Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Blaauw, William Henry
BLAAUW, WILLIAM HENRY (1793–1870), antiquary, was born in London 25 May 1793. He was educated at Eton and Christ Church, Oxford, where, after taking a first class in classics, he graduated B.A. in 1813, and M.A. in 1815. He was elected a fellow of the Society of Antiquaries in 1850; was treasurer of the Camden Society for many years, and member of many other learned societies. Blaauw resided at Newick, near Lewes, Sussex, and under his guidance the Sussex Archæological Society was founded in 1846. He was the editor of the society's collections till 1856, when the eighth volume was issued, and was its honorary secretary until 1867. He died 26 April 1870.
Blaauw's chief work was a history of the barons' war of Henry III's reign, which was first published in 1844. It is a very careful production, is especially valuable in its topographical details, and forms the chief modern authority on its subject. Its author was engaged at the time of his death in preparing a revised edition, and this was issued under Mr. C. H. Pearson's editorship in 1871. Between 1846 and 1861 Blaauw contributed nearly thirty papers on Sussex archæology to the ‘Sussex Archæological Collections.’ He communicated a paper on Queen Matilda and her daughter to the ‘Archæologia’ (xxxii. 108) in 1846, and he exhibited many archæological treasures at meetings of the Society of Antiquaries and of the Archæological Institute in London. A portrait of Blaauw is prefixed to vol. xxii. of the ‘Sussex Archæological Collections.’
[Sussex Archæological Collections, xxii. 9–11; index to the first twenty-five volumes of the Sussex Archæological Collections, where a full list of Blaauw’s papers may be found.]