Hudson Gurney (19 January 1775 – 9 November 1864) was an English antiquary and verse-writer, also known as a politician. He was a member of the
Gurney family
A stretcher, gurney, litter, or pram is an apparatus used for moving patients who require medical care. A basic type (cot or litter) must be carried by two or more people. A wheeled stretcher (known as a gurney, trolley, bed or cart) is often ...
.
Life
Gurney was born at Norwich on 19 January 1775, the eldest son of Richard Gurney of
Keswick Hall, Norfolk, by his first wife, Agatha, daughter of
David Barclay of
Youngsbury, Hertfordshire;
[ ]Anna Gurney
Anna Gurney (1795–1857) was an English scholar, philanthropist, geologist and a member of the Gurney family of Norfolk.
Background and education
Anna Gurney was born on 31 December 1795, the youngest child of Richard Gurney and his second wi ...
was his sister. He was educated by his grandfather Barclay, by Thomas Young, and by John Hodgkin. He inherited a fortune from his father in 1811. In early life he travelled on the continent with his friend George Hamilton-Gordon, 4th Earl of Aberdeen.
Gurney was briefly M.P. for Shaftesbury
Shaftesbury () is a town and civil parish in Dorset, England. It is situated on the A30 road, west of Salisbury, near the border with Wiltshire. It is the only significant hilltop settlement in Dorset, being built about above sea level on a ...
from 1812 to 1813, the election being voided on petition. In March 1816 he was elected M.P. for Newtown, Isle of Wight, sitting in five successive parliaments until 1832. He served much on committees.
He was appointed High Sheriff of Norfolk
The high sheriff is the oldest secular office under the Crown and is appointed annually (in March) by the Crown. The High Sheriff of Norfolk was originally the principal law enforcement officer in Norfolk and presided at the assizes and other imp ...
for 1835–36. He was elected fellow of the Society of Antiquaries on 12 March 1818, and was vice-president from 1822 to 1846.Spencer, Howard and Salmon, Philip. "Gurney Hudson", The History of Parliament
/ref> He contributed to the society many hundreds of pounds for the publication of Anglo-Saxon works. He was also a Fellow of the Royal Society
Fellowship of the Royal Society (FRS, ForMemRS and HonFRS) is an award granted by the judges of the Royal Society of London to individuals who have made a "substantial contribution to the improvement of natural knowledge, including mathemat ...
(elected 15 January 1818), a member of the British Archæological Association from 1843, vice-president of the Norfolk and Norwich Archæological Society and a supporter of the Norwich Museum and Literary Institute.
Gurney lived at Keswick Hall and in St. James's Square, London, where he saw much society till the last twenty years of his life, when he suffered from ill-health. He died at Keswick Hall on 9 November 1864, and was buried in Intwood churchyard, near Norwich. He was the head of the Norfolk family of the Gurneys, and his fortune was inherited mostly by John Henry Gurney
John Henry Gurney (4 July 1819 – 20 April 1890) was an English banker, amateur ornithologist, and Liberal Party politician of the Gurney family.
Life
Gurney was the only son of Joseph John Gurney of Earlham Hall, Norwich, Norfolk. At the ...
.[
Gurney is described as having a habit of questioning everything: "he seemed never to agree with you"; but he was kind, liberal, and hospitable. He married in 1809 Margaret (d. 1855), daughter of Robert Barclay, M.P., of Ury, Kincardineshire. They had no children. Gurney's portrait (when about 20) was painted by Opie, and also, about 1840, by Briggs.][
]
Works
His first publication was a privately printed ''English History and Chronology in Rhyme''. In 1799 he published ''Cupid and Psyche'', an imitation in verse of the ''Golden Ass
The ''Metamorphoses'' of Apuleius, which Augustine of Hippo referred to as ''The Golden Ass'' (''Asinus aureus''), is the only ancient Roman novel in Latin to survive in its entirety.
The protagonist of the novel is Lucius. At the end of the ...
'' of Apuleius
Apuleius (; also called Lucius Apuleius Madaurensis; c. 124 – after 170) was a Numidian Latin-language prose writer, Platonist philosopher and rhetorician. He lived in the Roman province of Numidia, in the Berber city of Madauros, modern- ...
(also 1800, 1801, and in Bohn's Classical Library
Henry George Bohn (4 January 179622 August 1884) was a Kingdom of Great Britain, British publisher. He is principally remembered for the ''Bohn's Libraries'' which he inaugurated. These were begun in 1846, targeted the mass market, and comprised e ...
, ''Apuleius''). He also published ''Heads of Ancient History'', (1814); ''Memoir of Thomas Young, M.D.'', (1831) ''Letter to Dawson Turner on Norwich and the Venta Icenorum
Venta Icenorum (, literally "marketplace of the Iceni") was the civitas or capital of the Iceni tribe, located at modern-day Caistor St Edmund in the English county of Norfolk. The Iceni inhabited the flatlands and marshes of that county and are ...
'' (Norwich, 1847); and "Orlando Furioso" (1843), a verse translation, written in 1808, of parts of the poem. He also wrote for the ''Archæologia'', mainly on English antiquities, in vols. xviii. (on the Bayeux Tapestry), xx–xxii. xxiv. xxv. and xxx. He purchased from the widow of Samuel Woodward all his manuscripts, drawings, and books on Norfolk topography, and printed for Mrs. Woodward's benefit the ''Norfolk Topographer's Manual'' and the ''History of Norwich Castle
Norwich Castle is a medieval royal fortification in the city of Norwich, in the English county of Norfolk. William the Conqueror (1066–1087) ordered its construction in the aftermath of the Norman conquest of England. The castle was used as a ...
''.[
He possessed a library of from ten to fifteen thousand volumes, in every one of which he used to boast he had read. He left some diaries, which were not to be published for fifty years.][
]
Legacy
Between 1822 and 1830 he had presented to the British Museum Henry Jermyn's manuscript collections for the history of Suffolk; the seal of Ethelwald, bishop of Dunwich; and Roman tesselated pavements from Carthage
Carthage was the capital city of Ancient Carthage, on the eastern side of the Lake of Tunis in what is now Tunisia. Carthage was one of the most important trading hubs of the Ancient Mediterranean and one of the most affluent cities of the cla ...
.[
]
References
;Attribution
{{DEFAULTSORT:Gurney, Hudson
1775 births
1864 deaths
18th-century English people
People from Keswick, South Norfolk
English antiquarians
Members of the Parliament of the United Kingdom for English constituencies
UK MPs 1812–1818
UK MPs 1818–1820
UK MPs 1820–1826
UK MPs 1826–1830
UK MPs 1830–1831
UK MPs 1831–1832
Fellows of the Royal Society
18th-century English writers
18th-century English male writers
19th-century English writers
High Sheriffs of Norfolk
Hudson