Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 41.djvu/196

 bishop of London, who held several prebends at Lichfield between 1330 and 1352. Other members of the Northburgh family, called Peter, Richard, Roger, and William, also occur among the prebendaries of Lichfield during Bishop Roger's tenure of the see (, Fasti, i. 591–628). The wardrobe accounts for the tenth and eleventh years of Edward II are now in the library of the Royal Society of Antiquaries; a summary of these accounts and of those for the fourteenth year of Edward II is given in the ‘Archæologia’ (xxvi. 318–23). An abstract of the contents of Northburgh's ‘Register’ is given in the ‘Collections for a History of Staffordshire’ of the William Salt Archæological Society (i. 241–88). 

NORTHCOTE, JAMES (1746–1831), painter, royal academician, and author, younger son of Samuel Northcote, watchmaker, was born in Market Street, Plymouth, on 22 Oct. 1746. His parents were of humble origin and unitarians, and while his father found employment not only in making and mending watches, but also in winding clocks in Plymouth Dock (Devonport), his mother dealt in small articles of haberdashery. Later in life Northcote took pleasure in considering that his family belonged to the same stock as the knightly family of Northcote of Upton Pyne, Devonshire (now represented by the Earl of Iddesleigh), though no satisfactory proof could be obtained. His early education was scanty, and with his elder brother, Samuel, he was as soon as possible apprenticed to his father's trade. In one of his subsequent writings, ‘A Letter from a Disappointed Genius,’ Northcote describes his early aspirations to be an artist, and the refusal of his father to offer any encouragement. This artistic impulse was no doubt increased by the growing fame of his fellow-countryman, Sir Joshua Reynolds, an intimate friend of the family of Dr. [q. v.] of St. Andrew's, Plymouth, one of whom, [q. v.], was actually engaged in the watchmaking trade, and so was closely acquainted with the Northcote family. Northcote narrates, in his ‘Life of Reynolds,’ his delight at being able to touch the skirt of Reynolds's coat when the painter came with Samuel Johnson on a visit to Plymouth in 1762. Some of Northcote's drawings were then shown to Reynolds. Northcote's friends urged that he should be sent to study painting in London under Reynolds, or either of the engravers, Fisher or McArdell. His father continued obdurate. Northcote, however, spent his leisure hours in drawing portraits or views in the neighbourhood, and, having thereby saved ten guineas, planned with his brother Samuel a secret flight from Plymouth to London. They left Plymouth early on Whitsunday in May 1771, and after five days' journey on foot arrived in London. Northcote brought letters of introduction to Reynolds, who received him kindly, and accorded him permission to work in his studio as an assistant. His brother returned at once to Plymouth; but Northcote took a cheap lodging, and, while spending the day in Reynolds's studio, earned small sums of money by colouring prints and similar work for booksellers. Shortly after he was invited by Reynolds to become an inmate of his house. Here, besides actual work in the studio in preparing grounds, drawing draperies, and the like, Northcote worked in an adjoining room, copying or making studies as he chose, and also had the privilege of seeing and sometimes conversing with the many distinguished persons who came to visit Reynolds. Northcote studied as well in the schools of the Royal Academy, for he does not appear to have received any actual instruction from Reynolds himself. He made only slow progress both in drawing and colouring. Reynolds, in his letters to his friends at Plymouth, frequently alluded to Northcote's industry and regularity of life. Northcote sometimes sat to Reynolds as model: for instance, as one of the young men in ‘Ugolino.’ He obtained some practice as a portrait painter, and there is a story that he painted a portrait of one of Reynolds's female servants, which was so lifelike that it continually excited the rage of a pet macaw. While still an inmate of Reynolds's house, Northcote sent portraits to the Royal Academy in 1773 and following years, one of which elicited some laudatory verses from Dr. Wolcot. After five years Northcote determined to set up on his own account as a painter, and left Reynolds's house on 12 May 1776. He returned home to Devonshire for some months, painting portraits, until he had earned enough money to pay for a journey to Italy.

He started in 1777, and proceeded by Lyons and Genoa to Rome, where he remained about two years. He was an 