2 



THOMAS BEWICK. 



to the little village of Eltringham, in the parish of Ovingham, whose church 

 is on the opposite side of the river Tyne.* Bewick in his writings mentions 

 that his mother, when still young, had been chosen housekeeper to the curate 

 of Ovingham, the Rev. Christopher Gregson, and while there the Cumberland 

 lass won the heart of the widower. Mr. Gregson was, in after-years, one 

 of the warmest friends the engraver had, and Bewick records with satisfaction 

 how readily the clergyman acknowledged the value of his young housekeeper. 

 Mr. Gregson, whose stipend was not great, had a number of pupils to whom 

 he imparted education, and he found his housekeeper as helpful on account 

 of her ability to superintend the Latin lessons of the learners, as of her 

 proficiency in her more special duties. From this scene of combined mental 

 and practical responsibilities she was taken to preside over the cottage at 

 Cherryburn in 1752. 



Here, the next year, Thomas Bewick, eldest of the family, was born. The 

 1 2th of August was the day on which he celebrated the anniversary of his 

 birth ; but there was, even to himself, some doubt of the precise date, and 

 it may possibly have been the 10th or the nth of the month. A tablet 

 erected to the artist's memory in Ovingham Church gives the date as 

 August 1 2th. The parish register only records the date of his baptism, 

 which took place at Ovingham on the 19th August, 1753. 



In due time the family increased until the children numbered eight — five 

 girls and three boys ; but, with one exception, we have here very little 

 to do with them. The exception was the second son, John, born about 

 March, i76o,f who, inspired by his brother's example and precept, also 

 became a celebrated engraver. William, the third son, lived until 1833, 

 when he died at the ripe age of seventy-one ; Jane, the youngest child, was 

 fifty-six when she died in 1825 ; Hannah, the eldest girl, died in her brother 

 Thomas's house at the Forth in Newcastle in 1785, aged thirty-one. There 



* See Sketch Map, p. 37. 



f The parish register does not contain the exact day : the baptism took place on March 30th, 1760. 



