OpenLLM-France/wikimedia huggingface dataset:
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Rhees, Morgan John

Morgan John Rhys in the ODNB.
​RHEES, MORGAN JOHN (1760–1804), divine, was born in Glamorganshire on 8 Dec. 1760. Although his parents were in humble circumstances, he was well educated, and became a teacher. Joining the baptist church, he determined to be a minister, and, after studying at a baptist college at Bristol, was appointed to the charge of the baptist chapel at Peny-garn, Monmouthshire. While there he gained an equal notoriety as a preacher and politician, and so keenly did he sympathise with revolutionary opinions that on the outbreak of the French revolution in 1789 he resigned his charge and went to Paris. In a few months he was again in Wales, disappointed with the French revolutionary leaders, but more zealous than ever in upholding his own political opinions. About the beginning of 1790 he founded the quarterly ‘Welsh Treasury,’ through which he attacked the English ministry, and became one of the most notorious political leaders in Wales. By-and-by he was threatened with prosecution, and, after consultation with his friends, he resolved to go to America and there find a suitable situation for the founding of a colony of Welsh malcontents. He landed in February 1794, and was received by Dr. Rodgers, provost of the university of Pennsylvania.
He travelled over the southern and western states, preaching as he went, and, after engaging in ministerial work for two years in Philadelphia, he purchased a large tract of land in Pennsylvania, to which he gave the name Cambria, and upon it founded a town called Beulah. Here he settled in 1798, opened a church, and attracted Welsh immigrants. But American conditions failed to kindle his political enthusiasm, and his fame there is solely owing to his powers as a preacher. Shortly before his death he removed to Somerset, Somerset county, where he died, 17 Sept. 1804. He was survived by a widow, the daughter of Colonel Benjamin Loxley of Philadelphia, and five children. He wrote some hymns in Welsh, but few of them have been translated. Shortly before his death he published in America a selection of his ‘Orations and Discourses.’
[Sprague's Annals of the American Pulpit, vi. 344; Allibone's Dictionary of English Literature.]
J. R. M.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Rhiwallon ap Cynfyn

​RHIWALLON ap CYNFYN (d. 1069), Welsh prince, was the son of Cynfyn ap Gwerstan, and on the downfall of Gruffydd ap Llywelyn in 1063 received (with his brother Bleddyn) North Wales on condition of faithfully serving Edward the Confessor ‘everywhere by water and by land.’ As the son of Angharad, daughter of Maredudd ab Owain ap Hywel Dda, he was Gruffydd's half-brother. In August 1067 he and Bleddyn joined Eadric the Wild in an attack upon Herefordshire, which was part of the general resistance to the Conqueror. In 1069 (or 1070?) the two fought the battle of Mechain with Maredudd and Idwal, sons of Gruffydd ap Llywelyn. Though they were victorious, Rhiwallon fell, leaving Bleddyn sole prince of North Wales. His daughter Nest married Rhys ap Tewdwr, and was mother of Nest [q. v.], the mistress of Henry I (Brut y Tywysogion, ed. Rhys and Evans, p. 281).
[Annales Cambriæ; Anglo-Saxon Chronicle; Florence of Worcester; Freeman's Norman Conquest, iv. 110, 183.]
J. E. L.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Rhodes, Richard (1765-1838)

​RHODES, RICHARD (1765–1838), engraver, born in 1765, produced chiefly small line-engravings for illustrated books, in the style rendered popular towards the close of the last century by James Heath [q. v.], and continued by Charles Heath, to whom Rhodes was principal assistant for many years. He engraved plates after Fuseli in Woodmason's ‘Shakespeare,’ 1794, and in Cowper's ‘Poems,’ 1806; ‘Timon of Athens,’ after Howard, in Boydell's ‘Shakespeare,’ 1802; some plates in ‘Ancient Terra-cottas in the British Museum,’ 1810; numerous illustrations to Tegg's ‘Shakespeare,’ after Thurston, 1812–13; some of Stothard's designs for Byron's ‘Poems,’ 1814; eleven plates for Somerville's ‘Poems,’ 1815; several plates after Westall and others for Sharpe's ‘Poets,’ 1816–17; and a portrait of Henry Mackenzie, author of ‘The Man of Feeling,’ after Geddes. A number of proofs of Rhodes's engravings are in the print-room at the British Museum. He worked skilfully in a style which gave little scope for the individuality of an artist. He died at Camden Town on 1 Nov. 1838.
C. D.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Rhodes, Richard (d.1668)

​RHODES, RICHARD (d. 1668), poet and dramatist, son of a gentleman in London, received his education at Westminster School, whence he was elected to a studentship at Christ Church, Oxford, where he matriculated on 31 July 1658. When he went to the university he was already ‘well grounded in grammar and in the practical part of music.’ He graduated B.A. on 22 March 1661–2. Wood heard that he afterwards took a degree in physic at Montpelier. Subsequently he travelled in Spain, and died at Madrid in 1668.
He was the author of ‘Flora's Vagaries;’ a comedy, publicly acted by the students of Christ Church in their common refectory on 8 Jan. 1663–4, and in London at the Theatre Royal by his majesty's servants, the part of Flora being taken by ‘Mrs. Ellen Gwin.’ It was published anonymously at London in 1670, and again in 1677, 4to.
Rhodes is mentioned by Wood as one of the sixteen persons who, like himself, frequented the weekly meetings at the house of Mr. Ellis for the cultivation of the ‘delightful facultie of musick,’ and he is described as ‘a junior student of Christ Church, a confident Westmonasterian, a violinist to hold between his knees.’ His name is also handed down in the second part of an anonymous ‘Session of the Poets’ (stanza xli.):
Rhodes stood and play'd bo-peep in the door,  But Apollo, instead of a Spanish plot,  On condition the varlet would never write more,  Gave him three pence to pay for a pipe and a pot.
T. C.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1927 supplement/Butterworth, George Sainton Kaye

​BUTTERWORTH, GEORGE SAINTON KAYE (1885-1916), composer, was born 12 July 1885 at 16 Westbourne Square, London. He was the only child of (Sir) Alexander Kaye Butterworth, solicitor and subsequently general manager of the North Eastern Railway Company, by his wife, Julia Marguerite, daughter of George Wigan, M.D., of Portishead, Somerset. John Kaye, bishop of Lincoln [q.v.], was his great-grandfather, and John and Joseph Butterworthf [q.v.] were ancestors in the direct male line. His first school was at Aysgarth, Yorkshire, whence he entered Eton as a king’s scholar in 1899. He took part with credit in the intellectual, social, and athletic life of the school: music he studied with T. F. Dunhill, as well as with Christian G. Padel in York. From 1904 to 1908 he was in residence at Trinity College, Oxford; he took a third class in the honour school of literae humaniores, and was a prominent figure in musical circles, holding the presidency of the University Musical Club during the period October 1906 to March 1907.
After leaving Oxford, having abandoned his original intention of adopting the bar as a profession, Butterworth acted for a short time as one of the musical critics of The Times; and in 1909 accepted a teaching post at Radley College. In 1910 he returned to London, and worked for a few months at the Royal College of Music, studying the organ with Sir Walter Parratt, the piano with Herbert Sharpe, and theory with Charles Wood. The greatest influence on his musical ideals was derived from an intimate friendship with Ralph Vaughan Williams, whom he had first met in his Oxford days. He enlisted on the outbreak of war in August 1914, and was subsequently given a commission in the Durham Light Infantry. He was killed in action at Poziéres, in the first battle of the Somme, 5 August 1916. He had won the military cross in the previous month and was again recommended for it shortly before his death.
Butterworth was greatly attracted by English folk-music, and gave much time to research in this field; he was also a prominent worker for the English Folk-Dance Society, of which he was one of the founders. He collected and arranged an album of Sussex folk-songs; and, in conjunction with Cecil J. Sharp, published several books of country and morris dances. His original compositions, few in number but of very distinctive quality, include about twenty songs (more than half to words from A. E. Housman’s A Shropshire Lad), a suite for strings, and four orchestral pieces, three of which are idylls partially based on folk-song material, and the fourth a rhapsody thematically connected with some of the Shropshire Lad songs. This rhapsody (first produced under Arthur Nikisch at the Leeds festival of 1913) is his masterpiece, combining singularly individual imaginativeness with great command of orchestral technique; moods at once simple and intense made special appeal to him, and he expressed them with a sensitive intimacy that gives his work a notable place in contemporary English music.
[Memoir, privately printed, 1918; private information; personal knowledge.]
E. W.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1927 supplement/Buxton, Thomas Fowell

​BUXTON, Sir THOMAS FOWELL, third baronet (1837-1915), governor of South Australia, born 26 January 1837, was the eldest son of Sir Edward North Buxton, second baronet, by his wife, Catherine, second daughter of Samuel Gurney, of Upton, Essex. His grandfather, Sir Thomas Fowell Buxton [q.v.], was the friend of Sir James Mackintosh, William Wilberforce, and Zachary Macaulay, and succeeded Wilberforce as the leader of the anti-slavery movement. Buxton was educated at Harrow and at Trinity College, Cambridge, and in 1858 succeeded his father as third baronet. In 1865 he was returned to parliament in the liberal interest as one of the members for King’s Lynn, and he represented that constituency until 1868. His subsequent attempts to enter parliament, in 1874 (Westminster), 1876, 1879 (North Norfolk), 1880 (West Essex), were ​unsuccessful. He had a multitude of social interests: the British and Foreign Anti-Slavery Society, of which he was elected president in 1899, the Volunteer movement, the welfare of African natives, the betterment of elementary schools, the Church Missionary Society, Missions to Seamen, and the Commons Preservation Society. He was closely associated with the movement begun in 1866 for saving Epping Forest, and was a generous contributor to the fund raised to enable a labourer named Willingale to contest the legality of enclosures at Loughton.
In 1895 Buxton was appointed governor of South Australia. The choice was a happy one. The colony owed its foundation very largely to the efforts of men like the Buxtons—the members of the South Australian Association in London. This association included many people who had some of the spirit of the later Fabian socialists and who planned to set up in a new land a model state which would not reproduce the social inequalities of older countries. Many of the early South Australian settlers were people who had given up good positions in the home country in pursuit of this ideal. Their influence persisted in after generations, and Buxton, as governor of the colony, found himself in a sympathetic atmosphere. He retired from the governorship on completing his term of office in 1898, and in 1899 was created G.C.M.G. in recognition of his services. He died at Cromer 28 October 1915.
Buxton married in 1862 Lady Victoria Noel (died 1916), youngest daughter of the first Earl of Gainsborough, and had five sons and five daughters. He was succeeded in the baronetcy by his eldest son, Thomas Fowell Victor (1865-1919).
[G. W. E. Russell, Lady Victoria Buxton: a Memoir, with some account of her Husband, 1919]
F. F.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1927 supplement/Burnham, first Baron

​BURNHAM, first Baron (1833-1916), newspaper proprietor. [See Levy-Lawson, Edward].
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Rice, Richard

​RICE or PRICE, RICHARD (fl. 1548–1579), author, described by Tanner as ‘Suffolciensis,’ was a brother of Ellis Price [q. v.] (Letters and Papers of Henry VIII, x. 434), and son of Robert ap Rhys ap Maredudd of Foelas and Plas Iolyn, Denbighshire. In 1535, being a monk, he was recommended by Bishop Lee for election to the abbacy of Conway (ib. viii. 448). The abbot was still living and opposed Rice's election, ‘knowing him to be a wilful and misruled person, who would utterly destroy the abbey’ (ib. x. 340). Rice, however, was elected in 1536. In the following year Conway was dissolved, and Rice endeavoured to make good terms for himself and his brethren (ib.)
Rice wrote: 1. ‘The Right Institution of Baptism set forth by the Reverend Father in Christ Herman, Archbishop of Cologne, whereunto is also annexed a Godly Treatys of Matrimonie, compiled by the famous Clerke and faithfull Evangelist Wolfgangus Musculus, no lesse frutefull than necessary for all Godly Ministers of Christes Church, translated by the unproffytable servaunt of Christ, Richard Ryce,’ London, 1548, 8vo, and also by another printer, Anthony Scoloker [q. v.], without place or date, 16mo. 2. ‘An Invective against Vices taken for Virtue, gathered out of the Scriptures by the very unprofitable Servant of Jesus Christ, Richard Rice; also certeine necessary Instructions meet to be taught the younger sort before they come to be partakers of the Holy Communion,’ London, 1579, 16mo (and another imprint by Kyngston, 8vo, black letter).
W. A. S.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Rice, Thomas Spring

​RICE, THOMAS SPRING, first Lord Monteagle (1790–1866). [See Spring-Rice.]
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Ricaut

​RICAUT. [See Rycaut.]
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Rice, John ap

​RICE, Sir JOHN ap (d. 1573?), visitor of monasteries. [See Price, Sir John.]
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Riccaltoun, Robert

​RICCALTOUN, ROBERT (1691–1769), Scottish presbyterian divine, and friend of James Thomson, the poet, was born in 1691 at Earlshaugh, near Jedburgh, where his father was a farmer. He was educated at Jedburgh grammar school and Edinburgh University, but owing to his father's death he had to take charge of the farm. At the same time he so diligently pursued theological studies that without going through the divinity hall he was licensed to preach by the presbytery of Kelso in March 1717. After having been for some years assistant to the Rev. Archibald Deans, minister of Bowden, he was in 1725 ordained to the parish of Hopekirk, where he continued till his death, 17 Sept. 1769. In August 1724 he married Anna Scott, who predeceased him, 4 Oct. 1764. A son John succeeded his father in the parish. A daughter Margaret (1731–1786) married William Armstrong, the parish schoolmaster of Hopekirk, and was mother of Adam Armstrong, major-general in the service of Alexander I of Russia, and of Robert Armstrong, lieutenant-general in the same service and director of the imperial mint at St. Petersburg.
Riccaltoun was a man of ability, of fine imaginative power, and extensive learning, and he will be remembered as having befriended and encouraged James Thomson, author of the ‘Seasons.’ Riccaltoun was ​author of an ode on ‘Winter,’ in fifty-eight lines, which first appeared in Savage's ‘Miscellany’ in 1726, when it was attributed to David Mallet [q. v.] The latter seems at first to have countenanced the illusion, but omitted it from his collected works. In 1740 the ode reappeared in the ‘Gentleman's Magazine,’ its author being given as ‘a Scots clergyman.’ In 1853 it again appeared in the same publication, with remarks by Peter Cunningham, who found no difficulty in assigning its authorship to Riccaltoun. When James Thomson was engaged in 1725 on his own poem on ‘Winter,’ he fully acknowledged his indebtedness to his early friend, whose ode on the same topic, as he states, ‘first put the design into my head. In it are some masterly strokes that awakened me.’
Two years previous to his settlement at Hopekirk, Riccaltoun published anonymously one of the earliest works on the ‘Marrow controversy,’ entitled ‘A Sober Inquiry into the Grounds of the present Differences in the Church of Scotland’ (1723). Riccaltoun's ‘Works’ appeared posthumously in 3 vols. 8vo, Edinburgh, 1771–2, and ‘Letters to a Friend’ in the ‘Edinburgh Christian Instructor,’ vol. vi. There has been erroneously attributed to him a work by the Rev. Duncan Shaw of Aberdeen, entitled ‘Dissertation on the Conduct of the Jewish Sanhedrim, and Advice offered by Gamaliel,’ 1769.
W. G.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Rice, George

​RICE, GEORGE (1724–1779), politician, born in 1724, was son of Edward Rice of Newton, Carmarthenshire, M.P. for that county in 1722, by Lucy, daughter of John Morley Trevor of Glynde, Sussex. His father's family had been settled at Newton for many generations. He matriculated at Christ Church, Oxford, on 26 Jan. 1742, at the age of seventeen (Foster, Alumni Oxon.), but took no degree, and devoted himself to politics and local affairs. At the general election of 1754 he was returned for the county of Carmarthen after a warm contest with Sir Thomas Stepney, and retained his seat, during a period of twenty-five years, until his death, being re-elected four times without opposition. He was made lord-lieutenant of his native county in May 1755 (reappointed 23 June 1761), and, when the Carmarthenshire militia was embodied (7 Dec. 1759), he was nominated colonel of the regiment. He became chamberlain of Brecon and of the counties of Brecon, Glamorgan, and Radnor in 1765, and was sworn in mayor of Carmarthen on 5 June 1767. By his marriage, on 16 Aug. 1756, with Cecil (1733–1793), daughter of William, first earl Talbot, lord steward of the royal household, he greatly increased his political influence, and on 21 March 1761 he accepted office under the Duke of Newcastle as a lord commissioner of the board of trade and foreign plantations, with a salary of 1,000l. a year. This post he held in successive ministries until April 1770, when Lord North selected him for the court appointment of treasurer of the king's chamber, and he was sworn a member of the privy council on 4 May following. Rice, who bore a high character (Autobiography of Mary Delany, ed. Lady Llanover), died in office at the age of fifty-five, on 3 Aug. 1779. His widow became a peeress in her own right as Baroness Dynevor on her father's death on 27 April 1782, and died 14 March 1793, leaving, with two daughters, two sons—George Talbot, afterwards third Lord Dynevor (1765–1852), and Edward (d. 1867), dean of Gloucester, whose son, Francis William, fifth baron Dynevor, was father of the present baron.
[Foster's Peerage; Haydn's Book of Dignities, ed. Ockerby; Parliamentary Returns; Gent. Mag. 1779, p. 423; Williams's Parliamentary Hist. of Wales.]
W. R. W.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Richard, Edward

​RICHARD, EDWARD (1714–1777), Welsh poet, born at Ystrad Meurig, Cardiganshire, was son of Thomas Richard, a tailor and innkeeper of that place. He was educated first at a school there, and then for a short time at the grammar school at Carmarthen. About 1734 he opened a school of his own at Ystrad Meurig, which after several years he closed, declaring himself in need of further study. After two years he recommenced teaching as first master of a newly endowed school in the adjoining parish of Lledrod, but soon he founded and endowed out of his own savings a free grammar school in his native village (see the deed of trust executed 22 April 1774, and his will dated 28 Feb. 1777, in Meyrick's Cardiganshire, pp. 476–84). He also founded a library for the use of the school in 1759. He had a great reputation for classical learning, and his school became one of the most famous in Wales in the latter half of last century. It continued to flourish until the establishment in 1827 of St. David's College at Lampeter. Although it has of late dwindled to small proportions, it is still maintained in accordance with the founder's wishes as a church of England school (Wales for January 1895, pp. 3–4). Richard himself declined ordination, regarding himself as unworthy of so sacred a calling. He died unmarried on 28 Feb. 1777, and was buried in the church at Ystrad Meurig. A memorial stone with a Latin inscription was placed on the wall of the school library.
Richard was author of some of the best specimens of pastoral poetry in the Welsh language. His poems are on the plan of the pastorals of Theocritus and Virgil and contain many happy adaptations of expressions in those originals. They are still used at Ystrad Meurig school as a medium for classical instruction. His first pastoral, which was occasioned by the death of his mother, about 1764, was published in 1765 (see Rowlands, Welsh Bibliography, p. 486), or, according to some accounts, in 1766. It was followed by another in 1776. It is believed that many of his earlier compositions have been lost. The two pastorals, together with two other songs and some hymns, which represent nearly all that has been preserved of his writings, were published, with a biography, in 1811 under the title of ‘Yr Eos: sef Gwaith Prydyddawl Mr. Edward Richard Ystrad Meurig, gyda hanes ei fywyd,’ London, 8vo, and reprinted at Carmarthen in 1813 (12mo), 1851, and 1856. An englyn which does not appear in the small collection is given in Jones's ‘History of Wales’ (p. 257), where it is said to have been addressed by Richard to his friend Evan Evans (1730–1789) [q. v.], better known as Ieuan Brydydd Hir, who also wrote a short poem in eulogy of one of Richard's songs (Jones, op. cit. pp. 258–9). Richard was well versed in antiquarian subjects, and his correspondence with Lewis Morris [q. v.] and others was published in the ‘Cambrian Register’ (i. 337, 345–58, 363, ii. 541–51). An elegy on him was written by David Richards (Dafydd Ionawr), who had been his pupil.
D. Ll. T.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Richard (d.1170)

​RICHARD (d. 1170), sixth abbot of Fountains, a native of York, and a friend of St. Bernard and of Henry Murdac [q. v.], archbishop of York, was abbot of Vauclair in the diocese of Laon, and afterwards precentor of Clairvaux. He held that office when, on the resignation of their abbot, Thorold, the monks of Fountains sent to St. Bernard requesting him to appoint an abbot for them. By the advice of Archbishop Henry he appointed Richard, who was well received by the convent, ruled it diligently, maintained strict discipline, and raised it to a high pitch of excellence. In 1154 William, archbishop of York, visited Fountains, was received by the abbot, and was reconciled to the convent, which had long been active in opposing him. The deaths of St. Bernard and Archbishop Henry in 1153 had weakened Richard's authority. Dissension arose in the convent, and the monks rebelled against him. For a time he withdrew from the strife. At last the disobedient monks yielded; he punished them with fitting penance, and expelled the ringleaders. From that time he had no further trouble in maintaining discipline, and the convent again flourished under his rule. He appears to have completed the fabric, and specially built the chapter-house. He died full of years and honour on 31 May 1170. Leland, in ascribing a treatise on harmony to Richardus Anglicus or Sacrista, confuses him with Richard (d. 1143) [q. v.], second abbot.
W. H.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Rich-Jones, William Henry

​RICH-JONES, WILLIAM HENRY (1817–1885), antiquary. [See Jones.]