Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 58.djvu/366

Vincent was living at 28 Upper Thornhaugh Street, Bedford Square (manuscript letters of Vincent to William Davey of Thorp, Norwich, in the collection of Mr. James Reeve). At this time he was preparing pictures of the battles of the Nile and of Trafalgar to compete for a prize offered by the directors of the British Gallery, but imprisonment in the Fleet for debt prevented him completing them. He was assisted by his father-in-law and other friends, and continued to paint small pictures during his confinement. In 1825 he visited Stark at Norwich, accompanied by a keeper, and in that year he resumed his connection with the Norwich Society, sending five works to the exhibition. He obtained his liberty on 13 Feb. 1827. In 1828 he sent six pictures to the Norwich exhibition, and in 1831 exhibited his last picture there. In April 1833 his father died, after heavy losses in business, and left about 800l. to each of his children. He went to Norwich on this occasion, but was never heard of again by his relatives. It is supposed that he died, perhaps by his own hand, in or before 1836. He married a daughter of Dr. Cugnoni; she subsequently married a journalist named Murphy.

A portrait of Vincent by the Norwich artist Joseph Clover passed to the Norwich Castle Museum in 1899 under the will of J. J. Colman, along with ‘Trowse Meadows,’ a fine landscape by Vincent. Colman also owned one of Vincent's best pictures, ‘On the Yare.’ His masterpiece, ‘Greenwich Hospital,’ belongs to Mr. William Orme Foster of Apley Park, Bridgnorth. Its appearance at the International Exhibition of 1862 caused a revival of interest in Vincent, whose name was almost forgotten. It aroused still greater enthusiasm in 1877 at the winter exhibition at Burlington House, where it hung between a Wilson and a Turner, and held its own. This approval led to the exhibition of several other pictures by Vincent in 1878 and succeeding years, and the relatively large prices which some of them have fetched at recent sales testify to the high place which is now assigned to Vincent among the painters of the Norwich school.

Vincent produced a number of skilful etchings from his own pictures or sketches. Few impressions were taken, and they are now scarce. The British Museum collection contains nineteen, many of which are in several different states. A few are etched in outline and completed in mezzotint in the style of Turner's ‘Liber Studiorum.’ The dates on the etchings range from 1821 to 1827, but Vincent is said to have practised etching before he left Norwich.

[Redgraves' Century of Painters, ii. 374; Graves's Dict. of Artists; Eastern Daily Press, 20 Jan. 1885; Catalogue of Pictures in the Norwich Castle Museum; information from James Reeve, esq., derived in part from Mrs. James Vincent, sister-in-law of the painter.] 

VINCENT, HENRY (1813–1878), political agitator, was the eldest son of Thomas Vincent, gold and silver smith, of 145 High Holborn, where Henry was born on 10 May 1813. Business misfortunes led to the removal of the family to Hull eight years later, and when Vincent was eleven years of age he had already begun to earn his livelihood. In 1828 he was apprenticed to a printer in Hull. Owing to his father's death on 21 Feb. 1829, the widow and five other children became dependent to a great extent upon him. His father had inculcated in his mind a love of freedom and justice, and he had early taken an active part in public life in Hull, and was elected a member of the political union of that town. On the termination of his apprenticeship he removed with his mother and the rest of the family to London, where, through the influence of his uncle, he obtained a situation at Spottiswoode's, the king's printers, but, through some dissatisfaction arising with regard to the government printing, he and about sixty others left the firm. At this time his mother became possessed of a small independence. This enabled young Vincent to take an active part in the agitation which became known as the ‘Chartist’ movement. He was the chief speaker at the great meeting held in London in the autumn of 1838, and so remarkable had already become his command over an audience that he was styled by Sir William Molesworth [q. v.] the Demosthenes of the new movement.

On 9 May 1839 Vincent was arrested at his house in Cromer Street, London, on a warrant from the magistrates of the Newport Association for attending a riotous assemblage held in that town. He was taken to Bow Street, charged, and committed to Monmouth gaol to take his trial at the ensuing assizes. So great was the tumult outside the court that the mayor was obliged to read the Riot Act. On 2 Aug. 1839 Vincent, who had been refused bail, was tried at the Monmouth assizes by Sir Edward Hall Alderson [q. v.], baron of the exchequer. Serjeant Thomas Noon Talfourd [q. v.] conducted the case for the crown, and John Arthur Roebuck [q. v.] that for the defence. Roebuck showed clearly from the admissions of the chief witnesses for the prosecution that Vincent had told the people to disperse quietly