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Farington family correspondence
LSC.0668  
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Table of contents What's This?
  • Restrictions on Access
  • Restrictions on Use and Reproduction
  • Preferred Citation
  • Provenance/Source of Acquisition
  • Processing Note
  • UCLA Catalog Record ID
  • Biography
  • Scope and Content
  • Organization and Arrangement

  • Contributing Institution: UCLA Library Special Collections
    Title: Farington family correspondence
    Creator: Farington family
    Identifier/Call Number: LSC.0668
    Physical Description: 3 Linear Feet (6 boxes)
    Date (inclusive): circa 1702-1858
    Abstract: This collection contains multigenerational correspondence and personal notes of the Farington family. Reverend William Farington (1704-1767) was the vicar of Leigh and rector of Warrington in Lancashire, England. His son, Joseph Farington, RA (1747-1821), was a landscape painter best known for two collections of engraved views of the English lakes. The collection consists of manuscript correspondence to and from the Reverend William Farington and his son Joseph Farington concerning Joseph's art studies with Richard Wilson and his work and life in London. The collection includes the personal notes of, and watercolors and a pen and ink caricature by, Joseph's younger brother and fellow artist George Farington. There are also letters to an older son, William, Jr., regarding his naval travels in the West Indies, as well as correspondence with other family members.
    Physical Location: Stored off-site. All requests to access special collections material must be made in advance using the request button located on this page.
    Language of Material: Materials are in English.

    Restrictions on Access

    Open for research. All requests to access special collections materials must be made in advance using the request button located on this page.

    Restrictions on Use and Reproduction

    Property rights to the physical objects belong to UCLA Library Special Collections. All other rights, including copyright, are retained by the creators and their heirs. It is the responsibility of the researcher to determine who holds the copyright and pursue the copyright owner or his or her heir for permission to publish where The UC Regents do not hold the copyright.

    Preferred Citation

    [Identification of item], Farington family correspondence (Collection Number 668). UCLA Library Special Collections, Charles E. Young Research Library, University of California, Los Angeles.

    Provenance/Source of Acquisition

    Purchase, 1951.

    Processing Note

    Processed by Sara Torres with assistance from Kelley Wolfe Bachli in the Center for Primary Research and Training (CFPRT), Spring 2008.
    Collections are processed to a variety of levels depending on the work necessary to make them usable, their perceived user interest and research value, availability of staff and resources, and competing priorities. Library Special Collections provides a standard level of preservation and access for all collections and, when time and resources permit, conducts more intensive processing. These materials have been arranged and described according to national and local standards and best practices.
    We are committed to providing ethical, inclusive, and anti-racist description of the materials we steward, and to remediating existing description of our materials that contains language that may be offensive or cause harm. We invite you to submit feedback about how our collections are described, and how they could be described more accurately, by filling out the form located on our website: Report Potentially Offensive Description in Library Special Collections.  

    UCLA Catalog Record ID

    UCLA Catalog Record ID: 9942330063606533 

    Biography

    This collection contains multigenerational correspondence and personal notes of the Farington family. Reverend William Farington (c.1704-1767), the second son of William Farington of Worden and Shaw Hall, Leyland, was educated at Brasenose College, Oxford, where he matriculated on 11 February 1723. In 1733 he became vicar of Leigh, near Manchester, a post he held for thirty-four years, and in 1766 he became rector of Warrington (a living that belonged to his relatives, the Athertons) in Lancashire, England. A collection of his Sermons was posthumously published in 1769.
    Rev. William Farington's second of seven sons with his wife Esther (née Gilbody), Joseph Farington, was born November 21, 1747 at Leigh, Lancashire. Joseph became a pupil of landscape artist Richard Wilson in London in 1763 at the age of sixteen; the year after, 1764, as well as in 1765 and 1766, he gained a premium at the Society of Artists for landscape drawing. In 1765 was elected a member of the Society. He enrolled as a student at the newly established Royal Academy of Arts' (1768) school soon after it was established, though he still exhibited his work at the Society of Artists and became one of its directors in 1772 and 1773. Later, he became associated much more closely with the increasingly influential Royal Academy and eventually became an extremely active and influential member; he was elected A.R.A. (Associate of the Royal Academy) in 1783, and R.A. in 1785. Joseph Farington married Susan Mary Hammond (1750-1800) on March 19, 1776; their marriage was childless. In December 1780 Farington settled in London at 35 Upper Charlotte Street, Fitzroy Square. He produced his Views of the Lakes etc. in Cumberland and Westmorland in 1789, the first of a series of topographical works, followed by Views of Cities and Towns in England and Wales in 1790, and completed the illustrations to the two volumes of An History of the River Thames in 1794 and 1796. Joseph Farington was sent to the Netherlands by William Windham, M.P. for Norwich in 1793 to prepare illustrations of the siege of Valenciennes. He later traveled to Paris in 1802, and both trips contributed to his appreciation for continental art. Joseph Farington, R.A. is best known for two collections of engraved views of the English lakes; published Views of cities and Towns in England and Wales (1790) and 76 plates in History of the River Thames (1794). He wrote A memoir of Sir Joshua Reynolds for the fifth edition of Reynolds's literary works (1819); died December 30, 1821.
    Joseph Farington's younger brother, George Farington (1752-1788) was a history painter, who in 1773 was employed with his brother in recording the Walpole painting collection a Houghton Hall, Norfolk. George studied with Benjamin West, and became a student at the Royal Academy. He sailed for India in 1782, and died at Murishdabad in 1788. Many of Joseph's other brothers pursued naval careers. His older brother William and two of his younger brothers, Henry (1750-1827) and Richard Atherton (1755-1822) were all employed in the naval service of the East India Company. His fifth brother Edward (1758-1790) died of yellow fever early in a naval career and his sixth brother, Robert (1760-1841) pursued a career in the Church.
    Sources:
    • The Diary of Joseph Farington ed. Kenneth Garlick and Angus MacIntyre. Vol. 1 , Published for the Paul Mellon Centre for Studies in British Art by Yale University Press, New Haven and London, 1978.
    • Evelyn Newsby, 'Farington, Joseph (1747-1821)', Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press [http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/9161, accessed 7 Feb 2008]

    Scope and Content

    Collection consists of multigenerational manuscript correspondence to and from several members of the Farington Family, spanning roughly 1702-1858. Important figures include, but are not limited to, the Reverend William Farington and his son Joseph Farington, R.A. William's letters to his son concern Joseph's art studies with Richard Wilson and his work and life in London. The collection also includes Joseph's brother George Farington's watercolors, a pen and ink caricature, and personal notes.
    The correspondence to and from Joseph's brother William, Jr., regarding his naval travels in the West Indies, is one representative example of the correspondence in this collection regarding naval life. The correspondence in this collection includes letters addressed to naval men aboard several ships, including the HMS La Topaze, HMS Ruby, HMS Hibernia, HMS Plover, HMS Thunder, HMS Clio, and the Bombay Castle East Indiamen.
    The collection includes Joseph Farington's letters to a nephew discussing a naval commission.
    In addition to correspondence, the collection contains personal notes, largely in the form of transcriptions of religious and literary writing, including biblical verses, sermons, and the following authors/works: Jacob Duchè; "Lady Brook's Memoirs"; "Sherlock's Discourses"; "The Bishop of London Lecture"; James Thomson's "Summer"; Hannah More; Henry James Pye; John Milton; William Cowper and Frances Maria Cowper. The collection also includes administrative/legal materials, including the "Will of Thomas Armstriding" and a document related to the nomination of a schoolmaster for the grammar school at the Parish of Leigh.

    Organization and Arrangement

    The collection was originally housed in 14 separate loose folios. The connection between the materials brought together in each folio was not always evident; however original order has been maintained. Each series is organized by folio.

    Subjects and Indexing Terms

    Family papers.
    Landscape painters -- England -- Correspondence.
    Farington, Joseph, 1747-1821--Correspondence.
    Farington, William, 1704 or 1705-1767--Correspondence.
    Farington family--Correspondence.
    Farington, Joseph