Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-jn8rn Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-24T18:17:05.916Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

The Society of Antiquaries, 1707–18: meeting places and origin stories

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  03 August 2009

Dai Morgan Evans
Dai Morgan Evans*
Affiliation:
Dai Morgan Evans, 24 Avenue South, Surbiton KT5 8PJ, UK. E-mail: [email protected]
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

The genesis of this paper lay in the 2007 Tercentenary celebrations of the Society of Antiquaries and the challenge of compiling a tour of the premises used by the Society for its meetings prior to the Society’s move into a permanent home at Somerset House in 1780. The first part of the paper deals with the competing claims of the Bear in the Strand and the Young Devil taverns as the location for the foundation meeting of the Society of Antiquaries in 1707. The second part examines the evidence for the precise locations of these two taverns, a subject curiously neglected by antiquaries, together with an attempt to determine the character of the taverns. The paper then considers the demise of the 1707 Society and examines the evidence for the claim that 1707 marks the foundation year of the present Society of Antiquaries. Reference is also made to the other known meeting places of the Society up to 1718.

Résumé

La genèse de cette communication remonte aux fêtes du tricentenaire de la Société des Antiquaires et à la gageure que représentait la compilation d’un tour des bâtiments utilisés par la Société avant le déménagement de la Société vers sa résidence permanente à Somerset House en 1780. La première partie de la communication traite des prétentions rivales des tavernes ‘Bear in the Strand [L’ours du Strand] et ‘Young Devil’ [Le jeune diable] à avoir été le lieu de la réunion de fondation de la Société des Antiquaires en 1707. La deuxième partie examine les indices portant sur l’emplacement précis de ces deux tavernes, un sujet négligé, chose curieuse, par les antiquaires, et essaie aussi de déterminer le caractère des dites tavernes. Ensuite, la communication prend en considération la fin la Société de 1707 et examine les indices concernant la revendication selon laquelle 1707 marquerait l’année de la fondation de la Société des Antiquaires actuelle. On fait également référence aux autres lieux de réunion connus de la Société jusqu’à 1718.

Zusammenfassung

Das ursprüngliche Konzept dieser Abhandlung wurde während der dreihundertjährigen Jubiläumsfeier im Jahr 2007 der Society of Antiquaries erdacht, bei der Herausforderung einen Rundgang der Räumlichkeiten zusammenzustellen, die von der Society genutzt wurden, bevor sie in ihren festen Sitz in Somerset House 1780 einnahm. Der erste Teil dieser Abhandlung setzt sich mit den konkurrierenden Behauptungen auseinander, daß die Gasthäuser ‘Bear in the Strand’ und ‘Young Devil’ der Schauplatz der Gründungstreffen der Society of Antiquaries im Jahr 1707 waren. Der zweite Teil untersucht die Hinweise für den genauen Ort dieser beiden Gasthäuser, ein Thema, daß seltsamerweise von den Altertumsforschern vernachlässigt wird, und es wird versucht den Charakter der Gasthäuser zu bestimmen. Es wird der Verfall der Society im Jahr 1707 besprochen und es werden die Andeutungen untersucht, daß das Jahr 1707 das Gründungsjahr der heutigen Society of Antiquaries signiert. Andere bekannte Begegnungsstätten bis ins Jahr 1718 werden ebenfalls erwähnt.

Type
Original Article
Information
The Antiquaries Journal , Volume 89 , September 2009 , pp. 323 - 335
Copyright
Copyright © The Society of Antiquaries of London 2009

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Allan, D G C 2001. The Adelphi Past and Present: a history and guide, London: Calder WalkerGoogle Scholar
Allen, R J 1933. The Clubs of Augustan London, Cambridge, Mass: Harvard University PressGoogle Scholar
Bell, W G 1912. Fleet Street in Seven Centuries, London: PitmanGoogle Scholar
British Architectural Library 2001. Early Printed Books 1478–1840. IV: S–Z, London: Bowker-SaurGoogle Scholar
Chancellor, E B 1912. Annals of Fleet Street, London: Chapman HallGoogle Scholar
The City Press 1860, no. 153, iii, 2 June 1860Google Scholar
Clayton, T 2004. ‘Gerard Vandergucht 1696/7–1776’, in Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (eds H C G Matthew and B Harrison), 56, 90–91, Oxford: Oxford University PressGoogle Scholar
Ditchfield, P H 1908. Memorials of Old London, 2 vols, London: Bemrose & SonsGoogle Scholar
Evans, A 1917. ‘Presidential address of Sir Arthur Evans, given on 23 April 1917’, Proc Soc Antiq, 2nd ser, 29, 155–184Google Scholar
Evans, J 1956. A History of the Society of Antiquaries, Oxford: Oxford University PressGoogle Scholar
Gaimster, D, McCarthy, S Nurse, B (eds) 2007. Making History: antiquaries in Britain 1707–2007, London: Royal Academy of ArtsGoogle Scholar
Gater, G (ed) 1937. Survey of London. 18, Strand and St Martin’s in the Fields, Part II, London: University of LondonGoogle Scholar
Gough, R 1770. Archaeologia, 1, 1770, i–xxxixGoogle Scholar
Harris, J 2008. ‘William and John Talman: architecture and a partnership’, in Sicca (ed) 2008a, 97–126Google Scholar
Heyworth, P 1989. Letters of Humfrey Wanley: palaeographer, Anglo-Saxonist, librarian 1672–1726, Oxford: Clarendon PressGoogle Scholar
Heyworth, P 2004. ‘Humfrey Wanley 1672–1726’, in Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (eds H C G Matthew and B Harrison), 57, 239–242, Oxford: Oxford University PressGoogle Scholar
Kieven, E 2008. ‘Models of perfection: John Talman and Roman Baroque architecture’, in Sicca (ed) 2008a, 189–210Google Scholar
Lillywhite, B 1967. London Coffee Houses: a reference book of coffee houses of the seventeenth, eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, London: Allen & UnwinGoogle Scholar
Lillywhite, B 1972. London Signs: a reference book of London signs from earliest times to about the mid-nineteenth century, London: Allen & UnwinGoogle Scholar
MacGregor, A 2007. ‘Forging an identity: the early Society and its context, 1707–51’, in Pearce (ed) 2007a, 44–73Google Scholar
Nichols, J 1812. Literary Anecdotes of the Eighteenth Century, vi, London: J NicholsGoogle Scholar
Noble, T C 1870. Memorials of Temple Bar, London: Diprose & BatemanGoogle Scholar
Parry, G 1997. ‘The John Talman Letter Book’, Walpole Society, 59, 3–173Google Scholar
Pearce, S M (ed) 2007a. Visions of Antiquity: the Society of Antiquaries of London 1707–2007, Archaeologia 111Google Scholar
Pearce, S M 2007b. ‘Introduction’, in Pearce (ed) 2007a, 1–10Google Scholar
Phillips, H 1964. Mid-Georgian London: a topographical and social survey of central and western London about 1750, London: CollinsGoogle Scholar
Picard, L 2000. Dr Johnson’s London: life in London 1740–1770, London: Weidenfeld & NicolsonGoogle Scholar
Piggott, S 1985. William Stukeley: an eighteenth-century antiquary, London: Thames & HudsonGoogle Scholar
Sicca, C M (ed) 2008a. John Talman: an early eighteenth-century connoisseur, New Haven: Yale University PressGoogle Scholar
Sicca, C M 2008b. ‘The making and unraveling of John Talman’s collection of drawings’, in Sicca (ed) 2008a, 1–76Google Scholar
Timbs, J 1866. Club Life of London, 2 vols, London: Richard BentleyGoogle Scholar
Weaver, L 1916. ‘Notes on Maurice Johnson and the early meetings of the Society’, Proc Soc Antiq, 2nd ser, 28, 135–139Google Scholar
Woolf, D 2003. The Social Circulation of the Past: English historical culture 1500–1730, Oxford: Oxford University PressGoogle Scholar