Details of Sculptor

Surname

Vere

Alternative Surname

First Name

William, of Stratford-by-Bow

Initial of Surname

V

Year of Birth/Baptism

Flourished

1762-90

Year of Death

Biographical Details

The son of Thomas Vere, a corn-factor of Barking, Essex, he was apprenticed to Thomas Vidgeon on 5 October 1762, becoming free of the Masons’ Company in 1775. In 1787 he was appointed steward of the Masons’ Company, but asked to be allowed to refuse the office as he had met with an accident and hurt his leg. The Court would not accept this excuse and ordered their clerk to write ‘peremptorily to him to attend’ (Masons’ Co, Court Book, 1751-96, 4 Oct 1787). His son, also William, became a liveryman of the Masons’ Company and took two apprentices under its auspices, Thomas Humphrey (1786) and Robert Cooke (1795). The Feake monument is 12 feet high and has a pyramid, in front of which stands a large urn with a well-carved relief of an East Indiaman in full sail (2).
Literary References: Gunnis 1968, 409; Webb 1999, 8, 18, 34
Archival References: Masons’ Co, Freemen , fol 70, 17th Jan 1776; GPC