Sir Joshua Reynolds was an English painter who specialised in portraits. Art critic John Russell called him one of the major European painters of the 18th century. He promoted the "Grand Style" in painting, which depended on idealisation of the imperfect. He was a founder and first president of the Royal Academy of Arts and was knighted by George III in 1769.
Thomas Gainsborough was an English portrait and landscape painter, draughtsman, and printmaker. Along with his rival Sir Joshua Reynolds, he is considered one of the most important British artists of the second half of the 18th century. He painted quickly, and the works of his maturity are characterised by a light palette and easy strokes. Despite being a prolific portrait painter, Gainsborough gained greater satisfaction from his landscapes. He is credited as the originator of the 18th-century British landscape school. Gainsborough was a founding member of the Royal Academy.
George Romney was an English portrait painter. He was the most fashionable artist of his day, painting many leading society figures – including his artistic muse, Emma Hamilton, mistress of Lord Nelson.
Hicky's Bengal Gazette or the Original Calcutta General Advertiser was an English-language weekly newspaper published in Kolkata, the capital of British India. It was the first newspaper printed in Asia, and was published for two years, between 1780 and 1782, before the East India Company seized the newspaper's types and printing press. Founded by James Augustus Hicky, a highly eccentric Irishman who had previously spent two years in jail for debt, the newspaper was a strong critic of the administration of Governor General Warren Hastings. The newspaper was important for its provocative journalism and its fight for free expression in India.
Grace Dalrymple Elliott was a Scottish courtesan, writer and spy resident in Paris during the French Revolution. She was an eyewitness to events detailed in her memoirs, Journal of my life during the French Revolution published posthumously in 1859. She was mistress, first to the future George IV, by whom she is said to have borne an illegitimate daughter, and then to the Duke of Orléans. Elliott trafficked correspondence and helped condemned Royalists and members of the French nobility escape from the First French Republic during the Reign of Terror. She was arrested several times but managed to avoid the guillotine, and was released following the military coup that ended the Terror and resulted in the execution of Robespierre.
Potoooooooo or variations of Pot-8-Os was an 18th-century thoroughbred racehorse who won over 25 races and placed higher than some of the most prominent racehorses of his time. He went on to be an important sire, whose leading runners included Epsom Derby winners Waxy, Champion, and Tyrant. He is best known for the unusual spelling of his name, pronounced Potatoes.
George James Cholmondeley, 1st Marquess of Cholmondeley,, styled Viscount Malpas between 1764 and 1770 and known as The Earl of Cholmondeley between 1770 and 1815, was a British peer and politician.
Margaret Kemble Gage (1734–1824) was the wife of General Thomas Gage, who led the British Army in Massachusetts in the American Revolutionary War. It is alleged that she played an important role in the outcome of the American Revolution. She was suspected of having divided loyalties and informing the American Revolutionaries of British troop movements.
Philip Metcalfe,, , was an English Tory politician, a malt distiller and a philanthropist.
Thomas Fane, 8th Earl of Westmorland was an English politician and peer. He was an ancestor of the writer George Orwell.
Arthur William Devis was an English painter of history paintings and portraits. He painted portraits and historical subjects, sixty-five of which he exhibited (1779–1821) at the Royal Academy. Among his more famous works are a depiction of the Death of Nelson and a posthumous portrait of Nelson.
HMS Hesper was a British Royal Navy 18-gun ship-sloop of the Cormorant class, launched in 1809 at Dartmouth. Her original builder, Benjamin Tanner, became bankrupt during her construction, so John Cock completed her. In 1810 she was reclassed as a 20-gun sixth-rate ship ; in 1817 she was again re-rated, this time as 26 guns. She served primarily in the Indian Ocean. In 1810 she participated in the Invasion of Isle de France. The next year Hesper participated in the capture of Java, which she followed in 1812 by capturing Timor. She was sold in 1817.
Mah Laqa Bai, born Chanda Bai, and sometimes referred to as Mah Laqa Chanda, was an Indian 18th century Urdu poet, courtesan (tawaif) and philanthropist based in Hyderabad. In 1824, she became the first female poet to have a diwan of her work, a compilation of Urdu Ghazals named Gulzar-e-Mahlaqa, published posthumously. She lived in a period when Dakhini was making its transition into the highly Persianized Urdu. Her literary contributions provide insight into such linguistic transformations in southern India.
Charles Biggs Calmady was an English landowner and cricketer with amateur status.
Elizabeth Smith-Stanley, Countess of Derby was an English peeress. As the eligible eldest daughter of the 6th Duke of Hamilton, she married the 12th Earl of Derby in 1774, giving birth to three children. Lady Derby was popular among society and she organised a ladies cricket match. She was a leader of fashion alongside the Duchess of Devonshire.
Nancy was a schooner or ship launched at Bombay. In 1778 the British East India Company (EIC) government at Bengal acquired her to use as a warship at Calcutta. The EIC Board of Governors in London vetoed the idea and Nancy became an express packet ship. She made two voyages from Bengal to Ireland between 1782 and 1784, and was wrecked on the second of these.
Anne, Viscountess Maynard (also known as Anne Parsons, Nancy Parsons, Nancy Maynard, and Mrs Horton was a British courtesan and political mistress. She was de facto first lady, entertaining guests for her lover, Augustus FitzRoy, 3rd Duke of Grafton, the First Minister.
Charles Shirreff was a deaf Scottish painter, specializing in portrait miniatures.
Thaïs is a portrait by Sir Joshua Reynolds of the English courtesan Emily Warren in the guise of the hetaera Thaïs, mistress of Alexander the Great. It is in oil on canvas and measures 229 x 145 cm. She holds a burning torch and with the other hand exhorts Alexander and his followers to burn down Persepolis. Reynolds exhibited it at the Royal Academy in London in 1781. It is now at Waddesdon Manor.
Nathaniel Middleton (1750–1807) was a civil servant of the British East India Company, closely involved with Warren Hastings and his dealings with the Nawab of Awadh during the 1770s, and later a principal witness at Hastings's trial.
