Dictionary of National Biography, 1912 supplement/Gardiner, Samuel Rawson
GARDINER, SAMUEL RAWSON (1829–1902), historian, born at Ropley, near Alresford, in Hampshire, on 4 March 1829, was eldest son of Rawson Boddam Gardiner by his wife Margaret, daughter of William Baring Gould. His grandfather, Samuel Gardiner of Coombe Lodge, Whitchurch, was high sheriff of Oxfordshire in 1794; his paternal grandmother, Mary Boddam, was descended from Bridget, eldest daughter of the Protector Cromwell, by her marriage with Henry Ireton. This pedigree, which has not been published, was carefully worked out by Colonel J. L. Chester. Gardiner was educated at Winchester College, which he entered about Michaelmas 1841, and matriculated at Christ Church, Oxford, in October 1847 (J. B. Waine Wright, Winchester College, 1830–1906; Foster, Alumni Oxonienses). In 1850 he was given a studentship, and in 1851 he obtained a first class in the school of literæ humaniores. He graduated B.A. in 1851, but did not proceed M.A, till 1884, and was for theological reasons unable to retain his studentship. His parents were Irvingites; he married in 1866 the youngest daughter of Edward Irving, and was from 1851 to 1866 a deacon in the Irvingite church. His name was removed from the church register before 1872.
After his marriage Gardiner settled in London, and while maintaining himself largely by teaching began to study English history. He was admitted to read in the British Museum on 8 Nov. 1856, and to the Record Office on 1 July 1858. His desire from the first was to write the history of the Puritan revolution, but he thought it necessary to begin by studying the reign of James I. 'It seemed to me,' he afterwards wrote, 'that it was the duty of a serious inquirer to search into the original causes of great events rather than, for the sake of catching at an audience, to rush unprepared upon the great events themselves.' The first-fruits of these researches were some articles published in 'Notes and Queries' during 1860, which explained the causes of the quarrel between James and his parliament and threw fresh light on his policy towards the Roman catholics. Next, at the instigation of John Bruce (1802-1869) [q. v.], then director of the Camden Society, Gardiner edited for that body in 1862 a volume of reports and documents, entitled 'Parliamentary Debates in 1610.' In 1863 the first instalment of his history appeared, 'A History of England from the Accession of James I to the Disgrace of Chief Justice Coke, 1603-1616' (2 vols.). This was followed in 1869 by 'Prince Charles and the Spanish Marriage' (2 vols.). The reception of these books would have discouraged most men. About a hundred copies of the first work were sold, but most of the edition went for waste paper; the second had a circulation of about 500, but did not bring the author anything. Gardiner persevered, and his third instalment, published in 1875, 'A History of England under the Duke of Buckingham and Charles I, 1624-1628' (2 vols.), paidits expenses. The fourth instalment, 'The Personal Government of Charles I' (2 vols. 1877), and the fifth, 'The Fall of the Monarchy of Charles I' (2 vols. 1882), produced some small profit. This portion of his history was reissued under the title of 'History of England, 1603-1640' (10 vols. 1883-4). The next portion of his history consisted of three volumes issued separately in 1886, 1889, and 1891, under the title of 'The Great Civil War,' followed finally by three other volumes, called 'The History of the Commonwealth and Protectorate,' in 1895, 1897, and 1901. The regular production of these sixteen volumes was made possible by Gardiner's methodical and strenuous industry. He examined systematically every source of information. He studied in the archives of different European capitals papers illustrating the diplomatic history of the Stuart period, and he presented to the British Museum two volumes of transcripts which he had made at Simancas, besides other documents copied elsewhere (Add. MSS. 31111-2). For many years he lived in Gordon Street, within easy reach of the British Museum and the Record Office; subsequently, while residing in succession at Bromley, Bedford, and Sevenoaks, he came up to London nearly every day to work in those two storehouses of historical materials. His chief recreation was cycling, and in his holidays he familiarised himself with the battle-fields of the English civil war and followed the campaigns of Montrose in Scotland and of Cromwell in Ireland. During the greater part of the period in which the history was produced Gardiner was actively engaged in teaching. From 1872 to 1877 he was a lecturer at King's College, London, and in 1877 he succeeded John Sherren Brewer [q. v.] there as professor of modern history. Between 1877 and 1894 he lectured regularly for the Society for the Extension of University Teaching in London. He also taught at Bedford College (1863-81) and in private schools near London, and lectured at Toynibee Hall.
Gardiner liked teaching and was an admirable popular lecturer. He used no notes and spoke in a simple, conversational manner, arranging his facts very clearly, and weaving the different threads of the subject into a connected whole with remarkable skill. His elevation of tone and his breadth of view made his verdicts on statesmen and his exposition of principles impressive as well as convincing. The six lectures on 'Cromwell's Place in History,' given at Oxford in 1896, are a good example of his style, though they are not printed exactly as they were delivered, because they were not written till he was asked by his audience to publish them.
Besides teaching, Gardiner found time to write a number of historical text-books. To the 'Epochs of English History,' published by Longmans, he contributed in 1874 'The Thirty Years' War,' and in 1876 'The Puritan Revolution' (15th impression 1902). He was the author of an 'Outline of English History for Children' (1881; new edit. 1901) and of a 'Student's History of England' for the higher classes in schools (3 vols. 1890). He also selected and edited, for use in the Modern History School at Oxford, a volume of 'Constitutional Documents of the Puritan Revolution' (1889 ; 3rd edit. 1906). These and other excellent textbooks enjoyed a wide circulation. 'The Puritan Revolution' was translated into Russian, and portions of the 'Outline' were edited as a reading book for German schools. In spite of the claims of his history and of his educational work, Gardiner contrived to take a leading part in all enterprises for the promotion of learning. From 1873 to 1878 he edited the historical department of the 'Academy.' To the 'Revue Historique' between 1876 and 1881 he supplied a series of 'bulletins' on the progress of historical literature in England. From the foundation of the 'English Historical Review ' in 1886 he was one of its chief contributors, and from 1891 to 1901 its editor. He was director of the Camden Society from 1869 to 1897, editing for it no fewer than twelve volumes besides numerous contributions to its miscellanies. He edited two volumes of documents for the Navy Records Society and one for the Scottish History Society, and was a member of the council of each of these bodies. To this Dictionary he contributed twenty-one lives, and he wrote numerous articles for the ninth edition of the 'Encyclopaedia Britannica.' Nor was it only by his writings that he forwarded scholarship. He could always find time to help other historians, and no one was more quick to recognise the merits of a beginner or so ready to give him advice and encouragement.
Recognition came slowly to Gardiner, who, in spite of his eminence as an historian, long maintained himself mainly by teaching and literary work, neither holding any post worthy of his powers nor receiving any aid from the endowments designed to promote learning. In 1878 Lord Acton unsuccessfully pressed Sir George Jessel, the master of the rolls, to appoint Gardiner deputy keeper in succession to Sir T. D. Hardy. In 1882, at Acton's instigation, Gladstone conferred upon Gardiner a civil list pension of 150^ a year (Paul, Letters of Lord Acton to Mary Gladstone, 1904, pp. 129, 149). In 1884 All Souls College, Oxford, elected Gardiner to a research fellowship of the value of 200l. a year, in order to help him to continue his investigations. In 1892, when his tenure of that fellowship ended, he was elected by Merton College to a similar position, which he retained till his death. Many honorary distinctions were also conferred upon him at home and abroad. The academies or historical societies of various foreign countries elected him a member, as a recognition of the light his researches had thrown upon parts of their national history, viz. Bohemia (1870 ?), Massachusetts (1874), Copenhagen (1891), Upsala (1893), and Utrecht (1900). In 1887 the University of Gottingen gave him the degree of doctor of philosophy ; Edinburgh that of LL.D. in 1881, Oxford that of D.C.L. in 1895, and Cambridge that of Litt.D. in 1899.
In 1894, on the death of Froude, Lord Rosebery offered Gardiner the regius professorship of modern history. He refused it, because he wished to reserve his time and strength for the completion of his book, and was reluctant to leave London, which was the most convenient place for his work. He consented, however, to fill in 1896 the newly created post of Ford lecturer at Oxford, and delivered the single course of lectures which was required, on 'Cromwell's Place in History' (3rd edit. 1897). During the later years of his life he published only two works of importance apart from the continuation of his history — a monograph on Cromwell for Goupil's series of illustrated biographies (1899 ; translated into German in 1903, with a preface by Professor Alfred Stem of Zurich) and a critical examination of the history of the gunpowder plot (1897) in answer to Father Gerard's endeavour to prove that the plot was devised by the government for its own ends.
By this time Gardiner's health was beginning to fail. He had intended to carry his history down to the restoration of Charles II, but he finally resolved to end it with the death of Cromwell. The third volume of the 'Commonwealth and Protectorate,' which brought the story down to the summer of 1656, was published in January 1901 (new edit. 4 vols. 1903). In March Gardiner was stricken by partial paralysis, and though he rallied for a time was never able to work again. A chapter of the history, which he left in manuscript, was published in 1903, and in accordance with his desires the book was completed by the present writer in his 'Last Years of the Protectorate' (2 vols. 1909).
Gardiner died at Sevenoaks on 23 Feb. 1902, a few days before the conclusion of his seventy-third year. He married (1) in 1856 Isabella, youngest daughter of Edward Irving: she died in 1878; (2) in 1882 Bertha Meriton Cordery, who survived him and was granted a civil list pension of 75l. in 1903. He left six sons and two daughters.
Gardiner was buried at Sevenoaks, and tablets in memory of him were placed in the cloisters of Christ Church and in Winchester Cathedral. His best memorial is his history. Its pages reveal the thoroughness of his workmanship and his single-minded devotion to truth. The book was based on a mass of materials hitherto unknown or imperfectly utilised, and those materials were weighed and sifted with scientific skill. Each new edition was corrected with conscientious care as fresh evidence came to light. In his narrative minute accuracy and wide research were combined with sound judgment, keen insight, and a certain power of imagination. Earlier historians of the period, and some of Gardiner's own contemporaries, had written as partisans. Gardiner succeeded in stating fairly and sympathetically the position and the aims of both parties. He did not confine himself to relating facts, but traced the growth of the religious and constitutional ideas which underlay the conflict. No side of the national life was neglected. He won the praise of experts by his accounts of military and naval operations, elucidated continually the economic and social history of the time, and was the first to show the interaction of English and continental politics. The result of his labours was to make the period he treated better known and better understood than any other portion of English history. A narrative which fills eighteen volumes and took forty years to write is necessarily somewhat unequal as a literary composition. Many critics complained that Gardiner's style lacked the picturesqueness and vivacity of Macaulay or Froude; others that his method was too chronological. There was truth in both criticisms; but the chronological method was chosen because it enabled the historian to show the development of events far better than a more artificial arrangement would have done. He sought to interest his readers by his lucid exposition of facts and the justice of his reflections rather than by giving history the charms of fiction, and was content with the distinction of being the most trustworthy of nineteenth-century historians.
[Personal knowledge; The Times, 25 Feb. 1902; Athenæum, 1 March 1902; English Hist. Rev., April 1902; Quarterly Rev., April 1902; Atlantic Monthly, May 1902; Proc. Brit; Acad. 1903-4; Revue Historique, lxxix. 232; Historische Zeitschrift, lxxxix. 190; Historisch-politische Blatter, cxxix. 7; J. F. Rhodes, Historical Essays, 1909; a bibliography of Gardiner's historical writings, compiled by Dr. W. A. Shaw, was published by the Royal Historical Society in 1903.]