Celebrating Hampshire Historians

Trussell, John

c.1575-1648

John Trussell was a poet, historian and city officer, who pioneered the history of Winchester and of local history in general. His major work, ‘The Touchstone of Tradition’, is unpublished and was lost until 1974, when it was acquired by HRO. Another of his works, ‘The Benefactors of Winchester’, lists city documents, mayors etc, and is now in the Bodleian Library (MS Top. Hants. C.5; transcript in HRO). To modern eyes, his writings demonstrate the enormous difficulty of researching history more than 400 years ago. In the world of archives, they have spawned a classic detective story.

He is included in both the 1898 edition of the DNB and the ODNB 2008 and has been the subject of a scholarly study by Robert F.W. Smith, who used his life to explore the tangled sentiments and loyalties of men of his kind before and during the Civil War.

He was born in London to attorney Henry Trussell and his wife Elizabeth, daughter of a goldsmith. John’s reference to William Camden (1551-1623) as ‘my ever to bee reverenced and remembred Schoolmaster’ suggests that he attended Westminster School, where the celebrated antiquarian and topographer was usher (deputy head master).

In 1596, John Harmar (c.1555-1613) – brother-in-law of Henry and later one of the translators for the Authorised Version of the bible – became Warden of Winchester College. He almost immediately appointed Henry the steward for the school’s manors and in 1605 John Trussell himself came to Winchester. He acted as a provincial attorney in the city court and assizes. He also represented the city in the London courts and held other posts, including bailiff of the liberties of the dean and chapter, and bailiff of ‘the twenty-four’ (the ruling body of the city). He served as an alderman and was twice elected mayor.

In 1634 Trussell turned away from local history to work on a ‘continuation’ from the reign of Edward III of Samuel Daniels’ History of England. He was spurred to do this by failure to gain the approval, or even the interest, of ‘the twenty-four’ in ‘The Origin of Cities’, an early draft of ‘The Touchstone’, which he had written ‘for the good and honour’ of ‘much decayed’ Winchester. His objective, apparently, was to record the city’s past to help it move on from a low point in its fortunes.

He boasted that his approach to history eschewed taking seriously such things as monsters, inundations, petty offenders, or even triumphs and ceremonies. But it did accept uncritically a good deal of mythical history and – even though he trumpeted his ‘master’ Campden – he  did not follow the topographer’s advice to focus on documentable historical sources. In fact, he ridiculed such a scholarly approach, writing 'to beleive nothing of Antiquitie, but what is perspicuous and unquestionablie proved, is but the bare refuge of dulpated ignoraunt droanes, or meachanicke precise plebeyans'. Yet he did make use of many sources, including legal documents, published chronicles and materials in the cathedral library.

‘The Origin of Cities’ was known to and used by later historians, such as John Milner (1752-1826). Its vicissitudes are, however, obscure until in 1937, entitled ‘The origen of Cytties’ it was bequeathed to Winchester City Council by a local woman, Miss Annie Johnson.

Tom Atkinson (1893-1966), author of Elizabethan Winchester, took much interest in John Trussell and his writings when he was working on a sequel on the Stuart period. In 1955 he addressed the HFC and his talk was published in the Proceedings. There he told the story of his quest to find the ‘lost’ manuscript of the final work, ‘The Touchstone of Tradition’. He knew it had at some time gone to the library of Lord Mostyn in Mostyn Hall, Flintshire, but a descendant, who was unable to find it, decided that it had been sold at Sotheby’s in 1920, though the location of the owner was unknown.

There followed a wild goose chase that, amongst other things, involved the carriage by special messenger of a manuscript from the USA – sadly, not the manuscript!  In his paper, Tom made an assessment of John Trussell based on his work. He wrote: ‘As to his character, one feels that he was an aggressive, forthright individual, with a tendency to be short-tempered. There is no doubt that he was a great controversialist and dearly an loved an argument, no matter how small the matter at issue. He was never sparing in his criticism, and although he displays a sense of humour many of his remarks are exceedingly tart. Obviously, he was not a person to suffer fools gladly. I hope I am not being unkind if I suggest that he was peppery, pugnacious and pedantic’.

In 1974, the story of ‘The Touchstone of Tradition’ was solved when it was, after all, discovered in Mostyn Hall Library, and bought by the HRO, with the aid of a grant from the Victoria and Albert Museum. Apparently, it had not been sold in 1920, as it failed to reach the reserve price. A detailed examination of the manuscript showed that, as expected, ‘The Origin of Cities’ was indeed an earlier draft of the missing manuscript.

Sources

• Trussell, John, ‘The Origin of Cities, HRO, W/K1/11/1.

• Trussell, John, ‘The Touchstone of Tradition’, HRO, W/K1/12.

• Rosen, Adrienne, ‘Trussell, John’, 2008, ODNB, https://doi.org/10.1093/ref:odnb/27778 (accessed 22 07 23).

• Atkinson, Tom, The Trussell Manuscripts, 1957, PHFC, 19, Pt 3, 290-298.

• Smith, R.F.W., ‘John Trussell: A Life (1575-1648)’, PhD thesis, Faculty of Humanities, Department of History, University of Southampton, 2013, HRO, THESIS/91;

• https://eprints.soton.ac.uk/366902/1/John%2520Trussell%2520A%2520Life%2520%25281575-1648%2529.pdf.

• Smith, Robert, ‘John Trussell: a Winchester Mayor and historian’. Hampshire Archives Newsletter, Autumn 2011, 26-29.

Portrait

Contribution to county’s history

Trussell’s writings helped John Milner with his History Civil and Ecclesiastical and Survey of the Antiquities of Winchester, written at the end of the 18th century, though he was very critical of them. Trussell is an early example of the ‘alderman-historian’, like the much later examples of JS Furley, WH Jacob and Thomas Stopher.  

Relevant published works

Critical Comments

Although Smith describes him as ‘a Neanderthal’ among Homo sapiens in the 1630s’, Trussell was working at a time when archives were virtually non-existent. His view of ‘scholarship’ was no doubt tainted by his aim of ‘selling’ Winchester, though he is to be credited for recognising local history as a worthwhile exercise.

Other Comments

‘Miss Annie Johnson’ has not been identified, but may have come from the Johnson family, members of which until 1936 co-owned the Hampshire Chronicle, which may therefore have acquired the manuscript.

Contributor

Barry Shurlock, 22 July 2023

Key Words

Winchester, Tom Atkinson, William Camden

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