Celebrating Hampshire Historians

Hearnshaw, Fossey John Cobb  M.A., LL.M.

31.07.1869 – 10.03.1946

Born in Birmingham, Hearnshaw went to Walsall and Manchester Grammar Schools before leaving school at 14 years old to be apprenticed to a pharmaceutical chemist for five years.

He studied part-time through the Correspondence College for examinations at London University (BA) before studying at Peterhouse, Cambridge, (History Scholar, MA and LL.M.) 1900, and Trinity College, Dublin (LLD), Cambridge (LittD) in 1934.

School master and private tutor for 3 years before becoming the lecturer in English History at the Hartley Institution, Southampton, rising to Professor after it became a University College in 1902, 1900-1910; Professor of History at Newcastle University, 1910-1912; Professor of Medieval History at King's College London, 1913-1934; and Fellow of King's College London, 1926.

Also held the posts of Honorary Secretary of the Royal Historical Society, 1931-1934 and President of the Historical Association, 1936-1938.

Sources

• Soffer, Reba N.  (2009)  History, Historians, and Conservatism in Britain and America: From the Great War to Thatcher and Reagan, pp52-53
• Hearnshaw, Fossey John Cobb A Cambridge Alumni Database. University of Cambridge.
• Hulme, Tom 2020 Memories of the Mayflower in Southampton, Hampshire Papers (series 2) no.8., Hampshire Field Club and Archaeological Society.
• https://hearnshaw.one-name.net/Fossey.html based on Fossey’s autobiography Some memories of an elderly man.

Portrait

Contribution to county’s history

Hearnshaw was only based in Southampton for ten years (1900-1910) but in that time, he made a major contribution to the understanding and popular appreciation of the town’s history.

He was appointed as the only lecturer in English History by the Hartley Institution, which became a University College in 1902. As well as being required to lecture at least 20 hours a week, he found time to set up exhibitions of ‘relics’ from ‘old Southampton’, give local history talks to a wide range of audiences and publish the most scholarly works of his career, which focused on the Court Leet records for Southampton.

Hearnshaw was instrumental in setting up the Southampton Record Society becoming General Editor of its publications (1905-1910), as well as researching and writing the first five volumes, four with his wife Dorothea Mabel (Dora) nee Spencer, who was also a Cambridge historian. From 1904 to 1910, he was Honorary Editor of the Papers and Proceedings of the Hampshire Field Club and Archaeological Society, working in partnership with the Reverend Minns for the first three years. In addition, he contributed papers on Southampton to this and other journals. He was also a member of the Southampton Literary and Philosophical Society.

From 1909, Hearnshaw was one of the driving forces behind an international campaign to build a memorial to the ‘Pilgrim Fathers’ in Southampton. The memorial was finally unveiled in 1913 on the Western Esplanade where it still stands today.

Relevant published works

• Hearnshaw, F.J.C.  and Hearnshaw, D.M.  (1905) Southampton Court Leet Records A.D. 1550-1577, Vol. 1, Part 1, Southampton Records Society (Southampton: Cox and Sharland, 1905)

• Hearnshaw, F.J.C.  and Hearnshaw, D.M.  (1906) Southampton Court Leet Records A.D. 1578-1602, Vol. 1, Part 2, Southampton Records Society (Southampton, 1906)

• Hearnshaw, F.J.C. and Hearnshaw, D.M.  (1907) Southampton Court Leet Records A.D. 1603-1624, Vol. 1, Part 3, Southampton Records Society (Southampton: Cox and Sharland, 1907)

• Hearnshaw, F.J.C. et al (1908 a) Supplement to Court Leet Records, Vol. 1, AD 1550-1624, containing Glossary of select terms,  notes on syntax and dialect, and indexes,Southampton Records Society (Southampton: Cox and Sharland, 1908)

• Hearnshaw, F.J.C. (1908b) Leet Jurisdiction in England Court, the Records of the Court Leet of Southampton, Southampton Records Society (Southampton: Cox and Sharland, 1908)

• Hearnshaw, F.J.C.  and Clarke, F.  (1910a) A Short History of Southampton, (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1910)

• Hearnshaw, F.J.C.  (1910b) The Story of the Pilgrim Fathers especially showing their connection with Southampton (Southampton: W.H. Smith, 1910)

• Hearnshaw, F.J.C., MacDonald Lucas, R.  and Dale, W. (1910c) Description and history of Tudor House and of the Norman house traditionally known as "King John's Palace", with notes on the Guard Room, Undercroft and Norman Vault in the County Borough of Southampton, (Southampton: County Borough Council, 1914)

Critical Comments

Hearnshaw’s imperialist and conservative views need to be considered when understanding the meaning he attached to the story of the Mayflower and the Pilgrim Fathers and the way in which this narrative has been absorbed into popular memory.

Other Comments

Hearnshaw was a prolific writer and was actively involved with several Southampton and Hampshire organisations at the same time as being the only member of staff teaching history at the Hartley Institution/University College. In the preface to one of his volumes that runs to 406 pages he says “[This volume] has been written in the brief intervals of leisure which alone the multifarious duties of a teacher in a growing University College leave. The great bulk of it, in fact, has had to be penned in periods stolen from sleep before the breakfast hour of crowded days.” (Hearnshaw, 1908b)

Contributor

Jo Bailey 21 February 2021

Key Words

Southampton, Hartley College, University College, Southampton Record Society, the Pilgrim Fathers

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