Philologist, clergyman, author and librarian, born at Otley, Yorkshire, the son of a paper manufacturer. His early extraordinary facility with languages convinced him he had no wish to enter his father’s business and he became a schoolmaster in 1811, before being ordained in 1813. Garnett was curate of Blackburn and assistant-master of the grammar school 1818–1826, then held a number of other preferments until he became assistant keeper of printed books at the British Museum in 1838. He first became widely known through his attacks on the Catholic Church, especially its belief in miracles, in 1828. In the mid-1830s he played a key role in introducing German philological research to Britain. Garnett first wrote to Southey in 1822, and on a variety of subjects from ghosts to Spanish ballads, and the two men corresponded again in 1826–1827 on the Catholic Church, Garnett providing Southey with information for his Vindicæ Ecclesiæ Anglicanæ. Letters to Charles Butler, Esq. comprising Essays on the Romish Religion and Vindicating The Book of the Church (1826). Southey also provided Garnett with an introduction to Sharon Turner.