At Oxford, he became successively student and tutor of Christ Church. In 1811, he was appointed Regius Professor of Greek in the University. Taking orders, he held the college living of Westwell, Oxfordshire, and other ecclesiastical preferments simultaneously with his professorship. In 1829, he was offered the position of Bishop of Oxford, but he turned it down. From 1831 until his death, he was Dean of Christ Church. As curator of the Bodleian Library and principal delegate of the Oxford University Press, Gaisford was instrumental in securing the co-operation of distinguished European scholars as collators, notably Bekker and Dindorf. Among his numerous contributions to Greek literature may be mentioned, Hephaestion's Encheiridion ; Poëtae minores Graeci ; Stobaeus' Florilegium ; Herodotus, with variorum notes ; Suidas's Lexicon ; Etymologicum Magnum. Eusebius's Praeparatio evangelica and Demonstratio evangelica.
Personal life
On 11 May 1815 Gaisford married Helen Margaret Douglasthe daughter of the Rev. Robert Douglas. They had five children. After she died in 1830, he married Jane Catharine Jenkyns ; she was the sister of Dr Richard Jenkyns, master of Balliol College and Dr Henry Jenkyns. On 23 June 1843, Gaisford's 21-year-old son, William Gaisford, drowned while swimming in the river Thames at Sandford Lock – a notoriously dangerous spot. He got into difficulties and his friend, Richard Phillimore, entered the water to save him. However, both men perished. They are buried in Christ Church Cathedral. They are commemorated by an obelisk at Sandford Lock and two memorial tablets in the north walk of the Cathedral cloisters.
Legacy
The Gaisford Prize was founded in Gaisford's honour in 1856, shortly after his death. Gaisford Street in Kentish Town, north London, was named in his honour.
Works
', 1806
',1810
Catalogus sive notitia manuscriptorum qui a cel. E. D. Clarke..., 1812
', 1820
Poetae graeci minores, 5 voll., 2ª ed., Lipsia, 1816-1823: , , / , , ,
Scholia in Sophoclis tragoedias septem. E codice MS. Laurentiano descripsit P. Elmsley,..., 1825
', 1832
Suidae Lexicon, 1834 ,
Paroemiographi graeci, 1836
Etymologicum magnum, 1848*
Ioannis Stobaei Eclogarum physicarum et ethicarum libri duo ad mss..., 1850
Suidae Lexicon, Graece et Latine, 1853 ,
Quotations
"Nor can I do better, in conclusion, than impress upon you the study of Greek literature, which not only elevates above the vulgar herd, but leads not infrequently to positions of considerable emolument." –Th. Gaisford, Christmas Day Sermon in the Cathedral, Oxford
"It was said that Gaisford, on his visit to Germany, had some difficulty in escaping from the 'umarmung' of some of its scholars, exclaiming 'Ohe ! jam satis, amice'." G.V. Cox, Recollections of Oxford, London : Macmillan, 1870, p. 411, fn. 3. 'Ohe ! jam satis, amice' means idiomatically : 'Oh, that's quite enough, my friend.' The quotation derives with amendment from Abraham Cowley's Naufragium Joculare , 1638, Act 1, sc. 6.
