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Petty, Sir William

(Encyclopedia)Petty, Sir William, 1623–87, English statistician and physician. He was a founder of the Royal Society and was physician general to the army of Ireland in 1652. Petty's survey of the Irish estates a...

Smith, Sir William Sidney

(Encyclopedia)Smith, Sir William Sidney, 1764–1840, British admiral. He was a distinguished commander in the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars and is especially remembered for his defense of Acre against N...

Siemens, Sir William

(Encyclopedia)Siemens, Sir William, 1823–83, English electrical engineer, b. Germany; brother of Ernst Werner von Siemens. Originally his name was Carl Wilhelm Siemens. After visiting England to introduce an elec...

Fitzwilliam, Sir William

(Encyclopedia)Fitzwilliam, Sir William, 1526–99, lord deputy of Ireland. He acquired (1547) land in Ireland by a grant of Edward VI. Although a Protestant, he was loyal to Queen Mary I, and she appointed him keep...

Napier, Sir William Francis Patrick

(Encyclopedia)Napier, Sir William Francis Patrick nāˈpēr, nəpērˈ [key], 1785–1860, British general and historian; brother of Sir Charles James Napier. He served in the Peninsular War and wrote a famous and ...

Johnson, Sir William

(Encyclopedia)Johnson, Sir William, 1715–74, British colonial leader in America, b. Co. Meath, Ireland. He settled (1738) in the Mohawk valley, became a merchant, and gained great power among the Mohawk and other...

Bragg, Sir William Henry

(Encyclopedia)Bragg, Sir William Henry, 1862–1942, English physicist, educated at King William's College, Isle of Man, and Trinity College, Cambridge. He served on the faculties of the Univ. of Adelaide in Austra...

Walton, Sir William Turner

(Encyclopedia)Walton, Sir William Turner, 1902–83, English composer, b. Oldham. Walton studied at Oxford. One of his earliest works was a piano quartet (1918–19). In 1923, Façade, satirical poems by Edith Sitw...

Gosse, Sir Edmund William

(Encyclopedia)Gosse, Sir Edmund William gŏs [key], 1849–1928, English biographer and critic. He was lecturer in English literature at Trinity College, Cambridge (1884–90) and librarian of the House of Lords (1...

Crookes, Sir William

(Encyclopedia)Crookes, Sir William, 1832–1919, English chemist and physicist. After serving at the Radcliffe Observatory, Oxford, and teaching chemistry at Chester Training College, he retired to work in his own ...