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Edward Hasted, William Boteler and William Boys

- Making History -

Edward Hasted (1732-1812) spent many years collecting material for his four-volume History and Topographical Survey of the County of Kent (1778-1799). He gathered some of his material from earlier works such as Thomas Philipott's Villare Cantianum (1659) and Dr. John Harris' The History of Kent (1719). In contrast to earlier authors he described places according to the early administrative areas known as Lathes, which were sub-divided into Hundreds. Northbourne lies in the Cornilo Hundred and Betteshanger and Ham in the Eastry Hundred. He also sent out numerous long questionnaires to gather information. He was aided by others such as William Boys (1735-1803) of Sandwich, William Boteler of Eastry, and Rev. John Lyon, the vicar of St. Mary the Virgin, Dover, who supplied him with material for Dover and the surrounding district.

In the 1780s Hasted occasionally helped William Boys who was writing a history of Sandwich. The Boys family had a long lineage in this part of south-east Kent and William Boys was mayor of Sandwich in 1767 and again in 1782. William Boteler came from a well-established Eastry family, who were resident at Heronden during the 1600s. William Boteler resided at Brook House in Brook Street, Eastry, in what Hasted describes as 'a neat modern house' of brick built in 1710 - an earlier house had been demolished. The family name survives today in Boteler Cottages on Gore Lane, and there are a number of Boteler family memorials in Eastry church. Both Boys and Boteler were surgeons, and they were also brothers-in-law, each having married one of the two daughters of Thomas Fuller of Statenborough. William Boys' first wife, Elizabeth Wise, had died aged 23 in 1761 after giving birth to her second child, a son, William Henry. The following year he married again, to Jane Fuller aged 24, and they had nine children before she died in childbirth in 1783 aged 45. William Boteler, who was younger than William Boys, had married Jane's younger sister Sarah, although she died following the birth of a son. There is a poignant memorial to Sarah in the north aisle of Eastry church. The hanging monument shows a woman leaning on an urn gazing off into the distance and a baby sitting below looking up to his mother. The monumental sculptor William Tyler undertook this work; he was one of the original forty members nominated to the Royal Academy when it was founded in 1768. Part of the inscription on the monument laments:

She Died January 9th 1777 Aged 29.
Leaving Issue (alas) one Son,
William Fuller Boteler
How dire the purchase, how severe the cost,
The Fruit was saved the Parent tree lost.

Boteler married a second time to Mary Harvey and their monument, also in the north aisle of Eastry church, records a further six sons and five daughters.

The 18th century was a rich period for topographical and historical writing, the Society of Antiquaries had been founded in 1707, and there was a network of like-minded historians, antiquarians and naturalists. In 1784 William Boys had shot an unusual bird and sent it to a fellow surgeon, the eminent ornithologist Dr. John Latham, who first described it and named it the Sandwich Tern.^[1] A few years later Boys shot another unknown bird which Latham named the Kentish Plover. William Boys' interests were wide; his collection of seashells from Sandwich was published by George Walker in 1784. He was also the grandfather of another Sandwich antiquarian, William Rolfe (1779-1859). William Boteler's interest in natural history is mentioned by Hasted in his History: 'Mr. Boteler, of Eastry, found near Little Betshanger, the plant astragalus glycyphyllos, wild liquorice, or liquorice vetch, which is very scarce, and has never been observed by him any where else'.^[2] Hasted was also a friend of the well-known Kentish antiquary the Rev. Bryan Faussett, and had been on some of Faussett's archaeological excavations. His wife, Elizabeth Faussett, was godmother to Hasted's seventh child, John Septimus.

Edward Hasted's fortunes took a turn for the worse in 1789 when he broke his leg. This was a serious problem because his parish tours necessitated riding on horseback. So he had to rely on his friends William Boys and William Boteler who, in March 1790, were collecting material from Betteshanger and Northbourne and sending it to Hasted. Boteler was keen to check any work before it went to press. He wrote to Hasted: 'Promise me only, my dear Sir, that Eastry and every contiguous parish to it shall not be finally done till Boys and I have seen them'.^[3] At this time Hasted's fortunes were about to plummet, his creditors took a writ out against him and he was badly served by an attorney. So at the end of April 1790 Hasted fled to France, although not with his wife and family, but with Mary Jane Town, his mistress of five years standing. Maybe not surprising as in 1764 he writes, 'it is impossible to be an antiquarian without having a particular attachment to the ladies'.^[4] Initially he went to St. Omer and the following year they moved to Abbeville. About the time of his flight Volume III of the 1st folio edition of his History was due to be published.

So now he was even more dependent on his two friends for material on the Hundreds of Eastry and Cornilo. Boteler was responsible for describing the churches and listing the monuments. He also contacted people to supplement his information, although he is often scathing about the quality and reliability of some of the information he received. In 1791 Boys writes to Hasted: 'Mr Boteler . . . desires me to say, that you have already from him everything he can collect respecting the parishes of Betshanger and Norbourn'.^[5] Both Boteler and Boys entertained hopes of making their own contributions to Kentish history, but only William Boys had any success, bringing out his Collections of an History of Sandwich in Kent in 1792.

In 1792 William Boteler bought Marley, and a farm in Finglesham, for 4,000 guineas, 160 acres in all. Edward Hasted in his History describes it as 'the little hamlet of Marley, which consists of only four houses, one of which is that of Grove, alias Marley Farm'.^[6] Boteler wrote to Hasted: 'I have quitted the profession I was bred to, . . . I am become farmer, grazier, hop planter and hop merchant, too'.^[7]

Hasted was also about to move; in January 1793 France declared war with England and by September all foreigners were placed under arrest; by which time Hasted had left for England. In late summer 1794 Hasted had secret lodgings in Camden Town, London, but in 1795 he was located and committed to the debtors' King's Bench prison. The following year Hasted was forced to sell some of his manuscripts, which raised £63.

Meanwhile William Boys had recently relinquished his medical practice at Sandwich in order to devote all his time to the Naval Hospital at Walmer, while Boteler, now the gentleman farmer, wrote to Hasted on 25 September 1796: 'This being the shooting season, my time is so taken up in following the partridges and attending to some friends now visiting me, that I can only find a leisure hour on Sunday to settle my debts with my correspondents, amongst whom, yours has hung on my mind'.^[8] However, according to Hasted's History, Boteler only lived here a couple years before he sold up.

In 1797 Hasted was still in prison, but this year saw the publication of the first three volumes of the 2nd octavo edition of his History - there were eventually 12 volumes. Somewhat bizarrely he had not yet published the final Volume IV of his 1st folio edition. Although it had been written before he went to prison, it was delayed by the illustrations and finally came out in 1799. This was also the year Hasted's prison caught fire and he lost his room, and some of his papers. His mistress, Mary Town, had gone to prison with him, but later he recalls that in 1797, 'I parted with her for infamy and wretchedness' and the following year he says, 'I was reconciled to Mrs Hasted and my family, and they came to see me'.^[9]

Hasted's 3,335 page folio edition has many extensive footnotes that were either incorporated into the text of the 2nd edition or omitted altogether, for example page 153 of Volume IV, which describes Northbourne Church, has around 250 words in the main text and about 830 words in the footnotes.

A substantial amount of the correspondence between Hasted and Boteler survives, covering the years 1790 to 1803. John Boyle has examined the correspondence and describes Boteler as 'fussy and pedantic, and a trifle vain but full of enthusiasm'.^[10] There were occasional quarrels between Hasted and his friends and some friction because Boteler kept pointing out mistakes and inaccuracies. Hasted fell out with William Boys when he sold some of his manuscripts and inadvertently included a few of Boys' letters. It was only resolved after Boteler pleaded with Hasted to reconcile the situation. Boteler also fell out with Hasted after a prison visit, although afterwards Hasted sent Boteler an apologetic letter. Undoubtedly Hasted's unfortunate circumstances made the whole enterprise very difficult, but it is also true that Hasted's numerous friends kept faith with the man and his work whatever his circumstances. However, Hasted refused to let either Boys or Boteler see the proofs for the folio edition, he writes to Boteler in October 1799 after publication: 'I suppose you have got my fourth folio. I dread your acute criticisms on it'.^[11]

It seems likely Hasted's maps were based on those in Andrews and Dury's Atlas of Kent (1769), and Hasted had them re-engraved and corrected.

The maps caused some problems because Boteler writes, 'Andrews and Dury made a shocking work of their survey of this part of the country', for example the 1769 Andrews and Dury's map had transposed Finglesham and West Street (see left).

Hasted gave Boteler a proof copy of the Cornilo and Bewsborough Hundreds and Boteler rode out into the surrounding countryside, map in hand, making corrections as he went; sometimes in the rain. It was ironic that at this time General Roy was undertaking the first Ordnance Survey of Great Britain and Boteler was aware of the Roy's new triangulation survey which showed up the errors in Hasted's maps.

When the 2nd edition Volume X was printed in 1800 Boteler was determined to check them, so he marched into the printers seized the proofs of Eastry and took them home to correct. He rewrote page 99 of the 2nd edition that dealt with Eastry, a substantial part relating to him and the Boteler family.

By 1802 Hasted had spent seven years in prison but in February he was allowed to live outside the prison. His wife died in 1803 and his circumstances were still very dire, although in 1807 he managed to gain a position as master of the Hungerford almshouses at Corsham. He died on 14 January 1812, leaving his remaining papers to William Boteler, who died in 1818 aged 73.