The English Royal Mint was responsible for the making of coins according to exact compositions, weights, dimensions and tolerances, usually determined by law. During this period English minting was run from the Royal Mint in London by the Master and Warden of the Mint.
Richard Martin (1534-1617) was the official goldsmith to Queen Elizabeth I. He was Warden, 1560-1595, and Master of the Royal Mint, [1581-1617]. Martin was also Lord Mayor of London in 1581, 1589 and 1594.
Friendly societies comprised a group of people contributing to a mutual fund so that they could receive benefits in times of need. The concept had been popular for hundreds of years, but in the 1800s, their role was acknowledged by the government and membership was encouraged. The early meetings were often held as a social gathering when the subscriptions would be paid. Prior to the Welfare State they were often the only way a working person had to receive help in times of ill health, or old age.
Calcutta was the former capital (1772-1912) of British India.
Charles Jenkinson (1727-1808) became private secretary to the 3rd Earl of Bute, favourite of George III, in 1760. In 1763, having been elected to Parliament, Jenkinson was appointed Joint Secretary of the Treasury. Chosen as Vice-Treasurer for Ireland in 1773, he became a member of the Privy Council. Later he was Master of the Royal Mint (1775-78) and, during the American Revolution, Secretary at War (1778-82). During the first ministry (from 1783) of the William Pitt the younger, Jenkinson proved an invaluable adviser. In 1786 he was appointed chancellor of the duchy of Lancaster and president of the Board of Trade. A member of the Cabinet from 1791, he became an invalid about 1801, ceased to attend Cabinet meetings, and by the middle of 1804 had resigned all his offices. He was created Baron Hawkesbury in 1786 and Earl of Liverpool in 1796. Publications: A Discourse on the conduct of the Government of Great Britain in respect to neutral nations during the present war (R. Griffiths: London, 1758); A Collection of all the Treaties of Peace, Alliance, and Commerce between Great-Britain and other Powers; from the Treaty signed at Munster in 1648, to the Treaties signed at Paris in 1783. To which is prefixed a Discourse on the conduct of the Government of Great-Britain in respect to neutral nations (London, 1785); A Treatise on the Coins of the Realm [Oxford, 1798?]; Constitutional Maxims, extracted from a discourse on the establishment of a National and Constitutional Force (London, 1757).
Great Britain was the first country to impose a general income tax (1799) to finance the Napoleonic Wars. It was alternately repealed and reimposed until the 1880s, by which time it was generally accepted as a permanent levy.
The English Parliament is the main legislative body of the country. The Earl Marshal, originally in charge of the Court of Chivalry which was concerned with military matters such as ransom, booty and soldiers pay, as well as the misuse of armorial bearings. The role was later refined and the Marshal came to be responsible solely for armorial cases: he is the head of the College of Arms. The post has been hereditary since 1672, remaining with the Howard family, Dukes of Norfolk.The reign of King Edward III saw the height of the Hundred Years War against France, in which the Scots sided with the French. Henry Algernon Percy, 5th Earl of Northumberland, (known as 'The Magnificent', due to the splendour of his establishment), succeeded to the earldom at the age of 11. He was prominent at court in the early years of Henry VIII's reign, and took part in Henry's expedition to France in 1513, being present at the siege of Therouenne and the Battle of the Spurs. He was also one of the 10 earls appointed to wait on King Francis I at the Field of the Cloth of Gold, 1520. He declined the office of warden of the Marches, and died in bed in 1527.
No information available at present.
John Davies was born in 1569. He became a barrister in Middle Temple, London, in 1595, and was elected as MP for Corfe Castle in 1601. Davies was appointed Solicitor General for Ireland in 1603, and served as Attorney-General from 1606-1619. During this period he was MP for County Fermanagh and Speaker of the Irish Parliament, 1613, and MP for Newcastle-under-Lyme, 1614 and 1621. He was appointed Chief Justice of England in 1626, but died before he was able to take up office. Davies wrote extensively on government history and also wrote poetry.
Publications: A full list of the works of Sir John Davies may be found in the British Library catalogue.
Higford was born in 1581. After being educated in the arts at Oriel College, Oxford, Higford retired to his Father's seat at Dixton near Alderton. There he was appointed justice of the peace. He died in 1677.
Born in 1575, Sir Thomas Reade became High Sheriff of the counties of Berkshire, Oxfordshire and Hertfordshire. He died in 1650.
The Company of Free Dredgers of Faversham were formerly under the jurisdiction of the Lord of the Manor who appointed a steward to hold two courts called admiralty courts, to which the members were summoned by the water bailiff. The first of these was held on the Saturday after Easter, the second on the last Saturday of July.
William Herbert was an antiquarian writer and Librarian of the Guildhall from 1828 to 1845. He published the History of the twelve great livery companies, (London, 1837), Antiquities of the Inns of Court and Chancery, (Vernor and Hood, London, 1804), and similar works.
No information was discovered at the time of compilation.
Grosvenor, Sir Richard, first baronet (1585-1645), magistrate and politician, born Eaton Hall, near Chester, Cheshire, 9 January 1585; educated in the puritan household of John Bruen of Stapleford, Cheshire, and at Queen's College Oxford, where he matriculated on 26 October 1599 and graduated BA on 30 June 1602; married in 1600 Lettice, daughter of Sir Hugh Cholmondeley of Cholmondeley, Cheshire; had one son and three daughters before Lettice's death on 20 January 1612; married Elizabeth, daughter of Sir Thomas Wilbraham of Woodhey, Cheshire, 1614 and after her death, he married Elizabeth (d. 1627), daughter of Sir Peter Warburton of Grafton, Cheshire; Grosvenor was knighted on 24 August 1617 and made a baronet on 23 February 1622; Grosvenor made his principal mark in local affairs; succeeded his father as a JP for Cheshire in 1619 and he served on the bench until his removal, as part of a purge by George Villiers, first duke of Buckingham, on 26 October 1626; sheriff of Cheshire in 1623-4 and of Flintshire in 1624-5; although not one of the foremost Cheshire gentry in terms of wealth or landholdings, Grosvenor became the most influential local governor in the area of his main estate, immediately to the south of Chester: this was because of his industry and his abilities as a man of affairs, and also because of his reputation as a supporter of puritan ministers; William Hinde, who had probably been his tutor at Queen's College, described him as a paragon of the godly gentleman, and another leading Cheshire puritan preacher, Nathaniel Lancaster, hailed him in 1628 as a father of the country' (Lancaster, sig. A2); represented Cheshire in the parliaments of 1621, 1626, and 1628-9; not in the front rank of Commons spokesmen, but he was an effective public speaker and a diligent attender of committees; many of his interventions in parliament were concerned either with the welfare of his Cheshire constituents or with the defence of the Calvinist religion; In 1621 he spoke out against the patentee Sir Giles Mompesson, and the 'popish threat' to the palatinate, and in 1629 he delivered a notable attack on the influence of the King's Arminian advisers; He was also a meticulous parliamentary diarist, providing the fullest known account of debates in 1626, 1628, and 1629; 1629 and 1638 he was imprisoned in the Fleet, 1629-1638, having become liable for the debts of his brother-in-law, Peter Daniel; Although he was not restored to the bench after his return to the county, he remained an influential figure in local politics, in May 1640 he arbitrated a dispute over the parliamentary election for Chester, and in July 1642 he played a leading role in organizing, and probably also drafting, the Cheshire remonstrance, a petition containing over 8000 signatures, which called on the King and Parliament to settle their differences and avoid civil war; During the war Grosvenor remained neutral; he is not to be confused with his eldest son, Richard Grosvenor esq., who played a prominent part in the royalist defence of Chester. Grosvenor's speeches and writings make it possible to reconstruct his political views in considerable detail. He was a firm believer in the divine right of kingship and in patriarchal authority, but at the same time he staunchly defended the liberties of the subject and of parliament's role asthe representative of the people'. Above all, he was concerned to root out the evil of popery and to overcome the influence of `evil counsellors' close to the King; died at Eaton Hall on 14 September 1645 and was buried in Eccleston church, Cheshire.
The Exchequer was responsible for receiving and dispersing the public revenue. The lower Exchequer, or receipt, closely connected with the permanent Treasury, was an office for the receipt and payment of money. The upper Exchequer was a court sitting twice a year to regulate accounts.
William Sanderson (1586-1676) was secretary to Henry Rich, Earl of Holland, whilst the latter was Chancellor of Cambridge University. During the English Civil War, Sanderson took the side of the royalists, leading to his appointment as a Gentleman of the Privy Chamber to King Charles II, who bestowed a knighthood upon him. Publications: A Compleat History of the life and raigne of King Charles from his cradle to his grave (London, 1658), A Compleat History of the lives and reigns of Mary Queen of Scotland, and of her son ... James the Sixth (H Moseley, R. Tomlins, and G. Sawbridge: London, 1656-55).
No information was available at the time of compilation.
No information available at present.
Charles Barham was born at Truro on 9 March 1804. He was educated privately and then at Downs College, Cambridge, where he matriculated in 1821. He took his M B at Cambridge in 1827 and qualified for the higher degree of M D in 1860. In 1837 he settled in Truro, Cornwall, to practice medicine. He remained there for the rest of his life. In 1842 the Commission on the Employment of Children engaged his services. His report, with the evidence he collected, was printed in the published reports of the Commission. Barham died on 20 October 1884.
The company was incorporated by Royal Charter in 1812 and the first meeting of what was known as the Court of Directors was held at 27 Norfolk Street, Strand on 24 June 1812. Offices were set up at 96 Pall Mall and a wharf and house rented at Cannon Row, Westminster, became the site for the works. In 1818 the company leased premises at Orchard Street, Poplar to establish a tar works and the Brick Lane and Westminster works began their own ammonia products works so the company could make the most of coal burning by-products. This also led to a large Products Works being built at Beckton in 1868. Another by-product coke was sold on to a wide domestic market. The rapid expansion of the Gas Light & Coke Co. led to the need for a large transport fleet. Every type of transport was used and usually owned by the company. Shipping, barges and railway engines were often used for the import and export of coal and by-products at the works. Road transport ranging from horse drawn carts to wagons catered for other supplies and maintenance needs. The expansion of the company and competition from electricity in the late nineteenth century led to development of the domestic market. Lady Demonstrators were employed to promote gas cooking and the Home Service eventually developed into a full advisory service on domestic gas use. As a large employer the company took its social obligations seriously and provided various pension, sickness and benefit funds. Links were established with the Territorial Army and by the time of the Boer War in 1899, company employees were eligible for duty as reservists and volunteers were given leave of absence. The company was so large that after nationalisation of the gas industry in 1949 the area it covered, which stretched from Pinner in North West London to Southend-on-Sea in Essex, became a single regional Gas Board called North Thames.
No information available at present.
Barbados was in British possession from its initial settlement in 1627, until its independence in 1966. The main export of the island was sugar, which was grown on plantations worked by slave labour.The Leeward islands are an arc of West Indian islands which include the Virgin Islands, Antiguilla, Saint-martin, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Antigua, Barbuda, Monserrat and Guadeloupe.A farm was the system of leasing out the rights of collecting and retaining taxes in a certain district.
Sir William Courten (1572-1636) was a highly successful silk and linen merchant, possessing a fleet of over 20 ships which traded with Guinea, Spain and the West Indies. He lent money to both James I and Charles I, and was rewarded with a knighthood and grants of Barbados (which had been discovered by one of his ships). Courten sent colonists to Barbados in 1625 and 1628, but they were forcibly ejected by the Earl of Carlisle in 1629. Courten's grandson, William Courten (1642-1702) was a naturalist, and sometimes went by the name of Charleton. He tried to enforce his grandfather's claim on the money lent to the crown and to lands in Barbados, and failed in both attempts. He opened a botanical museum in London in 1684.
Argenta is a town in the province of Ferrara, North-East Italy, situated on the Fiume Reno. Direct Papal rule was established in Ferrara in 1598.
No information was discovered at the time of compilation.
Tithes were a tax of a tenth of the income from the agricultural yield of the land and livestock, which was paid to the etablished church for the support of the clergy, or for religious and charitable uses. When Henry VIII disestablished the monasteries in 1537, these tithes, which were mainly collected centrally by monasteries and churches, were effectively sold to the highest bidder and most of them passed into the hands of wealthy, and often absentee, landlords.
The Charitable Association was born out of the need for those without good financial security to enter into loan agreements without the penalty of unreasonably high interest rates. The Association put into practice the charter licensed to them by George I in 1725.
Charles Ryle Fay was born on 13 January 1884. He received his education from King's College, Cambridge and the London School of Economics, where he was a research student from 1906 to 1908. In the First World War he served in The Buffs and Machine Gun Corp from 1915-1918, reaching the rank Lieutenant. His academic posts were Fellow and Lecturer of Christ's College, Cambridge 1908-1922; Senior Proctor of Cambridge University 1920-1921 and Professor of Economic History at the University of Toronto 1921-1930. Fay published widely on economic history. His publications included, The Corn Laws and Social England, 1932, English Economic History Since 1700, 1951 and his last published work, The World of Adam Smith, 1960. Fay died on 19 November 1961.
The Court Baron was the principal type of manorial court, and was the court of the chief tenants of the manor. It was responsible for the internal regulation of local affairs within the manor, and was attended by all those free tenants whose attendance at court was a condition of their tenure, and by customary tenants. Customary tenants held land by an agreement made at the manor court which was entered on its roll, a 'copy' of which was his regarded as proof of title.
An annuity is an annual payment of an allowance or income, granted for life or a term of years .
James Blair Leishman was born on 8 May 1902. He was educated at St John's College, Oxford. He was Assistant Lecturer, Lecture and Senior Lecture in English Literature at University College Southampton from 1928 to 1946 and lecturer in English Literature at Oxford University in 1946. He published many works on English literature, including, The Metaphysical Poets, 1934 and volumes of translations from Rainer Maria Rilke, 1934-1963. He died on 14 August 1963.
The term 'customs' applied to customary payments or dues of any kind, regal, episcopal or ecclesiastical until it became restricted to duties payable to the King upon export or import of certain articles of commerce. By ordinance of 21 January 1643, the regulation of the collection of customs was entrusted to a parliamentary committee whose members were appointed commissioners and collectors of customs forming a Board of Customs. This and succeeding committees appointed by Parliament until 1660 and thereafter by the Crown, functioned until 1662, when those who had been serving as commissioners became lessees of a new form of customs. This continued until 1671 when negotiations for a new farm broke down and a Board of Customs for England and Wales was created by Letter Patent.
Frank Wallis Galton was born in London in 1867. He was educated at the Working Men's College at Great Ormond, London. He was apprentice to a silversmith and engraver in the City of London and Freeman of the City by servitude. He was Private Secretary to Sydney and Beatrice Webb from 1892 to 1898; Secretary of the London Reform Union, 1899-1918 and the City of London Liberal Association, 1903-1905. During the First World War he was Assistant Secretary to the Central Association of Volunteer Regiments and editor of The Volunteer Gazette. After the war he became the editor of the Municipal Journal from 1918-1920. Galton also published works on the social sciences, including, The Tailoring Trade, published by the London School of Economics and Workers on their Industries, as well as various articles and pamphlets. Galton died on 9 April 1952.
The Committee of Plundered Ministers was set up by the Puritan party in 1643, during the English Civil War, for the purpose of replacing those clergy who were loyal to the King. THese displaced clergy were described as 'scandalous', though this mainly related to their political and theological views. The Committee heard evidence, often from local parishioners, of the misdeeds of the parish priest. If the allegations were proved, the rector would be removed from his position, and his goods and monies sequestrated.
Dr Henry Watkins was the Rector of Sutton-upon-Brailes, Gloucestershire (transferred to the county of Warwickshire in 1844).
Friendly societies comprised a group of people contributing to a mutual fund so that they could receive benefits in times of need. The concept had been around for hundreds of years, but in the 1800s, their role was acknowledged by the government and membership was encouraged. The early meetings were often held as a social gathering when the subscriptions would be paid. Prior to the Welfare State they were often the only way a working person had to receive help in times of ill health, or old age.
The Journeymen Bookbinders of London were founded in 1786, becoming known as the London Consolidated Lodge of Journeymen Bookbinders in 1840.
Hamburg is Germany's largest port and commercial centre and one of the largest and busiest ports in Europe, with this growth beginning in the medieval period.
No information was discovered at the time of compilation.
The building of Cobham College was completed in 1598 on the site of a chantry of five chaplains in the church of Cobham, founded by John de Cobham, 1362. The college survives today in the form of almshouses.
Admiral John Forbes (1714-1796) was the second son of George Forbes, 3rd Earl of Granard. He entered the Royal Navy at a young age, and had risen to the rank of Rear Admiral by 1747. in 1749 he was created Commander-in-Chief of the Mediterranean. As a Lord of the Admiralty, Forbes refused to sign the death warrant of Admiral John Byng in protest at the harshness of the sentence, and as a consequence of this disagreement with his colleagues retired from the Board of Admiralty on 6 April. He was reappointed on 29 June 1757. Created a Vice Admiral in 1755, Forbes became an Admiral of the Blue, 1758, General of Marines, 1763, Admiral of the White, 1770, and Admiral of the Fleet, 1781. He also published a Memoir of the Earls of Granard (1868). He died in 1796. Admiral John Byng (1704-1757) was court-martialed, convicted and sentenced to death in 1757, following an abortive attempt in 1756 to to relieve the British garrison in Port Mahon, Menorca, from French forces. He was executed by firing squad on the deck of HMS Monarch on 14 March 1757.
Herbert Somerton Foxwell (1849-1936) was born and grew up in Shepton Mallet in the Mendip Hills in Somerset, where his father had a business as an ironmonger and slate and timber merchant. At the age of 12 he went to the Wesleyan Collegiate Institute (later Queen's College), Taunton. He passed the London matriculation examination at the minimum age, and obtained the London External B.A. degree when only 18 years of age. He went to Saint John's, Cambridge, in 1868, where he was made a Fellow in 1874. He was associated with Saint John's for the rest of his life, holding his College lectureship for sixty years.
Cambridge was Foxwell's University, but his work in London was even more extensive and continued from 1876 to 1927. He succeeded his friend Stanley Jevons to the Chair of Economics at University College, London in May 1881 - an appointment he held until 1927. He became Newmarch Lecturer in statistics at University College and lecturer on currency and banking from 1896 at the newly founded London School of Economics. In 1907 he became, jointly with Edward Cannan, the first Professor of Political Economy at the University. His last appointment, which ended in 1931, was as external examiner of the University of Wales.
No information was available at the time of compilation.
No information available at present.
No information available at present.
Diego de Estella (1524-1578) is also known by the names Didacus Estella and Diego de Ballesteros y Cruzat. He was born in Estella in Navarre in 1524, and entered the Franciscan Order in 1541, becoming active in Portugal as a preacher. He accompanied the Infanta Juana, sister of Philip II of Spain from 1552-1554, and later preached at Philip's court in Madrid, 1565-1569. His criticism of high officials and way of life at the royal court led to rebukes by the Order, and Diego's eventual removal to the Franciscan convent of Salamanca. There he produced many mystical writings, which were printed with the support of his brother. He died in 1578. Meditaciones devotisimas del amor de Dios was first published (by Mathius Gast) in Salamanca in 1576.
Thomas Lovell Beddoes was a poet whose work featured strongly in the Elizabethan revival of the late Romantic period. Born in 1803, his father was the radical physician Thomas Beddoes, and his mother Anna Edgeworth, sister of the novelist Maria Edgeworth. Educated at Charterhouse and Pembroke College, Oxford, Beddoes published The Improvisatore (1821) and The Bride's Tragedy (1822) soon after his graduation. Following a spell among the literary circles of London, he attended medical school in Gottingen, Hanover, and Wurzburg, Bavaria. He achieved his medical doctorate in 1831, but was banished from Bavaria the next year for writing anti-establishment pamphlets, and moved to Switzerland, where he was to spend the rest of his life. Beddoes committed suicide in 1849. After his death, his friend and literary executor, Thomas Forbes Kelsall, published his play Death's Jest Book, and a collected volume of his poems.
Very little is known about Johannes Gratian, who was born in Italy, possibly in Chiusi, Tuscany. He became a Camaldolese monk, and taught at Bologna. At a date some time after 1139 (probably 1140), Gratian compiled the Church laws (`canons') from all available sources and called the collection Concordia Discordantium Canonum (the harmonizing of discordant canons). The collection became known as the Decretum Gratiani. He died before 1179, some say as early as 1160. Although the Dectretum was not an official collection, it was, for a time and for all practical purposes, accepted as the fundamental text of Church law.
Situated in the parish of St Giles in the Fields, Soho, London, Hog Lane was an ancient medieval thoroughfare, which seems to have been renamed as Crown Street and West Street before being incorporated into Charing Cross Road.
No information available at present.
Excise are inland duties levied on articles at the time of their manufacture, notably, alcoholic drinks, but has also included salt, paper and glass. In 1643 a Board of Excise was established by the Long Parliament, to organize the collection of duties in London and the provinces. Excise duty was settled by statute in 1660. A permanent board of Excise for England and Wales was established in 1683 with separate boards for Ireland in 1682 and Scotland in 1707.
Clark was the chaplain at the Royal Military Asylum, Chelsea.