Daniel Lysons

This article is about the antiquary. For the British Army General, see Daniel Lysons (British Army officer).

A portrait of Lysons from the collection of the Gloucester City Museum & Art Gallery.

Daniel Lysons (1762–1834) was a notable English antiquary and topographer of the late 18th and early 19th century, who published the four-volume The Environs of London (published 1792 to 1796).

Life

The son of the Reverend Samuel Lysons (1730–1804) and Mary Peach Lysons of Rodmarton, Gloucestershire, Lysons studied at Bath Grammar School and St Mary Hall, Oxford, graduating MA in 1785, and followed in his father's footsteps to become a curate in Putney, west London from 1789 to 1800. While at Putney, Lysons began his survey of the area around London, in which he was encouraged by Horace Walpole, who appointed him as his chaplain.

In 1800, he inherited the family estates at Hempsted, near Gloucester, from his uncle, and the following year married Sarah Hardy (ca. 1780-1808), with whom he had one daughter, Charlotte, born in 1807. In 1813, he married Josepha Catherine Susanna Cooper (ca. 1781-1868). His daughter went on to marry Sir James Carnegie, 5th Baronet (1799-1849).

Works

Lysons's major work is The Environs of London, being an Historical Account of the Towns, Villages and Hamlets within twelve miles of that Capital. With his brother Samuel, Lysons began Magna Britannia, being a concise Topographical Account of the several Counties of Great Britain (1806–1822), but after the first six volumes, covering the counties from B to D, Samuel died and the project was discontinued. Daniel Lysons also contributed views and illustrations to other works and published several pamphlets on religious and historical subjects.

External links

• Lyson's The Environs of London: volume 1 to 4 at British History Online