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

​THOMPSON, GEORGE (1804–1878), anti-slavery advocate, born at Liverpool on 18 June 1804, was the third son of Henry Thompson of Leicester. He first became widely known as an advocate of the abolition of slavery in the British colonies. In October 1833 a series of lectures by him led to the formation of ‘the Edinburgh Society for the abolition of slavery throughout the world.’ He also lectured and took part in public discussions in Liverpool, Manchester, Glasgow, Bath, and other places. In September 1834 he undertook a mission to the United States. He engaged with William Lloyd Garrison, Whittier, and the members of the American Anti-Slavery Society in the movement for the abolition of slavery, and was instrumental in forming upwards of three hundred branch associations for that object. He is said to have caused by his speeches the failure of Thomas Jefferson Randolph's so-called ‘Port Natal’ plan of negro emancipation in Virginia. He was denounced by General Jackson in a presidential message. His life was frequently in danger. At the end of 1835 he had to escape from Boston in an open boat to an English vessel bound for New Brunswick, whence he sailed for England. On his return he was received with enthusiasm at Glasgow, Edinburgh, Newcastle-on-Tyne, and other large towns. He revisited America in 1851, and again during the civil war, when a public reception was given to him in the house of representatives, in the presence of President Lincoln and the majority of the cabinet.
Thompson was associated with Joseph Hume [q. v.], Sir Joshua Walmsley, and other public men in the National Parliamentary Reform Association. He was a member of the Anti-Cornlaw League, and took part in forming the British India Association, visiting India in order to acquire a knowledge of Indian government. In 1846 he was presented with the freedom of the city of Edinburgh; on 31 July 1847 he was returned to parliament for the Tower Hamlets, retaining his seat till 1852, and about 1870 a testimonial was raised for him by his friends in England and the United States. He died at Leeds on 7 Oct. 1878. In 1831 he married Anne Erskine, daughter of Richard Spry, a minister in the connection of the Countess of Huntingdon. By her he had six children.
Thompson was an admirable speaker, and of attractive manner in society (W. L. Garrison). John Bright ‘always considered him the liberator of the slaves in the English colonies.’
[Howitt's Journal, 1847, ii. 257–60 (with portrait); Ann. Register, 1878, ii. 175, 176; Appleton's Cyclopædia of American Biogr. iv. 760, v. 173, vi. 90; Garrison's Lectures by George Thompson, with … a brief Hist. of his Connection with the Anti-Slavery Cause in England; Life and Times of William Lloyd Garrison, New York, 1885; Burleigh's Reception of George Thompson in Great Britain; Grimké's Slavery in America; Holyoake's Sixty years of an Agitator's Life, 1892, i. 98.]
W. A. S. H.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Thompson, Henry (1797-1878)

​THOMPSON, HENRY (1797–1878), miscellaneous writer, was born in Surrey in 1797. He was admitted to St. John's College, Cambridge, as a pensioner on 29 April 1818, graduating B.A. in 1822, and proceeding M.A. in 1825. In 1820 he competed for Sir William Browne's medal, receiving an extra prize for a Latin ode, and in 1824 he obtained the first members' prize for a Latin essay. He was ordained deacon in 1823 and priest in 1827. After being successively curate of St. George's, Camberwell, Surrey (1824–7), of St. Mary's, Salehurst, Sussex (1827–8), and of Wrington, Somerset (1828–1853), he was appointed vicar of Chard, Somerset, on 14 Sept. 1853, where he resided till his death on 29 Nov. 1878. He left two sons—Henry Bell, vicar of Tatworth, and Christopher.
Thompson was a man of very conservative instincts. In the words of his friend, Edward Augustus Freeman, whom he first met at Hannah More's house at Barley-Wood, he ‘seemed to look at everything in 1878 with exactly the same eyes with which he looked on things in 1839.’ At the same time, Freeman adds, ‘he showed us that past generation in its best colours.’ He was a good classical scholar and knew Hebrew and German.
Thompson was the author of:
* ‘Davidica: twelve practical Sermons on the Life of David,’ London, 1827, 8vo.
* ‘Pastoralia: a Manual of Helps for the Parochial Clergy,’ London, 1830, 12mo; 2nd edit. 1832.
* ‘The Life of Hannah More,’ London, 1838, 8vo.
* ‘Concionalia: Outlines of Sermons for the Christian Year,’ London, 1853, 8vo; 2nd edit. 1862; 2nd ser. 1871.
He published editions of Horace (1853, 8vo), and Virgil (1854, 8vo; 3rd edit. 1862), and also contributed most of the classical articles to the ‘Encyclopædia Metropolitana’ (1824), several of which he afterwards published separately. In 1845 he translated Schiller's ‘Maid of Orleans’ and ‘William Tell,’ and in 1850 he edited a volume of ‘Original Ballads by living Authors,’ to which E. A. Freeman was a contributor of nine poems. Thompson also contributed to ‘Lyra Sanctorum,’ ‘Lyra Eucharistica,’ and to the ‘Churchman's Companion.’
[Luard's Grad. Cantabr.; Chard and Ilminster News, 7 Dec. 1878; Stephens's Life and Letters of E. A. Freeman, 1894, i. 23–36.]
E. I. C.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Thompson, Henry Langhorne

​THOMPSON, HENRY LANGHORNE (1829–1856), soldier, born at the cottage, Clumber Park, on 21 Sept. 1829, was the son of Jonathan Thompson of Sherwood Hall, Nottinghamshire, receiver-general of crown rents for the northern counties, by his wife Anne, daughter of Ralph Smyth, colonel in the royal artillery. He was educated at Eton, and on 20 Dec. 1845 received the commission of ensign in the East Indian army. On 20 Aug. 1846 he was appointed to the 68th Bengal native infantry, and on 12 Feb. 1850 was promoted lieutenant. He took part in the second Burmese war in 1852 and 1853, receiving a wound which necessitated his return to England. For his services he received the Pegu medal. In 1854 he volunteered in the Turkish army, received the rank of major, and, after visiting the Crimea, proceeded to Kars, where he arrived in March 1855. Under the command of Colonel Williams (afterwards Sir William Fenwick Williams) [q. v.], he gave important assistance in strengthening the fortifications. He distinguished himself in repelling the Russian assault on 29 Sept., crushing the Russian columns by his fire from Arab Tabia. His bravery won the admiration of the besiegers, and, on the surrender of Kars in November, Mouravieff, the Russian commander, returned him his sword. On 9 Nov. he was appointed captain unattached in the British army; on 7 Feb. 1856 he received the third class of the Turkish order of Medijie; and on 10 May was nominated an honorary C.B. He died unmarried at 70 Gloucester Street, Belgrave Road, on 13 June 1856, immediately after his return from Russia, where he had been detained a prisoner of war. He was buried in Brompton cemetery. A mural tablet was erected to his memory in St. Paul's Cathedral by public subscription. His letters, which give an interesting account of the siege of Kars, were published in Lake's ‘Kars and our Captivity in Russia’ (2nd ed. 1856).
E. I. C.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Thompson, Gilbert

​THOMPSON, GILBERT (1728–1803), physician, was born in Lancashire in 1728, and for many years kept a well-frequented school near Lancaster, on retiring from which he went to Edinburgh, and graduated doctor of medicine on 8 June 1753. He then went to London, but, meeting with little encouragement as a practitioner, he for a time served as writing-master in a boarding-school at Tottenham, and subsequently became a dispensing assistant to Timothy Bevan, the druggist. About 1765 his uncle, Gilbert Thompson of Penketh, died and left him 4,000l. He then commenced work as a physician in the city, and eventually attained to a fair practice. He was admitted a licentiate of the College of Physicians on 25 June 1770. He died at his house in Salter's Court, Cannon Street, 1 Jan. 1803. He was a quaker, and is represented as a man of great integrity, of mild and unassuming manners, and possessed of considerable learning and professional skill. He was an intimate friend of the physician, John Fothergill [q. v.] He is said to have been secretary to the Medical Society of London for several years, but there is no entry to this effect in the books of the society; he was a member, and was present at the first meeting in May 1773.
His works were:
* ‘Disputatio Medica Inauguralis de Exercitatione,’ Edinburgh, 1753, 4to.
* ‘A Biographical Memoir of the Life and a View of the Character of the late Dr. Fothergill,’ London, 1782, 8vo.
* ‘Select Translations from Homer and Horace, with original Poems,’ London, 1801, 8vo.
[Munk's Coll. of Phys. ii. 290; Brit. Mus. Cat.; Gent. Mag. 1803, i. 89; Records of the Medical Society of London.]
W. W. W.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Thompson, Benjamin (1776?-1816)

1904 Errata appended.
​THOMPSON, BENJAMIN (1776?–1816), dramatist, born about 1776, was the son of Benjamin Blaydes Thompson, a merchant of Kingston-upon-Hull. He was educated for the law, but, disliking the profession, he was sent to Hamburg as his father's agent. He occupied his leisure by translating several of Kotzebue's dramas. On 24 March 1798 one of these, ‘The Stranger,’ was brought out at Drury Lane, Kemble taking the title rôle. It met with much success both there and in 1801 at Covent Garden (Genest, Hist. of the Stage, vii. 336, 513, 591, viii. 478, ix. 457). It was published in 1801 (London, 8vo), and has since been frequently reprinted. On 12 Oct. 1812 an original operatic drama by Thompson, entitled ‘Godolphin,’ was unsuccessfully produced at Drury Lane. A second piece, called ‘Oberon's Oath,’ at the same theatre on 21 May 1816, was not well received at first. The disappointment is said to have killed him. He died in Blackfriars Road, London, on 26 May 1816. In 1799 he married Jane, youngest daughter of John Bourne, rector of Sutton-cum-Duckmanton and of South Wingfield in Derbyshire. By her he had six children.
Besides the works mentioned, Thompson was the author of: 1. ‘The Florentines: a Tale,’ London, 1808, 8vo. 2. ‘An Account of the Introduction of Merino Sheep into the different States of Europe and at the Cape of Good Hope,’ London, 1810, 8vo. He also translated numerous German plays, which were published in a collective form under the title ‘The German Theatre’ in 1801, London, 8vo.
[Memoir prefixed to Oberon's Oath; Baker's Biogr. Dramatica; Gent. Mag. 1816, i. 569; Watt's Bibliotheca Brit.]
E. I. C.
Dictionary of National Biography, Errata (1904), p.264 N.B.— f.e. stands for from end and l.l. for last line
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# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Zincke, Christian Friedrich

​ZINCKE, CHRISTIAN FRIEDRICH (1684?–1767), enamel-painter, was born in Dresden about 1684, and was the son of a goldsmith there. He came to England in 1706, when he became a pupil of Charles Boit [q. v.] the enameller. His small portraits in enamel became very popular, and he was extensively patronised by royalty and fashionable people. Frederick, prince of Wales, appointed him his cabinet-painter, and he was also employed by George II and Queen Caroline. He painted several enamels for Sir Robert Walpole, chiefly members of the family; a good enamel of Sir Robert Walpole from Strawberry Hill is at Knowsley, and one of Horace Walpole was purchased by the Earl of Waldegrave. So great was the vogue of Zincke that he was able to raise his price for a small enamel to thirty guineas.
The enamel portraits by Zincke are very carefully and minutely finished, but lack both in colouring and arrangement the grace and tenderness of Petitot. They have, however, been justly admired, and are to be met with in many private collections. Several appear to be copied from portraits by Sir Godfrey Kneller or Michael Dahl. Zincke lived in Covent Garden, but about 1746 he retired from his profession and settled in South Lambeth, where he died on 24 March 1767. After he had retired he was specially commissioned by Mme. de Pompadour to execute a portrait of Louis XV from a picture sent over from France for that purpose. Young the poet, in his ‘Love of Fame’ (sat. 6), says:
You here in miniature your picture see,  Nor hope from Zincke more justice than from me.
Zincke was twice married. He was painted, with his first wife, by H. Huyssing, a picture engraved in mezzotint by J. Faber. By her he had one son and a daughter. The second wife, Elizabeth, survived him at Lambeth. The grandson, Paul Francis Zincke, practised in London as a copyist, forged various portraits of Shakespeare, Milton, and other celebrities, and died miserably in Windmill Street, London, in 1830. Paul Christian Zincke, younger brother of the above, came with him to London, but afterwards removed to Vienna, and later to Leipzig, where he settled, founded a drawing-school, and died blind in 1770.
L. C.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Zeeman, Enoch

​ZEEMAN, ENOCH (1694–1744), portrait painter. [See Seeman.]
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Zoest, Gerard

​ZOEST, GERARD (1637?–1681), painter. [See Soest.]
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Zadkiel

​ZADKIEL (pseudonym). [See Morrison, Richard James, 1795–1874.]
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Zaehnsdorf, Joseph

Date of birth 1814 in the ODNB.
​ZAEHNSDORF, JOSEPH (1816–1886), bookbinder, son of Gottlieb Zaehnsdorf, of Pesth in Austria-Hungary, was born in that city on 27 Feb. 1816, and received his education in the gymnasium there. At the age of fifteen he was apprenticed to Herr Knipe, a bookbinder of Stuttgart, with whom he remained five years, afterwards proceeding to Vienna, where he worked in the shop of Herr Stephan, a bookbinder in a large way of business. He left Vienna about 1836, and successively visited Zürich, Freiburg, Baden-Baden, and Paris. In 1837 he came to London, and obtained employment in the establishment of Messrs. Wesley & Co., Friar Street, Doctors' Commons, for whom he worked three years. He afterwards entered the shop of Mr. Mackenzie, a binder of considerable eminence, and there he remained until 1842, when he commenced business on his own account at 90 Drury Lane, removing in 1845 to 30 Bridges Street, Covent Garden, afterwards called 36 Catherine Street. Zaehnsdorf became a naturalised British subject in 1855, and died at 14 York Street, Covent Garden, on 7 Dec. 1886. In July 1849 he married Ann, daughter of John Mahoney, by whom he had an only child, Mr. Joseph William Zaehnsdorf, his successor in business and author of ‘The Art of Bookbinding.’
Zaehnsdorf was an excellent craftsman, and his work may be ranked with that of Bedford and Riviere. The forwarding and finishing of his bindings are equally good, and much artistic taste is also displayed in their decoration. Fine examples of his workmanship are to be found in the libraries of all the great English collectors of the day. He exhibited at the London International Exhibition of 1862, where he received honourable mention. He also obtained medals at the Anglo-French Working Class Exhibition, held at the Crystal Palace in 1865, at the Dublin Exhibition of 1865, at Paris in 1867, at Vienna in 1873, and at South Kensington in 1874.
Zaehnsdorf was acquainted with the German, French, and Italian languages, and also with several of the Sclavonic tongues.
W. Y. F.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Ypres, William of

​YPRES, WILLIAM of, erroneously styled Earl of Kent (d. 1165?). [See William.]
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Tregonwell, John

​TREGONWELL, Sir JOHN (d. 1565), civilian, born in Cornwall, probably at Tregonwell, was the second son of his family. He was educated at Oxford, at first at Broadgates Hall. He proceeded B.C.L. on 30 June 1515-16, and D.C.L. on 23 June 1522. He became, before he quitted Oxford, principal of Vine Hall, or, as it was sometimes called, Peckwater Inn.
Removing to London, Tregonwell began to practise in the court of admiralty, of which he became before 1535 principal judge or commissary-general. His name occurs in various commissions as to admiralty matters (cf. Ordinances of the Privy Council, ed. Nicolas, vii. 115 &c.) Henry soon 'plucked him from the arches,' and employed him on government affairs. He had just the training Henry looked for, and carried out his master's wishes smoothly and with a careful regard to the forms of law. He was a privy councillor as early as 1532. He was a proctor for the king in the divorce case, and one of his letters, printed by Sir Henry Ellis, describes the passing of the sentence by Cranmer. He took part in diplomatic negotiations in the Netherlands in May 1532, Hacket and Knight being his companions, to settle commercial disputes. He signed the two treaties of peace of 1534 with Scotland on behalf of England. He also took part in the proceedings against the Carthusians, against Sir Thomas More, and against Anne Boleyn.
Tregonwell's great business was, however, his agency in the dissolution of the monasteries. His main part lay in taking surrenders. His correspondence, of which there is less than of some of the other visitors, gives a more favourable impression of him than of Legh or Layton, and he adopts a firmer tone in writing to Cromwell. He visited Oxford University in 1535, otherwise his work lay mainly in the south and west of England. He was also employed in the proceedings against the prisoners taken in the pilgrimage of grace, and he was important enough for Cromwell to talk about him as a possible master of the rolls. He became a master in chancery in 1539, was chancellor of Wells Cathedral from 1541 to January 1542-3, a commissioner in chancery in 1544, and a commissioner of the great seal in 1550.
He was knighted on 2 Oct. 1553, and seems to have been favoured by Mary in spite of his history. He was M.P. for Scarborough in the parliament of October 1553, and, though holding a prebend, there was no question of objecting to his return, doubtless because he was a layman. Alexander Nowell [q. v.] was ejected from parliament, and Tregonwell was one of the committee which sat to consider his case. In 1555 he was a commissioner on imprisoned preachers. He died on 8 or 13 Jan. 1564-5 at Milton Abbas, Dorset, for which, after the dissolution, he had paid 1,000l., and was buried in the north aisle under an altar tomb; a copy of the brass to his memory is in British Museum Additional MS. 32490, F.F. f. 54. He occasionally grumbled about the little reward which he had obtained for his services; but he had doubtless made the most of opportunities which came during the visitation, as he died a rich man.
W. A. J. A.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Tredway, Letice Mary

​TREDWAY, LETICE MARY (1593–1677), English abbess in Paris, was the daughter of Sir Walter Tredway of Beckley, Buckinghamshire, and afterwards of Northamptonshire, by Elizabeth Weyman. Born in 1593 at Beaconsfield, Buckinghamshire, and losing her father in 1604, she took the veil in 1615 at the Augustinian convent, Douai, which in 1624 was removed to the neighbouring village of Sin-le-Noble, and took the title of Notre-Dame de Beaulieu. At Douai she made the acquaintance of Thomas Carre [q. v.], and they conceived the idea of establishing an English scholastic nunnery in that town. Pending its erection English girls were to be received at Sin, and in 1632 two accordingly arrived, escaping from Dover, where they had been arrested. In the following year Carre returned from London with two others; but meanwhile George Leyburne [q. v.], president of Douai College, had persuaded Lady Tredway, as she was styled, to fix on Paris as the site. Carre consequently went thither to consult Richard Smith [q. v.], bishop of Chalcedon, who by his influence with Richelieu, and notwithstanding the opposition of Archbishop Gondi, obtained royal sanction for the scheme, letters patent being granted in 1633. A house was hired in the Rue d'Enfer, and was opened in 1634 with five pupils. The numbers increased, and in 1635 the convent was transferred to the Faubourg St.-Antoine; but that site proved unhealthy, and in 1638 four houses were purchased in the Rue du Fossé St.-Victor, one of which had been occupied by De Baïf, whose musical and literary gatherings were the nucleus of the French academy. The buildings were remodelled, and a chapel was erected, which was consecrated by Smith in 1639. The chief English catholic families began sending their daughters as pupils, and lady boarders, mostly French, were also admitted; but till 1655 the convent was debarred from taking French pupils. During ​the civil war, the nuns' dowries having been invested in England, the payment of interest was suspended, and the nunnery was in great straits, until the painter Le Brun, a neighbour, obtained pecuniary assistance from Chancellor Séguier. In 1653 Carre, who was resident chaplain, dedicated to Lady Tredway his English translation of Thomas à Kempis. In 1644 her religious jubilee was celebrated; in 1674 she resigned, and in 1677 she died. She was buried in the chapel, which, with the rest of the building, was demolished in 1860. The convent was then removed to Neuilly, where her portrait is still preserved.
Humphrey Tredway, rector of Little Offord, Buckinghamshire, and author of Latin verses on Sir Philip Sidney (Cooper, Athenæ Cantabr. ii. 530), was of the same family.
[Convent manuscripts; Carre's Pietas Parisiensis; Collectanea Topographica et Genealogica; Archæologia, vol. xiii.; Ann. Reg. 1800; Husenbeth's English Colleges on Continent; Cédoz's Couvent des Religieuses Anglaises, 1891; National Review (art. on George Sand), July 1889.]
J. G. A.