John Warburton (1682–1759) was an antiquarian, cartographer, and Somerset Herald of Arms in Ordinary at the College of Arms in the early 18th century.
Contents
Life
Warburton was the son of Benjamin and Mary Warburton. In his youth, John was an exciseman and then a supervisor, being stationed from 1718–19 at Bedale in Yorkshire. He was admitted as a Fellow of the Royal Society in March 1719, but was ejected on 9 June 1757 for nonpayment of his subscription. His election as Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries of London took place on 13 January 1720, but he ceased to be a member at some point before January 1754. On 18 June 1720, he was appointed to the office of Somerset Herald in the College of Arms.
Warburton's first wife was named Dorothy, but they separated in 1716. He later married a widow with children. He had a son called John by his second wife, and is said to have married her minor son to one of his own daughters. The younger John, 1732–about 1798, was an attorney who married a woman named Ann Catherine Mores in 1756. Warburton's only daughter, Amelia, 1735–1786, married a man named John Elphinstone.
Warburton died at his apartments in the College of Arms, London, his usual place of residence, on 11 May 1759. He was buried in the south aisle of St Benet's, Paul's Wharf, London.
Works
Warburton published in 1716 from his surveying a map of the county of Northumberland in four sheets, and during the next few years produced similar maps of the counties of Yorkshire, Middlesex, Essex, and Hertfordshire.
Warburton produced in 1749 a "Map of Middlesex" in two sheets of imperial atlas, which came under the censure of John Anstis the Younger. Warburton had given on the border of the map five hundred engraved arms, and the Earl Marshal, supposing many of them to be fictitious, ordered that no copies should be sold until the right to wear them had been proved. Warburton endeavoured to vindicate himself in London and Middlesex illustrated by Names, Residence, Genealogy, and Coat-armour of the Nobility, Merchants, &c. (1749).
In 1753, Warburton published Vallum Romanum, or the History and Antiquities of the Roman Wall in Cumberland and Northumberland, the survey and plan of which he had made in 1715. Historian William Hutton applauded him as "the judicious Warburton, whom I regard for his veracity".
John Nichols printed in 1779 in two volumes from the collections of Warburton and antiquary Andrew Ducarel Some Account of the Alien Priories, but the compilers' names were not mentioned. This omission was rectified in many copies issued in 1786 with a new title page.
Collections
Warburton was an avid collector of old books and manuscripts, but often careless. After much drinking and attempting to "muddle" Humfrey Wanley, he sold in July 1720 to the Earl of Oxford many valuable manuscripts on Wanley's own terms. On another occasion, he left a pile of drama manuscripts in the kitchen. When he came looking for them a year later, nearly all were gone because his cook, Betsy Baker, had used over fifty of the manuscripts as scrap paper while cooking—either for lighting fires or for lining the bottoms of pie pans while baking pies.
Notwithstanding his carelessness, Warburton left behind him a huge collection of books, manuscripts, and prints, which were sold by auction in 1766. Many of his topographical manuscripts are in the Lansdowne collection at the British Museum.
A complete list of the destroyed play manuscripts
Alexias, or The Chaste Gallant, a tragedy by Philip Massinger; it was licensed for performance by the King's Men on 25 September 1639.
Antonio and Vallia, attributed to Philip Massinger; it's possible this was identical to or a revision of a play of the same name performed by Philip Henslowe's company in 1595.
Beauty in a Trance, by John Ford; it was performed by the King's Men on 28 November 1630.
Believe as You List, a comedy by Philip Massinger. It was licensed for performance by the King's Men on 6 May 1631, four months after the Master of the Revels refused to approve it because of "dangerous matter" in it about "the deposing of Sebastian king of Portugal by Philip the [Second,] and there being a peace sworn twixt the kings of England and Spain."
The City Shuffler, no author named, or part specified; records indicate that The City Shuffler, part 2 was licensed for performance by the Salisbury Court company in October 1633 after a Mr. Sewster removed his objections to it, presumably because it had once contained some kind of personal satire.
The Crafty Merchant, attributed to Shackerley Marmion; it was licensed for performance by the Lady Elizabeth's Men at the Red Bull Theatre on 12 September 1623, although that document ascribes the authorship to William Bonen.
The Duchess of Fernandina, a tragedy by Henry Glapthorne.
Duke Humphrey, attributed to William Shakespeare.
The Fair Favorite, by William Davenant. It was licensed for performance on 17 November 1638, and belonged to the King's Men.
The Fairy Queen, no author given.
Survivals
Warburton listed only three plays which escaped destruction: The Second Maiden's Tragedy (which he assigned to George Chapman, but now usually considered by scholars to be the work of Thomas Middleton), The Queen of Corsica (a tragedy by Francis Jaques), and The Bugbears (a comedy by John Jeffere).
Not every play destroyed by Warburton's cook was irretrievably lost. Five of them have been preserved through separate sources. These include Believe as You List, The Fair Favorite, The Governor, The Inconstant Lady, and The Parliament of Love. The prologue and epilogue to Thomas Jordan's Love Hath Found His Eyes are also still extant, published in Jordan's poetry collection Royal Arbor of Loyal Poesy (1663). It is possible that a few of the remaining plays have also been preserved, under different titles; Shakespeare's Duke Humphrey, for example, may have been a version of Henry VI, part 2, in which Humphrey plays a major part.