WEBSTER 329 WEED (1909); "The Sky Man" (1910); "The Girl in the Other Seat" (1911) ; "June Madness" (1912); "The Ghost Girl" (1913); "The Butterfly" (1914); "The Real Adventure" (1916); "The Painted Scene" (1916); "The Thoroughbred" (1917); "An American Family" (1918). WEBSTER, JOHN, an English dra- matist of the first part of the 17th cen- tury. He was clerk of the parish of St. Andrew, Holborn, and a member of the Company of Merchant Tailors. His works are: "The White Devil" (1612); "The Devil's Law-Case" (1623) ; "The Duchess of Malfy" (1623) ; "Appius and Virginia" (1654) ; "The Thracian Wen- der" (1661) ; and "A Cure for a Cuck- old," a comedy (1661). He also assisted Dekker in writing the "History of Sir Thomas Wyatt," and the comedies "Westward Hoe!" and "Nortnward Hoe!" By some critics he is accounted second only to Shakespeare. WEBSTER, NOAH, an American lexi- cographer; born in Hartfoi'd, Conn., Oct. 16, 1758. He was graduated at Yale Col- lege in 1778, having served in the Revolu- tionary War in his junior year; was admitted to the bar in 1781, but relin- quished it for teaching in 1782; and in 1788 settled in New York as a journal- ist. Thence he removed to New Haven in 1798, and thence to Amherst in 1812, returning to New Haven in 1822. In 1783-1785 he published his "Grammatical Institute of the English Language," in three parts, "Webster's Spelling Book," "A Plain and Comprehensive Grammar," and "An American Selection of Lessons in Reading and Speaking." All these works had an enormous sale. His lit- erary activity was henceforth very great, the works issued by him during the next few years including important legal and linguistic studies. In 1806 he published an 8vo. English dictionary, which led the way for his great work, the "American Dictionary of the English Language." In preparing this work he visited Eng- land, and he finished the dictionary dur- ing an eight months' residence in Cam- bridge. In June, 1825, he returned to America. The first edition of his dic- tionary was published in 1828 (2 vols. 4to.) ; it was followed by a second in 1840; since which time a number of edi- tions have appeared, and the work has grown into the greatly improved and en- larged "International Dictionary." He died in New Haven, Conn., May 28, 1843. WEBSTER GROVES, a city of Mis- souri, in St. Louis co. It is on the St. Louis and San Francisco railroad. It is chiefly a residential suburb of St. Liouis and contains several educational institutions and a public library. Pop. (1910) 7,080; (1920) 9,474. WEDDERBURN, ALEXANDER, a Lord Chancellor cf England, ennobled as Lord Loughborough and Earl of Ross- lyn; born in Edinburgh, Scotland, Feb. 13, 1733; the son of a Scotch judge. He passed as advocate, but was called to th& English bar in 1757. He entered Parlia- ment in 1762, took part in the great Douglas cause, and in 1771 left the op- position to become a strenuous supporter of Lord North as solicitor-general. He supported the American war policy, and was made chief -justice as Lord Lough- borough (1780); but in 1784, disap- pointed of the chancellorship, passed over to Fox, and sought favor with the Prince of Wales. Insinuating and unscrupulous, he next made friends with Pitt, by whom he was made Lord Chancellor (1793), but to whom he played false. Addington gave him his earldom (1801). He died near Windsor, Jan. 2, 1805. WEDGWOOD, JOSIAH, an English potter; born 'n Burslem, Staffordshire, England, July 12, 1730. He received little education, and went to work in his brother's factory at the age of 11. An incurable lameness, the result of small- pox, which subsequently compelled him to have his right leg amputated, forced him to give up the potter's wheel. He removed for a time to Stoke, where he entered into partnership with persons in his own trade, and where his talent for ornamental pottery was first displayed. Returning in 1759 to Burslem, he set up a small manufactory of his own, in which he made a variety of fancy articles. His business improving, he turned his at- tention to white stoneware, and to the cream-colored ware for which he became famous; and he succeeded in producing a ware so hard and durable as to render works of art produced in it almost in- destructible. His reproduction of the Portland Vase is famous. He also ex- ecuted various paintings on pottery with- out the artificial gloss so detrimental to the effect of superior work. Josiah Wedge- wood's numerous improvements in pottery created the great trade of the Stafford- shire potteries. He died in Etruria, near Newcastle-under-Lyme, Jan. 3, 1795. See Pottery. WEDNESDAY, the name of the fourth day of the week (in Latin, dies Mer- curii, day of Mercury) , derived from the old Scandinavian deity Odin or Woden. WEED, the name given to each of those plants which grow wild in culti- vated grounds, and injure the crops; which they do both by choking them and by exhausting the soil. Those weeds
