Page:A new and general biographical dictionary; containing an historical and critical account of the lives and writings of the most eminent persons in every nation v1.djvu/143

 A G A R D. 107 ) from anttent minufcripts an.l ;HI;.', '."vords in the exchequer. 4. The Authority, * >iVi. -.-, ...: of Heraults (heralds) in England. He is o! OMUIM,. .n  ir-vn-'i office is of the fame antiquity with the in(l i G.:; 10J< ter. 5. Of the Antiquity or Privileges of the P-CS- of Court, and o( Chancerv. In this he obk-i .'., that in more undent times, before the making of Ma ;n i C't uta, iir lawyers were of the clergy : that in the time ot hdward I. the law came to receive its proper form ; and that in an old record, the Exchequer was ftyled the mother-court or all courts of record. He fupoofes that at this time lawyers be- gan to have fettled places of abode, hut afiirnv he kne>.v of no privileges. 6. Of" the Diveriity of" Names of this Iflan.l. In this we find that the full Saxons, landing in this ifiaiul, ibid. p. 157. came here under the command of one AelleaiH his tine-- ll ns, in 435; and that the reafon why it wns called Kncjland rath.r than Saxonland, was becaufe the Angles, afrer this part of the ifland was totally fubdued, were more numerous, than the Saxons. Mr. Agard made the Domefday-book his peculiar fludy ; he compofed a large and learned work on purpole to explain it, under the title of Tracfatus de vfu et obfsurioribu$ vcrbis lilri de Domefciay^ i. e. A Treatife on the Ufe and true Mean- ing of the o'ofcure Words in the D mi :. : av-book ; which was preferved in the Cotton library, UUJ;T V T iteliius N. iX. He ipent likewife three years in compiling a bok for the be- nefit of his fucceffors in office: it confuted of two parts, the firft containing a catalogue of aH the records in the four trea- furies belonging to his ir.ajefty ; the fecon;!, an a,-c i unt of all leagues, and treaties of peace, intercourfes, and marriages with foreign nations. This he depofited w'uh tiK officers otx.'c. J.ibr. bis majeuy's receipt, as a proper index for fucccediiii offi P- C?;rs. He alfo directed by his v. ill, that eleven oilier nnan- icript treatifes of his, relating to exchequer- matters, (houlil, after a fmall reward paid to his executor, be delivered up ^ the office. All the reft of his collections, containing at ; c twenty volumes, he bequeathed 10 his f'rknd fir Robert Cot- ton. After having fpent his days in hjnuur and tranquillity! he died the 22d of Auguft, 1615, and was inr.-rud near the chapter-door, in the cloifter of Weftminfter-abbey. AGATHIAS, a Greek hifinrinn, vh: lived in the fixth century, under the emperor Juftinian, was bo:n at M Afia Minor. Some have concluded from Sui las that h, r advocate at Smyrna, as Voflius -, but Fabricius denies tl- an;