Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Bourne, Henry
BOURNE, HENRY (1696–1733), antiquary, was born at Newcastle-upon-Tyne in 1696. He was the son of Thomas Bourne, a tailor, and was intended for the calling of a glazier. His talents, however, attracted the attention of some friends, through whose offices he was released from his apprenticeship and sent to resume his education at the Newcastle grammar school. He was admitted a sizar of Christ College, Cambridge, in 1717, under the tuition of the Rev. Thomas Atherton, a fellow-townsman. He graduated B.A. in 1720 and M.A. in 1724, and received the appointment of curate of All Hallows Church, Newcastle, where he remained until his death on 16 Feb. 1733.
In 1725 he published 'Antiquitates Vulgares, or the Antiquities of the Common People, giving an account of their opinions and ceremonies.' This was republished, with additions by Brand, in 1777 in his 'Popular Antiquities,' and forms the groundwork of the later labours of Sir Henry Ellis and W. C. Hazlitt. In 1727 he issued 'The Harmony and Agreement of the Collects, Epistles, and Gospels, as they stand in the Book of Common Prayer for the Sundays throughout the Year.' He also wrote a history of his native town, which was left in an unfinished state at his death, but was afterwards published by his widow and children in a folio volume in 1736, under the title of The History of Newcastle-upon-Tyne, or the Ancient and Present State of that Town.'
[Adamson's Scholæ Novocastrensis Alumni, p. 13; Brand's Hist. of Newcastle, 1789, preface; Allibone's Dictionary.]