Thomas Willement

Thomas Willement (18 July 1786 – 10 March 1871) was an English stained glass artist and writer, called "the father of Victorian stained glass", active from 1811 to 1865.

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. 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.

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).

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 established a lucrative business 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 Harlaxton in Lincolnshire. Between 1833 and 1840 Willement repeatedly supplied windows and decorated Alton Towers, Staffordshire, for the Earl of Shrewsbury.

Willement's work with churches began during this period, including St Martin of Tours, Epsom in 1824, the east window of St Peter ad Vincula Church, Hampton Lucy, Warwickshire in 1837, and Saint Michael and All Angels, Barbados in 1838.

Willement was appointed heraldic artist to George IV and in 1832 was elected a fellow of the Society of Antiquaries.

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.

In 1846–47, Willement made eight stained-glass windows with heraldic designs for St Michael and All Angels Church, Badminton, Gloucestershire. They all feature blue borders and badges in the yellow of the Duke of Beaufort's livery.

Willement's final commission was to provide the east window of the Savoy Chapel, after a fire in 1864 nearly destroyed the chapel. Willement had previously renovated the chapel ceiling and reglazed the east window after a fire in 1842.

Davington Priory
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.

Selected works
Willement comprehensively documented his early work (1812-1840) in A Concise Account of the Principal Works in Stained Glass that have been Executed by Thomas Willement (1840). Modern surveys encompassing Willement's entire career may be found in Wilkinson (1964) and Wright (1964-65). A select list of buildings holding prominent examples of Willement's work includes:
 * Charlecote Park, Warwickshire, 1831
 * Christ's Hospital, Newgate, 1834-1840
 * St Peter ad Vincula Church, Hampton Lucy, Warwickshire, 1837 - east window
 * All Saints' Church, Freethorpe, Norfolk, c. 1849
 * Great Hall, Hampton Court Palace, 1844
 * St George's Chapel, Windsor Castle, 1840-1861
 * St Peter's Church, Huddersfield, West Yorkshire, 1852
 * Savoy Chapel, London, 1865 - east window

As contributor
- includes Willement's tracings from 1831

Other early 19th century firms

 * William Wailes
 * William Warrington
 * Charles Edmund Clutterbuck
 * Hardman & Co.
 * Augustus Welby Pugin
 * William Holland

Context

 * British and Irish stained glass (1811–1918)
 * Gothic Revival architecture
 * Poor Man's Bible
 * Edward Jesse
 * Edward Blore
 * Anthony Salvin