Sir Charles Edmund Isham, 10th Baronet (16 December 1819 – 7 April 1903) was an English landowner and gardener based at

Lamport Hall Lamport Hall in Lamport, Northamptonshire is a fine example of a Grade I Listed House. It was developed from a Tudor Manor but is now notable for its classical frontage. The Hall contains an outstanding collection of books, paintings and furnitu ...

Northampton Northampton () is a market town and civil parish in the East Midlands of England, on the River Nene, north-west of London and south-east of Birmingham. The county town of Northamptonshire, Northampton is one of the largest towns in England; ...

. He is credited with beginning the tradition of

garden gnomes Garden gnomes (german: links=no, Gartenzwerge, lit=garden dwarfs) are lawn ornament figurines of small humanoid creatures based on the mythological creature and diminutive spirit which occur in Renaissance magic and alchemy, known as gnomes. T ...

in the

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotland, Wales and North ...

when he introduced a number of

terracotta Terracotta, terra cotta, or terra-cotta (; ; ), in its material sense as an earthenware substrate, is a clay-based ceramic glaze, unglazed or glazed ceramic where the pottery firing, fired body is porous. In applied art, craft, construction, a ...

figures from

Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...

in the 1840s. Bruce A. Bailey, ‘Isham, Sir Charles Edmund, tenth baronet (1819–1903)’,

Oxford Dictionary of National Biography The ''Dictionary of National Biography'' (''DNB'') is a standard work of reference on notable figures from British history, published since 1885. The updated ''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography'' (''ODNB'') was published on 23 September ...

, Oxford University Press, 2004 Nicknamed "Lampy", the only gnome of the original batch to survive is on display at Lamport Hall and insured for £1 million.

Biography

Isham was educated at

Rugby School Rugby School is a public school (English independent boarding school for pupils aged 13–18) in Rugby, Warwickshire, England. Founded in 1567 as a free grammar school for local boys, it is one of the oldest independent schools in Britain. Up ...

and

Brasenose College Brasenose College (BNC) is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in the United Kingdom. It began as Brasenose Hall in the 13th century, before being founded as a college in 1509. The library and chapel were added in the m ...

, Oxford. In 1846, on the death of his elder brother, he succeeded to the

baronetcy A baronet ( or ; abbreviated Bart or Bt) or the female equivalent, a baronetess (, , or ; abbreviation Btss), is the holder of a baronetcy, a hereditary title awarded by the British Crown. The title of baronet is mentioned as early as the 14th ...

. He is recorded as being the

High Sheriff of Northamptonshire This is a list of the High Sheriffs of Northamptonshire. The High Sheriff is the oldest secular office under the Crown. Formerly the High Sheriff was the principal law enforcement officer in the county but over the centuries most of the respo ...

in 1851. In 1847, inspired by the writings of

John Claudius Loudon John Claudius Loudon (8 April 1783 – 14 December 1843) was a Scottish botanist, garden designer and author. He was the first to use the term arboretum in writing to refer to a garden of plants, especially trees, collected for the purpose of ...

, landscape gardener and horticulturalist, he commenced construction of a large rockery alongside his house. It was in this rockery that he first placed gnomes from

Nuremberg Nuremberg ( ; german: link=no, Nürnberg ; in the local East Franconian dialect: ''Nämberch'' ) is the second-largest city of the German state of Bavaria after its capital Munich, and its 518,370 (2019) inhabitants make it the 14th-largest ...

as ornamentation. Isham married Emily Vaughan, daughter of Sir John Vaughan and his wife Louisa Boughton on 26 October 1847. Emily died on 6 September 1898 aged 74. Sir Charles had three daughters and no sons. The baronetcy, and the entailed estate including Lamport Hall, was inherited by Sir Vere Isham, 11th Baronet, his first cousin once removed. Isham died at The Bungalow,

Horsham Horsham is a market town on the upper reaches of the River Arun on the fringe of the Weald in West Sussex, England. The town is south south-west of London, north-west of Brighton and north-east of the county town of Chichester. Nearby to ...

, Sussex at the age of 83.

Isham Collection

In 1867 several extremely rare books and manuscripts were rediscovered in the library and loft of his family home.

The Times ''The Times'' is a British daily national newspaper based in London. It began in 1785 under the title ''The Daily Universal Register'', adopting its current name on 1 January 1788. ''The Times'' and its sister paper ''The Sunday Times'' (fou ...

, 7 February 1922; p14; ''The Sale Room. Rarities From The Britwell Court Library'' These included a fragment of Thomas Edwards' '' Cephalus and Procris; Narcissus'' which had been lost for 200 years and was the only existing part until a full copy was subsequently discovered at the

Cathedral Library at Peterborough Peterborough Cathedral, properly the Cathedral Church of St Peter, St Paul and St Andrew – also known as Saint Peter's Cathedral in the United Kingdom – is the seat of the Church of England, Anglican Bishop of Peterborough, dedicated to Sain ...

Charlotte Carmichael Stopes Charlotte Brown Carmichael Stopes (née Carmichael; 5 February 1840 – 6 February 1929), also known as C. C. Stopes, was a British scholar, author, and campaigner for women's rights. She also published several books relating to the life and wor ...

; ''Thomas Edwards, Author of "Cephalus and Procris, Narcissus";'' The Modern Language Review, Vol. 16, No. 3/4 (Jul. - Oct., 1921), pp. 209-223 Also discovered were first editions of Milton's ''

Paradise Lost ''Paradise Lost'' is an epic poem in blank verse by the 17th-century English poet John Milton (1608–1674). The first version, published in 1667, consists of ten books with over ten thousand lines of verse (poetry), verse. A second edition fo ...

'' and ''

Paradise Regained ''Paradise Regained'' is a poem by English poet John Milton, first published in 1671. The volume in which it appeared also contained the poet's closet drama ''Samson Agonistes''. ''Paradise Regained'' is connected by name to his earlier and ...

'' in their original sheepskin bindings.The Times, 27 November 1935; p11; '' The Sale Room Disposal Of Terry Library'' Further discoveries included: *Emaricdulfe (1598) by E.C. Esquire *Fidessa (1596) by

Bartholomew Griffin Bartholomew Griffin (fl. 1596) was an English poet. He is known for his ''Fidessa'' sequence of sonnets, published in 1596. Works In August 1572 the Queen made a progress to Warwick, spending several days at Kenilworth Castle as guest of the Earl ...

*Laura (1597) by

Robert Tofte Robert Tofte (bap. 1562 – d. Jan. 1620) was an English translator and poet. He is known for his translations of Ariosto's ''Satires'' and his sonnet sequences ''Alba, The Months Minde of a Melancholy Lover'' (1598) and ''Laura, The Toyes of a ...

*Cynthia (1598) by

Richard Barnfield Richard Barnfield (baptized 29 June 1574 – 1620) was an English poet. His obscure though close relationship with William Shakespeare has long made him interesting to scholars. It has been suggested that he was the " rival poet" mentioned in ...

for each of which only one or two other copies were known. The above four works found their way into the

Britwell Court Library William Henry Miller (1789 – 31 October 1848) was a Scottish book collector and parliamentarian. He sat in the House of Commons from 1830 to 1837. His life Miller the only child of William Miller of Craigentinny, Midlothian, was born in 1789 ...

before being sold in February 1922 to A.S.W. Rosenbach for £3,600.

Personal life

Isham was teetotal, vegetarian and a non-smoker.Willes, Margaret. (2014). ''The Gardens of the British Working Class''. Yale University Press. p. 254. ISBN He opposed

blood sport A blood sport or bloodsport is a category of sport or entertainment that involves bloodshed. Common examples of the former include combat sports such as cockfighting and dog fighting, and some forms of hunting and fishing. Activities char ...

s and enjoyed spending his time working on the rockery in his garden and looking after the employees on his estate. Isham was a convinced

spiritualist Spiritualism is the metaphysical school of thought opposing physicalism and also is the category of all spiritual beliefs/views (in monism and dualism) from ancient to modern. In the long nineteenth century The ''long nineteenth century'' i ...

. He was a member of the

British National Association of Spiritualists The College of Psychic Studies (founded in 1884 as the London Spiritualist Alliance) is a non-profit organisation based in South Kensington, London. It is dedicated to the study of psychic and spiritualist phenomena. History British National Assoc ...

. Spence, Lewis. (2006 edition, originally published 1920). ''An Encyclopaedia of Occultism''. Cosimo. p. 80.

Publications

''Sir Charles Isham on Spiritualism''
(1856)
''A Lamport Garland From the Library of Sir Charles Edmund Isham''
(1881)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Isham, Charles, 10th Baronet 1819 births 1903 deaths Alumni of Brasenose College, Oxford Baronets in the Baronetage of England English spiritualists High Sheriffs of Northamptonshire