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Fitch, John

(Encyclopedia)Fitch, John, 1743–98, American inventor, b. Windsor, Conn. Fitch began (1785) work on the invention of the steam engine and steamboat and secured soon afterward the exclusive right to build and oper...

Evans, John

(Encyclopedia)Evans, John, 1814–97, American founder of educational institutions, b. Waynesville, Ohio, grad. Lynn Medical College, Cincinnati, 1838. He practiced medicine in Indiana and was the first superintend...

Evelyn, John

(Encyclopedia)Evelyn, John ēvˈəlĭn, ĕvˈlĭn [key], 1620–1706, English diarist and miscellaneous writer. Although of royalist sympathies, he took little active part in the civil war. After 1652 he lived as a...

Fell, John

(Encyclopedia)Fell, John, 1625–86, English clergyman. He was dean of Christ Church, Oxford, and bishop of Oxford. While at Oxford, he initiated an extensive building program and promoted the development of the Ox...

Fenwick, John

(Encyclopedia)Fenwick, John, 1618–83, Quaker colonist in America, b. England. Planning to found a Quaker refuge in America, Fenwick obtained (1674) Lord Berkeley's share of New Jersey in trust for the Quaker merc...

Ericsson, John

(Encyclopedia)Ericsson, John ĕrˈĭksən [key], 1803–89, Swedish-American inventor and marine engineer, b. Värmlands co., Sweden. He moved to London in 1826, and entered the railroad locomotive Novelty in a con...

Fowles, John

(Encyclopedia)Fowles, John, 1926–2005, English writer, b. Leigh-on-Sea, Essex, grad. Oxford, 1950. A complex, cerebral writer and a superb storyteller, Fowles was interested in manipulating the novel as a genre. ...

Foxe, John

(Encyclopedia)Foxe, John, 1516–87, English clergyman, author of the noted Book of Martyrs. He early became a Protestant and, when Mary Tudor became queen, he fled from England to Strasbourg. There was printed (15...

Irving, John

(Encyclopedia)Irving, John, 1942–, American writer, b. Exeter, N.H. His mixture of wild plot strategies and eccentric characters brought him to wide attention with his fourth novel, The World According to Garp (1...

Howe, John

(Encyclopedia)Howe, John, 1630–1705, English Puritan clergyman. As domestic chaplain to Oliver Cromwell, he advocated religious toleration. After the Restoration, he preached in secret (1662–71) until, becoming...