OpenLLM-France/wikimedia huggingface dataset:
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Mordaunt, John (d.1504)

​MORDAUNT, Sir JOHN (d. 1504), speaker of the House of Commons, son and heir of William Mordaunt of Turvey, Bedfordshire, and his wife Margaret, daughter of John Peeke of Cople in that county, had succeeded to his paternal inheritance in 1481, at which time his mother was living. He was one of the commanders at the battle of Stoke, 20 June 1487, and was chosen speaker of the House of Commons in the parliament which assembled at Westminster on 3 Nov. the same year, being representative of the county of Bedford. He was called to the degree of serjeant-at-law 10 Sept. 1495, was constituted one of the king's Serjeants on 25 Nov. following, and became chief justice of Chester in or about 1499. He received the honour of knighthood at the creation of Henry, prince of Wales, 18 Feb. 1502-3, and on 6 April 1504 was appointed high steward of the university of Cambridge (Cooper, Athenæ Cantabr. i. 9). He became chancellor of the duchy of Lancaster 24 June 1504, and on 28 Aug. following he had a grant from Pope Julius II of special liberties and privileges. For many years he was a member of the privy council. He died between 5 Sept. and 6 Dec. 1504, and was buried in the church of Turvey, where there is a handsome altar-tomb, with his effigy in armour, and a Latin inscription.
He married Edith, daughter and heiress of Sir Nicholas Latimer, knight of Duntish, Dorset, and by this lady, who survived him, left John, his son and heir (afterwards Lord Mordaunt of Turvey) [q. v.], William, and Joan, wife of Giles Strangeways.
By his will he gave legacies to the churches of Turvey, Mulso,and Stachedon, the ​monasteries of Newnham and Warden, and for the establishment of a perpetual chantry in the church of Turvey, for two secular chaplains, one of whom was to teach grammar freely (Nicolas, Testamenta Vetusta, p. 461).
T. C.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Rich, Edmund

​RICH, EDMUND (1170?–1240), archbishop of Canterbury. [See Edmund, Saint.]
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Rice ap Thomas

​RICE ap THOMAS (1449–1525), supporter of Henry VII. [See Rhys.]
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Ricemarchus

​RICEMARCHUS, RYTHMARCH, or RIKEMARTH (1056–1099), cleric of St. David's. [See Rhygyfarch.]
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Shirwood

​SHIRWOOD. [See also Sherwood.]
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Shirley, William (fl.1739-1780)

​SHIRLEY, WILLIAM (fl. 1739–1780), dramatist, was a merchant who for many years was engaged in business in Portugal. In 1753 he had a violent dispute with the English consul at Lisbon, which resulted in his being ordered by the Portuguese government to quit the country within five days. From that time he resided in London, though he occasionally went abroad, and even revisited Portugal, where he narrowly escaped with his life in the great earthquake of 1755. He was esteemed an authority on affairs of trade and international commerce. He wrote several letters in the ‘Daily Gazetteer,’ signed ‘Lusitanicus,’ on the relations of Portugal and Great Britain, and was the author of some observations on the currency, printed in Sir William Browne's ‘Proposal on our Coin’ (Nichols, Lit. Anecd. iii. 328); and of ‘Observations on a Pamphlet lately published concerning a Portuguese Conspiracy,’ London, 1759, 8vo.
Shirley devoted some of his leisure to lighter literary work, and wrote many plays; but his dramatic talent was small. His earliest play was a tragedy called ‘The Parricide,’ which appeared at Covent Garden on 17 Jan. 1739. A preconcerted riot on the first night assured its failure. After another fiasco, he wrote ‘Edward the Black Prince,’ which appeared at Drury Lane on 6 Jan. 1750; Garrick took the part of Edward, but Barry, in that of Lord Ribemont, a French nobleman, gained for the piece what measure of success it attained. Shirley soon after quarrelled with Garrick, and revenged himself in 1758 by printing a pamphlet entitled ‘Brief Remarks on the original and present State of the Drama,’ with a humorous dialogue called ‘Hecate's Prophecy,’ in which Garrick was castigated under the name of Roscius.
He also published: 1. ‘King Pepin's Campaign,’ a burlesque opera, London, 1755, 8vo; acted at Drury Lane on 15 April 1745. 2. ‘Electra,’ a tragedy, London, 1765, 4to; prohibited by the lord chamberlain. 3. ‘The Birth of Hercules,’ a masque, London, 1765, 4to. The following plays by him were not printed: 1. ‘The Roman Sacrifice,’ a tragedy, acted at Drury Lane on 18 Dec. 1777. 2. ‘The Roman Victim,’ a tragedy. 3. ‘Alcibiades,’ a tragedy. 4. ‘Henry II,’ in two parts, historical tragedies. 5. ‘The Fall of Carthage,’ ​historical tragedy. 6. ‘All Mistaken,’ a comedy. 7. ‘The Good Englishman,’ a burlesque opera. 8. ‘Fashionable Friendship,’ a burlesque opera. 9. ‘The Shepherd's Courtship,’ a musical pastoral.
E. I. C.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Shirreff, John

​SHIRREFF, JOHN (1759–1818), agricultural writer, was the son of an East Lothian farmer. After spending his youth in the West Indies as a merchant, he returned at his father's death, and succeeded to the lease of the farm at Captainhead, Haddington. In 1793 he was chosen, together with two other East Lothian farmers, Rennie and Brown, to survey the West Riding of Yorkshire for the county agricultural reports of the board of agriculture. This survey was drawn up in such a manner as to give satisfaction even to William Marshall, who criticised so severely most of the board's county reports (Marshall, Review, i. 331). On his return home Shirreff attempted several improvements, including a threshing-machine, worked by wind, and a bone-mill. He made an unsuccessful attempt to introduce into Scotland the use of bone-dust as manure. In 1801 he received a premium from the board of agriculture for an essay on the ‘Best Mode of cropping Old Pasture Grounds.’ Shortly afterwards he contributed to the London Society of Arts an account of the osier plantations upon his farm at Captainhead. After subletting his farm, he resided at Craigside, Abbey Hill, and other places in and around Edinburgh, writing a good deal on agricultural topics. During the last years of his life he resided in the country, in charge of the estates of various noblemen. He died 2 Nov. 1818, and was interred in the ‘burial-ground of his ancestors at Prestonkirk, East Lothian.’
Besides his ‘Survey of Yorkshire,’ which he followed up by surveys of the Orkney and Shetland Islands (1804), Shirreff wrote pamphlets and articles in the ‘Farmer's Magazine’ and ‘Scots Monthly Magazine’ on such topics as ‘The Curled Disease in Potatoes,’ ‘Introduction of Exotic Heaths,’ and ‘Method of Stacking Turnips to preserve them through the Winter.’
E. C.-e.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Shirrefs, Andrew

​SHIRREFS, ANDREW (1762–1807?), Scottish poet, son of David Shirrefs, carpenter, was born in Aberdeen on 9 Feb. 1762. Two of his brothers attained some distinction in Aberdeen. James was minister of St. Nicholas Church from 1778 to 1814, and Alexander was sheriff-clerk-depute and latterly president of the Society of Advocates. Andrew was educated at the grammar school, entered Marischal College in 1779, and graduated M.A. in 1783. Becoming a cripple, he abandoned the intention of following a learned profession, and began business in Aberdeen as a bookseller and bookbinder. In May 1787 he joined with others in starting the short-lived ‘Aberdeen Chronicle’ (not to be confounded with the paper of the same name started in 1806), and became proprietor and joint editor of the ‘Caledonian Magazine.’ The latter ceased in 1790, and he went to Edinburgh as a bookseller and printer. In 1798 he left for London, after which it is impossible to trace him. The date of his death is given as 1807, but this cannot be confirmed; and from his not appearing with his other brothers in the will of his first cousin Alexander, a Jamaica planter, who died in 1801, it might be inferred that he was dead before that date.
Shirrefs corresponded with John Skinner and James Beattie; and Burns in the notes of his northern tour mentions having seen him, and describes him as ‘a little decrepid body with some abilities.’ He was best known as the author of ‘Jamie and Bess,’ a pastoral five-act comedy, avowedly in imitation of Ramsay's ‘Gentle Shepherd.’ It was performed in Aberdeen in 1787, and in Edinburgh, for the author's benefit, in 1796, when he appeared and sang his own song, ‘A cogie o' yill and a pickle aitmeal.’ Inglis (Dramatic Writers of Scotland) mentions a short piece, ‘The Sons of Britannia,’ said to have been acted in Edinburgh in 1796, but it does not seem to have been printed. In 1790 Shirrefs published ‘Poems, chiefly in the Scottish Dialect’ (Edinburgh, printed for the author), which contains his portrait by Beugo.
J. C. H.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Wharton, Anne

​WHARTON, ANNE (1632?–1685), poetess, born in Oxfordshire about 1632, was the second daughter and coheiress of Sir Henry Lee, third baronet, of Ditchley, by Anne, daughter of Sir John Danvers, knight, of Cornbury. On 16 Sept. 1673 she married, as his first wife, Thomas Wharton (afterwards first Marquis of Wharton) [q. v.], to whom she brought a dowry of 10,000l. and 2,500l. a year. In 1680 and 1681 she was in Paris, and both then and afterwards had some correspondence with Dr. Gilbert Burnet [q. v.], who sent poems for her to criticise, among them his ‘Paraphrase on the Fifty-third Chapter of Isaiah, in imitation of Mrs. Anne Wharton.’ Her own ‘Lamentations of Jeremiah paraphrased,’ written apparently in 1681, appeared in the collection entitled ‘The Temple of Death,’ 1695 (it was reprinted with some addition in the second volume of ‘Whartoniana,’ 1727, pp. 64–92). Her ‘Verses on the Snuff of a Candle’ appeared in the first volume of ‘Dryden's Miscellanies’ (1684, i. 144); her ‘Penelope to Ulysses’ in Tonson's ‘Ovid's Epistles by several Hands,’ of 1712, and some minor pieces, including a song, ‘How hardly I conceal'd my Tears,’ in Tooke's ‘Collection’ (1716, p. 209), and in other miscellanies. Her ‘Elegy on the Death of the Earl of Rochester’ (in the ‘Examen Miscellaneum’ of 1702, p. 15) drew from Waller the lines to ‘fairest Chloris,’ commencing ‘Thus mourn the Muses!’ and her ‘Paraphrase on the Lord's Prayer,’ some tumid verses commencing
Silence, you Winds; listen, Etherial Lights,  While our Urania sings what Heav'n indites.
Waller pays the lady the somewhat doubtful compliment of assuring her that she was allied to Rochester ‘in genius as well as in blood.’ The kinship in either case was remote; the earl's mother was aunt to Anne's father, Sir Henry Lee. Her verses were also commended by Dryden, who upon the death of her elder sister, the Countess of Abingdon, in 1691, wrote the panegyrical poem ‘Eleonora.’ Anne Wharton died at Adderbury on 29 Oct. 1685, and was buried at Winchendon on 10 Nov. following. Her marriage had proved childless and unhappy, and it was only the good counsel of Burnet that prevented her from leaving her husband about 1682. A collection of ‘Copies of Mrs. Wharton's Poems’ was appended to the Bodleian copy of Edward Young's ‘Amoris Christiani mnēmoneutikon’ (1686). In addition to her printed writings, Mrs. Wharton left in manuscript a blank-verse tragedy in five acts called ‘Love's Martyr, or Witt above Crowns.’ The subject is the love of Ovid for Julia, daughter of the emperor Augustus. The tragedy, formerly at Strawberry Hill, now forms Additional MS. 28693. A portrait, painted by Lely, was engraved by R. Earlom. Another, engraved by Bocquet, is given in Walpole's ‘Royal and Noble Authors’ (1806, iii. 284).
T. S.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Wharton, John

​WHARTON, JOHN (fl. 1575–1578), puritan writer, was the author of several works of a religious and moral character. In 1575 he edited ‘A misticall deuise of the spiritual and godly loue betwene Christ the spouse, and the Church or Congregation. Firste made by the wise Prince Salomon, and now newly set forth in verse by Jud Smith. Wherunto are annexed certeine other briefe stories. And also a Treatise of Prodigalitie most fit and necessarie for to be read and marked of all estates. Imprinted at London by Henry Kirckham,’ black letter, 8vo. In a short prose address to the Christian reader Wharton deplores the popularity of Chaucer's tales and other ‘ribald songs,’ and expresses a hope that the ‘Song of Songs’ may supersede them. In 1578 he published an independent work in verse, entitled ‘Whartons Dreame. Conteyninge an inuectiue agaynst certaine abhominable Caterpillers as Usurers, Extorcioners, Leasmongers, and such others, confounding their diuellysh sectes by the aucthority of holy scripture. Selected and gathered by Iohn Warton Scholemaster. Imprinted at London by Iohn Charlewod for Paull Conyngton, 1578,’ 4to. It was dedicated to Alexander Nowell [q. v.], dean of St. Paul's. It is chiefly occupied with considerations on the punishments of the wicked in hell, peculiar torments being reserved for those who have neglected to bring up their children with the rod. On 26 July 1576 John Hunter was licensed to print a ballad entitled ‘Whartons follie,’ and on 19 April 1577 ‘Henry Kyrkham’ received a license for ‘a booke intituled Wartons novell.’ Both these were probably by John Wharton, but neither is extant.
[Works in Brit. Mus. Library; Corser's Collectanea Anglo-Poet. (Chetham Soc.), v. 246; Ritson's Bibliogr. Poet.; Arber's Reprint of the Stationers' Register, ii. 301, 311.]
E. I. C.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Stanhope, John

1904 Errata appended.
​STANHOPE, JOHN, first Baron Stanhope of Harrington (1545?–1621), born probably about 1545, was third son of Sir Michael Stanhope [q. v.] by his wife Anne, daughter of Nicholas Rawson of Aveley-Bellhouse, Essex. His father's attainder in 1552 did not affect his estates, and John was brought up at Shelford, Nottinghamshire, where his mother's household was noted for hospitality and piety. He is probably the John Stanhope who was returned to parliament for Marlborough on 22 April 1572, for Truro in October 1586, and for Rochester on 14 Oct. 1588; but he is confused in Foster's 'Alumni Oxonienses' (1500–1714, iv. 1408) with his nephew John (1560–1611), father of Philip, first earl of Chesterfield [q. v.] On 20 June 1590 he was appointed master of the posts in succession to Thomas Randolph [q. v.] He was also a member of the council of the north and master of the posts (see Border Papers, 1595-1603, passim), and in 1596 he was appointed treasurer of the chamber and knighted. He appears to have had some influence at court, which Bacon sought to enlist in his favour (Speeding, Letters and Life of Bacon, ii. 50). On 16 Oct. 1597 he was elected member of parliament for Preston, and in 1600 was granted the constableship of Colchester. In ​the following year he was placed on a commission to 'stay from execution all felons (except for wilful murder, rape, and burglary) and to commit them to serve in the gallies.' On 24 Sept. he was elected knight of the shire of Nottingham. His offices were regranted him on the accession of James I, and he was one of the commissioners appointed to treat of a union between England and Scotland. On 10 March 1603–4 he was returned to parliament for Newtown, Isle of Wight, and by letters patent dated 4 May 1605 he was created Baron Stanhope of Harrington. He was made member of the council of the Virginia Company on 23 May 1609, and in 1615 was one of the privy councillors who signed the warrant for the application of torture to Edmond Peacham [q.v.] He resigned the treasurership of the chamber in 1616, and died on 9 March 1620–1.
Stanhope was twice married: first to Joan, daughter of William Knollys, by whom he had no issue; and secondly, on 6 May 1589, to Margaret, daughter of Henry MacWilliams, one of the queen's gentlemen pensioners. By her he had issue one son, Charles, born in 1593, who succeeded as second baron, but died without issue in 1675, when the title became extinct, and two daughters: Elizabeth, who married. Sir Lionel Talmash or Tollemache, ancestor of the earls of Dysart: and Catherine, who married Robert, viscount Cholmondeley (afterwards created Earl of Leinster). The later peers of the Stanhope family descend from the first baron's brother, Thomas.
A. F. P.
Dictionary of National Biography, Errata (1904), p.257 N.B.— f.e. stands for from end and l.l. for last line
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| 20 | i | 6 | Stanhope, John, 1st Baron Stanhope: for Nottingham read Northampton |
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Mushet, Robert (1782-1828)

​MUSHET, ROBERT (1782–1828), of the royal mint, sixth son of William Mushet and Margaret Cochrane, his wife, was born at Dalkeith on 10 Nov. 1782. He was a brother of David Mushet [q. v.] According to a statement contained in his evidence before the House of Lords’ committee on the resumption of cash payments in 1819, he entered the service of the royal mint about 1804, but his name does not occur in the ‘Royal Kalendar’ until 1808, when he appears as third clerk to the master. Subsequently he held the post of first clerk to the master, melter, and refiner. He paid particular attention to the currency question, and gave evidence before the committee above mentioned on 29 March and 7 April 1819. He was also examined before Peel’s committee in the House of Commons on the same subject on 19 March. He stated that he had made out tables of the exchanges and prices of gold from 1760 to 1810 (see the printed reports of those committees). In 1823 he took out a patent (No. 4802) for preparing copper for sheathing ships by alloying it with small quantities of zinc, tin, antimony, and arsenic. He died at Millfield House, Edmonton, on 1 Feb. 1828, having married Henrietta, daughter of John Hunter (1745-1837) [q. v.] of St. Andrews, by whom he had issue.
Mushet wrote:
* ‘An Enquiry into the Effect produced on the National Currency and Rates of Exchange by the Bank Restriction Bill,’ 2nd ed., 1810; 3rd ed., 1811. This was noticed in the ‘Edinburgh Review,’ 1810, xvii. 340.
* ‘Tables exhibiting the Gain and Loss to the Fundholder arising from the Fluctuations of the Value of the Currency from 1800 to 1821,’ 2nd ed., corrected, 1821.
* ‘An Attempt to explain from Facts the Effect of the Issues of the Bank of England upon its own Interests, Public Credit, and Country Banks,’ 1826. This was noticed in the ‘Quarterly Review,’ 1829, xxxix. 451.
[Gent. Mag. 1828 pt. i. p. 275, and private information]
R. B. P.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Richard de Belmeis (d.1128)

​RICHARD de Belmeis or Beaumeis (d. 1128), bishop of London. [See Belmeis.]
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Richard de Gravesend

​RICHARD de Gravesend (d. 1279), bishop of Lincoln. [See Gravesend.]
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Richard Strongbow

​RICHARD STRONGBOW, second Earl of Pembroke and Strigul (d. 1176). [See Clare, Richard de.]
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Richard de Belmeis (d.1162)

​RICHARD de Belmeis or Beaumeis (d. 1162), bishop of London. [See Belmeis.]
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Richard de Bury

​RICHARD de Bury (1281–1345), bishop of Durham. [See Bury.]
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Richard de Capella

​RICHARD de Capella (d. 1127), bishop of Hereford, was a clerk of the king's chapel and keeper of the seal under Ralph or Ranulf [q. v.], chancellor of Henry I (Eadmer, Hist. Nov. p. 290). Richard witnessed a charter of Henry I as ‘custos sigilli regis’ about September 1119 (Round, Geoffrey de Mandeville, p. 427). It is clear that Thynne was right in styling him keeper, and Foss was in error in stating that he was merely ‘clericus de sigillo,’ as William of Malmesbury calls him. Richard was appointed bishop of Hereford by Henry I. His election took place on 7 Jan. 1121. Archbishop Ralph d'Escures [q. v.] consecrated him at Lambeth on 16 Jan. (Eadmer, p. 291). Richard took part in the consecration of Everard, bishop of Norwich, on 12 June 1121 (ib. p. 294). After an uneventful episcopate, he died at Ledbury on 15 Aug. 1127, and was buried in the cathedral at Hereford. He is said to have built a bridge over the Wye.
C. L. K.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Richard de Morins

​RICHARD de Morins (d. 1242), historian. [See Morins.]
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Wintour, John Crawford

​WINTOUR, JOHN CRAWFORD (1825–1882), landscape-painter, was born in Wright's Houses, Edinburgh, in October 1825. His father, William Wintour, was a working currier; his mother, Margaret Crawford, a farmer's daughter. At an early age Wintour exhibited a talent for drawing, and, entering the Trustees' Academy, he made rapid progress and became a favourite with his master, Sir William Allan [q. v.] From the time he was seventeen he maintained himself by miniature and portrait painting, and by making anatomical diagrams for the university professors. He also painted a few figure pictures, notably one or two of fairy subjects, which, although immature in many ways, are remarkable for beauty of colour and grace of composition. About 1850, however, he turned his attention to landscape, in which he found his real vocation. At first his landscapes were somewhat flimsy and superficial, but during the next few years he seems to have come under the influence of John Constable (1776–1837) [q. v.], and his work gained in strength and evinced a closer study of nature. In 1859 Wintour was elected an associate of the Royal Scottish Academy, and two years later he spent the autumn in Warwickshire. From this date his pictures became more personal in feeling, broader and more expressive in handling, and richer in colour and composition.
Wintour's art occupies a distinct place in Scottish landscape painting. Beginning with his own feeling for nature, he received an impulse from Constable, which resulted in effects similar in kind to those of the French romantics of 1830, who had also been influenced by the English painter's work. Perhaps his finest period was about 1870, when he painted the ‘Moonlight’ at Killiecrankie and the ‘Border Castle;’ but, while his latest pictures were often careless in draughtsmanship and handling, his special qualities of colour and design culminated in the ‘Gloamin on the Eye,’ painted two years before his death. For a number of years his health had been failing, his self-control was not what it might have been, his associates were not of the best, and when, on 29 July 1882, he died, medical examination revealed a tumour on the brain. An exhibition of nearly 150 of his pictures and drawings was held in Edinburgh in 1888. The catalogue contains a portrait of Wintour, reproduced from a photograph, and a critical and biographical note by P. McOmish Dott.
Wintour was married to Charlotte Ross, but had no family. His widow survived him a few months.
J. L. C.