Richard Cleasby

Richard Cleasby (1797–1847) was an English philologist, author with Guðbrandur Vigfússon of the first Icelandic-English dictionary.

Life

He was eldest son of Stephen Cleasby, and brother of Anthony Cleasby, born on 30 November 1797. He was educated at a private school, and for some years assisted his father in his business, but in 1824 gave up trade and went to the continent to study philosophy and literature. After spending four years principally in Italy and Germany, he returned for a winter's term at the University of Edinburgh, went again to the continent, and eventually settled in 1830 at Munich to study philosophy under Friedrich Schelling and Old German under Johann Andreas Schmeller and Hans Ferdinand Massmann. He made excursions into many districts of Germany, gaining a knowledge of German dialects.

A liver complaint often sent him to Carlsbad, and he occasionally revisited England. His first visit to Denmark and Sweden was in May 1834, and he became attracted by Scandinavian subjects. In 1839 he collated the Codex Argenteus at Uppsala, and in January 1840 he formed the plan of his Icelandic-English Dictionary, starting work by April. He worked while travelling between England, German spas, and Copenhagen, where he had amanuenses. In the summer of 1847 his health grew worse, and on 6 October he died of an attack of typhoid fever.

Cleasby

Coordinates: 54°30′43″N 1°36′53″W / 54.51184°N 1.61486°W / 54.51184; -1.61486

Cleasby is a village and civil parish in the Richmondshire district of North Yorkshire, England. It is close to the River Tees and Darlington and the A1(M). The population at the 2011 Census of ONS was 208.

History

The village is mentioned in the Domesday book as "Clesbi". The manor had been the possession of a local named Thor, but passed to Enisant Mussard after the Norman invasion. The mesne lordship passed to the lords of Constable Burton from Enisant which eventually ended in the hands of the Scrope family. Enisant continued to hold a demesne lordship here which passed to Harsculph an ancestor of the Cleasby family. By the early fourteenth century the direct line of inheritance had ended and the manor passed to the Fitz Hugh family of Ravensworth who held it until the middle of the sixteenth century when it passed to the Crown. In 1602 the manor was granted to Peter Bradwell and Robert Parker. From thereon it passed via the Countess of Shrewsbury to the Duke of Devonshire. By the mid-nineteenth century it had passed into the hands of John Church Backhouse.

Cleasby (surname)

Cleasby is a surname, and may refer to: