Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 06.djvu/671

* EARL. 583 EARLE, the secular law, as tlii' iiisliop did the spiritual. He was head of the military levy of the shire, and exercised the royal police jurisdiction. To maintain his dignity, he received a tliird of the profits of the administration of justice in the shire. After tlie Danish incursions the ollice became an upper governorship and the incumbent was frequently changed. The Danish word Jarl, English corl. was applied to it. Canute divided England into four earldoms, and there were five under Edward the Confessor. William the Conqueror, while retaining all the dignity of the ollice, reduced its power by mak- ing it hereditary and giving its judicial func- tions to the sheriff or viceeomes (vice-earl), his own appointee. The great earldoms were gradually broken up. and the holdings of the earls scattered through different shires. William bestowed the title sparingly, but under his suc- cessors, esj)ecially during the civil war of Stephen and Matilda, it was lavishly given. This ceased with Henry II. The title corresponded with the French cotnte, an earl's wife being al- ways called "countess.' The office of earl re- mained essentially a coimty office, usually taking its name from the sliire. The third penny of the pleas was still granted to show this connection, and does not disappear until the thirteenth cen- tury, when its place is taken by a fi.ed sum called creation money. The earl was the highest in rank of the nobility until Edward III. created a duke in 13.57 and Richard II. a marquis in 1385. He had a hereditary right to a seat in Parliament. The title was originally conferred by investi- ture, the King himself girding on the sword of the county (signifying the temporal authority in the county). Edward III., wishing to avoid the hatred caused by his father's investiture of fa- vorites, first began the custom of creating earls in Parliament, and also that of investiture by charter or letters patent. Xow, only the last- named method prevails. The dignity of an earl is not partible, and although it may descend through a woman, it reverts to the Crown in case of coheirs. In the fourteenth century limi- tations to heirs male of the body became the rule. The number of earls varies in the different periods of English history. In the Middle Ages there were very few earls, but the Stuarts great- ly increased the number, especially .James I., ■who sold the dignity for £20.000. Xow there are over two himdred earls in the United King- dom, and the territorial nature of the dignity has so far disappeared that they even take the titles from their names, as did Earl Grey and Earl Russell. The earl's coronet is a gold circlet, with light spikes, on the tips of which are pearls alternating with strawberry-leaves. BIBLIOCRAPIIV. For the earliest fieriod the sources are the. glp-Saxon laws, in the edi- tions of R. Schniid (Leipzig. 1832) ; B. Thorpe (Record Commissicm, 1840 I ; and best of all. F. Liebermann (Halle. 1S!)8, sqq.). Compare Schniid's tjlossai)/. suh "Eorl,' and Liebermann's Commentary, vol. ii. Among modern authors are J. M. Kemble, <S'axo«.s' in England (London, 1876) ; K. Mauer. Krilisrhe Veherschuii der deutschen Oenptzfichxini] (Munich. 18.53.56). The sources for the period since the Conquest are best found in the letters patent and other ma- terial published in Reportx from the Lords' Com- mission on the Dignitu of <i I'crr of thf Realm (London, 1820-29), especially in the third re- port. Based on this is Sir Harris Nicholas, Historic Peerages of England (continued by U'. Courthope. London. 18.57). sub 'Earl.' Good brief modern accoiuils for the entire period are those of William Stubbs, Constiliilional Historii (O.xford. ISiU), vol. i. 125-26. 108-69, 176-78'; R. Gneist. History of the English Constitution. translated by P. A. Ashworth (Xew York, 1886), vol. i., 138-41; see p. 140. note, for the older literature. R. Selden. 7'i7fes of Honor (Lon- don, 1G14), is still useful. EARLE, Alice .Morse (1853—). An Ameri- can writer on Colonial history. She was born in Worcester, Mass.. gradiated" at the Worcester High School, and attended a private school in Boston. She has written voluminously on the social and domestic history of Colonial Xew England and Xew York, and in her various books presents a mass of quaint and interesting information in an entertaining form. Her pub- lications include: The Sabbath in Puritan Sew England (1891); China Collecting in America (1892); Customs and Fashions in Old Xew England (1893); Life of Margaret Winthrop (1894) ; Colonial Dames and Goodirives (189.5) ; Costume of Colonial Times (1895); Colonial Days in Old yew York (1896) : Curiotis Punish- ments of Bygone Days (1897): Home Life in Colonial Days (1898); Child Life in Colonial Dai/s (1899); Stage Coach and Tavern Days (1900) ; Oldtime Gardens (1901) ; and Sun-Dials and Roses of Yesterday (1902). EARLE, .ToHX (1824—). An English phi- lologist and divine. He was born at Elston. and was educated at Oxford, where he was professor of Anglo-Sa.xon from 1849 to 1854, and again after 1876. He was appointed rector of Swans- wick in 1857, and prel)endary of Wells in 1871. His principal publications are: Gloucester Frag- ments (1861); The Philology of the English Tongue (5th ed. 1892) ; A Book for the Be- ginner in Anglo-Saxon (3d ed. 1884); . glo- Saxon Literature (1884); English Prosev Its Elements, History, and Usage ( 1890) ; The Psal- ter of 15S9: A Landmark in English Literature (1894) ; .1 Simple Grammar of English Sow in Use (1807): The Alfred Jeirel (1901). EARLE, Mortimer Lamsox (1864—). An American classical scholar. He w'as bom in Xew York, and received the A.B. from Columbia College in 1886 and his doctorate iu 1889. From 1889 to 1895 he was instructor in Greek in Bar- nard College: he was then appointed associate professor of Greek and Latin in Hryn Mawr Col- lege: from 1898 to 1900 he was lecturer in Greek in Cohunbia University: and in 1900 he was ap- pointed professor of classical philology in Bar- nard College. Xew York. His literary work in- cludes the editing of Euripides's Alcestis ( 18951 : and 8oplio<les's (Ediptis Tyrannus (1900). EARLE, Parker (1831 — ). An American horticulturist. He was born at Mount Holly. Vt.. and after a residence of several years in Illinois, removed to Mississippi. He was di- rector of the horticultural division in the Inter- national Exposition at Xew Orleans (1884); president of the Illinois State Horticultural So- ciety, and in 1385 was elected president of the American Horticultural Society. His writings