Thomas Martin of Palgrave - Legacy of His Collections

Legacy of His Collections

John Worth, chemist, of Diss, advertised in 1774 proposals for publishing a history of Thetford, compiled from Martin's papers by Mr. Davis, a dissenting minister, of Diss, and five sheets of the work were actually printed by Crouse of Norwich. The project was stopped by Worth's sudden death, and the manuscript was purchased by Thomas Hunt, bookseller, of Harleston, Norfolk; who subsequently sold it, together with the undigested materials, copyright, and plates, to Richard Gough. Gough published the work under the title of The History of the Town of Thetford, London, 1779. Prefixed is a portrait of Martin engraved by P. S. Lamborn, at the expense of John Ives, from a painting by T. Bardwell. A copy of this, engraved by P. Audinet, is in Nichols's Illustrations of Literature. A memoir of Martin was communicated by Sir John Cullam; the public were indebted to Francis Grose for a new set of the plates; and the coins were arranged by Benjamin Bartlett.

Martin's lack of money obliged him to dispose of books, with manuscript notes, to Thomas Payne, in 1769. A catalogue of his remaining library was printed after his death, at Lynn, in 1771. Worth purchased it, with his other collections, for £600. The printed books he immediately sold to Booth & Berry of Norwich, who disposed of them in a catalogue, 1773. The pictures and lesser curiosities Worth sold by auction at Diss; part of the manuscripts in London, in April 1773, by Samuel Baker; and in a second sale there, in May 1774, manuscripts, scarce books, deeds, grants, pedigrees, drawings, prints, coins, and curiosities. What remained on the death of Worth, consisting chiefly of the papers relating to Thetford, Bury, and the county of Suffolk, were purchased by Thomas Hunt, who sold many of them to private purchasers. Richard Gough had the Bury papers. The dispersion was completed by the sale of Ives's collection in London, in March 1777, he having been a principal purchaser at each previous one.

Two volumes, almost entirely in Martin's handwriting, with some notes of Blomefield, Ives, and others, by 1893 came into the possession of G. G. Milner-Gibson Cullum of Hardwick House, Suffolk. These volumes, containing notes on about 235 Suffolk churches, were purchased by Sir John Cullum, author of the History of Hawstead and Hardwick, from John Topham the antiquary in 1777. In addition to these Cullum had a thin notebook on some Norfolk churches; and some of Martin's notes passed to the family of Mills of Saxham. Another volume of Martin's notes was sold with the books of John Gough Nichols, and is in the library of the Suffolk Institute of Archaeology. There was in the British Museum a copy of Gough's Anecdotes of British Topography, 1768, with copious manuscript notes by Martin. Many of his letters are printed in Nichols's Literary Anecdotes (ix. 413 et seq.)

At the sale of William Upcott's manuscripts, Sir John Fenn's Memoirs of the Life of Thomas Martin was purchased by Sir Thomas Phillipps.