Foote Gower

Life


Foote Gower (1725/6–1780) was an English cleric, academic and antiquarian. The son of the Rev. Foote Gower, M.A. and M.D., a physician in Chester, he was born there about 1726. He matriculated at Brasenose College, Oxford, 15 March 1744, aged 18, and took his degrees of B.A. in 1747, M.A. in 1750, M.B. in 1755, and M.D. in 1757. He was elected a Fellow of his college in 1750. It is unclear whether Gower practised as a physician. He was rector of Chignal St James and Mashbury, near Chelmsford in Essex, from June 1761 until about 1777. He also held the living of Woodham Walter, where the patron was Thomas Fytche.

Gower employed Joseph Strutt to make engravings of Roman antiquities. He was elected a Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries of London in 1768, and had Richard Gough as a close friend. He died at Bath, Somerset on 27 May 1780.

Works
Gower made collections for a history of Cheshire, and in 1771 printed an anonymous Sketch of the Materials for a new History of Cheshire, taking the form of a letter to Thomas Falconer of Chester. It was signed "a Fellow of the Antiquary Society", and reissued in 1772. Gower's work served to document the sources for Cheshire local history. The proposed "new history" in three volumes was never written, although some drawings were prepared for the illustrations by James Calveley (active 1774-91). George Ormerod exploited the preparatory work thoroughly.

He made collections also for a history of Essex, and a new edition of John Horsley's Britannia Romana.

Sources and Links

 * Foote Gower: on Wikipedia;