View source for Scipio Le Squyer 1597-1659

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===[[name::Scipio]] [[name::LE SQUYER]]  [[date of birth::1597]]-[[date of death::1659]]===

====Biographical Note====
Born (probably) in [[place of birth::Devon]], son of [[family::Edmund Le Squyer]], [[occupation::rector|Rector]] of [[location::King’s Nympton, Devon]].  Studied at [[education::New Inn Hall, Oxford]] 1599-1603; admitted at [[organisations::Gray’s Inn]] 1627.  [[occupation::Marshal]] to [[associates::John Doddrige]] of [[location::Devon]], 1603-28; [[occupation::Deputy Chamberlain]] in the receipt of the Exchequer, 1620; [[occupation::Chamberlain of the Exchequer]] , and [[occupation::Keeper of the Records]], 1655.  Acting [[occupation::Escheator]] of [[location::Devon]] and [[location::Cornwall]], 1643.  Granted [[monetary value::£10]] in 1627 for his “extraordinary service” in sorting the Treasury records.  A member of the informal circle of [[location::London]] antiquaries of the early 17th century, and a friend of (e.g.) [[crossreference::Sir Robert Cotton|Robert Cotton]], [[crossreference::Sir William Dugdale|William Dugdale]] and [[associates::Simon d’Ewes]].  Much of his professional activity was directed towards preparing calendars and other finding aids for the public records.

====Books====  
A catalogue of his library made in 1632 shows a collection of ca.500 printed books and 296 [[format::manuscript|manuscripts]], divided into various subject headings; the printed books included [[subject::theology]] (131 vols), [[subject::history]] (131), [[subject::literature|poesy]] (83), [[subject::philosophy|morality]] (46), [[subject::law]] (32), [[subject::lexicography|dictionaries]] and [[subject::grammar|grammars]] (27), [[subject::medicine]] (13), herbals (8).  They included a small section of “books that my dead wife left” (9 vols, all [[language::English]] [[subject::theology|devotional]] works). Examples: British Library ms Cotton Vit.D.ix; Manchester UL ms Lat.224; Yale UL Eliz 188; Christopher Edwards 39 (2008)/9.

====Sources====
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*Birrell, T. Reading as pastime: the place of light literature in some 17th-century gentlemen’s libraries, in R. Myers (ed), ''Property of a gentleman, Winchester'', 1991, 113-131, 119-21. 
*Ovenden, R. Scipio le Squyer and the fate of monastic cartularies, ''The Library'' 6th ser 13 (1991), 323-37.
*Ramsay, Nigel. [https://doi.org/10.1093/ref:odnb/37668 "Le Squyer, Scipio (1579–1659), record keeper and antiquary."] ''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography''. 
*Taylor, F. The books and manuscripts of Scipio Le Squyer, ''Bulletin of the John Rylands Library'' 25 (1941), 137-64. 
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Le Squyer, Scipio}}

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