Samuel BATEMAN - Landscape Artist

[supermoussi]

I posted the following topic on the Oxon board regarding an artist called Samuel BATEMAN who seems to have lived and painted a lot of oil landscapes in the Henley on Thames area but with no responses yet.

http://www.rootschat.com/forum/index.php/topic,429599.0.html

IF I have got the right chap I believe he was born in 1849 in Hoxton, London (the son of a carpenter called Richard Harris BATEMAN) and also lived there on and off (1871, 1901 and 1911).

I would like to confirm that I have got the right guy so would appreciate any extra info on the artist like Artist Biographies, etc so that I can confirm his parents, whether he had any children, etc.

Thanks

[Valda]

Hi

The 1881 census can be searched on occupation. Searching on Samuel Bateman artist only one entry comes up which narrows the field of possibles just to him.

1881 RG11 2719 folio 63
62 Bucknall New Road Stoke on Trent
Samuel Bateman 31 Lodger Unmarried Artist Oxton Middlesex

and he states on the 1891 census he was a landscape artist and living in the Henley area

RG12 1157 folio 40
3 Southplace Rotherfield Greys Oxfordshire
Richard H Bateman 68 Head Widower Joiner Astel Oxfordshire
Samuel Bateman 41  Son Single Landscape in oil etc Hoxton London

if you have him on all censuses up to 1911 unmarried it is unlikely he did marry and or have children, though his younger brother Charles did.

1861 census RG9 3636 folio
Upsale Yorkshire
Richard H Bateman 33 Head Widower Carpenter joiner Astele Oxfordshire
Samuel Bateman 11 Son London Middlesex
Charles Bateman 8 Son London Middlesex


He's not mentioned in the Artists' papers register

http://www.aah.org.uk/page/2765

If you know when he died (is he the death registered in 1927 in Headington registration district?) it might be worth looking for an obituary for him in local newspapers.


Regards


Valda

[supermoussi]

Thanks Valda,

The thing I was most doubtful about was whether I had picked up on the wrong "Samuel Bateman" as he seems to have had a radical career switch. I was tracing down from a Richard HARRIS who had the following illegitimate child:-

Bapt. -  Asthall, Oxon - 3 Jan 1822 - Richard Harris BATEMAN illeg s. of Richard HARRIS & Elizabeth BATEMAN

Both Richard HARRIS and his son Richard Harris BATEMAN were carpenters and in 1871 it seems as if Samuel was following in their footsteps but then he appears to have given it up and become an oil painter.

If I have got things right Samuel appears on the censuses as follows:-

1851 - 1 Whitmore Row, St Leonards Shoreditch, London - 18 months
1861 - Upsale, Yorks - 11
1871 - 236 Portobello Rd, Kensington, London - CARPENTER - 21
1881 - 62 Bucknall New Road, Stoke Upon Trent, Staffs - Artist (Painter) - 31
1891 - 3 Southplace, Rotherfield Greys, Oxon - Artist - Landscape in Oil - 41
1901 - 3 Addington St, Lambeth, London - Artist - 51
1911 - 77 Leipsic Road, Camberwell, London - Scenic Artist - 61

The abrupt career change makes me wonder whether I started tracing one Samuel BATEMAN up to 1871 but then got him confused with another one from 1881 onwards. What do you think? Is this definitely the same guy or have I got two different Samuels confused?

Also, as he seems to have been lodging with two young London actresses in Staffordshire in 1881 I wouldn't rule out the possibility of him having an illegitimate child or two of his own..

I guess the best way really to confirm the links is to try to find wills at the Nat Probate Office for Richard Harris BATEMAN d1900, and his two sons Samuel d1927 & Charles d1924.

[Valda]

Hi

The 1891 census clearly places him with his father and as a landscape artist. The earlier censuses don't necessarily mean he wasn't painting just he wasn't able to make a living from it and he was trained by his father as a carpenter (only 21 in 1871). Because of his working class origins he is less likely to have obtained the sort of artist training or acceptance other artists did and that's probably why there is so little on him. It also might account for why he never married since he wasn't able to support a family from painting and may have been subsidised much of his life by his widowed father and scraped by after his death.

On the principle that any man could have had affairs married or not (as could married women) as an increasing use of DNA testing for genealogy purposes has shown, yes he could have done, but the censuses show no evidence of him having any settled domestic arrangements, though a wife could have come and gone between censuses.


Regards

Valda

[supermoussi]

Thanks Valda for your second opinion.

I guess if he had been involved in stage carpentry and he had to start painting some of the scenery he may have got into it that way.