Wilton family portrait, Newcastle-under-Lyme

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Date:1820 - 1830 (c.)

Description:The man you can see in this portrait is believed to have been from the Wilton family of Newcastle-under-Lyme.
This painting and its accompanying portrait of a lady had been passed down the family and they were believed to have been engagement or wedding portraits.

They show a young couple in their early twenties wearing their best clothes; for example he wears his ‘best jacket’ with a high collared shirt, waistcoat and cravat. They were painted by the same artist and were likely made to be facing each other. So we think that it is probably correct to assume that they were painted to celebrate a wedding in the 1820s.

Looking at the Wilton’s family tree we believe this could be Samuel Wilton and his wife Elizabeth.
Samuel Wilton was born in 1798 and he married Elizabeth Mobey on 10 August 1820 (when Samuel and Elizabeth would have been in their early twenties).

Most people in Newcastle at that time would not have been able to afford to have their portrait painted or had a house grand enough to display them.
As a local businessman in the building trade Samuel Wilton may have been wealthy enough to be able to afford paintings like these to celebrate his wedding.

What makes these portraits quite interesting from a historical point of view is that - if this is Samuel - then we could be looking at a portrait of one of the cholera victims of the 1849 outbreak, where 241 local people died. Samuel died of Asiatic cholera, aged 50, on 7 August 1849.

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Donor ref:Nm.2019.90.1 (22/39866)

Source: Brampton Museum and Art Gallery, Newcastle under Lyme

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