The Milton Fitzwilliam bust of Alexander Pope signed by Roubiliac

4, The Milton / Fitzwilliam Bust of Alexander Pope by Roubiliac

and a Bronze bust of Pope of the same Pattern sold at Sotheby's London in 2007.

Marble, 14 ins.Eyes cut, Undraped , Square veined, black marble socle, Earl Fitzwilliam Collection, Milton, Peterborough.

Inscribed on the back. A. Pope Ae is 52, L.F.Roubiliac, Sc it, ad vivum 1740. 

Now confirmed as the bust of Pope originally at Kenwood, belonging to Lord Mansfield.

Inscribed on front edge - Uni Aequus Virtuti Atque ejus Amicus.

See Wimsatt 59.1 page 237.

These notes are the results of information supplied to me by the Archives at the Estate Office, Scone Palace, family seat of the Earl of Mansfield in 2002.

 A bust of Pope at Kenwood is mentioned in Lysons “ Environs of London” 1795, as being ‘in the Breakfast Palour’.

This bust was not sold in 1922 sale. The contents of Kenwood were sold in 1922, by C.B. King & Co. Sale catalogue at English Heritage, Saville House, Saville Row. London W1.

Lyson, (Environs of London, 1795) mentions the bust of Lord Mansfield by Nollekins in the Library, he mentions another bust of Mansfield when young by Rysbrack in the hall, (now at Scone Palace but without socle) and also one of Sir Isaac Newton and the Homer.

Pope was friend and mentor of William Murray, the First Earl of Mansfield, (1705-93).

Family seat Scone Palace, (Lord Stormont). Estate office, Scone Palace, Perth, where inventories for Kenwood are held.

Roubiliac also carved a Marble portrait bust of Lady Elizabeth Finch, Lady Mansfield, (daughter of 2nd Earl of Nottingham and 7th Earl of Winchilsea) delivered in 1748, which is at Kenwood today. The socle of this bust (black with gold veining) matches the Milton / Fitzwilliam bust of Pope

There is a bust of  Lord Mansfield, by Joseph Nollekins R.A. (1737 - 1823), ( sold in the 1922 sale and now returned,) at Kenwood with the family motto ‘Uni Aequus Virtuti’ (faithful to virtue alone), carved beneath the drapery. (Noted as being at Kenwood in the Morning Herald in 1781).

It is perhaps not a co-incidence that the Milton / Fitzwilliam Bust of Pope has carved beneath it ‘Uni Aequus Virtuti Atque ejus Amicus’. A quotation from Horace. 

There is also a full length portrait of Mansfield at the National Portrait Gallery. By John Singleton Copley exhibited at the R.A.in 1783, in which, pictured on the door case behind him is a bust of Pope, undraped and with the back cut away as the bust at Milton. It would seem most likely that this is the bust from Kenwood rather than the Temple Newsam version which has a solid back?

The copies by Nollekins of the Roubiliac bust of Pope are all of the type at Milton with undraped shoulders. The cutting of the individual locks of hair also closely conform. See later entries detailing Nollekins busts of Pope at the Metropolitan Museum, New York, The Bedford Museum version and the version found in Ireland recently (May 2000) with its companion bust of Sterne.

It would seem most likely that for his busts of Pope, Nollekins would have had access to the Milton Bust through Lord Mansfield, and made copies of it, although the Nollekins version are also very close to the Barber type.

Mansfield acquired Kenwood in 1754 from John Stuart, 3rd Earl of Bute, his Political Master. Mansfields town house at Bloomsbury Square along with his library and most of his personal papers was burnt down in the ‘No - Popery’ Gordon Riots of 6 June 1780. The bust of Pope was therefor probably at Kenwood before 1780.

There are inventories for Kenwood available at Scone Palace and whilst the information is not very detailed, it gives a some idea of the portrait sculpture in the house from the end of the eighteenth century until the sale of the contents of the house in 1922.

Mansfield appears not to have been a collector of antiquities like so many of his contemporaries.

Alexander Pope bequeathed to him a marble bust of Homer with square socle in dark marble, which Pope believed to be by Bernini, ( now at Scone Palace, the replacement now at Kenwood is by Joseph Wilton), he also left him a stone bust of Isaac Newton by Guelfi (also now at Scone).

Pope also left his busts of Milton, Spenser, Shakespeare and Dryden all by Scheemakers and given to him by Frederick, Prince of Wales, to the 1st Lord Lyttleton of Hagley Hall.

The Kenwood House Inventories.

Information supplied by the Archives at the Estate Office, Scone Palace, family seat of the Earl of Mansfield in 2002.

1796. Inventory-

The Great Hall, 4 white marble busts on black pedestals over the doors. (see illustration Lord Mansfield by Copley Singleton N.P.G.).

The lumber room over the Portico. 2 Cases containing Popes belongings.

Perhaps bust of Pope by Roubiliac, bust of young Mansfield by Rysbrack, bust of lady Mansfield by Roubiliac, and bust of older Mansfield by Nollekins

1841. Inventory-

Breakfast Room, Marble figure on oval plinth,

6 large busts on bookcases.

1898. Inventory-

Breakfast Room. Marble bust of a gentleman on a black pedestal, and another bust of a gentleman and 4 plaster busts.

Library - marble bust of a youth (visible in photographs in Country Life, 22 Nov. 1913) on marble plinth, and a marble bust of a gentleman on a scaglioli pedestal.

1905. Inventory - Breakfast room, 6 plaster busts on bookcases.

1910. In the Great Room or Library no. 285 a White marble bust of a gentleman.

Conclusion: Not a great deal of care seems to have been taken with these inventories, but the four busts with black pedestals (socles) mentioned in 1795 are almost certainly -

1. Bust of Pope by Roubiliac (now at Milton?).

2. Bust of young Lord Mansfield by Rysbrack. (Now at Scone Palace, inscribed, 1743, W. Murray).

Lady Mansfield by Roubiliac.

Note Black and Gold Marble Socle.

    3. Bust of Lady Mansfield by Roubiliac, (now back at Kenwood).

____________________

Lord Mansfield by Nollekins 1779 inscribed Uni Aequus Virtuti.

 that translates as 'Faithful Unto Virtue Alone'. The motto is taken from Horace's Satires.

Noted at Kenwood in the Morning Herald. 1781.

Black and Gold Marble Socle.

4. Bust of Lord Mansfield by Nollekins ( now back at Kenwood)

1,3,4, still retain their veined black marble socles. Socle of No. 2 has disappeared.

See also Photographs in Country Life, 22 November 1913.

There is a rather tenuous connection between the Fitzwilliams and William Murray. Mary Finch the wife of Thomas Watson Wentworth, first Marquis of Rockingham, (d.1750) whose estates were inherited by the Fitzwilliams, was the sister of Elizabeth Finch the wife of William Murray, Lord Mansfield.

Exhibited Museum of London, The Quiet Conquest.( The Huguenots 1685 - 1985, T. Murdoch ed. 1985).

Exhibited London Royal Academy Winter 1955-56. English Taste in the Eighteenth
Century. No 139.

_______________________________

 A bronze version of this bust was sold at Sotheby's 6 July 2007, Lot 136. Sold £66,000.

Reputedly the Plowden-Wardlaw family at Castle Craigie, Ayrshire; by descent to Margaret Spurway, née Plowden - Wardlaw; by descent to the present owner.

This could be a bust by Roubiliac but it could also be by Nollekins who made at least two marble versions paired with Lawrence Sterne. One pair in the Metropolitan Museum, New York.

                         The Metropolitan Museum bust of Pope by Joseph Nollekins 

after the Milton/Mansfield Roubiliac bust.

The Hughenden Manor Plaster Bust of Pope

The Hughenden Roubiliac Plaster bust of Pope.

Either taken from the Milton Mansfield Marble (which seems most likely) or from an original terracotta now disappeared.

_____________________________

  

Bust of Alexander Pope signed by Roubiliac at Temple Newsam

3. The Temple Newsam Marble Bust of Alexander Pope 

by Louis Francois Roubiliac.

1738.

Marble, 14.5 ins. 

At Temple Newsam, Leeds. 
Eyes cut. 

Signed and dated A.POPE. AE. 50. L.F.Roubiliac. Sc. it. Ad vivum 1738.

Inscribed at front Qui Nil Molitur Inepte 

from Ars Poetica of Horace

See Wimsatt, 58 page 235.

Temple Newsam Bust with the Seward Bust

There is no provenance for this bust before 1932.

Bought from Hans Calmann, London, 1942, 

The theory that it came originally from Lord Mansfield’s collection at Kenwood House, Hampstead, London now seems unsustainable. See my next blog entry.

In 1932 it was in the collection of G.D.Hobson, a director of Sotheby's auction house, sold at his sale at Sotheby’s on 17 Nov. 1933. to R.H.Muir of Unilever House, see Country Life, 1932. Vol. LXXI. 

__________________

Roger Warner's bust of Alexander Pope

2. The Roger Warner Bust of Alexander Pope 

by Louis Francois Roubiliac.

This bust is one of the two second type of the three types of Roubiliac busts of Pope.

 The other being the Milton / Lord Mansfield Bust with which it should be compared (details to follow).

Probably Lot 76, 4th day of the sale of the contents of the Roubiliac studio at St. Martin's Lane. 

_____________________

above The Milton / Lord Mansfield  bust of Alexander Pope by Roubiliac ad Vivum, 1740.

The Roger Warner Bust of Pope - some notes.

Marble, Eyes uncut, on black marble, square tapered socle. 

With Roger Warner, Oxfordshire, April 2001. Sold Sotheby's London 2009, with London dealer Philip Mould January 2014.

Perhaps one of the three busts of Pope noted at Pope's Grotto at Twickenham in the late eighteenth century. (See the following notes on Pope's Grotto)

See Wimsatt, 59.4 pages 240 & 241.

This bust is not in good condition. There are some very peculiar, deeply cut runnels on the top of the head where water appears to have been dripping for a very long time. There is a deep channel on the left hand side of the head - an attempt has been made to polish this out and much of the face appears to have been re - polished.

It also appears to have been cut from a piece of Marble that was either slightly too small, or it was specifically made to locate into a niche and then left unused. There is an approximately 3” square unfinished patch on the back of the head .

This bust is closely related to the Milton / Fitzwilliam bust. The form of the curls of the hair is almost exactly the same.

The small square tooling marks under the base of the head are also unusual but are similar to some chisel marks on either side of the central prop of the back of the Milton/ Fitzwilliam bust in the following list of signed Busts of Pope by Roubiliac.

There are however some distinct similarities with the Seward bust, especially with the cutting of the hair around the unfinished patch at the back of the top of the head.

_______________

It is possible that this was the small head from Popes villa at Twickenham. installed by Lord William Stanhope in the 1770’s. and described as being over the entrance to Stanhopes cave in 1789. and removed at some time in the 19th Century. This might explain the water erosion on the surface which would have taken many years to etch into the marble.

Bought by Roger Warner in 1963 from the sale held by Brookes of Oxford, at Buckland House. Buckland, Nr Faringdon, Oxfordshire, which had been occupied by Fitzgerald Family, since 1920’s. It is unlikely that it was originally at Buckland.

Buckland was formerly the home of the Throckmortons (an ancient Catholic family) built by John Wood the Younger of Bath.

In 1690, the year of the Battle of the Boyne, Sir John Yate of Buckland died in Paris. He was succeeded by his sister Mary who soon afterwards married Sir Robert Throckmorton. The Throckmortons were an old Catholic family with estates in Warwickshire and north Buckinghamshire, and Sir Robert spent little time at Buckland.

Buckland House was then home of Sir Maurice Fitzgerald, The Knight of Kerry.

For Buckland House see Country Life CXII, Aug 1970. pp 495/ 497.

See also English Country Houses Early Georgian 1955 p.204.

____________________

Although the evidence is circumstantial it is quite possible that both the Seward and Warner busts of Pope were bought by Thomas Hudson at the Roubiliac sale in May of 1762

Esdaile, Page 171, says ‘ Hudson, as we learn from J.T. Smiths ‘Life of Barry’ owned numerous models by Roubiliac, which mostly had been purchased at that artists sale and had been left by Hudson to a gentleman, (Mr May his nephew) who resided many years...... in his home at Twickenham.

Thomas Hudson ( 1701 - 79). Portrait painter, Master of Sir Joshua Reynolds and Joseph Wright of Derby. Hudson was also a dealer in works of Art and bought widely at the Roubiliac Sale.

Hudson along with Arthur Pond accompanied Roubiliac on a brief visit to Rome in 1752. They met Joshua Reynolds at Mont Cenis on his way back from Italy.

Hudson lived and worked at Great Queens Street, Lincolns Inn Fields, later taking an apartment at King St, Covent Garden.

Hudson had a house at Cross Deep Twickenham from 1754 and was a next door neighbour of Sir William Stanhope, (brother of Lord Chesterfield) who owned Popes Villa and grotto, later inherited by Welbore Ellis.

His collection was dispersed by Langfords of The Piazza, Covent Garden in 1779 and 25 & 26 February 1785 by Christies. See Smith, Nollekins....

Sir William Stanhope, d.1772, younger brother of Phillip Dormer Stanhope, 4th Earl of Chesterfield, (who sat for Roubiliac in 1745), bought Popes villa after he died from the Vernons in 1745. He built a wall around the garden, added wings to the villa and built another grotto with a bust of Pope above the entrance (see following notes). Passed to Welbore Ellis (created Baron Mendip - 1794) in 1775.

Stanhope was a member of the Monks of Medmenham as was Paul Whitehead and John Wilkes who both sat for Roubiliac.

Pope's Thameside Garden at Twickenham by William Kent.

Some notes on the busts of Pope at his Villa Grotto at Twickenham particularly relevant to the Warner bust.

This information from Journal of Garden History Vol. 26, No.1. Alexander Popes Grotto in Twickenham.

By Anthony Beckles Willson.

1775. In the journal of exiled American loyalist Samuel Curwen of Salem, Massachusetts, entry for 25 August 1775: At Welbore Ellis’s seat late Mr Popes we alighted and..... entered the gardens and grotto; the latter being arches under the middle of the house, about mans height, admitting a prospect into the largest shady contemplative walk in the garden from the river. It is almost 5 foot in width, faced with small flint stones, crystal and some other kinds stuck into mortar, with the angles out...... 2 or 3 niches filled with the busts of Pope and I forget who else...... Wimsatt Supplement 57-61.13.

See The Journal of Samuel Curwen, Loyalist. ed. Andrew Oliver 2 vols. Cambridge Mass. Harvard University Press 1972.

 John Searle  ‘Plan of Mr. Pope’s Garden’ (1745)

This transcription below taken directly from Bodlian Library copy:

Journal and letters of ... Samuel Curwen, 1775-1784. To which are added, biographical notices of... By Samuel Curwen, George Atkinson Ward (1842). Page 37.

August 23 1775. Visited Wellbore Ellis seat at Twickenham, formerly Pope’s; the grotto, being arches under the house about a mans height, admitting a prospect into the longest shady contemplative walk, five feet wide in the garden), filled with small flint stones Bristol and other kinds in mortar: a few pieces of glass on the top and sides: two or three niches filled with the busts of Pope and others: there is also in a cross alley a statue of Terrance and in an addition (made by Mr Stanhope late owner), over the centre of an arch is a niche filled with a bust of Pope, and underneath are the following lines.

The humble roof; the gardens scanty line

Ill spoke the genius of a bard divine:

But fancy now display a fairer scope,

And Stanhope’s plans unfold the soul of Pope.

The World (12 October 1789) ‘ the grotto has little to boast, beyond the purpose of a passage that avoids cross accidents & joins two gardens, which the road otherwise had put asunder. Popes decorations of the grotto are a little bust of himself & a pretty mirror - you see his mind too, in the inscription over it.

The Topographer’ 1789 reprinted in S.Felton. Gleanings on Gardens 1897. An abbreviated version of the full description is in the seventh, 1794 edition, of a Guide called The Ambulator. Both publications mention statues of Ceres and Bacchus and a bust of Pope in the Grotto. There was also a white marble bust of Pope over the entrance to Stanhopes Grotto.

The Ambulator, 8th Edition, 1796, page 267, bust of Pope mentioned as being situated in an aperture in the rock of Popes grotto at Twickenham. Wimsatt Supplement 57-61.13.

London: Being an Accurate History and Description of the British Metropolis and Its Neighbourhood... By David Hughson 1805, page 496, mentions – In two adjoining apertures in the rock are placed a Ceres and a Bacchus, an excellent bust of Pope, and some other figures.

The works of Alexander Pope. Containing the principal notes of drs. Warburton and Warton [&c.].... by the Rev William Lisle Bowles, 1806, page LV11 mentions in the grotto “the other recess opposite is adorned with busts of Milton Pope etc both recesses are diminutive”

The Richmond and Twickenham Times supplement. 4 August 1888. notes statues of Jesus and Mary ‘while that on the right is devoted to a bust of Pope himself ’. This bust appears in a contemporary photograph and is not of the Roubiliac type. (see Daily Graphic 2 Nov 1907).

_____________________

The Journal of James Jenkins. 1777.

I have discovered an unremarked, and intriguing reference to three busts of Pope at the former Twickenham residence of Alexander Pope, in Records and Recollections of James Jenkins. written in 1777 page 110 &111, which I found in the Library of the Society of Friends at Euston Road, London.

“Next morning with uncommon pleasure, and anxious curiosity, I bent my way to the muses seat at Twickenham having been for many years an admirer of the writings of Pope I viewed with downright enthusiasm the last place of his abode, on the banks of his native Thames, Popes house at this time was inhabited by Wellbore Ellis Esq. Afterwards Lord Mendip (Wellbore Ellis, Lord Mendip, 1713 - 1802, was a useful member of many ministries, holding numerous offices including privy councillor, Secretary of War, Treasurer of the Navy and Secretary of State for America.) I saw but little of it -- the gardens and shrubbery I viewed leisurely -- they are much larger than in Popes time - Sir William Stanhope ( d.1772 brother to the Earl of Chesterfield) having purchased the whole premises added two wings to the house, and made considerable alterations in the garden at the termination of the old and commencement of what has been added, was a vaulted passage of thirty feet long, and seven feet high, and on the front wall is a marble bust of Pope, with the following lines written by Lord Nugent, ... (who served as Lord of the treasury and President of the Board of Trade).

The humble roof, the garden’s scanty line,

Ill suits the genius of a bard devine;

But, fancy now displays a fairer scope,

And Stanhope’s plans, unfold the Soul of Pope.

In the passage on the right hand was a bust of Sir William, another of Pope, and a third of the then late Earl of Chesterfield, the celebrated Phillip Dormer Stanhope (1694 - 1773). (this bust noted as being marble in the Topographer in 1789. It also notes a bust of the daughter of William Stanhope.) I next viewed the far famed Grotto, and cannot describe the feelings with which I was affected, upon the recollection of the following lines.

Thou who shalt stop where Thames translucent wave

Shines a broad mirror thro, the shaddowy cave

Where lin’ring drops from mineral roofs distill,

And pointed crystals break the sparkling rill

Unpolished gems no ray or pride bestow

And latent metals innocently glow;

Approach . Great nature studiously behold!

And eye the mine without a wish for gold

Approach: but awful! Lo! Th’ Aegerian grot

Where nobely pensive St John sate, and thought

Where British sighs from dying Wyndam stole,

And bright flame was shot thro’ Marchmonts soul.

The last two lines I purposely omit quoting -- if I dare I would call them poetical nonsense -- every man “dares” to love his country, but no man “dares to be poor”. I suppose this grotto is now no more, great delapidations had then been made; many pieces of spars, gems ores and other minerals and even the common flint pebbles had been picked out and carried away, and thus it is as Shenstone sings,

“The pilgrims that journey all day

To visit some far distant shrine

If he bears but a relique away

Is happy, nor heard to repine.

In two adjoining apertures of the rock; were placed a Ceres a Bacchus, an excellent bust of Pope, and some others.....”

                                              

 View of Grotto by Samuel Lewis. 
1786

A Bust at Popes Villa Grotto is illustrated in The Daily Graphic. Saturday 2 November 1907. This would appear to be a mid 19th century plaster bust, somewhat loosely based on the Scheemaker's version, and very similar if not the same as the version at the National Book League in 1965 which was inscribed D.Landi, 36 Charles St. (late) Leather Lane. 

This plaster bust is also related to the Gadge marble bust of Pope presently on loan to the Twickenham Museum. The Gadge bust has a turban whilst the Landi bust is bareheaded.

Martha Vandewall and the bust of Alexander Pope given to William Seward,

The William Seward / Martha Vandewall Marble bust of Alexander Pope by Louis Francois Roubiliac.

The family of Samuel Vandewall (1719 - 61) 

and his wife Martha Vandewall (-1794)

Updated 23 June 2023.

 

Including another portrait of Mrs Martha Vandewall inside a gold snuff box by Gervase Spencer.

The following notes were compiled to place the Vandewall family within upper strata of 18th Century society and to show that they were a very rich and cultured but also perhaps self effacing Quakers. 

Martha Vandewall was the owner of the bust of Pope before William Seward.

Brief biographical details of the Vandewall Family in the Eighteenth Century, with particular reference to Samuel Vandewall (1719 -1761), and his wife Martha Vandewall (1711 - 1794), ne Barrow, formerly Mrs Harris Neate (1714 - 1742) and her son Thomas Neate. These people were all Quakers.

Eighteenth century Vandewall family information comes from a typescript manuscript by JJ Green at the Quaker Records at Euston Road, London.

The Vandewalls arrived in England from Holland some time in the late Sixteenth Century.

1679. John Vandewall I of Harwich marries Susannah Cottisford. c.1684, perhaps related "The Frankford Company" had become the purchasers of a large tract of about 25,000 acres of land in Pennsylvania, part of which was already located by Jacob Vandewall, and most likely had their agents scattered through Germany to induce young and active men to emigrate thither with their families. 

On Holmes' Map may be seen the following inscription: "Germantown - Jacob Vandewall and Company." We do not know who this Jacob Vandewall was, but as the mother of Wigard Levering another Dutch Quaker settler in Pennsylvania, was called Elizabeth Vandewall, he was perhaps a relative who had become interested in this great land speculation.

1705. Marriage of Thomas Neate of the City of Bristol, merchant to Love Harris, daughter of Nathaniel Harris at Chippenham.

1706. Birth of Harris Neate, First husband of Martha Vandewall ne Barrow at Castle Green, Bristol.

1710. John Vandewall II, Draper and citizen of London marries Martha Diamond.

1713. John Vandewall II, marries Anne Moore the mother of Samuel Vandewall.

1719. Birth of Samuel Vandewall at Crutched Friars.

1728. John Vandewall II marries Martha Goldney eldest daughter of Thomas Goldney the elder. (See The Goldenys of Bristol, A Bristol Merchant Dynasty. Bristol Records Soc.1998).

1730. Death of John Vandewall II. His executors are Sylvanus Bevan, FRS, Apothecary of 2 Plough Court, Lombard Street, London. Thomas Goldeny of Clifton, Bristol (of Goldney Grotto fame) and Joseph Moore of London ( the father of his wife). His estate is left in trust for his children.

Joseph Moore (d. 1740) was the owner of the Copperas Works at Greenwich, which later belonged to Sam.Vandewall and then passed to his stepson Thomas Neate. 

When Joseph Moore died he was worth over £30,000.

The Copperas industry consisted of turning nodules of copperas (bisulphide of iron) into green copperas or green vitriol ( ferrous sulphate of iron). Green copperas was used, amongst other things for the dyeing of cloth and leather black, and the manufacture of black ink. This industry seems to have been a virtual Quaker monopoly at this time.

Perhaps not a coincidence, Sylvanus Bevan, was an apothecary of No 2, Plough Court, Lombard Street in 1715. The home of the Pope family until 1715. Alexander Pope was born at 2 Plough Court in 1685.

See Plough Court, the Story of a Notable Pharmacy, 1715 - 1927. (London, Allen and Hanbury, 1927).

Alexander Pope a Life, Maynard Mack, 1985.

Copperas Industry by Tim Allen Canterbury Archaeological Trust, forthcoming.

Quakers in Science and Industry, Arthur Raistrick. 1968.

1733/4. Marriage of Harris Neate of the island of Jamaica, merchant, to Martha Barrow (later Vandewall) daughter of Jonathan Barrow of the County of Monmouth.

At about this time both Harris Neate and Samuel Vandewall had their portraits painted  (attributed to George Knapton). These two portraits are currently still with the family.

                      

 Harris Neate. 

Attributed bto George Knapton. (1698 - 1778)

_____________________

Samuel Vandewall 

Attributed to George Knapton.

I am very grateful to Susannah Harris Hughs for allowing me to photograph these portraits.

________________________________

1740. Birth of Thomas Neate at Laurence Pountney Hill, City. Harris Neate & Co Merchants noted in Kent's Directory of London.
      

1740. Birth of Martha Neate at Laurence Pountney Hill. City.

Portrait of Mrs Neate, of Donnington by George Knapton (1698-1778).

 Portrait of Mrs Neate, of Donnington, Hampshire, half-length, in an embroidered silver shawl trimmed with fur, seated by a table with a spaniel her lap, in an interior, beside a polescreen, 

oil on canvas 40 x 50 in. 

In a carved and gilded 18th Century Maratta frame. 

By descent in the family of the sitter.

.

Sold Christies - Lot 28,   Christie's -Nov 25, 2003 - London.

1742. Death of Harris Neate. Died of fever. Described as of Lawrence Pountney Hill, City of London.

Samuel Vandewall, 1719 - 61 by Thomas Hudson c. 1745.

This portrait was sold by Sotheby's Lot 45, 22 November 1967.

1744. The Marriage of Sam. Vandewall and Martha Neate formerly Barrow, recorded at Hereford Worcester and Wales Quaker Meeting House.

C.1744 - 1746. The portrait of Samuel Vandewall is painted by Thomas Hudson (1701 - 1779) (former pupil, and son in law of Jonathon Richardson, an intimate of Alexander Pope). In 1745, Hudson was living at 55 -56 Great Queen Street. Hudson accompanied Roubiliac to Rome in July - October 1752. Joshua Reynolds was a pupil of Hudson.

Records Nat. Portrait Gallery Portrait of Samuel Vandewall in Collection Admiral Sir Walter Cowan Bt.

Sothebys, Nov. 22 1967. Lot 45. Prov. By descent from the sitter? Catalogue Illustration .

1745. Birth of Joseph Vandewall son of Samuel and Martha at the Vandewall house at Brabant Court. Phillpot Lane, Fenchurch Street, London.

                                         

Joseph Vandewall by Joshua Reynolds.

c.1746/7.

127 x 102.9 cms

       Sold Sotheby's. by Commander C.E. Neate, on 3 July 1956.

1747. Death of Joseph Vandewall aged 2 ½. There is a portrait of him (above) painted by Sir Joshua Reynolds (see British Pictures, Christies 15, April 1994).

Sold from the collection of Commander C.E.Neate of Alvescot Oxfordshire, Sothebys 4 July 1956 to Agnews. Sold Christies 15 Apr. 1994

1748. The portrait of Thomas Neate, his sister Martha and their Tutor Mr Needham is painted by Joshua Reynolds.

The Neate Children - Thomas and Martha with their Tutor - Thomas Needham.

1748.

Joshua Reynolds.

Metropolitan Museum, New York.

Martha Neate, married John Williams of Panthowell, Trelech a’r Betws, Carmarthenshire, in 1766.

 

Her brother, Thomas, married Charlotte Seward in 1771 and they settled at Binfield, Their first child and heir was the Reverend Thomas Neate, born in 1775.

The tutor, Thomas Needham was a witness to the will of Charlotte's husband, John Williams, and was a beneficiary in Samuel Vandewall's will (National Archives, Public Record Office, Kew, Surrey, PROB 11/864 and 11/988;

This portrait is now at The Metropolitan Museum New York.With provenance - Thomas Neate, Binfield (until d. 1825); the Rev. A.Neate (in 1857); Miss Mary Neate, Bampton, Faringdon (in 1870); Commander Charles B. Neate (until 1916); Captain Arthur C. Burnaby Neate (1916 - at least 1918): Ogden Mills, New York (before 1929): Josephine Mercy Heathcote Haskell, New York (until d.1982); Heathcote Art Foundation (1982 - 1986). 

See Sir Joshua Reynolds - Complete Catalogue of his Paintings; David Mannings, Martin Postle.

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

Martha Neate married John Williams (d.1773) of Pant Howel, Carmarthen. Their daughter Margarette Vandewall Williams (d.1831) married the Reverend William Shippen Willes of Cirencester (d.1832). 

Info. Historic Carmarthenshire Homes, Francis Jones.

Note: Mr Needham was possibly John Turberville Needham (1713 - 1781).

1751. Samuel Vandewall takes Lindsey House, Arch Row, now 60, Lincolns Inn Fields. 

‘Lindsey House Perhaps historically, the most important single house in London’ (John Summerson).

Note. Originally it was one great house, the centrepiece of Arch Row, perhaps designed by Inigo Jones and put up for the gentleman speculator William Newton in 1638 - 41 (see Vitrouvios Britanicus for elevation and plans it was divided into two in 1751 and altered by Isaac Ware (who sat to Roubiliac in 1741.) These become 59 and 60 Lincolns Inn Fields. Other residents include the future Prime Minister Spencer Percival (1762 - 1812). The house still stands although much altered. 

Henry Shiffner M.P. an executor of Sam Vandewall’s will lived at 59 from 1752.

Info. from Survey of London.

1753. Sam. Vandewall subscribes £5 to a fund for the suppression of Lawlessness at Blackheath.

1754. Sam. Vandewall purchases the Lordship of the Manor, and the Rectory of Aldenham, Hertford from the Prime Minister - Thomas Pelham Holles, the Duke of Newcastle (1693 - 1768), who lived two doors away from the Vandewall family at Lincolns Inn Fields. (Newcastle was Prime Minister (1754 - 1756 and 1757 - 1762).

1760. Easter Term, 1760, Court of Kings Bench, Rex v Vandewall, presided over by Lord Mansfield.

__________________

       Miniature of Samuel Vandewall by Gervase Spencer c.1760. 

                                

Lot 1 - Sotheby's, Olympia (March 06, 2003).

1761. Death of Sam. Vandewall Esquire at Lincolns Inn Fields. See The Gentleman's Magazine.

He was buried at his vault at Jordans Quaker Meeting House Burial Ground, Chalfont St Peters, Bucks. William Penn of Pennsylvania is buried close by.

In his will he leaves his wife Martha £500 / year, and gives her a further sum of £5,000, he also gives her the house in Lincolns Inn Fields “where he resides when in London and also gives her all his furniture, books pictures etc. at both his houses at Lincolns Inn Fields and at Greenwich.

He also left Thomas Needham Esq. Of Cliffords Inn, Gent. £800.  ( PCC 110 Cheslyn.)              

The rest of his property he leaves in trust for Thomas and Martha Neate and four other relatives.

__________________

Is this a portrait of Mrs Martha Vandewall?  (1711 - 1794).

Mrs Martha Vandewall. nee Barrow, she was previously married (6 March 1734) to Harris Neate (1706 -42).

Portrait by Gervase Spencer - initialled GS and dated 1757.

 The interior of the base later inscribed: Martha / Vandewall / Apl 1798.

Martha Vandewall would have been aged 46 in 1757.

It is dangerous to make assumptions about portraiture but I suspect that this isn't Mrs Vandewall.

Text below lifted from Sotheby's catalogue.

Lot 25, May, 2022.

5.7 cms tall.

Of upright cartouche form, the lid inset with a panel of banded creamy grey agate within pierced and chased rocaille decorations, reeded gold rims and bow-shaped thumbpiece, the shaped sides also chased with rocaille ornament and flowers, the interior of the lid set with an enamel miniature of Mrs Vandewall, by Gervase Spencer, signed and dated: G. S 1757, wearing an ermine-trimmed blue dress, lace collar and baroque pearl earrings, in rose gold frame and plaited light brown hair border, the interior of the base later inscribed: Martha / Vandewall / Apl 1798, the gold unmarked.

_____________________________

Martha Vandewall.

Philadephia Museum of Art.

This photograph added 23 June 2023.

Portrait of Mrs. Vanderwall 

They say c. 1766.

By Benjamin West (English (born America), 1738–1820).

Oil on canvas.

 (81.3 x 108 cm).

Gift of Philip and Muriel Berman, 2004.

Accession Number:         2004-8-3.

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

                                                Mrs Martha Vandewall by Benjamin West.

C.1770. Both the portraits of Mrs Vandewall and her son Thomas Neate were painted by Benjamin West. R.A. There is an old hand written label on the back of the portrait of Thomas Neate stating “Thomas Neate with boar spear the boy of Sir Joshua's picture..... He lived for many years at Binfield Lodge, Berks .... Neate”

The family appear to have rented the house that was rebuilt on the site of Alexander Pope's former home at Binfield, some time after the death of Samuel Vandewall.

Notes. Binfield Lodge was the family home of Alexander Pope from 1705 -1716, when Catholics had to reside at least 10 miles from the City of London.

Binfield Lodge - rebuilt circa 1720, The building on the left a later extension.

Popes father was a linen draper who dealt in ‘Hollands’ - very fine Linens originally produced in the Low Countries

In an article in the Home Counties Magazine (2) 1902, entitled Pope at Binfield it states that the history of the house begins in 1695, when ‘Gabriel Young of Warfield’ (a village just two miles up the road from Binfield) ‘sold to Charles Rackett, of Hammersmith…for the sum of £445, all the measure of tenement called Whitehill House, with five closes of arable or pasture land….

The house was at this time in the occupation of the one Thomas Holmes as tenant…

The article describes how Charles Racket was ‘no doubt the husband of Magdalen Pope, the poets elder half sister. The deed of conveyance was witnessed by Alexander Pope, who 3 years later purchased it for the same price. 

Pope mentions the Racketts in his correspondence, in the year 1711, as living at Hall Grove, a house near Bagshot (again reasonably close to Binfield). The article suggests that Pope may have gone to reside there at once in the summer of 1698 – when his son was 10. He left the property in trust to his son Alexander Pope, the younger in April 1700. 

At the request of Pope the younger, the house was sold in 1715 to James Tanner for the sum of £500 – Fitzgerald says that with this sale the connection of the poet and his family with Binfield ends, and all trace of them has vanished. His father dyeing two years later, and Pope himself dying in 1743.

From Tanner, the house passed to William Reynolds Esq who died in March 1775 leaving the house to his wife. After her death in the following year, it passed to Elisha Biscoe, who died in 1776, and whose son sold it to James Batson.

After the Batsons, the house was sold to Rev Edward Fane, who sold it to Gerald Fitzgerald Esq in 1841 – passing, upon his death in 1873, to his son Lucius – the author of the article. I’m not sure where Fitzgerald obtained his information – but it is backed up by the notes of Frank Donaldson, who makes reference to the catalogue of sale at Reading Reference library – which detail the contents of the sale in 1887, when Fitzgerald sold the house – shortly after which, the article was published in the Parish Magazine.

In 1754 William Pitt the Elder bought and rebuilt the Manor at Binfield from the Catholic John Dancastle a close friend of Pope. 

In 1757 William Pitt bought Barkham Manor nearby, which on his death in 1783 his brother John Pitt sold to Thomas Fonnereau M.P. son of Thomas Fonnereau, an executor of the will of Samuel Vandewall.

                                               

Another view of the Benjamin West Portrait of Mrs Vandewall.

The portrait of Mrs Vandewall by Benjamin West was sold by Sotheby, Lot 138, 3 May 1961, from the collection of W.H.Willes, (a descendant of Martha Neate), see entry for 1748.

                        

A much higher resolution photograph of Mrs Vandewall but in B&W.

1771. Marriage of Thomas Neate to Charlotte Seward, the sister of William Seward, of Red Cross St. London.

1790. Gentleman's Magazine notes Thomas Neate at Binfield.

Anonymous portrait of Charlotte Neate, nee Seward, still with the family.

Label on the back of the portrait of Charlotte Neate.

___________________

1791 - 1796. Thomas Neate resided at 13 Lansdown Crescent, Bath (info. from Bath archives. - Bath Loyal Ass. 1792).

1794. Death of Martha Vandewall at Bath. Buried at Jordans Meeting House Burial Ground, Buckinghamshire in the vault of Sam.Vandewall.

1796. Amelia daughter of Thomas Neate described in The monthly Magazine as of Binfield, marries AE Young at Orlingbury, Northants

1825. Death of Thomas Neate at Binfield Lodge, Berks.

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

The Seward bust of Pope by Roubiliac which previously belonged to Mrs Vandewall, was inherited from William Seward by the banker William Moreland (1738 -1815).

The Seward / Vandewall bust of Pope then disappears from view for nearly 200 years and reappears in 1967 with Philip and Margaret Andrade, antique dealers of White Oxen Manor, Nr. Rattery, South Brent, Devon TQ10 9JX. 01364 72454.

The Andrades were contacted but were unable to remember their source.

1967. The bust was sold to dealer Robin Eden of Pickwick Manor, Pickwick, Corsham, Wilts. who then sold it to -

Mr.Taylor of Freshford, Bradford on Avon, Wilts.

2000. Sold by Gardiner Holgate - Auctioneers of Bath.

_____________________________