DOUCE, Francis (1762-1834), an English antiquarian, born in 1762, was the son of one of the six clerks of Chancery. After completing his education he entered his father’s office, but quitted it after a short time, and devoted himself to the collection and study of antiquities. He became a prominent member of the Society of Antiquaries, and maintained an active correspondence with most of the leading antiquaries of his day. For a time he held the post of keeper of manuscripts in the British Museum, but he was compelled to resign it owing to a quarrel with one of the trustees. In 1807 he published his Illustrations of Shakespeare and Ancient Manners (2 vols. 8vo), which contained some curious information, along with a great deal of trifling criticism and mistaken interpretation. An unfavourable notice of the work in the Edinburgh Revieιv greatly irritated the author, and made him unw illing to venture any further publications. He contributed, however, a considerable number of papers to the Archaeologia and the Gentlemen's Magazine. In 1833 he published a Dissertation on the various Designs of the Dance of Death, the substance of which had appeared forty years before. He died on the 30th March 1834. By his will he left his printed books, illuminated manuscripts, coins, &c., to the Bodleian Library; his own manuscript works to the British Museum, with directions that they should not be opened until 1900; and his paintings, carvings, and miscellaneous antiquities to Sir Samuel Meyrick, who published an account of them, entitled The Doucean Museum.