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Celebrating Hampshire Historians

Englefield, Sir Henry Charles

1752 - 21.03.1822

Born at the family mansion Englefield House, situated near Reading, Sir Henry was the eldest son of the Sixth Baronet, Sir Henry Englefield and his second wife Catherine (nee Buck). In 1778, aged 26, he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society, and in the following year a Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries.

On the death of his father in 1780 he inherited the title becoming the Seventh Baronet as well as a considerable amount of property. Although based in London, from 1780 onwards Sir Henry undertook a number of tours in England and Wales, including Hampshire and the Isle of Wight, and some of the sketches he made on these journeys still survive. A number are included in A Walk Through Southampton (1805) and Picturesque Beauties of the Isle of Wight (1816).

He died in London in 1822. His close association with Southampton is reflected in the fact that a road in Bitterne Manor is named after him.

Englefield Road sign

Sources

Portrait

Sir Henry Englefield

Copy of the Portrait of Henry Englefield by Thomas Phillips in 1815 from Sotonopaedia.

Contribution to county’s history

A Walk Through Southampton can be said to have inspired contemporaries, such as John Bullar, and later historians as they have sought to reflect on and capture something of the changing character of the town/city. As it is put in the Sotonopedia entry his ‘book is indispensable to every student of the topographical history of Southampton.’

A flavour of Englefield’s style is given below.

Relevant published works

  • A Walk Through Southampton To Which is Added Some Account of the Roman Station, Clausentium (Southampton: first edition 1801, second 1805 and third 1841)

Critical Comments

Other Comments

In addressing the reader, Englefield explains that:

‘It was first intended in the following pages, merely to give an account of several curious remains of antiquity in the town of Southampton, and which had been totally unnoticed, or very sightly mentioned in the descriptions of the place ... In compliance with the wishes of some who saw the manuscript  ... I have stepped beyond the strict limits of description, and have ventured to enter a little into the wide and doubtful field of antiquarian research.’
This can be seen in his reference to one of the churches and its environs:
‘The very ancient church of St Michael was probably founded soon after the castle, and was, as it is now, the manerial church of the town. and it is worthy of remark that the streets immediately under the castle, are proved, by their names, to have been the original markets of the infant town; and that all the most curious remains of antquity strecth along the shores of the Southampton water, where the castle protected them on the land side, and the sea rendered attack not very easy on the other’ (p.84).

The British Library catalogue lists 19 books by Englefield, including the work on Southampton. Other locations include Bath and Exeter and overall his publications show him to have been a classical dilettante, at a time when it was almost possible to 'know everything'.

Contributor

Roger Ottewill (9 February 2024; revised - 13 February 2024)

Keywords

Tours in England and Wales, Southampton, Isle of Wight

Any queries or further suggestions for this part of the list should be addressed to celebrating@hantsfieldclub.org.uk.

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