Portrait of Richard Henry Beaumont of Whitley (d.1810)

Amongst the portraits is this one:

The label reads:-

Richard Henry Beaumont F.S.A.

Whitley, Yorks.

Obit 1810

For a long time, I thought it was rather odd that our side of the family should have a portrait of this gentleman. We do not have a portrait of our ancestor Richard Beaumont of Birmingham (1761-1828) and so I thought it might be him, and part of the muddle about his middle name, touched on in a recent piece here. It is an unassuming portrait, not a grand one, and I thought - a Beaumont of Whitley would be grander than this.

Now, however, on balance I think the label is correct.

So who was R.H. Beaumont of Whitley, and why would we have ended up with a portrait of him? Here goes.

First here is how he was related to us:- his aunt Frances Beaumont 1704-1735 (one of his father's sisters) married our George Beaumont of Darton, so he was first cousin of the clergyman of St.Nicholas.

Now R.H. Beaumont FSA (Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries) (I will call him RHB) was born in 1749 making him five years older than his first cousin once removed Thomas Beaumont the clergyman (Thomas here), and in looking at the portrait I think we would say that the style of it is about 1800, and fits with a person of that age.

The picture has been attributed to the well-known artist Sir William Beechey, and whilst I am not a great believer in valuers' attributions, that is possible.

Also we do know that RHB and Thomas knew each other. Their acquaintance must have begun by 1793 the year in which RHB served as High Sheriff (of Yorkshire) and Thomas was appointed the chaplain of the 84th Regiment, whose Colonel was RHB's brother-in-law George Bernard.

This is about the time when Thomas sold his estate at Chapelthorpe and built his own house at East Bridgford. We know that RHB visited Thomas, as he wrote a letter saying that he had had "an unpleasant ride home" and sending "comps" to the ladies (papers in Box 1). I think that was in the 1790s and that he had stayed with Thomas at Chapelthorpe.  He also sent an elaborate and accurately-written family tree which demonstrated that he, should there be any doubt, was the rightful owner of Whitley, with its vast rent income. 

RHB's sister was called Elizabeth. In 1774 when aged 21 she had married the Anglo-Irish Army officer George Bernard, and they had a house called Heaton Lodge on the edge of the Whitley estate, near Colne Bridge in the Calder valley. 

RHB had many portraits in his house (Whitley Hall), and as part of his antiquarian pursuits he labelled them on the back, typically writing in black ink on the wood itself, the back of the frame. I have one that is marked in that way, but the picture in question is not. Moreover another picture, said to be of him, and said to have come from Whitley, and to be by Romney, was sold in London in 1932. Why would he have had two pictures of himself in his house?

There seems no likelihood, given the way Whitley Hall devolved after RHB died (in 1810) of any of the contents coming to our side of the family, and yet it looks very much as though the picture has belonged in our family since soon after that date. 

I now suspect that this picture came not from Whitley Hall, but from Heaton Lodge, and here is why:

Elizabeth Bernard died in 1814. The Bernards had had no children, and perhaps were not living together (a letter dated 1811 shows George at Filey (Box 1/129)). He had an acquaintance called Elizabeth Proctor, who with one Frances (Fanny) Gray - evidently his daughter, but not by his wife - were the main beneficiaries under his will and codicils (PROB 11/1631/418).

George Bernard died in May 1820, and the contents of Heaton Lodge were soon being sold.

Leeds Mercury and other papers, from Sept. 1820

Quite possibly Rev. Thomas Beaumont - now of East Bridgford - bought some things either privately or at the auction. I can see it suiting him to have a portrait of a man he remembered and respected, who was also a Yorkshire aristocrat and quite closely related to him.

On the back of our picture as already noted there is nothing that appears to have been written by RHB. What there is, apart from some modern labels, is an old paper label reading "[blank, torn off] Henry Beaumont F.S.A., Whitley [more, too faint to read]" and a less old label reading "R.H. Beaumont."

The label screwed to the front of the frame is in the same style as on a number of other pictures and merely tends to confirm that this one was in the same house as those others (i.e. East Bridgford Hill).

In 2015 I offered this picture (and others) on loan to RHB's "local" museum and gallery, Kirklees. Their curator was interested, but said the budget cuts prevented that.

I deposited photographs of this and other pictures with Nottinghamshire Archives in 1998 or 1999 (this one:- DD/2126/1/3).

As a postscript to the above:
My uncle once told me that one of the family portraits, showing a man in a red coat who was thought to be General Bernard, had gone missing. This raises the possibility that Thomas bought not one, but two pictures from Heaton Lodge.

This note dated 1 March 2018