Stephen Weston (antiquary)

The Reverend Stephen Weston, BD, FRS, FSA (1747–1830) was an English antiquarian, clergyman and man of letters.

Life

Born in Exeter, Weston was the eldest son of Stephen Weston (died 19 January 1750), registrar of the diocese of Exeter, and his wife Elizabeth Oxenham of South Tawton, Devon; Stephen Weston (1665–1742) the bishop of Exeter was his grandfather. He was educated at Blundell's School, Eton College and Exeter College, Oxford, where he matriculated on 7 June 1764, and resided from 4 July 1764 to 7 July 1768. He graduated B.A. in 1768, M.A. in 1770, B.D. in 1782, and was a Devonshire fellow of his college from 1768 to 1784.[1][2]

About 1771 Weston accompanied Sir Charles Warwick Bampfylde as tutor in a long tour on the continent of Europe. Wilmot Vaughan, 1st Earl of Lisburne, an early friend, nominated Weston on 29 March 1777 to the rectory of Mamhead, Devon. During his incumbency there he rebuilt the parsonage house. He was instituted on 17 January 1784 to the rectory of Little Hempston, near Totnes. There he moved into the north chancel window of the church some stained glass which had been in Marldon church. He vacated his fellowship in 1784, on marrying. Late in 1790 he resigned the living of Mamhead, but retained the benefice of Little Hempston until 1823.[1]

After the death of his wife, Weston concentrated on art and literature. He witnessed the Paris events of the French Revolution in 1791 and 1792, leaving in mid-August 1792 when he felt unsafe. He was elected Fellow of the Royal Society on 1 March 1792 and of the Society of Antiquaries of London on 18 December 1794, and lived for some years among the dilettanti in London. After the Treaty of Amiens in 1802 he visited Paris again, and then once more during the summer of 1829.[1]

Weston was dubbed by Thomas James Mathias and George Steevens "Classic Weston", and he was flattered to have a circle of female admirers. At the age of 82 he died in Edward Street, Portman Square, London, on 8 January 1830. Auction catalogues of the "remaining portion of his library" and of his "Greek and Roman coins and medals" were issued that year. He left an annuity for the poor of the parishes of Little Hempston, Mamhead, and Marylebone.[1]

Works

Weston in 1802 made an English translation of the Greek text of the trilingual Rosetta Stone.[3] The Society of Antiquaries published it in 1811.[4]

Weston also published travel notes, classical texts and annotations, notes on Shakespeare, scriptural discussions and translations from Arabic, Chinese and Persian. His works included:[1]

Weston contributed to Archæologia on coins and medals between 1798 and 1818, and supplied notes, signed "S. W.", to Johnson and Steevens's Shakspeare (1793), and to the new edition (1802) by Samuel Kent Rousseau of John Richardson's Specimen of Persian Poetry: or Odes of Hafiz. He was a contributor to the Gentleman's Magazine, to John Nichols's Literary Anecdotes, and to the Classical Journal. He supplied poems, signed "W. N.", to the two volumes of Poems, chiefly by Gentlemen of Devon and Cornwall, 1792.[1]

Family

In 1784 Weston married Penelope, youngest daughter of James Tierney, a commissioner of accounts, of Cleeve Hill in Mangotsfield parish, Gloucestershire. She died at Caen in Normandy late in 1789 or early in 1790, of consumption, at age 31.[1]

Biographical references and publications

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7  Lee, Sidney, ed. (1899). "Weston, Stephen (1747-1830)". Dictionary of National Biography. 60. London: Smith, Elder & Co.
  2. ↑ http://www.blundells.org/admin/school_notable-obs.htm
  3. ↑ B .V. Rao (1 January 2012). World history from early times to A D 2000. Sterling Publishers Pvt. Ltd. pp. 24–. ISBN 978-81-207-3188-2.
  4. ↑ Thomas Joseph Pettigrew (1834). A History of Egyptian Mummies. North American Archives. p. 139. ISBN 978-0-915431-00-7.
Attribution

 This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Lee, Sidney, ed. (1899). "Weston, Stephen (1747-1830)". Dictionary of National Biography. 60. London: Smith, Elder & Co. 

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