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William Marsden (orientalist)
William Marsden (16 November 1754 – 6 October 1836) was an Irish orientalist, numismatist, and linguist who served as Second, then First Secretary to the Admiralty during years of conflict with France. Early life Marsden was the son of a Dublin merchant. He was born in Verval, County Wicklow, and educated at Trinity College, Dublin. Upon obtaining a civil service appointment with the East India Company at sixteen years of age, he was sent to Benkulen, Sumatra, in 1771. He was promoted to the position of principal secretary to the government, and acquired a knowledge of the Malay language and the country. After returning to England in 1779, he was awarded the Doctor of Civil Law (D.C.L.) degree by Oxford University in 1780 and published his ''History of Sumatra'' in 1783. Marsden was elected to membership in the Royal Society in 1783. He had been recommended by James Rennell, Edward Whitaker Gray, John Topham, Alexander Dalrymple, and Charles Blagden. Admiral ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
First Secretary To The Admiralty
The Parliamentary and Financial Secretary to the Admiralty also known as the Parliamentary and Financial Secretary to the Board of Admiralty was a position on the Board of Admiralty and a civil officer of the British Royal Navy. It was usually filled by a Member of Parliament. Although he attended Board of Admiralty meetings informally he was not made a full member of that Board until 1929. He served as the deputy to the First Lord of the Admiralty in Parliament and was mainly responsible for all naval finance and spending proposals from 1625 until 1959. History The office was originally created in 1625 with the post holders holding titles under various names such as Secretaries to the Lords Admiral, Admiralty, Committees and Commissions. In July 1660 the post of Secretary to the Admiralty was formally created which lasted until 18 June 1763 when the office was then restyled First Secretary to the Admiralty this remained in place until 1870 when the First Secretary was renam ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Benkulen
Bengkulu (), historically known as Bencoolen, is a province of Indonesia. It is located on the southwest coast of Sumatra. It was formed on 18 November 1968 by separating out the area of the historic Bencoolen Residency from the province of South Sumatra under Law No. 9 of 1967 and was finalized by Government Regulation No. 20 of 1968. Spread over 20,181.53 km2, its land area is comparable to the European country of Slovenia and it is bordered by the provinces of West Sumatra to the north, Jambi to the northeast, Lampung to the southeast, and South Sumatra to the east, and by the Indian Ocean to the northwest, south, southwest, and west. Bengkulu is the 28th largest province by area; it is divided into nine regencies and the city of Bengkulu, the capital and the only independent city. Bengkulu is also the 26th largest province by population in Indonesia, with 1,715,518 inhabitants at the 2010 CensusBiro Pusat Statistik, Jakarta, 2011. and 2,010,670 at the 2020 Census;Bada ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Learned Society
A learned society ( ; also scholarly, intellectual, or academic society) is an organization that exists to promote an academic discipline, profession, or a group of related disciplines such as the arts and sciences. Membership may be open to all, may require possession of some qualification, or may be an honour conferred by election. Most learned societies are non-profit organizations, and many are professional associations. Their activities typically include holding regular Academic conference, conferences for the presentation and discussion of new research results, and publishing or sponsoring academic journals in their discipline. Some also act as professional bodies, regulating the activities of their members in the public interest or the collective interest of the membership. History Some of the oldest learned societies are the (founded 1323), (founded 1488), (founded 1583), (founded 1603), (founded 1635), German National Academy of Sciences Leopoldina (founded 1652), ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Travels Of Marco Polo
''Book of the Marvels of the World'' ( Italian: , lit. 'The Million', possibly derived from Polo's nickname "Emilione"), in English commonly called ''The Travels of Marco Polo'', is a 13th-century travelogue written down by Rustichello da Pisa from stories told by the Venetian explorer Marco Polo. It describes Polo's travels through Asia between 1271 and 1295, and his experiences at the court of Kublai Khan. The book was written by the romance writer Rustichello da Pisa, who worked from accounts which he had heard from Marco Polo when they were imprisoned together in Genoa. Rustichello wrote it in Franco-Venetian,Maria Bellonci, "Nota introduttiva", Il Milione di Marco Polo, Milano, Oscar Mondadori, 2003, p. XI TALIAN/ref> a literary language widespread in northern Italy between the subalpine belt and the lower Po between the 13th and 15th centuries. It was originally known as or ("''Description of the World''"). The book was translated into many European languages in ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Horatio Nelson
Horatio Nelson, 1st Viscount Nelson, 1st Duke of Bronte ( – 21 October 1805) was a Royal Navy officer whose leadership, grasp of strategy and unconventional tactics brought about a number of decisive British naval victories during the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest naval commanders in history. Nelson was born into a moderately prosperous Norfolk family and joined the navy through the influence of his uncle, Maurice Suckling, a high-ranking naval officer. Nelson rose rapidly through the ranks and served with leading naval commanders of the period before obtaining his own command at the age of 20, in 1778. He developed a reputation for personal valour and a firm grasp of tactics, but suffered periods of illness and unemployment after the end of the American War of Independence. The outbreak of the French Revolutionary Wars allowed Nelson to return to service, where he was particularly active in the Mediterranean Sea. He fou ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Battle Of Trafalgar
The Battle of Trafalgar was a naval engagement that took place on 21 October 1805 between the Royal Navy and a combined fleet of the French Navy, French and Spanish Navy, Spanish navies during the War of the Third Coalition. As part of Napoleon's planned invasion of the United Kingdom, the French and Spanish fleets combined to take control of the English Channel and provide the Grande Armée safe passage. The allied fleet, under the command of French admiral Pierre-Charles Villeneuve, sailed from the port of Cádiz in the south of Spain on 18 October 1805. They encountered a British fleet under Horatio Nelson, 1st Viscount Nelson, Lord Nelson, recently assembled to meet this threat, in the Atlantic Ocean along the southwest coast of Spain, off Cape Trafalgar. Nelson was outnumbered, with 27 British ships of the line to 33 Franco-Spanish ships, including the largest warship in either fleet, the Spanish ''Spanish ship Nuestra Señora de la Santísima Trinidad, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Charles Blagden
Sir Charles Brian Blagden Fellow of the Royal Society, FRS (17 April 1748 – 26 March 1820) was an English physician and chemist. He served as a medical officer in the Army (1776–1780) and later held the position of Secretary of the Royal Society (1784–1797). Blagden won the Copley Medal in 1788 and was knighted in 1792. He died in Arcueil, France in 1820, and was buried at Père Lachaise Cemetery in Paris. Early life Blagden was born in Wotton-under-Edge, Wooten-under-Edge in Gloucestershire. He was a younger son of John Blagden (1715–1750) and Elizabeth Phelps (1716–1784). His family was part of the local textile industry. Of his youth, he stated that he "was denied the advantages of either public school or college education". Nonetheless, he studied medicine at the University of Edinburgh Medical School, University of Edinburgh and graduated as a doctor in 1768. He was elected a fellow of the Royal Society in 1772. In 1776, he became an army surgeon. During t ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Alexander Dalrymple
Alexander Dalrymple (24 July 1737 – 19 June 1808) was a Scottish geographer, hydrographer, and publisher. He spent the greater part of his career with the British East India Company, starting as a writer in Madras at the age of 16. He studied the old records of the company, and soon became sufficiently knowledgeable to advise on shipping routes in the East Indies. He spent several years travelling, investigating possibilities of expanding the company's trade, and carried out extensive surveys around Borneo, the Philippines, and Indo-China. Returning to England, he published a range of works including charts, histories of past voyages, and proposals for exploration. He was one of the main proponents of the theory that there existed a great undiscovered continent in the South Pacific, Terra Australis Incognita. He was The Royal Society's first choice as leader of the exploration to observe the transit of Venus in 1769, a position taken by James Cook as the Navy would not ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
John Topham
John Topham (1746–1803) was an English official, librarian and antiquary. Life Born on 6 January 1746 at Elmly near Huddersfield, he was the third son of Matthew Topham (died 1773), vicar of Withernwick and Mappleton in Yorkshire, and of his wife Ann, daughter of Henry Willcock of Thornton in Craven. John Topham went to London while still young with a minor appointment under Philip Carteret Webb, solicitor to the Treasury. By influence he obtained a place in the State Paper office with Sir Joseph Ayloffe and Thomas Astle. On 5 February 1771 Topham was admitted to Lincoln's Inn, and on 5 April 1779 he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society. In May 1781 he was appointed a deputy-keeper of the state papers, and in April 1783 a commissioner in bankruptcy. On 19 March 1787 he became a bencher of Gray's Inn, and on 29 Nov. was elected treasurer of the Society of Antiquaries of London, to which he had been admitted a Fellow in 1767. About 1790 he became librarian to the Archb ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Edward Whitaker Gray
Edward Whitaker Gray (21 March 1748 – 27 December 1806), English botanist and secretary to the Royal Society, was uncle of Samuel Frederick Gray, author of ''The Practical Chemist.'' Educational and professional roles While attending the College of Physicians Gray performed the duties of librarian. He became a licentiate in 1773. He graduated M.D., and ultimately was assigned as keeper of the departments of Natural history and antiquities in the British Museum, which consisted of the collection purchased from Sir Hans Sloane on his death in 1753. This role he held from 1778 until his death. During his tenure, he reorganized the natural history collections employing the Linnæan system. George Shaw assumed his duties as keeper in 1807 having assisted since 1791. Within zoology, Gray's ''Catalogue of Shells'' for the British Museum (1791) best reflect his work as a malacologist. Gray introduced two plants, '' Hexandria monogynia'', native to Brazil, and '' Hexandria mon ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
James Rennell
Major (United Kingdom), Major James Rennell (3 December 1742 – 29 March 1830) was an English geographer, historian and a pioneer of oceanography. Rennell produced some of the first accurate maps of Bengal at one inch to five miles as well as accurate outlines of India and served as Surveyor General of Bengal. Rennell has been called the ''Father'' ''of'' ''Oceanography''. In 1830, he was one of the founders of the Royal Geographical Society in London. Early life Rennell was born at Upcot near Chudleigh in Devon. His father, John Rennell, an officer in the Royal Artillery, was killed in action in the Low Countries in July 1747 during the War of the Austrian Succession. His mother Anne subsequently married Mr Elliott, a widower with children of his own and unable to care for additional ones, leading to Rennell being brought up by a guardian, the Rev. Gilbert Burrington, vicar of Chudleigh. The ancient paternal Devonshire family name was formerly spelt Reynell and was of French or ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
