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

​COLLINS, CHARLES ALLSTON (1828–1873), painter and author, second son of William Collins, R.A. (1788–1847) [q. v.], was born on 25 Jan. 1828, and showed at an early age inherited gifts in art, which encouraged his father to permit him to study in the schools of the Royal Academy. On completing his education as a student, he attached himself to the once famous 'Pre-Raphaelite brotherhood,' and produced pictures which, after attracting general attention at the Royal Academy, took their place among the deservedly valued possessions of collectors of works of art. But it was in the modest and sensitive nature of the man to underrate his own success. His ideal was a high one; and he never succeeded in satisfying nis own aspirations. The later years of his life were devoted to literature. In 1860 he married Kate, the younger daughter of Charles Dickens. He was the author of the series of essays (first published in 'All the Year Round') called 'The Eye-witness;' a work distinguished by subtle observation and delicate sense of humour. 'A Cruise on Wheels,' 'A Sentimental Journey,' and two novels, showing rare ability in the presentation of character, steadily improved his position with readers and gave promise of achievement in the future, never destined to be fulfilled. The last years of his life were years of broken health and acute suffering, borne with a patience and courage known only to those nearest and dearest to him. He died on 9 April 1873, in the forty-fifth year of his age.
[Private information.]
W. C.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Collins, Greenvile

​COLLINS, GREENVILE (fl. 1679–1693), captain in the royal navy and hydrographer, was in 1679 appointed commander of the Lark, a small frigate, apparently in some connection with the duties of the Trinity House, of which Collins was a younger brother. In 1681 he was ordered to survey and chart the coasts of the kingdom, for which purpose he was appointed to command the Merlin yacht. This survey occupied the next seven years, the charts being published from time to time as ready, and it was not till 1693 that he was able to issue them collectively in a large folio, together with sailing directions, under the title of 'Great Britain's Coasting Pilot.' The scope of the work, embracing, as it does, the complete circuit of Great Britain, is very great, and for one man in seven, or even in twelve, years excessive. The charts have not, of course, the rigid accuracy of those of our own time, and some of them are possibly edited from Dutch originals; but with all their shortcomings they are an enormous advance on anything before them, and entitle Collins to rank not only with the earliest, but with the best of English hydrographers. The 'Coasting Pilot ' was printed by a namesake, Freeman Collins, who may have been a brother, but of his further life or family nothing is known.
[Preface and Dedication to the Coasting Pilot; Charnock's Biog. Navalis, ii. 60.]
J. K. L.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Collins, Hercules

​COLLINS, HERCULES (d. 1702), baptist minister, had not the advantage of a learned education. 'He began to be religious at an early age, and continued faithful to the last, and was not shock'd by the fury of the persecutors' (Crosby, Hist, of the English Baptists, iii. 129). He appears to have officiated to a congregation at Wapping, and at one period he was imprisoned in Newgate (Wilson, Dissenting Churches, ii. 178). He died on 4 Oct. 1702, and his funeral sermon, by the Rev. John Piggott, was printed in the following year; but it contains no biographical particulars.
Besides some single sermons, he wrote the following works, some of which occasioned a good deal of controversy:
* 'An Orthodox Catechism, being the sum of Christian Religion contained in the Law and Gospel,' London, 1680, 12mo.
* 'A Voice from the Prison, or Meditations on Revelations,' London, 1684, 4to.
* 'Believers' Baptism from Heaven, and of Divine Institution Infants' Baptism from Earth, and Human Invention,' London, 1691, 8vo., revised and republished by John Bailey, London, 1803, 8vo.
* 'The Antidote proved a Counterfeit, or Error ​detected, and Believers' Baptism vindicated, containing an answer to "An Antidote to prevent the Prevalency of Anabaptism,"' London, 1693, 4to.
* 'Three books, viz. I. The Scribe instructed unto the Kingdom of Heaven. II. Mountains of Brass, or a Discourse upon the Decrees of God. III. A poem on the Birth, Life, Death, Resurrection, and Ascension of Jesus Christ.' 3 parts, London, 1696, 12mo.
[Cat. of Dr. Williams's Library, i. 82, ii. 87; Wilson's Dissenting Churches, ii. 558; Cat. of Printed Books in Brit. Mus.; Bodleian Cat. i. 576; Watt's Bibl. Man.]
T. C.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Collins, Charles James

​COLLINS, CHARLES JAMES (1820–1864), journalist and novelist, was connected with the London press for more than twenty years, having been on the parliamentary staff of the 'Sun,' 'Daily Telegraph,' and 'Standard.' He projected and edited the 'Racing Times,' and at one period was editor of the 'Comic News.' He died at Brixton on 31 Dec. 1864.
He was author of 'Kenilworth,' a burlesque, and other dramas of a similar character, and of the following novels:
* 'The Life and Adventures of Dick Diminy,' London [1854] 12mo, reprinted under the title of 'Dick Diminy, or the Life and Adventures of a Jockey,' London, 1855 [1875], 8vo.
* 'Sackville Chase,' 3 vols. London, 1863 and 1865, 8vo.
* 'Matilda the Dane, a Romance of the Affections,' London, 1863, 8vo.
* 'Singed Moths, a City romance,' 3 vols. London, 1864, 8vo.
* 'The Man in Chains,' 3 vols. London v 1864, 8vo.
[Times, 3 Jan. 1865; Gent. Mag. ccxviii. 258; Cat. of Printed Books in Brit. Mus.]
T. C.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Collins, David

​COLLINS, DAVID (1756–1810), lieutenant-colonel and colonial governor, was the eldest son of Major-general Arthur Tooker Collins, of Pack, in the King's County, by his wife Harriet Fraser, and the grandson of Arthur Collins, the antiquary. Born on 3 March 1756, he received his education at Exeter grammar school, and in 1770, when ​only fourteen, was gazetted to a lieutenant's commission in the marines. In 1775 he was present at Bunker's Hill; two years later he was acting as adjutant of the Chatham division; and in 1782, as captain of marines on board the Courageux, he took part in the action for the relief of Gibraltar. On the proclamation of peace in the last-mentioned year, he returned home on half-pay and settled at Rochester; but in May 1787, after five years' retirement, he sailed with Governor Arthur Phillip, as secretary and judge-advocate, on the expedition to establish a convict settlement at Botany Bay, New South Wales, lately discovered by Captain Cook. A more suitable locality, Port Jackson, was eventually selected, and there Sydney was founded. Collins stayed in Australia for nine years, and on his return wrote 'An Account of the English Colony in New South Wales. … To which are added some particulars of New Zealand, compiled … from the MSS. of Governor King' (with many engravings), 2 vols. 4to, London, 1798-1802, 2nd edition (abridged and edited by Maria Collins), 4to, London, 1804). The work, apart from its singular, almost painful interest as a narrative, is of especial value as the first official account of the infant colony. It includes an account of the discovery of Bass's Strait from Bass's 'Journal.' Collins, however, found that his appointment abroad had cost him the loss of many years' rank at home; he died a captain instead of a colonel-commandant, his rank in the army being merely brevet. His remarks on what he termed 'the peculiar hardship of my case,' at the close of the second volume of his book, appear to have awakened the sympathy of those in power; and almost immediately after its publication he was offered and accepted the governorship of another projected settlement in Australia. An attempt to found one on the south-eastern coast of Port Phillip proving a failure, he crossed to Van Diemen's Land (now Tasmania), and there, on 19 Feb. 1804, he laid the first stone of the present city of Hobart Town. Collins continued governor until his death, which occurred almost suddenly on 24 March 1810, at the age of fifty-four. By his wife, an American lady who survived him, he left no issue. In person he was remarkably handsome, his manners were delightful, while in a post of difficulty and danger he showed himself a wise and enlightened administrator. A portrait of Collins is prefixed to the second edition of his book.
[Gent. Mag. lxix. i. 282-3, lxxx. ii. 489-90; Webb's Compendium of Irish Biography, pp. 552-583; Allibone's Dictionary; Encyclopaedia Britannica, 8th edit.]
G. G.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Collins, John (1725?-1759?)

​COLLINS, JOHN (1725?–1759?), landscape painter, was from an early age patronised by the aristocracy. At the expense of the Duke of Ancaster, the Marquis of Exeter, and others, he travelled in Italy and studied his art there. On his return to England he painted scenes for one of the principal theatres in London. He died of an infectious fever at a silversmith's in Henrietta Street, Covent Garden, about 1758 or 1759. He was aged between thirty and forty, and left a wife and two children. The best known of his works are a set of landscape views from Tasso's 'Gerusalemme Liberata.' They are painted in a truly romantic style, and have a fine scenic effect. They were engraved by Paul Sandby, E. Rooker, P. C. Canot, and others, and published by his widow.
[Gent. Mag. liv. (1784), 741; Redgrave's Dict. of English Artists.]
L. C.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Collins, John (1632?-1687)

​COLLINS, JOHN (1632?–1687), congregational minister, was born in England, but educated in America. It is not impossible ​that he was the John Collins, aged three years, who sailed for New England in the Abigail on 30 June 1635, with the rest of the family of Henry Collins, starch-maker, whose conformity was certified by the minister of Stepney parish. His father became a deacon of the congregational church at Cambridge, Mass. John graduated at Harvard in 1649, and became a fellow. In 1659 he was acting as chaplain to General Monk, whom he accompanied from Scotland to London. Monk dismissed his independent chaplains in March 1660, when he turned to the presbyterians. Collins held no preferment at the date of the Uniformity Act of 1662, but is included by Calamy among the silenced ministers. Subsequently he succeeded Thomas Mallory (ejected from the lectureship of St. Michael's, Crooked Lane) as pastor of a congregational church in Lime Street. He was also one of the Pinners' Hall lecturers. He is described as a good preacher, and a man of catholic spirit. He died on 3 Dec. 1687. His son Thomas (educated at Utrecht) was elected copastor at Lime Street in 1697. According to Calamy, Collins published no separate work, but furnished a sermon to the London 'Farewell Sermons' (1663), 8vo; and another (anonymous) to the third volume (1676) of 'Morning Exercise at Cripplegate,' edited by Samuel Annesley, D.D. [q. v.] In conjunction with James Baron, B.D., he wrote a prefatory epistle to Ralph Venning's 'Remains, or Christ's School,' &c. (1675), 8vo; he also wrote an epistle prefixed to a 'Discourse of the Glory to which God hath called Believers' (1677), 12mo, by Jonathan Mitchel, a New England divine.
[Cotton Mather's Hist. New Eng. (1702), pt. iv. 136, 200; Calamy's Account (1713), p. 837; Continuation (1727), p. 962; Palmer's Nonconf. Memorial (1802), ii. 4, (1803) iii. 511; Hist. Acct. of my own Life, 2nd ed. (1830), i. 142; Neal's Hist. Puritans (Dublin, 1759), iv. 203; Original Lists of Emigrants to America (1874), p. 97.]
A. G.
# Devonshire Characters and Strange Events/Tom Austin

TOM AUSTIN
TOM AUSTIN was a native of Collumpton, and was the son of a respectable yeoman, who, at his death, left him his little property, which was estimated at that time as worth £80 per annum. As he bore a good character, he soon got a wife with a marriage portion of £800. Unhappily this accession to his means completely turned his head. He became wild and extravagant, and in less than four years had dissipated all his wife's fortune and mortgaged his own farm. Being now somewhat pinched in circumstances, he was guilty of several frauds on his neighbours, but they did not prosecute him, out of respect for his family. Then, unable to satisfy his needs, he took to the highway, and stopped Sir Zachary Wilmot on the road between Wellington and Taunton Dean, and as the worthy knight resisted being robbed, Austin shot him dead. From Sir Zachary he got forty-six guineas and a silver-hilted sword. With this plunder he made haste home to Collumpton undiscovered. This did not last long, as he continued in the same course of riot. When it was spent he started to visit an uncle of his, living at a distance of a mile.
On reaching the house he found nobody within but his aunt and five small children, who informed him that his uncle had gone away for the day on business, and they invited him to stay and keep them company ​till his return. He consented, but almost immediately snatched up an axe and split the skull of his aunt with it, then cut the throats of all the children, laid their bodies in a heap, and proceeded to plunder the house of the money it contained, which amounted to sixty guineas. Then he hastened home to his wife, who, perceiving some blood on his clothes, asked whence it came. In reply he rushed upon her with a razor, cut her throat, and then murdered his own two children, the eldest of whom was not three years of age.
Hardly had he finished with these butcheries before his uncle arrived, calling on his way home. On entering the house this man saw what had been done, and though little suspecting what would meet his eyes when he returned home, with great resolution flung himself upon Tom Austin, mastered him, bound his hands, and brought him before a magistrate, who sent him to Exeter Gaol.
In August, 1694, this inhuman wretch was hanged. He seemed quite insensible as to the wickedness of his acts, as well as to the senselessness of them, and there can be little doubt that he was a victim to homicidal madness.
When on the scaffold, when asked by the chaplain if he had anything to say before he died: "Only this," was his reply, "I see yonder a woman with some curds and whey, and I wish I could have a pennyworth of them before I am hanged, as I don't know when I shall see any again." Tom Austin had many errors, many faults, many crimes to expiate, but he carried with him into the next world one merit—his undying love of Devonshire junket, the same as curds and whey.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Boyce, Thomas

​BOYCE, THOMAS (d. 1793), dramatist, was rector of Worlingham, Suffolk, and chaplain to the Earl of Suffolk. He is the author of one tragedy, 'Harold,' Lond. 4to, 1786, which was never acted. In the preface to this he states that when he wrote it he was unaware that Cumberland's play on the same subject was in rehearsal at Drury Lane. It is a dull work, but the termination, judged by the standard of the day, is not ineffective. He died 4 Feb. 1793.
[Genest's History of the Stage; Baker, Reed, and Jones's Biographia Dramatica.]
J. K.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Bowyer, Robert

​BOWYER, ROBERT (1758–1834), miniature painter, seems to have been at an early date known to Smart, the miniature painter, and is supposed by Redgrave to have been Smart's pupil. He exhibited miniatures and paintings at the Royal Academy occasionally between 1783 and 1828; was appointed painter in water-colours to the king, and miniature painter to the queen; and received much fashionable patronage. In 1792 he issued a prospectus giving details of a plan for an edition of Hume's 'History of England,' with continuation to date, to be 'superbly embellished.' West, Smirke, Loutherbourg, and other leading artists of the day furnished historical pictures specially to be engraved for this work, which contains besides a number of engravings of portraits, medals, and antiquities. It was issued in parts, and by 1806 five unwieldy folios were published, reaching to the year 1688; the continuation was never issued, as a loss of 30,000l. is asserted to have been already incurred. Bowyer also published 'An Impartial Narrative of Events from 1816 to 1823,' London, 1823. He died at his house at Byfleet, Surrey, 4 June 1834.
[Cat. Brit. Mus. Lib.; Cat. R. A.; Gent. Mag. August 1834, p. 221; Redgrave's Dict. of Artists (1878).]
W. H-h.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Boxall, William

1904 Errata appended.
​BOXALL, Sir WILLIAM (1800–1879), portrait-painter, the son of an Oxfordshire exciseman, was born on 29 June 1800. He was educated at the grammar school at Abingdon, and entered the schools of the Royal Academy in 1819. In 1827 he went to Italy, and resided there for about two years. He first exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1823 'Jupiter and Latona' and 'Portrait of Master Maberley,' and in the following year 'The Contention of Michael and Satan for the Body of Moses.' In 1831 appeared 'Lear and Cordelia,' which was engraved in Finden's 'Gallery.' Boxall painted the portraits of many literary and artistic celebrities, among them those of Allan Cunningham (1836), Walter Savage Landor (1851), David Cox (1857), and Copley Fielding; the last now hangs in the National Portrait Gallery. In 1859 he painted for Trinity House a portrait of the prince consort, wearing the robes of master of the corporation. He excelled in the portrayal of female beauty, and many of his works of that class were engraved in the publications of the day. He exhibited at the Royal Academy altogether eighty-six portraits. In 1851 he was elected an associate of the academy, and in 1863 a full academician. Two years afterwards, in 1865, he succeeded Sir Charles Eastlake in the directorship of the National Gallery, which post he held until 1874. In 1867 he received the honour of knighthood.
During Boxall's administration the picture by Rembrandt of 'Christ blessing Little Children,' known as the 'Suermondt Rembrandt,' was secured for the National Gallery; also 'The Entombment,' attributed to Michelangelo Buonarroti, the authenticity of which was the subject of some discussion in the 'Times' in September 1881. In 1874, when the Peel collection was offered to the nation, Boxall had already resigned his post in consequence of failing health, but his successor not having been appointed, Mr. Lowe (now Lord Sherbrooke), the chancellor of the exchequer, entrusted him with the negotiation, which he brought to a successful issue. He died on 6 Dec. 1879. One of his works, entitled 'Geraldine,' and representing a lady at her toilette, is in the National Gallery.
[Ottley's Biographical and Critical Dictionary of Recent and Living Painters, &c., London, 1866, 8vo; Art Journal, 1880, p. 83.]
L. F.
Dictionary of National Biography, Errata (1904), p.34 N.B.— f.e. stands for from end and l.l. for last line
| Page | Col. | Line | |
| 87 | i | 14 f.e. | Boxall, Sir William: for In 1867 read On 24 March 1871 |
| | | 13 f.e. | after knighthood insert and became a retired academician in 1877 |
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Boyce, Samuel

​BOYCE, SAMUEL (d. 1775), dramatist, was originally an engraver, and held subsequently a place in the South Sea House. He is the author of 'The Rover, or Happiness at Last,' a dramatic pastoral, 4to, 1752, which was never acted, and 'Poems on several Occasions,' Lond. 1757, 8vo, a large-paper copy of which was in the Garrick sale. He died 21 March 1775.
[Baker, Reed, and Jones's Biographia Dramatica; Lowndes's Bibliographer's Manual.]
J. K.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Boxer, Edward

​BOXER, EDWARD (1784–1855), rear-admiral, entered the navy in 1798, and after eight years' junior service, for the most part with Captain (afterwards Sir) Charles Brisbane, and for some short time in the Ocean, bearing Lord Collingwood's flag, was confirmed, 8 June 1807, as lieutenant of the Tigre with Captain Benjamin Hallo well (afterwards Carew), whom, on promotion to flag rank in October 1811, he followed to the Malta, and continued, with short intermissions, under Rear-admiral Hallowell's immediate command, until he was confirmed as commander on 1 March 1815. In 1822 he commanded the Sparrowhawk (18) on the Halifax station, and was posted out of her on 23 June 1823. From 1827 to 1830 he commanded the Hussar as flag-captain to Sir Charles Ogle at Halifax. In August 1837 he was appointed to the Pique, which he commanded on the North American and West Indian stations; and early in 1840 was sent to the Mediterranean, where he conducted the survey of the position afterwards occupied by the fleet off Acre, and took part in the bombardment and reduction of that place in November. For his services at that time he received the Turkish gold medal, and was made C.B. 18 Dec. 1840. In August 1843 he was appointed harbour-master at Quebec, and held that office till his promotion to flag-rank, 5 March 1853. In December 1854 he was appointed second in command in the Mediterranean, and undertook the special duties of superintendent at Balaklava, which the crowd of shipping, the narrow limits of the harbour, and the utter want of wharves or of roads had reduced to a state of disastrous confusion. This, and more especially the six-mile sea of mud between the harbour and the camp, gave rise to terrible suffering and loss, the blame for which was all laid on the head of the admiral-superintendent at Balaklava, so that even now Admiral Boxer's name is not uncommonly associated with the memory of that deadly Crimean winter. But in truth it ought to be remembered rather as that of the man who, at the cost of his life, remedied the evils which had given rise to such loss. He died of cholera on board the Jason, just outside the harbour, on 4 June 1855, and Lord Raglan in reporting his death ​said: 'Since he undertook the appointment of admiral-superintendent of the harbour of Balaklava he has applied himself incessantly to the discharge of his arduous duties, exposing himself in all weathers; and he has rendered a most essential service to the army by improving the landing-places and establishing wharves on the west side of the port, whereby the disembarkation of stores and troops has been greatly accelerated, and communications with the shore have been rendered much easier.' He had been a widower for nearly thirty years, but left a numerous family.
[O'Byrne's Nav. Biog. Dict.; Gent. Mag. (1855), N.S. xliv. 95.]
J. K. L.