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Arthur Agarde

1911 Encyclopedia Britannica

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ARTHUR AGARDE (1540-1615), English antiquary, was born at Foston, Derbyshire, in 1540. He was trained as a lawyer, but entered the exchequer as a clerk. On the authority of Anthony a Wood it has been stated that he was appointed by Sir Nicholas Throckmorton to be deputy-chamberlain in 1570, and that he held this office for forty-five years. His patent of appointment, however, preserved in the Rolls Office, proves that he succeeded one Thomas Reve in the post on the 11th of July 1603. With his friends, Sir Robert Cotton and Camden, he was one of the original members of the Society of Antiquaries. He spent much labour in cataloguing the records and state papers, and made a special study of the Domesday Book, preparing an explanation of its more obscure terms. Thomas Hearne, in his Collection of Curious Discourses written by Eminent Antiquaries (Oxford, 1720), includes six by Agarde on such subjects as the origin of parliament, the antiquity of shires, the authority and privileges of heralds, &c. Agarde died on the 22nd of August 1615 and was buried in the cloister of Westminster Abbey, on his tomb being inscribed "Recordorum regiorum hic prope depositorum diligens scrutator." He bequeathed to the exchequer all his papers relating to that court, and to his friend Sir Robert Cotton his other manuscripts, amounting to twenty volumes, most of which are now in the British Museum.