Samuel Lysons

He was one of the first archaeologists to investigate Roman sites in Britain, and specialised in the study of mosaics.

He was born at Rodmarton near Cirencester, Gloucestershire, the younger son of the Reverend Samuel Lysons (1730–1804) by his wife Mary Peach of Minchinhampton.

His portrait was painted by, among others, Academicians Sir Thomas Lawrence and George Dance the Younger.

From 1803 until his death in 1819 he was Keeper of the Records in the Tower of London, then one of the principal storage sites for historic government documents and other archives until the opening in 1838 of the Public Record Office in Chancery Lane (now The National Archives, Kew).

Lysons died in June 1819, near Rodmarton, Cirencester, Gloucestershire, his birthplace.