OpenLLM-France/wikimedia huggingface dataset:
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Wintringham, Clifton (1689-1748)

​WINTRINGHAM, CLIFTON (1689–1748), physician, baptised at East Retford in Nottinghamshire on 11 April 1689, was the son of William Wintringham, vicar of East Retford, by his wife Gertrude, daughter of Clifton Rodes of Sturton, son of Sir Francis Rodes, bart., of Barlborough, and great-grandson of the judge, Francis Rodes [q. v.] He was educated at Jesus College, Cambridge, and on 3 July 1711 was admitted an extra licentiate of the College of Physicians, settling at York, where he practised with great success for more than thirty-five years. In 1746 he was appointed one of the physicians in the York county hospital. He died at York on 12 March 1747–8, and was buried at St. Michael-le-Belfry in that city three days later. He was twice married. By his first wife, Elizabeth, daughter of Richard Nettleton of Earls Heaton in Yorkshire, he had a son, Sir Clifton Wintringham, bart. [q. v.], who is separately noticed.
Wintringham was the author of several medical works ‘full of good sense and practical information’ (Munk): 1. ‘Tractatus de Podagra, in quo de ultimis vasis et liquidis et succo nutritio tractatur,’ York, 1714, 8vo. 2. ‘A Treatise of Endemic Diseases,’ York, 1718, 8vo. 3. ‘An Essay on Contagious ​Diseases, more particularly on the Small Pox, Measles, Putrid, Malignant, and Pestilential Fevers,’ York, 1721, 8vo. 4. ‘Observations on Dr. Freind's “History of Physick,”’ London, 1726, 8vo [see Freind, John]. 5. ‘Commentarium Nosologicum, morbos epidemicos et aëris variationes in urbe Eboracensi locisque vicinis per decem annos grassantes complectens,’ London, 1727, 8vo; 2nd edit. by his son, 1733. In 1752 his ‘Works,’ collected from the original manuscripts by his son Clifton, were published in two octavo volumes with large additions and numerous emendations.
[Munk's Coll. of Phys. ii. 34; Gent. Mag. 1748 p. 139, 1749 p. 46.]
E. I. C.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Wintringham, Clifton (1710-1794)

​WINTRINGHAN, Sir CLIFTON (1710–1794), bart., physician, born at York in 1710, was the son of Clifton Wintringham [q. v.] He was educated at Trinity College, Cambridge, graduating M.B. in 1734, and M.D. in 1749. Soon after graduating M.B. he entered the army medical service. In 1749 he was appointed physician to the Duke of Cumberland, whom he attended in his last illness. In 1756 he was nominated jointly with (Sir) John Pringle [q. v.], physician to the hospital for the service of the forces of Great Britain. In 1762 he was gazetted physician in ordinary to George III. He was knighted in the same year on 11 Feb., and on 25 June 1763 was admitted a fellow of the College of Physicians. In 1770 he served the office of censor, and on 7 Nov. 1774 he was created a baronet. On 5 Dec. 1786 he was nominated physician-general to the forces. On 23 Dec. 1792 he was elected a fellow of the Royal Society, and he was also a member of the Société Royale de Medécine de France. Wintringham died at his house in the Upper Mall, Hammersmith, on 10 Jan. 1794. By his wife Anna he left no issue.
Wintringham was the author of:
* ‘An Experimental Enquiry concerning some Parts of the Animal Structure,’ London, 1740, 8vo.
* ‘An Enquiry into the Exility of the Human Body,’ London, 1743, 8vo.
* ‘Notationes et Observationes in Richardi Mead Monita et Præcepta Medica,’ Paris, 1773, 8vo.
* ‘De Morbis quibusdam Commentarii,’ vol. i. 1782, vol. ii. 1791, London, 8vo.
He also edited ‘The Works of the late Clifton Wintringham, physician, at York’ (London, 1752, 2 vols. 8vo). Two autograph letters from Wintringham to the Duke of Newcastle are preserved in the British Museum (Addit. MS. 32965, ff. 375, 378).
[Munk's Royal Coll. of Phys. ii. 250–2; Nichols's Lit. Anecdotes, iii. 144, 503, ix. 75; Gent. Mag. 1794, i. 92; Burke's Extinct Baronetcies; Thomson's Hist. of the Royal Soc. 1812, App. p. xliii; Ann. Reg. 1765 i. 137, 1766 i. 71, 117, 1768 i. 196, 1770 i. 171; Townsend's Calendar of Knights, 1838.]
E. I. C.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1912 supplement/Berkeley, George

​BERKELEY, Sir GEORGE (1819–1905), colonial governor, born in the Island of Barbados, West Indies, on 2 Nov. 1819, was eldest son of General Sackville Hamilton Berkeley, colonel of the 16th regiment of foot. The father, who descended from a branch of the family of the earls of Berkeley, served at the capture of Surinam in 1804, of the Danish Islands of St. Thomas, St. John and St. Croix in 1807, and of Martinique in 1809. Sir George's mother was Elizabeth Pilgrim, daughter of William Murray of Bruce Vale Estate, Barbados. Educated at Trinity College, Dublin, which he entered on 3 July 1837, he graduated B.A. in 1842, and soon returned to the West Indies, where his active life was almost wholly passed. On 11 Feb. 1845 he was appointed colonial secretary and controller of customs of British Honduras and ex-officio member of the executive and legislative councils. While still serving in that colony he was chosen in 1860-1 to administer temporarily the government of Dominica, and on 8 July 1864 was appointed lieutenant-governor of the Island of St. Vincent. During his tenure of office in 1867 an Act to amend and simplify the legislature substituted a single legislative chamber for the two houses which had been in existence since 1763. He was acting administrator of Lagos from December 1872 to October 1873, when he was appointed governor in chief of the West Africa settlements (Sierra Leone, Gambia, Gold Coast, and Lagos). The Gold Coast and Lagos were soon erected into a separate colony (24 July 1874), and Berkeley was recalled, so as to allow of a new governor (of Sierra Leone and Gambia) being appointed at a reduced salary. While on his way home in June 1874 he was offered, and accepted, the government of Western Australia, but did not take up the appointment, being sent instead to the Leeward Islands as governor in chief. There he remained until 27 June 1881, when he retired on a pension. He was created C.M.G. on 20 Feb. 1874, and K.C.M.G. 24 May 1881.
Berkeley died unmarried in London on 29 Sept. 1905, and was buried in Kensal Green cemetery.
[Colonial Office List, 1905; The Times, 2 Oct. 1905; Oliver's Hist. of the Island of Antigua, 1899, iii. 319; Hart's Army List, 1863; Dublin Univ. Matric. Book, 1837; Colonial Office Records.]
C. A.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1912 supplement/Blackburn, Helen

​BLACKBURN, HELEN (1842–1903), pioneer of woman's suffrage, born at Knightstown, Valencia Island, co. Kerry, on 25 May 1842, was only surviving daughter of Bewicke Blackburn, civil engineer, manager of the Knight of Kerry's slate quarries on Valencia from 1837. Her mother was Isabella, youngest daughter of Humble Lamb of Ryton Hall, co. Durham.
The father (1811-1897), who left Ireland for London about 1859, was an ingenious inventor (cf. Indexes, 1854-63, Patent Office Library). The Blackburn steam car which he patented 1877 was an early anticipation of the motor-car (see Field, 23 Nov. 1878, p. 660; W. W. Beaumont's Cantor Lectures, 1896, p. 29; his Motor Vehicles, 1900, i. 41, 320; and Rhys Jenkins's Motor Cars, 1902, p. 116). Blackburn also patented improvements in velocipedes; his death at the age of eighty-five resulted from an accident while riding near Tunbridge Wells, on 13 Jan. 1897. Some relics of Charles I which he inherited were sold subsequently to King Edward VII. Miss Blackburn, who early developed literary and artistic tastes, soon interested herself in the woman's suffrage movement. From 1874 to 1895 she acted in London as secretary to the central committee of the National Society, which was founded in 1867. But she frequently visited Bristol, and from 1880 to 1895 was also secretary of the Bristol and West of England Suffrage Society. A series of historical portraits of notable women which she formed for the International Exhibition at Chicago of 1893 she presented to the women's hall of University College, Bristol. She was sole editor of the 'Englishwoman's Review' from 1881 to 1890; from that year Miss Ann Mackenzie was joint editor with her. In 1895 Miss Blackburn gave up most of her public work to look after her father. She was well versed in the history of the suffrage movement, and her 'Women's Suffrage: a Record of the Movement in the British Isles' (1902) remains the standard work.
She died at Greycoat Gardens, Westminster, on 11 Jan. 1903, and was buried at Brompton cemetery. A crayon portrait by Miss Guinness, on her retirement from the Bristol secretaryship, was presented to University College there, and hangs in the women students' room. By her will she bequeathed her excellent library of books upon women's interests to Girton College, Cambridge. A loan fund for training young women, established in her memory in 1905, is administered by the Society for Promoting the Employment of Gentlewomen.
Besides the books cited, Miss Blackburn wrote:
* 'A Handbook for Women engaged ​in Social and Political Work,' Bristol, 1881; new edit, enlarged, with two charts, 1895.
* 'Because: Reasons why Parliamentary Franchise should be no longer denied to Women,' 1888.
* (with E. J. Boucherett [q. v. Suppl. II]) 'The Condition of Working Women,' 1896.
* 'Words of a Leader,' 1897.
* (with N. Vynne) 'Women under the Factory Acts,' 1903.
[The Times, 12 Jan. 1903; Englishwoman's Review, xxxiv. 1, 73; information from Miss FitzGerald, Valencia Island; personal knowledge.]
C. F. S.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1912 supplement/Birch, George Henry

​BIRCH, GEORGE HENRY (1842–1904), architect and archaeologist, fourth son of Charles Birch by his wife Emma Eliza Cope, was born at Canonbury on 2 Jan. 1842, and educated at Darnell's private school, Islington. At the age of sixteen he was articled to Charles Gray, architect, and was afterwards (about 1859-60) with an architect in Worcester, and then with Sir M. Digby Wyatt and Mr. Ewan Christian. For a tune in active practice as an architect (in Chancery Lane and in Devereux Court, Temple), he designed amongst other works the interior of Acton Reynald Hall, Shrewsbury, for Sir Walter Corbet, baronet, and in 1884 the scheme of redecoration for the church of St. Nicholas Cole Abbey, London. For several years he devoted much of his leisure to the re-arrangement of J. E. Gardner's well-known collection illustrating the topographical history of London (now the property of Major Coates). In 1884 he designed for the Health Exhibition at South Kensington the picturesque and accurate Old London street, the first attempt ever made to reproduce old London on such a scale. His original water-colour drawing of the street was exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1886. The street itself, with its church tower, gates, wall, &c., cost nearly 14,000l., and contained shops of the Elizabethan period fitted up at the expense of the City Livery Companies (Welch, Mod. Hist. of the City of London, p. 367). It formed a highly popular exhibit, and was afterwards shown in America.
Elected an associate of the Royal Institute of British Architects in 1875, Birch served as vice-president of the Architectural Association from 1871 to 1873, and as president in 1874-5; was hon. secretary of the London and Middlesex Archæological Society from 1877 to 1883, and Cantor lecturer to the Society of Arts in 1883. He became F.S.A. in 1885, and in 1894 was appointed curator of Sir John Soane's Museum. For many years he took a leading part in the affairs of the St. Paul's Ecclesiological Society, many papers by him being printed in its 'Transactions.' He was one of the original members of the Architectural Company, formed in 1869, of the Artists' Volunteer Corps. Birch is best known as an author by his 'London Churches of the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries,' a splendid folio published in 1896. He also published: 1. 'Illustrations of an Old House in Lime Street' (with R. Phenè Spiers), folio, 1875. 2. 'London on Thames in bygone Days,' 1903.
Birch died unmarried on 10 May 1904, at Soane's Museum, and was buried in Islington cemetery, Finchley.
[Builder, 17 May 1884, 21 May 1904; Journal of Royal Inst. of Brit. Arch., ser. 3, xi. 396-7; Proc. Soc. Antiq., series 2, xx. 296-7; private information.]
C. W.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1912 supplement/Birrell, John

​BIRRELL, JOHN, D.D. (1836–1901), orientalist, elder of two sons of Hugh Birrell, architect, by his wife Margaret Smith, was born at Drumeldrie, Newburn parish, Fife, on 21 Oct. 1836. His only brother, George, an architect, died in 1876 at the age of thirty-seven. After attending the parish school and Madras College, St. Andrews, Birrell entered St. Andrews University as first bursar in 1851, and after a brilliant course graduated M.A. in 1855. The next two years, with thoughts of the Indian civil service, he passed at Halle, sojourning with the orientalist, Prof. Roediger. The Indian Mutiny altered his plans, and, returning to St. Andrews, he completed in 1861 at St. Mary's College the training for the ministry of the Church of Scotland.
Licensed as a preacher in 1861 by St. Andrews Presbytery, Birrell for two years held the post of tutor at the College Hall, ​St. Andrews. In 1863 he became assistant to Dr. Robertson at Glasgow Cathedral, and in 1864 he was presented by the senatus of St. Andrews, then patrons of the living, to the parish of Dunino adjoining that of St. Andrews. He was there able to maintain his hold on academic life. He was examiner in classics in the United College, St. Andrews, in 1862-6, for some years assisted Dr. John Cook, professor of church history, and was clerk to the Senatus Academicus. In 1871 he was appointed by the crown to the chair of Hebrew and Oriental languages in St. Mary's College, St. Andrews, and proved himself a painstaking, broad-minded, and lucid teacher. His abilities were widely recognised. He received the degree of D.D. from Edinburgh University in 1878, and he was a member of the Old Testament revision committee. 1874-84. He was the first chairman of the St. Andrews school board, and held the position for sixteen years. Examiner of secondary schools in Scotland from 1876 to 1888, he originated and carried out with great success the scheme (afterwards superseded by the system of leaving certificates) of university local examinations at St. Andrews.
Birrell died at St. John's, St. Andrews, on 31 December 1901, and was buried in the cathedral burying-ground of the city. On 3 June 1874 he married Elizabeth, daughter of James Wallace of The Brake, Dunino, and had by her three sons and two daughters.
[Private information; personal knowledge; St. Andrews Citizen, 4 and 11 Jan. 1902.]
T. B.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Narford, Robert

Robert Nerford in the ODNB.
​NARFORD, NERFORD, or NEREFORD, ROBERT (d. 1225), constable of Dover Castle, was the son of Sir Richard de Nerford, by his wife, Christian, and inherited from his parents Nerford Manor in Norfolk (Blomefield, Hist. of Norfolk, v. 119; he does not name his authority). He married Alice, daughter and coheiress of John Pouchard, and so came into possession of lands between Creyk and Burnham Thorp. On a meadow there called Lingerescroft he founded a little chapel (1206) called Sancta Maria de Pratis (Mon. Angl. vi. 487). His wife's sister Joan married Reyner de Burgh, and her two sons were Hubert de Burgh [q. v.] and Geoffrey de Burgh, bishop of Ely (Dodsworth MS. cxxx. f. 3, and the Harl. MS. 294, f. 148 b; see, too, Blomefield, x. 265, quoting Philipps MS.) To his relationship with Hubert, Narford no doubt owed the favour of King John; in October 1215 John ordered Hubert de Burgh to give Narford seisin of lands in Kent (Rot. Claus. i. 230). On 18 March 1216 John addressed a patent to Narford as bailiff at one of the seaports (Rot. Pat. p. 170 b); probably he was a custodian of Dover Castle, of which Hubert de Burgh was chief constable (Richard de Coggeshall, ed. Stevenson, p. 185; cf. Rot. Claus. p. 259). When Hubert de Burgh defeated Eustace le Moine in the naval battle of the Straits of Dover, fought on St. Bartholomew's day (24 Aug. 1217), Narford was present; and, to commemorate the victory, he founded, at his wife's desire, a hospital for thirteen poor men, one master, and four chaplains, by the side of his earlier foundation at Lingerescroft. His cousin Geoffrey, bishop of Ely, dedicated the house to St. Bartholomew in 1221 (Mon. Angl. vi. 487). After Narford's death the master, at his widow's wish, took the Austin habit, and was called Prior of the Canons of St. Mary de Pratis; in 1230 Henry III accepted the patronage of the house and made it an abbey (ib. vi. 488).
When Hubert de Burgh became chief justiciar, Narford was made chief constable of Dover (ib. vi. 487), and received a salary of twenty marks a year (Rot. Claus i. 514). In 1220 he received a precept to summon the barons of the Cinque Ports to his court at Shepway (Pat. 5, Hen. 3, quoted by J. Lyon, ii. 203).
In March 1224 he received payments as an ambassador to foreign parts (Rot. Claus. i. 582 seq.). Narford died in 1225, and his son Nicholas succeeded to his estates (ib. ii. 40).
[Rotuli Literarum Clausarum, vols. i. ii.; Rot. Lit. Patentium, ed. Hardy; Lyon's Hist. of Dover, ii. 203; Blomefield's Hist. of Norfolk, vols. v. x.; Monasticon Anglicanum, vi. 486 seq; Harl. MS. 294, f. 148 b, No. 2898.]
M. B.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Narrien, John

​NARRIEN, JOHN (1782–1860), astronomical writer, was the son of a stonemason, and was born at Chertsey, in Surrey, in 1782. He kept for some years an optician's shop in Pall Mall, and his talents having procured him friends and patronage, he was nominated in 1814 one of the teaching staff of the Royal Military College at Sandhurst. Promoted in 1820 to be mathematical professor in the senior department, he was long the virtual head of the establishment. His useful and honourable career terminated with his resignation, on the failure of his eyesight, in 1858. He was elected a fellow of the Royal Society in 1840, and retired from the Royal Astronomical Society in 1858. He died at Kensington on 30 March 1860, aged 77. He had lost his wife eight years previously.
He published in 1833 ‘An Historical Account of the Origin and Progress of Astronomy,’ a work of considerable merit and research; and compiled a series of mathematical text-books for use in Sandhurst College, of which the principal were entitled ‘Elements of Geometry,’ London, 1842; ‘Practical Astronomy and Geodesy,’ 1845; and ‘Analytical Geometry,’ 1846. He observed the partial solar eclipse of 6 May 1845, at the observatory of Sandhurst College (Monthly Notices, vi. 240).
[Monthly Notices Royal Astron. Soc. xviii. 100, xxi. 102; Ann. Reg. 1860, p. 475; Allibone's Critical Dict. of English Literature; Observatory, xi. 300 (W. T. Lynn).]
A. M. C.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Nash, Joseph

​NASH, JOSEPH (1809–1878), water-colour painter and lithographer, son of the Rev. Okey Nash, who kept the Manor House School at Croydon, was born at Great Marlow, Buckinghamshire, on 17 Dec. 1809. He was educated by his father, and at the age of twenty-one commenced the study of architecture under the elder Pugin [see Pugin, Augustus, (1762–1832)], whom he accompanied to France, and for whose work, ‘Paris and its Environs,’ 1830, he made some of the drawings. In the early stage of his career Nash was much occupied on figure subjects illustrating the poets and novelists, and exhibited many drawings of that class with the Society of Painters in Water-Colours, of which he was elected an associate in 1834; of these some were engraved for the ‘Keepsake,’ and similar publications. But he earned celebrity by his picturesque views of late Gothic buildings, English and foreign, which he enlivened with figures grouped to illustrate the habits of their owners in bygone days, somewhat in the manner of Cattermole. Having at an early period mastered the art of lithography, Nash utilised it in the production of several excellent publications; his ‘Architecture of the Middle Ages’ appeared in 1838, and between 1839 and 1849 his great work, in four series, ‘Mansions of England in the Olden Time,’ which was highly successful, and has maintained its reputation. In 1846 he lithographed Wilkie's ‘Oriental Sketches,’ and in 1848 a set of views of Windsor Castle from his own drawings. Other works to which Nash contributed were Lawson's ‘Scotland Delineated,’ 1847–54, ‘Comprehensive Pictures of the Great Exhibition of 1851,’ McDermot's ‘The Merrie Days of England,’ 1858–9, and ‘English Ballads,’ 1864. He became a full member of the Water-Colour Society in 1842, and was a constant exhibitor up to 1875, sending many of the original drawings for the above publications, with occasionally subjects from Shakespeare, &c. In his views of buildings Nash aimed chiefly at picturesque effect, paying little attention to structural detail; he followed James Duffield Harding [q. v.] in his free use of body colour, and his lithographs are executed in the tinted style made popular by that artist. He died at Hereford Road, Bayswater, London, 19 Dec. 1878, having a few months before been granted a civil-list pension of 100l. His only son, Joseph, is a painter of marine subjects, and has been a member of the Royal Institute of Painters in Water-Colours since 1886. The South Kensington Museum possesses some examples of Nash's art.
[Roget's Hist. of the Old Water-Colour Society, 1891, ii. 240; Redgrave's Dict. of Artists; Universal Cat. of Books on Art; Great Marlow parish register.]
F. M. O'D.