William Falconer (translator)

Falconer was the eldest son of the Rev. Thomas Falconer, by Frances, only child of Lieutenant-colonel Robert Raitt. He was born at Corston, Somersetshire, on 27 December 1801, and was baptised there on 21 July 1802. On 10 December 1819 he matriculated at Oriel College, Oxford, and having taken a third class in classics and a first class in mathematics graduated B.A. in 1823, and proceeded M.A. in 1827. He was elected a Petrean fellow of Exeter College, Oxford, on 30 June in that year, and was mathematical examiner in the university in 1832–3, and again in 1836–8. In 1839 he opened the Petrean fellowships at Exeter College to natives of Cheshire by conveying a small incorporeal hereditament to Lord Petre for that purpose.

His college presented him, 26 January 1839, to the rectory of Bushey, Hertfordshire. He died at Bushey rectory 9 February 1885. He married in 1840 Isabella, daughter of J. Robinson, and widow of W. S. Douglas; she died at St. Alessi, near Pistoja in Tuscany, 7 February 1869.

Falconer is known as one of the translators of The Geography of Strabo. It was literally translated, with notes. The first six books by Hans Claude Hamilton, and the remainder by Falconer, with a complete index, appeared in Bohn's Classical Library in 1854–7, in three volumes. The text of Strabo had been edited in 1807 by his father Thomas Falconer, who had also prepared a translation, the manuscript of which was used by his son.

Attribution:

•  This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: "Falconer, William (1801–1885)". Dictionary of National Biography. London: Smith, Elder & Co. 1885–1900.