8/4/2019 Robin Alston Society Antiquaries
1/2
The Society or College of Antiquaries
1586-1607
In 1586, according to accounts of this society founded
originally under the patronage of Archbishop Matthew Parker
(1504-1575), but not meeting formally until the year after his
death, a group of historians and collectors of books and
manuscripts, began meeting at the house in Debry Place occupied
by the College of Arms to discuss lectures prepared by
members on subjects of historical importance. The history of
this Society/College (it is referred to in manuscripts as both)
has never been throroughly studied, in spite of the fact that
many of the discourses presented to the Society survived andwere
transferred from the Cotton library to Thomas Smith, who prepared
the first printed catalogue of Cottons wonderful
collection, now in the British Library. Sir Richard Spelman was
a member and contributed an essay on the original of the
law terms, printed in Edmund Gibsons edition of Reliquae
Spelannianae (Oxford, 1698), reprinted in 1723 as part of
Volume II ofThe English Works of Sir Henry Spelman, Kt. Publishd
in his Life-time; together with his Posthumous Works,
London, 1723. There is a brief account in Pierre Des Maizeauxs
introduction to the 1723 edition of Richard Carews Survey
of Cornwall which is based on Smith. Contemporary accounts of
the membership known are: Cotton Julius F x; Cotton
Faustina E v; Harley 2077; Harley 5177. Note: Joan Evans, A
History of the Society of Antiquaries, Oxford, 1856; May,
Mackisack, Medieval History in the Tudor Age, Oxford, 1971;
Graham Parry, Trophies of Time: English Antiquarians of the
Seventeenth Century, Oxford, 1996;
The membership of the Society has never been precisely
determined but the following are known to have attended
meetings
and submitted papers, many of which were printed by Thomas
Hearne in his Collection of Curious Discoursespublished at
Oxford in 1720.___________
Agard, Arthur (1535?-1615) Andrewes, Lancelot (1555-1626)
Beale, Robert (1541-1601) Bolton, Mary Edmund (1574?-1634?)
Bourchier, Henry, Earl of Bath (1587?-1654 Bowyer, Robert
(1560?-1621)
Broughton, Hugh (1549-1612) Camden, William (1551-1623)
Carew, Richard (1555-1620) Coke, Sir Edward (1552-1634)
Cope, Sir Walter (1553?-1614) Cotton, Sir Robert Bruce
(1571-1631)
Davies, Sir John (1569-1626) Dethick, Sir William
(1543-1612)
Dodderidge, Sir John (1555-1628) DOyly, Thomas (1530?-1598?)
Erdeswick, Sampson (1538?-1603) Fleetwood, William
(1525-1594)
Hakewill, William (1574-1655) Hartwell, Abraham (1553-1606)
Heneage, Michael (1540-1600) Holland, Joseph (d. 1605)
Jones, Sir William (1566-1640) Lake, Sir Thomas (1561-1630)
Lambarde, William (1536-1601) Leigh [Ley], Francis (d. 1653)
Ley, James (1550-1629) Patten, William (d. 1599?)
Savile, Sir John (1546-1607) Spelman, Sir Henry (1563?-1641)
Stow, John (1524?-1605) Strangman, James (1555?-1596?)
Talbot, Thomas (1535?-1599?) Tate, Francis (1560-1616)
Thynne, Francis (1545?-1608) Townshend, Hayward
(1577?-1610?)
Whitelocke, Sir James (1570-1632)
Exactly a hundred years after the last formal meeting, the
Socciety was re-founded in 1707.
The Society or College of Antiquaries
http://web.archive.org/web/20090103215057/http://www.r-als...
1 of 2 25/08/2011 11:29
