Regal heraldry: the armorial insignia of the kings and queens of England, from coeval authorities (1821)
Heraldic Notices of Canterbury Cathedral; with Genealogical and Topographical Notes (1827)
Facsimile of a contemporary roll with the names and the arms of the sovereign and of the spiritual and temporal peers who sat in parliament held at Westminster AD1515 (1829)
A Roll of Arms of the Reign of Richard the Second (1834)
Historical Sketch of the Parish of Davington, in the County of Kent and of the Priory there (1862)
Spouse
Katherine Griffith (1796-1852)
Children
Arthur Thomas Willement (1833-1854)
Thomas Willement (18 July 1786 – 10 March 1871) was an English stained glass artist, called "the father of Victorian stained glass",[citation needed] active from 1811 to 1865.[1]
Life
Willement was born at St Marylebone, London, the son of Thomas Willement, a painter of coaches and heraldry. As a young man Willement worked at his father's business at 25 Green Street, Grosvenor Square.[a] Like many early 19th century provincial stained glass artists, Willement started out as a plumber and glazier: two distinct trades both requiring lead-working skills. Willement became a leading and proficient stained-glass artist, reviving the medieval method of composing a window from separate pieces of coloured glass rather than painting pictures on glass with coloured enamels.[2]
Willement married Katharine Griffith in 1817. Their son, Arthur Thomas, was born in 1833 and died at Oxford in 1854, aged 21. Katherine died in 1852. Willement died in 1871, aged 84, and was buried alongside his wife in the vault of St Mary Magdalene, Davington, which he had restored (see Davington Priory).[2]
Historical background
The great period of medieval stained glass manufacturing between 1100 and the Tudor period ended in England after the Dissolution of the Monasteries under Henry VIII and the destruction of the Church’s artworks by Puritans during the Parliamentary period. Those few windows produced between 1500 and 1800 were generally of painted glass: the colours applied by brush to the surface of the glass and fired to anneal them, rather than the artist piecing numerous sections of coloured glass together.
Through observations of surviving windows, Willement reinvented the ancient method of leading coloured pieces and integrating the visually black lines created between the colours by the lead cames into the design of the window. From observing 14th-century windows such as the west window of York Minster, Willement developed the artistic method of arranging figures one to each single light, surmounted by a decorative canopy.
Works
Willement's first window was installed in 1812 in Caerhays Castle, Cornwall, for John Trevanion, and Willement went on to make a lucrative trade from decorating and installing heraldic stained glass in the country houses of landed gentry. In 1829 Willement installed windows in Goodrich Court, Herefordshire for Sir Samuel Meyrick, to whose Specimens of Ancient Furniture (1836) he later contributed. Willement would later work with the architect of Goodrich Court, Edward Blore, on a number of projects, including St George's Chapel, Windsor, and the Great Hall of Hampton Court Palace. In 1832 Willement began an extended association with architect Anthony Salvin, which would include work at Mamhead House in Devon, Rufford Abbey in Nottinghamshire, Scotney Castle in Kent and Harlaxtonin Lincolnshire. In 1833 Willement supplied windows and decorated Alton Towers, Staffordshire, for the Earl of Shrewsbury. Willement was appointed heraldic artiest to George IV and in 1832 was elected a fellow of the Society of Antiquaries.[2]
Willement was further encouraged after 1839 in the archaeological direction that his work took by the Cambridge Camden Society, who promoted all things Medievalising in the structure of new churches and the restoration of old ones. Willement was encouraged by the society and in 1840 received the patronage of Augustus Pugin, the ecclesiastical architect and designer of churches. However, Willement suffered a falling-out with Pugin who accused him of being mercenary. (Pugin also had previously fallen out with his first stained glass artist, Willement's pupil, William Warrington.) It is also possible that the style of Willement's figures was not sufficiently archaeologically correct to satisfy Pugin, who was himself a meticulous and elegant draftsman.
The break with Pugin did not set back Willement's success. Willement became, by Royal Patent, "Artist in Stained Glass" to Queen Victoria, making much armorial glass for St George's Chapel, Windsor, and restoring the ancient windows there. In 1851 he was one of the 25 stained glass artists who exhibited at the Crystal Palace Exhibition.
By 1845 Willement, aged 59, had become wealthy and looked around for a home with a suitable resonance in which to spend his later years. He purchased Davington Priory near Faversham in Kent, a nunnery established in the 12th century and complete with its own church (the buildings had been spared in the Dissolution because by 1527 there were only three elderly nuns remaining). Willement restored and extended the buildings to make a comfortable home, and installed his own heraldic glass with the motto "Thynke and Thanke". Since he owned the church as well, he refurbished it with stained glass and had Taylors of Loughborough install five bells, each cast with the same motto, in the bell tower.
Davington Priory has since 1983 been the home of the musician Bob Geldof.
Davington Priory, 1807 by Henry Petrie, when the Norman church was in use as a stable
Willement's arms at Davington Priory
Davington Priory, c. 1910
List of works
This list is incomplete; you can help by adding missing items. (January 2023)
Willement's bookplate in a copy of Remarks on the Seals Attached to the Letters from the Barons of England to Pope Boniface the Eighth in the Year 1301, Respecting the Sovereignty of Scotland, by Nicholas Harris Nicolas, London, 1826Regal Heraldry: the Armorial Insignia of the Kings and Queens of England, from Coeval Authorities. London, 1821.
Heraldic Notices of Canterbury Cathedral; with Genealogical and Topographical Notes. To Which is Added a Chronological List of the Archbishops of Canterbury, with the Blazon of their Respective Arms. London, 1827.
Fac Simile of a Contemporary Roll, with the Names and the Arms of the Sovereign, and of the Spiritual and Temporal Peers who sat in the Parliament held at Westminster AD 1515. London, 1829.
Banners Standards and Badges, From a Tudor Manuscript in the College of Arms With an Introduction by Howard De Walden. The De Walden Library, 1904 – contains Willement's tracings from 1831.
A Roll of Arms of the Reign of Richard the Second. London, 1834.
A Concise Account of the Principal Works in Stained Glass that have been Executed by Thomas Willement. London, 1840.
An Account of the Restorations of the Collegiate Chapel of St George, Windsor. With some Particulars of the Heraldic Ornaments of that Edifice. London, 1844.
Historical Sketch of the Parish of Davington, in the County of Kent, and of the Priory there. London, 1862.
Heraldic Antiquities: a Collection of Original Drawings of Charges, Arrangements of Early Examples, &c., with Numerous Engravings of Coats of Arms, Fac Similes of Stained Glass, and Tracings of Early Brasses. London, 1865.
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