HEARNE, THOMAS (1678-1735), English antiquary, was born in July 1678 at Littlefield Green, White Waltham. Berk shire, son of the parish clerk. Educated at St. Edmund Hall, Oxford, he became in 1699 assistant keeper of the Bodleian Li brary, where he worked on the catalogue of books, and in 1712 he was appointed second keeper. As a nonjuror he refused to take the oaths of allegiance to King George I., and early in 1716 he was deprived of his librarianship. He continued to reside in Oxford, and occupied himself in editing the English chroniclers. He died on June io, 1735.
Hearne's most important work was done as editor of many of the English chroniclers, and until the appearance of the "Rolls" series his editions were in many cases the only ones extant. Very carefully prepared, they are still of the greatest value to historical students. Perhaps the most important of a long list are Benedict of Peter borough's (Benedictus Abbas) De vita et gesta Henrici II. et Ricardi I. ; John of Fordun's Scotichronicon (172 2) ; the monk of Evesham's Historia vitae et regni Ricardi (1729) ; Robert of Gloucester's Chronicle (1724) ; the Vita et gesta Henrici V., wrongly attributed to Thomas Elmham (1727) ; Titus Livy's Vita Henrici V. (1716) ; Walter of Hemingburgh's Chronicon (1731) ; and William of Newburgh's Historic rerum Anglicarum (1719). He also edited John Leland's Itinerary (1710-12) and the same author's Collectanea (1715) ; W. Camden's Annales rerum Anglicarum et Hibernicarum regnante Elizabetha (1717) ; Sir John Spelman's Life of Alfred (1709) ; and W. Roper's Life of Sir Thomas More (1716) . Among his other compilations may be mentioned: Reliquiae Bodleianae (1703) .
Hearne left his mss. to William Bedford, who sold them to Dr. Richard Rawlinson, who in his turn bequeathed them to the Bodleian. Two volumes of extracts from his voluminous diary were published by Philip Bliss (Oxford, 1857), and afterwards an enlarged edition in three volumes appeared (1869) . A large part of his diary entitled Remarks and Collections, 1 j 05-1714, edited by C. E. Doble and D. W. Rannie, has been published by the Oxford Historical Society (1885-98) . Bibliotheca Hearniana, excerpts from the catalogue of Hearne's library, has been edited by B. Botfield (1848) .
See Impartial Memorials of the Life and Writings of Thomas Hearne by several hands (1736) ; and W. D. Macray, Annals of the Bodleian Library (1890) . Hearne's autobiography is published in W. Huddes ford's Lives of Leland, Hearne and Wood (1772) . T. Ouvry's Letters addressed to Thomas Hearne has been privately printed (1874) •