OpenLLM-France/wikimedia huggingface dataset:
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Seymour, Henry (1729-1805)

​SEYMOUR, HENRY (1729–1805), lover of Madame Du Barry, was the son of Francis Seymour, M.P., of Sherborne, Dorset, brother of the eighth Duke of Somerset, by Elizabeth, daughter of Alexander Popham, and widow of Viscount Hinchinbrook. Born in London in 1729, he married in 1753 Lady Caroline Cowper, only daughter of the second Earl Cowper. Besides his father's estate at Sherborne, he inherited an uncle's property at Knoyle, and also owned Northbrook Lodge, Devonshire, and Redland Court, near Bristol. He became a groom of the bedchamber, was returned for Totnes at a by-election in 1763, and sat for Huntingdon 1768–74, and Evesham 1774–80. He spoke on 29 Feb. 1776 in support of Fox's motion for an inquiry into the miscarriages of the American war. A widower in 1773, he married in 1775 Louise Thérèse, widow of Comte Guillaume de Panthou. In 1778 he settled in Paris, obtained letters of domicile to protect his property from forfeiture to the crown as aubaine, in the event of death, and purchased a country house at Prunay, between Versailles and St. Germain. He thus became the neighbour, and may have already been the lover, of Madame Du Barry. He preserved about forty of her letters to him, together with a lock of her hair. The letters are undated, but were probably written in 1780, shortly before his separation from his wife. They show that his jealous temper led to a rupture. These relics, apparently left behind him on his hasty departure from France in August 1792, came into the possession of Barrière, an autograph collector, and, after passing through other hands, were sold in Paris in 1892. All Seymour's property was confiscated, and bundles of his tradesmen's bills and other papers are now in the Archives Nationales, Paris. He remained in England till his death in 1805, and after Waterloo his heirs obtained compensation for his losses out of the fund for indemnifying British subjects. He published anonymously in 1788 a French prose translation of the ‘English Garden,’ by William Mason [q. v.], with views of Prunay.
By his first wife he had two daughters: Caroline, who married William Danby [q. v.], the bibliophile and mineralogist; and Georgina, who married Comte Louis de Durfort. By his second wife he had a son Henry (1776–1849), high sheriff of Dorset in 1835. He had also an illegitimate daughter, who, born in France, became the mother of the Sir Roger Tichborne personated by Arthur Orton in the famous litigation of 1871.
J. G. A.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Seymour, Henry (1805-1859)

​SEYMOUR, Lord HENRY (1805–1859), founder of the Jockey Club at Paris, was the younger son of Francis Charles Seymour Conway, third marquis of Hertford, by Maria Fagniani, adopted daughter of George Augustus Selwyn (1719–1791) [q. v.] His grandfather was Francis (Ingram) Seymour, second marquis of Hertford [q. v.] Lord Henry was born in Paris on 18 Jan. 1805, his father, then Lord Yarmouth, having been detained in France on landing there just after the rupture of the treaty of Amiens. Lord Yarmouth was released in 1806 through Fox's intercession with Talleyrand, but his wife remained in France, and Lord Henry is said, though this is a manifest exaggeration, never to have set foot in England. In 1856 he inherited his mother's large fortune. In 1833 he was one of the eighteen founders of a society for the encouragement of horse-breeding in France, to which was attached the Jockey Club, and his horses repeatedly won prizes at the Bois de Boulogne and Chantilly races. A prominent member of the aristocratic society of Paris, he was noted for his eccentricities, and in the carnivals of 1834 and 1835 he attempted to introduce the Italian custom of throwing comfits and coins among the crowd. He died in Paris, unmarried, on 16 Aug. 1859, and was buried in his mother's vault at Père-Lachaise. He bequeathed money for the support of four favourite horses, which were never again to be saddled, and left the residue of his property, about 36,000l. a year, to the Paris hospitals.
J. G. A.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Seymour, George Hamilton

​SEYMOUR, GEORGE HAMILTON (1797–1880), diplomatist, eldest son of Lord George Seymour (seventh son of Francis Seymour Conway, first earl of Hertford ​[q. v.]) and Isabella, daughter of the Hon. and Rev. George Hamilton, was born at Harrow in 1797. He was educated at first for the navy, which he soon left, and went to Eton. Thence he proceeded to Merton College, Oxford, where he was a postmaster, and graduated B.A. in 1818 and M.A. in 1823. Previously, on 28 March 1813, he had been appointed gentleman usher in daily waiting at court, and in March 1817 attaché to the legation at The Hague. In December 1819 he returned to London as précis-writer to Lord Castlereagh at the foreign office, and on 29 Jan. 1822 became his private secretary. In October 1822 he was attached to the Duke of Wellington's special mission to Verona. On 18 Aug. 1823 he became secretary of legation at Frankfurt, and was transferred on 6 Sept. 1826 to Stuttgart, on 28 Dec. 1827 to Berlin, and on 30 July 1829 to Constantinople.
On 13 Nov. 1830 Seymour was appointed minister resident at Florence, and on 13 Nov. 1836 envoy-extraordinary and minister-plenipotentiary to the Belgian court, where he took part in the negotiations by which the independence of Belgium was finally secured. On 10 Dec. 1846 he was removed to Lisbon in the same capacity, and represented the British government through the greater part of the period of insurrection when the British power supported the Portuguese crown. On 28 April 1851 he was appointed to St. Petersburg, where his diplomacy was put to a severe test in the strained relations which arose between Russia and the western powers on the eastern question. He was in frequent intercourse with the czar, and his attitude at this time received the approval of the government. In February 1854, on the outbreak of the Crimean war, he was recalled. On 11 Oct. 1854 he was pensioned; but on 23 Nov. 1855, having just been made privy councillor, he became envoy-extraordinary to Austria, and again took a prominent part in the conferences on the eastern question at Vienna. He finally retired on pension in April 1858. He had been made G.C.H. on 16 March 1836 and G.C.B. on 28 Jan. 1847. He died on 2 Feb. 1880 at his residence, 10 Grosvenor Crescent, and was buried at Kensal Green.
Seymour married, in 1831, Gertrude Brand, third daughter of Lord Dacre, by whom he had four sons and three daughters.
C. A. H.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Seymour, Henry (1612-1686)

W. A. S.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Seymour, Francis (1813-1890)

​SEYMOUR, Sir FRANCIS (1813–1890), general, eldest son of Henry Augustus Seymour, by Margaret, daughter of the Rev. William Williams of Cromlech, co. Anglesey, was born on 2 Aug. 1813, and was commissioned as ensign in the 19th foot on 2 May 1834. He became lieutenant 16 June 1837. In February 1839, at the request of the king of the Belgians, he joined Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg at Florence, and accompanied him during his travels in Italy. In 1840, after Prince Albert's marriage with the queen, he was appointed groom-in-waiting to him, and retained the office till the prince's death.
He was promoted captain on 4 Sept. 1840, and on 21 Jan. 1842 he exchanged into the Scots fusilier guards, in which regiment he obtained a company on 28 June 1850. He ​went with the first battalion to the Crimea in 1854, and was present at Alma, Balaclava, and Inkerman. In the course of the latter battle the command of the battalion devolved on him, and he was himself wounded. He was again severely wounded in the latter part of the siege by a fragment of a shell, which struck the back of his head, when he was field officer in command in the trenches of the right attack. He was made brevet-colonel on 28 Nov. 1854, and C.B. on 2 Jan. 1857. He received the Crimean medal with four clasps, and the Turkish medal, the Legion of Honour (fourth class) and Medjidie (fourth class).
He was promoted major in his regiment on 14 June 1858, and lieutenant-colonel on 13 Feb. 1863; he went on half pay on 10 July 1863, and on 25 Nov. 1864 became major-general. He held the command of the troops in Malta from 1 Jan. 1872 to 5 April 1874. He was made lieutenant-general 23 May 1873, colonel of the Devonshire regiment (11th) 7 Feb. 1874, K.C.B. 29 May 1875, and general 1 Oct. 1877. On 1 July 1881 he was placed on the retired list.
After the death of the prince consort, in December 1861, he was appointed groom-in-waiting to the queen. In 1869 he was made a baronet, and in February 1876 he became master of ceremonies and an extra groom-in-waiting. He was a knight grand cross of the Saxe-Ernestine order.
Seymour died at Kensington palace on 10 July 1890. He married, in 1869, Agnes Austin, eldest daughter of the Rev. H. D. Wickham, rector of Horsington, Somerset, by whom he had one son and three daughters.
E. M. L.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Roberts, Peter

​ROBERTS, PETER (1760?–1819), divine and antiquary, son of John Roberts, was born about 1760 at Tai'n y Nant, Ruabon, Denbighshire. His father, a clockmaker, moved in a few years after his birth to Wrexham, where Roberts was educated at the grammar school, then under Edward Davies. When about fifteen he entered St. Asaph grammar school as pupil assistant to Peter Williams. Through the Irish pupils in the school he became known to Dr. Henry Ussher, afterwards professor of astronomy in the university of Dublin, who procured him admission as a sizar to that university. Hav​ing graduated M.A., he remained in Dublin as a private tutor, studying especially oriental languages and astronomy. His proficiency in the latter subject gave him some hope of succeeding his friend and patron, Ussher; but the appointment of Dr. John Brinkley in 1792 led to his devoting himself to the career of a family tutor, an occupation he followed for many years. Two of his pupils, Lords Lanesborough and Bolton, in course of time assigned him a pension, which enabled him to give all his time to study. In 1811 Bishop Cleaver gave him the rectory of Llanarmon Dyffryn Ceiriog, and in 1814 he was presented by Lord Crewe to the vicarage of Madeley, Shropshire. In December 1818 he exchanged Llanarmon for the rectory of Halkin, Flintshire, but soon after settling there died of apoplexy on 21 May 1819. His monument in the church styles him ‘in legibus, moribus, institutis, annalibus, poesi, musica gentis Cambro-Britannicæ instructissimus.’
His chief works were: 1. ‘Harmony of the Epistles,’ published by the Cambridge University Press, 1800. 2. ‘Christianity Vindicated’ (in answer to Volney's ‘Ruins’), 1800. 3. ‘Sketch of the Early History of the Cymry,’ London, 1803. 4. ‘Chronicle of the Kings of Britain,’ a translation of one of the Welsh versions of Geoffrey of Monmouth, with illustrative dissertations, London, 1811. 5. ‘Cambrian Popular Antiquities,’ London, 1815. 6. ‘History of Oswestry,’ published anonymously in 1815. Other works were published by him on the origin of constellations, the art of correspondence, prophecy, and the church of Rome. Roberts was a scholar of wide reading but inferior judgment. The ‘Cambrian Popular Antiquities,’ dealing with Welsh rustic customs and superstitions, is his most valuable contribution to letters.
J. E. L.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Roberts, Samuel (1763-1848)

​ROBERTS, SAMUEL (1763–1848), author and pamphleteer, known as the ‘Pauper's Advocate,’ born at Sheffield on 18 April 1763, was the second son of Samuel Roberts, manufacturer and merchant, by his wife, Mary Sykes. At the age of fourteen he entered his father's manufactory of silver and plated goods, passing through every department. Here he remained until 1784, in which year Roberts and a brother apprentice established what rapidly became a most successful business in silver and plated ware in Sheffield.
At the age of twenty-seven he published his first essay in the local press, being a satire on the then new fashion of hiding the chin in voluminous neck bandages. This was well received, and he was encouraged to pursue a literary career, which extended over the remainder of his life, but was never allowed to interfere with his business habits or his duties as a citizen. His leading motive was benevolence, and he rigidly carried out his early formed resolutions, never to publish anything that he was not convinced was favourable to morality and religion, and never to publish for profit (Autobiography, p. 45).
Roberts was the author of an immense number of books, pamphlets, broadsheets, and contributions to the press, dealing with such subjects as war, capital punishment, game laws, slave trade, lotteries, drunkenness, poor laws, child labour, chartism, and all that he thought unjust or tyrannical.
Roberts died at his residence, Park Grange, Sheffield, on 24 July 1848, in his eighty-sixth year, and was buried at Anston. He married Elizabeth, the only daughter of Robert and Elizabeth Wright, of North Anston, on 22 Oct. 1794, by whom he left one son and three daughters, including Mary, author of ‘Royal Exile,’ 1822 [see under Roberts, Mary, (1788–1864)]. An engraving from his portrait, by William Poole, appears as a frontispiece to many of his publications. His bosom friend, James Montgomery the poet, wrote a brief obituary notice of Roberts for the local press.
Roberts's chief works are: 1. ‘Tales of the Poor, or Infant Sufferings,’ 1813; 2nd ser. 1829. 2. ‘Blind Man and his Son,’ &c., 1816. 3. ‘State Lottery, a Dream,’ 1817. 4. ‘Defence of the Poor Laws,’ 1819. 5. ‘Life of Queen Mary’ (in the ‘Royal Exile’), 1822. 6. ‘Tom and Charles,’ 1823. 7. ‘Negro's Friend, or the Sheffield Antislavery Album,’ 1826. 8. ‘World of Children,’ 1829. 9. ‘Parallel Miracles, or the Jews and the Gypsies,’ 1830. 10. ‘The Gypsies, their Origin, Continuance, and Destination,’ 1836; 5th edit. enlarged, 1842. 11. ‘Yorkshire Tales and Poems,’ 1839. 12. ‘Milton Unmasked,’ 1844. 13. ‘Memoirs of Elizabeth Creswick Roberts,’ 1845. 14. ‘Lessons for Statesmen,’ 1846. 15. ‘Autobiography and Select Remains,’ 1849.
S. S.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Roberts, Thomas

Contains subarticle Thomas Sautelle Roberts (1760?–1826).
​ROBERTS, THOMAS (1749?–1794?), artist, eldest son of John Roberts (1712–1796), architect of the town-hall and other public buildings in Waterford, by his wife, Mary Susannah (1716–1800), daughter of Major Francis Sautelle, of a family of Huguenot refugees, was born in Waterford about 1749. Major Sautelle served in William III's footguards at the Boyne, and settled in Waterford about 1690 (cf. Agnew, Protestant Exiles, 1874, ii. 208; Ulster Journal, vol. iv.). Having studied landscape under George Mullins [q. v.] and John Butts [q. v.], Roberts exhibited from 1773 with the Society of Artists in the Strand, his London address being 64 Margaret Street. Chiefly devoting himself to parklike landscape, and imitating the Dutch foliage pencilling with great skill, he was employed by the Duke of Leinster, Lord Powerscourt, and others of the Irish nobility to depict their country seats. His silvery tints were finely reproduced by Thomas Milton [q. v.], who engraved Roberts's ‘Lucan’ and ‘Beau Park’ for his ‘Views of Seats in Ireland’ (1783). Many of his pieces are at Carton, the Duke of Leinster's seat, and at Powerscourt. Having contracted phthisis, owing, it is said, to irregular habits, Roberts sailed for Lisbon to try the effects of a warmer climate, but died there soon after his arrival, about 1794.
His younger brother, Thomas Sautelle Roberts (1760?–1826), born at Waterford about 1760, was originally articled to Thomas Ivory (d. 1786), architect of the Bluecoat Hospital, and for some years master of the architectural school of the Royal Dublin Society; but on the completion of his articles he was drawn to landscape-painting, and followed his brother to London, where he exhibited landscapes at the Royal Academy regularly from 1789 to 1811. He exhibited once more in 1818, after which his name does not ap​pear in the academy catalogues, though he sent a few landscapes to the British Institution. He was latterly engaged upon views of the cities of Ireland, some of which have been engraved. In 1820 he was elected, in conjunction with William Ashford and William Cuming, by the general body of Irish painters to nominate the first constituent members of the Royal Hibernian Academy, which obtained its charter in 1823. Shortly afterwards he met with a stage-coach accident, which induced nervous debility, and he died by his own hand in Dublin in 1826. Six of his pictures hang in the council-room of the Royal Hibernian Academy (Catalogues). One of Roberts's landscapes, with a river and cattle, was purchased for the National Gallery of Ireland in 1877 (Cat. 1890, No. 116). A watercolour drawing of St. John's, Kilkenny, is preserved in the South Kensington Museum.
Another brother, John Roberts (d. 1815), rector of Kill St. Nicholas, Waterford, was father of Sir Abraham Roberts [q. v.]
T. S.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Roberts, Mary

​ROBERTS, MARY (1788–1864), author, born at Homerton, London, on 18 March 1788, was daughter of Daniel Roberts, a merchant of London, by his wife Ann, daughter of Josiah Thompson of Nether Compton, Dorset; her grandfather was the quaker botanist, Thomas Lawson [q. v.], and her paternal great-great-grandfather was Daniel Roberts [see under Roberts, John, 1623?–1684]. In 1790 her parents removed to Painswick in Gloucestershire. There she developed an intense love of nature to which she soon gave literary expression. Some passages in her ‘Annals of my Village, being a Calendar of Nature for Every Month in the Year’ (London, 1831, 8vo), fall little short of the descriptive power of Richard Jefferies [q. v.] Although born and brought up a quaker, Mary Roberts left the society after the death of her father, when she removed with her mother to Brompton Square, London. She died there on 13 Jan. 1864, and was buried in Brompton cemetery.
Besides her ‘Annals’ Miss Roberts published (in London) many works of similar character. The chief are: 1. ‘Select Female Biography,’ 1821, 12mo. 2. ‘The Wonders of the Vegetable Kingdom displayed in a Series of Letters,’ 1822, 12mo; 2nd edit. 1824, 12mo. 3. ‘Sequel to an Unfinished Manuscript of H. Kirke White's, to illustrate the Contrast between the Christian's and the Infidel's Close of Life,’ London, 1823, 8vo. 4. ‘The Conchologist's Companion,’ 1824, 12mo; another edit. 1834, 8vo. 5. ‘An Account of Anne Jackson, with particulars concerning the Plague and Fire in London, edited by M. R.,’ 1832, 12mo. 6. ‘Domesticated Animals considered with reference to Civilisation and the Arts,’ 1833, 8vo. 7. ‘Sister Mary's Tales in Natural History,’ 1834, 8vo. 8. ‘The Seaside Companion, or Marine Natural History,’ 1835, 8vo. 9. ‘Wild Animals, their Nature, Habits, and Instincts, with Incidental Notices of the Regions they Inhabit,’ 5th edit. 1836, 8vo. 10. ‘The Progress of Creation considered with reference to the Present Condition of the Earth,’ ​1837, 12mo; reprinted, 4th edit. 1846. 11. ‘Sketches of the Animal and Vegetable Productions of America,’ 1839, 12mo. 12. ‘Ruins and Old Trees associated with Memorable Events in English History,’ illustrated by Gilbert, n.d. 12mo. 13. ‘Flowers of the Matin and Evensong; or Thoughts for those who rise early, in prose and poetry,’ 1845, 8vo. 14. ‘Voices from the Woodlands, descriptive of Forest-trees, Ferns, Mosses, and Lichens,’ 1850, 4to. 15. ‘A Popular History of the Mollusca,’ with coloured plates engraved by W. Wing, 1851, 4to. She edited in 1851 ‘The Present of a Mistress to a Young Servant, by Ann Taylor’ [see Gilbert, Mrs. Ann].
Some confusion has arisen between Miss Roberts and a cousin of the same name, Mary Roberts, daughter of Samuel Roberts (1763–1848) [q. v.] of Sheffield, authoress of ‘Royal Exile,’ 1822.
[Jackson's Guide to Literature of Botany, 1881; Smith's Catalogue, ii. 500; Ann. Monitor, 1832, p. 40; Montgomery's Life, vii. 123, 288; Registers at Devonshire House; Fosbrooke's Hist. of Gloucestershire, ii. 484; Brit. Mus. Cat.]
C. F. S.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Sherer, Moyle

​SHERER, MOYLE (1789–1869), traveller and author, youngest son of Joseph Sherer, esq., of Southampton, was born in that city on 18 Feb. 1789. He was lineally descended, through his grandmother, from the Moyles of Bake in Cornwall. At twelve years of age he was sent to Winchester College, but left on obtaining a commission in the 34th, now called the Border regiment. In 1809 his corps was ordered to Portugal, and was soon engaged in the war in the Peninsula. The regiment took part in the engagements of Albuera, Arroyo dos Molinos, and Vittoria. In the summer of 1813, when Soult was endeavouring to force the English back from the Pyrenees, Sherer was taken prisoner at the pass of Maya, and was removed to France, where he remained for two years, living chiefly at Bayonne.
In 1818 the 34th went out to Madras, and from that presidency Sherer sent home the manuscript of his first book, ‘Sketches of India.’ It was published in 1821, and went through four editions. Its author returned to England in 1823 by the Red Sea, and, encouraged by his previous success as an author, produced his ‘Recollections of the Peninsula,’ which was also popular and reached a fifth edition. In 1824 his ‘Scenes and Impressions in Egypt and Italy’ followed, being an account of his pioneering experience of an overland route. In 1825 Sherer turned to romance, and wrote ‘The Story of a Life,’ in 2 vols., which passed through three editions. In the same year a visit to the continent produced a volume entitled ‘A Ramble in Germany’ (1826). While in India, Sherer had imbibed evangelical religious views, and, anxious to promote them among his comrades in the army, published in 1827 a little treatise named ‘Religio Militis.’ But in 1829 he returned to fiction, and brought out his ‘Tales of the Wars of our Times,’ in 2 vols. This work proved less successful than some of its predecessors. Of a ‘Life of Wellington,’ which he contributed to ​Dr. Lardner's ‘Cabinet Library,’ 1830–2, the first volume passed through three editions, and the second through four. In 1837 he published his final essay in fiction, a tale of the civil war of Charles I's reign, entitled ‘The Broken Font’ (2 vols.). It was somewhat coldly received. In 1838 he issued his latest publication, a volume of extracts from his earlier works, named ‘Imagery of Foreign Travel.’
Though warmly attached to his profession, Sherer had little taste for garrison life, and retiring from the army about 1836, took up his abode at Claverton Farm, near Bath. A brevet majority was all that rewarded his long service. For many years, though changing his residence, he clung to the same neighbourhood. Subsequently a nervous disease required that he should be placed in medical hands. He never completely recovered, but survived to the winter of 1869. He was buried in Brislington churchyard.
[Private information.]
J. W. S.