Benjamin Booth (1732–1806) was an English director of the East India Company and art collector.[1]

He was the fourth son of John Booth of London and his wife Anne Lloyd of Liverpool.[2] He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society, in 1772.[3]

Family and art collection

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Booth married Jane Salwey, daughter of Richard Salwey of Moor Park, Shropshire and an heiress, in 1760. They had a son Richard Salwey Booth, who matriculated at Christ Church, Oxford in 1781 and became a clergyman, and three daughters.[2][4][5] The son was an amateur artist, painting watercolours in Wales and Scotland, and an acquaintance of Paul Sandby who showed at the Royal Academy.[6] He is identified by William Prideaux Courtney as a companion in 1797 of Lord Webb John Seymour and Christopher Smyth; and as in the Algernon Graves Royal Academy records from 1796 to 1807.[7]

Their daughter Marianne Booth (1767–1849), known as an artist, married Richard Ford the barrister, and was mother of Richard Ford the writer.[1][8] Another daughter, Elizabeth Mary, was a pupil of John Opie, who asked to marry her in 1797, and was refused.[9] The third daughter was Jane.[2]

The large collection of works by Richard Wilson put together by Booth was still in the Ford family in the 20th century.[10] Etchings of some of the works were published in an 1825 book by Thomas Hastings.[11]

Notes

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  1. ^ a b Robertson, Ian Campbell. "Ford, Richard (1796–1858)". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/9863. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.)
  2. ^ a b c John Burke; Bernard Burke (1847). A Genealogical and Heraldic Dictionary of the Landed Gentry of Great Britain & Ireland. H. Colburn. p. 118.
  3. ^ Thomas Thomson (1812). History of the Royal Society, from Its Institution to the End of the 18th Century. London, Baldwin. p. liv.
  4. ^ Foster, Joseph (1888–1892). "Booth, Richard (Salwey)" . Alumni Oxonienses: the Members of the University of Oxford, 1715–1886. Oxford: Parker and Co – via Wikisource.
  5. ^ Ian Robertson (1 February 2005). Richard Ford 1796-1858: hispanophile, connoisseur and critic. Michael Russell. p. 330.
  6. ^ Frits Lugt (1956). "Les" marques de collections de dessins & d'estampes: marques estampillées et écrites de collections particulières et publiques; marques de marchands, de monteurs et d'imprimeurs ... ; avec des notices historiques sur les collectionneurs, les collections, les ventes, les marchands et éditeurs, etc (in French). M. Nijhoff. p. 44.
  7. ^ Courtney, William Prideaux (1910). "Eight Friends of the Great". Internet Archive. London: Constable. p. 127. Retrieved 12 October 2015.
  8. ^ "Ford, Richard (1758–1806), of the Inner Temple, History of Parliament Online". Retrieved 12 October 2015.
  9. ^ Simon, Robin. "Opie, John". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/20800. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.)
  10. ^ Russell, Francis. "Ford, Sir (Richard) Brinsley". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/72270. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.)
  11. ^ Stevens, Timothy. "Hastings, Thomas". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/12585. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.)