I am researching an 18th century oil portrait of a gentleman standing in a landscape next to rocky escarpment, in his hand he is holding a piece of ore, which looks gold in colour with his other hand he is pointing to this piece of ore. On the relined canvas there is the word "Tissington" written in modern ink, probably by the reliner (taken from the original canvas) I was wondering if you knew of any academics who i could contact who have a good knowledge of the key players of mineralogy and geology in the 18th century, who might be able to help me identify the sitter in the portrait. The portrait itself is 50 x 40 inches, so grand and imposing, so i would suggest that the sitter could be a significant personality in the field of mineralogy or geology. if you reply i can email you an image, sadly there is no upload facility on your museum web site. perhaps this would be something tat could go in the newsletter or be forwarded to a specialist historian of 18th century mineralogy or geology ? the portrait from a sale in manchester, it has been in a private collection for about 50 odd years, the portrait is approximately 50 x 40 in. in size attached is an image, unfortunately we do not have any more information other than the inscription written on the side of the canvas “Tissington” which may or may not be a red herring, Tissington is in Derbyshire



There is a ref here to a Anthony Tissington:

https://www.google.co.uk/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=6&ved=0ahUKEwj7-omS_JHSAhUUM8AKHe3ECbcQFggxMAU&url=http%3A%2F%2Fshropshirehistory.com%2Fmisc%2Fminerssussex.pdf&usg=AFQjCNGyBTz0tmSWAuyb6Eu335odJr6u-Q&sig2=xrF_1Wcby5KjXxNqRWNh8Q&bvm=bv.147134024,bs.2,d.d24&cad=rja 

A search on google for "Tissington mining" yields a fair few mining related results, have you tried it?



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There is a Tissington hall in Derbyshire.

More likely is the Tissington family who were deputy barmasters in Matlock.
George Tissington in 1738
and his son Anthony in 1772
so a very strong connection to Lead and Coal mining along with references to limestone mining in Sussex. :smartass:

thanks i see that Copper was also exploited in Derbyshire, the Ecton mine was historically very important. It’s possible the image is of chalcopyrite (greenish gold in lustre and would be possible to get a lump this big!)

Tissington's only a few miles from Ecton, but the Fitzherberts of Tissington Hall didn't, as far as I'm aware, have any involvement there. I'll recheck and see whether they (or the Matlock Tissingtons) were shareholders in the company that leased Ecton up to 1760, when the Duke of Devonshire took the mine back and worked it on his own account. There were certainly large bits of chalcopyrite brought out of Ecton, though.

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many thanks for your observations, all very interesting and very helpful, much appreciated. greg

of course Anthony Tissington was a mineral agent for the Duke of Devonshire so there is a strong possibility he was involved with Ecton

Hi Greg

Told you AN was the right shop for you.
;D

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of course Anthony Tissington was a mineral agent for the Duke of Devonshire so there is a strong possibility he was involved with Ecton

Of course what you need is a copy of "Delving ever Deeper" an account of the history and archaeology of the Ecton mines written by John Barnatt and published by English Heritage.

Dave Williams

From recollection I don't think he was involved - Robert Shore of Snitterton was initially the Duke's agent at Ecton after 1760 but he was later dismissed for embezzlement and replaced with Cornelius Flint, who was in charge into the 19th century

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I have emailed Greg about this query as follows:

Your query was passed on to me as the expert on mining in the Matlock area.
I concur that the portrait is almost certainly of Anthony Tissington. I have a definitive book on the Matlock mines (supposedly my PhD thesis - over 5,000 source notes) almost ready for publication and from the draft I extract the following about Anthony Tissington in case it may assist your research.
The most influential of Derbyshire mine agents were of the Tissington family from the important mining area of Winster. In 1767, Erasmus Darwin, a prominent member of the Lunar Society, described Anthony and his brother, George Tissington, as ‘subterranean Genii’. Born at Darley Dale in 1705, Anthony Tissington was an erudite mine agent and owner who was barmaster of Matlock Liberty c.1730-35. He seems to have been a brother-in-law of a later Matlock barmaster, Anthony Wragg. Anthony Tissington left Matlock in about 1735, becoming wealthy from coal mining at Swanwick rather than any Derbyshire lead mining investments. When elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1767, he was described as ‘a gentleman of great merit and well acquainted with philosophy’. Anthony Tissington leased metal mining rights in the Lake District in 1757, and at Leadhills, Scotland. He also acquired interests from Thomas Chambers of Derby who had made a vast fortune out of the copper trade. It has been claimed that Anthony Tissington ‘was Britain’s richest mining entrepreneur in 1760’.

Sources:
Uglow, Jenny, 2002. The Lunar Men. p144.
Flindall, Roger, 2000. What the Papers Said: Derbyshire in Nottingham Newspapers 1714-1776. p48.
Arkwright Papers, Willersley Castle A/05 No 29. I am obliged to Jim Rieuwerts for this reference.
http://www.royalsoc.ac.uk/library 27 January 2004.
Fell, Alfred, 1908. The Early Iron Industry of Furness and District. 464pp.
Payne, Peter Lester, 1967. Studies In Scottish Business History. 435pp. p118.
Craven, Maxwell, Derbeian’s Diary, Derby Evening Telegraph 9 Jan 2003 pp22-3.
Craven, Maxwell, 2004, in Derby Telegraph 23 Apr 2004

There is a Tissington hall in Derbyshire.

More likely is the Tissington family who were deputy barmasters in Matlock.
George Tissington in 1738
and his son Anthony in 1772
so a very strong connection to Lead and Coal mining along with references to limestone mining in Sussex. :smartass:

There was indeed a link to Sussex limestone mining in the Battle area. The Ashburnham Estate exploited sub-Wealden limestone deposits from the late 18th century into the 19th century and employed mining expertise from Derbyshire to do this. The limestone was all burnt in kilns and provided a much-needed local source of lime in the area, which was a long way from the nearest alternative source - the chalk of the South Downs.

This paper may be of interest:

http://shropshirehistory.com/misc/minerssussex.pdf 

Tissington is shown in a mine shaft holding a large piece Chalcopyrite Ore and there is apparently a large vein of it behind his right shoulder as we know Copper was also exploited in Derbyshire, and as Peter points out in his notes that Tissington also acquired interests from Thomas Chambers of Derby who had made a vast fortune out of the copper trade and this portrait may be alluding to that collaboration ?

This paper may be of interest:

http://shropshirehistory.com/misc/minerssussex.pdf 

I would hope that this article would be correctly referenced. It should be - Pearce A.J. (1990) Derbyshire Miners in Sussex. Bull. P.D.M.H.S 11:2 pp72-76. It is and has been available as a download from

http://www.pdmhs.com/docs/default-source/bulletins/bulletin-11-2/derbyshire-miners-in-sussex.pdf?sfvrsn=2 

Dave Williams

This paper may be of interest:

http://shropshirehistory.com/misc/minerssussex.pdf 

I would hope that this article would be correctly referenced. It should be - Pearce A.J. (1990) Derbyshire Miners in Sussex. Bull. P.D.M.H.S 11:2 pp72-76. It is and has been available as a download from

http://www.pdmhs.com/docs/default-source/bulletins/bulletin-11-2/derbyshire-miners-in-sussex.pdf?sfvrsn=2 

Dave Williams

To be fair
"Shropshirehistory" IS Adrian
so he does have a right to reproduce the item.

Don't want to cause an argument though! :surrender:

The document that opens has the reference right across the top - I am not sure how anyone would get it wrong.

It's possible that this thesis is tangentially linked;

http://etheses.dur.ac.uk/558/1/Brown_Combined_Final.pdf?DDD17+ 

It's quite extensive but page 271 might relate to the George Tissington mentioned earlier as the date of 1756 would seem about right.

I was looking for a reference to "Derbyshire Gentleman's Hush" near Newbiggin in Teesdale dating from 1732 but I'm still no wiser about who that gentleman may have been.

Jim

PS It's possible the place called Nichol Hopper Yard is an earlier name forYorkshire Silverband Mine.