i8i 



THOMAS STOTHARD, R.A. 



(Born 1755. Died 1834.) 



T^HOMAS STOTHARD was born in London 

 -*■ on 17th August, 1755. His father was a 

 Yorkshireman by birth, and Mrs. Bray, in her 

 Life oi the artist, tells us that he was a member 

 of an old and g-ood family. It would appear, there- 

 fore, that the branch to which the artist belonged 

 had sustained reverses, for at the time of his birth 

 his father kept the " Black Horse" in Long Acre. 



A somewhat delicate child, Thomas was sent, 

 when five years old, to be brought up in the 

 country by his father's relations ; and three years 

 later was sent by them to a school at Stutton, near 

 Tadcaster, his father's birthplace. Here the boy 

 remained until he was thirteen years of age, when 

 his father paid a visit to Yorkshire, and on his 

 return south took his son with him. Stothard 

 senior had evidently thriven in his business as an 

 inn-keeper, for he was now able to send his boy 

 to a boarding school at Ilford, in Essex. Thomas 

 spent only a year at this establishment, however ; 

 his father's death, in 1770, obliged his removal, 



