Matthew Bloxam

Matthew Holbeche Bloxam (12 May 1805 – 24 April 1888), a native of Rugby, Warwickshire, England, was a Warwickshire antiquary and amateur archeologist, author of a popular guide to Gothic architecture. He was the original source of the legend of William Webb Ellis' invention of the game of Rugby football.

Bloxam was born on 12 May 1805 at Rugby, son of the Rev. Richard Rouse Bloxam, an assistant master at Rugby School, and his wife Ann, sister of Sir Thomas Lawrence He was one of ten children, his brothers including Andrew Bloxam and John Rouse Bloxam.

Bloxam was educated at Elborow School before attending Rugby School between 1813 and 1820. In 1821 he was articled to George Harris, a solicitor in Rugby. He did not find success in the profession when he went into practice on his own account, and in 1831 he became clerk of the court, a post he held for 40 years.

He is remembered as an antiquarian on Rugby and the surrounding area. In 1836 he successfully located the Roman town of Tripontium nearby. His work was published in two books and many journal articles; although many of his conclusions are now thought doubtful, his collection of archaeological finds still exists. He lived in what is now the Percival Guildhouse, while his brother ran a boarding school next door in what became the public library. A new library replaced the old one in 2000 and a life-size statue of Bloxham engaged in his archaeological work greets visitors to the Rugby museum located in the new library complex.

It was while visiting country churches to consult their registers in the course of his work, that Bloxam began making the observations which led to his subsequent knowledge of ecclesiastical architecture. While still under articles he began collecting the notes which he published in 1829 as the first edition of The Principles of Gothic Architecture elucidated by Question and Answer (Leicester, 1829). It was described by Charles Locke Eastlake as "a small but well digested volume admirably adapted for the use of amateurs". The book proved popular. A second edition appeared in 1835, and it reached its sixth edition, in which Bloxam abandoned the question-and-answer format, in 1844. A German translation was published at Leipzig in 1845. At the suggestion of Sir George Gilbert Scott, Bloxam set about preparing an enlarged edition, which eventually appeared in three volumes in 1882, containing additional chapters on vestments and on church arrangements. It was illustrated with wood engravings by Thomas Orlando Sheldon Jewitt.

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