The Under-Acknowledged Prodigy

William John Bankes

by Misty Cryer

British politician, traveler, collector, antiquarian, archaeologist, amateur architect, discoverer, translator…
William John Bankes is the man – a pioneer in Egyptology and Archaeology before such studies were deemed a science. In the circle of renowned artists, explorers and historians such as Lord Byron, William Beckford, Henry Salt, Alessanndro Ricci, Louis Maurice-Adollphe Linant de Bellefonds, Giovanni Finati and Giovanni Belzoni, Bankes is seldom given the recognition and respect he deserves for his vast contributions to historical discoveries.
William John Bankes It seems Bankes was quite obsessed with exploration and discovery with an evident passion for Ancient Egypt and fine art. Though never published, his massive portfolio of notes, manuscripts and drawings produced and collected during his travels along the Nile with explorations in Egypt, Nubia, and the Near East have significant historical value and is the only historical record of some inscriptions and monuments.

Family and Home
Bankes was an educated and affluent man, though at times somewhat mischievous and boisterous, from a wealthy, distinguished British family who mixed in high-government circles. He was born December 11, 1786 to Frances Woodward and Henry Bankes, MP of Kingston Lacey and Corfe Castle in Dorset. He was the second of five children and the eldest surviving son of the couple. Bankes was educated at Westminster School and continued his studies at Trinity University in Cambridge where he received his BA in 1808 and his MA in 1811.
Bankes inherited Soughton Hall, Flints from his great uncle, and in 1835 inherited his family’s home, Kingston Lacey Estates. Kingston Lacey, a magnificent mansion, is located in Southwest England on the English Channel in a large, wooded park between Badbury Rings and Wimborne in Dorset Countyl. The mansion was home to Bankes for many years and became the center of his vast collections of art and artifacts. Today, the home is the property of the National Trust and has become a historical home and tourist attraction.

Friendships
Lord Byron, a fellow student at Trinity University and a renowned romantic poet, was Bankes’ lifelong friend. Byron began traveling with a friend, John Cam Hobhouse, in 1809. His travels encompassed Portugal, Spain, Malta, Albania and Athens with later trips throughout Greece and Turkey and to Rome. He eventually settled in Venice. Bankes sometimes accompanied Byron in his European tours.
Sir Charles Barry, a renowned architect in his day, was also a long-term friend of Bankes. The two men met at the temple of Rameses in Abu Simbel in 1819. Bankes had great respect for Barry’s talents and Barry accomplished much of the building work on the Bankes’ family properties over the years. Barry is well known for his architectural talents which were applied to the Houses of Parliament, St. Peter’s Church in Brighton, the Victoria Tower and the Westminster Bridge. His work was inspired by Italian Renaissance type architecture.
While traveling in Spain and Portugal during the Peninsular War, Bankes befriended the Duke of Wellington. The Duke later came to Bankes’ rescue when he was on trial for his imprudent lifestyle. The Duke of Wellington also celebrated Bankes’ successes; in fact, he performed the ceremony at Kingston Lacey when the foundation was laid for one of Bankes’ most notable discoveries, the obelisk from Philae.

Politics
William John Bankes’ father, Henry Bankes, was a career politician who served parliament for approximately fifty years and was a well-respected backbencher in the Commons. Following in his father’s footsteps, William John Bankes also entered the political scene serving as a representative for approximately ten years collectively. He represented Truro, Cambridge University, Marlborough and Dorset. William John Bankes’ political career was destroyed by his discretionary lifestyle. Even so, he had the personality, drive and ambition that gained the respect of fellow travelers, noblemen and numerous influential acquaintances.

Interests and Talents
Bankes was an adventurous man with many talents. He was an amateur architect, a careful epigrapher and he mastered the art of copying ancient inscriptions. He was very interested in Egypt and in deciphering ancient Egyptian hieroglyphs. Bankes dabbled in architecture and with the assistance of his friend Charles Barry, transformed Kingston Lacy removing brick and replacing it with marble. He collected numerous pieces of Spanish art as well as artifacts from Ancient Egypt which is still housed at the estate.
Bankes was eventually exiled from his home in England due to homosexual indiscretions which led him to flee seeking refuge after being caught in compromising circumstances with a guard in Green Park in London. In that day and age, sodomy was considered a grave crime in England and carried with it the death penalty. Even though he was unable to return to Kingston Lacy, he continued to collect from abroad sending his collections to be displayed in his beloved home. He secretly visited Kingston Lacy to admire his home and collections before his death.

The Unearthing of Ancient Egypt
Archaeology is an interesting and exciting scientific field of study focused on learning about ancient human cultures, their behaviors and customs through the excavation of ruins, recovery and analysis of artifacts. Egyptology is simply the archaeology of ancient Egyptian artifacts, which was a hot topic in Bankes’ day and one he dove into, center stage. Sadly, in historical accounts of Egyptology, Bankes is seldom acknowledged for his vast contributions to the field.
As you may already know, Napoleon Bonaparte is credited with discovering Egypt, “the lost society,” in 1798 during his military conquests. This discovery prompted a wave of exploration and set European scholars in motion to learn all they could about this lost society which resulted in numerous magnificent publications and historical Egyptian recordings. In 1799, at Raschid (Rosette) one of the most significant items in Egyptology was discovered by Napoleon’s army – the Rosetta Stone. The Rosetta Stone is deemed the key to the decipherment of the Ancient Egyptian hieroglyphs which revealed a superfluity of knowledge about the Ancient Egyptians. Jean-François Champollion, a scholar who studied Arabic and Coptic in depth, is recognized as the man who deciphered the hieroglyphs through the translation of individual characters on the Rosetta Stone which lead to his publishing of “Letter to M. Dacier in regard to Alphabet of the Phonetic Hieroglyphs” in 1822. Not to discredit Champollian’s admirable accomplishments; what is often left out of the remembrance of this momentous breakthrough in Egyptology is the noteworthy contributions of William John Bankes and Thomas Young which were a huge factor in the decipherment.
The quest for knowledge of Ancient Egypt, prompted by Bonaparte, occurred nearly a century before the birth of William John Bankes, and continued with fervor during his day and time. Long before Bonaparte’s discovery of Egypt, there was interest in the area dating back to the fifth century B.C. due to the Egyptian monuments that were highly visible and Herodotus’ fascinating accounts of antiquities along the Nile. The temple of Karnak and the pyramids of Gizeh were great attractions throughout the Middle Ages and early modern era with the great Sphinx and the burial chambers of the Valley of the Kings being described which prompted infestation of the area by treasure hunters. Brian M. Fagan describes this era in great depth in his appropriately titled book, “The Rape of the Nile” which is most certainly a recommended read for anyone interested in Egyptology.

Bankes’ Relationship to Other Travelers
In 1815, two years after his travels to Spain and Portugal, Bankes set out on his first renowned journey of the Nile venturing into the Near East, Egypt and Nubia with Giovanni Finati whom he employed as his dragoman (interpreter/translator). Since Bankes never published an account of his travels, much of our knowledge of him and his experiences comes from Finati’s narrations in his memoirs which were translated by Bankes. In Bankes’ next notable venture, he set out with Henry Salt, Henry William Beechey, Alessandro Ricci, Louis Maurice-Adolphe Linant de Bellefonds, and was later joined by Giovanni Belzoni. Between 1815 and 1822, these men recorded the majority of the monuments along the Nile from Cairo to Sennar.
These associates of Bankes are historical figures to say the least. Henry Salt, born in 1785, was skilled in painting portraits. His interest in Egypt began in 1802 when he was commissioned by a nobleman to serve as a secretary and artist for the Grand Tour of Egypt, and to provide illustrations for Valentia’s “Voyages and Travels.” As a natural diplomat with connections through Viscount Valencia, in 1815, Salt was appointed as a British Consul-General and began collecting antiquities and sponsored many excavations in Egypt. Through his efforts, he built up a vast collection, much of which he sold to the British Museum. Salt was the employer of Giovanni Belzoni and his secretary was Henry William Beechey.
Giovanni Battista Belzoni was an interesting Italian born in 1778. Belzoni fled Italy, supposedly due to political encounters, and engaged in trading in Holland for a short time and then embarked on a theatrical career earning the nickname “The Great Belzoni” due to his weightlifting and strong-man acts which took him to England where he lived from 1803 to 1812 working the traveling circus circuit. He is said to have studied priesthood and hydraulics at one point in time. After leaving the circus, he met Captain Ishmail Gibraltar, an agent of the Egyptian ruler Mohammed Ali Pasha, who was searching for technicians to support the development of the country. At the time, one of the greatest needs in the development was to build a hydraulic irrigation system near the Nile. Since Belzoni was considered an expert in hydraulics, Gibraltar commissioned him to build and sell a “water machine” to the Pasha. The project failed due to Arab prejudice against hydraulic machinery as they believed it to be threatening to working people and oxen. As a result, Belzoni decided to seek other avenues for business and becoming devoted to the recovery of antiquities on behalf of various clients. In the process, he became a leading figure in Egyptology. Belzoni was invited by William Turner to join an expedition into Gizeh and exploratory missions into Egyptian tombs. Belzoni met Johann Ludwig Burckhart who clued him in about the Abu Simbel temples and the great statues buried in the sand and abandoned at the temples. He told Belzoni about the bust of Ramses II – at that time known as the “Young Memnon” statue. They wanted to remove the bust, but lacked funding for the mission. Burckhardt convinced Salt to co-finance the expedition. Belzoni has received much credit and recognition from his delivery of the Ramses II statue to the British Museum, his discovery of tombs in the Valley of Kings, and his entrance into pyramids at Giza. Being an amateur archeologist, his methods of excavation were often destructive; however, his discoveries and excavations are well recognized as laying the groundwork for the study of Egypt.
Alessandro Ricci, was an Italian doctor and talented artist who drew and recorded hieroglyphs. He was sent to Thebes by Belzoni and worked with Belzoni in the Valley of Kings excavating, recording hieroglyphs and making wax impressions that were used to reconstruct displays of the tombs in plaster to be displayed in England. Ricci’s paintings enabled these reproductions to be colored appropriately to portray the magnificence of the original sites.
Louis Maurice-Adolphe Linant de Bellefonds was a French draftsman and a notorious engineer. He is well-known for his recordings of paintings and inscriptions at Abu Simbel of which many were included in Bankes’ records of his travels and studies.

Bankes’ Travels
At the age of twenty-six, Bankes began traveling with excursions to Spain and Portugal where he acquired a vast collection of European art. He is said to have taken up a Bohemian lifestyle among gypsies in Spain and Portugal. In this sense, the word Bohemian refers to a group of people who live a non-traditional lifestyle centered upon creativity, such as artists and writers. The term was formulated due to the French belief that gypsies came from Bohemia in the Czech Republic. With Bankes’ wild, imaginative, and rather unique character, a Bohemian lifestyle would seem quite fitting.
During these travels, Bankes’ befriended the Duke of Wellington who later arranged for testimonials to Bankes’ good character which led to his acquittal in his first charge regarding homosexual accusations which were based solely on circumstantial evidence. Though there were some tensions between Bankes and the Duke at times, the Duke proved to be a great friend to Bankes.
After leaving Spain, Bankes directed his exploratory interests toward Egypt. While awaiting his boat to be prepared for a journey up the Nile, he traveled in the Near East to Sinai with Antonio d’Acosta, a Portuguese, and an interpreter by the name of Khalil, an Egyptian from Alexandria. In this brief journey, they visited Serabit el-Khadim, the temple of the goddess Hathor and home to ancient turquoise mines. The area was rich with minerals including turquoise, copper, gold, silver and precious stones. In this visit, Bankes ran across an overabundance of hieroglyphs which he copied. Perhaps this is when he developed his interest in epigraphy which resulted in the creation of a massive portfolio of inscriptions and notes.
With Finati and a few servants, Bankes embarked on a journey up the Nile, after which he made more visits to the Near East and Syria, all the while building his portfolio of notes and sketches. In his memoirs, Finati noted their visits to Abu Simbel which was of great interest to Bankes who wished to uncover the monument. Belzoni; however, was the first to open the temple at Abu Simbel which later became a major point of interest for Bankes who created a number of epigraphs of the site in his second trip to Nubia. Finati also noted Bankes’ great interest in the island of Philae from which Bankes’ later discovered and extracted the obelisk with Greek inscriptions that has become a fixture at the Kingston Lacey Estate.
At some point, Bankes came into contact with Burkhardt who gave him pointers about places to visit and people to talk to. It was Burkhardt who introduced Bankes to Salt. Following Burkhardt’s advice, Bankes examined the great bust of the “Younger Memnon” at Thebes which Belzoni later extracted. Some other sites Bankes’ party visited include the Levant, Israel, Palestine, Jordan, Syria, Lebanon, Asia Minor, Jerusalem and Petra.
Once hooked up with Henry Salt and crew, Bankes engaged in explorations from Cairo up the Nile. Some notable sites they visited and recorded include Thebes, the tombs at the ridge of Mokattam, El-Bersha, the Esna Temple and the Valley of the Kings. Bankes and Belzoni also traveled to Philae to remove the obelisk previously discovered by Bankes. Others, including Belzoni, are believed to have attempted to take credit for the discovery of the obelisk; however, Salt backed Bankes in staking his claim.
Bankes joined Belzoni in a mission at Abu Simbel which was financed by Salt. They worked in the temple of Ramesses II recording paintings and inscriptions. After departing from Salt, Bankes journeyed further making a noteworthy discovery in Abydos. In the temple, he found a chamber that housed a cartouche containing the names of many kings in order of their reigns which came to be known as the “Table of Abydos” and significantly contributed to the knowledge of the history of Egypt. Being fascinated with decipherment and dedicated to epigraphy, Bankes copied the table which was later published by Thomas Young and provided much of the groundwork for the decipherment of the hieroglyphs.
In 1821, Bankes employed Ricci and Linant to seek out the lost city of Meroe previously noted by James Bruce. Accounts of these travels are not precisely clear; however, it appears that most of the records from this trip, though found in Bankes’ collections, were produced by Linant who was perhaps not accompanied by Bankes in the mission. Linant’s initial journey consisted of visits to Naqaa, Shendi and Musawwarat. Apparently, Linant took shelter from the Bedouins in the Lion Temple which he described and sketched in his journal along with other recordings in the area prior to being run off by irate natives.

The Legacy of William John Bankes
Bankes has been described as brilliant, talented, eccentric, volatile, confident, witty, handsome, rich and charming, and as an independent thinker with a big heart. Bankes died in Venice on April 15, 1855, leaving an incredible legacy. His discoveries were grand and his accomplishments many, although they were somewhat diluted by scandals which included an affair with a married woman and two arrests for homosexual offenses, the second of which drove him from England as he sought exile in Italy. Even so, his collections and works provided a strong foundation of significant historical knowledge for other historians, Egyptologists and archaeologists to build on.
His most noted discovery is the obelisk extracted from the island of Philae which portrayed hieroglyphs from the Ptolemaic Period. From the obelisk, Thomas Young deciphered the name of Ptolemy and Bankes deciphered the name of Cleopatra. Champollian, to whom Bankes was somewhat hostile, first denied Bankes’ claim that the hieroglyphs had phonetic meaning; however, through examination of the obelisk and the Rosetta Stone, Champollian later proved the phonetic relevance of the hieroglyphs for which, in some cases, he is solely credited.
Bankes also collected a variety of other artifacts from the ruins including limestone inscriptions which he was apparently fascinated with, and drawings of the Table of Abydos . His epigraphy and notes were extensive and he recorded a number of significant sites that were destroyed at some point leaving his mammoth portfolio as the only record and proof of their existence.
Bankes was not terribly concerned with publishing his works or receiving credit for his discoveries, although appearances indicate that he was frustrated from time to time due to other publications by individuals who tended to claim credit for things he actually discovered. Bankes’ collections and recordings have become a great part of history and are viewed by many in this day at his home, Kingston Lacey, which became the property of the National Trust, and at the British Museum.