English writer and genealogist chiefly important as the editor of rare Elizabethan and 17th-century texts, notably the 17th-century writer Edward Phillips' critical miscellany Theatrum Poetarum (1800; “Theatre of Poets”) and Robert Greene's autobiographical pamphlet Greenes groatsworth of witte . . . (1813). He also published some significant bibliographical work, including Censura Literaria (1805–09) and Restituta; or, Titles, Extracts, and Characters of Old Books in English Literature, Revived (1814–16). Persuaded that he and his family were heirs to a barony, he filed a suit in the courts but lost the case, though he never gave up the claim. He edited Arthur Collins' Peerage of England, inserting a statement about his supposed right. He was made a baronet in 1814, thereafter living mostly out of England.