Sir Stephen Glynne, 9th Baronet

For other people named Stephen Glynne, see Stephen Glynne (disambiguation).
Sir Stephen Glynne

Sir Stephen Richard Glynne, 9th Baronet (22 September 1807 – 17 June 1874)[1] was a Welsh landowner and Conservative Party politician. He is principally remembered as an assiduous antiquary and student of British church architecture. He was a brother-in-law of the Liberal Prime Minister William Ewart Gladstone.

Family

Hawarden Castle

Glynne's father, the 8th Baronet died in 1815, aged 35,[2] and at the age of seven Stephen inherited both the baronetcy and the family estates, including Hawarden Castle in Flintshire. His sister Catherine married William Ewart Gladstone, and Gladstone's father, Sir John Gladstone, helped rescue Glynne from near bankruptcy after the failure of Oak Farm brick and iron works near Stourbridge, of which Glynne was part-owner.[3] He was able to resume occupancy of Hawarden only by selling part of the estate, and agreeing to share the castle with William and Catherine.

Career

Glynne was educated at Eton, where his intellect and prodigious memory were remarked on, although he displayed a "singular indisposition to mix or associate even with his school fellows".[4] He went on to study at Christ Church, Oxford, where, however, he was too indolent to flourish, and took a third class degree in Classics.[5]

He served as Member of Parliament for Flint Boroughs from 1832[6] to 1837, and for Flintshire from 1837 to 1841 and 1842 to 1847.[6] He was also High Sheriff of Flintshire in 1831,[7] and Lord Lieutenant of Flintshire from 1845 to 1871. He sat in the Tory interest, and, although he remained on excellent terms with Gladstone throughout his life, he shared few of Gladstone's Liberal ideals.[8] He was an extremely shy individual who found public speaking an ordeal, and he never spoke in Parliament.

During the 1841 election campaign, Glynne found himself obliged to start libel proceedings against the Chester Chronicle, for having published allegations of homosexuality against him: the newspaper was eventually forced to offer an apology.[9]

Gladstone frequently consulted Glynne on ecclesiastical matters, including, for example the appointment of a Welsh-speaking bishop, Joshua Hughes, to the diocese of St Asaph in 1870.[10] Gladstone later wrote that Glynne's memory "was on the whole decidedly the most remarkable known to me of the generation and country".[11]

Antiquarianism

Glynne's real interests were not in politics, but in music and, more particularly, in church architecture. He was a committee member, later an honorary secretary, and eventually a vice-president of the Ecclesiological Society; and he helped edit one of the society's tracts, the Hand-Book of English Ecclesiology, published in 1847. He also served as first President (1847–9) of the Cambrian Archaeological Association; and as chairman (1852–74) of the Architectural Section of the Archaeological Institute, afterwards the Royal Archaeological Institute.[12][13] His remarkable memory in architectural and antiquarian matters was often the subject of comment. Archdeacon D.R. Thomas wrote: "Those who had the pleasure of his acquaintance will remember how complete and accurate were the details that he could so readily call to mind, and that an extraordinary memory underlay his quiet and unassuming manner."[14]

In the course of his life Glynne probably visited over 5500 churches (the precise figure is debated),[15] making detailed notes on their architectural details and fittings. He spent several months of each year on this activity, travelling by rail, horse-drawn transport, boat and on foot, and staying at hotels, inns and guest houses.[16][17] In keeping with the principles of the Ecclesiological Society and the Oxford Movement, he was a devotee of the Gothic style of architecture, and was damning of 18th-century classicism, and of fittings such as box pews and galleries. His manuscript notes, dating from 1824 until a few days before his death, cover churches in England, Wales and the Channel Islands, and a few in Scotland and Ireland. Prior to 1840, they are generally undated: from that point onwards, he usually dated each visit precisely. He kept up to date with current trends in ecclesiology: thus, he used the stylistic classifications devised by Thomas Rickman (Norman, Early English, Decorated and Perpendicular) until about 1842; then switched to the Ecclesiological Society's preferred terms (First Pointed, Middle Pointed, and Third Pointed) until 1851; but reverted to Rickman's terminology from 1852.[18][19] His notes are greatly valued by architectural historians, as they frequently provide a brief but informed record of the buildings as they were before Victorian restorations and re-orderings. Glynne often revisited the churches on two or three occasions at several years remove, and so the notes also provide a record of changes over time. Lawrence Butler considers that "in some ways he was the precursor of the Royal Commission on Historical Monuments in terms of ordering his descriptions".[20]

Glynne also toured widely in Europe and Turkey, keeping detailed diaries, but here he showed considerably less insight, and his notes are considered to be of far less interest than his British material.[21]

Tomb of Sir Stephen Glynne in St Deiniol's Church, Hawarden, with an effigy by Matthew Noble

Death

Glynne collapsed and died outside Bishopsgate railway station, London, on 17 June 1874 after visiting churches in Essex and Suffolk.[22][23] He was buried in St Deiniol's Church, Hawarden.

He never married, and the baronetcy became extinct on his death. The Hawarden estate and castle was left to his nephew William Henry Gladstone, the eldest son of William and Catherine.

Legacy

Glynne's church notes, in 106 volumes, are now housed at Gladstone's Library (formerly St Deiniol's Library), Hawarden; but are made available to researchers through Flintshire Record Office.[24] A single notebook of a six-week tour made in 1824 is in the National Library of Wales.[25] Glynne generally made his notes on the right-hand pages of his notebooks, reserving the left-hand pages for later addenda and sketches.[26] The notes remained unpublished during Glynne's lifetime, but since his death a growing number have appeared in print, mainly arranged by county, and in several cases published by local archaeological and record societies. A list appears below. His original manuscript notes for Kent (which were published by W.H. Gladstone in 1877) are believed to be lost.

Editions

Editions of Glynne's church notes include:

England

Bedfordshire
(These volumes bring together Glynne's church notes with comments by three of his near-contemporaries.)
Cheshire
Cornwall
Cumberland and Westmorland
(This volume covers the area of the modern administrative county of Cumbria: i.e. the historic counties of Cumberland and Westmorland, and the Furness region, historically part of Lancashire.)
Derbyshire
Devon
Dorset
County Durham and Northumberland
Gloucestershire
Herefordshire
Kent
Lancashire
(For the Furness area, see also Cumberland and Westmorland.)
Shropshire
Somerset
Suffolk
Surrey
Wiltshire
Yorkshire

Wales

(A facsimile reprint of material first published as articles in Archaeologia Cambrensis, 5th ser. vol. 1 - 6th ser. vol. 2, 1884–1902)[27]

Notes

  1. Veysey 2004.
  2. Lundy, Darryl. "p. 1435 § 14347 : Sir Stephen Richard Glynne, 8th Bt.". The Peerage. External link in |publisher= (help)
  3. Veysey 1981–2, pp. 158–61, 165–6.
  4. Butler 2013, p. 93.
  5. Veysey 1981–2, pp. 153–4.
  6. 1 2 Historical list of MPs: F, at Leigh Rayment's Peerage Pages
  7. The London Gazette: no. 18772. pp. 194–195. 1 February 1831. Retrieved 2008-09-25.
  8. Veysey 1981–2, pp.157–8.
  9. Veysey 1981–2, pp. 155–7.
  10. Veysey 1981–2, pp. 161–2.
  11.  Lee, Sidney (1890). "Glynne, Stephen Richard". In Stephen, Leslie; Lee, Sidney. Dictionary of National Biography 22. London: Smith, Elder & Co. p. 18.
  12. Veysey 1981–2, p. 165.
  13. Butler 2011, p. 6.
  14. Thomas, D.R. (1884). "Introduction to Sir S.R. Glynne's Notes on Welsh Churches". Archaeologia Cambrensis. 5th ser. 1: 82.
  15. Butler 2007, p. 5.
  16. Veysey 1981–2, p. 164.
  17. Butler 2011, pp. 11–12.
  18. Butler 2007, p. 10.
  19. Butler 2011, pp. 13–14.
  20. Butler 2011, p. 8.
  21. Veysey 1981–2, p. 163.
  22. Veysey 1981–2, pp. 165–6.
  23. Butler 2007, p. 4.
  24. "Source Guide No. 11: The Church Notes of Sir Stephen Glynne" (PDF). Flintshire Record Office. 12 April 2010. Retrieved 23 June 2013.
  25. Butler 2013, p. 95.
  26. Butler 2011, pp. 19–20.
  27. See also Butler 2012.

Bibliography

External links

Parliament of the United Kingdom
Preceded by
Henry Glynne
Member of Parliament for Flint Boroughs
18321837
Succeeded by
Charles Whitley Deans Dundas
Preceded by
Edward Lloyd-Mostyn
Member of Parliament for Flintshire
18371841
Succeeded by
Edward Lloyd-Mostyn
Preceded by
Edward Lloyd-Mostyn
Member of Parliament for Flintshire
1842 – 1847
Succeeded by
Edward Lloyd-Mostyn
Honorary titles
Preceded by
The Marquess of Westminster
Lord Lieutenant of Flintshire
1845–1874
Succeeded by
Hugh Robert Hughes
Baronetage of England
Preceded by
Stephen Richard Glynne
Baronet
(of Bisseter)
1815–1874
Extinct
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