Monument To Thomas Stothard, South Enclosure

635-1/0/10282 BUNHILL FIELDS BURIAL GROUND 21-FEB-11 Monument to Thomas Stothard, South enc losure

GV II Headstone of Thomas Stothard, c.1834

LOCATION: 532702.7, 182218.2

MATERIALS: Portland stone

DESCRIPTION: The monument takes the form of an upright stone slab with a pointed arched top. The inscription commemorates Stothard, his wife Rebecca and two members of her family, Walter and Elizabeth Watkins.

HISTORY: Thomas Stothard (1755-1834) was a painter and graphic artist, best remembered as the most prolific book illustrator of his day. Born the son of an innkeeper in Covent Garden, London, he initially trained as a silk pattern designer before enrolling at the Royal Academy Schools in 1777. During his long career he produced many thousands of works in a range of styles and media, from greetings cards and designs for Wedgwood pottery to large historical works in oils. The latter, for which he made a great reputation in his own lifetime, included a famous depiction of Chaucer's pilgrims that remains his best-known work. His book projects included a series of plates, produced in collaboration with JMW Turner, for Samuel Rogers' poem 'Italy', as well as illustrations for editions of Shakespeare and Boccaccio. From 1812 until his death he was librarian at the Royal Academy, and carried out research for an unpublished biographical dictionary of painters.

Bunhill Fields was first enclosed as a burial ground in 1665. Thanks to its location just outside the City boundary, and its independence from any Established place of worship, it became London's principal Nonconformist cemetery, the burial place of John Bunyan, Daniel Defoe, William Blake and other leading religious and intellectual figures. It was closed for burials in 1853, laid out as a public park in 1867, and re-landscaped following war damage by Bridgewater and Shepheard in 1964-5.

SOURCES: Corporation of London, A History of the Bunhill Fields Burial Ground (1902). A W Light, Bunhill Fields, vol. II (London, 1933). M G Sullivan, entry on Stothard in The Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, www.oxforddnb.com (retrieved on 9 June 2009).

REASONS FOR DESIGNATION: The monument to Thomas Stothard is listed at Grade II for the following principal reasons: * It commemorates a man who was one of the best known painters and book illustrators of his day. * It is located within the Grade I registered Bunhill Fields Burial Ground (q.v.), and has group value with the other listed tombs in the south enclosure.