Connections: John Singleton Copley

I’m very glad that the bicentenary of Spencer Perceval’s assassination appears to be getting improved coverage today. At last.

But Perceval wasn’t the only PM to meet his maker on 11 May. Exactly 34 years previously, William Pitt (“the Elder”), 1st Earl of Chatham, died quietly at the family home in Hayes, Kent. But the death of “The Great Commoner” is remembered far more dramatically in a favourite painting of mine by the American artist John Singleton Copley (1738 – 1815). Though called The Death of the Earl of Chatham, what the painting is actually of is Pitt’s collapse in the House of Lords some weeks earlier, on the 7th of April. The picture can be seen at The National Portrait Gallery and I would urge you to look out for it on your next visit. Here it is.

The Death of the Earl of Chatham, By John Singleton Copley, 1779-81. Tate 2012; on loan to the National Portrait Gallery, London

Apart from the dying Earl, the picture includes John Jeffreys Pratt, 1st Marquess Camden; John Pitt, 2nd Earl of Chatham; Henry Frederick, Duke of Cumberland and Strathearn; Frederick North, 2nd Earl of Guilford; William Murray, 1st Earl of Mansfield; James Charles Pitt; William Pitt; William Henry Cavendish Bentinck, 3rd Duke of Portland; Charles Lennox, 3rd Duke of Richmond and Lennox; Charles Watson-Wentworth, 2nd Marquess of Rockingham and 44 others.

This is a typical genre painting of the age, popular throughout Europe since at least the 16C. Mostly commissioned, the idea was to fill the picture with portraits of worthies, the more flattering the better. No doubt Copley, talented though he undoubtedly was, as an immigrant from the colonies would be most keen to garner favour in a world dominated by such as Joshua Reynolds.

So. While reminding myself of this splendid picture, I thought that John Singleton Copley rang a bell. It was the American thing. Of course. He was the guy who made one of the largest oil painting in England, The Defeat of the Floating Batteries at Gibraltar, September 1782. It was commissioned by the City of London very shortly after the incident itself and can be viewed today at the Guildhall Art Gallery, where it occupies the whole back wall of the gallery over two floors. Read the full remarkable story of this painting here.

My curiosity about this emigre artist in London now suitably whetted, I looked for more of his works. Most are fairly standard and unremarkable for the age, although all very skilfully done. There is an exception: another highly dramatic and unusual depiction: Watson and the Shark. This painting shows the real story of a teenager Brook Watson being attacked by a shark off the coast in Cuba. The fish destroyed the bottom half of the boy’s right leg. Undeterred by his disability, Watson went on to have a fascinating and successful career as a commissary and merchant and, back in London a founder and chairman of Lloyds. He was MP for the City of London for nine years from 1784 and in 1796 became Lord Mayor of London. Not bad. And so we return to London, where you can see two of the pictures mentioned here absolutely for free at the National Portrait Gallery and the Guildhall Art Gallery. We’re so lucky.

Watson and the Shark, 1778. National Gallery of Art, Washington DC.

Visit to Turner’s House and Marble Hill House 5 May 2012

A guest post by London Historians member, Jane Young. (@sketchesbyboz on Twitter)

On Saturday last, members of London Historians paid a visit to J M W Turner’s country retreat in Twickenham. Built on a plot of land Turner purchased in 1807, Sandycombe Lodge, originally Solus Lodge, was designed by Turner, probably assisted with advice from his friend, Sir John Soane.

An unpretentious property, once in open land, now within a street of suburban villas but nonetheless enchanting and all the more interesting due to its current situation as a work in progress. London Historians embarked on a tour of the house undertaken by Catherine Parry-Wingfield whose expert knowledge of Turner and the history of Sandycombe Lodge, along with great enthusiasm for the restoration project is limitless. Fully engaging the audience with a thorough and entertaining narrative of the design of the house, the domestic arrangements of Turner and his household, continuing onto the story of the house following sale by Turner in 1826 and the subsequent campaign to preserve this lovely building for the nation by the late Professor Livermore who acquired and rescued it in the years following the Second World War.

Turner’s House. View from the garden.

London Historians: defiant and undaunted by the damp.

The Sandycombe Lodge Trust acquired the house in 2010 and continues the preservation work to restore Turner’s House to its original layout as a work of art by Turner. Open the first Saturday of each month until October 2012 the house is well worth a visit to see the eclectic charms of the villa, many of which are unchanged since Turner’s time, and in doing so experience the first stage of this important work and support the charity that is endeavouring to return it to that period.

Given that London Historians do not do things by halves, we then continued up the road and across the park to Marble Hill House for our second visit of the day. In contrast to our first visit, Marble Hill House is grand and imposing standing within sixty six acres of parkland near Richmond.

Marble Hill House. Picture by Jane Young

Commissioned by Henrietta Howard, mistress of the Prince of Wales, later King George II, building commenced 1724 in the then new Palladian style. An immaculately restored building under the direction of English Heritage, we enjoyed a beautifully executed tour of Marble Hill by house manager Rheme Fordham.

The architectural detail and design of the property; the life and times of Henrietta Howard and her visitors, of which included Alexander Pope and Horace Walpole; the history of the furniture and contents; the acquisition of an incredible mahogany staircase almost causing war with Spain; were all chronicled with great attention to detail. An integral part of the enthralling story of Marble Hill House is a most impressive art collection, with plenty of time allowed at the end of the tour to enable visitors to browse this at leisure.

Marble Hill House interior: Henrietta adored chinoiserie. Picture: English Heritage Photo Library

Marble Hill House interior. Picture: English Heritage Photo Library.

Happy Historians. Marble Hill has an excellent tea shop.

So two very different villas and, made all the more memorable by being viewed consecutively illustrating the significant contrast in architectural style, quite aside of the convenience of being very closely situated should you be in that neck of the woods.

Editor’s Note: Further images on Turner’s House in a previous post, here.

“Ubique”

The motto of the Royal Artillery, meaning “everywhere”, as in “ubiquitous”.

As a former gunner, I’m ashamed to say it has taken me 32 years to heft my sorry butt across town to the Royal Artillery Museum in Woolwich, also known as “Firepower”. Last Tuesday a small group of us were privileged to have the curator himself, Mark Smith, give us a two hour tour. It was absorbing, it was magnificent. But there is so much to this fabulous tribute to the art of killing your enemy from afar that I shall have to go back, and soon. For a gun anorak like me, at least five hours are required. For the enthusiastic “neutral”, possibly three or four.

First opened to the public in 1820, this facility is the oldest military museum in the country, its first curator being Sir William Congreve of rocket fame, who also invented many other gunnery innovations. (Congreve’s father, also called William, was similarly involved in ordnance innovation, specifically with gunpowder). Today the main part of the museum is housed in a former cartridge factory dating from 1850. And like most museums what is on display –  in true iceberg fashion – is but a fraction of the 13 million objects which have been amassed over the centuries.

Woolwich Arsenal, as the name suggests, was far more than simply the home of the Royal Artillery. It was also where virtually all Britain’s munitions were manufactured, which was all well and good until the advent of attack from the air. After a near miss from a Zeppelin-delivered bomb in the First World War, the government immediately dispersed armaments manufacture far more widely around the country.

The Royal Artillery moved its HQ Larkhill, Wiltshire in 2008, leaving this museum to commemorate its rich history and tradition in Woolwich.

The museum has an extensive medal collection which includes many of the 62 VCs won by gunners.

The Woolwich Arsenal complex has many wonderful old buildings.

Very early siege gun, 15C

This tiger gun belonged to Tipu Sultan (1750 – 1799), the “Tiger of Mysore”

Ammo galore.

A chunk of this breech has been cut off, providing the bronze from which Victoria Crosses are made.

The greatest field gun ever? One of 25 25 pounder guns owned by the museum. This one is in storage.

More guns from bygone wars in storage.

We learned many things at Firepower. My favourite? Early guns were typically made using bands of iron, by coopers, hence the word barrel. I never knew that. I was also reminded that, as a west Londoner, I really must explore the other side of town more often. Watch out, Eltham Palace.

Firepower is open Tuesday – Saturday 10:30 – 18:00. I’d suggest you don’t have to be especially into military history to have a thoroughly absorbing outing. Highly recommended.

Robert Browning, 200 today.

Per my previous post reference the unfortunate Spencer Perceval, another bicentenary this year is that of the birthday of Robert Browning, a Londoner of Note. In fact it is today. Many happy returns to him.

I am most tickled by a very early Edison sound recording of Browning, made in 1889. You can listen to here. Sounds like he may have had a few at the time, but I find it amazing that we can actually listen to the voice of a man who was born before Waterloo.

Spencer Perceval

We are inundated this year with anniversaries, jubilees, centenaries, bicentenaries and a large international sports festival. It’s a shame that some are in danger of being overlooked. One such, perhaps, is the assassination of Spencer Perceval (1762 – 1812) on 11 May 1812, our only Prime Minister to suffer this fate. Perceval was shot at point blank range in the lobby of Parliament by one John Bellingham, a merchant suffering hard times. Bellingham was arrested, tried and despatched at the Newgate gallows inside seven days, no messing.

The life, death and career of Perceval is well enough documented. I’m mainly interested in him because he has an important local connection. Perceval owned a town house in Lincoln’s Inn Fields. Like his neighbour Sir John Soane, he bought a property in Ealing in 1808, the year before he became Prime Minister. Elm Grove and its grounds cost £12,000. After his demise, Perceval’s wife Jane, and then his son continued at Elm Grove until the mid 19C. The house was eventually demolished and the site redeveloped, partially by the Rothschilds of Gunnersbury Park. Then, at the dawn of the 20th Century, Perceval’s youngest daughter Frederica left provisions in her will for a church and tower to be built on the site of Elm Grove, All Saints, Ealing.

Spencer Perceval’s cabinet briefcase and death mask.

All Saints has important Perceval artefacts, some of which are on show this week. They are hosting a talk tomorrow evening by local historian Jonathan Oates: The Life and Times of Spencer Perceval and on Saturday holding a concert of contemporary Georgian music followed by Evensong. Details here. They have further Perceval pages here.

Author Andro Linklater has written a book about the Perceval assassination, Why Spencer Perceval Had to Die, which was reviewed in yesterday’s Sunday Times, unfortunately behind a paywall. But the gist of it was that although the story is nicely covered and in diligent detail, Linklater then embarks on some conspiracy speculation for which the evidence is circumstantial at the very best. Reviewer Andrew Holgate points out that it is the mundane nature of the murder which, when taken at face value, explains why Perceval is barely remembered today.

However, update: The Spectator has just published an article by Linklater himself.

More Archive Treats: Kew

Having filled our boots at the Parliamentary Archives last week, yesterday a group of London Historians joined a behind-the-scenes tour of The National Archives (TNA) in Kew. The Friends of the National Archives runs these tours for their members a few times every year.

A substantial walking tour taking well over two hours through the labarynthine corridors and literally acres of storage space ended up in the Conservation Studio, the big treat at the end. We found out about microscopic insects who like nothing more than dining out on parchment. We saw how priceless historical documents, maps and indeed patterned cloth samples from our industrial past are stabilised and repaired.

Thanks to the generosity of the Clothworkers Foundation,  TNA have been able to support a Research Fellowship to explore ways of making this series available as to a wide variety of researchers. TNA has many thousands of samples of printed and stitched cloth designs going back to the establishment of the Board of Trade Design Register in 1839. They are in the process of marrying up all the samples with the registers while assessing the feasibility of digitising some if not all of the collection. A potentially massive undertaking but with clear benefits for researchers, particularly those off-site.

Find our more about TNA Collection Care.

Documents are inspected, and after minimum repairs, repackaged using the latest materials and practices.

Illuminated manuscript is microscopically examined and repaired where required.

Cloth samples from Board of Trade Design Register (commenced 1839). There are 10,000 of these!

Our group foot-resting and coffee-taking. Kew National Archives has a large coffee lounge and a superb bookshop.

The National Archives in Kew as it is today was formed in 2003 comprising the Public Record Office, Historical Manuscripts Commission (formerly the Royal Commission on Historical Manuscripts), the Office of Public Sector Information (OPSI) and Her Majesty’s Stationery Office (HMSO). It is run under the auspices of the Department of Justice. It stores over 11 million documents and objects on some 170 Km of shelving. A significant quantity of materials that are either little-used or have been digitised are kept in DeepStore at a decommissioned salt mine in Cheshire (perfect environment for storage, apparently). Even these documents can be retrieved in three days. Not bad.

To physically order and inspect documents at TNA, you must have a Reader’s Ticket. This involves watching a short interactive online video on document handling and taking a commonsense, multiple-choice test. Make sure you have ID and two items of proof of address.

The Friends of the National Archives publish a magazine three times a year and host events and some tours like ours. Membership is £15 per annum, concessions apply.

There are excellent free talks at TNA on Thursday afternoons.

TNA is open everyday except Sundays and Mondays.

The Parliamentary Archives with London Historians

A guest post by London Historians member, Peter Twist.

Were Her Majesty the Queen to look upwards when she arrives at the magnificent Sovereign’s gate of the Palace of Westminster for the formal opening of the Houses of Parliament, she would meet the eyes of a lone soldier perched high above her. His duty is to report the moment that the monarch steps into the Palace so that the Union Jack Flag flying from the sky-scraping flagpole of the Victoria Tower directly above could be replaced by the Royal Standard. He would be looking down upon Her Majesty through an octagonal viewing hole in the roof, a metal trapdoor having been earlier slid open to afford him a dizzying view of this spectacle. Here’s a video clip.

It is no exaggeration to say that the twelve intrepid members of the London Historians who visited the Parliamentary Archives of the Houses of Parliament on Thursday 26th April 2012 were also treated like royalty. We were there as guests of fellow London Historian member Caroline Shenton, the Clerk of the Records at the Parliamentary Archives, which are housed in the Victoria Tower. The Tower was completed in 1860 by Charles Barry to house the historic records of Parliament. It continues to serve this purpose today, storing approximately 3 million records of the House of Lords and House of Commons on parchment, paper and film, all of which are available to the public at no charge online or in person, by appointment, in the dedicated search room.

After rigorous security checks, including having to substitute our pens for special pencils, Caroline escorted us upwards in a succession of ever smaller lifts. She exercised great strength by turning a large capstan handle which opened the metal trapdoor in the roof of the Sovereign’s Entrance. Fortunately we were excused the necessity of climbing the 553 steps. Pride of place in our visit was our admission into one of eight strong rooms which house the archives in a carefully climate controlled environment. All around us were thousands upon thousands of carefully rolled parchment scrolls, representing every Act of Parliament passed, the longest of which is a Land Tax Act passed in 1821, made up of 757 membranes and estimated to be a quarter of a mile long unrolled.

Of particular interest to London Historians are all the Local and Personal Acts of Parliament passed, including many diverse Private Acts, such as one enabling Handel’s naturalisation. It is truly an unappreciated cornucopia of material for all aspects of historical research, including family history, social, constitutional and political history, town planning and railway and road building. They are complemented by remarkable collections of personal political papers, including the papers of Lord Beaverbrook, Andrew Bonar Law and David Lloyd George.

For our special interest, Caroline had laid out a small selection of treasure from the Archive. These included the Royal Commission for the prorogation of Parliament, 12 October 1573, signed by Elizabeth I, and a Suffragette banner unfurled from the Ladies Gallery in the House of Commons on 28 October 1908. These are beautifully described and illustrated in the Houses of Parliament publication, ‘Victoria Tower Treasures from the Parliamentary Archives‘, published in 2010, which Caroline has jointly written with two colleagues, available from the Archive at £12.99.

Henry VII's autograph from 1498, one of the oldest documents in the archive.

His grand-daughter - Elizabeth I - signed this proroguation document.

Drawing showing proposed east end of the new embankment by Joseph Bazalgette from 1862-3.

Sadly on the night of 16 October 1834 a devastating fire broke out in the Palace and most of the records of the House of Commons were lost. The gripping story of the fire over the course of that fateful day and night is the subject of a new book by Caroline Shenton, ‘The Day Parliament Burned Down‘, due to be published by Oxford University Press on 9 August 2012.

Records held in the Victoria Tower are described in the online catalogue Portcullis at www.portcullis.parliament.uk. More information about the work of the Parliamentary Archives can be found at www.parliament.uk/archives.

We were extremely grateful to Mike for arranging this visit and to Caroline for making it possible.

Peter Twist
Peter is presently a Student City of London Guide, hoping to qualify in June 2012.

*Further photos on Flickr by LH member Andrea Vail, here.

London Historians group, 25 April 2012. Pic by Caroline Shenton

London Historians group, 26 April 2012. Pic by Caroline Shenton