MARTIN, an eminent English antiquary, was born at London in 1690. At the age of seventeen he was entered of Clarehall, Cambridge, where he distinguished himself so much in mathematics, that when only twenty-three years of age he was chosen a fellow of the Royal Society. Newton, the president of that body, secured his election as one of the vice-presidents; and on the death of that great philosopher, Folkes became a candidate for the presidency, but without success, as the higher standing and superior influence of Sir Hans Sloane carried the election against him. In 1733 he set out on a tour through Italy, in the course of which he composed his admirable "Dissertations on the Weights and Values of Ancient Coins," which he read before the Society of Antiquaries. Before that same body he read in 1736 his "Observations on the Trajan and Antonine Pillars at Rome," a work which was afterwards printed. In that same year he communicated to this same society his "Table of English Gold Coins from the 18th year of King Edward III., when gold was first coined in England, to the present time, with their Weights and Intrinsic Values:" and in 1745 he printed this work along with another on the history of silver coinage. In 1741 Folkes succeeded Sir Hans Sloane as president of the Royal Society; in the following year he was made a member of the French Academy; and 1746 was honoured with the degree of LL.D. from Cambridge and Oxford. He died in 1754.