Remarks and collections of Thomas Hearne

1885·37.9 MB·English

by  Hearne, Thomas, 1678-1735

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HEARNE'S(cid:13)
REMARKS AND COLLECTIONS(cid:13)
VOL. I(cid:13)

REMARKS AND COLLECTIONS(cid:13)
OF(cid:13)
THOMAS HEARNE(cid:13)
&uum nttqur(cid:13)
VOL. I(cid:13)
(JULY 4, 1705- MARCH 19, 1707)(cid:13)
EDITED BY(cid:13)
C. E. DOBLE, M.A.(cid:13)
WORCESTER COLLEGE, OXFORD(cid:13)
PRINTED FOR THE OXFORD HISTORICAL SOCIETY(cid:13)
AT THE CLARENDON PRESS(cid:13)
l8S3(cid:13)
[Alt rights reserved'](cid:13)
5f. & REN.(cid:13)
PREFACE.(cid:13)
IT isb uatt ardayco t fr epartaota ios cnh owlahwro a nse glected
duringl ife, andh asb eenim perfectlya ppreciateidn the centurya nd(cid:13)
a half which has elapseds inceh is death,f or an Oxford Historical Society(cid:13)
to selecta s one of its earliesti ssuesa portion of the writings of THOMAS(cid:13)
HEARNE. We should have to go very far back, and to come down to(cid:13)
our own day, in order to find many namesw orthy to be placed beside(cid:13)
his on the roll of Oxford alumni who have done distinguisheds ervicet o(cid:13)
the causeo f historical research. To supersedeth ose numerouse ditions(cid:13)
of the sourceso f English history which HEARNEg ave to the world in a(cid:13)
too brief lifetime of fifty-seveny ears,t he resourceso f the Treasury, with(cid:13)
a large staff of learneds pecialistsa t its disposal,h ave beene mployedf or(cid:13)
a generation past. HEARNE'SR emarks and Collections,o f which the first(cid:13)
instalmenti s now beforeu s, containf ragmentso f the materialso f which he(cid:13)
afterwardsm ade such excellent use,b eside memorandao n any subject(cid:13)
that attracted his attention at the moment. It may be readily conceded(cid:13)
that the words of Bentley-surely as magnificenta eulogy as was ever(cid:13)
pronounced on one scholar by another-are not in their full sense(cid:13)
applicablet o our antiquary: -The very dust of his writings is gold. But(cid:13)
we certainly claim that with the dust very much gold is mingled. That(cid:13)
delightful book Reliquiae Hearnianae, originally printed in a small(cid:13)
edition by Dr. Philip Bliss (Oxford, 2 vols. 8vo., 1857),a nd afterwards(cid:13)
published with additional matter in 3 vols. (London, 1869), hardly(cid:13)
professesto contain more than a serieso f illustrative selections. It may(cid:13)
safelyb e said that until these Diaries of HEARNE('Sto give them a title(cid:13)
which he himself rejected), together with his extensive Correspondence,(cid:13)
are rendered accessible to students in a more complete form than hitherto,(cid:13)
the history of the Nonjurors, and that of the Universities in the earlier(cid:13)
portion of the eighteenthc entury,c annot be finally written. And if it be(cid:13)
objected that the history of the Nonjurors is of purely antiquarian(cid:13)
interest,w e need only point to the numerous questionsc oncerning the(cid:13)
relations between the ecclesiastical and civil power which agitate men's(cid:13)
minds at the present day, and which Sancroft and Kettlewell, Dodwell(cid:13)
and Hickes,C ollier and Ken, had thought out and illustratedw ith various(cid:13)
learning,n early two centuriesa go. As a proof of the importance,i n the(cid:13)
vi PREFACE.(cid:13)
annalso f Englisha nd indeedo f Europeans cholarshipo,f the bodyt o(cid:13)
which HEARNEbe longedi,t is only necessaryto recall the words of one(cid:13)
whoses ingularc ompetencteo judgew ill be universallya dmitted. Pro-
fessor John E. B. Mayor writes, in the Preface to the Life of Ambrose(cid:13)
Bonwicke:-Perhaps . . the time has comew hen onem ay venture,w ithout(cid:13)
offencoer losso f intellectuacla steto, challengteh e vulgar- verdicut pont he(cid:13)
Nonjurors; and may at leastc all on their censorsto n amea ny English sect(cid:13)
as eminenti,n proportion to its numbersa, like for solid learning, andf or(cid:13)
public as well asp rivate virtues. There is yet another subject on which(cid:13)
these Collections must be most carefully consulted, and that is one the(cid:13)
importancea nd interesto f which sucha Societya s ours is scarcelyl ikely(cid:13)
to underrate-I meant he personneol f the Oxford of HEARNEd'Sa y. The(cid:13)
AthenaeO xoniensees nds shortly before 1700; this work takes up the(cid:13)
thread a few years later, and, at all eventsu ntil Dr. Rawlinson's Con-
tinuation of Wood's great work appearsi n print, must remain our chief(cid:13)
authority on Oxford men and manners in the first half of the century.(cid:13)
There is indeedn o Laud or Fell dominating the Oxford with which we(cid:13)
are dealing; but even this first volume brings us into contact with many(cid:13)
men whosen amesa re part of the annalso f scholarship,-such as Mill,(cid:13)
Hody, and Potter; Halley, Gregory, and Hudson; Wanley, Gibson,(cid:13)
and Tanner. There is much original work; the spirit of research,t he(cid:13)
newborn spirit of criticism, is abroad.(cid:13)
This is not the place to give a full biographyo f HEARN;E t hat must(cid:13)
be done when the ' Collections' are completelyp ublished,a nd when the(cid:13)
editor who has succeeded to me and my imperfect work has only to(cid:13)
gather up the scattered referencesi n the Diary, and to piece them together(cid:13)
with whatw e know from HEARNEA'Su tobiographya nd from other sources(cid:13)
of the details of this laborious and well-spentl ife. It must sufficeh ere(cid:13)
to recapitulatev ery brieflya fewo f the leading facts. The Diarist wast he(cid:13)
son of George Hearne, parish-clerk of White Waltham, Berks, and was(cid:13)
born in July 1678,s o that when the Diary opensh e was just completing(cid:13)
hist wenty-seventyhe ar. On accounto f his boyishp romise,h e wass entt o(cid:13)
Bray School at the suggestiono f Mr. Francis Cherry, of Shottesbrooke,(cid:13)
who in 1695 took him into his own house,a nd, in concert with Henry(cid:13)
Dodwell, superintended his education. He was entered in December(cid:13)
1695 a 'Batteler' of Edmund Hall, of which Dr. Mill was then Principal,(cid:13)
and Dr. WhiteK ennett, Rector of ShottesbrookeV, ice-Principal. While(cid:13)
still an undergraduate, he assisted Mill, Grabe, and other scholars(cid:13)
with collations of MSS., transcripts, &c.; several instances are men-
tioned in the presentv olume. After taking his B.A. degreei n 1699 he(cid:13)
was urged to undertakem issionw ork in Maryland,t ogetherw ith the(cid:13)