Whilst Thomas King and the Reeve families of Sculptors of Bath have been written about, the Fords father and son have received scant attention here is an attempt to raise their profiles.
Monument to Elizabeth Philips.
St Swithun's, Bathford.
1759
John Ford I (1711 - 62).
He was the master-mason responsible for building Bath Grammar School in 1752 and almost certainly executed some of the earlier monuments listed under his son, John Ford II(1736 - 1803).
He was connected to other Bath artists: he collaborated with Robert Parsons on a monument in Bucklebury, and his daughter Mary (1733-1815) married the sculptor Joseph Plura in 1750.
By May 1753 Plura had completed the Bath City coat of Arms
for the pediment of King Edwards School, Broad St, Bath, designed and
built on the site of the Black Swan (see Mowbray Green) between 1752 - 54 by Thomas
Jelly for Bath City Council with his father in law John Ford acting as Master
Mason. He was paid 25 guineas.
John Ford died on 6
September 1767 and was buried at Colerne, Wilts, where his epitaph declares
that ‘his abilities and enterprise in business in a great measure contributed
to the erection of the handsome buildings and streets’ of Bath. John Ford II is also interred at Colerne.
John Ford II (1706 - 1803).
The son of John Ford I, he exhibited a marble bust of the Young Mr Worlidge, son of the artist Thomas Worlidge at the Free Society in 1764 . Three years later he was working as a statuary at the Royal Crescent, Bath. He died on 23 February 1803 and, like his father, was buried at Colerne, where a monument was erected to his memory.
Henry Bromley
notes a print of ‘John Ford, statuary at Bath’, by T Woolridge (Worlidge?), in his
Catalogue of Engraved British Portraits, 1793 (p 402).
Most of his monuments are of coloured marbles with large
reliefs and he makes much use of a female figure mourning by an urn, with an
obelisk in the background. Gunnis suggests just such a monument may have
inspired an anonymous correspondent to send a sonnet to the Gentleman’s
Magazine in 1787, with the lines, ‘Then, Sculptor, sparing of thy marble
graces,/ Let thy taught chisel from my tomb-stone speak/ All dove-winged
cherubs with fat baby faces,/ And Christian faith squat by a Roman urn!’ (GM,
1787, ii, 352).
In the list of works given below some of the earlier ones
are almost certainly by the elder Ford.
Literary References: Gunnis 1968, 155; Potterton 1975, 46;
Colvin 1999, 244, n 27
..................................
Dr. Oliver Taylor, Bath Abbey’s Head of Interpretation,
Learning and Engagement, research uncovered a detailed description of the
Abbey’s monuments dating from 1778 which clearly refers to this monument. The
entry in J Salmon’s (1778) An Historical Description of the Church Dedicated to
St. Peter and St. Paul in Bath, describes a memorial to an anonymous woman
identified only as ‘C.M.’ as follows:
‘A Monument, with a Pyramid of Dove Marble, and an Oval
Tablet. Over which are two branches of Palm; beneath, in a Basso Relievo, is a
boy sleeping by an urn, with a branch of cyprus in his left hand, resting his
head on an hour-glass, with other statuary ornaments’.
Further research by Dr. Taylor identified the woman as
Catherine Malone (nee Collyer), who was baptized in St. Dionis Backchurch,
London on 2 April 1718. Her father was a wealthy, and by all accounts rather
eccentric, merchant who ‘made his fortune in the South Sea year’ (this is
likely to be a reference to the South Sea Company, which in 1713 was granted a
monopoly to transport thousands of enslaved Africans to the ‘South Seas’ and
South America. Speculative investment in the company in the 1710s led to the
notorious South Sea Bubble – an economic bubble that led to the ruin of
thousands of wealthy investors when the company collapsed in 1720).
In 1736, Catherine married a young Irish lawyer named Edmund
Malone who later became a successful barrister and member of the Irish House of
Commons. Their wedding was a large and ostentatious affair, at the conclusion
of which the young couple were put to bed and each of the 50 guests paraded
through the room to wish them a good night! Four years later the couple, no
doubt keen to move away from Catherine’s strange father, moved to Dublin where
they had six children, two of whom died in infancy.
Unsurprisingly, ‘taking the waters’ did little to help with Catherine’s illness. She died on 1 January 1765 and, like many wealthy patrons who came to Bath in search of a cure, was buried in the Abbey.
Catherine’s
monument, which would have been extremely expensive, was probably commissioned
by her son Edmond, who had by then become a successful lawyer and would go on
to become a renowned Shakespearian scholar. Given his literary leanings, it is
likely that the dedication to ‘C.M.’ – anonymous to all but her family and
friends – was penned by her son.
This memorial, which is depicted in the background of Samuel
Grimm’s 1788 “ A Service at Bath Abbey”. The ‘oval tablet’ bearing the
dedication survives on the north wall of the Abbey; it reads as follows -
Memory of C.M./One of the most valuable Women/that ever
lived;/Whose principal Happiness consisted/(altho' she was of some rank,)/in a
real & unbounded/Affection & Tenderness/for her Husband &
Children;/This Monument is erected;/from the sorrow of their Hearts,/and their
Love and Respect for her,/without the vanity or weakness,/of proclaiming her
Virtues,/or their own Misfortune,/in so inestimable a Loss./Lett others
therefore celebrate/the Name, Family, & Condition,/of so amiable & rare
a Character/She dyed 1st. Jany. 1765/in the 47th Year of her Age,/and lyes
interr'd/near this place./
During the final phase of excavations on the Bath Abbey Footprint Project between 2018 - 20, the archaeologists recovered an18th-century bas relief marble sculpture.
see - https://www.wessexarch.co.uk/boy-sleeping-discovery-lost-18th-century-sculpture-bath-abbey
A Woodcut by Jos Cross in Remarks on English Churches by JH Markland. 1843
Page 162.
Here is an example of the current thinking at the time regarding the monuments in the Abbey Church Bath represented in the above publication.
"P. 82. This plate presents a glimpse into the north Transept
of Bath Abbey Church. It has been given, not to ridicule, whatever the hand of
affection may have placed there, but as a striking illustration of that which
has been, not incorrectly, described as " Monumental patchwork on the
walls of Churches ; — marble excrescences ; — sepulchral fungi; — stone
tumours*." We see here how the fair proportions, symmetry, and effect of a
fine Church may be diminished, and injured by the indiscriminate accumulation
of monuments and tablets, when its walls become " tesselated with closely
packed slabs of many colours".
.................................
Henry Harington’s description of the Abbey: ‘These ancient walls, with many a mouldering bust, / But show how well Bath waters lay the dust’ – and in in 1817, another writer was provoked to a still more powerful (and negative) response. The cantankerous antiquary John Britton was disgusted with what he found in Bath and in Westminster Abbey, which was similarly jam-packed with memorials. He railed against these “monstrous masses of marble”, these “broken-backed horses, rampant and tame lions, figures of Time, Fame, Angels, and Cherubim”. For Britton, these modern accretions were a blight on the beauties of ancient architecture.
and again 1825 John Britton ‘Perhaps there is not a Church in England, not excepting that national mausoleum, Westminster Abbey, so crowded with sepulchral memorials.’
For a rather more enlightened view see Dr Oliver Taylor's Bath Abbey’s Monuments: An Illustrated History pub 2024. An essential publication for anyone interested in the subject of Church monuments.
View from the East End of the Interior of Bath Abbey, with
Congregation
Samuel Hieronymous Grimm
The monument is just visible behind the second column from the right.
Nash's monument is almost unique in the Abbey in that it was originally erected thirty years after his death. 122 Dr Henry Harington is credited with having 'originated the idea' for Nash's monument and his initials 'HH' beneath the 'beautiful classic epitaph' show it was written by him. 123
In December 1789, an advertisement was placed in The Bath Chronicle publishing the intention 'to erect a TABLET in the ABBEY CHURCH' to 'rescue from oblivion the name of RICHARD NASH, Esq'. Generous subscribers were invited to contribute, to whom the eventual drawings of the monument would be submitted. Since 'the skill of the Artist' was 'not to be displayed, nor any unmerited praise' conferred, the advert assured its readers that 'a FEW POUNDS may suffice for the execution of the design'.
Fittingly for Nash, subscriptions, 124 In April 1791, could be 'received at the Pump-Rooms, Libraries, and Coffee-Houses the same gentleman who made the advertisement above (possibly Harington) published another, thanking 'the Rev. Dr. Phillott [Rector of the Abbey 1786—1815], and the Churchwardens of St. Peter and Paul, for kindly remitting the usual fees' , the sculptor 'Mr. John Ford, for his very moderate charge for the work', and the subscribers.
Ford's modest fee for carving the monument was £15 15s and, with the cost of the 'Advertisements and other expenses £3 3s', the total cost €18 18s. By which time the fifteen subscribers(including Harington) had given €13 13s.125
The total cost of the erection of Nash's monument would have been more than €20. It is not clear how the remaining €5 5s was found, but the advertisement and the discussion of church fees suggests the monument was to be erected imminently.
_-_geograph.org.uk_-_3190534%20(1).jpg)
very poor images below from - https://historicengland.org.uk/listing/the-list/list-entry/1324151?section=comments-and-photos
.....................................
Sir John Fust and Dame Phillippa Fust.- Funerary Monument - †1779 - St Michael the Archangel Hill, near Thornbury, Glos.
...........................
John Russ - Funerary Monument - †1758 - Castle Cary, Somerset. - No images currently available.
.............................
John St Albyn - Funerary
Monument - †1766 - Stringston, nr Bridgwater. Somerset.
Inscribed Ford on the supporting bracket.
Images above from -
https://www.facebook.com/groups/584528982020638/posts/2074783926328462/
............................
Morgan Graves - Funerary Monument -†1770 - St Lawrence, Mickleton, Glos.
..............................
Day (or Dawe) family member - Funerary Monument, nd. St Mary Magdalene - Ditcheat,
Somerset.
Another grieving muse. - Truly awful images from the the See Around Britain website.
.........................
Robert Smith - Funerary Monument †1755 - Combe Hay, Somerset.
..........................
Elizabeth Phillips - Funerary Monument †1759 (illustrated
here above) Bathford, Somerset.
.............................
Barbara Montagu - Funerary Monument †1765 – Charlcombe, Bath, Somerset.
..............
Ward family - Funerary
Monument - 1770 - St Martins, North Stoke, Somerset.
................
John Browne - Funerary Monument - 1771 - St Mary's Frampton, Dorset.
Robert Browne - Funerary Monument -1771 - Frampton, Dorset.
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:St_Mary%27s_church,_Frampton,_Dorset_(interior)
...................
Robert and George Cox (†1777) - Funerary Monument, †1790 -, Piddletrenthide,
Dorset.
see above - https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:All_Saints_Church,_Piddletrenthide_(interior)
........................
Thomas Coward - Funerary Monument - †1773 - Batcombe,
Somerset.
..........................
Jane Talbot - Funerary Monument- †1768 - St Leonard's Keevil, Wilts.
.......................
Twenty vases Architectural
Sculpture – 1763 for Sir William Lee, of Hartwell House – untraced.
Presumably Bath Stone
.............................
George Husey, Funerary Monument - ?1750, - Holy Cross, Seend, Wilts.
......................
Sir Samuel Garrard Bt. - Funerary Monument? 1761, Wheathampstead,
Herts.
............................
Charles Holder - Funerary Monument - ?1763. Bathampton, Somerset.
.....................
Anne Wainhouse - Funerary Monument - ?1771 - Steeple Ashton,
Wilts.
..................
Charles Inman and Ralph Preston - Funerary Monument ?1772 Spanish Town Cathedral, Jamaica.
........................
Elizabeth and Robert Clavering - Funerary Monument? -.1773 - St
Peter and St Paul, Marlborough, Wilts.
................................
Rev Samuel Woodforde - Funerary Monument - 1772 - Ansford,
Somerset.
Unidentified subject Funerary
Monument. nd. St Nicholas, Cork.
Young Mr Worlidge - Bust – 1764 - Exhib Free Soc, London, untraced.
John Andrews - Funerary
Monument †1762 - St Nicholas, Bromham, Wilts.
Francis Turner Blyth - Funerary Monument †1770 Jackfield,
Salop. Untraced.
I have written at some length about sculpture and sculptors in Bath in the 18th Century including the Parsons family, the Greenways, Prince Hoare, the Fords and the Pluras.
https://bathartandarchitecture.blogspot.com/2019/07/the-parsons-of-bath-18th-century-stone.html
https://bathartandarchitecture.blogspot.com/2019/07/the-parsons-of-bath-18th-century-stone_15.html
https://bathartandarchitecture.blogspot.com/2019/07/the-parsons-of-bath-18th-century-stone_48.html
https://bathartandarchitecture.blogspot.com/2019/07/the-parsons-of-bath-18th-century-stone_52.html
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