James Halliwell-Phillipps

{{Short description|English scholar and antiquarian (1820–1889)}} {{Use British English|date=May 2017}} {{Use dmy dates|date=May 2017}} {{Infobox person | image = Halliwell-Phillipps, James Orchard.jpg | alt = | caption = Halliwell in 1863 | birth_name = James Orchard Halliwell | birth_date = {{Birth date|df=y|1820|06|21}} | birth_place = [[London]], England | death_date = {{Death date and age|df=y|1889|01|03|1820|06|21}} | resting_place = [[All Saints Church, Patcham]] | death_place = [[East Sussex]], England | resting_place_coordinates = {{coord|50|51|59.77|N|0|9|2.54|W}} | alma_mater = [[Jesus College, Cambridge]] | other_names = | occupation = {{hlist|Writer|scholar}} | known_for = Writing on [[William Shakespeare]] | signature = James Orchard Halliwell Signature.png | relatives = [[Thomas Phillipps]] (father-in-law) }}

'''James Orchard Halliwell-Phillipps''' (born '''James Orchard Halliwell'''; 21 June 1820 – 3 January 1889) was an English writer, [[William Shakespeare|Shakespearean]] scholar, [[antiquarian]], and a collector of English [[nursery rhymes]] and [[fairy tales]].<ref>{{cite DNB|wstitle=Halliwell, James Orchard}}</ref>

==Life== The son of Thomas Halliwell, a wealthy draper from [[Chorley]] Lancashire, he was born at [[Sloane Street]], [[Chelsea, London]] and was educated privately and at [[Jesus College, Cambridge]].<ref>{{acad|id=HLWL836JO|name=Halliwell (post Phillipps and Halliwell-Phillipps), James Orchard}}</ref><ref name="cman549">{{cite news |title=Penzance loses one of the most generous friends ... |work=The Cornishman |issue=549 |date=10 January 1888 |page=7}}</ref> He devoted himself to antiquarian research, particularly of early [[English literature]]. Beginning at the age of 16, between 1836 and 1837, he contributed 47 articles to ''The Parthenon. A Weekly Journal of English and Foreign Literature, the Arts, and Sciences'';<ref>Douglas Wertheimer, "J.O. Halliwell's Contributions to 'The Parthenon' -- 1836-37," ''[[Victorian Periodicals Review|Victorian Periodicals Newsletter]]'' vol. 8 (March 1975), pp. 3-6.</ref> in 1839 he edited Sir [[John Mandeville]]'s ''Travels''; in 1842 he published an ''Account of the European manuscripts in the Chetham Library'', besides a newly discovered metrical romance of the 15th century (''Torrent of Portugal'').<ref name="EB1911">{{EB1911|inline=1 |wstitle=Halliwell-Phillipps, James Orchard |volume=12 |page=857}}</ref>{{efn|{{cite book|title=Torrent of Portugal|year=1842 |location=London |publisher=[[s:Smith, John Russell (DNB00)|John Russell Smith]]|url=https://archive.org/details/torrentportugal00hallgoog}} }}

In 1841, while still a student at Cambridge, Halliwell dedicated his book ''Reliquae Antiquae'' to Sir [[Thomas Phillipps]], the noted [[bibliomaniac]]. Phillipps invited Halliwell to stay at his estate, Middle Hill.<ref name="Rasmussen">{{cite book |title=The Shakespeare Thefts |publisher=Palgrave Macmillan |last=Rasmussen |first=Eric |year=2011 |location=New York |pages=[https://archive.org/details/shakespearetheft0000rasm/page/83 83]–87 |url=https://archive.org/details/shakespearetheft0000rasm |url-access=registration |isbn=9780230109414}}</ref> There Halliwell met Phillipps's daughter, Henrietta, to whom he soon proposed marriage. However, also around this time, Halliwell was accused of stealing manuscripts from [[Trinity College, Cambridge]]. Although no prosecution was brought, Phillipps's suspicions were aroused and he refused to consent to the marriage. This led to the couple's elopement in 1842. Phillipps refused ever to see his daughter or Halliwell again. Despite this, the marriage seems to have been a long and happy one with Henrietta providing valuable support for his scholarly work.

In 1842, Halliwell published the first edition of ''Nursery Rhymes of England'' followed by ''Nursery Rhymes and Nursery Tales'', containing the first printed version of the ''[[Three Little Pigs]]''<ref>{{cite web |last=Ashliman |first=Professor D. L. |url=http://www.pitt.edu/~dash/type0124.html |title=Three Little Pigs and other folktales of Aarne-Thompson-Uther type 124 |work=Folklore and Mythology Electronic Texts |publisher=University of Pittsburgh |access-date=25 July 2010}}</ref> and a version of the [[Christmas carol]] ''[[The Twelve Days of Christmas (song)|The Twelve Days of Christmas]]''.<ref>{{cite book |last=Halliwell |first=James Orchard |year=1842 |title=The Nursery Rhymes of England|publisher=Richards |location=London |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=SoZKAAAAYAAJ |pages=127–128}}</ref>

From 1845, Halliwell was excluded from the library of the [[British Museum]] on account of the suspicion concerning his possession of some manuscripts which had been removed from the library of [[Trinity College, Cambridge]]. He published privately an explanation of the matter in 1845.<ref name="EB1911"/><ref>{{cite book |date=July 26, 1845 |title=Statement in answer to reports which have been spread abroad against Mr. James Orchard Halliwell |url=https://archive.org/details/statementinanswe00hall |publisher=(Anonymous) Islip, Oxfordshire (printer W. A. Wright, London)}}</ref> Halliwell also had a habit, detested by bibliophiles, of cutting up seventeenth-century books and pasting parts he liked into scrapbooks. During his life he destroyed 800 books and made 3,600 scraps.<ref name="Rasmussen" /> [[File:New Place 1864.png|left|thumb|James Halliwell-Phillipps' 1864 excavation of [[Shakespeare]]'s [[New Place]]]] In 1848, he published his ''Life of Shakespeare'', illustrated by [[John Thomas Blight]] (1835–1911), which had several editions; in 1853–1865 a sumptuous edition, limited to 150 copies, of Shakespeare in folio,{{efn|Shakespeare in folio}} with full critical notes. After 1870 he entirely gave up textual criticism, and devoted his attention to elucidating the particulars of Shakespeare's life. He collated all the available facts and documents in relation to it, and exhausted the information to be found in local records in his ''Outlines of the Life of Shakespeare''.{{efn| ''Outlines of the Life of Shakespeare''}} He was instrumental in the purchase of [[New Place]] for the corporation of [[Stratford-on-Avon]], and in the formation there of the Shakespeare museum.<ref name="EB1911" />

He assumed the name of Phillipps in 1872, under the will of the grandfather of his wife, Henrietta Phillipps. She died on 25 March 1879 after many years of ill health following a riding accident in 1872. He remarried Mary Rice (1851/2–1927) in June 1879.

He took an active interest in the [[Camden Society]], the [[Percy Society]] and the Shakespeare Society, for which he edited many early English and [[Elizabethan era|Elizabethan]] works. He died on 3 January 1889 at his home, and was buried in [[All Saints Church, Patcham|Patcham churchyard]], near [[Hollingbury]] in East Sussex.<ref>{{cite book |title=James Orchard Halliwell-Phillipps: the life and works of the Shakespearean scholar and bookman |url=https://archive.org/details/jamesorchardhall0000spev |url-access=registration |page=[https://archive.org/details/jamesorchardhall0000spev/page/583 583] |publisher=Oak Knoll Press |year=2001}}</ref><ref name="cman549" />

His house, Hollingbury Copse, near [[Brighton]], was full of rare and curious works. During his lifetime he donated a number of collections to different institutions. There is a substantial collection of ballads and broadside at [[Chetham's Library]],<ref>[http://www.chethams.org.uk/collections_halliwell.html The Halliwell-Phillipps Collection, Chetham's Library] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140528091504/http://www.chethams.org.uk/collections_halliwell.html |date=28 May 2014 }}</ref> Manchester donated in 1852. There were also generous gifts to the [[Morrab Library]] of [[Penzance]], to the [[Smithsonian Institution]], and to the [[Edinburgh University Library]].<ref name="EB1911" /><ref>[http://archiveshub.ac.uk/features/0304johp.html Collection of James O. Halliwell-Phillipps, Edinburgh University Library]</ref><ref>{{cite journal|author=Engel III, Wilson F.|journal=The Library: The Transactions of the Bibliographical Society|year=1980|volume=s6-II (2)|pages=193–198|doi=10.1093/library/s6-II.2.193|title=J. O. Halliwell-Phillipps and the Edinburgh University Library|issue=2}}</ref> His principal remaining Shakespearian collections, once intended for Stratford, were sold to Marsden J. Perry of Providence, Rhode Island, and in 1908 passed largely to [[Henry Clay Folger]] and are now at [[Folger Shakespeare Library]] in Washington, DC.<ref>{{Cite web |title=J.O. Halliwell-Phillipps - Folgerpedia |url=https://folgerpedia.folger.edu/J.O._Halliwell-Phillipps |access-date=2025-06-16 |website=folgerpedia.folger.edu}}</ref>

==Works== His publications in all numbered more than sixty volumes, including:

*(1840). ''The Connexion of Wales with the early Science of England''. *(1840). ''A Few Notes on the History of the Discovery of the Composition of Water''. *(1841). [http://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/008972958 ''Shakespeariana'']. J. R. Smith (reissued by [[Cambridge University Press]], 2009; {{ISBN|978-1-108-00002-4}}) *(1842). ''Cambridge Jokes: From the Seventeenth to the Twentieth Century''. Thomas Stevenson, Tilt and Bogue (reissued by [[Cambridge University Press]], 2009; {{ISBN|978-1-108-00122-9}}) *(1842). ''An Account of the European Manuscripts in the Chetham Library, Manchester''. *(1843). ''The Nursery Rhymes of England, obtained principally from oral tradition''. *(1843). ''A Collection of Pieces in the Dialect of Zummerzet''. *(1846). ''A Dictionary of Archaic & Provincial Words, Obsolete Phrases, Proverbs & Ancient Customs, From the Fourteenth Century'', [[iarchive:in.ernet.dli.2015.88691|Volume I A-I]] *(1847). ''A Dictionary of Archaic & Provincial Words, Obsolete Phrases, Proverbs & Ancient Customs, From the Fourteenth Century'', [https://books.google.com/books?id=N25JAAAAcAAJ Volume II J-Z] *(1847). ''An historical sketch of the Provincial Dialects of England, illustrated by numerous examples''. *(1848). ''Some account of the Vernon Manuscript, a volume of early English poetry preserved in the Bodleian Library''. *(1849). ''Notices of the History and Antiquities of Islip''. *(1849). ''Popular Rhymes and Nursery Tales: a sequel to The Nursery Rhymes of England''. *(1851). ''Notes on Ascertaining the Value, and Directions for the Preservation, of Old Books, Manuscripts, Deeds and Family Papers''. *(1854). ''Brief Observations on some Ancient Systems of Notation''. *(1855). ''Contributions to English Lexicography''. *(1856). ''A Catalogue of {{not a typo|an}} Unique Collection of Ancient English Broadside Ballads, with notes of the tunes and imprints''. *(1859). ''An Introduction to the Evidences of Christianity''. *(1860). ''Notes of Family Excursions in North Wales, taken chiefly from Rhyl, Abergele, Llandudno, and Bangor''. *(1860). ''A Skeleton Hand-List of the Early Quarto editions of the Plays of Shakespeare; with notices of the old impressions of the Poems''. *(1860). ''A Dictionary of Old English Plays, Existing Either in Print or in Manuscript, from the Earliest times to the Close of the Seventeenth Century''. *(1861). ''Rambles in Western Cornwall by the Footsteps of the Giants; with notes on the Celtic remains of the Land's End district and the Islands of Scilly''. *(1863). ''A Calendar of the Records at Stratford-on-Avon'' *(1864). ''An Historical Account of the New Place, Stratford-Upon-Avon, the Last Residence of Shakespeare''<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.rct.uk/collection/1070006/an-historical-account-of-the-new-place-stratford-upon-avon-the-last-residence-of|title=James Orchard Halliwell - An Historical account of the New Place, Stratford-upon-Avon, the last residence of Shakespeare / by James O. Halliwell.|website=www.rct.uk|language=en|access-date=2019-04-10}}</ref> * (1866). ''A Hand-Book Index to the Works of Shakespeare: Including References to the Phrases, Manners, Customs, Proverbs, Songs, Particles, &c., Which Are Used or Alluded to by the Great Dramatist''. J.E. Adlard (reissued by [[Cambridge University Press]], 2009; {{ISBN|978-1-108-00121-2}}) * (1884). ''The Stratford Records and the Shakespeare Autotypes. A brief review of singular delusions that are current at Stratford-on-Avon''

==Notes== {{notelist|2}}

==References== {{reflist|30em}}

==Further reading==

* Spevack, Martin, ''James Orchard Halliwell-Phillipps: The Life and Works'' (2001), Oak Knoll Press. *[https://books.google.com/books?id=_iUpAAAAYAAJ Justin Winsor (1881) ''Halliwelliana: A Bibliography of the Publications of James Orchard Halliwell-Phillipps''], Harvard University Press ([[Google eBook]])

==External links== {{Portal|Children's literature}} * {{wikisource author-inline}} {{Commons category|James Orchard Halliwell-Phillipps}} * {{Gutenberg author |id=8746}} * {{Internet Archive author |sname=James Orchard Halliwell-Phillipps}} * {{OL author|68412A}} *[http://www.presscom.co.uk/halli_1.html Full texts by James Halliwell-Phillipps] *[https://dlxs2.library.cornell.edu/cgi/t/text/text-idx?c=cdl;idno=cdl420 Letters of the kings of England, now first collected from royal archives] Cornell University Library Historical Monographs Collection. {Reprinted by} [https://www.amazon.com/dp/1429740590/ Cornell University Library Digital Collections]

{{DEFAULTSORT:Halliwell-Phillipps, James Orchard}} [[Category:1820 births]] [[Category:1889 deaths]] [[Category:Alumni of Jesus College, Cambridge]] [[Category:Antiquarians from London]] [[Category:Collectors of fairy tales]] [[Category:British fellows of the Royal Society]] [[Category:Shakespearean scholars]]