Art, Architecture, Planning

Aberdeen, George Hamilton Gordon

George Gordon was the grandson of the 3rd Earl of Aberdeen. His mother died in 1791 and his father in 1795, leaving him in the care of two guardians: William Pitt the Younger (the ... [more]

for California

Alexander VI

Pope Alexander VI was born into the wealthy and corrupt Borgia family of Valencia, Spain, and adopted by his maternal uncle, Alfonso Borgia (later Pope Callistus III). He collected religiou... [more]

Audubon, John James

Audubon was born in what is now Haiti, the son of a well-to-do married French naval captain and slave trader and his Creole servant-mistress. His mother died soon after his birth and his fa... [more]

Beley, Ennis

Beley was born the fourth child of an unmarried drug addict, Patricia Smith, in Los Angeles. From a few days old he was fostered by a 60-year-old single man, Howard Glen, who raised him as ... [more]

Bute, John Crichton-Stuart

The third Marquis of Bute succeeded to the title when he was a baby - his father died in 1848, leaving him the third richest person in Europe (later, as an adult, he was described as the ri... [more]

Callahan, John

Callahan was born to an unmarried woman in Portland, Oregon, and adopted as a baby by a childless couple who then had five birth children. He felt an outsider in his family and began to abu... [more]

Campbell, Ben Nighthorse

Campbell is part Portuguese, Northern Cheyenne (and has been inducted into their council of chiefs) and possibly also Apache and Pueblo, a rancher and horse trainer, jewellery designer, jud... [more]

Caprotti, Gian Giacomo

Caprotti was a student of the immortal Leonardo da Vinci, who was his frequent model and collaborated with him in some of his paintings. But he was probably more than this. Two sources (... [more]

Carl Louis John

Carl was the birth son of Emperor Leopold II but was adopted by his uncle, Duke Albert of Sachsen-Teschen. He was sent to be governor of the Austrian Netherlands in 1794, by which time he w... [more]

Dermit was the adopted son and heir of French author and film director Jean Cocteau (1889-1963). He acted in three of his father's films: Orphée, Les Enfants Terribles and Testament of Orphe... [more]