Anthony Stephen Mathew

Portrait of Mathew by John Flaxman

Anthony Stephen Mathew (1734–1824^[1]) was a cleric the Church of England. He and his wife Harriet Mathew are most notable for their friendship and support of John Flaxman and William Blake and their gathering of intellectuals and artists salon in their house at Rathborne Place. Importantly, he was one of the original supporters of Blake's first collection of work Poetical Sketches (1783).^[2] Blake later satirised the Mathews, and the Johnson Circle, in the collection An Island in the Moon.^[3]

Career

At the age of 17, Mathew entered the college Peterhouse at Cambridge University, subsequently entering the Church of England. Anthony Stephen Mathew was the first incumbent of Percy Chapel, Charlotte Street, London starting in 1766 through 1804. He was succeeded by Thomas Beaseley.Throughout his career in the church, he was rector of Glooston, Leicestershire from 1781 and the Duke of Buccleuch gave him the rectorship of Broughton, Northamptonshire in 1790 which he held until he died. While in London, he was also a joint lecturer at St. Martin-in-the-Fields, London.^[1][4]

Issue

• Henry William Mathew

References

1. J. R. Howard Roberts and Walter H. Godfrey, ed. (1949). Charlotte Street. Survey of London: volume 21: The parish of St Pancras part 3: Tottenham Court Road & neighbourhood. pp. 13–26.
2. Damon, S. Foster (1988). "Poetical Sketches". In Morris Eaves. A Blake Dictionary: The Ideas and Symbols of William Blake. University Press of New England. pp. 330–331. ISBN 9780874514360.
3. Bloom, Harold (2003). William Blake. Bloom's Major Poets. Chelsea House Publications. p. 13. ISBN 0-7910-6812-9. Retrieved 16 November 2010.
4. Williams, Iolo A. (June 1960). "An Identification of Some Early Drawings by John Flaxman". The Burlington Magazine 102 (687): 246–251. Retrieved 16 May 2013.

Further reading

• Bentley, Jr., G. E. (Fall 2012). "The Mathews As Patrons". Blake: An Illustrated Quarterly 46 (2).