MATY, MATTHEW, an eminent physician and police writer, was born in Holland in the year 1718. He was the son of a clergyman, and was originally intended for the church; but, in consequence of some mortifications his father met with from the synod on account of the peculiar sentiments he entertained respecting the doctrine of the Trinity, he turned his thoughts to physic. Maty took his degree of doctor of physic at Leyden, and in 1740 came to settle in England, his father having determined to quit Holland for ever. In order to make himself known, he began in 1749 to publish, in French, an account of the productions of the English press, printed at the Hague, under the name of the Journal Britannique. This journal,
which continues to hold its rank amongst the best of those which have appeared since the time of Bayle, answered the end he had intended by it, and introduced him to the acquaintance of some of the most respectable literary characters of the country he had made his own. It was to their active and uninterrupted friendship that he owed the places he afterwards possessed. In 1758 he was chosen fellow, and in 1765, on the resignation of Dr Birch, who died a few months afterwards, and had made him his executor, secretary to the Royal Society. He had been appointed one of the under librarians of the British Museum at its first institution in 1759, and became principal librarian on the death of Dr Knight in 1772. Useful in all these situations, he promised to be eminently so in the last, when he was seized with a languishing disorder, which in 1776 put an end to a life that had been uniformly devoted to the pursuits of science and the offices of humanity. He was an early and an active advocate for inoculation; and when there was a doubt entertained that one might have the small-pox this way a second time, he tried it upon himself unknown to his family. He was a member of the medical club (along with Drs Parsons, Templeman, Fothergill, Watson, and others) which met every fortnight in St Paul's Churchyard. He was twice married, and left a son and three daughters. He had nearly finished the Memoirs of the Earl of Chesterfield, which were completed by his son-in-law, Mr Justamond, and prefixed to that nobleman's Miscellaneous Works, 1777, in two vols. 4to.