, author of a very learned and excellent work, entitled, “Britannia Romana,”
, author of a very learned and excellent work, entitled, “Britannia Romana,
” by which only
he is known, is supposed to have been a native of Northumberland, where, at a village called Long-Horsley, near
Morpeth, the family, in all probability, originated. This
parent stock, if such it was, is now lost in the Witheringtons, by the marriage of the heiress of Long-Horsley, about
the middle of this century, with a person of that name.
We know only of two other branches; one settled in Yorkshire, the other in the West, from which latter, we understand the late learned bishop of St. Asaph to have sprung:
but the branches have been so long separated, that they
cannot trace their relationship to each other. John Horsley was educated in the public grammar-school at Newcastle, and afterwards in Scotland, where he took a degree;
he was finally settled at Morpeth, and is said, in Hutchinson’s View of Northumberland, to have been pastor to a
dissenting congregation in that place. The same author
adds, from Randall’s manuscripts, that he died in 1732,which was the same year in which his great work appeared;
but the truth is, as we learn from the journals of the time,
that he died Dec. 12, 1731, a short time before the publication of his book. He was a fellow of the royal society.
A few letters from him to Roger Gale, esq. on antiquarian
subjects, are inserted in Hutchinson’s book; they are all
dated in 1729. His “Britannia Romana
” gives a full and
learned account of the remains and vestiges of the Romans
in Britain. It is divided into three books; the first
containing “the History of all the Roman Transactions in
Britain, with an account of their legionary and auxiliary
forces employed here, and a determination of the stations
per lineam valli; also a large description of the Roman
walls, with maps of the same, laid down from a geometrical survey.
” The second book contains, “a complete
collection of the Roman inscriptions and sculptures, which
have hitherto been discovered in Britain, with the letters
engraved in their proper shape, and proportionate size,
and the reading placed under each; as also an historical
account of them, with explanatory and critical observations.
” The third book contains, “the Roman Geography
of Britain, in which are given the originals of Ptolemy,
Antonini Itinerarium, the Notitia, the anonymous Ravennas, and Peutinger’s Table, so far as they relate to this
island, with particular essays on each of those ancient authors, and the several places in Britain mentioned by
them,
” with tables, indexes, &c. Such is the author’s
own account in his title-page; and the learned of all countries have testified that the accuracy of the execution has
equalled the excellence of the plan. The plates of this
work were purchased of one of his descendants for twenty
guineas by Dr. Giftbrd, for the British Museum, where is
a copy of the work, with considerable additions by Dr.
Ward.