Edward Jesse (14 January 1780 – 28 March 1868) was an English writer on natural history. As a surveyor for the Office of Works, he was responsible for much of the restoration and presentation of Hampton Court Palace after it was opened to the public in 1838.
Contents
Life
Jesse was born at Hutton Cranswick, Yorkshire, the third son and youngest of four children of Reverend William Jesse (1738–1814) and Mary Jesse. Originally the parish vicar for Hutton Cranswick, Rev. Jesse later became a prominent evangelical vicar in West Bromwich and personal chaplain to the 2nd Earl of Dartmouth, a convert of Selina Hastings.
Jesse was privately educated, and in 1798 was appointed to a clerkship in the Santo Domingo office. Jesse's command of French recommended him to the 3rd Earl of Dartmouth, who made Jesse his private secretary on his appointment in 1801 as President of the Board of Control (overseeing the British East India Company). Following his promotion to Lord Steward in 1802, Dartmouth commended Jesse to the Royal Household, and Jesse was appointed to the ceremonial post of Gentleman of the Ewry in 1803 (which he held until its abolition in 1832). Jesse was also commissioned a lieutenant colonel of the Birmingham Volunteers, and on the corps disbandment the Duke of Rutland appointed Jesse as captain in the Leicestershire Militia in 1805. In 1814 Jesse was made a Commissioner of Hackney Coaches (or 'Jarvies'), which he held until responsibility for coach licensing was transferred to the Stamp Office in 1831.
Jesse was made a clerk in the Office of Woods and Forests by Lord Glenbervie c. 1821, and following the abolition of the posts of Gentleman of the Ewry and Hackney Coach Commissioner, was appointed Itinerant Deputy Surveyor in the Office of Woods, Forests and Land Revenues, with responsibility for Hampton Court Palace and Windsor Castle, in 1834. On the abolition of this office he retired on a pension, and he died in 1868 at Brighton.
Jesse married his first wife, Matilda Morris, daughter of Sir John Morris, 1st Baronet in 1807. Their son, John, born 1809, became a noted court historian. Their eldest daughter Frances, born 1810, married Edward Curwen, a lieutenant in the 14th Dragoons, in 1833. Their youngest daughter Matilda, born 1811, became a noted author and women's rights activist. Following Matilda's death c. 1851, Jesse married Jane Caroline in 1852, who survived him.
Works
Natural history
The result of his interest in the habits and characteristics of animals was a series of pleasant and popular books on natural history. He also edited Izaak Walton's The Compleat Angler. (See Bibliography).
Guide books
Jesse contributed to the second edition of Leitch Ritchie's Windsor Castle, and edited later editions of Gilbert White's Selborne. He wrote a number of handbooks to places of interest, including Windsor and Hampton Court (see Bibliography).
Hampton Court Palace
In 1832 the Office of Works and Public Buildings was subsumed into the Office of Woods, Forests and Land Revenues, and responsibility for the maintenance of unoccupied Royal palaces was passed to the reconstituted Office of Works in 1838. As Itinerant Deputy Surveyor with responsibility for the districts of Hampton Court and Windsor, Hampton Court Palace fell under Jesse's responsibility.
The Palace was opened to the general public in December 1838, initially displaying works from the Royal Collection in the State Apartments, with only the interior courtyards, gardens and Apartments open for viewing. Previously, members of the public had been able to tour the palace in small groups conducted by the housekeeper, but the Great Hall had been inaccessible throughout. The Hall had been cleared in the early 18th century by architect James Wyatt (on the orders of George III), removing the theatre fixtures and fittings installed by William III and George I, and adding a new door at the east end of the Hall through to the Great Watching Chamber.
In July 1840 Jesse began a substantial restoration of the Great Hall for public display, his Romantic interpretation aiming to give "an appearance similar, perhaps, to that it formerly presented when it was occupied by the Cardinal of York and his princely retinue." Jesse's restoration was influenced by the Gothic Revival of the mid-nineteenth century, and in particular the work of architects Jeffry Wyatville (who had remodelled Windsor Castle), and Edward Blore, who had assisted Jesse with the Tudor restoration of the West Front of Hampton Court Palace. Jesse was also influenced by the historical novels of Walter Scott, whose tales of romantic chivalry in medieval settings were popular with the Victorian reading public; Jesse referenced Scott in several of his works.
Jesse decorated the Great Hall with stag's heads between each window, banners displaying the "devices of Henry VIII and the arms of Wolsey", and a string course of Tudor roses and portcullises. Jesse commissioned a statue of St George slaying the Dragon, which was placed on "a richly-carved stone bracket, inscribed 'Seynt George for merrie Englande,'". Tapestries depicting The Story of Abraham were moved from the State Apartments, where they had formed the backdrop to the growing population of paintings from the Royal Collection, to hang in the Great Hall, Jesse noting each to be "of such excellent design, and of such costliness of material, that it may be safely asserted that its parallel does not exist in Europe at this time." Collections of arms and armour were placed at either end of the Hall, specially-commissioned or loaned from the Tower of London collection.