Items from William Constable’s extensive collections, his ‘cabinet of curiosities’, are on display in two museum rooms on the first floor of Burton Constable Hall.  In the corner of the first room is a marble bust of a smiling William. Displayed on a wall adjacent to him is a very large turtle shell. Visitors often comment on it – it is recognisable while still being outside of most peoples’ everyday experience.

The Burton Constable Museum was created from the 1970s onwards when the significance of the many items scattered in attics and cupboards began to be appreciated and it was at this time that the large shell was displayed on the wall. But it was only once that the Burton Constable Foundation took over in 1992 that further research revealed that the shell had originally been part of the nationally important Thoresby collection housed in the Musaeum Thoresbyanum in Kirkgate, Leeds. Fascinated by the past, Thoresby is often described as the first historian of Leeds publishing the Ducatus Leodiensis  (1715) and Vicaria Leodiensis (1724). But who was he?

Ralph Thoresby was born in Leeds in 1658, the eldest child of John Thoresby a cloth merchant. Ralph spent time learning the trade in London, Rotterdam and Hamburg before returning to Leeds in 1678. The next year his father died and Ralph took over the family business which he did successfully, supporting his family by trading cloth. His main interests however were studying history and collecting curious and instructive objects. His collection had begun with medals but his interests widened as he visited every museum available to view in Britain and Holland; he collected their catalogues, read textbooks and articles in ‘Philosophical Transactions’ – the journal of the Royal Society. He would buy interesting objects and increasingly people would donate items.

By 1683 he was planning to build a public library and a ‘better conveniency for the collection of rarities which are now disadvantageously crowded up’ adjoining the garden to his house in Kirkgate, Leeds. The Musaeum Thoresbyanum attracted many visitors and Thoresby recorded in his diary in 1705 that they had come ‘from almost all the counties of England, and some from Scotland and Ireland etc which cost to much time,’. He collected the signatures of visitors and their comments from 1696. One William Dawson of Hackney wrote:

 ‘Oxford be silent, I this Truth must write,

Leeds hath for Rarities outdone thee quite’

He corresponded with leading scholars of the day, such as Hans Sloane, John Evelyn and Christopher Wren. He became a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1697.

By the end of his life his collection was vast. His catalogue, which he had printed in 1713, needed 300 pages to list all items. Their scope was vast including ‘antiquities’ such as coins, manuscripts, early bibles; human rarities such as shells, corals and metals; artificial rarities such as weapons, Roman objects, household things.

The museum thrived during his lifetime gaining a national reputation. Unfortunately, his family did not seem to place any value on the collection and, after his death in 1725, it fell into decay apart from the coins and some items which his son took. But some specimens have since been discovered which must have been acquired by other antiquarians shortly before or after his death. Many of these are now on display in Museums across the country.  Not surprisingly Leeds City Council have tried to locate such items through their Museums Service.

In the 1980s the Director of Museums at Leeds contacted John Chichester-Constable at Burton Constable Hall after discovering that William Constable had purchased manuscripts and ‘items’ from Dr John Burton in 1770.  Burton was a renowned antiquarian and medical doctor from York who was known to have bought items from Ralph Thoresby. They sent a list of possible items including ‘Large Sea-Tortoise from the Ascension Islands’.

So there was much excitement at Burton Constable Foundation when, in the early 1990s, specimens clearly labelled with Thoresby’s name and catalogue page number were discovered. These were cross referenced with a list held in the archives headed ‘Curiosities once belonging to Ralph Thoresby of Leeds’ which had been compiled after William’s death in 1791 and which listed 55 items or groups of items.

Today 15 identified ‘Thoresby’ specimens are on display in the museum rooms at Burton Constable including the turtle shell, once called a sea-tortoise, which was bought back from Ascension Island by Dr Midgley of Leeds. They also include the Claw of a Great Lobster, a Scroll from Onar in the East Indies bought back by a merchant, a Tooth-brush from Mecca, the leg of an Elk, the round bone of a whale and a Bronze age blade and hone found at Broughton Hall near Skipton in the 17th Century.

As always questions remain and answers to be found. For example, who was Dr Midgely of Leeds and what was he doing in the Ascension Islands all those years ago? But if our curiosity is sparked by these objects then I’m sure Ralph Thoresby would be pleased and William would smile.

Brears, P. C. D. (1989). ‘Ralph Thoresby, a Museum Visitor in Stuart England’. Journal of the History of Collections 1 no. 2 (1989) pp 213- 24.

This article references information from Thoresby’s diaries in Hunter, J. The Diary of Ralph Thoresby, F.R.S. (London, 1830)

Connell, D.P. and Boyd, M.J. (1998).  ‘Material from the ‘Musaeum’ of Ralph Thoresby (1658 - 1725) preserved at Burton Constable Hall, East Yorkshire’. Journal of the History of Collection 10 no 1 (1998) pp 31-40.

This article includes the current accession numbers of each of the items and the original description of the items given by Thoresby. It also contains a transcript of the inventory of ‘Curiosities once belonging to Ralph Thoresby of Leeds’ from1791.

Correspondence to J. Chichester-Constable held by Burton Constable Foundation