In December 1945, Godfrey Pattison donated five paintings to Glasgow museums. The paintings were thought to be associated with family members from the late eighteenth to nineteenth centuries. Godfrey Pattison was a widower with no surviving children and no surviving brother. It is reasonable to suppose that, having no immediate family, he would ensure that family pictures were in safekeeping.
Godfrey Herbert Pattison was born in Chorleton upon Medlock, Lancashire on 16 April 1877 to John Pattison (1840-1917) and Mary Jane Ovington (1850-). (1 ) He was from a well-known Glasgow family descended from John Pattison of Kelvingrove House. He lived with his parents in Withington, in Lancashire and then in Cheshire. In !897 he sailed from the Liverpool docks bound for Calcutta. (2) The records of The Imperial Yeomanry show that he enlisted during the Boer War and served in South Africa from January 1900 to June 1901. (3)
Our subject is found travelling to and from England during his lifetime but passenger lists do not give his occupation or profession. Over the years he had different temporary addresses when he was on leave. In 1932 he was travelling to the UK from Dar-es-Salaam and his permanent address is given as Tanganyika (now Tanzania). He returned to Mozambique in 1932. (4) By 1939 he was home living in Andover, Hampshire. (5) His occupation at that time was given as farmer. When he gave the paintings in 1945 his address was given as the Commercial Hotel, High Street, Andover, Hants. (6)
In1939 he is described as widowed but there is no mention of his wife’s name or of a wedding. A son Donald Moncrieff Pattison (1920- 1944) was born in Tanganyika Territory. He served in the Second World War in the Royal Army Corps but died in action in June 1944 in Calvados in France and is buried in Ryles War Cemetery. (7)
Godfrey continued to travel to Africa after 1945 and was travelling to and from Mombasa in 1958. (8) He died in 1960 and is buried in Manchester. (9)
Family History
The family history, not only shows the direct line of descent of our subject from John Pattison of Kelvingrove House and the links to the present day Kelvingrove Museum, but also that this was a family who did not remain in Glasgow and were well travelled.
His father, John Pattisson (1840-1917) was the son of Godfrey Thomas Hope Pattison (1806- 1868) and Mary Cornelia Thomson (1819-1885). . He was born in New York at the British Naval Dockyard Hospital (10) (11) and his mother was an American citizen He is next found in the UK 1851and 1861 censuses (12) (13) in Glasgow. He married Mary Jane Ovington in 1873 in Glasgow. (14) Thereafter he lived in Lancashire and then in Altringham Cheshire. (15) (16) His occupation was given as Silk Merchant. He died on 7 March 1917 and is buried in Chorlton-cum-Hardy. (17)
His grandfather, Godfrey Thomas Hope Pattison (1806-1868) was the son of John Pattison (1782-1867) and Rebecca Monteith (1786-). (18) He became an American citizen on January 2 1828. (19) The reason for his being in America and his occupation have not been ascertained. However, he was a nephew of Alexander Hope Pattison and of Granville Sharp Pattison, who was Professor of Anatomy in the University of New York. (20) Godfrey married Mary Cornelia Thomson (1819 -1885) in 1836 in New York at a ceremony conducted by the mayor. (21). His son John was born in New York. Thereafter the family returned to Glasgow and are found in the 1851(22) and 1861(23) censuses at 27 Newton Place when he is described as a Commission merchant. He died in Glasgow in 1868 (24) and is buried in the Glasgow Necropolis.
Our subject’s great grandfather, John Pattison (1782-1867) was born in Glasgow son of John Pattison of Kelvingrove (1747-1807) and his wife Hope Margaret Moncrieff (1755-1803) of Culfargie in Perthshire. (25) He was active in local politics and a strong supporter of the Reform Act of 1832. (26) He married Rebecca Monteith in Glasgow in 1803. He lived in Bothwell in 1851(27) and in Mauchline (28) in 1861. He died in 1867 in Edinburgh. (29) He is buried in the Glasgow Necropolis. (30) It is his portrait by the American artist Chester Harding which was donated to Glasgow.
Our Subject’s great great grandfather John Pattison (1747-1807) of Kelvingrove was born in Paisley on 7 December 1750. (31) He was a Glasgow merchant and mill owner who owned one of the largest steam driven spinning mills in Glasgow. (32 ) He married Hope Margaret Moncrieff of Culfargie in the Low Church Paisley on 17 July 1781. (33)
In 1792 he bought Kelvingrove House, which had been built for Lord Provost Patrick Colquhoun in 1782. With the house was an estate of 24 acres .and to which he added and sold both in 1795. It was not until 1852 that it was acquired by Glasgow Corporation .and became Kelvingrove House in the West End Park. Kelvingrove House was much extended to become a museum but it was later demolished. (34) Kelvingrove Park is the site of the present day Kelvingrove Museum Glasgow. He died in Glasgow in December 1807. (35)
John Pattison and Hope Margaret Moncrieff Pattison had a large family who incorporated the names ‘Hope’ and ‘Moncrieff’ into the family forenames.
The Donated paintings
Painting Artist
| Lt Colonel A .Hope Pattison | Thomas Duncan R.S.A. |
| Portrait of a Young Man, nephew of the above | Unknown |
| Lord Moncrieff | After Raeburn |
| John Pattison | Chester Harding |
| Unknown Gentleman | Unknown |
These portraits give some clues to the antecedents of Godfrey Pattison but there are some questions about the reliability of their connections.
Four of the paintings merit some attention. The other is obscure and there is no information about the identity of the subject or of the painter.
The painting of John Pattison by Chester Harding is not of John Pattison of Kelvingrove (1747-1807) but of his son John Pattison (1782-1867). Harding was an American artist who did not arrive in Britain until 1823. (36) John Pattison of Kelvingrove died in 1807. It is of interest that there is a painting of his wife Hope Margaret Pattison by Harding which is in a private collection.
The painting of Lord Moncrieff (1776-1851) is of Sir James Wellwood Moncrieff of Tullibole in Kinross. (37) No family link has been found at the time of the marriage with Hope Margaret’s family who were Moncrieff of Culfargie in Perthshire. Her father was a minister of the Church of Scotland. However it may be that the families have a common ancestor.
The painting of Lt. Colonel A Hope Pattison (1785-1835) by Thomas Duncan does have a strong family connection. He was a son of John Pattison of Kelvingrove and Hope Margaret Moncrieff but our subject is not a direct descendant. Alexander fought with distinction in the Napoleonic wars. There is a monument to him and to other members of the Pattison family (38)) in the Glasgow Necropolis and there is much information about them on their website and in the Glasgow Stories website of Glasgow University.
The painting of a young man, nephew of Alexander Hope Pattison, might be a portrait of Godfrey Thomas Hope Pattison but without knowledge of artist or date this is only a theory.
References
- Ancestry .co.uk/ Church of England Births and Baptisms
- Passenger lists 1878-1960
- Ancestry.co.uk/Records of Imperial Yeomanry
- Incoming passenger lists 1878-1960
- 1939 England and Wales Register
- Archives of Glasgow Museums
- Royal Army Corps Records
- Outgoing Passenger Lists 1878-1960
- Find a Grave Index 1300 to current day
- Ancestry.co.uk
- Wikipaedia Naval Dockyard Hospital, New York City USA
- National Records of Scotland Census 1851 and 1861
- National Records of Scotland Statutory Marriages 1873
- Ancestry .co.uk
- Ibid
- ibid
- England and Scotland Select Cemetery Registers 1800-1961
- Ancestry.co.uk/Old Parish Records
- Philadelphia. Naturalisation Records 1789-1880
- www.glasgownecropolis.org/profiles/The Pattison family
- Newspaper Extractions from North east : Christian Intelligencer of the Dutch Reformed Church.17 September 1836
- National Records of Scotland Census 1851
- National Records of Scotland Census 1861
- National Records of Scotland Statutory Deaths 1868
- Ancestry.co.uk
- Catalogue of Portraits at the New Art Gallery, Glasgow 1861 Glasgow Museums Archives.
- National Records of Scotland Census 1851
- National Records of Scotland Census 1861
- National Records of Scotland Statutory Deaths
- www.glasgownecropolis.org/profiles/The Pattison family
- Ancestry.co.uk
- Glasgowwestaddress.co.uk/old_country_houses
- National Records of Scotland Statutory Marriages 1781 correct
- Glasgowwestaddress.co.uk/ old_country_houses
- Britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk
- Leah Lipton .Chester Harding in Great Britain. Antiques. Vol.CXXV No 6. June 1984
- Millar.Gordon F. Moncrieff, James Wellwood (1811-1895) Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2014.
- www.glasgownecropolis.org/profiles/The Pattison family
Glasgow Museums Art Donors Group 