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

​BONNEAU, JACOB (d. 1786), painter, is supposed to have been the son of a French engraver who worked in London for the booksellers about the middle of the last century. In 1765-1778 he exhibited landscapes at the rooms of the Society of British Artists, of which body he was a member. In 1770 he exhibited at the Royal Academy ‘St. John,' a water~colour drawing, and from that year until 1781 he was occasionally represented there by drawings, generally landscapes with figures, of poetical character. His principal occupation was that of a teacher of drawing and perspective. He died at Kentish Town 18 March 1786.
[European Magazine; Exhibition Catalogies of the Society of British Artists and of the Royal Academy of Arts; Redgraves Dictionary of Artists of the English School.]
W. H-h.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Bonham, Thomas

​BONHAM, THOMAS, M.D. (d. 1629?), physician, was educated at St. John's College, Cambridge, where he graduated M.D., in which degree he was incorporated at Oxford on 9 July 1611. He practised his profession in London, and was an assistant to the Society of Medicine-Chirurgians. His death occurred about 1629. He left sundry books and papers to his servant, Edward Poeton, by whom they were methodised and published under the title of ‘The Chyrurgians Closet, or Antidotarie Chyrurgicall’ Lond. 1630, 4to. The work was dedicated by Poeton, then residing at Petworth in Sussex, to Frances, countess of Exeter.
[Addit. MSS.-5816, f. 93, 5863, f. B6; Wood's Fasti Oxon. (Bliss), i. 346]
T. C.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Bonhote, Elizabeth

​BONHOTE, ELIZABETH (1744–1818), authoress, was the wife of Daniel Bonhote, solicitor of Bungay, and captain of the 2nd company of Bungay volunteers. Her first work was published, in 1773 anonymously. It was the 'Rambles of Mr. Frankley, by his Sister,' a work describing the characters seen in a ramble in Hyde Park, and was immediately translated into German at Leipzig, 1773. About 1787 Mrs. Bonhote wrote, while in delicate health, for her children’s guidance, a series of moral essays, called the ‘Parental Monitor,’ which was published in 1788 by subscription. In 1789 two novels by Mrs. Bonhote were issued: ‘Olivia,’ 3 vols., and ‘Darnley Vale, or Emelia Fitzroy,’ 3 vols., the last reviewed in the ‘Monthly Review’ (i. 223). In 1790 Mrs. Bonhote wrote ‘Ellen Woodley,’ 2 vols. (Monthly Review, ii. 351). In 1796 there were two reprints of her ‘Parental Monitor,' one in London and ​one in Dublin. In 1797 appeared, at the Minerva Press, ‘Bungay Castle,’ 2 vols., a novel which Mrs. Bonhote was permitted to dedicate to the Duke of Norfolk. In 1804, during a residence at Bury, her husband died (Gent. Mag. vol. lxxiv. part ii. p. 1246). In 1810 she published ‘Feeling, or Sketches from Life; a Desultory Poem,’ Edinburgh. This was anonymous, and was Mrs. Bonhote’s last production. She died at Bungay in July 1818, aged 74 (Gent. Mag. vol. lxxxviii. part ii. p. 88).
[Watt’s Bibl. Brit.; Gent. Mag. vol. lxxiv. part ii. p. 1246,vol. imviii. part ii. p. 88.]
J. H.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Bonnar, William

​BONNAR, WILLIAM (1800–1853), painter, was a native of Edinburgh, and son of a respectable house-painter. After the usual precocious evidences of talent he was apprenticed to one of the leading decorative painters of his time, and ultimately became foreman of the establishment On the occasion of George IV's visit to Edinburgh in 1822 Bonnar helped Mr. D. Roberts to decorate the assembly rooms for a state ball. A little while after some sign-boards which he had painted caught the attention of Captain Basil Hall, who sought out and encouraged the young painter. A picture called ‘The Tinkers,' exhibited in 1824 at Waterloo Place, was received with much favour by the public. Shortly after the foundation of the Royal Scottish Academy Bonnar was made a member, and remained until his death ‘one of its most consistent, independent, and useful members.’
Bonnar painted many pictures, of which a large number became popular when engraved. Among these may be mentioned ‘The Strayed Children,’ ‘Peden at the Grave of Cameron,’ ​'The Benefactress; or, the Duchess of Bucclough visiting the Widow and the Orphan,’ ‘The First Sermon of John Knox, in the Castle of St. Andrews,’ and ‘Robert Bruce watching the efforts of the Spider.’ In rural scenes and pictures of child life, as well as in humorous pieces, Bonnar was thought to he particularly successful. As examples in these styles may be mentioned ‘The Orphans,’ ‘The School-door,’ ‘The New Dress,’ ‘The Evening Prayer,' ‘The Blessing,’ ‘The Gentle Shepherd,’ ‘The Cottar’s Saturday Night,’ ‘Barney Kilmeny,’ ‘The Forsaken,’ ‘Dugald Dalgetty and the Duke of Argyle,’ and ‘Caleb Balderstone burnishing the Pewter Flagon.’ The last two evince ‘a strong sense of the ludicrous, and attest the versatility of his powers.’ In his latter years Bonner was engaged chiefly in painting portraits, many of which were engraved by his sons. ‘In private life Mr. Bonnar was amiable and kind, in manner he was singularly modest and unobtrusive, and these qualities, together with his straightforward honesty and fearless independence, rendered him a useful and favourite member of the Scottish Academy.’ He died in London Street, Edinburgh, on 27 Jan. 1853.
[Art Journal, March 1853; Scotsman, 2 Feb. 1853; Redgrave, Dictionary of Artists of the English School.]
E. R.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Hamilton, James (1749-1835)

​HAMILTON, JAMES, the elder (1749–1835), physician, son of Robert Hamilton (d. 1787), professor of divinity at Edinburgh, was born at Edinburgh in 1749, and studied medicine there and on the continent. He early became physician to the Royal Infirmary, to George Heriot's Hospital, and other hospitals in Edinburgh, and had a large practice. He died at Edinburgh on 27 Oct. 1835. For many years he was a picturesque figure in the city, retaining very old-fashioned manners and dress; he is said to have been the last person who wore the three-cornered cocked hat. He was most noted for his work entitled 'Observations on the Utility and Administration of Purgative Medicines,' 1805; 8th edit. 1826. Numerous American editions were also published, and it was translated into Italian, German, and French. Hamilton was thoroughly old-fashioned in his treatment, believing in free blood-letting and profuse purging, and in strong mercurial treatment for syphilis. He was very jocular, kind-hearted, and athletic. There are amusing accounts of him in the 'Lives' of Sir Astley Cooper and Sir R. Christison, and in Kay's 'Edinburgh Portraits.' Till lately the works of three James Hamiltons were catalogued as by one man in the 'British Museum Catalogue:' (1) the above-mentioned, always known as James Hamilton, senior; (2) James Hamilton, junior [q. v.], who lived next door to him in St. Andrew's Square, Edinburgh; and (3) James Hamilton, M.D. (1740-1827), successively of Dunbar, Edinburgh, Leeds, and London, a friend of John Wesley, who is depicted with him in a well-known print by Kay.
[Gent. Mag. 1836, i. 102; W. Newbigging, Harveian Oration, Edinburgh, 1838; Life of Sir Astley Cooper, i. 164, 165; Life of Sir R. Christison, i. 140, 141; Sir A. Grant's Story of Edinburgh Univ.; Old and New Edinburgh, ii. 139, 168, 301; Dechambre's Dict. Encycl. des Sciences Medicales, 4th ser. vol. xii.]
G. T. B.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Hamilton, James (1656-1734)

Also includes w:James Hamilton, 7th Earl of Abercorn
​HAMILTON, JAMES, sixth Earl of Abercorn (1656–1734), was eldest son of James Hamilton, by Elizabeth, daughter of John, lord Colepeper [q. v.], and grandson of Sir George Hamilton of Dunalong [see under Hamilton, James, first Earl of Abercorn]. He was groom of the bedchamber to Charles II, and in the following reign commanded a regiment of horse. At the Revolution he sided against King James, and in February 1688-9 was sent to Ireland to assist in the defence of Londonderry (Hist. MSS. Comm. 12th Rep. App. pt. vi. 162-73). He had refused to assume the title of baronet on his grandfather's death in 1679, but in 1701, on the death of his cousin Charles, fifth earl, he became Earl of Abercorn; on 9 Sept. 1701 he was created Viscount Strabane in the Irish peerage. As a Scottish peer he steadily supported the union in 1706. He was a privy councillor in the reigns of Anne, George I, and George II. He died 28 Nov. 1734, and was buried in Henry VII's chapel in Westminster Abbey. By his wife Elizabeth, daughter and heiress of Sir Robert Reading, bart., of Dublin, he had nine sons and four daughters.
Hamilton, James, seventh Earl of Abercorn (d. 1744), the second son, succeeded his father. He was sworn a member of the privy council of England 20 July 1738, and of that of Ireland 26 Sept. of the following year. He died in Cavendish Square, London, 13 July 1744, and was buried in the Duke of Ormonde's vault in Westminster Abbey on 17 Jan. following. By his wife Anne, daughter of Colonel Plumer of Blakesweare, Hertfordshire, he had six sons and a daughter. His two eldest sons, James, eighth earl, and John (d. 1755), are separately noticed. Abercorn devoted considerable atten- tion to scientific pursuits, and was a fellow of the Royal Society of London. He was the author of 'Calculations and Tables relating to the Attractive Power of Loadstones,' 1729, published under the initials 'J. H.' Walpole, in his 'Royal and Noble Authors,' wrongly attributed the work to the sixth earl, but the error was corrected by Park, who points out that in 'Bibl. Westiana ' it is entered under the name of Lord Paisley. In the 'British Museum Catalogue' Abercorn is also credited with being the joint author along with Dr. Pepusch of a 'Treatise on Harmony, containing the Chief Rules for Composing in Two, Three, and Four Parts,' 1730; 2nd ed. 1731.
T. F. H.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Hamilton, James (1610-1674)

​HAMILTON, JAMES (1610–1674), bishop of Galloway, was the second son of Sir James Hamilton of Broomhill, by Margaret, daughter of William Hamilton of Udston, and brother of John, first lord Belhaven. He was born at Broomhill in 1610, studied at the university of Glasgow, graduated there in 1628, and in 1634 was ordained as minister of Cambusnethan by Archbishop Lindsay. He was deposed by the synod of Glasgow in April 1639 for signing the protestation of the bishops and their adherents against the assembly of 1638, but on professing penitence was restored by the assembly of 1639. The committee, to whom his case was referred, reported that 'he was a young man of good behaviour, and well beloved of his parish, and guilty of nothing directly but the subscribing of the declinature.' After this he went with the times. Bishop Burnet says: 'He was always believed episcopal. Yet he had so far complied in the time of the covenant, that he affected a peculiar expression of his counterfeit zeal for their cause, to secure him- self from suspicion; when he gave the sacrament, he excommunicated all that were not true to the covenant, using a form in the Old Testament of shaking out the lap of his gown; saying so did he cast out of the church and communion all that dealt falsely in the covenant.' In 1648 he supported the 'Engagement,' and was urged by his kinsman the Duke of Hamilton to accept a chaplaincy in the army raised for the rescue of the king. At the Restoration he was rewarded by a grant of money and the bishopric of Galloway, and along with Sharp, Leighton, and Fair- foul was consecrated at Westminster 15 Dec. 1661. Galloway was a stronghold of the extreme covenanters. Many of the ministers refused to submit to episcopacy, and when de- prived held field meetings, which were largely attended by their old flocks. At the request of the bishop and his clergy, whose ranks had been recruited from the north, soldiers were quartered on the frequenters of conventicles to compel their attendance at church, and there appears to be good authority for the statement that Sir James Turner, the officer in command, 'was obliged to go beyond his instructions to satisfy the bishop.' Hamilton acquired the estate of Broomhill in 1669 from his brother, who had been raised to the peerage, and died in August 1674. Burnet describes him as 'a good-natured man, but weak.' Wodrow says : 'His gifts were reckoned every way ordinary, but he was remarkable for his cunning and time-serving temper; ' while one of his grandsons describes him as 'mighty well seen in divinity, accurate in the fathers and church history . . . very pious and chari​table, strict in his morals . . . and every way worthy of the sacred character he bore.' In 1635 he married Margaret, only daughter of Alexander Thomson, one of the ministers of Edinburgh, and had two sons and four daughters.
G. W. S.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Hamilton, James (1712-1789)

​HAMILTON, JAMES, eighth Earl of Abercorn (1712–1789), eldest son of James, seventh earl [see under Hamilton, James, sixth Earl of Abercorn], by Anne, daughter of Colonel John Plumer of Blakesweare, Hertfordshire, was born on 22 Oct. 1712. On 23 March 1736 he was summoned to the House of Peers in Ireland as Baron Mountcastle. He succeeded his father as Earl of Abercorn and Viscount Strabane in 1744, and in 1761 and subsequent general elections, including that of 1784, was chosen one of the sixteen Scottish representative peers. He opposed the bill to repeal the American Stamp Act in 1766, and voted for the rejection of Fox's India Bill in 1783. He was created a peer of Great Britain on 8 Aug. 1786 by the title of Viscount Hamilton, with remainder to John James Hamilton, son of his brother John Hamilton (d. 1755) [q.v.] No new election of Scottish representative peers having been ordered in the room of him and the Duke of Lauderdale, who had been also on the same occasion created a British peer, a committee of privileges finally decided on 13 Feb. 1787 that, having been created British peers, they had ceased to sit as representatives of the peerage of Scotland. In 1745 Abercorn purchased from the Duke of Argyll ​the barony of Duddingston, where he built a mansion for his residence; but when, in 1764, he acquired from Thomas, eighth earl of Dundonald, the lordship of Paisley, previously held by his ancestors, he made Paisley his principal residence. In 1781 he feued out that portion of the lands of the abbey of Paisley which remained unbuilt on, thus founding the 'new town' of Paisley. He possessed a large estate in Ireland, where he built the mansion of Baronscourt, near Londonderry, and he had also a seat at Witham, Essex, where he entertained Queen Charlotte in September 1761. He died, unmarried, at Boroughbridge on 9 Oct. 1789, and was buried in the abbey of Paisley, in a vault beneath St. Mirren's Chapel. He was succeeded by his nephew John James, afterwards first marquis of Abercorn.
[Lee's Abbey of Paisley, 1878; Semple's Hist. of Renfrewshire; Douglas's Scottish Peerage, ed. Wood, i. 12.]
T. F. H.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Hamilton, Anne (1766-1846)

​HAMILTON, Lady ANNE (1766–1846), friend of Queen Caroline, George IV's wife, was eldest daughter of Archibald, ninth duke of Hamilton and sixth of Brandon, by Lady Harriet Stewart, fifth daughter of the sixth Earl of Galloway. Lord Archibald Hamilton [q. v.], political reformer, was her brother. She was born on 16 March 1766, and became lady-in-waiting to Caroline, princess of Wales. She held this position till the princess's foreign journey in 1813. She met Queen Caroline at Montbard on her return to England in 1820, and entered London in the same carriage with her. Afterwards Queen Caroline took up her residence with her in Portman Street, Portman Square. On the abandonment of the Pains and Penalties Bill the queen, accompanied by Lady Anne, went to Hammersmith Church to receive the sacrament. Lady Anne also walked on the queen's right in the procession to St. Paul's on 30 Nov. to return thanks for her acquittal. The queen died at Hammersmith on 7 Aug. 1821, and Lady Anne accompanied the body to Brunswick, and was present when it was laid in the royal vault there on 26 Aug. The only legacy left her by the queen was a picture of herself. On the death of William, fourth duke of Queensberry, in 1810, Lady Anne received a legacy of 10,000l.; but she presented this to her brother, Lord Archibald Hamilton, and her circumstances during her later years were by no means affluent. She died on 10 Oct. 1846 in White Lion Street, Islington, and was buried in Kensal Green cemetery. A person who had gained the confidence of Lady Anne, and obtained from her a variety of private information, published, without her knowledge and much to her regret and indignation, a volume purporting to be written by her, entitled 'Secret History of the Court of England from the Accession of George III to the Death of George IV,' London, 1832. A reprint appeared in 1878.
[Gent. Mag. new ser. 1846, pt. ii. pp. 552, 661; Memoirs of Queen Caroline, severally by Nightingale, Adolphus, and Clerke.]
T. F. H.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Hamilton, Alexander (1739-1802)

​HAMILTON, ALEXANDER (1739–1802), professor of midwifery in Edinburgh University, was born in 1739 at Fordoun, Kincardineshire, where his father, a retired army surgeon, practised. In 1758 he became assistant to John Straiton, surgeon, of Edinburgh; on his master's death in 1762 he was admitted member of the Edinburgh College of Surgeons, and commenced to practise. He afterwards obtained a medical degree, and was admitted a licentiate, and subsequently fellow, of the Edinburgh College of Physicians. In 1777, as deacon of the Edinburgh College of Surgeons, he made a strenuous effort to get surgery taught in the university by a separate professor, but failed, owing to the opposition of Monro secundus. After lecturing on midwifery with success for some years, he was in 1780 appointed joint professor of midwifery in the university of Edinburgh with Dr. Thomas Young, and sole professor in 1783 on Young's death. Through his exertions the Lying-in Hospital was established in 1791. He was a successful practitioner and writer on midwifery. [For details respecting the accusation made by Dr. James Gregory in 1792 that Hamilton was the author of a pamphlet on the ‘Study of Medicine in Edinburgh University,’ which Hamilton denied, see Gregory, James (1753–1821) and Hamilton, James, jun. (d. 1839).] ​Hamilton resigned his professorship in 1800, and died on 23 May 1802. His sons James (d. 1839) and Henry Parr are separately noticed.
Hamilton wrote:
* 'Elements of the Practice of Midwifery,' London, 1775.
* 'A Treatise of Midwifery, comprehending the whole Management of Female Complaints and Treatment of Children in early Infancy,' Edinburgh, 1780; translated into German by J.P. Ebeling.
* 'Outlines of the Theory and Practice of Midwifery,' Edinburgh, 1784; 5th edit. 1803.
* 'Smellie's Anatomical Tables; with Abridgment of the Practice of Midwifery,' revised, with notes and illustrations, Edinburgh, 1786.
* 'Treatise on the Management of Female Complaints, and of Children in Early Infancy,' Edinburgh, 1792; 7th edit, revised by James Hamilton the younger, 1813; French translation, 1798.
* 'Letter to Dr. William Osborn on certain Doctrines contained in his Essays on the Practice of Midwifery,' Edinburgh, 1792.
[Anderson's Scottish Nation, ii. 446; Prof. A. R. Simpson's Lecture on the Hist. of the Chair of Midwifery, 1883; Kay's Edinburgh Portraits; J. Gairdner on Hist. of Medical Profession in Edinburgh (Edinburgh Med. Jour.), 1862, p. 700; Grant's Story of Edinburgh University, i. 322, ii. 416.]
G. T. B.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Hamilton, Alexander (1762-1824)

​HAMILTON, ALEXANDER (1762–1824), orientalist, was in the employment of the East India Company in Bengal, and was a member of the Asiatic Society of Calcutta. On his return to England he continued his Sanscrit studies, first at the British Museum, and after the peace of Amiens at the Paris library. On the recommencement of hostilities he was among the British subjects detained as hostages. Regarded as the only man on the continent with a thorough mastery of Sanscrit, he taught that language to Frederic Schlegel and Fauriel. At the request of Langlès, keeper of oriental manuscripts at the Paris Library, he drew up an analytical catalogue of its Sanscrit manuscripts, which till then had been catalogued only by librarians ignorant of the language. This was translated, annotated, and published by Langlès in the 'Magasin Encyclopédique,' 1807. Released probably on account of this service, Hamilton, who in 1808 was elected a F.R.S., became professor of Sanscrit and Hindoo literature at Haileybury College. He published 'The Hitopadesa in the Sanscrit Language,' London, 1811; 'Terms of Sanscrit Grammar,' London, 1815; and 'A Key to the Chronology of the Hindus,' 1820. He also wrote magazine articles on ancient Indian geography. He died at Liverpool 30 Dec. 1824.
[Gent. Mag. 1825; Journal Asiatique, Paris, 1825; Académic des Inscriptions, notices of Fauriel and Chézy; Moniteur, 31 May and 25 June 1808.]
J. G. A.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Hamilton, Alexander (d.1732?)

1904 Errata appended.
​HAMILTON, ALEXANDER (d. 1732), merchant and author, describes himself as ‘having a rambling mind and a fortune too narrow to allow him to travel like a gentleman.’ He therefore ‘applied himself to the study of nautical affairs,’ and having spent his younger days ‘in visiting most of the maritime kingdoms of Europe and some parts of Barbary,’ and having made a voyage to Jamaica, he went out to the East Indies in 1688, and remained there till 1723. During this time he seems to have followed a life of commercial adventure, sometimes as captain of a ship, sometimes as supercargo, sometimes in a ship of his own, or in one privately owned, sometimes in a ship of one or other of the rival companies, and so to have visited almost every port, from Jeddah in the Red Sea to Amoy in China. His adventures and experiences are told in a most interesting manner in his ‘New Account of the East Indies’ (2 vols. 8vo, 1727; 2nd edit. 2 vols. 8vo, 1744), a work which, in the charm of its naïve simplicity, perfect honesty, with some similarity of subject in its account of the manners and history of people little known, offers a closer parallel to the history of Herodotus than perhaps any other in modern literature. Its historical value must, however, be weighted with his distinct confession that ‘these observations have been mostly from the storehouse of my memory, and are the amusements or lucubrations of the nights of two long winters;’ and again, that ‘If I had thought while I was in India of making my observations or remarks public and to have had the honour of presenting them to so noble a patron’—as the Duke of Hamilton, to whom the work is dedicated—‘I had certainly been more careful and curious in my collections, and of keeping memorandums to have made the work more complete.’ As these reminiscences extend over five-and-thirty years, they may well be occasionally untrustworthy; still, as a seaman, we may suppose that he had his journals, or, as a merchant, his trade memoranda, which would to some extent keep him straight. Of his honesty and of his truthfulness, within the limits of his memory and observation, it is impossible to doubt. He returned to England in 1723, seems to have spent a considerable part of 1724 in Holland, presumably settling his business affairs, and the two following years in writing and arranging his ‘lucubrations.’ He describes himself as having ‘brought back a charm that can keep out the meagre devil, poverty, from entering into my house, and so I have got holy Agur's wish in Prov. xxx. 8.’ A ‘Captain Alexander Hamilton’ died 7 Oct. 1732 (Gent. Mag. 1732, p. 1030).
J. K. L.
Dictionary of National Biography, Errata (1904), p.146 N.B.— f.e. stands for from end and l.l. for last line
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