Philip Metcalfe
| Philip Metcalfe | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Portrait (c. 1766–1767), oil on canvas, by Pompeo Batoni (1708–1787), National Gallery Collections | |
| Personal details | |
| Born | 29 August 1733 London |
| Died | 26 August 1818 Brighton, Sussex |
| Nationality | English |
| Residence | Hawstead House, Hawstead, Suffolk |
| Occupation | Member of Parliament, Industrialist |
Philip Metcalfe, MP, FRS, FSA, (29 August 1733 – 26 August 1818), was an English Tory politician, a malt distiller and a philanthropist.
Family
He was born in London on 29 August 1733 and christened in Much Hadham in Hertford on 14 December 1733, second son of Roger Metcalfe,[2] a surgeon of Betterton Street, Drury Lane, London and Jemima Metcalfe née Astley.,[3] he was named after his grandfather Baronet Philip Astley (1667–1739) of Melton Constable, Norfolk.
Career
Metcalfe was the head of the firm Metcalfe and co, a West Ham distillery in Essex and member of Parliament from Horsham from 1784. He represented Plympton Erle, Devon from 1790 to 1796 and Malmesbury Wiltshire from 1796.
Arts
With the financial success brought by the gin trade, Metcalfe became a passionate art collector and was a patron of the Arts, among his friends and acquaintances were the writers Samuel Johnson,[4] Frances Burney, the painter Sir Joshua Reynolds and West India merchant Robert Fullarton Udny (1722–1802). He sat for two portraits that are in the collection of the National Portrait Gallery: one by Pompeo Batoni and one by draughtsman and engraver artist William Evans (after Edward Scott's stipple engraving).
He was appointed an executor to Joshua Reynolds's will, along with Edmund Burke and Edmond Malone.[5]
In 1760, Metcalfe joined the Royal Society of Arts.In 1785, he was made a fellow of the Society of Antiquaries of London, in 1786 and in 1790, under Reynolds's patronage, Metcalfe was elected a member of the Society of Dilettanti and of the Royal Society.
Metcalfe was also a member of the Club.[6] and one of the co-signatories of the Round Robin sent to Dr. Johnson to implore him to revise his Epitaph on poet Oliver Goldsmith.[7]
Legacy
Between 1815 and 1817 he erected a new mill, the Clock Mill, at the Three Mills, decorated with an inscription bearing his initials PM.
Miscellany
Metcalfe was mentioned with his associate James Baker[note 1] and Jesse Ramsden in the correspondence between Abraham Pilling[note 2] and Evan Nepean.[8]
Later life
Metcalfe died a bachelor in Brighton, Sussex on 26 August 1818, aged 85.[9]
Notes
- ↑ James Baker (1745-1822) was a malt distiller and the lineal ancestor of British film producer Reginald Poynton Baker (1896-1985).
- ↑ In 1770 a prize was awarded by the Royal Society of Arts to Pelling for his works on optical glass.[1]
References
- ↑ "The Royal Society of Arts, 1754-1954", by Derek Hudson and Kenneth W. Luckhurst, published by John Murray 1954, p.117
- ↑ "Pompeo Batoni, a complete catalogue of his works", by Anthony M. Clark, published by Phaidon, 1985, p.307
- ↑ "Burke's Genealogical and Heraldic History of the Landed Gentry", volume 2, p. 859.
- ↑ Courtney, William Prideaux (1910). "A Friend of Dr. Johnson and Sir Joshua Reynolds". Eight Friends of the Great. London: Constable. pp. 14–34.
- ↑ "The Correspondence of Edmund Burke", volume VII, January 1792-August 1794, p.74
- ↑ "Samuel Johnson, A Biography", by Peter Martin, Published by Weidenfeld and Nicholson, Ltd, London, 2008, p.500
- ↑ "The Life of Thomas Coutts, Banker", by Ernest Hartley Coleridge, published by John Lane, 1920
- ↑ "Letter from Abraham Pelling setting down, at Evan Nepean's request, his thoughts on the fragility of French defences on the Channel coast", 20 May 1793, folio 395, Reference HO 42/25/166, National Archives
- ↑ "Philip Metcalfe, Esq, late of Hill street, Berkeley Square, London" (Obituary), The Gentlemans's Magazine, from July to December 1818, p. 379.
Notes
- The Early Journals and Letters of Fanny Burney, Volume V, 1782-3.
- Life of Samuel Johnson, Volume 4 by James Boswell.
- Eight Friends of the Great, by William Prideaux Courtney, published by London Constable and Company, 1910.
- The Three Mills, Brombley by Bow, Tide Mills, part three, by E.M Gardner with a foreword from Godfrey Nicholson, MP, 13 March 1957.
- The Three Mills distillery in the Georgian era, by Keith Fairclough, published by River Lea Tidal Mill Trust Ltd.
- Philip Metcalfe (1733 - 1818), the MP and industrialist who built the Clock Mill, by Keith Fairclough.
External links
- History of Parliament: Philip Metcalfe
- Papers concerning the Sir Joshua Reynolds estate:
| Parliament of Great Britain | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by Sir George Osborn, Bt James Crauford |
Member of Parliament for Horsham 1784 – 1790 With: Jeremiah Crutchley |
Succeeded by Timothy Shelley Wilson Braddyll |
| Preceded by John Stephenson John Pardoe |
Member of Parliament for Plympton Erle 1790 – 1796 With: The Earl of Carhampton 1790–1794 William Manning 1794–1796 |
Succeeded by William Adams William Mitchell |
| Preceded by Samuel Smith Peter Isaac Thellusson |
Member of Parliament for Malmesbury 1796 – 1801 With: Peter Isaac Thellusson |
Succeeded by Parliament of the United Kingdom |
| Parliament of the United Kingdom | ||
| Preceded by Parliament of Great Britain |
Member of Parliament for Malmesbury 1801 – 1802 With: Peter Isaac Thellusson |
Succeeded by Claude Scott Samuel Scott |
|