Charlotte Bronte was an English writer. She was born in 1816 at Thornton and died in 1855. She was the third daughter of the Reverend Patrick Bronte, rector of Thornton, from which he removed in 1820, on becoming incumbent of Haworth, a moorland village in the West Riding of Yorkshire, about four miles from Keighley. Her mother died soon after this removal, and her father, an able though eccentric man, brought up Charlotte and her sisters in quite a Spartan fashion, inuring them to every kind of industry and fatigue.
After an education received partly at home and partly at neighbouring schools, Charlotte Bronte became a teacher, and then a governess in a family. In 1842 she went with her sister Emily Bronte to Brussels, with the view of acquiring a knowledge of the French and German languages, and she subsequently taught for a year in the school she had attended here.
In 1844 arrangements were entered into by her and her sisters Emily Bronte and Anne Bronte to open a school at Haworth, but from the want of success in obtaining pupils no progress was ever made with their scheme. They resolved now to turn their attention to literary composition; and in 1846 a volume of poems by the three sisters was published, under the names of Currer, Ellis, and Acton Bell. It was issued at their own risk, and attracted little attention, so they quit poetry for prose fiction, and produced each a novel. Charlotte Bronte (writing as Currer Bell) entitled her production The Professor, but it was everywhere refused by the publishing trade, and was not given to the world until after her death. Emily Bronte (writing as Ellis Bell) with her tale of Wuthering Heights, and Anne Bronte (writing as Acton Bell) with Agnes Grey, were more successful.
Charlotte Bronte's failure, however, did not discourage her, and she composed the novel of Jane Eyre, which was published in October, 1847. Its success was immediate and decided. Her second novel of Shirley appeared in 1849. Previous to this she had lost her two sisters, Emily dying on the 19th of December 1848, and Anne on the 28th of May, 1849 (after publishing a second novel, The Tenant of Wild Fell Hall). In the autumn of 1852 appeared Charlotte's third novel, Villette. Shortly after, she married her father's curate, the Reverend Arthur Bell Nicholls, but in nine months died of consumption. Her originally rejected tale of The Professor was published after her death, in 1857, and the same year a biography of her appeared written by Elizabeth Gaskell. Research Charlotte Bronte
George Jeffreys (Baron Jeffreys, also known as Judge Jeffreys) was an English lawyer. He was born in 1648 at Acton, Denbighshire and died in 1689. Educated at St Paul's and Westminster schools and at Trinity College, Cambridge he was called to the bar in 1668 and in 1678 became recorder of the city of London, whence he was the leading figure in the persecution of the figures involved in the 'Popish Plot', the trials of the 'Rye House' plotters and of Titus Oates. In 1683 he became chief justice of the king's bench and in 1685 was made a baron. Following the revolution of 1688 he was captured while trying to flee the country and imprisoned in the Tower of London. Research George Jeffreys
John Emerich Edward Dalberg Acton (first Baron Acton) was a British historian. He was born in 1834 at Naples and died in 1902. He was the son of Richard Acton (seventhbaronet) and the daughter of the Duke of Dalberg, afterwards the wife of Earl Granville, Gladstone's colleague. As a Roman Catholic he was educated at Oscott, and afterwards on the Continent, partly under Dotlinger, and acquired a special taste for and profound knowledge of history. He conducted the Home and Foreign Review in 1862-64, and, in doing so, showed himself a strong opponent of ultramontane pretensions. He next edited the North British Review, which under him was rather overweighted with learning, and soon came to an end.
In 1869 he was raised to the peerage. He strongly opposed the papal-infallibility movement, and took the side of Gladstone in his attacks on Vaticanism. In 1895 he accepted the professorship of modern history at Cambridge, delivered lectures, and planned and undertook the editorship of the great work on modemhistory, comprising a series of volumes by various scholars, and issued from the university press. Except essays, letters, or articles for periodicals, he himself wrote little. His library of 60,000 volumes he left to Morley, who handed it over to the University of Cambridge. Research John Acton
Adam Faith (real name Terence Nelhams) was an English actor and singer. He was born in 1940 at Acton, London and died in 2003. First famous as a pop star during the 1960s Adam Faith moved into acting during the 1970s, appearing in the television series 'Budgie'. Later he was a record producer, starting Leo Sayer on his career and then a financial journalist working for the BBC among other media companies. Research Adam Faith
An acton was a quilted or padded tunic worn under a coat of mail as a defence against bruising in combat. They were popular in the 15th century. Research Acton
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