Harwich, Essex : Historical writing

Descriptive gazetteer entries

These other entries in our collection of descriptive gazetteers are also about Harwich. You may be able to find further references to Harwich in the descriptive gazetteers by doing a full-text search here.

Place Type of entry Source
Harwich municipal borough, watering-place, seaport, and parish Bartholomew
HARWICH a sea port town, a parish, and a subdistrict Imperial
Harwich (or North-Eastern) Division parliamentary division Bartholomew

Travel writing

This website includes the complete texts of books describing journeys around Britain, written between the twelfth and nineteenth centuries. Selecting one of the links below will take you to the first reference to Harwich within the selected text. This will not always be a description of a visit: travellers often mention places other than where they are, for example as a basis for comparison.

Traveller Section No. of Refs.
Daniel Defoe Letter 1, Part 2: Harwich and Suffolk 13
Daniel Defoe Letter 1, Part 1: Through Essex to Colchester 5
William Camden Essex and Suffolk 2
Daniel Defoe Letter 1, Part 3: Norfolk and Cambridgeshire 2
Daniel Defoe Appendix to the second volume 2
John Wesley 1781-4: An Ideal Circuit; Wesley in his Eighties; Wesley Visits Holland; Scotland 2
Daniel Defoe Appendix to letter 1 1
Daniel Defoe Letter 2, Part 2: Canterbury and Sussex 1
Daniel Defoe Letter 5 (London), Part 2: The City 1
Daniel Defoe Letter 8, Part 4: Leeds and North Yorkshire 1
Celia Fiennes 1698 Tour: London to Bury St Edmunds 1
Arthur Young 1784 Tour of Suffolk 1

This website includes two large libraries, of historical travel writing and of entries from nineteenth century gazetteers describing places. We have text from these sources available for these places near your location:

Place Mentioned in Travel Writing Mentioned in Historical Gazetteer
Dovercourt 0 2
Ramsey 0 2
Little Oakley 0 3
Landguard 0 2
Erwarton 1 2
Shotley 0 2
Trimley 0 2
Harkstead 0 2
Walton 0 2
Horsey Island 0 2
Great Oakley 0 3
Moze 0 1
Stratton Hall 0 2
Chelmondiston 0 2
Felixstowe 0 2
Wrabness 0 2
Walton on the Naze 1 2
The Naze 0 2
Colneis 0 2
Kirby le Soken 0 3

Names from historical writing

The following appear as names for Harwich. Follow the links for what the author actually said:

Name Author Source
HARE WIC William Camden Britain, or, a Chorographicall Description of the most flourishing Kingdomes, England, Scotland, and Ireland (London: George Bishop and John Norton, 1610).
HAREWICH William Camden Britain, or, a Chorographicall Description of the most flourishing Kingdomes, England, Scotland, and Ireland (London: George Bishop and John Norton, 1610).
HARWIC John Bartholomew Gazetteer of the British Isles (Edinburgh: Bartholomew, 1887).
HARWICH John Bartholomew Gazetteer of the British Isles (Edinburgh: Bartholomew, 1887).
John Marius Wilson Imperial Gazetteer of England and Wales (Edinburgh: A Fullarton & Co., 1870-72).
HARWICH OR NORTH EASTERN DIVISION John Bartholomew Gazetteer of the British Isles (Edinburgh: Bartholomew, 1887).
HARWITCH Celia Fiennes Through England on a Side Saddle in the Time of William and Mary (London: Field and Tuer, The Leadenhall Press, 1888).

NB: These variant names come from our collections of historical travel writing and descriptive gazetteers:

  • The above links take you to the first reference to this particular version of the name within a book of travel writing, or to the relevant gazetteer entry.
  • Some names may derive from research by antiquarian writers such as William Camden and Thomas Pennant into the Roman, Saxon and medieval names of places. Their claims are not always supported by modern place-name researchers.
  • References by travel writers to the place using its "normal" name are not included. Descriptive gazetteer entries are included only if the name does not appear anywhere else.