Biography - Anne Catharine Hoof Green (c 1720-1775), “Printer to the Province” of Maryland

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Anne Catharine Hoof Green (c. 1720-1775), “printer to the Province” of Maryland from 1767, until her death, was apparently born in Holland, & brought to Pennsylvania as a small child.

On April 25th, 1738, she married in Christ Church, Philadelphia, to Jonas Green, a journeyman printer from Boston, whose family had been prominent in the trade since the mid-17th century. Green, who had found employment in Philadelphia with Benjamin Franklin & Andrew Bradford, moved by the following October to Annapolis, Md., where he soon became printer for the Province of Maryland. Beginning in 1745, Green became publisher of the weekly Maryland Gazette, one of the earliest colonial newspapers. He was also register of St. Anne’s Church (Anglican), an alderman of the city of Annapolis, & postmaster. He made his political mark in his fight against the Stamp Act.

1769 Anne Catharine Hoof Green 1720–1775) Printer & Publisher by Charles Willson Peale, (1741-1827) The words "ANNAPOLIS Printer to . . . ," which appear on the paper held by Green, are a reference to the fact that the Maryland legislature had chosen her to succeed her husband as the colony's official printer.

In her husband's newspaper, Mrs. Green occasionally advertised the sale of "Choice good Coffee” & “very good Chocolate” at the post office, which was evidently their home. In Annapolis, the Green's rented a house on Charles Street. At the time it was a small 2 story house with a kitchen & 2 bedrooms. During the early 1740s, the owner of the house expanded the property to contain a print shop, post office, & room enough for the growing family.

The printing house was probably in a detached building. The following excerpt from Riley's Ancient City, p. 119, seems to give support to this supposition. Riley has been discussing the smallpox ravages in Annapolis in 1756 and 1757. "The family of Jonas Green," he writes, "was afflicted to such an extent that many of his customers were afraid to take the Gazette, lest they would catch the disease. Mr. Green, whilst he expressed a doubt as to paper carrying the disease, subsequently stated that people 'need not fear to catch the small-pox from the paper, as it was kept all the time a good distance from the house, and beside the disease was now eradicated from his premises.'"

The rearing of a large family probably occupied much of Mrs Green's time, since she bore 14 children. The parish register of St Anne's Church in Annapolis, lists 6 sons & 8 daughters: John b. 18 October 1738, died infancy; Rebecca b. September 1740, married 2 December 1757 to Mr. John Clapham; Jonas b. 12 February 1741, died in infancy; Catherine b. 4 November 1743, died in infancy (her godfather was Samuel Soumaien, the silversmith); Marie b. 7 January 1744/5 died in infancy; Mary b, 9 January 1745/6; William b. 21 December 1746, "being named Willian after the Duke of Cumberland only;" Anne Catharine b. 19 January 1748, died October 5; Frederick b. 20 January 1750, "just as the Guns were Firing on account of the Birth of His Royal Highness the Prince of Wales" (one of his sponsors was the celebrated Dr. Alexander Hamilton of Annapolis, author of Hamilton's Itinerarium); Deborah b. 19 January 1752, died October 9 (her godmother was Mrs. Susanna Soumaien); Elizabeth b. 10 November 1755, died October 2; Jonas b. 29 August 1755, died of smallpox 26 December 1756; Samuel b. 27 April 1757; and Augusta, b. 4 April 1760.

She was probably taking an active part in the family printing business some time before 1767, for upon her husband’s death in that year her press produced the Acts & Votes & Proceedings of the assembly of 1767 on schedule, & the Maryland Gazette continued without a break.

On April 16, 1767, the following notice appeared in the Maryland Gazette: On Saturday Evening last died, at his late Dwelling-House, Mr. Jonas Green, for 28 years Printer to this Province, and 21 years Printer and Publisher of the Maryland Gazette: He was one of the Aldermen of this City. It would be the highest In-discretion in us, to attempt giving the character he justly deserved, only we have Reason to regret the Loss of him, in the various Stations of Husband, Parent, Master and Companion.

Immediately after the announcement of the death of her husband, Mrs Green wrote: "I Presume to address You," she wrote in an appeal to the public,"for your Countenance to Myself and numerous Family, left, without your Favour, almost destitute of Support, by the Decease of my Husband, who long, and, I have the Satisfaction to say, faithfully served You in the Business of Provincial Printer; and, I flatter myself, that, with your kind Indulgence and Encouragement, Myself, and Son, will be enabled to continue it on the same Footing...I am willing to hope, that the Pains taken by my late Husband, to oblige his very extensive Acquaintance, and the Character he deservedly bore, of an honest, benevolent Man, will recommend to your Regard, Your grateful and faithful humble Servant, A. C. GREEN.

On Jan. 7, 1768, shortly after his 21st birthday, the Maryland Gazette appeared under the name of Anne Catherine Green & William Green. With the death of William in August 1770, Frederick replaced him; on Jan. 2, 1772, when he was not quite 22, his services were recognized in the colophon as Anne Catherine Green & Son.

Mrs Green did not shy away from her new leadership role. Throughout the spring & summer of 1768, week after week the columns of her newspaper were filled with letters written by two angry Marylanders. The heated controversy was between "C. D." (Walter Dulany) and "The Bystander" (the learned but unscrupulous Bennet Allen, rector of St. Anne's Parish.) Finally, Mrs. Green & her son William refused to publish more letters of "The Bystander," unless the rector would indemnify them against suit & openly declare his identity. Allen declared that the Greens, as Jonas Green had been, were under the thumb of the Dulany family & complained strenuously of his exclusion from their newspaper, while his enemies were permitted still to use its columns.

Mrs. Green's son-in-law, John Clapham, came to the support of his wife's family in a long letter in the Maryland Gazette of September 22, 1768: "Mr. Allen's Treatment to Mrs. Green, left a widow, with large Family, he never can justify. On the 27th of May, he called at the Printing-Office, and endeavoured to intimidate her, by threatening to knock up her press, if ever she published any more pieces against him: Accordingly, next Morning, a Manuscript...was privately stuck up at the Door of the Stadt-House, the General Assembly then sitting, and the Office of Provincial Printer vacant, by which (tho' not intended) he did her real Service; for she was so happy, soon after, as to be unanimously chosen (printer for the province). It is generally supposed, had he acted a contrary Part, and given her a Recommendation to the Public, she wou'd not, for that very Reason, have received so general a Mark of Friendship and Approbation."

Jonas Green’s pay allowance as Maryland's public printer had terminated with his death. Finally, the Assembly voted that Mrs Green should be appointed to the position. She would be allowed the sum of "Nine hundred and forty-eight dollars and one half a dollar;" and further, that for her future services as public printer she receive 48,000 pounds of tobacco annually for those years in which there was a session of the Assembly, and 36,109 pounds of the current medium (tobacco) for the years in which no session was held. These were the same terms of payment as had been accorded to Jonas Green in the year 1765. Throughout her 8 years of service to the Province as public printer, Mrs. Green's allowance remained unchanged. In addition, the Assembly gave her the task of supplying “book Notes & Manifest” for the tobacco-inspection warehouses; & in 1770, she was paid for printing the bills of credit authorized by the Assembly of 1769.

She also published a yearly almanac & printed a few political pamphlets & some satirical works. Her most ambitious undertaking, apart from the newspaper & public business, was Elie Vallett’s Deputy Commissary’s Guide (1774), a book of 133 leaves detailing the procedures & forms to be used in probating wills & settling estates. Her issue of The Charter & Bye-Laws of the City of Annapolis has been described as “a beautifully printed little volume of fifty-two pages, which for typographical nicety could hardly have been surpassed by the best of her contemporaries in the colonies” (Wroth).

Until Aug. 20, 1773, when William Goddard began publishing in Baltimore of the Maryland Journal & Baltimore Advertiser, the Maryland Gazette was the only Maryland newspaper, & its role in reporting the political events leading to the Revolution was an important one.

Mrs. Green printed communications from the Northern colonies showing the increasing protest against the Townshend Acts & the establishment & success of no importation agreements. Through her columns John Dickinson’s Letters from a Pennsylvania Farmer reached the Maryland public. Accounts of the Boston Tea Party & the Boston Port Act of 1774 aroused great excitement. Green covered issues regarding independence, drawing upon local controversies. She covered was the famous, local Antilon/First citizen debate between Daniel Delaney & Charles Carroll. Carroll had argued for independent legislation & citizenship privileges.

By informing the people of plans & protests elsewhere as well as at home, the Maryland Gazette no doubt unconsciously helped to push the revolutionary cause. During such turbulent times a printing firm that depended heavily upon public business for its support might have made enemies it could ill afford. But Mrs. Green opened her columns to both sides to fan argument; & she was generally careful not to print libelous attacks on individuals, even when the authors were men of influence.

After her death (presumably in Annapolis) her son Frederick took over the business & continued to observe her rules, even though his comments & selection of materials reflected more & more radical views. During the Revolutionary War, from December 25, 1777, to April 30, 1779, the Maryland Gazette suspended publication. After its resumption, it continued to be published by sons & grandsons without interruption, until its final cessation 60 years later in 1839.

Little is known of Anne Catharine Green as a person. The Maryland Gazette’s obituary couched in the language of conventional praise, credits her with “a mild & benevolent Disposition” & exemplary “conjugal Affection” & “parental Tenderness.” As a printer & patriot, she excelled. Anne Green was an avid supporter of the Revolution & the Maryland Gazette consistently contained attacks on British Rule. The Maryland Gazette was the provinces only source of news during this period, and its pages were debated heavily. Under Anne's direction the paper became a force in the community, helping push the nation towards liberty and revolution. She made the Maryland Gazette a forum for discussion & a valuable, if not always impartial, source of information during a critical period in American history.

This posting based, in part, on information from Notable American Women edited by Edward T James, Janet Wilson James, Paul S Boyer, The Belknap Press of Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts. 1971
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Paintings Sherman Limner & Divorce

1787 Sherman Limner fl 1785-90 (perhaps Abraham Delanoy 1742-1795). Rebecca Austin Mrs John Sherman & son Henry (1789-1817).

Rebecca Austin (1753-1830) married John Sherman (1750-1802) on August 28, 1771. He seemed to be a young man of great promise. They both came from good families. He was 21, she was 18.

John Sherman was born in New Milford, New Haven, Connecticut, the son of Roger Sherman, a respected attorney at the Continental Congress who helped draft the Articles of Confederation. Thomas Jefferson referred to young John Sherman's father as "Mr. Sherman of Connecticut, who never said a foolish thing in his life;" and John Adams called the elder Sherman, "an old Puritan, as honest as an angel." Roger Sherman was the only American to sign four signficant historical documents: The Continental Association of 1774; the Declaration of Independence; The Articles of Confederation; and The Federal Constitution.

Rebecca's father David Austin was also prominent in the New Haven community. He was named the first president of the New Haven Bank on Dec 22, 1795. He served as deacon of the North Church for 43 years and an alderman under Mayor Roger Sherman. From 1793 to 1801 he was the Collector of Customs.

Rebecca Austin and John Sherman had children John, born 1772; Maria, born 1774; Harriet, born 1776 died 1795; Elizabeth, born 1778; David Austin, born 1781; Charles Sherman born 1783; and Henry Sherman was born in 1785. Although John Sherman served in the Continental Army during the Revolutionary War, he apparently returned home occasionally.

John Sherman was not a foot soldier, he was assigned to headquarters. He enlisted in 1776; and by January 1, 1777, he was Paymaster for the 6th Connecticut Regiment under Colonel Butler. On October 7, 1777, he received his commission as 2nd Lieutenant; and on May 10, 1780, he was promoted to 1st Lieutenant. On June 1, 17781, he was transferred to the 4th Connecticut Regiment under the command of Colonel Samuel Whiting. He served in "Booth's Company" under Captain James Booth, until he was detached to the 11th Connecticut Regiment (by order of Brigader General Sillick Silliman) as part of the "Short Levy" of 1782. On January 1, 1783, he was again transferred to the 2nd Connecticut Regiment, where he served until June of 1783; when he left the army at the rank of Captain in Colonel Gideon Burt's Massachusetts Regiment. He received his Captain's commission by brevet at the close of the war.

When he returned home in the summer of 1783, John Sherman tried his hand at business in New Haven for several years; but by 1788, he decided it was time to move on.

In 1788, John Sherman determined to leave his wife and family, wrote to his father on December 8, "Most respected Parent, My departure from this is absolutely necessary on Account of my entering into business; the Trade of this City at present is not an Object of Importance, & and scarcely of Support, I am now in the prime of life, I hope my Friends will not think me lost, my determinations are Just, that is to pay all their dues and owe no one anything, in consequence of which I shall advise you & Esq Austin, likewise Mrs. Sherman the place of my residence, the Settlement of my Public Accounts will be attended to by me as soon as the Public are ready to make me payment for my Services, otherwise I should have left the United States for a few years, & this is only what prevents. I most probably shall fix my residence at Charles Town, or Savannah, unhappy it is tho past. I did not take your advice, it would not have obliged me to take the present measure (I think the most unfeeling Heart would not wish to distress Mrs. Sherman & the Children in my absence) (I leave them to your care you will please to assert their rights & be their Just protector, & may the most Cordial Friendship ever subsist betwixt you & Esq. Austin. I wish each of you the length of days & that your usefulness may be preserved to the last & and that each of your Families may be happy (my own unhappiness is proceeds from myself only.) I am with every respect, Your son John Sherman."

(Baldwin Family Papers, #55, Manuscripts and Archives, Yale University Library.)

Just a year before John Sherman decided to leave the family, he had portraits of the family painted in 1787 by the Sherman Limner, whose name derives from these portraits. The portraits are of John Sherman; his wife Rebecca holding baby Henry; John's daughter Maria (1774-1857); his son John II; and his son, David Austin (1781-1843), whose portrait is signed on the reverse Jany 2d 1787.

Rebecca filed for divorce in 1792 claiming he drank excessively and became violent when drinking and that he was adulterous. In 1792, there was a motion for the continuance in the plea for divorce of Rebecca Austin Sherman vs John Sherman, New Haven 1792. The family portraits apparently became a focus of John's anger with the dissolution of his marriage. (Baldwin Family Papers, #55 Manuscripts and Archives, Yale University Library)

On December 10, 1792, son David Austin wrote to his grandfather Roger Sherman that his father, "then catched down any likenesses and Swore it should not be in the house and that he woyld throw it into the street, I told him if he did not like to see it, I would take it away but he must not throw it into the street and ruin it as I was at the expense of the drawing and I did not choose it should not be destroyed." (Baldwin Family Papers, #55 Manuscripts and Archives, Yale University Library)

A fragment of a letter from the husband John Sherman to Simeon Baldwin exists from December 19, 1792. John Sherman wrote about his wife, "she means to bring in her cut portrait as an Evidence the whole of them were made at my Expense to flatter her Vanity & if the original had been present I should not have done it." The portrait of Rebecca Sherman and her son Henry was slashed. (Baldwin Family Papers, #55 Manuscripts and Archives, Yale University Library)
On January 21, 1793, John Sherman's daughter Maria and her two sisters wrote a letter to their grandfather Roger Sherman. Honored and much respected Grandfather, We sincerely lament the unhappy necessity, which had seperated our Parents. We hope it will not be the means of depriving us of your parental regard and protection. We shall ever retain a grateful remembrance of your past kindness, and hope you will ever continue it to us. The mortifiyig and disagreeable situation we are in, we hope will apologize for the freedom we have taken in addressing you. Our father not satisfied with heaping disgrace and sorrow upon his children, has stripped us of all the Furniture he ever purchased, not even excepting out Portraits, and the arms of the Family from which we are descended, which we would wish to retain. as a remembrance of the family from which we are descended. The Carpet Mama thinks she ought to have, as he made a present of it to her, on his return from the Army before Evidences, as a reward for her faithfulness and Industry. He has likewise taken the Desk, Tea Urn, Silver Handled Knives & Forks, best Bed and Bedding, Chairs, Tables &c., which Mama is very willing he should have. He has been here, & with Roger taken account of all the Provisions, & Stores we have in the House, which are very considerable, and threatened taking them away. He has also given orders to Mr. Baldwin, to receive all the Money due to us from our Boarders, when they return at the end of Vacation. We intreat you Sir, to interpose in our affair, & not suffer him to add affliction, to his already afflicted Children. We shall do everything in our power to assist Mama in the maintenance of the Family , and endeavor to be as little burden to our Friends as possible. We rejoice dear Sir, in the prospect of your speedy return, and hope to find in you an indulgent Father, & unfailing Friend. We hope our future conduct will be such as to merit your approbation and esteem. With the greatest respect Dear Sir, we subscribe ourselves your dutiful & Affectionate Grandchildren, Maria Sherman Betsey Sherman Harriet Sherman (Baldwin Family Papers, #55 Manuscripts and Archives, Yale University Library)

In 1793, Sherman wrote that if "A bill of divorce is granted to Mrs. Sherman & and all connections on my part with the Family ceases forever...I am disposed to render them every assistance so far as it respects the children that Humanity & and reason can demand." (Baldwin Family Papers, #55 Manuscripts and Archives, Yale University Library)

Apparently the court determined that Rebecca Austin Sherman's allegations were true, and the divorce was finalized in January 1794. Rebecca Austin Sherman raised her children by running a boarding house, until she died in 1830.

John Sherman remarried Anna Tucker, ten years younger than Rebecca, in September 4, 1794, at Canton, Massachusettes. John Sherman had two more children with his new wife. Sherman supported his new family as a shopkeeper in Canton. He died 8 years later, his widow lived until 1858.

1787 Sherman Limner fl 1785-90 (perhaps Abraham Delanoy 1742-1795), John Sherman (1750-1802) Christies NY 2006

1787 Sherman Limner fl 1785-90 (perhaps Abraham Delanoy 1742-1795) Maria Sherman (Mrs. Ira Hart) 1774-1857. Christies NY 2006.

1787 Sherman Limner fl 1785-90 (perhaps Abraham Delanoy 1742-1795) David Austin Sherman (1781-1843) Christies NY 2006.

1787 Sherman Limner fl 1785-90 (perhaps Abraham Delanoy 1742-1795). John Sherman II. Christies 2006.














On Divorce in the American Colonies & Early Republic

In colonial New England, the legal aspects of marriage differed from mother England, where marriage was an indissoluble religious sacrament. Anglican church courts could order separations of unhappy spouses without right of remarriage; and, by the 18th century, rich men in England could buy private legislative acts authorizing their divorces, if they could prove, in one way or another, their wives' adultery.

The first American couple obtained a divorce in a Massachusettes Puritan court in 1639. In 18th century New England, marriage was a civil contract, and divorces were granted after a judicial proceeding, when a wife's or husband's misconduct was proved. Divorces were occasionally granted elsewhere in colonial North America, but other colonial legislatures did not pass laws allowing divorce before the American Revolution. Because the colonies were more open than the mother country and in a state of constant flux, many unhappy spouses just ended their unbearable marriages by disappearing and marrying again elsewhere.

By the early 19th century, each new American state, except South Carolina, enacted laws authorizing divorce under limited circumstances. A full divorce with right of remarriage for the "innocent" party could be granted if adultery of the "guilty" spouse were proved. In some states, such as New Hampshire, a variety of other grounds, including incest, bigamy, abandonment for 3 years, and extreme cruelty, would also justify a divorce decree. In many states, only the innocent party was set free from the "bonds of matrimony," leaving the guilty party unable to remarry during the lifetime of the innocent spouse who retained the right to inherit land or other property from the guilty one. In most of the new states, courts heard divorce cases; but in Maryland a divorce required a private bill of divorce by the state legislature.

For a contemporary English view of divorce in 1700 from a woman's perspective see, Some Reflections Upon Marriage, Occasioned by the Duke and Dutchess of Mazarine's Case;Which is Also Considered. by Mary Astell, Published by John Nutt, Stationers-Hall, London, 1700. The entire text is available online at
http://womenshistory.about.com/gi/dynamic/offsite.htm?zi=1/XJ/Ya&sdn=womenshistory&cdn=education&tm=272&gps=172_276_1404_825&f=00&tt=14&bt=1&bts=0&zu=http%3A//www.pinn.net/%7Esunshine/book-sum/astl_mrg.html
















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Paintings John Durand

The world of the artist in 18th century America & England was rather insular.

* ___ In London on September 15, 1760, John Durand, apprenticed for 7 years to decorative carriage & heraldry painter Charles Catton, Senior (1728-1798). (Public Records Office, London, IRI 1759, Folio 144) In the mid 1760s, apparently somewhat shy of the full 7 year commitment, student John Durand sailed for America, offering to paint inspiring historical paintings for the colonial populace, which was only interested in portraits

* ___ In London in 1768, John Durand's teacher Charles Catton Senior, was one of the founding members of the England's Royal Academy of Arts, along with Pennsylvania expatriate Benjamin West (1738-1820).

* ___ In London from 1767-1769, Pennsylvanian Benjamin West taught Marylander Charles Willson Peale, just as John Durand was leaving his apprenticship & sailing toward the colonies. All of this was occuring as Charles Catton Senior, Benjamin West, and 38 other artists & intellectuals were meeting together to organize the Royal Academy of Arts with Joshua Reynolds (1723-1792), as its first president.

* ___ From London in the early 1800s, the artist son of the elder Charles Catton, Charles Catton Jr. immigrated to the United States, buying land in 1806, on the Hudson River in New York, where he farmed & painted occasionally, until he died in 1819.

* ___ In 1819, Charles Willson Peale painted Noah and His Ark (after Charles Catton) for his Philadelphia museum copied from the work of the immigrant English painter of animals & landscapes, Charles Catton, Jr. Peale chose to copy the painting, because it reflected his own theories about the harmony of art, religion, & nature in one painting. Peale began developing these ideas about art, when he was apprenticed to Benjamin West in London in 1767-1769. In London, young Peale visited Joshua Reynolds. He may have met Charles Catton Senior and perhaps young John Durand.


About painter John Durand in the American colonies and new republic...
John Durand first appeared in newpapers in the colonies in the spring of 1768; although he may have been painting in Virginia, before he advertised in New York. If he was painting in Virginia in 1765, he had certainly left his apprenticeship in London, before its contract expired. His advertisements reflect his decorative heraldry and carriage painting & staining apprenticeship, as well as his desire to become a history painter. In order to support himself, Durand settled for the common ground for a painter in the American colonies, he painted portraits.

It is reported that he placed an ad in the New York Journal on April 2, 1768, offering drawing instructions in New York. "Any young Gentleman inclined to learn the Principles of Design, so far as to be able to draw any objects and shade them with Indian Ink or Water Colours, which is both useful and ornamental may be taught by John Durand...at his House on Broad Street, near City Hall, for a reasonable Price.
Perhaps he did not attract any interested students. Just days later, he did place the following notice in several papers: April 11, 18, 25, & May 2, 1768 in the New York Gazette, or Weekly Post Boy. April 21 & May 5, 1768 in the New York Journal.The subscriber having from his infancy endeavoured to qualify himself in the art of historical painting, humbly hopes for that encouragement from the gentlemen and ladies of this city and province, that so elegant and entertaining an art has always obtain'd from the people of the most improved minds and best taste and judgment, in all polite nations in every age. And tho' he is sensible that o excel, (in this branch of painitng especially) requires a more ample fun of universal and accurate knowledge than he can pretend to, in geometry, geography, perspective, anatomy, expression of the passions, ancient and modern history, &c. &c. yet he hopes, from the good nature and indulgence of the gentlemen and ladies who employ him, that his humble attempts, in which his best endeavours will not be wanting, will meet with acceptance, and give satisfaction; and he proposes to work at as cheap rates as any person in America.

To such gentelmen and ladies as have thought but little upon this subject and might only regard painting as a superfluous ornament, I would just observe, that history painting, besides being extrememly ornamental has many important uses.--It presents to our view some of the most interesting scenes recorded in ancient or modern hisory, gives us more lively and perfect ideas of the things represented, than we could received from a historical account of them, and frequently recals to our memory a long train of events with which those representations were connected. They show us a proper expression of the passions excited by every event, and have an effect, the very same in kind (but stronger) that a fine historical description of the same passage would have upon a judiciouos reader. Men who have distinguished themselves for the good of their country and mankind, may be set before our eyes as examples, and to give us their silent lessons--and besides, every judicuous friend and visitant shares, with us in the advantage and improvement, and increases it value to ourselves.John Durand Near the City Hall, Broad Street
But after his May 5th notice in the New York papers, he had moved north rather suddenly. On May 13, 20, and 27, 1768, he placed the following noice in the Connecticut Journal.

John Durand, Portrait Painter, Intends to Stay in this Town part of the warm season. If any Gentlemen or Ladies, choose to hae thier Pictures Drawn, they may have them Drawn a good deal cheaper than has yet been seen; by applying to the Subscriber living at Captain Camp's House, where several of his Perfomances may be seen. And for more Conveniences of an Gentlemen or Ladies, that would have them Drawn at their Houses, he will wait upon them whenever they please if sent for.John Durand.
This announcement seems to imply that John Durand would be moving south, when the cold weather came to Connecticut. He was apparently somewhat unsuccessful as a portrait painter in New York and New England, although he did paint in Connecticut. From dates on his portraits & notes in account journals, he was working in Virginia in 1770-71, 1775, and 1780.

He advertised twice in Williamsburg, Virginia in the 1770s. On June 7, 1770 & June 21, 1770, he placed the following notice in the Virginia Gazette.
Portrait Painting. Gentlemen and Ladies that are inclined to have their pictures drawn will find the subscriber ready to serve them, upon very moderate terms, either for cash, short credit, or country produce. at their own homes or where he lives, which is next door to the Hon. The Speaker's. He will likewise wait upon Gentlemen and Ladies in the country, if they send for him.
He will also paint, gild, and varnish, wheel carriages and put coats of arms, or ciphers, upon them, in a neater and more lasting manner than was ever done in this country.
John Durand seems to disappear from American records in the 1780s. During the 1780s, John Durand may have returned to England partnered with Peter Alexander La Normand. During that period, they were haberdashers & perfumers & traveling merchants based in Leicester Fields in Middlesex County (London); until their bankruptcy in 1792, followed by John Durand's death in the London area of Carshalton, Surry Couty in 1793.

I look forward to learning more about John Durand's early years, and how he came to London to apprentice with Charles Catton Senior.

About painter John Durand's teacher and his artist son...
John Durand's teacher Charles Catton Senior (1728-1798) had arrived in London from Norwich, to apprentice to a London coach-painter named Maxfield, and he also studied in William Hogarth's St. Martin's Lane Academy. Catton Senior is chiefly known as a landscape & animal painter, but he also painted portraits, some of which were later engraved. He became a member of the Incorporated Society of Artists and exhibited various pictures in its London galleries from 1760 to 1768, while John Durand was his apprentice. The senior Catton had become an accomplished painter of heraldry. His work in this field was distinguished by his ability to represent the supporters of coats of arms as naturalistic animals as opposed to the traditional heraldic symbols.

Charles Catton Senior was one of the 40 founding members of the Royal Academy of Arts. The Royal Academy, or as it is often abbreviated, the RA, was founded in 1768 by a group of artists headed by painter Joshua Reynolds. The academy functioned as a school to teach drawing, painting, and sculpture to young artists.

It is evident from the works he exhibited at the Royal Academy that Charles Catton Senior retained close links with his native Norwich throughout his career, presumably through visits to his family of 35 siblings. He exhibited a number of views of Norwich Cathedral and, in 1789, A Morning View of Mou[se]hold Hill in Norfolk. His son Charles also exhibited Norwich & Norfolk subjects in 1779 & 1798, the year of his father’s death.

The elder Catton received the coveted appointment of heraldic sign & coach-painter to George III. Catton exhibited at the Royal Academy from the time of its founding to his death. (Heraldic painting was a respected & lucrative profession during this period. Another early member of the RA was John Baeer, a fellow sign & coach painter who had apprenticed with the elder Catton.)

In 1783, Catton the elder became master of the Worshipful Company of Painter-Stainers, of which his teacher Maxfield had also been a member. The senior Catton taught other students including English portrait painter William Owen (1769-1825), who began as an apprentice to Catton in 1786. Just like John Durand, Owen made his name as a portraitist & was also a member of the Royal Academy. The elder Catton died in Judd Place in London in 1798. The following watercolors by Charles Catton were found in Alabama and returned to Norwich, the home of his ancestors.





1790s-1820s Elizabeth Cartlich Caslon. Engraving by William Satchwell Leney (British/Canadian, 1769-1831) after a portrait by Charles Catton I (1728-1798).
Charles Catton Jr. (1756-1819) was taught to paint by his father. For a number of years, 1776–1781, Charles Catton, the younger, appears in the Royal Academy Catalogues as residing at his father's house in Gate Street, Lincoln's Inn Fields in London, where his father lived from 1769 to 1793. The younger Catton criss-crossed England & Scotland making sketches. Some of his sketches were engraved & published. He was best known as a scene-painter & topographical draughtsman. He, too, exhibited at the Royal Academy 37 times from 1776 to 1800. After his father died, the younger Catton decided to leave London with his family and settle in America.

The New York Commerical Advertiser posted this obitualry on May 5, 1819.
"A few days since, at his seat at New-Paltz, in the county of Ulster, state of New York, Charles Catton, Esq., a native of the Kingdom of Great Britain, but for 18 an inhabitant of this state. He had been long accustomed to gout which succeeding to, or brought on by, a recent cold, terminated his existence after a fortnight's illness, at the age of 65 years. Mr. C. was an artist of superior rank and of distinguished merit, and very ably supported a just and eminent reputation acquired by his father, whose pupil he was, and who attained the honors of a Royal Academician, and serving until the days of his death, his present Majesty George the Third, as his heraldic painter. The subject of this obituary notice during his residence in the United States had devoted his attention principally to agricultural pursuits, and seldom exercised his pencil, except to gratify personal friendship, or enliven the dull monotony of a rural winter life. Some few of his latest productions have, through the instrumentality of friends, been recently brought to the notice of the public at the Academy of Arts in this city, as if by thus exhibiting his worth at the moment of privation, to make the lovers of the arts more sensibly feel the magnitude of their loss. He was much esteemed in private life as a scholar and a gentleman, and standing in the first rank of artists in this country, his death must be a subject of general regret."
About painter Charles Willson Peale and his teacher Benjamin West...
At the Washington home of Colonel George Bomford, Charles Willson Peale saw a "Picture of the Animals going into the Ark Painted by Mr. Catton," which he asked to borrow. On May 1, 1819, Peale wrote to Bomford that he had received the work. Peale claimed, "I cannot do justice to the merit of the picture...and...although I have never loved the Copying of Pictures, yet I would wish to make a Copy of it..."

Here Peale felt he had found the perfect religious history painting for Jefferson's America. A simple man, kneeling Noah dominates the natural world around him while empowering and approving divine light shines down on him from above.
1819 Charles Willson Peale (1741-1827). Noah and His Ark (After Charles Catton). Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts. Philadelphia. (Reproduction by 1st-art-gallery.com. Contact the academy for an accurate image.)
Charles Willson Peale was one of the earliest students of Benjamin West (1738-1820), the Pennsylvania born artist, who became the 2nd President of England’s Royal Academy. West’s professional tutelage and the artistic & financial success he found in England made him a model for generations of colonial and American artists.

Benjamin West believed that history painting was the road to artistic distinction as well as enlightenment of the public. His friend, Joshua Reynolds encouraged students to use "scripture histories" as subjects "in which men are universally concerned, and which powerfully strike upon the publick sympathy." In 18th century England, fascination with religious & historical narrative as inspirational art peaked in West's paintings, which were exhibited frequently at the Royal Academy.
Benjamin West's cross-Atlantic gift of a replica of his 1811 painting of Christ Healing the Sick in the Temple to the Pennsylvania Hospital in Philadelphia, produced both inspiration & income for the hospital, as patrons flocked in to pay to view the 10' by 15' painting in a building erected just to house the monumental work.

Noah and His Ark (After Charles Catton) placed Charles Willson Peale firmly in that tradition and signaled that America finally was convinced that painting could inspire social improvement. There was room for more than portrait painting in 19th century America.
See this blog for discussions of Charles Willson Peale and some of his paintings of women on 4/19/2009; 4/20/2009; 4/2/2009; 3/30/2009.

See this blog for discussion of Benjamin West, some of his American paintings of women, and his influence on American painters on 4/9/2009.
Paintings of American women by John Durand.
1768 Attributed to John Durand (fl 1765-1782). Sarah Whitehead Hubbard. (Reproduction at encore-editions.com.)
1768-70 John Durand (fl 1765-1782). Susannah or Mary Bontecou. Metropolitan Museum of Art. (Reproduction at encore-editions.com. These paintings are much more exciting seen in person or through a fine photograph. Contact the Met for an accurate image.)
1768-70 John Durand (fl 1765-1782). Hannah Farmer (Mrs. Benjamin Peck). Henry Francis duPont Winterthur Museum. (This depiction is from a lecture slide. Do not copy or reproduce. Contact Winterthur for an accurate image.)
1769 John Durand (fl 1765-1782). Elizabeth Boush. Colonial Williamsburg Foundation. (This depiction is from a lecture slide. Do not copy or reproduce. Contact Colonial Williamsburg for an accurate image.)
1770 John Durand (fl 1765-1782). Mrs John Lothrop. National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC. (This depiction is from a lecture slide. Do not copy or reproduce. Contact the national gallery for an accurate image.)
1780 John Durand (fl 1765-1782). Mrs. James Greenway. College of William and Mary, Williamsburg, Virginia. (This depiction is from a lecture slide. Do not copy or reproduce. Contact William and Mary for an accurate image.)















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Paintings Jeremiah Theus (1710-1774)

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1753 Jeremiah Theus (1716-1774). Elizabeth Martin (Mrs. Jacob Motte).Jeremiah Theus was born in Chur, Switzerland, on April 5, 1716 and died in Charleston, South Carolina, May 17, 1774. At age 19, Theus arrived in South Carolina in 1735 with his family.1753 Jeremiah Theus (1716-1774). Elizabeth Prioleau Roupell.South Carolina's General Assembly encouraged European Protestants to settle in the colony by providing transportation funds and supplying immigrants with farm tools and a year’s stock of food. Theus's family received a 250-acre land grant on the Edisto River and a town lot.
1755 Jeremiah Theus (1716-1774). Suzanna Moore SmythBy 1740, he began serving as the area's only resident portraitist. He may have received some training in Switzerland and brought some prints with him to South Carolina.1756 Jeremiah Theus (1716-1774). Portrait of a Lady.Theus referred to a somewhat limited number of English mezzotint portraits for his client's poses and costumes. He also stylized facial features of his sitters, resulting in many similar portraits.1756 Jeremiah Theus (1716-1774). Martha Logan (Mrs. Lionel Chalmers).On August 30, 1740, Jeremiah Theüs advertised in the South-Carolina Gazette:Notice is hereby given, that Jeremiah Theus Limner is remov’d into the Market Square near Mr. John Laurans Sadler, where all Gentlemen and Ladies may have their Pictures drawn, likewise Landskips of all Sizes, Crests, and Coats of Arms for Coaches or Chaises. Likewise for the Conveniency of those who live in the Country, he is willing to wait on them at their respective Plantations.1757 Jeremiah Theus (1716-1774). Elizabeth Rothmahler.About 200 hundred portraits from South Carolina and Savannah, Georgia area are attributed to him.1757 Jeremiah Theus (1716-1774). Elizabeth Wragg Manigault.He also painted landscapes and coats of arms, and by 1744, was offering an evening drawing school for "young Gentlemen and Ladies" at his house in Charleston.1757 Jeremiah Theus (1716-1774). Mrs Gabriel Manigault.His popularity is apparent in a letter written to him by James Habersham (1715–1775), who served as acting colonial governor of Georgia from 1771 to 1773. In July 1772, Habersham wrote to Theüs, "I received...all my Family Pictures, besides Mr Wylly’s, and Mrs Crookes, Coll Jones’ Grandchild, and two for Mr Clay, which are all delivered—I have also your account for my 7 Pictures, amounting to Three Hundred and twenty Pounds South Carolina Currency, which I shall order to be paid you."1760 Jeremiah Theus (1716-1774). Mary Trusler.1761 Jeremiah Theus (1716-1774). Polly Ouldfield of Winyah.

1765 Jeremiah Theus (1715-1774) Hannah Dart.1765 Jeremiah Theus (1716-1774). Mary (Mrs. James Cuthbert).1770s Jeremiah Theus (1716-1774). Elizabeth Vanderhorst Moore.

1770 Jeremiah Theus (1716-1774). Mrs. Garner Greene.

1771 Jeremiah Theus (1716-1774). Marcy Olney.
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Paintings Cosmo Alexander

Cosmo Alexander (1724-1772) was born in Aberdeen, Scotland, the son of Catholic portrait painter & engraver John Alexander (1690-1765) and the great grandson of George Jameson (c.1587-1644), whom Horace Walpole called "the Vandyke of Scotland."

Alexander was so staunchly committed to the Jacobite cause, that he had to flee Scotland for participating in the 1745 Rising. After the disasterous Jacobite defeat at Culloden, he sought refuge in nurturing, sympathetic, artistic Rome between 1747-1751. He carried with him a letter of introduction to the Jacobite court declaring that he was "a lad of genius in painting."

From that point on, Alexander studied art & painted portraits of exiled Catholic leaders including "Bonnie" Prince Charles Edward Stuart. He continued studing in Livorno & Paris in 1751-52, before returning to London to live in a house he would soon inherit from architect James Gibbs (1674-1754), who was also a Catholic born in Aberdeen, Scotland.

Cosmo Alexander left London for the Netherlands a decade later and then sailed for America in 1766, after the death of his father. In the Atlantic colonies he focused on connecting with the Scottish community, moving from town to town in search of commissions. Records show that he joined the St. Andrew's Society, a charitable group organized to assist fellow Scots, in both New York & Philadelphia, where he paused t0 paint.

He also painted in Boston & New Jersey. Colonial governor William Franklin (loyalist son of Benjamin Franklin) wrote in his correspondence that Alexander lived for several weeks in the governor's mansion in Burlington, New Jersey, painting and receiving patrons there.

Colonial Governor Franklin mentioned Alexander's frail condition in one of his letters to England, "He was last year deprived of the use of his limbs by a fit of sickness, but is since recovered & got to work again."
Alexander met his greatest portrait success in Newport, Rhode Island, where one young man remembered he was "of delicate health and prepossessing manners" and that he "associated almost exclusively with the gentlemen from Scotland."

In Newport, Alexander met 14-year-old Gilbert Stuart (1754-1828), who was the son of a Scottish immigrant snuff millwright also thought to be a Jacobite. Bright young Stuart had already painted the famous portrait Dr. Hunter's Spaniels, which hangs today in the Hunter House Mansion in Newport, when he was 12-years-old. (See the January 28, 2009, post on this blog.)
Fellow Jacobite exile Dr. William Hunter, who owned the spaniels in Newport, convinced Alexander to take young Stuart as his apprentice. The pair traveled south in 1771, visiting Williamsburg & Charleston, before departing together for Edinburgh, where Alexander died suddenly the next year on August 25, 1772. Attempting briefly and without success to earn a living as a painter, Gilbert Stuart returned to Newport in 1773.

I am stepping over the line to include a portrait from Scotland in the following examples of Cosmo Alexander's work. It has only the slightest connection to America, but I am going to grab it. In the spring of 2003, the Drambuie Liqueur Company sent its Jacobite art collection on tour to the Telfair Museum of Art in Savannah, Georgia. Among the paintings attributed to Alexander was Portrait of a Jacobite Lady, showing a woman in a tartan riding habit holding the Jacobite symbol, the white rose. This flimsy connection, plus the fact that the sitter is a woman, is the rationale I am using to post this non-American 1745-59 portrait here.

During the 1745 Rebellion when Bonnie Prince Charlie tried to wrest back the British throne from the Hanoverian dynasty, he arrived in the Scottish capital of Edinburgh to great fanfare. Many women donned tartan dresses & Jacobite symbols. The Prince thanked one of the most enthusiastic Edinburgh families supporting the Jacobite cause, the MacKinnons, by giving them the secret recipe for the after-dinner whisky liqueur called Drambuie. The MacKinnon family ran a company producing the spirit for over 250 years.

This painting, Portrait of a Jacobite Lady, vividly demonstrates how art can be used to express a political belief. After the 1745 uprising, the British government made it illegal to be a Jacobite. Subjects in the Scottish Highland region (the area where most of the prince's supporters lived) were forbidden to carry weapons or wear tartans (the plaid fabric representing their family). Obviously, supporting someone to overthrow the ruler was against the law; and if a subject were discovered to be a Jacobite, the sentence would be death. Jacobites had to express their support of the Stuart family in secret or leave Scotland.

Aside...Even though the area around Culloden House was a disaster for the Jacobite cause, I love the place. At the time of the Jacobite rising in 1745-46, Culloden House was requisitioned by Bonnie Prince Charlie for use as his lodging & battle headquarters prior to the fateful battle on Culloden Moor on April 16, 1746. The final boggy battle on the open marshy moor just to the southeast of Culloden House proved to be an hour-long massacre of many of the 4,500 poorly fed, exhausted, & demoralized Jacobite army by the rested, ready, & vicious govenment force of 9,000. It has been estimated that there are some 20 million people of Scots descent living in other countries as a result of the huge diaspora which was the aftermath of this single battle.
Approaching the house with its 40 acre parkland is a special treat. As you near the house, you pass an early octagonal dovecot with 640 nesting boxes that would have provided fresh meat for the table in days gone by. Today you walk through the entrance hall at Culloden House into a tranquil large drawing room with a crackling open fireplace. Fires also greet you in the guest rooms which are huge with great views of the majestic front lawn or the peaceful lake at the rear. The dining room is capped with 19th century Adams plasterwork, & the meals are first rate. And I swear we hear pipers playing just as we retire each evening. But back to the blog...
I am including the paintings (attributed to Alexander) of the young girls with the sheep & the squirrel not because they are very young American females, but just because they fascinate me. (See postings on this blog January 28 & 29, 2009.)


1745-50s Cosmo Alexander (1724-1772.) Portrait of a Jacobite Lady. The Drambuie Collection, Edinburgh. (Reproduction at myartprints.com.)
1770 Cosmo Alexander (1724-1772). Margaret Stiles Manning. Brown University Portrait Collection. (This depiction is from a lecture slide. Do not copy or reproduce. Contact the university for an accurate image.)

1770 Cosmo Alexander (1724-1772). Mary Jemima Balfour. Virginia Historical Society. (This depiction is from a lecture slide. Do not copy or reproduce. Contact the historical society for an accurate image.)
1770 Attributed to Cosmo Alexander (1724-1772). Girl with a Lamb. (This depiction is from auction promotional material. Please do not copy or reproduce.)
1770 Attributed to Cosmo Alexander (1724-1772). Girl with a Squirrel. (This depiction is from auction promotional material. Do not copy or reproduce.)
















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Paintings John Wollaston

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We have reviewed John Wollaston's career in colonial America. Before leaving the portraits John Wollaston painted of mature women in the American colonies, we should look at a few of the images of young women he left behind; when he sailed for from Charleston, South Carolina for England in 1767.

1755 John Wollaston (1710-1775). Anne Randolph (Mrs. Benjamin Harrison of Brandon). Virginia Historical Society, Richmond, Virginia. (This depiction is from a lecture slide. Do not copy or reproduce. Contact the Virginia Historical Society for an accurate image.)

1755 John Wollaston (1710-1775). Elizabeth Randolph (Mrs. Phillip Ludwell Grymes). Virginia Historical Society, Richmond, Virginia. (This depiction is from a lecture slide. Do not copy or reproduce. Contact the Virginia Historical Society for an accurate image.)

1757 John Wollaston (1710-1775). Probably Elizabeth Dandridge. Colonial Williamsburg Foundation. (This depiction is from a lecture slide. Do not copy or reproduce. Contact CWF for an accurate image.)

1757 John Wollaston (1710-1775). Mary Lightfoot. Daughters of the American Revolution Museum, Washington DC. (This depiction is from a lecture slide. Do not copy or reproduce. Contact the DAR for an accurate image.)

c 1758 John Wollaston (1710-1775). Mary Digges (Mrs. Thomas Sim Lee). Maryland Historical Society/Maryland State Archives. (This depiction is from a lecture slide. Do not copy or reproduce. Contact the MHS for an accurate image.)

1760s John Wollaston (1710-1775). Portrait of a Girl. (This depiction is from a lecture slide. Do not copy or reproduce.)

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Paintings Joseph Badger

We have already seen several of Joseph Badger's earlier portraits on this blog. Joseph Badger was born on March 14, 1707/8, in Charlestown, Massachusetts, the 6th of 9 children of Mercy Kettell and her husband Stephen Badger, a tailor. Joseph Badger died in Boston on May 11, 1765.

Badger began his career as a house painter and glazier and moved his growing family to Boston in 1733. It is not clear how he evolved into portrait painting, but he probably used a few imported English prints as sources for his compositions, although his poses and formats are similar.

In Boston, Badger lived in the same neighborhood with Scottish-born portriatist John Smibert (1688–1751), who had emigrated from London in 1728, and John Singleton Copley's stepfather, London artist and engraver Peter Pelham ( (1695-1751), who had arrived in Boston a few years earlier than Smibert. And of course, as you have already guessed, both artists sold prints out of their shops introducing poses and costumes from English mezzotints in the baroque depictions of Godfrey Kneller (1646–1723) and Peter Lely (1618–1680) and in the updated rococo style of Thomas Hudson (1701–1779) to local artists and townsfolk.

Artist Thomas Johnston (1708–1767), who painted portraits, furniture & coats of arms; engraved maps, music, bookplates, & clock faces; and even cut gravestones, also lived nearby. Johnston trained artist John Greenwood (1727–1792), who was his Boston apprentice from 1741 to 1745.

Additionally, Badger would have known artist Robert Feke (c 1708–1751) and Joseph Blackburn (fl 1754–1763), who arrived in Boston around 1754, just after Copley's stepfather died.

Apparently paint ran through the Badger family veins. Two of Badger's sons moved to Charleston after his death, advertising themselves as painters in the South-Carolina Gazette, in Charleston, December 8, 1766. A Daniel Badger, perhaps related to Joseph, had advertised himself as a painter in the same newspaper on December 6, 1735, just 2 years after Joseph Badger had settled in Boston.

Here are a few of Joseph Badger's paintings of women from 1750 through the 1760s.


1750 Joseph Badger (1708-1765). Anna Porter (Mrs. Nathaniel Brown). San Francisco Fine Art Museum. (Reproduction at 1st-art-gallery.com. Contact the museum for an accurate image.)

1755 Joseph Badger (1708-1765). Eleanor Wyer (Mrs. Isaac Foster). National Gallery of Art. (Reproduction at encore-editions.com. Contact the National Gallery for an accurate image.)

1758 Joseph Badger (1708-1765). Hannah Minnot (Mrs. Samuel Moody ). New Britain Museum of Art, Connecticut. (This depiction is from a lecture slide. Do not copy or reproduce. Contact the museum for an accurate image.)

1759 Joseph Badger (1708-1765). Hannah Upham (Mrs. John Haskins). Brooklyn Museum. (This depiction is from a lecture slide. Do not copy or reproduce. Contact the museum for an accurate image.)

1760 Joseph Badger (1708-1765). Mrs. Thomas Shippard. (Reproduction at oceansbridge.com.)

1760 Joseph Badger (1708-1765). Sarah Larrabee Edes. Los Angeles County Museum of Art. (This depiction is from a lecture slide. Do not copy or reproduce. Contact the museum for an accurate image.)

1763 Joseph Badger (1708-1765). Mary Croswell. Minneapolis Institute of Art. (This depiction is from a lecture slide. Do not copy or reproduce. Contact the museum for an accurate image.)

1760-65 Joseph Badger (1708-1765). Sarah Badger Noyes. Dallas Museum of Art. (Reproduction at popartmachine.com. Contact the museum for an accurate image.)












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