Z1102/3

Photograph of portrait of Richard Gee (great, great, great grandfather of T.E.Girdlestone) painted by John Cawse (1779-1862) of 11 Upper King Street, Bloomsbury, London

Jan 1804

From: 1804 To: 1804

Original painting: Oil on canvas. 64 x 75 cm (85 x 96 cm including frame). The gilt frame is presumed to be contemporary. The artist John Cawse (c1778/9-1862) exhibited portraits at the Royal Academy from 1802 and later exhibited historical works. He also exhibited at the British Institute, Suffolk Street and the Old Watercolour Society. The National Portrait Gallery contains his portrait of the famous clown and entertainer Joseph Grimaldi painted in 1807. He is best remembered by his work The Art of Painting Portraits, Landscapes, Amimals, Draperies etc in oil colours published in 1840. The subject. Richard Gee, eldest son of Edward Gee, was baptised on the 11th May 1756 at Moulton, Northamptonshire. He worked as a land surveyor from 1775 until his death. In 1782-3 he undertook a survey of Turvey, Bedfordshire and around this time he married a local girl, Keziah Skevington, and settled in the village. He purchased a property and built himself a substantial house with its own brewhouse, barns, stables, coach house gardens and orchard. After his death, the sale of his household effects took three days. Papers in the collection of Gee's solicitor and executor, John Garrard of Olney, reveal much about Richard Gee's work, life and family. His wife died in 1798 leaving him with a young family; four sons, Edward, Thomas, William and Richard and a daughter, Amelia. Only Amelia remained in the area after her father's death. She married George Batthams of Turvey in September 1811 and died ten years later, aged 31. Richard's eldest son, Edward, followed in his father's profession, originally helping his father and then his uncle, Thomas Gee, who was a surveyor in Yorkshire. Edward worked on the enclosures of Newport Pagnell, Newton Blossomville and Warrington amongst others. Richard Gee was a busy man. He was responsible for surveying six enclosures in Bedfordshire and he also worked in Northamptonshire, Oxfordshire, Lincolnshire and Dorset. In Buckinghamshire he made an estate map of Emberton in 1799 and surveyed for the Newport Pagnell enclosure in 1807 and may have been involved in the enclosure of Olney. Frequently away from home on business, he died, after a short illness, in Horncastle, Lincs on the 4th February 1811. Apart from work, Richard appears to have had an interest in music, having an organ, violins and not only the complete works of Handel but a bust of the composer as well. The portrait is mentioned twice in the correspondence, Edward being anxious to have it as eldest son but Amelia refusing to part with it. It descended through the family of Richard's third son, William, until being bequeathed to Bedfordshire and Luton Archives Service in 2001. It was transferred to the Cowper and Newton Museum, Olney in March 2002.

item

Girdlestone, T.E.,
Gee, Richard,
Cawse, John

named portraits, photographs, specific artists, surveyors