Edward, a celebrated antiquary, was the son of Charles Lhuyd, Esq. of Llanvorde, Shropshire, the descendant of an ancient Welsh family, and was born in Wales about 1670. Having entered Jesus College, Oxford, in 1687, he applied himself to the study of natural history, and particularly of fossils, under Dr Plot, whom he succeeded, in 1690, as keeper of the Ashmolean Museum. He took his degree of Master of Arts in 1701. Bent upon discovering the antiquities of the primitive Britons, he made several journeys through Wales, Cornwall, Scotland, Ireland, and Basque-Bretagne, perusing old manuscripts, transcribing the ancient charters of monasteries, and, in addition to the particular information he desired, collecting many curious notes on natural history, and other subjects, which were afterwards inserted in the Philosophical Transactions. Many of his researches concerning Wales were inserted by Bishop Gibson, in his edition of Camden's Britannia. The great mass, however, of his discoveries was published at Oxford in 1707, under the title of Archaeologia Britannica, an account of the language, histories, and customs of the original inhabitants of Great Britain, which contains an Irish-English Dictionary, the outline of a larger one which he left in manuscript. His work Lithophylacii Britannici Ichnographia, was published at London in 1699, and reprinted by Mr Huddesford in 1760. Lhuyd died in 1709.