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MR. ASTLE, we understand, is a native of Yoxall, on the borders of Needwood Foreft, in Staffordshire; and was born, on the 22d December 1735. From his youth he was of a ftudious turn of mind; and his eduçation well qualified him for indulging fo laudable a propensity.

His original destination, we believe, was the profeffion of the law; but, as a public character, we hear of him firit in the year 1763; when he was elected a Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries of London, and was patronized by Mr. George Grenville, then Firit Lord of the Treafury and Chancellor of the Exchequer, who employed him both in his public and confidential concerns, and in the fame year joined him in a commiffion with the late Sir Jofeph Ayloffe, Bart. and Dr. Ducarel, for fuperintending the regulating of the public records at Weltminster.-In 1764 his

Majefty, by his Royal Commiffion, appointed the fame perfons to fuperin tend the methodizing of the Records of State and Council preferved in the > State Paper Office at Whitehall.

The office of Receiver-General of the Civil Lift Deductions was given to him in 1765; and on the 18th of December in the fame year, Mr. Aftle married the only daughter and heir of the Rev. Mr. Philip Morant, of Colchetter *, with whom he received at confiderable fortune, and who, for the happiness of her family, is still living.

In 1766, he was admitted a Fellow of the Royal Society of London; and in the fame year was confulted by a Committee of the House of Lords, concerning the printing of the ancient records of Parliament. In 1767, he introduced his father-in-law, Mr. Morant, to the fuperintendance of that work; and on Mr. M.'s death, November 1770, he was appointed by the House of Peers to carry on the fame in which fervice he indefatigably employed himself till its completion in 1775. In the fame year he was appointed his Majesty's Chief Clerk in the Record Office in the Tower of London, vacant by the death of Henry Rooke, Efq.

On the 4th of July 17-8, he was elected a Member of the Society of Antiquaries at Caffel, in Germany. On the 30th of December 1783, Mr.

Aftle was appointed to fucceed_the Right Hon. Sir John Shelly, Bart. deceafed, as Keeper of the Rolls and Records in the Tower of London. Mr. Atle has procured for the ufe of the Tower, by purchase, several valuable Calendars and has with great affiduity employed himself and Clerks in making Repertories and Indexes to the Records in that office; which will be of great public utility, and remain lafting monuments of his industry, as appears by his Report laid before the Committee of the House of Commons, hereafter mentioned.

In February 1786 he was elected an Honorary Member of the Royal Society of Edinburgh.

On the it of September following, the Volfcian Literary Society at Vele. tri in Italy (about twenty miles from Rome), of which Cardinal Borgia was Prefident, alfo enrolled Mr. Aitle among its Honorary Members.

March 20, 1787, he was elected a Trustee of the British Museum; and On the 11th of June 1788, he was conftituted a Member of the Royal Ilandic Literary Society established in that year at Copenhagen.

In the year 1799, a Select Committee of the House of Commons was appointed to enquire into the state of the public records, and of fuch other public inftruments, rolls, books, and papers, as they should think proper; and to report to the Houle the nature and condition thereof, together with what they should judge fit to be done for the better arrangement, prefervation, and more convenient ufe of the fame. They agreed on their Report, which was ordered to be printed on the 4th of July 18co; whereupon the Houfe, on the 11th of the fame month, prefented an Addrefs to his Majesty, recommending many important reguiations to be made in feveral of the public repositories, and the printing of fuch records as were the most important; befeeching his Majetty to give fuch directions as he in his wif. domn fhould think fit, for the better arrangement, prefervation, and more convenient ufe of the faid records. On the 19th of the fame month, his Majefty hed his Royal Commiflion to certain Commithioners thereia named, authorizing them to carry into execution the meat res recommended by the Houfe of Commons, refpecting the public records of the kingdom.

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Mr. Aftle was confulted by the Com. mittee in the whole courfe of their inquiries; and, pursuant to their order of February 21, he, on the 11th of March following, delivered to them an able report of the nature and condition of the feveral records preferved in the Tower. He alfo laid before the Committee, in obedience to their orders, feveral other reports concerning the public records, which are printed in their First Report. See Pages 52, 68, 496, 595.

On the 4th of July 1800, the Select Committee came to the following Refolution:

"CHARLES ABBOT,
"Chairman.'

That thefe honourable marks of diftinction, domestic and foreign, have not been lightly earned, or undefervedly bestowed, will be apparent in the following brief enumeration of Mr. Aftle's literary labours, fo far as they have come to our knowledge. We shall be happy to make the lift more complete, if any authentic information fhould be hereafter communicated to us.

In 1775 he published the Will of King Henry the VIIth; to which is prefixed a judicious Preface, wherein the character of that King is delineated with ability and precision, and several curious circumstances relative to that reign are recorded.

February 22, 1776, Mr. Aftle laid before the Society of Antiquaries, An Account of the Events produced in England by Pope Innocent the Fourth's extraordinary Grant of the Kingdom of Sicily to Prince Edmund, Second Son of King Henry the Third; printed in the fourth volume of the Archæo logia, page 195.—Mr. A. remarks, that the Commons were firft fummoned to

the Parliament called by Leicester in oppofition to Henry's demands,

In

In 1784 he published his great work, "On the Origin and Progrefs of Writ ing, as well Hieroglyphic as Element. ary. Illuftrated by Engravings taken from Marbles, Manufcripts, and Charters, ancient and modern. Alfo, Some Account of the Origin and Pro. grefs of Printing a new edition of which, we understand, is in preparation, and will fpeedily be published *. In the feventh volume of the Archeologia, page 348, is a Differtation by Mr. Aftie, read before the Society of Antiquaries, January 13, 1785, on the radical Letters of the Pelafgians and their Derivatives.

In 1789, the Society published two Engravings of a Reliquary in his poffeffion, faid to have been formerly preserved in the Abbey of Malmesbury, with an Account of it by Mr. Aitle. V. Monumenta Vetufta, Vol. II.

On the 3d of February 1791, Mr. Aftle's Obfervations on a Charter of King Edgar were read at the Society, to invalidate the Authenticity of that Charter. V. Archæologia, Vol. X.

P. 232.

On the 17th of the fame month were read, Obfervations by Mr. Aftle on another spurious Charter of that King, and printed in the fame volume.Thefe Obfervations contain many curious facts, authenticated by original documents in Mr. Aftle's invaluable collection of Saxon charters, wills, and other inftruments.

In 1792, the Council of the Antiquary Society appointed a Committee, to confider of engraving fuch Seals of the King's Royal Boroughs, and Magnates of Scotland, as had not before been published; with directions to felect fuch as, in their opinion, were moft worthy of attention. Many curious Seals were felected from original documents, which are engraven in five folio plates, and were publifhed in the Monumenta Vetufta, Vol. III. The records to which thefe Seals are appendant chiefly relate to public tranfactions between England and Scotland. They furnith many new and important historical and biographical facts, and explain many particulars in our na

tional hiftory, which have been hitherto mifreprefented or not understood. The records pretended to have been found in Scotland by John Harding, with a view to fhew the fuperiority of the Crown of England over that of Scotland, are proved to be fpurious.

On May 22, 1794, Mr. Aftle laid before the Antiquary Society a Differtation on the Tenures, Customs, &c. of his Manor of Great Tey, in Effex. V. Archæologia, Vol. XII. p. 25.

January 11, 1798, were read before the Society, Obfervations on Stone Pillars, Crofies, and Crucifixes, by Mr. Atle; printed in the Archeologia, Vol. XIII. p. 208.

February 1862, Mr. Aftle's Remarks on the Anachronisms and Inaccuracies of our Writers, refpecting the Times of the Affembling of Parliaments, and of the Dates of Treaties, Grants, Charters, and other Inftruments, as well public as private, were read before the Society of Antiquaries.

Few perfons, we believe, have, for the last thirty years, written on the history, laws, conftitution, and antiquities of this country, without hav ing been materially indebted to the liberal and obliging communications of this Gentleman; whofe difpofition to promote literary pursuits every one muit know that has the pleasure of his acquaintance, and whofe power to do fo no one can doubt who has been admitted to an inspection of his invaluable library; perhaps the richest, in point of curious and antient MSS. that can be found in the poffeffion of any private Gentleman in the kingdom.

Mr. Aftle, we understand, has had nine children, fix of whom are now living; namely, Thomas, Senior Captain in the Royal Bucks Regiment of Militia; Philip, of Colne Park, Effex, who for the poffeffion of a confiderabie estate changed his name to that of Hills; Edward, an Officer in the Exchequer ; George, in the Navy, now or late com manding a fquadron of his Majesty's ships off the Molucca Iflands; and two highly-accomplished daughters.

J.

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