Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Meyrick, Samuel Rush
MEYRICK, Sir SAMUEL RUSH (1783–1848), antiquary, born on 26 Aug. 1783, was only surviving son of John Meyrick (d. 1805), F.S.A., agent, of Great George Street, Westminster, and Peterborough House, Fulham, by Hannah (d. 1832), daughter and coheiress of Samuel Rush of Ford House, Hertfordshire, and Chislehurst, Kent. He matriculated at Oxford from Queen's College on 27 June 1800, and graduated B.A. in 1804, M.A. and B.C.L. in 1810, and D.C.L. in 1811 (Foster, Alumni Oxon. 1715–1886, iii. 950). By an early marriage he offended his father, who arranged that the property should devolve on his son's children instead of his son. But the early death of Meyrick's only son destroyed the effect of this disposition.
For many years Meyrick practised as an advocate in the ecclesiastical and admiralty courts. He resided at 3 Sloane Terrace, Chelsea, and afterwards at 20 Upper Cadogan Place, where he gradually accumulated a magnificent collection of armour. He was elected F.S.A. in 1810, and for some years frequently contributed to the ‘Archæologia,’ besides taking an active part in the proceedings of the society.
In 1823 Meyrick became acquainted with James Robinson Planché, and introduced him to Francis Douce. Planché, in his ‘Recollections’ (i. 54–5), warmly acknowledges the valuable assistance he received from both in his efforts for the reform of theatrical costume. He was afterwards called upon to arrange the Meyrick collection of armour twice for public exhibition, at Manchester in 1857 and at South Kensington in 1868.
About 1827 Meyrick, having vainly endeavoured to purchase the ruins of Goodrich Castle, near Ross, Herefordshire, bought the opposite hill, and, with Edward Blore for his architect, erected thereon a mansion, which he styled Goodrich Court. Rooms were specially constructed for the reception of the armoury.
In 1826 he was consulted by the authorities at the Tower of London as to the arrangement of the national collection of arms and armour (Gent. Mag. 1826 pt. ii. pp. 159, 195, 1827 pt. i. pp. 195–6), and in 1828, at the command of George IV, he arranged the collection at Windsor Castle (ib. vol. xcviii. pt. i. p. 463). In January 1832 William IV conferred the Hanoverian order upon him for these services, and dubbed him a knight bachelor on 22 Feb. following.
In 1834 he served the office of high sheriff of Herefordshire, and made his year in office conspicuous by the revival of javelin-men, duly harnessed, and other pageantry. During the same year Francis Douce bequeathed him a part of his museum—chiefly ivories and carvings in ivory—of which Meyrick furnished a catalogue to the ‘Gentleman's Magazine’ in 1836. Meyrick assisted in the formation of the British Archæological Association, and presided over the Gloucester congress in 1846.
Meyrick died at Goodrich Court on 2 April 1848. By his marriage, on 3 Oct. 1803, with Mary, daughter and coheiress of James Parry of Llwyn Hywel, Cardiganshire, he had an only son, Llewelyn (1804–1837), B.C.L., F.S.A., and equerry to the Duke of Sussex, who died unmarried. He left his property to his second cousin, Lieutenant-colonel Augustus Meyrick. About 1871 this gentleman's son and heir sold the armoury and art-treasures at Goodrich, mostly to M. Spitzer of Paris, after offering the entire collection to the government for 50,000l. (Planché, Recollections, ii. 168–72, 268–71). In 1893 the Spitzer collection was dispersed by sale.
Planché gives a pleasing account of Meyrick's love of thoroughness in research, precise ways, and sterling qualities (ib. ii. 144–146). His portrait, by H. P. Briggs, was engraved by Skelton (Evans, Cat. of Engraved Portraits, ii. 278).
In 1810 Meyrick published in quarto the ‘History and Antiquities of the County of Cardigan,’ a very creditable work. In 1812 he made some preparations for a history of the monarchs of Britain prior to 703, on the plan of Dr. Henry's ‘History,’ but he never finished it. With Captain Charles Hamilton Smith, Meyrick joined in 1814 in the production of a work on the ‘Costume of the original Inhabitants of the British Islands, from the earliest periods to the sixth century; to which is added that of the Gothic Nations on the Western Coasts of the Baltic, the Ancestors of the Anglo-Saxons and Anglo-Danes,’ fol., London 1815, with twenty-four coloured plates.
Meyrick's great work on arms and armour was published in three quarto volumes in 1824, under the title of ‘A Critical Inquiry into antient Armour as it existed in Europe, but particularly in England, from the Norman Conquest to the Reign of King Charles II, with a Glossary of Military Terms of the Middle Ages,’ with eighty plates, seventy-two of which are beautifully coloured and illuminated in gold and silver. This laborious work, practically the first on the subject, remains an authority. A second edition, corrected and enlarged by Meyrick, with the assistance of Francis Douce, Albert Way, and other antiquarian friends, was published by Bohn in 1844, with additional but inferior plates. He subsequently promoted an undertaking by Joseph Skelton, F.S.A., entitled ‘Engraved Illustrations of Antient Arms and Armour, from the Collection at Goodrich Court, from the Drawings and with the Descriptions of Dr. Meyrick by J. Skelton,’ 2 vols. 4to, London 1830. A second edition, containing corrections by Meyrick, was issued by Bohn in 1854.
Meyrick's last important work was his edition of Lewis Dwnn's ‘Heraldic Visitations of Wales,’ which he undertook in 1840 for the Society for the Publication of Ancient Welsh Manuscripts, and completed in 1846 in two quarto volumes. He likewise assisted Thomas Dudley Fosbrooke in his ‘Encyclopædia of Antiquities,’ 1823–5; in 1836 contributed the descriptions to Henry Shaw's ‘Specimens of Ancient Furniture;’ and was the author of many papers in the ‘Gentleman's Magazine’ (1822–1839), the ‘Analyst,’ the ‘Cambrian Quarterly Magazine,’ the ‘Cambrian Archæological Journal,’ and Brayley's ‘Graphic and Historical Illustrator,’ 1834.
[Gent. Mag. 1848, pt. ii. 92–5; Williams's Eminent Welshmen; Allibone's Dict. of English Literature, ii. 1271–2; Lowndes's Bibl. Man. (Bohn) iii. 1541; Spitzer Catalogue.]