This post very much under construction.
Some notes and images regarding the Marble and Stone Industry at Westminster in the 18th Century.
This post is a series of stream of consciousness jottings with the intention of amassing the available facts from on line and printed resources, and providing related images and eventually to assemble them in a coherent fashion in one place.
It is rather messy but hopefully includes all the salient points.
I will in due course repost in more digestible form but this will act as an aide memoir.
This post and my previous posts on the subject, were in part, prompted by my attendance to the most enjoyable and enlightening conference at the Victoria and Albert Museum - Academy, Market, Industry: Sculpture between Britain and Italy. 16 /17 May 2025 - Hosted by Kira d'Alberquerque, Adriano Aymonino and Albertina Ciani Sciolla and with the able assistance of Malcolm Baker.
This is a field that will require a great deal of in depth research and this post offers a first attempt to get to grips with the subject.
It would be most useful to for me see the Westminster rate books and the bank accounts of the Cheeres, Wallengers, Del Medico's etc. with Hoare's Bank, Drummonds Bank of (49) Charing Cross -who have the records of the account of Henry and John Cheere, the Del Medicos, Roubiliac and other members of the artistic community.
Of tangential interest -The Drummond Bankers family were painted by Zoffany - https://collections.britishart.yale.edu/catalog/tms:428
Anyone who knows my blogs will understand that I am as preoccupied with the visual evidence as that available from written sources.
One picture is worth ...........
The life and works of Michael Rysbrack (Webb and Eustace), Louis Francois Roubiliac, (Malcolm Baker and David Bindman) and Peter Scheemakers (Ingrid Roscoe) have all had their lives and work dissected - Henry Cheere and his brother John have received scant attention except from the excellent work by Matthew Craske in The Silent Rhetoric .. pub Yale 2007 (much available on line).
The numerous posts on this website refer frequently to both Cheere brothers - and hopefully will be a good place to start for anyone interested. (use search box on the top left of each page)
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The Import and Supply of Marble and Stone and the manufacturing of sculptural objects at Westminster.
The Masons and Carvers - Henry and Peter Scheemakers, Denis Plumier, Laurent Delvaux, Henry and John Cheere.
The Builders and Masons - Andrews Jelfe, (Captain) Samuel and Edward Tufnell and their sometime partners Edward Strong and Christopher Cass. Thomas Gayfere and his son also Thomas, and John Deval father and son - These businesses were particularly involved with the shipping and supply of Portland Stone from Dorset for the many building projects in the City of London and Westminster
for Thomas Roper the Portland Stone Agent etc.- see
https://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/details/r/N13998191
Strong and Tufnell’s Book of Entry for Masons’ Work, (Five New Churches), RIBA Library; BL Stowe MS, 412, no 77 (termination of agreement with Cass and Jelfe).
of Tangentialinterest https://core.ac.uk/download/pdf/155776769.pdf
and the Marble and Stone Merchants importing from Italy - the Wallingers, the Chapman Bird brothers, and the Del Medico family - Peter del Medico (d. 1801).
(Peter del Medico of Little Abingdon St (mentioned on his will of 1801, Prob 11/1363/244). - The del Medico family of Carrara. Little Abingdon St runs east from Abingdon St (formerly Dirty Lane) to the Stone Wharfs on the River.
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I have broached the subject of the import of marble previously in my post of 26 July 2025 illustrating the two marble busts of the marble importers Christopher Chapman Bird (1715 - 92) and his brother Edward by the Italian sculptor Giovanni Antonio Cybei (1706 - 1784) at the Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge with some thoughts on the marble merchants at Westminster.
The rediscovery of my photographs in my files, of these two excellent busts provided me with the impetus to investigate further.
https://bathartandarchitecture.blogspot.com/2025/07/edward-chapman-bird-1715-92-marble.html
my next post was of the anonymous bust at the Lady Lever Art Gallery.
https://bathartandarchitecture.blogspot.com/2025/08/an-as-yet-unidentified-marble-bust-in.html
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A very good starting point for any enquiries into the import of marble to England in the18th century is -
The essay in APM - Archeologia Postmedievale, 19, 2015 - Gran Bretagna e Italia tra ... edited by Hugo Blake - The Role of British Merchants in Livorno in the marble Trade between Italy and Britain during the 18th Century by Christina Bates, page 61
Another important source for the Del Medico and the Carrara Oligarchy see -
https://journals.openedition.org/crcv/13627
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Christopher Chapman Bird. (suggested as c.1737 - 1810)
Marble Bust.
Giovanni Antonio Cybei (1706 - 1784).
Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge.
At this point it is difficult to pinpoint a date for these two busts.
I suspect that they were made on the brothers visit to Italy. Given that Edward was only 15 in 1731 it seems to me that these busts were sculpted later than the visit in 1731
The Dictionary of British and Irish Travellers in Italy.... Ingamells pub Yale 1997, has Christopher Merchant with William Fentham in Florence in 1758. Archivo di Stato di Firenze.
and Edward in Florence 5 Nov. 1733, with Henry Fermor and Constable, Rome, Padua March 1794 - Venice. (State Papers Foreign Public Record Office).
Francis Bird - some loose notes
Their father Francis Bird (1667 - 1731) was in Rome in 1689 and again in 1695, he was a director of Kneller's Academy in 1711 - agent for importing Italian Marble. He was in Rome with the architect John Talman in 1711.
Bird was the foremost sculptor in England in the early 18th century - probably most famous for his statuary work for St Paul's Cathedral -
In March 1706 he was paid £329 for the panel over the west door and in December of that year £650 for carving the "Conversion of St Paul", 64' long and 17' high for the great pediment. This contained "eight large figures” six whereof on horseback and several of them "two and a half feet imbost".
In 1709 he commenced carving the statue of Queen Anne with four other
figures, which was erected in St Paul's Cathedral yard in 1712.
Between 1712 and 1713 he executed the two panels over the west portico for £339, but it was not until 1721 that he carved the statues of various apostles and evangelists (each nearly 12 ft (3.7 m). high) for the west front and south side of the Cathedral. For these he received a total sum of £2,040.
Francis Bird married Hester Chapman c. 1706, the daughter of Edward Chapman (d. 1729).
He had two properties in Stone Cutters Alley, by Little Queens St, Lincolns Inn.
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Edward Chapman Bird (1715 - 1792).
Giovanni Antonio Cybei (1706 - 1784).
Fitzwilliam Museum. Cambridge.
I could not have achieved any of this without the work commenced by Matthew Craske and published in his seminal work on the subject of 18th Century monumental sculpture in The Silent Rhetoric of the Body - A History of Monumental Sculpture and Commemorative Art in England 1720 - 1770. pub Yale 2007.
I should also mention Malcolm Baker and David Bindman's work on the Monuments of Roubiliac - Roubiliac and the Eighteenth Century Monument pub. Yale 1995.
As yet there is no biographies of Henry and John Cheere except for brief biogs of Henry Cheere by Ingrid Roscoe and for John Cheere by Moira Fulton and Ingrid Roscoe - both in the Biographical Dictionary of Sculptors in Britain ... Pub Yale 2009. but the posts on this website although scattered should help to clarify both their careers (search using the box on the top left of the page).
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Setting the scene - using the Maps, Plans, Drawings and Engravings available from online resources -
The Palace of Westminster and Thorney Island.
The original site was a marshy but easily defensible eyot or island formed by the two branches of the Tyburn river where it entered the Thames which became the site of the embattled walled and gated Palace of Westminster.
The Palace of Westminster was abandoned as a royal residence after the great fire of 1512, the court moving to Cardinal Wolsey's Whitehall Palace which in turn was consumed by fire on 4 January 1698, and the court moved to St James' Palace
The houses of Parliament were again decimated by fire on 16 October 1834.
The problem for me here is that the size and resolution of the images makes the names of the streets and wharfs at Westminster difficult to see - the images are automatically reduced in resolution on the website (not by me).
A Copy of The Agas Map of 1578.
The Newcourt and Faithorne Map of 1658.
Map of London; top left, 'The Armes of the Right Wor:ll
Companies' of 'Mercers', 'Grocers', 'Drapers', 'Fishmongers', 'Goldsmiths', and
'Skinners', and next to it, in a framed compartment, Westminster Abbey; top
right, in a framed compartment, St Paul's Cathedral; bottom centre, a list of
London churches; bottom right, map scale, and beside it, text outlining 'a
breife Ichnograficall discription' of the city. 1658
Engraving, printed from six plates.
The extract of the map shows the original walls and enclosures of both Old Palace Yard and New Palace Yard.
126 on the map is St Margaret's Parish Church - the future premises of Scheemakers and later of Henry Cheere are visible fronting onto Margaret's Lane between Old and New Palace Yards
Image Courtesy British Museum.
https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/object/P_1881-0611-254-1-6?selectedImageId=1183268001
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of tangential interest -
For George Vertue plan of Whitehall Palace published in 1747 but taken from a survey of 1680 see
https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/object/P_G-4-72
The Palace of Whitehall was the main residence of English
monarchs from 1530 until 1698, when it was destroyed by fire.
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William Morgan's Map of 1682.
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The Strype Map of 1720.
Here no. 76 is St Margaret's Church with the Scheemaker Cheere premises to the East on St Margaret's Lane.
A Survey of the Cities of London and Westminster, by John
Strype (1720).
[New Palace Yard.] ... by a turning Passage Eastward through
the Gatehouse, [King Street] leadeth into the New Palace Yard. Which is a
spacious Place, convenient for the Reception and Standing of Coaches in the
Term Time, and Sessions of Parliament; and is graced with good Buildings well
inhabited. Here is the common Entrance into Westminster Hall, where the Judges
sit: And here is Westminster Bridge, for taking Boat, for such as are minded to
go to London or elsewhere by Water. On the South is a narrow Passage into
Channel [or Chanon] Row. Out of this New Palace Yard is a Passage on the West
through St. Margaret's Lane, North into the Old Palace Yard, a spacious Place
also well built.
St John the Evangelist Church is now primarily used as a concert hall. It was built between 1713 and 1728 to a design by Thomas Archer. A masterpiece of English Baroque architecture with a chequered history the plan form represents a Greek cross with unique circular towers at each corner.
The north and south façades have giant Tuscan columns, while the east and west fronts have large Venetian windows. The hall is built in Portland stone and is roofed with lead. St John's was gutted by fire 1742, struck by lightning in 1773 and seriously damaged by a German bomb in 1941.
Verso inscribed, evidently by Richard
Bull (the drawing sold Sotheby's 1886): "Buck's Original Drawing of Modern London, finished in the Reign of
George II, Mrs [?erased] Buck's Widow/had refused £70. for it. - I bought it
afterwards at a sale at Baker's in Covent Garden."
A Survey of the Cities of London and Westminster, by John
Strype (1720)
[Peterborough House.] The Mill Bank, a very long Place,
which beginneth by Lindsey House, or rather by the Old Palace Yard, and runneth
up unto Peterborough House, which is the farthest House: … and that Part beyond
the Horse Ferry, hath a very good Row of Houses, much inhabited by Gentry, by
Reason of the pleasant Situation and Prospect of the Thames: The Earl of
Peterborough's House hath a large Court-yard before it, and a fine Garden
behind it; but its Situation is but bleak in the Winter, and not over healthful,
as being so near the low Meadows on the South and West Parts.
London and Its Environs Described, by Robert and James Dodsley (1761).
New Palace yard, by Union street, Westminster. When King Richard II. rebuilt Westminster Hall in the year 1397, that part was called the New Palace, and being inclosed with a wall, it had four gates, of which that leading to Westminster stairs is the only one now standing. The three others that have been demolished were, one on the north, which led to the Woolstaple; another to the west, a beautiful and stately edifice called High Gate, at the east end of Union street; and another at the north end of St. Margaret's lane. Maitland.
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A Plan of the Ancient City of Westminster.............. c 1760.
It shows the new buildings with darker cross hatching.
In 1765 the address of Fourdrinier was at the sign of The Star, corner of
Craig's Court, Charing Cross.
The detail from the Plan of 1760 (below) shows the two adjoining properties of Henry Cheere on St Margaret's Street between Westminster Abbey and St Margaret's Church as newly rebuilt.
Plan of the
Ancient Palace of Westminster by the late Mr. William Capon,…
Lettered, upper center: "Plate XLVII"; upper
right: "VOL V"; lower center: "Published by the Society of
Antiquaries of London, 23rd April, 1828" and lower right: "Engraved
by James Basire"; lettered within image, lower right: "Plan of the
ancient | PALACE OF WESTMINSTER, | by the late | MR WILLIAM CAPON | measured
and drawn between | 1793 and 1823"; and buildings, streets and rooms
labelled, including, center left: "New | Palace | Yard"; center:
"Saint Margaret's Street"; center right: "Old Palace Yard";
and with letters corresponding to key on lower right: "A. The Hall. | B.
The Cloister built by Dr John Chamber the last Dean of the College. | C. Small
Chapel. | D. Under-croft of St Stephen's Chapel."
The Earl of Pembroke, an amateur architect who had been closely associated with the initiation of the plans, laid the first stone at a ceremony at the beginning of 1739.
After the first two piers were completed the
Thames froze over for two months and the piers became an attraction, with
people walking across the ice and climbing up them on ladders. (The event was
recorded in a landscape painting by the artist Jan Griffer, which now belongs
to the Guildhall collection).
During the pause in work caused by the freeze, those with greater ambition for the venture pushed for it to be made entirely of masonry instead of wood. Andrew Jelfe and Captain Samuel Tuffnell (the latter being the mason to Westminster Abbey) were hired as master builders to work under Labelye.
Large trenches were dug into the river at low tide which were then
filled with timber boxes, part-filled with masonry. The boxes were sunk into
the holes, water pumped out, and further masonry added. Piling was undertaken
using a horse-powered machine invented by a Swiss watchmaker named James
Vauloué. The bridge was finished in brick, and Portland and Purbeck stone.
Work on Westminster Bridge had begun in 1738 and was completed in 1750. It is shown here in approximately the state that construction would have reached by 1742.
see -
A Description of Westminster Bridge: To which are Added, an Account of the ... by Charles Labelye pub. 1751.
https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=6l9UAAAAcAAJ&pg=PA1&source=gbs_toc_r&cad=2#v=onepage&q&f=false
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Samuel Scott.
Metropolitan Museum.
https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/437643
The resolution here is not as good as I would have liked but the image gives a very good idea of how Westminster would have appeared from the South Bank of the Thames.
St John's Westminster Hall, Westminster Abbey and St Margaret's Church are clearly visible
In 1760, in his role as a vestryman, Cheere organised the
team of craftsmen who assembled a temporary fountain at Westminster in
celebration of George III’s coronation. These included William Jelfe and John
Cheere
The sculptor amassed a fortune of over £100,000, making judicious investments in the property market. He left his elder son a number of houses in Parliament Street, Canon Row Westmimnster, Charing Cross (presumably the properties at Spring Gardens, the Strand and Church Court.
It would appear that he left St Margaret's and retired to Clapham.
He died in Clapham on 21 July 1787 and was buried in the
family vault at St Paul’s, Clapham, where his brother John and his two sons in
due course joined him.
H Cheere Archival refs - Bank Accounts Hoare - 1736/37 and 1744/47.
Watch Rates - Old Palace Yard (does this refer to the St Margaret's Street Premises?) Westminster City Archives -E362 - 368 (1740 - 46) E369 - 377 - (1746 -52) - E481 - (1777).
Lease of a tenement in St Margaret's - 18 Feb. 1736 - (WAM 65639 John Physic - Inventory of Abbey Mons pub. 1990) (again does this refer to the St Margaret's Street property?)
Andrews Jelfe (ca. 1688 -1759).
Andrews Jelfe was a prominent and very successful mason of Saint Margaret's, Westminster, who had served his apprenticeship under Edward Strong, died a rich man in 1759.
In addition to his official posts, first as master mason and later architect and clerk of works to the Office of Ordnance, Jelfe built up a great fortune as a mason contractor, working in partnership with Edward Strong Jr. and later Christopher Cass (1678—1734).
He held the masonry contracts for several of the fifty New Churches intended to be built in London under the Act of 1711, while his largest and likely most lucrative contract was for the construction of Westminster Bridge (1738—1747), £150,000 - which he carried out in partnership with Samuel Tufnell, master mason to Westminster Abbey.
In 1719 the Essex-born Andrews Jelfe, a friend of Stukeley, was appointed by the government as ‘architect and Clerk of the Works of all Buildings erected or to be erected in the several garrisons, forts, castles, fortifications etc belonging to the Office of Ordnance in Great Britain’. His remit north of the Border was to design and oversee the building of barracks to house government soldiers.
He halted long enough around Falkirk, at Stukeley’ request, to visit Arthur’s O’on, of which he made carefully measured drawings in a pocket-book. Stukeley saw the occasion for a short monograph on the O’on, a monument then largely unknown to his English contemporaries, with illustrations based on Jelfe’s drawings.
He designed Rye Town Hall.
Jelfe, as Howard Colvin notes, had aspirations to become a gentleman and purchased his own residence, Pendell House, at Bletchingley, Surrey, in 1747.
He worked on the Royal Mew in 1733 - presumably on the north range designed by William Kent.
His will, which he drafted the year before he died, included property worth over £30,000 and reveals fascinating insights into his familial and professional relationships.
He had astutely purchased the buildings on the south side of the foot of Westminster Bridge where he had his residence, stone yard and Thames wharf.
For his eldest son, Captain Andrews Jelfe, whom he had set up as a naval officer, he devised the mansion house in Surrey as well as thirteen new houses that he had built "in Two Rows adjoining together on the North side of New Palace Yard" ( Bridge Street removed c. 1865) unsurprisingly the bulk of his real estate going to his eldest male heir.
His married daughter, Elizabeth Ransom wife of Griffin Ransom, of New Palace Yard received the sum of £10,000, a veritable fortune by any standards - and the £5,000 already settled on her as her marriage portion.
On top of this, Jelfe left her his "Stone Built dwelling house on the west side of Palace Yard adjoining to my working yard, where I dwell" and "All my household Goods, Furniture, Pictures, Bustos, Statues, Plate, Liquors, and other things." Clearly, Jelfe was a man of taste as well as means.
I suspect that this is the house at the foot of Westminster Bridge but this house is on the North East Corner of New Palace Yard. It is possible that he owned further property on the west side but I can, as yet find no evidence. see the plans and images below.
By contrast, Jelfe's younger son William, who his father rather damningly noted had "proved very idle and extravagant," was to receive £10,000 held in trust Jelfe wrote "I am in great fear he will waste the legacy" and left the monies out of compassion to my said son - notwithstanding his behaviour - t0 prevent his turning to want".
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A Crop from the Engraving by Thomas Wilson, published by Henry Overton of 1751 - Two plates.
An Exact Prospect of the Magnificent Stone Bridge at Westminster with a view of the Abby, Lambeth Palace and other Buildings &c. up the River Thames.
Lettered below image with title, followed by "Drawn on the spot by a Skilful hand and Finished in 1751".
"The River Thames is here about 408 Yards wide,
which is consequently the Length of the Bridge, but there is besides an
Abuttment of Strong Stone Work at each End. The breadth of the Bridge is about
15 Yards three Carriages and two Horsemen may safely pass a breast over it
without Molesting foot Passengers who have a way on each side 7 Feet wide
raised about one foot. The Arches are 15 in Number 13 large and 2 small the
Middle Arch is 76 Feet wide. The value of Forty Thousand Pounds is Computed to
be always under Water in Stone and other Works. The Stone is of four sorts
Vizt. Portland, Cornish Moor, Kentish Rag and Purbeck. The Earl of Pembroke
laid the first Stone in January 1738". With a numbered key from 1 to 20 of
buildings in image, and production details: "Thos. Willson delineavit
& Sculpsit. 1751 / Printed and Sold by H. Overton at the White Horse
without Newgate, London 1751"
Image courtesy - British Museum. -
https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/object/P_1880-1113-1310
The crop shows the foot of Westminster Bridge with the Bear Inn (behind the coach with the Diocletian window and carved sign of the Bear above the door.
The original budget for building the bridge was £90,000, yet the final cost was the vast sum of almost £400,000 including the approaches. After twelve years from its start the bridge was finally complete and opened in a midnight ceremony in November 1750, with celebrations at the new Bear Inn on the Westminster side. In its first few days it was such a great attraction that many people could only cross the river by ferry! The bridge was a public enterprise and therefore toll-free from the beginning.
This engraving is the more remarkable for showing the premises of Andrews Jelfe with his yard with the covered workshop of the banker masons with open sides by Westminster stairs.
He later built his Summer House with the bay window on the bank of the Thames.
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Crop from the Foudriniere Plan of c. 1760 (see above).
Showing Jelfe's House, (with the prominent bay facing east) workshop and wharf.
It shows the newl developed buildings to the North and West including the Bear Inn and Bridge St.
Crop from the detailed plan (illustrated above).
Showing the Jelfe premises in 1761.
https://collections.britishart.yale.edu/catalog/tms:55002
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Canaletto's drawing of the Westminster stairs by Westminster Bridge.
British Museum.
https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/object/P_1905-0520-1
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Two views of Westminster Stairs cropped from Boydell's engravings of 1745.
Here the drawing shows Jelfes house with the bay and what appears to be two pedimented pavilions and a crane between them - the and entrance to Jelfe's yard from the wharf with Westminster stairs and passageay and entrance to New Palace Yard.
The Arnald Drawing of 1805.
Not entirely accurate but it shows Jelfe's Wharf, his house with the bay and his Summer House with bay, on the River.
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Jelfes Wharf.
Paul Sandby.
1750's.
https://collections.britishart.yale.edu/catalog/tms:15274
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Peter de Wint (1784 - 49).
The foot of Westminster Bridge at low tide showing Jelfe's Wharf and single story Summerhouse with the bay window.
V and A.
Early 19th Century.
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The Gayferes.
Thomas Gayfere was born in the Wapping district of East London in 1720 the eldest son of Thomas Gayfere, a stonemason, and his wife, Mary Townsend of Burford, who was related to a family of masons in Oxford. They were married in 1718 at Shipton under Wychwood.
His father moved to
the Westminster district around 1725 to work with Christopher Cass.
Gayfere was apprenticed to Andrews Jelfe in 1734. In 1762 he obtained the highly prestigious position as Mason to Westminster Abbey and his son Thomas was granted a joint patent with him in 1802.
In 1774 Thomas Gayfere became Master of the Worshipful Company of Masons.
They were responsible, under the Abbey Surveyor James Wyatt, for the restoration of the exterior of Henry VII's chapel at the Abbey.
After the elder Thomas's death in 1812, at his house in Abingdon Street, his son carried on until the completion of the restoration in 1823, when he retired.
Thomas Gayfere, is buried in the west cloister of
Westminster Abbey, together with his wife Frances and daughter. The gravestone
was re-cut in 1996 and the inscription reads:
Frances late wife of Thomas Gayfere, Mason to this
Collegiate Church. Died Mar 22 1776 aged 40 years. Also Frances Elizabeth
Gayfere daughter of the above Thomas & Frances died June 23rd 1807 aged 54
years. Likewise the aforesaid Thomas Gayfere died April 4th 1812 in the 92nd
year of his age.
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Christopher Cass (1678 -1734). Christopher Cass II (d.1732).
J.E. Smith in St John the Evangelist, Westminster: parochial
memorials (1892) says “On the east side of the ground stands an unsightly
monument in granite, clumsily inscribed in huge letters to the memory of
“Chr"- Cass, Master Mason to His Maj.'s Ordnance. Died Apl.
21, 1734. Aged 58." He was employed on the construction of St. John’s Church, and on several of the other
churches built by Queen Anne’s Commission. He was also one of the original
vestrymen appointed by the Commission.” The Biographical Dictionary of
Sculptors in Britain, 1660-1851 has further details of Christopher Cass and
says that he was a “conspicuously successful master mason whose team worked in
London, Cambridge and at a number of large country houses.” They add;
He died in London and was buried in the cemetery of St John, Westminster, under a heavy granite monument inscribed ‘Chr. Cass, master-mason to his Maj. Ordnance. Dy’d Ap. 21, 1734’. In a report to the RIBA ‘On the Mechanical Processes of Sculpture’ Charles Harriott Smith suggested that this monument was one of the earliest works in England to be executed in granite, and that ‘its mouldings, though such as would now be considered rude in form and execution, were highly esteemed in his (Mr. Smith’s) boyhood’ (Builder,1851, 215).
In his will Cass originally expressed a wish to be buried in a vault
beneath the portico of St Martin-in-the-Fields, but he substituted St John’s
burial-ground in a codicil. To Edward Strong II, ‘my friend and benefactor’, he
left £50, declaring that he owed him what ‘I and my family, under the good
providence of God, have’. He named Andrews Jelfe his executor, and bequeathed
him 100 guineas. Thomas Gayfere received £20 and ‘all his wearing apparel,
linen and woollen of all kind’.
Cass’s widow survived him and died in 1742. Andrews Jelfe,
writing in that year to William Dixon, tells him that ‘Mrs. Cass was buried
last week. She had left all her part to Mr. Bright, a young lawyer, who married
her daughter’.
For the quarrying of Stone at Portland see -
https://portlandmuseum.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2022/05/v-3-cop-final-report-lw-LR.pdf
For the Devals, Tufnells, Adye and Roper and the use of Portland stone at Cavendish Square see -
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The Wallengers of Cannon Row
For their usual trade they used an agent in Livorno, Anthony Lefroy. He is one of the most studied and well known English merchants in Livorno, thanks not only to his trading ability (he did well until he went bankrupt in 1762), but mainly on account of his artistic and literary interests, as he put one of the most important coin collections of the century, collected books, antique statues and paintings,
He corresponded with famous people like Thomas Hollis, and was a member of learned societies. He also had a particular relationship with Carrara, since his daughter married a member of the Del Medico family (this needs confirming as another source states Peter Langlois was his father in law) .
Anthony Lefroy (1704-1779), an English Huguenot, arrived in Livorno in 1728 to join the merchant house of his future father-in-law, Peter Langlois, whose daughter Elizabeth he married in 1738. From 1740, Lefroy was active in the buying and selling of a wide variety of artifacts, works of art, and furnishings. He later entered into a partnership with Giuseppe de Calzabigi and Giovanni Francesco Pagnini for the exploitation of the quarries in the Massa area.
On Anthony Lefroy's multifaceted activity and passion for
antiques, see S. Cagianelli, "The Collection of Antiquities of the English
Merchant Anthony Lefroy," in "The Origins of Livorno." The
Etruscan and Roman ages edited by S. Bruni, Florence, Edizioni Polistampa,
2009, pp. 67-74.
Although one would expect a preferential business relationship between the two, this did not happen, probably for personal reasons. Lefroy did not act for them in Livorno, whereas he represented Giulio and Andrea Lazzoni, other important members of the Carrara oligarchy.
Descended from a Huguenot family, Anthony Lefroy settled in Livorno in about 1728, where he became a partnerin the banking house of Peter Langlois. For the extensive biblioraphy on the Lefroy Emily see Lefroy 1965, pp. 604-25; 1957-82, pp. 240-51: 1976. pp. 81-9.
Lefroy did, however, acquire most of his marble for Wallinger from Renner as is clear from Lefroy's bankruptcy documents, when Renner, unable to obtain payment from the Livorno agent, contested Wallinger's bill of 1,700 pezze (£380, worth about £47,000 today).
So, George Renner could sell marble to an agent in Livorno, like Lefroy, but he could also be in contact directly with a buyer in London. For ex-ample, he dealt with John Devall the Elder, who with his son John Devall the Younger was among the busiest builders in London in the 18th century.
'They worked for the Crown as chief masons at the
Lefroy acted as agent for Sir Francis Dashwood - Together with Dashwood’s London agents, the firm of Thomas Hyam and Son, Lefroy organised shipments ranging from paintings and sculpture to wine and fruit. The surviving correspondence and bills are fragmentary, covering only the years 1754–56.
Lefroy was also closely connected to the man who shaped Dashwood’s taste more than any other: when Lefroy’s daughter Phoebe married Count Carlo del Medico Staffetti in 1767, one of the witnesses was the Florentine nobleman Antonio Niccolini (1701–1769).
Messrs Devall. -The spelling varies.
John Devall I (1701 -74) his son John Devall II (1728 -94) and his son Joh Devall III (d. 1830).
From their bank account in London it is possible to see how much marble they purchased from Livorno through Renner between 1752 and 1767, from a minimum of £125 (approx. £13,000 today) in 1764 to a maximum of £915 (£89,000 today) in 1756. These are considerable sums and the four known Devall mantelpieces produced in this period cannot possibly account for the supply from Livorno.
The Devall Wharf was on the Thames by the houses of Parliament just south of Parliament Stairs.
The Crop below from
https://collections.britishart.yale.edu/catalog/tms:55002
Print made by James Basire II, 1769–1822 after William
Capon, 1757–1827.
Plan of the Ancient Palace of Westminster by the late Mr.
William Capon, measured and drawn between 1793 and 1823 -
Line engraving and graphite on slightly textured, medium,
white wove paper
Sheet: 20 13/16 × 26 7/8 inches (52.9 × 68.3 cm), Image: 19
3/8 × 26 inches (49.2 × 66 cm)
Lettered, upper center: "Plate XLVII"; upper
right: "VOL V"; lower center: "Published by the Society of
Antiquaries of London, 23rd April, 1828"
The business also had premises at 2 Little Portland St (1792).
The Devalls were also involved in the business of supplying Portland Stone from Dorset.
https://archive-catalogue.dorsetcouncil.gov.uk/records/D-1801/1/56
John Devall I provided the inscribed Chimneypiece (with the Rysbrack relief) and other architectural stonework for the Foundling Hospital.
John Devall senior (1701-74) and his son John Devall junior (1728-94). Statuary marble chimneypieces, was part of their stock-in-trade, supplying Adam brothers and William Chambers.
John Devall I was Master of the Masons Company in 1760.
Devall (1701—74) was the son Of George Devan of Eynsham, Oxon., who was paid by Roger Morris in 1728—30 for work on New Park Lodge, John Devall apprenticed to Fletcher on 2 August 1718 not, as Ruper Gunnis states States, to Andrews Jelfe but Fletcher was at that date in partnership with Christopher Cass, then of the foreman of Blenheim work force Jelfe's master, Edward Strong, so he would have known to Jelfe, who formed a partnership with Strong and Cass after Fletcher's death
In 1723, before his time was up, "Jonathan" Devall was paid by the Board of Ordnance for work at the Ordnance Wharf at Plymouth, of which Jelfe was the architect.
He became free 20 February 1727.
1731/32 he worked, under John Sanderson, at Stratton Park, Hants. He worked at Wimbledon at first under Roger Morris. 1733 -36 he worked at Bedford House, Bloomsbury together with John Sanderson
In 1736 a tradesman called Devall worked at Queen Caroline's Library St James' Palace, designed by William Kent, although this could been the plumber George John Devall.
He worked under Roger Morris on the Palladian at Wilton, where his initials are inscribed with the date 1737.
Between 1737 - 40 he was involved with Roger Morris and James Gibbs in building houses on the Duke Of Argyll's estate off Oxford Street.
He was perhaps the Devall who worked at Wakefield Lodge, 1750—53, under John Marsden, who carried out Kent's designs (there was a plumber of the same name)!
In May 1738 he and Thomas Dunn tendered for the contract to
build the Mansion House in London under the architect George Dance the Elder.
Another estimate by a group comprising John Townesend of London, Christopher
Horsnaile II and Robert Taylor I, came in at exactly the same figure of £18,000.
In July 1739 the Mansion House committee resolved to give the contract to all
five masons at a cost of no more than £17,000. Deval also worked at Guy’s
Hospital in 1739 and Cornbury House, London in 1744.
1742—43 he worked at 30 Old Burlington Street under Roger Morris.
1745 he worked at 45 Berkeley Square under William Kent and at Wimpole Hall, under Henry Flitcroft In 1749, 1752 and 1755 he worked at Adderbury House, probably under John Phillips
He was working at Northumberland House, and the refurbishment of Egremont House, Piccadilly, in the period1749 - 1752. He worked for architect Henry Keene, also mentioned in the accounts.
‘John Devall mason’: £100, 18 October 1749; £200, 24 November 1749; £300, 29 January 1750; £400, 22 May 1750; £1,000, 5 June 1750; £500, 8 October 1750; £1,000, 5 January 1751; £500, 6 March 1751; £500, 18 June 1751; £200, 24 October 1751; £500, 10 April 1752; £200, 21 October 1752..,
Coventry House, Piccadilly.
Between 1754 and1760 he worked at 19 St James Square under James Paine.
In 1756 he worked at Spencer House, Green Park, under John Vardy.
In 1758—60 he was paid by the 4th Earl of Holdernesse - either for work at Holdernesse House, Hertford Street, or at Sion Hill Isleworth, Middlesex.
Payments to John Devall 1774 could be to either father or son for work at Hovingham Hall, at Croome Court, Worcs and Coventry House, Piccadilly.
In 1771 he was mason under Robert Adam for Sir Watkin Williams Wynn at 20 St James' Square.
John Devall II (the younger) was admitted to the Masons’ Company by patrimony in January 1777, although he had been involved in the family business since 1768.
He managed a workshop on Little Portland Street
in the Parish of St Marylebone, employing several assistants. His will
indicates the extent of these premises; it refers to ‘shops, sheds, yards,
gardens, backsides and tenements’. Devall remained in the area at the time of
his death in 1794, bequeathing his recently furnished house at Upper Clapton to
his wife Ann, and his Little Portland Street premises to his eldest son John.
Chimneypieces executed in the Devall workshop survive at Shugborough in
Staffordshire and Attingham Park in Shropshire. Devall the younger was the
mason-contractor responsible for the north and south fronts of Somerset House
during 1777-86.
Adam commissions: Devall supplied chimneypieces to Nostell
Priory and Harewood House in Yorkshire. Chimneypieces were also executed for
London commissions including No. 20 St James’s Square, Coventry House, and
Lansdowne House. In the early 1770s, the younger Devall leased from the Adam
brothers two properties on their Portland Place development – No. 13 Mansfield
Street, and No. 23 Portland Place.
...................................
The Chapman - Bird brothers and Del Medicos.
The Chapman Bird's had premises at Abingdon Street, Millbank and a house in Queen's Square.
Christopher Chapman Bird of Reigate, Surrey, Esq. married
Anne Mary Bird Webbe (daughter of Thomas Webbe, Esq) in 1765.
They had a considerable business as a marble merchant and is
known to have supplied Henry Cheere, Thomas Carter and Louis François
Roubiliac, for his name appears in their bank accounts. In 1770 he became
bankrupt and a sale of his stock-in-trade was held at his yard at Millbank on 4
April, 1771.
Francesco Antonio del Medico who had previously travelled to England was settled in London by 1768. He had been acting as a merchant and as ambassadorfor the Duke of Modena
He had accounts with Drummonds Bank in 160 and 1761. Drummonds Bank Accounts - Customer Account Ledger A - H page 208.
The wharf and premises of Peter (Pietro Del Medico) from 1772 were in Little Abingdon Street which ran East of Abingdon St to the Stone wharfs on the river.
The proximity of the two businesses would suggests close collaboration between the two families.
Whilst there is evidence that the Chapman Birds visited Tuscany - it is not yet clear to me whether this was frequent, but the existence of the two busts by Cybei (see photographs above) again suggests close ties.
........................
The Edward Chapman Bird Sale by Mr Christie 18 March 1771.
4 Pages - excerpt here -
Lot 2. A Lead Mercury Gilt.
Lot 3. A Head of Venus Statuary Marble
Lot 4. A Boys Head
Lot 5. A Figure of a Fawn
Lot 8. A Crucifixion in Basso Relievo
Lot 9. The Death of Lucretia in Basso Relievo
Some newspaper clippings suggesting the fluctuating fortunes of the Chapman - Bird brothers.
Bankrupt 1770, 1774 and 1801.
A Sale 4 April 1771 by Mr Christie
..................
17 August 1773.
..............................................
Christopher Chapman Bird in Gloucestershire Archives.
(as yet not accessed).
Sewell, Rawlins and Logie of Cirencester, solicitors Clients Papers of Richard Wood, mainly relating to
Surrey.
Deeds and copy deeds
relating to property in Old Paradise Street and other property in Rotherhithe,
1734-1809.
Also includes copy marriage settlement of Christopher
Chapman Bird to Ann Webbe, 19 Jan 1765, will for Hester Bird, St Giles in the
Fields, Middlesex, widow, 1749 and various abstracts of title
Properties: Old Paradise Street, Rotherhithe, Surrey;
Paradise Street, Rotherhithe, otherwise Redriffe, Surrey; Manor of Rotherhithe,
alias Redriffe alias Rederoth
Main parties: Thomas Scawen of Carshalton, Surrey, esquire;
John Dowyer of Rotherhithe, Surrey, stone cutter; William Dickinson of St John
the Evangelist, Westminster, Middlesex, gentleman; James Templer of
Rotherhithe, Surrey, carpenter; Christopher Chapman Bird of Whitefriars,
London, later Park Street, Westminster, also Millbank Street, Westminster,
merchant, later gentleman, also esquire; Ann, Christopher Chapman Bird's wife;
Jane Caley of St Mary's, Rotherhithe, widow; John Dowyer of Rotherhithe, carver;
Edward Grubb of Great Queen Street, Lincoln's Inn Fields, Middlesex, gentleman;
Edward Simon of Bush Lane, London, merchant, later esquire; John Webbe Weston
of Sutton Place, Surrey, esquire; Charles Butler of Lincoln's Inn, Middlesex,
esquire; Stephen Hope of Lincoln's Inn, gentleman; Christopher Chapman Bird the
younger of Mill Bank, Westminster, eldest son and heir apparent of the first
named Christopher Chapman Bird; John Barber of Great James Street, Bedford Row,
Middlesex, gentleman; Thomas Constable of [?] Lane, London, gentleman; Hester
Bird of St Giles in the Fields, Middlesex, widow; Samuel Swinson of London,
merchant; John Dowyer late of Rotherhithe, now of St Mary Le Bone, Middlesex,
stonecutter; Mary, John Dowyer's wife
https://catalogue.gloucestershire.gov.uk/records/D181/2/286/4
..........................
Thomas Webbe of Sutton Place, Surrey.
for the will of Thomas Webbe of Brooke Green, Hammersmith, 10 August 1780, father of Anne Webbe wife of Chrstopher Chapman Bird.
The family are all Catholics.
............................
The Massa Carrara Oligarchy and the Export of Marble from Livorno in the 18th Century.
The Apuan Alps Marble Quarries.
Francesco Antonio Del Medico and Pietro Costantino Del Medico (1740 - 1801) working in Westminster.
Some notes -
see - The Del Medico family and the marble market in 18th Century Europe
The Del Medico family and the Marble Trade in Europe in the Eighteenth Century by Cristina Pighini -Bates 2013 - Translation by Alexandra Woolley - available on line -
https://journals.openedition.org/crcv/13627
" Bulletin of the Research Center of the
Palace of Versailles [Online], 6 | 2013, published on January 16, 2016 ,
accessed on September 24, 2025. DOI : https://doi.org/10.4000/crcv.136272 .
I have paraphrased, adapted and added some thoughts of my own from the text of this article.
For more on the Del Medicos but very little on London see -
https://www.fondazionefranzoni.it/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/MARMORAetLAPIDEA_1_2020_01BOTTI.pdf
There were 12 families, who constituted the Carrara Oligarchy in the 18th Century - the Del Medico, Luciani. Micheli, Lazzoni and Orsolini.
In 1668 the most important marble traders in Carrara formed a commercial company and obtained from the Duke of Massa the exclusive right to trade all worked and raw marble to the seventeen Provinces of the Low Countries.
In this way they secured an unchallengeable channel to northern Europe (ASMa, Archivio Ducale, Contracti Camerali, b. 18, 168-169, 17 November 1668).
Andrea Del Medico (1628-1702) was responsible for the original commercial success of the Del Medicos and the oligarchy by creating the monopoly.
Their plan was manifested in a progressive concentration of political and administrative positions that they held within the Carrara government itself, political power was an indispensable to controlling the exploitation of the quarries and then the extraction and, therefore, the price of marble.
The first sign of an organized trading strategy appeared
within the family when Andrea Del Medico decided to bequeath
in trust to his eldest son, the assets of the marble business securing profit and prosperity to the company in the long term these included marble
quarries of Pescina (see - https://www.mindat.org/loc-299461.html) and the statuary marble from around Polvaccio
It should be noted that the Del Medico family not only marketed blocks of statuary marble from Carrara, but also imported coloured marbles and stones from all over Italy and Europe, via Livorno as well as manufacturing works in Carrara.
Francesco Del Medico
(1646-1735), Andrea's eldest son, was created Count, 4 August 1773 with the acquisition of a
small territory in the Duchy of Guastalla. The title of Count was to be used
by all his male descendants.
Even within the restricted group comprising the oligarchy the Del Medico family maintained undisputed political and economic supremacy. For example, from 1774 - 1777 they exported to Livorno an average of 1,130 tons of raw marble a year in comparison with the 1,330 tons despatched by the other five families (ASMO, Arcchivio Cybo-Gonzaga, Commemio, Belle Am, Muni atrure, b. 330,' Dazio sui marmi greggi a favore dell'Accademia.
........................
The Del Medico Family Tree.
.................................
George Buckham was at Guferes Wharf in Little Abingdon Street in 1793.
see Wakefield's Merchant and Tradesman's General Directory for London ... 1793.
signs a monument in Westminster Abbey 1799Francis 3rd Earl of Kerry.
...............................
Notice from the London Gazette. 1837.
The Writing is on the wall for the disappearance of all the buildings here but it will take at least another 20 years.
Extract fromTaylor's Original and Improved Builder's Price-book: for the
Year 1855.
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