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Prefaceby Lawrence Goldman, editor
Welcome to the second online update of the Oxford DNB. In our first update, in January 2005, we published biographies of men and women who died in 2001, and in January each year we will continue to extend the dictionary's coverage to a new year of the twenty-first century. However, in two other online updates each year, in May and October, we will add entries on people who lived in any period from the earliest times to the year 2000. So here we offer new lives of 140 people who left a mark on some aspect of the British past between the thirteenth and twentieth centuries, together with twenty-six new lists and feature articles for ready reference and ways into the dictionary. Our new material builds on and extends the Oxford DNB's coverage of people from all walks of life, including not only those born in the British Isles, but also people from many other parts of the world who lived in Britain or were connected with British life and culture. In each general update (in May and October), particular attention is given to people who broadly share a common interest or identity. In the present update we highlight three areas: those who came to Britain as exiles or visitors from mainland Europe; women active in political life from the seventeenth century onwards; and entrepreneurs who gave their names to well-known brands. Our remaining biographies are of men and women who left their mark in the arts, diplomacy, the military, trade, religion, and education. Chronologically the newly included lives range from the soldier and writer Sir Roger Stanegrave (fl. 1276–1336) to the politician Inga-Stina Robson, Baroness Robson of Kiddington (1919–1999). Of the new biographies thirty-nine are of women. The content of our lists is similarly wide-ranging: from rulers of Anglo-Saxon kingdoms and high kings of Ireland to captains of the English cricket team and the sporting world champions who appear in the dictionary. Among the eight feature articles are introductions to our new biographies of European visitors, political women, and entrepreneurs, as well as essays on medieval science and twentieth-century English music. This update also includes corrections and amendments to articles published in 2004—the start of the process of keeping the Oxford DNB's existing material continuously up to date. Just over 800 relatively small changes and additions, authorized by the Oxford DNB's research staff and contributors, have been included among the dictionary's 62 million words. Now and in future these articles will be identified in the citation at the foot of the entry, with previous versions available for consultation on the website. Changes consist of corrections to known factual errors—verified by the research staff and, where necessary, contributors or external reviewers—as well as the addition of new material (for example, life dates of family members) submitted by readers or derived from recent publications. As ever, we welcome information, with evidence, about articles that may need amending. Subsequent changes will be incorporated in successive online updates.
European exiles and visitors to BritainThe first and penultimate entries in the original DNB (Jacques Abbadie, 1654?–1727, and William Zuylestein, 1645–1709) recorded the lives of people who had settled in Britain, having been born on the mainland of Europe. The Oxford DNB included many more such people in its 2004 edition, to which we now add further lives: from the Frenchman Ghillebert de Lannoy (1386–1462), who undertook a diplomatic mission to Scotland, to Georgi Markov (1929–1978), the Bulgarian dissident poisoned by assassins on Waterloo Bridge, London. Diplomacy is a common theme among the early modern visitors, such as Lodewijk van Brugge (c.1427–1492) and Alessandro Scagli (1592–1641). Others were unwilling residents. Among them was the French prince Charles, duke of Orléans (1394–1465), who was captured at Agincourt and held prisoner in England for twenty-five years, during which time he wrote some of the finest English poetry of the fifteenth century. Legacies of a different kind include that of the gunpowder manufacturer Francis Grueber (c.1657–1730), whose premises exploded with spectacular effect in 1703, and the Spaniard Balthazar Sanchez (d. 1602), England's first known confectioner. The accession of the Hanoverians in 1714 brought a number of Germans to Britain. Some, like Gottlieb von Bernstorff (1649–1726), came as ministers to the new king, George I, while the bookseller Andreas Linde (d. 1759) catered for London's growing German population. The capital also featured prominently in the English career of the Austrian composer Joseph Haydn (1732–1809). Haydn made two visits in the 1790s from which the outstanding achievement was his twelve 'London' symphonies. In the nineteenth century Britain gained a reputation for the toleration of political exiles. The period between 1826 (the lifting of wartime legislation restricting foreign aliens) and 1905 (the passing of the Aliens Act) was one of notable freedom for political refugees who arrived in Britain. We often associate these years with radicals who sought exile from conservative European governments. Figures of this type—from the French suffragist Jeanne Deroin (1805–1894) to the Italian anarchist Errico Malatesta (1853–1932)—now join, among others, Marx, Mazzini, and Kropotkin in the Oxford DNB. But some exiles were the victims of progressive European politics. Louis Philippe d'Orléans (1838–1894), pretender to the French throne, fled Paris during the revolution of 1848, and Empress Eugénie (1826–1890), wife of Napoleon III, spent fifty years in Britain following the creation of the Third Republic. Radicals and conservatives alike often gravitated towards London and the home counties. Manuel II (1889–1932), king of Portugal, fled to Britain after being deposed in 1910 and settled in Twickenham, where he became president of the Piscatorial Society. Empress Eugénie lived at Chislehurst, while Harpenden was the adopted home of Charles Esterhazy (1847–1923), the French army officer whose forgeries led to the Dreyfus affair. The Latvian emigrés whose activities ended with the Sidney Street siege lived in lodgings in the East End of London; Stepniak (1851–1895)—the Russian revolutionary who lived in Shepherd's Bush and was killed by a train in Chiswick—is commemorated at Limpsfield, Surrey, where he also stayed.
Women in politicsOur extended coverage of women in politics includes many who were active long before enfranchisement. Among them are Mary Villiers, countess of Buckingham (c.1570–1632), a member of the Jacobean court, and Marie Elisabeth de La Fite (1737–1794), who shaped intellectual life at the court of George III. Family connections offered another link to power. Mary Villiers encouraged the court career of her son George, who became the favourite of Charles I in the mid to late 1620s. Carey Mordaunt (c.1658–1709) likewise supported her husband's political career, and cultivated friendships with John Locke and other members of late seventeenth-century whig society. Women's involvement in extra-parliamentary politics remained strong in the nineteenth century and after the vote in 1918 and 1928, though female suffrage was itself contested by women. The anti-suffragist Fanny Aikin Kortright (1821–1900) gained Queen Victoria's sympathy for her 'strongest aversion to the socalled & most erroneous "Rights of Women"'. Later figures, like Dame Jean Roberts (1895–1988), excelled in local politics, Roberts as Glasgow's first female lord provost. The peace campaigner Peggy Duff (1910–1981) left local politics and became a leading figure in the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament in the late 1950s, while Rotha Lintorn-Orman (1895–1935) founded the British Fascisti in 1923, intending to protect the nation from communism. Our new coverage also includes parliamentarians. Recent general elections have been followed by reflections on the number of women elected as MPs. The May update completes the dictionary's coverage of all (deceased) British women MPs with new biographies of, among others, the Labour MP Freda Corbet, the Conservative Constance Monks, and the Liberal life peer Baroness Robson of Kiddington.
Household namesA final set of new lives further extends the Oxford DNB's coverage of business and enterprise, a greatly expanded field in the 2004 edition of the dictionary, as Tony Corley's feature on British entrepreneurs and brand names makes clear. Our latest biographies are a fascinating coming together of inventor and products that are now in many cases internationally known. In some cases—as with the cocktail inventor James Pimm (1798–1866) and the parliamentary restaurateur James Bellamy (fl. 1773)—these remain obscure figures whose lives are given interest by the posthumous success of their enterprises. Others did much to promote themselves and their brands in their lifetime, though few went as far as the patent medicine entrepreneur William Reynard Varney (1866–1933), who changed his name to William Henry Veno, most probably to invest his product with the same allure enjoyed by that of the fruit salt-maker James Crossley Eno. As these new lives show, many entrepreneurs combined ambition with sound business practice. But some also enjoyed good fortune, as did John Lea (1791–1874) and William Perrins (1793–1867), inventors of a savoury sauce which originated with a barrel of inedible condiment later re-opened by chance. Many, like the scale manufacturer Thomas Avery (1813–1894), also relied on family members to establish and support their business. Often they became local politicians or philanthropists. Avery, for example, was twice mayor of Birmingham and promoted education establishments for the dissenting tradition. Occasionally, as with the sugar refiner Abram Lyle (1820–1891), religious commitment was reflected in the brand itself. Lyle's best-known product, golden syrup, still comes in its famous green tin bearing the image of a lion's carcase and the epithet 'Out of the strong came forth sweetness', taken from an Old Testament story from Judges 14. The importance of image is also evident in the work of the artist John Gilroy (1898–1985), who was responsible for the cheery workmen and zoo animals which featured in Guinness advertising from the 1930s.
Local heroesOther new lives are significant for their regional importance, among them Henry Jenner (1848–1934), promoter of the Cornish language; Warren James (1792–1841), defender of the customary rights of the Forest of Dean miners; and John Oxtoby (1767–1830), the Yorkshire evangelist who reputedly spent six hours a day on his knees in prayer, earning him the nickname Praying Johnny. Through self-starvation Sarah Jacob (1857–1869), a farmer's daughter from Carmarthenshire, achieved national celebrity as 'the Welsh Fasting Girl'. Lea and Perrins (of sauce fame) are, of course, closely associated with the city of Worcester where they lived and worked. The inclusion of Thomas Raynold (d. 1559), bishop-designate of nearby Hereford, now completes the dictionary's coverage of the Tudor episcopate. The importance of war and military values for medieval society is apparent in new entries on the soldier Sir Thomas Dagworth (d. 1350) and the crusader Sir John Ryvere (d. after 1364), who became one of the papacy's leading sources of information on the Holy Land.
War also brings together two people who received the highest awards for gallantry in later conflicts. In 1854 Charles Davis Lucas (1834–1912), a naval officer serving in the Crimean war, threw overboard a shell which had landed on his ship's deck, the first act for which the Victoria Cross was awarded. In 1940 an air-raid warden, Thomas Hopper Alderson (1903–1965), rescued civilians trapped in bombed-out buildings in Bridlington, Yorkshire, and for his actions became the first recipient of the George Cross, Britain's highest award for bravery by a civilian or service person in a non-combat role.
Our next online updateOur next online update will be published in October 2005, when we highlight modern Irish lives, early modern women writers, and children and adults associated with childhood. October's update also includes a new type of article, the 'navigation article', which focuses on historical groups from all periods. Written by expert authors, navigation articles discuss established groups—people who came together for political, literary, artistic, military, religious, and other purposes—to show connections between lives and to explain common endeavours. Our first set of navigation articles includes essays on the enforcers of Magna Carta, the Cambridge Platonists, and modern political societies such as the Adullamites and the Keep Left group.
Lawrence Goldman, editor |
