A British antiquary who first recognized the antiquity of Palaeolithic flint artifacts. His flint weapon finds in the Hoxne brick-earth pit in Suffolk in association with bones of extinct mammals in an undisturbed deep stratum was reported in 1797. Frere recognized that the implements were man-made, 'fabricated and used by a people who had not the use of metals', and suggested that they should be referred to 'a very remote period indeed; even beyond that of the present world'. His ideas were in advance of his time, and his conclusions were ignored largely because they contradicted the accepted Creation date of 4004 BC.