Hamlet, William, the Elder

Introduction:

In September 1785, advertising in ARIS' BIRMINGHAM GAZETTE, profilist WILLIAM HAMLET the ELDER (ca,1749-1822) enigmatically described himself "From Abroad, being the most singular artist in the Kingdom". Recent research suggests his singularity was likely due to his Afro-American or Afro-Caribbean origins.

Prolific, versatile, and best known as a Bath-based artist, Hamlet Snr crafted well-executed works on card, paper, flat and convex glass. His skills were best employed painting on glass, McKechnie rating his bust-sized works on convex glass of a "consistently high level", while full-length and conversation pieces on flat glass were judged "of fine quality". Of quality too were a great number of sitters, as royalty, nobility and gentry sat for him at various studio addresses between 1785-ca.1820.

Hamlet's ethnic roots (as evidenced by a direct descendant's DNA results) were in what is today the West African state of Togo, which in Hamlet's day formed part of what was then known solely as the 'Slave Coast'. Lucrative and long-established, the commerce in captives saw vast numbers of enslaved Africans transported from its ports to America and the West Indies.

Exactly where Hamlet or his forbears were shipped to is unknown, but linked to the research laid out below, it's probable when the yet-to-be profilist was in his early 20s, he was initially recorded as "William Hamlet, a Negro", baptised without parents or sponsors in Bath Abbey, 11th November 1772.

Ten months later, in the BATH CHRONICLE 23rd September 1773, retired Jamaica planter Thomas Gegg (1715 - ca.1777) placed an advertisement: "Went from his service the 2nd September, a BLACK MAN, who calls himself Wm Hamlet. He is well favoured, small in person, affects the beau in his gait, thinks himself of consequence and nothing is good enough for him. Tis hoped nobody will encourage him in his idleness. Any person who harbours him shall be prosecuted agreeable to law". Perceived inertia appeared to agitate Gegg, as 2 years later, in the same newspaper, he admonishes his son Thomas Gegg Jnr, for idling about in Bristol and Bath.

Possibly Hamlet was Gegg Snr's indentured servant, contracted - in Jamaica- to work for a specific period without wages, a situation often amounting to Slavery in all but name. Alternatively, as both men found proximity mutually provoking, it's likely their association was brief and arguably it's more probable Gegg engaged Hamlet in Bath.

Perhaps tellingly, Gegg's Bath-based brother James, an importer of Jamaica rum and sugar, also ran the Bath 'Register Office', an employment agency for Servants wanting Masters and Masters Servants. Either way, for breaking a legally binding contract, Hamlet, if apprehended, faced prosecution. Small wonder he then disappeared from records until his marriage in Salisbury 6 years later.

Confirmation of the profilist's African origins, and giving credence to the theory that the abovementioned William Hamlet became the artist, is recorded in the first Afro-American newspaper FREEDOMS JOURNAL 28th March 1829. It describes how British subject George Hamlet, when travelling from his New York home, was imprisoned in Norfolk, Virginia as he lacked documentation proving him a free man in the slave-owning state. Revealingly, the article continues "...the father of the individual is Mr. William HAMLET...a man of colour who is profile painter to his Britannic Majesty and...Royal Family, and his mother is a white subject of the same government". The temporarily gaoled George Hamlet (1803 - after 1850) was the son of William Hamlet Jnr (1779 - 1815). He later appears in the 1850 Federal Census, recorded as a 47-year-old English-born 'musician' and  'mulatto' - i.e. mixed race - living in Urbana, Ohio.

William Hamlet Snr is next recorded 17th April 1779 when he married Salisbury-born Elizabeth Morgan (1761-1832) at St. Thomas' in the town. Evidenced by the register, she was illiterate. Their first child, William Hamlet Jnr, was baptised in December 1780, and like his namesake father, he too became a profilist. Between 1783-1792, four further offspring: Thomas (1783-1803), Elizabeth (1788-1847), George (1788-1792) and Charles (1792-1810) were baptised at St.Thomas'.Only Elizabeth reached an appreciable age. Recorded a 'spinster' living with the family of a Salisbury stationer in the 1841 Census died in Salisburys' Union Workhouse in June 1847.

Regarding his career, in an August 1788 issue of the SALISBURY and WINCHESTER JOURNAL, Hamlet proudly described himself "...a self-taught PAINTER". Three years earlier, in June 1785, with skills sufficiently honed, he placed his first, lengthy advertisement in JACKSON'S OXFORD JOURNAL. Terms for profiles were: 3s[hillings] shaded; stained on glass 5s and Full-length 10s 6d.

Also for sale at 5s was a "Methodical Model of AMUSEMENT...[small enough to]...fit into a Pocket Book" and capable of taking 2 profiles in a minute, along with a "...new invented PROFILE REFLECTOR...[which had been lately exhibited in Bath] ...by the INVENTOR". Likely the inventor was ltinerant profilist and optical instrument maker ABRAHAM JONES (fl. 1777-1809). In 1781- 1782, Jones was in Bath marketing his "PROFILE REFLECTOR MIRRORS" and "impression profile plates that..[could be]...put into small Pocket Books". As Hamlet's descriptions closely paralleled Jones' own, it's likely Hamlet purchased a quantity of the instruments from Jones, possibly when the latter visited Bath.

By year's end, Hamlet was promoting his own invention. In ARIS' BIRMINGHAM GAZETTE 26th December 1785, advertising a 'Plan to prevent House-Breaking' potential subscibers were offered an engraved plate with description of the apparatus for 5 shillings. Warehouses could be secured for about £700 in 2025 terms, smaller houses for less. Once 200 subscribers were registered, they would '...be permitted to see a house completed in full force'. With businessman Matthew Boulton (1728 -1809) and arms manufacturer Samuel Galton (1753 -1832) as prominent subscribers, Hamlet's plan, on paper at least, seemingly had potential. However, there is no evidence the system was ever manufactured.

If the alarm system lacked traction, the summer of 1788 likely saw a manifold increase in profile commissions. August and September editions of the SALISBURY and WINCHESTER JOURNAL record he "...had the honour to present the King" a full-length profile of him taken at Cheltenham Spa. With the study positively received, the King "...made him a very handsome present...[leading to orders]...from a great number of Nobility and Gentry...[who Hamlet was ready to receive]... "at his home in New Street, Salisbury".

Recently sourced records indicate Salisbury, rather than Bath, was Hamlet's home town. He married there, his children were born there, and in 1832 his wife would die in Catherine St., their last known Salisbury address. Many handwritten trade labels record him of Salisbury and Bath, and an advertisement from as late as 1815 places him in Salisbury. And while his only known printed trade labels locate him in Bath from ca.1806, it's arguable he worked there solely during 'The Season'.

In November 1789 "Encouraged by their MAJESTIES...and several of the first Personages in the KINGDOM", Hamlet advertised in the OXFORD JOURNAL both as Profilist and Artist, offering for the only time lessons in drawing "...taught after a new Method". Doubtless son and future profilist William Hamlet Jnr was schooled in the '...new Method.

By 1799, Hamlet Snr had removed from Salisbury's New St. to Catherine St. from where, in the SALISBURY and WINCHESTER JOURNAL, he advertised for the first time likenesses for jewellery settings and offered "...Ladies and Gentlemen of the YEOMANRY and ASSOCIATIONS Likenesses in the BEST STYLE". One of these works, a mounted trooper of Volunteers painted on card ca.1800, was sold at CLEVEDON SALEROOMS 7th December 2023.

The summer of 1801 found Hamlet, though the circumstances are unknown, declared bankrupt. Listed as such in the LONDON GAZETTE from July to September as a Miniature Painter formerly of Salisbury but currently of Bath, and unable to service creditors, he was imprisoned in Ilchester Gaol. The misfortune caused him to miss his son's marriage, as, seemingly sufficiently schooled, the 21-year-old William Hamlet Jnr had relocated to Bath and wed there on August 10th.

Exactly when Hamlet Snr was released from prison is unknown. However, by ca.1806, his artistic skills were put to profitable use in Bath, where he worked in tandem with his son until 1814.

Handwritten trade labels also evidence Hamlet Snr working from a studio in Conyger St., Weymouth in 1806 and 1807 during 'The Season', when the town was briefly patronised by Royalty. Hamlet Jnr's initial independent studio in 1806, as evidenced by dated works, was 9, Union Passage, Bath. Thereafter both shared an address at 17, Union Passage, ca.1806 - ca.1810 before moving to 12, Union St. ca.1810 - 1814.

A shared studio makes attributing works to either man problematic, as, perhaps unsurprisingly, Hamlet Jnr developed a style closely resembling his father's. However only Hamlet Jnr painted coloured profile miniatures, drew profiles en grisaille, or used ivory.

Throughout his working life, Hamlet Snr painted a large number of 'stock' full-length and bust-sized profiles of King George III (1738-1820), Queen Charlotte (1744-1818) and their offspring. The 2 shared Bath printed trade labels, maximising the Hamlets' proximity to Royalty, are headed by the Queen's coat of arms, below which Hamlet Snr states himself 'Profile Painter to Her Majesty and the Royal Family'. Profile terms were listed 7 shillings 6 pence to 1 Guinea.

Hamlet's last brush with royalty appears in the SALISBURY and WINCHESTER JOURNAL 9th January 1815. As "Profile Painter to...Princess Charlotte of Wales...[1796-1817]", Hamlet advertised a subscription for an engraving of "...an exact likeness of her ROYAL HIGHNESS taken at the KING's LODGE WEYMOUTH on Friday Nov. 25..." Terms to subscribers were "...framed and glazed one guinea...plain half-a-guinea...". Subscriptions were to be forwarded to Hamlet Jnr in Bath or Hamlet Snr in Salisbury.

Hamlet Snr last appears in print in the 1816 BATH GUIDE, recording him a Profile Painter of 12, Union St. However, with the death of 36-year-old Hamlet Jnr in November 1815, commentators assumed grief over his son's demise explained the absence of datable profiles painted by William Hamlet Snr between 1816 and his own death 6 years later. However, a group of trade labelled works by Hamlet Snr all bearing the date 'July 1820' in a contemporary hand were sold by LYON & TURNBULL 15th November 2023, indicating he was still actively employed at that date.

How Hamlet Snr spent his remaining days is unknown. Buried aged 73 at Walcot St. Swithin's, Bath on the 19th of September 1822, his abode was given as 79 Avon Street. Notorious at the time for densely populated, cheap lodging houses, brothels and multiple public houses, contemporary burial records for Avon Street show depressingly high mortality rates, suggesting Hamlet was in straitened circumstances at the time of his death.

Revised 28 June 2023 (Brian Wellings, with research assistance from Cynthia McKinley/Ceris Humphreys)

 

 

 

 

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