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 It was alternately repealed and reimposed until the 1880s, by which time it was generally accepted as a permanent levy.
Charles Hutton (1737-1823) was the son of a colliery labourer. He opened a mathematical school at Newcastle-upon-Tyne in 1760, and became Professor of Mathematics at the Woolwich Academy from 1773 to 1807. During this period, he also acted as editor of the Ladies Diary, 1773-1818. Hutton was a Fellow of the Royal Society, 1774, became the Copley medallist in 1778, and acted as its foreign secretary in 1779. Amongst other work, Hutton calculated the mean density of the earth in 1778. Publications: The compendious measurer; being a brief, yet comprehensive, treatise on mensuration and practical geometry. With an introduction to decimal and duodecimal arithmetic (G.G.J. and J. Robinson, and R. Baldwin ... and G. and J. Wilkie ..., London, 1786); The school-master's guide: or, a complete system of practical arithmetic, adapted to the use of schools (I. Thompson, Esq, Newcastle upon Tyne, 1764); A Computation of the length of the sine of a circular arc of one minute of a degree; A course of mathematics, in two volumes: composed, and more especially designed, for the use of the gentlemen cadets in the Royal Military Academy at Woolwich (G.G. and J. Robinson, London, 1798); A mathematical and philosophical dictionary: containing an explanation of the terms, and an account of the several subjects, comprized under the heads mathematics, astronomy, and philosophy both natural and experimental ... also memoirs of the lives and writings of the most eminent authors, both ancient and modern (J. Johnson; G. G. & J. Robinson, London, 1795); A treatise on Mensuration, both in theory and practice (Newcastle-upon-Tyne, 1770); An account of the Calculations made from the survey and measures taken at Schehallien, in order to ascertain the mean density of the earth (London, 1779); Mathematical Tables ... containing ... logarithms ... with tables useful in mathematical calculations. To which is prefixed a large ... history of the ... writings relating to those subjects, etc.. London, 1785; The principles of bridges: containing the mathematical demonstrations of the properties of the arches, the thickness of the piers, the force of the water against them (T. Saint, London, 1772).
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).
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.
The years of Louis XIV of France's minority were dominated by the civil disturbances known as The Frondes. These were caused by the attempts of the Government, and especially Cardinal Jules Mazarin, to raise revenue for the war with Spain using arbitrary measures which antagonised a wide cross-section of Parisian society. The two outbreaks were the Fronde of the Parlement (1648-1649) and the Fronde of the Princes (1650-1652), the latter being led by Louis de Bourbon, Prince de Condé. Though dominant for a short period, the Grand Condé was eventually defeated and fled to the Spanish Netherlands. Louis XIV entered Paris in triumph on October 21, 1652.
Miniature painting flourished from the mid-sixteenth century to the mid-nineteenth century.
Voltaire (François-Marie Arouet, 1694-1778) was a celebrated French writer. His La Pucelle D'Orleans was a mock-heroic poem, a comic satire of fundamental Catholic religion, as well as of Voltaire's own personal enemies, and was written for his own pleasure and that of his friends. The outrageous work was an open secret in Europe, and manuscript copies circulated freely. Several versions were printed against Voltaire's wishes, and he denied authorship until 1762, when he allowed the publication of an authorised copy.
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.
Hermetic philosophy is based on a bundle of manuscript purported to have been written by or to report almost at first hand the activities of the legendary priest, prophet, and sage Hermes Trismegistos. These comprised works of revelation on occult, theological and philosophical subjects, most notably alchemy.
Darley is a village near Harrogate, North Yorkshire.
No information was discovered at the time of compilation. This work was published in 1836 by Longman.
Born in 1575, Sir Thomas Reade became High Sheriff of the counties of Berkshire, Oxfordshire and Hertfordshire. He died in 1650.
The East India Company (formally called 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 the spice trade in East and Southeast Asia and India. It was incorporated by Royal Charter in December 1600.
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.
The Theatre Royal, Drury Lane, first opened in 1663 under a Royal Charter from Charles II. In 1672 it was badly damaged by fire, and replaced by a new theatre designed by Sir Christopher Wren, which was opened in 1674.
No information was discovered at the time of compilation.
Samuel Stryk (1640-1710) was a leading German lawyer and Professor of Law, who was active in developing German law from native sources, rather than from received Roman law.
No information was discovered at the time of compilation.
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 Feast of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary is on 15th August.
The Naylor family owned land at Hurstmonceux, Sussex. Francis Hare Naylor's son also named Francis, became a well-known author in the late eighteenth century. Francis Hare Naylor, senior, died in 1797.
No information available at present.
Whitehall was a goldsmith.
Secretary hand was a universal hand which could be written easily and read by all. It rose out of the cursive business hands, and became popular during the fifteenth century. Italic hand was another easily written cursive script. It had a distinctive lean, and could be written rapidly with the minimum number of pen lifts. Italic script came to prominence in the fifteenth century and its use continued into the seventeenth century.
No information was discovered at the time of compilation.
Robert of Gloucester (fl 1260-1300) is only known through his vernacular chronicle of English history. It is thought that he may have been a monk of Gloucester.
John Ashley was a planter in Barbados for 28 years. He sat as a Member of the Barbados Council, and was Deputy Auditor General. Ashley was the Leader of the West Indies interest in the UK during the 1730s, when he acted as Secretary of the Planters' Club. He wrote extensively on trade in the West Indies, most notably the sugar trade. Ashley died in 1751.
The Justice of the Peace is a local magistrate empowered chiefly to administer criminal or civil justice in minor cases.
Thomas Park was born in 1759 and spent his early life training to be an engraver. In 1797 he changed his occupation, turning his total attention instead to literature and antiquities. In 1792 he published his first volume of verse. He went on to publish more verse but mainly he edited many historical and literary works. He died in 1834.
The Mappa Mundi is a thirteenth century map bearing the name of 'Richard de Haldingham e de Lafford', who some scholars have identified as Richard de Bello, Prebendary of Lafford, in the diocese of Lincoln. The map has been dated to around 1290.Drawn on a sheet of vellum, the Mappa Mundi depicts a world with Jerusalem at its centre , based on the writings of the fifth century scholar Orosius. It includes drawings and descriptions illustrating man's history, the marvels of the natural world, and the imagined inhabitants of distant lands, though in other respects is relatively geographically accurate.The map is held at Hereford Cathedral.
William Wordsworth was born in the Lake District in 1770. An orphan by the age of 13, he was sent to be educated at Hawkshead grammar school. He then moved on to St John's College, Cambridge University, where he achieved only a pass in his degree. In 1791 Wordsworth travelled to France, where he formed a romantic attachment to a woman named Marie Vallon. Before their child was born in December 1792, Wordsworth had to return to England and was cut off by the outbreak of war between England and France. He did not meet his daughter Caroline until she was nine years old.
For the next few years he remained in London, associating with radicals such as William Godwin. In 1795, a legacy from a friend enabled him to be reunited with his sister Dorothy, and the pair moved into Alfoxden House near Bristol, where they met Samuel Taylor Coleridge and Robert Southey. Wordsworth and Southey embarked on a partnership which was to change the former's style of poetry from long poems of social protest the short lyrical and dramatic poems for which he is best known. In 1798 Coleridge and Wordsworth published Lyrical Ballads. It is at this point that Wordsworth began work on The Prelude, a poem which was finally published in 1850.
Following a tour of the Lake District, the Wordsworths and Coleridge moved to the Lake District, the former two moving into Dove Cottage in Ambleside. In 1802, William married his childhood companion, Mary Hutchinson. As their family grew, the Wordsworths moved several times, finally settling at Rydal Mount in 1813. During this time, Wordsworth wrote and published some of his best known work, including Poems in two volumes (1807), Poems (1815), The excursion (1814), The White Doe of Rylstone (1815), Thanksgiving ode (1816), Peter Bell (1819), The Waggonier (1819) and Ecclesiastical sketches (1822).Wordsworth was made Poet Laureate in 1843, a post which he held until his death in 1850.
Enoch Arnold Bennett was born in Staffordshire on 27 May 1867. In 1885 he joined his father's office in order to finish preparing for matriculation at the University of London and to study for a law degree which he never completed. In 1888 he left Staffordshire to become a clerk at a firm of London solicitors. After working as a freelance journalist and writing several novels and short stories, Bennett in 1893 became the assistant editor, later editor (1896) of the weekly journal Woman. At the end of 1902 Bennett left England for Paris. While in Paris Bennett continued to write. He remained in Paris until 1912, when he returned to England.
During World War One, 1914-1918, Bennett became a public servant, serving on the War Memorials and Wounded Allies Relief Committee and head of propaganda in France. Whilst in France Bennett wrote on the conditions at the front. After the war Bennett published several novels and contributed articles to the Evening Standard newspaper. After a trip to France, he returned to London in January 1931, ill with typhoid fever. Bennett died on 27 March 1931.
Teresa Ann Englefield was the daughter of Sir Henry Englefield by his second wife. She was a pupil of Samuel Dunn who gained a considerable reputation as a geographer and astronomer and was in demand as a private tutor in London during the 1770's.
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.
Unknown
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. From the Privy Council there later developed the Cabinet.
Argenta is a town in the province of Ferrara, North-East Italy, situated on the Fiume Reno. Ferrara was a signoria run by the Este family from 1240 - in this period, Duke Nicolò III. In 1598 direct Papal rule was established in Ferrara.
The House of Commons is the effective legislative authority in Great Britain. It alone has the right to impose taxes and to vote money to, or withhold it from, the monarch and the various public departments and services. The passage of legislation is the House of Commons' primary function.
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 discovered at the time of compilation.
Maximilien de Béthune, Duc de Sully (1560-1641) was a French statesman, who acted as director of the king's Council of Finance in 1596, and sole superintendent of finances, 1598.
The Thirty Years War was a series of wars fought by various European nations for various reasons, including religious, dynastic, territorial, and commercial rivalries. Its destructive campaigns and battles occurred over most of Europe.
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.
Parliament is the legislative body of England, and has the right to impose taxes and to vote money to, or withhold it from, the monarch and the various public departments and services. 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 despite widespread aversion in 1660.
Information not available at present.
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).