The Monument to William Hall (died 1753).
and his wife and Daughter.
Friday, 2 January 2026
Some more random notes regarding the Ford Family of Stone and Marble Masons - 18th Century Builders of Bath.
I have already metaphorically put pen to paper regarding the Careers of the Ford Family of stone and Marble Masons of Bath.
John Ford (1711 - 67).
John Ford was the son of William Ford of Colerne who married Mary
Mullins 13 April 1710 at Colerne.
In his will (PROB 11/932/343) 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 sculptor and assistant to Prince Hoare), Betty, Martha and Susanna.
It appears that he had already made arrangements for his
daughter Mary and her husband the sculptor Joseph Plura and their children.
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) but only one can be identified with any certainty
The following attributions of buildings by the Fords need to be checked - info from -https://julianorbach.weebly.com/uploads/2/3/7/5/23756946/wiltshire_architects.odt
1768 - Ford the Younger was involved in the building as
Mason of 25 Royal Crescent Bath along with Charles Coles plasterer.
John Ford I 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.
The Fords and the Building of Gay Street and the Circus
Very low resolution and almost unreadable image of a plan at Bath Record Office.
Showing the plots of the houses in Gay Street and the first houses to be built in the Circus.
I will hopefully be able to obtain better images in due course.
1, Gay Street in trust Thomas Jelly
2 and 3, Gay Street - John Ford.
8 . Gay St - Prince Hoare.
9. John Ford and Thomas Jelly.
1, the Circus John Ford and Thomas Jelly.
2. The Circus John Ford and Thomas Jelly.
..........................
William Ford, Stephen Ford.
https://historyofbath.org/images/ProceedingsPDFs/PROCEEDINGS%2007%202018-19.pdf
On 26 February 1755 Charles Hayne, a descendant and heir of Thomas Hayne, sold to Thomas Omer, Gentleman, and Thomas Jelly, carpenter, "All that close of meadow or pasture ground called the Winniards (Vinyards) containing by estimate 5 acres being in the parish of Walcot and adjoining to the city of Bath". Omer and Jelly were among the leading developers of Georgian Bath, Omer the financier and Jelly the architect and builder.
Other parts of Winniards (Vinyards) were being laid out for building at this time in a rather piecemeal fashion. To the south on the same day, 21 December 1756, Omer and Jelly conveyed to John Hutchins of Bath, plasterer, the plot on which now stand 10 Vineyards and the houses behind. Hutchins in turn conveyed the plot to John Hensley of Bath, carpenter, on 25 September 1760.
By that time the adjoining plot had been acquired by Selina, Countess of Huntingdon. The Huntingdon Chapel was completed in 1765 as the home for her strict Methodist sect, the Connexion.
By a deed of 26 February 1761, Omer and Jelly conveyed the 20 Vineyards plot to William Sainsbury and John Mann.
Omer and Jelly conveyed the plot containing 18 and 19 Vineyards to Biggs and Prynn by deeds of 16 and 17 April 1765. By a deed of 19 April 1765, Biggs and Prynn conveyed a plot extending "123 feet backwards towards the west" to two other Bath builders, John Hensley (who had built No.10) and William Davis, who then built the houses which are now 18 and 19 Vineyards and sold them to the Reverend Edward Sheppard (is this Dr Shepherd of Chatham Row).
The plots on which 1 to 6 Vineyards stand were conveyed on 22 February 1764 by Omer and Jelly to a number of builders:
• Henry Gibbs of Bath carpenter and James Allen of Bath
baker
• John Latty of Bath carpenter and Richard Lingers of Bath
mason.
• William Davis of Bath tyler and plasterer and Samuel
Rundell of Bath barber.
• Jasper Davis of Bath painter and Samuel Rundell of Bath
barber.
• William Ford of Bath mason and Stephen Ford of Bath master
builder (5 & 6).
7 Vineyards must already have been built by then, as the builders were required to erect a 'good and substantial messuage in such a form as the tenement erected by Benjamin Chilton in the same row'. Chilton, a plumber, had the plot immediately to the north.
The line dividing these plots from Belmont was marked by a trench cut in the ground.
These names and occupations speak of a great local entrepreneurial spirit. Everyone seems to have been getting in on the development act. We also see the same combination of artisan and financier as with Jelly and Omer.
13 and 15 Vineyards are similar in design. They were complete by about 1770, but curiously there was a 20' gap between them. In 1771 the Chronicle carried an advertisement by Mr Walter Bennett, who occupied No.13, offering his "well-built brick dwelling house" for sale together with a 20 foot plot "on which another house might be erected, having the walls on both sides, from the Roofing quite down to the Kitchen Floor, already built". The house and vacant plot were still being offered for sale in September 1774 but the space had been filled with a new house by 1779, cleverly linking the two earlier houses.
.........................
Jelly, Palmer and St James Parade.
St James's Parade, originally Thomas Street, was the centrepiece of a development from 1765 onwards by Richard Jones, Thomas Jelly and Henry Fisher who were granted liberty in September 1765 to 'pull down the Boro' walls next to the Ambry gardens in order to build new houses there'.
The street was closed off with bollards at each end, and the houses fronted a broad paved walk in place of the road. The elevations, attributed to Thomas Jelly and John Palmer (c. 1738 – 19 July 1817) show the influence of John Wood the Younger's work elsewhere, as in Rivers Street. The houses were mainly built in c1768.
Of Tangential interest.
Deeds sold by Bonhams referring to Garrard and the developement of the Kings Circus in particular 7 The Circus built for William Pitt- together with attested copies made in 1767 of the bargain and sale from Thomas Garrard to Jenny, widow of John Wood, and John Wood Jr of The Hayes, Walcot (just outside Bath), “for the purpose of building the King’s Circus and Gay Street, Bath”, 1754, of the sale of No.7 by William Pitt to Robert and Charles Dingley, 1763, of the sale by the Dingleys and Thomas Nuthall to Charles Dingley, 1766, and of the sale by Charles Dingley to W.A. Ashhurst, 1767, and of the sale by Ashhurst to Lady Bradshaigh, 1771; plus later and related deeds and copies, the originals (from 1775) on vellum, the transcripts on paper, the first duty-stamped, some dust-staining etc., folio
Tuesday, 30 December 2025
The 18th Century Monuments in All Saints Church Weston, Bath. No 7. Thomas Peterson d. 1803 inscribed and firmly attributed to the Greenway Brothers of Bristol.
I had no intention when I commenced this piece to write the life histories of the Mangotsfiled / Bristol Greenway brothers but a little investigation brought up some interesting facts not least the later career as an architect of Francis Howard Greenway after transportation for forgery to New South Wales Australia.
Francis Howard Greenway (1777 - 1837). Olive Greenway (1775 - 1846) and John Tripp Greenway. Some notes -
Francis Greenway (1777 - 1837) the architect was born at Mangotsfield, Bristol - died East Maitland, Newcastle, New South Wales, Australia.
He was the youngest son of Francis Greenway (sometimes Grinway) mason (d.c 1793) and Anne Webb (of Colerne).
There are several mentions of Francis Greenway (Snr) mason at the house at Stoke Gifford in the Badminton Muniments at Gloucester Archives - it became known as Stoke Park, and was rebuilt in 1750 by
Norborne Berkeley, 4th Baron Botetourt (died 1770), from a neo-classical design
by Thomas Wright.
References including - 1788 Francis Greenway repairing and cleaning the monument in
Stoke church
Their grandfather was John Greenway, born 1720, who married Mary Tripp, a member of a family also well-known round the outskirts of Bristol. This also explains how John Tripp Greenway, one of Francis Greenway’s brothers, came to be so named.
For an useful overview of the life and works of Francis Greenway and his family see -
..........................
Francis (Howard) Greenway - Architect.
Probably the most useful source of information is the article by Allan Keevil pages - 44 in the The Survey of Bath and District The Magazine of the Survey of Old Bath and Its Associates No.21, October 2006.
I have quoted or adapted liberally from this essay.
On 28 March 1792, ‘Francis Grinway [sic] son of Francis Grinway [sic] of Downend, County of Gloucester, [was] put to William Paty, Architect, and Sarah his wife for seven years. Friends to find apparel and washing’
William Paty (1758-1800) was the son of Thomas Paty (1718-1789), a Bristol mason, statuary and architect, described by Walter Ison, as ‘perhaps the most talented member of this family’.
Thomas Paty had been called in by Bath Corporation to arbitrate in the dispute about the plan to be used for the building of the new Bath Guildhall, in 1775. His son, William, was the first Bristol architect to be trained in London at the Royal Academy architectural schools. He then worked in partnership with his brother and father in Bristol, from 1777. Like his father, he was an extremely accomplished statuary, and the effect of his London training began to show in his architectural work in the 1780s, in a highly accomplished Adamesque manner. Work by him included Blaise Castle House, Henbury, in 1795 (described as remarkably forward-looking, and possibly influenced by Humphry Repton), for John Scandrett Harford the Elder (1754-1815), a member of the wealthy Quaker family of Bristol merchants and bankers.
For Francis Greenway, Paty’s influence and training would have been invaluable; it is clear that Greenway was an apt pupil.
He must have completed his seven-year apprenticeship in 1799, the year before his master William Paty died, when the business was taken over by James Foster the Elder (1748-1823), who had also been a pupil and apprentice of William Paty.
Francis Greenway was then employed
by and became the protégé of the architect John Nash, at 28 Dover Street with whom he began
to build both a minor reputation and career.
The
son of a Welsh millwright, London-born Nash had served an apprenticeship with
the architect and former sculptor Sir Robert Taylor before branching out on his own as a surveyor,
carpenter and builder. An indifferent early career in London soon came unstuck,
with the failure of speculative ventures in Bloomsbury Square and Great Russell
Street. In 1783, a bankrupted Nash retreated to the town of Carmarthen on the
River Towy in South Wales and the support of his mother’s family. And so began
what the architectural historian Sir John Summerson described as ‘ten years of
provincial oblivion
In 1800, Greenway exhibited two
architectural drawings at the Royal Academy, he gave his address as ‘At Mr. Nash’s.
From Nash’s office in 1800, Greenway exhibited drawings or paintings of ‘The Saxon Gateway, College Green, [Bristol Cathedral] Bristol’ and ‘West door, Magdalen College chapel, Oxford’.
In 1802, he submitted a work, or works, entitled ‘Chapel,
Library, etc., [designed for the side of a quadrangle] at Bristol’. This second
appearance at the academy may have been with Greenway’s own designs executed
under a new-found autonomy, but it is his exhibit for 1803 that is most
intriguing of all. The catalogue lists a work named ‘Thornbury castle restored,
with a canal brought from the river Severn up to Thornbury
He later perhaps designed the “Market House, at Carmarthen”, the Chapel Library, the Clifton Club, and the restoration work at the
Thornbury Castle.
Shortly after his marriage in 1804, Greenway went into business with his two brothers, Olive Greenway and John Tripp Greenway, offering the services advertised in the Bristol Gazette in 1805:
“All orders for marble monuments, Chimney Pieces, and every kind of ornamental stone work shall be carefully attended to, and executed in the most artist-like manner.”
In 1806 he designed the Hotel and Assembly Rooms in the Mall at Clifton, which his brothers contracted to build. During the same period the brothers were buying unfinished houses in Clifton in a speculative capacity, which they completed and then sold.
Francis Greenway, architect, married Mary Moore on 27
April 1809 in Bristol by licence, witnesses John Tripp Greenway and Mary
Greenway.
In 1809 the brothers became bankrupt and the Clifton Assembly Rooms were completed by Joseph Kay.
It appears that for the next four years, the business continued until April, 1809, when legal questions were raised regarding both the family business and some of its present and past contracts.
One month later, the word “bankruptcy”
appeared in the paper, and the Greenway’s career became jeopardized. As a result,
the Greenways’ possessions were put up for auction in order to satisfy their
creditors. The precise reasons for the legal actions and subsequent bankruptcy
have been lost in local legend and unclear newspaper reports regarding a
long-standing issue of water rights in and around Bath (where construction of
buildings for the use of visitors who wanted to take advantage of the healing
waters was common). Greenway tried to show how he had been fooled by
speculators and false promises, but his attempt proved fruitless.
Despite this setback, Francis Greenway was still working as an architect in 1810.
Problems arose regarding a contract that Greenway had made with Colonel Richard Doolan, for whom he was doing some work. Greenway swore that the colonel had authorized an additional £250 for some extra work Greenway had provided. However, the contract was lost and the colonel denied the charge. Greenway eventually produced the lost contract. In the court proceedings that followed, it was proved that Greenway had forged the contract, and Greenway was held at Newgate prison for sentencing.
Three months later, in March of 1812, Greenway found himself in the dock at the Bristol Assizes. He pleaded guilty to the charges and was sentenced to death by hanging He still had some influential friends, and they managed to get his sentence reduced first to lifelong exile in Australia (which was then a penal colony) and later commuted to transportation to the colony for a term of fourteen years.
It is unclear why he had pleaded guilty, but some believe that this was due to his
bankruptcy and the dire circumstances he may have faced.
His
motive appears to have been to benefit his creditors rather than himself .
Whilst awaiting deportation to Sydney, Greenway spent time in Newgate Prison, Bristol, where he painted scenes of prison life.
He was then transported to Australia.
The ships Windham and General Hewett left England the 24th of
August, in convoy with the Wansted, Capt. Moore, who sailed from hence last
Thursday for Batavia; the General Hewett arrived at Rio the 17th of November,
and sailed again the 2nd of December. Together with the military detachments,
she received on board for this Settlement 300 male prisoners, of whom we are
sorry to report the death of 35, whose names we shall endeavour to procure an
account of, and publish in the next Gazette, for the information of their
friends and families in Great Britain.
Sydney Gazette, Sat 12 Feb 1814.
Francis Greenway arrived in Sydney New South Wales on the General Hewitt in February 1814 to serve his sentence. He was described as an "architect & painter" in the ship's convict records which also gave his description: age 34, 5ft 6¾in, fair ruddy complexion, light hair, hazel eyes.
From the convict indent (shipping list).
image below courtesy -
https://mhnsw.au/stories/general/francis-greenway/
He found a patron and protector in Governor Lachlan Macquarie, who employed him on various ambitious plans for public works in the colony.
Macquarie appointed him to act as Civil Architect in 1816 and he designed, among other buildings, the lighthouse at South Head, the Female Factory at Parramatta, the Convict Barracks in Sydney, churches at Sydney, Windsor and Liverpool, and the Courthouse at Windsor.
Greenway was granted a conditional pardon on 16 December
1817, and on 24 March 1819 Governor Macquarie wrote to Lord Bathurst concerning
the Civil Architect’s salary, stating it was "…very inadequate to his
useful and important services as Architect" and further noting that
"in consequence of Mr Greenway’s Scientific Skills, Judgment and superior
taste, the Government Buildings Erected by him are not only Strong, durable and
substantial, but also Elegant and good models of Architecture."
Greenway was granted an Absolute pardon on 4 June 1819.[10]
It is noted that the Absolute (Free) Pardon was delivered (personally) by His
Excellency, Governor Macquarie
In 1816 he was
appointed government architect and in this capacity designed many of the public
buildings in Sydney, including St James’s Church.
Macquarie appointed him to act as Civil Architect to the government in 1816
and he designed, among other buildings, the lighthouse at South Head, the
Female Factory at Parramatta, the Convict Barracks in Sydney, St James' Church Sydney, and churches at Windsor and Liverpool, and the Courthouse at Windsor all in New South Wales.
Meanwhile brothers Olive and John
Greenway recovered from their bankruptcy and continued business in Bristol. As
well as executing monuments, Olive probably designed and certainly built
Downend Church, Glos, in 1831, ‘in a feeble Gothic style’ (Colvin)
It is currently unclear to me the relationship between the Bath and Mangotsfield Greenways but it is probably more than coincidence that they were all involved in the stone masonry and architects business.
Some of the Bath Greenways also bore the christian name of Francis. For example, there is an indenture of 20 September 1791, when Thomas King, the statuary of Walcot, with Mr.Charles Harford, gent., as his trustee, conveyed to John Greenway intrust for Francis Greenway, mason, of Walcot [not the Australian architect, who would have been only thirteen at the time], ‘part of a pasture of 2a 22p called Upper Tyning [Walcot], being all those plots on the west side of an intended building called Mount Pleasant and all those two messuages thereon erecting at the cost of Francis Greenway’
For a brief overview of the Greenway family of Stone Masons of Claverton St, Widcombe, Bath see -
.....................
For the inscriptions on the monuments at Weston see -
The Monument to Thomas Peterson d. 1803.
in All Saints Church. Weston, Bath.
Made and inscribed by the Greenway Brothers of Bristol.
Probably put up in 1805. The Biographical Dictionary notes the Monument to Robert Sandford at Leonard Stanley of 1804 - currently I am not aware of any other monuments by the Greenways until 1818.
Other Petersons buried in the Churchyard at Weston.
https://www.batharchives.co.uk/sites/www.bathvenues.co.uk/files/2022-07/WES%2520Inscriptiions.pdf
447 Joseph PETERSON, gent of this parish died 18th February
1766 aged 45 years
Also the following children of the above Joseph PETERSON by
Ann, his wife
Hester PETERSON died 15 November 1777 aged 22 years
Joseph PETERSON died 18 May 1780 aged 16 years
Peggy PETERSON died 25 December 1780 aged 21 years
Sarah and John both died in infancy
Also Ann PETERSON wife of Joseph died 17th September 1794
aged 67 years
Also Thomas son of Joseph and Ann died 19 April 1803 aged 42
years
Also Joseph Peckston, son of Peckston and Susanna died 4th
April 1830 aged 22
Also Peckston son of Joseph and Ann PETERSON died 31 March
1842 aged 85
Also Susanna wife of Peckston PETERSON 1st August 1842 aged
70 years
Also Clement BUSH of this parish gent born 10 January 1808
died 26 January 1882
Also Ann BUSH born 3 February 1082 died 29 November 1883
Also Hester PETERSON sister of above Ann BUSH born 25 July
1805 died 2 December 1887
Tuesday, 23 December 2025
The 18th Century Monuments in All Saints Church Weston, Bath. No 6. General Joseph Smith by Viner of Bath, 1790.
Charles Viner, 10 Morford St, Bath (Bath Chronicle 18 Jan.1798).
Gunnis notes that his monuments are quite well executed but
not particularly interesting, the best being that to Lady Dundonald, which is a
large work in coloured marbles (1). The diary of Sir Charles Throckmorton of
Coughton Court, Warks contains the entry ‘l4 April, 1795. Agreed with Mr.
Viner, of Morford Street, Bath, to erect a marble monument in the Abbey Church
of Bath to the memory of Mr. Metcalfe according to the draught given in, for
£15’ (Beard 1951, (2), 1641). In 1814 Viner was paid £133 for black marble for
the staircase hall and, two years later, for the chimneypieces for Doddington
Park, Glos, then being rebuilt by Christopher Codrington.
Preliminary List of Works - Charles Viner
Lady Dundonald, Funerary
Monument d.1779. All Saints, Weston, Bath Somerset. (below).
Robert Coe. Funerary
Monument ?1788 St Swithins, Walcot, Bath, Somerset.
Theophilus Ponting. Funerary
Monument ?1791. Norton St Philip, Somerset
Charlotte Wicker. Funerary
Monument ?1795. Weston, Somerset.
John Taylor. Funerary
Monument ?1806. Newton St Loe, Somerset.
Mr Metcalfe. Funerary
Monument 1795. Bath Abbey, Somerset. untraced
Brigadier-General Joseph Smith Funerary Monument †1790 Weston, Somerset.
Several Chimneypieces. 1816. Doddington Park, Glos. untraced.
John Dick. Funerary
Monument ?1817. Devizes, Wilts.
Another Monument by Viner of Bath.
Catherine Countess of Dundonald Died 1779.
Monument carved by C. Viner of Bath.
Bristol Cathedral.
Martha Vandewall Williams.
d.1789.
Died at the Hot Wells /on the 18th March 1789 /and in the
19th Year of her age /Martha Vandewall Williams /Eldest Daughter and Coheiress
/of John Williams Esq'r /of Panthowell, /in the County of Carmarthen /and lies
interred near this place.
Friday, 19 December 2025
The 18th Century Monuments in All Saints Church Weston, Bath. No 5. The Mural monument to Sophia Cotton and her sister Sidney Arabella Cotton. . Slight return.........
The Monument to Sophia Cotton (b. c 1704 - died 1767).
Sisters of Thomas Salusbury Cotton; Henry Cotton; Anne Cotton; Sir Robert Salusbury Cotton, MP, 3rd Baronet; Philadelphia Cotton and 10 other siblings.
John Ford I (1711 - 1767) Mason and John Ford II (1736 - 1803) who described himself as a Statuary.
https://bathartandarchitecture.blogspot.com/2025_10_24_archive.html
The Monument was probably put up shortly after the death of Sophia in 1767.
https://bathartandarchitecture.blogspot.com/2025/10/monuments-by-ford-of-bath-bath-abbey.html
The Cotton monument could do with a very gentle wash which would reveal the delicate detail and allow the quality to be more easily assessed.
I will take the opportunity here to illustrate the five variants of the version of the relief with the reclining grieving lady clutching the urn.
Variations of this relief (all illustrated below) were used by the Fords on several other monuments including -
that of Robert Cox monument at Piddletrenthide, Dorset where the urn is slightly different and the sarcophagus on the right is replaced with a Palm tree.
The John St Aubyn monument at Stringston Somerset, again with the palm tree to the right.
The Day family monument at St Mary Magdalene, Ditcheat, Somerset,
The Monument to Richard Long d.1760 in the Church of St Mary's, Steeple Ashton, Wiltshire.
...................
It is strange that as time progressed the quality of the
workmanship of the Ford monument reliefs gradually deteriorated. I suspect Ford Jnr had little to do with the carving.
Here the textured background of the relief is plain to see.
............
The Robert Cox d.1777 and George Cox (d. 1777) Monument in All Saints Church, Piddletrenthide, Dorset.
Clearly inscribed on the supporting bracket Ford Bath. Fct.
This monument was very difficult to photograph - it is on the North East wall of the Aisle of Chancel tucked away behind the organ.
Another Monument inscribed by Ford of Bath to William Cox d.1790 is also in the church.
A Memorial on the Floor of Bath Abbey.
In a Walled Grave / are deposited the Remains of / John Cox
/ Esquire / fourth Son of the late / William Cox Esquire / of Piddletrenthide /
in the / County of Dorset / Died / 20th. January 1814 / Aged 41.
............................
John St Albyn - Funerary Monument - 1766 -
...............................
Day (or Dawe) family member - Funerary Monument,
The inscription is illegible.
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.
.............................
The Monument to Richard Long - d. 6 May 1760.
Church of St Mary's, Steeple Ashton, Wiltshire.
...................................
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