Adair, John (1660–1718), geographer and cartographer, was born on 2 September 1660 in Leith, Scotland. Nothing is known of his parents or his early education. The first firm reference to Adair dates from May 1681, when he was granted a licence by the ...
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Adams family (per. 1734–1817), makers of scientific instruments and globes, came to prominence through George Adams senior (bap. 1709, d. 1772), who was baptized on 17 April 1709 in the parish of St Bride's, Fleet Street, London, the eldest surviving son of ...
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R. C. D. Baldwin
Adams, Clement (c. 1519–1587), schoolmaster and map engraver, was born at Buckington, Warwickshire. He was educated at Eton between 1530 and 1536, and subsequently at the King's Hall, Cambridge. From 17 August 1536 he was tutored in classics, mathematics, and geometry at Cambridge...
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J. K. Laughton
revised by Andrew Lambert
Adams, John [alias Alexander Smith] (1768
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Elizabeth Baigent
Adams, John (b. before 1670, d. 1738), cartographer, came originally from Shropshire. He attended Shrewsbury School, and later lived at Tanfield Court, Inner Temple, London, where he was a barrister. He is best known as a surveyor and map maker, in which capacity he worked with his brother ...
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John Adams (1768?–1829) attrib. Richard Beechey, 1825 Phillips Picture Library
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Derek Massarella
Adams, William (1564–1620), navigator, was born in Gillingham, Kent, the son of John Adams. His mother and the precise date of his birth are unknown, but he was baptized on 24 September 1564 at St Mary Magdalen, Gillingham. He had at least one brother, ...
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Ainslie, John (1745–1828), cartographer and land surveyor, was born on 22 April 1745 in Jedburgh, the younger son and younger child of John Ainslie, druggist in Jedburgh, writer to the signet, and burgess of the burgh. He may have been educated at Jedburgh grammar school...
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R. C. D. Baldwin
Aldersey, Laurence (1546–1597/8), sea captain, was born at Aldersey Hall, Spurstow, Cheshire, the son of Thomas Aldersey (d. 1557), sheriff of Chester in 1539 and mayor in 1549, and his wife, Cecilia Garnet (fl. 1513–1594), also of Chester. As the sixth in a family of at least eight children, in the mid-1560s he looked to ...
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Alexander, Boyd (1873–1910), traveller and ornithologist, born at Willesley Place, Cranbrook, Kent, on 16 January 1873, was a twin son (with Robert Alexander) of Colonel Boyd Francis Alexander, of an Ayrshire family, and his wife, Mary Wilson. After education at Radley College...
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Patricia R. Andrew
Alexander, Cosmo (1724–1772), portrait painter and traveller, was born probably in Aberdeen, the son and pupil of the Aberdonian painter and engraver John Alexander (1686–c.1766), who had worked in Rome from 1711 to 1719, and his wife, Isobel Innes. John Alexander...
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Cosmo Alexander (1724–1772) self-portrait, before 1745? Aberdeen Art Gallery and Museums Collections
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Allison, Thomas (bap. 1647, d. in or before 1706), Arctic explorer, was baptized on 6 June 1647 in Great Yarmouth, Norfolk, the son of Roger Allison and his wife, Elizabeth. He became a freeman in 1668, having served his apprenticeship to Nicolas Allen...
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Alden T. Vaughan
American Indians in England (act. c. 1500–1615), included approximately thirty-five American natives of the western hemisphere, who lived for a time in England. The first were brought from the ‘Newfound Island’ by Sebastian Cabot in 1498 or, more likely, by Bristol seamen in 1501 or 1502. According to the ...
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Anderson, Joseph (1790–1877), army officer and colonist, was born on 1 July 1790 at Keoldale, Sutherland, Scotland, the son of James Anderson of Rispond and his wife, Fairly Gordon. In 1805 he was appointed an ensign in the 78th highlanders, with which he served in ...
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Angas, George Fife (1789–1879), promoter of the colonization of South Australia, was born on 1 May 1789 at Newcastle upon Tyne, the seventh child of Caleb Angas (1742–1831), coach maker and shipowner, and his second wife, Sarah Jameson, widowed daughter of John Lindsay...
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Roald Kverndal
Angas, William Henry (1781–1832), mariner and missionary, was born in Newcastle upon Tyne on 6 October 1781, the son of Caleb Angas, a successful coach manufacturer, merchant, and shipowner. Angas was descended from a branch of the Scottish clan Angus, which had long since settled in ...
