Bryant, Jacob

Bryant, Jacob was born at Plymouth in 1715, and graduated at King's College, Cambridge, 1740. The Duke of Marlborough gave him a lucrative place in the Ordnance Department. He settled at Cypenham, in Berkshire, and died Nov. 14, 1804, of a mortification in the leg, occasioned by falling from a chair in getting a book in his library. Bryant was an indefatigable and a learned writer, but fond of paradox. His writings are often acute, but at the same time eccentric and fanciful. He wrote one work to maintain the authenticity of the pseudo Rowley's poems (1781, 2 vols. 12mo), and another to prove that Troy never existed (1796, 4to). His principal production is a New System or Analysis of Ancient Mythology (Lond. 1774, 1776, 3 vols. 4to; 3d ed. Lond. 1807, 6 vols., 8vo), and among his other works are Observations relative to Ancient History (Camb. 1787, 4to): — A Treatise on the Authenticity of the Scriptures (Lond. 1792, 8vo):Observations on the Plagues of Egypt (Lond. 1794, 8vo): — and Observations on the Prophecy of Balaam, etc. Lond. 1803, 4to). — Davenport, s.v.; Darling, s.v.