Henry Thomas Riley (June 1816 – 14 April 1878) was an English translator, lexicographer, and antiquary.
Born in June 1816, he was only son of Henry Riley ofSouthwark, an ironmonger.[1] He was educated at Chatham House,Ramsgate, and atCharterhouse School (1832–4). He enteredTrinity College, Cambridge, but at the end of his first term migrated toClare College where he was admitted on 17 December 1834, and elected a scholar on 24 January 1835. In 1838 he obtained a Latin essay prize. He graduated with a B.A. in 1840 and M.A. in 1859, after which he moved toCorpus Christi College, Cambridge. On 16 June 1870 he was incorporated atExeter College, Oxford.[2]
Riley wascalled to the bar at theInner Temple on 23 November 1847, but early in life he began hack work for booksellers to make a living, by editing and translation. On the creation of theHistorical Manuscripts Commission (byroyal charter in April 1869), Riley was engaged as an additional inspector for England, and given the task of examining the archives of variousmunicipal corporations, themuniments of the colleges at Oxford and Cambridge, and the documents in the registries of various bishops and chapters.
Riley died at Hainault House, the Crescent,Selhurst,Croydon, on 14 April 1878, aged 61.
For Bohn's Classical Library, Riley translated:
HisDictionary of Latin Quotations (1856 and 1860), was included in the same series, andreprinted in 1866.
ForBohn's Antiquarian Library, he translated theAnnals ofRoger de Hoveden (1853, 2 vols.); andIngulph's Chronicle of the Abbey of Croyland (1854).
For theRolls Series, he edited theMunimenta Gildhallae Londoniensis, including theLiber Albus (1859), theLiber Custumarum (1860, in two parts), with a translation of theAnglo-Norman passages, and a glossary (1862); theChronica Monasterii S. Albani, comprising theAnnals ofJohn Amundesham (1870 and 1871, 2 vols.); and a further set of the chronicles of St. Albans, in eleven volumes, including the works ofThomas Walsingham,John of Trokelowe,Henry de Blaneford, andWilliam Rishanger, and the register ofJohn Whethamstede.
Riley translated for the corporation of the city of London theLiber Albus (1861) and theChronicles of the Mayors and Sheriffs of London, 1188–1274, from the Latin and Anglo-Norman of Arnald Fitz-Thedmar; with the French Chronicle of London, 1259–1343, from the Chroniques de London (1863). He also published in 1868 a volume entitledMemorials of London and London Life, a series of Extracts from the City Archives, 1276–1419.
Riley wrote in theAthenaeum, theGentleman's Magazine, and theArchaeological Journal. He contributed to theeighth edition of theEncyclopaedia Britannica.
This article incorporates text from a publication now in thepublic domain: "Riley, Henry Thomas".Dictionary of National Biography. London: Smith, Elder & Co. 1885–1900.
