Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Ives, John
IVES, JOHN (1751–1776), Suffolk herald extraordinary, born at Great Yarmouth in 1751, was the only son of John Ives, an opulent merchant of that town, by Mary, daughter of John Hannot. He was educated in the free school of Norwich, and was subsequently entered at Caius College, Cambridge, where he did not long reside. Returning to Yarmouth, he became acquainted with ‘honest Tom Martin’ of Palgrave, from whom he derived a taste for antiquarian studies. He was elected F.S.A. in 1771, and F.R.S. in 1772. His first attempt at antiquarian publication was by the issuing of proposals, anonymously, in 1771, for printing ‘The History and Antiquities of the Hundred of Lothingland in the County of Suffolk,’ for which several arms and monuments were engraved from his own drawings. The work never appeared, but a manuscript copy of it is preserved in the British Museum (Addit. MS. 19098). His next performance was ‘A True Copy of the Register of Baptisms and Burials in … Yarmouth, for seven years past,’ printed at his private press 5 Sept. 1772. He contributed the preface to Henry Swinden's ‘History and Antiquities of Great Yarmouth,’ 1772. Swinden, who was a schoolmaster, was an intimate friend of Ives, who not only rendered him pecuniary assistance when living, but superintended the publication of the history for the benefit of the author's widow.
In 1772 he had nine wooden plates cut of old Norfolk seals, entitled ‘Sigilla antiqua Norfolciensia;’ and a copper-plate portrait of Thomas Martin, afterwards prefixed to that antiquary's ‘History of Thetford,’ was engraved at his expense. By favour of the Earl of Suffolk, he was in October 1774 appointed an honorary member of the College of Arms, and created Suffolk herald extraordinary, which title was expressly revived for him (Noble, Hist. of the College of Arms, p. 445).
In imitation of Horace Walpole (to whom the first number was inscribed), Ives began in 1773 to publish ‘Select Papers chiefly relating to English Antiquities,’ from his own collection, of which the second number was printed in 1774 and a third in 1775. Among these are ‘Remarks upon our English Coins, from the Norman Invasion down to the end of the Reign of Queen Elizabeth,’ by Archbishop Sharp; Sir William Dugdale's ‘Directions for the Search of Records, and making use of them, in order to an Historical Discourse of the Antiquities of Staffordshire;’ with ‘Annals of Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge,’ and the ‘Coronation of Henry VII and of Queen Elizabeth.’ In 1774 he published ‘Remarks upon the Garianonum of the Romans; the Scite and Remains fixed and described,’ London, 8vo, with map and plates; 2nd edit., Yarmouth, 1803. He died of consumption, 9 June 1776, having just entered on his twenty-fifth year, and was buried with his father and grandfather at Belton, Suffolk, where a monument was erected to his memory with a Latin inscription which has been printed by Dawson Turner (Sepulchral Reminiscences of a Market Town, p. 128). His library was sold by auction 3–6 March 1777, including some curious manuscripts, chiefly relating to Suffolk and Norfolk, that had belonged to Peter Le Neve, Thomas Martin, and Francis Blomefield. His coins, medals, ancient paintings, and antiquities were sold in February 1777. Two portraits of him have been engraved. One of them, engraved by P. Audinet from a drawing by Perry, is in Nichols's ‘Illustrations of Literature.’
In August 1773 Ives eloped with Sarah, daughter of Wade Kett of Lopham, Norfolk, and married her at Lambeth Church, 16 Aug. 1773. A temporary estrangement from his father followed. His wife survived him, and married, on 7 June 1796, the Rev. D. Davies, B.D., prebendary of Chichester.
[Memoir by the Rev. Sir John Cullum, bart., prefixed to 2nd edit. of Remarks upon the Garianonum of the Romans; Gent. Mag. lvii. 275, lxiii. 575; Granger's Letters (Malcolm), pp. 101, 296; Lowndes's Bibl. Man. (Bohn), p. 1174; Nichols's Illustr. of Lit. iii. 608, 609; Nichols's Lit. Anecd. iii. 198, 199, 200, 622, 756, v. 386–389, vi. 93; Thorpe's Cat. of Ancient MSS. (1835), No. 869.]