- Samuel Lysons
Samuel Lysons FRS (1763 - June 1819) was a notable English
engraver and antiquary of the late 18th and early 19th century, who - with his older brother, Daniel - published the four-volume "The Environs of London" (published 1792 to 1796). He was also one of the firstarchaeologist s to investigate Roman sites in Britain, where he specialised in the study ofmosaic s.The son of the Reverend Samuel Lysons (1730-1804) and Mary Peach Lysons of
Rodmarton ,Gloucestershire , Lysons studied law in Bath, was called to the Bar atInner Temple in 1798 and, choosing theOxford Circuit, practiced law until December 1803.Lysons served as director of the
Society of Antiquaries of London from 1798 to 1809. He was elected a Fellow of theRoyal Society in 1797 and later served as vice-president and treasurer (1810-1819) [ [http://www.royalsoc.ac.uk/page.asp?id=1725 Past Officers ] ] of the Society. Shortly before he died, he also served as antiquary professor in theRoyal Academy . As a notable public figure, his portrait was painted by, among others, academicians Sir Thomas Lawrence andGeorge Dance the Younger .He illustrated his brother's "Environs of London", and both worked on "Magna Britannia, Being a Concise Topographical Account of the Several Counties of Great Britain", published in several volumes from 1806 to 1822. [ [http://oasis.lib.harvard.edu/oasis/deliver/~hou00269 Lysons family, recipient. Letters from Hester Lynch Piozzi: Guide ] ]
Lysons also engraved 156 plates in "Reliquae Britannico-Romanae" (1801-1817). Relating to his native county, Lysons also produced plates for "Views and Antiquities of the County of Gloucestershire" (1791) and "A Collection of Gloucestershire Antiquities" (1803). He also wrote "An Account of the Remains of a Roman Villa Discovered at
Woodchester in the County of Gloucestershire" (1815) [http://webtext.library.yale.edu/xml2html/beinecke.lysons.con.html#a8second] (this included his discovery of the 'Orpheus' pavement atWoodchester Roman Villa in 1793) and published several works on Roman mosaics, including papers in "Archaeologia", published by the Society of Antiquaries in London. He was also Keeper of the Records in London from 1803 until his death in 1819.Lysons died close to his Rodmarton birthplace, dying at
Cirencester , Gloucestershire in June 1819.References
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