Handsworth, South Yorkshire
Handsworth is a suburb of south eastern Sheffield, in South Yorkshire, England. It covers an area of 5 square miles, has a population of 15,000, it has five schools, four churches, a variety of small shops, a large supermarket, a range of commercial and light industrial businesses. The area is signposted from M1 Junction 31; some of the older residents of Handsworth still refer to it as "the village". Politically, Handsworth is part of the Woodhouse ward in the Sheffield South East parliamentary constituency. There is little recorded detail about Handsworth before the Norman Conquest. Roman soldiers had a settlement and fort nearby at Templeborough, although no evidence of Roman remains have been unearthed in Handsworth. Names such as Ballifield indicate Scandinavian settlements at the same site. Under Norman rule, the parish of Handsworth grew to include Darnall, Gleadless and Woodhouse. In the Domesday Book account, Handsworth is spelt "Handeswrde" and is joined to Whiston to form a single manor.
Before the Conquest, Torchil is reported as being the Lord of the Manor, but following the Conquest lordship was transferred to Robert, Count of Mortain, the half-brother of William the Conqueror. Richard de Sourdeval held it for Count Robert; the Manor passed, through marriage, to the Paynel and Lovetot families. It was a member of the Lovetot family. In a survey in 1379 there were reported to be nine smiths and one cutler in Sheffield, but by that time, Handsworth had 13 smiths and three cutlers; the ancient parish of Handsworth had its own identity and history as extensive as that of the city into which it became absorbed. St Mary's was built in about 1170, it was founded by the Norman lord William de Lovetot, or his father Richard, the foundations were planned by William Paynel. Close to St Mary's Church is the Cross Keys Inn, a old building that has not always been a public house, it was built in the mid 13th century as a Church House for the chaplains and lay clerks attached to St Mary's.
Little of the Tudor rectory remains today. Handsworth's parish registers, recording all baptisms and burials which took place in the parish of St Mary's, date back to 1558, the year that Queen Elizabeth I ascended the throne. St Mary's Parish Centre holds displays of artefacts, records and maps relating to Handsworth and its history. One aspect of Handsworth history which remains much alive is the traditional sword dancing; the origins of this ancient ritual are unknown, but written records held by the team go back to the middle of the nineteenth century. Using long steel swords, a team of eight men perform a dance which lasts about nine minutes and ends with all the swords being interlocked and held aloft by one man. Traditional music is played and the dancers wear a military style uniform similar to the Dragoons. There were two clowns who performed for the crowd and collected money. At Christmas time, the sword dancers would tour the local villages and public houses; the sword dancing continued until the First World War and there was a revival of interest during the late 1920s.
It survived through the Second World War because the sword dancers had priority occupations in the coal mines and in the steel works, so they were not conscripted. The traditional dancing on Boxing Day in Handsworth and Woodhouse was revived in 1963, in 1976 the clowns were reintroduced, though they lapsed; the historic sight of Handsworth sword dancing can still be seen on Boxing Day. They dance in front of St Mary's Church, Handsworth, at noon; the dancers and their audience adjourn to the pub for well-earned refreshment and communal carol singing. Handsworth has been represented by three teams notable teams in senior football - Handsworth F. C. - Competed in the 1921-22 FA Cup, although little else is known about the club Handsworth F. C. - The second club to take the name of Handsworth F. C. was formed in 2003, after competing in the Sheffield County Senior League for seven years they won promotion to the Northern Counties East League. After two years in the NCEL they were relegated back to the County Senior League as their ground was deemed unfit to host NCEL football.
After winning the County Senior League in 2014 they merged with Parramore Sports F. C. to form Handsworth Parramore F. C.. Handsworth Parramore F. C. - Formed in 2014 as the result of a merger between Handsworth F. C. and Parramore Sports F. C.. They were entered into the Northern Counties East League Premier Division and subsequently made their FA Cup debut; the Handsworth parish registers reveal that on 1 July 1638, Mahlon Stayce was baptised in St Mary's Church. The Stayce family had lived at Ballifield Hall in Handsworth for centuries but it was in Trenton, New Jersey, in America, that Mahlon made his name and his fortune; the Stayce family were Quakers, one of the new religious sects which surfaced in England after the Civil War. They dissented from traditional views and to "respectable" society, the Quakers appeared extreme and revolutionary, their leader, George Fox, preached on Cinder Hill Green in Handsworth to thousands of people in the 1650s. During the Interregnum, Quakers were treated with suspicion and hostility, persecution continued following the restoration of Charles II, as they still refused to conform outwardly, to the Church of England.
Their refusal to take off their hats or speak respectfully when in the presence of "nobles" made them a particular object of mistrust. Some members of the Stayce family are b
Staffordshire
Staffordshire is a landlocked county in the West Midlands of England. It borders with Cheshire to the northwest and Leicestershire to the east, Warwickshire to the southeast, West Midlands and Worcestershire to the south, Shropshire to the west; the largest city in Staffordshire is Stoke-on-Trent, administered separately from the rest of the county as an independent unitary authority. Lichfield has city status, although this is a smaller cathedral city. Major towns include Stafford, Burton upon Trent, Newcastle-under-Lyme and Tamworth. Smaller towns include Stone, Uttoxeter, Burntwood/Chasetown, Eccleshall and the large villages of Wombourne, Tutbury, Barton-under-Needwood and Abbots Bromley. Cannock Chase AONB is within the county as well as parts of the National Forest and the Peak District national park. Wolverhampton, West Bromwich and Smethwick are within the historic county boundaries of Staffordshire, but since 1974 have been part of the West Midlands county. Apart from Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire is divided into the districts of Cannock Chase, East Staffordshire, Newcastle-under-Lyme, South Staffordshire, Staffordshire Moorlands, Tamworth.
Staffordshire was divided into five hundreds: Cuttlestone, Pirehill and Totmonslow. The historic boundaries of Staffordshire cover much of what is now the metropolitan county of West Midlands. An administrative county of Staffordshire was set up in 1889 under the Local Government Act 1888 covering the county except the county boroughs of Wolverhampton and West Bromwich in the south, Hanley in the north; the Act saw the towns of Tamworth and Burton upon Trent united in Staffordshire. In 1553 Queen Mary made Lichfield a county corporate, meaning it was administered separately from the rest of Staffordshire, it remained so until 1888. Handsworth and Perry Barr became part of the county borough of Birmingham in the early 20th century, thus associated with Warwickshire. Burton, in the east of the county, became a county borough in 1901, was followed by Smethwick, another town in the Black Country in 1907. In 1910 the six towns of the Staffordshire Potteries, including Hanley, became the single county borough of Stoke-on-Trent.
A significant boundary change occurred in 1926 when the east of Sedgley was transferred to Worcestershire to allow the construction of the new Priory Estate on land purchased by Dudley County Borough council. A major reorganisation in the Black Country in 1966, under the recommendation of the Local Government Commission for England led to the creation of an area of contiguous county boroughs; the County Borough of Warley was formed by the merger of the county borough of Smethwick and municipal borough of Rowley Regis with the Worcestershire borough of Oldbury: the resulting county borough was associated with Worcestershire. Meanwhile, the county borough of Dudley a detached part of Worcestershire and became associated with Staffordshire instead; this reorganisation led to the administrative county of Staffordshire having a thin protrusion passing between the county boroughs and Shropshire, to the west, to form a short border with Worcestershire. Under the Local Government Act 1972, on 1 April 1974 the county boroughs of the Black Country and the Aldridge-Brownhills Urban District of Staffordshire became, along with Birmingham and Coventry and other districts, a new metropolitan county of West Midlands.
County boroughs were abolished, with Stoke becoming a non-metropolitan district in Staffordshire, Burton forming an unparished area in the district of East Staffordshire. On 1 April 1997, under a recommendation of the Banham Commission, Stoke-on-Trent became a unitary authority independent of Staffordshire once more. In July 2009 the largest hoard of Anglo-Saxon gold found in Britain was discovered in a field near Lichfield; the artefacts, known as The Staffordshire Hoard have tentatively been dated to the 7th or 8th centuries, placing the origin of the items in the time of the Kingdom of Mercia. This is a chart of trend of regional gross value added of the non-metropolitan county of Staffordshire at current basic prices published by Office for National Statistics with figures in millions of British pounds sterling; some nationally and internationally known companies have their base in Staffordshire. They include the Britannia Building Society, based in Leek. JCB is based in Rocester near Uttoxeter and Bet365, based in Stoke-on-Trent.
The theme park Alton Towers is in the Staffordshire Moorlands and several of the world's largest pottery manufacturers are based in Stoke-on-Trent. Staffordshire has a comprehensive system with eight independent schools. Most secondary schools are from 11–16 or 18, but two in Staffordshire Moorlands and South Staffordshire are from 13–18. Resources are shared. There are two universities in the county, Keele University in Newcastle-under-Lyme and Staffordshire University, which has campuses in Stoke-on-Trent, Stafford and Shrewsbury; the modern county of Staffordshire has three professional football clubs – Stoke City and Port Vale, both from Stoke-on-Trent, Burton Albion, who play in Burton upon Trent. Stoke City, one of the oldest professional football clubs in existence, were founded in 1863 and played at the Victoria Ground for 119 years from 1878 until their relocation to the Britannia Stadium in 1997, they were among the 12 founder members of the Football League in 1888. By the late 1930s, they were establi
Equestrianism
Equestrianism, more known as horse riding or horseback riding, refers to the skill and sport of riding, steeplechasing or vaulting with horses. This broad description includes the use of horses for practical working purposes, recreational activities, artistic or cultural exercises, competitive sport. Horses are trained and ridden for practical working purposes, such as in police work or for controlling herd animals on a ranch, they are used in competitive sports including, but not limited to, endurance riding, reining, show jumping, tent pegging, polo, horse racing and rodeo. Some popular forms of competition are grouped together at horse shows where horses perform in a wide variety of disciplines. Horses are used for non-competitive recreational riding such as fox hunting, trail riding, or hacking. There is public access to horse trails in every part of the world. Horses are used for therapeutic purposes both in specialized para-equestrian competition as well as non-competitive riding to improve human health and emotional development.
Horses are driven in harness racing, at horse shows, in other types of exhibition such as historical reenactment or ceremony pulling carriages. In some parts of the world, they are still used for practical purposes such as farming. Horses continue to be used in public service: in traditional ceremonies and volunteer mounted patrols and for mounted search and rescue. Riding halls enable the training of horse and rider in all weathers as well as indoor competition riding. Though there is controversy over the exact date horses were domesticated and when they were first ridden, the best estimate is that horses first were ridden 3500 BC. Indirect evidence suggests. There is some evidence that about 3,000 BC, near the Dnieper River and the Don River, people were using bits on horses, as a stallion, buried there shows teeth wear consistent with using a bit. However, the most unequivocal early archaeological evidence of equines put to working use was of horses being driven. Chariot burials about 2500 BC present the most direct hard evidence of horses used as working animals.
In ancient times chariot warfare was followed by the use of war horses as heavy cavalry. The horse played an important role throughout human history all over the world, both in warfare and in peaceful pursuits such as transportation and agriculture. Horses died out at the end of the Ice Age. Horses were brought back to North America by European explorers, beginning with the second voyage of Columbus in 1493. Equestrianism was introduced in the 1900 Summer Olympics as an Olympic sport with jumping events. Humans appear to have long expressed a desire to know which horse or horses were the fastest, horse racing has ancient roots. Gambling on horse races appears to go hand-in hand with racing and has a long history as well. Thoroughbreds have the pre-eminent reputation as a racing breed, but other breeds race. Under saddle Thoroughbred horse racing is the most popular form worldwide. In the UK, it is governed by the Jockey Club in the United Kingdom. In the USA, horse racing is governed by The Jockey Club.
Steeplechasing involves racing on a track where the horses jump over obstacles. It is most common in the UK, where it is called National Hunt racing. American Quarter Horse racing—races over distances of a quarter-mile. Seen in the United States, sanctioned by the American Quarter Horse Association. Arabian horses, Akhal-Teke, American Paint Horses and other light breeds are raced worldwide. Endurance riding, a sport in which the Arabian horse dominates at the top levels, has become popular in the United States and in Europe; the Federation Equestre International governs international races, the American Endurance Ride Conference organizes the sport in North America. Endurance races take place over a given, measured distance and the horses have an start. Races are 50 to 100 miles, over mountainous or other natural terrain, with scheduled stops to take the horses' vital signs, check soundness and verify that the horse is fit to continue; the first horse to finish and be confirmed by the veterinarian as fit to continue is the winner.
Additional awards are given to the best-conditioned horses who finish in the top 10. Limited distance rides of about 25–20 miles are offered to newcomers. Ride and Tie. Ride and Tie involves three equal partners: one horse; the humans alternately ride. Show jumping: Show jumping is when a horse carries a rider over an obstacle commonly known as a jump. There are multiple jumps in a show, if the horse hits or refuses a jump, points will be deducted from the rider score; this is a timed event, the rider is expected to complete the course in a certain amount of time, without error. There are the hunter divisions. In the hunters, riders have to make their horses look good; the judges look at the quality of the course, if there are two or more riders who had put down amazing courses the judge or judges looks at how the horse looks and acts with the rider. In harness: Both light and heavy breeds as well as ponies are raced in harness with a sulk
Welbeck Abbey
Welbeck Abbey in the Dukeries in North Nottinghamshire was the site of a monastery belonging to the Premonstratensian order in England and after the Dissolution of the Monasteries, a country house residence of the Dukes of Portland. It is one of four contiguous ducal estates in North Nottinghamshire and the house is a grade I listed building; the estate was mentioned in the Domesday Book, where it is recorded as belonging to Hugh FitzBaldric. Thomas de Cuckney founded the religious house in 1140, it was an abbey of Premonstratensian canons, dedicated to St James the Great. The abbey was enriched by gifts from the Goushills, D’Eyncourts and other families from Nottinghamshire and it received a considerable grant from King Edward I. In 1393 the abbey came under serious investigation by King Richard II. Pardon to William Broun of Norton by Welbeck of suit of the King’s peace for felonies and other offences under the following circumstances: Robert Veel, keeper of the rolls of the King’s Bench, John Wynchecombe, appointed by the king to take carts for the carriage of the rolls, being directed on Saturday before the feast of St Katherine last by Walter Clopton, Chief Justice, other justices to carry the said rolls from York to Nottingham, where upon by reason of excessive rainfall affecting the roads, they could not without additional horses reach Nottingham, where upon by virtue of their commission and the justices order they took at Norton aforesaid two horses of John Levet and John Turnour of Norton, to be paid for in due course.
There upon the said William Broun, John Northeryn, Robert Bocher, all of Norton, Hugh Matt, servant of John Baukwell, Abbot of Welbeck, with divers other evil doers came armed with bows and arrows and swords, at dusk of the same day raised all the men of Norton to insurrection, pursued the said Robert and John to Warsop and instigated by Simon de Castleton, canon of Welbeck, John Worsop, vicar of Cuckney and canon of Welbeck, assaulted them, shot at and pierced the books in the carriage and took the horses, would have carried the same away but that by the grace of God and their help they made too good a defence. With so much wealth at his disposal, the Abbot of Welbeck was an influential man, in 1512 all the houses of the order in England were placed under his care. In 1538, the abbot, Richard Bentley was awarded a pension of £50, the 17 canons received pensions of between £40 and £4 a year. At the Dissolution of the Monasteries, the site was granted by King Henry VIII to Richard Whalley, of Screveton.
After being owned by a City of London clothier, the abbey was purchased by Gilbert, 7th Earl of Shrewsbury for the sum of £555 6s 6d in 1599, sold to Sir Charles Cavendish, son of Bess of Hardwick in 1607. It passed to his son William Cavendish first Duke of Newcastle. Members of the Cavendish family converted it into a country house and added a riding house in the 17th century to the design of Robert Smythson and his son John. Only basements and inner walls were retained from the original fabric of the old abbey buildings. In the 18th century, it passed through an heiress into the Bentinck family and became the seat of the Earls and Dukes of Portland. One of the oldest parts of the building, the Oxford Wing, burned down in October 1900; the wing was rebuilt, to the designs of Ernest George, by 1905. Archduke Franz Ferdinand accepted an invitation from the 6th Duke of Portland to stay at Welbeck Abbey and arrived with his wife, Sophie von Hohenberg, by train at Worksop on 22 November 1913 ten months before his assassination, which triggered World War I.
The Archduke narrowly avoided being killed in a hunting accident during his stay when a loader fell and caused a shotgun to go off within feet of the Archduke and his host. Over the course of the War between 1914 and 1919 the kitchen block was used as an army hospital. After World War II Welbeck was let by the Dukes to the Ministry of Defence and was operated as Welbeck College, an army training college, until 2005. Author Bill Bryson describes his visit to the Abbey while it was occupied by the Ministry of Defence in his book Notes from a Small Island. Lady Anne, the unmarried elder daughter of the 7th Duke, lived at Welbeck Woodhouse, owned most of the 17,000-acre estate until her death in late 2008 when William Henry Marcello Parente inherited, son of her younger sister, Lady Victoria and her husband Gaetano Parente, Prince of Castel Viscardo. Since the Ministry of Defence moved out in 2005, Welbeck Abbey has been his home; the family-controlled Welbeck Estates Company and the charitable Harley Foundation have converted some estate buildings to new uses, there is access to them from the A60 road on the western side of the estate.
They include the Dukeries Garden Centre in the estate glasshouses, the School of Artisan Food in the former Fire Stables, the Harley Gallery and Foundation and the Welbeck Farm shop in the former estate gasworks, a range of craft workshops, designed by John Outram in a former kitchen garden. Pedestrian access across the Welbeck estate is confined to footpaths forming part of the Robin Hood Way; the first No Direction Home Festival was held at Welbeck Abbey over the weekend of 8 to 10 June 2012. The End of the Road affiliated festival was headlined by Richard Hawley, The Low Anthem and Andrew Bird. In 2016 it was used as the location for the BBC's baking series Bake Off: Crème de la Crème; the 5th Duke of Portland undertook the most substantial building works at Welbeck. The kitchen gardens covered 22 acres and were surrounded by high walls with recesses in wh
Margaret Cavendish, Duchess of Newcastle-upon-Tyne
Margaret Lucas Cavendish, Duchess of Newcastle-upon-Tyne was an English aristocrat, poet, fiction-writer, playwright during the 17th century. Born Margaret Lucas, she was the youngest sister of prominent royalists Sir John Lucas and Sir Charles Lucas, who owned the manor of St. John's Abbey in Colchester, she became an attendant of Queen Henrietta Maria and travelled with her into exile in France, living for a time at the court of the young King Louis XIV. She became the second wife of William Cavendish, 1st Duke of Newcastle-upon-Tyne in 1645, when he was a marquess. Cavendish was a poet, writer of prose romances and playwright who published under her own name at a time when most women writers published anonymously, her writing addressed a number of topics, including gender, manners, scientific method, philosophy. Her utopian romance, The Blazing World, is one of the earliest examples of science fiction, she is singular in having published extensively in early modern science. She published over a dozen original works.
Cavendish has been criticized as a unique and groundbreaking woman writer. She rejected the Aristotelianism and mechanical philosophy of the seventeenth century, preferring a vitalist model instead, she was the first woman to attend a meeting at Royal Society of London in 1667 and she criticized and engaged with members and philosophers Thomas Hobbes, René Descartes, Robert Boyle. She has been claimed as an early opponent of animal testing. Cavendish's father, Thomas Lucas, was exiled after a duel that resulted in the death of "one Mr. Brooks"; as the youngest of eight children, Cavendish recorded that she spent a great deal of time with her siblings. She did not have a formal education but had access to scholarly libraries and tutors, although she intimated that the children paid little attention to the tutors, who were "rather for formality than benefit". At an early age, Cavendish was putting her ideas and thoughts down on paper since during this time period it was not common or accepted for women to be publicly intelligent.
She kept her intellectual endeavours within the privacy of her home. The family was one of significant means and Cavendish indicated that despite being a widow, her mother chose to keep her family in a condition "not much lower" than when her father was alive, her mother had little to no male help. When Queen Henrietta Maria was in Oxford, Cavendish appealed to her mother for permission to become one of her Ladies-in-waiting. Cavendish moved to France; this took Cavendish away from her family for the first time. She notes that while she was confident in the company of her siblings, amongst strangers she became bashful. Cavendish explains that she was afraid she might speak or act inappropriately without her siblings' guidance, which would go against her ambition to be well received and well liked, she spoke only when necessary and she came to be regarded as a fool. Cavendish excused her behaviour by stating that she preferred to be received as a fool rather than as wanton or rude. Regretting that she had left home to be a lady-in-waiting, Cavendish informed her mother she wanted to leave the court.
Her mother, persuaded Cavendish to stay rather than disgrace herself by leaving and provided her with funds that, as Cavendish notes, quite exceeded the normal means of a courtier. Cavendish remained a lady-in-waiting for two more years until she was married to William Cavendish who was, at the time, Marquis of Newcastle. Cavendish noted, she stated that he was the only man she was in love with, loving him not for title, wealth or power, but for merit, gratitude and fidelity. She believed these to be attributes that would hold people together through misfortune, she further credited such qualities as assisting her husband and her family to endure the suffering they experienced as a result of their political allegiance. Cavendish never had any children, despite efforts made by her physician to help her inability to conceive, her husband had five children from a previous marriage to survive infancy, two of them and Elizabeth, wrote a comic play The Concealed Fancies. Cavendish went on to write a biography on her husband, entitled The Life of the Thrice Noble and Puissant Prince William Cavendishe.
In her dedication to her husband, Cavendish recounts a time when there were rumors surrounding the authorship of her works. Cavendish notes. But, she does admit to a creative relationship with her husband. Cavendish gives him credit as her writing tutor, her own writing "fashions an image of a husband and wife who rely on each other in the public realm of print." A few years after her marriage and her husband's brother, Sir Charles Cavendish, returned to England. Cavendish had heard that her husband's estate was to be sold and that she, as his wife, could hope to benefit from the sale. Cavendish, received no benefit, she pointedly noted that while many women petitioned for funds, she herself only petitioned once and, being denied, decided such efforts were not worth the trouble. After a year and a half she left England to be with her husband again. Cavendish asserted in A Tr
William Cavendish (courtier)
Sir William Cavendish MP was an English politician and courtier. Cavendish held public office and accumulated a considerable fortune, became one of Thomas Cromwell's "visitors of the monasteries" during the dissolution of the monasteries, he was MP for Thirsk in 1547. In 1547 he married Bess of Hardwick, the couple began the construction of Chatsworth House in 1552, a project which would not be completed until after his death, his second son William Cavendish became the first Earl of Devonshire, purchasing his title from the impecunious King James I. He was the younger son of Thomas Cavendish, a senior financial official, the "clerk of the pipe", in the Court of Exchequer, his wife, Alice Smith of Padbrook Hall, he was the great-great-great-grandson of Sir John Cavendish from whom the Dukes of Devonshire and the Dukes of Newcastle inherited the family name of Cavendish. Cavendish became one of Thomas Cromwell's "visitors of the monasteries" when King Henry VIII annexed the property of the Catholic Church at the end of the 1530s, in the dissolution of the monasteries.
This followed from his successful career as a financial expert holding public office in the Exchequer, which led to his wealth. He was accused of accumulating extra riches unfairly during the dissolution. After Cromwell's fall, he was sent to Ireland to survey and value lands which had fallen to the English during the Fitzgerald Rebellion, he was connected to the Seymour brothers Edward and Thomas, via them to the family of Jane Grey, but he took care to send tokens of goodwill to The Lady Mary. He was appointed Treasurer of the Chamber from 1546 to 1553 but, after an audit, was accused of embezzling a significant amount of money. Only his death saved the family from disgrace. During the reign of Mary I, a favourable biography of Thomas Cardinal Wolsey was first published, written from the perspective of one of his closest aides, the one who had taken King Henry news of Wolsey's death. Although for centuries Sir William was said to be its author, historians now attribute it to his older brother George Cavendish.
William Cavendish had a total of 16 children by three different wives. His first wife was Margaret Bostock. Margaret, died in 1540. In 1542 he was married to Elizabeth Parker, she died after giving birth to a stillborn daughter in 1546. In 1547 he married Bess of Hardwick, he moved to Bess's native county of Derbyshire. He purchased the Chatsworth estate in 1549 and the couple began to build Chatsworth House in 1552. In the ten years before he died, they had eight children, six of whom survived infancy: Henry Cavendish, eldest son, Knight of the Shire and MP for Derbyshire for over 20 years disinherited by his mother in favour of his younger brother William. William Cavendish, 1st Earl of Devonshire, the first Earl of Devonshire. Elizabeth entered into a controversial marriage with Charles Stuart, 1st Earl of Lennox, by whom she was the mother of Arbella Stuart, claimant to the English throne. Frances Cavendish, married Henry Pierrepont. Mary Cavendish, married Gilbert Talbot, 7th Earl of Shrewsbury.
Their daughter Alethea Talbot Howard is an ancestor of the 5th and Dukes of Norfolk. Other of William and Bess's descendants became the Dukes of Newcastle. William is an ancestor of the late Queen Elizabeth, the Queen Mother and through her the modern British Royal Family. Pearson, The Serpent and the Stag, Holt and Winston, 1983. Brodhurst, F.. "Sir William Cavendish 1557." Derbyshire Archaeological Journal, 29, pp. 81-102. Google Books Cavendish, Sir William, of Northaw, Herts. and Chatsworth, Derbys." HOP. Cox, J. C.. The Chronicles of the Collegiate Church Or Free Chapel of All Saints, Derby, pp. 130. Bemrose & Sons. Google Books "Duke of Devonshire,"; the Peerage of England and ireland, I, pp. 51-52. London. Google Books Lee, S.. Cavendish, William. WikiSource.org Lewis, M.. "Sir William Cavendish, Burgess of Thirsk, Treasurer of the Chamber of King Henry VIII #37832, b. circa 1505, d. 25 Oct 1557," citing Richardson. ORTNCA. Web. Chisholm, Hugh, ed.. "Cavendish, Sir William". Encyclopædia Britannica. Cambridge University Press.
William Cavendish at WikiTree Retrieved 7 August 2018
Polymath
A polymath is a person whose expertise spans a significant number of subject areas, known to draw on complex bodies of knowledge to solve specific problems. In Western Europe, the first work to use polymathy in its title was published in 1603 by Johann von Wowern, a Hamburg philosopher. Von Wowern defined polymathy as "knowledge of various matters, drawn from all kinds of studies ranging through all the fields of the disciplines, as far as the human mind, with unwearied industry, is able to pursue them". Von Wowern lists erudition, philology and polyhistory as synonyms; the related term, polyhistor, is an ancient term with similar meaning. Polymaths include the great thinkers of the Renaissance and the Enlightenment who excelled at several fields in science, engineering and the arts. In the Italian Renaissance, the idea of the polymath was expressed by Leon Battista Alberti in the statement that "a man can do all things if he will". Embodying a basic tenet of Renaissance humanism that humans are limitless in their capacity for development, the concept led to the notion that people should embrace all knowledge and develop their capacities as as possible.
This is expressed in the term "Renaissance man" applied to the gifted people of that age who sought to develop their abilities in all areas of accomplishment: intellectual, artistic and physical. The term entered the lexicon in the 20th century and has now been applied to great thinkers living before and after the Renaissance. "Renaissance man" was first recorded in written English in the early 20th century. It is now used to refer during, or after the Renaissance. Leonardo da Vinci has been described as the archetype of the Renaissance man, a man of "unquenchable curiosity" and "feverishly inventive imagination". Many notable polymaths lived during the Renaissance period, a cultural movement that spanned the 14th through to the 17th century that began in Italy in the Late Middle Ages and spread to the rest of Europe; these polymaths had a rounded approach to education that reflected the ideals of the humanists of the time. A gentleman or courtier of that era was expected to speak several languages, play a musical instrument, write poetry and so on, thus fulfilling the Renaissance ideal.
The idea of a universal education was essential to achieving polymath ability, hence the word university was used to describe a seat of learning. At this time, universities did not specialize in specific areas, but rather trained students in a broad array of science and theology; this universal education gave them a grounding from which they could continue into apprenticeship toward becoming a master of a specific field. When someone is called a "Renaissance man" today, it is meant that rather than having broad interests or superficial knowledge in several fields, the individual possesses a more profound knowledge and a proficiency, or an expertise, in at least some of those fields; some dictionaries use the term "Renaissance man" to describe someone with many interests or talents, while others give a meaning restricted to the Renaissance and more related to Renaissance ideals. Aside from "Renaissance man" as mentioned above, similar terms in use are homo universalis and uomo universale, which translate to "universal man".
The related term "generalist"—contrasted with a "specialist"—is used to describe a person with a general approach to knowledge. The term "universal genius" or "versatile genius" is used, with Leonardo da Vinci as the prime example again; the term is used for people who made lasting contributions in at least one of the fields in which they were involved and when they took a universality of approach. When a person is described as having encyclopedic knowledge, they exhibit a vast scope of knowledge. However, this designation may be anachronistic in the case of persons such as Eratosthenes whose reputation for having encyclopedic knowledge predates the existence of any encyclopedic object. Although polymathy and similar constructs like multipotentiality and multiple talents have gained wider coverage in the popular domain, polymathy, as a field of scientific study, is still at an early stage of development, with some researchers calling for more studies to further advance this construct and shed new light on topics such as creativity and education.
At present, researchers studying this topic come from backgrounds as diverse as psychology, mathematics and education. Although incipient, the extant studies can demonstrate the importance of polymathy as a concept that can help enhance our understanding of human diversity and of the elements that underlie one of the most human of traits: creativity; this section presents an overview of the contributions of six contemporary scholarly authors to the understanding of the phenomenon of polymathy. The criterion to choose the authors included in this article was the existence of publications in academic outlets focusing on the concept of polymathy itself. Robert Root-Bernstein is considered the principal responsible for rekindling the interest on polymathy in the scientific community, he is a professor of physiology at Michigan State University and has been awarded the MacArthur Fellowship, known as a "Genius Grant", a prize awarded to those who have shown "extraordinary originality and dedication in their creative pursuits and a marked capacity for self-direction" and are citizens or res
This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Cavendish, Sir William". Encyclopædia Britannica (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press.
This article incorporates text from a publication now in the 
