Henry Weigall (1798-1882)

Obituary
DEATH OF MR. HENRY WEIGALL. Intelligence was received yesterday of the death that morning at his residence, South Lodge, Kyneton, of Mr. Henry Weigall, at the advanced age of 83. The deceased gentleman came to this colony in 1856 in the same vessel which brought Sir Henry Barkly to our shores as the future governor of Victoria. Mr. Weigall was appointed in 1857 as clerk of petty sessions at Kyneton, a position which he filled most efficiently until 1869, when in consequence of the alterations effected in the service by Sir James McCulloch, he was superannuated on a retiring pension. Subsequent to his retirement he was appointed a justice of the peace, an office which he filled with abundant zeal and with great advantage to the community, bringing to the discharge of the duties the experience he had gained in his previous office, when the number of cases heard in the petty courts was much greater than at present The deceased gentleman, who was bom in the neighbourhood of London, was an artist by profession, being a gem and cameo cutter of rare skill and fidelity, and also an expert modeller. The Duke of Wellington, Mr. Thomas Carlyle, and other celebrities have sat to him for their busts, and he has left behind him several most accurate and life like representations of these distinguished men.

His eldest son, Mr. Henry Weigall, inherited his father's artistic talent, carrying it in a more profitable direction and with a greater degree of success, being now recognised as one of the most famous and fashionable portrait painters of the day. His portrait of Bishop Perry, which was much admired, and several of his other works, have been seen in this colony. By his marriage with Lady Rose, the sister of the Earl of Westmoreland, he became intimately connected with the family of the Iron Duke, his father's old friend and patron.

Another son of the deceased is Mr. Theyre Weigall curator of intestate estates in this colony.

Mr Weigall, when in London pursuing his avocation as an artist, mingled in society—chiefly literary and artistic—which included many men who afterwards became highly distinguished, and whose names are associated with much of the mental activity of England of 30 or 40 years ago. He was married to a sister of Dr. Theyre Smith, the celebrated preacher at Temple Church, London, and another of his brothers-in-law, Dr William Smith, made for himself a name by the publication of Thorndale or the Conflict of Opinion, Gravenhurst, and several other works of a thoughtful and elevated character. Mr. Weigall's conversation and recollections were of a most interesting and vivid nature, as he was furnished with a remarkably retentive memory, and considerable powers of imitation, by which he could recall in a life-like manner scenes and conversations in which he himself had played a part. He had enjoyed intercourse with Coleridge, Captain Sterling (the "Thunderer' of The Times), Carlyle, Archbishop Tompson, the Duke of Wellington, Sir Henry Cole, and other leaders of London society, and possessed a fund of unpublished anecdote respecting them which his modesty alone prevented him from collecting for publication.

Mr Weigall was a gentleman possessed of a high sense of honour, scrupulously exact in the performance of every duty, generous and devoted as a friend, and courteous and polite, with a savour of that old fashioned, well-bred gentlemanliness which has well nigh gone out of fashion in modern manners. He took considerable interest in art education, and his advice was several times sought by the late Sir Redmond Barry and others on this subject.

In his retirement at Kyneton he enjoyed a fair measure of health until about three years ago, when, after a atiguing summer day in Melbourne, in which he paid a visit to the public picture gallery, he was seized by a stroke of paralysis. Since then he never enjoyed sound health, and his decease yesterday took place more from a decay of nature than from any more prominent ailment.

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