A Yorkshire Tale

When something tugs on the personal heart strings it's very hard not to get carried away with imagining narratives of the past... Our new collection of Yorkshire landscapes 1833–34 are meticulously initalled R.J.B. and so this week we embarked on a determined mission of identification. Once in the collection of great bibliophile C. Robert Bignold, the 'B' suggested perhaps Bignold—but this red herring was duly overturned when we spotted that one of the (numerous) works was actually signed, 'R.J. Blesard'. Not a common name, so I thought we were on the home straight.... Many hours later, I had learned that Blesard was the name of a prominent Quaker family from the Guiseley area of Leeds, and I had unearthed a Robert John Blesard (1809–1839), Gentleman, residing at 18 Blenheim Terrace, Woodhouse (now part of the University of Leeds campus).

If this is indeed our man, the pictures tell a story of the profits of Victorian industry in the North and also their associated cultural and charitable life. Robert was a member of the Leeds Philosophical and Literary Society and his father, a woollen merchant, donated to the Yorkshire Institution for the Deaf and the Dumb. His mother, Susannah, who well-outlived her husband and four of her five children, including Robert, has a carved stone memorial at St Mark's Church in Woodhouse, in recoginition of the bequest in her will that an 'annual sum of money should be distributed at Christmas / to the poor of the district and of Guiseley her native Parish'. Incidently, I also learnt about a paternal relation of Robert, a Robert Arthington (1823–1900)—another notable Yorkshire Quaker name—known (erroneously) as the Headingley Miser. A millionaire recluse, he lived the gloomy life of a pauper, giving away his fortune to charitable causes. Headingley and Woodhouse were the red-brick haunts of my youth in Leeds, and only now, from afar, do I appreciate the insistent Victorian history of the place.

The paintings themselves are a charming evocation of the sublime Yorkshire landscape, in the vein of the late 18th century antiquaries and of course, the Romantic visions of Turner. Poignantly, Robert John Blesard died of consumption aged just thirty, and his talents as a draughtsman apparently stayed undiscovered, remaining a work of private endeavour.

Images:

1) R.J. Blesard, Aysgarth Force

2) R.J. Blesard, Gateway to St Agatha's Abbey, Easby

3) After J.M.W. Turner, Aysgarth Force

4) 18, Blenheim Terrace, Woodhouse, Leeds

5) Susannah Blesard Memorial, 1856, in St Mark's Church, Woodhouse, Leeds

6) Robert Arthington (1823–1900), The Headingley Miser