Richard Astry (c. 1632 – 1714) 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 ...

Life

Astry was born in Huntingdonshire in or about 1632. He was admitted to

Queens' College, Cambridge Queens' College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge. Queens' is one of the oldest colleges of the university, founded in 1448 by Margaret of Anjou. The college spans the River Cam, colloquially referred to as the "light s ...

on 14 March 1647–8, proceeded B.A. in 1651 and in 1654 obtained from his college a grace for M.A., though that degree is not recorded in the university registers. After leaving the university he was elected an alderman of Huntingdon, and he was buried at St. Mary's in that town on 11 August 1714, aged 83.

Works

He was, according to Thompson Cooper in the ''

Dictionary of National Biography The ''Dictionary of National Biography'' (''DNB'') is a standard work of reference on notable figures from British history, published since 1885. The updated ''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography'' (''ODNB'') was published on 23 September ...

'', the author of a quarto volume of collections, heraldic and topographical, relating Huntingdonshire, preserved in the

Lansdowne MS. The Lansdowne manuscripts are a significant named collection of the British Library, based on the collection of William Petty, 1st Marquess of Lansdowne. The purchase of the collection by the British Museum was in 1807.''Dictionary of National Biog ...

921. The authorship of this manuscript, is also ascribed to

Sir Robert Bruce Cotton Sir Robert Bruce Cotton, 1st Baronet (22 January 1570/71 – 6 May 1631) of Conington Hall in the parish of Conington in Huntingdonshire, England,Kyle, Chris & Sgroi was a Member of Parliament and an antiquarian who founded the Cotton library. ...

. Thomas Baker made copious extracts from this work in the thirty-sixth volume of his manuscripts, which were later deposited in the University Library, Cambridge. Astry also drew up ''Alphabetical Catalogues of English Surnames, with the arms belonging to them, and the particular times that the persons recorded lived''; forming three volumes, formerly in the possession of the Rev. Henry Freeman, of

Norman Cross Norman Cross Prison in Huntingdonshire, England, was the world's first purpose-built prisoner-of-war camp or "depot", built in 1796–97 to hold prisoners of war from France and its allies during the French Revolutionary Wars and Napoleonic War ...

References

;Attribution {{DEFAULTSORT:Astry, Richard 1630s births 1714 deaths 17th-century English writers 17th-century English male writers 18th-century English people English antiquarians Alumni of Queens' College, Cambridge