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12 unusual facts about William Temple


1664 in poetry

Sir William Temple, Upon the Death of Mrs Catherine Philips, published anonymously

Archbishop Temple School

It was originally called William Temple School, after Archbishop William Temple.

Brill railway station

In 1885 the Duke of Buckingham opened a modern brickworks near Brill station, with a dedicated siding, and in 1895 his heir William Temple-Gore-Langton, 4th Earl Temple of Stowe, expanded the brickworks, which became the Brill Brick & Tile Works, using the Brill Tramway to deliver bricks to the mainline at Quainton Road.

Simon Mark Aiken

It is cited, inter alia, in the Wikipedia article on William Temple.

Sweetness and light

In On Ancient and Modern Learning (1697), Swift's patron, the urbane Sir William Temple, had weighed in on the losing side, that of the Ancients, repeating the famous paradox used by Newton that we moderns see further only because we are dwarves standing on the shoulders of giants.

The Battle of the Books

This literary contest was re-enacted in miniature in England when Sir William Temple published an answer to Fontenelle entitled Of Ancient and Modern Learning in 1690.

William Temple was by that point a retired minister, the Secretary of State for Charles II who had conducted peace negotiations with France.

William Gore-Langton

William Temple-Gore-Langton, 4th Earl Temple of Stowe, son of the above, known as William Gore-Langton until 1889

William Temple

William Johnson Temple (1739–1796) English cleric and essayist, a correspondent of James Boswell

Sir William Temple, 1st Baronet (1628–1699), British politician, employer of Jonathan Swift

William Chase Temple (1862–1917), coal and lumber baron, and owner of the Pittsburgh Pirates

William Horace Temple (1899–1988), temperance crusader, businessman, CCF member of the Ontario Legislature, 1948–1951


Compton, Waverley

Compton has given its name to the local roads Compton Way and Old Compton Lane, and is notable as the home of Moor Park House, the former mansion of Sir William Temple, where Jonathan Swift, author of Gulliver's Travels lived and worked.

Geoffrey Fisher

In 1914, Fisher was appointed Headmaster of Repton School, succeeding William Temple who was also later to be Archbishop of Canterbury.

Gillis Valckenier

William Temple wrote in as Observations upon the United Provinces: The Turkish sultan was not as powerful in his country, than Valckenier in Amsterdam, (dressing and behaving like a shopkeeper).

Glumdalclitch

While Glumdalclitch could represent Swift's memories of the young Stella from his time living with William Temple at Moor Park, Surrey, she probably does not stand in for any particularly identifiable historical person.

Henry Bennet, 1st Earl of Arlington

Another object of jealousy to Arlington was Sir William Temple, who achieved a great popular success in 1668 by the conclusion of the Triple Alliance; Arlington endeavoured to procure his removal to Madrid, and entered with alacrity into Charles's plans for destroying the whole policy embodied in the treaty, and for making terms with France.

Ontario Temperance Act

The Act was finally repealed in 1927, but some communities maintained a ban on the sale of liquor under local option until the 1970s and one part of The Junction neighbourhood of Toronto remained "dry" until 2000, largely due to the efforts of socialist, and former Ontario CCF Member of Provincial Parliament for High Park, William Temple.

Public opinion

William Temple in his essay of 1672, On the Original and Nature of Government gave an early formulation of the importance of public opinion.