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

1904 Errata appended.
​ASHBY, Sir JOHN (d. 1693), admiral, a native of Lowestoft, and presumably a follower of Sir Thomas Allin, was, in 1665, appointed lieutenant of the Adventure, and in October 1668 captain of the Deptford ketch. From that time onward he seems to have served without intermission, and in September 1688 was appointed to the Defiance, a third-rate vessel. The revolution made no change in his position, and, still in command of the Defiance, he led the van of the fleet in the battle of Bantry Bay [see Herbert, Arthur], 1 May 1689. For his good service on this occasion Captain Ashby was knighted, and presented by the king with a gold watch set with diamonds. In July he was made rear-admiral of the blue, and the following year he was vice-admiral of the red, in the fleet under Lord Torrington off Beachy Head on 30 June. After Torrington's disgrace the command of the fleet was assigned to a committee of three—Richard Haddock, Killigrew, and Ashby—who hoisted their joint flag on board the Royal Sovereign, and, together with a body of land forces under the Earl of Marlborough, reduced Cork and Kinsale. In 1691 the command was given to Admiral Russell, with whom Sir John Ashby servd as vice-admiral of the red, and the next year as admiral of the blue; in that rank he commanded the rear of the fleet at Barfleur on 19 May, and, by taking timely advantage of a slight shift of wind, placed the French in such a position that they would be forced either to surrender or fly. They scattered and fled; some to La Hogue, where they were burnt by Russell; some to Cherbourg, where they were burnt by Delavall; and many through the Race of Alderney, where none of the English pilots would venture to take the pursuing ships under Ashby. They thus got safely into St. Malo, where they were blockaded through the rest of the summer. In England there was a strong feeling that more might have been done, and on 19 Nov. Sir John Ashby was called to the bar of the House of Commons to render an account of his conduct; but with his own, and Russell's further explanation, the house expressed itself satisfied (Parl. Hist.). The following year, 1693, the command was again put in commission, in which, however, Ashby had no part. When the fleet sailed, he remained at Portsmouth, possibly on account of his health, for on 12 July he died. He was buried in the first instance at Portsmouth; but his body was afterwards removed to Lowestoft, where there is a mural monument to his memory.
J. K. L.
Dictionary of National Biography, Errata (1904), p.9 N.B.— f.e. stands for from end and l.l. for last line
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# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Ashdowne, William

​ASHDOWNE, WILLIAM (1723–1810), unitarian preacher, was born at Tunbridge Wells in 1723, where his father, a tradesman, was pastor of the General Baptist (otherwise Unitarian) Society, meeting at Mount Ephraim (W. Wilson, Various Congregations, ii., art. ‘Dover’ in MS.). Becoming a probationer for the ministry, William Ashdowne removed to Dover in 1757, married the daughter of the Rev. Robert Pyall, pastor of the General Baptist Church (Monthly Repository, v. 258); and on Pyall's death in 1759 he took his pulpit, occupying it without pay for twenty-two years. In 1781 he was elected pastor, with the Rev. Stephen Philpott as his associate; and though he preached but seldom in his later years, he filled this position till his death, 2 April 1810, aged 87. His publications are: 1. ‘On the True Character of John the Baptist,’ published anonymously, the signature being ‘By an Impartial Hand,’ 1757. 2. ‘The Distinction between the Ordinary and Extraordinary Gifts of the Holy Spirit,’ also anonymous, and with the same signature, 1767. 3. ‘A Dissertation on St. John iii. 5,’ 1768. 4. ‘A Scripture Key to the Evangelists,’ 1777. 5. ‘On Baptism,’ 1784. 6. ‘The Unitarian, Arian, and Trinitarian Opinions Examined,’ 1789. 7. ‘Satan,’ 1794. 8. ‘Two Letters to the Bishop of Llandaff,’ 1798. The last six works bear Ashdowne's name, and at the end of the ‘Unitarian’ is a list of his publications, which were printed chiefly at Canterbury.
[Monthly Review, June 1757, p. 285; Monthly Repository, v. 480; Kippis's Doddridge's Lectures, ii. 175 note, 390 note.]
J. H.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Ashe, John

​ASHE, JOHN (1671–1735), dissenting minister, was son of a grocer at Tideswell, Derbyshire. After being taught at Chesterfield by Mr. Foxlow, at Wirksworth by Mr. Ogden, he was sent in 1688 to Mr. Frankland's dissenting academy at Rathmilo. He was chaplain for a time to Lady Sarah Houghton of Houghton Tower, Lancashire, but returned to the Peak and was a minister at Ashford. He published an account of the life of his uncle, the Rev. William Bagshaw, ‘the Apostle of the Peak’ (1704); a few sermons; and prepared for the press eleven volumes of sermons, of which only one appeared. A life of Ashe was published by John Clegg, presbyterian minister of Chapel-en-le-Frith, in 1736.
[Lysons's Magna Britannia, v. 74–5; Glover's History of Derbyshire, pt. i. vol. i., Append. p. 105.]
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Ashby, Richard

​ASHBY, RICHARD (1614–1680), a Jesuit, whose real name was Thimelby, was the fifth son of Richard Thimelby, Esq., of Irnham, Lincolnshire, by his wife Mary, daughter of Edward Brookesby, Esq., grand-daughter of Lord Vaux of Harrowden. He was born in Lincolnshire in 1614, entered the Society of Jesus in 1632, and was professed of the four vows in 1646. After having taught philosophy and theology at Liège for sixteen years, he was sent on the English mission about 1648, and laboured chiefly in his native county. He was rector of the house for novices at Watten, near St. Omer, from 1666 till 1672, when he was appointed rector of St. Omer's College. His death occurred at St. Omer on 7 Jan. (or September) 1680.
Father Ashby was the author of: 1. 'Purgatory Surveyed, or a particular account of the happy, yet thrice unhappy, state of the souls there; also of the singular charity and ways to relieve them. And of the devotion of all ages for the souls departed, with twelve excellent means to prevent purgatory and the resolution of many curious and important points,' Paris, 1663, 8vo; reprinted, with a preface, by Father W. H. Anderdon, London, ​1874. It is a translation from Father Estienne Binet. 2. 'Remarks on Stillingfleet.' Southwell gives the title in Latin as follows: 'Observationes generales in Librum Doctoris Stillingfleti, cum vindicatione S. Ignatii et Sociorum eius à fœdis maculis quibus eos ille aspergit,' London, 1672, 4to.
[Preface to Anderdon's edition of Purgatory Surveyed; Oliver's Collections S. J. 47; Foley's Records, ii. 643, v. 597, vii. 768; Southwell's Bibl. Scriptorum Soc. Jesu, 718; Backer's Bibl. des Ecrivains de la Compagnie de Jésus (1869), i. 300.]
T. C.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Ashe, Jonathan

​ASHE, JONATHAN (fl. 1813), a masonic writer, was born at Limerick in 1766, entered Trinity College, Dublin, 26 March 1783, took B.A. degree in ordinary course, and became D.D. in 1808. Very little is known of him except that he commenced and perfected his masonic studies in Dublin. While in Bristol in 1813 he published a work entitled 'The Masonic Manual, or Lectures on Freemasonry, containing the Instructions, Documents, and Discipline of the Masonic Economy,' and asserts in the introduction that he 'plainly and completely tells the craft its eternal and temporal obligations, and affords the uninitiated a fair review and estimate of masonry.' This work was dedicated to the Duke of Sussex, then grand master of the order. In many portions it is a mere copy of William Hutchinson's 'Spirit of Masonry,' published in 1775.
Ashe's work was edited, with annotations and remarks by the Rev. George Oliver, D.D., in 1843, and again in 1870 by the Rev. John Edward Cox, D.D.
[Ashe's Works; Mackenzie's Royal Masonic Cyclopædia.]
J. W.-G.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Ashbury, Joseph

​ASHBURY, JOSEPH (1638–1720), actor and theatrical manager, born in London in 1638, of good family, was educated at Eton, and entered the army. Quartered in Ireland when the protectorate of Richard Cromwell came to an end, he was one of the officers who were dismissed under the régime of the revived Rump Parliament, and he was also one of those who, in the royalist interest, seized Dublin Castle in the December of 1659. At the Restoration he was rewarded by the lieutenancy of a company of foot which Charles II granted to the city of Dublin, and the new lord-lieutenant, the Duke of Ormond, made Ashbury in 1662 one of the gentlemen of his retinue and deputy master of the revels. In 1682 he became master of the revels and patentee. The duties or privileges of the latter post seem to have been nominal, since for years the only playhouse in Dublin, the Smock Alley or Orange Street Theatre, had been closed. But Ashbury, whose first wife was the sister of an actor, seems at this time to have turned his attention to professional acting and to have given instructions in the art with eminent success. About 1674 both he and Mrs. Betterton are mentioned as teaching the Princess Anne, afterwards queen, to play Semandra in Lee's 'Mithridates,' when acted at Whitehall by persons of high rank (cf. Miss Strickland's Queens of England (1852), vii. 16). When, in celebration of the overthrow of the Stuart cause in Ireland, 'Othello' was acted (December 1691) at Dublin by amateurs, most of them officers of the garrison, Ashbury, who superintended the performance and played Iago, is spoken of as the only professional actor among the performers. About the same time he engaged in London a company which included Wilks, and attempted to revive the drama in Ireland by reopening the theatre in Orange Street with 'Othello' on 23 March 1692. By skilful management and by encouraging promising histrionic talent — Booth and Quin were introduced by him to the boards - Ashbury secured for the Dublin stage a great reputation. He himself was an excellent actor, and his second wife, also an actress, gave him material assistance. Colonel Careless in the 'Committee,' and Don Quixote were among his best parts. In his 78th year he continued to act with success, and he survived to the age of 82, dying in the summer or autumn of 1720.
F. E.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Ashby, George (d.1475)

​ASHBY, GEORGE (d. 1475), poetical writer, was born about 1390. Little is known of him till late in life, when he appears to have owned an estate named 'Breakspeares' in Harefield, Middlesex, and to have been clerk of the signet, first to Henry VI from the beginning of his reign, and afterwards to Margaret of Anjou, in whose service he evidently travelled abroad. His earliest extant poem, written in English and preserved in manuscript at Trinity College, Cambridge (R. 3, 19), describes him as a prisoner in the Fleet, and begins with a 'prohemium vnius Prisonarii.' Ashby there says that he has been
Wrytyng to theyr sygnet full fourty yere As well beyond the see as on thys syde.
A former owner of the book has, from internal evidence, assigned its production and its author's imprisonment to 1463. Ashby was perhaps confined in the Fleet at the time by the Yorkist conquerors of Henry VI, who was deposed in 1461. Subsequently the poet would seem to have directed the education of the young Prince Edward, Henry VI's son, until his murder in 1471. For his use Ashby prepared two English poetical treatises—one entitled 'De Activa Pollecia Principis,' which opens with an address to 'Maisters Gower, Chaucer, and Lydgate,' and the second called 'Dicta et ​Opiniones Diversorum Philosophorum,' with translations into English verse. Both these compositions, Ashby states, were produced when he had attained the age of eighty. The manuscripts of these poems passed from the library of John More, bishop of Norfolk about 1700, to the Cambridge University Library, where they are still preserved. According to Warton, Ashby was likewise the translator into English of several 'French manuals of devotion,' ascribed by Robert Copland to Andrew Chertsey in his prologue to Chertsey's 'Passyon of our Lord Jesu Christ' (printed by Wynkyn de Worde in 1520): but no positive authority is given for this statement. None of Ashby's works are known to have been printed.
Ashby died on 20 Feb. 1474-5, and was buried at Harefield. The inscription on a brass to the memory of himself and his wife in the church there has been printed in Nichols's 'Collectanea Topographica et Genealogica' (v. 132). Ashby left a son John, who died in 1496. A grandson George was clerk of the signet to Henry VII and Henry VIII, and died on 5 March 1514-5.
S. L. L.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Ashby, Harry

​ASHBY, HARRY (1744–1818), an eminent writing-engraver, born April 17, 1744, at Wotton-under-Edge, Gloucestershire, was apprenticed to a clockmaker in that town, who also engraved dial-plates, spoons, and ​tankards. Here Ashby imbibed a taste for engraving. On the termination of his apprenticeship he removed to London, where, following the bent of his inclination for writing-engraving, he entered into an engagement with Mr. Jefferies, geographer, of Charing Cross, his principal employment being to engrave titles for maps and charts. Subsequently his services were secured by Mr. Spilsbury, writing-engraver, of Russell Court, Drury Lane, to whose business he eventually succeeded, and whose widow he married. Ashby was much employed by provincial, colonial, and foreign bankers, to engrave notes and bills, in the execution of which he displayed rare skill and ingenuity. Some able penmen also gave scope to his higher qualifications as an engraver of specimens of calligraphy. Among the works for which he engraved the plates are Hodgkin's ‘Calligraphia Græca,’ 1794; Milns' ‘Penman's Repository,’ 1795; Hodgkin's ‘Specimens of Greek Penmanship,’ 1804; Genery's ‘Geographical and Commercial Copies,’ 1805; Langford's ‘Beauties of Penmanship,’ 1825 (?); and some of the plates in Tomkins's ‘Beauties of Writing,’ 1809. In his later years Mr. Ashby lived in retirement at Exning, Suffolk, where he died Aug. 31, 1818.
T. C.
# Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology/Lacedaemon

LACEDAEMON (Λακεδαίμων), a son of Zeus by Taygete, was married to Sparta, the daughter of Eurotas, by whom he became the father of Amyclas, Eurydice, and Asine. He was king of the country which he called after his own name, Lacedaemon, while he gave to his capital the name of his wife, Sparta. (Apollod. iii. 10. § 3; Paus. iii. 1. § 2, &c.; Steph. Byz. s. v. Ὰσίνη) He was believed to have built the sanctuary of the Charites, which stood between Sparta and Amyclae, and to have given to those divinities the names of Cleta and Phaenna. (Paus. iii. 18. § 4.) An heroum was erected to him in the neighbourhood of Therapne. (Paus. iii. 20. § 2.) [L. S.]
# Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology/Lelex 2.

LELEX 2. A son of Poseidon and Libya, the daughter of Epaphus. He was regarded as the ancestor of the Leleges, and is said to have immigrated from Egypt into Greece, where he became king of Megara; and his tomb was shown below Nisaea, the acropolis of Megara. (Paus. i. 44. § 5, 39. § 5; Ov. Met. vii. 443, viii. 567, 617.) [L. S.]
# Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology/Leo 1.

LEO or LEON (Λεών), historical. 1. Son of Eurycrates, 14th king of the Agid line at Sparta. In his time the Spartans were worsted in their war with Tegea. His son was Anaxandrides, the contemporary of Croesus (Herod. i. 65; Paus. iii. 3. § 5). [A. H. C.]
# Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology/Leonidas (historical) 2.

LEO′NIDAS 2. A noble youth, a citizen of Heracleia on the Pontus, was one of those who put to death the tyrant Clearchus, B. C. 353. He is also called Leon.
[E. E.]
# Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology/Lelex 3.

LELEX 3. One of the Calydonian hunters. (Ov. Met. viii. 312.) [L. S.]
# Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology/Leonidas (artist) 1.

LEO′NIDAS. artists. 1. A painter, of Anthedon, and a disciple of the great painter Euphranor. (Steph. Byz. s. v. Ἀνθηδών; Eustath. ad Hom. Il. ii. 508.)
[P. S.]
# Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology/Lelex 1.

LELEX (Λέλεξ). 1. One of the original inhabitants of Laconia which was called after him, its first king, Lelegia. He was married to the Naiad Cleochareia, by whom he became the father of Myles, Polycaon, and Eurotas. He had a heroum at Sparta. (Apollod. iii. 10. § 3; Paus. iii. 1. 12. § 4, iv. 1. § 2.) Some call his wife Peridia, and his children Myles, Polyclon, Bomolochus, and Therapne; while Eurotas is represented as a son of Myles and a grandson of Lelex. (Schol. ad Eurip. Orest. 615.) In other traditions, again, Lelex is described as a son of Spartus, and as the father Amyclas. (Steph. Byz. s. v. Λακεδαίμων.) [L. S.]
# Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology/Leonidas (artist) 2.

LEO′NIDAS 2. An architect, of little note, who wrote upon proportions (Vitruv. vii. praef. §. 14).
[P. S.]
# Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology/Leonidas (historical) 1.

LEO′NIDAS or LEO′NIDES (Λεωνίδας, Λεωνίδης), historical. 1. A general of the Byzantines, who, when the citizens, during a siege of their town, flocked to the taverns instead of manning the walls, established a number of wine-shops on the ramparts themselves, and so kept his men, with some difficulty, at their posts (Ael. V. H. iii. 14; Athen. x. p. 442, c.). He may have been the same Leonidas whom Athenaeus mentions as a writer on fishing (Athen. i. 13, c.).
[E. E.]
# Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology/Leo (literary) 1.

LEO or LEON (Λέων), Greek writers. 1. Academicus, called by Justin the historian and Suidas Leonides (Λεωνίδης), was apparently a native of Heracleia in Pontus, and a disciple of Plato. He was one of the conspirators who, with their leader, Chion, in the reign of Ochus, king of Persia, B. C. 353, or, according to Orelli, B. C. 351, assassinated Clearchus, tyrant of Heracleia. [Chion, Clearchus.] The greater part of the conspirators were killed on the spot by the tyrant's guards ; others were afterwards taken and put to a cruel death; but which fate befel Leo is not mentioned. Nicias of Nicaea (apud Athen. xi. p. 506, ed. Casaubon), and Favorinus (Diog. Laert. iii. 37) ascribed to a certain Leo the Academic the dialogue Alcyon (Ἀλκυών), which was, in the time of Athenaeus, by some ascribed to Plato; and has in modern times been printed among the works of Lucian, by whom it was certainly not written; and from the general character of whose writings the subject (the power of God displayed in his works) is altogether alien. Fabricius identifies the author of the Dialogue with the accomplice of Chion; but we know not on what ground. (Memnon, apud Phot. Bibl. cod. 224, sub init.; Justin. xvi. 5; Suidas, s. v. Κλέαρχος; Athen. l. c.; Diog. Laert. l. c. ; Lucian, Opera, vol. i. p. 128, ed. Bipont; Fabric. Bibl. Gr. vol. iii. pp. 108, 173, 178.
[W. R.]
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Baines, Thomas (1806-1881)

​BAINES, THOMAS (1806–1881), journalist and local historian, the third son of the late Edward Baines, M.P., was born at Leeds in 1806, In 1829 he settled in Liverpool as editor of the 'Liverpool Times' newspaper, and for thirty years was an active promoter of liberal interests in Lancashire. In 1852 he published a valuable history of the commerce and town of Liverpool, and in 1867 'Lancashire and Cheshire Past and Present,' having in 1859 settled in London at the Liverpool Office as a parliamentary agent. His last work, 'Yorkshire Past and Present,' was published in 1875; and on 31 Oct. 1881, he died at his residence, Seaforth Hall, near Liverpool. Two minor books of his were 'Agricultural Resources of Great Britain and the Colonies,' and 'Observations on the River Plate.' His county histories are characterised by fulness of details, clearness of statement, and orderly arrangement.
[Leeds Mercury, 2 Nov. 1881.]
R. E. A.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Bainham, James

​BAINHAM, JAMES (d. 1532), martyr, was, according to Foxe, a son of Sir Alexander Bainham, who was sheriff of Gloucestershire in 1497, 1501, and 1516, though his name does not occur in any of the pedigrees of the family. He was a member of the Middle Temple, and practised as a lawyer. He married the widow of Simon Fish, author of the 'Supplication of Beggars.' In 1531 he was accused of heresy to Sir Thomas More, then chancellor, who imprisoned and flogged him in his house at Chelsea, and then sent him to the Tower to be racked, in the hope of discovering other heretics by his confession. On 15 Dec. he was examined before Stokesley, Bishop of London, concerning his belief in purgatory, confession, extreme unction, and other points. His answers were as far as possible couched in the words of Scripture, but were not satisfactory to the court, and his approval of the works of Tyndale and Frith was evident. The following day, being threatened with sentence, he partially submitted, pleading ignorance, and was again committed to prison. In the following February he was brought before the bishop's chancellor to be examined as to his fitness for readmission to the church, and after considerable hesitation abjured all his errors, and, having paid a fine of 20l. and performed penance by standing with a faggot on his shoulder during the sermon at Paul's Cross, was released. Within a month after he repented of his weakness, and openly withdrew his recantation during service at St. Austin's church. He was accordingly apprehended and brought before the bishop's vicar-general on 19 and 20 April. One of the articles alleged against him was that he asserted Thomas Becket to be a thief and murderer, an opinion which the king adopted within a very few years. He was sentenced as a relapsed heretic and burned in Smithfield on 30 April 1532. In the 'Calendar of State Papers of Henry VIII' (v. app. 30) there is a notice of a contemporary account of an interview between him and Latimer, the day before his death.
[Foxe's Acts and Monuments, iv. 697; Harl. MS. 422, f. 90.]
C. T. M.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Baines, Thomas (1822-1875)

1904 Errata appended.
[Journal of R. Geog. Soc. xlvi. cxli, &c., also xli. 100; T. Baines's Gold Regions of S.E. Africa, and his Explorations in S.W. Africa. To the latter a biographical sketch is prefixed by Mr. H. Hall, F.R.G.S.; and a French translation of the work by M. Belin de Launay was published in Paris in 1868.]
R. E. A.
Dictionary of National Biography, Errata (1904), p.12 N.B.— f.e. stands for from end and l.l. for last line
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