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Agnes Forster
Lady Agnes Fo(r)ster (died 1484) was a wealthy English woman. She rebuilt Ludgate Prison for debtors. Her accounts are extant. Life Agnes was from Kent and she was married to Stephen Foster for twenty years. He had been Lord Mayor of London and he died a rich man and Agnes and his son William were his executors.Caroline M. Barron, ‘Forster , Agnes (d. 1484)’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004; online edn, Jan 200accessed 22 May 2017/ref> It has been said that Stephen at some time in his life spent time in Ludgate Prison. His widow, Agnes, renovated and extended Ludgate and the Debtor's Prison and the practice of making the debtors pay for their own food and lodging was abolished. Her gift was commemorated by a brass wall plaque, which read: Devout souls that pass this way, For Stephen Foster, late mayor, heartily pray; And Agnes, his spouse, to God consecrate, That of pity this house made, for Londoners in Ludgate; So that for lodging and ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ludgate
Ludgate was the westernmost gate in London Wall. Of Roman origin, it was rebuilt several times and finally demolished in 1760. The name survives in Ludgate Hill, an eastward continuation of Fleet Street, Ludgate Circus and Ludgate Square. Etymology According to legend Ludgate is named after King Lud. The claim by the Norman-Welsh Geoffrey of Monmouth in his ''Historia Regum Britanniae'' that the gate was named after the ancient British Lud. Lud was said to be the brother of King Cassivelaunus but some folklorists think he is a manifestation of the god Nodens. There are other suggestions for the origins of the name, although none has been universally accepted. Later writers said it was derived from "flood gate" or "Fleet gate", from "ludgeat", meaning "back gate" or "postern", or from the Old English term ''"hlid-geat"''''Charters of Abingdon Abbey, Volume 2'',Susan E. Kelly, Published for the British Academy by Oxford University Press, 2001, , pp.623-266''Geographical Etymo ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Stephen Foster (Lord Mayor Of London)
Sir Stephen Forster ( fl. 1454) was a fishmonger and later Lord Mayor of London. Life He was the son of Robert Forster of London, a stockfish merchant. Elected Sheriff of London in 1444, he became Lord Mayor of London in 1454, and served as the city's Member of Parliament in King Henry VI's 13th parliament. According to historian John Strype, Foster married a widow named Agnes, who enlarged Ludgate prison (where Forster had at one time been imprisoned for debt) and improved conditions for those incarcerated therein. In literature Agnes and Stephen Forster appear as characters in William Rowley's (15861626) play ''A New Wonder, a Woman Never Vexed ''A New Wonder, a Woman Never Vexed'' is a Jacobean era stage play, often classified as a city comedy. Its authorship was traditionally attributed to William Rowley, though modern scholarship has questioned Rowley's sole authorship; Thomas Heyw ...'', based on their lives. References Sheriffs of the City of London English MP ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Kingdom Of England
The Kingdom of England (, ) was a sovereign state on the island of Great Britain from 12 July 927, when it emerged from various Anglo-Saxon kingdoms, until 1 May 1707, when it united with Scotland to form the Kingdom of Great Britain. On 12 July 927, the various Anglo-Saxon kings swore their allegiance to Æthelstan of Wessex (), unifying most of modern England under a single king. In 1016, the kingdom became part of the North Sea Empire of Cnut the Great, a personal union between England, Denmark and Norway. The Norman conquest of England in 1066 led to the transfer of the English capital city and chief royal residence from the Anglo-Saxon one at Winchester to Westminster, and the City of London quickly established itself as England's largest and principal commercial centre. Histories of the kingdom of England from the Norman conquest of 1066 conventionally distinguish periods named after successive ruling dynasties: Norman (1066–1154), Plantagenet (1154–1485), Tudor ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
English People
The English people are an ethnic group and nation native to England, who speak the English language in England, English language, a West Germanic languages, West Germanic language, and share a common history and culture. The English identity is of History of Anglo-Saxon England, Anglo-Saxon origin, when they were known in Old English as the ('race or tribe of the Angles'). Their ethnonym is derived from the Angles, one of the Germanic peoples who migrated to Great Britain around the 5th century AD. The English largely descend from two main historical population groups the West Germanic tribes (the Angles, Saxons, Jutes and Frisians) who settled in southern Britain following the withdrawal of the Ancient Rome, Romans, and the Romano-British culture, partially Romanised Celtic Britons already living there.Martiniano, R., Caffell, A., Holst, M. et al. Genomic signals of migration and continuity in Britain before the Anglo-Saxons. Nat Commun 7, 10326 (2016). https://doi.org/10 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Lord Mayor Of London
The Lord Mayor of London is the mayor of the City of London and the leader of the City of London Corporation. Within the City, the Lord Mayor is accorded precedence over all individuals except the sovereign and retains various traditional powers, rights, and privileges, including the title and style ''The Right Honourable Lord Mayor of London''. One of the world's oldest continuously elected civic offices, it is entirely separate from the directly elected mayor of London, a political office controlling a budget which covers the much larger area of Greater London. The Corporation of London changed its name to the City of London Corporation in 2006, and accordingly the title Lord Mayor of the City of London was introduced, so as to avoid confusion with the mayor of London. However, the legal and commonly used title remains ''Lord Mayor of London''. The Lord Mayor is elected at ''Common Hall'' each year on Michaelmas, and takes office on the Friday before the second Saturday i ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
William Rowley
William Rowley (c. 1585 – February 1626) was an English Jacobean dramatist, best known for works written in collaboration with more successful writers. His date of birth is estimated to have been c. 1585; he was buried on 11 February 1626 in the graveyard of St James's, Clerkenwell in north London. (An unambiguous record of Rowley's death was discovered in 1928, but some authorities persist in listing his year of death as 1642.) Life and work Rowley was an actor-playwright who specialised in playing clown characters (that is, characters whose function is to provide low comedy). He must also have been a large man, since his forte lay specifically in fat-clown roles. He played the Fat Bishop in Thomas Middleton's ''A Game at Chess'', and Plumporridge in the same author's ''Inner Temple Masque''. He also wrote fat-clown parts for himself to play: Jaques in ''All's Lost by Lust'' (a role "personated by the Poet", the 1633 quarto states), and Bustopha in ''The Maid in the Mill'', h ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
A New Wonder, A Woman Never Vexed
''A New Wonder, a Woman Never Vexed'' is a Jacobean era stage play, often classified as a city comedy. Its authorship was traditionally attributed to William Rowley, though modern scholarship has questioned Rowley's sole authorship; Thomas Heywood and George Wilkins have been proposed as possible contributors. The story is based on the life of Sir Stephen Foster, who was imprisoned in Ludgate for debt and in 1454 became Lord Mayor of London. He later married Agnes Forster in the play, who renovated and enlarged the prison. ''A New Wonder'' was entered into the Stationers' Register on 24 November 1631, and was first printed in quarto in 1632 by the bookseller Francis Constable. The 1632 quarto was the only edition in the seventeenth century. The play's date of authorship is uncertain; it is often assigned to the 1610–14 period. Rowley may have revised an earlier play by Heywood called ''The Wonder of a Woman'' (1595).Chambers, Vol. 3, p. 474. The play was adapted and reviv ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
1484 Deaths
Year 1484 ( MCDLXXXIV) was a leap year starting on Thursday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar, the 1484th year of the Common Era (CE) and Anno Domini (AD) designations, the 484th year of the 2nd millennium, the 84th year of the 15th century, and the 5th year of the 1480s decade. Events January–December * March 26 – William Caxton, the first printer of books in English, prints his translation of ''Aesop's Fables'' in London. * May 30 – Charles VIII of France (''Charles l'Affable'') is crowned. * June 22 – The first known book printed by a woman, Anna Rügerin, is an edition of Eike of Repgow's compendium of customary law, the ''Sachsenspiegel'', produced in Augsburg. * July 6 – Portuguese sea captain Diogo Cão finds the mouth of the Congo River. * July 22 – Battle of Lochmaben Fair: A 500-man raiding party led by Alexander Stewart, Duke of Albany, and James Douglas, 9th Earl of Douglas, is defeated by forces ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Year Of Birth Unknown
A year or annus is the orbital period of a planetary body, for example, the Earth, moving in its orbit around the Sun. Due to the Earth's axial tilt, the course of a year sees the passing of the seasons, marked by change in weather, the hours of daylight, and, consequently, vegetation and soil fertility. In temperate and subpolar regions around the planet, four seasons are generally recognized: spring, summer, autumn and winter. In tropical and subtropical regions, several geographical sectors do not present defined seasons; but in the seasonal tropics, the annual wet and dry seasons are recognized and tracked. A calendar year is an approximation of the number of days of the Earth's orbital period, as counted in a given calendar. The Gregorian calendar, or modern calendar, presents its calendar year to be either a common year of 365 days or a leap year of 366 days, as do the Julian calendars. For the Gregorian calendar, the average length of the calendar year ( ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Prison Reformers
A prison, also known as a jail, gaol (dated, standard English, Australian, and historically in Canada), penitentiary (American English and Canadian English), detention center (or detention centre outside the US), correction center, correctional facility, lock-up, hoosegow or remand center, is a facility in which inmates (or prisoners) are confined against their will and usually denied a variety of freedoms under the authority of the state as punishment for various crimes. Prisons are most commonly used within a criminal justice system: people charged with crimes may be imprisoned until their trial; those pleading or being found guilty of crimes at trial may be sentenced to a specified period of imprisonment. In simplest terms, a prison can also be described as a building in which people are legally held as a punishment for a crime they have committed. Prisons can also be used as a tool of political repression by authoritarian regimes. Their perceived opponents may be impris ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
