Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 20.djvu/381

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page has been proofread, but needs to be validated.

from the parliament on the outbreak of the civil war. His mother was Joanna, daughter of Miles Dodson of Kirkby Overblow, Yorkshire. Miles was born at Farnley Hall on 19 June 1647. He was educated at Trinity College, Cambridge, where he graduated B.A. in 1666 and M.A. in 1670. Having taken holy orders he was presented to the rectory of Keighley (1680), which he continued to hold until his death in the night of 2–3 Jan. 1720–1. Gale was a friend of Gyles, the eminent glass-painter of York, and was much interested in antiquarian research. He compiled and presented to Thoresby's Museum, Leeds (1) ‘Memoirs of the Family of Gale, particularly of the learned Dr. Thomas Gale, Dean of York, and Christopher Gale, Esq., Her Majesty's Attorney-general in North Carolina,’ 1703; (2) ‘A Description of the Parish of Keighley.’ He married Margaret, daughter of Christopher Stones, D.D., chancellor of York (1660–87), by whom he had issue four sons and one daughter. Of his sons the eldest, Christopher, was attorney-general of North Carolina in 1703, judge of the admiralty of that province in 1712, and chief justice of Providence and the Bahama Islands in 1721. Several of his letters are printed in Nichols's ‘Illustrations,’ iv. 489–92. He married Sarah, relict of Harvey, governor of North Carolina.

[Thoresby's Diary, ii. 308, 312; Nichols's Lit. Anecd. iv. 5; Nichols's Lit. Illustr. iv. 490; Taylor's Biog. Leod. p. 575.]

J. M. R.

GALE, ROGER (1672–1744), antiquary, eldest son of Thomas Gale, dean of York [q. v.], by his wife Barbara, daughter of Thomas Pepys, esq., was born in 1672, and was educated at St. Paul's School, London, where his father was at the time high-master. He proceeded, with a Campden exhibition from the school, to Trinity College, Cambridge, in 1691, obtaining a scholarship there in 1693 and a fellowship in 1697. He graduated B.A. in 1694, and M.A. in 1698. The family estate of Scruton, Yorkshire, came into his possession on his father's death in 1702. Mrs. Alice Rogers bequeathed him the manor of Cottenham, Cambridgeshire, and Gale erected a monument in the church to the memory of his benefactress, but he soon sold the estate and chiefly divided his time between London and Scruton. He represented Northallerton in the parliaments of 1705, 1707, 1708, and 1710. He became a commissioner of stamp duties 20 Dec. 1714, and was reappointed 4 May 1715. From 24 Dec. 1715 he was a commissioner of excise, and was displaced in 1735 by Sir Robert Walpole, who wanted the post for one of his friends. Indignant letters on the subject from Gale to his friend Dr. Stukeley appear in Stukeley's ‘Memoirs,’ i. 281, 321–4.

Gale was an enthusiastic antiquary. From his father he inherited a valuable collection of printed books and manuscripts, to which he made many additions. British archæology was his chief study, but he was also a skilled numismatist. He was liberal in assisting fellow-antiquaries. Browne Willis, a lifelong acquaintance, received from him a manuscript history of Northallerton, intended for, but never included in, Willis's ‘Notitia Parliamentaria.’ The manuscript passed to William Cole, and its substance was given by Gale in his work on Richmond. He helped Francis Drake in his ‘History of York,’ and prepared a discourse on the four Roman ways from his father's notes for Hearne's edition of Leland's ‘Itinerary,’ vol. vi. (Hearne, Coll., Oxford Hist. Soc., iii. 220). Hearne, writing to Rawlinson on 8 Oct. 1712, describes Gale as ‘my good and kind friend’ (ib. p. 457). In August 1738 he presented some manuscripts to Trinity College, Cambridge. Dr. Stukeley was a friend as early as 1707 (Stukeley, Memoirs, i. 33), and from 1717 onwards they were constantly in each other's society. In 1725 they made an antiquarian tour together. In 1739 Gale's sister Elizabeth became Dr. Stukeley's second wife. Sir John Clerk of Pennicuik [q. v.] was another intimate friend and fellow-student. Gale was the first vice-president of the Society of Antiquaries, and was treasurer of the Royal Society. He was a member of the Spalding and Brazennose Societies.

Gale published, with notes of his own, his father's edition of ‘Antonini Iter Britanniarum,’ London, 1709, and in the preface distinguishes between his own and his father's contributions. Gough had a copy of the book, with manuscript annotations by Gale and others. Hearne notes (30 May 1709) that the inscriptions ‘are very faultily printed, and that the book is full of errors’ (Hearne, Coll., Oxf. Hist. Soc., ii. 203). In 1697 Gale translated for anonymous publication, from the French of F. Jobert, ‘The Knowledge of Medals: or Instructions for those who apply themselves to the study of Medals both Antient and Modern.’ A second edition appeared in 1715. In 1722 he issued by subscription, under the auspices of the Society of Antiquaries, ‘Registrum Honoris de Richmond,’ with valuable appendices. Gale contributed several papers to the ‘Philosophical Transactions,’ one, in 1744, being a letter to Peter Collinson [q. v.] on a fossil skeleton of a man found near Bakewell, Derbyshire. A paper on a Roman altar found at Castle