Details of Sculptor

Surname

Buckingham

Alternative Surname

First Name

Edward

Initial of Surname

B

Year of Birth/Baptism

Flourished

1672-1719

Year of Death

Biographical Details

Buckingham was apprenticed to Nathaniel Turner in 1672 and became free of the Masons’ Company in 1681. He lived in the parish of St Clement Danes. He was the chief mason for the Inner Temple between 1693 and 1711, receiving £115 in part payment ‘for work done around’ the Temple Church in 1696 (Inderwick 1896-1936, III, 337). His son Jeremiah was apprenticed to him in the same year and was made free on 17 January 1704.
In 1701 Buckingham was at Knole, Sevenoaks, where he was paid £100 for unspecified work (Sackville Archives, cited by Gunnis 1968, 68). He was living in ‘Clements Lane by Clare Market’ in 1708 according to a list of Masons’ Company members. He became Master of the Company in 1716.
Buckingham erected a number of houses in London as a speculative builder, insuring them with the Westminster Fire Office. They included two of brick in Great George Street (insured for £550 and £850) and another in Prince’s Street, Spitalfields, built in 1718 (insured for £100). In 1719 he built a corner house in Great George Street, ‘Shepards’ Fields’, which belonged to the Hon George Carpenter in 1723. It must have been of considerable size since it was insured for £1,500. A second house in Prince’s Street, ‘Shepard’s Fields’ was insured for £200. Buckingham also contracted to build a house in Grosvenor Square in 1728 (Archives Glyn, Mills & Co, in GPC).
He may have been related to John Buckingham who built a house in London before 1730 for Richard Woolley, one of the directors of the South Sea Company (Inventory of Directors, South Sea Company).
Literary References: Gunnis 1968, 68
Archival References: Masons’ Co, Court Book, 1695-1722, fol 147 r; Freemen, fol 5 (17 Jan 1704); Company Members, 1708; WFO, PR, no 323 (19 Feb 1718), no 324 (19 Feb 1718), no 837 (1 Oct 1718), no 324 (27 June 1719), no 837 (27 June 1719); GPC