English 18th Century Portrait Sculpture: Bronze Bust Of Thomas Richardson Westminster Abbey

Sir Thomas Richardson (1569 - 1635).

Hubert le Sueur

Bronze Bust

Westminster Abbey.

some random unedited notes:

It is inscribed Huber le Soeur Regis Faciebat, 1735.

Image Courtauld Inst.

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James Cole

1720

345 x 207 mm.

National Portrait Gallery

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Sir Thomas Richardson, judge and Speaker of the House of Commons, was buried in the south choir aisle of Westminster Abbey. He was the son of William Richardson and his wife Agnes and was baptised at Hardwick in Norfolk. He was educated at Christ’s College Cambridge and

admitted to Lincoln’s Inn (as a lawyer).

In 1595 he married Ursula, daughter of John Southwell. Ten years later he was appointed under-steward of Norwich cathedral and rose high enough in his profession to be made Speaker of the House of Commons.

King James I knighted him and he was appointed Chief Justice of the Common Pleas. His decision not to allow John Felton, who had assassinated the Duke of Buckingham, to be put on the rack to induce him to confess marked an epoch in criminal jurisprudence. His second wife was Elizabeth, daughter of Sir Thomas Beaumont and widow of Sir John Ashburnham. He died in London on 4th February 1635 (the date is given in Old Style dating on the monument).

His son and heir was Thomas and his four daughters were Ursula, Mary, Elizabeth and Susan.

Near his grave a black marble and bronze monument was erected by his son. The bronze bust by Herbert Le Sueur (dated 1635) shows him in hat and robes (the SS collar has been broken off). The Latin inscription on the bronze plaque can be translated:

“To God, the best and greatest. Sir Thomas Richardson, Knight, Speaker of the House of Commons in the 21st and 22nd years of King James, Chief Justice of the Court of Common Pleas; and lastly, by King Charles I, made Lord Chief Justice of England. He died in 1634, in the 66th year of his age. Sir Thomas Richardson, his only son, designated a Baron of Scotland, placed this to his incomparable father”

Photograph and text © The Dean and Chapter of Westminster.

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Kingston Lacy

National Trust

They say carved stone - it appears more like plaster to me.

Stone sculpture on square socle, Sir Thomas Richardson (1569-1635), after Hubert Le Sueur (c.1580 - London 1670). A head-and-shoulders portrait bust, facing, beard and moustache, wearing a squared cap, full, deep ruff and robes. The central badge of a rose and parts of two links is all that remains of a chain. Sir Thomas Richardson, knighted in 1621, was a Judge and Barrister at Lincoln’s Inn in 1595.

He was Lent reader and Sergeant-at-law in 1614; speaker of the House of Commons in 1621 (MP, St Albans); became chief justice of common pleas, 1626; refused (1628) to allow John Felton (1595(?)-1628) (assassin of the Duke of Buckingham) to be racked to induce confession, a step which marks an epoch in the history of criminal jurisprudence; became chief justice of the King’s Bench, 1631, and came into conflict with William Laud, Archbishop of Canterbury (1573-1645) for suppressing ‘wakes’ or Sunday revels. Cast from his bronze bust from the 1635 tomb monument by Le Sueur at Westminster Abbey, London.

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