Battely, Dr. John

, an English antiquary, was born at St. Edmund’s Bury, in Suffolk, in 1647. He was some time fellow of Trinity college, Cambridge, and chaplain to archbishop Sancroft, afterwards, by his grace’s favour, rector of Adisham, in Kent, prebendary of Canterbury, and archdeacon of the diocese, and died Oct. 10, 1708. Dr. Thomas Terry, canon of Christ-church, Oxford, published Dr. Battely’s “Antiquitates Rutupinae,” in 1711, 8vo, a work composed in elegant Latin, in the form of a dialogue between the author and his two learned friends and brother chaplains, Dr. Henry Maurice, and Mr. Henry Wharton. The subject is the antient state of the Isle of Thanet. A second edition of the original was published in 1745, 4to, with the author’s “Antiquitates St. Edmondburgi,” an unfinished history of his native place, and its ancient monastery, down to the year 1272. This was published by his nephew, Oliver Battely, with an appendix also, and list of abbots, continued by sir James Burrough, late master of Caius college, Cambridge. The doctor’s papers are said, in the preface, to remain in the hands of his heirs, ready to be communicated to any who will undertake the work. In 1774, Mr. John Duncombe published a translation of the “Antiquitates Rutupinae,” under the title of “The Antiquities of Richborough and Reculver, abridged from the Latin of Mr. Archdeacon Battely,” Lond. 1774, 12mo. His brother Nicholas Battely, A. M. was editor of the improved edition of“Somner’s Antiquities of Canterbury,” and wrote some papers and accounts of Eastbridge hospital, in Canterbury, which are printed in Strype’s life of Whitgift. ¹