The World of Disney: From Antiquarianism to Archaeology 1789698278, 9781789698275

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The World of Disney From Antiquarianism to Archaeology

David W. J. Gill

The World of Disney From Antiquarianism to Archaeology

David W. J. Gill

Archaeopress Archaeological Lives

Archaeopress Publishing Ltd Summertown Pavilion 18-24 Middle Way Summertown Oxford OX2 7LG www.archaeopress.com

ISBN 978-1-78969-827-5 ISBN 978-1-78969-828-2 (e-Pdf) © David Gill and Archaeopress 2020

Cover image: Portrait of Dr John Disney presented to the University of Cambridge. Cambridge, Fitzwilliam Museum. © David Gill.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the copyright owners. This book is available direct from Archaeopress or from our website www.archaeopress.com

Contents List of Figures������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������ iii Acknowledgements�����������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������v Introduction���������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������vi Chapter 1��������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 1 The Disney Family�������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������1 John Disney (1677-1730)������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������ 3 John Disney (1700-1771)������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������ 5 Mary Disney��������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 5 Lewis Disney�������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 6 Frederick Disney������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 6 John Disney���������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 7 Conclusion������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������ 7 Chapter 2��������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 8 The Break with the Church of England����������������������������������������������������������������8 The Blackburne Family�������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 8 The Reverend John Disney������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������ 11 Essex Street Chapel������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 13 Disney’s decision to leave the Church of England��������������������������������������������������� 14 Disney at Essex Hall������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������ 18 The final years at Essex Street Chapel����������������������������������������������������������������������� 24 Chapter 3������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 25 Collectors of the Grand Tour: Thomas Hollis and Thomas Brand��������������������� 25 Thomas Brand��������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 25 Thomas Hollis���������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 26 The Tours to Italy���������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 28 Brand and Hollis in London����������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 31 The Hyde Remodelled�������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 32 The Hollis Bequest�������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 39 Essex Hall Chapel���������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 42 Chapter 4������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 47 The Disney-Ffytche Family and Essex���������������������������������������������������������������� 47 Danbury Place���������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 47 Disney-Ffytche and Danbury Place���������������������������������������������������������������������������� 49 France and Italy������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������ 51 Italy and William Hillary��������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 53 Return to England��������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 55 John Disney: Cambridge, Law and Marriage ������������������������������������������������������������ 57

Chapter 5������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 59 Life at The Hyde and its Collection�������������������������������������������������������������������� 59 John Disney, Recorder of Bridport����������������������������������������������������������������������������� 60 The Death of the Reverend John Disney������������������������������������������������������������������� 61 Prospective MP for Harwich and Magistrate������������������������������������������������������������ 63 The Hillary Family: Divorce, Deaths and Legal Disputes���������������������������������������� 67 The Eastern Counties Railway������������������������������������������������������������������������������������ 70 Essex Agricultural Society������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 71 The Disney Family��������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 73 Developing the Hyde’s collection������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 74 Family matters�������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 77 Chapter 6������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 78 Disney and Learned Societies����������������������������������������������������������������������������� 78 The Chelmsford Philosophical Society���������������������������������������������������������������������� 80 Chapter 7������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 88 The Museum Disneianum and Cambridge���������������������������������������������������������� 88 The Establishment of the Disney Chair��������������������������������������������������������������������� 93 Essex Archaeological Society�������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 97 Chapter 8����������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 103 Going for Gold��������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 103 Railway and Other Interests��������������������������������������������������������������������������������������107 Recognition �����������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������107 Final Years��������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������110 Chapter 9����������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 112 The Disney Legacy��������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 112 Suffolk and the Disney chair�������������������������������������������������������������������������������������115 Archaeological developments�����������������������������������������������������������������������������������118 Conclusion��������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������124 Abbreviations���������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 125 Bibliography������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������ 126 Index������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������ 139

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List of Figures Figure 1. Figure 2. Figure 3. Figure 4.

St Peter’s Norton Disney © David Gill�������������������������������������������������������������������������������2 Sir Richard Disney’s memorial at Norton Disney. © David Gill�������������������������������������3 John Disney (1677–1730), by Robert White. National Portrait Gallery D10737.����������4 The Reverend Theophilus Lindsey, engraving by Giovanni Vendramini. National Portrait Gallery D14260.���������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������9 Figure 5. The Reverend John Disney, engraved by John Basire after Guy Head. National Portrait Gallery D8486.�������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 12 Figure 6. Thomas Brand-Hollis. Memoirs of Thomas Brand-Hollis.������������������������������������������ 26 Figure 7. Thomas Hollis, by Joseph Wilton. National Portrait Gallery 6946.���������������������������� 27 Figure 8. Athena from the William Lloyd collection. Museum Disneianum.���������������������������� 33 Figure 9. Sarcophagus showing Achilles hiding among the daughters of Lycomedes. Museum Disneianum.���������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 34 Figure 10. Sarcophagus with Dionysiac scene. Cambridge, Fitzwilliam Museum. © David Gill.��������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 34 Figure 11. Detail of sarcophagus with Dionysiac scene. Cambridge, Fitzwilliam Museum. © David Gill.��������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 34 Figure 12. Sarcophagus and cinerarium displayed at The Hyde. Catalogue of The Hyde.����� 35 Figure 13. Cinerarium of Marcus Ulpius Fortunatus from the William Lloyd collection. Museum Disneianum.���������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 36 Figure 14. ‘Atys’, Museum Disneianum.������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������ 36 Figure 15. Cinerarium of Marcus Aurelius, reported to have been found near the tomb of Caecilia Metella. Cambridge, Fitzwilliam Museum. © David Gill.��������������������������� 37 Figure 16. Portrait of Marcus Aurelius once in the Palazzo Barberini. Cambridge, Fitzwilliam Museum. © David Gill.��������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 37 Figure 17. Funerary inscription of Caius Menanius Batyllus and Anthimus. Museum Disneianum.���������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 38 Figure 18. Cinerarium of Titus Flavius Verus, from Pozzuoli. Cambridge, Fitzwilliam Museum. © David Gill.��������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 39 Figure 19. Medallion of Nero acquired in Venice c. 1752. Museum Disneianum.�������������������� 39 Figure 20. Head of ‘Augustus’ carved on a medieval arch, acquired in Naples c. 1755. Museum Disneianum.��������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 40 Figure 21. Thomas Hollis, by Giovanni Battista Cipriani. National Portrait Gallery D46107. 42 Figure 22. ‘Jupiter Column’ found at Great Chesterford in 1803, and presented to the British Museum by Thomas Brand-Hollis. © David Gill.������������������������������������������������������� 44 Figure 23. Apollo. Museum Disneianum.���������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 45 Figure 24. Memorial for Thomas Brand-Hollis, Ingatestone Parish Church.���������������������������� 46 Figure 25. Danbury Place, Essex.������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������ 48 Figure 26. The Hyde, near Ingatestone, Essex.������������������������������������������������������������������������������ 60 Figure 27. Memorial for the Reverend John Disney, and his grandson John, on the Disney family tomb. © David Gill.��������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 63 Figure 28. Memorial for Dame Frances Hillary at Danbury. © David Gill.��������������������������������� 69 Figure 29. Inscription from Colchester. Museum Disneianum.�������������������������������������������������� 73 Figure 30. Funerary sphinx from Colchester. Colchester Castle Museum © David Gill���������� 75 Figure 31. Attic black-figured lekythos. Museum Disneianum.�������������������������������������������������� 89 Figure 32. ‘Hermarchus’. Museum Disneianum.���������������������������������������������������������������������������� 90 Figure 33. Portrait probably of Faustina the Younger. Cambridge, Fitzwilliam Museum. © David Gill.��������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 91 Figure 34. Etruscan funerary cinerarium lid. Cambridge, Fitzwilliam Museum. © David Gill. ������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 91 Figure 35. Janiform sculpture, displayed as the gift of Disney. Cambridge, Fitzwilliam Museum. © David Gill.��������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 93

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Figure 36. Attic red-figured column-krater acquired in Naples in 1799 or 1801. Museum Disneianum.��������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 93 Figure 37. The Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge © David Gill���������������������������������������������������� 95 Figure 38. Portrait of Dr John Disney presented to the University of Cambridge. Cambridge, Fitzwilliam Museum. © David Gill.���������������������������������������������������������������������������� 109 Figure 39. The Disney tomb in the churchyard of St Mary the Virgin, Fryerning, Essex. © David Gill.������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 110 Figure 40. Inscription for Sophia Disney on the Disney tomb. © David Gill.�������������������������� 111 Figure 41. Inscription for Dr John Disney on the Disney tomb. © David Gill.������������������������ 111 Figure 42. Edgar Disney, by Camille Silvy, 1860. National Portrait Gallery Ax50666.������������ 113 Figure 43. Detail of Paestan bell-krater (now in Cambridge). Museum Disneianum.����������� 114 Figure 44. Detail of Attic red-figured amphora (now in Copenhagen). Museum Disneianum. ����������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 114

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Acknowledgements The heart of this study was presented as an inaugural lecture at University Campus Suffolk, now the University of Suffolk, in Ipswich on 14 May 2013. I would like to thank the then Provost, Professor Mike Saks, for his encouragement to develop this theme. My intention was to explore one of the great archaeological figures who contributed so much to the development of the discipline in the eastern counties (and indeed beyond). My active interest in Disney started towards the beginning of my career as a member of the Department of Antiquities at the Fitzwilliam Museum. I would like to thank my then colleagues, in particular Bob Bourne, Janine Bourriau, Professor Kevin Butcher, Julie Dawson, and the late Paul Woudhuysen. Various colleagues have encouraged me in my study of the history of archaeology, in particular Christopher A. Stray and Michael Vickers. I have valued the input from Christopher Chippindale, my former Cambridge colleague and research collaborator. Paul G. Bahn has been a constant research companion, alongside a small group of colleagues, for over 30 years. The editorial team at the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, and in particular Mark Curthoys, has helped me to understand the nature and complexity of biography. Professor G.M. Ditchfield has assisted me to understand the Unitarian world in late eighteenth century England and has been generous with his research. I am grateful to the hospitality and support of colleagues in a number of archives and organisations: Howard Hague, The General Assembly of Unitarian and Free Christian Churches; Adrian James, the Society of Antiquaries; Dr Roger Lovatt of Peterhouse, Cambridge; Michael Palmer, Archivist & Deputy Librarian, Zoological Society of London; Edinburgh University Library; David Littlewood of Nottinghamshire County Council; and the Essex Record Office. Finally, I would like to thank my wife Caroline for her support and encouragement in this piece of research.

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Introduction The name of Dr John Disney is celebrated in the title of the University of Cambridge Chair of Archaeology. Disney’s benefaction in the mid-19th century prepared the way for the scientific study of the past. In spite of Disney’s antiquarian interests, there is no obvious reason why archaeology should have inspired his interest. My first formal professional encounter with Disney, or at least his collection of classical sculptures, was as a curatorial member of the Department of Antiquities at the Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge. Some of this material formed part of a temporary exhibition at the museum exploring the impact of the Grand Tour on the formation of parts of the classical collections.1 I was subsequently invited to write a new memoir for the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (2004) as part of a series of archaeological lives that included Dr Winifred Lamb, Honorary Keeper of the Department of Greek Antiquities at the Fitzwilliam during the inter-war period.2 The important question is why did Disney choose archaeology as the focus for his gift? The bequest of the sculptures, along with The Hyde near Ingatestone in Essex, by Thomas Brand-Hollis to Disney’s father, the Reverend John Disney, establishes the antiquarian past.3 The collection had been formed by Thomas Hollis and Thomas Brand (later Brand-Hollis) during their Grand Tours of Italy in the mid eighteenth century. Disney’s uncle (and father-in-law), Lewis Disney-Ffytche, had collected material in Italy in the 1790s when he was forced to flee from France; some of the objects were displayed at Danbury Place in Essex. Disney himself was involved with the creation of the new museum in Chelmsford, the county town of Essex, as an initiative of the Chelmsford Philosophical Society. He subsequently helped to establish the Colchester Archaeological Society that evolved into the Essex Archaeological Society. Disney, like his father, was elected a Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries; he also was a member of the Archaeological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland. An equally practical question was how did Disney come to be in a position to grant this benefaction? The Disney wealth came from different sources. First, the Reverend Disney received a significant benefaction from Thomas Brand-Hollis who had supported Disney’s ministry in London when he left the Church of England; Brand-Hollis had received much of his wealth from his friend Thomas Hollis. The Brand-Hollis bequest included The Hyde, and its contents, as well as extensive estates in Dorset. Second, Disney’s marriage to his first cousin Sophia meant that he inherited part of the estate of his uncle Lewis Disney-Ffytche; this in part had been derived from the Ffytche family involvement in the East India Company. Third, the Disneys had profited from their investments in first canals and then the railways; in Gill 1990c; see also Gill 1990b. Gill 2004c. 3 For the place of antiquarianism: Momigliano 1950; see also Miller 2007. 1 2

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later life Disney was a recipient of the proceeds from the California gold rush. The model for generous benefactions to universities can be traced back to Thomas Hollis who was a liberal donor to universities in New England. This biography ranges far from archaeological and antiquarian interests, though it touches on the collecting of the classical past in the Grand Tour, the display of antiquity in eighteenth and nineteenth century country houses, and the creation of public museums. The story emerges in the enlightenment values of republicanism, as well as the theological challenges within the Church of England during the late eighteenth century. Disney’s own intellectual interests and commitments were broad and included the Zoological Society of London, the Royal Society, the Royal Society of Literature, the Society of Antiquaries, as well as the Royal Horticultural Society. A linear chronological narrative of a biography is difficult to apply to the life of Disney. The biography starts with the Norman conquest origins of the Disney family in Lincolnshire (at the village of Norton Disney) and Nottinghamshire, and explains the family’s associations with specific houses and locations, specifically Flintham Hall in Nottinghamshire, and Danbury Place and The Hyde in Essex. The account then follows the Reverend John Disney from Cambridge and ordination in the Church of England, to the resignation of his livings in Lincolnshire and his appointment as a Unitarian minister in London. It is in London that he encountered Thomas Brand-Hollis who is a significant benefactor of the Unitarian Essex Street chapel. The biography then switches back in time to the lives of Thomas Hollis and Thomas Brand-Hollis, considering their eighteenth-century travels in Italy and the formation of the collection that was displayed at The Hyde. It explores their associations with Archdeacon Francis Blackburne, the father-in-law of the Reverend Disney. The following chapter considers the Disney links with Essex: not only the gift of The Hyde to the Reverend Disney, but also his brother Lewis, who on marriage took the family name of Disney-Ffytche. Lewis had been a supporter of republicanism and purchased property in France (that was seized during the French Revolution). He and his two daughters were forced to flee to Italy. Lewis’ daughter Sophia married her first cousin, the Reverend Disney’s son, John, and they settled in Dorset where Disney was the Recorder of Bridport. Sophia’s sister, Frances, married Sir William Hillary who later formed the Royal National Lifeboat Institution (RNLI). The main Disney home became The Hyde where the Hollis and Brand-Hollis collection of sculptures and other art works were displayed. After the death of the Reverend Disney, John Disney inherited the Hyde and became involved in a number of learned societies notably the Chelmsford Philosophical Society that led to the creation of the Chelmsford Museum. Disney prepared a substantial catalogue of the classical collection that was published as the Museum Disneianum.4 The sculptures then formed part of a gift, the Disney Marbles, to the University of Cambridge, alongside the benefaction of a Chair of Archaeology. Subsequent to this gift Disney helped to establish the Essex Archaeological Society, one of a series 4

Disney 1846; Disney 1849a; Disney 1849b.

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of regional and county-based archaeological societies that were emerging in the middle of the nineteenth century. This study contributes to a study of the history of archaeology, especially the transition between antiquarianism and archaeology as a scientific discipline. This was a time when there was growing scientific interest in the remains of Britain’s prehistory.5 This is an area of research that is growing in interest.6 Yet Disney’s perception of archaeology is far removed the range of the discipline in the 21st century. The impact of Disney’s benefaction continues to bear fruit more than a century and a half later with Cambridge as one of the leading centres for archaeology both in the UK and internationally.

5 6

Marsden 1974, 48–50. E.g. Daniel 1967; Trigger 1989; Bahn 1996; Bahn 2014; Cline 2017; Fagan 2018.

viii

Chapter 1 The Disney Family John Disney, the future benefactor of archaeology in Cambridge, was born at his uncle’s house, Flintham Hall in Nottinghamshire, on 29 May 1779. He was a member of a Lincolnshire family that could trace its roots back to the Norman invasion. After the conquest, the Normans occupied the former Roman city of Lincoln and in 1068 constructed a motte and bailey castle within the line of the Roman walls. Work on the cathedral started in 1072, and its consecration followed in 1092. A Disney ancestor arrived in Lincolnshire from Isigny-sur-Mer near Bayeux in Normandy. One of the earliest ancestors was Lambert De Isney of Norton D’Isney. The family received lands to the south-west of Lincoln, on the road to Newark in neighbouring Nottinghamshire. Earlier forms of the name appear as De Isney and D’Eisney, although the family name was formalised as Disney by the early 16th century.1 The family played a prominent role in the county. The history of the family is recorded in some of the memorials in the parish church of Norton Disney.2 Sir William D’Isney was high sheriff of Lincolnshire in 1340, alongside Gilbert De Leddred. A relation, Alexander, was abbot of Elesham Priory in Lincolnshire (1347–52). Sir William’s grandson, John D’Isney, was killed at the battle of Towton, Yorkshire in 29 March 1461 during the Wars of the Roses. His great-grandson, William D’Isney was high sheriff of Lincolnshire in 1532 under Henry VIII. William Disney served as treasurer to the 1st Earl of Rutland, and after his death, to his son, the 2nd Earl. With his son Richard, William seems to have played a part in suppressing the 1536 rebellion in Lincolnshire in protest to the dissolution of the monasteries by Henry VIII.3 In 1544, following the dissolution of the monasteries, Richard Disney (born by 1505-1578) purchased a series of former monastic lands including the manor of Swinderby, a parish to the north of Norton Disney that retained close links with the Disney family into the late 18th century. His first wife, Neile Hussey, was the daughter of William Hussey (d. 1556), sheriff of Lincolnshire (1530–1), and Member of Parliament for Grantham. From April 1554 Richard served as MP for Grantham, alongside Thomas Hussey.4 Richard was subsequently sheriff of Lincolnshire (1556–7, 1566–7). Richard secondly married Jane Askew, daughter of Sir William Askew, high sheriff of Lincolnshire in 1521, and widow of George St Poll, a lawyer for the Duke of The pedigree of the Disney family can be found in Burke’s Landed Gentry (1858 ed.). For the links with Walt Disney and his visit to Norton Disney: ‘Disney—D’Issigney’, Daily Telegraph 12 July 1949, 4. 2 Roberts 1893. 3 Roberts 1893, 48. See also Allen 1834, 116. 4 Hofmann 1982. 1

1

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Figure 1. St Peter’s Norton Disney © David Gill

Suffolk. Jane’s sister, Anne, was martyred for her protestant faith during the reign of Henry VIII in 1546.5 Richard’s cousin, Thomas, served as MP for Boroughbridge in Yorkshire in 1563, and appears to have been nominated by the 2nd Earl of Rutland (whose treasurer was Thomas’ uncle, William Disney).6 Richard’s son, Daniel (d. 1587), was appointed sheriff of Lincolnshire in 1582. His son, Sir Henry D’Isney (1569–1641), was knighted by King James I in July 1603, two days before the coronation. Edward Disney served on the Royalist side during the English Civil War and was imprisoned in Warwick Castle probably after the battle of Edgehill in 1642. Molyneux Disney (1614–1694), the son of Lieutenant-Colonel William Disney, had raised troops for Parliament in 1642–43, but by 1649 had started to be a royal correspondent.7 Molyneux subsequently commanded royalist forces opposed to the Duke of Monmouth’s landing in 1685 in his unsuccessful bid to oust James II from power. Ironically, his son William was arrested in London in June 1685 in possession of Monmouth’s Declaration, and was hung, drawn and quartered.8 The main line of the family passed through the eldest son of Sir Henry’s second marriage to Eleanor Grey. His eldest son was John (1603–90/1).

Watt 2004. ‘Disney, Thomas (c. 1510–68)’, History of Parliament. 7 Zook 2004. See also Holmes 1973, 465. 8 Zook 2004. 5 6

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3

Figure 2. Sir Richard Disney’s memorial at Norton Disney. © David Gill

John Disney (1677-1730) The Disney family was firmly established through prominent public roles in Lincolnshire and the neighbouring Nottinghamshire by the end of the 17th century. John Disney was born in Lincoln on 26 December 1677, the son of Daniel Disney (1656-1734) and his wife Catherine Fynes-Clinton.9 His sister, Katherine, was a Presbyterian and her funeral sermon, The faithful souldier’s reward … occasioned by the death of Katherine Disney (1692), was preached by the Presbyterian minister the Reverend William Scoffin, of Sleaford, Lincolnshire.10 Through the Clintons, the Disneys acquired the estate of Kirkstead that remained in the family until it was sold nearly a century later by Lewis Disney-Ffytche.11 Daniel Disney appointed a Presbyterian minister, John Taylor of Lancaster, to the chapel at Kirkstead ‘to maintain the truths of the Gospel, especially such as are beyond controversy determined in the Holy Scriptures’.12 John Disney was educated at a dissenting academy in Lincoln, and in 1698 he married Mary Woolhouse (1677-1763), the daughter of William Woolhouse M.D. of Flintham Hall in Nottinghamshire, to the south-west of Newark.13 There were six sons and four daughters, including John (b. 1700), Henry (b. 1701), William, Daniel, Overton and Spurr 2004. For Scoffin: Leachman 2004. 11 Allen 1834, 79. 12 Allen 1834, 79. For Taylor: Sell 2004. 13 William Woolhouse, of North Muskham in Nottinghamshire, had married Mary Hacker of Flintham Hall. 9

10

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Figure 3. John Disney (1677–1730), by Robert White. National Portrait Gallery D10737.

Samuel (1705–41), and Gervase (b. 1709). Samuel was baptised at St Mary in the Close, suggesting the family lived in Lincoln. John later left money to the Society for the Promotion of Christian Knowledge (SPCK) to distribute Bibles and other books to the poor of the parish of St Mary-in-the-Close at Lincoln, along with the parishes of Swinderby and Norton Disney that had family links.14 In 1702 John Disney entered the Middle Temple: he subsequently served as a local magistrate in Lincolnshire. In 1719 he was ordained into the Church of England originally as the incumbent of Croft and Kirkby-on-Bain, to the south-east of Lincoln. He was admitted to Magdalene College, Cambridge in 1720, and in 1722 resigned from his Lincolnshire parishes and was appointed to the living of St Mary’s, Nottingham. All four sons were educated at Cambridge: John, Henry and Gervase at Magdalene (though Henry was admitted to Queens’ initially), and Samuel at Corpus Christi. On John’s death in February 1730, his widow Mary returned to her family home of Flintham Hall where she died in 1763. Samuel’s son, the Reverend Samuel Disney (d. 1786), was vicar of Halstead in Essex. Daniel Disney bequeathed money to teach children in the parish of Swinderby: Allen 1834, 267. 14

The Disney Family

5

John Disney (1700-1771) The Reverend Disney’s son John was born at Lincoln on 3 April 1700, the eldest of six sons. He was educated in Lincoln, and then, preceding his father by four years, at Magdalene College, Cambridge (matriculating in 1 December 1716), and then (following his father) to the Middle Temple (7 April 1719). His father, the Reverend Disney, died in February 1730, and on 29 December 1730 John married Frances Cartwright (1709-91), daughter of George Cartwright of Ossington, Nottinghamshire.15 John served as sheriff of Nottingham in 1733; he served as a JP in both Lincolnshire and Nottinghamshire. He lived at Swinderby and in Lincoln. It appears that John and Frances initially lived in The Close at Lincoln and were members of St Margaret’s in the Close that lay to the south-east of the cathedral on Pottergate. In 1735 John seems to have acquired land in Eastgate from Thomas Howson and built a property there. The house was constructed opposite St Peter’s in 1736. The architect was Abraham Hayward. John also had two seats in the church of St Peter’s Eastgate.16 John and Frances had six children, a daughter, Mary (1732–1818), and five sons, though two boys, John (1734–37) and Frederic (1735–36), died in infancy and were buried in the graveyard of St Margaret’s Lincoln. The three youngest (and surviving) sons, Lewis (1739–1822), Frederick (1741–1788) and John (1746–1816), were all born on Eastgate and were baptised at St Peter’s Eastgate. The four surviving children were as follows:

Mary Disney Mary, John and Frances’ eldest child, was born in 1732. At the age of 21, in 1753, she married Edmund Turnor (1719/20-1805). The main Turnor residence was at Stoke Rochford, Lincolnshire, to the south of Grantham. In 1775 Turnor purchased Panton Hall, that had been completed in 1727. He made substantial changes to the property. Their son, Edmund Turnor (1754-1829), was baptised in Lincoln in 1754, and educated at Stamford School and then Trinity College, Cambridge.17 After finishing his studies in Cambridge in 1777, he went on the Grand Tour, visiting France, Switzerland and Italy. He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1786, and of the Society of Antiquaries in 1788. He married Elizabeth Broke of Nacton Hall, Suffolk, on 7 May 1795: she died on 21 January 1801. Turnor subsequently was elected MP for Midhurst in Sussex (1802-06).

The Cartwrights were great political reformers. Lincolnshire Archives LPC/1/12. 17 Martin 2004. 15 16

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Lewis Disney Lewis, the eldest surviving son of John and Frances, was born in 1739 and was educated under Mr Clarke in Wakefield; he was admitted as pensioner to Trinity College, Cambridge 1757. He inherited Flintham Hall from his father, John Disney, in 1771, and he spent some time there. On his marriage to Elizabeth Ffytche in September 1775, he moved to Danbury Place in Essex. In 1779 Lewis was nominated as Sheriff of Nottinghamshire.18

Frederick Disney Frederick was born in 1741 and was the first of the Disney children to be baptised at St Peter’s Eastgate in Lincoln in 10 August 1741. He was commissioned lieutenant in the Royal Fusiliers on 19 June 1758. At the age of 24 he was commissioned captain in the 21st (Royal North British) Fusiliers Regiment of Foot on 19 February 1766.19 The regiment had moved to Florida in May 1765, and transferred to Quebec in Canada in 1770, returning to England in 1772.20 The outbreak of the American War of Independence in 1775 led to the siege of Quebec. The regiment formed part of the reinforcements sent to Canada in the spring of 1776. After the siege was lifted the regiment was quartered at St John’s. In the spring of 1777, it joined the army of General Burgogyne, moving down Lake Champlain, and seeing action at the capture of Skenesborough at the head of Lake Champlain.21 In September the regiment crossed the Hudson and saw action at StillWater. The regiment was removed from Burgoyne’s main force and was stationed around New York, taking part in efforts to relieve pressure on Burgoyne’s main force. The battle of Saratoga took place in October 1777, and Burgoyne surrendered his forces to the American colonists on 17 October 1777. The Royal Fusiliers wintered near Philadelphia. In June 1778 the regiment took part in the retreat to New York. After operations near New Haven in 1779, the regiment went to the Carolinas in 1780 taking part in the operations against Fort Moultie. Frederick was promoted to Battalion Major on 14 November 1780. The regiment, down to 167 men, took part in the battle of Cowpens on 17 January 1781 under Colonel Tarleton, suffering large numbers of losses: the regimental colours were lost. Later that year the remaining officers and men were returned to Scotland. Frederick retired from the army in 1783, and on returning to Lincoln Frederick served as a magistrate in the city. He died on 13 June 1788 in Lincoln.22 General Evening Post 11–13 November 1779; London Evening Post 11-13 November 1779. Historical records of the 7th or Royal Regiment of Fusiliers now known as the Royal Fusiliers (the City of London Regiment) 1685-1903 (Guernsey: F.B. Guerin, 1903), 324. 20 Cannon 1849, 25–26. 21 His service under Burgoyne is noted in Thomas 2002, 7. 22 World 20 June 1788. He was buried on 18 June 1788 at Swinderby. 18 19

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7

John Disney John was born on 29 September 1746, the youngest son of John and Frances.23 Like his two older brothers, Lewis and Frederick he was baptised at St Peter’s Eastgate in Lincoln. He was educated at Wakefield Grammar School where the Reverend John Clarke was the headmaster.24 John then moved to Lincoln Grammar School. At the age of 16 he had been due to enter the Middle Temple (following in the steps of his father and grandfather) but was unable to do so due to ill health. He was admitted to Peterhouse in Cambridge with a Slade scholarship in 1764, and in 1770 was awarded the LLB.25 He was remembered during his time in Cambridge for ‘the amenity of his manners, the correctness of his conduct, and a taste and turn for sober enquiry and investigation’.26 In April 1768 he published Animadversions upon the conduct of the Rev. Dr. Rutherforth, in the controversy which has followed the publication of The confessional (1768). This was an attack on Thomas Rutherforth, the Regius Professor of Divinity at Cambridge, and a defence of Francis Blackburne’s Confessional.27 Disney was ordained in the Church of England in 1768 and was honorary chaplain to Edmund Law who had been consecrated Bishop of Carlisle in the same year. Law was also Master of Peterhouse, and Knightbridge Professor of Moral Philosophy at Cambridge. In 1769 Disney was appointed to the livings of Swinderby and Panton in Lincolnshire. Panton Hall was purchased by his brother-in-law, Edmund (married to his sister Mary) in 1775. In 1771 John’s father died, leaving him a bequest of £2000.

Conclusion By the second half of the 18th century the Disney family was poised to make an impact well beyond Lincolnshire and Nottinghamshire. The eldest son, Lewis, inherited Flintham Hall; the second son, Frederick, was serving as an army officer in the Americas; and the third son, John, was ordained into the Church of England. Their sister, Mary, had married into the Turnor family. Lewis and John were to be key individuals for the events ahead.

Turner 1843, 178. A different date (17 September 1746) is given in Anon. 1818, 49. Cooper and Skedd 2004. Clarke was headmaster from 1751 until his resignation due to illness in February 1758. 25 It was suggested that Disney went to Cambridge as his father was a whig: Anon. 1818, 50. For details of Disney at Peterhouse: Walker 1912, 326, 26 Anon. 1818, 50. 27 Gascoigne 2004b. 23 24

Chapter 2 The Break with the Church of England During the 18th century some clergy in the Church of England began to question their underlying theological beliefs. In the case of the Disney family, specifically in the case of John Disney, the youngest son of John—who served as sheriff of Nottingham—and his wife Frances Cartwright, this ecclesiastical position brought about a break with the Church of England that led directly to new connections through the Unitarian community in London that provided the foundations of the new Disney family fortune as well as links with Essex.

The Blackburne Family One of the key members of the clergy to question the tenets of the Church of England in the eighteenth century was Francis Blackburne (1705-87), Archdeacon of Cleveland and rector of Richmond, a small market town on the edge of the Yorkshire Dales.1 Blackburne had been exposed to radical theological ideas in Cambridge, where he studied at St Catharine’s College from 1723.2 One of Blackburne’s close Cambridge friends was Edmund Law (1703–87) who in 1743 became the Archdeacon of Carlisle, and in 1756 the Master of Peterhouse, Cambridge.3 Blackburne was ordained deacon in March 1728 by the Bishop of Ely, and priest in 1739 by the Bishop of Norwich. He had hoped to be elected to a college fellowship but Blackburne’s liberal position alienated him from those in authority.4 He spent some time at East Comber in Yorkshire, to the east of Hull, where he was afflicted with a nervous disorder and a dejection of spirits, which disabled him from pursuing his studies, and obliged him to seek relief in strong exercise, particularly fox-hunting and other field sports, which restored him to a tolerable state of health, and power of application to books.5 On the death of Blackburne’s uncle, the Reverend Thomas Brooke, rector of Richmond, in 1739, the living became vacant. With the support of Richmond’s MP, In 2007 a plaque was unveiled in Richmond to mark Blackburne’s contribution: ‘Plaque salutes 18th century churchman’, The Northern Echo 31 January 2007, 14. An account of his life along with some of his papers appears in the volume edited by his son, Francis: Blackburne 1804. His maternal grandfather was Thomas Comber (1645–1699), dean of Durham Cathedral. 2 Young 2004a. Francis’ brother Thomas was a pensioner at Christ’s College, but died of smallpox. 3 Young 2004b. 4 Blackburne 1804, iv. 5 Blackburne 1804, v. 1

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9

Figure 4. The Reverend Theophilus Lindsey, engraving by Giovanni Vendramini. National Portrait Gallery D14260.

John Yorke, Blackburne was inducted in May 1839; Richmond was also Blackburne’s birthplace.6 In August 1744 Blackburne married Hannah, widow of Joshua Elsworth, resident of Thorp under Stone, a village to the west of Richmond. Hannah had three children by her first marriage. A further daughter, Jane, was born in January 1746.7 By the late 1740s Blackburne was openly critical of the Church of England and felt unable to adhere to the historic Thirty-Nine Articles, the clearly articulated set of formularies that lie at the heart of the Church of England.8 In July 1750 he was appointed Archdeacon of Cleveland.9 On 29 September 1760 Blackburne’s step-daughter, Hannah Elsworth (17401812), married a Church of England clergyman, the Reverend Theophilus Lindsey (1723-1808).10 The service, conducted in Richmond, was taken by Blackburne. Lindsey took his first name, Theophilus, from his godfather, the son of Frances, Countess of Huntingdon (founder of the eponymous Connexion with its evangelical emphasis). Lindsey, who had studied at St John’s College, Cambridge, had held a living at Kirby Wiske, near Thirsk in Yorkshire, but in 1754 he had resigned to move Blackburne’s family came from Marricke Abbey, close to Richmond. Her baptism in Richmond was 31 January 1745/6. Fitzpatrick 1993. 9 Blackburne 1804, xv. 10 Hannah’s mother, Hannah (née Hotham), was the widow of Joshua Elsworth. For Hannah’s wedding: Ditchfield 2007, xxxv. 6 7 8

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to Piddletown in Dorset, near the estate of Thomas Hollis (1720-74) of Corscombe.11 Hollis was himself known as a bibliophile and the promoter of liberty. It appears that Lindsey and Hollis had become acquainted in Italy during the early 1750s.12 In the autumn of 1763 Lindsey returned to Yorkshire to become vicar of Catterick, just over 5 miles from Richmond.13 He was instituted by Blackburne on 18 November 1763 and gave his formal assent to the Thirty-Nine Articles.14 Hollis clearly developed a close friendship with Blackburne as well as Lindsey. In March 1765 Lindsey wrote to William Harris about ‘Our common great friend in PallMall’ (i.e. Hollis) and his generosity to Lindsey and his step-father-in-law:15 I cannot mention this latter friend, without telling you of an instance of his wonted generosity and public spirit, in presenting Mr. Archd. B. and your humble servant lately each of us with copies of Wallis’s Grammar, and the noble Letters on Toleration. The two books were clearly new editions of John Wallis, Grammatica linguae anglicanae (1653; repr. 1764, dated 1765), and John Locke, Letters concerning toleration (1689; repr. 1765). Lindsey’s close friendship for Hollis is reflected in another letter to Harris:16 a common friend … What a man is he; and what might not ten such men in this nation effect! But no more: he loves not to be talked of: he loves and endeavours to help each man to act his part, as he does his own. Blackburne at this time was actively articulating his key doubts on the core doctrines of the Church of England, and crystallised his views in Confessional, or, A full and free inquiry into the right, utility, and success of establishing confessions of faith and doctrine in protestant churches published in May 1766.17 The publication was supported financially by Lindsey’s friend Thomas Hollis.18 It appears that Hollis had come across the manuscript in 1763, and arranged for the London-based publisher Andrew Millar, to visit Blackburne in Richmond.19 Hollis (under the pseudonym Pierce Delver) wrote to Lindsey in October 1766:20

Piddletown is now spelt Puddletown. Ditchfield 2007, xxxi, suggesting 1754 rather than 1756. He was presented with the vicarage in January 1755. 12 Robbins 1950, 443. Lindsey was on the Grand Tour from 1751–53 with Hugh Smithson. This predates the suggestion that the friendship only started in Dorset: Ditchfield 2007, xli. See also Coutu 2015, 164. 13 Ditchfield 2007, xlii. The motivation seems to have been to be closer to Yorkshire and Blackburne’s influence. 14 Ditchfield 2007, xlii–xliii. 15 Ditchfield 2007, no. 54 (5 March 1765, from Catterick). Hollis wrote under the pseudonym of Pierce Delver: Belsham 1873, 105. 16 Ditchfield 2007, no. 59 (27 May 1766, from Catterick). See also Belsham 1873, 333 (letter of 18 October 1766). 17 See also Blackburne 1804, xviii. 18 Blackburne 1804, li. 19 Blackburne 1804, xxxii. Bond 1990, 85. For Millar: Amory 2004. 20 Belsham 1873, 333–34. 11

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I fear he studies, labours too intensely, though to such noble purposes and great effects; and the human machine though a very fine is yet a very delicate one. Let us applaud his magnanimity, however, and wish him every good! Hollis’ generosity to Blackburne was recognised in an extended acknowledgement, where Hollis is described as the ‘Assertor of Liberty’.21 Hollis subsequently presented a series of pamphlets linked to the Confessional to the British Museum.22 The friendship between Blackburne and Hollis was close. Blackburne was at this same time a supporter of the emerging universities in North America.23 Mr. Blackburne repents now of the pains he took, and the success he had in the collection for the colleges in America. Such support is reflected by contemporary benefactions from Blackburne’s associates such as Hollis. On Hollis’ death in January 1774 Blackburne was bequeathed £500.24 Blackburne later prepared a two-volume memoir of Hollis, with the aid of his executor Thomas Brand (Brand-Hollis), that was published in 1780.25

The Reverend John Disney In 1764, John Disney, son of John Disney of Lincoln and Swinderby, was admitted at the age of eighteen to Peterhouse, Cambridge where Edmund Law, Blackburne’s friend, was the Master.26 Disney’s grandfather and father had both studied at Magdalene College, and Peterhouse may have had a particular draw.27 In 1766 Blackburne published his Confessional that created considerable controversy.28 At its heart lay a discomfort with the necessity of ordained clergy in the Church of England to subscribe to the Thirty-Nine Articles.29 In April 1768 Disney defended Blackburne’s position in Animadversions upon the conduct of the Rev. Dr. Rutherforth, in the controversy which has followed the publication of The Confessional (1768). This publication was an attack on Thomas Rutherforth, the Regius Professor of Divinity at Cambridge, and served as a defence of Blackburne’s Confessional. Shortly afterwards Disney was ordained by Law who had just been consecrated as Bishop of Carlisle: Disney acted as Law’s honorary chaplain.30 Blackburne 1804, xci. Bond 1990, 110. 23 Ditchfield 2007, no.51 (late 1763, Lindsey to William Harris). 24 Blackburne 1804, li. 25 Blackburne 1780; Blackburne 1804, lii-liii. Lindsey wrote to John Nichols, the eventual publisher of the memoir, in 1779, noting that Blackburne was working on the text: Ditchfield 2007, no. 211 (before 6 October 1779). Blackburne had been planning to write a life of Martin Luther: Blackburne 1804, liii. 26 Young 2004b. 27 It has been observed that there is a close link between members of Peterhouse and Unitarianism: Ditchfield 2007, lxiii. 28 Bond 1990, 86. 29 Discussed by Ditchfield 2005. 30 Thomas 2002, 3. 21 22

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Figure 5. The Reverend John Disney, engraved by John Basire after Guy Head. National Portrait Gallery D8486.

In 1769 Disney became vicar of Swinderby in Lincolnshire, and also rector of Panton, a living in the gift of his brother-in-law, Edmund Turnor, who was married to his sister Mary. Swinderby was close to the family home of Norton Disney. Shortly afterwards Disney was one of the Feathers Tavern Petitioners that met in 1771— the year that Disney’s father had died—to call for clergy in the Church of England to be released from the perceived constraints of the Thirty-Nine Articles.31 One of the other key petitioners was Lindsey, now vicar of Catterick. This was the start of a close friendship.32 Lindsey continued to have serious doubts about his place in the Church of England not least after the petition was rejected in the House of Commons in February 1772. In November 1773, after consulting Hollis, he resigned from the living at Catterick.33 In 1773 Disney published a tract, Loose hints on Nonconformity, addressed to the Bishops (1773). This was followed by The Rational Christian’s Assistant to the worthy receiving of the Lord’s Supper (1774),34 and then A Short View of the Controversies occasioned by the Ditchfield 2005. See Anon. 1818, 51. See also Belsham 1873, 81–82. Disney may have been the recipient of a letter from Lindsey probably in March 1772: Ditchfield 2007, no. 83. The recipient was identified as ‘another friend, now living, who has since quitted the church upon the same subject’. 33 Ditchfield 2007, xlix. See also Blackburne 1804, xlvii. 34 Turner 1843, 184–85. 31 32

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Confessional and the Petition to Parliament (1775). It was in this unsettling period, in November 1774, that Disney married Jane, Blackburne’s daughter and (half) sisterin-law to Lindsey.

Essex Street Chapel Lindsey resigned from his Yorkshire living in late November 1773. He was initially considered as the minister of the Octagon at Liverpool,35 but in the following year, Sunday 17 April 1774, he opened a small chapel in Essex House, Essex Street, London, on the south side of the Strand, that used a revised form of liturgy based on the Church of England’s Book of Common Prayer.36 Significantly it was Disney who had helped Lindsey work on this new prayer book, the Book of Common Prayer Reformed, at Swinderby in the winter of 1773-74.37 The chapel had a number of key supporters, among them Thomas Brand-Hollis.38 In late September 1774 Lindsey was invited to visit Brand-Hollis at his house in Essex.39 By the spring of 1776 Brand-Hollis was one of the important benefactors of the chapel along with Sir George Savile, of Rufford, Nottinghamshire, and MP for Yorkshire, who had supported the petition in Parliament relating to those members of the clergy, like Lindsey, who had wished to refrain from subscribing to the ThirtyNine Articles of the Church of England.40 Lindsey wrote to William Tayleur on 14 May 1776:41 Sr. G. Savile, who is a handsome annual subscriber, and comes to the chapel sometimes, and Mr B. Hollis intimated that they shd. be ready to do more if called for. Savile was also a supporter of protestant dissenters as well as the Roman Catholic minority.

Ditchfield 2007, no. 112 (Lindsey to William Turner of Wakefield, 19 December 1773). The letter was significantly sent from Swinderby where Lindsey had been staying with Disney. See also Belsham 1873, 58. 36 Ditchfield 2007, lv. 37 Ditchfield 2007, lxviii. Lindsey’s presence is attested by his correspondence, e.g. Ditchfield 2007, no. 114 (5 January 1774, Lindsey to William Turner of Wakefield). A letter of 19 December 1773 was also written from Swinderby (no. 112). 38 A prominent member and strong advocate for Unitarianism was the 3rd Duke of Grafton, the former Prime Minister, who had also studied at Peterhouse: Durrant 2004. 39 Ditchfield 2007, no. 137 (6 October 1774, Lindsey to William Turner of Wakefield: ‘the truth is, the week before last I was at Mr Brand Hollis’s in Essex (a friend (and) great admirer of the worthy families of the [?Shores] and Milnses) …’ 40 Cannon 2004. See also Ditchfield 2005. 41 Ditchfield 2007, no. 159 (14 May 1776, Lindsey to William Tayleur). Lindsey noted, ‘We have already procured a promise of the following sums from some generous friends and Well-wishers’. Brand-Hollis was subscribing £100. 35

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Brand-Hollis continued to support the chapel and in 1777 donated £100 ‘for the purchase of Essex-house, and building a chapel’.42 Lindsey wrote to William Tayleur about Brand-Hollis in December 1778:43 Mr. Brand Hollis is but just come to Town — and is leaving it again to morrow till after the Christmas holidays. I mentioned your late most generous proposal to him, when he said that he had the thing at heart and shd be willing to concur in doing something more. Tayleur, who came from Shropshire, had studied at Christ Church, Oxford. He had intended to be ordained in the Church of England, but instead established a Unitarian place of worship in Shrewsbury.44 Lindsey had reservations about BrandHollis’s full support for the Unitarian cause. He shared his concerns with Tayleur in January 1779:45 What B. Hollis will do farther I cannot tell. He is now in Town and the other day I pressed the matter home to him. But tho’ he prefers and approves us, and speaks zealously and heartily for the unitarian cause, yet he is, I may say in confidence to you, Sir, parcus et infrequens cultor numinis — any little impediment or excuse diverts from it. But such is the fashion. The allusion is to one of Horace’s Odes (I.34), Parcus deorum cultor et infrequens, where the poet has returned to the worship of the traditional Roman gods after being a sparse and infrequent worshipper of the gods. Lindsey has replaced ‘deorum’ (of the gods) with ‘numinis’ (of the spirit). There is a hint that while Brand-Hollis supported the principle of supporting dissent, his personal convictions were not totally behind the Unitarian cause.

Disney’s decision to leave the Church of England Disney married Lindsey’s sister-in-law Jane Blackburne in November 1774, and the couple lived at Swinderby. The couple had three daughters, Frances Mary, Elizabeth Jane, and Catherine Dorothy, born in 1775, 1776, and 1777; Elizabeth died aged 11 days, and Catherine at seven months. A son, John, was born on 29 May 1779 at Flintham Hall in Nottinghamshire, the home of his paternal uncle, Lewis Disney. A second son, Algernon, was born in June 1780. The Blackburnes were visitors of the Disneys at Swinderby.46 Disney himself was active in his writings, and in 1775 he was awarded a DD from the University of Ditchfield 2007, no. 170 (20 May 1777, Lindsey to William Tayleur). Appendix I: List of Subscribers to Essex Street Chapel, c. 1776-1785. T. Brand Hollis Esqr, £200. Essex Hall archive in Dr Williams’s Library. 43 Ditchfield 2007, no. 193 (3 December 1778, Lindsey to William Tayleur). 44 Ditchfield 2007, lxxxv. 45 Ditchfield 2007, no. 195 (12 January 1779, Lindsey to William Tayleur). 46 Ditchfield 2007, no. 172 (7 July 1777, Lindsey to William Turner of Wakefield): ‘about 3 weeks ago the 42

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Edinburgh with the support of Edmund Law, bishop of Carlisle and his father-inlaw’s Cambridge friend.47 Further works followed, Thoughts on the Great Circumspection necessary in Licensing Public Ale-Houses (1776),48 A Visitation Sermon, addressed to the Clergy of the Archdeaconry of Lincoln, on the Right of Private Judgment (1777),49 and Remarks on Bishop Hurd’s Primary Charge to his Clergy (1777).50 Richard Hurd, the bishop of Worcester, had been sympathetic to the dissenting clergy. In 1778 Disney was elected a Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries, perhaps hinting at an interest in history if not antiquity, although the Society at the time consisted of some 13 per cent of clergy.51 In 1776 he had noted the discovery of a Roman pottery vessel:52 Found at Flintham, in Nottinghamshire, in the year 1776, by some workmen, who were digging a ditch about three feet deep, upon the lands allotted to Mr Richard Green, in the north field upon the enclosure of the lordship. In April 1780 Disney and Brand-Hollis were among the 15 activists who helped to found the Society for Constitutional Information, arguing for political reform.53 One of the other leading members was John Cartwright, John Disney’s first cousin.54 In 1780 Disney further supported parliamentary reform through his membership of Committee of Association for the county of Nottingham.55 In 1781 Disney published Considerations on the Propriety and Expediency of the Clergy acting in the Commission of the Peace (1781). He himself served as a justice of the peace for Nottinghamshire. Lindsey and his wife, Jane’s half-sister, now resident in London, were frequent visitors of the Disney family in Lincolnshire.56 The Reverend Disney continued to have severe doubts about remaining in the Church of England, but the responsibilities of family meant that he found it harder to make the break than Lindsey.57 On 8 February 1782 Disney preached a sermon in Swinderby on the day set aside as a great fast to mark the crisis in America: A sermon preached in the Parish Church of Swinderby ... on Friday, February the 8th, 1782, being the day appointed by His Majesty’s proclamation for a General Fast.58 The text suggests that he took up the theme of liberty. It needs to be remembered that his brother Frederick had served as an officer in the ADn & Mrs Blackburne were at Dr Disney’s in Nottinghamshire’. Swinderby is just over 100 miles from Richmond. 47 Thomas 2002, 4. The Peterhouse records: Walker 1912, 326. The award was made on 5 June 1775. 48 Turner 1843, 188. 49 Turner 1843, 182–83. 50 Turner 1843, 186. 51 Turner 1843, 186. Pearce 2007, 148, 167 n. 9 (specifically noting Disney). 52 Disney 1849b, 226, pl. xciii. 53 Dickinson 2007. See also Anon. 1818, 69. Brand-Hollis was appointed a Deputy of the Grand Committee for Westminster in March 1780: English Chronicle 18–21 March 1780. 54 Cornish 2004. John’s mother, Frances, and John Cartwright’s mother Anne, were daughters of George Cartwright of Ossington, Nottinghamshire. 55 Turner 1843, 188. See also Kilburn 2013. 56 E.g. Ditchfield 2007, no. 224 (1 August 1780, Lindsey to William Tayleur): ‘Mrs. Lindsey and myself are here at her brother in law Dr Disney’s in our way to the North …’’. The visit was made to Flintham Hall near Newark. 57 Ditchfield 2007, lxiii. 58 Disney 1782. See Thomas 2002, 6.

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War of Independence. The siege of Yorktown had concluded in October 1781 with the surrender of the British force there. Later that same month the government was defeated in parliament in the vote over whether or not to conclude the war. During 1782 Lindsey made two visits to see Disney who was clearly giving serious consideration to leaving the Church of England. On 23 June 1782 Lindsey wrote to William Tayleur,59 … we are from You to make a long journey indeed into Lincolnshire about 9 miles from Newark, and this on some necessary business as well as to see a most valuable man, Dr Disney, who married my wife’s half-sister, Archdeacon Blackburne’s daughter. This visit coincided with the death of their brother-in-law, and Blackburne’s son, Dr Thomas Blackburne, who died in Durham in June 1782. Blackburne took the death badly:60 The effect produced by this melancholy event on the feelings of his father, may be best conceived from the pious effusion of his sorrows … In September Lindsey was back staying with Disney as he wrote to Russell Scott on 14 September 1782:61 I had the pleasure of receiving your letter the beginning of this week, near 140 miles from this place, at the house of a much respected and near relation of my wife’s … Disney clearly was moving towards a decision, and in November we went to see the Bishop of Lincoln in London. Lindsey provided the detail:62 I have the satisfaction of acquainting You that Dr Disney, who married my wife’s sister and Archdeacon Blackburne’s daughter has been this day with the Bishop of Lincoln to acquaint him of his intended immediate resignation of the Livings of Swinderby and Panton in Lincolnshire, who received him courteously and properly, and to morrow the instruments are to be ready to compleat it. And on Sunday he is to preach to our congregation, to some of whom I have mentioned my choice of him for a collegue, and I hope he will prove acceptable to them. I have never heard him preach, but I have a good hope he will be useful in that capacity and by his private study and application recommend himself more and more. He has been in Town a week, but could not meet with his Diocesan before. His friends made opposition to his quitting his preferment and prospects, and are far from approving Ditchfield 2007, no. 246 (23 June 1782, Lindsey to William Tayleur). Blackburne 1804, lix–lx. The death was reported in the Whitehall Evening Post 2–4 July 1782. 61 Ditchfield 2007, no. 251. 62 Ditchfield 2007, no. 254 (13 November 1782, Lindsey to William Tayleur). See also Belsham 1873, 99. 59 60

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what he has done, but his convictions and state of self-condemnation in which he lived was too great to let him continue any longer in his situation when he had such a prospect of becoming useful in the way he desired, and of finding something that might go towards the maintenance of a wife and three children, which with what little remains of a younger brothers fortune, he is not able to support. After he has preached here, he goes back to Swinderby, and hopes to be able to settle all his matters, and come up with his family abt the beginning of the new year. I trust he will come to us with the blessing of the gospel of peace as the apostle speaks, and be successful in bringing many to the knowledge of the true God, and to wisdom and virtue. Some little thing which he has projected by way of farewel to his Parishioners, will I hope be of general use, by being published and circulated. Disney’s decision to resign his livings was made clear in a tract, Reasons for resigning the rectory of Panton and vicarage of Swinderby, in Lincolnshire, and quitting the Church of England.63 However it was not immediately clear that Disney would join Lindsey in Essex Hall. In September, it seems that Lindsey was considering another man as his co-minister. He confided to Joshua Toulmin, at the time a Baptist minister in Taunton, on 28 November 1782:64 Dr Disney, who left us last week, was here somewhat more than a fortnight, and during that interval resigned two livings to the Bishop of Lincoln, preached afterwards with great acceptance both parts of the day to our congregation, and the next day was approved as my colleague by as many of the benefactors to our building as were in town. This you will believe has made me very happy. I am the more so, because it was an event unlooked for a few months ago. In the autumn, when I was at his house at Swinderby, I was in treaty with another friend and very eminent person to become my colleague. But I said not a syllable of it to Dr. Disney, for I knew how sore he was; and for six years past have never by letter or in conversation touched the subject of conformity. They have a journey first to make to the good archdeacon who thinks that the original sin lies with me in drawing his son-in-law out of the church. The Disneys visited the Blackburnes in Richmond in early December before leaving for London.65 The decision to resign was one that Francis Blackburne struggled to understand, especially coming so soon after the death of his son Thomas.66 Disney’s Disney 1783. Turner 1843, 189–92. Ditchfield 2007, no. 256 (28 November 1782, Lindsey to Joshua Toulmin). 65 Ditchfield 2007, no. 257 (10 December 1782, Lindsey to William Tayleur): ‘They are all now at Richmond in Yorkshire, taking leave of the Archdeacon and his family’. 66 Blackburne 1804, lxi. Blackburne 1804, lxi: ‘Mr Blackburne too had his objections to the liturgy and articles of the church; but he was far from going the length of dissent which his friend Mr Lindsey had avowed in the year 1774, and which Dr Disney now came forward to profess’. 63 64

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successor in the living, the Reverend Andrew Chambers, was instituted at the end of December through the patronage of John’s brother, Lewis Disney-Ffytche.67 William Turner, a dissenting minister of Wakefield, responded to Disney’s Reasons for Resigning that was reflected in a letter from Lindsey in January 1783: I made your compts to Dr Disney and read him the pt of yr letter brought by Mr s relating to himself & his Tract, with wch he thinks himself much honoured …68

Disney at Essex Hall Disney joined Lindsey as co-minister of the Unitarian congregation at Essex Hall in London that had opened on 29 March 1778.69 The deed to establish the chapel as a trust was signed on 7 February 1783, and on 19 February Disney formally became the assistant minister.70 Disney’s life in London is recorded in a detailed diary from January 1783 to May 1784.71 Jane Disney seems to have suffered from a fever in June 1783.72 Then in August Lindsey noted to Tayleur:73 Dr Disney, who desires his respectful compts. we found rather low in consequence of a little fever that the great heats had brought upon him, but to day he is about the streets as usually and tolerably well, as are also Mrs. Disney and his family. Disney’s illness continued into mid August as Lindsey noted that they had removed themselves to Sunbury on the Thames: ‘One reason of our paying this visit so soon was to forward Dr Disney’s perfect recovery, wch it was effected, our time being much spent abroad in a wholesome dry air, and pleasant country’.74 This was followed by a trip to Lincolnshire: ‘Dr Disney and his family are in Lincolnshire, and will I hope receive benefit from the excursion.’75 Lindsey expanded on the situation: My worthy Collegue and his family, are all gone into Lincolnshire for a few weeks. As they had not been quite well any of them — we hope they will Daily Advertiser Friday 3 January 1783. Ditchfield 2007, no. 260 (Lindsey to William Turner of Wakefield, 21 January 1783). For Turner: Ditchfield 2007, lxxxvii. 69 Belsham 1873, 88; Rowe 1959, 22-24; Ditchfield 2007, lxii, lxvi. 70 Ditchfield 2007, lxii. See also Belsham 1873, 87–88. 71 Thomas 2002. 72 Ditchfield 2007, no. 265 (Lindsey to William Tayleur, 30 June 1783): ‘We should have set out this day upon our journey into the North, had not we been delayed by Mrs Disney’s illness. She is now recovered …’ 73 Ditchfield 2007, no. 266 (Lindsey to William Tayleur, 8 August 1783). 74 Ditchfield 2007, no. 267. (Letter to William Tayleur, 16 August 1783). 75 Ditchfield 2007, no. 268. (Letter to William Tayleur, 1 September 1783). 67 68

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be much recruited and recovd for winter work. He and his wife, your old acquaintance, desired their respects when I wrote to You.76 These fevers may have been the result of the atmospheric pollution caused by the eruption of the Laki Craters in Iceland in early June of that year.77 In particular, fevers were particularly prevalent, and it has been estimated that there were some 20,000 additional deaths in England. A third daughter, Elizabeth Collyer, was born at Essex Street on Sunday 18 January 1784.78 She was ‘christened’ on Sunday 15 February.79 Sadly Elizabeth died on Wednesday 10 March, ‘of convulsions in her bowels’.80 Disney added to his diary, ‘May Almighty God make this Affliction subservient to our improvement and advancement in his favor.’ Lindsey noted,81 During the past month my worthy colleague has lost his new-born infant, about seven weeks old, by convulsions. My wife was called up in the night, but nothing could be done for the poor little creature. And he has since had a fever, which has confined him a fortnight to the house, and prevented of course his being at chapel on Sunday last; but is now happily quite well. This was a period when the country had been suffering from extreme cold temperatures, again as a result of the volcanic eruption, and typhus appears to have been prevalent. In addition, Frances (Fanny) Mary, the Disney’s only surviving daughter, now aged eight, was struck by illness:82 My worthy colleague who with Mrs D. desires respects, is under much concern for his eldest daughter, who has a complaint in her ancle, wch they fear will oblige them to take her entirely from school. The Disney family then took up residence in Sloane Street in Chelsea where a further daughter, Jane, was born on 19 May 1785, and was baptised at Swinderby.83 She died in March the following year; Lindsey noted, ‘Dr Disney has lost a sweet child of nine months old.’84

Ditchfield 2007, no. 269. Letter to William Turner of Wakefield, 1 September 1783. Witham and Oppenheimer 2005. Thomas 2002, 111. The birth was registered in the Library, Red Cross Street, on Monday 23 February. 79 Thomas 2002, 115. 80 Thomas 2002, 119. 81 Ditchfield 2007, no. 287 (Lindsey to William Tayleur, 3 April 1784). 82 Ditchfield 2007, no. 288 (Lindsey to William Turner of Wakefield, 15 April 1784). Frances was born on 7 August 1775. ‘Ancle’ is the recorded spelling. 83 Lindsey referred to the Disney family as ‘all in Sloane’: Ditchfield 2012, no. 400 (2 January 1790); ‘all well in Sloane-Street’, no. 428 (2 November 1790). Jane’s birth was registered on 5 August 1785. Lindsey had noted the coming birth at the end of April: Ditchfield 2007, no. 316 (Lindsey to William Tayleur, 30 April 1785): ‘daily expecting Mrs Disney to produce a new Stranger’. The Disney family were troubled by the smoky atmosphere when they lived in central London: Anon. 1818, 52. 84 Ditchfield 2007, no. 329 (Lindsey to Russell Scott, 30 March 1786). 76 77 78

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One of Disney’s tasks of January 1784 was to adapt or alter some of the texts from Isaac Watts’ Divine Songs (1715) no doubt for use at Essex Hall.85 These were clearly intended as a book of hymns, Divine Songs Attempted in Easy Language for the Use of Children, as in February he received page proofs.86 A further Unitarian edition of the same collection was prepared in 1787, although this seems to have raised concern with Disney.87 Also in 1784 Disney published a call for a return to what he perceived as a form of worship that was loyal to his reading of the Bible: A friendly dialogue: between a common Unitarian Christian, and an Athanasian: occasioned by the formers’s behavior during some part of the public service. Or, An attempt to restore scripture forms of worship. To which is now added, a second dialogue, between Eugenius and Theophilus, on the same subject (1784). He revised the liturgy used in the chapel with the publication of the Book of Common Prayer Reformed, for the use of Unitarian Congregations (1792) and Book of Common Prayer Reformed, with a Book of Psalms, and a Collection of Hymns (1802). Disney explained the purpose of the volume in the preface. It has been the chief intention of his endeavours, to form the ordinary and occasional services of public worship, upon the broad and general principles of our common christianity. Obsolete words and redundant expressions have been corrected; offensive and needless repetitions, have been without distinction, expunged. All doctrinal opinions which have been superadded to the plain and simple statements, that “there is one GOD, and one mediator between GOD and men, the man Christ Jesus;” and that “Jesus is the Christ,” have been studiously avoided. It appears, indeed, to be a position capable of the clearest demonstration, how much soever the contrary practice has prevailed in christian churches, that the introduction of any unnecessary doctrinal opinions into public liturgies, is wholly foreign to the nature and expediency of social worship. Disney argued that he valued unity in the Christian community. He knows, or thinks he knows, the value, as well as the nature, of unity, both among the disciples of Christ, and among the brotherhood of mankind: but it is an unity in charity, or love, for the whole human race, and not an unity in doctrinal opinions, for which alone the christian should content. Francis Blackburne’s health had been giving the Disneys concern. Lindsey had noted in September 1783 after a trip to Yorkshire:88

Thomas 2002, 112. Noted in his diary for 29 January 1784. Thomas 2002, 115 (Thursday 19 February 1784). Ditchfield 2007, no. 353 (Lindsey to the Reverend Russell Scott, 25 September 1787). 88 Ditchfield 2007, no. 269 (Lindsey to William Turner of Wakefield, 1 September 1783). See also Blackburne 1804, lxiii. 85 86 87

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You will be pleased to learn that we found the Archdeacon and Mrs Blackburne far better than we expected, the former still in vigour of mind and body, but a little affected with almost a total loss of one eye by a long inflammation upon it. From 1784 Blackburne’s eyesight started to fail, and he was assisted by James Tate (1771-1843) from the Free Grammar School in Richmond.89 Francis Blackburne died at home on 7 August 1787. Lindsey had rushed to Richmond but was too late. He wrote to William Tayleur:90 … but all was over abt 24 hours before we arrived. He died without a sigh, imperceptibly in his sleep, having mentioned an hour before that we were on the road, and told his Doctor that he would see us soon. He has left behind him some MSS. Finished, on what subjects is not yet known, and memorials of his life, which will be published in time. The manuscript life, edited by his son Francis, was later published in 1804.91 This paid tribute to Blackburne:92 a believer of Christianity from the deepest conviction of its truth; a protestant on the genuine principles of the reformation from Popery; a strenuous adversary of superstition and intolerance, and of every corruption of the simplicity or the spirit of the gospel; a zealous promoter of civil liberty; a close and perspicacious reasoner; a keen and energetic writer; an attentive, benevolent, and venerable Archdeacon; an eloquent and persuasive Preacher; a faithful Pastor and exemplary guide; of unblemished purity of life, of simple dignity of manners; a sincere and cordial friend; an affectionate husband, and an indulgent father; in short, a just, humane, pious, temperate and independent man. A memorial was erected in the parish church at Richmond, and it reads: Beneath this marble sleeps Francis Blackburn, Archdeacon of Cleveland and Rector of Richmond. A rational and pious Christian, just, humane and benevolent. A faithful pastor, a persuasive teacher, an acute, energetic, caustic writer, a foe to the superstition of Rome and each exorbitant claim of Christian authority. A friend to civil liberty and the equal rights of men in every country. Blackburne 1804, lxiii: ‘a young school boy, whose services performed with fidelity and diligence, won him not only the esteem and affection, but the implicit confidence of his revered and venerable employer’. For Tate: Wenham 1991. 90 Ditchfield 2007, no. 352 (1 September 1787, Lindsey to William Tayleur). 91 Blackburne 1804. 92 Blackburne 1804, lxxxi. 89

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The following year, John was faced with the death of his brother Major Frederick Disney on 13 June 1788 in Lincoln. Lindsey commented:93 Dr Disney is very well himself, but has been absent now a week at Lincoln, called thither by the death of his second brother, and I do not expect him to return till it be quite convenient to him. His worthy mother who lives at the place, will have the greatest loss. The reference is to his mother, Frances (née Cartwright) Disney. Lindsey wrote to William Tayleur on the same subject on 26 June 1788, but he expanded it to include another of Disney’s activities:94 Dr Disney and one or two of our Cambridge friends have printed an Appendix to Maty’s Sermons, containing his reasons for quitting the church of England, which the Editors of his sermons had omitted. I hope some one will by and by exhibit their injustice to the worthy man in a proper light for such omission. Dr D. has been absent abt a fortnight on account of the death of his second brother an officer, who had been long in a declining way. His mother will have the greatest loss as he lived with her at Lincoln, and helped to relieve her solitude at an advanced age. Paul Henry Maty had been a scholar at Trinity College, Cambridge, graduating in 1767.95 He acted as chaplain to the British ambassador to France, but in 1776 his concerns over the Thirty-Nine Articles meant that he decided to leave the Church of England. He followed his father into the position of Assistant Librarian at the British Museum. His published sermons had been delivered in the Ambassador’s chapel in Paris. The identity of Disney’s Cambridge friends is not certain. One is likely to have been Robert Tyrwhitt (1735–1817) who graduated from Jesus College in 1757.96 He rejected the Thirty-Nine Articles around 1771. Tyrwhitt subsequently become associated with the Society for Promoting the Knowledge of the Scriptures. The death of his brother Thomas in 1786 had provided him with a source of income that allowed his to fund various projects and initiatives.97 The other was probably the Reverend William Frend (1757–1841) who had started to attend Essex Street Chapel in 1787 at the same time that he resigned from his Church of England livings of Long Stanton and Madingley just outside Cambridge.98 Frend married Sara Blackburne, the granddaughter of Archdeacon Blackburne in 1808. Disney was also connected to other major unitarians, including John Jebb, formerly a fellow of Peterhouse, Church of England clergyman (resigning in 1775), Ditchfield 2007, no. 373 (Lindsey to William Frend, 20 June 1788). Ditchfield 2007, no. 374 (Lindsey to William Tayleur, 26 June 1788). Seccombe and Mills 2004. 96 Gordon and Ruston 2004. 97 Caldwell 2004. 98 Roe 2004. See also Ditchfield 2007, lxxx. 93 94 95

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and who had been closely involved with the foundation in September 1783 of the Society for Promoting the Knowledge of the Scriptures and linked to the Essex Street chapel.99 Disney was the secretary to the Society.100 Jebb himself attended the chapel. On Jebb’s death in 1786, Disney prepared a three volume memoir, The works, theological, medical, political and miscellaneous of John Jebb (1787). Brand-Hollis accompanied Disney to Cambridge to collect papers and other material to be used in the work.101 Disney had been sympathetic to the situation in the American colonies. He preached a sermon, ‘The Blessings of Peace’, on 29 July 1784 ‘being the day appointed for a general thanksgiving for peace’.102 This followed the ratification of the Treaty of Paris that created the formation of the United States of America after the conclusion of the American War of Independence. In 1789 Disney welcomed news of the French Revolution (as did his brother Lewis). His enthusiasm cooled when he recognised the cruelty of the new regime as it emerged in 1793: ‘he detested tumult; he hated disorder; he dreaded anarchy; he abominated persecution’.103 In 1786 Jane’s sister Sarah Blackburne, married the Reverend John Hall, subsequently the vicar of Chew Magna in Somerset.104 Frances Disney (née Cartwright), the wife of John Disney senior, died in Lincoln on 5 January 1791.105 She was buried at Swinderby on 10 January, and her memorial stands in the church. Her death seems to have coincided with some dispute between Disney and his brother-in-law Dr William Blackburne who was at the time a physician at the Westminster Hospital.106 We have indeed much agitated and made very uneasy for the space of between two or three months past by the vindictive and very blameable behaviour of Dr D. towards Dr Bl______ the particularly whereof there is no entering into by letter; but it was such that I thought it my duty to patronize Dr B. to save him from being wholly oppressed. The affair is now over, and all well: …107 The health of the Disneys continued to be of concern. Disney and his wife visited Bath on account of Jane’s ‘bilious complaint’ though he also ‘bathes and drinks the water, having a sort of gouty habit’.108

Gascoigne 2004a; Page 2003. Disney’s connection with the Society was noted by Lindsey in a letter to William Tayleur, 4 December 1783: Ditchfield 2007, no. 282. 100 Belsham 1873, 113. 101 Anon. 1818, 63. 102 Disney 1793, 53. 103 Anon. 1818, 53. 104 Ditchfield 2012, no. 331. Noted by Lindsey in a letter to Russell Scott (6 May 1786). 105 The Gentleman’s Magazine 69 (1791) 92. 106 Ditchfield 2012, no. 434 (Lindsey to William Tayleur, 22 January 1791). Blackburne was a regular contributor to the London Medical Journal. 107 Ditchfield 2007, no. 434 (Lindsey to William Tayleur, 22 January 1791). 108 Ditchfield 2012, no. 475 (T. Lindsey to William Tayleur, 15 October 1791). 99

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The final years at Essex Street Chapel In 1793 Lindsey resigned from Essex Hall when he reached the age of 70, although he continued to live in the tied accommodation.109 He supported Disney as his successor in his letter of resignation to the Trustees of Essex Street Chapel:110 I am happy in having a candidate as a successor in my colleague Dr. Disney, whose zeal for the principle upon which the society was founded, and whose abilities, assiduity, and acceptableness to you and the congregation, in the discharge of his duty, have been for a long time ascertained. Elsewhere Lindsey described Disney as his ‘worthy colleague’.111 Disney succeeded him as the minister. Among the Unitarians was the barrister Michael Dodson, a member of the Middle Temple. He was the nephew of the judge Sir Michael Foster, and both came from Marlborough in Wiltshire. He had been an original member of the Society for Promoting the Knowledge of the Scriptures founded in 1783. Dodson was a subscriber to the Essex Street Chapel.112 Dodson, who died in 1799, made Disney one of his executors, and also left him a bequest. Disney recorded his life in A short memoir of M. Dodson (1800), and later contributed a preface for Dodson’s The life of Sir Michael Foster, Knt. sometime one of the judges of the Court of King’s Bench and Recorder of Bristol (1811). Hannah Blackburne, Francis’s widow and Jane Disney’s mother, died on 23 August 1799.113 Around 1800 Disney’s portrait was painted by Guy Head. Head was known to his brother Lewis in Rome in 1795, and he had painted the portrait of his daughter Sophia (the future daughter-in-law of the Reverend Disney). Head himself settled in London in 1799/1800. James Basire made line engravings of Head’s portrait in 1810.114 Disney also maintained business interests. By August 1802 he was an investor in the Thames & Severn Canal Company and took out a lease at Sapperton Mill near Cirencester.115 Both Disneys as well as Lewis Disney-Ffytche were on the canal board.116 Disney remained as minister at Essex Hall until March 1805 when he too resigned, on grounds of ill health according to Lindsey.117 In September 1804 Thomas BrandHollis, a benefactor of the chapel, died and bequeathed the bulk of his estate to Disney, allowing the family to move to Essex in the summer of 1805. Disney was succeeded by Thomas Belsham, who had come from a dissenting, as opposed to a Church of England, background.118 Rowe 1959, 24. For the detailed arrangements including provision for Lindsey’s wife: Ditchfield 2012, no. 528 (13 June 1793). 110 Ditchfield 2012, no. 525 (? May 1793). For the context: Belsham 1873, 226. 111 Ditchfield 2012, no. 528 (13 June 1793). See Turner 1843, 208. 112 Ditchfield 2007, no. 197 (30 January 1779). Letter to William Tayleur. See also Watt and Mercer 2004. 113 Ditchfield 2007, no. 684. 114 National Portrait Gallery D8486. The NPG entry suggests that the portrait was dated to 1800. 115 Gloucestershire Archives TS/212/2/6 (3 August 1802). 116 E.g. Jackson’s Oxford Journal 22 February 1812, 1. 117 Evans 1897, 150, although he suggests that Disney resigned in 1804. Ditchfield 2007, lxiv. 118 Webb 2004. 109

Chapter 3 Collectors of the Grand Tour: Thomas Hollis and Thomas Brand One of the key events that led to the creation of the Disney Chair of Archaeology was the writing of the will of Thomas Brand-Hollis (c. 1719-1804) in November 1792, the year before Thomas Lindsey resigned from Essex Hall. This intended bequest prepared the way for the transfer of properties, as well as the major collection of classical antiquities, to the Reverend John Disney. There are two key issues: first, what was the nature of the bequest, and second, why was this material bequeathed specifically to Disney? Hollis had known Lindsey since the mid 1750s, and Blackburne from the mid 1760s. Brand-Hollis was known to Lindsey from at least 1776 through the Essex Street Chapel. Lewis Disney-Ffytche had acquired Danbury Place in Essex though his marriage in 1775, and he seems to have become a close associate of Brand-Hollis from at least 1780. The earliest mention of a friendship between the Reverend Disney and BrandHollis dates to August 1790 when Lindsey recorded:1 Dr. Disney is this week at Mr Brand Holliss in Essex … However, it is likely that Disney was acquainted with Brand-Hollis from 1783 when Disney moved to London. The Brand-Hollis bequest included art works as well as other property that was derived from the friendship between two close individuals, Thomas Brand and Thomas Hollis. It appears that Brand-Hollis had intended to leave his wealth to another individual, but on their early death, had decided to write his will in favour of Disney.2

Thomas Brand Thomas Brand-Hollis, who made the bequest to the Reverend Disney, was born around 1719 at the Brand family home of The Hyde near Ingatestone, and to the west of Chelmsford, the county town of Essex.3 He was the son of Timothy Brand (d. 1734), a London mercer, and his wife Sarah (d. 1744), daughter of Thomas Michell of Thomas Lindsey to William Frend, 25 August 1790: Ditchfield 2012, no. 424. Anon. 1818, 54. One possible candidate was John Jebb who died in 1786. 3 Disney 1808. See also Robbins 1953, 240; Bonwick 2004. 1 2

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The World of Disney Rickling in Hertfordshire.4 Thomas had two sisters, Sarah, who married Richard Grindal, and Elizabeth. Timothy had purchased The Hyde in 1718, and he also served as Sheriff for the County of Essex. Thomas Brand had been educated at Felsted, Essex, and then matriculated at the university of Glasgow in 1738 as the family were not members of the Church of England.5 He came under the influence of Francis Hutcheson (1694-1746), who held the Chair of Moral Philosophy there.6 Brand completed his studies at Glasgow in 1741, and was admitted to the Inner Temple in the same year. (He had earlier declined a place in 1735.) It was in London that he met and befriended Thomas Hollis. Figure 6. Thomas Brand-Hollis. Memoirs of Thomas Brand-Hollis.

Thomas Hollis Thomas Hollis (1720-74) was a close friend of Brand.7 His great grandfather, Thomas Hollis (d. 1718), was a Yorkshireman but had moved to London during the English Civil Wars. The Hollis family was Baptist in denomination. His three sons, Thomas (d. 1730), Nathaniel (d. 1738) and John, were benefactors of Harvard, where they established in 1722 a Chair in Divinity, and in 1726 one in mathematics and philosophy.8 Nathaniel’s son Thomas (d. 1735) had a son Thomas who was born in London on 14 April 1720.9 His mother was the daughter of a Mr Scott of Wolverhampton. Thomas was brought up by his maternal grandparents in Wolverhampton. He was subsequently educated at the free-school at Newport in Shropshire and then in St Albans.10 At the age of thirteen he was sent to Amsterdam where he stayed for some 15 months. After his father’s death he was brought up by his cousin Timothy Disney 1808, 2. He matriculated in 1739: Disney 1808, 2. He later left a bequest of £100 to Glasgow for the purchase of books. 6 Moore 2004. 7 Blackburne 1780. See also Bond 1990; Bonwick 2008; Coutu 2015. Hollis’ diaries are in the Houghton Library, Harvard. 8 Blackburne 1780, 1, 601. See also Bond 1990, 5. 9 Nathaniel’s wife was Sarah who died in 1703 and was buried in the Dissenter’s graveyard at Deptford. Thomas Hollis restored the monument over her grave in 1755. 10 Blackburne 1780, 4. 4 5

Collectors of the Grand Tour: Thomas Hollis and Thomas Brand

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Figure 7. Thomas Hollis, by Joseph Wilton. National Portrait Gallery 6946.

Hollis, though placed under the guardianship of John Hollister, the treasurer of Guy’s Hospital in London.11 Although he was initially prepared to become a merchant, he received education in Latin as well as logic, rhetoric and history from Dr John Ward of Gresham College in London.12 Hollis valued Ward’s education and later presented a portrait of him to the British Museum where Ward had been a Trustee. It appears to be at this point that Hollis developed an interest in classical art.13 Hollis had rooms in Lincoln’s Inn from February 1740, and lived there until 1748.14 By this point he was a wealthy individual having inherited the fortunes of his father (d. 1735) and great-uncle Thomas (d. 1730), and his grandfather Nathaniel (d. 1738).15 It was in this period that Brand and Hollis became friends, after Brand had moved from Glasgow. Among Hollis’ purchases in this period was the extensive estate in Dorset acquired from the Earl of Pomfret.16 He also purchased the Three Cups inn at Lyme Regis; he stayed there when he was visiting the coast.17 In 1745 Hollis became a subscriber to the Veteran Scheme supporting those English soldiers who had helped to suppress the ’45 Rebellion under Bonnie Prince Bond 1990, 6. Bond 1990, 7; McConnell 2004; Coutu 2015, 165. See Blackburne 1780, 4. 13 Bond 1990, 7. 14 Blackburne 1780, 5. See also Bond 1990, 8. 15 Bond 1990, 7. 16 Bond 1990, 10. Hollis was involved with the development of Lyme Regis as a resort: Roberts 1834, 292–94. 17 The Weekly Entertainer 15 January 1798, vol. 31, 41–43. 11 12

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Charlie in Scotland.18 He perceived the rebellion as a challenge to liberty and protestant freedoms; he overlooked Cumberland’s nickname as the ‘butcher’. In 1766 Hollis appears to have donated five guineas towards the equestrian statue of William Augustus, the Duke of Cumberland (1721-65) and commander at Culloden, that was erected in Cavendish Square in 1770. On Cumberland’s death in 1765, Hollis noted:19 October 31, 1765. This evening died his Royal Highness William Duke of Cumberland, a worthy man, whose memory will be always respected by the sons of liberty, for the great services he rendered to these nations in suppressing the rebellion of 1745. This active support for the defence of liberty served as the background for Hollis’ tours in continental Europe.

The Tours to Italy On 17 July 1748 Hollis and Brand set off on their Grand Tour of continental Europe sailing from Harwich in Essex.20 They travelled through Holland, Flanders, France and Switzerland. At Amsterdam Hollis noted:21 Another circumstance which pleased us was, the seriousness and decency of their behaviour in the churches. For some time past at Amsterdam, every Wednesday afternoon was allotted as a time of prayer to the Almighty, to avert from them the dreadful calamities of war. It was accounted unbecoming to be absent, and every one present appeared to join in the service with the greatest fervency. How different this, from our behaviour when at the churches and on our days of humiliation and prayer! They were struck by the absence of poverty in Switzerland, and placed the reason in the hands of the government:22 … the wisdom of the government, that by sumptuary and other laws, discourages and prevents all extravagant and unnecessary expenses and diversions, (which ordinarily tend only to the ruin of mens private fortunes and virtues,) so that none or but little of the income of the country goes out of it for foreign luxuries, but rests in it.

Blackburne 1780, 5-6. See also Bond 1990, 9–10. Blackburne 1780, 6. For Cumberland: Speck 2004. Blackburne 1780, 6; Disney 1808, 3. For their tours: Ingamells 1997, 117–18, 512–13. See also Bond 1990, 11. 21 Blackburne 1780, 12. 22 Blackburne 1780, 15. 18 19 20

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The positive impression left by the hospitality they received in Switzerland led directly to Hollis’s generous gifts to the libraries in Berne and Zurich.23 They returned to London on 3 December 1749.24 Brand left England in the autumn of 1750, and travelled through France, Italy and Germany, returning in 1753.25 Hollis also travelled on the continent at the same time, leaving via Harwich on 16 July 1750.26 The two friends met on an occasional basis, and were in regular correspondence. Hollis travelled through Germany, visiting Hamburg and Berlin, and commenting on the Lutheran churches. Hollis passed through Hamburg specifically observing:27 The established religion is Lutheranism, which is adhered to so strictly, that no other religion is allowed of except in the chapels of the residents. The Lutheran churches are adorned much after the same manner as the Roman catholic churches, that is, with crucifixions of Jesus Christ, images of the virgin holding the Infant in her arms, images of saints, &c. and paintings. So true is it, that the multitude, especially in religious changes, can (almost) only be led to a change of opinion, by retaining to them their old forms, fights, and manners. In Berlin Hollis had hoped to visit ‘a curiosity chamber and a library’.28 But he was thwarted. But the person who shewed them sent me word, unless I chose to give a ducat he should not chuse to shew them. As I thought this an impertinent answer, and certainly the most unpolite that I ever received abroad, I determined not to go, but to give up my curiosity, rather than gratify his avarice. He then travelled to Dresden, Prague and Vienna, before heading to Trieste and Venice where he stayed from 8 December 1750 to 28 February 1751.29 He praised the quality of the roads and the safety.30 Another circumstance in honour of the Empress is, that a person may travel through her dominions with the utmost safety from robbers, and almost carry his money in his hat; a robbery or murder scarce ever being heard of. Indeed it is pretty much the same in respect to security in travelling all through Germany.

Blackburne 1780, 16. Disney 1808, 3. 25 Disney 1808, 3. 26 Blackburne 1780, 26. 27 Blackburne 1780, 27 28 Blackburne 1780, 29–30. 29 Blackburne 1780, 30–32. 30 Blackburne 1780, 31. 23 24

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Brand and Hollis met in Rome (their first visit) and then went south to Naples.31 Hollis was struck by the Roman roads:32 Mr Hollis took occasion to examine the construction of the Roman roads, which he observes were principally intended for the convenient marching of the Roman army, and were made with a suitable grandeur and strength to the Roman people. As a result he acquired three stones from the Via Appia and presented them to the British Museum.33 Brand made some purchases at Naples including a bronze Bacchus.34 Hollis purchased a relief of Julius Caesar from a merchant in Venice about 1755, but it was subsequently realised to be of recent creation.35 Brand returned to Rome on 22 May 1752, but Hollis remained in Naples until 8 September.36 Portraits of Hollis and Brand were cut in ivory by Andrea Pozzi in April 1752.37 In Rome, Brand also became a supporter of Thomas Jenkins (1722-1798) who dealt in antiquities and who painted both Hollis and Brand.38 In Rome, Hollis’ portrait was painted in 1752 by Richard Wilson.39 Hollis later, on his return to England, purchased a painting of Ariccia by Wilson that he later presented to the British Museum.40 Hollis took an English vessel, the Ruby, from Naples to Messina in Sicily.41 There he met with a group of English gentlemen including Stanier Porten, the British resident at Naples and the uncle of Edward Gibbon, the historian.42 Among the places he visited was the site of Taormina. He then went on to Catania, viewed Mount Etna, and went to Syracuse where he purchased an ancient statue of Flora. From Syracuse he took a boat to Malta.43 He also travelled through southern Sicily, visiting Agrigento with its series of well-preserved classical temples. Among the finds he observed as ‘a fine Etruscan vase’, presumably an Athenian figured-decorated pot.44 He returned via Naples, ascending Vesuvius three times, and visiting the newly opened excavations at Herculaneum.45 The first two times were with Brand, so they must have been in the spring of 1752. Blackburne 1780, 33. Blackburne 1780, 33. For other slabs from the Via Appia: Cambridge FM GR.2–3.1884. These were displayed in the main portico of the Founder’s Building. 34 Disney 1849b, 165–66, pl. lxxiii. 35 Disney 1849b, 67, pl. xxxii. 36 Mentioned in a letter to Dr Mayhew of Boston, Blackburne 1780, 3. 37 Coutu 2015, 168–69, figs. 5.3 and 5.4. 38 Peach 2004. See also Ashby 1913; Pierce 1965. For Jenkins’ picture of Hollis: Disney 1808, 4–5. This had received payment of £20–£30. The Jenkins portrait was sold in New York in 1977: Bond 1990, 12. For Brand’s portrait: Ingamells 1997, 118. The Jenkins’ portrait was sold at Christie’s 18 June 1976. 39 This is now in Harvard inv. HNA98: Bond 1990, 12-13, fig. 1; Ingamells 1997, 512; Coutu 2015, 167, fig. 5.2. The portrait had been displayed in the Hyde, and was disposed through Sotheby’s in 1950. 40 It is now in The Tate inv. N01097. It was transferred to the National Gallery in 1880, and to the Tate in 1919. The landscape is mentioned: Blackburne 1780, 222. 41 Blackburne 1780, 34. 42 Courtney and Archer 2004. See also Ingamells 1997, 783. 43 Blackburne 1780, 39. 44 Blackburne 1780, 39. 45 Blackburne 1780, 45. Hollis wrote to his tutor Ward about the recent discoveries at Pompeii and 31 32 33

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Brand and Hollis met again in Rome in September and travelled in the Campagna.46 While in Rome Brand and Hollis started to acquire a series of sculptures that would be brought home for display. It was in Rome that Hollis and Lindsey first met. A list of individuals met by Hollis was written in a 1750 guidebook of Rome.47 Hollis made the acquaintance of Piranesi in Rome.48 Brand and Hollis travelled northwards separating at Verona.49 Hollis continued to Milan, and then on to Antibes. Brand travelled to Venice where he was engaged as a tutor to the 2nd Earl of Dartmouth and Frederick, Lord North.50 He returned to England in the summer of 1753. Hollis returned to England in the same year.

Brand and Hollis in London On their return to London, Brand and Hollis started to mingle with the enlightened society. Hollis himself settled in Bedford Street in Covent Garden.51 Hollis was in correspondence with Camillo Paderni of the Herculaneum Museum, discussing the newly excavated finds from the city. This was read to the Royal Society on the 12 December 1754.52 Hollis was elected a member of Society for the Promotion of Arts, Manufactuers, and Commerce (SPAC; now known as the Royal Society of Arts) in 1756.53 Brand was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in June 1756, and a Fellow of the Academy of Arts, Manufactures, and Commerce in May 1759.54 He was also a governor of Guy’s Hospital (1754) and St Thomas’ Hospital (1755). Brand and Hollis had been enthused by their Grand Tour and took an active interest in the past: both were elected Fellows of the Society of Antiquaries in December 1757.55 Hollis supported Thomas Jenkins’ election that same year.56 At the same time, Hollis commissioned Canaletto to paint a series of paintings including one of Old Walton Bridge (over the river Thames) showing the pair of friends (1754).57 Hollis had hoped to be elected to Parliament but was unsuccessful.58 He followed his predecessors’ benefactions to New England, and sent 10 guineas to Princeton, New Jersey, along with a copy of John Locke’s Two Treatises of Government.59 He sent Herculaneum: Bond 1990, 7. For Sir William Hamilton’s interest in Vesuvius from 1764: Thackray 1996. 46 Blackburne 1780, 46. 47 Coutu 2015, 165. 48 Blackburne 1780, 59. 49 Blackburne 1780, 49. 50 Ingamells 1997, 118. 51 Coutu 2015, 169. 52 Paderni 1754. 53 Bond 1990, 79. The RSA was founded in 1754. For the link between SPAC and the Antiquaries: Sweet 2007, 94 n. 10 (noting specifically Brand and Hollis). 54 Disney 1808, 5. Hollis was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in June 1757: Bond 1990, 79. 55 Bond 1990, 79. 56 In December 1753 Winckleman recorded that Hollis was Jenkins’ patron: Ashby 1913, 492. For Hollis’ support for Jenkins: Sweet 2007, 97. 57 The painting was inherited by the Disney family and is now in the Dulwich Picture Gallery DPG600. It was acquired in 1917. See Coutu 2015, 170, fig. 5.8. 58 Blackburne 1780, 59. 59 Blackburne 1780, 59; Hanford 1959. The Locke volume was presented on 23 June 1764.

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books for Harvard in 1758.60 Many of these gifts were destroyed in the Harvard fire of 1764. He became a friend of the literary editor, Richard Baron.61 In 1757 Hollis presented a series of antiquities to the newly-established British Museum, including ‘a large collection of antique bronzes and Etruscan ware, &c. which cost him upwards of fifty pounds’ and ‘a considerable number of Etruscan vases, sacrificing vessels and lamps’.62 This gift included a series of small bronzes, including more than ten representations of Herakles, that complemented the ones that had been presented to the Museum in 1753 by Sir Hans Sloane. In addition, there were twelve Latin inscriptions and a Roman cinerarium.63 It was even claimed that one of the Latin inscriptions was found in Bloomsbury though this seems unlikely. The gift includes several items that had formed part of the collection of Dr Richard Mead that had been purchased in 1755.64 These donated objects formed part of the displays in Montagu House on Great Russell Street. In 1758 Hollis presented a red wax model of the Laocoon to the Museum.65 Such gifts preceded some of the key collections of sculpture and figure-decorated pottery that would arrive with the Townley and Hamilton collections.66

The Hyde Remodelled Hollis was a great admirer of The Hyde, that had become Brand’s summer residence. In October 1750, during his Grand Tour, he wrote to Brand in Paris that he had called at The Hyde, you make the environs look really handsome, and at an easy expense; but to do it completely, I take it the garden and its wall must be remodelled.67 The house was remodelled in 1761 by the architect William Chambers (1722-96).68 It is possible that Brand had met Chambers in Rome where Chambers had married.69 Two pen and ink drawings by Chambers, now in New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art, indicate that they were work for Hollis. Chambers designed a space at The Hyde Blackburne 1780, 73. See also Bond 1990, 113. Stephen and Carter 2013. Baron published an essay by Archdeacon Francis Blackburne in 1768. 62 Blackburne 1780, 82. Quoted in Wilson 2002, 32. The British Museum was established by Act of Parliament in 1753. 63 Several of the inscriptions were from Misenum: e.g. London BM 1757.08–16.12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 22 (Booms 2016, 68–69, no. 14). Some of the inscriptions are marked, ‘Presented by Tho. Hollis. 1757’. For other inscriptions from Misenum: Fitzhardinge 1951. The cinerarium: London BM 1757.08–16.9. A funerary inscription from Rome and previously in the collections of John Kemp and Dr Richard Mead: London BM 1757.08–16.11. 64 E.g. the wall-painting fragment reported to be from Pompeii, London BM 1757.08–16.6. 65 London BM 1758.05–05.1. Sloan 2003, 24–25, fig. 11. 66 For classical material in the eighteenth century: Jenkins 2003. For other contemporary material that was displayed in the British Museum: Cook 1985; Jenkins and Sloan 1996. 67 Quoted in Disney 1808, 5–6. Hollis was writing from Wittenberg in Saxony in a letter dated 3 October 1750. 68 Disney 1808, 5; Harris 1970, 55; Harris 2004. 69 For Chambers in Rome, 1750-52: Ingamells 1997, 194–95. 60 61

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to display the newly acquired sculptures. The layout and display of the sculptures can be gleaned from the Reverend John Disney’s 1807 catalogue.70 At least five items were purchased in 1761 by Hollis from William Lloyd of The Gregories in Beaconsfield, Buckinghamshire.71 In the seventeenth century the house had been the home of the poet Edmund Waller (1606-87). Lloyd had developed his collection in Rome in 1754 through Cavaceppi.72 Lloyd died in 1768, and The Gregories and its remaining collection was acquired by Edmund Burke (1729/30-1797), the politician.73 One of the striking pieces was a marble bust of Minerva, or to use the Greek name Athena, purchased by Hollis in 1761 from Figure 8. Athena from the William Lloyd Lloyd who had acquired it in Rome.74 Two collection. Museum Disneianum. of the sarcophagi displayed in the hall at the Hyde were also purchased by Hollis from Lloyd in 1761; Lloyd had acquired at least one of them from Thomas Jenkins in Rome. One was described as a ‘Greek sarcophagus’ (but now thought to be second century AD) and had been purchased from the Marquis de Cavalieri.75 Jenkins in a letter to Brand of July 1761 noted that ‘found so long time since that no intelligence can be had of the exact place’ where it was found.76 It showed Achilles hiding among the daughters of Lycomedes. The second sarcophagus, showing Dionysiac scenes, probably dates to the third century AD.77 The sarcophagus was displayed in the hall, surmounted by a Roman cinerarium, and a head, and is flanked by two pilasters by two further heads.78 Vout has noted that the central scene of the sarcophagus in the drawing has been replaced by a portrait head, perhaps that of Hollis. This second sarcophagus was reported by Thomas Jenkins, in a letter to Hollis of 30 January 1762, to have been Disney 1807. Lloyd’s wife died at the age of 28 in 1761: St. James’s Chronicle or the British Evening Post, 17–19 September 1761; Whitehall Evening Post or London Intelligencer, 17–19 September 1761. The house name is given as Gregory. Only four of the pieces are given the sale date of 1761. 72 Ingamells 1997, 607. 73 Langford 2004. 74 Disney 1846, pl. i. This sculpture was not presented to Cambridge. See also Vout 2012, 310-11. The head was later published by Ernest Gardner when it formed part of the Philip Nelson collection: Gardner 1899. 75 Cambridge FM GR.45.1850. Disney 1808, vi; Disney 1846, pl. xlii; Budde and Nicholls 1964, 102–03, pl. 56, no. 162. For display at The Hyde: Vout 2012, 316–17. 76 Quoted in Disney 1808, vi. 77 Cambridge FM GR.26.1850. Disney 1846, pl. xli; Budde and Nicholls 1964, 123, no. 205. 78 Reproduced in Vout 2012, 318, fig. 9. 70 71

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Figure 9. Sarcophagus showing Achilles hiding among the daughters of Lycomedes. Museum Disneianum.

Figure 10. Sarcophagus with Dionysiac scene. Cambridge, Fitzwilliam Museum. © David Gill.

Figure 11. Detail of sarcophagus with Dionysiac scene. Cambridge, Fitzwilliam Museum. © David Gill.

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‘found about twenty years ago (i.e. c. 1742) in a vineyard of Count Caponi’s, a little beyond the chapel of Vignola, on the right hand side of the road from Porto del Populo to Ponte Mola. On this intelligence you may rely; for the person that found it gives me the account’.79

Figure 12. Sarcophagus and cinerarium displayed at The Hyde. Catalogue of The Hyde.

Two further pieces were purchased from Lloyd in 1761: a Roman marble cinerarium for the imperial freedman, Marcus Ulpius Fortunatus,80 and a marble Silenus.81 The use of Carrara marble suggests that it was not an antique sculpture. These purchases seem to have been made specifically by Hollis for display at The Hyde.

In July 1761 Hollis wrote to Brand:82 Remember, however, that I am to deliver these marbles to you like a gentleman and a friend, that is, free of all charges whatsoever; nor are you to depart from your own disposition, from the scrubbinesses of the country, and tamper with my under-strappers. Above is a list of the things sent you. You will perceive they are a few fragments of antiquity, as such respectable, added to the two Sarcophagi. Take them benevolently for what they are, nor do I mean more by them. My designs are now all out. But I mean not to lay you under any obligation whatsoever, only to shew you a small instance of my regard and attention, in a matter, which upon the whole, I believed would not prove unacceptable to you. In 1761 Hollis sent Brand two Corinthian pilaster capitals said to have been found in the Pantanello at Tivoli.83 Tivoli, the site of Hadrian’s extensive villa, was the object of explorations during the eighteenth century. Hollis continued to add to Brand’s collection. One of the most important pieces was a large marble portrait of the emperor Marcus Aurelius that had formed part of the Palazzo Barberini collection.84 It was handled by Thomas Jenkins in Rome in 1766, and then sold to Hollis. Quoted in Disney 1808, v. Cambridge FM GR.55.1850. Disney 1846, pl. liii; Budde and Nicholls 1964, 94, pl. 51, no. 153. Cambridge FM GR.21.1850. Disney 1846, pl. xv; Budde and Nicholls 1964, 121-22, no. 200. 82 Quoted in Disney 1808, iv–v. 83 Cambridge FM GR.82-83.1850. Budde and Nicholls 1964, 107, pl. 58, nos. 169-170. See also Vout 2012, 314. 84 Cambridge FM GR.10.1850. Disney 1846, pl. iii; Budde and Nicholls 1964, 71-72, pl. 38, no. 114. 79 80 81

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The World of Disney This is probably the point when a red-figured hydria, showing women working on textiles, was acquired for the collection. The Museum Disneianum recorded that it had been acquired in 1760 (‘or thereabouts’).85 The hydria was noted as coming from Nola. An ‘Etruscan vase’ from the Valetta collection had been given to Brand by Hollis in March 1761, and two large ‘Etruscan vases’, displayed in the drawing room, were acquired by Hollis from the Lloyd collection.86 The Hyde’s collection contained objects from older collections. Several items had been purchased from the 1755 sale of the collection (Museum Meadianum) of Dr Richard Mead (1673Figure 13. Cinerarium of Marcus Ulpius 1754), physician to King George II. Fortunatus from the William Lloyd Mead was a medical doctor, although collection. Museum Disneianum. his interest in classical antiquity can be detected at the turn of the century when he studied in Utrecht. Among them is a funerary inscription to two freedmen, Caius Menanius Batyllus and Anthimus.87 The inscription, purchased by Hollis for 13 s, can be traced back to the collection of Leonardus Augustinus in 1731. Other pieces from this source included an Egyptian bronze ibis,88 and a silver seated figure of Vesta.89 Other objects from the Mead collection were donated to the British Museum. Among the other acquisitions displayed at The Hyde was the head of ‘Paris’ purchased at the Duke of Argyle’s sale in 1771.90 This was part of the Disney 1849b, 263–64, pls. cxv–cxvi. Gill 1990a, 227. 87 Cambridge FM GR.79.1850. Disney 1846, pl. xlvi. For Mead material at the Hyde: Vout 2012, 320–21. 88 Disney 1849b, 131–32, pl. lix. 89 Disney 1849b,189–90, pl. lxxxii. 90 Cambridge FM GR.13.1850. Budde and Nicholls 1964, 30, pl. 16, no. 54. 85 86

Figure 14. ‘Atys’, Museum Disneianum.

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collection dispersed on the death of John Campbell, 4th Duke of Argyle who died in 1770. The head wears a Phrygian cap that resonates with Republican values. Indeed, this type of headdress is shown on the base of a bust of Thomas Hollis also displayed in the house.91 The ‘Paris’ was changed to ‘Atys’ at the suggestion of the sculptor Sir Richard Westmacott (17751856). Interestingly Disney also made the connection with the head on the base of the cameo glass Portland Vase, noting the ‘very striking’ resemblance.92 This head of ‘Paris’ was displayed in The Hyde on a Roman ossuarium of Marcus Aurelius, of the fourth praetorian Figure 15. Cinerarium of Marcus Aurelius, cohort, who came from Viminacium in reported to have been found near the tomb the province of Moesia Superior on the of Caecilia Metella. Cambridge, Fitzwilliam river Danube.93 This had formed part of Museum. © David Gill. the collection of Leonardus Augustinus in the early eighteenth century, and had probably been acquired from the Mead sale. The extent of the classical collection formed by Hollis and Brand in Italy, and augmented by further acquisitions in England, can be reconstructed from the 1807 catalogue prepared for The Hyde by the Reverend John Disney, shortly after he inherited the house.94 Among the pieces purchased in Rome was a marble head of Jupiter Serapis, acquired from Abbate Clementi in 1752.95 A Latin inscription for Paulus Aemilius, who annexed Macedonia, was purchased by Hollis from Abbate Bracci in 1752.96 This Vout 2012, 317, fig. 8. Disney 1846, 11. 93 Cambridge FM GR.51.1850. Disney 1846, pl. xlix; Budde and Nicholls 1964, 94–95, pl. 50, no. 154. 94 Disney 1807. 95 Cambridge FM GR.15.1850. Disney 1846, pl. viii; Budde and Nicholls 1964, 32–33, pl. 18, no. 57; Vassilika 1998, 104–05, no. 50. 96 Cambridge FM GR.73.1850. Disney 1846, pl. xliii. 91 92

Figure 16. Portrait of Marcus Aurelius once in the Palazzo Barberini. Cambridge, Fitzwilliam Museum. © David Gill.

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Figure 17. Funerary inscription of Caius Menanius Batyllus and Anthimus. Museum Disneianum.

turns out to have been created for the antiquities market. Hollis wrote to Brand in December 1752: ‘He [the seller] says he paid dear for it; and no wonder, from its singularity. If it does not come very high, perhaps I can take it myself ’. Hollis also wrote to Professor John Ward (1678/9-1758) of Gresham College on 25 December 1752, noting ‘found very lately at, or near, Rome’.97 Ward was interested in Roman antiquities, and became a Trustee of the British Museum at its creation in 1753.98 Hollis presented a portrait of Ward, by the artist Joseph Samuel Webster, to the British Museum in 1759.99 Hollis also presented a bust of Sir Thomas More.100 Hollis acquired a bronze Bacchus in Naples probably during his stay in 1752.101 This statue was considered by Edward Hawkins (1780-1867) of the British Museum to have been ‘cast from an antique original, which had been repaired and spoiled before the copy was made; the arms and legs appear to have been supplied to the original, which was only a fragment’.102 A marble cinerarium for the imperial freedman Titus Flavius Verus was acquired at Pozzuoli: the piece is recorded as early as 1755.103 Hollis purchased a marble medallion showing the face of Nero in Venice c. 1752.104 Although it was said to have been found in Athens, it was made of Carrara marble. Its authenticity was enhanced by the story that the other half had been separated and taken away by an Englishman. Another Hollis piece was the head of Hadrian acquired in Naples c. 1755. It was displayed at The Hyde as the emperor Augustus. The head is carved onto a fragment of a 11th–12th century medieval arch.105 One of the striking things about the sculptural collection is that there was a clear display of figures from Rome’s Republican past in the main entrance hall of For Ward: McConnell 2004. Wilson 2002, 24. 99 Dawson 2003, 35. This is now in the National Portrait Gallery, inv. no. 590: Saywell and Simon 2004, 642 (ill.). 100 Dawson 2003, 34. 101 Disney 1846, pl. lxxiii. 102 For Hawkins: Blackburn 2004. 103 Cambridge FM GR.50.1850. Disney 1846, pl. xlviii; Budde and Nicholls 1964, 95–96, pl. 50, no. 155. 104 Cambridge FM GR.63.1850. Disney 1846, pl. xxxiv; Budde and Nicholls 1964, 123, no. 207. 105 Cambridge FM GR.62.1850. Disney 1846, pl. xxxii; Budde and Nicholls 1964, 109, pl. 59, no. 178. It was identified in the Museum Disneianum as the head of Julius Caesar. 97 98

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Figure 19. Medallion of Nero acquired in Venice c. 1752. Museum Disneianum. Figure 18. Cinerarium of Titus Flavius Verus, from Pozzuoli. Cambridge, Fitzwilliam Museum. © David Gill.

The Hyde. Clearly the intended impact was for the visitor to understand that they were entering a house where republican values were prized. Hollis himself was a benefactor of several American universities, including Harvard, during the 1760s.106 He was a donor of books, often pressed with images of Brutus or other republican symbols.107 This was a period of increasing tension with the colonies of North America and Hollis sought to be a champion for ‘liberty’ in an increasingly tense England.

The Hollis Bequest In 1770 Hollis retired to his Corscombe estate in Dorset,108 and died suddenly in January 1774.109 A contemporary account recorded:110 That friend of the British empire and of mankind was, early in the afternoon of New Year’s Day, in a field, at some distance from his place of residence at Corscombe, attended by only one workman, who was receiving his directions, concerning a tree which had been lately felled. On a sudden, he put one of his fingers to his forehead; saying, “Richard, I believe the weather is going to change: I am extremely giddy.” These words were scarce off his lips, when he dropped. He fell on his left side; and being near an hedge, his head was received by the subjacent ditch. The man (I know not whether a carpenter, or a Robbins 1950; Bond 1990, 31. Bond 1990, 34. For donations to the Society of Antiquaries: Nurse 2007, 198–99, fig. 62, 201. 108 Bond 1990, 10 109 Bond 1990, 33. 110 The Weekly Entertainer 15 January 1798, vol. 31, 41–43. 106 107

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The World of Disney common labourer) sprung to his assistance; and, raising him from that sad situation, administered what little relief he could. The expiring patriot was still sufficiently himself, to say, “Lord, have mercy on me; Lord, have mercy on me; receive my soul:” which were the last words he was able to pronounce. His lips move, afterwards; but no sound was formed. In a few seconds more, his spirit was disimprisoned. Hollis was buried in one of the estate fields, and the grave was ploughed over. Brand was the major beneficiary and thus inherited his estates at Corscombe in Dorset, as well as his London house in Pall Mall.111 The will, dated 7 November 1767, stated:112

… to my dear friend and fellow traveller Thomas Brand of the Hide in Essex, esq. Figure 20. Head of ‘Augustus’ carved on a from whom a severe plan of life had kept medieval arch, acquired in Naples c. 1755. me much more separate for some years past Museum Disneianum. than otherwise I wished to have been … It was at this point that Brand added Hollis to his name. One of the earliest recorded instances of its use was in April 1774 when he became a member of Council of the Antiquaries.113 Brand-Hollis also adapted his family crest to incorporate and acknowledge the inheritance.114 Brand-Hollis was aware that some had thought that Hollis had not intended to leave him the money and was planning to change his will. However, Brand-Hollis decided that the inheritance would not change his lifestyle ‘but endeavoured to follow the example of my friend’.115 Brand-Hollis had aspirations to enter parliament, and in the general election of 1774, in the wake of the ‘Boston tea party’, he purchased the rotten borough of Hindon in Wiltshire. It appears that his agents, and those of Richard Smith, attempted to bribe the voters of the borough.116 Brand-Hollis was subsequently prosecuted over Ditchfield 2007, xli. Hollis’ will had been written on 7 November 1767: Disney 1808, 7. For Hollis’ house in Pall Mall: Bond 1990, 31, 78–79. 112 Blackburne 1780, 504. 113 Public Advertiser 26 April 1774. He was a committee member with Sir William Chambers in 1780: Whitehall Evening Post 22–25 April 1780. 114 Disney 1808, 8. 115 Letter of 8 August 1775, quoted in Disney 1808, 8. 116 ‘London’, London Chronicle or Universal Evening Post 14–16 February 1775; London Evening Post 14–16 February 1775. See Disney 1808, 11. Ditchfield 2007, no. 147, to William Turner of Wakefield, 28 February 1775: ‘We are all grieved at Mr. B. hollis’s rejection. He did not know it seems what a Borough he was engaged for till he had gone too far to treat. And he had no idea of the low work that his agent was to go through. I am sure a disinterested zeal to serve ye public was his only motive.’ See also Robbins 1953, 241. 111

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the alleged bribery.117 Smith and Brand-Hollis were found guilty in March 1776,118 and were fined 1000 marks each, and a prison sentence of six months.119 Thomas Lindsey recorded Brand-Hollis’s interest in American affairs.120 Mr B. Hollis who called just now and gave me this frank, says that the cause of the Americans was nobly supported on Monday in the house, especially by Coll. Barré, who laid open the whole of the ministerial conduct towards America, exposed their pretended contempt of the Americans as soldiers, which he could do well, as having served amongst them … Barré was the member for Calne in Wiltshire.121 He had served in Canada and had lost an eye during the action at Quebec in 1759. Brand-Hollis continued to support the American revolution after Hollis’ death in 1774, and donated a substantial sum to the Distresses of the American Prisoners in 1778;122 in 1787 he received an honorary doctorate from Harvard.123 In 1783 he was elected a member of the Society of Arts and Sciences in New England.124 BrandHollis supported John Adams, the first United States ambassador to Great Britain from 1785 to 1788, and he and his wife were guests at The Hyde.125 Adams is reported to have told Brand-Hollis that King George III had said the he was the last to consent to the separation being made; but that having been inevitable, I have already said, and I say now, that I will always be the last to disturb the independence of the United-States, or in any way infringe their rights.126 Alongside these American interests, Brand-Hollis was eager to see constitutional reform at home. Brand-Hollis and his fellow Essex landowner, Lewis Disney-Ffytche, supported the Society for Constitutional Information in 1780 that argued for parliamentary reform.127 From 1780 Brand-Hollis also campaigned with the Reverend Christopher Wyvill, one of the Feathers Tavern petitioners of 1771 that had included the Reverend John Disney.128 Wyvill was rector of Black Notley, near Braintree, in Essex. ‘House of Commons’, London Evening Post 6–9 May 1775. General Evening Post 8–11 June 1776. 119 Disney 1808, 12. See also Bond 1990, 9. They were discharged in November 1776: Gazeteer and New Daily Advertiser 26 November 1776. 120 Ditchfield 2007, no. 141 (7 December 1774, Lindsey to William Turner of Wakefield). 121 Brooke 1964. 122 Public Advertiser 7 January 1778. 123 Disney 1808, 12. See also Robbins 1953, 239. 124 Disney 1808, 12. See also Robbins 1953, 239. 125 Disney 1808, 12. Adams was later president of the United States (1797–1801). 126 Disney 1808, 12. 127 Disney 1808, 13. See London Courant and Westminster Chronicle 17 January 1780; Whitehall Evening Post 20 January 1780. 128 Disney 1808, 14. See also Dickinson 2004. Wyvill was also a friend of Brand-Hollis: Robbins 1953, 239. 117 118

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Figure 21. Thomas Hollis, by Giovanni Battista Cipriani. National Portrait Gallery D46107.

Essex Hall Chapel Brand-Hollis, like Hollis, had developed a friendship with a number of Anglicans, including Archdeacon Francis Blackburne, the father-in-law of Disney and Lindsey. Blackburne had a received a legacy of £500 from Hollis.129 In 1780 Blackburne published his memoir of Thomas Hollis.130 Brand-Hollis was so delighted with the volume that he presented Blackburne with £1000.131 These influences led Brand-Hollis to support Theophilus Lindsey and the creation of the Essex Hall chapel in London. Within months of arriving at Essex Street Chapel Lindsey had visited Brand-Hollis in Essex.132 Brand-Hollis was a member of the

Disney 1808, 10. For a likely response to the publication by James Boswell: Bond 1990, 1. Bond 1990, 86. 131 Disney 1808, 10. 132 Ditchfield 2007, no. 137 (6 October 1774, Lindsey to William Turner of Wakefield: ‘the truth is, the week before last I was at Mr Brand Hollis’s in Essex (a friend (and) great admirer of the worthy families of the [?Shores] and Milnses) …’ 129 130

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congregation at Essex Hall,133 and by the spring of 1776 he was subscribing £100 to support the work of the chapel.134 This continued in subsequent years.135 Lindsey was joined at Essex Hall by the Reverend Disney in February 1783. It appears that Brand-Hollis and Disney became friends during the 1780s, possibly by the end of 1782.136 In Disney’s words, this ‘acquaintance proceeded to friendship, and that friendship continued to improve and was uninterrupted as long as he lived’.137 One of the mutual friends of Brand-Hollis and Disney was John Jebb a founder, in September 1783, of the Society for Promoting the Knowledge of the Scriptures.138 Jebb’s mother, Ann Gansel, came from Donyland Hall, near Colchester in Essex. Jebb had studied at Peterhouse in Cambridge, followed by a fellowship; Disney just overlapped with him. Jebb subsequently lectured in Cambridge, notoriously questioning the doctrine of the Trinity. He was one of the Feathers Tavern Petitioners, along with Lindsey and Disney, who questioned the Church of England’s position on the Thirty-Nine Articles. Lindsey subsequently invited him to be a minister at the Essex Street Chapel but Jebb declined and trained as a medical practitioner. He then helped to establish the Society for Constitutional Information. After his death in March 1786, Disney and Brand-Hollis were influential in the publication of the three volume memoir of Jebb (1787), working together on his papers in Cambridge.139 Brand-Hollis recognised that those who were not members of the Church of England deserved to have access to higher education. In 1786 he supported the creation of a college at Hackney to train non-conformist ministers.140 This establishment was dissolved in 1796. In April 1786 Brand-Hollis socialised with Benjamin Franklin and John Adams, the first United States Minister to Great Britain and the future president of the United States, in London,141 and in 1787 Brand-Hollis was awarded an honorary LLD from Harvard.142 In 1788 Brand-Hollis joined the Revolution Society that took advantage of the centenary of the Glorious Revolution of 1688.143 The meeting made a declaration of the following principles:144 1. 2. 3.

That all civil and political authority is derived from the people. That the abuse of power justifies resistance. That the right of private judgement, liberty of conscience, trial by jury, the freedom of the press, and the freedom of election, ought ever to be held sacred and inviolable.

Turner 1843, 208–09. Ditchfield 2007, no. 159 (15 May 1776, Lindsey to William Tayleur). 135 Ditchfield 2007, no. 170 (20 May 1777, Lindsey to William Tayleur): ‘‘Benefactions recd. For the purchase of Essex-house, and building a chapel’. Brand-Hollis donated £100. 136 Disney 1808, 20 (who suggests possibly the end of 1782). 137 Disney 1808, 20. 138 Gascoigne 2004a. See Disney 1808, 20. 139 Disney 1808, 20. 140 Disney 1808, 15. 141 Robbins 1953, 239. Adams visited the Hyde in July of the same year. 142 Disney 1808, 13. 143 Disney 1808, 16. 144 Disney 1808, 16. 133 134

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Figure 22. ‘Jupiter Column’ found at Great Chesterford in 1803, and presented to the British Museum by Thomas Brand-Hollis. © David Gill.

This coincided with the French Revolution and the removal and execution of the French king. The timing was unfortunate and presented a negative picture of those involved in the celebrations. Brand-Hollis contributed to the fund to help Joseph Priestley whose house in Birmingham had been destroyed in rioting as he had been linked to a dinner held on 14 July 1791 to commemorate the storming of the Bastille in France.145 He maintained a close interest in republicanism in France.146 Brand-Hollis was linked to the publication of Thomas Paine’s Rights of Man (1791 and 1792) though he distanced himself from the affair.147 Paine asked Brand-Hollis to present the key of the Bastille to George Washington.148 In 1792 Brand-Hollis joined the “Friends of the People” to press for parliamentary reform.149 Disney and Brand-Hollis met at Salisbury in August 1791, and were able to visit Southampton and Winchester together.150 Brand-Hollis prepared his will on 2 November 1792.151 The main beneficiary (and his executor) was named as ‘the Rev. Dr. John Disney of Sloane-Street, Knightsbridge, near London, his heirs, executors and administrators, to his and their sole use and benefit’. Disney 1808, 18. Robbins 1953, 239. 147 Disney 1808, 18–19. 148 Robbins 1953, 239. 149 Disney 1808, 19. 150 Disney 1808, 20; Anon. 1818, 63–64. 151 Disney 1808, 23. It is tempting to speculate that John Jebb who died in 1786 had been intended to be the initial beneficiary. 145 146

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Brand-Hollis also acquired local antiquities that were found in Essex. One of the notable pieces was the stone base of from a socalled Jupiter Column. This had been recut and reused as a water tank for a blacksmith at Great Chesterford in Essex. The place was the site of a small Roman town. The sculpture was presented to the British Museum in 1803, the year before his death.152 One of the later acquisitions by Brand-Hollis was a marble Apollo purchased in Rome in 1796. It had earlier been restored by Flaxman in 1793.153 In 1799 Joseph Noellekens wrote a memorandum on the six finest pieces at The Hyde. They included the portrait head of Marcus Aurelius and the two sarcophagi, as well as the figure of Minerva and the portrait of Domitian.154 Brand-Hollis’ health deteriorated after ‘a fit of apoplexy’ in a bookseller’s in Piccadilly in February 1795.155 He Figure 23. Apollo. Museum Disneianum. retired to Essex in 1801, and in 1803 relinquished his house on Chesterfield Street.156 He died on 9 September 1804 at The Hyde, ‘whilst sitting in his drawing-room, without a groan or a sigh’.157 He was buried next to his father in Ingatestone parish church.158 The plaque records the role of Disney.

London BM PRB 1803.4–2.1. British Museum 1964, 55, pl. 19, no. 4; Huskinson 1994, 2–3, pls. 2–3, no. 5; Medlycott 2011, 88–89, pl. 5.1. A drawing of the sculpture is in the Chelmsford Museum. 153 Cambridge GR.2.1885. Disney 1849b, pl. xxiv; Budde and Nicholls 1964, 19–20, pl. 10, no. 39. 154 Coltman 2009, 256. 155 Disney 1808, 20–21. 156 Disney 1808, 21. 157 Disney 1808, 21. See Bury and Norwich Post 19 September 1804. 158 Disney 1808, 23. 152

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Figure 24. Memorial for Thomas Brand-Hollis, Ingatestone Parish Church.

THOMAS BRAND HOLLIS Esq. OF THE HYDE F.R.S. and S.A. DIED SEPT: IX. MDCCCIV. AGED LXXXIV. IN TESTIMONY OF FRIENDSHIP AND GRATITUDE THIS MONUMENT IS ERECTED BY JOHN DISNEY, D.D. F.S.A. The Reverend Disney was a beneficiary of the will, and was soon to move to Essex.

Chapter 4 The Disney-Ffytche Family and Essex Thomas Brand-Hollis died at The Hyde on 9 September 1804. His friend, the Reverend Disney, who had visited him during his last illness,1 inherited the house and moved there in June 1805.2 The bequest was substantial and included the Dorset estates of Brand Hollis’ friend Thomas Hollis (d. 1774), and together with the Essex estate, Disney was provided with a joint annual income of some £5000. The terms of the will suggested that the funds be used for ‘the benefit of his country and of human society’.3 Yet the move to Essex strengthened the Disney family’s links with the county that had started some thirty years earlier with the Reverend Disney’s elder brother, Lewis.

Danbury Place The Hyde was not the only Essex link for the Disney family. Some thirty years earlier, in September 1775, Lewis Disney (1738-1822) had married Elizabeth Ffytche (17491787) of Danbury Place in Essex, and the couple took the name Disney-Ffytche.4 Lewis, who was the Reverend Disney’s older brother, had previously lived at Flintham Hall in Nottinghamshire that had been inherited from his father in 1771. Danbury Place lies some six miles to the east of Chelmsford. The house had been constructed in the late 16th century, and had been acquired by Elizabeth’s grandfather, William Fytche (c. 1671-1728), Member of Parliament for Maldon (170108, 1711-12), on his marriage to Mary Corey.5 The family had originally been settled at Woodham Walter in Essex, some 2 miles away from Danbury. Fytche had three sons, Robert, William and Thomas, and at least three sisters Frances, Anne (Nanny), and Mary. William died in Bath on 21 September 1728.6

Ditchfield 2012, no. 762 (6 August 1804): ‘Mr Brand Hollis lives on, the weather infeebles him, but the viscera is perfect: Dr D: is just come from thence’. 2 Turner 1843, 209. For the book crest used in the library: Bond 1990, 45, fig. 11. 3 Quoted in The Bury and Norwich Post 19 September 1804. 4 Announcement in Gazeteer and New Daily Advertiser 21 September 1775. She is described as the niece of Thomas Ffytche of Danbury Place. They took the name Ffytche (and in effect Disney-Ffytche) from 30 September 1775: London Gazette 26–30 September, 1775; London Chronicle 30 September – 3 October 1775. Lewis’ younger brother John had married Jane Blackburne the year before. 5 Election to Maldon (with John Comyns): Daily Courant 8 May 1705. A pair of portraits of William Ffytche and his wife Ann were auctioned at Sotheby’s, British Paintings 1500–1850, London 12 November 1997, lot 44. 6 London Evening Post 26–28 September 1728; Daily Journal 27 September 1728; Daily Post 2 January 1729. 1

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Figure 25. Danbury Place, Essex.

Thomas Fytche, Elizabeth’s paternal uncle, seems to have joined the East India Company in September 1730.7 He appears in correspondence over the loading of the Grafton in June 1733.8 In 1735-36 he was based in Canton (Guanzhou), the main trading post into southern China.9 Thomas also served in India.10 His brother Robert, a captain in the Royal Navy, died unmarried in 1740.11 Thomas’ brother William also went east and became governor of Bengal. He married Lucia Beard in Madras on 25 February 1745. In 1746 he was appointed a member of the council of merchants at Calcutta.12 Their daughter Elizabeth was born at Madras on 5 September 1749. In the same year Fytche was put in charge of the English factory at Cossimbazaar, near Murshidabad in West Bengal. William was appointed as president of Bengal and governor of Fort William (the present Calcutta) on 5 July 1752, a short-lived appointment. He died from dysentery on 8 London Evening Post 10–12 September 1730; Daily Post 12 September 1730. BL Asia, Pacific and Africa coll. E/3/106/ ff 46–53. 9 BL Asia, Pacific and Africa coll. E/3/106/ ff 273v–78. This related to the cargos of the Walpole and the Princess of Wales. 10 Public Advertiser 4 March 1777. Thomas Ffytche is listed with Thomas Brand in the London Chronicle 7 March 1769. 11 He had served on the Sheerness. 12 Fytche 1878, 15. 7 8

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August 1752 and was buried in the cemetery of St John’s Church, Calcutta.13 In his will he described himself as Chief for Affairs for the United Company of Merchants of England Trading to the East Indies.14 His widow Lucia and daughter Elizabeth were the main beneficiaries. Elizabeth could not inherit until she was 21, i.e. in 1770. Her uncle Thomas was the executor. The will itself was not proven until October 1754, when Lucia Fytche was still alive. Thomas Ffytche, on his return to England, had taken up residence at Danbury Place. He served as Sheriff of Essex in 1767.15 His sister, and Elizabeth’s aunt, Nanny (Ann) married Robert Clarke of Blake Hall, near Chipping Ongar, Essex in July 1750.16

Disney-Ffytche and Danbury Place On 16 September 1775 Elizabeth, Thomas Ffytche’s niece who was now aged 28, married Lewis Disney of Flintham Hall. Lewis and Elizabeth made Essex their main residence and settled at Danbury Place.17 They had four daughters, Frances Elizabeth in 1776, Sophia in 1777, Diana in 1779 (who died in 1782) and Anna Maria in 1780 (and who died in 1787). Elizabeth’s uncle, Thomas, died at Sandon, between Chelmsford and Danbury, on 10 February 1777, and Elizabeth inherited a significant part of his fortune.18 Other beneficiaries were Thomas’ two surviving sisters, Frances Ffytche and Ann Clarke, and his two nieces, the daughters of Ann and Robert Clarke. Thomas’ will specifically recorded that the bequest should ‘be employed in the repairing or rebuilding Danbury Place in such manner as [Elizabeth and her husband Lewis] will think proper’. This suggests that the Elizabethan house was in need of some repair and modernising.19 Elizabeth and Lewis were nominated executrix and executor of Thomas’ will. It should be noted that this bequest coincided with the rebuilding of parts of Flintham Hall.20 Life at Danbury was not without its challenges apart from the maintenance of the hall. In the summer of 1778 Lewis suffered from the rustling of 41 Norfolk wether sheep, one Lincolnshire ram, and one Lincolnshire wether.21 Lewis also started to disperse the holdings of the Disney family. In 1778 he leased a cottage at Elston, part of the estate of Flintham Hall, in Nottinghamshire to William Bramley.22

The date of death is provided on the monument to the presidents of Bengal in St John’s church. The will was written in June 1752. 15 Public Advertiser 16 February 1767. 16 General Advertiser 3 August 1750; London Evening Post 31 July–2 August 1750. 17 The Town and Country Magazine (Sept. 1775) 503. 18 Public Advertiser 4 March 1777. Thomas Ffytche died at Sandon, Essex. Thomas Ffytche was buried in the parish church of Woodham Walter. 19 It was subsequently rebuilt in 1830. 20 Historic England, entry 1001080. https://historicengland.org.uk/listing/the-list/list-entry/1001080 (accessed on 22 May 2019). 21 Notice of 11 July 1778, in St James’s Chronicle or the British Evening Post 21–23 July 1778. 22 Nottinghamshire Record Office M/5538. Dated 4 April 1778. 13 14

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Lewis was involved with Essex society and served as one of the two stewards for the Chelmsford Races, held at Galleywood Common, of 1779.23 Lewis was considered as a parliamentary candidate for Essex in the 1779 by-election although Thomas Berney Bramston was elected unopposed.24 In late 1779 Lewis was nominated as Sheriff of Nottinghamshire.25 Lewis appears to have known Thomas Brand, a near neighbour, as their names appear in a petition submitted to Parliament in 1780.26 Disney-Ffytche and Brand-Hollis were signatories for an application to the Sheriff of Essex to hold a meeting in Chelmsford to consider a Petition to Parliament to inquire into, and effectually correct any abuses in the expenditure of public Money; to reduce all exorbitant emoluments; to reseind and abolish all sinecure places and umerited pensions, and for co-operating with other Counties in procuring, by constitutional means, such relief to this distressed Country as the necessities of the times require.27 These petitions predate the resignation of the Reverend Disney from his living in Lincolnshire, and the move to Essex Street Chapel, suggesting that the links with Brand-Hollis long predated the move to London. The American War of Independence had been fought since 1775, and Lewis’ brother Frederick had been part of the British army, part of which that had surrendered at the battle of Saratoga in 1778. Lewis seems to have shared republican ideas, and in 1778 supported the relief of American Prisoners in the War of Independence.28 In 1780 Lewis also sat on the Nottinghamshire Committee opposed to the American War; his brother John was also a signatory.29 Frances Fytche, sister of Thomas and aunt to Elizabeth, died in Chelsea on 12 October 1779.30 During the preparation for her grave in the north aisle of the church at Danbury, a body was discovered in a lead coffin that was opened by Dr Gower from Chelmsford.31 In 1781 Lewis Disney-Ffytche was in dispute with the Bishop of London, Robert Lowth (1710-87), over the institution of the evangelical Reverend John Eyre (1754– 1803) in the parish of Woodham Green.32 Thomas Ffytche had the patronage for the living that had been passed down, on his death, to his niece Elizabeth. He had given the living to Foote Gower in 1769. The issue came to prominence in May 1780 when Racing Calendar 5 May 1779. General Evening Post 4–6 May 1779. The other candidates were Thomas Berney Bramston (1733–1813) and Jacob Houblon. Bramston was elected. The Bramstons were cousins of the Ffytche family. 25 General Evening Post 11–13 November 1779; London Evening Post 11–13 November 1779. 26 Morning Chronicle and London Advertiser 17 January 1780. 27 Morning Chronicle and London Advertiser 17 January 1780; January 20, 1780. 28 Public Advertiser 26 January 1778. 29 St James’s Chronicle or the British Evening Post 4–7 March 1780. 30 Morning Post and Daily Advertiser 13 October 1779. 31 Suckling 1845, 87–90. 32 Aikin, et al. 1807, 359. For Lowth: Mandelbrote 2004.For Eyre: Courtney and Brown 2004. Lambeth Palace Library: 109.ff.28–101. The case is discussed in The Law of Simony (London, 1784), 59–66. Universal Magazine of Knowledge and Pleasure June 1747–Dec.1803, 72(504), 422–425. 23 24

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Gower died. Eyre had been ordained deacon by Lowth in 1779, and by the bishop of Lincoln later that same year. The dispute related to ‘bonds of resignation’, linking the clerical livings to the patrons; Disney-Ffytche had demanded £3000 from Eyre to secure his presentation to the parish. The Bishop of London had claimed that the living fell under his diocese. The extended dispute lasted until 1783 (the year when the Reverend Disney moved to Essex Hall in London). There was an extended debate relating to the issue in the House of Lords on 9 May 1783.33

France and Italy Lewis and Elizabeth continued to live in Essex, while his brother John and his family were based in London. However, the lives of the Disney-Ffytche family were disrupted in 1787. In March of that year their youngest daughter, Anna Maria, died, aged 6, at Swinderby in Lincolnshire.34 Then in November, Elizabeth, aged 38, died in childbirth at Swinderby leaving two surviving daughters, Frances and Sophia.35 In June 1788 Lewis’ younger brother Frederick died in Lincoln. The following year, in 1789, the Disney family was rocked with scandal. In July of that year Lewis was tried for assault at the Chelmsford assizes ‘with intent to commit an unnatural crime’, on William Ford, a waiter at the Cock and Bell hotel in Romford, Essex.36 The euphemism suggests a homosexual act. Lewis’ brother John was concerned. Thomas Lindsey wrote to William Frend in August of the same year:37 I find Dr Disney very well, though he has been much disturbed with the affair you know of relating to his brother, which has turned out most favourably respecting the judges and the whole court, but they jury unaccountably, tho they acquitted him of the accusation brought in their verdict, guilty of an assault in general; which in such a business is a most unpleasant thing. The report in The Times stated that the first count of assault included ‘an intent to commit the detestable crime of S—y’.38 The case was then heard at the Court of King’s Bench at Westminster Hall, in November 1789. It was noted that the evidence from the trial should not be read out, ‘as it would be a violation of all the rules of decency’. Lewis was subsequently fined £100.39 The legal expenses surrounding the case may have caused Lewis to start realising his assets. In the same year, 1789, he sold Flintham Hall and the estate to Colonel Thomas Thoroton (1752–1814) for £18,000. Thoroton had served in America and had married Anne Bowes in 1787; he had retired from the army in 1791. Thoroton’s Parliamentary Register 9 May 1783. Announcement in World and Fashionable Advertiser 14 March 1787; Bath Chronicle 15 March 1787. She died on 10 March 1787. 35 Announcement in World and Fashionable Advertiser 19 November 1787. 36 ‘Chelmsford’, World Monday 27 July 1789. See also World Tuesday 20 October 1789. 37 Thomas Lindsey to William Frend, 10 August 1789: Ditchfield 2012, no. 390. 38 ‘Law intelligence’, The Times 20 November 1789, 3. 39 ‘Law Report’, Oracle Bell’s New World Friday 20 November 1789. 33 34

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father, Thomas, had served as MP for several constituencies including Newark (1761–68), and Thoroton was himself elected MP for Newark in 1802. In 1790 Lewis seems to have transferred his lease on North Eggerdon, near Bridport in Dorset to the Reverend Isaac Gulliver.40 This seems to have been a shared lease with the Reverend John Disney that dated back to 1788.41 The property would appear to have been part of the estate of Thomas Hollis, either bequeathed to Archdeacon Blackburne, or passed to the Disneys by Thomas Brand-Hollis. Lewis, meanwhile, did not appear to have found Essex to be the safest of places. In December 1790, he wrote to The Times about his encounter with a highwayman in the county.42 His recommendation was that anyone placed in the same position should first shoot the highwayman’s horse. Lewis decided to look for somewhere more congenial to live and moved to Paris in 1791.43 In 1792 he sold the Nottinghamshire manorial estate of Syerston adjacent to Flintham Hall to William Fillingham (1734– 95),44 as well as the estate at Kirkstead to the south-east of Lincoln to Richard Ellison of Lincoln.45 Lewis’ sympathies had lain with republicanism, and since his high profile legal case, he started to look to France that was at this time in the grip of a republican revolution. The Bastille had fallen in July 1789,46 and in June 1791 the Royal family had been captured as they tried to flee to Luxembourg.47 Yet it may have been this republican nation, separate from the England under the reign of an increasingly ill George III, that may have appealed to Lewis. On 20-21 July 1792 Lewis purchased the pleasure gardens, Le Désert de Retz near Chambourcy for 108,000 livres from François Racine de Monville.48 The gardens, close to Paris, had been created from 1774. The gardens incorporated specific allusions to Africa, Asia and America. Lewis himself adopted the French form of his name, Louis. The timing of the purchase was poor. Louis XVI was executed in January 1793,49 and in February France declared war on England as part of a European alliance. Lewis, his two daughters Frances and Sophia, along with their governess, Amélie Launnens, and other staff sought to leave France.50 Lewis and his two daughters ‘escaped from Paris a few days before the cruel decree of the National Convention passed against the English’.51 He was allowed to leave for Switzerland in March 1793 as he had equipped two volunteers and provided four horses for a cavalry Dorset Record Office D-2705/T/8–9. Dated 4–5 July 1790. Dorset Record Office D-2705/T/11. Dated 19 September 1788. The Times 3 December 1790, 4. 43 Henri-Deligny 1932, 78. See also Bennett 1890, 330. 44 Nottinghamshire Archives DD/FM/60/8. Syerston had been purchased in 1775, on Lewis’ marriage to Elizabeth. 45 Allen 1834, 79. 46 McPhee 2017, 72–73. 47 McPhee 2017, 132. 48 Henri-Deligny 1932, 77; Ketchman 1994. See also Rice 1976, 123. 49 McPhee 2017, 173. 50 Henri-Deligny 1932, 79. 51 St James’s Chronicle or the British Evening Post 14–16 November 1793. Disney-Ffytche was said to have been one of a small handful of Englishmen still resident in Paris: St James’s Chronicle 31 October–2 November 1793. 40 41 42

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regiment.52 His property at Le Désert de Retz was seized by a decree of 10 October 1793.53 Among Lewis’s possessions that are known to have been seized in Paris was a 1637 harpsichord made by Ruckers of Antwerp.54 Lewis petitioned the Convention Nationale in 1794 about the confiscation of his property.55 Lewis was now stranded in Switzerland and unable to return to England. In 1794 he tried to let Danbury Place.56 He succeeded in gaining Le Désert de Retz in 26 March 1795,57 but the property was returned to the Republic the following year. He repurchased it in February 1816 for 85,015 francs.58

Italy and William Hillary Lewis and his family left Switzerland for Italy, knowing that he had regained, albeit temporarily, some of his property in France. Lewis (identified as Mr Dusney) was in Bergamo in northern Italy by 25 April 1795, travelling with ‘his wife’ (sic.) and two daughters from Milan to Rome.59 They arrived in Rome; by 26 June 1795 he was making purchases with the British painter Guy Head. It is probably at this time that Sophia Disney-Ffytche was painted by Head.60 Sophia was also painted by Angelica Kauffman who had a studio in Rome.61 In September 1795 Lewis Disney-Ffytche carried a torch in the funeral of the artist James Durno in Rome.62 One of the other torch bearers was Prince Augustus Frederick, son of George III (and known, from 1801, as the Duke of Sussex). The sculptor Christopher Hewetson (1737-98) wrote about the event.63 All his Brother Artists, I mean British Artists, attended, and his funeral had the peculiar honour of having the presence of PRINCE AUGUSTUS, who carried a torch, as did his two Gentlemen, and Lord WYCOMBE, Mr. AMHERST and Mr. DISNEY FITCH … Lewis’ fellow torch-bearers were John Henry Petty Wycombe (1765-1809), Earl of Wycombe.64 He had arrived in Italy in 1793, and in Rome in the autumn of 1795. William Pitt Amherst (1773–185) had been in Italy since the autumn of 1794 and had Bennett 1890, 330; Henri-Deligny 1932, 79. Disney-Ffytche’s presence in Switzerland was noted in The World 9 October 1793. 53 Henri-Deligny 1932, 79. Marie-Antoinette was guillotined days later. 54 Bennett 1890, 331. 55 L. D. Ffytche à la Convention Nationale (Paris, 1794). There is a copy in the British Library. 56 Morning Chronicle Saturday 8 November 1794; Thursday 12 March 1795. 57 Henri-Deligny 1932, 87. 58 Henri-Deligny 1932, 91. 59 Noted in Archivio di Stato di Venezi, Inqusitorial di Stato, 227. 60 Whitley 1928, 15–16. This is a reference to the portrait of ‘Mrs Disney, wife of the inheritor of Thomas Hollis’s Canalettos’. For Head: Ingamells 2004. 61 Roworth 2004. The painting was sold at Sotheby’s 8 March 1950. 62 Gleeson 2014, 41. Durno died on 13 September 1795. 63 Ingamells 1997, 494–95. ‘Extract of a letter received from Christopher Hewetson, Esq. dated Rome, 26th Sept. 1795’, True Briton 27 January 1796. 64 Ingamells 1997, 1025. 52

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arrived in Rome in the August of 1795.65 He had previously studied at Christ Church, Oxford 1789. This event seems to be the moment that Lewis came into contact with (Sir) William Hillary (1770-1847). Hillary came from a Quaker family who had settled in Liverpool. His father, Richard Hillary, owned plantations in Jamaica, and his elder brother Richard was a member of the House of Assembly in Jamaica.66 William had served as equerry to Prince Augustus Frederick. Hillary had served the prince in Italy for two years. By September 1796 William Artaud (1763–1823) had painted Hillary’s portrait in Rome.67 Artaud held strong republican values that were in keeping with those adopted by Lewis. It is probably at this time that Lewis met the sculptor Richard Westmacott who had been studying in Rome in this period.68 They travelled together in Abruzzo, in November 1795 along with the architect Joseph Michael Gandy, and the painter, G.A. Wallis.69 They returned to Rome via Pontecorvo early in 1796. In March 1796 he was purchasing cameos from Thomas Jenkins (as ‘Disneyfitch’). In April 1796 Napoleon Bonaparte invaded northern Italy and besieged Mantua.70 This seems to have prompted Lewis and Gandy to visit Naples from March to May 1796.71 Naples itself obtained an armistice with France in June of that same year. Lewis returned to Rome by 16 May 1796, residing there, apparently with Westmacott in the Palazzo Zuccari on the Piazza Trinità dei Monti, until 1797. In 1797 Lewis and his daughters were in Rome.72 It was probably at this time that he purchased some copies from the Italian sculptor Vincenzo Pacetti.73 Mantua fell to the French in February 1797, and the threat from the French forces was such that they moved, with many of the English community, to Naples.74 This was a sensible move as in February 1798 Napoleon occupied the city of Rome. However, Napoleon’s ambitions were thwarted when his fleet was destroyed by Lord Nelson in the Battle of the Nile in August 1798. The returning British fleet arrived at Naples towards the end of September. However, the French advanced on Naples, and the city was evacuated (many to Palermo) before it was occupied by the French forces in December 1798. Naples itself was reoccupied in the summer of 1799 with British assistance.

Ingamells 1997, 18. For Amherst: Peers 2004. Information from Debrett’s Baronetage. Ingamells 1997, 28. 68 Busco 1994, esp. 173 n. 39 referring to Essex Archives D/DD5 F5, 14. 69 For Gandy: Lukacher 2004. 70 Constantine 2001, 212–13. 71 Sir William Hamilton was ambassador to the court: Constantine 2001. 72 Henri-Deligny 1932, 88. 73 Honour 1963, 373. Westamcott was close to Pacetti. 74 Hillary was in Naples in May 1797: Ingamells 1997, 150. He returned to England via Berlin. For the general context: Sloan 1996, 35. 65 66 67

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Return to England In late 1799 the Disney-Ffytche party returned to England. On 21 February 1800 Lewis’ elder daughter, Frances Elizabeth (b. 1776), married Hillary at St George’s, Hanover Square.75 Danbury Place became their home, and William filled it with classical sculptures and paintings.76 Twins, Elizabeth Mary and Augustus William, were born on 19 November 1800, and baptised in St Nicholas, Liverpool on 19 December 1800. Prince Augustus stood as godfather for the son.77 Lewis meanwhile resided at his London house on Dover Street, off Piccadilly.78 By 1808 he had moved to Jermyn Street, parallel to Piccadilly. Hostilities with France erupted in 1803. Danbury became a camp for two Lancashire regiments of the militia.79 This was one of three main camps in Essex, and Danbury came under the command of Major-General Beckwith.80 Hillary used some £20,000 of the Ffytche fortunes to subsidise the raising of the First East Essex Legion of infantry and cavalry, some 1400 men, in 1803 to meet the threat of a possible French invasion.81 During a ceremony in June 1804, Frances presented the colours of the newly formed legion to her husband who held the rank of colonel: “With the greatest satisfaction, Sir, I present, through you, these Colours and Standard to the First Essex Legion. I have the fullest confidence that they will be received by that Corps as a bond of their union, and at all times be gallantly defended by their honour.” Colonel HILLARY replied—“Madam, I return you the best acknowledgements, in the name of the Legion, for the honour you have conferred upon us. From the experience that I have had of their zeal and attachment to the cause in which they have embarked, I rest assured, that you will not be disappointed in the expectations which you have formed of their exemplary conduct.” Danbury Place was the venue for a review of troops in October the same year by His Royal Highness the Duke of Sussex.82 In addition, a redoubt had been constructed at Danbury under the supervision of the former American general, Benedict Arnold,

Seccombe and Agnew 2004; Gleeson 2014. Announcement in True Briton 24 February 1800; The Ipswich Journal 1 March 1800. 76 Gleeson 2014, 53. 77 Gleeson 2014, 49. 78 His brother, John, moved to the Hyde in the early summer of 1805. 79 ‘Army’, The Observer 24 July 1803, 4. 80 ‘Army’, The Observer 9 October 1803, 4. 81 ‘Presentation of colours’, The Morning Post 6 June 1804. See also ‘Death of Sir William Hillary, Bart.’, The Morning Post Monday 11 January 1847. 82 ‘Chelmsford’, Ipswich Journal 27 October 1804. 75

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who had served in the War of Independence.83 In October 1805 Hillary was made a baronet in recognition of his endeavours.84 The following year his mother died.85 In November 1803 William inherited the Jamaican sugar plantation belonging to his brother Richard.86 However, in 1807 the British Parliament passed the Act for the Abolition of the Slave Trade that disrupted British involvement in moving slaves from Africa to the West Indies. The Hillary holdings in Jamaica faced financial difficulty and in July 1808 Hillary offered the contents of Danbury Place for auction at Squibb’s Room.87 Among the contents of the house were ‘rare antique busts’ suggesting that he displayed classical sculptures in the house.88 This dispersal appears to have been due to losses in his investments in the West Indies. On 2 July 1810 Frances gave birth to a daughter, Wilhelmina, a name that acknowledged the stated father, William.89 However it seems that Frances and William had been living separate lives for a period of time. William confided to Thomas Scott, brother of Sir Walter Scott, that she had ‘dubbed him a cuckold’.90 Frances also faced liability for her husband’s debts, standing in the region of £40,000.91 Hillary then seemed to have moved to the Isle of Man.92 He had deserted Frances and taken up residence on the island. It was there that he became friends with Caesar Tobin and fell in love with his sister Amelia.93 However William was still legally married to Frances. The solution seems to have been to create the ground for a divorce.94 William was ‘discovered’ in Edinburgh with the assumed name of Hastings with a Mrs Wilson. The couple were recognised in an Edinburgh hotel in March 1811. They subsequently moved to Holyrood house. In 1812 Frances proceeded with successful divorce proceedings against William in an Edinburgh court that found him ‘guilty of adultery’.95 Frances and William were granted a divorce, and Lewis Disney-Ffytche agreed to clear William’s debts.96 On 30 August 1813 Hillary married Amelia (Emma) Tobin, daughter of the late Patrick Tobin of Kirkbradden in the Isle of Man.97 The wedding took place at Whithorn in Scotland. Hillary settled on the Isle of Man and helped to establish For Arnold: Shy 2004. Hampshire Telegraph and Sussex Chronicle Monday 7 October 1805. It was noted that he also had a property at Rigg House, Yorkshire: The Morning Chronicle Monday 7 October 1805. Gleeson 2014, 56. 85 The Lancaster Gazette and General Advertiser Saturday 15 February 1806. 86 Gleeson 2014, 53. 87 The Morning Post Tuesday 26 July 1808; The Morning Chronicle Saturday 6 August 1808. Gleeson 2014, 57. Hillary was owner of the Adelphi Estate on Jamaica. 88 The Morning Chronicle 20 June 1808. The Morning Post 21 June 1808: ‘the sale of the beautiful antique busts and bronzes, capital paintings, and magnificent inlaid tortoiseshell table and pedestal …’ 89 Gleeson 2014, 60. 90 Quoted in Gleeson 2014, 68. 91 Gleeson 2014, 60–61. 92 ‘Death of Sir William Hillary, Bart.’, The Morning Post Monday 11 January 1847. 93 Gleeson 2014, 66. 94 Gleeson 2014, 66–67. 95 The Ipswich Journal 15 August 1812; ‘Consistorial Commissary Court, Edinburgh’, The Times 20 August 1820, 3. 96 Gleeson 2014, 67, 110. 97 Caledonian Mercury Saturday 18 September 1813. 83 84

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what subsequently became the RNLI. Frances, the twins, and Wilhelmina moved to Paris.98

John Disney: Cambridge, Law and Marriage By the 1790s the family of the Reverend John Disney were settled in London; his brother Lewis had moved to France and would then leave for Italy. The Reverend Disney succeeded Thomas Lindsey as senior minister at Essex Hall in 1793. In April 1796, aged sixteen, John, the oldest surviving child of the Reverend Disney, was admitted as a pensioner to Peterhouse, Cambridge.99 Peterhouse had also been his father’s college, and in October that year John’s younger brother Algernon (1780– 1848) was to join him there.100 After two years, in April 1798, John was admitted to the Inner Temple. Such a move is not so surprising given that his father had aspired to follow a legal path before deciding to be ordained in the Church of England. John was called to the bar in May 1803. There is evidence from this period of him dealing with legal matters.101 John’s brother Algernon was commissioned as a Sub Lieutenant in the 1st Life Guards in 1801after completing his studies at Cambridge.102 He was promoted Lieutenant on 28 April 1803. During this time his unit was based in Hyde Park Barracks in London. He then transferred to the Yorkshire Hussars and was placed on half-pay as Captain in February 1805.103 Lewis and his two daughters, Frances and Sophia, had returned from Italy in 1799. Frances had married Hillary in February 1800, and in September 1802 Disney married his cousin Sophia, the youngest daughter of Lewis Disney-ffytche, also at St George’s, Hanover Square.104 He addressed a poem, ‘To Sophia’ (and subtitled, ‘On receiving a Gold Watch Chain the day before our Marriage’), to her:105 What! to chain me does Sophy aspire, Does ambition her bosom pervade, Is a captive her only desire, And to “slavery” her lover degrade! …

Gleeson 2014, 68. Walker 1912, 367–68. 100 Walker 1912, 368. 101 E.g. Family and estate matters, executorship of T. Hallet Hodges’ will: Kent History and Library Centre U49/C13/31-34. Hodges was married to Dorothy Cartwright, and thus a cousin of the Disneys. 102 NRA Kew WO 25/756/111. He was awarded a BA in 1801, and MA in 1804. 103 Walker 1912, 368. 104 Announcement in The Morning Post and Gazeteer 24 September 1802; 27 September 1802; Bury and Norwich Post 29 September 1802; Jackson’s Oxford Journal 2 October 1802. Disney-Ffytche lived within the parish on Brook Street. Sophia’s brother-in-law, William Hillary, was one of the witnesses. 105 Disney 1856, 49–50. 98 99

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The World of Disney The gold was an emblem—how pure Was the love she bestowed, and how strong; And the chain was a gift to ensure, That her love should be constant and long.

In 1804 the Reverend Disney inherited the Hyde from Thomas Brand-Hollis, and moved into the house in June 1805. Both parts of the Disney family now had strong associations with Essex, through Danbury Place and the Hyde.

Chapter 5 Life at The Hyde and its Collection The Reverend Disney settled into the Hyde during the early summer of 1805 and in the autumn of 1806 commissioned the artist George Cuit (1743-1818), of Richmond, Yorkshire, to paint the house.1 Disney clearly knew Cuit from Richmond and commented that he had previously commissioned him some 30 years previously, presumably to undertake portraits; the date would suggest it was either around the time of his wedding to Jane or at the point when he left the Church of England and moved to Essex Street Chapel. The pictures were engraved by James Basire who also undertook engravings for the Society of Antiquaries.2 In addition, Disney commissioned a monument to Brand-Hollis, designed by himself, from Mr King of Bath; the memorial was placed in Ingatestone parish church.3 At The Hyde, the Reverend Disney worked on a catalogue of the sculpture collection that was published in 1807.4 He was assisted by a Mrs Howard of Pinner, Middlesex, ‘whose erudition is exceeded only by her diffidence, modesty and benevolence’.5 In May 1807 the Reverend James Tate (1771-1843), at the time Master of Richmond School in Yorkshire (and later, from 1833, Canon of St Paul’s Cathedral), came to study the Latin funerary inscriptions.6 His manuscript catalogue and commentary appear in Disney’s 1807 catalogue, and a printed version formed an appendix in the revised catalogue of the Hyde (1809); this text was then reproduced in the Museum Disneianum (1846). Tate’s appearance is significant in that he was educated in Richmond and as a boy had served as the private secretary to Francis Blackburne, Disney’s father-in-law. Disney describes Tate in the manuscript catalogue as ‘my excellent & learned friend’,7 but was fuller in the mention in his memoir of Brand Hollis, ‘a gentleman whose learning, diligence, and zeal, eminently distinguish him in conducting his scholars through the highest departments of a classical education’.8 The catalogues themselves are significant and extensive. Both volumes of The Hyde were bequeathed to the Fitzwilliam Museum by John Avery of Croft Lodge, Woodford Green in 1936.9 The Reverend Disney remained interested in political reform and worked closely with the Reverend Christopher Wyvill (1738-1822), rector of Black Notley, Disney 1808, vi. For Cuit: Cust and Stewart 2004. See under Peltz 2004; Myrone 2007, 111. Basire also engraved other paintings by the Disney family. 3 Disney 1808, vi. 4 Disney 1807. 5 Disney 1808, vi. 6 Disney 1849b, v. Disney records a further visit in August 1809. For Tate: Wenham 1991. 7 Disney 1807. 8 Disney 1808, vi. 9 Avery was a member of the Kent Archaeological Society from 1917. 1 2

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Figure 26. The Hyde, near Ingatestone, Essex.

near Braintree, in Essex.10 Wyvill, Lindsey and Disney had been among the Feathers Tavern Petitioners of 1772. In 1808 Disney published a memoir of his friend Thomas Brand-Hollis.11 Some of Disney’s final years were spent in Bath as he sought respite from growing infirmity.12 Jane, his wife, died on 2 October 1809.13 Disney, like Hollis and Brand Hollis, took a keen interest in American affairs, and was a member of the Massachusetts Historical Society.14 He prepared A short memoir of the late William Hopkins, BA, vicar of Bolney, Sussex (1815) who had also opposed subscription to the Thirty-Nine Articles.15

John Disney, Recorder of Bridport With his father settled at The Hyde, John Disney pursued his own legal career. In September 1807 Disney was appointed Recorder of Bridport in Dorset. He resided at Corscombe, part of the Hollis estate bequeathed to his father in 1804 that lay to the north-east of Bridport. The Disneys had a daughter, Sophia (1806), and two sons, John (1808) and Edgar (1810), all born in London. The family received income from

Dickinson 2004. For the link between the two: Turner 1843, 209. Disney 1808. The Preface is dated 28 September 1808. Turner 1843, 212. 13 The Morning Chronicle Thursday 5 October 1809; The Bury and Norwich Post Wednesday 11 October 1809. 14 His death was noted in Proceedings of the Massachusetts Historical Society 1 (1791–1835) xlvi. 15 Goodwin and Levin 2004. 10 11 12

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an annuity of £180 from Sir William Ingelby of Albany, Middlesex, from the manor of North Deighton, to the north of Wetherby in Yorkshire.16 Disney clearly felt a link to his Unitarian roots. All three children were registered under those terms: Sophia on 25 February 1808,17 John on 21 May 1811,18 and Edgar on 1 April 1817. Yet Sophia, John and Edgar were also baptised as members of the Church of England at their parish church of St Giles, Bloomsbury. John Disney pursued a legal career in Dorset, while periodically returning to London and Essex. There is a hint at his movements when in March 1810 Disney provided evidence against George Plyall, a chaise driver, for drunkenness in Somerset.19 Disney started to take an active interest in politics, and in 1811 published, in two parts, A Collection of Acts of Parliament, Relative to County and Borough Elections, with References to Several Reported Cases, Containing the Determinations of the House of Commons (1811). He described himself in the book as barrister at law of the Inner Temple. Disney clearly intended his publication to be used for prospective candidates in the forthcoming general election of 1812. Disney was admitted as a Freemason in Abingdon, Berkshire on 21 October 1812. Although the Berkshire association is not clear, Disney’s grandson Edgar John became Lord of the Manor of Sunningwell and Kennington, just north of Abingdon, in 1884.

The Death of the Reverend John Disney The Reverend Disney died at The Hyde on 26 December 1816 and was buried in the churchyard of St Mary the Virgin at Fryerning. The funeral sermon was preached by the Reverend Thomas Jervis (1748-1833), the Unitarian minister at Mill Hill in Leeds, and a fellow trustee of Dr Williams’ foundation.20 In his funeral oration he recalled how the Reverend Disney:21 He sustained a painful and lingering illness with a fortitude and dignified composure, founded on the principles of that system of Christianity which he had adopted upon deliberate investigation and mature conviction, with the manly decision and disinterestedness which strongly marked his character. Of those principles he was an able, strenuous, powerful advocate, as his writings, various, useful, and important, abundantly testify. A native energy of sentiment and vivacity of manner, gave an unusual interest and spirit to his conversation, which animated all around him. Distinguished by his rank in society, and adorned by the nobler distinction of his virtues, he was justly eminent in the several departments of Theology and Literature, Leeds, West Yorkshire Archive Service WYL230/865 and 866. Register in Dr Williams’ Library, entry 1451. Register in Dr Williams’ Library, entry 3640. 19 Somerset Heritage Centre Q/SR/378/2/9. 20 Gordon and Mercer 2004. See also Anon. 1818, 70. 21 Quoted in Nichols 1831, 212–13. 16 17 18

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Thomas was the son of William Jervis, the minister of the Presbyterian congregation that met in St Nicholas Street in Ipswich. A poem in Disney’s memory appeared in The Bury and Norwich Post in February 1817.22 If knowledge, learning, energy of thought, Combin’d with manly sense, and judgment sound, Sincerity and singleness of heart, Integrity unmov’d, and truth unaw’d, And virtue stern— If rectitude, benevolence, and candour Clear as the day, and pure as driven snow— If these the meed of honest fame demand, That meed, O Disney, dear, departed Friend! Is thine—this is the wreath that decks the brow Of such pre-eminence and worth.— Since, dear to honour, and to virtue dear, Thy name’s distinguish’d in renown—shall not The good and wise thy virtues emulate? And, when this world’s delusions charm no more, When all it’s vain distinctions, overthrown, Are in oblivion lost; when nought remains But moral worth and mental excellence— Then talents and endowments such as thine Their generous influence widely shall extend To ages yet unborn: remembrance sweet Shall round the ashes of the just diffuse A sacred fragrance; and shall ever live Still blest, lamented, honour’d, and belov’d— Cherish’d by Friendship’s bright and hallowed flame, Bedew’d with Virtue’s consecrated tear. Among the bequests of the Reverend Disney was a bust of John Milton that was presented to Christ’s College in Cambridge (where Milton had been admitted as a student). By April 1817 John Disney had sold off the libraries formed by Hollis, Brand Hollis as well as his father.23 He also disposed of Disney’s collection of coins, medals, 22 23

‘Sacred to the memory of the Rev. John Disney, D.D. F.S.A.’, The Bury and Norwich Post 19 February 1817. Noticed in The Morning Chronicle 22 April 1817. The combined Hollis and Brand-Hollis library, along with

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Figure 27. Memorial for the Reverend John Disney, and his grandson John, on the Disney family tomb. © David Gill.

bronzes and terracottas; a 50 shilling coin of Oliver Cromwell (‘Oliver’s Broad’) was sold for £109.24 His sister Frances Mary, now in her 40s, married Thomas Jervis on 29 May 1818. Jervis resigned his ministry and the couple moved to London. In late 1817 Disney seconded the address of condolence on the death of Princess Charlotte, daughter of George IV and wife of King Leopold I of Belgium.25

Prospective MP for Harwich and Magistrate Following the death of his father, John Disney, who was still based at Corscombe, was appointed Sheriff of Dorset in 1818,26 and he continued as Recorder in Bridport until 1823. Disney voted against Henry Bankes (1756–1834) of Kingston Lacy when he was elected MP for Dorset in 1823.27 In December 1819 Disney’s eldest son, John, died aged 11, and he was buried with his grandfather at Fryerning.28 In 1820 Disney decided to sell part of the Halstock political and theological books of the Reverend John Disney was sold by Sotheby’s on 22 April 1817. For a discussion of the library: Bond 1990, 35. For some of Disney’s volumes: Witherspoon 1945. For other Hollis material sold at Sotheby’s on 14 May 1817: London BM R.12991 (lot 39). 24 The Morning Post 28 May 1817. For details of the sale: The Gentleman’s Magazine February 1817, 190. 25 ‘Essex County Meeting’, The Morning Chronicle 8 December 1817. The proposal was made by Sir John Tyrell. 26 Noted in The Morning Post 17 November 1817; Royal Cornwall Gazette 31 January 1818. 27 Dorset Record Office D-BKL/D/B/2/45. Disney’s record dates to 19 February 1823. For Bankes: Farrell 2004. 28 The Bury and Norwich Post 29 December 1819. The Peterhouse records suggest that he was admitted to the college in 1828 and that he died in 1829: Walker 1912, 435. This notes that the age provided was that of his brother Edgar. The gravestone clearly gives the date as 1819 (MDCCCXIX).

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estate in Dorset, and in 1822 Sophia inherited part of her father’s estate.29 Disney retained some of the Corscombe estate as well as the patronage of the living at Halstock.30 The inheritance from Lewis Disney-Ffytche in 1822 allowed the Disneys to settle at The Hyde. John also became the head of both sides of the Disney family as the sole male heir. The return to The Hyde allowed him to serve as a magistrate in Essex. One of the earliest references is to January 1818, where he is referred to as ‘lately a practicing barrister on the Western Circuit, but now a magistrate for this county’.31 The case related to the Reverend Bloomfield who had been invited to lecture in Chelmsford on the subject of ‘The Philosophy of History’. The application was rejected under the terms of the Seditious Meetings Act. He was soon involved with investigating the murder of a surgeon in the county.32 In 1824 Disney supported the use of constables to attend horserace meetings: horse-racing … was a perfectly legal amusement, and therefore it was right to employ constables to prevent disorder. Indeed, he considered the employment of constables in this way a saving, inasmuch as they prevented the commission of many crimes, the prosecution of which would, otherwise, fall very heavy upon the county.33 Disney’s views on legal matters were expressed in Outlines of a Penal Code on the Basis of the Law of England: Together with a Commentary Thereon (1826). In January 1828 he proposed the motion for the creation of a county lunatic asylum.34 The motion was defeated by the casting vote of the chair. Disney also sought prison reform. In 1831 he proposed the propriety of breaking up the Gaol establishment at Chelmsford, and removing the prisoners to the Convict Gaol at Springfield. He thought that the measure he proposed would effect a saving of between 400l. and 500l. to the county.35 In 1843 Disney was openly attacked by an individual writing as ‘Cautus’ for ‘the course you adopted at the recent Quarter Session, which must have given infinite Lewis Disney-Ffytche died at the age of 84 in September 1822: The Morning Chronicle 24 September 1822; The Observer 29 September 1822, 4. He also had a house in Jermyn Street. His daughter Frances Elizabeth Hillary inherited Le Désert de Retz. 30 The appointment of the Reverend William Thompson as the vicar of Halstock: Jackson’s Oxford Journal 6 May 1826. 31 ‘Essex Epiphany Sessions—Chelmsford’, The Times 19 January 1818. 32 The Morning Post 25 August 1819; The Times 26 August 1819, 2. 33 ‘Chelmsford Quarter Sessions’, The Morning Chronicle October 20, 1824. 34 Ipswich Journal January 19, 1828. 35 ‘Essex Quarter Sessions’, The Essex Standard, and Colchester and County Advertiser 22 October 1831. For other instances of Disney as a magistrate in this decade: The Essex Standard, Colchester and County Advertiser 28 November 1834. The fellow magistrate was J. Martin Leake. For 1835: The Essex Standard, and Colchester, Chelmsford, Maldon, Harwich, and General County Advertiser 26 June 1835. 29

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pain to your friends’.36 Disney retired from the chair of the Quarter Sessions in October 1843.37 While practising the amenities and courtesies of private life, it must ever be a pleasing reflection to him that he had devoted so large a portion of his life, so assiduously as he had done, for the public benefit, and that without fame and profit to himself. It was gratifying to think that in that retirement he would have full opportunity for pursuing those philosophical studies, and cultivating those elegant tastes, for which he was distinguished. He was still a magistrate in 1853, when the magistrates of Essex petitioned Viscount Palmerston to present their objections to the County Financial Board Bill.38 Disney was now well known in Essex and had expressed his views on political reform. In 1826 Disney seconded Charles Callis Western (1767-1844) as one of the MPs for Essex, and spoke at the hustings.39 At around the same time Disney was involved with the Maldon Independent Club.40 We also get a sense of Disney’s humour. In 1829 he proposed a toast, noting, ‘The text was certainly very short; but as for the Sermon, whether that was long or short depended entirely on the preacher’.41 The Club also met in 1831 to discuss the Reform Bill.42 Disney was one of the speakers at the Essex County Reform Meeting at Chelmsford in December 1831:43 JOHN DISNEY, Esq., in a very able and argumentative speech, proposed several Resolutions, expressive of the necessity of such a Reform of the Commons’ House of Parliament, as would insure to the people a full and free Representation, and declaratory of continued confidence in his Majesty’s Ministers. These were carried, and an Address to the King, and Petitions to both Houses of Parliament, founded on the Resolutions, were unanimously adopted. Some thirty years later Disney was remembered as one of the key members in what had become the Maldon Independent Liberal Club.44 Disney had become involved in the political scene in Ipswich as early as 1822.45 In August 1830 Disney stood unsuccessfully for election as MP for Ipswich, coming third ‘To John Disney, Esq., F.R.S., F.S.A., a Chairman of the Essex Quarter Session, and President of the Chelmsford Philosophical Society’, The Essex Standard, and General Advertiser for the Eastern Counties 13 January 1843. Disney’s response was published on 20 January 1843. 37 ‘Address from the Bar to John Disney, Esq.’, The Essex Standard, and General Advertiser for the Eastern Counties 20 October 1843. 38 John Bull 16 April 1853, 256. 39 ‘County of Essex’, The Morning Post 15 June 1826; 16 June 1826. 40 ‘Maldon Independent Club’, The Morning Chronicle 2 August 1828. 41 ‘Maldon Independent Club’, The Morning Chronicle 22 July 1829. 42 ‘Maldon Independent Club’, The Essex Standard, and Colchester and County Advertiser 26 November 1831. 43 ‘Essex County Reform Meeting’, The Observer 12 December 1831, 4. 44 ‘Maldon Independent Liberal Club’, The Essex Standard, and General Advertiser for the Eastern Counties 31 August 1860. 45 ‘Suffolk Fox dinner: reform’, The Morning Chronicle 24 August 1822. 36

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with just 150 votes.46 In November 1831 he recalled, for the Maldon Independent Club, his ‘electioneering reminiscences’ and how ‘he had coqueted with those beauties, called Boroughs’.47 He also indicated how he intended to stand as MP for Harwich, where he ‘meant to devote all his insinuating powers to preserve her smiles’. The 1832 Reform Act removed Rotten Boroughs, and later that same year Disney stood as a candidate for Harwich.48 In 1833 he petitioned the House of Commons against the successful candidate, John Charles Herries (1778-1855), on the grounds that some of his ‘votes were improperly rejected by the Revising Barristers’.49 Disney stood again in the 1835 elections. During this campaign he had to defend himself against the accusation, made by Sir John Tyrell of Boreham House (17621832), Deputy Lieutenant for Essex,50 that he supported whipping as ‘a fit punishment for females’.51 Disney also had to suffer the re-airing of the celebrated 1815 scandal between his younger brother Algernon and Lady Cranstoun.52 In February 1815 Algernon was shot at Staines by Lord Cranstoun ‘under circumstances which excited the suspicion of his Lordship’.53 Algernon Disney was wounded in the arm, and Lady Cranstoun’s favourite dog was killed by the ricocheting shot. This was not the only incident involving Algernon, a Captain in the Dragoon Guards and one-time Equerry to the Duke of Kent.54 He was arrested in November 1820 after it was alleged that he had beaten his servant, Ann Banting: ‘On various occasions he returned home, and placing her upon the kitchen table, would whip her in a shocking manner with a postillion’s whip until her screams alarmed the neighbourhood’.55 Shortly afterwards Banting died after giving birth to a dead child.56 Algernon was indicted for murder but was acquitted.57 Evidence was provided by four medical men who suggested that Banting died from ‘a common epidemic disease, and totally unconnected with any external violence’.58 However, F.H. wrote a letter to the Morning Post suggesting , ‘but Letter, ‘To the Free and Independent Burgesses of the Borough of Ipswich’, Ipswich Journal 7 August 1830. Disney was known as ‘Dismal Disney’; see A History of Parliament. 47 ‘Maldon Independent Club’, The Essex Standard, and Colchester and County Advertiser 26 November 1831. 48 ‘Representation of Harwich’, The Essex Standard, and Colchester and County Advertiser 16 June 1832. The constituency is discussed in The History of Parliament. 49 The Times 1 January 1833, 3. See also The Essex Standard, and Colchester and County Advertiser 12 January 1833; Bell’s Life in London and Sporting Chronicle 6 January 1833; The Observer 25 February 1833, 1. For Herries: Jupp 2004. 50 ‘Death of Sir John Tyrell’, The Essex Standard, and Colchester and County Advertiser 11 August 1832; ‘Funeral of Sir John Tyrell, Bart.’, The Essex Standard, and Colchester and County Advertiser 18 August 1832. 51 The Times 9 May 1835, 4. 52 The Times 1 May 1835. The original report: The Times 17 February 1815, 3. 53 The Bury and Norwich Post 15 February 1815. For further details: The Examiner 19 February 1815. Lady Cranstoun was born on St Kitts, and her maiden name was Macnamara. 54 The Morning Post 18 February 1815. Prince Edward, the Duke of Kent, was the father of Queen Victoria. By 1817 Algernon had the rank of major: Walker 1912, 368. 55 ‘Marlborough-Street’, Jackson’s Oxford Journal 4 November 1820. 56 ‘Atrocious case’, Caledonian Mercury 2 December 1820; ‘Mysterious case’, The Leeds Mercury 2 December 1820. 57 ‘Law intelligence’, The Morning Post 9 June 1821; Caledonian Mercury 11 June 1821. Algernon was described as: ‘a respectable looking man: he appeared about 45 years of age, and wore powder’: Morning Post 9 June 1821. 58 ‘Surrender of Mr Disney’, The Morning Post 14 June 1821. ‘Mr Disney’s trial’, The Morning Post 30 June 1821; The Morning Chronicle 13 July 1821. 46

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not one witness was asked for, not a word of defence required; there was nothing to sum up, and he was instantly acquitted’.59 A report in the Essex Standard celebrated Disney’s defeat in the Harwich election:60 North Essex has again done its duty, and the vanity of Mr Disney has received another rebuke, which we should imagine will induce him to make no more attempts on the good sense and loyalty of the electors of Essex. Thank Heaven they are yet untainted by the revolutionary poison which is so prevalent in some part of the kingdom, and we are surprised that Mr Disney could have supposed himself so popular in the county that he should be elected to represent one of its Divisions, despite of his declared determination to destroy the Church of England by the commission of the grossest robbery and injustice against the Irish Church. The expenses for these elections, as well as the upkeep of The Hyde, may have led Disney to dispose of the Corscombe estate in 1836.

The Hillary Family: Divorce, Deaths and Legal Disputes Standing for parliament in three elections did not come without a cost to Disney. However, the Disney-Ffytche side of the family started to cause major problems. In 1812, Sophia Disney’s sister, Frances and her husband Sir William Hillary were granted a divorce; Sir William remarried in September 1813.61 This did not bring any respite to the family relations, and he continued to press for further money to cover his substantial debts. This marked the start of a series of legal cases that involved both sides of the Disney family.62 They appear to relate to the resolution of financial matters. Danbury Place (‘peculiarly adapted for a family of distinction’) was placed on the market in 1815.63 In 1818 there was a major legal dispute between John Goslin of Colchester, DisneyFfytche and Hillary.64 Goslin was elected an officer of the Borough of Colchester in September 1813.65 He appears to have been a solicitor involved with the sales of estates. The contents of Goslin’s own house, Beverly Lodge, Colchester, had been sold in September 1813.66 Hillary’s daughter, Elizabeth Mary Hillary, aged 17, married Christopher Richard Preston (1790–1867) at St James’ Piccadilly in April 1818.67 Lewis provided his grand‘Surrender of Mr Disney’, The Morning Post 14 June 1821. ‘North Essex election’, The Essex Standard 1 May 1835. 61 Gleeson 2014, 68. 62 Kew NRA C 101/66. The legal disputes covered the period from 1835 to 1852. 63 The Times 9 October 1815, 4. 64 Kew NRA C 13/223/43. 65 The Ipswich Journal 4 September 1813. 66 The Ipswich Journal 25 April 1812; The Ipswich Journal 28 August 1813. 67 The marriage was witnessed by her uncle John Disney. Gleeson 2014, 112. 59 60

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Figure 28. Memorial for Dame Frances Hillary at Danbury. © David Gill.

daughter with a settlement of £14,000.68 The Prestons lived at Great Jericho at Blackmore, not far from the Hyde, in Essex. In 1823 Preston was appointed a Captain in the East Essex militia.69 By 1825 the family was living in Boulogne where their son was born.70 They later settled on the island of Jersey. Lewis died at his London home in Jermyn Street in London on Saturday 21 September 1822.71 Among his bequest to his daughter Frances was Le Désert de Retz that he had repurchased from the French government in 1816 following the conclusion of the Napoleonic Wars. His death seems to have precipitated a further series of legal actions. In 1824 James Hudson, who possibly was a banker, took action against the families.72 Essentially the defendants were Charles George Parker, a solicitor in Chelmsford who lived at Springfield Place, and Disney’s family (including his wife, Sophia, and children Edgar and Sophia), Sir William Hillary, and his estranged wife Frances, and Sir Moore Disney (1765/6–1846), an army officer from Waterford who had served in the 1st Regiment of Foot Guards and a distant cousin on the Irish side of the family.73 Both Hillary and Sir Moore Disney are described as being ‘abroad’. In turn, in 1825, Parker took action against the Disney-Ffytche and Disney families. Essentially this was against John and Sophia Disney, and their two children, Edgar and Sophia; the Hillary family including Christopher Richard and Elizabeth Mary Preston; and Sir Moore Disney. Hillary, his estranged wife and son, and Sir Gleeson 2014, 112. The Morning Post 16 June 1823. 70 The Morning Chronicle 18 August 1847. 71 The Morning Chronicle 24 September 1822. 72 Kew NA C 13/816/20, C 13/814/37. 73 Stephens and Stearn 2004. For Moore’s military career, e.g. ‘The British army’, Oracle and Public Advertiser 24 June 1795. He had served in the American War of Independence, then in Flanders, Sicily, and Spain. 68 69

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Moore were all listed as being abroad. In 1827 Parker took further legal action against John and Sophia Disney and their children, Edgar and Sophia; infants by Thomas Brooksby their guardian; Christopher Richard Preston and Elizabeth Mary Preston his wife and Sir Moore Disney bart and Sir William Hillary, Frances Elizabeth Hillary, Augustus Hillary and Wilhemina Sophia Mary Hillary (abroad).74 The Reverend Thomas Brooksby was a magistrate in Essex, and Rector of West and south Hanningfield, to the south of Chelmsford.75 This action continued to 1835. It related to the estates of Lewis: real and personal estate of Lewis Disney Ffytche in Buglawton, Cheshire and Southwark, Bermondsey and Camberwell Surrey, Piccadilly and Portman Square, Middlesex, Latchingdon, Ingatestone, Bradwell, Fryerning and Writtle, Essex and Bedfordshire. Le Désert de Retz, owned by Lewis’ daughter Frances, was sold in 1827.76 This may have been linked to the legal dispute between Disney and Hillary in the same year.77 Frances died on 9 August 1828 at her daughter’s home, Jericho House, Blackmore, and was buried at Danbury.78 She left much of her collection as well as a trust fund worth £10,000 to her daughter Wilhelmina, but one of the beneficiaries of Frances’s will was her former husband, Sir William Hillary. She left him £15,000, and this required the sale of Danbury Place.79 Parker’s son, Charles, Frances’ godson, was also included in the will, but Frances’ son, Augustus, was not. Disney and Parker were named as the executors, and Disney and his Sophia his wife were appointed guardians for Wilhelmina. John Disney hoped to buy Danbury Place for his wife Sophia offering £9,000 for the property but this was declined.80 He wrote to Rankin his solicitor in December 1828 (when Frances’ will was proven): You know perhaps that there is a place in this country belonging to Lady Hillary’s family [the Disney-Ffytches] called Danbury Park, on which stands a mansion quite in ruin … In the confused state of the affairs of that part of the family this place must be sold; and my wife, who has been attached to it ever since she was born is very desirous it should be preserved from falling into the hands of strangers. Danbury Place and its estate was offered for auction in July 1829.81 It was purchased in September 1829 by John Round (1783–1860), the future MP for Maldon, but it Kew NA C 101/357. He died 4 November 1842: John Bull 12 November 1842. 76 Henri-Deligny 1932, 92. 77 Kew NA C 13/1789/20. 78 The Bury and Norwich Post Wednesday 20 August 1828. 79 Gleeson 2014, 112. The Will is in Kew NA PROB 11/1749/90. 80 Gleeson 2014, 113. The quotation is in a letter from Disney to his solicitor Rankin, 11 December 1828: Essex Archives D/DQC/2/3. 81 Notices for the auction: The Bury and Norwich Post Wednesday 13 May 1829; The Times 16 May 1829, 8. Parker was one of the solicitors listed in the notice. In fact, the initial sale was unsuccessful and the property continued to be offered: The Times 14 August 1829, 4. 74 75

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was in such a damaged state that it had to be dismantled and a new house was constructed in 1834.82 It was sold as a residence for the Bishop of Rochester in 1845. Frances’s youngest daughter Wilhelmina was married to William Porter of Gower Street at All Souls, Langham Place, on 22 September 1831; the marriage was witnessed by John and Sophia Disney, and their daughter Sophia. The notice in The Standard merely noted that Wilhelmina came from Witham in Essex.83 By 1839 Disney had a London residence in Berkeley Square. There continued to be an on-going dispute with Parker over the estate of Lewis Disney-Ffytche from 1835 to 1852; it ceased with the death of Sir William Hillary.84 The dispute involved the Disneys (John and Sophia, and their two children Edgar and Sophia), the children of Frances (Elizabeth Mary, and her husband Christopher Richard Preston; Augustus William Hillary and Wilhelmina Sophia Mary Hillary), and a cousin, Sir Moore Disney. It involved property in Cheshire, and the parish of St George the Martyr, as well as in Southwark, Camberwell, Piccadilly, and Portman Square. Sir Moore Disney died in Upper Brooke Street, London, in 1846.85 Parker died on 1 October 1847.86

The Eastern Counties Railway The Disneys had originally invested in canals, but this mode of transport was superseded by railways. The route that would affect the Disney family was designed to link East Anglia with London. In August 1834 a decision was made to create the Eastern Counties Railway.87 The line would run from London to Norwich and Great Yarmouth via Romford, Chelmsford, Colchester, Ipswich, Woodbridge, Debenham and Eye, then onwards via Diss, Harleston and Bungay. The expected cost was £1.5 million, to be raised by £50 shares. This elicited a response from ‘Verax’ (‘truthful’) in the Essex Standard.88 There was a perceived threat to the shipping and coastal towns of Norfolk, Suffolk and Essex. Messrs Dimes and Boyman responded to ‘Verax’.89 Details of the costing and the name of the engineers were revealed: John Braithwaite and Charles Vignoles.90 Coller 1861, 238. See also Gleeson 2014, 114. For the sale: Bury and Norwich Post 2 September 1829. The Standard 23 September 1831. Wilhelmina Porter died on 12 November 1878. Kew NA C101/66. 85 Obituary in The Gentleman’s Magazine July 1846, 94; The Illustrated London News 2 May 1846, 8. For details of his will: The Observer 31 May 1846. 86 For details of his will: The Essex Standard 29 October 1847. For his funeral, attended by Disney: ‘Funeral of C.G. Parker, Esq.’, Essex Standard 3 September 1847. 87 The Chelmsford Chronicle 29 August 1834, 1; The Norfolk Chronicle and Norwich Gazette 30 August 1834, 1. The advert was placed by Messrs Dimes and Boyman, of Austin Friars, London. A slightly more detailed advert appeared in the Chelmsford Chronicle 26 September 1834, 1; The Norfolk Chronicle and Norwich Gazette 27 September 1834, 1. 88 ‘Grand Eastern Counties Railway from London to Norwich’, The Essex Standard 5 September 1834. 89 ‘Eastern Counties Railway’, The Essex Standard 3 October 1834, 1. 90 ‘Eastern Counties Railway’, The Essex Standard 3 October 1834, 1. 82 83 84

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Disney was elected to the committee at a meeting held in Chelmsford in November 1835.91 He served as president of the Chelmsford committee.92 He proposed that the committee serve to ensure the maximum benefit for the people of Chelmsford. The line between Devonshire Street in Mile End and Romford was opened on Tuesday 18 June 1839, the anniversary of the Battle of Waterloo.93 The length of the line was 10.5 miles. By November 1839 it was anticipated that they would be opening the London end.94 The Shoreditch extension was opened in 1840. There were, however, some setbacks. In August 1840 an accident on the line in which a driver was killed and several passengers were injured.95 In September 1840 a train ran into the coaches of the preceding train.96 Progress on the actual line was rapid, in spite of the outcry that building work had taken place on Sundays. By December 1842 the first train entered Chelmsford although the station was still under construction, and in March 1843 the railway reached Colchester.97 Disney became embroiled in the dispute over a lack of a railway station at Ingatestone; residents of the town were particularly affected as the former coach service from Chelmsford had ceased to function, further inconveniencing them.98 Disney still felt able to attend the dinner to mark the arrival of the railway at Chelmsford in May 1843.99 In January 1844 a decision was made to extend the railway.100 One of the issues raised was the need to standardise the gauge as the line connected to other destinations such as Bury St Edmunds. This was done in the autumn of that year.101

Essex Agricultural Society The Essex Society for the Encouragement of Agriculture and Industry was founded in 1793. It is unclear if Brand-Hollis or Disney were involved in the society. However in 1822 a meeting in Chelmsford raised the issue of agriculture in Essex, and sought to petition Parliament; Disney seconded the motion.102 Disney spoke at length and pointed out the problem of ‘excessive taxation’ and ‘a defective state of the ‘Eastern Counties Railway’, The Essex Standard, and Colchester, Chelmsford, Maldon, Harwich, and General County Advertiser 27 November 1835. 92 ‘Eastern Counties Railway’, The Essex Standard, and Colchester, Chelmsford, Maldon, Harwich, and General County Advertiser 11 December 1835. 93 ‘Opening of the Eastern Counties Railway’, The Essex Standard, and General Advertiser for the Eastern Counties 21 June 1839, 94 ‘Eastern counties Railway’, The Essex Standard, and General Advertiser for the Eastern Counties 1 November 1839. 95 ‘Accident on the Eastern Counties’ Railway’, The Essex Standard, and General Advertiser for the Eastern Counties 21 August 1840. 96 ‘Another accident on the Eastern Counties Railway’, Morning Post 15 September 1840. 97 ‘Opening of the Eastern Counties Railway to Colchester’, The Essex Standard, and General Advertiser for the Eastern Counties 31 March 1843. 98 ‘Railway station at Ingatestone’, Essex Standard, and General Advertiser for the Eastern Counties 21 July 1843. 99 ‘Eastern Counties Railway’, The Morning Post 10 May 1843, 5. 100 ‘Eastern Counties’ Railway’, Essex Standard, and General Advertiser for the Eastern Counties 12 January 1844. 101 ‘Eastern Counties Railway’, The Morning Post 10 January 1845. 102 The Morning Post 9 May 1822. 91

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Figure 29. Inscription from Colchester. Museum Disneianum.

currency’.103 Disney spoke again at length on agriculture at the county meeting in March 1823.104 Later in the year he spoke in Nottinghamshire on the same topic.105 Disney contributed to a letter to be read at the debate about the Corn Bill at a meeting of landowners in Chelmsford in April 1828.106 However, in 1833 Disney was the president of the Chelmsford and Essex Floral and Horticultural Society.107 The autumn show was held in the Shire Hall in Chelmsford, and Edgar Disney represented his father at the subsequent dinner at the Saracen’s Head. Disney himself won the best celery in the show!108 A summer meeting was held in July the following year, with over 1,000 visitors.109 Disney won a prize for his apples. There was an autumn show in 1834.110 Disney won a prize for the best dessert. The President was Disney. July 1835.111 Disney won in the categories of cherries and red and white currants. Disney’s display of geraniums was noted in the June show of 1836, as well as his strawberries, cauliflowers, and cabbages, and lettuce, and potatoes.112 He continued as president in 1835. Disney was well known for his interest in the cultivation of the strawberry, and lectured on the subject for the London Horticultural Society.113 He had been elected a Fellow of the Horticultural Society in 1834. In 1835 his gardener, W. Davis, won a prize for apples at the exhibition of Society in London.114 The Society became the

‘Agricultural distress’, The Times 8 May 1822, 4; ‘Agricultural distress’, Morning Chronicle 8 May 1822. ‘Essex County Meeting’, The Morning Post 21 March 1823; ‘Essex County Meeting’, The Times 21 March 1823, 3. 105 ‘Nottingham election dinner’, The Derby Mercury 1 October 1823. 106 ‘Agriculture’, The Standard 30 April 1828. 107 The Essex Standard, Colchester and County Advertiser 21 September 1833. 108 The Essex Standard, Colchester and County Advertiser 28 September 1833. 109 The Essex Standard, Colchester and County Advertiser 26 July 1834. 110 The Essex Standard, Colchester and County Advertiser 12 September 1834; 19 September 1834. 111 The Essex Standard, Colchester and County Advertiser 7 August 1835. 112 The Essex Standard, Colchester and County Advertiser 1 July 1836. 113 ’Cultivation of the strawberry’, Essex Literary Journal 1 (15 June 1838) 10. 114 ‘Horticultural Society of London’, The Observer 5 July 1835, 3. 103 104

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Royal Horticultural Society in 1861. In 1833 he created a chain bridge in the grounds of the Hyde, and published the details in the Architectural Magazine.115 Disney was closely involved with other aspects of Essex society. By 1833 he was President of the renamed Chelmsford and Essex Agricultural Society,116 and subsequently became a Vice-President.117 In 1836 he represented the Society on the Central Agricultural Association of Great Britain and Ireland.118

The Disney Family

Edgar Disney followed his father and grandfather to Peterhouse, matriculating in March 1830 at the age of 19.119 He served as a steward for the first Essex County Ball at Chelmsford in 1831.120 By 1833 he was a Commissioner for Essex,121 and then a JP and Deputy Lieutenant for Essex in 1832.122 Edgar heard cases in Chelmsford.123 On 23 October 1834 Edgar married Barbara Brouncker, daughter of the late Lewis William Brouncker, of Boveridge, Dorset, at St Mary’s in Marylebone.124 Barbara had been presented to Queen Victoria in 1831. Her brother Henry had died in Ceylon in April 1824; she also had another brother, Richard. The couple lived in Ongar in Essex, although three of their children were born in France and Germany. Edgar John Disney was born in 1835, and Lambert emigrated to Canada and then the USA.125 Edgar’s sister Sofia married William Jesse of the 46th (South Devonshire) Regiment of Foot in August 1836.126 He was the son of the Reverend William Jesse of Margaretting, Essex.127 The wider Jesse family were closely involved in the abolitionist movement. Jesse appears to have written a biography of the dandy Beau Brummell (1778–1840).128 It includes an autobiographical moment when the two meet: ‘I know your name, Sir; your name is Jesse; you are in the army; you live at Brighton; and your age is thirty-two’.129 Disney 1835. The Essex Standard, and Colchester, Chelmsford, Maldon, Harwich, and General County Advertiser 20 November 1835; The Essex Standard, and Colchester, Chelmsford, Maldon, Harwich, and General County Advertiser 27 November 1835. 117 The Essex Standard, Colchester and County Advertiser 19 June 1835. As Vice-President: The Essex Standard, and Colchester, Chelmsford, Maldon, Harwich, and General County Advertiser 24 June 1836. 118 The Essex Standard, and Colchester, Chelmsford, Maldon, Harwich, and General County Advertiser 15 January 1836; The Ipswich Journal 16 January 1836. 119 Walker 1912, 439. 120 The Essex Standard 17 December 1831. 121 ‘Chelmsford Appeal Court’, The Essex Standard 9 March 1833. 122 Deputy Lieutenant: The Essex Standard 24 March 1832. 123 ‘Chelmsford Petty Session’, The Essex Standard 19 August 1836. 124 The Standard 24 October 1834. 125 Lambert married Flora Georgiana O’Flahertie: The Daily Telegraph 29 November 1864, 6. Their daughters Charlotte Frances Barbara Denys lived to the age of 89, and Maud Barbara Bradney lived to the age of 101: The Daily Telegraph 27 May 1931, 1, and 29 December 1945, 4. The second daughter was Ana Geraldine Barbara Phellps: The Daily Telegraph 9 January 1867, 6. Another daughter, the Hon. Mrs Barbara Sophia Harbord lived in Suffolk: The Daily Telegraph 31 May 1894, 3. 126 The Observer 14 August 1836, 4. 127 The wills for William Jesse and Sophia Disney (1836): Somerset Heritage Centre DD\X\EX\2. 128 Carter 2004. For Jesse’s biography: Jesse 1844. 129 Jesse 1844, 340. 115 116

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Figure 30. Funerary sphinx from Colchester. Colchester Castle Museum © David Gill

Developing the Hyde’s collection Disney continued to add to the collection that he had inherited from his father. Some of the classical material was derived from Roman sites in Essex. Disney’s collection contained a Roman inscription allegedly found at Colchester in 1713, although it may have been found in Rome.130 This recorded the names of the mother and daughter, Considia Veneria and Considia Natalis, one died 3 years and 30 days, and the mother 35 years. It is not clear how this entered the collection at The Hyde. In 1819 work started on the foundations of the Essex and Colchester Hospital on the south side of the Lexden Road. This was located to the south-east of the Roman road that emerged from the Balkerne Gate on the west side of the Roman colony. This was lined with a series of burials.131 Disney was presented with a pottery funerary urn by George Saville in that same year; Saville claimed to have been present when it was found.132 Disney and Saville were both patrons of the hospital.133 In March 1821, a further deposit of funerary material was found during the hospital’s construction. They included a Latin funerary inscription of Mucianus Cambridge FM GR.76.1850. RIB no. 2327. They include the monumental tombs of the centurion Marcus Favonius Facilis, found in 1868, the duplicarius Longinus Spapeze, found in 1928. 132 Disney 1846, 223, pl. xcii, 1. 133 ‘Colchester’, The Morning Post 10 August 1827. 130 131

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given to Disney by Drummond Hay (1785-1845) who later became British ConsulGeneral of Morocco at Tangier.134 Hay was the son of the Dean of Barking. The text reads: To the spirits of the departed. In the mound (tumulus) lie [the bones] of a young man much regretted … everyone … Muc[ianus] … Drummond Hay was reported to have been present at the discovery.135 The discovery coincided with the appointment in 1821 of Dr Allan Maclean as hospital Physician.136 Another inscription, cut on Purbeck marble, found at the same time was from a former centurion from Nicaea in Bithynia who had served in the XX legion (based at Chester).137 A further piece found at the same site, and apparently at the same time, was the stone sphinx with a human head between its front paws.138 Drummond Hay wrote a short paper on the piece and was elected a Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries.139 Disney also had a small collection of Roman terra sigillata pottery found at Colchester in 1827. Disney visited Rome in 1826 and 1827, and made a number of acquisitions. The antiquities include the inscribed cinerary urn of Lucius Sentius Coccetus purchased from the dealer Vescovalli in 1825.140 It was said to have been found in a tomb close to the tomb of Cecilia Metella on the Via Appia. However, the inscription is known from another piece, and it appears that the Latin text was transferred onto the urn. Disney purchased a marble statue of Juno in Rome in 1826.141 It had been restored by Pigiani, an employee of Vescovalli. It was said to have been found in Tivoli in 1825. He purchased a bust of ‘Lucius Corbulo’ in Rome in January 1827, that was said to have been found at Torre Sapienza just outside Rome in May 1824.142 He was given a marble bust of a satyr by Raimondo Trentanove in February 1827.143 It had apparently been found outside the Porta Pia in 1826, but it appears to have been of more recent creation. He purchased a marble relief of Agamemnon and Chryses from Vescovalli in Rome, that had reportedly been found in Perugia in 1826.144 This seemed to be a modern work. The piece was identified as Pericleian by Robert Finch, the antiquarian who was in Rome.145 During this trip to Italy Disney saw the tomb Cambridge FM GR.81.1850. RIB no. 204. For Drummond Hay: ‘Death of Drummond Hay, Esq., British Consul-General in Morrocco’, The Morning Post 13 March 1845. 135 Disney 1846, 102–3. 136 The Bury and Norwich Post: Or Suffolk, Essex, Cambridge, Ely, and Norfolk Telegraph 6 June 1821. 137 Colchester and Essex Museum 2014.75. RIB no. 203. 138 Colchester and Essex Museum PC.900: RIB no. 211; Toynbee 1962, 147–48, fig. 50, no. 46; Crummy 2001, 108. 139 Hay 1821. 140 Cambridge FM GR.53.1850. Disney 1849b, pl. lii; Budde and Nicholls 1964, 117–18, pl. 62, no. 191. 141 Cambridge FM 5.1850. Disney 1849b, pl. xxx; Budde and Nicholls 1964, 64–65, pl. 34, no. 101. 142 Cambridge FM GR.34.1850. Disney 1846, pl. xviii; Budde and Nicholls 1964, 70, pl. 38, no. 111. 143 Cambridge FM GR.24.1850. Disney 1846, pl. xix; Budde and Nicholls 1964, 122–23, no. 204. The portrait of Disney by Trentanove is also dated to 1827. 144 Cambridge FM GR.35.1850. Disney 1846, pl. xxxix; Budde and Nicholls 1964, 125, no. 215. 145 Bell 2004. 134

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of Erasmus in Florence.146 However Disney seems to have been disappointed by his visit. In December 1826 he wrote to his agent, C. Rankin, from Rome: ‘the country round the Eternal City is … as dreary and desolate as Hounslow heath was 30 years ago’.147 One of the pieces he acquired in March 1824 was a bronze figure of Jupiter.148 This had formed part of the collection of Dr Mead, part of which had been purchased by Hollis and Brand. The figure had been purchased at the 1755 Mead sale by Lord Tylney, and then by Mr Young in 1822 at the sale of the William Wellesley Pole collection of Wanstead House in Essex.149 Disney clearly made at least eight trips to the continent. He captured the experience in a poem, of August 1843, entitled ‘Reflections’, and subtitled, ‘After having made Eight Visits to the Continent—in Italy, France, Belgium, &c.’150 Of charming pictures, statues bold; Of palaces, with dingy gold; Of bouillon’s nasty, nastier soup; Of courier-thieves, a blackguard troop; Of dear hotels, and ill-paved roads; Of frogs in fricassée (perhaps of toads); Of carnivals, with clay sweetmeats; Of being pelted in the streets; Of lofty mountains, valley flats; Of “Grand!” “Majestic!” and all that! Of such insipid common stuff, I’ve had, and heard, and seen enough.

‘Chelmsford Philosophical Society Dinner’, The Essex Standard, and General Advertiser for the Eastern Counties 6 December 1839. 147 Disney to Rankin, 17 Dec 1826, Chelmsford, Essex RO, MSD/DQC 211. 148 Disney 1849b, 157, pl. lxx. 149 Wellesley-Pole was the nephew of the Duke of Wellington. 150 Disney 1856, 151. 146

Chapter 6 Disney and Learned Societies Disney had a public role in Essex society through his work as a magistrate and his support for agricultural activities. However, he also took a keen interest in a range of learned societies both in London as well as in Essex. These undoubtedly had some influence on his decision to make his major gift to education and the arts. Disney moved in educated circles. In 1827 he was elected a Fellow of the Zoological Society of London, a year after its foundation by Sir Stamford Raffles (1781–1826). Charles Darwin (1809–1882) became a member in 1837 after his voyage on the Beagle. Disney recorded (in the context of the Chelmsford Philosophical Society) in November 1839 that he had recently visited the Zoological Society’s premises: The Chairman [Disney] said he had been several years trying to obtain the skull of a kangaroo, the lower incision of that animal’s jaw being of a very singular formation, opening horizontally like a pair of scissors. He mentioned that circumstance to a gentleman, who did not believe it. They, therefore, went to the Surrey Zoological Gardens to determine the fact. By giving one of the keepers 2s 6d. he let them go into where the kangaroo was kept. These animals have great strength in their tail, which is of much use in enabling them to leap a considerable distance. Their mode of fighting is to sit in their tail, and strike with their hind legs, and are then very formidable. It was therefore necessary that the keeper should get the kangaroo into a corner, and then Mr. Disney and his friend stood upon the animal’s hind legs to render him harmless. In that situation they examined his mouth, and found that the teeth did open like a pair of scissors.1 On 9 June 1832, the year that he was standing as MP for Harwich, Disney was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society. This was a period when non-scientists were elected to the Society. The nomination paper records that Disney was ‘one of the Chairmen of the Quarter Sessions of His Majesty’s Justices of the Peace for that County a Gentleman versed in various Branches of Natural Knowledge, and particularly of Mechanics’.2 He was nominated by: W M Leake; Geo Tho Staunton; J Guillemard; Ashhurst Majendie; John Ayrton Paris; S R Solly; W Wood; Wm Buckland; G Townley; Ralph Watson; Thomas Amyot; Tho Murdoch; Chas Hatchett. ‘Chelmsford Philosophical Society Dinner’, The Essex Standard, and General Advertiser for the Eastern Counties 6 December 1839. 2 Royal Society archive EC/1832/17. 1

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The first name on the list is significant: Colonel William M. Leake (1777-1860), the great topographer of Greece, whose three volume Travels in the Morea was published in 1830.3 He had been elected to the Society in January 1831. The Leake family had an estate at Thorpe-le-Soken in Essex, and it is perhaps noteworthy that Leake’s brother John Martin Leake (d. 1862), of Thorpe Hall, served as a magistrate with Disney.4 William Leake’s collection of coins, gems, Greek figure-decorated pottery and other antiquities were purchased by the Fitzwilliam Museum after his death and were to be displayed alongside Disney’s sculptures.5 Two years later, Leake nominated John Gardner Wilkinson, the Egyptologist, as a Fellow of the Royal Society.6 Disney’s other nominators included Sir George Thomas Staunton (1781-1859), sinologist and parliamentarian; John Ayrton Paris (bap. 1785-1856), physician, who had also studied geology at Cambridge under E.D. Clarke (whose classical collections were donated to the university); Charles Hatchett (1765-1847), chemist; William Buckland (1784-1856), geologist, canon of Christ Church, Oxford and later Dean of Westminster, and founder member of ZSL: he also excavated the Upper Palaeolithic cave with the so-called ‘Red Lady of Paviland’ on the Gower in south Wales;7 and Thomas Amyot (1775-1850), from Norfolk, treasurer of the Antiquaries from 1823.8 Disney followed in his father’s footsteps and was elected a Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries of London on 20 June 1839.9 The Society had received its royal charter in 1751. One of his supporters was John Gage Rokewode (1786–1842), director of the Antiquaries, and Suffolk antiquarian. In addition, Disney was a member of the Camden Society, founded in 1838. Archaeology was changing in the 1840s. In 1843 the Archaeological Association was founded.10 One of the individuals who was showing material from Essex at their meetings, was Thomas Clarkson Neale.11 Neale was the Governor of Springfield Gaol on the edge of Chelmsford, and had previously served in the Old House of Correction at Chelmsford.12 Disney had been the visiting magistrate at the Gaol and would have known Neale well.13 They were also acquainted with each other through the Chelmsford Philosophical Society where Neale was Secretary.14 In 1845 there was a division in the Archaeological Association that led to the creation of the Wagstaff 2012. For obituary: The Essex Standard, and General Advertiser for the Eastern Counties 16 May 1862. Leake had studied at St John’s College, Cambridge. 5 Wagstaff 2012. 6 Royal Society archive EC/1834/47. For Gardner Wilkinson: Thompson 1992. 7 Whittle 1992 , 4–5, no. 1; Wakelin and Griffiths 2008, 46–47, no. 6. 8 Blatchly 2004a. 9 Gill 2004c. Disney’s certificate of election does not survive, and only the first three signatories were recorded in the minutes: Davies Gilbert, DCL, MP, PRS; John Gage Rokewode; Thomas Amyot. John Gage Rokewode (1786–1842) was from Hengrave Hall, Suffolk and Director of the Antiquaries from 1829. 10 Levine 1986, 48. 11 ‘Proceedings of the Central Committee of the Archaeological Association’, Archaeological Journal 1 (1844) 165, 12 E.g. The Essex Standard 2 August 1839; 15 March 1844. He retired in 1861 after 36 years (i.e. 1825): ‘Governorship of the County Gaol’, The Essex Standard 29 March 1861. He died on 15 December 1862: The Essex Standard 17 December 1862. 13 ‘Essex Epiphany Sessions’, The Essex Standard 7 January 1832. 14 ‘Chelmsford Philosophical Society’, The Essex Standard 10 November 1837. 3 4

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British Archaeological Association and the Archaeological Institute. Disney was a member of the Archaeological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland by 1845, and, at the March 1846 meeting, exhibited an image of Lucretia.15 He was also a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature and was elected a member of council in 1848.16

The Chelmsford Philosophical Society Disney was also active in local societies in Essex. The Chelmsford Philosophical Society was founded in October 1828.17 In May 1832 a series of lectures on ‘Ecclesiastical History’ were delivered by Mr Penny.18 In April 1833 T.C. Neale, the secretary of the society, established a library and encouraged each member to donate ‘a book, a medal, or a specimen of some article in natural history’.19 A small room for the display of these objects was opened on 7 October 1835: ‘on that day the Chelmsford Museum was opened for the use of the members of the society and their friends’.20 This display encouraged further donations and the collection started to grow. Disney was President of the Society by 1836,21 and Thomas William Bramston (1796-1871), Conservative MP for South Essex (1835-65), the Patron.22 At a meeting of the Society on November that year Disney made ‘some very able remarks upon the sciences, and the great benefits that would result from the more general diffusion of useful knowledge, based upon sound moral principles’. By 1837 it was noted that: The great object of the Society is the promotion and extension of philosophical and literary knowledge, principally by the means of meetings, lectures, and the formation of a library and Museum.—At the present the fossils, coins, anatomical preparations, philosophical apparatus, &c., are placed in a temporary room, but it is intended that so soon as the funds are sufficient a more convenient place of exhibition shall be provided. The articles are sufficiently numerous to require a printed catalogue, and they are classed under the following heads:—Anatomical preparations, plaster casts, &c., natural curiosities, icthyological specimens, insects, corals, shells, fossils, geological specimens, botanical specimens, antiquities, armour and ‘Archaeological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland’, The Morning Post 10 March 1846, 6. For the wider context at this time: Evans 2007. 16 ‘General intelligence’, John Bull 6 May 1848. 17 Noted in The Essex Standard, and Colchester and County Advertiser 13 February 1835. For an overview: Gill 2017. 18 The Essex Standard, and Colchester and County Advertiser 12 May 1832. 19 ‘Chelmsford and Essex Museum’, The Essex Standard, and General Advertiser for the Eastern Counties 21 July 1843. 20 ‘Chelmsford and Essex Museum’, The Essex Standard, and General Advertiser for the Eastern Counties 21 July 1843. 21 ‘Chelmsford Philosophical Society’, The Essex Standard, and Colchester, Chelmsford, Maldon, Harwich, and General county Advertiser 4 November 1836. 22 ‘Chelmsford Philosophical Society’, The Essex Standard, and Colchester, Chelmsford, Maldon, Harwich, and General County Advertiser 10 November 1837. 15

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various instruments, medals and coins, memorials of the battle of Waterloo, curiosities, and philosophical apparatus.23 Both John Disney and his son Edgar were listed as contributors to the museum collection. The range of lectures covered in 1836 included ‘On the construction and mechanism of the horse’s foot’, ‘On the temperature of the earth’, and ‘On Etruscan and Roman antiquities’. By 1837 there was a proposal to map the Roman antiquities of Essex: ‘one of our honorary members, a fellow of the Antiquarian Society, had undertaken to make a map of the Roman roads, villas, and camps authenticated to have been in the County of Essex’.24 The map was presented to the Society by John Adey Repton (1775-1860), son of Humphry Repton, in 1838.25 In April 1839 there was a demonstration by Neale of the new technique of photography (or ‘Photogenic Drawings’) developed by William Henry Fox Talbot and presented to the Royal Society.26 This was followed up by a further demonstration using ‘a beautiful solar microscope, which had been presented by J. Disney, Esq., F.R.S., President of the Society’.27 The solar microscope, an invention of the 18th century, had been used by Fox Talbot to create his images. This is all the more remarkable as Talbot had only presented his findings to the Royal Society in London on 31 January of that same year. In June 1835 the Chelmsford Philosophical Society resolved to establish a museum.28 It was reported that ‘several donations’ had already been received to develop the plan. By November 1836 it was reported that ‘the Museum and Library were in a flourishing condition, many valuable additions having been recently made to their stores—particularly by the President and his son, and by Mr. Bramston, the Patron’.29 It was particularly noted, ‘a room, capable of containing the Museum, and for the delivery of Lectures, and other purposes, would be an acquisition in the town, and Mr. Disney stated his readiness at any time to contribute 20 guineas towards such an object’. At the 1837 meeting the Secretary, T.C. Neale, spoke about the need for the museum:30

‘Chelmsford Philosophical Society’, The Essex Standard, and Colchester, Chelmsford, Maldon, Harwich, and General County Advertiser 10 November 1837. 24 ‘Chelmsford Philosophical Society’, The Essex Standard, and Colchester, Chelmsford, Maldon, Harwich, and General County Advertiser 10 November 1837. 25 ‘Chelmsford Philosophical Society’, The Essex Standard, and General Advertiser for the Eastern Counties 23 February 1838. 26 ‘Chelmsford Philosophical Society’, The Essex Standard, and General Advertiser for the Eastern Counties 12 April 1839. 27 ‘Photogeneic, or sun Drawing’, The Essex Standard, and General Advertiser for the Eastern Counties 3 May 1839. This meeting took place on 23 April. 28 The Essex Standard, and Colchester, Chelmsford, Maldon, Harwich, and General Advertiser 26 June 1835. Also noted ‘Chelmsford and Essex Museum’, The Essex Standard, and General Advertiser for the Eastern Counties 21 July 1843. 29 ‘Chelmsford Philosophical Society’, The Essex Standard, and Colchester, Chelmsford, Maldon, Harwich, and General County Advertiser 4 November 1836. 30 ‘The Chelmsford Philosophical Society’, The Essex Standard, and Colchester, Chelmsford, Maldon, Harwich, and General County Advertiser 10 November 1837. 23

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The World of Disney Our museum is established and gradually filling … The history, the statistics, the natural history, geology, and other branches of study, especially relating to Essex, will be greatly facilitated by our museum, and we are anxious to obtain antique specimens of animals, botanical specimens, fossils and minerals, found in Essex. In fact we wish to make an Essex museum. We are therefore entitled to look for the co-operation of the friends of science residing in or at all concerned in the welfare of Essex. If we should not obtain such co-operation to the extent the subject deserves, we shall still persevere—we shall go on collecting and arranging, and there is no doubt but in time, and that not a very long time, it will be decided that there must henceforth be a museum in Chelmsford. I have lately had an opportunity of examining some of the most splendid museums in London, with a view of forming the Chelmsford museum on the best model, so that it may be worthy the inspection of scientific men who may occasionally visit Chelmsford.

Neale himself had formed a large collection that was displayed in Chelmsford Gaol. In 1838 the Society received a number of geological samples as a gift from the Swansea Philosophical and Literary Institution (a body founded in 1835) including copper ores from Valparaiso and Cuba.31 Donations were presented on a regular basis. In February 1838 it was reported that the Reverend Arthur Pearson had presented a shot fired at Fort Sainte-Lazare, Cartagena (in modern Colombia) in 1741.32 This had been acquired in 1821 by George Richard Brooke Pechell, while undertaking antipiracy operations in the frigate Tamar. Other gifts to the Institution were geological specimens, such as a rock from Arthur’s Seat in Edinburgh. In 1838 a decision was made to raise the money of £2000 for the new museum by the selling of £10 shares.33 In 1839 it was reported that recent acquisitions for the museum included ‘a curious dagger, set with sharks’ teeth, taken in an affray with the natives of New Zealand’ as well as ‘a skull, found within the precincts of the ancient cathedral at Old Sarum’.34 Dr Badeley presented ‘two cases containing tarantula and other curious foreign insects’. In April 1839 part of the tusk from a mammoth found at Walton Crag was presented.35 In November 1839 gifts included a snuff box said to have belonged to Sir Francis Drake.36 Disney addressed the Society in his capacity as chairman: What then can be a greater or nobler pursuit, than the enquiry into the facts of physical truth, as divided into the sciences, of which we have so ample a list in this and other counties—such as astronomy, anatomy, chemistry, geology, and others? All these are tangible objects, which become the ‘Chelmsford Philosophical Society’, The Essex Standard, and General Advertiser for the Eastern Counties 12 January 1838. For Swansea in this period: Dykes 1992, 33. 32 ‘Chelmsford Philosophical Society’, The Essex Standard, and Colchester, Chelmsford, Maldon, Harwich, and General County Advertiser 23 February 1838. 33 ’Chelmsford Philosophical Society’, Essex Literary Journal 1 (15 June 1838) 10. 34 ‘Chelmsford Philosophical Society’, The Essex Standard, and General Advertiser for the Eastern Counties 22 February 1839. 35 ‘Photogenic, or Sun Drawing’, The Essex Standard, and General Advertiser for the Eastern Counties 3 May 1839. 36 ‘Chelmsford Philosophical Society Dinner’, The Essex Standard, and General Advertiser for the Eastern Counties 6 December 1839. 31

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subjects of our enquiry, as parts of physical philosophy. How much greater is our pursuit, when we address our minds to the contemplation of the higher subject of moral philosophy. That is not excluded from us; and though we are assembled here with specimens of physical science before us, we ought to join the two together, that we may have every means of improving the whole, and may look forward to see, as I hope we shall, this Society in a state to look to both. I am principally known to you as a public man, but I feel warmly for the prosperity of this Society, for the objects of it were the pursuit of my youth, such as I could find time for, though it was a laborious one. I always had a desire to pursue the search for facts, for the improvement of human knowledge for the great and glorious Bacon has told us that experimental knowledge, founded on facts, is the basis of all sound knowledge. He then reflected on the creation of the museum. See what this humble town and the small mile around me have done, in collecting tangible specimens in illustration of these truths—these admirable conformations which it has pleased the Creator of all things to give to every thing touched by his hand. In contributing articles to form a museum, we are giving a visible lesson to every one, who sees what we are doing. In 1842 Queen Victoria presented twenty Anglo-Saxon coins, ‘part of the treasure trove at Cuerdale, in Lancashire’.37 This hoard had been found in May 1840 on the banks of the River Ribble. It seems to have been part of the booty from Viking raids, and is thought to be one of the largest assemblages from northern Europe.38 The hoard itself was widely dispersed among a number of museums as well as to private individuals. The Chelmsford and Essex Museum finally opened on 11 July 1843 presided over by Disney.39 The building as located on New Road (also known as New Bridge Street) and was built by George Meggy. His design ensured that ‘if the public should require more room for the museum, or library, or other offices, it may easily be obtained’.40 Meggy also lived in Museum Terrace. By the time of the opening the museum contained around 600 volumes. The arrangement was that subscribers, of a half a guinea annually, should have across to the museum on Tuesdays and Fridays, ‘and may introduce any of the members of their own families, and persons who reside at a distance from Chelmsford’. Disney himself gave an address at the opening, outlining the work of the society and the purpose of the museum. ‘Chelmsford and Essex Museum’, The Essex Standard, and General Advertiser for the Eastern Counties 18 November 1842. 38 Ghey 2015, 89–92. Much of the hoard is now in the British Museum. 39 ‘Chelmsford and Essex Museum’, The Essex Standard, and General Advertiser for the Eastern Counties 21 July 1843. See also ‘Chelmsford and Essex Museum’, The Essex Standard, and General Advertiser for the Eastern Counties 14 July 1843. 40 ‘Chelmsford and Essex Museum’, The Essex Standard, and General Advertiser for the Eastern Counties 21 July 1843. 37

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The World of Disney It is the object of the Society to pay attention to what is called, in one word, philosophy; the strict meaning of which is tritely laid down in the original translation by Scapula as the love or study of wisdom—amor seu studium sapientiae. Now the study of wisdom, or the love of wisdom, as such, does not confine itself to any one particular subject, but it includes every object in the material world. It includes also every contemplation which in the duty of an intelligent being, can come within the reach of his intellect. In this view, in the popular sense, philosophy has come to be divided into two separate classes: that which addresses itself to the material world has been termed natural philosophy, and that which addresses itself to the duties more connected with the intellectual powers is called moral philosophy.

Disney reflected his own theological position: I shall have the honour and the pleasure of uniting them [sc. the two disciplines of philosophy] again, to show you what is the great object of human life, with regard to our duty to the great Author of the world—the power which endued us with these great intellectual capacities. He expanded on natural philosophy: You will find arranged under that head almost all the practical sciences, particularly as used amongst mankind, and you will fund that experiments on the materialness of this world will be the means of opening to you a source of more information than all the speculations of the ancient philosophers; and you will find the foundation of this is laid down by our own great and eminent natural philosopher—the admirable Bacon. Within this area he identified the areas of ‘mechanics, chemistry, optics, navigation, and so forth’. He then explored the ‘evils’ of mechanics: ‘it has created a dense population in some places, thereby creating disease and vice’. He turned to the report by Lord Ashley on mining and the problems faced by miners: ‘they are far under ground, they become sick, they are decrepit, and a vast number of evils attend it’. He then turned to chemistry that could provide ‘purer medicines and articles for the food of man’ as well as producing ‘new poisons, and that worst and most cruel of poisons—ardent spirits’. His next topic was optics that allowed the discovery of ‘the smallest created beings’ and through the telescope, ‘facts and measurements of time and objects at what might be considered an almost immeasurable distance’. He then relayed the story of William of Malmesbury and his attempts to fly. He reflected on Fulton’s design for a submarine, ‘a boat by which he could keep under water with a number of persons a long time, and go about like a fish, and make discoveries in the deep’. Disney now came to a key point, ‘how to connect the natural objects of the creation with the benevolence of the Creator’. He pointed back to the Venerable Bede and his works De Natura Rerum and de Temporibus. He then traced engagement

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with Bede through The Evidence of God manifested in the works of the Creation (1682) by John Ray, rector of Black Notley in Essex; and then William Derham, rector of Upminster, through his Physico-Theology; a demonstration of the being and attributes of God from the works of the Creation (1720). Disney then addressed moral philosophy and considered aspects such as ‘the Scriptures and human happiness’, ‘divine benevolence’, ‘the obligation of speaking the truth’, ‘charity, gratitude’, and ‘the duties of parents to their children, and the duties of children to their parents’. He explained the following: It teaches us what the world is—it teaches us how we are obliged to the Creator for so creating us, and it teaches us to come to the conclusion that it is our duty to make use of that knowledge for the purpose of eliciting the truth. He suggested that these ideas should have an impact on his audience: It is therefore the duty of members of a society like ours to occupy their minds with the study of that which is generally good; it is their duty to make themselves informed of certain data and certain facts, that they may come to the conclusion of what is good and true. After the conclusion of the formal speech Disney gave a public thanks to ‘the friends of the Museum at Saffron Walden, who have been great contributors to ours, and from whom we have received the kindest offers of assistance’. Dr Bird responded to Disney’s words with a reflection on the place of the museum in Chelmsford: Who is there amongst us who is not convinced, as I am, that by studiously bearing out and putting into practice the great principles of philosophy so eloquently propounded to us this day, will be yielding sound and extended knowledge to the rising generation of the neighbourhood? And in the same proportion as we diffuse information and a love of harmony against the mass, so far shall we tend to improve and emeliorate the social condition, which should be the first and ultimate aim of every sound political economist. He continued: This day ought to be written in letters of gold in the annals of our county, or, perhaps, far better be engraven in indelible characters on the tablets of each and every one of our memories. Chelmsford, after years of inaction, has at length awakened from her slumbers, slowly, it must needs be allowed, but yet under encouraging circumstances indeed; for the same protecting angel that sighed over the sepulture of science in this town now rejoices at her resurrection: Disney, the lofty halo of whose genius shed a mantle of resuscitation over her dreams, stands here this day to baptize her in the name of Philosophy, with the goddess of literature as his fair partner at the

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Bird had a vision for the benefits of the museum for all society: What a store of useful knowledge will not the poor artizan and mechanic be able to bring home to the fire-side of his family, if he avails himself of the advantages of the Museum. What a stimulus will be held out to the youth fond of study and improvement in the many rewards awaiting his career, by making this society the stepping-stone to his future fame and fortune; and what a grand and heavenly reflection will it not be to the rich and influential man that by his countenance and support he has given an onward movement to this great and popular machine! His final thought was for Disney: … let me add that our noble-minded and generous Chairman may long live to contribute to the prosperity of the institution by the great and sterling talents vested in him, and that each succeeding year may bring its progressive improvement, is my greatest and most heart-felt wish. This was followed by a vote of thanks to the chair in recognition of ‘the support he has given to the Museum and for the great efforts he has made to carry it forward’. After the speeches, The company then adjourned to the Museum to inspect the collection, which was very gratifying, and we were much surprised to see so great a number of articles suddenly brought before the public out of obscurity. We heartily congratulate the inhabitants of Chelmsford on the establishment of this depository for antiquities and the rare productions of nature, art, and science, as such an institution, in communicating knowledge and improving taste, emollit mores nec sinit esse feros. The quotation is from Ovid.41 In 1845, two years after the opening of the Chelmsford Museum, legislation was passed through the Museums Act to allow local corporations to establish civic art museums. This saw the opening of other county museums such as the Dorset Museum in Dorchester, and the Ipswich Museum in 1846. The Society’s museum was presented to the Corporation of Chelmsford around this time.42 Many of the activities of the Society were recorded in the Essex Literary Journal. Disney resigned

41 42

Ovid Pont. 2.9.48. Benton 1927, 283.

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as President of the Chelmsford Literary Institution in May 1847.43 Around 1851 the Society became the Essex and Chelmsford Philosophical and Natural History Society.

‘Chelmsford Literary Institution’, The Essex Standard, and General Advertiser for the Eastern Counties 14 May 1847. 43

Chapter 7 The Museum Disneianum and Cambridge Museum Disneianum With the opening of the Chelmsford and Essex Museum in 1843, Disney turned his energy to the collection of classical sculptures displayed in The Hyde. An earlier catalogue had been prepared by his father,1 and Disney stated that he had started the notes for his catalogue of the Hyde in 1818, the year that he was appointed Sheriff of Dorset.2 The catalogue of the sculptural collection was finished in 1827. Disney explicitly stated that his model (‘the size and manner and style of getting up and printing the book’) was the volume prepared for the British Museum by Taylor Combe, A Description of the Collection of Ancient Marbles in the British Museum (1812).3 Combe (1774–1826) had joined the staff of the museum in 1803, and was appointed keeper of the department of antiquities in 1807.4 He was responsible for the acquisition of the architectural sculptures from the fifth century BC temple of Apollo at Bassai, Greece in 1814.5 Combe visited the Hyde in 1818 and discussed the authenticity of a number of pieces.6 Disney’s catalogue notes other visitors to the Hyde including John Flaxman (1755-1826), and James Christie (1773-1831), the auctioneer. Flaxman, for example, explained the iconography of the ‘Greek sarcophagus’ to Disney prior to September 1808, presumably during the preparation of the Reverend Disney’s earlier catalogue.7 Christie commented on two herms in a letter of 22 December 1797, written while the Hyde was still the residence of Thomas Brand-Hollis.8 Christie presented Disney with an Attic black-figured lekythos.9 Sir Richard Westmacott (1775-1856), professor of sculpture at the Royal Academy, restored some of the sculptures in the summer of 1834.10 This provides a terminus for the writing of the catalogue. Westmacott also commented on other pieces in the collection.11 Westmacott had visited the Hyde in 1827, and also presented Disney Disney 1807. Disney 1849b, vi–vii. 3 For further discussion: Cook 1985, 60; Vout 2012, 322. For Taylor Combe and the Townley collection: Wilson 2002, 66; Jenkins 1992,16, 18. 4 Wroth and Banerji 2004. 5 Jenkins 2006, 130–50. 6 Disney 1846, 3, 13, 27, 40, 47, 53, 59, 73, 75,77; Disney 1849b, Part II, x–xi, 159, 164, 189, 190, 206–07. 7 Disney 1808, v–vi. 8 Disney 1846, 24, 25; see also 27, 31, 45, 55, 64, 75, 82; Disney 1849b, Part II, 163. Yet Christie calls this the ‘Disney bust’. For Christie: Tedder and Russell 2004. 9 Disney 1849b, pls. cv–cvi, 245–46. The present location is unknown: Beazley Archive (BAPD) no. 390048. 10 Disney 1846, 40. See also Busco 2004. 11 Disney 1846, iv, 11, 19, 21, 53, 55, 64 (acquired in 1825), 75. 1 2

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Figure 31. Attic black-figured lekythos. Museum Disneianum.

with a terracotta figure in in 1835.12 It is important to remember that Westmacott had travelled with Sophia Disney’s father, Lewis Disney-Ffytche, in Italy in the mid 1790s. Westmacott’s son, Richard Westmacott (1799–1872), used Disney’s statue of the ibis in a lecture at the Royal Institution in March 1845.13 The citations in the Museum Disneianum are important as they give us a terminus of 1834 for its preparation. Disney also took advice from Sir Richard Westmacott (1799-1872), the sculptor, Sir Henry Ellis (1777-1869), librarian of the British Museum, and Edward Hawkins (1780-1867), keeper at the British Museum. Sir Charles Newton of the British Museum also encouraged the study of the collection. A decade after the completion of the catalogue, Disney issued the first edition of the Museum Disneianum which was published by J. Rodwell on New Bond Street in 1846.14 The volume was expanded three years later to include sections on bronzes and ancient Greek pottery.15 The title of the catalogue itself echoes the publications of earlier collections such as Museum Meadianum (1755), for Richard Mead (1673– 1754), and Museum Worsleyanum (1798 [1794]; part 2, 1802), for Sir Richard Worsley (1751–1805).16 Worsley lived at Appuldurcombe House on the Isle of Wight. He had formed his collection during an extended tour of the Mediterranean from 1783 to 1788, that took in Italy, Greece, and Anatolia. Disney 1849b, pl. lxxxiv, 197. Disney 1849b, 132. See also Dodgson and Busco 2004. 14 Disney 1846. Rodwell specialised in lithography. 15 Disney 1849b. 16 Guerrini 2004; Aston 2004. 12 13

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The publication draws attention to Disney’s additions to the collection.17 Some of the items were purchased during trips to Italy such as an Etruscan tufa cinerarium purchased from Cinci at Volterra in October 1829,18 and two more found at Chiusi in 1809, and purchased from Carlo Lasinio in Pisa in December 1829.19 Lasinio also sold him a votive foot that was said to have been found near Volterra in 1793,20 and some pottery said to have been found at Grosseto in 1800.21 Lasinio sold Disney an Attic amphora.22 He acquired two black-figured amphorae and an oinochoe found at Vulci, and purchased from C. Campanari in 1838.23 Another item is a glass four sided jug acquired in Figure 32. ‘Hermarchus’. Museum Disneianum. 1825 from the architect W. Clarke who had reported to have discovered it in the amphitheatre at Verona.24 Apart from material added during his travels in Italy, the objects included a Roman marble copy of the head of a philosopher that Disney had purchased in London in 1823.25 He identified it as the portrait of Hermarchus based on the inscribed sculpture found at Tivoli in 1780, although it is now recognised as the portrait of Plato.26 The portrait of ‘Julia Sabina’ was also purchased in London in 1823.27 It is now thought to be a representation of Faustina the Younger. Disney recalls that ‘the person of whom I had it told me that the gentleman who sold it to him offered him £25 to have it back again’.28 Disney purchased a bronze athlete and a bronze horse’s head from Perrot in April 1827 that had been found near to the Maison Carée at Nîmes in Provence.29 Disney 1849b, iii–iv. Cambridge FM GR.49.1850. Disney 1849b, 199–201, pl. lxxxv; Budde and Nicholls 1964, 42–43, pl. 22, nos. 73–74. The cinerarium and lid were acquired together but do not fit. 19 Disney 1849b, 203–07, pl. lxxxvi. 20 Disney 1849b, 213, pl. lxxxix. 21 Disney 1849b, 233, pl. xcvii. 22 Disney 1849b, 265, pls. cxvii–cxviii. This is now Copenhagen, Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek inv. 2783: FischerHansen and Nielsen 2004, 68–70, pls. 51–52 (503–504). BAPD 217166. Beazley attributed the amphora to the Disney painter. 23 Disney 1849b, 237–40, pls. xcix–c, 241–42, pls. ci–cii, 251–52, pls. cix–cx. 24 Disney 1849b, 210, pl. lxxxvii. 25 Cambridge FM GR.23.1850. Disney 1849b, pl. xvii; Budde and Nicholls 1964, 29–30, pl. 15, no. 53. 26 Richter 1984, 182, 184–85, fig. 146. For portraits identified as Hermarchus: Richter 1984, 129–31. 27 Cambridge FM GR.27.1850. Disney 1849b, pl. xxii; Budde and Nicholls 1964, 72–73, pl. 39, no. 116. 28 Disney 1849b, 43. 29 Disney 1849b, 167, pl. lxxiv, 181–82, pl. lxxix. 17 18

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Figure 33. Portrait probably of Faustina the Younger. Cambridge, Fitzwilliam Museum. © David Gill.

Figure 34. Etruscan funerary cinerarium lid. Cambridge, Fitzwilliam Museum. © David Gill.

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In January 1835 Henry Tufnell gave Disney a janiform female herm that had been found by Tufnell at Cumae in 1828.30 Tufnell had gone to Italy after studies at Christ Church, Oxford, and admission to Lincoln’s Inn.31 He seems to have given the herm to Disney on his return from Ceylon where he had been acting as secretary to his father-in-law Sir Robert John Wilmot-Horton. Tufnell had indicated that he wanted to stand as Liberal MP for the borough of Colchester but failed to be elected.32 He was successful at Ipswich in 1837 but lost the seat in 1838. Disney and Tufnell were both members of the Maldon Independent Club.33 Several pieces from Herculaneum were among the items displayed in The Hyde. They include a head of Medusa found at Pompeii in 1790,34 a lamp with bull’s heads found at Herculaneum around 1795,35 a hanging bronze lamp with three nozzles and another with six burners found at the same time at Pompeii and purchased at Naples in 1796,36 a lamp in the form of an African slave standing on a tortoise apparently found around 1796, and purchased in that year at Naples,37 a hanging lamp in the shape of a shoe found at Herculaneum in 1790, and purchased at Naples in 1796,38 and a patera found at Herculaneum in 1790.39 A red-figured column-krater was purchased in Naples in 1799 or 1801.40 A bronze statue in the form of Antinuous in Egyptian dress was said to have been found at Hadrian’s Villa at Tivoli in 1790.41 Disney describes the acquisition of the pieces:42 During a residence, in Italy, of three years, from 1795 to 1798, a relative of mine was enabled to acquire many specimens, taken at the time from Herculaneum and Pompeii, at much less cost and trouble than they can be procured for now. In those days the state of the country was such, and the indolence of the Court of Naples in these matters so great, as almost to amount to indifference, and consequently the people had more facilities of selling objects which they found there. The dates coincide with those when Lewis Disney-Ffytche and his daughter Sophia were in Italy and spent some time in Naples. This means that they had either been inherited by Sophia on the death of her father, or that they had formed part of her collection for more than half a century. Cambridge FM GR.7.1850. Disney 1846, pl. xxix; Budde and Nicholls 1964, 61, pl. 32, no. 96. Carlyle and Matthew 2004. Obituary: The Times 17 June 1854, 10. 32 ‘Colchester’, Ipswich Journal 27 December 1834; ‘Colchester’, Ipswich Journal 10 January 1835. 33 ‘Maldon Independent Club’, The Morning Chronicle 2 August 1828. 34 Disney 1849b, 133–34, pl. lx. 35 Disney 1849b, 135–36, pl. lxi. 36 Disney 1849b, 137–38, pls. lxii–lxiii. 37 Disney 1849b, 139, pl. lxiv. 38 Disney 1849b, 145, pl. lxv. 39 Disney 1849b, 151–52, pl. lxvii. 40 Disney 1849b, 259, pls. cxiii–cxiv. Disney-Ffytche had returned to England from Italy in 1799. This is now in the Manchester Museum inv. 40099. It passed through the Sharp Ogden collection. 41 Disney 1849b, 193–95, pl. lxxxiii. 42 Disney 1849b, Part 2, iii. 30 31

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Figure 35. Janiform sculpture, displayed as the gift of Disney. Cambridge, Fitzwilliam Museum. © David Gill.

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The Museum Disneianum was reviewed in The Athenaeum in December 1848.43 It was complimentary: ‘for the elaborate pains which he has taken, and much curious information and speculation, he serves great praise’. There were, however, criticisms of the quality of the woodcuts. An extended review appeared in The Gentleman’s Magazine in January 1849.44 There was a link between benefactions of Hollis and Brand-Hollis and Disney’s ‘generosity of spirit worthy of his predecessors’. It acknowledged that Disney had expanded the Hyde’s collection during his visits to Italy, ‘that emporium of art’. Another review appeared in the Archaeological Journal.45 It acknowledged Disney’s contribution towards ‘stimulating the popular taste in this direction’. Two extensive reviews were written by a member of Trinity College, Cambridge in 1848 and then January 1849.46 The reviewer suggested that the volumes reflect ‘the industry, elegance, and acumen of the author’ as well as give ‘ample evidence of the learning and elegance of mind of their accomplished author’.

The Establishment of the Disney Chair The reasons for Disney’s support for archaeology are not immediately apparent. He was elected a Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries in 1839, though The Athenaeum 1105 (30 December 1848), 1336. The Gentleman’s Magazine 31 (January 1849) 37–44. 45 ‘Notices of archaeological publications’, Archaeological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland / Archaeological Journal 6 (1849) 83–86. 46 W 1848; W 1850. The author is identified by the initials, C.K.W. The reviews were responding to the expansion of the volume. 43 44

Figure 36. Attic red-figured columnkrater acquired in Naples in 1799 or 1801. Museum Disneianum.

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long after some of his other fellowships: Zoological Society of London (1827), the Royal Society (1832), Royal Society of Literature (1848). Archaeology had not featured prominently in the Chelmsford Philosophical Society, though Disney was a member of the newly established Archaeological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland by 1845; the Institute seceded from the British Archaeological Association in that year. One of the key members of the Archaeological Institute was the Cambridge academic Robert Willis, Jacksonian professor of natural and experimental philosophy.47 His emphasis on the contribution of archaeology for the understanding of the past could have been a reason to secure a chair in this new discipline for Cambridge. The key reason for the benefaction may, perhaps, lie within the family. In January 1847 Disney’s estranged brother-in-law, Sir William Hillary, died at his home, Woodville, on the Isle of Man.48 This brought closure to an extended series of legal disputes with the wider family. Then in January 1848 Disney’s brother Algernon died at the age of 68,49 and the following year John himself reached his 70th birthday. He was mindful that Brand-Hollis’ bequest to his father had been intended for ‘the benefit of his country and of human society’ and so he sought to make an appropriate gift. Disney, his father and his brother had been educated at Peterhouse, and so he considered the University of Cambridge to be an appropriate recipient. It should be remembered that the Cambridge Antiquarian Society had been created in 1840, and therefore provided an appropriate context for the collection.50 Preparations for the gift were put in place and the Museum Disneianum was republished as the Fitzwilliam Museum (1849).51 Disney’s intentions were made public on 16 April 1850 when a series of Graces were presented to the Congregation of the University of Cambridge.52 They read as follows: 1.

2. 3. 4.

John Disney, of the Hyde, in the county of Essex, Esq., having offered to present to the University a valuable collection of ancient marbles and statuary, with a view of its being placed in one of the public buildings of the University, and being kept together as an archaeological collection bearing his name. To accept Mr Disney’s munificient offer on the condition above specified. To authorise the syndicate appointed for the management of the Fitzwilliam Museum to receive the collection into the museum, and to make the necessary arrangements with Mr Disney for its removal. To affix the University seal to a letter of thanks (written by the public orator) to Mr Disney.

Marsden 2004. ‘Death of Sir William Hillary, Bart.’, The Morning Post Monday 11 January 1847; ‘Sir William Hillary, Bart’, Illustrated London News 10 (16 January 1847), 43. 49 The Standard 1 February 1848. Colonel Algernon Disney died at Twickenham on 23 January 1848. 50 For the emphasis of the Society at this time: Evans 2007, 291. 51 Disney 1849a. The volume, which predates the gift to Cambridge, may have served as a prospectus for the gift to the university. 52 The Morning Chronicle 17 April 1850. 47 48

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Figure 37. The Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge © David Gill

The Disney collection was accepted.53 The Graces had specified that the collection be placed in the university’s Fitzwilliam Museum.54 The Founder’s Building of the Fitzwilliam Museum had opened to the public in 1848, and the collection was placed on display there on the ground floor in what was known as the Disney Room.55 The donation of the collection, valued at £2000, anticipated the study of archaeology:56 We understand the object of the public-spirited donor in thus disposing of his very valuable collection is to found in the University a basis for the study of Archæology, a science which has not yet received there the attention its interest and importance demands. A year after the gift of the sculptures, in 1851, Disney proposed to establish an archaeological chair at Cambridge.57 John Disney, Esquire, to whose munificence the university is indebted for the collection of ancient marbles lately deposited in the Fitzwilliam museum, and known by the name of “The Museum Disneianum,” offers to transfer to the chancellor, masters and scholars of the University of Cambridge, 1,000l. three per centum per annum consolidated bank annuities, for the purpose ‘University intelligence’, John Bull 13 April 1850, 230. Burn 2016. 55 For the background: Fitzwilliam Museum 1989; Burn 2016, 68. 56 ‘Munificent donation of antiquities to Cambridge University’, Essex Standard 19 April 1850. A description of the donation can be found in The Ipswich Journal 20 April 1850. The reports Disney’s gift as an aspect of ‘his sense of public duty’. 57 The Morning Post 15 March 1851; The Standard 15 March 1851. 53 54

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The World of Disney of founding and endowing a professorship of classical antiquities, to be called “The Disney Professorship of Archæology,” subject to the following conditions, viz. :— That the professor be a member of the University of Cambridge, and of the degree of Master of Arts, or some higher degree. That the professor be required to deliver six lectures, at least, during each academical year, on subjects of antiquarian research and the fine arts. That the appointment to the professorship remain with Mr. Disney during his life-time; and that after Mr. Disney’s decease the appointment be vested in the Vice-Chancellor and heads of colleges. That the professorship be tenable for five years, and that the professor be capable of being re-elected. A grace, to authorise the acceptance of Mr. Disney’s proposal, will be offered to the Senate, on Wednesday next, March 19, when a draft of the proposed endowment deed will be laid upon the registrary’s table.

The offer was accepted on 4 April despite some opposition.58 Disney’s choice as the first Disney Professor was John Howard Marsden (180391), the Rector of Great Oakley, near Harwich, in Essex.59 Marsden had been a student at Manchester Grammar School and studied at St John’s College in Cambridge, gaining a MA in 1829. He had married Caroline Moore in 1840 and had then moved to Great Oakley. He interest was more theological than archaeological and he had been the Hulsean lecturer in divinity in 1843 and 1844. While at Great Oakley he joined the Colchester Castle Book Society, and he published on the 17th century antiquary Sir Simonds d’Ewes.60 However there was an important association with archaeology. His cousin, William Marsden (1754-1836), had left a widow, Elizabeth (née Wilkins), who had married Colonel William Martin Leake, the Hellenic traveller, in 1838. Leake’s brother John was a fellow magistrate with Disney. The Reverend Marsden subsequently wrote a biography of Leake in 1864.61 As Levine has noted, ‘It is inconceivable that the first Disney Professor of Archaeology, the Reverend J.H. Marsden, doyen of the Essex Archaeological Society, could have filled that or any other academic post in archaeology at the end of the century’.62 Marsden was also a member of the Colchester Archaeological Association, and later the Essex Archaeological Society. His two introductory Cambridge lectures ‘upon archaeology’, given in November 1851, were published in 1852.63 The published The Standard 5 April 1851; Bury and Norwich Post 16 April 1851. Clark 1989, 29; Cooper 2004; Leach 2007. For obituary: ‘The late Canon Marsden’, The Essex Standard West Suffolk Gazette, and Eastern Counties’ Advertiser 7 February 1891; ‘Rev. John H. Marsden BD’, The Manchester Guardian 27 January 1891, 12. The appointment was made in May 1851: The Times 23 May 1851, 7. The Chair is described as one of ‘Classical Antiquities’. The context for Marsden’s appointment is noted by Wilson 2002, 153. 60 Leach 2007, 37. See also Blatchly 2004b. 61 Marsden 1864. For Leake: Wagstaff 2012. 62 Levine 1986, 36. 63 Marsden 1852. The lectures were announced in The Times 14 November 1851, 5. 58 59

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version contained a catalogue of the Disney collection as an appendix. Notes and Queries commented: We have received, and read with great pleasure, Two Introductory Lectures upon Archaeology, delivered in the University of Cambridge, by the Rev. J. H. Marsden. We are not sure that these lectures are not privately printed; and in that doubt should have passed them without notice, had not their merits, as the production of a scholar and a man of taste, seemed to us such as to make it desirable that they should be placed within the reach of all whom they are calculated to interest. They are the first-fruits of Mr. Disney’s munificent donation to the University of Cambridge.64 Marsden’s second set of lectures, delivered in May 1852, were on the theme of the Palaeography of Greece, and the third in the Michaelmas term of 1853 on Grecian art.65 A further series of six lectures were delivered in May 1854 on the theme of the Palaeography, Sculpture and Coinage of Greece.66 These were followed by six lectures on Ancient Coinage, particularly as connected with sacred history in May 1855.67 Marsden was re-appointed to the Chair by Disney, in 1856, and then once more, after Disney’s death, in 1861. Marsden resigned from the Disney Chair and the living at Great Oakley in 1865.68 He retired to Grey Friars in Colchester where he died in January 1891.

Essex Archaeological Society The Chelmsford Philosophical Society had taken an interest in archaeology and had commissioned a map of Roman Essex by Repton. However, in the 1840s there was a rise in the number of county societies taking an active interest in the recording of archaeological remains. These county societies emerged from the growing interest in archaeology heralded by the foundation of the Archaeological Association in December 1843, ‘for the encouragement and prosecution of researches into the arts and monuments of the early and middle ages’.69 The Archaeological Association subsequently split into the British Archaeological Association and the Archaeological Institute.70 By early 1846 the importance of the archaeology of Colchester was recognised.71 A member of the ‘British Archaeological Society’ wrote a description of the remains: ‘Miscellaneous’, Notes and Queries 131 (1852) 430. The Times 11 May 1852, 8; 17 October 1853, 7. 66 The Times 8 May 1854, 11. 67 The Times 30 April 1855, 12. 68 The Bury and Norwich Post, and Suffolk Herald 24 January 1865. 69 Levine 1986, 48. See also Cowell 2008, 56. 70 Levine 1986, 48. See also Cowell 2008, 83. 71 ‘The Antiquities of Colchester’, The Essex Standard, and General Advertiser for the Eastern Counties 2 January 1846. 64 65

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There was a reflection on the lack of action by the British government ‘towards the preservation of the national antiquities, and they are daily at the mercy of the ignorant’. The writer drew attention to the discovery of a number of Roman cinerary urns during the construction of the railway to the east of the main station to the north of the town in October 1844 by William Wire.72 Wire’s diary 12 October 1844 records: ‘Several Roman funeral urns containing calcined bones were found opposite the barn, in a grave or pit apparently dug for the purpose but they were broken to pieces by the weight of the superincumbent earth ... The workmen informed me that in the pit was a great quantity of charcoal’. This letter was a precursor to a fuller investigation to the Roman colony. In October 1846 the British Archaeological Association visited Colchester to see the extant remains.73 This included a tour of the Castle, St Botolph’s Priory, ‘the Roman Guard-house on Balkerne Hill’, and various churches. An evening meeting took place in the Red Lion Inn chaired by Charles Roach Smith, secretary and co-founder of the Association.74 As to Colchester, the deputation had been completely taken by surprise: they supposed it would probably afford them interesting occupation for a day or two, but they had found that a week or more might be spent with advantage among its antiquities. There was no town in the kingdom which presented more interesting remains than Colchester, although they had hitherto been but imperfectly known. Specific note was made about the lack of inscriptions. One circumstance for remark was the almost entire absence of inscriptions among the remains hitherto discovered. This was an important branch of archaeology: opinions differing from each other would be formed of many remains of ancient buildings and other works; but where inscriptions were found there could be no mistake; although only one or two of a sepulchral kind had been yet discovered in this important Roman colony, it was probable that many more yet existed, and if sought after might be readily found. Colchester Heritage Explorer MCC1895: Roman cremation burial, Colchester North Station, Colchester. ‘The Antiquities of Colchester’, The Essex Standard, and General Advertiser for the Eastern Counties 16 October 1846. 74 For Roach Smith: Rhodes 2004. 72 73

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There are indeed a limited number of inscriptions from the colony.75 Those known by the middle of the century include an altar in Purbeck marble found in 1764 to the south-west of the town dedicated to the imperial deities, and two fragmentary funerary inscriptions found in 1821 from the grounds of the Essex and Colchester Hospital, one to a centurion from Bithynia who had served in the 20th Legion, and the other recording a burial mound (tumulus).76 A plan was devised for excavation in the Roman colony. Excavations properly directed would, no doubt, bring to light many monuments which still lie buried under an accumulation of soil, averaging throughout the two about six feet in depth above the Roman surface; and he would recommend the removal of the soil which had accumulated against the inner wall of that most interesting Roman remain, the guard-room adjoining the Balkerne entrance. Roach Smith suggested the creation of a museum to store and display the finds: the desireableness of forming a local museum as a receptacle for such objects, which were now being dispersed and dissociated from the locality whose history they would so well illustrate. He even suggested that there were benefits of public engagement in archaeology: by pleasurable and innocent excitement, often diverted the youthful energies of the middle and higher classes from the frivolous and criminal pursuits to which they were too often unhappily directed by bad associations. There was a discussion of the Roman remains embedded within the keep. These are now recognised as the foundations of the temple of the Divine Claudius, a structure destroyed during the Boudiccan revolt.77 This was a period that saw a growing interest in archaeology across the region. Across the county border into Suffolk, the Bury and West Suffolk Archaeological Institute was founded in 1840, and the Suffolk Institute of Natural History and Archaeology in 1848. The Ipswich Museum opened in December 1847.78 William Wire had proposed in 1841–43 the creation of a Colchester Museum to receive finds from the town.79 In October 1846 Colchester Borough Council passed to a resolution asking the Estate and Finance Committee ‘whether any accommodation could be afforded in the Town Hall, or any other place, for the deposit of any articles RIB 191–212. RIB 193, 203, 204. Drury, et al. 1984. See also Fishwick 1995. 78 ‘Opening of Ipswich Museum’, The Essex Standard, and General Advertiser for the Eastern Counties 17 December 1847. 79 Benton 1927, 283. 75 76 77

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of antiquity or curiosity, intended for a Museum to be erected in the town’.80 In July 1848 the Estate and Finance Committee resolved: That the room at the East end of the Town Hall, on the same floor as the Great Room, and one of the upper apartments, shall be appropriated for the deposit, by any person having articles in their possession intended to be given for a Public Museum, until a suitable and permanent building can be provided for their reception. The Town Hall had been completed in 1844, replacing the 12th century Moot Hall. A list of contributors was provided with a broad range of material from fossils to Roman coins, books to Chinese baskets. There was even a ‘Chinese compass and sun-dial combined: taken from the pocket of a Chinese solider killed in the late war’. There were additionally a number of fossils found in various railway cuttings around Essex and Suffolk. A number of local Roman finds were presented: a Roman triple lamp, found at Colchester; Roman coins found near the Colchester Union house; Roman urns found on the Lexden Road; Roman urns, brick, tile, and elegant amphora, two heads of spears, three human skulls and parts of human skeletons, from the garden of Mr J.A. Tabor, Crouch Street, Colchester (1845-46); a Roman urn, found while digging the foundation of a house in Essex Street (1845); and a Roman ear-ring, found in Colchester. In 1847 J.A. Tabor, at the suggestion of William Wire, managed to secure some coins from the Viking Cuerdale hoard found 1840.81 A Colchester Archaeological Society was established around 1850 as a ‘section’ of the Literary Society. The Colchester Archaeological Association was active by the autumn of 1850.82 Its aims were:83 (I.) That the objects of this Society be: to obtain an record faithful accounts of the antiquities discovered in this Town and county; and that the Committee meet at stated periods for the discussion of any subject connected with archaeology. (II.) To collect and preserve any heraldic or genealogical notices which may be discovered. (III.) To investigate the ecclesiastical, castellated, and domestic architecture of this town and county; and to use its exertions to preserve from threatened destruction any interesting monuments of past time. (IV.) To collect coins and antiquities of any country, more particularly those discovered in this town and neighbourhood. ‘Colchester Museum and Library’, The Essex Standard, and General Advertiser for the Eastern Counties 30 October 1846. 81 ‘Colchester Museum’, The Essex Standard, and General Advertiser for the Eastern Counties 14 May 1847. For the hoard and its dispersal: Ghey 2015, 89–92. 82 For one of the earliest mentions: The Morning Post October 6, 1851. The Reverend Montagu Benton noted that a meeting at the Literary Institution in August 1850 had the intention of forming an archaeological association: Benton 1927, 276. 83 Benton 1927, 277. 80

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On the 25 September 1850 the first lecture of the Association was on the topic of ‘Archaeology’ presented by P.M. Duncan.84 Duncan was the physician for the Essex and Colchester Hospital.85 The Colchester Archaeological Association met in October 1851 to hear a paper by Dr Duncan on ‘Ancient fortifications of Colchester’.86 He noted that the walls stood ‘in Protestant times of peace, form boundaries of gardens, foundations of homes, and studies for the archaeologist’. There was a response by William Wire, the secretary of the association, suggesting that the walls had been constructed in the third century AD.87 Another of the lectures was given by Reverend Henry Jenkins, Rector of Stanway, Essex and president of the association, who subsequently published his lecture on ‘Colchester Castle’.88 The initial pattern for such meetings seems to have been monthly, but in the autumn of 1851 it was changed to quarterly.89 Numbers also started to grow from seven in the first year to fifteen by 1852.90 At the April 1852 meeting of the Association it was noted: it has long been very desirable that Colchester, so rich in antiquities, should have a good antiquarian society to preserve and illustrate them; and we trust that, when the section gains a little more strength, it will establish itself upon an independent basis, and be not a mere section of the Literary Institution, but “The Colchester and Essex Archaeological Society.” In June that same year Duncan noted that the association had funded excavations in Colchester.91 The Colchester Archaeological Society quickly evolved into an Essex Archaeological Society ‘with a more extended sphere of operations’.92 This also meant a break from the Literary Institution. The aims of this new society included ‘To collect, and ultimately deposit within a Museum in the Town of Colchester, such objects of ancient arts and industry as the society may be able to obtain’. In addition, ‘It is hoped that the Society will be able to unite its Museum with the valuable Collection of Antiquities left by the late Henry Vint to the Town of Colchester, and thus to procure to its Members at once the important advantage of a good Museum’.93 A further aim of the Society was ‘To promote a general taste and knowledge of Archaeology, by the diffusion of popular information on the subject’. John Disney was listed as a member and part of the provisional committee, along with John H. Marsden, the Disney Professor of Archaeology at Cambridge. By the end of November 1852, the new society had a membership of 67.94 Benton 1927, 277. The Essex Standard, and General Advertiser for the Eastern Counties 5 September 1851. 86 ‘Colchester Archaeological Association’, The Morning Post 6 October 1851. 87 The Essex Standard 31 October 1851. 88 Advert, The Essex Standard, and General Advertiser for the Eastern Counties 7 January 1853. For Jenkins in the association: Benton 1927, 277. 89 Benton 1927, 279. 90 Benton 1927, 280. 91 Benton 1927, 280. 92 Benton 1927, 281. 93 This remained an issue in 1855: ‘Shall Colchester have a museum?’, Essex Standard, and General Advertiser for the Eastern Counties 9 May 1855. 94 Benton 1927, 281. 84 85

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Marsden was a member of the Colchester Archaeological Association, and in 1852, in his new capacity as Disney Professor, helped to reform it as the Essex Archaeological Society. Marsden gave the inaugural address for the Society in December 1852, and Disney was elected as the Society’s new president.95 Marsden explained the role of archaeology:96 Archaeology has been called the handmaid of history; but this term does not assign to her a position sufficiently dignified. She is the corrector and verifier of history. She is even more than this. Of the written history of Greece and Rome a great proportion, amounting to two-thirds of the whole, has been lost, and nothing has been available to supply the loss but the materials supplied by Archæology. At the Cambridge meeting of the British Association in July 1854 he clarified the definition of archaeology as ‘the study of history from monuments in contradistinction to literary records’.97 Marsden published a pamphlet on the classical collection in Felix Hall, Kelvedon, Essex.98 This was the paper that he read at Felix Hall at the meeting of the Essex Archaeological Society. The collection had been formed by Lord Western, who had served as MP for Maldon, in 1825.99 By April 1853 Disney was able to state that he considered the society ‘now firmly and permanently established’.100 By 1854 plans were afoot to create a museum in Colchester Castle.101 This eventually opened on 27 September 1860.102 The aim of the museum was For the collection and preservation of the antiquities of the county. The council have the satisfaction of announcing that at length it has secured a most appropriate home for the Society, and for its collections, in a building which is itself one of the chief antiquities of the county, and of great historic interest … The early influences of Disney and Marsden eventually bore fruit for promoting the preservation of archaeological remains in Essex.

Levine 1986, 12. The Essex Standard, and General Advertiser for the Eastern Counties 17 December 1852. See also Benton 1927, 281. 96 Marsden 1855. 97 ‘The Archaeological Institute of Great Britain’, Bury and Norwich Post 12 July 1854. 98 Marsden 1863. 99 Western was a friend of Disney, and he served as Vice-President of the Essex Archaeological Society. Disney had an oinochoe from Western’s collection at The Hyde. For Western: Fell-Smith and Matthew 2004. 100 Benton 1927, 282. 101 Benton 1927, 282. 102 Benton 1927, 287. See also Hodgson and Wise 2015, 69. 95

Chapter 8 Going for Gold Disney and the Gold Rush The Great Exhibition of 1851 had sparked much public interest through the display of British manufacturing. Disney was now in his early 70s, but he joined the group of men who tried to continue the values of the exhibition through the creation of the Cosmos Institute, Leicester Square.1 This was located in the Great Globe. One of the aims was to allow ‘working men’ to understand the complexity of the British empire.2 It contained the concept of the museum as an improving influence on society, much in the way that the museum in Chelmsford had tried to make its mark on the county town of Essex. For an institution of the kind here described there is ample room, and the Cosmos Institute may prove an important medium for the diffusion of popular knowledge on geography and the allied sciences. The collection of books, maps, and charts, easily accessible for consultation or study, will be a valuable privilege to the general community, as well as to the members of the Institute. While the learned societies extend the boundaries of the sciences to which they are devoted, a popular institution like that now projected may communicate information, and diffuse an interest in geographical and kindred studies. In a maritime and commercial country like Great Britain, whose colonies are in every climate, and whose people visit every region of the earth, the knowledge of foreign countries, with their inhabitants, productions, climates, and other physical or ethnological details, ought to form a prominent part in popular education. For promoting this object the Cosmos Institute, if ably and judiciously managed, may supply valuable aid.3 One of his initiatives was the proposal to create the Disneian School of navigation, hydrography, and nautical astronomy as part of the Cosmos Institute.4 This public engagement with manufacturing led directly into his next major commitment. By November 1851 Disney had joined the ‘Commission of Supervision in London’ for ‘The Nouveau Monde, Mining Company’, to work gold mines in the Mariposa district of California.5 The President of the Company was Prince Louis Lucien The Times 7 December 1853, 9. ‘Cosmos Institute’, Daily News 27 January 1854. ‘The Cosmos Institute’, The Literary Gazette 1911 (3 September 1853), 865. 4 ‘The Cosmos Institute, Great Globe, Leicester-Square’, Morning Post 27 January 1854, 6. 5 John Bull November 15, 1851, 726; The Morning Post 10 November 1851; The Standard 10 November 1851; Daily News 11 November 1851; Daily News 12 November 1851; The Examiner 15 November 1851; The Morning 1 2 3

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Bonaparte (1813-91) who at this period was pursuing a political career in Paris.6 Contemporary accounts noted that the London council consisted of ‘seven gentlemen … of the greatest respectability, some of them too well known in the mining world to need any comment from us’.7 Apart from Disney the other six commissioners were Sir William de Bathe (1793–1870), John Addis, John Dudin Brown (1795–1855), G.B. Carr, G.P. Irvine, and Disney’s son-in-law Captain William Jesse. De Bathe had served in the army, including the Peninsula War as well as campaigns in north America, and reached the rank of Lt.-Colonel.8 Dudin Brown was a wharfinger or wharf owner on the Thames. In 1849 it had been reported that ‘oceans of gold’ had been discovered by Colonel John Charles Fremont in the Mariposa river and this has led to a rush to the gold fields of California.9 In August 1850 a gold-bearing quartz rock was taken to New York with a weight of 193 pounds.10 The news from Mariposa was reported widely.11 The Nouveau Monde Mining Company, had been founded in Paris in 1850 and had obtained four sites to mine from Fremont through his representative the Hon. David Hoffmann. In addition, they acquired the lease on Baldwin’s Mine. In October 1851 it was noted that the Nouveau Monde ‘is only in working since the formation of the company; and, although most favourable specimens have been already received, no returns can as yet be expected’.12 The company was listed in another report that suggested that there had been samples assayed by Messrs Johnson and Co. of Hatton Garden: ‘one giving a value of £13,400, and the other £24,500 per ton, though, by the naked eye, scarcely any gold can be seen’.13 Small rises were seen in the share values in November 1851.14 In late November 1851 the share price started to fall.15 There were clearly concerns about what was happening in California, and Fremont issued a statement through Hoffman: I, the said John Charles Fremont, do hereby distinctly warn and advise all persons whomsoever against entering into any kind whatsoever in reference to my said estates in California, except with my only authorised representative in Europe, David Hoffman, Esq., of London.16 Chronicle 15 November 1851; The Standard 15 November 1851; 19 November 1851; The Observer 16 November 1851, 1. For a detailed account of the French and the Gold Rush: Rohrbough 2013. 6 West 2008. 7 ‘The Nouveau Monde Mining company’, The Morning Chronicle 15 November 1851. 8 ‘The late Sir William de Bathe’, The Times 14 March 1870. 9 ‘United States and, Canada, and California’, The Standard 29 November 1849. 10 ‘Important from California and Oregon—Extraordinary new discoveries’, Freeman’s Journal and Daily Commercial Advertiser 6 September 1850. 11 ‘Foreign news’, The Essex Standard, and General Advertiser for the Eastern Counties 25 October 1850. 12 ‘Mines’, Daily News 25 October 1851; ‘Mines’, 10 November 1851 (noting the advantages of the French scheme). 13 ‘Money markets and city news’, The Morning Chronicle 27 October 1851. 14 ‘Mines’, Daily News November 11, 1851; ‘Mines’, Daily News 14 November 1851; ‘Mines’, Daily News 17 November 1851; ‘Mines’, Daily News 18 November 1851; ‘Mines’, Daily News 20 November 1851; ‘Mines’, Daily News 24 November 1851. 15 ‘Gold Mining Shares’, The Morning Chronicle 25 November 1851. 16 The Morning Post 25 November 1851.

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There was a short note attached: ‘I desire it to be expressly understood that the foregoing applies in no respect to the Nouveau Monde… or any other company formed under my auspices’. This seems to have had a positive effect on share prices.17 However Fremont’s statement continued to cause concern and John Taylor was obliged to issue a further statement, and Captain Rickard from Cornwall was sent to inspect the mines.18 The shares then started to rise again.19 Disney’s son-in-law, Captain William Jesse, seems to have been responsible for representing Disney’s interests in the company. On 23 November 1851 he took an apartment at no. 3, Boulevard Montmartre, while engaged ‘on business’.20 The address is perhaps significant as this was where in February 1851, at no. 10, a gold ingot worth 400,000 francs was displayed to attract possible investors.21 Jesse and his wife Sofia, Disney’s daughter, were present in Paris on 2 December when a coup in the city took place.22 Jesse wrote an extended report for The Times and described the events of Thursday 4 December, some time after 3 pm: … I went to the balcony at which my wife was standing, and remained there watching the troops. The whole Boulevard, as far as the eye could reach, was crowded with them, principally infantry, in sub-divisions at quarter distances, with here and there a batch of 20-pounders and howitzers, some of which occupied the rising ground on the Boulevard Poissonière. The windows were crowded with people, principally women, tradesmen, servants, and children, or, like ourselves, the occupants of apartments. The mounted officers were smoking their cigars—a custom introduced into the army, as I have understood, by the Princes of the Orleans family—not a very soldierlike one, but, at such a moment, particularly reassuring, as it forbad the idea that their services were likely to be called into immediate requisition. … Suddenly, and while I was intently looking with my glass at the troops in the distance eastward, a few musket shots were fired at the head of the column, which consisted of about 3,000 men. In a few moments it spread, and after hanging a little came down the Boulevard in a waving sheet of flame. So regular, however was the fire that at first I thought it was a feu-de-joie for some barricade taken in advance, or to signal their position to some other division, and it was not till it came within 50 yards of me that I recognized the sharp ringing report of ball cartridge; but even then I could scarcely believe the evidence of my ears, for as to my eyes, I could not discover any enemy to fire at, and I continued looking at the men until the company below me were actually raising their firelocks, and one vagabond, sharper than the rest—a mere lad, without either whisker or moustache—had covered me. In an instant I dashed my wife, who had just stepped back, against the pier ‘Mines’, Daily News 26 November 1851. The Examiner 29 November 1851. 19 ‘Mines’, Daily News 4 December 1851. 20 Jesse 1851. 21 Rohrbough 2013, fig. 3. ‘Latest from Paris’, The Morning Post 14 February 1851, 6. 22 Jesse 1851. See also ‘The late scenes in Paris’, The Essex Standard 19 December 1851. See also: Bresler 1999, 235–51. 17 18

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Jesse speculated on what had caused this sustained firefight. He was shocked when he went onto the Boulevard. … they shot down many of the unhappy individuals who remained on the Boulevard and could not obtain an entrance into any house—some persons were killed close to our door, and their blood lay in the hollows round the trees the next morning when we passed, at twelve o’clock. The loss of innocent life must have been great—very great—more than ever will be known, for the press is more free in Russia than in France. Another British officer described the scene in the Boulevard when he went to assist a friend who had been wounded in the firing there.23 The Boulevard was a ghastly sight. There were no wounded, but the dead were lying in dozens, most of them just as they fell; and the pavements were slippery with blood. They were almost all bourgeois, and not ouvriers. Two or three women were arranging some of the corpses, and placing candles at their heads that their friends might recognize them. Perhaps up to 400 people were killed in the fighting. These events brought Napoleon III, previously the president of the Second Republic of France, to power in the following year. The shares in the company continued to rise longer term.24 The company was still trading in May 1854.25 By March 1857 shareholders were expressing concern with the shares selling at one shilling,26 and a General Meeting for shareholders was

‘The late scenes in Paris’, The Essex Standard 19 December 1851. ‘Mines’, Daily News 10 March 1853. 25 ‘Mines’, Daily News 1 May 1854. 26 ‘Nouveau Monde Mining company’, Daily News 24 March 1857. 23 24

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called for May 1857.27 The company started to shift to its main focus of operations to Guatemala where it mined silver.28 Nouveau Monde was still trading in 1887.29

Railway and Other Interests Alongside his interest in gold, Disney had a long-standing interest in the railways. His son-in-law, William Jesse, was the honorary secretary of the Calais, Dunkirk, and West Flanders Junction Railway, that was intended to link Calais with the railway network in Belgium.30 The railway employed George and Robert Stephenson. The West Flanders Railway Company produced a 3 per cent dividend.31 Disney was also involved with the creation of the Harwich Railway that opened in August 1854.32 This ran from the main line at Manningtree in Essex to Harwich, a distance of 11 miles. Disney’s connection with the port went back to the time when he stood unsuccessfully as a MP. He saw the importance of the port for connecting London with continental Europe. Disney himself served as foreman of the jury to hear the inquest for an enginedriver of the Eastern Counties Railway who had been crushed between two trains.33 They found the stoker of a goods train involved in the accident guilty of manslaughter. He continued as a Trustee of the East of England Mutual Life Assurance Company.34 His son-in-law Captain William Jesse was a director of the company. He also attended events at the Royal Society.35 He remained active as a magistrate and formed part of a deputation from Essex to raise objections to the County Financial Board Bill.36

Recognition Disney was elected to the Linnean Society in January 1854, the same year as Charles Darwin.37 This was the year when the society moved to Burlington House, becoming a neighbour of the Society of Antiquaries. Darwin and Disney both had shared Daily News 27 April 1857. ‘Mines’, Daily News 16 June 1857. 29 ‘Mines’ Daily News 21 March 1887. 30 Notice in Morning Chronicle 12 June 1845; The Times 27 September 1845, 9; 1 October 1845, 5; 28 October 1845, 2. Jesse was still in this role in 1847. 31 Notice in The Times 11 January 1847, 2. 32 ‘Opening of the Harwich Railway’, The Essex Standard, and General Advertiser for the Eastern Counties 18 August 1854. 33 ‘Another fatal accident on the Eastern Counties Railway’, The Times 17 January 1851, 3. 34 The Times 14 April 1851, 3; 26 November 1851, 2; The Manchester Guardian 3 April 1852, 5. 35 ‘The Royal Society’, The Times 19 May 1851, 5. 36 The Times 16 April 1853, 6. 37 ‘Linnean Society’, The Morning Chronicle 26 January 1854. Linnean Society archive: CR/67. 27 28

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Unitarian values. This election coincided with Disney’s honorary degree from Oxford. Disney, now in his 70s, was recognised for his contribution to learning and awarded the honorary degree of DCL at Oxford on Wednesday 28 June 1854 at the same ceremony as Prince Louis Bonaparte.38 Further public recognition was made on Wednesday 5 July 1854 when the Archaeological Institute visited Cambridge and met in the Senate House.39 The meeting was attended by Prince Albert in his role as Chancellor of the university. Professor Robert Willis played a key part in presenting the medieval architecture of the city. At the general meeting, held on the Tuesday, Lord Talbot de Malahide, the president of the Institute, and commented on Disney’s benefaction:40 He would add but one word on another topic of high academic interest. The feeling of the present day was in favour of enlarging the circle which bounded the domain of academic studies. He did not wish to enter into questions which might excite a difference of opinion, but he thought there could be no doubt that the University had done quite right in recognising the claims of archæology to a distinct professorship [cheers]. It would be truly ungrateful in them not to pay a tribute to the disinterestedness of liberality displayed by Mr. Disney, in presenting to the University his valuable and unequalled museum of antiquities, and at the same time founding a professorship for the promotion of classical archæology, and the exposition of its principles [cheers]. He was sure that the value of the bequest and the importance of its ends were duly appreciated by the University, and it would be a stigma on the Archæological Institute if its members did not gratefully acknowledge it [cheers]. The meeting itself concluded with a paper read by Marsden, described as the Disneian Professor of Archæology, on ‘the objects and principles of the science’. He specifically noted, The study of archæology was the study of history from monuments, in contradistinction to literary records. … The monuments of ancient art were found wherever man existed on the globe, and wherever they were found there was a field for the archæologist. Life was not long enough to study them thoroughly; it would scarcely suffice for those of a single nation or class. Hence it might be inferred that Mr. Disney had acted wisely, both from this consideration, and from a desire more especially to promote classical studies, in restricting the field of his professorship to Greek and Roman archæology. ‘University intelligence’, The Morning Post 26 June 1854; ‘University intelligence’, The Times 26 June 1857. Disney appears in the following list: ‘University intelligence’, The Standard 27 June 1854; ‘University intelligence’, The Morning Post 29 June 1854. 39 ‘Archaeological Institute’, The Morning Chronicle 6 July 1854. 40 For Talbot: Seccombe and Smail 2004. Talbot was responsible for introducing the parliamentary bill on Treasure Trove in 1858. 38

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Figure 38. Portrait of Dr John Disney presented to the University of Cambridge. Cambridge, Fitzwilliam Museum. © David Gill.

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Figure 39. The Disney tomb in the churchyard of St Mary the Virgin, Fryerning, Essex. © David Gill.

Marsden had delivered three series of lectures in Cambridge on the theme of Greece. Disney was incorporated with the degree of LL.D. at Cambridge at the same time.41 Disney marked the award of the degree by presenting a marble bust of himself to the Fitzwilliam Museum.42 It is similar to a plaster bust in the Chelmsford Museum inscribed with the signature of Raimondo Trentanove (1792-1832), dated to 1827 in Rome.43

Final Years Sophia’s niece and daughter of Sir William Hillary, Elizabeth Mary Preston died in Brompton on 8 September 1853.44 Her husband, Christopher Richard, died on 25 February 1867.45 He had served as a Deputy Lieutenant for the County of Essex. The following year, in October 1854, Sophia Disney had an operation for a cataract.46 She died on 26 January 1856, and Disney himself died at The Hyde just over a year later on 6 May 1857; they were buried under the same monument in the ‘University intelligence’, John Bull 8 July 1854, 420. Cambridge FM M.2–1854. Chelmsford inv. 2008–197. 44 The Times 21 September 1853; The Observer 26 September 1853, 8. 45 Essex Standard 6 March 1867. 46 Disney 1856, 163. 41 42 43

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Figure 40. Inscription for Sophia Disney on the Disney tomb. © David Gill.

Figure 41. Inscription for Dr John Disney on the Disney tomb. © David Gill.

churchyard of St Mary the Virgin at Fryerning, Essex. This tomb also contained the remains of the Reverend Disney, and the Disneys’ son, John. Disney’s death was noted by the Royal Archaeological Institute that commented on his ‘the generous founder of an Archaeological Professorship at Cambridge’.47 Among Disney’s bequests he bequeathed £2500 ‘as an augmentation of the Disney Professorship of Archaeology for ever’.48 Disney’s son Edgar inherited The Hyde, and on his death in 1881, his son Edgar John. Archaeological Journal 15 (1858) 388. ‘University intelligence’, John Bull and Britannia 17 October 1857, 662; ‘University intelligence’, Morning Post 13 October 1857, 5 (‘Munificent bequest’). 47 48

Chapter 9 The Disney Legacy Essex and continuing links with the Disney Family The Hyde continued to be the Essex home for the Disney family for another century. However, there does not seem to have been the same intensity of family interest in antiquity. Disney’s son Edgar was elected Captain of the Essex Yeomanry in 1860,1 and served as Deputy-Lieutenant for Essex in 1861, and then High Sheriff for the county in 1864.2 In addition, he served as a JP for the Chelmsford Petty Sessions.3 Among the issues he had to address was the 1865 great Cattle Plague and its impact on the herds in Essex. Edgar died on 8 December 1881.4 Adolf Michaelis noted that much of the collection was still displayed at The Hyde at this date.5 Edgar’s widow started to disperse the collection, and part was sold at Christie’s on 1 May 1884 as a Catalogue of a Valuable Collection of Antique Roman and Italian Cinque Cento Bronzes, Marbles, Porcelain, and Decorative Objects.6 A further anonymous sale took place at Christie’s on 28 January 1886 as Catalogue of the Service of Plate, and Brilliant Ornaments, the Property of a Lady, also, Greek Painted Vases, Marbles, Coins, Decorative Furniture, &c, Removed from a Mansion in the Country.7 Parts of the collection were dispersed including a Paestan krater that found its way to the Fitzwilliam Museum through Mrs Constance Goetze,8 and an Attic red-figured amphora now in the Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek in Copenhagen.9 The amphora, that subsequently passed through the collection of Sir Hermann Weber, was attributed by Beazley to the Disney painter in his honour; there are more than twenty other pots attributed to this same anonymous pot decorator. A red-figured column-krater from the

‘Dinner to Captain Disney’, The Essex Standard 17 February 1860. ‘County officers’, The Essex Standard 1 January 1864. See also Walker 1912, 439. 3 ‘Chelmsford Petty Session’, The Essex Standard, and General Advertiser for the Eastern Counties 17 May 1865; ‘Chelmsford Petty Session’, The Essex Standard, and General Advertiser for the Eastern Counties 19 July 1865; ‘Chelmsford Petty Session’, The Essex Standard, and General Advertiser for the Eastern Counties 21 July 1865; 4 August 1865; 11 August 1865; 4 October 1865; 6 October 1865; 11 October 1865; 13 October 1865; 18 October 1865. 4 ‘Ingatestone’, Essex Standard, West Suffolk Gazette, and Eastern Counties’ Advertiser 10 Dec. 1881; ‘Death of Mr. Edgar Disney’, The Bury and Norwich Post 13 December 1881; ‘Mr Disney, of The Hyde’, Illustrated London News 79 (17 December 1881), 610. 5 Michaelis 1882, 333. 6 Gill 1990a, 229. 7 Gill 1990a, 229. 8 Cambridge, Fitzwilliam Museum inv. GR.7.1943. Disney 1849b, pls. cxix–cxx; Gill 1990a. It was noted by Trendall 1936, 120, no. 123. 9 Copenhagen inv. 2783. Disney 1849b, pls. cxvii–cxviii. BAPD 217166. 1 2

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Figure 42. Edgar Disney, by Camille Silvy, 1860. National Portrait Gallery Ax50666.

collection passed through the hands of Sharp Ogden, the architect, and is now in the Manchester Museum.10 Edgar’s eldest son, Captain Edgar John Disney (1835–1903), 24th Regiment, married Lilias Charlotte Buckley at Hartshorne, Derbyshire, in 1859.11 He had earlier served in the Crimean War as a lieutenant in the 7th Fusiliers.12 He was appointed honorary Lt.-Colonel in the Essex Rifles Militia in 1881,13 and stepped down as Colonel of the 3rd Battalion of the Essex Regiment in 1890.14 He also served as a JP in Essex. One of his brothers, Lambert Brouncker Disney migrated to Canada and then settled in America. In March 1884 Edgar John Disney disposed of a portrait of Milton.15 Disney 1849b, 259, pls. cxiii–cxiv. This is now in the Manchester Museum inv. 40099. Sharp Ogden, who died in 1926: ‘An architect’s pictures’, The Times 7 December 1926, 13. 11 John Bull and Britannia 23 July 1859, 480. Edgar John Disney had been commissioned an ensign in the Royal Fusiliers on 25 August 1854. He was promoted Captain in 1858: Daily Telegraph 27 January 1858, 2. Obituary: Daily Telegraph 21 January 1903, 11. He left £12,000 gross: The Daily Telegraph 4 February 1903, 11. 12 He was robbed on his return: ‘Law intelligence’, Daily Telegraph 8 October 1855, 4. 13 ‘Essex Rifles Militia’, The Bury and Norwich Post 24 May 1881; ‘Colchester Garrison’, The Essex Standard 21 May 1881. 14 ‘Essex Regiment’, The Essex Standard 1 March 1890. 15 Brockwell 1909. 10

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Figure 43. Detail of Paestan bell-krater (now in Cambridge). Museum Disneianum.

Figure 44. Detail of Attic red-figured amphora (now in Copenhagen). Museum Disneianum.

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One of his sons was Edgar Norton Disney (1863–1949) who was the last Disney to live at the Hyde. He was commissioned as a 2nd Lieutenant in the West Essex Militia in 1879.16 He married Lilian Lee Townsend of Wickham Hall in Cheshire, in 1895.17 Edgar Norton Disney died, aged 87, at the Hyde on 9 December 1949.18 His trustees dispersed the contents at a series of sales in April 1950.19 Edgar Norton Disney’s halfbrother, Gervase, served in the Essex Regiment in World War One, with the rank of Major.20 He died in 1951. The house was then offered for sale as a school.21 The Hyde continued in its educational role until it was destroyed by fire on 6 May 1965.

Suffolk and the Disney chair One of the main legacies of Dr John Disney was the establishment of the Cambridge Chair of Archaeology. In 1865 the Reverend John H. Marsden, the inaugural Disney Professor, resigned from the Disney Chair. His successor was the Reverend Churchill Babington (1821-99), also a fellow of St John’s College, Cambridge.22 Churchill Babington had been elected a Scholar of St John’s College in 1840.23 In 1842 he contributed studies on the botany and ornithology to The History and Antiquities of Charnwood Forest (1842). He appeared in the list of the Mathematical Tripos for 1843,24 and then the Theological Tripos for 1844.25 He was elected a Fellow of St John’s in 1846,26 the year he was awarded the Hulsean Prize for his essay on ‘The influence of Christianity in promoting the abolition of slavery in Europe’. In December of the same year he was ordained Deacon by the Bishop of Ely.27 In 1848 he was appointed to the perpetual curacy of Horningsea, near Cambridge.28 In 1849 he published Mr. Macaulay’s Character of the Clergy in the Latter Part of the Seventeenth Century Considered (Cambridge, 1849), followed by his The Oration of Hyperides against Demosthenes, respecting the Treasure of Harpalus (London, 1850) based on a papyrus found at Thebes in Egypt. He lectured on the subject to the Royal Society of Literature (RSL).29 He served on the Council of the RSL, where William M. Leake was

Essex Standard 27 December 1879, 8; Bury and Norwich Post 30 December 1879, 6. Essex Standard 17 August 1895, 6. 18 The Times 10 December 1949, 1. His son Francis Norton Disney continued to live at Bracken Cottage, Ingatestone: The Times 20 November 1971, 24. 19 The Times 4 April 1950, 10. 20 He was lieutenant in the Essex Regiment in 1911: The Times 16 December 1911. He rose to the rank of Major, and lived at 22 Queen’s Gate Gardens, SW7: The Times 12 December 1944, 6. 21 The Times 15 May 1950, 15. The Hyde School. 22 Leach 2007, 37. He was elected on 4 April 1865: ‘University intelligence’, The Standard 5 April 1865, 6. For his obituary: ‘Churchill Babington, D.D.’, The Athenaeum 3195 (19 January 1889), 84. 23 ‘University intelligence’, The Morning Post November 9, 1840. 24 ‘University and Clerical Intelligence’, The Standard 21 January 1843. 25 ‘Cambridge’, The Ipswich Journal 2 November 1844. 26 ‘Cambridge’, The Ipswich Journal 4 April 1846. 27 ‘The Church’, The Morning Post 22 December 1846. 28 ‘Ecclesiastical and religious intelligence’, The Hull Packet and East Riding Times 21 April 1848. 29 ‘Royal Society of Literature’, The Morning Chronicle 4 February 1853. 16 17

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a Vice-President.30 He was awarded BD in 1853.31 In 1854, he gave a lecture on ancient Cambridgeshire as part of the visit to Cambridge by the Archaeological Institute.32 His inaugural lecture as Disney Professor was entitled, An Introductory Lecture on Archaeology (1865).33 He described how:34 The field of archaeology is vast, and almost boundless; the eye, even the most experienced eye, can hardly take in the whole prospect; and those who have most assiduously laboured in its exploration will be most ready to admit that there are portions, and those large portions, which are to them either almost or altogether unknown. It was noted how Babington differed in emphasis from his predecessor Marsden. Prof. Babington differs from the opinion of his predecessor, Canon Marsden, in his interpretation of Mr Disney’s intention with respect to these University lectures. He cites the document, and claims the widest latitude with regard to the subjects which may be treated upon. In the declaration and agreement between Mr Disney and the University we find it stated, “That it shall be the duty of the professor to deliver, in the course of each academecal year, at such days and hours as the Vice-Chancellor shall appoint, six lectures at least on the subject of Classical, Mediæval and other Antiquities, the Fine Arts, and all matters and things connected therewith.” Mr Babington rejoins that “the Disney Professor is not obliged to confine himself to classical archæology, sorry as he would be if he were wholly unable to give lectures on one or more branches of that most interesting department, which has, moreover, a special connexion with the classical studies of the University. He emphasised the recent discoveries at Périgord in the Dordogne,35 as well as the lake dwellings discovered in Switzerland in 1853–54.36 He finished with the botanical identification of the flower—a rose—on the Greek coins of the city of Rhodes. Babington subsequently made a study of Leake’s collection that had been acquired by the Fitzwilliam Museum.37 His lectures were illustrated by coins and objects from his personal collection. Some of this material was presented to the Fitzwilliam Museum in 1865.38 It is clear that his professorial lectures made a wider impact. The Athenaeum in its commentary on his inaugural lecture noted:

‘Royal Society of Literature’, The Morning Post 28 April 1853. Daily News 13 June 1853. 32 ‘Archaeological Institute’, The Morning Chronicle 6 July 1854. 33 Babington 1865. 34 Quoted in The Athenaeum 1975 (2 September 1865), 308–09. 35 See also Bahn 1996, 119. 36 See Bahn 1996, 94–95. 37 Babington 1867. See also Wagstaff 2012. 38 E.g. an Early Corinthian plate (GR.43.1865), an Attic red-figured oinochoe (GR.45.1865), and an Apulian pelike (GR.47.1865). An Attic black-figured neck-amphora was purchased from his estate on his death (GR.1.1889: Lamb 1930, pl. 14 [252] 1). 30 31

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Archæology is beginning to take that place in England which it has long held in France and Germany. The race of sound archæologists is on the increase, and that of the antiquaries, whom Walter Scott at once slew and immortalized, is fast becoming matter of tradition, unless some ancient representatives till haunt a melancholy room in Somerset House. This better state of things is due to several causes; in no small part to the influence of those continental scholars who have brought the antiquities of the Greeks and Romans to the illustration of their literature; perhaps even more to the service archæology has rendered to natural science in the great contemporary question of the antiquity of man. We may venture to hope that at no distant time the value of archæology will be recognised even at our universities, and a reality be thus given to classical studies, as well as a fitting training offered for that course of travel so usual during, or immediately after, the college days. It is clear that the establishment of foreign archaeological institutes in Athens were being noted in Britain; but it would be another twenty years before the British School at Athens was founded.39 The commentator then assessed Babington’s own contribution: Professor Babington’s introductory lecture shows that he understands his position, and means to make it understood by the university, and we have little doubt that it will be afterwards remembered as the first upward step in a new direction. In 1866 Babington was installed as Rector of Cockfield in Suffolk, and in 1869 married Mathilda Wilson.40 He developed an interest in the material culture of ‘Bible Lands’ and lectured on ‘Archaeological illustrations of the New Testament’ to the Bury Athenaeum in 1869.41 He continued in the Disney Chair until he resigned in 1880.42 Among his Cambridge allies was Sidney Colvin, the Slade Professor and Director of the Fitzwilliam Museum.43 Babington’s obituary in The Athenaeum described him as follows:44 The conclusions of a man with such varied learning and culture must always be of great worth, and particularly so in this age of narrow specialism. … He was remarkable for his simple and childlike character, and much loved by all who knew him. He never went to a public school, but was educated by his father, who also was a very learned man.

Waterhouse 1986; Gill 2011. For the spread of foreign institutes: Whitling 2019. Bury and Norwich Post 2 February 1869. 41 ‘The Bury Athenaeum’, The Bury and Norwich Post, and Suffolk Herald 6 April 1869. 42 The Bury and Norwich Post 19 October 1880, 5 and 7. The note restated that the holder of the Chair should be a Cambridge MA, and that the holder must deliver six lectures a year. At this point the Chair was worth £96 per year. 43 Mehew 2004. 44 ‘Churchill Babington, D.D.’, The Athenaeum 3195 (19 January 1889), 84. 39 40

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The obituary in the Classical Review noted that ‘Cambridge has lost a son in whom classical learning was combined with a great variety of other tastes and accomplishments’.45 It added, ‘Never was any man more thoroughly kind-hearted, more natural, more genial’. A memorial window was erected in the parish church at Cockfield.46

Archaeological developments Archaeology in Cambridge started to develop quickly. By the 1880s there was a strong interest in the material culture of the classical world, in part driven by the activities of the French and Germans in Greece with their major excavations on Delos and at Olympia.47 In Cambridge Percy Gardner (1846–1937) was the newly elected Disney Professor in 1880; from 1887 he was also held the Lincoln and Merton Chair in Classical Archaeology at Oxford.48 Gardner had been appointed an assistant keeper in the Department of Coins and Medals at the British Museum in 1871.49 Among his tasks was the preparation of a series of monographs on the Greek coin collections.50 Gardner had travelled to Greece in 1877 with Charles Newton, Keeper of Greek and Roman Antiquities at the British Museum, and he had been closely involved with the Society for the Promotion of Hellenic Studies that was founded in 1879. Gardner initially held the Disney Chair alongside his position at the British Museum that he held until 1887 with his appointment to Oxford. His Cambridge lectures included ones on the subject of Greek numismatics.51 He helped to introduce the Diploma in Classical Archaeology at Oxford in 1909. In 1886 the British School at Athens was founded, largely at the agitation of Cambridge academics, and with a Cambridge graduate, Francis Cranmer Penrose (1817-1903), as the first director.52 The BSA was soon engaged with archaeological work on Cyprus, under the direction of another Cambridge graduate, Ernest A. Gardner (1862–1939), Percy’s brother.53 Greece, and the lands in the eastern Mediterranean, became an important training ground for British archaeologists, some of whom returned to Britain to uncover the remains of Roman occupation; among them was the Cambridge educated Robert Carr Bosanquet who had served as Director of the British School at Athens and later excavated at Housesteads on

‘The Rev. Churchill Babington, D.D., F.L.S., &c.’, Classical Review 3,3 (1889), 134–35. For a list of subscribers: Suffolk Record Office (Bury St Edmunds) FL552/5/4/7. 47 Marchand 1996; Duchêne and Straboni 1996; Étienne 1996. See also Whitling 2019. 48 Gardner 1933. See also Gardner 1887. For classical archaeology in Oxford: Boardman 1985. 49 Wilson 2002, 385. 50 E.g. Poole, et al. 1876. 51 Gardner 1883 (based on 12 lectures delivered in 1882). 52 Waterhouse 1986; Clogg 2000; Huxley 2000; Gill 2011. 53 Gill 2004d. See also Gill 2011. For Ernest Gardner’s work on Cyprus: e.g. Gardner, et al. 1888. 45 46

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Hadrian’s Wall.54 Ernest himself had worked on the excavation of the Greek emporion at Naukratis in the Nile Delta as part of the Egypt Exploration Fund.55 Percy Gardner was succeeded in the Disney Chair in 1887 by the Reverend George Forrest Browne whose interest lay in the area of early Christianity in Britain, especially in the areas of the monastic sites of Whitby and Jarrow, and later in the Rothwell Cross in Dumfriesshire.56 Browne was a fellow of St Catharine’s College, Cambridge until 1865 when he married. He acted as the editor of the Cambridge University Reporter. He delivered four series of lectures as Disney professor: The Sculptured Stones of Pre-Norman type in the British Islands (1888); The Anglian Sculptured Stones of Pre-Norman Type (1889); The Sculptured Stones of Scotland. Runes (1890); The Sculptured Stones of Cornwall, Wales, and Mann (1891).57 It was noted at the time that There was some doubt whether he should have received the last appointment [as Disney professor], as his knowledge of archaeology was certainly more wide than deep. But at least he succeeded in rendering the subject more popular in the University, and he will always be remembered as having secured the Brough stone, found at Brough, in Westmorland, for the Fitzwilliam Museum, and as being the first man to decipher its inscription.58 He was installed as a canon of St Paul’s cathedral in London in 1892 when he resigned the Disney Chair after his statutory five-year appointment; in 1895 he was appointed Bishop of Stepney, and in 1897 Bishop of Bristol. The University of Cambridge conferred a DD on him in 1896. Browne continued to lecture on early Christian monuments and buildings. Browne’s resignation in 1892 opened an opportunity for (Sir) William Ridgeway (1853–1926) who had been keen to return to Cambridge.59 The Chair was held concurrently with a fellowship at Caius, as well as, from 1906, the Brereton Readership in Classics.60 The Chair still only required six lectures a year, but Ridgeway used the position to influence the development of classical archaeology within the classical tripos.61 Ridgeway was strongly opposed to Gardner’s views on prehistoric Greece.62 Ridgeway’s tenure of the Chair was renewed in 1898, 1903, 1908, 1913, and 1923 E.g. Bosanquet 1904; Bosanquet and Myres 1909; Hopkinson 1906; Hopkinson 1909; Hopkinson 1911; Cheesman 1914; Bishop 1994. For the training of archaeologists in Britain at this period: Freeman 2007. For Cambridge links with Greece: Gill 2012. For Housesteads: Bosanquet 1904; see also Crow 2012, 46 (ill.). 55 Petrie and Gardner 1886; Gardner 1888. For some of the Greek material from Naukratis: Möller 2000. 56 Clewlow 2004. Consecration: The Times 22 April 1895, 12. For his departure from Cambridge: ‘University intelligence’, The Manchester Guardian 2 May 1893, 4. Obituary: ‘The Right Rev. G. F. Browne’, The Manchester Guardian 2 June 1930, 3. 57 Browne 1891. 58 ‘Editorial’, The Manchester Guardian 4 August 1897, 5. The funerary inscription known as the Brough Stone, for Hermes of Commagene (Syria), was found in 1879 near the Roman fort of Brough: Cambridge, Fitzwilliam Museum GR.1.1884 (RIB 758). 59 Conway and Snodgrass 2004. See also Stray 2005; Smith 2009, 28–32. For the wider Cambridge context in this period: Johnson 1994. 60 For the Readership: The Manchester Guardian 14 December 1906, 8. 61 Beard 1999. 62 Ridgeway 1902. 54

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and he remained in post until 1926.63 He also served as a syndic of the Fitzwilliam Museum.64 Ridgeway’s influence on a generation of classical archaeologists, and particularly prehistorians can be seen through the number of his former students who were admitted to the British School at Athens on either side of the First World War.65 The students included Robert Carr Bosanquet and Alan J.B. Wace, who both served as directors of the British School at Athens.66 Ridgeway’s students were also contributors of finds from excavations and fieldwork to the Fitzwilliam Museum, objects that were to form the basis of the prehistoric gallery formed by Winifred Lamb after the First World War.67 Lamb herself had studied classical archaeology as part of her study of Classics. However, she had been excluded from Ridgeway’s lectures during the First World War, as she was a member of the Union of Democratic Control. Prehistory was to become a characteristic of archaeology at Cambridge.68 During the inter-war period the Prehistoric Society of East Anglia was established and took a key role in the development of the discipline.69 Archaeology was also undergoing a major transformation towards a scientific discipline. It was in Britain, with the fieldwork of Augustus Lane Fox (1827-1900) that started in the 1860s that we can detect the approaches that have continued to today.70 In Egypt, Flinders Petrie (1853-1942) pioneered new techniques and methods of recording, and was exemplary in his publication.71 These were echoed in J.P. Droop’s Cambridge University Press handbook, Archaeological Excavation, derived from his experiences with the British excavations in the Aegean and especially on the island of Melos.72 And in Oxford, J.H. Parker of the Ashmolean Museum could ask in a public lecture of 1870:73 What is archaeology? It is History in detail, and the details are tenfold more interesting than the dry skeletons called School histories. Details give life and interest to any subject. Archaeology is also history taught by the eye, by showing a series of tangible objects; and what we have once seen we can remember far better than anything of which we have only heard or read … When Archaeology is made part of the system of Education in Oxford … any educated man will feel it a disgrace to be ignorant of it. The subject in For the development of classical archaeology at Cambridge: Cook 1931. Renewal: ‘University intelligence’, The Manchester Guardian 21 January 1903, 5. 64 Burn 2016, 125. 65 Gill 2011; Gill 2012; Gill 2018. 66 Richard M. Dawkins who also served as director of the British School had linguistics as his main focus for research. However, he also worked on key prehistoric sites in the Aegean. See Gill 2004b. 67 Lamb published some of Ridgeway’s objects presented to the Fitzwilliam: Lamb 1936/37. For a discussion of the material acquired in this period: Gill 2012. 68 Clark 1989; Smith 2009. 69 Phillips 1987, 51–52. For the development of prehistory during the inter-war period: Gill 2000. 70 Bowden 1991. 71 Drower 1995. For the development of archaeology as a discipline in Egypt: James 1982. 72 Droop 1915. Droop’s handbook was remembered for discouraging women to take an active part on excavations. 73 Parker 1870. Quoted in Daniel 1967, 140–41. 63

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itself, in its general outline, is so simple and easy, and when that outline is once understood is so easily followed up in one branch or another, and so useful for assisting to understand other branches of history, that it seems impossible that it should not be taken up in earnest. It was such visionary statements such as this that helped to transform the discipline. This growth of archaeology as a discipline is reflected in the creation of archaeological lectureships in the period up to the outbreak of the First World War. This included positions in London, Liverpool, Manchester and Birmingham, frequently held by former students of the British School at Athens, and thus giving a Mediterranean slant to the study of the past.74 Ridgeway was succeeded in 1927 by (Sir) George Ellis Minns (1874–1953), university lecturer in palaeography, who had worked in Russia gaining first-hand experience of archaeology there including studies on the Scythians.75 This move away from classical archaeology was noted:76 His appointment to the Disney Chair carried on the tradition so nobly maintained by his immediate predecessor Ridgeway that the Disney Professor should be more or less omniscient. It is true that he was less strong than Ridgeway on purely classical archaeology, though he knew more about it than many professed classical archaeologists, but on the Middle Ages and on the whole vast range of Central and Northern Europe and Asia he was a leading authority. His knowledge of languages was extraordinary. It was at this point that the Disney Chair moved from being an occasional lectureship to a full-time role. The Chair was formally assigned to the Faculty of Archaeology and Anthropology and ‘the duties of the professor are to give instruction in and to promote the progress of archaeological studies within that Faculty’.77 His inaugural lecture reviewed the ‘typology’ of archaeologists.78 He saw E.D. Clarke, who gave a collection of sculptures to Cambridge, as one his predecessors. The lecture also described the Russian Academy for the History of Material Culture. One of the projects that Minns supported was the creation of a Folk Museum for Cambridgeshire.79 Minns retired in 1939 and was succeeded by Dorothy Garrod (1892–1968).80 She For the growth in archaeology lectureships staffed by former students of the British School at Athens: Gill 2011. 75 Minns 1913; Minns 1942. For Minns: Anon. 2004. Announcement: ‘Sir William Ridgeway’s successor’, The Manchester Guardian 31 July 1927, 13. Obituary: ‘Sir Ellis Minns’, The Manchester Guardian 16 June 1953, 9. 76 ‘Sir Ellis Minns’, The Manchester Guardian 16 June 1953, 9. There had been anticipation that the Chair would move away from classical archaeology: ‘The May Term at Cambridge’, The Manchester Guardian 14 June 1927, 20. See also Clark 1989, 30. 77 ‘University news’, The Manchester Guardian 1 August 1927, 11. 78 ‘Art of the steppes’, The Times 28 November 1927, 11. 79 ‘Cambridge’, The Observer 3 November 1935, 29. It was suggested that objects from the Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology could be offered to the new institution. 80 Bar-Yosef and Callander 2004; Callander 2004; Smith 2009, 69–102. C.A. Ralegh Radford, director of the British School at Rome and former Inspector of Ancient Monuments in Wales, had also applied for the Chair: Todd 2004. For Garrod: Smith, et al. 1997; Pope 2011, 67–68. See also ‘Woman professor at Cambridge’, Daily Telegraph 2 October 1939, 9; ‘Cambridge’s first woman professor’, Daily Telegraph 19 74

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had studied history at Newnham College, but her research interests lay initially in the British Palaeolithic, and she had then excavated in Gibraltar and the Near East including Mount Carmel. Her appointment drew comment:81 The choice which aroused most general interest was that of Miss Dorothy Garrod, of Newnham, as Disney Professor of Archaeology, the first woman professor in either Oxford or Cambridge. This election surprised the women’s colleges much more than it surprised the rest of the University, for all the men in close touch with modern feeling knew that any body of professorial electors would regard sex as irrelevant, while the women could not shake off the ingrained feeling that the dice would always be loaded against them. Miss Garrod’s distinction is quite beyond dispute, and her personality admirably fits her for the work of the head of a department. Her inaugural lecture emphasised humans in the wider landscape.82 In many ways her career, including fieldwork in the Mediterranean, mirrored that of her Newnham contemporary, Winifred Lamb, who was honorary keeper of Greek antiquities at the Fitzwilliam Museum.83 Lamb, by the time that war had broken out, had directed her own excavations on the Greek islands of Lesbos and Chios and in mainland Turkey.84 During the inter-war period Cambridge established the Laurence Chair of Classical Archaeology, that was first held by Arthur B. Cook (1868–1952) in 1931.85 Cook’s research interests lay in the development of Greek religion, and in particular his study of Zeus. He was followed in 1934 by Alan J.B. Wace, a former director of the British School at Athens, who had excavated at Mycenae immediately after the First World War.86 His inaugural lecture took the theme, ‘An Approach to Greek Sculpture’, a topic that had interested him from his early days as a student in Greece.87 He spent much of the war years in Greece and then in Egypt, and resigned the Cambridge Chair in 1944. Landscape archaeology was developed from Cambridge through the work of Charles W. Phillips, the librarian of Selwyn College.88 His work focussed on the Fens. He was notably involved with the excavation of the Anglo-Saxon shipburial at Sutton Hoo in Suffolk, along with William Francis Grimes who had gained archaeological experience through his work with the National Museum in Cardiff, and subsequently with the archaeological team within the Ordnance Survey.89 Such developments in Cambridge found a parallel in the foundation of the Institute of December 1968, 14; ‘Woman professor at Cambridge’, The Observer 7 May 1939, 15; ‘First woman professor’, The Manchester Guardian 8 May 1939, 12. 81 ‘The May Term at Cambridge’, The Manchester Guardian 21 June 1939, 7. See also Pope 2011, 63. 82 Garrod 1946. 83 Gill 2018. Both Lamb and Garrod were Roman Catholics. 84 Lamb 1930/31; Lamb 1934/35; Lamb 1936b; Lamb 1936a; Lamb 1937. 85 Gill 2004a. 86 Gill 2004f. 87 Wace 1935. For Wace’s earlier interest in sculpture: Wace 1902/03; Wace 1905; Wace 1906. Wace had published the controversial ‘Fitzwilliam Goddess’: Wace 1927. 88 Phillips 1987. 89 For Grimes: Gill 2004e. For the Ordnance Survey and archaeology: Ordnance Survey 1973.

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Archaeology in London by (Sir) Mortimer Wheeler,90 as well as the prehistoric work of V. Gordon Childe in Edinburgh.91 Wheeler had been involved in Roman projects at Colchester, Brecon (Y Gaer) and Caerleon before he moved to London. He had then worked on the major Iron Age hillfort at Maiden Castle. Returning to Cambridge, Wace was followed in the Laurence Chair by Arnold W. Lawrence (brother of T.E. Lawrence) whose interest lay in Greek architecture,92 and in 1951 by Jocelyn M.C. Toynbee who worked on the material culture of Roman Britain.93 Elsewhere in Britain there was an emphasis on the recovery of archaeological remains in war-damaged cities.94 Toynbee was invited to publish the sculptures from the Mithraeum excavated at Walbrook in London by Grimes and Audrey Williams that had so captured the public imagination.95 Subsequent holders of the Laurence Chair included two Greek archaeologists, Robert M. Cook and Anthony M. Snodgrass, and the Romanist Martin Millett.96 Snodgrass in particular was a pioneer in the use of intensive field-surveys to understand changing landscapes in the Greek world.97 In this he shared an interest with two holders of the Disney Chair who have conducted field-surveys in Greece: Colin Renfrew on Melos,98 and Cyprian Broodbank on Kythera.99 Graeme Barker has also used this approach in Italy and elsewhere.100 In the post-war period the holders of the Disney Chair helped to form archaeology and anthropology at Cambridge: Grahame Clark (1952–1974), Glyn Daniel (1974–1981), Colin Renfrew (1981–2004), and Graeme Barker (2004–2014).101 Clark’s research interests lay in the Mesolithic, and he directed the excavations at Star Carr in Yorkshire.102 Daniel had a strong interest in the history of archaeology, and also engaged with television raising the public perception of archaeology.103 This included his involvement in ‘Animal, vegetable, mineral?’ through the 1950s, through which he received the award of ‘TV Personality of the Year’. Barker had been a former Director of the British School at Rome, and directed regional projects in Italy.104 The present holder of the Chair, Cyprian Broodbank, has his research

Hawkes 1982. See also Carr 2012. For the list of supporters: Peers, et al. 1932. Green 1981; Gathercole 2004. 92 Lawrence 1957. 93 Toynbee 1962. See also Pope 2011, 68. 94 E.g. the work of William Francis Grimes: Shepherd 1998. See also Gill 2000; Gill 2004e. For a wider view of archaeological work in wartime: Richmond 1943. 95 Toynbee 1986. The Mithraeum can now be viewed in the basement of the Bloomberg building. 96 Cook 1972; Snodgrass 1987; Millett 1995. 97 Bintliff and Snodgrass 1988. 98 Renfrew and Wagstaff 1982. 99 Broodbank 1999. 100 E.g. Barker and Lloyd 1991. 101 See the observations on the changing nature of the Chair: Hoffmann 1983. For the wider intellectual setting: Trigger 1989. For archaeology after the Second World War: Barker 2007. 102 Appointment: ‘University news’, The Manchester Guardian 13 October 1952, 2. 103 Daniel 1967; Daniel 1992. For his obituary: Hammond 1989. 104 Barker and Lloyd 1991. 90 91

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interest rooted in the prehistoric Aegean including intensive field-surveys.105 Both Renfrew and Broodbank have strong fieldwork links with the Cyclades.106 Archaeology is now a key area of study at Cambridge, based in the McDonald Institute of Archaeology adjacent to the Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology off Downing Street. More recently the ground floor of the Founder’s Building of the Fitzwilliam Museum received a major refurbishment with a redisplay of the Greek and Roman antiquities.107 The galleries developed by Winifred Lamb and her successor Richard V. Nicholls were transformed,108 and a special display relating to Disney and his sculpture collection was installed in the central gallery where they were first placed more than a century and a half ago.109 The cast gallery, once a sub-department of the Fitzwilliam and located on Little St Mary’s Lane, is now integrated as the Museum of Classical Archaeology as part of the Faculty of Classics in the Sedgwick site.110 Cambridge archaeology has moved from the study of classical artefacts, to a holistic study of material culture from around the globe.

Conclusion The reasons behind the gift of the Disney collection and the establishment of the Disney Chair of Archaeology cast light on the multi-faceted activities by landed families in the first half of the nineteenth century. The benefactions have their origin in the eighteenth-century Grand Tour, but the transfer of the collection is due to the dissenting spirit generated by the enlightenment. It was fed by a spirit of republicanism that was moderated by the realities of the horror of the French Revolution. But Disney’s world also shows the transformation of English culture and society through the activities of the Royal Society, and then the creation of local intellectual groups at a county level. Perhaps more significantly was the desire for local landed families to engage with the heritage of their counties, and to explore it through the medium of archaeology. Scholarship has not always been kind to Disney. Adolf Michaelis in his 1882 study of ancient sculptures in public and private collections in Great Britain described the Disney collection as trash rather than treasure.111 While it is true that many of the pieces acquired by Disney himself were of modern creation, there are some outstandingly important pieces derived from the Hyde’s collection. There can be little doubt that Disney’s gift to the University of Cambridge has made a sustained international impact on the study of the past through the discipline of archaeology. But it is the route to this gift that is the wonderful world of Disney. E.g. Broodbank 2000. Renfrew and Wagstaff 1982; Renfrew 1991; Renfrew 2007; Renfrew, et al. 2008; Broodbank 2013. 107 For developments in the museum: Burn 2016. 108 For Nicholls at the Fitzwilliam: Nicholls 1961/2; Nicholls 1965/6; Nicholls 1970/1. 109 For Lamb’s creation of the original prehistoric gallery at the Fitzwilliam, now the gallery displaying Cypriot antiquities: Gill 2018. 110 Beard 1993. 111 Michaelis 1882, 159. This view is countered by Vout 2012. 105 106

Abbreviations BAPD Beazley Archive Pottery Database BL British Library Cambridge FM Cambridge, Fitzwilliam Museum Kew NA Kew, National Archives London BM London, British Museum ODNB Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (Oxford: Oxford University Press) RIB Roman Inscriptions of Britain

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Index Adams, John 41, 43 All Souls, Langham Place 70 Amherst, William Pitt 53, 54 Amyot, Thomas 78, 79 Argyle, Duke of 36, 37 Artaud, William 54 Askew, Sir William 1 Augustinus, Leonardus 36, 37 Babington, Reverend Churchill 115, 116, 117, 118 Bankes, Henry 63 Banting, Ann 66 Barker, Graeme 123 Baron, Richard 32 Basire, James 12, 24, 59, 135 Bathe, Sir William de 104 Beard, Lucia 48, 119, 124, 126 Belsham, Thomas 10, 12, 13, 16, 18, 23, 24 Berkshire 61 Blackburne, Archdeacon Francis vii, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 40, 42, 47, 52, 59 Blackburne, Sara 22, 23, 24, 25 Blackburne, Dr Thomas 16 Blackburne, Dr William 23 Bonham, Major G.W. 77 Bosanquet, Robert Carr 118, 120 Bracci, Abbate 37 Bramston, Thomas William 50, 80, 81 Brand, Thomas See Brand-Hollis, Thomas Brand-Hollis, Thomas vi, vii, 11, 13, 14, 15, 23, 24, 25, 26, 40, 41, 42, 43, 44, 45, 46, 47, 50, 52, 58, 59, 60, 62, 71, 88, 93, 94 Broke, Elizabeth 5, 106 Broodbank, Cyprian 123 Brooke, Reverend Thomas 8, 41, 70, 82 Brooksby, Thomas 68 Brouncker, Barbara 73, 113

Browne, Reverend George Forrest 119 Brown, John Dudin 50, 104 Buckinghamshire 33 Buckland, William 78, 79 Burgogyne, General 6 Burke, Edmund 1, 33 Calais, Dunkirk, and West Flanders Junction Railway 107 Cambridge v, vi, vii, viii, 1, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 11, 15, 22, 23, 30, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37, 38, 39, 43, 45, 57, 62, 74, 75, 76, 79, 88, 90, 91, 92, 93, 94, 95, 96, 97, 101, 102, 108, 109, 110, 111, 112, 114, 115, 116, 117, 118, 119, 120, 121, 122, 123, 124, 125 Cambridgeshire 116, 121 Canada 6, 41, 73, 104, 113 Cartwright, Frances 5, 8, 15, 22, 23, 57 Cartwright, John 15 Cavalieri, Marquis de 33 Chambers, Reverend Andrew 18, 32, 40 Chambers, William 18, 32, 40 Cheshire 68, 70, 115 Childe, V. Gordon 123 China 48 Christie, James 30, 88, 112 Clark, Grahame 123 Clarke, E.D. 79, 121 Clarke, Reverend John 7 Clementi, Abbate 37 Colvin, Sidney 117 Combe, Taylor 88 Cook, Arthur B. 119, 122 Cook, Robert M. 123 Cranstoun, Lady 66 Cuit, George 59 Cumberland, William Augustus, the Duke of 28 Daniel, Glyn 123 Darwin, Charles 78, 107 De Isney, Lambert 1 De Leddred, Gilbert 1 Delver, Pierce See Hollis, Thomas 139

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Disneian School of navigation, hydrography, and nautical astronomy 103 Disney, Algernon 14, 57, 66, 94 Disney, Daniel 3, 4 Disney, Edgar 60, 61, 63, 68, 70, 72, 73, 81, 111, 112, 113 Disney, Edgar John 61, 73, 111, 113 Disney, Frederick 5, 6, 7, 22, 31, 50, 51 D’Isney, Sir Henry 1, 2 Disney, Jane 13, 14, 15, 18, 19, 23, 24, 31, 50, 51 Disney, Dr John vi, vii, 1, 7, 44, 45, 46, 47, 49, 50, 51, 52, 53, 55, 56, 57, 58, 59, 60, 61, 62, 63, 64, 65, 66, 67, 68, 69, 70, 71, 72, 73, 74, 75, 76, 78, 79, 80, 81, 82, 83, 84, 85, 86, 88, 89, 90, 92, 93, 94, 95, 96, 97, 101, 102, 103, 104, 105, 107, 108, 109, 110, 111, 112, 113, 115, 116, 117, 118, 119, 121, 122, 123, 124 Disney, Reverend John vi, vii, 15, 24, 25, 26, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 35, 36, 37, 38, 40, 41, 42, 43, 44, 45, 46, 47, 49, 50, 51, 52, 53, 55, 56, 57, 58, 59, 60, 61, 62, 111 Disney, Molyneux 2 Disney, Sir Moore 68, 70 Disney, Richard 1, 3 Disney, Sophia vi, vii, 49, 51, 52, 53, 57, 60, 61, 62, 64, 67, 68, 69, 70, 73, 89, 92, 110, 111 D’Isney, Sir William 1, 2 Disney-Ffytche, Lewis vi, vii, 3, 18, 24, 25, 41, 47, 49, 50, 51, 52, 53, 55, 56, 57, 64, 67, 68, 70, 89, 92 Dodson, Michael 24 Dorset vi, vii, 10, 27, 39, 40, 47, 52, 60, 61, 63, 64, 73, 86, 88 Droop, J.P. 120 Dumfriesshire 119 Duncan, P.M. 101 Durno, James 53 Edinburgh, University of 15, 123 Egypt 115, 118, 120, 122 Ellis, Sir Henry 121 Elsworth, Hannah 9

Elsworth, Joshua 9 Essex vi, vii, 4, 6, 8, 13, 14, 17, 18, 19, 20, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 28, 40, 41, 42, 43, 45, 46, 47, 48, 49, 50, 51, 52, 54, 55, 57, 58, 59, 60, 61, 63, 64, 65, 66, 67, 68, 69, 70, 71, 72, 73, 74, 76, 77, 78, 79, 80, 81, 82, 83, 85, 86, 87, 88, 94, 95, 96, 97, 98, 99, 100, 101, 102, 103, 104, 105, 106, 107, 110, 111, 112, 113, 115 Eyre, Reverend John 50, 51 Ffytche, Elizabeth vi, vii, 3, 6, 18, 24, 25, 41, 47, 48, 49, 50, 51, 52, 53, 55, 56, 57, 64, 67, 68, 70, 89, 92 Fillingham, William 52 Finch, Robert 76 Flaxman, John 45, 88 Foster, Sir Michael 24 Fox, Augustus Lane 120 France vi, vii, 5, 22, 28, 29, 44, 51, 52, 53, 54, 55, 57, 73, 76, 106, 116 Fremont, Colonel John Charles 104, 105 Frend, Reverend William 21, 22, 26, 48 22, 25, 51 Fynes-Clinton, Catherine 3 Fytche, Thomas 47, 48, 49, 50 Fytche, William 47, 48, 49, 50 Gandy, Joseph Michael 54 Gardner, Ernest A. 33, 79, 118, 119 Gardner, Percy 118, 119 Garrod, Dorothy 121, 122 Germany 29, 73, 116 Glasgow, University of 26, 27 Goetze, Mrs Constance 112 Goslin, John 67 Greece 79, 88, 89, 97, 102, 110, 118, 119, 122, 123 Grey, Eleanor 2 Grimes, William Francis 122, 123 Hall, Reverend John 23 Harris, William 10, 11, 32 Hatchett, Charles 78, 79 Hawkins, Edward 38, 89 Hay, Drummond 74, 75 Hayward, Abraham 5 Head, Guy 12, 24, 53

Index Herries, John Charles 66 Hewetson, Christopher 53 Hillary, Frances vii, ix, 46, 48, 49, 51, 52, 53, 54, 55, 56, 57, 64, 65, 66, 67, 68, 69, 70, 94, 110 Hillary, Wilhelmina 56, 57, 69, 70 Hillary, Sir William vii, 53, 54, 55, 56, 57, 67, 68, 69, 70, 94, 110 Hollister, John 27 Hollis, Thomas 10, 11, 25, 26, 27, 29, 31, 33, 35, 37, 39, 41, 42, 43, 45, 46, 47, 52, 53 Howson, Thomas 5 Hudson, James 6, 68 Hurd, Richard 15 Hussey, Thomas 1 Hussey, William 1 Hutcheson, Francis 26 Iceland 19 India vi, 48, 77 Italy vi, vii, 5, 10, 28, 29, 37, 51, 53, 54, 57, 76, 89, 90, 92, 93, 123 Jebb, John 22, 23, 25, 43, 44 Jenkins, Reverend Henry 101 Jenkins, Thomas 31, 33, 35, 54 Jervis, Reverend Thomas 61, 62, 63 Jesse, Captain William 73, 74, 104, 105, 106, 107 Jesse, Reverend William 73 Kauffman, Angelica 53 Lamb, Winifred vi, 120, 122, 124 Lancashire 55, 83 Lasinio, Carlo 90 Law, Edmund 7, 8, 11, 15 Lawrence, Arnold W. 123 Leake, Colonel William M. 78, 79, 96, 115, 116 Leake, John Martin 79, 96 Lincolnshire vii, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 7, 12, 15, 16, 17, 18, 49, 50, 51 Lindsey, Reverend Theophilus 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 31, 39, 40, 41, 48, 54, 57 iii, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17,

141

18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 31, 41, 42, 43, 51, 57, 60 Lloyd, William iii, 33, 35, 36, 123 Locke, John 10, 31 London vi, vii, 2, 6, 8, 10, 13, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 29, 31, 32, 33, 40, 41, 42, 43, 44, 45, 47, 48, 49, 50, 51, 55, 57, 60, 61, 63, 66, 68, 70, 71, 72, 78, 79, 81, 82, 90, 94, 103, 104, 107, 112, 115, 119, 121, 122, 123, 125 Lowth, Robert 50, 51 Maclean, Dr Allan 74 Malahide, Lord Talbot de 108 Marsden, Reverend John Howard 96, 97, 101, 102, 108, 110, 115, 116 Marsden, William 96 Maty, Paul Henry 22 Mead, Dr Richard 32, 36, 37, 76, 89 Meggy, George 83 Michaelis, Adolf 112, 124 Millar, Andrew 10 Millett, Martin 123 Minns, Sir George Ellis 121 Monmouth, Duke of 2 Neale, Thomas Clarkson 79, 80, 81, 82 Newton, Sir Charles 89, 118 New York 6, 30, 32, 104 Nicholls, Richard V. 33, 35, 36, 37, 38, 45, 75, 76, 90, 92, 124 Noellekens, Joseph 45 Normandy 1 Northumberland 127 Nottinghamshire vii, 1, 3, 5, 6, 7, 13, 14, 15, 47, 49, 50, 52, 72 Nouveau Monde, Mining Company 99, 100, 101, 103 103, 104, 105, 106, 107 Oxford 14, 54, 79, 92, 108, 118, 120, 122 Pacetti, Vincenzo 54, 132 Paris, John Ayrton 78, 79 Parker, Charles George 68, 69, 70 Parker, J.H. 120 Penrose, Francis Cranmer 118 Petrie, Flinders 118, 120 Phillips, Charles W. 120, 122 Porten, Stanier 30

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The World of Disney

Pozzi, Andrea 30 Preston, Christopher Richard 67, 68, 70, 110 Preston, Richard Christopher 77, 110 Priestley, Joseph 44 Rankin, C. 69, 76 Renfrew, Lord (Colin) 123 Ridgeway, Sir William 119, 120, 121 Rokewode, John Gage 79 Rutherforth, Thomas 7, 11 Savile, Sir George 13 Saville, George 74 Scoffin, Reverend William 3 Scotland 6, 28, 56, 119 Scott, Thomas 56 Shropshire 14, 26 Sicily 30, 68 Sloane, Sir Hans 32 Smith, Charles Roach 98, 99 Snodgrass, Anthony M. 119, 123 Society for the Promotion of Arts, Manufactuers, and Commerce 31 Staunton, Sir George Thomas 78, 79 St George’s, Hanover Square 55, 57 St Giles, Bloomsbury 61 St Mary’s, Marylebone 73 St Mary’s, Nottingham 4 St Poll, George 1 Suffolk 2, 5, 65, 70, 73, 74, 79, 96, 97, 99, 100, 112, 115, 117, 118, 122 Sussex, Duke of 53, 55 Switzerland 5, 28, 29, 52, 53, 116 Talbot, Fox 81, 108 Tate, James 59 Tayleur, William 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 21, 22, 23, 24, 43 Taylor, John 3, 88, 105 Thoroton, Colonel Thomas 51, 52 Tobin, Caesar 56 Toulmin, Joshua 17 Toynbee, Jocelyn M.C. 74, 123 Trentanove, Raimondo 75, 110 Tufnell, Henry 92 Turner, William 13, 18, 19, 20, 39, 40, 41, 42, 43, 47, 60

Turnor, Edmund 5, 7, 12 Tyrell, Sir John 63, 66 Tyrwhitt, Robert 22 Unitarian vii, 8, 14, 18, 20, 61, 108 Victoria, Queen 66, 73, 83 Wace, Alan J.B. 120, 122, 123 Wales 48, 79, 119, 121 Waller, Edmund 33 Wallis, G.A. 54 Wallis, John 10 Ward, Dr John 27, 38 Washington, George 44 Watts, Isaac 20 Weber, Sir Hermann 112 Webster, Joseph Samuel 38 Western, Charles Callis 65, 102 Westmacott, Richard 37, 54, 88, 89 Westmacott, Sir Richard 37, 54, 88, 89 Wheeler, Sir Mortimer 122, 123 Williams, Audrey 123 Willis, Robert 94, 108 Wilson, Richard 30 Wiltshire 24, 40, 41 Wire, William 98, 99, 100, 101 Woolhouse, William 3 Worsley, Sir Richard 89 Wycombe, John Henry Petty 53 Wyvill, Reverend Christopher 41, 59, 60 Yorke, John 9 Yorkshire 1, 2, 8, 9, 10, 13, 17, 20, 56, 57, 59, 61, 123