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

​TUNSTALL or HELMES, THOMAS (d. 1616), Roman catholic martyr, was collaterally descended from the Tunstalls of Thurland Castle, who subsequently moved to Scargill, Yorkshire. The family remained staunch Roman catholics, and several of its members entered the Society of Jesus, adopting Scargill as their name (Douai Diaries, passim). Thomas was probably born at Kendal, being described in the Douai registers as ‘Carliolensis’ and ‘Kendallensis.’ He was matriculated under the name Helmes at Douai on 7 Oct. 1607, was ordained priest in 1609, and sent as missioner to England in 1610 (ib. pp. 19, 34, 287). He was a secular priest, not a jesuit, and subsequently made a vow to enter the Benedictine order. Shortly after his arrival in England he was arrested, and he spent four or five years in various prisons, the last of them being Wisbech Castle. From this he escaped by means of a rope, but cut his hands severely, and applied to the wife of Sir Hamo L'Estrange, who was skilled in dressing wounds. Her suspicions of his identity were raised, and ​she mentioned the matter to her husband, a justice of the peace, who ordered Tunstall's arrest. He was conveyed to Norwich to stand his trial at the quarter sessions, was condemned to death for high treason on the testimony of one witness who is said to have committed perjury, and on 13 July 1616 was hanged, drawn, and quartered on the gallows outside Magdalen Gates, Norwich. His head was, at his own request, placed over St. Bennet's gate. A portrait of Tunstall was given by Canon Raine to Stonyhurst College (Raine, Depositions from York Castle, p. 44). Two of Tunstall's nephews—William (1611–1681), rector of Ghent; and Thomas (1612–1641)—were well-known Jesuits (Foley, Records, vii. 784–5).
A. F. P.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Turberville, Henry (d.1678)

​TURBERVILLE, HENRY (d. 1678), Roman catholic controversialist, received his education in the English College at Douai, where he was ordained priest. Although he had no academical degrees, and was never employed as a professor in the college, yet his sound judgment and constant application to books rendered him one of the ablest controversialists of his time. Being sent on the English mission, he acted as chaplain to Henry Somerset, first marquis of Worcester [see under Somerset, Edward, second Marquis], during the civil war, and for some time he served Sir George Blount of Sodington in the same capacity. He is also styled archdeacon of Berkshire. ‘The clergy,’ says ​Dodd, ‘had a great esteem for him, and consulted him in all matters of moment’ (Church Hist. iii. 302). He died in Holborn, London, on 20 Feb. 1677–8 (Palatine Note-book, iii. 104, 175).
His works are: 1. ‘An Abridgment of Christian Doctrine, catechistically explained by way of question and answer. By H. T.’ [Douai], 1649, 1671, and 1676, 8vo; Basle, 1680, 12mo; London, 1734 and 1788, 12mo; Belfast, 1821, 12mo; revised by James Doyle, D.D., Dublin, 1827 and 1828, 16mo. 2. ‘A Manuel of Controversies; clearly demonstrating the truth of Catholique Religion, by texts of Holy Scripture, &c., and fully answering the objections of Protestants and all other Sectaries,’ Douai, 1654 and 1671, 8vo; London, 1686, 12mo. This elicited replies from John Tombes, Henry Hammond, and William Thomas, bishop of Worcester.
T. C.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Turberville, James

​TURBERVILLE or TURBERVYLE, JAMES (d. 1570?), bishop of Exeter, born at Bere in Dorset, was the son of John Turbervyle, by his wife Isabella, daughter of John Cheverell. John was the grandson of Sir Robert Turbervyle of Bere and Anderston (d. 6 Aug. 1424). James was educated at Winchester College, and in 1512 was elected fellow of New College, Oxford, whence he graduated B.A. on 17 June 1516 and M.A. on 26 June 1520. He graduated D.D. abroad, but was incorporated on 1 June 1532. From 1521 to 1524 he filled the office of 'tabellio' or registrar to the university. In 1529 he resigned his fellowship, being then promoted to an ecclesiastical benefice, and in 1541 he became rector of Hartfield in Sussex. At an unknown date he was made a prebendary of Winchester, and on 8 Sept. 1555 he was consecrated bishop of Exeter as successor to John Voysey [q. v.] According to a contemporary, John Hooker, alias Vowell [q. v.], his episcopate was disfigured by an execution 'for religion and heresie,' that of Agnes Pirest, burned at Southampton.
In Elizabeth's first parliament he opposed the bill for restoring tenths and first-fruits to the crown, as well as other anti-papal measures. Finally, in 1559, he declined the oath of supremacy, and in consequence was deprived, a fresh congé d'élire being issued on 27 April 1560. On 4 Dec. 1559 he joined the other deprived prelates in a letter of remonstrance, and on 18 June 1560 he was committed for a short time to the Tower (cf. Corresp. of Matthew Parker, Parker Soc., 1853, p. 122). He was afterwards placed in the custody of Edmund Grindal [q. v.], bishop of London, and liberated by order of the privy council on 30 Jan. 1564-5 on his finding sureties for his good behaviour (Acts of the Privy Council, ed. Dasent, vii. 190). The rest of his life was passed in retirement, and he died at liberty, it is said, in 1570. Richard Izacke [q. v.] erroneously asserts that he died on 1 Nov. 1559 (Antiquities of the City of Exeter, 1677).
E. I. C.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Turford, Hugh

​TURFORD, HUGH (d. 1713), quaker writer, was probably a near relative of Elizabeth Turford, who in 1664 was twice imprisoned for a month or more at Bristol (Besse, Sufferings, i. 51, ii. 638). Turford, who was a schoolmaster, died at Bristol, and was buried there on 5 March 1713. His wife Jane and a son and a daughter predeceased him before 1674.
His ‘Grounds of a Holy Life, or the Way by which many who were Heathens came to be renowned Christians and such as are now Sinners may come to be numbered with Saints by Little Preaching’ (London, 1702, 8vo), which has become a classic, owing to its appeal to every class of readers, is a broad-minded and entirely unsectarian contention for consistency rather than conformity of practice, urging a return to the primitive virtue of self-denial. It has been translated into French (Nismes, 1824, 8vo) and into German, many times reprinted, and reached a seventeenth edition in 1802 and a twentieth in 1836. Other editions appeared at Manchester, 1838, 12mo, and 1843; London, 1843, 12mo; and Manchester (27th ed.), 1860, 12mo. Two portions of the book, viz. Paul's speech to the bishop of Crete, and ‘A True Touchstone or Trial of Christianity,’ were separately issued—the former, Bristol 1746, and Whitby 1788, the latter, Leeds 1785, 1794, and 1799. The whole work was reissued in 1787 as ‘The Ancient Christian's Principle, or Rule of Life, revised and brought to Light, with a Description of True Godliness, and the Way by which our Lives may be conformed thereunto.’ It was reprinted under this title: ​Dublin, 1793; London, 1799; and York, 1812 and 1814. Under this title it was translated into Spanish, ‘Principios de los primitivos Cristianos,’ London, 1844, 12mo; into Italian ‘Massime Fondamentali degli antichi Cristiani,’ London, 1846, 12mo; and into Danish, Stavanger, 1855, 12mo.
C. F. S.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Turberville, Daubeney

​TURBERVILLE, DAUBENEY (1612–1696), physician, born at Wayford in Somerset in 1612, was the son of George Turberville of that place. He matriculated from Oriel College, Oxford, on 7 Nov. 1634, graduating B.A. on 15 Oct. 1635 and M.A. on 17 July 1640. On the outbreak of the civil war he took up arms for the king, and assisted in the defence of Exeter in 1645. On its surrender to Fairfax in April 1646 he retired to Wayford, and practised medicine there and at the neighbouring town of Crookhorn. He eventually removed to Salisbury, and at the Restoration on 7 Aug. 1660 took the degree of M.D. at Oxford. He made a speciality of eye diseases and acquired considerable fame. According to Walter Pope [q. v.] he cured Queen Anne, when she was a child, of a dangerous inflammation in her eyes, after the court physicians had failed. He was also consulted for his eyes by Pepys, to whom ‘he did discourse learnedly about them’ (Pepys, Diary, 1848, iv. 472, 482, 483). He died at Salisbury on 21 April 1696, and was buried in the cathedral. His wife Anne, whom he married at Wayford about 1646, died without issue on 15 Dec. 1694.
E. I. C.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Seaton, Thomas (1684-1741)

​SEATON, THOMAS (1684–1741), divine, hymn-writer, and founder of the Seatonian prize for sacred poetry at Cambridge, born at Stamford in 1684, was admitted a sizar of Clare Hall, Cambridge, in 1701, under the tuition of Mr. Clarke, bedel of the university. He graduated B.A. in 1704, was elected a fellow of his college, and commenced M.A. in 1708. After taking holy orders, he became chaplain to Daniel, earl of Nottingham, on whose presentation he was instituted to the vicarage of Ravenstone, Buckinghamshire, on 9 Nov. 1721. He died at Ravenstone on 18 Aug. 1741, and was buried there on the 23rd. A large tombstone was erected to his memory in the churchyard, with a Latin inscription, which has been printed by Lipscomb (Hist. of Buckinghamshire, iv. 320, 323).
By his will he devised his estate at Kislingbury, Northamptonshire, to the university of Cambridge, on condition that out of the rents a prize should be annually awarded to a master of arts of that university who, in the judgment of the vice-chancellor, the master of Clare Hall, and the Greek professor, had composed the best English poem on the attributes of the Supreme Being or some other sacred subject. The first poem was printed in 1750, and the publication has continued uniformly to the present time, except in 1766, 1769, and 1771. Many of these compositions will be found in ‘Musæ Seatonianæ. A complete Collection of the Cambridge Prize Poems, from their first institution … to the present time. To which are added two poems, likewise written for the prize, by Mr. Bally and Mr. Scott’ (London, 1773, 8vo).
Seaton was himself the author of: 1. ‘The Divinity of our Saviour proved: in an Essay on the Eternity of the Son of God,’ London, 1719, 8vo; in answer to Whiston. 2. ‘The Conduct of Servants in Great Families. Consisting of Dissertations upon several Passages of the Holy Scriptures relating to the Office of a Servant,’ London, 1720, 12mo. 3. ‘The Defects of the Objections against the New Testament Application of the Prophecies in the Old, exposed; and the Evangelists Application of 'em vindicated,’ London, 1726, 8vo. 4. ‘A Compendious View of the Grounds of Religion, both Natural and Reveal'd: in two dissertations,’ London, 1729, 12mo. 5. ‘The Devotional Life render'd Familiar, Easy, and Pleasant, in several Hymns upon the most common occasions of Human Life. Composed and collected ​by T. S.,’ London, 1734, 12mo; reprinted Oxford, 1855, 12mo.
T. C.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Sebert

​SEBERT, SABERET, or SABA (d. 616?), first Christian king of the East-Saxons, son of Sledda, king of the East-Saxons, by his wife Ricula, sister of Ethelbert or Æthelberht (552?–616) [q. v.], king of Kent, reigned in dependence on his uncle ​Ethelbert, and became a Christian soon after the latter's conversion. He and his people received Mellitus [q. v.] as their teacher and bishop. The founder of St. Paul's Church in London, the chief city of the East-Saxons, was, however, not Sebert, but his superior king, Ethelbert. Sebert is said to have founded Westminster Abbey, but this is a late legend. He died soon after Ethelbert, in or about 616, and was succeeded by his three sons, who had remained heathen, and under whom the East-Saxons relapsed into heathenism [see under Sexred]. In 1308 a tomb, said to be that of Sebert, was opened in Westminster Abbey for the purpose of translating the relics, and the right hand and forearm of the body were found undecayed.
[Bede's Hist. Eccl. ii. cc. 3, 5; A.-S. Chron. an. 604, ed. Plummer; Kemble's Codex Dipl. No. 555 (Engl. Hist. Soc.); Monasticon, i. 265, 288–91; Ann. Paulini ap. Chron. Edw. I and Edw. II, i. 266 (Rolls Ser.); Dict. Chr. Biogr. art. ‘Sebert,’ by Bishop Stubbs.]
W. H.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Seckford, Thomas

​SECKFORD or SACKFORD, THOMAS (1515?–1588), lawyer, second son of Thomas Seckford, esq., of Seckford Hall, Suffolk, sometime M.P. for Oxford, by Margaret, daughter of Sir John Wingfield, knt., of Letheringham, was born about 1515, and educated, it is believed, at Cambridge (Cooper, Athenæ Cantabr. ii. 18). He was admitted a student of Gray's Inn, London, in 1540, and was called to the bar, being Lent reader of that house in 1555 (Foster, Gray's Inn Admission Register, p. 14). He was sworn one of the masters of request in ordinary on 9 Dec. 1558, and he also held the offices of surveyor of the court of wards and liveries and steward of the court of Marshalsea. His name appears in a commission for the establishment of orders and regulations for the prison of the Fleet (1561); in a special commission of oyer and terminer for the county of Surrey (15 Feb. 1565–6), under which Arthur Pole [q. v.], Edmund Pole, and others were tried and convicted of high treason; and in another commission (12 June 1566) for the trial of offences committed within the verge of the queen's house. He was appointed one of the commissioners for causes ecclesiastical in 1570. On 1 Aug. in that year he was included in the special commission of oyer and terminer for the ​city of London, under which John Felton was convicted of high treason. He was returned for Ipswich, and probably also for Bridgnorth, to the parliament which met on 8 May 1572; but it is difficult to determine whether it was he or his father who sat in four parliaments for Ipswich and the county of Suffolk. On 14 April 1573 he was, with others, empowered to deliver the gaol of the Marshalsea. His father died in 1575, and he, being the eldest surviving son, succeeded to the paternal estate. He built ‘a very faire house in Ipswich within the newe barre gates.’ His name figures in a special commissioner of oyer and terminer for the county of Middlesex (20 Feb. 1585–6), under which Dr. William Parry (d. 1585) [q. v.] was tried and convicted for conspiring the death of the queen. He was buried at Woodbridge, Suffolk, on 15 Jan. 1587–8.
He was a munificent benefactor to the town of Woodbridge, where he founded and endowed almshouses, in which twenty-four poor men and women still find an asylum in old age. Seckford assisted William Harrison (1534–1593) [q. v.] in describing ‘the rivers and streams of Britain,’ and Harrison dedicated to him his ‘Description of Scotland’ in Holinshed's ‘Chronicles’ (bk. iii.).
T. C.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Sebbi

​SEBBI, SAEBBI, or SEBBA (d. 695?), king of the East-Saxons, was the son of Saeward. The father was, jointly with his two brothers, Sexred [q. v.] and another, king of the East-Saxons; he was a heathen, and was slain in battle by the West-Saxons in or about 626 (Mon. Hist. Brit. p. 637; Bede, Hist. Eccl. ii. c. 5; Henry of Huntingdon, p. 57). Sebbi became king about 665, succeeding his kinsman Swithelm, the brother and successor of Sigebert the Good [q. v.], who succeeded his cousin, Sigebert the Little [q. v.], who was the brother of Sebbi; he reigned conjointly with his nephew, Sighere [q. v.], son of Sigebert the Little, under the overlordship of the kings of Mercia (Mon. Hist. Brit. u.s.; Hist. Eccl. iii. c. 30). In the early years of his reign the great pestilence of 664 was raging, and under the pressure of this calamity a large number of the East-Saxons, with Sighere at their head, relapsed into heathenism (ib.; Hist. of Epidemics in Britain, i. 4–5). Sebbi, however, remained faithful to Christianity. On hearing of the relapse of the East-Saxons, Wulfhere [q. v.], king of Mercia, sent Bishop Jaruman (d 667?) to recall them to the faith. His success was complete. Erkenwald [q. v.], who was appointed bishop of London in or about 675, was no doubt supported in his work by Sebbi, who appears as attesting a charter granted by one of his kinsmen to the nunnery of Barking, founded by the bishop (Codex Diplomaticus, vol. i. No. 35). Sebbi, who was much given to prayer, acts of charity, and good works, and whose character, men said, was more befitting a bishop than a king, desired to abdicate, and become a monk, but was prevented by his wife, who refused to be separated from him. When, however, he had reigned for thirty years, and had fallen into great weakness from the disease of which he died, he told his wife that he could no longer live with her in the world, and, having with difficulty obtained her consent, went to Waldhere [q. v.], the bishop of London, and received from him the monastic habit, giving him a large sum for the poor, and reserving nothing for himself. As he lay in sickness upon his bed with his thegns around him, who had come to ask about his health, he saw in a vision three men in shining garments, one of whom told him that on the third day his soul should pass from his body without pain and in the midst of glorious light. He died at the ninth hour of the third day following (in or about 695). A stone coffin had been prepared for him; it was found to be too short inside; the length of the cavity was increased; it was still too short, but suddenly, in the presence of Bishop Waldhere, one of the king's sons, and many others, was found to have been lengthened miraculously (Hist. Eccl. iv. 11). Sebbi was buried in St. Paul's Church, London, where his tomb in the north aisle was shown until the great fire of 1666. He left two sons, Sighard and Suefred, who succeeded him.
W. H.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Secker, William

​SECKER, WILLIAM (d. 1681?), divine, preached at Tewkesbury and afterwards at All-Hallows, London Wall. He may have been the William Secker who was appointed rector of Leigh, Essex, on 30 Aug. 1667, and died there before November 1681 (Newcourt, Repert. Eccles. ii. 384).
Secker's sermon on ‘A Wedding Ring fit for the Finger, or the Salve of Divinity on the Sore of Humanity, laid open at a Wedding in St. Edmunds’ (?Edmonton), London, 1658, 12mo, was very popular, and was often reprinted (cf. edits. at Glasgow, 1850, 12mo; New York, 1854, 16mo). It was translated into Welsh, ‘Y Fodrwy Briodas,’ Brecon, 1775 (two editions), and as ‘Y Cristion rhagorol,’ Bala, 1880, 8vo. Secker also dedicated to Sir Edward and Lady Frances Barkham of Tottenham, who had befriended him, a volume of sermons entitled ‘The Nonsuch Professor’ (London, 1660, 8vo). This was republished (Leeds, 1803, 12mo; London, 1891), and was edited, with ‘The Wedding Ring,’ by Matthew Wilks, London, 1867, 12mo; it was several times reprinted in America.
[Kennet's Register, p. 594; Watt's Bibl. Brit.; Darling's Cyclop. Bibl.; works above mentioned; Brit. Mus. Cat.; Notes and Queries, 3rd ser. iv. 49.]
C. F. S.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Waltheof (d.1159)

​WALTHEOF (d. 1159), saint and abbot of Melrose, was the second son of Simon de Senlis, earl of Northampton and Huntingdon [q. v.], by Matilda, eldest daughter of Waltheof (d. 1076) [q. v.], earl of Huntingdon and Northumberland. He must be distinguished from Waltheof, son of Gospatric, abbot of Crowland (Freeman, Norman Conquest, iv. 524, 603, v. 828). Waltheof showed an inclination to the church from his earliest years, and became a canon regular at Nostal in Yorkshire, not wishing to enter a house on his brother's domains, in the fear of being compelled by him to return to secular life. He quitted Nostal, and became prior of Kirkham in the same county. His biographer relates several miracles wrought by him while here, and asserts that the archbishopric of York was offered to him and refused. Doubts which had for some time troubled him as to the sufficient austerity of the Augustinian rule led to his finally quitting Kirkham, in spite of the forcible remonstrance of his monks, who even invoked ecclesiastical censure on their deserting prior. He entered the Cister​cian monastery of Wardon, and drew down on it the wrath of his brother Simon and his former monastery. To avoid the former they sent him to their parent Rievaulx, which was outside Simon's sphere of influence. After a brief moment of temptation to lapse into an easier life during his probation, in which he was assisted by a miraculous intervention, he became noted even among the Cistercians for his austerity and sanctity. When, in 1148, Richard, the first abbot of Melrose, died, the monks elected Waltheof as his successor. As abbot he was noted for his mildness towards others, his severity towards himself, and his humility. He would not allow his high connections to be mentioned, and when he journeyed took but three attendants. Even when scarcely able to walk himself he insisted on visiting the sick. He had frequent visions and miraculous experiences, all of which, says his biographer, were kept concealed by his influence until his death. He influenced his brother to bring about the foundation of the priory of Sawtrey, his half-brother Henry to found Holm Cultram, his step-father David to found Kinloss, and his nephew Malcolm to found Cupar. Just before his death he was elected bishop of Glasgow, but he refused the honour. He died after a tedious and painful illness on 3 Aug. 1159.
Numerous miraculous cures began to be wrought at his tomb very soon after his death. In 1171 Ingelram [q. v.], bishop of Glasgow, transferred his body to a new marble tomb. The chronicle of Melrose relates that on this occasion the body and its vestments were found intact. In 1240 his bones were removed from the entrance to the chapter-house to a spot in the east part of the chapter-house.
W. E. R.