A job for Art (and other decoders and mystery solvers)
Ann
last night about a $20 million treasure allegedly up for grabs if
someone can decode the messages left behind.
http://fox.com/mdmystery/104/treasure.htm
Good luck!
--Ann
David L. Webb
<sympo...@aol.com> wrote:
Thanks for posting this, Ann. It looks entertaining -- perhaps it
will keep Art occupied and thereby will spare us a few more of his
repetitions of "Agnes a gob." But since when did Art ever "decode" or
"solve" anything? (It would be a good idea to cc John Rollett and Penn
Leary as well.)
David Webb
Neuendorffer
Leviathon by Thomas Hobbes
<<And we see daily by experience in all sorts of people that such men as
study nothing but their food and ease are content to believe any
absurdity, rather than to trouble themselves to examine it, holding
their faith as it were by entail UNALIENABLE, except by an express and
new law.>>
--------------------------------------------------
> Ann <sympo...@aol.com> wrote:
>
> > There was a segment on a FOX show called "Million Dollar Mysteries"
> > last night about a $20 million treasure allegedly up for grabs if
> > someone can decode the messages left behind.
> >
> > http://fox.com/mdmystery/104/treasure.htm
"David L. Webb" wrote:
> Thanks for posting this, Ann. It looks entertaining -- perhaps it
> will keep Art occupied and thereby will spare us a few more of his
> repetitions of "Agnes a gob."
------------------------------------------------------------------
$20 million Beale treasure "about four mules from Buford's"
-------------------------------------------------------------------
Decipherment of Beale cipher using Declaration of Independence as
keytext:
"I have deposited in the county of Bedford, about four miles form
Buford's in an excavation or vault six feet below the surface of the
ground. . ."
<<It is worth noting that there are some errors in the [Beale treasure]
ciphertext. The decipherment includes the words "four miles," which
relies on the 95th word of the Declaration of Independence beginning
with the letter "u". However, the 95th word is "inalianable." It could
be that Beale had a copy of the Declaration in which the 95th word is
"unalianable.">> - _The Code Book_ by Simon Singh
-----------------------------------------
UNALIENABLE vs. INALIENABLE
-----------------------------------------
http://www.unalienable.com/unalien.htm
INALIENABLE rights: Rights which are not capable of being surrendered or
transferred *WITHOUT THE CONSENT* of the one possessing such rights.
Morrison v. State, Mo. App., 252 S.W.2d 97, 101.
You can surrender, sell or transfer inalienable rights if you consent
either actually or constructively. Inalienable rights are not inherent
in man and can be alienated by government. Persons have inalienable
rights. Most state constitutions recognize only inalienable rights.
-----------------------------------------
UNALIENABLE. The state of a thing or right which cannot be sold.
2. Things which are not in commerce, as public roads, are in their
nature unalienable. Some things are unalienable, in consequence of
particular provisions in the law forbidding their sale or transfer, as
pensions granted by the government. The natural rights of life and
liberty are UNALIENABLE. Bouviers Law Dictionary 1856 Edition
"Unalienable: incapable of being alienated, that is, sold and
transferred." Black's Law Dictionary, Sixth Edition, page 1523:
You can not surrender, sell or transfer unalienable rights, they are a
gift from the creator to the individual and can not under any
circumstances be surrendered or taken. All individual's have unalienable
rights.>>
--------------------------------------------------
Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire - Gibbon
( Chapter XX: Conversion Of Constantine. )
<<When Constantine embraced the faith of the Christians, he seemed to
contract a perpetual alliance with a distinct and independent society;
and the privileges granted or confirmed by that emperor, or by his
successors, were accepted, not as the precarious favors of the court,
but as the just and INALIENABLE rights of the ecclesiastical order.>>
<<Perhaps, instead of censure, some applause may be due to the superior
sense and spirit of our ancestors, who had convinced themselves that
religion cannot abolish the UNALIENABLE rights of human nature.>>
-------------------------------------------------------------
JEFFERSON'S ORIGINAL WORDING OF THE DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE
>On your web site you have a section
>
>"Inalienable Rights". This is not what Thomas
>Jefferson said, in the Declaration of Independence it
>says,"We hold these truths to be self-evident, that
>all men are created equal, that they are endowed by
>their Creator with certain unalienable Rights";
http://www.nara.gov/exhall/charters/declaration/declaration.html
<<This is how Jefferson wrote it himself BEFORE submitting it to
Congress, and is the version he included in his Autobiography. Jefferson
orignally had it, "with inherent and inalienable rights," which was
afterwards changed to "certain unalienable rights." But because the
original version has a fuller philosophical meaning, I chose to put his
original version on my website. (In fact, it was the printer, not
Congress, that changed "inalienable" to "unalienable.")>> -- Best
wishes, Eyler Coates
-------------------------------------------------------
The Fate of the Signatories by Gary Hildreth
http://www.unalienable.com/signers.htm
<<Have you ever wondered what happened to the 56 men who signed the
Declaration of Independence?
Five signers were captured by the British as traitors, and tortured
before they died. Twelve had their homes ransacked and burned. Two lost
their sons in the Revolutionary Army, another had two sons captured.
Nine of the 56 fought and died from wounds or hardships of the
Revolutionary War.
They signed and they pledged their lives, their fortunes, and their
sacred honor.
What kind of men were they? Twenty-four were lawyers and jurists. Eleven
were merchants, nine were farmers and large plantation owners; men of
means, well educated. But they signed the Declaration of Independence
knowing full well that the penalty would be death if they were captured.
Carter Braxton of Virginia, a wealthy planter and trader, saw his ships
swept from the seas by the British Navy. He sold his home and
properties to pay his debts, and died in rags.
Thomas McKeam was so hounded by the British that he was forced to move
his family almost constantly. He served in the Congress without pay, and
his family was kept in hiding. His possessions were taken from him, and
poverty was his reward.
Vandals or soldiers looted the properties of Dillery, Hall, Clymer,
Walton, Gwinnett, Heyward, Ruttledge, and Middleton.
At the battle of Yorktown, Thomas Nelson, Jr., noted that the British
General Cornwallis had taken over the Nelson home for his headquarters.
He quietly urged General George Washington to open fire. The home was
destroyed, and Nelson died bankrupt.
Francis Lewis had his home and properties destroyed. The enemy jailed
his wife, and she died within a few months.
John Hart was driven from his wife's bedside as she was dying. Their 13
children fled for their lives. His fields and his gristmill were laid to
waste. For more than a year he lived in forests and caves, returning
home to find his wife dead and his children vanished. A few weeks later
he died from exhaustion and a broken heart. Norris and Livingston
suffered similar fates.
Such were the stories and sacrifices of the American Revolution. These
were not wild eyed, rabble-rousing ruffians. They were soft-spoken men
of means and education.>>
---------------------------------------------------------
Art Neuendorffer
Neuendorffer
> Leviathon by Thomas Hobbes
>
> <<And we see daily by experience in all sorts of people that such men
> as study nothing but their food and ease are content to believe any
> absurdity, rather than to trouble themselves to examine it,
> holding their faith as it were by entail UNALIENABLE,
> except by an express and new law.>>
--------------------------------------------------
entailler to cut away; pref. en- (L. in) + tailler to cut; LL. feudum
talliatum a fee entailed, i. e., curtailed or limited. See {Tail}
limitation, {Tailor}.] 1. That which is entailed. Hence: (Law) (a) An
estate in fee entailed, or limited in descent to a particular class of
issue. (b) The rule by which the descent is fixed.
A power of breaking the ancient entails, and of alienating their
estates. --Hume.
2. Delicately carved ornamental work; intaglio. [Obs.] ``A work of rich
entail.'' --Spenser.
--------------------------------------------------
Entail, v. t. [imp. & p. p. {Entailed}; p. pr. & vb. n. {Entailing}.]
[OE. entailen to carve, OF. entailler.] 1. To settle or fix inalienably
on a person or thing, or on a person and his descendants or a certain
line of descendants; -- said especially of an estate; to bestow as an
heritage.
Allowing them to entail their estates. --Hume.
I here entail The crown to thee and to thine heirs forever. --Shak.
2. To appoint hereditary possessor. [Obs.]
To entail him and his heirs unto the crown. --Shak.
3. To cut or carve in a ornamental way. [Obs.]
Entailed with curious antics. --Spenser.
--------------------------------------------------
Art Neuendorffer
Neuendorffer
> Ann <sympo...@aol.com> wrote:
>
> > There was a segment on a FOX show called "Million Dollar Mysteries"
> > last night about a $20 million treasure allegedly up for grabs if
> > someone can decode the messages left behind.
> >
> > http://fox.com/mdmystery/104/treasure.htm
"David L. Webb" wrote:
> Thanks for posting this, Ann. It looks entertaining -- perhaps it
> will keep Art occupied and thereby will spare us a few more of his
> repetitions of "Agnes a gob."
------------------------------------------------------------------
Who wants to be a Millionaire?
------------------------------------------------------------------
Here is the setup:
A small backwater Virginia town called Bedford wishes to become the
U.S. tourist trap of the 1880's; however, the scam of claiming to be the
hometown of Shakespeare had already been taken. Instead, the good people
of Bedford decided to publish a 50 cent pamphlet claiming to be adjacent
to 4 tons of hidden gold & silver just waiting for anyone who was clever
enough! http://www.unmuseum.org/bealepap.htm
Here's their incredible come on line:
--------------------------------------------------------------
Thirty men stumble upon a rich vein of gold & silver in Southern
Colorado in 1817. After eighteen months of hard work they are all
fabulously wealthy (plus they all share the knowledge of where to return
for more gold & silver if they should ever need to). Do they split up
their wealth and take off for the four corners of the earth? No way,
Jose! In their infinite wisdom they choose to transport tons of
precision metal by wagon IN BULK two thousand miles to Virginia in order
to bury it in a secret location!! (Be honest, isn't this what we all
would have done given the option?) After successfully transporting 1,013
pounds of gold & 3,812 pounds of silver past hostle indians and lawless
western lands to Buford, Virginia they break their backs moving tons of
rock to bury their wealth; in fact, they are apparently so thrilled with
this whole adventure that they repeat the procedure three years later
with a second haul of 1,907 pounds of gold & 1,288 pounds of silver - to
the very same hidden location. (Talk about all your eggs in one basket!)
These thirty men not only trust *each other* with the knowledge of
their buried treasure location but they have absolutely no qualms
putting their trust in a total stranger (& local innkeeper) named Robert
Morriss. They entrust Morriss with a box of enciphered instructions
which he is not to open for ten years. In fact, Morriss held on to the
box of instructions for 23 years! Morriss finally opens the box but only
out of a deep obligation that the gold should go to the deserving
relatives of the thirty men. (Pardon me for a moment. . . I'm getting
all choked up here!) Unfortunately, all that can be deciphered is that
the wealth is buried 6 feet in loose rock within 4 miles of Burford
Tavern. Only those who can afford to spend their spare money in
beautiful Bedford County are encouraged to go treasure hunting. <<Each
summer the area attracts hopefuls armed with metal detectors, etc., and
the town of Bedford has a number of businesses which gladly hire out
equipment including industrial diggers.>>
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Personally, I'd sooner visit "The Birthplace":
---------------------------------------------------------------------
<<The house situated in Henley Street is now divided into two dwellings,
one of which is occupied by a descendent of Joan HART, sister to
the poet, who pursues the humble occupation of a butcher. The adjoining
dwelling has been many years used as a public house known by the sign of
The Swan and Maidenhead. In the chimney corner is an old oak chair, said
to have belonged to the poet, but so much mangled by the knives of
virtuosi that little of the original form remains.>>
<<Ten years after signing his certificate that the chair sold to the
princess was a genuine Shakespeare relic, HART had replaced it and was
then showing "an old armchair in which Shakespeare smoked his pipe.>>
<<Finally we have Mr. D. Parkes who was a visitor in July 1807. From his
account we learn that HART was still trading as a butcher while dealing
in "chips of the old block.">>
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
<<Between 1897 and 1912, two brothers, George and Clayton HART, took up
the Beale challenge. They spent much of their spare time looking for
documents that might serve as keys for the other two ciphers much as the
Declaration of Independence had been for cipher 2. Though they never
managed to decrypt the messages, that didn't stop them from digging at
what they considered promising sites. Clayton gave up in 1912 but George
continued working on the Beale ciphers until 1952.>>
<<An even more persistent Beale fanatic has been HIRAM HERBERT, Jr.,
who first became interested in 1923 and continued right through
to the 1970's.>>
<<Professional cryptanalysts have embarked on the Beale treasure trail
including Colonel William Friedman. While in charge of the Signal
Intelligence Service, Friedman made the Beale ciphers part of the
training program; his wife once said he believed the ciphers to be
of "diabolical ingenuity specifically designed to lure the unwary
reader.">>
--------------------------------------------------------------
"The Birthplace" [1903] by Henry James
Custodian: MORRIS Gedge
--------------------------------------------------------------
<<[Henry James'] tale...which deals with the caretakers of a
Shakespeare-like shrine at Stratford. When MORRIS Gedge becomes its
custodian, he tells tourists only the truth and is threatened with
dismissal. When he fabricates elaborate anecdotes, his salary is
doubled. In August of the year this story appeared, James wrote that he
was haunted by the conviction that Shakespeare was "the biggest fraud"
ever practiced on the world.>> [Readers' Encyclopedia of Shakespeare,
p.396.--sc]
---------------------------------------------------------------------
<<"a German visitor [to Stratford] named MORITZ in 1782 described the
"birthplace" as being "the worst, and one that made least appearance of
all the houses in Stratford." Only in recent years have "Birthplace"
Trustees refrained from exhibiting "an old oak chair" in which
Shakespeare was said to have sat when carousing at the Falcon Inn
at BIDFORD, in spite of the fact that no proof exists
that he ever entered the inn.>>
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Amongst [Robert MORRISS'] guests and devoted personal friends Jackson,
Clay, Coles, Witcher, Chief Justice Marshall, and a host of others. . .
Famous Masons
http://www.mn-mason.org/famous.html
Jackson, Andrew - President of the U.S.
Clay, Henry - U.S. Senator...; raised in Lexington Lodge No. 1, Ky.
Marshall, John - Chief Justice U.S. Supreme Court 1801 - 1835
Marshall, James W. - Discovered Gold at Sutter's Mill California 1848
----------------------------------------------------------------------
A Window Into Pilgrim Life - A survivor speaks frankly about coping
Elizabeth Tilley Howland - in Person in Plymouth, MA, in 1673
http://www.mayflower.org/pil-life.htm
"I was born Elizabeth Tilley, about 1607, in Henlow, BEDFORD County,
England . . . the children played games such as knucklebones,
nine men’s MORRIS, and jackstones.
---------------------------------------------------------------------
http://www.jpj.demon.co.uk/jpjlife.htm
<<John Paul Jones was born in poverty and through his skills became a
distinguished naval officer fighting for both the USA and Russia.
His first voyage as ships boy took him to Fredericksburg, Virginia
where he stayed with his older brother William, a tailor.
As a Virginia FreeMason, John Paul assumed the name Jones.
On the 18th July 1792, sitting in an easy chair, sick in body but of
sound mind, he dictated his will to Governour MORRIS, the American to
France. MORRIS then left for an important dinner engagement and when he
returned at 8p.m. Jones had already died. Alone he had walked to his
chamber and had laid himself face down on the bed. MORRIS found him in
this position. At 45 years old he was buried in an unmarked grave for
over a century.
In Britain Jones is remembered as a pirate. Indeed, Benjamin Disraeli,
an early biographer, wrote that the nurses of Scotland hushed their
crying charges by the whisper of his name.>>
---------------------------------------------------------------------
"When a Mason told Lincoln in a conversation during that campaign
that all his opponents were Freemasons, especially noting that
Stephen A. Douglas was an early member of the Masonic lodge in
Springfield, Lincoln's home town, and he was not, Lincoln replied,
'I am not a Freemason, Dr. MORRIS, though I have great respect
for the institution.'"
Will Kemp bragged about doing the MORRIS danced from
London to Norwich in nine days in his _Nine Daies Wonder_ (1600).
"David L. Webb" wrote:
> I have a cat named Will Kempe, Art -- and he came from NORWICH!
> He even wears bells -- like a MORRIS dancer. Doesn't that sound
> like the workings of a Masonic conspiracy, Art?
--------------------------------------------------------------
Art
Neuendorffer
> --------------------------------------------------
> > Ann <sympo...@aol.com> wrote:
> >
> > > There was a segment on a FOX show called "Million Dollar Mysteries"
> > > last night about a $20 million treasure allegedly up for grabs if
> > > someone can decode the messages left behind.
> > >
> > > http://fox.com/mdmystery/104/treasure.htm
W.C. Handy, "Father of the Blues," once wrote:
"The Seven Wonders of the World I have seen, and many are the places
I have been. Take my advice, folks, and see Beale Street first."
------------------------------------------------------------------
What if the Beale papers are a hoax?
http://www.unmuseum.org/beal.htm
<<One of the first clues that the Beale papers are not what they seem is
in one of the documents which is a letter from Morriss to Ward. He
states, It was in the month of January, 1820, while keeping the
Washington Hotel, that I first became aquainted with Beale...
A notice in the Lynchburg Virginian for December 2nd, 1823 shows that
Morriss didn't become the proprietor until three years later. In
addition, the Washington Inn wasn't known as the Washington Hotel until
after Morriss sold it.
Some of the wording in the Beale papers doesn't seem to fit with the
time either. For example, a letter from Beale dated 1822 talks about
"stampeding" a herd of buffalo. The word stampede (from the Spanish
estampida) did not enter into print before 1844, twenty-two years after
the letters supposed date.
In fact there is no solid evidence that a Thomas Jefferson Beale existed
in Virginia in the early 19th century. Also there are no records of an
expedition that found gold in California. The original Beale papers
themselves do not even exist. Ward reported they had been lost in a fire
at Virginia Job Print plant along with many of the pamphlets.
If the Beale letters are a hoax there are probably three candidates for
the hoaxster. Beale himself, Morriss and Ward. Clearly most skeptics
focus on Ward. He published the pamphlet and charged for each copy.
Statistical studies of the word usage in the pamphlet suggest that
probably all the texts in it were written by a single person, most
likely Ward.
Little is known about Ward, but unlike Beale, he clearly did exist. Ward
grew up in the same section of Virginia as figures in the Beale papers
story. It is believed he was a member of the FREEMASONS. Records show he
joined Dove Lodge No. 51 in 1862. In fact, Ward's membership in the
organization may give clues to motives he may have had for concocting a
hoax.
Many of the elements in the Beale Papers' story show up in Masonic
rites. The idea of a vault (the exact word used by Beale) filled with
treasures and lined with rough stone is part of Masonic symbolism. Joe
Nickell, a skeptic researching the Beale tale concluded in his book
Mysterious Realms:
...Beale and his treasure are illusory-merely part of an allegory meant
to evoke the anticipated Masonic `discovery of the secret vault and the
inestimable treasures, with the long-lost word'...The contrast between
the futile quest for gold and that for more spiritual wealth are
didactically expressed in the allegory...
Where did Ward get the inspiration for his story? Several people have
pointed to Edgar Allan Poe's story The Gold Bug which had similar
elements in it. Also, a Kentucky legend about a man named Swift who
discovered a silver mine may have influenced Ward.>>
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
SOME ANACHRONISMS IN THE JANUARY 4, 1822 BEALE LETTER
<<When James B. Ward published THE BEALE PAPERS in 1885, first revealing
the Beale codes to the world, he included copies of three letters dated
1822, addressed to Robert Morriss and purported to be signed by Thomas
Jefferson Beale. These letters were provided in support of the story of
the Beale codes and the treasure that they would reveal. It is clear
that if the letters are a hoax, the codes are invalid also. The letter
dated January 4, 1822, addressed to Robert Morriss and signed Thos Jeffn
Beale, includes two passages of interest. The first reads as follows:
"Keeping well together they followed their trail for two weeks or
more, securing many, and STAMPEDING the rest."
The second passage of interest reads as follows:
"Every one was diligently at work with such tools and APPLIANCES as
they had IMPROVISED . . ."
Three words occur in these passages that do not appear to have been in
use in 1822 -- STAMPEDING, APPLIANCES, and IMPROVISED.
STAMPEDE does not appear in Noah Webster's first dictionary published
in 18O6 and entitled A COMPENDIOUS DICTIONARY OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE,
nor does it appear in his second dictionary published in 1828 and
entitled AN AMERICAN DICTIONARY OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE. The word was
derived from a Mexican Spanish word "estampida" or "estampido", meaning
literally "stamping" or "pounding", and hence meaning "stampede" in
Mexican Spanish. When the word was first brought over into English after
contact between Spanish-speaking and English-speaking cattlemen, it
retained some of its Spanish pronunciation and was first used as
STAMPIDO, STAMPADO, STAMPEDO, STOMPADO, etc.
1826 Virginia Herald (Fredericksburg, Va.)
Instantly this prodigious multitude, and there were thousands of
them, took what the Spanish call the "STOMPADO".
l828 Missouri Historical Review Vol VIII for 1914
A little before daylight the mules made an abortive attempt to raise
a STAMPIDO.
1834 23rd Congress 2nd Sess H.R. Doc No. 2, p 79
A stupid sentinel last night ... alarmed the camp, and sent off in a
STAMPEDO the rest of the horses.
1835 Washington Irving, Tour Prairies, XXVI, p 23O
About two hours before day there was a STAMPEDO, or sudden rush of
horses...
1843 Marryat, M. Violet XXIX, p 29
The animals had ESTAMPEDOED the whole distance at the utmost of
their speed.
1844 Gregg, Commerce of Prairies II p 167
Their horses had taken a STAMPEDE and escaped.
1844 ibid page 169
A party of Mexicans...STAMPEDED and carried away, not only their own
horses, but those of the Texans.
After this point, one may assume that the use of the word STAMPEDE in
its present form was common. But in the 1822 letter the word was just
tossed off as if a Virginia innkeeper would understand a word that
probably had not been invented yet. APPLIANCE does not appear in
Webster's 18O6 dictionary. It does appear in his 1828 dictionary defined
as follows:
APPLIANCE, n. The act of applying or thing applied. Obs. Shak.
Thus it appears that Webster included an obsolete word in his dictionary
because it appeared in Shakespeare's writings.
The OXFORD ENGLISH DICTIONARY gives three definitions of APPLIANCE, the
first one being listed as obsolete, as follows:
1. Compliance, willing service; subservience.
16O1 Shaks, All's Well II. i. 116, I come to tender it, and my
APPLIANCE, With all bound humbleness
16O3 Meas for M. III. i. 89, Too noble, to conserue a life In
base APPLIANCES
2. The action of putting to, administering, using, putting into
practice; application.
1561 T. Norton, Calvin's Inst., It remaineth that by APPLYANCE
all the same (benefits) may come to us.
16O8 Shaks, Per. III. ii. 86, An Egyptian, had nine hours lien
dead, By good APPLIANCES was recovered.
1831 Carlyle, Sart.Res. II. iii., The human soul... could be
acted on through the muscular integument by the APPLIANCE of
birchrods. (remaining citations for 1851 and 1868 omitted here)
3. A thing applied as means to an end; apparatus.
1597 Shaks, 2 Hen IV. III. i. 2O., With all APPLIANCES and
meanes to boot.
1613 --- Hen VIII, I. i. 124., Aske God for Temp'rance; that's
the APPLIANCE only which your disease requires.
1861 Stanley, East Ch. ii. Introd. 6O., All the APPLIANCES of
antiquarian and artistic knowledge.
1876 Fawcett, Pol. Econ. II. viii, 231., To avail themselves of
improved mechanical APPLIANCES.
Only the third definition of the OXFORD ENGLISH DICTIONARY applies to
the word in the sense used in the Beale letter, and it is seen that,
after Shakespeare last used the word in 1613, the compilers found no
further use of the word in that sense until 1861.
Fitzedward Hall's MODERN ENGLISH, chapter 8, page 3O7 (l873):
APPLIANCE, a word which our grandfathers would have regarded as very
quaint, certainly owes its reappearance to the increased study, during
later years, of old English literature. Few of the archaisms which have
recently been endowed with new life are more felicitous.
Thus, the word APPLIANCE, which was "endowed with new life" about 1861,
was recognized as a recently archaic word which had recently reappeared
by a leading authority in 1873. Of Mr. Hall's qualifications, George H.
McKnight in THE EVOLUTION OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE stated "Much more
trustworthy as a leader was Fitzedward Hall, whose standards of judgment
are today generally accepted." It is therefore a reasonable deduction
from the evidence that the word APPLIANCE was not available to a letter
writer in 1822.
IMPROVISE does not appear in either the 18O6 or 1828 Webster dictionary.
The word is derived from the French "improviser" or the Italian
"improvisare", meaning "to sing or say extempore".
The OXFORD ENGLISH DICTIONARY cites a use in 1826 in the sense of "to
compose (verse, music, etc.) on the spur of the moment; to utter or
perform extempore." This use was by Disraeli in his novel VIVIAN GREY,
as follows: "He possessed also the singular faculty of being able to
IMPROVISE quotations." Incidentally, Disraeli was of Italian ancestry,
which may explain his apparent introduction of an Italian word into
English. However, when used in the sense of "to bring about or get up on
the spur of the moment; to provide for the occasion", the first cited
use in this dictionary was in 1854. There were two uses cited in this
category, as follows:
1854 E. Forbes, Lit. Papers viii (1855) 2O6, If a number of both
sexes happen to assemble at the same house a dance is IMPROVISED.
1859 Dickens, Lett to Miss D., 13 June (188O) II. 95 A tent
IMPROVISED this morning.
In addition, there were some early definitions of IMPROVISED which might
apply, as follows:
1837 Carlyle, Fr. Rev. III. I. iv., What part might be premeditated,
what was IMPROVISED and accidental man will never know.
It thus appears that the use of the word IMPROVISE in any sense other
than in connection with extemporaneous speech or musical performance was
unknown prior to about 1854. The word may have been totally unknown in
this country in 1828 when Webster published his second dictionary. It
appears unlikely that it would have been in the vocabulary of a literate
frontiersman in 1822.>>
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Art Neuendorffer
Neuendorffer
> --------------------------------------------------------------------
> Ann <sympo...@aol.com> wrote:
>
> > There was a segment on a FOX show called "Million Dollar Mysteries"
> > last night about a $20 million treasure allegedly up for grabs if
> > someone can decode the messages left behind.
> >
> > http://fox.com/mdmystery/104/treasure.htm
the 1875 [timeframe] _Valley of Fear_ by Freemason Doyle vs.
the 1885 pamphlet called _The Beale Papers_:
http://www.unmuseum.org/beal.htm
http://www.unmuseum.org/bealepap.htm
---------------------------------------------------
1) They both involve a "book cipher";
2) They both have someone named Morris;
3) They both involve a mysterious "swarthy" individual:
Thomas (J)efferson (B)eale vs.
(B)lack (J)ack McGinty
---------------------------------------------------
> Who wants to be a Millionaire?
> ----------------------------------------------------------------
> Here is the setup:
>
> A small backwater Virginia town called Bedford wishes to become the
> U.S. tourist trap of the 1880's; however, the scam of claiming to be the
> hometown of Shakespeare had already been taken. Instead, the good people
> of Bedford decided to publish a 50 cent pamphlet claiming to be adjacent
> to 4 tons of hidden gold & silver just waiting for anyone who was clever
> enough! http://www.unmuseum.org/bealepap.htm
> ---------------------------------------------------------------------
http://www.keepingapace.org/html/archives/war/ddaybedford.html
Bedford, Virginia, with a population of only 3,200 in 1944, was the
home of Army Company A, 116th Infantry Regiment, whose members
participated in WWII Operation Overlord (on D-Day, June 6, 1944).
Of the regiment's 170 soldiers who went ashore in
the first assault wave, 91 died, 64 were wounded.
Of 35 Bedford soldiers, 19 died in the invasion's first
fifteen minutes and two more died later that day.
Historians say the 21 deaths from the Town of Bedford were the
highest per-capita loss from any single community in our country.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
BEDFORD, Va. (AP) - About 15,000 people crammed onto a former cow
pasture for the unveiling of the National D-Day Memorial on Wednesday,
the 57th anniversary of the Allied invasion that turned the tide
of World War II.
``Just about every family here was affected by it,'' said Holmes Updike,
a Bedford native who was in military training in Georgia at the time.
``You just couldn't keep up with all the names of the guys who had
gotten killed.''
The memorial, made mostly of polished granite, depicts a boat entering a
shallow pool rigged with air jets to replicate explosions from below.
Bronze soldiers claw across a concrete beach toward an arch inscribed
with the word "OVERLORD".
----------------------------------------------------------------------
"OVERLORD" appeared as the solution to
11 across: "Some big-wig like this has stolen it at times."
-------------------------------------------------------------------
http://www.csj.org/studyindex/studycrthk/study_pseddoscience/study_factcoincidence.htm
<<While the Allied Forces were planning the Normandy invasion
of June 6, 1944, the following code words were used
(and were among the best kept secrets of the war):
UTAH and OMAHA for the beaches where the landing would take place;
MULBERRY, for the artificial harbor which would be put in place;
NEPTUNE, the overall plan for Naval operations;
OVERLORD the entire planned invasion itself.
Thirty three days before the invasion,
on May 3, 1944, UTAH,
appeared as an answer in the London Daily Telegraph crossword.
Thirteen days before the invasion,
on May 23, OMAHA appeared similarly;
on May 31, MULBERRY appeared; and four days before the invasion,
on June 2, NEPTUNE and OVERLORD both appeared.
Sure that a spy was sending the code through the
newspaper in the crossword puzzles, security forces
descended on the "Daily Telegraph" offices, convinced that
they had uncovered a German spy. Instead what they found was
a very shocked and shaken schoolteacher by the name of
Leonard Dawe, who had been drafting the crossword puzzles
for the "Daily Telegraph" for the past twenty years.
It took a bit of convincing, but Dawe finally managed to
convince the spy catchers that it was all a huge coincidence,
and that he had never, and would never spy for the enemy."
-------------------------------------------------------------------
Puck of Pook's Hill - Rudyard Kipling
"'I warned the King," said he, "what would come of
giving England to us Norman thieves. Here art thou,
Richard, less than two days confirmed in thy Manor,
and already thou hast risen against thy overlord.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
The name "OVERLORD" meant someone "over" & "above"
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
<<One of the most important Scythian words was uper, which meant "over"
or "above" - a word that we still use in today's English in such
definitions as "superintendent" or "supervisor". In titular form, a
Scythian Uper was an Overseer or, more importantly, an Overlord - the
equivalent of a Pendragon. Later, in the Hungarian and Romanian regions,
the word gained the variant form, Oupire. Until the mediaeval
fabrications of the Christian Church, there was nothing remotely
sinister or supernatural about the definition of Oupire, but this was
eventually destined to change when the witch-hunts began, for the
priestly/kingly Oupires were, in the eyes of Rome, the equivalent of
Magian Druids. They were therefore witches, and the Sidhé definition
(Web of the Wise) became newly dubbed as "the Web of the Weird".
In the main, outside the Celtic regions of Britain, the traditional
Oupires had been apparent in the Balkan and Carpathian regions of
Europe, having prevailed from Transylvania to the Black Sea in ancient
times. They were therefore not only associated with witches but with
Gypsies. The Church bishops and Inquisitional friars suspected them of
being the ultimate rulers of the Land of Elphane - the twilight realm of
fairy gold, magic springs and the abiding lore of the Greenwood, all of
which were anathema to the Church. They were said to be wandering
people of the night, who consorted with evil spirits. At that stage,
a new word was born into the language of Christian Europe.
The word, a straightforward corruption of Oupire, was "vampire".>>
-- Sir Laurence Gardner
Nexus Magazine, Volume 6, Number 5 (August-September 1999).
-------------------------------------------------------------------
The name "OMAHA" is named for the Indian tribe and means
"Above All Others on a Stream."
(The first Mormon migrants wintered there in 1846–1847 on their way to
Utah.)
-----------------------------------------------------------------
The name "UTAH" is named for the Navajo, who the Apache
reffered to as "Yuttahih", or “one that is higher up.”
(Europeans thought the Apache term referred to a tribe that dwelled even
farther up the mountains than the Navajo, so they called these people
Utes.)
-----------------------------------------------------------------
The name "MULBERRY" is named for the Greek moros (a fool)
because “it is reputed the wisest of all flowers"
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Mulberry.
Moros/Morus/Morris/Morriss
Brewer Dictionary of Phrase and Fable. 1898.
The botanical name is Morus, from the Greek moros (a fool); so
called, we are told in the Hortus Anglicus, because “it is reputed the
wisest of all flowers, as it never buds till the cold weather is past
and
gone.”
The fruit was originally white, and became blood-red from the blood of
Pyramus and Thisb. The tale is, that Thisb was to meet her lover at the
white mulberry-tree near the tomb of Ninus, in a suburb of Babylon.
Being scared by a lion, Thisb fled, and, dropping her veil, it was
besmeared with blood. Pyramus, thinking his lady-love had been devoured
by a lion, slew himself, and Thisb, coming up soon afterwards, stabbed
herself also. The blood of the lovers stained the white fruit of the
mulberry-tree into its present colour.
Prologue And Thisby, tarrying in MULBERRY shade,
His dagger drew, and died. For all the rest,
Let Lion, Moonshine, Wall, and lovers twain
At large discourse, while here they do remain.
In the Seven Champions (pt. i. chap. iv.) we are told that Eglantine,
daughter of the King of Thessaly, was transformed into a mulberry-tree.
Madame Eglantine. The prioress in Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales.
Good-natured, wholly ignorant of the world, vain of her courtly manners,
and noted for her partiality to lap-dogs, her delicate oath, “by seint
Eloy,” her entuning the service swetely in her nose,” and her speaking
French “after the scole of Stratford atte Bowe.”
-----------------------------------------------------------------
<<John Adams visited [Stratford] with Thomas Jefferson in April,
1786, and recorded his impressions: "A MULBERRY TREE that he
planted has been cutt down, and is carefully preserved for Sale.>>
- Warren Hope & Kim Holsten, The Shakespeare Controversy (1992),
-------------------------------------------------------------
The real author of Shake-speare: Edward deVere died
on the Feast day of John the Baptist/ Midsummer Day:
June 24, 1604 (Julian)
= July 4, 1604 (Gregorian)
On July 4, 1826 (222 years later!) two famous FreeMasons
(Thomas Jefferson & John Adams) up and died simultaneously!
By an even MORE remarkable "coincidence" that particular day was
the 50th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence.
----------------------------------------------------------------
Susanna Shakespeare Hall: (May 26, 1583 - July 11, 1649)
Susan Vere Herbert: (May 26, 1587 - Feb. 1, 1629)
+ 222
--------------
_Frankenstein_ Author Mary Shelley dies Feb. 1, 1851
----------------------------------------------------------------
Art Neuendorffer
Neuendorffer
> > > -------------------------------------------------------------
> > the 1875 [timeframe] _Valley of Fear_ by Freemason Doyle vs.
> > the 1885 pamphlet called _The Beale Papers_:
> >
> > http://www.unmuseum.org/beal.htm
> > http://www.unmuseum.org/bealepap.htm
> > ---------------------------------------------------
> > 1) They both involve a "book cipher";
> >
> > 2) They both have someone named Morris;
> >
> > 3) They both involve a mysterious "swarthy" individual:
> > Thomas (J)efferson (B)eale vs.
> > (B)lack (J)ack McGinty
> > ---------------------------------------------------
Janice Miller wrote:
> Don't forget Jennifer Beale.
>
> And me!
> (B)lack (J)ack (M)cGinty
> (J)anice (B)eth (M)iller
>
> I'm not particularly swarthy, though.
You're just being modest.
> A-and I have an uncle Morris! (Maurice, actually, I think.)
Is he finicky?
> And he gave me books! (So you know I'm not illiterate.)
If you were literate then you would know
how Uncle Morris/Maurice spells his name.
Art N.
Neuendorffer
_Musgrave Ritual_
<<Over the low, heavy-lintelled door, in the centre of this old part, is
chiselled the date, 1607, but experts are agreed that the beams and
stonework are really much older than this.>>
-------------------------------------------------
_Valley of Fear_
<<'Erected in the fifth year [1607] of the reign of James 1, and
standing upon the site of a much older building, the Manor House of
Birlstone presents one of the finest surviving examples of the moated
Jacobean residence --' " "You are making fools of us, Mr. Holmes!">>
---------------------------------------------------------------
Jamestown, Virginia, was founded May 13, 1607.
Santa Fe, New Mexico, was founded in 1607.
La Villa Real de la Santa Fe de San Francisco de Asis
The Royal City of the Holy Faith of St. Francis of Assissi.
-----------------------------------------------------------------
_The Valley of Fear_
Again Holmes flattened out the paper upon his unused plate. I rose and,
leaning over him, stared down at the curious inscription, which ran as
follows:
534 C2 13 127 36 31 4 17 21 41
DOUGLAS 109 293 5 37 BIRLSTONE
----------------------------------------------------------
<<"The same afternoon saw us both at HURLSTONE. Possibly you
have seen pictures and read descriptions of the famous old
building, so I will confine my account of it to saying that it is
built in the shape of an L. the long arm being the more modern
portion, and the shorter the ancient nucleus from which the other
has developed. Over the low, heavy-lintelled door, in the centre
of this old part, is chiselled the date, 1607, but experts are
agreed that the beams and stonework are really much older than
this. The enormously thick walls and tiny windows of this part
had in the last century driven the family into building the new
wing, and the old one was used now as a storehouse and a cellar,
when it was used at all. A splendid park with fine old timber
surrounds the house, and the lake, to which my client. had
referred, lay close to the avenue, about two hundred yards from
the building.
"I was already firmly convinced, Watson, that there were not
three separate mysteries here, but one only>> -- Musgrave Rit.
------------------------------------------------------------
The inspector looked from one to the other of us in dazed
astonishment. "Just this," said he, "that Mr. DOUGLAS of BIRLSTONE Manor
House was horribly murdered last night!"
------------------------------------------------------------
The Santa Fe Trail in DOUGLAS County, Kansas.
http://kcsun4.kcstar.com/schools/BaldwinElementary/santafetrail.htm
The Santa Fe Trail connected the United States with Mexico and was used
from 1821 to 1880. The trail started in Franklin, Missouri and ended in
Sante Fe, Mexico( now New Mexico). In 1906 and 1907, the Kansas
Daughters of the American Revoultion placed 96 red granite markers along
the trail in Kansas.
[DOUGLAS BEALSTONES:]
(B)lack (J)ack Marker
The Santa Fe Trail is marked by seven markers in Douglas County, Ks.
from the east. The marker at Black Jack is the first marker on this
section of the trail. It is located in Black Jack Park. The cabin
located in the park was built to recreate the old cabins, built by the
earlier travelers that used to be located in that area. Black Jack was
an important repair and rest stop on the trail. The flagpole at the
cabin was from the Black Jack schoolhouse.
Globe
Globe is the last marker. It's name used to be Marion but changed to
Globe. This stone was originally set in 1906, but when the road widened
and was black topped it was moved to the side of the road. In 1856, it
also suffered from the destrcution of the ruffians who robbed the
settlement and burned the buildings.
--------------------------------------------------------------
Santa Fe Trail (1821-1880)
http://www.larned.net/trailctr/
--------------------------------------------------------------
1. Why was the trail used?
It was used as a trade route between the United States and Mexico.
Missouri, as a new state, needed gold and silver from Mexico to help its
economy. It was cheaper and easier for northern Mexico to trade with
Missourians than to freight manufactured good up from Mexico City.
2. When did the trail begin?
In 1821, when Mexico gained independence from Spain and Missouri
gained statehood. The Santa Fe Trail became a route of trade between
northern Mexico and the United States at the Missouri border. Spain had
previously not allowed trade with the Americans. William Becknell is
credited with the first successful trading expedition.
3. Where did the trail begin and end?
The original eastern terminus was FRANKLIN, Missouri. For most
American traders, the trail ended at La Villa Real de Santa Fe de San
Francisco de Asis in Mexico, which is now Santa Fe, New Mexico.
---------------------------------------------------------------
The second Beale deposit was made December, 1821.
---------------------------------------------------------------
In Nov., 1821, William Becknell returned with news that Mexico was free
and Santa Fe now welcomed trade, and soon afterwards he left with a
small party of traders from the town of FRANKLIN.
<<[Mr. Morriss'] kind disposition, strict probity, excellent management,
and well ordered household, soon rendered him famous as a host, and his
reputation extended even to other States. His was the house par
excellence of the town, and no fashionable assemblages met at any other.
Finding, in a few years, that his experiment was successful and his
business remunerative, he removed to the FRANKLIN Hotel, now the Norvell
House, the largest and best arranged in the city. This house he
conducted for many years, enjoying the friendship and countenance of the
first men of the country. Amongst his guests and devoted personal
friends Jackson, Clay, Coles, Witcher, Chief Justice Marshall, and a
host of others scarcely less distinguished, might be enumerated.>>
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Famous Masons
http://www.mn-mason.org/famous.html
Jackson, Andrew - President of the U.S.
Clay, Henry - U.S. Senator...; raised in Lexington Lodge No. 1, Ky.
Marshall, John - Chief Justice U.S. Supreme Court 1801 - 1835
Marshall, James W. - Discovered Gold at Sutter's Mill California 1848
----------------------------------------------------------------------
http://www.unmuseum.org/bealepap.htm
We left St. Louis the 19th of May, 1817, to be absent two years,
our objective point being Santa Fe,
which we intended to reach in the ensuing Fall,
and there establish ourselves in winter quarters.
About the first of December we reached our destination, Santa Fe, and
prepared for a long and welcome rest from the fatigues of our journey.
Nothing of interest occurred during the winter, and of this little
Mexican town we soon became heartily tired. We longed for the advent of
weather which would enable us to resume our wanderings and our
exhilerating pursuits.
Early in March some of the party, to vary the monotony of their lives,
determined upon a short excursion, for the purpose of hunting and
examining the country around us. They expected to be only a few days
absent, but days passed into weeks, and weeks into a month or more
before we had any tidings of the party. We had become exceedingly
uneasy, and were preparing to send out scouts to trace them, if
possible, when two of the party arrived, and gave an explanation of
their absence. It appears that when the left Santa Fe they pursued a
northerly course for some days, being successful in finding an abundance
of game, which they secured, and were on the eve of returning when they
discovered on their left an immense herd of buffaloes, heading for a
valley just perceptible in the distance. They determined to follow them,
and secure as many as possible. Keeping well together, they followed
their trail for two weeks or more, securing many and stampeding the
rest.
One day, while following them, the party encamped in a small ravine,
some 250 or 300 miles to the north of Santa Fe, and with their horses
tethered, were preparing their evening meal, when one of the men
discovered in a cleft of the rocks something that had the appearance of
gold. Upon showing it to the others it was pronounced to be gold, and
much excitement was the natural consequence.>>
------------------------------------------------------
Art Neuendorffer
Neuendorffer
> -------------------------------------------------
> _Musgrave Ritual_
>
> <<Over the low, heavy-lintelled door, in the centre of this old part,
> is chiselled the date, 1607, but experts are agreed that the beams
> and stonework are really much older than this.>>
> -------------------------------------------------
> _Valley of Fear_
>
> <<'Erected in the fifth year [1607] of the reign of James 1, and
> standing upon the site of a much older building, the Manor House of
> Birlstone presents one of the finest surviving examples of the moated
> Jacobean residence --' " "You are making fools of us, Mr. Holmes!">>
> ---------------------------------------------------------------
> Jamestown, Virginia, was founded May 13, 1607.
>
> Santa Fe, New Mexico, was founded in 1607.
>
> La Villa Real de la Santa Fe de San Francisco de Asis
> The Royal City of the Holy Faith of St. Francis of Assissi.
FRIAR LAURENCE Holy Saint Francis, what a change is here!
Symbol of Saint Francis:
A seraph inflicting the five wounds of Christ;
or a lily on a trampled GLOBE.
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> GLOBE
>
> Globe is the last [Santa Fe Trail] marker.
> It's name used to be Marion but changed to Globe.
>
> The Santa Fe Trail in DOUGLAS County, Kansas.
> http://kcsun4.kcstar.com/schools/BaldwinElementary/santafetrail.htm
>
> The Santa Fe Trail connected the United States with Mexico and was used
> from 1821 to 1880. The trail started in Franklin, Missouri and ended in
> Sante Fe, Mexico( now New Mexico).
>
> [DOUGLAS BEALSTONES:]
>
> (B)lack (J)ack Marker
>
> The Santa Fe Trail is marked by seven markers in Douglas County, Ks.
> from the east. The marker at Black Jack is the first marker on this
> section of the trail. It is located in Black Jack Park. Black Jack was
> an important repair and rest stop on the trail. The flagpole at the
> cabin was from the Black Jack schoolhouse.
--------------------------------------------------------------------
(B)lack (J)ack Marker
-----------------------------------------------------------------
3) They both involve a mysterious "swarthy" individual:
(B)lack (J)ack McGinty vs.
Thomas (J)efferson (B)eale
"Beale Papers"(1885) by (J)ames (B.) Ward.
<<And the story of St. Thomas visiting Bonaventure's cell while
the latter was writing the life of St. FRANCIS and finding
him in an ecstasy is well known. "Let us leave a saint to work
for a saint", said the Angelic Doctor as he withdrew.>>
-----------------------------------------------------------
Oxford's ship was named:
BONAVENTURE
-----------------------------------------------------------
<<St. Bonaventure was born at Bagnorea in the vicinity of Viterbo
in 1221. Nothing is known of Bonaventure's parents save their names:
Giovanni di Fidanza and Maria Ritella. St. Francis is said to
exclaimed:
"O buona ventura"
when Bonaventure was brought as an infant to him to be cured
of a dangerous illness. >>
------------------------------------------------------------------
<<In 1266 Bonaventure convened a general chapter in Paris at which,
it was decreed that all the "legends" of St. Francis
written before that of Bonaventure should be destroyed,
just as the Chapter of Narbonne had in 1260 ordered the
destruction of all constitutions before those then enacted. This
decree has excited much hostile enticism. Some would fain see in it
a deliberate attempt on Bonaventure's part to close the primitive
sources of Franciscan history, to suppress the real Francis, and
substitute a counterfeit in his stead.>> - Catholic Encyclopedia
-------------------------------------------------------------------
<<Alexander of Hales said that Bonaventure seemed to have escaped
the curse of Adam's sin. When, in 1434, Bonaventure's remains
were translated to the new church erected at Lyons in honour
of St. Francis, his head was found in a perfect state of
preservation, the tongue being as red as in life. Dante, writing
long before, had given expression to the popular mind by placing
Bonaventure among the saints in his "Paradiso", and no canonization was
ever more ardently or universally desired than that of Bonaventure. On
April 14, 1482, Bonaventure was enrolled in the catalogue of the saints
by Sixtus IV. In 1562 Bonaventure's shrine was plundered by HUGUENOTS
and the urn containing his body was burned in the public square. His
head was preserved through the heroism of the superior, who hid it at
the cost of his life but it disappeared during the French Revolution;
every effort to discover it has been in vain. Feast Day: 14 July.>>
-------------------------------------------------------------------
Santa Fé, Argentina founded in 1573
-------------------------------------------------------------------
<<Juan de Garay, c.1528–1583, Spanish conquistador, refounder of Buenos
Aires. He went to Peru (1544) in the train of the first viceroy, Blasco
Núñez Vela, and was active against Gonzalo Pizarro in the civil war.
From 1548 to 1568 his activity, as a soldier and colonizer, was centered
in Upper Peru (present-day Bolivia). Moving to Asunción (Paraguay) in
1568, he quickly became prominent in the provincial government. He
founded Santa Fé (in present-day Argentina) in 1573. Santa Fe was the
home of the 1853 Argentine constitution.>> -- The Columbia
Encyclopedia1
-------------------------------------------------------------------
Henry Wriothesley was born in 1573
Arne Saknussem's works were burned by the HANGMAN in 1573.
<<"Because Arne Saknussemm was persecuted for heresy,
and in 1573 his works were publicly burnt at Copenhagen,
by the hands of the common hangman.">> - Jules VERnE (J.C.E.)
1573 Tycho Brahe (Copenhagen)
_De Nova et Nullius Aevi Memoria Prius Visa Stella_
"On the New and Never Previously Seen Star"
http://es.rice.edu/ES/humsoc/Galileo/People/tycho_brahe.html
---------------------------------------------------------------
<<On 25 March 1573 Oxford's servant George Brown killed George Sanders,
a London merchant, on Shooter's Hill near Greenwich, and mortally
wounded John Bean. The disclosure of Brown's prior romantic entanglement
with Sanders' wife led to a total of four executions by hanging.
Oxford's half-uncle Arthur Golding quickly published a sanitized account
of what was England's most notorious murder since 1551. Both incidents
earned a place in Holinshed's Chronicle and subsequently on
the London stage, the 1551 murder as Arden of Feversham (1592),
the 1573 murder as A Warning for Fair Women (1599).>>
-------------------------------------------------------
The precurser to Shake-speare's _Henry IV_:
_The Famous Victories of Henry the Fift_
has Prince Hal's compatriots committing highway robbery on "the 20th day
of May last in the fourteenth year of the reign of our sovereign lord
King Henry the Fourth" (May 20, 1413).
Lord Burghley received a letter complaining of Oxford's compatriots
committing robbery on the same highway in May, 1573
the fourteenth year of the reign of Elizabeth Regina.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Hal's pal's => highway men between Gravesend & Rochester May 20,1413(J.)
Henry VIII marries Seymour the day after Boleyn executed May 20,1536(J.)
ED's pal's => highway men between Gravesend & Rochester May 20,1573(J.)
Ritual "murder of" Marlowe May 20,1593(J.)
Saturn/Venus conjunction May 20,1593(J.)
1001st. Ramadan w. Solar Eclipse (total over Libya) May 20,1593(J.)
1002nd. Ramadan w. Solar Eclipse May 20,1594(G.)
Jamestown, Virginia, founded May 13,1607(J.)
Anthony & Cleopatra and Pericles registered (Ed.Blount) May 20,1608(J.)
Shakespeares Sonnets registered (T. Thorpe) May 20,1609(J.)
Solar Eclipse (total over Shetlands) May 20,1612(J.)
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Art Neuendorffer
Neuendorffer
http://www.acorn-online.com/whoswho.htm
January 22, 1607 Taming of the Shrew registered
June 5, 1607 Susanna marries Dr. John Hall, a physician in Stratford
November 26, 1607 King Lear registered
December 31, 1607 Shakespeare's brother Edmund is buried
-----------------------------------------------------------------
> > _Musgrave Ritual_
> >
> > <<Over the low, heavy-lintelled door, in the centre of this old part,
> > is chiselled the date, 1607, but experts are agreed that the beams
> > and stonework are really much older than this.>>
> > -------------------------------------------------
> > _Valley of Fear_
> >
> > <<'Erected in the fifth year [1607] of the reign of James 1, and
> > standing upon the site of a much older building, the Manor House of
> > Birlstone presents one of the finest surviving examples of the moated
> > Jacobean residence --' " "You are making fools of us, Mr. Holmes!">>
> > ---------------------------------------------------------------
> > Jamestown, Virginia, was founded May 13, 1607.
> >
> > Santa Fe, New Mexico, was founded in 1607.
> >
> > La Villa Real de la Santa Fe de San Francisco de Asis
> > The Royal City of the Holy Faith of St. Francis of Assissi.
> ------------------------------------------------------------------
> FRIAR LAURENCE Holy Saint Francis, what a change is here!
>
> Symbol of Saint Francis:
>
> A seraph inflicting the five wounds of Christ;
> or a lily on a trampled GLOBE.
> > ------------------------------------------------------------
<< St Francis' Day in 1226, funeral of St. Francis of Assisi.
St Francis' Day in 1535, the first complete English translation of
the Bible was printed in Zurich, Switzerland, published by London
printer Miles Coverdale, 47, a good translator who later served on two
other translation committees. Coverdale was also popular as a Lutheran
preacher.
St Francis' Day in 1616, Galileo’s daughter Virginia took the veil
in the Sisterhood of Poor Claire (an associate of St. Francis), taking
the name Maria Celeste.
St Francis' Day in 1669, Rembrandt dies in Amsterdam.
St Francis' Day in 1777 at Germantown, Pennsylvania, Patriot forces
and British forces both suffer heavy losses in battle. The battle was
seen as British victory which actually served as a moral boost to the
Americans
St Francis' Day in 1798, a volume of anonymous poems was published
in Bristol, England, under the title Lyrical Ballads. It contained poems
by William Wordsworth and Samuel Taylor Coleridge. It is probably the
single most influential volume of English verse ever published, ushering
in the Romantic movement.
St Francis' Day in 1822 in Pisa, Lord Byron finished his magnum
opus, the satire The Vision of Judgment.
On the same day, Rutherford Birchard Hayes, the 19th President of
the United States, was born in 1822 in Delaware, Ohio. He was a Civil
War general, U.S. Representative, and governor of Ohio before he was
elected president. He and his wife allowed no alcoholic beverages in the
White House. She was called Lemonade Lucy.
St Francis' Day in 1824, Mexico became a republic.
St Francis' Day in 1860, Sidney Paget. who illustrated Sherlock
Holmes' adventures, was born. Paget is responsible for the image of
Holmes in the deerstalker hat.
St Francis' Day in 1861, Frederick S. Remington was born
in Canton, N.Y., and attended Yale’s School of Fine Arts. At 20,
he went West and began documenting the lives of cowboys, soldiers
and American Indians in illustrations for many leading magazines, such
as Harper’s and Scribner’s. He became widely praised as a leading
illustrator, but by the turn of the century, Remington wanted
recognition as an artist and was devoting much of his time to painting
-- and even burned many past works he felt were too much like
illustrations. He was being strongly influenced by the Impressionist
movement and picked Ridgefield to be close to some of the leading
impressionists, including his friend Childe Hassam and J. Alden Weir.
Frederic Remington’s dream house in Ridgefield quickly turned out to be
his last home. He and his wife Eva moved into “Stony Broke,” a handsome
Barry Avenue home which they had designed themselves, in July 1909. Less
than six months later, on the day after Christmas, Remington was dead,
the result of an attack of appendicitis that he had exacerbated by
treating himself with laxatives.
St Francis' Day in 1904, Frederic Auguste Bertholdi, the French
sculptor of the Statue of Liberty, died.
St Francis' Day in 1928, Future Shocker Alvin Toffler was born. Mr.
Toffler is probably the nation's leading "futurist," a person who
studies where we're going. Future Shock, published when he lived on Deer
Hill Drive, Ridgefield, Connecticut (1967 - 1974) discussed what happens
“when too much change hits too fast for people to absorb.” In his 1980
best seller, The Third Wave, he predicted that a worldwide technological
revolution, like the agricultural and industrial revolutions before it,
would change the way in which the world lives and works. Dr. Toffler has
been joined by his wife, fellow futurist Heidi Toffler, in writing all
his books, including Powershift (1990), the final volume in their
trilogy, and War and Anti-War (1995).
St Francis' Day 1933, Esquire magazine published.
St Francis' Day 1947, Max Karl Ernst Ludwig Planck, Nobel Prize
physicist, dies at age 89.
St Francis' Day 1957, the Soviet Union launched its earth-orbiting
satellite, Sputnik I. Leave it to Beaver first aired on this day and ran
until 1963, when Beaver was a middle teen.
St Francis' Day in 1970, Rock singer Janis Joplin was found dead of
a heroin overdose in a Hollywood hotel room, her hands clutching $4.50.
She had just finished recording her second solo album Pearl.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
St. Francis of Assisi
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
<<Born in Assisi, Umbria, Italy, c. 1181; died at Porziuncola,
October 3, 1226; canonized 1228; declared patron of ecologists.
"Our friends, then, are all those who unjustly afflict us with
trials and ordeals, shame and injustice, sorrows and torments, martyrdom
and death; we must
love them greatly for we all possess eternal life because of them."
--Saint Francis
"Sanctify yourself and you will sanctify society"
--Saint Francis
<<One of the greatest saints God ever gave us was the son of Peter
Bernadone, a wealthy silk merchant, and his wife Pica. He was born while
his father was away on business and his mother christened him with the
name John (Giovanni). When his father returned, he insisted that the
child be renamed Francesco (the Frenchman). And so it happened.
Like most privileged youth, Francis of the small hands, broad body, and
liquid eyes indulged himself in extravagant living and pleasure-seeking.
He wasn't interested in his father's business or study. Influenced by
the ideals of chivalry, Francis went gaily to war, and was taken
prisoner by the nearby Perugians in 1202. Upon his release he
resumed his dissolute ways and became seriously ill for a time. Upon his
recovery in 1205, he decided to join the forces of Walter (Gualtier) de
Brienne, who was fighting in southern Italy. Francis outfitted himself
with expensive new equipment, but, according to some, he met a poorly
clothed man to whom he gave his finery.
A vision of Christ (urging him to turn back) during another illness in
Spoleto, followed by another on his return to Assisi, caused him to
change his lifestyle. At home he was faced with accusations of
cowardice. In 1206, he went on pilgrimage to Rome in rags. There he met
a leper and not only gave him money but went so far as to kiss the
man's diseased hand--an unthinkable act at a time when this was a
debilitating, communicable disease. On his return home he devoted
himself to a life of poverty and care of the sick and the poor.
While praying one day in the ruined chapel of San Damiano near the gates
of Assisi, three times Francis heard a voice say from the crucifix
before which he was praying: "Francis, go and repair my house which you
see is now close to ruin." Characteristically, Francis took these words
literally and set out to repair the chapel, but eventually he got it
right. At that time he rushed to his father's warehouse, took as much
cloth as a horse could carry, sold the cloth and gave the money to the
priest in charge of the ruined chapel. He asked permission to remain
with the priest. The priest agreed but refused Francis' donation.
His irate father sought him out but Francis hid. After days of fasting
and prayer, Francis came out of hiding. His looks were so altered that
people threw things at him and called him mad. His father treated him as
such: He took Francis home, beat him, bound him up, and locked him in a
room. While his father was away from home, Pica released Francis, who
promptly returned to San Damiano.
He was followed by his father, angrily denounced as a madman, and
disinherited in one of the most dramatic scenes in religious history.
When his father summoned him before the bishop of Assisi, who instructed
Francis to return the money from the cloth and to trust in God. The
saint solemnly took off all his clothes and gave them back to his
father. The bishop gave him a cloak for which Francis thanked him for
his first alms. Upon the cloak the saint marked the cross in chalk.
Francis said he now had only one father, his Father in heaven and
singing the divine praises, Francis went in search of shelter. En route
his met a band of robbers, who asked him to identify himself. Francis
responded: "I am the herald of the great King." The beat him and left
him in a ditch of snow. Undeterred he continued singing. At a monastery
he received alms and work. In Gubbio, an acquaintance gave him the
shabby tunic, belt, and shoes that Francis wore for the next two years
before returning to Assisi and San Damiano.
Francis begged for alms to restore the church and was mocked by the
townspeople who had known him as a rich man's son. After repairing
several churches in Assisi, he retired to a little chapel, the
Porziuncola (Portiuncula) at Santa Maria degli Angeli, and devoted
himself completely to his life's work of poverty and preaching.
Porziuncola belonged to the abbey founded by the great Saint Benedict,
Monte Subiaco, about two miles from Assisi. The chapel was neglected and
in disrepair until Francis restored it with his own hands while living
nearby.
On the feast of Saint Matthias in 1209, Francis really heard the way for
his life: "Do not possess gold . . . nor two coats nor shoes nor a
staff. . . ." Francis understood and undertook to live the rule of
poverty in Saint Matthew's Gospel literally. He gave away his shoes, the
walking staff he had used in his travels, and his girdle. He kept his
undyed, woolen cloak--the dress of shepherds and peasants--which he tied
with a cord.
The saint's preaching soon attracted numerous disciples who agreed that
Christ's disciples should have virtually nothing of their own. Among
those drawn to the severe Gospel were several leading citizens, Bernard
da Quintavalla, a rich merchant, and Peter of Cattaneo, a canon of the
cathedral, whom he robed on April 16, 1209, thus founding the Friars
Minor. The third to join them was Brother Giles, a simple, wise man.
In 1210, he received verbal approval of a rule he had drawn up from Pope
Innocent III as well as authorization for Francis and 11 companions to
be roving preachers of repentance. They lived together in a little
cottage at Rivo Torto until a dispute with a peasant who wanted the
cottage to shelter his donkey. In 1212 they moved their headquarters to
the Porziuncola chapel, which the abbot of Monte Subiaco gave them on
the condition that it should always remain the motherhouse for the
Friars Minor.
Many more men were attracted to this saint for whom poverty was his
"lady"; any illness, a "sister"; and his body, "brother donkey." Soon so
many recruits flocked in that another friary was built in Bologna.
Throughout Italy the brothers called the people of all stations to faith
and repentance. The brothers refused even corporate ownership of
property, human learning, and ecclesiastical preferment (initially few
of them were in holy orders).
Also in 1212, Saint Clare joined him over the violent objections of her
family. Together they founded the first community of Poor Ladies (later
known as the Poor Clares).
Obsessed with the desire to preach to the Saracens, Francis set out for
Syria in the fall of 1212, but was shipwrecked along the coast of
Dalmatia on the way. They returned to Ancona as stowaways. Francis
preached for a year in central Italy during which the lord of Chiusi
placed the Apennine retreat of Monte Alvernia at the disposal of the
order. A second attempt was made to evangelize the Islamics in 1213-14,
but it also failed when Francis fell ill in Spain while on the way to
Morocco and was forced to return to Italy.
Francis obtained the famous Porziuncola indulgence or pardon of Assisi
from Pope Innocent III in 1216. The following year (when he probably met
Saint Dominic in Rome), Francis convened the first general chapter of
his order at the Porziuncola to organize the huge number of followers he
had attracted to his way of life. Francis wanted to preach in France,
but Cardinal Ugolino advised against it. By 1217 the order's many
members were divided into provinces and groups of friars were sent to
countries outside Italy, including Brothers Pacifico and Agnello to
England.
In 1219, he sent his first missionaries to Tunis and Morocco from
another general chapter, attended by some five thousand friars. He
himself went to Egypt to evangelize the Islamics in Palestine and Egypt
with 12 friars under the protection of Gautier de Brienne. In the camp
of the Crusaders, he was shocked by the immoral lifestyle. He
requested permission, was warned against, and finally allowed to meet
with Sultan Malek al-Kamel at Damietta, Egypt, which was being besieged
by Crusaders. The sultan was interested in their discussions and asked
Francis to stay with him. A few days later the sultan sent him back to
camp. His mission was a failure both among the Saracens
and the Crusaders, so Francis went on pilgrimage to Akka (Acra).
He was obliged, however, to hasten back to Italy to combat a movement in
his order to mitigate his original rule of simplicity, humility, and
poverty led by Matthew of Narni and Gregory of Naples. When Francis
found the brothers of Bologna living in a fine monastery, he castigated
the superior and ordered the friars to leave. Having secured the
appointment of Cardinal Ugolino as protector of the order from Pope
Honorius III, Francis presented a revised rule to a general chapter at
the Porziuncola in 1221, which maintained his ideals of poverty,
humility, evangelical freedom, respect and obedience to Church
authorities, and doctrinal orthodoxy.
Friars slept on the ground, used no tables or chairs, and had very few
books. It was not until later that they became an order whose theology
won attention in universities. A movement in the order toward mitigating
his rule, led by Brother Elias, began to spread and was met by Francis
with still another slight revision, but this time he secured for
it the approval of Pope Honorius III in 1223.
Francis and his adviser Cardinal Ugolino may have drawn up a rule for
the lay people who associated themselves with the Friars Minor--the
Franciscan tertiaries. This became a massive movement and source of much
of the piety and sanctity of the age--a re-evangelization throughout
Europe.
By this time Francis had retired from the practical activities of the
order, and its direction was mainly in the hands of Brother Elias. At
Christmas of 1223, Francis built a crèche at Grecchia in the valley of
Rieti. It is probably not the first time the scene in Bethlehem was
acted out, but Francis' doing it established the manager scene as a
Christmas custom observed all over the Christian world to the present
day.
Two years before his death at the beginning of a 40-day fast, while
praying in his cell on Mount Alverna (Monte La Verna) in the Apennines
on September 14 and long after his reputation was well-established,
Francis received the marks which were to confirm his sanctity. They did
not bleed, but were instead impressions of the heads of nails,
round and black and standing clear from the flesh. These wounds were one
of the sources of the physical pain and weakness he suffered
increasingly until he welcomed "Sister Death." Francis kept these
stigmata a secret by wearing shoes and stockings and covering his hands
with his habit. He is the first known saint to have experienced the
stigmata.
In 1225, Cardinal Ugolino and the vicar Elias convinced Francis to see
the pope's physician at Rieti. En route he stopped to see Saint Clare at
San Damiano for the last time. In terrible discomfort, he wrote the
Canticle of Brother Sun, set it to music, and taught the brothers how to
sing it. At Mount Rainerio he underwent primitive surgery and a painful
treatment that brought him some relief.
In Assisi, doctors told him he had only a few weeks to live. Francis
asked to be taken to Porziuncola on a stretcher and that they send to
Rome for Lady Giacoma di Settesoli, an old friend. She was asked to
bring candles and a gray gown for his burial and some favorite cakes.
She arrived before the messenger started out. As he wished, Francis died
lying on the ground covered with an old habit.
Brother Elias described the five wounds of the stigmata in a letter
shortly after Francis's death. Blood often trickled from his side.
Brother Leo wrote, "The blessed Francis, two years before his death,
kept a Lent in the hermitage of Alverna in honor of the Blessed Virgin
Mary, mother of God, and Blessed Michael the Archangel, from the Feast
of the Assumption of St. Mary the Virgin to the Feast of St. Michael in
September. . . . After the vision and speech he had of a seraph, and the
impression in his body of the Stigmata of Christ, he made these praises
. . . giving thanks to God for the favor that had been conferred on
him." Others claim he received the marks only a few weeks before his
death.
The saint asked to be buried in the criminals' cemetery on the Colle
d'Inferno, but his body was taken to the Church of Saint George in
Assisi. It remained there until 1230, when it was secretly removed to
the basilica built by Brother Elias. His relics were rediscovered in
1818 and reburied, first in an ornate tomb, and then, in 1932, in a very
simple one.
Though never ordained, Francis' impact on religious life since his times
has been enormous. Probably no saint has affected so many in so varied
ways as the gentle saint of Assisi who, born to wealth, devoted his life
to poverty, concern for the poor and sick, and so delighted in God's
creation. His cultus has grown enormously in the last hundred years
among Christians of all denominations and others. There is a compelling
appeal in his Canticle of the sun and in what we are told about him by
the Little flowers of Saint Francis and the Mirror of perfection
(Attwater, Bentley, Chesterton, Cuthbert, Delaney, Harrison,
Holland-Smith, Moorman, Roeder, Sherley-Price, White).
In art, Saint Francis is generally depicted in the drab habit of his
order, usually with the stigmata and a winged crucifix before him. At
times he may be shown:
Preaching to the birds (anonymous 13th century)
Propping up a falling church
Kneeling before a crèche (White)
As a young layman giving his coat to a poor gentleman (Giotto)
Returning his father's goods before the bishop (13th century)
As the pope dreams of him and St. Dominic holding up the Lateran
Marrying Lady Poverty
Dictating a contract with a wolf before the gates of Gubbio
Surrounded by animals
Walking through fire before the sultan
Receiving the stigmata (Federico Fiori Barocci)
Crowned with thorns
Hearing angelic music
As the Virgin appears before him
As the Virgin points him out to Christ
Contemplating a skull
Embracing St. Dominic
Clothing St. Clare as a novice
As St. Clare visits his funeral (Giotto)
Other paintings of Saint Francis by:
Mar gaitone di Arezzo
Benozzo Gozzoli
Francisco de Zurbarán
Caravaggio's St. Francis in Ecstasy
El Greco's St. John the Evangelist with St. Francis
Francis is the patron saint of Italy, Italian merchants (due to his
family's business), animals, animal welfare societies, ecology, and
ecologists (Roeder, White).>>
----------------------------------------------------------
Art Neuendorffer
Neuendorffer
The front-page headline in the Aug. 6, 1998, told the story: “Jack B.
Ward, dead at 82, used fortune to aid others.” An heir to the Ward
Baking Company family, Mr. Ward gave away millions to Danbury Hospital,
the Visiting Nurse Association, the Ridgefield Fire Department, Jesse
Lee Memorial United Methodist Church, and many other organizations and
individuals. Most of his 40 years here were spent at Ward Acres Farm on
Peaceable Street and Golf Lane, where he and his partner, Olaf Olsen
(q.v.), raised hunters and hackneys and maintained a museum of antique
carriages that eventually included more than 50 vehicles.
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Art Neuendorffer
Neuendorffer
http://www.acorn-online.com/whoswho.htm
January 22, 1607 Taming of the Shrew registered
June 5, 1607 Susanna marries Dr. John Hall, a physician in Stratford
November 26, 1607 King Lear registered
December 31, 1607 Shakespeare's brother Edmund is buried
Neuendorffer
In 610, Muhammad had a vision of Gabriel.
The angel told him to recite in the name of God.
In 607, The 12th recorded passage of Halley's Comet March 13.
In 607, Halley's comet passed within .09 AU of the earth on April 19
----------------------------------------------------------------------
<<In 1607, from Carmarthenshire, William Lower observed the bright comet
which had appeared in the sky that September; we now know that this was
Halley's Comet. He observed it regularly between 17th September and 6th
October with the naked eye and used a cross-staff to measure its
position in relation to the stars.>>
<<The appearance of a comet attracted Thomas Harriot's attention and
turned his scientific mind towards astronomy. He observed a comet on 17
September 1607 from Earl of Northumberland's estate at SYON House,
Ilfracombe which would later be identified as Halley's Comet. Kepler had
discovered the comet six days earlier but it would be the observations
of Harriot and his friend (and student) William Lower which eventually
were used by Bessel to compute its orbit.>>
<<Suffering from cancer of the NOSE in his later years, Harriot died in
1621 at the home of Thomas Buckner, a mercer who lived on Threadneedle
Street near the Royal Exchange.>>
--------------------------------------------------------------------
> http://www.acorn-online.com/whoswho.htm
>
> January 22, 1607 Taming of the Shrew registered
> June 5, 1607 Susanna marries Dr. John Hall, a physician in Stratford
> November 26, 1607 King Lear registered
> December 31, 1607 Shakespeare's brother Edmund is buried
> -------------------------------------------------
> _Musgrave Ritual_
>
> <<Over the low, heavy-lintelled door, in the centre of this old part,
> is chiselled the date, 1607, but experts are agreed that the beams
> and stonework are really much older than this.>>
> -------------------------------------------------
> _Valley of Fear_
>
> <<'Erected in the fifth year [1607] of the reign of James 1, and
> standing upon the site of a much older building, the Manor House of
> Birlstone presents one of the finest surviving examples of the moated
> Jacobean residence --' " "You are making fools of us, Mr. Holmes!">>
> ---------------------------------------------------------------
> Jamestown, Virginia, was founded May 13, 1607.
>
> Santa Fe, New Mexico, was founded in 1607.
>
> La Villa Real de la Santa Fe de San Francisco de Asis
> The Royal City of the Holy Faith of St. Francis of Assisi.
> ------------------------------------------------------------------
THOMAS HARRIOT, TRUMPTER OF ROANOKE
http://www.nps.gov/fora/trumpter.htm
<<Explorer, navigational expert, mathematician, scientist and astronomer
Thomas Harriot was born in Oxford about 1560. In 1577 he entered St.
Mary's Hall (a subsidiary of Oriel College) and in 1580, shortly after
he was graduated B.A., he joined the household of Walter Ralegh. There
he prepared Arcticon, a navigational text which has not survived. He
also encouraged Ralegh to follow in the footsteps of Sir Humphrey
Gilbert in exploring and colonizing the New World. After Gilbert's death
in 1583, Ralegh, with Harriot's help, prepared for an expedition to
America. Although Ralegh hoped to command the 1584 voyage, Queen
Elizabeth would not permit him to do so. Harriot may have gone on this
voyage because there is some evidence that it was at this time that he
learned the Algonquian language.
During the winter of 1584-1585 Ralegh and Harriot made preparations for
a colonizing effort. On 9 April 1585, commanded by Sir Richard
Grenville, the expedition sailed from Plymouth. Unable to go himself,
Ralegh named Harriot as his representative, charged with assessing the
area's economic potential and describing the natives. John White was to
make maps and to prepare drawings of the new land and its inhabitants.
During the voyage Harriot made a number of observations. He tested dead
reckoning against celestial navigation, noted the variation of the
compass, and must have observed the eclipse of the sun on 19 April.
Harriot also gathered plants as samples of the richness to be obtained
by colonization. Once in America Harriot and White began their task of
making a permanent record of the people and products of the new world.
They noted commercially profitable plants and mineral resources. Harriot
may have been in the group that explored the Chowan and Roanoke rivers
and he may have spent part of the winter of 1585-1586 on the shores of
the Chesapeake Bay.
His scientific knowledge impressed the Indians who learned to trust
him.
By the summer of 1586, when Sir Francis Drake arrived, the colonists
were in dire straits. Supplies were low and the Indians unfriendly. He
gave them a ship; however, a storm forced it out to sea. He then offered
the colonists passage home. In their haste to depart much of the work of
Harriot and White was lost.
Although Ralegh sent a second colony to Roanoke Island in 1587, he also
had a colonial venture in Ireland where Harriot joined him and lived at
the Abbey of Molanna near Youghal in County Waterford. There he prepared
for publication the first English treatise on the new world. A briefe
and true report of the new found land of Virginia, published in 1588. An
important early account of America, it was included by Hakluyt in 1589
in his Principal navigations. The following year Theodor De Bry issued
elaborate editions in Latin, English, French, and German adding plates
of twenty-one of John White's drawings for which Harriot wrote captions.
It established Harriot and White as leading authorities on America.
Harriot helped to prepare the defenses for the invasion of the Spanish
Armada. He developed a large collection of maps and ruttiers, worked
with Emery Molyneaux in improving terrestrial globes, and assisted
Gerard Mercator in developing accurate map projections. Harriot was one
of the first modern scientists to use mathematics to analyze natural
phenomena. His study of the piling of bullets let him to study the
atomic structure of matter. His study of the trajectory of bullets led
him to consider the laws of motion and falling bodies; thus, he
performed the same experiments in England that Galileo conducted in
Italy. This research led him to discover the law of refraction many
years before the Dutchman Willebrord Snell. He worked on mirrors and
lenses and may have made an independent discovery of a telescope.
During this period Ralegh's fortunes declined. His colonization
attempts in the new world and in Ireland were disastrous. His favor with
Queen Elizabeth, source of his wealth, had been jeopardized by his
marriage to one of her ladies in waiting. Though he continued to be
close to Ralegh, Harriot found a new patron, Ralegh's longtime friend,
Henry Percy, ninth Earl of Northumberland.
In 1595 Northumberland granted Harriot a lifetime interest in his land
holdings at Brampton in county Durham and established him in a house
adjacent to his residence, Syon House, Isleworth. By 1597, Harriot was
listed as a regular pensioner at 80 pounds per annum-the same amount the
Earl's younger brothers received. With the support of Ralegh and
Northumberland, Harriot could live like a gentleman and pursue new
scientific knowledge without worrying about income.
The accession of James I in 1603 was bad for Ralegh, who was soon
charged with treason, convicted, and thrown into the Tower. Two years
later, because of a remote connection with the Gunpowder Plot,
Northumberland followed him there. Harriot, questioned about that plot
and accused by James of casting the royal horoscope, was imprisoned for
a time, but later released. He became the main link between Ralegh and
Northumberland in the Tower and the outside world, assisted Ralegh in
his writing of the Historie of the World, and instructed the Earl's heir
in the elements of mathematics and navigation.
Between 1606 and 1608 Harriot was in correspondence with Johannes
Kepler, comparing notes on their experiments in the refraction of light
and giving the scientific explanation to the dispersion of light in the
rainbow. By 1609 he possessed a six-power telescope and began a series
of observations of the moon. He developed at least eight new telescopes
(called perspective truncks) ranging in power from eight to fifty.
Harriot observed the phases of Venus, which proved the validity of the
Copernican cosmology; made more that thirty drawings of the moon, which
led to the first telescopic moon map; and determined the time of
quadrature so that he could calculate the distance of the moon from the
sun. In December 1610, almost simultaneously with Galileo, he discovered
sunspots. In October 1610 he first saw the satellites surrounding
Jupiter; two years later he calculated the distances of the moons from
the planet and computed the periods of their revolution. He also
observed the comets of 1607 (Halley's comet) and 1618 and determined
that they followed elliptical orbits.
Suffering from cancer of the nose in his later years, Harriot died in
1621 at the home of Thomas Buckner, a mercer who lived on Threadneedle
Street near the Royal Exchange. Buckner may have been the "Thomas
Bookener" who was with Harriot on Roanoke Island in 1585-1586. Harriot
was buried in the chancel of St. Christopher le Stocks, on the site of
the present Bank of England. His grave and monument were destroyed in
the Great Fire of 1666.
--------------------------------------------------------------------
Earl of Northumberland's estate at SYON House
--------------------------------------------------------------------
SIR WILLIAM LOWER (c.1570-1615)
http://brynjones.members.beeb.net/wastronhist/p_wlower.html
Among the pioneers of the telescope in astronomy were Galileo Galilei,
Thomas Harriot, Simon Marius, and in
Carmarthenshire, Sir William Lower and John Prydderch (or Protheroe).
William Lower was born in Cornwall around 1570 and later attended
university at Oxford. He was elected to the English Parliament in 1601
as M.P. for Bodmin in Cornwall, and later represented Lostwithiel.
Despite his strong Cornish connections, he married Penelope Perrot from
Carmarthenshire around 1601, and moved to her family's estate at
Trefenty in southwest Wales (also spelt Tefenti and even Treventy or
Tra'venti). Her mother had been widowed and had remarried the Earl of
Northumberland, the Earl becoming her stepfather. Meanwhile, the Earl
became the chief patron of the distinguished English scientist Thomas
Harriot; Harriot lived and
carried out much of his research at the Earl's estate at Syon House,
Ilseworth. Lower and Harriot became good friends. They corresponded
regularly on scientific issues; the surviving correspondence is the
primary source of information about Lower's astronomical activities.
In 1607, from Carmarthenshire, William Lower observed the bright comet
which had appeared in the sky that September; we now know that this was
Halley's Comet. He observed it regularly between 17th September and 6th
October with the naked eye and used a cross-staff to measure its
position in relation to the stars.
The invention of the telescope is conventionally credited to Lippershey
in the Netherlands in 1608. Within a year, news had reached Galileo
Galilei in Italy and Harriot in England. Harriot, who was an expert in
optics, constructed his own telescopes and used them to observe the sky.
He sent a telescope to Lower in Wales.
William Lower turned the telescope to the sky, working with his friend
John Prydderch (or Protheroe) of Nantyrhebog, Carmarthenshire. In a
letter to Harriot dated 6th February, 1610, Lower described the
appearance of the Moon through the telescope:
"In the full she appears like a tart that my cooke made me last weeke;
here a vaine of bright stuffe, and there of darke, and so confusedlie
all over. I must confess I can see none of this without my cylinder."
Several weeks later, Galileo published his own observations in his book
Siderius Nuncius. We see that Lower and Prydderch had made their
observations at a similar time to Galileo. However, they, like Harriot,
failed to publish their discoveries. For that reason, the scientific
credit for discovering the irregular character of the lunar surface goes
to Galileo, who also published his discovery of satellites of Jupiter,
the phases of Venus and sunspots.
Following Galileo's announcements, Harriot and Lower themselves observed
the satellites of Jupiter and sunspots.
Sir William Lower continued to live at Trefenty. He died in 1615 aged 45
years.
Account in Seryddiaeth a Seryddwyr
Silas Evans provided a short biography in Seryddiaeth a Seryddwyr, pages
276-279, with two
photographs. This is Rhys Morris's translation of Silas Evans's account:
"We turn from Pembrokeshire to Carmarthenshire. Shortly after the
discovery of the principle of the telescope we hear that THOMAS HARRIOT,
the foremost authority on science in this country at that time, had sent
for some of the lenses. A close friend of Harriot was SIR WILLIAM LOWER
of Trefenty, near Laugharne, and JOHN PRYDDERCH [or John Protheroe] from
Nantyrhebog, Sarnau, in the same area. Harriot sent one of the glasses
to Lower and Prydderch and with this they were observing in Trefenty at
the same time Galileo was in Italy. The history of this by Mr Mee can be
found in Knowledge and The Nationalist. Sir William Lower was from
Cornwall, but he married the daughter of Sir Thomas Perrot, and came to
live in Trefenty. Prydderch's father was high sheriff of Carmarthenshire
in 1599, and his mother was daughter of Robert Byrt, Mayor of Carmarthen
in 1593. Prydderch married one of the Vaughans of Gelli Aur and was one
of the forefathers of the Stepneys, Hamlyn Williams and other families.
We can but admire these two praiseworthy astronomers, and I would agree
with Mr. Mee's suggestion that a monument should be constructed in
Trefenty to commemorate the fact that this was where the sky was
observed for the first time in this country and this in the first year
of the telescope's existence.">>
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Thomas Harriot
http://www-groups.dcs.st-andrews.ac.uk/~history/Mathematicians/Harriot.html
Born: 1560 in Oxford, England
Died: 2 July 1621 in London, England
<<Thomas Harriot was a mathematician and astronomer who founded the
English school of algebra. He is described in [10] by Fauvel and
Goulding as:-
... the greatest mathematician that Oxford has produced ...
yet his name has only recently become widely known, and even now his
achievements are not fully appreciated by most mathematicians.
We know very little of Harriot's youth. In fact all that is known is
that on Friday 20 December 1577 he matriculated at the University of
Oxford with an entry in the official records giving his age as
seventeen, his father as a plebeian, and his birthplace Oxfordshire. It
is from this record that his date of birth is deduced to be 1560 and we
know that his father was a "commoner" but the very fact that Harriot was
entering Oxford means that it is unlikely that he came from the poorest
classes. Despite extensive searches of the Oxfordshire records, no
further information concerning his birth or parentage has been found
(although a number of possible relatives have been identified).
As an undergraduate at Oxford, Harriot was a student at St Mary's Hall.
He became friends with Richard Hakluyt and Thomas Allen, both lecturers
at the university, but not at St Mary's Hall. Harriot graduated in 1580
and went to London. It is not clear exactly what he did in his first few
years there but, probably from late 1583, he entered Sir Walter
Raleigh's service. Hakluyt, dedicating a preface to Raleigh in February
1587, wrote (see for example [4]):-
Ever since you perceived that skill in the navigator's art, the
chief ornament of an island kingdom, might attain its splendour amongst
us if the aid of the mathematical sciences were enlisted, you have
maintained in your household Thomas Harriot, a man pre-eminent in those
studies, at a most liberal salary, in order that by his aid you might
acquire those noble sciences in your leisure hours ...
Harriot wrote a text called Arcticon which was never published and
unfortunately no copies have ever been found. This work was essentially
his lecture course given at Durham House, Raleigh's lodgings in The
Strand in London, where Harriot lived at this time. The lectures were
given to the seamen who were being gathered by Raleigh to participate in
his expeditions to the New World. Pepper describes the advances in
navigational techniques made by Harriot by the time he wrote Arcticon
[18]:-
... he solved the problem of reconciling the sun and pole star
observations for determining latitude, introduced the idea of using
solar amplitude to determine magnetic variation and, as well as
improving methods and devices for observation of solar or stellar
altitudes, he recalculated tables for the sun's declination on the basis
of his own astronomical observations. ... he produced a practical
numerical
solution of the Mercator problem, most probably by the addition of
secants ...
It was not only as a navigational instructor that Raleigh employed
Harriot. He was involved with the design of the ships for Raleigh's
expeditions as well as being involved in the construction of the vessels
and selecting the seamen. He was Raleigh's accountant, being responsible
for obtaining funding for the expeditions and keeping all the accounts.
Raleigh had the captains Philip Amadas and Arthur Barlowe make an
expedition to Roanoke Island off the coast of North Carolina in 1584.
Although there is no direct evidence that Harriot made this voyage,
Quinn in [23] argues convincingly that he was one of those making this
preliminary survey. Harriot was certainly on a voyage to Virginia
organised by Raleigh in 1585-86. He sailed from Plymouth on 9 April 1585
on board the Tiger and his observations of a solar eclipse on 19 April
have allowed modern scientists to compute the exact position of the ship
on that day. Harriot made many notes during his time in the New World,
being particularly interested in the language and customs (particularly
the eating habits) of the inhabitants. The object of the voyage was to
colonise the New World but it was not successful in this aim.
Drake was engaged in sea battles with the Spanish when he learnt that
they intended to prevent the British colonists becoming established.
Although Drake met up with the colonists, in June 1586 there were severe
storms and there was a hurried return to England by Harriot and most of
the party. Harriot, together with Drake's ships, landed at Portsmouth in
July 1586 and he went immediately to Raleigh to report on the
expedition. He published A Briefe and True Report of the New Found Land
of Virginia in 1588, a book in which he recommends the smoking of
tobacco which he himself had learnt to do in Virginia. However, he also
wrote a full account of the voyage which, for some reason, he never
published and, despite strenuous attempts to find a copy, seems lost.
By the time Harriot had returned, Raleigh had turned his attention to
Ireland. Harriot carried out surveys of the Lismore estate, which was
owned by Raleigh, beginning in 1589. Nine years later he was still
involved in working out the acreage of plots being leased on the estate.
However the political situation was about to change and this would have
dramatic implications for Harriot.
Already in the 1590s there were allegations against Raleigh of atheism.
The charges were against Raleigh's school and "the conjurer that is
master thereof". Harriot felt that this was a reference to him and he
discussed the allegations with John Dee (who also felt that the charges
might relate to him). There is no reason to believe that Harriot (or
Raleigh) were atheists but certainly they were free thinkers and
Harriot's scientific approach to the world was, to say the least, viewed
with great suspicion by the church. As well as problems caused by
allegations, Dee and Harriot discussed scientific and mathematical
matters in the 1590s.
Harriot had now moved from working for Raleigh to working for Henry
Percy, Duke of Northumberland. The Duke had around him a circle of
friends who were scholars, many of whom held a atomistic views.
Raleigh's life became so chaotic that Harriot had sought the support of
a patron who could provide more stability for his scientific pursuits.
In 1595 the Duke made property in Durham over to Harriot and he moved up
the social ladder becoming a member of the "landed gentry". Harriot also
later held estates in Cornwall and Norfolk. Not long after the Durham
transaction, the Duke gave Harriot the use of one of the houses on the
estate at Syon (near Kew outside London) which Harriot used both as a
residence and as a scientific laboratory.
We certainly know from manuscripts which survive that Harriot was
engaged in deep studies of optics at Syon by 1597. Although in [4] it
states that he had discovered the sine law of refraction of light before
1597, in fact we now know that the precise date of Harriot's important
discovery was July 1601. As with all his other mathematical discoveries,
however, Harriot did not publish his findings. It is somewhat ironical,
however, that Snell (to whom the discovery of this law is now
attributed) was not the first to publish the result. Snell's discovery
was in 1621, about 20 years after Harriot's discovery, but the result
was not published until Descartes put it in print in 1637.
He had been asked by Raleigh in the early 1590s to apply his
mathematical skills to the science of gunnery. At this time ideas of the
trajectory taken by a projectile were still dominated by Aristotle's
thinking. Harriot resolved the forces acting on the projectile into
horizontal and vertical components. He understood that air resistance
acted throughout the whole flight, and that gravity acted on the
vertical component. He came very
close to a vector analysis solution of the problem of finding the
velocity of the projectile and, certainly by 1607, he came to the
conclusion that the path of the projectile was a tilted parabola. He
made one error, however, [4]:-
Somehow, he could not force himself to abandon the Aristotelian
idea that heavier bodies fell at a faster
rate than lighter ones.
Other topics which Harriot began to work on before 1600 were problems of
chemistry. He worked intensively on chemistry for almost exactly a year
from May 1599 to May 1600 and, although his experiments were conducted
with a new scientific precision, he made no discoveries of particular
note.
Raleigh had been a particular favourite of Elizabeth I and, when she
died on 24 March 1603, it was clear that Raleigh's fortunes would
change. Perhaps it is less clear that Harriot, by this time not so
closely associated with Raleigh, would find problems too. James I became
king and he quickly saw Raleigh as someone opposed to his claims to the
throne. Henry Percy, the Duke of Northumberland, had taken care to put
himself on a good footing with James with a letter of support for him
only days before Elizabeth died. In July plots were discovered against
James and Raleigh was arrested and charged with high treason.
Raleigh attempted suicide but failed. He then sought Harriot's help in
obtaining evidence on his behalf. Raleigh was convicted and sentenced to
death by hanging. Poor Harriot was singled out in the judgement as being
an atheist and an evil influence. His attempts to help Raleigh had been
based on Christian principles (to which undoubtedly he adhered) but this
had rather damaged Raleigh as Harriot was seen an atheist using
Christian principles for convenience. Harriot was devastated and for
about a year undertook no new scientific work as he tried to come to
terms with what was happening. Raleigh received a last-minute reprieve
from the death sentence but was imprisoned in the Tower of London.
Another plot was to lead to further trouble. On 4 November 1604 Guy
Fawkes and others were arrested for attempting to blow up the Houses of
Parliament. Four others, including Thomas Percy, the grandson of Henry
Percy, were also arrested as the main conspirators. Harriot was held on
suspicion of being involved and imprisoned in the Gatehouse. He was
interrogated on the charge that he had caste a horoscope of King James
in an attempt to use magical powers to influence the King's future. On
27 November Henry Percy, Harriot's patron, was also put in the Tower
where he remained until 1621 when he was released. No evidence seems to
have been found against Harriot and, although he remained in the
Gatehouse for some while writing several letters requesting his release,
he was a free man probably by the end of 1604.
As soon as he was released, Harriot returned to his work on optics. He
now considered more complex systems and employed Christopher Tooke as a
lens grinder from early 1605. His work on light now moved to the
dispersion of light into colours. He began to develop a theory for the
rainbow and, by 1606, Kepler had heard of the remarkable results on
optics achieved by Harriot. Kepler wrote to Harriot, but the
correspondence never really achieved any significant exchange of ideas.
Perhaps Harriot was too wary of the difficulties that his work had
nearly brought on him, or perhaps he did (as he claimed to Kepler) still
intend to publish his results if his health permitted.
The appearance of a comet attracted Harriot's attention and turned his
scientific mind towards astronomy. He observed a comet on 17 September
1607 from Ilfracombe which would later be identified as Halley's Comet.
Kepler had discovered the comet six days earlier but it would be the
observations of Harriot and his friend (and student) William Lower which
eventually were used by Bessel to compute its orbit.
His astronomy brought back to the fore, Harriot went on to make the
earliest telescopic observations in England. On 26 July 1609 at 9 p.m.
he sketched the Moon which was at that time 5 days old, viewing it
through a telescope with a magnification of 6. He sketched the Moon
again a year later on 17 July 1610, by this time he had a telescope
giving him a magnification of 10. Soon he had constructed a telescope
with a magnification of 20, then by April 1611 he had a 32 magnification
telescope.
Harriot observed the moons of Jupiter, although since his first sighting
states:-
My first observation of the new planets. I saw but one and that
alone
he must have already been aware of Galileo's discovery. As with all his
scientific discoveries, Harriot did not publish his results. These
observations of Jupiter's moons were made between 17 October 1610 and 26
February 1612.
He was the first to discover sunspots, making 199 observations between 8
December 1610 and 18 January 1613. The first observation of sunspots was
made while he was observing Jupiter's moons. From the data he collected
he was able to deduce the period of the Sun's rotation. However, around
this time his scientific work basically came to an end. He seems to have
had his spirits brought low by the deaths of his friends and lost the
spirit to continue research (which had brought him much trouble despite
his lack of publications).
Of the few pieces of work done by Harriot after 1614, one was his
observation of another comet in 1618 (there were three visible comets
that year and Harriot observed the third) from Syon House. In 1618
Raleigh, who had been shown the clemency of imprisonment in 1603 rather
than death, was put to death. Raleigh was executed on 29 October 1618 in
a public execution, with Harriot present to witness the event. However,
by this time Harriot was already suffering from the cancer of the nose
which eventually led to his death.
The cancer seems to have started around 1613, about the time when
Harriot lost interest in pushing forward his mathematical and scientific
research. He consulted the top specialist in 1615 who wrote report on
the consultation. He described Harriot as (see for example [4]):-
... a man somewhat melancholy. ... A cancerous ulcer in the left
nostril eats up the septum of his nose and in proportion to its size
holds the lips hard and turned upwards. It has gradually crept well into
the nose. This evil the patient has suffered the last two years.
Harriot would suffer this "evil" for a further three years before the
cancer took his life.
There are a few other major mathematical achievements due to Harriot
which we should mention. He exhibited the logarithmic spiral as the
stereographic projection of a loxodrome on a sphere, a projection he
proved to be conformal. The loxodromes are the straight lines on the
Mercator map, which Harriot computed with great precision. In fact in
order to achieve this degree of precision, Harriot introduced
finite-difference interpolation.
There is an interesting history to a problem which has only recently
been solved, yet originated with Harriot. Raleigh asked Harriot to solve
certain problems regarding the stacking of cannonballs. On a manuscript
dated 12 December 1591 (Sunday), Harriot set out a table to answer
Raleigh's questions. He shows how, if the number of cannonballs is
given, one can compute the number of cannonballs to be placed in the
base of a pyramid with a triangular, square or oblong base. Raleigh
posed a second question, which Harriot also answered, namely given the
pyramid of cannonballs, compute the number in the pile.
Harriot was too much the mathematician to stop there, however. From a
study of how the cannonballs could fill space, he considered the
implications for the atomic theory of matter which he believed in.
Later, in his correspondence with Kepler about atomic theory, Harriot
mentioned the packing problem. Kepler could not solve the problem but he
believed that the densest packing of spheres would be attained if in
each layer the centres of the spheres were above the centres of the
holes in the layer below. This seems intuitively obvious, but resisted
proof until 1998 when Thomas Hales of the University of Michigan (with
the help of hours of computer generated data) finally proved the
conjecture.
Harriot invented certain symbols which are used today. However, the
symbols < for "less than" and > for "greater than" were not due to
Harriot (as is often claimed), but were introduced by the editor of
Artis Analyticae Praxis ad Aequationes Algebraicas Resolvendas - Harriot
himself used different symbols. There is still scholarly debate on how
much Harriot was influenced by Viète, or whether notation and ideas
introduced by Viète were learnt by him from Harriot.
Harriot did outstanding work on the solution of equations, recognising
negative roots and complex roots in a way that makes his solutions look
like a present day solution. He made the observation that if a, b, c are
the roots of a cubic then the cubic is (x - a)(x - b)(x - c) = 0. This
is a major step forward in understanding which Harriot then carried
forward to equations of higher degree.
Although he was far ahead of his time, his work had far less influence
than it should have done since, as we have remarked repeatedly above, he
published no mathematical work in his lifetime. Even his work on algebra
Artis Analyticae Praxis ad Aequationes Algebraicas Resolvendas (1631)
was published 10 years after his death and was edited by people who did
not fully appreciate the depth of his work. For example, it does not
discuss negative solutions.
----------------------------------------------------
Art Neuendorffer