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Provoost, Samuel

(Encyclopedia)Provoost, Samuel prōˈvōst [key], 1742–1815, first Episcopal bishop of New York, b. New York City, grad. King's College (now Columbia Univ.), 1758. He studied at Cambridge and in 1766 was ordained...

Purchas, Samuel

(Encyclopedia)Purchas, Samuel pûrˈkəs, –chəs [key], 1577?–1626, English clergyman and compiler of travel literature, b. Essex. Chaplain to the archbishop of Canterbury, he later was rector of St. Martin's C...

Bamford, Samuel

(Encyclopedia)Bamford, Samuel, 1788–1872, English weaver, poet, and social reformer. Always sympathetic toward the working class, he was jailed in 1819 for his part in the Peterloo massacre. His dialect verses we...

Ramey, Samuel

(Encyclopedia)Ramey, Samuel, 1942–, American operatic bass, b. Colby, Kans. He studied music at Kansas State and Wichita State (grad. 1968) universities and debuted with the New York City Opera in Bizet's Carmen ...

Richardson, Samuel

(Encyclopedia)Richardson, Samuel, 1689–1761, English novelist, b. Derbyshire. When he was 50 and a prosperous printer, Richardson was asked to compose a guide to letter writing. The idea of introducing a central ...

Peters, Samuel

(Encyclopedia)Peters, Samuel, 1735–1826, American clergyman and historian, b. Hebron, Conn. Because of his Loyalist sympathies, he fled to England in 1774. There he wrote for English periodicals and published A G...

Vetch, Samuel

(Encyclopedia)Vetch, Samuel, 1668–1732, British soldier and colonial administrator, b. Scotland. He settled in Albany, N.Y., in 1699 and became a trader with the Native Americans. Author of a plan to capture Fren...

Dexter, Colin

(Encyclopedia)Dexter, Colin (Norman Colin Dexter), 1930–2017, English mystery novelist, b. Stamford, Lincolnshire. He as a classics teacher in secondary schools until deafness forced him to find a new career; he ...

Monts, Pierre du Gua, sieur de

(Encyclopedia)Monts, Pierre du Gua, sieur de pyĕr dü gwä syör də môN [key], c.1560–c.1630, French colonizer in North America. A wealthy Huguenot and a favorite of Henry IV, he was the holder of a trade mono...

SOS

(Encyclopedia)SOS, code letters of the international distress signal. The signal is expressed in International Morse code as … — — — ……———… (three dots, three dashes, three dots). This c...