Columbia Encyclopedia

Search results

500 results found

Jeans, Sir James Hopwood

(Encyclopedia)Jeans, Sir James Hopwood, 1887–1946, English mathematician, physicist, and astronomer. He was professor of applied mathematics at Princeton (1905–9), later lectured at Cambridge (1910–12) and Ox...

Melville, Sir James

(Encyclopedia)Melville, Sir James, 1535–1617, Scottish diplomat. He was a page to Mary Queen of Scots in France and, after her return to Scotland, was employed as Mary's representative at the court of Elizabeth I...

Mackintosh, Sir James

(Encyclopedia)Mackintosh, Sir James, 1765–1832, British writer and public servant, b. Scotland. He was trained as a physician, but after settling (1788) in London he became a writer and lawyer. His Vindiciae Gall...

Dewar, Sir James

(Encyclopedia)Dewar, Sir James dyo͞oˈər [key], 1842–1923, British chemist and physicist, b. Scotland. He was professor of chemistry (from 1877) at the Royal Institution, London, and later was director of the D...

Douglas, Sir James

(Encyclopedia)Douglas, Sir James, 1803–77, Canadian fur trader and colonial governor, b. British Guiana (now Guyana). As a young man, he went to Canada in the service of the North West Company; soon after its mer...

Eyre, Sir James

(Encyclopedia)Eyre, Sir James, 1734–99, English jurist. As a young lawyer he was counsel (1763) for John Wilkes in the suit against the government that established the illegality of general warrants (warrants for...

Thornhill, Sir James

(Encyclopedia)Thornhill, Sir James, 1676–1734, English decorative artist. George I made him court painter and later knighted him. He executed decorations in Hampton Court and the cupola of St. Paul's, London; the...

Balfour, Sir James

(Encyclopedia)Balfour, Sir James, d. 1583, Scottish judge and politician. Captured (1547) at St. Andrews after the murder of Cardinal Beaton, he served a sentence in the French galleys and on his release (1549) abj...

Paget, Sir James

(Encyclopedia)Paget, Sir James păjˈĭt [key], 1814–99, British surgeon and pathologist. He taught and practiced at St. Bartholomew's Hospital, London, and cataloged the museums of St. Bartholomew's and of the R...

Stephen, Sir James

(Encyclopedia)Stephen, Sir James, 1789–1859, British colonial administrator; father of Leslie and James Fitzjames Stephen. He served (1825–35) as permanent counsel to the colonial office and Board of Trade and ...

Browse by Subject