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.
Jedburgh is a royal burgh in the Roxburgh district of Scotland.
The East India Company acted as an agent of British imperialism in India from the early 18th century to the mid-19th century.
The Grand Jury was a group that examined accusations against persons charged with crime and, if the evidence warranted, made formal charges on which the accused persons were later tried (indictments).
This manuscript appears to be a translation of a very rare tract published in 1608 entitled Waerschouving van de ghewichtige redenen die Heeren Staten General behooren de beweghen, om gheensins te wijcken van de handelinghe en de vaert van Indien, possibly by William Usselincx, of which a translation into French by Jean François Le Petit entitled Sommaire recueil des raisons plus importantes, qui doivent mouvoir Messieurs des Etats des Provinces unies du Pays bas de ne quitter point les Indes was made, also in 1608. Asher attributes this tract to William Usselinex, but J. F. Jameson is of the opinion that he was not the author (William Usselinex, New York, 1887).
Darley is a village near Harrogate, North Yorkshire.
Godfrey III (1133-1190) was known as the Duke of Lothier (i.e. Lower Lorraine). Territory in Lower Lorraine was contested by the rival houses of Limburg, with continued fighting until a peace in 1155 which split the duchy into Limburg and Brabant. On the death of Godfrey III, his son Henry I took the title of Duke of Brabant.
The Justice of the Peace is a local magistrate empowered chiefly to administer criminal or civil justice in minor cases.
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.
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 organise 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.
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.
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.
The Court Baron was the principal type of manorial court, and was the court of the chief tenants of a 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 .
A terrier is a land schedule used to record the boundaries, ownership and usage of an area.
The system of weights and measures in Great Britain had been in use since the reign of Queen Elizabeth I. Following a reform begun in 1824 the imperial standard yard was adopted in 1855. The imperial standards were made legal by an Act of Parliament in 1855.
The Act of Parliament which brought into being the navigation scheme for the rivers Aire and Calder was the first of its kind, and was granted in 1699. By 1704, the Aire was navigable throughout from Airmyn, just above the mouth of the Aire, to Leeds and Wakefield. The Aire and Calder became a great success, making huge profits and its owners very wealthy, although little of those profits were to be reinvested in the scheme and the navigation began to fall into disrepair. However, the success of the scheme soon had merchants all over the country promoting their own river navigations and it was to combat the threat posed by the proposed Leeds and Liverpool canal that improvements were begun in the 1760s. This included the building of a new canal to Selby from the River Aire at Haddlesey, which was opened in 1778.
The Aire and Calder navigation Company had been in dispute with Knottingley for several years, due to the use of water by the mill which led to low water levels in the navigation. Many plans were put forward in an attempt to solve these ongoing disputes between the navigation and Knottingley Mills, none of which were put into practice with any degree of success. Eventually in 1772, the navigation purchased outright Knottingley Mills and a new weir was constructed.
The diarist lived in Berkeley Street, London.
An apprenticeship indenture bound a young person to a master, to learn from him his art, trade or business, and to serve him during the time of his apprenticeship, which could only last until he reached his majority.
The English Royal Mint was responsible for the making of coins according to exact compositions, weights, dimensions and tolerances, usually determined by law. English minting was run from the Royal Mint in London by the Master and Warden of the Mint. For several centuries control of policy relating to the coinage rested soley with the monarch, with Parliament finally gaining control following the Revolution of 1688. The Mint itself worked as an independent body until that date, when it came under the control of the Treasury.
Founded in the 12th century, Market Harborough is a market town situated 13 miles south of the city of Leicester in the East Midlands region.
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.
The decretals are canonical epistles, written by the pope alone, or by the pope and cardinals, at the instance or suit of some one or more persons, for the ordering and determining some matter in controversy, and have the authority of a law in themselves. Pope Gregory IX (1143-1241) ordered the first complete and authoritative collection of papal decretals, the Corpus Iuris Canonici.
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.
The general election of April 1820 was won by the Tories; the Prime Minister was Robert Banks Jenkinson, 2nd Earl of Liverpool.
St Mary Axe is a street in East London connecting Leadenhall Street with Houndsditch. The parish merged with St Andrew Undershaft in 1560/1.
Middleton Cheney is the largest village in Northamptonshire.Edmund Scambler was Canon of the 6th Prebendary, Westminster (1560-1561), Prebendary of Wistow, Yorkshire (1559-1564), Bishop of Peterborough (1561-1585) and Bishop of Norwich (1585-1594). He died in 1594.
St Anne's church was on the west side of Dean Street, Soho, in the Liberty of Westminster. It was formerly a Chapel of Ease to the Parish of St. Martin in the Fields, but was taken out of that, and made a distinct and proper Parish of itself by Act of Parliament, in 1678.
Dôle is located in the Franche-Comté region of France, between Dijon and Bescanon.
In Scotland, poor relief was organised using a system of voluntary contributions distributed under the direction of the minister and elders of the Kirk and, from 1752, more strongly by the direction of the landowners, who were the principal ratepayers. The able-bodied poor had no right to statutory relief as in England. A 'stent' was the rate levied on property owners.
The 'Speights Town' was a merchant ship based in Liverpool. Her captain was Jonathan Jackson, and she was owned by Allanson and Barton.
English bards and Scotch reviewers...a satire, was written by George Gordon Noel Byron, 6th Baron Byron of Rochdale, and first published by James Cawthorn of London in 1809.
The Exchequer was responsible for receiving and dispersing the public revenue.
Robert Holcot (1290-1349) was a Dominican theologian and preacher. Born in Holcot, near Northampton, Holcot joined the Dominican Order and studied at Oxford. After gaining his doctorate in theology, he became Regent Master of Oxford University (1331-1333). It is also surmised that Holcot was Regent Master of Cambridge from 1334-1335. In 1343 he returned to the Dominican priory at Northampton, where he died of plague in 1349. Holcot wrote many theological works, including Commentaries on the Books of Wisdom, one of the best known works of the 14th century, which was printed in 1480 and went through 17 editions.
A Collectar is a manuscript containing the prayers (specifically 'collects') for the canonical hours of the Divine Office.
John Stafford, Archbishop of Canterbury, was the son of the Earl of Stafford. He held high political and religious office, being Bishop of Bath and Wells and Lord Chancellor to Henry V and VI; in 1443 he was created Archbishop of Canterbury, an office which he held until his death in 1452.
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Canon law is the body of laws and regulations made by or adopted by ecclesiastical authority, for the government of the Christian organization and its members.
The Company of Scotland Trading to Africa and the Indies was created by an Act of the Scottish Parliament in Jun 1695. Under this act the Company was granted exclusive privilege of trade between Scotland and America, and perpetual monopoly of trade with Asia and Africa. The Company undertook two disastrous voyages to the Darien Isthmus, Panama, in 1698-1699, where it hoped to establish a Scottish colony named Caledonia. The attempt failed and the colony was abandoned by 1700. The Company was dissolved in 1707.
Possibly produced during the War of the Grand Alliance, 1689-1697, the third major war of King Louis XIV of France, in which his expansionist plans were blocked by an alliance led by England, the United Provinces of the Netherlands, and the Austrian Habsburgs.
Southampton is an important port in the south of England.
From the 16th century onwards, each parish was required to appoint Surveyors of Highways as officers of the parish. These surveyors were empowered to call upon residents to work on the roads to prevent them becoming neglected.
In 1764, the British government introduced various financial Acts into the American colonies, prompted by a need for greater revenue to support the growing empire. These acts forbade the importation of foreign rum; put a modest duty on molasses from all sources; and levied duties on wines, silks, coffee, and a number of other luxury items. To enforce them, customs officials were ordered to show more energy and strictness. British warships in American waters were instructed to seize smugglers, and "writs of assistance" (blanket warrants) authorized the King's officers to search suspected premises.
During the War of the Spanish Succession (1702-1713), Britain occupied Gibraltar (1704) and Minorca (1708). Both were officially ceded to Britain in the Treaty of Utrecht (1713) which ended the war.
Frederick VI (1768-1839) was King of Denmark (1808-39) and Norway (1808-14). He was responsible for many liberal reforms in both countries, and had a peaceful and prosperous reign until the Napoleonic Wars, when, despite Danish neutrality, its opposition to the British ruling on neutral shipping resulted in an English attack on the Danish fleet (Battle of Copenhagen) in 1801. Again, in 1807, England attacked neutral Denmark and bombarded Copenhagen. Frederick thereupon allied himself with Napoleon I and was punished at the Congress of Vienna (1814-1815) by the loss of Norway to Sweden.
The Republic of Venice was created around 1140. It was headed by the Doge, and led by the Great Council, who controlled all political and administrative business. Ludovico Manin, the last doge, was deposed by Napoléon Bonaparte on May 12, 1797. A provisional democratic municipality was set up in place of the republican government, but later in the same year Venice was handed over to Austria.
Professor George Long was Professor of Greek at University College, London, from 1828 to 1831; Professor Henry Malden was also Professor of Greek at University College from 1831 to 1876.
Louis René de Caradeuc de La Chalotais (1701-1785) was a French magistrate, who served as Advocate General (1730-1752) and Attorney General (from 1752) of the Breton Parlement. He led a protracted personal and political battle with the Duke of Pivot, who was Governor of Brittany and the King's representative, concerning the influence and fate of the Jesuit order. This led him to be seen as the head of the parliamentary opposition, and in 1765 he was imprisoned by Louis XV and later exiled. He was restored by Louis XVI in 1775.For an account of the circumstances in which his memoir was originally composed see Nouvelle Biographic Générale sub La Chalotais. The work was printed in several editions.
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Seneca (4 BC-65 AD) was a Roman advocate and senator, who acted as tutor and, following his accession, political advisor to the Roman emperor Nero. He was implicated in a conspiracy and forced to commit suicide. His writings included a series of Moral Essays, which included 'De Beneficiis' ('On Benefits'), in which he discussed favours and the nature of gratitude and ingratitude.
St Jerome (c340-420) wrote a large number of theological works. Amongst his earliest were his revisions of the Latin version of the New Testament, including the Epistles of St Paul in 385.
The Clementinae is a collection of canon law, promulgated (1317) by John XXII, and drawn mostly from the constitutions of Clement V at the Council of Vienne.
The Missal is a liturgical book which contains the prayers said by the priest at the altar as well as all that is officially read or sung in connection with the offering of the holy Sacrifice of the Mass throughout the ecclesiastical year.
This manuscript was probably prepared in connection with the proceedings for the Union of 1707. The Act of Union was a treaty (1 May 1707) that effected the union of England and Scotland under the name of Great Britain.