Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Hayter, John
HAYTER, JOHN (1756–1818), antiquary, born in 1756, was educated at Eton and at King's College, Cambridge, of which he became a fellow (Cooper, Memorials of Cambridge, i. 232). He gained the Browne gold medal for a Greek ode in 1776, and graduated B.A. 1778, M.A. 1788, M.A. Oxford, ad eundem, 19 Feb. 1812. He was presented by his college to the rectory of Hepworth in Suffolk, and was chaplain in ordinary to the Prince of Wales (afterwards George IV). In 1800 the Prince of Wales undertook to continue at his own expense the unrolling and deciphering of the papyri found at Herculaneum in 1752. Hayter was given a salary by the prince and sent to Naples to take charge of the ‘Officina’ and direct the work. After obtaining with some difficulty access to the papyri, which had been taken by the Neapolitan court to Palermo, Hayter began operations in 1802 at Portici, near Naples. He had charge of the papyri from 1802 to 1806. The task of unrolling and deciphering was accomplished well and rapidly, but (according to the editor of the Oxford ‘Fragmenta Herculanensia’) Hayter was not a good scholar, and his restorations of the text are of little value. In four years about two hundred rolls were opened, and nearly one hundred copied in lead-pencil facsimiles under Hayter's superintendence. The copies vary in accuracy, but on the whole are fairly correct. On the French invasion of Naples in 1806 Hayter retired to Palermo. The original papyri were detained by the Neapolitan government, and fell into the hands of the French. The lead-pencil facsimiles also passed out of Hayter's hands, but were at last recovered from the Neapolitan authorities through the influence of Sir W. Drummond, the British minister. At Palermo Hayter occupied himself in superintending the engraving of the ‘Carmen Latinum,’ the ‘Περὶ Θανάτου,’ and some specimen alphabets. In 1809 he was recalled to England by the Prince of Wales. Hayter's lead-pencil facsimiles and the engravings made at Palermo were presented by the prince in 1810 to the university of Oxford. In 1811 a university committee arranged for an edition by Hayter of the ‘Carmen Latinum’ and the ‘Περὶ Θανάτου,’ but nothing was done and Hayter went abroad. The appendix to W. Scott's ‘Fragmenta Herculanensia’ contains reproductions of the copper-plates engraved from Hayter's lead-pencil facsimiles for Hayter's intended edition. Hayter died at Paris from apoplexy on 29 Nov. 1818, in his sixty-third year. The ‘Extraordinary Red Book’ (Gent. Mag. 1819, pt. i. p. 179) has an entry under 7 Nov. 1797 of a contingent pension to ‘Elizabeth and Sophia Hayter, to commence on the death of the Rev. John Hayter.’ Hayter published: 1. ‘The Herculanean and Pompeian Manuscripts’ [London?], 1800, 8vo. 2. ‘The Herculanean Manuscripts,’ 2nd edit. London, 1810. 3. ‘Observations upon a Review of the “Herculanensia” in the “Quarterly Review,”’ London, 1810, 4to. 4. ‘A Report upon the Herculanean Manuscripts,’ London, 1811, 4to (Nos. 1, 2, 3 are published as ‘Letters’ to the Prince of Wales). Some of Hayter's papers, labelled ‘Herculaneum papers relating to my employment,’ are bound in a volume in the Bodleian Library.
[Gent. Mag. 1818 pt. ii. p. 631, 1819 pt. i. p. 179; Hayter's publications; W. Scott's Fragmenta Herculanensia, 1885, p. 2 ff.; Quarterly Review, February 1810, p. 1 ff.]