Richard Colt Hoare

Sir Richard Colt Hoare, 2nd Baronet FRS (9 December 1758 – 19 May 1838) was an English antiquarian, archaeologist, artist, and traveller of the 18th and 19th centuries, the first major figure in the detailed study of the history of his home county of Wiltshire.

Hoare was born in Barnes, Surrey, and was descended from Sir Richard Hoare, Lord Mayor of London, the founder of the family banking business, C. Hoare & Co. His parents were Sir Richard Hoare, 1st Bt. (b. 7 March 1734/35, d. 11 October 1787) and Anne Hoare (1737-1759). He was educated at Preparatory school at Wandsworth, Seminary school at Greenford, and taught the Classics by the Rev.d Joseph Eyre.

In 1785 he inherited the large Stourhead estate from his grandfather, Henry Hoare II, which enabled him to pursue his interests including the archaeological studies for which he had already shown an inclination. In 1783 he had married Hester, daughter of William Lyttelton, 1st Baron Lyttelton. After her death in 1785, following the birth of their second child, who also died, he toured France, Italy and Switzerland. In 1786 he purchased Glastonbury Tor and funded the restoration of the church tower on it.

He succeeded to the baronetcy in 1787, and in 1788 made a second continental tour, the record of his travels appearing in 1815 and 1819 under the titles Recollections Abroad and A Classical Tour through Italy and Sicily. He took numerous views during his travels in the form of sketches from which he later produced mainly sepia wash drawings, along with a smaller number of watercolours. His tutor, John 'Warwick' Smith, and the painter Francis Nicholson were also commissioned to produce coloured reductions from some of his continental sketches. Bound in volumes, many of these were dispersed in the Stourhead sales of the 1880s.

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