Columbia Encyclopedia

(Encyclopedia) Coke, Thomas William ko͝ok [key], 1752–1842, English agricultural reformer. Created earl of Leicester of Holkham in 1837, he was known as Coke of Holkham. He improved breeds of cattle, sheep, and h...

(Encyclopedia) Waltham Holy Cross, town (1981 pop. 19,432), Essex, SE England. The abbey there, the Norman nave of which is used as a parish church, was built in 1030 to contain a cross found in Somerset; it was bel...

(Encyclopedia) Dodd, William, 1729–77, English author. At one time king's chaplain, he ran heavily into debt, forged a bond, and was sentenced to death. Dr. Johnson led a movement to obtain clemency, but Dodd was ...

(Encyclopedia) Hooper, William, 1742–90, political leader in the American Revolution, signer of the Declaration of Independence, b. Boston. He became a lawyer and moved (1764) to Wilmington, N.C. Hooper served on ...

(Encyclopedia) Kirby, William, 1817–1906, Canadian author, b. England. He was a journalist and civil servant. Besides volumes of verse and tales, he wrote The Golden Dog (1877), also published as Le Chien d'or (18...

(Encyclopedia) Safire, William L. săfˈīrˌ [key], 1929–2009, American journalist and speechwriter, b. New York City as William Safir. A former reporter and public-relations executive, he became a speechwriter (...

(Encyclopedia) Bouguereau, Adolphe William ädôlfˈ, bo͞ogrōˈ [key], 1825–1905, French academic painter. He won the Prix de Rome in 1850 and became extremely popular during the 1860s and 70s. He is famous for ...

(Encyclopedia) Shenstone, William, 1714–63, English poet and landscape gardener. The Schoolmistress (1742), his best-known poem, was written in imitation of Spenser. His home, “Leasowes,” in Shropshire, was a ...

(Encyclopedia) Warner, William, 1558?–1609, English poet. A lawyer educated at Oxford, he wrote Pan his Syrinx (1584), translated Plautus's Menaechmi (1595), and gained a reputation with Albion's England, a long h...

(Encyclopedia) Ellery, William, 1727–1820, political leader in the American Revolution, signer of the Declaration of Independence, b. Newport, R.I. While a member of the Continental Congress (1776–81, 1783–85)...