Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Horne, Thomas Hartwell

by Thompson Cooper

HORNE, THOMAS HARTWELL (1780–1862), biblical scholar, bibliographer, and polemic, born in Chancery Lane, London, on 20 Oct. 1780, was son of William Horne, a barrister's clerk, who for many years was confidentially employed by Robert (afterwards Sir Robert) Graham [q. v.], baron of the exchequer. He was educated successively at a dame's school at Eversley, Hampshire, at a boys' school in London, and at Christ's Hospital, where he remained from 1789 to 21 Oct. 1795, and rose to be a deputy Grecian. For two years he was contemporary at Christ's Hospital with Samuel Taylor Coleridge, who gave him private instruction in the summer vacation of 1790. In 1796 he obtained an engagement as a barrister's clerk at a salary of 20l. a year. In order to increase his income he directed his attention to literature. His first publication was ‘A Brief View of the Necessity and Truth of the Christian Revelation,’ London, 1800 and 1802, 8vo. He obtained two guineas for the copyright. Soon afterwards he joined the Wesleyan methodists, and he continued in communion with them for many years. He was for a time amanuensis to Dr. Willich, who was preparing ‘The Domestic Encyclopædia;’ clerk to William Cruise [q. v.], a catholic barrister, whom he assisted in his ‘Digest of the Laws;’ assistant in spare hours to Charles Butler, the catholic historian; and from 1806 to 1809 private clerk to Joseph Butterworth [q. v.] . Meanwhile he devoted himself late at night and early in the morning to editing or compiling works on such varied subjects as grazing, theology, law, Sunday schools, topography, and bibliography.

In May 1808 the compilation of the indexes to the three volumes of the Catalogue of the Harleian Manuscripts in the British Museum was entrusted to Horne by the commissioners on public records, and after its completion he continued to be employed in the Record Office at the Chapter House, Westminster. In 1816 he was engaged on the index to the ‘Rotuli Scotiæ in turri Londonensi et in domo Capitulari Westmonasteriensi asservati,’ and from 1817 to 1819 was third or junior clerk at the Record Office.

The first edition of his ‘Introduction to the Critical Study and Knowledge of the Holy Scriptures’ appeared in 1818. This work, to use his own words, was ‘the result of seventeen years' prayerful, solitary, unassisted, and not unfrequently midnight labour.’ It was well received. The university of King's College, Aberdeen, conferred upon him the honorary degree of M.A. in 1818, and in the following year Dr. Howley, bishop of London, ordained him to the curacy of Christ Church, Newgate Street. There he remained for six years; from 1825 to 1833 he was assistant minister at Welbeck Chapel, and in November 1833 Dr. Howley, then archbishop of Canterbury, collated him to the rectory of the united parishes of St. Edmund the King and Martyr and St. Nicholas Acons in the city of London. In 1831 he was presented to a prebend in St. Paul's Cathedral (Le Neve, Fasti, ed. Hardy, ii. 438). He was also sub-librarian to the Surrey Institution from 1809 till its dissolution in 1823, and from 1824 until Christmas 1860 was senior assistant librarian in the department of printed books in the British Museum.

In 1821 Horne was engaged to prepare a classified catalogue of the library of Queens' College, Cambridge, and three years later he undertook at the request of the trustees to compile a similar catalogue of the printed books in the British Museum; but after he had made considerable progress this work was eventually abandoned in favour of the alphabetical catalogue now in use. In March 1828 Horne was elected a fellow of the Society of Antiquaries. In 1829 he took the degree of B.D. at Cambridge as a ‘ten year man’ (Graduati Cantabr. ed. 1856, p. 198). It was at his suggestion that the tercentenary commemoration of the publication of the protestant English Bible by Myles Coverdale was celebrated in 1835. He died at his residence in Bloomsbury Square, London, on 27 Jan. 1862, and was buried in the cemetery at Nunhead.

He married in 1812 Sarah, eldest daughter of John Millard, solicitor, clerk to the Cordwainers' Company. She died on 7 July 1858, aged 74. By her he had two daughters, one of whom, Mrs. Sarah Anne Cheyne, survived him. His portrait has been engraved by H. Adlard and by J. Cochrane from photographs.

Horne's chief work, ‘An Introduction to the Critical Study and Knowledge of the Holy Scriptures; with maps and facsimiles of Biblical Manuscripts,’ 3 vols., London, 1818, 8vo, supplement 1 vol. 1821, passed through many editions. The second edition appeared in 4 vols. 1821, and supplement 1 vol. 1822; 3rd edit. 4 vols. 1822; 4th edit. 4 vols. 1823; 5th edit. 4 vols. 1825; 6th edit. 4 vols. in 5, 1828; 7th edit. 4 vols. in 5, 1834; 8th edit. 5 vols. 1846; 9th edit. revised, corrected, and enlarged, 5 vols. 1846; 10th edit. by the author, with the assistance of Samuel Davidson, LL.D., and Samuel Prideaux Tregelles, LL.D., 4 vols. 1856; 11th edit., with the assistance of John Ayre, M.A., and S. P. Tregelles, 4 vols. 1860. Many other editions have appeared in the United States. Of the seventh edition the fifth volume was issued separately as ‘Manual of Biblical Bibliography,’ 1839. Immediately after its first appearance it took its place in literature as one of the principal class-books for the study of the Scriptures in all English-speaking protestant colleges and universities.

Other of Horne's works besides those described above were:

1. ‘A Compendium of the Statute Laws and Regulations of the Court of Admiralty, relative to Ships of War, Privateers, &c.,’ Lond. 1803, 12mo.
2. ‘Wallis's Pocket Itinerary; being a … Guide to all the principal Direct and Cross Roads throughout England, Wales, and Scotland’ (pseudonymous), Lond. 1803, 18mo.
3. ‘The Complete Grazier; or Farmer's and Cattle-dealer's Assistant’ (anon.), Lond. 1805, 8vo.
4. ‘Hints on the Formation and Management of Sunday Schools’ (anon.), Lond. 1807, 12mo.
5. ‘Catalogue of the Library of the Surrey Institution, methodically arranged’ (anon.), Lond. 1811, 8vo; 2nd edit. 1812.
6. ‘Librorum Manuscriptorum Bibliothecæ Harleianæ Catalogus,’ Lond. 1812, fol., forming the fourth volume of the ‘Catalogue of the Harleian MSS. in the British Museum.’
7. ‘Introduction to the Study of Bibliography; to which is prefixed a Memoir on the Public Libraries of the Antients,’ 2 vols., Lond. 1814, 8vo.
8. ‘An Illustrated Record of Important Events in the Annals of Europe during 1812–15’ (anon.), Lond. fol.
9. ‘Deism Refuted; or Plain Reasons for being a Christian,’ 1819; 7th edit. 1826.
10. ‘The Scripture Doctrine of the Trinity briefly stated and defended, with a Defence of the Athanasian Creed,’ 1820; 2nd edit. 1826.
11. ‘Outlines for the Classification of a Library, submitted to the Trustees of the British Museum,’ Lond. 1825, 4to.
12. ‘Catalogue of the Library of … Queens' College, Cambridge, methodically arranged,’ 2 vols. 1827, 8vo.
13. ‘Romanism contradictory to the Bible,’ 1827.
14. ‘A Compendious Introduction to the Study of the Bible,’ 1827; tenth London edition, with the assistance of the Rev. John Ayre, 1862.
15. ‘Manual of Parochial Psalmody,’ 1829; forty-first edit. 1861.
16. ‘Manual for the Afflicted,’ 1832.
17. ‘Bibliographical Notes on the Book of Jasher,’ 1833.
18. ‘The Conformity of the Church of England … to the Apostolic Precept and Pattern,’ 1834.
19. ‘A Protestant Memorial,’ 1835.
20. ‘Mariolatry; or Facts and Evidences demonstrating the Worship of the Virgin Mary in the Church of Rome’ (anon.), 1840.
21. ‘Popery the Enemy and Falsifier of Scripture’ (anon.), 1844.
22. ‘Popery Delineated’ (anon.), 1848.
23. ‘The Communicant's Companion,’ 1855.

In 1805 Horne commenced, and for nine months edited, ‘The Tradesman, or Commercial Magazine;’ between 1815 and 1817 he edited ‘The Literary Panorama;’ and between 1824 and 1835 he contributed numerous historico-ecclesiastical articles to the ‘Encyclopædia Metropolitana.’ One of the articles, ‘Diplomacy,’ was afterwards appended to Polson's ‘Principles of the Law of Nations,’ 1848. He also edited Richard Lee's ‘Treatise on Captures in War,’ 2nd edit. 1803, 8vo; Richard Burn's ‘Justice of the Peace,’ 20th edit. 1805; ‘The Bible for the use of Families,’ with James Wallis, 1809; Callis's ‘Readings upon the Statutes of Sewers,’ 4th edit. 1810; John Clarke's ‘Bibliotheca Legum,’ 1810; Thomas Pott's ‘Compendious Law Dictionary,’ 1815; James Cavanagh Murphy's ‘Arabian Antiquities of Spain,’ 1816, with an introduction on ‘The History of the Mohammedan Empire in Spain,’ in which he was aided by John Gillies and John Shakespeare; Dr. Simon von Leeuwen's ‘Commentaries on the Romano-Dutch Law,’ 1820 (English transl.); Thomas Clerk's ‘Works of Hogarth,’ with life, 1821; Bishop Beveridge's ‘Works,’ with memoir, 9 vols., 1824. Horne's translations include Beaujour's ‘View of the Commerce of Greece,’ 1800; De Marten's ‘Essays on Privateers,’ 1801; Maignan's ‘Analysis of Raphael's Picture of the Transfiguration,’ 1817. He also wrote the descriptions for Joseph Farington's engravings of ‘The English Lakes,’ 1816, and for Finden's ‘Landscape Illustrations of the Bible,’ 1836.

[Reminiscences, Personal and Bibliographical, of T. H. Horne, with Notes by his Daughter, Sarah Anne Cheyne, and an introduction by the Rev. Joseph B. McCaul, Lond. 1862; McCaul's The Rev. T. H. Horne: a Sketch, 1862; Memoir by Turpin, reprinted from the Evangelical Magazine, 1862; Cowtan's Memories of the British Museum, p. 105; Gent. Mag. ccxii. 504; Martin's Privately Printed Books, 2nd ed. pp. 325, 428; Lowndes's Bibl. Man. (Bohn), ii. 1120; Darling's Cycl. Bibliographica; Allibone's Crit. Dict. of Engl. Literature.]

T. C.