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

​MATON, ROBERT (1607–1653?), divine, was the second son of William Maton of North Tidworth, Wiltshire, and his wife Thomazin, daughter of William Hayter of Langford. He was born in 1607, probably at North Tidworth, but the registers previous to 1700 have been destroyed. He entered as a commoner at Wadham College, Oxford, in Michaelmas term 1623, aged about sixteen, matriculated 3 Nov. 1626, proceeded B.A. 25 Oct. 1627, and M.A. 10 June 1630 (Gardiner). Taking holy orders he was presented to a living, but in what county is uncertain. Wood (Athenæ Oxon.) says that he was always at heart a ‘millenary,’ but that he never made public his views until the rebellion, in which he saw a possibility of their fulfilment. He published in 1642 ‘Israel's Redemption, or the Propheticall History of our Saviour's Kingdom on Earth,’ &c., and ‘Gog and Magog, or the Battle of the Great Day of God Almightie,’ London, 1642; 2nd edit. 1646. The former work led him into some controversy, and in 1644 a reply, entitled ‘Chiliasto Mastix, or the Prophecies … vindicated from the Misinterpretations of the Millenaries, and specially of Mr. Maton,’ &c., was published at Rotterdam by Alexander Petrie, minister of the Scots church there. Maton remained an ardent believer in the literal meaning of scriptural prophecy, and in 1646 he published, in reply to Petrie, ‘Israel's Redemption Redeemed, or the Jewes generall and miraculous Conversion to the Faith of the Gospel, and Returne into their owne Land; and our Saviour's Personall Reigne on Earth cleerly proved.’ He endeavours here to show the ‘proper sense of the plagues contained under the Trumpets and Vialls.’ Wood wrongly says (ib. iii. 409) that Petrie wrote a second reply. Maton's book was republished (London, 1652) under a new title, ‘Christ's Personall Reigne on Earth One Thousand Yeares. … The Manner, Beginning, and Continuation of His Reigne clearly proved by many plain Texts of Scripture,’ &c. It was again republished as ‘A Treatise of the Fifth Monarchy’ (1655), with a portrait of Maton by Cross (Granger). Though not apparently openly connected with the Fifth-monarchy men, Maton was doubtless in sympathy with them. Of his death we have no record.
[Wood's Athenæ Oxon. ed. Bliss, iii. 409; Granger's Biog. Hist. of England, iii. 52; Steven's Hist. of the Scottish Church in Rotterdam, Edinburgh, 1832, pp. 12–14; Gardiner's Registers of Wadham Coll. Oxford, pp. 70–1; Sir Thomas Phillipps's Visitatio Heraldica Com. Wilt., 1828, catalogued under ‘Wilts,’ for Maton's pedigree.]
C. F. S.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Matthews, Henry

​MATTHEWS, HENRY (1789–1828), judge and traveller, fifth son of John Matthews [q. v.], of Belmont, Herefordshire, born in 1789, received his education at Eton, and afterwards became a fellow of King's College, Cambridge, where he graduated B.A. in 1812, and M.A. in 1815. In 1817 he left England for the continent on account of ill-health, and on his return he published his well-known ‘Diary of an Invalid, being the Journal of a Tour in pursuit of health; in Portugal, Italy, Switzerland, and France, in the years 1817, 1818, and 1819,’ London (two editions), 1820, 8vo. This work attracted much popular favour; it was reprinted, 2 vols. 1822, 8vo, and reached a fifth edit. London, 1835, 8vo.
In 1821, having been previously called to the bar, he was appointed advocate-fiscal of Ceylon, and fulfilled the duties of that office till October 1827, when he was promoted to the judicial bench on the vacancy occasioned by the death of Sir Hardinge Giffard [q. v.] He died in Ceylon on 20 May 1828, and was interred in St. Peter's Church, in the Fort of Colombo.
By his marriage with Emma, daughter of William Blount, esq., of Orleton Manor, Herefordshire, he had an only son, Henry Matthews, Q.C., M.P. for East Birmingham, and home secretary in Lord Salisbury's administration, 1886–92, who was created Viscount Llandaff in 1895.
[Gent. Mag. 1828, ii. 647; Graduati Cantabr.; Lowndes's Bibl. Man. (Bohn), p. 1518; Walford's County Families, 1892, p. 705.]
T. C.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Matthews, John

​MATTHEWS, JOHN (1755–1826), physician and poet, baptised 30 Oct. 1755, was the only surviving child of William Matthews of Burton, in Linton, Herefordshire, who died 29 Aug. 1799, by his wife Jane, daughter of Philip Hoskyns of Bernithen Court, Herefordshire, who died 20 May 1768. Both were buried in Linton churchyard. He matriculated from Merton College, Oxford, on 14 Feb. 1772, and graduated B.A. 1778, M.A. 1779, M.B. 1781, and M.D. 1782. On 30 Sept. 1782 he was a candidate for the College of Physicians, and a year later he became a fellow. From 20 April 1781 to his resignation in 1783 he was physician to St. ​George's Hospital, London, and in 1784 he delivered the Gulstonian lectures, after which he withdrew to his native county. Matthews then acquired the estate of Clehonger, near Hereford, and built on it in 1788–90 the present mansion of Belmont, situated on the banks of the Wye, and adorned with extensive lawns and plantations. A sapling planted by him in 1788 is famous as Colonel Matthews's oak, and is marked by a cast-iron tablet. Its trunk is 22 feet in circumference, and it contains 140 feet of timber (Murray, Hereford Handbook, p. 315). For the rest of his life he took a leading part in county affairs. He acted as mayor of Hereford in 1793, and was senior alderman and magistrate for twenty years. He was also colonel of the first regiment of Hereford militia, chairman of quarter sessions, and member for the county from 31 March 1803 to 1806. After a protracted illness he died at Belmont on 15 Jan. 1826, when a monument to his memory was placed in the south aisle of Clehonger Church. Matthews married at Marcle, Herefordshire, on 9 Nov. 1778, Elizabeth, daughter and heiress of Arthur Ellis, who died 7 Nov. 1823, aged 66. They had issue eight sons and six daughters, and among their sons were Charles Skynner Matthews, the friend of Byron, and Henry Matthews [q. v.], author of ‘The Diary of an Invalid.’
Matthews was a man of versatile disposition and generous tastes, which frequently occasioned him pecuniary loss. His works are anonymous. The best-known of them, a very ineffective parody of Pope's ‘Eloisa,’ which was long attributed to Porson (Watson, Life of Porson, pp. 289–92), is ‘Eloisa en Dishabille: being a New Version of that Lady's celebrated Epistle to Abelard, done into familiar English metre by a Lounger,’ 1780. It was reprinted in 1801, and again in 1822, when the bookseller put on the title-page that it was ‘ascribed to Porson.’ Matthews wrote ‘A Sketch from the Landscape: a Didactic Poem, addressed to R. Payne Knight,’ 1794, an attack which Knight, in the Advertisement to the second edition of the ‘Landscape,’ stigmatised as ‘a sort of doggerel ode’ and ‘a contemptible publication.’ The ‘Fables from La Fontaine, in English Verse,’ published by Matthews in 1820, were marked by sprightliness, but not infrequently offended through diffuseness and partisan allusions to the politics of the day. He composed many fugitive pieces in prose and verse.
W. P. C.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Ritter, Henry

​RITTER, HENRY (1816–1853), artist, was born at Montreal, Canada, in 1816, and was destined to a commercial career, but persuaded his father to send him to Europe to study art. He remained for some time at Hamburg studying under Grözer, and ultimately settled at Düsseldorf, where he studied under Jordan and took two prizes at the academy. His health began to fail in 1847, when he was engaged on his largest painting. He died at Düsseldorf on 21 Dec. 1853.
Ritter chiefly affected sea-pieces. His best works were: ‘Smugglers struggling with English Soldiers,’ 1839; ‘Le Fanfaron,’ 1842; ‘Marriage Proposal in Normandy,’ 1842; ‘Young Pilot Drowned,’ 1844 (purchased by the Art Society of Prussia); and ‘The Poachers,’ 1847.
C. A. H.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Rivers, Antony

​RIVERS, ANTONY (fl. 1615), jesuit, who also went by the name of Thomas Blewett, was living in London from 1601 to 1603, and was socius or secretary to Father Henry Garnett [q. v.] He corresponded with Robert Parsons (1546–1610) [q. v.], and, after the execution of Garnett in 1606, he seems to have joined Parsons in Italy. From London Rivers wrote letters, extant partly in the Old Clergy Chapter and partly in the Record Office, containing minute accounts of palace intrigues and state secrets. The description of the movement fostered by Elizabeth against the jesuits is interwoven with court news and amusing remarks on the queen's habits.
In 1692 a dedication to a new issue of Shirley's fine tragedy ‘The Traytor’ (then recently revived at Covent Garden) spoke of the play as being originally the work of ‘Mr. Rivers,’ and Motteux, in the ‘Gentleman's Journal’ for April 1692, stated that the real author was a jesuit, who wrote the play in Newgate, where he subsequently died. ‘The Traytor’ was, however, licensed as by James Shirley on 4 May 1631, and produced as by him at the Cockpit in 1635. Both Dyce and Mr. Fleay treat the ascription to Rivers in the dedication of 1692 as a dishonest attempt to claim the play for a Roman catholic (Shirley, Dramatic Works, ed. Dyce, vol. i. p. xiv; Fleay, Biogr. Chronicle, s.v. ‘Rivers’).
E. C. M.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Rivers, first Baron

​RIVERS, first Baron. [See Pitt, George, 1722?–1803.]
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Rivarol, Louisa Henrietta de

​RIVAROL, LOUISA HENRIETTA Madame de (1749?–1821), was the only child of a Scotsman, Mather Flint, a teacher of English, who in 1720, at the age of eleven, accompanied to France his uncle, George Flint. This George Flint, whom his niece describes as being ‘known all over Europe,’ was apparently the author of ‘Robin's Last Shift’ (1717). Her father permanently settled in Paris about 1734, and published between 1750 and 1756 several works on English grammar and pronunciation. Eventually, after his wife's death, he apparently became a priest, and was appointed ‘curé du Mesnil-le-roi.’ Thus designated, he subscribed in 1776 to Letourneur's translation of Shakespeare (see list of subscribers in vol. i.).
Louisa, born at Remiremont before 1750, translated into French one of Shakespeare's plays, with Dr. Johnson's notes (probably the ‘Merchant of Venice,’ published in 1768). On 31 March 1769 Johnson wrote her a letter in French, thanking her for her eulogiums, and playfully complaining that she detained in Paris Sir Joshua Reynolds's sister Fanny [see under Reynolds, Sir Joshua, ad fin.] In the autumn of that year Reynolds, while in Paris, exchanged visits with her father and mother. About 1780 the daughter married the so-called Comte de Rivarol, the future satirist of the revolution. He was then twenty-seven, while she is described as older, but very handsome, and in the enjoyment of a competency. He is said to have ​compared her to Juno for jealousy and Xantippe for violence, and shortly after she had given birth to a son he quitted her for ever. For two years she was dependent on a nurse named Lespagnier, to whom the French academy on 25 Aug. 1783 consequently awarded the Montyon prize. Rivarol was much mortified at the stigma thus cast on him, and did his utmost to prevent the prize from being awarded; but all that he could effect was the omission of his wife's name from the report. During the revolution she was imprisoned for three months in 1794, but on her release obtained a divorce as the wife of an émigré. After her husband's death at Berlin in 1801 she published a ‘Notice sur Rivarol,’ in which she complained of his brother and other mischief-makers as the cause of the estrangement, affected great admiration and love for him, and protested bitterly, notwithstanding the divorce, against her exclusion from his will. In straitened circumstances, she translated several English works into French, and in 1801 offered to write for Suard's ‘Publiciste.’ After the Restoration she obtained a small pension, and she died in Paris on 21 Aug. 1821. Her son Raphael, who resembled his father in wit and good looks, joined Rivarol at Hamburg at the end of 1794, and served first in the Danish and then in the Russian army. He died in Russia in 1810.
J. G. A.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Rivaulx, Peter de

​RIVAULX or RIVALLIS, PETER de (d. 1258?), favourite of Henry III, a Poitevin by birth, is said by Roger Wendover (iii. 48) to have been a son, and by Matthew Paris to have been a son or nephew, of Peter des Roches [q. v.] In 1204, being then apparently a minor, he was granted various churches in Lincolnshire (Rot. Lit. Pat. Record edit. p. 43). In 1218 he appears as one of the king's chamberlains and a clerk in the wardrobe, and in 1223 he was chancellor of Poitou (Shirley, Letters of Henry III). On the fall of Hubert de Burgh in June 1232, the Poitevins became all-powerful. Rivaulx was made custos of escheats and wards and treasurer, in place of Hubert's friend, Ranulf Brito [q. v.] He was also granted the custody of many of the most important castles in England, the royal purveyorship at fairs, the chamberlainship of the exchequer in Ireland, custody of the Jewry, and of many ports and vacant sees (ib. passim). According to Matthew Paris, the king at this time put no trust in any one except Rivaulx, ‘cujus Anglia tota dispositionibus subjacebat.’ In 1232 he was sent to demand Hubert de Burgh's treasure; in the following year he took an active part in the proceedings against Richard Marshal [q. v.], and received custody of the lands of the earl's two chief supporters, Gilbert Basset and Richard Siward. In November he was present at Grosmont, and lost his property in the retreat which followed Marshal's defeat of the king's forces.
Meanwhile a strong reaction set in against the Poitevin favourites. Robert Bacun told the king there would be no peace until Rivaulx was removed, and the bishops threatened to excommunicate him. At length, in April 1234, Henry was forced to yield to the clamour; Peter was deprived of all his offices, and fled to Winchester for sanctuary. Thence he was summoned in July to appear before the king, who reproached him with his evil counsel, and sent him to the Tower. A few days later he was released, on the intervention of Edmund Rich, archbishop of Canterbury, and allowed to retire to Winchester. In 1236 he was once more restored to favour and made keeper of the wardrobe; in 1249 he had temporary charge of the great seal, and in the same year was sent to receive the tallage of the city of London. On 16 July 1255 he was constituted a baron of the exchequer; in the following year he was dean of Brug and rector of Claverley in Shropshire (Eyton, Shropshire, iii. 75). In 1257 he was again appointed treasurer, and in the same year was sent on an embassy to France to renew the truce (Matt. Paris, Chron. Maj. v. 611, 620). On 20 May 1258 he was granted some land at Winchester; but his name does not appear again, and he probably died in the same year.
A. F. P.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Rivers, Thomas

​RIVERS, THOMAS (1798–1877), nurseryman, the son of Thomas and Jane Rivers of Sawbridgeworth, Hertfordshire, was born there on 27 Dec. 1798. His ancestor, John Rivers, a native of Berkshire, established nurseries at Sawbridgeworth between 1720 and 1730. On the retirement of his father in 1827, Rivers directed his efforts to the cultivation of roses, of which he obtained the best collection in England. In 1833 he published his ‘Catalogue of Roses,’ and in 1837 ‘The Rose Amateur's Guide’ (11th edit. enlarged, &c. London, 1877, 8vo). His ‘Miniature Fruit Garden; or the Culture of Pyramidal Fruit Trees,’ &c. 1840, 8vo (20th edit. London, 1891, 8vo), gave an impulse to root-pruning. In 1850 he published ‘The Orchard House; or the Cultivation of Fruit Trees in Pots under Glass’ (London, 8vo, 16th edit.; edited and arranged by T. F. Rivers, London, 1879, 8vo). Rivers also contributed largely to gardening journals, commencing with a paper on apple-culture in ‘Loudon's Gardener's Magazine’ (1827). In 1854 he took part in founding the British Pomological Society. As a memorial of his services his portrait was painted in 1870, and placed in the rooms of the Royal Horticultural Society. He died on 17 Oct. 1877, and was buried at Sawbridgeworth. By his marriage in 1827 Rivers left a son, Mr. Thomas Francis Rivers, the present head of the firm and editor of his father's works. As a practical nurseryman, by the introduction of the ‘Early Rivers’ plum, Rivers both extended the native fruit season and enabled British fruit-growers to compete successfully with their continental rivals; while, by his development of small fruit trees, he gave a valuable lesson to English gardeners in the economy of space.
W. A. S. H.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Ritwyse, John

​RITWYSE, JOHN (d. 1532?). [See Rightwise.]
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Rivers, William

​RIVERS, WILLIAM (1788–1856), lieutenant in the navy and adjutant of Greenwich Hospital, was entered on board the Victory in May 1795. In her he went out to the Mediterranean, was slightly wounded in the action of 13 July 1795, was present in the battle of Cape St. Vincent, 14 Feb. 1797, and on the return of the Victory to England continued in her while she was employed as a depot for prisoners, till paid off in 1799. He again joined the Victory in 1803, when she went out to the Mediterranean as flagship of Lord Nelson, and, continuing in her, was present in the battle of Trafalgar, 21 Oct. 1805, when he was severely wounded by a splinter in the mouth, and had his left leg shot off in the very beginning of the action. On 8 Jan. 1806 he was promoted to be lieutenant of the Princess of Orange. He received a gratuity from the patriotic fund, and in 1816 was awarded a pension of five shillings a day for the loss of his leg. From April 1806 to January 1807 he served in the Otter sloop in the Channel, from April 1807 to October 1809 he was in the Cossack frigate, in which he was present at the reduction of Copenhagen in September 1807 [see Gambier, James, Lord Gambier], and in the end of 1809 was in the Cretan off Flushing. For the following years, and till the peace, he served in successive guardships at the Nore. After many fruitless applications for employment, he was in November 1824 appointed warden at Woolwich dockyard, and in April 1826 to Greenwich Hospital. Here he remained for upwards of thirty years, during which time he took an active part in the administration and organi​sation of the hospital and many of the minor charities connected with it. He died in his rooms in the hospital on 5 Dec. 1856. He married, in 1809, a niece of Joseph Gibson of Long Bennington, Lincolnshire, and had issue. A subscription bust by T. Milnes is in the Painted Hall at Greenwich.
J. K. L.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Rivers, Earls of

​RIVERS, Earls of. [See Woodville or Wydeville, Richard, first Earl, d. 1469; Woodville or Wydeville, Anthony, second Earl, d. 1483; Savage, Richard, fourth Earl, 1664–1712.]
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Lemens, Balthazar Van

​LEMENS, BALTHAZAR VAN (1637–1704), painter. [See van Lemens.]
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Lemon, Robert (1779-1835)

​LEMON, ROBERT (1779–1835), archivist, born in London in 1779, was the son of Robert Lemon, chief clerk of the record office in the Tower. After being educated at Norwich grammar school under his uncle, George William Lemon [q. v.], and assisting his father at the Tower for about eighteen months, he was appointed on 24 June 1795 an extra clerk in the state paper office. In February 1801 he became second clerk. The keeper, John Bruce (1745–1826) [q. v.], who was also historiographer to the East India Company, availed himself of Lemon's services in preparing the ‘Annals’ of the company (1810). Lemon became deputy-keeper of the state paper office on 23 Jan. 1818, and began to arrange systematically records including royal letters, Irish and Scottish correspondence, royalist composition papers, and Gunpowder plot papers. At the end of 1823 he found the manuscript of Milton's treatise, ‘De Doctrina Christiana.’ Thereupon, on the advice of Sir Robert Peel, home secretary, a commission for publishing records of historical value was ​issued on 10 June 1825, and renewed on 14 Sept. 1830. Lemon was appointed secretary. By his exertions the documents belonging to the reign of Henry VIII were arranged for publication.
The state papers were ultimately removed from Scotland Yard and Great George Street to a more suitable house built for them in St. James's Park, in which Lemon had private apartments assigned to him. He died on 29 July 1835, and was buried in Kennington churchyard. By his wife Sarah (1772–1826) he had a son, Robert Lemon [q. v.], and a daughter.
In 1798 he helped to compile the valuable appendix to the ‘Report on Internal Defence,’ which chiefly relates to the preparations made against the threatened invasion of 1588. He was associated with his father in preparing the ‘Calendars of the Charter Rolls and Inquisitions ad Quod Damnum, and of the Inquisitions Post Mortem.’ Elected F.S.A. in May 1824, he contributed to the ‘Archæologia’ (xxi. 148–57) the warrant of indemnity to lord treasurer Middlesex for the jewels sent to Charles, prince of Wales, in Spain.
Among those who benefited by Lemon's knowledge was Sir Walter Scott (cf. postscript appended in November 1829 to the cabinet edition of Rob Roy). Lemon illustrated his copy of Scott's novels with transcripts of historical documents.
[Gent. Mag. 1835, pt. ii. pp. 326–8; Greville Memoirs, 1st part (4th edit.), iii. 44.]
G. G.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Lemon, Robert (1800-1867)

​LEMON, ROBERT (1800–1867), archivist, born in 1800, was the son of Robert [q. v.] and Sarah Lemon. He was employed under his father in the state paper office, and compiled the indexes to the ‘Valor Ecclesiasticus temp. Hen. VIII’ (Report of Record Comm. 1836, Append. p. 770). He discovered in 1826 an original portrait of Milton (Gent. Mag. 1826, pt. ii. p. 61). In November 1835 he was appointed senior clerk (ib. 1835, pt. ii. p. 545). To Lemon the suggestion of forming and publishing the ‘Calendars of State Papers’ is due, and he first interpreted a cypher which previously rendered large masses of those papers unintelligible. The first two volumes of the ‘Domestic Series,’ 1547–90, were published under his editorship in 1856 and 1865. He died at Brompton, Middlesex, on 3 Jan. 1867 (ib. 4th ser. iii. 261). He was married, and had a large family.
Lemon was elected F.S.A. on 3 March 1836. His single contribution to the ‘Archæologia’ (vol. xxxvii.) consists of a commentary appended to a letter addressed to John Stanhope in 1588, giving particulars of great interest in reference to the Spanish Armada. He also contributed to the ‘Proceedings.’ In 1846 he rearranged the society's library, and compiled catalogues of their valuable collections of broadsides and proclamations. His ‘Catalogue’ of the broadsides, with an introduction by John Bruce, F.S.A., was published by the society in 1866.
[Proc. Soc. Antiq. 2nd ser. iii. 481–2; Athenæum, 24 Jan. 1857, pp. 107–8; Gent. Mag. April 1857, pt. i. p. 446.]
G. G.