John Sydenham (antiquary)

John Sydenham (25 September 1807– 1 December 1846),^[1] was an antiquary, who in 1829 became editor of the ‘Dorset County Chronicle.’ In 1839 he published ‘The History of the Town and County of Poole’ (Poole, 8vo), a work of considerable research and arranged with great clearness. In 1841 he wrote ‘Baal Durotrigensis’ (London, 8vo), a dissertation on an ancient colossal figure at Cerne in Dorset (see the Cerne Abbas Giant), in which he endeavoured to discriminate between the primal Celtæ and the later Celto-Belgæ, who emigrated from Gaul. In the following year Sydenham left the ‘Dorset Chronicle’ and became editor of ‘The West Kent Guardian,’ a Greenwich paper. In January 1846 he returned to Poole and started ‘The Poole and Dorsetshire Herald,’ of which he was editor and part-proprietor. He was ‘one of the first members’ of the British Archæological Association.

Personal

Sydenham was the eldest son of John Sydenham, a bookseller of Poole, Dorset, born on 25 September 1807. He was educated in his native town. In 1833 He married Anne Christiana Zillwood,^[2] a daughter of William Zillwood, a schoolmaster of Dorchester, by whom he had six children. He died at Poole on 1 December 1846.

References

• Private information kindly given by Mr. John Zillwood Sydenham
• "'s%20Magazine%20%22John%20Sydenham%22%20Poole&pg=PA211#v=onepage&q=Gentleman's%20Magazine%20%22John%20Sydenham%22%20Poole&f=false Obituary: John Sydenham, Jun. Esq.", The Gentleman's Magazine, Volume 182, page 211
• "The Annual Meeting, Monday July 19, 1847", Journal of the British Archaeological Association, 1848, page 139
• Mayo's Bibliotheca Dorsetiensis, pp. 127, 187.

 This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: "Sydenham, John (DNB00)". Dictionary of National Biography. London: Smith, Elder & Co. 1885–1900.  Check date values in: |date= (help)