For each of us, our date of birth defines us. The date determines when we can start school, marry and retire. It even decides when we have the mental and physical capacity to commit a crime. For astrologers the date of birth opens a window into someone’s personality. For family historians, D.O.B is a key fact in a detective investigation…
Sarah Good, born on 11 July 1655, was one of the first three women to be executed after being found guilty of witchcraft in the Salem Witch trials. Her father, a tavern owner committed suicide when she was 17. Leaving no will, his sizeable estate was divided mostly between his widow and two sons. Sarah received a small parcel of…
Today, is the day we celebrate all biographers. Notably, we celebrate the meeting between James Boswell and Samuel Johnson at Tom Davies’ bookshop. Boswell’s Attempts to meet Johnson On 16 May 1763, James Boswell met the man whose name would forever be tied to his own, Dr Samuel Johnson. Johnson was the leading moralist, essayist, critic, author and lexicographer of…
At school, my daughter was admonished never to quote Wikipedia as a source in her history essays, so when an invite to a Women in Red editing event from Edinburgh University’s Wikimedian in Residence popped into my inbox, I was intrigued. Universities collaborating with Wikimedia: Who Knew? Women in Red: What was that about? With a free afternoon, I thought,…
Over 20 years, Lt. Col. Ralph Isham amassed the Boswell Collection, which related to Mary Bryant. There are two great books, The Treasure of Auchinleck: The Story of the Boswell Papers by David Buchanan and Pride & Negligence: The History of the Boswell Papers by Frederick A. Pottle. As with so much history, they focus on the Great Men involved.…
