Details of Sculptor

Surname

Banckes

Alternative Surname

First Name

Henry

Initial of Surname

B

Year of Birth/Baptism

1679

Flourished

Year of Death

1716

Biographical Details

He was the son of Matthew Bankes (†1706), who became His Majesty’s Master-Carpenter under Charles II in 1663 and was reappointed by William and Mary in 1689. Young Banckes was apprenticed to Edward Strong I in 1695, and from 1705 onwards he was working at Blenheim Palace, where he built the colonnades of the Great Court. He also occasionally supplied small quantities of stone for Blenheim from the quarry he owned at Guiting, near Winchcomb. He was employed at Marlborough House between 1709 and 1712, and in 1713 received £41 for work at the Royal Mews, Charing Cross. In 1715 he went to Windsor Castle, where he was paid for stonework and flooring ‘at the altar’, seats ‘with bear’ and sideboards (TNA WORK AO 1/2448/149). He died in 1716 and was buried at Hampton, Middx, where a much-worn slab on the floor of the church tower commemorates him.
Literary References: Malcolm IV 1803-7, 317; Wren Society, VII, 228; XV, 122; XVI, 167, 177; XVIII, 164; Green 1951, passim; Gunnis 1968, 37