Samurai were the hereditary military nobility and officer caste of medieval and early-modern Japan from the 12th century to their abolition in the 1870s. They were the well-paid retainers of the daimyo, they had high prestige and special privileges such as wearing two swords. They cultivated the bushido codes of martial virtues, indifference to pain, unflinching loyalty, engaging in many local battles. During the peaceful Edo era they became the stewards and chamberlains of the daimyo estates, gaining managerial experience and education. In the 1870s they were 5% of the population; the Meiji Revolution ended their feudal roles and they moved into professional and entrepreneurial roles. Their memory and weaponry remain prominent in Japanese popular culture. In Japanese, they are referred to as bushi, meaning'warrior', or buke. According to translator William Scott Wilson: "In Chinese, the character 侍 was a verb meaning'to wait upon','accompany persons' in the upper ranks of society, this is true of the original term in Japanese, saburau.

In both countries the terms were nominalized to mean'those who serve in close attendance to the nobility', the Japanese term saburai being the nominal form of the verb." According to Wilson, an early reference to the word samurai appears in the Kokin Wakashū, the first imperial anthology of poems, completed in the first part of the 10th century. By the end of the 12th century, samurai became entirely synonymous with bushi, the word was associated with the middle and upper echelons of the warrior class; the samurai were associated with a clan and their lord, were trained as officers in military tactics and grand strategy. While the samurai numbered less than 10% of Japan's population, their teachings can still be found today in both everyday life and in modern Japanese martial arts. Following the Battle of Hakusukinoe against Tang China and Silla in 663 AD which led to a retreat from Korean affairs, Japan underwent widespread reform. One of the most important was that of the Taika Reform, issued by Prince Naka-no-Ōe in 646 AD.

This edict allowed the Japanese aristocracy to adopt the Tang dynasty political structure, culture and philosophy. As part of the Taihō Code of 702 AD, the Yōrō Code, the population was required to report for the census, a precursor for national conscription. With an understanding of how the population was distributed, Emperor Monmu introduced a law whereby 1 in 3–4 adult males were drafted into the national military; these soldiers were required to supply their own weapons, in return were exempted from duties and taxes. This was one of the first attempts by the Imperial government to form an organized army modeled after the Chinese system, it was called "Gundan-Sei" by historians and is believed to have been short-lived. The Taihō Code classified most of the Imperial bureaucrats into 12 ranks, each divided into two sub-ranks, 1st rank being the highest adviser to the Emperor; those of 6th rank and below were dealt with day-to-day affairs. Although these "samurai" were civilian public servants, the modern word is believed to have derived from this term.

Military men, would not be referred to as "samurai" for many more centuries. In the early Heian period, during the late 8th and early 9th centuries, Emperor Kanmu sought to consolidate and expand his rule in northern Honshū, sent military campaigns against the Emishi, who resisted the governance of the Kyoto-based imperial court. Emperor Kanmu introduced the title of sei'i-taishōgun, or shōgun, began to rely on the powerful regional clans to conquer the Emishi. Skilled in mounted combat and archery, these clan warriors became the Emperor's preferred tool for putting down rebellions. Though this is the first known use of the title shōgun, it was a temporary title and was not imbued with political power until the 13th century. At this time, the Imperial Court officials considered them to be a military section under the control of the Imperial Court. Emperor Kanmu disbanded his army. From this time, the emperor's power declined. While the emperor was still the ruler, powerful clans around Kyoto assumed positions as ministers, their relatives bought positions as magistrates.

To amass wealth and repay their debts, magistrates imposed heavy taxes, resulting in many farmers becoming landless. Through protective agreements and political marriages, the aristocrats accumulated political power surpassing the traditional aristocracy; some clans were formed by farmers who had taken up arms to protect themselves from the Imperial magistrates sent to govern their lands and collect taxes. These clans formed alliances to protect themselves against more powerful clans, by the mid-Heian period, they had adopted characteristic armor and weapons; the Kamakura period saw the rise of the samurai under Shogun rule as they were “entrusted with the security of the estates” and were symbols of the ideal warrior and citizen. The Emperor and non-warrior nobility employed these warrior nobles. In time they amassed enough manpower and political backing, in the form of alliances with one another, to establish the first samurai-dominated government; as the power of these regional clans grew, their chief was a distant relative of the Emperor and a lesser member of either the Fujiwara, Minamoto, or Taira clans.

Though sent to provincial areas for fixed four-year terms as magistrates, the toryo declined to return to the capital

William Jermyn Conlin better known by his stage name William J. Florence, was a US actor and playwright. Florence awarded the ribbon of the French Societe Histoire Dramatique, he was co-founder with Walter M. Fleming of the Shriners, a Masonic Order. Born of Irish parents and raised in New York City, Florence worked at various jobs before becoming a call boy at the Old Bowery Theater. While working to support his widowed mother and her seven younger children, he rehearsed plays at night, in 1850 he began to do dialect impersonations. In 1853 he married Malvina Pray, thereafter the two appeared together on the stage. Florence gained national prominence with a forty-year career in which he excelled at playing the humorous and poetic Irish character. Ticket-of-Leave Man was presented by him more than one thousand times on national tours. In his years he partnered with actor Joseph Jefferson as half of a comedy duo. From Malvina's observation of wealthy American on vacation abroad, Florence asked Benjamin Edward Woolf to write The Mighty Dollar, that the couple would perform in over 2,500 times during the mid-1870s and well into the 1880s.

Conlin was fond of Florence, where he had an apartment, adopted the city for his stage name. At some point after he became famous under this name, he secured the legal right to it. Florence's first success was in A Row at the Lyceum, his last appearance was as Zekiel Homespun in a production of Heir-at-Law. Florence is interred at Green-Wood Cemetery in Brooklyn, New York McKay and Wingate, Famous American Actors of To-Day Matthews and Hutton and Actresses of Great Britain and the United States Winter, The Wallet of Time This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Gilman, D. C.. New International Encyclopedia. New York: Dodd, Mead. Green-Wood Cemetery Burial Search "Florence, William Jermyn". Encyclopædia Britannica. 1911. Malvina Pray, during her career W. J. Florence

John Elmes Beale was an English politician and merchant. He was Mayor of Bournemouth in 1902, 1903 and 1904, he founded Bournemouth's largest department store. Born in Hartford Terrace, Melcombe Regis, England, Beale was a stalwart of the Richmond Hill Congregational Church to which his great friend, Mr. Okey, introduced him. Beale was responsible for securing the services of the Rev. J. D. Jones for the church, after a previous preacher left, he took over Mr. Okey's draper's store in Commercial Road and turned it into Bealesons. Mr Okey gave up the business following the death of three of his four sons in World War I. John Elmes Beale died at age 80 in Boscombe, Hampshire, he and his wife, Sarah Ann Beale née Hussey Brickell, are buried in Wimborne Road Cemetery