Benjamin West and Elizabeth Shewell

---

---

Husband Benjamin West ^{1 2}

---

           Born: 1738 - Springfield Twp, Delaware Co, PA 1
     Christened: 
           Died: 11 Mar 1820 - London, England 2
         Buried: 

---

         Father: John West (1690-1776) 3 4
         Mother: Sarah Pearson (1697-1756) 1 2

---

       Marriage: 2 Sep 1765

---

---

Wife Elizabeth Shewell ¹

---

           Born: 
     Christened: 
           Died: 
         Buried: 

---

         Father: [Father] Shewell (      -      )
         Mother: 

---

---

Children

---

---

General Notes: Husband - Benjamin West

---

Mr. H. W. O. Margery, supplies the following narrative:
Benjamin West was born in Chester, Pennsylvania, in 1738. His grandfather had been an intimate friend of the celebrated John Hampton, but subsequently became a Friend and threw his lot with the early settlers of Pennsylvania. All his ancestors between his grandfather and little Benjamin were sturdy, consistent Quakers.
How the gift of drawing came to him our knowledge of the laws of heredity leaves unexplained, but rare ability showed itself at a very early age, one of the attempts being the sketch of an infant niece, whom, as a boy, he had been set to watch in its cradle. The child smiled in its sleep, and the uncle, then but seven years of age, seized by an impulse to produce the charming picture, succeeded with pen and ink in making a likeness that astonished the family and determined his future. As the boy's genius became more and more evident, it was the desire of his father and mother to fit him worthily for an artist's' profession, but this involved the question whether that would be consistent with the principles of the Society of Friends, and, before deciding, the counsel of weighty Friends was requested. It is related that John Williamson, a respected minister, gave his judgment as follows: He referred to the blameless reputation of the parents, and how their children had been brought up religiously by them. In this, their youngest son, was a manifest inspiration for art, and though by the Society its utility might be questioned, it was so evidently in this case a divine gift as to render it sure there must have been some wise purpose in its bestowal, "so let us not (he said) in our ignorance attempt to cross divine counsels, but see in this evident propensity of the young man a pointing of the divine finger toward some high and beneficent end." And the Friends besought the Lord "to verify in his life the value of the gift which, despite of their prepossessions, they had acknowledged." Thus his future was settled, and the young artist rose step by step, until he became the successor of Sir Joshua Reynolds as president of the British Royal Academy, and intimate friend of the king of England. The king maintained that Benjamin West's adhesion to the principles of the Quakers was a recommendation in his favor. The king once remarked in his presence, as a reproof to a bishop who spoke slightingly of the Friends, "The Quakers are a body of Christians for whom I have a high respect. I love their peaceful tenets and their benevolence one to another, and but for the obligations of birth I would be a Quaker."
There is one more scene, the closing one, of interest to us. The Quaker artist was borne to his final resting place in St. Paul's Cathedral. Born in circumstances of extremest privacy and insignificance, he is honored with a public funeral, accompanied with all the pomp and circumstance the greatest country in the world could supply. The pall is equally borne by English nobles, foreign ambassadors and Royal Academicians. His sons and grandsons are among the great mourners. More than sixty carriages, containing the great and noble of this world, closed the splendid procession, and the mortal remains of Benjamin West lie by those of Wren, Opie, Barry and Reynolds, in St. Paul's. There are many direct descendants of the great painter still living, though none of them bear the name of West.

Many valuable relics were carefully preserved by members of the family now (1904) living, among them being an ancient clock brought from England by an early ancestor; the West family seal; an engraving of Benjamin West and his family, John West, the emigrant, being one of the group; and a gold medallion portrait of Benjamin West, presented by the painter himself to his nephew, Samuel West, with the injunction that it be transmitted to sons only, in order to be always associated with the family name. It is also to be said that the old family homestead at Shepherd's Plain, built in 1696, is yet standing and is in a good state of preservation.

---

Notes: Marriage

---

Benjamin West's romantic marriage is an interesting episode in his eventful life. It can best be given by copying a letter to the secretary of the Historical Society of Pennsylvania.
"Elizabeth Shewell became acquainted with Benjamin West, afterward the celebrated artist, and they fell in love with each other. West, at that time, although descended from a good family, was poor and little known. Stephen Shewell wished his sister to marry another suitor, which she refused to do, in consequence of her attachment to West. The brother objected to West on account of his poverty and obscurity, and he was forbidden to come to the house. Elizabeth Shewell, however, continued to see him elsewhere, and they became engaged to be married. West then determined to go to Europe and prosecute his studies and profession there, and Elizabeth Shewell promised him that when he notified her of his ability to maintain her, and of his wish for her to come to him, she would proceed to join him in any part of Europe and marry him. Her brother was informed of her meetings with West and of their engagement. So to prevent any further intercourse between them, he confined her to her chamber and kept her under lock and key until after West's departure for Europe.
"He pursued his studies and profession for some time in various places on the continent, and finally settled at London, where he soon met with sufficient patronage to justify him in calling on Elizabeth Shewell to fulfill her promise. He then made arrangements for her to come in the same vessel that conveyed his request to her, and also, that his father should accompany her on the voyage. Upon the receipt of his message Elizabeth Shewell prepared for her departure, but her brother was apprised of her intention and again confined her to her chamber.
"Her engagement to West was well known in Philadelphia, and her brother's tyrannical treatment of her excited great indignation against him and strong sympathy for his sister. In this state of things the late Bishop White, who was my guest on his last patriarchal visit to Easton, told us that he (then about eighteen years of age) and Dr. Franklin (about fifty-nine years of age) and Francis Hopkins (twenty-nine years of age), when the vessel was ready to sail, procured a rope ladder, went to the captain, engaged him to set sail as soon as they brought a lady on board, took John West to the ship, and went at midnight to Stephen Shewell's house, attached the rope ladder to a window in Elizabeth Shewell's chamber, and got her safely out and to the vessel, which sailed a few minutes after she entered it. I observed to the Bishop that few persons who knew him now would believe that he had once been knight-errant, and liberated an imprisoned damsel. He replied that her case was a hard one, and all her friends were indignant at the treatment she had received, that he had done right, and, he added with warmth, if it were needed, he would do it again, for it was evident that God intended that they should come together and man had no right to keep them asunder. They were married 9 mo., 2, 1765, and for fifty years their lives were joined in kind and tender companionship, neither of them ever returning to this country."

1 —, Encyclopedia of Genealogy and Biography of the State of Pennsylvania, Vol. I (New York, Chicago: The Lewis Publishing Co., 1904), Pg 665.

2 John W. Jordan, LL.D., Colonial and Revolutionary Families of Pennsylvania (New York, Chicago: The Lewis Publishing Company, 1911), Pg 424.

3 —, Encyclopedia of Genealogy and Biography of the State of Pennsylvania, Vol. I (New York, Chicago: The Lewis Publishing Co., 1904), Pg 664.

4 John W. Jordan, LL.D., Colonial and Revolutionary Families of Pennsylvania (New York, Chicago: The Lewis Publishing Company, 1911), Pg 424, 606.