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

​WALTON, ELIJAH (1832–1880), artist, was born in November 1832 in the neighbourhood of Birmingham, where his earlier years were spent. As his parents were not in good circumstances, his boyhood was a struggle, and without the help of one or two friends he would have been unable to study art, for which his talent was soon exhibited. After passing some years at the art academy in Birmingham, he became at the age of eighteen a student at the Royal Academy in London, where he had already exhibited a picture. There he worked assiduously, drawing from the antique and from life. Nearly ten years later an accidental circumstance revealed to a friend his capabilities in mountain landscape, and in 1860, immediately after his marriage, he went to Switzerland. Thence he proceeded to Egypt, where unhappily his wife died of dysentery near the second cataract. He remained in the east, spending some time in Syria and at Constantinople, till the spring of 1862, when he returned for a short time to London. But for the next five years he was much abroad, working either in the Alps or in Egypt.
In 1867 he married his second wife, Miss Fanny Phipson of Birmingham. His sketching tours then became rarer and shorter, though he visited Greece, Norway, and the Alps. At first he resided at Staines, then removed to the neighbourhood of Bromsgrove, living most of the time at the Forelands, near that town. In 1872 his wife died, and the loss permanently affected his health. He died on 25 Aug. 1880 at his residence on Bromsgrove Lickey in Worcestershire, leaving three sons.
Walton's life was bound up in his art. He worked both in oils and in watercolours, but was more successful with the latter. Most thorough and conscientious in the study both of form and of colour, he delighted especially in mountain scenery and in atmospheric effects, such as an Alpine peak breaking through the mists, or a sunset on the Nile. Few men have equalled him in the truthful rendering of rock structure and mountain form. His pictures were much appreciated by lovers of nature; but as those of small size sold better than larger and more highly finished works, this fostered a tendency to mannerisms.
Oil paintings by Walton may be seen in the art gallery at Birmingham and the Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge. His watercolours are all in private hands. Reproductions of his watercolours illustrated the following works, to which the present writer supplied the text: (1) ‘The Peaks and Valleys of the Alps,’ 1867. (2) ‘Flowers from the Upper Alps,’ 1869. (3) ‘The Coast of Norway,’ 1871. (4) ‘Vignettes, Alpine and Eastern,’ 1873. (5) ‘The Bernese Oberland,’ 1874. (6) ‘Welsh Scenery,’ 1875. (7) ‘English Lake Scenery,’ 1876. Walton was the author of the following illustrated works: 1. ‘The Camel: its Anatomy, Proportions, and Paces,’ 1865. 2. ‘Clouds and their Combinations,’ 1869. 3. ‘Peaks in Pen and Pencil,’ 1872.
T. G. B.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Marrable, Frederick

​MARRABLE, FREDERICK (1810–1883), architect, born in 1818, was son of Sir Thomas Marrable, secretary of the board of green cloth to George IV and William IV. He was articled to Edward Blore [q. v.], the architect, and on the expiration of his time studied abroad. On his return he obtained a good deal of private practice. In 1856. on the establishment of the metropolitan board of works, Marrable was appointed superintending architect to the board. This difficult office he filled with great credit, and gained the esteem of his profession. He designed and built the offices of the board in Spring Gardens. He resigned his post in 1862. Among important buildings designed by Marrable may be noticed the Garrick Club, Archbishop Tenison's School in Leicester Square, the church of St. Peter at Deptford, and that of St. Mary Magdalen at St. Leonards-on-Sea. Marrable resided in the Avenue Road, Regent's Park, and on 22 June 1872 went to Witley in Surrey to inspect the buildings of the Bethlehem Hospital for Convalescents. While thus engaged he was taken ill, and died almost immediatelv. He occasionally exhibited his designs at the Royal Academy.
[Builder. 29 June 1872; Athenæum, 8 July 1872; Redgrave's Dict. of Artists.]
L. C.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Marnock, Robert

​MARNOCK, ROBERT (1800–1889), landscape gardener, was born on 12 March 1800 at Kintore, Aberdeenshire. In early life he was gardener at Bretton Hall, Yorkshire. In 1834 he laid out the Sheffield Botanic Garden, and was appointed the first curator. He subsequently was for a time in business as a nurseryman at Hackney, but after laying out the garden of the Royal Botanic Society in the inner circle of Regent's Park, he became curator of that garden about 1840. Thenceforward Marnock took rank as one of the leading landscape gardeners of the day. His style was that generally called 'natural' or 'picturesque,' while his work was not ​only sound and severely economical, but far in advance of the prevailing order in purity of taste. He was a succesaful manager of the Botanical Gardens exhibitions in Regent's Park until be relinquished his post there in 1862. He practised as a landscape gardener from that date until 1879, when he retired in favour of his assistant, J. F. Meston. On this occasion his admirers gave him his portrait by Wiegmann, and a painting of one of his works, together with an address written by Canon (now Dean) Hole, one of the committee. His work for Prince Demidoff at San Donato, near Florence, in 1852, added greatly to his reputation, and to the increasing taste for English gardening on the continent. His chief designs are those at Greenlands, Henley-on-Thames, for the Right Hon. W. H. Smith; at Hampstead, for Sir Spencer Wells; at Possingworth, Sussex, for Mr. Lewis Huth; Western Park, Sheffield; Park Place, Henley; Taplow Court; Eynsham Hall; Sopley Park; Montague House, Whitehall; Blythwood, near Taplow, for Mr. George Hanbury; Brambletye, near East Grinstead, for Mr. Donald Larnach; and Leigh Place, near Tonbridge, for Samuel Morley. His last public work in England was the Alexandra Park at Hastings, laid out in 1878. He continued to give professional advice in landscape gardening until the spring of 1889. His last private garden was that of Sir Henry Peek at Rousden, near Lyme Regis, completed in 1889.
Mamock died at Oxford and Cambridge Mansions, London, on 16 Nor. 1889. In accordance with his desire, his body, after a religious service, was cremated at Woking, and the remains deposited at Kensal Green on 21 Nov.
From 1836 to 1841 Marnock was editor of the monthly 'Horticultural Magazine,' and for several years, commencing with 1845, he edited the weekly 'United Gardeners' and Land Stewards' Journal.' With Richard Deakin he wrote the first volume of 'Florigraphia Britannica, or Engravings and Descriptions of the Flowering Plants and Ferns of Britain,' 8vo, 1837.
[Gardeners' Chronicle, 29 April 1882 pp. 565, 567 (with portrait), 23 Nov. 1889 p. 588 (with portrait); Gardeners' Mag. 23 Nov. 1889, pp. 741 (with portrait); Times, 21 Nov. 1889.]
G. G.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Marrat, William

​MARRAT, WILLIAM (1772–1852), mathematician and topographer, born at Sibsey, Lincolnshire, on 6 April 1772, was for fifty years a contributor to mathematical serials, such as the ‘Ladies' and Gentlemen's Diary,’ the ‘Receptacle,’ the ‘Student,’ and the ‘Leeds Correspondent.’ He was self-taught, had an extensive acquaintance with literature and science, and was a good German and French scholar. While residing at Boston, Lincolnshire, he for some years followed the trade of a printer and publisher. At other times he was a teacher of mathematics not only in Lincolnshire, but in New York, where he lived from 1817 to 1820, and at Liverpool, where he settled in 1821. His first work was ‘An Introduction to the Theory and Practice of Mechanics,’ Boston, 1810, 8vo, pp. 468. In 1811–12 he, in conjunction with P. Thompson, conducted ‘The Enquirer, or Literary, Mathematical, and Philosophical Repository,’ Boston. During 1814–16 he wrote ‘The History of Lincolnshire,’ which came out in parts, and after three volumes, 12mo, had been published, it was stopped, as Marrat alleged, through Sir Joseph Banks's refusal to allow access to his papers. In 1816 his ‘Historical Description of Stamford,’ 12mo, was published at Lincoln. ‘The Scientific Journal,’ edited by him, came out with the imprint ‘Perth Amboy, N. J. and New York,’ 1818, nine numbers, 8vo. An anonymous ‘Geometrical System of Conic Sections,’ Cambridge, 1822, is ascribed to Marrat in the catalogue of the Liverpool Free Library. He compiled ‘Lunar Tables,’ Liverpool, 1823, and wrote ‘The Elements of Mechanical Philosophy,’ 1825, 8vo. About this time he compiled the ‘Liverpool Tide Table,’ and was a contributor to ‘Blackwood's Magazine.’ From 1833 to 1836 he was mathematical tutor in a school at Exeter, but on the death of his wife he returned to Liverpool.
He died suddenly at Liverpool on 26 March 1852, and was buried at the necropolis near that city. His son, Frederick P. Marrat, is an accomplished conchologist and zoologist.
[Ladies' and Gentlemen's Diary, 1853, p. 75; Historic Soc. of Lancashire and Cheshire, xiv. 35; Notes and Queries, 1868, 4th ser. i. 365, 489; Brit. Museum and Liverpool Free Library Catalogues; Smithsonian Institution Cat. of Scientific Periodicals, 1885, p. 521; Smithers's Liverpool, p. 442; Glazebrook's Southport, 1826; communications from Messrs. F. P. Marrat (Liverpool), Robert Roberts (Boston), Morgan Brierley, and F. Espinasse.]
C. W. S.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Marrey, John

John Marre in the ODNB.
​MARREY or MAREE, JOHN (d. 1407), Carmelite, derived his name from his native village, Marr, four miles from Doncaster. He entered the Carmelite friary at Doncaster, where, according to Leland, he studied successively literæ humaniores, philosophy, and theology, and took the degree of doctor of decrees. He acquired a great reputation as a scholastic theologian, disputant, and preacher, and is recorded by the Abbot Tritheim (De Ecclesiæ Scriptoribus, cap. 49) to have been thought 'the most acute theologian in the Oxonian palæstra.' Edward III in 1376 appointed him, with some other doctors of law, to appease the quarrel between the faculties of arts and theology and the civil and canon lawyers at Oxford, who had already come to blows (Wood, Antiquities of the University of Oxford, i. 490, ed. Gutch). He is said to have 'converted or confounded the turbulent and seditious followers of Wiclif' (Pits, Scriptoribus).
Marrey was for a long period head of the Carmelite convent at Doncaster, where he died on 18 March 1407; he was buried in the choir of its chapel. He wrote, besides scholastic theology, treatises against the Wiclifites and upon the epigrams of Martial, which were known to Bale. The Joannes Marreis, prebendary of Shareshill, Staffordshire, whom Tanner is inclined to identify with Marrey, seems to be another person (Le Neve, Fasti, ed. Hardy, i. 606, 615).
[Bale's Lives of Carmelite Writers, Harleian MS. 3838. fol, 78, and De Scriptor. Maj. Brit. cent. vii. No. 32: Pits, De Illustribus Angliæ Scriptoribus, p. 585; Biblioteca Carmelitana, 1752, ii. 54; Fuller's Worthies, 1662. bk. iii. p. 207.]
J. T-t.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Smith, Colvin

​SMITH, COLVIN (1795–1875), portrait-painter and royal Scottish academician, born at Brechin in Scotland in 1795, was son of John Smith, merchant, manufacturer, and magistrate of Brechin, a descendant of the family of Lindsay, alias Smith, heritable armourers to the bishop of Brechin. His mother was Cecilia, daughter of Richard Gillies of Little Keithock, Forfarshire, and sister of Adam, lord Gillies [q. v.], and John Gillies (1747–1836) [q. v.] When young, Smith went to London and became a student in the schools of the Royal Academy, and also studied under Joseph Nollekens [q. v.] He then travelled abroad, and studied the works of the old masters, making friends at Rome with Sir David Wilkie [q. v.], whose portrait he painted. On his return he settled about 1826 in Edinburgh, where he purchased the studio and gallery in York Place which had been erected by Sir Henry Raeburn [q. v.] His powerful family connections quickly gained him employment at Edinburgh, and many of the most prominent personages in that city sat to him. He first appears as an exhibitor at the Royal Institution, Edinburgh, in 1826, 1828, and 1829, but subsequently, along with twelve other artist members of the institution, he transferred his interests to the (Royal) Scottish Academy, where he continued to exhibit during the remainder of his life. Colvin Smith is best known for his portraits of Sir Walter Scott, the first of which was painted in 1828 for Lord-chief-commissioner William Adam [q. v.] This was considered so successful that several of Scott's friends had replicas painted for them, about twenty in all, for some of which Scott gave separate sittings to please his friends. Among other notable people painted by Smith were Lord Jeffrey (considered the best likeness of him), Henry Mackenzie, Sir James Mackintosh, Robert, second viscount Melville, Lord Neaves, John, lord Hope, and others. Smith's portraits were remarkable for correct drawing, simplicity of treatment, and ​a considerable grasp of character, rather than for the more pleasing graces of pictorial art. He was but a rare contributor to the London exhibitions. Smith exhibited for the last time in 1870, and died in his own house at Edinburgh on 21 July 1875.
[Cat. of Scottish National Gallery, Loan Exhibition of Scottish National Portraits, Edinburgh, 1884, and Sir Walter Scott Centenary Exhibition, 1872; Lockhart's Life of Sir Walter Scott; Sir Walter Scott's Journal, vol. ii.; Irving's Eminent Scotsmen; Redgrave's Dictionary; information from Messrs. Adam and Cecil Gillies-Smith and J. L. Caw.]
L. C.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Smith, Edward (1665-1720)

​SMITH or SMYTH, EDWARD (1665–1720), bishop of Down and Connor, born at Lisburn in Antrim in 1665, was the son of James Smyth of Mountown, co. Down, by his wife Francisca, daughter of Edward Dowdall of Mountown. He became a scholar at Dublin University in 1678, and graduated B.A. in 1681. In 1684 he proceeded M.A. and was elected a fellow. He afterwards obtained the degrees of LL.B. in 1687, B.D. in 1694, and D.D. in 1696. In 1689, when Dublin was in possession of James II, he fled to England, where he was recommended to the Smyrna Company, and made chaplain to their factory at Smyrna. He returned to England in 1693 with a considerable private fortune, and was appointed chaplain to William III, whom he attended for four years during the war in the Low Countries. On 3 March 1695–6 he was made dean of St. Patrick's, Dublin. In 1697 he became vice-chancellor of Dublin University, and on 2 April 1699 he was consecrated bishop of Down and Connor. He died at Bath on 4 Nov. 1720. He was twice married. By his first wife, his cousin Elizabeth, daughter of William Smyth, bishop of Kilmore, he had Elizabeth, who married James, first earl of Courtown. By his second wife Mary, daughter of Clotworthy Skeffington, third viscount Massereene [q. v.], he had two sons, Skeffington Randal and James.
Smyth was elected a fellow of the Royal Society in 1695. He was also a member of the Philosophical Society of Dublin. He was the author of several sermons, and contributed various papers to the ‘Philosophical Transactions’ of the Royal Society, chiefly relating to oriental usages.
[Ware's Irish Bishops, ed. Harris, p. 214; Ware's Writers of Ireland, ed. Harris, p. 273; Thomson's Hist. of the Royal Soc. App. iv.; Pearson's Chaplains to the Levant Company, 1883, p. 34; Burke's Landed Gentry, 6th edit. ii. 1482.]
E. I. C.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Smith, Charles Harriot

​SMITH, CHARLES HARRIOT (1792–1864), architect, born in London on 1 Feb. 1792, was the son of Joseph Smith, monumental sculptor, of Portland Road, Marylebone. Leaving school at the age of twelve, he entered his father's business, employing himself in drawing and modelling after working hours. In 1813 he became a life member of the Society of Arts, and in the following year entered the Royal Academy, where he passed through all the classes, and in 1817 obtained the academy gold medal for his ‘Design for a Royal Academy.’ Acquiring a knowledge of geology, mineralogy, and chemistry, he became an authority on building stones, and was in 1836 appointed one of the four commissioners for the selection of a suitable stone for the new houses of parliament. Smith executed the ornamental stone-carving of the Royal Exchange, of the National Gallery, and of Dorchester and Bridgewater houses. In 1855 he was elected a member of the Royal Institute of British Architects. He died in London on 21 Oct. 1864, leaving one son, Percy Gordon Smith, architect for many years to the local government board. Smith contributed numerous sessional papers to the Royal Institute of British Architects, of which the most important was entitled ‘Lithology, or Observations on Stone used for Buildings,’ 1842. He also wrote an essay on linear and aërial perspective for Arnold's ‘Library of the Fine Arts.’ He frequently exhibited in the Royal Academy designs in architecture, portrait-busts, and monumental compositions.
[Dict. of Arch. 1887, vii. 93; Builder, 5 Nov. 1864; Redgrave's Dict. of Artists; Journal of Society of Arts, 16 Dec. 1864; Gent. Mag. 1864, ii. 805; Papers read at the Royal Institute of British Architects, 1864–5, p. 8.]
E. I. C.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Smith, Charles John

​SMITH, CHARLES JOHN (1803–1838), engraver, was born in 1803 at Chelsea, where his father, James Smith, practised as a surgeon. He was a pupil of Charles Pye [q. v.], and became a good engraver of book illustrations of a topographical and antiquarian character. He executed a few of the later plates in Charles Stothard's ‘Monumental Effigies,’ the views of houses and monuments in E. Cartwright's ‘Rape of Bramber,’ 1830, and several of the plates from illuminated manuscripts for Dibdin's ‘Tour in the Northern Counties of England,’ 1838. In 1829 Smith published a series of ‘Autographs of Royal, Noble, and Illustrious Persons,’ with memoirs by John Gough Nichols [q. v.], and later undertook another serial work, ‘Historical and Literary Curiosities,’ which he did not live to complete. He was elected a fellow of the Society of Antiquaries in 1837, and died of paralysis in Albany Street, London, on 23 Nov. 1838.
F. M. O'D.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Preston, William (1753-1807)

​PRESTON, WILLIAM (1753–1807), poet and dramatist, born in the parish of St. Michan's, Dublin, in 1753, was admitted a pensioner at Trinity College in 1766. He graduated B.A. in 1770, and M.A. in 1773, studied in the Middle Temple, and was called to the Irish bar in 1777. He assisted in the formation of the Royal Irish Academy, and was elected its first secretary in 1786. That post he held during the rest of his life. He also helped to found the Dublin Library Society, and was a frequent contributor to its ‘Transactions.’ He wrote occasional poetry for periodicals—including the ‘Press,’ the organ of the ‘United Irishmen,’ and the ‘Sentimental and Masonic Magazine,’ 1794, and he contributed to ‘Pranceriana’ (1784, cf. Nos. 16, 24, 25, 29, 31, and 33), a collection of satirical pieces on John Hely-Hutchinson (1724–1794) [q. v.], provost of Trinity College, and to Joshua Edkins's collection of poems (1789–90 and 1801). His chief success was attained by his tragedy ‘Democratic Rage’ (founded on incidents in the French revolution), which was produced at Dublin in 1793, and ran through three editions in as many weeks. Preston, who was a member of the ‘Monks of the Screw,’ died of overwork on 2 Feb. 1807. He was buried in St. Thomas's churchyard, Dublin.
His works were: 1. ‘Heroic Epistle of Mr. Manly … to Mr. Pinchbeck,’ a satire (anon.), 8vo, Dublin, 1775. 2. ‘Heroic Epistle to Mr. Twiss, by Donna Teresa Pinna y Ruiz,’ a satire, 8vo, Dublin, 1775; 2nd edit. Dublin, 1775. 3. ‘Heroic Answer of Mr. Twiss,’ by the same, a satire, 8vo, Dublin, 1775. 4. ‘1777, or a Picture of the Manners and Customs of the Age,’ a poem (anon.), 8vo, Dublin, 1778? 5. ‘The Female Congress, or the Temple of Cottyto,’ a mock-heroic poem in four cantos, 4to, London, 1779 6. ‘The Contrast, or a Comparison between England and Ireland,’ a poem, 1780. 7. ‘Offa and Ethelbert, or the Saxon Princes,’ a tragedy, 8vo, Dublin, 1791. 8. ‘Messina Freed,’ a tragedy, 8vo, Dublin, 1793. 9. ‘The Adopted Son,’ a tragedy. 10. ‘Rosmanda,’ a tragedy, Dublin, 1793, 8vo. 11. ‘Democratic Rage,’ a tragedy, 8vo, London, 1793. 12. ‘Poetical Works,’ 8vo, 2 vols. Dublin, 1793. 13. ‘The Siege of Ismail,’ a tragedy, 8vo, Dublin, 1794. 14. ‘A Letter to Bryan Edwards, Esq. … on some Passages of his “History of the West Indies,”’ 4to, London, 1794. 15. ‘The Natural Advantages of Ireland,’ 4to, Dublin, 1796. 16. ‘The Argonautics of Apollonius Rhodius,’ translated into English verse with notes, 12mo, 1803 (various other editions). 17. ‘Some Considerations on the History of the Ancient ​Amatory Writers and the comparative Merits of the Elegiac Poets,’ &c., Dublin? 1805? 18. ‘Posthumous Poems,’ edited by Hon. Frances Preston, with portrait, 8vo, Dublin, 1809.
D. J. O'D.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Prevost, George (1804-1893)

​PREVOST, Sir GEORGE (1804–1893), baronet, tractarian, only son of Sir George Prevost (1767–1816) [q. v.], by Catherine Anne, daughter of Major-general John Phipps, was born at Roseau in the island of Dominica on 20 Aug. 1804. He succeeded to the baronetcy on 5 Jan. 1816; matriculated at Oxford, from Oriel College, on 23 Jan. 1821; graduated B.A., taking a second class in literæ humaniores, and a first class in the mathematical school in 1825; proceeded M.A. in 1827; was ordained deacon in 1828, and priest in 1829. Prevost was a pupil and disciple of John Keble, whom he frequently visited at Southrop; there he met Isaac Williams [q. v.], whose sister Jane he married on 18 March 1828. Through life he maintained the cordiality of his relations with his old college friend, Samuel Wilberforce [q. v.], successively bishop of Oxford and Winchester. He was curate to Thomas Keble [q. v.] at Bisley, Gloucestershire, from 1828 to 1834, when he was instituted on 25 Sept. to the perpetual curacy of Stinchcombe in the same county. He was rural dean of Dursley from 1852 to 1866, proctor of the diocese of Gloucester and Bristol from 1858 to 1865, archdeacon of Gloucester from 1865 to 1881, and honorary canon of Gloucester from 1859 until his death at Stinchcombe on 18 March 1893. He was buried in Stinchcombe churchyard on 23 March.
By his wife, who died on 17 Jan. 1853, Prevost had issue two sons: George Phipps (1830–1885), who held a colonel's commission in the army; and Charles, the third baronet (d. 1902).
Prevost, who was retiring by nature and profoundly pious, was an enthusiastic supporter of the Oxford tractarian movement from its inception, and he remained faithful till death to the via media. He contributed to ‘Tracts for the Times,’ and translated the ‘Homilies of St. John Chrysostom on the Gospel of St. Matthew’ for Dr. Pusey's ‘Library of the Fathers,’ Oxford, 1843, 3 vols. 8vo (American reprint, ed. Schaff, 1888, 8vo). ​He edited the ‘Autobiography of Isaac Williams,’ London, 1892, 8vo, and printed his archidiaconal charges and some sermons.
[Foster's Baronetage, Alumni Oxon., and Index Ecclesiasticus; Burke's Peerage and Baronetage; Times, 20 March 1893; Guardian, 22 March 1893; Reginald Wilberforce's Life of Samuel Wilberforce, ed. Ashwell; J. H. Newman's Letters during Life in the English Church, ed. Anne Mozley; Charles Wordsworth's Annals of my Life, 1847–56, p. 67; Liddon's Life of Pusey, iii. 37, 280.]
J. M. R.