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453_24 | Áit an tSeantí (Attantantee)
An tArd Donn (Arduns)
Ard na gCeapairí (Ardnagappery)
Baile an Droichid (Ballindrait)
An Baile Láir (Middletown)
An Bun Beag (Bunbeg)
Bun an Inbhir (Bunaninver)
Bun an Leaca (Brinlack or Brinaleck)
An Charraig (Carrick)
Carraig an tSeascain (Carrickataskin)
An Chorrmhín (Corveen)
Cnoc an Stolaire (Knockastolar)
Cnoc Fola (Bloody Foreland)
Coitín or An Choiteann (Cotteen)
Croichshlí or Croithlí (Crolly)
Dobhar (Dore)
Na Doirí Beaga or Doire Beag (Derrybeg)
Dún Lúiche (Dunlewey)
Glaise Chú (Glasserchoo)
An Ghlaisigh (Glassagh)
Gleann Tornáin (Glentornan)
Gleann Ualach (Glenhola)
An Luinnigh (Lunniagh)
Loch Caol (Loughkeel)
Machaire Chlochair (Magheraclogher)
Machaire Gathlán (Magheragallon or Magheragallen)
Machaire Loisce (Magheralosk)
Mín an Chladaigh (Meenacladdy)
Mín a Loch (Meenalough)
Mín an Iolair (Meenaniller)
Mín na Cuinge (Meenacuing)
Mín Uí Bhaoill (Meenaweel)
Mín Doire Dhaimh (Meenderrygamph) |
453_25 | Muine Dubh (Meenaduff)
Port Uí Chuireáin (Curransport)
An Rampar
An Screabán
An Seascann Beag (Sheskinbeg)
An Sloitheán (Sleghan)
Srath Máirtín (Stramartin)
Srath na Bruaí (Stranabooey)
Srath na Corcrach (Stranacorkra)
An Tor (Torr) |
453_26 | Rivers
Abhainn Chró Nimhe (Cronaniv Burn)
Abhainn Dhuibhlinne (Devlin River)
An Chláidigh (Clady River)
Islands
Gabhla (Gola)
Inis Meáin (Inishmeane)
Inis Oirthear (Inishsirrer)
Inis Sionnaigh (Inishinny)
Umthoinn (Umpin )
Toraigh (Tory), although not directly situated off the coast of Gweedore, the main ferry crossings are from the area.
Notable people
The following is a list of notable people from the area: |
453_27 | Moya Brennan, musician and singer
Cormac Breslin, former T.D. and Ceann Comhairle
Kevin Cassidy, Gaelic footballer and All-Star
Clannad, Grammy Award-winning band
Vincent Coll, prohibition-era gangster
Breandán de Gallaí, former lead dancer with Riverdance
Pearse Doherty, Sinn Féin T.D.
James Duffy, recipient of the Victoria Cross
Enya, musician and singer
Rónán Mac Aodha Bhuí, radio personality
Seán Mac Fhionnghaile, actor
Kevin Gillespie, Catholic Monsignor
Tarlach Mac Suibhne, musician
John McCole, soccer player
Na Mooneys, family folk band
Neil McGee, All-Ireland winning Gaelic footballer and All-Star
Eamon McGee All-Ireland winning Gaelic footballer
Dinny McGinley, former Fine Gael T.D. and Minister of State
Sean McGinley, actor
Odhrán Mac Niallais, Gaelic footballer
Francie Mooney, musician
Na Casaidigh, traditional Irish band
Natasha Nic Gairbheith, Miss Ireland 2004
Aoife Ní Fhearraigh, singer
Mairéad Ní Mhaonaigh, musician and singer |
453_28 | Patrick O'Donnell, Irish Republican
Gavin Ó Fearraigh, actor/model
Bríd Rodgers, SDLP politician |
453_29 | See also
List of towns and villages in Ireland
Teach Mhicí
Notes
References
External links
Gaothdobhair.ie. Official website for Gweedore by the Gweedore Tourist & Traders Community group
Gaothdobhair.ie. English Version of Official Gweedore Website
Gweedore.net – Your Guide to Gaoth Dobhair ... The Heart and Soul of Donegal
County Donegal.net & Dún na nGall.com – Gaoth Dobhair/Gweedore
Gweedore pop stats 2006
Wild Atlantic Gweedore - Website promoting the beauty and history of Gweedore
Gaeltacht places in County Donegal
Gaeltacht towns and villages
Geography of County Donegal
Townlands of County Donegal
Towns and villages in County Donegal |
454_0 | Humphrey Mackworth was an English politician and soldier of Shropshire landed gentry origins. He was military governor of Shrewsbury, in succession to his father and namesake, for almost five years under the Protectorate, from 1655 until late in 1659. He represented Shrewsbury in the First, Second and Third Protectorate Parliaments. |
454_1 | Origins and early life
Mackworth was probably born in September 1631 as he was baptised on the 10th of the month in St Chad's Church, Shrewsbury, his local parish church. His parents were:
Humphrey Mackworth of Betton Strange. At the time Mackworth senior was an ambitious young lawyer, a member of Gray's Inn, who was just making a transition from collecting reports on cases in London to working for the town of Shrewsbury. This move brought success and the position of alderman in 1633. The Mackworths originated in Mackworth, near Derby, where the senior branch of the family, the Mackworth baronets, had their seat at Mackworth Castle until migrating to Normanton, Rutland in the 17th century. Humphrey's very junior branch of the family had been involved in Shrewsbury's commerce and politics for about a century and had held Betton Strange, a manor a few miles south of the town, since 1544. |
454_2 | Anne Waller, Mackworth's first wife, who had married him by May 1624. She was the daughter of Thomas Waller of Beaconsfield, and distantly related to the poet Edmund Waller. |
454_3 | The younger Humphrey is sometimes stated to be the second child of the marriage. He had an older brother Thomas Mackworth (1627–96), who played a considerable part alongside him in the politics of Shropshire. However, there was another brother, William, who had died in a few months before his own birth. Later came three sisters, starting with Anne, born a year after Humphrey. the family lived at Betton Strange, although Humphrey the elder also had official lodgings in town. The children were presumably brought up as Puritans. In autumn 1633, during a canonical visitation of St Chad's by Robert Wright, the Bishop of Lichfield, the incumbent Peter Studley included Humphrey Mackworth among the heads of twenty families who refused to bow at the name of Jesus or to kneel at the altar rail—a refusal which meant they were "wilful refusers to communicate for the gestures sake." His mother, Anne, died when the young Humphrey was four years old and was buried at St Chad's on 26 May 1636. The |
454_4 | young Humphrey entered Shrewsbury School in 1638, the same year as his elder brother. In July of the same year his father married Mary Venables, by whom he was to have two more children. |
454_5 | The elder Humphrey continued to agitate against Laudianism and was a supporter of Parliament from the outset of its conflict with the king. At the outbreak of the English Civil War in the late summer of 1642, the royalists under Francis Ottley, a relative of the Mackworths, seized the initiative and occupied Shrewsbury and began arresting or expelling the Puritan clergy. Ottley invited Charles I to come to Shrewsbury and the royal army occupied the town from 20 September to 12 October. Moving south, the king paused at Bridgnorth to issue a proclamation ordering the arrest of "some persons of good quality," whom he intended to put on trial for high treason. Only three were named and Mackworth senior was one of them. The family's home and estates were sequestered by the royalists, and apparently under Ottley's control, as it was he who later received correspondence on the matter from Dorothy Gorton, young Humphrey's paternal grandmother, and also the widow of Ottley's uncle, whose |
454_6 | jointure properties had been confiscated. It is not clear exactly where and how family life continued over the succeeding two or three years, as the elder Humphrey was constantly mobile, participating in Parliamentarian county committees and their offshoots all over the West Midlands, and helping to organise the reconquest of Shropshire from an initial foothold at Wem. However, he was in London for a considerable time early in 1644, in connection with the trial of Archbishop William Laud Humphrey's elder brother, Thomas, was admitted to Gray's Inn, their father's Inn of Court, on 6 February 1645, so it is possible the family took refuge in the capital while the war was at its height in Shropshire. However, the published record of Thomas's admission to Gray's Inn calls him the "son and heir of Humphrey M., of the city of Coventry," which perhaps shows that city was regarded as the normal residence of the Mackworths. The supposition is strengthened by Parliament's reprimand to Mackworth |
454_7 | senior later in the year for spending too much time in Coventry, where he was the steward, the senior record keeper and archivist of the city. |
454_8 | With the capture of Shrewsbury by the Parliamentarians in February 1645, Mackworth senior was acclaimed governor by his colleagues of the Shropshire committee, although he had to wait until June 1646 for confirmation by Parliament. At some stage, as a degree of security was established, the family probably joined him at Shrewsbury, although there were still royalist uprisings. The most serious threat came in 1651 with the appearance of Charles Stuart at the head of a large Scottish army, to whom Colonel Mackworth refused to surrender. It is known that Thomas was a captain commanding a garrison troop at Shrewsbury in the days preceding the arrival of the Scots. It is likely that Humphrey too gained military experience around this time: certainly he was paid as a captain during the first year of his governorship. |
454_9 | Political emergence
However Mackworth junior's most important early appointments were legal, not military. He seems to have been appointed town clerk of Shrewsbury in 1652 and was certainly active in the post during the following year. Unlike Thomas, he had no previous legal training and so was admitted to Gray's Inn on 19 November 1652. It is possible that he was at least offered the post of recorder, a post previously held by his father. However, it was Thomas Jones who was to serve as recorder through the younger Humphrey's governorship.
Colonel Mackworth was appointed to the Protector's Council in February 1654 and he and his wife were given a government mews house in London. His commitments in London were heavy and must have necessitated a trustworthy deputy in Shrewsbury. |
454_10 | Oliver Cromwell decided on a parliamentary experiment later in the year, and elections were held under the Instrument of Government for a single-chamber legislature with a new distribution of seats and a £200 property qualification. Mackworth senior was returned as one of the four MPs for Shropshire while the younger Humphrey was one of the two representatives for Shrewsbury. According to Hilda Johnstone, he "apparently played no great part," as with his other stints in parliamentary. However, on 26 September "Mr Mackworth" was appointed to a very important committee, reviewing the future of the army and navy and on 5 October to a committee on elections in Ireland. Johnstone credits both of these to Mackworth senior, but he was elsewhere given his rank of Colonel, so they seem more likely to have figured the younger Humphrey. A deadlock between the mainly Presbyterian parliament and the Protector meant that no legislation was passed. After subjecting its members to a hectoring closing |
454_11 | speech, Cromwell prorogued the parliament in January 1655. |
454_12 | Governor of Shrewsbury
Colonel Mackworth died intestate in London some time in late December 1654, while the parliament was not yet dissolved, and was buried on 26 December in Westminster Abbey. The younger Humphrey seems to have succeeded smoothly as effective governor of Shrewsbury. He describes himself in action, confidently making decisions and issuing orders, in a letter to John Thurloe, Secretary to the Protector's Council and Cromwell's spy chief, on 8 March 1655. |
454_13 | The royalist rising of 1655 |
454_14 | The occasion for Mackworth's copious correspondence with Thurloe was an attempted royalist uprising in Shropshire. The royalist strategy was to draw out Protectorate forces from the capital before launching more serious uprisings in Kent, Surrey and London itself. However, the overall plan was betrayed to Cromwell by Sir Richard Willis, 1st Baronet, a double agent and the local garrisons warned. The tactics for Shropshire and the Welsh Marches were revealed to a local Parliamentarian in a note from an informer received on 7 March, the day before the planned rising, and passed on to the authorities. A "troope or smalle army of cavalleers," under Sir Arthur Blaney, was to eliminate Parliamentarian gentry in the Oswestry area before seizing Chirk Castle. Larger parties, under Sir Thomas Harris of Boreatton and Ralph Kynaston of Llansantffraid-ym-Mechain, were to surprise and take Shrewsbury. Cromwell had written to William Crowne, the husband of Mackworth's aunt, on 5 March, "it being |
454_15 | justly apprehended that the Cavalier party intends speedy execution of a very evil design in the parts about Shrewsbury, which they specially intend because of the weakness of the garrison, and the multitude of Malignants thereabouts," that reinforcements were on the way, together with commissions to raise more troops, and that he was to join Mackworth at Shrewsbury. This letter too arrived the night before the rising. |
454_16 | Mackworth wrote to warn Sir Thomas Middleton at Chirk Castle and summoned reinforcements from Hereford but, as the matter was becoming too urgent to wait, he and Crowne were thrown back on their own resources to disrupt the royalist arrays. Mackworth called in all the Castle garrison, placed checkpoints on all the town gates and sited artillery in commanding positions. Crowne mobilised, at his own expense, a force of 50 infantry and cavalry, made up friends from Shrewsbury and the immediate area, which served until the main cavalry reinforcements arrived a full ten days later: the total cost was £37, which Crowne reclaimed from State coffers the following July. Mackworth requisitioned twenty horse for a raid on Boreatton, hoping to seize the ringleaders before the royalists could assemble their forces. A short first-hand account of the affair was given some years later in a petition of John Evanson of Shrewsbury to Richard Cromwell: |
454_17 | In the insurrection of March 1655, the judges were seized upon at Salisbury assizes, and the same design was carrying on in several parts of England. On information that Sir Thos. Harris, living 5 miles from Shrewsbury, was ready to head a party of horse and foot, I and others were sent to apprehend him. We found him with 20 others in arms, 20 horse with saddles fitted for holsters, 14 cases of pistols, and a barrel of gunpowder, and after some opposition, we seized him and 7 others—the rest escaping through by-ways—and brought them to Shrewsbury, whence he was sent to London, and committed to the Tower. His estate being sequestered by the Commissioners for securing the peace, I was entrusted with the management of it ; but after 2 years, he obtained leave to return home, and now he distrains his tenants for the money received by me. I beg a speedy course for their relief and indemnity.''' |
454_18 | The attempt on Chirk Castle also was foiled. By 9 March Kynaston had been captured and revealed under interrogation by Thomas Lloyd, High Sheriff of Montgomeryshire, that the plotters had intended to gain access to Shrewsbury by sending in soldiers in female dress to pose as sight-seers to help secure the gates. The town was then to be seized by a much larger number of royalists, who would be concealed as drinkers in the surrounding ale-houses. However, measures against the rebels were soon hampered by the regime's habitual parsimony. On 10 March Crown wrote to Cromwell, reporting that Harris still denied involvement in any plot, but that many local people wanted the conspirators pursued, something he was keen to do if he only had the money and manpower. Half of Cromwell's promised reinforcements had arrived on the day of the uprising, but too late to act: the other half had not yet arrived from Derby. Mackworth wrote to Colonel Philip Jones, a member of the Protector's Council, to |
454_19 | beg his intercession for more resources, as they had insufficient forces even to guard the prisoners. However, he admitted that he had rounded up some who were simply well-known royalist sympathisers rather than actual suspects. |
454_20 | Mackworth and Crowne began to question witnesses and suspects. Some, like Joseph Jenkes of Frankwell were informers keen to incriminate neighbours and acquaintances. Others, like John Griffiths of Stanwardine in the Field, had small but useful pieces of information about Harris and the other plotters. Some of the gentry, like Edward Vaughan, had heard a great deal of the activities of the main plotters, but had actually witnessed little. However, Arthur Vaughan, his brother was able to confirm that Kynaston had been recruiting plotters in the alehouses. And so it went on, with John Thurloe receiving numerous reports during the latter part of March and April. Reynolds wrote to Thurloe on 17 March, praising Mackworth's zeal: "The young governour hath behaved himselfe verry discreetly and faithfully, and will, I hope, receive encouragement in these his hopefull beginings." Although some of those detained later alleged torture, little real evidence emerged, partly because Mackworth's |
454_21 | prompt action had itself prevented large numbers from committing themselves to the rising. Even those who were clearly guilty were treated leniently, as Evanson's report made clear of Harris, who suffered only two years' sequestration of his estates. He was too well-connected for serious punishment because he had married a daughter of the illustrious Parliamentarian Major General Mytton, as later did Thomas Mackworth. Harris's confidant Eyton escaped from Shrewsbury prison down a bedsheet, although wearing leg-irons: an incident for which Mackworth apologised to Oliver Cromwell in August. |
454_22 | To ensure the garrison itself was less open to local influence, on 10 April Cromwell ordered a company from Worcester to replace the Shrewsbury company, although the Worcester men arrived late and Mackworth was still trying on 24 July to get arrears of pay for their predecessors. Later that day the Protector's Council decided to make him head of a further company of soldiers, who were to be sent to him. Meanwhile, he and his designated second-in-command were to be paid as captain and lieutenant. On 13 September the Council noted that funding for this company was yet to be provided and resolved to put the matter right. In so doing, it accorded Mackworth the title Colonel, perhaps for the first time officially.
The Ottley case |
454_23 | In October 1655 Mackworth wrote to Richard Ottley warning of a petition that had been lodged with Cromwell against him. The relationship between the Ottley family and the Mackworths was at least ambivalent. Although related by both blood and marriage, the elder Humphrey Mackworth and Sir Francis Ottley had taken radically opposed stances during the Civil War and participated closely in the sequestration of each other's estates. There may have been a continuing feud, as Mackworth seems to have been behind one or more attempts to pursue Sir Francis in the law courts under the Commonwealth. |
454_24 | According to Mackworth's letter, Richard Ottley was facing a large claim for compensation from a Mary Moloy. She was, according to her petition, the daughter of a hero of the Nine Years' War in Ireland and the widow of Hugh Lewis, a London goldsmith. In a letter to Ottley, Mackworth alleged that during the Civil War Sir Francis Ottley had confiscated from Lewis jewellery worth £600. When Moloy later sued him, Sir Francis had offered £300 as compensation. After his death she had pursued the matter with Richard, his son and successor, who had given her nothing. Her petition to Cromwell had resulted in the matter being referred to Mackworth on 13 October for him to find a speedy resolution or else report back. Mackworth required Ottley either to return to Shrewsbury or otherwise come to a settlement with Moloy. Referring to the uprisings, he recommended Ottley to come to an arrangement, as he would "find his Highness so far Exasperated to the King's party or any that did Adhere to him |
454_25 | that upon Mrs. Molloy's proofe of her Petition I am very Confident he and his Councell will Adjudge her the Whole, which how you will be able to withstand I know not." |
454_26 | Some hard negotiation must have followed as Ottley ended by paying Moloy the much smaller sum of £60: Moloy's receipt, dated 28 November 1655 and foreswearing all future claims, is preserved in his papers. It is unclear whether the younger Humphrey Mackworth was pursuing a family feud as the available evidence is insufficient to show whether he had encouraged Moloy to bring the action or was simply trying to find a fair settlement. It seems unlikely that he considered the Ottleys easy to intimidate, as both Richard and his brother Adam were fellow members of Gray's Inn, at least as well versed in the law as himself.
Order and dissolution |
454_27 | Much of Mackworth's work was probably fairly mundane. On 23 April 1655 he made his first recorded appearance on the magistrate's bench at the quarter sessions in Shrewsbury. He appeared at the remaining sessions of the year, on 17 July and at Michaelmas, alongside his brother Thomas and various Roundhead veterans like Robert Corbet of Stanwardine and Lancelot Lee. The business was varied, including much that could be seen as local government alongside the administration of justice: cautions and warrants for good behaviour, appointment of a gaol keeper for Bridgnorth and constables for Walford and Yockleton, orders for payment of arrears and support of illegitimate children, settlement of vagrants, repairs to churches and bridges, ale licences. There were other small but important matters. In September Mackworth helped Richard Swayne, a Shrewsbury butcher, to obtain justice. Swayne was imprisoned for debt, yet was owed £4 8s. 8d. () annually by the State because a patch of his land had |
454_28 | been taken to extend the fortifications of Shrewsbury Castle. He had received only £20 in 11 years: the outstanding rent would see him released from prison. Mackworth supported his petition and the Protector's Council resolved he or his wife should receive £20 () forthwith. |
454_29 | Later in the year there began a short-lived break in the normal pattern of administration, the Rule of the Major-Generals. James Berry, an Independent, was appointed the regional representative of central government and arrived in Shrewsbury on 28 November and leaving on a tour of inspection on 3 December: both arrival and departure were celebrated by the mayor and aldermen with expensive feasts at inns in the town. By the time he returned in early January, he had formed a poor opinion of Shropshire's governing class:
Berry went on to commend Thomas Hunt, a steadfast committee man of the Civil War period, who was a Presbyterian, but a man he considered reliable. He persuaded Hunt to become Sheriff. There was no specific criticism of Mackworth but Berry never mentioned him, which was criticism enough. On 12 December he sent a self-congratulatory letter to Thurloe, remarking: |
454_30 | There was indeed a slightly larger attendance by the justices of the peace at the January quarter sessions—15, compared with 12 in October, although there had been only 4 the previous January. However, those who attended were regulars. Berry made the justices sign several public declarations and the one he refers to in his letter may have been against undesirable ale-houses, which was signed by Mackworth, Mytton, Corbet and several others. Berry railed against Roman Catholics and, like other Puritans, was fearful and suspicious of the Quakers, who had preachers active in Shrewsbury in 1656. |
454_31 | However, the Major-Generals were retired early the next year and little came of Berry's reforming zeal. Mackworth apparently did not share it in great measure and meanwhile seems to have become happily attached to the town of Shrewsbury, giving up all larger ambition. This was illustrated by a conversation he had with John Bampfield, formerly an enthusiastic royalist but later a supporter of the Protectorate. Accused of further disloyalty, Bampfield reported:Being with the governor of Shrewsbury 14 days ago, he told me that Hopton had endeavoured to draw him to the royal party, assuring him that Charles Stuart had 17,000 men at the water side. I answered that when I left France 3 weeks ago, he had not 3,000, and I advised him not to trust any of that party, who had been unfaithful to each other, and advised him to marry some relation of those in power about his Highness, and to take active service if the English engaged in any foreign war, as being more honourable than shutting |
454_32 | himself up in a garrison; but he said he liked his garrison, and should keep it if he could. I advised him to go oftener to Court, and spend his leisure at Whitehall, and give up some dissolute company he kept. This was all our discourse, and I appeal to the world whether it deserves banishment or imprisonment.It seems that it was Mackworth himself who raised suspicions of Bampfield, who continued to assert his own loyalty. |
454_33 | Member of Parliament
Mackworth was again MP for Shrewsbury in the Second Protectorate Parliament of 1656–8, which was elected under the Instrument of Government, like its predecessor, although with results markedly more favourable to the government. There is a possibility of confusing him in the records with his brother Thomas, who sat for Shropshire, but there are few mentions of Mackworth in the House of Commons Journal for the parliament. One definite appointment was on 27 September 1656 to a committee considering an Act for the Increase and Preservation of Timber. |
454_34 | Mackworth was also returned to a Parliament, with the old, unreformed distribution of seats and a small upper chamber, that assembled to hear an opening address from Richard Cromwell on 27 January 1659. Once again, he played little part in the proceedings, although an incident shortly before the parliament was dissolved starkly revealed his financial difficulties. On 9 April 1659, after noting huge holes in the accounts, the House of Commons resolved to call to account all the Farmers of the Excise of Beer and Ale who lived in or near London at two days notice. These were the contractors who collected the tax for the government and included numerous MPs and officials. Mackworth held the farm for Lancashire and a summons was delivered to his landlord at his lodgings. The next sitting of the house, on 11 April, duly noted that he owed £822 10s. – a very large sum but the lowest of those listed, although many of the rest were owed by consortia of excise farmers. Mackworth stood to |
454_35 | announce that he had paid in more than £200 that day and promised to pay the remainder within two weeks. However, the parliament came into conflict with the army. Under threat of a coup'' led by Charles Fleetwood, Richard Cromwell dissolved the parliament on 22 April. |
454_36 | Disappearance |
454_37 | The Protectorate was now in crisis and a revival of royalist feeling was evident in Shropshire. As early as October 1658 Mackworth had organised a petition to the Council, complaining of the seditious activities of John Tench, a local royalist who was now agitating openly. More worrying, however, was that John Betton, the mayor, had begun to install Tench and other royalists in public office. However, when Mackworth himself was replaced, some time in late 1659, it was with Edmund Waring, a steadfast Puritan and Commonwealth man who was to suffer repeated persecution after the triumph of Charles II, often at the hands of Richard Ottley. Mackworth seems to have signed for his final instalment of pay as governor on 27 September, covering the period up to 31 August 1659. A brief note of quarter sessions held in May 1660 shows him appearing as a justice of the peace for the last time: the justices dealt with petitions from five paupers. He served the Commonwealth to the bitter end and |
454_38 | disappeared. After the Restoration he was never mentioned again in public records. Even the date of his death is unknown. |
454_39 | Family
No children of Mackworth are known. Bampfield's reported comments show that Mackworth was unmarried at least until 1657 and there is no record of his marrying thereafter. As a younger son of an intestate father, his marriage prospects among the local gentry would have been limited and Bampfield's encouragement to look for a political marriage was probably sincere. However, Bampfield also remarks on his "dissolute company," which seems to have escaped the notice of the observant, frank and humorous James Berry. This raises the possibility of secret extra-marital relationships, possibly homosexual.
Footnotes
References
1631 births
Date of death unknown
English lawyers
English MPs 1654–1655
English MPs 1656–1658
English MPs 1659
17th-century English Puritans
Members of Gray's Inn
People educated at Shrewsbury School
People from Shrewsbury
Roundheads |
455_0 | The Bureau of Indian Education (BIE), headquartered in the Main Interior Building in Washington, D.C., and formerly known as the Office of Indian Education Programs (OIEP), is a division of the U.S. Department of the Interior under the Assistant Secretary for Indian Affairs. It is responsible for the line direction and management of all BIE education functions, including the formation of policies and procedures, the supervision of all program activities, and the approval of the expenditure of funds appropriated for BIE education functions. |
455_1 | The BIE school system has 184 elementary and secondary schools and dormitories located on 63 reservations in 23 states, including seven off-reservation boarding schools, and 122 schools directly controlled by tribes and tribal school boards under contracts or grants with the BIE. The bureau also funds 66 residential programs for students at 52 boarding schools and at 14 dormitories housing those attending nearby tribal or public schools. It is one of two U.S. federal government school systems, along with the Department of Defense Education Activity (DoDEA). |
455_2 | In the area of post-secondary education, the BIE provides support to 24 tribal colleges and universities across the U.S. serving over 25,000 students. It directly operates two institutions of higher learning: Haskell Indian Nations University (HINU) in Lawrence, Kansas, and Southwestern Indian Polytechnic Institute (SIPI) near Albuquerque, New Mexico. Additionally, the BIE operates higher education scholarship programs for American Indians and Alaska Natives.
Alden Woods of The Arizona Republic wrote in 2020 that the BIE is "an overlooked and often criticized agency".
History
Circa 1990 the Hopi tribe began the process of taking BIA schools in their territory into tribal control. They managed this under authorization provided by legislation in 1975, which allowed tribes to contract with the BIA/BIE to manage and operate their own schools.
Prior to August 29, 2006, it was known as the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) Office of Indian Education Programs (OIEP). |
455_3 | Operations
The federal government funds schools for Native Americans under the treaties it established for reservations and trust lands. In the early years, the government authorized religious missions to establish schools and churches on reservations. At the end of the 19th and early 20th centuries, Congress authorized the government to establish numerous Indian boarding schools for a more concerted program of assimilation of Native American children. These were established at both the elementary and high school levels.
As Indian reservations cannot levy taxes, local school taxes cannot be used to fund Native American schools. |
455_4 | Alden Woods of the Arizona Republic described the BIE as having the characteristics of both a state education agency and a school district, with its supervision and funding of tribally controlled/grant schools making it the former and its direct operation of BIE schools making it the latter. By the beginning of the 21st century, education expenses of the BIE represented 35% of the BIA budget. But studies since the 1969 Kennedy Report have shown that the schools have been underfunded. Despite the education responsibility, much of the BIA staff are specialists in land management rather than education.
Since the 1970s, school boards have been elected on reservations to oversee BIE schools, as in the Southwest United States.
In 2015 the BIE spent about $15,000 per student in the schools it operated, 56% above the per-student average cost for a public school student in the United States. The BIE schools were ranked as among the most costly to operate in the United States. |
455_5 | The predecessor agency OEIP had say only in operations related to instruction, while other BIA agencies had controlled other aspects, such as hiring and other employee issues, and construction and renovation of schools, and related infrastructure such as roads. Severns wrote that the various sources of authority made school accountability difficult.
A 2015 editorial of the Minneapolis Star-Tribune noted that schools in the BIE network were underfunded while schools in the Department of Defense Education Activity (DoDEA), the federal military dependent school network, were well funded. |
455_6 | Student body
the BIE-funded/grant/direct schools in total had 46,000 students, meaning they educated about 8% of the Native American students in the United States. Members of some tribes have moved to cities, and many states have increased coverage of reservation and tribal lands through their public school districts. about 90% of Native American students attended public schools operated by state school districts, rather than federally funded or operated schools.
the BIE schools are located in many isolated areas with some of the lowest incomes in the United States. Maggie Severns of Politico wrote in 2015 that "Students often come from difficult backgrounds".
In 1978, 47,000 Native American K-12 students (17 of the total%) attended schools directly operated by the BIA and 2,500 (1%) attended tribal schools and/or other schools that contracted with the BIA. |
455_7 | Employees
Circa 2015 the BIE had 4,500 employees. In November 2015 the BIE had 140 empty teaching slots. The agency had difficulty with teacher retention, especially as many schools are located in isolated areas.
Academic performance and reputation
BIA/BIE schools have been criticized for decades for poor academic performance, and for the failure to establish metrics that allow performance to be measured. In 1969 the graduation rate was circa 59%. Circa 1970 the overall dropout rate of BIA schools was 100% higher than the U.S. dropout average. Citing this statistic, that year President of the United States Richard Nixon criticized BIA schools. The 1969 report by the Select Subcommittee of the U.S. Senate in 1969 (known as the Kennedy Report, as it was headed by Robert F. Kennedy prior to his assassination) also criticized BIA schools. |
455_8 | In 1988 a Department of Interior report blamed all levels of leadership for substandard test scores. In 2001 the Government Accountability Office (GAO) wrote "The academic achievement of many BIA students as measured by their performance on standardized tests and other measures is far below the performance of students in public schools. BIA students also score considerably below national averages on college admissions tests." Bill Clinton, George W. Bush, and Barack Obama made attempts to improve BIE schools. In 2015 Maggie Severns of Politico wrote that BIE students "have some of the lowest test scores and graduation rates in the country".
In the 2018-2019 school year, the percentage of BIE students passing their schools' standardized examinations was about 10% for mathematics and 15% for the English language. In 2011 BIE students scored better on examinations than students at Detroit Public Schools, but every other large urban school district outperformed students of BIE schools. |
455_9 | In 2015 the graduation rate was 53%. In the 2017-2018 school year, the graduation rate was 64%, but in 2018-2019 the graduation rate had declined to 59%. In 2015 the average United States graduation rate was 81%. The graduation rate for Native American and Alaska Native students enrolled at school district-operated public schools was 67%.
From circa 2017 to 2020, the BIE did not follow the terms of the Every Student Succeeds Act. As of 2020 the BIE does not have a consistent testing system for all schools, nor does it provide the public academic outcomes information that traditional public schools are required to publish under state laws.
Schools
BIE network schools are often located in rural, isolated areas where alternative options for schooling are not feasible. there were 180 schools in the BIE network. |
455_10 | In 1987 the BIA supported 58 tribal schools and directly operated 17 boarding schools, 17 day schools, and 14 dormitories housing students enrolled in public schools operated by local school districts.
Directly operated
the BIE operates about 33% of the schools in its system.
A listing of schools directly operated by the Bureau of Indian Education: |
455_11 | Albuquerque Center:
Flandreau Indian Boarding School (Flandreau, South Dakota)
Isleta Elementary School (Albuquerque, New Mexico)
Jemez Day School (Jemez Pueblo, New Mexico)
Riverside Indian School (Anadarko, Oklahoma)
San Felipe Pueblo Elementary School (San Felipe Pueblo, New Mexico)
San Ildefonso Day School (Santa Fe, New Mexico)
Sky City Community School (Acoma Pueblo, New Mexico)
Taos Day School (Taos, New Mexico)
T'siya Day School (Zia Pueblo, New Mexico)
Belcourt, North Dakota Center:
Blackfeet Dormitory (Browning, Montana)
Cheyenne-Eagle Butte School (Eagle Butte, South Dakota)
Dunseith Day School (Dunseith, North Dakota)
Ojibwa Indian School (Belcourt, North Dakota)
Pine Ridge School (Pine Ridge, South Dakota)
Turtle Mountain Elementary School (Belcourt, North Dakota)
Turtle Mountain Middle School (Belcourt, North Dakota)
Phoenix, Arizona Resource Center:
Chemawa Indian School (Salem, Oregon)
First Mesa Elementary School (Polacca, Arizona) |
455_12 | Havasupai Elementary School (Supai, Arizona)
John F. Kennedy Day School (Whiteriver, Arizona)
Keams Canyon Elementary School (Keams Canyon, Arizona)
San Simon School (Tohono O'odham) (Sells, Arizona)
Santa Rosa Day School (Tohono O'odham) (Sells, Arizona)
Santa Rosa Ranch School (Sells, Arizona)
Sherman Indian High School (Riverside, California)
Tohono O'odham High School (Sells, Arizona)
Window Rock, Arizona Resource Center:
Bread Springs Day School (Gallup, New Mexico)
Chi Chil'tah Community School (Chi Chil'tah, New Mexico with a Vanderwagen postal address)
Crystal Boarding School (Crystal, New Mexico with a Navajo postal address)
Pine Springs Day School (Houck, Arizona)
Wingate Elementary School (Wingate, New Mexico)
Wingate High School (Wingate, New Mexico)
Chinle, Arizona Resource Center:
Cottonwood Day School (west of Chinle, Arizona)
Dennehotso Boarding School (Dennehotso, Arizona)
Jeehdeez'a Academy, Inc. (Pinon, Arizona) |
455_13 | Many Farms High School (Many Farms, Arizona)
Tuba City, Arizona Resource Center:
Kaibeto Boarding School (Kaibeto, Arizona)
Rocky Ridge Boarding School (Kykotsmovi, Arizona)
Seba Dalkai Boarding School (Winslow, Arizona)
Tonalea (Red Lake) Day School (Tonalea, Arizona)
Tuba City Boarding School (Tuba City, Arizona)
Crownpoint, New Mexico Resource Center:
Baca/Dlo'ay Azhi Community School (Prewitt, New Mexico)
Ojo Encino Day School (Cuba, New Mexico)
Pueblo Pintado Community School (Cuba, New Mexico)
Lake Valley Navajo School (Crownpoint, New Mexico)
Mariano Lake Community School (Crownpoint, New Mexico)
T'iis Ts'ozi Bi'Olta' (Crownpoint, New Mexico)
Tohaali' Community School (Newcomb, New Mexico)
Tse'ii'ahi' Community School (Crownpoint, New Mexico)
Shiprock, New Mexico Resource Center:
Aneth Community School (Montezuma Creek, Utah)
Beclabito Day School (Shiprock, New Mexico)
Cove Day School (Red Valley, Arizona)
Kayenta Community School (Kayenta, Arizona) |
455_14 | Nenahnezad Community School (Fruitland, New Mexico)
Red Rock Day School (Red Valley, Arizona)
Sanostee Day School (Sanostee, New Mexico)
T'iis Nazbas Community School (Teec Nos Pos, Arizona) |
455_15 | Cottonwood Day School
It was dedicated in 1968.
Crystal Boarding School
Crystal Boarding School is a K-6 boarding school in Crystal, New Mexico. In 2014 about 30 students boarded but most did not. Only one dormitory was open, as another was deemed unsafe. In 2013 5% of the students were classified as having mathematics skills on par with their grade levels even though the school had already shifted most of its instruction to mathematics and reading at the expense of science and social studies. In 2015 Politico stated that the school's campus was in a poor condition. It had no school counselor. |
455_16 | Dennehotso Boarding School
Dennehotso Boarding School in Dennehotso, Arizona serves grades K–8. The two buildings are OFMC projects: a school facility for 186 students and a dormitory for 33 students. The scheduled groundbreaking was February 11, 2013. The previous buildings scheduled for demolition had a total of of space. The school provides transportation for students between Baby Rocks and Mexican Water, and asks families living outside of that area and/or distant from the highway to have their children stay at the dormitory.
Rocky Ridge Boarding School
It is a K-8 boarding school in Kykotsmovi, Arizona.
In 2020 its enrollment was over 100. Alden Woods of The Arizona Republic stated "One former student described it as a refuge from a rural community struggling through generations of trauma", stating that the school provides room and board to children with no other reliable source of food and lodging. |
455_17 | On March 16, 2020, during the COVID-19 pandemic in Arizona, the State of Arizona closed district-operated public schools. BIE schools were not required to close at that time, though several did. After employees met that day, COVID spread through the school's community. Once COVID infections were diagnosed, the school temporarily closed.
It holds an equine (horse) festival every year.
Tribally operated |
455_18 | There are also tribally operated schools affiliated with the BIE.
Albuquerque Resource Center:
Blackwater Community School (Coolidge, Arizona)
Casa Blanca Community School (Bapchule, Arizona)
Dishchii'bikoh Community School (Cibecue, Arizona)
Gila Crossing Community School (Laveen, Arizona)
Hopi Day School (Kykotsmovi, Arizona)
Hopi Junior/Senior High School (Keams Canyon, Arizona)
Hotevilla Bacavi Community School (Hotevilla, Arizona)
Jicarilla Dormitory School (Dulce, New Mexico)
Kha'p'o Community School (Espanola, New Mexico)
Laguna Elementary School (Laguna Pueblo, New Mexico)
Laguna Middle School (Laguna Pueblo, New Mexico)
Mescalero Apache School (Mescalero, New Mexico)
Moencopi Day School (Moenkopi, Arizona with a Tuba City postal address)
Ohkay Owingeh Community School (Ohkay Owingeh, New Mexico)
Pine Hill Schools (Pine Hill, New Mexico)
Salt River Elementary School (Scottsdale, Arizona)
Santa Fe Indian School (Santa Fe, New Mexico) |
455_19 | Second Mesa Day School (Second Mesa, Arizona)
Te Tsu Geh Oweenge Day School (Santa Fe, New Mexico)
Theodore Roosevelt School (Fort Apache, Arizona)
Window Rock, Arizona Resource Center:
Hunters Point Boarding School (St. Michaels, Arizona)
Kin Dah Lichi'I Olta (Ganado, Arizona)
T'iisyaakin Residential Hall (Holbrook, Arizona)
Wide Ruins Community School (Chambers, Arizona)
Winslow Residential Hall (Winslow, Arizona)
Chinle, Arizona Resource Center:
Black Mesa Community School (Pinon, Arizona)
Greasewood Springs Community School (Ganado, Arizona)
Lukachukai Community School (Lukachukai, Arizona)
Many Farms Community School (Many Farms, Arizona)
Nazlini Community School (Ganado, Arizona)
Pinon Community School (Pinon, Arizona)
Rock Point Community School (Rock Point, Arizona)
Rough Rock Community School (Chinle, Arizona)
Tuba City, Arizona Resource Center:
Chilchinbeto Community School (Kayenta, Arizona)
Dilcon Community School (Winslow, Arizona) |
455_20 | Greyhills Academy High School (Tuba City, Arizona)
KinLani Bordertown Dormitory (Flagstaff, Arizona)
Leupp Schools, Inc. (Winslow, Arizona)
Little Singer Community School ( southeast of Birdsprings, Arizona, with a Winslow postal address)
Naa Tsis'aan Community School (Tonalea, Arizona)
Richfield Residential Hall (Richfield, Utah)
Shonto Preparatory School (Shonto, Arizona)
Crownpoint, New Mexico Resource Center:
Alamo Navajo Community School (Alamo, New Mexico, with a Magdalena postal address)
Ch'ooshgai Community School (Tohatchi, New Mexico)
Dibe Yazhi Habitiin Olta' Inc. (Borrego Pass) (Crownpoint, New Mexico)
Na'Neelzhin Ji'Olta (Torreon) (Cuba, New Mexico)
To'hajiilee Day School (Canoncito, New Mexico)
Shiprock, New Mexico Resource Center:
Atsa'Biya'a'zh Community School (Shiprock, New Mexico)
Dzilth-Na-O-Dith-Hle Community School (Bloomfield, New Mexico)
Hanaa'dli Community School/Dormitory Inc. (Bloomfield, New Mexico) |
455_21 | Kinteel Residential Academy (Aztec Dorm) (Aztec, New Mexico)
Navajo Preparatory School (Farmington, New Mexico)
Shiprock Northwest High School (Shiprock, New Mexico)
Shiprock Reservation Dormitory (Shiprock, New Mexico)
Bloomington, Minnesota Resource Center:
Bug-O-Nay-Ge-Shig School (Bena, Minnesota)
Circle of Life Survival School (White Earth, Minnesota)
Circle of Nations (Wahpeton, North Dakota)
Fond du Lac Ojibwe School (Cloquet, Minnesota)
Hannahville Indian School (Wilson, Michigan)
Joseph K. Lumsden Bahweting Anishnabe (Sault Sainte Marie, Michigan)
Lac Courte Oreilles Ojibwa School (Hayward, Wisconsin)
Menominee Tribal School (Neopit, Wisconsin)
Nay-Ah-Shing School (Onamia, Minnesota)
Oneida Nation School (Oneida, Wisconsin)
Rapid City, South Dakota Resource Center:
American Horse School (Allen, South Dakota)
Crazy Horse School (Wanblee, South Dakota)
Little Wound School (Kyle, South Dakota)
Loneman Day School (Oglala, South Dakota) |
455_22 | Pierre Indian School Learning Center (Pierre, South Dakota)
Porcupine Day School (Porcupine, South Dakota)
Sicangu Owayawa Oti (Mission, South Dakota)
St. Francis Indian School (Saint Francis, South Dakota)
St. Stephens Indian School (St. Stephens, Wyoming)
Takini School (Howes, South Dakota)
Tiospaye Topa School (Ridgeview, South Dakota)
Wounded Knee (Manderson, South Dakota)
Seattle, Washington Resource Center:
Chief Leschi Schools (Puyallup, Washington)
Coeur d'Alene Tribal School (DeSmet, Idaho)
Duckwater Shoshone Elementary School (Duckwater, Nevada)
Lummi Nation School (Bellingham, Washington)
Muckleshoot Tribal School (Auburn, Washington)
Noli Indian School (San Jacinto, California)
Northern Cheyenne Tribal School (Busby, Montana)
Paschal Sherman Indian School (Omak, Washington)
Pyramid Lake Jr./Sr. High School (Nixon, Nevada)
Quileute Tribal School (LaPush, Washington)
Shoshone Bannock Jr./Sr. High School (Pocatello, Idaho) |
455_23 | Two Eagle River School (Pablo, Montana)
Wa He Lut Indian School (Olympia, Washington)
Yakama Nation Tribal School (Toppenish, Washington)
Flandreau, South Dakota Resource Center
Crow Creek Reservation High School (Stephan, South Dakota)
Crow Creek Sioux Tribal Elementary School (Stephan, South Dakota)
Enemy Swim School (Waubay, South Dakota)
Lower Brule Day School (Lower Brule, South Dakota)
Marty Indian School (Marty, South Dakota)
Meskwaki Settlement School (Tama, Iowa)
Chickasaw Children's Village (Kingston, Oklahoma)
Eufala Dormitory (Eufaula, Oklahoma)
Jones Academy (Hartshorne, Oklahoma)
Kickapoo Nation School (Powhattan, Kansas)
Sequoyah High School (Tahlequah, Oklahoma)
Tiospaye Zina School (Agency Village, South Dakota)
Nashville, Tennessee Resource Center
Ahfachkee Day School (near Clewiston, Florida)
Beatrice Rafferty School (Perry, Maine)
Bogue Chitto Elementary School (Philadelphia, Mississippi) |
455_24 | Cherokee Central Elementary School (Cherokee, North Carolina)
Cherokee Central High School (Cherokee, North Carolina)
Chitimacha Tribal School (Jeanerette, Louisiana)
Choctaw Central High School (Choctaw, Mississippi)
Choctaw Central Middle School (Choctaw, Mississippi)
Conehatta Elementary School (Conehatta, Mississippi)
Indian Island School (Indian Island, Maine)
Indian Township School (Princeton, Maine)
Miccosukee Indian School (near Miami, Florida)
Pearl River Elementary School (Choctaw, Mississippi)
Red Water Elementary School (Carthage, Mississippi)
Standing Pine Elementary School (Carthage, Mississippi)
Tucker Elementary School (Philadelphia, Mississippi)
Bismarck, North Dakota Resource Center
Mandaree Day School (Mandaree, North Dakota)
Rock Creek Grant School (Bullhead, South Dakota)
Little Eagle Grant School (Little Eagle, South Dakota) - It was known as Sitting Bull School until 2016.
Standing Rock Community School (Fort Yates, North Dakota) |
455_25 | Tate Topa Tribal School (Fort Totten, North Dakota)
Theodore Jamerson Elementary School (Bismarck, North Dakota)
Turtle Mountain High School (Belcourt, North Dakota)
Twin Buttes Day School (Halliday, North Dakota)
White Shield School (West Roseglen, North Dakota) |
455_26 | American Horse School
It was established in 1931 as the consolidation of Day School #20 and Day School #21, with the former buildings of those two schools becoming teacher housing. its enrollment is 330. Its service area, in addition to Allen, includes Kyle and Martin, and includes the Lacreek, Pass Creek and Medicine Root Creek districts of the reservation.
In 2015 the Minneapolis Star-Tribune editorial board wrote that American Horse had poor insulation, had too many students relative to building capacity, has tile flooring in poor repair and using asbestos, and "lacks the electrical and communications infrastructure needed to support the technology used in modern education." |
455_27 | Chitimacha Tribal School
In 1937 a two classroom public school building condemned by the St. Mary Parish School Board was moved to Charenton, and began serving the community as a 1-8 school; the student population went over 60. In 1968 the kindergarten was established. The Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) built a new school, which began operations in 1978, to replace the former facility. It had 38 in the 1978-1979 school year, but this went down to 29 in 1980-1981 and 22 in 1981-1982. In 1982 it got a funding cut due to Reaganomics, which led to fears that the school could close. |
455_28 | Lukachukai Community School
The campus has of property and includes a dormitory. In 1976, the seventh grade at Lukachukai ended so that grade was sent to Chinle Boarding School (now Many Farms Community School). In 2015 the school was under-resourced, and the school community made an effort to get a replacement facility. Principal Arthur Ben personally recruited teachers, including some who were previously retired.
Theodore Roosevelt School
Theodore Roosevelt School (TRS) is a tribally controlled middle school in Fort Apache, Arizona. It includes grades 6-8. It is in the White Mountains and serves the White Mountain Apache Tribe. |
455_29 | The dormitories opened sometime after 1935. A cafeteria opened in 1948. In 1995 it had 100 students. By 1995 conditions at the school had deteriorated to the point where students had to be boarded at ad hoc dormitorites as the standard dormitory buildings needed heating repairs and asbestos removal. Additionally the cafeteria was at times unusuable; the school took students to a restaurant so they could eat there.
Wingate Elementary School
the Wingate Elementary dormitory is a former military barracks that also houses students at Wingate High. In 1968 the girls' dormitory had 125 girls; the Associated Press stated that the dormitory lacked decoration and personal effects and was reflective of a campaign to de-personalize Native American students. At the time the school strongly discouraged students from speaking Navajo and wanted them to only speak English. Circa 1977 it opened a 125-student $90,000 building which used a solar heating system. |
455_30 | Former facilities
Includes the BIE, OIEP, and predecessor agencies:
Albuquerque Indian School
Manuelito Hall in Gallup, New Mexico, a dormitory which housed Native American students attending Gallup-McKinley County Schools. In 1973 it had about 300 students, including 12 from Arizona. That year the BIA closed Manuelito Hall, planning to move students to various boarding schools. The public school system's funding was not anticipated to be harmed by this closure. There were some families that wanted their children to remain at Gallup-McKinley schools as they perceived them to be better than BIA schools. The BIA planned to send the Arizonans to Arizona, and of the remaining students: 110 high school students to Wingate High School, 80 elementary students to Crownpoint Boarding School, 45 elementary school students to Wingate Elementary School, and others to Chuska Boarding School and Tohatchi Boarding School. |
455_31 | Mount Edgecumbe High School in Sitka, Alaska, now operated by the State of Alaska
Phoenix Indian School
Eight Mile School District - Public school district that was BIE/OIE-funded from 1987 to 2008; in 2008 the BIE declared that it was not tribally controlled and therefore should never have received BIE funds. |
455_32 | See also
Bureau of Indian Affairs
Charles Monty Roessel
References
Further reading
Carter, Patricia A. ""Completely Discouraged": Women Teachers' Resistance in the Bureau of Indian Affairs Schools, 1900-1910." Frontiers: A Journal of Women Studies Vol. 15, No. 3 (1995), pp. 53–86. University of Nebraska Press. Available at JSTOR. DOI 10.2307/3346785.
- Read chapter online - Introduction
External links
United States Bureau of Indian Affairs
School districts in the United States |
456_0 | Chester William David Brown (born 16 May 1960) is a Canadian cartoonist. |
456_1 | Brown has gone through several stylistic and thematic periods. He gained notice in alternative comics circles in the 1980s for the surreal, scatological Ed the Happy Clown serial. After bringing Ed to an abrupt end, he delved into confessional autobiographical comics in the early 1990s and was strongly associated with fellow Toronto-based cartoonists Seth and Joe Matt, and the contemporary autobiographical comics trend. Two graphic novels came from this period: The Playboy (1992) and I Never Liked You (1994). Surprise mainstream success in the 2000s came with Louis Riel (2003), a historical-biographical graphic novel about rebel Métis leader Louis Riel. Paying for It (2011) drew controversy as a polemic in support of decriminalizing prostitution, a theme he explored further with Mary Wept Over the Feet of Jesus (2016), a book of adaptations of stories from the Bible that Brown believes promote pro-prostitution attitudes among early Christians. |
456_2 | Brown draws from a range of influences, including monster and superhero comic books, underground comix, and comic strips such as Harold Gray's Little Orphan Annie. His later works employ a sparse drawing style and flat dialogue. Rather than the traditional method of drawing complete pages, Brown draws individual panels without regard for page composition and assembles them into pages after completion. Since the late 1990s Brown has had a penchant for providing detailed annotations for his work and extensively altering and reformatting older works. |
456_3 | Brown at first self-published his work as a minicomic called Yummy Fur beginning in 1983; Toronto publisher Vortex Comics began publishing the series as a comic book in 1986. The content tended towards controversial themes: a distributor and a printer dropped it in the late 1980s, and it has been held up at the Canada–United States border. Since 1991, Brown has associated himself with Montreal publisher Drawn & Quarterly. Following Louis Riel Brown ceased serializing his work to publish graphic novels directly. He has received grants from the Canada Council to complete Louis Riel and Paying for It.
Life and career |
456_4 | Early life
Chester William David Brown was born on 16 May 1960 at the Royal Victoria Hospital in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. He grew up in Châteauguay, a Montreal suburb with a large English-speaking minority. His grandfather was history professor Chester New, after whom Chester New Hall is named at McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario. He has a brother, Gordon, who is two years his junior. His mother suffered from schizophrenia, and died in 1976 after falling down the stairs while in the Montreal General Hospital.
Though he grew up in a predominantly French-speaking province and had his first mainstream success with his biography of French-speaking Métis rebel leader Louis Riel, Brown says he doesn't speak French. He said he had little contact with francophone culture when he was growing up, and the French speakers he had contact with spoke with him in English. |
456_5 | Brown described himself as a "nerdy teeneager" attracted to comic books from a young age, especially ones about superheroes and monsters. He aimed at a career in superhero comics, and after graduating from high school in 1977 headed to New York City, where he had unsuccessful but encouraging interviews with Marvel and DC Comics. He moved to Montreal where he attended Dawson College. The program did not aim at a comics career, and he dropped out after a little more than a year. He tried to find work in New York, but was rejected again. He discovered the alternative comics scene that was developing in the early 1980s, and grasped its feeling freedom to produce what he wanted. At 19 he moved to Toronto, where he got a job in a photography lab and lived frugally in rooming houses. |
456_6 | Toronto (1979–1986)
At around twenty, Brown's interests moved away from superhero and monster comic books towards the work of Robert Crumb and other underground cartoonists, Heavy Metal magazine, and Will Eisner's graphic novel A Contract with God (1978). He started drawing in an underground-inspired style, and submitted his work to publishers Fantagraphics Books and Last Gasp; he got an encouraging rejection when he submitted to Art Spiegelman and Françoise Mouly's Raw magazine. He became friends with film archivist Reg Hartt, and the two unsuccessfully planned to put out a comics anthology called Beans and Wieners as a showcase for local Toronto talent. |
456_7 | In 1983 Brown's girlfriend Kris Nakamura introduced him to the small-press publisher John W. Curry (or "jwcurry"), whose example inspired the local small-press community. Nakamura convinced Brown that summer to print his unpublished work as minicomics, which he did under his Tortured Canoe imprint. The sporadically self-published Yummy Fur lasted seven issues as a minicomic. Brown soon found himself at the centre of Toronto's small-press scene. While he found it difficult at first, Brown managed to get the title into independent bookstores, the emerging comic shops, and other countercultural retailers, and also sold it through the growing North American zine network. Yummy Fur had respectable sales through several reprintings and repackaging. |
456_8 | Brown and a number of other cartoonists featured in a show called Kromalaffing at the Grunwald Art Gallery in early 1984. He had become a part of Toronto's avant-garde community, along with other artists, musicians and writers, centred around Queen Street West. In 1986, at the urging of Brown's future friend Seth, Vortex Comics publisher Bill Marks picked up Yummy Fur as a regular, initially bimonthly comic book. Brown quit his day job to work full-time on Yummy Fur.
Vortex and Ed the Happy Clown (1986–1989) |
456_9 | Starting publication in December 1986, the first three issues of Yummy Fur reprinted the contents of the seven issues of the earlier minicomic, and Brown quit his job at the copy shop. Brown began to weave together some of the earlier unrelated strips into an ongoing surreal black comedy called Ed the Happy Clown. The bizarre misfortunes of the title character include being inundated in the faeces of a man unable to stop defaecating, being chased by cannibalistic pygmies, befriending a vengeful vampire, and having the head of his penis replaced by the head of a miniature Ronald Reagan from another dimension. |
456_10 | A counterpoint to the at-times blasphemous Ed serial, Brown also began to run straight adaptation of the Gospels, beginning with the Gospel of Mark in a subdued style. What appeared a natural target of satire for the author of Ed was instead a continuing attempt of Brown's to find what he really believed, having been raised a Christian Baptist. The adaptations later continued with the Gospel of Matthew and the apocryphal "The Twin" from the Gnostic text Pistis Sophia, and Brown went through periods of agnosticism and Gnosticism.
The offensive content of Ed caused it to be dropped by one printer, and is suspected to be behind Diamond Comic Distributors' decision to stop distributing Yummy Fur starting with issue #9. After The Comics Journal announced they would be investigating the issue, Diamond started distributing it again. |
456_11 | In 1989 the first Ed collection appeared, collecting the Ed stories from the first twelve issues of Yummy Fur with an introduction by American Splendor writer Harvey Pekar and drawn by Brown. At this point, Brown had grown to lose interest in the Ed story as he gravitated toward the autobiographical approach of Pekar, Joe Matt, and Julie Doucet, and the simpler artwork of Seth. He brought Ed to an abrupt end in Yummy Fur #18 to turn to autobiography.
Autobio and Drawn & Quarterly (1990–1992) |
456_12 | The 19th issue of Yummy Fur began his autobiographical period. First came the strip "Helder", about a violent tenant in Brown's boarding house, followed by "Showing 'Helder'", about the creation of "Helder" and the reactions of Brown's friends to the work-in-progress. With "Showing 'Helder'" Brown breaks from his earlier syle by giving the panels no borders and arranging them organically on the page—a style that was to characterize his work of this period. He found his friends were uncomfortable with his writing about their lives, and soon turned to his adolescence for source material. |
456_13 | Brown began the first installment of what was to become the graphic novel The Playboy in Yummy Fur #21, under the title Disgust. The revealing, confessional story tells of the teenage Brown's feelings of guilt over his obsessive masturbating over the Playmates of Playboy magazine, and the difficulties he had relating to women even into adulthood. Critical and fan reception was strong, though it drew some criticism from those who saw it glorifying pornography. Playboys publisher Hugh Hefner wrote Brown a letter of concern that Brown could feel such guilt in a post-sexual revolution world. It appeared in a collected edition titled The Playboy in 1992. |
456_14 | Around this time, Brown had become friends with the cartoonists Seth and Joe Matt. The three became noted for doing confessional autobio comics in the early 1990s, and for depicting each other in their works. In 1993, they did an interview together in The Comics Journals autobiographical comics issue. Seth had joined the new Montreal-based comics publisher Drawn & Quarterly, which had also started publishing Julie Doucet. D&Q's Chris Oliveros had been courting Brown to join as well, but Brown had felt loyal to Bill Marks for giving him his first break. When his contract came up in 1991, however, Oliveros offered Brown nearly double the royalty he was getting from Vortex. Brown moved to D&Q starting with Yummy Fur #25.
Vancouver and Underwater (1992–1997) |
456_15 | In 1992, Brown began a relationship with musician Sook-Yin Lee, and in 1993 moved to Vancouver to be with her. He stayed there with her until 1995, when Lee began as VJ at MuchMusic in Toronto, and the two moved back there together.
Brown moved away from autobio after the conclusion of Fuck, and for his next major project, Chris Oliveros convinced him to change the title, believing the title Yummy Fur was no longer a fitting one for the direction that Brown's work had taken, and that the title made the book harder to sell. His next work, Underwater, would appear under its own title, while continuing the Gospel of Matthew adaptation as a backup feature. |
456_16 | Underwater was an ambitious work. Its lead character, Kupifam, was an infant who was surrounded by an encoded gibberish-like language, which she comes to understand in bits and pieces. Fans and critics gave the series a lukewarm reception, with its glacial pacing and obscure narrative. Eventually, Brown came to feel he had gotten in over his head with the scope of the project. In early 1998, he decided to leave it in an unfinished state.
Partway through the series, in 1996, Brown and Lee broke up. They continued to live with each other, and have continued to be close friends. Brown came to decide that he no longer wanted to have exclusive relations with women, but also realized he lacked the social skills to pick up girls for casual sex. He spent the next few years celibate.
Louis Riel and frequenting of prostitutes (1998–2003) |
456_17 | Brown's father died in 1998 as he was putting together his collection of short strips, The Little Man. He lost interest in Underwater, and had been reading about Métis resistance leader Louis Riel, and decided he wanted to do a biography on him. He wanted to do it as an original graphic novel, but Chris Oliveros convinced him to serialize it first. Drawn & Quarterly put out the ten issues of Louis Riel from 1999 until 2003, and with help from a CAD$16,000 grant from the Canadian Council for the Arts, the finished annotated collection appeared in 2003, to much acclaim and healthy sales. In Canada it became a bestseller, a first for a Canadian graphic novel. |
456_18 | In 1999, after three years of celibacy, Brown decided he would start frequenting prostitutes. His open nature prevented him from hiding this fact from his friends, and the fact soon became widely known. After completing Louis Riel, he embarked upon another autobiographical graphic novel that would detail his experiences as a john. This time, the work would not be serialized, and would wait until 2011 to be published as Paying for It.
In the early 2000s, Brown moved out from the place he shared with Lee and got himself a condominium, where he lived by himself, and was free to bring prostitutes home. Around this time, Joe Matt moved back to the US, and Seth moved to Guelph, Ontario, breaking up the "Toronto Three".
Libertarianism and Paying for It (2004–present) |
456_19 | While reading up on issues surrounding Louis Riel, Brown became increasingly interested in property rights. His reading eventually took him to believe that countries with strong property rights prospered, while those without them did not. This path gradually led him to espouse the ideology of libertarianism. He joined the Libertarian Party of Canada and ran as the party's candidate in the riding of Trinity—Spadina in Toronto in the 2008 and 2011 federal elections. |
456_20 | During the long wait between Louis Riel and Paying for It, Brown allowed Drawn & Quarterly to reprint Ed the Happy Clown as a serial comic book, with explanatory notes that were becoming both more common and more detailed in Brown's work. In 2007 Brown provided six weeks worth of strips to Toronto's NOW magazine as part of the "Live With Culture" ad campaign. The strip features a male zombie and a living human girl participating in various cultural activities, culminating in the two going to a movie theatre to watch Bruce McDonald's yet-unmade Yummy Fur adaptation. |
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