Details of Sculptor

Surname

Stanton

Alternative Surname

First Name

Thomas

Initial of Surname

S

Year of Birth/Baptism

c1610

Flourished

Year of Death

1674

Biographical Details

Thomas Stanton is the earliest recorded member of a family of masons and sculptors active until well into the 18th century, chiefly known for memorials, although they also took on some important masonry contracts. He was born in 1609 or 1610 and was apprenticed to Christopher Kingsfield, becoming free of the Masons’ Company in February 1631, a warden in 1657 and master in 1660. By May 1638 he was living in the parish of St Andrew, Holborn, and by about 1639 he had premises next to St Andrew’s church where he lived until his death.
His first documented work is a floor slab with a relief carving to Jane Isham, at Lamport, for which a signed design survives (Northants RO I.L.1635) (1).The memorial to Judith Combe, described by Vertue as of ‘tolerable taste’ and by Whinney as ‘conservative’ has two half-length figures holding hands (2). Stanton’s most ambitious work is the monument to Dame Jane Bacon, at Culford, a large black and white tomb dominated by a seated figure of the deceased with a child on her lap, with a row of little girls standing to either side. The stiff effigy of her husband is below (4). Whinney considered the work heavy and clumsy, but commented that the design is a welcome change from the wide-spread type with kneeling figures. The contract relates that Stanton was paid £300 for the monument, but the client was responsible for freight and its setting up (HMC Verulam MSS (1906) 54). It was to be executed ‘according to the best skill of a stone-cutter, alle in whit and black marble without the addition of any other ston whatsoever’. The agreement also survives for the Heath monument at Brasted, with receipts for payments in 1664 and 1666 (BM Egerton MS 2985 fols 94, 95). Brasses formed a significant part of Stanton’s output.
White lists ten monuments attributed to the sculptor on stylistic grounds. These include the Thomasine Benet (†1645) at Wroughton, Wilts; Symeon Brograve and his wife (she †1645) at Braughing, Herts; Sir Henry Audley, 1648 at Berechurch, Essex; Edward Boys (†1649) at Betteshanger, Kent; William Draper and wife (she †1652) at St Paulinus, Crayford; Charles and Francis Tufton (†1652 and 1657) at Bobbing, Kent; Sir Richard Halford, 1659, at Wistow, Leics; Laetitia Boys (†1660), at Betteshanger, Kent; Sir William Cornwallis at Oakley, Suffolk and Sir William Wiseman and wife (she † 1662) at Great Canfield, Essex. Stanton died on 24 May 1674 and was buried in the family tomb in Holborn. His son Thomas, who was apprenticed to him on 20 August 1668, predeceased him, and he was succeeded in business by his nephew William Stanton. In his will Stanton left his lands at Aldington, Kent, to his wife Frances and legacies to his grandchildren, Thomas, Elizabeth, and Robert, the children of his dead son Thomas. Stanton’s probate inventory lists his workshop and yard contents. In the shop were seven black marble gravestones, twelve black pilasters, five chimneypieces and other lumber. Eight more black marble grave stones were in the yard, but no identifiable sculpture was listed.
Literary References: Vertue IV 138; Esdaile 1930, 152; Knoop and Jones 1935, 21; Whinney 1988, 84, 135, 437 n58; Lack et al, 1994, 86-7, 118-9; Colvin 1995, 915-6; White 1999, 108-112; Webb 1999, 31
Will: PROB 4/14203