WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:03.040 Welcome back to the deep dive. Today, we are 00:00:03.040 --> 00:00:06.099 looking at a figure from the 18th century who 00:00:06.099 --> 00:00:10.259 is honestly a bit of a paradox. Right. A total 00:00:10.259 --> 00:00:12.660 paradox. If you look at the surface, he is a 00:00:12.660 --> 00:00:15.419 respected historian, a lawyer, a man of the people. 00:00:15.779 --> 00:00:18.519 But if you dig just a little bit deeper into 00:00:18.519 --> 00:00:21.079 the biographical records and the history we have, 00:00:21.600 --> 00:00:24.780 you find a story that is part biography, part 00:00:24.780 --> 00:00:28.239 heist movie. and part tragedy. It really is. 00:00:28.300 --> 00:00:31.460 It's a case study that forces us to ask some 00:00:31.460 --> 00:00:33.619 uncomfortable questions about how history actually 00:00:33.619 --> 00:00:36.340 gets preserved. I mean, we tend to think of history 00:00:36.340 --> 00:00:38.740 as something that belongs in museums, you know, 00:00:38.920 --> 00:00:40.780 protected by glass and security guards. Right, 00:00:41.020 --> 00:00:42.859 completely sterilized. Exactly. But today we're 00:00:42.859 --> 00:00:44.719 talking about a time when preserving history 00:00:44.719 --> 00:00:46.899 was kind of the Wild West. And the sheriff of 00:00:46.899 --> 00:00:49.420 this Wild West town was a man named Thomas Martin. 00:00:49.530 --> 00:00:52.649 Now, in the records, he's almost always referred 00:00:52.649 --> 00:00:55.070 to by a nickname that, well, once you know his 00:00:55.070 --> 00:00:57.170 story, it feels really loaded. Oh, absolutely. 00:00:57.310 --> 00:01:00.009 They called him Honest Tom Martin. Which is just 00:01:00.009 --> 00:01:02.570 delicious, really, because Honest Tom spent a 00:01:02.570 --> 00:01:05.469 good portion of his life embroiled in a controversy 00:01:05.469 --> 00:01:10.250 that was anything but honest. That is the thread 00:01:10.250 --> 00:01:13.170 I want to pull on today. We are going to look 00:01:13.170 --> 00:01:16.430 at how this guy who branded himself as the ultimate 00:01:16.430 --> 00:01:19.959 truth -teller. built his entire legacy on something 00:01:19.959 --> 00:01:22.659 that looks suspiciously like theft. We've got 00:01:22.659 --> 00:01:24.900 the Wikipedia entries, biographical records, 00:01:25.280 --> 00:01:27.439 and accounts of his massive collection to guide 00:01:27.439 --> 00:01:29.640 us. And we should probably clarify right up front. 00:01:29.739 --> 00:01:31.640 This isn't just about a guy who stole some money 00:01:31.640 --> 00:01:34.560 or property. It's about a guy who misappropriated 00:01:34.560 --> 00:01:37.280 the past itself. So let's set the scene for everyone 00:01:37.280 --> 00:01:40.260 listening. Who was this guy before he became 00:01:40.260 --> 00:01:43.359 the controversial Honest Tom? Because his start 00:01:43.359 --> 00:01:45.560 in life sounds less like a heist movie and more 00:01:45.560 --> 00:01:47.780 like, I don't know, a sad indie film. It really 00:01:47.780 --> 00:01:51.400 does. So Thomas Martin was born on March 8, 1697 00:01:51.400 --> 00:01:54.019 in Thetford. And when I say he's born in Thetford, 00:01:54.140 --> 00:01:56.140 I mean he was literally born in the schoolhouse 00:01:56.140 --> 00:01:58.840 of St. Mary's Parish. Wait, in the actual schoolhouse? 00:01:58.980 --> 00:02:01.180 Yeah, his father was the rector there. Being 00:02:01.180 --> 00:02:03.420 born in a schoolhouse sounds like you're destined 00:02:03.420 --> 00:02:05.420 for greatness, or at least, you know, destined 00:02:05.420 --> 00:02:07.579 to be a massive teacher's pet. You would think 00:02:07.579 --> 00:02:11.270 so. But the records specifically say his early 00:02:11.270 --> 00:02:14.030 education was neglected. And there's this one 00:02:14.030 --> 00:02:16.389 detail that I think explains almost everything 00:02:16.389 --> 00:02:19.310 about his personality later in life. What's that? 00:02:19.530 --> 00:02:22.349 For a long stretch of his childhood, Thomas Martin 00:02:22.349 --> 00:02:25.229 was the only pupil at the Thetford Free School. 00:02:25.389 --> 00:02:29.129 Wait, the only student? In the whole school? 00:02:29.569 --> 00:02:33.210 Just him. That is wild. Right. Imagine that for 00:02:33.210 --> 00:02:36.169 a second. You are a young boy, bright, curious, 00:02:36.250 --> 00:02:39.409 and you have absolutely no peers, no playground 00:02:39.409 --> 00:02:42.569 politics, no distractions, just you in a building 00:02:42.569 --> 00:02:44.949 full of books and silence. that does something 00:02:44.949 --> 00:02:47.469 to a kid's brain. You either become incredibly 00:02:47.469 --> 00:02:49.729 socially awkward or you develop this intense 00:02:49.729 --> 00:02:52.229 singular focus. Precisely. He didn't have friends 00:02:52.229 --> 00:02:54.729 so he had history. He started reading everything 00:02:54.729 --> 00:02:56.789 he could get his hands on. He became obsessed 00:02:56.789 --> 00:02:59.210 with the physical history of Thetford, the ruins, 00:02:59.370 --> 00:03:01.449 the old buildings. He knew the town better than 00:03:01.449 --> 00:03:03.650 people who had lived there for 50 years. And 00:03:03.650 --> 00:03:06.430 that obsession pays off in a huge way when he's 00:03:06.430 --> 00:03:09.319 just a teenager. I found this part of the story 00:03:09.319 --> 00:03:11.919 almost hard to believe, but it is in the record. 00:03:12.400 --> 00:03:15.460 It's 1710, Martin is 13 years old, and a man 00:03:15.460 --> 00:03:18.560 named Peter Lenev rolls into town. This is the 00:03:18.560 --> 00:03:20.939 absolute catalyst for everything. And we need 00:03:20.939 --> 00:03:23.240 to pause on Peter Lenev because his title sounds 00:03:23.240 --> 00:03:25.539 like something out of a fantasy novel. He was 00:03:25.539 --> 00:03:28.060 the Noroy King of Arms. Okay, yeah, I saw that 00:03:28.060 --> 00:03:30.000 in the sources. I assume that doesn't mean he 00:03:30.000 --> 00:03:32.740 was an actual king with an army. Not quite, no. 00:03:32.879 --> 00:03:34.819 In the British heraldic tradition, the kings 00:03:34.819 --> 00:03:37.539 of arms are the top -ranking officers. They are 00:03:37.539 --> 00:03:40.300 the ones who grant coats of arms, trace genealogies, 00:03:40.400 --> 00:03:43.099 and verify who is actually nobility and who is 00:03:43.099 --> 00:03:45.680 just faking it. Wow. Okay. It is a position of 00:03:45.680 --> 00:03:48.539 immense prestige and power. Lenev was also the 00:03:48.539 --> 00:03:51.099 first president of the revived Society of Antiquaries. 00:03:51.300 --> 00:03:53.900 So he is basically the genealogy gatekeeper. 00:03:54.319 --> 00:03:57.259 He is a rock star in the history world. A total 00:03:57.259 --> 00:03:59.819 rock star. And he comes to Thetford looking for 00:03:59.819 --> 00:04:01.560 information. He wants someone to show him the 00:04:01.560 --> 00:04:04.659 local antiquities. And the townspeople, adults 00:04:04.659 --> 00:04:07.400 mind you, tell him, we don't really know, but 00:04:07.400 --> 00:04:10.460 there is this kid, Master Martin. He knows everything. 00:04:10.699 --> 00:04:13.340 That is such a cinematic moment. The high society 00:04:13.340 --> 00:04:16.420 scholar from London being led around the ruins 00:04:16.420 --> 00:04:20.500 by a 13 year old boy. And Lenev was totally charmed 00:04:20.500 --> 00:04:22.879 by him. He realized this wasn't just a smart 00:04:22.879 --> 00:04:26.199 kid. This was a prodigy. That meeting sparked 00:04:26.199 --> 00:04:29.000 a lifelong friendship and mentorship that lasted 00:04:29.000 --> 00:04:32.279 for nearly two decades, right up until Lenev's 00:04:32.279 --> 00:04:36.240 death in 1729. Wow. Lenev basically adopted him 00:04:36.240 --> 00:04:38.879 into the world of antiquarianism. Can we define 00:04:38.879 --> 00:04:41.199 that term, actually? Yeah. Antiquarian. We use 00:04:41.199 --> 00:04:42.660 it a lot. And I think today people just hear 00:04:42.660 --> 00:04:44.500 historian think it's the same thing. Right. But 00:04:44.500 --> 00:04:46.500 in the 1700s, it meant something slightly different, 00:04:46.600 --> 00:04:48.519 right? It did. A historian. Antiquarian writes 00:04:48.519 --> 00:04:51.160 narratives about the past, and antiquarian is 00:04:51.160 --> 00:04:53.500 obsessed with the physical remnants of the past. 00:04:54.180 --> 00:04:57.019 Documents, coins, seals, ruins. This is much 00:04:57.019 --> 00:04:59.139 more tangible. Exactly. It's about collecting 00:04:59.139 --> 00:05:02.240 the raw data of history. And often, antiquarians 00:05:02.240 --> 00:05:04.759 were seen as a bit eccentric. They were the hoarders 00:05:04.759 --> 00:05:07.279 of history. Got it. So they aren't necessarily 00:05:07.279 --> 00:05:09.839 writing the textbook. They're the ones saving 00:05:09.839 --> 00:05:11.959 the scraps of paper the textbook is based on. 00:05:12.439 --> 00:05:15.100 Precisely. And Martin wanted to be part of that 00:05:15.100 --> 00:05:17.060 world desperately. He wanted to go to Cambridge 00:05:17.060 --> 00:05:20.519 University. But, and here's the barrier, he couldn't 00:05:20.519 --> 00:05:23.759 afford it. Which is tragic. The boy genius hits 00:05:23.759 --> 00:05:26.399 the financial paywall. It's a very common story, 00:05:26.639 --> 00:05:29.600 sadly. So instead of becoming a professor, he 00:05:29.600 --> 00:05:32.029 had to get a job. He became a clerk for his brother, 00:05:32.029 --> 00:05:34.949 Robert, and eventually he became a lawyer. But 00:05:34.949 --> 00:05:37.529 the sources are very clear on this. He disliked 00:05:37.529 --> 00:05:40.050 it immensely. He felt trapped by the day job. 00:05:40.269 --> 00:05:41.990 He felt like he was wasting his time on legal 00:05:41.990 --> 00:05:44.230 paperwork when he should have been studying ancient 00:05:44.230 --> 00:05:47.050 manuscripts. But ironically, becoming a lawyer 00:05:47.050 --> 00:05:49.430 gave him the exact tools he would later use to 00:05:49.430 --> 00:05:51.730 manipulate the system. Okay, so let's fast forward 00:05:51.730 --> 00:05:55.589 a bit. He is a reluctant lawyer. He has settled 00:05:55.589 --> 00:05:58.920 in a town called Paul Grave in Suffolk. and he's 00:05:58.920 --> 00:06:01.839 starting to build his reputation. This is where 00:06:01.839 --> 00:06:04.220 honest Tom comes into play. We mentioned earlier 00:06:04.220 --> 00:06:07.120 that the nickname becomes ironic, but where did 00:06:07.120 --> 00:06:09.360 it actually come from? Was it sarcastic from 00:06:09.360 --> 00:06:12.000 the start? No, initially it was completely genuine. 00:06:12.100 --> 00:06:14.800 It referred to his personality. We have a description 00:06:14.800 --> 00:06:17.720 from a contemporary of his named Cole that paints 00:06:17.720 --> 00:06:21.319 a very vivid picture. He calls Martin a blunt, 00:06:21.759 --> 00:06:24.980 rough, honest, downright man. So he wasn't a 00:06:24.980 --> 00:06:27.589 polite society gentleman. Far from it. He didn't 00:06:27.589 --> 00:06:29.509 have the polished manners of the London elite. 00:06:29.649 --> 00:06:32.449 He was loud. He was opinionated and his diet. 00:06:32.470 --> 00:06:34.810 Well, that is legendary. Oh, I have to read this 00:06:34.810 --> 00:06:36.209 quote from the notes because I absolutely love 00:06:36.209 --> 00:06:38.610 it. Cole says that while other people were having 00:06:38.610 --> 00:06:41.029 tea or coffee for breakfast, Martin would have 00:06:41.029 --> 00:06:44.029 get this beefsteak or other strong meat and strong 00:06:44.029 --> 00:06:46.230 beer for breakfast. It is such a power move. 00:06:46.269 --> 00:06:48.449 I don't need caffeine. I need a porterhouse and 00:06:48.449 --> 00:06:50.689 a pint of ale. It tells you everything about 00:06:50.689 --> 00:06:54.050 his brand. He was earthy. He was authentic. He 00:06:54.050 --> 00:06:56.110 was honest, Tom, because he didn't pretend to 00:06:56.110 --> 00:06:59.259 be refined. He wanted people to know him as this 00:06:59.259 --> 00:07:01.560 rough -hewn guardian of truth. And he had the 00:07:01.560 --> 00:07:04.199 visual to match that reputation. He lived in 00:07:04.199 --> 00:07:06.800 a very large house and pole grave, which sadly 00:07:06.800 --> 00:07:11.120 was pulled down in 1860, but it had 13 windows 00:07:11.120 --> 00:07:14.620 facing the village church. He was a massive local 00:07:14.620 --> 00:07:17.139 fixture. He was. And his status was growing, 00:07:17.500 --> 00:07:20.079 too. He joined the Spalding Gentlemen's Society. 00:07:20.139 --> 00:07:22.379 He became a fellow of the Society of Antiquaries 00:07:22.379 --> 00:07:25.079 in 1720. He's moving up in the world. Definitely. 00:07:25.389 --> 00:07:27.689 He eventually became their senior fellow. They 00:07:27.689 --> 00:07:30.170 even referred to his hoary hairs as a crown of 00:07:30.170 --> 00:07:32.430 glory at their anniversaries. People really respected 00:07:32.430 --> 00:07:34.930 him. They really did. He was the old guard. But 00:07:34.930 --> 00:07:37.389 here is where the tension starts to build, because 00:07:37.389 --> 00:07:39.790 underneath this honest beer drinking exterior, 00:07:40.089 --> 00:07:43.250 there was a real hunger. Cole mentions that Martin's 00:07:43.250 --> 00:07:45.490 thirst after antiquities was as great as his 00:07:45.490 --> 00:07:48.069 thirst after liquors. He was an addict. He was. 00:07:48.410 --> 00:07:51.430 He needed to possess the past. And that need 00:07:51.430 --> 00:07:54.550 led him to the defining moment of his life. The 00:07:54.550 --> 00:07:57.110 moment where Honest Tom does something incredibly 00:07:57.110 --> 00:07:59.670 questionable. And this involves his mentor, right? 00:07:59.769 --> 00:08:02.550 The rock star Peter Lenev. Yes. So Peter Lenev 00:08:02.550 --> 00:08:06.550 dies in 1729. Now remember, Lenev had spent his 00:08:06.550 --> 00:08:09.689 entire life collecting documents. He had a massive, 00:08:10.290 --> 00:08:13.089 invaluable archive of English history. And in 00:08:13.089 --> 00:08:15.829 his will, he had a very specific plan for it. 00:08:15.850 --> 00:08:18.029 He wanted it to go to a public institution. Which 00:08:18.029 --> 00:08:20.649 makes total sense. He is the king of arms. He 00:08:20.649 --> 00:08:22.829 wants the stuff preserved for the nation. Right. 00:08:23.009 --> 00:08:25.529 And he appointed two executors to make sure that 00:08:25.529 --> 00:08:27.550 happened. One was a man named Thomas Tanner. 00:08:28.129 --> 00:08:30.389 The other was his old protege, Thomas Martin. 00:08:30.709 --> 00:08:33.409 Okay, so Martin is legally responsible for making 00:08:33.409 --> 00:08:35.490 sure these items go to the public. That was the 00:08:35.490 --> 00:08:39.149 job. But then, life happens. The other executor, 00:08:39.190 --> 00:08:42.059 Tanner, moves away to become a bishop. So Martin 00:08:42.059 --> 00:08:44.659 is left in sole charge of the estate. And around 00:08:44.659 --> 00:08:46.720 the exact same time, Martin's own wife Sarah 00:08:46.720 --> 00:08:50.220 tragically dies in 1731, just days after giving 00:08:50.220 --> 00:08:54.500 birth to twins. Wow. So he's grieving, he's alone, 00:08:54.580 --> 00:08:56.580 and he is sitting on this mountain of history 00:08:56.580 --> 00:08:59.399 that belongs to his dead mentor. And then comes 00:08:59.399 --> 00:09:02.860 the plot twist. A very short time later, Thomas 00:09:02.860 --> 00:09:05.340 Martin marries again. And who does he marry? 00:09:05.919 --> 00:09:09.139 Francis. Wait, Francis Lenev? Francis Lenev, 00:09:09.200 --> 00:09:11.840 the mentor's widow. You're kidding. I am not. 00:09:11.980 --> 00:09:14.899 He marries the widow. That feels incredibly convenient. 00:09:15.080 --> 00:09:17.360 It was incredibly convenient. OK. Because under 00:09:17.360 --> 00:09:19.799 the laws of the time, by marrying the widow, 00:09:20.320 --> 00:09:22.700 Martin basically gained control over the household 00:09:22.700 --> 00:09:26.059 goods. He effectively merged Linneb's estate 00:09:26.059 --> 00:09:29.000 with his own. So he just bypassed the will entirely. 00:09:29.100 --> 00:09:31.200 He completely ignored the public institution 00:09:31.200 --> 00:09:33.279 part. He took the collection that was meant for 00:09:33.279 --> 00:09:35.399 the public and just kept it. He moved it all 00:09:35.399 --> 00:09:37.539 into his big house with the 13 windows in Paul 00:09:37.539 --> 00:09:40.889 Grave. Wow. So honest Tom essentially embezzled 00:09:40.889 --> 00:09:44.210 a museum. In modern terms, yes, absolutely. Later 00:09:44.210 --> 00:09:46.070 historians were furious about this. Richard Go, 00:09:46.090 --> 00:09:48.610 for instance, wrote that Martin illegally came 00:09:48.610 --> 00:09:51.009 into the possession of the collection. He actually 00:09:51.009 --> 00:09:52.909 called it the greatest fund of antiquities for 00:09:52.909 --> 00:09:55.169 his native county that ever was collected for 00:09:55.169 --> 00:09:57.769 any single one in the kingdom. The greatest fund 00:09:57.769 --> 00:10:00.590 of antiquities. And Martin just absorbed it into 00:10:00.590 --> 00:10:03.350 his living room. Exactly. I'm trying to get into 00:10:03.350 --> 00:10:05.440 his head here. Do you think he did it for the 00:10:05.440 --> 00:10:07.340 money? Was he planning to sell it off and get 00:10:07.340 --> 00:10:10.539 rich? I don't think so. Not at first. That is 00:10:10.539 --> 00:10:13.620 the really complex part of this case study. It 00:10:13.620 --> 00:10:16.220 wasn't financial greed. It was intellectual greed. 00:10:16.919 --> 00:10:19.220 He just couldn't bear to let the collection go. 00:10:19.740 --> 00:10:22.600 He felt, probably quite arrogantly, that he was 00:10:22.600 --> 00:10:25.460 the only one who truly understood it. He wanted 00:10:25.460 --> 00:10:28.019 to be the keeper of the flame, even if he had 00:10:28.019 --> 00:10:30.419 to steal the candle to do it. Yeah, it is the 00:10:30.419 --> 00:10:33.100 darker side of being a collector. It is that 00:10:33.100 --> 00:10:36.279 Gollum mentality, my precious. It really is. 00:10:36.480 --> 00:10:38.480 And he didn't stop there. He kept adding to the 00:10:38.480 --> 00:10:42.460 hoard. In 1753, he acquired another massive collection 00:10:42.460 --> 00:10:45.419 from a man named Francis Bloomfield. And this 00:10:45.419 --> 00:10:47.559 acquisition is really important because it contained 00:10:47.559 --> 00:10:50.460 the Pasten letters. I saw that name heavily featured 00:10:50.460 --> 00:10:53.039 in the notes. The Pasten letters. Why are those 00:10:53.039 --> 00:10:54.659 such a big deal? Is it just because they're old? 00:10:54.889 --> 00:10:56.970 Oh no, it is much more than that. The Pasten 00:10:56.970 --> 00:10:59.230 letters are arguably the most important collection 00:10:59.230 --> 00:11:01.330 of private correspondence from the 15th century 00:11:01.330 --> 00:11:05.169 in England. Really? Why? Because usually history 00:11:05.169 --> 00:11:08.710 is written by kings and monks. It is all official 00:11:08.710 --> 00:11:11.570 decrees and chronicles of battles. The Pasten 00:11:11.570 --> 00:11:14.690 letters are letters between family members. A 00:11:14.690 --> 00:11:16.769 wealthy Norfolk family during the Wars of the 00:11:16.769 --> 00:11:20.799 Roses. They talk about lawsuits, shopping, marriage 00:11:20.799 --> 00:11:23.919 problems, and things like, hey, don't come home 00:11:23.919 --> 00:11:26.139 today because there's a literal battle happening 00:11:26.139 --> 00:11:28.120 down the road. So it is basically the Twitter 00:11:28.120 --> 00:11:31.799 feed of the 1400s. Yes. It gives us the texture 00:11:31.799 --> 00:11:35.100 of daily life in a way nothing else does. Without 00:11:35.100 --> 00:11:37.960 the passing letters, the 15th century goes completely 00:11:37.960 --> 00:11:41.139 dark on a human level. And honest Tom had them 00:11:41.139 --> 00:11:43.100 sitting in his house, possibly right next to 00:11:43.100 --> 00:11:45.559 his breakfast steak and beer. That is terrifying 00:11:45.559 --> 00:11:48.220 to think about. If his house burns down, we lose 00:11:48.220 --> 00:11:50.740 the texture of the 15th century. That is exactly 00:11:50.740 --> 00:11:53.059 the stakes we are talking about. He had concentrated 00:11:53.059 --> 00:11:56.320 a dangerous amount of history in one wooden house 00:11:56.320 --> 00:11:58.620 in Suffolk. But he did study them, right? He 00:11:58.620 --> 00:12:00.360 wasn't just hoarding them like old newspapers 00:12:00.360 --> 00:12:03.970 in the attic. To his credit, yes. He was a very 00:12:03.970 --> 00:12:07.149 diligent scholar. He annotated them. He organized 00:12:07.149 --> 00:12:09.429 them. He knew exactly what he had. In his mind, 00:12:09.690 --> 00:12:11.710 he was probably curating the collection better 00:12:11.710 --> 00:12:14.389 than any public library would have. Right. I'm 00:12:14.389 --> 00:12:16.429 not stealing it. I'm protecting it. That is the 00:12:16.429 --> 00:12:18.690 likely rationalization. But the problem with 00:12:18.690 --> 00:12:21.470 hoarding history is that eventually, you die. 00:12:22.009 --> 00:12:24.009 And you can't take the collection with you. And 00:12:24.009 --> 00:12:26.700 this is where the tragedy really sets in. Because 00:12:26.700 --> 00:12:29.139 Martin's later years weren't exactly golden, 00:12:29.340 --> 00:12:31.700 were they? No, they were not. And there is a 00:12:31.700 --> 00:12:34.379 sad irony here. Martin was a lawyer, a man who 00:12:34.379 --> 00:12:36.419 should have been good with money and contracts. 00:12:36.960 --> 00:12:39.620 But his obsession with the past completely destroyed 00:12:39.620 --> 00:12:42.929 his present. He spent so much time on his antiquarian 00:12:42.929 --> 00:12:45.649 hobbies that his legal practice collapsed. He 00:12:45.649 --> 00:12:48.889 went broke. He was destitute. He had severe money 00:12:48.889 --> 00:12:50.850 troubles. And this is the ultimate nightmare 00:12:50.850 --> 00:12:53.750 for any collector. To pay his debts, he had to 00:12:53.750 --> 00:12:55.830 start selling off the hoard. Oh, that hurts. 00:12:56.090 --> 00:12:57.830 Selling the very thing you stole to protect. 00:12:58.049 --> 00:13:00.990 Piece by piece. He was selling off precious manuscripts 00:13:00.990 --> 00:13:02.750 just to keep the lights on. It must have been 00:13:02.750 --> 00:13:05.169 agonizing for him. It was a slow -motion collapse 00:13:05.169 --> 00:13:08.309 of his life's work. And when he finally died... 00:13:08.360 --> 00:13:11.059 This was in 1771, right? Just one day before 00:13:11.059 --> 00:13:13.679 his 74th birthday. Yes. And he was buried in 00:13:13.679 --> 00:13:16.340 the porch of the Paul Grave Parish Church. What 00:13:16.340 --> 00:13:18.360 was left of the collection at that point? A lot 00:13:18.360 --> 00:13:21.320 was still left, but there was no plan. Because 00:13:21.320 --> 00:13:23.279 he had illegally taken the collection, there 00:13:23.279 --> 00:13:26.200 was no legal framework to protect it. He hadn't 00:13:26.200 --> 00:13:28.700 set up a trust. He hadn't contacted a museum. 00:13:29.240 --> 00:13:31.559 So when he died, it basically turned into a giant 00:13:31.559 --> 00:13:34.500 garage sale. A literal garage sale. Practically. 00:13:34.970 --> 00:13:37.990 A man named John Worth bought the bulk of the 00:13:37.990 --> 00:13:40.730 remaining collection for 600 pounds. 600 pounds. 00:13:41.490 --> 00:13:43.490 Who was John Worth? Was he another historian 00:13:43.490 --> 00:13:46.730 or a scholar? No, he was a chemist, a local businessman. 00:13:47.070 --> 00:13:49.669 He saw it purely as inventory. That is heartbreaking. 00:13:50.149 --> 00:13:52.129 Wolf didn't care about the history at all. He 00:13:52.129 --> 00:13:54.529 just cared about the return on investment. So 00:13:54.529 --> 00:13:56.470 he immediately started chopping it up to flip 00:13:56.470 --> 00:13:59.289 it. He sold the printed books to a firm called 00:13:59.289 --> 00:14:02.090 Booth and Berry in Norwich. He sent the precious 00:14:02.090 --> 00:14:04.909 manuscripts down to London to be sold. He auctioned 00:14:04.909 --> 00:14:07.590 off the pictures and the lesser curiosities at 00:14:07.590 --> 00:14:10.230 a sale in Disse. So the very thing Linnav was 00:14:10.230 --> 00:14:13.169 afraid of, the scattering of his life's work, 00:14:13.610 --> 00:14:16.029 happened precisely because Martin tried to prevent 00:14:16.029 --> 00:14:18.889 it. It is the ultimate self -fulfilling prophecy. 00:14:19.210 --> 00:14:21.889 By holding onto it too tight, he crushed it. 00:14:22.190 --> 00:14:24.669 The collection was fractured forever. The past 00:14:24.669 --> 00:14:26.950 and letter survived, thankfully, but they went 00:14:26.950 --> 00:14:29.250 one way. The notes on Thetford went another. 00:14:29.690 --> 00:14:31.629 It sounds like a complete disaster for English 00:14:31.629 --> 00:14:34.669 history. But did anything good come out of this 00:14:34.669 --> 00:14:36.570 chaos? Well, this is where we have to look at 00:14:36.570 --> 00:14:40.090 the nuance of the situation. Yes, it was a disaster 00:14:40.090 --> 00:14:43.210 in terms of keeping the archives intact. But 00:14:43.210 --> 00:14:45.730 because the stuff was sold on the open market, 00:14:46.269 --> 00:14:48.269 it ended up in the hands of people who actually 00:14:48.269 --> 00:14:52.059 could and did publish it. Like who? Well, remember 00:14:52.059 --> 00:14:54.799 Richard Goh, the historian who was so mad at 00:14:54.799 --> 00:14:57.120 Martin for stealing the collection. Goh ended 00:14:57.120 --> 00:14:59.179 up buying a lot of the Setford material from 00:14:59.179 --> 00:15:03.000 the sales. And in 1779, he published the history 00:15:03.000 --> 00:15:04.899 of the town of Setford. And that was based on 00:15:04.899 --> 00:15:07.960 Martin's notes? Almost entirely based on Martin's 00:15:07.960 --> 00:15:10.580 notes. Martin had done the hard work. He just 00:15:10.580 --> 00:15:12.100 couldn't bring himself to finish it and let it 00:15:12.100 --> 00:15:14.940 go. Goff got it across the finish line posthumously. 00:15:15.360 --> 00:15:17.600 So Martin gets the credit, but only after he 00:15:17.600 --> 00:15:20.559 is gone. Exactly. And the rest of his notes ended 00:15:20.559 --> 00:15:23.159 up with collectors like Sir John Cullum and John 00:15:23.159 --> 00:15:26.019 Ives. Eventually, a lot of those fragments trickled 00:15:26.019 --> 00:15:29.519 into museums or private libraries like the Suffolk 00:15:29.519 --> 00:15:32.340 Institute of Archaeology. Even today, you can 00:15:32.340 --> 00:15:34.860 find books and papers with Thomas Martin's distinct 00:15:34.860 --> 00:15:37.700 handwriting in the margins. His notes are literally 00:15:37.700 --> 00:15:39.789 written on the history of England. I want to 00:15:39.789 --> 00:15:41.370 go back to something you touched on earlier. 00:15:41.809 --> 00:15:43.870 You said his misappropriation might have actually 00:15:43.870 --> 00:15:46.350 saved some of this stuff. How do you figure that 00:15:46.350 --> 00:15:48.210 if he hadn't stolen it, it would have gone to 00:15:48.210 --> 00:15:50.679 a museum, right? Ideally, yes. But let's look 00:15:50.679 --> 00:15:54.220 at the reality of 1730s institutions. They weren't 00:15:54.220 --> 00:15:56.600 exactly climate -controlled vaults with digital 00:15:56.600 --> 00:15:59.779 backups. Public libraries had fires. They had 00:15:59.779 --> 00:16:02.399 damp basements. They suffered from severe neglect. 00:16:02.799 --> 00:16:04.960 Things got lost in the shuffle of bureaucracy 00:16:04.960 --> 00:16:08.179 all the time. So you are saying a public institution 00:16:08.179 --> 00:16:10.460 might have just let the steppe rot away. It is 00:16:10.460 --> 00:16:13.620 entirely possible, by taking it home, by being 00:16:13.620 --> 00:16:16.659 obsessively, jealously in love with these objects, 00:16:17.159 --> 00:16:19.399 Martin ensured they were looked at, handled, 00:16:19.639 --> 00:16:22.600 and cared for during a very vulnerable period 00:16:22.600 --> 00:16:25.419 in history. That is a really provocative thought 00:16:25.419 --> 00:16:28.779 for everyone listening to Chew On. Is a jealous, 00:16:29.059 --> 00:16:32.120 selfish owner sometimes a better guardian than 00:16:32.120 --> 00:16:34.720 a cold and different institution? That is the 00:16:34.720 --> 00:16:37.460 Honest Tom Paradox in a nutshell. His methods 00:16:37.460 --> 00:16:39.960 were unethical. He broke the law. He betrayed 00:16:39.960 --> 00:16:42.759 his mentor's trust. But we still have the past 00:16:42.759 --> 00:16:45.039 in letters. We still know the intimate history 00:16:45.039 --> 00:16:47.860 of Thetford. The result, in a weird way, almost 00:16:47.860 --> 00:16:50.419 justifies the obsession. It really blurs the 00:16:50.419 --> 00:16:52.860 line between a hoarder and a curator. It does. 00:16:53.059 --> 00:16:55.200 And it forces us to reconsider that nickname, 00:16:55.580 --> 00:16:57.500 Honest Tom. Yeah, let's circle back to that as 00:16:57.500 --> 00:17:00.299 we wrap up. Do we think he died thinking he was 00:17:00.299 --> 00:17:03.159 an honest man? I genuinely think he did. I think 00:17:03.159 --> 00:17:05.480 in his mind, he was true to the history. He was 00:17:05.480 --> 00:17:07.440 honest about what mattered, which is the preservation 00:17:07.440 --> 00:17:09.960 of the past, even if he had to be dishonest about 00:17:09.960 --> 00:17:12.119 the laws of the present to achieve it. He was 00:17:12.119 --> 00:17:14.359 honest to the objects, not to the people. That 00:17:14.359 --> 00:17:17.980 is a brilliant way to put it. So what is the 00:17:17.980 --> 00:17:21.420 ultimate takeaway here for us? Aside from, you 00:17:21.420 --> 00:17:24.859 know, don't marry your mentor's widow to steal 00:17:24.859 --> 00:17:27.500 their books. I think it's about recognizing that 00:17:27.500 --> 00:17:30.200 history is not a clean process. We look at an 00:17:30.200 --> 00:17:33.319 artifact in a museum and we assume it got there 00:17:33.319 --> 00:17:36.920 through a logical, legal, pristine process. But 00:17:36.920 --> 00:17:40.660 often that object survived because some eccentric 00:17:40.660 --> 00:17:42.880 weirdo in the 18th century decided to hoard it 00:17:42.880 --> 00:17:45.059 in his attic and drink strong beer while reading 00:17:45.059 --> 00:17:47.299 it. We owe a lot to the weirdos. We really do. 00:17:47.480 --> 00:17:49.940 Without the obsession of people like Thomas Martin, 00:17:50.380 --> 00:17:53.690 flawed, rough, dishonest people, Our understanding 00:17:53.690 --> 00:17:55.990 of the past would be full of massive holes. Well, 00:17:55.990 --> 00:17:57.789 that is a fascinating place to leave it. Thomas 00:17:57.789 --> 00:18:00.470 Martin of Pallgrave. Yeah. A thief, a genius, 00:18:00.589 --> 00:18:03.470 a drunk, and a savior of history. A very complicated 00:18:03.470 --> 00:18:06.509 man for a very complicated job. Absolutely. So 00:18:06.509 --> 00:18:08.130 to everyone listening, the next time you are 00:18:08.130 --> 00:18:10.529 in a museum looking at a pristine manuscript 00:18:10.529 --> 00:18:12.890 under glass, just remember, it might have gotten 00:18:12.890 --> 00:18:15.829 there thanks to a guy like Honest Tom. And maybe 00:18:15.829 --> 00:18:17.430 think of him next time you have a beer for breakfast. 00:18:17.710 --> 00:18:19.289 Thanks for diving in with us today. A pleasure 00:18:19.289 --> 00:18:21.589 as always. We will see you on the next Deep Dive. 00:18:21.730 --> 00:18:22.309 Stay curious.