Bruce, John, 1802-1869

John Bruce (1802-1869) was a scholarly editor and antiquarian who was one of the founding members of the Camden Society, an officer of the Society of Antiquaries, and a trustee of the Sir John Soane's Museum.

John Bruce was born in London and educated in England and Aberdeen. While he was trained in English law, he did not practice after 1840, and instead pursued his historical and antiquarian interests.

In particular, Bruce devoted much of his energy and attention to the newly important scholarly societies and publication projects of his day. Bruce held two offices in the Society of Antiquaries and wrote many articles for its journal, Archaelogia, including his "Inedited Documents Relating to the Condemnation and Imprisonment of Sir Thomas More" (xxvii, 10) and the "Inquiry into the Authenticity of the Paston Letters" (v. xli, 15). For the Parker Society he edited The Works of Roger Hutchinson (1842), and was co-editor of The Correspondence of Matthew Parker (1853) with T. T. Perowne.

Bruce was a principal founder and officer of the Camden Society, and contributed many of its early publications, including its first, The Historie of the Arrivall of Edward IV.... (1839). For the Society, Bruce edited selections of correspondence and documents relating to Elizabeth I, Robert Dudley, Earl of Leceister, Robert Cecil, Lord Burleigh, James I, and Charles I. In addition, Bruce edited the first publications of Letters and Papers of the Verney Family... (1853); the Liber Famelicus of Sir James Whitlocke (1858); and the Journal of a Voyage into the Mediterranean of Sir Kenelm Digby (1868). Bruce also offered advice and assistance to many historians and biographers of the period, including Caroline Amelia Halsted, the first biographer of Richard III to draw upon unpublished sources such as MS Harleian 433.

The project that occupied the final decades of his scholarly career was the 12 volumes of the Calendar of State Papers, Domestic Series, of the Reign of Charles I.... (1858-71). In 1861 he was appointed a Trustee of the Sir John Sloan's Museum. John Bruce died suddenly in London on October 28, 1869, his wife having predeceased him.