The painting was bought by Glasgow collector William McInnes from Alexander Reid and Lefevre in 1942 in what turned out to be to his final purchase. The painting then passed to his son Thomas and then to Thomas’s widow Jessie.
Jessie McEwan was born on 27 September 1874 at 13 Cedar Street in the Hillhead district of Glasgow. She was the daughter of Thomas McEwan a journeyman baker and his wife Jessie Ewing who had married on 15 November 1867 in Milton, Glasgow. Jessie’s mother registered the birth. 1 By the 1881 census, the family had moved to 31 Crossburn Street, Milton. 2 Ten years later, Jessie was employed as a stationer’s assistant still living at 31 Crossburn Street with her parents and seven siblings. 3
On 5 July 1899 at 30 Berkeley Terrace, Glasgow, Jessie married Thomas Macdonald McInnes a draughtsman and a younger brother of William McInnes (qv) who was a witness at the ceremony. The other witness was Jessie’s sister Nellie. 4 The couple took up residence at 40 Nithsdale Drive, Strathbungo, Glasgow. Jessie was described as a ‘sanitary engineer draughtsman’s wife’. 5 By the time of the next census, Thomas and Jessie had moved to 74 Norham Street, Shawlands, Glasgow. 6 Thomas McInnes died at 17 Darnley Gardens, Glasgow in 1951 aged 79. He was a retired sanitary engineer. Jessie reported his death. 7
Jessie Ewing McInnes died on 21 January 1957 at 17 Darnley Gardens, Glasgow. She was 83. Her death was reported by her niece, Jessie Chase. 8
The painting was presented in memory of John Young by his family. 1 It was purchased by Mary’s grandfather, James ‘Paraffin’ Young, in 1877 and passed to her father John Young. 2
Mary Young was one of twelve children, and the second daughter, born to John Young ‘a landed proprietor’ and his wife Christina Maclellan who married at 17 Royal Crescent, Glasgow on 17 July 1877. 3, 4 The couple were given the estate of Durris in Kincardineshire by John’s father. John and his brother James managed the chemical works at Addiewell and Bathgate established by their father. 5 Mary was born on 13 July 1881 in Durris House. Which Mary’s grandfather James Young had bought together with the estate in 1871 from Alexander Mactier. The house was apparently later known locally as ‘Paraffin Ha’. 6 In the census of 1881, Durris House was in the possession of John Young who gave his occupation as ‘chemist’. 7 By 1885 the estate seems to have been shared between John Young and his younger brother Thomas Graham Young. 8 It was sold in 1890 9 In 1891 Mary was a scholar aged nine living with her family at 22 Belhaven Terrace, Govan, Glasgow. 10 By 1901 Mary was still a scholar, but the family had moved to 2 Montague Terrace, Partick, Glasgow. As well as Mary and eleven siblings, there were six servants. 11 On 6 June 1912 at Westbourne United Free Church, Glasgow, Mary married James Alexander Mackenzie a writer of 3 Queen’s Gardens, Glasgow. 12, 13 The couple moved to 11 Montgomerie Quadrant, Hillhead, Glasgow and by 1921 had three children, James Y., born 1914, Mona C., 1916 and Helen H., 1920. They also employed a table maid, cook and a nurse. 14 James Mackenzie died in 1960 aged 82. 15 Mary Mackenzie died on 10 October 1968 in a nursing home at 50 Cleveden Drive, Glasgow. She was 87 years old. 16 Her funeral was held at Glasgow Crematorium, Maryhill on 12 October. 17
References
Catalogue of Donations to Glasgow Museums, Glasgow Museums Resource Centre
VADS
Scotland’s People, Birth Certificate
Glasgow Herald, 18 July 1877
Leitch, Mary Muir Paraffin Young and Friends, A Biography of James Young, 1811-1883, the World’s First Professional Oilman, Alan Fyfe, 2012
This painting was donated by ‘Miss Rule’ from Perthshire on 19 December 1951.1 According to Scotland’s People there were four ‘Miss Rules’ who died in Perthshire after 1951. Two of these were in the wrong timeframe and only one of the others was a ‘Miss’. This left the likely donor as being Miss Elsie Spiers Rule. 2
Elsie Spiers Rule was born at 7 Montgomerie Crescent, Kelvinside, Partick on 25 April 1879. Her birth was reported by Catherine Black, a nurse. Elsie’s parents were Robert Rule (a soft goods manufacturer) and Louisa Shand who had married on 9 June 1868 in Partick. 3 Elsie was their youngest child in a family of four girls (Louisa E. born 1871, Helen Margaret, born 1872, Mary Shand, born 1876 and Elsie) and a boy, Robert born 31 May 1873. 4
The family was at 7 Montgomerie Crescent in 1881 with Elsie S. Rule aged 1. Elsie’s father Robert who was born in Rothesay in 1837, was a ‘manufacturer of cotton and woollen dress goods employing twenty men and ten women’. 5 He was the second son of Robert Rule, a Paisley yarn merchant. Elsie’s mother, Louisa, was a sister of Baron Shand of Woodhouse, Dumfriesshire who sat as a Lord of Appeal in the House of Lords. She died on 28 September 1888 aged 53. 6, 7
All three of Elsie’s sisters married. On 19 January 1898, Louisa married J (I?) Graham, an East India Merchant at 7 Montgomerie Crescent. Two years later, on 18 April 1900, Helen, married J. D. Nimmo, also an East India Merchant at the same adress. Mary married Robert Spiers Fullarton, a General Practitioner at The Grant Arms, Grantown on Spey on 11 July 1908. Elsie was a witness at this wedding. 8
In 1891, Elsie and her sister Mary both scholars, were in Dollar visiting a Miss Jane Macalister in Academy Street, Eglinton Place. 9 Also present were Margaret Cameron, pupil governess and Elizabeth Birch, lady housekeeper. This latter person remained with the family until her death in 1939. 10
Eight years later, Elsie passed the Arts and Sciences Preliminary Examination at Glasgow University. 11 Her brother Robert had earlier graduated with an MA from the same University.
Elsie does not appear on the 1901 Census, however, her father Robert Rule aged 63, widowed, and retired was residing at Pokesdown, Hampshire. 12 The family home remained at 7 Montgomerie Crescent, Govan. 13 On 5 October 1905 a Miss E. S. Rule left England for Calcutta aboard the Oceana although it is not clear that this is the same Miss Rule. 14 In 1911, Elsie was still at 7 Montgomerie Crescent with her father and four servants, living next door to Mary Kirkpatrick (qv) who was also a donor of paintings to Glasgow. 15 On 6 December 1913, Elsie sailed from Glasgow to New York aboard the California. She had no occupation listed. 16
By 1915, Robert Rule had become the proprietor/occupier of Benachie House and Grounds in Crieff, as well as retaining his house at 7 Montgomerie Crescent, Govan. 17 Benachie was to become Elsie’s future home. The family seems to have taken up a prominent place in Crieff society. In 1921 Elsie attended the Crieff Highland Gathering among the ‘fashionable attendance’ in the grandstand. She was accompanied by Mrs Robert Rule and Miss Birch. 18 In the census of that year Elsie is listed at Benachie with her father and his grandson, also Robert, along with four servants. 19 Later, Elsie’s father acquired more property in Crieff with a house and offices in Ferntower Road. 20 Robert Rule died at Benachie on 19 October 1929 aged ninety-two. His death was reported by his son Robert. 21, 22,23
The following year, Elsie donated a view indicator to be placed on the Knock of Crieff, a small, wooded hill to the north of the town, in memory of her father. 24 The inscription reads:
IN MEMORY OF ROBERT RULE
BENACHIE CRIEFF
“I will lift up mine eyes unto the hills from whence cometh my help”
Fig. 2 View Indicator on the Knock of Crieff 25
Thereafter, Elsie Rule became ‘one of Crieff’s most respected residents, a lady who gave unstintingly of her wealth – through channels publicly and anonymously’. 26 In the same year as her father’s death she contributed £200 to the miners’ relief fund. 27 In 1934 she again travelled to America arriving in Boston on 1 September aboard the St. Louis. 28In 1940 she was still the proprietor of the house at 3 Cleveden Crescent, as well as Benachie House and grounds, The Haven, Ferntower Road West and a house on Ferntower Road, all Crieff. During the war years it was reported that she donated a ham to Crieff Cottage Hospital 29 and provided funds so that the men of the 3rd Battalion Home Guard could be provided with a ‘Balmoral’ in place of the F.S. Cap. 30 She attended various fund-raising events and at the Crieff Ladies’ Lifeboat Guild sale, held to raise funds for the RNLI, she won one dozen (13) eggs in a raffle. 31 She was especially generous to ex-servicemen who were down on their luck by providing money and purchasing of various items of clothing. She also supported events at Morrison’s Academy, presenting the Senior Shot Putt Cup in 1958. 32
In 1952, the year after her donation of the painting to Glasgow, she gifted her house ‘one of the finest mansions in Strathearn’ to Crieff Old Peoples’ Welfare Committee as a ‘home for old folks’. 33
Elsie Spiers Rule died aged 83 on 27 October 1962 at Benachie, Crieff. Her death was reported by her personal servant William F. Eades who was living at Benachie Cottage, Ferntower Place, Crieff. 34 A memorial service was held at Woodside Crematorium Chapel in Paisley on 30 October. 35
In the grounds of the crematorium stands a stone marking the Rule Family Memorial. An inscription contains the following information:
‘Erected in the Abbey burying ground by Robert Rule (Elsie’s grandfather), merchant in Paisley, in memory of Margaret Spiers his wife, who died 24th Sept 1842 aged 35 years, and was buried in the angle formed by the north transept and nave of the church, where was also buried Robert Rule (Elsie’s father) who died 7th Feb’y 1854, aged 53 years. This stone was removed by their son Robert, in consequence of the ground being required for the late repairs upon the Abbey Church and is placed here to mark the spot where lie the mortal remains of his beloved sisters’ (Helen, and Jessie Currie Rule).
Various tributes were paid to Elsie including at the AGM of the local Horticultural Society. An obituary in the local paper noted that she had ‘disbursed thousands of pounds to deserving causes and to people in Crieff and further afield over the past 30 years’. She was a Christian Scientist and attended the Crieff South Church. 36 In her will, she left £73,397. Her house at 3 Cleveden Crescent was left to her caretaker Ian David Eades and his wife Jean ‘with the hope that it would not be turned into flats’. Her chauffeur was given the house that he occupied at the time of her death. 37
The painting was initially owned by ‘Mrs Edwards’. (This was Ruth Edwards who with her husband, were Fantin-Latour’s British agents. He often visited the Edwards at Sunbury-on-Thames during the 1860s. 38,39 The painting was exhibited at the Royal Glasgow Institute of Fine Arts, Glasgow in 1892, cat. no. 369, as Baigneuses. It was priced at £31. This may have been where it was purchased by Robert Rule and passed to his daughter.
References
Glasgow Museums Resource Centre, List of Donations to Glasgow.
Scotland’s People, Death Certificates.
Scotland’s People, Birth Certificate.
Ibid
Scotland’s People, Census, 1881.
Scotland’s People, Death Certificate
Glasgow Herald, 29 September 1888
Scotland’s People, Marriage Certificates.
Scotland’s People, Census, 1891.
Scotland’s People, Death Certificate.
Glasgow Herald, 20April 1899, p3.
ancestry.co.uk, 1901 Census, England.
Scotland’s People, Valuation Roll 1905
ancestry.co.uk, UK and Ireland, Outward Passenger Lists, 1890-1960.
Scotland’s People, Census, 1911
ancestry.co.uk, UK and Ireland, Outward Passenger Lists, 1890-1960.
In 1956, the same couple donated two paintings by the same artist to Michigan State University via the Carlebach Gallery of New York. Information about these donations is contained in the following letters.
Fig. 3 Letter offering paintings. Michigan State University Archives, Used with permission.Fig. 4 Letter acknowledging receipt of the paintings. Michigan State University Archives, Used with permission.
These letters provided the background to Mr. E. K. Perry and gave an address to work from. One also provided some information about the artist. One of the paintings Dancing in Harlem was painted in the 1940s.
John Edmund Liggett was born on 11 June 1826 in St. Louis. He was a co-founder, in 1873, of the Liggett and Myers Tobacco Company which became the fourth largest tobacco company in America. The company had its origins in a snuff mill in New Egypt, New Jersey owned by Christopher Foulks. When the mill was destroyed by British soldiers in 1812, Foulks moved to Illinois and then to St. Louis to set up business. His daughter, Elizabeth married Joseph K. Liggett and their son John Edmund entered the business about 1845. The company became J. E. Liggett and Brother until a partnership was formed with George Smith Myers in 1873. 2
John Liggett married Elizabeth J. Calbreath on 21 December 1851. 3 They had one son and four daughters one of whom, Dorothy (‘Dolly’) married Claude Kilpatrick about 1883. One of their two daughters, Mary Lois Kilpatrick (born 1885) married Eugene Albert Perry and their only son, Eugene Kilpatrick Perry was born in New York on 18 December 1918. 4 In the fourteenth US Census of 1920 5 the family was living in Manhattan with Eugene A. Perry a stockbroker aged 39, born in Virginia. However, his wife, a ‘housewife’, is listed as Georganne Perry aged 34, born in St. Louis.
In 1927, the nine-year-old Eugene and his parents sailed from New York aboard the Nieuw Amsterdam. They arrived at Plymouth on 12 September before travelling on to London and staying at the Park Lane Hotel. 6
In the 1930 census 7 the details are essentially the same as in 1920, but the wife’s name is now Lois K. Perry who is aged 44. The family was employing three maids and a servant. Shortly after this, Eugene’s parents were divorced, and his mother married Russell L. McIntosh a textile dealer. In 1934, Eugene, with his mother and stepfather, were in Hamilton, Bermuda and on 6 April sailed from there aboard the S.S. Monarch of Bermuda, arriving in New York on 8 April. The family’s address was now Darien, Fairfield, Connecticut. 8 Later in August the same year, Eugene, aged fifteen, sailed with his family to Britain. They left Southampton on 25 August aboard the S.S. Statendam and arrived in New York on 1 September. 9 The following year, after a stay in the Ritz Hotel in London, the family left Southampton aboard the S.S. Bremen on 11 September 1935 bound for New York. Russell L. McIntosh was now retired, and Eugene was a student aged 16. 10 In 1937, the family was again on holiday. This time leaving Vancouver, British Columbia on 7 August and sailing to Hawaii aboard the S.S. Empress of Canada. They arrived in Honolulu on 12 August and stayed at the Royal Hawaiian Hotel. 11 On 1 September 1939, the family sailed from Buenos Aires aboard S.S. Brazil arriving in New York on 18 September. Their address was East Trail, Darien, Connecticut. 12
In the census of 1940 13 Eugene was at the same address ‘stepson to Russell L. McIntosh’, aged 21. His parents were in Miami and the family employed three servants, all German.
In 1940, Eugene competed a Draft Registration Form giving his address and stating that he was unemployed. It also gave some personal details. On 18 November he enlisted for three years in Battery C of the 207th Coastal Artillery, National Guard.
Fig. 5 Draft Registration Form 14
Eugene’s father, Eugene Albert Perry died aged sixty-four on 26 May 1944 in Charlottesville, Virginia. He was a stockbroker divorced from Lois Kilpatrick Hayes. 15 A Florida state census of 1945 recorded Eugene K. at Boca Raton with his mother and stepfather. His occupation was ‘army’. 16
Fig. 6 Posting and Demobilisation 17
Eugene was demobilised on 13 January 1946 and on 12 March he married Cristina DeLeon in West Palm Beach, Florida.
Fig. 7 Marriage License 18
A report of the wedding in a local newspaper contained the information that Eugene was an ‘alumnus of the Hun School in Princeton, N. J. and that he enlisted in the old 7th Regiment of New York’. ‘Until recently (he) served in the Army Medical Corps in the Philippines and Japan’. In the same report, Cristina was described as the ‘daughter of Mrs. Amanda B. de Leon of 1185 Park Ave., New York’. One of the bridesmaids was Miss Nara de Leon, the bride’s sister. Cristina’s father was ‘the late Diego de Leon of Madrid and her grandfather was Rafael Lopez Andrade, court painter to the late King Alfonso’. A reception took place ‘at the winter home of the bridegroom’s mother, Mrs. Russell L. McIntosh, and Mr. McIntosh in Boca Raton’. 19
The bride’s mother was Amanda Rangel, daughter of Domingo Rangel and Luisa Espinal. She was born in Caracas, Venezuela on 19 April 1901.20 She married Diego De Leon and had three children: Ester born 27.10.1917, Edna (27.12.1918) and Ralph (21.7.1922) Diego died in May 1922 and Amanda married Albert Bencid. Her children took their stepfather’s surname. However, Albert died in 1923 and Amanda emigrated to the United States with her family. She landed at New York on 13 May 1924, aboard the S.S. Prins Frederik Hendrik. This information is contained in her application for naturalisation. When she applied, on 29March 1938 she was living at 353 Central Park West, New York. 21 She was granted naturalisation on 19 December 1940. Her address was now 1 West 85th Street, New York and her occupation was ‘housekeeper’. She declared that all children were the issue of (her) first husband, Diego de Leon, who died in May 1922 in British West Indies. She also stated that all her children were born in the British West Indies rather than in Caracas as stated previously. Her witnesses were a millinery designer and an art student perhaps reflecting her own artistic endeavours. 22
Fig. 8 (Ref. 21)
At some point after entering the US, both daughters changed their names, Ester Bencid became Nara de Leon and Edna became Christina (or Cristina) de Leon. In the 1940 census, Amanda Bencid was living in Manhatten, a widow aged 39 with no occupation listed. With her were her son Ralph Bencid, 17, and daughters, Nara de Leon, 21, and Cristina de Leon, 20. Both daughters were employed as models in advertising. All four were listed as born in Venezuela.23
Cristina completed a Declaration of Intention to seek naturalisation on 30 April 1938. She stated that her full name was ‘Christina de Leon of 352 Central Park West, New York. She was born in Trinidad, B.W.I. on 27 December 1918 and had arrived in the US on 13 May 1924 under the name of Edna Bencid. She was a model and had dark hair, brown eyes and was five foot three inches tall.
Fig. 9 (from ref. 24)
A petition for naturalisation was completed two years later. Her address was now 1 West 85th Street and she was an art student. 24 On 8 December Cristina was issued with a passport. She became a US citizen in July 1942. 25 Her sister, Nara, received naturalisation on 7 June 1943. She stated she was born on 27 October 1917 in Port of Spain, British West Indies. Cristina and her mother were witnesses, both living at 1185 Park Avenue, New York. Cristina’s occupation was ‘artist’ and her mother’s ‘housewife’. They both claimed to have known Nara continuously in the United States since 13 May 1924. 26
On 21 May 1949, Eugene’s mother, Mary Lois Kilpatrick McIntosh died aged 64 in New York. She had been married three times. Firstly, to Louis Lee Hayes in 1907, secondly to Eugene Albert Perry and finally, to Russell L. McIntosh. In 1928 she inherited a one-million-dollar estate from her mother Dolly Kilpatrick. She was buried in the Bellefontaine Cemetery in St. Louis on 24 May. 27
On 28 December 1949 the family again set sail, this time bound for Genoa, Italy. Eugene and Cristina were accompanied by Amanda Bencid, Nara and her husband Gerard Heim. The ship, S.S. Vulcania left New York and was due to arrive in Genoa on 8 January 1950. According to the ship’s manifest, Eugene, Cristina and Amanda planned to stay abroad for six months while the Heims’ stay was to be indefinite. 28
However, there was obviously a change of plans as on 7 April 1950 the whole family Amanda Bencin, Andrew Gerard Heim, Nara Heim, Eugene Kilpatrick Perry, Cristina Perry, all with an address at 1185 Park Avenue, New York, arrived at La Guardia airport from Maiquetja, Venezuela.29 The census of 9 April 1950 records that Nara E. Heim, aged 28, born in Venezuela, was married to Andrew G. Heim, aged 35, born in New York. He was a freelance artist. 30 Nara Heim was now a painter and sculptor with works in several galleries.
After their return, the Perrys moved to Pelham, New York – one of the oldest settlements in the USA. On 7 March 1952, they set off on a cruise accompanied by Amanda aged 50 and her son Ralph, 29. They all gave their addresses as 165 Boulevard, Pelham, New York. Cristina’s age is mistakenly listed as 25. The cruise was aboard Nieuw Amsterdam and returned to New York on 15 March. 31
Cristina Perry became an accomplished portrait painter. ‘She recently painted a large portrait of Helen Hayes which the actress claimed was the only one ever to capture her true likeness and personality’.
Fig. 10 Helen Hayes by Cristina Perry. US National Portrait Gallery website.
Due to the favourable reception of this painting, a second one, depicting Helen Hayes in her role of Queen Victoria, was commissioned. Both canvases were placed on exhibition in the Helen Hayes Theatre. 32
Fig. 11. Pelham artist, Cristina Perry (right) and Helen Hayes, take a pleased look at the picture of the actress painted by Miss Perry. The occasion was the unveiling of two portraits executed by Miss Perry.’ 33
Cristina also wrote an account of her meeting with Miss Hayes which took place in the Spring of 1956.
Cristina Perry, one of the country’s distinguished portrait artists who makes her home on the Boulevard, Pelham Heights, with an artist’s sensitivity records impressions both on her canvas and with words. Her work brings her into contact with many of the world’s great and near great and she presents for Pelham Sun readers this week a discerning pen portrait of one of her famous sitters, Helen Hays.
A member of a notable artistic family. Mrs Perry, wife of E. K. Perry, is the daughter of artist Amanda de Leon and sister of another artist Nara Heim. They all make their home in Pelham.34
Thereafter, the couple set about disposing of their collection of Amanda de Leon art. This consisted of donations to various art museums around the world. Cristina gave two paintings, Summer and FlowerVendor to the Lowe Art Museum in Miami on 12 January 1953 35 and Eugene is credited with donations to the Museum of Modern Art in Barcelona 36 and the Kunsthaus in Zurich in 1954.37 Thereafter the donations are invariably made under their joint names. Information from the Kunstmuseum in Basel may indicate how the donations were made.
‘The work (Evening in the Country) was bequeathed to the Kunstmuseum by Mr. and Mrs. Eugene Kilpatrick Perry in 1954. According to a letter (in the museum archives), they decided to give a work to the museum after a visit to Basel. The work was shipped from New York to Basel in the spring of 1954 after the Kunstmuseum confirmed its acceptance. There is no evidence that Mr. and Mrs. Eugene Kilpatrick Perry personally delivered it to Basel. According to the archive, a selection of several works was presented to the museum, which then decided on Evening in the Country. The only information we have about the artist Amanda de Leon is that she was born in Madrid on April 19, 1908, and trained in Caracas, Venezuela, before becoming an American citizen. She is also described as a peintre naif.’ 38
In 1954 they donated two paintings to Glasgow and on 23 November 1955 they gave ‘two modern paintings by Amanda de Leon, Boy with Dogs and At the Horse Races’ to the Art Gallery of the University of Notre Dame to ‘augment the galleries’ growing collection of modern art’. 39 A label from the reverse of Park Scene confirms their donation to the Saginaw Museum, Michigan in 1956. 40
Fig. 12. Label from reverse of Park Scene. From auctioneers Du Mouchelles website.
On 3 February 1957, the McGuire Hall Art Galleries in Richmond, Indiana were gifted a painting Mother and Child by Nara Heim, sister of Christina Perry. This was donated via the Carlebach galleries of New York. (A list of the couple’s other donations is contained in the appendix)
In 1957, Eugene and Christina embarked on a cruise aboard the British ship T.S.S.Ocean Monarch to Hamilton, Bermuda and Nassau, Bahamas. They left New York on 15 February returning to New York on 23February. In the column headed ‘U.S. Passport Number/Place of Birth’ Cristina’s details are listed as ‘U. S. Dist. CT. N.Y.C Dec. 8/40, S. America’. 41
In 1960, the following intimation appeared in the Pelham Sun,
Mr and Mrs Eugene Kilpatrick Perry have moved from the Boulevard to New Rochelle. They have purchased a new home at 100 Pryer Terrace.42
Fig. 13. – 100 Pryer Terrace, New Rochelle (Redfin Real Estate App)
However, before moving they donated two oil paintings by Amanda de Leon, Peasant Woman of Avila, Spain, and Shanti Town to the Hunter Art Gallery, Chattanooga on 8 September 1962. 43
Amanda Bencin (Rangel, de Leon), Cristina’s mother, and the artist responsible for all the paintings, died on 1 March 1996 in Miami Beach, Florida aged ninety-five. 44
Having retired to Miami, Eugene Kilpatrick Perry died at 5080 Alton Road Miami-Dade, Miami Beach on 11 May 1998 aged seventy-nine. His occupation was ‘Investor in Stock Market’, married to Cristina De Leon who was the informant. 45 Ralph Bencid (de Leon) died at Broward, Florida on 2 August 2001. He was 79. 46
References
Catalogue of donations to Kelvingrove Art Gallery, Glasgow
Wikipedia – CC BY-SA 4.0
Nisinger, Connie, findagrave.com
ancestry.com, Find a Grave Memorial ID 107675665, US Records
ancestry.com, United States Census 1920
ancestry.com, UK and Ireland, Incoming Passenger Lists, 1878-1960
ancestry.com, U.S. Arriving Passenger and Crew Lists (including Castle Garden and Ellis Island) 1820 – 1957
ancestry.com, UK and Ireland, Outward Passenger Lists, 1890 -1960ancestry.com, Honolulu, Hawaii, U.S. Arriving and Departing Passenger and Crew Lists, 1900 – 1959
ancestry.com, U.S. Arriving Passenger and Crew Lists (including Castle Garden and Ellis Island) 1820 – 1957
ancestry.com, United States Census 1940
Connecticut, World War II Draft Registration Cards, 1940 – 1945,
The Palm Beach Post, West Palm Beach, Florida, 13 Mar 1946 also reported in The Miami News
familySearch.org, United States, Social Security Numerical Identification Files (NUMIDENT), 1936-2007database,
New York, U.S. District and Circuit Court Naturalization Records, 1824-1991, familysearch.org
ibid
ancestry.com, United States Census 1940
familysearch.org, New York, U.S. District and Circuit Court Naturalization Records, 1824-1991
ancestry.com New York State, Passenger and Crew Lists, 1917-1967, S.S. New York, U.S. District and Circuit Court Naturalization Records, 1824-1991, familysearch.org
St. Louis Globe-Democrat, 23 May 1949
ancestry.com New York State, Passenger and Crew Lists, 1917-1967, S.S. Vulcania
familysearch.org, New York, New York Passenger and Crew Lists 1909, 1925-1957
familysearch.org, United States Census 9 April 1950
ancestry.com, New York, U.S., Arriving Passenger and Crew Lists, 1820 – 1957
Pelham Sun, 2 August 1956
Pelham Sun, 5 December 1957
ibid
Information from the Lowe Art Museum, Miami, by email.
Information from MACBA, Centre d’Estudis, Barcelona, by email
Information from the Kunsthaus Zurich, by email
Information from the Kunstmuseum Basel by email
University of Note Dame, Dept. of Public Information, 18 November 1955
The painting was auctioned by Du Mouchelles, 409 East Jefferson Ave., Detroit in July 2016. Image from their website.
ancestry.com, U.S. Arriving Passenger and Crew Lists (including Castle Garden and Ellis Island) 1820 – 1957
familysearch.org, United States, Social Security Numerical Identification Files (NUMIDENT), 1936-2007
Ibid
Ibid
Appendix 1
Paintings by Amanda de Leon Donated by the Perrys
Title Year of Gallery Donation
Flower Vendor 1953 Lowe Museum, Miami* Summer 1953 Lowe Museum, Miami* Man with Snakes 1954 Kunsthaus, Zurich * Nativity 1954 Museum of Modern Art, Barcelona * Evening in the 1954 Kunstmuseum, Basel * Country (1953) Spanish Dancers 1954 Glasgow Museums * The Papaya Tree 1954 Glasgow Museums * Girls with Kittens 1954 Musee des Beaux Arts Lausanne * Chinatown 1954 Municipal Gallery of Modern Art, Dublin * Night Scene 1954 Art Gallery of Toronto * Tropical Scene 1954 Hamburger, Kunsthalle * Boy with Dogs 1955 Notre Dame * At the Horse Races 1955 Notre Dame * Park Scene(1950) 1956 Saginaw Museum, Michigan * In the Seminary 1956 Krannert Art Museum, Ill* Dancing in Harlem 1956 Krannert Art Museum, Ill* Peasant Woman of 1962 Hunter Art Gallery, Chattanooga* Avila, Spain Shanti Town 1962 Hunter Art Gallery, Chattanooga.*
Others probably donated by the Perrys but not confirmed.
Gypsy Cave Osterreichische Galerie, Vienna (4) The Market Place Municipal Art Museum, Dusseldorf (4) Volcano Wolfgang Gurlitt Museum Linz, Austria (4) Cock Fight Museum of Modern Art, Sao Paulo (4) Convent Bound National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo (B) Scene from “Giselle” Municipal Gallery of Modern Art, Genoa (B) The Bathers National Gallery of Modern Art, New Delhi (B) On the Lake National Gallery of Modern Art, Rome (B)
N.B. * Confirmed by the museum; “4” Is from 4rarefinds a seller on eBay. The seller lists prints of Amanda’s paintings for sale and helpfully gives the gallery where the originals can be found. “B” indicates information from a book containing prints of Amanda’s paintings. (Osbourne, Duncan, Contemporary Masterpieces Series, 1954.)
Some, possibly all of these donations were arranged through the Carlebach Gallery in New York. The Perrys also offered a painting to the Tate Gallery in London which was declined.
Paintings Sold at Auction Nuns on Horseback Sold 2017 Du Mouchelles, Detroit $150.00 Farm Scene c1940 Sold 2008 Toomey & Co.
On occasion, the Perrys also donated paintings by Cristina’s sister, Nara e.g. Mother and Child, 1957 to the McGuire Hall, Richmond *
Appendix 2
Amanda de Leon (1901 – 1996)
It has been difficult to pin down this artist. This is partly because references to her always give her dates as 1908 – 1990 and state that she was born in Madrid, the daughter of Rafael Andrade, ‘a well-known portrait painter in his own right’.1 However, it has been impossible to trace any reference to this painter. Initial findings said she was raised in Venezuelaand educated at theSan Jose de Tarbes, Convent in Caracas.2 She lived in the US in Pelham, New York throughout her creative period.3 She painted mainly on Masonite (hardboard) and was described as a Peintre naif.4
In fact, she was born Amanda Rangel in Caracas, Venezuela on 19 April 1901, the daughter of Domingo Rangel and Luisa Espinal.5 She married Diego de Leon about 1917 and had three children, all born in the British West Indies; Esther, 27 October 1917, Edna, 27 December 1918 and Ralph 21 July 1922. Diego died in May 1922, and she moved back to Caracas. She then married Albert Bencid on 15 April 1923, but he died the same year. She emigrated to the United States from La Guaira, Venezuela arriving on 13 May 1924 aboard the Prins Frederik Hendrik. At the time she applied for naturalisation she was living at 1 West 85th Street, New York and was employed as a housekeeper. 6
In the 1940 census, she is listed as Amanda Bencid and was living in Manhattan, a widow aged 39 with no occupation given. With her were her son Ralph Bencid, 17, and daughters, Nara de Leon, 21, and Cristina de Leon, 20. 7 After her daughter Cristina (formerly Edna) married Eugene Kilpatrick Perry in 1946, Amanda moved in with her daughter and son-in-law at 1185 Park Avenue, New York. On 28 December 1949 she sailed with the family including her daughter Nara (formerly Esther) and Nara’s husband Andrew Gerard Heim, to Genoa arriving there on 8 January 1950. The visit must have been curtailed as on 7 April 1950 the whole family arrived at La Guardia Airport, New York having visited Venezuela. Shortly after this, the family moved to 165 Boulevard, Pelham NY which was the address given when Amanda this time accompanied by her son Ralph as well as Eugene and Cristina cruised from New York aboard the Nieuw Amsterdam.
The following year, her daughter and son-in-law began donating some of Amanda’s paintings to various art museums around the world. This began with a gift to the Lowe Museum in Miami of Flower Vendor and Summer.
In 1954 a booklet of copies of fourteen of her paintings was published in the Contemporary Masterpieces series with an introduction by Duncan Osbourne.
A volume of color reproductions of paintings by Amanda de Leon, noted artist who resides at 165 Boulevard, Pelham Heights has recently been published by the Fine Arts Publishers of New York. The paintings reproduced in the book are from the collections of museums in 14 different countries.
Miss de Leon’s works are represented in over 50 major museums throughout the world, including the Musee d’Art Moderne, Paris, the National Gallery of Modern Art, Rome, the Museum of Modern Art, Barcelona and the Glasgow Art Gallery, Scotland.
Universally famous, Amanda de Leon is considered to be one of the most notable self-taught painters of the generation. 8
Each painting has a legend indicating the gallery to which the original was donated. However, there is little in the way of biographical detail. One copy of the book was gifted to the Joslyn Memorial Art Library in 1957 by Eugene Kilpatrick Perry.
Exhibition of Paintings by Amanda de Leon An exhibition of paintings by internationally known Amanda de Leon of 165 Boulevard began Monday at the Mattatuck Museum in Waterbury, Conn. The one-man show will continue until Jan. 30. Many of the works on display have been loaned by museums, universities and distinguished private collectors. Miss de Leon, outstanding in the primitive style, has had several one-man shows in Paris and New York. 9
In 1955 she held an exhibition of her works in Washington D.C. Venezuelan painter Amanda de Leon held a successful exhibition of her works last June at the Pan American Union building in Washington D.C. by special invitation extended to her by that organisation.10
And later the same year she had an exhibition at the Carlebach Gallery in New York.
Paintings of Amanda de Leon on Exhibition A reception in honor of Amanda de Leon famous Pelham artist was opened on Monday evening September 19 by Mrs. Vincent R. Impellitteri wife of the former mayor of New York City. The occasion was the opening of her new exhibition of paintings at the Carlebach Gallery of 943 Third Avenue in New York. Many notables attended the reception including leading artists, sculptors and museum directors. Miss de Leon resides on the Boulevard, Pelham Heights. Last week Mayor Stanley W. Church of New Rochelle appointed Amanda de Leon as ambassador at large of New Rochelle. As the artists paintings hang in over (?) major museums throughout the world, Mayor Church said she has done a wonderful job fostering cultural relations between this country and the nations where her work is exhibited. Miss de Leon who is one of the leading contemporary painters of our time is noted for her originality and mastery of color and design. Although the daughter of a famous portrait painter of Madrid, the artist is independent of any tradition and paints in a style completely her own. The forcefulness and vitality of her work is enhanced by her rich and sumptuous colors. Amanda de Leon is the mother of two daughters, Cristina Perry and Nara Heim, successful artists themselves who are following in the footsteps of their illustrious mother. During the exhibition at the Carlebach Gallery, Miss de Leon will be the subject of numerous interviews on radio and television shows. 11
Five Years Ago Pelham Artist Amanda de Leon, an internationally known painter, has been included in the 1957 edition of “Who’s Who in the East,” as well as “Who’s Who in American Art.” The artist, whose paintings are represented in over 70 major museums throughout the world, is currently having a one-woman show in the Museum of Modern Art in Genoa. Subsequently, the exhibit will travel to museums in Barcelona and Dusseldorf. Amanda de Leon is the mother of the well-known artists Christina Perry and Nara Heim, all of whom have their residence and studios at 165 Boulevard. 12 Presumably Amanda continued to paint but there is no record after this point of any further donations of her artworks. Amanda de Leon (nee Rangel), also known as Amanda Bencid, died on 1 March 1996 aged ninety-five in Miami Beach, Miami-Dade, Florida. 13
Information from the archives of the Kunstmuseum Basel via. Marion Keller
familysearch.org, United States, Social Security Numerical Identification Files (Numident), 1936-2007
familysearch.org, Petition for Naturalisation 19 December 1940
ancestry.com, U.S. Census, 1940 (Check same as before)
Pelham Sun, 28 April 1955
Pelham Sun, 14 January 1954
Venezuela Up-to-date, 1956, Volumes 7-10, p 19. Google e-book.
Pelham Sun 22 September 1955
Pelham Sun 4 October 1962
Florida Death Records (Check)
Appendix 3
Nara Heim
Ester de Leon was born in Port-au-Spain Trinidad on 27 October 1917 to Diego de Leon and Amanda Rangel. When her father died, her mother married Albert Bencid and Ester took his name. After emigrating to the United States, she adopted her father’s surname and changed her first name to Nara. She worked as a photographic model in New York before marrying Andrew Gerard Heim. She studied at the Art Students League of New York and at the National Academy of Design School also in New York,and the Sculpture Center in New York.1 She exhibited at the Carlebach Gallery, New York (1950), New Rochelle AA (1952*, 1954), Manor Club (1952* – 1954), Westchester Arts and Crafts (1954 – 1955*) and Mount Vernon AA (1955*). (* Her exhibit was awarded a prize). Her work was exhibited at Everhart Museum of Art, Scranton, PA; Lyman Allyn Museum; Howard University; Farnsworth Museum of Art, Wellesley, MA; Georgia Museum of Art, Athens; Hickory Museum of Art, NC; and Mills College, Oakland, CA.2 She has an entry in Who Was Who in American Art, 1564 – 1975. 3 Nara Heim died on 13 March 2004 in Miami Shores. 4
In 2010, the following appeared on an art auction site,
Nara Heim painting (Venezuela/New York, born 1921), “The Sun Bathers”, signed upper right “Nara Heim”, mixed media on Masonite, 30 x 20 in.; lattice style gilt and painted wood frame. Some losses to composition material; frame with abrasions. Carlebach Gallery, New York City; Mr. and Mrs. E.K. Perry, Pelham, New York; Property of the Hickory Museum of Art, Hickory, North Carolina. 5
References (Appendix 3)
askart.com
fr.artprice.com
Who Was Who in American Art, 1564 – 1975, Falk, Peter Hastings, 1999
Isabella Ure’s parents were Alexander Ure (b.1788), a writer in Glasgow, and his wife Mary Ross (b.1800) the daughter of a grocer in the Gorbals. Alexander and Mary had married on 4 December 1819 in the Gorbals and had four children; John Francis, b. 1820, Margaret, b. 1822, d. 1829; Mary, b. 1824, d. 1826; and Isabella who was born on 15 March 1828 at 13 St. Vincent Place, Glasgow. Isabella of Alexander Ure and Mary Rofs in Hutchesontown, 15th March, bapt. 27th1 Alexander Ure died on 23 November 1830 when Isabella was only two years old and was buried in the Old Gorbals Cemetery alongside his two infant daughters. Mary Ure and her two surviving children moved to 145 Hill Street, Garnethill. Later John Francis was sent to a boarding school in England leaving Mary and Isabella on their own. In the 1851 Census, they were visiting 34 Portland Street, Gorbals 2. John Ure became a civil engineer and then Resident Engineer with the Clyde Trust. In this capacity he is likely to have met John Elder of ‘Randolph, Elder and Co.’, marine engineers on the Clyde. There would then follow an introduction to his sister Isabella. In any event, on the 31 March 1857 ‘in her mother`s home’, Isabella, now aged 28 married John Elder (b. 1824) master engineer and shipbuilder 3. He was the third son of the marine engineer David Elder. The service was conducted by the Rev. Norman MacLeod after banns had been read in the Barony Church where Isabella was a member. An ante nuptial contract had been signed on 30 March 1857. By this agreement, Isabella was free to do whatever she wished with her own estate without reference to her husband. In the event of his death all his estate was to pass to her. After their marriage, John and Isabella moved as tenants to 121 Bath Street (built in 1840) and were listed there with three servants in the 1861 Census 4. The business of ‘Randolph and Elder’ which was concerned in the manufacture of marine engines, continued to flourish and in 1863 the Fairfield Estate in Govan was purchased, and the firm diversified into shipbuilding. This necessitated a move by John and Isabella to Elmpark, a villa in Govan Road. The Elders seem to have been very happy together sharing a common interest in music (Isabella played the piano) and they had a wide circle of friends and acquaintances among whom were Professor Macquorn Rankine, Regius Chair of Civil Engineering and Mechanics at Glasgow University and the Reverend Norman Macleod who was later to preach to Queen Victoria at Crathie Church. Both John and Isabella had strong religious convictions and were motivated to try to improve the lot of their Govan workforce. Apprentices were encouraged to attend evening classes with expenses paid where necessary; an accident fund was set up and a cooking depot provided at the gate of the shipyard. The business was expanding and when Charles Randolph retired in 1868 it was renamed ‘John Elder and Company’. However, in 1869, John Elder`s health began to decline. He and Isabella went to London to consult specialists, but it was to no avail. John Elder died in London on 17 September 1869. His body was returned to Glasgow and interred in the Necropolis on 23 September. The business of John Elder and Co. now employed about five thousand workers and had many orders to fulfill. For nine months after John Elder`s death, Isabella ran the business single-handedly until strain and exhaustion forced her to seek partners. The senior partner nominated was her brother John Francis Ure. It was also at this time that she decided to move from Govan back to Glasgow. She bought Claremont House, a mansion in the West End which had been designed by John Baird I and built in 1842. Also, at this time because of the state of her health, Isabella was advised by her doctor to embark on a tour of the Continent. She and a lady companion, Miss Caroline Jay set of from Glasgow in November 1870 apparently with no great enthusiasm. She wrote,
I certainly expected no enjoyment from this Continental tour but went as a duty – I was too crushed by my great sorrow and unnerved by long anxiety and fatigue during Mr. Elder`s illness and afterwards, to look to the right or the left for anything of the kind.
They visited England, Belgium, Germany, Austria and Italy. While staying at the Hotel Danieli in Venice they first encountered the man Isabella referred to in her notes as ‘the Russian’ and later just as ‘R’. After her return to Glasgow in May 1871, ‘R’ turned up unexpectedly at Claremont House. He subsequently proposed marriage in a letter. She immediately wrote back rejecting his proposal which she had received with some alarm. In the summer of 1872, Isabella travelled to Florence to commission a bust of her late husband. On the way she received two letters from ‘R’ one of which claimed they were now engaged! While she was staying at Ems on the return journey ‘R’ turned up at her hotel. He pleaded with her to give him money to repay a debt. ‘I, very foolishly perhaps, gave him £50….‘ On this visit, ’R’ also met John Francis Ure who was visiting his sister but who was unaware of the situation between them. All three left Ems to journey to Metz where they visited the battlefields of the Franco-Prussian war. On the way, Isabella lent ‘R’ her watch which had been a present from her husband and precious to her. In October 1872, ‘R’ turned up unexpectedly at Claremont House and was asked to stay to dinner to meet John Francis. Before dinner he apparently said to her, ‘If you don`t accept me, I`ll hunt you like a Red Indian as long as you live’. This eventually prompted Isabella to tell her brother the whole story. He visited ‘R’ and told him to discontinue his visits. Later, through her lawyer, Isabella received her letters and her watch. She never saw ‘R’ again. In the 1880s a man called Romanoff was executed in Paris. Her law agent at the time told her that ‘R’ and Romanoff were one and the same. Isabella was now a wealthy widow with a comfortable and commodious house. Its walls were hung with pictures including A Lake Scene by Corot and Flowers by Narcisse Diaz which were later bequeathed to Glasgow. However, she felt the need to return something to the community, especially that of Govan where her husband had made his fortune. She began in 1873 by giving £5000 to Glasgow University as a ‘supplementary endowment’ to the Chair of Civil Engineering in memory of her husband. This ‘augmented the Professor`s salary ….. by £225 a year’5. Professor McQuorn Rankine was a close friend whom Isabella held in high regard. Earlier that year he had published a Memoir of John Elder which had a very favourable reception in the press. (Professor Rankine was also one of those who proposed the idea of supplying Glasgow`s water from Loch Katrine). Isabella`s mother died in Dunoon in 1876 aged 79 years. Her death was reported by Isabella`s brother John Francis 6. Because of failing health, John Francis retired in 1878 and took up residence in Cannes. Isabella spent the winters there with him until he died of a stroke in 1883. In 1883 Isabella gave a further donation of £12,000 to Glasgow University to endow the “John Elder Chair of Naval Architecture” the first such chair of its kind in the world. In the same year, she purchased 37 acres of land opposite Elder`s shipyard and had it turned into a park for the people of Govan at a total cost estimated at £50,000. The park was eventually opened in 1885 by the Earl of Roseberry amid great fanfare and a public holiday.
Figure 1. Isabella Elder (The Bailie, 12 December 1883).
In 1884, Isabella bought North Park House and grounds near the Botanic Gardens in Glasgow for £12,000 and gave it to Queen Margaret College (QMC) to be used for the Higher Education of Women on condition that the College raised £20,000 as an endowment fund. When Queen Victoria visited the College in 1888, Isabella was presented to her as ‘a true benefactress to women`s education’. To commemorate the visit, Isabella presented the College with a new set of gates for the main entrance. Reporting on a Bazaar organized to raise funds for the endowment of the College, the Glasgow Evening Times observed that Mrs. Elder, who gave the opening speech, ‘is a buxom, well-preserved lady, with a self-possessed manner, and she said what she had to say with calm deliberation’. 7 She was then 64 years old. As a result of the bazaar, the endowment fund was now raised, and Isabella gifted North Park house and grounds to the university in October 1893. When the College extended its teaching to include female medical students, Isabella undertook to meet the running costs for the first few years. The College became incorporated into the University of Glasgow and the first female medical students graduated in 1894. Another project with which Isabella was involved was the School of Domestic Economy in Govan. The aim was ‘to improve the ability of women to cook nutritious meals cheaply and well and also to manage a home’. This was established in 1885 in the Broomloan Halls. Isabella met all the costs of the School and contributed money for prizes. An article praising the work of the school appeared in the British Medical Journal 8. She was one of the subscribers (ordering two copies) to Memoirs and Portraits of One Hundred Glasgow Men in 1886. This contained entries for both her husband and brother 9. A statue of John Elder which had been paid for by public subscription was unveiled in the Elder Park, Govan on 28July 1888. In 1891, Isabella arranged and paid for a course of lectures to be given at QMC on Astronomy. This was to continue for three years. She also gave an orrery to QMC. In her will she left £5000 to the Glasgow and West of Scotland Technical College to found a course of lectures on astronomy. These ‘David Elder Lectures’ (named after her father-in-law) are still given today at the University of Strathclyde. Isabella continued to take an interest in medical education for women both in Queen Margaret College and elsewhere. In October 1895 she gave an address to the Edinburgh School of Medicine for Women in which she described what had been established in Glasgow at QMC. She concluded,
It is always a great happiness to me when women, wherever educated, distinguish themselves and prove their sex worthy of the higher education so long withheld.
In 1901 as part of the 450th anniversary celebrations of the University of Glasgow, Isabella was one of four women awarded an Honorary LLD degree. This was the first-time women had been awarded honorary degrees by the university. In the same year she provided a home in Govan for the Cottage Nurses Training Scheme and donated £27,000 to establish the Elder Park Library which was opened by Andrew Carnegie in 1903.
Figure. 2 The Elder Park Library. (photograph by author)
She also gave £5000 to the building fund of the Glasgow and West of Scotland Technical College. Another gift, the Elder Cottage Hospital was opened in Govan in 1903. Isabella paid all of the hospital expenses up till her death and in her will she gave an endowment of £50,000 to assist with running costs Isabella Elder died at home on 18 November 1905 leaving an estate valued at £159,404. 0s. 6d. (about £15,000,000 today). Her death certificate stated that she died of heart failure, gout, bronchitis and cerebral effusion 10. Appropriately it was signed by Dr. Marion Gilchrist – the first female medical student to graduate from Queen Margaret College. Isabella was buried in the Elder Family Tomb in the Necropolis on 22 November 1905.
Figure 3. The Elder Family Tomb in the Glasgow Necropolis. (Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported)
A statue of Mrs. Elder, paid for by public subscription, was unveiled in Elder Park on 13 October 1906 by the Duchess of Montrose. In the same year the ‘Ure-Elder Fund for Indigent Widows of Glasgow and Govan’ was set up under the terms of her will.
Figure 4. Statue of Isabella Elder in the Elder Park in Govan. (photograph by author)
The 500th anniversary of the University of Glasgow was marked in 1951 with the erection of new wrought iron gates at the main entrance. These incorporated the names of twenty-eight people associated with the University. One of these was Isabella Elder – the only woman so honoured.
Figure 5. Glasgow University Main Entrance Gates. (photograph by author)
References
Much of the material for this report was taken from the biography of Isabella Elder The Lady of Claremont House, Isabella Elder, Pioneer and Philanthropist, by C. Joan McAlpine, Argyll Publishing, 1997.
The same author also wrote the entry for Isabella Elder in the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, OUP 2004-13, May 2006.
Scotland`s People, OPR, Glasgow, 1828.
Scotland`s People, Census Record 1851
Scotland’s People, Marriage Certificate
Scotland’s People, Census, Glasgow, 1861
The Bailie, 12 December 1883.
Scotland’s People, Death Certificate
Glasgow Evening Times, 25 November 1892.
British Medical Journal, 14 June 1890.
Memoirs and Portraits of One HundredGlasgow Men etc. Maclehose, James & Sons,Glasgow, 1886
Scotland’s People, Death Certificate
Appendix 1
Mrs. Isabella Elder of 6 Claremont Terrace, Glasgow, bequeathed twenty paintings to Glasgow in February 1906:
Oil. John Linnell. (1792-1882). The Disobedient Prophet (1854). Acquisition 1153. Destroyed by enemy action 1939-451
Oil. James Archer R.S.A. (1823-1904). Portrait of J. F. Ure (1884). Acquisition 1171.
Oil. Sir Daniel Macnee P.R.S.A. (1806-1882). Portrait of John Elder (after 1826). Acquisition 1172.
Another version of this painting is in the Harris Museum and Art Gallery.
This was called Hero and Leander.
This was bought at Sir Richard Wallace`s sale as by Canaletto.
This was painted by Sir Peter Lely and had the title, Nell Gwynne.
This was by Artois ‘with figures added by Teniers’.
She also gifted busts of John Elder by Powers, David Elder, senior by Ewing and Diana by Powers.
Appendix 2
Isabella Elder`s Will – Abridged – The Scotsman, 24 November 1905, p 8.
The trustees are instructed to hand over to the Corporation of Glasgow the following paintings in the house at 6, Claremont Terrace, Glasgow, along with the busts of John Elder by Powers, of David Elder, sen., by Ewing and of “Diana” by Powers.
“The Disobedient Prophet”, by John Linnell, “Hero and Leander”, by Armitage, “Royalists Seeking Safety”, by Marcus Stone, “Grand Canal Venice”, bought at Sir Richard Wallace`s sale as by Canaletto, “Sea Piece”, by Lambinet, “Nell Gwynne”, by Sir Peter Lely, “Roses”, by Diaz, “Wood Scene”, by Corot, “Four Faces”, by Fosco Fritta, “Passing the Cross”, by Goodall, “The Chess Players”, by Serra, “Playmates”, by Duverger, “Sea View” by Peter Graham, “Loch Achray”, by Sam Bough, “Cattle”, by Cooper, “Sheep”, by Cooper, “Children Coming from School”, by Lionel Smythe, And landscapes by Artois, with figures added by Teniers.
They are also directed to hand over to the Corporation the portraits of the testator’s late brother and husband upon the condition that the two pictures be hung together in such gallery or other suitable place as the Corporation may see fit to locate them in. And, in addition to the paintings and portraits enumerated above the trustees are given the fullest power, should they think fit to do so, to hand over to the Corporation of Glasgow such others of the remaining paintings and watercolours as the Corporation may desire, declaring that as this bequest in intended entirely for the benefit of the public in all time coming, the Corporation shall at no time be at liberty to sell the said paintings and others or any of them.
Appendix 3
Deaths: Glasgow Herald, 20 November 1905.
ELDER – At 6 Claremont Terrace, Glasgow, on the 18th inst., Isabella, widow of John Elder, engineer and shipbuilder in Glasgow. – Funeral from 6 Claremont Terrace to the Glasgow Necropolis on Wednesday, the 22nd curt (?) at 2 p.m. to which all friends are invited; carriages at St. George`s Church at 1.40; those desiring to attend will please notify Messrs Wylie & Lochhead, 96 Union Street.
Obituary:Glasgow Herald, 20 November 1905
Mrs. John Elder of Govan. A Noted West of Scotland Philanthropist.
By the death of Mrs. John Elder, which took place on Saturday evening at her house, 6, Claremont Terrace, Glasgow, the West of Scotland loses one of its most distinguished and philanthropic ladies and the burgh of Govan one who has been closely associated for many years with its principal industry, and who has besides conferred on it many benefactions. Than “Mrs. Elder of Govan” there is no better known on the Clydeside, and even among those who had not seen her she was respected and revered, not only because of her husband, who predeceased her by thirty-six years, but also because of the way in which she has spent her life in good works, always more than ready to anticipate any possible method whereby she could help a good cause quietly, and above all to do something for the social and moral welfare of the West of Scotland in general and the burgh of Govan in particular. In Govan her name has all along been a synonym for open-handed though discreet philanthropy, and she could always be depended upon to contribute to any movement likely to benefit the public of the burgh.
Association with Shipbuilding
Mrs. Elder was the widow of Mr. John Elder, the famous shipbuilder and engineer, whose improvements on the marine steam engine have always been considered as second only to those made by James Watt. Mr. Elder with his friend Mr. Randolph founded the engineering firm of Randolph & Elder, and after about eight years as millwrights and engineers began, in 1860, to build ships. Their business increased immensely and ultimately became the great works which afterwards developed into Fairfield Shipbuilding and Engineering Company (Limited), Govan. Mr. Elder in his later years had entire chargeof the works, which he carried on with great success until his death in1869 at the early age of forty-five. To these works or to Mr. John Elder himself it is unnecessary to make more extended reference here. Mrs. Elder was the only daughter of Mr. Alexander Ure, who was in his day a well-known writer in Glasgow, and her only brother was Mr. John F. Ure, one of the most distinguished of civil engineers, and a man who, as engineer of the Clyde Navigation Trust, laid the foundation of many of the improvements which were afterwards made in the harbor and the river. When Mr. Elder died his widow was left sole proprietrix of the extensive business at Fairfield. This position, however, she retained for only nine months. First her brother became a partner and some time later the works passed entirely into other hands and became first a private and then a public limited liability company. Mrs. Elder, however, never ceased to take a personal interest in everything that concerned Fairfield and she was a frequent and welcome visitor at the establishment, which is even yet among those who have known it long spoken of as “Elder`s Yard”.
Mrs. Elder and Govan
Of Mrs. Elder`s methods of spending the wealth which her husband`s genius and industry endowed her it is hardly possible to speak with adequate fullness. Her private benefactions were many but of those the public were always kept in ignorance.
Annie Isabella Cameron was born at 16 Grafton Square, Glasgow on 10 May 1897. Her parents were James Cameron, a civil engineer who had been involved in the construction of the Glasgow Underground and Mary Sinclair Cameron whom he married on Christmas Day 1894 at 42 Church Street, Ayr. 1 16 Grafton Square was Annie’s father’s home before his marriage. In 1901, Annie and her two siblings, Donald aged one and Mary four months with their parents were visiting James Gray, a grocer and his family at 60 Church Street, Ayr. 2 By 1911 the family had moved to Willbraepark, Overton Road, Strathaven. James Cameron was now aged 62, a civil engineer and contractor, with Mary 44, and children Annie 13, Donald 11, Mary 10 and Ewen 9. The children were all scholars. The family employed one domestic servant. 3 Mary Cameron became the tenant/occupier at Willbraepark after the death of her husband in 1921 and remained there until at least 1925. 4
After attending school in Strathaven, Annie Cameron enrolled at Glasgow University and graduated with a first-class honours degree in history in 1919. 5 She then undertook teacher training at Jordanhill College in Glasgow. After a brief spell of teaching, she returned to academia to study for a PhD supervised by Professor R.K. Hannay at Edinburgh University. Her subject was James Kennedy, Bishop of St Andrews (1408 – 1465). She completed her PhD in 1924 6 and in 1928 was awarded a Carnegie Research Fellowship which enabled her to live in Rome and to attend the Vatican School of Palaeography. In the Vatican Archives she found a rich source of fifteenth century material relating to Scotland, in particular the Scottish Supplications to Rome. The research and publication (from 1934 to 1970) of this material became her life’s work. Her frequent visits to the archives in this connection resulted in her affectionate nickname Nonna (grandmother) of the Archivo Vaticano. 7
Figure 1. Dr Annie I. Dunlop (nee Cameron) National Library of Scotland, Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International Licence 8
Annie Cameron was awarded a DLitt from the University of St Andrews in 1934 9 and was employed in the Scottish Record Office until she married George Dunlop (qv) on 23 August 1938 at Juniper Green in Edinburgh. 10 The couple then moved to Dunselma in Fenwick about five miles from Kilmarnock. Annie taught part-time at Edinburgh University and contributed regularly to her husband’s newspaper the Kilmarnock Standard. She was awarded an OBE in the King’s Birthday Honours of 1942 (Annie Isabella Cameron, MA, PhD, DLitt, (Mrs. G. B. Dunlop), Member of the Council of the Scottish History Association). After the war she was able to resume her research in Rome in 1947 – accompanied on this occasion by her husband. She was awarded an honorary LLD from St Andrews University in 1950 – the same year she was widowed. After her husband’s death, Dunselma was given to the Church of Scotland as a residential home for the elderly although Annie continued to live there. Thereafter she travelled widely continuing her research, lecturing and writing. She embarked on a lecture tour of the United States in 1955 promoting Scottish history. 11 She was appointed to the Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Scotland on 26 April 1955 and was a member of the Scottish History Society whom she addressed on 12 December 1964 12 and the Scottish Church History Society. In 1972 she was awarded the Papal Benemerenti medal by Pope Paul VI. A particularly rare honour especially for a non-Catholic but reflecting the esteem in which she was held by the Vatican. 13
Annie I. Dunlop died at Dunselma on 23 March 1973. 14 Her funeral service was held at Masonhill Crematorium, Ayr on 27 March. 15 She was remembered as a kind, gentle, diligent personality who was always willing to offer help to others. 16 She was instrumental in ensuring that her husband’s bequest was delivered to Glasgow and to the National Galleries of Scotland. She also donated paintings on her own behalf to Glasgow’s Hunterian Art gallery.
The Annie Dunlop Endowment was set up at the Centre for Scottish and Celtic Studies at the University of Glasgow. Funds from the endowment are awarded bi-annually for the purpose of ‘promoting historical research into documents relevant to Scotland that are located outside Scotland’.
Figure 2. Roses and Larkspur (Roses et pieds-d’alouette Henri Fantin-Latour (1836 – 1904) Hunterian Art Gallery, University of Glasgow/ArtUK Gift from Annie Dunlop from the estate of her husband, George B. Dunlop, 1951
Figure 3. Fisher’s Landing. William McTaggart (1836-1910). Hunterian Art Gallery/ArtUK Gift from Mrs Annie Dunlop, widow of George B. Dunlop, 1951Figure 4. The Seashore (Sur la plage). Eugene Louis Boudin (1824-1898) Hunterian Art Gallery, University of Glasgow/ArtUK. Gift from Annie Dunlop, widow of George B. Dunlop, 1951Figure 5. Evening Thoughts, 1864. Robert Inerarity Herdman (1869-1888). Presented to the National Galleries of Scotland by Mrs. Annie Dunlop from the estate of George B. Dunlop, 1951. (ArtUK)Figure 6. Loch Katrine. John Lavery (1856-1941). National Galleries of Scotland /ArtUK. Presented by Mrs Annie Dunlop from the estate of George B. Dunlop, 1951
Glasgow Herald, 26 March 1973. This is from an obituary which also claims erroneously that she was born in Strathaven and attended the Glasgow High School for Girls.
Close, Rob, FSA (Scot) Ayrshire Notes No. 2018/1 Spring 2018 ISSN 1474-3, Ayrshire Archaeological & Natural History Society (pub.) in association with Ayrshire Federation of Historical Societies
Frontispiece of Calendar of Papal Letters to Scotland of Clement VII of Avignon, 1378-1394, Scottish History Society
The Apostolic Camera and Scottish Benefices, 1418 – 1488 Humphrey Milford, OUP (pub) for St Andrew’s University 1934
Scotland’s People, Marriage Certificate
Ewan Elizabethet al. The Biographical Dictionary of Scottish Women from the earliest times to 2004. Edinburgh University Press, 2007
St. Andrew’s University Archives
Ewan Elizabethet al. The Biographical Dictionary of Scottish Women from the earliest times to 2004. Edinburgh University Press, 2007
Scotland’s People, Death Certificate
Glasgow Herald, 24 March 1973
Close, Rob, FSA (Scot) Ayrshire Notes No. 2018/1 Spring 2018 ISSN 1474-3, Ayrshire Archaeological & Natural History Society (pub.) in association with Ayrshire Federation of Historical Societies
George Brown Dunlop was born on 24 November 1876 at Witch Road, Kilmarnock. His parents were George Dunlop, a reporter, and Annie Roxburgh who had married in Kilmarnock on 14 October 1869. 1 By 1881 the family had moved to 78 Titchfield Street, Kilmarnock. George aged four had two older siblings, Annie R. born 1872, and James W. born 1873 and a younger sister Helen Jane born 1878. 2
In 1891 the family was living at 82 Titchfield Street, Kilmarnock. George was now aged fourteen and a scholar. 3 By 1901 George had become an ‘assistant publisher’ living with the same family members apart from James. 4 George Dunlop senior died in 1909 5 and with Annie Dunlop now head, the family moved to 19 Portland Road, Kilmarnock. In the 1911 census, George was thirty-four, single and a ‘publisher – employer’. His sister Helen was also living with them. 6 George’s mother, Annie Dunlop died the same year. 7
From 1915 to 1935, George was the proprietor/occupier of a house at 44 Portland Road, Kilmarnock 8 probably remaining there until 23 August 1938 when he married Annie Isabella Cameron (qv) at Juniper Green in Edinburgh. 9 The couple then moved to Dunselma in Fenwick about five miles from Kilmarnock.
George Dunlop senior was for many years the editor/partner of the Kilmarnock Standard newspaper which was founded 1863. George became its second editor in 1878. and the following year he formed a business partnership with William Drennan to form the firm of Dunlop and Drennan publishers of, among other things, the Kilmarnock Standard. George was highly respected as an editor and as a historian. He was a founder member of the international Burns Federation.10 When he died in 1909 George junior succeeded him initially as a partner and then as head of the firm. During his tenure he appears to have been able to maintain the prestige and standards of the paper so that it had a reputation as one of the best provincial weeklies in Scotland. 11
Away from work George Dunlop had a great interest in art and was for a time vice-president of the Kilmarnock Art Club. He had an extensive art collection and had a gallery built onto his house at Dunselma in Fenwick to display it to the full. Included in his collection in addition to those artists mentioned above were works by William McTaggart the elder and Joseph Crawhall. It was reputed that his collection of works by D. Y. Cameron (a close friend) was the largest in the country. 12 As well as his bequests to Glasgow, he gave several paintings to Kilmarnock which are now displayed at the Dick Institute. He also donated each year the Kilmarnock Academy dux prize for art. 13
Another of George Dunlop’s interest was chess. He was a leading member of the Kilmarnock Chess Club and a past president. He was also honorary president of the Ayrshire Chess Association to whom he gifted a ‘beautiful trophy’. 14
Like his father before him, George was an elder in the Portland Road Church and a generous contributor to church funds. When he moved to Fenwick, he became associated with the church there. He was a major shareholder in Kilmarnock Football Club and an avid supporter rarely missing one of the club’s matches. 15
George Brown Dunlop died at his home, Dunselma, on 11 October 1950. After a service at Portland Road Church, he was buried in Kilmarnock cemetery. 16 A provision in his will was that Dunselma was to be given to the Church of Scotland for use as an Eventide Home. This was completed in 1956 although his wife continued to live there.
“Mr Dunlop was […] the possessor of an extensive library, which included a considerable number of volumes of Ayrshire interest, many of which had been passed on to him by his father.” Following his death his widow Annie Isabella Dunlop (1897–1973), presented the University of Glasgow with a collection of 170 volumes of English and Scottish literature from his library. 17
After being donated to Glasgow, the painting Blue Flax by E. A. Hornel was put on display in Glasgow City Chambers. It remained there for over twenty years until 1994 when it was stolen. At that time, it was valued at £100,000 but it was felt that it would have been almost impossible to sell. 1 The painting was later recovered having been left in a telephone box,
This painting was gifted to Glasgow in 1955 by John F. Carson. 1
Alexander Dennistoun is the subject of a report listed elsewhere in this blog.
From Scotland’s People there are two John F. Carsons who died after 1955. John French Carson who died in Greenock in 1984 and John Findlay Carson who died in Maybole in 1955. The latter seemed more likely as the donor.
John Findlay Carson was born at St. Oswald, Kilmacolm, Renfrewshire on 9 November 1883. He was the son of David Simpson Carson, a chartered accountant, and his wife Margaret Findlay. John’s parents had married on 19 September 1878 in the Church of Scotland Manse, Kirkoswald, Ayrshire where Margaret’s father was the minister. 2 John’s older brother, David Simpson Carson was born in Kilmacolm in 1879. He also had two sisters, Jessie Muriel Carson born 1880 in Partick and Una Margaret Carson born 1889 in Kilmacolm. 3
From the 1901 Census,4 John was a pupil at Fettes College in Edinburgh. Afterwards he followed his father in becoming a chartered accountant. He joined the Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve (RNVR) and on 2 January 1910 he was appointed Assistant Paymaster.5 In 1911 he and his father were boarders at the Hydropathic Institute in Kilmacolm. 6 At about this time, he became a partner in Moores, Carson and Watson, chartered accountants based at 209 West George Street, Glasgow. (He remained with this firm for 44 years until ill-health forced his retirement).7 On 10 June 1912 he was promoted to Paymaster, RNVR followed by a secondment/connection to the Admiralty on 13 June.8 A further promotion followed in 1914 when he was appointed Acting Paymaster Commander, RNVR.
On 30 January 1914, ‘An engagement (was) announced between John Findlay Carson, younger son of David S. Carson, St. Oswald’s, Kilmacolm and Molly, youngest daughter of the late Cecil Arkcoll and Mrs W. M. MacLeod, and stepdaughter of W. M. MacLeod, Markyate Cell, Dunstable’. 9 The couple were married at St. John’s Church, Markyate on 18 July 1914 with the bride now referred to as Mary Frances.10 The Luton Reporter also had an account of what was a lavish wedding with a full list of all the wedding presents given by almost everyone in the village. The bride was the daughter of the ‘Lord of the Manor’. After the nuptials, the couple honeymooned in Switzerland and Northern Italy. 11
On 25 August 1914, John Carson transferred from his base at Clyde to Blandford in Dorset. Blandford Camp was set up at the outbreak of WW1 as a base depot and training camp for the RNVR. The poet Rupert Brooke was stationed here at this time, and it was here that he wrote his poem ‘The Soldier’.
Figure 2. ‘The Soldier’ by Rupert Brooke. British Library, Creative Commons, (CC BY-NC)
On 16 October 1914 John Carson was made Acting Staff Paymaster and in January 1915 he joined the 1st R.N. Brigade at RNVR, HQ. In 1916 he was posted for a time to Mudros. This was a small Greek port on Lemnos and acted as a base for the British attempt to seize control of the Dardanelles. It was also where the armistice was signed between Turkey and the Allied Forces in 1918. Later that year John embarked on H.M.T. Franconia for France. (This ship was sunk by U-boat action in October 1916 on her way from Alexandria to Marseille). In France he was posted to Rouen which was a base depot for supplies, transport, reinforcements and hospitals. During his service, he seems to have been called up frequently for duty at the Admiralty.
John and Mary’s first child, Ian Seton Findlay Carson, was born on 22 September 1916 at Kilmacolm.12 A second child, Allan McLeod Carson was born on 18 September 1917. 13 This year also saw the death of John’s father, David Simpson Carson at 12 Claremont Terrace, Glasgow. He was 67. 14 On 11 July 1918 John Carson was made Acting Paymaster Commander, Lieutenant Commander RN Division. He still held this position when on 12 December 1919 he was awarded an OBE. ‘His name was brought to the notice of the Secretary of State for War for valuable services rendered in connection with the war’. 15
After the war, he returned to his position as partner in Moores, Carson and Watson. He came into possession of extensive property near Maybole in Ayrshire which comprised houses and farms at Fisherton and Drumbain (his main residence), a house near Ayr, woodlands, shootings etc. 16
In public life he became a Trustee of the Glasgow Savings Bank in 1933 and from 1947 to 1955 he was a Director of the Merchants’ House in Glasgow and Director of the Glasgow School of Art and from 1950 to 54, Director of the Glasgow Chamber of Commerce. In 1950 he was elected President of the Institute of Accountants and Actuaries in Glasgow. He was Past Chairman of the Glasgow and West of Scotland College of Domestic Science and a Past President of the Scottish Chartered Accountants Benevolent Association. 17
Mary Frances Carson died at Drumbain, Dunure on 21 November 1952. John Findlay Carson died three years later on 23 November 1955 at Drumbain.18 They were buried in Dunure Cemetery.
( Barmouth, St. Ives Bay and A Dutch Mill, were received in February 1928 from Andrew Lusk`s executor. Castle Campbell near Dollar was given by his niece Mrs. Berkeley Robertson, nee. Janet Lusk on 29 August 1941. However, the catalogue entry at Glasgow Museums Resource Centre for this painting has a note added ‘to be described as presented by the late Andrew Lusk, Windsor, 1941’).
Andrew Lusk was born at ‘Lusk`s Cottage’, Coatbridge, Lanarkshire on 3 June 1853. 2 He was the son of James Lusk, a master baker and his wife Janet Reid. (James was born in Colmonell, Ayrshire in 1817. Janet was born in Cambuslang also in 1817). 3 There were two other children, John Lusk, born 14 July 1848 (the father of Janet Lusk) and Margaret Earl Lusk, born 3 March 1851.4 All were at Lusk`s Cottage in the 1861 Census along with two servants. Andrew`s father employed two men and forty-three boys. 5 The family is listed in Armorial Families6. (Appendix 1)
Figure 6. James Lusk. National Archives of Scotland, (NAS) GD501
Figure 7. Janet Reid. National Archives of Scotland, (NAS) GD501
Andrew attended Glasgow High School in the 1860s and seems to have had an interest in and an aptitude for art from an early age which was further developed while at school. 7
From the 1871 census, Andrew, aged 17, was living with his parents, brother and sister at Glasgow Road, Bothwell. He was employed as a clerk. 8 By 1881 his siblings had both married and he had moved with his parents to Hamilton Road, Ferniebank, Bothwell. He was now aged 27 and a ‘commercial clerk in the iron trade’. 9 Sometime after that he moved to England. His father died in 1890 and Andrew was one of his executors. His address then was 3 Fenchurch Avenue, London. The 1891 census found him, aged 37 and single, at The Dell, Woking in Surrey. (The Dell was one of the larger houses in Woking but has since been demolished 10). He was now an ‘iron and steel merchant’ and employed two servants. 11 Woking would seem an unlikely place to find an iron and steel merchant. However, the town had an excellent train service to London so Andrew could have commuted to his business in the city.
It is possible that his career as a steel merchant came about after his brother John married, in 1876, Jessie, the daughter of David Colville, the founder of the Colville steel firm. 12 An account of his assets after his death showed that Andrew was receiving a pension from Colvilles. 13
By the time of the 1901 Census, Andrew had moved to 7 Queen`s Gardens, Osborne Road, New Windsor. 14 He later named the house St. Moritz after a holiday in Switzerland in 1909.
Andrew’s uncle Sir Andrew Lusk who was Lord Mayor of London in 1874 and head of the firm of Andrew Lusk and Co. died in 1909. His funeral took place at St. John’s Church, Southwick Crescent, London on 24 June 1909. Andrew was in attendance as one of the ‘chief mourners’. 15 Andrew later wrote a memoir of his uncle which is held in the National Archives of Scotland. Dame Eliza Lusk, widow of Sir Andrew, died the following year. Andrew was an executor of her will and was left the sum of £1000.
In the 1911 census, Andrew was at the Regent Hotel, Leamington Spa, 16 presumably on holiday because by this time his residence was in Windsor, Berkshire. He also owned a house Roseisle in Glasgow Road, Perth. This was occupied by his sister Margaret and her husband Alexander Sutherland who was a local minister. After Andrew`s death, the house was to have been left to Margaret during her lifetime. However, she predeceased him. His mother Janet who was living on private means moved in with her daughter after the death of her husband in 1890. She died at Roseisle in 1899 and Andrew was present to register her death. 17
In 1915 an appeal was made for subscribers to ‘extinguish the debt incurred by the King Edward VII Hospital in Windsor’. Andrew donated fifteen guineas and a further twenty the following year 18.
Andrew had a great interest in art, music and books. In his house in Windsor he had a collection of paintings, sculpture and many fine editions of books. These were to be kept in the family after his death as ‘I cannot bear the thought of my Fine Editions being handled by careless young people’. He owned a library of music manuscripts which was left to his nephew the Rev. David Colville Lusk who sold it to St. Andrew`s University in 1952.19 He also owned a violin and piano which he may have played. His intention, according to his will was that his paintings be given to the National Gallery in Edinburgh. Were the National Gallery to refuse them, they were then to be offered to Glasgow and to Perth. In the event, Glasgow received four paintings as detailed above. The Sandeman Library in Perth was given five pictures, five marble busts and three pedestals (Appendix 2). The Royal Scottish Academy was given a tea urn believed to have belonged to Sir Henry Raeburn 20. In his will he left £100 to his former housekeeper. After his death she wrote to his executor thanking him for the legacy and stating that as Mr. Lusk`s housekeeper, she ‘had spent many happy years in his service’. (As well as a detailed will, he left a four-page document of ‘Testator’s Suggestions to his Executors’ on how to dispose of his assets e.g. who should be employed to sell his furniture and books and where to find various items mentioned in his will. He also suggested the best firm to pack up his pictures for donation). 21
He also left a painting by Fred Roe ARA, The Landing of Nelson at Yarmouth to the Castle Museum at Yarmouth. (This painting had been exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1909). His own sketches – views of Rome, Florence, Holland, Sweden etc. were to be kept in the family ‘if at all possible’.
Andrew Lusk never married and died at his home in Windsor on 12 October 1927. It is likely he had been ill for some time as illness prevented him attending the funeral of his sister who died in Perth the previous year.22 He was buried in a lair in St. Andrew`s Cathedral Churchyard, Fife which he had purchased in 1899.23 His will contained instructions for the design of his tombstone! It was to be ‘in the same style and colour as Lord Playfair`s close by’! According to his will which was probated in Edinburgh his personal estate was valued at £25, 190. 5s. 8p. The Scotsman reported that he ‘left £100 to the Royal Society of Musicians, and £300 to the United Free Church of Scotland Foreign Missions, in memory of his mother Janet Lusk’ and gave details of his donation of paintings to Edinburgh and Glasgow. 24The Motherwell Times also carried a report of his estate and noted that he was a director of David Colville and Sons, Ltd., steel manufacturers. 25
The following are two extracts from the Minutes of the Corporation of Glasgow, sub-committee on Art Galleries and Museums:
23 December 1927: The Superintendant reported that he had received a letter from Messrs. Gard, Lyell and Co., London, Law Agents for the trust estate of the late Andrew Lusk, St. Moritz, Windsor, intimating that the deceased under his will, had bequeathed to the National Gallery, Edinburgh, certain pictures, and that six of these pictures specified in said letter might, if desired, be available for the Corporation of Glasgow. The sub-committee, after consideration, agreed that it be remitted to Depute River Baillie Doherty and Councillor Drummond, along with the Superintendant, to inspect the pictures, and with power to accept the same on behalf of the Corporation.
2 March 1928: With reference to the minute, of date 23rd December last, Depute River Baillie Doherty and Councillor Drummond, under remit to them, along with the Superintendant, reported that they had inspected the collection of pictures belonging to the Trust Estate of the late Andrew Lusk, St. Moritz, Windsor, and had agreed to recommend acceptance of the following works of art, viz.
Barmouth – J. W. Oakes, A.R.A.
St. Ives Bay – John Brett, A.R.A. and
The Windmill – Clarkson Stanfield, R.A. 26
Because Andrew Lusk had insisted in his will that his paintings should be hung tastefully and together with the appellation ‘from the bequest of Andrew Lusk, Windsor’, his executor went to great lengths to see that this was carried out. There are three letters relating to the placement of the pictures given to Glasgow in the NAS file.
In his ‘Testator’s Suggestions to his Executors’ he stated that ‘I wish particularly that my other pictures apart from those mentioned in my will be kept in the family (the Greenock cousins excluded!!) or given to friends who would appreciate them rather than sold to dealers for whom I have a great objection’.
A portrait of Lady Sawyer by Sir Hubert Herkomer RA was left to his nephew and executor David Colville Lusk. Heidelberg on the Rhine by J. B. Pyne probably went to his niece Jenny Robertson. Another picture Old Mortality had been entrusted to him by his aunt Dame Eliza Lusk in her will but was in fact the property of his brother.
References.
National Archives of Scotland, (NAS) GD501 (This is an extensive collection of Lusk family papers and photographs. It contains a book of Andrew`s paintings completed while still at school. The donor`s address was Dunblane, Perthshire). Other family photographs (Figs. 6 and 7) taken from the same source,
Fox-Davis, Arthur Charles, Armorial Families – A Directory of Gentlemen of Coat-Armour, two vols., Edinburgh, T.C. and E.C. Jack, 1905.
Scotland`s People, 1871 Census
Scotland’s People, 1881 Census
Woking History Society, Sue Jones, by e-mail
ancestry.co.uk, England Census, 1891
Scotland’s People, Marriages
NAS, GD501
Ancestry.co.uk, England Census, 1901
The Times, 25 June 1909
Ancestry.co.uk, England Census, 1911
Scotland’s People, Death Certificate
Slough, Eton and Windsor Observer, 17 and 24 July 1915, p. 4 and 19 May 1916, p1.
NAS, GD501
ibid
ibid
Perthshire Advertiser, 6 November 1926.
NAS, GD501
The Scotsman, 3 March 1928, p14.
Motherwell Times, 10 October 1928, p5.
Corporation of Glasgow, Minutes, 1928, C1/3/78 pp. 516 and 987.
Appendix 1: From Armorial Families.
Sons of James Lusk of Feam Bank(sic), Lanarksh., (5. 1817 ; d. 1890; m. 1846, Janet, d. of Andrew Reid of Hamilton, Cambuslang : — John Lusk, Gentleman [Arms as above, and (matric. 30 May 1903) a bordure silver. Crest — An ancient ship as in the arms, but without the rainbow as above], b. 14 July 1848 ; m. 10 Aug. 1876, Jessie, d. of David Colville ; and has issue — (i) James Lusk, Gentleman, b. 19 Sept. 1878 (2) David Colville Lusk, Gentleman, b. 19 Nov. i88i and Janet. Res. — South Dean, Merchiston, Edinburgh ..Coulter House, Lanarkshire. Andrew Lusk, Gentleman, b. 3 June 1853. Res. — St. Moritz, Windsor.
Appendix 2
Donations to the Sandeman Library, Perth (Now Perth Museum).
Trebarwith Strand, Cornwall, Edwin John Ellis, R.I. (1848 – 1916)
Dover Cliffs, Edwin John Ellis, R.I.
Cattle and Trees (original title), now Landscape with Cattle, William Shayer, sen.
Windsor Castle from Snowhill (original title), now Windsor Castle from Windsor Great Park, Charles Edward Johnson, R.I. (Exhibited at RA, 1895)
General Gabriel Gordon, (1763 – 1855), Sir John Watson Gordon, P.R.S.A. (1788 – 1864)
Marble Busts of: Sir Walter Scott, with pedestal
Milton
Diana, with pedestal
Dido, with pedestal
Demosthenes.
Further Information about these:
There is a picture in Perth Art Gallery by Edwin John Ellis entitled Fishing Boats on a Beach. Could this be the same picture? It has reference FA76/78 and acquisition method is ‘unknown’.
In Perth Art Gallery, ref. FA99/78. ‘Unknown acquisition method’.
In Perth Art Gallery, ref. FA59/78. ‘Unknown acquisition method’.
In Perth Art Gallery, ref. FA101/78. ‘Bequeathed by Andrew Lusk, 1951’.
In Perth Art Gallery, ref. FA92/78. ‘Bequeathed by Andrew Lusk, 1951’.
A receipt for five pictures, five busts and three pedestals was received by D.C. Lusk on 5 December 1927 from the Sandeman Library, Perth.
Figure 1. In a Street in Venice by Val. C. Prinsep, R.A. (c) Glasgow Museums; Supplied by The Public Catalogue Foundation
‘The sub-committee agreed to accept an offer by Mr. Prinsep, 104 Leadenhall Street, London, made through Mr. Noel E. Peck, to present to the Corporation a picture by his father, the late Mr. Val. Prinsep RA, which was executed at Venice and thereafter exhibited at the Royal Academy, London, and to accord Mr. Prinsep a vote of thanks for his gift’.1
The painting has the title In a Street in Venice with ‘Ay, because the sea`s the street there’ added. It was exhibited at the Royal Academy in the summer of 1904. In a letter to Noel Peck, Frederick Prinsep states that ‘The picture …. is the last one my father painted. It was executed in Venice and was thereafter exhibited at the Royal Academy’.2
Frederick Thoby Leyland Prinsep was baptised in Kensington, London, on 27 January 1887.3 He was the eldest of three sons of the Calcutta-born artist Valentine Cameron Prinsep RA and his wife Florence Leyland, the daughter of the wealthy industrialist, ship owner and art collector Sir Frederick Richards Leyland (Appendix 1). Valentine`s father, Henry Thoby Prinsep married Sarah Monckton Pattle at Thoby Priory in Essex. Sarah`s sisters, Julia Margaret Cameron (the photographer} and Maria Jackson were the grandmothers respectively of the author Virginia Woolf and the artist Vanessa Bell.
In the 1891 Census, Frederick, aged 4, was living with his parents and younger brother Anthony at 1 Holland Park Road, Kensington, London.4 In 1893, aged 6, he sailed with his family from Liverpool aboard the Georgian and arrived in Boston on 4July. Their destination was Chicago. This would probably have been to attend the World`s Fair which opened in May of that year.5 Frederick was not with his parents at the 1901 census. (Check where he was?) On 8April 1902, aged 15, he was apprenticed to Harold Arthur Burke ‘Citizen and Skinner of London’ for seven years. ‘to learn his art’.6 (Appendix 2) Frederick`s father Valentine Prinsep, died on 11 November 1904. He had been a director of the London, Liverpool & Ocean Shipping Company (which became Ellerman Lines Ltd. in 1902) since 1901 and his death was recorded in the company minute book:
The Secretary reported the death of Mr. V.C. Prinsep….. and it was resolved that the Directors have learned with sincere regret the death of their esteemed colleague ….. and desire to tender their sincere sympathy with the Widow and family in their bereavement.7
(The Ellerman and Bucknall Steamship Company Limited had addresses at 104/6 Leadenhall Street, London and at 75 Bothwell Street, Glasgow).8
Three years after her husband`s death, Frederick`s mother married George Courtney Ball-Greene and on 21 December 1907, the family left Liverpool bound for the Canary Isles. Frederick was with his mother, stepfather and brother Anthony.9
On 12 December 1911 at a meeting of the directors of the Ellerman Shipping Line at 12 Moorgate Street, London, Frederick was elected to occupy the position previously held by his father on the Board:
Mr. Francis Elmer Speed (who had replaced Valentine Prinsep) tendered his resignation as a director in order to allow Mr. F. T. L. Prinsep to be elected in his place. His resignation was accepted with regret. It was resolved that Mr. Frederick Thoby Leyland Prinsep be and is hereby elected a Director of the Company …… 10
He was re-elected as a director on 14 June 1912. 11 At this time he held 2000 shares in the company and was living with his mother and stepfather at 14 Holland Park Road, Kensington.12 (His mother was also a shareholder in the Company partly through shares left to her by her first husband but also on her own behalf). According to the Company Minutes, Frederick left in 1915 ‘to undertake Red Cross work in France’. 13 He arrived in France on 21July 1915 under the aegis of the British Red Cross Society and the Order of St. John of Jerusalem. He was awarded the ‘15 Star’ and the ‘Victory’ medals.14 His time in France seems to have been brief as he was still able to attend Directors’ meetings in London and he served as a director of the company until his death in 1936.
From 1915 till at least 22 July 1921 when his mother died, Frederick`s address was 14 Holland Park Road, Kensington.15 In 1923 he (and his brothers) presented the painting by his father to Glasgow. This was possibly a result of him disposing of some family possessions and moving out of his mother`s house since in 1925 he was living at 47 Curzon Street, Westminster.16 It was also about this time that he wrote to Noel Peck about the donation to Glasgow.
Frederick`s interest in ships and shipping, not just from a commercial point of view, was shown in 1924 when he had a book published on the subject.17 It must also have been about this time that he married Francoise Catherine Pauline ……… (maiden name unknown. However, she may have been the Catalina Francisca Paula Sala Pous who was born in Gerona, Spain on 24 September 1876. 18 This date matches her age at death.).
Thereafter he is recorded on several voyages presumably associated with his shipping interests or holidays. On 20 January 1930 he and his wife left London bound for Madeira aboard the City of Nagpur. The following month on 18 February he arrived in Southampton from Buenos Aires. 19 His address was 16 Bolton Street, London, W.1. 20 Meantime, his wife (now named as Catalina Francisca Pauline Prinsep) was registering some land at Little Marlow, Buckinghamshire. Her address was ‘The Abbey’, Bourne End, Buckinghamshire.21
Figure 2. Thoby Prinsep in 1930.(Getty Images)
On 17 January 1931 Frederick arrived in London having travelled from Durban via Cape Town and Dunkirk. He was described as a ship owner aged 44 and was accompanied by his wife and four others aged between 15 and 51. They all gave their address as ‘The Abbey’, Bourne End, Buckinghamshire. 22 By 1932, Frederick had an address at 47 West Hill, N.6.23 The owner and chairman of the Ellerman Shipping Line, Sir John Ellerman, died in 1933. He left £2,500 ‘to his friend Thoby Prinsep’.24 The following year, on 23October, Thoby and his wife travelled to Calcutta leaving from Liverpool. Their address this time was 35 West Hill Court, Highgate, London.25 but in 1935 his address was again at 47. In that year both Thoby and his wife were in Birkenhead for the launch of the new steamship City of Manchester. It had been built for the Ellerman Lines by Cammell, Laird, and Co., and ‘on May 2nd it was christened with Australian wine by Mrs. Prinsep, wife of Mr. F. T. L. Prinsep, a member of the executive controlling the Ellerman Lines, Ltd. The City of Manchester has been built specially for the Australian trade and is fitted for the carriage of all classes of cargo, including chilled beef. The new ship will be an important addition to the company’s fleet’. 27
By the following year the Prinseps had moved to The Lychgate, Spencer Road, Canford Cliffs, Poole, Dorset
Figure 3. The Lychgate, Spencer Road, Canford Cliffs, Poole, Dorset. Attribution-Non Commercial-No Derivatives 4.0 International (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0). https://www.flickr.com
Thoby Prinsep`s last voyage was made on 23 January 1936 when he left Liverpool for Marseilles. He was 49 and a ‘ship owner’, with an address at Stoneways, Winnington Road, Hampstead, London. He was travelling with a nurse, Miss Daisy Winn, aged 33, of the same address.28
Frederick Thoby Leyland Prinsep died aged 49, on 12February 1936 at Villa la Pescade, Avenue du Cape de Nice, Nice in the south of France. 29
News was received in London yesterday of the death in the South of France of Mr Frederick Thoby Leyland Prinsep, elder brother of Mr. Anthony Prinsep the theatrical producer and son of the late Mr Val. Prinsep, the Victorian R.A. 30
The Ellerman Line`s house magazine said that:
The directors have to report with sincere regret the death, in February last, of Mr. F.T.L. Prinsep, who had been associated with the company as a director and one of its managers for about twenty-five years, and they desire to record their appreciation of his valued services to the Company. 31
He was buried on 15 February 1936 at St. Barnabas Cemetery. Kensington.32 His will was probated on 8 April 1936. 33 When it was written on 10 January 1929, his address was ‘The Abbey’, Bourne End, Bucks with his business address 104 Leadenhall Street, London. He lists bequests to his wife Francoise Catherine Pauline Prinsep, to his brothers and to his stepson, Serge Albert Kiriloff. The latter was to receive his ‘gold platinum watch chain’ as well as £1000. This was later altered to £25,000 in a codicil of 1934 when he was living at 47 West Hill, Highgate.
Mr Frederick Thoby Leyland Prinsep, of Stoneways, Winnington Road, Hampstead Lane, Finchley, a director of Ellerman Lines and other concerns, left £208,842. (Estate Duty £50,221). He made various bequests and left three-quarters of the residue to his wife and divided the remainder between his brothers, Anthony, the theatrical producer, and Nicholas. 34
Judging by his will, he was not a collector of art as all his paintings were either by his father or were passed down through the family. Catherine Prinsep died in 1945, aged 68, at Hendon, Middlesex.35
Noel Edwin Peck was born on 5 December 1873 in Glasgow. He was the eldest child of William Edwin Peck and Margaret Budge Forbes.36 According to the 1891 census he was an ‘apprentice shipbuilder’ living with his family at Broomhill Farm House, Partick. 37
Ten years later the family had moved to Newington in Renfrewshire and Noel was now a Naval Architect. 38 He joined the firm of Barclay, Curle and Co. Shipbuilders, Glasgow as a draughtsman eventually becoming chief draughtsman and then shipyard manager. He was made a director of the firm and, during the First World War, was Director of Shipbuilding at the National Shipyards. He died at his home in Helensburgh on 13 October 1937.39
Barclay Curle built thirteen ships for the Ellerman Line between 1903 and 1918 and a further eight between 1920 and 1936.40 Presumably Peck would have been responsible for supervising the building of most of them and it is likely that in this capacity he would have met Frederick Prinsep. The close connection between Barclay Curle, Peck and Prinsep would probably explain why the painting was given to Glasgow together with the fact that Valentine Prinsep had exhibited at the Glasgow International Exhibition of 1901.
In the Object File associated with the painting at Glasgow Museums Resource Centre it is stated that it was ‘presented by the artist`s three sons’.
The second son, Anthony Leyland Valentine Prinsep was born on 21 September 1888 in London.41 In his teens he developed into an excellent tennis player and entered Wimbledon reaching the second round of the tournament in 1909 but was eliminated in the first round in 1910.42 In the 1911 Census he was an undergraduate boarding at Carhullen, Newquay, Cornwall.43 The following year on 8 August, he married Marie Kaye Wouldes Lohr at St. Martin-in-the-Fields in London. This was a large ‘theatrical’ wedding as she was a well-known Australian actress and was appearing at the Duke of York theatre at the time.44 They had one child, Jane Prinsep, who was born in 1913 45. Between 1918 and 1928 Anthony was manager of the Globe Theatre in Shaftesbury Avenue, London. He and his wife managed it jointly until 1923.46 In August 1921 they sailed on the Empress of France to Canada where they were to embark on a ‘theatrical tour’ to Vancouver and back. His occupation was ‘theatrical lessee’.47 They returned via Liverpool on 5 March 1922.48 The couple divorced in 1928 and on 30 April 1928 Anthony married Margaret Grande Bannerman in Melbourne. She had been born in Toronto on 15 December 1896. This marriage also ended in divorce on 14 June 1938.49 Anthony Prinsep died on 26 October 1942 in London.50
The third son, Nicholas John Andrew Leyland Prinsep was born on 19 November 1894 and was baptised in St Barnabas, Kensington on 4 May 1904. 51 He served during the First World War reaching the rank of Second Lieutenant. 52 After the war he returned to live with his mother and brother Thoby at 14 Holland Park Road, London. On 9 February 1927 he left Southampton aboard the Olympic and sailed to New York. He was now aged 32 and a member of the stock exchange. On the passenger list he gave his nearest relative as Thoby Prinsep. 53
In January 1930, Nicholas Prinsep married Hannah Edelsten at St. George`s, Hanover Square, London. 54 She was a musical comedy actress with the stage name Anita Elsom.
Figure 4. Nicholas Prinsep and his wife Anita Elsom 7 Jan 1930. (Getty Images)
For their honeymoon, the couple travelled to Yokohama, Los Angeles and New York arriving back in Liverpool on 9June 1930. They were accompanied by a ‘lady`s maid’. Nicholas was a stockbroker with an address at 10 Farm Street, Mayfair. 55, 56 He seems to have been in Japan on his own in 1933 returning via Shanghai, Colombo, Bombay and Gibraltar arriving in Plymouth on 2 March. 57 On 30 January the following year Nicholas and Hannah sailed to New York aboard the Isle de France. They returned to Southampton on 23 February. He was now a ‘merchant in the London Stock Exchange’ still living at Farm Street, Mayfair. 58, 59
However, in April 1936, the couple divorced with ‘Mrs Hannah Prinsep, of Chesterfield House, Mayfair’ being granted a decree nisi with costs from her husband ‘on the grounds of his adultery in a West End hotel’. The suit was undefended. 60
In 1940, Nicholas, aged 46, was one of several Flight Lieutenants who relinquished their commissions on appointment to commissions in the Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve. 61 When his brother Anthony died in 1942, Nicholas, now a Wing Commander, was one of his executors. 62 His name appears in The London Gazette in 1952 concerning the dissolution ‘by mutual consent’ of his business partnership with various others. 63
Nicholas Prinsep died on 27 May 1983 in London. He was 88 and was survived by his spouse Cele Prinsep. 64
References
Glasgow Corporation, Minutes of Sub-Committee on Art Galleries and Museums, 27 July 1923.
Object File at Glasgow Museums Resource Centre. This refers to a letter dated 5.7.23 from Thoby Prinsep to Noel Peck, re. proposed gift to Glasgow. (No 50 of papers relating to bequests and gifts). However, this letter cannot be traced.
London Births and Baptisms, 1813-1906, ancestry.co.uk
Census, England 1891, ancestry.co.uk
Boston Passenger and Crew Lists, 1820 -1943, ancestry.com
London, Freedom of the City, Admission Papers, 1902, ancestry.com
Minute Book of Ellerman Shipping Lines, University of Glasgow Archives
Lloyds Register of Ships and Shipping
UK Outward Passenger Lists, 1890 – 1960, ancestry.co.uk
Minute Book of Ellerman Shipping Lines, University of Glasgow Archives
ibid
London Electoral Registers, 1832 – 1965, ancestry.co.uk
Minute Book of Ellerman Shipping Lines, University of Glasgow Archives
British Army WW1 Medal Rolls Index Cards
London Electoral Registers, 1832 – 1965, ancestry.co.uk
London Births and Baptisms, 1813-1906, ancestry.co.uk
The London Gazette 18September 1914
NY Passenger Lists, 1820-1957, ancestry.com
England and Wales Marriage Index, 1916-2005, ancestry.co.uk
NY Passenger Lists, 1820-1957, ancestry.com
UK Incoming Passenger Lists 1878-1960, ancestry.co.uk
ibid
ibid
UK Outward Passenger Lists, 1890-1960, ancestry.co.uk
The Glasgow Herald, 9 April 1936, page 19
The London Gazette, 28May 1940
The London Gazette, 19 February 1943
The London Gazette, 4 January 1952
The London Times, Death Notices,1982-1988, ancestry.co.uk
Appendix 1
Sir Frederick Richards Leyland – Grandfather of Frederick Thoby Leyland Prinsep
Frederick Richards Leyland was born in Liverpool in 1831. He was apprenticed in 1844 to John Bibby & Sons, Liverpool`s oldest, independent shipping line. He prospered within the firm and was made a partner in 1861. At the end of 1872 he bought out his employers and changed the company name to the Leyland Line. He expanded into the transatlantic trade and by 1882 owned twenty-five steamships.
In 1855 Frederick married Frances Dawson and the marriage produced four children one of whom, Florence, married Valentine Prinsep. He leased Speke Hall near Liverpool in 1867 and began restoring it with advice from his friend the artist Dante Gabriel Rossetti. The walls were decorated with much of his art collection which consisted of Italian Renaissance paintings including a Botticelli series illustrating Boccaccio’s tale of Nastagio degli Onesti and mentioned in Vasari (now in the Cambó collection, Barcelona, and an Italian private collection). He also became the leading patron of several living artists, primarily Rossetti, Edward Burne-Jones, and James McNeill Whistler. Leyland began to buy Whistler’s paintings in the 1860s and had his portrait, Arrangement in Black: Portrait of F. R. Leyland painted by the artist. Leyland also commissioned several paintings from Whistler including Symphony in Flesh Colour and Pink: Portrait of Mrs. Frances Leyland, and several portraits of his daughter Florence and her sisters. He also commissioned The Beguiling of Merlin, from Edward Burne-Jones. In the 1870s, Leyland commissioned Whistler to decorate the dining room of his London house. The resulting ‘Peacock Room’ is considered one of Whistler’s greatest works. However, Leyland refused to pay the price Whistler demanded for the project, they quarreled, and their relationship ended in 1877. The Peacock Room was later dismantled and shipped to the United States.
Brooding and aloof, Leyland took solace in music, faithfully practising on his piano but never mastering the instrument to his satisfaction. According to contemporaries he was ‘hated thoroughly by a very large circle of acquaintance’ and his ‘immorality and doings with women’ are said to have been widely acknowledged. He and his wife officially separated in 1879, possibly because of Leyland’s liaison with Rosa Laura Caldecott, whom he had established in 1875 at Denham Lodge, Hammersmith, and who bore a son named Frederick Richards Leyland Caldecott in 1883. At about that time Leyland acquired Villette, near Broadstairs in Kent, a house he shared with Annie Ellen Wooster and her children, Fred Richards and Francis George Leyland Wooster, born in 1884 and 1890; they are noted in Leyland’s will as his ‘reputed sons’.
When Leyland died from a heart attack on 4January 1892 he was one of the largest ship owners in Britain with his estate was assessed at £732,770. He was buried in Brompton cemetery where his grave is marked by a bronze monument designed by Edward Burne-Jones.
In 1892, John Ellerman formed a consortium which purchased the Leyland Line from the estate of Frederick Leyland. Valentine Prinsep, Leyland`s son-in-law, was made a director. In 1901, Ellerman sold this business to J.P. Morgan for £1.2 million. However, Ellerman remained as chairman and subsequently formed the London, Liverpool & Ocean Shipping Company Limited as a separate enterprise. This company acquired fifty percent of George Smith & Sons, City Line in Glasgow and established an office in the city. Its name was changed in 1902 to Ellerman Lines Ltd. with offices in Liverpool, London and Glasgow. Frederick Prinsep became a director of this company in 1912.
Adapted from the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography and
Skinners, originally fur companies, made up one of the ‘great 12’ livery companies. Joining a ‘Livery Company’ was a condition of being able to trade in the City of London although it was not necessary to work in the company joined.
Glasgow Museums Art Donors Group 