Biography

Thomas Gale (1635-1702), Dean of York and antiquary, was born at Scruton in the North Riding of Yorkshire. Educated at Westminster School, he was admitted as a king's scholar to Trinity College, Cambridge, in 1655, graduating BA in 1659 and proceeding MA in 1662 (a degree incorporated at Oxford in 1669). He became a fellow of his college in 1659 and was tutor there from 1663 to 1672. He contributed verses to the university's volumes on the death of Oliver Cromwell in 1658 and the deaths of Mary, princess of Orange, and Henry, duke of Gloucester, in 1661. He was ordained in 1666 and became vicar of Barrington, Cambridgeshire, the following year. Gale's record as a scholar earned him the regius professorship of Greek at Cambridge in 1672, a post he resigned in October that year to become high-master of St Paul's School, London. In 1675 Gale proceeded BD and DD at Cambridge; the following year he was appointed a prebendary of St Paul's Cathedral. In September 1697, Gale was appointed dean of York. Gale died at York, aged sixty-six, on 7 April 1702.

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