Thomas Lediard

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Engraving by Christian Fritzsch (1725)

Thomas Lediard (* 1685 in Cirencester in Gloucestershire , † 1743 in London ) was an English writer and surveyor who worked as a diplomat in Hamburg .

biography

Festival decoration in the Hamburg Opera on Gänsemarkt on the occasion of the birthday of George I of Great Britain in 1727. Copper engraving by Thomas Lediard

Lediard was at a young age on the staff of the Commander in Chief of the British Armed Forces Secretary to John Churchill 1st Duke of Marlborough . a. 1707 during the negotiations between the duke and King Karl XII. of Sweden.

Lediard had been in Hamburg since around 1722. From 1722 to 1728 he was in charge of the decoration of the opera at Gänsemarkt and took an active part in cultural life in Hamburg. He was also active as an imperial notary . In 1723 he also seems to have worked as a language master ; He brought out an English-German grammar. It is assumed that from around 1725 until shortly before 1731 he was secretary of the Royal British envoy to the Hanseatic cities and the Lower Saxony district of Sir Cecil Wyche in Hamburg. In 1725 he made an engraving by Johann Salomon Wahl . Several business trips as a diplomat and notary took him to Bremen in 1726, 1727 and 1729 as well as through Lower Saxony and Westphalia .

Lediard returned to England shortly before 1732 and settled in Smith Square in the Westminster district of London . He devoted himself to writing.
His work , which is interesting from a German point of view, includes The German Spy… , which was published anonymously in 1738 and in Lemgo in 1764 under the title Der deutsche Kundschafter… . The amusing, partly satirical and funny travelogue from Northern Germany puts u. a. also depicts the way of life of Hanseatic families . In a review of the book in 1740 it says: The depictions are "mixed with some secret histories and funny love affairs, including various small satires". But: "All the news is not such that one can completely trust it" and further that he is "still fairly correct and impartial in describing the cities as well as the customs of the inhabitants".

In 1738 he made a proposal for the construction of the Westminster Bridge. He was appointed surveyor and surveyor for Westminster Bridge . In 1742 the district entrusted him and Sir Joseph Ayloffe with the construction coordination for the bridge, which could not be opened until 1750 due to financial and technical problems. In 1743, probably due to illness (he died in the same year), he gave up this task and handed it over to his son Thomas.

Honors

Works

  • Grammatica Anglicana Critica, or Attempt at a Perfect Grammatic of the English Language. Hamburg 1726.
  • The joy and bliss of the British. Hamburg 1927.
  • A collection of Curieuser ideas in illiminations and fireworks. Hamburg 1730
  • The German Spy, in familiar letters from Munster, Paderborn, Osnabrug, Minden, Bremen, Hamburg, Glückstadt, Helgoland, Stade, Lubeck and Rostock, written by a Gentleman on his Travels to his Friends England with a Prefactory Account of these Letters and Notes by Thomas Lediard Esqu. London 1738.
  • The German scout, in letters from an Englishman traveling through Westphalia and Lower Saxony. Translation by Rolf Engelsing, Lemgo 1764.
  • The Naval History of England in all its branches, from the Norman Conquest ... to the conclusion of 1734. 2 volumes, 1735.
  • The Life of John, Duke of Marlborough. 3 volumes, 1736; 2nd edition, 2 volumes, 1743.
  • Etymological works in Nathan Bailey's Dictionarium Britannicum. 1736. On the title page he is described as "Professor of Modern Languages ​​in Lower Germany".

literature

Individual evidence

  1. ^ William Alfred Lediard: Genealogical Information to the Family of Lediard . 1957, p. 100.
  2. ^ New newspapers from learned things from 1740, pp. 899f.
personal data
SURNAME Lediard, Thomas
BRIEF DESCRIPTION English writer, diplomat and surveyor
DATE OF BIRTH 1685
PLACE OF BIRTH Cirencester , Gloucestershire
DATE OF DEATH 1743
Place of death London