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Theophilus Lucas
Theophilus Lucas () is known for writing a successful book about gambling. He inherited, according to his own assertion, an estate of £2,000 a year, which he lost at the gaming tables. To deter his son, who was the "very next heir to £1,500 per annum by the death of an uncle", from following his example, or, at best, to put him on his guard against the tricks of card-sharpers, he wrote an entertaining, in places scandalous, book entitled ''Memoirs of the Lives, Intrigues, and Comical Adventures of the most famous Gamesters and celebrated Sharpers in the reigns of Charles II, James II, William III, and Queen Anne''; "wherein is contain'd the secret History of Gaming. The whole calculated for the meridians of London, Bath, Tunbridge, and the Groom-Porters" (1714). A third edition, with additions, was published without the author's name in 1744. This book, which owes nothing to Charles Cotton's ''The Compleat Gamester'' (1674), has been of great use to biographers, though its stateme ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Charles Cotton
Charles Cotton (28 April 1630 – 16 February 1687) was an English poet and writer, best known for translating the work of Michel de Montaigne from the French, for his contributions to ''The Compleat Angler'', and for the influential ''The Compleat Gamester'' attributed to him. Early life He was born in Alstonefield, Staffordshire, at Beresford Hall, near the Derbyshire Peak District. His father, Charles Cotton the Elder, was a friend of Ben Jonson, John Selden, Sir Henry Wotton and Izaak Walton. The son was apparently not sent to university, but was tutored by Ralph Rawson, one of the fellows ejected from Brasenose College, Oxford, in 1648. Cotton travelled in France and perhaps in Italy, and at the age of twenty-eight he succeeded to an estate greatly encumbered by lawsuits during his father's lifetime. Like many Royalist gentlemen after the English Civil War the rest of his life was spent chiefly in quiet country pursuits, in Cotton's case in the Peak District and North Staf ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Compleat Gamester
''The Compleat Gamester'', first published in 1674, is one of the earliest known English-language games compendia. It was published anonymously, but later attributed to Charles Cotton (1630–1687). Further editions appeared in the period up to 1754 before it was eclipsed by ''Mr. Hoyle's Games'' by Edmond Hoyle (1672–1769). History In the mid-17th century, game literature in England took off. Initially these were translations of French books, for example on Piquet, but later more original publications appeared. The most successful of these was ''The Compleat Gamester'', which was first published anonymously in 1674, but was attributed during the 18th century to Charles Cotton. It included instructions on how to play billiards, trucks, bowls and chess, "together with all manner of usual and most gentile games either on cards or dice," as well as "the arts and mysteries" of riding, racing, archery and cock-fighting A cockfight is a blood sport, held in a ring called a c ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Alexander Smith (biographer)
A Compleat history of the lives and robberies of the most notorious highwaymen... Alexander Smith ( fl. 1714–1726) was a compiler of volumes of biographies. Presumed to be a nom de plume, but the details of the real authors are unknown. Biography "Captain Alex. Smith" is known only for his/her compilations created during the reign of George I, which suggest that he was better known as a frequenter of police-courts and taverns than in military circles. It is not improbable that his industry was stimulated by the success obtained by Theophilus Lucas from his ‘'Lives of the Gamesters,’' published in 1714. The works issued in Captain Alexander Smith's name were: ‘A Complete History of the Lives and Robberies of the most notorious Highwaymen, Footpads, Shoplifts, and Cheats of both Sexes in and about London and Westminster’ (2nd edit. London, 1714, 12mo, supplementary volume, 1720, 12mo; another edit., 2 vols. 1719, 12mo; 1719–20, 3 vols. 12mo); this curious work, which com ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Thomas Seccombe
Thomas Seccombe (1866–1923) was a miscellaneous English writer and, from 1891 to 1901, assistant editor of the ''Dictionary of National Biography'', in which he wrote over 700 entries. A son of physician and episcopus vagans John Thomas Seccombe, he was educated at Felsted and Balliol College, Oxford Balliol College () is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in England. One of Oxford's oldest colleges, it was founded around 1263 by John I de Balliol, a landowner from Barnard Castle in County Durham, who provided the ..., taking a first in Modern History in 1889. Works *(editor) Twelve Bad Men: Original Studies of Eminent Scoundrels' (1894) *''The Age of Johnson'' (1899)''The Age of Shakespeare''(with John William Allen (1865–1944), 1903)''Bookman History of English Literature''(with W. Robertson Nicoll, 1905–6)''In Praise of Oxford''(1910)''Scott Centenary Articles''(with W. P. Ker, George Gordon, W. H. Hutton, Arthur McDowall, and R. S. R ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
People Whose Existence Is Disputed
A person ( : people) is a being that has certain capacities or attributes such as reason, morality, consciousness or self-consciousness, and being a part of a culturally established form of social relations such as kinship, ownership of property, or legal responsibility. The defining features of personhood and, consequently, what makes a person count as a person, differ widely among cultures and contexts. In addition to the question of personhood, of what makes a being count as a person to begin with, there are further questions about personal identity and self: both about what makes any particular person that particular person instead of another, and about what makes a person at one time the same person as they were or will be at another time despite any intervening changes. The plural form "people" is often used to refer to an entire nation or ethnic group (as in "a people"), and this was the original meaning of the word; it subsequently acquired its use as a plural form of ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
18th-century English Writers
The 18th century lasted from January 1, 1701 ( MDCCI) to December 31, 1800 ( MDCCC). During the 18th century, elements of Enlightenment thinking culminated in the American, French, and Haitian Revolutions. During the century, slave trading and human trafficking expanded across the shores of the Atlantic, while declining in Russia, China, and Korea. Revolutions began to challenge the legitimacy of monarchical and aristocratic power structures, including the structures and beliefs that supported slavery. The Industrial Revolution began during mid-century, leading to radical changes in human society and the environment. Western historians have occasionally defined the 18th century otherwise for the purposes of their work. For example, the "short" 18th century may be defined as 1715–1789, denoting the period of time between the death of Louis XIV of France and the start of the French Revolution, with an emphasis on directly interconnected events. To historians who expan ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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