OpenLLM-France/wikimedia huggingface dataset:
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Miller, William (1769-1844)

​MILLER, WILLIAM (1769–1844), publisher, born at Bungay, Suffolk, on 25 March 1769, was son of Thomas Miller (1731–1804) [q. v.], bookseller. When a youth he evinced a taste for drawing, and was advised by Sir Joshua Reynolds to enter the Royal Academy as a student, but in 1787 he was placed in Hookham's publishing house. In 1790 he commenced business on his own account in Bond Street, London, where the first book which he sent forth was his uncle Dr. Edward Miller's ‘Select Portions of the New Version of the Psalms of David, with Music.’ A series of publications in large quarto, illustrating the costumes of various countries, with descriptions in English and French, brought him considerable profit. Among his other successful ventures may be mentioned Howlett's ‘Views of Lincolnshire,’ Stoddart's ‘Remarks upon Scotland,’ and Forster's edition of the ‘Arabian Nights Entertainments,’ illustrated by Smirke. In 1804 Miller removed to a larger house in Albemarle Street, where he continued until his retirement from business in 1812, being succeeded by John Murray. During this period he was one of the most popular publishers in London. He took shares in the poems of Sir Walter Scott, and published solely Scott's edition of ‘Dryden’ in 18 vols. 8vo. He reprinted ‘The Antient Drama,’ ‘British Drama,’ ‘Shakespeare,’ and Blomefield's ‘History of Norfolk,’ 11 vols, 8vo, and Samuel Richardson's works in nineteen small octavo volumes. The ‘Travels’ of Viscount Valentia, Sir Richard Colt Hoare's ‘Giraldus Cambrensis,’ and the same author's ‘Ancient History of South Wiltshire,’ vol. i., were among his most splendid undertakings. His ‘British Gallery’ was notable for the excellence of the engravings.
For the copyright of Charles James Fox's ‘History of the Reign of James II’ Miller paid 4,500l., hitherto the largest sum ever given for literary property. Five thousand copies were printed in demy quarto at 1l. 16s. by Savage, and 250 copies on royal quarto at 2l. 12s. 6d., with fifty upon elephant size quarto at 5l. 5s. by Bulmer. Miller barely cleared his expenses by the speculation.
Having realised a modest competency, Miller took a farm in Hertfordshire, but after a brief experience of country life he removed to Duchess Street, Portland Place, London. He died on 25 Oct. 1844, at Dennington, Suffolk, the residence of his son, the Rev. Stanley Miller.
In 1826 he published two quarto volumes of ‘Biographical Sketches of British Characters recently deceased, commencing with the Accession of George the Fourth … ​ with a list of their Engraved Portraits.’ He announced, but did not print, a continuation.
There is a good portrait of Miller engraved by E. Scriven, after a painting by T. Phillips, R.A., given in Dibdin's ‘Bibliographical Decameron.’ Another was drawn from the life on stone by J. D. Engleheart in 1826, and is frequently found inserted in Miller's ‘Biographical Sketches.’
G. G.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1912 supplement/Hollowell, James Hirst

​HOLLOWELL, JAMES HIRST (1851–1909), advocate of unsectarian education, born in St. Giles's Street, Northampton, on 25 Feb. 1851, was son of William Hollowell, shoemaker and a local preacher in the reformed Wesleyan denomination. His mother's maiden name was Mary Anne Swinfield. He left school early to earn a living, but read widely by himself, and also attended a class which met three times a week from five to six in the morning. In early youth he showed a gift for public speaking, and at eighteen became a temperance agent and lecturer. Joining the congregationalists at Dumfries, he decided to study for the congregational ministry. He was already married when in 1871 he entered Nottingham (congregational) institute. He went on to Cheshunt College in the f oUowing year, and there won a scholarship. From 1875 to 1882 he was pastor at Bedford chapel, Camden Town, London, and from 1882 to 1889 was minister of Park Hill congregational church, Nottingham. At Nottingham he was for a time chairman of the school board. Subsequently he was pastor of Milton church, Rochdale, from October 1889 till December 1896. This charge he relinquished in order to devote himself to the work of organising secretary of the Northern Counties Education League for promoting unsectarian state education. He was practically the founder of this league. His faith ​in unsectarian education was strong and uncompromising. In 1903 he took a leading part in organising with the Rev. John Clifford 'the passive resistance movement' against the payment of rates and taxes, on the ground that the Education Act of 1902 gave an inequitable support at state expense to church schools which taught church doctrine. Learned in educational legislation, he was a forcible speaker and an untiring pamphleteer. He also wrote a novel entitled 'Ritualism Abandoned or a Priest Redeemed' (1899), under the pseudonym of K. Ireton, and 'What Nonconformists stand for' (1901; 2nd edit. 1904).
In 1904 Hollowell unsuccessfully contested the South Birmingham division against Viscount Morpeth. In 1908 he was elected chairman of the Lancashire Congregational Union.
His exertions broke down his health, and he died of cerebral apoplexy at Rochdale on 24 Dec. 1909. He was buried at Rochdale cemetery. A memorial bust, by John Cassidy, was unveiled at the Congregational Church House, Manchester, on 3 April 1911.
He married at Dumfries, in 1870, Sarah, daughter of James Lacey of Crewkeme, Somerset, and had one son and five daughters.
[W. Evans and W. Claridge, James Hirst Hollowell and the Movement for Civic Control in Education, 1911 (with portraits); Congregational Year Book, 1911, p. 176; Manchester Guardian, 27 Dec. 1909.]
C. W. S.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1912 supplement/Hollams, John

​HOLLAMS, Sir JOHN (1820–1910), solicitor, born at Loose, Kent, on 23 Sept. 1820, was son of John Hollams, curate in charge of Loose, by his wife Mary Pettit. His grandfather, Sir John Hollams (knighted in 1831), was five times mayor of Deal. After being educated privately Hollams was articled to a firm of solicitors in Maidstone, and in 1840 came to London. There he served his articles with the firm of Brown, Marten and Thomas. He was admitted a solicitor in 1844, and next year his firm took him into partnership. By hard work and integrity of character he obtained a foremost place in his profession. While still under forty he declined the offer of appointment as solicitor to the Admiralty, and on more than one occasion refused the office of chief clerk in chancery. In 1866 he was elected to the council of the Law Society, and in 1867 became a member of the Judicature Commission, upon which he did valuable work, but refused the knighthood offered in recognition of his services. He was president of the Law Society in 1878-9, and his portrait by the Hon. John Collier was placed in the society's hall. He was a generous supporter of the Solicitors' Benevolent Society. In 1902 he found his name included among the knights in the birthday list of honours. The crowning event in his career was the unique honour paid to him by the bench and bar in entertaining him at a dinner in the hall of the Inner Temple on 6 March 1903. He was made a deputy-lieutenant for the county of London in 1882, and was a J.P. for the county of Kent. He died at his country residence. Dene Park near Tonbridge, on 3 May 1910.
Hollams married in 1845 Rice (d. 1891), daughter of Edward Allfree, rector of Strood, Kent, by whom he left three sons. Under the title of 'Jottings of an Old Solicitor' (1906), he published a collection of reminiscences, useful for a description of the procedure of the courts before the passing of the Judicature Act.
[Jottings of an Old Solicitor, 1906; The Times, 4 May 1910; Dod's Peerage, 1909; private information.]
C. E. A. B.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1901 supplement/Bramley-Moore, John

​BRAMLEY-MOORE, JOHN (1800–1886), chairman of the Liverpool docks, youngest son of Thomas Moore, was born at Leeds in 1800. As a young man he went out to the Brazils to engage in trade, and lived for several years at Rio de Janeiro, where in 1828 he entertained the officers of the exploring ships Beagle and Adventure. On his return to England in 1835 he settled at Liverpool as a merchant, and soon began to interest himself in public affairs. In 1841 he was elected by the town council as an alderman, an office which he held for twenty-four years. In 1841 he became a member of the dock committee (afterwards called the dock board), and in the following year was appointed chairman. Foreseeing that great extensions of the docks would in the future be required, he induced his committee to agree to some bold proposals, resulting in 1846 in an arrangement with the Earl of Derby by which two miles of the foreshore of the river Mersey, from the borough boundary to Bootle, became available for the construction of docks. After the opening of the Albert Dock by Prince Albert in 1846 he was offered the honour of knighthood. This he declined. Five other docks were opened on 4 Aug. 1848, one of them receiving the name of 'Bramley-Moore Dock.' He was elected mayor of Liverpool in November 1848, and during his year of office originated a fancy fair and bazaar by means of which the sum of 12,000l. was raised for the local hospitals. In politics he was a conservative, and was returned to parliament in 1854 as member for Maldon. He lost that seat in 1859, but afterwards represented the city of Lincoln from 1862 to 1865. He was an unsuccessful candidate for Hull in 1852, for Liverpool in 1853, and Lymington in 1859. For many years he was chairman of the Brazilian chamber of commerce in Liverpool, and in that capacity earnestly pressed the government to reduce the then high duties on coffee and sugar. In 1863 he made a speech in parliament on the subject of the relations of England with Brazil, for which he was decorated with the order of the rose by the emperor of Brazil.
Some years before his retirement from business he went to live at Gerrard's Cross, Buckinghamshire, where he built a free reading-room. He died at Brighton on 19 Nov. 1886, aged 86, and was buried at St. Michael's-in-the-Hamlet, Toxteth Park, Liverpool. ​He married in 1830 Seraphina Hibernia, daughter of William Pennell, British consul-general for Brazil, and left two sons, the Rev. William Joseph Bramley-Moore, formerly a clergyman of the church of England, and author of several theological works, and John Arthur Bramley-Moore (d. 10 July 1899). His additional name of Bramley was assumed in 1841.
[Picton's Memorials of Liverpool; Shimmin's Pen-and-ink Sketch of Liverpool Town Councillors, 1866; Manchester Guardian, 23 Nov. 1886; Liverpool newspapers, 23 and 26 Nov. 1886. Bramley-Moore's will is given in the Liverpool Post, 27 Dec. 1886.]
C. W. S.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1901 supplement/Brandram, Samuel

​BRANDRAM, SAMUEL (1824–1892), reciter, born in London on 8 Oct. 1824, was the only son of William Caldwell Brandram. He was educated at Merchant Taylors', King's College School, and Trinity College, Oxford, whence he graduated B.A. in 1846, and M.A. three years later. At the university he was best known as an athlete. After leaving Oxford he became a student at Lincoln's Inn, and was called to the bar on 22 Nov. 1850. He practised as a barrister till 1876, when, under stress of financial difficulties, he came before the public as a professional reciter, and obtained wide popularity.
From his university days, when he took part with Frank Talfourd in founding the first Oxford Dramatic Society, Brandram had shown great aptitude for the stage, and was also well known for his singing of ballads. Henry Crabb Robinson [q. v.] records in his diary how on 24 Jan. 1848, at Mr. Justice Talfourd 's house in Russell Square, 'one Brandreth (sic) played the King very well indeed' in a performance of his host's play of 'Ion.' Afterwards, when a Macbeth travesty was performed at Talfourd's house, 'the same Brandreth played Macbeth, and made good fun of the character.' Brandram was accustomed during his vacations to act with the Canterbury Old Stagers and the Windsor Strollers, in company with Albert Smith, Joe Robins, Edmund Yates, and others. He played harlequin in A. Smith's amateur pantomime in 1856.
Brandram first appeared as a reciter at Richmond, and very soon met with success. He had been a student of Shakespeare from his schooldays, and, although his miscellaneous programmes were excellent, he was seen at his best when he gave a whole play of Shakespeare or Sheridan. Of the first he was wont to recite in an almost complete form some dozen plays, among which 'Macbeth' was his favourite.
In 1881 he published 'Selected Plays of Shakspeare, abridged for the use of the Young;' it reached a fourth edition in 1892. The more important passages are printed in full, while short narratives supply the place of the others. In 1885 appeared 'Brandram's Speaker: a Set of Pieces in Prose and Verse suitable for Recitation, with an Introductory Essay on Elocution,' and a portrait. This was reprinted without the essay in 1893. In the same year he issued a further volume of 'Selections from Shakespeare.' Brandram died at 6 Bentinck Street, Cavendish Square, London, on 7 Nov. 1892. He was buried three days later in Richmond cemetery. He married Miss Julia Murray an actress in Charles Kean's company, and left three sons and three daughters.
[Foster's Alumni Oxon. and Men at the Bar; Blackwood's Mag. February 1893, by W. K. R. Bedford; Times, 8 and 11 Nov. 1892; Athenæum and Era, 12 Nov.; Brit. Mus. Cat.; Illustrated London News, 19 Nov. 1892 (by F. T. S.), with portrait.]
G. Le G. N.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1901 supplement/Brayne, William

​BRAYNE, WILLIAM (d. 1657), governor of Jamaica, was son of Thomas Brayne (Cal. State Papers, Colonial, 1574–1660, p. 464). In 1653 he was lieutenant-colonel of the regiment of foot commanded by Colonel Daniel, which formed part of the army of occupation in Scotland. In June 1654, during the royalist rising under Glencairne, Brayne was put in command of a body of a thousand foot drawn from the forces in Ireland, with orders to establish himself at Inverlochy, and build a fort there. After the suppression of the rising he was appointed governor of Inverlochy and the adjacent parts of the highlands. No one did more to establish order among the highlanders. A Scot describes him as 'an excellent wise man,' adding that 'where there was nothing but barbarities, now there ​is not one robbery all this year' (Thurloe Papers, iv. 401; Firth, Scotland and the Protectorate, pp. xliii, 111). In the summer of 1656 the Protector chose Brayne to command the reinforcements to be sent to Jamaica, and to take the post of commander-in-chief there (Cal. State Papers, Col. (1574–1660), pp. 440, 442; Firth, Narrative of General Venables, p. 171). He arrived at Jamaica in December 1656 (Thurloe, vi. 771), and set himself vigorously to work to promote planting, and develop the trade of the island. None of its early governors did so much to make it a self-supporting community, and to establish the struggling colony on a permanent basis. His own health, however, soon gave way; he complains in his letters of decay in body and mind, and says in the last of them that he had not had a week's health since he came there (ib. v. 778, vi. 110, 211, 230, 453). Brayne died on 2 Sept. 1657, and, according to a colonist, 'was infinitely lamented, being a wise man and perfectly qualified for the command and design' (Present State of Jamaica, 1683, p. 34: Thurloe, vi. 512).
[Authorities mentioned in the article.]
C. H. F.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Stafford, William (1593-1684)

​STAFFORD, WILLIAM (1593–1684), pamphleteer, born in Norfolk in 1593, was the son of William Stafford (1554–1612) [q. v.], by his wife Anne, daughter of Thomas Gryme of Antingham, Norfolk. He matriculated from Christ Church, Oxford, on 8 Nov. 1611, graduated B.A. on 4 July 1614, and was created M.A. on 5 March 1617–18. On the death of his uncle, Sir John Stafford, in 1624, he succeeded to the estate of Marlwood Park in Thornbury, Gloucestershire, and, according to Wood, was at one time a member of the House of Commons (perhaps he was the W.S., member for Stamford in 1661). He was the author of ‘The Reason of the War, with the Progress and Accidents thereof, written by an English Subject’ (London, 1646, 4to). He writes as a moderate parliamentarian, and evinces great desire for peace on the basis of a constitutional monarchy. In the preface he mentions that parts of his work had been published in the previous year ‘in much imperfection and some haste.’ Wood conjectured that this treatise might be identical with a pamphlet entitled ‘An Orderly and Plaine Narration of the Beginnings and Causes of this Warre. Also a Conscientious Resolution against the Warre on the Parliament Side’ (1644, 4to). The works are, however, entirely different, and the latter publication, which was written by a staunch royalist, bitterly attacks the action of parliament. Stafford lived to a great age, and was buried at Thornbury on 4 July 1684. By his wife, Ursula Moore, he was the father of John, and the grandfather of Richard Stafford [q. v.]
E. I. C.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Staggins, Nicholas

​STAGGINS, NICHOLAS (1650?–1700), musician, born about 1650, was son of Isaac Staggins, who from 1661 to his death in 1684 was one of the musicians of the royal household. The names of father and son stand in the list of Charles II's ‘Private Musick,’ or violinists, of 1674 (Rimbault's Notes on North's Memoires, p. 99). In February 1674–1675 Nicholas was appointed master of ‘his majesty's musick’ in the room of Louis Grabu, with a yearly fee of 200l. He attended James II's coronation, and served during that reign. His appointment was confirmed by William III in 1693 (Treasury Papers, 17 Aug.).
In 1682 he was admitted Mus. Doc. of Cambridge—it was said through interest and without due tests. To meet such allegations, a grace was passed on 2 July 1684 constituting Staggins professor of music at the university (Cooper, Annals, iii. 601). A statement was also published to the effect that Staggins, having been desirous to perform his exercise for the degree of doctor of music upon the first public opportunity, had acquitted himself ‘so much to the satisfaction of the whole university this commencement that by a solemn vote they had constituted and appointed him public professor of music there’ (London Gazette, No. 1945). There was at that time no endowment for this professorship at Cambridge, and the appointment must have been purely honorary. Staggins was a steward of the St. Cecilia Music Festival, 1684 and 1685. A concert of Staggins's vocal and instrumental music was announced in the ‘London Gazette’ of 10 May 1697 to take place on the 13th at York Buildings. His house and property were situated at Chelsea, but he was at Windsor when, on 13 June 1700, he was found dead in his bed (Luttrell, Relation). He was survived by his mother, two brothers, and a sister.
Staggins's compositions were very slight. They include: 1. Duologue from Dryden's ‘Conquest of Granada,’ pt. ii., ‘How unhappy a lover am I.’ 2. Songs, ‘Whilst Alexis’ and ‘How pleasant is mutual love,’ published in Playford's ‘Choice Ayres,’ 1673. 3. A jig, in Playford's ‘Dancing Master,’ 1679. He wrote music, which was not published, for odes on William III's birthdays, 1693 and 1694, by Nahum Tate. There are six songs by Staggins in the British Museum Additional MS. 19759.
L. M. M.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Stagg, John

​STAGG, JOHN (1770–1823), Cumberland poet, known in Cumberland as the blind bard, was born in 1770 at Burg-by-Sands, near Carlisle, where his father, a tailor, possessed a small property. The boy showed unusual promise, and his parents decided to educate him for the church, but while he was still young an accident deprived him of his sight and put an end to his studies. For some time he made a livelihood by keeping a library in the little town of Wigton and playing his fiddle at local merry-makings. In his twentieth year he married, and at the same date published a ​volume of ‘Miscellaneous Poems.’ After leaving Wigton for a short sojourn in Carlisle, he took up his residence in Manchester, where he remained more or less till his death, but he frequently revisited his native county and spent much time among the peasantry, amusing them by performances on the fiddle, and gathering that intimate knowledge of their customs and dialect which enabled him in his poems and essays to give a graphic picture of his friends. He also went further afield selling his works, and about 1809 he visited Oxford. He died at Workington in 1823. He was father of seven children.
In Charles, duke of Norfolk, and many of the Cumberland gentry, as well as among members of both universities, he found patrons by whom he was encouraged to publish his ‘Minstrel of the North,’ London, 1810, 8vo (another edit. 1816). His other works were: ‘Miscellaneous Poems’ (Carlisle, 1804, 12mo; 2nd ed. Workington, 1805, 12mo); a further series of ‘Miscellaneous Poems’ (Wigton, 1807, 8vo; another ed., Wigton, 1808, 12mo); and ‘The Cumberland Minstrel: being a poetical miscellany of legendary, Gothic, and romantic tales … together with several essays in the Northern dialect, also a number of original pieces’ (3 vols. Manchester, 1821, 8vo). Gilpin's ‘Cumberland Poetry’ contains a small engraved portrait of Stagg by Robert Anderson from a painting by R. B. Faulkner.
A. N.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Neville, Edmund (1560?-1630?)

​NEVILLE, EDMUND (1560?–1618?), conspirator, was son of Richard Neville of Pedwyn and of Wyke, Warwickshire, by Barbara, daughter of William Arden of Parkhall, in the same county. Richard Neville, the father, was grandson of John Neville, third baron Latimer [q. v.] Edmund lived for some time abroad, it was said in the Spanish service. About the beginning of 1584 he returned to England, claiming to be the heir to his grand-uncle, the fourth and last Lord Latimer, who had died in 1577 [see under Neville, John, third baron]. Cecil's son Thomas, afterwards first earl of Exeter [q. v.], had married Dorothy, daughter and co-heiress of the last Lord Latimer, and hence was glad to take any opportunity of injuring Edmund. He was suspected from the moment of his return. A merchant named Wright said that he had seen him at Rouen, and that while there he had lodged with the Nortons [see Norton, Richard]. In 1584 he was concerned in what is termed Parry's plot to kill the queen [see under Parry, William, d. 1585]. Parry seems to have been in communication with him, and speaks of him as an honourable gentleman of great descent; he also claims him as a relation, though the connection was slight (cf. Foulis, Hist. of Romish Treasons, p. 342). Neville was at once sent to the Tower, and in 1585 revealed the whole affair. He remained long in the Tower, though he made constant efforts to get out. In 1595 he brought a desperate charge of treason against the lieutenant of the Tower (cf. Hist. MSS. Comm. 7th Rep. App. p. 541). He was soon afterwards liberated, and probably went abroad. He claimed the earldom of Westmorland after the death of Charles, sixth earl [q. v.], in 1601; but his petition was not heard, though he may have been the next heir. He died about 1618 at Dunkirk, probably in poverty. A monument to his memory was placed in the chancel of Eastham Church, Essex. He married, first, Jane Martignis, dame de Colombe, a lady of Hainault, by whom he left no issue; secondly, Jane, daughter of Richard Smythe, member of a Warwickshire family, by whom he left a son, Ralph, and several daughters. His widow had, probably as a compensation for her husband's claims, a pension of 100l. a year from James I.
W. A. J. A.