OpenLLM-France/wikimedia huggingface dataset:
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Pye, Thomas (1560-1610)

​PYE, THOMAS (1560–1610), divine, the son of Richard Pye of Darlaston, Staffordshire, was born there in March 1560. Matriculating at Balliol College, Oxford, on 20 Dec. 1577, he became chaplain of Merton College in 1581, B.D. on 21 June 1585, and D.D. on 4 July 1588. He was appointed rector of Earnley-with-Almodington, Sussex, and canon of Chichester in 1586, and vicar and schoolmaster of Bexhill, Sussex, in 1589. In 1606 he rebuilt the tower of Darlaston church. He died at Bexhill early in 1610. By his will, dated 20 Dec. 1609, and proved ​on 20 March 1610, he directed that he should be buried in the school-house lately repaired and paved by him, and bequeathed a sum of money to the poor of Brightling, near Battle, Sussex. He was ‘accounted an eminent linguist, excellent in sacred chronology, in ecclesiastical histories, and polemical divinity’ (Wood).
Pye published: 1. ‘A Computation from the Beginning of Time to Christ by Ten Articles,’ London, 1597, 4to. 2. ‘A Confirmation of the same for the times controverted before Christ; As also that there wanteth a year after Christ in the usual Computation,’ printed with the above, and both afterwards issued with the title ‘An Hour Glass.’ 3. ‘Epistola ad ornatiss. virum D. Johan. Howsonum S.T.D. Acad. Oxon., Procancellarium, qua Dogma ejus novum et admirabile de Judæorum divortiis refutatur, et suus S.S. Scripturæ nativus sensus ab ejus glossematis vindicatur,’ London, 1603, 4to. 4. ‘Usury's Spright conjured; or a Scholasticall Determination of Usury,’ London, 1604, 4to. 5. ‘Answer to a Treatise written in Defence of Usury,’ London, 1604. Wood also mentions a manuscript ‘Epistola responsoria ad clariss. virum, D. Alb. Gentilem.’
W. A. S. H.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Simwnt Fychan

​SIMWNT FYCHAN, i.e. Simon the Little (1530?–1606), Welsh bard, was born about 1530, and lived on his own land at Tybrith, near Ruthin, Denbighshire. He was a pupil of Gruffydd Hiraethog [q. v.], and received the degree of ‘pencerdd’ at the Caerwys eisteddfod of 1568 (for the certificate see the London ‘Greal,’ p. 278). Four of his poems, which commemorate the virtues of various Denbighshire gentlemen, are printed in Williams's ‘Records of Denbigh.’ He was best known, however, for his knowledge of the technicalities of the bardic art. Shortly before the Caerwys eisteddfod he wrote for Pierce Mostyn of Talacre an account of the system, illustrated by means of an ‘awdl’ containing specimens of each of the ‘twenty-four metres.’ This treatise was probably the ‘Pum Llyfr Cerddwriaeth’ printed by Ab Ithel as the work of Simwnt Fychan in ‘Dosbarth Edeyrn Dafod Aur;’ portions of it have also appeared in ‘Cyfrinach y Beirdd.’ According to a manuscript in the possession of the late Gweirydd ap Rhys, the work was composed in 1565. There are important differences between the text of this and that of Ab Ithel. Lewis Dwnn mentions Simwnt Fychan among the older antiquaries who had given him assistance in his heraldic researches (Heraldic Visitations, i. 7). He died in April 1606.
[Hanes Llenyddiaeth Gymreig, by Gweirydd ap Rhys; Pennant's Tours in Wales, ii. 93; Cyfrinach y Beirdd.]
J. E. L.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Sinclair, Catherine

​SINCLAIR, CATHERINE (1800–1864), novelist, fourth daughter of Sir John Sinclair (1754–1835) [q. v.] by his second wife, Diana, daughter of Alexander, lord Macdonald, was born in Edinburgh on 17 April 1800. Sir George Sinclair [q. v.], John Sinclair (1797–1875) [q. v.], and William Sinclair (1804–1878) [q. v.] were her brothers. She was her father's secretary from the age of fourteen till his death in 1835. She then began independent authorship, her first works being children's books, prompted by interest in her nephew, the Hon. G. F. Boyle, son of the Earl of Glasgow. Miss Sinclair's great and varied activity found scope in Edinburgh in philanthropic exertions, in practical support of the volunteer movement, in the establishment of cooking depots in old and new Edinburgh, and in the maintenance of a mission station at the Water of Leith. She was instrumental in securing seats for crowded thoroughfares, and she set the example in Edinburgh of instituting drinking fountains, one of which bears her name. She died at the vicarage, Kensington, the residence of her brother, Archdeacon John Sinclair on 6 Aug. 1864, and was interred in the burying-ground of St. John's Episcopal Church, Edinburgh. Her portrait was drawn in crayons by James Archer, R.S.A. (cf. Cat. Third Loan Exhib. No. 620).
Miss Sinclair wrote brightly and wittily, and displayed much skill in characterisation and description. Several of her books were popular in America. Undated and early works of Miss Sinclair's are: ‘Charlie Seymour;’ ‘Lives of the Cæsars, or the Juvenile Plutarch;’ ‘Holiday House’ (once very popular with children); ‘Modern Superstition;’ and ‘Memoirs of the English Bible.’ Her other principal works are: 1. ‘Modern Accomplishments, or the March of Intellect,’ a study of female education, 1836. 2. ‘Shetland and the Shetlanders, or the Northern Circuit,’ 1840. 3. ‘Scotland and the Scotch, or the Western Circuit,’ 1840 (republished in America, and translated into various languages). 4. ‘Modern Flirtations, or a Month at Harrowgate’ [sic], 1841. 5. ‘Scotch Courtiers and the Court,’ 1842. 6. ‘Jane Bouverie, or Prosperity and Adversity,’ 1846. 7. ‘The Journey of Life,’ 1847. 8. ‘The Business of Life,’ 1848. 9. ‘Sir Edward Graham, or Railway Speculators,’ 1849. 10. ‘Lord and Lady Harcourt, or County Hospitalities,’ 1850. 11. ‘The Kaleidoscope, or Anecdotes and Aphorisms,’ 1851. 12. ‘Beatrice, or the Unknown Relatives,’ 1852. 13. ‘Popish Legends, or Bible Truths,’ 1852. 14. ‘London Homes,’ 1853. 15. ‘Cross Purposes,’ 1853. 16. ‘The Cabman's Holiday,’ 1855. 17. ‘Torchester Abbey,’ 1857. 18. ‘Anecdotes of the Cæsars,’ 1858. 19. ‘Sketches and Short Stories of Scotland and the Scotch, and Shetland and the Shetlanders,’ 1859. 20. ‘Sketches and Short Stories of Wales and the Welsh,’ 1860.
[Scotsman, 7 Aug. 1864; Gent. Mag. 1864, ii. 654; Archdeacon Sinclair's Memoir of Sir John Sinclair; Anderson's Scottish Nation; information from Mr. Cuninghame Steele, advocate, Edinburgh.]
T. B.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Simson, Thomas

​SIMSON, THOMAS (1696–1764), professor of medicine at St. Andrews, born in 1696 at Kirktonhall in the parish of West Kilbride, Ayrshire, was third son of John Simson of Kirktonhall, by his wife Agnes, daughter of Patrick Simson, minister of Renfrew. Robert Simson [q. v.], the mathematical professor, was his brother. In 1721 James Brydges, duke of Chandos, established a medical professorship in the university of St. Andrews, and on 10 Jan. 1722 Simson was admitted as its first incumbent. He held the chair until his death. In 1744 he was elected an honorary fellow of the Royal College of Physicians at Edinburgh (Charter and Regulations of the Royal College of Physicians, p. 95). He died on 30 April 1764 at St. Andrews.
About 1724 he married a daughter of Sir John Preston of Prestonhall, Fife, who was deprived of his estates in 1715. By her he had four sons and two daughters; of the former, James was professor of medicine at St. Andrews in succession to his father from 1764 to 1770. He was the author of: 1. ‘De re Medica,’ Edinburgh, 1726, 8vo. 2. ‘De Erroribus circa Materiam Medicam,’ 1726, 8vo. 3. ‘System of the Womb,’ London, 1729, 8vo. 4. ‘Enquiry on the Vital and Animal Actions,’ 1752, 8vo.
E. I. C.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Simson, William

​SIMSON, WILLIAM (1800–1847), Scottish painter, second son of Alexander Simson, merchant, was born at Dundee in 1800. His father was admitted a burgess of Dundee in 1792, and, though engaged in commerce, was deeply interested in art. Three of his sons became artists: George (1791–1862), a portrait- and landscape-painter, who became a member of the Royal Scottish Aca​demy; William, the subject of this notice; and David (1803–1874), a successful landscape-painter and lithographer.
William began his art education in 1818 under Andrew Wilson (1780–1848), master of the Trustees' Academy at Edinburgh. Among his fellow students were Robert Scott Lauder [q. v.] and David Octavius Hill [q. v.], and Simson soon took a prominent place among them. His early works were local landscapes and sea-pieces, but the success of his elder brother George as a portrait-painter led him to follow temporarily that branch of art. Simson was one of those who helped to create the Scottish (afterwards the Royal Scottish) Academy in 1830. In that year he exhibited his ‘Shooting Party Regaling’—chiefly portraits—at the Royal Academy, London, and from that time till the year of his death (with the exception of 1833–35–36) he was a regular exhibitor there. In 1831 he began to exhibit at the Scottish Academy, and he sent in all seventy-two pictures to its exhibitions. In 1835 Simson studied in Italy. His work there led to his composition, ‘Cimabue and Giotto,’ which was exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1838 (Athenæum, 1838, p. 363), and purchased by Sir Robert Peel for 150 guineas. Simson returned to London in 1838, and settled at 91 Dean Street, Soho, afterwards removing to 12 Sloane Street. He exhibited regularly at the British Institution as well as at the Royal Academy. His subjects were now principally historical, but he still essayed landscape. He died at Sloane Street on 29 Aug. 1847.
Simson's most important works were: ‘Columbus at the Door of the Convent of La Rabida’ (exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1839); ‘The Temptation of St. Anthony’ (at the Scottish Academy, 1844); ‘Baronial Retainers,’ and ‘Salvator Rosa's first Cartoon on the Wall of the Certosa’ (at the Royal Academy, 1844). Others of his historical and genre pieces were ‘Don Quixote studying the Books of Chivalry’ (1832), ‘Prince Charles Edward reading a Despatch at Holyrood’ (1834), ‘Prince Charles Edward at the Battle of Preston’ (1834), ‘The Murder of the Princes in the Tower’ (1838), and ‘Alfred dividing his Last Loaf with a Pilgrim’ (1842). Several of his best landscapes dealt with the Roman Campagna and its population of shepherds and goatherds. Seven of his pictures are in the Scottish National Gallery.
[Lamb's Dundee, its Quaint and Historic Buildings; Brydall's Hist. of Art in Scotland, p. 465; Catalogues of Royal Academy and Scottish Academy, 1830–49; Bryan's Dict. of Painters and Engravers; local information.]
A. H. M.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Sinclair, Andrew

​SINCLAIR, ANDREW (d. 1861), surgeon and naturalist, a native of Paisley, entered the navy as an assistant surgeon about 1824, became a surgeon in 1829, and in 1834 was attached to H.M.S. Sulphur on a surveying expedition to the South American coast, under the command of Captain Frederick William Beechey [q. v.], and afterwards of Sir Edward Belcher [q. v.] Sinclair then first took to natural history, collecting plants in 1837 and 1838 in Mexico and Central America. In 1842 he was appointed surgeon to a convict ship, and had opportunities of collecting at several Australian ports. He spent some weeks in New Zealand with Dr. (now Sir Joseph) Hooker, then naturalist to the antarctic expedition, and in 1843 accompanied Captain Robert (afterwards Admiral) Fitzroy [q. v.] as private secretary, when Fitzroy became governor of New Zealand. On 6 Jan. 1844 Sinclair was made colonial secretary in New Zealand, and served as such under Captain (afterwards Sir George) Grey (1848–1855) and Colonel Gore Brown. On the establishment of parliamentary government in May 1856 he retired on a pension, but ​returned to New Zealand in 1859 to collect in the Middle and South Islands material for a supplement to Hooker's ‘Flora.’ He made arrangements with Sir John Francis Julius von Haast [q. v.] to explore Mount Cook, but was drowned on 26 March 1861 in endeavouring to cross on foot the river Rangitata when it was swollen by flood. Sinclair was unmarried. His zoological specimens, chiefly sponges and zoophytes, were mostly presented to the British Museum, and his plants to Sir W. J. Hooker, who commemorated him in the tropical American genus of Compositæ, Sinclairia, now merged in Liabum. His plants were mainly described in Hooker and Arnott's ‘Botany of Beechey's Voyage’ and Bentham's ‘Botany of the Voyage of the Sulphur.’ Sinclair became a fellow of the Linnean Society in 1857.
He contributed ‘Remarks on Physalia pelagica’ to the ‘Tasmanian Journal of Natural Science,’ vol. i. (1842), and a letter ‘On the Vegetation of Auckland’ to Hooker's ‘Journal of Botany,’ vol. iii. 1851.
[Gardener's Chronicle, 1861, p. 773; Proceedings of the Linnean Society, 1861–2, p. xcv; Mennell's Australasian Biography.]
G. S. B.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/La Mothe, Claude Grostête de

​LA MOTHE, CLAUDE GROSTÊTE de (1647–1713), theologian, was born at Orleans in 1647, and was the son of Jacques Grostête de la Buffière, a member of the Paris bar, and an elder of the protestant church at Charenton. He assumed, according to custom, the name of one of his father's estates. He graduated in law at Orleans University 1664, and in the following year joined the Paris bar; but in 1676, having abandoned law for theology, he became protestant pastor at Lizy, near Melun. In 1682 he accepted a call to Rouen, but returned to Lizy on finding that no successor could be obtained, and was secretary of the provincial synod held there. On the revocation of the edict of Nantes in 1685, he sought refuge in London with his wife. Marie Berthe, daughter of a Paris banker, was naturalised in 1668, and was minister first of the Swallow Street, and then, from 1694 till his death, of the Savoy Church. In 1712 he was elected a member of the Berlin Royal Society; in 1713 he collected subscriptions in England for the Huguenots released from the French galleys; and he died in London 30 Sept. 1713. La Mothe's father abjured protestantism, and his brother, Marin des Mahis, an ex-pastor become a canon of Orleans. La Mothe published 'Two Discourses relating to the Divinity of our Saviour,' London, 1693, 'The Inspiration of the New Testament asserted and explained,' London, 1694, and several treatises in French, one of them in defence of the Camisard prophets.
[Biography prefixed to his Sermons sur divers Textes, Amsterdam, 1715; Agnew's Prot. Exiles from France, 3rd edit. London, 1886; Haag's La France Protestante, Paris, 1855; Encyc. des Sciences Religieuses, v. 749, Paris. 1878.]
J. G. A.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/L'Estrange, John

​L'ESTRANGE, JOHN (1836–1877), Norfolk antiquary, born at Norwich on 18 Jan. 1836, became a clerk in the stamp office at Norwich, and, though much tied by his occupation there, found time to make very large collections for the history of the county of Norfolk and the city of Norwich. He died, at the comparatively early age of forty-one, on 13 Oct. 1877, and was buried in the ​Norwich cemetery. He was a Roman catholic. He married, on 4 June 1858, Mary Maris of Bacton, Norfolk. He left six children, three of whom have since died.
Most of L'Estrange's manuscripts passed on his death into the collection of the present writer. Among them may be named ‘A List of the Freemen and Apprentices of Norwich from Edward IV to Edward VI,’ containing many thousand names, which has been published since his death, edited by the writer of this notice (1888). He also made voluminous extracts from the court books of the city of Norwich and the book of St. George's guild, and transcribed no less than four of the early churchwardens' books of the city of Norwich. His most useful work, however, is found in his collections from the wills at the Norwich registry, now bound in four volumes fol.: they throw immense light on the history of the fabric of the Norfolk churches and the lives of their incumbents. He was editor of the ‘Eastern Counties Collectanea,’ which he conducted with success for twenty-four numbers (Jan. 1872 to Dec. 1873), but his only published work was one on ‘The Church Bells of Norfolk,’ Norwich, 1874, which for erudition, ability, and research is certainly unequalled by any other book on campanology.
[Personal information.]
W. R.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/La Cloche, James

​LA CLOCHE, JAMES (fl. 1668), natural son of Charles II, was born in Jersey in 1647, when his father was just seventeen. According to Charles, the boy's mother was ‘a young lady of one of the noblest families in his dominions.’ Her name is unknown. He was brought up as a protestant in France and Holland. In 1665 he was removed secretly to London; but his equivocal position caused him much disquietude there, and he returned of his own accord to the continent in 1667. He carried with him a formal acknowledgment of his parentage, signed and sealed by the king on 27 Sept. 1665, and a deed of settlement, dated 7 Feb. 1667, assigning to him a pension of 500l. In the first document Charles writes of him as ‘our natural son James Stuart,’ and states that he has borne various feigned names, and was now to take that of ‘De La Cloche du Bourg de Jersey.’ A few months afterwards he was received into the Roman catholic church at Hamburg, under the auspices, it would seem, of Queen Christina of Sweden, and in the latter part of the same year he entered the novitiate of the Jesuit Society at Rome under the name of James La Cloche, apparently with the knowledge and approval of Charles. In August 1668 the king, in search of some secret means of entering into communication with Rome, ​wrote to the general of the jesuits, F. Oliva, requesting that La Cloche should be sent to him in London. At the same time he sent a letter to La Cloche to the same effect (Giuseppe Boero, Istoria della Conversione alla Chiesa Cattolica di Carlo II, 1863). La Cloche set out in October, travelling under the name of Henri de Rohan. Arrived in London, he obtained, in pursuit of the king's instructions, audience of the queen and the queen-mother, and was by them secretly brought to his father. No details of La Cloche's mission are accessible. The last of the king's letters to Oliva is dated 18 Nov., and suggests that some important determination had been arrived at. La Cloche finally returned to Rome as his father's ‘secret ambassador to the father-general,’ charged with commissions only to be explained orally, and with a stipulation that so soon as he had fulfilled them he was to return to England.
Further notice of La Cloche is wanting. Probably owing to the repeated change of name, his later career cannot be traced in the registers of the society, but he doubtless continued a member until his death. Boero is of opinion that after his return to England he remained there under an assumed name, that he continued secretly to visit his father at intervals, and that he was, in fact, the ‘foreign ecclesiastic’ who was sent for by the Duke of York, but who ‘could not be found,’ in the last illness of the king.
[Gent. Mag. 1866, i. 26–8, 226–7, 531; Boero's Istoria della Conversione … di Carlo II, 1863.]
G. G.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/La Touche, William George Digges

1904 Errata appended.
​LA TOUCHE, WILLIAM GEORGE DIGGES (1746–1803), resident at Bassorah, eldest son of James Digges La Touche by his second wife, Matilda, daughter of William Thwaites, was born 28 Aug. 1746. David Digues La Touche (1671–1745), the founder of the Irish branch of the La Touche family, born near Blois in France, fled to an uncle in Amsterdam on the revocation of the edict of Nantes. He entered Caillemotte's Huguenot regiment, came to England with the Prince of Orange, served at the battle of the Boyne, and remained in Dublin after his regiment was disbanded, first as a maker of poplins and later as a banker. He died while at service in Dublin Castle, 17 Oct. 1745, and left by his first wife, Martha Judith Biard, two sons, David Digues and James Digges La Touche.
The latter's son, William George Digges La Touche, entered St. Paul's School, London, 30 Aug. 1757, and proceeded to Bassorah in 1764 with Moore, the British resident, to whose position he succeeded. He assisted travellers and gained the goodwill of the natives. When Zobier was captured by the Persians in 1775, he ransomed the inhabitants at his own expense, and so saved them from slavery. During the siege of Bassorah in 1775 La Touche gave the principal citizens, with their wives and families, shelter in the English factory. Two interesting letters addressed to Sir Robert Ainslie by La Touche from Bassorah in 1782 are preserved among the Marquis of Lansdowne's manuscripts (Hist. MSS. Comm. 5th Rep. p. 254). La Touche returned about 1784, and married Grace, daughter of John Puget, a London banker. He now became a partner in La Touche's bank in Dublin, and by his London connections and his well-known honesty largely increased its business. He built the family mansion in St. Stephen's Green, and purchased the country house of Sans Souci, near Dublin. He died in Dublin 7 Nov. 1803, and left four sons. The eldest son, James Digges La Touche (1788–1827), entered Trinity College, Dublin, as a fellow-commoner on 2 Oct. 1803, graduated B.A., taking a gold medal in 1808, managed the bank, and was a great supporter of Sunday schools. He died in 1827, and left issue by his wife, Isabella, daughter of Sir James Lawrence Cotton, bart., of Rockforest.
The families of La Touche residing at Marlay and Bellevue respectively both descend from David Digges La Touche, the elder son of the immigrant. With the La Touches of Bellevue Alexander Knox [q. v.] used to live.
[Urwick's Biographical Sketches of James Digges La Touche; Gardiner's Reg. of St. Paul's School; Taylor's Travels from England to India by way of Aleppo; Burke's Landed Gentry; Lecky's Hist. of England, iv. 482, vi. 568; notes supplied by G. P. Moriarty, esq.]
Dictionary of National Biography, Errata (1904), p.178 N.B.— f.e. stands for from end and l.l. for last line
| Page | Col. | Line | |
| 182 | i | 22 f.e. | La Touche, William G. D.: for (1746 read (1747 |
| | | 19 f.e. | for in 1746 read 28 Aug. 1747 |
| | | 7 f.e. | for Judith read Martha Judith |
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/L'Estrange, Hamon (1674-1769)

1904 Errata appended.
​L'ESTRANGE, HAMON (1674–1769), author, was son of Hamon L'Estrange of Pakenham, Suffolk, by his second wife, Barbara, daughter of Edward Bullock of Faulkbourn, Essex, and grandson of Hamon L'Estrange [q. v.] He was baptised at Pakenham 9 April 1674, and was for sixty-five years on the commission of the peace. He died at Bury St. Edmunds 11 Aug. 1767, and was buried at Holm. By his wife Christian Isabella Harvey, of Cockfield, Suffolk, he had three daughters, two of whom survived him.
L'Estrange published ‘The Justices' Law; being an Abstract of the Acts wherein Justices of the Peace have the power of acting,’ London, 1720, 12mo, and the following ​theological works: 1. ‘Some Important Duties and Doctrines of Religion prov'd from the Sacred Scriptures. With some occasional Thoughts on Deism,’ Bury St. Edmunds, 1739, 8vo. 2. ‘Essays on the Being of a God, his Governing and Preserving Providence,’ London, 1753, 8vo. 3. ‘No Way more delightful than the Conjugal,’ London, 1753, 8vo. 4. ‘A Legacy to the World, or Essays to Promote Practical Christianity. By a Civil Magistrate,’ London, 1762, 8vo; 2nd edition entitled ‘A Friendly and Charitable Legacy to the World … with some Remarks on a late Pamphlet intitled “Justification by Faith alone”’ [by John Berridge, q. v.], Bury, 1767, 8vo.
[Carthew's Hundred of Launditch, pt. ii. 447–8; Addit. MS. 19166, f. 163; L'Estrange Pedigree in Blomefield's Norfolk, ed. Parkin, x. 314–15; Brit. Mus. Cat.]
J. M. R.
Dictionary of National Biography, Errata (1904), p.181 N.B.— f.e. stands for from end and l.l. for last line
| Page | Col. | Line | |
| 116 | ii | 16 f.e. | L'Estrange, Hamon (1674-1769): for 1769) read 1767) |
| | | 9 f.e. | after peace, insert He was admitted fellow-commoner of Christ's College, Cambridge, in 1692. |