Thomas a Kempis (Thomas of Kempen) was a German Augustinian monk and writer. He was born in 1379 at Kempen and died in 1471. Thomas a Kempis, At the age of twenty he retired to an Augustineconvent near Zwolle, in Holland, where he took the vows, and where, in 1471, he died superior of the convent. He was a voluminous writer. His works (the printed ones all in Latin) consist of sermons, exhortations, ascetic treatises, hymns, prayers, etc. His name, however, would hardly be remembered were it not for its connection with the celebrated devotional work called The Imitation of Christ (De Imitatione Christi), a work which has passed through thousands of editions in the original Latin and in translations. The authorship of this book has long been a disputed point. It is generally ascribed to a Kempis, but often to Gerson, chancellor of the University of Paris at the end of the 14th and beginning of the 15th century. Research Thomas a Kempis
Thomas A Hendricks was an American politician. He was born in 1819 and died in 1885. He was admitted to the bar in 1843. He was elected to the Indiana House of Representatives in 1848, and became a State Senator in 1849. In 1850 he was chosen a member of the convention to revise the State Constitution, and represented Indiana in the Congress of the United States from 1851 to 1855. He was appointed by President Pierce Commissioner of the General Land Office, serving from 1855 to 1859, and from 1863 to 1869 was a US Senator. He was Governor of Indiana from 1872 to 1877, and in 1876 was the Democratic candidate for Vice-President of the United States on the ticket with Samuel Tilden. He was the unanimous choice of the Democratic party for Vice-President in 1884, and was elected on the ticket with Grover Cleveland for President, but died during his first year of office. Research Thomas A. Hendricks
Thomas Adams is a British gangster. He was born in 1957. Thomas Adams is a senior member of London's Adams family, and is believed to have amassed a fortune of about £50 million through drugs and extortion. He is also known to have ordered the killings of at least thirty informers and competitors. Research Thomas Adams
Thomas Aird was a Scottish poet and miscellaneous writer. He was born in 1802 and died in 1876. A friend of Professor Wilson, De Quincey, and Carlyle, he was for a long time editor of a newspaper in Dumfries. He wrote the Devil's Dream on Mount Aksbeck, The Old Bachelor, and other works. Research Thomas Aird
Thomas Bailey Aldrich was an American writer and poet. He was born in 1836 at Portsmouth, New Hampshire and died in 1907. He entered business in New York in 1854 and in 1857 became a journalist. He was editor of the Atlantic Monthly from 1881 until 1890. Research Thomas Aldrich
Thomas Allen was an English mathematician, philosopher, antiquarian, and astrologer. He was born in 1542 and died in 1632. He studied at Oxford, and lived the greater part of his life in learned retirement, corresponding with many of the famous men of his time. In his own day he was generally reputed a dealer in the black art of witchcraft. Research Thomas Allen
Thomas Andrews was an Irish chemist. He was born in 1813 at Belfast and died in 1885. He studied chemistry at Glasgow under Thomas Thomson, and for a short time in Paris; then medicine at Belfast, Dublin, and Edinburgh, taking the degree of MD at the last place. After practising and teaching chemistry for ten years in Belfast, he was appointed vice-president of the Northern College there, which in 1849 was converted into Queen's College at which point he became president, and was professor of chemistry in Queens College from 1845 to 1879. He published important researches into the heat evolved and absorbed in chemical combinations, and in connection with the liquefaction of gases. Research Thomas Andrews
Thomas Augustine Arne was an English composer. He was born in 1710 at London and died in 1778. His first opera, Rosamond, was performed in 1733 at Lincoln's-Inn Fields, and was received with great applause. Then followed Fielding's comic opera, Tom Thumb, or the Tragedy of Tragedies. His style in the Comus (1738) is still more original and cultivated. To him we owe the national air Rule Britannia, originally given in a popular piece called the Masque of Alfred. After having composed two oratorios and several operas he received the title of Doctor of Music at Oxford. He composed, also, music for several of the songs in Shakespeare's dramas, and various pieces of instrumental music. Research Thomas Arne
Thomas Arnold was an English teacher. He was born in 1795 at Cowes, Isle of Wight and died in 1842. He entered Oxford in his sixteenth year, and in 1815 he was elected fellow of Oriel College, and both in that year and 1817 he obtained the chancellor's prize for Latin and English essays. After taking deacon's orders he settled at Laleham, near Staines, where he employed himself in preparing young men for the universities. In 1828 he was appointed headmaster of Rugby School, and devoted himself to his new duties with the greatest ardour. While giving due prominence to the classics, he deprived them of their exclusiveness by introducing various other branches into his course, and he was particularly careful that the education which he furnished should be in the highest sense moral and Christian. His success was remarkable. Not only did Rugby School become crowded beyond any former precedent, but the superiority of Dr. Arnold's system became so generally recognized that it may be justly said to have done much for the general improvement of the public schools of England. In 1841 he was appointed professor of modern history at Oxford, and delivered his introductory course of lectures with great success. His chief works are his edition of Thucydides, his Roman History, unhappily left unfinished, and his Sermons. Research Thomas Arnold
Thomas Astle was an English antiquary. He was born in 1735 and died in 1803. He was a trustee of the British Museum and keeper of the public records in the Tower. His chief work, The Origin and Progress of Writing, appeared in 1784, and the portion dealing with mediaeval handwriting is still of value. He formed a famous collection of manuscripts., the most valuable portion of which is now in the British Museum. Research Thomas Astle
Thomas B Robertson was an American politician. He was a Jeffersonian Republican governor of Louisiana from 1820 until 1824. Research Thomas B. Robertson
Thomas Baker was an English antiquary. He was born in 1656 and died in 1740. Educated at Cambridge, as a non-juror he lost his living at Long-Newton in 1690, and was compelled to resign his fellowship on the accession of George I, but continued to reside at St John's College until his death in 1740. His Reflections on Learning (1709-10) went through seven editions. He left in manuscript form forty-two folio volumes of an 'Athene Cantabrigienses', from which a "History of St. John's College" was edited by Professor Mayor in 1869. Research Thomas Baker
Thomas Banks was an English sculptor. He was born in 1735 and died in 1805. He studied sculpture in the Royal Academy, and in Italy, where he executed several excellent pieces, particularly a bass-relief representing Caractacus brought prisoner to Rome, and a Cupid catching a Butterfly, the latter work being afterwards purchased by the EmpressCatharine. On leaving Italy he spent two unsatisfactory years in Russia, and then returned to England, where he was soon after made an academician. Among his other works was a colossal statue of Achilles Mourning the Loss of Briseis in the hall of the British Institution, and the monument of Sir Eyre Coote in WestminsterAbbey. Research Thomas Banks
Dr Thomas John Barnardo ('The Foster-Father of Nobody's Children') was a British philanthropist. He was born in 1845 at Dublin and died in 1905. After training as a doctor in London, Edinburgh, and Paris, he took up religious work in the slums of London, devoting himself to the care and attention of destitute children and in 1866 founded the national homes for children 'Barnardo's'. It was a rule of the founder that no destitute child should be refused admission, many of the children being sent to Canada and other British colonies around the world. Research Thomas Barnardo
Thomas Haynes Bayly was an English poet, novelist, dramatist, and miscellaneous writer. He was born in 1797 and died in 1839. Educated at Oxford, and intended for the church. He wrote thirty-six pieces for the stage, most of which were successful; several novels: Aylmers, Kindness in Women, etc; and numerous songs. As a songwriter he was most prolific and most popular: The Soldier's Tear, We met - 'twas in a Crowd, and a few others, were well known for years later. Research Thomas Bayly
Thomas Spencer Baynes was an English philosopher and writer. He was born in 1823 at Wellington, Somerset, and died in1887. He studied under Sir William Hamilton at Edinburgh, and acted as his class assistant from 1851 to 1855. From 1857 to 1863 he was resident in London, where he acted as examiner in logic and mental philosophy in the University of London, and as assistant editor on the Daily News, In 1864 he was appointed to the chair of logic, rhetoric, and metaphysics in St Andrews University, a post he held until his death. In 1873, when he became editor of the ninth edition of the Encyclopaedia Britannica, his wide acquaintance with men of letters and learning assisted him greatly in the selection of suitable contributors. He translated the Port Royal Logic, and was a frequent contributor to the principal reviews and literary journals. Research Thomas Baynes
In 1158 Henry II appointed him high-chancellor and preceptor to his son, Prince Henry - the first instance after the Conquest of a high office being tilled by a native Englishman. At this period he was a complete courtier, conforming in every respect to the humour of the king. He was, in fact, the king's primecompanion, held splendid levees, and courted popular applause. On the death of Theobald in 1162, he was consecrated archbishop, when he affected an extraordinary austerity of character, and appeared as a zealous champion of the church against the aggressions of the king, whose policy was to have the clergy in subordination to the civil power.
Thomas Becket was forced to assent to the Constitutions of Clarendon, but a series of bitter conflicts with the king followed, ending in Becket's flight to France, when he appealed to the pope, by whom he was supported. After much negotiation a sort of reconciliation took place in 1170, and Becket returned to England, resumed his office, and renewed his defiance of the royal authority. A rash hint from the king induced four barons, Keginald Fitz-Urse, William de Tracy, Hugh de Morville, and Richard Breto, to go to Canterbury and murder the archbishop while at vespers in the cathedral. He was canonized in. 1172, and the splendid shrine erected at Canterbury for his remains was, for three centuries, a favourite place of pilgrimage. Research Thomas Becket
Thomas Beddoes was an English physician and author. He was born in 1760 and died in 1808. He was educated at Oxford, London, and Edinburgh. After taking his doctor's degree and visiting Paris, he was appointed professor of chemistry at Oxford. There he published some excellent chemical treatises, and Observations on the Calculus, Sea-scurvy, Consumption, Catarrh, and Fever.
His expressed sympathy with the French revolutionists led to his retirement from his professorship in 1792, soon after which he published his Observations on the Nature of Demonstrative Evidence, and the exceedingly popular History of Isaac Jenkins. In 1794 he married a sister of Maria Edgeworth; and in 1798, with the pecuniary aid of Wedgwood, opened a pneumatic institution for curing phthisical and other diseases by inhalation of gases. It speedily became an ordinary hospital, but was noteworthy as connected with the discovery of the properties of nitrous oxide, and as having been superintended by the young Humphry Davy. Beddoes' essays on Consumption (1779) and on Fever (1807), and his Hygeia (3 volumes 1807) had a high contemporary repute. Research Thomas Beddoes
Thomas Bell was an English zoologist. He was born in 1792 at Poole, Dorset, and died in 1880. He became a member of the Royal College of Surgeons in 1815, and soon secured a large practice as a dentist. In 1832 he was appointed professor of zoology in King's College, London. His best-known separate works are his histories of British Quadrupeds, British Reptiles, and British Stalk-eyed Crustacea, published in Van Voorst's series. In 1877 he published an excellent edition of White's Natural History of Selborne. Research Thomas Bell
Thomas Bewick was an English wood-engraver. He was born in 1753 at Northumberland and died in 1828. He was apprenticed to Beilby, an engraver in Newcastle and produced the wood cuts for Hutton's Mensuration. Afterwards he went to London and won the Society of Arts' prize for wood-engraving in 1775. Returning in a short time to Newcastle he entered into partnership with Beilby, and became known as a skilled wood-engraver and designer by his illustrations to Gay's Fables, Aesop's Fables, etc. He quite established his fame by the issue in 1790 of his History of Quadrupeds (text compiled by Beilby), the illustrations of which were superior to anything hitherto produced in the art of wood-engraving. In 1797 appeared the first, and in 1804 the second volume of his British Birds, generally regarded as the finest of his works (text partly by Bewick). Enlarged and improved editions of both books soon followed. Among his other works may be cited the engravings for Goldsmith's Traveller and Deserted Village, Parnell's Hermit, and Somer vine's Chase. Research Thomas Bewick
Thomas Binney was an English clergyman. He was born in 1798 at Newcastle-on-Tyne and died in 1874. He was a popular independent preacher, theologian, and controversialist of his time and was pastor of Weigh House Chapel, London, for forty years. He was a voluminous writer on polemical subjects, his most successful venture as an author being 'Is it Possible to make the Best of Both Worlds?' a work for young men. Research Thomas Binney
Thomas Birch was an English historian and biographer. He was born in 1705 at London died in 1766 following a fall from his horse. He took orders in the church in 1730, and obtained in 1732 a living in Essex. In 1734 he engaged with others in writing the General Historical and Critical Dictionary, founded on that of Bayle, and completed, in ten volumes in 1741. He subsequently obtained various preferments in the church. Among his numerous works are Life of the Right Honourable Robert Boyle, 1744; Life of Archbishop Tillotson, 1752; Memoirs of the Reign of Queen Elizabeth, 1754; History of the Royal Society, 1757; etc. He was a friend and correspondent of Dr. Johnson. Research Thomas Birch
Thomas Blacklock was a Scottish poet. He was born in 1721 at Annan and died in 1791. At the age of six months he lost his sight due to small pox and as he grew up, his father, who was a bricklayer, and other friends, read to him the English classics. At the age of nineteen he lost his father, and was supported by Dr. Stephenson, a physician in Edinburgh, who sent him to school and to the university.
In 1746 he brought out a volume of poems, and soon gained a wide circle of friends, amongst whom were David Hume and Joseph Spence, who wrote an account of his life, prefixed to the third edition of his poems in 1756. After passing through the usual theological course he was licensed in 1759; he married in 1762; and was soon after appointed minister of Kirkcudbright. Being opposed by his parishioners, he resigned his living, and retired to Edinburgh, where he received students of the university as boarders, and assisted them in their studies.
In 1766 he was created DD. A letter written by him to a friend of Burns in 1786 is said by the poet to have induced him to give up his intended emigration and go to Edinburgh. Blacklock wrote, besides his poems, several prose works. Research Thomas Blacklock
Thomas Blood (Colonel Blood) was an Irish soldier. He was born in about 1618 and died in 1680. He was a disbanded officer of Oliver Cromwell, and lost some estates in Ireland at the Restoration. His whole life was one of plotting and adventure, though it is probable that he acted a double part, keeping the government informed of so much as might secure his own safety. His most daring exploit was an attempt to steal the crown jewels on the 9th of May, 1671 from the Tower of London. He was seized with the crown in his possession, but was not only pardoned by Charles, but obtained forfeited Irish estates of 500 pounds annual value. Research Thomas Blood
Sir Thomas Bodley was the founder of the BodleianLibrary at Oxford. He was born in 1544 at Exeter and died in 1612. He was educated partly at Geneva, whither his parents, who were Protestants, had retired in the reign of Queen Mary. On the accession of Elizabeth I they returned home, and he completed his studies at Magdalen College, Oxford. He travelled much on the Continent, and was employed in various embassies to Denmark, Germany, France, and Holland. In 1597 he returned home, and dedicated the remainder of his life to the re-establishment and augmentation of the public library at Oxford. He expended a very large sum in collecting rare and valuable books, besides leaving an estate for the support of the library. He was knighted at the accession of James I. Research Thomas Bodley
Thomas Boston was a Scottish divine. He was born in 1677 at Dunse and died 1732. He was educated at Edinburgh University. received license to preach in 1697, and in 1707 was appointed to the parish of Ettrick in Selkirkshire, where he remained all his life. Besides engaging hotly in the ecclesiastical controversies of his time, Thomas Boston published a volume of sermons, several theological treatises, and his two well-known works, The Crook in the Lot and Human Nature in its Fourfold State. Research Thomas Boston
Thomas Edward Bowdich was an African explorer. He was born in 1790 and died in 1824 of disease in the Gambia. In 1816 he led an embassy to the King of Ashantee, and afterwards, in 1819, published an account of his mission . Having undertaken a second African expedition, he arrived in the river Gambia, where he died of disease in 1824. Research Thomas Bowdich
Thomas Bowdler was an English doctor, author and vicar. He was born in 1754 and died in 1825. Originally a doctor, he abandoned a career in medicine because patients made him feel queasy, in 1818 he published an edition of Shakespeare's works in which he had removed or amended all the phrases which he considered to be coarse or indecent, and titled his censored work The Family Shakespeare. His crude form of censorship - much applauded by Queen Victoria - gave rise to the term bowdlerise, meaning to alter by removing or changing any words considered offensive or vulgar etc. Research Thomas Bowdler
Thomas Bradwardine was an English prelate. He was born about 1290 and died 1349. He was known as 'Doctor Profundus,' and was Archbishop of Canterbury, He was distinguished for his varied learning, and more particularly for his treatise De Causa Dei contra Pelagium, an extensive work against the Pelagian heresy, for centuries a standard authority. He was chaplain and confessor to Edward III, whom he accompanied to France, being present at Cressy and the capture of Calais. Being appointed archbishop he hastened to England, but died of the black death on reaching London. Research Thomas Bradwardine
Thomas Macdouglas Brisbane was a Scottish soldier and astronomer. He was born in 1773 and died in 1860. After serving in Flanders and the West Indies he commanded a brigade under the Duke of Wellington during the Peninsular War, and took part in the battles of Vittoria, Orthes, and Toulouse. In 1821 he was appointed governor of New South Wales, where his administration tended greatly to promote the prosperity of the colony. At the same time he devoted himself to astronomy, and from his observatory at Paramatta catalogued 7385 stars, until then scarcely known. On his return to Scotland he continued his astronomical pursuits. Research Thomas Brisbane
Thomas Brown was an English poet and miscellaneous writer. He was born in 1663 at Shifnal and died in 1704. He was described by Addison as 'of facetious memory'. He was the author of numerous dialogues, letters, poems, etc, witty, coarse, and indelicate, first collected in 1707.
Thomas Edward Brown was a Manx poet. He was born in 1830 and died in 1897. Educated at King William's College, Isle of Man, and Christ Church, Oxford, he was a fellow of Oriel from 1854 until 1858, vice-principal of King William's College from 1858 until 1861, and second master at Clifton College, Bristol, from 1863 until 1892. His chief poems are of a narrative class, but he had also a decided lyric gift. His best known volume is entitled Fo'c's'le Yarns, others being The Doctor and Other Poems, The Manx Witch and Other Poems, and Old John and Other Poems. A collective edition of his poems appeared in 1900, and his letters have also been published, with a memoir.
Sir Thomas Browne was a British physician prosewriter. He was born in 1605 at Cheapside, London and died in 1682. Educated at Winchester and Broadgates Hall (Pembroke College), Oxford. He studied medicine at Oxford, Montpellier, Paduna and Leiden before settling as a physician at Norwich where he spent the rest of his life.
In 1642 was published his Heligio Medici (a Physician's Religion), which excited the attention of the learned, not only in England but throughout Europe, gave rise to doubts of the author's orthodoxy, and was translated into various languages. In 1646 his literary reputation was still further heightened by the appearance of his Pseudodoxia Epidemica, or Treatise on Vulgar Errors, a work of extraordinary learning, and accounted the most solid and useful of his literary labours. In 1658 his Hydriotaphia, or Treatise on Urn-Burial, appeared con jointly with his Garden of Cyrus, a work treating of horticulture from Adam's time to that of Cyrus. These works ranked him very high as an antiquary; and he maintained a wide correspondence with the learned both at home and abroad. In 1665 he was constituted an honorary member of the College of Physicians, and in 1671 Charles II, visiting Norwich, conferred on him the honour of knighthood.
Of a most amiable private character, he was happy in the affection of his large family and numerous friends; and passed through a remarkably tranquil and prosperous literary and professional life. Though he wrote exposing vulgar errors he was himself a believer in alchemy, astrology, and witchcraft. Research Thomas Browne
Thomas Robert Bugeaud, Duke D'Isly was a marshal of France. He was born in 1784 and died in 1849. He entered the army in 1804 as a simple grenadier, but rose to be colonel before the fall of Napoleon. After the revolution of 1830 he obtained a seat in the Chamber of Deputies. He was afterwards sent to Algeria, where he gained many advantages over the Arabs. On the revolution of 1848 he adhered to Louis Philippe to the last. Under the presidency of Louis Napoleon he was appointed commander-in-chief of the army of the Alps. Research Thomas Bugeaud
Sir Thomas Fowell Buxton was an English philanthropist and abolitionist. He was born in 1786 and died in 1845. Educated at Trinity College, Dublin, in 1811 he joined the firm of the celebrated brewers, Truman Hanbury, & Company, and took an active share in the business. The Spitalfields distress in 1816 was the occasion of his turning his attention to philanthropic efforts, and along with his sister-in-law, the celebrated Elizabeth Fry, he made inquiries which directed public attention to the system of prisondiscipline. In 1818 he was elected member of parliament for Weymouth, and was long the able coadjutor of William Wilberforce in his efforts for the abolition of slavery. He was created a baronet in 1840. Research Thomas Buxton
Thomas Campbell was a Scottish poet. He was born in 1777 at Glasgow and died in 1844. Educated at the university of Glasgow, after leaving the university he resided for a short time in Edinburgh; and all at once attained the zenith of his fame by publishing, in 1799, his Pleasures of Hope. It produced an extraordinary sensation, and soon became a familiar book at almost every hearth throughout the kingdom.
In 1803, after spending some time in Germany, Campbell published an edition of the Pleasures of Hope with the addition of some of the finest lyrics in the English language, including Hohenlinden, Ye Mariners of England, and the Exile of Erin. In 1803 he went to London, and in 1806 obtained a pension of 200 pounds through the influence of Mr. Fox. After this he appears for a time to have given his attention less to poetry than prose, and wrote various compilations, articles for Brewster's Edinburgh Encyclopaedia, etc.
In 1809 he again made his appearance as a poet, and published Gertrude of Wyoming, Lord Ullin's Daughter, and the Battle of the Baltic. After publishing Specimens of English Poets accompanied by critical essays, he became editor in 1820 of the New Monthly Magazine. He took an active part in the foundation of London University, and in 1827 was elected rector of Glasgow University. After this though he continued to occupy himself with literature, he published his Letters from the South, a Life of Mrs. Siddons, and a Life of Petrarch, his productions were much inferior to his earlier efforts. Research Thomas Campbell
Thomas Carew was a British poet. He was born in 1595 and died in 1639. Educated at Oxford, he cultivated polite literature in the midst of a life of affluence and gaiety, and was the subject of much eulogy by Ben Jonson, Davenant, and other writers of the period. His works are masques, lyrics, and sonnets, and were first printed in 1640. Thomas Carew is coupled with Waller as one of the improvers of English versification. Research Thomas Carew
Thomas Carlyle was a British essayist, historian, and philosopher. He was born in 1795 at Ecclefechan and died in 1881 at Chelsea. He was the eldest son of James Carlyle, a mason, afterwards a farmer, and was intended for the church, with which object he was carefully educated at the parish school and afterwards at the burgh school of Annan. In his fifteenthyear (in 1810) he was sent to the University of Edinburgh, where he developed a strong taste for mathematics. Having renounced the idea of becoming a minister, after finishing his curriculum in 1814 he became a teacher for about four years, first at Annan, and afterwards at Kirkcaldy.
In 1818 he removed to Edinburgh, where he supported himself by literary work, devoted much time to the study of German, and went through a varied and extensive course of reading in history, poetry, romance, and other fields. His first literary productions were short biographies and other articles for the Edinburgh Encyclopaedia. His career as an author may be said to have begun with the issue in monthly portions of his Life of Schiller in the London Magazine, in 1823, this work being enlarged and published separately in 1825. In 1824 he published a translation of Legendre's Geometry, with an essay on proportion by himself prefixed. The same year appeared his translation of Goethe's Wilhelm Meister's Apprenticeship. He was next engaged in translating specimens of the German romance writers, published in four volumes in 1827. In 1826 he married Miss Jane Bailie Welsh, daughter of a doctor at Haddington, and a lineal descendant of John Knox.
After his marriage he resided for a time in Edinburgh, and then withdrew to Craigenputtock, a farm in Dumfriesshirebelonging to his wife, about fifteen miles from the town of Dumfries. Here he wrote a number of critical and biographical articles for various periodicals; and here was written Sartor Resartus, the most original of his works. The writing of Sartor Resartus seems to have been finished in 1831, but the publishers were shy of it, and it was not given to the public until 1833-34, through the medium of Fraser's Magazine.
The publication of Sartor soon made Thomas Carlyle famous, and on his removal to London early in 1834 he became a prominent member of a brilliant literary circle embracing John Stuart Mill, Leigh Hunt, John Sterling, Julius Charles and Augustus William Hare, P D Maurice, etc. He fixed his abode at Cheyne Row, Chelsea, where his life henceforth was mainly spent.
His next work of importance was on the French Revolution, published in 1837. About this time, and on one or two subsequent years, he delivered several series of lectures, the most important of these, On Heroes and Hero-worship, being published in 1840. Chartism, published in 1839, and Past and Present, in 1843, were small works bearing more or less on the affairs of the time. In 1845 appeared his Oliver Cromwell's Letters and Speeches, with Elucidations, a work of great research, and brilliantly successful in vindicating the character of the great Protector. In 1850 came out his Latter-day Pamphlets. This work was very repulsive to many from the exaggeration of its language, and its advocacy of harsh and coercive measures. He next wrote a life of his friend John Sterling, published in 1851, and regarded as a finished and artistic performance.
The largest and most laborious work of his life, The History of Friedrich II of Prussia, called Frederick the Great, next appeared, the first two volumes in 1858, the second two in 1862, and the last two in 1865, and after this time little came from his pen. In 1866, having been elected LordRector of Edinburgh University, he delivered an installation address to the students On the Choice of Books. While still in Scotland the sad news reached him that his wife had died suddenly in London. This was a severe blow to Thomas Carlyle. Mrs. Carlyle, besides being a woman of exceptional intellect, was a most devoted and affectionate wife. From this time his productions were mostly articles or letters on topics of the day, including Shooting Niagara; and After? in which he gave vent to his serious misgivings as to the result of the Reform Bill of 1867. An unimportant historical sketch, The Early Kings of Norway, appeared in 1874, but was written long before.
Towards the end of his life he was offered a government pension and a baronetcy, but declined both. He left the estate of Craigenputtock to the University of Edinburgh, settling that the income from it should form ten bursaries to be annually competed for - five for proficiency in mathematics and five for classics (including English). He had appointed James Anthony Froude his literary executor, who, in conformity with his trust, published Reminiscences of Thomas Carlyle, in 1881; Thomas Carlyle: the First Forty Years of his Life, in 1882; Letters of Jane Welsh Carlyle in 1883; and Thomas Carlyle: Life in London published in 1884; The character of Thomas Carlyle presented in these volumes gave an unexpected shock to the public, and a bitter controversy has raged regarding Froude's conduct in the matter. Meantime the reputation of Carlyle has suffered somewhat. Research Thomas Carlyle
Thomas Carrick was an English miniature painter. He was born in 1802 at Upperley, near Carlisle and died in 1875. He was a self taught artist who started life as a chemist, but neglected chemistry for painting. Research Thomas Carrick
Thomas Carte was an English historian. He was born in 1686 and died in 1754. He studied in Oxford and Cambridge before entering the Church. Having incurred the suspicion of having been concerned in plots against the government he fled to France and remained abroad for some years, returning in 1728. In 1736 he published Life of James, Duke of Ormonde, and in 1747-52 three volumes of his voluminous History of England, a fourth being published in 1755. His work is distinguished by careful and elaborate research, and has supplied Hume and other historians with much material. Research Thomas Carte
Thomas Cartwright was one of the eminent Puritan divines of the 16th century. He was born in 1535 at Hertfordshire in 1535 and died in 1603. He suffered imprisonment and exile more than once for his nonconformist opinions. He was a learned man, and at one time professor of divinity at Cambridge. Research Thomas Cartwright
Thomas Cavendish (Thomas Candish) was an English explorer. He was born about 1555 and died in 1592. Having collected three small vessels for the purpose of making a predatory voyage to the Spanish colonies, he sailed from Plymouth in 1586, took and destroyed many vessels, ravaged the coasts of Chili, Peru, and New Spain and retuend by the Cape of Good Hope, having circumnavigated the globe in two years and forty-nine days, a record at the time. In 1591 he set sail on another similar expedition, but was killed before his return. Research Thomas Cavendish
Thomas Chalmers was a Scottish divine. He was born in 1780 at AnstrutherEaster, Fife and died in 1847. At the age of twelve he was sent from the parish school to the University of St Andrews, and after studying there seven years, was licensed as a preacher in July, 1799. During the two following years he studied mathematics and chemistry in Edinburgh, and then became assistant to the professor of mathematics at St Andrews. In 1803 he was presented to the parish of Kilmany, in Fife, where he made a high reputation as a preacher. In 1804 he was defeated in an application for the chair of natural philosophy at St Andrews, and again in 1805 for the same chair in Edinburgh University. In 1808 he published an Inquiry into the Extent and Stability of National Resources. In 1813 his article on Christianity appeared in the EdinburghEncyclopaedia, and shortly afterwards his review of Georges Cuvier's Theory of the Earth, in the Christian Instructor.
His fame as a preacher had by this time extended itself throughout Scotland, and in 1815 he was inducted to the TronChurch of Glasgow. His astronomical discourses delivered there in the following winter produced a sensation not only in the city but throughout the country, 20,000 copies selling in the first year of their publication. It was while pastor of this church that he developed his scheme for the reorganization of the parochial system with a view to more efficient work among the destitute and outcast classes, his influence leading to a considerable extension of the means of popular instruction, both religious and secular.
In 1819 he was transferred from the Tron to St John's, a church built and endowed expressly for him by the Town Council of Glasgow, but his health having been tried by overwork he accepted, in 1823, the chair of moral philosophy at St Andrews. In 1827 he was elected to the divinity chair in the University of Edinburgh, an appointment which he continued to hold until the Disruption from the Scottish church in 1843. In 1832 he published his Political Economy, and shortly afterwards his Bridgewater Treatise On the Adaptation of External Nature to the Moral and Intellectual Constitution of Man. During this period he was occupied with the subject of churchextension on the voluntary principle, but it was in the great non-intrusion movement in the Scottish church that his name became most prominent.
Throughout the whole contest to the Disruption in 1843, he acted as the leader of the party that then separated from the Establishment, and may be regarded as the founder of the Free Church of Scotland, of the first assembly of which he was moderator. Having vacated his professorial chair in the Edinburgh University, he was appointed principal and primarius professor of divinity in the new college of the Free Church. In addition to his duties in these posts, he continued in Edinburgh his zealous labours for the elevation of the 'home-heathen', giving a practical exemplification of his schemes by the establishment of a successful mission in West Port. Research Thomas Chalmers
Thomas Chatterton was an English poet. He was born in 1752 at Bristol and died in 1770. Of poor parents, ne was educated at a charity school. He exhibited great precocity, became extremely devoted to reading, and was especially fond of old writings and documents. At the age of fourteen he was apprenticed to an attorney. In 1768, when the new bridge at Bristol was completed, he inserted a paper in the Bristol Journal entitled A Description of the Friars' First Passing over the Old Bridge, which he pretended he had found along with other old manuscripts in an old chest in St Mary Redcliffe Church, Bristol. He also showed his friends several poems of similarly spurious antiquity which he attributed to one Rowley.
In 1769 he ventured to write to Horace Walpole, then engaged upon his Anecdotes of Painters, giving him an account of a number of old Bristol painters which was clever enough to deceive Horace Walpole for a time. Dismissed from the attorney's office, he left with his manuscripts for London, where a favourable reception from the booksellers gave him high hopes. For them he wrote numerous pamphlets, satires, letters, etc, but got no substantial return, and his situation became daily more desperate. At last, after having been several days without food, he poisoned himself, on the 25th of August 1770. The most remarkable of his poems are those published under the name of Rowley, spurious antiques, such as The Tragedy of AElla, The Battle of Hastings, The Bristow Tragedy, etc. Research Thomas Chatterton
Thomas Chippendale was one of England's most famous furniture makers. He was born in 1718 in Yorkshire and died in 1779. His London based cabinet making business flourished from about 1750 until his death in 1779. In 1752 he published the book 'The gentleman and Cabinet Maker's Director' which contained designs for furniture. Research Thomas Chippendale
Thomas Chubb was an English writer. He was born in 1679 and died in 1746. Although engaged as a glover and chandler he gave his chief attention to philosophical and theological study, and was celebrated in the Arian controversy for his argumentative keenness. In this connection he published in 1715 The Supremacy of the Father Asserted, besides various other moral and theological tracts. Research Thomas Chubb
Thomas Clarkson was an English anti-slavery advocate. He was born in 1760 at Wisbeach, Cambridgeshire and died in 1846. He was originally intended for the church, and studied at St John's College, Cambridge, where he gained the vice-chancellor's prize for a Latinessay on the theme, 'Anne liceat invitos in servitutem dare ?' (Is it lawful to make slaves of men against their will?), published in 1786. His researches for this dissertation roused in him a passionate antagonism to the slave-trade, and he allied himself with the Quakers and with William Wilberforce.
While the latter advocated the cause in parliament, Thomas Clarkson conducted the agitation throughout England, even crossing to France to obtain the co-operation of the National Convention. His labours went far to secure the prohibition of the slave-trade in 1807, in 1823 assisting in the founding the Anti-Slavery Society for the suppression of slavery in the West Indies, and the emancipation act of 1833. His literary works comprise: A Portraiture of Quakerism (1806); History of the Abolition of the Slave Trade (1808); Memoirs of WilliamPenn (1813); Researches, Antediluvian, Patriarchal, and Historical (1836); besides numerous pamphlets, etc. Research Thomas Clarkson
Thomas Cochrane was a British admiral and the Tenth Earl of Dundonald. He was born in 1775 at Annsfield and died in 1860. At the age of eighteen he embarked with his uncle, then Captain, and afterwards Sir Alexander Cochrane, in the Hind, of twenty-eight guns, and soon distinguished himself by his daring and gallantry. In 1800 he was appointed to the Speedy, a sloop-of-war of fourteen guns, In charge of the 'Speedy', he captured off the coast of Spain, among others, the Spanish ship 'El Gamo' in May 1801. Soon afterwards he was himself captured by a French ship of the line. In 1805, while in command of the Pallasfrigate, he took some rich prizes, and for the next four years in the Imperieuse performed remarkable exploits in cutting out vessels, storming batteries, destroying signals, etc. In the Basque Roads in 1809 with a division of fire-vessels he pushed within the enemy's lines, effecting immense destruction.
On his return to England he entered parliament, and by his attacks on the abuses of the naval administration made himself obnoxious to the authorities. He gave further offence by charging LordGambier, his superior officer, with neglect of duty (which was true); by denouncing the abuses of the prize-court, and the treatment of the prisoners of war. His enemies succeeded in 1814 in convicting him on a charge - since proved to be false - of originating a rumour, for speculative purposes, that Napoleon had abdicated. He was expelled from parliament, deprived of all his honours, imprisoned for a year, and fined 1000 pounds. The electors of Westminster immediately paid his fine and re-elected him, but he had to remain in prison until the expiration of his sentence.
In 1818 he took service in the Chilian navy, his exploits greatly aiding the national independence of that country, as well as soon after of Brazil. In 1832 he was restored to his rank in the British navy. In 1831, by the death of his father, he had succeeded to the name and title of Earl of Dundonald; in 1841 he became vice-admiral of the blue; in 1848 he was appointed commander-in-chief on the North America and West India station; and in 1851 and 1854 respectively he became vice-admiral of the white, and rear-admiral of the United Kingdom. He did much to promote the adoption of steam and the screw propeller in war-ships. He wrote an autobiography, which, though left incomplete, is a most interesting work. Research Thomas Cochrane
Thomas Cole was an English-born American painter. He was born in 1801 and died in 1848. Among- his most popular landscape works are the 'Voyage of Life', 'The Course of Empire', 'The White Mountains', and the 'Dream of Arcadia'. Research Thomas Cole
Thomas Conway was a French soldier. He was born in 1733 and died in 1800. He went to the USA in 1777 and was made a brigadier-general. He was present at the Battle of Brandywine and at the Battle of Germantown. He was the leader of the 'Conway Cabal' conspiracy against George Washington, and was subsequently wounded in a duel fought with general John Cadwalader. Soon after he returned to France and was made Governor of Pondicherry. Research Thomas Conway
Thomas Cook was the founder of the great tourist agency of Thomas Cook & Son. He was born in 1808 and died in 1892. He began operations with short tourist trips from Leicester, where he lived, gradually increasing the length and number of his excursions; then moved to London in 1865, his only son, John Mason Cook, being now his partner, and the business extended with great rapidity. In 1872 he started on a tour round the world, to pave the way for tourist business, and in 1878 resigned the management to his son, John Mason Cook, under whose direction the operations of the firm may be said to have extended to the whole world. The latter was consulted by the British Government in connection with the Gordon relief expedition in 1884, and was entrusted with the conveyance of 18,000 British and Egyptian troops and an immense quantity of stores, etc, from Assiout to Wady Haifa. He died in 1899, leaving several sous to carry on the business, which grew to include banking and shipping departments. Under the auspices of the firm a trip round the world became an easy matter as early as 1900. Research Thomas Cook
Thomas Cooper was an English scientist. He was born in 1759 and died in 1840. An English democrat, he emigrated to the USA in 1795. He was one of those tried under the Sedition Act, was president of the College of South Carolina, and was one of the founders of political economy in America. Research Thomas Cooper
Thomas Cooper was a British Chartist poet and miscellaneous writer. He was born in 1805 and died in 1892. While a shoemaker's apprentice he studied assiduously, became a schoolmaster and Methodist preacher, subsequently took up sceptical opinions, but latterly lectured in favour of Christianity. His prominence as a Chartist earned him imprisonment, and his chief work, a poem in the Spenserian stanza, called the Purgatory of Suicides, was written in StaffordJail. He also wrote novels, an autobiography, etc. Research Thomas Cooper (2)
Thomas Sidney Cooper was an English landscape and cattle painter. He was born in 1803 at Canterbury and died in 1902. He studied at the Royal Academy school and on the Continent; first exhibited at the Academy in 1833, became A.R.A. in 1845, and R.A. in 1867. He produced a long series of works; in 1882 presented a gallery of art to his native town, Canterbury, and in 1890 published his autobiography. Research Thomas Cooper (3)
Thomas Coram was a Dorset seaman. He was born in 1668 and died in 1751. He established the Foundling Hospital, which was chartered in 1739 and intended as a refuge for the numerous unwanted children of London. He spent all his money on charities, and towards the end of his life was reduced to poverty, when an annuity was raised for him by public subscription. Research Thomas Coram
Thomas Corneille was a French dramatist. He was born in 1625 at Rouen and died in 1709. The brother of Pierre Corneille, they had married two sisters, and lived in the same house in the utmost harmony. Thomas Corneille began with comedies, which were imitations of the Spanish school, and were received with even greater applause than those of his brother. The first was Les Engagements du Ilasard (1647). His best tragedy is Ariane (1672). He is a dramatist of very secondary rank, laborious and cultivated, but wanting in original power. Research Thomas Corneille
Thomas Corwin was an American politician. He was bon in 1794and died in 1865. He was a member of the Ohio Legislature from 1822 until 1829, and of the US House of Representatives in 1831, where he represented the Whig party until 1840, when he was elected Governor of Ohio. He was elected to the US Senate in 1844 and served until 1850 and to Congress in 1858 and 1860. He was appointed Minister to Mexico by President Abraham Lincoln, serving from 1861 until 1864. Research Thomas Corwin
Thomas Coryat was an eccentric English traveller. He was born in 1577 and died in 1617. His wanderings, a great part on foot, were through Europe, Asia Minor, Iran, India, etc. His travels were published under such curious titles as Coryat's Crudities, Coryat's Crambe or Colwort twice sodden, etc. He acted as a sort of butt or foil to the wits with whom he associated in London. Research Thomas Coryat
Thomas Coutts was a British banker. He was born in 1735 at Edinburgh and died in 1822. The son of an Edinburghprovost, at an early age he went to London where, together with his brother James he founded the London banking house of Coutss and Co. in the Strand, London, becoming the solepartner on his brother's death in 1778. He acted as banker to George III. Research Thomas Coutts
Sir Thomas Craig was a Scottish writer on jurisprudence. He was probably born in 1538 and died in 1608. He was educated at the University of St Andrews, and afterwards repaired to France, where he studied civil and canon law. He returned about 1561, and was placed at the head of the criminal judicature of the country as justice depute. He is now chiefly remembered by his Treatise on Feudal Law. Research Thomas Craig
Thomas Cranmer was archbishop of Canterbury under Henry VIII. He was born in 1489 at Aslacton, Nottinghamshire and died in 1556 when he was burnt at the stake for refusing to revert his religion under Mary. He was famous for the part he played in the English reformation during the reign of Henry VIII. He entered as a student of Jesus College, Cambridge, in 1503, took the degree of MA, obtained a fellowship, and in 1523 was chosen reader of theological lectures in his college, and examiner of candidates for degrees in divinity.
An opinion which he gave on the question of Henry VIII's proposed divorce from Catharine brought him under the favourable notice of the king. Thomas Cranmer was sent for to court, made a king's chaplain, and commanded to write a treatise on the subject of the divorce. In 1530 he was sent abroad with others to collect the opinions of the divines and canonists of France, Italy, and Germany, on the validity of the king's marriage. At Rome he presented his treatise to the pope, but his mission was fruitless.
In January, 1533, he was appointed Archbishop of Canterbury. Soon after he set the Papal authority at defiance by pronouncing sentence of divorce between Henry VIII and Catharine, and confirming the king's marriage with Anne Boleyn. The pope threatened excommunication, and an act of parliament was immediately passed for abolishing the pope's supremacy, and declaring the king chief head of the Church of England. The archbishop zealously promoted the cause of the Reformation; and through his means the Bible was translated and read in churches, and monastic institutions were vigorously suppressed.
In 1536 he pandered to Henry VIII's passions by promoting the divorce of Anne Boleyn. This and other services secured him in the king's favour, who appointed him by will one of the council of regency to Edward VI. By his instrumentality the liturgy was drawn up and established by act of parliament, and articles of religion were compiled, the validity of which was enforced by royal authority, and for which infallibility was claimed.
The exclusion of the Princess Mary from the crown, by the will of her brother, was a measure in which Thomas Cranmer joined the partisans of Lady Jane Grey, apparently in opposition to his own judgment. With others who had been most active in Lady Jane Grey's favour he was sent to the Tower on the accession of Mary. He was tried on charges of blasphemy, perjury, incontinence, and heresy, and was sentenced to be degraded and deprived of office. After this flattering promises were made, which induced him to sign a recantation of his alleged errors, and become, in fact, a Catholic convert. But when he was brought into St Mary'sChurch, Oxford, to read his recantation in public, instead of confessing the justness of his sentence, and submitting to it in silence or imploring mercy, he calmly acknowledged that the fear of death had made him belie his conscience; and declared that nothing could afford him consolation but the prospect of extenuating his guilt by encountering, as a Protestant penitent, with firmness and resignation, the fiery torments which awaited him. He was immediately hurried to the stake, where he behaved with the resolution of a martyr. Research Thomas Cranmer
Thomas Crawford was an American sculptor. He was born in 1814 and died in 1857. He worked chiefly in Rome and is best known for his historical and allegorical works. Research Thomas Crawford
Thomas Creswick was an English landscape painter. He was born in 1811 at Sheffield and died in 1869. In 1828 he went to London and exhibited at the British Institution and at the Royal Academy. he was elected ARA in 1842 and RA in 1851. He was also a member of the EtchingClub and etched plates for Gray's Elegy among others. Research Thomas Creswick
Thomas Crofton Croker was an Irish collector of folklore. He was born in 1798 at Cork in 1798 and died in 1854. While in a merchant's office in Cork he commenced the collection of the songs and legends current among the peasantry of the south of Ireland. In 1819 an appointment in the admiralty was obtained for him, and he retired with a pension in 1850. His best-known work is his Fairy Legends and Traditions of the South of Ireland, published in 1825. Research Thomas Croker
Thomas Cromwell was Earl of Essex and an English administrator. He was born in 1485 and died in 1540. The son of a blacksmith at Putney, in Surreym in his youth he was employed as clerk to the English factory at Antwerp; in 1510 went to Rome; and on his return to England became confidential servant of CardinalWolsey, about 1525. On his master's disgrace in 1529 Thomas Cromwell defended him with great spirit in the House of Commons, of which he was then a member; and effectually opposed the articles of treason brought against Wolsey. After the cardinal's death he was taken into the king's service, was knighted and made privy-councillor, and in 1534 became principal secretary of state and master of the rolls. In 1535 he was appointed visitor-general of all the monasteries in England, in order to suppress them, his services being rewarded by the post of lord-keeper of the privy seal, and the title of BaronCromwell of Okeham.
On the abolition of the pope's supremacy he was created king's vicar-general, and used all his influence to promote the Reformation. He was made chief-justice itinerant of the forests beyondTrent, knight of the Garter, and finally, in 1539, lord high chancellor, and the following year Earl of Essex. He at length fell into disgrace with the king for the part he took in promoting his marriage with Anne of Cleves; and others of his political schemes failing, he was arrested on a charge of treason, and beheaded on Tower Hill on July the 28th, 1540. Research Thomas Cromwell
Thomas Cushing was an American politician. He was born in 1725 and died in 1788. From 1766 until 1774 he was Speaker of the MassachusettsAssembly, was elected to the first and second Continental Congresses, and was a member of the convention that ratified the Federal Constitution in 1788. From 1783 until 1788 he was Lieutenant-Governor of Massachusetts. Research Thomas Cushing
Thomas D'Urfey was an English poet and wit. He was born in 1653 at Exeter and died in 1723. The grandson of a French Protestantrefugee, he abandoned law for literature, and wrote a large number of comedies of a licentious character. Thomas D'Urfey's name is now principally remembered in connection with his Pills to Purge Melancholy, a collection of songs and ballads, partly his own, and many of them coarse or licentious. His society was generally courted by the witty and he enjoyed the favour of four successive monarchs. Research Thomas D'Urfey
Thomas da Vio, Cardinal Cajetan was an Italian divine. He was born in 1469 at Gaeta and died in 1534. When only fifteen years of age he became a Dominican monk, and in 1508 general of his order. In 1517 he was made a cardinal by Leo X, who, in the following year, sent him as his legate into Germany, the principal object of his mission being to endeavour to bring Martin Luther back to the old faith. He was author of a Commentary on the Bible; a Commentary on the Summa of Thomas Aquinas; a Treatise on the Authority of the Pope, etc. Research Thomas da Vio
Sir Thomas Dale was an English politician. He was sent as Governor to Virginia, and establislied there a military government. He was succeeded by Sir Thomas Gates from 1611 to 1614, when he resumed the government, and held it till 1616. Sir Thomas Dale died in 1620. Research Thomas Dale
Thomas Dalyell (Thomas Dalzell) was a Scottish soldier. He was born about 1599 and died in 1685. He was taken prisoner fighting on the royalist side at Worcester, and afterwards escaped to Russia, where he was made a general. Returning to England at the Restoration, he was made commander-in-chief of the forces in Scotland, and made himself notorious for his ferocity against the Covenanters. Research Thomas Dalyell
Thomas Day was an English author. He was born in 1748 at London and died in 1789 after falling from a horse . His father, who was a collector of the customs, died whilst he was an infant, leaving him a considerable fortune. He was educated at the Charter House and at Oxford. In 1765 he was called to the bar. He renounced most of the indulgences of a man of fortune, that he might provide for the poor; and he also expressed a great contempt for forms and artificial restraint of all kinds. He wrote, in prose and verse, on various subjects, but the History of Sandford and Merton is the only work by which he is remembered Research Thomas Day
Thomas de Brown was a Scottish metaphysician. He was born in 1778 at Kirkmabreck, Kirkcudbright and died in 1820. He was educated at the High School, and subsequently at the University of Edinburgh, where he obtained the professorship of moral philosophy. He distinguished himself, at a very early age, by an acute review of the medical and physiological theories of Dr. Darwin, in a work entitled Observations on Darwin's Zoonornia. He published some indifferent poems which were collected in 1820. But he chiefly deserves notice on account of his metaphysical speculations, his chief work being Lectures on the Philosophy of the HumanMind, 1822. His system reduces the intellectual faculties to three great classes - perception, simple suggestion, and relative suggestion; employing the term suggestion as nearly synonymous with association. He held original views in regard to the part played by touch and the muscular sense in relation to belief in an external world. His development of the theory of cause and effect was first suggested by Hume. Research Thomas De Brown
Thomas De Quincey was an English writer. He was born in 1785 at Greenhay near Manchester and died in 1859. In 1793 his father, a merchant of Manchester, died, leaving the family a fortune of 30,000 pounds. After attending some time the Bath and Manchester grammar-schools, where he showed precocious ability, especially in classical studies, he importuned his guardian to send him to Oxford University, and on being refused he ran away from school in 1802 and wandered around Wales, ultimately arriving in London in an absolutely destitute condition, and later describing the events in 'Confessions of an English Opium-Eater' published in 1822.
At length, in 1803, he matriculated at Oxford, and it was in the second year of his course here that he began to take opium in order to alleviate severe neuralgic pains. On leaving college he settled at Grasmere, Westmoreland, in the vicinity of Wordsworth and Southey, and devoted himself to literary work. Here or in London he remained until 1828, reading voraciously, and writing for the London Magazine, Knight's Quarterly Magazine, and latterly Blackwood's Magazine. From 1828 to 1840 he lived in Edinburgh, then removed with his family to Lasswade, which continued to be his headquarters. His writings, nearly all contributions to magazines, are distinguished by power of expression, subtle thought, and an encyclopaedic abundance of curious information. He was eccentric in his habits, incapable of managing money matters, but amiable and polite. Research Thomas De Quincey
Thomas de Witt Talmage was an American preacher. He was born in 1832 at New Jersey and died in 1902. Educated at New York and at a theological college of the Dutch Church in New Jersey, in 1856 he became minister of a Reformed Church in Belleville, New Jersey. In 1859 he moved to Syracuse and in 1869 he moved to Brooklyn. From 1895 until 1899 he was a minister at Washington. Thomas de Witt Talmage edited Frank Leslie's Sunday Magazine and The Christian Herald, and also wrote a number of books as well as earning a reputation as a popular preacher for his vogue sermons delivered with oratorical skill. Research Thomas de Witt Talmage
Thomas Dekker (Thomas Decker, Thomas Deckar) was an English dramatist and writer. He was born in 1570 and died in 1641. He wrote plays which provide a view of contemporary life in London. Among these are: Old Fortunatus, Shoemaker's Holiday, Satiromastix, The Honest Whore, etc. He also collaborated with Massinger, Ford, Middleton, Jonson, and others. A quarrel with Ben Jonson occasioned that poet's Poetaster, and the Satiromastix of Dekker. Research Thomas Dekker
Thomas Frognal Dibdin was an English bibliographer. He was born in 1776 and died in 1847. He was the son of the elder brother of Charles Dibdin the celebrated naval song-writer. After studying law and practising as a provincial counsel he took orders and became a popular preacher in London. Here his bibliographical tastes developed themselves, and the Roxburghe Club being established in 1812, he became its first vice-president. Among his numerous writings may be noted Bibliomania; Bibliographical Decameron; Typographical Antiquities of Great Britain. Research Thomas Dibdin
Thomas Dick was a Scottish author of popular scientific works. He was born in 1774 at Dundee and died in 1857. He was for many years a teacher at Perth, but latterly resided at Broughty-Ferry, where he devoted himself to astronomical science, especially in its relations to religion. Some years before his death a small pension was granted to him by the government. Amongst his works are The Christian Philosopher published in 1823 and Celestial Scenery published in 1838. Research Thomas Dick
Thomas W Dorr was an American lawyer and politician. He was bown in 1805 at Providence and died in 1854. Educated at Harvard, he graduated in 1823, studied in New York and was admitted to the bar. He was a member of the Rhode IslandAssembly from 1833 to 1837, when he agitated governmental reform. Research Thomas Dorr
Thomas Drummond was a Scottish soldier and politician. He was born in 1797 at Edinburgh and died in 1840. He was educated at Edinburgh and at Woolwich, and entered the army as an engineer. In 1819 he became assistant to ColonelColby in the trigonometrical survey of Great Britain and Ireland. He invented a heliostat, and a lime-ball light (the Drummond Light) which he first used about 1825 during the survey of Ireland. He subsequently entered political life, and became in 1835 under-secretary for Ireland, a country which he practically ruled with the utmost success for five years. Research Thomas Drummond
Thomas Dudley was an English colonial governor, He was born in 1576 and died in 1652. he went to Massachusetts in 1630 as Deputy-Governor. He was Governor from 1634 to 1635, from 1640 to 1641, from 1645 to 1646, and from 1650 to 1651. During most other years from 1630 to 1652, he was Deputy-Governor. He was at times an opponent of Winthrop. Research Thomas Dudley
Thomas Duncan was a Scottish painter. He was born in 1807 and died in 1845. He studied under Sir W Allan, and was elected an associate of the Royal Academy in 1843. His principal works were illustrative of Scottish history and character. Among the best known of them are: The Abdication of Mary Queen of Scots; Anne Page and Slender; Prince Charles Edward and the Highlanders entering Edinburgh after Prestonpans; Charles Edward asleep in a Cave after Culloden; The Martyrdom of John Brown of Priest-hill; etc. His portraits are very highly esteemed. Research Thomas Duncan
Thomas Alva Edison was an American businessman. He was born in 1847 and died in 1931. He was poorly educated, became a news-boy on the Grand Trunk Railway, and afterwards having obtained some type, issued a small-sheet newspaper of his own on the train. He then set himself to learn telegraph work, and in a short time became an expert operator. While at Indianopolis, he invented an automatic telegraph repeater. He later operated a firm of fifteen scientists who invented the carbon filament electric lamp and (it was believed for many years) the phonograph, although he took full credit for their work.
In fact the phonograph, originally known as the phonautograph, had been invented some ten years earlier in France by Edouard-Leon Scott de Martinville who had made a recording in 1860, which he presented to the French Academy of Sciences in 1861. Research Thomas Edison
Thomas Edward was a Scottish naturalist. He was born in 1814 at Gosport in Hampshire and died in 1886. The son of poor parents, he was apprenticed to a shoemaker and in his spare time studied the life of beetles and other insects and discovered twenty new species of British sessile-eyed crustaceans. An interesting biography of Edward (Life of a Scottish Naturalist), written by Smiles, appeared in 1876, and a pension of of 50 pounds a year was shortly afterwards conferred on him by Queen Victoria. Research Thomas Edward
Thomas Ellwood was an early writer among the Quakers. He was born in 1639 and died in 1713. About 1660 he was induced to join the Society of Friends, and soon after published An Alarm to the Priests. He was imprisoned on account of his religion, but subsequently became reader to Milton, and is said to have suggested to him the idea of writing the Paradise Regained. In 1705 and 1709 he published the two parts of his SacredHistory. His works include a poetical life of King David, the Davideis. Research Thomas Ellwood
Sir Thomas Elyot was an English diplomatist and scholar. He was born in 1490 at Wiltshire and died in 1546. Knighted by Henry VIII he was sent on several embassies. He wrote 'The Governor', the first book written in plain English on the subject of education, and also a Latin-English dictionary published in 1538. Research Thomas Elyot
Thomas Erskine (LordErskine) was a Scottish lawyer. He was born in 1750 and died in 1823. The youngest son of the tenth earl of Buchan, he was educated partly at the High School of Edinburgh, and partly at the University of St Andrews. After serving four years in the navy and seven in the army he commenced the study of law, and in 1778 both took his degree at Cambridge and was called to the bar. His success was immediate. In May, 1783, he received a silk gown, and the same year was elected member of parliament for Portsmouth, a seat he held until 1806, when he was raised to the peerage.
The rights of juries he firmly maintained on all occasions, but particularly in the celebrated trial of the Dean of St Asaph for libel. In 1789 he defended Mr. Stockdale, a bookseller, for publishing what was charged as a libellous pamphlet in favour of Warren Hastings. In 1792, being employed to defend Thomas Paine, when prosecuted for the second part of his Rights of Man, he declared that, waiving all personal convictions, he deemed it right, as an English advocate, to obey the call: by the maintenance of which principle he lost his office of attorney-general to the Prince of Wales. In the trials of Hardy, Tooke, and others for high treason in 1794, which lasted for several weeks, the ability displayed by Erskine was acknowledged by all parties.
He was a warm partisan of Fox, and a strenuous opposer of the war with France. In 1802 the Prince of Wales not only restored him to his office of attorney-general, but made him keeper of his seals for the Duchy of Cornwall. On the death of Pitt, in 1806, Thomas Erskine was created a peer, and raised to the dignity of lord-chancellor. During his short tenure of office the bill for the abolition of slavery was passed. After he retired with the usual pension he took little part in politics. Research Thomas Erskine
Thomas Ewing was an American statesman. He was born in 1789 at Ohio and died in 1871. He was admitted to the bar in 1816. From 1831 until 1837 he represented Ohio in the US Senate, where he supported Clay's tariff system, advocated the recharter of the US Bank, and also the Force Bill, and opposed the removal of the deposits from the US Bank. In 1841 he was appointed Secretary of the Treasury in Harrison's Cabinet, and was the first Secretary of the Interior, serving in Taylor's Cabinet from 1849 until 1850. From 1850 to 1851 he was in the US Senate, succeeding Thomas Corwin. Research Thomas Ewing
Thomas Faed was a Scottish painter. He was born in 1826 at Kirkcudbrightshire and died in 1900. The younger brother of John Faed, he studied in Edinburgh, where at an early age he became known as a clever painter of rustic subjects. In 1852 he settled in London, where he won a high reputation. The subjects he has painted are for the most part domestic or pathetic, and in these he has contrived and told his own story, and that with a success that emulates Wilkie. Among his principal works are: Sir Walter Scott and his Friends (1849), The Mitherless Bairn (1855), The First Break in the Family (1857), Sunday in the Backwoods (1859),'His Only Pair (1860), From Dawn to Sunset (1861), The Last o' the Clan (1865). A number of Thomas Faed's works have been engraved in large size, and were very popular. Research Thomas Faed
Thomas Fairfax was an English soldier. He was born in 1611 or 1612 at Denton, Yorkshire and died in 1671. The son of Ferdinando Fairfax, after serving in the Netherlands with some reputation he returned to England, and as a Parliamentary general he assisted his father in his Civil War campaigns in the north and in 1642 he was appointed general of the horse, and two years later held a chief command in the army sent to co-operate with thoScots. He was prominent at the Battle of Naseby in 1645. He resigned shortly after the execution of Charles I and in 1659 went to The Hague to invite Charles II to return.
Lord Thomas Fitzgerald (known as 'silken Thomas') was an Irish noble. He was born about 1518 and died in 1536. He was vice-deputy for his father, the ninth earl of Kildare, on whose arrest by Henry VIII. Lord Thomas Fitzgerald raised a formidable revolt in Ireland, which was ultimately put down by Skettington, and Lord Thomas Fitzgerald and his five uncles were hanged at Tyburn. Research Thomas Fitzgerald
Thomas Fowler was an English philosophical writer. He was born in 1832 and died in 1904. He studied at Merton College, Oxford, and graduated with first-class honours in both classics and mathematics in 1854, soon after becoming fellow and tutor of Lincoln College. He was Professor of Logic in the University from 1873 to 1889. In 1881 he was elected president of Corpus Christi College, and held the post until his death in 1904. He was also Vice-chancellor of the University from 1899 to 1901. His published works include two volumes on Logic, Deductive (1867), and Inductive (1870), reproductions, in the main, for Oxford use, of J. S. Mill's logical system; editions of Bacon's Novum Organum, with introduction and notes, and Locke's Conduct of the Understanding; Progressive Morality, an Essay in Ethics; Principles of Morals; and monographs on Locke, Bacon, Shaftesbury, and Hutcheson. Research Thomas Fowler
Thomas Fuller was an English historian and divine of the Church of England. He was born in 1608 at Aldwinkle, in Northamptonshire and died 1661. He was sent to Queen's College, Cambridge, where he graduated BA in 1625 and MA in 1628. Afterwards he moved to Sidney Sussex College in the same university and being chosen minister of St Beliefs parish, Cambridge, he became very popular as a pulpit orator. In 1631 he obtained a fellowship at Sidney Sussex, and was collated to a prebend in the cathedral of Salisbury. He was next chosen rector of Broad Windsor, Dorset, and lecturer at the Savoy, London.
In 1643 he went to Oxford and joined the king; left in a few months for the army, in which he became chaplain to Sir Ralph Hopton, and employed his leisure in making collections relative to English history and antiquities. At the close of the war he took refuge in Exeter, and was appointed chaplain to the infantPrincessHenrietta Maria. Shortly before the restoration he was reinstated in his prebendal stall, and soon after that was made one of the king's chaplains.
Several of his writings are English classics, remarkable for quaintness of style, wit, sagacity, and learning. Among the more important are: History of the Holy War; The Holy and Profane State; Pisgah Sight of Palestine; ChurchHistory of Britain; and the Worthies of England, a production valuable alike for the solid information it affords relative to the provincial history of the country, and for the profusion of biographical anecdote and acute observation on men and manners. Research Thomas Fuller
Thomas Gage was an English colonial governor. He was born in 1721 and died in 1787. He went to America in 1754 in command of a regiment accompanying Braddock's expedition. He was appointed Governor of Montreal in 1760, and from 1763 to 1772 was commander-in-chief in America. In 1774 he was appointed Governor of Massachusetts, and attempted to subdue the antagonism of the colonists to English rule. In 1775 he sent troops to destroy stores collected at Concord, and this led to the Battle of Lexington. The colonists refused to recognize Gage as Governor, and soon after the Battle of Bunker Hill he resigned his commission. Research Thomas Gage
Thomas Gainsborough was an English painter. He was born in 1727 at Sudbury and died in 1788. He was trained under the engraver Gravelot and the painter Hayman, but met with small success until his marriage with Miss Burr, a lady of beauty and fortune, in 1746. After residing for some time in Ipswich and Bath, he went to London in 1774, where he passed the rest of his life. He was one of the original thirty-six academicians. He rivalled Sir Joshua Reynolds as a portrait-painter, and showed no less originality in landscape. His are very highly esteemed. Research Thomas Gainsborough
Thomas Hopkins Gallaudet was the first American teacher of the deaf. He was born in 1787 at Philadelphia and died in 1851. In 1815 he was sent to Europe to learn how to teach the deaf, which he did at Paris. He returned to America in 1816 with Laurence Clerc and in April 1817 they opened a school at Hartford, which in a few years developed into the American Asylum for the Deaf. Research Thomas Gallaudet
Thomas Milnee Gibson was an English politician. He was born in 1807 and died in 1884. He was educated at Cambridge and returned in 1837 as Conservative member of Parliament for Ipswich; afterwards he converted to Liberalism; became an orator of the Anti-Corn-Law Movement; was returned as MP for Manchester in 1841; was vice-president of the Board of Trade under Lord John Russell; lost his seat at Manchester as a result of opposing the Crimean War and represented Ashton-Under Lyme from 1857 until 1866. He helped to repeal the duty on paper and the newspaper duty. Research Thomas Gibson
Thomas Girtin was an English watercolour artist. He was born in 1775 at Southwark and died in 1802. Early in life he made the acquaintance of Turner, and the two often went sketching together. He first exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1794, a water-colour drawing of Elycathedral; and he followed this up in Subsequent years by showing, chiefly, architectural subjects, originally and poetically treated. His only oil-painting, Bolton Bridge, was hung in 1801. His health broke down and he died the following year. Thomas Girtin was the first to raise designs in watercolour to the rank of paintings. The British Museum possesses many interesting specimens of his work. Research Thomas Girtin
Thomas Graham was a Scottish chemist. He was born in 1805 at Glasgow and died in 1869. Educated at Glasgow and Edinburgh, in 1827 he commenced teaching private mathematical classes in Glasgow, and in 1829 succeeded to the lectureship of chemistry in the Mechanics' Institution. 1830 he was appointed professor of chemistry in the Andersonian University. In 1831 he established the law that gases tend to diffuse inversely as the square root of their specific gravities. He afterwards made a series of investigations into the constitution of ar-seniates, phosphates, and phosphoretted hydrogen, and into the function of water in different salts.
In 1837 he was appointed professor of chemistry at University College, London, , and soon after settling in the metropolis he was appointed assayer to the mint, holding the post at University College until 1855 when he became master of the Mint. Thomas Graham was the first president of the Chemical Society, founded in 1841.
In 1846 he assisted in founding the Cavendish Society, over which be presided. He read the Bakerian lecture in 1849 and in 1854, the subject of both being the diffusion of liquids, which he further treated before the Eoyal Society in 1861. He distinguished the crystalloids and colloids in liquid solutions, and gave to their separation the name of dialysis, In a subsequent paper, Philosophical Transactions, 1866, he applied these discoveries to gases, under the name of atmolysis. The passage of gases through heated metal plates and the occlusion of gases were also ably investigated by him. Research Thomas Graham
Thomas Graham (Lord Lynedoch) was a British general. He was born in 1759 and died in 1843. The son of Thomas Graham of Balgowan, Perthshire, until 1792 he lived as a country gentleman, but when his wife died he entered the army as a volunteer, and greatly distinguished himself at the siege of Toulon. He afterwards took part with Sir John Moore in the expedition to Sweden and the retreat to Coruna; and was engaged in the Walcheren expedition. Being sent to take command of the forces besieged by the French at Cadiz, he gained the victory of Barosa in 1811. He next joined Wellington's army and served in the Peninsular war, including the battle of Vittoria and the siege of St Sebastian. In 1814, after the unsuccessful siege of Bergen-op-Zoom, he was created Baron Lynedoch. Research Thomas Graham 2
Thomas Gray was an English poet. He was born in 1716 at London and died in 1771. Educated at Eton with Horace Walpole, and at Cambridge, in 1738 he entered himself at the Inner Temple, but accompanied Horace Walpole in his tour of Europe until they quarrelled in Italy. He returned to England in 1741, and on the death of his father took up residence at Cambridge. In 1747 his Ode on a Distant Prospect of Eton College appeared, and in 1751 his Elegy written in a Country Churchyard, which went through four editions in two months. In 1757 he declined the laureateship, and the same year published his odes, On the Progress of Poesy, and The Bard. In 1759 he removed to London, where he resided for three years, and in 1768 the Duke of Grafton presented him with the professorship of modern history at Cambridge. His chief poems other than those mentioned were the Ode for Music and the fragmentary Essay on the Alliance of Education and Government. As a writer of Latinverse he is surpassed by few, and his letters are admirable specimens of the epistolary style.
Thomas Gray was an English railway promoter. He was born in 1787 at Leeds and died in 1848. He promoted the idea of widespread railway communications and urged the British and other European governments towards building national railway systems, under government control, rather than canal communications, publishing his ideas in 'Observations on a General IronRailway' in 1820, which was revised and republished four times until 1825. Research Thomas Gray
Thomas Hill Green was an English philosophical writer. He was born in 1838 and died in 1882. He was a fellow of Balliol College in 1862, and the first lay tutor on that foundation in 1867. In 1877 he was appointed Whyte's professor of moral philosophy; but his work was abruptly closed by his death in 1882. Apart from his Prolegomena to Ethics, published posthumously in 1883, the bulk of his work was in the form of articles contributed to the North British and Contemporary Reviews. He was one of the strongest opponents of the English empirical school. Research Thomas Green
Thomas Guthrie was a Scottish divine. He was born in 1803 at Brechin, Forfarshire and died in 1873. He was educated at the University of Edinburgh, and was licensed as a preacher in connection with the Church of Scotland in 1825. He did not at once exert himself to procure a church, but assisted his father in the business of his banking office, and also spent the winter of 1826-1827 in Paris studying medicine. In 1830 he was presented to the parish of Arbirlot, and he accepted a call to Greyfriars, Edinburgh, in 1837, where he soon became very popular with all classes.
In 1843 the Disruption took place, and Thomas Guthrie took an active part along with Chalmers and Candlish in organizing the Free Church. He himself became minister of Free St. John's, Edinburgh. The work with which his name is chiefly identified out of Scotland, was the introduction into Edinburgh of the ragged school system, then recently originated in London and Aberdeen. Into this work he threw himself with characteristic energy, employing in it both his personal labours and his pen.
His Plea for Ragged Schools (1847) remains one of the most celebrated of his productions. In 1849 he received the degree of D.D. from the University of Edinburgh. In 1864 Dr. Guthrie was compelled in consequence of heart disease to resign the pastorship of St. John's. The remaining years of his life were spent in active promotion of philanthropic objects. He became editor of the Sunday Magazine in 1864, but never assumed full editorial responsibility. His chief works are, The Gospel in Ezekiel, (1855), A Plea for Drunkards (1856), Christ and the Inheritance of the Saints (1858), etc.
Thomas Anstey Guthrie was an English writer of light and amusing fiction. He was born in 1856. By trade profession a barrister, he contributor to the magazine Punch. Among his writings are: Vice Versa (published in 1882), The Black Poodle, The Tinted Venus, Voces Populi Lyre and Lancet, Baboo Jabberjee, A Bayard from Bengal, most of which first appeared in Punch, as did also his successful play, The Man from Blankley's. Research Thomas Guthrie
Thomas Guy was an English businessman, statesman and renowned miser. He was born in 1643 at London and died in 1724. The son of a lighterman in Southward, he was brought up a bookseller. He dealt largely in the importation of Bibles from Holland, and afterwards contracted with Oxford for those printed at that university. From 1694 to 1707 he represented Tamworth in Parliament. By a successful speculation in the shares of the South Sea Company he realised a fortune. With his fortune he founded an almshouse at Tamworth in 1678, the Tamworth townhall in 1701. He founded Guy' s Hospital in London in 1721, and paid for the erection of wards at St Thomas' Hospital. Research Thomas Guy
Thomas Chandler Haliburton, was an Anglo-American humorous writer. He was born in 1796 at Windsor, Nova Scotia and died in 1865. He practised as a barrister in Halifax, wrote a Historical and Statistical Account of NovaScotia, in 1829, and contributed a series of humorous letters to a Halifaxnewspaper under the pseudonym of 'SamSlick.' These were published in book form and were augmented by others, forming The Clockmaker, or Sayings and Doings of SamuelSlick. In 1842 he became judge of the Supreme Court of Nova Scotia, but subsequently gave up his professional duties and came to reside in England. Here he published the Attache, or, SamSlick in England. His hero again appears in Sam Slick's Traits of American Humour (1852). Another work of his of some importance is Rule and Misrule of the English in America (1851). In 1859 Judge Haliburton was elected member of parliament for Launceston. Research Thomas Haliburton
Thomas Hearne was an English antiquary. He was born in 1678 and died in 1735. Thomas Hearne studied at Oxford, and in 1701 was appointed assistant-keeper of the Bodleian Library, and he held the post of second librarian from 1712 to 1715, but had to resign as his Jacobite principles precluded him from taking the oaths to the government. Among his works may be mentioned Ductor Historicus, Reliquiae Bodleianae, History and Antiquities of Glastonbury, editions of Leland, of Spelman's Life of Alfred, Fordun's Scotichronicon, etc. Research Thomas Hearne
Thomas Heyward Jr was an American politician. He was born in 1746 and died in 1809. A member of the first South Carolina Committee of Safety, he was a delegate to Congress from 1775 to 1778, and signed the Declaration of Independence. In 1780, he commanded a battalion in the siege of Charleston. Research Thomas Heyward Jr
Thomas Heywood was a British dramatist. He lived during the 17th century. He was born in Lincolnshire, and educated at Cambridge. He composed wholly or in part 220 different plays. Of these only about twenty-four remain, of which the one most admired is A Woman Killed with Kindness, published in Dodsley's Collection. He was also the author of Great Britain's Troy, An Apology for Actors, and a number of other works.
*Thomas Hill
Thomas Hill was an American educationalist and explorer. He was born in 1818 and died in 1891. He was president of Harvard from 1862 to 1868, and accompanied Agassiz on the exploring expedition to South America. He published numerous mathematical works. Research Thomas Heywood
Thomas C Hindman was an American soldier. He was born in 1818 and died in 1868. He was a lieutenant in the Mexican War. He represented Mississippi in Congress as a Democrat from 1858 to 1861. He was a brigadier-general in the Western Confederate army, and became major-general before being assassinated for having exacted too severe discipline. Research Thomas Hindman
Thomas Hobbes was a British philosopher. He was born in 1588 at Malmesbury and died in 1679. He was educated at Oxford, and afterwards travelled on the Continent as a tutor in the Earl of Devonshire's family, becoming acquainted with Gassendi, Descartes, Galileo, etc. He was also intimate with LordBacon (some of whose works he translated into Latin), LordHerbert of Cherbury, and Ben Jonson.
From 1637 to 1641 he resided much at Chatsworth, but becoming alarmed at the probability of political commotions, he went to Paris. He stayed abroad some years, and during that time published most of his works. He also taught mathematics to the Prince of Wales (later Charles II), then in Paris, who after the restoration gave him a pension of 100 pounds. He spent his latter days with the Devonshire family.
The most remarkable of his works is his Leviathan, or the Matter, Form, and Power of a Commonwealth (published in 1651). Other works are De Give (1642), De Corpore Politico (1650), De Libertate, Necessitate et Casu (1654), and Behemoth, a history of the civil war, published after his death. He also published a metrical version of the Iliad and Odyssey.
In the history of the development of free thought in Europe Thomas Hobbes holds an important place, and he was one of the first great English writers on government. He conceived the state of nature to be one in which all are at war with each other, and government as the result of a compact, suggested by selfishness, for the sake of peace and protection. Absolute rule was the best form of government, but this is qualified by the assertion that obedience to a ruler is only due so long as he can afford protection to the subject. The philosophy of Thomas Hobbes, so depreciated among his contemporaries, has been more or less adopted by Locke, Hartley, Hume, and Priestley, and his ideas on government formed the foundation of the utilitarianism of the Benthamites. Research Thomas Hobbes
Thomas Holloway was an English pharmacist. He was born in 1800 and died in 1883. A proprietor of the popular pills, ointment, etc, he founded a sanatorium or asylum for the 'insane', and hospitals for incurables and convalescents, at Egham, Surrey, in 1873; and also at the same place the Royal Holloway College, designed to supply the best and most suitable education for women of the middle classes. The college, which was opened queen Victoria in 1886, contained a collection of pictures of the value of 100,000 pounds. The total cost of the two institutions was about a million pounds sterling. Research Thomas Holloway
Thomas Hood was an English poet and humorist. He was born in 1799 at London and died in 1845. During a residence at Dundee, and while only fifteen or sixteen years old, he contributed articles to a local paper and magazine. In 1821 he became sub-editor of the London Magazine, and in 1826 appeared his Whims and Oddities, which was followed by National Tales and a volume of serious poetry. From 1829 to 1837 he conducted his Comic Annual. At the same time his pen was employed on other subjects, and he published The EppingHunt, a comic poem, ridiculing Cockney sportsmen; Eugene Aram's Dream, inserted in the Gem, of which he was for a short time editor; and Tylney Hall, a novel. In 1837, on the termination of the Comic Annual, he commenced a monthly periodical entitled Hood's Own, which consisted chiefly of selections from the former work.
His health now began to fail, and with a view to its recovery he paid a visit to the Continent. While there in 1839 he published his Up the Rhine, which, based on the lines of Humphrey Clinker, was very popular. Shortly after his return he undertook the editorship of the New Monthly Magazine, and continued it until 1843. His principal contributions to it he published separately, under the title of Whimsicalities. His last periodical, entitled Hood's Magazine, was commenced in 1844; but his health shortly afterwards completely broke down, and his death occurred in the following year. It was during his last illness that he contributed to Punch The Song of a Shirt, The Bridge of Sighs, and The Lay of a Labourer. Thomas Hood is unrivalled as a punster, and he possesses a singular power of combining the humorous with the pathetic. He had the satisfaction of knowing that the pension of 100 pounds conferred upon him on his last illness by Sir Robert Peel was to be transferred to his wife. Research Thomas Hood
Thomas Hope was an English writer and art patron. He was born in 1770 and died in 1831. He inherited great wealth, and devoted much of his time while young to extensive travels in various parts of Europe, Asia, and Africa. His principal works are: Household Furniture and Internal Decorations; The Costume of the Ancients; Anastasius, or Memoirs of a Modern Greek, a novel displaying remarkable descriptive powers and a minute accuracy in the accounts of eastern life; and An Historical Essay on Architecture. Research Thomas Hope
Thomas Hughes was an English barrister, author, and philanthropist. He was born in 1823 at Uffington, Berkshire and died in 1896. He was educated at Rugby under Dr. Arnold, and afterwards at Oxford. In 1848 he was called to the bar, and in 1869 became a queen's counsel. He is widely known by his novel, Tom Brown's School-days, a picture of school life at Rugby, published in 1856. It was followed by Tom Brown at Oxford (1861), A Layman's Faith (1868), Alfred the Great (1869), The Manliness of Christ, and other writings. He was one who devoted much time to the social elevation of the working class, encouraging in particular the cooperative system. From 1865 to 1868 he was member of Parliament for Lambeth and from 1868 to 1874 member of Parliament for Frome. Towards the end of his life he was a county-court judge Research Thomas Hughes
Thomas Hutchinson was an American colonial governor. He was born in 1711 and died in 1780. He was a member of the General Court of Massachusetts from 1737 to 1739, 1740, and 1741 to 1749. He was Speaker from 1746 to 1748. He restored a healthy condition of trade by redeeming the depreciated paper currency. In 1754 he was one of the commissioners at the Albany Convention, and aided in drafting a plan of colonial union. He was appointed Lieutenant-Governor of Massachusetts in 1756. In 1760 he was appointed Chief Justice. In 1765 his house was sacked by a mob infuriated by the notion that he was a party to the obnoxious stamp acts, and his valuable library of historical pamphlets and documents was destroyed. In 1770 he was appointed Governor of the province. The report was circulated that he was largely responsible for the oppressive acts of the ministry, and this was intensified by Dr. Franklin's publication of some of Hutchinson's letters to England which had fallen into his hands. In 1774 he sailed to England, where he spent the remainder of his life. He was a conscientious and high-minded Tory. He wrote a valuable history of .Massachusetts. Research Thomas Hutchinson
Thomas Henry Huxley was an English naturalist. He was born in 1825 at Ealing and died in 1895. He graduated MB at the University of London in 1845, and entered the royal navy as assistant-surgeon in 1846. He sailed with HMS Rattlesnake on a surveying expedition to Australasia, during which he sent a number of valuable papers to the Royal Society. After being professor of natural history in the School of Mines, Eullerian professor of physiology to the Royal Institution, Hunterian professor in the Royal College of Surgeons, president of the British Association meeting held at Liverpool in 1870, lord-rector of Aberdeen University in 1872, secretary of the Royal Society, substitute professor of natural history for Professor Wyville Thompson at Edinburgh in 1875 and 1876, a member of various royal commissions on fisheries, vivisection, universities, etc, and inspector of salmon fisheries, he resigned this and almost all his other offices in 1885 on account of ill health.
Amongst his works are The Oceanic Hydrozoa (1857), On the Theory of the Vertebrate Skull, Man's Place in Nature (1863), On our Knowledge of the Causes of the Phenomena of Organic Nature, a series of lectures to working-men delivered in 1862, Elements of Comparative Anatomy (1864), Elementary Physiology (1866), Introduction to the Classification of Animals (1869),
Lay Sermons, Addresses, and Reviews (1870), Critiques and Addresses (1873), American Addresses (1877), Physiography (1877), Anatomy of Invertebrate Animals (1877), The Crayfish (1879), Science and Culture (1882), etc. Research Thomas Huxley
Thomas Jonathan Jackson was an American Confederate general. He was born in 1824 at Virginia and died in 1863. He was nicknamed 'stonewall'. He graduated at West Point in 1846, in time to see service in the Mexican War. He taught in the Virginia Military Institute, and was, like so many other West Pointers, lifted by the Rebellion from obscurity. Having sided with the Confederacy he was intrusted with a brigade, whose firm stand at the first battle of Bull Run led to its commander's epithet, 'StonewallJackson'. His military fame was well grounded by the extraordinary rapidity of his movements in the Shenandoahcampaign of 1862, where he outgeneraled the Federals Fremont, Banks and others, gained the battles of Front Royal, on May the 23rd, Winchester, on May the 25th, Cross Keys, on June the 8th, and Port Republic, on June the 9th.
Hastily joining Lee before Richmond, he decided the victory at Gaines' Mills, on June the 27th. On August the 9th he defeated the Federals at Cedar Creek. His bold march ended in the victory over Pope at the second battle of Bull Run. In the invasion he seized Harper's Ferry on September the 15th, and commanded the left wing at Antietam. At Fredericksburg he led the right wing of Lee's army, and at Chancellorsville on May the 2nd, 1863, his flanking movement around Hooker's right resulted in success. But Thomas Jackson was by mistake shot by his own men in this battle and died a few days later. Research Thomas Jackson
Thomas Jefferson was the third president of the USA. He was born in 1743 at Shadwell, Virginia and died in 1826. He was graduated at William and Mary College, studied law, and entered upon its practice and the care of his estate.
In 1769 he entered the House of Burgesses, and became active in the Revolutionary agitation; but his activity then and later was as a writer rather than as a speaker. He drafted the instructions to the Virginia delegates to the first Continental Congress, and was in consequence proscribed in Great Britain. As a delegate to the second Continental Congress he is of course chiefly remembered for his draft of the American Declaration of Independence. Soon after signing that document he left Congress to re-enter the Virginia Legislature, where he laboured strenuously for democratic reforms in the laws respecting the church and the descent of landed property.
While Governor of Virginia, 1779-1781, he was called upon to resist the British invasion of the State. He was again in the Legislature, and for a short time in Congress. In 1784 he went to France as Plenipotentiary, and there wrote his 'Notes on Virginia', and observed the outbreak of the French Revolution. At the end of 1789 Jefferson returned to America, and entered upon his duties as Secretary of State in George Washington's first Cabinet.
In the ensuing years he became the central figure in the Democratic-Republican party which was forming in opposition to the Federalists. Hamilton, ablest of the Federalist leaders, was also in the Cabinet, and between the two divergence of views developed into continual disputes. Jefferson finally resigned in 1794. The great party of which he was the head gave him, in 1796, almost as many electoral votes as were given to Adams. He became accordingly Vice-President. At this epoch he prepared a 'Manual of Parliamentary Practice', was president of the Philosophical Society, and drafted the Kentucky Resolutions of 1798.
In the election of 1800-1801 Jefferson's party defeated Adams and the Federalists, but the defective provisions of the Constitution gave to Jefferson and Burr seventy-three electoral votes each, and there was no election; the House of Representatives accordingly took up the matter, and a bitter struggle ended in the choice of Jefferson for first place. In his Cabinet Madison was Secretary of State, Gallatin of the Treasury, Dearborn of War, Robert Smith of the Navy, and LincolnAttorney-General.
His administration was marked by the abolition of some usages of an aristocratic nature, by the Tripolitan War, the Louisiana Purchase, the Lewis and Clark expedition, the Chesapeake incident, and the Embargo. President Jefferson was re-elected in 1804, and retired from office in 1809, but continued to be regarded as the adviser of the party. He was interested in later life in plans for education in Virginia, and superintended the planting of the University of Virginia. He died at Monticello in his native State. His political theories had great influence upon the public life of America. Research Thomas Jefferson
Thomas S Jesup was an American soldier. He was born in 1788 at Virginia and died in 1860. He was brevetted colonel for services at Chippewa and Niagara in 1814. He was promoted major in 1818. He commanded the army in Florida in 1836. Research Thomas Jesup
Thomas Ken was an English prelate. He was born in 1637 and died in 1711. After studying at Oxford he became successively chaplain to the Princess of Orange, to the Earl of Dartmouth, and in 1684 to Charles II, who made him Bishop of Bath and Wells. In 1688 he was sent to the tower for resisting the dispensing power claimed by James II, and yet some months later he refused to take the oath of allegiance to William of Orange, and was dispossessed of his see; but Queen Anne granted him a pension. Research Thomas Ken
Thomas Starr King was an American clergyman. He was born in 1824 and died in 1863. A famous Unitarian clergyman, he won distinction as a lecturer in the East and in California. At the outbreak of the American Civil War he was an earnestadvocate of the Union cause. Research Thomas King
Thomas Arthur Lally-Tollendale was an Irish soldier. He was born in 1702 at Dauphine and died in 1766. His father having followed the fortunes of James II, he trained to arms, and was made brigadier on the field of Fontenoy for distinguished bravery. He accompanied the Pretender to Scotland in 1745, and iu 1756 he waa selected to restore the French influence in India, for which purpose he was made governor of Pondicherry. He utterly failed in this, surrendered Pondicherry in 1761, and was brought a prisoner to England. The following month he was allowed to return to France, where, after a long imprisonment, he was condemned and executed in 1766 for treachery,
etc. His son, supported by Voltaire, obtained in 1778 a complete authoritative vindication of his father's conduct. Research Thomas Lally-Tollendal
Thomas Landseer was an English engraver. He was born in 1795 and died in 1880. A brother of Edwin Landseer he was celebrated as an engraver, and made many reproductions of his brother's works. Research Thomas Landseer
Sir Thomas Dick Lauder was a Scottish writer. He was born in 1784 and died in 1848. In early life he entered the army, but left it in favour of science and literature. He contributed papers to the Edinburgh Royal Society, and in 1817 wrote a tale called Simon Roy, which was attributed to the author of Waverley. He then tried historical romance in Lochandhu and the Wolf of Badenoch. In addition to these works are his Account of the Moray Floods in 1829; Highland Rambles and Long Tales to Shorten the Way; editions of Gilpiu's Forest Scenery, and Sir Uvedale Price on the Picturesque; a Tour Round the Coasts of Scotland; and the Queen's Visit to Scotland in 1842. Research Thomas Lauder
Sir Thomas Lawrence was an English portrait painter. He was born in 1769 at Bristol and died in 1830. The son of an innkeeper, at the age of five he acquired fame for his crayon portraits and before he was twelve was drawing portraits of the rich and famous. At the age of seventeen he started using oil colours and when his fanily moved to London he entered the Royal Academy schools in 1787 and was appointed his Majesty's painter in 1792. In 1815 he was knighted by the prince regent and in 1820 unanimously elected president of the Royal Academy. He was the favourite portrait-painter at the English court, and was also employed at Vienna, where he painted the emperor, archdukes, Metternich, etc, and at Rome, where he took the portrait of Pius VII - one of his finest works. Research Thomas Lawrence
Thomas Leiber (Erastus) was a German-Swiss student of medicine and theology. He was born in 1524 at Baden and died in 1583. He was successively professor of medicine at Heidelberg, and of ethics at Basel. He maintained in his writings the complete subordination of the ecclesiastical to the secular power; and that the church had no right to exclude any one from church ordinances, or to inflict excommunication, advocating the teaching of Ulrich Zwingli as opposed to Calvin, in 1560. Research Thomas Leiber
Thomas Linacre was an English physician. He was born about 1460 at Canterbury and died in 1524. After receiving his first education in his native town he entered Oxford University, afterwards proceeded to Italy, and on his return was intrusted by Henry VII with the education of Prince Arthur. He ultimately abandoned his medical practice for the church. In 1518 he founded the College of Physicians, of which he continued president until 1524. He made a Latin translation of the works of Galen. Research Thomas Linacre
Thomas Littleton, or Thomas Lyttleton was an English judge. He was born at the beginning of the 15th century and died in 1481. In 1455 he went the northern circuit as judge of assize, and was in 1466 appointed by Edward IV one of the judges of the common pleas. His work on Tenures, with the commentary of Coke, passed through a great number of editions, and was at one time the principal authority on real property in England. Research Thomas Littleton
Thomas Lodge was an English poet and dramatist. He was born in 1558 and died in 1625. He came up to London from Oxford University and entered Lincoln's Inn as a law student, and after becoming a soldier and voyager he studied medicine, and practised in London. He wrote many fine lyrics and other verse; romances, including Rosalynde, Euphuea Golden Legacie (1590), the source of William Shakespeare's As You Like It; and in conjunction with Greene the play A Looking Glasse for London and England (1594). Research Thomas Lodge
Thomas Lovell Beddoes was an English poet. He was born in 1803 and died in 1849. The son of Thomas Beddoes, he published the Bride's Tragedy while a student at Oxford, studied medicine, and lived long abroad. His work was largely fragmentary, but his posthumous Death's Jest-book, or the Fool's Tragedy published in 1850, received the high praise of such judges as Landor and Browning. His Poems, with memoir, appeared in 1851. Research Thomas Lovell Beddoes
Lord Thomas Lyttelton was an English writer and politician. He was born in 1744 and died 1779. The son of George Lyttelton, his early years were remarkable for a promise of ability which was never fulfilled, for his dissipated habits soon estranged him from his father and separated him from his wife. Such, however, was his literary reputation and political status that he was claimed at one time as the writer of the Junius Letters. It is said that from a presentiment he predicted his death three days before it occurred, and some have thought he committed suicide. Research Thomas Lyttelton
Thomas D'arcy M'Gee was an Irish-born Canadian politician. He was born in 1825 at Carlingford and died in 1868. He became prominent in the Young Ireland party, and had to make his escape to the United States, where he soon made a name as a journalist. His views then underwent a change; he became an ardentroyalist; went to Canada, and entered parliament in 1857. In 1864 he became president of the executive council, and up until near his death took a prominent part in the measures of the day. Obnoxious to the Fenians, he was assassinated by a member of that body in 1868. Research Thomas M'Gee
Thomas Babington Macaulay (Lord Macaulay) was a British historian and politician. He was born in 1800 at Bothley, Leicestershire and died in 1859. His father, Zachary Macaulay, who had been a West Indian merchant, was a well-known philanthropist and the son of the reverend John Macaulay, Presbyterian minister at Inverary, while his mother was Selina Mills, the daughter of a BristolQuaker. Their son Thomas was severely educated in the rigid Calvinism of what was known as the 'Clapham sect'. In 1818 he entered Trinity College, Cambridge, where he obtained the Chancellor's medal for a poem on Pompeii, and a second time for a poem on Evening;
received a fellowship, and took his MA degree in 1825.
Before this he began to contribute to Knight's Quarterly Magazine, in which appeared his poems of the Armada, Ivry, and the Battle of the League; and in 1825 he inaugurated his brilliant career in the Edinburgh Review by his article on Milton. He was called to the bar at Lincoln's Inn in 1826. He entered parliament in 1830 as member for Calne, and made his first speech in support of freedom for the Jews in England. He also spoke in favour of the Anti-Slavery legislation, and delivered several speeches in favour of the Reform Bill of 1832. He afterwards became member for Leeds, but resigned his seat and proceeded to Calcutta as legal member of the supreme council of India, in which position he prepared a new penal code that was not adopted because of its liberal dealing with the native races.
Returning from India he was elected a member of parliament for Edinburgh, was made secretary of war in the Melbourne ministry of 1839 to 1841; and when the Whigs returned to power in 1846 he was appointed paymaster of the forces. At the election of the same year his Edinburghconstituency refused to re-elect him, but their attitude was reversed in 1852 when be was returned (although he had not presented himself as a candidate).
During his political career Macaulay had continued his literary labours. In 1842 he published his Lays of Ancient Rome; and in 1848 appeared the first two of the five volumes of his History of England, which covers the period between the accession of James II and the death of William III. This brilliant rhetorical exposition, although touched with partisanship and with a tendency to paradox, has attained the position of an English classic.
He was created a peer in 1857, and at his death he was buried in WestminsterAbbey. The Life and Letters of Macaulay were published by his nephew, Sir George Otto Trevelyan in 1876. Research Thomas Macaulay
Thomas MaCrie was a Scottish writer and clergyman. He was born in 1772 and died in 1835. He studied in Edinburgh University; waa licensed as a preacher by the Antiburghers; and in 1795 became minister to a congregation in Edinburgh. He contributed a series of papers on the Reformation (published between 1802 and 1806) to the Christian Magazine, and in 1811 published his well-known Life of Knox. This was followed in 1819 by the Life of Andrew Melville. It is upon these two works that his fame chiefly rests, but he also wrote The History of the Reformation in Italy (published in 1827) and the History of the Reformation in Spain (published in 1829), besides a volume of Sermons, etc. Research Thomas MaCrie
Sir Thomas Malory was an English writer. He lived around 1450. His compilation, The Most Ancient and Famous History of the Renowned Prince Arthur, based on the romances of Merlin, Lancelot, Tristram, the Quest of the Graal, and the Mort d'Arthur, was first printed by Caxton in 1485. Sir Thomas Malory is supposed to have been a Welshman, but all that is known of him is that he was a knight, and finished the book about 1470. Research Thomas Malory
Thomas Robert Malthus was an English economist. He was born in 1766 near Guildford and died in 1834. He studied at Jesus College, Cambridge, became fellow of his college, took orders and held a small living in Surrey. In 1805 he was appointed professor of history and political economy in the East India Company's College at Haileybury, an office which he held till his death. In 1798 he published his 'Essay on the Principle of Population as it Affects the Future Improvements of Society' in which he reviewed the question of man in relation to food, worrying that population was growing too fast for the available food supplies. He was an influencer of Charles Darwin, who was impressed by his question of how the world comes to be peopled with a multiplicity of ever-changing forms of life. Research Thomas Malthus
Thomas Mann Randolph was an American politician. He was a Democratic- Republican governor of Virginia from 1819 until 1822. Research Thomas Mann Randolph
Thomas Garrigue Masaryk was the founder and first president of Czechoslovakia. He was born in 1850 at Moravia and died in 1937. Research Thomas Masaryk
Thomas Erskine May was an English civil servant. He was born in 1815 and died in 1886. He became assistant librarian to the House of Commons in 1831; examiner of petitions 1846; assistant-clerk 1856; and clerk in 1871. He was created CB in 1860, and KCB in 1866. He was the author of A Treatise on the Law, Privileges, Proceedings, and Usage of Parliament (1844); The Constitutional History of England since the Accession of George III (1760-1860); and a history of Democracy in Europe (1877). He was latterly created BaronFarnborough. Research Thomas May
Thomas McKean was an American politician. He was born in 1734 and died in 1817. He was a Governor and was prominent in the Stamp-Act Congress of 1765 as a delegate from Delaware, and aided in drafting the memorial to the lords and commons. He was a member of the Continental Congress from Delaware from 1774 to 1783, and its president in 1781. He aided in drafting the American Articles of Confederation, and was prominent in securing the American Declaration of Independence, of which he was one of the signers. He was Chief Justice of Pennsylvania from 1777 to 1799, and Governor from 1799 to 1808. Research Thomas McKean
Thomas Middleton was an English dramatist. He was born in 1570 at London and died in 1627. A member of Gray's Inn, he wrote some satirical tracts before around 1600 turning his attention to the stage and composing fifteen plays independently and a further seven plays in collaboration with Dekker, Rowley and others. In 1620 he became city chronologer. He is know for his realistic, course comedies and romantic plays. Research Thomas Middleton
Thomas Moore was an Irish poet. He was born in 1779 at Dublin and died in 1852. The son of a grocerMoore, from Trinity College, Dublin, he passed in 1799 to the Middle Temple in London, nominally to study law; but he almost immediately formed a connection with the fashionable and literary society of which he was so long an ornament, and in 1800 he was permitted to dedicate his Translation of the Odes of Anacreon to the Prince of Wales.
His next venture, the Poetical Works of the late Thomas Little, though partly written in a licentious vein, which he afterwards regretted, increased his reputation; and in 1803 LordMoira obtained for him the office of registrar of the admiraltycourt at Bermuda. Thomas Moore went out, but almost immediately appointed a deputy, and returned to England via the United States and Canada, and in 1806 published his Odes and Epistles. The severe castigation of this work by Francis Jeffrey in the Edinburgh Review led to a hostile meeting between the critic and the author, but the duel was interrupted by the authorities before a shot was fired.
An allusion in English Bards and Scotch Reviewers, by LordByron, to a malicious report that the pistols on this occasion had been loaded only with powder, also produced a challenge from Thomas Moore, but matters were afterwards peaceably arranged. Both Jeffrey and Byron were subsequently among the warmest friends of Thomas Moore.
In 1807 Thomas Moore agreed to write words for a number of Irish national airs, arranged by Sir John Stevenson. In these Irish Melodies, which were not finished until 1834, he found the work for which his genius was peculiarly fitted, and it is on them that his poetic reputation will mainly rest. With The Intercepted Letters, or the Twopenny Post Bag, by Thomas Brown the Younger (1812), Thomas Moore entered upon the field of political and social satire, in which his wit and playfulness found good account; other works of this kind are the Fudge Family in Paris (1818), Rhymes on the Road (1823), Memoirs of Captain Rock (1824), etc.
His most ambitious work, the gorgeous Eastern romance of Lalla Rookh, was published in 1817, and brought its author 3000 pounds, but two years later he was compelled to retire to France in order to avoidarrest for a debt of 6000 pounds, afterwards reduced to about 1000 pounds, for which the dishonesty of his deputy at Bermuda had rendered him liable. He returned to England in 1822, with the poem The Loves of the Angels, and ultimately succeeded in paying the debt by his literary exertions. The Life of Sheridan was produced in 1825, and The Epicurean, a proseromance in 1827. Next came the Life of LordByron for which he received nearly 5000 pounds, and the Life of LordEdward Fitzgerald. His remaining works include The Summer Fete, a poem; Travels of an Irish Gentleman in search of a Religion, a serious apology for Roman Catholicism; and (in 1834) a History of Ireland for Lardner's Cyclopaedia, an uncongenial task-work, never finished. He wrote little after this. From 1835 he had enjoyed a pension of 300 pounds, and in 1850 his wife, whom he had married in 1811, received an additional annual grant of 100 pounds. Thomas Moore's Journal and Correspondence was published by his friend LordJohn Russell in 1852-1856. Research Thomas Moore
Sir Thomas More was an English statesman and politician. He was born in 1478 or 1480 at London and died in 1535. The only son of Sir John More, a judge of the Court of King's-bench, a portion of his youth was spent in the family of CardinalMorton, archbishop of Canterbury, and chancellor; and he was then sent to Oxford, and afterwards entered at Lincoln's Inn. He had already formed an intimate and lasting friendship with Erasmus. About 1502 he became a member of parliament, and immediately made for himself a place in history by upholding the privileges of the House of Commons to treat all questions of supply as their own exclusive business. On the accession of Henry VIII he was made under-sheriff of London. In 1514 he was envoy to the Low Countries, soon after was made a privy-councillor, and in 1521 was knighted.
He appears to have ere this time considerably enriched himself by practice, and with his wife, a daughter of a gentleman of Essex named Colt, he kept up a noble hospitality. In 152.3 he became speaker of the House of Commons, and in 1529 succeeded Wolsey in the chancellorship. When Henry VIII began his attacks on the papal supremacy Thomas More at once took up the position on which his conscience dictated as a supporter of the old system. Henry VIII marked him out for vengeance as an opponent of his matrimonial views, and Thomas More endeavoured to shield himself by retiring from office. He was requested to take the oath to maintain the lawfulness of the marriage with Anne Boleyn. His refusal to do so led to his commital in the Tower of London, trial for misprision of treason, and execution. His chief work is the Utopia (in Latin), a philosophical romance describing an ideal commonwealth, which evinces an enlightenment of sentiment far beyond that of his time. Research Thomas More
Thomas Morton was an American colonist. He was born in 1575 and died in 1646. He emigrated to Plymouth, America from England in 1622. He made a settlement at Mount Wollaston or 'Merry Mount', (now Braintree) where he made himself obnoxious to the Puritans by his revels. He was twice seized and transported to England, where he published 'The New EnglandCanaan' in 1632. For this satire he was imprisoned on his return to America in 1643. Research Thomas Morton
Thomas Munzer was a German fanatic. He was born about 1490 and died in 1525. He is said to have studied at Wittenberg. He preached at Zwickau in 1520, and at Prague in 1521, and he was connected with the early movements of the Anabaptists. He held a mystical belief in continuous divine revelation through dreams and visions, and promulgated the doctrine of community of goods. He collected a large number of peasant followers, who committed many outrages, but in 1525 were totally defeated, when Thomas Munzer was taken and executed. Research Thomas Munzer
Thomas Nash was an English satirist and dramatist. He was born in 1558 at Lowestoft, Suffolk and died in 1600 or 1601. He graduated at Cambridge in 1584, but was afterwards expelled for satirizing the authorities. After spending several years on the Continent he returned to London in 1589, and took an active part in the Martin Marprelate controversy, writing several pamphlets on the prelatical side. In conjunction with Marlowe he wrote a drama, Dido, Queen of Carthage, and in 1592 produced a comedy of his own, Summer's Last Will and Testament, which was acted before Queen Elizabeth I. Research Thomas Nash
Thomas Nelson was an American politician. He was born in 1738 and died in 1789. He was a member of the Virginia Conventions of 1774, 1775 and 1776. He represented Virginia in the Continental Congress from 1776 to 1777 and in 1779. He signed the American Declaration of Independence. He was Governor of Virginia in 1781. He expended his vast estate for the colonial cause. Research Thomas Nelson
Thomas Newcomen was an English inventor. He was born in 1663 at Dartmouth and died in 1729. Thomas Newcomen conceived the idea of producing a vacuum below the piston of a steam-engine after it had been raised by the expansive force of the steam, which he effected by the injection of cold water to condense the vapour. The merit of first applying the steam-engine to practical purposes is thus due to Thomas Newcomen, who, in conjunction with Captain Savery and John Cowley, took out a patent for the invention of the atmospheric steam-engine in 1705. Research Thomas Newcomen
Sir Thomas North was an English translator. He was born in 1535 and died in 1601. His translation of Plutarch's Lives in 1579 formed the source of Shakespeare's Roman plays. Research Thomas North
Thomas Otway was an English dramatist. He was born in 1651 at Trotton in Sussex and died in 1685. Educated at Winchester and Oxford, he went to London, and in 1675 and produced his first tragedy of Alcibiades. The following year appeared his Don Carlos, which proved extremely successful, and procured him a cornetcy in a regiment of cavalry destined for Flanders, in which country he served for a short time. As a tragic writer Thomas Otway excels in pathos. His fame chiefly rests upon the Orphan and Venice Preserved, the latter of which still maintained its place on the stage at the start of the 20th century. Research Thomas Otway
Sir Thomas Overbury was an English writer. He was born in 1581 at Warwickshire and died in 1613, being murdered by the Countess of Essex. He studied at Oxford and contracted an intimacy with Rochester, then Robert Carr, at the court of James I, and provoked the anger of the countess of Essex by endeavouring to dissuade his friend from marrying her. Rochester had the address to procure the imprisonment of his friend in the Tower of London, by creating a cause of offence between him and the king, and, some months later, Thomas Overbury was poisoned there, on September the 15th, 1613. Though suspicions were entertained at the time, it was not until 1616 that the true nature of his death was discovered, when the inferior agents were all apprehended, tried, and executed. Rochester, now earl of Somerset, and the countess were also tried and condemned, but they were both pardoned by the king for private reasons. Thomas Overbury's Characters, and The Wife, a didactic poem, published in 1614, still have a reputation. Research Thomas Overbury
Thomas Nelson Page was an American author and diplomatist. He was born in 1853 and died in 1922. He excelled in depicting Southern American life during the Civil War period. Research Thomas Page
Thomas Paine (Tom Paine) was an English writer on politics and religion. He was born in 1737 in Norfolk and died in 1809. He passed his early years there as an exciseman, political writer, and ardent republican. He went to America in 1774 and edited the 'Pennsylvania Magazine'. In 1776 he published a pamphlet, 'Common Sense', advocating independence, which was widely circulated and created a profound impression. At intervals through the American War of Independence he published the 'Crisis', and was secretary to the Congressional Committee on Foreign Affairs. His services in the American Revolution were of undoubted value to the Americans. Subsequently he was clerk to the Pennsylvania Legislature. He was in France at the opening of the French Revolution, and in England where in 1791 he published his 'Rights of Man', and was outlawed in consequence. Escaping to France he was elected to the Convention, was imprisoned by the Jacobins, and wrote his 'Age of Reason'. He returned to the United States, and died in New York. Research Thomas Paine
Thomas Parnell was an Irish poet. He was born in 1679 at Dublin and died in 1717. He was educated at Trinity College, and taking orders in 1705 was presented to the archdeaconry of Clogher, but he resided chiefly in London. He waa at first associated with Addison, Congreve, Steele, and other Whigs; but towards the latter part of Queen Anne's reign he joined the Torywits, of whom the most notable were Swift, Pope, Gay, and Arbuthnot. He afforded Pope some assistance in his translation of Homer, and wrote the Life prefixed to it. By Swift's recommendation he obtained a prebend in the DublinCathedral and the valuable living of Finglass. After his death a collection of his poems was published by Pope in 1721. Research Thomas Parnell
Thomas Parr (known as Old Parr) was a supposedly long-lived English man. He was born, it is said, in 1483 at Winnington, Shropshire, and died in 1635, he being then in his 152nd year. A metrical account of his career was published in 1635 by John Taylor the 'water poet,' and he was buried in WestminsterAbbey, where a monument records his longevity. His age, however, has been disputed, and doubtless he was not nearly so old as represented. Research Thomas Parr
Thomas Love Peacock was an English novelist and poet. He was born in 1785 at Weymouth and died in 1866. A friend of the English poet Percy Shelley, he was Shelley's literary executor. The publication of ' Headlong Hall' in 1816 established Peacock's literary reputation. 'Nightmare Abbey' published in 1818, a humorous satire of the romantic movement in England, is his best- known work. Peacock was an employee of the British East India Company from 1819 to 1856, during which time he published two historical romances, 'Maid Marian' published in 1822 and 'The Misfortunes of Elfin' published in 1829, and the satiric 'CrotchetCastle' published in 1831. Almost 30 years later he published his last novel, 'Gryll Grange' in 1860. In most of Peacock's works the characters, many of them caricatures of famous writers of the time, reveal themselves through incidental dialogue at social gatherings. Research Thomas Peacock
Thomas Percy was Bishop of Dromore, in Ireland. He was was born in 1728 at Bridgenorth and died in 1811. He graduated at Christ Church, Oxford, in 1753. In 1756 he was presented to the livings of Easton, Mandit, and Wilby, in Northamptonshire, and in 1766 he became domestic chaplain to the Duke of Northumberland. In 1769 he was appointed chaplain to the king, and in 1778 raised to the deanery of Carlisle, which he resigned four years after for the Irish bishopric of Dromore. The most popular of his works are his Reliques of Ancient English Poetry, based on an old manuscript collection of poetry, but much modernized in style. The work was published in 1765, and materially helped to give a more natural and vigorous tone to English literature, then deeply tainted with conventionalism. Research Thomas Percy
Thomas Phillips was an English portrait-painter. He was born in 1770 and died in 1845. In 1792 he exhibited some historical pieces, but soon after turned his attention to portrait-painting. In 1808 he became a member of the Royal Academy, and in 1824 succeeded Fuseli as professor of painting. He published his Lectures on the History and Principles of Painting in 1833. Research Thomas Phillips
Sir Thomas Picton was a British general. He was born in 1758 at Pembrokeshire 1758 and died in 1815 at the Battle of Waterloo. He entered the army in 1771, and, after serving in the West Indies, rose to the rank of colonel, and became governor of Trinidad in 1797. His next service was the capture of Flushing, of which he was appointed governor in 1809. He afterwards distinguished himself in the Peninsular War at Badajoz, Yittoria, Ciudad Rodrigo, etc. Research Thomas Picton
Thomas Pinckney was an American politician. He was born in 1750 and died in 1838. The brother of Charles Cotesworth Pinckney, he was an aide to General Lincoln and Count d'Estaing during the American Revolution. He fought at Stono and was taken prisoner at Camden. He was Governor of South Carolina from 1787 to 1789, and Minister to Great Britain from 1793 to 1796. He negotiated the treaty with Spain securing free navigation of the Mississippi. In 1796 he was a Federalistcandidate with Adams. He was a US Congressman from 1797 to 1801. Research Thomas Pinckney
Thomas Pownall was an English politician and colonial governor. He was born in 1720 and died in 1805. He went to America from England in 1753. He immediately sympathized with the colonists political tendencies. He was Governor of Massachusetts from 1756 to 1760. While a member of the British Parliament from 1767 to 1781 ardently opposed oppressive measures toward the colonies. Research Thomas Pownall
Sir Thomas Stamford Raffles was a British administrator. He was born in 1781 and died in 1826. While employed by the East India Company he was governor of Sumatra and was responsible for the acquisition and founding of Singapore in 1819. he was also other founder and first president of the Zoological society. Research Thomas Raffles
Thomas Ravenscroft was an English composer. He was born about 1592 and died about 1635. He was trained in St Paul's choir, and received the degree of bachelor of music from Cambridge. In 1611 he published a collection of twenty-three part-songs, under the title of Melismata; in 1614 appeared another collection of part-songs, prefixed by an essay; and in 1621 he published his Whole Book of Psalms, containing a tune for each of the 150 psalms, harmonined in four parts by all the great musicians of the period. Research Thomas Ravenscroft
Thomas Reid was a Scottish philosopher. He was born in 1710 at Strachan and died in 1796. He was educated at Mariscbal College, Aberdeen. After being librarian at Marischal College, Aberdeen, in 1737 he became parish minister of New Machar. In 1751 he was elected a regent of King's College in Aberdeen and after twelve years was transferred to the chair of moral philosophy in Glasgow as successor to Adam Smith. He was the foremost exponent of the Scottish philosophy, or the philosophy of common sense. His first philosophical work was an Essay on Quantity (1748), in which he replied to Hutcheson, who had maintained that mathematical terms can be applied to measure moral qualities. In 1764 he published his well-known work, An Inquiry into the HumanMind on the Principles of Common Sense. His other writings are, Essays on the Intellectual Powers of Man and Essays on the Active Powers of the HumanMind. Research Thomas Reid
Thomas Rhymer of Erceldoune, or Earlston, in Berwickshire, otherwise called Thomas the Rhymer was a half-legendary Scottish poet or romancer of the 13th century. He is mentioned by Barbour, Blind Harry, and Wyntoun, was credited with prophetical powers, and his Prophecies, a collection of oracular rhymes, were long popular in Scottish folk-lore. The old metrical romance of Sir Tristram is doubtfully ascribed to him. Research Thomas Rhymer
Thomas William Robertson was a British dramatist. He was born in 1829 and died in 1871. His parents being actors, he went on the stage at an early age, but was never a success. In 1853 he settled in London, where for several years he struggled on with light literature. In 1864 he had considerable success with David Garrick, a play produced by Sothern; but his fame rests on a series of plays produced at the Prince of Wales' Theatre between 1866 and 1870, including Ours, Caste, Play, School, and M.P. Though sneered at on their production by certain critics, and nicknamed 'cup-and-saucer dramas', they deservedly secured a permanent place on the stage. His principal Dramatic Works were published in 1890 by his son. Research Thomas Robertson
Thomas J Rodman was an American engineer. He was born in 1815 and died in 1871. He invented the Rodman guns, which are cast about a hollow core through which a stream of cold water runs. He was an inspector of ordnance during the American Civil War. Research Thomas Rodman
Sir Thomas Roe was an English explorer and statesman. He was born in 1581 at Low Leyton near Wanstead, Essex and died in 1644. Educated at Magdalen College, Oxford, and possibly in France he received an appointment at court during the last year of Elizabeth I's reign. He was knighted in 1605 and in 1610 was fitted out by prince Henry for a voyage of discovery to South America. In 1614 he became member of parliament for Tamworth and in 1615 was sent as an ambassador to the court of the Mogul, where he obtained privileges for the British merchants which established the British presence in India. Returning to England in 1619, in 1621 he was elected member of parliament for Cirencester and was sent to Constantinople as ambassador, returning to England in 1628. Between 1638 and 1642 he was on the Continent, involved in negotiations over the Thirty Years' War. Research Thomas Roe
Thomas Roscoe was an English author, trasnaltor and editor. He was born in 1791 near Liverpool and died in 1871. The fifth son of William Roscoe, in 1823 he published translations of Sismondi's Literature of Southern Europe, and Memoirs of Benvenuto Cellini; in 1828 a translation of Lanzi's History of Painting in Italy; in 1839 Life and. Writings of Cervantes. He edited the Novelists' Library and translated a series of foreign novels, besides writing several books of travels. Research Thomas Roscoe
Thomas Rowlandson was an English caricaturist. He was born in 1756 at London and died in 1827. He studied at the Royal Academy schools, and at Paris; and in 1775 he exhibited at the Royal Academy, continuing to devote himself to serious art until 1781, when he definitely gave himself to satire and caricature. His caricatures are often coarse, but they are always expressive, and though prepared with little care or elaboration are full of humour, animation, and cleverness. In Napoleon he found a very fertile field for his satire. Among his best-known works, which are extremely numerous, are Vauxhall Gardens, the Tours of Dr. Syntax, the Military and Naval Adventures of Johnny Newcome, and his illustrations to various formerly well-known books, such as Munchausen's Travels, Sterne's Sentimental Journey, etc. Research Thomas Rowlandson
Thomas Ruddiman was a Scottish scholar. He was born in 1674 at Boyndieparish, Banffshire and died in 1757. His father was a farmer, and he graduated at Aberdeen University in 1694, and became schoolmaster at Laurencekirk. About 1700 he moved to Edinburgh, where he obtained the post of assistant in the Advocates' Library. Ruddiman supplemented his meagre salary by literary work of a varied but generally erudite character. He also taught, and for some time was an auctioneer. Meanwhile he had won recognition as one of the leading scholars of the day; and the success of a printing business which he founded in 1715 enabled him to unite comfort with reputation until his death. From 1728 he was printer to the university; from 1729 be was proprietor of the Caledonian Mercury; and from 1730 until 1752 he was keeper of the Advocates' Library. His best-known work is bis famous Rudiments of the LatinTongue (1714), a book which immediately superseded all previous treatises of a similar kind, and long remained in use in the schools of Scotland. In 1715 he edited the first collected edition of George Buchanan's works, with severe strictures dictated by his own Jacobite leanings. Research Thomas Ruddimann
Thomas Rymer was an English critic and antiquary. He was born in 1641 and died in 1713. He studied at Cambridge and at Gray's Inn, and was called to the bar in 1673. Succeeding Shadwell, in 1692, as historiographer royal, he was entrusted by the government with the task of making a collection of public treaties from the year 1101, which he began to publish in 1704, under the title of Foedera, Conventiones, et cujuscunque Generis Acta Publica, inter Reges Angliae et alios Principes. Of this work he completed fifteen volumes, and five more were afterwards added by Robert Sanderson. This work is a valuable source of history for the period it covers. Research Thomas Rymer
Thomas Sackville, Lord Buckhurst and Earl of Dorset, was an English statesman and poet. He was born in 1536 and died in 1609. The son of Sir Richard Sackville of Buckhurst he was educated at Oxford and Cambridge where he distinguished himself by his Latin and English poetry, and as a student of the Inner Temple he wrote, in conjunction with Thomas Norton, the tragedy of Gorboduc, or Ferrex and Porrex (first acted in 1561), remarkable as the first example in English of regular tragedy in blankverse. The Mirror of Magistrates, and the Complaint of Henry, Duke of Buckingham, the introduction to an intended series of poems on the tragic lives of famous men, make one regret that he was induced to abandon literature for politics. He took a prominent and creditable part in some of the chief events of Elizabeth I's reign. He was a member of the court which tried Mary Queen of Scots; he succeeded LordBurleigh as lord-high-treasurer; and presided at the trial of the Earl of Essex. From 1587-1588 he suffered imprisonment at the instigation of the queen's favourite Leicester. In 1566 he had succeeded to his father's ampleestate; was raised to the peerage as Baron Buckhurst shortly afterwards; and James I created him Earl of Dorset in 1604. He was buried at WestminsterAbbey. Research Thomas Sackville
Thomas Sanchez was a Spanish Jesuit. He was born in 1550 at Cordova and died in 1610. He became the head of the school of the order at Granada, and wrote a cynical book on marriage, 'De Sacramento Matrimonii' published in 1592. Research Thomas Sanchez
Thomas Savery was an English engineer. He was born in 1650 at Shilston in Devon and died in 1715. He invented the steam-engine, in 1698 patenting the first viable steam-engine which he designed for pumping water out of mines. Research Thomas Savery
Thomas Scott was an English biblical commentator. He was born in 1747 and died in 1821. He was ordained in 1773 and in 1781 he became curate of Olney. In 1785 he obtained the chaplainship of the LockChapel, near Hydepark Corner, London; and in 1801 he was appointed rector of Aston Sanford, in Buckinghamshire. He imbibed Calvinistic views, in the defence of which, both from the pulpit and the press, he greatly distinguished himself; but he is now remembered chiefly by his Commentary or Family Bible with Notes which was very popular in both the USA and Great Britain. Research Thomas Scott
Thomas Shadwell was an English dramatic poet. He was born in 1640 at Stanton Hall, Norfolk and died in 1692 of an opium overdose. He was educated at Cambridge, studied the law for some time at the Middle Temple, and then visited the Continent. On the recommendation of the Earl of Dorset he was created poet-laureate in the place of Dryden, whose bitter enmity against Thomas Shadwell found expression in his severe satire of MacFlecknoe. Research Thomas Shadwell
Thomas Shepard was an English non-conformist. He was born in 1605 and died in 1649. He was charged with non-conformity in England and went to America in 1635. He was pastor of the church at Cambridge, Massachusetts, from 1635 to 1649. He was influential in the establishment of Harvard College at that place. He was one of the most influential men in New England and a writer on theological subjects. Research Thomas Shepard
Thomas Sheraton was the last of the great English cabinet-makers of the 18th century. He was born in 1751 and died in 1806. Sheraton continued the pursuit of lightness combined with strength which had been started by Hepplewhite. The influence of the Louis XVI period is seen in his general avoidance of curves. Sheraton also used carving very sparingly and was more partial to inlay. Research Thomas Sheraton
Thomas Sheridan was an English rector and writer. He was born in 1687 and died in 1738. He was a close friend and confidant of Jonathan Swift, and was noted for his learning and eccentricities. He wrote the Art of Punning, and published an edition of Persius. Research Thomas Sheridan
Thomas Sherlock was Bishop of London. He was born in 1678 at London and died in 1761. The son of Dr. William Sherlock, dean of St Paul's, he was educated at Catharine Hall, Cambridge, and succeeded his father as master of the Temple in 1704. In 1728 he was appointed to the see of Bangor; in 1734 he was translated to the see of Salisbury; and in 1748 (having refused the primacy) to the see of London, where he remained until his death in 1761. He was the author of several controversial works on Christian evidences, including The Use and Intent of Prophecy published in 1725, The Trial of the Witnesses of the Resurrection of Jesus published in 1729, and published four volums of his discourses at the Temple Church bewteen 1754 and 1758, which gained him a high reputation as a pulpit orator. Research Thomas Sherlock
Thomas W Sherman was an American soldier. He was born in 1813 and died in 1879. He was brevetted major for Services at Buena Vista during the Mexican War. He commanded the land forces of the Port Royal Expedition in 1861. In 1862 he commanded a division in the Army of the Tennessee, engaging at Corinth. He was active in the engagements about New Orleans and led the left wing at Port Hudson in 1863. Research Thomas Sherman
Thomas Southwood Smith was an English sanitary reformer. He was born in 1788 at Martock, Somersets, and died in 1861. He studied medicine at Edinburgh and first settled as a physician at Yeovil, but in 1820 went to London, and was in 1825 appointed physician to the London FeverHospital, and somewhat earlier to the Eastern Dispensary. He spent several years visiting the wards of the former, and the squalid houses of the patients of the latter, and embodied his experience in a Treatise on Fever published in 1830, which was described by a competent authority as the best work on the subject that had ever been written.
In 1832 he was appointed one of the commissioners to inquire into the condition of factory children, and his report led to the passage of the Factory Act, which put an end to the inhuman treatment to which children had been subjected in factories up to that time. His inquiry into the condition of children and young persons employed in mines led to the exclusion of children and women from British mines. In 1846 his report on the means requisite for the improvement of the health of the metropolis resulted in the Public Health Act of 1848. He also did immense service to the cause of science by his reports on cholera and quarantine. Research Thomas Smith
Sir Thomas Octave Sopwith was a British airmen and inventor. He was born in 1888 at London and died in 1989. Educated at Cottesmore and Seafield Engineering College he developed an interest in aviation and aircraft design. In 1910 he won the Baron de Forest prize for a flight from England to the Continent, and in 1911 he founded the Sopwith Aviation and Engineering Company Ltd at Kingston on Thames, to design and build aeroplanes and seaplanes. In 1918 he was made a CBE. In 1925 he became chairman of the Society of British Aircraft Constructors, a post he held until 1927 and chairman, later President, of the Hawker Siddeley Group in 1935 and 1963. He was knighted in 1953. Among his famous aircraft that served in the British armed forces during the Great War were the Sopwith Pup and Sopwith Camel. Research Thomas Sopwith
Thomas Southerne was an English dramatist. He was born in 1659 at Oxmantown, County Dublin and died in 1746. Educated at Trinity College, Oxford he entered the Middle Temple at London in 1678. He wrote both comedies and tragedies, the most notable being 'The Fatal Marriage' written in 1694 and 'Oroonoko' written in 1696 which was a vehement attack upon the slave trade. Research Thomas Southerne
Thomas Sprat was an English poet, wit and bishop. He was born in 1635 at Beaminster and died in 1713. He was first known as a smart versifier and wit. At the restoration he developed into an ardentroyalist, was ordained in 1661 and in 1669 appointed canon, in 1683 dean of Westminster and in 1684 bishop of Rochester. He assisted at the coronation of William and Mary. He wrote 'History of the Royal Society of London' published in 1667. Research Thomas Sprat
Thomas Sternhold was an English composer. He died in 1549. He was one of the writers of the first metrical version of the Psalms. He was educated at Oxford and became groom of the robes to Henry VIII. The principal coadjutor of Sternhold in this work was John Hopkins. Research Thomas Sternhold
Thomas Sterry Hunt was an American scientist. He was born in 1826 and died in 1892. He made valuable original contributions to the advancement of chemical and geological science. He invented the ink with which the early American banknotes (greenbacks) were printed. Research Thomas Sterry Hunt
Thomas Stevenson was a Scottish engineer. He was born in 1818 at Edinburgh and died in 1887. The son of Robert Stevenson, he was educated at the high school, Edinburgh where he revealed a talent for mathematics and was soon contributing articles to scientific journals. He joined his father as a lighthouse engineer, and together with his brother Alan Stevenson was responsible for the erection of several lighthouses. After studying lighthouse lanterns he invented the azimuthal condensing system. Research Thomas Stevenson
Thomas Stothard was an English artist. He was born in 1755 at London and died in 1834. Having shown an aptitude for drawing he was bound apprentice to a drawer of patterns for brocaded silks, and soon attempted book illustration in his leisure hours. He afterwards drew designs for the Town and Country Magazine, Bell's British Poets, and the Novelist's Magazine. He studied at the Royal Academy schools, exhibited a picture there in 1778, was elected an associate in 1791, and in 1794 an academician. He painted subject pictures in oils, particularly for Boydell's Shakespeare Gallery, but his real talent lay in illustrative design, and illustrated many classic novels at the time. He became ARA in 1791, RA in 1794 and librarian in 1812. Among his works, which number over 5000 designs, the more important series and single designs are for Boydell's Shakespeare, illustrations of Robinson Crusoe, The Pilgrim's Progress (1788), The Rape of the Lock (1798), Cowper's Poems (1825), Rogers' Italy (1830), and Poems (1834); while his best-known works are The Canterbury Pilgrims, The Flitch of Bacon, Greek Vintage, Fete Champetre, Sancho and the Duchess, etc. Research Thomas Stothard
Thomas Stott was an Irish poet. He was born in 1755 at Hillsborough, County Down and died in 1829. He entered the linenbleaching business at Dromore, County Down and made a lot of money, while also writing poetry published in 'The Northern Star', 'Belfast Newsletter' and other local papers in Ireland and in England including 'The London Morning Post', usually under the pseudonym of 'Hafiz'. Research Thomas Stott
Thomas Sumter was an American insurgent. He was born in 1734 and died in 1832. He conducted insurgency at the beginning of the American Revolution. He defeated a force of British and Tories, made an unsuccessful attack on Rocky Mount and routed the British at Hanging Rock. He severed the communications of Charles Cornwallis and captured his supply train. He was severely defeated by ColonelTarleton at Fishing Creek. He defeated Major Wemyss at Broad River, and repelled ColonelTarleton at Blackstock Hill. He represented South Carolina in the US Congress as a Democrat from 1789 to 1793 and from 1797 to 1801, and in the Senate from 1801 to 1809. He was Minister to Brazil from 1809 to 1811. Research Thomas Sumter
Sir Thomas Sutherland was a British shipowner. He was born in 1834 at Aberdeen and died in 1922. Educated at the university of Aberdeen he entered the Peninsular and Oriental Steamship Company, representing the company in China for some years. He helped to found the Hong Kongdocks and the Hong Kong and Shanghai Bank and became a member of the legislative council of the colony. He was chairman of the P & O line from 1880 until 1914 and member of parliament for Greenock from 1884 until 1900. He was created a KCMG in 1891 and GCMG in 1897. Research Thomas Sutherland
Thomas Swann was an American railway tycoon and politician. He was born in 1805 and died in 1883. He was president of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad from 1847 to 1853, Governor of Maryland from 1865 to 1869, and a Democratic US Congressman from 1869 to 1879. Research Thomas Swann
Thomas Sweeney was an irish-American soldier. He was born in 1820 and died in 1892. He went to the United States from Ireland in 1832. He served with distinction during the Mexican War. He served at Wilson's Creek and Fort Donelson, and led a brigade at Shiloh. He commanded a division in the Atlantacampaign, and fought at Snake Creek Gap, Resaca, Dallas, Kenesaw Mountain and Atlanta. He engaged in the Fenian invasion of Canada in 1866. Research Thomas Sweeney
Thomas Sydenham was an English physician. He was born in 1624 at Wynford Eagle, Dorset and died in 1689. Educated at Magdalen Hall, Oxford, his education was disrupted by the English Civil War, during which he served with the Parliamentarians. In 1647 he entered Wadham College, and studied medicine there and in France, entering practice in London around 1663, in 1676 publishing his acclaimed 'Observations Medicae'. Research Thomas Sydenham
Sir Thomas Noon Talfourd was an English lawyer, dramatist and poet. He was born in 1795 and died in 1854. He was brought up at Reading, where his father was a brewer. He was called to the bar in 1821, and in 1833 was made serjeant-at-law. In 1835 he was returned to parliament for Reading, and in 1836 his tragedy of Ion (published the previous year) was produced at Covent Garden, and achieved distinguished success. The tragedies subsequently produced by him were The Athenian Captive; Glencoe, or the Fate of the Macdonalds; and The Castilian, an historical tragedy. Besides his dramas he was the author of a Life of Charles Lamb and of Vacation Rambles. In 1849 he was raised to the bench in the Court of Common Pleas, and received at the same time the honour of knighthood. He died suddenly in 1854 at Stafford, while delivering his charge to a grand-jury. Research Thomas Talfourd
Thomas Tallis was an English composer. He was born in 1515 and died in 1585. He was the organist at WalthamAbbey until its dissolution in 1540, and was later a gentleman of the Chapel Royal and organist there with his pupil W Byrd. In 1575 they published their 34 motets, sixteen of which were written by Tallis. Thomas Tallis wrote a large amount of church music. Research Thomas Tallis
Thomas Taylor, the 'Platonist', was an English philosopher. He was born in 1758 at London and died in 1835. He studied with a view to the dissenting ministry, but entered a banking-house, when all his leisure was devoted to classical and philosophical studies. He published, chiefly with the aid of patrons, about forty different works, the most remarkable of which are Plato (1804), printed at the expense of the Duke of Norfolk, who kept almost the whole edition locked up until 1848;
and Aristotle (1806-1812), printed at the expense of Meredith, who gave Thomas Taylor an annuity of 100 pounds sterling, which he enjoyed until his death. Research Thomas Taylor
Thomas Telford was a Scottish engineer. He was born in 1757 at Eskdale, Dumfriesshire and died in 1834. A stonemason by trade, he settled in London in 1783 and in 1787 became surveyor of public works for Shropshire before in 1793 being appointed engineer in charge of the proposed EllesmereCanal. In 1801 he was appointed by the government to report on improvements of roads and means of communication in Scotland, and as a result received the commission to construct the Caledonian Canal. Thomas Telford was responsible for the construction of over 900 miles of roads in Scotland, and over 100 bridges, as well as improvements to harbours at Wick, Aberdeen, Peterhead, Banff and Leith.
In England Thomas Telford was superintended with the construction of many roads including the Carlisle-Glasgow and Shrewsbury-Holyhead roads, and the Menai suspension bridge. In 1818 he helped to found the Institute of Civil Engineers and became its first president. Research Thomas Telford
Sir Thomas Boulden Thompson was a British sailor. He was born in 1766 and died in 1828. He went to see in 1778 with his uncle, Edward Thompson the poet, and saw much service before he was given command of a vessel in Horatio Nelson's squadron in 1797. He took part in the Battle of the Nile and was knighted for his services. He was wounded at the Battle of Copenhagen in 1801 and was made a baronet in 1806. He was member of parliament for Rochester from 1807 until 1818. Research Thomas Thompson
Thomas Thomson was a Scottish chemist. He was born in 1773 at Crieff and died in 1852. He adopted the medical profession, and embraced chemistry more especially as his favourite pursuit. In 1802 he published the first edition of his System of Chemistry, which obtained rapid success both in Great Britain and on the Continent. It was followed in 1810 by his Elements of Chemistry, and in 1812 by his History of the Royal)Society. In 1813 he went to London and started there a scientific journal, the Annals of Philosophy, which he continued to edit until the end of 1820. The lectureship (afterwards the regius professorship) in chemistry in Glasgow University was conferred on him in 1817. His great work on the atomic theory was published in 1825, under the title of Attempt to establish the First Principles of Chemistry by Experiment. In 1830-31 he published his History of Chemistry in two volumes, and in 1836 appeared his Outlines of Mineralogy and Geology. Research Thomas Thomson
Thomas Thomson was a Scottish antiquary. He was born in 1768 at Dailly, Ayrshire and died in 1852. The brother of the Reverend John Thomson, of Duddingston, he was called to the Scottish bar in 1793, appointed deputy-clerk register 1806, and principal clerk of session 1828. He was an early contributor to the Edinburgh Review, and president of the Bannatyne Club, for which and for the MaitlandClub he edited numerous valuable works. Research Thomas Thomson 2
Thomas Thorild (Thomas Thoren) was a Swedish poet. He was born in 1759 at Kongelf and died in 1808. He was the first poet to break away from the artificiality of the French school of poetry, and his first poem 'The Passions' published in 1772 started a literary controversy. In 1792 he was banished for four years for expressing opinions considered dangerous to the regent. Research Thomas Thorild
Thomas Tickell was an English poet. He was born in 1686 near Carlisle and died in 1740. Educated at Queen's College, Oxford he became a fellow of the college and gained several political appointments through the influence of his friend Addison. Thomas Tickell's translation of the first book of Homer's Iliad appeared about the same time as Pope's, and was described by Addison as being the best, Addison thereby offending Pope who responded by making Addison the subject of a satire. Research Thomas Tickell
Thomas Traherne was an English poet. He was born in 1636 at Hereford and died in 1674. The son of a shoemaker he was educated at Brasenose College, Oxford, and in 1657 became rector of Credenhill near Hereford, and afterwards chaplain to Sir Orlando Bridgeman, lord keeper of the seals. Two manuscripts by Thomas Traherne were discovered on a bookstall in 1896 and were subsequently edited and published in 1903 and 1908. Research Thomas Traherne
Thomas Tredgold was an English architect and engineer. He was born in 1788 at Brandon and died in 1829. In 1813 he joined William Atkinson, architect to the ordnance in London, and in 1823 went into private practice as a civil engineer. He wrote 'Elementary Principles of Carpentry' in 1820, 'Strength of Cast Iron' in 1821 and 'The Steam Engine' in 1827. Research Thomas Tredgold
Sir Thomas Troubridge was a British read-admiral. He was born in 1758 and died in 1807. Commissioned in the navy in 1773, he served in the East Indies. In command of the Culloden he fought at the Battle of St Vincent in 1797, and for his services in the Meditterranean was made a baronet in 1799. Lord of the Admiralty from 180 until 1804, the following year he commanded the Blenheim and sailed for the east Indies. On a voyage from Madras to the Cape, the Blenheim was wrecked off the coast of Madagascar and he was drowned. Research Thomas Troubridge
Thomas Truxtun was an American sailor. He was born in 1755 and died in 1822. He was made lieutenant of the privateer Congress in 1776. In 1777 he commanded the Independence and captured three large ships. In 1781 he commanded the St James, with which he disabled a superior British vessel. In 1798 he was placed in command of the Constellation, and commanded a squadron to protect American commerce in the West Indies. In 1799 he captured the French frigate L'Insurgente after a severe engagement, and in 1800 he gained a victory over the French frigate La Vengeance. Research Thomas Truxtun
Thomas Tusser was an English musician, farmer and poet. He was born about 1524 at Rivenhall, Essex and died in 1580. He became a chorister at Wallingford and later at St Paul's Cathedral, London, completing his education at Eaton, King's College and Trinity Hall, Cambridge. For ten years he was a musician to Lord Paget, leaving him to farm at Cattiwade, Suffolk. Although not very successful as a farmer he wrote 'Hundreth Good Pointes of Husbandrie' published in 1577. Research Thomas Tusser
Thomas Tyrwhitt was an English writer and scholar. He was born in 1730 at London and died in 1786. He was educated at Eton and at Queen's College, Oxford; became a fellow of Merton; clerk to the House of Commons from 1761 to 1767 and in 1784 was appointed a curator of the British Museum. Among his writings were: Observations on some Passages of Shakspere (1766); an edition of Chaucer (1775); and an edition of the so-called Rowley's Poems, in the appendix of which he exposes the fraud of Chatterton. Research Thomas Tyrwhitt
Sir Thomas Urquhart or Thomas Urchard was a Scottish author and translator. He was born in 1611 and died in 1660. The eldest son of Thomas Urquhart of Cromarty, he was educated at King's College, Aberdeen. As an opponent of the Covenant, he took part in the abortive movement in the north in 1639, and then took refuge at the English court, where he was knighted in 1641. In 1649 he joined the Royalists, and was taken prisoner and confined in the Tower of London, but was released through the clemency of Oliver Cromwell in 1652. In that year appeared The Jewel, a panegyric of the Scottish nation, and his other works include Logopandecteision, 1653, an outline of a universal language marked by great ingenuity.
Thomas Urquhart's reputation rests on his translation of Rabelais, one of the masterpieces of its kind. As one critic said, 'In point of styleUrquhart was Rabelais incarnate, and in his employment of the verbal resources, whether of science or pseudo-science and slang, he almost surpassed Rabelais himself'. Little is known of Thomas Urquhart's later years. A tradition says that he died of an uncontrollable fit of laughter when he heard of the Restoration of Charles II. Research Thomas Urquhart
Thomas Walker Gilmer was an American politician. He died in 1844. He was a Whig governor of Virginia from 1840 until 1841. He was a US Democratic Congressman from 1841 to 1844. He was Secretary of the Navy in Tyler's Cabinet in 1844, and was killed in the 'Princeton disaster'. Research Thomas Walker Gilmer
Thomas Warton was an English poet and critic. He was born in 1728 at Basingstoke and died in 1790. The son of the Reverend Thomas Warton, professor of poetry at Oxford, he was educated at Winchester, and at Trinity College, Oxford, and quickly distinguished himself by his poetical compositions and criticisms. He was chosen professor of poetry at Oxford in 1757, a chair he filled with great ability for ten years; appointed Camden professor of history in 1785; and he succeeded Whitehead as poet-laureate in the same year. Several church livings were also held by him. He rendered great service to literature by his History of English Poetry (1774-1781), a work never completed. Research Thomas Warton
Thomas Wentworth (Earl of Strafford) was an English statesman. He was born in 1593 at London and died in 1641. Educated at St John's College, Cambridge he sat in successive parliaments under James I and was a powerful leader of the parliamentary opposition to Charles I and to Buckingham. In 1628 he was active in promoting the Petition of the Right, and shortly after it was passed Thomas Wentworth switched allegiances to the king and was created Viscount Wentworth and made president of the Council of the North until in 1633 he was made a governor of Ireland. By the intrigues of the queen and a clique of courtiers, Thomas Wentworth's plans were constantly subverted and in 1639 he was made an earl, and thought he had the trust of the king. However in 1640 the Long Parliament ordered Thomas Wentworth's arrest and impeachment for high treason. The trial began in 1641 and when it was clear that there was no chance of securing a verdict against Thomas Wentworth, the Commons passed a bill of attainder condemning Thomas Wentworth to death. The bill required the king's signature, and despite giving his word to Thomas Wentworth the king signed the execution order and Thomas Wentworth was executed by beheading on Tower Hill. Research Thomas Wentworth
Thomas Weston was an English financer. He was born in 1575 and died in 1624. He formed a joint stock company for fitting out the expedition of the Pilgrims to America in 1620, but soon afterwards withdrew from it as unprofitable. He organized a company of his own and sent an advance party in 1622 which founded a settlement at Wessagussett under a grant by the king to Sir Ferdinando Gorges. The settlers, however, soon returned to England. Research Thomas Weston
Thomas Wharton (Marquis of Wharton) was a British writer. He was born in 1640 and died in 1715. He was the reputed author of the celebrated political balladLillibullero, and was severely castigated by Jonathan Swift, forming the subject of one of Swift's satires as a result of his infamous indulgent and licentious lifestyle. Research Thomas Wharton
Thomas Wharton was an American politician. He was born in 1735 and died in 1778. He was a zealous opponent of the oppressive measures of England toward the colonies. He was chosen as a member of the Philadelphia Committee of Correspondence in 1774. He became one of the Committee of Safety in 1775, and in 1776 became president of the Council of Safety, in which the executive authority temporarily resided. He was president of Pennsylvania from 1777 to 1778. Research Thomas Wharton 2
Thomas Willing was an American businessman. He was born in 1731 and died in 1821. He was head of the firm of Willing and Morris from 1754 to 1793, which was an agent of Congress during the American War of Independence. He represented Pennsylvania in the Continental Congress from 1775 to 1776 and was the first president of the US Bank in 1791. Research Thomas Willing
Cardinal Thomas Wolsey was an English churchman and statesman. He was born in 1473 at Ipswich and died in 1530 of dysentry. The son of a butcher he was educated at Magdalen College, Oxford After leaving university he was appointed to the parish of Lymington in Somerset. Then he became a private chaplain to the Archbishop of Canterbury, one of the governors of Calais, chaplain to Henry VII, and later Dean of Lincoln. When Henry VIII became king the advancement of Wolsey was rapid. Successively he was appointed Canon of Windsor, Dean of York, Bishop of Lincoln, Archbishop of York, and his nomination as cardinal in 1515 and pope's legate in 1518 completed his ecclesiastical dignities. In 1515 he was also appointed lord-chancellor of the kingdom.
He was twice a candidate for the papacy, and his power in England, as also his revenues, were only equalled by those of the crown. Part of his immense revenues he expended in display, and part more laudably for the advancement of learning. He projected on a magnificentscale the College of Christ Church at Oxford; founded several lectures, and built the palace at Hampton Court, which he presented to the king. This rapid preferment by the king was largely the result of a remarkable series of diplomatic victories, in which Wolsey had been the means of enabling Henry to hold the balance between Francis I and the Emperor Charles V. His success in the region of politics terminated in the splendours of the Field of the Cloth of Gold in 1520.
In his ambitious career the cardinal had made many enemies, who were held in check so long as he retained the favour of his royal master. This favour Wolsey lost when he failed to obtain from PopeClement a decision granting the king's divorce from Catharine of Aragon. Thenceforth the enemies of the fallen prelate harried him unmercifully. He was banished from court, stripped of his dignities, found guilty of a praemunire, and sentenced to imprisonment. Finally, after a brief respite, during which he was restored to some of his offices, and had returned to his see of York, he was arrested at CawoodCastle on a charge of high treason, and on his way to London as a prisoner he died in 1530 of dysentery at LeicesterAbbey. Research Thomas Wolsey
Sir Thomas Wyatt was a British poet. He was born in 1503 and died in 1542. He wrote He started his academical education at Cambridge and completed it at Oxford. On leaving the university he travelled on the Continent, and on his return appeared at court, where he was favoured by Henry VIII, who employed him on several diplomatic missions. His poetical works, which include elegies, odes, and a metrical translation of the Psalms, were published in 1557, along with those of his friend the Earl of Surrey. Research Thomas Wyatt
Thomas Young was a British physician and physicist. He was born in 1773 and died in 1829. Born of a Quaker family, he qualified himself for the medical profession, but a fortune left him made him rather languid in his practice as a physician in London. In 1802 he became the colleague of Davy as professor of natural philosophy at the Royal Institution, having previously made the discovery of the interference of light, the result of researches which, completed by Fresnel, secured the triumph of the undulatory theory. In 1807 appeared his admirable Lectures on Natural Philosophy. In 1818 he was appointed secretary to the Board of Longitude, with the charge of supervising the Nautical Almanack. Thomas Young preceded Champollion in the discovery of the alphabetic character of certain of the Egyptian hieroglyphs. He was a man of universal accomplishments, adding to his scientific and mathematical attainments a knowledge of the classical and the principal modern and oriental languages. He identified astigmatism, demonstrated the interference of light, and suggested a wave theory of light in opposition to Newton's theory. As a result of his work on elasticity, the ratio of stress to strain is known as Young's modulus. *Thorfinn
Thorfinn was a Viking explorer. He died after 1016. He went to Greenland from Norway in 1006. According to the Sagas, in 1007 he sailed for Vinland with three ships and 160 persons, sighted Newfoundland and Nova Scotia, sailed along the New England coast and landed upon some island, where they spent the winter. The next three years were spent in a bay which some have identified with Mount Hope Bay, where they traded with the Esquimaux. They returned in 1011. Research Thomas Young
Thothmes I was a king of Egypt of the XVIIIth dynasty. He reigned for about twenty-five years from about 1539 BC until 1514 BC. The first great Egyptian military commander, he invaded Nubia using river craft, fought a naval battle in mid-stream, and extended the Theban power to the 4th cataract. He conducted campaigns in Syria which resulted in obtaining large quantities of riches. He devoted himself to the embellishment of the Amen temple at Karnak. Research Thothmes I
Thothmes II was a king of Egypt of the XVIIIth dynasty. He reigned for about thirteen years from about 1514 BC until 1501 BC with his half-sister Hatshepsut as consort and co-regent. He is thought to have been about 30 years old when he died. Research Thothmes II
Thothmes III was a king of Egypt of the XVIIIth dynasty. He appeared to have reigned as co-regent from the death of Thothmes II in 1501 with his aunt and step-mother, Hatshepsut. He married Hatshepsut's younger daughter and after the death of his aunt reigned alone for about thirty-two years. He undertook seventeen foreign campaigns and established his power from Armenia to the Sudan. Research Thothmes III
Thothmes IV was a king of Egypt of the XVIIIth dynasty. He reigned for about nine years from about 1447 BC until 1438 BC. He undertook military campaigns against Nubia and Phoenicia and maintained friendly relations with Babylon and Mitanni, marrying the Mitannian woman Mutemua, the first foreign alliance made by an Egyptian monarch. He arranged the removal of the sand drift which buried the great Sphinx at Gizeh Research Thothmes IV
Throstle-piecer was the name given to girls aged between thirteen and sixteen who were formerly employed in cottonmills whose duty was to attend to the throstle frames, and to piece up the yarn as it was made in the frame, before it is wound upon bonnins fixed on the spindles to receive it. Research Throstle-Piecer
Thucydides was a Greek historian. He was born in 460BC at Athens and died in 399BC. He wrote a history of the Peloponnesian War, a war during which he was in command of an Athenian fleet detailed to protect the coast of Thrace where he owned some gold mines. His failure to prevent Amphipolis from falling to the Spartans, which was blamed on his concern for his own property, led to him being exiled for twenty years.. Research Thucydides
The Thugs (also known as phansigars) were originally a fraternity of Islamic murderous robbers in India who strangled their victims before robbing and burying them. Later, a Hindu sect evolved within the fraternity which strangled their victims as sacrifices to Kali. The systematic suppression of the Thuggee was begun in 1830 and by 1848 Thuggee as an organised system was eliminated. Research Thug
Thurlow Weed was an american journalist and politician. He was born in 1797 and died in 1882. He was early employed in a printing establishment and as a country journalist. He became connected with the Rochester Telegraph and with the Anti-Masonic Enquirer. In 1825 he was in the New York Legislature, but afterwards avoided office. Already influential in State and national politics, Thurlow Weed, in 1830, founded the Albany Evening Journal which he conducted until 1856 as a Whig, and later as a Republican organ. His influence was felt in nearly every nomination of the Whigs and Republicans from 1836 to 1876. For years he was a political partner of Seward, whom he favoured for President in 1860. During the American Civil War he was in Europe acting as an agent in behalf of the Union cause. Research Thurlow Weed
Tib was an Elizabethan English name for a working-class woman. The term was also used for a girlfriend or sweetheart, and in a derogatory sense for a promiscuous woamn or prostitute. Research Tib
Tiberius Claudius Nero Caesar was a Roman emperor. He was born in 42 BC and died in 37 AD. The son of Tiberius Claudius Nero and Livia Drusilla. In 38 BC his mother having divorced her husband married Augustus, and in 2 BC following the deaths of the heirs Augustus adopted his stepson as his heir. In AD 13 Tiberius was invested with the tribunitian and proconsular powers, the possession of which in effect gave his authority, and upon the death of Augustus in AD 14 Tiberius succeeded as Roman emperor. Dangerous mutinies broke out shortly afterwards in the armies posted in Pannonia and on the Rhine, but they were suppressed by the exertions of the two princes, Germanicus and Drusus. The conduct of Tiberius as a ruler was distinguished by an extraordinary mixture of tyranny with occasional wisdom and good sense, Tacitus records the events of the reign, including tlie suspicious death of Germanicus, the detestable administration of Sejanus, the poisoning by that minister of Drusus, the emperor's son, and the infamous and dissolute retirement of Tiberius in AD 27 to the Isle of Caprese, in the Bay of Naples, never to return to Rome. The death of Livia in AD 29 removed the only restraint upon his actions, and the destruction of the widow and family of Germanicus followed. Sejanus, aspiring to the throne, fell a victim to his ambition in the year 31; and many innocent persons were destroyed owing to the suspicion and cruelty of Tiberius, which now exceeded all limits. Research Tiberius
The Tibu or Tibbu (rock-people) are an indigenous people of Libya traditionally found in the Tibesti highlands. They comprise a northern or Teda branch, and are slender, bronzed, crisp-haired of medium stature. Research Tibu
The Ticunas (also known as the Tacunas or Jamanas) are a South American people living on the Putumayo and Maranon rivers. They are noted for their tall slender figure and round regular features set off by artistic tattoo designs. A peaceful nation, they prepare poisons on behalf of other tribes. Research Ticunas
The Tigro are a people of north Ethiopia. The Tigro language is spoken by about 2.5 million people; it belongs to the south east Semitic branch of the Afro-Asiatic family. Tigrinya is a closely related language spoken slightly to the south. Research Tigro
The Timne or Timni are an aboriginal people of Sierra Leone. They are traditionally farmers, renowned for their rice growing, and traditionally live in villages ruled by a chieftain, and in districts ruled by kings. Research Timne
Timoleon was a Greek soldier and the liberator of Sicily. He was born about 411 at Corinth and died about 337 BC. Of a noble family, he was party to the murder of his brother when his brother endeavoured to make himself tyrant of the city. In 344 in response to an appeal from Syracuse in Sicily, originally a colony from Corinth, Timoleon led a small force to assist the Syracusans against the tyrantDionysius, the younger, and against the Carthaginians. The latter were defeated outside Hadranum, and Dionysius offered to give up his Syracusian stronghold. Timoleon gained possession of the whole of the city, and re-established democratic government.
Timoleon then turned his attention to other Sicilian cities oppressed by tyrants, but in the meantime the Carthaginians had collected an immense force and had landed it at Lilybaeum in 339. Timoleon signally defeated it, however, on the Crimissus, and was then free to proceed with the liberation of Sicily from tyrants. A peace was concluded with the Carthaginians in 338, by which the boundary of the Carthaginian dominion was fixed at the river Halycus. His work accomplished, Timoleon divested himself of all authority and became a private citizen of Syracuse. Research Timoleon
Timothy Dwight was an American divine, poet and teacher. He was born in 1752 at Connecticut and died in 1817. His father was Colonel Timothy Dwight, and his mother was a daughter of Jonathan Edwards. He served as chaplain in the revolutionary army. From 1795 until 1817 he was president of Yale College and did much to broaden and advance higher education in the USA.
His Theology (published in 1818) was for long a standard both in Britain and in America. Research Timothy Dwight
Timothy O Howe was an American jurist and politician. He was born in 1816 and died in 1883. He was a member of the Maine Legislature in 1845. From 1850 to 1855 he was a Judge of the Circuit and Supreme Courts of Wisconsin. He represented Wisconsin in the US Senate as a Republican from 1861 to 1879, and served on the Committees of Finance, Commerce, Pensions and Claims. He advocated the right of the National Government to establish territorial governments in the seceded States. He was a delegate to the International Monetary Conference in 1881. He was appointed Postmaster-General in Arthur's Cabinet in 1881 and served until his death. Research Timothy Howe
Timothy Pickering was an American politician. He was born in 1745 and died in 1829. Educated at Harvardgraduate he became a militia officer in Massachusetts, and entered actively into the civil and military life of the American Revolution. He was made adjutant-general of the army in 1776, and member of the board of war, and in 1780 he became quartermaster-general, materially aiding George Washington's final movements. He held this position until 1785, and then settled in Pennsylvania. In 1791 he negotiated a treaty with the Six Nations, and the same year he was called to the office of Postmaster-General. In 1795 he exchanged this post for that of Secretary of War, and a few months later he took charge of the State Department, which he held until 1800. Becoming again identified with Massachusetts Timothy Pickering represented that State in the US Senate 1805 to 1811 and the House from 1813 to 1817. He was a radicalFederalist and a member of the EssexJunto. As. a vigorous opponent of the Embargo he was at one time extremely unpopular. Research Timothy Pickering
Timothy Pitkin was an American politician and historian. He was born in 1766 and died in 1847. He was Speaker of the Connecticut Legislature for five consecutive sessions. He represented Connecticut in the US Congress as a Federalist from 1805 to 1819. He was regarded as an authority on US political history. He wrote Statistical View of the Commerce of the United States of America and A Political and Civil History of the United States from 1763 to 1797. Research Timothy Pitkin
Timothy Ruggles was an American jurist, soldier and politician. He was born in 1711 and died in 1795. He served in the Massachusetts General Court for twenty-three years between 1739 and 1770. He commanded a regiment at Crown Point in 1755, was second in command at Lake George, and led a brigade in General Amherst's Canadian expedition. When a delegate to the Stamp Act Congress in New York in 1765, and its president, he refused to sign the addresses and petitions. He espoused the British cause during the American Revolution. Research Timothy Ruggles
Timur or Timur Lenk (Timur the Lame and, by corruption, Tamerlane) called also Timur Beg was a Mongol soldier. He was born in 1336 in the territory of Kesh and died in 1405. His ancestors were chiefs of the district, and Timur by his energy and abilities raised himself to be ruler of all Turkestan in 1370. By degrees he conquered Persia, and the whole of Central Asia, and extended his power from the great wall of China to Moscow. He invaded India in 1398, which he conquered from the Indus to the mouths of the Ganges, massacring, it is said, on one occasion 100,000 prisoners. On his way from India to meet the forces of Bajazet, the Turkish sultan, he subjugated Bagdad, plundered Aleppo, burned down tlie greater part of Damascus, and wrested Syria from the Mamelukes, after which he overran Asia Minor with an immense army. Bajazet's army was completely defeated on the plain of Ancyra (Angora) in 1402, and the sultan was taken prisoner.
The conquests of the Tartar now extended from the Irtish and Volga to the Persian Gulf, and from the Ganges to the Grecian Archipelago. He was making mighty preparations for an invasion of China when death arrested his progress at his camp at Otrar, beyond the Sir-Daria, in 1405, and his empire immediately fell to pieces. He was fanatical in his religion, and although no conquests were ever attended with greater cruelty, devastation, and bloodshed, he was in a measure a patron of science and art, and is also reputed author of the Institutions of Timur and the Autobiography of Timur, both translated into English. Research Timur
Tina Turner (real name Annie Mae Bullock) is an American singer and actress. She was born in 1938 at Nutbush, Tennessee. Best known for her singing, she also appeared as the 'Acid Queen' in the 1974 film Tommy before going on to appear in the final Mad Max film, the 1984 Mad Max: Beyond The Thunderdome. Research Tina Turner
The Tinguian are a race of people of Indonesian origin found in north-west Luzon of the Philippine Islands. They are a tall, fair, mainly hill tribe (some are tree-dwellers) traditionally associated with cultivating rice on irrigated walled terraces. Research Tinguian
Jacopo Robusti (Tintoretto) was an Italian painter. He was born in 1518 at Venice and died in 1594. He studied under Titian and was influenced by Michelangelo and Jacopo Palma. His first important work was the Miracle of St Mark, painted in 1548, for the Scuola di San Marco. Research Tintoretto
Tippoo Sahib was a sultan of Mysore. He was born in 1749 and died in 1799. The son of Haider Ali, whom he succeeded in 1782, he fought during the first Mysore War, concluding the treaty of Mangalore, in 1784. Two years later he declared war on the Marathas, and in 1789 attacked Travancore, a state allied with the British. This occasioned the second Mysore War, which ended in Tippoo's defeat in 1791. Founding a secret confederacy of all discontented native rulers, and strengthened by the promise of French help, Tippoo planned vast schemes for the expulsion of the British and his own exaltation. However, the plot was discovered and Wellesley made a rapid advance on Seringapatam, during the capture of which Tippoo was killed. Research Tippoo Sahib
Tippoo Tib was a name by which the African slave-trader Hamed ben Mohammed was known. Of mixed Arab and African parentage, he traded in EquatorialAfrica, especially the Upper Congo. Aiding Cameron in 1874 and Stanley in 1886, and taking part in the Emin relief expedition of 1887, he was given the governorship of the Stanley Falls district of Upper Congo. Research Tippoo Tib
Tissaphernes was a Persian satrap. He died in 395 BC. In 414 BC he was made satrap of Lower Asia. During the latter part of the Peloponnesian War he played with the Spartans by holding out promises of help, his real policy being to let both the Athenians and the Spartans wear themselves out. After the battle of Cunaxa in 401 BC, where he was one of the four generals of Artaxerxes, he treacherously murdered the leaders of the 10,000 Greeks. From 400-395, as governor of the coast of Asia Minor, he carried on war with the Spartans, but his failure caused Artaxerxes to give orders for his execution. Research Tissaphernes
In America a tithingman was a sort of Sundayconstable, who preserved order in meeting and discharged various police functions of a similar nature. The office was peculiarly a New England institution, though rare instances of tithiugmen were to be found in Maryland and elsewhere. In towns where there were Indian inhabitants, it was the duty of the tithingman to preserve order among them. Research Tithingman
Titian (real name Tiziano Vecellio) was an Italian painter. He was born in 1477 at Pieve and died in 1576 of plague. Of an old family in the district of Cadore, he learned painting in Venice, probably, at first, with Zuccato, a worker in mosaic. He then studied under Gentile Bellini, eventually attaching himself to Giorgione, from whom he received his sense of glorious colouring, and of romance.
By the time Giorgione had died, at the age of thirty-two, Titian had become a great name in Venice. One of his earliest allegorical compositions, Sacred and Profane Love, exemplifies his skill as a colourist, and strength in composition. In 1513 he applied to the Council in Venice to be made their official painter, and three years later he obtained his request. From that time onwards he was the supreme head of the Venetian school.
The greater part of his life was spent in Venice, but he was heard of at Ferrara, Mantua, Bologna, Augsburg, and Milan, his work being in great demand, various members of the imperial court sending for him to carry out their commissions. In 1545 he was in Rome, carrying out commissions for Pope Paul III, and made the acquaintance of Michelangelo. In Augsburg he produced the portrait of Charles V, now at the Prado, one of the noblest works of the 16th century, and he also painted several portraits of Philip II of Spain. Research Titian
Tito Carbone was professor of pathology and anatomy at the University of Modena. He was born in 1863 and died in 1904. He achieved note for isolating and identifying the microbe of Mediterranean fever - Melitensis. In doing so he managed to infect himself and died of the fever. Research Tito Carbone
Titus (Titus Flavius Sabinus Vespasianus) was a Roman emperor. He was born in 40 and died in 81. He was the eldest son of the Emperor Vespasian and served with credit as a military tribune in Germany and Britain, and accompanied his father in the war against the Jews as commander of a legion. When Vespasian became emperor in 69 Titus waa left to conduct the war in Judaea, He took Jerusalem in 70, and after visiting Egypt returned to Rome in triumph, and was associated with his father in the government of the empire. He became sole emperor in 79, and showed himself as an enlightened and munificent ruler, distinguished by benevolence and philanthropy. After his death his brother Domitian was strongly suspected of having poisoned him. Research Titus
Titus Quinticus Flamininus was a Roman general. He was born about 230 BC and died about 174 BC. He was quaestor in 199, consul in 198, terminated the Macedonian war by the defeat of Philip at Cynoscephalse 197, and proclaimed at the Isthmian games in 196 the independence of Greece. Research Titus Flamininus
Titus Oates was an English conspirator. He was born in 1649 at Oakham and died in 1705. He was the principal informer in the so-called Popish plot in England. Taking advantage of the public's hostility toward Roman Catholics, in 1678 Oates gave the authorities details of a fictitious plot by Catholics to murder the Protestant monarch Charles II and to replace him with his Catholic brother, James, duke of York. As a result of the testimony of Oates and his followers, about 35 people lost their lives from 1678 and 1681. Oates himself for a time received a large pension and lived in Whitehall Palace. Charles died in 1685 and was succeeded by the duke of York as King James II. Oates was then brought to trial, found guilty of perjury, and sentenced to be whipped from Aldgate to Newgate life imprisonment and to be pilloried five times a year,. After James was deposed by the GloriousRevolution in 1688, Oates was freed by the new king, William III. And received a pension of 300 pounds a year. Research Titus Oates
Sir Titus Salt was an English manufacturer. He was born in 1803 at Morley and died in 1876. He began in business as a wool stapler in Bradford, and in 1836 found a way to manufacture alpaca, and thus introduced a new industry to England. he founded round his mills the model village of Saltaire, which proved one of the best attempts to ameliorate the conditions of the workers. He was created a baronet in 1869. Research Titus Salt
The Tlingit are a North American Indian people of the north west coast, living in south Alaska and north British Columbia. They used to carve wooden poles representing their family crests, showing such animals as the raven, whale, octopus, beaver, bear, wolf, and the mythical 'thunderbird'. Their language is related to the Athabaskan languages. Research Tlingit
Toad-eater was a former profession prevalent in Britain during the 17th century. A toad eater was an accomplice to a (usually) itinerant peddler of dubious medicines, remedies and tonics (a 'quack doctor') who would pretend or perhaps actually eat a poisonous toad in order to prove to the audience the effectiveness of his master's remedies and tonics especially with regard to expelling toxins from the body. From the profession comes the expression 'toady' meaning a sycophant, the toad-eaters being so publicly flattering towards their master and the effectiveness of his wares in curing all manner of ailments. Whether or not any toad-eaters actually swallowed a toad is not recorded, it seems more likely that the toad eaters developed sleight of hand to deceive the audience into believing they had swallowed a toad. Research Toad-Eater
The Toala are an aboriginal tribe in south-west Celebes (Sulawesi), Indonesia. A medium-headed, wavy-haired, thick-lipped people, short, dark, and slender; they represent a primitive Caucasoid type allied to the Vedda and Sakai, with Melanesian elements. Traditionally they inhabited rock-shelters and were unprogressive hunters, using stone knives and arrow-heads, and bone lance-heads and whistles. Research Toala
The Toba (Pitilaga) are an aboriginal people around the Pilcomayo River in Argentina. Of Guaycuru stock, they are tall and muscular, hostile to outsiders, superb horsemen, and use spears for fishing. They wear paint and feather-ornament rather than clothing.
They survive by hunting and fishing and have a reputation as a fierce, war-like race. In 1882 they massacred Crevaux and his followers who were attempting to open up the Pilcomayo route between Bolivia and Paraguay. Research Toba
Tobias Lear was an American civil servant. He was born in 1763 and died in 1816. He became private secretary to George Washington in 1785, and for several years superintended his domestic affairs. He was a commissioner to conclude peace with Tripoli in 1805. Research Tobias Lear
Tobias George Smollett was a Scottish novelist. He was born in 1721 at Dalquhurne and died in 1771. Educated at Dumbarton and Glasgow University, he trained as a doctor, serving an apprenticeship with a Glasgow surgeon, and in 1739 travelled to London where he accepted a post as surgeon's mate in the navy, subsequently taking part in the Cartagena expedition of 1740 - 1741. Of this affair he gave an account in his Compendium of Voyages and Travels.
Disgusted with the navy, Smollett left the service, and lived for some time in Jamaica. On his return to London in 1746 he heard of the barbarities of the Duke of Cumberland in the north of Scotland, and gave utterance to his indignation in the well-known ode entitled The Tears of Scotland. In the same year he published his Advice: a Satire; and in 1747 appeared his Reproof: a Satire, being the second part of The Advice. In 1748 he published his Adventures of Roderick Random, a novel which brought him both fame and fortune.
He went to Paris in 1750, and about this time wrote his Adventures of Peregrine Pickle, which appeared in 1751. He now obtained the degree of MD, but never succeeded in practice. In 1753 he published his CountFathom, a work neither so ably written nor so popular as its predecessors. In 1755 he brought out a new translation of Don Quixote. Soon after this he was induced to take the chief management of the Toryorgan, the Critical Review. In 1757 he produced The Reprisal, a comedy in two acts, which proved a success. In 1758 appeared his History of England, from Julius Caesar to the Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle in 1748. For a libel in the Critical Review he was sentenced to pay a fine of 100 and to suffer three months' imprisonment. During his confinement he composed his Adventures of Sir Lancelot Greaves (published in 1762). In 1761, 1762, and 1765 appeared his Continuation of the History of England down to 1765, since often reprinted as a continuation of Hume's History.
In 1766, after living for about two years on the Continent, he published his Travels through France and Italy; and in 1767 his History and Adventures of an Atom. He again visited Italy in 1770, and near Leghorn he wrote his Humphry Clinker, which is regarded as the best of all his works. The humour of Smollett is of the broad full-flavoured kind, not seldom degenerating into burlesque; his characters are well marked and varied; and though his work is frequently coarse and vulgar, it has had much influence on English fiction. Research Tobias Smollett
The Tocharian are an ancient people in Central Asia. Originally Tarimbasin town-dwellers, whose culture and speech were absorbed by the Altaian nomad Yueh-chi, their combined migration to the upper Oxus region of Tocharistan, and afterwards to Bactria, resulted in the Indo-Scyth Kushan kingdom. Lecoq and Stein brought from the Turfan documents in a dialect comprising an Aryan vocabulary of western type, allied to Hittite, with Turkic constructions. Provisionally called Tocharian, it is now designated Kuchean, being the ancient speech of the north Tarim region. Research Tocharian
Tod Sloan (real name John Todhunter Sloan) was an American jockey. He first visited England towards the end of the racing season of 1897 and attracted a great deal of attention for the peculiar seat he adopted, perched in a crouched fashion on the horse's withers. At Newmarket on September 20th 1898, he rode five consecutive winners, and again on April 18th 1899 he won on four successive mounts. Research Tod Sloan
The Todas are a Dravidianpastoral tribe of the Nilgri uplands of southern India. They are noted for their fine physique. They speak a crude dialect of the Kanarese Dravidian language, and traditionally migrated from the Kanara coast district in the 12th century. The Todas are unusual in traditionally practising polyandry (the sharing of one wife between several husbands). Research Todas
The Toltecs were a prehistoric people of Central America to whom the Aztecs and the Mayas ascribed all their arts and ancient monuments. Research Toltec
Tom Hood was an English miscellaneous writer. He was born in 1835 and died in 1874. The son of Thomas Hood, he studied at Oxford, and during his residence there he wrote Pen and Pencil Pictures. In 1861 appeared his Daughters of King Daker, and other Poems. In 1865 he became editor of Fun, which became very popular under his management. His talents, although similar to those of his father, were less brilliant. Research Tom Hood
Tom Jones (real name Sir Thomas John Woodward) is a Welsh singer. He was born in 1940 at Pontypridd to a traditional coal-mining family, and had his first popular music hit in 1965 with 'It's Not Unusual' followed by 'Delilah'. In 1999 he was an OBE and in 2006 he was knighted. Research Tom Jones
Tom Spring was an English boxer. He was born in 1795 and died in 1851. He was English champion in 1824, and had a reputation as an honest and straightforward fighter. Research Tom Spring
Tom Taylor was an English dramatist. He was born in 1817 at Sunderland and died in 1880. Educated at Glasgow University and at Trinity College, Cambridge of which he was made a fellow in 1840, in 1844 he left Cambridge and went to London where he was professor of English literature at London University until 1846 when he was called to the bar. In 1850 he gave up law to become a civil servant, becoming secretary of the sanitary department and in his spare time devoting himself to literature. In 1874 he was appointed editor of Punch magazine. He is best known for his plays and burlesque productions, the first of which was produced in 1844. Research Tom Taylor
Tomas de Torquemada was a Spanish inquisitor. He was born in 1420 at Valladolid and died in 1498. He enetered the order of St Dominic and became confessor to Isabella, afterwards queen of Spain, and later to her husband Ferdinand. For 22 years he was prior of the monastery at Segovia. In 1478 he obtained the establishment of the Spanish Inquisition and in 1483 was made inquisitor-general. Despite the severity of the regulations he laid down he held his position until 1494, during which time he reportedly had some 10,000 persons put to death by burning. Research Tomas de Torquemada
Tomaso Albinoni was an Italian composer and violinist. He was born in 1671 at Venice and died in 1750. He lived in Venice, where he produced most of his nearly 50 operas. His instrumental works, frequently played by modern chamber musicians, were admired by Johann Sebastian Bach and include trio sonatas, concertos for one and for two oboes, and the 1710 concerto for solo violin. Research Tomaso Albinoni
Tommaso Campanella was an Italian philosopher. He was born in 1568 at Stilo and died in 1639. He entered the Dominican order and became the leader of a political conspiracy to expel the Spaniards from Naples, for which he was imprisoned for twenty-seven years. On his release in 1626 by Urban VIII religious persecution drove him to France where he was protected by CardinalRichelieu, and where he devoted the rest of his life to philosophy. He endeavoured to ground philosophy on experiment and the observation of nature. Research Tommaso Campanella
The Tonikas are an aboriginal north American tribe. They originally settled in Mississippi, whence they migrated in the 19th century to Louisiana. Research Tonikas
Tony Tompsett was a journalist, AIDs dissident and pioneer in the provision of information around ' HIV/aids'. He was born in 1959 and died in 1998. He worked as a volunteer at Continuum magazine from 1993 until just before his death in 1998 from Kaposi's sarcoma, toxoplasmosis and possible pneumonia. Research Tony Tompsett
Torbern Bergman was a Swedish physicist and chemist. He was born in 1735 and died in 1784. He succeeded in the preparation of artificial mineral waters, discovered the sulphuretted hydrogen gas of mineral springs and published a classification of minerals on the basis of their chemical character and crystalline forms. Research Torbern Bergman
Torquato Tasso was an Italian poet. He was born in 1544 at Sorrento and died in 1595. He was sent at a young age to the school of the Jesuits at Naples, and subsequently pursued his studies under his father's superintendence at Rome, Bergamo, Urbino, Pesaro, and Venice. At the age of sixteen he was sent to the University of Padua to study law, but at this time, to the surprise of his friends, he produced the Rinaldo, an epicpoem in twelve cantos.
The reputation of this poem procured for Tasso an invitation to the University of Bologna, which he accepted. Here he displayed an aptitude for philosophy, and began to write his great poem of Gierusalemme Liberata (Jerusalem Delivered). While engaged on it he secured a patron in Cardinal Louis d'Este, to whom he had dedicated his Rinaldo. He was introduced by the cardinal to the court of Alfonso II of Ferrara. Here he remained from 1565 to 1571, when he accompanied the cardinal on an embassy from the pope to Charles IX of France.
Having quarrelled with his patron, Tasso returned to Ferrara, and in 1573 brought out the Aminta, a pastoral, which was represented at the court. In 1575 he completed his epic of Gierusalemme Liberata. About this time be became paranoid, believed that he was persistently slandered at court, and systematically misrepresented to the Inquisition. To such an extent had this mania come in 1577 that the poet drew his poignard upon one of the domestics of the Duchess of Urbino. He was immediately arrested, but was set free after two days' confinement. At his own request he returned to Ferrara, to the convent of St Francis; but from here he made his escape, and travelled in disguise to his native place, Sorrento, where he stayed with his sister Cornelia.
He again asked permission to return to Ferrara, a request which the duke coldly granted. But in his excited and jealous state of mindTasso found it impossible to re-establish the old friendly relationship at the court. He fled from Ferrara again, but again returned. So outrageous had his behaviour now become that he was seized by the duke's orders and confined as a madman in the hospital of St Anne at Ferrara. Here he remained from 1579 to 1586, until he was released at the solicitation of Vincent di Gonzaga. In poor health and his spirit broken, he retired to Mantna, and then to Naples. Finally, in 1595, he proceeded to Rome at the request of the pope, who desired him to be crowned with laurel in the capitol, but the poet died while the preparations for the ceremony were being made.
Tasso wrote numerous poems, but his fame rests chiefly on his Rime, or lyrical poems, his Aminta, and his Gierusalemme Liberata (translated into English by Fairfax). His letters are also interesting. Research Torquato Tasso
Originally, a Tory was an Irish outlaw and robber (from the Irish word meaning to pursue for the sake of plunder). The term was applied to the Royalist party at the time of the Popish Plot but had acquired a political significance as early as 1654 when it was applied by the principal of Glasgow University to the forces maintaining the cause of Charles II, as the political counterpart of Whig. The nickname, like its contemporaneous opposite Whig, in popular use became much less strict in its application, until at last it came simply to signify an adherent of that political party in the state who disapproved of change in the ancient constitution, and who supported the claims and authority of the king, church, and aristocracy, while their opponents, the Whigs, were in favour of more or less radical changes, and supported the claims of the democracy.Today the term is applied to the Conservatives in Britain with ironic accuracy to the original Irish meaning, many poorer Britains would say. Research Tory
Totila (Baduila) was a king of the Ostrogoths. He was born around 520 and died in 552. In 541 he became king and immediately entered into a war with the East Roman Empire with the aim of recovering Italy. He gained a number of successes, including the taking of Naples, and in 546 after a long siege he captured Rome only to lose it to Belisarius, and retake it from the Romans in 549 after which he conquered Sicily, sardinia and Corsica. Back in Italy he was defeated by Narses at the Battle of Tagina in July 552, and was killed as he tried to escape the field. Research Totila
The Totonac are an American Indian tribe, mostly found in Vera Cruz and Puebla, Mexico. Originally an independent people, they were reduced to an Aztec tributary state. Research Totonac
Toussaint L'Ouverture (real name Francois Dominique Tousaint) was a Haitian Negro leader. He was born in 1746 a slave on a plantation in Haiti and died in 1803. In 1791 having aided his master and his family to escape, he took part in the Negro insurrection, and in 1794 joined the French republicans. Appointed commander-in-chief of the island by the French Convention in 1797, he drove out the French royalists, the British and the Spaniards, and brought the island of Haiti to a state of peace and prosperity. About 1800 he began to work for Haitian independence, and opposed Napoleon when he tried to re-establish slavery. He was captured by the French in 1802 and sent to France, where he was imprisoned at the Fort of Joux where he died. Research Toussaint L'Ouverture
A town-clerk is the clerk to a municipal corporation, elected by the town-council. In England his chief duties are to keep the records of the borough and lists of burgesses, to take charge of the voting papers at municipal elections, and the like. In Scotland he is the legal adviser of the magistrates and council, and the custodier of the burgh records. Research Town-Clerk
A toxophilite is someone who loves archery. The Royal Toxophilite Society was founded in 1781 and had grounds in Regent's Park, London, until being given notice to quit the site in December 1921. Research Toxophilite
Trajan (Marcus Ulpius Trajanus) was a Roman emperor. He was born in 53 at Italica, Spain and died in 117. He was a soldier, and fought many campaigns in Dacia, Armenia, Mesopotamia and Ctesiphon and while in command of the forces on the Rhine was selected as colleague and successor by Emperor Nerva.
On Nerva's death in 98, Trajan became emperor of the Roman Empire. Trajan proved himself one of the greatest of all Roman emperors, equally skilled in military matters as administration and was highly praised by all except members of the Christian sect whom he persecuted. Research Trajan
The Trappist are a branch of the Cistercian reform of the Benedictine Order. They originated at the Cistercian Abbey of La Trappe in Normandy, frowm whence they took their name. In 1662 Armand Jean le Bouthillier de Rance, a man of high rank who had been a court chaplain and was the owner of the abbey estates, became converted, retired to the abbey, and in 1664 was elected abbot. He found the community lax and disorganised, and introduced a system of unexampled austerity, the rules imposing strict enclosure, perpetual silence, and rigorous fasting. The Trappist monks undertake no outside work, but employ themselves entirely with the choir offices and manual labour. Research Trappist
Sir Travers Twiss was a British jurist. He was born in 1809 and died in 1897. Educated at University College, Oxford, of which he became a fellow, bursar, dean and tutor in succession he made a special study of the law and entered Lincoln's Inn in 1835 and was called to the bar in 1840. In 1842 he was appointed to the Drummond chair of political economy at Oxford, and in 1852 to the chair of international law at King's College, London. In 1855 he became regius professor of civil law at Oxford, a post he held until 1870. In 1867 he became advocate general and was knighted, but in 1872 he resigned his political career and devoted himself to international law. Research Travers Twiss
Trebelli was the stage name of Zelia Gilbert, a French opera singer. She was born in 1839 at Paris of German parents and died in 1892. She made her debut at Madrid in 1859 under the name Trebelli. Research Trebelli
In Jewish history, the tribe of Simeon were the descendants of Simeon, the second of Jacob's sons by Leah. They received a section in the south-west of Canaan, which was originally allotted to Judah. Research Tribe of Simeon
Tribonianus was a Roman jurist. He, with sixteen coadjutors, by direction of the Emperor Justinian, compiled the digest of Roman civil law entitled the Pandects in 530. Research Tribonianus
In Roman antiquity a tribune or tribunus was originally an officer connected with a tribe, or who represented a tribe for certain purposes. The term was especially applied to an officer or magistrate chosen by the people to protect them from the oppression of the patricians or nobles, and to defend their liberties against any attempts that might be made upon them by the senate and consuls. These magistrates were at first two, but their number was increased to five and ultimately to ten. This last number appears to have remained unaltered down to the end of the empire. There were also military tribunes, officers of the army, each of whom commanded a division or legion, and also other officers called tribunes; such as, tribunes of the treasury, of the horse, etc. Research Tribune
The Trinobantes were an ancient British tribe which inhabited the modern counties of Essex and Suffolk. Their capital was Camalodunum (Colchester). They submitted to Caesar in 55 BC, but in 61 AD joined the revolt of the Iceni under Boadicea and were subdued by Suetonius Paulinus, after which nothing is known of them. Research Trinobantes
A triumvir is one of three men united in office. The triumvirs (Latin triumviri) of Rome were either ordinary magistrates or officials, or else extraordinary commissioners who were frequently appointed to jointly execute any public office. But the men best known in Roman history as triumvirs were rather usurpers of power than properly constituted authorities. The term triumvirate is particularly applied in Roman history to two famous coalitions, the first in 59 BC between Caesar, Pompey, and Crassus; the second in 43 BC between Antony, Octavian, and Lepidus. Research Triumvir
Troglodyte is a Greek term for a cave dweller, designating certain peoples in the ancient world. The troglodytes of south Egypt and Ethiopia were a pastoral people. Research Troglodyte
Troubadour is a name given to a class of mediaeval poets, chiefly from the Languedon and Provence regions. They flourished from about 1090 until about 1290, and composed lyrical poetry in the langue d'oc, thereby being distinct from the trouveres who used the langue d'oil. Research Troubadour
TROUBADOUR
Troubadour was a name given to a class of early poets who first appeared in Provence, in France. The troubadours were considered the inventors of a species of lyrical poetry, characterized by an almost entire devotion to the subject of romantic gallantry, and generally very complicated in regard to its metre and rhymes. They flourished from the llth to the latter part of the 13th century, their principal residence being the south of France, but they also lived in Catalonia, Arragon, and North Italy. The most renowned among the troubadours were knights who cultivated music and poetry as an honourable accomplishment; but their art declined in its later days, when it was chiefly cultivated by minstrels of a lower class. Research Troubadour
The Trouveres were the court poets of north and central France in the Middle Ages. Their invariable theme was the trials undergone by a lover at the hands of his lady, who is already married to another. The trouveres correspond to the Troubadour of Provence, however their productions partake of a narrative or epic character, and thus contrast broadly with the lyrical, amatory, and more polished effusions of their southern rivals. Research Trouveres
Tseng Ki-Tseh was a Chinese statesman. He was born in 1837 at Hunan and died in 1890. Educated in diplomacy by his father, he was appointed the first ambassador to Great Britain in 1878, in 1880 moving to Russia, and in 1881 became an influential member of the Chinese cabinet and vice-president of the board of war. He again visited Great Britain in 1885 to discuss the opiumtrade. Research Tseng Ki-Tseh
Tseng Kuo-Fan was a Chinese soldier. He was born in 1811 at Hunan and died in 1872. He was literary examiner in 1843 and later took part in the repression of the Taiping rebellion, building a flotilla of junks in 1850 with which he cleared the Yang-tse-kiang and captured Chang-sha, Wu-chang and Hanyang. He drove the rebels from Kiangsuprovince, and being made viceroy of the Kiangprovince in 1860, he eventually captured Nanking in 1864. Failing to suppress the Nienfei rebellion he was superseded by his lieutenant Li Hung chang. Research Tseng Kuo-Fan
The Tsous are (were?) an aboriginal people of the mountainous district of Taiwan south-west of MountMorrison. A Spartan people, traditionally unmarried boys over the age of twelve lived together in a public hut and were trained in warfare, discipline and courage through hardship. Research Tsous
The Tswana are the majority ethnic group living in Botswana. The Tswana are divided into four subgroups: the Bakwena, the Bamangwato, the Bangwaketse, and the Batawana. Traditionally they are rural- dwelling farmers, though many now leave their homes to work as migrant labourers in South African industries. The Tswana language belongs to the Bantu branch of the Niger- Congo family. Research Tswana
The Tuareg (Tuarick, Tawarik) are a nomadic Berber people of the west and central Sahara. Ytaditionally they wear a black masque or face-cloth, are of a handsome and muscular physique, of warlike habit, and practice Islam. Research Tuareg
Tudor was the surname of an English dynasty founded by a Welsh nobleman who in 1423 had married Catherine, widow of Henry V. He was the father of Edmund, Earl of Richmond, and Jasper, Earl of Pembroke. Supporting the house of Lancaster he was captured at Mortimer's Cross and beheaded in 1461. Edmund married Margaret, heiress of John Beaufort, and their son, Henry VII - the first Tudor monach - who reigned from 1485 to 1509, founded his claims to the throne on his descent from John of Gaunt. The other Tudor sovereigns were Henry VIII, Edward VI, Mary and Elizabeth I. Research Tudor
The Tukano are an indigenous South American Indian people of the Vaupos region on the Colombian- Brazilian border, numbering approximately 2,000. An estimated 12,000 speak languages related to
Tukano. The other main
Tukanoan groups are Bara, Barasana, Cubeo, Desana, and Makuna. Research Tukano
The Tukuarika or sheep-eaters were a North Amercian native Indian tribe of the Shoshoni family formerly found in west central Idaho. In 1864 an official American govermnet report estimated there were 1000 Tukuarika, but by 1904 their numbers had plummeted to 90 and shortly afterwards they were extinct as a race. Research Tukuarika
Tullio Serafin was an Italian conductor. He was born in 1878 and died in 1968. He studied in Milan and became a violinist in the orchestra at La Scala. In 1900 he made his debut as a conductor at Ferrara. In 1909 he was conducting at La Scala, later becoming a regular guest at Covent Garden, and from 1924 to 1934 he conducted at the New York Met, where he presented the first American performance of Turandot. He worked devotedly in the revival of belcanto, and was a major formative influence on Maria Callas, who said later: 'He taught me exactly the depth of music. Research Tullio Serafin
According to legend, Tullus Hostilius was the third king of Rome and the successor to Numa Pompilius (670 - 638 BC),. He was a warlike monarch, in whose reign took place the combat of the Horatii and Curiatii. Research Tullus Hostilius
The Tunguses are a Mongolo-Tata people of east Siberia. With the exception of the Manchus division, they live in small groups and are primarily fishers, hunters, trappers and shepherds. Research Tunguses
Tupac Amaru (real name Jose Gabriel Condorcanqui) was a Peruvian revolutionary. He was born in 1742 at Tinta and died in 1781. A ruler of a district under the Spanish, in 1780 he placed himself at the head of an extensive revolt against Spanish rule, was arrested the following year and together with members of his family was tortured to death. Research Tupac Amaru
The Tupi-Guarani are a large division of the South American aborigines with two main branches, the Guarani and the Tupi of north-eastern Brazil. Research Tupi-Guarani
The Turkana are an east African people living between Lake Turkana in north-west Kenya and the Nile. They are frequently very tall, though averaging 5 feet 7 inches in height, stalwart with broad noses. They were traditionally semi-nomadic herdsmen and spoke a Niloto-Hamitic language. British troops were engaged in punitive operations against them between February and May 1915. Research Turkana
The Turkomans are a traditionally nomadic Tartar people formerly occupying a territory stretching between the Caspian Sea and the Sea of Aral, the khanates of Khiva and Bokhara, Afghanistan, and Iraq. They did not form a single nation, but were divided into numerous tribes or clans. Research Turkomans
The Tuscarora are a North American Indian tribe, originally one of the Six Nations of Iroquois, they migrated toward North Carolina. In 1711 they attacked the European colonists, but were defeated at the battle of the Neuse on January the 28th, 1712. Hostilities were later resumed, but they were overthrown in 1713 and 800 taken prisoners. The tribe then fled to New York, except a small part, who had remained friendly. These subsequently removed. The Tuscaroras early favoured the English, but joined with the colonists during the American War of Independence.
In 1900 there were just 743 surviving Tuscarora Indians, all living in either New York or Ontario. Research Tuscarora
Tutankhamen (Tutenkhamon) was an Egyptian Pharaoh around 1400BC. He reigned for around 6 years and died at the age of 18. His tomb was excavated in 1922 by Howard Carter and found to be intact and containing a large store of domestic furniture and objets d'art. Research Tutankhamen
The Tutsi (Batusi, Tussi, Watusi or Watutsi) are a tribe of Rwanda and Burundi. They are traditionally farmers, but also skilled warriors, invading the lands belonging to the Hutu during the 14th and 15th centuries and subduing the resident Hutus. Revenge occurred in 1994 when the Hutus massacred most of the Tutus in Rwanda. Research Tutsi
The Twa are an ethnic group comprising 1% of the populations of Burundi and Rwanda. The
Twa are the aboriginal inhabitants of the region. They are a pygmoid people, and live as nomadic hunter- gatherers in the forests. Research Twa
Tycho Brahe was a Danishastronomer. He was born in 1546 and died in 1601. He studied law at Copenhagen and Leipzig, but from 1565 gave himself up to astronomy, and in 1580 built an observatory on the island of Hveen in the Sound, providing it with the best instruments then procurable. Here he excogitated the planetary system associated with his name, the earth, by his theory, being regarded as the centre of the heavenly bodies. After the death of his patron, Frederick II of Denmark, he left his native country in 1597 and went to Germany. Here he was patronized by the Emperor Rudolph, who gave him a yearly allowance and a residence at Prague, where he died. His astronomical works were all written in Latin. He is chiefly remarkable for his services to practical astronomy, his observations being superior in accuracy to those of his predecessors. He designed and constructed instruments that he used to accurately plot the positions of the planets, sun, moon, and stars. Research Tycho Brahe
Originally, in ancient Greece, a tyrant was one who had usurped the ruling power without the consent of the people or at the expense of the existing government. Such a ruler, although he obtained his power illegally, did not always use it oppressively and violently; on the contrary, it was frequently used humanely and beneficently, and some tyrants were patrons of literature and art. Research Tyrant
Tze-His was Dowager empress of China. She was born in 1835 at Beijing and died in 1908. She entered the seraglio of the emperor Hien-fung at the age of fifteen, and by her beauty and wit soon rose to be second to the empress Tze-an. On the death of Hien-fung in 1861, her son, Tung-Chih came to the throne, but during his reign and that of his successor, Kwang-su, Tze-His wielded the imperial power. Assisted by Li Hung-chang she ruled wisely and successfully until the war with Japan in 1894-1895, after which she sought to introduce western reforms and succeeded in suppressing the opiumtrade. Research Tze-His
The Probert Encyclopaedia was designed, edited and programed by
Matt and Leela Probert
Abbreviations
People
Research Thomas a Kempis
