John Proctor Anderdon

John Proctor Anderdon (1760–1846) was an English merchant, banker, slave-owner, and art collector. He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1811.[1][2]

Life

He was the son of Ferdinando Anderdon and his wife Mary Hobart, and grandson of Dr. John Anderdon of Bridgwater, Somerset and his wife Mary Proctor.[3] He became a merchant in London, and a partner with William Manning in Manning & Anderdon, in 1794.[1] He brought into that partnership Charles Bosanquet, with whom he was already in business. Bosanquet left in 1810.[4] Anderdon retired in 1816.[1]

Anderdon owned Henlade Hall in Somerset from 1805,[5] and Beech House in Hampshire from 1816.[6] In the 1812 general election, he stood for the two-member with George Francis Seymour in a sharp contest; but they were kept out by Thomas Peregrine Courtenay and Ayshford Wise.[7] In Hampshire he was a philanthropist, helping to build school rooms.[8]

During the 1830s Anderdon was an occupant of Farley Hall, Swallowfield.[9] In the wake of the Slavery Abolition Act 1833, he was paid compensation for the enslaved people on his Seaforths estate in Antigua.[1]

Collector

Illustration to The Fine Arts of the English School (1811), with dedication to John Proctor Anderdon

Charity by Andrea del Sarto, purchased in 1827 by John Proctor Anderdon, now in the National Gallery of Art

At the time of Anderdon's death, The Art Journal wrote of his collection that it "has for the last forty years been an object of interest to many amateurs and connoisseurs", had been seen also at his London house as well as his Berkshire residence, and had been noticed by George IV.[10] A detailed description of his pictures in Beech House was published in 1818, in The Beauties of England and Wales.[11]

In 1827, Anderdon bought Charity by Andrea del Sarto, from Prince Rospigliosi of Rome.[12]

Anderdon's art collection was dispersed, put on sale under the terms of his will.[1] There was a first sale in 1847: recorded sales include an Aelbert Cuyp and a Guercino.[13][14] A second, smaller sale took place in 1851, mostly of works by Italian masters.[15] A William Collins painting of children on a beach at Cromer, bought in 1836, passed to his son James Hughes Anderdon.[16]

Anderson's library was also sold, in 1847.[17] It included a manuscript of letters by Anna Maria van Schurman to André Rivet and Constantijn Huygens, from the library of Jona Willem te Water, that was bought by Richard Heber.[18]

Family

Anderson married firstly, in 1785, Anne Oliver, daughter of Thomas Oliver.[3] Their children included:

• Thomas Oliver Anderson (1786–1856), barrister[19][20]
• James Hughes Anderdon (1790–1879)[21]
• John Lavicount Anderdon (1792–1874), third son.[22]
• Freeman Anderdon[23]
• Lucy, married Butler Claxton[23]

Anne died in 1811.[24] Anderdon married secondly, in 1812, Mary Hannah Casamajor, daughter of the merchant Justinian Casamajor (1746–1820).[25] Their children included:

• Emma Mary, married 1852 Thomas Campbell Robertson as his second wife.[26]
• Hobart Grant Anderdon, married firstly Eliza Roose, daughter of Sir David Roose, and secondly Mary Anne Parry.[26]
• William Manning Anderdon.[26]

Notes

1. "John Proctor Anderdon 1760 - 30th Nov 1846, Legacies of British Slavery". www.ucl.ac.uk.
2. Thomson, Thomas (19 May 2011). History of the Royal Society: From Its Institution to the End of the Eighteenth Century. Cambridge University Press. p. lxix. ISBN 978-1-108-02815-8.
3. Oliver, Vere Langford (1914). West Indian bookplates : being a first list of plates relating to those islands. London: Mitchell Hughes & Clarke. p. 2.
4. O'Shaughnessy, Andrew J. "Bosanquet, Charles (1769–1850)". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/2927. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.)
5. Barczewski, Stephanie (1 February 2017). Country houses and the British Empire, 1700–1930. Manchester University Press. p. 251. ISBN 978-1-5261-1753-3.
6. Barczewski, Stephanie (1 February 2017). Country houses and the British Empire, 1700–1930. Manchester University Press. p. 250. ISBN 978-1-5261-1753-3.
7. "Totnes 1790-1820, History of Parliament Online". www.historyofparliamentonline.org.
8. Campbell, Thomas; Hall, Samuel Carter; Lytton, Edward Bulwer Lytton Baron; Hook, Theodore Edward; Hood, Thomas; Ainsworth, William Harrison (1817). New Monthly Magazine, and Universal Register. p. 573.
9. "Slavery and the British Country House". historicengland.org.uk. p. 21.
10. The Art Journal. Virtue & Co. 1846. p. 327.
11. Britton, John; Brewer, James Norris (1818). The Beauties of England and Wales: Introduction to the original delineations, topographical, historical and descriptive. J. Harris. pp. 600–602.
12. "Cavallini to Veronese - Italian Renaissance Art". cavallinitoveronese.co.uk.
13. Graves, Algernon (1918). Art sales from early in the eighteenth century to early in the twentieth century. London: A. Graves. p. 191.
14. Graves, Algernon (1918). Art sales from early in the eighteenth century to early in the twentieth century. London: A. Graves. p. 386.
15. The Athenaeum: Journal of Literature, Science, the Fine Arts, Music and the Drama. Francis. 1851. p. 466.
16. "Woolley & Wallis Old Masters, British & European Paintings by Park Communications - Issuu". issuu.com. 13 August 2020. p. 58.
17. The Athenaeum: Journal of Literature, Science, the Fine Arts, Music and the Drama. Francis. 1847. p. 538.
18. Bohn, Henry George (1866). Catalogue of Books: pt. 1. Greek and Latin classics, with commetaries [sic] and translations. p. 843.
19. Boase, Frederic (1892). Modern English Biography: Containing Many Thousand Concise Memoirs of Persons who Have Died Since the Year 1850, with an Index of the Most Interesting Matter. Netherton and Worth, For the author. p. 59.
20. House of Lords; Bligh, Richard (1835). New Reports of Cases Heard in the House of Lords: On Appeals and Writs of Error. Saunders and Benning. p. 97.
21. "James Hughes Anderdon 1790 - 24th Jan 1879, Legacies of British Slavery". www.ucl.ac.uk.
22. Vamplew, Wray. "Anderdon, John Lavicount (1792–1874)". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/460. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.)
23. Oliver, Vere Langford (1896). The History of the Island of Antigua: One of the Leeward Caribbees in the West Indies, from the First Settlement in 1635 to the Present Time. Mitchell and Hughes. p. 346.
24. The Gentleman's Magazine and Historical Chronicle. E. Cave. 1811. p. 89.
25. "Justinian Casamajor, 9th Sep 1746 - 1820, Legacies of British Slavery". www.ucl.ac.uk.
26. Descent of the family of Casamayorga, or Casamayor, from the royal houses of Castille and Leon, compiled from the archives of the College of arms at Madrid. 1871. p. 4.