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

​WOLRICH, WOOLRICH, or WOOLDRIDGE, HUMPHREY (1633?–1707), quaker, of Newcastle-under-Lyme, Staffordshire, was probably born there about 1633. A baptist in early life, he joined the quakers soon after their rise, was imprisoned in London for preaching in 1658, and next year wrote ‘A Declaration to the Baptists’ … London, 1659, 4to. This is an account of a ‘dispute’ held at Withcock, Leicestershire, on 27 Feb. 1658–9, at which Isabel, wife of Colonel Francis Hacker [q. v.], was present. About the same time Wolrich, although a quaker, actually baptised a convert. In this it appears he was upheld by some in the society, while severely judged by others. In his defence Wolrich wrote ‘The Unlimited God …’ London, 1659, 4to (Meeting for Sufferings Library). Wolrich was in prison in 1660, and wrote, with John Pennyman [q. v.] and Thomas Coveney, ‘Some Grounds and Reasons to manifest the Unlawfulness of Magistrates and others who commit Men to Prison, or fine them for not putting off the hat,’ London, 1660, 4to; also a broadside dated Newgate, 14 Jan. 1660–1, ‘Oh! London, with thy Magistrates,’ with other broadsides against ‘Papist Livery,’ ‘Advice to the Army of the Commonwealth and to Presbyterian Ministers.’ Sir Richard Brown, lord mayor of London in 1661, who was particularly severe against the quakers, committed Wolrich to prison for keeping his hat on before him. During his confinement he wrote ‘From the Shepherd of Israel to the Bishops in England,’ London [1661–2], 4to, and at the same time ‘To the King and both Houses of Parliament … a timely warning that they do not make laws against the righteous and innocent people … called quakers,’ n.d. In 1661 he was taken out of a meeting in Staffordshire, and, for refusing the oath of allegiance, carried to prison, where he probably wrote the ‘Address to Magistrates, Priests, and People of Staffordshire,’ n.d. 4to. On 2 Dec. 1662 he arrived in Chester at the end of the assize. On the following Sunday he entered the cathedral during the anthem, and when the singing ceased attempted to speak, but was hastily removed and confined in the castle. In February 1682 he was fined 20l. and sent to prison for offering prayer at the burial of a quaker woman in her husband's garden at Keel, Staffordshire, the priest having threatened to arrest the corpse if Wolrich did not pay the fees.
Wolrich died, after a painful illness of two years from cancer in the mouth, at the Friends' Almshouses in Clerkenwell on 31 Aug. 1707, and was buried on 2 Sept.
Other works by him are: 1. ‘One Warning more to the Baptists, in answer to Matthew Caffin's “Faith in God's Promises the Saints best Weapon,”’ London, 1661, 4to. 2. ‘A Visitation to the Captive Seed,’ London, 1661, 4to. 3. ‘The Rock of Ages Known and Foundation of many Generations Discovered,’ London, 1661, 4to. ​4. ‘A Visitation and Warning,’ London, 1662, 4to. 5. ‘A General Epistle to Friends in England and Holland,’ 1665–6; several small epistles and testimonies. 6. ‘A Brief Testimony against Friends wearing of Perriwigs’ (posthumous), 1708.
C. F. S.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Wolrich, Thomas

​WOLRICH or WOLRYCHE, Sir THOMAS (1598–1668), baronet, royalist, sprang from a Cheshire family which acquired the estate of Dudmaston in Shropshire in the twelfth century, and was thenceforth identified with that county. The deed of grant is said to be one of the oldest private deeds in England. It is reproduced in Eyton's ‘Antiquities of Shropshire’ (iii. 185). The pedigree is extant from 1279. Thomas was the third in descent from John Wolryche, who married ‘the Fair Maid of Gatacre,’ Mary, daughter of John Gatacre of that place, and was the son of Francis Wolryche (d. 1614) and of Margaret his wife, daughter of George Bromley of Hallon in Shropshire. He was baptised at Worfield on 27 March 1598. On his epitaph he is stated to have received his education at Cambridge, where he studied assiduously, paying especial attention to geometry, history, and heraldry.
He was admitted to the Inner Temple on 11 Oct. 1615, and afterwards represented the borough of Much Wenlock in the parliaments of 1621 (elected 2 Jan.), 1624, and 1625 (elected 2 May). On the breaking out of the civil war he was captain of militia and deputy lieutenant for the county. At his own expense he raised a regiment of which he was colonel, his son Thomas filling the post of captain. He also held the post of governor of Bridgnorth. On 22 July 1641 he was knighted at Whitehall, and on 4 Aug. following was created a baronet. In May 1643 Lord Capel, lieutenant-general of Shropshire, Cheshire, and North Wales, ordered him to draw all his forces of trained bands round about the town of Bridgnorth, and to construct fortifications for its defence where he should ‘think fit to appoint,’ with the help of ‘all the men of this towne.’ He laid down arms before 1645, and afterwards conformed to the parliament. On 30 March 1646 he petitioned to compound for his estate, and with much difficulty obtained an order from the commons for the removal of the sequestration and pardon for his delinquency on 4 Sept. 1648. He was still in difficulties in the matter in 1652.
He died on 4 July 1668, and was buried in the Wolryche mortuary chapel at St. Andrew's Church, Quatt. There is a contemporary life-size portrait of him at Dudmaston, with the castle of Bridgnorth and troops engaged in the background.
Wolrich married, in 1625, Ursula, daughter of Thomas Ottley of Pitchford, by whom he had twelve children, of whom four sons and three daughters survived him. The baronetcy became extinct in 1723 on the death of Sir John Wolryche, great-grandson of Sir Thomas, who was drowned when attempting to ford the Severn, and the estate then passed into his mother's hands, and through her to the Whitmores of Southampton, from whom the present owner, F. H. Wolryche-Whitmore, is lineally descended.
B. P.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Wolley, Richard

​WOLLEY or WOOLLEY, RICHARD (fl. 1667–1694), miscellaneous writer, born in Essex, was admitted to Queens' College, Cambridge, on 6 Dec. 1663, where he graduated B.A. on 10 Jan. 1667 and M.A. in 1671. He served in London as a curate, and was employed by the well-known book​seller John Dunton [q. v.] as a hack-writer. In 1691 he translated ‘L'État de la France,’ a list of the nobility and high officials of France, with an account of their privileges and duties, under the title of ‘Galliæ Notitia; or the Present State of France’ (London, 12mo). He also edited for Dunton the ‘Compleat Library; or News for the Ingenious,’ which appeared monthly between May 1692 and April 1694, and ‘took the private minutes’ from which ‘The Secret History of Whitehall’ was composed by David Jones (fl. 1676–1720) [q. v.] The fact that he did not himself write ‘The Secret History’ renders it probable that he died some time before it was published in 1697, perhaps about the date at which the ‘Compleat Library’ ceased to appear. Dunton describes Wolley as ‘an universal scholar,’ and adds that ‘he performed to a nicety’ all the work entrusted to him.
E. I. C.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Wolley, Edward

​WOLLEY, EDWARD (d. 1684), bishop of Clonfert, probably second son of Thomas Wolley and his wife Elizabeth, daughter of William Heringe of Shrewsbury, was born at Shrewsbury, and educated at the King's school there. He matriculated from St. John's College, Cambridge, on 13 April 1622, graduating B.A. from St. Catharine's Hall in 1625, and M.A. from St. John's College in 1629. He was created D.D. at Oxford on 20 Dec. 1642, and incorporated at Cambridge on 4 July 1664. Wolley was domestic chaplain to Charles I, and on the decline of that monarch's fortunes he took refuge abroad about 1648. He afterwards joined Charles II in his exile and became his chaplain. He was with Charles in Paris in 1651 (cf. Addit. MS. 32093, f. 280), but returned to England after seven years, spent on the continent, and commenced a school at Hammersmith. On 26 Dec. 1655 he successfully petitioned the Protector for permission to continue his employment (Cal. State Papers, Dom. 1655–6, p. 76). After the Restoration he was presented to the rectory of Toppesfield in Essex by the king on 22 Sept. 1662 (ib. 1661–2, pp. 487, 495), where he remained until on 10 March 1664–5 he was advanced by letters patent to the see of Clonfert and Kilmacduagh, and consecrated at Tuam on 16 April 1665. According to Burnet, Charles had a great contempt for Wolley's understanding, but bestowed the bishopric on him on account of his success in reclaiming nonconformists in Toppesfield by assiduously visiting them (Hist. of his own Time, 1823, i. 449). His exemplary life earned him great veneration in his diocese. He repaired his cathedral and episcopal residence, which were reduced to a sad condition after the rebellion. He died in 1684, leaving a son Francis, who entered as a student at the Temple in 1659. Upon his death James II kept the see vacant, and bestowed the revenues on two Roman catholic bishops. The vacancy was not filled until 1691, when William Fitzgerald was appointed.
Wolley was the author of: 1. ‘Eulogia. The Parents blessing their Children, and the Children begging on their Knees their Parents' Blessings are Pious Actions warrantable by the Word of God,’ London, 1661, 8vo. 2. ‘Loyalty among Rebels, the True Royalist or Hushai the Archite, a Happy Counsellor in King David's Greatest Danger,’ London, 1662, 8vo. 3. ‘Patterns of Grace and Glory in our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ to be admired, adored, and imitated; collected out of the Holy Scriptures, and illustrated by the Antient Fathers and Expositors,’ Dublin, 1669, 4to. He also translated from the French of Georges de Scudéry ‘Curia Politiæ: or the Apologies of Several Princes: justifying to the World their most Eminent Actions,’ London, 1654, fol.; new edit. London, 1673, fol.
E. I. C.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Skevington

​SKEVINGTON. [See also Skeffington.]
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Skewes, John

​SKEWES, JOHN (d. 1544), lawyer and chronicler. [See Skuish.]
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Skinner

​SKINNER. [See also Skynner.]
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Skevington, Thomas

​SKEVINGTON or Pace, THOMAS (d. 1533), bishop of Bangor, son of John Pace of Leicestershire by Margaret, daughter and heiress of William Cobley, is said to have been born at Skeffington, the seat of the family of that name in Leicestershire. He entered the Cistercian monastery of Merevale, Warwickshire, and studied at the Cistercian college of St. Bernard in Oxford, to which he left 20l. at his death. As the custom was, he took a new name on entering religion, and selected that of what is supposed to have been his birthplace. His connection with Skeffington is, moreover, shown by the blazon of his arms in a window of the church there. He became abbot of Waverley in Surrey, and on 17 June 1509 was consecrated bishop of Bangor. A tradition says that he never went thither, but this can hardly be, as, though he doubtless lived much at the abbey of Beaulieu which he held in commendam, he was active as a builder at Bangor. He finished the palace and built the tower and the nave of the cathedral. He died on Sunday, 13 Aug. 1533 (Letters and Papers, vi. 1002). His body was buried at Beaulieu, but his heart was taken to Bangor and sunk, none too securely, in the pavement in front of what seems to have been a picture of St. Daniel. Humphrey Humphreys [q. v.] used to play with it when a boy. It would seem that he was rich (ib. xiv. 1222).
[Wood's Athenæ Oxon., ed. Bliss, ii. 741; Visitation of Leicestershire (Harl. Soc.), p. 63; Nichols's Leicestershire, II. i. 548, iii. 447; Walcott's Memorials of Bangor, p. 44; Browne Willis's Survey of Bangor, p. 97; Letters and Papers, Henry VIII, ii. 1131, &c.]
W. A. J. A.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Skeyne, Gilbert

​SKEYNE, GILBERT, M.D. (1522?–1599), physician, born at Bandodle, Aberdeenshire, about 1522, was fifth son of James Skeyne, by his wife Janet Lumsden. The father practised as a notary public at the farm of Bandodle on the Skene estate, near Aberdeen. Gilbert received his education at the grammar school of Aberdeen, and at King's College in that university, where he graduated M.A. Afterwards applying himself to the study of medicine, he graduated M.D., and was appointed medicinar or professor of medicine in King's College in 1556. In 1568 he became one of the ordinary regents of the college. He was collated to the ​the burse of medicine in the college in 1571. In 1575 he went to Edinburgh, where he practised physic with success, and on 16 June 1581 he was appointed doctor of medicine to James VI, with a salary of 200l. He retired from practice in 1593, and died in 1599. In 1569 he married Agnes Lawson, widow of John Uddart, burgess of Edinburgh, but had no issue.
He wrote ‘Ane Breve Descriptiovn of the Pest quhair in the cavsis, signis, and sum speciall preseruatioun and cure thairof ar contenit,’ Edinburgh (R. Lekprevit), 1568, 8vo. This curious treatise was the earliest medical work published in Scotland. It was reprinted, under the editorship of William Forbes Skene [q. v.], for the Bannatyne Club (Edinburgh, 1860, 4to), from the only known copy of the original edition, which is preserved in the Advocates' Library. To the reprint is appended ‘Ane Breif descriptioun of the qualiteis and effectis of the Well of the Woman Hill besyde Abirdene’ [Edinburgh?], 1580, 4to. This, the earliest topographical tract connected with Scotland, is thought to bear internal marks of Skene's authorship.
T. C.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Mochaei

Mo Chóe mac Luacháin in the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography.
​MOCHAEI (d. 497), saint and bishop of Aendruim, is also known as Cailan or Caelan, from caol, i.e. slender, according to Bishop Reeves. His mother is said to have been Bronach, daughter of Miliuc, son of Buan, king of North Dalaradia, co. Antrim. With Miliuc St. Patrick was at one time in captivity. One day when journeying from Saul to Derlas, south of Downpatrick, Patrick met Mochaei, then 'a tender youth,' employed in herding swine. Observing his intelligence, Patrick instructed him in the ​holy scriptures, in due time baptised him, and eventually ordained him. This occurrence has been doubtfully dated in 433 by Bishop Reeves; it probably belongs to a later year. On his ordination St. Patrick presented Mochaei with a book of the gospels and menistir, apparently the case containing a chalice and paten. Another gift of the saint was the Eitech Mochaei, or Mochaei's winged crozier, which is said to have fallen from heaven while Mochaei and Patrick were conversing on sacred things. Mochaei seems to have been the first in Ireland to whom St. Patrick gave a gospel and a crozier. The gift appears to have been made on the occasion of the foundation of Mochaei's church of Aendruim. This church, called in the 'Acta Sanctorum' Nendrum, and in the 'Monasticon' Neddrum, was situate thirteen miles N.N.E. of Downpatrick, on an island in Strangford Lough—now known, after Mochaei's name, as Mahee Island. Mahee Island contains the remains of a round tower, about nine feet high, and the ruins of a church enclosed by three ramparts or cashels, evidently for the security of the community. The ruins are not those of the original church built by Mochaei, as that was of wattles plastered over. According to the 'Martyrology of Donegal,' Mochaei went into the forest with sevenscore young men to cut wattles, and a legend states that while thus engaged an angel in the shape of a bird sang so sweetly to him that 'three fifties' of years passed over like an hour. When the song ceased and he awoke from his trance, every one he knew was dead, and an oratory had been built to his memory. The 'Calendar of Oengus' says: 'Of the members of the saint's congregation, nothing remained but the skulls.' Bishop Reeves suggests that the legend may be explained by the fact that another Mochaei is recorded as having died in 664, a hundred and thirty-eight years later, with whom our saint has been confused. The elder Mochaei's monastery was also a school for the education of the clergy, and among the pupils received there were St. Finnian of Moville, and St. Colman of Dromore. 'A shaven pig' was annually presented by Mochaei's community, in commemoration of the saint's original occupation as a swineherd, to the church of Down, which was popularly associated with the name of St. Patrick. Mochaei died on 23 June 497.
T. O.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1901 supplement/Smith, Barbara Leigh

​SMITH, BARBARA LEIGH (1827–1891), foundress of Girton College, Cambridge. [See Bodichon.]
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1901 supplement/Silvester de Everdon

​SILVESTER DE EVERDON (d. 1254), bishop of Carlisle. [See Everdon.]
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1901 supplement/Skene, Felicia Mary Frances

​SKENE, FELICIA MARY FRANCES (1821–1899), novelist, was the youngest daughter of James Skene [q. v.] of Rubislaw and his wife, Jane Forbes, daughter of Sir William Forbes, sixth baronet of Pitsligo. She was born on 93 May 1821 at Aix in Provence. As a child she played with the children of the exiled king, Charles X, at Holyrood; as a girl she was the guest of Lord Stratford de RedclifFe at the embassy at Constantinople; and later was the friend of, among others, Sir John Franklin, Pusey, Landor, and Aytoun. Her father was a great friend of Sir Walter Scott, and it is said that Miss Skene as a child used to sit on the great novelist's knee and tell him fairy tales. In 1838 the family moved to Greece on account of Mrs. Skene 's health. Skene built a villa near Athens, in which they lived for some time. They returned to England in 1845, and lived first at Leamington and afterwards at Oxford.
Miss Skene was a very accomplished woman and devoted to good" works. When, in 1854, cholera broke out at Oxford, she took part, under Sir Henry Acland [q. v. Suppl.], in organising a band of nurses. Some of them were sent afterwards to the Crimea, and during the war Miss Skene remained in constant correspondence with Miss Nightingale. She took much interest in rescue work in Oxford, and was one of the first 'lady visitors' appointed by the home office to visit the prison. Some of her experiences were told in a series of articles in 'Blackwood's Magazine,' published in book form in 1889, and entitled 'Scenes from a Silent World.'
Her earliest published work was 'Isles of Greece, and other Poems,' which appeared in 1843. A devotional work, 'The Divine Master,' was published in 1852 (llth edit. 1888), memoirs of her cousin Alexander Penrose Forbes [q. v.], bishop of Brechin, and Alexander Lycurgus, archbishop of the Cyclades, in 1876 and 1877 respectively. In 1866 she published anonymously a book called 'Hidden Depths.' It was republished with her name and an introduction by Mr. ​W. Shepherd Allen in 1886. Though to all appearance a novel, the author states that it is not a work of fiction in the ordinary acceptation of the term, as she herself witnessed many of the scenes described. She was a constant contributor to the magazines, and edited the 'Churchman's Companion,' 1862-80. She died at 34 St. Michael Street, Oxford, on 6 Oct. 1899.
Other works are: 1. 'Wayfaring Sketches among the Greeks and Turks and on the Shores of the Danube,' 1847. 2. 'Use and Abuse, a Tale,' 1849. 3. 'The Tutor's Ward,' 2 vols., 1851. 4. 'St. Albans, or the Prisoners of Hope,' 1853. 5. 'The Ministry of Consolation,' 1854. 6. 'Penitentiaries and Reformatories,' 1865. 7. 'The Shadows of the Holy Week,' 1883. 8. 'A Strange Inheritance,' 3 vols., 1886. 9. 'The Lesters, a Novel,' 2 vols., 1887. 10. 'Awakened' ('Christian World Annual'), 1888. 11. 'A Test of the Truth,' 1897.
[Times, 10 Oct. 1899; Allibone's Diet. Suppl. ii. 1351.]
E. L.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Vane, Thomas

​VANE, THOMAS (fl. 1652), divine and physician, received his education at Christ's College, Cambridge, where he proceeded to the degree of D.D. He became chaplain extraordinary to the king and rector of Crayford, but resigned those preferments in consequence of his conversion to the Roman catholic faith. According to ‘Legenda Lignea’ (1653, p. 152) he carried a handsome wife with him to Paris, where he practised as a physician. He appears to have been created M.D. by some foreign university.
His works are:
* ‘An Answer to a Libell, written by D. Cosens against the great Generall Councell of Laterane under Pope Innocent the Third,’ Paris, 1646, 8vo, dedicated to Sir Kenelm Digby.
* ‘A Lost Sheep returned Home; or, the Motives of the Conversion to the Catholike Faith of Thomas Vane;’ 2nd edit., Paris, 1648, 12mo; 3rd edit., with additions, Paris, 1648, 12mo; 4th edit. 1649, 24mo. Dedicated to Queen Henrietta Maria. The ‘approbation’ prefixed to the book is dated 2 April 1645. A reply to this book was published by Edward ​Chisenhale under the title of ‘Catholike History,’ 1653.
* ‘Wisdome and Innocence, or Prudence and Simplicity, in the examples of the Serpent and the Dove, propounded to our Lord,’ 1652, 12mo.
[Addit. MS. 5884, p. 5; Birchley's Christian Moderator, 1652, ii. 20; Bramhall's Vindication of himself against Baxter, p. 25; Carier's Missive to King James, 1649, pref. pp. 7, 29; Dodd's Church Hist. iii. 70; Foulis's Romish Treasons and Usurpations, pp. 78, 105, 106.]
T. C.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Vansittart, Henry (1777-1843)

​VANSITTART, HENRY (1777–1843), vice-admiral, fifth son of George Vansittart (1745–1825) of Bisham Abbey, Berkshire, who married, 24 Oct. 1767, Sarah, daughter of the Rev. Sir James Stonhouse, bart., was born in George Street, Hanover Square, on 17 April 1777. George Henry Vansittart [q. v.], was his elder brother. Henry Vansittart [q. v.], the governor of Bengal, was his uncle, and Nicholas, first baron Bexley [q. v.], his first cousin. Having been entered on the books of the Scipio, guardship in the Medway, in October 1788, he was afterwards nominally in the Boyne, guardship in the Thames, and probably actually served in the Pegasus on the Newfoundland station in 1791. In 1792 he was in the Hannibal, stationed at Plymouth, and in 1793 went out to the Mediterranean in the Princess Royal, flagship of Rear-admiral Goodall. During the siege of Toulon by the republican army he was severely wounded. After the evacuation of the place he was moved into L'Aigle, with Captain Samuel Hood, served at the siege of Calvi, and was in October 1794 moved into the Victory, in which he returned to England. On 21 Feb. 1795 he was promoted to be lieutenant of the Stately, in which he was present at the capture of the Cape of Good Hope, and of the Dutch squadron in Saldanha Bay [see Elphinstone, George Keith, Viscount Keith]. He was then moved into the Monarch, Elphinstone's flagship, and returned in her to England. He was next appointed to the Queen Charlotte, Keith's flagship in the Channel; and on 30 May 1798 was promoted to be commander of the Hermes. From her he was moved to the Bonetta, which he took out to Jamaica; and on 13 Feb. 1801 he was posted to the Abergavenny stationed at Port Royal. In July he returned to England in the Thunderer, and, after a few months on half-pay, was appointed, in April 1802 to the Magicienne, from which, in January 1803, he was moved to the Fortunée of 36 guns. For upwards of nine years he commanded this ship in the North Sea, off Boulogne, in the Channel, in the West Indies, and in the Mediterranean, for the most part in active cruising and in convoy service. In August 1812 he was moved into the 74-gun ship Clarence, till March 1814. With the exception of a few months in 1801–2 he had served continuously from 1791. He became a rear-admiral on 22 July 1830, vice-admiral on 23 Nov. 1841, and died on 21 March 1843 at his seat, Eastwood, Woodstock, Canada. He married, in 1809, Mary Charity (d. 1834), daughter of the Rev. John Pennefather, and left issue.
[Marshall's Roy. Nav. Biogr. iii. (vol. ii. pt. i.) 329; O'Byrne's Nav. Biogr. Dict.; Service book in Public Record Office; Burke's Landed Gentry, 1898, ii. 1513; Gent. Mag. 1843, i. 110.]
J. K. L.