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Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Hayward, Thomas

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1412533Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900, Volume 25 — Hayward, Thomas1891Sidney Lee

HAYWARD, THOMAS (d. 1779?), editor of the ‘British Muse,’ was an attorney-at-law of Hungerford, Berkshire. In 1738 he published, in three 12mo volumes, ‘The British Muse, or a Collection of Thoughts, Moral, Natural, and Sublime, of our English Poets who flourished in the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries.’ His friend Oldys was much interested in the work, and wrote the preface and the dedication to Lady Mary Wortley Montagu. Oldys complained, however, that the publisher employed Dr. John Campbell to cut out one-third of his preface before sending it to press. Hayward's anthology, described by Warton as the best he knew, consists of extracts of varying lengths, arranged alphabetically according to their subject. To each extract the author's name is appended, and a list of ‘the author's poems and plays cited’ is prefixed to vol. ii. A few of the works quoted by Hayward are now lost, and only survive in his quotations. A new edition, entitled ‘The Quintessence of English Poetry,’ appeared in 1740, 3 vols. Hayward also compiled, in thirty-four manuscript quarto volumes, with seven volumes of index, a collection of epitaphs from printed books and his own notes. Thirty-two of these volumes (vols. xxviii. and xxix. are missing) and six volumes of the index (vol. i. is missing) were presented to the British Museum in 1842, and are numbered Addit. MSS. 13916–53. Hayward was elected F.S.A. 24 June 1756, but disappears from the list of fellows, probably through death, in 1779.

Two contemporaries belonging to the Gloucestershire family of Hayward bore the same christian name. Thomas Hayward (1702–1781), a barrister of Lincoln's Inn, was M.P. for Ludgershall, Wiltshire, 1741–7 and 1754–61; and died at Quedgeley, Gloucestershire, 14 March 1781 (Foster, Alumni Oxon.; Gent. Mag. 1781, p. 148). Sir Thomas Hayward (1743–1799), clerk of the cheque to the corps of gentlemen pensioners, was knighted on retiring from that office in May 1799; succeeded to the estate of Carswell, Berkshire, on the death of his maternal uncle, Henry Southby, in 1797, and died there 7 Oct. 1799 (Gent. Mag. 1799, ii. 908).

[Oldys's Diary, ed. Yeowell; Phillipps's Theatrum Poeticum, ed. Brydges, 1800; Cat. of Fellows of Soc. of Antiquaries; Cat. of Addit. MSS. in Brit. Mus.; Warton's Hist. of English Poetry.]