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

​CHARLES, DAVID (1762–1834), of Carmarthen, Welsh preacher and writer, a younger brother of the celebrated Thomas Charles of Bala [q. v.], was born at Llanfihangel-Abercowin. He was apprenticed to a flax-dresser and rope-maker at Carmarthen, afterwards spent three years at Bristol, and finally married and settled down at Carmarthen. Long connected with the Calvinistic methodists, he began to preach at the age of forty-six, and was one of the first lay-preachers ordained ministers in South Wales in 1811. He soon won an exceptional reputation as a preacher, both in Welsh and English. He travelled all over South Wales, and was especially distinguished by his extending the influence of the methodists to the English-speaking districts He was possessed of sufficient means from trade, and received nothing for his preaching. Paralysed in 1828, he died on 2 Sept. 1834, and was buried at Llangunnor. His eloquent ‘Sermons’ were published at Chester in 1840, and were translated in 1840. They have been several times reprinted.
[Memoir by H. Hughes, prefixed to English edition of Charles’s Sermons.]
T. F. T.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Charite, William

​CHARITE, WILLIAM (1422–1502?), monkish writer, compiled a register of St. Mary's Abbey, Leicester, of which he was prior, a collection of charters and other muniments belonging to the abbey, and a catalogue of the library. The register ('Rentale Novum Generale Mon. B. M. de Pratis Leycestrie') contains the rent-roll of the abbey, affording the means of estimating the depreciation of landed property caused by the plague of 1436, detailed information as to the various customary tenures on which the lands were let, a list of the incumbents of the benefices in the gift of the house, and the like. A considerable portion of it was printed from a manuscript in the Bodleian Library (Laud MS. 623) by Nichols in the appendix to vol. i. of his 'History of Leicestershire' (vol. i. pt. ii. app. 53-100). The collection of charters ('Repertorium Chartarum Abbatie de Leycestria') is preserved in a damaged condition in the Cottonian Library (Vitellius, F xvii.) The catalogue of the library, also printed by Nichols from Laud MS. 623 (Leicestershire, i. pt. ii. app. 101), contains few works of importance, but mentions in all twenty-three rolls as written by Charite with ms own hand, of which all but the foregoing have perished.
[Nichols's Leicestershire, i. pt. ii. 591.]
J. M. R.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Charke, William

​CHARKE, WILLIAM (fl. 1580), puritan divine, was distinguished as the opponent of Edmund Campion, the Jesuit priest [q. v.], and as a leader of the puritan party. He was a fellow of Peterhouse, Cambridge, from which society he was expelled in 1572 for declaring, in a sermon preached at St. Mary's, that the episcopal system was introduced by Satan. From the judgment of the vice-chancellor and heads of houses he appealed to the chancellor, Burghley, who interceded for him, but without success. On his expulsion from the university he was appointed domestic chaplain first to Lord Cheney, and afterwards to the Duchess of Somerset. In 1580 he published 'An Answere to a Seditious Pamphlet lately cast abroade by a Jesuite [Edmund Campion], with a discoverie of that blasphemous sect,' 8vo. When Campion was a prisoner in the Tower, Charke was employed with others to hold a discussion with him. 'A true report of the disputation ... set down by the reverend learned men themselves that dealt therein,' was published in 1583. Father Parsons, in his 'Defence of the Censure gyven vpon two Bookes of William Charke and Meredith Hanmer,' has a very able attack on Charke. If we may believe Parsons's testimony, Charke, not content with having worried Campion (faint from torture and confinement) in the Tower, 'folowed hym in person to the place of hys martyrdome with bygge lookes, steme countenace, prowde woordes, and merciles behavyour' In 1581 Charke was elected constant preacher to the society of Lincoln's Inn. After holding this post for some years, he was suspended in 1593 by Archbishop Whitgift for puritanism. The date of his death is unknown.
Wood (Athenæ, ed. Bliss, i. 695) accuses Charke of having destroyed the manuscript (as prepared, in its final shape, for publication) of the last three books of the 'Ecclesiastical Polity,' which he obtained from Hooker's widow. Wood's statement is clearly drawn from the appendix to Izaak Walton's 'Life of Hooker, 1665, where the fanatics who committed this act of wanton destruction are said to have been 'one Mr. Charke, and another minister that dwelt near Canterbury.' This 'Mr. Charke' may have been William Charke, but from the same appendix we learn that Hooker's youngest daughter married a certain 'Ezekiel Charke, Bachelor in Divinity and rector of St. Nicholas in Harbledown, near Canterbury.' The suspicion naturally suggests itself, though Walton is silent, that Ezekiel Charke was the culprit.
[Strype's Whitgift, ed. 1822, i. 88-92, 198, iii. 24-7; Strype's Aylmer, ed. 1821, p. 36; Parsons's Defence of the Censure, 1682; Fuller's Church History, ed. Brewer, iv 385, v. 164; Brook's Lives of the Puritans, i. 111-17.]
A. H. B.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Charles, Nicholas

​CHARLES or CARLES, NICHOLAS (d. 1613), herald, is stated by Noble to have been son of a London butcher named George Carles, and grandson of Richard Carles of Stratford-upon-Avon, Warwickshire. William Careless or Carlos [q. v.] is believed to have belonged to the same family. The herald’s name is spelt in a variety of ways, but Charles is the commonest form. At an early age Charles appears to have entered the College of Arms as Blanch-Lion ​ pursuivant. His skill and industry attracted the attention of his superiors, and on 21 April 1609 he was created Lancaster herald in the place of Francis Thynne. In 1611 he accompanied Sir Richard St. George, Norroy king of arms, in his visitation of Derbyshire, and on 22 July 1613 William Camden (Clarenceux king) nominated him his deputy for the visitation of Huntingdonshire. Charles had barely completed this task when he died on 19 Nov. following. He married Penelope, daughter of Sir William Segar, Garter king of arms, who survived him and became the wife of Timothy Cartwright of Washbourn, Gloucestershire.
Charles was intimate with the antiquaries of his day. He was the friend of Camden and Sir Robert Cotton. Milles commends him in his 'Titles of Honour,' and Howes, the continuer of Stow's 'Chronicle,' acknowledges his assistance. Camden is said to have purchased Charles's valuable manuscript collections after his death for 90l. A portion of these collections is now at the College of Arms, but the greater part is in the British Museum. Among the more important volumes is a collection of epitaphs in the churches of London and elsewhere, with drawings of monuments and arms (Lansd. MS. 874), and an historical catalogue of the officers of the College of Arms (Harl. MS. 5880). Gough states that Le Neve possessed a manuscript visitation of Staffordshire by Charles, and Sir John Cullum a visitation of Suffolk; but of these documents nothing is now known. Several of Charles's letters are among the Cottonian MSS.
Charles's Huntingdonshire visitation is extant in three copies. One, marked 'C. 3 Huntingdon 1613,' at the College of Arms, has been printed for the Camden Society by Sir Henry Ellis (1849). The other two are at the British Museum (Harl. MSS. 1075, 1179).
S. L. L.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Charles, Joseph

​CHARLES, JOSEPH (1716–1780), author of ‘The Dispersion of the Men of Babel,’ and the principal cause of it enquired into' (1755, 2nd edition 1769), was born at Swaffham, Norfolk; the register of his baptism is 6 Nov. 1716. If he studied at any English university, he took no degree; he must not be confounded with his father, Joseph Charles, who graduated at Oxford 1710. He was presented in 1740 to the vicarage of Wighton, which he retained till his death on 4 July 1786. He was buried at Swaffham, of which his father had been vicar. The ‘Dispersion’ is his only known book. The argument is based on a literal acceptance of the narrative in Genesis, supplemented by harmonising interpretations of prophecy and concurring testimonies of profane writers. It is written in a style prolix even for the time, but characterised by much naïveté. To Japhet was given the possession of all Europe and America, and the sentence against Ham -‘servant of servants’-is now in full force. ‘Are we not trading constantly to Guinea for them? . . . How many millions of negroes have been transported from their own country since Japhet got possession of America?’ The city afterwards called Babel ‘must needs have been built in the district of Ham.’ Nimrod was the head of the undertaking, which, being contrary to the divine purpose, was defeated by a miraculous gift of languages. ‘These men therefore must have had their new languages, as the first man had his, by divine inspiration, and Moses tells us that this was the case . . . so that this miracle is one grand and living demonstration of the truth of Moses' history.’
[Blomefeld's Norfolk, ix. 209; Swaffham parish registers. and information from vicars of Swafham and Wighton.]
J. M. S.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Glemham, Edward

​GLEMHAM, EDWARD (fl. 1590–1594), voyager, of Benhall in Suffolk, esquire, in 1590 fitted out, as owner and sole adventurer, the ship Edward and Constance, of 240 tons, in which he sailed from Gravesend in August. He proceeded in the first instance to the Azores, where he landed on St. George's Island with a party of eighty-six men; but finding himself unable to hold the island, as he appears to have intended, he concluded a truce with the governor, and withdrew. He then met with six Spanish ships, two of which he succeeded in destroying; afterwards he had a fierce engagement with four galleys bound for Marseilles, which he beat off; and having refitted at Algiers, entered the Mediterranean, where he captured a large vessel laden with sugar and other valuable merchandise, which was afterwards claimed as Venetian property. The case, as tried in the admiralty court, seemed doubtful, and the judgment was that Glemham was to have the goods ‘on a bond in double of their value, to pay their just value within two months after proof has been made, or for so much as is proved to belong to Venetians or others not subjects of the King of Spain’ (Calendar of State Papers, ​Domestic, 17 May 1592). An account of the early part of the voyage was published anonymously in 1591 [sm. 4to, 8 leaves, black letter; reprinted 1820, 8vo], under the title of ‘The Honorable Actions of that most famous and valiant Englishman, Edward Glemham, esquire, latelie obtained against the Spaniards and the Holy Leauge in foure sundrie fightes. …’ Some commendatory verses at the end of the narration express a wish that he may safely return, ‘freighted with gold and pearl of India’—a wish which seems to have been fulfilled only in respect of the safety. A second voyage, undertaken very shortly after the first, was described by the same writer in a small pamphlet published in 1594 (sm. 4to, pp. 24, black letter; reprinted 1866 in Collier's Illustrations of Old English Literature, vol. i.), under the title of ‘Newes from the Levane Seas. Describing the many perilous events of the most woorthy deserving Gentleman Edward Glenham, Esquire. …’ Glemham's ventures seem to have been unfortunate, if we may judge from the fact that, starting with a good property, ‘feasting his friends and relieving the poor plentifully,’ and having a wife ‘sole heir of a right worshipful knight, famous in his life and of great possessions,’ he sold Benhall away from the family to Edward Duke, who died in 1598 (Page, Supplement to the Suffolk Traveller, p. 169). In the ‘Newes from the Levane Seas,’ the name is frequently spelt Glenham, but this appears to be wrong, as the family was called after Glemham in Suffolk, their ancient seat (Collins, Peerage, edit. 1768, vi. 427).
[Authorities as above.]
J. K. L.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Glen, Andrew

​GLEN, ANDREW (1665–1732), botanist, graduated B.A. from Jesus College, Cambridge, in 1683, and M.A. in 1687. According to Pulteney he was fellow of St. John's College, but Baker does not give his name in his list of fellows. According to the ‘Graduati Cantabr.’ he was fellow of Jesus College. In 1685 he formed an herbarium of seven hundred native and two hundred foreign plants, the latter collected on the continent. He afterwards travelled in Sweden and resided some time in Turin, where in 1692 he collected two hundred more specimens. In 1694 he became rector of Hathern, Leicestershire. His wife, Elizabeth, died in 1705, leaving three daughters, Elizabeth, Mary, and Margaret. Glen himself died at Hathern, where he is buried, on 1 Sept. 1732. His only published work was an assize sermon, dated 1707, but he is commemorated by Pulteney as a friend of Ray.
[Pulteney's Sketches of the Progress of Botany, ii. 63–4; Nichols's Lit. Anecd. viii. 196; Nichols's Hist. Leicestershire, iii. 84–6.]
G. S. B.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Glen, William

​GLEN, WILLIAM (1789–1826), Scotch poet, was born in Queen Street, Glasgow, 14 Nov. 1789. He belonged to an old Renfrewshire family, and his father was a Russian merchant. After leaving school Glen, about the age of seventeen, entered a house trading with the West Indies. When he had become familiar with the business he went for some years to one of the islands as representative of the firm. Returning to Glasgow he started business for himself, but retired, owing to reverses, in 1814. An uncle in Russia now supported him, and his mode of life became rather unsettled. For some time he would appear to have given the rein to his social instincts and his poetic gifts as the laureate of his boon companions. In 1818 he married Catherine Macfarlane, daughter of a Glasgow merchant, and joint-tenant with her brother of a farm at Port Monteith, Perthshire. During most of his remaining years Glen lived here, dependent on his wife's resources and his uncle's generosity, and a general favourite in the district. His old weakness for social amusement and late hours unfortunately still haunted him, and it may have hastened the consumption that ultimately proved fatal. Feeling his end approaching, Glen induced his wife to accompany him to Glasgow, on the conclusive plea that it was ‘easier to take a living man there than a dead one,’ and they were not long settled when he died, December 1826. His wife and only daughter afterwards managed the orphanage at Aberfoyle.
As a boy Glen eagerly learned of the fallen house of Stuart, and his pathetic song ‘Wae's me for Prince Charlie,’ which is charged with the true Jacobite spirit, constitutes the recognised dirge of the lost cause. Several other songs of Glen's are on occasional themes—such as ‘The Battle of Vittoria,’ ‘The Battle Song,’ and three on Napoleon—and there are love songs and narrative pieces, all more or less meritorious. The Jacobite lament, however, which has made the tune of ‘Johnnie Faa’ its own, stands out so clearly above all the others that Glen is generally known only as the singer of this one song. He published in 1815 a 12mo volume of ‘Poems, chiefly Lyrical,’ and in 1874 Dr. Charles Rogers edited his ‘Poetical Remains,’ with a memoir.
[Poetical Remains of William Glen, as above; Whitelaw's Book of Scottish Song; Wilson's Poets and Poetry of Scotland.]
T. B.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Glazebrook, Thomas Kirkland

​GLAZEBROOK, THOMAS KIRKLAND (1780–1855), author, son of the Rev. James Glazebrook [q. v.] was born at Ashby-de-la-Zouch, Leicestershire, on 4 June 1780. He lived for many years at Warrington, where he carried on the business of a glass manufacturer, and where he engaged in the promotion of many useful institutions and societies. He was the captain of a local volunteer corps in 1803, and was always an ardent politician of the tory party. He wrote:
* ‘The First Eclogue of Virgil, translated into English Verse,’ 1807.
* ‘A Guide to Southport, North Meoles, in the County of Lancaster,’ 1809; 2nd edit. 1826.
* ‘Lissa’ (a poetical fragment).
* ‘A Letter addressed to the Members of the Warrington Institution,’ 1814.
* ‘Alphabetical and Chronological List of Companies, Trades, &c.,’ 1831.
He also printed many occasional songs and poetical effusions.
He married in 1801 Elizabeth Twanbrook of Appleton, Cheshire, by whom he had a large family. He died at Southport on 17 Jan. 1855, after residing there for twenty years.
[Kendrick's Warrington Worthies; Fishwick's Lancashire Library, p. 176; Rylands's Bate and Kirkland Genealogies, 1877; information from Mr. J. P. Rylands.]
C. W. S.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Borough, John (d.1386)

​BOROUGH, BURGH, or de BURGO, JOHN (d. 1386), divine, was D.D. of Cambridge and rector of Collingham, Nottinghamshire. In July 1384 he was appointed to fill the post of chancellor of his university (Romilly, Graduati Cantabr. p. 362, Cambridge, 1846), after which he returned to his benefice, und died there in 1386 (Pits, De Angliæ Scriptoribus, p. 543; Tanner, Bibl. Brit. p. 113). His works consist of homilies and of a theological treatise, the ‘Oculus Sacerdotis,' which long retained a ​great popularity; part of it, the ‘Pupillu Oculi de septem Sncrnmuntorum Adininistratione,' was five times printed at Paris and Strassburg between the years 1510 and 1518.
Borough is to be distinguished from another John de Burgo or Burgensis, of Peterborough, a Benedictine, who flourished in 1340 (Bale, v. 62), and who is claimed by Leland (Comm. de Script. Brit. pp. 330 seq., cf. 328) as a chronicler.
[Authorities cited above.]
R. L. P.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Borgarucci, Giulio

​BORGARUCCI, GIULIO, M.D. (fl. 1564–1579), court physician, was one of four sons of Carlo Borgarucci. Of his brothers, the eldest Borgaruccio edited several works of history and science; Prospero became professor of anatomy at Padua in January 1564, and obtained great reputation by his writings; and Giulio his elder brother, who was a physician, came to England as a Protestant refugee, and was a member of the Italian branch of the 'Strangers' Church' in London, under the ministry of Girolamo Jerlito. In 1563, when London was visited by the plague, Borgrucci successfully treated the epidemic by bleeding. His brother Bernardino, a juris-consult, was also then in London. Prospero also came to London during the plague, and learned from Giulio the use of a ball (pomo) compounded of balsamic substances, to be held in the hand, that its odour might counteract the effects of foul air. Borgarucci was admitted a member of the College of Physicians, and on 2 July 1572 was incorporated M.D. in the university of Cambridge. He was physician to the Earl of Leicester, who (Leicester's Commonwealth) is said to have made evil use of his knowledge of poisons, By patent of 21 Sept. 1573 he was made physician to the royal household for life, with an honorarium of 50l. per annum. The last trace of him is his letter of 21 Feb. 1578–9 to Lord Burghley (in whose house the Italian church originally assembled), asking the grant of a lease from the crown of the reversion of the parsonage of Middlewich, Cheshire. He is supposed to have died about 1581, and was succeeded as court physician by Roderigo Lopez. Borgarucci was married, and in October 1573 he wrote to Lord Burghley complaining that Sir William Cordell, master of the rolls, had for five months detained his wife from him in his house, nourishing her in his popish superstitions. The lady was not anxious to return, and a commission of delegates was appointed to inquire whether she was really Borgarucci's wife or the wife of another person. The case lasted several years; ultimately Borgarucci seems to have established his conjugal rights, From the fact that Archbishop Grindal took sides against Borgarucci, it is perhaps not unreasonable to suppose that the court physician was one of those who regarded as 'popish superstitions' some of the positions of anglican orthodoxy. He wrote a short commendatory epistle in Latin, following the 'Proeme' to John Banister's 'The Historie of Man, sucked from the sappe of the most approved Anathomistes,' &c. 1578, for (Cooper gives 1572 as the date of the work).
[Dedication (dated 4 Dec. 1564) to Prospero Borgarucci's 'De Peste perbrevis tractatus,' Venice, 1565, 8vo; see also the Italian edition, Trattato di Piste, 1565, 8vo, pp. 59. 105; Rose's Biog. Dict. 1857, art Borgarucci, Prosper; Cooper's Ath. Cantab, i. 460; Bonet-Maury's Early Sources of Eng. Unit. Christianity (trans. Hall), 1884, p. 134.]
A. G.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Borlase, John

1904 Errata appended.
​BORLASE, Sir JOHN (d. 1649), soldier, was bred a soldier in the wars of the Low Countries, where he served with distinction before the truce in 1608. He also served in Sir Horace Vere's expedition to the Palatinate in 1620 (Rushworth, i. 15), and is mentioned as one of the commanders of the 6,000 English who were serving in the United Provinces in 1626 (Rushworth, i. 421). In 1633 he was appointed master of the ordinance in Ireland, apparently on the recommendation of Stratford, who had a high opinion of him (Strafford's Correspondence, i. 113–197, ii. 108–204). Lord Dillon and Sir William Parsons were appointed lords justices in 1640, but Dillon being considered dangerous as the brother-in-law of Strafford, Borlase was appointed in his room, ‘by the importunity of the Irish committee then at court’ (Nalson, iii. 564). This post he seems to have been unfit to fill, for though a good soldier, he understood nothing else, and had now grown old and indolent. As lord justice he gave himself very little trouble about the exercise of his authority, and left all to his colleague, Sir William Parsons (Carte's Life of Ormonde, bk. iii. 66). Sir John Temple, however, gives a much more favourable account of Borlase's government (History of the Irish Rebellion, p. 13). In April 1643 Sir Henry Tichborne became Borlase's colleague in place of Parsons, and nine months later (21 Jan. 1644) both were superseded by the appointment of the Marquis of Ormonde as lord-lieutenant. Borlase continued to hold the post of muster of the ordnance till his death in the spring of 1649. In the ‘Journals’ of the House of Commons for 17 March 1649 he is spoken of as lately deceased. His estate had so suffered during the rebellion that Lady Borlase was obliged to apply to parliament for money to defray her husband's funeral and for her own support (Journals, 13 June 1649; see also the subsequent petitions of his family in the Domestic State Papers of the Commonwealth).
[Carte's Life of Ormonde; Stratford Correspondence; Rushworth's Historical Collections; Borlase's History of the Irish Rebellion. Gilbert's History of the Irish Confederation contains a collection of Borlase's official letters.]
C. H. F.
Dictionary of National Biography, Errata (1904), p.31 N.B.— f.e. stands for from end and l.l. for last line
| Page | Col. | Line | |
| | | 8 f.e. | Borlase, Sir John: for (d. 1649) read (1576-1648) |
| | ii | 29-31 | for in the spring of 1649 . . . lately deceased read in the spring of 1648. He died in London 15 March 1647-8, and was buried in the church of Great St. Bartholomew |