1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Horne, Thomas Hartwell

HORNE, THOMAS HARTWELL (1780–1862), English theologian and bibliographer, was born in London on the 20th of October 1780, and was educated at Christ’s Hospital, with S. T. Coleridge as an elder contemporary. On leaving school he became clerk to a barrister, but showed a keen taste for authorship. As early as 1800 he published A Brief View of the Necessity and Truth of the Christian Revelation, which was followed by several minor works on very varied subjects. In 1814, having been appointed librarian of the Surrey Institution, he issued his Introduction to the Study of Bibliography. This was followed in 1818 by his long matured work, the Introduction to the Critical Study of the Holy Scriptures, which rapidly attained popularity, and secured for its author widespread fame and an honorary M.A. degree from Aberdeen. In 1819 he received ordination from William Howley, bishop of London, and after holding two smaller livings was appointed rector of the united parishes of St Edmund the King and Martyr, and St Nicolas Acons in London. On the breaking up of the Surrey Institution in 1823, he was appointed (1824) senior assistant librarian in the department of printed books in the British Museum. After the project of making a classified catalogue had been abandoned, he took part in the preparation of the alphabetical one, and his connexion with the museum continued until within a few months of his death on the 27th of January 1862.

Horne’s works exceed forty in number. The Introduction, edited by John Ayre and S. P. Tregelles, reached a 12th edition in 1869; but, owing to subsequent advances in biblical scholarship, it fell into disuse.