| Notes: Mary ALKEN DUBUAR This information is part of the oral family history: Mary ALKEN of London was the daughter of a "wealthy and eminent sculptor for his then majesty George III, and resided in Westminster." She had two brothers one an officer in the army, the other a silk mercer. She married Francis DUBUAR and was promptly disinherited. Francis and Mary came to the US and settled in New York. Looking for more information about Mary and her London family or her stay in NY. According to the http://www.familysearch.org/ (Mormons) Mary ALKEN Sex: F Marriage(s): Spouse: Francis DUBUAR Marriage: 4 Feb 1779 Saint James, Westminster, London, England The following is still speculation and needs to be verified: It seems reasonable to assume that her father was Sefferien ALKEN. He worked with William Chambers who was a confidant to George III. This matches the oral history. http://www.artnet.com/library/00/0018/T001852.asp Sefferien ALKEN: Alken English family of artists of Danish descent. The earliest member active in England was Sefferien ALKEN (1717�82), who was a wood-carver, gilder and stone-carver employed by William CHAMBERS*. His son (1) Samuel ALKEN was an engraver. Four of Samuel ALKEN'S sons, Samuel ALKEN (1784�c. 1825), (2) Henry (Thomas) ALKEN, George ALKEN (c. 1794�?1837) and Sefferien John ALKEN (1796�1857), were sporting artists. In the next generation Henry ALKEN�S sons Samuel Henry (Gordon) ALKEN (1810�94), known as Henry ALKEN junior, and Sefferien ALKEN (1821�73) were also artists. According to the http://www.familysearch.org/ (Mormons): Seffrien ALKEN Sex: M Marriage(s): Spouse: Eleanor BROADMEAD Marriage: 1739 London, London, England However, all the art history things I find put him as father of Samuel Alken (brother to Mary?) and he (Samuel) has a different mother "Ann" and not "Eleanor" Nancy's Questions: Samuel was born in 1756 to Ann and Seffrien ALKEN. 17 years after his marriage to Eleanor. Was Mary his half sister with Eleanor as her mother? She married in 1779...Samuel was 23 in 1779. Are there other ALKEN brothers who are NOT artists--the silk merchant and army officer of family lore? Samuel ALKEN Sex: M Event(s): Birth: 1756 London, London, England Parents: Father: Seffrien ALKEN Mother: Ann *William CHAMBERS (b. Gothenburg, Sweden, 1723; d. London, 1796) http://www.greatbuildings.com/architects/William_Chambers.html Born the son of a Scottish merchant in Gothenburg, Sweden in 1723, William Chambers studied in England. He returned to Sweden at the age of sixteen to join the Swedish East India Company. His subsequent travels through Bengal and China gave him an Oriental perspective on art and design. By 1749 he had saved enough money from his travels to make architecture his only profession. Chambers studied in Paris and Italy, absorbing ideas current at the French Academy in Rome. Upon his return to England, Chambers became the architectural tutor to the Prince of Wales. This led to a long and fruitful patronage by the royal family. In 1761 Chambers was appointed as one of the Joint Architects of the King's Work and by 1769 he was so indispensable that he was appointed Comptroller of the King's Works. When the office was reorganized in 1782 he became the Surveyor General and the Comptroller. William Chambers was a confidant of George III and the first Treasurer of the Royal Academy of the Arts, which became public in 1768. He wrote a Treatise on Civil Architecture, and was a patron of John Soane while Soane was a student at the Academy. Chamber's architecture blended the symmetrical, well-ordered facades of Palladianism with early forms of Neoclassicism. He died in London in 1796. Pierre de la Ruffiniere du Prey. John Soane-the making of an architect. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1982. NA997.S7D85. 720'.92'4 B. ISBN 0-226-17298-8. (1) p56. (2) p61. (3) p85. Dennis Sharp. The Illustrated Encyclopedia of Architects and Architecture. New York: Quatro Publishing, 1991. ISBN 0-8230-2539-X. NA 40 I45. p 36. Other ALKEN Notes: The Artists Other ALKEN Info |