Robert Bigsby (1806-1873)

Robert Bigsby was born in Nottingham in 1806, son of Robert Bigsby and his wife Sophia Bray. Robert senior was an attorney and registrar of the Archdeaconry of Nottingham. Bigsby junior was educated at Repton School from 1818. In 1827 he married Elizabeth Swift.

Bigsby was intended for a career in law, but decided instead to pursue his interest in antiquarian and literary matters. On leaving school, he remained at Repton in order to research its history. In 1837 he was elected a Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries and in the same year became a Fellow of the Royal Society. However in 1845, his membership of both bodies was terminated because of non-payment of their subscriptions. In 1849, he was awarded an honorary LLD by the University of Glasgow. In 1854, Bigsby’s work on Repton finally bore fruit in “An historical and topographical description of Repton”.

Bigsby’s first published work (1839) was a poem entitled “The triumph of Drake”. His interest in Drake most likely arose from a collection of Drake memorabilia, formerly in the possession of the Stanhope family, which he inherited from his uncle via his father. This included an “astrolabe” which in 1831 he presented to King William IV, who in turn gave it to Greenwich Hospital. The instrument is now in the collections of the National Maritime Museum.

Bigsby was a prolific contributor to a large number of magazines and journals. He was well-known in antiquarian circles both for his writings and as a collector of curiosities, while his literary output included poems, essays and plays. He argued strongly that men of letters such as himself should receive financial support from the public purse and in 1860 he was indeed granted a civil list pension of £100. He died in London in 1873.

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