Becky is portrayed as a strong-willed and cunning young woman determined to make her way in society, and Amelia Sedley as a good-natured, lovable though simple-minded young girl.

At Russell Square, Miss Sharp is introduced to the dashing and self-obsessed Captain George Osborne ( to whom Amelia has been betrothed from a very young age ) and to Amelia's brother Joseph Sedley, a clumsy and vainglorious / boastful but rich civil servant fresh from the East India Company.

While Becky Sharp is rising in the world, Amelia's father, John Sedley, is bankrupted.

She is extremely manipulative and, after the first few chapters and her failure to attract Jos Sedley, is not shown as being particularly sincere.

Amelia's older brother, Joseph " Jos " Sedley, is a " nabob ", who made a respectable fortune as a tax collector in India.

The appropriateness of the Italian source material for the setting of the solemn concluding chorus " His yoke is easy " has been questioned by the music scholar Sedley Taylor, who calls it " a piece of word-painting ... grieviously out of place ", though he concedes that the four-part choral conclusion is a stroke of genius that combines beauty with dignity.

Here, Handel's use of Nò, di voi non vo ' fidarmi has Sedley Taylor's unqualified approval: " bids the voices enter in solemn canonical sequence, and his chorus ends with a combination of grandeur and depth of feeling such as is at the command of consummate genius only ".

Lord Justice Sedley, in his decision regarding Redmond-Bate v Director of Public Prosecutions ( 1999 ), described Speakers ' Corner as demonstrating " the tolerance which is both extended by the law to opinion of every kind and expected by the law in the conduct of those who disagree, even strongly, with what they hear.

Neil Sedley is chief engineer, while Peter Gee is head of creative.

Jos Sedley in Thackeray's Vanity Fair is probably the best known example in fiction.

In the early chapters of Thackeray's Vanity Fair ( 1848 ), set c. 1812, Russell Square is evoked as the residence of the " John Sedley, Esquire, of Russell Square, and the Stock Exchange.

As of 2007, the word is still in use among the English judiciary with the meaning of a place where the law cannot reach: " In setting up the Serious Organised Crime Agency, the state has set out to create an Alsatia-a region of executive action free of judicial oversight ," Lord Justice Sedley in UMBS v SOCA 2007.

The king had seduced his daughter and created her countess of Dorchester, whereupon Sedley said: " As the king has made my daughter a countess, the least I can do, in common gratitude, is to assist in making his Majesty's daughter ( Mary ) a queen ".

Sedley is also occasionally associated with a notorious gang of unbridled revellers who called themselves Ballers and who were active between 1660 and 1670.

In Thackeray's novel Vanity Fair ( serialised from 1847 ), the black skinned Indian servant of the Sedley family from Chapter One, is called Sambo.

George is concerned that his father, a rich businessman who's a commoner, won't let him marry Amelia if Becky has also married into the Sedley family.

The character of Harriet Sedley, the alias of Harriet Stanley, is an homage to Lizzie Borden.

Mary Draper is none other than Nurse Hopkins as two witnesses of the defence ( Amelia Mary Sedley and Edward John Marshall, both from New Zealand ), confirm in court.

Buckingham was one of the archetypal Restoration rakes, part of the " Merry Gang " of courtiers whose other members included John Wilmot, 2nd Earl of Rochester, Sir Charles Sedley, Charles Sackville, 6th Earl of Dorset, and the playwrights William Wycherley and George Etherege.

In the 17th century, John Wilmot, Earl of Rochester ( 1647 – 80 ) was notorious for obscene verses, many of which were published posthumously in compendiums of poetry by him and other Restoration rakes such as Sir Charles Sedley, Charles Sackville, 6th Earl of Dorset, and George Etherege.

* Vivian de Sola Pinto, Sir Charles Sedley 1639-1701: A Study in the Life and Literature of the Restoration ( London, 1927 ).

Catherine was the only daughter of Restoration hellrake and poet Sir Charles Sedley.

* Restoration Carnival: Five courtier poets: Rochester, Dorset, Sedley, Etherege & Sheffield ( 1954 )

* The Restoration Court Poets: John Wilmot, Earl of Rochester ; Charles Sackville, Earl of Dorset ; Sir Charles Sedley ; Sir George Etheredge ( 1965 )

Sarah had a rival for Churchill in Catherine Sedley, a wealthy mistress of James II and the choice of Churchill's father, Sir Winston Churchill, who was anxious to restore the family's fortune.

It was later granted into the possession of Sir John Sedley by Mary's half-sister Queen Elizabeth.

Although the Sedley family made some changes to the priory, it was the next owner Sir John Banks that was responsible for the rebuilding of the Friary during the 1670s.

His great-grandfather William Phipps had married Lady Catherine Annesley, who was the daughter and heiress of James Annesley, 3rd Earl of Anglesey and his wife Lady Catherine Darnley ( an illegitimate daughter of King James II by his mistress Catherine Sedley, Countess of Dorchester ).

His great-grandfather William Phipps had married Lady Catherine Annesley, who was the daughter and heiress of James Annesley, 3rd Earl of Anglesey and his wife Lady Catherine Darnley ( an illegitimate daughter of King James II by his mistress Catherine Sedley, Countess of Dorchester ).

He was the son of William Phipps and Lady Catherine Annesley ( daughter and heiress of James Annesley, 3rd Earl of Anglesey and his wife Lady Catherine Darnley, illegitimate daughter of King James II by his mistress Catherine Sedley, Countess of Dorchester ).

The Earl of Mulgrave's grandfather William Phipps had married Lady Catherine Annesley, who was the daughter and heiress of James Annesley, 3rd Earl of Anglesey and his wife Lady Catherine Darnley ( an illegitimate daughter of King James II by his mistress Catherine Sedley, Countess of Dorchester ).

His grandfather William Phipps had married Lady Catherine Annesley, who was the daughter and heiress of James Annesley, 3rd Earl of Anglesey and his wife Lady Catherine Darnley ( an illegitimate daughter of King James II by his mistress Catherine Sedley, Countess of Dorchester ).

Sir Charles Sedley, 5th Baronet ( March 1639 – 20 August 1701 ) was an English wit, dramatist and politician, ending his career as Speaker of the House of Commons.

Charles Sedley was the son of Sir John Sedley, 2nd Baronet, of Aylesford in Kent, and his wife Elizabeth, daughter of Sir Henry Savile.

Sedley's grandfather, William Sedley, was knighted in 1605 and created a baronet in 1611.

Sedley was educated at Wadham College, Oxford, but left without taking a degree.

Sedley died at Hampstead on 20 August 1701 and was buried at Southfleet Church on the 26th.

Apart from the prologues of his own plays, Sedley wrote at least four more prologues to comedies, the best-known of which was written for Shadwell's Epsom-Wells.

Sedley was reputed as a notorious rake and libertine, part of the " Merry Gang " gang of courtiers which included the Earl of Rochester and Charles Sackville, Lord Buckhurst.

In 1663 an indecent frolic in Bow Street, for which he was fined 2000 marks, made Sedley notorious.

Sedley was member of parliament for New Romney in Kent, and took an active and useful part in politics.

It was probably Sedley who wrote the Ballers ' Oath on behalf of them.

When Charles II died in 1685, Sedley was illegally excluded from the parliament of his successor James II, which convened on May 1685.

It was in the second Pariament of William, elected in March 1690, that Sedley was returned, his political career reaching its zenith through his becoming Speaker of the Commons.