Author: Papworth, John Buonarotti
Biography:
PAPWORTH, John Buonarotti (1775-1847: ODNB)
Papworth was born in Marylebone, London, on 24 Jan. 1775, the second of the six sons of John Papworth (1750-1799) and his wife, Charlotte Searle (d 1795). Having worked under builders, upholsterers, and architects, he entered the Royal Academy Schools in 1798. He exhibited at the Royal Academy from 1794 to 1841. Between 1799 and 1800, he lived first at 30 Great Portland Street and then at 11 George Street, Adelphi; from 1802 to 1816 his address was 6 Bath Place, New Road; and, from 1821 to his retirement in 1847, 10 Caroline Street, Bedford Square. At St Paul, Covent Garden, on 20 Jan. 1801, he married his first wife, Jane Harrison Wapshott (1771-1806), who was the daughter of one of his employers. Their only child, Anne Saintey (b 1802), did not survive infancy. His second wife, Mary Anne Say (1794-1837), whom he married at St Pancras on 8 Aug. 1817, was a daughter of mezzotint engraver William Say (d 1834). They had three children: John Woody (1820-1870); Wyatt Angelicus van Sandau (1822-1894); and Julia Mary Ann (1823-1905). His two sons, his brother George (1781-1855), and his nephews Edgar George (1809-1866) and John Thomas (1809-1841), are the subject of entries in the ODNB. Papworth was a busy and influential architect and town planner responsible for large developments in London. Notably, he changed the urban landscape by transitioning storefront windows from multiple to single panes of glass. He was a designer as well of furniture, glassware, and floor tiles A cofounder of the Royal Institute of Architects and the Graphic Society, in 1836 he directed the School of Design at Somerset House. On 16 Aug. 1813, Ackermann published Poetical Sketches of Scarborough, a collection of poetry and drawings in which Papworth collaborated. It received a mostly positive review in MR (1813), 72-79. In addition to technical books, under the initials “I.B.P.” he published fugitive poems in The Repository of Arts (1816, 1817. As “J.B.P.,” he published poems in The Rural Repository (1827) and The Literary Garland (1843). Shortly after his retirement in 1847, he moved from London, and died on 16 June of that year at Park End, St Neot’s. In 1879, Wyatt Papworth published a Life and Works of his father. (ODNB 29 Apr. 2023; freereg.org 29 Apr. 2023; ancestry.com 29 Apr. 2023) JC
Other Names:
- J. P.
- J. B. Papworth