English scholar, the son of an English Church canon, born in London; was a Fellow of Merton in 1755, and in 1762 became clerk to the House of Commons, a post, however, which proved too arduous for him, and in 1768 he resigned; the remainder of his life was given to literary pursuits; produced the first adequate edition of Chaucer (1775), besides an edition of Aristotle's "Poetics," and books on Chatterton's "Rowley Poems," etc. (1730-1786).