Thomas Leland (1722 - 1785) was an Irish historian, translator and academic and the author of the early gothic novel "Longsword, Earl of Salisbury: An Historical Romance", published in 1762.[1]
He was born in Dublin and educated at Trinity College, where he became Professor of Oratory in 1763. He translated the Orations of Demosthenes in three volumes and wrote a life of Philip of Macedon in 1758. He wrote an influential "History of Ireland from the Invasion of Henry II" in 1773. His portrait, by John Dean, is held by the National Portrait Gallery.[2]