Thomas Walford (1752–1833) was an English antiquary.
Life
Walford, born on 14 September 1752, was the only son of Thomas Walford (d. 1756) of
Whitley, near
Birdbrook in Essex, by his wife, Elizabeth Spurgeon (d. 1789) of Linton in Cambridgeshire. He was an officer in the Essex militia in 1777, and was appointed deputy lieutenant of the county in 1778. In March 1797 he was nominated captain in the provisional cavalry, and in May following was gazetted major.
In February 1788 Walford was elected a fellow of the
Society of Antiquaries, in October 1797 a fellow of the
Linnean Society, in 1814 a member of the
Geological Society
The Geological Society of London, known commonly as the Geological Society, is a learned society based in the United Kingdom. It is the oldest national geological society in the world and the largest in Europe with more than 12,000 Fellows.
Fe ...
, and in 1825 a fellow. In 1818 he published ''The Scientific Tourist through England, Wales, and Scotland'' (London, 2 vols. 12mo). In this work he noticed "the principal objects of antiquity, art, science, and the picturesque" in Great Britain, under the heads of the several counties. In an introductory essay he dealt with the study of antiquities and the elements of statistics, geology, mineralogy, and botany. The work is too comprehensive to be exhaustive, and its value varies with Walford's personal knowledge of the places he describes.
Walford died at Whitley on 6 August 1833. He published several papers in antiquarian periodicals (e.g. ''
Archæologia'', xiv. 24, xvi. 145–50; ''
Vetusta Monumenta'', iii. pt. 39; ''Linnean Soc. Trans''. lix. 156), and left several manuscripts, including a history of Birdbrook in Essex and another of Clare in Sussex.
References
;Attribution:
{{DEFAULTSORT:Walford, Thomas
1752 births
1833 deaths
British archaeologists
Fellows of the Society of Antiquaries of London
Fellows of the Geological Society of London