Background
John Frere was born on August 10, 1740, in Westhorpe, Suffolk, United Kingdom. He was the son of Sheppard Frere and Susanna Hatley.
Gonville and Caius College, Trinity St, Cambridge CB2 1TA, United Kingdom
John was privately educated near his home before entering Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge, in 1758. He graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in 1763 and a Master of Arts in 1766.
anthropologist archaeologist politician scientist
John Frere was born on August 10, 1740, in Westhorpe, Suffolk, United Kingdom. He was the son of Sheppard Frere and Susanna Hatley.
John was privately educated near his home before entering Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge, in 1758. He graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in 1763 and a Master of Arts in 1766.
Frere’s professional career was in law and politics: he was admitted to the Middle Temple in 1761, became high sheriff of Suffolk in 1766, and a Member of Parliament for Norwich in 1799.
Frere’s scientific work was mainly a hobby, and his election as a fellow of the Royal Society in 1771 was indicative of his general interest in science rather than of a distinction already achieved. His only substantial publication is a two-page letter to the secretary of the Society of Antiquaries of London, that was read to the society on 22 June 1797 and published in Archaeologia in 1800. In this Frere records his discovery, at a brickyard near Hoxne, of shaped flints which were evidently weapons of war, fabricated and used by a people who had not the use of metals. A careful examination of the strata showed that the gravel in which the flints were found had been covered for a very long period. He also heard of, but was not able to see, a very large jawbone which had been found in the same stratum, and concluded that the deposit was of a very remote period indeed. Finally, Frere discovered from workmen on the site that they had already disposed of numerous such flints, and he presumed that this was a place of their manufacture and not of their accidental deposit. Anticipating later archaeological methods, Frere carefully noted and described the strata uncovered. Though fettered by the then-popular belief that the Earth had been created in 4004 BC, in reporting his findings Frere nevertheless suggested that the remains may have dated from a time considerably earlier than 4004.
The discovery aroused little or no interest at the time, and it was not until 1840, when Boucher de Perthes made news by finding similar implements in the Somme, that Frere’s perceptiveness was appreciated. These flints probably exhibited the best known workmanship of the lower Paleolithic period, and further excavations were made later in late Acheulean deposits at Hoxne. The weapons discovered by Frere are in the possession of the Society of Antiquaries of London and are deposited in the British Museum.
Frere was a fellow of the Royal Society of London and a member of the Royal Society of Antiquaries.
Frere married Jane Hookham, daughter of John Hookham, on 12 June 1768. They had seven sons and two daughters.