Details of Sculptor

Surname

Chandler

Alternative Surname

First Name

Samuel

Initial of Surname

C

Year of Birth/Baptism

Flourished

Year of Death

1769

Biographical Details

A mason and monumental sculptor, his principal signed monument is the ‘towering mass of marble’ commemorating Edmund Humphrey (1). This has a reclining figure of the deceased with standing life-size figures of his parents and grandparents in niches above him. Humphrey approved the design before his death and directed that a sum of £1,000 and more if necessary should be spent on its erection. Gunnis regarded it as ‘overpowering for a village church, but…nevertheless one of the most important early-eighteenth-century monuments in England’ (Gunnis 1968, 91).
He also signs a monument with Corinthian pillars supporting a broken pediment in Worcestershire (2). In 1730 he was paid for the stone tablet over the doorway of Walthamstow Workhouse, a building now used as a museum (3; Workhouse Archives). From 1741 to 1758 Chandler was mason for the Trinity Almshouses, Stepney, London.
He was buried in Wanstead, Essex on January 30 1769. By his will, proved the following day, he left his business, stock in trade, books and all other belongings to Martha, his wife. His business was located in Mile End.
Literary References: Rogers 1957, 1371
Archival References: GPC
Will: PROB 11/945/62