He was the second and only surviving son of
Sir John Strange, by his wife Susan, eldest daughter of Edward Strong of Greenwich, born at Barnet in 1732. He was educated privately and at
Clare Hall, Cambridge where he was admitted a fellow-commoner in 1751; he graduated M.A. in 1755. On his father's death he saw through the press the volume of
Reports published in 1755. He was left very well off, and on leaving Cambridge travelled extensively in the south of France and Italy. Developing a taste for science and archaeology, Strange was elected a
Fellow of the Royal Society on 10 April, and admitted to the Royal Society on 24 April 1766. Shortly afterwards he was elected
F.S.A., and as the result of a summer spent in South Wales in 1768, he contributed to the first number of the
Archæologia "An Account of Roman Remains in and near the City of Brecknock". In 1771 he made an archaeological tour in the north of Italy. At Padua he formed the acquaintance of
Alberto Fortis, who had recently returned from an exploration of Zara, Spalato, and other towns upon the Dalmatian coast. In November 1773 he was appointed British resident at Venice, where his official duties left leisure for the pursuit of his antiquarian studies. He resigned his diplomatic post in 1788, and settled at Ridge, near Barnet. But he paid several further visits to Italy in connection with the transportation of the collections that he had formed there, of books, manuscripts, antiquities, and pictures, chiefly by Bellini and other Venetian masters. On 4 July 1793 he was created an honorary
D.C.L. at Oxford. He died at Ridge on 19 March 1799. ==Works==