The accompanying short Memoir was given in the “Penny Cyclopædia:”—

“STAUNTON, Sir George Leonard, was the eldest and only surviving son of Colonel George Staunton, of Cargin, in the county of Galway, Ireland, a gentleman of small fortune, but descended from a very ancient English family. He was born at Cargin, on the 19th of April, 1737, and received his education partly in Galway and partly in Dublin, until he entered his sixteenth year, when the delicate state of his health, and a tendency to consumption, rendered necessary an immediate removal to a warmer climate. His father accordingly sent him to Montpelier, in the south of France, where he remained some years, and having completed his studies in the college of that city, he took a medical degree.

“In the year 1760 he returned to England, and resided for some time in London, where he occupied himself in contributing some valuable essays to the periodical publications of that day, and formed an acquaintance with many eminent literary men of the time, especially Dr. Johnson, who, in the year 1762, upon his intended embarkation for the West Indies, wrote him a most affectionate valedictory letter. This letter is preserved in Boswell's ‘Life of Dr. Johnson,’ and bears a very high testimony to Mr. Staunton's merits at that early period.