Details of Sculptor

Surname

Rouchead

Alternative Surname

First Name

Alexander

Initial of Surname

R

Year of Birth/Baptism

Flourished

Year of Death

- 1776

Biographical Details

A mason by trade, he was much employed in London, but also worked at Wimpole, Cambs, where James Gibbs remodelled the house in 1713-32, and he supplied a number of chimneypieces for the Duke of Atholl at Blair Castle (1). Rouchead became free of the Masons’ Company by redemption on 27 May 1728. At this date he was already active as a builder, for instance on the Harley estate in Oxford Street, where he took a plot in 1726, perhaps as a yard. As a result he was in contact with members of Lord Harley’s circle of artists, including Michael Rysbrack and, more important, several architects, including Roger Morris, George Shakespeare and Gibbs himself. These were probably a fruitful source of commissions. He later moved to North Audley Street, where he remained until his death.
There are a large number of payments to Rouchead (or ‘Roughhead’) in the accounts of the Duke of Kent at Hoare’s Bank between 1726 and 1728, and further payments in the 1730s. In 1748-50, under Matthew Brettingham, he was master-mason for building Norfolk House, St James’s Square, receiving in total, over £1,800. In 1753 he was paid £49 17s 8d for ‘marble work’ at Euston Hall, Suffolk, then being extended by the same architect (PRO, c.108/362, in GPC). He appears to be identical with the ‘Alexander Rovehead’ of London, who perhaps designed and certainly superintended the erection of the naval hospital at Stonehouse, Plymouth, 1758-64. In 1764-66 he worked as a mason at 15 St James’s Square under the architect, James Stuart, who mentioned his name in a letter written late in 1764 to the patron, Thomas Anson: ‘ the masons have proceeded but slowly but Rouchead is at length arrived in town & we shall unless I am greatly deceived cover in by Christmas’ (Anson Papers, Staffs RO D.615 P(S)/1/6).
Several of his apprentices are recorded in the Masons’ Company lists, including his son, Alexander, who was apprenticed to him on 29 October 1744. Four others joined him in the 1730s, John Bland (1733), William North (1737), Edward Beck (1736) and George Diorrell (1736).
Literary References: Friedman 1984, 24, 207, 295; Roscoe 1987, 181; Colvin 1995, 835-6; Webb 1999, 3, 4, 11, 24, 29
Archival References: Hoare’s Customer Ledger, 1725-1728, vol I, fol 318; fol 371; fol 460; fol 73 (payments received 1726); fol 144 (1726, first name given as Alexander; fol 251 (July 1727); fol 284 (Oct 1727); Hoare’s Customer Ledger, 1728-1731, vol K, fols 29, 91; GPC