Page:Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography (1900, volume 1).djvu/298

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BISHOP
BISSELL

Robert Nicholas Charles Bochsa, the musician with whom Madam Bishop eloped, was born in Montmedy, France, in 1789, and was a performer in public upon the piano-forte when seven years of age. He was first harpist in Napoleon's private concerts, and wrote about 150 compositions for the harp in a new and superior style. In 1822 he became director of the oratorios in London.


BISHOP, George, author, joined the Quakers in 1654, and between 1660 and 1668 published several works on their doctrines. He published in 1661 "New England judged, being a Brief Relation of the Sufferings of the Quakers in that part of America from the Beginning of the 5th Month, 1656, to the End of the 10th Month, 1660." A second part appeared in 1667; and both were reprinted in 1703, with " An Answer to Cotton Mather's Abuses," by John Whiting.


BISHOP, Joel Prentiss, author, b. in Volney, Oswego co., N. Y., in 1814. He has published "Commentaries on the Law of Marriage and Divorce" (1856); "Criminal Law" (Boston, 2 vols., 1856-8); "Thoughts for the Times " (1863); " Secession and Slavery " (1864); "Commentaries on Criminal Procedure " (1866); "First Book of the Law" (1868); " Directions and Forms "; "Law of Married Women"; "Statutory Crimes"; "On the Written Laws"; and "Prosecution and Defence," with a general index to the author's series of criminal law works (Boston, 1885).


BISHOP, Levi, lawyer, b. in Russell, Hampden co., Mass., 15 Oct.. 1815; d. in Detroit, Mich., 23 Dec, 1881. He received a common-school education, and in 1830 became apprentice clerk in a leather manufactory. He removed to Detroit, Mich., in 1836, and having lost his right arm by an accident in 1839, left his business, studied law, and was admitted to the bar in 1842. He was elected justice of the peace in 1842, and from 1846 till 1858 was president of the Detroit board of education. The largest school building in Detroit now bears his name, and he was a regent of the state university from 1857 till 1863. He was a prominent war democrat, urging the suppression of the rebellion at every hazard. In 1864 he was the democratic candidate for attorney-general. He was much interested in the early history of the west, organized the Detroit Pioneer Society in 1871, and was its president till his death. He was a delegate to the International Congress of Americanists at Luxembourg, France, in 1876, and in 1877 was appointed historiographer of Detroit. In this capacity he wrote more than fifty historical papers, under the title " Historical Notes." On 15 July, 1880, he was made corresponding member of the Royal Historical Society of Great Britain. Mr. Bishop lectured occasionally on literary topics, and published "The Dignity of Labor," a poem (1864), and "Teuchsa Grondie," a poem in twenty-eight cantos, devoted to the Indian lore of Detroit river (1870). He also translated from the French several historical works concerning the early settlement of the northwest.


BISHOP, Robert Hamilton, clergyman, b. near Edinburgh, Scotland, 26 Julv, 1777; d. at College Hill, Ohio, 29 April, 1855. He was graduated at the university of Edinburgh in 1797, and came in 1801, at the solicitation of Dr. Mason, to New York city, where he preached a while in a Presbyterian church. He then went as a missionary to the northwest territory, and arrived at Chillicothe in 1802. He became a professor in Transylvania college in 1804. In consequence of difficulties with the Associate Reformed synod, which he had joined upon coming to America, he connected himself in 1819 with the central assembly, and accepted the presidency of Miami college in 1824, in which he remained till 1841. He continued there as professor of history and political science until 1844, and after that filled the chair of history and political economy in Farmers' college, near Cincinnati. His writings include "Sermons "(1808); "Memoirs of David Rice "(1824); "Elements of Logic" (1833); "Philosophv of the Bible" (1833); "Science of Government" (1839); and "Western Peacemaker" (1839).


BISHOP, William Darius, commissioner of the patent-office, b. in Bloomfield, N. J., 14 Sept., 1827. He was graduated at Yale in 1849, studied law, and engaged in railroad enterprises, becoming president of the Naugatuck railroad company. In 1856 he was elected a delegate to congress from Connecticut, and was chairman of the committee on manufactures. On 23 May, 1859, he was appointed commissioner of patents, but resigned that office in January, 1860. He was elected for the second time to the Connecticut legislature in 1866, and subsequently held important state offices. He was for a time president of the New York, New Haven, and Hartford railroad co., residing in Bridgeport, Conn.


BISHOP, William Henry, M. E. bishop, b. in 1803; d. in Newark, N. J.. 2 July, 1873. He was a preacher in the Zion African Methodist Episcopal church, and afterward became a bishop in that denomination.


BISHOP, William Henry, author, b. in Hartford, Conn., 7 Jan., 1847. He was graduated at Yale in 1867, and has published a romance entitled "Detmold " (Boston, 1879); "The House of a Merchant Prince," a novel of New York life (1882); "Choy Susan, and other Stories " (1884); a volume of travels entitled " Old Mexico and her Lost Provinces" (New York, 1884); "Fish and Men in the Maine Islands" (1885). He is a frequent contributor to periodical literature. His novels first appeared as serials in the "Atlantic Monthly" or "Harper's Magazine." In 1886 he published serially in the former periodical a new novel, entitled "The Golden Justice."


BISPHAM, Henry Collins, artist, b. in Philadelphia, Pa., in 1841. He studied in Philadelphia under William T. Richards, and in Paris as the pupil of Otto Webber. In 1869 he sent to the national academy "On the Campagna," "To the Front," and "Noonday Rest." In 1875 he exhibited "A Misty Day"; and in 1878 " Tigris" and " Landscape and Cattle." He excels in pastoral cattle-scenes and in wild landscapes with animals. Among his other paintings are "Dead in the Desert" (1867); "Roman Bull" (1867); "The Wine-Cart" (1868); "The Raid" (1866); "Hunted Down" (1871); "Crouching Lion"; and "The Stampede" (1873).


BISSELL, Clark, jurist, b. in Lebanon, Conn., in 1782: d. in Norwalk, Conn., 15 Sept., 1857. He was graduated at Yale in 1806, and received the degree of LL. D. from that college in 1847. He was a lawyer, and during most of his life resided at Norwalk. From 1829 till 1839 he was judge of the supreme court of Connecticut, and from 1847 till 1855 professor of law at Yale. In 1847-'49 he was governor of Connecticut.


BISSELL, Daniel, soldier, d. in St. Louis, Mo., 14 Dec, 1833. He was appointed a cadet from Connecticut in September, 1791; became ensign, 11 April, 1792; lieutenant in January, 1794; captain in January, 1799; lieutenant-colonel, 18 Aug., 1808; colonel, 15 Aug., 1812; brigadier-general, 9 March, 1814. He commanded in the successful af-