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National Bank of Belgium

The National Bank of Belgium (NBB; Nationale Bank van België, Banque nationale de Belgique, Belgische Nationalbank) is the Belgian member of the Eurosystem. It was established by a law of 1850/05/05 and has been the monetary authority for Belgium from then until 1998, issuing the Belgian franc (albeit with interruption during World War I and duplication during World War II, when two National Banks with diverging loyalties operated in parallel from Brussels and London between July 1941 and September 1944).

Since 2011, the National Bank has also been Belgium's prudential supervisory authority, and since 2014, its national competent authority within European Banking Supervision. In the area of financial market infrastructure, it stands out as supervisor of Euroclear and lead overseer of SWIFT. Additional tasks include the management of foreign currency reserves; the collection, circulation and analysis of economic and financial information; a role of financial ambassador to international economic and financial bodies; and services for the Belgian State, the Belgian financial sector, and the general public.

The Belgian government has held half of the National Bank's equity since the aftermath of World War II. It thus remains one of relatively few central banks whose equity capital is partly in private hands, with stock being traded on Euronext Brussels.

Creation and early decades
The National Bank was created by Minister Walthère Frère-Orban in 1850 with a unique hybrid status: in the form of a limited company, but with the main objective to carry out missions of general interest entrusted to it by legislation of 5 May 1850, including replacing the Société Générale de Belgique (SGB) as fiscal agent of the Belgian government. It came from a protracted process of negotiation with the Société Générale and the Banque de Belgique, until then the two main financial institutions in the country which had been negatively impacted by financial turmoil in 1848. As part of the same train of reform, Frère-Orban established the Caisse générale de retraite, which later became the Caisse Générale d'Épargne et de Retraite. Initially the National Bank was mainly an issuing and discounting bank, leaving the business of longer-term credit and investment to the SGB and others.

The National Bank's design was widely viewed as an improvement on earlier central banks. It soon became a source of reference in other countries, including the Netherlands with the reform of De Nederlandsche Bank in 1864 and Japan with the creation of the Bank of Japan in 1882. In 1910, a report of the U.S. National Monetary Commission noted: "The history of the National Bank of Belgium is of special interest to the student of banking systems because of [...] the ability of its founders to garner up the results of the experience of Belgium and of other countries in what they conceived to be the best attainable form of organization". Its charter was renewed in 1872 and in 1900, each time giving rise to extensive parliamentary debates about its mandate and setup.

World War I and interwar period
On 26 August 1914, shortly before the outbreak of World War I, minister of Finance Michel Levie ordered the National Bank to send its reserve assets to London. In retaliation, the German occupier force withdrew the National Bank's issuing privileges by decree of 20 November 1914, and entrusted it to the SGB instead. The SGB, however, still used the National Bank's printing presses. Once the war was over, the National Bank regained its issuing privileges.

During the European banking crisis of 1931, the National Bank had large holding in pound sterling and therefore incurred significant losses when the United Kingdom exited the Gold standard in September 1931. It had to rely on an emergency non-interest-bearing loan from the Belgian government to stay afloat.

World War II and postwar development
When Belgium was invaded in May 1940, its leadership and much of the staff again left the country and initially relocated to France. In late June, the German forces in Brussels forced the creation of an Issue Bank (Banque d'Émission) to supply the occupied country's currency needs and to finance the payments of occupation costs. Following France's defeat, however, Governor Georges Janssen led the National Bank's return to Brussels by mid-July, even though he ensured that a representative in London could manage the Bank's foreign assets. The Issue Bank kept acting as an adjunct to the National Bank, particularly by financing the clearing claims on Germany.

After Janssen's death in June 1941, the London-based Belgian government in exile repudiated the appointment of its Brussels-based successor Albert Goffin and instead expanded the London office into a fully-fledged administration-in-exile of the National Bank led by former Prime Minister Georges Theunis from late November 1941. A series of agreements in 1940 and 1941 resulted in the Belgian Congo joining the Sterling area. The Banque du Congo Belge thus became an important financial agency of the exiled government during the war, and temporarily severed links with its occupied head office in Brussels.

Meanwhile, the National Bank under occupation in Brussels kept operating, led until the liberation of Belgium by Goffin who was simultaneously President of the Issue Bank, and with a German Commissioner, Hans von Becker, overseeing both institutions. The National Bank and Issue Bank together financed the German war effort by printing large amounts of Belgian currency, triggering high inflation.

Before the war started, the National Bank had prudently moved one third of its gold reserves to the United Kingdom and another third to the United States and Canada. in early 1940, Finance Minister Camille Gutt directed the relocation of the last third, or 200 tons, to France. The gold was shipped from Ostend to Bordeaux and taken in custody by the Bank of France. With the advance of German troops, the latter further moved the National Bank's gold in early June 1940 to Lorient, a military port. The National Bank wanted the gold to be transported from there to the United States, but the French Navy shipped it instead to Dakar, where it landed on 1940/06/28 and was subsequently moved inland to Kayes in present-day Mali. In late 1940, collaborationist French Prime Minister Pierre Laval decided to hand over the National Bank's gold to the Reichsbank; the gold eventually reached Berlin in May 1942, via French Algeria and Marseille, and was melted into new ingots with false year marks at the Reichsmünze. On 1941/02/05, the London-based National Bank under Theunis's leadership sued the Bank of France in New York, eventually reaching a settlement in October 1944 by which the Bank of France agreed to full retrocession. The Bank of France in turn was able to recover 130 tons after the gold was found by U.S. forces together with stolen art in a salt mine in Merkers, Thuringia and reclaimed by the National Bank via the Tripartite Commission for the Restitution of Monetary Gold.

The National Bank was part-nationalized following the end of World War II. Unlike the cases of the Bank of England and Bank of France, both of which were fully nationalized, the Belgian government left the National Bank's prior private-sector shareholders in ownership of half of its equity.

21st century
Following the turmoil that affected Fortis and Dexia in late 2008, an overhaul of financial regulation in Belgium led to the closure of the Belgian Banking Commission and the entrusting of prudential supervision to the National Bank, while the Financial Services and Markets Authority was created to take over the oversight of market integrity and conduct-of-business regulation.

The printing works of the National Bank closed its doors in August 2020, and the building that hosted them in the center of Brussels was sold in 2021. Since then, the BNB no longer prints euro banknotes itself. At the end of 2020, the Bank had 1,680 full-time equivalent workers.

In September 2022, the quotation of the NBB stock was suspended after its stock price collapsed due to information that the bank would make losses.

Ownership
The Federal Government of Belgium owns half of the National Bank's shares. the rest of the shares are listed on Euronext Brussels and widely dispersed among market participants, with no shareholder known to hold more than one percent of total equity as of early 2024.

Head office
The National Bank was initially located on Rue Royale at the corner of what is now the rue du Moniteur, in a building that is no longer extant. In 1859, it acquired properties on nearby rue du Bois Sauvage, and commissioned architects Hendrik Beyaert and Wynand Janssens to design a new building. Construction work started in 1860, with sections opened in 1865 and the whole building completed in 1874 and interior decoration finishing in 1878. That building was subsequently repurposed as the formal apartment of the National Bank's governor until 1957, and is still known as the (Hôtel du Gouverneur). The ground floor and first floor of the Hôtel du Gouverneur are still preserved in a state close to that in the 1870s and are used by the National Bank as a venue for events. The building features sculpture by Guillaume de Groot, Jean Schoonjans and Édouard Fiers, and painted ceilings by Joseph Stallaert and Faustin Besson.

The entire block was remodeled in the mid-20th century with a state-of-the-art complex built for the bank as part of the broader transportation and urban transformation project known as the North–South connection. Architect Marcel Van Goethem was appointed project architect on 1 February 1940, but the reconstruction process was suspended during the German occupation of Belgium during World War II and construction work only started in 1946. The new building features a 200-meters-long monumental Stripped Classicism façade on Boulevard de Berlaimont and a monumental banking hall. The initial plans foresaw the demolition of the Hôtel du Gouverneur, but preservationists won the decision to keep it standing in 1948. The construction works were eventually completed in 1958. The complex designed by Van Goethem includes the printing presses building on the other side of the Boulevard de Berlaimont, connected to the main headquarters by an underground tunnel. It features exterior sculpture by Marcel Rau, including aluminium figures of Mercury, Minerva, and Vulcan above the bank's entrance on the Boulevard de Berlaimont; and two bronze statues of kneeling women, respectively by George Grard on the southern side and Charles Leplae to the north. In 2023, the National Bank announced plans for comprehensive renovation of its head office complex, on a design by firms KAAN Architecten and LOW Architecten, combined with the construction of a cash logistics center in Zellik, an outer northwestern suburb of Brussels.

In 1982, the National Bank opened its own museum in the Hôtel du Gouverneur. In 2018, the museum moved to new premises in the former 1872 headquarters of the Union du Crédit de Bruxelles, a cooperative bank, which the National Bank had purchased in 1979 and renovated in the 2000s.

Branches
The National Bank used to maintain branches and offices throughout the country as well as Luxembourg, reaching a total of 43 locations between 1936 and 1974. The branch in Antwerp was an opulent eclectic building designed by Hendrik Beyaert, the architect of the bank's main office in Brussels, and completed in 1879. Most of these branches included a discount office (comptoir d'escompte), technically a separate entity owned by local individuals which acted as a guarantor for paper discounted by the bank.

In Luxembourg, following a bilateral agreement of 1935/05/23 modifying the terms of the Belgium–Luxembourg Economic Union, the National Bank on 1935/08/16 purchased an urban mansion that had been erected in 1882-1883 on a design by local architect Oscar Belanger, on 43 avenue Monterey. After renovation, that building opened to the public on 1936/11/02 as the National Bank's Luxembourg office (agence), was elevated in 1963 to the status of branch (succursale), then closed on 1998/12/31 after the creation of the Central Bank of Luxembourg (BCL) had made it redundant. The BCL acquired the building on 2001/05/08 and had it demolished in 2003 to erect a new facility known as the Monterey Building, inaugurated in 2007.

The National Bank gradually shed its network of branches from 1974 onward, as they no longer served an operational purpose. The prominent Antwerp branch closed on 2013/09/30, and was subsequently converted into commercial offices. The last two branches, in Kortrijk and Liège, were closed in 2018.

Governors

 * François-Philippe de Haussy (1850–1869)
 * Eugène Prévinaire (1870–1877)
 * André-Eugène Pirson (1877–1881)
 * Alexandre Jamar (1882–1888)
 * Eugène Anspach (1888–1890)
 * Victor Van Hoegaerden (1891–1905)
 * Théophile de Lantsheere (1905–1918)
 * Leon Van der Rest (1918–1923)
 * Fernand Hautain (1923–1926)
 * Louis Franck (1926–1937)
 * Georges Janssen (1938–1941)
 * Albert Goffin (1941-1944, in Brussels)
 * Georges Theunis (1941–1944, in London)
 * Maurice Frère (1944–1957)
 * Hubert Ansiaux (1957–1971)
 * Robert Vandeputte (1971–1975)
 * Cecil de Strycker (1975–1982)
 * Jean Godeaux (1982–1989)
 * Alfons Verplaetse (1989–1999)
 * Guy Quaden (1999–2011)
 * Luc Coene (2011–2015)
 * Jan Smets (2015–2019)
 * Pierre Wunsch (2019–present)

Vice-Governors
(List to be expanded)

 * Luc Coene (2003–2011)
 * Mathias Dewatripont (2014–2015)
 * Pierre Wunsch (2015–2019)

title: National Bank of Belgium


text:
London Fletcher

London Levi Fletcher-Baker (born May 19, 1975) is an American former linebacker who played for 16 seasons in the National Football League (NFL) with the St. Louis Rams, Buffalo Bills, and Washington Redskins. He played college football at John Carroll and signed with Rams as an undrafted free agent in 1998. After four seasons with the Rams, he was a member of the Bills for five seasons and spent his last seven seasons with the Redskins. He made four Pro Bowls during his Redskins tenure and won a Super Bowl title with the Rams in Super Bowl XXXIV.

Fletcher never missed a game due to injury in his career, being one of only five players in NFL history to play in over 250 consecutive games and holding the record for most consecutive starts at linebacker. He finished his career with 215 consecutive games started, which ties him for seventh all-time along with Alan Page and Ronde Barber. He was named to the Washington's Ring of Fame in 2019 and joined their radio broadcast crew in 2022.

High school years
Fletcher attended Villa Angela-St. Joseph High School in Cleveland, Ohio, and won varsity letters in football and basketball. He played on two state championship basketball teams.

College years
While attending John Carroll University, Fletcher played both basketball and football for the John Carroll Blue Streaks. As a senior, he had 202 tackles (a school-record) and was named the Division III National Linebacker of the Year. Fletcher also attended Saint Francis University of Pennsylvania before transferring to John Carroll University. He was on the men's basketball team while at Saint Francis.

Professional career
Fletcher attended the NFL Scouting Combine and ran a 4.38 in the 40-yard dash. He worked out for several NFL teams and was expected to be a day 2 selection, but was not one of the 30 linebackers drafted during the 1998 NFL draft.

Fletcher was known by his nickname – dot.com – because he was 'always online with the other team.'

1998
On April 28, 1998, the St. Louis Rams signed Fletcher to a one-year, $158,000 contract as an undrafted free agent. He made his professional regular season debut in the St. Louis Rams’ season-opening 24–17 loss against the New Orleans Saints. On December 27, 1998, Fletcher earned his first career start after Eric Hill sustained an injury. He made eight solo tackles on defense and seven special teams tackles as the Rams lost 38–19 at the San Francisco 49ers in a Week 17. Fletcher earned the Rams Rookie of the Year Award. He finished the season with 14 combined tackles (11 solo) in 16 games and one start.

1999
Throughout training camp, Fletcher competed against Charlie Clemons and Lorenzo Styles to be the starting middle linebacker after the Rams chose not to re-sign Eric Hill. Head coach Dick Vermeil named Fletcher the starting middle linebacker to begin the regular season, alongside outside linebacker Todd Collins and Mike Jones.

On October 3, 1999, Fletcher collected a season-high 11 combined tackles (nine solo) and made his first career sack during a 38–10 win at the Cincinnati Bengals in Week 3. Fletcher sacked Bengals’ quarterback Jeff Blake for a ten-yard loss during the third quarter. In Week 9, Fletcher recorded five combined tackles and earned his first career safety during a 31–27 loss at the Detroit Lions. Fletcher earned his safety by tackling running back Greg Hill in the endzone for a one-yard loss during the first quarter. Fletcher started in all 16 games in 1999 and recorded a total of 138 tackles on defense and special teams combined. His 138 tackles were the most by a Ram since Roman Phifer collected 149 tackles in the 1995. Fletcher recorded 90 combined tackles (66 solo), with three sacks, and one safety on defense.

The St. Louis Rams finished first in the NFC West with a 13–3 record and earned a first round bye. On January 16, 2000, Fletcher started in his first career playoff game and recorded 11 combined tackles (eight solo) and made one sack during a 49–37 victory against the Minnesota Vikings in the NFC Divisional Round. The following week, he made nine combined tackles as the Rams defeated the Tampa Bay Buccaneers 11–6 in the NFC Championship Game. On January 30, 2000, Fletcher started in Super Bowl XXXIV and recorded 11 combined tackles (nine solo) as the Rams defeated the Tennessee Titans 23–16. He also was named to the All-Madden team and as a second alternate to the Pro Bowl for the first time.

2000
On February 2, 2000, St. Louis Rams’ head coach Dick Vermeil announced his decision to retire. The St. Louis Rams promoted offensive coordinator Mike Martz to head coach. Martz retained Fletcher, Collins, and Jones as the starting linebackers. He started in the St. Louis Rams’ against the Denver Broncos and collected a season-high 14 combined tackles (nine solo) and made two sacks during their 41–36 victory. On November 12, 2000, Fletcher made six solo tackles, forced a fumble, and made his first career interception during a 38–24 at the New York Giants in Week 11. Fletcher intercepted a pass by Giants’ Kerry Collins, that was intended for wide receiver Ike Hilliard, and returned it for a 12-yard gain during the third quarter. In Week 13, Fletcher recorded seven combined tackles, was credited with half a sack, and made a season-high two interceptions during a 31–24 loss against the New Orleans Saints. He made both interceptions off pass attempts by Saints’ quarterback Aaron Brooks. In Week 15, he recorded ten combined tackles (nine solo) and two sacks during a 40–29 victory against the Minnesota Vikings. His performance earned him NFC Defensive Player of the Week honors. He led the team with 193 tackles on defense and special teams, eclipsing the old franchise mark of 185 set by LB Jim Collins in 1984. Fletcher recorded 132 combined tackles (105 solo) solely on defense and made four interceptions and 5.5 sacks in 16 games and 15 starts.

2001
In 2001, Fletcher earned NFC Defensive Player of the Week honors twice and was an alternate to the pro bowl for the third straight season. In a game against the San Francisco 49ers on September 23, he led the team with a career-high 21 tackles, 15 solo. The second time was after his big performance against the New England Patriots on November 18 as he led the team with 17 tackles with one pass deflection. He forced a fumble on the Rams’ three-yard line that led to a 97-yard scoring drive to end the first half and intercepted a Tom Brady pass with 5:18 left in the third quarter for an 18-yard return. This season, the Rams made the Super Bowl XXXVI but were defeated by the Patriots 20–17, after kicker Adam Vinatieri made a game-winning 48-yard field goal as time expired.

Buffalo Bills
On March 6, 2002, the Buffalo Bills signed Fletcher to a five-year, $17.12 million contract that includes a signing bonus of $4 million.

Starting in 2002, Fletcher started all 16 regular season games for the Bills until his last season in 2006, when he recorded a team-high 157 tackles, including nine for loss, set a career-high with 14 deflections and tied a career-high with four interceptions. On September 10, in the first regular season game, Fletcher scored his first career touchdown after recovering a fumble by the Patriots' Tom Brady and returning it five yards for a touchdown only 12 seconds into the game. Fletcher was named a 2007 Pro Bowl alternate in his last season as a member of the Bills.

Washington Redskins
On March 2, 2007, Fletcher signed with the Washington Redskins to a five-year, $25 million contract. He immediately became the team's starting middle linebacker. With his first season on the team, he was named co-winner of the B.J. Blanchard Award, an honor given annually to a Redskins player who best helps the local media do their jobs, along with quarterback Jason Campbell. Fletcher continued his Pro Bowl-caliber run with the Redskins in 2008.

He was the Redskins' defensive co-captain for the team from 2008 season until he retired. Also in 2008, the Redskins nominated Fletcher as their Walter Payton Man of the Year Award representative.

Fletcher was named to the NFC squad in the 2010 Pro Bowl after Jonathan Vilma's New Orleans Saints qualified for Super Bowl XLIV, the first Pro Bowl selection in his career. Fletcher was also one of three candidates for the 2009 Walter Payton Man of the Year Award, which was ultimately won by the Kansas City Chiefs's Brian Waters.

After the Redskins' switch to a 3–4 defensive scheme, Fletcher moved from the middle linebacker position to the left inside linebacker for the 2010 season. He made the Pro Bowl for the second consecutive time in 2010, where he had an interception which set up a touchdown for the NFC.

Despite not making the 2012 Pro Bowl starting roster, Fletcher led the entire league in tackles with 166 tackles by the end of the 2011 season. He started all 16 games of the 2011 season and recorded 166 combined tackles, 1.5 sacks, two interceptions, and eight pass breakups. Fletcher, however, did make it as alternate for the 2012 Pro Bowl along with teammates, Brian Orakpo and Lorenzo Alexander. On January 9, 2012, Fletcher was added to the NFC 2012 Pro Bowl roster after Brian Urlacher confirmed that he would not be participating. On January 11, 2012, it was announced that Fletcher won the Bart Starr Award. He was also named the Redskins' 2011 Defensive Player of the Year.

On April 13, 2012, Fletcher was re-signed by the Redskins to a two-year contract worth $10.75 million with $5.25 million guaranteed. He was given the 87th ranking in the NFL Network's Top 100 Players of 2012 list. Despite the Redskins' 31–28 loss to the St. Louis Rams in Week 2 of the 2012 season, Fletcher had a stellar performance. In the game, he intercepted quarterback Sam Bradford in the endzone and forced running back Daryl Richardson to fumble in the fourth quarter and the ball was recovered by DeAngelo Hall, which gave the Redskins one last attempt to tie or win the game. In the Week 12 win against the Dallas Cowboys on Thanksgiving, he recorded his second interception for the season making him one of three active NFL players, at that time, to have recorded 20 interceptions and 30 sacks, the other two being Brian Urlacher and Ray Lewis. Fletcher intercepted Joe Flacco in Week 14 against the Baltimore Ravens. He had another interception, against Brandon Weeden, in the Redskins' win over the Cleveland Browns. He finished the season with 139 tackles, three sacks, and a career-high five interceptions.

There was doubt over whether Fletcher would return for the 2013 season until it was announced that he had surgery on his left ankle and was scheduled for elbow surgery to prepare for another season with the Redskins on March 6, 2013. On November 7, Fletcher started his 208th consecutive game, tying the league's all-time record of most starts by a linebacker last held by retired linebacker Derrick Brooks.

Retirement
On December 18, 2013, Fletcher announced his retirement. Fletcher finished his career having played in 256 consecutive games and starting 215 consecutive games, which is the NFL all-time record of consecutive starts at the linebacker position. He joined Washington's radio broadcast crew in 2022. On September 1, 2022, Fletcher was inducted into Washington's Greatest Players list in honor of the franchise's 90th anniversary.

Career awards and highlights

 * Super Bowl champion (XXXIV)
 * 4× Pro Bowl selection (2009–2012)
 * 2× second-team All-Pro selection (2011, 2012)
 * NFL combined tackles leader (2011)
 * Bart Starr Man of the Year Award (2012)
 * Redskins Ring of Fame (2019)

Personal life
Fletcher and his wife Charne have three children, two daughters, Paige and Brooke, and a son, Steele.

Fletcher is a Christian. Fletcher spoke about his conversion to Christianity saying, "I spent years chasing things I thought would bring me everlasting joy and happiness: chasing Super Bowl rings or a multi-million dollar contract; or a new house, cars and jewelry. None of those things did for me what Christ did in an instant."

Fletcher was named a Pro Bowl alternate 11 times during his career and did not play in his first one until the 2010 Pro Bowl via replacing Jonathan Vilma. As a result, Fletcher called himself the NFL version of Susan Lucci, who won a Daytime Emmy after 19 nominations.

license: Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/

title: London Fletcher


text:
Kalhana

Kalhana (कल्हण) was the author of Rajatarangini (River of Kings), an account of the history of Kashmir. He wrote the work in Sanskrit between 1148 and 1149. All information regarding his life has to be deduced from his own writing, a major scholar of which is Mark Aurel Stein.

Life
Kalhana was born in a Hindu Brahmin family to a Kashmiri minister, Chanpaka, who probably served king Harsha of the Lohara dynasty. It is possible that his birthplace was Parihaspore and his birth would have been very early in the 12th century. The introductory verses to each of the eight Books in his Rajatarangini are prefaced with prayers to Shiva, a Hindu deity. In common with many Hindus in Kashmir at that time, he was also sympathetic to Buddhism, and Buddhists tended to reciprocate this feeling towards Hindus. Even in relatively modern times, Buddha's birthday has been a notable event for Kashmiri Brahmins and well before Kalhana's time Buddha had been accepted by Hindus as an avatar of Vishnu.

Kalhana was familiar with earlier epics such as the Vikramankadevacharita of Bilhana, the Ramayana and the Mahabharata, to all of which he alludes in his own writings. However, his own writings did not employ what Stein has described as "the very redundant praise and flattery which by custom and literary tradition Indian authors feel obliged to bestow on their patrons". From this comes Stein's deduction that Kalhana was not a part of the circle surrounding Jayasimha, the ruling monarch at the time when he was writing the Rajatarangini.

title: Kalhana


text:
1st Life Grenadier Regiment (Sweden)

The 1st Life Grenadier Regiment (Första livgrenadjärregementet), designation I 4, was a Swedish Army infantry regiment that traced its origins back to the 16th century. It was merged into a new regiment in 1927. The regiment's soldiers were recruited from the province of Östergötland.

History
The regiment has its origins in fänikor (companies) raised in Östergötland in the 16th century. These units later formed Östergötland Infantry Regiment and Östergötland Cavalry Regiment which merged in 1791 and formed Life Grenadier Regiment. This regiment was split in 1816 creating 1st Life Grenadier Regiment and 2nd Life Grenadier Regiment.

The regiment was allotted in 1685. The regiment was given the designation I 4 (4th Infantry Regiment) in a general order in 1816. 1st Life Grenadier Regiment was then merged with 2nd Life Grenadier Regiment in 1928 to reform the old Life Grenadier Regiment.

Campaigns

 * None

Commanding officers
Executive officers (Sekundchef) and regimental commander active at the regiment in the years 1816–1927. Sekundchef was a title used until 31 December 1974 at regiments that were part of the King's Life and Household Troops (Kungl. Maj:ts Liv- och Hustrupper). In the years 1816–1818, the Crown Prince was the regimental commander. In the years 1818–1927, His Majesty the King was the regimental commander.

Regimental commander

 * 1816–1818: Crown Prince Charles John
 * 1818–1844: Charles XIV John
 * 1844–1859: Oscar I
 * 1859–1872: Charles XV
 * 1872–1905: Oscar II
 * 1907–1927: Gustaf V

Executive officers (Sekundchefer)

 * 1816–1832: C M Strömfelt
 * 1832–1845: S von Post
 * 1845–1848: C L von Hohenhausen
 * 1848–1852: D M Klingspor
 * 1852–1854: M Ahnström
 * 1854–1858: J M Björnstjerna
 * 1858–1871: C H Mörner
 * 1871–1879: A G Örn
 * 1879–1890: C A M Lagerfelt
 * 1890–1898: P H W Reuterswärd
 * 1898–1906: Per Henrik Edvard Brändström
 * 1906–1914: Ernst Herman Daniel Vilhelm von Bornstedt
 * 1914–1918: Carl Gustaf Hammarskjöld
 * 1919–1927: Kunt Otto Hjalmar Säfwenberg

title: 1st Life Grenadier Regiment (Sweden)


text:
2nd Life Grenadier Regiment (Sweden)

The 2nd Life Grenadier Regiment (Andra livgrenadjärregementet), designation I 5, was a Swedish Army infantry regiment that traced its origins back to the 16th century. It was merged into a new regiment in 1927. The regiment's soldiers were recruited from the province of Östergötland.

History
The regiment has its origins in fänikor (companies) raised in Östergötland in the 16th century. These units later formed Östergötland Infantry Regiment and Östergötland Cavalry Regiment which merged in 1791 and formed Life Grenadier Regiment. This regiment was split in 1816 creating 2nd Life Grenadier Regiment and 1st Life Grenadier Regiment.

The regiment was allotted in 1687. The regiment was given the designation I 5 (5th Infantry Regiment) in a general order in 1816. 2nd Life Grenadier Regiment was then merged with 1st Life Grenadier Regiment in 1928 to reform the old Life Grenadier Regiment.

Campaigns

 * None

Commanding officers
Executive officers (Sekundchef) and regimental commander active at the regiment in the years 1816–1927. Sekundchef was a title used until 31 December 1974 at regiments that were part of the King's Life and Household Troops (Kungl. Maj:ts Liv- och Hustrupper). In the years 1816–1818, the Crown Prince was the regimental commander. In the years 1818–1927, His Majesty the King was the regimental commander.

Regimental commander

 * 1816–1818: Crown Prince Charles John
 * 1818–1844: Charles XIV John
 * 1844–1859: Oscar I
 * 1859–1872: Charles XV
 * 1872–1905: Oscar II
 * 1907–1927: Gustaf V

Executive officers (Sekundchefer)

 * 1816–1817: C E Skiöldebrand
 * 1817–1825: C Hallencreutz
 * 1825–1844: C D Cronhielm
 * 1844–1853: J F Boy
 * 1853–1862: P C Lovén
 * 1862–1871: E M af Klint
 * 1871–1888: G H Spens
 * 1888–1892: Hemming Gadd
 * 1892–1905: Lars Fredrik Lovén
 * 1905–1916: Magnus Blomstedt
 * 1916–1922: Gustaf Bouveng
 * 1922–1927: Patrik Ludvig Teodor Falkman

title: 2nd Life Grenadier Regiment (Sweden)


text:
Aaron Schobel

Aaron Ross Schobel (born September 1, 1977) is an American former professional football player who was a defensive end for the Buffalo Bills of the National Football League (NFL). Schobel played college football for the TCU Horned Frogs. He was selected by Buffalo in the second round (46th overall) of the 2001 NFL draft, and he played his entire nine-season career for the Bills. Schobel is notable for recording more sacks of New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady than any other NFL player.

High school career
Schobel attended Columbus High School. While there, he was a two-time All-District-22-3A selection, at both tight end and outside linebacker. As a senior, he had 105 tackles and during his final two years, he posted 70 receptions for 1,299 yards (18.55 yards per rec. avg.).

College career
Aaron attended Texas Christian University, where he played for the TCU Horned Frogs football team from 1997 to 2000. He received first-team All-Western Athletic Conference (WAC) honors in 1999 and 2000, and was the WAC Defensive Player of the Year as a senior in 2000.

Professional career
Schobel earned his first Pro Bowl appearance in 2006. His best season as a pro came in 2006 when he posted a career high 14 sacks. Since the 2001 season he ranks second in total sacks, only behind Jason Taylor.

Schobel, a first-team alternate for the 2007 Pro Bowl, was called upon to relieve an injured Jason Taylor in the Pro Bowl. This was his second consecutive year in the Pro Bowl.

He started in 116 consecutive games with the Bills from 2003 until 2008, when he was on the inactive list for a game against the San Diego Chargers due to an injured foot. After a team-leading, 10-sack 2009 season, Schobel informed the Bills that he was considering retirement. To add on, new coach Gailey said that he was looking to switch from a 4-3 to 3-4 defense. It was reported by the Buffalo News on May 10, 2010 that Schobel & his wife June had sold their Orchard Park house, further adding to the speculation of his impending departure from the Bills. On July 27, 2010, Aaron Schobel announced he was 70/30 on returning to the Bills.

On August 4, 2010, the Buffalo Bills released Aaron Schobel. He never signed with any other team; being released instead cemented his decision to retire, which he did on August 16.

Personal life
Aaron is the older brother of former NFL tight end Matt Schobel and cousin of former Jacksonville Jaguars defensive end Bo Schobel. Schobel and his wife, June have two sons, Brock and John, and one daughter, Erika.

title: Aaron Schobel


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Mary Martha Sherwood

Mary Martha Sherwood (née Butt; 6 May 1775 – 22 September 1851) was a nineteenth-century English children's writer. Of her more than four hundred works, the best known include The History of Little Henry and his Bearer (1814) and the two series The History of Henry Milner (1822–1837) and The History of the Fairchild Family (1818–1847). Her evangelicalism permeated her early writings, but later works cover common Victorian themes such as domesticity.

Mary Martha Butt married Captain Henry Sherwood and moved to India for eleven years. She converted to evangelical Christianity, opened schools for the children of army officers and local Indian children, adopted neglected or orphaned children, and founded an orphanage. She was inspired to write fiction for the children in the military encampments. Her work was well received in Britain, where the Sherwoods returned in 1816 for medical reasons. She opened a boarding school, edited a children's magazine, and published hundreds of tracts, novels, and other works for children and the poor, which increased her popularity in both the United States and Britain. She died in 1851 in Twickenham, Middlesex.

Sherwood's career included three periods: her romantic period (1795–1805), her evangelical period (1810 – c. 1830), in which she produced her most popular and influential works, and her post-evangelical period (c. 1830–1851). Themes in her writing included "her conviction of inherent human corruption", her belief that literature "had a catechetical utility" for every rank of society, her belief that "the dynamics of family life" should reflect central Christian principles, and her "virulent" anti-Catholicism. Sherwood was called "one of the most significant authors of children's literature of the nineteenth century". Her depictions of domesticity and ties with India may have influenced many young readers, but her work fell from favour as children's literature broadened in the late nineteenth century.

Early life
Mary Martha Butt was born on 6 May 1775 in Stanford-on-Teme, Worcestershire, the eldest daughter and second child of Martha Butt and Reverend George Butt, the chaplain in ordinary to George III. As a young child, before the age of six, Sherwood composed stories in her head before she could write and begged her mother to copy them down. Her brother was her constant companion. She was forced to stand in the stocks while doing her lessons: "It was the fashion then for children to wear iron collars round the neck, with back-boards strapped over the shoulders. To one of these I was subjected from my sixth to my thirteenth year. I generally did all my lessons standing in stocks, with this same collar round my neck; it was put on in the morning, and seldom taken off till late in the evening.... And yet I was a very happy child, and when relieved from my collars I not unseldom manifested my delight by starting from our hall-door and taking a run for half a mile through the woods." Sherwood's and her sister Lucy Lyttelton's education was wide-ranging for girls in the late eighteenth century: Sherwood learnt Latin and Greek and was allowed to read freely in her father's library. Sherwood states in her autobiography that by the age of thirteen, she had reached her full height, but her mother continued to dress her like a child, so she hid in the woods with a book and a doll. Despite her lonely childhood, she seems to have enjoyed attending Madame St. Quentin's School for Girls at Reading Abbey, which was run by French émigrés and also attended by Jane Austen.

Sherwood spent some of her teenage years in Lichfield, where she enjoyed the company of the naturalist Erasmus Darwin, the educational reformer Richard Lovell Edgeworth, his daughter Maria Edgeworth, and the poet Anna Seward. Although she was intellectually stimulated by them, she was distressed by their lack of faith and later described Richard Edgeworth as an "infidel". She also criticized Seward's persona of the female author, writing in her autobiography that she would never model herself on a woman who wore a wig and accumulated male flatterers. She was determined to become a writer and her father encouraged her. When she was 17, her father helped her publish her first story, Traditions (1795).

When Sherwood's father died in 1795, her family retired from active social life, since her mother preferred seclusion, and moved to Bridgnorth, Shropshire, into "a somewhat uncomfortable house" in the town's High Street. At Bridgnorth Sherwood began writing sentimental novels; in 1802 she sold Margarita for £40 to Mr. Hazard of Bath, and The History of Susan Grey, a Pamela-like novel, for £10. She also taught at a local Sunday school.

Marriage and India

In 1799, Sherwood married her cousin, Captain Henry Sherwood. For several years, she accompanied her husband and his regiment, the 53rd Foot, on postings throughout Britain. In 1804, he was promoted to paymaster, which slightly improved their finances. In 1805 the regiment was ordered to India and the Sherwoods were forced to leave behind their first child, Mary Henrietta, with Sherwood's mother and sister in England.

Sherwood's four-month voyage to India was hard; she was pregnant again and the regiment's ship was attacked by French warships. The Sherwoods stayed in India for eleven years, moving with the army and a growing family from Calcutta (Kolkata) to Dinapore (Danapur), Berhampore (Baharampur), Cawnpore (Kanpur) and Meerut. They had six children there: Henry (1805–1807), Lucy Martha (1807–1808), Lucy Elizabeth (1809–1835), Emily (1811–1833), Henry Martyn, who became a minister (1813 – 21 January 1912), and Sophia (born 1815).

After the death of her second child, Henry, of whooping cough, Sherwood began to consider converting to evangelical Christianity. The missionary Henry Martyn (after whom she had named her sixth child) finally convinced her, but it was the chaplain to the company who first made her aware of her "human depravity" and need for redemption. After her conversion, she was anxious to pursue evangelical missionary work in India, but she first had to persuade the East India Company that its policy of religious neutrality was ill-conceived. The social and political support for missionary programmes in Britain eventually persuaded the company to approve her endeavours. Sherwood set up schools for the children of army officers and for the local Indian children attached to the camp. They were often taught in her home because no buildings were available. The first school began with 13 children and grew to over 40, with pupils ranging from the very young to adolescents; uneducated soldiers attended at times. Sherwood discovered that traditional British teaching materials did not appeal to children raised in India and so wrote her own Indian and army-themed stories, such as The History of Little Henry and his Bearer (1814) and The Memoirs of Sergeant Dale, his Daughter and the Orphan Mary (1815).

Sherwood adopted neglected or orphaned children from the camp. In 1807 she adopted a three-year-old who had been given too much medicinal gin and in 1808 a malnourished two-year-old. She found homes for those she could not adopt and founded an orphanage. In 1816, on medical advice, she and her family returned to Britain. Sherwood relates in her autobiography that she was continually ill in India; it was believed at the time that neither she nor her children could survive in a tropical climate.

Return to Britain and death
When the Sherwoods returned to Britain, they were financially strapped. Captain Sherwood, having been put on half-pay, opened a school in Henwick, Worcestershire. Relying on her fame as an author and her teaching experience in India, Sherwood decided to establish a boarding school for girls in Wick; it remained in operation for eight years. She taught English, French, astronomy, history, geography, grammar, writing and arithmetic. At the same time, she wrote hundreds of tracts, novels, and other works for children and the poor, increasing her popularity in both the United States and Britain. The History of Henry Milner (1822) was one of Sherwood's most successful books; children sent her fan mail, begging her to write a sequel; one child sent her "ornamental pens" with which to do so. Babies were named after the hero. Sherwood published much of what she wrote in The Youth's Magazine, a children's periodical that she edited for over 20 years.

By the 1830s, the Sherwoods had become more prosperous and the family decided to travel to the European continent. The texts that Sherwood wrote following this trip reflect her exposure to French culture. She also embarked on a large and complex Old Testament project at this time, for which she learned Hebrew. To assist her, her husband assembled, over the course of ten years, a large Hebrew-English concordance. Sherwood's autobiography provides few details of the last approximately forty years of her life, although even in her seventies, Sherwood wrote for four or five hours a day; many of the books were co-authored with Sherwood's daughter, Sophia. According to M. Nancy Cutt, a Sherwood scholar, this joint authorship led to a "watery sentimentality" not evident in Sherwood's earlier works as well as a greater emphasis on issues of class.

In 1849, the Sherwoods moved to Twickenham, Middlesex, and in December of that year Captain Sherwood died. Sherwood herself died almost two years later on 20 September 1851.

Literary analysis
Sherwood scholar M. Nancy Cutt has argued that Sherwood's career divides into three periods: (1) her romantic period (1795–1805), in which she wrote a few sentimental novels, (2) her evangelical period (1810 – c. 1830), in which she produced her most popular and influential works, and (3) her post-evangelical period (c. 1830–1851). Several underlying themes pervade most of Sherwood's works through these periods: "her conviction of inherent human corruption", her belief that literature "had a catechetical utility" for every rank of society, her belief that "the dynamics of family life" should reflect central Christian principles, and her "virulent" anti-Catholicism.

Early writings: Sentimental novels
Sherwood's earliest works are the sentimental novels Traditions (1795) and Margarita (1795). Both are more worldly than her later works, but neither received much recognition. By contrast, The History of Susan Gray, written for the girls of her Sunday school class in Bridgnorth, made Sherwood a famous author. Like Hannah More's tracts, it is designed to teach middle-class morality to the poor. This novel, which children's literature scholar Patricia Demers, describes as a "purified Pamela", tells the story of Susan, an orphaned servant girl who "resists the advances of a philandering soldier; though trembling with emotion at the man's declaration of love and promise of marriage". Susan's story is told from her deathbed, so the reader is regularly reminded of the "wages of sin". A separate narrator, seemingly Sherwood, often interrupts the tale to warn readers against particular actions, such as deceiving themselves that God will spare "bad women" because there are so many of them. Despite a didactic tone that is often distasteful to modern readers, Susan Gray was so popular at the time of its publication that it was pirated by several publishers. In 1816, Sherwood published a revised version, which Sarah Trimmer reviewed positively in The Guardian of Education. Sherwood wrote a companion story to Susan Gray, The History of Lucy Clare, which was published in 1810.

French literary influences
Although Sherwood disagreed with the principles espoused by French Revolutionaries, her own works are modelled on French children's literature, much of it infused with Rousseauvian ideals. For example, in The History of Henry Milner, PartI (1822) and The History of the Fairchild Family, PartI (1818), Sherwood adopts Arnaud Berquin's "habitual pattern of small domestic situations acted out by children under the eye of parents or fellows". Likewise, The Lady of the Manor (1823–1829) shares similar themes and structures with Madame de Genlis' Tales of the Castle (1785). David Hanson, a scholar of nineteenth-century literature, has questioned this interpretation, arguing that the tales told by the maternal figure in The Lady of the Manor demonstrate a "distrust of parents", and of mothers in particular, because they illustrate the folly of overly permissive parenting. In these inset stories, only outsiders discipline children correctly.

One of Sherwood's aims in her evangelically-themed The History of Henry Milner (1822–1837) was to challenge what she saw as the irreligion inherent in French pedagogy. Henry Milner was written in response to Thomas Day's The History of Sandford and Merton (1783–1789), a novel founded on the philosophy of Rousseau (whose writings Sherwood had lambasted as "the well-spring of infidelity"). The children's literature scholar Janis Dawson indicates that the structure and emphasis of Henry much resemble Rousseau's Emile (1762): their pedagogies are similar, even if their underlying assumptions about childhood conflict. Both books isolate the child in order to encourage learning from the natural world, but Sherwood's Henry is naturally depraved, while Rousseau's Emile is naturally good. As the series progressed, Sherwood's views of religion changed (she became a universalist), causing her to place greater emphasis on childhood innocence in later volumes.

Evangelicalism
The strongest themes in Sherwood's early evangelical writings are the need to recognize one's innate "depravity" and the need to prepare for eternity. For Sherwood, her main themes emphasize "faith, resignation, and implicit obedience to the will of God". In her adaptation of John Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress (1678), The Infant's Progress (1821), she represents original sin as a child named "In-bred Sin" who tempts the young pilgrims on their way to the Celestial City (Heaven). It is these battles with In-bred Sin that constitute the major conflict of the text. The allegory is complex and, as Demers admits, "tedious" for even the "willing reader". According to Demers, "some young readers may have found [In-bred Sin's] activities more interesting than the spiritual struggles of the little heroes, reading the book as an adventure story rather than as a guide to salvation". Such religious allegory, though not always so overt, continued to be a favourite literary device of Sherwood's.

Sherwood infused her works with political and social messages dear to evangelicals in the 1810s and 1820s, such as the crucial role of missions, the value of charity, the evils of slavery, and the need for Sabbath observance. She wrote biblically-based introductions to astronomy and ancient history so that children would have Christian textbooks. As Cutt argues, "the intent of these (as indeed of all Evangelical texts) was to offset the deistic tendency to consider knowledge an end in itself". She revised classic children's books on religious grounds, such as Sarah Fielding's The Governess (1749). These efforts to make religion more palatable through children's fiction were not always seen favourably by the evangelical community; The Evangelical Magazine reviewed harshly her Stories Explanatory of the Church Catechism (1817), complaining it was overly reliant on exciting fictional tales to convey its religious message.

The History of the Fairchild Family (1818–1847)

As Cutt argues, "the great overriding metaphor of all [Sherwood's] work is the representation of divine order by the harmonious family relationship (inevitably set in its own pastoral Eden).... No writer made it clearer to her readers that the child who is dutiful within his family is blessed in the sight of God; or stressed more firmly that family bonds are but the earthly and visible end of a spiritual bond running up to the very throne of God". Demers has referred to this "consciously double vision" as the quintessentially Romantic element of Sherwood's writing.

Of all Sherwood's evangelically themed books, The History of the Fairchild Family was the most popular. It was published by John Hatchard of Piccadilly, which gave it and the other ten other books published with him a "social distinction" not attached to her other publications. The Fairchild Family tells the story of a family striving towards godliness and consists of a series of lessons taught by the Fairchild parents to their three children (Emily, Lucy and Henry) regarding not only the proper orientation of their souls towards Heaven but also the right earthly morality (envy, greed, lying, disobedience, and fighting are immoral). The overarching narrative of the tale includes a series of tract-like stories that illustrate these moral lessons. For example, stories of the deaths of two neighbourhood children, Charles Trueman and Miss Augusta Noble, help the Fairchild children to understand how and why they need to look to the state of their own hearts. The faithful and "true" Charles has a transcendent deathbed experience, suggesting he is saved; by contrast, the heedless, disobedient Augusta burns up while playing with candles and is presumably damned. Unlike previous allegorical literature with these themes, such as Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress, Sherwood domesticated her story with actions in the children's day-to-day lives, such as stealing fruit. These are important because they relate directly to their salvation. Each chapter includes thematically linked prayers and hymns, by Philip Doddridge, Isaac Watts, Charles Wesley, William Cowper, Ann and Jane Taylor, and others.

The Fairchild Family remained in print until 1913, despite the increasingly popular Wordsworthian image of childhood innocence. Dickensian scholar Lois E. Chaney has suggested that it "influenced Dickens's depictions of Pip's fears of the convict, the gibbet, and 'the horrible young man' at the close of Chapter 1" in Great Expectations (1860–1861). The children's literature scholar Gillian Avery has argued that The Fairchild Family was "as much a part of English childhood as Alice was later to become". Although the book was popular, some scraps of evidence have survived suggesting that readers did not always interpret it as Sherwood would have wanted. Lord Frederic Hamilton writes, for instance, that "there was plenty about eating and drinking; one could always skip the prayers, and there were three or four very brightly written accounts of funerals in it". Although The Fairchild Family has gained a reputation in the twentieth century as didactic, in the early nineteenth century it was viewed as delightfully realistic. Charlotte Mary Yonge (1823–1901), a critic who also wrote children's literature, praised "the gusto with which [Sherwood] dwells on new dolls" and "the absolutely sensational naughtiness" of the children. Most twentieth-century critics, including George Orwell, who called it "an evil book", have condemned the book's harshness, pointing to the Fairchilds' moral-filled visit to a gibbet with a rotting corpse swinging from it; but Cutt and others argue that the positive depiction of the nuclear family in the text, particularly Sherwood's emphasis on parents' responsibility to educate their own children, was important to the book's appeal. She argues that Sherwood's "influence", through books such as the Fairchild Family, "upon the domestic pattern of Victorian life can hardly be overestimated".

The Fairchild Family was so successful that Sherwood wrote two sequels, in 1842 and 1847. These reflected her changing values as well as those of the Victorian period. Significantly, the servants in PartI, "who are almost part of the family, are pushed aside in PartIII by their gossiping, flattering counterparts in the fine manor-house." The most extensive thematic change in the series was the disappearance of evangelicalism. Whereas all the lessons in PartI highlight the children's "human depravity" and encourage the reader to think in terms of the afterlife, in Parts IIand III, other Victorian values such as "respectability" and filial obedience come to the fore. Dawson describes the difference in terms of parental indulgence; in Parts II and III, the Fairchild parents employ softer disciplinary tactics than in PartI.

Evangelical tract literature in the 1820s and 1830s
During the 1820s and 1830s, Sherwood wrote a great many tracts for the poor. Like her novels for the middle class, they "taught the lessons of personal endurance, reliance on Providence, and acceptance of one's earthly status". Emphasizing individual experience and one's personal relationship with God, they discouraged readers from attributing their successes or failures to "larger economic and political forces". In this, they resembled the Cheap Repository Tracts, many written by Hannah More. As Linda Peterson, a scholar of nineteenth-century women's literature, argues, Sherwood's tracts use a Biblical "interpretative frame" to highlight the fleetingness of earthly things. For example, in A Drive in the Coach through the Streets of London (1819), Julia is granted the privilege of shopping with her mother only if she will "behave wisely in the streets" and "not give [her] mind to self-pleasing". She cannot keep this promise and she eagerly peeks in at every store window and begs her mother to buy her everything she sees. Her mother, therefore, allows her to select one item from every shop. Julia, ecstatic, chooses blue satin boots, a penknife, and a new hat with flowers, and other items until the pair reach the undertaker's shop. There her mood droops considerably and she realizes the moral of the lesson, recited by her mother, as she picks out a coffin: "but she that liveth in pleasure is dead while she liveth" (1 Timothy 5:6).

Anti-Catholicism in the 1830s
Sherwood's anti-Catholicism appears most obviously in her works from the 1820s and 1830s. During the 1820s in Britain, Catholics were agitating for greater civil rights and it was at this time that Sherwood wrote her most sustained attacks against them. When the Roman Catholic Relief Act 1829 was passed, Sherwood and many like her were frightened of the influence Catholics might gain in the government and wrote Victoria (1833), The Nun (1833), and The Monk of Cimies (1834) to illustrate some of the supposed dangers of Catholicism. The Monk narrates, in the first person, Edmund Etherington's decision to renounce the Church of England and join the Catholic church. While a monk, he ridicules his fellow brothers, plans a murder and debauches a young woman. Some evangelicals disagreed with her views on Catholic Emancipation and were uncomfortable with these books; one evangelical reviewer called The Monk of Cimies "unfair and unconvincing".

Colonialism
While in India, Sherwood wrote a series of texts based on colonial life. Her most popular, The History of Little Henry and his Bearer (1814), tells of a young British boy who, on his deathbed, converts Boosy, the Indian man who has taken care of him throughout his childhood. The book was enormously successful; it reached 37 editions by 1850 and was translated into French, German, Spanish, Hindustani, Chinese, and Sinhalese. Sherwood's tale blends the realistic with the sentimental and introduces her readers to Hindustani words and descriptions of what she felt was authentic Indian life. As Cutt explains, "With this work, the obituary tract (which invariably stressed conversion and a Christian death) had assumed the colouring of romance." Sherwood also wrote a companion story titled Little Lucy and her Dhaye (1825) that told a similar tale. The Indian Pilgrim (1818) demonstrates Sherwood's religious biases: "Muslims and Jews receive better treatment than Hindus because of their belief in one God, but Roman Catholics fare little better than the Hindu idolaters." The Indian Pilgrim, though never published in India, was popular in Britain and America. Sherwood also wrote texts for Indian servants of British families in the style of British writings for the poor. One such was The Ayah and Lady (1813) in which the ayah or maid is "portrayed as sly, selfish, lazy, and untrustworthy. Her employers are well aware of her faults, yet they tolerate her". A more culturally sensitive and realistic portrayal of Indians appears in The Last Days of Boosy (1842), a sequel to The History of Little Henry and his Bearer, where the converted Boosy is cast out of his family and community after his conversion to Christianity.

Sherwood's writings on India reveal her sense of superiority over the inhabitants of India; the subcontinent therefore appears in her works as a morally corrupt land in need of reformation. She wrote The History of George Desmond (1821) to warn young men of the dangers of emigrating to India. Sherwood's books shaped the minds of several generations of young Britons. According to Cutt, Sherwood's depictions of India were among the few available to young British readers; such children "acquired a strong conviction of the rightness of missions, which, while it inculcated sincere concern for, and a genuine kindness towards an alien people for whom Britain was responsible, quite destroyed any latent respect for Indian tradition."

Using a postcolonial analysis, Nandini Bhattacharya emphasizes the complex relationship between Sherwood's evangelicalism and her colonialism. She argues that Sherwood's evangelical stories demonstrate the deep colonial "mistrust of feminized agency", represented by a dying child in Little Henry and his Bearer. Henry "subvert[s] the colonialist's fantasy of universal identity by generating a subaltern identity that mimics and explodes that fantasy". But ultimately, Bhattacharya argues, Sherwood creates neither a wholly colonialist text nor a post-colonial text; the deaths of children such as Henry eliminate any possibility for an alternative consciousnesses to mature.

Later writings: Victorianism
By 1830, Sherwood's works had drifted from evangelicalism and reflected more conventional Victorian plots and themes. For example, Gipsy Babes (1826), perhaps inspired by Walter Scott's Guy Mannering (1815), emphasizes "human affections". In 1835, she wrote a Gothic novel for adolescents entitled Shanty the Blacksmith, which Cutt calls "a gripping [and] exciting tale" and employs the tropes of the genre: "lost heir, ruined castle, humble helpers and faithful retainer, sinister and mysterious gypsies, prisoner and plot". In 1835, Sherwood published the novel Caroline Mordaunt, about a young woman forced to become a governess. Her parents die when she is young, but luckily relatives pay to educate her, so she can earn her own living. It follows her progress from a flighty, discontented girl to a reliable, content woman; she learns to accommodate herself to the whims of a proud nobility, silly literati, and dogmatic evangelicals. She realizes that in her dependent position she must be content with less than complete happiness. Once she recognizes this, though, she finds God, and in the last chapter an ideal husband, so granting her near-complete happiness after all. Cutt suggests that in these works, Sherwood drew on Jane Austen and Jane Taylor for a new "lively, humorous, and satirical strain".

In both later works such as Caroline Mordaunt and her earlier evangelical texts, Sherwood followed the Victorian project of prescribing gender roles; while her later works outlined ever more stringent and narrow roles for each sex, her early works such as The Fairchild Family suggested demarcations as well: Lucy and Emily learn to sew and keep house while Henry tends the garden and learns Latin.

Legacy

As Britain's education system became more secular in the later nineteenth century, Sherwood's evangelical books were used mainly to teach the poor and in Sunday schools. Her missionary stories were the most influential of all her works, for according to Cutt, they "kept alive the missionary spirit and perpetuated that paternal attitude towards India that lasted into the [twentieth century], were widely imitated" and "an unfortunate assumption of racial superiority was fostered by the over-simplification of some of Mrs. Sherwood's successors". They influenced Charlotte Maria Tucker ("A.L.O.E.") and even perhaps Rudyard Kipling. In the United States, Sherwood's early works were popular and republished well into the 1840s; thereafter a tradition of specifically American children's literature began to develop with authors such as Louisa May Alcott. Sherwood was also instrumental in developing the ideology of the Victorian family. Cutt acknowledges that "the omniscient Victorian parent was not the creation of Mrs. Sherwood, but of the Victorians themselves; nevertheless, by presenting the parent as God's vicar in the family, she had planted and fostered the idea".

The prevalence of death in Sherwood's early stories and vivid portrayal of its worldly and otherworldly consequences have often caused twentieth-century critics to deride her works. However, Sherwood's stories influenced the styles for other writers such as Charles Kingsley and Charlotte Mary Yonge. It has been surmised that John Ruskin used Henry Milner as the basis for his imaginative autobiography Praeterita (1885–1889). Sherwood's narrative experiments with various genres allowed other writers to pursue innovative forms of children's fiction. Her imaginative use of tracts domesticated reformist literature and encouraged radicals such as Harriet Martineau to employ the same genre, although for opposite purposes. Due to the popularity of Sherwood's works and their impact on later writers, Janis Dawson writes: "Though her books are no longer widely read, she is regarded as one of the most significant authors of children's literature of the nineteenth century".

Selected works

 * The History of Little Henry and his Bearer, 1814
 * The History of Susan Gray, 1815, revised
 * Stories Explanatory of the Church Catechism, 1817
 * The History of the Fairchild Family, 1818
 * The Indian Pilgrim, 1818
 * An Introduction to Geography, 1818
 * The Governess, or The Little Female Academy, 1820
 * The History of George Desmond, 1821
 * The Infant's Progress, 1821, 2nd edition
 * The History of Henry Milner, 1822
 * The History of Little Lucy and her Dhaye, 1823
 * The Lady of the Manor, 1823–1829
 * Soffrona and her Cat Muff, 1828
 * Scripture Prints, with Explanations in the Form of Familiar Dialogues, 1831
 * The Monk of Cimies, 1834
 * Caroline Mordaunt, or The Governess, 1835
 * Shanty the Blacksmith, 1835
 * The Last Days of Boosy, the Bearer of Little Henry 1842
 * The Youth's Magazine (1822–1848) – "This periodical... brought out tales, tracts, and articles by Mrs. Sherwood for over twenty-five years (signed at first M.M., and after 1827, M.M.S.) The earlier tales were rapidly reprinted by Houlston, Darton, Melrose, Knight and Lacey and the R.T.S. [Religious Tract Society], as well as by various American publishers".
 * The Works of Mrs. Sherwood by Harper & Bros. (1834–1857) – collected works

Online full-text resources

 * Works by Mary Martha Sherwood at Toronto Public Library
 * Works by Mary Martha Sherwood at Toronto Public Library
 * Works by Mary Martha Sherwood at Toronto Public Library
 * Works by Mary Martha Sherwood at Toronto Public Library

title: Mary Martha Sherwood


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Ephraim Williams

Ephraim Williams Jr. ( – September 8, 1755) was a soldier and land owner from the Province of Massachusetts Bay who was killed in the French and Indian War. He was the benefactor of Williams College, located in northwestern Massachusetts. The school's athletic programs, the Ephs, are named after Williams.

Early life
Ephraim Jr. was the eldest son of Ephraim Williams Sr. and Elizabeth Jackson Williams (d. 1718). He was born in Newton, Massachusetts, on February 24, 1714, and was raised by his maternal grandparents after his mother died giving birth to a second son, Thomas, in 1718. His family was influential in western Massachusetts; they were preeminent in a group of families then called the "River Gods" (referencing the Connecticut River, the major waterway in the area). A cousin, Israel Williams, was known as the "monarch of Hampshire" due to his singular influence along the river. Last Will and Testament (1755).jpg] In his youth, Ephraim Jr. was a sailor and travelled several times to Europe, visiting England, Holland and Spain.

Military service
In 1742, at age 27, he moved to Stockbridge, Massachusetts, where his father had relocated on land purchased from the Mahican tribe, and purchased large tracts of land in the young settlement. He joined the militia and was commissioned captain.

In 1745 during King George's War (1745–1748), he was put in charge of building and defending Fort Massachusetts and the line of defences in western Connecticut and Massachusetts. He was absent when the fort was taken and destroyed by the French in August 1746. After the war ended, Williams spent considerable effort urging the settlement of new townships in the western portion of Massachusetts along the Hoosac River at the end of the 1740s. Many of the early settlers in this region were soldiers stationed at Fort Massachusetts during the war, including Williams himself.

However, within just a few years, Williams was again called into service as part of the French and Indian War (1754–1763). Williams, now a colonel, took part in William Johnson's expedition against Crown Point, New York, leading a regiment of ten companies. Among those companies were Burke's Rangers and Rogers' Rangers. Among his aides was William Williams from Connecticut, a signer of the Declaration of Independence.

Williams was shot in the head and killed during an ambush by the French and their Indian allies in the Battle of Lake George on September 8, 1755, at the age of 40. Members of his regiment hid his body after the battle to prevent it from being desecrated. They later buried Williams nearby. His body was disinterred in the early 20th century and moved to the chapel at Williams College. A stone etched with Williams' initials on it and the year of his death still stands at the original Lake George gravesite just across the street from a monument erected by Williams College alumni. The monument marks the site of the ambush, which was called the Bloody Morning Scout.

Legacy
Ephraim left his sizeable estate to support the founding of a free school on his land in western Massachusetts, on the conditions that the town be renamed after him (Williamstown, Massachusetts, formerly West Hoosac), that the town be part of the Massachusetts Bay Colony, and that the free school be built on the land which he donated. He previously intended to found the school as an academy for "the Promoting & propogating [sic] Christian knowledge amongst the Indians at Stockbridge" but was deterred by the potential of the project being manipulated by his political rivals after his death. The school was founded in 1791 and converted to Williams College by action of the state legislature in 1793.

Ebenezer Fitch, the first president of Williams College, wrote a biographical sketch of Ephraim Jr. in 1802. He described the college's benefactor as follows: "In his person, he was large and fleshy...His address was easy, and his manners pleasing and conciliating. Affable and facetious, he could make himself agreeable in all companies; and was very generally esteemed, respected, and beloved."

There is some internet based commentary that suggests Ephraim Williams appears in an early version of "Yankee Doodle":

 * Brother Ephraim sold his Cow
 * And bought him a Commission;
 * And then he went to Canada
 * To fight for the Nation;

 * But when Ephraim he came home
 * He proved an arrant Coward,
 * He wouldn't fight the Frenchmen there
 * For fear of being devour'd.

However, this suggestion comes mostly from on-line commentators, who "just repeat earlier questionable, undocumented interpretations" without citation, and no reputable scholars "connect this 'arrant Coward' to the French and Indian War hero."

The song "Yankee Doodle" was re-appropriated by the British colonists from the derisive version of the Dutch settlers and turned into a rousing marching tune eventually making Yankee another name for American known world wide, with the first known version of the song apparently about Ephraim Williams, who fought the French at the battle of Fort Ticonderoga and the Battle of the Bloody Morning Scout.

title: Ephraim Williams


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Joseph Henry Shorthouse

Joseph Henry Shorthouse (9 September 1834 – 4 March 1903) was an English novelist. His first novel, John Inglesant, was particularly admired as a "philosophical romance". It discusses a religious intrigue in the English 17th century.

Biography
Shorthouse was born in Great Charles Street, Birmingham, on 9 September 1834, as the eldest of three sons of Joseph Shorthouse (1797–1880) and his wife, Mary Ann, née Hawker. He grew up in Calthorpe Street, Edgbaston. His father had inherited a family chemical works manufacturing vitriol, and his mother's father had founded the first glasshouse in Birmingham. Both families were Quakers. He was educated partly at home and partly at Grove House School, Tottenham, and became a chemical manufacturer.

At the Friends meeting house in Warwick on 19 August 1857, he married a childhood friend, Sarah Scott (1832–1909), the eldest daughter of John and Elizabeth Scott. Two events of importance ensued. He and his wife joined the Church of England in 1861, and he had the first of many attacks of epilepsy in January 1862. Shorthouse later identified himself with "the new Oxford school of High Churchmen", but he preferred the freedom and reason of the Anglican church to the authority over private judgement that he saw exercised by Roman Catholicism.

Shorthouse's health began to deteriorate in 1900 and he died at his home, 60 Wellington Road, Edgbaston, on 4 March 1903. He left no children.

John Inglesant
Shorthouse spent ten years up to 1876 working on his first book, John Inglesant, which initially appeared privately. It was eventually noticed by Mrs Humphry Ward and through her intervention by Alexander Macmillan, who published it commercially in 1881. A story of 17th-century religious intrigue and faith, it hinges on a man who fights on the Royalist side in the Civil War, moves between Anglican and Catholic circles, and forgives the man who murdered his brother. However, as an encyclopedist notes, "Its revenge plot – in which Inglesant pursues his brother's murderer – is less important than the hero's spiritual journey and assertion of the claims of the Anglican Church."

The book at once made Shorthouse famous. Though said to be deficient in its structure as a story and unappealing to the general public, it fascinated people by the charm of its style, by a "dim religious light", with which it was suffused, and by occasional striking scenes. More recently it has been described as "one of the best examples of the philosophical romance in English literature".

Shorthouse dedicated John Inglesant to Rawdon Levett, his friend and fellow teacher at King Edward's School, Birmingham. Other admirers of the work included T. H. Huxley, Charlotte Yonge and Edmund Gosse. He was invited to breakfast at 10 Downing Street by the Prime Minister, Gladstone. The book sold 9000 copies in its first year.

Other works
Shorthouse's other novels, The Little Schoolmaster Mark (1883), Sir Percival (1886), The Countess Eve (1888), A Teacher of the Violin (1888) and Blanche, Lady Falaise (1891) have some of the same characteristics, but were less successful than the first. Shorthouse also wrote literary essays, including one called "The Platonism of Wordsworth".

The Life, Letters, and Literary Remains of J. H. Shorthouse were edited by the author's wife and published in 1905. A biographical study of Shorthouse appeared in 1995.

title: Joseph Henry Shorthouse


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It Ain't Easy (Three Dog Night album)

It Ain't Easy is the fourth album by American rock band Three Dog Night, released in 1970.

Title and packaging
According to lead singer Chuck Negron's book Three Dog Nightmare, the album's working title was The Wizards of Orange, with a cover featuring the band's members wearing orange make-up and posing in the nude. The band's record company, ABC/Dunhill, rejected the original album title and cover art, although some configurations of their first "greatest hits" album, 1971's Golden Bisquits, would later be packaged using It Ain't Easy's original cover photo.

Critical reception
Reviewing in Christgau's Record Guide: Rock Albums of the Seventies (1981), Robert Christgau wrote: "Admitting it won't gain me any of the hip cachet I crave, but I admired and enjoyed this group's first LP. I found the second mediocre and the live job that followed it wretchedly excessive, but this one—their fourth in just fourteen months—gets back: exemplary song-finding and not too much plastic-soul melon-mouthing or preening vocal pyrotechnique. Highlights: the hit version of Randy Newman's 'Mama Told Me Not to Come,' with just the right admixture of high-spirited schlock to turn it into the AM giant it deserves to be, and a departure from pre-Beatles times called "Good Feeling (1957)."

Side one

 * 1) "Woman" (Andy Fraser, Paul Rodgers) – 4:40
 * 2) "Cowboy" (Randy Newman) – 3:42
 * 3) "It Ain't Easy" (Ron Davies) – 2:46
 * 4) "Out in the Country" (Roger Nichols, Paul Williams) – 3:08
 * 5) "Good Feeling (1957)" (Alan Brackett, John Merrill) – 3:46

Side two

 * 1) "Rock and Roll Widow" (Danny Hutton, Chuck Negron, Cory Wells, Mike Allsup, Jimmy Greenspoon, Joe Schermie, Floyd Sneed) – 2:56
 * 2) "Mama Told Me (Not to Come)" (Newman) – 3:18
 * 3) "Your Song" (Elton John, Bernie Taupin) – 4:01
 * 4) "Good Time Living" (Barry Mann, Cynthia Weil) – 4:06

Musicians

 * Cory Wells – lead vocals (tracks A1, A3, B2, A4-group unison), background vocals
 * Chuck Negron – lead vocals (tracks A2, A5, A4-group unison), background vocals
 * Danny Hutton – lead vocals (track B3, A4-group unison), background vocals
 * Mike Allsup – guitar
 * Joe Schermie – bass guitar
 * Floyd Sneed – drums
 * Jimmy Greenspoon – keyboards

Production

 * Producer: Richard Podolor
 * Engineer: Bill Cooper
 * Arranger: Three Dog Night
 * Roadie, lighting: Dennis Albro
 * Roadie, sound: Lee Carlton
 * Cal Schenkel - design
 * Ed Caraeff - photography

Charts
Album – Billboard (United States)

Singles – Billboard (United States)

title: It Ain't Easy (Three Dog Night album)


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Talk:It Ain't Easy (Three Dog Night album)

It Ain't Easy - Original Songwriter?
http://teenagewildlife.com/Albums/ZS/IAE.html claims that the original songwriter of It Ain't Easy wasn't Ray Davies of The Kinks fame, but rather Ron Davies.


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Richard Sibbes

Richard Sibbes (or Sibbs) (1577–1635) was an Anglican theologian. He is known as a Biblical exegete, and as a representative, with William Perkins and John Preston, of what has been called "main-line" Puritanism because he always remained in the Church of England and worshiped according to the Book of Common Prayer.

Life
He was born in Tostock, Suffolk, where his father was a wheelwright; other sources say Sudbury. After attending Bury St Edmunds Grammar School, he attended St John's College, Cambridge from 1595. He was lecturer at Holy Trinity Church, Cambridge, from 1610 or 1611 to 1615 or 1616. It was erroneously held by 18th and 19th century scholars that Sibbes was deprived of his various academic posts on account of his Puritanism. In fact he was never deprived of any of his posts, due to his ingenuity of the system.

He was then preacher at Gray's Inn, London, from 1617, returning to Cambridge as Master of Catherine Hall in 1626, without giving up the London position.

Also in 1626, the support group known as the Feoffees for Impropriations was set up, and Sibbes was a founding member. (It built on an informal grouping dating back to 1613). It was closely linked to St Antholin, Budge Row, for its seven years of existence: it was shut down in 1633. With others, he worked to fund and provide platforms for preachers. He was one of four ministers in the original feoffees, the other members being chosen as four lawyers and four laymen.

Works
He was the author of several devotional works expressing intense religious feeling – The Saint's Cordial (1629), The Bruised Reed and Smoking Flax (1631, exegesis of Isaiah 42:3), The Soules Conflict (1635), etc.

A volume of sermons appeared in 1630, dedicated to Horace Vere, 1st Baron Vere of Tilbury and his wife Lady Mare. Most of the other works were first published by Thomas Goodwin and Philip Nye, after Sibbes died. The content belied the mainly moderate and conforming attitudes for which Sibbes was known in his lifetime. Beames of Divine Light, A Description of Christ in Three Sermons and Bowels Opened appeared in 1639, as did The Returning Backslider, sermons on the Book of Hosea.

A complete edition was published 1862–1864 in Edinburgh, in seven volumes, by James Nichol, with a biographical memoir by Alexander Grosart.

Views
The clerical leaders of the Feoffees, Davenport, Gouge and Sibbes, all adhered to Calvinist covenant theology, as shaped by the English theologians Perkins, Preston, William Ames, and Thomas Taylor. There was a tacit assumption of a state church. Sibbes believed the Second Coming was necessary to complete the work that Christ had begun.

Efforts to define further the Puritanism of Sibbes – which is a term much debated – place him in various groups. Under pious "non-separatists", he is with Preston, Richard Baxter, Robert Bolton, and John Dod. Under those who would conform to set forms of worship, he is with Dod, Nicholas Byfield, Richard Capel, John Downame, Arthur Hildersham, and Richard Stock (another Feoffee). He is also a fully conforming Puritan, with Preston, Samuel Ward, and Robert Hill. With Richard Bernard, he was a moderate Calvinist who promoted religious tolerance. With Perkins, Preston, Baxter and Henry Newcome, he was a moderate and non-Presbyterian Puritan. However one classifies him, it is undeniable that he was a faithful member of the Elizabethan church.

His perspective was European, or even wider, and he saw Catholicism in terms of a repressive conspiracy. With Davenport, Gouge, Taylor, Thomas Gataker, John Stoughton, and Josias Shute, he helped raise money for Protestants of the Electorate of the Palatinate affected by the opening of the Thirty Years' War; and later for John Dury's missions. Laud brought up Sibbes, Davenport, Gouge and Taylor in front of the Court of High Commission for this. The Fountain Opened (1638) advocated mission work.

Quotes

 * “There is more mercy in Christ than sin in us.”

Influence
His works were much read in New England. Thomas Hooker, prominent there from 1633, was directly influenced by Sibbes, and his "espousal theology", using marriage as a religious metaphor, draws on The Bruised Reed and Bowels Opened.

The poet George Herbert was a contemporary, and there are suggestions on parallels. Where Herbert speaks in The Church Militant about the westward movement of the propagation of the gospel, Christopher Hill comments that this may have come from The Bruised Reed. Other examples have been proposed by Doerksen.

Sibbes was cited by the Methodist John Wesley. The Baptist preacher Charles Spurgeon studied his craft in Sibbes, Perkins and Thomas Manton. The evangelical Martyn Lloyd-Jones wrote in the highest terms of his own encounter with the work of Sibbes.

title: Richard Sibbes


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Jonaraja

Jonaraja (died AD 1459) was a Kashmiri historian and Sanskrit poet. His ' is a continuation of Kalhana's ' and brings the chronicle of the kings of Kashmir down to the time of the author's patron Zain-ul-Abidin (r. 1418–1419 and 1420–1470). Jonaraja, however, could not complete the history of the patron as he died in the 35th regnal year. His pupil, Shrivara continued the history and his work, the , covers the period 1459–1486.

In his , Jonaraja has vividly described the decline of the Hindu ruling dynasty and the rise of the Muslim ruling dynasty in Kashmir.

title: Jonaraja


text: User:Eequor/Reference/Cosmology

title: User:Eequor/Reference/Cosmology


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Lydia Sigourney

Lydia Huntley Sigourney (September 1, 1791 – June 10, 1865), Lydia Howard Huntley, was an American poet, author, and publisher during the early and mid 19th century. She was commonly known as the "Sweet Singer of Hartford." She had a long career as a literary expert, publishing 52 books and in over 300 periodicals in her lifetime. While some of her works were signed anonymously, most of her works were published with just her married name Mrs. Sigourney. During the lyceum movement that flourished in the United States in the 19th century, women named literary societies and study clubs in her honor.

Early life
Mrs. Sigourney was born in Norwich, Connecticut, to Ezekiel Huntley and Zerviah Wentworth. Their only child, she was named after her father's first wife, Lydia Howard, who had died soon after marrying Ezekiel. In her autobiography Letters of Life, Sigourney describes her relation to her parents, her decision to care for them, and her intent to avoid marriage because it would interfere with this relationship.

"I had ... reason for avoiding serious advances. My mind was made up never to leave my parents. I felt that their absorbing love could never be repaid by the longest life-service, and that the responsibility of an only child, their sole prop and solace, would be strictly regarded by Him who readeth the heart. I had seen aged people surrounded by indifferent persons, who considered their care a burden, and could not endure the thought that my tender parents, who were without near relatives, should be thrown upon the fluctuating kindness of hirelings and strangers. To me, my father already seemed aged, though scarcely sixty; and I said, in my musing hours, Shall he, who never denied me aught, or spoke to me otherwise than in love-tones, stretch forth his hands in their weakness, 'and find none to gird him'? (241)."

Education and the school for young ladies
She was educated in Norwich and Hartford. With her friend Nancy Maria Hyde, Sigourney opened a school for young ladies in Norwich in 1811 The school was forced to close when Hyde became ill and was no longer able to teach. After the close of the Norwich school, she conducted a similar school in Hartford in the home of Daniel Wadsworth from 1814 until 1819. Frances Manwaring Caulkins entered the Norwich school in September 1811, and remained a very warm friend and frequent correspondent with Sigourney thereafter.

When she was quite young, one of her neighbors, the Widow Lathrop, was friendly with her and encouraged her to develop. After her friend Madam Lathrop died, Lydia was sent to visit Mrs. Jeremiah Wadsworth, an acquaintance of the Widow Lathrop in [Hartford, Connecticut]. This visit put her in contact with Daniel Wadsworth. Daniel helped her set up a school for girls, arranging for daughters of his friends to attend.

In 1815, he also helped her publish her first work, Moral Pieces in Prose and Verse, arranging the publishing and performing the initial editing himself. Sigourney described Wadsworth as her "kind patron" and says that he "took upon himself the whole responsibility of contracting publishers, gathering subscriptions, and even correcting the proof sheets". She goes on to say that "He delighted in drawing a solitary mind from obscurity into a freer atmosphere and brighter sunbeam".

Marriage and married life
On June 16, 1819, she married Charles Sigourney, and after her marriage chose to write anonymously in "leisure" time. It was not until her parents were in dire need and her husband had lost some of his former affluence that she began to write as an occupation. When she was referred to as the probable author of the anonymous Letters to Young Ladies, By a Lady she admitted authorship and began to write openly as Mrs. Sigourney.

After her death, John Greenleaf Whittier composed a poem for her memorial tablet:
 * She sang alone, ere womanhood had known
 * The gift of song which fills the air to-day:
 * Tender and sweet, a music all her own
 * May fitly linger where she knelt to pray.

Writings and criticism
The main themes of Sigourney's writing include death, responsibility, religion — a strong belief in God and the Christian faith — and work. She often wrote elegies or poems for recently deceased neighbors, friends, and acquaintances. Some of her work exemplifies Victorian-era death literature which views death as an escape to a better place, especially for children. There is also a strong flavour of patriotism with many poems linking to the formation of the Republic, and also a large number of poems based on a wide variety of historical subjects. She was particularly strong in her condemnation of slavery and the mistreatment of the indigenous Americans. Another aspect of her work is humour, frequently expressed in poems such as (1827) and  (1834); this extends to her children's verse, for example,  (1836). A contemporary critic called her work, infused with morals, "more like the dew than the lightning".

She enjoyed substantial popularity in her lifetime and earned several nicknames, including "the American Hemans", the "Sweet Singer of Hartford", and the "female Milton". Her influences included the work of Hannah More, William Wordsworth, and William Cowper.

Conduct literature
An advocate of gendered spheres of society, Sigourney followed the example of Hannah More in creating a gendered rhetorical theory. Sigourney wrote two conduct books. Her first, Letters to Young Ladies, was published in 1833 and was printed more than twenty-five times. This book argued that women should practice reading aloud, and also offered advice in letter writing and memorization. Sigourney promotes the importance of being agreeable throughout the book, and suggests ways to take notes, along with advice on how to paraphrase what one has read. Sigourney recommends that girls should form reading societies, and says that women should use their virtue to promote its appearance in others.

In 1835, Lydia Sigourney published Zinzendorff, and Other Poems which featured a notable poem entitled "Garafilia Mohalbi". American painter and miniaturist Ann Hall also featured the same subject in a miniature portrait which later became a popular engraving by E. Gallaudet an engraver from Boston. A mazurka was written by Carl Gartner entitled "Garafilia" and a ship also bore the same name. Garafilia Mohalbi had been captured at the age of seven by the Turks during the Greek War of Independence. She was kidnapped and sold as a slave to an American Merchant Joseph Langdon. He freed her and adopted her as his daughter. Garafilia was sent to go live with his family in Boston. Three years later Mohalbi died in 1830 at the age of 13 and became the subject of an artistic movement.

Sigourney's second conduct book, Letters to My Pupils, was published in 1837. In this book, Sigourney focuses on pronunciation and conversation, and claims that women should train in enunciation even if they are not going to be speaking publicly. According to Sigourney, women's conversation should adhere to three rules: It should give pleasure; it should be instructive and it should be comforting. Sigourney also made a case for the value of silence at times, and argued that part of a woman's role is to be a good listener.

In both of these books, Sigourney advocates traditional 19th century gendered spheres of society, but she also suggests that women can influence society through their teaching, conversation, and letter writing. Like Madeleine de Scudéry, Sigourney stresses the importance of being agreeable in conversation.

Legacy
According to Nineteenth Century Criticism, "recently... there has been a renewed interest in Sigourney, particularly among feminist literary scholars. Critics such as Annie Finch, Nina Baym, and Dorothy Z. Baker have studied Sigourney's successful attempt to establish herself as a distinctly American and distinctly female poet." Nina Baym writes about Sigourney's construction of her own identity that through canny participation, it continued throughout her lifetime.

She was one of the most popular writers of her day, both in the United States and in England, and was called 'the American Hemans.' Her writings were characterized by fluency, grace and quiet reflection on nature, domestic and religious life, and philanthropic questions; but they were also often sentimental, didactic and commonplace. Some of her blank verse and pictures of nature suggest Bryant. Among her most successful poems are 'Niagara' and 'Indian Names'. The latter was set to music by Natalie Merchant for the 2010 album, Leave Your Sleep. Throughout her life, she took an active interest in philanthropic and educational work (1911 Encyclopædia Britannica). Some of her most popular work deals with Native American issues and injustices. An early advocate for social reform in slavery and in internal migration, Sigourney felt obligated to use her position to help oppressed members of society. In her posthumously published autobiography, "Letters of Life", Sigourney stated that she wrote with the hope of 'being an instrument of good'.

Her influence was tremendous. She inspired many young women to attempt to become poets. According to Teed:"As a dedicated, successful writer, Lydia Sigourney violated essential elements of the very gender roles she celebrated. In the process, she offered young, aspiring women writers around the country an example of the possibilities of achieving both fame and economic reward (19)."

Rev. E. B. Huntington wrote a small consideration of Mrs. Sigourney's life shortly after her death. He thought that her success came "because with [her] gifts and [her] success, she had with singular kindliness of heart made her very life-work itself a constant source of blessing and joy to others. Her very goodness had made her great. Her genial goodwill had given her power. Her loving friendliness had made herself and her name everywhere a charm" (85). She wrote to inspire others, and Huntingdon felt that she had been successful.

She contributed more than two thousand articles to many (nearly 300) periodicals (1911 Encyclopædia Britannica) and some 67 books.

In 1844, Sigourney, Iowa, the county seat of Keokuk County, Iowa, was named in her honor. A large oil-paint portrait of Lydia still graces the foyer of the county courthouse.

Her poem, from her book Poems for the Sea (1850) is repeatedly quoted in the 2019 film The Lighthouse.

Lyceum movement
Sigourney's commitment to education, writing, and charity was testimony to women's possibilities for self-betterment and, no doubt, a role model for women. When Sigourney gave up her anonymity for good, she became the most widely known "authoress" and "poetess" in America. As a result, during the lyceum movement that flourished in the United States in the 19th century, women named literary societies and study clubs in her honor, including the following examples:

 * Sigourney Society (Oxford, New York) — founded at the Oxford Female Seminary, c. 1836
 * Sigourney Society (Gaffney, South Carolina) — founded at Limestone Springs Female High School in 1848 — Lydia Sigourney was invited to become an honorary member; she accepted
 * Sigourney Society (Griffin, Georgia) — founded at Griffin Female College, ca. 1848–1858
 * Sigournian Literary Society (Pennsylvania) — founded as a society for young ladies at Glade Run Classical and Normal Academy (Glade Run Presbyterian Church) ca. 1851 — There is a Glade Run Presbyterian Church in Valencia, Pa., in Butler County, and a West Glade Run Presbyterian Church in Kittanning, Pa., in Armstrong County. The Glade Run Academy was founded in the Presbytery of Kittanning, and some sources reference Armstrong County.
 * Sigournian Society (Centreville, Indiana) — founded at White Water College in 1856
 * Sigournean Society (Moore's Hill, Indiana) — founded as a women's literary society at Moore's Hill Male and Female Collegiate Institute (later Moore's Hill College) in 1857 — The society, which was known for a time as the Sigs, ultimately became the Chi Epsilon chapter of Chi Omega sorority; the college, which relocated to Evansville, Indiana, in 1919, is now the University of Evansville.
 * Sigournean Society (Indianapolis, Indiana) — founded by Lydia Short as the first literary society for women at North Western Christian University (now Butler University) in March 1859 — The society published a newsletter, The Sigournean Casket.
 * Sigournean Society (Greensboro, North Carolina) — founded at Greensboro Female College (now Greensboro College) prior to 1863 — also known as Sigournian Society and Sigourney Society
 * Sigournean Society (Batavia, Illinois) — founded at the Batavia Institute, circa March 1866
 * Young Ladies' Sigournean Band (Kokomo, Indiana) — flourished circa 1870s
 * Sigournean Club (Olathe, Kansas) — founded as a women's study club in 1890 and apparently survived until the 1970s — According to its constitution, "The object of this club shall be the attainment of a higher plane of life through broad culture, free discussion and mutual helpfulness."
 * Sigournean Club (Winfield, Kansas) — organized as an afternoon study club in 1898 — The main purpose of the club was to further the study of art and literature.
 * Sigournean Club (Ottawa, Kansas) — founded prior to 1899 — This club contributed a complete library of 50 books to the Kansas Traveling Libraries in 1899.

There doubtless were many other such societies that were founded during the lyceum movement and named in honor of Lydia Huntley Sigourney.

Selected works

 * Moral Pieces in Prose and Verse (1815)
 * Traits of the Aborigines of America (1822), a poem
 * A Sketch of Connecticut Forty Years Since (1824)
 * Poems (1827)
 * Evening Readings In History (1833)
 * Letters to Young Ladies (1833), one of her best-known books
 * Sketches (1834)
 * Poems (1834)
 * Zinzendorff, and Other Poems (1836)
 * Poetry for Children (1836)
 * Olive Buds (1836)
 * Letters to Mothers (1838), republished in London
 * Pocahontas, and Other Poems (1841) New York.
 * (1841) London. This edition for English readers differs considerably from that published in New York.
 * Pleasant Memories of Pleasant Lands (1842), descriptive of her trip to Europe in 1840
 * Scenes in My Native Land (1844)
 * Letters to My Pupils (1851)
 * Olive Leaves (1851)
 * The Faded Hope (1852) in memory of her only son, who died when he was nineteen years old
 * Past Meridian (1854)
 * The Daily Counsellor (1858), poems
 * Gleanings (1860), selections from her verse
 * The Man of Uz, and Other Poems (1862)
 * Letters of Life (1866), giving an account of her career

Popular culture
In 1837, Henry Russell used Ms. Sigourney's poem for his song Washingtons Tomb.

title: Lydia Sigourney