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

​GOWER, Sir THOMAS (fl. 1543–1577), marshal of Berwick, was the son of Sir Edward Gower, knight, of Stittenham, Yorkshire, commissioner of the peace for that county in 1536. His mother was Margery, daughter of Sir Robert Constable, knight, of Flamborough. Thomas Gower was marshal of Berwick, and in 1543 was made the receiver-general and supervisor of all the buildings and fortifications of Berwick and of Wark Castle. Early in the reign of Edward VI Gower was appointed surveyor of the royal estates in Northumberland and captain of Eyemouth, near Berwick (1 Sept. 1547). In July he had reported to the council that the ‘Power of Scotland’ was prepared. He was captain of a band of light horsemen in the army with which the protector Somerset invaded Scotland. At the battle of Pinkie Cleugh (10 Sept.) Gower was one of three cavalry officers taken prisoners through ‘their own too much forwardness’ (Holinshed, p. 980).
Gower had to pay a considerable ransom, and ‘as he was a poor man,’ was much burdened by expenses at Eyemouth, and had to appoint a deputy in his office as surveyor. In 1549 he went to London to claim eighteen months' arrears of sums due for Eyemouth, and complained that other services had not been rewarded. Three years later (9 June 1552) 100l. of his debt of 300l. to the crown was remitted by the king through Northumberland's influence. In November 1552 another marshal of Berwick was appointed in Gower's place, and in 1558 he is mentioned as master of the ordinance in the north parts. In 1559 he complained that one Bennett had been appointed over his head, and was apparently replaced, as he held the post in 1560, when he was made master of the ordinance in the army sent to besiege Leith. On his return he continued to be employed in surveying defences. In 1569 the Earl of Sussex sent him to assist the mayor in the fortification of Newcastle. In 1577 he is last mentioned in a letter sent to the council from the Earl of Huntingdon, enclosing a report from him on Kingston-upon-Hull, whither he had been sent to survey the castle and forts. He is spoken of as a ‘man well given in religion, and of good experience.’ By his first wife, Anne, daughter of James Mauleverer, esq., he left a son and successor, Edward.
E. T. B.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Graddon, Miss

The ODNB gives her name as Margaretta.
​GRADDON, Miss, afterwards Mrs. Gibbs (1804–1854?), vocalist, was born at Taunton, Somersetshire, in 1804 (Brown). After receiving lessons from T. Cooke, and gaining some experience in provincial concert-rooms, Miss Graddon sang at Vauxhall in 1822, and at Drury Lane for the first time in October 1824 as Susanna in the ‘Marriage of Figaro.’ She subsequently made her mark in the part of Linda (Agathe) in ‘Der Freischütz.’ Her portrait in this character illustrates the title-page of a polka, ‘Le Bal Costumé,’ composed by her, and published in 1854. She appeared at the same theatre as Amanda in Bishop's ‘Fall of Algiers,’ 1825; as Zulema in Weber's ‘Abu Hassan;’ and as Maria in Wade's ‘Two Houses of Granada,’ 1826. She soon afterwards married Alexander Gibbs, of the firm of Graddon & Gibbs, pianoforte-makers. The critics disagreed among themselves as to the limits of Miss Graddon's musical and dramatic talents. It is probable that she had not made a very earnest study of her profession, but relied upon her natural gifts of voice and lively manner for her popularity with the large section of the public who applauded her heartily in the theatres and concert halls of London, Dublin, and other towns. Her name disappears from the ‘Musical Directory’ after 1855.
[Times, Quarterly Musical Magazine, Harmonicon, European Magazine, Saunders's News-Letter, &c., 1823–6; Parke's Musical Memoirs, ii. 209; Brown's Biog. Dict. of Musicians.]
L. M. M.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Gregory, William (d.1663)

​GREGORY, WILLIAM (d. 1663), composer, became violinist and wind-instrument musician in the household of Charles I in 1626, and held the same position in the household of Charles II from 1661 to 1663. His compositions include an almain, coranto, sarabande, and jigge in Playford's ‘Court Ayres’ (1655), and vocal numbers for one or more voices in the ‘Treasury of Musick’ (1669), ‘Musical Companion’ (1673), and ‘Ayres and Dialogues’ (1676 to 1683). Hawkins quotes the anthems, ‘Out of the deep,’ and ‘O Lord, thou hast cast us out,’ as the best known of Gregory's works. He died in August or September 1663, bequeathing sums to be paid from his wages due out of the treasury to his wife Mary, to two daughters Mary G. and Elizabeth Starke, to a daughter-in-law, and to a granddaughter. The residue was to go to his son, Henry Gregory, a member of the king's band in 1662 and 1674. A ‘John Gregory, singing man,’ was buried at Westminster Abbey in 1617. Prince Gregory was gentleman of the Chapel Royal from 1740 to 1755.
[State Papers, Dom. Ser. Charles I, 21 Feb. 1626, Charles II, 1661, 26 Aug. 1662, 24 July and September 1663; J. Playford's publications as quoted above; Registers of Wills, P. C. C. 114, Juxon; Wood's MS. Lives (Bodleian); Hawkins's History of Music, p. 713; Burney's History of Music, iii. 465; Dict. of Musicians, 1827, p. 299; Rimbault's Memoirs of Roger North, p. 98; Harleian Society's Publications, x. 114; Rimbault's Old Cheque Book, p. 53; Gent. Mag. 1755, p. 572.]
L. M. M.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Gregory, George (1790-1853)

​GREGORY, GEORGE (1790–1853), physician, grandson of John Gregory (1724-1773) [q.v.]. and second son of the Rev. William Gregory, one of the six preachers of Canterbury Cathedral, was born at Canterbury on ​16 Aug. 1790. After his father's death in 1803 he lived with his uncle, Dr. James Gregory (1753-1821) [q. v.], in Edinburgh, and studied medicine in 1806-9 in Edinburgh University, and afterwards at St. George's Hospital, London, and the Windmill Street School of Medicine. He graduated M.D. Edinb. in 1811, became M.R.C.S. Engl. in 1812, and in 1813 was sent as assistant-surgeon to the forces in the Mediterranean, where he served in Sicily and at the capture of Genoa. At the close of the war he retired on half-pay, and commenced to practise in London, giving lectures on medicine at the Windmill Street School, and later at St. Thomas's Hospital. He was physician to the Small-pox and Vaccination Hospital from 1824, and to the General Dispensary, was a fellow of the Royal Society, and was elected a licentiate (30 Sept. 1816) and a fellow (30 Sept. 1839) of the Royal College of Physicians. He died at Camden Square, London, on 25 Jan. 1853. Gregory wrote largely in the medical journals, and was a contributor to the ‘Cyclopædia of Practical Medicine’ and to the ‘Library of Medicine.’ His principal works are: 1. ‘Elements of the Theory and Practice of Physic,’ 1820, 2 vols.; 6th ed. 1846; 3rd American ed. 1831. 2. ‘Lectures on the Eruptive Fevers,’ 1843.
G. T. B.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Gregory, William (1803-1858)

​GREGORY, WILLIAM (1803–1858), chemist, fourth son of James Gregory (1753-1821) [q. v.], professor of medicine in the university of Edinburgh, was born at Edinburgh on 25 Dec. 1803. After a medical education he graduated at Edinburgh in 1828, but he had already shown a strong bent for chemistry, and he soon decided to make it his specialty. In 1831 he introduced a process for making the muriate of morphia, which came into general use. After studying for some time on the continent he established himself as an extra-academical lecturer on chemistry at Edinburgh. He successively lectured on chemistry at the Andersonian University, Glasgow, and at the Dublin Medical School, and in 1839 was appointed professor of medicine and chemistry in King's College, Aberdeen. In 1844 he was elected to the chair of chemistry at Edinburgh in succession to his old master Charles Hope. He was a successful expository lecturer, but in his later years suffered much from painful disease, and died on 24 April 1858, leaving a widow and one son.
Having been a favourite pupil of Liebig at Giessen, Gregory did much to introduce his researches into this country, translating and editing several of his works. His own chemical works were useful in their day, especially from the prominence they gave to organic chemistry. He was skilled in German and French, and kept well abreast of chemical advances on the continent. A list of forty chemical papers by him is given in the Royal Society's ‘Catalogue of Scientific Papers.’ Being compelled to adopt a sedentary life, he spent much time in microscopical studies, chiefly on the diatoms, and wrote a number of careful papers on the subject. His character was simple, earnest, and amiable. Some thought him much too credulous in regard to animal magnetism and mesmerism. His views have much in common with the recent theory of telepathy. Besides editing the English editions of Liebig's ‘Animal Chemistry,’ ‘Chemistry in its Applications to Agriculture and Physiology,’ ‘Familiar Letters on Chemistry,’ ‘Instructions for Chemical Analysis of Organic Bodies,’ ‘Agricultural Chemistry,’ ‘Chemistry of Food,’ and ‘Researches on the Motion of the Juices in the Animal Body,’ Gregory translated and edited Reichenbach's ‘Researches on Magnetism, Electricity, Heat, &c., in their relation to Vital Force,’ 1850. He also, with Baron Liebig, edited Edward Turner's ‘Elements of Chemistry.’
His own works were: 1. ‘Outlines of Chemistry,’ 1845; 2nd edition, 1847; divided subsequently into two volumes, ‘The Handbook of Inorganic’ and ‘Organic Chemistry’ respectively, 1853; the latter was issued in Germany, edited by T. Gerding, Brunswick, 1854. 2. ‘Letters to a Candid Inquirer on Animal Magnetism,’ 1851.
G. T. B.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Gregory, William (1624-1696)

​GREGORY, Sir WILLIAM (1624–1696), judge, was the second and only surviving son of the Rev. Robert Gregory, vicar of Fownhope and rector of Sutton St. Nicholas, Herefordshire, by his wife Anne, daughter of John Harvey of Broadstone, Gloucestershire. He was born 1 March 1624, and was educated at Hereford Cathedral school. There appears to be no foundation for the statement that he became a member of All Souls' College, Oxford, and was elected a fellow as his father had been before him. He entered the society of Gray's Inn in 1640, and in 1650 was called to the bar. He joined the Oxford circuit, on which, as at Westminster, he soon obtained an extensive practice. He acquired several lucrative stewardships of manors in his native county, became recorder of Gloucester in 1672, and in the following year was elected a bencher of Gray's Inn. In 1677 he was made serjeant-at-law, and at a by-election in 1678 he was returned member of parliament for Weobly, Herefordshire. He was re-elected to the new parliament of 1679, and, after the king had three times refused to confirm the election of Edward Seymour as speaker, was proposed for that office by Lord Russell. Gregory begged the house to select a more experienced member, but when led to the chair by his proposer and seconder offered no resistance. As speaker he is stated to have been firm, temperate, and impartial, but he held the post for a few months only, as on the death of Sir Timothy Littleton in April 1679 he was appointed to his place as a baron of the exchequer, and was knighted. The trial of Sir Miles Stapleton for high treason took place before Gregory and Sir William Dolben [q.v.] in 1681. In Michaelmas term 1685 Gregory was discharged from his office for giving a judgment against the king's dispensing power, and in the next year was removed by royal mandate from his recordership. He was returned by the city of Hereford as a member of the convention of 1689, but gave up his seat on being appointed a judge of the king's bench. As a judge he was distinguished for his firmness and integrity. In his later years he was greatly afflicted with stone, which in the winter of 1694 confined him to his room for three months. He died in London 28 May 1696, ​ and was buried in the parish church of his manor of How Capel, Herefordshire. Gregory had purchased this manor in 1677 and built the southern transept of the church, known as the Gregory Chapel, as a burying-place for himself and his family. He also bought the manor and advowson of Solers Hope, and the manor of Fownhope, but he resided chiefly in London. Besides largely rebuilding the church at How Capel, he gave a garden in Bowsey Lane, Hereford, for the benefit of the Lazarus Hospital. In 1653 Gregory became the third husband of Katharine Smith, by whom he was father of two children: James, who married Elizabeth Rodd and died 1691, and Katharine, who died in infancy. His descendants in the male line failed in 1789.
A. V.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Gregory, William (d.1467)

​GREGORY, WILLIAM (d. 1467), chronicler, was the son of Roger Gregory of Mildenhall, Suffolk, and must have been born late in the fourteenth or early in the fifteenth century. He was a member of the Skinners' Company, and was lord mayor of London in 1451-2. A city chronicle under this date speaks of the papal indulgence that came from Rome in that year as ‘the greatest pardon that ever come to England, from the Conquest unto this time of my year being mayor of London.’ And, though the chronicle in question is continued in the only known manuscript (in Brit. Mus.) two years beyond Gregory's death, this passage leaves no doubt that he was the author down to the year of his mayoralty. He was a wealthy man, and in 1461 founded a chantry in the parish church of St. Anne and St. Agnes, Aldersgate, out of the rents of some property in the parish which he had purchased of a widow named Margaret Holmehegge and two other persons. On 6 Nov. 1465 he made his will, by which it appears that he had been three times married (his wives were named Joan, Julian, and Joan respectively), and had nine grandchildren, seven by one daughter and two by another. Besides providing for these and other relations he left liberal bequests to various hospitals ​and churches and other charities in the city, including one to the high altar of St. Mary Aldermary, in which parish he then resided, and also for an obit in Mildenhall Church. To this will he added a codicil on 2 Jan. 1466-7, and he must have died a day or two after, as the will was proved on the 23rd of the same month. He was buried in St. Anne's Church, Aldersgate. His chronicle has been printed in ‘Collections of a London Citizen’ (Camd. Soc.)
J. G.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Hyatt, John

​HYATT, JOHN (1767–1826), preacher, son of a publican, was born at Sherborne in Dorsetshire 21 Jan. 1767. He was educated at a day school, and at fourteen was apprenticed to a cabinet-maker, on whose death Hyatt carried on the business. Hyatt first received deep religious impressions through the influence of Miss Westcomb, who became his wife in 1787. She was the niece of a dissenting minister named Vardy. Hyatt, after considerable discussion with one of Wesley's Arminian preachers, became a Calvinist. In 1794 he began to preach; in 1798 gave up his business; moved with his family to Mere in Wiltshire, and devoted himself wholly to religious work. His unauthorised ministration, though acceptable to the multitude, did not meet with the approval of the regular preachers. Monetary difficulties drove him to Frome in Somerset in 1800, but his reputation as a preacher was then established, and shortly afterwards he was invited to become minister of the London Tabernacle. He died in London in 1826, leaving a widow and one son, Charles. Hyatt published many single sermons, and a collection of addresses on various subjects, London, 1811, 8vo (2nd edition in the same year). Another volume of sermons was edited by his son, with a memoir by J. Morison prefixed, London, 1828. 'Sketches of fifty ​sermons of the late J[ohn] H[yatt] appeared in 1827, 12mo.
[Memoir by J. Morison; Brit. Mus. Cat.]
W. A. J. A.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Hyde, Catherine

​HYDE, CATHERINE, afterwards Duchess of Queensbury (d. 1777). [See under Douglas, Charles, third Duke of Queensberry, 1698–1778.]
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Hyde, Alexander

​HYDE, ALEXANDER (1598–1667), bishop of Salisbury, born at Salisbury in 1598, was the fourth son of Sir Lawrence Hyde, knt. (the second son of Lawrence Hyde of Gussage St. Michael, Dorsetshire, who was third son of Robert Hyde of Norbury, Cheshire). His mother was Barbara Castilion of Benham, Berkshire. He was thus first cousin of Edward Hyde (1607-1659) [q. v.], of Sir Robert Hyde [q.v.], and of Henry Hyde,who accompanied Charles II to the continent and was beheaded in London in 1650. At the age of twelve (1610) Alexander entered Winchester College as a scholar, and matriculated 17 Nov. 1615 at New College, Oxford, where, in 1617, he was admitted perpetual fellow, and afterwards graduated B.C.L. 24 April 1623, and D.C.L. 4 July 1632. In 1634 he was made rector of Wylye and Little Langford, Wiltshire. In May 1637 Hyde became subdean and prebendary of Salisbury Cathedral, stall of South Grantham (4 March 1638-9). Like other members of his family he was a staunch royalist, and was sequestered from his livings under the Commonwealth, but reoccupied them at the Restoration. According to tradition, supported by his epitaph (see Hatcher, History of Sarum, ed. 1843, p. 459), he contributed bountifully to the repairs of the cathedral after its desecration by the soldiers of the parliament. By Clarendon's influence he was at the Restoration rewarded by the deanery of Winchester (installed 8 Aug. 1660), and on the death of John Earle [q. v.] in 1665 was promoted to the bishopric of Salisbury. He resigned the subdeanery of Salisbury in 1661, and his prebend there in 1665. His consecration took place 31 Dec. 1665 in New College Chapel, Oxford. Hyde died in London, 22 Aug. 1667, aged 69, and was buried in the south aisle of the nave of Salisbury Cathedral, beneath a black marble slab bearing a Latin inscription. His will, dated 17 July 1667, is at Doctors' Commons. His portrait in his episcopal robes is in the bishop's palace, Salisbury. By his wife, Mary, daughter of Bishop Tounson, and niece of John Davenant, bishop of Salisbury, Hyde had, besides three daughters, a son, Robert, who ultimately succeeded to the family estates.
[Lansd. MS. 986, f. 61; Wood's Athen. Ox. ed. Bliss, iv. 832; Wood's Fasti Ox. ed. Bliss, i. 411, 466; Le Neve's Fasti, 1854, ii. 509, 656, iii. 22; Dodsworth's Salisbury, p. 70; Hoare's Wiltshire, Branch and Dole, pp. 179, 182, Underditch, p. 145; Cassan's History of Bishops of Sherborne and Salisbury, pt. iii. 25; Hist. and Antiq. of Salisbury Cathedral, ed. 1723, pp. 31, 161-277, 307, 325; private information from Mr. Clifford Holgate.]
E. T. B.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Hyde, David de la

​HYDE, DAVID de la (fl. 1580), classical scholar, was, in Wood's opinion, an Irishman by birth. There was an Irish knightly family of the name seated at Moyclare in King's County, the heads of which—Sir Walter and his son Sir James de la Hyde suffered proscription for their share in Fitzgerald's revolt of 1535 (Holinshed, ii. 96, ed. Hooker; Froude, Hist. of England, ii. 321). The family was possibly a branch of the De la Hydes of Brimpton in Berkshire (Ashmole, Berkshire, iii. 296).
David de la Hyde graduated B.A. at Merton College, Oxford, in 1548, was admitted probationary fellow of his college in 1549, and M.A. in 1553. He studied the civil law for five years, and supplicated to be admitted B.C.L. on 21 Feb. 1558, but admission was refused. De la Hyde was, says Wood, 'much adored for his most excellent faculty in disputing,' which he exercised both before the university and his own college. Ejected from Merton in 1560 for denying the queen's supremacy, he went to Ireland, `where,' says Richard Stanihurst (Description of Ireland, c. 7, ap. Holinshed, ii. 40), 'he became an exquisite and profound clerk, well seen in the Greek and Latin tongues, expert in the mathematics, and a proper antiquary. His pen was not lazy, but daily breeding of learned books.' He seems to have been in England again in 1561. In the list of the recusants of that year given by Strype (Annals, i. 412, ed. Oxford, 1824), De la Hyde is said to be 'at his liberty, saving that he is restrained to come within twenty miles of either of the universities.' He is noted in the margin as ` very stubborn, and worthy to be looked into.' Of the 'many learned books' of which Stanihurst speaks, there appears to be no trace. Wood, who had never seen them, says that they were printed over the sea. Two tracts by De la Hyde, 'Schemata rhetorica in tabulam contracta' and 'De ligno et fœno,' were known to Wood in manuscript. The latter, an oration delivered with great effect in Merton College Hall in praise of Jasper Heywood [q.v.], when Christmas lord, or king of misrule, in the college, is still extant among Wood's manuscripts in the Ashmolean Museum.
J. T-t.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Hyde, Jane

​HYDE, JANE, Countess of Clarendon and Rochester (d. 1725), was one of the two daughters of Sir William Leveson-Gower, bart.,andhis wife the daughter of John Granville, earl of Bath. Though her father was a whig (he had been one of Monmouth's bail in 1683; see Collins, Peerage of England, 5th ed. v. 141), she was married, 3 March 1693, to Henry, lord Hyde, eldest son of Laurence Hyde, first earl of Rochester [q. v.] Her husband's career was undistinguished; for a time he was joint vice-treasurer for Ireland, and he enjoyed a pension of 4,000l. a year on the post office, conferred in 1687 for ninety-nine years upon his father and himself (Ellis Correspondence, i. 212). In 1711 he succeeded to the earldom of Rochester, and in 1724 to that of Clarendon, both of which titles became extinct by his death on 10 Dec. 1753. At the time of their marriage Lord and Lady Hyde were described as a singularly fine couple (Correspondence of Clarendon and Rochester, ii. 341), and among their eight children, two daughters became in time 'top toasts ' for their beauty, viz. Jane, afterwards Countess of Essex (see Swift, Journal to Stella, 18 July 1711, 29 Jan. 1712), and Catherine, celebrated as Duchess of Queensberry [see under Douglas, Charles, third Duke of Queensberry]. But even they were considered inferior in beauty to what their mother had been before them. Accordingly, she was complimented in verse both by her kinsman, George Granville, lord Lansdowne, and by Prior, who extolled her as Myra in ' The Judgment of Venus;' while Swift condescended to call her his 'mistress,' and Pope tried to make Martha Blount jealous by praising her beauty (Works, ed. Elwin and Courthope, vii. 188, ix. 277 n.) She paid the penalty of fame in the scandalous aspersions which, many years after her death, are cast upon her conjugal fidelity by the venomous tongue of Lady Mary Wortley Montagu (Letters and Works, ed. Lord Wharncliffe, ii. 274. Swift seems to allude to the scandal in the letter cited above). She died on 24 May 1725. Her husband survived her till 10 Dec. 1753. Her portrait was painted by Kneller and Dahl. There are two portraits by the latter in the Clarendon gallery at the Grove, Watford.
[Lady Theresa Lewis's Descriptive Catalogue of the Portraits at the Grove, in Lives of Friends and Contemporaries of Lord Chancellor Clarendon illustrative of Portraits in his Gallery, 1852, iii. 412-15; Doyle's Official Baronage of England, i. 406.]
A. W. W.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Bonnar, George William

​BONNAR, GEORGE WILLIAM (1796–1836), wood-engraver, was born at Devizes on 24 May 1796. After having been educated at Bath, he was apprenticed to a wood-engraver in London, and acquired much skill both as a draughtsman and an engraver, distinguishing himself by his revival of the art of producing a gradatlon of tints by means of a combination of blocks. Together with John Byfield he engraved for ‘The Dance of Death,’ edited by Francis Douce in 1833, Holbein's ‘Imagines Mortis,’ from the Lyons edition of 1547. Some of his woodcuts appeared in the ‘British Cyclopædia.’ He died on 3 Jun. 1836.
[Redgrave's Dictionary of Artists, 1878.]
R. E. G.