George Russell French
George Russell French (1803–1881),
antiquary, was born in London in 1803.[1]
After being privately educated he became an architect, and was for many years surveyor and architect to the
Edward I, king of England, and published in 1853 the tables of pedigree and genealogical memoirs in connection therewith. In 1861–9 he prepared and issued a Catalogue of the Antiquities and Works of Art exhibited at Ironmongers' Hall. French published in two parts the result of a careful series of Shakespearean investigations, under the title of Shakespeareana Genealogica (1869). The first part consisted of an identification of the dramatis personae in Shakespeare's historical plays, from King John to Henry VIII, accompanied with observations on characters in Macbeth and Hamlet, and notes on persons and places belonging to Warwickshire alluded to in several plays. The second part consisted of a dissertation on the Shakespeare and Arden families and their connections, with tables of descent. French, who was a temperance
reformer, published in 1879 a work entitled Temperance or Abstinence, in which he discussed the question from the scriptural point of view. French died in London on 14 October 1881 after a long and painful illness, and was interred at the Willesden Cemetery.
George died unmarried. His brother Major John French b. 1804, m. 1846 (6 children), d. 1859. His sister Clara Ann French b. 1807, d. 1896, unmarried.
References
Sources
- Erben, Michael (2004). "French, George Russell (1803–1881), genealogist and architect". doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/10162. (Subscription or UK public library membershiprequired.)
Further reading
- A short description of his activities as an architect and historian. The Builder. November 5 / 1881
This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: "French, George Russell". Dictionary of National Biography. London: Smith, Elder & Co. 1885–1900.
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