1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Blount, Thomas

BLOUNT, THOMAS (1618–1679), English antiquarian, was the son of one Myles Blount, of Orleton in Herefordshire. He was born at Bordesley, Worcestershire. Few details of his life are known. It appears that he was called to the bar at the Inner Temple, but, being a zealous Roman Catholic, his religion interfered considerably with the practice of his profession. Retiring to his estate at Orleton, he devoted himself to the study of the law as an amateur, and also read widely in other branches of knowledge. He died at Orleton on the 26th of December 1679. His principal works are Glossographia; or, a dictionary interpreting the hard words of whatsoever language, now used in our refined English tongue (1656, reprinted in 1707), which went through several editions and remains most amusing and instructive reading; Nomolexicon: a law dictionary interpreting such difficult and obscure words and terms as are found either in our common or statute, ancient or modern lawes (1670; third edition, with additions by W. Nelson, 1717); and Fragmenta Antiquitatis: Ancient Tenures of land, and jocular customs of some mannors (1679; enlarged by J. Beckwith and republished, with additions by H. M. Beckwith, in 1815; again revised and enlarged by W. C. Hazlitt, 1874). Blount’s Boscobel (1651), giving an account of Charles II.’s preservation after Worcester, with the addition of the king’s own account dictated to Pepys, has been edited with a bibliography by C. G. Thomas (1894).