Assizes is a term chiefly used in England to signify the sessions of the courts held at Westminster prior to Magna Carta, but thereafter appointed by successive enactments to be held annually in every county. Twelve judges, who are members of the highest courts in England, twice in every year perform a circuit into all the counties into which the kingdom is divided (the counties being grouped into seven circuits), to hold these assizes, at which both civil and criminal cases are decided. Occasionally this circuit is performed a third time for the purpose of jail-delivery. In London and Middlesex, instead of circuits, courts of nisi prius are held. At the assizes all the justices of the peace of the county are bound to attend. Special commissions of assize are granted for inquest into certain causes.
Among the more important historic uses of the term assize are its application to any sitting or deliberative council, and its transference thence to their ordinances, decrees, or assessments. In the latter sense we have the Assizes of Jerusalem, a code of feudal laws formulated in 1099 under Godfrey of Bouillon; the Assizes of Clarendon (1166), of Northampton (1176), and of Woodstock (1184) ; also the assisoe venalium (1203), for regulating the prices of articles of common consumption; the Assize of Arms (1181), an ordinance for organizing the national militia, etc. Research Assizes
A die-hard is someone who refuses to surrender or give-up. The term was given as a nickname to the old 57th Regiment of Foot (later known as the West Middlesex Regiment) following their involvement at the Battle of Albuera in 1811 when their colonel, Inglis, told his men to 'die hard'. At the battle the regimental banner was pierced with thirty bullet holes, twenty-three of the twenty-four officers were killed and 416 of the 584 men killed. Research Die-Hard
Albert Edward Trott was an Australian cricket player. He was born in 1873 at Melbourne and died in 1914. Moving to England he played for Middlesex, and represented Australia against England in the 1894 1895 season. During his career he twice scored over 1000 runs and took upwards of 200 wickets in one season. Research Albert Trott
Andrew Stoddart was an English cricketer and rugby union player. He was born in 1864 at South Shields and died in 1915. In 1885 he joined Hampstead CC and made his first appearance for Middlesex. Andrew Stoddart was renowned as a batsman, scoring 485 of the 814 total runs Hampstead scored against the Stoics on August the 4th 1886, as well as a batsman he was also a change bowler, though not of any merit. As a rugby union player, he was one of the finest of his time and played in ten international matches. Research Andrew Stoddart
Sir Charles Bell was a Scottish surgeon. He was born in 1774 at Edinburgh and died in 1842. In 1799 he became a fellow of the Edinburgh College of Surgeons before removing to London in 1804, and becoming surgeon at the MiddlesexHospital in 1812, and professor of anatomy and surgery at the Royal College of Surgeons in 1824. In 1836 he returned to Edinburgh as professor of surgery at Edinburgh University. He discovered the distinct function of the nerves and in 1804 contributed his account of the nervous system to his brother John Bell's 'Anatomy of the Human Body'. He was knighted in 1831. Research Charles Bell
Denis Chales Scott Compton CBE was an English cricketer and footballer. He was born in 1918 at Hendon and died in 1997. He played cricket for Middlesex from 1936 and for England from 1937 to 1957, playing in 78 test matches and is regarded as the best all-round cricketer of all time. In 1947 he scored a record 18 centuries. In addition, when younger he played Association Football for Arsenal and England, being Englandcaptain in 1943 and playing with Arsenal when they won the cup in 1950. In 1957 following a knee injury he retired from cricket and football to work as a journalist and broadcaster. Research Denis Compton
Francis Bacon was an English philosopher and statesman, Baron of Verulam, ViscountSt Albans, and Lord High Chancellor of England. He was born in 1561 at London and died in 1626. His father, Nicholas Bacon, was keeper of the great seal under Queen Elizabeth. He was educated at Cambridge and in 1575 was admitted to Gray's Inn. In 1576-79 he was at Paris with Sir Amyas Paulet, the English ambassador. The death of his father called him back to England, and being left in straitened circumstances he zealously pursued the study of law, and was admitted
a barrister in 1582. In 1584 he became member of parliament for Melcombe Regis, and soon after drew up a Letter of Advice to Queen Elizabeth, an able political memoir.
In 1586 he was member of parliament for Taunton, in 1589 for Liverpool. A year or two after he gained the Earl of Essex as a friend and patron. Bacon's talents and his connection with the lord-treasurer Burleigh, who had married his mother's sister, and his son Sir Robert Cecil, first secretary of state, seemed to promise him the highest promotion; but he had displeased the queen, and when he applied for the attorney-generalship, and next for the solicitor-generalship (1595), he was unsuccessful. Essex endeavoured to indemnify him by the donation of an estate in land. Bacon, however, forgot his obligations to his benefactor, and not only abandoned him as soon as he had fallen into disgrace, but without being obliged took part against him on his trial, in 1601, and was active in obtaining his conviction. He had been chosen member for the county of Middlesex in 1593, and for Southampton in 1597, and had long been a queen's counsel.
The reign of James I was more favourable to his interest. He was assiduous in courting the king's favour, and James, who was ambitious of being considered a patron of letters, conferred upon him in 1603 the order of knighthood. In 1604 he was appointed king's counsel, with a pension of 60 pounds; in 1606 he married; in 1607 he became solicitor-general, and six years after attorney-general. Between James and his parliament he was anxious to produce harmony, but his efforts were without avail, and his obsequiousness and servility gained him enmity and discredit. In 1617 he was made lord-keeper of the seals; in 1618 Lord High Chancellor of England and BaronVerulam. In this year he lent his influence to bring a verdict of guilty against Walter Raleigh. In 1621 he was made ViscountSt Albans. Soon after this his reputation received a fatal blow. A new parliament was formed in 1621, and the lord-chancellor was accused before the house of bribery, corruption, and other malpractices. It is difficult to ascertain the full extent of his guilt; but he seems to have been unable to justify himself, and handed in a 'confession and humble submission,' throwing himself on the mercy of the Peers. He was condemned to pay a fine of 40,000 pounds, to be committed to the Tower during the pleasure of the king, declared incompetent to hold any office of state, and banished from court for ever. The sentence, however, was never carried out. The fine was remitted almost as soon as imposed, and he was imprisoned for only a few days. He survived his fall a few years, during this time occupying himself with his literary and scientific works, and vainly hoping for political employment. In 1597 he published his celebrated Essays, which immediately became very popular, were successively enlarged and extended, and translated into Latin, French, and Italian. The treatise on the Advancement of Learning appeared in 1605; The Wisdom of the Ancients in 1609 (in Latin); his great philosophical work,
e Novum Organum (in Latin), in 1620 ; and the De Augmentis Scientiarum, a much enlarged edition (in Latin) of the Advancement, in 1623. His New Atlantis was written about 1614-17; Life of Henry VII. about 1621. Various minor productions also proceeded from his pen. Numerous editions of his works have been published, by far the best being that of Messrs. Spedding, Ellis, & Heath (1858-74).
Francis Bacon was great as a moralist, a historian, a writer on politics, and a rhetorician; but it is as the father of the inductive method in science, as the powerful exponent of the principle that facts must be observed and collected before theorizing, that he occupies the grand position he holds among the world's great ones. His moral character, however, was not on a level with his intellectual, self-aggrandizement being the main aim of his life. Research Francis Bacon
Sir Francis Burdett was an English politician. He was born in 1770 and died in 1844. In 1796 he entered parliament as member for Boroughbridge, and advocated parliamentary reform and various liberal measures. He afterwards sat for Middlesex and in 1807 to 1837 for Westminster. In 1810 he was convicted of breach of privilege, and after a struggle between the police and the populace, in which some lives were lost, he was imprisoned in the Tower. In 1819 he was again imprisoned, and fined 2000 pounds for a libel. In his later years he became a Tory, and represented North Wiltshire. In 1793 he married the youngest daughter of Thomas Coutts the banker. Research Francis Burdett
Henry Fielding was an English writer. He was born in 1707 at Sharpham Park near Glastonbury and died in 1754. He was educated at Eton, whence he moved to Leyden; but the straitened circumstances of his father shortened his academical studies, and the same cause, added to a dissipated disposition, turned his attention to the stage. His first dramatic piece was entitled Love in Several Masks, was produced at Drury Lane in 1728, and met with a favourable reception. The Temple Beau, The Author's Farce, The Modern Husband, Don Quixote in England, and many others quickly followed, a number of them being little more than free translations from the French. He himself became a stage-manager, and for some time conducted the Haymarket Theatre.
About 1736 or 1737 he married a Miss Craddock, a lady of some fortune, and at the same time, by the death of his mother, became possessed of a small estate in Dorsets. He immediately commenced on the life of country gentleman on a scale which, in three years, reduced him to greater poverty than ever, with a young family to support. He then, for the first time, dedicated himself to the bar as a profession, and for immediate revenue wrote on various miscellaneous subjects. The Champion, a periodical paper on the model of the Spectator, but written in a freer style, and An Essay on the Knowledge and Characters of Men, were among his writings.
In 1740 he was called to the bar, and went on circuit, but with so little success that he was compelled to return to literature. In 1712 the first of his great novels, Joseph Andrews, appeared, which he had at first conceived as a burlesque of Richardson's Pamela. It was a great sucess, and was followed by A Journey from this World to the Next, and the History of Jonathan Wild.
In 1749 he was appointed a Middlesex justice, a not very reputable office, but which Fielding's honesty and earnest discharge of his duties did something to render more respectable. In the same year his masterpiece, the satirical comedy, The History of Tom Jones, appeared, and was followed two years afterwards by Amelia. At length, however, his constitution, exhausted both by hard work and good living, gave way, and in the June of 1754 he had to seek the milder climate of Lisbon, where he died on the 8th of October of the same year. The chief merits of Henry Fielding as a novelist are wit, humour, correct delineation of character, and knowledge of the humanheart. He drew from a very varied experience of life, which he reproduced with an artistic realism entitling him to be considered, far more than Richardson, as the creator of the English novel. Research Henry Fielding
Isaac Disraeli was an English writer. He was born in 1766 at Enfield, Middlesex and died in 1848. He was the father of the well-known statesman, Benjamin Disraeli. His father, Benjamin Disraeli, a descendant of a family of Spanish Jews which had settled at Venice in the fifteenth century to escape the Inquisition, came over to England in 1748 and made a large fortune. Isaac Disraeli, however, showed a strong repugnance to conmicrce, and was finally permitted to follow his literary bent. An anonymous reply to Peter Pindar, entitled On the Abuse of Satire, was followed in 1791-1793 by the appearance of his Curiosities of Literature, the success of which determined much of his afterwork. His Essay on the Literary Character was published in 1795, and some time afterwards a volume of romantic tales, The Loves of Mejnoun and Leila. Between 1812 and 1822 appeared his Calamities of Authors, Quarrels of Authors, and Inquiry into the Literary and Political Character of James I; the three being afterwards published collectively under the title of Miscellanies of Literature. In 1828 appeared the commencement of his Life and Eeign of Charles I, a work completed in 1831. An affection of the eyes put an end to a projected life of Pope and a history of English Freethinkers, but in 1841 he published a selection from his manuscripts under the title of Amenities of Literature. Research Isaac Disraeli
The Probert Encyclopaedia was designed, edited and programed by
Matt and Leela Probert
Abbreviations
Research Assizes
