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James King (Royal Navy Officer)
Captain James King (1750 – 16 November 1784) was an officer of the Royal Navy. He served under James Cook on his last voyage around the world, specialising in taking important astronomical readings using a sextant. After Cook died he helped lead the ships on the remainder of their course, also completing Cook's account of the voyage. He continued his career in the Navy, reaching the rank of post-captain, commanding several ships and serving in the American War of Independence. Early life King was born in Clitheroe, Lancashire, in 1750, the son of James King, who was at that time curate of St Mary Magdalene, Clitheroe. According to the parish registers young James King was baptised on 13 July 1750, presumably shortly after his birth. At an early age King entered Clitheroe Royal Grammar School, where he remained until he was 12 years old. The Navy King entered the navy on 19 November 1762 under the patronage of his kinsman William Norton, serving under him first in as an able ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Clitheroe
Clitheroe () is a town and civil parish in the Borough of Ribble Valley, Lancashire, England; it is located north-west of Manchester. It is near the Forest of Bowland and is often used as a base for tourists visiting the area. In 2018, the Clitheroe built-up area had an estimated population of 16,279. The town's most notable building is Clitheroe Castle, which is said to be one of the smallest Norman keeps in Great Britain. Several manufacturing companies have sites here, including Dugdale Nutrition, Hanson Cement, Johnson Matthey and Tarmac. History The name ''Clitheroe'' is thought to come from the Anglo-Saxon for "Rocky Hill", and was also spelled ''Clyderhow'' and ''Cletherwoode'', amongst others. The town was the administrative centre for the lands of the Honour of Clitheroe. The Battle of Clitheroe was fought in 1138 during the Anarchy. These lands were held by Roger de Poitou, who passed them to the De Lacy family, from whom they passed by marriage in 1310 or 1311 to ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
John Jervis, 1st Earl Of St Vincent
Admiral of the Fleet John Jervis, 1st Earl of St Vincent (9 January 1735 – 13 March 1823) was an admiral in the Royal Navy and Member of Parliament in the United Kingdom. Jervis served throughout the latter half of the 18th century and into the 19th, and was an active commander during the Seven Years' War, American War of Independence, French Revolutionary War and the Napoleonic Wars. He is best known for his victory at the 1797 Battle of Cape Saint Vincent, from which he earned his titles, and as a patron of Horatio Nelson. Despite having a fierce reputation for discipline his crews had great affection for him, calling him Old Jarvie. Jervis was also recognised by both political and military contemporaries as a fine administrator and naval reformer. As Commander-in-chief of the Mediterranean, between 1795 and 1799 he introduced a series of severe standing orders to avert mutiny. He applied those orders to both seamen and officers alike, a policy that made him a controve ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
English Channel
The English Channel, "The Sleeve"; nrf, la Maunche, "The Sleeve" (Cotentinais) or ( Jèrriais), (Guernésiais), "The Channel"; br, Mor Breizh, "Sea of Brittany"; cy, Môr Udd, "Lord's Sea"; kw, Mor Bretannek, "British Sea"; nl, Het Kanaal, "The Channel"; german: Ärmelkanal, "Sleeve Channel" ( French: ''la Manche;'' also called the British Channel or simply the Channel) is an arm of the Atlantic Ocean that separates Southern England from northern France. It links to the southern part of the North Sea by the Strait of Dover at its northeastern end. It is the busiest shipping area in the world. It is about long and varies in width from at its widest to at its narrowest in the Strait of Dover."English Channel". ''The Columbia Encyclopedia'', 2004. It is the smallest of the shallow seas around the continental shelf of Europe, covering an area of some . The Channel was a key factor in Britain becoming a naval superpower and has been utilised by Britain as a natural def ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Post-captain
Post-captain is an obsolete alternative form of the rank of Captain (Royal Navy), captain in the Royal Navy. The term served to distinguish those who were captains by rank from: * Officers in command of a naval vessel, who were (and still are) addressed as captain regardless of rank; * Commander (Royal Navy), Commanders, who received the title of captain as a courtesy, whether they currently had a command or not (e.g. the fictional Captain Jack Aubrey in ''Aubrey-Maturin series#Master and Commander, Master and Commander'' or the fictional Captain Horatio Hornblower in ''Hornblower and the Hotspur''); this custom is now defunct. In the Royal Navy of the 18th and 19th centuries, an officer might be promoted from commander to captain, but not have a command. Until the officer obtained a command, he was "on the beach" and on half-pay. An officer "took post" or was "made post" when he was first commissioned to command a vessel. Usually this was a rating system of the Royal Navy, ra ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Woodstock, Oxfordshire
Woodstock is a market town and civil parish, north-west of Oxford in West Oxfordshire in the county of Oxfordshire, England. The 2011 Census recorded a parish population of 3,100. Blenheim Palace, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, is next to Woodstock, in the parish of Blenheim. Winston Churchill was born in the palace in 1874 and buried in the nearby village of Bladon. Edward, elder son of King Edward III and heir apparent, was born in Woodstock Manor on 15 June 1330. In his lifetime he was commonly called Edward of Woodstock, but is known today as the Black Prince. In the reign of Queen Mary I, her half-sister Elizabeth was imprisoned in the gatehouse of Woodstock Manor. History The name Woodstock is Old English in origin, meaning a "clearing in the woods". The Domesday Book of 1086 describes Woodstock (''Wodestock, Wodestok, Wodestole'') as a royal forest. Æthelred the Unready, king of England, is said to have held an assembly at Woodstock at which he issued a legal code no ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Third Voyage Of James Cook
James Cook's third and final voyage (12 July 1776 – 4 October 1780) took the route from Plymouth via Cape Town and Tenerife to New Zealand and the Hawaiian Islands, and along the North American coast to the Bering Strait. Its ostensible purpose was to return Omai, a young man from Raiatea, to his homeland, but the Admiralty used this as a cover for their plan to send Cook on a voyage to discover the Northwest Passage. HMS ''Resolution'', to be commanded by Cook, and HMS ''Discovery'', commanded by Charles Clerke, were prepared for the voyage which started from Plymouth in 1776. Omai was returned to his homeland and the ships sailed onwards, encountering the Hawaiian Archipelago, before reaching the Pacific coast of North America. The two charted the west coast of the continent and passed through the Bering Strait when they were stopped by ice from sailing either east or west. The vessels returned to the Pacific and called briefly at the Aleutians before retiring towar ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Charles Clerke
Captain Charles Clerke (22 August 1741 – 22 August 1779) was an officer in the Royal Navy who sailed on four voyages of exploration, three with Captain James Cook. When Cook was killed during his 3rd expedition to the Pacific, Clerke took command but died later in the voyage from tuberculosis. Biography Clerke started studying at the Royal Naval Academy in Portsmouth when he was 13. During the Seven Years' War he served aboard HMS ''Dorsetshire '' and HMS ''Bellona''. He was in the mizzen-top of HMS ''Bellona'' when the mast was shot away in 1761 and he became the only survivor of those who consequently fell overboard. In June 1764 he joined Captain John Byron, aboard HMS ''Dolphin'', on Byron's expedition to explore the Pacific. The ''Dolphin'' returned in May 1766. Its circumnavigation of 22 months was the quickest up to that point. Upon his return Clerke published an account of encountering Patagonian giants, a hoax which the Dictionary of Canadian Biography attribut ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Larcum Kendall
Larcum Kendall (21 September 1719 in Charlbury, Oxfordshire – 22 November 1790 in London) was a British watchmaker. Early life Kendall was born on 21 September 1719 in Charlbury. His father was a mercer and linen draper named Moses Kendall, and his mother was Ann Larcum from Chepping Wycombe in Buckinghamshire; they married on 18 June 1718. The family were Quakers. The cottage where they lived is thought to be on the site of Charlbury's post office on Market Street. He had a brother, Moses. In 1735 Kendall was apprenticed to the London watchmaker John Jeffreys. He was living with his parents in St Clement Danes at the time. Jeffreys created a pocket watch for John Harrison, who later used ideas from pocket watches in his H4 chronometer. Kendall set up his own business in 1742, working with Thomas Mudge to make watches, working for the watch and clock maker George Graham. In 1765 he was one of six experts selected by the Board of Longitude to witness the operation ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Astronomer
An astronomer is a scientist in the field of astronomy who focuses their studies on a specific question or field outside the scope of Earth. They observe astronomical objects such as stars, planets, natural satellite, moons, comets and galaxy, galaxies – in either observational astronomy, observational (by analyzing the data) or theoretical astronomy. Examples of topics or fields astronomers study include planetary science, Sun, solar astronomy, the Star formation, origin or stellar evolution, evolution of stars, or the galaxy formation and evolution, formation of galaxies. A related but distinct subject is physical cosmology, which studies the Universe as a whole. Types Astronomers usually fall under either of two main types: observational astronomy, observational and theoretical astronomy, theoretical. Observational astronomers make direct observations of Astronomical object, celestial objects and analyze the data. In contrast, theoretical astronomers create and investigate C ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Fletcher Norton, 1st Baron Grantley
Fletcher Norton, 1st Baron Grantley, PC (23 June 1716 – 1 January 1789) was an English lawyer and politician who sat in the House of Commons from 1756 to 1782 when he was raised to the peerage as Baron Grantley. Life Norton was the eldest son of Thomas Norton of Grantley, Yorkshire. He was educated at St John's College, Cambridge and the Middle Temple, being called to the bar in 1739. After a period of inactivity, he built up a profitable practice, becoming a King's Counsel in 1754, and later attorney-general for the county palatine of Lancaster. With his father he ordered the building in the mid-1700s of Grantley Hall, near Ripon in North Yorkshire. In 1756 Norton was elected Member of Parliament for Appleby; he represented Wigan from 1761 to 1768, and was appointed solicitor-general for England and knighted in 1762. He took part in the proceedings against John Wilkes, and, having become Attorney General for England and Wales in 1763, prosecuted William Byron, 5th ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Savilian Professor Of Astronomy
The position of Savilian Professor of Astronomy was established at the University of Oxford in 1619. It was founded (at the same time as the Savilian Professor of Geometry, Savilian Professorship of Geometry) by Henry Savile (Bible translator), Sir Henry Savile, a mathematician and classical scholar who was Warden of Merton College, Oxford, and Provost of Eton College. He appointed John Bainbridge (astronomer), John Bainbridge as the first professor, who took up his duties in 1620 or 1621. There have been 21 astronomy professors in all; Steven Balbus, the professor , was appointed in 2012. Past professors include Christopher Wren (1661–73), architect of St Paul's Cathedral in London and the Sheldonian Theatre in Oxford; he held the professorship at the time of his commission to rebuild the cathedral after it was destroyed by the Great Fire of London in 1666. Three professors have been awarded the Gold Medal of the Royal Astronomical Society: Charles Pritchard (1870–93), Harry ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Thomas Hornsby
Thomas Hornsby (1733 in Durham – 11 April 1810 in Oxford) was a British astronomer and mathematician. Life Hornsby became a Fellow of Corpus Christi College, Oxford in 1760. He occupied the Savilian Chair of Astronomy at Oxford University from 1763. In the same year, he became Sedleian Professor of Natural Philosophy. Hornsby was especially concerned with the observation of the transit of Venus. In 1761, he observed the transit of Venus from Shirburn Castle, in Oxfordshire, the seat of the Earl of Macclesfield. George Parker, 2nd Earl of Macclesfield (ca. 1695–1764), celebrated as an astronomer, had spent most of his time conducting astronomical observations at Shirburn Castle; here he had built an observatory and a chemical laboratory. Despite the international efforts made to observe the 1761 transit, poor weather conditions hampered observations. In 1766 Hornsby informed the Royal Society that preparations needed to begin for the 1769 transit, his publication in the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
