NOVEMBER 18.
1247. Robin Hood, the leader of a band of robbers who infested the recesses of Sherwood forest, England, died. The chief, with his formidable band, continued their plundering life with success, and with little opposition, from the year 1189 to 1247. It has been attempted to identify him with Robert, earl of Huntington, whom the malice of his enemies banished from the court of Richard I. The following epitaph is said to have been engraven upon his tombstone at Kirklees:
Hear undernead dis laitl stean
laiz robert earl of huntington
nae arcir ner as hie sae geud
an pipl kauld im Robin Heud
sick utlawz as he an is men
vil England nivir si agen
obit 24 kal. dekembris 1247.
1518. Cortez sailed from Cuba for the discovery and conquest of Mexico. His force consisted of 10 vessels, 10 pieces cannon, 18 horsemen, 600 infantry—13 only of whom were musqueteers, and the rest cross bowmen.
1558. Reginald Pole, an English cardinal, died. He entered college at the age of 12, and took his first degree at the age of 15. Refusing to sanction the divorces of Henry VIII, he was obliged to reside in Italy for safety. On the accession of Mary, however, he was restored.
1559. Cuthbert Tonstall, a learned catholic bishop of London, died, aged 85.
1624. Jacob Boehmen died; a noted Teutonic philosopher and visionary.
1636. King Charles I restored to sir Hugh Middleton a portion of his private property, expended on bringing a supply of water into the city of London. Middleton survived this event but a short time.
1665. Blaise Francis de Pagan, a valiant French officer and eminent mathematician, died. He lost his eyesight in the service of his country, after which he devoted himself to study, and wrote several works on fortifications, astronomy, &c.
1682. John Finch (Heneage?), earl of Nottingham and lord high chancellor of England, died. He was distinguished for his wisdom and eloquence and styled the English Cicero.
1751. Abraham Vater died; an eminent German physician and anatomist, famous for his anatomical preparations, which form a curious cabinet at Wirtemberg.
1755. A great earthquake, extending from New England to the West Indies, damaging the houses throughout the whole extent of the coast. In the harbor of St. Martin the sea withdrew leaving the vessels dry and the fish on the banks; when it came in the water overflowed the lowlands.
1776. Fort Lee, near Haversack, N. Y., evacuated by the Americans under general Greene. The British, 6000 men under Cornwallis, advancing to its reduction, it was found that the conflict would be too unequal to attempt its defence. The British took several hundred barrels of flour, most of the cannon, baggage, &c.——Same day congress agreed upon a lottery to defray the expenses of the campaign, being the first lottery they sanctioned.
1777. Fort Mercer at Red Bank, on the Delaware, evacuated by the Americans on the approach of the British under Cornwallis.
1777. The British under governor Tryon burnt the houses at Philip's manor, N. Y., with circumstances of great barbarity; the women and children being turned out in a severe cold night, almost naked, and the men made prisoners and led with halters round their necks in triumph to the British camp.
1777. William Bowyer, an eminent English printer, died. He was noted for the accuracy of his editions, and was a
distinguished member of the antiquarian society, whose transactions he enriched with many valuable communications.
1784. M. le Roy fixed a conductor on the Etoile galley, being the first conductor of lightning that had ever been placed on a French ship.
1785. Mrs. Kelly, the noted Irish fairy, died. She was only 34 inches long. Her child, which lived only two hours, was 22 inches.
1789. John Elwes, the celebrated English miser, died, worth nearly five millions of dollars. This singular man, although he denied himself the necessaries of life, served twelve years in parliament, a most independent and incorruptible member. He would travel a whole day, eating only a hard boiled egg, and at night play for thousands in the most splendid apartments from whence he has been known to issue at four in the morning, and stand in a cold rain to dispute with a butcher for a shilling a head on his cattle.
1793. Battle of Bliescastle; the French general Pichegru stormed the Prussian camp.
1793. Battle of Dol; the French royalists defeated the conventional troops.
1803. Cape Francois surrendered to the blacks under Christophe.
1804. Philip Schuyler, a major general in the revolutionary army, died at Albany, aged 73. He was a member of the old congress, and of the federal congress.
1809. The French under Suchet attacked the Spaniards under Gen. Blake, posted on the heights of Beclhithe, and forced them to fall back.
1811. All differences between the United States and Great Britain on account of the attack made on the United States frigate Chesapeake amicably adjusted.
1813. Americans under general White, with a few Cherokee Indians, attacked Grayson's Farm, one of the Hillibee towns, of 20 houses, which they burnt, and killed 60 Creek warriors and captured about 256 more, without the loss of a man.
1824. Destructive hurricane on the coast of England. The river Neva overflowed its banks, and damaged the city of St. Petersburg.
1832. Violent eruption of mount Etna; the town of Bronte, containing 10,000 inhabitants, destroyed.
1848. The great dam at Hadley Falls, in Massachusetts, near Springfield, carried away by a flood.
1849. Benjamin Smith, a very eminent and industrious American statesman, of Rhode Island, died at North Kingston.
1851. Ernest Augustus, duke of Cumberland and king of Hanover, died, aged 81. He was the fifth son of George III, and distinguished himself as an officer on the continent during the last century.
1852. Duke of Wellington's funeral obsequies took place at London, with great pomp. The religious ceremonies were observed in St. Paul's cathedral, which was elaborately decorated for the purpose. The body was deposited in the crypt near that of Nelson.
1852. A convention was signed at London by England, France, Prussia, Bavaria and Greece, by which none but a prince of the Greek religion was thereafter to ascend the throne of Greece.
1854. George William Mareby, inventor of several kinds of apparatus for saving lives in shipwreck, died in England, aged 89.