Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Izacke, Richard
IZACKE, RICHARD (1624?–1698), antiquary, born about 1624, was the eldest son of Samuel Izacke of Exeter, and apparently a member of the Inner Temple (1617). On 20 April 1641 he was admitted a commoner of Exeter College, Oxford, but left the university at the end of the following year on account of the civil war. He had in the meantime entered himself at the Inner Temple (November 1641), and was called to the bar in 1650 (Cooke, Inner Temple Students, 1547–1660, pp. 218, 310). In 1653 he became chamberlain of Exeter, and town-clerk about 1682 (Wood, Athenæ Oxon. ed. Bliss, iv. 489). His father, to whom he had behaved badly, left him at his death in 1681 or 1682 a house in Trinity parish, Exeter, and leasehold property in Tipton, Ottery St. Mary, on condition of his future good conduct towards his stepmother, brothers, and sisters (will registered in P.C.C. 34, Cottle). Izacke was buried in the church of Ottery St. Mary, 18 March 1697–1698. By his wife Katherine he had, with other issue, a son, Samuel, who also became chamberlain of Exeter. He wrote: 1. ‘ Antiquities of the City of Exeter,’ 8vo, London, 1677 (with different title-page, 1681). Other editions, ‘improved and continued’ by his son, Samuel Izacke, were issued in 1723, 1724, 1731, 1734, and 1741. The book is a careless compilation. 2. ‘An Alphabetical Register of divers Persons, who by their last Wills, Grants, … and other Deeds, &c., have given Tenements, Rents, Annuities, and Monies towards the Relief of the Poor of the County of Devon and City and County of Exon,’ 8vo, London, 1736, printed from the original manuscript by Samuel Izacke, the author's grandson. It was reprinted with another title, ‘Rights and Priviledges of the Freemen of Exeter,’ &c., 8vo, London, 1751 and 1757; and enlarged editions were published at Exeter, 1785, 4to, and 1820, 8vo.
[Gough's British Topography, i. 305; Davidson's Bibl. Devon.]