The Pennsylvania Packet or the General Advertiser was an American newspaper founded in November, 1771, by John Dunlap at Philadelphia. During the British occupation of Philadelphia it was removed to Lancaster. After the evacuation it was brought back and published tri-weekly. It was afterward changed to a daily, and appeared under the title of Pennsylvania Packet and Daily Advertiser in 1784. Research Pennsylvania Packet
When the Romans conquered Britain in 43 AD, they set about imposing their civilisation in the way they knew best - by providing it with towns and joining them up by roads. Every town laid out by the Romans was arranged on a chess board or grid iron plan of intersecting streets, and was usually protected by a massive square stone wall with a gate in the middle of each side. Most of these towns came into existence as fortified places; the Roman word 'castrum' or 'chester' means 'a military encampment'. Almost all the towns whose names end in this way, such as Winchester, Chichester, Dorchester and Manchester, as well as those whose name endings have been modified, such as Lancaster, Worcester and Gloucester, began their existence as Roman fortified places. The core of the city was the Forum, a group of buildings which comprised the town hall, the court of justice, a shopping centre and spacious meeting place for the people of the town and its surrounding countryside. Roman ideas in town planning were fundamental to the later development of the English town. Research Roman Towns
Andrew Bell was a Scottish clergyman. He was born in 1753 at St Andrews and died in 1832. He was the author of the mutual instruction or 'Madras' system of education. He took orders in the Church of England, and in 1789 went to India, where he became chaplain at FortSt George, Madras, and manager of the institution for the education of the orphan children of European soldiers. Failing to retain the services of properly qualified ushers, he resorted to the expedient of employing the scholars in mutual instruction; and after his return to Britain published a treatise on the monitorial or Madras system of education. Joseph Lancaster, a dissenter, began to work on the system, and a considerable amount of friction and rivalry ensued between the dissenters and the church party. Dr. Andrew Bell lived long enough to witness the introduction of his system into 12,973 national schools, educating 900,000 English children, and to know that it was employed extensively in almost every other civilized country. He latterly became a prebendary of Westminster, and was master of Sherborn Hospital, Durham. At his death he left 120,000 pounds for the erection and maintenance of schools on his favourite system, 60,000 pounds of which was set apart for his native town. Research Andrew Bell
In England, a Count Palatine was formerly the superior of a county, who exercised regal prerogatives within his county, in virtue of which he had his own courts of law, appointed judges and law officers, and could pardon murders, treasons, and felonies. All writs and judicial processes proceeded in his name, while the king's writs were of no avail within the palatinate. The Earl of Chester, the Bishop of Durham, and the Duke of Lancaster were the Counts Palatine of England, the corresponding counties being called counties palatine. Research Count Palatine
The Duke of Bedford (John of Lancaster) was an English prince and soldier. He was born in 1389 and died in 1435. He was the third son of Henry IV by his first wife, Mary of Bohun. He was created Duke of Bedford in 1414 by his brother, Henry V. After Henry's death in 1422 he became regent of England; and in the struggle for the French crown which followed the death of Charles VI he commanded the English army in France, proclaiming Henry VI, a child of nine months, at Paris and defeated the French at Verneuil in 1424. His success was checked by the rise of Joan of Arc - whom he had executed - and the desertions of the dukes of Brittany and Burgundy. Research Duke of Bedford
Sir Edward Frankland was an English chemist and authority on sanitation. He was born in 1825 near Lancaster and died in 1899. At Lancaster he served an apprenticeship to a chemist, afterwards studying in London under Playfair, and at Marburg and Giessen under Bunsen and Liebig respectively. In 1851 he became professor at the newly founded Owens College in Manchester, and in 1852 suggested the conception of the valency of organic compounds. In 1853 he was elected FRS, and in 1857 received the society's gold medal. From 1863 to 1868 he was Professor of Chemistry in the Royal Institution, and held a similar post in the Royal School of Mines (afterwards merged in the Royal College of Science) from 1865 to 1885.
He was many years government water-analyst, and in 1868 was appointed a member of the second Royal Commission on river-pollution. He was a member of various foreign scientific academies, and was made KCB in 1897. He and Sir Norman Lockyer were the original discoverers of helium in 1868. In 1877 he published a volume of Experimental Researches in Pure, Applied, and Physical Chemistry, a work on Inorganic Chemistry (with FR Japp in 1884), and many other works and papers. Research Edward Frankland
Frederick Temple Hamilton Blackwood, Marquis of Dufferin, was a British statesman and author. He was born in 1826 at Florence and died in 1902. The son of the fourth Baron Dufferin and a granddaughter of R B Sheridan he began his public services in 1855, when he was attached to Earl Russell's mission to Vienna. Subsequently he was sent as commissioner to Syria in connection with the massacre of the Christians in 1860; was under Indian secretary from 1864 to 66; under secretary for war in 1866; chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster from 1868 to 1872; Governor-general of Canada from 1872 to 1878; ambassador at St. Petersburg from 1879 to 1881; at Constantinople in 1882; sent to Cairo to settle the affairs of the country after Arabi Pasha's rebellion from 1882 to 1883; Viceroy of India from 1884 to 1888; ambassador to Italy from 1889 to 1891; to France from 1891 to 1896. Besides being a noted diplomatist he was also a popular author. In 1847 he published Narrative of a Journey from Oxford to Skibbereen during the year of the Irish Famine; in 1860, Letters from High Latitudes; also various pamphlets on Irish questions. In 1888 he was made Marquis of Dufferin and Ava. Research Frederick Blackwood
George Leveson-Gowes Granville, 2nd Earl of Granville, was an English statesman. He was was born in 1815 at London and died in 1891. Educated at Eton and at Christ Church, Oxford he entered parliament in 1836 as a Liberal member for Morpeth, afterwards for Lichfield. In 1840 he became under-secretary for foreign affairs, in 1846 succeeded to the peerage, in 1848 was appointed vice-president of the Board of Trade, and in 1851 succeeded Palmerston as foreign secretary. In 1855 he became chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster, president of the council, and ministerial leader of the House of Lords (a position he held from 1855 until 1858), and in 1856 represented the British crown at the coronation of the Czar Alexander. From 1859 to 1866 he was again president of the council. In 1868 he was colonial secretary under William Gladstone, and on the death of Clarendon in 1870 succeeded to the secretaryship for foreign affairs, which he held until 1874. During this period he negotiated the Treaty of 1870, guaranteeing the independence of Belgium, and 'protested' against the Russian repudiation of the Black Seaclause of the Treaty of Paris. On the return of William Gladstone to office in 1880 LordGranville again became foreign secretary, until LordSalisbury came into power in 1885. The close of the struggle with the Boers, the protest against the French occupation of Tunis, the revolt of Arabi Pasha in Egypt, the appearance of the Mahdi, the occupation of Egypt, the Gordon mission, and Wolseley expedition belong to this period. In the short William Gladstone ministry of 1886 he was colonial secretary. Research George Granville
George Villiers, Duke of Buckingham, was an English courtier. He was born in 1592 and died in 1628 being stabbed to death by John Felton. He was the son of George Villiers, a knight. At eighteen he was sent to France, where he resided three years, and on his return made so great an impression on James I that in two years he was made a knight, a gentleman of the bed-chamber, baron, viscount. Marquis of Buckingham, lord high-admiral, etc, and at last dispenser of all the honours and offices of the three kingdoms.
In 1623, when the Earl of Bristol was negotiating a marriage for Prince Charles with the Infanta of Spain, the Marquis of Buckingham went with the prince incognito to Madrid to carry on the suit in person in the hope of securing the Palatinate as dowry. The result, however, was the breaking off of the marriage, and the declaration of war with Spain. During his absence the Marquis of Buckingham was created duke.
After the death of James I in 1625 he was sent to France as proxy for Charles I to marry the PrincessHenrietta Maria. In 1626, after the failure of the Cadiz expedition, he was impeached, but saved by the favour of the king. Despite the difficulty in obtaining supplies the Duke of Buckingham took upon himself the conduct of a war with France, but his expedition in aid of the Rochellese proved an entire failure. In the meantime the spirit of revolt was becoming more formidable; the Petition of Right was carried despite the duke's exertions; and he was again protected from impeachment only by the king's prorogation of parliament. He then went to Portsmouth to lead another expedition to Rochelle, but was stabbed on August the 24th, 1628, by John Felton, an ex-lieutenant who had been disappointed of promotion.
George Villiers, Duke of Buckingham was an English soldier. He was born in 1627 at Westminster, London and died in 1688. The son of George Villiers he studied at Trinity College, Cambridge and served in the royal army under Rupert and then went abroad. In 1648 he returned to England, was with Charles II in Scotland and at the battle of Worcester, and afterwards served as a volunteer in the French army in Flanders.
He then returned to England, and in 1657 married the daughter of LordFairfax. At the Restoration he became master of the horse and one of the king's confidential cabal from 1667 until 1673. In 1666 he engaged in a conspiracy, and in 1676 was committed to the Tower for a contempt by order of the House of Lords; but on each occasion he recovered the king's favour. On the death of Charles II he retired to his seat in Yorkshire. Among his literary compositions the comedy of the Rehearsal (1671) takes the first place.
George William Frederick Villiers, Earl of Clarendon was an English diplomat. He was the eldest son of the Honourable George Villiers and was through his mother indirectly related to the Hydes, the family of the great Earl of Clarendon. He was educated at Cambridge, entered the civil service at an early age, and in 1820 was attached to the embassy at St Petersburg. In 1823 he was appointed to a commissionership of the excise in Dublin. In 1831 he was sent to France to negotiate a commercial treaty, and in 1833, as minister plenipotentiary at Madrid, was instrumental in negotiating the Quadruple Alliance, signed in 1834.
Having succeeded to his uncle's title in 1838 he returned home in the following year, and in January 1840 was appointed lord privy-seal, and in October chancellor of the duchy of Lancaster. He supported the repeal of the corn-laws and the reduction of duties, and in 1846 was appointed president of the board of trade in Lord J. Russell's ministry, and in the following year Lord-lieutenant of Ireland. He resigned with his party in 1852, when the Earl of Derby took office, but soon after the formation of the Aberdeen ministry he was appointed to the foreign secretaryship, which he held until January 1855. After a few weeks' interval he returned to the post under LordPalmerston, and retained it until 1858, being one of the signatories of the Treaty of Paris.
In 1861 he was sent as ambassador-extraordinary to the coronation of the King of Prussia, and in 1864 was appointed chancellor of the duchy of Lancaster. In the following administration, under Russell, he resumed the direction of the foreign office. He was sent in 1868 on a special mission to the pope and the King of Italy, and again occupied the post of foreign secretary in the Gladstone ministry until his death, in June, 1870. Research George Villiers
The Probert Encyclopaedia was designed, edited and programed by
Matt and Leela Probert
Abbreviations
Research Lancaster Cloth
