Details of Sculptor

Surname

Shorthose

Alternative Surname

First Name

John

Initial of Surname

S

Year of Birth/Baptism

Flourished

Year of Death

- 1704

Biographical Details

He was the son of Thomas Shorthose, citizen and mason, who was warden of the Masons’ Company in 1676. John joined the livery in 1662. In 1669 he was paid £100 for restoration work at the Guildhall and another £70 in the following year. In 1674 he was paid £130 for further work and materials for Guildhall, the Sessions house, and several other public buildings. With his partner, Robert Mortimer, he was the master-mason employed in rebuilding the Coopers’ Hall, 1676-1682 (Company Archives). Shorthose also received numerous payments for work at Fleet Bridge.
He was employed under Wren on several of the City churches. He was the mason-contractor at St Olave, Jewry, where he was paid £3,366 between 1670 and 1679 (2). In the same capacity he, and his partner John Crooke, built Christ Church, Newgate (3), and both received £100 in July 1670, for mason’s work on Ludgate. In May 1680 he agreed to be master-mason with Edward Pearce at St Clement Danes, where the pair were paid £500 for their work in 1681. His one known monument dates from 1680 (1). The chapter book of Rochester Cathedral carries a note describing him as ‘mason & carver living in St Clement’s Lane without Temple Barr’. Shorthose had brought a letter from the deceased’s son, Henry Lee, regarding the ‘placing of a monument’. The following December the work had ‘begun to be sett up’ (Hope 1900, 122-3).
In 1681 Shorthose became upper warden of the Masons’ Company and he was master in 1685 and 1686. He married Mary (†1706), the daughter of Humphrey Moyer. Shorthose died in 1704 and his will was proved on 13 July that year.
Literary References: Wren Soc, 10, 108; Weaver 1915, 15; Knoop and Jones 1935, 31, n4; Green 1964 (1), 143
Archival References: TNA E.101. 475/2; Masons’ Co, Masters and Wardens; Guildhall MSS 184/4 p7, 10v, 22r, 31r; GPC
Will: PROB 11/477, 13 July 1704