Francis Hooper (1694 - 1763). Doctor of
Divinity, Senior Fellow.
Trinity College Chapel, Cambridge.
The Bust by Roubiliac - with the later type Roubiliac Socle.
The monument possibly finished by Nicholas Read (c.1730 - 87).
A good excuse for posting here is to continue to explore the repetition the use of the Roubiliac late type socle and its variants and is a convenient opportunity to look at the work of Nicholas Read (1733 - 87) assistant to Roubiliac until his death in 1762.
For more onnthe Roubiliac late type socle see-
https://bathartandarchitecture.blogspot.com/2025/12/the-roubiliac-type-socle-some-mor.html
...............................
Francis Hooper was Rector of Gallow and Brothercross Hundreds, Thorpland, Norfolk, from 1758 until his death in 1763.
He published several
books including a Latin thesis on the origin of the Jews, and a French edition
of Propertius.
He was the Keeper of the Cheatham Library, Manchester. In his will he bequeathed monies for
Trinity's new bridge, built in 1765. He
also left an estate at Barrington to found three annual prizes for English
declamations, and £1000 to rebuild or alter the combination room, and £180 for
plate.
The monument is inscribed -
FRANCISCUS HOOPER S.T.P.
Hujusce Collegii, quod unicè amavit, Socius Senior
Post multos annos in eodem feliciter completos
Hic tandem voluit requiescere,
Donec de Morte ipsâ victor Resurrexerit.
Nicholas Read (d. 1787) was an apprentice and assistant to Roubiliac.
The list and limited biography below from
A student and the self-appointed successor to Louis François Roubiliac, Read’s monuments are characterised by drama and excess. He was probably the son of James and Anne Read, born 1 April 1730 and christened at St Martin-in-the-Fields ten days later. He was the eldest of three or more children. Read was first a student at the St Martin’s Lane Academy and around 1746 he was apprenticed by his father to Roubiliac.
A later account in the Gentleman’s Magazine (GM, 1787, vol 57, pt II, 644). claims that Read became a favourite student of the French sculptor after covertly and successfully completing one of his master’s busts. ‘From that moment they continued inseparable friends ever after and all distinction was lost in the affection [Roubiliac] bore him’
George Vertue, who saw a drawing by Read of an ‘academy figure’ in 1750, recorded that it showed ‘great skill & fire & spirit extraordinary’ (Vertue, III, 152).
Read is said to have worked on many of Roubiliac’s major commissions, including the famous skeletal figure of Death on the monument to Mrs Nightingale, and he was left in charge of the business whilst his master was in Rome in 1752.
When Roubiliac died, early in 1762, Read took over the workshop, advertising within a few days that, having been with Roubiliac for the last 16 years ‘and executed great part of his most capital works’ he now meant to succeed him (Anecdotes 1937, 151).
It seems likely that Read
completed some of Roubiliac’s unfinished commissions, particularly the monument
to Francis Hooper, which incorporates a bust by Roubiliac, and another to
Lucretia Betenson at Wrotham, Kent. He repeated the Betenson emblem of a
cut rose on the monument to John Kendall.
.............................................
Here seems a good a place as any to list the known works of Nicholas Read.
The list below from
1. James Poole d.1785 - Funerary Monument - Budworth, nr Nantwich, Cheshire.
2. Statue of Atlanta - nd - Earl of Wemyss, Gosford, Lothian.
3. Models for unspecified monuments, including one ‘in a
case’.Sculptor’s workshop, St Martin’s Lane, sold 1787, lots
56, 61-3, 91-2 - untraced.
4. ‘A quantity of
plaster busts, &c’ Bust in Sculptor’s
workshop, St Martin’s Lane, sold 1787, lots 57-8, 98, 100 – untraced.
5. ‘A small [unspecified] monument complete’ Funerary
Monument nd. Sculptor’s workshop, St
Martin’s Lane, sold 1787, lot 70 untraced.
6. Unspecified bas-reliefs - Relief - Sculptor’s workshop,
St Martin’s Lane, sold 1787, lots 89, 94, 96 untraced.
7. ‘A statuary shield and four ornaments’ Miscellaneous. Sculptor’s workshop, St
Martin’s Lane, sold 1787, lot 108 untraced
8. A model for an unspecified monument, 1780. Exhib. Soc. of Artists,
London, 209 - untraced.
9. William Pitt, the Elder, Earl of Chatham (d.1778), model (the commission was won by John Bacon RA). Funerary Monument, 1779.
Exhib. Free Soc, London, – untraced.
10. John Finch (d.Ist June 1736) MP for Maidstone and his wife Elizabeth - Funerary
Monument after1767, St Leonards, Thrybergh, nr Rotherham, West Riding, Yorks.
John Finch married on 13th April 1726, Elizabeth, daug. and heiress
of John Saville, of Methley in Yorkshire, Esquire (she died on 28th October
1767).
11. Francis Hooper (with the bust by LF Roubiliac - see above). Funerary Monument. 1763, Trinity College Chapel, Cambridge.
12. Rear-Admiral Richard Tyrrell - Funerary Monument after 1766 Westminster
Abbey, London, nave, south aisle. The Pancake Monument.
In a window recess of the south aisle of the nave of Westminster Abbey is the enormous monument by Nicholas Read, to the memory of Rear Admiral Tyrrell who was buried at sea. It was unveiled on 16th June 1770.
'Sacred to the Memory of RICHARD TYRRELL Esqr / who was
descended / from an Ancient Family in Ireland and died Rear Admiral / of the
White on the 26th day of June 1766 in the 50th Year of his Age / Devoted from
his Youth to the Naval Service of his Country and being found under / the
Discipline and animated by the Example of his renown'd Uncle Sr. Peter Warren /
He distinguished himself as an able and Experienced officer in many Gallant /
Actions particularly on the 3rd Nov. 1758 when commanding the Buckingham / of
66 Guns and 472 Men. He attacked and defeated three French ships / of War one
of which was the Florisant of 74 Guns and 700 Men / but the Buckingham being
too much disabled to take possession of her / after she had struck the enemy
under the cover of Night escaped / In this Action he received several Wounds
and lost three Fingers / of the right hand. Dying on his return to England /
from the Leeward Islands where he had for three Years / Commanded a Squadron of
His Majesty's Ships / His Body according to his own desire was committed / to
the sea with the proper Honours and / Ceremonies', 'The Sea shall give up her
dead / and every one shall be rewarded / according to his works'
The figure of the Admiral is still in the Abbey collection and
is now on show in the new Queen's Diamond Jubilee Galleries). Because of the
many flat clouds it was known as the 'Pancake monument'.
13. Elizabeth (†1765) and Stephen Niblett Funerary Monument after 1766 - All Souls College,
Oxford.
The Mural Monument to Stephen and Elizabeth Niblett. It is attributed to Nicholas Read in Biographical Dictionary... Yale 2009 - refs. Gunnis but gives no further info.
To the right of two lamps an academic gown is cast over a
pile of books, all superbly sculpted in white marble.
.............................
14. Lady Anne Morgan (d. 1764) Funerary Monument – 1767 - Kinnersley,
Herefordshire (below).
"Near this Place are deposited the Remains of Dame Anne
MORGAN, Wife of Sir John MORGAN Bart. and youngest Daughter of Sir Jacob
JACOBSEN Knt. and Anne his Wife, eldest daughter of Sir Gilbert HEATHCOTE,
Bart.
She departed this Life universally lamented, September the
18th 1764, aged 50. In Respect to whose Memory, her Affectionate &
Afflicted Uncle, Theodore JACOBSEN Esqr. (d. 1772) erected this Monument with the Consent
of her Surviving Husband.
This Excellent Christian was distinguished by the most exemplary Piety towards God, & Love & Duty towards her Parents & Husband. Her good Sense & Sweet Disposition; her Humility & Affability engaged the Affections of her Relations & Friends & the Esteem of all her Acquaintance. To the Poor & Afflicted She Administer'd (with a liberal Hand) Comfort & Support. In Friendship, her Sincerity was perfect. & her Benevolence was universal.
In Short, she was a Shining pattern of Religion &
Virtue, & an inestimable Ornament to human Nature. Few approaching so near
to the Divine Perfection proposed for Our Imitation, by our blessed Lord him
Self
Be Ye therefore perfect, even as Your Father which is in
Heaven is perfect".
Jacobsen was a merchant in Basinghall Street, London. He was the London-born son of Sir Jacob Jacobsen, a north German merchant, of a family closely involved with the Hanseatic League, and their London base, the Steelyard. From 1735 Jacobsen ran the family business there.
Jacobsen designed the Foundling Hospital; the plan was approved in 1742, and was carried out under James Horne as surveyor. Jacobsen became a governor of the hospital.After a falling-out with Jacobsen in 1742, Thomas Coram, the hospital's founder, failed to be re-elected to its General Committee. Henry Keene did further work on the Foundling Hospital site, under Jacobsen's supervision.
Jacobsen became a Fellow of the Royal Society, the Society of Antiquaries of London, and the Society of Arts. He died on 25 May 1772, and was buried in All Hallows Church, Thames Street, London.
..................
15. Anne Simons - Funerary Monument d. 1769 - Lechlade, Glos.
16. Elizabeth, Duchess of Northumberland d. 5 December 1776 at Northumberland Hose, Strand, ( the monument designed by Robert Adam - drawing at the Soane Museum - not yet digitalised) 1778 -1782 - Chapel of St Nicholas,Westminster Abbey, London,
It is inscribed -
Near this place lies interred Elizabeth Percy, Duchess of
Northumberland, in her own right Baroness Percy, Lucy, Poynings, Fitzpayne,
Bryan, and Latimer; sole heiress of Algernon, Duke of Somerset, and of the
ancient Earls of Northumberland, She inherited all their great and noble
qualities, with every amiable and benevolent virtue. By her Marriage with Hugh
Duke of Northumberland, She had issue Hugh Earl Percy, Lady F. Eliz. Percy, who
died in 1761, and Lord Algernon Percy. Having lived long an Ornament of Courts,
an Honour to her Country, a Pattern to the Great, a Protectress of the Poor,
ever distinguished for the most tender Affection for her Family and Friends,
She died December 5th, 1776, aged Sixty; Universally beloved, revered,
lamented.
17. Rev. George Legh, Funerary Monument 1776, and his two wives Frances and Elizabeth - John the Baptist Parish Church, Halifax, Yorks.
Vicar 1731-1775. A member of the Cheshire family of Legh, of
High Legh.
He directed in his will that "a marble monumental
inscription be fixed up in the Vestry Burial Place or Library in the Parish
Church of Halifax recording the time of my two last wives burial there and
mine, so as the expence thereof doth not exceed one hundred pounds or there
abouts."
Near this Place in the same Vault, are deposited the Remains
of the Rev. GEORGE LL.D. LEGH
his Wife FRANCIS died December 9th 1749,
ELIZABETH Feb' 8th1765.
The monument is inscribed N : READ. Sculp. St. Martins Lane, London. 1775.
.................................
18. Nicholas Magens (d. 18 August 1764) - Funerary Monument. – 1766 - Brightlingsea,
Essex.
The monument was erected by his widow Elizabet (died 30 August 1779, nee Dorrien). He became a British citizen in 1737 Director of London Assurance 1741 - 50.
The monument was described in
the Ipswich Journal that November (5), is an overpowering assembly of motifs.
Magens was born at Neuendorff, Duchy of Holstein then politically linked with Denmark
In about 1725 he lived in Cádiz and traded with Veracruz. New Spain (Mexico). on the gulf of Mexico where silver was traded.
In 1741 he became one of the directors of the Royal Exchange Assurance Corporation and was given the responsibility for the complaint negotiations by the Hamburg Senate.
In 1759 he appears to have been appointed by the Bank of England as director.
Magens printed works -
The Universal Merchant: Containing the Rationale of Commerce, in Theory and Practice; an Enquiry Into the Nature and Genius of Banks, Their Power, Use, Influence and Efficacy. Nicholas Magens pub 1753.
Essay on Insurances pub 1755
19. John Kendall (d.1750) - Funerary Monument. c1765 - West
Horsley, Surrey.
image below from - https://churchmonumentssociety.org/2018/09/03/surrey-tour-part-2
20. Actaeon and his dog. - Statue 1762 - Soc
of Arts, premium (100 gns) - untraced.
21. Diana, out of water by a rock – Statue - 1764. Soc. of Arts,
premium - untraced.
22. Sir Gilbert Heathcote - Funerary Monument - 1768 - Devizes,
Wiltshire.
More details below.
.................................
23. Elizabeth, Duchess of Northumberland (†1776) (designed by Robert Adam), with relief portrait of the deceased - Funerary Monument -1778-1782 - chapel at Alnwick Castle, Northumberland, untraced (lost during rebuilding of 1854-1865).
Along with the monument at Westminster Abbey, Adam was
commissioned to design a sarcophagus for the chapel at Alnwick, dedicated to
memory of the Duchess of Northumberland who had died suddenly on 5 December
1776. Adam provided a new design for the lid of the
sarcophagus in June 1781. The sculpture was undertaken by Nicholas Read who
was paid £240, and continued until at least 1783.
The design at the Soane Museum is the only surviving graphic evidence for the monument, taking the form of a Roman sarcophagus, with a paired portrait of the Duke and Duchess in the middle.
The executed object was very large, measuring 9
feet long, 4 feet 2 inches wide, and 3 feet 7 inches high, and was placed under
Adam’s stained glass window in the chapel at Alnwick. Written descriptions of
the sarcophagus describe something a little different to this design, and it is
presumed that Read executed the design with some alterations to this drawing.
The monument was lost when the chapel was demolished under Sir Anthony Salvin
in the 1850s.
.......................
24. Lucretia Betenson (completing Roubiliac’s work?) she was the daughter of Martin Folkes - Folkes busts sculpted by Roubiliac (Wilton House) - Funerary Monument after1758 -Wrotham, Kent.
My opinion is that although Read might have finished the monument the relief is so good that it is almost certainly by Roubiliac.
see my post - https://bathartandarchitecture.blogspot.com/2025/03/the-monument-to-lucrecia-betensen.html
I would very much like to obtain some better photographs of this monument.
see the Kerridge Monument by Roubiliac at Framlingham Suffolk (illustrated below)
"Sacred to
the Memory
RICHARD BETENSON Esquire only son of Sir EDWARD
A Full Transcription of
the will of Lucretia Betenson:
https://bathartandarchitecture.blogspot.com/2025/03/the-monument-to-lucrecia-betensen.html
..............................
The Monument to George Heathcote (died 1768).
Lord Mayor of London
Devizes. Wiltshire.
George Heathcote (7 December 1700 – 7 June 1768) was an
English merchant and philanthropist and Tory politician who sat in the House of
Commons from 1727 to 1747. He was sheriff of the City of London in 1739 and
Lord Mayor of London in 1742.
He was born in Jamaica, the son of Josiah Heathcote, a West
India Merchant of London, and his wife, Catherine, widow of Thomas Barrett of
Jamaica. He was a nephew of Sir Gilbert Heathcote, 1st Baronet, Governor of the
Bank of England and Caleb Heathcote, who served as Mayor of New York City. He
was educated at Clare College, Cambridge and the Middle Temple (which he
entered in 1720).
Heathcote was a member of the Masonic Lodge at the Rummer Tavern, Charing Cross and was known as the wealthiest commoner in England when he died in 1768 aged 67.
He had married Maria, the daughter of John Eyles, MP,
of Wiltshire; they had two sons and two daughters.
They resided at Southbroom House (in the Drew family until 1680). It was bought by John Eyles, a London merchant, who was Lord Mayor of London for part of 1688. The house was rebuilt in 1773 by Edward Eyles.
https://www.historyofparliamentonline.org/volume/1715-1754/member/heathcote-george-1700-68
Margaret Whinney (correctly) ascribed this monument to Nicholas Read - she had failed to note the inscription hidden beneath the grey marble apron.
The monument to my eyes is another Read work which is not entirely successful - the lion is clumsily realised, but the carving of the dress is exquisite and the portrait relief is very fine.
........................
The Monument to Thomas Hawkins.
After 1766.
St Probus and St Grace Parish Church Probus, Cornwall.
Nicholas Reade.
I have visited many churches over the last few years and photographed many 18th century monuments but I have to say that this is probably one of worst examples of a monument.
It is a failure in many ways - the head of the grieving female is particularly bad - the divebombing angel is also particularly misconcieved - was it completed whilst the balance of his mind was disturbed.
........................
A Brief Biography of Nicholas Reade (c.1730 - 87).
Culled from the on line version of A Biographical Dictionary of Sculptors in Britain, 1660-1851 pub Yale 2009.
This entry was compiled by Greg Sullivan.
.
https://gunnis.henry-moore.org/henrymoore/sculptor/browserecord.php?-action=browse&-recid=2230
A student and the self-appointed successor to Louis François
Roubiliac, Read’s monuments are characterised by drama and excess. He was
probably the son of James and Anne Read, born 1 April 1730 and christened at St
Martin-in-the-Fields ten days later. He was the eldest of three or more
children. Read was first a student at the St Martin’s Lane Academy and around
1746 he was apprenticed by his father to Roubiliac. A later account in the
Gentleman’s Magazine claims that Read became a favourite student of the French
sculptor after covertly and successfully completing one of his master’s busts.
‘From that moment they continued inseparable friends ever after and all
distinction was lost in the affection [Roubiliac] bore him’ (GM, 1787, vol 57,
pt II, 644).
George Vertue, who saw a drawing by Read of an ‘academy
figure’ in 1750, recorded that it showed ‘great skill & fire & spirit
extraordinary’ (Vertue, III, 152). Read is said to have worked on many of
Roubiliac’s major commissions, including the famous skeletal figure of Death on
the monument to Mrs Nightingale, and he was left in charge of the business
whilst his master was in Rome in 1752. When Roubiliac died, early in 1762, Read
took over the workshop, advertising within a few days that, having been with Roubiliac
for the last 16 years ‘and executed great part of his most capital works’ he
now meant to succeed him (Anecdotes 1937, 151). It seems likely that Read
completed some of Roubiliac’s unfinished commissions, particularly the monument
to Francis Hooper, which incorporates a bust by Roubiliac (2), and another to
Lucretia Betenson at Wrotham, Kent (1). He repeated the Betenson emblem of a
cut rose on the monument to John Kendall (3).
In March 1762 Read published an advertisement offering casts of several busts by Roubiliac including representations of Alexander Pope, Isaac Ware and David Garrick. These were to be had ‘considerably cheaper than their usual price’ since the contents of Roubiliac’s studio were to be sold in May (Anecdotes 1937, 151-2).
Nicholas Read, for sale to "Any persons who are related
to the said gentlemen, or holding them in esteem". They were to be
supplied "considerably cheaper than their usual price" before the
moulds were disposed of by public auction.
By this date Read was evidently an accomplished marble sculptor for on 27 April 1762 he won a premium of 100 guineas from the Society of Arts for his life-size figure of Actaeon.
He married Mary Simmonds at about this time, and their child, Thomas James, was christened in December 1763.
On 27 April 1764 he won another prize of 140 guineas from the
Society of Arts for a figure of Diana out of water by a rock. These were
the largest premiums for sculpture ever offered by the Society, and his
achievement won him notices in the Press.
An anecdote by J T Smith (Nollekensand his Times) relates that Read had once declared that when he finished his apprenticeship to Roubiliac ‘he would show the world what a monument ought to be’ (Smith 1828, vol 2, 240-1). His early independent works indicate that he aimed to make an impression with his innovative designs and powerful dramatic effects.
His monument to Nicholas Magens, 1766, which was
described in the Ipswich Journal that November , is an overpowering assembly
of motifs. A statue of Fame with inappropriately large outstretched wings
stands with a globe and cherub, in front of a Breccia marble pyramid. They are
surrounded by emblems of trade, bales of merchandise, an anchor, rope and a
bursting cornucopia, which pours forth a flood of fruits of the earth intermixed
with golden guineas. The pyramid is encrusted with ice-cream clouds and numbers
of twisting putti who threaten to overwhelm the figures below.
Soon after completing the Magens monument Read won the
commission for Admiral Tyrrell’s monument in Westminster Abbey (6), a
Resurrection scene. This was partly dismantled in the 19th century when the
figure of the Admiral was put into store, which is regrettable, for the work
has received ridicule and high praise in equal measure. Its swelling clouds
earned it the sobriquet ‘the pancake monument,’ and J T Smith considered it the
vilest work in the Abbey. On the other hand, Mrs Esdaile later described the remaining
figures as ‘very beautiful’ and the relief of Tyrrell’s ship, the Buckingham,
as ‘technically among the most amazing things in English art’ (Esdaile 1928,
214).
Although few in number, Read’s monuments are ambitious and
varied. The Northumberland memorial, designed by Robert Adam, is built around
the family vault in Westminster Abbey and consciously echoes the
Elizabethan and Jacobean surroundings, despite the obvious neoclassicism. Read
departed from Adam's design in several particulars, most notably the
incorporation of a delightful naturalistic relief of the Duchess as Charity
giving alms. The monument to Mrs Simons is an asymmetrical variant on a standard
type, the portrait-medallion on a draped pyramid. The Finch monument
incorporates two unusual urns and Lady Margan’s memorial, an x–shaped
composition, has a figure of Fame with her head falling backwards in an ecstasy
of grief (8).
In 1779 Read submitted an unsuccessful design for the
monument to William Pitt, Lord Chatham, presenting Chatham standing on a sarcophagus in an
oratorial pose, surrounded by figures of Learning, Eloquence and History (12).
Like his friend John Cheere, who left him a small bequest to buy a mourning
ring, Read appears to have had a high public profile, but he won little
recognition amongst artists. He appears not to have sought any connection with
the Royal Academy, unlike his co-apprentice in Roubiliac’s studio, William Tyler
RA, and he exhibited on only a couple of occasions at the Free Society.
The paucity of Read’s known work supports Smith’s claim that
the mainstay of his business was not sculpture but property development.
According to Smith, who clearly disliked Read intensely, the sculptor was able
to increase his means tenfold by ‘the trade of purchasing old houses, fitting
them up, and then letting them at an immense increase of rent’ (Smith 1828, vol
2, 240-1).
He died on 11 July 1787 at his house at 65, St Martin’s Lane. His obituary noted ‘his faculties were, from his great studies, impaired at a time of life when other men’s are in their prime, and he became totally deprived of reason a short time before his death’ (GM, 1787, vol 57, pt 2, 644-5).
His will, proved that month, left all his ‘real and personal estates’
to his wife Mary, and an annuity of £100 per annum to his son, Thomas James.
Further annuities went to three other family members. A sale of his stocks of
marble and clay, his casts, tools and utensils was held at his workshop by
William Booth on 2 August.
The Gentleman’s Magazine claimed that Read ‘received the highest wages given to any of his profession’ (GM, 1787, vol 57, pt 2, 644-5). His contemporary success has not been matched by his posthumous reputation. John Thomas Smith, whose father Nathaniel Smith also served his apprenticeship in Roubiliac’s workshop, regarded Read’s frequent self-promotion as the heir to Roubiliac as immodest and presumptuous.
Other accounts, not coloured by
personal antipathy, treat Read’s sculptural bombast as an anticlimactic appendage
to Roubiliac’s career and a final and outdated flourish of the baroque
tradition. The Gentleman’s Magazine commented in 1818 that Read ‘displayed more
of concetto than his master, without his judgement or taste’ (GM, vol 88, I,
597).
..........................
of Tangential Interest.
The Kerridge monument in Framlingham, Suffolk
"Jane Kerridge widow of Thomas Kerridge of Shelley Hall
in this county esquire, daughter and heir of Richard Porter 1744. And also
Cecilia her only daughter and heir who died 8th day of June 1747 William Folkes
esquire (husband of Cecilia) hath caused this monument to be erected"
L E Roubiliac fecit.
Cecilia dying without heirs left her right to the manor of
Shelley to husband William Folkes, of Chancery Lane, London and of Hillington
Hall, Norfolk who sold it in 1756 to Samuel Rush of Benhall.
William m 2 Mary heiress daughter of Sir William Browne 1774 parents
of Sir Martin Browne Folkes 1st bart.
Above is Jane's funeral hatchment - (Jane daughter and heir
of Richard Porter who married 1704 Thomas Kerridge of Shelley Hall , and died 5
Sep 1744 in St Marylebone; he died Apr 1743 Sable on a pile argent a caltrap
sable (Kerridge) In pretence: Sable 3 bells argent a chief ermine (Porter)
Cherub’s head above).
Huguenot artists designers and craftsmen in Great Britain and Ireland. 1680-1760. Murdoch, Tessa Violet.
