Landseer, Mrs

CRABB ROBINSON DIARY 25.5.1820 Mrs Lanseer, mother of the artist - radical views

                                                  12.6.1827 "the late Mrs Lanseer was a firm believer and Unitarian Christian"

I could find no trace of the death of Mrs Ann Landseer but she seems to have been the person Crabb Robinson was referring to (see below for details). In noting her Christian beliefs Robinson was defending her against those who confounded her radical views with disbelief. He could not have meant John Landseer's wife Jane nee Potts who lived till 1840

AMENDMENTS TO OXFORD DNB John Landseer 1761x1769-1852 Thomas Landseer 1793/4-1880

Thomas Landseer married Ann Castle at Holborn St Andrew 23.7.1765 witnesses John & Sarah Howard. John Landseer born 23.1.1765 bapt 3.2.1765 St James Piccadilly son of Thomas and Ann, Thomas Landseer bapt 1.1.1767 St Andrew Holborn son of Thomas & Ann of Red Lion Street, Henry Landseer born 4.1.1769 bapt 22.1.1769 St Pancras son of Thomas & Ann, Peter Landseer born 12.3.1771 bapt 31.3.1771 St Pancras son of Thomas & Ann, buried 4.9.1771 St Anne Soho child from Pancras. A Thomas Landseer died at sea on the privateer Terrible about 1780, his will dated 11.3.1779 proved London Consistory Court 3.1.1781 by his widow Ann of St Pancras. Though I found no reference to it in the newspapers, which mentioned many of the prizes of the privateer Terrible, the ship may have suffered a disaster as the wills of its Captain, Samuel Ayres, of its Captain of Marines John Tolson, and of one of its mariners John Niles were all proved PCC 1781. There was also an Ann Landseer adult buried 29.11.1798 St Marylebone and a Thomas Landseer adult buried St Marylebone 12.4.1802, these could have been John Landseer's parents or his siblings. Landseer was a very uncommon name in England at the time, though there had been a John & Jane Landseer married in London in 1732, his trade a cutler, and buried 1752 and 1758 at Holborn, of Dean St, Fetter Lane. The idea that John Landseer was born in Lincoln was probably a reading error for London. In the 1851 census John Landseer's age was given as 88, in his burial record 6.3.1852 at St James Pancras it was given as 89, and in the Daily News of 2.3.1852 and the Examiner of 6.3.1852 he was said to have died in his 90th year. All these sources agree exactly with his date of birth in the parish register. In the Literary Gazette of 13.3.1852 he was said to have been born in London in 1761, in the Art Journal of April "upwards of ninety years" and in the Gentlemans Magazine of May "born in Lincoln in 1761". Further evidence in favour of the 1765 parish register entry being his comes from the life of his brother Henry Landseer. Not mentioned in many art dictionaries, he was said in Thieme-Becker and Benezit to have been John Landseer's brother. He appeared in Wakefield's 1790 directory as Henry Landseer copperplate printer 51 Upper Marylebone St, and in Holden's 1805 directory residential section as Henry Landseer, North End Fulham. The records of the masonic Apollo Lodge of Harmony in Carnaby Market circa 1805 gave his age as 37 having become a mason on 12.2.1802 and his profession as engraver of Duke St. In the Bury & Norwich Post of 11.7.1821 was an advert for the sale of the lease of a farm in Sible Hedingham, Essex called Sparrows "in the occupation of Mr Henry Landseer, who has spared no expence during the last 5 years in the improvement of the Farm". Henry Landseer paid Land Tax in 1822 and 1824 on premises in Upper Conway St, St Pancras, an address from which both he and his more celebrated nephews and niece exhibited at the British Institution during those years. On 25.9.1825 at St Matthew Bethnal Green Henry Landseer bach of St Pancras married Lucy Barker sp otp witnesses George & Julia Maddox and the following year his exhibit at the British Institution gave a different address from his relatives  His son Albert Henry Landseer was born 10.2.1829 and bapt 15.3.1830 at St George Bloomsbury of Henry and Lucy Landseer, artist of Hart St Bloomsbury. Albert Henry became a merchant in Australia. The Morning Chronicle of 15.4.1833 advertised  Anatomical Studies from drawings by the late John Flaxman engraved by Henry Landseer. He was buried at St George Hanover Sq on 27.7.1833 age 65 from Elizabeth Street. His death appears to have passed unnoticed by newspapers and periodicals. The age at death is one year greater than the baptism record would suggest.

The ODNB article on Thomas Landseer says "the identity of his wife remains entirely unknown". Thomas Landseer = Cudham, Kent 1.9.1825 Belinda Harriet Amelia Pocock. She was the second natural daughter of Luke Pocock, Captain in service of East India Company army 1779, of Ashmore House, Leaves Green, Cudham, Kent. In his will PCC 14.12.1829 dated 23.2.1829 he listed his five natural daughters, who all had three first names, referred to Beinda Harriet Amelia as "now Mrs Thomas Landseer" and mentioned his "first wife" Mary Pocock. The two youngest daughters were baptised at St Martin in the Fields 14.1.1810 as daughters of Luke & Mary Pocock. See Caledonian Mercury 5.9.1829 for the crim con trial which never happened (referring to a full report including correspondence but with initials only in The Age) and Morning Chronicle 14.5.1831 for the libel case against L W Robinson the self proclaimed co-respondent. The court awarded damages against Robinson so it's quite possible his claim to have had "criminal intercourse" with Mrs Landseer was indeed false. It's also possible of course that the Landseers organised an elaborate cover-up which the court upheld. The fact that Pocock's daughters were all illegitimate would probably have added to the public expectation that their behaviour was likely to be "indiscreet". Haydon's diary entry was made in 1829 long before the libel case.