Sampson Erdeswicke

Sampson Erdeswicke (date of birth unknown, in the reign of Henry VIII; died 1603) was an English antiquarian and chorographer.

Erdeswicke was born at Sandon in Staffordshire, and entered Brasenose College, Oxford, as a gentleman-commoner in 1553. Leaving Oxford, he returned to his life as a country gentleman under the disabilities of a recusant.

He devoted himself to antiquarian studies, particularly to his county history, the thorough Survey of Staffordshire. By this work his name is chiefly remembered, but it was not published during his lifetime. It was well known before its eventual publication. Considerable mystery exists as to the original manuscript, because the numerous existing copies differ much from one another. A description of these was published by William Salt, F.S.A., in 1844. The Survey itself was published by Simon Degge (1717 and 1723), by Stebbing Shaw in his History and Antiquities of Staffordshire (1798), and lastly by Thomas Harwood (1820 and 1844).

Other unpublished manuscripts by Erdeswicke are in the British Library and the College of Arms. Latterly he employed as amanuensis William Wyrley, a young man whom he had educated and who afterwards published writings of his own. One of these, The True Use of Armorie, was claimed by Erdeswicke as his own work, but he told William Burton the antiquary, that he had given Wyrley leave to publish it under his own name. Anthony à Wood, however, denies this, adding that Erdeswicke "being oftentimes crazed, especially in his last days, and fit then for no kind of serious business, would say anything which came into his mind, as 'tis very well known at this day among the chief of the College of Arms".

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