Bath, Art and Architecture: The Shirley Busts by Scheemakers National Gallery of Victoria Australia.

Friday, 4 September 2026

The Shirley Busts by Scheemakers National Gallery of Victoria Australia.

Taking a brief break from Coade.

The Three Shirley Family Male Busts by Peter Scheemakers in the National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne, Australia.

Originally in the Library at Staunton Harold, Leicestershire.

According to Gunnis on line the three female busts are at Ditchingham Hall Suffolk

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

Laurence Shirley, 4th Earl Ferrers.

In 1760, Laurence Shirley, 4th Earl Ferrers became the last member of the House of Lords to hang.

Laurence Shirley, 4th Earl Ferrers was born in 1720 as the eldest son of The Honourable Laurence Ferrers. His maternal grandfather was a Baronet and Tory politician who served four terms in Parliament and was an early ally of William of Orange.

At the age of twenty he quit Oxford University and moved to Paris to lead a life of debauchery.

He returned to England and in 1745 inherited his title from his uncle who had been declared insane, and was removed from office and subsequently died.

Scheemakers’ bust dates from this time, Laurence had fathered at least one illegitimate daughter to his mistress Margaret, and three more daughters were to follow. In 1752 Laurence married 16 year old Mary Meredith, daughter of a baronet and Whig parliamentarian.

The marriage was far from happy. Laurence drank excessively, flew into violent rages, attacked Mary, savagely beat the servants and continued his relationship with Margaret. Mary left the marriage after six years and obtained a legal separation from Laurence by an Act of Parliament in 1758.

From Nollekens and his Times by JT Smith pub 1828.

The Scheemakers busts formerly at Staunton Harrold.

"My amiable and highly-respected friend, Henry Smedley, Esq.. the correctness of whose communications is always implicitly to be depended upon, has favoured me with the following information concerning some other works of this Sculptor.

"Sanctuary, October 13, 1827.

"MY DEAR SIR,

"The six busts by Scheemakers, of which I promised you an account, are in the library at Staunton Harold, the seat of Earl Ferrers, and are noticed in Nichols's "Leicestershire."

They represent, 1. Hon. Lawrence Shirley, tenth son of first Earl Ferrers. 2. Anne his wife, daughter of Sir Walter Clayes, Bart., and four of their children, viz.: 3, Lawrence, afterwards fourth Earl Ferrers. 4. Washington (the Admiral) afterwards fifth Earl Ferrers. 5. Elizabeth Shirley, died unmarried. 6. Anne Shirley.

"You are, of course, aware that Scheemakers was also the artist who did the monument of Sir Henry Belasyse, in St. Paul's Chapel, Westminster Abbey.

I am, my dear Sir,

"Very sincerely yours,

"Henry Smedley."

The Melbourn Busts.

Purchased 1960.

They say -

"The Shirley family was elevated to the Peerage of Great Britain in 1711 and given the title Earls Ferrers. The three busts seen here depict the 4th and 5th Earls and their father the Hon.

Laurence Shirley who as the fourth son of the 1st Earl did not inherit the title, which, however, passed to his first son Laurence at the passing of his elder brother. The 4th Earl Ferrers gained notoriety when he was convicted of murder and hanged in 1760, the last British Peer of the Realm to be executed for a capital crime".