HIGHMORE, Anthony 1758-1829. Lawyer, abolitionist and legal writer
Anthony Highmore was buried in the Old Burial Ground in Dulwich Village in August 1829. He had died at his house, Pierce Grove, on Lordship Lane, just beyond the boundary of the Dulwich Estate. However, his association with Dulwich goes back to at least 1782, when he wrote a poem extolling Dulwich.
He practised as a solicitor, and he wrote several books about the Law and contributed several articles over the years to the Gentleman’s Magazine. He had a lifetime interest and involvement in charitable causes and commitment to the abolition of slavery.
He was born on 22 August 1758 and christened on 27 August at St Dionis Backchurch in the City of London, a parish with a reputation for helping its poorer parishioners. He was the son of Anthony Highmore, 1718 to 1799, and Anna Maria Highmore, nee Ellis. He was their eleventh child out of fourteen of which not all survived infancy. Sharing a first name with his father he was generally referred to as Anthony Highmore junior. His grandfather was Joseph Highmore, 1692 to 1780, a well-known London artist of the first half of the 18th Century and served as a Governor of the Foundling Hospital.
In 1766, he was sent to Dr Burney’s school in Greenwich. He qualified as a solicitor in 1783.
In 1780, the Gentleman’s Magazine published the first of his many contributions that he continued to submit throughout his life. It was a tribute in verse form to Thomas Hollis, who had been a major figure in the collection of antiquities and art, which he often donated to major educational institutions, including the library at Harvard. So, even early in his life he seems to have inherited his grandfather’s interest in charitable works.
Anthony Highmore junior’s first recorded attachment to Dulwich was in June 1782, when he had a poem entitled “Dulwich” published in the Gentleman’s Magazine, pages 134-135. The opening verse celebrates Dulwich’s rural setting.
"O mark where Nature spreads her rustic charms,
And clasps wild Fancy in her fondling arms,
Where Fancy leads her airy walk unseen,
Glad mirth diffusing o'er the Sylvan scene”.
And further on it mentions the founding of Dulwich College,
“Blest was the day when Allen crown’d his fame.
And lit, inviolate Religion’s flame.
And raise’d those walls to Charity’s lov’d shrine”.
It was signed AH, as were most of his submissions to the magazine.
In September 1787, he married Harriet Hinckley, the second daughter of Dr Henry Hinckley of Aldermanbury. His own address is given as Bury Court, St. Mary Axe. This may have been his City of London business address. They had three children, Anthony born in August 1788, Henry in August 1794 and Harriett in April 1796. Sadly, Harriet herself died at the age of 34 years on 9 October 1797. She was buried in Bunhill Fields, a non-conformist cemetery in the City of London. The records of the children’s births are all from the non-conformist register kept at Dr Williams Library in Red Cross Street near Cripplegate. So, Anthony and his family seem to have been non-conformists at this period.
These years were when he became a friend of Granville Sharp, who was a prominent campaigner for the abolition of slavery and he, himself, supported the cause with his pen.
Also, through his brother John Highmore, he knew Ignatius Sancho, a former slave who had become a well-respected man of letters in eighteenth century England. After Sancho’s death, in December 1780, Anthony wrote to John a long poem on the death of his justly lamented friend Ignatius Sancho. It was reprinted in one of the collections of poetry published by John Nichols, long time editor of the Gentleman’s Magazine. In 1782, he and John, along with Nathaniel Highmore, a cousin of their father, were subscribers supporting the publication of “The Life of Ignatius Sancho”, a memoir which was attached to a reprint of “The Letters of the Late Ignatius Sancho, An African”.
He had commenced his writings on legal matters with a Digest of the Doctrine of Bail in Civil and Criminal Cases, in 1783, when recently qualified.
In 1784, at the age of 26, he was appointed the Secretary of the London Smallpox and Inoculation Hospital. It had been founded in 1745 and remained the only hospital specifically providing care for smallpox sufferers and a smallpox inoculation and aftercare service. Smallpox inoculation or variolation was a procedure of infecting with smallpox to promote immunity from more serious smallpox later in life. This practice was the only option before vaccination was discovered.
In 1786, he proposed that Charities should be exempt from tax. But no general tax exemption was granted to Charities. This was at a time of increased taxation specifically the introduction of income tax.
He became more involved with charities and in 1787 published, A succinct view of the History of Mortmain and Charitable uses. Mortmain, dead hand in French, had historically referred to the gift of land to the Church and as the Church was an organisation that never died then the Crown was never able to gather tax against the transaction. Highmore was setting out the case that this should apply to charities as well as religious bodies. The use of the term “succinct” is somewhat inappropriate as his book was 591 pages long.
In 1791, he published Reflections on the Distinction Usually Adopted in Criminal Prosecutions for Libel, and on the Method, Lately Introduced, of Pronouncing Verdicts in Consequence of Such Distinction.
The Smallpox Hospital, along with similar charities, levied charges from patients, which restricted their access to the poorest. The Smallpox Hospital required a deposit of 16 shillings (80p) from infected patients to cover possible cost of burial. In 1793, Highmore in his Addenda to the Law of Charitable Causes stated his disapproval of this practice.
1796 the “Practical Arrangement of the Laws of Excise," 2 vols. 8vo.
His was not the only voice lobbying for Charities to receive exemption from taxes. The London Guilds had established several charities and were probably also pursuing the same aim. In 1798/99, Charities were not included under the introduction of Income Tax.
During the Napoleonic Wars, with the threat of a French Invasion, at the age of 45, he joined the Honorary Artillery Company on 3 August 1803. He served for just over a year resigning on 1 November 1804. During this period, he wrote a History of the Honourable Artillery Company, published in 1804. His address is given as 40 Haydon Square the Minories. This address is used on several published notices for the medical charities for which he acted as secretary. However, he was a tenant of Sir William Smith in Camberwell in 1800. So, it is likely that his domestic home was in the Parish of Camberwell and even on Lordship Lane.
In 1807 be published “A Treatise on the Law of idiocy and Lunacy," a work which received the special notice and approval of the late Sir Samuel Romilly; expressed to himself in Court immediately after its publication. In 1808 he published “A Statement of some Objections to a Bill to prevent the spreading of the Smallpox."
In 1809, he published a revised version of his History of Mortmain and Charitable uses, citing as an example the God’s Gift charity of Dulwich. He was obviously still charmed by Dulwich as he wrote,
“The college has been accustomed to keep the greatest part of their manorial estate in their own hands, there being only four or five copyhold tenants thereon; they have granted the rest chiefly in building leases, reserving all the timber, though they have made very little profit of this reservation until lately; but what they may have lost in revenue, their estate gained in beauty, which constituted a considerable part of its value, for it offered the principal attraction to opulent and respectable tenants; the intended enclosures and the long leases, which the college is now empowered to grant for the encouragement of building, together with the intersection of the manor by new roads, will, in addition to the period of some of the existing leases, considerably improve the revenues of the college.”
He brought together his knowledge of Charities in Pietas Londiensis, an account of the major charitable institutions in and near London, published in 1810, and republished in 1814. Versions of the later date are available online. Dedication of book to the King is dated March 1810. The book is divided into six categories of charity: -
I) Hospitals
II) Dispensaries, Lying-in and Medical Charities
III) Colleges
IV) Alms Houses
V) School Charities, Charities for binding Poor Apprentices
VI) Miscellaneous Charities
Highmore was involved personally with two of the charities described. He was Secretary of the City of London Lying in Hospital and the St Pancreas Smallpox Hospital. His address is given now as 33 Ely Place, again his business address from where he practiced law. This remained his business address for the remainder of his life. His involvement with these charities brought him into contact with many of the eminent men of the time. The President of the Smallpox Hospital was the Duke of York, and the Dukes of Bedford and Devonshire were among the Vice Presidents. In 1802, Spencer Perceval, when Solicitor General, was a supporter of the Smallpox Hospital. Robert Peel and N.M. Rothschild were supporters of the Lying in Hospital. So, Anthony Highmore would have known two future Prime Ministers.
Also, he was involved with establishment of the Jennerian Society and in discussion on whether to discontinue variolation, exposure to smallpox itself. He reports on this debate with several mentions of Dr Lettsom, a well-known resident of Camberwell. Pg 297 et seq.
In the third category, Colleges, pages 446 to 494, he describes in detail the Charity of God’s Gift College of Dulwich. The pages that he devoted to God’s gift College show his high degree of interest in Dulwich. In a letter to the Gentleman’s Magazine in 1825, he related that Dr Parr of the College helped him greatly with the detail. He describes also his great love of Dulwich Village as well as the College.
“I have traced the history and nature of this institution with singular interest. Local attachments entwine themselves amongst our infections with an insinuating address, little secondary to greater claims of tenderness, and, as our years advance, they acquire an advancing strength. From the earliest infancy to manhood, during the gay volatility of youthful sports, and the more sober pleasures of maturity, I have had the satisfaction to imbibe exquisite sensation in the delicious retirement of this hamlet – many of my best moments of contemplation have been passed amongst its rural shades – many of my sweetest recreations have been indulged in tracing and retracing, without satiety, its variegated boundaries of lawn and wood, of hill and dale, of cultivation and of rustic wildness; many a bark have I scored in boyish times; and many a stile and many a hillock have, in later days, furnished, alternately, subjects of philosophic inquiry and of pleasing reflection, and both were concentered in the reverence of gratitude! No part have I ever left unexplored; every tree and almost every bush, have presented themselves to my mind in the shape and character of intimate friendship; and, while the modulated sound of the college-bell still and ever vibrates in my ears, the hurry of the world recedes, and the air I breath unites to soothe and tranquilise my mind! I look back with grateful satisfaction upon the enjoyment of many years, of an intercourse with several of the members of this college, which enables me, to bear a willing testimony to that urbanity of which I have received many personal proofs, and to the liberality of mind which is the result of cultivated understanding. Some of those whom, in my early years, I was taught to respect, and others resident in the village whom I learnt to esteem in mature days, and whose notice I was accustomed to regard, have long since “gone down to the dust!” but their memory will live in my bosom, for they are associated with the most pleasing reflections of my life!”
In his conclusion to the book, he lays out the case for a registry of Charities and for charitable donations. In particular, he argues that such donations should be tax free.
ln 1820 he published “The Attorney and Solicitor's New Pocket Book of Precedents in Conveyancing," in 2 vols.; and in 1821 “The Arrangement of Executors' Accounts."
In London by 1822, many charitable more institutions had been founded. So, he published a second volume on the sector titled “Philanthropia Metropolitana." The volume is 647 pages long and divided into the following sections.
Section I: Societies for Religious Purposes
Section II: Societies for Education
Section III: Societies for Local Charity
Section IV: Societies for Visiting, etc.
Section V: Dispensaries
Section VI: Infirmaries
Section VI: Societies for Philanthropic Purposes
Plus, an Addenda
This volume and the earlier one are both available to download online.
On 23 October 1798, he married Elizabeth Jellicoe at St Andrews, High Holborn. She was the daughter of Adam Jellicoe. Her brother, Joseph, and sisters Anna and Harriet were witnesses. Adam Jellicoe had been Deputy Paymaster of Seamen’s Wages for the Royal Navy. He had invested in the firm of Cort & Jellicoe, run by his son Samuel and inventor Henry Cort. Cort had developed a method of producing superior “bar iron” which free Britain from its dependence on imported material. This was of great strategic importance, especially for the Royal Navy, in the period of war with France.
However, after Adam Jellicoe’s death in 1789, it surfaced that the majority of the money he had invested in Cort & Jellicoe had been withdrawn from funds intended for paying the wages of the Royal Navy. Sadly, Henry Cort who paid the price of this mismanagement and he was forced to retire from business, whereas Samuel Jellicoe went on to become wealthy from the business.
Samuel Jellicoe was the grandfather of Admiral John Rushworth Jellicoe, who commanded the Royal Navy at the Battle of Jutland in 1915. This made Elizabeth and Anna the great aunts of Admiral Jellicoe.
There is no evidence that Elizabeth or Anna was involved directly with these financial shenanigans. The family had lived in Portsmouth and then moved to Highbury Place, in Islington. The building still stands. Interestingly, John Nichols editor of the Gentleman’s Magazine lived there also and this maybe how Anthony and Elizabeth met. Adam Jellicoe like Anthony’s first wife was buried at Bunhill Fields. So, they would have shared a nonconformist Christianity.
Anthony and Elizabet’s first child, Eliza Highmore was born on 4 July 1801. Eliza married John Shephard on 22 October 1822, in Camberwell.
Anna (or Anne) Jellicoe died on 29 November 1816, at the house of her brother-in-law and sister, Anthony and Elizabeth Highmore, near Dulwich. She was buried in the Burial Ground in Dulwich Village. Anthony wrote a fulsome obituary, which was published in the Gentleman’s Magazine.
He was a lifelong contributor to the Gentleman’s Magazine and his contributions may be broadly divided into comments on Slavery, Religion, Charitable Institutions and some more personal ones referencing Dulwich. He was opposed strongly to Slavery; held deep Christian beliefs and he had a lifelong commitment to Charitable Institutions.
His contributions to the Gentleman’s Magazine are listed below for which he published using his initials AH. Attributions of Authorship in the Gentleman's Magazine, 1731-1868 (bsuva.org)
On slavery
• 86-ii (1816): 27-28, 33-34, 118-119, 122-125 The Slave Trade since its Abolition
• 86-ii (1816): 122, 226-227 The Slave Registry Bill
• 91-i (1821): 597-599; Letter on Abolition of Slavery including comments on Sierra Leone colony and slavery in USA, Arabia, Sumatra, the Cape and Molaccas
• 94-ii (1824): 219-223, Review of 18th Report of African Institution, 1 May 1824. References to slave trade by Dutch, Spain, Portugal, France, Sweden and USA, and developments in Sierra Leone
• 95-ii (1825): 592: On the subject of West Indian Slavery
• 96-i (1826): 230-231: East India Sugar recommended to use over West Indian, which was produced using slaves
On Religion
• 82-i (1812): 263, 263-264; Poem On hearing that a Professor in the College of Maynooth was converted to Protestant Religion
• 86-ii (1816): 491-492 Causes of thin congregations in Churches
• 86-ii (1816): 597-598 Observations on Letter to Bishop of Lincoln
• 87-i (1817): 448; Epitaph in Kensington Church
• 87-ii (1817): 595 On New Churches need for
• 88-i (1818): 195-197 On the right of Presentation to the New Churches
• 88-ii (1818): 419-420 Papers upon Moral Obligation
• 89-i (1819): 420-422, On Scripture Chronology
• 89-ii (1819): 434-435, Review of Moral Sketches of Prevailing opinions and manners etc. with reflections on Prayer by Hannah More in 8 vols. Part I
• 89-ii (1819): 532-534; Review of Moral Sketches of Prevailing opinions and manners etc. with reflections on Prayer by Hannah More in 8 vols. Part II
• 90-ii (1820): 219-222, On the received Translation of the Bible
• 90-ii (1820): 291-293; Letter reference Abstract from Rev. Jowlett’s report to Bible Society at Malta on his return from Egypt
• 91-i (1821): 197, Account of the Red River Settlement near Lake Winnipeg
• 91-i (1821): 230-231, Letter on Church Missionary Society aim to establish a Mission College in Calcutta
• 92-i (1822): 217-220; History of the Christian Church
• 93-ii (1823): 545; Poem. A Visit to the Tomb of Beloved Parents
• 94-i (1824): 402-404, Society of Friends fund for African Instruction
• 94-ii (1824): 417-421, Comparison of European and Eastern Computation of Time, especially longer history in Far East difficult to reconcile with Bible chronology
• 94-ii (1824): 577-578; Circulation of the Scriptures by Roman Catholics lacking translations into common languages
• 95-ii (1825): 194, Comment on Greek inscription on copper cover of Dulwich College font. (States that Dr Parr helped with information on Dulwich College for his book Pietas Londiniensis.)
• 96-i (1826): 320-321, Distinction between a Lecturer and a Vicar
• 96-ii (1826): 103-104, Forms of Prayer
• 96-ii (1826): 214-216, On not saying Grace
• 96-ii (1826): History of Balsam or Balm of Gilead
• 97-i (1827): 117-119, Symptoms of Modern (Religious) Infidelity
• 97-i (1827): 11-12, 207-208, Reconciliation of Chinese and European Dates
• 97-i (1827): 398-399, On Epitaphs in Churchyards
• 97-i (1827): 494-496, On Cremation of Hindoo Widows
• 97-ii (1827): 20-22 On Cremation of Hindoo Widows contd.
• 97-ii (1827): 301-304 Abstract of 23rd Report of the British and Foreign Bible Society
• 98-i (1828): 31-34 On the original languages of mankind and on the origin of mankind and their emigrations
• 98-i (1828): 126-130 Contd. from 34 Geological proofs of a universal deluge
Charitable Activities
• 50 (1780): 486-487; a tribute in verse form to Thomas Hollis, who had been a major figure in the collection of antiquities and art, which he often donated to major educational institutions, including the library at Harvard.
• 86-i (1816): 409-410 On the increase of Charitable Institutions
• 87-ii (1817): 405-406 On increase of public charities and dilution of funding
• 94-i (1824): 519-520; How admission of poor to hospital funded by subscription
Relevant to Dulwich
• 52 (1782): 134-135, a poem entitled “Dulwich”.
• 86-ii (1816): 568 Obituary of Anne Jellicoe
• 95-ii (1825): 194, Comment on Greek inscription on copper cover of Dulwich College font. (States that Dr Parr helped with information on Dulwich College for his book Pietas Londiniensis.)
• 95-ii (1825): 125-126, Rage for improvements to a parsonage. Local to his home (in East Dulwich?)
Examples of his legal practice appear occasionally in the newspapers. Apart from the usual acting as an agent for the sale of properties and annuities, he was also the secretary for the St Nicholas Bay and Canterbury Canal Company. This was the time before railways and at the end of the great canal building era. His grandfather and father had retired to near Canterbury. So, it may have been family connections that led to his appointment. The company held regular annual meetings, but the project never came to fruition.
Anthony Highmore died at his house on Lordship Lane on 19 July 1829 after a long and painful illness. On 23 July 1829, he was buried in the Burial Ground in Dulwich Village in the same grave as Anna Jellicoe. The Gentleman’s Magazine published a full obituary.
Apart from listing his achievements and family history the obituary also highlights his character.
“Although Mr. Highmore had for a period of 40 years been actively and assiduously engaged in bis profession, he had ever found opportunities by a most enviable habit of never leaving a single moment of the day without its appropriate occupation, to devote great attention to literary pursuits. Dear as those pursuits were to his refined and cultivated mind, he did not permit them to interfere with those portions of the day in which he was called upon to attend to his professional duties, which were ever performed with a peculiarly disinterested conscientiousness, and guided by the most strict and undeviating integrity. Neither did he allow them to trespass upon those duties of a still higher and more important order—his duties towards his neighbour, which be ever fulfilled with uninterrupted, unceasing, and unmixed benevolence—his duties towards his God, which he ever performed with the strictest regularity, and with the most humble, the most pure, the most genuine, and most unaffected piety.
Such qualities and such pursuits had eminently prepared him for that retirement which he had enjoyed during the last few years of his life at Dulwich, where his extreme urbanity of manners, his peculiar sweetness of temper and disposition, his remarkable singleness of heart, and simplicity of character, bis great stores of information, his refined and correct taste, his sound and well-regulated judgement, combined with a more than usually easy command of language and flow of conversation, made him the revered and beloved nucleus if his own domestic circle.”
His executors put his house up for auction and it was described in detail in the auctioneer’s advertisement.
“Delightful Country Residence, with Coach-house, Stables and Offices, Lawn, Gardens and Paddock, in all about six acres, at Dulwich, within five miles of Town, by Messrs. FAREBROTHER< WILSON and LYE at Garraway’s, by order of Trustees and Executrix of Anthony Highmore, Esq. deceased.
An EXCELLENT FREEHOLD RESIDENCE, delightfully situate on the North-side Lordship Lane, Dulwich within five miles of Town, commanding beautiful prospects in every direction, with extensive lawn and flower garden, paddock, and a kitchen garden well stocked and fully cropped. The house is on an eminence at a convenient distance from the road, the front walls are rough cast and there is a veranda to the entrance and drawing room windows. It contains four principal bed chambers with dressing rooms and closets, two servants sleeping rooms, water closet, a study, capital dining parlour, elegant drawing room, convenient kitchen, and domestic apartments. The out-offices comprise a coach house, and two-stalled stables, wash house, dairy, piggery, cow house, gardener’s cottage, &c. The premises are well supplied with water, are in excellent repair, are freehold of inheritance (except the land, which is leasehold, at a moderate rent), and are fit for the immediate reception of a respectable family.
May be viewed and particulars had on the premises; at the Plough, Lordship-lane; at the Greyhound, Dulwich; at the Grove House Tavern, Camberwell; at Garraway’s: of Messrs. Clift and Fisher, solicitors, Red Lion square; and at Messrs. Fairbrother and Co’s Offices, 2 Lancaster-place, Strand.”
I have not found details of the result of the Auction, but on the 1838 Tithe Map, Elizabeth Highmore is recorded as the tenant of Pearces Grove and Buildings covering 5.29 acres owned by Sir John Smyth in a location which is now Mount Adon Park.
In his will, dated 1 November 1828, Anthony Highmore bequeathed the use of his freehold buildings and leasehold land for the use of his son, also Anthony Highmore, his brother-in-law, Joseph Jellicoe and his friend, Samuel Cotton as his executors. He made special bequests of £200 to his wife with all the household furniture, linen, prints and drawings and such of his books as printed or in manuscript as she may want for herself; £100 to his son and any of the remaining books; £1000 to his daughter, Harriet; and to James Clift (who is mentioned in the Auction advertisement) all the law books that he had left at Clift’s office. He instructed for the balance after the payment of his debts and funeral expenses to be divided equally amongst his wife, Joseph Jellicoe and Samuel Cotton. He asked for Government Bonds to be purchased with his wife’s share. The will was witnessed by Geo Webster, Dulwich Surgeon, and his own servants, Thomas Townater and James Carter.
His widow, Elizabeth Highmore lived for another 16 years, dying on 10th May 1845 at Grove End Place, St John’s Wood. She is shown as a tenant on Lordship Lane in the 1838 Tithe listing and also as still resident on Lordship Lane in the 1841 Census. In 1841, other occupants included her sister Harriett Jellicoe. She did not leave a detailed will but appointed Harriett and Joseph Jellicoe, her brother as executors.