Biography

Arundell was born at Launceston, Cornwall

Cornwall

Cornwall is a unitary authority and ceremonial county of England, within the United Kingdom. It is bordered to the north and west by the Celtic Sea, to the south by the English Channel, and to the east by the county of Devon, over the River Tamar. Cornwall has a population of , and covers an area of...

 in July 1780, being the only son of Thomas Jago, a solicitor in that town, who married Catherine, a daughter of Mr. Bolt, a surgeon at Launceston. Francis was educated at Liskeard Grammar School

Liskeard Grammar School

Liskeard Grammar School in Liskeard, Cornwall dates back to 1550. In its most recent incarnation it was originally known as the County School, and was built by the Cornwall Education Committee. It opened in Old Road, Liskeard in 1908....

 and at Exeter College, Oxford

Exeter College, Oxford

Exeter College is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in England and the fourth oldest college of the University. The main entrance is on the east side of Turl Street...

, where he took the degree of M.A. in 1809, and after having been ordained in the English church he took a curacy at Antony

Antony, Cornwall

Antony is a coastal civil parish and a village in Cornwall, England, United Kingdom.The village is situated on the Rame Peninsula about three miles west of Torpoint and has a shop, a pub and a garage....

 in his native county.

From youth to old age Arundell was imbued with a love of antiquarian study, and after his institution in 1805 to the rectory of Landulph

Landulph

Landulph is a hamlet and a rural civil parish in south-east Cornwall, United Kingdom. It is situated about 3 miles north of Saltash in the St Germans Registration District....

 on the banks of the Tamar

River Tamar

The Tamar is a river in South West England, that forms most of the border between Devon and Cornwall . It is one of several British rivers whose ancient name is assumed to be derived from a prehistoric river word apparently meaning "dark flowing" and which it shares with the River Thames.The...

, he threw himself with avidity into the history of Cornwall. When Nicholas Condy

Nicholas Condy

Nicholas Condy [or Cundy] was an English landscape painter.Condy is supposed to have been born at Torpoint, in the then parish of Antony East, Cornwall, in 1793, but no entry of his baptism is to be found in the register kept at Antony Church...

, an artist at Plymouth, published a series of views of Cotehele

Cotehele

Cotehele, , is a mediaeval/Tudor house located in the parish of Calstock, Cornwall, England, UK. In Cornish the placename is Koesheyl . Probably originating circa 1300, the main phases of building appear to have been by Sir Richard Edgcumbe from 1485–89 and his son, Sir Piers Edgcumbe, from...

, the ancient seat of Lord Mount Edgcumbe, Arundell supplied the description of the house which accompanied them. He was elected a Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries of London in 1811, but removed from the fellowship in 1845, for being 28 years behind in his subscription.

In the church of Landulph is a brass to the memory of Theodoro Palaeologus, descended from the last of the Christian emperors of Greece, who died on 21 January 1636-7, and an account of this inscription, and of the person whom it commemorated, was printed by Jago in the volume of the Archæologia for 1817, and reprinted in Davies Gilbert

Davies Gilbert

Davies Gilbert FRS was a British engineer, author, and politician. He was elected to the Royal Society on 17 November 1791 and served as President of the Royal Society from 1827 to 1830....

's Cornwall (iii, 365), This paper was afterwards amplified into Some Notice of the Church of Landulph, which was published in 1840, and a reprint of which, with additions by Polsue of Bodmin, was announced some years ago. One of Arundell's ancestors married a co-heiress of John Arundell of Trevarnoe, and Jago assumed that name in addition to his own on 25 February 1815. Next year (17 October) he married Anna Maria, second daughter of Isaac Morier, consul-general at Constantinople

Constantinople

Constantinople was the capital of the Roman, Eastern Roman, Byzantine, Latin, and Ottoman Empires. Throughout most of the Middle Ages, Constantinople was Europe's largest and wealthiest city.-Names:...

, and sister of James Morier, the author of Hajji Baba.

After this marriage, Arundell turned his thoughts towards the East, and became in 1822 the chaplain to the British factory at Smyrna

Smyrna

Smyrna was an ancient city located at a central and strategic point on the Aegean coast of Anatolia. Thanks to its advantageous port conditions, its ease of defence and its good inland connections, Smyrna rose to prominence. The ancient city is located at two sites within modern İzmir, Turkey...

, where he remained for fourteen years. With characteristic energy he began, very soon after settling at Smyrna, to arrange a tour of exploration in Asia Minor

Asia Minor

Asia Minor is a geographical location at the westernmost protrusion of Asia, also called Anatolia, and corresponds to the western two thirds of the Asian part of Turkey...

. The months from March to September 1826 were spent in a pilgrimage to the seven churches of Asia

Seven churches of Asia

The Seven Churches of Revelation, also known as The Seven Churches of the Apocalypse and The Seven Churches of Asia , are seven major churches of Early Christianity, as mentioned in the New Testament Book of Revelation and written to by Ignatius of Antioch...

 and an excursion into Pisidia

Pisidia

Pisidia was a region of ancient Asia Minor located north of Lycia, and bordering Caria, Lydia, Phrygia and Pamphylia. It corresponds roughly to the modern-day province of Antalya in Turkey...

, a narrative of which was issued in 1828. This book was very favourably received.

Encouraged by his published success, Arundell ventured in 1833 upon another tour of 1,000 miles through districts the greater part of which had hitherto not been described by any European traveller, when he made an especial study of the ruins of Antioch in Pisidia. Two volumes describing these discoveries were published in 1834. Although he made a third tour in 1835 and 1836 through Palestine, no account of his travels was published.

Whilst residing at Smyrna, Arundell made large collections of antiquities, coins, and manuscripts; on his return to England the coins were sold to the British Museum

British Museum

The British Museum is a museum of human history and culture in London. Its collections, which number more than seven million objects, are amongst the largest and most comprehensive in the world and originate from all continents, illustrating and documenting the story of human culture from its...

. He gave great assistance to the brothers Lysons in their history of Cornwall, and at one time contemplated the publication of a history of that county on his own account. It has even been said that some plates were engraved for it. The materials which he collected for histories of Smyrna and of his native town of Launceston were never used, and are probably lost. He died at Landulph on 5 December 1846, and was buried in its church, not far from the tomb of Palæologus. His widow died in Osnaburgh Street, London, on 2 June 1869, aged 80.