Jeffreson, William (Recent research, April 2022)

WILLIAM JEFFRESON (ca.1781-1842) PROFILIST, DRAWING MASTER AND STATIONER

 

Until recent investigation, the profilist was known solely from trade labels as “Mr. Jeffreson from London”. From information inked onto trade labels he appeared to be an itinerant artist working in Kent, Sussex, Hampshire and Devon ca.1817-1821.  Offering miniatures on ivory and profiles on paper in colours, plain black, or “bronze tinted”, his surviving body of attributable work appears mainly confined to “bronze” highlighted sitters, the best of which stand close comparison to specimens by the master of the technique, John Field.

 

Bust length portrait of man looking left by Jeffreson.  Private Collection

 

Reverse of portrait by Jeffreson, showing trade label.  Private Collection

 

PARENTS

(N/K)

 

SIBLINGS

(N/K)

 

WILLIAM JEFFRESON

Born. ca.1781. bur. 20.10.1842. Southampton.

 

BIRTH/BIRTHPLACE

Assuming Jeffreson’s age was correctly given in the 1841 Census, he was born in 1781. If he was indeed “from London”, the very rare surname is recorded in the first half of the c.18th close to The City’s periphery in Romford and South Weald, Essex, but no link to WJ has been established.

 

The cause may be that ’Jeffreson’ is too easily transcribed into ‘Jefferson’. The 1841 census for the artist’s family is a perfect case in point, as the name is recorded as ‘Jefferson’, though in the 1851 census it is spelled correctly. A similar error could account for the “omission” of WJ’s birth in a parish register.

 

MARRIAGE/SPOUSE

23.03.1813. WJ married Charlotte Lloyd (1794-1884) at Tiverton, Devon.

Charlotte was born 02.04.1794 and baptised 3 weeks later at St. James’, Piccadilly, London. Her father, Martin Allen Lloyd – occupation unknown – died aged 62 in 1831, at St. Martins-in-the-Fields workhouse.

 

At the time of the marriage, WJ was about 30 years old, Charlotte, a month shy of 17, was 2 months pregnant.

 

OFFSPRING

Between 1811-29, Charlotte gave birth to 8 children. All bar their first survived into adulthood. Early birthplaces vary, but by 1821, the family appeared settled in Southampton, Hampshire.

 

• Charlotte, born 30.10.1811, Barnstaple, Devon. bur. 18.12.1812, Stockport, Cheshire.

• William Jr, born 20.02.1813, Stamford, Lincs. bapt. 14.03.1819, Portsmouth, Hants. marr. 1837. marr. (2) 1854. bur. 13.11.1855, Southampton, Hants. Issue.

• Mary, born 05.01.1815, Portsmouth, Hants. bapt. 14.03.1819, Portsmouth, Hants. Last rec. 1851.

• Elizabeth, born 13.06.1817, Lymington, Hants. bapt. 14.03.1819, Portsmouth, Hants. Unmarried. dec. 20.02.1905, Dover, Kent.

• Jane, born 04.05.1820 Portsmouth, Hants. bapt. 14.02.1847. marr. 26.01.1854. Last rec. 1891. Issue .

• John, bapt. 02.11.1821, Southampton, Hants. marr. 1845. Emigrated 1853. dec. 02.10.1901, Victoria, Australia. Issue.

• Sarah, born 1828, Southampton, Hants. marr. 23.04.1855. dec. 17.03.1902, Dover, Kent. Issue.

• Edward, born 15.12.1829, Southampton, Hants. marr. 09.01.1855. bapt. 01.11.1860. dec. 09.10.1884, Southampton, Hants. Issue.

 

JEFFRESON’S EARLY CAREER

Mrs Nevill Jackson’s Dictionary of Silhouette (1938) mentions 4 New Street, Strand as an address on an undated portrait miniature, though research has failed to rediscover this work.

 

Sue McKechnie’s Silhouette Artists 1760-1860 (1978) suggests with regards to trade labelled works, an itinerant career fl. 1817-20. However, recent research shows WJ  “on the road” at an earlier date.

 

His 1811 marriage in Tiverton, daughter’s birth in Barnstaple, the infant’s interrment 14 months later in Stockport, Cheshire, and birth of a son in Stamford, Lincolnshire, in 1814, suggests an itinerant occupation of some description.  Yet, if WJ was a practising profilist before a known dated work of 1819, no newspaper adverts or handbills heralding visits to any town have, as far as known, come to light. 

 

Curious too, is the fact that though settled in Southampton from ca. 1821, the first of a series of newspaper advertisements promoting profiles, etc., only dates from October 1830, when WJ was 50 years old!

 

Further research offered the possibility that WJ’s travellings may have had theatrical links, as his wife – confirmed by the 1841 census – became the “esteemed Mrs. Jeffreson” recorded at various Hampshire theatres from 1822 into the 1840s. Possibly, her accomplishments came via a youthful “apprenticeship” as an unrecorded ensemble player.

 

By extension, WJ, already 30 when he married in 1811, had no credited profile work to his name till ca.1817, but had, as noted earlier, a degree of mobility to his “lifestyle”. The conjecture that he may have been involved in some (artistic?) capacity in a travelling company, possibly as a scene painter is, arguably, a valid hypothesis. Recent research has discovered that a generation earlier Mrs Collins and Mrs Hudson were offering profiles in theatres where their husbands were performing on stage.

 

MRS JEFFRESON’S THEATRICALS

Absent from the 1841 census of the profilist’s abode in Southampton was his wife Charlotte. She was located at a tailor’s in Winchester High Street with 11-year-old son Edward. Aged 45, she gave her occupation as “comedian”, as did the other lodgers, Messrs. Butler, aged 25, and Romer, aged 20, who appear often on contemporary playbills. Doubtless, Charlotte’s son was also ‘treading the boards’ as one of the company.  The Winchester Theatre was a street away from their High Street lodgings, and in October 1841, acting the nurse in Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet, Mrs. Jeffreson was described “rich in the extreme”.

 

18 years earlier, 19.04.1823, The Drama or Theatrical Pocket Magazine wrote of Sheridan’s The Rivals, playing at Southampton’s Theatre Royal “…of all the performances Mrs Malaprop by Mrs. Jeffreson was the best. This respectable lady always pleases…was…irresistible and earned peals of applause.”

 

Always favourably reviewed in various roles, she was the object of at least 9 benefits at Portsmouth, Winchester and Southampton between 1822-27.  She certainly appeared reliably versatile, as when a daughter “Miss Jeffreson from the Theatre Royal, Plymouth”, joined her in Southampton in January 1838. Playing “fair amazons executing evolutions in full military uniform” in The Invincibles, both were “enthusiastically received”.

 

JEFFRESON'S LATER CAREER

• Ca. 1817-20 undated profiles taken at Canterbury, Kent, Bognor and Midhurst, Sussex, Lymington, Hants. 

• 05.09.1819 - dated work, Midhurst, Sussex.

• 30.10.1830 – HAMPSHIRE CHRONICLE – “LESSONS IN DRAWING, Terms 1gn. per quarter.… trusting by unremitting endeavours to advance his pupils in the practice and knowledge of drawing …. highly finished miniatures, likenesses warranted from 1gn. upwards. PROFILES in colours, black, bronze, miniatures, profiles accurately copied. Specimens available to view at his apartments at Mr. Sherry’s, 1 St. George Street, Southampton”.

• 1835 – advertises as Drawing Master/Stationer.

• 24.06 and 01.07.1837 – THE HAMPSHIRE ADVERTISER –“ Mr W.JEFFRESON….” promotes his “…DRAWING ACADEMY...specimens of …various styles…” could be viewed or lent to copy from 117 High Street, Southampton.

• 1839 – Robson’s Directory. Lists William Jeffreson, Artist and Mrs. J. Jeffreson, Milliner/Dressmaker, 117 High Street – “Mrs. J. Jeffreson” was Jane Murdell, 1st wife of the profilist’s son, William Jr.

• 31.07. and 14.08.1841. – THE HAMPSHIRE ADVERTISER – “ARTISTS REPOSITORY. W. Jeffreson Teacher of Drawing...offers …every requisite for the Fine Arts … general and fancy stationery from the First London Houses … ledgers, day books, scrap books, etc.” The Drawing Academy is listed ”… open with drawings lent to copy. Schools and families attended within 20 miles of Southampton.117 High Street Southampton” Thanks is also given for ‘ … liberal support experienced for the past 9 years...’* **

 

* ** As William Jr. (1813-55) is listed Stationer/Professor of Drawing/Printer in later directories, etc., it’s possible that he placed the above 1841 advertisement. However, mention is made of ‘… liberal support for the last 9 years’, and in 1832, William Jr. would have only been 19 years old. More probably WJ Sr. established the business which then evolved with increasing input from his namesake son. 

 

William Jr appears to have inherited talent from his father, as THE HAMPSHIRE ADVERTISER 26.04.1854 mentions “… the well-known artist and publisher…” selling a lithograph of his own work of the maiden voyage of a steamship entering The Needles from Australia, a work described as “…exquisitely lifelike and additional proof of the great talent of the artist “.

 

WORK ADDRESSES

• Prior to 1825, no Jeffreson abodes were located. However, as 3 children were born/baptised in Portsmouth ca. 1815-19, it’s probable the growing family resided in the town.

 

• “9 French Street, opposite St.Michael’s Church” close to Southampton’s Theatre Royal, is an address given in THE HAMPSHIRE ADVERTISER 07.11.1825 where “theatre tickets could be obtained of Mrs.Jeffreson”. As a son was baptised at St.Michael’s in 1821, the address was likely a family home.

 

• WJ’s “apartments” at Mr.Sherry’s, St. George Street, quoted in the HAMPSHIRE CHRONICLE October 1830 advertisement, may/may not have been a “studio” address only. However, from the mid-1830s until after WJ’s death, the family resided at 117 High Street, which was Southampton’s main commercial hub.

 

DEATH

William Jeffreson, aged 61, was buried 20.10.1842 at Holyrood Church, High Street, Southampton. Charlotte, his redoubtable wife, died in 1884, aged 91, in Dover, Kent. At the time, she was living with daughters Elizabeth and Sarah.

 

Brian Wellings © 2022