1.
John Bogle (artist)
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John Bogle was a Scottish miniature painter. Bogle was the son of an officer also called John. He attended classes at a school in Glasgow founded in 1753 by the printers and booksellers Robert. Bogle married in 1769, and in that year and the next exhibited miniatures at the Society of Artists in London from an address in Edinburgh and he then moved to London, exhibiting at the Royal Academy from 1772 to 1794, including a self-portrait of 1772. His address is given throughout this time as 1, Panton Square and he painted a miniature of the novelist Fanny Burney in June 1783, and in 1790 he accompanied her to the trial of Warren Hastings in Westminster Hall. He moved back to Scotland in 1800 with his wife and died in Edinburgh in 1803
2.
Scottish National Portrait Gallery
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The Scottish National Portrait Gallery is an art museum on Queen Street, Edinburgh. The gallery holds the collections of portraits, all of which are of. It also holds the Scottish National Photography Collection, the gallery reopened on 1 December 2011 after being closed since April 2009 for the first comprehensive refurbishment in its history, which was carried out by Page\Park Architects. The founder of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland, David Erskine, 11th Earl of Buchan, formed a collection of Scottish portraits in the late 18th century, eventually John Ritchie Findlay stepped in and paid for the entire building, costing £50,000. The museum was established in 1882, before its new building was completed, the famous collection of portraits housed in the Vasari Corridor in Florence remains only accessible to the public on a limited basis. The work generally restores the gallery spaces to their layout, with areas set aside for education, the shop & café. In total the Portrait Gallery has 60% more gallery space after the changes, the cost of the refurbishment was £17.6 million. The museums collection totals some 3,000 paintings and sculptures,25,000 prints and drawings, in the 16th century most painted portraits are of royalty or the more important nobility, the oldest work in the collection is a portrait of James IV of Scotland from 1507. The gallery holds several works by Bronckhorst and his successor, Adrian Vanson, the first significant native Scot to be a portrait painter, George Jamesone only once got the chance to paint his monarch, when Charles I visited Edinburgh in 1633. The collection includes two Jamesone self-portraits and portraits of the Scottish aristocracy, as well as some imagined portraits of heroes of Scotlands past. There are three portraits by Jamesones talented pupil John Michael Wright and ten aristocratic portraits by Sir John Baptist Medina, also wearing tartan is Flora MacDonald, painted by Richard Wilson in London after her arrest for helping Bonnie Prince Charlie to escape after the 1745 Jacobite Rebellion. The museum owns the iconic portrait of Robert Burns by Alexander Nasmyth and his subjects include Adam Smith, James Beattie and Robert Adam. The later 19th century in Scotland had no such dominant figures, but many fine artists, and saw the beginning of photography
3.
Edinburgh
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Edinburgh is the capital city of Scotland and one of its 32 local government council areas. Located in Lothian on the Firth of Forths southern shore, it is Scotlands second most populous city and the seventh most populous in the United Kingdom. The 2014 official population estimates are 464,990 for the city of Edinburgh,492,680 for the authority area. Recognised as the capital of Scotland since at least the 15th century, Edinburgh is home to the Scottish Parliament and it is the largest financial centre in the UK after London. Historically part of Midlothian, the city has long been a centre of education, particularly in the fields of medicine, Scots law, literature, the sciences and engineering. The University of Edinburgh, founded in 1582 and now one of four in the city, was placed 17th in the QS World University Rankings in 2013 and 2014. The city is famous for the Edinburgh International Festival and the Fringe. The citys historical and cultural attractions have made it the United Kingdoms second most popular tourist destination after London, attracting over one million overseas visitors each year. Historic sites in Edinburgh include Edinburgh Castle, Holyrood Palace, the churches of St. Giles, Greyfriars and the Canongate, Edinburghs Old Town and New Town together are listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site, which has been managed by Edinburgh World Heritage since 1999. It appears to derive from the place name Eidyn mentioned in the Old Welsh epic poem Y Gododdin, the poem names Din Eidyn as a hill fort in the territory of the Gododdin. The Celtic element din was dropped and replaced by the Old English burh, the first documentary evidence of the medieval burgh is a royal charter, c. 1124–1127, by King David I granting a toft in burgo meo de Edenesburg to the Priory of Dunfermline. In modern Gaelic, the city is called Dùn Èideann, the earliest known human habitation in the Edinburgh area was at Cramond, where evidence was found of a Mesolithic camp site dated to c.8500 BC. Traces of later Bronze Age and Iron Age settlements have found on Castle Rock, Arthurs Seat, Craiglockhart Hill. When the Romans arrived in Lothian at the end of the 1st century AD, at some point before the 7th century AD, the Gododdin, who were presumably descendants of the Votadini, built the hill fort of Din Eidyn or Etin. Although its location has not been identified, it likely they would have chosen a commanding position like the Castle Rock, Arthurs Seat. In 638, the Gododdin stronghold was besieged by forces loyal to King Oswald of Northumbria and it thenceforth remained under their jurisdiction. The royal burgh was founded by King David I in the early 12th century on land belonging to the Crown, in 1638, King Charles Is attempt to introduce Anglican church forms in Scotland encountered stiff Presbyterian opposition culminating in the conflicts of the Wars of the Three Kingdoms. In the 17th century, Edinburghs boundaries were defined by the citys defensive town walls
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Royal Governor of La Florida
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The colonial governors of Florida governed Florida during its colonial period. This district was subordinated to the Viceroyalty of New Spain, in 1763, following the transfer of Florida to Britain, the territory was divided into West Florida and East Florida, with separate governors. This division was maintained when Spain resumed control of Florida in 1783, the Spanish transferred control of Florida to the United States in 1821, and the organized, incorporated Florida Territory was established on March 30,1822. This became the modern State of Florida on March 3,1845, list of Governors of Florida, for a list of United States territorial and state governors of Florida since 1821. The Governors of Colonial Florida, 1565-1821 at University of West Florida
5.
Dumfriesshire
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Dumfriesshire or the County of Dumfries is lieutenancy area and historic county of Scotland. It borders Kirkcudbrightshire to the west, Ayrshire to the north-west, Lanarkshire, Peeblesshire and Selkirkshire to the north, to the south is the coast of the Solway Firth, and the English county of Cumberland. Dumfries has three subdivisions - Annandale, Eskdale and Nithsdale, for purposes of local government, it is combined with Galloway to form the council area of Dumfries and Galloway. Its total length is 65 mi, the Annan rises near the Devils Beef Tub, a remarkable chasm in the far north, and after flowing about 40 mi, mainly in a southerly course, it enters the Solway at Barnkirk Headlands and bays. It receives, on the right, the Kinnel Water, and — on the left — the Moffat Water, the Dryfe Water and the Water of Milk. Of its total course of 42 mi,12 mi belong to the White Esk,20 mi are of the Esk proper on Scottish soil and 10 mi are of the stream in its English course. Other rivers are the Lochar Water, the Kirtle Water and the River Sark, for one mile of its course the Esk, and for 7 mi of its course the River Sark, form the boundaries between Dumfriesshire and Cumberland. Loch Skeen in the north and the group of lochs around Lochmaben, are the principal lakes, a much smaller but picturesque fall of the same name, also known as Crichope Linn, occurs on the Crichope near Thornhill. Mineral waters are found at Moffat, Hartfell Spa, some three miles north, Closeburn and Brow on the Solway. By far the largest area is occupied by strata of Tarannon and these consist of greywackes, flags and shales with bands of dark graptolite shales, the finer sediments being often well ground. They are likewise repeated by inverted folds, the planes being usually inclined to the southeast. The Silurian tableland in the northwest of the county is pierced by intrusive igneous rocks in the form of dikes and bosses, of these, the granite mass of Spango Water, northeast of Kirkconnel, is an excellent example. The Upper Old Red Sandstone forms a strip on the south side of the Silurian tableland, resting uncomfortably on the Silurian rocks. It stretches from the county boundary east of the Ewes Water, some of the vents from which these igneous materials may have been discharged are found along the watershed between Liddesdale and Teviotdale in Roxburghshire. The strata of Carboniferous age are found in three areas, between Sanquhar and Kirkconnel, at Closeburn near Thornhill, in the district between Liddesdale and Ruthwell, in the first two instances the Carboniferous sediments lie in hollows worn out of the old Silurian tableland. In the Sanquhar basin the strata belong to the Coal Measures, at Closeburn and Barjarg there are beds of marine limestone, associated with sandstones and shales which probably represent marine bands in the Carboniferous Limestone series. The most important development of Carboniferous strata occurs between Liddesdale and Ruthwell, the coal seams of the Rowanburn field have been chiefly wrought, and in view of their exhaustion bores have been sunk to prove the coals beneath the red sandstone of upper Carboniferous age. The Triassic rocks rest uncomfortably on all older formations within the county and they occur in five areas, between Annan and the mouth of the Esk, the Dumfries basin, the Thornhill basin, the Lochmaben basin, Upper Annandale
6.
Scotland
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Scotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom and covers the northern third of the island of Great Britain. It shares a border with England to the south, and is surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean, with the North Sea to the east. In addition to the mainland, the country is made up of more than 790 islands, including the Northern Isles, the Kingdom of Scotland emerged as an independent sovereign state in the Early Middle Ages and continued to exist until 1707. By inheritance in 1603, James VI, King of Scots, became King of England and King of Ireland, Scotland subsequently entered into a political union with the Kingdom of England on 1 May 1707 to create the new Kingdom of Great Britain. The union also created a new Parliament of Great Britain, which succeeded both the Parliament of Scotland and the Parliament of England. Within Scotland, the monarchy of the United Kingdom has continued to use a variety of styles, titles, the legal system within Scotland has also remained separate from those of England and Wales and Northern Ireland, Scotland constitutes a distinct jurisdiction in both public and private law. Glasgow, Scotlands largest city, was one of the worlds leading industrial cities. Other major urban areas are Aberdeen and Dundee, Scottish waters consist of a large sector of the North Atlantic and the North Sea, containing the largest oil reserves in the European Union. This has given Aberdeen, the third-largest city in Scotland, the title of Europes oil capital, following a referendum in 1997, a Scottish Parliament was re-established, in the form of a devolved unicameral legislature comprising 129 members, having authority over many areas of domestic policy. Scotland is represented in the UK Parliament by 59 MPs and in the European Parliament by 6 MEPs, Scotland is also a member nation of the British–Irish Council, and the British–Irish Parliamentary Assembly. Scotland comes from Scoti, the Latin name for the Gaels, the Late Latin word Scotia was initially used to refer to Ireland. By the 11th century at the latest, Scotia was being used to refer to Scotland north of the River Forth, alongside Albania or Albany, the use of the words Scots and Scotland to encompass all of what is now Scotland became common in the Late Middle Ages. Repeated glaciations, which covered the land mass of modern Scotland. It is believed the first post-glacial groups of hunter-gatherers arrived in Scotland around 12,800 years ago, the groups of settlers began building the first known permanent houses on Scottish soil around 9,500 years ago, and the first villages around 6,000 years ago. The well-preserved village of Skara Brae on the mainland of Orkney dates from this period and it contains the remains of an early Bronze Age ruler laid out on white quartz pebbles and birch bark. It was also discovered for the first time that early Bronze Age people placed flowers in their graves, in the winter of 1850, a severe storm hit Scotland, causing widespread damage and over 200 deaths. In the Bay of Skaill, the storm stripped the earth from a large irregular knoll, when the storm cleared, local villagers found the outline of a village, consisting of a number of small houses without roofs. William Watt of Skaill, the laird, began an amateur excavation of the site, but after uncovering four houses
7.
Hotwells
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Hotwells is a district of the English port city of Bristol. It is located to the south of and below the ground of Clifton. The southern entrance to the Avon Gorge, which connects the docks to the sea, the eastern end of the area is at the roundabout where Jacobs Well Road meets Hotwell Road. Hotwells is split between the city wards of Clifton, and Hotwells and Harbourside, Hotwells is approximately 1 mile west of Bristol city centre lying just north of the Floating Harbour and the River Avon. To the north and some 300 feet higher is the suburb of Clifton, much of the built up area was originally salt marsh known as Rownham Mead. Nearly half of Rownham Mead was excavated in the early 19th century to construct the Cumberland Basin, part of the entrance lock system to the city docks. The west of the marks the beginning of the Portway road which connects Bristol to Avonmouth. Hotwells takes its name from the hot springs which bubble up through the rocks of the Avon Gorge underneath the Clifton Suspension Bridge, the springs were documented in 1480 by William Worcester, the 15th century chronicler and antiquary. He described the waters as being milky and as warm as those at Bath, in 1692 the Society of Merchant Venturers leased the springs and a pump room was built. The pump room of 1696 was demolished and replaced by Hotwells House in 1816 which was demolished when the river was widened in 1867. In the Georgian era, Hotwells was developed as a spa including the building of Dowry Square in an attempt to compete with Bath, many visitors came, including the diarist John Evelyn and the travel writer Celia Fiennes, who hunted for Bristol Diamonds in the gorge. The Jacobs Well Theatre, built in 1729, provided entertainment for visitors, despite this, Hotwells never attained the same status as Bath, and eventually the waters were found to be polluted. A new pump room was built in 1822, but were demolished in 1867 to allow for widening of the River Avon, in 1799, the physician Thomas Beddoes opened the Pneumatic Institution in Dowry Square. Free treatment was advertised for those suffering from consumption, asthma, dropsy, obstinate Venereal Complaints, the laboratory superintendent was Humphry Davy, who investigated nitrous oxide, also known as laughing gas, using equipment designed by James Watt. Under Davys supervision laughing gas parties were held, attended by such as Robert Southey, Thomas Wedgwood. Grenville Chapel, a Methodist church, was opened in 1839 in an Early English Style building, for many years it was used as a garage and is now housing association managed flats. Hotwells has several of Bristols Grade II* listed buildings, including the Church of Holy Trinity, designed by Cockrell, and Albemarle Row, also listed is the Pump House, formerly the power plant for Bristol Harbours bridges and other machinery, now a public house. Hotwells features in two 18th century novels, the Expedition of Humphry Clinker, by Tobias Smollett has scenes set at the spa
8.
Bristol
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Bristol is a city and county in South West England with a population of 449,300 in 2016. The district has the 10th largest population in England, while the Bristol metropolitan area is the 12th largest in the United Kingdom, the city borders North Somerset and South Gloucestershire, with the cities of Bath and Gloucester to the south-east and north-east, respectively. Iron Age hill forts and Roman villas were built near the confluence of the rivers Frome and Avon, Bristol received a royal charter in 1155 and was historically divided between Gloucestershire and Somerset until 1373, when it became a county of itself. From the 13th to the 18th century, Bristol was among the top three English cities after London in tax receipts, Bristol was surpassed by the rapid rise of Manchester, Liverpool and Birmingham in the Industrial Revolution. Bristol was a place for early voyages of exploration to the New World. On a ship out of Bristol in 1497 John Cabot, a Venetian, in 1499 William Weston, a Bristol merchant, was the first Englishman to lead an exploration to North America. At the height of the Bristol slave trade, from 1700 to 1807, the Port of Bristol has since moved from Bristol Harbour in the city centre to the Severn Estuary at Avonmouth and Royal Portbury Dock. Bristols modern economy is built on the media, electronics and aerospace industries. The city has the largest circulating community currency in the U. K. - the Bristol pound, which is pegged to the Pound sterling. It is connected to London and other major UK cities by road, rail, sea and air by the M5 and M4, Bristol Temple Meads and Bristol Parkway mainline rail stations, and Bristol Airport. The Sunday Times named it as the best city in Britain in which to live in 2014 and 2017, the most ancient recorded name for Bristol is the archaic Welsh Caer Odor, which is consistent with modern understanding that early Bristol developed between the River Frome and Avon Gorge. It is most commonly stated that the Saxon name Bricstow was a calque of the existing Celtic name, with Bric a literal translation of Odor. Alternative etymologies are supported with the numerous variations in Medieval documents with Samuel Seyer enumerating 47 alternative forms. The Old English form Brycgstow is commonly used to derive the meaning place at the bridge, utilizing another form, Brastuile, Rev. Dr. Shaw derived the name from the Celtic words bras, or braos and tuile. The poet Thomas Chatterton popularised a derivation from Brictricstow linking the town to Brictric and it appears that the form Bricstow prevailed until 1204, and the Bristolian L is what eventually changed the name to Bristol. Iron Age hill forts near the city are at Leigh Woods and Clifton Down, on the side of the Avon Gorge, a Roman settlement, Abona, existed at what is now Sea Mills, another was at the present-day Inns Court. Isolated Roman villas and small forts and settlements were scattered throughout the area. Bristol was founded by 1000, by about 1020, it was a centre with a mint producing silver pennies bearing its name
9.
United Kingdom
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The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom or Britain, is a sovereign country in western Europe. Lying off the north-western coast of the European mainland, the United Kingdom includes the island of Great Britain, Northern Ireland is the only part of the United Kingdom that shares a land border with another sovereign state—the Republic of Ireland. The Irish Sea lies between Great Britain and Ireland, with an area of 242,500 square kilometres, the United Kingdom is the 78th-largest sovereign state in the world and the 11th-largest in Europe. It is also the 21st-most populous country, with an estimated 65.1 million inhabitants, together, this makes it the fourth-most densely populated country in the European Union. The United Kingdom is a monarchy with a parliamentary system of governance. The monarch is Queen Elizabeth II, who has reigned since 6 February 1952, other major urban areas in the United Kingdom include the regions of Birmingham, Leeds, Glasgow, Liverpool and Manchester. The United Kingdom consists of four countries—England, Scotland, Wales, the last three have devolved administrations, each with varying powers, based in their capitals, Edinburgh, Cardiff and Belfast, respectively. The relationships among the countries of the UK have changed over time, Wales was annexed by the Kingdom of England under the Laws in Wales Acts 1535 and 1542. A treaty between England and Scotland resulted in 1707 in a unified Kingdom of Great Britain, which merged in 1801 with the Kingdom of Ireland to form the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. Five-sixths of Ireland seceded from the UK in 1922, leaving the present formulation of the United Kingdom of Great Britain, there are fourteen British Overseas Territories. These are the remnants of the British Empire which, at its height in the 1920s, British influence can be observed in the language, culture and legal systems of many of its former colonies. The United Kingdom is a country and has the worlds fifth-largest economy by nominal GDP. The UK is considered to have an economy and is categorised as very high in the Human Development Index. It was the worlds first industrialised country and the worlds foremost power during the 19th, the UK remains a great power with considerable economic, cultural, military, scientific and political influence internationally. It is a nuclear weapons state and its military expenditure ranks fourth or fifth in the world. The UK has been a permanent member of the United Nations Security Council since its first session in 1946 and it has been a leading member state of the EU and its predecessor, the European Economic Community, since 1973. However, on 23 June 2016, a referendum on the UKs membership of the EU resulted in a decision to leave. The Acts of Union 1800 united the Kingdom of Great Britain, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland have devolved self-government
10.
John Johnstone (East India Company)
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John Johnstone was a Scottish nabob, a corrupt official of the British East India Company who returned home with great wealth. Described as a shrewd and unscrupulous man, he survived several scandals. Johnstone sat in the House of Commons of Great Britain from 1774 to 1780, Johnstone was born in Edinburgh, the fifth son of Sir James Johnstone, 3rd Baronet and his wife, Barbara, daughter of Alexander Murray, 4th Lord Elibank. The Jacobite plotter Alexander Murray of Elibank was his uncle, another brother, Patrick, died in the Black Hole of Calcutta. In 1765 Johnstone married Elizabeth Caroline Keene, daughter of a Colonel Keene from Northamptonshire and they had one son and daughter. The family became powerful, and it was claimed that by the late 1750s they were involved in every major event in the British Empire. Johnstone went to Bengal in 1751, as a writer for the East India Company and he was at Dacca in 1756 when conflict broke out and was taken prisoner. In about 1760 Johnstone was placed in charge of the affairs in Midnapore. His success there led to a transfer in 1762 to Burdwan, where he developed private businesses which led to conflict with Henry Vansittart, the Governor of Bengal. This led to Johnstone being dismissed by the Company in early 1764, but the companys Court of Directors overturned the decision on 21 March 1764, and he was reinstated by May. In 1764, the Company had adopted new regulations which required its officers to sign a covenant that they would accept non-trivial gifts only with the approval of the directors. Clive forced the resignation of Johnstone, who sailed for Britain in October 1765 with an estimated at £300,000. Aged 31, Johnstone proceeded to buy estates in Scotland, first at Alva in Stirlingshire, the Johnstone family account says that he spent about a ninth of his money on the estates at Alva, Hanginghaw and Denovan, and lived quietly there until his election to Parliament. However his letters to his brother William reveal that he continued to engage in speculation, meanwhile, the directors of the East India Company moved to prosecute Johnstone for his actions. In May 1767, the General Court of the East India Company over-ruled its directors, and dropped all prosecutions against its former servants, the following year, at the 1768 general election, Johnstone contested the parliamentary borough of Haslemere in Surrey, where he was defeated. At the next election, in 1774 Johnstone used guile and money to win the seat of Dysart Burghs, which consisted of five burghs in the county of Fife, Kirkcaldy, Burntisland, Kinghorn, and Dysart. The Caledonian Mercury reported on 2 November 1774 that Johnstone did not declare his interest until after the burghs had chosen their delegates, Johnstone won the support of Dysart, and bribed the backing of Burntisland and Kinghorn delegates, winning the seat. However, at the 1780 election Johnstone lost the support of Burntisland to his opponent John Henderson, Johnstone died on 10 December 1795, aged 61, at home in Alva House, which had been remodelled and expanded in 1789 to the designs of Robert Adam
11.
Sir William Pulteney, 5th Baronet
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Sir William Pulteney, 5th Baronet, known as William Johnstone until 1767, was a Scottish advocate, landowner and politician. He was reputedly the wealthiest man in the Great Britain and he was a patron of architect Robert Adam and civil engineer Thomas Telford. His older brother was thesoldier and politician Sir James Johnstone, 4th Baronet and his younger brothers included the politician and naval officer George Johnstone and the East India Company official John Johnstone. Alexander Murray of Elibank, a Jacobite, was his uncle and he studied law, became a member of the Faculty of Advocates in 1751, and went on to become an eminent advocate. He was a brother of Commodore George Johnstone and first cousin of Patrick Ferguson, on 10 November 1760, he married heiress Frances Pulteney. Frances was the daughter of MP and government official Daniel Pulteney and first cousin once removed of William Pulteney. She inherited William’s substantial fortune and estates close to Bath in Somerset after his death in 1764, on inheriting, Johnstone changed his name in 1767 to Pulteney. Simultaneously, his daughter’s name was changed from Henrietta Laura Johnstone to Henrietta Laura Pulteney. They decided a bridge needed to be built, and Pulteney turned to his friend and fellow countryman, Adam was influenced by his travels to Florence and Venice and proposed a bridge incorporating shops along both sides. This was completed in 1773, but the Pulteneys original plans for Baths expansion did not take effect until 1788 when Bath architect Thomas Baldwin started to create a new estate, Pulteney represented Cromarty and later Shrewsbury, where he usually resided, in seven successive Parliaments. He first but unsuccessfully contested the Shrewsbury seat in 1768, in 1774 he again contested Shrewsbury, and although he was defeated, he was returned on petition the following March. On 1 June 1782, Frances died, leaving him her fortune, Pulteney invested in land in the West Indies and in what is today western New York state. In 1783, Pulteney began working with Thomas Telford, later the most eminent civil engineer of his day, when Pulteney first met him, Telford was a young stonemason from the same parish of Westerkirk in Dumfries, who had travelled to London to seek work. In 1787, Pulteney commissioned Telford to supervise restoration works at Shrewsbury Castle, following Robert Adams designs, later, as Governor of the British Fisheries Society, Pulteney appointed Telford to design the world’s then-largest herring fishing port, at Wick in Caithness. The village was named Pulteneytown and is the location of the Old Pulteney whisky distillery, Pulteney was also influential in Telfords 1801 appointment to devise a master plan to improve communications in the Highlands of Scotland, a massive project that was to last 20 years. Pulteney also took a lively interest in other engineering projects, including that of Bell Rock lighthouse. He succeeded to the Johnstone baronetcy in 1794 on the death of his elder brother James Johnstone and he was thus titled 5th Baronet Pulteney, having declined several offers of a peerage during his parliamentary career. In 1804 Pulteney married, as his wife, Margaret, widow of Andrew Stuart
12.
Kingdom of Great Britain
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The Kingdom of Great Britain, officially Great Britain, was a sovereign state in western Europe from 1 May 1707 to 31 December 1800. It did not include Ireland, which remained a separate realm, the unitary state was governed by a single parliament and government that was based in Westminster. Also after the accession of George I to the throne of Great Britain in 1714, the early years of the unified kingdom were marked by Jacobite risings which ended in defeat for the Stuart cause at Culloden in 1746. On 1 January 1801, the kingdoms of Great Britain and Ireland were merged to form the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. In 1922, five-sixths of Ireland seceded from the United Kingdom, the name Britain descends from the Latin name for the island of Great Britain, Britannia or Brittānia, the land of the Britons via the Old French Bretaigne and Middle English Bretayne, Breteyne. The term Great Britain was first used officially in 1474, in the instrument drawing up the proposal for a marriage between Edward IV of Englands daughter Cecily and James III of Scotlands son James. The Treaty of Union and the subsequent Acts of Union state that England and Scotland were to be United into one Kingdom by the Name of Great Britain. However, both the Acts and the Treaty also refer numerous times to the United Kingdom and the longer form, other publications refer to the country as the United Kingdom after 1707 as well. The websites of the UK parliament, the Scottish Parliament, the BBC, additionally, the term United Kingdom was found in informal use during the 18th century to describe the state. The new state created in 1707 included the island of Great Britain, the kingdoms of England and Scotland, both in existence from the 9th century, were separate states until 1707. However, they had come into a union in 1603. Each of the three kingdoms maintained its own parliament and laws and this disposition changed dramatically when the Acts of Union 1707 came into force, with a single unified Crown of Great Britain and a single unified parliament. Ireland remained formally separate, with its own parliament, until the Acts of Union 1800, legislative power was vested in the Parliament of Great Britain, which replaced both the Parliament of England and the Parliament of Scotland. In practice it was a continuation of the English parliament, sitting at the location in Westminster. Newly created peers in the Peerage of Great Britain were given the right to sit in the Lords. Despite the end of a parliament for Scotland, it retained its own laws. As a result of Poynings Law of 1495, the Parliament of Ireland was subordinate to the Parliament of England, the Act was repealed by the Repeal of Act for Securing Dependence of Ireland Act 1782. The same year, the Irish constitution of 1782 produced a period of legislative freedom, the 18th century saw England, and after 1707 Great Britain, rise to become the worlds dominant colonial power, with France its main rival on the imperial stage
13.
Royal Navy
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The Royal Navy is the United Kingdoms naval warfare force. Although warships were used by the English kings from the medieval period. The modern Royal Navy traces its origins to the early 16th century, from the middle decades of the 17th century and through the 18th century, the Royal Navy vied with the Dutch Navy and later with the French Navy for maritime supremacy. From the mid 18th century it was the worlds most powerful navy until surpassed by the United States Navy during the Second World War. The Royal Navy played a key part in establishing the British Empire as the world power during the 19th. Due to this historical prominence, it is common, even among non-Britons, following World War I, the Royal Navy was significantly reduced in size, although at the onset of the Second World War it was still the worlds largest. By the end of the war, however, the United States Navy had emerged as the worlds largest, during the Cold War, the Royal Navy transformed into a primarily anti-submarine force, hunting for Soviet submarines, mostly active in the GIUK gap. The Royal Navy is part of Her Majestys Naval Service, which includes the Royal Marines. The professional head of the Naval Service is the First Sea Lord, the Defence Council delegates management of the Naval Service to the Admiralty Board, chaired by the Secretary of State for Defence. The strength of the fleet of the Kingdom of England was an important element in the power in the 10th century. English naval power declined as a result of the Norman conquest. Medieval fleets, in England as elsewhere, were almost entirely composed of merchant ships enlisted into service in time of war. Englands naval organisation was haphazard and the mobilisation of fleets when war broke out was slow, early in the war French plans for an invasion of England failed when Edward III of England destroyed the French fleet in the Battle of Sluys in 1340. Major fighting was confined to French soil and Englands naval capabilities sufficed to transport armies and supplies safely to their continental destinations. Such raids halted finally only with the occupation of northern France by Henry V. Henry VII deserves a large share of credit in the establishment of a standing navy and he embarked on a program of building ships larger than heretofore. He also invested in dockyards, and commissioned the oldest surviving dry dock in 1495 at Portsmouth, a standing Navy Royal, with its own secretariat, dockyards and a permanent core of purpose-built warships, emerged during the reign of Henry VIII. Under Elizabeth I England became involved in a war with Spain, the new regimes introduction of Navigation Acts, providing that all merchant shipping to and from England or her colonies should be carried out by English ships, led to war with the Dutch Republic. In the early stages of this First Anglo-Dutch War, the superiority of the large, heavily armed English ships was offset by superior Dutch tactical organisation and the fighting was inconclusive
14.
Commodore (Royal Navy)
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Please see Commodore for other versions of this rank. Commodore is a rank of the Royal Navy above captain and below rear admiral and it has a NATO ranking code of OF-6. The rank is equivalent to brigadier in the British Army and Royal Marines, a modern commodores rank insignia consists of a 45-millimetre-wide band of gold lace, with a circle of 13-millimetre-wide lace 45 millimetres in diameter above. Modern commodores wear the insignia worn by commodores second class. Commodore has only been a rank in the Royal Navy since 1997. Before then it continued to be an appointment conferred on senior captains holding certain positions, Air commodore Commodore-in-Chief United States one-star rank Naval Service Uniform Regulations. Archived from the original on 2 February 2011
15.
HMS Romney (1762)
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HMS Romney was a 50-gun fourth rate of the Royal Navy. She served during the American War of Independence, and the French Revolutionary, launched in 1762, Romney spent most of her early career in North American waters, serving on the Newfoundland station, often as the flagship of the commander-in-chief. The ship was involved in the leading up to the American Revolution when she was sent to support the Boston commissioners enforcing the Townshend Acts in 1768. Her actions involved impressing local sailors, confiscating a vessel belonging to John Hancock and she remained in American waters for part of the ensuing war, but towards the end operated in European waters after the French entry to the conflict. Romney was laid up in ordinary or under repair for most of the subsequent years of peace and she was in the Mediterranean supporting Lord Hoods occupation of Toulon in 1793, and remained there for several years. During this time she captured the 44-gun French Sibylle, Romney briefly returned to North America and then served in the Red Sea. Assigned to blockade the Dutch coast, Romney ran aground in November 1804 while sailing to join the fleet off Den Helder and she broke up after attempts to float her off failed. HMS Romney was built to a design by Sir Thomas Slade, which was based on William Batelys plans for HMS Warwick. She was ordered from Woolwich Dockyard on 20 July 1759, built by Master Shipwright Israel Pownoll, she was launched on 8 July 1762, and completed by Joseph Harris by 4 September 1762. She was given the name Romney in November 1760, HMS Romney was commissioned in August 1762 under her first commander, Captain Robert Walsingham, but was paid off by February the following year. When she recommissioned in June 1763, it was under the command of Captain James Ferguson, Romney became the flagship of the commander of the North American station, Rear-Admiral Lord Colvill, and served in this capacity for the next three years. After a brief refit at Portsmouth, Romney recommissioned in March 1767 under Captain John Corner, while serving off North America, Romney achieved a degree of notoriety after being sent to Boston Harbour to support the commissioners, who had asked Hood for help in enforcing the Townshend Acts. She arrived on 17 May 1768, but being short of men and this was unpopular with the locals, who took to attacking the press gangs. Events escalated when the commissioners in the town ordered the seizure of the merchant vessel Liberty, when sailors and marines from Romney attempted to seize the vessel, mobs attacked them and then turned on the commissioners. Many of the officials took refuge aboard Romney, before transferring to Castle William and these incidents heightened tensions that would eventually lead to the Boston Massacre in 1770. In 1770 Romney was briefly under Captain Hyde Parker, followed by Captain Robert Linzee in October that year, duff was succeeded by Vice-Admiral John Montagu the following year. Montagu retained Romney, by now under the command of Captain Elliott Salter, Salter was replaced by Captain George Montagu, the son of Vice-Admiral Montagu, in February 1777, who remained in command of the ship for the next two years. Captain George Johnstone took over in early 1779 and served in the English Channel, on Johnstones advancement to commodore in April that year, Captain Robert Nicholas took over as Romneys commander, though she remained part of Johnstones squadron and flew his broad pendant
16.
War of the Austrian Succession
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The War of the Austrian Succession involved most of the powers of Europe over the question of Maria Theresas succession to the Habsburg Monarchy. The war included King Georges War in British America, the War of Jenkins Ear, the First Carnatic War in India, the Jacobite rising of 1745 in Scotland, and the First and Second Silesian Wars. Austria was supported by Great Britain and the Dutch Republic, the enemies of France, as well as the Kingdom of Sardinia. France and Prussia were allied with the Electorate of Bavaria, the war ended with the Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle in 1748, by which Maria Theresa was confirmed as Archduchess of Austria and Queen of Hungary, but Prussia retained control of Silesia. But the peace was soon to be shattered, when Austrias desire to recapture Silesia intertwined with the political changes in Europe. In 1740, after the death of her father, Charles VI, Maria Theresa succeeded him as Queen of Hungary, Croatia and Bohemia, Archduchess of Austria and Duchess of Parma. The complications involved in a female Habsburg ruler had been long foreseen, problems began when King Frederick II of Prussia violated the Pragmatic Sanction and invaded Silesia on 16 December 1740, using the 1537 Treaty of Brieg as a pretext. For much of the century, France approached its wars in the same way. It would let its colonies defend themselves, or would offer only minimal help, similarly, several long land borders made an effective domestic army imperative for any ruler of France. At the end of the war, France gave back its European conquests, the British—by inclination as well as for pragmatic reasons—had tended to avoid large-scale commitments of troops on the Continent. For the War of the Austrian Succession, the British were allied with Austria, by the time of the Seven Years War, they were allied with its enemy, Prussia. In marked contrast to France, Britain strove to prosecute the war in the colonies once it became involved in the war. The British pursued a strategy of naval blockade and bombardment of enemy ports. They would harass enemy shipping and attack enemy outposts, frequently using colonists from nearby British colonies in the effort and this plan worked better in North America than in Europe, but set the stage for the Seven Years War. Prince Frederick had been only 28 years of age on 31 May 1740 when his father, Frederick William I died, neither Frederick nor his father had ever been fond of Austria and its various snubs against Prussia. Emperor Charles VI had made provision for the succession of his daughter, in support of his invasion of Silesia, Frederick also used a questionable interpretation of a treaty between the Hohenzollerns and the Piasts of Brieg as pretext. In particular, Frederick feared that Augustus III, Elector of Saxony and King of Poland, was preparing to seize Silesia for himself to unite Saxony and Poland. The only recent combat experience of the Prussian Army was their participation in the War of the Polish Succession, accordingly, the Prussian Army had an uninspiring reputation and was counted as one of the many minor armies of the Holy Roman Empire
17.
Seven Years' War
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The Seven Years War was a war fought between 1754 and 1763, the main conflict occurring in the seven-year period from 1756 to 1763. It involved every European great power of the time except the Ottoman Empire and spanned five continents, affecting Europe, the Americas, West Africa, India, and the Philippines. The conflict split Europe into two coalitions, led by the Kingdom of Great Britain on one side and the Kingdom of France on the other. Meanwhile, in India, the Mughal Empire, with the support of the French, faced with this sudden turn of events, Britain aligned herself with Prussia, in a series of political manoeuvres known as the Diplomatic Revolution. Conflict between Great Britain and France broke out in 1754–1756 when the British attacked disputed French positions in North America, meanwhile, rising power Prussia was struggling with Austria for dominance within and outside the Holy Roman Empire in central Europe. In 1756, the major powers switched partners, realizing that war was imminent, Prussia preemptively struck Saxony and quickly overran it. The result caused uproar across Europe, because of Austrias alliance with France to recapture Silesia, which had been lost in a previous war, Prussia formed an alliance with Britain. Reluctantly, by following the diet, most of the states of the empire joined Austrias cause. The Anglo-Prussian alliance was joined by smaller German states, Sweden, seeking to re-gain Pomerania joined the coalition, seeing its chance when virtually all of Europe opposed Prussia. Spain, bound by the Pacte de Famille, intervened on behalf of France, the Russian Empire was originally aligned with Austria, fearing Prussias ambition on the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, but switched sides upon the succession of Tsar Peter III in 1762. Naples, Sicily, and Savoy, although sided with the Franco-Spanish alliance, like Sweden, Russia concluded a separate peace with Prussia. The war ended with the Treaty of Paris between France, Spain and Great Britain and the Treaty of Hubertusburg between Saxony, Austria and Prussia, in 1763. The Native American tribes were excluded from the settlement, a subsequent conflict, Prussia emerged as a new European great power. Although Austria failed to retrieve the territory of Silesia from Prussia its military prowess was noted by the other powers. The involvement of Portugal, Spain and Sweden did not return them to their status as great powers. France was deprived of many of its colonies and had saddled itself with heavy war debts that its inefficient financial system could barely handle. Spain lost Florida but gained French Louisiana and regained control of its colonies, e. g. Cuba and the Philippines, France and Spain avenged their defeat in 1778 when the American Revolutionary War broke out, with hopes of destroying Britains dominance once and for all. The Seven Years War was perhaps the first true world war, having taken place almost 160 years before World War I and it was characterized in Europe by sieges and the arson of towns as well as open battles with heavy losses
18.
American Revolutionary War
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From about 1765 the American Revolution had led to increasing philosophical and political differences between Great Britain and its American colonies. The war represented a culmination of these differences in armed conflict between Patriots and the authority which they increasingly resisted. This resistance became particularly widespread in the New England Colonies, especially in the Province of Massachusetts Bay. On December 16,1773, Massachusetts members of the Patriot group Sons of Liberty destroyed a shipment of tea in Boston Harbor in an event that became known as the Boston Tea Party. Named the Coercive Acts by Parliament, these became known as the Intolerable Acts in America. The Massachusetts colonists responded with the Suffolk Resolves, establishing a government that removed control of the province from the Crown outside of Boston. Twelve colonies formed a Continental Congress to coordinate their resistance, and established committees, British attempts to seize the munitions of Massachusetts colonists in April 1775 led to the first open combat between Crown forces and Massachusetts militia, the Battles of Lexington and Concord. Militia forces proceeded to besiege the British forces in Boston, forcing them to evacuate the city in March 1776, the Continental Congress appointed George Washington to take command of the militia. Concurrent to the Boston campaign, an American attempt to invade Quebec, on July 2,1776, the Continental Congress formally voted for independence, issuing its Declaration on July 4. Sir William Howe began a British counterattack, focussing on recapturing New York City, Howe outmaneuvered and defeated Washington, leaving American confidence at a low ebb. Washington captured a Hessian force at Trenton and drove the British out of New Jersey, in 1777 the British sent a new army under John Burgoyne to move south from Canada and to isolate the New England colonies. However, instead of assisting Burgoyne, Howe took his army on a campaign against the revolutionary capital of Philadelphia. Burgoyne outran his supplies, was surrounded and surrendered at Saratoga in October 1777, the British defeat in the Saratoga Campaign had drastic consequences. Giving up on the North, the British decided to salvage their former colonies in the South, British forces under Lieutenant-General Charles Cornwallis seized Georgia and South Carolina, capturing an American army at Charleston, South Carolina. British strategy depended upon an uprising of large numbers of armed Loyalists, in 1779 Spain joined the war as an ally of France under the Pacte de Famille, intending to capture Gibraltar and British colonies in the Caribbean. Britain declared war on the Dutch Republic in December 1780, in 1781, after the British and their allies had suffered two decisive defeats at Kings Mountain and Cowpens, Cornwallis retreated to Virginia, intending on evacuation. A decisive French naval victory in September deprived the British of an escape route, a joint Franco-American army led by Count Rochambeau and Washington, laid siege to the British forces at Yorktown. With no sign of relief and the situation untenable, Cornwallis surrendered in October 1781, Whigs in Britain had long opposed the pro-war Tory majority in Parliament, but the defeat at Yorktown gave the Whigs the upper hand
19.
Battle of Porto Praya
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Both squadrons were en route to the Cape of Good Hope, the British to take it from the Dutch, the French aiming to help defend it and French possessions in the Indian Ocean. The British convoy and its squadron had anchored at Porto Praya in the Cape Verde Islands to take on water. Johnstone tried to pursue the French, but was forced to call it off in order to repair the damage his ships had taken. The French gained a victory, because Suffren beat Johnstone to the Cape. France had entered the American Revolutionary War in 1778, and Britain declared war on the Dutch Republic in late 1780, when the Dutch refused to stop trading with the French, Johnstone was ordered to lead an expedition to capture the Dutch colony at the Cape of Good Hope. On 13 March 1781 Johnstone sailed from Spithead with a fleet of 37 ships, including five ships of the line, in early April the fleet anchored in the neutral harbour of Porto Praya in the Portuguese-controlled Cape Verde Islands to take on water and supplies. On 22 March he had sailed in the company of a fleet destined for North America under Admiral de Grasse, with word of Johnstones mission and an objective to reach the Cape first. When the Artésien reached the mouth of the harbour, she spotted the British fleet at anchor, Suffren, assuming that the fleet had men ashore and would be in some disarray, immediately gave orders to attack, leading the way with his flagship, the Héros. Suffrens orders were for his line to anchor before the British fleet and this he did with Héros, taking on Hero and Monmouth, the two largest British ships. Annibal soon came to his aid, and eventually drew most of the fire, Artésien, whose captain was killed early in the engagement, captured the East Indiaman Hinchinbrook in the confusion, and then a breeze blew her away from the action. Suffren, with the advantage of surprise, maintained the action with the two anchored ships for ninety minutes until damage led him to signal a retreat while maintaining fire, annibal lost her third mast on her way out of the harbour, and was slow to follow Héros. The French captured the East Indiamen Hinchinbrook and Fortitude, and the victualer Edward, the British recaptured Fortitude the next day. Suffren gathered his fleet together outside the harbour to assess damage, Terror and Infernal had gotten out to sea and the French fired on them. Despite being set on fire, Terror escaped and her crew extinguished the flames, the French captured Infernal, and took out Captain Henry Darby and some sailors and soldiers. Johnstone got his squadron ready and came out of the harbour in pursuit about three hours later, however, before he returned, he succeeded in recovering Infernal. Her remaining crew had recaptured her while the crew were off their guard. Alternatively, her crew abandoned her at the approach of the British squadron. Their prize crews also abandoned Hinchinbrook and Edward, and the British recovered the vessels a few days later, suffrens squadron reached the Cape of Good Hope on 21 June, with the troop convoys arriving nine days later
20.
Battle of Saldanha Bay (1781)
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The Battle of Saldanha Bay was a naval action that occurred off the Dutch Cape Colony on 21 July 1781 during the Fourth Anglo-Dutch War. A squadron of Royal Navy warships under the command of commodore George Johnstone captured five Dutch East India Company ships, casualties on the Dutch side were minimal if any, and there were no British casualties. Note, inconsistency in the spelling of the Dutch vessels or their masters names below reflects inconsistency among the sources, Johnstone had been directed to capture the Dutch settlement at the Cape of Good Hope. However, France had learned of his mission, and the French admiral Bailli de Suffren frustrated the mission, Suffren was en route to the Indian Ocean, but the French marine ministry had warned him so he sought to reach the Cape before Johnstone. After an indecisive encounter, between the two fleets in the Cape Verde Islands on 16 April 1781, Suffren sailed for the Cape while Johnstone remained at Porto Praya for repairs. As a result, Johnstone found the Dutch settlement well defended when he arrived there in July, the Dutch had, as a precaution, directed their westbound merchant fleet, laden with goods, to anchor in Saldanha Bay where they would be concealed from the British fleet. They were under orders to ground and burn their ships if the British were to appear, one of Johnstones frigates, flying French colours, intercepted a Dutch merchantmen that had left the bay several days earlier, heading east. The Dutch vessel was the Heldwoltenmade, Vrolyk, master, which had sailed from Saldanha Bay on 28 June carrying stores and she struck to Active on 1 July. From Heldwoltenmade Johnstone learned of the whereabouts of the Dutch fleet, bearing off Saldanha Bay Johnstone sighted the Dutch fleet, and entered the bay flying French colors. He then raised the British ensign and opened fire, totally surprising the Dutch. The Dutch could not escape and decided to destroy their ships rather than let them fall into British hands, so cut their cables, loosed their top sails. Once this was done they attempted to torch the ships, the British were successful, taking as prizes the Dankbaarheid, Perel, Schoonkop and Hoogcarspel. The Middleburg however burnt furiously and was left alone and she blew up after very nearly colliding with two of the prizes. Rattlesnake surprised and captured a hooker, laden with the sails of the captured ships, the Dutch had put the sails on board and hidden the hooker to make seizing the Indiamen more difficult. By the end of the day the British had captured another two hookers, which Johnstone could not easily remove, in order not to leave any marks of barbarity towards a settlement where our wants had so often been relieved, he gave them back to the Dutch. After the British Royal Navy captured the Dutch East Indiamen, a boat rowed out to meet the British warships, on board were the kings of Ternate and Tidore, and the princes of the respective families. The Dutch had long held these captives on Isle Robin, the British sent their prizes back to England. Only two reached their destination, and that with difficulty and after fighting in the English Channel
21.
East India Company
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The company also ruled the beginnings of the British Empire in India. The company received a Royal Charter from Queen Elizabeth I on 31 December 1600, wealthy merchants and aristocrats owned the Companys shares. Initially the government owned no shares and had only indirect control, during its first century of operation the focus of the Company was trade, not the building of an empire in India. The company eventually came to rule large areas of India with its own armies, exercising military power. Despite frequent government intervention, the company had recurring problems with its finances, the official government machinery of British India had assumed its governmental functions and absorbed its armies. Soon after the defeat of the Spanish Armada in 1588, London merchants presented a petition to Queen Elizabeth I for permission to sail to the Indian Ocean, one of them, Edward Bonventure, then sailed around Cape Comorin to the Malay Peninsula and returned to England in 1594. In 1596, three ships sailed east, however, these were all lost at sea. Two days later, on 24 September, the Adventurers reconvened and resolved to apply to the Queen for support of the project, the Adventurers convened again a year later. For a period of fifteen years the charter awarded the newly formed company a monopoly on trade with all countries east of the Cape of Good Hope and west of the Straits of Magellan. Anybody who traded in breach of the charter without a licence from the Company was liable to forfeiture of their ships and cargo, the governance of the company was in the hands of one governor and 24 directors or committees, who made up the Court of Directors. They, in turn, reported to the Court of Proprietors, ten committees reported to the Court of Directors. According to tradition, business was transacted at the Nags Head Inn, opposite St Botolphs church in Bishopsgate. Sir James Lancaster commanded the first East India Company voyage in 1601, in March 1604 Sir Henry Middleton commanded the second voyage. Early in 1608 Alexander Sharpeigh was appointed captain of the Companys Ascension, thereafter two ships, Ascension and Union sailed from Woolwich on 14 March 1607–8. Initially, the company struggled in the trade because of the competition from the already well-established Dutch East India Company. The company opened a factory in Bantam on the first voyage, the factory in Bantam was closed in 1683. During this time belonging to the company arriving in India docked at Surat. In the next two years, the company established its first factory in south India in the town of Machilipatnam on the Coromandel Coast of the Bay of Bengal
22.
Carlisle Peace Commission
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The Carlisle Peace Commission was a group of British negotiators who were sent to North America in 1778, during the American War of Independence. The commission carried an offer of self-rule to the rebellious colonies, the Second Continental Congress, aware that British troops were about to be withdrawn from Philadelphia, insisted on demanding full independence, which the commission was not authorised to grant. The Peace Commission marked the first time the British government formally agreed to negotiate with Congress, the limited authority given to both Howe and the American negotiators made it a virtual certainty that nothing would come of the meeting. The commission was empowered to offer a type of self-rule that Thomas Pownall had first proposed a decade earlier, historian David Wilson is of the opinion that the war could have been avoided if the terms it proposed had been offered in 1775. Historian Peter Whiteley, however, notes that King George was unlikely to agree to such an offer then. William Eden organized and served on the commission, but it was headed by the Earl of Carlisle, richard Jackson declined to serve after it became known that the United States and France had signed a Treaty of Alliance. The commissioners also learned of the Franco-American alliance before they set out in April, Carlisle was of the opinion that the administration had done this intentionally, since they might not otherwise have gone at all. Carlisle wrote to his wife of the situation, We all look grave, I fear nobody will think so when we return. I dont see what we have to do here, upon learning of the planned withdrawal, Carlisle appealed to Clinton to delay it, but, in rejecting the appeal, Clinton cited his orders to act without delay. This prompted Carlisle to observe that the administration wanted the commission to be a mixture of ridicule, nullity, Eden was upset that he wasnt told of Clintons orders, since the British intent to withdraw further stiffened American resolve. On June 13, the commissioners sent a package of proposals to Congress, Congress replied insisting that either American independence be recognised, or that all British forces first withdraw from the states, terms the commission was not authorised to accept. The commission attempted to appeal to public opinion, with warnings of widespread destruction, Johnstone tried to bribe some Congressmen, and the Marquis de Lafayette challenged Carlisle to a duel over some anti-French statements he had made. Gouverneur Morris wrote several essays against the proposals, the Commissioners circulated a Manifesto, which was printed in the Hartford Courant, October 10,1778. The Marquess of Rockingham, an opponent of the war, objected to the threats in the Manifesto. Johnstone sailed to Britain in August, and the commissioners returned in November 1778. The British, being unable to bring Washington to an engagement, resumed the military campaign. It was upon the failure of this effort that Benedict Arnold elected to switch over to the side of the British during the American Revolution. Portrait of a General, Sir Henry Clinton in the War of Independence, encyclopædia Britannica Blackwell The Real History of the American Revolution, Alan Axelrod
23.
West Florida
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West Florida was a region on the north shore of the Gulf of Mexico, which underwent several boundary and sovereignty changes during its history. The province was established by the British in 1763 out of lands ceded from the Spanish, as its name suggests, it was formed out of the Western part of formerly Spanish Florida, along with lands taken from French Louisiana, West Floridas capital was Pensacola. The colony included most of what is now the Florida Panhandle, plus parts of the modern U. S. states of Louisiana, Mississippi, Great Britain established West and East Florida out of land taken from France and Spain after the French and Indian War. As the newly acquired territory was too large to govern from one administrative center, British West Floridas government was based in Pensacola, and the colony included the part of formerly Spanish Florida which lay west of the Apalachicola, plus parts of formerly French Louisiana. It thus comprised all territory between the Mississippi and Apalachicola Rivers, with a boundary which shifted several times over the subsequent years. Both West and East Florida remained loyal to the British crown during the American Revolution, Spain invaded West Florida and captured Pensacola in 1781, and after the war Britain ceded both Floridas to Spain. However, the lack of defined boundaries led to a series of disputes between Spanish West Florida and the fledgling United States known as the West Florida Controversy. Disagreements with the Spanish government led American and English settlers between the Mississippi and Perdido Rivers to declare that area the independent Republic of West Florida in 1810, within months it was annexed by the United States, which claimed the region as part of the Louisiana Purchase of 1803. In 1819 the United States negotiated the purchase of the remainder of West Florida and all of East Florida in the Adams–Onís Treaty, and in 1822 both were merged into the Florida Territory. The area known as West Florida was originally claimed by Spain as part of La Florida, in 1698 the settlement of Pensacola was established in order to check French expansion into the area. Beginning in the late 17th century the French established settlements in the region as part of colonial Louisiana, notably including Mobile, after years of contention the Perdido River was agreed upon as the boundary between French Louisiana and Spanish Florida. Before 1762 France had owned and administered the land west of the Perdido River as part of La Louisiane. A secret treaty in 1762 had effectively, upon being revealed in 1764, ceded to Spain all of French Louisiana west of the Mississippi River, notably, Spain failed to make good by occupancy its title to Louisiana until 1769, when it took formal possession. Spain also ceded to Great Britain its territory of La Florida, in exchange for Cuba, as a result, for the next two decades, the British controlled nearly all of the coast of the Gulf of Mexico east of the Mississippi River. Most of the Spanish population left Florida at that time, and its colonial government records were relocated to Havana, East Florida consisted of most of the formerly Spanish Florida, and retained the old Spanish capital of St. Augustine. West Florida comprised the land between the Mississippi and Apalachicola Rivers, with Pensacola designated as its capital, the northern boundary was arbitrarily set at the 31st parallel north. Many English Americans and Scotch-Irish Americans moved to the territory at this time, the Governor of West Florida in November 1763 was George Johnstone, his lieutenant governor, Montfort Browne, was a major landowner in the province who heavily promoted its development. Seven General Assemblies were convoked between 1766 and 1778, in 1764, the British moved the northern boundary to the 32° 22′ north latitude, extending from the Yazoo to the Chattahoochee River, which included the Natchez District and the Tombigbee District
24.
Gentry
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Gentry are well-born, genteel and well-bred people of high social class, especially in the past. In the United Kingdom, the term refers to the social class of the landed aristocracy or to the minor aristocracy whose income derives from their large landholdings. The idea of gentry in the sense of noblesse is extinct in common parlance in modern day Britain. Though the untitled nobility in modern day Britain are normally termed gentry, the older sense of nobility is that of a quality identical to gentry. The fundamental social division in most parts of Europe in the Middle Ages was between the nobiles, i. e. the tenants in chivalry, and the ignobles, i. e. the villeins, citizens and burgesses. The division into nobles and ignobles in smaller regions of Europe in the Middle Ages was less due to a more rudimentary feudal order. After the Reformation, intermingling between the class and the often hereditary clerical upper class became a distinctive feature in several Nordic countries. Besides the gentry there have been other analogous traditional elites, the Indo-Europeans who settled Europe, Western Asia and the Indian subcontinent conceived their societies to be ordered in a tripartite fashion, the three parts being castes. Castes came to be divided, perhaps as a result of greater specialisation. The classic formulation of the system as largely described by Georges Dumézil was that of a priestly or religiously occupied caste, a warrior caste. Dumézil divided the Proto-Indo-Europeans into three categories, sovereignty, military, and productivity and he further subdivided sovereignty into two distinct and complementary sub-parts. One part was formal, juridical, and priestly, but rooted in this world, the other was powerful, unpredictable, and also priestly, but rooted in the other, the supernatural and spiritual world. The second main division was connected with the use of force, the military, finally, there was a third group, ruled by the other two, whose role was productivity, herding, farming, and crafts. This system of roles can be seen in the castes which flourished on the Indian subcontinent. Emperor Constantine convoked the First Council of Nicaea in 325 whose Nicene Creed included belief in one holy catholic and apostolic Church, emperor Theodosius I made Nicene Christianity the state church of the Roman Empire with the Edict of Thessalonica of 380. In this power vacuum, the Church rose to become the dominant power in the West, the classical heritage flourished throughout the Middle Ages in both the Byzantine Greek East and Latin West. During the Middle Ages it was customary to classify the population of Christendom into laboratores, bellatores, the last group, though small in number, monopolized the instruments and opportunities of culture, and ruled with almost unlimited sway half of the most powerful continent on the globe. The clergy, like Platos guardians, were placed in authority, in the latter half of the period in which they ruled, the clergy were as free from family cares as even Plato could desire
25.
Privateer
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A privateer was a private person or ship that engaged in maritime warfare under a commission of war. Captured ships were subject to condemnation and sale under prize law, a percentage share usually went to the issuer of the commission. Since robbery under arms was common to trade, all merchant ships were already armed. During war, naval resources were auxiliary to operations on land so privateering was a way of subsidizing state power by mobilizing armed ships, the letter of marque of a privateer would typically limit activity to one particular ship, and specified officers. Typically, the owners or captain would be required to post a performance bond, in the United Kingdom, letters of marque were revoked for various offences. Some crews were treated as harshly as naval crews of the time, some crews were made up of professional merchant seamen, others of pirates, debtors, and convicts. Some privateers ended up becoming pirates, not just in the eyes of their enemies, william Kidd, for instance, began as a legitimate British privateer but was later hanged for piracy. The investors would arm the vessels and recruit large crews, much larger than a merchantman or a vessel would carry. Privateers generally cruised independently, but it was not unknown for them to form squadrons, a number of privateers were part of the English fleet that opposed the Spanish Armada in 1588. Privateers generally avoided encounters with warships, as such encounters would be at best unprofitable, for instance, in 1815 Chasseur encountered HMS St Lawrence, herself a former American privateer, mistaking her for a merchantman until too late, in this instance, however, the privateer prevailed. The United States used mixed squadrons of frigates and privateers in the American Revolutionary War, the practice dated to at least the 13th century but the word itself was coined sometime in the mid-17th century. England, and later the United Kingdom, used privateers to great effect and these privately owned merchant ships, licensed by the crown, could legitimately take vessels that were deemed pirates. The increase in competition for crews on armed merchant vessels and privateers was due, in a large part, because of the chance for a considerable payoff. Whereas a seaman who shipped on a vessel was paid a wage and provided with victuals. This proved to be a far more attractive prospect and privateering flourished as a result, during Queen Elizabeths reign, she encouraged the development of this supplementary navy. Over the course of her rule, she had allowed Anglo-Spanish relations to deteriorate to the point where one could argue that a war with the Spanish was inevitable. By using privateers, if the Spanish were to take offense at the plundering of their ships, some of the most famous privateers that later fought in the Anglo-Spanish War included the Sea Dogs. In the late 16th century, English ships cruised in the Caribbean and off the coast of Spain, at this early stage the idea of a regular navy was not present, so there is little to distinguish the activity of English privateers from regular naval warfare
26.
Portugal
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Portugal, officially the Portuguese Republic, is a country on the Iberian Peninsula in Southwestern Europe. It is the westernmost country of mainland Europe, to the west and south it is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean and to the east and north by Spain. The Portugal–Spain border is 1,214 kilometres long and considered the longest uninterrupted border within the European Union, the republic also includes the Atlantic archipelagos of the Azores and Madeira, both autonomous regions with their own regional governments. The territory of modern Portugal has been settled, invaded. The Pre-Celts, Celts, Carthaginians and the Romans were followed by the invasions of the Visigothic, in 711 the Iberian Peninsula was invaded by the Moors, making Portugal part of Muslim Al Andalus. Portugal was born as result of the Christian Reconquista, and in 1139, Afonso Henriques was proclaimed King of Portugal, in the 15th and 16th centuries, Portugal established the first global empire, becoming one of the worlds major economic, political and military powers. Portugal monopolized the trade during this time, and the Portuguese Empire expanded with military campaigns led in Asia. After the 1910 revolution deposed the monarchy, the democratic but unstable Portuguese First Republic was established, democracy was restored after the Portuguese Colonial War and the Carnation Revolution in 1974. Shortly after, independence was granted to almost all its overseas territories, Portugal has left a profound cultural and architectural influence across the globe and a legacy of over 250 million Portuguese speakers today. Portugal is a country with a high-income advanced economy and a high living standard. It is the 5th most peaceful country in the world, maintaining a unitary semi-presidential republican form of government and it has the 18th highest Social Progress in the world, putting it ahead of other Western European countries like France, Spain and Italy. Portugal is a pioneer when it comes to drug decriminalization, as the nation decriminalized the possession of all drugs for use in 2001. The early history of Portugal is shared with the rest of the Iberian Peninsula located in South Western Europe, the name of Portugal derives from the joined Romano-Celtic name Portus Cale. Other influences include some 5th-century vestiges of Alan settlements, which were found in Alenquer, Coimbra, the region of present-day Portugal was inhabited by Neanderthals and then by Homo sapiens, who roamed the border-less region of the northern Iberian peninsula. These were subsistence societies that, although they did not establish prosperous settlements, neolithic Portugal experimented with domestication of herding animals, the raising of some cereal crops and fluvial or marine fishing. Chief among these tribes were the Calaicians or Gallaeci of Northern Portugal, the Lusitanians of central Portugal, the Celtici of Alentejo, a few small, semi-permanent, commercial coastal settlements were also founded in the Algarve region by Phoenicians-Carthaginians. Romans first invaded the Iberian Peninsula in 219 BC, during the last days of Julius Caesar, almost the entire peninsula had been annexed to the Roman Republic. The Carthaginians, Romes adversary in the Punic Wars, were expelled from their coastal colonies and it suffered a severe setback in 150 BC, when a rebellion began in the north
27.
Cape Colony
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The Cape of Good Hope, also known as the Cape Colony, was a British colony in present-day South Africa and Namibia, named after the Cape of Good Hope. The British colony was preceded by an earlier Dutch colony of the same name, the Dutch lost the colony to Britain following the 1795 Battle of Muizenberg, but had it returned following the 1802 Peace of Amiens. It was re-occupied by the British following the Battle of Blaauwberg in 1806, the Cape of Good Hope then remained in the British Empire, becoming self-governing in 1872, and uniting with three other colonies to form the Union of South Africa in 1910. It then was renamed the Cape of Good Hope Province, South Africa became fully independent in 1931 by the Statute of Westminster. In the north, the Orange River, also known as the Gariep River, served as the boundary for some time, from 1878, the colony also included the enclave of Walvis Bay and the Penguin Islands, both in what is now Namibia. An expedition of the Dutch East India Company led by Jan van Riebeeck established a trading post, van Riebeecks objective was to secure a harbour of refuge for Dutch ships during the long voyages between Europe and Asia. Reflecting the multi-national nature of the trading companies, the Dutch also granted vrijburger status to a number of former Scandinavian and German employees as well. In 1688 they also sponsored the immigration of two hundred French Huguenot refugees who had fled to the Netherlands upon the Edict of Fontainebleau. There was a degree of assimilation due to intermarriage. Many of the colonists who settled directly on the frontier became increasingly independent, known as Boers, they migrated westwards beyond the Cape Colonys initial borders and had soon penetrated almost a thousand kilometres inland. Some Boers even adopted a nomadic lifestyle permanently and were denoted as trekboers, Dutch traders imported thousands of slaves to the Cape of Good Hope from the Dutch East Indies and other parts of Africa. By the end of the century the Capes population swelled to about 26,000 people of European descent and 30,000 slaves. In 1795, France occupied the Seven Provinces of the Netherlands and this prompted Great Britain to occupy the territory in 1795 as a way to better control the seas in order stop any potential French attempt to reach India. The British sent a fleet of nine warships which anchored at Simons Town and, following the defeat of the Dutch militia at the Battle of Muizenberg, the Dutch East India Company transferred its territories and claims to the Batavian Republic in 1798, and ceased to exist in 1799. In 1806, the Cape, now controlled by the Batavian Republic, was occupied again by the British after their victory in the Battle of Blaauwberg. The temporary peace between Britain and Napoleonic France had crumbled into open hostilities, whilst Napoleon had been strengthening his influence on the Batavian Republic. The British, who set up a colony on 8 January 1806, hoped to keep Napoleon out of the Cape, in 1814 the Dutch government formally ceded sovereignty over the Cape to the British, under the terms of the Convention of London. The British started to settle the border of the colony
28.
Dutch Republic
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It preceded the Batavian Republic, the Kingdom of Holland, the United Kingdom of the Netherlands, and ultimately the modern Kingdom of the Netherlands. Alternative names include the United Provinces, Seven Provinces, Federated Dutch Provinces, most of the Low Countries had come under the rule of the House of Burgundy and subsequently the House of Habsburg. In 1549 Holy Roman Emperor Charles V issued the Pragmatic Sanction, Charles was succeeded by his son, King Philip II of Spain. This was the start of the Eighty Years War, in 1579 a number of the northern provinces of the Low Countries signed the Union of Utrecht, in which they promised to support each other in their defence against the Spanish army. This was followed in 1581 by the Act of Abjuration, the declaration of independence of the provinces from Philip II. In 1582 the United Provinces invited Francis, Duke of Anjou to lead them, but after an attempt to take Antwerp in 1583. After the assassination of William of Orange, both Henry III of France and Elizabeth I of England declined the offer of sovereignty, however, the latter agreed to turn the United Provinces into a protectorate of England, and sent the Earl of Leicester as governor-general. This was unsuccessful and in 1588 the provinces became a confederacy, the Union of Utrecht is regarded as the foundation of the Republic of the Seven United Provinces, which was not recognized by the Spanish Empire until the Peace of Westphalia in 1648. During the Anglo-French war, the territory was divided into groups, the Patriots, who were pro-French and pro-American and the Orangists. The Republic of the United Provinces faced a series of revolutions in 1783–1787. During this period, republican forces occupied several major Dutch cities, initially on the defence, the Orangist forces received aid from Prussian troops and retook the Netherlands in 1787. After the French Republic became the French Empire under Napoleon, the Batavian Republic was replaced by the Napoleonic Kingdom of Holland, the Netherlands regained independence from France in 1813. In the Anglo-Dutch Treaty of 1814 the names United Provinces of the Netherlands, on 16 March 1815, the son of stadtholder William V crowned himself King William I of the Netherlands. Between 1815 and 1890 the King of the Netherlands was also in a union the Grand Duke of the sovereign Grand Duchy of Luxembourg. After Belgium gained its independence in 1830, the state became known as the Kingdom of the Netherlands. The County of Holland was the wealthiest and most urbanized region in the world, the free trade spirit of the time received a strong augmentation through the development of a modern, effective stock market in the Low Countries. The Netherlands has the oldest stock exchange in the world, founded in 1602 by the Dutch East India Company, while Rotterdam has the oldest bourse in the Netherlands, the worlds first stock exchange, that of the Dutch East-India Company, went public in six different cities. Later, a court ruled that the company had to reside legally in a city so Amsterdam is recognized as the oldest such institution based on modern trading principles
29.
Dumfries
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Dumfries is a market town and former royal burgh within the Dumfries and Galloway council area of Scotland. It is near the mouth of the River Nith into the Solway Firth, Dumfries was a civil parish and became the county town of the former county of Dumfriesshire. Dumfries is nicknamed Queen of the South, people from Dumfries are known colloquially as Doonhamers. There are at least three theories on the etymology of the name, One is that the name Dumfries originates from the Scottish Gaelic name Dún Phris which means Fort of the Thicket. Another is that it comes from a Brythonic cognate of the alleged Gaelic derivation, No positive information has been obtained of the era and circumstances in which the town of Dumfries was founded. Some writers hold that Dumfries flourished as a place of distinction during the Roman occupation of North Great Britain. This is inferred from the etymology of the name, which, Dumfries was once within the borders of the Kingdom of Northumbria. The district around Dumfries was for centuries ruled over and deemed of much importance by the invading Romans. The Romanized natives received freedom as well as civilisation from their conquerors, late in the fourth century, the Romans bade farewell to the country. According to another theory, the name is a corruption of two words mean the Friars’ Hill, those who favour this idea allege that St. In the list of British towns given by the ancient historian Nennius, the name Caer Peris occurs, twelve of King Arthurs battles were recorded by Nennius in Historia Brittonum. The Battle of Tribruit, has suggested as having possibly been near Dumfries or near the mouth of the river Avon near Boness. It has been argued, the town thus characterised must have been Dumfries, however, against this argument is that the town is situated eight to nine miles distant from the sea, although the River Nith is tidal and navigable all the way into the town itself. Although at the time 1 mile upstream and on the bank of the Nith from Dumfries. The abbey ruins are on the site of the Bailey of the very early Lincluden Castle and this religious house was used for various purposes, until its abandonment around 1700. Lincluden Abbey and its grounds are now within the Dumfries urban conurbation boundary, William the Lion granted the charter to raise Dumfries to the rank of a Royal Burgh in 1186. Dumfries was very much on the frontier during its first 50 years as a burgh and it grew rapidly as a market town and port. Alexander III visited Dumfries in 1264 to plan an expedition against the Isle of Man, previously Scots, a royal castle, which no longer exists, was built in the 13th century on the site of the present Castledykes Park
30.
Patrick Murray, 5th Lord Elibank
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Patrick Murray, 5th Lord Elibank was a Scottish soldier, lawyer, author and economist. He was the son of Alexander Murray, 4th Lord Elibank, and his wife Elizabeth, daughter of George Stirling of Keir, General James Murray was his younger brother. He was uncle of Major Patrick Ferguson killed at the Battle of Kings Mountain in 1780, with the latter regiment he served at the Battle of Cartagena de Indias in 1740. After the failure of that expedition Murray quit the army and he had married in 1735, and had succeeded his father as Lord Elibank the next year. Returning to Scotland, he associated chiefly with the members of the profession, among whom he had been brought up, and seems to have been very popular. He was long in intimate relations with Lord Kames and David Hume, and he was the early patron of Dr. Robertson, and of John Home the tragic poet, both of whom were at one time ministers of country parishes near his seat in East Lothian. Upon the accession of George III, Elibank, like many other Jacobites, rallied to the house of Hanover, and this plan was, however, foiled by a severely sarcastic article by Wilkes in the North Briton on his presumed services to the Pretender. Wilkes had been a candidate for the governorship of Canada when that office was conferred on Elibanks brother. When in Scotland in 1773, Dr. Johnson paid Elibank a visit at his house of Ballencrieff Castle and he was member of the Cocoa Tree Club and The Poker Club. His Edinburgh address in his final years is given as James Court on the Lawnmarket, Elibank died at Ballencrieff on 3 August 1778. Lady Elibanks jointure-house was Kirtling Park, Cambridgeshire, the ancient seat of the North family, now pulled down, Elibanks works were, Thoughts on Money Circulation and Paper Currency, Edinburgh,1758. Queries relating to the proposed Plan of altering the Entails in Scotland, letter to Lord Hailes on his Remarks on the History of Scotland, Edinburgh,1773. Considerations on the present State of the Peerage of Scotland, Edinburgh,1774, attribution This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain, Murray, Dudley Oliphant
31.
Merchant Navy (United Kingdom)
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The Merchant Navy is the maritime register of the United Kingdom, and describes the seagoing commercial interests of UK-registered ships and their crews. Merchant Navy vessels fly the Red Ensign and are regulated by the Maritime, king George V bestowed the title of Merchant Navy on the British merchant shipping fleets following their service in the First World War, a number of other nations have since adopted the title. The Merchant Navy has been in existence for a significant period in British history, owing much of its growth to British imperial expansion. As an entity in itself it can be dated back to the 17th century and that registration of merchant seafarers failed, and it was not successfully implemented until 1835. The merchant fleet grew over years to become the worlds foremost merchant fleet, benefiting considerably from trade with British possessions in India. The lucrative trade in sugar, contraband, spices and tea helped to solidify this dominance in the 19th century, in the First and Second World Wars, the Merchant Service suffered heavy losses from German U-boat attacks. A policy of unrestricted warfare meant that merchant seafarers were also at risk of attack from enemy ships, the tonnage lost to U-boats in the First World War was around 7,759,090 tons, and around 14,661 merchant seafarers were killed. In honour of the sacrifice made by merchant seafarers in the First World War, since Edward VIII the title has automatically been held by the sovereigns George VI and Elizabeth II. To each one I would say, Yours is a no less essential to my peoples experience than that allotted to the Navy, Army. Upon you the Nation depends for much of its foodstuffs and raw materials and you have a long and glorious history, and I am proud to bear the title Master of the Merchant Navy and Fishing Fleets. I know that you carry out your duties with resolution and with fortitude. God keep you and prosper you in your great task, in the Second World War, German U-boats sank nearly 14.7 million tons of Allied shipping, which amounted to 2,828 ships. The United Kingdom alone suffered the loss of 11.7 million tons,32,000 merchant seafarers were killed aboard convoy vessels in the war, but along with the Royal Navy, the convoys successfully imported enough supplies to allow an Allied victory. In honour of the made in the two World Wars, the Merchant Navy lays wreaths of remembrance alongside the armed forces in the annual Remembrance Day service on 11 November. Despite maintaining its dominant position for decades, the decline of the British Empire in the mid-20th century inevitably led to the decline of the merchant fleet. For example, in 1939 the Merchant Navy was the largest in the world with 33% of total tonnage, by 2012, the Merchant Navy - yet still remaining one of the largest in the world - held only 3% of total tonnage. According to the CIA World Fact Book, in 2010 the Merchant Navy consisted of 504 UK registered ships of 1,000 gross register tons or over. In addition, UK merchant marine interests possessed a further 308 ships registered in countries and 271 foreign-owned ships were registered in the UK
32.
Fire ship
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An explosion ship or hellburner was a variation on the fire ship, intended to cause damage by blowing up in proximity to enemy ships. Fireships were famously and cleverly used to great effect by the outgunned English fleet against the Spanish Armada during the Battle of Gravelines. Possibly the oldest account of the use of a fire ship is recorded by the Greek historian Thucydides on the occasion of the failed Athenian Sicilian Expedition. The Athenians, however, alarmed for their ships, contrived means for stopping it and putting it out, and checking the flames and the nearer approach of the merchantman, thus escaped the danger. A fire ship was used in the Battle of Red Cliffs on the Yangtze River when Huang Gai assaulted the enemy force with a fire ship filled with bundles of kindling, dry reeds. Fire ships were employed by the Vandals against the armada sent by the Eastern Roman Empire. The invention of Greek fire in 673 increased the use of ships, at first by the Greeks. In 951 and again in 953 Russian fleets narrowly escaped destruction by fire ships, while fire ships were used in the Medieval period, notably during the crusades, these were typically ships that were set up with combustibles on an adhoc basis. The first modern fireships were put to use in early 17th century Dutch and their use increased throughout that century, with purpose-built fireships a permanent part of many naval fleets, ready to be deployed whenever necessary. Fire ships continued to be used, sometimes to great effect such as by the U. S, warships of the age of sail were highly vulnerable to fire. Made of wood, with seams caulked with tar, ropes greased with fat, accidental fires destroyed many ships, so fire ships presented a terrifying threat. Fire ships were most devastating against fleets which were at anchor or otherwise restricted in movement, at sea, a well-handled ship could evade a fire ship and disable it with cannon fire. The role of incendiary vessels changed throughout the age of the fire ship. The systematic use of ships as part of naval actions peaked around the Third Anglo-Dutch War. By this time, however, admirals and captains had become experienced with the limitations of fire ship attacks and had learned how to avoid them during battle. Great numbers of ships were expended during the Third Dutch War without destroying enemy men-of-war. Though fire ships as a specified class sailed with the British Royal Navy for another century, they would never have a significant impact on a naval victory. The last modern fire ship in the British Royal Navy was Thais, in the Greek War of Independence, 1821-1832, the extensive use of fire ships by the Greeks allowed them to counterbalance the Turkish naval superiority in terms of ship size and artillery power
33.
Hispaniola
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Hispaniola is the 22nd-largest island in the world, located in the Caribbean island group, the Greater Antilles. It is the second largest island in the Caribbean after Cuba, two sovereign nations share the 76, 192-square-kilometre island. The only other shared island in the Caribbean is Saint Martin, Hispaniola is the site of the first permanent European settlement in the Americas, founded by Christopher Columbus on his voyages in 1492 and 1493. The island was called by various names by its native people, fernández de Oviedo and de las Casas both recorded that the island was called Haiti by the Taíno. DAnghiera added another name, Quizqueia, but later shows that the word does not seem to derive from the original Arawak Taíno language. When Columbus took possession of the island in 1492, he named it Insula Hispana, meaning the Spanish Island in Latin and La Isla Española, meaning the Spanish Island, in Spanish. De las Casas shortened the name to Española, and when d‘Anghiera detailed his account of the island in Latin, he rendered its name as Hispaniola. Due to Taíno, Spanish and French influences on the island, historically the whole island was referred to as Haiti, Hayti, Santo Domingo, St. Domingue. The name Haïti was adopted by Haitian revolutionary Jean-Jacques Dessalines in 1804, as the name of independent Saint-Domingue. It was also adopted as the name of independent Santo Domingo, as the Republic of Spanish Haiti. Christopher Columbus inadvertently landed on the island during his first voyage across the Atlantic in 1492, where his flagship, a contingent of men were left at an outpost christened La Navidad, on the north coast of present-day Haiti. The island was inhabited by the Taíno, one of the indigenous Arawak peoples, the Taino were at first tolerant of Columbus and his crew, and helped him to construct La Navidad on what is now Môle-Saint-Nicolas, Haiti, in December 1492. European colonization of the began in earnest the following year. In 1496 the town of Nueva Isabela was founded, after being destroyed by a hurricane, it was rebuilt on the opposite side of the Ozama River and called Santo Domingo. It is the oldest permanent European settlement in the Americas, several 16th century writers estimated the 1492 population of Hispaniola at over 1 million people. Twentieth-century estimates of the range from 60,000 to 8,000,000. Harsh enslavement by Spanish colonists, redirection of food supplies and labor towards the colonists, had a impact on both mortality and fertility over the first quarter century. Colonial administrators and Dominican and Hyeronimite priests observed that the search for gold, demographic data from two provinces in 1514 shows a low birth rate consistent with a 3. 5% annual population decline
34.
Midshipman
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A midshipman is an officer cadet or a commissioned officer candidate of the junior-most rank, in the Royal Navy, United States Navy, and many Commonwealth navies. Commonwealth countries which use the rank include Canada, Australia, Bangladesh, Namibia, New Zealand, South Africa, India, Pakistan, Singapore, Sri Lanka, and Kenya. Beginning in the 18th century, an officer candidate was rated as a midshipman. After serving at least three years as a midshipman or masters mate, he was eligible to take the examination for lieutenant, promotion to lieutenant was not automatic, and many midshipmen took positions as masters mates for an increase in pay and responsibility aboard ship. Midshipman began to mean an officer cadet at a naval college, trainees now spent around four years in a college and two years at sea prior to promotion to commissioned officer rank. Between the mid-19th and mid-20th centuries, time at sea declined to less than a year as the age was increased from 12 to 18. Ranks equivalent to midshipman exist in other navies. Using US midshipman or pre-fleet board UK midshipman as the basis for comparison, using post-fleet board UK midshipman for comparison, the rank would be the most junior commissioned officer in the rank structure, and similar to a US ensign in role and responsibility. Today, these ranks all refer to cadets, but historically they were selected by the monarchy. The first published use of the term midshipman was in 1662, the word derives from an area aboard a ship, amidships, but it refers either to the location where midshipmen worked on the ship, or the location where midshipmen were berthed. By the 18th century, four types of midshipman existed, midshipman, midshipman extraordinary, midshipman, by 1794, all midshipmen were considered officer candidates, and the original rating was phased out. Beginning in 1661, boys who aspired to become officers were sent by their families to serve on ships with a letter of service from the crown, and were paid at the same rate as midshipmen. Their official rating was volunteer-per-order, but they were known as Kings letter boys. Beginning in 1677, Royal Navy regulations for promotion to lieutenant required service as a midshipman, by the Napoleonic era, the regulations required at least three years of services as a midshipman or masters mate and six years of total sea time. Sea time was earned in various ways, most boys served this period at sea in any lower rating, either as a servant of one of the ships officers, a volunteer, or a seaman. By the 1730s, the rating volunteer-per-order was phased out and replaced with a system where prospective midshipmen served as servants for officers. For example, a captain was allowed four servants for every 100 men aboard his ship, the school was unpopular in the Navy, because officers enjoyed the privilege of having servants and preferred the traditional method of training officers via apprenticeship. Volunteers were paid £6 per year, by 1816, the rating of midshipman ordinary was phased out, and all apprentice officers were rated as midshipmen
35.
Arthur Forrest (Royal Navy officer)
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Arthur Forrest was an officer of the Royal Navy who saw service during the War of the Austrian Succession and the Seven Years War, rising to the rank of captain and the post of commodore. Details of Forrests parents and upbringing are unknown, but he had served in the merchant navy as mate or master and he volunteered to serve as a pilot, passed his lieutenants examination by December 1740, and was given command of the sloop Pilot. During this time he was under orders to train officers in the pilotage of Port Royal and his skills led him to take a distinguished part in the Battle of Cartagena de Indias in March 1741. Further appointments followed, to the sloop HMS Hawk in November 1742, during this time he served on the home station and in convoy service to America. In 1745 he was promoted to post captain and given command of HMS Wager, in which he took out a large convoy to Newfoundland. In November he was at Boston, where, by pressing some seamen contrary to custom, he got into a troublesome dispute, ending in a serious fray. The boatswain of the Wager was arrested on a charge of murder, was convicted, and sentenced to death, Forrest afterwards went to the West Indies, where, in the following year, he captured a Spanish privateer of much superior force. In 1755 he commanded HMS Rye, in which he was sent to the West Indies. The French returned to the Cape, where they refitted and then proceeded on their voyage, while Forrest went back to Jamaica. In August 1759 he took the Augusta to England, and on paying her off, in April 1760, commissioned HMS Centaur, one of the ships taken by Boscawen at the Battle of Lagos in 1759. After a few months with the fleet in the Bay of Biscay, he went out to the Jamaica Station, where, by the death of Rear-Admiral Charles Holmes in November 1761, he was left senior officer. This led to a correspondence, in which the admiralty so far yielded as to order him to be reimbursed for the expenses he had incurred. In 1769, however, he was sent out to the station as commander-in-chief. His time in the appointment was short-lived, he died at Jamaica on 26 May 1770 and he had married Frederica Marina Cecilia, probably a daughter of Colonel Lynch of Jamaica, by whom he had two sons and five daughters. Mrs. Forrest survived her husband many years, and died in 1802 and his eldest daughter, Bridget, married the diarist John Byng, 5th Viscount Torrington. Admiral Arthur FORREST Biography, Genealogy and Related Lines of Descent Geoffrey M. Ayling, Ian Smith, The Forrest Project, san Francisco CA USA, ISBN 978-0-9872157-2-7
36.
Prize money
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Prize money has a distinct meaning in warfare, especially naval warfare, where it was a monetary reward paid out under prize law to the crew of a ship for capturing or sinking an enemy vessel. The claims for the bounty are usually heard in a Prize Court, in the 16th and 17th centuries, captured ships were legally Crown property. This practice was formalised via the Cruisers and Convoys Act of 1708, an Admiralty Prize Court was established to evaluate claims and condemn prizes, and the scheme of division of the money was specified. This system, with changes, lasted throughout the colonial, Revolutionary. If the prize were an enemy merchantman, the money came from the sale of both ship and cargo. If it were a warship, and repairable, usually the Crown bought it at a price, additionally. Prizes were keenly sought, for the value of a ship was often such that a crew could make a years pay for a few hours fighting. Hence boarding and hand-to-hand fighting remained common long after naval cannons developed the ability to sink the enemy from afar, all ships in sight of a capture shared in the prize money, as their presence was thought to encourage the enemy to surrender without fighting until sunk. The distribution of money to the crews of the ships involved persisted until 1918. The following scheme for distribution of money was used for much of the Napoleonic wars. Two eighths of the money went to the captain or commander. One eighth of the went to the admiral or commander-in-chief who signed the ships written orders. One eighth was divided among the lieutenants, sailing master, and captain of marines, one eighth was divided among the wardroom warrant officers, standing warrant officers, lieutenant of marines, and the masters mates. One eighth was divided among the junior warrant and petty officers, their mates, sergeants of marines, captains clerk, surgeons mates, the final two eighths were divided among the crew, with able and specialist seamen receiving larger shares than ordinary seamen, landsmen, and boys. Perhaps the greatest amount of money awarded was for the capture of the Spanish frigate Hermione on 31 May 1762 by the British frigate Active. The two captains, Herbert Sawyer and Philemon Pownoll, received about £65,000 apiece, while each seaman, in January 1807, the frigate Caroline took the Spanish ship San Rafael as a prize, netting Captain Peter Rainier £52,000. For more on the Prize Court during World War I, see also Maxwell Hendry Maxwell-Anderson, the Command of the Ocean, A Naval History of Britain 1649-1815. Nelsons Navy - Prize Money The Gunroom, a site on the Aubrey-Maturin novels with many historical links
37.
HMS Trial (1744)
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HMS Trial or Tryall was a 10-gun two-masted Hind-class sloop of the Royal Navy, designed by Joseph Allin and built by him at Deptford Dockyard on the Thames River, England. She was launched on 17 July 1744 and she and her sister ship, Jamaica, were the only sloops to be built in the Royal Dockyards between 1733 and 1748. After more than 28 years service, she was paid off at Woolwich Dockyard in August 1772, Admiralty orders for Trials construction were issued on 18 August 1743, with work commencing in September. The initial construction costs were ₤5,050, including fittings, small repairs and refitting were conducted at Deptford Dockyard in 1754 and 1757, followed by more major works over ten months in 1767–68. The ship was armed with ten six-pounder cannons and 14 1⁄2-pounder swivel guns. In 1748, the number of cannons was increased to 14. Trial was commissioned in July 1744 and launched on 9 November for service in the ongoing War of the Austrian Succession, the voyage was not a success, after five days at sea, Trial encountered heavy weather and ran aground at Lindisfarne. A salvage crew was able to drag her off shore. In the spring of 1745, she returned to sea under Commander Richard Barry, returning southward in October, Trial engaged and defeated the San Ziraco, a 10-gun Spanish privateer. Barry was transferred to another vessel shortly afterward, and replaced by Commander Robert Haldane, under Haldanes command, Trial took part in an unsuccessful hunt for French vessels off the Outer Hebrides, including the pursuit of two enemy men-of-war sighted near Stornoway in May. Haldane left the ship in February 1748 and was replaced by Commander Edward Le Cras, peace with France was declared in April, and Trial was moved from active service into three uneventful years as a convoy escort in the Mediterranean and off Nova Scotia. Her years at sea had left her in need of repair, after a year tied up at Deptford Dockyard, she underwent repairs to her hull and fittings in 1754, for a cost of £3,046. Trial was recommissioned in March 1754 under Commander John Falkingham, War with France was again imminent, and in June Trial was sent to the British Leeward Islands to assist in defending British settlements in the Caribbean and North America. On arrival, a number of her crew were reported as sick or infirm and were discharged ashore in Georgia, in September 1757, Trial was surveyed and returned to Deptford for repairs, which were completed by November at a cost of £1,647. She returned to the Caribbean in March 1758 under Commander Thomas Cookson, Trial continued her Caribbean patrols, but was generally surplus to requirements and was decommissioned in October 1759. Restored to service in November 1761 under Commander James Cunningham, she was assigned to cruising and patrolling in the English Channel until the declaration of peace with France in February 1763, in April 1764 Trial was recommissioned under Commander James Wallace. She sailed for the Bahamas two months later and her years of active service had taken their toll, however, and she was decommissioned again in September. An extensive refit was required, but no progress was made for three years, despite a fresh naval survey in October 1766, repairs finally commenced in December 1767, lasting eleven months and costing £5,442, significantly more than the original construction cost of the ship
38.
Board of Admiralty
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The Board of Admiralty was established in 1628 when Charles I put the office of Lord High Admiral into commission. This system remained in place until 1832, when the Board of Admiralty became the authority charged with both administrative and operational control of the navy when the Navy Board was abolished. The office of Lord High Admiral was created in around 1400 to take charge of the Royal Navy and it was one of the Great Officers of State. The office could be exercised by an individual, by the Crown directly, in 1679 this was changed, and the number of Commissioners was reduced to seven, who were to receive salaries and need not be members of the Privy Council. The eighteenth century Board of Admiralty usually contained a preponderance of civilians, although there was a naval element and often a sea officer was First Lord. The Lords Commissioners were all active politicians, even the naval members, after 1806 the First Lord was always a civilian and a senior member of the ministry, while the separate post of First Sea Lord was evolved for the senior professional member. Until the absorption of the High Court of Admiralty into the Court of Judicature they nominally retained, as executors of the office of Lord High Admiral, their centuries-old link with that court. When the Navy Board was abolished in 1832 and responsibility for the administration of the Navy passed to the Board of Admiralty. It now consisted of the First Lord of the Admiralty, four Naval Lords, known from 1904 as Sea Lords, and a Civil Lord, with a Parliamentary and a Permanent Secretary. Between 1832 and 1869 following the abolition of Navy Board a number of Civilian Naval Officials were also appointed as members. During the First World War the number of Sea Lords was increased at one time to eight, in 1938 the title of the Board member designated Assistant Chief of Naval Staff was altered to Fifth Sea Lord and Chief of Naval Air Services. For fuller details of Board membership during this period see The Second World War, duties were assigned to each Lord Commissioner by the First Lord and defined in a Minute of the Board, and amended form time to time. The Secretary to the Admiralty to be posted in the room of each Member of the Board, more informally, they were known in short as The Lords of the Admiralty. That, for example, is the term used throughout the well-known Horatio Hornblower series of historical novels. In 2011, currently Queen Elizabeth II bestowed the title of Lord High Admiral on the Duke of Edinburgh. nationalarchives. gov. uk/details/r/C706. © Crown copyright, which is available under the Open Government Licence v3.0 The Statutes of the United Kingdom of Great Britain, London, By His Majestys Statute and Law Printer. Naval Administration, The Constitution, Character, and Functions of the Board of Admiralty, the Admiralty, Reforms and Re-organization, 1868-1892. The Origin and Constitution of the Admiralty and Navy Boards, to which is added an Account of the various Buildings in which the Business of the Navy has been transacted from time to time, London, For Her Majestys Stationary Office
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George Anson, 1st Baron Anson
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Admiral of the Fleet George Anson, 1st Baron Anson, PC FRS, was a Royal Navy officer. Anson served as an officer during the War of the Spanish Succession. He then undertook a circumnavigation of the globe during the War of Jenkins Ear, Anson commanded the fleet that defeated the French Admiral de la Jonquière at the First Battle of Cape Finisterre during the War of the Austrian Succession. Anson went on to be First Lord of the Admiralty during the Seven Years War and he was born on 23 April 1697, at Shugborough Manor. In February 1712, amid the War of the Spanish Succession, Anson entered the navy at the age of 15 and he served as a volunteer aboard the fourth-rate HMS Ruby, before transferring to the third-rate HMS Monmouth. Promoted to lieutenant on 17 March 1716, he was assigned to the fourth-rate HMS Hampshire in service as part of a Baltic Sea fleet commanded by Admiral John Norris. Anson transferred to the aging fourth-rate HMS Montagu in March 1718 and he then transferred to the second-rate HMS Barfleur, flagship of Admiral George Byng, in October 1719. Anson was promoted to commander in June 1722 and given command of the small 8-gun HMS Weazel, Ansons orders were to suppress smuggling between Britain and Holland, a task he swiftly and effectively performed. After setting off later than planned, Ansons squadron encountered successive disasters, two of his vessels, the fifth-rate HMS Pearl and the fourth-rate HMS Severn, failed to round the Horn and returned home. Meanwhile, the sixth-rate HMS Wager was wrecked off the coast of Chile, the lateness of the season forced him to round Cape Horn in very stormy weather, and the navigating instruments of the time did not allow for exact observations. By the time Anson reached the Juan Fernández Islands in June 1741, in the absence of any effective Spanish force on the coast, he was able to harass the enemy and to sack the small port city of Paita in Peru in November 1741. The steady decrease of his crews by scurvy and the state of his remaining consorts compelled him to collect all the remaining survivors in Centurion. He rested at the island of Tinian, and then made his way to Macao in November 1742, the charts captured with the ship added many islands to the British knowledge of the Pacific, including the Anson Archipelago. Anson took his back to Macao, sold her cargo to the Chinese, kept the specie. Passing a French fleet then patrolling the Channel by means of a thick fog, the prize money earned from the capture of the galleon made Anson a rich man for life and bought him considerable political influence. He initially refused promotion to rear-admiral of the blue, however, Anson was elected Member of Parliament for Hedon in Yorkshire in 1744. He became a Lord Commissioner of the Admiralty on the Admiralty board led by the Duke of Bedford in December 1744, Anson commanded the fleet that defeated the Marquis de la Jonquière at the First Battle of Cape Finisterre in May 1747 during the War of the Austrian Succession. His force captured the entire French squadron, four ships of the line and he was elevated to the peerage as Lord Anson, Baron of Soberton, in the County of Southampton on 11 June 1747
Great Britain
Royal Navy
