| Sir Brooke Boothby, 6th Baronet | |
|---|---|
by John Raphael Smith after Sir Joshua Reynolds |
|
| Born | 3 June 1744[1] Ashbourne, Derbyshire,[2] England |
| Died | 23 January 1824[1] Boulogne, Paris, France |
| Resting place | Ashbourne, Derbyshire, England |
| Residence | Ashbourne Hall[3] |
| Nationality | English |
| Education | Christ Church, Oxford |
| Occupation | landowner and poet |
| Title | 6th Boothby Baronet of Broadlow Ash |
| Predecessor | Sir Brooke Boothby, 5th Baronet (1710–1789) |
| Successor | His brother, Sir William Boothby, 7th Baronet (1746–1824) |
| Spouse | Susanna Bristoe |
| Children | Penelope |
| Parents | Sir Brooke Boothby, 5th Bt. and Phoebe Hollins |
Sir Brooke Boothby, 6th Baronet was an English linguist, translator, minor poet and landowner in Derbyshire. He was part of the intellectual and literary circle of Lichfield which included Anna Seward and Erasmus Darwin. He welcomed Jean-Jacques Rousseau to Ashbourne circles in 1766 when the philosopher fled London after a short stay there where hospitality was provided by Hume. Boothby visited Rousseau in Paris in 1776 and was given the manuscript of the first part of Rousseau's three part Confessions which was his autobiography. Boothby translated the manuscript and published in Lichfield in 1780 after the author's death and donated the document to the British Library in 1781. Boothby's unusual portrait by Joseph Wright of Derby from 1781, a classic example of English 18th century painting, shows him reclining in a wooded glade with a book carrying on its cover simply the name Rousseau, indicating his interest in the writer and his work generally rather than one of Rousseau's works in particular. The portrait is a metaphor for Boothby's admiration of Rousseau and his efforts to promote him with the English intelligentsia.[4] His daughter was painted by Henry Fuseli[5] and Joshua Reynolds[6] and sculpted by Thomas Banks,[7] as well as being the subject of a book of poetry by her grieving father.[8]
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Boothby was born in 1744. He inherited his unusual forename from Hill Brooke, the second wife of the fourth Boothby Baronet of Broadlow Ash, William Boothby. Brooke Boothby is sometimes referred to as the seventh baronet as there was some confusion over the appointment of the first baronet.[9]
Boothby was active in local intellectual life as an associate of the scientific group, the Lunar Society which was interested in the application of the sciences to modern life and its development, and the Lichfield Botanical Society. He, members of the Lunar Society and the intellectual circle of Lichfield, met the free-thinking Jean-Jacques Rousseau who fled from France in 1766-7 and was staying at Wootton, near Boothby's home, Ashbourne Hall.
Boothby later visited Rousseau in Paris and promised him that he would publish his Confessions, an autobiographical work to which Boothby gave the title "Dialogues ou Rousseau, Juge de Jean-Jacques". The book was published in Lichfield by Boothby in the French language. This achievement is immortalised in Joseph Wright of Derby's painting. The portrait shows Boothby reclining by a stream in a wooded glade once known as the Twenty Oaks where he and Rousseau met for discussion and where Rousseau went to write in peace and solitude. He is holding a leather bound book with the name Rousseau on the spine rather than a specific title, thus referencing Boothby's interest in the philosopher's entire oeuvre. The landscape setting can be interpreted as referring to the Rousseauian idea that all of man's troubles and unhappiness derive from his self-removal from the natural world. The plants in the setting refer to Boothby's interest in botany and the botanical aspect of the painting has withstood academic interest.[10] Both Boothby and Rousseau were interested in botany and Rousseau studied local flora when he lived at Wootton Hall.
Two other of Wright's paintings of Dovedale were sold to Brooke Boothby who had helped Wright when he put on the first one-man exhibition in London.[11] Boothby also purchased two views of nearby Matlock, two paintings of bridges in Rome as well as the unusual portrait of himself.[12]
Boothby married Susanna Bristoe, daughter of Robert Bristoe and Susanna Philipson, in 1784 and in that year he leased Ashbourne Hall from his father whose extravagance had forced him to live elsewhere whilst renting out the family seat.[8] He began the restoration of Ashbourne Hall using his wife's dowry to renovate the structure, remodel the parkland, purchase rare plants and obtain works of art. Boothby, like his father before him, was extravagant in the extreme. That weakness and his emotion self-indulgence were to be his nemesis. In the following April, his only daughter, Penelope, was born. Sir Joshua Reynold's portrait of Penelope, often called "the Mob Cap" is one of the most famous of English child portraits. Reynolds had painted portraits of Boothby and his younger half sister Anne. His full sister, Maria, was portrayed by Wright a decade before he painted the famous portrait of Brooke Boothby himself.
On 19 March 1791, disaster struck when Boothby's young daughter, Penelope, died aged five. This sad event permanently affected Boothby and he published a book of poetry, Sorrows Sacred to the Memory of Penelope subsequent to the event. Penelope had a remarkable tomb constructed for her which included a life size statue of her sleeping. The tomb is in Saint Oswald's church in Ashbourne along with many other Boothby memorials and graves.
Boothby's life went into decline after his daughter's death. He commissioned the sculpture illustrated and the painting by Henry Fuseli. His wife Susanna returned after Penelope's funeral to her parent's home in Hampshire and settled in Dover. Her death was recorded under her own family name, Bristoe.
Boothby was involved with the substantial purchase of sixteenth century stained glass for Lichfield Cathedral in 1801, which he purchased from the Abbey of Herkenrode which had been dissolved in the Napoleonic wars. He sold the glass to the cathedral on a non-profit basis.[13]
As a result of his extravagance Boothby met with economic disaster which completely altered the course of his life. Ashbourne Hall was leased in 1814 (parish records show that in 1817 Sir Richard Arkwright's grandson, also Richard, was living there) and he settled in diminished circumstances in Boulogne in 1815 and died there in 1824. He was buried in St. Oswald's with his parents and his sister Maria Elizabeth and other Boothby family members.
Well has thy classick chisel, Banks, express'd
The graceful lineaments of that fine form,
Which late with conscious, living beauty warm,
Now here beneath does in dread silence rest.
And, oh, while life shall agitate my breast,
Recorded there exists her every charm,
In vivid colours, safe from change or harm,
Till my last sigh unalter'd love attest.
That form, as fair as ever fancy drew,
The marble cold, inanimate, retains;
But of the radiant smile that round her threw
Joys, that beguiled my soul of mortal pains,
And each divine expression's varying hue,
A little senseless dust alone remains[14]
