Dromgoole, Thomas

​DROMGOOLE, THOMAS, M.D. (1750?–1826?), was born in Ireland somewhere about the middle of the eighteenth century, and took his medical degree at the university of Edinburgh. He settled as a physician in Dawson Street, Dublin, and became a prominent member of the catholic board, which met at the beginning of the century to further the cause of catholic emancipation. Dromgoole was an anti-vetoist, that is, he was opposed to the purchase of freedom for the catholics at the price of giving the government a veto in the appointment of their bishops. In 1813 he made some vigorous speeches on the subject, overthrowing Grattan's contention in the House of Commons that the veto was approved in Ireland, and materially contributing to the temporary defeat of the Catholic Emancipation Bill. In the following year his speeches were published, together with an anonymous ‘Vindication,’ said by Mr. W. J. Fitzpatrick to have been written by Dr. Lanigan, who also, according to the same authority, was the real author of the speeches, though they were ‘enunciated through the ponderous trombone of Dromgoole's nasal ​twang.’ Sheil, describing Dromgoole's mode of emphasising the end of each sentence in his speeches by knocking loudly on the ground with a heavy stick, spoke of him as ‘a kind of rhetorical paviour.’ Dromgoole's ill-timed outspokenness brought a hornets' nest about his ears; he was satirised by Dr. Brennan under the name of ‘Dr. Drumsnuffle,’ and was at last driven into exile, ending his days at Rome under the shadow of the Vatican. He probably died between 1824 and 1829.
L. C. S.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Dring, Rawlins

​DRING, RAWLINS (fl. 1688), physician, son of Samuel Dring, born at Bruton, Somersetshire, was educated at Wadham College, Oxford, of which he became first scholar and a fellow in 1682. He proceeded B.A. 27 June 1679, M.A. 24 May 1682. Then entering on the physic line, he practised at Sherborne, Dorsetshire. He was the author of ‘Dissertatio Epistolica ad amplissimum virum & clarissimum pyrophilum J. N. Armigerum conscripta; in qua Crystallizationem Salium in unicam et propriam, uti dicunt, figuram, esse admodum incertam, aut accidentalem ex Observationibus etiam suis, contra Medicos & Chymicos hodiernos evincitur,’ 16mo, Amsterdam, 1688. According to Wood, ‘the reason why 'tis said in the title that it was printed at Amsterdam is because the College of Physicians refused to license it, having several things therein written against Dr. Martin Lister.’
G. G.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Druitt, Robert

​DRUITT, ROBERT (1814–1883), medical writer, the son of a medical practitioner at Wimborne, Dorsetshire, was born in December 1814. After four years' pupilage with Mr. Charles Mayo, surgeon to the Winchester Hospital, he entered in 1834 as a medical student at King's College and the Middlesex Hospital, London. He became L.S.A. in 1836, and M.R.C.S. in 1837, and settled in general practice in Bruton Street, Berkeley Square. In 1839 he published the ‘Surgeon's Vade-Mecum,’ by which he is best known. Written in a very clear and simple style, it became a great favourite with students, and the production of successive editions occupied much of the author's time. The eleventh edition appeared in 1878, and in all more than forty thousand copies were sold. It was reprinted in America, and translated into several European languages. In 1845 Druitt became F.R.C.S. by examination, and in 1874 F.R.C.P., later receiving the Lambeth degree of M.D. He practised successfully for many years, and also engaged in much literary work, having for ten years (1862–72) edited the ‘Medical Times and Gazette.’ He was an earnest advocate of improved sanitation, and from 1856 to 1867 was one of the medical officers of health for St. George's, Hanover Square. From 1864 to 1872 he was president of the Metropolitan Association of Medical Officers of Health, before which he delivered numerous valuable addresses. In 1872 his health broke down, and he for some time lived in Madras, whence he wrote some interesting ‘Letters from Madras’ to the ‘Medical Times and Gazette.’ On his retirement 370 medical men and other friends presented him with a cheque for 1,215l. in a silver cup, ‘in evidence of their sympathy with him in a prolonged illness, induced by years of generous and unwearied labours in the cause of humanity, and as a proof of their appreciation of the services rendered by him as an author and sanitary reformer to both the public and the profession.’ After an exhausting illness he died at Kensington on 15 May 1883. In 1845 he married a Miss Hopkinson, who with three sons and four daughters survived him.
Druitt was a man of wide culture, being well versed in languages, as well as in science and theology. Church music was one of his special studies, and as early as 1845 he wrote a ‘Popular Tract on Church Music.’ A man of reserved manners, he was both a wise and a sympathetic friend. Besides his principal work, Druitt wrote a small work on ‘Cheap Wines, their use in Diet and Medicine,’ which appeared first in the ‘Medical Times and Gazette’ in 1863 and 1864, and was twice reprinted in an enlarged form in 1865 and 1873. In 1872 he contributed an important article on ‘Inflammation’ to Cooper's ‘Dictionary of Practical Surgery.’ Among his minor writings may also be mentioned his paper on the ‘Construction and Management of Human Habitations, considered in relation to the Public Health’ (Transactions of the Royal Institute of British Architects, 1859–60).
G. T. B.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Drope, Francis

​DROPE, FRANCIS (1629?–1671), arboriculturist, a younger son of the Rev. Thomas Drope, B.D., vicar of Cumnor, Berkshire, and rector of Ardley, near Bicester, Oxfordshire, was born at Cumnor vicarage about 1629, became a demy of Magdalen College, Oxford, in 1645, three years after his brother John, and graduated as B.A. in 1647. In 1648 he was ejected, having probably, like his brother, borne arms for the king, and he then became an assistant-master in a private school, kept by one William Fuller, at Twickenham. At the Restoration he proceeded M.A. (23 Aug. 1660), and in 1662 was made fellow of his college. He subsequently graduated as B.D. (12 Dec. 1667), and was made a prebendary of Lincoln (17 Feb. 1669–1670). He died 26 Sept. 1671, and was buried in the chancel of Cumnor Church. His one work, ‘A Short and Sure Guide in the Practice of Raising and Ordering of Fruit-trees,’ is generally described as posthumous, being published at Oxford, in 8vo, in 1672. The work is eulogised in the ‘Philosophical Transactions,’ vol. vii., No. 86, p. 5049, as written from the author's own experience.
Drope's elder brother, John (1626–1670), was demy of Magdalen College, Oxford, in 1642; proceeded B.A. 12 July 1645; ‘bore arms for the king’ in the garrison of Oxford; was made fellow of his college in 1647, being ejected by the parliamentary visitors the next year; became master at John Fetiplace's school at Dorchester about 1654; proceeded M.A. at the Restoration (23 Aug. 1660); was restored to his fellowship; studied physic, which he practised at Borough, Lincolnshire, and died at Borough in October 1670. He was a poet on a small scale, and published ‘An Hymenæan Essay’ on Charles II's marriage in 1662, a poem on the Oxford Physic Garden, 1664, and other poems which Wood read in manuscript.
G. S. B.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Drue, Thomas

​DRUE, THOMAS (fl. 1631), dramatist, is the author of an interesting historical play, ‘The Life of the Dvtches of Svffolke,’ 1631, 4to, which has been wrongly attributed by Langbaine and others to Thomas Heywood. The play was published anonymously, but it is assigned to Drue in the ‘Stationers Registers’ (under date 13 Nov. 1629) and in Sir Henry Herbert's ‘Office-book.’ Another play, ‘The Bloodie Banquet. By T. D.,’ 1620, 4to, has been attributed without evidence to Drue. An unpublished play, the ‘Woman's Mistake,’ is ascribed in the ‘Stationers' Registers,’ 9 Sept. 1653, to Robert Davenport [q. v.] and Drue. Possibly the dramatist may be the Thomas Drewe who in 1621 published ‘Daniel Ben Alexander, the converted Jew, first written in Syriacke and High Dutch by himselfe. Translated … into French by S. Lecherpiere. And out of French into English,’ 4to.
A. H. B.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Drout, John

​DROUT, JOHN (fl. 1570), poet, was, as we learn from the title-page of his only known work, an attorney of Thavies Inn. He is author of a black-letter tract of thirty leaves, entitled ‘The pityfull Historie of two louing Italians, Gaulfrido and Barnardo le vayne, which ariued in the countrey of Grece, in the time of the noble Emperoure Vaspasian. And translated out of Italian into Englishe meeter,’ &c., 12mo, London, 1570. In dedicating ‘this, the first frutes of my trauell,’ to Sir Francis Jobson, knt., lieutenant of the Tower, Drout mentions his parents as still living, and expresses his own and their obligations to Jobson. In 1844 John Payne Collier reprinted twenty-five copies of this piece from a unique copy. Collier doubts whether Drout really translated the story from the Italian, and suggests that Drout describes it as a translation so that he might take advantage of the popularity of Italian novels. In his preliminary remarks upon ‘Romeo and Juliet,’ Malone, whose sole knowledge of Drout's book was derived from its entry in the ‘Stationers' Registers,’ supposed it to be a prose narrative of the story on which Shakespeare's play was constructed (Malone, Shakespeare, ed. Boswell, vi. 4). It is not in prose, and only a part relates to the history of Romeo and Juliet; it is in the ordinary fourteen-syllable metre of the time, divided into lines of eight and of six syllables. It is merely valuable to the literary antiquary.
G. G.