|
Bowood Circle
The Bowood circle was a loose, international group of intellectual figures and writers of the later 18th century drawn together around Lord Shelburne, Prime Minister of Great Britain in the 1780s, and named after his residence Bowood House. They had in common an interest in political reform. They met informally at Bowood House, or in London, and have been compared to a think tank. Proposals from the circle were aired in the ''Repository'', edited by Benjamin Vaughan, during 1788. Terminology Shelburne's patronage was broadly based, and not limited to this intellectual set, also called the Bowood Group. The "Shelburne circle" may have a broader reference than the inner Bowood circle. "Shelburne group" may refer to a faction of Whig Members of Parliament. Lansdowne circle, referencing Shelburne's step up in the peerage from Earl of Shelburne to Marquess of Lansdowne, may be used as a synonym of "Bowood circle". A later "Bowood circle" was that around the 3rd Marquess of Lansdowne an ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Lord Shelburne
William Petty Fitzmaurice, 1st Marquess of Lansdowne, (2 May 17377 May 1805; known as the Earl of Shelburne between 1761 and 1784, by which title he is generally known to history), was an Irish-born British Whig statesman who was the first home secretary in 1782 and then prime minister from 1782 to 1783 during the final months of the American War of Independence. He succeeded in securing peace with America and this feat remains his most notable legacy. Lord Shelburne was born in Dublin and spent his formative years in Ireland. After attending Oxford University he served in the British Army during the Seven Years' War. As a reward for his conduct at the Battle of Kloster Kampen, Shelburne was appointed an aide-de-camp to George III. He became involved in politics, becoming a member of parliament in 1760. After his father's death in 1761, he inherited his title and entered the House of Lords. In 1766, Shelburne was appointed as Southern Secretary, a position which he held fo ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
John Dunning, 1st Baron Ashburton
John Dunning, 1st Baron Ashburton (18 October 1731 – 18 August 1783), of Spitchwick the parish of Widecombe-in-the-Moor, Devon, was an English lawyer and politician, born in Ashburton in Devon, who served as Solicitor-General from 1768. He was first noticed in English politics when he wrote a notice in 1762 defending the British East India Company merchants against their Dutch rivals. He was a member of parliament from 1768 onward. His career in the House of Commons is best known for his motion in 1780 that "''the influence of the crown has increased, is increasing, and ought to be diminished''". He was created Baron Ashburton in 1782. Early life He was born at Ashburton in Devon on 18 October 1731. He was a younger son of John Dunning of Ashburton, attorney, by his wife Agnes Judsham, daughter of Henry Judsham, attorney, of Old Port in the parish of Modbury, Devon. After receiving education at Ashburton Grammar School, he was articled to his father, who had a legal p ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Lunar Society
The Lunar Society of Birmingham was a British dinner club and informal learned society of prominent figures in the Midlands Enlightenment, including industrialists, natural philosophers and intellectuals, who met regularly between 1765 and 1813 in Birmingham. At first called the Lunar Circle, "Lunar Society" became the formal name by 1775. The name arose because the society would meet during the full moon, as the extra light made the journey home easier and safer in the absence of street lighting. The members cheerfully referred to themselves as ''"lunaticks"'', a pun on lunatics. Venues included Erasmus Darwin's home in Lichfield, Matthew Boulton's home, Soho House, Bowbridge House in Derbyshire, and Great Barr Hall. Membership and status The Lunar Society evolved through various degrees of organisation over a period of up to fifty years, but was only ever an informal group. No constitution, minutes, publications or membership lists survive from any period, and evidence of its ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Charles Stanhope, Lord Mahon
Charles Stanhope, 3rd Earl Stanhope, aka Charles Mahon, 3rd Earl Stanhope, FRS (3 August 175315 December 1816), was a British statesman, inventor, and scientist. He was the father of Lady Hester Stanhope and brother-in-law of William Pitt the Younger. He is sometimes confused with an exact contemporary of his, Charles Stanhope, 3rd Earl of Harrington. Early life The son of Philip Stanhope, 2nd Earl Stanhope, he was educated at Eton and the University of Geneva. While in Geneva, he devoted himself to the study of mathematics under Georges-Louis Le Sage, and acquired from Switzerland an intense love of liberty. Politics In politics he was a democrat. As Lord Mahon he contested the Westminster without success in 1774, when only just of age; but from the general election of 1780 until his accession to the peerage on 7 March 1786 he represented through the influence of Lord Shelburne the Buckinghamshire borough of High Wycombe. During the sessions of 1783 and 1784 he supported ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Samuel Romilly
Sir Samuel Romilly (1 March 1757 – 2 November 1818), was a British lawyer, politician and legal reformer. From a background in the commercial world, he became well-connected, and rose to public office and a prominent position in Parliament. After an early interest in radical politics, he built a career in chancery cases, and then turned to amelioration of the British criminal law. Early life Romilly was born in Frith Street, Soho, London, the second son of Peter Romilly, a watchmaker and jeweller, and his wife Margaret Garnault, daughter of Aimé Garnault, another jeweller. He was largely self-educated. Romilly had Sir Samuel Fludyer, 1st Baronet as godfather and first cousin once removed, and prospects for entering his business; but Sir Samuel died in 1768, followed by his brother Sir Thomas in 1769, and the opportunity fell away . He served for a time in his father's shop. He became a good classical scholar, and was conversant with French literature. The family was Huguen ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Joseph Priestley
Joseph Priestley (; 24 March 1733 – 6 February 1804) was an English chemist, natural philosopher, separatist theologian, grammarian, multi-subject educator, and liberal political theorist. He published over 150 works, and conducted experiments in electricity and other areas of science. He was a close friend of, and worked in close association with Benjamin Franklin involving electricity experiments. Priestley is credited with his independent discovery of oxygen by the thermal decomposition of mercuric oxide, having isolated it in 1774. During his lifetime, Priestley's considerable scientific reputation rested on his invention of carbonated water, his writings on electricity, and his discovery of several "airs" (gases), the most famous being what Priestley dubbed "dephlogisticated air" (oxygen). Priestley's determination to defend phlogiston theory and to reject what would become the chemical revolution eventually left him isolated within the scientific community. Prie ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Richard Price
Richard Price (23 February 1723 – 19 April 1791) was a British moral philosopher, Nonconformist minister and mathematician. He was also a political reformer, pamphleteer, active in radical, republican, and liberal causes such as the French and American Revolutions. He was well-connected and fostered communication between many people, including Thomas Jefferson, John Adams, George Washington, Mirabeau and the Marquis de Condorcet. According to the historian John Davies, Price was "the greatest Welsh thinker of all time". Born in Llangeinor, near Bridgend, Wales, Price spent most of his adult life as minister of Newington Green Unitarian Church, on the then outskirts of London, England. He edited, published and developed the Bayes–Price theorem and the field of actuarial science. He also wrote on issues of demography and finance, and was a Fellow of the Royal Society. Early life Born on 23 February 1723, Richard Price was the son of Rhys Price, a dissenting minister. H ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Thomas Jervis (minister)
Thomas Jervis (1748–1833) was an English Unitarianism, unitarian minister. Life Jervis was born in Ipswich on 13 January 1748. He was the son of William Jervis (d. 24 March 1797, aged 72), minister of the presbyterian congregation in St. Nicholas Street, Ipswich. He was educated for the ministry in London at Wellclose Square, under David Jennings (tutor), David Jennings, and at Hoxton, under Savage, Andrew Kippis, and Abraham Rees. In 1770 he became classical and mathematical tutor at the Exeter Academy (England), Exeter Academy, having also the charge of a presbyterian congregation at Lympstone, Devonshire. In 1771–2 he shared with James Perry Bartlett the charge of the congregations at Lympstone and Topsham, Devon. William Petty, second earl of Shelburne, engaged him in 1772, on the recommendation of Richard Price, D.D., as resident tutor to his sons at Bowood, Wiltshire, a situation which he filled till 1783. Here he associated with Joseph Priestley, who was Shelburne's lib ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Étienne Dumont
Pierre Étienne Louis Dumont (18 January or 18 July 1759 – 29 September 1829), sometimes anglicised as Stephen Dumont, was a Swiss French political writer. He is chiefly remembered as the French editor of the writings of the English philosopher and social reformer Jeremy Bentham. Early life Dumont was born in Geneva, where his family had been citizens of good repute from the days of Calvin. He was educated for the ministry at the Collège de Genève, and in 1781 was chosen one of the pastors of the city. Then politics suddenly turned the course of his life. He belonged to the liberals or democrats, and the triumph of the aristocratic party, through the interference of the courts of France and Sardinia, made continued residence in Geneva impossible, though he was not among the number of the proscribed. He went to join his mother and sisters in St Petersburg. In this he was probably influenced in part by the example of his townsman Pierre Lefort, the first tutor, minister, an ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Bowood House
Bowood is a Grade I listed Georgian country house in Wiltshire, England, that has been owned for more than 250 years by the Fitzmaurice family. The house, with interiors by Robert Adam, stands in extensive grounds which include a garden designed by Lancelot "Capability" Brown. It is adjacent to the village of Derry Hill, halfway between Calne and Chippenham. The greater part of the house was demolished in 1956. Since 1754 the estate has been the seat of the Earls of Shelburne, created Marquess of Lansdowne in 1784. The ninth and present Marquess is Charles Petty-Fitzmaurice. History The first house at Bowood was built circa 1725 on the site of a hunting lodge, by the former tenant Sir Orlando Bridgeman, 2nd Baronet, who had purchased the property from the Crown. His grandfather Sir Orlando Bridgeman, Lord Chief Justice of the Common Pleas, had been granted the lease by Charles II. Bridgeman got into financial strife, and in 1739 under a Chancery decree, the house and park ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Étienne Clavière
Étienne Clavière (29 January 17358 December 1793) was a Genevan-born French financier and politician of the French Revolution. He was French Minister of Finance between 24 March and 12 June 1792, and between 10 August 1792 and 2 June 1793. Geneva and London A native of Geneva, Clavière became one of the democratic leaders of the Geneva Revolution of 1782. After its failure, he went into exile, becoming a financier in Paris in 1784. His brother moved to Brussels. Clavière associated with personalities from Neuchâtel and Geneva, among them Jean-Paul Marat Jean-Paul Marat (; born Mara; 24 May 1743 – 13 July 1793) was a French political theorist, physician, and scientist. A journalist and politician during the French Revolution, he was a vigorous defender of the ''sans-culottes'', a radical ... and Pierre Étienne Louis Dumont, Étienne Dumont. Their plans for a ''new Geneva'' in Ireland—which the government of William Pitt the Younger favoured—were given up ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
_BySirJoshuaReynolds_NPG_London.jpg "Click for more on -> John Dunning, 1st Baron Ashburton")
.JPG "Click for more on -> Étienne Clavière")