Details of Sculptor

Surname

Schrowder

Alternative Surname

First Name

Benjamin

Initial of Surname

S

Year of Birth/Baptism

1757

Flourished

Year of Death

1826

Biographical Details

Schrowder, who claimed to be a maternal descendant of the poet Milton, was born at Winchelsea on 15 November 1757. On 31 January 1772 he joined the Royal Academy Schools and in 1781 exhibited various wax portraits at the Academy, giving his address as 27 Carnaby Market (4, 5). He later settled in Dublin, where he was invited to work on the new Custom House and carved most of the emblematic river gods designed by Edward Smyth (2). Only one of his monuments has been identified with certainty, though Potterton attributes to him two more in Newport, Co Mayo, to Hugh O'Donnell, †1798 and James Moore O'Donnell, †1800.
His wife Lavinia died young and was buried in St George’s churchyard. The sculptor subsequently married Anne Byrne, the grandmother of J H Foley and E A Foley. Schrowder's business was conducted from 6 Montgomery Street, where ‘with his long silvery locks, and surrounded with his tools, models and marbles, [he] was a familiar and venerable figure in the eyes of the younger generation of the household, one of whom was destined to occupy a distinguished, and another a pre-eminent, position in the world of art’ (Atkinson 1882, 7-8).
The sculptor died in 1826 and was buried near his wife. He carved a medallion portrait of himself on a black slab intended to form his monument. In the event the sum required to gain permission for this structure was too great and Schrowder is instead commemorated with a simple tombstone in the churchyard.
Literary References: Atkinson 1882, 7-8; Strickland II, 1913, 325; Hutchison 1960-62, 138; Gunnis 1968, 345; Potterton 1975, 77-78