Details of Sculptor

Surname

Wise

Alternative Surname

First Name

Thomas I

Initial of Surname

W

Year of Birth/Baptism

Flourished

Year of Death

1685

Biographical Details

Wise, who was admitted to the freedom of the Masons’ Company by redemption in 1672 and became master in 1681, held the post of master mason to the Crown at Windsor Castle and in the office of works from 6 June 1678 until his death in December 1685. Nothing is known of his origins but he seems to have had connections with the Isle of Portland. He is first recorded in 1665, working with Stephen Switzer at Greenwich Palace, where their work included stonecarving (4). In 1681 he was employed at the Tower of London, where he supplied a chimneypiece for Lord Alington’s apartment (1). The following year he made improvements to the Queen’s chapel at St James’s Palace, and in 1685 he was employed at Chelsea Hospital.
He had considerable employment at Whitehall where, in 1682, he made a Portland stone chimneypiece for the Queen’s Room in ‘King Charles’s new building’ (2) and ‘laid down Purbeck paving in the Duke of York’s passage’(TNA WORK 5/37 fols 39, 91). In 1684 he supplied marble for three chimneypieces in the Duchess’s lodgings among sundry other works (TNA WORK 5/38, fols 11, 19, 28, 59, 70, 79). By October 1685 he was working on the privy gallery building, where he received a number of payments including £23 19s for Portland stone ‘in the little front leading to the Chapell and the Corbell over the arch in the great Staircase’ and £3 4s, made for ‘carving in the Architrave 4 cherubim’s heads’ (TNA WORK 5/54 fols 42, 81). He worked at Whitehall until his death and the last payments were made to the ‘Executors for Thomas Wise. Late Master Mason’ in July 1686 (TNA WORK 5/54 fols 42, 81, 105).
Wise worked under Wren on rebuilding the City churches, receiving total payments of £1,019 at St Michael Wood Street between March 1670 and October 1687, £3,141 at St Nicholas Cole Abbey between November 1671 and June 1681, and £2,658 at St Benet Gracechurch, built between August 1681 and August 1687. His work at these churches included some carved stonework (5, 8, 9).
He was also a mason contractor at St Paul’s Cathedral. In December 1678 he agreed to ‘continue the building of the S.W Leggs of the Dome with the Great Staircase from the midle of the Window on the W. Side of the S. Cross Isle from the Stoole of the Window upwards to the height of the Stay-barrs’ and a year later signed a contract for work on a part of the building ‘from the midle of the W. Window of the S. Portico so farr South Westwards as he shall be directed, together with the S.W Corner of the Dome, and the Great Round Staires soe high as he shall be directed’ (Wren Soc, XVI, 17-8). This work included ornamental sculpture, such as ‘Masoning and carving 6 Cartouches over ye Doore & Neeches’ for £9, ‘carving 4 ffestoones 10 feet long each at £20 p. piece’ and ‘Carving 36 Pannells with fflowers & enrichments of ye Mouldings at £3. 5s. each Pannell £117’ (Wren Soc, XIII, 146). In a further contract of April 1681, Wise undertook, together with Thomas Strong, Edward Pearce and Jasper Latham, to carve ‘the great Capitells of the Pilasters both for the Inside & the Outside’ (Wren Soc, XVI, 20) (6). He continued to work at St Paul’s until his death and during the period he and his executors received a total of £5,616 18s 10d.
Wise, who was described as late of Whitefriars, London, widower, in his will, is commemorated by a monument at St Mary, Winkfield, Berks. He left three sons, two of whom, Thomas Wise II and William Wise, were masons. Wise’s pupils included Benjamin, son of Giles Pearce, of the Isle of Portland, mason, who was apprenticed to him in 1672.
Literary References: Weaver 1915, 15, 16, 20; Knoop and Jones 1935, 35-6; Wren Soc, VII, X, XI, XIII, XIV, XV, XVI, XVIII, XIX, passim; Colvin V, 1973-6, 249, 471, 478; Gunnis 1968, 438
Archival References: Masons’ Co, Freedom Register, 1663-94; Court Book, 1677-94, fol 41v; RG/JP, 9, 1610
Will: PROB 11/382 (proved 22 Feb 1685/6)