OpenLLM-France/wikimedia huggingface dataset:
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Dobson, William (1820-1884)

​DOBSON, WILLIAM (1820–1884), journalist and antiquary, came of a family of agriculturists seated at Tarleton in Lancashire. His father was Lawrence Dobson, a stationer and part proprietor with Isaac Wilcockson of the ‘Preston Chronicle.’ He was born at Preston in 1820, and educated at the grammar school of that town. He afterwards engaged in the various branches of newspaper work. On the retirement of Wilcockson he acquired a partnership interest in the ‘Chronicle,’ and was for some years the editor. His career as a journalist came practically to an end in March 1868, when the proprietorship of the ‘Chronicle’ was transferred to Anthony Hewitson. He continued, however, along with his brother, to carry on the stationery business in Fishergate. In August 1866 he first entered the town council, with the especial object of opening up more fully for the public the advantages of Dr. Shepherd's library. He remained in the town council until November 1872, and subsequently sat from 1874 to November 1883. Dobson, who was a member of the Chetham Society, possessed an extensive knowledge of local history and antiquities. He was the author of:
* ‘History of the Parliamentary Representation of Preston during the last Hundred Years,’ 8vo, Preston, 1856 (second edition), 12mo, Preston [printed], London, 1868.
* ‘Preston in the Olden Time; or, Illustrations of the Manners and Customs in Preston in the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries. A Lecture,’ 12mo, Preston, 1857.
* ‘An Account of the Celebration of Preston Guild in 1862,’ 12mo, Preston [1862].
* ‘Rambles by the Ribble,’ 3 series, 8vo, Preston, 1864–83, 3rd edition, 8vo, Preston, 1877, &c.
* ‘The Story of our Town Hall,’ 8vo, Preston, 1879.
His other writings were: ‘A Memoir of John Gornall,’ ‘A Memoir of Richard Palmer, formerly Town Clerk of Preston,’ ‘The Story of Proud Preston,’ ‘A History and Description of the Ancient Houses in the Market Place, Preston,’ ‘A History of Lancashire Signboards,’ and a useful work on ‘The Preston Municipal Elections from 1835 to 1862.’ He also published ‘Extracts from the Diary of the Rev. Peter Walkden, Nonconformist Minister, for the years 1725, 1729, and 1730, with Notes,’ 12mo, Preston [printed], London, 1866, an interesting scrap of local biography, and joined John Harland, F.S.A., of Manchester, in writing ‘A History of Preston Guild; the Ordinances of various Guilds Merchant, the Custumal of Preston, the Charters to the Borough, the Incorporated Companies, List of Mayors from 1327,’ &c., 12mo, Preston [1862], followed by two other editions. Dobson died on 8 Aug. 1884, aged 64, at Churton Road, Chester, and was buried on the 11th in Chester cemetery.
[Preston Guardian, 13 Aug. 1884, p. 4, col. 4; Preston Chronicle, 16 Aug. 1884, p. 5, col. 6; Palatine Note-book, iv. 180; Athenæum, 16 Aug. 1884, p. 210; Sutton's List of Lancashire Authors, p. 31; Fishwick's Lancashire Library, pp. 164, 165, 166, 170, 237.]
G. G.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Docharty, James

​DOCHARTY, JAMES (1829–1878), landscape-painter, born in 1829 at Bonhill, Dumbartonshire, was the son of a calico printer. He was trained as a pattern designer at the school of design in Glasgow, after which he continued his studies for some years in France. Returning to Glasgow he began to practise on his own account, and succeeded so well that when he was about thirty-three years of age he was able to give up designing patterns and to devote himself exclusively to landscape-painting, which he had long been assiduously cultivating in his leisure hours. His earlier works were for the most part scenes from the lochs of the Western Highlands, which he exhibited at the Glasgow Fine Art Institute. Afterwards he extended his range of subjects to the Clyde, and to other highland rivers and lochs, which he treated with vigour and thorough unconventionality of style. He was an earnest student of nature, and his latest and best works are distinguished by the quiet harmony ​of their colour. Most of his works appeared in Glasgow, but he was also a constant exhibitor at the Royal Scottish Academy, and from 1865 to 1877 his pictures were frequently seen at the Royal Academy in London. Among the best of these works were: ‘The Haunt of the Red Deer on the Dee, Braemar’ (1869), ‘The Head of Loch Lomond’ (1873), ‘Glencoe’ (1874), ‘The River Achray, Trossachs’ (1876), ‘A Good Fishing-day, Loch Lomond’ (1877), and his last exhibited works, ‘The Trossachs’ (1878), in the Royal Scottish Academy, and a ‘Salmon Stream’ in the Glasgow Institute exhibition of 1878. All his works are in private collections. In 1876 failing health compelled him to leave home, and he made a lengthened tour in Egypt, Italy, and France, without, however, deriving much benefit from it. Late in 1877 he was elected an associate of the Royal Scottish Academy. He died from consumption at Pollokshields, Glasgow, on 5 April 1878, and was buried in Cathcart cemetery.
R. E. G.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Dockwray, William

​DOCKWRAY or DOCKWRA, WILLIAM (d. 1702?), was a merchant in London in the later half of the seventeenth ​century. In 1683, improving upon an idea suggested, and already partially carried out, by Robert Murray, an upholsterer, Dockwray established a penny postal system in the metropolis. There existed at this time no adequate provision for the carriage of letters and parcels between different parts of London. Dockwray set up six large offices in the city, a receiving-house was opened in each of the principal streets, every hour the letters and parcels taken in at the receiving-houses were carried to ‘the grand offices’ by one set of messengers, sorted and registered, and then delivered by another set of messengers in all parts of London. In the principal streets near the Exchange there were six or eight, in the suburbs there were four, deliveries in the day. All letters and parcels not exceeding one pound in weight, or any sum of money not exceeding 10l., or any parcel not more than 10l. in value, were carried to any place within the city for a penny, and to any distance within a given ten-mile radius for twopence. Dockwray's enterprise, so far as he personally was concerned, was unsuccessful. The city porters, complaining that their interests were attacked, tore down the placards from the windows and doors of the receiving-houses. Titus Oates affirmed that the scheme was connected with the popish plot. The Duke of York, on whom the revenue of the post office had been settled, instituted proceedings in the king's bench to protect his monopoly, and Dockwray was cast in slight damages and costs. In 1690, however, he received a pension of 500l. a year for seven years, and this was continued on a new patent till 1700. Dockwray appears to have been a candidate for the chamberlainship of the city of London in October 1695 (Luttrell), with what result is not stated. In 1697 he was appointed comptroller of the penny post. A poem on Dockwray's ‘invention of the penny post’ is in ‘State Poems’ (1697). In 1698 the officials and messengers under his control memorialised the lords of the treasury to dismiss him from his office on the grounds inter alia that he had (1) removed the post office from Cornhill to a less central station; (2) detained and opened letters; and (3) refused to take in parcels of more than a pound in weight, thereby injuring the trade of the post-office porters. The charges were investigated before Sir Thomas Frankland and Sir Robert Cotton, postmasters-general, in August 1699, and on 4 June 1700 Dockwray was dismissed from his position. In 1702 he petitioned Queen Anne for some compensation for his losses, stating that six out of his seven children were unprovided for in his old age.
A. W. R.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Dobson, Susannah

​DOBSON, SUSANNAH, née Dawson (d. 1795), translator, came from the south of England. She married Matthew Dobson, M.D., F.R.S., of Liverpool, author of several medical treatises, who died at Bath in 1784. In 1775 she published her ‘Life of Petrarch, collected from Mémoires pour la vie de Petrarch’ (by de Sade), in 2 vols. 8vo. It was reprinted in 1777, and several times up to 1805, when the sixth edition was issued. Her second work was a translation of Sainte-Palaye's ‘Literary History of the Troubadours,’ 1779, 8vo; 2nd edit. 1807. In 1784 she translated the same author's ‘Memoirs of Ancient Chivalry,’ and in 1791 Petrarch's ‘View of Human Life’ (‘De Remediis Utriusque Fortunæ’). To her also is ascribed an anonymous ‘Dialogue on Friendship and Society’ (8vo, no date), and ‘Historical Anecdotes of Heraldry and Chivalry.’ The latter was published in quarto at Worcester about 1795. Madame d'Arblay mentions that in 1780 Mrs. Dobson was ambitious to get into Mrs. Thrale's circle, but the latter ‘shrunk from her advances.’ She died 30 Sept. 1795, and was buried at St. Paul's, Covent Garden.
[Smithers's Liverpool, 1825, p. 418; Gent. Mag. 1795, pt. ii. p. 881; D'Arblay's Diary, &c., 1842, i. 336; Moule's Bibliotheca Heraldica, 1822, p. 480; Brit. Mus. Cat. of Printed Books.
C. W. S.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Dobson, John (1633-1681)

​DOBSON, JOHN (1633–1681), puritan divine, was born in 1633 in Warwickshire, in which county his father was a minister. He became a member of Magdalen College, Oxford, in 1653, taking his B.A. degree in October 1656, proceeding M.A. in 1659, and in 1662 being made perpetual fellow. He had prior to 1662 taken orders, and speedily became known as an eloquent preacher. His memory was so good that at Easter 1663 he repeated four Latin sermons in St. Mary's Church, Oxford. In September of that year he was expelled from the university for being the author of a libel vindicating Dr. Thomas Pierce against the strictures of Dr. Henry Yerbury, although Wood alleges that he did not write the libel, but only took the responsibility on himself to shield Dr. Pierce. Dobson was soon after restored, and in December 1667 obtained the degree of B.D., and in the year following was instituted to the rectory of Easton Neston in Northamptonshire. In 1670 he was presented to the rectory of Corscombe in Dorsetshire, and about four years later to that of Cold Higham in Northamptonshire, by Sir William Farmor of Easton Neston, who had been his pupil at Magdalen College. He died in 1681 at Corscombe, where he was buried and a monumental tablet erected to his memory. He wrote: 1. ‘Queries upon Queries, or Enquiries into certain Queries upon Dr. Pierce's Sermon at Whitehall, February the first,’ 1663. 2. ‘Dr. Pierce, his Preaching confuted by his Practice.’ 3. ‘Doctor Pierce, his Preaching exemplified by his Practice; or an Antidote to the Poison of a Scurrilous Pamphlet sent by N. G. to a Friend in London,’ 1663. 4. ‘Sermon at the Funeral of Lady Mary Farmor, relict of Sir William Farmor, bart.,’ 1670.
[Wood's Athenæ Oxon. (Bliss), iv. 1; Hutchins's Hist. of Dorset, vol. i.; Salisbury's Account of First-fruits; Bloxam's Registers of Magdalen College, Oxford, i. 46, ii. 197, v. 164.]
A. C. B.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Dobson, John (1787-1865)

​DOBSON, JOHN (1787–1865), architect, was born in 1787 at Chirton, North Shields. From an early age he manifested a great power of design, and at fifteen he was placed as a pupil in the office of Mr. David Stephenson, the leading builder and architect in Newcastle-on-Tyne. On the completion of his studies he repaired to London, and sought the instruction of John Varley, the father of English water-colour, who was so struck with his ability as to agree to give him lessons at the early hour of five in the morning, the rest of his day being fully occupied. One of Varley's pictures, exhibited at the Royal Academy, was a curious monument of their intercourse. It was an airy landscape, with buildings, wood, and water, which was actually composed by the master from a sketch noted down by the pupil on awakening from sleep, and bore the title of ‘Dobson's Dream.’ After some time spent in London Dobson returned to Newcastle, where he settled himself permanently, and became the most noted architect of the north of England. He died, 8 Jan. 1865, in his seventy-seventh year. It has been claimed for him that he was the real author of the modern Gothic revival in actual practice, and that the earliest Gothic church of this century was built by him. He was the restorer of a great number of churches, and acted with judgment and knowledge where he was not overruled. In domestic architecture he was perhaps even more successful. His work is to be seen in many of the great seats of the gentry of the north, as Lambton Castle, Unthank Hall, Seaton Delaval, in which last place the difficulties that he overcame were extraordinary. In engineering architecture his greatest achievement was the Newcastle central station, the curved platform of which has been imitated throughout the kingdom, and the design of which, if it had been carried out as he gave it, would have been very fine. In prison architecture he applied the radiating system, which was for many years the favourite scheme of Jeremy Bentham. Bentham, however, was unable to secure the adoption of his ‘Panopticon.’ An early example of this structure was given by Dobson in his building of Newcastle gaol. His great monument, indeed, is the city of Newcastle-on-Tyne, the greatest part of the public buildings of which, and the finest new streets, were designed or erected by him. If the corporation of Newcastle could have accepted his designs absolutely, their town would now be the finest in the empire. The characteristics of this architect were adaptability, ingenuity, patience, constructive imagination, and an instinctive intelligence of the genius loci.
[Life by his daughter, Memoirs of John Dobson, 1885; an account of his architectural projections is given in Mackenzie's Hist. of Newcastle.]
R. W. D.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Ford, Edward (1746-1809)

​FORD, EDWARD (1746–1809), surgeon, is stated to have been ‘the son of Dr. Ford, a prebendary of Wells,’ and to have been born in that city ‘in 1750’ (Gent. Mag. vol. lxxix. pt. ii. p. 1168). As, however, his age at the time of his death is given as ‘62’ (ib. p. 984), he would have been born in 1746, the son of Thomas Ford, prebendary of St. Decuman, Wells, and vicar of Banwell and of Wookey, Somersetshire, who died 29 Aug. of the same year (ib. xvi. 496; Le Neve, Fasti, ed. Hardy, i. 185, 197). He received his medical training under Dr. John Ford, then in practice at Bristol. At an early age he settled as a surgeon in London, was admitted a member of the court of assistants of the Royal College of Surgeons, acquired an excellent practice, and was greatly liked. In 1780 he was appointed surgeon to the Westminster General Dispensary, which office he resigned, after more than twenty years' service, on 16 July 1801. At this time, the finances of the charity being very low, Ford generously presented it with the arrears of his salary, amounting altogether to four hundred guineas, and his example was followed by the physicians to the institution, Drs. Foart Simmons and Robert Bland (Gent. Mag. vol. lxxi. pt. ii. p. 661). He died 15 Sept. 1809 at Sherborne, Dorsetshire, when on his way from Weymouth to Bath, ‘a very humane and benevolent gentleman, well known in the abodes of poverty, wretchedness, and disease.’ Besides papers in various medical serials (Reuss, Alphabetical Register of Authors, p. 138, supplement, pt. i. pp. 360–1), Ford was author of a valuable treatise entitled ‘Observations on the Disease of the Hip Joint; to which are added some Remarks on White Swellings of the Knee … illustrated by cases and engravings,’ 8vo, London, 1794 (Watt, Bibl. Brit. i. 257 d, 377 e), of which revised editions were published in 1810 and 1818 by his nephew and successor Thomas Copeland [q. v.], to whom he bequeathed his house in Golden Square, London, and a considerable legacy. He was elected a fellow of the Society of Antiquaries, 3 May 1792 (Gough, Chronological List of Soc. Antiq. 1798, p. 51). He was twice married. His first wife, Sarah Frances, daughter of Hugh Josiah Hansard, died in 1783, and was buried at Hillingdon, Middlesex (Lysons, Parishes in Middlesex, p. 161).
G. G.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Ford, Henry

​FORD, Sir HENRY (1619?–1684), secretary of state, born in or about 1619, was the eldest son of Henry Ford of Bagtor in Ilsington, Devonshire, by Katharine, daughter and heiress of George Drake of Spratshays in Littleham, in the same county. He was absurdly supposed to have been grandson of John Ford the dramatist [q. v.] (Lysons, Magna Britannia, vol. vi. Devonshire, pt. ii. pp. 291-2); his grandfather was Thomas Ford, son and heir of George Ford of Ilsington (Visitation of Devonshire in 1620, Harl. Soc., p. 108). He was for a time fellow-commoner of Exeter College, Oxford (Boase, Reg. of Exeter Coll. p. lxi), but his father dying, and his mother marrying again, he went home to look after his patrimony. With his step-father, John Cloberry of Bradstone, Devonshire, he had many hot disputes over the property, which had to be settled in the law courts. In the reign of Charles II he purchased Nutwell Court, in the parish of Woodbury, near Exeter, which he made the place of his future abode. He was put in the commission of the peace for the county, and was lieutenant-colonel, under Sir John Drake of Ash, his kinsman, in the militia for the eastern division of the shire, of which he was likewise a deputy-lieutenant. On the death of Sir Thomas Stucley he was elected member for Tiverton, 6 April 1664, and kept his seat until the dissolution of Charles's last parliament, 28 March 1681 (Lists of Members of Parliament, Official Return, pt. i. pp. 522, 535, 541, 547). Prince, who knew him well, describes Ford as 'an excellent orator,' and witty, but the single specimen he gives of his wit is by no means brilliant (Worthies of Devon, ed. 1701, p. 315). In 1669 he accompanied John, lord Robartes, the lord-lieutenant, to Ireland as secretary of state, but 'to his no little damage and disappointment' was recalled along with his chief the very next year. In 1672 Ford, having been knighted at Whitehall on 20 July in that year (Le Neve, Knights, Harl. Soc., p. 279), acted in ​the same capacity to Arthur Capel, earl of Essex. He did not, however, continue in office long, 'for being sent into England on some important affair, contrived by those who were willing to put him out of the way, he returned no more unto Ireland' (Prince, p. 316). The fact was that his brusque, overbearing manner made him everywhere disliked. He died in 1684, aged 65, at Nutwell Court, and was buried in Woodbury Church (Lysons, Magna Britannia, vol. vi., Devonshire, pt. i. pp. cxcv-vi, pt. ii. pp. 291-292). He left a son Charles, supposed to have died in his minority, and three daughters, married to Drake, Holwell, and Egerton (ib. vol. vi. pt: ii. p. 571). On 22 July 1663 he was elected F.R.S. (Thomson, Hist. of Roy. Soc., appendix iv.), and remained in the society until 1682 (Lists of Roy. Soc. in Brit. Mus.)
G. G.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Ford, James

​FORD, JAMES (1779–1850), antiquary, born at Canterbury on 31 Oct. 1779, was the eldest son of the Rev. James Ford, B.A., minor canon of Durham, and afterwards minor canon of Canterbury. He entered the King's School, Canterbury, in 1788, matriculated at Trinity College, Oxford, 8 July 1797, and became fellow of his college 2 June 1807. He graduated B.A. 1801. M.A. 1804, B.D. 1812, and in 1811 was junior proctor of the university. He held the perpetual curacies of St. Laurence, Ipswich, and of Hill Farrance, Somersetshire. He was subsequently presented (28 Oct. 1830) to the vicarage of Navestock in Essex, and died 31 Jan. 1850. His quaint directions (see Sidebotham, Memorials, p. 96) for a funeral of great simplicity were carried out when he was buried in Navestock churchyard. There is a monument to him in Navestock Church, and a portrait of him in the common room of Trinity College, Oxford. He married, on 19 Nov. 1830, Lætitia, youngest daughter of Edward Jermyn, bookseller, of Ipswich, but left no children. To the university of Oxford Ford bequeathed 2,000l. for the endowment of 'Ford's Professorship of English History,' and to Trinity College, Oxford, 4,000l. for the purchase of advowsons, as well as 4,000l. for the endowment of four 'Ford's Studentships,' two of which were to be confined to youths educated at the King's School, Canterbury. Ford was a collector and compiler on antiquarian subjects. His large collection for a new edition of Morant's 'History of Essex' is in the library of Trinity College, Oxford, and his manuscript collections for a history of bishops from the Revolution onwards were purchased by the British Museum. He was also a contributor to the 'Gentleman's Magazine' and to Nichols's 'Literary Illustrations,' vols. vi. and viii., and was the author of 'The Devout Communicant,' 1815, 12mo, and 'A Century of Christian Prayers,' 2nd ed. Ipswich, 1824, 8vo.
W. W.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Ford, David Everard

​FORD, DAVID EVERARD (1797–1875), author and musical composer, was born on 13 Sept. 1797 at Long Melford in Suffolk, where his father, the Rev. David Ford, was congregational minister. In 1816 he entered Wymondley College, and in 1821 became congregational minister at Lymington in Hampshire. During the twenty years of his residence in this town he published seven books of psalm and hymn tunes harmonised for four voices; a chorus for five voices—‘Blessings for ever on the Lamb’ (1825?); a song, ‘The Negro Slave’ (1825); ‘Progressive Exercises for the Voice, with illustrative examples’ (1826); ‘Observations on Psalmody’ (1828?); and in 1829 the ‘Rudiments of Music,’ the eleventh thousand of which was issued with the author's final revisions in 1843. Besides these musical productions Ford also published a sermon on John xi. 36, in 1826, and in 1828 ‘Hymns chiefly on the Parables of Christ.’ But the work by which he is best known, and which produced a great and immediate effect upon the religious world of the time, was an essay entitled, ‘Decapolis; or the Individual Obligation of Christians to save Souls from Death.’ This was published in 1840, and within a year had reached its fifth thousand; a fifth American edition also being issued in New York in 1848. Other essays of a similar kind were entitled ‘Chorazin; or an Appeal to the Child of many Prayers,’ 1841; ‘Damascus; or Conversion in relation to the Grace of God and the Agency of Man,’ 1842; ‘Laodicea; or Religious Declension,’ 1844; and ‘Alarm in Zion; or a few Thoughts on the Present State of Religion,’ 1847. In 1841 Ford accepted an appointment from the Congregational Union to visit the stations of the Home Missionary Society, and in 1843 took the oversight of a newly formed church in Manchester. Here he remained till 1858, when he retired from stated service as a resident minister. He, however, still continued to preach to other congregations in various parts of the country till 1874, when cataract, beginning to affect his vision, compelled him to desist. He died at Bedford 23 Oct. 1875 at the age of seventy-eight.
[Works of Ford; private sources.]
J. B-n.