Some Annotations on John Le Neve's ‘Monumenta Anglicana’ (1717–19)

Extract

The five volumes of this invaluable work appeared within two years, but it was not, I think, till a study of the Stanton family appeared in the Archaeological Journal for 1928 that use was made of the information to be found in them regarding English sculptors of the period. Unfortunately, there seems to be no evidence, either internal or external, determining the date at which Le Neve began his Collections other than the two advertisements in the Postboy (14th August 1716) and the Evening Post, 16th October of the same year, quoted in Nichols (Lit. Anec. i, 127): the first refers to a lost Proposal for the work as ‘lately printed’, the second states that ‘John Le Neve, Gent. having often advertised his intended Collection of monumental inscriptions … again repeats his request to all Lovers of Antiquity to communicate any worth printing’, with an especial appeal to incumbents. Like his other ventures, the book was a financial failure, and, taking Orders, he was presented to the living of Thornton-le-Moor, where the chalice he gave to the church still exists, as Mr. G. S. Dixon tells me, and where he ‘filled in the Registers in his fine clear hand’ save during the year December 1722–3, when he was imprisoned in Lincoln jail by his rapacious creditors. After his release he carried on his clerical duties, his successor being appointed on 23rd May 1741; the exact date of his death has apparently not been determined.