Background
Lethieullier was born on 3 November 1701 at Aldersbrook Manor House, Little Ilford, Essex.
Lethieullier was born on 3 November 1701 at Aldersbrook Manor House, Little Ilford, Essex.
He was educated at Eton College and Trinity College, Oxford, from where he graduated Master of Arts in 1723.
Lethieullier subsequently travelled in France, Italy, Germany, and throughout Britain, and developed a passion for the study and collection of antiquities and fossils. He wrote numerous letters and papers on antiquarian topics: none were published in his lifetime, but a number appeared posthumously in Archaeologia (journal of the Society of Antiquaries), and elsewhere. His subjects included Roman remains (including those in Wanstead Park, neighbouring Aldersbrook), the Ambresbury Banks hillfort, the shrine of Street Hugh in Lincoln Cathedral, and techniques for the dating of English church monuments.
He wrote the first detailed account in English of the Bayeux Tapestry (written in 1732-1733, when he was living in Paris): it was later published as an appendix to Ducarel"s Anglo-Norman Antiquities (1767).
In 1737, on his father"s death, Lethieullier inherited Aldersbrook and began to improve the grounds, including the building of a hermitage for his collections. Lethieullier served as High Sheriff of Essex in 1758.
Lethieullier died on 27 August 1760 at Aldersbrook, and was buried in Little Ilford church.
Royal Society]
He was elected a fellow of the Royal Society (1724), the Society of Antiquaries (1725), and a member of the Spalding Gentlemen"s Society (1733).