Jennett Humphreys

“ Thomas was brought up in the house of the Earl of Shrewsbury, but succeeding to the family estates at the age of nineteen, on the death of his father in 1538, he was known as 'a professed hunter and not a scholler' for fifty-two years, and he became a great hunting authority. ”

“ The delicacy of the princess's health continuing as she grew up, she did not become so proficient in accomplishments as her sisters, though her skill at the piano was considerable, and she was comely and graceful, full of all a girl's attractiveness and charm. ”

“ Of his education it is recorded that he spent several years in Oxford at Gloucester Hall (Wood, Athen. Ox. i. 655, ed. 1813) , where his microscopic penmanship, his writing from speaking (shorthand) , and dexterous copying, attracted great attention, and where his conduct secured for him the respect of many men at his own hall and at St. John's ; but there is no evidence whether he was at the university as a scholar or as a professor of his art, for which Englishmen in his day (Bayle, art. Quinctilian) enjoyed especial repute. ”

“ Mary Pope; and seeing ample scope for a life of active benefactions, she associated Mrs. Pope with her in her good works. She distributed to the poor, relieved prisoners, and taught the children of her neighbours. ”

“ BROUGHAM, HENRY (1665–1698) , divine, was one of the twelve children of Henry Brougham of Scales Hall, Cumberland, sheriff for the county in the 6th of William III, by his marriage with 'fair Miss Slee, daughter of Mr. Slee of Carlisle, a jovial gentleman,' who was a merchant in that city. In Midsummer term, 1681, when sixteen years old, Henry Brougham 'became a poor serving-child of Queen's College,' Oxford. ”

“ CHAIGNEAU, WILLIAM (1709–1781) , novelist, was born in Ireland on 24 Jan. 1709, son of John Chaigneau, of Huguenot extraction (Notes and Queries, 3rd series, v. 507–8) . He lived at Dublin, being, as Tate Wilkinson describes him, ‘principal agent to most of the regiments on the Irish establishment’ (Wilkinson, Memoirs, i. 162) ; and having served in the army in Flanders he was familiarly called ‘Colonel.’ About 1740 he married, probably for the second time, and had an only child, a daughter, to whom he was strongly attached; she died in 1749. ”

“ In 1778, her sixteenth year, Miss Burney describes her as 'a very fine girl, about fourteen years of age, but cold and reserved, though full of knowledge and intelligence.' In 1781 her father died. She remained with her mother, and in company with her young sisters at Bath continued her education under her by reading history and the poets. When her mother agreed to marry Piozzi, Hester retired to her father's Brighton house, where she saw no company, and studied Hebrew and mathematics. In 1784, when her mother and Piozzi were in Italy, she took a house in London for herself and her sisters. ”

“ ARMSTRONG, Sir THOMAS (1624?–1684) , royalist, and concerned in the Rye House Plot, was the son of an English soldier serving in one of James's Low Country expeditions, and was born at Nimeguen, where his father was quartered, about 1624. He was brought to England young, and served under Charles I; he joined Ormond in Ireland in 1649, and declared for Charles II (Heath's Chronicle of Civil Wars, part i. p. 240) , for which and similar royalist services he was imprisoned in Lambeth House by Cromwell. ”

“ Miss Mulso met an attorney named Chapone, to whom Richardson had shown many attentions, and she fell in love with him. Mr. Mulso would not at first hear of the marriage, but he yielded in 1760. Before obtaining her father's consent Miss Mulso wrote her ‘Matrimonial Creed,’ in seven articles of belief, and addressed it to Richardson. Her wedding took place on 30 Dec. 1760 (Gent. Mag. xxxi. 433, her brother Thomas being married to ‘Pressy,’ daughter of General Prescott, at the same time. She went first to lodgings in Carey Street, and then to a house in Arundel Street (Works and Life, i. 123) . ”

“ Lady Jane Cavendish was born in 1621, and passed her childhood at Welbeck. In 1643, her mother being just dead, and her father occuppied with the royalist army, she and one of her sisters were iveft in charge of a small garrison at Welbeck, and, after holding the place for some time, were taken prisoners and very roughly handled, notwithstanding which, when their gaoler was subsequently condemned to death, Lady Jane begged for his life. ”

“ Miss Burney next resided at Chelsea College with her parents, where her mother died in 1796 (Memoirs of Dr. Burney, iii. 224–5) . At this date her father characterised her as of quick intellect and distinguished talents, a kind and good girl, but with no experience in household affairs. ”

“ Bales resided in the upper end of the Old Bailie, near the sign of the Dolphin; he advertised himself as a writing schoolmaster 'that teacheth to write all manner of handes, after a more speedie way than hath heretofore been taught;' he promised his pupils that 'you may also learne to write as fast as a man speaketh, by the arte of Brachigraphie by him devised, writing but one letter for a word;' and that 'you may have anything faire written in any kind of hand usuall, and bookes of copies faire as you shall bespeake.' Many of the citizens and their children became his scholars. ”

“ In music she was as skilful in composition as in education, and yet she did not neglect domestic duties. In 1800 she brought out anonymously the book by which she is known, 'The Progress of the Pilgrim Good Intent,' which is in effect a continuation of the 'Pilgrim's Progress,' Good Intent being the great-grandson of Christian's eldest son. Miss Burges in her preface asks John Bunyan to look with paternal regard upon the labours of his descendant. ”

“ About 1755 he was a surgeon at Sandwich, where he was noted for his untiring explorations of Richborough Castle, for skill in deciphering ancient manuscripts and inscriptions, for his zeal in collecting antiquities connected with Sandwich, and for his studies in astronomy, natural history, and mathematics. In 1759 he married Elizabeth Wise, a daughter of Henry Wise, one of the Sandwich jurats (ib.) , and by her he had two children. In 1761 he was elected jurat, acting with his wife's father. ”

“ BOOTHBOYD, BENJAMIN, D.D. (1768–1836) , independent minister and Hebrew scholar, was born at Warley, in the parish of Halifax, Yorkshire, on 10 Oct. 1768, and was the son of a poor shoemaker there. He was sent to the village school, and left it when six years old, able to read the Old and New Testaments; although an unruly child, he taught himself figures and ciphering. He helped his father to make shoes for a time, but when about fourteen years old he ran away with only a few pence in his pocket. Making westwards for Lancashire, he found work with a methodist, who treated him very kindly. ”

“ BAKEWELL, ROBERT (1768–1843) , geologist, born in 1768, was not of the family of the preceding Robert Bakewell, to whom, however, he was known, and with whom he has sometimes by error been identified. He records that he was asked by the Countess of Oxford 'whether he was related to the Mr. Bakewell who invented sheep' (Introduction to Geology, 5th edition, pp. 402 and 403, note) , and he replied that there was no connection between them. ”

“ She read Hickes's 'Preparatory Office for Death' every Thursday, and attended prayers at church every afternoon. 'My dear,' said her mother, 'you will never get a husband; you hold yourself up as a dragon, and men like quiet wives.' In 1754, Eliza being in her twentieth year, her mother died. She and her sister succeeded to her large fortune, which Mrs. Berkeley gives variously as a few thousands (ibid. 278) and as 80,000l. (ibid. 477) , and they took a house in Windsor. In 1761 Eliza married the Rev. George, son of Bishop Berkeley. ”

“ It is not known when Miss Blount and Pope first met. Her family and his were in close friendship in 1710, in which year her father and her maternal grandfather died, both on the same day; from a story which she told Spence (Spence, Anecdotes, p. 356) , it may be assumed that Pope and she were in the habit of meeting on easy terms as early as about 1705. From 1710 to 1715 Miss Blount continued to live at Mapledurham with her widowed mother, her brother Michael, and her sister Teresa. During this period she and her sister were prominent figures in the fashionable world. ”

“ Bakewell succeeded in producing the Dishley cattle, called also the new Leicestershire long-horn, 'a small, clean-boned, round, short-carcased, kindly-looking cattle, inclined to be fat' (Culley, Observations on Live Stock, p. 26) , which 'the grazier could not too highly value,' though 'their qualities as milkers were greatly lessened' (Youatt, On Cattle, p. 192) ; and he produced a breed of black horses, remarkable for their strength in harness on the farm, and for their utility in the army. ”

“ She was born without arms, hands, or legs (Handbill in British Museum, 1881 a 2, where her name is printed Beffin) . Her height never exceeded thirty-seven inches; but by indomitable perseverance she contrived, by means of her mouth, to use the pen, the pencil, and paint-brush, and even the scissors and needle. Her first instructor was a Mr. Dukes (Gent. Mag. xxxiv. new series, 668) , to whom she bound herself, and with whom she stayed sixteen years. In 1812 she was carried round the country to exhibit her powers and ingenuity, and was at Swaffham in October, the race week (Handbill) . ”

“ His best-known gift is the Convalescent Home at Huddersfield, in the grounds of which again he was his own landscape gardener, the whole costing 40,000l. He was constantly erecting or enlarging churches, schools, infirmaries, cottages, curates' houses, &c., in Huddersfield, Meltham, and the district; and on purchasing Enderby Hall, Leicestershire, in 1865, with large estates adjoining, costing 150,000l., he rebuilt Enderby church and the stocking-weavers' unsanitary cottages. ”

“ In 1648, when Elizabeth was four years old, Captain Lawrence died, and in 1661 Mrs. Lawrence remarried (ib. 3) , her second husband being Mr. Nathaniel Bradshaw, B.D., minister of a church in the neighbourhood. About 1664 Elizabeth described herself as 'converted,' and she commenced that searching method of introspection with the evidence of which her 'Diary' abounds. Her studies, begun rigidly at four in the morning, in spite of delicate health, embraced Hebrew (ib. 6) , French, music, heraldry, mathematics, philosophy, philology, anatomy, medicine, and divinity. ”

“ About 1608 she married Sir Robert Digby of Coleshill, Warwickshire. In 1618 Sir Robert died at Coleshill, and in 1619 Lady Digby received the grant of her barony, which was regranted to her on 26 June 1620. She then returned to Ireland, inhabiting Geashill Castle, where she was besieged by the Irish rebels in 1642. She resisted them with spirit, though they sent four messages to remind her that the castle was only garrisoned by women and boys. ”

“ In 1750 her father removed to Ipswich, where his wife died in 1751. Ann taught herself to read and write, and studied all accessible travels, plays, and romances. In 1762 she married Candler, a cottager of Sproughton, a village about three miles out of Ipswich. From 1763 to 1766 Candler served in the militia (Poetical Attempts, p. 5) , and this service, combined with the man's drinking habits, kept Ann and her growing family poor. In 1777 Candler enlisted in the line; Ann was forced to put four of her six children into the workhouse, and was herself upon a sick bed for eleven weeks. ”

“ AMNER, RICHARD (1736–1803) , a presbyterian (otherwise unitarian) divine, and born in 1736, was one of several children of Richard and Anne Amner, of Hinckley, Leicestershire, his baptism, in the register of the presbyterian (otherwise unitarian) meeting-house there, being set down for 26 April 1737. He entered the Daventry Academy, to prepare for a dissenting pulpit, in 1755; he stayed there seven years, accepting the charge of the unitarian chapel in Middlegate Street, Yarmouth, 21 July 1762 (Browne's Congregationalism in Norfolk and Suffolk) . ”

“ BOWEN, JOHN (1756–1832) , painter and genealogist, was the eldest son of James Bowen, painter and topographer, of Shrewsbury [q. v.] , and was born in that city in 1756. Bowen studied the local antiquities under his father; traced out the pedigrees of Shropshire families, and became especially skilful in deciphering and copying ancient manuscripts. ”

“ Balfour, in 1841 (after removing to Maida Hill) , began her career as a temperance lecturer at the Greenwich Literary Institution, and with much power, but much also of modesty and quiet charm, continued the public advocacy of her principles for nearly thirty years. Her lectures were not, however, confined to the temperance topic. She lectured on the influence of woman on society, and kindred subjects ; and she held the post for some years of lecturer on belles lettres at a leading ladies' school. ”

“ In 1813 Aspland set up the Hackney Academy at Durham House for training unitarian ministers; he was helping also, by letters of expostulation, by sermons delivered and printed, in the agitation for an act to relieve from certain penalties persons who impugn the doctrine of the Holy Trinity. The act received the royal assent 21 July. In 1814 Aspland brought out ‘British Pulpit Eloquence,’ and some sermons of his own. In 1815 he established the ‘Christian Reformer, or New Evangelical Miscellany,’ a work the editorship of which he never relinquished. ”