John Horsley (antiquarian)
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John Horsley (c. 1685 – 12 January 1732) was a British antiquarian, known primarily for his book Britannia Romana or The Roman Antiquities of Britain which was published in 1732.
Contents
Early life
John Hodgson, in a memoir published in 1831, held that Horsley was born in 1685, at Pinkie House, in the parish of Inveresk, Midlothian, and that his father was a Northumberland nonconformist, who had migrated to Scotland, but returned to England soon after the Glorious Revolution of 1688. John Hodgson Hinde, in the Archaeologia Aeliana of February 1865, held that he was a native of Newcastle-on-Tyne, the son of Charles Horsley, a member of the Tailors' Company of the town. David Boyd Haycock writing in the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography comments that none of the suggestions made for Horsley's background is verifiable.[1]
He was educated at the Royal Grammar School, Newcastle[2][3] and at Edinburgh University, where he graduated MA on 29 April 1701. There is evidence that he "was settled in Morpeth as a Presbyterian minister as early as 1709." Hodgson, however, thought that up to 1721, at which time he was residing at Widdrington, "he had not received ordination, but preached as a licentiate."
Educator
Horsley communicated to the Philosophical Transactions notes on the rainfall at Widdrington in the years 1722 and 1723. At Morpeth Horsley opened a private school, attracting pupils irrespective of religious connection, among them Newton Ogle, later dean of Westminster. He gave lectures on mechanics and hydrostatics in Morpeth, Alnwick and Newcastle, and was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society on 23 April 1730, or in May, 1729.[4]
Death
Horsley died of apoplexy on 12 January 1732, on the eve of the publication of the Britannia Romana.
Works
It is as an archaeologist and antiquarian that Horsley is now known. His major work, Britannia Romana, or The Roman Antiquities of Britain was published in 1732. One of Horsley's achievements in this book was to identify for the first time which legions of the Roman army were stationed in Britain.[5] There was in the British Museum a copy of with notes by John Ward.
He also published two sermons and a handbook to his lectures on mechanics, etc., and projected a history of Northumberland and Durham, collections for which were found among his papers.
Notes
- ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.)
- ↑ http://www.seaham.i12.com/myers/m-horsley.html
- ↑ http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0075-4358(1932)22%3C161%3AJH%3E2.0.CO%3B2-G
- ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
- ↑ Cf. Duncan Campbell's article, p. 49
References
This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
- Wikipedia articles incorporating a citation from the ODNB
- Wikipedia articles incorporating a citation from the 1911 Encyclopaedia Britannica without Wikisource reference
- 1685 births
- 1732 deaths
- People from Morpeth, Northumberland
- People educated at the Royal Grammar School, Newcastle
- British antiquarians
- British historians
- Fellows of the Royal Society
- Alumni of the University of Edinburgh