Arthur Agarde or Agard (1540 – August 1615) was an English

antiquary An antiquarian or antiquary () is an fan (person), aficionado or student of antiquities or things of the past. More specifically, the term is used for those who study history with particular attention to ancient artifact (archaeology), artifac ...

and

archivist An archivist is an information professional who assesses, collects, organizes, preserves, maintains control over, and provides access to Document, records and archives determined to have long-term value. The records maintained by an archivist c ...

in the

Exchequer In the civil service of the United Kingdom, His Majesty’s Exchequer, or just the Exchequer, is the accounting process of central government and the government's ''current account'' (i.e., money held from taxation and other government reven ...

Westminster Westminster is an area of Central London, part of the wider City of Westminster. The area, which extends from the River Thames to Oxford Street, has many visitor attractions and historic landmarks, including the Palace of Westminster, Bu ...

Career

Agard was born in 1540 in

Foston, Derbyshire Foston is a hamlet in the Foston and Scropton civil parish of South Derbyshire, Derbyshire, England, about west of Derby and east of Uttoxeter. The Domesday Book of 1086 lists it as ''Farulveston''. Foston Hall Foston Hall is a brick Jacobet ...

. He was trained as a lawyer, but entered the

as a clerk. On the authority of Anthony 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, first informally, before he gained formal appointment in 1603. In this capacity, he was responsible for what would be a 40-year project to compile inventories of the four treasuries at Westminster, which contained both royal and abbey records.Martin 2008. This was an ideal place to pursue his antiquarian interests and he was one of the original members of the Society of Antiquaries. The documents in his care at Westminster included

Domesday Book Domesday Book () – the Middle English spelling of "Doomsday Book" – is a manuscript record of the "Great Survey" of much of England and parts of Wales completed in 1086 by order of King William I, known as William the Conqueror. The manusc ...

, kept under special protection in his office. Agard also mentioned the "ancient registers and books which have fallen into my hands" and, to judge by the range he cited in his varied contributions to the Society of Antiquaries' discussions, this material was diverse. Society members consulted Agard for advice on what material might be available. Thomas Hearne, in his ''Collection of Curious Discourses written by Eminent Antiquaries'' (Oxford, 1720 first edition, but extended second edition published in 1773), includes six essays by Agard, titled as follows: *''Opinion touching the Antiquity, Power, Order, State, Manner, Persons and Proceedings of the High-court of Parliament in England'' *''Of What Antiquity

Shire Shire is a traditional term for an administrative division of land in Great Britain and some other English-speaking countries such as Australia and New Zealand. It is generally synonymous with county. It was first used in Wessex from the beginn ...

s were in England?'' *''On the dimensions of the lands of England'' *''The Authority, Office, and Privileges of Heralds in England'' *''Of the Antiquity and Privileges of the Houses or

Inns of Court The Inns of Court in London are the professional associations for barristers in England and Wales. There are four Inns of Court – Gray's Inn, Lincoln's Inn, Inner Temple and Middle Temple. All barristers must belong to one of them. They have ...

, and of Chancery'' *''Of the diversity of names of this island'' The discussion on the dimensions of land, on 24 November 1599, gives an insight into Agard's research methods: Agard, among the royal and

Westminster Abbey Westminster Abbey, formally titled the Collegiate Church of Saint Peter at Westminster, is an historic, mainly Gothic church in the City of Westminster, London, England, just to the west of the Palace of Westminster. It is one of the United ...

archives, was not short of charters; he also had a private collection, including the

Chertsey Abbey Chertsey Abbey, dedicated to St Peter, was a Benedictine monastery located at Chertsey in the English county of Surrey. It was founded in 666 AD by Saint Erkenwald who was the first abbot, and from 675 AD the Bishop of London. At the same time ...

cartulary. Few people at this time had any understanding of

Old English Old English (, ), or Anglo-Saxon, is the earliest recorded form of the English language, spoken in England and southern and eastern Scotland in the early Middle Ages. It was brought to Great Britain by Anglo-Saxon settlement of Britain, Anglo ...

. In the 1591 shire discussion, Agard shows no sign of understanding the language; but over the following decade he tried to rectify this by compiling a glossary, as he explained when discussing the etymology of the word "steward" in 1603: "I take it to be derived from the Saxon, the later sillable ward, signifying watchfull or carefull over any thing; for soe … I fynd it expounded by an old booke of Canterbury ut of which I wrote the exposition of sundry Saxon words by alphabet" He also wrote a large work on Domesday Book titled ''Tractatus de usu et obscurioribus verbis libri de Doomsday'' ("A treatise on the use and meaning of obscure words in Domesday Book"), as well as a guide book for his successors in office containing a catalogue of the records of the

Treasury A treasury is either *A government department related to finance and taxation, a finance ministry. *A place or location where treasure, such as currency or precious items are kept. These can be state or royal property, church treasure or in p ...

and an account of treaties with foreign nations. Agard died between 22 and 24August 1615, when almost 80, 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 Library The British Library is the national library of the United Kingdom and is one of the largest libraries in the world. It is estimated to contain between 170 and 200 million items from many countries. As a legal deposit library, the British ...

. His manuscripts can be identified by the presence of a buglehorn stringed, together with the motto “DIEU ME AGARDE” on the decorated bindings.

Personal life

Agard married, sometime after 8 February 1570, Margaret, daughter of George Butler of

Sharnbrook Sharnbrook is a village and civil parish located in the Borough of Bedford in Bedfordshire, England. The settlement was recorded in the Domesday Book of 1086 as a parish within the Hundred of Willey but was probably first developed in Saxon ti ...

, Bedfordshire.M. Hoefer, ''Nouvelle Biographie Générale''. Paris: Firmin Didot Frères, 1857. She died in 1611, as the monument he raised to her in the cloister of Westminster Abbey states. They had no children, and his nephew William Agard became his executor and residuary legatee, though he bequeathed many of his manuscripts elsewhere.

References

Sources

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Agarde, Arthur People from South Derbyshire District 1540 births 1615 deaths English antiquarians Alumni of Queens' College, Cambridge English book and manuscript collectors English archivists 16th-century English writers 16th-century male writers 17th-century English writers 17th-century English male writers