PERSONALIA

  

Possibly the father of Mary Ann Aked who in 1821 married Robert Vaughan Wynn Williams (b.1798) at Mayfield, Staffordshire, and had two sons and two daughters. The origins of the name Aked are found in Yorkshire.

£325

Presumably 2nd Viscount John Bateman (1721-1802), of Shobdon Court, Lord Lieutenant of Hertfordshire. The artist John Field (1772-1848) was one of the most famous and skilled silhouette artists, who in his early years worked as an assistant to John Miers at his studio in the Strand, London. Characteristic of some of his early work, as in this case, are silhouettes painted in umber with fine strokes of sepia to impart detail. (McKechnie)

£250

Mary Knight Oliver was born in 1776 in Martock, Somerset, the daughter of Thomas Oliver and Margaret Knight (who were married in Martock 5 July 1774). Mary married a William Beale (whose details have not been traced) and their son  Thomas Oliver Beale (b. about 1799) a farmer, married Georgiana Palmer in Bedford in 1826, and he died in Shardlow, Derbyshire in 1882. In the 1851 census Mary is found in Wellingborough, Northamptonshire, living with her son Thomas and daughter-in-law. Mary died on 9 September 1851 as recorded on a memorial at the West End Independent Chapel, Wellingborough.

£100

This portrait is believed to be of Emma Bickerstaff born circa 1826 in Chirk, Denbyshire, Wales, who in 1850 married George Parker in Uttoxeter, Staffordshire. They are found in the 1851 census when George Parker was working as a coal master in Tipton, Staffordshire, and by 1861 they are in Claverdon, Warwickshire, parents of a son and daughter, and George is listed as a farmer of 131 acres.

The pair £130

Details have not been found of a marriage between Hubert Marshall and Emilie White which have blocked further research into their ancestors and the connection with the Beech family.

£150

Lady Mary Bentinck, daughter of the Prime Minister William Henry Cavendish Bentinck, 3rd Duke of Portland (1738-1809) and Lady Margaret Cavendish Harley (1715-1785).

SIGNED & DATED BY EDWARD FOSTER

BIRCH, Rev Samuel (1780?–1848). Painted portrait miniature in red with gold highlights of a gentleman, signed Foster Pinx 1832, mounted in a papier-mâché frame 5.5 x 6.5 inches with a brass hanger. On the reverse is a shield shaped paper label inscribed in ink “Rev Samuel Birch”. The varnish shows craquelure around the lower jaw and coat.

 £325

The Revd Samuel Birch was the son of Samuel Birch (1757–1841), politician, playwright, and pastrycook, who had been lord mayor of London in 1814–15. Samuel Birch junior (born about 1780) matriculated from St. John's College, Cambridge, in 1798, graduated B.A. in the mathematical tripos in 1802, gained the second member's prize for a Latin essay, and was elected a fellow of his college. He proceeded M.A. in 1803, and D.D. in 1828, and was for a time professor of geometry in Gresham College, London. He became rector of St Mary Woolnoth, London and later a prebendary of St Paul's Cathedral and vicar of Little Marlow, Buckinghamshire. He married Margaret, daughter of William Browning, of Woburn Place, London, and their first son was the famous Egyptologist Samuel Birch (1813–1885), keeper of the department of oriental antiquities in the British Museum.

Edward Foster (1762-1864) was born in Derby and was to join the army, seeing extensive active service overseas, including service under General Cornwallis in the final phase of the War of American Independence. He began a career as an artist in the early 19th century with bases in both Derby and London. He soon specialised as a painter of silhouettes, and is particularly well known for his red painted silhouettes, as this example.

£350

Relatively little seems to be known about Thomas Bish, but his marriage to Elizabeth Markes (died 1823) is recorded in London in 1795, and he appears to have fathered at least three children, Thomas, Susanna and Elizabeth. He is undoubtedly best known as the father of his namesake Thomas Bish (1778-1842) MP for Leominster and, famously, the lottery-office entrepreneur immortalised in Thomas Hood's comic verse Ode to Thomas Bish, Esq.

This relief portrait is taken from James Tassie's sulphide portrait taken in 1788, which was also produced as a portrait medallion by Wedgwood.

The connection between the Murray and Churchill families can be identified through the descendants of Sir Patrick Murray of Ochtertyre 4th Bart (1707-1764). His daughter Joan married in 1769, Charles Churchill, but it has proved difficult to establish how many children they had - there was a son, Charles Henry born 1772 in Perth, Scotland. Perhaps Mary was one of their children, which would then accord with the label.

CHILDREN OF WILLIAM COBBETT (1763-1835)

COBBETT FAMILY. A group of three silhouettes in matching oval frames (4 x 5 inches) each identified on the reverse by ink inscriptions in the same hand:

1. A painted silhouette of a girl facing right, inscribed on the back "Susan Cobbett (aunt Susan) Kensington 1822".

2. A painted silhouette of a girl facing left, inscribed on the back "Eleanor Cobbett (aunt Ellen) Kensington 1822".

3. A hollow cut silhouette of a boy facing right, inscribed on a fragmented label on the back "...... ....[P]aul Cobbett ...... ....[B]otley 1811. (uncle James)".

The style and fine detail of the two painted female silhouettes are suggestive of the work of the London silhouettists John Field or Joshua Trewinnard.

£600

These portraits are of three of the eight children of the famous political writer and farmer William Cobbett (1763-1835) and his wife Anne Reid (1774-1845) who he had married in 1792. After their return from America in 1819 William Cobbett bought a 4 acre farm in Kensington village where they settled in 1821. The three children pictured here were all bon in Botley, Hampshire.

James Paul Cobbett (1803-1881) was a writer and edited his father's best known work Rural Rides.

Eleanor Cobbett (1805-1900) became a governess, never married, and lived at the end of her life with her nephew's family (William & Fanny Cobbett). Eleanor retained in her possession her father's unpublished amended version of his Life of Paine, which she released for publication in D.M. Conway’s Life of Thomas Paine in 1892.

Susan Cobbett (1807-1889) like her sister Eleanor worked as a governess and never married. In later life she lived with her sisters Anne and Eleanor.

£75

This is believed to be Margaret Langton Collis (1825-1875) née Freeman, born in Northampton, who married the architect and surveyor James Collis in 1845. In the 1871 census the family are living in Kidbrooke, Woolwich, Kent, with their 7 children.

£250

Thomas Crosbie (1762-1818) was a merchant of Dumfries who in 1787 married Janet Wilson (1762-1826) the daughter of Robert Wilson (1730-1807) who was in the tanning business, and his wife Mary Robson. They had at least six children (see Memorials of St Michael's: The Old Parish Churchyard of Dumfries 1876). Evidently these portraits were given to Peter Carruthers (1831-1915) of Portrack House, Dumfries, who was possibly a relation.

£250

James Crouch was born in Hastings in 1774, the son of Thomas and Mary Crouch. James married Sarah Marston in 1803 in London, and became a Customs Officer. They had at least four children, including post office clerk Walter Crouch (c1809-1879) who married Mary Ann Crouch in 1836. Their son Walter Crouch (1841-1918) was an insurance manager but also a well known Essex antiquarian and naturalist, and Fellow of the Zoological Society.

See the full details of these in the Photographs section.

John Abigail Ellis was born 1758, and married Sarah Harris Hannant in 1782 at Great Yarmouth, Norfolk. Their son Samuel, the subject of this portrait, was born in 1810.

£120

Believed to be Henry Gee born in Derby about 1775, became a watchmaker in Derby, and in 1800 married Elizabeth Nevill, by whom he had several children. Henry Gee in 1841 but lived long enough to be recorded in the 1841 census together with his family (copy included).

Dora Ennis Graham was born Dora Ennis Bellairs, and married Reginald Simpson Graham on 10th September 1838 in Bedworth, Warwickshire. Their daughter also named Dora Ennis was born in 1839 in Salford, Lancashire. The family are found in the 1841 census in Eccles, Lancashire, when Reginald's occupation is listed as a merchant. Perhaps through Reginald's occupation the family perished at sea - further research may uncover the story behind the tragic deaths of all three members of the family.

The Hall family and associated families they married into, can be located to the parish of Prestbury, Cheshire. James Hall married Nancy Gosling in 1790, while the connection with Burgess appears to be through the marriage of Thomas Burgess to Lydia Hall on 24th November 1811.

£300

Sir Benjamin Hawes was the son of Benjamin Hawes, a wealthy Lambeth soap-boiler, and despite withdrawing from acyive involvement in his father's trade, he was always known as ‘Hawes the Soap-Boiler’. In 1820 he married Sophia Macnamara, daughter of Marc Isambard Brunel, and supported various engineering projects of his brother-in-law Isambard Kingdom Brunel.

Elected MP for Lambeth in 1832, he proposed radical changes in several areas, and promoted technical advances.  He instigated an enquiry into the running of the British Museum in 1835, and in 1841 the establishment of the (Royal) Fine Arts Commission. After 1841 he became a leading opposition speaker for free trade, and was made under-secretary for colonies. After defeat at Lambeth in 1847, he was elected to the corrupt Irish borough of Kinsale the following year.

In 1851 Hawes became deputy secretary at the war department and left parliament. He favoured integration of the various military departments, and his opposition to root-and-branch reorganization during the Crimean War made an enemy of Florence Nightingale who strongly denounced him. Hawes commissioned Brunel to design a prefabricated hospital for Scutari, and in 1856 was created KCB for war services. He died unexpectedly at his Westminster home on 15 May 1862. An obituary in The Times praised his ability ‘to reconcile the zeal of a reformer with the routine of office’. (ODNB)

John Gapp was the first recorded Brighton Chain Pier artist, and cut full length silhouette portraits from paper from 1823 when the Chain Pier was built up until about 1835. The Pier was taken down in 1896 following severe storm damage.

£200

Wills Hill (1718 –1793), known as the Viscount Hillsborough from 1742 to 1751 and as the Earl of Hillsborough from 1751 to 1789, was a British politician. He was returned to Parliament for Warwick in 1741, a seat he held until 1756. He succeeded his father as second Viscount Hillsborough in 1742 and in 1751 was created Earl of Hillsborough in the Peerage of Ireland. In 1754 he was made Comptroller of the Household, a post he held until 1756, and appointed a Privy Counsellor. In 1756 he was created Baron Harwich which entitled him to a seat in the House of Lords.

He was President of the Board of Trade and Plantations under George Grenville 1763-1766, and became joint Postmaster-General, under the Earl of Chatham. From 1768 to 1772 Hillsborough was Secretary of State for the Colonies and also president of the board of trade. He opposed all concessions to the American colonists, but favoured the project for a union between England and Ireland. In 1779 he was made Secretary of State for the Southern Department, which he remained until 1782. He was made Marquess of Downshire in the Irish peerage in 1789.

This wax portrait as the Earl of Hillsborough is after a Wedgwood medallion modelled by Charles Peart in 1786.

£100

Joan Holbrow was the wife of Daniel Holbrow of Tockington, Gloucestershire. Joan was a Quaker and a very close friend of the Quaker minister Mary Dudley (1750-1823) (see E. Dudley, ed., The life of Mary Dudley .1825).

WAX PORTRAIT BY DAVID MORRISON

LA TOUCHE, Peter. Late Georgian white wax relief portrait of a gentleman mounted under glass and lined in green striped paper in a contemporary oval wood frame (c 3.5 x 4 inches) with wire hanging loop. On the reverse is an old label identifying the sitter as Peter La Touche and below is the very worn artists trade card written out in manuscript, from which can be deciphered "David Morrison ...... Portrait Painter ....... Sculptor ...... Grafton St." There is a horizontal hairline crack (unopened) from his lower neck to back, and dust underneath the cover glass.

£300

The portrait can be identified as that of Peter La Touche, born in 1777 the son of Rt. Hon. David La Touche (1729-1817) a partner in the La Touche Bank. He married in 1806 Hon. Charlotte Maude, daughter of Cornwallis Maude, 1st Viscount Hawarden and Anne Isabella Monck, who bore him two children, Eliza Frances and Octavius. He lived at Bellevue, Delgany, County Wicklow, Ireland, built by his grandfather David La Touche. He died on 11 February 1830.

This appears to be an early work of the wax modeller David Morrison (fl.1793-1850) who during his career had a number of London studios. In 1826 he was appointed "Miniature Modeller" to the Duke and Duchess of Gloucester, the Duchess of Cambridge, and Princess Augusta.

SILHOUETTE BY EDWARD FOSTER

Le GRICE, Frederick. Painted portrait miniature in red with gold highlights of a gentleman, mounted in a papier-mâché frame 6 x 7.5 inches with a brass hanger impressed “FOSTER”. On the reverse are two old ink inscriptions, the first reading "Mr Fredk Le Grice" and the second "Revd F.Le Grice Born 1798 Died 1884. Vicar of Great Gransden, Hunts. 1832-1884". The varnish showing craquelure as usual in such painted portraits.

£300

Frederick Le Grice was born in Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk in1798, one of ten children of John Le Grice and Mary Holdworthy. In 1837 he married Elizabeth Peers Gregory Swaine (1812-1887), daughter of Rear Admiral Spelman Swaine (1769-1848) and Sophia Ann Le Grice (1779-1857), by whom he had a son and two daughters. Frederick became vicar of Great Grandsen in Huntingdonshire in 1832, a living he held until his death in 1884.

Edward Foster (1762-1864) was born in Derby and was to join the army, seeing extensive active service overseas, including service under General Cornwallis in the final phase of the War of American Independence. He began a career as an artist in the early 19th century with bases in both Derby and London. He soon specialised as a painter of silhouettes, and is particularly well known for his red painted silhouettes, as this example. The brass hanger in this example was used up until about 1825.

£125

The sitter for this portrait has not been identified. Le Gros is not an uncommon name in Jersey, and the Gentleman's Magazine for 1807 cites the death in May of a Captain Le Gros of Jersey. Castlepark, Limerick was the home of the Smith/Smyth family in the late 18th century. A Charles Smyth Esq of Castle Park was made a Freeman of Limerick in 1789.

Margaret Symons is recorded in the 1861 census, the wife of Walter Symons, a baker, with their son Walter (aged 10) and Ewen McGregor her brother (aged 54), in Liberton, Midlothian.

£500

Joseph was the fourth son of John and Mary Molineux of Wolverhampton, who settled in Lewes, Sussex in 1738, where he was engaged in the iron trade. He was appointed Receiver-General of Stamps and Taxes, and was High Constable of Lewes in 1745 and 1764. He married Ann, daughter of Dr William Brett of Lewes, and his wife Ann Apsley, by whom they had at least six children.

£300

Henry Neele was born in London and joined a firm of solicitors, whilst devoting his spare time to literature and poetry. In March 1823, a few months before this silhouette was taken, his Poems Dramatic and Miscellaneous was published, which attracted much interest, making him a popular contributor to magazines and annuals. Following the large amount of work he devoted in 1827 to producing a collected edition of his poems in two volumes, and his Romance of English History in three volumes, he committed suicide in February 1828 at his home in Castle Street, Marylebone. (ODNB)

£750

Ann Norton has not been positively identified, although 3 potential christening records are found in the IGI, the first christened 11 February 1738 at St Dunstan, Stepney, the daughter of Richard & Ann Norton; the second christened 4 July 1753 at St Dunstan-in-the-West, the daughter of Thomas & Susannah Norton; and the third christened 13 April 1757 at St Mary Whitechapel, Stepney, the daughter of Charles & Anne Norton. A marriage is recorded between Ann Norton and John Roberts 15 October 1782 at Spitalfields Christ Church, Stepney.

William O'Hara can be found in various Cork directories from the 1820s to 1840s trading as a bookseller, stationer and printer. His friend Daniel O'Connell is the famous Irish nationalist leader, who campaigned for Catholic emancipation and for the repeal of the Union between Ireland and Great Britain.

£150

This is almost certainly Patrick Orr (1773-1848) the second son of Patrick Orr (1746-1817) of Bridgeton, Kincardineshire. Patrick Orr junior married in 1814 Margaret Caroline, second daughter of Major Martin Lindsay of Kilconquhar, Fifeshire. He served as Sheriff-Clerk of Forfarshire from 1812-48, the same office held by his father.

James Holmes junior of London, was a miniature painter active 1836-1859, a son of the artist James Holmes (1777-1860).

£500

Anne Elizabeth Browne was christened 7 February 1748 at the English Presbyterian church, Rotterdam, Netherlands, the daughter of banker Thomas Browne (b.1725 or 1726) and Mary. Anne married Thomas Scott (1733-1816) on 30 August 1767 at the English Presbyterian church, Rotterdam, and birth records of their children (at least 9) indicate that they had settled in Norwich by 1768. Anne died on 6th January 1819. There is a monument dedicated to Thomas and Anne and their daughter Anne (1770-1837) in St Andrews Church, Norwich.