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Oldham, John, English poet and satirist

(Encyclopedia)Oldham, John, 1653–83, English poet and satirist. His best-known works are the ironical Satires against the Jesuits (1681) and A Satire against Virtue (1679). He was much admired by Dryden, who wrot...

Northumberland, John Dudley, duke of

(Encyclopedia)Northumberland, John Dudley, duke of, 1502?–1553, English statesman. The son of Edmund Dudley, minister of Henry VII, John was restored to his inheritance in 1512 after his father's attainder and ex...

Napier, John

(Encyclopedia)Napier, John nāˈpēr, nəpērˈ [key], 1550–1617, Scottish mathematician and theologian. He invented logarithms and wrote Mirifici logarithmorum canonis descriptio (1614), containing the first log...

Real Presence

(Encyclopedia)Real Presence, expression of the belief among certain Christians, especially Roman Catholics and some Anglicans, that the actual presence of the body and blood of Jesus is in the Eucharist. Saints Ign...

Pole, English noble family

(Encyclopedia)Pole, English noble family. The first member of importance was William de la Pole, d. 1366, a rich merchant who became the first mayor of Hull (1332) and a baron of the exchequer (1339). His oldest so...

Carver, Jonathan

(Encyclopedia)Carver, Jonathan, 1710–80, American explorer, b. Weymouth, Mass. He served in the French and Indian War and in 1766 was hired by Robert Rogers to undertake a journey to some of the Western tribes. H...

Pontiac, Ottawa chief

(Encyclopedia)Pontiac, fl. 1760–66, Ottawa chief. He may have been the chief met by Robert Rogers in 1760 when Rogers was on his way to take possession of the Western forts for the English. Although the Native Am...

Bale, John

(Encyclopedia)Bale, John, 1495–1563, English dramatist and clergyman. An ardent proponent of the Reformation, he used the stage as a vehicle for his views. His most famous play, King John (written c.1535), shows ...

Palsgrave, John

(Encyclopedia)Palsgrave, John pălzˈgrāv, pôlzˈ– [key], d. 1554, English scholar, educated at Oxford and at the Univ. of Paris. Palsgrave was tutor to Henry VIII's daughter Mary (later Mary I), who used her i...

Martin, John

(Encyclopedia)Martin, John, 1789–1854, English painter and engraver. Martin's visionary and grandiose landscapes, the pictorial counterparts of English romantic poetry, won him international popularity. He is als...