Thomas Hearne 1678-1735

Thomas HEARNE 1678-1735

Hearne's inscription, from Armagh Robinson Library L.IV.11, Auctores latinae, 1602

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Biographical Note

Born in White Walsham, Berkshire, son of George Hearne, parish clerk there. BA St Edmund Hall, Oxford 1699, MA 1703; he lived in the Hall for the rest of his life. He was appointed a library assistant (janitor) at the Bodleian Library where he was effective in improving the catalogues and where he began his productive career in publishing editions of historical and classical texts. He became increasingly involved and expert in antiquarian studies, but his sympathies for nonjuring beliefs and contacts with many prominent nonjurors brought him into increasing conflict with the University authorities. His previously good relationship with John Hudson, Bodley's Librarian, soured and in 1716, when he refused to take the required oaths to the Hanoverian dynasty, he was dismissed from the Library and thenceforth forbidden access there. He made his living from then on primarily by publishing many English historical works, edited by him from manuscript sources, with help from his extensive network of contemporary scholars and antiquaries. His "difficult personality and outspoken writings" (ODNB) brought him much criticism and ridicule during his lifetime but the value of his editorial work and his significant contributions to the study and appreciation of historic books have been increasingly recognised since his death. He helped to develop interest in English history and literature and his diaries and letters, first published in the 19th century, have proved an invaluable source for historians of 18th-century Oxford and wider literary culture.

Books

Hearne assembled a significant library which filled his rooms in St Edmund Hall. He was interested not only in subject content but also (unusually for his time) in annotations and bookbindings, and he compiled albums of manuscript fragments and autographs. He was a keen student of other private libraries and admired those who had built up good collections. He bought books, being a regular patron of Oxford booksellers, and also acquired many by gift or bequest; Thomas Rawlinson gave him many books, and in 1710 the nonjuror Thomas Smith left his manuscripts to Hearne, on condition that they passed ultimately to the Bodleian. He bequeathed his own manuscript collections (including annotated books) to William Bedford, son of his friend Hilkiah Bedford; after William's death they were bought by Richard Rawlinson for £105, and passed with Rawlinson's wider bequest to the Bodleian. Hearne's printed books were sold by retail sale in London by Thomas Osborne, beginning 16 February 1736, mixed with those of another (unidentified) "gentleman of note; the sale catalogue has been noted as the first on which a vignette portrait of the owner was included on the titlepage. 340 volumes bought at the sale by Richard Pottinger, judge and MP for Reading, were noted in Pottinger's own sale in 1741.

Characteristic Markings

Hearne regularly added his name and Latin motto Suum cuique ("To each his own") to his titlepages, along with the date of acquisition. He also often added notes or annotations to his books relating to their value or interest.

Sources

• Alston, R. C., Inventory of sale catalogues ... 1676-1800, St Philip, 2010.
• A catalogue of the valuable library of that great antiquarian Mr. Tho. Hearne, [London, 1736].
• Gilliam, S., Thomas Hearne's library, Bodleian Library Record 12 (1985), 52-64.
• Harmsen, Theodor. "Hearne, Thomas (bap. 1678, d. 1735), antiquary and diarist." Oxford Dictionary of National Biography.
• Simmons, C., Thomas Hearne, in Baker, W. and Womack, K. (eds), Pre-nineteenth century book collectors and bibliographers, Detroit, 1999, 147-54.
• Recording of Henry Woudhuysen's Panizzi Lecture on Hearne's collections.