Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Langley, Thomas (1769-1801)
LANGLEY, THOMAS (1769–1801), topographer, only son of Thomas Langley (d. 1801), by Mary, daughter of John Higginson, was born at Great Marlow, Buckinghamshire, on 10 May 1769, and baptised on 8 June following. He entered Eton College in 1780, and matriculated from Hertford College, Oxford, on 17 May 1787, proceeding B.A. on 9 July 1791, and M.A. on 5 June 1794. Having taken orders he was in 1793 licensed to the curacies of Bradenham and Taplow, Buckinghamshire, and was instituted on 2 Oct. 1800 to the rectory of Whiston, Northamptonshire, on the presentation of Frederick, second lord Boston, but appears to have been non-resident.
Langley was a careful collector of the antiquities of Buckinghamshire, and gave a good specimen of his literary capacity in 'The History and Antiquities of the Hundred of Desborough and Deanery of Wycombe in Buckinghamshire,' 1797, 4to, a work abounding in picturesque descriptions, but deficient in scholarly method. A large-paper copy of 'The History of Desborough,' containing the author's manuscript additions and original letters to him from the principal persons in the county, is among the Stowe MSS. in the British Museum. In 1799 Langley was contemplating the publication of a 'History of Burnham Hundred,' with the addition of plates, a feature which had been wanting in is former work.
In February 1800 Langley had completed a religious poem of some length, which he did not print. He died unmarried on 30 July 1801, and was interred on 5 Aug. in the family vault at Great Marlow, and is commemorated by a monumental tablet in the church. His will, dated 8 Feb. 1794, was proved on 9 Oct. 1801 (Reg. in P. C. C. 681, Abercrombie).
Another Thomas Langley, B.A., curate of Snelston, Derbyshire, was author of 'A Short but Serious Appeal to the Head and Heart of every unbiassed Christian,' 1799, 8vo.