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

​LEECH, LEICH, or LEITCH, DAVID (fl. 1628–1653), poet, was probably a native of Cheshire, and younger brother of John Leech [q. v.], the epigrammatist. He was appointed regent of King's College, Aberdeen, in 1628, and sub-principal in 1632 (Kennedy, ii. 403, 405), and became minister of Ellon, Aberdeenshire, in 1638. He declined to take the national covenant, and fled to England, but returned to Aberdeen in 1640, preached two 'penitentiall' sermons, the first being found ​unsatisfactory, and 'gave obedience to the kirk' (Spalding). He was at Ellon till 1648, when he went to England as chaplain to the Scottish army, became chaplain to Charles II, and returned to be minister of Kemnay, Aberdeenshire, in January 1660. In 1653 he was created D.D. by Aberdeen University, and in October of the same year was deprived of his living for deserting his parish, the presbytery of Edinburgh reporting (16 May) that he 'had a church on the roadway, not far from London' (Presbytery Records). No known record of his death exists.
In 1648 the church of Scotland officially expressed a wish to have certain versified additions to the Psalter, and the commission of assembly' desired Mr. Johne Adamson to revise Mr. David Leitch's papers of poecie, and give his opinion to the commission thereof (Minutes of Commission, p. 806; Baillie, Letters, iii. 664). Shortly after this the commission informed the presbytery of Ellon that Leech was 'employed in paraphrasing the songs of the Old and New Testaments' in Edinburgh (Minutes, p. 362). His sonzs do not seem to have been printed. In April 1636 he pronounced a Latin funeral oration on the death of Bishop Patrick Forbes of Aberdeen, and this, with a Latin poem, is printed in the Spottiswoode Society's edition of Forbes's 'Funeral Sermons.' &c. In 1637 he published an academical oration, 'Philosophia Ulachrymans.' and in 1667 a volume of Latin poetry, entitled 'Parerga' (London, 12mo). He is described as ' a most fluent poet in the Latin tongue, an exquisite philosopher, and a profound theologian (Urquhart).
[Scott's Fasti Eccl. Scot., Synod of Aberdeen, pp. 587, 602; Baillie's Letters and Journals, ed. Laing, iii. 554; Presbytery Records of Aberdeen; Kennedy's Annals of Aberdeen, ii. 403, 405; Sir Thomas Urquhart's Discovery of a Most Exquisite Jewell, &c, Edinburgh, 1774, p. 124; Funeral Sermons, &c., on Bishop Patrick Forbes (Spottiswoode Soc), p. 235; Spalding's Hist. of the Troubles (Bannatyne Club); Scottish Notes and Queries, ii. 41.]
J. C. H.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Purton, William

​PURTON, WILLIAM (1784–1825), stenographer, born in 1784, was the earliest known teacher, and in all probability the inventor, of one of the seven systems of stenography now practised by professional shorthand writers in the houses of parliament and the supreme court of judicature. He kept a school at Pleasant Row, Pentonville, and only taught shorthand to some favourite pupils. The earliest professional exponent of the system was Thomas Oxford, who learnt it from Purton in 1819, and it was subsequently improved by him and Mr. Hodges. Purton died in London about Christmas 1825, and was buried at Elim (baptist) Chapel, Fetter Lane, Holborn.
Purton did not print his system, but it was used by some of the most expert practitioners of the stenographic art. It is sometimes called Richardson's system; sometimes Counsell's. It was not till 1887, when Mr. Alexander Tremaine Wright printed a pamphlet on the subject, that the origin of this angular, ‘roughhewn, and unfinished’ system was traced to Purton. The alphabet, with the ‘arbitraries,’ was not published till the following year, when Mr. John George Hodges appended it to his work entitled ‘Some Irish Notes, 1843–1848, and other Work with the Purton System of Shorthand, as practised since 1825,’ London, 1888, 8vo.
T. C.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Putta

​PUTTA (d. 688), first bishop of Hereford, was skilled in the Roman system of church music, having been instructed in it by the disciples of Pope Gregory; he was ordained priest of Rochester by Wilfred during the vacancy of the see after the death of Bishop Damian (d. 664) between the death of archbishop Deusdedit [q. v.] on 14 July 664 and the landing in England of archbishop Theodore [q. v.] in 669, who on his arrival consecrated him to the see of Rochester (Bede, Historia Ecclesiastica, iv. 2). He attended the council of Hertford convened by Theodore in 673 (ib. c. 5). When Rochester was wasted by the Mercian king Æthelred during his invasion of Kent in 676, Putta was absent from the city; he was sheltered by Sexulf, the bishop of the Mercians, who gave him a church and a small estate, where he dwelt until his death, making no effort to regain his bishopric, to which Theodore consecrated Cuichelm in 676, and on his resignation Gebmund in 678. Putta meanwhile performed service in his church, and went wheresoever he was asked to give instruction in church music (ib. c. 12). It is said, though perhaps this is a mere inference, that he had often thought of resigning his bishopric before he was compelled to leave it (Gesta Pontificum, p. 135). His place of retreat is said to have been in the district of the Hecanas or Herefordshire, and he there perhaps acted as Sexulf's deputy, and has therefore been reckoned as the first bishop of Hereford (ib. p. 298; Flor. Wig. i. 238; Ecclesiastical Documents, iii. 130). His name occurs as a witness to a charter of Wulfhere of Mercia to an abbess of Bath, marked spurious by Kemble (Codex Diplomaticus, No. 13). In this charter, as given in the ‘Bath Chartulary’ (C. C. C. Cambr. MS. cxi. 59) he is described as ‘archiepiscopus,’ evidently by a mistake of the scribe (Two Bath Chartularies, Introd. vol. xxxiii. pt. i. pp. 6, 76). He also appears as a witness to another charter to the same abbess, marked spurious (Codex Dipl. No. 21; Two Bath Chartularies, pt. i. pp. 8, 77), and in a spurious document relating to the monastery of Peterborough (Ecclesiastical Documents, iii. 136, 160). He died in 688 (Flor. Wig. i. 41). Bede describes him as well-informed as to church discipline, content with a simple life, and more eager about ecclesiastical than worldly matters.
[Bede's Hist. Eccl. iv. cc. 2, 5, 12, Flor. Wig. i. 41, 238 (both Engl. Hist. Soc.); Will. of Malmesbury's Gesta Pontiff. pp. 135, 298 (Rolls Ser.); Haddan and Stubbs's Councils and Eccl. Doc. iii. 130, 136, 160; Kemble's Codex Dipl. Nos. 6, 21; Two Bath Chartularies, pt. i. pp. 6, 8, 76, 77 (Somerset Record Soc.); Dict. Christian Biography, art. ‘Putta,’ by Bishop Stubbs.]
W. H.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Purnell, Thomas

​PURNELL, THOMAS (1834–1889), author, son of Robert Purnell, was born in Tenby, Pembrokeshire, in 1834. He matriculated at Trinity College, Dublin, in 1852 (Reg.), but afterwards came to London and embarked in journalism. In 1862 he was, on the recommendation of Sir Thomas Duffus Hardy, appointed assistant-secretary and librarian of the Archæological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland, and he retained the post until 1866. In 1870–1 he contributed to the Athenæum, under the signature ‘Q.,’ a series of dramatic criticisms which attracted notice by their incisive style and the severity of their censures. Charles Reade and Tom Taylor published replies. Of genially bohemian temperament, Purnell was popular in literary society, and founded a little club known as the ‘Decemviri,’ of which Messrs. A. C. Swinburne, Whistler, R. E. Francillon, and Joseph Knight were among the members. He came to know Mazzini, to whom he introduced Swinburne and others. In 1871 he edited Lamb's ‘Correspondence and Works,’ and organised the Charles Lamb centenary dinner. He died at Lloyd Square, Pentonville, London, where his sister kept house for him, on 17 Dec. 1889, after a long illness.
Purnell was the author of: 1. ‘Literature and its Professors,’ London, 1867, post 8vo. 2. ‘Dramatists of the Present Day’ (reprinted from the ‘Athenæum’), by Q., London, 1871, post 8vo. 3. ‘To London and elsewhere,’ London, 1881, 12mo. 4. ‘The Lady Drusilla: a Psychological Romance,’ London, 1886, post 8vo. 5. ‘Dust and Diamonds: Essays,’ London, 1888, post 8vo.
He also edited Dr. John Herd's ‘Historia Quatuor Regum Angliæ’ for the Roxburghe Club, 1868, 4to.
E. I. C.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Puseley, Daniel

​PUSELEY, DANIEL (1814–1882), author under the pseudonym of Frank Foster, son of Henry Puseley, maltster, was born at Bideford, Devonshire, on 9 Feb. 1814, and was educated at the grammar school in that town. At an early age he obtained a clerkship in a London mercantile house, and was afterwards a commercial traveller. In 1844 he became a hosier and silk merchant in Gutter Lane, city of London.
He was known as a public speaker on political and literary subjects, and as a remarkably good public reader. In 1854 he went to Australia for his health, and after his return published ‘The Rise and Progress of Australia, Tasmania, and New Zealand. By an Englishman,’ 1857; the fourth edition, in 1858, bore his own name. He returned to Australia in 1857. Settling again in England, he devoted himself to literature and to philanthropic undertakings. In 1868 he gave a banquet, the first of its kind, to six hundred ragged-school children, at St. James's Hall, London. In later life he was impoverished by the loss of his savings in foreign stocks. He died at 21 Rochester Road, Camden Town, London, on 18 Jan. 1882, and was buried in Highgate cemetery. He married, on 27 July 1844, Mary Anne, daughter of John Darlington, builder, London, by whom he had four sons: Herbert John, who edited a newspaper at Melbourne, Australia; Berkeley Edward, who was a newspaper correspondent in Cyprus, Egypt, and Afghanistan; Percy Daniel; and Sydney George.
Puseley's chief publications, other than those noticed, were:
* ‘Harry Mustifer, or a few years on the Road: Miscellaneous Poems,’ anon., 1847.
* ‘The Saturday Early Closing Movement. By a Warehouseman,’ 1854.
* ‘The Commercial Companion for the United Kingdom: a Record of eminent Commercial Houses and Men of the Day,’ 1858; 3rd edit. 1860.
* ‘Five Dramas,’ 1860.
* ‘Dependence or Independence; or Mental Culture on the part of the Poor as the means of Social and Moral Elevation,’ 1875.
* ‘New Plays by an Old Author,’ 1876. The preface is signed ‘An Englishman.’
Under the name of Frank Foster he wrote:
* ‘Number One, or the Way of the World. A Colonial Directory, including Sydney, Melbourne, and New Zealand,’ vol. i. 1862. No more published in this form; 5th edit. 1865, 3 vols.
* ‘The Age we Live in, or Doings of the Day,’ 1863; with a portrait of the author.
* ‘A Journey of Life in Long and Short Stages,’ 1866.
* ‘An Old Acquaintance,’ 1866.
* ‘The Belgian Volunteers’ Visit to England in 1867, with a Summary of the Belgian Reception of English Volunteers,’ 1867.
* ‘Our Premier, or Love and Duty,’ 1867.
* ‘The Tourist's Assistant, a Popular Guide to Watering Places in England and Wales, with a Railway Key to the Paris Exhibition,’ 1867; 3rd edit. 1868.
* ‘Who'd be an Author? with the Answer,’ 1869.
* ‘Faith, Hope, and Charity. By an Old Author,’ 1863; 2nd edit. 1870.
* ‘All Round the World, or what's the Object?’ 1876, 3 vols.
[Academy, 28 Jan. 1882, p. 63; Athenæum, 28 Jan. 1882, p. 127; information from Mrs. Daniel Puseley.]
G. C. B.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Purver, Anthony

​PURVER, ANTHONY (1702–1777), translator of the bible, born in 1702, was son of a farmer at Hurstbourne, near Whitchurch, Hampshire. He showed much promise as a pupil at the village school; and, while serving as apprentice to a shoemaker, who was also a farmer, fell to studying Hebrew, after reading the ‘Rusticus ad Academicos’ of Samuel Fisher [q. v.] At twenty years of age he opened a school, but gave it up after three or four years to come to London, where he published his ‘Youth's Delight,’ 1727, continued his study of Hebrew, and became a quaker. About 1733 he began translating the Old Testament, an undertaking which occupied him at intervals for the rest of his life. He preached to quakers' meetings in London, Essex, and elsewhere; but about 1739 he married Rachell Cotterel, mistress of a girls' boarding-school at Frenchay, Gloucestershire, and, moving thither, recommenced teaching. In 1758 he returned to Hampshire, and died at Andover in July 1777, being buried in the Friends' burial-ground there.
About 1742, when Purver had completed ​his rendering of the book of Esther, the Song of Solomon, and some of the minor prophets, he induced the Bristol printer, Felix Farley, to issue his translation, entitled ‘Opus in Sacra Biblia elaboratum,’ in parts. Dr. John Fothergill [q. v.] recommended the venture in an advertisement in the ‘Gentleman's Magazine’ for 1746, but it met with insufficient support, and only a few numbers appeared. In 1763 Purver had completed the translation of all the books of both the Old and New Testament. Fothergill gave him 1,000l. for the copyright, and published at his own expense ‘A New and Literal Translation of all the Books of the Old and New Testament; with Notes critical and explanatory. By Anthony Purver,’ in 2 vols., London, folio, 1764.
Purver claimed to execute his translation, which was known as the ‘quakers' bible,’ under divine instruction. On arriving at a difficult passage, he would shut himself up for two or three days and nights, waiting for inspiration. He accepted the theory of the divine inspiration of the scriptures in its most literal form. Alexander Geddes [q. v.], the rationalist, condemned his work as a ‘crude, incondite, and unshapely pile, without order, symmetry, or taste;’ but Southey and other critics have preferred several of his renderings to those of the authorised version, and have commended his chronology, tables, and notes. Purver's only other publication, besides a popular broadside entitled ‘Counsel to Friends' Children’ (6th edit. 1785), was a ‘Poem to the Praise of God,’ 1748, large fol.
C. F. S.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Lee, George Alexander

​LEE, GEORGE ALEXANDER (1802–1851), musical composer, born in 1802, was the son of a pugilist, Harry Lee, who kept the Anti-Gallican Tavern in Shire Lane, Temple Bar, London. While a boy he was in Lord Barrymore's service as ‘tiger,’ and is recorded to have been the first to bear that title. His decided bent for music, together with the possession of a pleasant voice, procured him some instruction in singing, and in 1825 he was engaged as tenor at the Dublin Theatre. The following year he returned to London and appeared at the Haymarket, to which theatre he was appointed musical conductor in 1827. Shortly before this he had started a music shop in the Quadrant, Regent Street.
In 1829 he joined with Melrose the singer and John Kemble Chapman in taking the Tottenham Street Theatre for the purpose of producing English operas, seceding from the management a year later in consequence of heavy penalties incurred by the lessees through certain infringements of the rights of the ‘patent theatres.’ He then became co-lessee of Drury Lane with Captain Polhill, but retired after a single season. In 1831 he directed the Lenten oratorios at Drury Lane and Covent Garden, in 1832 was appointed composer and musical director to the Strand Theatre, and in 1845 obtained a similar post at the Olympic.
He was married to Mrs. Waylett, a popular soprano singer, who had been separated from her first husband in 1822. Her death, on 26 April 1851, caused Lee a shock from which he never rallied. He died on 8 Oct. of the same year.
He wrote the music to the following dramatic pieces: ‘The Sublime and the Beautiful’ and ‘The Invincibles,’ 1828; ‘The Nymph of the Grotto’ and ‘The Witness,’ 1829; ‘The Devil's Brother’ (mainly taken from Auber's ‘Fra Diavolo’) and ‘The Legion of Honour,’ 1831; ‘Waverley’ (in collaboration with G. Stansbury), 1832; ‘Auld Robin Gray,’ composed about 1838, first performed in 1858; ‘Love in a Cottage;’ ‘Good Husbands make Good Wives,’ ‘Sold for a Song,’ and ‘The Fairy Lake.’
He composed a number of songs and ballads, of which the most popular were ‘Away, away to the Mountain's Brow,’ ‘Come where the Aspens quiver,’ and ‘The Macgregors' Gathering;’ and published two sets of eight songs, ‘Beauties of Byron’ and ‘Loves of the Butterflies,’ the words of the latter being by Thomas Haynes Bayly, of whose verses Lee unfortunately made frequent choice for musical setting. He was also the author of ‘A Complete Course of Instructions for Singing,’ of which an edition was published in London in 1872.
[Grove's Dict. of Music, ii. 111, iv. 698; Brown's Biog. Dict. of Music, p. 381; Brit. Mus. Catalogues.]
R. F. S.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Lee, Henry (1765-1836)

​LEE, HENRY (1765–1836), author of 'Caleb Quotem,' was born on 27 Oct. 1766, apparently in Nottingham, where he was educated. He early contributed poetical articles to Moore's Almanacks. He lived some time at Normanton, and soon after the age of twenty-one went to London and became an actor. Joining Stratford's company at Newport Pagnell, he travelled with it, chiefly in the west of England. At a later date he seems to have owned and managed theatres at Taunton and other places. He also went to the Channel Islands. His farce of 'Caleb Quotem' was written about 1789, and after being performed in the country was brought out at the Haymarket on July 1798 under the title 'Throw Physic to the Dogs' (Genest, Hist. of the Stage, vii. 887). It was acted twice, and then withdrawn and altered. The revised version was offered to George Colman the younger [q. v.] but refused. Soon afterwards Lee charged Colman with borrowing the character of Caleb Quotem in 'The Review, or Wags of Windsor,' a play of Colman's produced at the Haymarket in 1800. Colman later on printed 'The Review,' in some respects, as Lee said, 'quite different from what it is always represented.' and this induced Lee to publish his farce under the title given below. Lee, who speaks of his life as irregular and eccentric, died in Long Acre, London, on 30 March 1836. His published works are:
* 'Caleb Quotem and his Wife! or Paint, Poetry, and Putty! An Opera in three Acts. To which is added a Postscript, including the Scene always play'd in the Review, or Wags of Windsor, but omitted in the edition lately published by G. Colman. With prefatory remarks.' &c., London, Barnstaple (printed), 1809.
* 'Poetic Impressions, a Pocket-book with Scraps.' London, Barnstaple (printed), 1817.
* 'Dash, a Tale in Verse,' London, Barnstaple (printed), 1817.
* 'J. Gay's Chair, edited by H. L., to which are added two new tales, "The World" and "Gossip," by the Editor.' 1820.
* 'The Manager, a Melodramatic Tale in Verse,' London, 1822.
* 'Echoism, a Poem.'
* 'Memoirs of a Manager, or Life's Stage with new Scenery.' Taunton, 1830. The last-named work consists of desultory reminiscences, interspersed with poems and letters, of little biographical value.
[Gent. Mag. 1836, pt. i. p. 564; Preface to Caleb Quotem; Brit. Mus. Cat.]
T. B. S.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Lee, James (1715-1795)

​LEE, JAMES (1715–1795), nurseryman, was born at Selkirk in 1715. When about seventeen years of age he set out to walk to London, but on reaching Lichfield was laid up with small-pox. On his recovery he ​completed his journey, and ultimately became gardener at Sion House, seat of the Duke of Northumberland, near Brentford, Middlesex. In 1760 he entered into partnership with Lewis Kennedy (see Donaldson, Agricult. Biog. p. 117) as nurserymen at the Vineyard, Hammersmith, and was the means of introducing many exotic plants into cultivation in this country, among them being the fuchsia, which he happened to see growing in the window of a cottager, whose husband had brought it from South America. A guinea was at first charged for a specimen of this plant. Lee was a correspondent of Linnaeus, and his translation of part of the Swedish naturalist's works into English, under the title of 'Introduction to the Science of Botany,' was the first description of the sexual system of plants to appear in our language (Pulteney, Progress of Botany, ii. §49). It was issued in 1760, and ran through many editions; the ninth (styled the fourth) came out in 1810, with a preface by Dr. Thornton, who signed himself James Lee the younger, to the great disgust of the author's son. Lee died in July 1795, his partner haying predeceased him.
[Lee's Introd. Bot., 10th ed., Pref; Loudon's Arboretum, i. 78; Jackson's Lit. Bot. p. 36.]
B. D. J.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Lee, Henry (1826-1888)

​LEE, HENRY (1826–1888), naturalist, born in 1826, succeeded John Keast Lord [q. v.] as naturalist of the Brighton Aquarium in 1872, and was for a time a director. At the aquarium he instituted important experiments on the migration of smelts, the habits of the herring, the nature of whitebait, crayfish, and the like. His 'Aquarium Notes' for visitors were able and attractive. Privately Lee was an energetic collector of natural history specimens, and was also a skilful worker with the microscope. He was a fellow of the Linnean, Geological, and Zoological Societies in London, and was popular in society. He died, after some years of ill-health, at Renton House, Brixton, on 31 Oct. 1888.
Lee wrote:
* 'The Octopus.' 1874; a popular account of the creature when general interest was fixed upon it.
* 'Sea Fables Explained' and 'Sea Monsters Unmasked.' two of the series of handbooks issued in connection with the Fisheries Exhibition of 1883, treating of the kraken, sea-serpent, mermaids, barnacles, and the like.
* 'The Vegetable Lamb of Tartary.' 1887.
He was a contributor to 'Land and Water.'
[Times and Field, 3 Nov. 1888; Land and Water, 10 Nov. 1888, p. 568.]
M. G. W.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Nesbitt, Robert

​NESBITT or NISBET, ROBERT (d. 1761), physician, son of John Nesbitt [q. v.], a dissenting minister, was born in London. On 1 Sept. 1718 he entered as a medical ​student at Leyden, where he attended the lectures of Boerhaave and the elder Albinus, and graduated M.D. on 25 April 1721. After his return to England he practised in London as a physician. He became licentiate of the College of Physicians on 25 June 1726, was created M.D. at Cambridge on 15 June 1728, and was admitted a fellow on 30 Sept. 1729, having been ‘candidate’ at the same date in the preceding year. He filled the office of censor in 1733, 1738, 1742, 1745, and 1748, became ‘elect’ on 22 Aug. 1748, and conciliarius in 1750, 1754, and 1758. He was appointed Lumleian lecturer for five years on 23 March 1741. Nesbitt had been elected F.R.S. as early as 22 April 1725, and two years later contributed to the ‘Transactions’ a paper ‘On a Subterraneous Fire observed in the County of Kent’ (Phil. Trans. Abridg. vii. 195). He died in London on 27 May 1761.
Nesbitt published, besides ‘Disputatio de Partu difficili’ (his Leyden thesis), ‘Human Osteogeny explained in two Lectures read in the Anatomical Theatre of the Surgeons of London, anno 1731, illustrated with Figures drawn from Life,’ 1736, 8vo. A German translation by Johann Ernst Greding appeared at Altenberg in 1753. Haller in his ‘Bibliotheca Anatomica’ gives a short description of the work, and calls the author ‘bonus in universum auctor.’
G. Le G. N.