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John Purling

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From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

John Purling (1727–1800) was an East India Company commander and director, art collector and politician, who sat in the House of Commons between 1770 and 1790.

John Purling, painted in the 1770s by Thomas Gainsborough

Purling was born on the island of St Helena on 27 January 1727, the youngest of three sons of John Purling and his wife Elizabeth Bazett.[1][2] A Mr or Captain John Purling was allowed by the East India Company to travel to St Helena in 1750 at his own expense,[3] where in March 1751, described as a merchant of the City of London, he received from his brother Matthew the sum of £1,158 0s 0d for "a hundred and ten acres and a half of freehold, sixty-two acres and a half of leasehold, houses, two dwellings at the Fort in Chapel Valley, and his whole share of the personal estate of their father, mother and brother", identified as "the complete transfer of [his] inheritance on the island", and also the largest transaction in St Helena currency of the 1750s.[4]

At some point Purling entered the company's shipping service, in which he rose to be commander of the Indiaman Sandwich from 1753 to 1759, and Neptune from 1760 to 1762. Following his last highly profitable China voyage he resigned the service, and in April 1763 was elected a director of the Company.[3]

In 1770, Purling became deputy chairman of the East India Company and purchased the estate of Bradford Peverell in Dorset. Also in 1770 he stood in a by-election at New Shoreham in opposition to two other members of the East Indian Company, Thomas Rumbold and William James. Although Purling came second on the poll he was declared elected Member of Parliament by the returning officer who was concerned at the level of bribery and corruption by other candidates. However he was unseated on petition. In 1771 he became chairman of the East India Company. In a by-election in 1772 he was returned unopposed as MP for East Looe on the interest of John Buller senior. In 1772 the East India Company ran into financial difficulties, and Purling as its chairman was criticized for misleading the proprietors about their position. Although the control of the company's affairs really rested with Sulivan and Sir George Colebrook and Purling's responsibility was largely nominal, he refused to stand for re-election as chairman in 1773. In a speech in Parliament on 23 March 1773, he welcomed parliamentary investigation into the company's affairs. In 1774 he took the lead in pressing for the compensation of East India commanders adversely affected by the shipping reforms resulting from the Regulating Act 1773. In 1774 he was returned unopposed for Weymouth and Melcombe Regis. He became a director of the EIC again in 1777 and remained until 1780. In 1780 he was returned for Weymouth unopposed. He was a member of the St. Alban's Tavern group, which tried to bring about a union between Pitt and Fox. He was returned unopposed for Weymouth again in 1784 but did not stand in 1790.[3]

Family

[edit]

Purling married Nancy FitzHugh in 1755. Born in 1725, she was the daughter of William FitzHugh (1684-1730), who had himself been an East India Company captain, and his wife Mary Pyne.[1] Nancy died on 19 April 1793. The two had no children.[1]

Purling's brother Matthew (born 1720) married Frances Wrangham on Saint Helena in 1743, being described in the certificate of marriage as a "factor and planter".[5] He was one of the governing council of the island from the 1740s to the 1760s, but re-located by 1767 to join John in London.[5] Portraits of Matthew's youngest son George and youngest daughter Caroline, the latter painted by George Romney in the spring of 1778, were auctioned in October 2023.[5][6][7][8] Purling's estate at Bradford Peverell passed to Matthew's son George Purling (died 1840), then Matthew's grandson John Charles Purling (died 1848), then Matthew's great-grandson Hastings Nathaniel Middleton (1809-1898).[9][10] Matthew died in 1791.[11]

Purling himself died on 23 August 1800, "in his 74th year".[12][13] His will mentions property near Weymouth and Ramsay in Huntingdonshire, and also at St. Vincent in the West Indies.[3][14] He built up a large collection of works of art by Raphael, Correggio, Carracci, Guido, Parmegiano, Claude, Titian, Tintoretto, S. Ricci, Domenichino, P. Veronese, P. Da Cortona, C. Maratti, Poussin, Murillo, Cuyp, Rubens, Teniers, Zuccarelli, Wilson, Wouvermans, P. Potter, Vanderwerff, Vandervelde, Berchem, Ferg and others. These were auctioned in 1801 after his death, at his residence at 68 Portland Place,[15][16] as were the furniture and the property itself.[17]

References

[edit]
  1. 1 2 3 Rev. Victor C. A. FitzHugh, "The FitzHugh Family", The Virginia Magazine of History and Biography, Vol. 40, No. 2 (Apr., 1932), pp. 187-204, at p. 196. JSTOR 4244454.
  2. ↑ St Helena Parish Records. Historical Papers Research Archive, University of the Witwatersrand, ref ZA HPRA AB2073-1.1.2 (pdf frame 35 of 215)
  3. 1 2 3 4 Mary M. Drummond and Lucy S. Sutherland (1964). "PURLING, John (?1722-1800), of Bradford Peverell, Dorset". History of Parliament Online. Retrieved 23 September 2017.
  4. ↑ Register of Deeds 1729-1762, StHelenaHistory.com website. Accessed 2026-08-18
  5. 1 2 3 Alex Kidson ([2023]), Portrait of Caroline Purling (c.1750-1819), via Richard Green fine paintings
  6. ↑ Alex Kidson ([2023]), Portrait of a young gentleman, George Purling (1764/5-1840) via easyliveauction.com
  7. ↑ Humphrey Ward and W. Roberts (1904), Romney: a Biographical and Critical Essay, with a Catalogue Raisonné of his Works, vol 2, p.128; see also vol 1, p. 86
  8. ↑ George Romney portraits could fetch thousands, Antique Collecting magazine, 2 October 2023
  9. ↑ L.G. Pine, ed. (1939), Burke's Landed Gentry, 16th ed, p.1592 s.v. Middleton of Bradford Peverell.
  10. ↑ Bradford Peverell, Dorset Ancestors blog, 8 November 2012
  11. ↑ European Magazine (April 1791), p.320 "April 5. Matthew Purling, Esq. Wimpole-Street".
    Gentleman's Magazine (April 1791), p. 388 "April 8. In Wimpole-str. Matthew Purling, esq."
    Thomas Smith (1833), A topographical and historical account of the parish of St. Mary-le-Bone. London: J. Smith; pp. 131-2: "Cemetery on the North Side of Paddington Street ... Frances Purling, wife of Matthew Purling, Esq. 1787 ... Matthew Purling, Esq, 1791."
  12. ↑ Memorial Inscription, Marylebone Parish Church. See Bob Speel, Monuments in St Marylebone (Marylebone New Church), Marylebone Road (with photo). Accessed 2026-08-19.
    Thomas Smith (1833), A topographical and historical account of the parish of St. Mary-le-Bone. London: J. Smith; p. 73. Cited by Find-a-Grave memorial 274280781.
  13. ↑ Cf Gentleman's Magazine (September 1800), p. 903 "Aug. 23. At his house in Portland-place, aged 78, John Purling, esq."
  14. ↑ John Purling entry, UCL Legacies of British Slavery database. Accessed 2026-08-19.
  15. ↑ John White, auctioneer (1801), A Catalogue of the Renowned and Valuable Collection of Pictures of John Purling Esq
  16. ↑ No.68 Portland Place (now the site of No.13) was the southernmost house on the western side in the development of Portland Place by Robert and James Adam, adjacent to the gardens of Foley House. (See for example Horwood's Map of London (1792-99), georeferenced at Layers of London; also plot diagram based on White's plan (1797-9) in Bolton (1922), The Architecture of Robert and James Adam vol 2, p.102). Purling bought the lease to the house off plan in 1775; together with No.1 opposite it was the first to be completed, in 1777 (Survey of London vol 51/52 (2016), ch.17). The original 1775 lease agreement to Purling from the Adam brothers and the Duke of Portland, including a diagram of the site, was available for sale on eBay in 2026.
  17. ↑ Oracle and the Daily Advertiser (London), Friday 23 January 1801, p. 4, bottom of col 3 (via British Newspaper Archive)

See also:

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