By Fred Pickstone
In Autumn 2003, the Husthwaite Local History Society obtained permission from the Church to place a plaque on the churchyard wall, overlooking the village green. The plaque commemorates the birth of William Peckitt. He was born 13th April 1731 and died 14th October 1795. [see gallery/people for photos]
Peckitt was born in Husthwaite, removed to York in 1751, married Mary Mitley on 3rd April 1763 and is remembered for reviving the art of stained glass making in Britain. When he presented a piece of work to the City of York he described himself as a “stained glass painter”.
Peckitt’s great grandfather, Thomas, was a glove-maker and fellmonger, born at Burythorpe, near Malton. After moving first to Stonegrave then to Hovingham, the Peckitt family came to Husthwaite. Thomas’s grandson, William (1690-1774), and his wife Anne (née Hunt), who came from Bulmer, near Malton, had six children. William, the stained glass painter, was their third child. The first-born, Thomas, was a mariner, who died at the Cape of Good Hope in 1748, aged 28. George, also a sailor, died in the West Indies in the same year, aged 23. Younger than William were Henry - who settled in Soho, London, before becoming an apothecary to George III - and Elizabeth and Ann. Where and how Peckitt learned his craft are not clear. He re-introduced, improved and rejuvenated an art form that had lain dormant for over a hundred years, after Louis XIII of France had been responsible for its demise in 1633 when he had ordered the destruction of Lorraine. This was an act of retribution by Louis for the opposition to his armies by Charles of Lorraine. Lorraine itself had been the European production centre for coloured glass, but by 1774 there was not even a glass painter in Paris.
The dissolution of the monasteries and changes in fashion contributed to the decline of the craft in Britain. Some say Peckitt learned his skills from William Price of London, but his claim to be self-taught was maintained after his death by his widow and his daughter Mary. The previous stained glass craftsman in York was Henry Gyles, who died in 1709. At the age of 20 Peckitt confidently advertised his services and skills in the York Courant in 1752, stating that “William Peckitt, son of William Peckitt the noted glove- maker next door to the Sandhill in Colliergate, York, thinks it proper to advertise to all gentlemen, clergymen and others that by many experiments he has found out the art of painting or staining glass in all kinds of colours and all sorts of figures, as scripture pieces for church windows, arms in heraldry etc in the neatest and liveliest manner, specimens of which may be seen at the house aforesaid. He likewise repairs old broken windows in Gentlemen’s houses and will wait on any person in town or country that desires it.”
His manuscript Commission Book, which meticulously lists some 315 pieces of work executed over a working life of 44 years, opens with the statement: “I, William Peckitt, began the Art of Painting and Staining Glass at Michaelmas, in the year 1751.” The City of York encouraged Peckitt, as it had done Gyles, and in 1754 he presented a window of the City’s “arms and emblems” to the Lord Mayor and Aldermen for erection in the Guildhall. In return it was “ordered for the encouraging of Arts and Sciences that William Peckitt be admitted to the freedom of this City Gratis”.
By 1760 the name of Peckitt was well-known in Yorkshire and the north, but not in the south and certainly not in London. Here William Price the Younger was well-established, Horace Walpole being one of his principal lay patrons. To become the pre-eminent glass painter in England in the second half of the 18th century, Peckitt needed to gain recognition in London and succeed Price. In May 1761 Thomas Gray, the poet and friend of Walpole, wrote to their mutual friend, Thomas Wharton that “Mr Price has left business and retired to Wales. The man at York is now in town, exhibiting some specimens of his skill to the Society of Arts.” Gray appears to have opened the gate to a wider clientele for Peckitt, who began the first of several works for Walpole at Strawberry Hill, London, in 1761. Peckitt not only continued to provide work for York Minster and undertake a number of restorations, but he supplied windows as far afield as Lincoln (1762), New College Oxford (1764-74) and Exeter Cathedral (1766). The best collection of Peckitt glass is at Harpham, near Burton Agnes, where there are seven windows (1763-71) with armorial glass of the St Quintin family. Peckitt has armorial windows in churches at Boynton (1777) and Burton Agnes (1772).
Husthwaite’s illustrious son realised that the true beauty of glass painting is the effect that can be produced by rich, gorgeous and transparent glass, covered in coloured enamel. His work is characterised by rich, glowing colours, improved by his own experiments that contrasted with the more subdued colours of his predecessors. He also experimented with engraving on glass. He coated clear glass with a yellow stain or coloured glass and then cut away the surface to reveal the glass beneath, a technique he patented in 1780. Some of his engraved windows are preserved in the V & A Museum, and a number of his engraved drinking glasses are in the Yorkshire Museum. After his death, Peckitt’s widow, who out-lived him by thirty one years, erected a memorial window in the Church of St Martin-cum-Gregory, York, where he is buried. The inscription concludes with the tribute: “He was a most affectionate Husband, Tender Parent and Pious Christian”.
G.F. Pickstone
October 2003
References
1. Wilkinson, Hazel Chapter 8 in Coxwoldshire Husthwaite Local History Society 1992
2. Knowles, J.A. William Peckitt, Glasspainter Walpole Society Volume 17 1920
3. Brighton, J.T. WIlliam Peckitt and Portraiture on Glass York City Art Gallery Bulletin Volume XXXIV Number 126 January 1984
4. Brighton T. and Sprakes B. Medieval and Georgian Stained Glass in Oxfordshire and Yorkshire copy in York Minster Library, Dean’s Park, York
5. Down Your Way Yorkshire’s County Magazine Issue 69 Heritage Publishing Company, Mirfield
6. There are Peckitt Files in York Art Gallery, Exhibition Square, York