Part 1
Eric Rudsdale wrote a series
of articles for the Essex Review (Vol LVI Nos 221-224, 1947) commemorating the
centenary of the Colchester Museum (1846-1946).
“It was in May 1846, that the
Colchester Town Council … agreed to Councillor John Taylor’s suggestion that
provision be made in the new building [Town Hall] ‘or some other place, for the
deposit of articles of antiquity or curiosity intended for a Museum to be
erected in this Town’. Taylor was an
antiquarian and it was really his persistence which opened an accessions book,
beginning with the first entry on 2 September that year, “The gift of ‘An
Antique Cabinet containing 497 coins (chiefly Roman), collected by Issac Lemyng
Rebow, Esq., (grandson of Sir Isaac Rebow), who died in 1734.’”
The Colchester citizen who was
destined to do a considerable amount towards the creation of a Museum was
William Wire, who descended from an ancient Colchester family. He was “a born archaeologist”. He had separately acquired in the 1840s what
was the nucleus of a Museum and recorded in his diary on 28 October 1846:
“’Carried to the Town Hall, where a room is set apart for the reception of
articles … a pair of hippopotamus tusks and a spermaceti-whale tooth.’”
By 1852 it was recognised that
a new building was required to house the artefacts. “It was obvious that the Corporation would
not go to the expense of erecting a new building, so discussions of ways and
means were held with the newly formed Essex Archaeological Society, and at
their inaugural meeting, under the presidency of the famous Dr Disney, on 14
December 1852, a resolution was passed as follows:
“’That this meeting considers
that the Society will be much assisted in its operations by the establishment
of a Museum in the Town of Colchester, for the preservation of the objects of
antiquity it may acquire by its own exertions and the donations of its
supporters; and suggests that Subscription Lists be opened for that purpose, at
such places as the Council shall direct.’”
Charles Gray Round, who was
the Treasurer of the Essex Archaeological Society, was the owner of Colchester
Castle. He offered the Crypt of the
Chapel within the shell of the building for the purpose of a Museum. In 1859 it was decided that a Museum
Committee be formed of three members of the Corporation and three members of
the Society.
The Essex Standard reported in
1860 the opening of the Museum, “the first exhibition contained the Vint Bronzes,
the Taylor collection of Roman grave groups and the collections of the Essex
Archaeological Society. Shortly after
the opening, the celebrated Colchester Sphinx, found at the hospital in 1821,
was acquired from the Committee of that institution.”
Notable acquisitions in the
early years of the Museum were an archaeological library given by Revd Henry
Jenkins (“since transferred to the Public Library”); a large collection of
seashells, given by Mr Ambrose, of Mistley; the Holman and Morant manuscripts,
given by Mr Robert Hills of Colne Park, a descendent of Philip Morant the Essex
historian. In June 1870 a catalogue was
printed and in 1871 and 1872 it was reported that there had been 28,000
visitors to the Museum. In 1876
Colchester hosted the Annual Congress of the Royal Archaeological Institute,
which was not without incident: “Mr Piggott, a member of the Essex
Archaeological Society, challenged Freeman to a duel, for ‘insulting the memory
of Lisle and Lucas,’ who in Freeman’s opinion deserved their fate.” In 1885 Alderman Henry Laver joined the
Committee, to serve until his death in 1917.
To be continued
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