The Monuments in All Saints Church at Weston, Bath, Part 2 - The monument to Jacob Barclay (d. 1750) by Prince Hoare (1711 - 69). With some notes and photographs relating to Prince Hoare and his sometime assistant Joseph Plura.

 

Prince Hoare (c. 1711 -

Prince Hoare received training in the workshop by Peter Scheemakers (who was away in Rome in Rome from 1728 until 1730). 

His older brother William Hoare the painter and pastellist was in Rome from 1728 until 1737 and had first lodged with Peter Scheemakers and Laurent Delvaux at the Palazzo Zuccaro near Santa Trinita dei Monti on the Pincio, just north of the Piazza di Spagna.

Prince Hoare also went to Rome in about 1741/2 and did not return to England from his grand tour until late 1749, when he was probably accompanied to Bath by Giuseppi Antonio (Joseph) Plura.

George Vertue mentions Prince Hoare as he returns from Rome 'where he had been to make his studyes about 7 or 8 years'.

In a letter from the British Resident in Florence, Sir Horace Mann. dated 26 August 1749, Mann is writing to Horace Walpole and damns Prince with faint praise:

"Hoare the sculptor I have had in my house is to accompany him [Mann's secretary, returning to England] ... I rather wish he may fall into good business in England. He is very clever in copying but I have seen nothing original of his doing. 

Had he application equal to his skill, I believe he could make a figure at least in England, where sculpture is not at any great pitch".

In hindsight this looks like a fair assessment.

He found a wealthy wife, Miss Mary Coulthurst of Melksham who he married in 1751 - and who brought a considerable fortune of £6000 and thereafter he led the life of a sort of  gentleman sculptor.

I suspect he never picked up a chisel again relying on Joseph Plura and later Richard Lancashire

Less than two months after the death of  Bath architect John Wood the Elder in May 1754, a link was forged between the Wood family and the Hoare brothers when Jane Maria, the Wood’s elder daughter, married Henry Coulthurst, clothier from Melksham, at St. Swithin’s Church, Walcot. Bath.

Three years previously, in the same church, Prince Hoare had married Henry Coulthurst’s sister, Mary

 It appears that Joseph Plura (see below) was responsible for much of the work attributed to Hoare.

 

The lack of application by Hoare hinted at in Mann's letter to Walpole is corroborated in passages from letters written by William Pitt Snr to Richard Grenville. Prince Hoare had been commissioned to design and carve a monument to the memory of Captain Thomas Grenville, brother to Richard, who had been killed in action at sea in 1747.

 The first letter, dated 26 November 1752 from Bath, mentions that work is proceeding apace on the clay model for the statue, the figure promising "to be a very good one'.

 The second letter, also from Bath but dated 29 January 1754, complains of repeated delays:

 "you have already received a petition from Mr. Hoare praying further time: indeed it is a very necessary request however unjustifiable the cause of the necessity may be . . . your patience is like to be thoroughly tried, for a twelvemonth or more will be the least time necessary to allow the sculptor".

see - W.J. Smith, (ed.), The Grenville Papers, 4 vols., 1852.

Presumably it was never finally finished and erected. 

This would appear to be a discussion of the monument which George Grenville intended to erect to Thomas Grenville in Westminster Abbey. This monument was never erected but a fine of £31 was paid to the Abbey to erect the monument in 1761 (Westminster Abbey Muniments, Treasurers' Books 49311). see Craske 

The Grenville Column, 1748; originally? set up in the Grecian Valley, moved to this site in 1756. Captain Thomas Grenville, a nephew of Lord Cobham, died in service aboard HMS Defiance at the First Battle of Cape Finisterre, 14 May 1747. 

The column carries a lead figure of Calliope, the muse of Heroic Poetry - perhaps supplied by John Cheere - it most unlikely to be by Prince Hoare.

https://www.nationaltrustcollections.org.uk/object/91969

https://historicengland.org.uk/listing/the-list/list-entry/1289782?section=comments-and-photos

Prince Hoare's name does not appear in the Bath Mineral Water Hospital Minutes until May 1758, when he was elected one of the Governors. 

The previous year, his bust of Ralph Allen had been presented by Dr. Warburton, Allen's nephew-in-law, the gift being recorded in the Minutes for 27 April 1757. 

 The Gentleman's Magazine in the list of marriages for 1751 included 'Mr Prince Hoar [sic] a celebrated statuary at Bath - to Miss Coulthurst of Melksham, Wilts, £6,000' . 

The Bath Journal  June 1751 further endorses his happy choice, 'the beginning of last week was married Mr. Hoarean eminent statuary, to Miss Coulthurst of Melksham an agreeable young lady with a handsome fortune', and Prince Hoare describes himself as 'gentleman' in the marriage register for 26 May 1751.

He lived in some style in the south wing of Ralph Allen's town house, now 2 North Parade Passage, moving to Abbey Green in 1766.

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It is believed that much of the works attributed to Hoare were achieved by his very able assistant Joseph Plura.

Joseph Plura was a sculptor of not inconsiderable talent, perhaps not in the first rank, but the bust of Gratiana Davenport gives an indication of his skills and the sculpture of Diana and Endymion (now in the Holburne Museum, Bath) is undoubtedly his masterpiece.

Joseph Plura, until the purchase of Diana and Endymion by the Holburne from London dealer Daniel Katz remained largely unnoticed, overshadowed by his employer, the rich and more socially elevated Prince Hoare.

http://collections.holburne.org/object-1997-1

On death of Joseph Plura in London in 1756, the sculpture was brought back to Bath by his wife, it remained in his daughter's family until  the end 19C; Coll. Hugh Honour & John Fleming in mid 1950's; sold by them to a French dealer, and later with London dealer Daniel Katz.

Talbot Ivory of Lacock Abbey wrote to his friend the Architect Sanderson Miller on 13 August 1754.

  "When at Bath fail not to see a piece of sculpture of Endymion on Mount Patmos, the performance of Mr Plura a statuary" (Warwick County Archives CR 125 B letter 405).

 Talbot Ivory was a relative of  Sharington Davenport of Worfield, Shropshire, which goes some way to explain the connection of Joseph Plura and the making of the very fine bust of Gratiana Davenport by him (see below).

https://bathartandarchitecture.blogspot.com/2018/08/the-busts-of-gratiana-davenport-by.html

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The Jacob Barclay Monument.

Prince Hoare

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A list of works by or from the workshop of Prince Hoare - not thoroughly checked.

Monument to Jacob Selfe at Melksham (1730) a doubtful attribution given the date.

A Bust of Plautilla signed and dated P. HOARE Ft. FLOR:AE MDCCIL and copied from an antique bust in the Uffizi. 1749.

Memorial to Bishop Isaac Maddox in Worcester Cathedral (d.1743). - 

I was so impressed by the Roubiliac Monument to Bishop Howe at Worcester that  I failed to give this monument due attention it deserved -also the light was failing!

Monument to Mary Hilliard at Kilmersdon (1745). no images available on line.

Monument to John Long at St Andrews Heddington Wilts(1746). no images available on line.

Memorial to Lady Cobb at Newton St. Loe, nr Bath (1749).

Monument to Jacob Barclay at Weston, Somerset (1750) (illustrated above).

Statue of Richard Nash at the Pump Room, Bath (1752).

https://bathartandarchitecture.blogspot.com/2018/08/beau-nash-statue-in-pump-rooms-bath-by.html

Marble bust of Philip Stanhope, (1694–1773), 4th Earl of Chesterfield (1740). English Heritage, Ranger's House Blackheath.

Various statuary groups for Sir Robert Throckmorton for his houses at Buckland and Coughton (1754).

Bust of Ralph Allen in Bath Mineral Water Hospital (1757).

https://bathartandarchitecture.blogspot.com/2018/08/bust-of-ralph-allen-by-prince-hoare.html

Bust of Ralph Allen by Prince Hoare - Guildhall, Bath.

https://bathartandarchitecture.blogspot.com/2018/08/bust-of-ralph-allen-by-prince-hoare_14.html

Monument to the Eyles family in Devizes Parish Church (1757).

Monument to Thomas Dawtrey at Petworth (1758).

Four goddess statues at Stourhead commissioned by Henry Hoare (1759). 

Various chimney-pieces for Corsham Court (1760-1765)[1]

Monument to Thomas Collins at St Leonard's Church in Exeter (1761).

Bust of Richard Nash at the Guildhall, Bath (1761).

https://bathartandarchitecture.blogspot.com/2018/08/beau-nash-bust-by-prince-hoare.html

Monument to Alexander Pope in St Mary's Church, Twickenham (1761).

Images below courtesy website of Bob Speel - http://www.speel.me.uk/chlondon/twickenhamch.htm

Monument to Anne Carey at Steeple Aston, Oxfordshire (1762).

Monument to Lord John Trevor at Bromham, Bedfordshire (1764).

Marble Bust of Jeremiah "Jerry" Peirce, surgeon, in Harrogate, North Yorkshire (before 1765).

The Photographs from the Mercer Gallery below kindly provided by Dr Roger Rolls.

The plaster bust of Jerry Pearce was formerly at the Mineral water Hospital Bath and is missing presumed stolen.

https://bathartandarchitecture.blogspot.com/2023/08/the-bust-of-jerry-pierce-by-prince-hoare.html

The images below are from The Paul Mellon Photographic Archive

 https://photoarchive.paul-mellon-centre.ac.uk/search/Pierce

 This an excellent resource for old photographs of sculptural objects where other photographs might not be available.

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The Monument to Paul Bertrand at St Swithin's Church, Walcot, Bath.

Prince Hoare.

      

.....                                                                            ...........................

                    The Monument to Jerry Pearce d.1768 at St Swithin's Church, Walcot, Bath.

                                                                                         Prince Hoare.

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The Monument to Anne Chilcot d. 1758.

St Peter's Tawstock, Devon.

Ann WREY, the daugther of Chichester WREY and Margaret PYNE married Thomas CHILCOT (? -1766) at Siddington St Mary, Gloucestershire on 14 Sep 1749. 

Thomas was organist of Bath Abbey from 1728 until his death 38 years later. The inscription to Thomas CHILCOT is missing from the monument as a consequence of a dispute between the executor of his will and the children of his first marriage. 

Thomas was buried at Tawstock on 1 Dec 1766. Ann WREY was buried at Tawstock on 9 Jul 1758.

According to Matthew Craske a trust fund was set up for the maintenance of this monument - see -

https://files.core.ac.uk/download/30695800.pdf

Near this place lie the Remains

of Mrs ANN CHILCOT

Wife of Mr Thos CHILCOT

Organist of Bath

And Daughter to the Revd

Mr CHICHESTER WREY

late Rector of this Parish

by his first Wife Margaret

Daughter of ROGER PYNE

of this County Gent:

 

She was a Woman of Great Piety

Constant in the Duties of Religion

both Public and Private

and ever inclin'd to Acts

of Humanity and Benevolence

She died much lamented

June 30th 1758 Ætat : 39

Her Disconsolate Husband

as a Testimony

of his Conjugal Affection

Erected this Monument

to her Memory

https://sites.rootsweb.com/~ukdevon/TawstockInsideMIs.htm

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A Terracotta Bust 

I am not convinced by this -

https://www.walterpadovani.com/portfolio-item/prince-hoareportrait-of-sir-horace-mann/

A very fine terracotta bust but probably not by Prince Hoare.

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Prince Hoare - Some Bath Press cuttings

Bath Chronicle 19 April 1770, - Property: to let - house near North Parade, Bath lately in possession of Mr Prince Hoare. Details from Mr Edw. Parker, wine merchant in Westgate St, Bath.

 This refers to the house known as Ralph Allen's Town House.

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Bath Chronicle -1st November 1770 - Notices: Mauge & Lancashire, successors to Mr Prince Hoare, statuary (& his principal workmen for many yrs), now trading at same yard in monuments, chimney pieces, works in marble, wood & stone.

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Bath Chronicle - 14 February 1793 - Services: F Lancashire & Son, Albion Pl, Upper Bristol Rd, Bath, statuaries, carvers in general & stone masons. Large wareroom with chimney pieces of different coloured marble, urns, vases, monuments etc on view.

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Bath Chronicle - 6 November 1783 - Art: Bath Academy - meeting of 4 Nov at the Three Tuns Tavern, Stall St, Bath unanimously thanked John Palmer, esq., - Hoare, esq., George James, esq., & Mr Ch. Harris, statuary, London.

 This note refers to William Hoare but is interesting from the point of view that Charles Harris Statuary (of the Strand, London) was involved in an Academy at Bath.

Ref. Charles Harris in the Strand see -

 https://bathartandarchitecture.blogspot.com/2025/03/charles-harris-of-strand-plaster-casting.html

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Bath Chronicle - 16 October 1783 - Art: meeting of principal artists of Bath at Three Tuns on Tue 14 Oct. We hear they have begun a subscription to establish an Academy or School for the study of Antique Statues & the Living Model.

 

 Bath Chronicle - 30 October 1783 Art: Bath Academy (in the manner of the Royal Academy London) - meeting of subscribers at Three Tuns Tavern in Stall St at 7pm on 4 Nov & then 1st Tue every month. Printed plans at the public libraries & Mr Wm. Lloyd's; list of subscribers may be seen at Mr Wm. Lloyd's in Abbey Green.

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For an useful, brief, if slightly dated history of the Hoares in Bath see -

https://historyofbath.org/images/BathHistory/Vol%2001%20-%2004.%20Newby%20-%20The%20Hoares%20of%20Bath.pdf