David, John Baptist Mary, 1761–1841, French missionary in the United States, b. Brittany. He was educated at Nantes, joined the Sulpicians, and because of the French Revolution emigrated to th...

Duval, William Pope, 1784–1854, American frontiersman, territorial governor of Florida (1822–34), b. near Richmond, Va. He went to Kentucky as a young man, studied law, and began practicing at...

Kenrick, Francis Patrick, 1797–1863, American Roman Catholic churchman, b. Dublin, Ireland, educated in Rome. In 1821 he was ordained priest and went to America to teach in the college at Bard...

Fitch, John, 1743–98, American inventor, b. Windsor, Conn. Fitch began (1785) work on the invention of the steam engine and steamboat and secured soon afterward the exclusive right to build an...

Carroll, John, 1735–1815, American Roman Catholic churchman, b. Maryland. He studied as a child with Jesuits at Bohemia, Md., and later at Saint-Omer in Flanders, since Catholic secondary educ...

Missions, term generally applied to organizations formed for the purpose of extending religious teaching, whether at home or abroad. It also indicates the stations or the fields where such tea...