Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 58.djvu/44

 by Eadmer in translating into Latin ancient manuscripts, of which Leland conjectured that the ‘Life of St. Alban’ was one. He also represents Unwona as accompanying Offa at the invention and translation of St. Alban, but this, says Bishop Stubbs, ‘is fable.’ He died about 800, his successor, Werenbert, being appointed in or before 802.

 UPCOTT, WILLIAM (1779–1845), antiquary and autograph-collector, born in Oxfordshire in 1779, was the natural son of [q. v.] by Delly Wickens, daughter of an Oxford shopkeeper, and was called Upcott after the maiden name of Humphry's mother. His father bequeathed to him his miniatures, pictures, drawings, and engravings, as well as a very extensive correspondence with many leading men, and from him Upcott derived his passion for collecting.

Upcott was bred up as a bookseller; being at first an assistant of R. H. Evans of Pall Mall, and then of John Wright of Piccadilly. While at the latter shop he attracted the attention of Dean Ireland, William Gifford, and the writers in the ‘Anti-Jacobin’ who frequented that establishment, and he witnessed the affray there between Gifford and Dr. Wolcot, assisting afterwards to eject Wolcot (Gent. Mag. 1846, ii. 603). When Porson was made librarian of the London Institution, Upcott was appointed as his assistant (23 April 1806), and he continued in the same position under [q. v.]. Every inch of the walls in his rooms, whether at the London Institution or in his subsequent residence, was ‘covered with paintings, drawings, and prints, most of them by Gainsborough or Humphry;’ all the drawers, shelves, boxes, and cupboards were crammed with his collections. In 1833, while at the London Institution, he was robbed of the whole of his collection of gold and silver coins and some other curiosities, whereupon more than five hundred of the proprietors signed a memorial for his reimbursement from its funds, and 500l. was voted to him. On 30 May 1834 he resigned his office (Cat. of Lond. Instit. Libr. i. p. xxiv).

Upcott spent the rest of his days at 102 Upper Street, Islington. The house in his time was called ‘Autograph Cottage,’ and in imitation of the plan adopted by William Oldys, he fitted up a room with shelves and a hundred receptacles into which he dropped a quantity of cuttings on various subjects (Notes and Queries, 2nd ser. xii. 328). In 1836 he privately printed a brief catalogue of the ‘original letters, manuscripts, and state papers’ which he had been collecting for more than twenty-five years, in the hope that they might be bought for some public institution. One of his greatest finds was the original manuscript of Chatterton's extravaganza ‘Amphitryon,’ which he chanced upon in the shop of a city cheesemonger. This was purchased by the British Museum in 1841 (see art. ; Addit. MSS. 12050).

Upcott died, unmarried, at Islington on 23 Sept. 1845. His portrait was painted by William Behnes, and a private plate engraved by Bragg in March 1818. Another portrait of him, drawn on stone by Miss H. S. Turner, daughter of Dawson Turner, was engraved by Netherclift; it is inserted, with the addition of a facsimile of his signature, in the sale catalogue of his effects at the British Museum; a third portrait, by G. P. Harding, was lithographed by Day and Haghe, and signed by Upcott on 27 March 1837.

Upcott's library, books, manuscripts, prints, and drawings were sold by Sotheby at Evans's auction-rooms, 106 New Bond Street (15 June 1846 and following days), and are said to have realised 4,125l. 17s. 6d.; a large-paper copy of the catalogue, formerly belonging to Dawson Turner, priced, and containing the cancelled title-page, is at the British Museum. He owned about thirty-two thousand letters, illustrated by three thousand portraits, many of which were engraved in C. J. Smith's ‘Historical and Literary Curiosities.’ Many of the autograph letters were bought for the nation, and now form Additional MSS. 15841 to 15957 at the British Museum. These volumes, 116 in number, comprise 15841–54, albums mostly of foreign princes and scholars; 15856, papers of John Nicholas; 15857–8 and 15948–51, Browne and Evelyn papers; 15859–64, Burton's diary (edited by J. T. Rutt); 15865, Curtius letters, 1643–7; 15866–90, Dayrolles correspondence; 15891, letters received by Sir Christopher Hatton; 15892–8, Hyde correspondence (edited by S. W. Singer); 15913, ‘The Snuff-Box,’ a poem by Shenstone; 15918–19, catalogue raisonné of auction catalogues, 1676–1824; 15920, catalogue of his own books; 15921–9, collections on topography of Great Britain in continuation of his printed volumes;