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

1904 Errata appended.
​BROWN, LANCELOT (1715–1783), landscape-gardener and architect, known as ‘Capability Brown,’ was born in 1715 at Hardie-Kirk, Northumberland. He was originally a kitchen gardener in the employment of Lord Cobham at Stow. His remarkable faculty for prejudging landscape effects soon, however, procured in the patronage of persons of rank and taste. Humphrey Repton treats Brown as the founder of the modern or English style of landscape-gardening, which superseded the geometric style, brought to its perfection by André Le Nostre (b. 12 March 1613; d. 15 Sept. 1700) at Versailles. The praise of originating the new style is, however, due to William Kent (b. 1384; d. 12 April 1748), but Brown worked independently and with greater genius. His leading aim was to bring out the undulating lines of the natural landscape. He laid out or remodelled the grounds at Kew, Blenheim, and Nuneham Courtenay. His style degeneratcd into a mannerism which insisted on finishing every landscape with the same set of features; but this declension is to be attributed to the deficiencies of those who had worked under him, and took him as their model. Of Brown’s architectural works a full list is given by Repton, beginning in 1751 with Croome, where he built the house, church, &c. for the Earl of Coventry. His exteriors were often very clumsy, but all his country mansions were constructed with great success as regards internal comfort and convenience. He realised a large fortune, and by his amiable manners and high character he supported with dignity the station of a country gentleman. In 1770 he was high sheriff of Huntingdonshire. He died on 6 Feb, 1783. His son, Lancelot Brown, was M.P. for Huntingdonshire.
[Repton’s Landscape Gardening and Landscape Architecture. ed. J. C. London, 1840, pp. 30, 266, 327, 520; Knight's English Cyclopædia, Biography, 1866, i. 950; Jal's Dict. Crit. de Biog. et Hist., 1867, p. 773.]
A. G.
Dictionary of National Biography, Errata (1904), p.39 N.B.— f.e. stands for from end and l.l. for last line
| Page | Col. | Line | |
| 22 | i | 9-8 f.e. | Brown, Lancelot: for M.P. for Huntingdonshire read M.P. for Totnes 1780-4, for Huntingdon 1784-90, and for Huntingdonshire 1782-4 |
| | | 6 f.e. | for London read Loudon |
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Brown, Levinius

​BROWN, LEVINIUS (1671–1761), jesuit, born in Norfolk on 19 Sept. 1671, received his education at St. Omer and the English college at Rome. He entered the Society of Jesus in 1698, being already a priest, and became a professed father in 1709. Previously to this, in 1700, he had been appointed to the mission of Ladyholt, Sussex. He was rector of the English college at Rome from 1723 to 1731, when he became master of the novices, and was chosen provincial of his order in 1733, continuing in that office till 1737, and then passing to the rectorship of Liège college. He spent the last years of his life in the college of St. Omer, and witnessed the forcible expulsion of the English jesuits from that institution by the parliament of Paris in 1762. Being too old and infirm to be removed, he was allowed to remain in the house until his death on 7 Nov. 1764.
Brown was a friend of Alexander Pope's, and it is probable that during his residence as missioner of Ladyholt he induced the poet to compose his beautiful version of St. Francis Xavier’s hymn ‘O Deus, ego amo Te.’ He published a translation of Bossuet's ‘History of the Variations of the Protestant Churches,’ 2 vols., Antwerp, 1742, 8vo.
[Oliver's Collections S. J. 61; Foley’s Records, iii. 541-3, vi. 442, vii. 94; Lowndes's Bibl. Man. (Bohn), i. 241.]
T. C.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Brown, John Charles

John Crawford Brown in later editions. 1904 Errata appended.
​BROWN, JOHN CHARLES (1805–1867), landscape-painter, was born at Glasgow in 1805), and resided in London for some time after travelling in Holland and Spain. He then removed to his native city, and finally settled in Edinburgh, where he died at 10 Vincent Street 8 May 1867. He waa an associate of theKoyal Scottish Academy. His picture 'The Last of the Clan' was engraved by W. Richardson for the Royal Association of Fine Arts, Scotland, in 1861. In 1833 he exhibited at the Royal Academy, No. 278, 'A Scene on the Ravensbourne, Kent;' at this period he resided at 10 Robert Street, Chelsea. Two other landscapes he also exhibited in this same year at the British Institution and the Suffolk Street Exhibition.
[Redgrave's Dictionary of Artists, 1878.]
L. F.
Dictionary of National Biography, Errata (1904), p.39 N.B.— f.e. stands for from end and l.l. for last line
| Page | Col. | Line | |
| 21 | ii | 1 | Brown, John C.: for Charles read Crawford |
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Brown, Joseph

​BROWN, JOSEPH (1784–1808), physician, was born at North Shields in September 1784, and studied medicine at Edinburgh and also in London. Though the son of a quaker, and educated as such, he entered the army medical service, was attached to Wellington's staff in the Peninsular war, and was present at Busaco, Albuera, Victoria, and the Pyrenees, gaining high commendation for his services. After Waterloo he remained with the army of occupation in France. Subsequently he again studied at Edinburgh, and graduated M.D. in 1819. He settled at Sunderland, and took a leading part in local philanthropy and politics, being a strong liberal and a zealous but not bigoted christian. He was once mayor of Sunderland and a borough magistrate, and also for many years physician to the Sunderland and Bishop wearmouth Infirmary. He was highly cultured, of dignified manners, yet deeply sympathetic with the poor. He died on 19 Nov. 1868. Besides numerous ​contributions to medical reviews, and several articles in the ‘Cyclopædia of Practical Medicine.' Brown wrote: 1. ‘Medical Essays on Fever, Inflammation, &c.,’ London, 1828. 2. ‘A Defence of Revealed Religion,’ 1851, designed to vindicate the miracles of the Old and New Testaments. 3. ‘Memories of the Past and Thoughts on the Present Age,’ 1863. 4. ‘The Food of the People, with a Postscript on the Diet of Old Age,’ 1865.
[Lancet, 5 Dec. 1868; Sunderland Herald, 20 Nov. 1868.]
G. T. B.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Douglas, Neil (1779-1853)

​DOUGLAS, Sir NEIL (1779–1853), lieutenant-general, was the fifth son of John Douglas, a merchant of Glasgow, and a descendant of the Douglases, earls of Angus, through the Douglases of Cruxton and Stobbs. ​ He entered the army as a second lieutenant in the 95th regiment, afterwards the Rifle Brigade, on 28 Jan. 1801. He was promoted lieutenant on 16 July 1802, and captain into the 79th regiment (the Cameron Highlanders), with which he served during the rest of his military career, on 19 April 1804. He first saw service in the siege of Copenhagen in 1807, and then accompanied his regiment with Sir John Moore to Sweden and Portugal. He served throughout Sir John Moore's retreat and in the battle of Corunna, in the expedition to the Walcheren and at the siege of Flushing in 1809, and in the Peninsula from December 1809 till his promotion to the rank of major on 31 Jan. 1811. The only great battle in the Peninsula at which he was present during this period was Busaco, where he was shot through the left arm and shoulder, and he had to leave the Peninsula on promotion to join the second battalion of his regiment. He was promoted lieutenant-colonel on 3 Dec. 1812, and in the following April rejoined the first battalion in the Peninsula. He commanded this battalion, which was attached to the second brigade of Cole's division, in the battles of the Pyrenees, the Nivelle, the Nive, and Toulouse, and was at the end of the war rewarded with a gold cross for these three victories. In the following year the regiment was reduced to one battalion, which Douglas commanded at Quatre Bras, where he was wounded in the right knee, and at Waterloo. For this campaign he was made a C.B., and also received a pension of 300l. a year for his wounds. He continued to command his regiment for twenty-two years until he became a major-general, and during that period many distinctions were conferred upon him. In 1825 he was promoted colonel and appointed an aide-de-camp to the king; in 1831 he was knighted and made a K.C.H. and given the royal license to wear the orders of Maria Theresa and St. Wladimir, which had been conferred upon him for his services at Waterloo; and in 1837 he was made a K.C.B. He was further promoted to the rank of major-general in June 1838, lieutenant-general on 9 Nov. 1846, made colonel in 1845 of the 81st regiment, from which he was transferred to the 72nd regiment in 1847, and to his old regiment, the 78th, in 1851. He died on 1 Sept. 1853 at Brussels. Douglas married in 1816 the daughter of George Robertson, banker of Greenock, by whom he was the father of General Sir John Douglas, G.C.B., who was a distinguished commander in India during the suppression of the Indian mutiny.
H. M. S.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Douglas, Philip

​DOUGLAS, PHILIP (1758–1822), master of Corpus Christi College, Cambridge, was born at Witham, Essex, 28 Sept. 1758. His father was Archibald Douglas, colonel of the 13th dragoons, and M.P. for Dumfries Boroughs in 1771. He was educated at Harrow, and admitted a pensioner of the above college in 1776. He proceeded B.A. in 1781 (when he was third in the second class of the mathematical tripos), M.A. 1784, B.D. 1792, D.D. 1795. He was elected joint tutor of his college in 1787, and proctor of the university in 1788. On 1 Jan. 1795 he became master, an office which he held till his death; and in 1796 was presented by the crown, on the recommendation of Mr. Pitt, then M.P. for the university, to the vicarage of Gedney, Lincolnshire. In 1797, after the death of Dr. Farmer, master of Emmanuel College, Douglas was nominated by the heads of colleges for the office of protobibliothecarius, together with Mr. Kerrich of Magdalene College; but the senate, resenting what was regarded as the unjust exclusion of Mr. Davies of Trinity College by the heads in favour of one of their own body, elected Mr. Kerrich by a large majority. Douglas was vice-chancellor 1795–6 and 1810–11. During the latter year he presided at the installation of the Duke of Gloucester as chancellor. He married in 1797 Miss Mainwaring, niece to Dr. Mainwaring, Lady Margaret professor of divinity, by whom he left a son and a daughter. It was on this occasion that Mr. Mansel, afterwards master of Trinity College and bishop of Bristol, wrote the epigram, in allusion to the thinness of both the lady and the gentleman:—
St. Paul has declared that persons though twain In marriage united one flesh shall remain; But had he been by when, like Pharaoh's kine pairing, Dr. Douglas of Bene't espoused Miss Mainwaring, The Apostle, methinks, would have altered his tone, And cried, these two splinters shall make but one bone.
Douglas died 2 Jan. 1822, aged 64, and was buried in the college chapel.
J. W. C-k.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Dance, James

a.k.a. James Love
​DANCE, alias Love, JAMES (1722–1774), comedian, eldest son of George Dance [q. v.], city surveyor and architect, was born on 17 March 1721–2. He entered Merchant Taylors' School in 1732, and five years later was admitted a member of St. John's College, Oxford. But he left the university without graduating, and, having assumed the name of Love, contrived to attract the favourable notice of Sir Robert Walpole by replying, in a smart poem entitled 'Yes, they are; what then?' to a satirical piece, 'Are these things so?' directed against the minister and attributed (wrongly) to Pope. Sir Robert, however, does not seem to have done much more for his advocate than feed him with false hopes, and at length, bankrupt and disappointed, Love betook himself to the stage and to the composition of light comedies. About 1740 he wrote and published an heroic poem on 'Cricket,' which is interesting as throwing light upon the history of that popular game, and his earliest contribution to dramatic literature was a piece entitled 'Pamela,' published in 1742. He performed at the theatres of Dublin and Edinburgh, and resided for some years as manager in the latter city, where (1754) he issued a volume of poems. In 1762 he was invited to Drury Lane Theatre, and retained his connection with that house during the rest of his life, part of which was spent at Richmond, where, with his brother's help, he built a new theatre, involving him in considerable loss. He died early in 1774, and it cannot be said that either as an actor or a writer he secured or deserved much success. Falstaff was his best character; his attempts to improve Shakespeare and Beaumont and Fletcher were wretched. His brother was Sir Nathaniel Dance [q. v.]
He wrote:
* 'Cricket; an heroic poem,' 1770 ('published about thirty years ago,' pref. to 2nd edit.).
* 'Pamela,' comedy, 1742.
* 'Poems on several Occasions,' 1754.
* 'The Witches,' pant. 1762.
* 'Rites of Hecate,' pant. 1764.
* 'The Hermit,' pant. 1766.
* 'The Village Wedding,' 1767.
* 'Timon of Athens,' altered, 1768.
* 'The Ladies' Frolic,' 1770.
* 'City Madam,' 1771.
* 'Rule a Wife and have a Wife,' altered, 1771.
[Baker's Biog. Dram. by Reed and Jones, i. 462; Robinson's Reg. of Merchant Taylors' School.]
C. J. R.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Dance, William

​DANCE, WILLIAM (1755–1840), musician, born in 1755, studied the pianoforte under Aylward, and the violin under Baumgarten, and later under Giardini. He played the violin in an orchestra so early as 1767. He was for four years at Drury Lane under Garrick's management, and from 1775 to 1793 was a member of the King's Theatre orchestra. He led at the Haymarket in the summer seasons from 1784 to 1790, and at the Handel festival in Westminster Abbey in 1790. Dance was a member of the royal band before 1800. He subsequently gave up performing in public, and devoted himself to teaching. On 17 Jan. 1813 a circular proposing the foundation of the Philharmonic Society, signed by Cramer, Corri, and Dance, was issued from the latter's house, 17 Manchester Street, and on the establishment of the society he became a director and treasurer. He continued to hold both these offices down to his death, which took place at Brompton, 5 June 1840. Dance published a small quantity of unimportant pianoforte and vocal music.
W. B. S.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Dancer, Thomas

Date of death 1811 in later editions.
​DANCER, THOMAS, M.D. (1755?–1810), botanist, was in 1780 physician to the expedition which left Jamaica in February of that year for ‘Fort San Juan’ (? d'Ulloa). On his return to Jamaica he published an account of the capture of the fort, and the subsequent mortality of the troops, consequent upon the utter absence of sanitation. Appointed physician to the Bath waters he brought out in 1784 a small octavo on the virtues of the waters, appending two pages of catalogue of the rarer plants cultivated in the garden there. A full list was issued in ​1792, from which we learn that he introduced many plants in the two years previous, some of which he owed to his correspondence with Sir Joseph Banks. In 1804 he printed a small tract, ‘ Some Observations respecting the Botanic Garden,’ recounting its history and removals, and making suggestions for its better support; but his proposals not being adopted by the House of Assembly, he resigned his position as ‘island botanist.’ His most important publication was a quarto volume, ‘Medical Assistant, or Jamaica Practice of Physic,’ 1801, which was anonymously attacked by an ex-official named Fitzgerald, in a professed reprint in the ‘Royal Jamaica Gazette’ of a critique in the ‘Edinburgh Review.’ The last literary effort of Dancer was to expose this fiction. He died at Kingston 1 Aug. 1810.
B. D. J.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Dancer, John

​DANCER, JOHN (fl. 1675), translator and dramatist, lived for some time in Dublin, where two of his dramatic translations were performed with some success at the Theatre Royal. To the Duke of Ormonde and to the duke's children, Thomas, earl of Ossory, and Lady Mary Cavendish, he dedicated his books, and in 1673 he wrote that he owed to the duke ‘all I have and all I am.’ It is probable that he was in Ormonde's service while he was lord-lieutenant of Ireland. Langbaine groundlessly credits him with the alternative name of Dauncy, and identifies him with one John Dauncy, who was a voluminous translator living at the same time. But John Dancer and John Dauncy [q. v.] were clearly two persons. Dancer's two translated plays—the one from Corneille and the other from Quinault—are in rhyming couplets. The original verse at the close of the translation of Tasso's ‘Amintas’ is ‘writ in imitation of Mr. Cowley's “Mistris”’ (Langbaine). Dancer's works are as follows: 1. ‘Aminta, the Famous Pastoral [by Tasso], translated into English verse, with divers Ingenious Poems,’ London, 1660. 2. ‘Nicomede, a tragicomedy translated out of the French of Monsieur Corneille, as it was acted at the Theatre Royal, Dublin,’ London, 1671. This was published by Francis Kirkman ‘in the author's absence,’ and dedicated by Kirkman to Thomas, earl of Ossory. To the play Kirkman added a valuable appendix—‘A true, perfect, and exact Catalogue of all the Comedies, Tragedies, Tragicomedies, Pastorals, Masques, and Interludes that were ever yet printed and published till this present year 1671.’ 3. ‘Judgment on Alexander and Cæsar, and also on Seneca, Plutarch, and Petronius,’ from the French of Renaud Rapin, London 1672. 4. ‘The Comparison of Plato and Aristotle, with the Opinions of the Fathers on their Doctrine, and some Christian Reflections,’ from the French, London 1673; dedicated to James, duke of Ormonde. 5. ‘Mercury Gallant, containing many true and pleasant relations of what hath passed at Paris from January 1st 1672 till the king's departure thence,’ from the French, London 1673; dedicated to George Bowerman. 6. ‘Agrippa, King of Alba, or the False Tiberinus. As it was several times acted with great applause before the Duke of Ormonde, L.L. of Ireland, at the Theatre Royal in Dublin; from the French of Monsieur Quinault,’ London 1675; dedicated to Ormonde's daughter Mary.
[Langbaine's Account, 97, with Oldys's notes in Brit. Mus. copy, C. 45 d. 14; Hunter's Chorus Vatum in Addit. MS. 24489, f. 173; Brit. Mus. Cat.]
S. L. L.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Dandridge, Bartholomew

​DANDRIDGE, BARTHOLOMEW (fl. 1750), portrait-painter, was, according to Walpole, the son of a house-painter. He gained considerable reputation and employment in the reign of George II as a painter of portraits and of effective small conversation-pieces. Portraits by Dandridge painted about 1750 were engraved by James McArdell and others. In the National Portrait Gallery is a picture by him of Nathaniel Hooke, the historian. He died in the prime of life.
E. R.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Dance, George (1700-1768)

The ODNB gives date of birth as c.1694.
[Redgrave's Dict. of Artists; Bryan's Dict. of Artists; Ralph's Critical Review of the Public Buildings, Statues, and Monuments in and around London and Westminster, London, 1783.]
G. W. B.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Dance, George (1741-1825)

​DANCE, GEORGE, the younger (1741–1825), architect, fifth and youngest son of George Dance, architect and surveyor to the city of London, was born in 1740–1, and learnt his profession in his father's office. He spent also some time in France and Italy, and studied in Rome. He was a member of the Incorporated Society of Artists, and in 1761 sent to their exhibition a design for Blackfriars Bridge. His father died in 1768, and he succeeded him in his office by right of purchase. His first important work was the rebuilding of Newgate in 1770, in which he displayed considerable skill—the severe, massive features of the exterior being thoroughly characteristic. He was successful also in the construction of the Giltspur Street prison and St. Luke's Hospital, but the front of Guildhall is less creditable to his taste. Dance was elected in 1794 a fellow of the Society of Antiquaries, and was one of the foundation members of the Royal Academy. He held also the office of professor of architecture at the Royal Academy from 1798 to 1805, but never lectured. In fact he seems to have devoted himself in his later years to art rather than to architecture, and his contributions to the Academy exhibitions in and after 1798 consisted solely of portraits drawn in chalk. These and others (in all seventy-two in number) were subsequently engraved and published, and have the reputation of being life-like, though 'wanting in drawing and refinement' (Redgrave). In 1815 he resigned the office of city surveyor, and after a lingering illness of many years died at Upper Gower Street, London, 14 Jan. 1825, being the last of the original forty Royal Academicians. He was buried in St. Paul's Cathedral.
Dance was author of 'A Collection of Portraits sketched from the Life since the year 1793, by Geo. Dance, esq., and engraved in imitation of the original drawings by Will. Daniell, A.R.A.,' folio, 1811 and 1814.
[Redgrave's Dict. of Artists of the English School, 1874; Annual Register, lxvii. 219; Burke's Extinct Baronetage, s. v. 'Holland.']
C. J. R.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Dance, Nathaniel

​DANCE, Sir NATHANIEL (1748–1827), commander in the service of the East India Company, son of James, the elder brother of Sir Nathaniel Holland [q. v.], and of George Dance the younger [q. v.], was born 20 June 1748, entered the East India Company's service in 1759, and, after continuous employment for nearly thirty years, obtained the command of a ship in 1787. In 1804 he was, by virtue of his seniority, commodore of the company's homeward-bound ​fleet which sailed from Canton on 31 Jan. Off Pulo Aor, on 14 Feb., this fleet, consisting of sixteen Indiamen and eleven country ships, fell in with the French squadron under Admiral Linois. The Indian fleet numbered three more than Linois had been led to expect. He jumped to the conclusion that the three extra ships were men-of-war; and though he had with him a line-of-battle ship, three heavy frigates, and a brig, he did not venture to attack. The bold attitude which Dance assumed confirmed him in his error. Dance, with his fleet ranged in line of battle, stood on under easy sail, lay to for the night, and the next morning again stood on, always under easy sail. Linois then manœuvred to cut off some of the rearmost ships, on which Dance made the signal to tack towards the enemy and engage. Captain Timmins in the Royal George led, the Ganges and Dance's own ship, the Earl Camden, closely followed. Linois, possessed with the idea that he was engaged with ships of the line, did not observe that neither the number nor weight of the guns agreed with it; and conceiving himself in presence of a very superior force, after a few badly aimed broadsides, hauled his wind and fled. The loss of the English was one man killed and one wounded, both on board the Royal George; the other ships sustained no damage. Dance made the signal for a general chase, and for two hours enjoyed the extraordinary spectacle of a powerful squadron of ships of war flying before a number of merchantmen; then fearing a longer pursuit might carry him too far out of his course, and ‘ considering the immense property at stake,’ he recalled his ships, and the next morning continued his voyage. In the Straits, on 28 Feb., they met two English ships of the line which convoyed them as far as St. Helena, whence they obtained a further escort to England. Liberal rewards were voted to the several commanders, officers, and ships' companies. Dance was knighted; was presented with 5,000l. by the Bombay Insurance Company, and by the East India Company with a pension of 500l. a year. He seems to have lived for the remainder of his life in retirement; and died at Enfield on 25 March 1827, aged 79 (Gent. Mag. vol. xcvii. pt. i. p. 380).
J. K. L.