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Bedford Level Act 1667
The Bedford Level Corporation (or alternatively the Corporation of the Bedford Level) was founded in England in 1663 to manage the draining of the Fens of East Central England. It formalised the legal status of the Company of Adventurers previously formed by the Duke of Bedford to reclaim 95,000 acres of the Bedford Level. History The low-lying land of East Central England, known as the Fens, consisted traditionally of semi-continuous marshland and peat bog interspersed with isolated patches of higher ground. Agriculture has only been made possible by a co-ordinated system of drainage ditches. During medieval times this was controlled by the great monasteries in the area but fell into disrepute after the dissolution of the monasteries. By the 1600s the general drainage situation was so bad that King Charles I invited Cornelius Vermuyden, the Dutch engineer, to devise a scheme to drain the Great Fen. The Bedford Level The Great Fen, lying between the Wash and Cambridge, is more p ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Fens
The Fens, also known as the , in eastern England are a naturally marshy region supporting a rich ecology and numerous species. Most of the fens were drained centuries ago, resulting in a flat, dry, low-lying agricultural region supported by a system of drainage channels and man-made rivers ( dykes and drains) and automated pumping stations. There have been unintended consequences to this reclamation, as the land level has continued to sink and the dykes have been built higher to protect it from flooding. Fen is the local term for an individual area of marshland or former marshland. It also designates the type of marsh typical of the area, which has neutral or alkaline water and relatively large quantities of dissolved minerals, but few other plant nutrients. The Fens are a National Character Area, based on their landscape, biodiversity, geodiversity and economic activity. The Fens lie inland of the Wash, and are an area of nearly in Lincolnshire, Cambridgeshire, and Norfol ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Old Bedford River
The Old Bedford River is an artificial, partial diversion of the waters of the River Great Ouse in the Fens of Cambridgeshire, England. It was named after the fourth Earl of Bedford who contracted with the local Commission of Sewers to drain the Great Level of the Fens beginning in 1630. It provided a steeper and shorter path for the waters of the Great Ouse, and was embanked to prevent them flooding the low ground of the South Fens. Throughout the project, the Earl and his Adventurers faced disruption from those who were opposed to drainage schemes. The project was deemed to have succeeded in draining the fens in 1637, but that decision was reversed in 1638. After a lull during the English Civil War, when much of the work was damaged, the Dutch engineer Cornelius Vermuyden worked with William Russell, the fifth Earl of Bedford to complete the drainage. Disruption and unrest continued while the work was carried out, resulting in the Adventurers employing armed guards. A secon ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Samuel Fortrey
Samuel Fortrey (1622–1681) was an English landowner and fen drainer, author of ''England's Interest and Improvement, consisting in the increase of the Store and Trade of this Kingdom'' (Cambridge, 1663). Life Fortrey, born on 11 June 1622, was the eldest son of Samuel Forterie, a merchant of Walbrook Ward, London, who was grandson of John de la Forterye, a refugee from Lille, and owned a house at Kew, eventually bought by Queen Charlotte. He is identified with Samuel Fortrey of Richmond and Byall Fen, Isle of Ely, Clerk of the Deliveries of the Ordnance in the Tower of London, and a bailiff in the corporation of the Great Level. Works ''England's Interest and Improvement'' is described on the title-page as "one of the gentlemen of his majesties most honourable privy chamber". It was reprinted in 1673, 1713, and 1744; in Sir Charles Whitworth's ''Scarce Tracts on Trade and Commerce, serving as a supplement to Davenant's Works'', 1778, and in the Political Economy Club's ''Sele ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
John Belasyse, 1st Baron Belasyse
John Belasyse, 1st Baron Belasyse (or Bellasis) (24 June 1614 – 10 September 1689) was an English nobleman, Royalist officer and Member of Parliament, notable for his role during and after the Civil War. He suffered a long spell of imprisonment during the Popish Plot, although he was never brought to trial. From 1671 until his death he lived in Whitton, near Twickenham in Middlesex. Samuel Pepys was impressed by his collection of paintings, which has long since disappeared. Origins He was born at Newburgh Grange, Yorkshire and was baptised on 24 July 1614 at Coxwold, Yorkshire. He was the second son of Thomas Belasyse, 1st Viscount Fauconberg (1577–1652), a Member of Parliament for Thirsk in the Short and Long Parliaments, by his wife Barbara Cholmondeley, a daughter of Sir Henry Cholmondeley of Roxby in Yorkshire.. Career Civil War Shortly after the start of the Civil War, he was "disabled" from sitting in the Long Parliament as he had joined the Royalist cause. He ra ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Thomas Colepeper, 2nd Baron Colepeper
Thomas Colepeper, 2nd Baron Colepeper, (21 March 1635 – 27 January 1689) was an English peer and colonial administrator who served as the governor of Virginia from 1677 to 1683. Biography Born in 1635, Colepeper (often referred to by the alternate, Culpeper) was the son of Judith and John Colepeper. As a royalist, his father left England at the end of the English Civil War following the execution of Charles I. Thomas Culpeper lived with his father in the Netherlands and there on 3 August 1659 married the Dutch heiress Margaret van Hesse. He returned to England after Charles II's restoration, where his wife was naturalised as English by Act of Parliament. Culpeper was made Governor of the Isle of Wight from 1661 to 1667 which involved little administration but added to his wealth. He was elected as a Bailiff to the board of the Bedford Level Corporation for 1665 and 1667. He became governor of Virginia in July 1677 but did not leave England until 1679, when he was ordered t ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Arthur Annesley, 1st Earl Of Anglesey
Arthur Annesley, 1st Earl of Anglesey PC (10 July 16146 April 1686) was an Anglo-Irish royalist statesman. After short periods as President of the Council of State and Treasurer of the Navy, he served as Lord Privy Seal between 1673 and 1682 for Charles II. He succeeded his father as 2nd Viscount Valentia in 1660, and he was created Earl of Anglesey in 1661. Early life Annesley was born in Dublin, Ireland to Francis Annesley, 1st Viscount Valentia, and his first wife Dorothy, daughter of Sir John Philipps, Bt, of Picton Castle. He was educated at Magdalen College, Oxford, from which he graduated in 1634 as a Bachelor of Arts; that year, he was admitted into Lincoln's Inn. Having made the grand tour he returned to Ireland; and being employed by Parliament on a mission to the Duke of Ormonde, now reduced to the last extremities, he succeeded in concluding a treaty with him on 19 June 1647, thus securing the country from complete subjection to the rebels. In April 1647 he wa ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Richard Onslow (Parliamentarian)
Sir Richard Onslow (1601 – 19 May 1664) was an English politician who sat in the House of Commons at various times between 1628 and 1664. He fought on the Parliamentary side during the English Civil War. He was the grandson of one Speaker of the House of Commons and the grandfather of another, both also called Richard Onslow. Life Young Life Onslow was the younger son of Sir Edward Onslow of Knowle (in Cranleigh), Surrey, and his wife Isabel (Elizabeth), daughter of Sir Thomas Shirley of Wiston, West Sussex. He was baptized on 30 July 1601. He had an elder brother Thomas (the heir), and three sisters. His father died in 1615, appointing Elizabeth his executrix and residuary legatee. To Richard was bequeathed an annuity of £100 per annum from manors and estates in Gloucestershire.'Will of Sir Edward Onslowe of Knowle, Cranleigh, Knight': London Metropolitan Archives, Surrey Wills ref. DW/PA/7/10 ff. 16r-17v; DW/PA/5/1615/98. The manor of Bramley (with lands in Bramley, S ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
John Russell, 6th Duke Of Bedford
John Russell, 6th Duke of Bedford, (6 July 1766 – 20 October 1839), known as Lord John Russell until 1802, was a British Whig politician who notably served as Lord Lieutenant of Ireland in the Ministry of All the Talents. He was the father of Prime Minister John Russell, 1st Earl Russell. Background Bedford was a younger son of Francis Russell, Marquess of Tavistock, eldest son and heir of John Russell, 4th Duke of Bedford. His mother was Lady Elizabeth, the youngest child of Willem van Keppel, 2nd Earl of Albemarle and Lady Anne Lennox. Political career Like most Russells, Bedford was a Whig in politics. He sat as Member of Parliament for Tavistock from 1788 to June 1790 and from December 1790 to 1802, when he was automatically elevated to the Lords on the death of his brother. He served as Lord Lieutenant of Ireland during the Whig government of 1806–1807. He became, as did many of his party who were strong followers of Bonapartism, opposed to the Peninsular War, be ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Francis Russell, 5th Duke Of Bedford
Francis Russell, 5th Duke of Bedford (23 July 1765 – 2 March 1802) was an English aristocrat and Whig politician, responsible for much of the development of central Bloomsbury. Life Francis Russell, eldest son of Francis Russell, Marquess of Tavistock (died 1767), by his wife, Elizabeth (died 1768), daughter of William Keppel, 2nd Earl of Albemarle, was born at Woburn Abbey and baptized on 20 August 1765 at St Giles in the Fields. In January 1771 he succeeded his grandfather as Duke of Bedford, and was educated at Westminster School and Trinity College, Cambridge, afterwards spending nearly two years in foreign travel. Whilst abroad in 1784 he was involved in a menage a trois with Charles Maynard, second Viscount Maynard, and his wife Anne, Lady Maynard. This liaison was with Russell's grandmother's approval and it continued until 1787.A. A. Hanham, ‘Parsons, Anne ancymarried name Anne Maynard, Viscountess Maynard] (c.1735–1814/15)’, Oxford Dictionary of National Bio ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
John Russell, 4th Duke Of Bedford
John Russell, 4th Duke of Bedford, (30 September 17105 January 1771) was an 18th-century British statesman.G.E. Cokayne; with Vicary Gibbs, H.A. Doubleday, Geoffrey H. White, Duncan Warrand and Lord Howard de Walden, editors, The Complete Peerage of England, Scotland, Ireland, Great Britain and the United Kingdom, Extant, Extinct or Dormant, new ed., 13 volumes in 14 (1910–1959; reprint in 6 volumes, Gloucester, U.K.: Alan Sutton Publishing, 2000), volume II, page 82-84, volume VIII, page 500.Charles Mosley, editor, Burke's Peerage and Baronetage, 106th edition, 2 volumes (Crans, Switzerland: Burke's Peerage (Genealogical Books) Ltd, 1999), volume 2, page 1871. Bedford was a leading Whig political figure around the time of the Seven Years' War, and negotiated the Treaty of Paris which ended the conflict in 1763. He was also an early promoter of cricket and a patron of the arts who commissioned many works from artists, most notably Canaletto. Early life He was the fourth son o ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Wriothesley Russell, 3rd Duke Of Bedford
Wriothesley Russell, 3rd Duke of Bedford (25 May 1708 – 23 October 1732) was an English nobleman and peer. He was the son of Wriothesley Russell, 2nd Duke of Bedford. Russell married his sister's stepdaughter, Lady Anne Egerton, daughter of Scroop Egerton, 1st Duke of Bridgwater, on 22 April 1725. He died in 1732, aged 24 at Corunna, Spain, without issue. He was buried on 14 December 1732 in the 'Bedford Chapel' at St. Michael’s Church, Chenies, Buckinghamshire, and his titles passed to his brother, John Russell, 4th Duke of Bedford John Russell, 4th Duke of Bedford, (30 September 17105 January 1771) was an 18th-century British statesman.G.E. Cokayne; with Vicary Gibbs, H.A. Doubleday, Geoffrey H. White, Duncan Warrand and Lord Howard de Walden, editors, The Complete Peera .... {{DEFAULTSORT:Bedford, Wriothesley Russell, 3rd Duke of 1708 births 1732 deaths 403 Wriothesley Wriothesley ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Wriothesley Russell, 2nd Duke Of Bedford
Wriothesley Russell, 2nd Duke of Bedford KG (1 November 1680 – 26 May 1711) was an English nobleman and politician. He was the son of William Russell, Lord Russell, and his wife Lady Rachel Wriothesley. From 1683 until 1694, he was styled Lord Russell, and from 1695 until his accession in 1700, Marquess of Tavistock. Russell married the rich heiress Elizabeth Howland, daughter of John Howland of Streatham, on 23 May 1695. Shortly thereafter (13 June 1695), his grandfather, the Duke of Bedford, was created Baron Howland of Streatham to commemorate the marriage. The couple had six children: *William Russell, Marquess of Tavistock (13 August 1703 – December 1703) *William Russell, Marquess of Tavistock (1704 – c. May 1707) *Lady Rachael Russell (c. 1707–1777), married Scroop Egerton, 1st Duke of Bridgwater, as her first husband, and had issue. She was widowed on 11 January 1744. On 14 December 1745, at St James, Westminster, she married her second husband, Lt-General Si ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
