OpenLLM-France/wikimedia huggingface dataset:
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Ford, Edward (fl.1647)

​FORD, EDWARD (fl. 1647), ballad and verse writer, was probably a native of Norfolk. He wrote:
* 'Wine and Women, or a brief Description of the common Courtesie of a Curtezan,' London, 1647 (3 Dec. 1646), dedicated to 'Robert Walloppe, esq.,' M.P. ​The author signs his name 'Ed. Foord.' The work is in six-line stanzas, to each of which is appended a scriptural text. Drunkenness and immorality are denounced in alternate stanzas.
* 'An Alarm to Trumpets, or Mounte Chival to every defeated, remisse, and secure Trumpet in England, Scotland, and Ireland,' London (12 Aug.), 1651. The dedication to the author's 'worthy friend, Mr. John Bret, Trumpet in Special' to Cromwell, is signed 'Edw. Ford.' The book collects scattered pieces, chiefly religious, in verse and prose, and shows much sympathy with the parliamentary party.
* 'Fair Play in the Lottery, or Mirth for Money,' London, 1660, dedicated to the author's namesake, Sir Edward Ford [q. v.] a collection of droll verses descriptive of a lottery-drawing.
Four ballads by Ford issued as broadsides about 1640 are extant in the Roxburghe Collection. These are (1). . .or
A merry discourse between him and his Ioane, That sometimes did live as never did none.
2 parts, signed 'Ed. Ford.' Printed in London by F. Coules (Roxb. Coll. i. 82-3; Roxb. Ballads, ed. Chappell, i. 253); (2) 'A Dialogue between Master Guesright and poore Neighbour Needy,' signed E. F. (ib. i. 74-5; ib. i. 230); (3) 'Impossibilities' (ib. i. 164-5; ib. i. 492); (4) 'A merry Discourse between Norfolke Thomas and Sisly Standtoo't, his wife' (ib. i. 270-1; ib. ii. 170), reprinted in J. O. Halliwell's 'Norfolk Anthology,' 1852, pp. 149-57. Ford in his ballads, as elsewhere, severely denounces the vices of the day.
[Ford's works and ballads as above.]
S. L. L.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Ford, Michael

​FORD, MICHAEL (d. 1758?), mezzotint engraver, was a native of Dublin, and a pupil of John Brooks, the mezzotint engraver [q. v.] When Brooks quitted Ireland about 1747, Ford set up as his successor at a shop on Cork Hill. He engraved a number of portraits in mezzotint, which on account of their scarcity are highly valued by collectors . Among them were James, earl of Barrymore, after Ottway; Maria Gunning, countess of Coventry, after F. Cotes; George II, after Hudson; William, earl of Harrington, after Du Pan; Richard St. George, after Slaughter; and William III, after Kneller. He also painted portraits, and engraved some himself, viz. Henry Boyle, speaker of the House of Commons in Ireland, Henry Singleton, lord chief justice of Ireland, and a double portrait of William III and Field-marshal Schomberg, the heads being copied from Kneller. Ford's address as publisher appears on some of the mezzotint engravings by Andrew Miller [q. v.] and James MacArdell [q. v.] With the former he seems to have been in rivalry, as they engraved the same subjects, notably Hogarth's full-length portrait of Gustavus Hamilton, viscount Boyne, in which Ford's print seems to be the earlier of the two. It is probable that Ford visited London, but this is not certain. On 28 Oct. 1758 the ship Dublin Trader, Captain White, left Parkgate for Dublin, and was never heard of again; she carried 70,000l. in money and 80,000l. in goods, and numerous passengers, among whom were Edward, fifth earl of Drogheda, and his son, Theophilus Cibber [q. v.], and others. There are grounds for supposing that Ford was also among the passengers.
L. C.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Earle, Henry

​EARLE, HENRY (1789–1838), surgeon, third son of Sir James Earle [q. v.], was born 28 June 1789, in Hanover Square, London. His mother was daughter of Percival Pott, the great surgeon. He was apprenticed to his father at the age of sixteen, became a member of the College of Surgeons in 1808, and was then appointed house surgeon at St. Bartholomew's Hospital. In 1811 he began practice as a surgeon, and attained some notoriety by the invention of a bed for cases of fracture of the legs. For this invention he received two prizes from the Society of Arts. In 1813 he obtained the Jacksonian prize at the College of Surgeons for an essay on the diseases and injuries of nerves. He was elected assistant-surgeon to St. Bartholomew's Hospital in 1815, and on the resignation of Abernethy was elected surgeon to the hospital, 29 Aug. 1827. In 1833 he was made professor of anatomy and surgery at the Royal College of Surgeons, and in 1835–7 he was president of the Royal Medical and Chirurgical Society. On the accession of Queen Victoria he was appointed surgeon extraordinary to her majesty. He lived in George Street, Hanover Square, London, attained considerable practice, and died of fever at his own house 18 Jan. 1838. Besides twelve surgical papers in the ‘Medico-Chirurgical Transactions,’ and two on surgical subjects in the ‘Philosophical Transactions’ (1821 and 1822), he published ‘Practical Observations in Surgery,’ London, 1823. The frontispiece of this book has a series of drawings of the bed invented by Earle, and one of the six essays which make up the volume is a description of this bed. Two are reprints of his papers in the ‘Philosophical Transactions’ on an injury to the urethra and on the mechanism of the spine; the others are on injuries near the shoulder, on fracture of the funny-bone, and on certain fractures of the thigh-bone. This essay led to a controversy with Sir Astley Cooper as to whether fracture of the neck of the thighbone ever unites. Cooper maintained that it does not unite, and said that Earle only maintained the contrary in order to depreciate Guy's Hospital and its teaching. Earle defended his views in ‘Remarks on Sir Astley Cooper's Reply,’ printed 13 Sept. 1823. In 1832 he published ‘Two Lectures on the Primary and Secondary Treatment of Burns.’ His writings show him to have been a surgeon of large experience, but without much scientific acuteness. He was of small stature, and hence the ‘Lancet,’ in many indecent attacks on him, usually calls him ‘the cock-sparrow,’ but in a long series of abusive paragraphs nothing to Earle's real discredit is stated. His distinguished surgical descent, his early opportunities of acquiring knowledge, and success in obtaining important appointments seem to have made him somewhat arrogant, but he undoubtedly worked hard at his profession, and deserved the trust which a large circle of friends and patients placed in him.
[British and Foreign Medical Review, vol. v. 1838; MS. Journals of St. Bartholomew's Hospital; Lancet for 1830–5.]
N. M.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Earnshaw, Laurence

​EARNSHAW, LAURENCE (d. 1767), mechanician, the son of a weaver or clothworker, was born early in the eighteenth century at Wednescough, in the parish of Mottram-in-Longdendale, Cheshire. After serving a seven years' apprenticeship to his father's business he went for four years to a tailor, and then took to his last trade, that of a clockmaker. He had a remarkable genius for mechanism of all kinds. He made musical instruments, and taught music; understood chemistry, metallurgy, and mathematics; was an engraver, painter, and gilder; a maker of sundials and of optical instruments; a bell-founder and worker in various metals. About 1753 he invented a machine to spin and reel cotton at one operation, which he exhibited to some neighbours, but afterwards destroyed, under the mistaken notion that its use might deprive the poor of the benefit of their labour. His greatest work was an ingenious astronomical clock, on the invention and construction of which he spent several years. He made many of these clocks, one of which was sold to Lord Bute for 150l., and afterwards became the property of Lord Lonsdale. Despite his great ​local fame as a mechanic his earnings were small, and he remained poor to the end. His privations were increased by his wife being bedridden for many years, and by his own lameness in the latter period of his life. He died in May 1767, aged about 60, and was buried at Mottram. A hundred years later, as the result of a series of articles by Mr. William Chadwick in the ‘Ashton-under-Lyne Reporter,’ a handsome monument was raised to his memory by public subscription in Mottram churchyard. Its inauguration was marked by a public procession on 10 April 1868.
C. W. S.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Earle, John (1749-1818)

​EARLE, JOHN (1749–1818), catholic divine, born in London on 31 Dec. 1749, was educated at the English college, Douay, and became one of the officiating priests at the chapel of the Spanish ambassador in Dorset Street, Manchester Square, London, where he died on 15 May 1818.
His works are: 1. A poem on ‘Gratitude,’ composed in commemoration of the partial repeal of the penal laws in 1791. 2. ‘Remarks on the Prefaces prefixed to the first ​and second volumes of a work entitled “The Holy Bible; or the Books accounted sacred by Jews and Christians, faithfully translated, &c., by the Rev. Alexander Geddes, LL.D.,” in four Letters addressed to him by the Rev. John Earle,’ London, 1799, 8vo.
T. C.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Earle, James

​EARLE, Sir JAMES (1755–1817), surgeon, was born in London in 1755, and received his professional education at St. Bartholomew's Hospital. He was elected assistant-surgeon to the hospital in 1770. From 1776 to 1784, as Mr. Crane, one of the surgeons, was unable to operate, Earle performed one-third of the operations at the hospital. He was elected surgeon 22 May 1784, and held that office for thirty-one years, resigning two years before his death in 1817. He lived in Hanover Square, London, was surgeon extraordinary to George III, and was celebrated as an operator. In 1802, when president of the College of Surgeons, he was knighted by the king. He married the daughter of Percival Pott, then surgeon to St. Bartholomew's Hospital, and his third son, Henry [q. v.], became surgeon to the same foundation. Earle wrote the memoir of Percival Pott prefixed to the three-volume octavo edition of Pott's works, published in 1790, and a life of another colleague, Dr. William Austin [q. v.], prefixed to an essay on lithotomy. Both are written in a simple, lucid style, which is also found in his surgical writings, and which was probably acquired from his study of the methods of thought and the writings of Pott. He was famous for his skill in lithotomy, and introduced an improvement in the treatment of hydrocele. His surgical works are: 1. ‘A Treatise on the Hydrocele,’ 1791 (with additions in 1793, 1796, and 1805). 2. ‘Practical Observations on the Operation for Stone,’ 1793 (2nd edition 1796). 3. ‘Observations on the Cure of Curved Spine,’ 1799. 4. ‘On Burns,’ 1799. 5. ‘A New Method of Operation for Cataract,’ 1801. 6. ‘Letter on Fractures of the Lower Limbs,’ 1807. 7. ‘On Hæmorrhoidal Excrescences,’ 1807. In the ‘Philosophical Transactions’ for 1803 he described a very large vesical calculus. His writings show that besides being a skilful operator he was a careful observer at the bedside, and in every way a worthy disciple of the illustrious Percival Pott.
N. M.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Earle, William Benson

​EARLE, WILLIAM BENSON (1740–1796), philanthropist, eldest son of Harry Benson Earle, was born at Shaftesbury, Wiltshire, in 1740, but his life was passed at Salisbury, with the history and charities of which city his name is inseparably associated. After spending his boyhood, first at the school in the Close, and then as a commoner at Winchester College, he proceeded to Merton College, Oxford, where he graduated B.A. in 1761, M.A. in 1764 (Cat. of Oxford Graduates, ed. 1851, p. 203). He then made the grand tour of the continent (1765–7). On his return he prepared several tracts, in which he describes the more striking portions of his travels. Two of these, viz. ‘A Description of Vallombrosa’ and ‘A Picturesque View of the Glaciers in Savoy,’ he communicated to the ‘Monthly Miscellany.’ A third is ‘A ​Letter to Lord Littelton, containing a description of the last great Eruption of Mount Ætna, A.D. 1766,’ Lond. 1775, being the sequel to the reprint of a letter on the eruption of the same mountain in 1669 addressed to Charles II by Lord Winchilsea. On the death of his father in 1776 Earle succeeded to an ample fortune. In 1786, having discovered who was the real author, he published a new edition of Bishop Earle's ‘ Characters,’ which on its first appearance only bore the name of the publisher and editor, Edward Blount [q. v.] He was an excellent musician, and composed several glees; also a ‘Sanctus’ and a ‘Kyrie,’ which are still occasionally performed in Salisbury Cathedral. He died at Salisbury on 2 March 1796, and was buried at Newton Toney. By his will he bequeathed large sums to various learned and charitable institutions. A profile of him was engraved by Prince Hoare in 1769 at the expense of the Society of Arts.
T. C.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Earlom, Richard

​EARLOM, RICHARD (1743–1822), mezzotint engraver, son of Richard Earlom, who for many years and till his death held the situation of a vestry-clerk of the parish of St. Sepulchre, London, was born in London in 1743, and resided in Cow Lane, Smithfield. A portion of the premises which he held was occupied by an eminent coachmaker, to whom the stage coach of the lord mayor was occasionally taken to be repaired and cleaned. The allegorical paintings by Cipriani which decorated the vehicle attracted the attention of Earlom, who made copies of them. He so far succeeded as to induce his father to place him under the tuition of Cipriani, and in 1765 became known to Alderman Boydell, who entertained so high an opinion of the young artist that he employed him to make drawings from the celebrated collection of pictures at Houghton, and now at St. Petersburg, for the engravers to work from. In 1757 he was awarded a premium by the Society of Arts. In the art of mezzotint engraving Earlom was his own instructor. His plates show great technical skill, especially those of flowers after Van Huysum, and are highly valued by the connoisseurs. They were produced in a style of engraving which till then had never been thought capable of representing the delicate texture of flowers. Earlom was not less successful in his engravings in the chalk manner. A fine example in this way may be seen in his figure of Alope after Romney. He also engraved a series of prints after the original drawings of Claude Lorraine, in the possession of the Duke of Devonshire. These drawings were called the ‘Liber Veritatis,’ and were made for the purpose of identifying the real works of Claude from others that were said to be from his hand. These engravings are executed in imitation of the original drawings, and printed in a warm bistre colour to aid the resemblance. They were at first produced only in outline, simply with a view to show the character of the composition. It turned out that the demand was so extensive that the publisher, Boydell, caused Earlom to retouch and refresh the plates no less than five or six times. He died 9 Oct. 1822, in Exmouth Street, Clerkenwell, and was buried in the lower burial-ground of St. Mary, Islington. A widow and married daughter survived him. He engraved over sixty plates in mezzotint, among which are ‘The Royal Academy,’ after Zoffany; Samuel Barrington, after Reynolds; Richard, viscount Fitzwilliam, after Howard; William Henry, duke of Gloucester, after Hamilton; Horatio, lord Nelson, after Beechey; William Pitt, after Dupont; the set of six plates of the ‘Marriage à la Mode,’ after Hogarth; two flower pieces, after Huysum; Blacksmith's Shop, and the Forge, after Wright. His portrait by G. Stewart has been engraved in mezzotint by T. Lupton.
L. F.
# Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology/Amata

​AMA'TA, the wife of king Latinus and mother of Lavinia, who, when Aeneas sued for the hand of the latter, opposed him, because she had already promised Lavinia to Turnus. At the same time she was instigated by Alecto, who acted according to the request of Juno, to stir up the war with Turnus. This story fills the greater part of the seventh book of Virgil's Aeneid. When Amata was informed that Turnus had fallen in battle, she hung herself. (Virg. Aen. xii. 600 ; Dionys. i. 64.) [L. S.]
# Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology/Amathes

​A'MATHES (Ἀμάθης), a son of Heracles, from whom the town of Amathus in Cyprus was believed to have derived its name. According to some traditions, however, its name was derived from Amathusa, the mother of Cinyras. (Steph. Byz. s. v. Ἀμαθούς)[L. S.]
# Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology/Amathusia

​AMATHU'SIA or AMATHU'NTIA (Ἀμαθουσία or Ἀμαθουντία), a surname of Aphrodite, which is derived from the town of Amathus in Cyprus, one of the most ancient seats of her worship. (Tac. Annal. iii. 62; Ov. Amor. iii. 15. 15; Virg. Cir. 242; Catull. lxviii. 151.)[L. S.]
# Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology/Alexander 16.

​ALEXANDER, of Athens, a comic poet, the son of Aristion, whose name occurs in an inscription given in Böckh (Corp. Inscr. i. p. 765), who refers it to the 145th Olympiad, (B. C. 200.) There seems also to have been a poet of the same name who was a writer of the middle comedy, quoted by the Schol. on Homer (Il. ix. 216), and Aristoph. (Ran. 864), and Athen. (iv. p. 170, e.x. p. 496, c.; Meineke, Fragm. Com. vol i. p. 487.)
[C. P. M.]
# Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology/Alexander Aetolus

​ALEXANDER AETO′LUS (Ἀλέξανδρος ὁ Αἰτωλός), a Greek poet and grammarian, who lived in the reign of Ptolemaeus Philadelphus. He was the son of Satyrus and Stratocleia, and a native of Pleuron in Aetolia, but spent the greater part of his life at Alexandria, where he was reckoned one of the seven tragic poets who constituted the tragic pleiad. (Suid. s.v.; Eudoc. p. 62; Paus. ii. 22. §7; Schol. ad Hom. Il. xvi. 233.) He had an office in the library at Alexandria, and was commissioned by the king to make a collection of all the tragedies and satyric dramas that were extant. He spent some time, together with Antagoras and Aratus, at the court of Antigonus Gonatas. (Aratus, Phaenomena et Diosem. ii. pp. 431, 443, &c. 446, ed. Buhle.) Notwithstanding the distinction he enjoyed as a tragic poet, he appears to have had greater merit as a writer of epic poems, elegies, epigrams, and cynaedi. Among his epic poems, we possess the titles and some fragments of three pieces: the Fisherman (ἁλιεὺς, Athen. vii. p. 296), Kirka or Krika (Athen. vii. p. 283), which, however, is designated by Athenaeus as doubtful, and Helena. (Bekker, Anecd. p. 96.) Of his elegies, some beautiful fragments are still extant. (Athen, iv. p. 170, xi. p. 496, xv. p. 899; Strab. xii. p. 556, xiv. p. 681; Parthen. Erot. 4; Tzetz. ad. Lycophr. 266; Schol. and Eustath. ad Il. iii. 314.) His Cynaedi, or Ἰωνικὰ ποιήματα, are mentioned by Strabo (xiv. p. 648) and Athenaeus. (xiv. p. 620.) Some anapaestic verses in praise of Euripides are preserved in Gellius. (xv. 20.)
All the fragments of Alexander Aetolus are collected in "Alexandri Aetoli fragmenta coll. et ill. A. Capellmann," Bonn, 1829, 8vo.; comp. Welcker, Die Griech. Tragödien, p. 1263, &c.; Düntzer, Die Fragm. der Episch. Poesie der Griechen, von Alexand. dem Grossen, &c. p. 7, &c.
[L. S.]
# Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology/Alitta

​ALITTA or ALILAT (Ἀλίττα or Ἀλιλάτ), the name by which, according to Herodotus (i. 131, iii. 8), the Arabs called Aphrodite Urania. [L. S.]
# Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology/Amatius

​AMA'TIUS, surnamed Pseudomarius, a person of low origin, who pretended to be either the son or grandson of the great Marius. On the death of Julius Caesar B. C. 44, he came forward as a popular leader, and erected an altar to Caesar on the spot where his body had been burnt. He was, however, shortly afterwards seized by the consul Antony and put to death without a trial. This illegal act was approved of by the senate in consequence of the advantages they derived from it. Valerius Maximus (ix. 15. § 2) says, that his name was Herophilus. (Appian, B. C. iii. 2, 3; Liv. Epit. 116; Cic. ad Ait. xii. 49, xiv. 6—8, Philipp. i. 2; Nicolaus Damascenus, Vit. Aug. c. 14. p. 258, ed. Coraes.)
# Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology/Ameipsias

​AMEI′PSIAS (Ἀμειψίας), a comic poet of Athens, contemporary with Aristophanes, whom he twice conquered in the dramatic contests, gaining the second prize with his Κόννος when Aristophanes was third with the "Clouds" (423 B. C.), and the first with his Κωμασταί, when Aristophanes gained the second with the "Birds." (414 B. C.; Argum. in Aristoph. Nub. et Av.) The ​Κόννος appears to have had the same subject and aim as the "Clouds." It is at least certain that Socrates appeared in the play, and that the Chorus consisted of Φροντισταί. (Diog. Laert. ii. 28; Athen. v. p. 218.) Aristophanes alludes to Ameipsias in the "Frogs" (v. 12—14), and we are told in the anonymous life of Aristophanes, that when Aristophanes first exhibited his plays, in the names of other poets, Ameipsias applied to him the proverb τετράδι γεγονώς, which means "a person who labours for others," in allusion to Heracles, who was born on the fourth of the month.
Ameipsias wrote many comedies, out of which there remain only a few fragments of the following:—Ἀποκοτταϐίζοντες, Κατεσθίων (doubtful), Κόννος, Μοιχοί, Σαπφώ, Σφενδόνη, and of some the names of which are unknown. Most of his plays were of the old comedy, but some, in all probability, were of the middle. (Meineke, Frag. Com. i. p. 19.9, ii. p.70l.)
[P. S.]
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Byers, James

James Byres of Tonley in the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography.
​BYERS or BYRES, JAMES (1733–1817), architect and archæologist, died at his seat Tonley, in the parish of Tough, Aberdeenshire, on 3 Sept. 1817, in the eighty-fourth year of his age (Scots Mag. N.S. 1817, i. 196). During a residence of nearly forty years at Rome, from 1750 to 1790, he assiduously collected antique sculpture. At one time he possessed the Portland vase, which he parted with to Sir William Hamilton. Bishop Percy, for whom Byers procured old Italian romances, calls him ‘the pope's antiquary at Rome’ (Nichols's Illustr. of Lit. iii. 726, vii. 718–19). Byers also gave lectures for many years on the favourite objects ​of his study, and Sir James Hall, who has occasion in his ‘Essay on Gothic Architecture’ (1813) frequently to refer to his authority, bears testimony to ‘the very great success with which he contributed to form the taste of his young countrymen.’ In 1767 he proposed to publish by subscription ‘The Etruscan Antiquities of Corneto, the antient Tarquinii’ (Gent. Mag. xlix. 288); but for some not very satisfactory reason the book never appeared, a circumstance which gave rise to many complaints on the part of deluded subscribers (ibid. vol. lxii. pt. i. pp. 201, 317, vol. lxvi. pt. i. p. 222). Long after his death forty-one drawings from his collection were published with the title ‘Hypogæi, or Sepulchral Caverns of Tarquinia, the capital of antient Etruria; edited by Frank Howard,’ folio, London (1842). Byers was elected an honorary fellow of the Society of Antiquaries on 24 Feb. 1785, and was also a corresponding member of the Society of Arts and a fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh. His profile is given at p. 101 of T. Windus's ‘Description of the Portland Vase,’ and there is a portrait of him by Sir H. Raeburn.
G. G.