Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 55.djvu/388

Tatham Italy antique fragments relating to ornamental architecture. He got together a noble assemblage, which was brought to England two years later. Tatham published a description of them in 1806, and they now, along with his own collection of architectural drawings made at the same time, are in the collection of Sir John Soane in Lincoln's Inn Fields. Tatham first exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1797, and continued to do so until 1836, contributing in all fifty-three designs. On 15 Aug. 1799 the treasury issued a general invitation to artists to send competitive designs for a national monument of a pillar or obelisk two hundred feet high upon a basement of thirty feet 'in commemoration of the late glorious victories of the British navy.' Tatham sent in three designs. Finding, after more than two years had passed, that no decision had been made, he published them as etchings, with descriptive text and a dedication to the Earl of Carlisle, in 1802. The project ultimately took shape in the Nelson Column in Trafalgar Square by William Railton in 1843. In 1802 Tatham designed the sculpture gallery at Castle Howard, and did work at Naworth, Cumberland, for the Earl of Carlisle; and in 1807 the picture gallery at Brocklesby, Lincolnshire, for Lord Yarborough. His etchings for the designs of these galleries, both in the severe classical style in vogue at the time, were published in 1811. Before 1816 he designed for the Duke of Bridgwater the portion of Cleveland House, St. James's, which lay to the west of the gallery. This building was destroyed when Sir Charles Barry designed the present Bridgwater House in 1847.

Tatham removed from 101 Park Street, Mayfair, first to York Place, and then to a house with a beautiful garden in Alpha Road, which he built for himself. He lived on intimate terms with Thomas Chevalier [q.v.], surgeon to George III, Benjamin Robert Haydon, Samuel Bagster the publisher, and John Linnell. At the same time he was apt to be masterful and litigious in professional matters, and engaged in lawsuits most unwisely with more than one of his employers. Refusing work for builders and others, he lost his practice. In 1834 he fell into pecuniary difficulties; his house and his collection of objects of interest were sold, and at the age of sixty-two it seemed that he would have to begin life anew. His friends, however—the Right Hon. Thomas Grenville, the Duchess of Sutherland, and others—rallied round him, and in 1837 obtained for him the post of warden of Holy Trinity Hospital, Greenwich, where he ended his days happily and usefully. He died on 10 April 1842.

Tatham married, in 1801, Harriet Williams, the daughter of a famous button-maker in St. Martin's Lane. By her he had four sons and six daughters. His eldest son Frederick (1805-1878), sculptor and afterwards portrait-painter, exhibited forty-eight pictures in the Royal Academy between 1825 and 1854. He was the close friend of William Blake and his wife (see, Life of Blake). His second son, Arthur, was for more than forty years rector of Broadoak and Boconnoc in Cornwall, and prebendary of Exeter Cathedral. His second daughter, Julia, in 1831, married George Richmond [ q. v. ] the portrait-painter, the father of Sir William Blake Richmond, K.C.B., R.A.

Tatham, who was member of the Academy of St. Luke at Rome, of the Institute of Bologna, and of the Architects' Society of London, left behind him copious reminiscences which have not yet been published.

A portrait of Tatham by Thomas Kearsley is in possession of his grandson, the Rev. Canon Richmond, and a large crayon portrait by Benjamin Robert Haydon is in the print-room of the British Museum.

[Private information.]

 TATHAM, EDWARD (1749–1834), controversialist, born at Milbeck, township of Dent, in the parish of Sedbergh, Yorkshire, and baptised at Dent on 1 Oct. 1749, was the son of James Tatham of that parish, 'pleb.,' to whom, as 'James Tatham, gent.,' he dedicated in terms of warm affection his work on the study of divinity (1780). He was educated at Sedbergh school under Dr. Bateman, and was probably the Tatham, from Westmoreland and Sedbergh school, who was admitted at Magdalene College, Cambridge, as sizar on 11 May 1767; but the entry does not give the Christian name of either father or son, and he presumably never went into residence. He entered as batler at Queen's College, Oxford, 15 June 1769, having probably an exhibition from the college, and graduated B.A. 1772, M.A. 1776.

Tatham took deacon's orders in 1776 and priest's orders in 1778, and the curacy of Banbury was his first charge. The fire at Queen's College in 1779 destroyed his books and some of his manuscripts, whereupon he seems to have moved to Banbury. On 27 Dec. 1781 he was elected to a Yorkshire fellowship at Lincoln College, Oxford, and became its acting tutor, proceeding B.D. in 1783 and D.D. in 1787.

On 6 Nov. 1787 Tatham was elected sub-rector of Lincoln College, and on 15 March 