John Scandrett Harford | |
|---|---|
 John Scandrett Harford, portrait after Sir Thomas Lawrence | |
| Born | (1785-10-08)8 October 1785 |
| Died | 16 April 1866(1866-04-16) (aged 80) Blaise Castle, Bristol |
John Scandrett Harford,FRS (8 October 1785 – 16 April 1866) was a British banker, benefactor and abolitionist.
Harford was the son of John Scandrett Harford, a prominent banker inBristol. By the end of the 18th century the elder John Scandrett Harford was a wealthy landowner, and a staunchQuaker. He married Mary Gray, daughter of Abraham Gray ofTottenham.[1]
John Scandrett Harford the younger had a Quaker upbringing, but in 1809 was baptised in theChurch of England, atChelwood.[1][2] He had schooling underCharles Lloyd at Peterley House,Great Missenden.[2] He was admitted toChrist's College, Cambridge in 1820, and was there for a number of terms.[1] He was anabolitionist and friend ofWilliam Wilberforce.[3][4]
The Harford properties included theBlaise Castle Estate atHenbury. This had belonged to Thomas Farr, who went bankrupt in 1778 following outbreak of theAmerican Revolutionary War. The estate then changed hands a number of times before John Harford the elder purchased the land and buildings.[5] John Harford the Elder had a plain but substantial house built and asked the landscape architectHumphry Repton to lay out the grounds. Repton became a partner ofJohn Nash, whom Harford commissioned to design a group of cottages,Blaise Hamlet, as homes for his retired servants.
Nash created sketches of the cottages, whichGeorge Repton built.[6]Diamond Cottage is an example of the extremely picturesque style of the cottages.[7]
In 1819, Harford also acquired the Peterwell estate atLampeter, making the purchase jointly with his younger brothers. It was previously owned by his father-in-law,Richard Hart Davis, who had built c.1812 a house within its bounds. The estate descended to his nephew John Battersby Harford, who remodelled the house in the Italianate style in 1859 asFalcondale.
John Harford the Elder was a patron ofHannah More's schools in Somerset in the 1790s.[5]Maria Edgeworth claimed that the main character in More's popular novelCoelebs in Search of a Wife was modeled on the younger Harford.[8]
In spring 1820, Harford metThomas Burgess, the bishop ofSt Davids, at the home ofHenry Ryder, the bishop of Gloucester. Burgess mentioned his 'projected college for clerical education in South Wales,' although at this time 'he did not appear to be sanguine in the hope of speedily realising the plan.' Harford knew that a college atLampeter 'would tend to civilise and improve the vicinity.'[9] In the autumn of 1820, Harford offered to donate to Burgess the site of Lampeter Castle, 'Castle Field' or 'Cae Castell' in Welsh, which, asLords of the Manor of Lampeter, he and his brothers now owned. As such, it is on land donated by Harford that the Lampeter campus of theUniversity of Wales Trinity Saint David (formerlySt David's College) now stands. A bust of Harford is in the collection of the University. Two halls of residence at the university, Harford I and Harford II, are also named after him.
Harford was appointedHigh Sheriff of Cardiganshire for 1825–26.[10]
He was also a moderately successful artist, and his oil paintings can often be found atauctions in the UK. He was elected aFellow of the Royal Society in 1823, and was the founding President of what is now theRoyal West of England Academy (then the Bristol Academy of Fine Arts) from its inception in 1844 until 1859. In later life he went blind, and he died at Blaise Castle in 1866.[11]
Harford in 1812 married Louisa, the daughter ofRichard Hart Davis. He died without children at Blaise Castle, his heir being John Battersby Harford, a nephew.[2]
Correspondence, journals and personal papers of John Scandrett Harford and the Harford family are held byBristol Archives (Ref. 28048) (online catalogue). Additional correspondence including letters sent byWilliam Wilberforce to Harford is held byDuke University: William R Perkin Library.[12] There also records of the Peterwell and Falcondale estates of the Harford family at the National Library of Wales.[13]
