David Samuel Margoliouth

“ John Wilkinson of Hardendale, Westmoreland, and descended from Sir Salathiel Lovell [q.v.] His father was a member of the African Exploration Society and a fellow of the Society of Antiquaries, and his mother Mary Anne, daughter of the Rev. Richard Gardner, was a classical scholar. He is said to have developed a taste for antiquities and sculpture at an early age, his childish pleasure being to see the plates published by the learned societies to which his father belonged. His parents died while he was a minor, leaving him a competency. ”

“ Gabriel had meanwhile circulated the story, and being challenged from several quarters to produce evidence for his assertion, at length published a number of White's letters to Badcock, giving irrefragable evidence of the joint authorship, and also suggesting that yet other hands had been employed on the discourses. Gabriel's pamphlet ran through several editions; and additional force was lent to it by a rejoinder from one of White's partisans, in which Gabriel was virulently attacked, but his charges were left unanswered. White kept silence as long as possible. ”

“ GANDELL, ROBERT (1818–1887) , professor of Arabic at Oxford, youngest son of Thomas Gandell, was born in London in 1818, and educated at the Mill Hill school and King's College, London. He graduated in 1843 at Queen's College, Oxford, where he was Michel fellow from 1845 to 1850. In 1861 he was appointed Laudian professor of Arabic, in 1874 prebendary of Ashill in Wells Cathedral, and in 1880 canon of Wells Cathedral. He lectured on Hebrew for Dr. Pusey for many years. In 1859 he edited for the Oxford University Press a reprint of Lightfoot's ‘Horæ Hebraicæ’ with great care and accuracy. ”

“ Payne Smith's undertaking started a new era in the study of Syriac, and there seems little chance, owing to its exhaustive character, of its being superseded as a storehouse of the facts of that language.
Payne Smith was also a voluminous writer on controversial theology, in which he favoured the conservative and evangelical side. His course of sermons vindicating ‘The Authenticity and Messianic Interpretation of the Prophecies of Isaiah’ (1862) led to his appointment in 1865 to the regius professorship of divinity at Oxford, chiefly through the influence of the Earl of Shaftesbury and Dr. ”

“ Jeune, to whose friendship Payne Smith owed much of his later promotion. At Oxford he studied the ordinary subjects of the classical schools, but devoted himself as well to the oriental languages, and gained the Sanskrit scholarship in 1840, and the Pusey and Ellerton Hebrew scholarship in 1843. ”

“ His talents and attainments, however, attracted the notice of some wealthy neighbours, who enabled him to pursue his studies at Ruscomb, and again at Gloucester, and the liberality of John Moore (1730-1805) [q. v.] (afterwards bishop of Bangor and archbishop of Canterbury) enabled him to enter Wadham College, Oxford, as a commoner on 6 June 1765. In September of that year he became scholar of his college, where he shortly afterwards obtained the Hody exhibition for Hebrew, as well as other prizes. He was fellow from 1771 until 1788, and filled various college offices. ”

“ The first fasciculus began to be printed at the end of 1864, and was published in 1868. The number of copies was 350, but this was afterwards found to be insufficient, and, after fasc. 6, was raised to 750, fresh copies of the earlier fasciculi being produced by photography. Besides the collections mentioned, care was taken by the editor to utilise the numerous Syriac texts published in Europe (especially in Germany) during the second half of the century, and every other available source whence his dictionary could be enriched. ”

“ His account of this journey did not, however, appear till 1832, when an extract from his diary was published in the Geographical Society's 'Journal.' He twice ascended the Nile as far as the second cataract, and many times as far as Thebes, where he spent much of the years 1824, 1827, and 1828, and where in 1827 he carried on elaborate excavations and caused many of the tombs to be uncovered. During his residence in Egypt he became acquainted with many of the pioneers of Egyptology, and studied Coptic in order to be able to follow their researches ”

“ As dean of Canterbury he won the affection of the various nonconformist bodies represented there, as well as of the different parties in the church; and the controversies in which he was at times engaged were conducted without bitterness on his or his opponents' sides. He died at Canterbury on 31 March 1895. ”

“ In 1857 he published a companion to the Crystal Palace Egyptian collections, called 'Egypt at the Time of the Pharaohs,' and also made important contributions to the notes appended to Rawlinson's translation of Herodotus. ”

“ PAYNE SMITH, ROBERT (1819–1895) , dean of Canterbury, orientalist and theologian, was born at Chipping Campden in Gloucestershire on 7 Nov. 1819. His father, Robert Smith, who died in 1827, was a land agent, and was directly descended from Sir Thomas Smith, to whom the manor of Campden was granted by Queen Elizabeth. His mother, whose maiden name was Esther Argles Payne, was a native of Surrey. He was educated at Campden grammar school, whence he obtained in 1837 an exhibition at Pembroke College, Oxford, then under the headship of Dr. ”

“ In this standard work the statements of ancient writers about Egypt, together with the results of modern excavations and researches conducted by the author and others, were lucidly arranged, explained in a fascinating style, and richly illustrated with plans, engravings, and coloured plates. Wilkinson's remarkable acquaintance with botany, zoology, and the technique of the arts, together ”

“ After twenty years' preparation this catalogue appeared in 1787, bearing the title ‘Bibliothecæ Bodleianæ Codd. MStorum Orientalium videlicet Hebræorum, Chaldaicorum, Syriacorum, &c., Catalogus.’ Little praise, however, can be assigned it; besides numerous mistakes (corrected for the most part in the second volume of the catalogue by Nicoll and Pusey, which appeared in 1835) , the arrangement is very faulty, different volumes of the same work frequently being registered many pages apart. ”