Hamlet Watling
Encyclopedia
Hamlet Watling was a Suffolk
-born antiquary whose professional career was as a schoolmaster.
He devoted much of his life to recording church and other antiquities in his native county. His work of recording and illustration was prolific, and although mostly unpublished it contains many unique records. A large amount is held in public and private collections. He conducted excavations, contributed to learned societies, and wrote lengthy weekly columns in the regional press over forty years, c1868-1908.
, Suffolk, the son of Henry Watling, Master of the Endowed School there from 1818 to 1858, and his wife Phyllis (Newson). Four sons followed their father's profession: Walter and Llewellyn were assistant masters as Banbury
(Oxon) and Edwin (who married a descendant of the actor 'Gentleman' Smith) was writing master at Cheltenham
1852-1869. Hamlet began teaching at Aldeburgh
, Woodbridge
, Cavendish
and Ipswich
during the 1830s, at Wangford
near Southwold
c1840-49, and at Dunwich
until 1855. His final position was as Master of Earl Stonham
Endowed School, 1855-1888. He retired to Ipswich
and continued work on his collections until his death in 1908.
and genealogy
in MS. He excavated on Roman
sites in Suffolk during the 1860s and 1870s, and made various investigations of the Antonine Itinerary
in the county. From c1867 to 1908 he wrote weekly columns for the Suffolk Chronicle and East Anglian Daily Times
newspapers, in which he explained the iconography of church paintings to a wide readership and explored the Anglo-Saxon
history of Suffolk.
, with Henry Syer Cuming (founder of the Cuming Museum
collection), the Revd Sparrow Simpson, James Fowler, W. de Grey Burch, H. A. Henfrey, Canon J. J. Raven (Burgh Castle
, or Gariannonum
), Richard Almack (Long Melford
glass), C. E. Searle (later Master of Pembroke College, Cambridge
), George E. Fox (Walton
Castle) and many other notable antiquaries. Sir Henry A. Howorth much admired his paintings. In around 1898-99 he helped to launch the career of Miss Nina Frances Layard
(1853-1935), the pioneering archaeologist of Ipswich who became one of the first lady Fellows of the Society of Antiquaries of London
in c1921-2.
Suffolk
Suffolk is a non-metropolitan county of historic origin in East Anglia, England. It has borders with Norfolk to the north, Cambridgeshire to the west and Essex to the south. The North Sea lies to the east...
-born antiquary whose professional career was as a schoolmaster.
He devoted much of his life to recording church and other antiquities in his native county. His work of recording and illustration was prolific, and although mostly unpublished it contains many unique records. A large amount is held in public and private collections. He conducted excavations, contributed to learned societies, and wrote lengthy weekly columns in the regional press over forty years, c1868-1908.
Family and teaching career
Hamlet was born in 1818 at Kelsale near SaxmundhamSaxmundham
Saxmundham is a small market town in Suffolk, England. It is set in the valley of the River Fromus, a tributary of the River Alde, approximately northeast of Ipswich and west of the coast at Sizewell. The town is bypassed by the A12 and is served by Saxmundham railway station on the East Suffolk...
, Suffolk, the son of Henry Watling, Master of the Endowed School there from 1818 to 1858, and his wife Phyllis (Newson). Four sons followed their father's profession: Walter and Llewellyn were assistant masters as Banbury
Banbury
Banbury is a market town and civil parish on the River Cherwell in the Cherwell District of Oxfordshire. It is northwest of London, southeast of Birmingham, south of Coventry and north northwest of the county town of Oxford...
(Oxon) and Edwin (who married a descendant of the actor 'Gentleman' Smith) was writing master at Cheltenham
Cheltenham
Cheltenham , also known as Cheltenham Spa, is a large spa town and borough in Gloucestershire, on the edge of the Cotswolds in the South-West region of England. It is the home of the flagship race of British steeplechase horse racing, the Gold Cup, the main event of the Cheltenham Festival held...
1852-1869. Hamlet began teaching at Aldeburgh
Aldeburgh
Aldeburgh is a coastal town in Suffolk, East Anglia, England. Located on the River Alde, the town is notable for its Blue Flag shingle beach and fisherman huts where freshly caught fish are sold daily, and the Aldeburgh Yacht Club...
, Woodbridge
Woodbridge, Suffolk
Woodbridge is a town in Suffolk, East Anglia, England. It is in the East of England, not far from the coast. It lies along the River Deben, with a population of about 7,480. The town is served by Woodbridge railway station on the Ipswich-Lowestoft East Suffolk Line. Woodbridge is twinned with...
, Cavendish
Cavendish, Suffolk
Cavendish is a village and civil parish in the Stour Valley in Suffolk, England. It is from Bury St Edmunds and from Newmarket.It is believed that Cavendish is called so because a man called Cafa used to own a pasture or 'edisc' there, and it therefore became known as Cafa's Edisc and eventually...
and Ipswich
Ipswich
Ipswich is a large town and a non-metropolitan district. It is the county town of Suffolk, England. Ipswich is located on the estuary of the River Orwell...
during the 1830s, at Wangford
Wangford
Wangford is a village in Suffolk, England, just off the A12 trunk road on the edge of the Henham Park estate just outside Southwold. .Wangford is connected to the rest of Suffolk by two main roads...
near Southwold
Southwold
Southwold is a town on the North Sea coast, in the Waveney district of the English county of Suffolk. It is located on the North Sea coast at the mouth of the River Blyth within the Suffolk Coast and Heaths Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty. The town is around south of Lowestoft and north-east...
c1840-49, and at Dunwich
Dunwich
Dunwich is a small town in Suffolk, England, within the Suffolk Coast and Heaths AONB.Dunwich was the capital of East Anglia 1500 years ago but the harbour and most of the town have since disappeared due to coastal erosion. Its decline began in 1286 when a sea surge hit the East Anglian coast, and...
until 1855. His final position was as Master of Earl Stonham
Earl Stonham
Earl Stonham is a small village in the Mid Suffolk district of Suffolk, England. Located five miles east of Stowmarket, it is part of the Stonham Earl civil parish. The village is one of three Stonhams in the area – the other two are Stonham Aspal and Little Stonham.-History:Dating back to...
Endowed School, 1855-1888. He retired to Ipswich
Ipswich
Ipswich is a large town and a non-metropolitan district. It is the county town of Suffolk, England. Ipswich is located on the estuary of the River Orwell...
and continued work on his collections until his death in 1908.
The illustrations
Watling's best paintings (of screen panels, wall-paintings, glass windows, etc) are very impressive, but the great bulk of his surviving work consists of sketches, tracings, and rather weak duplicate versions made for sale in his later life. He compiled 12 volumes of Suffolk heraldryHeraldry
Heraldry is the profession, study, or art of creating, granting, and blazoning arms and ruling on questions of rank or protocol, as exercised by an officer of arms. Heraldry comes from Anglo-Norman herald, from the Germanic compound harja-waldaz, "army commander"...
and genealogy
Genealogy
Genealogy is the study of families and the tracing of their lineages and history. Genealogists use oral traditions, historical records, genetic analysis, and other records to obtain information about a family and to demonstrate kinship and pedigrees of its members...
in MS. He excavated on Roman
Ancient Rome
Ancient Rome was a thriving civilization that grew on the Italian Peninsula as early as the 8th century BC. Located along the Mediterranean Sea and centered on the city of Rome, it expanded to one of the largest empires in the ancient world....
sites in Suffolk during the 1860s and 1870s, and made various investigations of the Antonine Itinerary
Antonine Itinerary
The Antonine Itinerary is a register of the stations and distances along the various roads of the Roman empire, containing directions how to get from one Roman settlement to another...
in the county. From c1867 to 1908 he wrote weekly columns for the Suffolk Chronicle and East Anglian Daily Times
East Anglian Daily Times
The East Anglian Daily Times is a British local newspaper for Suffolk and Essex, based in Ipswich.It started publication on 13 October 1874, incorporating the Ipswich Express, which had been published since 13 August 1839...
newspapers, in which he explained the iconography of church paintings to a wide readership and explored the Anglo-Saxon
Anglo-Saxons
Anglo-Saxon is a term used by historians to designate the Germanic tribes who invaded and settled the south and east of Great Britain beginning in the early 5th century AD, and the period from their creation of the English nation to the Norman conquest. The Anglo-Saxon Era denotes the period of...
history of Suffolk.
Antiquarian collaborations
He collaborated at different times with the archaeologist Charles Roach SmithCharles Roach Smith
Charles Roach Smith , FSA, was an English antiquarian and amateur archaeologist who was elected a fellow of the Society of Antiquaries of London, and the London Numismatic Society. He was a founding member of the British Archaeological Association...
, with Henry Syer Cuming (founder of the Cuming Museum
Cuming Museum
The Cuming Museum in Walworth Road, within the London Borough of Southwark, London, England, houses the collection of the Cuming family and is also a museum of Southwark's history....
collection), the Revd Sparrow Simpson, James Fowler, W. de Grey Burch, H. A. Henfrey, Canon J. J. Raven (Burgh Castle
Burgh Castle Roman Site
Burgh Castle is the site of one of several Roman shore forts constructed around the 3rd Century AD, to hold cavalry as a defence against Saxon raids up the rivers of the east and south coasts of southern Britain; and is located on the summit of ground sloping steeply towards the estuary of the...
, or Gariannonum
Gariannonum
Gariannonum, or Gariannum, was a Saxon Shore fort in Norfolk, England. The Notitia Dignitatum, a Roman Army “order of battle” from about AD 400, lists nine forts of the Saxon Shore in south and east England, among which one was called Gariannonor...
), Richard Almack (Long Melford
Long Melford
Long Melford is a large village and civil parish in the county of Suffolk, England. It is on Suffolk's border with Essex, which is marked by the River Stour, approximately from Colchester and from Bury St. Edmunds...
glass), C. E. Searle (later Master of Pembroke College, Cambridge
Pembroke College, Cambridge
Pembroke College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge, England.The college has over seven hundred students and fellows, and is the third oldest college of the university. Physically, it is one of the university's larger colleges, with buildings from almost every century since its...
), George E. Fox (Walton
Walton, Suffolk
Walton is a small village in Suffolk, between the rivers Orwell and Deben. It is often confused as being part of Felixstowe, although it is a separate village and is mentioned in the Domesday Book...
Castle) and many other notable antiquaries. Sir Henry A. Howorth much admired his paintings. In around 1898-99 he helped to launch the career of Miss Nina Frances Layard
Nina Frances Layard
Nina Frances Layard was an English poetess, prehistorian, archaeologist and antiquary who made many important discoveries, and by winning the respect of contemporary academics helped to establish a role for women in her field of expertise...
(1853-1935), the pioneering archaeologist of Ipswich who became one of the first lady Fellows of the Society of Antiquaries of London
Society of Antiquaries of London
The Society of Antiquaries of London is a learned society "charged by its Royal Charter of 1751 with 'the encouragement, advancement and furtherance of the study and knowledge of the antiquities and history of this and other countries'." It is based at Burlington House, Piccadilly, London , and is...
in c1921-2.
Evaluation
Watling's reputation as an antiquary was partly overtaken by changing fashions in archaeology, and by the fact that a growing middle class found his form of country scholarship and village schoolmaster status increasingly quaint and rustic. Some of his drawings contain undifferentiated reconstruction, and his interpretations (for instance of Dunwich topography) are often questionable. But his archives of drawings form an immense resource for the careful student, and the influence of his forty years' journalistic work on the popular understanding of Suffolk antiquities laid important foundations for the following century. The citation includes biographical and bibliographical materials of value to students since Watling is not included in the New Oxford Dictionary of National Biography.Source
- S.J. Plunkett, 1997, Hamlet Watling, artist and schoolmaster 1818-1908, Proc Suffolk Institute of Archaeology and History 39 Part 1, 48-75.