A jury is a group chosen from the citizenry of a district to try a question of fact. It is the standard jury used in civil and criminal trials.
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.
Members of the Commission appointed in 1838 'to consider the steps to be taken for the restoration of the standards of weights and measures', included Sir George Biddell Airy (Astronomer Royal), Francis Baily, Sir John George Shaw-Lefevre and Sir John William Lubbock. A report was issued in 1841.
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. The business of the ancient Exchequer was mainly financial, though some judicial business connected with accounts was also conducted.
No information was available at the time of compilation.
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.
This diplomatic paper may have had something to do with Dutch support for the United States during the American War of Independence (1775-1783).
Jonathan Carter Hornblower (1753-1815) was the British inventor of the double-beat valve, the first reciprocating compound steam engine. Hornblower's invention, patented in 1781, was a steam engine with two cylinders, a significant contribution to efficiency. The firm of James Watt (Boulton & Watt) challenged his invention, claiming infringement of patent. With the decision against him, Hornblower lost the opportunity to further develop the compound engine. Hornblower patented other inventions, a rotative engine and a steam wheel, or steam engine, and amassed a fortune in engineering. Hornblower died in 1815.
The Exchequer was responsible for receiving and dispersing the public revenue.
The Roman Emperor Justinian I attempted to increase the unity of the Roman Empire by collecting and codifying the scattered laws, imperial edicts, decisions of the early Roman Senate, and opinions of learned jurists and organizing them into a written law code. The result was the Corpus Iurus Civilis (Body of Civil Law), issued in three parts. These parts were the Codex Justinianus (529), which compiled all of the extant imperial constitutiones from the time of Hadrian; the Digest, or Pandects, (533), which compiled the writings of the great Roman jurists such as Ulpian along with current edicts; and the Institutes, which was intended as sort of legal textbook for law schools and included extracts from the two major works.
An accord (?1801) between Russia and England during the Napoleonic Wars permitted the inspection of cargo on board the ships of neutral nations; in addition, England and Russia declared their right to demand a ship's papers and even seize and detain a ship with or without provocation. Under duress, Sweden and Denmark also signed the agreement.
Though first proposed in 1825, the Exeter and Exmouth Railway was finally completed in 1861.
A letter of attorney is a written authority from one person empowering another to transact business for him.
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. The business of the ancient Exchequer was mainly financial, though some judicial business connected with accounts was also conducted. In time the upper Exchequer developed into the judicial system, while the lower Exchequer became the Treasury.
Gallicanism is the term used to designate a certain group of religious opinions for some time peculiar to the Church of France, or Gallican Church, and the theological schools of that country. These opinions, in opposition to the ideas which were called in France 'Ultramontane', tended chiefly to a restraint of the pope's authority in the Church in favour of that of the bishops and the temporal ruler.
Charles de Marillac was Archbishop of Vienne and a member of the French Privy Council. His nephew, Michel de Marillac (1563-1632) was a French politician who acted as Minister of Justice in 1626. He published an ordinance reforming the legal administration in 1629.
Excise are inland duties levied on articles at the time of their manufacture, notably, alcoholic drinks, but have 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 despite widespread aversion 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.
In 1712, Norwich was one of the earliest cities to set up a poor law incorporation by special act of parliament. It comprised 44 parishes and was presided over by a Court of Guardians. There were two workhouses, one formerly a palace of the Duke of Norfolk, and the other a former monastery.
Sir Patience Ward (1629-1696) was Lord Mayor of London, 1681; a Fellow of the Royal Society, 1681; and a Lieutenant of the City of London, 1690.
Titus Lucretius Carus was a Roman poet and philosopher. He was probably born in 98 or 96 BC, though few other details of his life are known. Carus was said to have been driven mad by a love-philter, and to have finally committed suicide in 55BC. He left one work, the De Rerum Natura, a didactic poem in 6 books setting forth the Epicurean system of philosophy, especially relating to the origin of the world and operations of natural forces.
The Russell family were a prominent English noble family, who played an important part in the government of England, especially from the reign of Henry VIII onwards, when John Russell (1486-1555) was created 1st Earl of Bedford.
A tax on households employing male servants was levied in Britain from 1777-1852.
The Court of King's Bench exercised a supreme and general jurisdiction over criminal and civil cases as well as special jurisdiction over the other superior common-law courts until 1830.The Court of Common Pleas was the main court for cases between individuals about land and debt rather than prosecutions by the crown.
A Negro slave was not allowed to go beyond the confines of his owner's plantation without written permission. On this "pass" was written the name of the Negro, the place he was permitted to visit, and the time beyond which he must not fail to return.
Charles Cavendish Fulke Greville (1794-1865) was a member of a younger branch of the family of the Earls of Warwick. He was educated at Eton and Christ Church, Oxford, before beginning his career as private secretary to Earl Bathurst. He was Clerk to the Privy Council from 1821 to 1859, where he came into contact with all of the leading politicians of the time. This knowledge informed his diaries, which are recognised as the best contemporary political commentary of the period. Greville's diaries were published with omissions between 1875 and 1887, and a full publication edited by Lytton Strachey and Roger Fulford was made in 1938.
A sequentiary is a book, or portion, of a Gradual or Troper containing sequences (extended melodies) sung by a soloist between the Alleluia and the Gospel lesson at Mass.
The royal household originated as the sovereign's retinue, and had a purely domestic function until the 12th century, after which it became a mainspring of government. The government departments of the Treasury, the Exchequer and the common law courts all originated there.
A patent for an invention is granted by government to the inventor, giving the inventor the right for a limited period to stop others from making, using or selling the invention without the permission of the inventor. Patents cover products or processes that possess or contain new functional or technical aspects.
Azov is a sea port and one of the oldest towns in the esturial region of the River Don, Russia. There is no confirmation that the Azoff and Don Gas Company ever came into being.
In the 13th century, under Henry III and Edward I, the Royal Wardrobe became a major financial institution. Used as a war treasury, it acted as paymaster to the major military expeditions commanded by the king. It subsequently declined in importance, being replaced by the Chamber. Separate from the King's Wardrobe was the Great Wardrobe, for army clothing and military stores, peripatetic until 1361 and then at Baynard castle, and the Privy Wardrobe, for bows, arrows, pikes, and other weapons, in the Tower of London.
Jean-Baptiste Colbert, Marquis de Torcy (1665-1746) was a French diplomat and foreign minister who negotiated some of the most important treaties of Louis XIV's reign. As Minister of Foreign Affairs, Torcy drafted the famous manifesto in which the king called on the nation to make a supreme effort to win the War of the Spanish Succession, 1708. Torcy was also the guiding spirit at the innumerable conferences that resulted in the treaties of Utrecht (1713) and Rastatt (1714). He wrote Mémoirs pour servir à l'histoire des négotiations depuis le Traité de Riswick jusqu'à la Paix d'Utrecht (1756).
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.
For a reference to Carpenter as messenger in 1577, see Cal.S.P.Dom. 1547-1580, 569.
Robert Walpole's new position as Prime Minister was strengthened by his handling of a Jacobite conspiracy (known as the Atterbury plot after one of the main protagonists) uncovered in April 1722 and intended to take control of the government.
John Wilkes (1727-1797) was a politician and journalist who bought a seat in parliament in 1757. His outspoken attacks on King George II and his ministers in his journal the North Briton led to his arrest for seditious libel. He eventually served 22 months in prison, and, though repeatedly elected to Parliament from Middlesex, was refused his seat by the King's party. Wilkes was also elected Sheriff (1771) and Mayor (1774) of London.
The Emancipation rebellion of Western Jamaica was the largest rebellion in the British West Indies, involving some 20,000 slaves and led by the Baptist preacher Sam Sharpe whose main plan was a 'General Strike' against slavery. This led to widespread arson and military attacks, which ended with the death of 201 rebels during fighting and the trial and conviction of 750 slaves and 14 free persons.
The Privy Council is descended from the Curia Regis, which was made up of the king's tenants in chief, household officials, and anyone else the king chose. This group performed all the functions of government. About the time of Edward I (reigned 1272-1307), the executive and advising duties of the Curia Regis came to be handled by a select group, the king's secret council, which later came to be called the Privy Council.
A diurnal gives the divine office for the 7 day Hours of the Catholic Church - namely Lauds, Prime, Terce, Sext, None, Vespers and Compline.
A Breviary is a book furnishing the regulations for the celebration of Mass or the canonical Office. It contains the Psalter, the Proper of the Season, Proper of the Saints, the Common, and certain special Offices.
Son of the deposed King James II of England, James Edward Francis Stuart made several abortive attempts to regain the English throne. In 1715 John Erskine, 6th Earl of Mar, raised a Jacobite rebellion in Scotland, and the Pretender landed at Peterhead, Aberdeen, on 22 Dec 1715. By 10 Feb 1716, the uprising had collapsed and James had returned to France.
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 North Midland Railway to Masborough opened on 11 May 1840.
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The Republic of Biafra was a short-lived secessionist state, established in 1967 by the Ibo (Igbo) people of south-eastern Nigeria. Biafra proclaimed its independence on 30 May 1967 after the Islamic Hausa and Fulani peoples, who dominated the Nigerian federal government, massacred between 10,000 and 30,000 of the Christian Ibo. Lt. Col. Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu (military governor of the Eastern region of Nigeria, 1966-1967) led the new secessionist state of Biafra, 1967-1970. The country took its name from the Bight of Biafra (an arm of the Atlantic Ocean). It comprised roughly the East-Central, South-Eastern and river states of the federation of Nigeria, where the Ibo predominated. Biafra's original capital was Enugu, but Aba, Umuahia and Owerri served successively as provincial capitals after the Nigerian forces captured Enugu. Civil war followed the proclamation of independence, beginning in June 1967. Nigeria imposed economic sanctions on Biafra from the start of the secession, and by 1968 Biafra had lost its seaports and become landlocked. Starvation and disease followed. The Biafrans surrendered on 15 January 1970. Estimates of mortality range from 500,000 to several million.
The Second Boer War commenced in 1899 when the Transvaal and the Orange Free State declared war on Britain. Initial victories by Boer forces included the capture of Mafeking. Kimberley and Ladysmith were besieged. British reinforcements arrived in 1900 and Kimberley and Ladysmith were relieved, to be followed by Mafeking. The Boer states were annexed by the British and, although the Boers continued a guerrilla campaign, hostilities ended in 1902 with the Treaty of Vereeniging.
Cecil John Rhodes, born in 1853, first went to South Africa in 1870. He was a prominent figure in the history of South Africa as a businessman (he had interests in the Kimberley diamond fields and was founder of the De Beers mining company) and imperial politician (prime minister of Cape Colony, 1890-1896). During the Second Boer War he commanded troops at Kimberley and was besieged there. He died in South Africa in 1902 and was buried in Rhodesia (Zimbabwe).
The Boxer Uprising (1898-1900) was a movement against Western influence in China. A secret anti-foreign society, the Boxers (Ch'uan), undertook attacks on foreigners from 1899. In 1900 the Boxers occupied Peking (Beijing). The siege was lifted later that year by an international force which ended the Uprising.
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The suffrage campaigns of the early twentieth century were marked by a series of sensational cases and legal battles for which campaigners attempted to achieve as much press coverage as possible. When Lloyd George addressed a meeting at Woodford in 1912 certain suffragist hecklers were violently ejected from the meeting. One of these then brought a legal action against several prominent members of the Walthamstow Liberal and Radical Association. Mark Wilks was a teacher and the husband of Elizabeth Wilks (1866?-1956) nie Bennett, physician, suffragist and member of the Tax Resistance League. Elizabeth refused to complete a tax return or to pay taxes herself and informed the tax authorities that as a married woman her tax papers should be forwarded to her husband. He, in turn, claimed that he had neither the means to obtain the necessary information to complete the forms nor to pay his wife's tax bill and was imprisoned for debt. The League took up the case and achieved much publicity for it.
The Cat and Mouse [Temporary Discharge for Ill-health] Act of 1913 became infamous in the suffrage campaigns. Under this legislation a prisoner on hunger-strike and whose health was determined to be endangered by such actions might be released and then re-arrested once their health had improved. Mrs Ellen Mary Taylor (alias Mary Wyan of Reading ) refused release under the Act, claimed complete discharge and declined to give the prison governor any address. When she was conveyed to a nursing home she refused to enter until her full release was granted and continued her strike on a chair in the road outside. The police then removed her to the Kensington Infirmary where she eventually gave up her protest. Eliot Crawshay-Williams (1879-1962) was Lloyd George's Parliamentary Private Secretary in 1910 and MP for Leicester, 1910-1913. Whilst being in favour of women's suffrage, he condemned militant suffragette tactics and as a result organized lobbying against the Conciliation Bill in 1912. T. Smithies Taylor was a supporter of the militant suffragettes based in Leicester. He wrote letters to the national and local press on this and related subjects. Lloyd George addressed a meeting at Llanystumdwy in North Wales in September 1912. He was heckled by suffragists who were then turned upon by the crowd and scenes of violence against the protestors ensued. By three successive decrees in 1864, 1866 and 1869, known as the Contagious Diseases Acts, in certain towns containing military bases, any woman suspected of being a prostitute could be stopped and forced to undergo a genital inspection to discover if she had a venereal disease. If she did not submit willingly, she could be arrested and brought before a magistrate. If she was found to be infected, she could be effectively imprisoned in a 'lock' hospital. Josephine Elizabeth Butler ( 1828-1906 ) feminist and social reformer was one of the most celebrated campaigners against the Acts and the double sexual standard that they enshrined. The Acts were repealed in 1886 but the debate was not over either in Britain or other countries within the Empire.
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The Women's Freedom League (WFL) (1907-1961) was formed in Nov 1907 by dissenting members of the Women's Social and Political Union (WSPU). The cause was the WSPU's lack of constitutional democracy, an issue that came to a head on the 10 Sep 1907. Mrs Pankhurst announced the cancellation of the annual conference due on the 12 Oct 1907 and the future governance of the party by a central committee appointed by herself, effectively overturning its original constitution. Several members, including Charlotte Despard, Edith How Martyn, Teresa Billington-Greig, Octavia Lewin, Anna Munro, Alice Schofield and Caroline Hodgeson, broke away and continued with the conference. Here, the new constitution was written which encoded a system of party democracy. Its first committee consisted of Despard as president and honorary treasurer, Billington-Greig as honorary organising secretary, honorary secretary Mrs How Martyn, and Mrs Coates Hanson, Miss Hodgeson, Irene Miller, Miss Fitzherbert, Mrs Drysdale, Miss Abadam, Mrs Winton-Evans, Mrs Dick, Mrs Cobden Sanderson, Mrs Bell, Mrs Holmes and Miss Mansell as members. The following month, they renamed themselves the WFL, having used the title of the WSPU until that time: this had prompted Mrs Pankhurst to add 'National' to the name of her own organisation for this brief spell. They classed themselves as a militant organisation, but refused to attack persons or property other than ballot papers, unlike the WSPU. Their actions included protests in and around the House of Commons and other acts of passive civil disobedience. Their activities in 1908 included attempts to present petitions to the king and have deputations received by cabinet ministers while further protests were held in the House of Commons such as Muriel Matters, Violet Tillard and Helen Fox chaining themselves to the grille in the Ladies gallery.
That same year, they were the only militant group to be invited by the National Union of Women's suffrage Societies to take part in the Hyde Park procession on 13 Jun 1908. Despard was the first woman to refuse to pay taxes as a protest, an action which quickly inspired others to form the Women's Tax Resistance League. These activities were expanded upon in Apr 1911 when women householders either spoilt or failed to complete their census forms. This escalation of action did not prevent them joining a Conciliation Bill committee with other suffrage groups in 1910 in response to Prime Minister Asquith's offer on a free vote on extensions to the franchise. A truce was called with the government until the failure of such a bill for the third time, but by 1912 the organisation had already announced that it would support Labour Party candidates against any of the government's Liberal candidates at elections. This practice of working with other groups was one which the WFL supported, having ongoing links with the International Women's Franchise Club, the International Women Suffrage Alliance and the Suffrage Atelier. During the early part of the First World War, like most of the other suffrage organisations, the League suspended its practical militant political action and began voluntary work, though not the 'war work' of the type advocated by other suffrage groups. The group formed a number of women's police services and a Woman Suffrage National Aid Corps that provided some help to women in financial difficulties and limited day care for children. Furthermore, in 1915, the WFL founded a National Service Organisation to place women in jobs. However, the following year, political activity began again when they joined the WSPU in a picket of the Electoral Reform Conference. When women were granted suffrage after the war, they continued their activities with a change of emphasis. The organisation now called for equality of suffrage between the sexes, women as commissioners of prisons, the opening of all professions to women, equal pay, right of a woman to retain her own nationality on marriage, equal moral standards and representation of female peers in the House of Lords and they continued with this programme of social equality until the dissolution of the group in 1961.
The Women's Freedom League (WFL) (1907-1961) was formed in Nov 1907 by dissenting members of the Women's Social and Political Union (WSPU). The cause was the WSPU's lack of constitutional democracy, an issue that came to a head on the 10 Sep 1907. Mrs Pankhurst announced the cancellation of the annual conference due on the 12 Oct 1907 and the future governance of the party by a central committee appointed by herself, effectively overturning its original constitution. Several members, including Charlotte Despard, Edith How Martyn, Teresa Billington-Greig, Octavia Lewin, Anna Munro, Alice Schofield and Caroline Hodgeson, broke away and continued with the conference. Here, the new constitution was written which encoded a system of party democracy. Its first committee consisted of Despard as president and honorary treasurer, Billington-Greig as honorary organising secretary, honorary secretary Mrs How Martyn, and Mrs Coates Hanson, Miss Hodgeson, Irene Miller, Miss Fitzherbert, Mrs Drysdale, Miss Abadam, Mrs Winton-Evans, Mrs Dick, Mrs Cobden Sanderson, Mrs Bell, Mrs Holmes and Miss Mansell as members. The following month, they renamed themselves the WFL, having used the title of the WSPU until that time: this had prompted Mrs Pankhurst to add 'National' to the name of her own organisation for this brief spell. They classed themselves as a militant organisation, but refused to attack persons or property other than ballot papers, unlike the WSPU. Their actions included protests in and around the House of Commons and other acts of passive civil disobedience. Their activities in 1908 included attempts to present petitions to the King and have deputations received by cabinet ministers while further protests were held in the House of Commons such as Muriel Matters, Violet Tillard and Helen Fox chaining themselves to the grille in the Ladies gallery. That same year, they were the only militant group to be invited by the National Union of Women's Suffrage Societies to take part in the Hyde Park procession on 13 Jun 1908. Despard was the first woman to refuse to pay taxes as a protest, an action which quickly inspired others to form the Women's Tax Resistance League. These activities were expanded upon in Apr 1911 when women householders either spoilt or failed to complete their census forms. This escalation of action did not prevent them joining a Conciliation Bill committee with other suffrage groups in 1910 in response to Prime Minister Asquith's offer on a free vote on extensions to the franchise. A truce was called with the Government until the failure of such a bill for the third time, but by 1912 the organisation had already announced that it would support Labour Party candidates against any of the Government's Liberal candidates at elections. This practice of working with other groups was one which the WFL supported, having ongoing links with the International Women's Franchise Club, the International Women Suffrage Alliance and the Suffrage Atelier. During the early part of the First World War, like most of the other suffrage organisations, the League suspended its practical militant political action and began voluntary work, though not the 'war work' of the type advocated by other suffrage groups. The group formed a number of women's police services and a Woman Suffrage National Aid Corps that provided some help to women in financial difficulties and limited day care for children. Furthermore, in 1915, the WFL founded a National Service Organisation to place women in jobs. However, the following year, political activity began again when they joined the WSPU in a picket of the Electoral Reform Conference. When women were granted suffrage after the war, they continued their activities with a change of emphasis. The organisation now called for equality of suffrage between the sexes, women as commissioners of prisons, the opening of all professions to women, equal pay, right of a woman to retain her own nationality on marriage, equal moral standards and representation of female peers in the House of Lords and they continued with this programme of social equality until the dissolution of the group in 1961.
Colombia's mineral resources include coal, iron, and other metals.
Colin Mackenzie was born, 1697 or 1698; attended, as Calenus Makenje, Scotus, the medical courses of Herman Boerhaave at the University of Leiden, 1722; studied under Alexander Monro primus in Edinburgh, 1740 and 1742; pupil of William Smellie; taught courses in obstetrics, 1754-1775; maintained a private lying-in establishment in Crucifix Lane, Southwark; degree of MD by the University of St Andrews, 1759; died, 1775.
Robert Milne Murray was born, 1855; read arts in St Andrew's University; moved to Edinburgh to study medicine; staff of the Royal Infirmary and Royal Maternity Hospital; designed a modification of the forceps previously invented by Tarnier; died, 1904.
Alexander Hamilton was baptised in 1739; assistant to John Straiton, surgeon, of Edinburgh, 1758; member of the Edinburgh College of Surgeons, 1762; licentiate, and subsequently a fellow, of the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh; physician to the Edinburgh Royal Infirmary, 1772; joint professor of midwifery in the University of Edinburgh with Dr Thomas Young, 1780 and sole professor, 1783-1800; was instrumental in establishing the Lying-in Hospital, 1791; died, 1802.