Roger Gale

Roger Gale (27 September 1672 – 25 June 1744) was an English scholar and antiquary as well as a Whig politician who sat in the English and British House of Commons from 1705 to 1713. His father was an ecclesiastic and professor at Cambridge, which the younger Gale also attended. After his graduation, Gale briefly served as a diplomat in France, as well as holding a position as a reader at Oxford University's Bodleian Library. On his father's death in 1702, Gale retired to his family estate, but was elected to Parliament in 1705, where he served until 1713. He then continued in public service until 1735, when he once more retired to his estates.

Besides his governmental career, Gale was a member of the Society of Antiquaries and the Royal Society, where he served as treasurer. Gale was known as a collector of manuscripts and other antiquarian items, writing a few published works on those subjects. He donated his manuscript collection to his alma mater in 1738, and died in 1744. Although contemporaries felt he was one of the foremost scholars of his age, later historians have been less convinced, contrasting his learning unfavourably with his father's.

Early life

Roger Gale was the eldest son of Thomas Gale and Barbara Pepys. His father was Dean of York as well as a professor of Greek at Cambridge University, while his mother was a cousin of the diarist Samuel Pepys. Roger was born on 27 September 1672 at Impington, Cambridgeshire. Thomas and Barbara had a younger son, Samuel Gale, who also became an antiquary, and a daughter, Elizabeth, who became William Stukeley's second wife.

Gale was educated at St Paul's School in London, where his father was in charge from 1672 to 1697. Soon after this, probably in the later part of 1699, he went with Charles Montagu, then the Earl of Manchester, on a diplomatic mission to France. His father died in 1702, and Gale retired to his newly inherited estates at Scruton, North Yorkshire. He remained in that position until 1735, when Robert Walpole had him removed to free the post for one of Walpole's friends. and was the treasurer of the Royal Society for a number of years. Gale also collected coins, and donated his collection to Cambridge University. but later scholars have been less full of praise. D. C. Douglas, writing in the 1950s, contrasted Gale with his father, and felt that the younger Gale was given a greater reputation than he deserved. Notwithstanding Douglas' opinion, Gale's work did much to preserve important historical information, as he was a member of the new style of antiquary, who instead of working just with manuscripts, turned to the topography and other relics in the countryside. This group of antiquaries did much to record information that has since disappeared. There are portraits of Gale at Trinity College, and St Paul's School.