Sir Richard Colt Hoare, 2nd BaronetFRS (9 December 1758 – 19 May 1838)[1] was an Englishantiquarian,archaeologist, artist, and traveller of the 18th and 19th centuries, the first major figure in the detailed study of the history of his home county ofWiltshire.
Hoare was born inBarnes, Surrey, and was descended fromSir Richard Hoare,Lord Mayor of London, the founder of the family banking business,Hoare's Bank.[2] His parents were Sir Richard Hoare, 1st Baronet (1735–1787) and Anne Hoare (1737–1759). He was educated at preparatory school at Mr. Devis's school, Wandsworth, and afterwards atSamuel Glasse's school at Greenford, and was taught the Classics by the Rev. Joseph Eyre.
In 1783 Hoare married Hester, daughter ofWilliam Lyttelton, 1st Baron Lyttelton.[citation needed] In 1785 he inherited the largeStourhead estate in Wiltshire from his grandfather,Henry Hoare II,[3] which enabled him to pursue his interests including the archaeological studies for which he had already shown an inclination.[2] His inheritance came with the condition that he left the family's banking business, since Henry Hoare II wished to ensure the survival of the estate if the family's other business suffered eventual hardships.[1] In 1785, Hoare's wife died following the birth of their second child, who also died. Having lost his wife and previous career, he embarked on acontinental tour to France, Italy and Switzerland.[4] In 1786 he purchasedGlastonbury Tor and funded the restoration of the church tower on it.[5]
He succeeded to thebaronetcy in 1787, and in 1788 made a second continental tour,[6] the record of his travels appearing in 1815 and 1819 under the titlesRecollections Abroad andA Classical Tour through Italy and Sicily.[2][7] He took numerous views during his travels in the form of sketches from which he later produced mainly sepia wash drawings, along with a smaller number of watercolours. His tutorJohn 'Warwick' Smith, and the painterFrancis Nicholson, were also commissioned to produce coloured reductions from some of his continental sketches. Bound in volumes, many of these were dispersed in the Stourhead sales of the 1880s.
A journey throughWales was followed by a translation of theItinerarium Cambriae and of theDescriptio Cambriae ofGerald of Wales, with Hoare adding notes and a life of Gerald to his translation. This work was first published in 1804, and was subsequently revised by Thomas Wright (1810–1877) in 1863.[2] Hoare's furtherTour in Ireland was published in 1807.[8]
Hoare was elected aFellow of the Royal Society in 1792 and was also a Fellow of theSociety of Antiquaries of London. He was appointedHigh Sheriff of Wiltshire for 1805. In 1825, Hoare donated his collection of Italian works on topography and history to theBritish Museum.[1]
Sir Richard Colt Hoare was an avid plant collector and lovedPelargoniums andRhododendrons.
He died atStourhead in 1838. Hismausoleum in the churchyard of St Peter's inStourton, the estate village, is under a pinnacledGothic canopy designed byJohn Pinch the Elder.[9][10]
The first recorded excavations atStonehenge were made byWilliam Cunnington and Richard Colt Hoare in 1798 and again in 1810. They dug around a fallentrilithon and a fallen slaughter stone, and discovered that they had once stood up. Colt Hoare excavated 379barrows onSalisbury Plain as well as identifying many other sites in the area, publishing and classifying his findings. However, as thethree-age system had not yet been introduced he was unable to date his finds and was therefore at a disadvantage when trying to interpret them. His most important book,The Ancient History of Wiltshire, outlined his findings; this work was first published in five parts from 1810 to 1821 for binding in two volumes.[11][12][13] He also sponsored and contributed significantly to the 11 volumes ofThe History of Modern Wiltshire (1822–1844).
This article incorporates text from a publication now in thepublic domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Hoare, Sir Richard Colt".Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 13 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 543.| Baronetage of Great Britain | ||
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