Celebrating Hampshire Historians

Madden, Sir Frederic

1801 - 1873

Sir Frederic Madden was born at Portsmouth and was keeper of manuscripts at the British Museum from 1837 to 1866. He was the supreme palaeographer of nineteenth-century  England and a researcher and editor of extraordinary energy and quality. He tackled the most arduous and difficult projects and brought them to fulfilment.

Highly critical of the works of Sir Thomas Gatehouse, Revd. Richard Warner, and Revd. William Bingley, Madden planned a history of Hampshire of his own. He ‘methodically listed materials for what promised to be the most systematic, scholarly, and wide-ranging of county histories’.  His other projects constantly intervened, so that he wrote nothing of it, but many notes survive in his vast personal archive. (British Library Additional Manuscripts 33279-86.)

Sources

Borrie, M (2004)  ‘Madden, Sir Frederic, palaeographer and librarian’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography 36 pp66-9

Webb, J (1987) Sir Frederick Madden and Portsmouth’  Portsmouth Paper xlvii

Hicks, M (1994)  Hampshire and the Isle of Wight, English County Histories: A Guide, ed. C.R.J. Currie and C.P. Lewis Gloucester, 172

British Library Additional Manuscripts 33279-86

Portrait

R. Dighton, watercolour, 1833, private collection
W. Drummond, oil, 1837, British Library
Lithograph, 1837, National Portrait gallery
R.C. Lucas, wax medallion, 1849, National Portrait Gallery
Photograph, 1863, Portsmouth City Record Ofice

Contribution to county’s history

Unpublished manuscripts. 

Relevant published works

Critical Comments

Other Comments

Contributor

Michael Hicks

Key Words

Hampshire, history of Hampshire, County history

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