Research Results For 'St Albans'

CLOCK

A clock is an instrument for measuring time and indicating hours, minutes, and usually seconds, by means of hands moving on a dial-plate, and traditionally differing from a watch mainly in having the movement of its machinery regulated by a pendulum, and in not being portable. A clock also chimes, though the term clock is frequently, and incorrectly, applied to the non-chiming instruments for measuring time, which are technically known as a timepiece.

The use of a horologium, or hour-teller, was common even amongst the ancients, but their time-pieces were nothing else than sun-dials, hour-glasses, and clepsydrae. In the earlier half of our era we have accounts of several attempts at clock construction : that of Boethius in the 6th century, the clock sent by Harun al Rashid to Charlemagne in 809, that made by Pacificus, archdeacon of Verona, in the 9th century, and that of Pope Sylvester II in the 10th century. It is doubtful, however, if any of these was a wheel-and-weight clock, and it is probably to the monks that we owe the invention of clocks set in motion by wheels and weights. In the 12th century clocks were made use of in the monasteries, which announced the end of every hour by the sound of a bell put in motion by means of wheels. From this time forward the expression, 'the clock has struck,' is often met with. The hand for marking the time is also made mention of.

In the 14th century there are stronger traces of the later system of clock-work. Dante particularly mentions clocks. Richard, abbot of St Albans in England, made a clock in 1326, such as had never been heard of until then. It not only indicated the course of the sun and moon, but also the ebb and flood tide. Large clocks on steeples likewise were first made use of in the 14th century. Watches are a much later invention, although they have likewise been said to have been invented as early as the 14th century. A celebrated clock, the construction of which is well known, was set up in Paris for Charles V in 1379, the maker being Henry de Vick, a German. It probably formed a model on which clocks were constructed for nearly 300 years, and until Huyghens applied the pendulum to clock-work as the regulating power, about 1657. The great advantage of the pendulum prior to the invention of electronic oscillators is that the beats or oscillations of a pendulum all occupy substantially the same time (the time depending on its length), hence its utility in imparting regularity to a time-measurer. The mechanism by which comparative regularity was previously attained, though ingenious and simple, was far less perfect; and the first pendulum escapement that is, the contrivance by which the pendulum was connected with the clock-work, was also less perfect than others subsequently introduced, especially Graham's dead-heat escapement, invented in 1700.

In a watch, prior to the invention of electronics, the balance-wheel and spring served the same purpose as the pendulum, and the honour of being the inventor of the balance-spring was contested between Huyghens and the English pliilosopher Dr. Hooke. Various improvements followed, such as the chronometer escapement, and the addition of a compensation adjustment, by which two metals having unequal rates of expansion and contraction under variations of temperature are combined in the pendulum or the balance-wheel, so that, each metal counteracting the other, the vibrations are isochronous under any change of temperature. This arrangement was perfected by Harrison in 1726, and was especially useful in navigation.
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WATLING STREET

Watling Street is the old name for the Roman road from Dover to London, and from London through St Albans to Shrewsbury and Chester.
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EDMUND BEAUFORT

Edmund Beaufort (2nd duke of Somerset) was an English statesman and soldier. A son of John Beaufort, earl of Somerset, and the younger brother of the duke of Somerset, Edmund Beaufort won military successes in France and succeeded his brother as earl of Somerset in 1444, and as a Beaufort and a favourite of the king was made lieutenant of France in 1447, with the disastrous result that Henry VI lost the whole of Normandy in 1450. Edmund Beaufort returned to England and was appointed high constable in 1452. Popular discontent spread against the king and his supporters and when the Duke of York became protector during the king's temporary incapacity, Edmund Beaufort was sent to the Tower of London. After his release in 1455 the duke of York raised an army against Edmund Beaufort and fought the first battle of the Wars of the Roses at St Albans on May the 23rd 1455, at which Edmund Beaufort was killed.
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FRANCIS BACON

Francis Bacon was an English philosopher and statesman, Baron of Verulam, Viscount St 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 Baron Verulam. In this year he lent his influence to bring a verdict of guilty against Walter Raleigh. In 1621 he was made Viscount St 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.
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J GREGORY SMITH

J (John) Gregory Smith was an American politician and railroad magnet. He was born in 1818 at St Albans, Vermont and died in 1891. He attended the University of Vermont and Yale Law School, and was admitted to the Vermont bar in 1842. His father was a lawyer who was actively involved in the expansion of the railroads in Vermont and J Gregory joined him both in the practice of law and railroad management. John Smith was on the board of the Vermont Central Railroad, a railroad chartered in 1843 and headquartered in Northfield, and was president of the Vermont and Canada Railroad, which he had started in 1845 to eventually connect the Vermont Central Railroad with Montreal. Upon his father's death in 1858, J Gregory Smith became president of the Vermont Central Railroad and his brother, Worthington C. Smith, was named president of the Vermont and Canada. The Central Vermont Railroad was organized in 1873 and assumed management of both the Vermont Central and Vermont and Canada Railroads. In 1883 the Consolidated Railroad of Vermont
was formed to purchase the Vermont Central and Vermont and Canada property, and immediately leased it to the Central Vermont Railroad thereby consolidating the Smith family's railroad holdings. The family expanded their holdings to include related industries such as the St. Albans Foundry, the National Car Company, and its subsidiary the Vermont Iron and Car Company. While expanding his holdings in Vermont and the northeast,
J Gregory Smith became interested in the idea of a railroad to the west and became president of the Northern Pacific Railroad Company in 1866, a position he held until 1872. Smith was also active in politics and was elected to the state senate in 1858 and 1859. In 1860, 1861, and 1862 he was elected to the house as a representative of St. Albans, and served as speaker of the house. In 1863 Smith was elected governor and served two terms before retiring to devote time to his duties as the president of Central Vermont and the Northern Pacific Railroad.
J Gregory Smith married Ann Eliza Brainerd of St Albans in 1843 and together they had six children: George Gregory (who married Frances Lewis), Edward Curtis (who married Anna B. James), Lawrence (who died in infancy), Annie B., Julia B. (who married Oliver Stevens), Helen L. (who married D. Sage Mackay).
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RICHARD NEVILLE

Richard Neville (Earl of Warwick) was an English Baron. He was born in 1428 and died in 1471. He was nicknamed the king-maker and distinguished himself at St Albans under the Duke of York in 1455. He continued as a Royalist commander until he was defeated and slain by Edward at Barnet in 1471.
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WILLIAM COWPER

William Cowper was an English surgeon. He was born in 1666 at Petersfield, Sussex and died in 1709. He published Myotomia Reformata in 1694, a treatise on the muscles, and The Anatomy of the Human Body in 1698.

William Cowper was an English poet. He was born in 1731 and died in 1800. He was the son of a clergyman; lost his mother at the age of six, and was, when ten years old when he moved from a country school to that of Westminster, which he left at eighteen with a fair reputation for classical learning, and a horror of the school discipline, which he afterwards expressed in his Tirocinium. He was then articled for three years to a solicitor, where he had for a fellow-clerk Mr, afterwards Lord Thurlow. At the expiration of his apprenticeship he took chambers in the Middle Temple, and in 1754 was called to the bar.

The interest of his family procured for him the post of clerk to the House of Lords; but having to appear for examination at the bar of the house, his nervousness was such that on the very day appointed for the examination he resigned the office, and soon after became insane. From December 1763 to June 1765 he remained under the care of Dr. Cotton at St Albans. The skill and humanity of that doctor restored him to health, and he retired to Huntingdon. Here he made the acquaintance of the Reverend Mr and Mrs Unwin, whose kindness, particularly that of the latter, seemed to have the most soothing and beneficial influence on him.

On the death of Mr. Unwin, in 1767, he removed with Mrs Unwin to Olney, the residence of the Reverand John Newton, who also became an intimate friend and exercised a powerful influence over his mind and conduct. John Newton had resolved on publishing a volume of hymns, and secured the co-operation of William Cowper in composing them, but before their publication in 1776 he had been again attacked by his constitutional malady, by which, for ten years from 1773, his mind, with occasional intervals of recovery, was continually clouded.

In 1776, by Mrs. Unwin's advice, he commenced a poem on the Progress of Error, which he followed by three other poems, Truth, Table-talk, and Expostulation; these with some others were published in a volume in 1782. Another female friend, Lady Austen, suggested the Task, which, together with Tirocinium, formed a second volume in 1785. The History of John Gilpin is also due to the suggestion of Lady Austen. The translation of Homer, begun in 1784, occupied him for the next six years, and was published in 1791. He removed during its progress, in 1786, from Olney to Weston. In the beginning of 1794 he was again attacked with madness, which was aggravated by the death of Mrs. Unwin in 1796. The revisal of his Homer, and the composition of some short pieces, occupied the latter years of his life. He is considered among the best of our descriptive poets, and is one of the most easy and elegant of letter-writers.
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JOAN VOHS

Joan Vohs (real name Elinor Joan Vohs) was an American model and actress. She was born in 1927 at St Albans, New York and died in 2001 of heart failure.
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BATTLE OF ST ALBANS

The first Battle of St Albans occurred on the 22nd of May 1455, during the Wars of the Roses between the Duke of York and King Henry VI, at St Albans where the king's forces awaited the Duke of York and his forces who were marching against them. The King had with him the Dukes of Somerset and Buckingham, Lord Pembroke, Lord Northumberland and Lord Devon and about 2000 men. The Lancastrians attempted to hold the town behind two barriers in Hollywell and St Peter's Streets against Yorkist attacks from the east. Two frontal attacks made no headway, but Warwick infiltrated his troops through an unguarded part of the town's defence spreading out took both barricades in the flank. The whole action lasted only half an hour and no more than 150 Lancastrians were killed; but the battle cost the lives of a number of senior officers including Somerset, Northumberland and Clifford killed; Buckingham's son died of wounds and Buckingham himself was wounded.
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BATTLE OF TOWTON

The Battle of Towton occurred on the 29th of March 1461, during the Wars of the Roses between a Lancastrian force under King Henry and Queen Margaret.

After the Second Battle of St Albans King Henry had met up with his Queen, and took command of the Yorkist force, refusing to march on London he took the army northwards. Meanwhile the Lancastrians had crowned Edward King in London, and marched north in pursuit of Henry and the Yorkists, and set up a position on the high ground between the villages of Towton and Saxton. The Yorkists advanced on the Lancastrian positions, meeting them in the large windswept plateau that on the day of the battle was subject to a snowstorm.

The battle involved more than 80,000 troops and lasted most of the day, around midday the Lancastrian Duke of Norfolk arrived with his troops and took position against the Yorkist right flank. This reinforcement gave the Lancastrians under Edward the strength to force the Yorkists back slowly, until eventually they routed and in the stampede to cross the Cock Beck marshes and reach the London road thousands of Lancastrian soldiers were killed.

The Battle of Towton is infamous as having the highest number of casualties of any battle fought on British soil.
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