History
: Historical Glossary (i-n)
Jenkins' Ear, War of (1739), British-Spanish conflict.
It was provoked by a series of incidents in the Americas such
as border disagreements with Spain in Florida, Spanish naval hostilities
and English logging activities in Honduras. When the British
government decided to use colonial troops in its campaign against
the Spanish provinces in the Americas, Lieutenant Governor William
Gooch raised Virginia's quota of 400 men, known thereafter as
"Colonel Gooch's American Regiment." They were part
of a force of 3,000 colonials under the command of former Virginia
governor Colonel Alexander Spotswood, quartermaster general of
the forces from America. When Spotswood died in Annapolis in
1740, Gooch succeeded to his military posts. Departing in October
1740 from the Virginia capes, he led an expedition against the
Spanish in Cartagena (present-day Colombia). Gooch was absent
from Williamsburg for ten months, leaving the government in the
hands of the Council. The attack on the Spanish at Cartagena
was unsuccessful, and Gooch himself was severely wounded when
he was struck by a cannonball that injured both legs. In spite
of the disastrous nature of the campaign, Gooch reported that
"the Virginians were mightily rejoiced at my return day and
night firing guns, bonfires and illuminations."
The conflict acquired its colorful name as a result of widespread
public outrage when shipmaster Robert Jenkins reported to the
House of Commons that the Spanish had cut off his ear for suspected
smuggling activities.
Jones, Hugh (1692-1760), mathematics professor at William
and Mary and author of The Present State of Virginia (1724).
He arrived in Virginia from England in 1716 shortly after receiving
a master's degree from Oxford. In addition to his professorship,
Jones was appointed to serve both as chaplain to the General Assembly
and as minister at Jamestown. In 1719 he became entangled in
a dispute between Lieutenant Governor Alexander Spotswood and
the Reverend James Blair, president of the College. At a gathering
of ministers the motion was made that the bishop suspend Blair
because of his Scottish ordination. Blair, no stranger to power
struggles, won the dispute. The fact that he had sided with Spotswood
created difficulties with Blair that led Jones to return to England
in 1721.
After a four-year absence, he returned to Virginia. Blair assigned
him to preside over Saint Stephen's Parish in King and Queen County,
which was known to be a difficult parish. Jones held this position
for a year then moved to a series of Maryland parishes. Hugh
Jones died in Maryland in 1760.
His writings, especially The Present State of Virginia,
are invaluable references to the natural, physical, intellectual,
and emotional world of colonial Virginia.
Kant, Immanuel (1724-1804), German philosopher. Through
the influence of the pastor of the family's Lutheran Church, Kant
obtained a classical education. The death of his father in 1746
cut short his college education. It was not until 1755, after
several years as a private tutor, that Kant was awarded a doctor`s
degree from the University of Königsberg, whereupon he became
a lecturer at the university. Although he was known as an excellent
teacher, Kant was not elevated to a full professorship of logic
and metaphysics until 1770. He held this position until just
before his death.
Kant's early thinking was heavily influenced by the rationalism
of Gottfried Wilhelm von Leibniz and Sir Isaac Newton. During
the 1760s his close reading of the English philosophers John Locke
and David Hume began to undercut his earlier belief in dogmatic
rationalism. His meditations on these writers resulted in the
Critique of Pure Reason (1781), Critique of Practical
Reason (1788), and Critique of Judgment (1790), among
others. Kant's achievement was that he produced a synthesis of
Leibniz's rationalism and Hume's skepticism. He argued a thing
can be known only insofar as it conforms to the way the mind knows
things. Objects can only be perceived through the senses and
understood only in categories by which the mind makes sense of
perceptions. Kant went on to say that even if some things are
unknowable, for example, the existence of God cannot be scientifically
proved, they must be presumed to exist a priori because they are
necessary for certain universal laws to be binding on all people.
Kant was the foremost philosopher of the late Enlightenment and
his ideas structured the nature of philosophical debate throughout
the nineteenth century.
Kay, John (1704-1764), inventor of the fly shuttle in 1733.
Horizontal looms had been in general use since the thirteenth
century with no major improvements. Before Kay's invention the
weaver had to use one hand to throw the shuttle, the other hand
to receive it, and, finally, the beater had to be pulled down
to put the thread into position. The fly shuttle device was an
amazingly simple idea. By jerking a stick with one hand a weaver
could propel and return a shuttle that carried the thread across
the loom quickly. With Kay's invention the second hand was free
to operate the beater and did not have to return the shuttle manually.
The speed of weaving was greatly increased. The fly shuttle
was first used in the woolen industry in the north of England.
Kay's invention was adopted slowly by the very traditional industry,
and not until his son Robert refined the invention did it begin
to attain widespread use.
Kent, William (1684-1748), English architect, landscape
architect, and designer. Born in Yorkshire, he was apprenticed
at age fourteen to a coach and house painter in Hull. Kent departed
without permission for London before completing his apprenticeship. Several Yorkshire gentlemen recognized his talents
and sent him to Italy around 1710. During his ten-year stay in
Italy, he eventually came to the notice of Richard Boyle, third
earl of Burlington, who later brought Kent back to England and
set him up in his own dwelling for the remainder of his life.
With Burlington's encouragement, Kent tried his hand at architectural
and landscape designs. His approach to design was purely visual;
pictorial views of his designs were his trademark. He never
drew a plan of his proposed layouts, nor did he possess any training
as a gardener. Kent was strongly influenced by the architecture
of Andrea Palladio as well as by the designs of Inigo Jones.
He also suggested furniture designs to complete his architectural
creations.
Kent's most enduring legacy and a project to which he devoted
many years of continuing refinements was the house and gardens
of Lord Burlington at Chiswick.
According to Horace Walpole, Kent revolutionized English gardening,
replacing the formal parterres of the previous generation with
clumps of trees and serpentine lines of "pleasing nature."
He recognized that the tastes of his English contemporaries were
changing in favor of "natural," classical landscapes
with temples, grottoes, cascades, and statuary.
King George's War (1743-1748), English-French conflict
over Canada. During the course of the War of Spanish Succession
(called Queen Anne's War in America), French and Indian forces
were in conflict with the English in Canada for settlements there.
The Treaty of Utrecht ended Queen Anne's war in 1713 by granting
certain territories to France and others to England, but ambiguities
in the treaty led to subsequent hostilities between the two countries.
By 1743 the French were again attacking settlements in Canada,
Maine, and New York, precipitating King George's War, during the
course of which (1743-1748) a New England force took Louisbourg
and Cape Breton Island from the French.
In July 1746 Governor Gooch convened the Virginia General Assembly
in response to a call for troops in the colonies to march with
British forces on Canada. Recruiting was difficult because officers
and men who had taken part in the Cartagena expedition during
the war of Jenkins Ear felt that they had not received fair treatment
from the British authorities. King George II again chose Gooch
to lead the troops from the colonies, but he declined saying that
he was "fitter for an hospital than a camp."
The attempt to add Canada to the English colonies failed, and
King George's War ended in 1748 with the Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle.
Territories were restored as they had been before the conflict,
but it was apparent that the treaty was only a truce, for hostilities
broke out again only seven years later in the French and Indian
War.
Kneller, Godfrey (1646-1723), German-born portrait painter.
He was taught by Rembrandt and his pupil Ferdinand Bol. Kneller
went to Italy in the 1660s and/or 1670s, where he studied Raphael
and the antique. He went to England in 1676 and soon became King
Charles II's favorite painter.
During the reign of James II, Kneller was not the only court painter
and faced keen competition from others. During that period Kneller's
full-length portraits were unequalled and engraved prints of them
began appearing in the colonies.
The reign of William and Mary was the zenith of Kneller's career.
He maintained a studio similar in scope to Lely's. Kneller's
royal portraits were more widely copied and distributed than any
other artist's. Colonial Williamsburg's William Byrd II
is an example of his studio work. Kneller was the first governor
of the London Academy for Drawing and Painting from 1711 to 1718.
Lely, Sir Peter (1618-1680), Dutch-born English portrait
painter. Little is known of his early training, but he went to
England in the early 1640s. Whether he was apolitical or politically
shrewd is arguable, but the artist managed to work for Charles
I, Cromwell, and Charles II.
At the Restoration, Lely was the best painter in England, officially
regarded as Van Dyck's successor. He was made Painter to the
King in 1661. The next year he became an English citizen and
was knighted in 1680. A prolific worker, Lely painted the heads
of his sitters from life but merely sketched their poses and costumes,
laying in the colors of the hands and garments to be completed
later by his many assistants. The studio turned out portraits
of everyone of importance, including Charles II's female associates,
otherwise known as the "Hampton Court Beauties."
Licensing Act, expiration of (1695), easing of government
censorship. Since the introduction of printing into England in
1477, both the government and the Church of England had extensive
powers of censorship on publications before they were printed.
This power was granted through a series of Licensing Acts. In
1695 the last of the Licensing Acts was allowed to lapse and governmental
control was limited to post-publication libel laws. The suspension
of these acts spurred the development of a press that was at liberty
to publish works without the consent of the authorities. In both
Britain and the North American colonies a strong periodical and
political press flourished (See Zenger).
Linnaeus, Carl (1707-1778), Swedish botanist. He first
revealed his system of classification that included all living
things in Systema Naturae (1735) and Genera Plantarum
(1737). In his classification system, every living thing has
two names, one for genus and the other for species. Species
Plantarum (1753) remains the basis for modern botanical nomenclature.
Locke, John (1632-1704), English philosopher, teacher,
physician, scholar, administrator, politician, and one of the
early members of the Royal Society. Educated at Christ Church,
Oxford, Locke became interested in science and philosophy and
ultimately examined theoretical questions about the nature of
man and society. He also experienced the practical problems of
government and economy first-hand when he served on the Board
of Trade advising King William III on colonial policies. No small
part of Locke's understanding of the colonies was gained through
meetings and correspondance with Virginia Commissary James Blair.
Locke wrote Two Treatises on Government (1690) as a defense
of the Glorious Revolution of 1688. It defended limited monarchy
and stressed consent of the governed and the natural rights of
the people. This written defense set a precedent for the Declaration
of Independence.
An Essay Concerning Human Understanding (1690) examined
the basic characteristics of man as rational, free and equal,
and living in a state of nature governed by law. Locke described
the human mind at birth as a blank slate (tabula rasa) without
ideas, arguing that man acquires knowledge through experience
(reflection and impressions of the external world derived through
the senses).
Locke's influential Some Thoughts Concerning Education
(1693) began as a series of letters about education. Because
Locke believed that perception was the source of knowledge and
that the derivation of knowledge was through experience, he had
several innovative ideas about the proper raising of children.
For example, he suggested making tasks of learning pleasurable
by turning them into games. His works were translated into several
languages and even were mentioned in a letter by Eliza Lucas Pinckney
from South Carolina asking a friend in England to send her young
son "The new toy (a description of which I have carefully
studied) to play himself into learning." Locke's ideas about
education and his political views were influential in colonial
America and the early Republic.
London, George (ca. 1640-1714), English gardener, nurseryman,
and landscape architect. Apprenticed to the Royal Gardener to
Charles II at St. James's Palace in 1666, London was recognized
for his talents and sent to France for study around 1672. He
was one of over three hundred gardeners employed by Louis XIV
at Versailles and elsewhere. In 1685 London traveled in Holland,
where he studied Dutch landscape styles. Upon his return to England,
he put this knowledge to use in designing formal gardens at a
number of estates.
The style of design of that day was very formal, with bilateral
symmetry around one central axis. French features included radiating
avenues of trees extending out at angles from a central point,
ornate patterns of gravels or small plants, formally grouped trees,
and the extensive use of statuary and fountains. The Dutch added
a wide variety of topiary, canals, and reflecting pools. To these
many features were often added additional touches in the form
of mounts, mazes, water cascades, and even "treillage"
(arches, pilasters, pediments, and friezes) a type of decorative
wooden lattice work.
In 1681 George London founded the Brompton Park Nursery in London
with three other notable gardeners. After the retirement and
deaths of his partners by 1687, nurseryman Henry Wise (1653-1738)
joined the business. Thereafter, the nursery grew in fame as
London and Wise achieved a virtual monopoly in the field. The
purposes of the nursery were to provide plants of all types, to
standardize the use of plant names, especially of fruit trees,
and to design and construct gardens.
In 1689 London became Royal Gardener and Deputy Superintendent
of Works. In that capacity London dispatched an assistant to
Williamsburg in 1694 "to make and plant the Garden designed
for the New Colledge." This assistant may have been James
Road, a gardener at Hampton Court, who is known to have come to
Virginia in 1694.
In 1702 William III died and his sister-in-law, Anne, ascended
the throne. Soon after, in a review of expenditures for the royal
gardens, she resolved to restrain further spending and seek ways
to economize all of the royal gardening activities. London picked
this very inopportune moment to present outstanding bills; he
was promptly sacked and replaced by Wise.
London and Wise continued with Brompton Nursery and in 1706 they
jointly published a two volume work, taken from the French, called
the Retir'd Gardener.
Louvre, The (1793), French national museum of the arts.
The museum, housed in a former palace modified into a picture
gallery, exhibited the French royal collections. Francois I was
the first French king to collect paintings, while Louis XIV increased
the collection from two hundred to two thousand works. At the
end of the eighteenth century the Louvre collections were again
significantly enhanced, this time by Napoleon. He captured art
objects from some countries (Egypt and Holland, for instance)
and let the rulers of the Italian city-states use art rather than
cash to pay war reparations.
The Louvre is especially significant as a product of Enlightenment
thinking. Its founders intended it as an encyclopedia of European
art, and by 1793 it was opened to all citizens, making it the
first major public art museum in Europe.
Marot, Daniel (1661 - 1752), French Huguenot designer.
He fled France in 1684 and entered the service of William of
Orange bringing with him the idea of complete control of all aspects
of design, particularly of interiors and furnishings so as to
present a unified whole. Daniel Marot was the only person in
Holland or England to take such a dictatorial stance before the
end of the seventeenth century,.
He was the primary designer of Het Loo, the small palace of William
and Mary at Otterloo. Though Paris of the 1680s was a strong
influence, he had to rely on his own inspiration once he was separated
from his native country.
When William of Orange became William III, Marot followed him
to England and was responsible for much of the design of Kensington
Palace and Hampton Court, bringing to England not only influence
from Paris, but from Holland as well. Marot introduced an idea
that completely captivated Queen Mary II--to furnish houses with
chinaware--which increased to the point of piling it upon cabinets,
scrutoires, and chimneypieces almost up to the ceiling. One of
Marot's engravings shows just such an arrangement made for the
Queen.
Daniel Marot published many designs of furnishings and interior
decorations, thus influencing many who were to follow in his footsteps.
Masonic Lodge, Williamsburg (before 1751 - present), fraternal
organization stressing charity and brotherly love. Some of its
early members listed on the 1762-1763 treasurer's report include
John Blair, Jr., Charles Carter, Peter Hay, and Peyton Randolph,
Grand Master. Records of the local lodge pick up again in 1773
when minutes revealed that the Masons obtained a new charter from
England. Minutes also record social activities such as balls
and dinners as well as philanthropic projects.
Other contemporary lodges in Virginia were at Norfolk, Fredericksburg,
Kilwinning Crosse, and Blandford. The Williamsburg Lodge's membership
in the 1770s included many familiar names: Benjamin Bucktrout,
James Galt, John Minson Galt, Humphrey Harwood, William Hunter,
James Madison, James McClurg, James Monroe, Peter Pelham, Edmund
Randolph, George Reid, and St. George Tucker; Peyton Randolph
was still Grand Master. In 1777 the Williamsburg Masons called
for the formation of a Grand Lodge of Virginia. The next year
John Blair, Jr., was elected the first Grand Master of Masons
of the Grand Lodge of Virginia.
Mattey's Free School (1706), local charity school. Mrs.
Mary Whaley established it in memory of her son Matthew who died
at about age nine. He is buried alongside his father, James Whaley,
in Bruton Parish Churchyard. The institution named the Mattey's
Free School was located on Capitol Landing Road and is illustrated
on the College Map of about 1790 as consisting of a schoolhouse
and dwelling house. Its purpose was to teach reading, writing,
and arithmetic to the neediest children of Bruton Parish. When
Mary Whaley died in 1742, she bequeathed the property to Bruton
Parish for administration by the minister and churchwardens.
The school operated as late as 1768 according to Virginia Gazette
advertisements, but how it functioned and where the money came
from is not known.
In 1865 the College of William and Mary was designated administrator
of the endowment that due to legal technicalities had never been
released to Bruton Parish officials. College officials used the
money to build a school on the site of the Governor's Palace and
called it the Grammar and Mattey School. To make way for reconstruction
of the Palace, the school was relocated one block west of the
present Palace. This school retains the Matthew Whaley name to
memorialize this eighteenth-century Williamsburg resident.
Montesquieu, Baron de (1689-1755), French lawyer, philosopher,
and man of letters. Born Charles-Louis de Secondat, he came from
a family of nobility, inherited large estates, was educated in
the law, and held the office of chief justice of Bordeaux for
ten years. Eventually he resigned in order to devote more time
to his writing.
Montesquieu wrote and published on a variety of subjects. His
works include The Persian Letters (1721), a satire and
criticism of French institutions, and his most famous composition,
The Spirit of the Laws (1748). Montesquieu traveled widely
and lived in Britain for several years. He became an ardent admirer
of England's constitutional monarchy with its separation of powers.
The Spirit of the Laws, a formidable compilation of material
assembled from ancient texts, contemporary travelers, and Montesquieu's
own observations, is a thorough study of governments, emphasizing
freedom. He believed that social and political behavior is determined
by climate and that physical environment and religion influence
the politics of a country. This latter theory has earned Montesquieu
the title of "Father of Sociology."
No other modern French work was as well known in America during
the colonial period. Political classes at Yale and Princeton
used it as a textbook. During the Constitutional Convention in
1787, Montesquieu was frequently cited. All of his works were
read by many of the men who signed the Declaration of Independence
and were found in libraries on both sides of the Atlantic.
Northwest Ordinance of 1787, legislation providing
for the rapid and orderly expansion of the new nation across the
continent. As the Constitutional Convention deliberated
in secret sessions in Philadelphia, the Congress under the Articles
of Confederation meeting in New York the same summer produced
the Northwest Ordinance. It opened up the Northwest Territory
for settlement, established a coherent plan for settling and governing
the area, provided guidelines for the admission of new states,
and protected the civil liberties of settlers.
In addition to a comprehensive system for expansion, the Confederation
Congress debated whether newer settlements would be equal or subservient
to the thirteen original states; in other words, would western
territories be colonies of the established eastern states? The
1787 Ordinance assured settlers in the West that a process existed
for changing the territories into full fledged states of the Union.
As well as dealing with status of the states, it dealt with the
slavery issue in a very decisive way: slavery was forbidden in
the Northwest. The Ordinance also provided for religious freedom.
Drafted by Nathan Dane and based on a 1784 ordinance plan by Jefferson,
the Northwest Ordinance covered the area that includes the present-day
states of Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Michigan, Wisconsin, and parts
of Minnesota.
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