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Sir William Williams, 1st Baronet, Of Gray's Inn
Sir William Williams, 1st Baronet (1634 – 11 July 1700) was a Welsh lawyer and politician. He served as a Member of Parliament for Chester and later Beaumaris, and was appointed Speaker for two English Parliaments during the reign of Charles II. He later served as Solicitor General during the reign of James II. Williams had a bitter personal and professional rivalry with Judge Jeffreys (the hanging judge). Early life Williams was born in Anglesey, the eldest son of Hugh Williams and Emma Dolben. He was educated at Jesus College, Oxford, followed by Gray's Inn, to which he was admitted in 1650. Parliament After unsuccessfully standing for Chester in the 1673 by-election, Williams was elected Member of Parliament for the constituency in the 1675 by-election. His profile grew, and he was elected to become Speaker of the House of Commons, a post which he held during the 3rd (Exclusion Bill Parliament, 1680–1681) and 4th ( 1681; Oxford Parliament) parliaments of Charle ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Baronet
A baronet ( or ; abbreviated Bart or Bt) or the female equivalent, a baronetess (, , or ; abbreviation Btss), is the holder of a baronetcy, a hereditary title awarded by the British Crown. The title of baronet is mentioned as early as the 14th century, however in its current usage was created by James VI and I, James I of England in 1611 as a means of raising funds for the crown. A baronetcy is the only British Hereditary title, hereditary honour that is not a peerages in the United Kingdom, peerage, with the exception of the Anglo-Irish Knight of Glin, Black Knights, White Knight (Fitzgibbon family), White Knights, and Knight of Kerry, Green Knights (of whom only the Green Knights are extant). A baronet is addressed as "Sir" (just as is a knight) or "Dame" in the case of a baronetess, but ranks above all knighthoods and damehoods in the Orders of precedence in the United Kingdom, order of precedence, except for the Order of the Garter, the Order of the Thistle, and the dormant ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Member Of Parliament
A member of parliament (MP) is the representative in parliament of the people who live in their electoral district. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, this term refers only to members of the lower house since upper house members often have a different title. The terms congressman/congresswoman or deputy are equivalent terms used in other jurisdictions. The term parliamentarian is also sometimes used for members of parliament, but this may also be used to refer to unelected government officials with specific roles in a parliament and other expert advisers on parliamentary procedure such as the Senate Parliamentarian in the United States. The term is also used to the characteristic of performing the duties of a member of a legislature, for example: "The two party leaders often disagreed on issues, but both were excellent parliamentarians and cooperated to get many good things done." Members of parliament typically form parliamentary groups, sometimes called caucuse ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Henry Mordaunt, 2nd Earl Of Peterborough
Henry Mordaunt, 2nd Earl of Peterborough (15 November 1621 – 19 June 1697) was an English soldier, peer and courtier. Early life Styled Lord Mordaunt from 1628, he was the eldest son of John Mordaunt, 1st Earl of Peterborough. He was educated at Eton, under Sir Henry Wotton, and shortly before the outbreak of the First English Civil War was sent to France to be out of harm's way. :s:Mordaunt, Henry, second Earl of Peterborough (DNB00) He returned to England in 1642, and served for a little while in the parliamentary army, where he commanded his ailing father's troop of horse. In April 1643, after his father's death, he deserted to the king at Oxford. Now Earl of Peterborough, he joined the Cavaliers and fought at the battles of Bristol, Gloucester and Newbury in 1643. At Newbury, he was wounded in the arm and thigh, and had his horse shot under him. In command of a regiment raised at his own expense he served in the west during the following summer and winter, at Cropredy ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Montgomeryshire (UK Parliament Constituency)
Montgomeryshire ( cy, Sir Drefaldwyn) is a constituency represented in the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. Created in 1542, it elects one Member of Parliament (MP), traditionally known as the knight of the shire, by the first-past-the-post system of election. The Montgomeryshire Senedd constituency was created with the same boundaries in 1999 (as an Assembly constituency). Boundaries The seat is based on the ancient county of Montgomeryshire, in the principal area of Powys. One of Britain's most rural and isolated constituencies, Montgomeryshire elected Liberal or Liberal-affiliated candidates from 1880, until a Conservative victory in the 1979 general election. In the 1983 general election it was the only seat in England and Wales where a sitting Conservative MP was unseated, while nationally the party's seat majority increased. However, in 2010, the Conservatives won and held the seat in 2015 and 2017, with an increased majority. The seat was ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Popish Plot
The Popish Plot was a fictitious conspiracy invented by Titus Oates that between 1678 and 1681 gripped the Kingdoms of England and Scotland in anti-Catholic hysteria. Oates alleged that there was an extensive Catholic conspiracy to assassinate Charles II, accusations that led to the executions of at least 22 men and precipitated the Exclusion Bill Crisis. Eventually, Oates's intricate web of accusations fell apart, leading to his arrest and conviction for perjury. Background Development of English anti-Catholicism The fictitious Popish Plot must be understood against the background of the English Reformation and the subsequent development of a strong anti-Catholic sentiment among the mostly Protestant population of England. The English Reformation began in 1533, when King Henry VIII (1509–1547) sought an annulment of his marriage to Catherine of Aragon to marry Anne Boleyn. As the Pope would not grant this, Henry broke away from Rome and took control of the Church in ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Thomas Dangerfield
Thomas Dangerfield (c. 165022 June 1685) was an English conspirator, who became one of the principal informers in the Popish Plot. His violent death at the hands of the barrister Robert Francis was clearly a homicide, although whether the killing was murder or manslaughter was a matter of considerable public debate at the time. Biography Dangerfield was born about 1650 at Waltham Abbey, Essex, the son of a farmer. At the age of about 12 in about 1662, he ran away from home to London, and never returned to his home. He began his career of crime by robbing his father of both horses and money, and, after a rambling life, which brought him to Scotland, France, Spain and Portugal, took to coining counterfeit money, for which offence and numerous others he was many times imprisoned: it was said later that to describe his career one need simply list every capital crime known to English law. Lord Chief Justice Scroggs later referred to him with contempt as "that fellow from ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
House Of Commons Library
The House of Commons Library is the library and information resource of the lower house of the British Parliament. It was established in 1818, although its original 1828 construction was destroyed during the burning of Parliament in 1834. The library has adopted the phrase "Contributing to a well-informed democracy" as a summary of its mission statement. History The Library was established in 1818 and a purpose-designed library was built for it by Sir John Soane and completed in 1828. This building, along with much of the mediaeval Palace of Westminster, to which it was added, was destroyed by fire in 1834. In the rebuilding of the Palace of Westminster by Sir Charles Barry and Augustus Welby Northmore Pugin, the Library was given four large rooms on the river front of the principal floor of the new palace, each 40 feet by 25 feet and some 20 ft high. This suite was fully opened by 1852, and two additional rooms added in the mid/late 1850s. One of these was to co ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Oxford Parliament (1681)
The Oxford Parliament, also known as the Third Exclusion Parliament, was an English Parliament assembled in the city of Oxford for one week from 21 March 1681 until 28 March 1681 during the reign of Charles II of England. Summoning Parliament to meet in Oxford, a Royalist stronghold which had been Charles I's capital during the Civil War, was designed to deprive the Whig opposition of the grassroots support from the London masses, which was an important factor in earlier stages of the Exclusion Crisis. Succeeding the Exclusion Bill Parliament, this was the fifth and last parliament of the King's reign. Both Houses of Parliament met and the King delivered a speech to them on the first day. The Speaker of the House of Commons (United Kingdom), Speaker was William Williams (speaker), William Williams, who had been the Speaker in the previous Parliament. He was elected unanimously and delivered a speech on 22 March. The Oxford Parliament was dismissed after another Exclusion Bill wa ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Exclusion Bill Parliament
The Exclusion Bill Parliament was a Parliament of England during the reign of Charles II of England, named after the long saga of the Exclusion Bill. Summoned on 24 July 1679, but prorogued by the king so that it did not assemble until 21 October 1680, it was dissolved three months later on 18 January 1680/81. Background Succeeding the long Cavalier Parliament and the short-lived Habeas Corpus Parliament of March to July 1679, this was the third parliament of the King's reign. Its character was much influenced by the aftermath of the Popish Plot crisis. On 15 May 1679, the supporters of Anthony Ashley Cooper, 1st Earl of Shaftesbury, had introduced the Exclusion Bill into the Commons with the aim of excluding the king's brother, James, Duke of York, from the succession to the throne. A fringe group began to support the claim of Charles's illegitimate son, the Duke of Monmouth. As it seemed likely that the bill would pass, Charles exercised his Royal prerogative to dissolve Parl ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Gray's Inn
The Honourable Society of Gray's Inn, commonly known as Gray's Inn, is one of the four Inns of Court (professional associations for barristers and judges) in London. To be called to the bar in order to practise as a barrister in England and Wales, an individual must belong to one of these inns. Located at the intersection of High Holborn and Gray's Inn Road in Central London, the Inn is a professional body and provides office and some residential accommodation for barristers. It is ruled by a governing council called "Pension," made up of the Masters of the Bench (or "benchers,") and led by the Treasurer, who is elected to serve a one-year term. The Inn is known for its gardens (the “Walks,”) which have existed since at least 1597. Gray's Inn does not claim a specific foundation date; none of the Inns of Court claims to be any older than the others. Law clerks and their apprentices have been established on the present site since at latest 1370, with records dating from 1381 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Hanging Judge
"Hanging judge" is a colloquial phrase for a judge who has gained notoriety for handing down punishment by sentencing convicted persons to death by hanging, or otherwise imposing unusually harsh sentences. Hanging judges are officers of the court with mandates, as opposed to extralegal lynch law. History 17th century * George Jeffreys, 1st Baron Jeffreys * Salathiel Lovell 19th century * Matthew Baillie Begbie, Vancouver and Victoria judge * Isaac Charles Parker, U.S. district judge 20th century * Nikolai Krylenko, Bolshevik revolutionary, prosecutor, and Minister of Justice of the USSR * Roland Freisler, president (presiding judge) of the Nazi ''Volksgerichtshof'' (d. 3 February 1945) * Vasiliy Ulrikh, Soviet jurist, chief presiding judge at the Moscow Show Trials during the Great Purge * Sadegh Khalkhali, Shia cleric of the Islamic Republic of Iran * Manuel Pamaran, presiding justice of the Sandiganbayan in the Philippines from 1978 to 1986 * Maximiano Asuncion, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
George Jeffreys, 1st Baron Jeffreys
George Jeffreys, 1st Baron Jeffreys, PC (15 May 1645 – 18 April 1689), also known as "the Hanging Judge", was a Welsh judge. He became notable during the reign of King James II, rising to the position of Lord Chancellor (and serving as Lord High Steward in certain instances). His conduct as a judge was to enforce royal policy, resulting in a historical reputation for severity and bias. Early years and education Jeffreys was born at the family estate of Acton Hall, in Wrexham, in North Wales, the sixth son of John and Margaret Jeffreys. His grandfather, John Jeffreys (died 1622), had been Chief Justice of the Anglesey circuit of the Great Sessions. His father, also John Jeffreys (1608–1691), was a Royalist during the English Civil War, but was reconciled to the Commonwealth and served as High Sheriff of Denbighshire in 1655. His brothers were people of note. Thomas, later Sir Thomas (knighted in 1686), was the English Consul in Spain and a Knight of Alcántara. Wil ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
