Bertram, Charles (1723 -1765)

Charles Bertram was the son of a London silk dyer. When he was only a child, his family moved to Copenhagen, where he became a teacher of English in the school for naval cadets. He is chiefly remembered as a successful literary impostor. He published what purported to be a manuscript work on Roman Britain by a monk called Richard of Westminster, De Situ Britanniæ, which he claimed to have found in 1746. Many people, including William Stukeley were taken in completely and believed the document to be authentic. The uncritical acceptance of the forgery was widespread in Britain, and its spurious contents were incorporated into nearly every British publication on ancient British history. It was not until 1870 that it was proven once and for all to be a clever forgery.