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Langland, William

(Encyclopedia)Langland, William, c.1332–c.1400, putative author of Piers Plowman. He was born probably at Ledbury near the Welsh marshes and may have gone to school at Great Malvern Priory. Although he took minor...

Coxe, William

(Encyclopedia)Coxe, William, 1762–1831, American pomologist, b. Philadelphia. His experiments and his book, A View of the Cultivation of Fruit-Trees and the Management of Orchards and Cider (1817), had a pronounc...

Whipple, William

(Encyclopedia)Whipple, William, 1730–85, political leader in the American Revolution, signer of the Declaration of Independence, b. Kittery, Maine. Whipple, who had been a sea captain, was a merchant of Portsmout...

Whitehead, William

(Encyclopedia)Whitehead, William, 1715–85, English poet and playwright. He wrote several plays based on ancient Greek models, including Creusa, Queen of Athens (1754). Whitehead was appointed poet laureate in 175...

Birkenhead, Frederick Edwin Smith, 1st earl of

(Encyclopedia)Birkenhead, Frederick Edwin Smith, 1st earl of bûrˈkənhĕdˌ [key], 1872–1930, British statesman and jurist. He was called to the bar in 1899 and entered the House of Commons as a Conservative in...

Mahmud II

(Encyclopedia)Mahmud II, 1784–1839, Ottoman sultan (1808–39), younger son of Abd al-Hamid I. He was raised to the throne of the Ottoman Empire (Turkey) upon the deposition of his brother, Mustafa IV, and contin...

Dobson, William

(Encyclopedia)Dobson, William, 1610–46, English court painter. After the death of Van Dyck, Dobson was made court painter to Charles I and did some interesting court portraits. Some of his works are close to the ...

Hone, William

(Encyclopedia)Hone, William, 1780–1842, English writer and bookseller. He was tried and acquitted three times in 1817 for publishing parodies on the church and the government. Besides writing political satires (i...

Carleton, William

(Encyclopedia)Carleton, William, 1794–1869, Irish author. His Traits and Stories of Irish Peasantry (5 vol., 1830–33) realistically depicts his own rural youth. This was followed by Tales of Ireland (1834), Far...

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