Details of Sculptor

Surname

Atkinson

Alternative Surname

First Name

Thomas, of York

Initial of Surname

A

Year of Birth/Baptism

Flourished

Year of Death

1798

Biographical Details

Atkinson was one of the leading architects in Yorkshire in the second half of the 18th century.He belonged to a long-standing family of York bricklayers and stonemasons and lived in the parish of St Saviour,York, with his first wife, Anne. Both husband and wife became Catholics during the 1760s and after Anne’s death he married another Catholic, and raised a second family. He took his son James as an apprentice in 1761, a year after he had become a freeman of York. Another son, Joseph, had been apprenticed to Samson White, ‘stonecutter of York’, in 1767, rather than his father, probably because the latter was, at that time, classed as a ‘foreigner’ (York City Archives). In 1763 he embarked on his major architectural work, the Gothic front and the gate-house of Bishopthorpe Palace for Archbishop Drummond, completed in 1769. He also made chimneypieces for the house (10). He was also employed at the Bar Convent in York, 1791-3. His monuments are of good provincial workmanship and are executed in coloured marbles.
On 1 May 1765 he dissolved a partnership with Joseph Atkinson of York, who may perhaps have been his brother. Thomas stated in the local press that he had built a new shop adjoining the previous one, and that he was prepared to make estimates for ‘Churches, Monuments and Chimney Pieces’. Joseph Atkinson countered on 21 May by announcing in the York Courant that he would carry on the ‘marble and stone business at St. Andrew’s Gate’ in its various branches and that ‘all future favours will ever be gratefully acknowledged and executed with great exactness’.
Thomas’s sudden death was reported in the York Herald on 4 May 1798. John Platt wrote to Mr Iveson, the steward at Burton Constable ‘May 5. 1798. Mr Thomas Atkinson dropt down dead between 12 and one o’clock yesterday near his own door’ (Chichester-Constable Archives quoted in GPC). He left his business to his son, John. There is a tablet commemorating Thomas in St Saviour, York.
Literary References : Gunnis 1968, 22; Aveling 1970, 129, 150
Archival References: GPC