(1713 - 81), Catholic divine and man of science, e. s. of John Needham of London; educ. Douai 1722; Cambrai 1736 - 40; in England 1740 - 4; Lisbon 1744; FRS 1747; FSA 1761; Paris 1767, Brussels 1769 - 81.
1760 - 2 Turin (1760), Milan (Apr. 1761), Turin, Rome ( - 15 Dec. 1761), Naples (Dec. 1761 - 5 Feb. 1762), Rome (11 Feb. - Mar.), Turin (May) [Paris May 1762]
- 1764 - 5 Turin (by May 1764 - 18 Apr. 1765 - )
'A learned, accurate, easy man', Needham once told James Boswell he followed 'just the study which pleased him at the time, and went on calm and moderate'.1 Between 1760 and 1765 he spent much time in northern Italy acting as tutor to Lord Gormanston and Charles Dillon, and conducting his own researches into Egyptian hieroglyphics. He came to believe that the symbols inscribed on an ancient bust in the Royal Museum of Antiquities in Turin were Egyptian and that their resemblance to Chinese characters indicated a common origin. He published his theory in De Inscriptione quadam aegyptica Taurini inventa [Rome 1761], which attracted strong criticism; Winckelmann, Bartoli and Assemani believed the bust to be Italian and the symbols astrological, while Gibbon wrote (in May 1764) that Needham's publications demonstrated 'une ignorance, un defaut de logique, un zele aigre et un air de decision qui m'a revolt?'2 (in July, however, Gibbon commissioned a drawing of an Egyptian statue in the Uffizi for his friend Needham, see Gibbon).
Lord Tavistock, Edmund Rolfe, and Haughton James contributed 'a purse of 300 for Needham to prosecute his discoveries which', wrote Sir Richard Lyttelton, 'has the little man very happy'.3 The Egyptian controversy would indicate Needham was in Turin in 1760; thereafter he was recorded in Milan in April 1761 with Lord Gormanston. On 15 December 1761 he went from Rome to Naples with Rolfe; they left Naples on 5 February and were back in Rome on the 11th; later that month they were about to leave Rome for Turin and Paris.3 Dutens said Needham left Turin for Paris in May 1762.4
He was back in Turin in August and September 1764 with Charles Dillon, and James Martin and Boswell met him there between January and April 1765, Boswell talking with him of the Trinity, Trappists and chastity.5 On 10 January 1765 John Wilkes told his daughter that 'the most agreeable object I have seen here [Turin] is Mr Needham'.6
1. Boswell, Italy, 32. 2. Gibbon Journey, 38 (and see 34 - 7). S. Rowland Pierce, Antiquaries Jnl., 45[1965]: 212 - 15. 3. Lyttelton letters MSS (20 Mar. 1762). 4. Dutens, Memoirs, 1:261. 5. Boswell, Italy, 32ff. Martin jnl.MSS (19 Apr. 1765). 6. Wilkes Corr., 2:122.