Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 24.djvu/54

 in Yorkshire, where his father was gardener to the Archbishop of York. He was apprenticed to a house-painter, and practised house-painting in York for some years. He afterwards raised himself to the position of an artist and a teacher of drawing. He acted as clerk of the works to the architect (1723–1807) [q. v.] when he was restoring the cathedral at York, and skilfully repaired some of its old decoration. From the scaffolding then erected he made those drawings of Gothic ornaments for which he is principally remembered.

In 1795 he commenced to publish by subscription his ‘Gothic Ornaments in the Cathedral Church of York,’ which was completed in twenty numbers in 1800. It was reprinted in 1807 under the old date, and a second edition appeared in 1831. The work consists of 175 specimens of ornament and four views of the interior of the church and chapter-house. It is specially valuable as depicting portions of the building since injured by fire. His ‘Fragmenta Vetusta, or the Remains of Ancient Buildings in York,’ was published in 1807. In both these works he was his own engraver. He drew and engraved the monument of Archbishop Bowet in York Minster for the second volume of Gough's ‘Sepulchral Monuments,’ and an etching in the British Museum of a portrait (by L. Pickard) of Henry Howard, earl of Northampton, who died in 1614, is ascribed to him by Granger. The Grenville Library (British Museum) contains five views of churches in Yorkshire, published in 1816 and 1817 (after his death) by his daughters, Margaret and Charlotte Halfpenny. In the South Kensington Museum is a water-colour drawing by him of ‘The Bridge, Fountains Abbey, Yorkshire’ (1793); and in the British Museum a ‘Landscape with Mansion in the Distance’ (1793), purchased at the sale of the Percy collection in April 1890.

He was twice married, and was survived by two daughters. He died at his house in the Gillygate, York, on 11 July 1811, and was buried in the churchyard of St. Olave's, adjoining the ruins of the old abbey.



HALFPENNY, WILLIAM, alias (fl. 1752), who styles himself architect and carpenter on the title-page of some of his works, appears to have resided at Richmond, Surrey, and in London during the first half of the eighteenth century. Batty Langley describes him in his ‘Ancient Masonry’ (1736), p. 147, as ‘Mr. William Halfpeny, alias Hoare, lately of Richmond in Surrey, carpenter,’ and seems to call him indifferently William Halfpenny and Michael Hoare. His published works were written with a view to being useful to ‘those who are engaged in ye noble art of building,’ and are mainly devoted to domestic architecture. He prepared estimates as well as designs for the construction of buildings as economically as possible. His more ambitious designs for country seats are in the classical architecture of the period. De Morgan speaks of his ‘Arithmetic’ as a ‘surveyor's and artisan's book of application.’ He has been credited with the invention of the method of drawing arches by the intersection of straight lines (, Ancient Masonry, p. 147), and his system for the formation of twisted hand-rails was well thought of in his time. He published:
 * 1) ‘Magnum in Parvo, or the Marrow of Architecture,’ 1722; 1728 (containing instructions in the setting out of pillars and arches).
 * 2) ‘Practical Architecture,’ 1st edit. n.d., 1724, 1730, 1736 (5th edit.), 1748, 1751.
 * 3) ‘The Art of Sound Building demonstrated in Geometrical Problems,’ 1725 (containing a design for a church in Leeds).
 * 4) ‘Perspective made Easy,’ 1731.
 * 5) ‘The Modern Builder's Assistant’ (with John Halfpenny, Robert Morris, and T. Lightoler), 1742, 1757.
 * 6) ‘Arithmetic and Measurement Improved by Examples,’ 1748.
 * 7) ‘A Perspective View of the sunk Pier and the two adjoining Arches at Westminster’ (one folio plate), 1748.
 * 8) ‘A New and Complete System of Architecture,’ 1749 (the British Museum copy is in French).
 * 9) ‘Twelve Beautiful Designs for Farm Houses,’ 1749, 1750, 1774.
 * 10) ‘A Plan and Elevation of the Royal Fire Works in St. James's Park’ (one folio sheet), 1749.
 * 11) ‘New Designs for Chinese Temples,’ four parts (parts ii. iii. and iv. with John Halfpenny), 1750, 1752.
 * 12) ‘Six New Designs for Farm Houses,’ 1751.
 * 13) ‘Useful Architecture,’ 1751, 1755, 1760 (in which the preceding work is incorporated and new matter added, including designs for bridges).
 * 14) ‘Thirteen New Designs for Parsonages and Farm Houses,’ 1752.
 * 15) ‘Rural Architecture in the Gothic Taste’ (with John Halfpenny), 1752.
 * 16) ‘Chinese and Gothic Architecture pro-