Caroline Elizabeth Playne (1857-1948), pacifist and historian, born Forest Green, Avening, Gloucestershire, 2 May 1857; elected an associate member of the University Women's Club in 1908; published two novels, The Romance of a Lonely Woman (1904) and The Terror of the Macdurghotts (1907), and a paper, The evolution of international peace, read to the Anglo-Russian Literary Society, which was critical of social Darwinism and advocated internationalism. Around 1904 Playne became a founder member of Britain's National Peace Council supporting the recently founded international court at The Hague and in 1908 attended the International Peace Congress in London attended by Bertha von Suttner, whose biographer she later became; joined the Emergency Committee for the Relief of Distressed Enemy Aliens (Germans trapped in Britain); joined E. D. Morel's Union for the Democratic Control of Foreign Policy and worked for the Nailsworth Peace Association and the National Peace Council that was then arranging a postal service for personal correspondence between the belligerent countries and was also trying to trace missing persons. Playne also translated and published articles from the Berliner Tageblatt that praised Quaker relief efforts for German internees and prisoners of war, collected suppressed pacifist pamphlets and kept private notes and a diary on the British press during the war years. In the aftermath of the First World War, Playne wrote extensively on the perceived futility of the conflict; died, 1948.
Publications: Neuroses of the Nations (1925), The Pre-War Mind in Britain (1928), Society and War, 1914-16 (1931), Britain Holds on, 1917, 1918 (1933), Bertha von Suttner and the Struggle to Avert the World War(1936).
Born 1833; wrote under the name Mrs Henry Pott and became a prominent Shakespeare scholar and proponent of the theory that Francis Bacon was Shakespeare; died 1914.
Publications include: The promus of formularies and elegances, by Francis Bacon (1883); Did Francis Bacon write "Shakespeare"? (1884); Francis Bacon and his secret society: An attempt to collect and unite the lost links of a long and strong chain (1891).
Born Dublin, June 1943; came to England with his family when he was 11; studied at Xaverian College, Manchester, and read history at Merton College, Oxford, where he became actively involved with politics as a member of the Labour Party and also joined several socialist and Trotskyite groupings. Clinton gained his PhD at Chelsea College, University of London, researching trades council activity (under Ralph Miliband) and industrial relations were to remain his main intellectual interest, publishing the book The Trade Union Rank And File: Trades Councils in Britain 1900-1940 in 1977. In the 1980s, Clinton wrote books on printed ephemera, libraries, unions, housing and safety at work. His large work, Post Office Workers: A Trade Union And Social History was published in 1984. During the 1970s, Clinton was instrumental in setting up the Workers' Socialist League and devoted much time to its campaigning and publications. In 1982, he was elected to Islington council and almost immediately became chief whip; in 1986, he became deputy leader to Margaret Hodge, and leader himself, 1994-1997. As well as politics, Clinton also taught widely, holding temporary posts at Leeds University, the Bodleian Library, Oxford, Imperial College, South Bank Polytechnic, the Institute of Housing, the Irish Studies Centre and North London Polytechnic. In 1988, he took more permanent employment as a history lecturer at Bristol Polytechnic (subsequently the University of the West of England). Clinton's last work Jean Moulin, 1899-1943: The French Resistance And The Republic was published in 2001. He died in January 2005.
Henry Somerton Foxwell, born 17 June 1849, Somerset, the son of an ironmonger and slate and timber merchant. He received his early educated at the Weslyian Collegiate Institute, Taunton; passed the London Matriculation examination at the minimum age; obtained a London External BA Degree at the age of 18; admitted to St. John's College, Cambridge, 1868; placed senior in the Moral Sciences Tripos in 1870 and was associated with the College for the rest of his life; made a Fellow in 1874 and held his College lectureship for sixty years. In the University he was largely responsible for the honours teaching of economics from 1877 to 1908; Foxwell was assistant lecturer to his friend Stanley Jevons who had held the Chair of Economics at University College London from 1868 and then succeeded Jevons as chair in May 1881, holding the post until 1927; at the same time, Foxwell was Newmarch Lecturer in statistics at University College London and a lecturer on currency and banking from 1896 at London School of Economics. In 1907 he became joint Professor of Political Economy in the University of London, and in addition gave extra-mural lectures for Cambridge University from 1874 and for London from 1876 to 1881 in London, Leeds, Halifax and elsewhere. He also held the following appointments: external examiner for London, Cambridge and other universities; first Dean of the Faculty of Economics at the University of London; vice-president and president of the Council of the Royal Economic Society; member of the Councils of the Statistical Society and the British Association for the Advancement of Science; and secretary and later president of the University (Cambridge) Musical Society and the Cambridge Antiquarian Society. He also provided a course of lectures at the Institute of Actuaries. Foxwell was a dedicated book-collector and bibliophile and concentrated on the purchase of economic books printed before 1848. He described his library as a collection of books and tracts intended to serve as the basis for the study of the industrial, commercial, monetary and financial history of the United Kingdom and the gradual development of economic science generally. Foxwell's library provides the nucleus of the Goldsmiths' Library of Economic Literature. When The Worshipful Company of Goldsmiths purchased the library of economic literature from Foxwell in 1901 for £10,000 it contained about 30,000 books. The Company also generously provided Foxwell with a series of subventions following the purchase of the Library to enable him to make further acquisitions prior to the gift of the Goldsmiths' Library of Economic Literature to the University of London in 1903. From the sale in 1901, Foxwell kept back duplicates that formed a second collection which he sold to Harvard University for £4,000 in 1929. From the termination of dealings with the Goldsmiths' Company in 1903, he began creating a second major collection. By his death, on 3 August 1936, Foxwell had amassed a further 20,000 volumes that were sold to Harvard University creating the focus for the Kress Library.
The British Linen Company was incorporated by Royal Charter on 5 Jul 1746, 'to do everything that may conduce to the promoting and carrying on' the manufacture of linen.
Information not available at present.
Information not available at present.
Thomas Lloyd Humberstone (1876-1957) was a prominent member of the Convocation of the University of London. He gained a degree in science from the University of London in 1899, although his career as a schoolmaster had begun two years previously. He taught at a number of schools, including Dolgelley (1898-1900) and Highgate School (1903) before taking a job in 1904 in the Office of the Academic Register of the University of London. In the previous year, he had founded the reference book of secondary education, the Schoolmasters Yearbook and Directory. Humberstone was a prolific writer on education and on the University of London in particular: he was frequent contributor to journals such as The Journal of Education.
The registers were printed in Enkhuisen by Jan von Guissen.
These materials were collected by Dr Harte for his book, The University of London, 1836-1986 - an illustrated history (1986, Athlone Press).
Brabant was a feudal duchy, centred in Louvain and Brussels. Famed for its democratic and constitutionalist tendencies, it was divided into two parts in the 17th century, the northern section remaining under Dutch control, and the southern eventually becoming part of Belgium. Limburg is a province in northeastern Belgium. It is bounded by the Netherlands on the north and east, where the Meuse River marks the frontier. Largely Flemish-speaking, it was formerly part of the feudal duchy of Limburg, which was divided between Belgium and the Netherlands in 1839.
The volume contains the bookplate of William Lee Antonie, who was a Member of Parliament, and an annotation (probably not in William's hand) which states that the writing of the manuscript appears to be either that of John or Richard Antonie, probably the latter.
Lord Lovat took part in the Jacobite rebellion of 1745 and was impeached by the House of Lords. He was executed on Tower Hill, London, on 9th April 1747. His son, whom he had involved in the rebellion was pardoned in 1750 and was granted his father's forfeited lands in 1774.
In 1523 King Francis I of France established a new central treasury, the Trésor de l'Épargne, into which all his revenues, ordinary and extraordinary, were to be deposited. In 1542 he set up 16 financial and administrative divisions, the généralités, appointing in each a collector general with the responsibility for the collection of all royal revenues within his area. In 1551 King Henry II added a treasurer general; from 1577 the bureaux des finances, new supervisory bodies composed of a collector general and a number of treasurers, made their appearance in each généralité.
After studying at Edinburgh University and spending a while as an actor, Robert Wallace went on to receive his preacher's license in 1722. In 1744 he became the Royal Chaplain for Scotland and a dean of the Chapel Royal. In 1758 he published his innovative Characteristics of the Present Political State of Great Britain. In 1759 he received an honorary DD from Edinburgh University.
Information not available at present.
Pyott was a wine merchant of Kingston upon Hull who lost his fortune in trade speculations.
Information not available at present.
In 1767 the House of Lords ordered the printing of the Rolls of Parliament then extant and the Journals of the House. The publication of the Rolls and Journals between 1767 and 1830 was supervised in some detail by Committees and sub-committees of the House.
No information was discovered at the time of compilation.This is probably the author's own corrected manuscript of Traite de la circulation et du credit, contenant une Analyse raisonnee des Fonds d'Angleterre (Marc Michel Rey, Amsterdam, 1771).
No information available at present.
Anne-Robert Jacques Turgot (1727-1781) became a deputy solicitor general in January 1752 and later a counselor magistrate to the Parlement (supreme court of law) in Paris (December 1752). In 1753 he bought the office of examiner of petitions, and by 1761 Turgot had drawn enough attention to himself for Louis XV to accept his nomination as Intendant to the administrative region of Limoges. He occupied this post for 13 years and there displayed his extraordinary capacities as an administrator, reformer, and economist. He was appointed comptroller general by Louis XIV on 24 Aug 1774, and tried unsuccessfully to institute financial reform.
No information was discovered at the time of compilation.
Excise are inland duties levied on articles at the time of their manufacture, notably, alcoholic drinks, but has also included salt, paper and glass. A permanent board of Excise for England and Wales was established in 1683 with separate boards for Ireland in 1682 and Scotland in 1707.
Gregory King's work was not published until 1802, when George Chalmers added it to a new edition of his Estimate of the comparative strength of Great Britain. It was later reprinted in Two Tracts ed George E Barnett (Johns Hopkins Press, Baltimore, 1936).
Sir Archibald Edmonstone was created a Baronet of Great Britain in 1774. Between the years of 1761-1795 he sat in Parliament for the county of Dumbarton and the Ayr and Irvine burghs. He died in 1807.
The English Royal Mint was responsible for the making of coins according to exact compositions, weights, dimensions and tolerances, usually determined by law. Minting in England was reorganised by King Edward I to facilitate a general recoinage in 1279. This established a unified system which was run from the Royal Mint in London by the Master and Warden of the Mint.. There remained smaller mints in Canterbury and elsewhere until 1553, when English minting was concentrated into a single establishment in London. 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.
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. A Board of Customs for England and Wales was created by Letter Patent in 1671.
During this period there was much enclosing of land. Records show that enclosure by acts of Parliament in the periods 1761-80 and 1791-1870 enclosed one third of the county of Lincolnshire.
The Royal Navy is the naval military organization of the United Kingdom, charged with the national defense at sea, protection of shipping, and fulfillment of international military agreements.
The Hudson Bay Company was incorporated in England on May 2, 1670, to seek a northwest passage to the Pacific, to occupy the lands adjacent to Hudson Bay, and to carry on any commerce with those lands that might prove profitable. The Company engaged in the fur trade during its first two centuries of existence. In the 1670s and '80s the company established a number of posts on the shores of James and Hudson bays. Most of these posts were captured by the French and were in French hands between 1686 and 1713, when they were restored to the company by the Treaty of Utrecht. It still exists as a commercial company active in real estate, merchandising, and natural resources, with headquarters in Toronto.
No information available at present.
Cosimo de Medici, Duke of Florence from 1537 until his death in 1574, was head of the Florentine Republic, and was assisted in its government by the senate, the assembly and the council. Pisa, intermittently under Florentine control since 1406, was reconquered and occupied by them in 1509.
Dugald Stewart (1753-1828) was a renowned philosopher, who numbered Thomas Reid, Sir Archibald Alison and Sir Walter Scott amongst his friends, and Henry John Temple, 1st Viscount Palmerston, and Lord John Russell, 1st Earl Russell as his pupils. He was a Professor of Moral Philosophy at Edinburgh from 1785 to 1820. He wrote numerous works of biography and philosophy (see the British Library catalogue for details).
Sir James William Morrison (1774-1850) was Third Clerk to the Master of the Royal Mint, 1792, and also worked as an assistant in the melting house. On 31 Dec 1801, he replaced his father, James Morrison, as First Clerk, Purveyor and Deputy Master of the Mint, a post which he held until 1850.
Craven Ord (1756-1832) was Vice-President of the Society of Antiquaries and a Fellow of the Royal Society. He compiled a fine collection of impressions of brasses and of historical manuscripts. His Suffolk collections are in the British Museum. Publications: Description of a carving in the Church of Long Melford (London, 1794); Vain boastings of Frenchmen. The same in 1386 as in 1798. Being an account of the threatened invasion of England by the French the 10th year of King Richard II. Extracted from ancient chronicles (J. Pridden, London, 1798).
The East India Company, also known as the Governor And Company Of Merchants Of London Trading Into The East Indies (1600-1708) and the United Company Of Merchants Of England Trading To The East Indies (1708-1873), was an English company formed for the exploitation of trade with East and Southeast Asia and India, incorporated by royal charter on 31 Dec 1600. Starting as a monopolistic trading body, the company became involved in politics and acted as an agent of British imperialism in India from the early 18th century to the mid19th century.
Rogers Ruding (1751-1820) was educated at Merton College Oxford University, and gained an MA in 1775. A well known numismatist, he was also a Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries. Ruding held the living of Malden from 1793. Publications: A proposal for restoring the antient constitution of the mint, so far as relates to the expence of coinage. Together with the outline of a plan for the improvement of the money; and for increasing the difficulty of counterfeiting (London, 1799); Annals of the Coinage of Britain and its dependencies; from the earliest period to the end of the fiftieth year of the reign of his present Majesty (Nichols, Son, and Bentley: London, 1817-19).
No information available at present.
No information available.
In 1784, a new Committee of Council on Trade and Plantations was created by an Order in Council (Privy Council). Its functions were mainly consultative. As the Industrial Revolution gathered momentum, the department's work became mainly executive, and from 1840 a succession of statutes gave it power to regulate industry and commerce. It officially became the Board of Trade in 1861, though the title was in common use for a long time beforehand.
This manuscript is a translation of a Dutch book Het thresoor oft schat van alle specien printed by William of Paris at Antwerp in 1580.
It appears that the English and Bristol Channels Ship Canal was never actually built. Two proposals were originally considered. First was a route from the south coast at Seaton through to Bridgewater, the second running further west via Taunton and Exeter. At the time of these records a Bill was passed in Parliament allowing the building of a canal from Bridgwater Bay to Beer near Seaton. The canal would have been 44 miles long with 60 locks. By 1828 the company announced they had failed in raising the necessary money to get the project off the ground.
Bombay was ceded to the East India Company by the English crown in 1668. With the destruction of Maratha power, trade and communications to the mainland were established and those to Europe were extended. In 1857 the first spinning and weaving mill was established, and by 1860 Bombay had become the largest cotton market in India.
After a relatively poor upbringing Lovett became interested in the social conditions of the working classes. Around 1830 he was appointed secretary to the British Association for promoting Co-operative Knowledge and during that time was also connected with agitation against stamp duty on newspapers. In 1831 he went on to join the National Union of the Working Classes. In 1836 he assisted to draft the Benefit Societies Act and to draft other People's Bills and Charters. With his collegue Collins he wrote Chartism: A New Organisation of the People in 1841. Later in his life he also became interested in educational issues, writing some educational text books. He was also involved in promoting the establishment of free libraries to parliamentarians.
No information was discovered at the time of compilation.
Gavin Young's publications include: Observations on the law of population: being an attempt to trace its effects from the conflicting theories of Malthus and Sadler (London, 1832); Reflections on the present state of British India (London, 1829).
Early in his life Sir George entered the East India House of Cockerell & Larpent. He went on to become Chairman of the Oriental and China Association and Deputy Chair of St Katherine's Dock Company. In 1841 he was created a baronet and during that same year was elected to represent Nottingham. He died in 1855.
Nassau William Senior (1790-1864) was educated at Eton and Magdalen College, Oxford University, gaining an MA in 1815. He became a barrister at Lincoln's Inn, London, in 1819. He held the position of Professor of Political Economy at Oxford, 1825-1830 and 1847-1852, and was a member of the Poor Law Commission in 1833, for which he wrote the report (1834). Senior was a Master in Chancery from 1836 to 1855. A list of his publications may be found in the British Library catalogue.