Gilbert Abbott À Beckett (1811–1856) attrib. Charles Couzens, 1855 © National Portrait Gallery, London
Article
À Beckett, Gilbert Abbott (1811–1856), comic writer and police magistrate, was born at The Grange, Hampstead, Middlesex, on 17 February 1811, the third son of William A'Beckett (1777–1855), a reform solicitor, and his wife, Sarah Abbott. His forebears were an ancient Wiltshire family, who traced their ancestry back to the fourteenth century and claimed descent from ...
Article
Warren Chernaik
Ayloffe [Ayliffe], John (c. 1645–1685), satirist and conspirator, was born in Foxley, Wiltshire, the younger son of John Ayliffe (b. 1611?). He matriculated at St Edmund Hall, Oxford, in July 1662 and was admitted to the Inner Temple in 1664. An unyielding opponent of the ...
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Gordon Goodwin
revised by M. E. Clayton
Greatrakes, William (c. 1723–1781), barrister and supposed author of the Letters of Junius, born in Waterford, was the eldest son of Alan Greatrakes of Mount Lahan, near Killeagh, co. Cork, and his wife, Frances Supple, of the neighbouring village of Aghadoe. He entered ...
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Louis A. Knafla
Hake, Edward (fl. 1564–1604), lawyer and satirist, is of obscure origins. Educated by the Revd John Hopkins, he was a student at Barnard's Inn from 1564 to 1567. He had a room there for some time, and later had a chamber at Gray's Inn...
