OpenLLM-France/wikimedia huggingface dataset:
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Roupell, George Leith

​ROUPELL, GEORGE LEITH, M.D. (1797–1854), physician, eldest son of George Boon Roupell of Chartham Park, Sussex, and his wife Frances, daughter of Robert M'Culloch of Chartham, a master in chancery, was born on 18 Sept. 1797. The first of the family who settled in England spelt the name Rüpell, and was an officer in William III's army, and a native of Hesse-Cassel. George Leith was sent to Dr. Burney's school at Greenwich, and, having obtained a Tancred studentship in medicine, entered at Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge, in 1815. He took no degree in arts, but graduated M.B. in 1820, became a licentiate in medicine in 1824, and M.D. in 1825, and on 30 Sept. 1826 was elected a fellow of the College of Physicians. He was a censor in 1829, 1837, and 1838, gave the Croonian lectures in 1832 on general pathology, and in 1833 on cholera. The latter course was published in the same year. After some practice as physician to the Seamen's Hospital Society and to the Foundling Hospital, he was appointed physician to St. Bartholomew's Hospital on 19 June 1834, in succession to Dr. Edward Roberts. He published in 1833 ‘Illustrations of the Effects of Poisons,’ a series of notes upon drawings made by George McWhinnie, a demonstrator at St. Bartholomew's Hospital. In 1837 he read before the College of Physicians, and afterwards published, ‘Some Account of a Fever prevalent in the year 1831.’ He proposed the name ‘febris typhodes rubeoloida’ for this epidemic disease, of which twelve out of seventy-five cases were fatal, and which seems to have been what is now known as epidemic cerebrospinal meningitis, a disease rare in England, but well known in Germany. He published in 1839 ‘A Short Treatise on Typhus Fever,’ based on observations made in the wards of St. Bartholomew's Hospital, but containing more extracts from other writers than notes of what he had seen in his own practice. The most interesting observation is in relation to the infection of typhus being conveyed by a corpse. He mentions that 136 students of anatomy at St. Bartholomew's minutely dissected seventeen bodies, in which the cause of death was typhus, while only two took the disease, and these were also exposed to contact with living patients. In 1838 he succeeded to his father's estates, ​and thenceforward was less active in practice. He contracted cholera at Boulogne, and died in Welbeck Street, London, after twenty-six hours' illness, on 29 Sept. 1854. He was unmarried. He bequeathed some portraits and books to St. Bartholomew's Hospital, and his portrait hangs in the hall of its college.
[[[Gent. Mag.]] 1854, ii. 520-1; Munk's Coll. of Phys.; Lancet, October 1854; manuscript records St. Bartholomew's Hospital; Works.]
N. M.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Rouse, John

​ROUSE or RUSSE, JOHN (1574–1652), Bodley's librarian, born in Northamptonshire in 1574, matriculated at Oxford in 1591, and graduated B.A. from Balliol College on 31 Jan. 1599. He was elected fellow of Oriel College in 1600, proceeding M.A. 27 March 1604 (Foster, Alumni Oxon. early ser. iii. 1290; Oxf. Univ. Reg., Oxf. Hist. Soc., vol. ii. pt. ii. p. 212, pt. iii. p. 212).
On 9 May 1620 he was chosen chief librarian of the Bodleian Library, at which time he occupied 'Cambye's lodgings,' once a part of St. Frideswide's Priory. He afterwards sold the house to Pembroke College as a residence for the master. About 1635 Rouse formed a friendship with Milton. He importuned the poet for a complete copy of his works for the library, and Milton in 1647 sent two volumes to Oxford, the prose pamphlets carefully inscribed in his own hand 'to the most excellent judge of books,' and a smaller volume of poems which was stolen or lost on the way. To this circumstance we owe Milton's mock-heroic ode to Rouse (dated 23 Jan. 1646-7) inserted in a second copy, still preserved at the Bodleian [cf. art. Randolph, Thomas, 1605-1635].
Rouse's leaning was towards the parliament, but he was not a strong politician. On one occasion his prudent measures restrained some turbulent spirits who were bent on breaking open Bodley's chest, presumably for the use of the parliament. When Cromwell visited Oxford in 1649, Rouse made a speech at the banquet in the library.
He appears 'to have discharged his trust in the library with faithfulness' (Macray, p. 56). In 1645 he refused to lend King Charles the 'Histoire Universelle du Sieur d'Aubigné' because the statutes forbade the removal of such a book (ib. p. 99). The German professor of history at Nuremberg, Christopher Arnold, who visited Oxford in August 1651, calls him in a letter to a friend 'a man of the truest politeness.' He was also praised by Lambecius for his honesty and truthfulness. He died on 3 April 1652, and was buried in Oriel College Chapel. His portrait in clerical dress hangs in the library, to which he bequeathed 201. by his will. Rouse wrote a dedicatory preface to a collection of verses addressed to the Danish proconsul, Johan Cirenberg (Oxford, 1631, sm. 4to). He also issued an appendix to the 'Bodleian Catalogue' in 1635 (ib. pp. 56, 82-3).
C. F. S.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Ethelburga

​ETHELBURGA or ÆTHELBURH, Saint (d. 676?), abbess of Barking, sister of Erkenwald [q. v.] or Earconwald, bishop of London, was placed by her brother to rule a monastery he built at Barking in Essex, and showed herself worthy of his confidence. The foundation was for men as well as women, the two sexes living in separate parts of the buildings. During the pestilence that followed the synod of Whitby in 664, Æthelburh's house appears to have suffered severely. Bæda tells some stories of this time of trouble at Barking, which he took from a written source; his narrative power gives them their only value. He goes on to describe a vision that was seen at the death of the abbess, a miracle that was worked when her body was brought into the church, and her appearance to one of the sisters. She is said to have died in 676 (Florence). The church of St. Ethelburga in Bishopsgate, London, is said to be dedicated to her, but this appears to be doubtful. Capgrave says that she, as well as her brother, was born at Stallington in Lindsey, that she was the daughter of a king named Offa, that she converted him and fled from his house to avoid marriage, and that when her brother made her abbess of Barking he sent for Hildelith to instruct her in monastic practices. Her day is 11 Oct.
W. H.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Ethelgar

​ETHELGAR, ÆTHELGAR, or ALGAR (d. 990), archbishop of Canterbury, was a monk of Glastonbury, where he came under the influence of Dunstan and Æthelwold, afterwards bishop of Winchester, and formed part of the new congregation that Æthelwold gathered round him at Abingdon. When, in 964, Æthelwold turned the secular clergy out of Newminster (Hyde Abbey), near Winchester, and put monks in their place, he selected Æthelgar to be abbot of the house. Æthelgar must therefore be reckoned as one of the party that introduced the strict observance of the Benedictine rule into England, though he did not adopt the violent policy of his master Æthelwold. He enlarged his monastery, and was forced by the jealous feeling of the bishop and chapter towards the newer foundation to purchase land for the purpose at a manca of gold for each foot (Gesta Pontiff, p. 173). On 2 May 980 he was consecrated bishop of Selsey, the South-Saxon see, and did not dispossess the canons of his church. He succeeded Dunstan as archbishop of Canterbury about the middle of 988, and went to Rome for his pall either in that or the next year, visiting the abbey of St. Bertin, near St. Omer, both on his outward journey and on his return. His gifts to this monastery were so large that the abbot spoke of him as its patron, and declared that its restoration was due to his munificence. He appears to have been a man of learning and generosity. He died on 13 Feb. 990, after a pontificate of one year and three months (Stubbs).
[Anglo-Saxon Chron., sub ann. 980, 988; Florence of Worcester, i. 146, 148 (Engl. Hist. Soc.); William of Malmesbury, Gesta Regum, i. 314 (Engl. Hist. Soc.), Gesta Pontificum, pp. 32, 173, 205 (Rolls Ser.); Stubbs's Memorials of St. Dunstan, pp. 383-9; Chron. de Abingdon, ii. 261 (Rolls Ser.); Liber de Hyde, p. 182 (Rolls Ser.); Kemble's Codex Dipl. pp.526-665, passim; Hook's Archbishops of Canterbury, i. 427 sq.]
W. H.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Ethelbert (d.866)

​ETHELBERT or ÆTHELBERHT (d. 866), king of the West-Saxons and Kentishmen, the third son of Æthelwulf, bore the title of king in 853 (Kemble, Codex Dipl. p. 269), and probably about that time succeeded his eldest brother, Æthelstan, as under-king of Kent; his reign over that kingdom is, however, spoken of as beginning in 855, when his father left England on his ​pilgrimage (Asser). By Æthelwulf's will, Æthelred, his fourth, or third surviving, son, should have succeeded to the throne of Wessex on the death of Æthelbald, and Æthelberht should have remained king of Kent. This arrangement was, however, set aside, and on the death of Æthelbald in 860, Æthelberht succeeded to the West-Saxon kingship, and the kingdom of Kent was again united to the rest of southern England [see under Egbert]. In Æthelberht's days the Danes landed in Hampshire, and sacked Winchester, but were defeated by the forces of Hampshire and Wiltshire. Probably in the winter of 864–5 another band of pirates from Gaul took up quarters in Thanet, and the Kentishmen offered them money for peace, but while the peace lasted, though before the money was paid, they suddenly left their quarters and ravaged the eastern part of Kent. Æthelberht died in 866, after reigning five years over Wessex, and, according to Asser, ten years over Kent, and was buried by his brother Æthelbald at Sherborne. He is said to have been a peaceful, amiable, and noble king (Asser).
W. H.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Ethelgiva

​ETHELGIVA (fl. 956). [See Ælfgifu.]
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/MacMurrogh, Art

​MACMURROGH or MACMURCHAD, ART (1357–1417), styled also Cavanagh, Irish chief, born in 1357, was descended from Donall, illegitimate son of Diarmaid or Dermod MacMurchada [q. v.], king of Leinster. The sept of which he was the head was so numerous and important that the name of 'Cavanaghs' country' was applied to districts occupied by them, which are now comprised in the counties of Carlow, Wexford, and Wicklow. Under a compact with the government at Dublin, an annual subvention was long paid to the head of the Cavanagh sept for protection which he agreed to afford to the English settlers in their district. In connection with this subvention, which occasionally remained unpaid, disputes from time to time arose between the governmental officials and MacMurchad. By native writers he was extolled as courageous, liberal, and hospitable. He married Elizabeth Veele, who, as heiress to Anglo-Norman settlers, was entitled to lands of considerable value in Leinster. These were seized by the crown on the plea that she had forfeited them by her marriage. Richard II when in Ireland in 1395 propitiated MacMurchad, and, according to Froissart, conferred knighthood on him at Dublin. The king's representatives also concluded an agreement with MacMurchad for the restoration of his wife's lands and the payment of the subvention as formerly. The subsequent non-fulfilment of this agreement led to hostilities by MacMurchad, and Thomas de Spencer, earl of Gloucester, was delegated to negotiate with him when Richard II revisited Ireland in 1399. Some details of the interview between them have been chronicled in verse by Creton, a contemporary French writer. He mentions that their meeting was between two woods near the sea, that MacMurchad, a fine large man, marvellously agile, stern in aspect, rode on a very swift horse of high value, and bore a spear in his right hand, which he used with great dexterity. The discourse, according to Creton, lasted for some time, but led to no satisfactory result. King Richard subsequently by proclamation offered a hundred marks of gold for MacMurchad, alive or dead. The meeting between MacMurchad and Gloucester formed the subject of an elaborate drawing in colours and gold in Creton's manuscript, now in the British Museum (MS. Harl. 1319), and an accurate reproduction of it will be found in the 'Facsimiles of National Manuscripts of Ireland,' edited by the present writer. After the deposition of Richard II the representatives of Henry IV in Ireland entered into new negotiations with MacMurchad, which were, however, often broken off. The death of MacMurchad in 1417 was ascribed to poison administered by a woman.
[Patent Rolls of Chancery, Ireland; Carew MSS., Lambeth; Archæologia, xx. 1823; Annals of the Four Masters, 1848; Gilbert's Viceroys of Ireland, 1865; Annals of Loch Cé, 1871.]
J. T. G.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/MacMahon, William

​MACMAHON, Sir WILLIAM (1776–1837), Irish judge, second son of John MacMahon, patentee comptroller of the port of Limerick, by his second wife, Mary, daughter of James Stackpoole, merchant, of Cork, was born on 12 July 1776. Bred a Roman catholic, he conformed to the protestant religion, was called to the Irish bar in Trinity term 1799, and went the Munster circuit with O'Connell. He was a fluent, but confused speaker, spluttering much and frequently perpetrating bulls while addressing the jury. His rise was rapid. On 28 April 1800 he was made third Serjeant, on 8 Dec. 1813 second Serjeant, and on 1 March 1814 master of the rolls. On 6 May 1814 he received a baronetcy. From 1815 to 1825, during the absences of Lord-chancellor Manners, he was one of the commissioners of the great seal. He held the office of master of the rolls until his death at Dublin on 13 Jan. 1837. He was buried at Rathfarnham on 21 Jan. MacMahon was a cautious, painstaking, and impartial judge, and was widely respected. He married twice: first, on 16 May 1807, Frances, daughter of Beresford Burton, king's counsel; secondly, on 1 Sept. 1814, Charlotte, daughter of Robert Shaw of Dublin, bart. By his first wife he had two sons, Sir Beresford, who succeeded to the title, and John William. By his second wife he had issue five sons and three daughters.
Sir Charles MacMahon (1824–1891), the third son of his second marriage, born at ​Fortfield, co. Dublin, on 11 July 1824, entered the army in 1842, and served with the 71st (highland) light infantry in Canada, and with the 10th hussars in India; retired, with the rank of captain, in 1851; and in January 1863 entered the Melbourne police, of which soon afterwards he was appointed chief commissioner. He retired from office in 1858, and in 1861 entered the Legislative Assembly as member for West Bourne; was a member without office of Sir John O'Shanessy's third administration, 1861-3; was speaker of the assembly from 1871 to 1877, and for a few months in 1880, and from 1880 to 1886 represented West Melbourne. He was created a knight bachelor in 1875, and died in East Melbourne on 28 Aug. 1891. He married, first, Miss Sophia Campbell; secondly, Clara Ann, daughter of J. D. Webster of Yea, Victoria.
[Wilson's Dublin Directory, 1800; Haydn's Book of Dignities, ed. Ockerby; Smyth's Law Officers of Ireland; Lib. Hibern. pt. iii. pp. 61, 63, 71; Gent. Mag. 1837, pt. i. p. 428; O'Flanagan's Lives of the Lord Chancellors of Ireland, ii. 656, and The Munster Circuit, p. 160; Army List, 1843-51; Mennell's Dict. of Austral. Biog.; Heaton's Austral. Dict. of Dates.]
J. M. R.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/MacMillan, Angus

​MACMILLAN, ANGUS (1810–1865), discoverer of Gippsland, Australia, born in Glenbrittle, Skye, in 1810, started at the age of nineteen for Australia to find work. After working on several sheep stations, the chief of which belonged to one McFarlane, he took employment under Lachlan McAlister in 1838.
Early in the following year he started, at McAlister's request, to look out for fresh stations, and after careful inquiry determined to explore to the south-west of Sydney. The natives had a tradition that a fine country lay there. In February 1839 he arrived at Curawang, a village of the Maneroo tribe of natives; and in May he provided himself with arms and provisions for four weeks, and set out with a black chief for companion. Four days later he reached the hill now known as the Haystack, from the top of which he had a bird's-eye view of the country which he wished to explore. His comrades, however, threatened his life, and he turned back without making any decisive discovery. But McAlister encouraged him to persevere, and in December 1839 he started again, and got further into the country; he was encamped on the Tambo river when Count Strzelecki's more regular exploring party came up with him on 7 March 1840. Subsequently on 9 Feb. 1841 he commenced a final effort to discover a road to the sea at Corner Inlet, in which he partly succeeded.
During the greater part of these two years, MacMillan endured much privation, and his sole aids to exploration were a pocket compass and a chart of the coast. He called the new country Caledonia Australis, but this name, like others which he gave, was superseded by the appellation Gippsland, given by Strzelecki. MacMillan's claim to public notice was recognised by a dinner given to him at Port Albert in March 1866. Eventually he settled down on a sheep-run of his own on the Avon, where he died in May 1865.
[McCombie's History of the Colony of Victoria, 1858, pp. 79, 80; Mennell's Dictionary of Australasian Biography.]
C. A. H.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/MacNab, Henry Gray

​MACNAB, HENRY GRAY or GREY (1761–1823), publicist, was of Scottish extraction, but was born in England in 1761. He seems to have been connected with the Glasgow University, though he held no professorship, and was the friend and disciple of Thomas Reid [q. v.] Visiting France on the conclusion of the treaty of Amiens, he was detained on the resumption of hostilities, and settled at Montpellier to continue his medical studies. On the restoration of peace he remained in France, but interested himself in education in England, adopting some of Robert Owen's ideas, and he corresponded with the Duke of Kent, at whose solicitation he prepared an educational scheme which he intended to put in practice by opening a school in London; but before his arrangements were matured he died in Paris, 3 Feb. 1823, leaving an only child, a daughter. He was buried at Pere la Chaise.
MacNab published:
* 'A Plan of Reform in English Schools,' Glasgow, 1786.
* 'Letters on the Coal Duty and Coal Supply,' London, 1793 and 1801.
* 'Analysis and Analogy in Education,' Paris, 1818.
* 'New Views of Mr. Owen impartially examined,' London, 1819.
* 'Observations on the State of the World,' London, 1820. He left incomplete a pamphlet on premature burial.
[Revue Encyclopédique, Paris, 1823; Biog. Univ.; Gent Mag. 1823, i. 378; Alger's Englishmen in French Revolution, London, 1889.]
J. G. A.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Kerrison, Edward

​KERRISON, Sir EDWARD (1774–1853), general, only son of Matthias Kerrison, by Mary, daughter of Edward Barnes of Barnham, Suffolk, was born at his father's seat, Hexne Hall, near Bungay, in 1774. He entered the army as cornet in the 6th dragoons on 23 June 1796. He attained the rank of captain in October 1798, and was transferred to the 7th hussars in the same year. With the last-mentioned regiment he served in the Helder expedition of 1799, taking part in the actions of 19 Sept. and 2 and 6 Oct. In October 1808, being then lieutenant-colonel, he embarked with his regiment for Spain, and in the following December was severely wounded on the plains of Leon. He commanded his regiment at the passage of the Oleron, in the action of Sauveterne, and at the battles of Orthes and Toulouse. At the battle of Orthes the charge headed by Lord Edward Somerset, in which Kerrison with the 7th hussars took the chief part, was highly commended by the Duke of Wellington (Despatches, vii. 440).
Kerrison next served in the campaign of 1815, and was slightly wounded at Waterloo, where his horse was shot under him; but he continued with his regiment, and took part in the occupation of Paris. On his return to England he was nominated a commander of the Bath, and knighted 5 Jan. 1816. He was subsequently created a baronet by patent dated 27 July 1821. He represented the borough of Shaftesbury from 1812 to 1818, that of Northampton from 1818 to 1824, and Eye from 1824 to 1852, in the conservative interest. Promoted to the rank of lieutenant-general in 1837, he became general in 1851, and died at his house in Great Stanhope Street, London, on 9 March 1853.
Kerrison married, on 20 Oct. 1813, Mary Martha, daughter of Alexander Ellice of Pittencrieff, Fifeshire. By her he had issue one son, Edward Clarence Kerrison (b. 1821), present baronet, and three daughters, the second of whom, Emily Harriet (d. 1873), married in 1834 Philip Henry, Viscount Mahon, the historian, afterwards fifth earl Stanhope [q. v.]
[Ann. Reg. 1853, p. 219; Gent. Mag. 1853, i. 542; United Service Gaz. 1853; Foster's Peerage and Baronetage; Cannon's Hist. Records of British Army (7th Hussars), pp. 75, 78.]
T. S.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Kerseboom, Frederick

​KERSEBOOM, FREDERICK (1632–1690), painter, born in 1632 at Solingen in Germany, studied painting in Amsterdam, and in 1650 settled in Paris, where he worked under Charles Le Brun. He subsequently went to Rome, and remained there for fourteen years, two of which he spent under Nicolas Poussin, apparently engaged in landscape-painting. On leaving Rome he came to England, where he devoted himself to portrait-painting. His best-known portrait is that of Robert Boyle [q. v.], of which there are versions at the National Portrait Gallery, the Royal Society, and Hampton Court; it was painted in 1689. Pepys, in a letter to John Evelyn, dated 30 Aug. 1689, writes that Boyle had ‘newly beene prevayled with by Dr. King to have his head taken by one of much lesse name than Kneller & a strangr, one Causabon.’ It is this letter perhaps that has led to the notion that Kerseboom was related to the great scholar, Casaubon. He painted a portrait of Sophia Dorothea, wife of George I, from which there is a scarce mezzotint engraving by William Faithorne, jun. A few other portraits by Kerseboom were engraved. Kerseboom died in London in 1690, and was buried in St. Andrew's Church, Holborn.
[Walpole's Anecdotes of Painting, ed. Wornum; Redgrave's Dict. of Artists; Abecedario de P. J. Mariette; Chaloner Smith's British Mezzotinto Portraits; Pepys's Diary and Correspondence.]
L. C.