Wikipedia:WikiProject Missing encyclopedic articles/DNB Epitome 05

This listing page belongs to Wikipedia:WikiProject Dictionary of National Biography, spun out of the “missing article” project, and is concerned with checking whether Wikipedia has articles for all those listed in the Dictionary of National Biography (DNB), a 63-volume British biographical dictionary published 1885-1900 and now in the public domain. This page relates to volume 5 running from name Bicheno to name Bottisham.

Scope of the subproject:

It is envisaged that the following work will be done:

  • Checks made that links on this page point to a wikipedia article about the same person;
  • Addition of new articles for all red-links based on DNB text;
  • Checking whether blue-linked articles would benefit from additional text from DNB.

Listings are posted as bulleted lists, with footnotes taken from the DNB summaries published in 1904. The listings and notes are taken from scanned text that is often corrupt and in need of correction. Not all the entries on the list correspond to actual DNB articles; some are “redirects” and there are a few articles devoted to families rather than individuals.

If you are engaged in this work you will probably find quite a number of unreferenced articles among the blue links. You are also encouraged to mention the DNB as a reference on such articles whenever they correspond to the summary, as part of the broader campaign for good sourcing. A suggested template is {{DNB}}.

Locating the full text:

DNB text is now available on Wikisource for all first edition articles, on the page s:Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Vol 5 Bicheno - Bottisham. Names here are not inverted, as they are in the original: Joe Bloggs would be found at Wikisource s:Bloggs, Joe (DNB00). The text for the first supplement is available too: NB that this Epitome listing includes those supplement articles also.

List maintenance and protocols:

List maintenance tasks are to check and manipulate links in the list with piping or descriptive parenthetical disambiguators, and to mark list entries with templates to denote their status; whilst as far as possible retaining the original DNB names:

  • piping: [[Charles Abbot]] -> [[Charles Abbot, 1st Baron Colchester|Charles Abbot]]
  • descriptive parenthetical disambiguators [[Charles Abbot]] -> [[Charles Abbot (botanist)]]
  • both combined [[Charles Abbot]] -> [[Charles Abbot (botanist)|Charles Abbot]]

The work involves:

  • Checking that bluelinks link to the correct person; if so, {{tick}} them. If not, try to find the correct article and pipe or disambiguate the link.
  • Check whether redlinks can be linked to an article by piping or disambiguation.
  • Create articles based on the DNB text for redlinks for which no wikipedia article can be found
  • Check whether existing blue-linked articles could benefit from an input of DNB text (e.g. the article is a stub), and if so, update the article from DNB

A number of templates are provided to mark-up entries:

  • {{mnl}} the link runs to a wrong person; - produces the text: [link currently leads to a wrong person]. It is preferable to amend the link by adding a disambiguator to make it red, if an article for the correct person cannot be found
  • {{dn}} the link runs to a dab page - produces the text [disambiguation needed]. It is preferable to amend the link by adding a disambiguator to make it red, if an article for the correct person cannot be found
  • {{tick}} the link has been checked and runs to the correct person - checkY
  • {{tick}} {{tick}} the text of the linked article has been checked against DNB text and would not benefit from additional DNB text - checkY checkY
  • {{tick}} {{cross}} the text of the linked article looks short enough to suggest it would benefit from additional DNB text - checkY ☒N

Note that before creating new articles based on DNB text you should undertake searches to check that the article's subject does not already have an article. It is easily possible that the disambiguation used in this page is not the disambiguation used in an existing wikipedia article. Equally, feel free to improve upon the disambiguation used in redlinks on this page by amending them.

Supplement articles:

Because of the provenance of the listing, a number of the original articles will not in fact be in the announced volume, but in one of the three supplement volumes published in 1901. Since the DNB did not include articles about living people, this will be the case whenever the date of death is after the publication date of the attributed volume. In due course there will be a separate listing.

General thoughts:

This project is intended as a new generation in “merging encyclopedias”, as well as being one of the most ambitious attempted. For general ideas of where we are, and some justification of the approach being taken, see the essay Wikipedia:Merging encyclopedias.

Helpful access templates:

helpful templates

There are two templates to help link to the correct page: {{Cite DNBIE}} and {{DNBIE}}. The page number automatically link to the correct url for the page at the Internet Archive site.

{{Cite DNBIE|title=Dove, John|page=358}}
Public Domain Lee, Sidney, ed. (1903). "Dove, John". Index and Epitome. Dictionary of National Biography. Cambridge University Press. p. 358.

and

{{DNBIE|title=Dove, John|page=358}}
Public Domain This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domainLee, Sidney, ed. (1903). "Dove, John". Index and Epitome. Dictionary of National Biography. Cambridge University Press. p. 358.

if a wstitle= parameter is used in place of title= then the templates also link the DNB article on Wikisource:

{{cite DNBIE|wstitle=Dove, John (d.1665?)|page=358}}
Public Domain Lee, Sidney, ed. (1903). "Dove, John (d.1665?)". Index and Epitome. Dictionary of National Biography. Cambridge University Press. p. 358.


  1. ^ James Ebenezer Bicheno (1785–1861), statesman; called to bar at Middle Temple, 1822; joined Oxford circuit; F.L.S., 1812, and secretary, 1824-32; published Ireland and its Economy 1830: member of commission to investigate condition of poor in Ireland, c. 1833: colonial secretary in Van Diemeu's Laud, 1842, where he died; wrote works on economic and scientific subjects.
  2. ^ William Bickerstaff (1728–1789), antiquary ; under-master of Lower Free grammar school, Leicester, 1750; held successively various curacies in Leicestershire; contributed papers on antiquarian subjects to Gentleman's Magazine
  3. ^ Isaac Bickerstaffe (d. 1812?), dramatic writer; page to Lord Chesterfield, when lord lieutenant of Ireland; produced between 1756 and 1771 many successful dramatic pieces, including Love in a Village (1762); fled abroad, being suspected of a capital crime, 1772; died abroad in degraded circumstances.
  4. ^ Edward Bickersteth (1786–1850), evangelical divine; received appointment in General Post Office, c. 1800; in partnership with his brother-in-law, a solicitor at Norwich, 1812; abandoned practice of law, and was ordained; one of secretaries of Church Missionary Society, 1816-30, during which time he travelled asdeputation; assistant minister of Wheler Episcopal Chapel, Spitalfields; rector of Watton, Hertfordshire, 1830. Took an active part in opposing the Tractarian movement; one of the founders of the Parker Society and of the Irish Church Missions Society; frequently acted as deputation for Society for Conversion of Jews, and other religious associations. His works include Help to Studying the Scriptures and Christian Psalmody a collection of over seven hundred hymns.
  5. ^ Edward Bickersteth (1814–1892), dean of Lichfield; M.A. Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge, 1839; D.D., 1864; vicar of Aylesbury and archdeacon of Buckinghamshire, 1853; honorary canon of Christ Church, Oxford, 1866; dean of Lichfield, 1875; during several years prolocutor over lower house of convocation of Canterbury; published religious writings 1897), ??bishop of
  6. ^ Edward Bickersteth (1850) South Tokyo, Japan; B.A. Pembroke College, Cambridge, 1873; fellow, 1875; M.A., 1876; ordained deacon, 1873; priest, 1874; head of Cambridge mission to Delhi, 18771882; rector of Framlingham, 1882; bishop of South Tokyo, Japan, 1886.
  7. ^ Henry Bickersteth, Baron Langdale (1783-1861), master of rolls, brother of Edward Bickersteth (1786-1850); studied medicine in London and Edinburgh: Hewitt scholar, Oaius College, Cambridge, 1802; senior wrangler and senior Smith's mathematical prizeman, 1808; B.A. and fellow; called to bar at Inner Temple, 1811; bencher, 1827; M.A., 1811; gave valuable evidence before commission on procedure of court of chancery, 1824: K.C., 1827; sworn privy councillor, apjiointed master of rolls, and created Baron Langdale of Langdale. Westmoreland, 1836; temporarily speaker of House of Lords, 150; head of commission entrusted with seal, 1850.
  8. ^ Robert Bickersteth (1816–1884), bishop of Ripon; graduated at Queens' College, Cambridge, 1841; lion, secretary of Irish Church Missions, 1860; canon iv-i.lontiary nnd treasurer, Salisbury Cathedral, 1864; bishop of Ripon, 1857; gained considerable reputation as evangelical preacher,
  9. ^ Sir Richard Bickerton (1727–1792), vice-admiral; entered navy, 1739; lieutenant in West Indies, 17461748; post-captain in Mediterranean, 1759, West Indies, and Channel, 1761; knighted, 1773; baronet, 1778; assisted in second relief of Gibraltar, 1781; commodore of first class in East Indies, 1782-4: commander-in-chief at Leeward Islands, 178C-7; rear-admiral, 1787; vice-admiral, 1790; port-admiral at Plymouth till death.
  10. ^ Sir Richard Hussey Bickerton (1759–1832), admiral: son of Sir Richard Bickerton; entered navy, 1771; lieutenant, 1777; commander, 1779; in Channel, 1779-80, West Indies, 1781 and 1787-90, and Channel, 1793-4, West Indies and Newfoundland, 1794, North Sea, 1795, and Channel, 1797-9; rear-admiral, 1799; served at Cadiz and on Egyptian coast; commauder-inchief in Mediterranean; second in command under Nelson, 1804-5; admiral, 1810; commander-in-chief at Portsmouth, 1812; K.C.B., 1815; general of marines, 1830.
  11. ^ George Bickham , the younger (d. 1758), engraver; son of George Bickham (d. 1769); published essay on drawing, also humorous and other engravings.