Joseph Ayloffe 1709/10-1781

Sir Joseph AYLOFFE, 6th baronet 1709/10-1781

Biographical Note

Son of Joseph Ayloffe, barrister, of Gray's Inn. Matriculated at St John's College, Oxford 1726, but did not graduate; he entered Lincoln's Inn where he became a barrister in 1730, the year in which he inherited a baronetcy from a cousin. He became clerk to the commissioners for building Westminster Bridge in 1736 and later worked in the State Paper Office in Whitehall. He developed extensive antiquarian interests and published various editions of charters and older documents, alongside proposals for other works which never appeared (including a history of Suffolk). His review journal, The Universal Librarian, appeared in only one issue in 1751. He became a fellow of the Royal Society in 1731 and of the Society of Antiquaries in 1732.

Books

Ayloffe used an engraved armorial bookplate (Franks 1023); the extent of his library is not known. Some of his prints and manuscripts were auctioned in London, 25 February 1782.

Sources

• Alston, R. C., Inventory of sale cataklogues ... 1676-1800, St Philip, 2010.
• Gambier Howe, E. R. J. Franks bequest: catalogue of British and American book plates bequeathed to the ... British Museum. London, 1903-4.
• Nurse, Bernard."Ayloffe, Sir Joseph, sixth baronet (1709/10–1781), antiquary." Oxford Dictionary of National Biography.