Samuel Lysons

Artist Info

Samuel LysonsRodmarton, Gloucestershire, 1806 - 1877, Hempsted Court

LC name authority rec. nr90018936

LC Heading: Lysons, Samuel, 1806-1877

Biography:

Lysons, Samuel (1806–1877), Church of England clergyman and antiquary, born at Rodmarton, Gloucestershire, on 17 March 1806, was the eldest surviving son of the Revd Daniel Lysons (1762–1834) of Hempsted Court, Gloucestershire, and Sarah (1779/80–1808), eldest daughter of Lieutenant-Colonel Thomas Carteret Hardy of the York fusiliers. He matriculated at Oxford from Exeter College on 24 November 1826, graduated BA in 1830 with third-class honours in classics, and proceeded MA in 1836. He was ordained deacon in 1830 and priest the following year. In 1833 he succeeded his father as rector of Rodmarton, Gloucestershire, a living in the gift of the family. On 1 January 1834 he married Eliza Sophia Theresa Henrietta (d. 1846), eldest daughter of Major-General Sir Lorenzo Moore; they had four sons and two daughters. Two days after his marriage his father died and he succeeded to the family estates, which comprised Hempsted Court and other lands in Gloucestershire. When in 1838 he took up his residence at Hempsted Court he found the adjoining suburb of Gloucester, known as High Orchard, in a state of neglect, particularly the area known as Sudbrook, where there was very poor housing by the canal. Lysons built a church there (consecrated as St Luke's on 21 April 1841), furnished it with an endowment of £1000, and officiated in it himself without a stipend. Schools were erected, charitable clubs organized, and a scripture reader provided at his expense. Altogether he spent between £5000 and £6000 for the benefit of the district, which rapidly improved. His first wife having died the previous year, on 11 March 1847 he married Lucy (d. 1872), daughter of the Revd John Adey Curtis-Hayward. In 1866 old age led him to resign his duties at St Luke's and, having presented a successor to the living, to resign its patronage to the bishop of the diocese. From November 1865 to February 1876 he was rural dean of Gloucester, and on 24 December 1867 he was installed as honorary canon of Gloucester Cathedral. In 1872 he married Gertrude Savery, second daughter of Simon Adams Beck of Cheam, Surrey.

Lysons contributed frequently to the local press and occasionally lectured at local literary and scientific societies. He also published eight books. His preferred, although not his only, subjects were the topography and archaeology of Gloucestershire. He was elected FSA, but is a very minor figure among antiquaries compared with his father and uncle, whose monumental work he did not attempt to finish. He died at Hempsted Court on 27 March 1877, being survived by his widow, two children from his third marriage, and five from his first. He was buried in Rodmarton churchyard. His library was sold at Sothebys on 12 July 1880.

Gordon Goodwin, rev. Elizabeth Baigent

Sources Burke, Gen. GB · Foster, Alum. Oxon. · CGPLA Eng. & Wales (1877) · C. R. J. Currie and C. P. Lewis, eds., English county histories: a guide (1994) · J. Stratford, Gloucestershire biographical notes (1887) · Gloucestershire Notes and Queries, 2 (1884), 514–16, 533 · Crockford (1833–66) · L. Fleming, Memoir and select letters of Samuel Lysons, 1763–1819 (1934)

Archives S. Antiquaries, Lond., diaries and cash accounts :: Bodl. Oxf., corresp. with Sir Thomas Phillipps

Wealth at death under £25,000: probate, 25 April 1877, CGPLA Eng. & Wales

Gordon Goodwin, ‘Lysons, Samuel (1806–1877)’, rev. Elizabeth Baigent, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004 [http://proxy.bostonathenaeum.org:2055/view/article/17299, accessed 28 Oct 2015]