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Richard Rolt
Richard Rolt (1724–2 March 1770) was an English writer, also known as a poet and librettist. Life Rolt was baptized at Shrewsbury, the son of Richard Rolt (died 1739) and Mary Davies. He was educated at Shrewsbury School, at that time under Leonard Hotchkiss. The family was connected to that of Samuel Rolt, Member of Parliament for Bedford. Found a place under an excise officer in the north of England, by John Orlebar, MP and son-in-law of Samuel Rolt, he was suspected of joining the Jacobite army in 1745, and was therefore dismissed from his situation. He then went to Dublin, hoping to obtain employment in Ireland through the influence of his relative on his mother's side Ambrose Philips. Philips returned with Rolt to London in 1748, dying the next year. By then Rolt had been articled to an attorney, and had been introduced to Whig political circles. Writing for a living, Rolt is said to have composed more than a hundred cantatas, songs, and other pieces for Vauxhall Gardens, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
English Writer
List of English writers lists writers in English, born or raised in England (or who lived in England for a lengthy period), who already have Wikipedia pages. References for the information here appear on the linked Wikipedia pages. The list is incomplete – please help to expand it by adding Wikipedia page-owning writers who have written extensively in any genre or field, including science and scholarship. Please follow the entry format. A seminal work added to a writer's entry should also have a Wikipedia page. This is a subsidiary to the List of English people. There are or should be similar lists of List of Irish writers, Irish, List of Scottish writers, Scots, List of Welsh writers, Welsh, List of Manx people#Writers, Manx, Jersey, and Guernsey writers. This list is split into four pages due to its size: *List of English writers (A–C) *List of English writers (D–J) *List of English writers (K–Q) *List of English writers (R–Z) Entries may be accessed alphabetically ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Sir Watkin Williams-Wynn, 3rd Baronet
Sir Watkin Williams-Wynn, 3rd Baronet (c. 169226 September 1749) was a Welsh politician and landowner who sat in the British House of Commons from 1716 to 1749, when he died in office. A member of the Tory party, he was also a prominent Jacobite sympathiser. He helped engineer the downfall of Prime Minister Robert Walpole in 1742 and engaged in negotiations with the exiled Stuarts prior to the Jacobite rising of 1745 but did not participate in the rebellion himself. Watkin died in a hunting accident in 1749. Life Williams-Wynn was the eldest son of Sir William Williams, 2nd Baronet, of Llanforda near Oswestry in Shropshire and Jane Thelwall. His grandfather, also Sir William Williams was Solicitor General under James II and led the prosecution of the Seven Bishops in 1688. His mother was a descendant of the antiquary Sir John Wynn, In 1719, a later Sir John Wynn died, and through his mother's kinship Watkin inherited the Wynnstay estates on condition he added "Wynn" ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Henry Pelham
Henry Pelham (25 September 1694 – 6 March 1754) was a British Whig statesman who served as 3rd Prime Minister of Great Britain from 1743 until his death in 1754. He was the younger brother of Thomas Pelham-Holles, 1st Duke of Newcastle, who served in Pelham's government and succeeded him as prime minister. Pelham is generally considered to have been Britain's third prime minister, after Robert Walpole and the Earl of Wilmington. Pelham's premiership was relatively uneventful in terms of domestic affairs, although it was during his premiership that Great Britain experienced the tumult of the 1745 Jacobite uprising. In foreign affairs, Britain fought in several wars. On Pelham's death, his brother Newcastle took full control of the British government. Early life Pelham, Newcastle's younger brother, was a younger son of Thomas Pelham, 1st Baron Pelham, and his wife, the former Grace Pelham, Baroness Pelham of Laughton, the daughter of Gilbert Holles, 3rd Earl of Clare, and G ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
John Northall
Captain John Northall (1723?–1759) was an officer of the British Army and a writer. Biography Northall entered the service as a gentleman-cadet in the Royal Regiment of Artillery on 1 July 1741, and was promoted to the rank of lieutenant fireworker on 1 April 1742. He served under Colonel Thomas Pattison with the Royal Artillery in Flanders in 1742, and was promoted to second lieutenant on 1 April 1744. He was present at the battle of Fontenoy on 11 May 1745, and became first lieutenant on 3 October 1745, captain-lieutenant on 24 March 1752, and captain on 1 October 1755. In February 1752 Northall went to Minorca, and thence embarked for Leghorn. Instead of making the usual tour of Italy, he first visited the principal cities of Tuscany, and, after a cursory visit to Rome, went to Naples. Then, after a more lengthened stay in Rome, he went to Loretto, Bologna, Venice, Mantua, Parma, and Modena, and returned to Leghorn, whence he sailed for Genoa. From Genoa he went by sea to ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Privateering
A privateer is a private person or ship that engages in maritime warfare under a commission of war. Since robbery under arms was a common aspect of seaborne trade, until the early 19th century all merchant ships carried arms. A sovereign or delegated authority issued commissions, also referred to as a letter of marque, during wartime. The commission empowered the holder to carry on all forms of hostility permissible at sea by the usages of war. This included attacking foreign vessels and taking them as prizes, and taking prize crews as prisoners for exchange. Captured ships were subject to condemnation and sale under prize law, with the proceeds divided by percentage between the privateer's sponsors, shipowners, captains and crew. A percentage share usually went to the issuer of the commission (i.e. the sovereign). Privateering allowed sovereigns to raise revenue for war by mobilizing privately owned armed ships and sailors to supplement state power. For participants, privateeri ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Richard Houston
Richard Houston (1721?–1775) was an Irish mezzotint engraver, whose career was mostly in London. Life Born in Dublin about 1721, he became a pupil of John Brooks, who was also the master of James McArdell and Charles Spooner. He came to London about 1747, and some of his early plates bear the address "near Drummond's at Charing Cross". In debt to Robert Sayer the print-seller, he was arrested and confined to the Fleet prison; according to Sayer this in order that he might know where to find the dissipated Houston. He was released in 1760, on the accession of George III. As a free agent he was commissioned by Carington Bowles. Houston died in Hetton Street, London, on 4 August 1775, aged 54. Works Houston's major works are engravings after Sir Joshua Reynolds, which include portraits of: * Elizabeth Percy, Duchess of Northumberland, full-length; * Caroline, Duchess of Marlborough, and child; * Mary, Duchess of Ancaster; * Maria, Countess Waldegrave, later Duchess of Glo ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
James Boswell
James Boswell, 9th Laird of Auchinleck (; 29 October 1740 (New Style, N.S.) – 19 May 1795), was a Scottish biographer, diarist, and lawyer, born in Edinburgh. He is best known for his biography of his friend and older contemporary the English writer Samuel Johnson, which is commonly said to be the greatest biography written in the English language. A great mass of Boswell's diaries, letters and private papers were recovered from the 1920s to the 1950s, and their ongoing publication by Yale University has transformed his reputation. Early life Boswell was born in Blair's Land on the east side of Parliament Close behind St Giles' Cathedral in Edinburgh on 29 October 1740 (New Style, N.S.). He was the eldest son of a judge, Alexander Boswell, Lord Auchinleck, and his wife Euphemia Erskine. As the eldest son, he was heir to his family's estate of Auchinleck in Ayrshire. Boswell's mother was a strict Calvinist, and he felt that his father was cold to him. As a child, he was delica ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Arthur Murphy (writer)
Arthur Murphy (27 December 1727 – 18 June 1805), also known by the pseudonym Charles Ranger, was an Irish writer. Biography Murphy was born at Cloonyquin, County Roscommon, Ireland, the son of Richard Murphy and Jane French. He studied at the Jesuit-run College of Saint-Omer, France, and was a gifted student of the Latin and Greek classics. He worked as an actor in the theatre, became a barrister, a journalist and finally a (not very original) playwright. He edited '' Gray's Inn Journal'' between 1752 and 1754. As Henry Thrale's oldest and dearest friend, he introduced Samuel Johnson to the Thrales in January 1765. He was appointed Commissioner of Bankruptcy in 1803. Murphy is known for his translations of Tacitus in 1753. They were still published in 1922. He wrote also three biographies: his 1792 '' An Essay on the Life and Genius of Samuel Johnson'', his 1762 '' Fielding's Works'' and his 1801 ''Life of David Garrick''. Murphy is thought to have coined the legal ter ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Samuel Johnson
Samuel Johnson (18 September 1709 – 13 December 1784), often called Dr Johnson, was an English writer who made lasting contributions as a poet, playwright, essayist, moralist, critic, biographer, editor and lexicographer. The ''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography'' calls him "arguably the most distinguished man of letters in English history". Born in Lichfield, Staffordshire, he attended Pembroke College, Oxford until lack of funds forced him to leave. After working as a teacher, he moved to London and began writing for ''The Gentleman's Magazine''. Early works include ''Life of Mr Richard Savage'', the poems ''London'' and ''The Vanity of Human Wishes'' and the play ''Irene''. After nine years' effort, Johnson's '' A Dictionary of the English Language'' appeared in 1755, and was acclaimed as "one of the greatest single achievements of scholarship". Later work included essays, an annotated ''The Plays of William Shakespeare'', and the apologue ''The History of R ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Metastasio
Pietro Antonio Domenico Trapassi (3 January 1698 – 12 April 1782), better known by his pseudonym of Pietro Metastasio (), was an Italian poet and librettist, considered the most important writer of ''opera seria'' libretti. Early life Metastasio was born in Rome, where his father, Felice Trapassi, a native of Assisi, had taken service in the Corsican regiment of the papal forces. Felice married a Bolognese woman, Francesca Galasti, and became a grocer in the ''Via dei Cappellari''. The couple had two sons and two daughters; Pietro was the younger son. Pietro, while still a child, is said to have attracted crowds by reciting impromptu verses on a given subject. On one such occasion in 1709, two men of distinction stopped to listen: Giovanni Vincenzo Gravina, famous for legal and literary erudition as well as his directorship of the Arcadian Academy, and Lorenzini, a critic of some note. Gravina was attracted by the boy's poetic talent and personal charm, and made Pietro h ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Theatre Royal, Drury Lane
The Theatre Royal, Drury Lane, commonly known as Drury Lane, is a West End theatre and Grade I listed building in Covent Garden, London, England. The building faces Catherine Street (earlier named Bridges or Brydges Street) and backs onto Drury Lane. The building is the most recent in a line of four theatres which were built at the same location, the earliest of which dated back to 1663, making it the oldest theatre site in London still in use. According to the author Peter Thomson, for its first two centuries, Drury Lane could "reasonably have claimed to be London's leading theatre". For most of that time, it was one of a handful of patent theatres, granted monopoly rights to the production of "legitimate" drama in London (meaning spoken plays, rather than opera, dance, concerts, or plays with music). The first theatre on the site was built at the behest of Thomas Killigrew in the early 1660s, when theatres were allowed to reopen during the English Restoration. Initially ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Jonathan Battishill
Jonathan Battishill (May 1738 – 10 December 1801) was an English composer, keyboard player, and concert tenor. He began his career as a composer writing theatre music but later devoted himself to working as an organist and composer for the Church of England. He is considered one of the outstanding 18th century English composers of church music and is best remembered today for his seven-part anthem ''Call to Remembrance'', which has long survived in the repertoires of cathedral choirs. Biography Battishill was born in London. Beginning at the age of nine, he sang as a chorister at St. Paul's Cathedral initially under the direction of composer Charles King. After his voice broke he studied organ, music composition, and singing under William Savage, almoner and master of the choristers. He became a highly skilled organist and was particularly talented at extempore playing; a skill that soon attracted attention and led to his appointment as William Boyce's deputy at the Chapel R ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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