Henry Maxwell Lyte
English historian and archivist (1848-1940)
Sir Henry Churchill Maxwell Lyte (or Maxwell-Lyte) (29 May 1848 – 28 October 1940) was an English historian and archivist. He served as Deputy Keeper of the Public Records from 1886 to 1926, and was the author of numerous books including a history of Eton College.
Family
Maxwell Lyte was born on 29 May 1848 in London, to John Walker Maxwell Lyte and his wife Emily Jeanette Lyte. He was the grandson of Henry Francis Lyte. He was educated at Eton College and at Christ Church, Oxford, taking a B.A. Honours degree(s) in Law and History, later promoted by seniority to M.A. He married Frances Fownes Somerville on 3 January 1871 in Wells, Somerset. Their children were Agnes (22 October 1871); Edith (30 October 1872); Margaret (27 March 1874); John (15 June 1875); Walter (4 March 1877); and Arthur (10 April 1881), who was educated at Eton and Magdalen College, Oxford, and in 1936 became an assistant secretary of the Board of Education.
Early career
Maxwell Lyte published his first book, A History of Eton College, in 1875. In 1880 and 1881 he wrote a series of papers on Dunster and its Lords for the Archaeological Journal, which were later reprinted as a book. In 1886, he published History of the University of Oxford from the earliest times to the year 1530. For several years Maxwell Lyte was an inspector of the Royal Commission on Historical Manuscripts.
The public source identifies “Henry Maxwell Lyte” as english historian and archivist (1848-1940). This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Henry, Maxwell and Lyte.
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Biographical claims are most persuasive when dates, appointments and relationships can be traced to records created close to the events described. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 1, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q5725631. VIAF identifies the subject as 76309262. The Library of Congress control number is nr92004097. 3 of 3 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1848, 1940, 1886 and 1926.
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This entry incorporates text from “Henry Maxwell Lyte” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.