OpenLLM-France/wikimedia huggingface dataset:
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Walker, Joseph Cooper

1904 Errata appended.
​WALKER, JOSEPH COOPER (1761–1810), Irish antiquary, was born probably in Dublin in 1761, and was educated under Thomas Ball of that city. He suffered all his life from acute asthma, and in his earlier years travelled a great deal in the hope of improving his health. For many years he lived in Italy. Of a studious disposition, he utilised his leisure in making researches into Italian literature and Irish antiquities, his two favourite studies. After his return to Ireland he settled down in a beautiful house called St. Valerie, Bray, co. Wicklow, where he stored his various art treasures and his valuable library. Here the rest of his life was passed, and here he wrote the works by which he is best known. He died on 12 April 1810, and was buried on 14 April in St. Mary's Churchyard, Dublin. He was one of the original members of the Royal Irish Academy, in whose welfare he took the warmest interest, and contributed various papers to its ‘Transactions.’ Francis Hardy [q. v.], biographer of the Earl of Charlemont, undertook a biography of Walker, which, however, when finished in 1812, showed such signs of the failure of Hardy's mental power that the family prudently withheld it. On Hardy's death the materials were handed to Edward Berwick [q. v.], who does not seem to have finished his task. Many of Walker's letters are printed in Nichols's ‘Literary Illustrations’ (vii. 696–758).
The following is a list of his works: 1. ‘Historical Memoirs of the Irish Bards,’ London, 1786, 4to; new edit. 1818, 8vo. 2. ‘Historical Essay on the Dress of the Ancient and Modern Irish, to which is subjoined a Memoir on the Armour and Weapons of the Irish,’ Dublin, 1788, 4to; new edit. London, 1818, 8vo. 3. ‘Historical Memoir on Italian Tragedy,’ 1799. 5. ‘Historical and Critical Essay on the Revival of the Drama in Italy,’ Edinburgh, 1805, 8vo. Also ‘Anecdotes on Chess in Ireland,’ a paper contributed to Charles Vallancey's ‘Collectanea de Rebus Hibernicis’ [see Vallancey, Charles]. His ‘Memoirs of Alessandro Tassoni’ were published posthumously in 1815, with a lengthy preface by his brother, Samuel Walker. It contains also poems to Walker's memory by Eyles Irwin [q. v.], Henry Boyd [q. v.], William Hayley [q. v.], and Robert Anderson (1770–1833) [q. v.] Walker left behind him several works in manuscript, including a journal of his travels and materials for ‘Lives of the Painters, Sculptors, and Engravers of Ireland.’
D. J. O'D.
Dictionary of National Biography, Errata (1904), p.273 N.B.— f.e. stands for from end and l.l. for last line
| Page | Col. | Line | |
| 78 | i | 17 f.e. | Walker, Joseph C.: for (1762?- read (1761- |
| | | 15 f.e. | for in or about 1762 read in 1761 |
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Walker, Robert (1709-1802)

​WALKER, ROBERT (1709–1802), ‘Wonderful Walker,’ was born at Undercrag in Seathwaite, Borrowdale, Cumberland, in 1709, being the youngest of twelve children; his eldest brother was born about ​1684, and was ninety-four when he died in 1778. Robert was taught the rudiments in the little chapel of his native Seathwaite, and afterwards apparently by Henry Forest (1683–1741), the curate of Loweswater, at which place in course of time Walker acted as schoolmaster down to 1735, when he became curate of Seathwaite with a stipend of 5l. a year and a cottage. In 1755 he computed his official income thus: 5l. from the patron, 5l. from the bounty of Queen Anne, 3l. rent-charge upon some tenements at Loweswater, 4l. yearly value of house and garden, and 3l. from fees—in all 20l. per annum. Nevertheless, by dressing and faring as a peasant, with strict frugality and with the aid of spinning, ‘at which trade he was a great proficient,’ he managed not only to support a family of eight, but even to save money, and when, in 1755–6, it was proposed by the bishop of Chester to join the curacy of Ulpha to that of Seathwaite, Walker refused the offer lest he should be suspected of cupidity. A few years later the curacy was slightly augmented; and as his children grew up and were apprenticed his circumstances became easy. He was enabled to earn small sums as ‘scrivener’ to the surrounding villages. He also acted as schoolmaster, but for his teaching he made no charge; ‘such as could afford to pay gave him what they pleased.’ ‘His seat was within the rails of the altar, the communion table was his desk, and, like Shenstone's schoolmistress, the master employed himself at the spinning wheel while the children were repeating their lessons by his side.’ The pastoral simplicity of his life is graphically sketched by Wordsworth, who alludes to his grave in the ‘Excursion’ (bk. vii. ll. 351 sq.), and in the eighteenth of the ‘Duddon's Sonnets’ (‘Seathwaite Chapel’) refers to Walker as the ‘Gospel Teacher
Whose good works formed an endless retinue,  A pastor such as Chaucer's verse portrays,  Such as the heaven-taught skill of Herbert drew  And tender Goldsmith crowned with deathless praise.’
Walker died on 25 June 1802, and was buried three days later in Seathwaite churchyard. His wife Anne, like himself, was ninety-three at the time of her death (January 1802). Walker's tombstone has recently been turned over and a new inscription cut, while a brass has been erected to his memory in Seathwaite chapel. The latter, as well as the parsonage, has been rebuilt since Walker's day. His character may have been idealised to some extent by Wordsworth (as that of Kyrle by Pope), but there is confirmatory evidence as to the nobility of his life and the beneficent influence that he exercised. The epithet of ‘Wonderful’ attached to his name by the countryside can scarce be denied to a man who with his income left behind him no less a sum than 2,000l.
T. S.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Walker, Thomas (1784-1836)

​WALKER, THOMAS (1784–1836), police magistrate and author, son of Thomas Walker (1749–1817), was born at Barlow Hall, Chorlton-cum-Hardy, near Manchester, on 10 Oct. 1784. His father was a Manchester cotton merchant and the head of the whig or reform party in the town. In 1784 he led the successful opposition to Pitt's fustian tax, and in 1790, when he was borough-reeve, founded the Manchester Constitutional Society. His warehouse was attacked in 1792 by a ‘church and king’ mob, and in that year he was prosecuted for treasonable conspiracy; but the evidence was so plainly perjured that the charge was abandoned. At the trial he was defended by Erskine, and among his friends and correspondents were ​Charles James Fox, Lord Derby, Thomas Paine, and many others. His portrait, after a picture by Romney, was engraved by Sharpe in 1795.
The younger Thomas Walker went to Trinity College, Cambridge, and graduated B.A. in 1808 and M.A. in 1811. He was called to the bar at the Inner Temple on 8 May 1812, and, after the death of his father, lived for some years at Longford Hall, Stretford, engaging in township affairs, and dealing successfully with the problem of pauperism, which subject became his special study. In 1826 he published ‘Observations on the Nature, Extent, and Effects of Pauperism, and on the Means of reducing it’ (2nd edit. 1831), and in 1834 ‘Suggestions for a Constitutional and Efficient Reform in Parochial Government.’ In 1829 he was appointed a police magistrate at the Lambeth Street court. On 20 May 1835 he began the publication of ‘The Original,’ and continued it weekly until the following 2 Dec. It is a collection of his thoughts on many subjects, intended to raise ‘the national tone in whatever concerns us socially or individually;’ but his admirable papers on health and gastronomy form the chief attraction of the work. Many editions of ‘The Original’ were published: one, with memoirs of the two Walkers by William Blanchard Jerrold [q. v.], came out in 1874; another, edited by William Augustus Guy [q. v.], in 1875; one with an introduction by Henry Morley in 1887, and in the same year another ‘arranged on a new plan.’ A selection, entitled ‘The Art of Dining and of attaining High Health,’ was printed at Philadelphia in 1837; and another selection, by Felix Summerley (i.e. Sir Henry Cole), was published in 1881 under the title of ‘Aristology, or the Art of Dining.’
Walker died unmarried at Brussels on 20 Jan. 1836, and was buried in the cemetery there. A tablet to his memory was placed in St. Mary's, Whitechapel.
C. W. S.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Walker, Sayer

​WALKER, SAYER (1748–1826), physician, was born in London in 1748. After school education he became a presbyterian minister at Enfield, Middlesex, but afterwards studied medicine in London and Edinburgh, graduated M.D. at Aberdeen on 31 Dec. 1791, and became a licentiate of the College of Physicians of London on 25 June 1792. He was in June 1794 elected physician to the city of London Lying-in Hospital, and his chief practice was midwifery. He retired to Clifton, near Bristol, six months before his death on 9 Nov. 1826. He published in 1796 ‘A Treatise on Nervous Diseases,’ and in 1803 ‘Observations on the Constitution of Women.’ His writings contain nothing of permanent value.
N. M.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Walker, Robert Francis

​WALKER, ROBERT FRANCIS (1789–1854), divine and author, son of Robert Walker of Oxford, was born there on 15 Jan. 1789. He received his earlier education at Magdalen College school, and while a chorister at chapel is said to have so attracted Lord Nelson by his singing that he gave him half a guinea. He entered New College, Oxford, in 1806, and graduated B.A. in 1811, and M.A. in 1813. In 1812 he was appointed chaplain to New College; in 1815 he became curate at Taplow; at the end of 1816 or the beginning of 1817 he removed to Henley-on-Thames; and in 1819 he went to Purleigh, Essex, where he was curate in charge to an absentee rector, the provost of Oriel College, Oxford. There he remained for thirty years, until failing health compelled him to give up his charge. In 1848, struck with paralysis, he went to reside at Great Baddow, near Chelmsford, and there he died on 31 Jan. 1854. He was buried at Purleigh.
He was twice married: first, to Frances Langton at Cookham, Berkshire, in 1814 (by her he had four sons and one daughter, and she died in 1824); and, secondly, to Elizabeth Palmer at Olney, on 30 Sept. 1830 (by her he had five sons, and she died in 1876).
Walker took a keen interest in ecclesiastical movements, his sympathies being with the evangelical party. He was specially interested in the German section of that party, and translated several of their works: 1. Hofacker's ‘Sermons,’ 1835. 2. Krummacher's ‘Elijah the Tishbite,’ 1836. 3. ‘Glimpse of the Kingdom of Grace,’ 1837. 4. ‘Elisha,’ 1838. 5. Burk's ‘Memoirs of John Albert Bengel, D.D.,’ 1837. 6. Barth's ‘History of the Church,’ 1840. 7. Blumhardt's ‘Christian Missions,’ 1844. 8. Leipoldt's ‘Memoir of H. E. Rauschen​busch;’ and he left at his death in manuscript Beck's ‘Psychology,’ Bythner's ‘Lyra Prophetica,’ Lavater's ‘Life and Prayers,’ and grammars of Danish and Arabic. In a memoir written by his friend, Rev. T. Pyne, a number of extracts of verse by him are given.
[Foster's Alumni Oxon. 1715–1886; Life by Rev. T. Pyne; information kindly supplied by his son, Rev. S. J. Walker.]
J. R. M.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Walker, Richard

​WALKER, RICHARD (1679–1764), professor of moral philosophy at Cambridge University, was born in 1679. He was educated at Trinity College, Cambridge, graduating B.A. in 1706, M.A. in 1710, B.D. in 1724, and D.D. per regias literas in 1728. He was elected a fellow of Trinity College, but in 1708 left Cambridge to serve a curacy at Upwell in Norfolk. In 1717 Richard Bentley, who had a difference with the junior bursar, John Myers, removed him, and recalled Walker to Cambridge to fill his place. From this time an intimacy began between Walker and Bentley which increased from year to year. He devoted his best energies to sustaining Bentley in his struggle with the fellows of the college, and rendered ​him invaluable aid. On 27 April 1734 Bentley was sentenced by the college visitor, Thomas Green (1658-1738) [q. v.], bishop of Ely, to be deprived of the mastership of Trinity College. On the resignation of John Hacket, the vice-master, on 17 May 1734, Walker was appointed to his place, and resolutely refused to carry out the bishop's sentence. On 25 June 1735, at the instance of John Colbatch, a senior fellow, the court of king's bench granted a mandamus addressed to Walker, requiring him to execute the sentence or to show cause for not doing so. Walker, in reply, questioned the title of the bishop to the office of general visitor, and the affair dragged on until 1736, when Green's death put an end to the attempts of Bentley's opponents. Walker was the constant companion of Bentley's old age, and was introduced by Pope into the 'Dunciad' with his patron (Pope, Works, ed. Elwin and Courthope, iv. 201-5).
In 1744 Walker was appointed professor of moral philosophy at Cambridge, and in 1745 he was nominated rector of Thorpland in Norfolk, a living which he exchanged in 1757 for that of Upwell in the same county. He was devoted to horticulture, and had a small garden within the precincts of Trinity College which was famous for exotic plants, including the pineapple, banana, coffee shrub, logwood tree, and torch thistle, which, with the aid of a hothouse, he was able to bring to perfection. On 16 July 1760 he purchased the principal part of the land now forming the botanic garden at Cambridge from Richard Whish, a vintner, and on 25 Aug. 1762 conveyed it to the university in trust for its present purpose. In 1763 he published anonymously 'A Short Account of the late Donation of a Botanic Garden to the University of Cambridge' (Cambridge, 4to). He died at Cambridge, unmarried, on 15 Dec. 1764.
E. I. C.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1901 supplement/Barnard, Frederick

​BARNARD, FREDERICK (1846–1896), humorous artist, youngest child of Edward Barnard, a manufacturing silversmith, was born in Angel Street, St. Martin's-le-Grand, London, on 26 May 1846. He studied first at Heatherley's art school in Newman Street, where are still preserved some clever caricatures executed by him of his master and fellow pupils, and later under Bonnat in Paris. His earliest publication was a set of twenty charcoal drawings entitled 'The People of Paris,' and he became a very popular artist in black and white, chiefly excelling in the delineation of the types and manners of the lower orders of society. As early as 1863 he had contributed to ' Punch,' and for two years he was cartoonist to 'Fun.' Barnard was one of the most sympathetic and successful of the interpreters of Charles Dickens; the majority of the cuts in the household edition of that author's works (1871-9) are from his pencil, and between 1879 and 1884 he issued three series of 'Character Sketches from Dickens.' He also illustrated novels by Justin Macarthy, H. E. Norris, and others, and much of his work appeared in 'Good Words,' 'Once a Week,' and the 'Illustrated London News.' A fine edition of Bunyan's ' Pilgrim's Progress,' mainly illustrated by Barnard, appeared in 1880. He collaborated with Mr. G. R. Sims in his 'How the Poor Live,' 1883, and during 1886 and 1887 worked in America for Messrs. Harper Brothers. Among his latest productions was a series of parallel characters drawn from Shakespeare and Dickens, which appeared in Mr. Harry Furniss's weekly journal entitled ' Lika Joko'in 1894 and 1895. Barnard painted a few oil pictures of great merit, which appeared from time to time at the Royal Academy, and were brought together at the exhibition of 'English Humorists in Art,' 1889. Of these the best are 'My first Pantomime' and 'My last Pantomime' (the property of Sir Henry Irving), 'The Jury — Pilgrim's Progress,' 'Saturday Night in the East End,' and 'The Crowd before the Guards' Band, St. James's Park.' Barnard married in 1870 Alice Faraday, a niece of Michael Faraday [q. v.] He was ​accidentally suffocated in a fire at a friend's house at Wimbledon on 27 Sept. 1896.
[Daily News, 29 Sept. 1 896 ; Illustrated London News, 3 Oct. 1896 (with portrait) ; private information.]
F. M. O'D.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1901 supplement/Bateman, James

​BATEMAN, JAMES (1811–1897), horticulturist, born on 18 July 1811 at Redivals, near Bury in Lancashire,' was the only child of John Bateman (1782–1858) of Knypersley Hall in Staffordshire, and of Tolson Hall in Westmoreland, by his wife Elizabeth (d. 1857), second daughter of George Holt of Redivals. He matriculated from Lincoln College, Oxford, on 2 April 1829, graduating B.A. from Magdalen College in 1834, and M.A. in 1845.
While a young man Bateman took a great interest in cultivating tropical fruits, and succeeded at Knypersley in bringing to maturity for the first time in England the fruit of the carambola (Averrhoa Carambola). He is best known to botanists, however, for his work in connection with orchids. In 1833 he sent, at his own expense, the collector Colley to Demerara and Berbice to collect plants, of which he afterwards published a description in 'Loudon's Gardeners' Magazine.' Shortly afterwards he induced G. Ure Skinner, a merchant trading with Guatemala, to send him orchids. In 1837 he commenced the publication of his work on 'Orchidaceæ of Mexico and Guatemala,' which he completed in 1843. The book, which was in atlas folio, comprised a series of coloured plates, each costing over 200l. Only one hundred copies were printed at twelve guineas each. At the sale of the sixth Duke of Marlborough's Library a copy was sold for 77l. Bateman was elected a fellow of the Linnean Society on 19 March 1833 and of the Royal Society on 8 Feb. 1838. He was also a fellow of the Royal Horticultural Society. In 1867 he issued 'A Second Century of Orchidaceous Plants' (London, 4to). Between 1864 and 1874 he published his 'Monograph of Odontoglossum.' Bateman was not only the pioneer of orchid culture, he was also one of the first to advocate 'cool' orchid cultivation. By his lectures he greatly increased the popularity of the plants in England. His 'Chinese garden,' his 'Egyptian court,' and his 'Wellingtonia avenue' at Biddulph were among the first experiments of the kind attempted in England. For some years Bateman resided at Home House, Farncombe Road, Worthing, where he cultivated rare plants in a miniature Alpine garden. He afterwards removed to Springbank, Victoria Road, where he died on 27 Nov. 1897. He was buried on 2 Dec. in Worthing cemetery. On 24 April 1838 he married Maria Sybilla, third daughter of Rowland Egerton Warburton and sister of Peter Egerton Warburton [q. v.] By her he had three sons——John, Rowland, and Robert——and a daughter, Katherine, married to Ulrick Ralph Burke [q. v. Suppl.] Bateman published several theological pamphlets and lectures.
E. I. C.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Miller, Thomas (1731-1804)

1904 Errata appended.
​MILLER, THOMAS (1731–1804), bookseller, born at Norwich on 14 Aug. 1731, was son of a pavior. He was apprenticed to a grocer, but when he commenced business for himself in 1755 his fondness for reading induced him to combine bookselling with his other trade. Unfortunately he settled in Bungay, Suffolk, where the demand for books was small. Moreover, his sturdy independence lost him the custom of many of the local ​magnates. His stock of books was very valuable, and he had an extensive collection of engraved portraits, and nearly a complete series of Roman and English silver and brass coins. He published catalogues of his collections in 1782 and 1790. In 1795, when the fashion was very general for tradesmen to circulate provincial halfpennies, he had a die cast, but an accident happening to one of the blocks when only twenty-three pieces were struck off, Miller, like a true antiquary, declined having a fresh one made. This coin (which is very finely engraved, and bears a strong profile likeness of Miller) is known to collectors by the name of the ‘Miller half-penny.’ As he was careful into whose hands the impressions went, they soon became very rare. In 1799 he became quite blind, but continued in business until his death, which took place at Bungay on 25 July 1804. His son, William Miller (1769–1844) [q. v.], is separately noticed.
Miller's portrait was engraved by E. Scriven from a miniature by H. Edridge.
[Nichols's Lit. Anecd. iii. 680, viii. 471; Gent. Mag. 1845, i. 102; Timperley's Encycl. of Lit. and Typogr. Anecd., 2nd edit.]
G. G.
Dictionary of National Biography, Errata (1904), p.199 N.B.— f.e. stands for from end and l.l. for last line
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| 423 | ii | 8 f.e. | Miller, Thomas (1731-1804): after pavior insert and brother of Edward Miller [q. v.] |
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Miller, William (1740?-1810?)

​MILLER, WILLIAM (1740?–1810?), painter, was born about 1740, and practised in London with considerable repute towards the end of the last century. He exhibited portraits with the Free Society in 1768, and in the following year sent a battle-piece, being then, as stated in the catalogue, on his way to Rome. In 1780 and 1783 Miller contributed to the Society of Artists, of which he became a director, and from 1788 to 1803 to the Royal Academy. He painted historical, poetical, and domestic subjects, somewhat in the style of Mather Brown and Peters, as well as some good portraits. Two of the plates in Boydell's ‘Shakespeare,’ scenes from ‘Romeo and Juliet’ and ‘Henry VI,’ are from pictures by Miller, and many of his other works have been engraved, including three subjects from the story of ‘Werther,’ by J. Cary and W. Sedgwick; ‘Alexander presenting Campaspe to Apelles,’ by J. B. Michel; ‘The Distracted Damsel,’ by V. Picot, 1785; ‘The Memorable Address of Louis XVI at the Bar of the National Convention’ and ‘The Last Moments of Louis XVI,’ both by Schiavonetti, 1796; ‘Innocent Recreation’ and ‘Animal Affection,’ by J. Godby, 1799; ‘Swearing-in of Alderman Newnham as Lord Mayor, 8 Nov. 1782,’ by B. Smith, 1801; and a portrait of Comte de Grasse, by J. Walker, 1782. Miller is said to have died about 1810. His ‘Swearing-in of Alderman Newnham,’ a very well painted picture, is in the Art Gallery of the Corporation of London.
[Nagler's Allgemeines Künstler-Lexikon; Redgrave's Dict. of Artists; Exhibition Catalogues of Society of Artists, &c.]
F. M. O'D.