Charles Wilshere#Collection and legacy

He was the third son of Thomas Wilshere of Hitchin, and his wife Lora Beaumont, daughter of Charles Beaumont of Hartford Hill, Huntingdonshire;{{acad|id=WLSR833CW|name=Wilshere, Charles Willes}} he was the younger brother of William Wilshere MP (1806–1867), and nephew of William Wilshere (1754–1824) the banker. His sister Laura married Thomas Mills MP.{{cite book |last1=Crisp |first1=Frederick Arthur |title=Visitation of England and Wales |date=1919|volume=XX |publisher=Priv. printed |location=London |pages=202–203 |url=https://archive.org/details/visitationofengl20howa/page/202/mode/1up}}

Wilshere matriculated at Trinity College, Cambridge in 1833, and was admitted at Lincoln's Inn in 1836. He supported the Tractarian movement of the 1830s and 1840s, and later the English Church Union.{{cite book |last1=Keller |first1=Daniel |last2=Price |first2=Jennifer |last3=Jackson |first3=Caroline |title=Neighbours and Successors of Rome: Traditions of Glass Production and use in Europe and the Middle East in the Later 1st Millennium AD |date=30 May 2014 |publisher=Oxbow Books |isbn=978-1-78297-398-0 |page=68 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=idAVBAAAQBAJ&pg=PA68 |language=en}}{{cite book |title=The Church Union Gazette |date=1877 |publisher=English Church Union |page=35 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=umMFAAAAQAAJ&pg=RA2-PT35 |language=en}} In 1884 Harmer Green Chapel, a short way east of Welwyn, was built to a design by Wilshere and opened as a mission room.{{cite book |last1=Busby |first1=Richard J. |title=The Book of Welwyn: The Story of the Five Villages and the Garden City |date=1976 |publisher=Barracuda Books Limited |isbn=978-0-86023-023-6 |page=40 |language=en}} According to F. J. A. Hort's biographer, he was "a student of ecclesiastical history and antiquities."{{cite book |last1=Hort |first1=Arthur |title=Life and letters of Fenton John Anthony Hort |date=1896 |publisher=Macmillan and co., ltd. |location=London, New York |page=357|volume=I |url=https://archive.org/details/lifelettershort00hortuoft/page/357/mode/1up}}

In 1858 Wilshere joined the Alpine Club.{{cite book |title=The Alpine Journal: A Record of Mountain Adventure and Scientific Observation |date=1957|volume=62-63 |publisher=Longman, Green, Longman, Roberts, and Green. |page=37 |language=en}} In 1867, on the death of his brother William, he inherited The Frythe.

File:The Frythe, Welwyn (without border).png

Wilshere is particularly known for his collection of gold glass. The Vetri ornati di figure in oro: trovati nei cimiteri cristiani di Roma (1858) of Raffaele Garrucci explains the origins of the "Recupero collection", named for barone Alessio Recupero of Catania.{{cite book |last1=Garrucci |first1=Raffaele |title=Vetri ornati di figure in oro: trovati nei cimiteri cristiani di Roma |date=1864 |publisher=Tipografia delle belle arti |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=AtYsAAAAYAAJ |language=it}}{{cite book |last1=Art |first1=Great Britain Department of Science and |title=The First Proofs of the Universal Catalogue of Books on Art Compiled for the Use of the National Art Library and the Schools of Art in the United Kingdom by Order of the Lords of the Committee of Council on Education: A-K |date=1870 |publisher=Chapman and Hall |page=639 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=MdL17aeYtEgC&pg=PA639 |language=fr}} Wilshire purchased from the collection at Capobianchi, dealers on Via del Babuino, Rome.https://warwick.ac.uk/fac/arts/classics/research/dept_projects/latininscriptions/resources/ashli.finalcatalogue.nonmonumental.pdf, p. 230 At the time, the pieces were dated to the 4th century.{{cite web |title=In Engeland., De Gids. Jaargang 32 |url=https://www.dbnl.org/tekst/_gid001186801_01/_gid001186801_01_0081.php |website=DBNL |language=nl}} A note to Charles Drury Edward Fortnum shows that Wilshere used the diplomatic bag to have Recupero collection pieces shipped from Florence to the South Kensington Museum.{{cite book |last1=Morais |first1=Rui |last2=Leão |first2=Delfim |last3=Pérez |first3=Diana Rodríguez |last4=Ferreira |first4=Daniela |title=Greek Art in Motion: Studies in honour of Sir John Boardman on the occasion of his 90th Birthday |date=11 March 2019 |publisher=Archaeopress Publishing Ltd |isbn=978-1-78969-024-8 |page=313 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=LxYSEAAAQBAJ&pg=PA313 |language=en}}

Left by Wilshere to Pusey House, Oxford, the collection was for many years on loan to the Ashmolean Museum. In 2007 the Ashmolean purchased it.Vickers, Michael, "The Wilshere Collection of Early Christian and Jewish Antiquities in the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford," Miscellanea a Emilio Marin Sexagenario Dicata, Kacic, 41–43 (2009–2011), pp. 605–614, [http://www.franjevci-split.hr/pdf/35_vickers.pdf PDF] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171019105411/http://www.franjevci-split.hr/pdf/35_vickers.pdf |date=19 October 2017 }}. Vickers describes the whole collection, on loan to the museum from Pusey House until bought in 2007. The glass is described at 609–613 Wilshere had bought larger antiquities, but the rest of his collection proved harder to place. At one point he told Garrucci that he might create a museum of his own.{{cite book |editor-last1=Davis |editor-first1=Glynn J. C. |editor-last2=DeLaine |editor-first2=Janet |editor-last3=Kamash |editor-first3=Zena |editor-last4=Potts |editor-first4=Charlotte Rose |title=From the Palatine to Pirro Ligorio: Architectural, Sculptural and Antiquarian Studies in Memory of Amanda Claridge, 1949-2022 |date=2023 |publisher=Journal of Roman Archaeology, L.L.C. |isbn=978-0-9994586-5-5 |page=209 |language=en}}

Wilshere corresponded, in Italian, with the Italian archaeologist Giovanni Battista de Rossi, and a collection of 69 letters from him to de Rossi are in the Vatican Library.{{cite web |title=A New Line from Rome to London |url=https://www.ashmolean.org/a-new-line-from-rome-to-london |website=www.ashmolean.org |language=en}}

Wilshere married in 1840 Elisabeth Marie Farmer, daughter of William Meeke Farmer MP. The couple had four daughters. Florence (1848–1877), the third daughter, married in 1869 Guilbert Edward Wyndham Malet of the Royal Horse Artillery, son of the Rev. William Wyndham Malet of Ardeley.{{Who's Who|title=Malet, Guilbert Edward Wyndham|id=U199870}} Alice Augusta, the last surviving daughter, left no heir, and on her death in 1934 the estate was inherited by Gerald Maunsell Gamul Farmer, who took the surname Wilshere.{{cite web |title=Wilshere Estate, 1806-1954 |website=nationalarchives.gov.uk |url=https://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/details/r/4437c9a1-61e2-48d5-a1e6-e6d1ac8b1adf |language=English |date=1806–1954}}

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Category:1814 births

Category:1906 deaths

Category:English landowners

Category:English collectors