Dr Johnson's Friend and Robert Adam's Client Topham Beauclerk

313 Pages·2016·4.02 MB·English

by  Beauclerk

Dr Johnson’s Friend
and Robert Adam’s
Client
Topham Beauclerk

Dr Johnson’s Friend
and Robert Adam’s
Client
Topham Beauclerk
By
David Noy
Dr Johnson’s Friend and Robert Adam’s Client Topham Beauclerk

By David Noy

This book first published 2016

Cambridge Scholars Publishing

Lady Stephenson Library, Newcastle upon Tyne, NE6 2PA, UK

British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

Copyright © 2016 by David Noy

All rights for this book reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced,
stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means,
electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without
the prior permission of the copyright owner.

ISBN (10): 1-4438-9037-5
ISBN (13): 978-1-4438-9037-3
In memory of
Margaret Lydia (Peggy) Noy, née Midgley
1922–2009
matris optimae

TABLE OF CONTENTS
List of Illustrations ..................................................................................... ix
Introduction ................................................................................................ xi
Chapter One ................................................................................................. 1
Parents, Childhood, Youth (1739–1760)
Chapter Two .............................................................................................. 18
The Richard Topham Inheritance
Chapter Three ............................................................................................ 25
Grand Tour (1761–1764)
Chapter Four .............................................................................................. 50
Great Hopes (1765–1766)
Chapter Five .............................................................................................. 67
Dr Johnson
Chapter Six ................................................................................................ 83
Adultery (1766–1768)
Chapter Seven .......................................................................................... 105
The Norris Inheritance
Chapter Eight ........................................................................................... 122
Happily Married? (1769–1771)
Chapter Nine ............................................................................................ 137
Muswell Hill
Chapter Ten ............................................................................................. 154
The Adelphi (1772–1775)
viii Table of Contents
Chapter Eleven ........................................................................................ 175
Collecting
Chapter Twelve ....................................................................................... 193
Hertford Street, Bath and Brighton (1776–1778)
Chapter Thirteen ...................................................................................... 217
Gambling
Chapter Fourteen ..................................................................................... 228
Great Russell Street (1779–1780)
Chapter Fifteen ........................................................................................ 252
Epilogue
Bibliography ............................................................................................ 265
Index ........................................................................................................ 282
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
Cover. Richard Brompton, Edward, Duke of York (1739-67) with his
Friends in Venice, 1764
Fig. 1-1. Francis Coates, Topham Beauclerk, 1756
Fig. 1-2. 8 and 7 Charles Street
Fig. 2-1. View of Windsor from the River Thames, engraved by Paul
Sandby, 1776
Fig. 3-1. Samuel Bellin after Richard Brompton, Topham Beauclerk
Fig. 3-2. J. Barlow after Isaac Cruikshank, Dr Johnson’s Politeness to
Madame Boufflers
Fig. 3-3. Samuel William Reynolds, after Sir Joshua Reynolds, 1767, John
Fitzpatrick, Second Earl of Upper Ossory
Fig. 4-1. Eyre Crowe Jr., James Boswell’s Introduction to The Club, 1859
Fig. 5-1. After Sir Joshua Reynolds, Samuel Johnson, c.1769
Fig. 5-2. William Hogarth, The Idle ’Prentice, 1747
Fig. 6-1. “Mrs V-t and the Battersea Baron,” Town and Country Magazine,
March 1772
Fig. 7-1. Speke Hall, drawn by G. & C. Pyne, 1839
Fig. 8-1. William Hogarth, The five orders of perriwigs, 1761
Fig. 9-1. Mr Porker’s, Muswell Hill, c.1800
Fig. 9-2. Conjectural ground floor plan of the Muswell Hill villa
Fig. 9-3. The library at Nostell Priory, 1907
Fig. 9-4. The Adams’ design for a “Screen round the Observatory at
Muswell Hill for Topham Beauclerk Esq.”
Fig. 9-5. Oak tree from the avenue at Muswell Hill
Fig. 10-1. William Tombleson, Adelphi Terrace, 1835
Fig. 10-2. Royal Society of Arts, Adam Street
Fig. 11-1. Bibliotheca Beauclerkiana
Fig. 11-2. Marble altars at Wrest Park
Fig. 12-1. Lady Diana Beauclerk’s drawing of her daughters Mary and
Elizabeth
Fig. 12-2. 18 Hertford Street
Fig. 12-3. 12 South Parade and 4 Russell Street, Bath
Fig. 12-4. Undated letter from Topham Beauclerk to Bennet Langton
Fig. 12-5. Marlborough House, Brighton
Fig. 13-1.Thomas Rowlandson, A Kick-up at a Hazard Table!, 1790