OpenLLM-France/wikimedia huggingface dataset:
# Dictionary of Christian Biography and Literature to the End of the Sixth Century/Aristides

​Aristides, of Athens; mentioned by Eusebius as having presented to the emperor Hadrian an Apology for the Christians (Hist. Eccl. iv. c. 3). Jerome also (de Vir. Ill. c. 20, and Ep. 83, ad Magnum) mentions him as an Athenian philosopher and a disciple of Christ; and says that his Apology, containing the principles of the faith, was well known. But it was lost until, in 1878, the Mechitarists published part of an Armenian translation, the genuineness of which was vindicated by Harnack in Texte and Untersuch. i. 1, 2. But in 1891 J. Rendel Harris and J. Armitage Robinson (now Dean of Westminster) published in Texts and Studies, I. i., a complete Syrian translation from the Codex Sinait. Syr. 16, and shewed that the greater part of the Apology was found in Greek in the legend of Barlaam and Josaphat. These texts have been carefully discussed, especially by Seeberg (in Zahn's Forschungen, V. p. 159, and in an edition published at Erlangen 1894), and it is not yet agreed whether the Syrian or the Greek represents the original. It seems clear that the Apology was presented, not to Hadrian, but to Antoninus Pius. The main subject of the Apology, which, in the legend, is supposed to be addressed by Barlaam to Josaphat, is that the Christians alone possess the true knowledge of God. The emperor is invited to consider the conceptions of God among the various races of mankind, Barbarians and Greeks, Jews and Christians; it is then shewn how the Christians express their belief in their lives, and an attractive sketch of Christian life is given. The Apology has points of contact with the Preaching of Peter, with the Shepherd, with the Didaché, with Justin Martyr, and particularly with the Ep. to Diognetus. Mention is made of the Incarnation of the Son of God through a Hebrew maiden and of Christ's return to judgment. The Apology is thus of an interesting and original character. Two other fragments exist in Armenian which are ascribed to Aristides, a homily on the cry of the Robber and the answer of the Crucified, and a passage from "a letter to all philosophers," but their genuineness is doubtful, and F. C. Conybeare, in the Guardian, 1894 (July 18), has shewn that in the 5th and 7th cents. literary frauds were often connected with the name of Aristides and other names of old Christian literature.
[H.W.]
# Dictionary of Christian Biography and Literature to the End of the Sixth Century/Aristion

​Aristion, one of the "elders" from whom Papias professed to have derived traditional information (Eus. H. E. iii. 39), and described by him as a personal follower of our Lord. Beyond this, there is no trustworthy information about him. The Roman Martyrology (p. 102, Ven. 1630), apparently referring to the description just quoted, states on the authority of Papias that he was one of the seventy-two disciples of Christ. It commemorates his martyrdom at Salamis in Cyprus on Feb. 22, the same day as that of Papias at Pergamus. Cotelerius conjectures that he may be the Aristo who is given as the first bp. of Smyrna (Apost. Const. vii. 45; Harnack, Altchr. Lit. i. 64; Conybeare, in Expositor, 1893).
[G.S.]
# Dictionary of Christian Biography and Literature to the End of the Sixth Century/Archelaus

​Archelaus supposed bp. of Carchar (perhaps Carrhoe Harrom in Mesopotamia). A work is attributed to him called Acta Disputationis Archel. Ep. Mesop. et Manetis haeresiarchae. It is extant in a Latin translation from a Greek text, but some think the Greek is derived from a Syriac original. The author was probably (cf. Phot. Cod. 85) a certain Hegemonius. The disputation and Archelaus himself seem to be fictitious; but the work affords valuable information respecting the Manichean system (cf. Bardenhewer, 1908, pp. 208‒269).
[H.W.]
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Blythe, John (d.1499)

1904 Errata appended.
​BLYTHE, JOHN (d. 1499), bishop of Salisbury, was the son of William Blythe, of Norton, Derbyshire, by a sister of Thomas Rotheram, archbishop of York. His younger brother Geoffrey [q. v.] was bishop of Lichfield (1503–1533). He was educated at Cambridge, and in 1488 was the warden of King's Hall in that university. In 1477 Blyth was archdeacon of Stow, in 1478 archdeacon of Huntingdon, prebendary of Lincoln (1482–5), in 1484 prebendary of York, and in 1485 archdeacon of Richmond. He was master of the rolls from 5 May 1492 until his consecration to the bishopric of Salisbury, at Lambeth, 23 Feb. 1494. Between the years 1493 and 1495 he was chancellor of the university of Cambridge, and in that capacity he delivered an oration before Henry VII, his mother, the Countess of Pembroke, and Prince Arthur, at Cambridge (Letters, &c., Rich. III and Hen. VII, i. 422). As bishop he took part in the ceremonial of the creation of Henry, duke of York, 1494. He died 23 Aug. 1499, and was buried behind the high altar of his cathedral church, in a tomb which from its position lay north and south. A manuscript copy of his Cambridge oration exists in the Bodleian Library at Oxford, and an outline of it with extracts has been printed in the ‘Letters of Richard III’ (Rolls Ser.). During Blyth's episcopate in 1496, the islands of Jersey and Guernsey were taken from the see of Coutances, and added to that of Salisbury, until in 1499 they were finally included in the bishopric of Winchester.
[Wood's Athenæ Oxon. (ed. Bliss), ii. 691; Foss's Lives of the Judges, v. 38; Godwin, De Præsulibus; Letters and Papers Rich. III and Hen. VII (ed. Gairdner) (Rolls Ser.); Le Neve's Fasti (Hardy); Cassan's Lives of the Bishops of Salisbury; Jones's History of the Diocese of Salisbury.]
W. H.
Dictionary of National Biography, Errata (1904), p.30 N.B.— f.e. stands for from end and l.l. for last line
| Page | Col. | Line | |
| 278 | i | 33 | Blythe, John: for 1478 read 1477 |
| | | 34 | for Huntingdon read Stow, in 1478 archdeacon of Huntingdon, from 1482 to 1485 prebendary of Lincoln |
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Blythe, John Dean

​BLYTHE, JOHN DEAN (1842–1869), son of Peter Dean Blythe and his wife Elizabeth, was born at Ashton-under-Lyne on 12 April 1842. His grandfather, James Blythe, was a notable Scotch schoolmaster at the village of Limekilns, about fifteen miles from Edinburgh. After a brief stay at the Ryecroft British school, Blythe worked in a factory; then obtained a post on a local paper as reporter, and afterwards entered a firm in Manchester, in whose employment he remained until his death. He attended night classes and studied by himself. He learned Latin, French, and Spanish, and read English literature. A retentive memory enabled him to recall an immense number of passages, especially from Shakespeare. On one occasion Blythe supplied the references to fifty-seven out of sixty passages selected to try him. Amongst his manuscripts was one containing over five hundred entries, alphabetically arranged, of the contents of ‘A Midsummer Night's Dream.’ His literary efforts were encouraged by the Rev. Joseph Rayner Stephens and John Critchley Prince. A contribution to ‘Punch’ and some verses in the Ashton newspapers are the only pieces known to have been printed during Blythe's lifetime. In politics he was a philosophical radical. He attended, as a teacher, the Sunday school of the Methodist New Connexion, in Stamford Street, Manchester, during the greater portion of his life. He edited a manuscript magazine which circulated amongst the members of a self-improvement society. On 5 Feb. 1869 he was killed by the accidental discharge of a revolver in the hands of a friend. He left behind him a considerable amount of manuscript, and a small memorial volume was issued, entitled ‘A Sketch of the Life [by Joseph Williamson] and a Selection from the Writings of John Dean Blythe,’ Manchester, 1870.
[A Sketch of the Life, &c. of J. D. Blythe, 1870.]
W. E. A. A.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Boardman, Andrew

​BOARDMAN, BORDMAN, BOURDMAN, or BOURMAN, ANDREW, D.D. (1550?–1639), divine, was a native of Lancashire, where he was born about 1550. He was admitted a scholar of St. John's College, Cambridge, 9 Nov. 1568, and matriculated as a pensioner on the 12th of the same month. He became B.A. in 1571–2, M.A. in 1575, B.D. in 1582, and D.D. in 1594. He was admitted to a fellowship on the Lady Margaret foundation 12 March 1572–3 (Baker, History of St. John's, 1869, i. 289), the same day being also that of the admission of his friend Everard Digby, of Rutland, the son of Sir Everard Digby, to whose ‘Theoria Analytica,’ &c. 4to, London, 1579, he contributed some Greek verses prefixed to the work. Boardman was appointed Greek lecturer of his college 5 Sept. 1580, and at Michaelmas following was elected one of the college preachers (Baker, History, &c. i. 334). He was made junior bursar of his college 27 Jan. 1581–2 (Athenæ Cantabrigienses, ii. 549), and in the same year, the year of his first degree in divinity, was appointed minister of St. Mary's Church, Bury St. Edmunds, where he dwelt in a house which was identified in the current feoffees' accounts as ‘next St. James steple’ (Tymms, Historie, &c.). He vacated this preferment in 1586, and removed to a benefice then known as Allchurch, near Warwick, and ultimately became also vicar of St. Mary's Church in that town, to which he was appointed by the municipality 11 Jan. 1590–1, in succession to Leonard Fetherston, deprived. He appears to have held this united preferment for nearly fifty years, and to have died in its enjoyment shortly before 16 July 1639, the date at which the Rev. Richard Venour is recorded to have been presented, by King Charles I, to the living then vacant by the death of his predecessor (Dugdale, Warwickshire, 439). The authors of ‘Athenæ Cantabrigienses’ identify Dr. Boardman as the writer of some English commendatory verses, to which the initials A. B. are subscribed, prefixed to Thomas Morley's ‘Plaine and Easie Introduction to Practicall Musicke,’ 4to, London, 1597, and other editions. During the earlier portion of his connection with Warwick, Boardman had given umbrage to Thomas Cartwright, master of the Earl of Leicester's Hospital (Brook, Life of Cartwright, &c. 311). The literary result of the controversy was ‘The Fan of the Faithfull to trie the Truth in Controversie; collected by A. B.; dedicated by James Price,’ 16mo, London.
A. H. G.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Boase, Henry (1763-1827)

​BOASE, HENRY (1763–1827), banker and author, was the fourth son of Arthur Boase, of Madron, a parish in Cornwall, who died August 1780, by Jane, daughter of Henry Lugg. He was born at Madron on 3 June 1763, and in 1785 went from Penzance to Roscoff, in Brittany, in a fishing-boat, to proceed to Morlaix, where he resided for some time, and acquired a good knowledge of the French language. Not finding any business opening in Cornwall, he went to London, where he obtained a situation as corresponding clerk in the banking house of Messrs. Ransom, Morland, & Hammersley in 1788. This house had an extensive continental connection, and after the flight of Louis XVI in 1791 a large part of the funds for the support of the emigrant clergy and nobility passed through their hands. Through his knowledge of French, Boase was, on this occasion, able to render such great service to his employers, that he was promoted to be chief clerk in 1792, and seven years later he became the managing partner. During his residence in London he was well acquainted with Granville Sharpe, Robert Owen, and other men eminent for their philanthropic exertions; was a leading member of the London Missionary Society; and took a considerable part in the foundation of the British and Foreign Bible Society, in conjunction with the Rev. Thomas Charles, of Bala, with whom he had become intimately acquainted whilst engaged in distributing, as Mrs. Palmer's banker, her donation of 1,000l. to the poor beneficed clergy of Wales. He was also much interested in the formation of schools on the new system of Joseph Lancaster. His ​correspondence, part of which is preserved in the British Museum (Addit. MS. 29281), gives many details on these matters. His mind was also much occupied with the financial questions of the day, and he became well known in banking circles by the publication of the following works: 1. ‘Remarks on the Impolicy of repealing the Bank Restriction Bill,’ 1802. 2. ‘Guineas, an unnecessary and expensive Incumbrance on Commerce,’ 1802, 2nd edition 1803. 3. ‘A Letter to the Right Hon. Lord King in Defence of the Conduct of the Directors of the Banks of England and Ireland,’ 1804. 4. ‘The Disadvantage of the new Plan of Finance,’ 1807. 5. ‘Remarks on the new Doctrine concerning the supposed Depreciation of our Currency,’ 1811. His health was so seriously affected by the London winters, that at the close of 1809 he retired from business and went to live at Penzance. There he became a partner in the Penzance Union Bank; served the office of mayor in 1816; aided Dr. Paris and Mr. Ashhurst Majendie to found the Geological Society of Cornwall; took an active share in promoting the Penzance Public Library, and furnished to Sir Thomas Bernard valuable evidence as to the pernicious effects of the duties on salt. In 1821 he was elected a fellow of the Royal Society of Literature. He died at Alverton, Penzance, 8 April 1827. He married, 26 Oct. 1794, Anne, the only child of Matthew Craige of Walsall, by whom he left a large family.
[An Account of the Family of Boase (1876), pp. 4–8.]
G. C. B.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Boaden, John

​BOADEN, JOHN (d. 1839), portrait painter, who was the son of James Boaden [q. v.], the dramatic author and critic, exhibited at the Royal Academy between the years 1810 and 1833, and at the Society of British Artists until 1839. He confined himself to portraiture, painting occasionally portrait groups and theatrical portraits in character; but his works, although pleasing, did not rise above mediocrity. There is by him a portrait of the Rev. Chauncy Hare Townshend, the donor of the 'Townshend Bequest' in the South Kensington Museum. He died in 1839.
[Redgrave's Dictionary of Artists, 1878.]
R. E. G.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Boag, John

​BOAG, JOHN (1775–1863), compiler of the ‘Imperial Lexicon,’ was born at Highgate in the parish of Beith, Ayrshire, on 7 Jan. 1775. He matriculated at the university of Glasgow in 1797, and completed his academical course with a view to taking orders in the church of Scotland, but joined the body of independents or congregationalists, who in 1812 formed themselves into the Congregational Union of Scotland. He acted for many years as an evangelist, and not infrequently in the open air or by the wayside. He had small charges in the Isle of Man and Helensburgh. Ultimately he accepted the appointment of pastor over a very small independent congregation in the village of Blackburn, Linlithgowshire, from which, it is believed, he never received more than 25l. to 30l. a year. He also kept a day-school on his own account. It was in this humble position that Boag compiled his magnum opus. His aim was to combine etymology, pronunciation, and explanation of scientific terms and others used in art and literature. He wished also to incorporate (1) new words since Johnson, and (2) modifications and other changes of meanings. He commenced this arduous undertaking after he had entered his seventieth year. Within three years his manuscript was ready for the press. It was printed and published by the Edinburgh Printing and Publishing Company. Unfortunately this company speedily became bankrupt. About 1847 Messrs. Fullarton & Co. became proprietors of the ‘Imperial Lexicon,’ and issued it in parts or numbers, constituting two massive volumes. The work had an enormous sale and held its own until the publication of Ogilvie's Dictionary, which was largely based upon it. Prefixed was a ‘Popular Grammar of the English Language,’ by Mr. R. Whyte. Besides his ‘Imperial Lexicon,’ Boag was the author of a number of ​of pamphlets on questions of the day, and was a frequent contributor to contemporary religious periodicals.
He married Agnes Hamilton on 19 June 1798, by whom he had six sons and three daughters. One of his sons was Sir Robert Boag, mayor of Belfast. He died at Craigton House, Linlithgowshire—the residence of a daughter-in-law, with whom he had resided in his later years—on 15 Sept. 1863, in the eighty-ninth year of his age.
A. B. G.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Anstis, John (1708-1754)

1904 Errata appended.
​ANSTIS, JOHN, the younger (1708–1754), son of John Anstis the elder, was born about 1708, became a gentleman-commoner of Corpus Christi College, Oxford, and in 1725, at the revival of the order of the Bath, was made genealogist and registrar. By virtue of the grant passed in 1727 he was joined with his father in the office of Garter. He was elected a fellow of the Society of Antiquaries on 21 July 1736, and was presented with the degree of LL.D. on 22 April 1749, on the occasion of the opening of the Radcliffe library. When invested with the order of the Garter, the Margrave of Anspach presented Anstis with three hundred ducats, a gold-hilted sword, and one hundred ducats, 'in lieu of his upper robe, which Garter ​claimed as belonging to him by virtue of his office.' He resided for the most part at Mortlake, where he died on 5 Dec. 1754, having shortened his days by excessive indulgence in wine. Anstis's abilities commanded respect, but his 'violent vindictiveness' made him many enemies, especially among his colleagues at the Heralds' College. He died a bachelor, and his brother George, vicar of Coliton, Devonshire, became his heir.
A. H. B.
Dictionary of National Biography, Errata (1904), p.7 N.B.— f.e. stands for from end and l.l. for last line
| Page | Col. | Line | |
| 45 | i | 10 | Anstis, John, the younger: for Coliton read Colyton |
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Anstruther, Alexander

​ANSTRUTHER, Sir ALEXANDER (1769–1819), Anglo-Indian judge, was the second son of Sir Robert Anstruther, bart., of Balcaskie, Fifeshire. He was born 10 Sept. 1769; called to the bar at Lincoln's Inn, and published 'Reports of Cases argued and determined in the Court of Exchequer, from Easter Term 32 George III to Trinity Term 37 George III, both inclusive,' which were published in three volumes in 1796 and 1797, and were reprinted for a second edition in 1817. The work is a careful and accurate compilation, and was for many years a useful legal authority. Anstruther went out to India in 1798, and was appointed advocate-general at Madras in 1803; in March 1812 he succeeded Sir James Mackintosh as recorder of Bombay, and was knighted; he died at Mauritius on 16 July 1819. While on his voyage out to India he wrote a small work on 'Light, Heat, and Electricity.'
J. S. C.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Anstruther, John

1904 Errata appended.
​ANSTRUTHER, Sir JOHN (1753–1811), politician and Anglo-Indian judge, was the second son of Sir John Anstruther, bart., of Elie House, Fifeshire. He was born 27 March 1753; educated at Glasgow University under Professor Millar; called to the bar at Lincoln's Inn in 1779; practised chiefly before the House of Lords in Scotch appeals; and was M.P. for Cockermouth, 1790-96. He was an active supporter of Fox, and one of the managers appointed to conduct the impeachment of Warren Hastings, his duty being to sum up the evidence on the charge relating to Benares, and to open the charge relating to presents. In 1797 he was appointed chief justice of Bengal, and created a baronet; in 1806 he returned to England; was immediately sworn on the privy council, and re-entered parliament as member for the Kilrenny district of burghs. In 1808 he succeeded to his father's baronetcy; and died in London 26 Jan. 1811.
J. S. C.
Dictionary of National Biography, Errata (1904), p.7 N.B.— f.e. stands for from end and l.l. for last line
| Page | Col. | Line | |
| 45 | i | 11 f.e. | Anstruther, Sir John: after 1790-96 insert and for Crail and Anstruther district of Burghs 1796-7. He was solicitor-general to the Prince of Wales 1793-5 |
| | | 4 f.e. | for and created a baronet read and in 1798 was created a baronet |
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Anstruther, William

​ANSTRUTHER, Sir WILLIAM (d. 1711), judge, of a very ancient Scottish family, was the son of Sir Philip Anstruther of Anstruther, a royalist who was taken prisoner at the battle of Worcester, had his estates sequestered by Cromwell and restored to him by Charles II, and died in 1702. Sir William represented the county of Fife in parliament in 1681, and strongly opposed the measures of James, Duke of York, then lord high commissioner in Scotland. He was again returned for that county in 1689, and continued to represent it until the union(1707). In the revolution of 1688, Sir William took the side of the Prince of Orange, and was rewarded by being appointed one of the ordinary lords of session (22 Oct. 1689), and later a member of the privy council. In 1694 he was created baronet of Nova Scotia. In 1704 he was nominated one of the lords of justiciary in the room of Lord Aberuchil. By a charter under the great seal dated 20 April 1704, and ratified by parliament 14 Sept. 1705, the baronies of Anstruther and Ardross and the office of bailliary of the lordship of Pittenweem, with certain minor estates, rights, and privileges, and the office of carver and master of the household to her majesty and her heirs, were granted to Sir William Anstruther and his heirs for ever. Sir William Anstruther was strongly in favour of the union, and his name appears frequently in the division lists during the period when the question was agitating the Scotch parliament. He was the author of a volume of essays, interspersed with verse, published in 1701 under the title of 'Essays, Moral and Divine,' of which his friends thought so ​poorly that in his own interest they begged him not to publish it; and it is said that after the death of the judge, which happened in 1711, his son bought up all purchasable copies and suppressed the work. The contents of the volume were as follows: (1) Against Atheism; (2) Of Providence; (3) Of Learning and Religion; (4) Of Trifling Studies, Stage Plays, and Romances; (5) Of the Incarnation of Jesus Christ and the Redemption of Mankind. Sir William was married to Helen Hamilton, daughter of John, fourth Earl of Haddington.
J. M. R.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Anstey, John

​ANSTEY, JOHN (d. 1819), poet, and second son of Christopher Anstey, was a barrister of Lincoln's Inn and a commissioner for auditing public accounts. Under the pseudonym of 'John Surrebutter,' he wrote 'a didactic poem' in 1796, entitled 'The Pleader's Guide,' further described as 'containing the conduct of a suit at law, with the arguments of Counsellor Bother'um and Counsellor Bore'um, in an action between John-a-Gull and John-a-Gudgeon for ​assault and battery at a late contested election.' It has a great deal of humour, though chiefly of a legal kind. Porson is said to have known it by heart, and Lord Campbell quotes it in his 'Lives of the Justices.' John Anstey also edited his father's works in 1808 [see Anstey, Christopher].
[Notes and Queries, 3rd series, ii. 475; Gent. Mag. lxxxix. part ii. 569.]
A. D.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Colclough, John Henry

​COLCLOUGH, JOHN HENRY (1769–1798), Irish rebel, was descended from the old family of Colclough which had settled in Wexford in the time of Edward III. Owing to the importunity of his tenants he joined the insurrection of 1798, and acted as one of the leaders at the battle of New Ross. On the occupation of Wexford by the royalists he fled along with Bagenal Beauchamp Harvey [q. v.] to the Saltee Islands, where for some time he lay concealed in a cave. He was tried by court-martial and executed on Wexford Bridge on 28 June 1798.
[Madden's United Irishmen; Edward Hay's History of the Insurrection in Wexford in 1798, Dublin, 1803; Webb's Compendium of Irish Biography.]
T. F. H.