Walter Rye

“ Little is known of his personal appearance, but though there is no portrait of him extant, he is said to have so much resembled John Flamsteed that ‘honest Tom Martin’ of Thetford preserved and valued a portrait of the astronomer for no other reason, and a copy of it is prefixed to the octavo edition of Blomefield. It is of a man with a good forehead, fine eyes under rather beetle brows, a prominent nose, and a firm mouth. ”

“ There seems no doubt that he died in debt, for by his will, dated shortly before he died, he directed all his personal property to be sold and applied towards payment of his debts, and the winding up of his estate seemed so formidable a matter to his executors, that they declined to act and renounced probate ”

“ He was a unitarian in religious belief. Despite the unamiable traits on which he dwells in his epitaph, he seems to have been personally jovial, liberal in money matters, fond of sport and the pleasures of the table. It may be presumed that he was in comfortable circumstances during the last few years of his life, for he succeeded to some property on the death of his brother Oliver, who had married successively into the good Norfolk families of Gawdy and Knyvett. After some litigation, Le Neve's Norfolk estates reverted ultimately to John Norris. ”

“ When only fifteen he began collecting material for his future work, and from 1720 to 1733 he records that he spent 175l. 16s. in journeying about making church notes and in buying some few manuscripts. He was educated at Diss and Thetford schools, and when under nineteen proceeded to the Norfolk college of Gonville and Caius at Cambridge, on All Fools' Day 1724. While at Cambridge he is said to have published a thin quarto ‘Collectanea Cantabrigiensia;’ but the only copy we have seen purports to have been printed at Norwich in 1750. ”

“ He also made voluminous extracts from the court books of the city of Norwich and the book of St. George's guild, and transcribed no less than four of the early churchwardens' books of the city of Norwich. His most useful work, however, is found in his collections from the wills at the Norwich registry, now bound in four volumes fol.: they throw immense light on the history of the fabric of the Norfolk churches and the lives of their incumbents. ”

“ Le Neve's abnormal powers of work rapidly gave him a high reputation, and in 1687, when he was only twenty-six, he was elected president of the Antiquarian Society, on its revival in that year. This office he resigned in 1724, after holding it for thirty-seven years. He was also a fellow of the Royal Society. Before 1689 he began the immense and careful calendars of the records relating to his own county of Norfolk. ”

“ In 1694–5 he was suffering from fistula, apparently in London, and in the same year probably took part in Queen Mary's interment (Le Neve, Letters) . In 1696 he was at Doctors' Commons, no doubt at the college, and was well enough off to offer pecuniary help to his friend Millicent. From 1696–8 he was corresponding with Tanner, offering to help him with his description of Wiltshire, encouraging the undertaking of the ‘Bibliotheca,’ and helping him with the ‘Notitia’ and the ‘Monasticon’ (Tanner MSS. Bodl.) ”

“ His father died in 1609, and he was probably born before 1600. It has been erroneously assumed that he was the William Le Neve, son of Geoffrey Neve of Aslacton, who was educated at Norwich School and Caius College, Cambridge, and was aged 16 in 1624 (Admissions to Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge, 1887) . ”

“ On becoming a commissioned officer he surveyed single-handed parts of Berkshire and Wiltshire for the ordnance survey. The corps being reduced in 1817, after the peace, he was on half-pay until 1824, when he was appointed assistant, and in 1830 chief military surveyor and draughtsman to the board of ordnance. ”

“ His creditors still pursued him, and he was imprisoned to insolvency in Lincoln gaol in December 1722. By a singular irony of fate, the exact day of his death is unknown, and if there is a monument raised to him who noted those of so many others, it is not now visible. ”

“ It was a work of immense labour. Le Neve utilised Bishop Kennett's 'Collections,' and Browne Willis said the bishop was its real compiler. But this is an exaggeration. Le Neve chiefly depended on original researches, which he pursued at a time when documentary evidence was difficult of access. The reception of the book did not encourage him to undertake a supplement, but before the end of the century twenty copies, fully annotated and brought up to date by eminent antiquaries, were extant. John Gutch was strongly urged to edit a new edition (cf. Nichols, Lit. Illustustrations, v. 342-4) . ”

“ At length, in 1854, Thomas Duffus Hardy issued at Oxford his elaborate edition, in 3 vols. 8vo, in which Le Neve's 11,051 entries were extended to thirty thousand. In 1716 Le Neve also issued the 'Life of Dr. Field, Dean of Gloucester,' London, 8vo, but of this he is only known to have written the preface. In 1717 he published in one 8vo volume, avowedly as 'a specimen of a much larger work,' 'Monumenta Anglicana, being Inscriptions on the Monuments of several eminent Persons deceased in or since the year 1700 to the end of the year 1715, deduced into a series of time by way of Annals ”