OpenLLM-France/wikimedia huggingface dataset:
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Cooper, William Ricketts

​COOPER, WILLIAM RICKETTS (1843–1878), oriental student, began life as a designer of carpet patterns, an occupation which he exchanged for that of a London missionary, until the influence of Joseph Bonomi the younger [q. v.] directed his varied energies to the study of Egyptian antiquities, to which the rest of his short life was devoted. Without being precisely a scholar, he accomplished a great deal of valuable work. He was one of the principal originators in 1870 of the Society of Biblical Archæology, of which he was the active and zealous secretary from its foundation, until delicate health compelled him in 1876 to retire to Ventnor, where he died two years later. The following is a list of his useful and painstaking publications:
* ‘Serpent Myths of Ancient Egypt,’ 1873.
* ‘The Resurrection of Assyria,’ 1875.
* Lectures on ‘Heroines of the Past,’ 1875.
* An address on ‘Egypt and the Pentateuch,’ 1875.
* ‘Archaic Dictionary,’ 1876.
* ‘The Horus Myth and Christianity,’ 1877.
* ‘Short History of the Egyptian Obelisk,’ 1877; 2nd edition, 1878.
* ‘Christian Evidence Lectures,’ delivered in 1872 and published 1880.
In addition to these works, the valuable series of translated Assyrian and Egyptian documents, entitled ‘Records of the Past,’ owes its origin to Cooper's energy and zeal. He translated Lenormant's ‘Chaldæan Magic,’ 1887.
[Athenæum, No. 2665; Academy, No. 342; Proceedings of the Society of Biblical Archæology, 1878; personal knowledge.]
S. L-P.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Cooper, William White

​COOPER, WILLIAM WHITE (1816–1886), surgeon-oculist, was born at Holt in Wiltshire on 17 Nov. 1816. After studying at St. Bartholomew's Hospital, London, he became M.R.C.S. in December 1838, and F.R.C.S. in 1845. His notes of Professor Owen's lectures at the College of Surgeons were published after revision, under the title of ‘Lectures in the Comparative Anatomy and Physiology of the Invertebrate Animals,’ in 1843. Becoming associated with John Dalrymple, the ophthalmic surgeon [q. v.], Cooper followed in his footsteps and gained a large practice. He was one of the original staff of the North London Eye Institution, and subsequently ophthalmic surgeon to St. Mary's Hospital, Paddington. He was a careful, steady, and neat operator, and judicious and painstaking in treatment. In 1859 he was appointed surgeon-oculist in ordinary to Queen Victoria, whose sincere regard he gained (Court Circular, 2 June 1886). It was announced on 29 May 1886 that he was to be knighted, but on the same day he was seized with acute pneumonia, of which he died on 1 June 1886. Cooper's personal character was most estimable, combining kindliness, sincerity, and simplicity with much energy. He wrote an ‘Invalid's Guide to Madeira,’ 1840; ‘Practical Remarks on Near Sight, Aged Sight, and Impaired Vision,’ 1847, second edition 1853; ‘Observations on Conical Cornea,’ 1850; ‘On Wounds and Injuries of the Eye,’ 1859. He also published in 1852 a volume of ‘Zoological Notes and Anecdotes’ under the pseudonym ‘Sestertius Holt,’ of which a second edition appeared in 1861 under the title ‘Traits and Anecdotes of Animals.’ It was illustrated with full-page plates by Wolf.
[Lancet, 19 June 1886, p. 1187.]
G. T. B.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Coote, Edmund

​COOTE, EDMUND (fl. 1597), grammarian, matriculated as a pensioner of Peterhouse, Cambridge, in May 1566, and graduated B.A. in 1579–80, M.A. in 1583. He was elected head-master of the grammar school of Bury St. Edmunds, Suffolk, on 5 June 1596, in succession to John Wright, M.A., and he resigned that office and was succeeded by Nicholas Martyn, M.A., on 18 May 1597. Of his subsequent history nothing appears to be known. During his brief tenure of the mastership of Bury school he published an educational work which became popular to an extraordinary degree. In its thirty-fourth edition it is entitled: ‘The English School-master. Teaching all his Scholars, of what age soever, the most easie, short, and perfect order of distinct Reading, and true Writing, our English-tongue, that hath ever yet been known or published by any,’ Lond. 1668, 4to. Other editions were published at London in 1627, 1638, 1667, 1673, 1675, 1692, and 1704. The Dublin edition of 1684 purports to be the forty-second. Heber gave six guineas for a copy of the thirty-seventh edition (1673). The repetition system revived as a novelty by Ollendorff was well known to Coote, who says: ‘I have so disposed the placing of my first book, that if a child should tear out every leaf so fast as he learneth, yet it shall not be greatly hurtful: for every new chapter repeateth and teacheth again all that went before.’ In all the known copies of the ‘English Schoolmaster’ the author is misnamed Edward Coote.
[Donaldson's Retrospective Address read at the Tercentenary Commemoration of King Edward's School, Bury St. Edmund's, 2 Aug. 1850, pp. 28–30, 69; Proceedings of Bury and West Suffolk Institute, i. 59; Cooper's Athenæ Cantab. ii. 243; Addit. MS. 5865, f. 96; Davy's Athenæ Suffolcienses, i. 138; Cat. of Printed Books in Brit. Mus.; Watt's Bibl. Brit.]
T. C.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Cooper, William (fl.1653)

​COOPER, WILLIAM (fl. 1653), puritan divine, married the daughter of a Dutch painter who was in favour with Laud, and so obtained the living of Ringmere in Sussex. Contrary to expectation, he showed himself a puritan. From 1644 to 1648 he was chaplain to Elizabeth, queen of Bohemia, sister of Charles I, and resided in her household at the Hague. In 1653 he was appointed to examine candidates for the ministry. He was ejected from St. Olave's, Southwark, in 1662, and in 1681 was confined in the crown office. He published several sermons, some of them edited by Annesley in his ‘Morning Exercises at Cripplegate,’ wrote the annotations on Daniel in ‘Poole's Commentary,’ and is said also to have written Latin verses, but this may be a confusion with Dr. William Cooper. He was alive in 1683.
[Palmer's Nonconformist's Memorial, i. 174; Dunn's Seventy-five Eminent Divines, 60.]
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Douglas, George (1636?-1692)

​DOUGLAS, Lord GEORGE, Earl of Dumbarton (1636?–1692), second son of William, first marquis of Douglas, and Lady Mary Gordon, was born in or about 1636. Like two of his elder brothers-german, Lords Archibald and James Douglas, he took service under the French king Louis XIV in his Scottish regiment, of which, on the resignation of his brother Archibald, he was appointed colonel. This regiment was recalled to England about 1675 by Charles II, and embodied in the British army. On 9 March 1675 Charles II conferred on Lord George Douglas the title of Earl of Dumbarton, a nominal peerage, in the strict sense of the word, for his lordship did not at the time own an acre of land in Scotland. After the accession of James II (of England) he was appointed commander-in-chief of the Scottish army, and under his guidance the rising of the Earl of Argyll in 1685 was suppressed. At the revolution he elected to share the fortunes of his dethroned sovereign. He accompanied James II to the continent, and died at St. Germain-en-Laye 20 March 1692. His countess, a sister, it is said, of the Duchess of Northumberland, predeceased him at the same place about a year, and both were buried in the abbey of St. Germain-des-Prés in Paris. They left a son, George, second earl of Dumbarton, born in April 1687, who attained to high rank in the British army and also in diplomatic service, being ambassador to Russia in 1716. But he died without issue, and his title became extinct. During his father's lifetime the second earl bore the courtesy title of Lord Ettrick, in reference to which James, marquis of Douglas, remarked in a letter, ‘I doe believe he has nothing more in Ettrick than he has in Dumbarton, but only the title.’
H. P.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Douglas, James (1617-1645)

1904 Errata appended.
​DOUGLAS, Lord JAMES or WILLIAM (1617–1645), military commander, was the second son of William, eleventh earl of Angus and first marquis of Douglas [q.v.], by his first wife, Margaret Hamilton, daughter of Claud, lord Paisley. While still very young he went to France, and took service for Louis XIII in the Scots brigade, under the command of Sir James Hepburn. On the death of the latter, in 1637, Douglas, though not yet twenty-one, was appointed to the command of the regiment, which then first became known by the name of Douglas. His valour in action and strategic talent led to his being highly esteemed among the generals of France. He took part in the battle of Lenz, in which nine of his officers were killed or wounded round him. In a skirmish between Douai and Arras, 21 Oct. 1645, he received a fatal wound. His body was taken to Paris, and there buried in the Abbaye of St. Germain, in the chapel of St. Christopher, where the remains of his grandfather, William, tenth earl of Angus [q. v.], had been placed. In 1688 a monument of black marble was raised to his memory, on which he is represented lying on his side and looking towards the altar, and two long epitaphs in Latin, extolling his merits as a man and a soldier, were engraved on it. These inscriptions are printed at length in the 'Scots Magazine,' xxix. 119, where, however, the date of death is wrongly printed 1655. On his monument, and by most writers who have had occasion to mention Douglas, his Christian name is given as James. James Grant, however (Memoirs and Adventures of Sir James Hepburn, p. 263), speaks of him as being called William. Two of his half-brothers were named William and James respectively.
A. V.
Dictionary of National Biography, Errata (1904), p.101 N.B.— f.e. stands for from end and l.l. for last line
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# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Douglas, George (d.1741)

​DOUGLAS, Lord GEORGE, fourth Lord Mordington (d. 1741), was the only son of James, third baron Mordington, by his wife, Jean Seton, eldest daughter of Alexander, first viscount Kingston. He was the author of ‘The Great Blessing of a Monarchical Government, when fenced about with and bounded by the Laws, and those Laws secured, defended, and observed by the Monarch; also that as a Popish Government is inconsistent with the true happiness of these kingdoms, so great also are the Miseries and Confusions of Anarchy,’ London, 1724. This book, which was dedicated to George I, is a rambling discourse of fifty-two pages on monarchy, patriotism, and first principles generally. In the preface Mordington speaks of his not being ‘insensible that what I sent into the world at two different times about three years since, occasioned by a weekly paper called “The Independent Whig,” created me some enemies,’ referring to two tracts which he had published. The first of these was ‘Aminadab, or the Quaker Vision; a satirical tract in defence of Dr. Sacheverell's Sermon before the Lord Mayor;’ the other ‘A Letter from Lord Mordington to the Lord Archbishop of York, occasioned by a most impious and scandalous weekly paper call'd “The Independent Whig,”’ 1721. It is not easy to believe that either of these ​ pamphlets could have created enemies, or have been regarded as a serious contribution to controversy. The former, however, was answered anonymously in ‘The Tory Quaker, or Aminadab's new vision in a Field after a drop of the Creature.’ Mordington married Catherine, daughter of Dr. Robert Lauder, rector of Shenty, Hertfordshire, and by her he had a son, Charles, and two daughters, Mary and Campbellina. He died in Covent Garden, London, on 10 June 1741. His son Charles did not assume the title on his father's death, having no landed property; but on being taken prisoner in the rebellion of 1745 and put on trial he pleaded his peerage, and the trial was put off. He died, however, in prison, and with him the male line of the family became extinct. His sister Mary, who was married to William Weaver, an officer of the horse guards, then assumed the title of Mordington; but she dying without issue, it finally lapsed in July 1791.
A. V.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Bell, Archibald

​BELL, ARCHIBALD (1755–1854), miscellaneous writer, was born in 1755. Admitted a member of the faculty of advocates, Edinburgh, in 1795, he became sheriff-depute of Ayrshire. He died at Edinburgh 6 Oct. 1854. He was the author of:
* 'An Inquiry into the Policy and Practice of the Prohibition of the Use of Grain in the Distilleries,' 1808, second edition, 1810.
* 'The Cabinet, a series of Essays, Moral and Literary' (anon.), 2 vols., Edinburgh, 1835.
* 'Count Clermont, a Tragedy; Caius Toranius, a Tragedy, with other Poems,' 1841. ​
* Melodies of Scotland,' 1849; the last being an attempt to supply words for the old national airs of such a correct and conventional type as not to offend the susceptibilities of the most fastidious. The verses are generally tasteful and spirited, but in no case have they been successful in supplanting those associated with the old melodies.
[Library Catalogue of the Faculty of Advocates, Edinburgh.]
T. F. H.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Bell, George (1794-1877)

​BELL, Sir GEORGE (1794–1877), general, son of George Bell, of Belle Vue, on Lough Erin, Fermanagh, by Catherine, daughter of Dominick Nugent, M.P., was born at Belle Vue, 17 March 1794, and whilst yet at school in Dublin was gazetted an ensign ​in the 34th foot, 11 March 1811. Sent to Portugal, he carried the colours of his regiment for the first time in the action of Arroyo-de-Molinos; was present at the second and final siege of Badajoz, and in the majority of the celebrated actions which intervened between that time and the battle of Toulouse. On being gazetted to the 45th regiment in 1825 he proceeded to India, and was present in Ava during the first Burmese war. Bell became a captain in 1828, and in 1836 was in Canada, where he was actively employed during the rebellion of 1837-8. He commanded the fort and garrison of Couteau-du-Lac, an important position on the river St. Lawrence, and received the thanks of the commander of the forces and his brevet-majority, 29 March 1839, for his exertions in recovering the guns of the fort, which had been sunk in the river, unspiking and mounting them in position, when it had been reported to be impossible to do so. The guns were 24-pounders, sixteen of which, with 4,000 round shot, he recovered from the deep in the middle of a Canadian winter. On becoming lieutenant-colonel of the 1st foot, known as the Royal regiment, 5 Dec. 1843, he next served in Gibraltar, Nova Scotia, the West Indies, the Mediterranean, and Turkey, after which he landed with the allied armies in the Crimea, and was present at the battles of the Alma and Inkerman, and in the siege of Sebastopol, where he was wounded and honourably mentioned in a despatch from Lord Raglan, who appointed him to the command of a brigade. On his return to England he was made a C.B., 5 July 1855, and took up his residence at Liverpool as inspecting field officer until 1859, when he became a major-general in the army. He was in the Royal regiment for the long period of thirty years. From this time onwards he never obtained any further employment, the reason being, as he fully believed, a letter which he wrote to the 'Times,' 12 Dec. 1854, complaining of the deficiencies of the commissariat in the siege of Sebastopol, and soliciting help from the people of England. On 23 Oct. 1863 he was appointed colonel of the 104th foot; he became colonel of the 32nd foot 2 Feb. 1867, and colonel of the 1st foot 3 Aug. 1868. His work, in two volumes, entitled 'Rough Notes by an Old Soldier during fifty years' service,' a gossiping and amusing account of his life and services, was published early in 1867. He was created a K.C.B. 13 March 1867; a lieutenant-general 28 Jan. 1868; and a general 8 March 1873. His death took place at 156 Westbourne Terrace, London, 10 July 1877. He had been twice married, the first time to Alicia, daughter and heiress of James Scott, of Ecclesjohn and Commiston, N.B., and secondly, in 1820, to Margaret Addison, a daughter of Thomas Dougal, of Scotland, banker.
G. C. B.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Bell, Beaupré

​BELL, BEAUPRÉ (1704–1745), antiquary, was descended from the ancient family of Beaupré, long resident in Upwell and Outwell, Norfolk, a co-heiress of whom married Robert Bell [see Bell, Robert, d. 1577], an ancestor. His father, Beaupré Bell, who married Margaret, daughter of Sir John Oldfield, of Spalding, wasted the patrimony through improvident habits and violent passions. The vicissitudes of his career may be realised from an advertisement in the 'London Gazette,' No. 7613, May 1737, from Lord Harrington, the secretary of state, setting out that the life of Beaupré Bell had been threatened, his servant shot, and his house beset several times, and promising free pardon for any one who revealed his accomplices; as a further inducement Mr. Bell added a reward of fifty pounds. The son was educated at Westminster School and at Trinity College, Cambridge, taking the degree of B.A. in 1725, M.A. in 1729. He devoted himself to the study of antiquities, taking especial pleasure in ancient coins, and, by the possession of property worth, even in its reduced state, as much as 1,500l. a year, was enabled to gratify his tastes to the utmost. He issued proposals for a work on the coins of the Roman emperors; but though the book was in a forward state long before his death, it was never published. Beaupré Bell was an active member of the Spalding Society, and several papers which he communicated to it are mentioned in the 'Reliquiæ Galeanæ' (Bibl. Topog. Britt. iii.), pp. 57-66. The same volume also contains several letters to and from him (pp. 147-490). Four of his letters on the 'Horologia of the Antients' are printed in the 'Archæologia,' vi. 133-43; two are in Nichols's 'Lit. Illustrations,' iii. 572, 582; and several others may be found in the 'Stukeley Memoirs' (Surtees Soc.) He assisted Blomefield in his history of Norfolk, and Thomas Hearne in many of his antiquarian works, and C. N. Cole's edition of Dugdale's 'Imbanking' (1772) was corrected from a copy formerly in his possession. Bell died of consumption on his road to Bath in August 1745, when the estate passed to his youngest sister, but he left his personal property of books, medals, and manuscripts to his college at Cambridge. His remains are said to have been laid in the family burying-place in St. Mary's chapel, Outwell church, but there is no entry of the burial in the parish register, nor is there any mention of his name among the members of his family commemorated in the inscriptions on the family tomb in the chapel.
[Blomefield's Norfolk, vii. 459-60 (1807); Nichols's Lit. Anecdotes, v. 278-82; Bibl. Topog. Britt. iii. p. xii; Carthew's Launditch, iii. 431-2; Stukeley Memoirs (Surtees Soc.). i. 88, 97, 275-94, 372, 427, 461-5, ii. 22-4, 280-2, 321-2.]
W. P. C.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Bell, Benjamin

​BELL, BENJAMIN (1749–1806), surgeon, son of George Bell, descended from landed proprietors of long standing in Dumfriesshire, was born at Dumfries April 1749. After education at Dumfries grammar school he was early apprenticed to Mr. James Hill, surgeon, of Dumfries; but at seventeen he was sent to the Edinburgh medical school, where the Monros, Black, and John Gregory were among his teachers. After being house-surgeon to the Royal Infirmary for about two years, he travelled on the continent, and especially studied at Paris. In August 1772 he was appointed surgeon to the Royal Infirmary, Edinburgh, which office he held for twenty-nine years. He married Grizel, daughter of Robert Hamilton, D.D., about 1775, and soon afterwards, owing to a severe accident, settled on a farm three miles south of Edinburgh, retiring from practice for a couple of years. In 1778 he became surgeon to Watson's Hospital. His first professional work, on the 'Theory and Management of Ulcers' (1779), attracted considerable attention, was translated into French and German, and reached a seventh edition in 1801. His most important work, 'A System of Surgery,' appeared in six volumes, 1782-7; it likewise reached a seventh edition in 1801, and was translated into French and German. It was a valuable work in its day, though now out of date. Bell is much to be commended for his advocacy of saving skin in every operation, a practice till then much neglected. Another of his works, 'On Hydrocele,' was published at Edinburgh in 1794. He gained a large practice, being a skilful and dexterous operator, and accumulated money, being distinguished for his calculating business habits. He also engaged considerably in agriculture, and wrote a number of essays on agriculture between 1783 and 1802, which were collected in a volume in 1802. They opposed corn laws and prognosticated great improvements in modes of ​communication. Adam Smith commended them. Bell died at Newington House, Edinburgh, 5 April 1806.
His son, George Bell (1777-1832), succeeded to his father's appointments, and was known as a first-rate operator. His grandson, Benjamin Bell (d. 1883), son of Joseph Bell, surgeon, followed the same profession, and published a memoir of his grandfather in 1868. He also edited memoirs of Robert Paul, banker (Edinburgh, 1872), and Lieutenant John Irving, of H.M.S. Terror (Edinburgh, 1881).
[Life, Character, and Writings of Benjamin Bell, by his grandson, Benjamin Bell, Edin. 1868.]
G. T. B.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Edwards, John (1714-1785)

​EDWARDS, JOHN (1714–1785), dissenting minister at Leeds, Yorkshire, was born in 1714. He published in 1758 'A Vindication of the Protestant Doctrine of Justification and its Prechers and Professors from the unjust Charge of Antinomianism; extracted from a letter of the Rev. Mr. Robt. Trail, a minister in the city of London, to a minister in the country,' his object being to testify to the world the doctrines advanced by him in his public ministry, which were laid down by Trail in this letter. In 1762 appeared 'The Safe Retreat from impending Judgments,' the substance of a sermon preached by Edwards at Leeds, a second edition of which was issued in 1773. At the end of this sermon is advertised 'The Christian Indeed,' another work by the same author. Edwards also edited 'A Collection of Hymns and Spiritual songs for the use of Serious and Devout Christians of all Denominations,' of which a second edition, 'with alterations,' was published in 1709. He died in 1785. A mezzotint portrait after J. Russell, engraved by J. Watson, is dated 1772.
[Watt's Bibl. Brit.; Brit. Mus. Cat.; Bromley's Cat. of Portraits, 390.]
A. V.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Edwards, John (1751-1832)

​EDWARDS, JOHN (1751–1832), poetical writer, the eldest son of James Edwards of Old Court, co. Wicklow, by Anne, second daughter of Thomas Tenison, a son of Archbishop Tenison, was born in 1751. He became an officer of light dragoons in the volunteer army of Ireland, and rose to the rank of lieutenant-colonel. In honour of the force to which he belonged he wrote 'The Patriot Soldier: a Poem, Nottingham, 1784, 4to, 38 pp. He also published 'Kathleen: a Ballad from Ancient Irish Tradition,' 1808, 4to; 'Abradates and Panthea; a Tragedy, 1808, 8vo; 'Interests of Ireland,' London, 1815, and an essay upon the improvement of bank-notes, Liverpool, 1620. Edwards died owner of Old Court in 1832. He married Charlotte, fifth daughter of John Wright of Nottingham, who bore him three sons and two daughters.
[Burke's Landed Gentry; Watt's Bibliotheca Brit.; Creswell's Nottingham Printing. p, 38 ]
A. V.