The Reverend Thomas Hues, vicar of Lacock in Wiltshire, formerly served with the English military forces in Mauritania. While examining some ancient objects in Tangiers, he happened upon a stone clearly inscribed with Arabic characters, which recorded the foundation of the local Turkish church and its annual revenues. He took it back with him on his return home, and at his death, bequeathed it to the University of Oxford, where he had once been a student.