Celebrating Hampshire Historians

Bingley, Revd. William

1774 - 1823

A Yorkshireman and graduate of Cambridge University, William Bingley was ordained in 1799, becoming a curate at Christchurch (Hants.) from 1802 to 1817, before moving on to Fitzroy Chapel in London. He published several books on botany and zoology, which were popular and went through multiple editions.

George Rose M.P. commissioned Bingley to write the county history of Hampshire that Richard Warner had failed to complete and supplied him with Warner’s notes. Bingley was an assiduous researchers who accumulated 6000 pages of notes and an archive of 144 separate items. The lasting  strength of his work was modern history and statistics, such as the land tax and poor rates, and information of schools, friendly societies, and other modern institutions. Set a target of a three volume history in a short timescale, he vastly exceeded it, his single published volume of Bosmere hundred running to  212 pages. Bingley reported annually to 1813, but lost interest when he moved elsewhere. The archives were sold to Sir Thomas Philipps and are now at the Hampshire Record Office.

Sources

• H.E. Kell, ‘Bingley, William, naturalist and priest’, Oxford Dictionary at National Biography 5 (2004), 765;

• Michael Hicks, ‘Hampshire and Isle of Wight’, English County Histories: A Guide, ed. C.R.J.. Currie and C.P. Lewis (Gloucester, 1994), 171;

• Hampshire Record Office 16M79/1-141;

• Bodl. Mss Philipps-Robinson e 152, 154.

Portrait

Contribution to county’s history

Clayton. J (2009) William Bingley's History of Hampshire  Proceedings of the Hampshire Field Club, 64,  pp 223-243

Relevant published works

• Bingley, W (1817) The Topographical History of the Hundred of Bosmere (1817)

Critical Comments

The History was not a work based on research in historical documents.

Other Comments

Contributor

Michael Hicks Jan 2022

Key Words

County history; Bosmere

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