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Celebrating Hampshire Historians

Warner, Richard

1763 - 1857

Like many early writers on local history, he was in the classic mould of clergyman-historian, though unlike many of them he also had journalistic instincts. In fact, he probably thought of himself as a man of letters who wrote about local subjects because that is what was around him. He is one of the few local writers to have an entry in the ODNB. His background was relatively modest: his father was a trader of some kind, albeit in London’s New Bond Street, who in 1775 retired to Lymington. The town was a recognized seaside resort visited by the well-to-do.

Warner attended Christchurch Grammar School and became a close friend of a boy who was to become a distinguished admiral, Sir Harry Burrard Neale, and later gave him a church living. Warner was lined up for Winchester College by an unnamed advocate (called a ‘Poser’) but on the day of the examination another boy was nominated in his place. It was not therefore until the age of 24 that he was able to continue his studies, at St Mary’s College, Oxford. Although he never graduated, he was ordained and became curate to William Gilpin, rector of Boldre, known as an author of the picturesque. After Boldre he was briefly a curate at Fawley, before gaining a living in Bath in 1794, after which he passes from the orbit of the county.

His name, however, came to prominence a year later when a 5-volume Collections for the History of Hampshire etc was published in London by ‘D.Y.’ It was a dog’s dinner of a work, with material plagiarized from Warner and much other sub-standard material. He later called it ‘barefaced piracy’, but the story may be more complex, as in 1791 he had himself circulated ‘proposals’ for a similar 3-volume work. He is a fruitful subject for exploring the plight of the ‘frustrated cleric/intellectual’ of his day! A diary and letters are held by Bath Central Library and there are other papers in the British Library and Bodleian Library Oxford.

Sources

Portrait

Richard Warner

(British Museum under Creative Commons)

Contribution to county’s history

At a time when sources were scarce, he showed how local history on a reasonably wide front could be written. His approach was ‘wide and shallow’ rather than ‘narrow and deep’.

Relevant published works

  • Warner, R. (1789a) Hampshire Domesday Book, with English translation.

  • Warner, R. (1789b) A companion in a tour round Lymington.

  • Warner, R. (1792) Attempt to ascertain the situation of Ancient Clausentum [at Bitterne].

  • Warner, R. (1793) Topographical remarks relating to the south-western parts of Hampshire.

  • Warner, R. (1795) History of the Isle of Wight, military ecclesiastical, civil and natural.

Critical Comments

The ODNB entry for him notes harshly: ‘Warner wrote with great facility and parade of learning, but his works were commercial rather than scholarly, and as such were often derivative and inaccurate.’ In support, it cites a fellow antiquary and Unitarian minister, Richard Hunter, who observed that ‘he was deep in no subject. He had read little, made no particular preparations for publication, and began to read in a subject only when he had previously determined to publish upon it.’

Other Comments

‘D.Y.’ the anonymous editor of the 5-volume Collections for the History of Hampshire was identified by book collector Sir William Cope (1811-1892) as a London bookseller, Edward Jeffery, according to manuscript notes found in a copy of Bibliotheca Hantoniensis, eds., H.M. Gilbert and G,N,Godwin, 1891.

Contributor

Barry Shurlock, 13 02 22

Key Words

Lymington, Boldre, Domesday Book, Bitterne, Sir William Cope, Rev. Richard Hunter

If you are able to add anything to this entry, please send your ideas to celebrating@hantsfieldclub.org.uk.

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