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Cotton, Sir Robert Bruce

(Encyclopedia)Cotton, Sir Robert Bruce, 1571–1631, English antiquarian. The Cottonian collection of books, manuscripts, coins, and antiquities became a part of the British Museum when it was founded in 1753. Cott...

Usk, Thomas

(Encyclopedia)Usk, Thomas ŭsk [key], d. 1388, English politician and author. He was under-sheriff of London. While in Newgate Prison he wrote Testament of Love, an allegory in prose describing and justifying the p...

Jerome of Prague

(Encyclopedia)Jerome of Prague, c.1370–1416, Bohemian religious reformer. During his studies at Prague and at Oxford, Jerome was influenced by the doctrinal views of John Wyclif. He continued to study and travel ...

Davies of Hereford, John

(Encyclopedia)Davies of Hereford, John dāˈvĭs [key], 1565?–1618, English poet. He settled in London about 1600 after spending several years as a writing master at Oxford. His main efforts were religious and ph...

Van Druten, John William

(Encyclopedia)Van Druten, John William văn dro͞oˈtən [key], 1901–57, English dramatist. His best-known plays, primarily light comedies, include Old Acquaintance (1940), The Voice of the Turtle (1943), I Remem...

Martin, Archer John Porter

(Encyclopedia)Martin, Archer John Porter, 1910–2002, English biochemist, educated at Cambridge. From 1938 to 1946 he carried on chemical research in the laboratories of the Wool Industries Association at Leeds, Y...

Place, Francis

(Encyclopedia)Place, Francis, 1771–1854, English radical reformer. A tailor for many years, he educated himself and made his shop a meeting center for radicals and reformers. He was especially active in the trade...

Dekker, Thomas

(Encyclopedia)Dekker, Thomas, c,1570–1632, English dramatist and pamphleteer. Little is known of his life except that he frequently suffered from poverty and served several prison terms for debt. He began his lit...

Clapham, Sir John Harold

(Encyclopedia)Clapham, Sir John Harold klăpˈəm [key], 1873–1946, English economic historian. He was lecturer, professor and administrator at Cambridge from 1908 to 1943. Outstanding among his many works on Bri...

Plumb, Sir John Harold

(Encyclopedia)Plumb, Sir John Harold, 1911–2001, British historian. Educated at the universities of Leicester (B.A., 1933) and Cambridge (Ph.D., 1936), he remained at Cambridge as a research fellow from 1938 and ...