, was the only son of one of the most eminent merchants at Yarmouth,
, was the only son of one of the most eminent merchants at Yarmouth, where he was born in 1751.
He was entered of Caius college, Cambridge, where he
did not long reside; but, returning to Yarmouth, became
acquainted -with that celebrated antiquary Thomas Martin
of Palgrave, and caught from him that taste for antiquities
which he pursued during the short period of his life. He
was elected F. S. A. 1771, and F. R. S. 1772; and, by favour of the earl of Suffolk, in him the honour of Suffolk
herald extraordinary was revived; an office attended with
no profit, but valuable to him by the access it gave to the
Mss. muniments, &c. of the heralds college, of which he
thereby became an honorary member. His first attempt
at antiquarian publication was by proposals (without his name) in 1771, for printing an account of Lothingland
hundred in Suffolk; for which he had engraved several
small plates of arms and monuments in the churches of
Friston, Gorleston, Loud, Lowestoffe, and Somerliton, from
his own drawings. His next essay was the short preface
to Mr. Swinden’s “History and Antiquities of Great Yarmouth, in the county of Norfolk, 1772,
” 4to. Mr. Svvinden, who was a schoolmaster in Great Yarmouth, was a
most intimate friend of Mr. Ives, who not only assisted
him with his purse, and warmly patronized him while
living, but superintended the book for the emolument of
the author’s widow, and delivered it to the subscribers .
In 1772 he caused to be cut nine wooden plates of old Norfolk
seals, entitled “Sigilla antiqua Norfolciensia. Impressit
Johannes Ives, S. A. S.
” and a copper-plate portrait of Mr.
Martin holding an urn, since prefixed to Martin’s “History
of Thetford.
” On Aug. 16, 1773, by a special licence
from the archbishop of Canterbury, he was married at Lambeth church to Miss Kett (of an ancient family in Norfolk),
and afterwards resided at Yarmouth.