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Alexander Smith (biographer)
A Compleat history of the lives and robberies of the most notorious highwaymen... Alexander Smith (fl. 1714–1726) was a compiler of volumes of biographies. Presumed to be a nom de plume, but the details of the real authors are unknown. Biography "Captain Alex. Smith" is known only for his/her compilations created during the reign of George I, which suggest that he was better known as a frequenter of police-courts and taverns than in military circles. It is not improbable that his industry was stimulated by the success obtained by Theophilus Lucas from his ‘'Lives of the Gamesters,’' published in 1714. The works issued in Captain Alexander Smith's name were: ‘A Complete History of the Lives and Robberies of the most notorious Highwaymen, Footpads, Shoplifts, and Cheats of both Sexes in and about London and Westminster’ (2nd edit. London, 1714, 12mo, supplementary volume, 1720, 12mo; another edit., 2 vols. 1719, 12mo; 1719–20, 3 vols. 12mo); this curious work, which com ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
A Compleat History Of The Lives And Robberies Of The Most Notorious Highwaymen
A, or a, is the first letter and the first vowel of the Latin alphabet, used in the modern English alphabet, the alphabets of other western European languages and others worldwide. Its name in English is ''a'' (pronounced ), plural ''aes''. It is similar in shape to the Ancient Greek letter alpha, from which it derives. The uppercase version consists of the two slanting sides of a triangle, crossed in the middle by a horizontal bar. The lowercase version can be written in two forms: the double-storey a and single-storey ɑ. The latter is commonly used in handwriting and fonts based on it, especially fonts intended to be read by children, and is also found in italic type. In English grammar, " a", and its variant " an", are indefinite articles. History The earliest certain ancestor of "A" is aleph (also written 'aleph), the first letter of the Phoenician alphabet, which consisted entirely of consonants (for that reason, it is also called an abjad to distinguish it fro ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Floruit
''Floruit'' (; abbreviated fl. or occasionally flor.; from Latin for "they flourished") denotes a date or period during which a person was known to have been alive or active. In English, the unabbreviated word may also be used as a noun indicating the time when someone flourished. Etymology and use la, flōruit is the third-person singular perfect active indicative of the Latin verb ', ' "to bloom, flower, or flourish", from the noun ', ', "flower". Broadly, the term is employed in reference to the peak of activity for a person or movement. More specifically, it often is used in genealogy and historical writing when a person's birth or death dates are unknown, but some other evidence exists that indicates when they were alive. For example, if there are wills attested by John Jones in 1204, and 1229, and a record of his marriage in 1197, a record concerning him might be written as "John Jones (fl. 1197–1229)". The term is often used in art history when dating the care ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
King George I Of Great Britain
George I (George Louis; ; 28 May 1660 – 11 June 1727) was King of Great Britain and Ireland from 1 August 1714 and ruler of the Electorate of Hanover within the Holy Roman Empire from 23 January 1698 until his death in 1727. He was the first British monarch of the House of Hanover as the most senior Protestant descendant of his great-grandfather James VI and I. Born in Hanover to Ernest Augustus and Sophia of Hanover, George inherited the titles and lands of the Duchy of Brunswick-Lüneburg from his father and uncles. A succession of European wars expanded his German domains during his lifetime; he was ratified as prince-elector of Hanover in 1708. After the deaths in 1714 of his mother Sophia and his second cousin Anne, Queen of Great Britain, George ascended the British throne as Anne's closest living Protestant relative under the Act of Settlement 1701. Jacobites attempted, but failed, to depose George and replace him with James Francis Edward Stuart, Anne's Catholic hal ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Theophilus Lucas
Theophilus Lucas () is known for writing a successful book about gambling. He inherited, according to his own assertion, an estate of £2,000 a year, which he lost at the gaming tables. To deter his son, who was the "very next heir to £1,500 per annum by the death of an uncle", from following his example, or, at best, to put him on his guard against the tricks of card-sharpers, he wrote an entertaining, in places scandalous, book entitled ''Memoirs of the Lives, Intrigues, and Comical Adventures of the most famous Gamesters and celebrated Sharpers in the reigns of Charles II, James II, William III, and Queen Anne''; "wherein is contain'd the secret History of Gaming. The whole calculated for the meridians of London, Bath, Tunbridge, and the Groom-Porters" (1714). A third edition, with additions, was published without the author's name in 1744. This book, which owes nothing to Charles Cotton's ''The Compleat Gamester'' (1674), has been of great use to biographers, though its stateme ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Sir John Falstaff
Sir John Falstaff is a fictional character who appears in three plays by William Shakespeare and is eulogised in a fourth. His significance as a fully developed character is primarily formed in the plays ''Henry IV, Part 1'' and ''Part 2'', where he is a companion to Prince Hal, the future King Henry V of England. Falstaff is also featured as the buffoonish suitor of two married women in ''The Merry Wives of Windsor''. Though primarily a comic figure, Falstaff embodies a depth common to Shakespeare's major characters. A fat, vain, and boastful knight, he spends most of his time drinking at the Boar's Head Inn with petty criminals, living on stolen or borrowed money. Falstaff leads the apparently wayward Prince Hal into trouble, and is ultimately repudiated after Hal becomes king. Falstaff has since appeared in other media, including operas by Giuseppe Verdi, Ralph Vaughan Williams, and Otto Nicolai, and in Orson Welles' 1966 film ''Chimes at Midnight''. The operas focus on his ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Moll Cutpurse
Mary Frith (c. 1584 – 26 July 1659), alias Moll (or Mal) Cutpurse, was an English notorious pickpocket and fence of the London underworld. Meaning of nicknames Moll, apart from being a nickname for Mary, was a common name in the 16th through 17th centuries for a young woman, usually of disreputable character. The term "Cutpurse" refers to her reputation as a thief who would cut purses to steal the contents. The other name by which she was known, "The Roaring Girl" is derived from the early modern London trend of "roaring boys," or aggressive young men of lower social stations who defied codes of civility and aped the belligerent and courtly styles of the upper class. An eccentric life The facts of her life are extremely confusing, with many exaggerations and myths attached to her name. ''The Life of Mrs Mary Frith'', a sensationalised biography written in 1662, three years after her death, helped to perpetuate many of these myths. Mary Frith was born in the mid-158 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Joan Bracey
Joan Bracey born Joan Phillips (c.1656 – maybe 15 April 1685) was an English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England ** English national ide ... highwaywoman described in a book in 1715. All the stories of her life seem to come from this one source and no supporting evidence of her existence has been found. Life Bracey's family were well off and Northamptonshire farmers and their family name was Phillips. Facts are few, but it is said that she met Edward Bracey when she was 24. He was already a criminal and he had hoped to gain money by marrying her. The marriage never took place, but they robbed her father, and they became partners. They committed highway robberies together which was a capital crime. They made enough money to open an inn at Bristol, and she was known for swindling men who though ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Oxford Dictionary Of National Biography
The ''Dictionary of National Biography'' (''DNB'') is a standard work of reference on notable figures from British history, published since 1885. The updated ''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography'' (''ODNB'') was published on 23 September 2004 in 60 volumes and online, with 50,113 biographical articles covering 54,922 lives. First series Hoping to emulate national biographical collections published elsewhere in Europe, such as the '' Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie'' (1875), in 1882 the publisher George Smith (1824–1901), of Smith, Elder & Co., planned a universal dictionary that would include biographical entries on individuals from world history. He approached Leslie Stephen, then editor of the '' Cornhill Magazine'', owned by Smith, to become the editor. Stephen persuaded Smith that the work should focus only on subjects from the United Kingdom and its present and former colonies. An early working title was the ''Biographia Britannica'', the name of an earlier eig ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
18th-century Biographers
The 18th century lasted from January 1, 1701 ( MDCCI) to December 31, 1800 ( MDCCC). During the 18th century, elements of Enlightenment thinking culminated in the American, French, and Haitian Revolutions. During the century, slave trading and human trafficking expanded across the shores of the Atlantic, while declining in Russia, China, and Korea. Revolutions began to challenge the legitimacy of monarchical and aristocratic power structures, including the structures and beliefs that supported slavery. The Industrial Revolution began during mid-century, leading to radical changes in human society and the environment. Western historians have occasionally defined the 18th century otherwise for the purposes of their work. For example, the "short" 18th century may be defined as 1715–1789, denoting the period of time between the death of Louis XIV of France and the start of the French Revolution, with an emphasis on directly interconnected events. To historians who expand ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
18th-century English Writers
The 18th century lasted from January 1, 1701 ( MDCCI) to December 31, 1800 ( MDCCC). During the 18th century, elements of Enlightenment thinking culminated in the American, French, and Haitian Revolutions. During the century, slave trading and human trafficking expanded across the shores of the Atlantic, while declining in Russia, China, and Korea. Revolutions began to challenge the legitimacy of monarchical and aristocratic power structures, including the structures and beliefs that supported slavery. The Industrial Revolution began during mid-century, leading to radical changes in human society and the environment. Western historians have occasionally defined the 18th century otherwise for the purposes of their work. For example, the "short" 18th century may be defined as 1715–1789, denoting the period of time between the death of Louis XIV of France and the start of the French Revolution, with an emphasis on directly interconnected events. To historians who expand ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
