Portrait of Thomas Beaumont of Whitley 1751-1782

The subject of the picture was one of the younger brothers of R H Beaumont (RHB) and also brother of Mrs Elizabeth Bernard mentioned in the previous piece.

Thomas was born on 13 July 1751 and served as a Cornet (1769), promoted to Lieutenant (1772) in the 4th Regiment of Dragoons.  He died unmarried on 10 November 1782 and I think that he was buried at Kirkheaton.

The writing on the back of the frame indicates that the picture was at Whitley Hall in the time of RHB. It is similar to RHB's hand and what makes me sure, is that he wrote genealogical information in exactly that way.

It reads:- Thomas Beaumont son of Rich: Beaumont of Whitley Hall Esquire and Elizabeth the da. of Wm Holt of Grizzlehurst and Little Mitton co. Lanc. ob. 10 Nov.1782 at Whitley aet. 32 born   July 1751.

The picture shows him as standing at the left in the portrait of his family by George Romney.

L-R: Thomas, RHB, John, Elizabeth, George Bernard, Charles. I make these identifications
after some consideration and I am aware that different ideas have been expressed.
I will do another piece shortly to discuss this.

The Romney group portrait was sold by the Whitley Beaumont family to the nation in the early c20.  A copy of it is at Ormesby Hall in the care of the National Trust.

Having discussed this with Alex Kidson who is the author of currently the most definitive work on Romney, I think my picture of Thomas is a copy of his head that was done soon after, or even at the time, the group portrait was finished.

Look for a later piece from me about the identification of the other people in the group portrait.

Now read on .....

During the 1920s a young girl called Margaret Mayo became interested in the Whitley Beaumont family after seeing the group portrait. She adopted (in so many words) the people in the picture and researched them, I would say, almost obsessively. In due course Margaret Mayo married and became called Shepherd.

In 1955 the subject picture belonged to a Mr J.I. Rodway of Ascot. He wrote to Country Life about it because he had recognised the figure from the group portrait at the National Gallery.

"A Familiar Face

Sir: Regular visitors to the National Gallery will recognise a familiar face in the pastel portrait of which I enclose a photograph, though they may not find it easy to place. It does, in fact, resemble very closely in all respects, including the pose, that of the young man in the red military coat who stands on the left of the group in Romney's painting of the Beaumont family. The pastel has been in my possession for over ten years, but the connection between the two portraits was not known until a few weeks ago when my daughter happened to be studying the Romneys in the gallery and made the discovery.

The curators of the gallery have since examined the pastel drawing with considerable interest, especially because an inscription in an unmistakably contemporary hand on the back of the frame identifies the sitter. He was Thomas Beaumont who died in 1782, aged 31, the son of Richard Beaumont, of Whitley Beaumont. This piece of evidence has made a useful contribution to the accuracy of the historical record, because apart from the female figure, the individual identifications in the Beaumont family group have hitherto, in the words of the catalogue, been "quite confused"

Having lived in the pleasant company of Thomas Beaumont for so long and having now "met" his family, I should be glad to know some more about him. Perhaps one of your readers may be able to help. How, for instance, did he meet his end and why is he depicted in military uniform when he was not commissioned until 1780, after Romney had completed the portrait? [but see above (EMB)] What is the uniform he is wearing? Lastly, who made the pastel drawing, which is unsigned, but is obviously a work of some merit?

It has been suggested that this may have been copied from Romney's painting after the death of the subject or on behalf of a relative, but there is no evidence to rule out the possibility of its being a sketch by Romney himself.

John I. Rodway, Eldoret, Ascot, Berkshire."

Mrs Shepherd got in touch with him. My uncle also wrote to Country Life, and Mrs Shepherd then got in touch with him and thus with my father.

Mrs Shepherd bought the picture from Mr Rodway, who delivered it to her over lunch at an Hotel in central London.

Much later Mrs Shepherd told me that Mr Rodway had bought the picture from a person - I was never given a name -  who had been employed as a butler at Tetworth, the Ascot house of H.F. Beaumont (1833-1913) - or his son -  the then owner of Whitley. This person took the picture from the attic (by inference, because his wages were unpaid......). The butler then gave the picture to a friend who was a gamekeeper. Mr Rodway was a firearms expert and had become involved in a case in which the son of the gamekeeper needed some expert testimony, and the picture was then given to Mr Rodway as grateful thanks for his assistance.

My parents and I went to Mrs Shepherd's house in Buckinghamshire to see the picture, and afterwards she kindly sent a fire engine which I had left behind.

T. Beaumont to Mrs Shepherd

Later, my father bought the picture from her for the same price as she had given Mr Rodway, and in 1966 my father gave it to me. I have now been its owner for over fifty years.

Margaret Shepherd's own story, interwoven with that of her adopted brothers and sister, is told in her own words in "A Journey into Time Past" a copy of which she gave me in November 1990.

The subject picture is one of three that I offered on loan to Kirklees Museums in 2015 but which due to the budget cuts they were unable to take.

This note dated 3 March 2018.
Revised 12 March 2018 with thanks and acknowledgments to Alex Kidson.