OpenLLM-France/wikimedia huggingface dataset:
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Gray, Thomas (1787-1848)

​GRAY, THOMAS (1787–1848), the railway pioneer, son of Robert Gray, engineer, was born at Leeds in 1787, and afterwards lived at Nottingham. As a boy he had seen Blenkinsopp's famous locomotive at work on the Middleton cogged railroad. He was staying in Brussels in 1816, when the project of a canal from Charleroi for the purpose of connecting Holland with the mining districts of Belgium was under discussion. In connection with John, son of William Cockerill [q. v.], he advocated the superior advantages of a railway. Gray shut himself up in his room to write a pamphlet, secluded from his wife and friends, declining to give them any information about his studies except that they would revolutionise the world. In 1820 Gray published the result of his labours as ‘Observations on a General Railway, with Plates and Map illustrative of the plan; showing its great superiority … over all the present methods of conveyance. …’ He suggested the propriety of making a railway between Liverpool and Manchester. The treatise went through four editions in two years. In 1822 Gray added a diagram, showing a number of suggested lines of railway connecting the principal towns of England, and another in like manner bringing together the leading Irish centres. Gray pressed his pet scheme, ‘a general iron road,’ upon the attention of public men of every position. He sent memorials to Lord Sidmouth in 1820, and to the lord mayor and corporation of London a year later. In 1822 he addressed the Earl of Liverpool and Sir Robert Peel, and petitioned government in 1823. His Nottingham neighbours declared him ‘cracked.’ William Howitt, who frequently came in contact with Gray, says: ‘With Thomas Gray, begin where you would, on whatever subject, it would not be many minutes before you would be enveloped in steam, and listening to a harangue on the practicability and the advantages to the nation of a general iron railway.’ In 1829, when public discussion was proceeding hotly in Britain as to the kinds of power to be permanently employed on the then accepted railway system, Gray advocated his crude plan of a greased road with cog rails. He ultimately fell into poverty, and sold glass on commission. He died, broken-hearted it is said, 15 Oct. 1848, at Exeter.
[Great Inventors, 1864; Smiles's Lives of the Engineers, iii. 181, 256; Gent. Mag. 1848, ii. 662.]
J. B-y.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Gray, William

​GRAY, WILLIAM (1802?–1835), miscellaneous writer, born about 1802, was the only son of James Gray of Kircudbright, Scotland (Foster, Alumni Oxon. 1715–1886, ii. 554). He matriculated at Oxford on 30 Oct. 1824 as a gentleman commoner of St. Alban Hall, but on the death of the principal, Peter Elmsley, to whom he was much attached, he removed in 1825 to Magdalen College, where he graduated B.A. on 25 June 1829, and M.A. on 2 June 1831. While at Oxford he occasionally contributed to the ‘Oxford Herald.’ His account of Elmsley in that journal was transferred to the ‘Gentleman's Magazine’ for April 1825. He edited the ‘Miscellaneous Works of Sir Philip Sidney, with a Life of the Author and Illustrative Notes,’ 8vo, Oxford, 1829 (another edition, 8vo, Boston, U.S.A., 1860). In 1829 he projected an ‘Oxford Literary Gazette,’ of which six numbers only appeared. Gray was called to the bar by the Society of the Inner Temple on 10 June 1831; but ill-health prevented him from practising. His last work was an ‘Historical Sketch of the Origin of English Prose Literature, and of its Progress till the Reign of James I,’ 8vo, Oxford, 1835. He died at Dumfries on 29 Nov. 1835 (Gent. Mag. 1836, i. 326–7).
[Authorities as above.]
G. G.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Greathead, Henry

​GREATHEAD, HENRY (1757–1816), lifeboat inventor, was a twin child, born at Richmond, Yorkshire, on 27 Jan. 1757. His father, who was in the civil service, removed to Shields in 1763. Greathead was at first apprenticed to a boatbuilder, and subsequently went to sea as a ship's carpenter. In 1785 he returned to South Shields, and set up in business on his own account as a boatbuilder, marrying in the following year. The ship Adventure of Newcastle stranded in 1789 on the Herd Sands, a shoal off Tynemouth Haven, not far from Greathead's home. The crew were all lost in sight of many spectators, and ​Greathead resolved to construct a lifeboat. Luken had written a pamphlet upon 'insubmergible boats,' and took out a patent in 1785. Wouldhave, parish clerk of South Shields, had also studied the subject. A public subscription was now got up to offer a reward for the best lifeboat. Greathead won it against the competition of Wouldhave and many others. Dr. Hayes in a letter to the Royal Humane Society described Greathead's boat, in minute detail. It was 30 feet long by 10 feet in width, and 3 feet 4 inches deep. The whole construction much resembled a 'Greenland boat, except that it was considerably flatter, and lined inside and out with cork. Greathead's was a ten-oared boat, and although of very light draft, it could carry twenty people. It succeeded admirably. Greathead made his first lifeboat for the Duke of Northumberland, who presented it to North Shields. Numerous learned societies awarded honours to Greathead, and voted him money grants. The Trinity House gave him handsome recognition, as did also the Society of Arts, and eventually government paid him 1,200l. in consideration of the value of his invention to the nation. Dr. Trotter, physician to the fleet, wrote an adulatory ode. Greathead published 'The Report of Evidence and other Proceedings in Parliament respecting the Invention of the Lifeboat. Also other Documents illustrating the Origin of the Lifeboat, with Practical Directions for the Management of Lifeboats,' London, 1804. He died in 1816. There is an inscription to his memory in the parish church of St. Hilda, South Shields.
[Tyne Mercury, 29 Nov. 1803; European Mag. (which gives a fine portrait of Greathead), vols. xliii. xlvi.; Public Characters of 1806 (upon information from Greathead); Romance of Life Preservation.]
J. B-y.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Greatheed, Bertie

​GREATHEED, BERTIE (1759–1826), dramatist, born on 19 Oct. 1759 (Gent. Mag. 1759, p. 497), was the son of Samuel Greatheed (1710-1765) of Guy's Cliffe, near Warwick, by his wife Lady Mary Bertie, daughter of Peregrine, second duke of Ancaster. When residing in Florence he became a member of the society called 'Gli Oziosi' and a contributor to their privately printed collection of fugitive pieces entitled 'The Arno Miscellany,' 8vo, Florence, 1784. The following year he contributed to 'The Florence Miscellany,' 8vo, Florence, 1785, a collection of poems by the 'Della-Cruscans,' for which he was termed by Gifford the Reuben of that school in the 'Baviad' and 'Mæviad.' A blankverse tragedy by him called 'The Regent' was brought out at Drury Lane Theatre on 1 April 1788, but, though supported by John Kemble and Mrs. Siddons, was withdrawn after trying the public patience for some nine nights (Genest, Hist. of the Stage, vi. 477-8). The epilogue was furnished by Mrs. Piozzi. The author afterwards published it with a dedication to Mrs. Siddons, who had once been an attendant upon his mother, and was his frequent guest at Guy's Cliffe. The play is less foolish than might be supposed; though Manuel, the hero, requests Gomez to 'go to the puddled market-place, and there dissect his heart upon the public shambles.' Greatheed died at Guy's Cliffe on 16 Jan. 1826, aged 66 (Gent. Mag. 1826, pt. i. pp. 367-8). His only son, Bertie, who died at Vicenza in Italy on 8 Oct. 1804, aged 23 (ib. 1804, pt. ii. pp. 1073, 1236), was an amateur artist of some talent. The younger Greatheed had married in France, and his only daughter became, on 20 March 1823, the wife of Lord Charles Percy, son of the Earl of Beverley.
[Baker's Biographia Dramatica, 1812, i. 296, iii. 197.]
G. G.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Tinney, John

​TINNEY, JOHN (d. 1761), engraver, practised both in line and mezzotint, but with no great ability, during the reign of George II. He was also a printseller, and carried on business at the Golden Lion in Fleet Street, London, where all his own works were published. His mezzotint plates include portraits of Lavinia Fenton, after John Ellys; George III, after Joseph Highmore; Chief Baron Parker; and John Wesley; also some fancy subjects after Boucher, Lancret, Rosalba, Correggio, and others. He engraved in line a set of ten views of Hampton Court and Kensington Palace, after Anthony Highmore, and some of Fontainebleau and Versailles, after Jean Rigaud. Some of the plates in Ball's ‘Antiquities of Constantinople,’ 1729, are also by him. Tinney is now remembered as the master of the distinguished engravers William Woollett [q. v.], Anthony Walker [q. v.], and John Browne (1741–1801) [q. v.] He died in 1761.
F. M. O'D.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Tinmouth, John de

John Tynemouth in the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography.
​TINMOUTH, JOHN de (fl. 1366), historian, was a native of Tynemouth, and for a time vicar of that town. Afterwards he became a Benedictine monk at St. Albans, of which house Tynemouth priory was a cell. He was the author of: 1. ‘Historia Aurea a Creatione ad tempus Edwardi III.’ Tinmouth's work seems to have ended at 1347, and is so given in Lambeth MSS. 10, 11, 12. A copy of the ‘Historia Aurea,’ also ending at 1347, is contained in Bodleian MS. 240, which was made for the monks of Bury St. Edmunds in 1377. A third copy at Cambridge C.C.C. MS. B i. ii., which was formerly at St. Albans, appears to contain a continuation to 1377. 2. ‘Martyrologium or Liber Servorum Dei Major.’ 3. ‘Sanctilogium; sive, de Vitis et Miraculis Sanctorum Angliæ, Scotiæ, et Hiberniæ,’ also called ‘Liber servorum Dei Minor.’ This is contained in Cotton MS. Tiberius E. 1. A number of lives extracted from the ‘Martyrologium’ or ‘Sanctilogium’ of John de Tinmouth are contained in Bodleian MS. 240. Tinmouth appears to have borrowed his lives of saints largely from the ‘Sanctilogium’ of Guido, abbot of St. Denys from 1326 to 1343. Tinmouth was in his turn laid under contribution by Capgrave, who borrowed from him nearly all the lives in his ‘Nova Legenda Anglie;’ but Tinmouth's collection contains some material not given by Capgrave. A number of Tinmouth's lives of saints are noticed in Hardy's ‘Descriptive Catalogue of British History.’ His life of St. Bregwin is printed in Wharton's ‘Anglia Sacra’ (ii. 75). Tinmouth is also credited with expositions on various books of the Bible, and with a lectionary for all the saints commemorated in the Sarum use.
C. L. K.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Tipper, John

​TIPPER, JOHN (d. 1713), almanac-maker, was born at Coventry. In 1699 he was elected master of Bablake school in that city in the place of Richard Butler. In 1704 he commenced an almanac and a serial collection of mathematical papers, under the title of ‘The Ladies' Diary,’ which he continued to edit until his death. Six letters from Tipper to Humphrey Wanley [q .v.], relating to the inception of the ‘Diary,’ are in Ellis's ‘Letters of Eminent Literary Men’ (Camden Soc. pp. 304–15). It was carried on until 1840, when it was united with the ‘Gentleman's Diary,’ under the title ‘The Lady's and Gentleman's Diary,’ and continued to appear until 1871. In 1710 he also founded ‘Great Britain's Diary,’ which continued to be issued until 1728. Tipper was a mathematician of considerable ability, and to the ordinary contents of astrological almanacs he added several mathematical problems of a difficult nature which his readers were invited to solve. Among those who exercised their ingenuity in attempting these was Thomas Simpson [q. v.], the well-known mathematician. In 1711 Tipper started ‘Delights for the Ingenious,’ a monthly magazine treating of mathematical questions and enigmas, and more or less popular in its character. It did not, however, survive the year. Tipper died in 1713.
E. I. C.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Tipping, William

​TIPPING, WILLIAM (1598–1649), author, second son of Sir George Tipping (d. 1627) of Wheatfield and Draycott, Oxfordshire, by his wife, Dorothy (1564–1637), daughter of John Burlacy or Borlase of Little Marlow, and sheriff of Buckingham​shire, was born at Wheatfield in 1598. He entered Queen's College, Oxford, as a commoner, matriculated 23 June 1615, and graduated B.A. on 23 Oct. 1617. He became a student at Lincoln's Inn in 1618, but afterwards abandoned the law, returned to Oxford, lived a studious life, and was added to the commission of the peace. He was summoned before the court of high commission for puritan practices in 1635 and 1636, and in the civil war joined the parliament, took the covenant, and was inducted into the family living of Shabbington, Buckinghamshire. He appears as one of the parliamentary visitors of Oxford in 1647 (Burrows, Reg. Visit. pp. lxi, 2), and on 12 April 1648 was created M.A. (Foster). He died in the neighbouring parish of Waterstock on 2 Feb. 1648–9, and was there buried on the 8th.
Tipping, who was unmarried, bequeathed an annuity for a Good Friday sermon in All Saints', Oxford, and during his lifetime gave 300l. to build a bridewell outside the north gate of Oxford. He has been confused with a relative of the same name who married Ursula, daughter of Sir John Brett of Edmonton (Visitations of Oxfordshire, Harl. Soc. p. 275; cf. Lipscomb, Hist. of Buckinghamshire, i. 453).
He wrote: 1. ‘A Discourse of Eternity,’ Oxford, 1633, 4to, from which he was known as ‘Eternity Tipping.’ A second (anonymous) edition was published in London, 1646. 2. ‘A Return of Thankfulness for the unexpected Recovery out of a dangerous Sickness,’ Oxford, 1640, 8vo. 3. ‘The Father's Counsell,’ London, 1644, 8vo; republished in ‘Harleian Miscellany,’ vol. ix. 1808. 4. ‘The Preacher's Plea, or a short Declaration touching the Smallness of their Maintenance,’ London, 1646, 8vo. 5. ‘The remarkable Life and Death of the lady Apollonia Hall, widow, aged 20,’ London, 1647, 8vo. Of these none save the ‘Harleian Miscellany’ reproduction is in the British Museum.
C. F. S.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Tiptoft, Robert de

1904 Errata appended.
​TIPTOFT, ROBERT de, sometimes styled Baron Tibetot or Tiptoft (d. 1298), succeeded to the lands of his father Henry in 34 Henry III (1249–50). In 50 Henry III (1265–6) he was made governor of Porchester Castle. He accompanied Edward I to the Holy Land, and in the third year of his reign was made governor of Nottingham Castle, and in the ninth (1280–1) justice of South Wales and governor of Cardigan and Carmarthen castles. He held the justiceship until his death, his tenure being thrice renewed. He sat in the parliaments of 1276 and 1290, but there is no record of the writs of summons (cf. G. E. C[okayne], Complete Peerage, vii. 401).
Tiptoft took a leading part in the suppression of the revolt of Rhys ab Mereduc in 1287–8. Rhys's pretext was the compulsory introduction of ‘English customs’ by Tiptoft. Tiptoft took Rhys's chief castle, captured him, and sent him to York, where he was hanged and drawn. In 1294 Tiptoft was appointed one of John of Brittany's counsellors and lieutenants in the expedition sent to recover Gascony. John of Brittany sent him to negotiate an alliance with Sancho IV of Castile, and he was also left in command of Rions on the retreat of the English army before Charles of Artois, but had to surrender on 7 April 1295. He took part in Edward I's Scottish expedition of 1297, and died at his manor of Nettlestead on 22 May 1298.
By his wife Eva he had a son Pain (1279?–1314), who is commonly reckoned first baron Tibetot or Tiptoft. His son John (1313–1367), second baron, was grandfather of John Tiptoft (1375–1443) [q. v.]
[Dugdale's Baronage of England ii. 38; Rishanger, pp. 143, 149, 256; Hemingburgh, ii. 17; Wykes, iv. 310–11; Opus Chronicorum (with Trokelowe), p. 43; Calendar of Patent Rolls, 1281–92 p. 283, 1292–1301 p. 350; Calendarium Genealogicum, pp. 494, 556–7.]
W. E. R.
Dictionary of National Biography, Errata (1904), p.265 N.B.— f.e. stands for from end and l.l. for last line
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# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Tindal, William

​TINDAL, WILLIAM (1756–1804), antiquary, born at Chelmsford on 14 May 1756, was son of James Tindal (d. 1760), captain in the 4th regiment of dragoons, youngest son of Nicholas Tindal [q. v.] James married Miss Shenton, who, after his death, was married to Dr. Smith, a physician at Cheltenham and Oxford. At four years of age William and his mother went to reside with her brother, a minor canon of Chichester, and six years later they removed to Richmond. On 19 May 1772 he matriculated from Trinity College, Oxford, and was elected a scholar in the same year. He graduated B.A. in 1776 and M.A. in 1778, in which year he was ordained deacon and obtained a fellowship, which he held until his marriage. After serving as curate at Evesham, he became rector of Billingford in Norfolk in 1789, and on 6 July 1792 he was also instituted to the rectory of Kington, Worcestershire. In 1799 he exchanged the rectory of Billingford for the chaplainship of the Tower of London. In the same year he was elected a fellow of the Society of Antiquaries (Nichols, Lit. Illustr. vi. 772).
Tindal committed suicide at the Tower on 16 Sept. 1804 while in a state of mental depression. He married before 1794, and his wife survived him.
Besides writing several political pamphlets, he was the author of: 1. ‘Remarks on Dr. Johnson's Life and Critical Observations on the Works of Gray,’ 1782, 8vo. 2. ‘Juvenile Excursions in Literature and Criticism,’ London, 1791, 16mo. 3. ‘The History and Antiquities of the Abbey and Borough of Evesham,’ Evesham, 1794, 4to. The last work won high praise from Horace Walpole. Tindal is also said to have written ​a poetical essay in blank verse, entitled ‘The Evils and Advantages of Genius contrasted.’
E. I. C.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Fry, John (1792-1822)

​FRY, JOHN (1792–1822), bookseller and author, was born in 1792. He was always in bad health, and devoted his leisure hours, when connected with the bookselling firm of Thomas Fry & Co., 46 High Street, Bristol, to the study of early English literature. Some of the prefaces of his pieces are dated from Kingsdown, Somersetshire. Besides his published works he left several in manuscript, among them one he styled ‘Bibliophilia,’ editions of the writings of the Rev. William Hamilton and William Browne, and biographical sketches of eminent Bristolians. After a lingering illness he died at Bristol, 28 June 1822, at the age of thirty. He published: 1. ‘Metrical Trifles in Youth,’ Bristol, 1810, 8vo. 2. ‘The Legend of Mary Queen of Scots, and other ancient Poems, now first published from MSS. of the XVIth century, with an Introduction, Notes, &c.,’ London, 1810, 8vo. 3. ‘A Selection from the Poetical Works of Thomas Carew,’ London, 1810, sm. 8vo (commended in ‘British Critic,’ February 1810). 4. ‘Pieces of Ancient Poetry from Unpublished MSS. and Scarce Books,’ Bristol, 1814, 4to (102 copies printed). 5. ‘George Whetstone's Metrical Life of George Gascoigne, 1577,’ Bristol, 1815, 4to (100 copies). 6. ‘Bibliographical Memoranda in illustration of Old English Literature,’ Bristol, 1816, 4to.
H. R. T.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Fryer, Edward

​FRYER, EDWARD, M.D. (1761–1826), physician, was born in 1761 at Frome, Somersetshire. He was sent to the grammar school there, and afterwards apprenticed to a general practitioner of medicine in Wiltshire. He studied medicine in London, Edinburgh, and Leyden, and graduated M.D. at Leyden 29 Jan. 1785. He travelled in Europe till 1790, when he came to London, and was admitted a licentiate of the College of Physicians. He became physician to the Duke of Sussex, and resided in Upper Charlotte Street, where he died 9 Jan. 1826. He attended Barry, the painter, in his last illness, and wrote his life, a work which was published in 1825. It shows little skill in biography, being full of indefinite ​statements, but has the merits of moderation in its praise of its subject, and of modesty in the concealment of the personality of its author.
N. M.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Fry, William Thomas

​FRY, WILLIAM THOMAS (1789–1843), engraver, born in 1789, worked chiefly in stipple. He engraved four portraits for Fisher's ‘National Portrait Gallery,’ viz., Princess Charlotte, after Sir T. Lawrence, the Earl of Liverpool, after the same, Admiral Earl Howe, after Gainsborough Dupont, and the Rev. Samuel Lee, after R. Evans. He also engraved some fine portraits, after J. Jackson, R.A., including Robert Hills, the animal painter, John Scott, the engraver, and others. For Jones's ‘National Gallery’ he executed eleven engravings. He was extensively employed in his profession, and died in 1843. He occasionally exhibited his engravings at the Suffolk Street exhibition.
L. C.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Rose, George (1782-1873)

​ROSE, Sir GEORGE (1782–1873), master in chancery, eldest son of James Rose, lighterman, of Tooley Street, Southwark, was born in London on 1 May 1782. He received a presentation to Westminster School, and became king's scholar in 1797. He was elected to Peterhouse, Cambridge, in 1801, but poverty prevented him from completing his education there, and it was not until 1835 that he took his M.A. degree as a member of Trinity College. On 5 May 1809 he was called to the bar at the Inner Temple, and commenced attendance in the common-law courts and on the northern circuit. Rose was a witty man, and his first success is attributed to the publicity he attained by the composition while in court, when Lord Eldon was the presiding judge, of the following verse:
Mr. Leach made a speech,
 Angry, neat, and long;
 Mr. Hart, on the other part,
 Was right, but dull and long.
 Mr. Parker made that darker
 Which was dark enough without;
 Mr. Cook quoted his book,
 And the Chancellor said I doubt.
In May 1827 he was named a king's counsel, and in the same year became a bencher of his inn, of which he was reader in 1834 and treasurer in 1835. The misfortune of his father's bankruptcy attracted his attention to the bankruptcy branch in chancery, where he obtained a fair practice. He published 'Reports of Cases in Bankruptcy decided by Lord Eldon,' vol. i. 1812, reprinted 1813; vol. ii. 1816, reprinted 1821; this book was continued by J. W. Buck. In 1813 he published 'An Inquiry into the Nature of Trading as a Scrivener.' On 5 Dec. 1831 he was sworn in as one of the four judges of the court of review, which had jurisdiction in bankruptcy cases, and on 7 Dec. was knighted at St. James's Palace.
On some change being made in the court of review, Lord Cottenham gave Rose on 7 Dec. 1840 the lucrative and comparatively easy post of a mastership in chancery, which he held till the masterships were abolished on 1 Feb. 1858; he then retired on his full salary of 2,500l. a year.
Rose was the first chairman of the Law Life Insurance Society in 1844, and attended the board meetings until 1859. On 5 June 1834 he was elected a fellow of the Royal Society, and later on became a fellow of the Geographical Society. He was one of the old school of wits. Many of his jokes were of a professional character, and referred to legal proceedings long since obsolete; others, however, related to general matters, and were remarkable for their readiness and originality. To Westminster School he always felt grateful, and with it kept up a friendly connection; he was a steward of the anniversaries in 1827, 1833, and 1848, a constant attendant at the plays, and sometimes aided in the preparation of the prologue and epilogue. He died at Brighton on 3 Dec. 1873, having married Anne, daughter of Captain Robert Pouncey.
G. C. B.