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William Martin Leake

1911 Encyclopedia Britannica

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WILLIAM MARTIN LEAKE (1777-1860), British antiquarian and topographer, was born in London on the 14th of January 1777. After completing his education at the Royal Military Academy, Woolwich, and spending four years in the West Indies as lieutenant of marine artillery, he was sent by the government to Constantinople to instruct the Turks in this branch of the service. A journey through Asia Minor in 1800 to join the British fleet at Cyprus inspired him with an interest in antiquarian topography. In 180r, after travelling across the desert with the Turkish army to Egypt, he was, on the expulsion of the French, employed in surveying the valley of the Nile as far as the cataracts; but having sailed with the ship engaged to convey the Elgin marbles from Athens to England, he lost all his maps and observations when the vessel foundered off Cerigo. Shortly after his arrival in England he was sent out to survey the coast of Albania and the Morea, with the view of assisting the Turks against attacks of the French from Italy, and of this he took advantage to form a valuable collection of coins and inscriptions and to explore ancient sites. In 1807, war having broken out between Turkey and England, he was made prisoner at Salonica; but, obtaining his release the same year, he was sent on a diplomatic mission to Ali Pasha of Iannina, whose confidence he completely won, and with whom he remained for more than a year as British representative. In 1810 he was granted a yearly sum of £600 for his services in Turkey. In 1815 he retired from the army, in which he held the rank of colonel, devoting the remainder of his life to topographical and antiquarian studies, the results of which were given to the world in the following volumes: Topography of Athens (1821); Journal of a Tour in Asia Minor (1824); Travels in the Morea (1830), and a supplement, Peloponnesiaca (1846); Travels in Northern Greece (1835); and Numismata Hellenica (1854), followed by a supplement in 1859. A characteristic of the researches of Leake was their comprehensive minuteness, which was greatly aided by his mastery of technical details. His Topography of Athens, the first attempt at a scientific treatment of the subject, is still authoritative in regard to many important points (see Athens). He died at Brighton on the 6th of January 1860. The marbles collected by him in Greece were presented to the British Museum; his bronzes, vases, gems and coins were purchased by the university of Cambridge after his death, and are now in the Fitzwilliam Museum. He was elected F.R.S. and F.R.G.S., received the honorary D.C.L. at Oxford (1816),(1816), and was a member of the Berlin Academy of Sciences and correspondent of the Institute of France.

See Memoir by J. H. Marsden (1864); the Architect for the 7th of October 1876; E. Curtius in the Preussische Jahrbiicher (Sept., 1876); J. E. Sandys, Hist. of Classical Scholarship, iii. (1908), p. 442.