Columbia Encyclopedia

(Encyclopedia) Hale, Sir Matthew, 1609–76, English jurist. He was successively a judge in the Court of Common Pleas (1654), chief baron of the Exchequer (1660), and chief justice of the Court of King's Bench (1671...

(Encyclopedia) Bulfinch, Thomas, 1796–1867, American author, b. Newton, Mass., grad. Harvard, 1814. He wrote a series of works popularizing fable and legend, including The Age of Fables (1855), The Age of Chivalry...

(Encyclopedia) Lyell, Sir Charles līˈəl [key], 1797–1875, British geologist. After studying and briefly practicing law, he spent most of his life in travel and in popularizing scientific ideas. He championed an...

(Encyclopedia) Laurier, Sir Wilfrid lôˈrēā, Fr. lōryāˈ [key], 1841–1919, Canadian prime minister. He studied law at McGill Univ. His premiership of Canada (1896–1911), the first to be held by a French Can...

(Encyclopedia) Wallace, Sir William, 1272?–1305, Scottish soldier and national hero. The first historical record of Wallace's activities concerns the burning of Lanark by Wallace and 30 men in May, 1297, and the s...

(Encyclopedia) Cockburn, Sir Alexander James Edmund, 1802–80, British jurist. He was called to the bar in 1829, and a volume of reports on election cases (1832) brought him into national prominence as a trial lawy...

(Encyclopedia) Balewa, Alhaji Sir Abubakar Tafawa älhäˈjē äbo͞oˈbäkärˌ täfäˈwä bälāˈwä [key], 1912–66, Nigerian political leader. He was born Mallam Abubakar. After studying to become a teacher, ...

(Encyclopedia) Raleigh or Ralegh, Sir Walter both: rŏlˈē, rălˈē [key], 1554?–1618, English soldier, explorer, courtier, and man of letters. Raleigh was made governor of Jersey in 1600, but his fortunes e...

(Encyclopedia) Cameron of Lochiel, Sir Ewen or Evan kămˈərən, lŏkh-ēlˈ [key], 1629–1719, chief of the Scottish highland clan of Cameron after 1647. On behalf of Charles II he led his clan in an uprising aga...

(Encyclopedia) Lockyer, Sir Joseph Norman lŏkˈyər [key], 1836–1920, English astronomer, educated on the Continent. One of the first to make a spectroscopic examination of the sun and stars, he devised (1868), i...