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Place

[pleys]

Place, Francis, 1771-1854, English radical reformer. A tailor for many years, he educated himself and made his shop a meeting center for radicals and reformers. He was especially active in the trade-union movement; through his efforts the antiunion Combination Acts of 1799-1800 were repealed (1824). He was also an early leader of the Chartists (see Chartism), helping to draft the "People's Charter." His pamphlets on social questions include Illustrations and Proofs of the Principle of Population (1822), one of the earliest tracts on birth control.

See his autobiography, ed. by M. Thale (1972); biographies by G. Wallas (4th ed. 1925, repr. 1951) and M. Dudley (1988).

The Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia Copyright © 2004.
Licensed from Columbia University Press

high place

Hebrew bama.

In ancient Israel or Canaan, a shrine built on an elevated site. For Canaanites the shrines were devoted to fertility deities, to the Baals, or to the Semitic goddesses called the Asherot. The shrines often included an altar and a sacred object such as a stone pillar or wooden pole. One of the oldest known high places, dating from circa 2500 BC, is at Megiddo. The Israelites also associated elevated places with the divine presence, and after conquering Canaan they used Canaanite high places to worship Yahweh (God). Later the Temple of Jerusalem on Mount Zion became the only accepted high place.

Learn more about high place with a free trial on Britannica.com.

Encyclopedia Britannica, 2008. Encyclopedia Britannica Online.

Hamlet (place)

A hamlet is (usually—see below) a rural community — that is, a small settlement — which is too small to be considered a village. The name comes from the diminutive of a Germanic word for an enclosed piece of land or pasture.

United Kingdom

In the United Kingdom, the word 'hamlet' has no legal meaning although they are recognised as part of land use planning policies and administration. Hamlets are traditionally defined ecclesiastically as a village or settlement that usually does not have its own church, belonging to a parish of another village or town. In modern usage it generally refers to a secondary settlement in a civil parish, after the main settlement (if any). Hamlets may have been formed around a single source of economic activity such as a farm, mill, mine or harbour that employed its working population. Some hamlets, particularly those that have a medieval church, may be the result of the depopulation of a village.

The term hamlet was used in some parts of the country for an areal subdivision of a parish (which might or might not contain a settlement). Elsewhere, these subdivisions were called "townships" or "tithings".

United States

New York State

In New York State, hamlets are unincorporated settlements within towns. Hamlets within the Adirondack Park are recognized and included in the Adirondack Park Agency's land-use classifications, and have certain planning and governmental rights. Outside of the Adirondack Park, hamlets are usually not legal entities and have no local government or official boundaries. They will often be named on road signs, however.

A hamlet usually depends upon the town that contains it for municipal services and government. A hamlet could be described as the rural or suburban equivalent of a neighborhood in a city or village. The area of a hamlet may not be exactly defined and may simply be contained within the zip code of its post office, or may be defined by its school or fire district. Residents of a hamlet often identify themselves more closely with the hamlet than with the town. Some hamlets proximate to urban areas are sometimes continuous with their cities and appear to be neighborhoods, but they still are under the jurisdiction of the town. Some hamlets -- for example, Hauppauge, with a population of over 20,000 -- are far more populous than some incorporated cities in the state.

Oregon

In Oregon, specifically in Clackamas County, a hamlet is a form of local government for small communities, which allows the citizens therein to organize and co-ordinate community activities. Hamlets do not provide services such as utilities or fire protection, and do not have the authority to levy taxes or fees. The first hamlet to be created in Oregon was the Hamlet of Beavercreek which was organized as a hamlet in 2006.

Canada

In numerous provinces in Canada, there are officially designated municipalities generally smaller than villages, classified as hamlets. Hamlets are usually small communities situated in remote areas, like Cape Dorset, Enterprise and Tulita.

However, in Alberta, they are unincorporated settlements, as in New York. Sherwood Park, Alberta, which has a population of more than 50,000— well above that needed for city status- has nonetheless retained hamlet status. Fort McMurray, Alberta used to be a city, but has now been amalgamated into the Regional Municipality of Wood Buffalo, thus making it a hamlet. Hamlets are always unincorporated, except in Canada's northern territories, where they are incorporated municipalities.