(George), a clergyman of the church of England, and author of several learned works, was born about the year 1710. He was educated at Wadham College, Oxford; and took the degree of M.A. in 1733. The first ecclesiastical situation in which he was placed was that of curate of Islip in Oxfordshire. In 1747 he published, in 8vo, Some Observations tending to illustrate the Book of Job. In 1750 he published Two Dissertations: I. On the meaning of the Word Kefiah, mentioned in Job, chap. xlii. ver. ii. II. On the Signification of the Word Hermes. In 1752 he published, in 8vo, at Oxford, Dissertations II. Critico-Sacrae, quarum prima explicatur Ezek. xiii. 18. Altera vero, 2 Reg. x. 22. In 1755 he wrote a letter to Dr Birch, which is preserved in the British Museum, respecting the meaning of the phrase sphaera barbarica. Some time after this he undertook to publish a second edition of Dr Hyde's Historia Religionis veterum Periarum, eorumque Magorum; and which was accordingly printed, under his inspection, and with his corrections, at the Clarendon Press at Oxford, in 4to, in 1760. Mr Costard's extensive learning having now recommended him to the notice of Lord Chancellor Northington, he obtained, by the favour of that nobleman, in June 1764, the vicarage of Twickenham in Middlesex; in which situation he continued till his death. In 1767 he published, in one volume quarto, The History of Astronomy, with its application to Geography, History, and Chronology; COSTIVENESS occasionally exemplified by the Globes. This work was chiefly intended for the use of students, and contains a full and distinct view of the several improvements made in geography and astronomy. Mr Costard has shown, "by a gradual deduction, at what time, and by whom, the principal discoveries have been made in geography and astronomy; how each discovery has paved the way to what followed; and by what easy steps, through the revolution of so many ages, these very useful sciences have advanced towards their present state of perfection." In 1778 he published, in 8vo, A Letter to Nathaniel Baffey Halhead, Esq; containing some Remarks on his Preface to the Code of Gentoo Laws. This appears to have been the last of his publications. It contains some criticisms which were intended to invalidate the opinion which Mr Halhead had conceived concerning the great antiquity of the Gentoo laws; and some arguments against a notion which had been adopted by several writers, drawn from the observation of natural phenomena, that the world is far more ancient than it is represented to be by the Hebrew chronology. Mr Costard died on the 10th of January 1782. He was a man of uncommon learning, and eminently skilled in Grecian and oriental literature. His private character was amiable, and he was much respected in the neighbourhood in which he lived for his humanity and benevolence.—Besides the works already mentioned, he wrote some others; and was also the author of learned papers, inserted in the Philosophical Transactions, on astronomical and chronological subjects.