Columbia Encyclopedia

Search results

500 results found

Burgis, William

(Encyclopedia)Burgis, William bûrˈjĭs [key], fl. 1717–31, American engraver and publisher of maps and views, b. London. His name appears as publisher on the views South Prospect of ye Flourishing City of New Y...

Butterfield, William

(Encyclopedia)Butterfield, William, 1814–1900, English Gothic-revival architect. Favored by the Ecclesiological Society for his Puginlike correctness in recalling Gothic forms, Butterfield rose to prominence in t...

Browne, William

(Encyclopedia)Browne, William (William Browne of Tavistock) tăvˈĭstŏkˌ [key], 1591?–1645?, English poet. An imitator of Spenser, he did his finest work in pastoral poetry, of which Britannia's Pastorals (161...

Buckland, William

(Encyclopedia)Buckland, William, 1784–1856, English geologist. He was dean of Westminster from 1845. First to note in England the action of glacial ice on rocks, he did much to bring physical and natural science ...

Cavendish, William

(Encyclopedia)Cavendish, William: see Newcastle, William Cavendish, duke of. ...

Caxton, William

(Encyclopedia)Caxton, William, c.1421–91, English printer, the first to print books in English. He served apprenticeship as a mercer and from 1463 to 1469 was at Bruges as governor of the Merchants Adventurers in...

Cecil, William

(Encyclopedia)Cecil, William: see Burghley, William Cecil, 1st Baron. ...

Campbell, William

(Encyclopedia)Campbell, William, 1745–81, American Revolutionary soldier, b. Augusta co., Va.; brother-in-law of Patrick Henry. He fought in Lord Dunmore's War (1774) and helped expel the royal governor from Will...

Carey, William

(Encyclopedia)Carey, William, 1761–1834, English Baptist missionary and Orientalist, one of the first Protestant missionaries to India. He helped found the Baptist Missionary Society in 1792 and shortly thereafte...

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...