Robert Parsons (1717 - 1790) -
his son Thomas Parsons
and Joseph Greenway (fl 1757 - 75),
Decorative Sculptors
of 18th Century Bath and a some other Bath Statuaries
Some Notes -
the notes on the Lancashire brothers updated 29 July 2019.
Every so often information appears from a random source that I havn't previously noted, usually whilst searching for something else.
Here I publish an article from the Leeds Art Calender of 1974, written by the estimable Terry Friedman and some notes and illustrations regarding the Greenway and Parsons families stone carvers of Claverton Street, Widcombe, Bath.
see -
https://leedsartfund.org/files/calendar/No%20-%20%2075%201974.pdf
Thomas Greenway: fl
1704 - 1730.
Thomas Greenway, Mason, Bath. Yard at Claverton St,
Widcombe; carved vases and architectural ornament.
Built The Cold Bath House, Claverton Street, Widcombe: built in
c1704 Included a cold mineral water spring,
turned into a plunge bath in 1707. For nearly a century this bath was
resorted to by'persons of quality', but it fell into disuse around 1820 and the building became a workshop and tenement.
It was demolished
in 1966.(1)Cold Bath, shown on maps of 1750 and 1770.(2)(3)
Additional reference.(4)
................................................
.
With the rise of Bath as a watering-place Dr
Oliver recommended the building of a cold bath, whereupon Greenway
installed one in his house, fed from a spring under Beechen Cliff, and
opened it to the public. After a period of popularity use of the Baths declined and they were floored over. Successive floodings occurred
and by the 1950s the building had badly deteriorated.(5)
( 1) Georgian Bldgs of Bath, 1980 edn., 102-3, plate (W Ison)
( 2) New and Correct Plan of the City of Bath, 1750 (BL
XXXVII:15)
( 3) Plan of the City and Suburbs of Bath, c1770 (BL XXXVII:16)
( 4) Bldgs of Eng - N Somerset and Bristol, 1958, 125 (N Pevsner)
( 5)Vanishing Bath, III, 1972, illustr. (Peter Coard)
(6a) A Bath Camera, item 7 (S Hunt)
( 6b) Map of Bath, 1854 (Cotterell)
( 6) Info from Elizabeth Holland, letter 14/10/88
( 7) Info from T Fawcett, Secretary, Hist of Bath
research Gp, 1988
Thomas Greenway built houses in St John's Court, Bath in 1720 (below), noted for over-lavish
ornament, by John Wood.
The Frontage of the Theatre Royal was Beau Nash's
first house. It was built in 1720 by Thomas Greenway (and so was pre-Wood). The
mouldings of window frames and of frieze are characteristically overdone, as
are the volutes of the brackets of the door-hood. Wood criticizes its 'profuse ornament' and
calls it typical of a mason as against an architect.
see - A Description of Bath: Wherein the Antiquity of the City, as
Well as the ...
By John Wood 1765 edition p. 225, p.231. and p. 424.
St John Court, Saw Close, Bath.
Now The Theatre Royal
The Canopy on the Saw Close (east) front of the Theatre Royal was put up in the mid 19th Century and has now been removed.
Images above from The 18th Century Architecture of Bath by Mowbray, Green 1904.
Available on line at -
.
_________________
General Wolf's House, Trim Street, Bath.
Attributed to Thomas Greenway are houses in Trim Street 1707, and No 14, Abbey Churchyard for General Wade, c1720 (below), perhaps also No 15 next door with
superimposed orders similar to 15 Westgate St and General Wolfe's House, Trim
St;
Greenway visited Dublin in 1730 on a sales trip to exhibit flower pots, urns and vases.
Images above from The 18th Century Architecture of Bath by Mowbray, Green 1904.
Available on line at -
Cold Bath House, 26 Claverton St, Widcombe, Bath.
Photographed by Mowbray Green in 1904.
The 2nd floor gables appear to be much later additions.
_____________
The sons of Thomas Greenway - Benjamin & Daniel were working, c. 1740 - 52.
Supplied ornament for John Wood on
Bristol Exchange - 1740-1.
Joseph Greenway was noted 1757 working with Robert Parsons (see below).
IR; Thomas Greenway carved urns designed by Gibbs at Cliveden, Bucks.
Greenway Subscribed to
Vitruvius Britanicus - 3rd edition, 1725.
These notes should be checked.
It appears that Thomas Greenway had interests in a Bath stone quarry on Combe Down above Widcombe.
Howard Colvin in Biographical Dictionary British Architects... 3rd ed. p.431, notes that in 1730 Greenway visited Dublin, Ireland
taking with him, for sale, some of his most popular wares.
Images above from The 18th Century Architecture of Bath by Mowbray, Green 1904.
Available on line at -
___________________________
Benjamin and Daniel Greenway: fl
1740 -1752.
Joseph Greenway: fl. 1757-1790.
Joseph Greenway of Claverton St Widcombe is noted as executor of the will of Thomas Bullock watch and clock maker of Claverton St, Lyncombe and Widcombe Parish, Bath in the Bath Chronicle of 27 September 1787.
_________________________
The Greenways.
Architects Sculptors and Stone Masons.
They were a family of architects, masons and carvers with
premises in Claverton Street, Widcombe, near Bath. Around 1704 Thomas Greenway
designed the Cold Bath House at Widcombe, ‘one of the earliest examples in Bath
to show a competent use of Renaissance detail’ (Ison 1948, 116).
In 1720 he
built a number of houses in St John’s Court, including that of Beau Nash.
According to the architect John Wood one of these was ‘so profuse in ornament
as to tempt the King to Bath to make part of it his palace’ and, encouraged by
this success, Greenway ‘particularly applied himself to small ornaments in
freestone, such as crests, vases, fruits, etc., and several that served their
apprenticeship to him pursued the business till they brought it to such a
perfection as to merit publick encouragement and render their work a rising
branch of the trade of Bath’ (Wood 1729, 424, cited by Gunnis 1968, 180).
In
1725 Claver Morris, a physician from Wells, wrote 'I went to Mr Greenway's,
that I might speak with him about vases that I had in mind to put on top of
mine house, instead of the rails and ballisters now decay'd' (Sloman 2006/7).
In 1730 Greenway visited Dublin, taking with him for sale ‘a large number of
Flower Potts, urns and vases’ (Faulkner’s Dublin Journal, 15-19 December 1730).
Benjamin and Daniel Greenway, who are described as ‘marble
and free-stone masons, carvers and vase-makers’, supplied ornaments for John
Wood’s Bristol Exchange in 1740-41 (3) and sold garden ornaments to the Duke of
Atholl in 1752 (Wood 1745, cited by Gunnis 1968, 180) (4 -7).
Daniel married
Anne Winslow of Bath in 1747.
Joseph Greenway and Robert Parsons supplied garden
ornaments to
Robert Dundas of Arniston in 1757. (Arniston Accounts, quoted by
Friedman 1974 (2), 31) (8).
In previous blog posts I wrote about the busts and small scale sculptures in the "skied" library at Arniston, see -
One of Joseph’s tradecards, with engraved
illustrations of seven vases and a pedestal based on engravings in popular
pattern books of the day, survives in the papers of the Bagshawe family of
Oakes Hall, Norton, Sheffield. It states that ‘Joseph Greenway carver at the
Cold-Bath, in Bath, executes the above Designs or any other Ornamental Work in
Bath Stone which may be sent safe to any part of Europe’ and that ‘He will wait
on Gentlemen and Ladies at their Lodgings with Variety of Draughts’. Some of
the illustrations are annotated by hand with dimensions and prices (repr
Friedman 1974 (2), 29).
His date of death is unclear, although he was still alive
in 1775 when he took a lease on a house in Frog Lane, Bath.
Literary References: Gunnis 1968, 180;
Friedman 1974 (2),
29-32; Colvin 1995, 431;
Sloman 2006/7, 12 n15
This information above lifted entirely from - A Biographical Dictionary of Sculptors in Britain, 1660-1851
Online version available at -
____________________________
Ralph Allen's Townhouse.
_____________________________________
Robert and Thomas Parsons.
Robert Parsons was chiefly known for his garden vases and
ornaments carved from Bath stone, which he sent all over England. He was born
in November 1718, the youngest son of Thomas and Hester Parsons. In 1742 he
married Mary Caerleon, the first of his three wives. He was employed in 1744 by
John Wood the Elder as a free stone-mason and one of the house-carvers for the
building of the Bristol Exchange.
In Parsons’s manuscript commonplace book (private coll) is
an account of how he went in 1764 to see Ralph Allen on the day before the
latter’s death, to show him designs for tombstones and memorials. Parsons,
therefore, is presumably responsible for the pyramid in Claverton churchyard
under which Allen lies buried (2). Parsons was responsible for at least one
monument in partnership with John Ford I, the large architectural tablet to
Winchcombe Packer, which is signed by both men (1).
His work in Bath stone clearly began to define his
reputation, as in 1753 Parsons placed an advertisement in the Bath Journal
reassuring clients that, contrary to rumour, he had not stopped working in
marble. He stated that he still produced chimneypieces and monuments in Italian,
Irish and English marble, as well as 'his other business of making Bath Stone
ornaments and fine chimnies' examples of which could be seen at his yards
'between the Bridge and Gibbs Mill' (quoted in Sloman 2006/7, 6).
In 1754-5 John Ivory Talbot employed the architect,
Sanderson Miller, on work in the new gothic great hall at Lacock Abbey, Wilts.
He wrote to Miller shortly beforehand stating that he intended to have the
chimneypiece and doorcases ‘finished [by Parsons] in the Painswick stone, having
lately seen one done by him for Lord Egmont [at Enmore Castle, Somerset] in the
Gothick Taste, which pleased me greatly’ (Miller of Radway archives, Warks RO
CR 125B/394).
He was baptised as an adult on 27 June 1742 in Bedminster
Bristol, and in 1751 was invited to be minister to the Bath Baptists. The
following year he co-built a 'meeting' in Southgate Street, which was to be
superseded by a new Bristol Chapel in Gerrard Street in 1768' cut the sentence.
According to a local historian: ‘from the congregation he received no
remuneration for his services and never relinquished his business as a
stone-carver.
He is mentioned in the Bath and Bristol Guide of 1755 as the builder of a Meeting House for the Annnabaptists in Horse Street
He was removed to the Eternal World, February, 1790, and was
buried in the Baptist Chapel at Walcot’ (Cater 1834 , 292-3). His obituary in
the Bath Chronicle of 4 March 1790 states that ‘for forty [sic] years he had
been Pastor of the Baptist Congregation in Garrard Street, and it is to his
disinterested zeal that the Society owed its origin and establishment’ (p 3,
col 2).
In 1772 he published Letters of the Rev. Mr. Fletcher of Madely on the
differences subsisting between him and the Hon. and Rev. Mr. Shirley.
Thomas Parsons was the son of Robert and Mary Parsons, born
in April 1744. He married Hannah Frances Best in Colchester on 18 September
1770. He received a liberal education, before taking over the family business.
He was, like his father, a carver of stone vases and chimney-pieces. His book
of designs in Bath municipal library shows that he copied his vases from
drawings by Hoare, Cipriani, Kent, Wedgwood, Eleanor Coade and others.
He made
the famous vase for Mrs Miller into which verses were dropped by the wits of
Bath. These she would pick out and read to her assembled guests, an amusement
which terminated on the unfortunate day when a most indelicate ode polluted the
urn (15).
Like his father, Thomas Parsons was a Baptist minister, and took over
the leadership of the Bath Baptists for a year after his father's death. His
published works include Effusions of Paternal Affection on the Death of a Lovely
Daughter (1799) and High Church Claims Exposed (1808).
His diary, recently identified by Anne Sloman, records eight
months of his life in 1769. It shows him to be engaged in literary and
scientific pursuits, including poetry and teaching grammar. He also records the
often dangerous life in his workshop: in the space of two months he crushed his
fingers underneath a stone block, and was stabbed in the foot by the point of a
turning machine. Thomas estimated that he made only £40 or £50 per year, complaining
that he worked far harder than his father ever did, and starved his mind in the
process.
Literary References: Gunnis 1968, 292-3; Colvin 1995, 654
(Lacock Abbey);
Sloman 2006/7, 4-13
Archival References: Thomas Parsons, A Collection of Vases
Terms etc, Bath Central Library, B731.7 PAR 38:18, Sloman 2006/7, passim
(repr); Diary of Thomas Parsons, January-August 1769, Huntington Library, San
Marino, California, HM52593 (Sloman 2006/7, 4-13)
Will: Robert Parsons, 16 June 1790, PROB 11/1193, copy in
Bath Record Office 0050/2/4
This biog lifted entirely from
________________
Robert Parsons - Stonemason, Bath; 1717 - 90; made garden ornaments and vases, designed Ralph Allen's tomb in Claverton, Som, 1764; did Gothic fireplace at Enmore Castle (dem) Som for Lord Egmont pre 1754, admired by JI Talbot of Lacock; was Baptist minister in Bath; worked with son Thomas 1744-90.
Bath Chronicle 25 October 1798 - Marriages: Mr Samuel Haukvale of Overton
Norton, Oxon to Miss Hannah Frances Parsons, dtr of Mr Thos Parsons of
Widcombe, on Thursday.
Bath Chronicle 20 November 1788 - Deaths:
Mrs Parsons, wife of Mr Thos Parsons, in Claverton St, Bath on Saturday morning
Bath Chronicle - 21 March 1799 Deaths:
Miss Mary Parsons, dtr of Thos. Parsons, gent, in Claverton St, Bath aged 14 on
10 Mar.
Robt Parsons died 28 February 1790. Buried at the Walcot Burial ground at the bottom of Snow Hill
Thomas Parsons of Claverton Street, Widcombe, died on the 24th September 1813, aged 69 years. Parsons had in
the meantime joined the Independent congregation at Argyle Street, and Rev WiIIiam
Jay preached his funeral sermon.
For a very useful study of the Baptist Church and the Parsons Family in Bath
Apart from references to his religious life this is very useful for the ref. to his shop sign and his work on the Corn Exchange in Bristol.
_____________
Robert Parsons, John Ford and John Wood.
Titan Barrow, Bathford.
Designed by John Wood I and built for Southwell Pigott 1748.
Information and images below from
The Eighteenth Century Architecture of Bath
by Mowbray A Green
1904
Limited edition of 500 - available and searchable on line at -
Woods Plan signed by John Ford and Robert Parsons
....................................
1745-51 Vases, Stourhead, £110; IR;
1754-5 Carved fireplace and doors in great hall, Lacock Abbey; IR; crossed crozier design of fireplace was suggested by John Ivory Talbot, overall
designs by Sanderson Miller; W Hawke, Sanderson Miller at Lacock;
1766 Six vases, Corsham Court for Capability Brown; IR;
These facts should be checked!!
Clipping from The New Bath Directory, for the Year, 1792: Containing an
Historical Account ...
ref. Thomas Parsons
There is no mention of the Greenways in this directory but there is mention of William Biggs
stone carver of Claverton Street. In 1809 there is a J Biggs Marble Carver at Claverton Buildings.
____________________________________
Note The statuette of Shakespeare after Scheemakers supplied in May 1756 is still in the skied library at Arniston but the Milton has disappeared.
__________________________________
__________________________
The Parsons.
Stonemasons and carvers of Bath.
I am taking the liberty of publishing in full the extract by Susan Sloman from the Proceedings of the Bath History Group - 2007.
Annual General Meeting - November 2007.
Newsletter no 58 -
THE DIARY OF MR PARSONS, STONE SCULPTOR OF BATH
Wednesday 18th April - Museum of Bath at Work.
Speaker and Reporter Susan Sloman.
In 2004 during a visit to the Huntington Library. at San
Marino. California. l trawled ‘ the catalogue of manuscripts for material that might provide background information for
my continuing study of the life and work of the painter Thomas Gainsborough.
The catalogue entry for an anonymous
diary. purchased by the Library in 1991, caught my eye, as the manuscript was said to date from 1769, and to be
written in Bath. (I learnt subsequently that our Bath Archivist Colin Johnston had spotted the same diary in a
dealer’s catalogue, but did not have sufficient funds to acquire it.) As it turned out, this diary was not especially
relevant to my Gainsborough research, but proved to be of considerable interest in other respects, and I have written
an article identifying its author and placing it in the context of’ Bath’s cultural life at this critical period in the
City’s history. The article is in the Winter 06-07 edition of The British Art Journal, still not in print in mid-April 07, but
promised at any moment. Copies of the Journal will be available in the Bath Central Library and in Archives, in
the Guildhall.
The diary covers the period January to August 1769 and is
closely written in small but generally clear handwriting. The author is a stonemason, like his father who is also a
preacher. He says he is 25 years old. and he has an ‘uncle Giles’. He owns some land adjoining the grounds of Widcombe
Manor.
From all this we know he is ThomasParsons (1744- 1813), the only son of the well-known Bath
stonemason Robert Parsons (1718-1790). His uncle Giles is Robert Parsons’ brother-in-law James Giles, who is
mentioned in Robert’s will. Robert Parsons worked on several of John Wood’s major building projects, including the
Bristol Exchange.
While in Bristol. Robert joined the Baptist church; he subsequently became leader of Bath’s
Baptist community. Thomas Parsons’ diary describes day to-day activity in the Parsons yard in Claverton Street, Widcombe.
It documents the making of urns, eagles and other decorative stonework of the kind the Parsons yard sent
out via the River Avon to building sites all over Britain. It also opens a window on the personal life of a thoughtful
and questioning young man living in the shadow of a
somewhat domineering and dogmatic father.
On my first
reading of the diary l was struck by the thought that it would make a fascinating article, not least because it could
be linked with a collection of Thomas Parsons’ drawings
that belongs to the Bath Central Library. These drawings, of
which there are over 150, are bound into a small volume and illustrate designs for vases, sundials, chimneys
and other stone features for buildings and gardens. They are later in date than the diary, but, like the diary, they
show how wide-ranging Parsons’ interests and influences were. In particular, they illustrate the cross-fertilisation
that took place between the fine and applied arts in a city that was home to almost as many fine artists as craftsmen.
In the
diary Parsons sits up at night copying etchings by Thomas Worlidge (a London artist with Widcombe connections);
in his book of designs he includes vases by the painters Gainsborough and William Hoare. Parsons in his
diary also describes a family excursion to Bowood, where he and his father supplied decorative stonework, and several
visits to the 1769 sale of the remaining contents of
Prior Park. His account of the latter event can usefully be
studied in tandem with the sale catalogue, of which the only known copy is in the Bath Central Library. There is
certainly room for a publication printing the whole of Thomas Parsons’ diary, and there is more to be discovered
about his life and work.
At the HBRG meeting Trevor Fawcett was able to add information about his scientific
interests, which are hinted at in the diary. Kerry Birch has made a study of Robert Parsons from the point of view of the
history of the Baptist church, and it was his talk to the HBRG at least a decade ago that first made me aware of the
Parsons family. Elizabeth Holland’s and Mike Chapman’s painstaking mapping of eighteenth-century Widcombe
has allowed me to locate Parsons’ various properties and land in the parish.
_______________________
British Art Journal.
Vol. 7, No. 3 (Winter 2006/7), pp. 4-13.
An Eighteenth-century Stonecarver's Diary Identified:
Eight
months in the life of Thomas Parsons (1744-1813) of Bath.
Susan Sloman.
This article (below) was written by the very excellent Dr Susan Sloman who also wrote
Gainsborough in Bath. pub. Yale 2002.
Probably the best book on 18th Century Art and Social life yet published.
This excerpt from Thomas Baldwin: His Public Career in Bath 1775 - 1793 by Jane Root
"On 27 September 1784 the Council resolved that a ruined tenement
adjoining the main Pump Room at the King's Bath should be taken down
and converted into water closets in accordance with a plan produced by
Baldwin.
On 3 October 1785 the Council Minutes record a report from the
'Committee appointed for improving the Baths and Pump Rooms'
recommending the erection of a colonnade before the Pump Room to
keep it warmer.
Previous writers have confused this colonnade with the
one north of the present Pump Room, but they cannot be the same. The
much smaller old Pump Room was situated within the site of the present
building at its eastern end, facing out over the King's Bath. Harcourt
Masters' turnpike map of 1787, shows the old Pump Room and the
colonnade of 1785, which appears to project in front of the middle three
bays of the arcaded five-bay north elevation of the building. The old
Pump Room was articulated by an applied order of attached Corinthian
columns, with an intercolumniation of about nine feet, 12 and it is possible
that a bill for stone carving dated 5 November 1785 submitted by Thomas
Parsons in 1789 (Bath Records Chamberlain's Vouchers) listing four Corinthian capitals and one 'Elegant
Pannel' nine feet five inches long, collectively marked 'Pump Room',
may refer to work carried out on the colonnade.
However, it is clear from
the City Chamberlain's vouchers that the erection of the colonnade was
only part of a general refurbishment of the building. For example, a bill
submitted by the statuary Thomas King for a variety of work carried out
during 1785, most of which seems to have been at the Pump Room,
includes an item dated 10 August: 'To cleaning the Figure of the late Mr
Naish new working the Plinth writing the Inscription and new drawing
the plan of the Hospital'
___________________________________
John Ford I (1711 - 67).
Described as John Ford of Walcot (Parish of Bath), the Mason on the Titan Barrow documents.
Ford, John, 1724-71
Councilman Dec 1724-40; Constable Feb-Oct 1725; Bailiff 1727-28; Chamberlain 1740-41; Alderman Oct 1740-71;
He the son of an apothecary, Richard Ford to whom he had been apprenticed. In 1741 a
certain John Garden accused him of making ‘a sodomitical assault’ on his person.
A further complaint of 1742
claimed he was neglecting his civic duties.
He leased property in Stall Street (including the ‘Back House’), part
of the White Swan in Cheap Street, the Boat Tavern in Walcot Street, and a lodging house at the Cross Bath.
Master Mason responsible for Titan Barrow House, Bathford, designed by John Wood I in 1748 (see above drawings and documents, King Edwards School Broad Street, Bath.
Died 6 September 1767. and is buried at Colerne (nr Bath).
His epitaph reads "his abilities and enterprise in business in great measure contributed to the erection of the handsome buildings and streets of Bath"
he was succeeded by his son John Ford II (1736 - 1803).
Will of John Ford II - PROB
11/1388/285.
_____________________________
Thomas King.
Thomas King and Sons (fl.1760 - 1860).
Statuary, nr. Walcot Turnpike.
Walcot Turnpike was on the North side of London Road opposite the beginning of Grosvenor Place and next to the beginning of Beaufort Place West.
Bath Chronicle - 16 February 1786 - Thomas King statuary - marble chimney pieces £6 to £60. Monuments 8 guin to
50 guin.
Bath Chronicle - 13 April 1786 - Goods:
marble chimney pieces, fitted for sale etc at Thomas King's, statuary nr Walcot
turnpike.
Bath Chronicle - 8 Jun 1786 - Goods: For sale marble - chimney pieces. Small monuments for
inspection enq T King, statuary nr Walcot turnpike.
Bath Chronicle - 27
March 1794 - Bath turnpike roads -
general meeting of Trustees at the Guildhall on 5 April at 12 noon. To consider
removal of present tollbar on London Road at or near Mr King's marble yard in
Walcot.
Bath Chronicle - 18 October 1792 - Wm Reeves, marble mason carver etc, many years foreman to Mr King, has opened a
yard in James Street, Kingsmead. Monuments, chimney pieces etc.
____________________________
John Ricketts.
Statuary.
Bath Chronicle - 1 May 1788 - Services: John Ricketts, statuary of Harington Pl, Bath
sells marble work, ornaments, has many designs for monuments, entablatures to
chimney pieces etc from his shop in Peter St, Bath.
Bath Chronicle - 7 August 1788 - Marble-sawyer wanted immediately. Enq. J Ricketts, Harington Pl, Bath.
Bath Chronicle -10 May 1792 - Goods - Barges 'Surprise' & 'Mary' carry goods
weekly Bath to Bristol. Goods may be left at Full Moon, Old Bridge. John
Rickets, statuary & builder.
Bath Chronicle - 17 May 1792 - Building materials - tinned copper sheets & pipes available from warehouse,
2 Cheapside, Bath. May be seen at Mr Ricketts, Argyle Bldgs, where Mr J Wynn
attends to undertake covering of roofs, areas, gutters etc. Cheaper & 10
times lighter than lead. Patentee Charles Wyatt, Birmingham.
Bath Chronicle - 22 November 1792 - Wanted - 2 marble masons & a polisher. Enq J Ricketts,
statuary.
Bath Chronicle 13 June 1793 -13 June 1793 - bankruptcy - John Ricketts, marble mason, builder, dealer & chapman of
Bath, bankrupt to appear before commissioners at Saracen's Head Inn on 14 &
24 Jun & 20 July to disclose his assets. E V Goodall, attorney, Bath.
Bath Chronicle -11 July 1793- Auction - all household effects of John Ricketts, bankrupt, (by order of
assignees). On the premises at 12 Argyle Bldgs, Bath on 15 Jul et seq by E
English. On Tue 16, sale inc inlaid marble chimneypiece, 2 Derbyshire cowls,
pianoforte by Zumpe, etc.
Bath Chronicle - 25 July 1793- auction - stock in trade of John Ricketts, bankrupt, at marble yard,
Cheapside
on 25 & 26 July by E English. Inc various sorts of marble in block,
scantling & veneers; an elegant unfinished chimney piece (contracted for
150 guin when finished); chimney cups; ladders; lead pipe; sheet lead; etc. By
order of the assignees.
Bath Chronicle - 1 August 1793 - Auction, John Ricketts, bankrupt - lot 4/9, unfinished, part of l/hold house, E
cnr S-side Gt Pulteney St; lot 5/9, l/hold house 4 Cheapside, late in possn Mr
Thomas Chantry at £42 p.a. At Saracen's Head, Bath on 12 Aug by E English
Bath Chronicle -1 August 1793 - Property:
auction, John Ricketts, bankrupt - lot 8/9, large workshops behind 4, 5 & 6
Cheapside; lot 9/9, part of unfinished house [? Norfolk]Crescent, Kingsmead at
end of New King St. At Saracen's Head, Bath on 12 Aug by E English.
Cheapside is on the Bathwick side of the River Avon in Bath, just upriver from Pulteney Bridge and bordering the river. It appears that there were several workshops and builders yards in this area including that of the Architect and Developer John Eveleigh.
Bath Chronicle - 26 July 1798 - John Ricketts, statuary, Green St, has sculpted statuary & marble chimney
pieces - reasonable terms.
__________________________
Mauge and Lancashire.
Statuaries of Bath, a few notes -
....................................
Mauge & Co Bath, Fl. c 1768 - 83.
Bath Chronicle - 1st November 1770 - Notices: Mauge & Lancashire, successors to Mr Prince
Hoare, statuary (& his principal workmen for many yrs), now trading at same
yard in monuments, chimney pieces, works in marble, wood & stone.
1768 - Sign the Monument to James Long Urchfont, Devizes; Wall monument in coloured marbles.
1783 - Monument to Robert and Kerrenhappuch Bluett - two seated Allegories by an Urn (Gunnis).
...................................
Bath Chronicle - 11 January 1787 - Property: to let - garden 3½ acres nr Bathwick to Widcombe
Road, opp Mr Perry's nursery, [no price]. Garden stock & building therein
to be taken at fair valuation.
Enq. F. Lancashire, carver & marble mason,
Margaret Bldgs; or J Palmer, Charles St, Bath.
The reference above to Margaret's Buildings which is between Brock Street and Catherine place is interesting and might suggest an original premises of Prince Hoare.
Bath Chronicle - 14 February 1793 - Services: F Lancashire & Son, Albion Pl, Upper Bristol Rd, Bath, statuaries, carvers in general & stone masons. Large wareroom with chimney pieces of different coloured marble, urns, vases, monuments etc on view.
................................
Francis Lancashire (1740 - 1814) and elder brother Richard Lancashire (1736 - 1813).
William Lancashire (c. 1769 - 1825), the son Francis Lancashire went into partnership with Tyley of Bristol early 1800's.
Francis Lancashire -
Sent at least 2 wall monuments to the West Indies
In his obituary the Gentleman's Magazine describes him "as aged 74, Mr Francis Lancashire ingenious statuary"
.......................
Richard Lancashire (1736 - 1813). He endorsed a receipt "for carving 8 Ionic capitals at £2:12:6deach capital" dated 11 July 1763 for Ditchley Park, Oxon (ref. Rupert Gunnis Dictionary; Dillon Archives).
In 1809 he succeeded Thomas Engleheart as a carver at Doddington Park, Glouc, being built by James Wyatt for Christopher Codrington (Codrington Archives). Carving Corinthian Capitals for the West portico which were designed by Wyatt - 1809 - 11.
The Gentlemans Magazine in his obituary in 1813 describes him as "formerly a statuary, and pupil of Mr Prince Hoare"
______________________
Francis Robbins (Robins) fl. c 1755 - 96.
Statuary of Bath.
Bath Chronicle - 22 November 1770 - Bankruptcy - Francis Robins of Bath, statuary, mason & pennant man to
appear at Lamb Inn Bath on 19, 20 & 21 Dec.
Pennant man refers to Pennant Stone - the paving used throughout Bath in the 18th and 19th centuries
Bath Chronicle - 14 March 1771 - Goods: auction - all stock in trade of Francis Robins,
bankrupt, marble & pennant mason of Bath, on premises 26 Mar. Also his
tools of trade & workshops at his yard, Fountain House, top of Broad St,
Bath. Enq Mr John Latty, ironmonger in Market Pl, Bath
Bath Chronicle - 13 March 1794 - Property: auction, Timbrell, bankrupt contd - lot 5/5,
contd, 5 tenements & marble yard in Somerset Court, ground rent 13 guin
p.a, let on lease for 21 yrs & clear rent of £42 p.a. At the Great Room, 10
Milsom St on 31 Mar by Mr Plura.
Bath Chronicle - 28 August 1794 - Goods: auction - 20 beautiful chimney pots inc 1 enriched by
brocatelli & one by Turkey granite. On the premises at the Marble Yard,
bottom Guinea Lane, Walcot on 29 Aug by William Jones.
Bath Chronicle 4 December 1794 - Goods: auction - collection of fossils, marble chimney
pieces at Somerset Marble Yard nr Walcot Church on 11 Dec.
Bath Chronicle - 21 Jun 1798 - to gentlemen & master builders - 8 marble chimney pieces
with statuary & vein astragals to be sold by hand at Mrs Robbins (relict of
late Francis Robbins) . Also collection of curious fossils. The yard &
workshop to be let.
Bath Chronicle - 4 October 1798 - Collection of fossils, sculpture dug from Salisbury Plain. Stock & working
utensils to be sold at fair appraisement at Mrs Robbins's marble yard Guinea
Lane, Bath. Yard & workhouse to be let
Bath Chronicle - 4 October 1798 - 6 marble chimney pieces with different grounds, statuary & vein astragals
at Mrs Robbins's marble yard at bottom of Guinea Lane, Bath. Also stone in yard
& eqpt.
Bath Chronicle - 20 Jun 1799 - Goods: auction - 6 new marble chimney-pieces, fossils,
specimens of stone & stock in trade of late Mr Robins at his marble yard,
Somerset House, Walcot, 24 Jun by Mr Nonmus. Widow cannot carry on business.
Catalogues from A Jenkins, writing master & accountant
______________________
Henry Mais.
Statuary of Bath.
Bath Chronicle - 5 January 1792 Property: auction - by order assignees of Henry Mais, bankrupt - a) leasehold, 1st house in Laura Place: b) new house, 1 Cheapside, Bath with workshop behind. At Greyhound & Shakespeare Inn on 13 Jan, by Mr Spackman.
Cheapside (long demolished) is now part of Grove Street, Bath. fronting the river.
Bath Chronicle - 15 March 1792 - Auction - stock in trade of Henry Mais, statuary & bankrupt (30 marble
chimney pieces) at 1 Cheapside, Bath 13 Apr by Mr. Spackman.
______________________
The Bath Academy.
Bath Chronicle - 6 November 1783 - Art: Bath Academy - meeting of 4 Nov at the Three Tuns Tavern, Stall St, Bath unanimously thanked John Palmer, esq., - Hoare, esq., George James, esq., & Mr Ch. Harris, statuary, London.
Bath Chronicle - 16 October 1783 - Art: meeting of principal artists of Bath at Three Tuns on Tue 14 Oct. We hear they have begun a subscription to establish an Academy or School for the study of Antique Statues & the Living Model.
Bath Chronicle - 30 October 1783 Art: Bath Academy (in the manner of the Royal Academy London) - meeting of subscribers at Three Tuns Tavern in Stall St at 7pm on 4 Nov & then 1st Tue every month. Printed plans at the public libraries & Mr Wm. Lloyd's; list of subscribers may be seen at Mr Wm. Lloyd's in Abbey Green.
________________________
Bath Chronicle - 12 September 1782 - Goods: auction - h/hold furniture, books, stock in trade etc
of
Mr John Paty, marble-mason & stone cutter at his late house 11 Denmark
St, Bristol on 16 Sept by Thomas Naish. Inc "Architecture of Alberti"
in 3 vols; do by Gibbs in 1 vol, Langley's "Builders Assistant" 2
vols, "Gothic Architecture", books on building, surveying,
architecture, maths & algebra. Also, theodolite, plane-table, perambulator,
tape boxes, surveying instruments, various mathematical instruments, etc
__________________
