The family history of a portrait: John Fenton by Clare Griffiths

Portrait of John Fenton, c.1715 © Newcastle-Under-Lyme Borough Museum and Art Gallery

Portrait of John Fenton, c.1715 © Newcastle-Under-Lyme Borough Museum and Art Gallery

As a local history museum we were quite excited when the portrait of John Fenton first arrived at our venue in 2012. The owner was exceptionally keen that we should acquire him for our collection and kindly left the portrait in our care for consideration.

On first glance it was a pretty average 18th century portrait of a man in a wig. There was nothing particularly distinctive about how he was painted: he was not painted by a famous artist and he wasn’t particularly famous in his home town of Newcastle-under-Lyme. However, ‘he’ was an exciting find for the museum and art gallery and became affectionately referred to as ‘John’ in the office.

Our fine art collection consists of around 500 pieces, mostly of local scenes or artworks produced by local artists, but we find portraiture particularly difficult to collect holding just 16 painted portraits in total. This is likely to be because many local portraits are kept in the family or nobody remembers who they are.

We have not come across a painted portrait of any local people for many years, which is why this was such an important acquisition for us.

Another exciting aspect was that, of the two other 18th century portraits we owned, a well know poet of his day Elijah Fenton (1683-1730) was one of them. The thought that we could have another family member was a most unexpected and exciting prospect.

Like most potential acquisitions it came with very little information and it was our job to see if he was a worthwhile acquisition – did he have a significant link to Newcastle?

Old inscription on the reverse of the portrait of John Fenton, c.1715 © Newcastle-Under-Lyme Borough Museum and Art Gallery

Old inscription on the reverse of the portrait of John Fenton, c.1715 © Newcastle-Under-Lyme Borough Museum and Art Gallery

According to the original auction catalogue and a small scrap of paper, which had been on the back of the painting, he was, ‘John Fenton died 1746’. The owner believed it was painted in c.1730. However, when we applied to the Victoria and Albert Museum Purchase Fund, the panel offered their opinion that, due to the style of his clothing and wig, the portrait was likely to have been painted in around 1715. The owner also supplied a family tree for part of the Fenton family but, oddly, a different John Fenton (his son who had died in 1743) had been mentioned.

Our first concern was whether the ‘John Fenton died 1746’ scrap of paper was, in fact, a true record. It had been applied after his death so how could we be sure that that the person who applied it had the right ‘John’?

As anyone who has attempted a family history will know we were also faced with a familiar problem – the name ‘John’ had been passed down from father to son.

One thing that we knew was that, as he was born in 1665 that would make him around 50 years old in the portrait. But the portrait shows a younger man. Could this then be his 20-30 year old son highlighted on the family tree?

For us, John Fenton (1665-1746) would be a more exciting prospect, although the family was well known in the local area.

His father was a coroner for the county of Staffordshire and John would have been born in the family home of Shelton Old Hall, in the neighbouring town of Stoke on Trent.

Shelton Old Hall, birthplace of poet Elijah Fenton © Newcastle-Under-Lyme Borough Museum and Art Gallery

Shelton Old Hall, birthplace of poet Elijah Fenton © Newcastle-Under-Lyme Borough Museum and Art Gallery

Through his marriage to Elizabeth Bagnall he became the owner of a large estate, known as Fenton Park, in Stoke on Trent. He built a large house on Newcastle’s High Street called ‘Steps House’ in 1702. We like to think that this portrait was painted to hang in the house in Newcastle and the artist was using artistic licence to somewhat flatter his subject – but we can’t be sure.

The next thing to consider was – how had the portrait ended up in Doddlespool Hall, near Betley, the former home of the Fletcher-Twemlows?

Given the locality of Newcastle to Betley it was highly probable that it had passed through family members who would have been on a similar social standing to the Fentons.

Several family portraits, including other members of the Fenton family, made a family connection more certain and we have to hope that they were correctly labelled by a family member.

We managed to establish that the painting probably travelled to Betley after 1814 when Elizabeth Fletcher (John Fenton’s great, great granddaughter) married Francis Twemlow and went to live in Betley Court, another manor house in the village of Betley. The Fletcher-Twemlows became owners of Doddlespool Hall in 1873.

We also know that a portrait of Elijah Fenton was donated to the museum and art gallery by Captain Fletcher-Twemlow in 1943.

As you can see, we didn’t acquire the portrait of John Fenton for its artistic merits; we wanted it because of the family history.

I don’t feel the mystery of John Fenton has been entirely solved but, even if we have Elijah’s brother or nephew, he is a welcome addition to our portrait collection.

Portrait of John Fenton, c.1715 © Newcastle-Under-Lyme Borough Museum and Art Gallery

Portrait of John Fenton, c.1715 © Newcastle-Under-Lyme Borough Museum and Art Gallery

Comments

  • William Fenton
    September 19, 2019 | Permalink | Reply to this comment

    I am so glad to see a portrait of my ancestor (I am descended from Elijah’s brother and we have his snuffbox!) and so glad you acquired it (though slightly sad I didn’t get a chance to purchase it). We have a small collection of early 19th Century Fentons handed down to us if you would ever like to see some images.
    We also have pictures of Shelton Old Hall and books on Elijah.
    Best wishes
    Dr William Fenton

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