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Otway, Thomas

(Encyclopedia)Otway, Thomas, 1652–85, English dramatist, educated at Winchester and at Oxford. After failing as an actor, Otway wrote his first play, Alcibiades, produced in 1675. Later plays include the rhymed h...

Paine, Thomas

(Encyclopedia)Paine, Thomas, 1737–1809, Anglo-American political theorist and writer, b. Thetford, Norfolk, England. The son of a working-class Quaker, he became an excise officer and was dismissed from the servi...

Nelson, Thomas

(Encyclopedia)Nelson, Thomas, 1738–89, American Revolutionary general, signer of the Declaration of Independence, b. Yorktown, Va. He was a delegate to the Continental Congress (1775–77, 1779), commander (1777�...

Willing, Thomas

(Encyclopedia)Willing, Thomas, 1731–1821, American merchant and financier, b. Philadelphia. He studied law in London. Returning to Philadelphia in 1749, he entered his father's business and later established with...

Willis, Thomas

(Encyclopedia)Willis, Thomas, 1621–75, English physician and anatomist. He became professor at Oxford in 1660 and in 1666 established a practice in London. An authority on the brain and the nervous system, he dis...

Wolsey, Thomas

(Encyclopedia)Wolsey, Thomas wo͝olˈzē [key], 1473?–1530, English statesman and prelate, cardinal of the Roman Catholic Church. From 1514 to 1529 Wolsey virtually controlled domestic and foreign policy for th...

Bowdler, Thomas

(Encyclopedia)Bowdler, Thomas boudˈlər, bōdˈ– [key], 1754–1825, English editor. He is best known for his Family Shakespeare (10 vol., 1818), an expurgated edition for family reading that, although attacked ...

Bradwardine, Thomas

(Encyclopedia)Bradwardine, Thomas brădˈwərdēn [key], c.1295–1349, English mathematician, natural philosopher, and theologian. He was chaplain to Edward III (c.1338) and later archbishop of Canterbury. As a ma...

Braidwood, Thomas

(Encyclopedia)Braidwood, Thomas, 1715–1806, English educator, grad. Univ. of Edinburgh. He established (1760) at Edinburgh the first school in Great Britain for deaf-mutes, moving it to London in 1783. ...

Southerne, Thomas

(Encyclopedia)Southerne, Thomas sŭᵺˈərn [key], 1660–1746, English dramatist, b. Ireland. Educated at Trinity College, Dublin, he moved to London where he pursued a career as a writer. He was a friend of Dryd...