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 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. 



" By recording the lives and actions of the good, 

 those who come after them have encouragement to 

 imitate their virtues ; and nothing more inciteth 

 the mind of man to to an emulation of others than 

 to hear the report of their noble achievements." 

 Ailred ofRievaulx, preface to the life of Edward 

 the Confessor. 



ROGER DODSWORTH. 



Roger Dodsworth, the indefatigable collector and 

 eminent antiquary, was born at Newton Grange, in 

 the parish of Oswaldkirk, on the 24 of April, 1585, 

 as appears from the parish register. He was the 

 son of Matthew Dodsworth, Esq., registrar of York 

 .cathedral, and chancellor to archbishop Matthews ; 

 and his mother was Eleanor, daughter of Ralph 

 Sandwith, Esq., in whose house at Newton Grange, 

 he states himself to have been born. 



He was the principal compiler of the Mona&ticon 

 Anglicanum ; and possessed of such incredible in- 

 dustry and unwearied research, that he did not let 

 any manuscript that came to his hands escape, with- 

 out turning it over and carefully examining it ; by 

 which means he very often met with fragments of 

 our history that would otherwise have escaped his 

 knowledge ; as many of these are preserved in the 

 Monasticon, so there is still a far larger quantity 

 ]eft behind, as yet unpublished, in his collections, 

 (comprised in 162 vols., most of them in folio, and 

 120 of them in his own writing,) preserved in the 

 Bodleian library at Oxford. " I never," says Hearne, 

 inatransport of antiquarian enthusiasm, " look upon 

 these collections (and I have frequent occasion to 

 inspect them,) without the utmost surprise and won- 



