John Maule Shakespeare Cliff from Western Heights, Dover, Kent

Rev John Maule (1771–1866) of Dover: Topographical Sketches

Rev John Maule (1771–1866) was vicar of St Mary's Church, Dover, 1817–42. The Maule family, descended from the prominent Scottish Maule family of earls and barons of Panmure, had strong connections with Greenwich, Kent. It appears that both his father (Stephen John Maule) and grandfather (John Maule) held the post of Clerk of the Cheque at Greenwich Hospital, whilst another relative (also a Rev John Maule) was Chaplain at the hospital.

John Maule (1771–1866) was educated at Queen's College then Merton College, Oxford, during the period 1788 to 1800. From 1817 to 1842 he was vicar at St Mary's, Dover, and it seems he was well established in the life of the city. Our collection of topographical sketches by Maule spans from 1892 to 1833, and includes many interesting views at Dover, as well as the wider Kent area, taking in Canterbury, Tunbridge Wells, Hythe, Margate and Greenwich. There are also views in Hampshire and on the Isle of Wight, along with sketches executed on trips to the Lake District, Devon and Cornwall, Durham, Preston and Ipswich. Additionally, there are some Continental locations sketched after a 'Matthew Wyatt'.

Dating from the turn of the 18th and 19th centuries, Maule has an eye for the picturesque as well as topographical record. He draws historical buildings and landmarks—castles, abbeys, fortifications, often in ruin—but what the sketches capture most emphatically is the essentially rural nature of these landscapes at this time, since much changed.

Rev John Maule's watercolours can be found in the collections of Dover Museum and Leicester University. An oil painting of Maule by William Richard Waters (1813–1880) is in the Dover Collections.