Roger Gale (antiquary)

Roger Gale
Member of the United Kingdom Parliament for Northallerton
In office December 1705 – 1713
Preceded by	Sir William Hustler
Succeeded by	Leonard Smelt
Preceded by	Robert Dormer
Succeeded by	Henry Peirse
Personal details
Born	27 September 1672 Impington, Cambridgeshire
Died	25 June 1744 Scruton, Yorkshire
Resting place	Scruton, Yorkshire
Nationality	English
Political party	Whig
Spouse(s)	Henrietta Roper
Children	Roger Henry Gale
Residence	Scruton, Yorkshire
Alma mater	Trinity College, Cambridge University
Occupation	writer, antiquary

Roger Gale (27 September 1672 – 25 June 1744) was an English scholar and antiquary as well as a member of Parliament for Northallerton. His father was an ecclesiastic and professor at Cambridge, which the younger Gale also attended. After his graduation, Gale briefly served as a diplomat in France, as well as holding a position as a reader at Oxford University's Bodleian Library. On his father's death in 1702, Gale retired to his family estate, but was elected to Parliament in 1705, where he served until 1713. He then continued in public service until 1735, when he once more retired to his estates.

Besides his governmental career, Gale was a member of the Society of Antiquaries and the Royal Society, where he served as treasurer. Gale was known as a collector of manuscripts and other antiquarian items, writing a few published works on those subjects. He donated his manuscript collection to his alma mater in 1738, and died in 1744. Although contemporaries felt he was one of the foremost scholars of his age, later historians have been less convinced, contrasting his learning unfavourably with his father's.

Roger Gale was the eldest son of Thomas Gale and Barbara Pepys. His father was Dean of York as well as a professor of Greek at Cambridge University, while his mother was a cousin of the diarist Samuel Pepys. Roger was born on 27 September 1672 at Impington, Cambridgeshire. Thomas and Barbara had a younger son, Samuel Gale, who also became an antiquary, and a daughter, Elizabeth, who became William Stukeley's as second wife.

Gale was educated at St Paul's School in London, where his father was in charge from 1672 to 1697. He then went on to attend Trinity College, Cambridge, starting in 1691, earning his Bachelor of Arts in 1695 and a Master of Arts in 1698. He then became a reader at the Bodleian Library at Oxford University on 6 March 1699. Soon after this, probably in the later part of 1699, he went with Charles Montagu, then the Earl of Manchester, on a diplomatic mission to France. His father died in 1702, and Gale retired to his newly inherited estates at Scruton, Yorkshire.

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