Edward Stanton (sculptor)


Edward Stanton (1681–1734) was an English stonemason, builder and sculptor.

Westminster School dormitory by Stanton
North side of Westminster Abbey by Stanton

Life edit

 
Memorial to Sir Francis Russell, Strensham Church (detail)
 
Monument to Sir robert Kemp in St Mary's church Gissing
 
Memorial to Bishop William Fleetwood in Ely Cathedral
 
Plaque for Rev Thomas Smoult in Barkway, Hertfordshire

He was the son of William Stanton, mason (1639–1705) and was apprenticed to his father, along with his brother, Thomas Stanton, and admitted a member of the Worshipful Company of Masons of the City of London in 1702. His first recorded work is a monument at Mitton in Yorkshire to Richard and Isabel Shireburn, 1699, and he is known to have carved over 40 monuments between then and 1718, as well as chimneypieces (for example at Aynhoe Park, Northamptonshire) and Knowsley Hall, Lancashire. In 1720, Stanton was appointed Mason to Westminster Abbey, a post he held until his death, and in which his chief work was rebuilding the north front of the church.[citation needed]

He was in partnership with sculptor Christopher Horsnaile for a large part of his career.[1]

Stanton served as Warden of the Masons' Company in 1713 and 1716, and as Master in 1719. From 1720 onwards he abandoned memorials and worked exclusively on Westminster Abbey (this is likely to have been a contractual obligation).

He died in 1734, and was buried near his parents at St. Andrew, Holborn in the city of London.

Family edit

He married three times, firstly to a daughter of Samuel Fulkes, his third wife being the daughter of Robert Churchill, mason and bricklayer.

His son Edward Stanton was a linen draper in Fleet Street "at the Golden Key".

Works edit

References edit

  1. ^ Dictionary of British Sculptors 1660-1851 by Rupert Gunnis
  2. ^ Nikolaus Pevsner. ()Cambridgeshire. "The Buildings of England." Second Edition (London: Penguin Books, 1970), p.365.
  • Fisher, Geoffrey. "Stanton, William". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/38004. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.). In article on the father.