Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Lysons, Samuel (1763-1819)
LYSONS, SAMUEL (1763–1819), antiquary, born on 17 May 1763, was second son of Samuel Lysons, rector of Rodmarton and Cherrington, Gloucestershire, by Mary, daughter of Samuel Peach of Chalford in the same county (Burke, Landed Gentry, 4th edit. p. 921). After attending Bath grammar school he was placed in June 1780 with a Bath solicitor named Jeffries. In October 1784 he went to London, having been previously entered at the Inner Temple, and commenced the study of the law under Mr. Walton. For several years he practised as a special pleader, and was therefore not called to the bar until June 1798, when he chose the Oxford circuit. In July 1796 he was introduced by Sir Joseph Banks to George III and the royal family, with whom he became a favourite. He ceased to practise upon being appointed, in December 1803, keeper of the records in the Tower of London. Under his rule the staff was increased from one to six, and he did something towards arranging the archives.
In November 1786 Lysons became F.S.A., in November 1812 he was nominated one of the vice-presidents of the society, and from 1798 till 1809 held the honorary office of director. He was elected F.R.S. in February 1797, and was appointed vice-president and treasurer of that body in 1810.
Lysons was an artist of some skill, and between 1785 and 1796 was an occasional exhibitor at the Royal Academy of views of old buildings (Redgrave, Dict. of Artists, 1878, p. 279). He also contributed numerous etchings to his brother Daniel's ‘Environs of London.’ In 1818, when the honorary office of antiquary professor was revived in the Royal Academy, Lysons was chosen to fill it. He died unmarried, on 29 June 1819, at Cirencester, Gloucestershire, and was buried on 5 July at Hempstead.
Lysons is author of a folio volume entitled ‘Views and Antiquities in the County of Gloucester hitherto imperfectly or never engraved;’ it comprises a large number of plates, with a letterpress description of each, and was published in London in 1791 [–8], without his name. Most of the etchings are executed in his first and very inferior style. Subsequently he published another folio, entitled ‘A Collection of Gloucestershire Antiquities,’ London, 1803 (and 1804), with his name, comprising 110 plates, with a list of them, but differing in many respects from the preceding volume. This was followed by ‘An Account of Roman Antiquities discovered at Woodchester in the County of Gloucester,’ 2 pts. atlas fol., London, 1797, consisting of plates etched by himself from his own drawings, and descriptive text in English and French.
His greatest work, on which he laboured for twenty-five years and expended upwards of 6,000l. (Gent. Mag. 1819, pt. i. pp. 460–461), consists of 156 plates, most of them beautifully coloured, published as ‘Reliquiæ Britannico-Romanæ, containing figures of Roman Antiquities discovered in England,’ 2 vols. fol., London, 1801–17; another edit., 3 vols. fol., London, 1813–17. Only fifty copies were completed for sale, and sold for 48l. 6s. each. Instalments of the work appeared successively as:
- ‘Figures of Mosaic Pavements discovered at Horkstow in Lincolnshire,’ fol., London, 1801.
- ‘Remains of two Temples and other Roman Antiquities discovered at Bath,’ fol., London, 1802.
- ‘Figures of Mosaic Pavements discovered near Frampton in Dorsetshire in 1794–6,’ fol., London, 1808.
Lysons also published ‘An Account of the Remains of a Roman Villa discovered at Bignor in the County of Sussex in 1811,’ 8vo, London, 1815. He contemplated printing a series of royal letters from the Tower records, and some specimens of the earliest proceedings of the court of chancery; the latter only appeared in an incomplete form, without his name, as ‘Proceedings in Chancery, 17, 18, and 19 Ric. II (–5 Edw. IV Index Locorum to Chancery Proceedings, temp. Eliz. Index Locorum to Chancery Proceedings, temp. Jac. I),’ 2 pts. 8vo, London (1820?). He assisted his brother Daniel (1762–1834) [q. v.] on the ‘Magna Britannia,’ and contributed to ‘Archæologia.’
His portrait by Lawrence was engraved by S. W. Reynolds, and again by Robinson; that by W. J. Newton was engraved by W. Bond; and that by Dance was engraved by Daniell. Another portrait (artist's name unknown) was in 1868 in the possession of the Rev. Samuel Lysons (Cat. Third Special Exhib. of Nat. Portraits at South Kensington).
[Gent. Mag. 1819, pt. ii. pp. 90, 273–5; Gloucestershire Notes and Queries, ii. 169–70, 534–5; Nichols's Lit. Anecd. vols. ii. iii.; Nichols's Illustr. of Lit. iv. 567–8; Mathias's Pursuits of Literature, 355–6; Evans's Portraits, ii. 255.]