Sir Richard Colt Hoare, 2nd Baronet
FRS (9 December 1758 – 19 May 1838)
was an English
antiquarian
An antiquarian or antiquary () is an fan (person), aficionado or student of antiquities or things of the past. More specifically, the term is used for those who study history with particular attention to ancient artifact (archaeology), artifac ...
,
archaeologist
Archaeology or archeology is the scientific study of human activity through the recovery and analysis of material culture. The archaeological record consists of artifacts, architecture, biofacts or ecofacts, sites, and cultural landscap ...
, artist, and traveller of the 18th and 19th centuries, the first major figure in the detailed study of the history of his home county of
Wiltshire
Wiltshire (; abbreviated Wilts) is a historic and ceremonial county in South West England with an area of . It is landlocked and borders the counties of Dorset to the southwest, Somerset to the west, Hampshire to the southeast, Gloucestershire ...
.
Career and personal life
Hoare was born in
Barnes, Surrey
Barnes () is a district in south London, part of the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames, England. It takes up the extreme north-east of the borough, and as such is the closest part of the borough to central London. It is centred west south ...
, and was descended from
Sir Richard Hoare,
Lord Mayor of London
The Lord Mayor of London is the mayor of the City of London and the leader of the City of London Corporation. Within the City, the Lord Mayor is accorded precedence over all individuals except the sovereign and retains various traditional powe ...
, the founder of the family banking business,
Hoare's Bank
C. Hoare & Co., also known as Hoares, is a British private bank, founded in 1672 by Sir Richard Hoare; it is currently owned and led by the eleventh generation of his direct descendants. It is the second oldest bank in the United Kingdom and rep ...
. His parents were Sir Richard Hoare, 1st Baronet (1735–1787) and Anne Hoare (1737–1759). He was educated at preparatory school at Mr. Devis's school, Wandsworth, and afterwards at
Samuel Glasse's school at Greenford, and was taught the Classics by the Rev. Joseph Eyre.
In 1783 Hoare married Hester, daughter of
William Lyttelton, 1st Baron Lyttelton
William Henry Lyttelton, 1st Baron Lyttelton MP (24 December 1724 – 14 September 1808) was a British peer, politician, and colonial administrator from the Lyttelton family. He was the youngest son of Sir Thomas Lyttelton, 4th Baronet.
Bi ...
. In 1785 he inherited the large
Stourhead
Stourhead () is a 1,072-hectare (2,650-acre) estate at the source of the River Stour in the southwest of the English county of Wiltshire, extending into Somerset. The estate is about northwest of the town of Mere and includes a Grade I listed ...
estate in Wiltshire from his grandfather,
Henry Hoare II, which enabled him to pursue his interests including the archaeological studies for which he had already shown an inclination. His inheritance came with the condition that he left the family's banking business, since Henry Hoare II wished to ensure the survival of the estate if the family's other business suffered eventual hardships.
In 1785, Hoare's wife died following the birth of their second child, who also died. Having lost his wife and previous career, he embarked on a
continental tour to France, Italy and Switzerland. In 1786 he purchased
Glastonbury Tor
Glastonbury Tor is a hill near Glastonbury in the English county of Somerset, topped by the roofless St Michael's Tower, a Grade I listed building. The entire site is managed by the National Trust and has been designated a scheduled monument. T ...
and funded the restoration of the church tower on it.
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 ...
in 1787, and in 1788 made a second continental tour, the record of his travels appearing in 1815 and 1819 under the titles ''Recollections Abroad'' and ''A Classical Tour through Italy and Sicily''. He took numerous views during his travels in the form of sketches from which he later produced mainly sepia wash drawings, along with a smaller number of watercolours. His tutor
John 'Warwick' Smith, and the painter
Francis Nicholson
Lieutenant-General Francis Nicholson (12 November 1655 – ) was a British Army general and colonial official who served as the Governor of South Carolina from 1721 to 1725. He previously was the Governor of Nova Scotia from 1712 to 1715, the ...
, were also commissioned to produce coloured reductions from some of his continental sketches. Bound in volumes, many of these were dispersed in the Stourhead sales of the 1880s.
A journey through
Wales
Wales ( cy, Cymru ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is bordered by England to the Wales–England border, east, the Irish Sea to the north and west, the Celtic Sea to the south west and the ...
was followed by a translation of the ''
Itinerarium Cambriae
The ''Itinerarium Cambriae'' ("The Itinerary Through Wales") is a medieval account of a journey made by Gerald of Wales, written in Latin.
Gerald was selected to accompany the Archbishop of Canterbury, Baldwin of Forde, on a tour of Wales in 11 ...
'' and of the ''
Descriptio Cambriae
The ''Descriptio Cambriae'' or ''Descriptio Kambriae'' (''Description of Wales'') is a geographical and ethnographic treatise on Wales and its people dating from 1193 or 1194. The ''Descriptio''’s author, variously known as Gerald of Wales or ...
'' of
Gerald of Wales
Gerald of Wales ( la, Giraldus Cambrensis; cy, Gerallt Gymro; french: Gerald de Barri; ) was a Cambro-Norman priest and English historians in the Middle Ages, historian. As a royal clerk to the king and two archbishops, he travelled widely and w ...
, with Hoare adding notes and a life of Gerald to his translation. This work was first published in 1804, and was subsequently revised by Thomas Wright (1810–1877) in 1863. Hoare's further ''Tour in Ireland'' was published in 1807.
Hoare was elected 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 science, natural knowledge, incl ...
in 1792 and was also a Fellow of the
Society of Antiquaries of London
A society is a group of individuals involved in persistent social interaction, or a large social group sharing the same spatial or social territory, typically subject to the same political authority and dominant cultural expectations. Societ ...
. He was appointed
High Sheriff of Wiltshire
This is a list of the Sheriffs and (after 1 April 1974) High Sheriffs of Wiltshire.
Until the 14th century, the shrievalty was held ''ex officio'' by the castellans of Old Sarum Castle.
On 1 April 1974, under the provisions of the Local Gov ...
for 1805. In 1825, Hoare donated his collection of Italian works on topography and history to the
British Museum
The British Museum is a public museum dedicated to human history, art and culture located in the Bloomsbury area of London. Its permanent collection of eight million works is among the largest and most comprehensive in existence. It docum ...
.
[
Sir Richard Colt Hoare was an avid plant collector and loved ]Pelargonium
''Pelargonium'' () is a genus of flowering plants that includes about 280 species of perennials, succulents, and shrubs, commonly called geraniums, pelargoniums, or storksbills. '' Geranium'' is also the botanical name and common name of a separ ...
s but also Rhododendron
''Rhododendron'' (; from Ancient Greek ''rhódon'' "rose" and ''déndron'' "tree") is a very large genus of about 1,024 species of woody plants in the heath family (Ericaceae). They can be either evergreen or deciduous. Most species are nati ...
s.
Death
He died at Stourhead
Stourhead () is a 1,072-hectare (2,650-acre) estate at the source of the River Stour in the southwest of the English county of Wiltshire, extending into Somerset. The estate is about northwest of the town of Mere and includes a Grade I listed ...
in 1838. His mausoleum
A mausoleum is an external free-standing building constructed as a monument enclosing the interment space or burial chamber of a deceased person or people. A mausoleum without the person's remains is called a cenotaph. A mausoleum may be consid ...
in the churchyard of St Peter's in Stourton, the estate village, is under a pinnacled Gothic
Gothic or Gothics may refer to:
People and languages
*Goths or Gothic people, the ethnonym of a group of East Germanic tribes
**Gothic language, an extinct East Germanic language spoken by the Goths
**Crimean Gothic, the Gothic language spoken b ...
canopy designed by John Pinch the Elder.
Contributions to archaeology
The first recorded excavations at Stonehenge
Stonehenge is a prehistoric monument on Salisbury Plain in Wiltshire, England, west of Amesbury. It consists of an outer ring of vertical sarsen standing stones, each around high, wide, and weighing around 25 tons, topped by connectin ...
were made by William Cunnington
William Cunnington FSA (1754 – 31 December 1810) was an English antiquarian and archaeologist.
Cunnington was a self-educated merchant, who developed an interest in the rich archaeological landscape around the Wiltshire village of Heytes ...
and Richard Colt Hoare in 1798 and again in 1810. They dug around a fallen trilithon
A trilithon or trilith is a structure consisting of two large vertical stones (posts) supporting a third stone set horizontally across the top (lintel). It is commonly used in the context of megalithic monuments. The most famous trilithons ar ...
and a fallen slaughter stone, and discovered that they had once stood up. Colt Hoare excavated 379 barrows on Salisbury Plain
Salisbury Plain is a chalk plateau in the south western part of central southern England covering . It is part of a system of chalk downlands throughout eastern and southern England formed by the rocks of the Chalk Group and largely lies wi ...
as well as identifying many other sites in the area, publishing and classifying his findings. However, as the three-age system
The three-age system is the periodization of human pre-history (with some overlap into the historical periods in a few regions) into three time-periods: the Stone Age, the Bronze Age, and the Iron Age; although the concept may also refer to o ...
had not yet been introduced he was unable to date his finds and was therefore at a disadvantage when trying to interpret them. His most important book, ''The Ancient History of Wiltshire'', outlined his findings; this work was first published in five parts from 1810 to 1821 for binding in two volumes. He also sponsored and contributed significantly to the 11 volumes of ''The History of Modern Wiltshire'' (1822–1844).
Publications
The Historical Works of Giraldus Cambrensis
includes Hoare's translation
Journal of a tour in Ireland, A.D. 1806
(1807)
A Catalogue of Books Relating to the History and Topography of Italy
(1812)
A Tour Through the Island of Elba
(1814)
Hints to travellers in Italy
(1815)
Recollections abroad, during the years 1790
(1817)
*A Classical Tour Through Italy and Sicily (1819) â€
vol1
â€
vol2
A Letter, Stating the True Site of the Ancient Colony of Camulodunum
(1827)
Notes
References
*
* Victoria Hutchings, ''Messrs Hoare, Bankers: A History of the Hoare Banking Dynasty'' (2005)
{{DEFAULTSORT:Hoare, Richard Colt, 2nd Baronet
1758 births
1838 deaths
English archaeologists
English antiquarians
18th-century antiquarians
19th-century antiquarians
English diarists
Baronets in the Baronetage of Great Britain
Fellows of the Royal Society
Fellows of the Society of Antiquaries of London
People educated at Queen Elizabeth Grammar School, Wakefield
High Sheriffs of Wiltshire
Burials in Wiltshire
Richard Colt