Henry Pelham American

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 painter

Painting

Painting is the practice of applying paint, pigment, color or other medium to a surface . The application of the medium is commonly applied to the base with a brush but other objects can be used. In art, the term painting describes both the act and the result of the action. However, painting is...

, engrave

Engraving

Engraving is the practice of incising a design on to a hard, usually flat surface, by cutting grooves into it. The result may be a decorated object in itself, as when silver, gold, steel, or glass are engraved, or may provide an intaglio printing plate, of copper or another metal, for printing...

r, and cartographer, was born in Boston, where his father, Peter Pelham

Peter Pelham

Peter Pelham , American limner and engraver, was born in England, a son of a man named "gentleman" in his will. His father, who died in Chichester, Sussex, in 1756, is revealed in letters to his son in America as a man of some property.-London:Pelham was one of several London artists who learned...

, limner

Limner

A limner is an illuminator of manuscripts, or more generally, a painter of ornamental decoration. One of the earliest mentions of a limner's work is found in the book Methods and Materials of Painting by Charles Lock Eastlake .-Scotland:...

, engraver, and schoolmaster

Schoolmaster

A schoolmaster, or simply master, once referred to a male school teacher. This usage survives in British public schools, but is generally obsolete elsewhere.The teacher in charge of a school is the headmaster...

, had married Mary (Singleton) Copley, widow of Richard Copley and mother of John Singleton Copley

John Singleton Copley

John Singleton Copley was an American painter, born presumably in Boston, Massachusetts, and a son of Richard and Mary Singleton Copley, both Irish. He is famous for his portrait paintings of important figures in colonial New England, depicting in particular middle-class subjects...

. His father died in 1751. A small little tobacco

Tobacco

Tobacco is an agricultural product processed from the leaves of plants in the genus Nicotiana. It can be consumed, used as a pesticide and, in the form of nicotine tartrate, used in some medicines...

 shop run by his mother provided support for the family until Copley brought prosperity to them all through his portrait painting. Their home was in Lindall Street, at the present-day intersection of Exchange Place and Congress Street

Congress Street (Boston)

Congress Street in Boston, Massachusetts is located in the Financial District and South Boston. It was first named in 1800. It was extended in 1854 as far as Atlantic Avenue, and in 1874 across Fort Point Channel into South Boston...

. From there Henry attended the Boston Latin School

Boston Latin School

The Boston Latin School is a public exam school founded on April 23, 1635, in Boston, Massachusetts. It is both the first public school and oldest existing school in the United States....

. He is assumed to have studied drawing and painting with his half-brother. It was a likeness of Henry Pelham, then aged ten or eleven, that featured in The Boy with the Squirrel, a painting that was exhibited in London

London

London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...

 in 1766 and brought Copley his first fame abroad.

Henry Pelham's many letters reveal a naïve, boyish young man, devoted to his mother and half-brother, an efficient assistant to the latter in practical affairs. He himself painted miniatures at this time, several of which are preserved. They reveal admirable workmanship. A much more virulent Loyalist

Loyalist (American Revolution)

Loyalists were American colonists who remained loyal to the Kingdom of Great Britain during the American Revolutionary War. At the time they were often called Tories, Royalists, or King's Men. They were opposed by the Patriots, those who supported the revolution...

 than Copley, he expressed himself vigorously against his neighbors, whom he held to be misguided and rebellious. In the winter of 1775, while making a journey on horseback to Philadelphia, a mob attacked him at Springfield, Massachusetts

Springfield, Massachusetts

Springfield is the most populous city in Western New England, and the seat of Hampden County, Massachusetts, United States. Springfield sits on the eastern bank of the Connecticut River near its confluence with three rivers; the western Westfield River, the eastern Chicopee River, and the eastern...

, as one of "a damn'd pack of Torys." His sketch of the redoubts on Bunker Hill

Bunker Hill

Bunker Hill may refer to:* A hill in Charlestown, Massachusetts** Battle of Bunker Hill, a battle American Revolutionary War fought near the hill in Charlestown, Massachusetts** Several American ships named after the Battle of Bunker Hill, including:...

 is reproduced with the Copley-Pelham letters. His Plan of Boston was engraved in aquatint

Aquatint

Aquatint is an intaglio printmaking technique, a variant of etching.Intaglio printmaking makes marks on the matrix that are capable of holding ink. The inked plate is passed through a printing press together with a sheet of paper, resulting in a transfer of the ink to the paper...

 in London in 1777. His illuminating letters shed important light on events of the American Revolution

American Revolution

The American Revolution was the political upheaval during the last half of the 18th century in which thirteen colonies in North America joined together to break free from the British Empire, combining to become the United States of America...

.

Pelham left Boston with other Loyalists in August 1776. Having arrived in London, where the Copleys were settled, he supported himself by teaching drawing, perspective, geography, and astronomy. In 1777 he contributed to the Royal Academy

Royal Academy

The Royal Academy of Arts is an art institution based in Burlington House on Piccadilly, London. The Royal Academy of Arts has a unique position in being an independent, privately funded institution led by eminent artists and architects whose purpose is to promote the creation, enjoyment and...

 The Finding of Moses, which was engraved by W. Ward in 1787. The following year he exhibited some enamels and miniatures. Having married Catherine Butler, daughter of William Butler of Castle Crine, County Clare

County Clare

-History:There was a Neolithic civilisation in the Clare area — the name of the peoples is unknown, but the Prehistoric peoples left evidence behind in the form of ancient dolmen; single-chamber megalithic tombs, usually consisting of three or more upright stones...

, Ireland

Ireland

Ireland is an island to the northwest of continental Europe. It is the third-largest island in Europe and the twentieth-largest island on Earth...

, Pelham went to Ireland. His wife, however, died while bearing twin sons, Peter and William, and the father returned with them to London. He and Copley shared in the estate of their mother, who died in Boston on April 29, 1789. Soon after this Pelham was named agent for Lord Lansdowne

William Petty, 2nd Earl of Shelburne

William Petty-FitzMaurice, 1st Marquess of Lansdowne, KG, PC , known as The Earl of Shelburne between 1761 and 1784, by which title he is generally known to history, was an Irish-born British Whig statesman who was the first Home Secretary in 1782 and then Prime Minister 1782–1783 during the final...

's Irish estates, a work which he followed with energy and ability. He was a civil engineer and cartographer, and his county and baronial maps are important documents of Irish history. He was drowned from a boat while superintending the erection of a martello tower

Martello tower

Martello towers are small defensive forts built in several countries of the British Empire during the 19th century, from the time of the Napoleonic Wars onwards....

 in the River Kenmare

Kenmare

Kenmare is a small town in the south of County Kerry, Ireland. The name Kenmare is the anglicised form of Ceann Mara meaning "head of the sea", referring to the head of Kenmare Bay.-Location:...

.