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John Astley (painter)
John Astley (24 June 1720– 14 November 1787) was an English portrait painter and amateur architect, known for his "patronage among a vast circle of fashion" as well as a fortune acquired through marriage. Early life Born in Wem, Shropshire, England, John Astley was a son of an apothecary, Richard Astley (1671–1754), and his wife, Margaret (1685–1735). Among his siblings was a brother Richard, also a physician, whose estate he inherited. Due to his good looks, he was known as ''Beau Astley''. Some period sources also call him ''Jack Astley''. A biographer of Sir Joshua Reynolds described Astley as "a gasconading spendthrift and a beau of the flashiest order." Several jaundiced contemporary accounts of Astley's character exist, notably a lengthy observation by John Williams, (aka Anthony Pasquin), who wrote: "He thought that every advantage in civil society was compounded in women and wine: and, acting up to this principal of bliss, he gave his body to Euphrosyn ...
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Francis Dukinfield Astley
Francis Dukinfield Astley (1781–1825) was an English poet, art collector, Agriculturist, agriculturalist, industrialist, and High Sheriff of Cheshire. As a patron of the arts he was influential in the development of Manchester's first cultural institutions in the early 19th century. When he died unexpectedly there were widespread rumours—never proven—that he was poisoned by his brother-in-law, Whigs (British political party), Whig politician Thomas Gisborne (politician), Thomas Gisborne. Early life Astley's father, John Astley (painter), John Astley, came from a modest family in Shropshire, but travelled to Rome and Florence in his twenties to study art, and there managed to eke out a living making copies of works by famous painters like Titian.William Betham (1749–1839), William Betham, ''The Baronetage of England'' (Burrell and Bransby, 1802), page 379 He later moved to Dublin for several years and established a career as a portrait painter, which he successfully con ...
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Baron Barnard
Baron Barnard, of Barnard Castle in the Bishopric of Durham, is a title in the Peerage of England. It was created in 1698 for Christopher Vane, who had previously served as a member of parliament for County Durham and Boroughbridge. Vane was the son of Sir Henry Vane the Younger and grandson of Sir Henry Vane the Elder. His grandson, the third Baron, notably served as Paymaster of the Forces and as Lord Lieutenant of County Durham. In 1754 he was created Viscount Barnard (of Barnard Castle) and Earl of Darlington, both in the County Palatine of Durham. Lord Darlington was the husband of Lady Grace FitzRoy, daughter of Charles FitzRoy, 2nd Duke of Cleveland, the illegitimate son of King Charles II by his mistress Barbara Villiers, 1st Duchess of Cleveland. Succession He was succeeded by his son, the second Earl. He sat as a member of parliament for Downton and County Durham and served as Lord Lieutenant of County Durham. On his death the titles passed to his son, th ...
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Jamaica
Jamaica is an island country in the Caribbean Sea and the West Indies. At , it is the third-largest island—after Cuba and Hispaniola—of the Greater Antilles and the Caribbean. Jamaica lies about south of Cuba, west of Hispaniola (the island containing Haiti and the Dominican Republic), and southeast of the Cayman Islands (a British Overseas Territories, British Overseas Territory). With million people, Jamaica is the third most populous English-speaking world, Anglophone country in the Americas and the fourth most populous country in the Caribbean. Kingston, Jamaica, Kingston is the country's capital and largest city. The indigenous Taíno peoples of the island gradually came under Spanish Empire, Spanish rule after the arrival of Christopher Columbus in 1494. Many of the indigenous people either were killed or died of diseases, after which the Spanish brought large numbers of Africans to Jamaica as slaves. The island remained a possession of Spain, under the name Colo ...
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Cheshire
Cheshire ( ) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in North West England. It is bordered by Merseyside to the north-west, Greater Manchester to the north-east, Derbyshire to the east, Staffordshire to the south-east, and Shropshire to the south; to the west it is bordered by the Welsh counties of Flintshire and Wrexham County Borough, Wrexham, and has a short coastline on the Dee Estuary. The largest settlement is Warrington. The county has an area of and had a population of 1,095,500 at the 2021 United Kingdom census, 2021 census. The areas around the River Mersey in the north of the county are the most densely populated, with Warrington, Runcorn, Widnes, and Ellesmere Port located on the river. The city of Chester lies in the west of the county, Crewe in the south, and Macclesfield in the east. For Local government in England, local government purposes Cheshire comprises four Unitary authorities of England, unitary authority areas: Cheshire East, Cheshire We ...
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Christopher Dresser
Christopher Dresser (4 July 1834 – 24 November 1904) was a British designer and design theorist, now widely known as one of the first and most important independent designers. He was a pivotal figure in the Aesthetic Movement and a major contributor to the allied Anglo-Japanese or Modern Style (British Art Nouveau style), both of which originated in England and had long-lasting international influence. Biography Dresser was born in Glasgow, Scotland, of a Yorkshire family. At age 13, he began attending the Government School of Design, Somerset House, London. From this early date his design work widened to include carpets, ceramics, furniture, glass, graphics, metalwork, including silver and electroplate, and textiles printed and woven. He claimed to have designed "as much as any man" at the International Exhibition London 1862. As early as 1865 the ''Building News'' reported that in the early part of his career he had been active as a designer of wallpapers, textiles and c ...
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Barnes, London
Barnes () is a district in South West London, England, part of the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames. It takes up the extreme north-east of the borough, and as such is the closest part of the borough to central London. It is centred west south-west of Charing Cross in a bend of the River Thames. Its built environment includes a wide variety of convenience and arts shopping on its high street and a high proportion of 18th- and 19th-century buildings in the streets near Barnes Pond. Together they make up the Barnes Village conservation area where, along with its west riverside, pictured, most of the mid-19th-century properties are concentrated. On the east riverside is the WWT London Wetland Centre adjoining Barn Elms playing fields. Barnes has retained woodland on the "Barnes Trail", a short circular walk taking in the riverside, commercial streets and conservation area, including the Olympic Studios. The trail is marked by silver discs set in the ground and with QR-co ...
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Pall Mall, London
Pall Mall is a street in the St James's area of the City of Westminster, Central London. It connects St James's Street to Trafalgar Square and is a section of the regional A4 road (England), A4 road. The street's name is derived from pall-mall, a ball game played there during the 17th century, which in turn is derived from the Italian Language, Italian ''pallamaglio'', literally "ball-mallet". The area was built up during the reign of Charles II of England, Charles II with fashionable London residences. It is known for high-class shopping in the 18th century until the present, and gentlemen's club (traditional), gentlemen's clubs in the 19th. The Reform Club, Reform, Athenaeum Club, London, Athenaeum and Travellers Club, Travellers clubs have survived to the 21st century. The War Office was based on Pall Mall during the second half of the 19th century, and the Royal Automobile Club's headquarters have been on the street since 1908. Geography The street is aro ...
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Meinhardt Schomberg, 3rd Duke Of Schomberg
General (United Kingdom), General Meinhardt Schomberg, 3rd Duke of Schomberg, 1st Duke of Leinster, Order of the Garter, KG (30 June 1641 – ), was a German-born military officer and peer who served as Commander-in-Chief of the Forces in 1691. He spent the majority of his military career in service to William III of England, fighting in the Portuguese Restoration War, Franco-Dutch War, Williamite War in Ireland and the War of the Spanish Succession. Life Born the son of Frederick Schomberg, 1st Duke of Schomberg (who was of Huguenot descent), and Johanna Elizabeth de Schomberg (née von Schönberg), Meinhardt Schomberg joined his father in the service of the English Expedition to Portugal (1662-1668), English Expeditionary brigade to Portugal and served as a lieutenant-colonel and then as a colonel. He then settled in La Rochelle with his father and became a France, French subject. He attained the rank of brigadier and, afterwards, maréchal de camp (major general), during the ...
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Schomberg House
Schomberg House at 80–82 Pall Mall is a prominent house on the south side of Pall Mall, London, Pall Mall in central London which has a colourful history. Only the street facade survives today. It was built for Meinhardt Schomberg, 3rd Duke of Schomberg, the 3rd Duke of Schomberg, a Huguenot general in the service of the British Crown. It was adapted from Portland House, which in turn had been created by the Earl of Portland, Countess of Portland by converting two houses into a single residence. Work began in 1694, the year after the duke inherited his title. The street facade of Schomberg House is striking and rather unusual for a London mansion. It is of red brick, with four main storeys above the basement. The facade's street-level entrance porticoes and decorative work is made of ''Lithodipyra'' (Coade stone) manufactured by Eleanor Coade. It is nine windows wide, with the central three bays projecting slightly and topped by a pediment, and the two end bays projecting bol ...
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Guinea (British Coin)
The guinea (; commonly abbreviated gn., or gns. in plural) was a coin, minted in Great Britain between 1663 and 1814, that contained approximately one-quarter of an ounce of gold. The name came from the Guinea region in West Africa, from where much of the gold used to make the coins was sourced. It was the first English machine-struck gold coin, originally representing a value of 20 shillings in sterling specie, equal to one pound, but rises in the price of gold relative to silver caused the value of the guinea to increase, at times to as high as thirty shillings. From 1717 to 1816, its value was officially fixed at twenty-one shillings. In the Great Recoinage of 1816, the guinea was demonetised and replaced by the gold sovereign. Following the Great Recoinage, the word "guinea" was retained as a colloquial or specialised term, even though the coins were no longer in use; the term ''guinea'' also survived as a unit of account in some fields. Notable usages included professio ...
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William Henry Pyne
William Henry Pyne (1769 in London – 29 May 1843 in London) was an English writer, illustrator and painter, who also wrote under the name of Ephraim Hardcastle. He trained at the drawing academy of Henry Pars in London. He first exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1790. He specialized in picturesque settings including groups of people rendered in pen, ink and watercolour. Pyne was one of the founders of the Royal Watercolour Society in 1804. Works Pyne's book ''The Costume of Great Britain'', including 60 paintings of professional and working-class men and women and scenes from everyday life (published by William Miller in 1805), attracted the attention of the publisher Rudolph Ackermann, and Pyne was to engrave and write for many of his projects, including writing the text for the first two volumes of the very successful illustration-centred '' The Microcosm of London''. He was his own publisher for ''The History of the Royal Residences'' (1816–1819), a large illust ...
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James Brydges, 3rd Duke Of Chandos
James Brydges, 3rd Duke of Chandos, PC (27 December 1731 – 29 September 1789), styled Viscount Wilton from 1731 to 1744 and Marquess of Carnarvon from 1744 to 1771, was an English politician. Background Chandos was the only son of Henry Brydges, 2nd Duke of Chandos, and Lady Mary Bruce, daughter of Charles Bruce, 3rd Earl of Ailesbury. He was educated at Westminster School from 1742 to 1749, and then at Göttingen University in 1750/1751. Political career Chandos was Member of Parliament for Winchester from 1754 to 1761 and for Radnorshire between 1761 and 1768.G.E. Cokayne; with Vicary Gibbs, H.A. Doubleday, Geoffrey H. White, Duncan Warrand and Lord Howard de Walden, editors, ''The Complete Peerage of England, Scotland, Ireland, Great Britain and the United Kingdom, Extant, Extinct or Dormant, new ed.'', volume III, page 45 He succeeded in the dukedom upon the death of his father on 28 November 1771. He was a Gentleman of the Bedchamber to George, Prince of Wal ...
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