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Francis Barber
Francis Barber ( – 13 January 1801), born Quashey, was the Jamaican manservant of Samuel Johnson in London from 1752 until Johnson's death in 1784. Johnson made him his residual heir, with £70 () a year to be given him by trustees, expressing the wish that he move from London to Lichfield, Staffordshire, Johnson's native city. After Johnson's death, Barber did this, opening a draper's shop and marrying a local woman. Barber was also bequeathed Johnson's books and papers, and a gold watch. In later years he had acted as Johnson's assistant in revising his famous ''Dictionary of the English Language'' and other works. Barber was also an important source for James Boswell concerning Johnson's life in the years before Boswell himself knew Johnson. Biography Barber was born a slave in Jamaica on a sugarcane plantation belonging to the Bathurst family. His original name was Quashey, which is a common name for men of Coromantee origin. At the age of about 10, he was brought ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Yorkshire
Yorkshire ( ) is an area of Northern England which was History of Yorkshire, historically a county. Despite no longer being used for administration, Yorkshire retains a strong regional identity. The county was named after its county town, the city of York. The south-west of Yorkshire is densely populated, and includes the cities of Leeds, Sheffield, Bradford, Doncaster and Wakefield. The north and east of the county are more sparsely populated, however the north-east includes the southern part of the Teesside conurbation, and the port city of Kingston upon Hull is located in the south-east. York is located near the centre of the county. Yorkshire has a Yorkshire Coast, coastline to the North Sea to the east. The North York Moors occupy the north-east of the county, and the centre contains the Vale of Mowbray in the north and the Vale of York in the south. The west contains part of the Pennines, which form the Yorkshire Dales in the north-west. The county was historically borde ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Tobias Smollett
Tobias George Smollett (bapt. 19 March 1721 – 17 September 1771) was a Scottish writer and surgeon. He was best known for writing picaresque novels such as ''The Adventures of Roderick Random'' (1748), ''The Adventures of Peregrine Pickle'' (1751) and ''The Expedition of Humphry Clinker'' (1771), which influenced later generations of British novelists, including Charles Dickens. His novels were liberally altered by contemporary printers; an authoritative edition of each was edited by Dr O. M. Brack Jr and others. Early life and family Smollett was born at Dalquhurn, now part of Renton, Scotland, Renton in present-day West Dunbartonshire, Scotland, and baptised on 19 March 1721 (his birth date is estimated as 3 days previously). He was the fourth son of Archibald Smollett of Bonhill, a judge and landowner, laird of Bonhill, living at Dalquhurn on the River Leven, Dunbartonshire, River Leven, who died about 1726, when Smollett was just five years old. His mother Barbara Smolle ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
John Wilkes
John Wilkes (17 October 1725 – 26 December 1797) was an English Radicalism (historical), radical journalist and politician, as well as a magistrate, essayist and soldier. He was first elected a Member of Parliament in 1757. In the Middlesex election affair, Middlesex election dispute, he fought for the right of his votersrather than the British House of Commons, House of Commonsto determine their representatives. In 1768, angry protests of his supporters were suppressed in the Massacre of St George's Fields. In 1771, he was instrumental in obliging the government to concede the right of printers to publish wikt:verbatim, verbatim accounts of parliamentary debates. In 1776, he introduced the first Bill (law), bill for parliamentary reform in the Parliament of Great Britain, British Parliament. During the American Revolutionary War, American War of Independence, he was a supporter of the rebels, adding further to his popularity with Patriot (American Revolution), American Whi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Life Of Johnson
''The Life of Samuel Johnson, LL.D.'' (1791) by James Boswell is a biography of English writer and literary critic Samuel Johnson. The work was from the beginning a universal critical and popular success, and represents a landmark in the development of the modern genre of biography. Many have called it the greatest biography written in English, one of the greatest biographies ever written, and among the greatest nonfiction books of all time. The book is valued as both an important source of information on Johnson and his times, as well as an important and enduring work of literature. Background On 16 May 1763, as a 22-year-old Scot visiting London, Boswell first met Johnson in the book shop of Johnson's friend Tom Davies. They quickly became friends, although for many years they met only when Boswell visited London in the intervals of his law practice in Scotland. From the age of 20, Boswell kept a series of journals thoroughly detailing his day-to-day experience. This journal ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Torbay
Torbay is a unitary authority with a borough status in the ceremonial county of Devon, England. It is governed by Torbay Council, based in the town of Torquay, and also includes the towns of Paignton and Brixham. The borough consists of of land around the east-facing Tor Bay, part of Lyme Bay on the English Channel. (Word document) A popular tourist destination, Torbay's sandy beaches, mild climate and recreational and leisure attractions have given rise to its nickname of the ''English Riviera''. The neighbouring districts are South Hams and Teignbridge. History Human bones and tools found in Kents Cavern in Torquay show that people have inhabited the Torbay area since Paleolithic times. A maxilla fragment known as Kents Cavern 4 may be the oldest example of a modern human in Europe, dating back to 37,000–40,000 years ago. Roman soldiers are known to have visited Torquay during the period when Britannia formed a part of the Roman Empire; they left offeri ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Leith
Leith (; ) is a port area in the north of Edinburgh, Scotland, founded at the mouth of the Water of Leith and is home to the Port of Leith. The earliest surviving historical references are in the royal charter authorising the construction of Holyrood Abbey in 1128 in which it is termed ''Inverlet'' (Inverleith). After centuries of control by Edinburgh, Leith was made a separate burgh in 1833 only to be merged into Edinburgh in 1920. Leith is located on the southern coast of the Firth of Forth and lies within the City of Edinburgh council area; since 2007 Leith (Edinburgh ward), it has formed one of 17 multi-member Wards of the United Kingdom, wards of the city. History As the major port serving Edinburgh, Leith has seen many significant events in Scottish history. First settlement The earliest evidence of settlement in Leith comes from several archaeological digs undertaken in The Shore, Leith, The Shore area in the late 20th century. Amongst the finds were medieval wharf ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Landsman (rank)
Landsman or landman (the latter being an older term) was a military rank given to naval recruits. United Kingdom In the Royal Navy in the middle of the 18th century (c. 1757), the term "landsman" referred to a seaman with less than a year's experience at sea. After a year, a landsman was usually rated as an ordinary seaman. Most were acquired by impressment (a common method of recruitment from c. 1700–1815). Landsmen were usually between the ages of 16 and 35, while seasoned sailors (who started as ordinary seamen) could be impressed up to the ages of 50 to 55 depending on need. In 1853, with the abolition of impressment after the passing of the Continuous Service Act, the rank's title was changed to "apprentice seaman". The term "landsman" evolved into a more formal rating for a seaman assigned to unskilled manual labour. Landsmen's unfamiliarity with shipboard life routinely made them unpopular with the more experienced members of their vessel's crew. Throughout the eig ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Royal Navy
The Royal Navy (RN) is the naval warfare force of the United Kingdom. It is a component of His Majesty's Naval Service, and its officers hold their commissions from the King of the United Kingdom, King. Although warships were used by Kingdom of England, English and Kingdom of Scotland, Scottish kings from the early Middle Ages, medieval period, the first major maritime engagements were fought in the Hundred Years' War against Kingdom of France, France. The modern Royal Navy traces its origins to the English Navy of the early 16th century; the oldest of the British Armed Forces, UK's armed services, it is consequently known as the Senior Service. From the early 18th century until the World War II, Second World War, it was the world's most powerful navy. The Royal Navy played a key part in establishing and defending the British Empire, and four Imperial fortress colonies and a string of imperial bases and coaling stations secured the Royal Navy's ability to assert naval superior ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Cheapside
Cheapside is a street in the City of London, the historic and modern financial centre of London, England, which forms part of the A40 road, A40 London to Fishguard road. It links St Martin's Le Grand with Poultry, London, Poultry. Near its eastern end at Bank Junction, where it becomes Poultry, is Mansion House, London, Mansion House, the Bank of England, and Bank–Monument station, Bank station. To the west is St Paul's Cathedral, St Paul's tube station and square. In the Middle Ages, it was known as Westcheap, as opposed to Eastcheap, another street in the City, near London Bridge. The boundaries of the Wards of the City of London, wards of Cheap (ward), Cheap, Cordwainer (ward), Cordwainer and Bread Street run along Cheapside and Poultry; prior to boundary changes in 2003 the road was divided amongst Farringdon Within and Cripplegate wards in addition to the current three. The contemporary Cheapside is the location of a range of retail and food outlets and offices, as well ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Slavery In The Colonial United States
The institution of slavery in the European colonies in North America, which eventually became part of the United States of America, developed due to a combination of factors. Primarily, the labor demands for establishing and maintaining European colonies resulted in the Atlantic slave trade. Slavery existed in every European colony in the Americas during the early modern period, and both Africans and indigenous peoples were targets of enslavement by Europeans during the era. As the Spaniards, French, Dutch, and British gradually established colonies in North America from the 16th century onward, they began to enslave indigenous people, using them as forced labor to help develop colonial economies. As indigenous peoples suffered massive population losses due to imported diseases, Europeans quickly turned to importing slaves from Africa, primarily to work on slave plantations that produced cash crops. The enslavement of indigenous people in North America was later replaced d ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Somersett's Case
''Somerset v Stewart'' (177298 ER 499(also known as ''Sommersett v Steuart'', Somersett's case, and the Mansfield Judgment) is a judgment of the English Court of King's Bench in 1772, relating to the right of an enslaved person on English soil not to be forcibly removed from the country and sent to Jamaica for sale. According to one reported version of the case, Lord Mansfield decided that: Lord Mansfield found that to the extent the laws of England and Wales had ever permitted slavery, those laws were superseded by later law or otherwise defunct. This absence of a current English statute ("positive law") under which the court might remand someone as a slave proved decisive, as Mansfield refused to accept any other basis for the court to order something that he considered repugnant. The case was closely followed throughout the Empire, particularly in the thirteen American colonies. Scholars have disagreed over precisely what legal precedent the case set. Facts James Some ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
