1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Hoare, Sir Richard Colt

HOARE, SIR RICHARD COLT, Bart. (1758–1838), English antiquary, was the eldest son of Richard Hoare, who was created a baronet in 1786, and was born on the 9th of December 1758. He was descended from Sir Richard Hoare (1648–1718), lord mayor of London, the founder of the family banking business. An ample allowance from his grandfather, Henry Hoare, enabled him to pursue the archaeological studies for which he had already shown an inclination. In 1783 he married Hester, daughter of William Henry, Lord Lyttelton, and after her death in 1785 he paid a prolonged visit to France, Italy and Switzerland. He succeeded to the baronetcy in 1787, and in 1788 made a second continental tour, the record of his travels appearing in 1819 under the title A Classical Tour through Italy and Sicily. A journey through Wales was followed by a translation of the Itinerarium Cambriae and of the Descriptio Cambriae of Giraldus Cambrensis, Hoare adding notes and a life of Giraldus to the translation. This was first published in 1804, and has been revised by T. Wright (London, 1863). Sir Richard died at Stourhead, Wiltshire, on the 19th of May 1838, being succeeded in the baronetcy by his half-brother, Henry Hugh Hoare. Hoare’s most important work was his Ancient History of North and South Wiltshire (1812–1819); he also did some work on the large History of Modern Wiltshire (1822–1844).

For notices of him and a list of his works, many of which were printed privately, see the Gentleman’s Magazine for July 1838, and the Dict. Nat. Biog. vol. xxvii. (1891). See also E. Hoare, History of the Hoare Family (1883).