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Armitt, Mary Louisa (1851–1911), author and founder of the Armitt Library, Ambleside, was born at 19 Melbourne Terrace, Salford, Lancashire, on 24 September 1851. She was the youngest of three daughters of William Armitt (1815–1867), an impecunious assistant overseer who valued learning, and his wife, ...
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Aylesbury, Sir Thomas, baronet (1579/80–1658), patron of mathematics, was born probably in early 1580, possibly in London, where some of his siblings were later baptized at St Andrew's, Holborn. He was the second son among at least eight children of William Aylesbury (...
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Blount, Charles, fifth Baron Mountjoy (1516–1544), courtier and patron of learning, was the eldest son of William Blount, fourth Baron Mountjoy (c. 1478–1534), and his third wife, Alice Brown, née Kebel (or Keble; d. 1521). Charles was born on 28 June 1516 in ...
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W. H. Clennell
Bodley, Sir Thomas (1545–1613), scholar, diplomat, and founder of the Bodleian Library, Oxford, was born on 2 March 1545 in a house on the corner of High Street and Gandy Street, Exeter, the eldest son of John Bodley (c. 1520–1591), religious radical and publisher, of ...
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Boswell, Sir William (d. 1650), diplomat and patron of learning, was born in Suffolk. He matriculated from Jesus College, Cambridge, in 1600, graduating BA in 1604, becoming a fellow in 1606, and proceeding MA in 1607; he was incorporated at Oxford in 1608. In December 1614 he was granted a pass to travel abroad for three years but he remained absent from ...
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Cavendish [née Hervey; other married name Foster], Elizabeth Christiana, duchess of Devonshire (1757–1824), society hostess and patron of the arts, was the middle daughter of Frederick Augustus Hervey, fourth earl of Bristol (1730–1803), and his wife, Elizabeth Davers (1730–1800), and was known for most her life as ...
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Peter Sherlock
Cranston, Andrew (d. 1708), creator of a public library, was born in the late 1650s in Scotland to unknown parents. He was perhaps connected to the lords Cranstoun, for the descendants of his only known brother, James, assumed the same coat of arms. There is a volume in his library inscribed to him from ...
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Edwards, Arthur (d. 1743), benefactor, was elected a fellow of the Society of Antiquaries on 17 November 1725. Nothing is known of his parentage and upbringing, though his will refers to 'my brothers and sisters'. Little is known about his life, other than that he reached the rank of first major of the second troop of ...
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Jonathan R. Topham
Egerton, Francis Henry, eighth earl of Bridgewater (1756–1829), collector of manuscripts and patron of learning, was born on 11 November 1756, probably in London, the youngest of the three surviving children of John Egerton (1721–1787), bishop of Durham, and his first wife, Lady Anna Sophia de Grey (...
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Jeremy Warren
Falcke, Isaac (1819–1909), art collector and benefactor, was born in Great Yarmouth, one of some twenty children of Jacob Falcke. His father moved to London soon after Isaac's birth and started a business as an art dealer in Oxford Street; in due course he was joined by his sons ...
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Lucilla Burn and Suzanne Reynolds
Fitzwilliam, Richard, seventh Viscount Fitzwilliam of Merrion (1745–1816), collector, connoisseur, and museum founder, was born on 1 August 1745 in Richmond, Surrey, the son of Richard Fitzwilliam, sixth Viscount Fitzwilliam (d. 1776), and his wife Catherine Decker (c.1710–1786), eldest daughter of the Dutch-born merchant and political economist, ...
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Maker: Joseph Wright of Derby
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Cristina Malcolmson
Herbert [née Newport, second married name Lady Danvers], Magdalen (d. 1627), estate manager and patron, and mother to Edward Herbert, George Herbert, Henry Herbert and Thomas Herbert, was the daughter of Sir Richard Newport d. 1570 of High Ercell, Shropshire, and Lady ...
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Magdalen Herbert (d.1627), by William Segar
The Trustees of the Weston Park Foundation, UK/Bridgeman Images
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Heywood, James (1810–1897), politician, university reformer, and philanthropist, was born in Everton, Liverpool, on 28 May 1810, the fifth son of Nathaniel Heywood, a partner in the Manchester bank of Benjamin Heywood & Sons, and his wife, Ann, daughter of Thomas Percival, MD FRS...
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Nigel Ramsay
Holdingham [Haldingham], Richard of (d. 1278
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Hope, Henry Thomas (1808–1862), patron of the arts and politician, was born in London, probably in Duchess Street, on 30 April 1808, eldest of the three sons of Thomas Hope (1769–1831), of the Amsterdam banking family, and his wife, Louisa (d. 1851)...