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

​NARES, Sir GEORGE (1716–1786), judge, born at Hanwell, Middlesex, in 1716, was the younger son of George Nares of ​Albury, Oxfordshire, steward to the Earl of Abingdon. James Nares [q. v.] was his elder brother. He was educated at Magdalen College School, and having been admitted a member of the Inner Temple on 19 Oct. 1738, was called to the bar on 12 June 1741. He appears to have practised chiefly in the criminal courts. He defended Timothy Murphy, charged with felony and forgery, in January 1753 (Howell, State Trials, 1813, xix. 702), and Elizabeth Canning, charged with perjury, in April 1754 (ib. xix. 451). He received the degree of the coif on 6 Feb. 1759, and in the same year was appointed one of the king's serjeants. He was employed as one of the counsel for the crown in several of the cases arising out of the seizure of No. 45 of the ‘North Briton’ (ib. xix. 1153; Harris, Life of Lord Chancellor Hardwicke, 1847, iii. 349). At the general election in March 1768 he was returned to the House of Commons for the city of Oxford, of which he was already recorder. He spoke in favour of Lord Barrington's motion for the expulsion of Wilkes on 3 Feb. 1769, and declared that he would ‘rather appear before this house as an idolater of a minister than a ridiculer of his Maker’ (Cavendish, Debates, i. 156). On the delivery of the great seal to Bathurst, Nares was appointed a justice of the common pleas, and was sworn in at the lord-chancellor's house in Dean Street, Soho, on 26 Jan. 1771 (Sir William Blackstone, Reports, 1781, ii. 734–5). He was knighted on the following day.
Nares took part in the hearing of Brass Crosby's case (Howell, State Trials, xix. 1152), Fabrigas v. Mostyn (ib. xx. 183), and Sayre v. Earl of Rochford (ib. xx. 1316). A number of his judgments will be found in the second volume of Sir William Blackstone's ‘Reports.’ After holding office for more than fifteen years, Nares died at Ramsgate on 20 July 1786, and was buried at Eversley, Hampshire, where there is a monument to his memory (Nichols, Illustrations of the Literary History of the Eighteenth Century, vii. 635). He married, on 23 Sept. 1751, Mary, third daughter of Sir John Strange, master of the rolls, who died on 6 Aug. 1782, aged 55. Their eldest son, John, a magistrate at Bow Street and a bencher of the Inner Temple, died on 16 Dec. 1816, and was the grandfather of Sir George Strong Nares, K.C.B., the well-known Arctic explorer. George Strange, their second son, became a captain in the 70th regiment of foot, and died in the West Indies in 1794. Their youngest son, Edward, is noticed separately.
Nares was created a D.C.L. of Oxford University on 7 July 1773. He is ridiculed by Foote in his farcical comedy of the ‘Lame Lover,’ under the character of Serjeant Circuit. There is a mezzotint engraving of Nares by W. Dickinson after N. Hone.
G. F. R. B.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Nares, James

​NARES, JAMES (1715–1783), composer, son of George Nares and brother of Sir George Nares [q. v.] the judge, was born at Stanwell, Middlesex, in 1715, and baptised 19 April (parish register). The family removed to Oxfordshire, and he became a chorister in the Chapel Royal under Dr. Croft and Bernard Gates. He subsequently studied under Dr. Pepusch, and, after acting as deputy organist at St. George's Chapel, Windsor, was in 1734 appointed organist of York Cathedral. By the interest of Dr. Fountayne, dean of York, he was in 1756 chosen to succeed Dr. Greene as organist and composer to the king; and in 1757 graduated Mus. Doc. at Cambridge. In the same year he succeeded Gates as master of the children of the Chapel Royal, and held the post until ill-health compelled him to resign in July 1780. He died 10 Feb. 1783, and was buried in St. Margaret's, Westminster. He married Miss Bacon of York, who survived him forty years, and by her he had four children. The eldest son, Robert [q. v.], is noticed separately.
It is as a composer for the church that Nares is now known, and, although he has left nothing of great merit, several of his anthems and other pieces are still in use. They include three sets of harpsichord lessons, two treatises on singing, ‘A Regular Introduction to Playing on the Harpsichord or Organ’ (1759), six organ fugues, and twenty anthems composed for the Chapel Royal (1778). A ‘Morning and Evening Service and Six Anthems’ were published in 1788. This volume contains his portrait, engraved by W. Ward after Engleheart, ætate 65, and a biographical notice by his son, which is reprinted in the ‘Harmonicon,’ 1829. His compositions are to be found in Arnold's ‘Cathedral Music’ (vol. iii.), Steven's ‘Sacred Music,’ and Warren's collections.
J. C. H.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Nary, Cornelius

​NARY, CORNELIUS (1660–1738), Irish catholic divine, was born in co. Kildare in 1660, and received his early education at Naas in the same county. He was ordained priest by the Bishop of Ossory at Kilkenny in 1682, and soon afterwards entered the Irish College in Paris, of which he was subsequently provisor for seven years. While in Paris he graduated doctor of divinity in the university in 1694, and he was also twice appointed procurator of the German or English ‘Nation’ at the university of Paris, and, as such, was for the time being a member of the academic governing body. Leaving France about 1696, he went to London, where he acted for a while as tutor to the Earl of Antrim, an Irish catholic peer; but afterwards removing to Dublin, he was arrested and imprisoned for his religion in 1702. In the ‘Registry of Popish Clergy’ for 1703–4 he is described as popish parish priest of St. Michan, and so he remained until his death, at the age of seventy-eight, on 3 March 1738. He is described by Harris, the editor of Sir James Ware's ‘Works,’ as ‘a man of learning and of a good character.’
An anonymous mezzotint portrait is mentioned by Bromley.
He was the author of the following works: 1. ‘A Modest and True Account of the Chief Points in Controversy between the Roman Catholicks and the Protestants,’ Antwerp and London, 1699, 8vo. 2. ‘Prayers and Meditations,’ Dublin, 1705, 12mo. 3. ‘The New Testament translated into English from the Latin, with Marginal Notes,’ London, 1705 and 1718, 8vo. 4. ‘Rules and Godly Instructions,’ Dublin, 1716, 12mo. 5. ‘A Brief History of St. Patrick's Purgatory and its Pilgrimages; written in favour of those who are curious to know the Particulars of that famous Place and Pilgrimage, so much celebrated in Antiquity,’ Dublin, 1718, 12mo. 6. ‘A Catechism for the use of the Parish,’ Dublin, 1718, 12mo. 7. ‘A Letter to His Grace Edward, Lord Archbishop of Tuam, in answer to his charitable Address to all who are of the Communion of the Church of Rome,’ Dublin, 1719, 1720, 1728, 8vo. 8. ‘A New History of the World, containing an Historical and Chronological Account of the Times and Transactions from the Creation to the Birth of Christ, according to the Computation of the Septuagint,’ Dublin, 1720, fol. 9. ‘The Case of the Catholics of Ireland,’ Dublin, 1724.
He was also the author of several controversial pamphlets and the translator of others, and left in manuscript a work entitled ‘An Argument showing the Difficulties in Sacred Writ as well in the Old as New Testament;’ he is also stated by Anderson (Sketches of the Native Irish) to have published a short ‘History of Ireland.’
P. L. N.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1912 supplement/Mawdsley, James

​MAWDSLEY, JAMES (1848–1902), trade union leader, born at Preston on 9 Feb. 1848, was son of Thomas Mawdsley, an operative cotton spinner, by his wife Jane Fawcett. At the age of nine he went to the mill as a half-timer. He soon became interested in trade unionism, and was elected in 1875 assistant secretary to the Preston Spinners' Association. He took an active part in the historic Preston lockout of 1878, and in September of that year became secretary to the Amalgamated Association of Cotton Spinners. He belonged to what is somewhat inaccurately called 'the old school of trade union leader.' Mr. Sidney Webb entitles him 'the cautious leader of the Lancashire cotton spinners,' but his policy was steadily directed to resist reductions in wages and secure a minimum scale agreement. His opposition to the reductions forced upon the operatives in 1879 and 1885 became an essential link in the development of trade union policy in Lancashire. But it was not till 1892-3 that he fought his great battle. The employers then sought to enforce a further reduction in wages of five per cent.; the operatives refused to accept it, and for twenty weeks the mills of south-east Lancashire were idle. The industrial result of this dispute was a reduction of under three per cent, and the famous conciliation scheme known as the Brooklands agreement, by which the men and the masters agreed to fix wages for periods of years by consent and refer disputes to an arbitrator. But a farther reaching effect was that as the operatives were very dissatisfied with the result it threw them into political agitation and so opened the door for the political labour party.
From 1882 to 1897 he was a member of the parliamentary committee of the trade union congress, and joined in the constant endeavours of the committee to widen its field of activity in home and foreign politics. Although he did not welcome the growing power of the independent labour political movement, he was forced along on its currents. He visited America in 1895 as a trade union delegate, and repeatedly went to the Continent on the same errand. He was made a J.P. for the city of Manchester in 1888 and for the county of Lancaster in 1894. He was a member of the royal commission which inquired into labour questions in 1891-4, opposed a general scheme of arbitration, and was one of the signatories of the minority report which advocated 'public for capitalist enterprise.' He was also a member of several local authorities. In 1900 he unsuccessfully contested Oldham as a trade unionist candidate for parliament.
He married in January 1871 Ann Wright, by whom he had five sons and four daughters. He died at Taunton, Ashton-under-Lyne, on 4 Feb. 1902, and was buried at Christ Church cemetery there.
[Factory Times, 7 Feb. 1902; The Times, 5 Feb. 1902; Sidney Webb's Industrial Democracy, 1897; family information.]
J. R. M.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1912 supplement/Saunders, Edward

​SAUNDERS, EDWARD (1848–1910), entomologist, born at East Hill, Wandsworth, on 22 March 1848, was youngest of seven children (four sons and three daughters) of William Wilson Saunders, F.R.S. [q. v.]. His elder brother, George Sharp Saunders, F.L.S. (d. 1910), also an entomologist, was editor of the 'Journal of the Royal Horticultural Society' from 1906 to 1908. The youngest sister married the Rev. T. R. R. Stebbing, F.R.S. Saunders, who was educated entirely at home, was the author (from 1867) of many papers on entomology, relating chiefly to the Buprestidae, Hemiptera Heteroptera, and Aculeata Hymenoptera. These he contributed to the 'Entomologist's Monthly Magazine,' the 'Transactions of the Entomological Society,' the 'Journal of the Linnean Society,' and other serials. His independent publications comprised 'The Hemiptera Heteroptera of the British Isles' (1892); 'The Hymenoptera Aculeata of the British Isles' (1896); and a popular work (with illustrations by his daughter) 'Wild Bees, Wasps, and Ants, and other Stinging Insects' (1907).
On 5 June 1902 he was elected F.R.S. He died at Bognor on 6 Feb. 1910, and was buried in Brookwood cemetery. He married in 1872 Mary Agnes, daughter of Edward Brown (d. 1866), of East Hill, Wandsworth, East India merchant, and had issue eight sons and four daughters.
[Proc. Linn. Soc. 1910; Entomol. Month. Mag., March 1910 (portrait); Proc. Entomol. Soc. 1910, Presidential Address; Entomologist's Record, March 1910; Roy. Soc. Catal. Sci. Papers; Nature, 3 March 1910.]
T. E. J.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1912 supplement/Saumarez, Thomas

​SAUMAREZ, THOMAS (1827–1903), admiral, born at Sutton, Surrey, on 31 March 1827, was grandnephew of James, first Baron de Saumarez, and was son of Captain (afterwards Admiral) Richard Saumarez. After a few years at the Western Grammar School, Brompton, he entered the navy in 1841, and was actively employed during the whole of his junior time on the east coast of South America, at Buenos Ayres, Monte Video, and in Parana. He was made a lieutenant in March 1848. As a lieutenant he served principally on the west coast of Africa, where on 31 March 1851 he saved a man from drowning and received the Royal Humane Society's silver medal. Later in the year he commanded a division of gunboats at Lagos and was severely wounded; in September 1854 he was promoted to commander. In May 1858 he had command of the Cormorant, and served with rare distinction at the capture of the Taku forts, where the Cormorant led the attack, broke through a really formidable boom, and with her first broadside, fired at the same moment, dismounted the largest of the enemy's guns. He afterwards took part in the operations in the river Peiho and in the occupation of Tientsin, and on the coast of ​China. His promotion to the rank of captain was dated 27 July 1858. He had no further active service, but his brilliant advance on 20 May 1858 is worthy to be held in remembrance. On 12 April 1870 he was retired, and was nominated a C.B. in 1873. He became by seniority a rear-admiral in 1876, vice-admiral in 1881, and admiral in 1886. He died at his residence, 2 Morpeth Mansions, Westminster, on 22 Jan. 1903. He married (1) in 1854 a daughter (d. 1866) of S. R. Block of Greenhill, Barnet; and (2) in 1868, Eleanor, daughter of B. Scott Riley, of Liverpool. He left no issue.
[Royal Navy List; Debrett's Peerage; Who's Who, 1902; The Times, 23 Jan. 1903; Clowes, The Royal Navy, vol. vii.; personal knowledge.]
J. K. L.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1912 supplement/Seale-Hayne, Charles Hayne

​SEALE-HAYNE, CHARLES HAYNE (1833–1903), liberal politician, born at Brighton on 22 Oct. 1833, was only son of Charles Hayne Seale-Hayne of Fuge House, Dartmouth (1808-1842), by his wife Louisa, daughter of Richard Jennings, of Portland Place, London. His father was second son of Sir John Henry Scale (1785-1844), first baronet and M.P. for Dartmouth, whose family was connected since the seventeenth century with Devonshire, where they were large landowners and held many public offices. Charles was educated at Eton, and called to the bar at Lincoln's Inn on 30 April 1857. In that year and in 1860 he unsuccessfully contested Dartmouth in the liberal interest. In 1885 he was elected M.P. for the Mid or Ashburton division of Devonshire, and retained the seat for the liberals to the day of his death. He was assiduous in his attendance at Westminster, and became in 1892 paymaster-general in Gladstone's fourth administration, being also made privy councillor. He held office until the defeat of the liberal government in 1895. He was treasurer of the Cobden Club, and took an active part in the local affairs of Devonshire. For many years he held the rank of lieutenant-colonel in the South Devon militia, and afterwards the same rank in the 2nd Devon volunteer artillery. He died, unmarried, in London on 22 Nov. 1903, and was buried at Kensal Green cemetery. By his will, dated 17 Jan. 1889, Seale-Hayne directed that, after paying certain legacies, the residue of his property should form a trust to establish and endow a college, to be erected in the neighbourhood of Newton Abbot, Devonshire, for the technical education of artisans and others, without distinction of creed, and for the special encouragement of the industries, manufactures, and products of the county of Devon. The trustees acordingly received the sum of over 90,000l., from which a farm of 225 acres has been purchased two and a half miles outside Newton Abbot. A college is to be erected in the centre of the property. Seale-Hayne's publications include 'Annals of the Militia: being the Records of the South Devon Regiment' (Plymouth, 1873) and 'Politics for Working Men, Farmers and Landlords.'
[The Times, and Western Times, 23 Nov. 1903; Western Mag. and Portfolio, Jan. 1904; personal information.]
H. T-S.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1912 supplement/Selby, Thomas Gunn

​SELBY, THOMAS GUNN (1846–1910), Wesleyan missionary in China, born at New Radford near Nottingham on 5 June 1846, was the son of William Selby, engaged in the lace trade, by his wife Mary Gunn. He was educated at private schools at Nottingham and Derby. At the age of sixteen he preached his first sermon, and in 1865 became a student at the Wesleyan College, Richmond. In 1867 he entered the Wesleyan ministry, and left England in the following year to become a missionary in China. He remained there for the greater part of fifteen years. He was in charge of the Wesleyan mission at Fatshan (Canton province) until 1876, and after eighteen months in England started in 1878 the North River Mission at Shiu Chau Foo, also in the province of Canton. He made long and perilous pioneer journeys into the interior of the province. He spent a month in the island of Hainan disguised as a Chinaman. He also travelled in India, Palestine, and Egypt. He made a close study of the Chinese language and wrote a 'Life of Christ' (about 1890) in Chinese, ​which is still used as a text-book in native missionary colleges.
Returning to England in 1882, Selby was pastor in various circuits: at Liverpool (1883), Hull (1886), Greenock (1889), Liverpool (1892), and Dulwich (1895-8). He was a successful preacher and sermonwriter. 'The Holy Writ and Christian Privilege,' written in 1894, was accorded in many circles the rank of a Christian classic. He also published in 1895 some translations of Chinese stories entitled 'The Chinaman in his own Stories.' His work was recognised in the Wesleyan ministry by his election to the 'Legal Hundred' in 1891 and his appointment as Femley lecturer in 1896.
In 1898 Selby became a 'minister without pastoral charge.' Residing at Bromley in Kent, he devoted himself to preaching and writing, and in his 'Chinamen at Home' (1900) and 'As the Chinese see us' (1901) showed much insight and local knowledge. He was for twenty-five years a member of the Anti-Opium Society and a zealous advocate of the temperance cause. He died at his residence, Basil House, Oaklands Road, Bromley, Kent, on 12 Dec. 1910.
Selby married, in 1885, Catharine, youngest daughter of William Lawson, of Otley in Wharfedale. He had one son and five daughters.
Besides the works cited Selby published numerous volumes of collected sermons and many expositions of Scripture. 'The Commonwealth of the Redeemed' was published posthumously in 1911.
[Who's Who, 1910; The Times, 15 Dec. 1910; obituary notice presented to the Wesleyan Methodist Conference at Cardiff. July 1911; private information from Mrs. Selby.]
S. E. F.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1912 supplement/See, John

​SEE, Sir JOHN (1844–1907), premier of New South Wales, born at Yelling, Huntingdonshire, on 14 Nov. 1844, was son of Joseph See, formerly of that place. In 1853 he accompanied his parents to New South Wales. The family settled first at Hinton on the Hunter river, where See obtained his education and was employed upon a farm until he was sixteen. Accompanied by a brother, he then settled on the Clarence river and engaged in farming. Dissatisfied with his prospects, he soon went to Sydney and entered the produce trade, and by strenuous application and unremitting toil built up the flourishing concern of John See & Company, of which he was the head. At the same time he became a partner in the small coastal shipping house of Nipper & See, which ultimately developed into the North Coast ​Steam Navigation Company, of which he was managing director.
See's first association with political life began in November 1880, when he was returned to the legislative assembly of New South Wales as member for Grafton. That constituency he represented continuously until 1904, being re-elected eleven times. In 1885 he joined Mr. (afterwards Sir George) Dibbs's first ministry, in which he was postmaster-general from 7 Oct. to 22 Dec, being sworn a member of the executive council. As treasurer in the third Dibbs administration (23 Oct. 1891-2 Aug. 1894) he introduced and piloted through parliament the protectionist tariff of the government. On 12 Sept. 1899 See joined the government of Mr. (afterwards Sir William) Lyne as chief secretary and minister for defence, and arranged for the despatch of troops to South Africa during the Boer war. He succeeded Sir William Lyne, who took office in the federal government as premier on 27 March 1901, and thus became the first premier of New South Wales as a state in the federation. During his term of office he received King George V and Queen Mary when, as duke and duchess of Cornwall and York, they visited Australia in 1901. On 15 June 1904 he resigned office on private grounds, and retired from the legislative assembly, but accepted a seat in the legislative council, which he held till his death. He was mayor of Randwick for three years and president of the Royal Agricultural Society of New South Wales, and was director of numerous insurance and other business concerns. He was created K.C.M.G. on 26 June 1902. See died at his residence, 'Urara,' Randwick, on 31 Jan. 1907, and was buried in the Long Bay cemetery.
He married on 15 March 1876, at Randwick, Charlotte Mary, daughter of Samuel Matthews, of Devonshire,and had four sons and three daughters.
[The Times, Sydney Daily Telegraph, and Sydney Morning Herald, 1 Feb. 1907; Sydney Mail, 6 Feb. 1907; Year Book of Australia, 1905; Johns's Notable Australians, 1908; Burke's Peerage, 1907; Colonial Office Records, 1908.]
C. A.