Rice portrait of Jane Austen - a case of the wrong Legg? - part two

The 'Rice' Portrait

This is the second of a two part post about the 'Rice Portrait' of Jane Austen painted when she was about 12 years old. The first part can be found HERE. For more information on the Rice portrait please go to the official website HERE.

To date the National Portrait Gallery (NPG) has not accepted that the portrait is of Jane Austen. A major (indeed perhaps now the only) substantial component of the argument against it being of Austen is a stamp on the reverse of the portrait placed there by the supplier of the linen canvas. The NPG  attribute this stamp to a certain William Legg born in Reading in 1760 and who was not trading in London until around 1800. The argument of the NPG therefore is that the portrait must date from the early nineteenth century when Austen would have been in her twenties.

In my previous post I posited that the NPG may have been looking at the wrong Legg and suggested a possible alternative, one William Daniel Legg, who could have been trading in linen in the late eighteenth century. In this post I want to explain why the coincidence of two William Leggs supplying linen from the same area of London, High Holborn, is not as unlikely as it might seem, and in fact is not a coincidence at all. The story involves four men of a similar age, all merchants and all living in London in the 1780's who are linked by trade and by religion. They are: Samuel Legg, James Poole, Thomas Walters and William Daniel Legg.

Samuel Legg
Born in 1754, Samuel Legg was the cousin of William Legg of Reading. (b.1760). His father John was a member of the Congregationalist or Independent Church and Samuel and his brothers and sisters were baptised at the Independent Meeting House in Broad Street, Reading, a non-conformist chapel (now occupied by Waterstones). He was apprenticed for 7 years to Samuel Walker, citizen and draper of London and later took over his business at 51 Snow Hill, just to the east of Holborn perhaps in partnership with a relative, possibly an uncle (another William Legg) who had married Samuel Walker's daughter Elizabeth.

In 1781 Samuel married Elizabeth Gill and the couple had two children, Jabez and Elizabeth Legg. Jabez was baptised at the Independent Chapel on Camomile Street where the pastor was John Reynolds. Both Samuel and his son Jabez were active members of the Congregationalist church while his daughter Elizabeth married William Chapman, a Congregationalist pastor at Greenwich. Directories list Samuel Legg as upholsterer/upholder/hardware and later he and Jabez also maintained a successful business as undertakers, a common combination in eighteenth century England, trading from Fleet Street and later from 2 Knightrider Street. Samuel lived until the age of 92 and was buried on the same day as his sister Mary Westbrook, six years his junior, at Bunhill Fields on 14 August 1846. He named as one of his executors his friend Joseph East of Newington Place in Surrey. You can read more about Samuel and Jabez Legg here.


James Poole
James Poole was the son of a Buckinghamshire farmer who retired to Dinton near Aylesbury and whose land James Poole inherited. His wife Sarah was born around 1747.  Like Samuel Legg, James Poole was a member of the Congregationalist Church. His sister Hannah Poole married John Griffin, the son of a Wooburn paper manufacturer and in 1794 the couple moved to Portsea in Hampshire where Griffin took up a post as Congregationalist minister of Orange Street Chapel and later their sons, John and James also both became Ministers. Another of James Poole's sisters, Sarah, married John Bristow from Great Marlow at Wooburn in 1786 and their son John also became a Congregationalist Minister, at Poole in Dorset. Meanwhile James' sister Mary Poole married William East, another paper manufacturer from Wooburn in 1784. William and Mary's son, Joseph East (mentioned above), was baptised in 1790 at Bethel Chapel in Wooburn. The 1851 census shows him to be a printer and living at Newington Place, Surrey, with his wife Bethiah from Piccadilly, Middlesex.

James Poole traded as an artists colour man at 163 High Holborn from at least 1785 and supplied many of the leading artists of the day including Joshua Reynolds and George Romney (see here), both close friends of Ozias Humphry, the artist the Rice family believe is responsible for painting the Austen portrait in about 1788. (Incidentally, an unhappy incident occurred in November 1796 when Poole was required to testify at the trial of one of his employees, John Bannister, who apparently in the evenings had a more nefarious occupation as highwayman. Bannister was sentenced to death for armed robbery and executed outside Newgate prison on 1 February 1797.) James Poole was buried at Bethel Independent Chapel in Wooburn on 10 July 1801. His brother-in-law, William East, Joseph East's father, is named as an executor of his will. James Poole was survived by his wife who died at Stratford-on-Avon in 1836.

Thomas Walters
Thomas Walters was born in Portsea, the son of Thomas Walters, an officer at Portsmouth Dockyard and his wife Ann Vodin. He was baptised at St Mary's, Portsea, on 12 December 1756. He came up to London and was initially apprenticed in the ship chandler's trade. In 1780 he married Anne Thompson, daughter of Captain John Thompson, 1st Commander of H M Transports, who later established a successful rope making trade in Shadwell. Thomas and Anna Walters were members of the Congregationalist church and all five of their children were baptised at Old Gravel Lane Chapel in Wapping. Thomas Walters was made a livery member of the Merchant Taylor's Company in 1783 and ran a successful business at 201/202 New Crane, Shadwell. He was in partnership with a relative by marriage, George Seale, supplying ships biscuits and Irish goods. Kent's Directory for 1791 lists him as supplying sail cloth and Irish provisions and textiles. Sail cloth was the same cloth that artists used for canvas. Like James Poole and Samuel Legg then, Thomas Walters was a member of the Congregationalist church, and was importing linen, the same cloth which James Poole sold to artists. The East London History Society has written about Thomas Walters and his business links here.

One of Thomas Walter's daughters married Benjamin Lara of Portsea, a physician to the naval fleet, while a son, Charles became an engineer in Sussex. Thomas Walter's eldest son, John, was apprenticed to his father in 1796 but the following year, with the agreement of all parties, John was turned over to William Daniel Legg for the remainder of his apprenticeship. The most likely reason was that the 15 year-old John had expressed an interest in architecture, a field in which William Daniel Legg had already experienced considerable success. John Walters went on to to design many buildings including St Paul's Church in Shadwell and also patented a new design for a ship's brace to be used in the course of a ship's construction. In 1803 he married Ann I'Anson, sister of architect Edward I'Anson (1775-1853) but he died at Brighton before the age of 40, apparently from chronic overwork.

William Daniel Legg
I covered W D Legg extensively in my last post. Baptised in St Sepulchre, he was apprenticed to a linen draper based in Cornhill and later found success as an architect in Stamford. His only apprentice was John Walters, son of Wapping and Shadwell trader Thomas Walters. He probably is the William Legg listed at Coleman Street in 1774 and may be the William Legg listed at trading at Pelican Stairs in Wapping from 1785 as a dealer in ship stores (marine), not far from Thomas Walter's premises and with a similar trade.

I believe there is a strong possibility these four men knew each other. Samuel Legg and James Poole were both Congregationalists, and Samuel Legg names as his executor the son of James Poole's brother-in-law, William East, himself named as one of James Poole's executors. Thomas Walters and his wife, like Samuel Legg and James Poole, were of the Congregationalist church - and like James Poole also had connections with Portsea. Thomas Walters was importing linen into London and James Poole was selling it to artists. Meanwhile William Daniel Legg - possibly a relative of Samuel Legg although I have not yet found a link - clearly knew Thomas Walters as he was master to his son, John.

When James Poole died in 1801, William Legg (b.1760) was trading in Reading with his brother John as a painter, glazier and coach maker, having taken over the business from their father George. Then in 1801 one or both of the brothers (more likely both) took over James Poole's business as an artist's colourman at 163 High Holborn. Surely this is no coincidence. No doubt Samuel Legg, the brothers' cousin and friend (as he is later described in William Legg's will) helped facilitate the takeover of the business.

Samuel Legg and James Poole were linked by common friendships, trade and the Congregationalist church. Surely it is not impossible that either William Daniel Legg or another William Legg in the family from Reading, traded with James Poole during his tenure in High Holborn during the 1780s and placed his stamp on the linen.

Rice portrait of Jane Austen - A case of the wrong Legg?

The 'Rice' Portrait

In previous posts I have been looking at the Byrne portrait of Jane Austen but in this one I thought I would share some research I have carried out into what is now known as the Rice Portrait – once erroneously known as the “Zoffany Portrait” - believed by its owners to be a portrait of Jane Austen when she was about 12 or 13, painted by Ozias Humphry. 

There is plenty of information about the on the Rice portrait’s website here. The portrait has a long and tortured history and the National Portrait Gallery (NPG) no longer accept that the portrait is of Jane Austen or indeed that it is by Ozias Humphry.

One of their principal objections relates to a linen stamp found on the back of the portrait. Duty was payable on linen in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries and each piece of cloth was required to be stamped with the supplier’s name and place of abode. Relining has revealed one such stamp on the back of the Rice portrait for William Legg of High Holborn. It is known that there was an artist’s colourman named William Legg who hailed from Reading and who traded from High Holborn for a short period at the beginning of the nineteenth century. He appears in Kent’s Annual London Directory for the years 1803-1806 and in Holden’s Triennial Directory and the Post Office London Directory for 1805. However, William Legg was known to be trading in Reading prior to 1801 in partnership with his brother John as a coach maker, painter and glazier. The NPG have argued that the portrait therefore cannot be of Jane Austen when she was 12 or 13 as the earliest date W. Legg was in Holborn was 1801 when she was aged 25. Furthermore Ozias Humphry stopped painting when he went blind in 1797 so if William Legg was the linen supplier then the portrait cannot be painted by Ozias Humphry. 

The evidence of the linen stamp is therefore one of the main objections raised by the NPG to the portrait being painted prior to 1800. 

But is it possible that this is a case of mistaken identity? Could there possibly have been TWO William Leggs supplying linen from High Holborn, one at an earlier date to the other? 

There are two known stamps for William Legg from Reading – but they are not exactly the same as the one on the Rice portrait. They read: W & J Legg/High Holborn/LINEN. 

But the stamp on the Rice Portrait reads: 
Wm Legg High Holbourn 1 Linen 

The stamp on the reverse of the Rice portrait

The Rice portrait stamp has no ‘J’ and also spells Holborn with a ‘u’, an earlier form of the name. 

So is there any evidence for another William Legg who might have traded in linen from the High Holborn area during the late 1780s? I have discovered one man who may have done so, a certain William Daniel Legg. 

William Daniel Legg was born in 1743 and baptised at St Sepulchre, Newgate Street, Holborn, London. His parents were Thomas and Mary Legg. A Thomas Legg married a Mary Thursby at St Sepulchre on 19 February 1739, probably William’s father and mother. Thomas Legg was a printer, stationer and carpenter from Deptford. In 1755, when he was fourteen years old, William Daniel Legg was apprenticed for seven years to John Norris of the Haberdasher’s Company. Norris is variously described in the records as a haberdasher and as a joiner. (Merchants in the eighteenth century were commonly pluralists utilising a variety of skills.) John Norris owned property at Cherry Tree Alley, Bunhill Row in London and traded as a ‘ready made linen draper’ at Cornhill, but his property was sold when he went bankrupt in December 1785. 

William Daniel Legg had a brother, Thomas John Motley (sometimes Mottley) Legg, born in 1745. Motley is not a particularly common name. It also happens to be the name of the first wife of Jane Austen’s great uncle Francis Austen, the man responsible for commissioning the portrait. Anne Motley was the daughter of Thomas Motley of Beckenham, Kent . It is possible that Thomas Legg senior had a friend named either Thomas or John Motley and named his son after him. Naming a child after a valued friend or patron was common practice. It is also worth noting that Thomas Legg later mentioned in his will some property in Beckenham Lane, Bromley, not far from Thomas Motley’s Beckenham estate. This may, of course, be nothing but coincidence. Thomas John Motley Legg was apprenticed in 1760 to the printer Halhed Garland. Garland had himself been apprenticed to the printer turned novelist Samuel Richardson who was so greatly admired by Jane Austen. As a young girl Jane may have borrowed Richardson’s Sir Charles Grandison from Francis Austen’s second wife Jane (born Chadwick, later Lennard). 

Thomas John Motley Legg died suddenly in 1778. His father Thomas Legg was now living at Mount Street, Grosvenor Square, Mayfair in the parish of St George Hanover Square where he was apparently  involved in the management of Mount Street Workhouse, which with a capacity for up to 700 paupers was one of the largest in the country. He, along with Alexander Grant of Mount Street and Robert Grant of White Rose Court, Coleman Street, London, are named in a document of the same date in which Thomas Legg applied for administration of his son’s property. Thomas John Motley Legg was buried in the family vault at St Paul’s, Deptford. 

Like John Norris, William Daniel Legg is variously described as a haberdasher and joiner. He also had an interest in architecture, which at that time required no formal qualifications or training. He apparently obtained the patronage of Brownlow Cecil, the 9th Earl of Exeter and there are several building projects at the Earl’s estate at Burghley and at nearby Stamford attributed to him dating from the 1780’s onwards. His father’s will, written in 1790, describes him as ‘William Daniel Legg of Stamford in the county of Lincoln surveyor and architect’. (The Stamford connection may be as a result of relations of his mother Mary Thursby, the name has connections with Stamford. John Harvey Thursby was MP for Stamford from 1754 until 1761.) 

William also continued to trade in London as on 17 June 1797 he temporarily took over the apprenticeship of John Walters from the latter’s father, Thomas Walters a prosperous merchant in Shadwell, East London, who traded in ship’s biscuits, Irish provisions and sail cloth. (Sail cloth was made from the same or similar linen canvas as that used by artists for picture cloth. For more information on picture cloths see the National Portrait Gallery’s website.) 

William Daniel Legg died in 1806 at Stamford and like his brother was buried in the family vault at St Paul’s, Deptford. His father Thomas Legg had died five years earlier in 1801. William apparently did not marry or have children and I have not yet traced a will for him. But on 23 May 1806 the Stamford Mercury advertised an auction of his possessions to take place on 26 May 1806 and for five following days, which included over 400 books, a similar number of prints and ‘too great a variety of other valuable and good furniture to insert in an advertisement.’ 

Could William Daniel Legg have traded out of High Holborn in the 1780s? It is possible. His connections and origins were in the area and the streets of Holborn and High Holborn were one of the main trading areas for drapers in the late eighteenth century; the National Archives hold records for dozens of linen drapers trading here at the time. He was apprenticed for seven years by a haberdasher who traded just down the road at Cornhill and, despite his interests in Stamford, William Daniel Legg continued trading in London. In my next post I will look at William Daniel Legg’s trading connections and why two William Leggs supplying linen from High Holborn may not be a coincidence at all.