Sir Thomas Shirley was an English soldier, adventurer and politician who sat in the House of Commons at various times between 1584 and 1622. His financial difficulties drove him into privateering which culminated in his capture by the Turks and later imprisonment in the Tower of London.
William Mountfort, English actor and dramatic writer, was the son of a Staffordshire gentleman. He met his death at the hand of notorious brawler Charles Mohun, 4th Baron Mohun of Okehampton, who had just taken part in an attempted kidnap of Mountfort's friend, the actress Anne Bracegirdle.
Charles Gerard, 2nd Earl of Macclesfield was an English peer, soldier and MP.
Francis Tresham was a member of the group of English provincial Catholics who planned the failed Gunpowder Plot of 1605, a conspiracy to assassinate King James I of England.
Elizabeth Hamilton, Countess of Orkney was an English courtier from the Villiers family and the reputed mistress of William III, King of England and Scotland, from 1680 until 1695. She was a lady-in-waiting to his wife and co-monarch, Queen Mary II of England.
Sir Thomas Craig of Riccarton was a Scottish jurist and poet.
Luce de Gast born c. 1190, was lord of the castle of Gast, near Salisbury. He is the reputed author of the first part of the French poem Tristan. Hunt in the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography casts doubt on all aspects of the identification.
William Ruthven, 2nd Lord Ruthven was a Scottish nobleman. He served as an Extraordinary Lord of Session and Keeper of the Privy Seal.
Sir Thomas Habington or Abington (1560–1647) was a Catholic English antiquary. He is particularly remembered as an early county historian of Worcestershire, although little of his work was published in his lifetime.
Arthur Capell, 1st Baron Capell of Hadham, of Hadham Hall and Cassiobury House, Watford, both in Hertfordshire, was an English politician who sat in the House of Commons from 1640 until 1641 when he was raised to the peerage as Baron Capell. He supported the Royalist cause in the Civil War and was executed on the orders of parliament in 1649.
Merchet was a fine paid on a marriage during the Middle Ages in England. The word derives from the plural form of daughter, merched, in old Welsh. Merchet was payment to a peasant's lord, whether by the persons marrying, or by a father for his son or daughter, or by a brother for his sister. There are also records of young Medieval women working in service away from home having saved money to pay a merchet fee for the right to choose their marriage partner. Theories regarding the practice include recompense for the loss of a worker. The etymology of the term may be sought not in the root of any word having reference to maids or daughters in particular, but in the root of an unknown word having reference to blood, to purchase, to redemption or enfranchisement, or the price paid for it, or to a particular kind of tax, fine, impost, or exaction.
Sir Peter Lely was a painter of Dutch origin whose career was nearly all spent in England, where he became the dominant portrait painter to the court. He became a naturalised British subject and was knighted in 1679.
Richard Vaughan, 2nd Earl of Carbery KB, PC, styled The Honourable from 1621 to 1628 and then Lord Vaughan until 1634, was a Welsh soldier, peer and politician.
Events from the year 1608 in Ireland.
Anne Basset was an English lady-in-waiting of the Tudor period, reputed to have been the mistress of King Henry VIII.
Sir Salathiel Lovell (1631/2–1713) was an English judge, Recorder of London, an ancient and bencher of Gray's Inn, and a Baron of the Exchequer.
Mary Howard, Duchess of Norfolk was an English noblewoman and translator of the English language. The daughter and sole heiress of Henry FitzAlan, 12th Earl of Arundel, she married Thomas Howard, 4th Duke of Norfolk. She died as a teenager shortly after the birth of her son, the Catholic model Philip Howard, 13th Earl of Arundel, who lived to unite the FitzAlans and Howards into one dynasty, with Arundel Castle as its seat.
Mister, usually written in its contracted form Mr. or Mr, is a commonly used English honorific for men without a higher honorific, or professional title, or any of various designations of office. The title Mr derived from earlier forms of master, as the equivalent female titles Mrs, Miss, and Ms all derived from earlier forms of mistress. Master is sometimes still used as an honorific for boys and young men.
John Poulett, 2nd Baron Poulett DL, of Hinton St George in Somerset, was an English peer and Member of Parliament who fought on the Royalist side during the English Civil War.
David Erskine, 2nd Lord Cardross was a Scottish Royalist.
