John Scandrett Harford, FRS (8 October 1785 – 16 April 1866) was a British banker, benefactor and abolitionist.

Early life and background

Harford was the son of John Scandrett Harford, a prominent banker in

Bristol Bristol () is a city, ceremonial county and unitary authority in England. Situated on the River Avon, it is bordered by the ceremonial counties of Gloucestershire to the north and Somerset to the south. Bristol is the most populous city in ...

. By the end of the 18th century the elder John Scandrett Harford was a wealthy landowner, and a staunch

Quaker Quakers are people who belong to a historically Protestant Christian set of Christian denomination, denominations known formally as the Religious Society of Friends. Members of these movements ("theFriends") are generally united by a belie ...

. He married Mary Gray, daughter of Abraham Gray of

Tottenham Tottenham () is a town in North London, England, within the London Borough of Haringey. It is located in the ceremonial county of Greater London. Tottenham is centred north-northeast of Charing Cross, bordering Edmonton to the north, Waltham ...

. John Scandrett Harford the younger had a Quaker upbringing, but in 1809 was baptised in the

Church of England The Church of England (C of E) is the established Christian church in England and the mother church of the international Anglican Communion. It traces its history to the Christian church recorded as existing in the Roman province of Britain ...

, at

Chelwood Chelwood is a small village within the Civil parishes in England, civil parish of Compton Dando in Somerset, England, and is in the affluent Chew Valley in the Bath and North East Somerset council area, about from Bristol and Bath, Somerset, Ba ...

. He had schooling under Charles Lloyd at Peterley House,

Great Missenden Great Missenden is an affluent village with approximately 2,000 residents in the Misbourne Valley in the Chiltern Hills in Buckinghamshire, England, situated between the towns of Amersham and Wendover, with direct rail connections to London Mary ...

. He was admitted to

Christ's College, Cambridge Christ's College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge. The college includes the Master, the Fellows of the College, and about 450 undergraduate and 170 graduate students. The college was founded by William Byngham in 1437 as ...

in 1820, and was there for a number of terms. He was an

abolitionist Abolitionism, or the abolitionist movement, is the movement to end slavery. In Western Europe and the Americas, abolitionism was a historic movement that sought to end the Atlantic slave trade and liberate the enslaved people. The British ...

and friend of

William Wilberforce William Wilberforce (24 August 175929 July 1833) was a British politician, philanthropist and leader of the movement to abolish the slave trade. A native of Kingston upon Hull, Yorkshire, he began his political career in 1780, eventually becom ...

Property

The Harford properties included the

Blaise Castle Estate Blaise Castle is a folly built in 1766 near Henbury in Bristol, England. The castle sits within the Blaise Castle Estate, which also includes Blaise Castle House, a Grade II* listed 18th-century mansion house. The folly castle is also Grade I ...

Henbury Henbury is a suburb of Bristol, England, approximately north west of the city centre. It was formerly a village in Gloucestershire and is now bordered by Westbury-on-Trym to the south; Brentry to the east and the Blaise Castle Estate, Blaise Ha ...

. This had belonged to Thomas Farr, who went bankrupt in 1778 following outbreak of the

American Revolutionary War The American Revolutionary War (April 19, 1775 – September 3, 1783), also known as the Revolutionary War or American War of Independence, was a major war of the American Revolution. Widely considered as the war that secured the independence of t ...

. The estate then changed hands a number of times before John Harford the elder purchased the land and buildings. John Harford the Elder had a plain but substantial house built and asked the landscape architect

Humphry Repton Humphry Repton (21 April 1752 – 24 March 1818) was the last great English landscape designer of the eighteenth century, often regarded as the successor to Capability Brown; he also sowed the seeds of the more intricate and eclectic styles of ...

to lay out the grounds. Repton became a partner of John Nash, whom Harford commissioned to design a group of cottages,

Blaise Hamlet Blaise Hamlet is a group of nine small cottages around a green in Henbury, now a district in the north of Bristol, England. All the cottages, and the sundial on the green are Grade I listed buildings. Along with Blaise Castle the Hamlet is lis ...

, as homes for his retired servants. Nash created sketches of the cottages, which

George Repton George William John Repton (1818 – 30 August 1906) was a British Conservative Party politician who held a seat in the House of Commons for most of the period from 1841 to 1885, first as a Member of Parliament (MP) for St Albans and then for ...

built. Diamond Cottage is an example of the extremely picturesque style of the cottages. In 1819, Harford also acquired the Peterwell estate at

Lampeter Lampeter (; cy, Llanbedr Pont Steffan (formal); ''Llambed'' (colloquial)) is a town, community and electoral ward in Ceredigion, Wales, at the confluence of the Afon Dulas with the River Teifi. It is the third largest urban area in Ceredigion, ...

, making the purchase jointly with his younger brothers. It was previously owned by his father-in-law,

Richard Hart Davis Richard Hart Davis (8 June 1766 - 21 February 1842) was a British merchant and Tory politician who served as Member of Parliament for both Colchester and Bristol. Merchant career Davis was a successful merchant in Bristol trading with the West ...

, who had built c.1812 a house within its bounds. The estate descended to his nephew John Battersby Harford, who remodelled the house in the Italianate style in 1859 as

Falcondale Falcondale ( cy, Glyn Hebog) is a hamlet in the community of Lampeter, Ceredigion, Wales, and occupies a low bluff overlooking the Nant Creuddyn north-west of Lampeter. Falcondale is represented in the Senedd by Elin Jones (Plaid Cymru) and the ...

Educational interests

John Harford the Elder was a patron of

Hannah More Hannah More (2 February 1745 – 7 September 1833) was an English religious writer, philanthropist, poet and playwright in the circle of Johnson, Reynolds and Garrick, who wrote on moral and religious subjects. Born in Bristol, she taught at a s ...

's schools in Somerset in the 1790s.M J Crossley Evans, ''Hannah More'', University of Bristol (Bristol branch of the Historical Association), 1999

Maria Edgeworth Maria Edgeworth (1 January 1768 – 22 May 1849) was a prolific Anglo-Irish novelist of adults' and children's literature. She was one of the first realist writers in children's literature and was a significant figure in the evolution of the n ...

claimed that the main character in More's popular novel ''

Coelebs in Search of a Wife ''Coelebs in Search of a Wife'' (1809) is a novel by the British Christian moralist Hannah More. It was followed by ''Coelebs Married'' in 1814. It is sometimes known by the title ''Coelebs in Search of a Wife: Commprehending Observations on Domes ...

'' was modeled on the younger Harford. In spring 1820, Harford met Thomas Burgess, the bishop of

St Davids St Davids or St David's ( cy, Tyddewi, , "David's house”) is a city and a community (named St Davids and the Cathedral Close) with a cathedral in Pembrokeshire, Wales, lying on the River Alun. It is the resting place of Saint David, W ...

, at the home of

Henry Ryder Henry Dudley Ryder (21 July 1777 – 31 March 1836) was a prominent English evangelical Anglican bishop in the early years of the nineteenth century. He was the first evangelical to be raised to the Anglican episcopate. Life Ryder was the ...

, the bishop of Gloucester. Burgess mentioned his 'projected college for clerical education in South Wales,' although at this time 'he did not appear to be sanguine in the hope of speedily realising the plan.' Harford knew that a college at

'would tend to civilise and improve the vicinity.' In the autumn of 1820, Harford offered to donate to Burgess the site of Lampeter Castle, 'Castle Field' or 'Cae Castell' in Welsh, which, as

Lords of the Manor Lord of the Manor is a title that, in Anglo-Saxon England, referred to the landholder of a rural estate. The lord enjoyed manorial rights (the rights to establish and occupy a residence, known as the manor house and demesne) as well as seigno ...

of Lampeter, he and his brothers now owned. As such, it is on land donated by Harford that the Lampeter campus of the

University of Wales Trinity Saint David , image = Crest of TSD.png , image_size = 200px , caption = Coat of armsUniversity of Wales Trinity Saint David , established = 2010 (Saint David's College, Lampeter founded 1822 and opened 1827; royal charter 1828) , ...

(formerly St David's College) now stands. A bust of Harford is in the collection of the University. Two halls of residence at the university, Harford I and Harford II, are also named after him.

Later life

Harford was appointed

High Sheriff of Cardiganshire The office of High Sheriff of Cardiganshire was established in 1541, since when a high sheriff was appointed annually until 1974 when the office was transformed into that of High Sheriff of Dyfed as part of the creation of Dyfed from the amalgamat ...

for 1825–26. He was also a moderately successful artist, and his oil paintings can often be found at

auctions An auction is usually a process of buying and selling goods or services by offering them up for bids, taking bids, and then selling the item to the highest bidder or buying the item from the lowest bidder. Some exceptions to this definition ex ...

in the UK. He was elected a

Fellow of the Royal Society Fellowship of the Royal Society (FRS, ForMemRS and HonFRS) is an award granted by the judges of the Royal Society of London to individuals who have made a "substantial contribution to the improvement of natural science, natural knowledge, incl ...

in 1823, and was the founding President of what is now the

Royal West of England Academy The Royal West of England Academy (RWA) is Bristol's oldest art gallery, located in Clifton, Bristol, near the junction of Queens Road and Whiteladies Road. Situated in a Grade 2* listed building, it hosts five galleries and an exhibition program ...

(then the Bristol Academy of Fine Arts) from its inception in 1844 until 1859. In later life he went blind, and he died at Blaise Castle in 1866.

Family

Harford in 1812 married Louisa, the daughter of

. He died without children at Blaise Castle, his heir being John Battersby Harford, a nephew.

Published works

*''Some account of the life of Thomas Paine'', Bristol, 1819 *''Aeschylus : Agamemnon''....Translated from Greek by J. S. Harford, London : Murray, 1831 *''Life of Thomas Burgess, London'': Eyre & Spottiswood, 1840. 2nd ed. London : Eyre, 1841 *''Life of Michaelangelo Buonarroti'', Longman & Roberts, 1857; Spottiswoode & Co., 1858 *''Reminiscences of W. Wilberforce during nearly thirty years'', 1864

References

*''

Dictionary of National Biography The ''Dictionary of National Biography'' (''DNB'') is a standard work of reference on notable figures from British history, published since 1885. The updated ''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography'' (''ODNB'') was published on 23 September ...

'' * ''Annals of the Harford Family, Alice Harford, Westminster Press 1909'' *''Nine Letters from an Artist The Families of William Gillard, Joan M Richmond, Porphryogenitus 2015, . {{DEFAULTSORT:Harford, John 1785 births 1866 deaths Businesspeople from Bristol English abolitionists 19th-century English painters English male painters English Quakers Fellows of the Royal Society High Sheriffs of Cardiganshire English blind people Quaker abolitionists 19th-century British businesspeople 19th-century English male artists