The Cheeres at Barrington Hall.

Aide Memoire.

 Barrington Hall, Essex.

https://landedfamilies.blogspot.com/2020/03/408-barrington-of-hatfield-broad-oak.html

https://www.sworder.co.uk/auction/lot/lot-124---a-carved-limestone-statue-after-the-antique/?lot=555000

https://www.sworder.co.uk/auction/lot/lot-125---a-carved-limestone-statue-after-the-antique/?lot=550209&so=0&st=&sto=0&au=1257&ef=&et=&ic=False&sd=0&pp=96&pn=2&g=1

https://www.bulbeckfoundry.co.uk/page/statues-river-god/

John Shales Barrington's heir was his kinsman Sir Fitz William Barrington, 8th Bt. (d.1792), of Swainston (I.W.). Thereafter the estate again descended with the baronetcy until the death in 1832 of Sir FitzWilliam Barrington, 10th and last Bt., whose heirs were

William Lowndes of Chesham (Bucks.) and William Selby Lowndes of Whaddon Hall

(Bucks.), descendants of the above Anne Shales in the female line.

Little Barrington Hall Farm, Hatfield Forest, Bush End, Takeley, Essex, CM22 6NL. Built Heritage Survey

© Pre-Construct Archaeology Limited Nov 2022

PCA Report Number 15134 v1 9

4.13 In a partition of the estate made in 1836 William Lowndes received the northern

division, including the manors of Hatfield Regis (Broad Oak), Barrington Hall, and

Hatfield Priory, with lands totalling 1,374 a. and including Barrington Hall Farm. William

Selby Lowndes received the southern division, comprising 1,797 a. including Matching

Barns and Pierce Williams farms. Immediately after the partition of 1836 William

Lowndes sold his share of the estate to Thomas Lowndes (d. 1840). Thomas Lowndes

was succeeded by his sister's great-grandson George Alan Clayton, who took the

name of Lowndes. G. A. Lowndes (d. 1904), was for 25 years president of the Essex

Archaeological Society. His son and heir Major Alan H. W. Lowndes sold the

Barrington Hall estate to Alfred H. Gosling in 1908. The house, with 33 a. of land, was

conveyed by the Goslings in 1977 to the British Livestock Co., who in 1980 sold it to

Contemporary Perfumers Ltd.

4.14 John Shales Barrington, who succeeded to the estate in 1734, soon afterwards built a

new Barrington Hall, 1 km. north of the church, and enclosed it in a park. It is probable

that the architect was John Sanderson (d. 1774), and the builder his cousin Joseph

Sanderson (d. 1747). The main three-storeyed block of the house measured 110 ft. by

60 ft. and had a principal front to the south of nine bays, with a Corinthian portico from

which a perron staircase descended on each side to the basement floor. The walls

were of red brick, the architraves and embellishments of limestone ashlar. The ancillary

buildings were concentrated in a lower wing on the east side of the house. The interior

was fitted with carved fireplaces of stone and marble, one of which is said to have cost

£700, richly moulded plasterwork, and mahogany doors. Henry Cheere, the sculptor,

provided a stone staircase and a for both of which ironwork was supplied

by John Wagg, the black smith.

When the house was well advanced John Shales Barrington 'on some dispute about

tithes … or … on a matrimonial disappointment … gave up the design and retired to a

house at Waltham Cross, where he passed a long life in obscurity.' In 1771 Barrington

Hall lay unfinished and neglected, and most of the furniture had been removed. Sir

John Barrington, 9th Bt., who succeeded to the estate in 1792, made some alterations

to the house, but in 1809 it was again empty and still unfinished. By 1833, when

Barrington Hall was for a short time reoccupied, the eastern wing and the perron stairs

had been removed. When the estate was divided in 1836 the house was said to be in a

good condition, but by 1847, after a further period of neglect, it had greatly

deteriorated. It was not permanently occupied until 1863, when G. A. Lowndes

remodelled the house to the design of Edward Browning. He removed part of the west

end, altered the south front in an asymmetrical 'Jacobean' style, and changed all the

windows and the roof line. Many of the original fittings were retained. The interior was

modernized in 1956 and again in 1977.

4.16 The 18th-century park was laid out to the south of the house, with its main entrance

from the south-west, by an avenue approached from Mill (now Feathers) Hill. There

was an artificial lake near the house and an ornamental temple in the centre of the

park. After the remodelling of the house in 1863 some of the statuary and a capital from

the 18th-century south front were used as garden ornaments, and a terrace was

formed along the south front to reduce the apparent height of the basement storey. By

1875 a shorter entrance drive had been made from Dunmow Road, to the north-west

providing access from the new Takeley railway station (Powell, et al. 1983)

4.17 The Barringtons left Old Barrington Hall after the purchase of the Priory at Hatfield

Broad Oak in 1564 (Essex Gardens Trust, 2003). The Old Barrington Hall stood on a

moated site 2 km. north of Hatfield Broad Oak village and as cartographic evidence

shows immediately to the south and east of Little Barrington Hall. This later house,

(Little Barrington Hall) is thought to include older parts which are probably fragments of

an earlier, larger building. The east range, which has a continuous jetty along one side,

dates (stylistically) to the 16th century. marble table, for both of which ironwork was supplied

by John Wagg, the smith.

A Monument to Timothy Helmsley at St Michael Church, Cornhill and a monuments to in Leyton Parish Church.

 

This monument here attributed to Henry Cheere.

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

The Monument to John Strange. d. 1754.

Leyton

Not inscribed but showing all the usual hallmarks of Henry Cheere's works.

The Monument to Mary Biscoe died 21 July 1762

Daughter of the Duke of Somerset.

Seend. Wiltshire

Two Monuments by Ford of Bath - Bath Abbey and Bathford Church and the Relief from the monument to C. M. in Bath Abbey and some further monuments from the Ford workshop.

 

First Draft - 

to be updated in due course!

The Relief from the Monument to Catherine Malone.

Bath Abbey.

c. 1765/66.

It is tempting to ascribe this work to John Ford II (1736 - 1803). This attribution can be based on comparison with the relief on the uninscribed monument to Leonard Coward by Ford of c. 1764/65 in Bath Abbey.

Given the date it is unlikely, although not impossible, that it was sculpted by John Ford I (d. September 1767).

Any attribution to John Ford II should be treated with caution - the Coward monument relief shares the textured background and quality of execution but an attribution to Joseph Plura (d.1756) should certainly be seriously considered.

Joseph (Giuseppi) Plura married Mary the 17 year old daughter of John Ford I in 1750 - he arrived in England and was settled in Bath by 1749 - he probably arrived in England with the bath sculptor Prince Hoare. He had set up his own workshop in Bath in 1763.

The attribution of the Coward monument to the Ford workshop is based on comparison with the relief on the monument to Martha Maria Phillips of c. 1759 at Bathford but it must be stated that the quality of this relief is not up to the standard of the work on relief on the Coward monument .

This relief was discovered carefully placed under the floor in Bath Abbey in June 2020 during the course of the lifting of the floor, resetting of the Ledger Stones and the installation of under floor heating powered by the hot springs of the Roman Baths.

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

This post was inspired by the serendipitous discovery of my own photographs in my files, of the monument in the church at Bathford to Martha Maria Phillips of 1759, inscribed on the supporting bracket by John Ford and its comparison with the relief on the monument to Leonard Coward of 1764 originally in the South Aisle in Bath Abbey.

This in turn led me to comparing these reliefs with that of the recently disinterred (June 2020) relief from the monument of Catherine Malone of 1765/67 in Bath Abbey.

The similarities in the textured backgrounds of the reliefs on the Coward monument and the Malone monument lead me to believe that they both came from the same workshop.

The Bathford / Phillips relief is almost identical to the Coward relief in the Abbey except for the lack of texturing on the background and is of slightly lesser quality particularly noticeable in the carving of the hair.

This suggests to me that the Phillips relief is perhaps a copy of the Coward relief by John Ford II.

Given the close relationship it is possible that John Ford II was trained or worked as an assistant to Joseph Plura.

For anyone interested in the Monuments in Bath Abbey - the most recent and comprehensive work is -

Bath Abbey's Monuments: An Illustrated History By Oliver Taylor.

 

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

The Bath Sculptors.

Whilst the Harveys (fl 1687 - 1740), Thomas King (1741 - 1804) and Sons and the Reeve families of Sculptors of Bath have been previously written about, the Fords - father and son have received scant attention - here is an attempt to raise their profiles.

Bath surprisingly did not have a  "school" of sculptors in the 18th century in the way that Norwich did and most of the Bath sculptors work was distinctly provincial.

Bristol has fared only slightly better with the works of the Paty family, as did Gloucester with the Bryans.

 John Ford I (1711 - 67).

He was almost certainly the son of William Ford of Colerne who married Mary Mullins 13 April 1710 at Colerne.

In his will our John Ford mentions his wife Martha (Elkington) his mother Mary Ford (nee Mullins), sisters Sarah and Alice (of Colerne) daughters Mary (m. Joseph Plura), Betty, Martha and Susanna.

He had 3 Properties in Pierrepoint St, St James Parish which he left to each of his daughters and a property in Duke St, and property in Charles St (off Queen Square) including courtyard, garden and workshops, and property in John St which he left to his son John Ford II.

It appears that he had already made arrangements for his daughter Mary and her husband the sculptor Joseph Plura and their children.

In 1742 the surveyor Thomas Thorpe produced  a map - An Actual Survey of the city of Bath in the County of Somerset and of five miles round in nine sheets. Both John Ford and his brother Steven were subscribers along with many of the great and good including Ralph Allan. the Earl of Chesterfield

John Ford I was the master-mason responsible for building amongst many Bath properties, King Edward's Grammar School in Broad  Street in 1752. Rupert Gunnis noted that almost certainly he executed some of the earlier funeral monuments which had previously been listed under his son, John Ford II (1736 - 1803). 

This should be treated with some caution - it is not implausible but it is most likely that the sculptural work was carried out in his workshops on the other hand, his son Thomas was describes himself as a statuary (in his will).

The following attributions need to be checked - info from - 

https://julianorbach.weebly.com/uploads/2/3/7/5/23756946/wiltshire_architects.odt

1765 probably built wing Burton Pynsent house, Curry Rivel, Som, for William Pitt, Earl of Chatham, which remains after the rest was demolished; RL2 63; Ford builder but Pitt may have designed it himself, SC notes;

1765-7 mason, Burton Pynsent column, Curry Rivel, Som, for William Pitt to design by Capability Brown, cf Follies Journal 7, 2007 41-55;

John Ford was an executor of the will of Dr Bennett Stevenson (d. 1757) who was the minister from 1720 of the Presbyterian church in Frog Lane (later rebuilt as New Bond St). Stevenson was a founding governor and sat on the Mineral Water Hospital Committee.

There are several other John Fords of Bath which he shouldn't be confused with - John Ford, Mayor of Bath 1660, and John Ford, the apothecary - this John Ford was the son of an apothecary, Richard Ford Mayor of Bath in 1713 and again 1741 to whom he had been apprenticed. In 1741 a certain John Garden accused him of making ‘a sodomitical assault’ on his person. A further complaint of 1742 claimed he was neglecting his civic duties. He leased property in Stall Street (including the ‘Back House’), part of the White Swan in Cheap Street, the Boat Tavern in Walcot Street, and a lodging house at the Cross Bath.

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

John Ford I and John Wood the Architect.

John Ford's most important collaborations were with John Wood the elder - in particular the building of Titanbarrow at Bathford.

An extract from Mowbray Green - The XVIIIth Century Architecture of Bath, which was published by the Bath bookseller and publisher, George Gregory in 1905.

The substance of the Titanbarrow contract is that John Ford, of Walcot, mason, estimated " the Digging for the Foundations, and all the Mason's, Plumber's, Tyler's, Plaisterer's and Painter's Work and Materials necessary to compleat the said House" at the Sum of £396 . 12 . 2 ; George Hatherell, of St. James's Parish, Carpenter, estimated " all the Carpenter's, Joyner's, Glazier's, Smith's, and Ironmonger's Work and Materials " at £283 .18 . 6 ; and Robert Parsons, of Lyncombe and Widcombe Parish, Carver, estimated " the Corinthian Capitals, the Pine Apple Ornaments, with the Heads and Festoons in the West Front, the Inriching all the Mouldings in the same Front, in the Architrave Chimneys, in the Corinthian Entablature round the Drawing Room and Stair Case, and in the Cornice round the Hall, the Cutting the Trusses for the Front Door Case and all the other Carver's Work necessary " at £55 . ig . 4. 

John Ford was to be paid £46 . 12 . 2 when the building was at the height of the ground floor sills, another £200 when the house was covered in, and the remaining £150 on completion. George Hatherell was to be paid £83 . 18 . 6 when the house was covered in, £100 when the sashes were put up, the floors boarded and the stairs completed, and the remaining £100 on completion of the work. Robert Parsons was to have £30 . 19 . 4 when the house was covered in, and the remaining £25 on completion of the work. A curious point is that in the first payment odd sums are included, leaving clear balances, exactly the reverse of our present method. It seems to be another proof of the absence of extras on completion. The agreement is dated the 10 th September, 1748, and the work was to be finished by the 24th June following, under a penalty of £100 apiece from each of the three contractors.

 

The endorsement is an agreement on the part of John Ford to carry out the earth in the rooms under the Drawing Room and Dressing Room, to pave the floors, and plaster the walls and ceilings of the same, and complete them in a workmanlike manner for £16. The total amount to be spent upon the house was thus £752 . 10 . 0d

 

In the grounds of Titan Barrow is another older house in which is a dairy, with the slab quaintly supported on consoles and balusters. This house is said to have been used as a dormitory by the servants, there being so little bedroom accommodation in the house itself, and it was probably altered by Wood, and the dairy fitted up at the same time.

 

The name of Ford as a builder has a special claim to our attention, for the late Mr. John Stothert Bartrum, who was a descendant of his, notes in his " Reminiscences," that in Colerne Church, near the vestry door, is a tablet to the memory of " Mr. John Ford, builder, of the City of Bath, who died the 6th of September, 1767, aged 56 years, whose abilities and enterprise in business in a great measure contributed to the erection of the handsome buildings and streets of that City."

https://archive.org/details/cu31924015704285/page/n313/mode/2up?q=Ford

He was connected to other Bath artists: he collaborated with Robert Parsons on a monument to Howard Packer Winchcombe of 1747 at Bucklebury, Berkshire (see image below) and his daughter Mary (1733-1815) married the sculptor Joseph Plura in 1750. 

By May 1753 Joseph 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 I had an address at Charles St, Bath and in his will (Prob 11/932/3430) it mentions work yard and shops in John St (now runs parallel to Milsom St south to Quiet Street but ran further south into what is now Queen Street built by 1773).

John Ford II mentions in his will (PROB 11/1388/285) - the 5 adjoining properties in Charles St and property in New King St (next door running West from Charles St.).

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

                                                          Thomas  Jelly and John Ford and the Circus.

A Building lease for no  I the "Kings" Circus was granted by John Wood in 20 July 1757 to John Ford and Thomas Jelly (Bath Records Office PP 2080).

A second lease for no 2 The Circus was granted by Wood on 20 September 1760.

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

New King Street was built in 1764 -70. The terraced houses along the south side of the street were built by the stone mason John Ford, with Thomas Jelly, and those to the north by the carpenter James Coleman.

Jelly had property in Charles St - John Palmer (I) the Bath architect , who had married Edith Harding, on 10 January 1762, at St.James’s Church, where three of their children were baptised53, later lived at No.6 Charles Street ‘on the east side of Upper Charles Street’, the freehold being part of Jelly’s estate). There he died, on 19 July 1817, aged 79

Thomas Jelly had also lived in Charles Street, probably at No. 1, where subsequently resided Thomas, the elder of his two sons - both of whom were attorneys - by his second wife (‘Miss Mary Smith of Bradford, an agreeable young lady with a handsome fortune’, as the newspaper described her, when he married her in September 1760.

https://historyofbath.org/images/documents/Survey%20of%20Old%20Bath%20No%2017.pdf

see - https://historicengland.org.uk/listing/the-list/list-entry/1396278?section=official-list-entry

In 1761 he was responsible with Samuel Sainsbury (tiler) for 9 houses in Edgard Buildings built on Bath Corporation leases (Pevsner) conceived as part of the Milsom Street developement.

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

The Fords in the Bath Press.

Bath Chronicle and Weekly Gazette Thursday 02 June 1762 in  To be Lett, or Sold The EIGHTH HOUSE On the East Side of Gay-street. Enquire of Mr. JOHN FORD, Builder, in Charles Street, near Queen-Square, BATH;

Bath Chronicle and Weekly Gazette - Thursday, 09 December 1762.

Bath Chronicle and Weekly Gazette - Thursday 02 June 1763. - Ref. John Ford Mason of Charles St.

Thomas Jelly (c.1720-1781) became a freeman of the city, on 15 March 1741, after his apprenticeship to Methusalem (sic) Hutchins, carpenter, later, in 1752, Jelly’s trade is given as ‘joyner and carpenter’

Thomas Jelly, carpenter was involved in the construction of many buildings in Bath - eg the Circus, Brock St, North Parade Blgs, St James's Parade, Chatham Row, the Vinyards and Walcot Parade. see -

https://historyofbath.org/images/documents/Survey%20of%20Old%20Bath%20No%2017.pdf

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

Bath Chronicle. Thu, 03/07/1783.

Property: auction in fee - mssge, garden & orchard 3 acr with choice cider [apple] trees in Ditchridge [Ditteridge] parish nr Drewett's Mill in Box, now in occup Mr Wm. Bowsher. At Queen's Head, Box on 21 Jul. by Thomas Brown. Also pasture Hanger's Hill, 3 acr in Ditchridge, now in occup Mr Michael Sumsion. Enq to Mr Daniel Sumsion at Mr John Ford's, Charles St, Bath; or Stephen Vezey, attorney at Box

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

Bath Chronicle and Weekly Gazette - Thursday 18 April 1765.

The reference here is also to his brother Stephen Ford (mason) d. 1785.

Bath Chronicle and Weekly Gazette - Thursday 3 March 1803.

John Ford I 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 (1736 - 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 (check this ref) presumably it refers to the supply of marble chimneypieces.

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

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

The Monument to Martha Maria Phillips.

St Swithun's Parish Church, Bathford.

1759.

The monument from the Bath workshop of John Ford I (d. 1767).

Here the background of the relief is flat, rather than the textured work as on the relief of the 1764 monument to Leonard Coward in Bath Abbey and that on the bath Abbey Malone relief.

The relief on this monument whilst essentially the same as the slightly later Coward monument of  1764 at the Bath Abbey it lacks its' subtleties - this is particularly apparent in the detailing of the hair.

This could be explained by the maturing of the work of the sculptor.

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

Bath Abbey.

Monument to Leonard Coward (d. 1764) and his wife Elizabeth d.1759,

and their son Leonard (1717 - 1795).

The monument from the Ford family workshops.

Although there is no inscription it closely resembles the post 1759 relief on the monument in Bathford Church to Martha Maria Phillips which is inscribed Ford Bath has the same relief but without the "hatching" on the background. at first glance they appear to be very similar but closer examination might suggest that the Bathford relief is a lesser quality version/copy.

There is a strong likelihood that the very fine relief on this monument and the recently dis interred  (2020)  relief of equally high quality from the monument of  C. M. (Catherine Malone) were sculpted by Joseph Plura

Leonard Coward the elder who died in 1761 who was a ‘laceman’ and rented property in Stall Street. 

His son Leonard, who died in 1795, furthered family success as a JP, and later as Mayor of Bath on 4 occasions. He was one of those who signed off plans for the new Guildhall in Bath in 1777.

The skull on the relief is repeated on several Ford monuments.

See The Survey of Bath and District No.19, November 2004  pages 42 - 43 - Leonard Coward Gentleman, 1717-1795 by Ruth Haskins.

https://historyofbath.org/images/documents/Survey%20of%20Old%20Bath%20No%2019.pdf

                                                               

   ..................................

The Monument to Catherine Malone in Bath Abbey.

Here attributed to the workshops of Thomas Ford I of Bath,

The background hatching is the same as that on the monument to Leonard Coward  illustrated above -

 The Bathford monument  relief to Martha Maria Phillips which is inscribed Ford Bath has the same relief but without the "hatching" on the background.

The sculpture, which was obviously part of a memorial, had been found carefully placed face down in amongst a mass of broken 18th- and early 19th-century funerary monuments that had been re-purposed as packing material around the Abbey’s late 1860s heating system.

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.

 By 1759, Catherine’s health had begun to deteriorate, and the family decided that a move back to England might help. After a short stay in Highgate, London, Catherine moved to Bath, where it was hoped that the curative powers of the spa water might help with her ailments. The ‘treatments’ and lodgings in Bath did not come cheaply, as her son Edmond dryly noted: ‘the expenses at Bath left little money to spare, and the family legal practice presented the best route to a secure future’.

 

Perhaps 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 very 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 -

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

The oval tablet from the monument the oval tablet with inscription is now on the wall of the North Aisle in the Abbey.

In 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 & 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.

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

A Woodcut by Jos Cross in Remarks on English Churches by JH Markland. 1843.

Page 162.

Here is an example of the 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.

Again in 1825 John Britton notes ref. Bath Abbey ‘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.

https://thehistorypress.co.uk/article/a-gallery-of-sculpture-bath-abbey-baths-forgotten-georgian-tourist-attraction/

View from the East End of the Interior of Bath Abbey, with Congregation.

Samuel Hieronymous Grimm (1733 - 94).

View, from the east end, of the interior of Bath Abbey, with congregation. 

from Grimm's Topographical Drawings, Vol. X. England; 1788. Drawing. Source: Add. 15546, No.101. British Library

The monument is visible to the left of the first column from the right.

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

The Monument to Richard "Beau" Nash - Bath Abbey.

by John Ford II - erected 1791.

The Pediment (and urn?) is now missing after the monument was moved and re erected.

The photograph of the monument at Steeple Ashton here attributed to Ford (below) shows how the pediment would have originally appeared.

Nash's monument is almost unique in the Abbey in that it was originally erected thirty years after his death.  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.  

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,iIn 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. 

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. 

Marble Monument to William Long of the City of Bath.

Died 9 July 1793.

Steeple Ashton, Wilts.

Here suggested as by the Ford Workshop, although not inscribed it repeats the design of the Nash monument - lthough the oval paterae here are horizontal.

This monument retains the broken pediment and urn now missing on the Bath Abbey monument to Richard "Beau" Nash

----------------------------

The Monument to Winchcombe Howard Packer d. 1746.

at St Mary the Virgin, Bucklebury, Berkshire.

Erected 1747.

Inscribed - Parsons & Ford. Bath.

the image below from - https://thechurchexporer.blogspot.com/2020/02/st-mary-bucklebury.html

An excellent and comprehensive look at the church.

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

A list of works by the Fords of Bath.

This list does not include the Bath Abbey Coward Monument - and there are probably more which remain to be identified.

They were also probably responsible for numerous chimneypieces installed in local houses many of which were removed particularly in the late 19th/early 20th century. There are probably numerous Bathstone monuments / gravestones in  churchyards in Gloucestershire Somerset and Wiltshire which came from the Ford workshops.

The list below compiled from - https://gunnis.henry-moore.org/henrymoore/index.php

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

William Cox -  Funerary Monument - 1790? - Piddletrenthide, Dorset.

The very poor photographs here retrieved  from -

 https://historicengland.org.uk/listing/the-list/list-entry/1324151?section=comments-and-photos

Unfortunately the inscription is impossible to read.

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

Sir John Fust and Dame Phillippa Fust.- Funerary Monument - c1779 -

 St Michael the Archangel, Hill, near Thornbury, Glos.  

The Monument is not inscribed but is obviously from the Ford workshop.

repeating the relief of the grieving woman seen on other Ford monuments.

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

John Russ - d. 1758 - Funerary Monument - 

Castle Cary, Somerset.

Inscribed on the supporting bracket Jno. Ford Bath Fecit.

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

John St Albyn - Funerary Monument - 1766 - 

Stringston, nr Bridgwater. Somerset.

Inscribed Ford Bath Ft on the supporting bracket.

Images above from -

https://www.facebook.com/groups/584528982020638/posts/2074783926328462/

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

Morgan Graves - Funerary Monument -1770  - St Lawrence, Mickleton, Glos.

For a Mezzotint portrait of Morgan Graves see

https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/object/P_1902-1011-2301

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

Day (or Dawe) family member - Funerary Monument, nd. 

St Mary Magdalene - Ditcheat, Somerset.

The form of the skull on the apron should be noted - it is repeated on other Ford monuments - including on the reliefs with the grieving child on both the  Coward Monument at Bath Abbey, the Phillips Monument at Bathford, and the Smith monument at Combe Hay.

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

Robert Smith d.1755 of Combe Hay Manor - Funerary Monument.  Erected 1760 - 

Parish Church, Combe Hay, Somerset.

Inscribed on the supporting bracket.

Note the use of  the Ford type skull on the apron.

Information below from - https://somerset-cat.swheritage.org.uk/records/DD/HY/4/11/1

Deeds relating to the manor of Stoney Littleton, with Weavers or Deans Farm (296a 1 r. 36 p.) and Stoney Littleton Farm (462a 1 r. 22 p.), all in Wellow. [1591]-1883

In 1591 Queen Elizabeth I granted the Rectory of Wellow (formerly belonging to the Monastery of Cirencester), with tithes of corn, blade, grain, etc., to Sir Walter Hungerford of Farleigh Hungerford [Latin]. In 1700 John Lodington of London, merchant, and others conveyed the tithes of corn, grain and hay in the manor of Stoney Littleton to Robert Smith of Stoney Littleton, gent. (This deed includes a recitation of the purchase of the castle park and manor of Farleigh Hungerford by Henry Bayntun of Spye Park, Chittoe, Wiltshire, 11 Mar 1687).

The property remained in the hands of the Smith family until 1820. It formed the pre-nuptial marriage settlement of John Smith, second son of Robert and Dorothy Smith of Stoney Littleton, and Anne Bennett, daughter of Thomas Bennett of Steeple Ashton, Wiltshire, Esq., 1713. By the will of John Smith of Stoney Littleton, Esq. (13 May 1747, cod. 1 Jan. 1747, proved 26 Aug. 1748) it passed to his daughter Ann, wife of his nephew John Smith of Combe Hay, and in 1767 a grant of annuity was made by John Smith of Stoney Littleton, Esq., prior to his marriage to Catherine Houstoun, daughter of Alexander Houstoun, clerk, Dr of Physics. The pre-nuptial marriage settlement between John Smith of Combe Hay, Esq., and Mary Shirley, daughter of the Hon. George Shirley of Eatington, Warwickshire, settled the manor of Stoney Littleton and the manor of Combe Hay, in the parishes of Combe Hay, Wellow, Dunkerton, South Stoke and Englishcombe. Stoney Littleton Farm was leased for 14 years to Joseph Pointing of Stoney Littleton, yeoman, and Weavers Farm was leased to James Rossiter of the same, yeoman, 1801. In 1820 Capel Hanbury Leigh (formerly Smith) of Pontypool, Monmouth, and Charles Hanbury Tracy of Toddington, Gloucestershire, Esq., conveyed the property to Daniel Clutterbuck of Bradford, Wiltshire, Esq. [includes detailed map and schedule of lands]. In 1823 Clutterbuck conveyed it to Thomas Samuel Jolliffe, Esq.

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

Barbara Montagu - d. 1765 - Funerary Monument. -

St Mary's Church, Charlecombe, Bath.

Inscribed Ford Fecit Bath on the supporting bracket.

Photographs here taken by the author 28 October 2025.

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

The Ward Family -  Funerary Monument  - 1770 - St Martin's, North Stoke, Somerset.

Inscribed on the supporting bracket - Ford Bath Ft.

The top section - the obelisk has been removed (fallen off?),  only a small section of the top of the obelisk - about 30 cms remains (currently sitting against the wall) without any of the inscription.

Photographs by the author in very low light.

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

John Browne and Robert Browne - Funerary Monument - 1771 - St Mary's  Church, 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 (d.1773) - and his wife Mary (d.Funerary Monument - c.1773 - Batcombe, Somerset.

Inscribed on the supporting bracket Ford Bath Ft.

Thomas Coward of Spargrove, Batcombe.

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

Jane Talbot d. 1761 - Funerary Monument - St Leonard's, Keevil, Wilts.

Inscribed on the supporting bracket Ford Bath Fecit.

To my mind the poor quality of the lumpy sculpture of the woman lets this monument down. 

The form of the urn with the label should be noted.

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

Twenty vases  - Presumably of Bath Stone – 1763 for Sir William Lee, of  Hartwell House – untraced.

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

George Husey, d. 1741, erected c.1759 - Funerary Monument - 

North Wall of the Chancel, Holy Cross, Seend, Wilts.

This monument could be much improved with a gentle wash!

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Interiors_of_churches_in_Wiltshire

Another monument at Seend can perhaps be tentatively attributed to the Ford workshop.

Robert Usher d. 1774.

Whilst much simplified it resembles the design of the Smith Monument of c. 1760 at Combe Hay, near Bath.

There is no workshop inscription.

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

Charles Holder - d. 1763 the Funerary Monument -  

St Nicholas Church, Bathampton, Somerset.

Photographs here taken by the author 3 November 2025.

This handsome monument has dtails which are very much influenced by those of Henry Cheere of Westminster - in particular the paw feet supporting the sarcophagus and the use of exotic marble veneers.

The form of the pediment is very similar to that of the Coward monument in Bath Abbey.

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

The Ford Workshop Monuments at Steeple Ashton.

Anne Wainhouse - Funerary Monument - 1771 - St Mary's Church, Steeple Ashton, Wilts.

The Monument to Richard Long - d. 6 May 1760.

Steeple Ashton Church, Wiltshire.

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

Monument to Anne Carey d. 1772. daughter of Robert Smith of Combe Hay, nr Bath, Somerset.

Tentatively suggested here as by the Ford Workshop.

Steeple Ashton.

The very fine Funerary Monument to Robert Smith (d.1755) -  is inscribed Ford  and erected 1760 - in theParish Church, Combe Hay, Somerset. (see the photographs above).

Although lacking an inscription by Ford comparison with the Marlborough monument  to Elizabeth and Robert Clavering (illustrated below) suggests the attribution. In particular the details of the urn, the form of the pair of brackets and the use of the coloured marble all suggest Ford's work.

The Monument to John Smith MP (1727 - 75) of Combe Hay Manor, nr Bath.

Steeple Ashton Church.

Erected 1770s ??

It is not inscribed but its manufacture by the Ford workshop should be considered. The Ford workshop made the very fine monument to his father Robert Smith (d. 17 ) in the Church at Combe Hay,

Smith was a Member of the Parliament for Bath 19 November 1766 -12 November 1775.

He married in 1757 the Hon. Anne Tracy, daughter of Thomas Charles Tracy, 5th Viscount Tracy and left one son, John Smith (1759–1813), who changed his name to John Smith Leigh and was High Sheriff of Somerset for 1811

The Monument to Edward Blagden (d. 1750) of Hinton, Steeple Ashton.

No inscription.

For good measure another fine monument at Steeple Ashton which might be attributable to the Ford Workshop.

The flaming urns are repeated on the Elizabeth Tyrell monument of c. 1760's at Didmarton

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

The Monument to Elizabeth Tyrell, d. 1745.

St Lawrence Church, Didmarton, Gloucestershire.

This monument was erected in her memory by her daughter Elizabeth Forrester (d. 1763).

Tentatively ascribed to the Ford workshop - it should be compared with the Anne Cary monument at Steeple Ashton (illustrated above) and the Marlborough monument (illustrated below).

The detailing of the Urn here is particularly instructive as is also the use of the coloured marble.

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

Charles Inman and Ralph Preston - Funerary Monument. 1772 Spanish Town Cathedral, Jamaica.

Currently no images available.

The Monument is inscribed -

TO THE MEMORY OF MESSRS. CHARLES INMAN, & RALPH PRESTON FROM LANCASTER, IN GREAT BRITAIN, BUT LATE OF THIS PARISH, MERCHANTS. THE FORMER DIED 14 AUG 1767, AET 42 THE LATTER THE 29th OF JANY. 1772, ONLY TWENTY SIX.

  Ford, Bath, Sculp.

 

Six eulogistic lines follow. C. Inman, born 1725, Son of Christopher Inman, by his wife, Mary Patefield, married " Lady M. Bowlby," and by her had a son, ancestor of the Inmans of Upton Manor, co. Chester.

In 1745 Inman is mentioned as a consignee on board the ships Sunderland and Happy Return, but in the following year he is mentioned as a merchant at Barbados. There is a memorial tablet in Kingston Parish Church, Jamaica, jointly erected to Charles Inman and Ralph Preston 'from Lancaster in Great Britain but late of this parish, merchants'. It seems probable that the Charles Inman of Barbados later removed to Jamaica. Charles Inman died 14 August 1767, aged 42 and Ralph Preston died 29 january 1772 aged only 26. The tablet was erected by their friend M. Benson, in all probability a Lancaster man too and very likely  Moses Benson

See Philip Wright, Monumental Inscriptions of Jamaica

see - also

FURNITURE AND THE PLANTATION: FURTHER LIGHT ON THE WEST INDIAN TRADE OF AN ENGLISH FURNITURE FIRM IN THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY.

K. E. Ingram

Furniture History, Vol. 28 (1992), pp. 42-97 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u7wjRuf4HnY

 

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

Elizabeth and Robert Clavering (1720 -74) - Funerary Monument - 1773.

 St Peter and St Paul Church, Marlborough, Wilts.

Inscribed Ford on the supporting bracket. 

The central urn should be compared with the urns on the Elizabeth Tyrell monument at Didmarton illustrated above and the urn on the Monument to Anne Carey at Steeple Ashton (illustrated above).

The pair of smaller urns follow the same pattern as the pair of urns (here lacking flame finials) on the Elizabeth Tyrell Monumennt at Didmarton.

Robert Clavering was rector of Marlborough from 1723 - son Algernon.

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

Rev. Samuel Woodforde - Funerary Monument - 1772 - Ansford, Castle Cary, Somerset.

image from - https://www.parsonwoodforde.org.uk/features-object-ansford-tablet.html

see Diary of a Country Parson, page 113. -

On March 7 (1772) he sends Mr. Ford, the Bath Statuary the inscription for his father’s monument : the latter will cost -£14 14s. The Diarist does not tell us the inscription on this monument, but Phelps, who succeeded Collinson as the historian of Somerset, gives it in full. Phelps says ;

‘ Against the north wall of the chancel [Ansford Church] is a neat monument of white marble, having inscribed on it

 H.S.E. Samuel Woodforde, A.M. ecclesiae de Castle

Cary Vicarius j hujus item parochise annos magis quinquaginta rector indefessus, et honoratissimo comiti de

Tankerville k sacris domesticus. Vir erat antiquis moribus, virtute, fide ; pauperibus erogator largus : pater

prudens ac providus : amicus certus, cordatus, ndus.

Eodem tumulo quiescunt cineres uxoris amatae sequd

ac amantissimae Janae Woodforde, quae per quadraginta

fere annos in domesticis vitae muneribus obeundis

plurimis antecdlere, nuUi forsan secunda videbatur.

Amabil« in vita, nec in morte divisi sunt.

Ilia prius Feb. 8, 1766.

|Etatis ] 60

Ille secutus Mali 16, 1771. ( anno J 76

Valete suaves animae, sed n

The Diary is available on line at -

 https://ia601500.us.archive.org/16/items/in.ernet.dli.2015.227134/2015.227134.The-Diary_text.pdf

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

Unidentified subject - Funerary Monument. nd. St Nicholas, Cork. No further information.

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

Young Mr Worlidge - Marble Bust - 1764 - Exhibited at the  Free Society, London, untraced.

Thomas Worlidge II (b. 1745).

Thomas Worlidge I the artist and engraver is said to have had thirty-two children by his three marriages, but only Thomas, the son by his third wife, survived him. Thomas married, in 1787, his cousin Phoebe, daughter of Alexander Grimaldi (1714−1800); her brother was assistant to Thomas Worlidge I, she was buried in Bunhill Fields on 14 January 1829. Her husband migrated to the West Indies in 1792. In March 1826 he was again in London, and while employed as compositor in the office of the Morning Advertiser was sent to prison for an assault. His father drew a portrait of him, which bore the title ‘A Boy's Head. (this info needs fact checking).

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

John Andrews - Funerary Monument. c. 1763 / 4  - St Nicholas, Bromham, Wilts.

Inscribed on the supporting bracket - Ford Bath.

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

Francis Turner Blyth - Funerary Monument. 1770. Jackfield, Salop. Untraced.

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

The Ford Family Monument.

Colerne, Wiltshire.

The monument has been moved and rather clumsily re erected on the North wall of the Chancel.

Several pieces are missing.

https://historyofbath.org/images/documents/Survey%20of%20Old%20Bath%20No%2019.pdf

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 Joseph Pluras and family -

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

https://bathartandarchitecture.blogspot.com/2019/07/the-parsons-of-bath-18th-century-stone_64.html

https://bathartandarchitecture.blogspot.com/2019/07/the-parsons-of-bath-18th-century-stone_16.html

https://bathartandarchitecture.blogspot.com/2018/08/18th-to-mid-19th-century-sculpture-in.html

https://bathartandarchitecture.blogspot.com/2018_08_16_archive.html

https://english18thcenturyportraitsculpture.blogspot.com/2018/07/parsons-and-greenway-sculptors-of-bath.html

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

Of Tangential interest -

There is a wax self portrait c.1782 by the Bath sculptor Joseph Plura the Younger 1753-1785. He was the son of Joseph ( Guiseppe) Plura who worked in Bath and London. Joseph enrolled at the Royal Academy School in 1773 and then travelled to Italy in 1777 where  he made a bust of one of the Hippisley family of Ston Easton Park, Somerset, whereabouts now unknown. 

He exhibited 2 wax portraits at the R.A in 1782 , probably one being this self portrait now held at the V&A museum and stated in their catalogue a few years ago to be his only known surviving work . 

Two other wax portraits are known to exist, one being of a close relation of his in Bath, William Elkington, (the brother of the wife of John Ford) and another of Italian writer and political exile Baretti. 

John Plura, Auctioneer. Bath.

John Plura was the son of Joseph Plura and his wife Mary (daughter of John Ford I).

 

In the 1824 Gye's Bath Directory Mr Plura is listed at John St. This Plura is the Auctioneer mentioned frequently in the Bath Chronicle.

 For Plura and his business at John St, Bath see -

 http://www.adamgallery.com/upload/Kirsten_Elliott_Heritage_statement.pdf

From this we can gather that John Plura was at his Great Rooms on the east side at 9 John St - behind 10 Milsom St until the mid 1830's. Kirsten Elliot also suggests that the Great Rooms were also accessed from Milsom St until 1795.

 The Bath Chronicle has numerous references to John Plura's auctioneering business from 1784. By 1785 he was at 10, Milsom St. Bath.

 

22 September 1785, Plura (Upholder and Auctioneer)  thanks his friends for helping after a fire at his warehouses - News - Fire - a dreadful fire occurred in warehouses of Mr Plura, John Street, Bath last Friday between 1 & 2 o'clock. It raged for several hours, burnt several houses & a large stock of furniture lost. Several £1,000s worth of damage.

 

9 Nov. 1786 Marriages: Mr John Plura of Bath to Miss Delaval (dtr of late Sir Francis Delaval, bart) at St Clement's Church, Strand, on Friday.

 

3 July 1788 Insured premises at Milsom St with Sun Fire Office.