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

​DRAGE, WILLIAM (1637?–1669), medical writer, a native of Northamptonshire, was born in or about 1637. He practised as an apothecary at Hitchin, Hertfordshire, where he died in the beginning of 1668–9. His will, dated 10 Oct. 1666, with a codicil dated 12 Nov. 1668, was proved on 9 March 1668–9 by his widow Elizabeth Drage, otherwise Goche, who was probably the sister of ‘my brother John Edwards of Baldock,’ Hertfordshire (Reg. in P. C. C. 31, Coke). He left issue three sons, William, Theodorus, and Philagithus, and a daughter, Lettice. To them he assigned his patrimony at Raunds, Northamptonshire, and land, house, malting, and homestead at Morden, Cambridgeshire. Drage, who was a profound believer in astrology and witchcraft, and a disciple of Dr. James Primrose, the coarse opponent of Harvey, wrote the following curious treatises: 1. ‘A Physical Nosonomy; or a new and true description of the Law of God (called Nature) in the Body of Man. To which is added a Treatise of Diseases from Witchcraft,’ 2 parts, 4to, London, 1665 (a reissue, with new title-page, ‘The Practice of Physick,’ &c., appeared 4to, London, 1666, and was followed by a third issue, entitled ‘Physical Experiments,’ 4to, London, 1668). From the notice at the beginning and in his ‘monitory Proœmium to the Candid Readers,’ Drage, it would seem, had ready another work, to be called ‘Physiology, Iatrosophy, and Pneumatography,’ but ‘was frustrated in his expectation, as to the time, it being not yet printed.’ 2. ‘Pretologie, a Treatise concerning Intermitting Fevers,’ 16mo, London, 1665. The same in Latin, with the title, ‘Πυρετολογία: sive G. Dragei … Observationes et Experientiæ de Febribus intermittentibus,’ &c., 16mo, London, 1665.
G. G.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Doyle, Thomas

​DOYLE, THOMAS, D.D. (1793–1879), catholic divine, born on 21 Dec. 1793, was prosecuting his studies at St. Edmund's College, Ware, where he had acted as organist, when a sudden dearth of priests obliged the bishop, Dr. Poynter, to confer on him the priesthood in 1819 before he had finished his theological curriculum. He was sent to St. George's, then the Royal Belgian Chapel, in the London Road, Southwark, in 1820, and nine years later he became senior priest there. It was owing to his exertions that the large cathedral, dedicated to St. George, was built, from designs by Arthur Welby Pugin, in St. George's Fields, on the spot where in 1780 Lord George Gordon assembled his followers to march to the houses of parliament in order to protest against any concessions to the catholics. The works were begun in September 1840, and the building was consecrated on 4 July 1848. The Protestant Association issued a special tract on the occasion entitled ‘The Opening of the new Popish Mass House in St. George's Fields.’ The opening was attended by all the English, and several Irish, Scotch, and foreign bishops, and also 260 priests, together with members of the orders of Passionists, Dominicans, Cistercians, Benedictines, Franciscans, Oratorians, and Brothers of Charity. The church was the finest Roman catholic edifice built in England in post-reformation times. When the papal hierarchy was re-established in 1850, Doyle was constituted provost of the cathedral chapter of the newly erected see of Southwark. He was a great friend of Cardinal Wiseman, and of John, earl of Shrewsbury, who employed him in several matters of trust and confidence. His frequent letters to the ‘Tablet,’ under the signature of ‘Father Thomas,’ were full of a quaint humour peculiar to himself. He died at St. George's on 6 June 1879, and was buried in the cathedral.
[Tablet, 14 June 1879, p. 756; Weekly Register, 14 June 1879, p. 373; Times, 9 June 1879, p. 13 a; Annual Register (1848) Chron. p. 84.]
T. C.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Harris, John Ryland

​HARRIS, JOHN RYLAND (Ieuan Ddu o Lan Tawy) (1802–1823), author, only son of the Rev. Joseph Harris (Gomer) [q. v.], was born at Swansea 20 Dec. 1802, When nine years old his delight was to be at the compositor's frame, and when thirteen his father, finding him more inclined to the frame than to study, took him to the printing office, and for the next four years he did all the compositor's work, which included in 1818 and 1819 the printing of his father's newspaper, the ‘Seren Gomer,’ and other works of importance. After this he returned to his books, and studied Latin, Greek, Hebrew, German, French, and Italian. The progress, however, was effected at the expense of his health, which had never been strong. His first literary effort, made when he was between eleven and twelve, was ‘Cymorth i Chwerthin’ (‘Aids to Laughter’), and it passed ​through two editions. His contributions to ‘Seren Gomer’ from 1818 till 1823 were numerous and striking. They appeared anonymously, embraced a great variety of subjects, and soon arrested considerable attention. In 1819 Dr. W. O. Pughe sent him, in consideration of their merits, a copy of his ‘Coll Gwynfa,’ the Welsh translation of Milton's ‘Paradise Lost,’ long passages of which Harris committed to memory, this probably induced him later on to undertake the translation of the ‘Paradise Regained,’ specimens of which appeared in the ‘Cambro Briton’ and met with great approval. In 1821 he carried on a warm controversy in the ‘Cambrian’ concerning the Welsh language, which he passionately loved, and this brought him correspondence from many men of letters. He wrote two of the hymns in his father's hymn-book, and one of them continues popular. An article of his appeared in the ‘Monthly Magazine’ on the Welsh sounds ‘ch’ and ‘ll.’ His last published work was ‘Grisiau Cerdd Arwest,’ a guide to the reading of music. Two large editions were speedily sold. At the time of his death he had a Welsh and English dictionary on a large scale in preparation, and had made some progress with his ‘Geirlyfr Barddonol,’ a kind of rhyming dictionary. He died of consumption 4 Dec. 1823, when barely twenty-one.
The memoir (‘Cofiant Ieuan Ddu’) by his father is one of the most touching things in the Welsh language.
[Jones's Geiriadur Bywgraffyddol, i. 473–8.]
R. J. J.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Harris, Joseph (fl.1661-1699)

​HARRIS, JOSEPH (fl. 1661–1699), actor and dramatist, joined the king's company of players at the Theatre Royal. He and three others are said by Downes (Roscius Anglicanus, p. 2) to have been bred up from boys under the master actors. The ‘History of the Stage,’ ascribed to Betterton, says ‘Mr. Harris was bred a seal-cutter,’ words which suggest a near relationship with Henry Harris (d. 1704?) [q. v.], chief engraver to the mint. So late as 1690 Harris played Colonel Downright in ‘Widow Ranter,’ by Mrs. Behn. He obtained little reputation in his profession, and on the accession of Queen Anne was appointed engraver to the mint. Giles Jacob says by the assistance of his friends he arrived at being an author (Lives and Characters, i. 129), and assigns him two plays:
* ‘The Mistakes, or the False Report,’ a tragi-comedy, 4to, 1691, acted at the Theatre Royal in 1690 by a company including Mountfort and Mrs. Bracegirdle. This is a poor piece as regards plot and language, which according to Jacob was composed by another person and consigned to Harris, who spoiled it.
* ‘The City Bride, or the Merry Cuckold,’ 4to, 1696. This comedy, taken without acknowledgment from Webster's ‘Cure for a Cuckold,’ failed on the first representation.
To these works the ‘Biographia Dramatica’ adds (3) ‘Love's a Lottery and a Woman the Prize,’ 4to, 1699, to which is annexed (4) a masque, ‘Love and Riches Reconcil'd,’ both performed in 1699 at Lincoln's Inn Fields. The plot of the former, according to Genest (ii. 171), is ‘improbable, but some parts of the dialogue are not bad.’ The masque is unmentioned in Genest.
[Works cited; Doran's Annals of the English Stage, ed. Lowe.]
J. K.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Harris, John (d.1834)

​HARRIS, JOHN (d. 1834), water-colour painter, was one of the earliest artists who produced tinted drawings. He exhibited at the Royal Academy from 1802 to 1815, and made some designs for illustrations. He is probably identical with John Harris, a freemason, who executed some masonic plates in lithography in 1825, and in 1833 published a lithograph from a drawing taken on the spot, 7 July 1833, of the ‘Raising of the Block of Granite which forms the Pediment of the Porch for New Bridewell in Tothill Fields.’ Harris died in 1834.
[Redgrave's Dict. of Artists; Graves's Dict. of Artists, 1760–1880.]
L. C.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Harris, John (fl.1680-1740)

​HARRIS, JOHN (fl. 1680–1740), engraver, was mainly employed on engraving for works on architecture or topography. The earliest engraving bearing his name is one of ‘The Encampment of the Royal Army on Hounslow Heath in 1686.’ In 1700 he engraved a map of the world after a drawing by Edmund Halley. He engraved some of the views of gentlemen's seats in ‘Britannia Illustrata’ (1709–31) and some of the elevations in the fourth volume of ‘Vitruvius Britannicus’ (1739). Among other engravings by him are a view of Cadiz, some views of St. Mary-le-Strand, some plates for T. Baston's ‘Ships of the Royal Navy,’ plates for the ‘Oxford Almanack,’ &c. His work was carefully executed. Vertue mentions another engraver living in London in 1713 ‘Harris, jun.: etcher,’ thus suggesting there were two of the name.
[Strutt's Dict. of Engravers; Dodd's manuscript Hist. of Engravers (Brit. Mus. Add. MS. 33401); Vertue's MSS. (Brit. Mus. Add. MS. 23070.)]
L. C.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Harris, Joseph (1702-1764)

​HARRIS, JOSEPH (1702–1764), assay master of the mint, eldest son of Howel and Susanna Harris of Trevecca in the parish of Talgarth in Breconshire, was born in 1702. He is said to have been originally a working blacksmith at his native place, but to have removed at an early age to London, where he soon made his mark as a writer on scientific subjects. He was the author of several papers relating to astronomy and magnetic observations in the ‘Philosophical Transactions’ between 1728 and 1740. His other works appear to have been published anonymously, except that on ‘Optics,’ which appeared in 1775 after his death, and was intended to form part of an exhaustive treatise. His essay on money (1756) and coins is still valuable. MacCulloch calls it ‘one of the best works ever published on the subject.’ In ‘Murray's Magazine’ for May 1887 it is described as ‘a careful and singularly advanced essay, which proves him to have been a rigid monometallist, as it contains the expression of an opinion that only one metal can be money, a standard measure of property and commerce in any country.’ This essay is also specially referred to by Lord Liverpool in his celebrated letter to George III, dated 7 May 1805, upon the advantages of gold as the single measure of value. Harris probably held some subordinate post in the mint before his appointment as assay master in 1748. He died in the Tower of London on 26 Sept. 1764, and was buried there. On his monument in Talgarth Church it is said that ‘he invented many mathematical instruments,’ and that his political talents were well known to the ministers of the day, to whom he freely communicated many ‘wise and learned ideas.’ He married one of the daughters and heiresses of Thomas Jones of Tredustan. Harris was not, as has been said, warden of the mint or fellow of the Royal Society.
Harris's works are:
* ‘A Treatise on Navigation, containing the Theory of Navigation demonstrated, Nautical Problems, Astronomical Problems, Practical Navigation. To which is prefixed a treatise of Plane Trigonometry,’ London, 1730, 4to.
* ‘The Description and Uses of the Celestial and Terrestrial Globe and the Orrery,’ a revised edition of a work of John Harris's (1667–1719) [q. v.], 3rd ed. London, 1734; 7th, London, 1757–8; 9th, London, 1763; 10th, London, 1768, 8vo.
* ‘An Essay on Money and Coins,’ 2 pts., 1756, 8vo, 1758, 8vo.
* ‘A Treatise of Optics,’ ​containing elements of the science in two books, London, 1775.
Harris's second brother, Thomas Harris (1705–1782), settled in London as a tailor, obtained contracts for supplying the army with clothing, and amassed a considerable fortune, with which he retired to his native country and purchased the estates of Tregunter, Trevecca, &c. He was sheriff of Breconshire in 1768, and died 23 Sept. 1782, aged 77. Howel Harris [q. v.], the Welsh Calvinistic divine, was another brother.
[Williams's Eminent Welshmen; The Queen's Assay Master in Murray's Mag. for May 1887, by Professor C. Roberts-Austen; Jones's Hist. of Breconshire; Poole's Hist. of Breconshire; letter from Rector of Talgarth.]
R. J. J.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Harris, Joseph (d.1814)

​HARRIS, JOSEPH (d. 1814), organist and musical composer, whose parents resided at Birmingham, matriculated at Magdalen College, Oxford, 16 March 1773. He was organist of St. Martin's Church, Birmingham, in 1787, and died at Liverpool in 1814. His secular compositions include: Op. 1. Eight songs, arranged for solo voice with accompaniments of a string quartet and horns; Op. 2. Six harpsichord quartets and a quintet; Op. 3. Twelve songs for solo voice, and varying accompaniments of pianoforte and string and wind instruments. Handel's influence is very apparent in Harris's composition.
[Dict. of Musicians, 1827, p. 332; Foster's Alumni Oxon. ii. 613; Bunce's History of Old St. Martin's, Birmingham, p. 50; Harris's Songs.]
L. M. M.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Harris, Joseph John

​HARRIS, JOSEPH JOHN (1799–1869), musician, was born in London in 1799. For seven years he was in the choir of the Chapel Royal, St. James's, under John Stafford Smith, ​ and in 1823 was appointed organist of St. Olave's Church, Southwark. He held a similar position at Blackburn, Lancashire, from 1828 to 1831, when he became singing-master and assistant organist at the Manchester Collegiate Church, now cathedral. In 1848 he succeeded William Sudlow as organist and choirmaster of the cathedral. He was for many years connected as director with the Gentlemen's Glee Club and other societies in Manchester. He published: 1. ‘A Selection of Psalm and Hymn Tunes,’ Southwark, 1827. 2. ‘The Cathedral Daily Service,’ Manchester, 1844, 12mo. 3. ‘The Musical Expression; a Guide for Parents,’ &c., 1845, 8vo. He published also two anthems and some other compositions, and four of his glees were printed after his death. Six chants and three arrangements for responses to the commandments are included in Joule's ‘Collection of Chants.’ He wrote some good ‘Cathedral’ services which have not been published. He died of congestion of the lungs at Manchester on 10 Feb. 1869.
Joseph Thorne Harris, (1828–1869), his son, born at Bow, London, 1828, died at Broughton, Manchester, 1869, was a musician of great talent and accomplishments. He was a brilliant pianist and a prolific writer of musical compositions, a few of which have been printed.
[Manchester Courier, 12 Feb. 1869; Grove's Dict. of Music, i. 691; Brown's Dict. of Musicians, 1886, p. 303; information supplied by Mr. B. St. J. B. Joule.]
C. W. S.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Davidson, Harriet Miller

​DAVIDSON, HARRIET MILLER (1839–1883), authoress, was born at Cromarty in Scotland on 25 Nov. 1839. She was the second but eldest surviving child of Hugh Miller [q. v.], the distinguished geologist, and his wife Lydia Fraser, a lady of high culture and considerable literary power. She was a very beautiful and highly gifted child, with a remarkable gift of improvisation in verse and song, reminding some of her friends of Scott's ‘Pet Marjory.’ Educated at Edinburgh and London, she was barely seventeen at the time of her father's death in 1856, which caused a shock from which she never completely recovered. In 1863 she married the Rev. John Davidson, minister of the Free church of Scotland at Langholm in Dumfriesshire. In 1869, her husband having been appointed minister of Chalmers's Church in Adelaide, South Australia, she removed thither, and very soon made a strong impression by her bright social qualities among Adelaide friends. When Mr. Davidson was appointed to the chair of English literature and mental philosophy, the new sphere seemed not less appropriate for Mrs. Davidson than it was for him. But even before his death, which took place in 1881, his wife had been in a precarious state of health, and from 1880 she was a confirmed invalid. She died on 20 Dec. 1883.
Mrs. Davidson's literary work began with several fugitive poems published in local journals. Her first book was ‘Isobel Jardine's History,’ a temperance tale, published under the auspices of the Scottish Temperance League. This story has been very popular, and has run through several editions. ‘Christian Osborne's Friends’ followed, a story suggesting several references to her own hardy seafaring ancestors. In Adelaide she became a contributor to the local newspapers, and her articles, poems, and stories were looked for and read with admiration by a large class of readers up to a short time before her death. Among these stories one entitled ‘A Man of Genius’ was considered by her the best of her prose writings. ‘Sir Gilbert's Children,’ the last of her stories, was left unfinished, but completed from her instructions to a friend. She was also a contributor to ‘Chambers's Journal,’ where ‘Daisy's Choice’ appeared in 1870, and ‘The Hamiltons,’ a story of Australian life, in ​1878. Her poems were never collected, but many of them had great merit. A poem on summer attracted the friendly notice of Canon Kingsley at the time it was published.
[The Australian Register; Dr. Peter Bayne's Life and Letters of Hugh Miller; private information from her brother, Hugh Miller, esq., of the Geological Survey for Scotland.]
W. G. B.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Davidson, Alexander Dyce

​DAVIDSON, ALEXANDER DYCE, D.D. (1807–1872), divine, was born in Aberdeen in 1807, and spent his life there. After a course of study in the university he was ordained minister of the South church in 1832, and was transferred to the West church in 1836. He married Elizabeth Blaikie 11 Aug. 1840. His popularity as a preacher was very great, and his influence among the students of the university and the more cultured classes was paramount. To him more than to any other was due the transformation of religious opinion in Aberdeen from ‘moderatism’ to ‘evangelicalism,’ which led to the exodus of the city ministers and congregations at the disruption of 1843. Davidson led the most influential congregation of the city into the Free church, and continued to minister to it with undiminished success, first in Belmont Street, then in a new church in Union Street, till his death in 1872. He devoted himself wholly to pulpit work, taking no part in public affairs. He left some two thousand sermons fully written out, a selection from which, with a preface by Dr. F. Edmond, was published after his death. A course of sermons on the Book of Esther was published in 1859. Davidson had the degree of doctor of divinity from his own university in 1854.
W. R. N.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/David II

​DAVID II (1324-1371), king of Scotland. [See Bruce, David.]
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Crane, John

​CRANE, JOHN (1572–1652), apothecary, was a native of Wisbech, Cambridgeshire. He settled at Cambridge, where he became an eminent apothecary, and he appears in the latter part of his life to have practised as a physician (Parr, Life of Abp. Ussher, pp. 320, 321). William Butler (1535–1618) [q. v.], the most celebrated physician of his age, lived in Crane's house, and left him great part of his estate (Cooper, Annals of Cambridge, iii. 121, 123, 450). Edward Hyde, afterwards Lord Clarendon, when about twenty years old, was taken ill at Cambridge, and was attended by Crane. In his ‘Life’ he calls him ‘an eminent apothecary who had been bred up under Dr. Butler, and was in much greater practice than any physician in the university’ (Gent. Mag. lx. pt. i. pp. 509, 510). Crane used to entertain openly all the Oxford scholars at the commencement, and to relieve privately all distressed royalists during the usurpation (Lloyd, Memoires, ed. 1677, p. 634). He was lord of the manors of Kingston Wood and Kingston Saint George, Cambridgeshire (Lysons, Cambridgeshire, p. 223). In 16 Car. I he served the office of sheriff of that county (Fuller, Worthies, ed. Nichols, i. 176).
He died at Cambridge on 26 May 1652, aged 80, and was buried in Great St. Mary's, in the chancel of which church there is a mural tablet with his arms and a Latin inscription (Le Neve, Monumenta Anglicana, ii. 12; Blomefield, Collectanea Cantabrigiensia, p. 97). He gave the house in which he lived in Great St. Mary's parish, after the death of his widow, to the regius professor of physic for the time being. He also gave 100l. to the university, ‘to be lent gratis to an honest man, the better to enable him to buy good fish and fowl for the university, having observed much sickness occasioned by unwholesome food in that kind’ (Fuller, Worthies, ed. Nichols, i. 166). Altogether he bequeathed 3,000l. for charitable purposes, and he left legacies of 200l. to Dr. Wren, bishop of Ely, and Dr. Brownrigg, bishop of Exeter (Cooper, Annals of Cambridge, iii. 450; Charity Reports, xxxi. 16, 379).
[Authorities cited above.]
T. C.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Crampton, Philip

​CRAMPTON, Sir PHILIP (1777–1858), surgeon, descended from a Nottinghamshire family settled in Ireland in Charles II's reign, was born at Dublin on 7 June 1777. He studied medicine in Dublin, early entered the army medical service, and left it in 1798, when he was elected surgeon to the Meath Hospital, Dublin. In 1800 he graduated in medicine at Glasgow. He soon after commenced to teach anatomy in private lectures, and maintained a dissecting-room behind his own house. His success was marked, both in his private and in his hospital teaching. He was an excellent operator and an attractive practitioner, being ready in resource, successful in prescribing, and cultivated in medical science. He was for many years surgeon-general to the forces in Ireland and surgeon in ordinary to the queen, a member of the senate of the Queen's University, and three times president of the Dublin College of Surgeons. In 1839 Crampton was created a baronet. After retaining a large medical and surgical practice almost to the close of his life, he died on 10 June 1858, being succeeded in the baronetcy by his eldest son, John Fiennes Crampton [q. v.], then British ambassador in Russia.
Crampton was much interested in zoology, and in 1813 published in Thomson's ‘Annals of Philosophy’ (i. 170) a ‘Description of an Organ by which the Eyes of Birds are accommodated to different distances,’ for which he was shortly after elected F.R.S. He was prominent in the foundation of the Royal Zoological Society of Ireland, and secured the grant to it of the ground in the Phœnix Park.
G. T. B.