OpenLLM-France/wikimedia huggingface dataset:
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Eden, Robert Henley

​EDEN, ROBERT HENLEY, second Baron Henley (1789–1841), second but eldest surviving son of the first baron, Morton Eden [q. v.], was born in 1789, matriculated at Christ Church, Oxford, 24 Oct. 1807, where he proceeded B.A. in 1811 and M.A. in 1814. He was called to the bar at Lincoln's Inn the latter year, was for some time commissioner of bankrupts, and in March 1826 was made a master in chancery. This office he held until 1840, when it became apparent that a mental disorder incapacitated him for its duties. He was M.P. for Fowey from 1826 to 1830. Henley succeeded his father in the peerage, 6 Dec. 1830, and he assumed the name of Henley only in commemoration of his maternal ancestors, by royal license dated 31 March following. In 1823 Henley published two volumes of the decisions of his grandfather, Lord Northington, in the court of chancery; and some years later (1831) he issued a 'Memoir of the Life of Robert Henley, Earl of Northington, Lord High Chancellor of Great Britain.' As a lawyer Henley was distinguished for the special attention he paid to the bankruptcy laws. In 1825 he published 'A practical Treatise on the Bankrupt Law as amended under the new Act of 6 George IV;' and this was succeeded in 1832 by 'A Digest of the Bankrupt Law, with an Appendix of Precedents framed with reference to the new Act of 1 & 2 William IV.' Henley also devoted much attention to the subject of a reform of the English church; and in 1834 he put forward 'A Plan for a New Arrangement and Increase in Number of the Dioceses of England and Wales.' In this work the author showed the urgent want of an increase of bishoprics, and endeavoured to indicate how existing incongruities might be removed. He held that parliament was bound to advance so much as would maintain a resident minister in every parish in the kingdom, and would in towns support a parochial minister for every four thousand souls. Henley died at his residence in Whitehall Place 1 Feb. 1841. He married in 1824 Harriet, third daughter of the first Sir Robert Peel. He had issue four sons, the eldest of whom, the Right Hon. Anthony Henley, succeeded him in the barony.
[Gent. Mag. 1841; Ann. Reg. 1841; Lord Henley's books, 1823-34; Foster's Alumni Oxoniensis.]
G. B. S.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Eden, Richard

​EDEN, RICHARD (1521?–1576), translator, was born in Herefordshire about 1521, and studied at Queens' College, Cambridge, 1535–44, under Sir Thomas Smith; held a position in the treasury 1544–6, and married in the following year. He was private secretary to Sir W. Cecil, 1552. He published in 1553 a translation of Münster's ‘Cosmography.’ Next year he obtained a place in the English treasury of the Prince of Spain, and in 1555 published his great work, ‘The Decades of the Newe Worlde, or West India,’ a collection of travels of great interest, translated from many sources, part of which, ‘The Travels of Lewes Vertomannus, 1503,’ is reprinted in Hakluyt's ‘Voyages’ (iv. 547, edit. 1811). Hereupon he was cited by Thomas Watson, bishop of Lincoln, before Bishop Gardiner, for heresy, but escaped with the loss of his office.
In 1559 he revised Geminus's ‘Anatomy,’ and two years later translated Martin Cortes's ‘Arte de Navigar,’ to which he wrote a preface. A letter of his to Sir W. Cecil is published in Halliwell's ‘Letters on Scientific Subjects.’ He entered the service of Jean de Ferrières, vidame of Chartres, in 1562, whom he accompanied to Havre, and then to Paris and Germany. In 1569 he came to London, returning next year to Paris, and after narrowly escaping the massacre of St. Bartholomew, he reached London in 1573, when the vidame petitioned Elizabeth, unsuccessfully, to admit Eden as one of the ​‘poor knights of Windsor.’ In 1574 he translated John Taisner's ‘De Natura Magnetis,’ in the dedication of which, addressed to Sir W. Winter, he alludes to the death of Sebastian Cabot. This book and his translation of Ludovico Barthema's ‘Travels in the East in 1503’ were posthumously published by R. Willes in 1577, under the title ‘The History of Travayle in the East and West Indies,’ &c. Eden died in 1576, having achieved great reputation as a scholar and man of science.
[Arber's First Three English Books on America, 1885, pp. xxxviii–xlviii; Cooper's Athenæ Cantabrigienses, 1861, ii. 2; Watt's Bibl. Brit. 1824, i. 329; Tanner's Bibl. Brit. 1748; Biddle's Memoirs of Sebastian Cabot, 1832, pp. 62–70; Bale's Scriptorum Illustr. Cat. 1559, p. 110, supplement; Laurence Humphrey's Interpretatio Linguarum, 1559, p. 520 (by Bale and Humphrey he is called John; Tanner erroneously distinguishes John from Richard); Brit. Mus. Cat.; W. Oldys's Brit. Libr. 1738, pp. 139, 147, 153.]
N. D. F. P.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Davies, Walter

​DAVIES, WALTER (1761–1849), Welsh bard and essayist, was born on 15 July 1761 at Wern in the parish of Llanfechan, Montgomeryshire, and with reference to his native parish he assumed in afterlife the bardic name of Gwallter Mechain. His parents were poor, and when they could keep him no longer at school he was obliged to have recourse to mechanical employment in the first instance, but subsequently he became a schoolmaster. In 1789 he was the successful competitor for the best Welsh essay on the ‘Life of Man,’ and in the following year he gained a premium at the St. Asaph Eisteddfod for an essay on ‘Liberty.’ About 1791 he obtained a clerkship at All Souls' College, Oxford, and while resident in the university he held office at the Ashmolean Museum. He graduated B.A. at Oxford in 1795, but took the degree of M.A. in 1803 at Cambridge, as a member of Trinity College (Cat. of Oxford Graduates, ed. 1851, p. 176; Graduati Cantab. ed. 1856, p. 103). On taking orders he became curate of Meivod, Montgomeryshire, and in 1799 he was nominated to the perpetual curacy of Yspytty Ivan, Denbighshire, which he held till his death. Subsequently he was collated by Bishop Horsley to the rectory of Llanwyddelan, Montgomeryshire, which he resigned in 1807, on being collated by Bishop Cleaver to the rectory of Manafon in the same county, in consequence, it was understood, of the assistance he rendered in correcting the orthography of the Welsh Bible, published about that time by the Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge. He resigned Manafon in 1837, on his collation to the vicarage of Llanrhaiadyr-yn-Mochnant, Denbighshire. He died at the latter place on 5 Dec. 1849.
Davies ranks high among Welsh scholars and bards. He gained numerous prizes for poetical and prose compositions at the Eisteddfodau, but at those held in 1793 and 1794 he and Davydd Ddu Eryri, the Snowdon bard, were suspended from being competitors for bardic prizes, on the ground that, if admitted, they were almost certain to leave no chance of success to others. Most of his poems are written in the ancient bardic style, only a small portion of them being Dyrivan, lyrical compositions in a style less severe, and more adapted to popular singing. His prose writings consist chiefly of prize essays and contributions to periodical publications on subjects connected with the topography, history, and language of Wales. He also wrote a ‘General View of the Agriculture and Domestic Economy of North Wales and South Wales,’ 3 vols. 1810, 1813, and 1816, 8vo, published by order of the Board of Agriculture; and prepared editions of the Welsh poems of Hugh Morris, 2 vols. 1823, 12mo, and (conjointly with the Rev. John Jones) the ‘Poetical Works of Lewis Glyn Cothi,’ ​1807, 8vo. A collection of his own ‘Works, comprising the whole of his poetical and prose writings,’ was published at Carmarthen in 3 vols. 8vo, 1868, under the editorship of Daniel Silvan Evans, B.D., rector of Llan ym Mawddwy, Merionethshire.
T. C.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Davies, Thomas Stephens

​DAVIES, THOMAS STEPHENS (1795–1851), mathematician and writer on science, made his earliest communications to the ‘Leeds Correspondent’ in July 1817, and the ‘Gentleman's Diary’ for 1819, and he subsequently contributed largely to the ‘Gentleman's and Lady's Diary, to Clay's ‘Scientific Receptacle,’ to the ‘Monthly Magazine,’ the ‘Philosophical Magazine,’ the ‘Bath and Bristol Magazine,’ and the ‘Mechanics' Magazine.’ His early acquaintance with Dr. William Trail, the author of the ‘Life of Dr. Robert ​Simson,’ materially influenced his course of study, and made him familiar with the old as well as with the modern professors of geometry. He became a fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh in 1831, and he contributed several original and elaborate papers to its ‘Transactions.’ He also published ‘Researches on Terrestrial Magnetism’ in the ‘Philosophical Transactions,’ ‘Determination of the Law of Resistance to a Projectile’ in the ‘Mechanics' Magazine,’ and other papers in the ‘Cambridge and Dublin Mathematical Journal,’ the ‘Civil Engineer,’ the ‘Athenæum,’ the ‘Westminster Review,’ and ‘Notes and Queries.’ He was elected a fellow of the Society of Antiquaries 19 March 1840. In 1834 he was appointed one of the mathematical masters in the Royal Military Academy at Woolwich. Among the very numerous subjects which engaged his attention were researches on the properties of the trapezium, Pascal's hexagramme mystique, Brianchon's theorem, symmetrical properties of plane triangles, and researches into the geometry of three dimensions. His new system of spherical geometry preserves his name in the list of well-known mathematicians. His death, after six years of illness, took place at Broomhall Cottage, Shooter's Hill, Kent, on 6 Jan. 1851, when he was in his fifty-seventh year.
Davies edited the following works: 1. ‘A Course of Mathematics for the use of the Royal Military Academy, by Charles Hutton. The eleventh edition by Olinthus Gregory,’ 1837, 2 vols.; the principal alterations, additions, and improvements in this work were made by Davies. 2. ‘Solutions of the Principal Questions in Dr. Hutton's “Course of Mathematics,”’ 1840. 3. ‘A Course of Mathematics, by C. Hutton, continued by O. Gregory; twelfth edition by T. S. Davies,’ 1841–3, 2 vols. 4. ‘The Mathematician,’ ed. by T. S. Davies and others, 1845, 1847, and 1850. Of the above, No. 2, ‘Solutions of the Principal Questions,’ is the most important work. It is a large octavo of 560 pages, enriched with four thousand solutions on nearly all subjects of mathematical interest and of various degrees of difficulty. A long catalogue of Davies's writings is printed in the ‘Westminster Review,’ April 1851, pp. 70–83.
G. C. B.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Davies, Thomas (1792-1839)

​DAVIES, THOMAS, M.D. (1792–1839), physician, was born in 1792 in Carmarthenshire, and, after some schooling in London, was apprenticed to his maternal uncle, then apothecary to the London Hospital. He became an apothecary, and practised at the east end of London, but after two years had symptoms of phthisis. He went to Montpellier for his health, and afterwards to Paris, where he learned the then new art of auscultation, under Laennec, its inventor. He graduated M.D. at Paris 8 Dec. 1821, came back to London, was admitted a licentiate of the College of Physicians 30 Sept. 1824, and began practice at 30 New Broad Street, London, as a physician. He lectured at his house on diseases of the lungs and heart, and explained all he had learned from Laennec. The lectures brought him professional repute, and he was elected the first assistant physician to the London Hospital 5 Dec. 1827, and became a fellow of the College of Physicians 4 July 1838. He was made lecturer on the practice of physic at the London Hospital, and printed in the ‘London Medical Gazette’ a course of lectures on diseases of the chest, which he published in an octavo volume of more than five hundred pages in 1835, entitled ‘Lectures on the Diseases of the Lungs and Heart.’ The book shows that its author had mastered and tested for himself all the observations of Laennec and of Hope, but he added nothing to what they had taught, and though he writes at length on pericarditis, and had examined many examples post mortem, he was ignorant of the existence of a pericardial friction-sound in such cases. He was married and had several children, but his chest disease returned, and he died of it 30 May 1839. He used habitually to say to his patients ‘Keep up your spirits,’ and had sad experience of the need for such advice in his own last illness, when he suffered much from mental depression. He was buried in the churchyard of St. Botolph's, Bishopsgate.
[Munk's Coll. of Phys. 1878, iii. 289; Physic and Physicians, London, 1839, ii. 266.]
N. M.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Davies, William (d.1593)

​DAVIES, WILLIAM (d. 1593), catholic divine, born in Carnarvonshire or, according to another account, at Crois in Yris, Denbighshire, became a student in the English college at Rheims, and after being ordained priest was sent back to the mission in Wales in 1585. Going to Holyhead in March 1591–2 to procure a passage to Ireland for four young men who desired to proceed to the college at Valladolid, he and his companions were apprehended and committed as prisoners to Beaumaris Castle. At the ensuing assizes Davies was arraigned for high treason on account of his priestly character, while the young men were charged with felony for having been found in his company. All were found guilty and sent back to prison until the queen and her council should signify what was to be done with them. Not long afterwards Davies was removed to Ludlow, where the council of the marches of Wales was sitting. There the most learned ministers of the country held conferences with him, and the president of the council neglected no means of bringing him to conformity. From Ludlow he was transferred to Bewdley, and to other gaols, and at last was sent back to Beaumaris, where he rejoined his four companions, with whom he formed a kind of religious community in the prison. At the assizes for the county of Anglesey held in 1593 Davies was placed at the bar and sentenced to death. He was accordingly drawn, hanged, and quartered at Beaumaris on 21 July 1593.
T. C.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Davies, Rowland (1740-1797)

​DAVIES, ROWLAND (1740–1797), musical composer, son of Rowland Davies and his wife Jane Nicholas, was born in London in May 1740. He was a pupil of Handel, under whom he made such progress that it is said he presided at the organ in Westminster Abbey at the coronation of George III. Soon afterwards he turned catholic and proceeded to Douay, where he took the college oath in 1765 and was ordained priest. On his return to England he was stationed first at Cliff, Yorkshire, next at Warwick Street, London, and finally at Bosworth Hall, the residence of Francis Turville. He died on 16 March 1797.
He set to music many masses, a ‘Te Deum,’ a ‘Magnificat,’ and ‘Responses for the Dead.’
T. C.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Davies, Thomas (1631-1679)

​DAVIES or DAVIS, Sir THOMAS (1631–1679), lord mayor of London and book-seller, son of John Davis, a draper of London, was born in 1631, and was educated at St. Paul's School, where Pepys was his school-fellow. He obtained the freedom of the Drapers' Company by patrimony, but pursued the business of a stationer in St. Paul's Churchyard. Writing under date 23 Nov. 1662, Pepys notes ‘how old rich Audley [see Audley, Hugh] died and left a very great estate, making a great many poor families rich. Among others one Davies … a book-seller in Paul's Churchyard.’
Five years later (1667) Davies served as sheriff, ‘a strange turn, methinks,’ says Pepys, and on 23 Oct. he was knighted. He was alderman of Farringdon Without from 1667 till death. In the same year he became an assistant of the Stationers' Company, and in 1668, and again in 1689, he was master. On 4 Aug. 1673 the company's books show that some pressure was required to induce Davies to supply his brace of bucks for the feast fixed for six days later. He was chosen lord mayor in November 1676. He had then translated himself to the Drapers' Company, after presenting the Stationers with two large silver cups. During his mayoralty the monument on Fish Street Hill to commemorate the great fire was erected. When the inscription was under discussion, Littleton suggested ‘a heptastic vocable’ compounded of the names of the seven mayors in office since the foundations of the monument were laid, and Davies's name forms the last part of the proposed ‘vocable’ (Adam Littleton, Dictionary). Davies died in 1679, and was buried in St. Sepulchre's Church, Snow Hill, where there is a monument to his memory.
[Nichols's Lit. Anecdotes, iii. 596; Orridge's Citizens of London; Pepys's Diary, ii. 89, v. 69; Gardiner's St. Paul's School, p. 43; Cunningham's Handbook of London.]
R. H.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Lambert, George Jackson

​LAMBERT, GEORGE JACKSON (1794–1880), organist and composer, son of George Lambert, organist of Beverley Minster, was born at Beverley, 16 Nov. 1794. He had his first lessons from his father; afterwards he studied in London under Samuel T. Lyon and Dr. Crotch. In 1818 he succeeded his father as organist at Beverley, and held the post until 1875, when ill health and deafness compelled him to retire. He died at Beverley 24 Jan. 1880, and was interred in the private burial-ground in North-Bar Street Within. His wife and two sons predeceased ​him. His father, who died 15 July 1881, was organist forty-one years, according to the epitaph on his tombstone in the graveyard, so that the office of organist at Beverley was held by father and son for the almost unprecedented period of ninety-eight years. The younger Lambert was not only an excellent organist, but a fine violoncello and violin player. His published compositions include overtures, instrumental chamber music, organ fugues, pianoforte pieces, &c. Some quarttets and a septet were played at the meetings of the Society of British Musicians; but, although they were warmly praised by good judges, he could never be induced to publish any of them.
[Musical Times, 1880, p. 133; Grove's Dict. Mus. ii. 86, iv. 695; Beverley Guardian, 31 Jan. 1880.]
J. C. H.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Lambert, James (1725-1788)

​LAMBERT, JAMES (1725–1788), musician and painter, was born of very humble parents at Jevington in Sussex in 1725, and received little education. He early showed a talent for art by roughly drawing sketches of animals, landscapes, &c., with such poor materials as he could obtain at Jevington; but when quite young he settled at Lewes in order to practise as a painter. At Lewes he waa known as a 'herald painter,' and painted many inn signs. Lambert is probably best known by a series of several hundred water-colour drawings, which he executed for Sir William Burrell, in illustration of the antiquities of Sussex. Some of these sketches are in the British Museum. Other drawings by Lambert are to be found in Watson's 'History of the Earth of Warren' ​and in Horsfield's works. Seven of his pictures appeared at the Royal Academy, and he exhibited frequently at the Society of Artists and elsewhere from 1761 until the year of his death. Lambert excelled as a draughtsman, but his work suffered from unpleasing mannerisms. His colour is said to have been excellent, but his extant paintings have lost much of their brilliancy, probably from long esposure to very strong lights.
Lambert was for many years organist of the church of St. Thomas-at-Cliffe, Lewes. Dunvan, in his 'History of Lewes,' p. 324, says that Lambert was a better punter than musician, though excellent in both arts. As a musician he was comparatively little known. He died at Lewes on 7 Dec. 1788, aged 63, and was buried in the churchyard of St. John's, near that town. The Society of Arts and Sciences accepted a presentation picture of a landscape by Lambert about 1770.
[Lower's Worthies of Sussex, 1865. p. 39 Dunvan's Hist. of Lewes,.324; Graves's Dict. of Artists, p. 138.]
R. H. L.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Lambert, James (1741-1823)

​LAMBERT, JAMES (1741–1823), Greek professor at Cambridge, was born on 7 March 1741, the son of Thomas Lambert, vicar of Thorp, near Harwich, and afterwards rector of Melton, Suffolk. His father was a member of Trinity College, Cambridge (B.A. 1723), and the son, after being educuted at the grammar school of Woodbridge, was entered of Trinity College on 23 April 17S0. He graduated B.A. as tenth wrangler and senior medallist in 1764. and proceeded M.A. in 1767, having obtained a fellowship in 1766. For a short time he served the curacy of Alderton and Bawdrey near Wood bridge. He was assistant tutor of Trinity College for some years, and on 7 March 1771 was elected regius professor of Greek, after delivering a prelection 'De Euripide aliisque qui Philosophiam Socraticam scriptis suis illustravisse videntur.' There was no other candidate. In 1773, through Mr. Carthew of Woodbridge, Porson was sent to him at Cambridge to be tested as to his fitness to receive the education which Mr. Norris was proposing to give him; and it was through Lambert's means that he was examined by the Trinity tutors, and was in consequence sent to Eton (Porson, Correspondence, pp. 125-32). Lambert gave up his assistant tutorship in 1775, and for some years superintended the education of Sir John Fleming Leicester [q. v.], returning to college with his pupil in 1782. He resigned the Greek professorship on 24 June 1780. He was a strong supporter of Mr. Jebb of Peterhouse in his proposal for annual examinations at Cambridge, and was a member of the syndicate appointed in 1774 to consider schemes for this and other improvements in the university course of education; their proposals, however, were all thrown out by narrow majorities in the senate. In 1789 he was appointed bursar of his college, and held the office for ten years; a road near Cambridge, connecting the Trumpington and Hill's roads, is still known by the name of the 'Via Lambertina.' He latterly adopted Arian opinions, and never accepted any preferment in the church, but he kept his fellowship till his death. This occurred on 8 April 1823 at Fersfield, Norfolk, where he is buried. His portrait is in the smaller combination room at Trinity College.
[Documants in the Cumbridge University Registry; Gentleman's Magazine for July 1823, p. 34; Porson's Correspondence (Camb. Antiq. Soc.). pp. 125-32; Jebb's Remarks upon the present mode of education in the University of Cambridge, 1774, p. 62.]
H. R. L.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Hunter, Anne

​HUNTER, ANNE (1742–1821), poetess, eldest daughter of Robert Home, surgeon, and sister of Sir Everard Home [q. v.], married in July 1771 John Hunter [q. v.] the great surgeon. Before her marriage she had gained some note as a lyrical poetess, her 'Flower of the Forest' appearing in 'The Lark,' an Edinburgh periodical, in 1765. Her social ​literary parties were among the most enjoyable of her time, though not always to her husband's taste. Elizabeth Carter and Miss Delany were her attached friends, and Haydn set a number of her songs to music, including 'My Mother bids me bind my Hair,' originally written to an air of Pleydell's. On her husband's death in 1793, Mrs. Hunter was left ill provided for, and for some time she was indebted for a maintenance partly to the queen's bounty and to the generosity of Dr. Garthshore (1732-1812), and partly to the sale of her husband's furniture, library, and curiosities (Ottley, Life of Hunter, pp. 137-9). In 1799 parliament voted 15,000l. for the Hunterian museum, which placed Mrs. Hunter in fair circumstances. She had four children, of whom two, a son and a daughter (wife of Sir James Campbell), survived her. She lived in retirement in London till her death on 7 Jan. 1821. Her poems (12mo, London, 1802; 2nd edition, 1803) show no depth of thought, but have a natural feeling and simplicity of expression, which make many of them worth reading (see British Critic, October 1802, xx. 409-13). Her 'Sports of the Genii,' written in 1797 to a set of graceful drawings by Miss Susan Macdonald (d. 1803), eldest daughter of Lord-chief-baron Macdonald, display in addition humour and fancy.
G. T. B.