Thornhagh Gurdon, F.S.A. (1663 – November 1733) was an English

antiquarian 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 ...

. Gurdon, born in 1663, was the son of Brampton Gurdon of Letton, Norfolk, and his wife Elizabeth, and the elder brother of Brampton Gurdon ( – 20 November 1741). As a member of

Caius College, Cambridge Gonville and Caius College, often referred to simply as Caius ( ), is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge in Cambridge, England. Founded in 1348, it is the fourth-oldest of the University of Cambridge's 31 colleges and one of th ...

, he received the degree of M.A. ''comitiis regiis'' in 1682, and in the reign of Queen Anne was appointed receiver-general of Norfolk. He resided mostly at

Norwich Norwich () is a cathedral city and district of Norfolk, England, of which it is the county town. Norwich is by the River Wensum, about north-east of London, north of Ipswich and east of Peterborough. As the seat of the See of Norwich, with ...

, where in 1728 he published anonymously a valuable ''Essay on the Antiquity of the Castel of Norwich, its Founders and Governors from the Kings of the

East Angles la, Regnum Orientalium Anglorum , conventional_long_name = Kingdom of the East Angles , common_name = East Anglia , era = , status = Great Kingdom , status_text = Independent (6th centu ...

down to modern Times'' ( octavo). Another work of great merit was his ''History of the High Court of Parliament, its Antiquity, Preheminence, and Authority; and the History of Court Baron and Court Leet, ... Together with the Rights of Lords of Manors in Common Pastures, and the Growth of the Privileges the Tenants Now Enjoy There'' (2 vols., octavo, 1731).. Gurdon was elected a Fellow of the

Society of Antiquaries of London A society is a group of individuals involved in persistent social interaction, or a large social group sharing the same spatial or social territory, typically subject to the same political authority and dominant cultural expectations. Societ ...

in March 1718. Gurdon died in November 1733 aged 70, and was buried in the church of

Cranworth Cranworth is a village and civil parish in the Breckland district of the English county of Norfolk. History Cranworth's name is of Anglo-Saxon origin and derives from the Old English for an enclosed part of land with cranes and herons. In the ...

with Letton, Norfolk. By his wife Elizabeth, one of the daughters and coheirs of Sir William Cooke, Baronet of Brome, Suffolk, he had two sons, Brampton, who died before him, and Thornhagh; and three daughters, Jane, Elizabeth, and Letitia. Mrs. Gurdon survived until 1745.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Gurdon, Thornhagh 1663 births 1733 deaths 17th-century English male writers 17th-century English historians 18th-century English male writers 18th-century English historians Alumni of Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge English antiquarians Fellows of the Society of Antiquaries of London Antiquarians from Norwich