Life

The descendant of a Pembrokeshire

Pembrokeshire

Pembrokeshire is a county in the south west of Wales. It borders Carmarthenshire to the east and Ceredigion to the north east. The county town is Haverfordwest where Pembrokeshire County Council is headquartered....

 family living at Prickeston, he was eldest son of Roger Lort, major of the Royal Welsh Fusiliers, who married Anne, only child of Edward Jenkins, vicar of Fareham

Fareham

The market town of Fareham lies in the south east of Hampshire, England, between the cities of Southampton and Portsmouth, roughly in the centre of the South Hampshire conurbation.It gives its name to the borough comprising the town and the surrounding area...

, Hampshire

Hampshire

Hampshire is a county on the southern coast of England in the United Kingdom. The county town of Hampshire is Winchester, a historic cathedral city that was once the capital of England. Hampshire is notable for housing the original birthplaces of the Royal Navy, British Army, and Royal Air Force...

. His father died at Cambrai

Cambrai

Cambrai is a commune in the Nord department in northern France. It is a sub-prefecture of the department.Cambrai is the seat of an archdiocese whose jurisdiction was immense during the Middle Ages. The territory of the Bishopric of Cambrai, roughly coinciding with the shire of Brabant, included...

, 11 May 1745, aged 51, from wounds received at the battle of Fontenoy

Battle of Fontenoy

The Battle of Fontenoy, 11 May 1745, was a major engagement of the War of the Austrian Succession, fought between the forces of the Pragmatic Allies – comprising mainly Dutch, British, and Hanoverian troops under the nominal command of the Duke of Cumberland – and a French army under Maurice de...

; his mother died in 1767, aged 69, and in 1778 he erected a monument to their memory, now on the east wall of the chapel of St. Ann in Tenby Church.

He entered Trinity College, Cambridge

Trinity College, Cambridge

Trinity College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge. Trinity has more members than any other college in Cambridge or Oxford, with around 700 undergraduates, 430 graduates, and over 170 Fellows...

, on 13 June 1743, when he was described as aged 18 and as coming from Tenby

Tenby

Tenby is a walled seaside town in Pembrokeshire, South West Wales, lying on Carmarthen Bay.Notable features of Tenby include of sandy beaches; the 13th century medieval town walls, including the Five Arches barbican gatehouse ; 15th century St...

 school. William Cole

William Cole (antiquary)

William Cole , was a Cambridgeshire clergyman and antiquary.Cole was born in Little Abington, Cambridgeshire, the son of a well-to-do farmer...

 adds that he was at Westminster School

Westminster School

The Royal College of St. Peter in Westminster, almost always known as Westminster School, is one of Britain's leading independent schools, with the highest Oxford and Cambridge acceptance rate of any secondary school or college in Britain...

. His degrees at Cambridge were, B.A. 1746, M.A. 1750, B.D. 1761, and D.D. 1780. He was incorporated at Oxford 7 July 1759. His college offices were: scholar 20 April 1744, sub-fellow 2 Oct. 1749, full fellow 4 July 1750, senior fellow 1768, sublector primus 1753, Latin reader 1754, lector primarius 1755, and Greek reader 1756. On graduating in 1746, Lort acted as librarian to Richard Mead

Richard Mead

Richard Mead was an English physician. His work, A Short Discourse concerning Pestilential Contagion, and the Method to be used to prevent it , was of historic importance in the understanding of transmissible diseases.-Life:The eleventh child of Matthew Mead , Independent divine, Richard was born...

 until 1754.

His preferments were numerous, but for many years not very lucrative. From 1759 to 1771 he held the post of Regius Professor of Greek

Regius Professor of Greek (Cambridge)

The Regius Professorship of Greek is one of the oldest professorships at the University of Cambridge. The chair was founded by Henry VIII in 1540 with a stipend of £40 per year, subsequently increased in 1848 by a canonry of Ely Cathedral....

 at Cambridge, and in 1768 he applied for the professorship of modern history, when Thomas Gray

Thomas Gray

Thomas Gray was a poet, letter-writer, classical scholar and professor at Cambridge University.-Early life and education:...

 was given the chair. In 1761 he was appointed chaplain to Richard Terrick

Richard Terrick

Richard Terrick was a Church of England clergyman and bishop of London from 1764 to 1777.Terrick graduated with a BA from Clare College, Cambridge in 1729 and an MA in 1733. He was preacher at the Rolls Chapel from 1736 to 1757, and vicar of Twickenham from 1749...

, bishop of Peterborough

Bishop of Peterborough

The Bishop of Peterborough is the ordinary of the Church of England Diocese of Peterborough in the Province of Canterbury.The diocese covers the counties of Northamptonshire, Rutland and the Soke of Peterborough in Cambridgeshire...

, and about that date he served the vicarage of Bottisham

Bottisham

Bottisham is a village and civil parish in the East Cambridgeshire district of Cambridgeshire, England, about east of Cambridge, halfway to Newmarket. According to the 2001 census it had a population of 1,983.-Church:...

, near Cambridge. From 1779 to 1783 he lived at Lambeth Palace

Lambeth Palace

Lambeth Palace is the official London residence of the Archbishop of Canterbury in England. It is located in Lambeth, on the south bank of the River Thames a short distance upstream of the Palace of Westminster on the opposite shore. It was acquired by the archbishopric around 1200...

 as domestic chaplain to Archbishop Frederick Cornwallis

Frederick Cornwallis

Frederick Cornwallis was Archbishop of Canterbury, and the twin brother of Edward Cornwallis.Cornwallis was born in London, England, the seventh son of Charles Cornwallis, 4th Baron Cornwallis. He was educated at Eton College and graduated from Christ's College, Cambridge...

. He was promoted to be librarian at Lambeth in 1785, and he is said to have been librarian to the Duke of Devonshire

Duke of Devonshire

Duke of Devonshire is a title in the peerage of England held by members of the Cavendish family. This branch of the Cavendish family has been one of the richest and most influential aristocratic families in England since the 16th century, and have been rivalled in political influence perhaps only...

. In January 1771 he became rector of St. Matthew, Friday Street, London. On 11 April 1780 he was collated to the prebendal stall of Tottenhall in St. Paul's Cathedral (which caused him to vacate his fellowship at Trinity College on Lady day 1781); he obtained in 1789 the rectory of St. Michael, Mile End, adjoining Colchester

Colchester

Colchester is an historic town and the largest settlement within the borough of Colchester in Essex, England.At the time of the census in 2001, it had a population of 104,390. However, the population is rapidly increasing, and has been named as one of Britain's fastest growing towns. As the...

; and Bishop Beilby Porteus

Beilby Porteus

Beilby Porteus , successively Bishop of Chester and of London was an Anglican reformer and leading abolitionist in England...

 gave him in April 1789 the sinecure rectory of Fulham

Fulham

Fulham is an area of southwest London in the London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham, SW6 located south west of Charing Cross. It lies on the left bank of the Thames, between Putney and Chelsea. The area is identified in the London Plan as one of 35 major centres in Greater London...

.

Lort was elected Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries in 1755, remaining a vice-president until 1788, and became Fellow of the Royal Society in 1766. While driving down North Hill, Colchester, in August 1790, Lort was thrown out of his carriage, and he died from the effects of the accident at 6 Savile Row

Savile Row

Savile Row is a shopping street in Mayfair, central London, famous for its traditional men's bespoke tailoring. The term "bespoke" is understood to have originated in Savile Row when cloth for a suit was said to "be spoken for" by individual customers...

, London, 5 November 1790. He had married, in May 1783, Susannah Norfolk one of the two daughters of Alderman Norfolk of Cambridge. She died on 5 February 1792, aged 50, and was buried in the same vault with her husband in the church of Friday Street, a white marble tablet being placed on its north wall. On the demolition of the building the remains were removed in 1883 to the City of London cemetery at Ilford.

Works

He published little, but helped others. He printed a couple of sermons (1760 and 1770), edited in 1769 ‘A Projecte conteyning the State of Governmente of the University of Cambridge, 43 Queen Elizabeth,’ in 1785 had ‘a copy of the Alexandrian New Testament printed off on fine vellum,’ and in 1790 published ‘A Short Commentary on the Lord's Prayer,’ from which Granville Sharp

Granville Sharp

Granville Sharp was one of the first English campaigners for the abolition of the slave trade. He also involved himself in trying to correct other social injustices. Sharp formulated the plan to settle blacks in Sierra Leone, and founded the St. George's Bay Company, a forerunner of the Sierra...

 in 1806 took the observations on the last two petitions as an appendix to his own work on that subject. John Carter the architect obtained his ‘first insight and encouragement’ from him.

Some of his manuscript lives were used by Alexander Chalmers

Alexander Chalmers

Alexander Chalmers was a Scottish writer.He was born in Aberdeen.Trained as a doctor, he gave up medicine for journalism, and was for some time editor of the Morning Herald...

 in his ‘Biographical Dictionary.’ James Granger

James Granger

James Granger was an English clergyman, biographer, and print collector. He is now known as the author of the Biographical History of England from Egbert the Great to the Revolution .-Life:...

 obtained his aid in his portrait-dictionary, he assisted John Nichols

John Nichols

John Nichols may refer to:* John Nichols , author of The Milagro Beanfield War* John Nichols , British diplomat and Ambassador to Switzerland* John Nichols , English cricketer...

 in the Gentleman's Magazine and in other undertakings, and he contributed to Archæologia. Letters to and from him and Cole, Thomas Percy, and Horace Walpole are in Nichols's ‘Literary Anecdotes,’ and ‘Illustrations of Literary History,’ and there are some letters and notes from him in Granger's ‘Letters.’

Lort's English verses from the ‘Gratulatio Academiæ Cantabrigiensis,’ 1748, on the peace of Aix-la-Chapelle, are reprinted in Nichols's ‘Collection of Poems,’ and another English poem by him is in Thomas Zouch

Thomas Zouch

Thomas Zouch , was an English clergyman and antiquary, best known as a student of the works and life of Izaak Walton.-Life:...

's ‘Works.’ The Greek verses in four collections of the university of Cambridge (1760–3) which bear Lort's name are reprinted in Zouch's ‘Works,’ (by whom it appears that they were written). His notes on the authorship of the Whole Duty of Man are in Nichols's ‘Literary Anecdotes,’ and his vindication of Horace Walpole with respect to Thomas Chatterton

Thomas Chatterton

Thomas Chatterton was an English poet and forger of pseudo-medieval poetry. He died of arsenic poisoning, either from a suicide attempt or self-medication for a venereal disease.-Childhood:...

is in the ‘Illustrations of Literary History,’

His books were sold from 5 April to 14 May 1791, and produced £1269, and his prints, which were disposed of on 26 May and six following days, fetched £401.