Mona Lisa ... Da Vinci's mother?

de bene esse: literally, of well-being, morally acceptable but subject to future validation or exception

Was the Mona Lisa actually a portrait of Da Vinci's mother? Author says she was Chinese slave whose relationship with artist's father was frowned upon 

Italian historian Angelo Paratico said the fact Leonardo da Vinci, left, was left handed and the Mona Lisa, right, looks Chinese supports his theory the artist's mother was an Oriental slave.

Vintage Jamaica

de bene esse: literally, of well-being, morally acceptable but subject to future validation or exception

Recruits in World War I (and the dog)...from the album Jamaica & the Great War (author and dates unknown). ‪

April Douglas

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Vintage Jamaica

de bene esse: literally, of well-being, morally acceptable but subject to future validation or exception

Queen Victoria Jubilee Celebrations in Port Antonio July 1887....‪

April Douglas

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oldest solved cold case in America

de bene esse: literally, of well-being, morally acceptable but subject to future validation or exception

The murder that became the oldest solved cold case in America

On Sept. 11, 2008, Janet Tessier — tormented for 14 years by her mother’s...

NYP.ST

Vintage Jamaica

de bene esse: literally, of well-being, morally acceptable but subject to future validation or exception

Staff at Military School, Up Park Camp ...

April Douglas

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Ann "Goody" Glover

de bene esse: literally, of well-being, morally acceptable but subject to future validation or exception

On November 16, 1688, Irish Catholic Ann "Goody" Glover was hanged as a witch by the Puritans in Boston. Goody was born in Ireland in the first half of the 17th century and came to Massachusetts colony when she, her husband and daughter, like many Irish men and women, were deported from Ireland by Oliver Cromwell. 

She went first to Barbados, where her husband died, then to Boston. She and her daughter found domestic work in Boston, but unlike most other Irish Catholic immigrants of the time, they refused to convert, in spite of the lack of priests or a church to attend. Holding to her religion would prove a fatal mistake for Ann. Soon, she was falsely accused of stealing from her employer, John Goodwin, and was dismissed from his employ.

The "stolen" items were found to have been misplaced, but the downward spiral of Ann Glover's life was set in motion. When Goodwin's four children began acting "strangely" after Ann departed, no one doubted the cause: witchcraft. 

Who then was the witch? 

Certainly an Irish Papist with a possible grudge against the Goodwins was first on the list. Glover spoke only Irish, no doubt another reason she was looked on with suspicion. She was interrogated by the Reverend Cotton Mather, of later Salem Witch Trial infamy, using translators whose actual knowledge of the language we can only speculate. It was no surprise that Mather claimed Annie Glover had confessed she was a witch. 

Though no other confessed-witch had ever been hanged at the time, Mather condemned Ann Glover to death. On November 16, 1688, Ann Glover was hanged in Boston, for, in all likelihood, the misfortune of being a resolute Irish-speaking Catholic in Puritan New England. 

On November 16, 1988, the Boston City Council took note of the injustice done to Ann Glover 300 years ago by proclaiming that day "Goody Glover Day" and condemning what had been done. 

Read more about this week in the history of the Irish here:
http://thewildgeese.com/…/this-week-in-the-history-of-the-i…

How Hollywood's most famous detectives were named

de bene esse: literally, of well-being, morally acceptable but subject to future validation or exception

How two of Hollywood's most famous detectives Sam Spade and Philip Marlowe were 'named after and inspired by black private eye'

Sam Spade and Philip Marlowe - portrayed by Humphrey Bogart in The Maltese Falcon and The Big Sleep - were inspired and named after Samuel Marlowe, a historian says.

Queen Victoria and servant John Brown

de bene esse: literally, of well-being, morally acceptable but subject to future validation or exception

Queen Victoria slept in the same bed as her servant John Brown... but they didn't have sex, claims top historian 

Rumours that Queen Victoria and her devoted ghillie John Brown were lovers endure until this day, but her biographer, AN Wilson, claimed their relationship was never consummated.