Havell family

The Havell family of Reading, Berkshire, England, included a number of notable engravers, etchers and painters, as well as writers, publishers, educators, and musicians.

Luke Havell, born 1752,[1] was lifted from a future life as a farmhand when a local squire recognised his talents and apprenticed him to a signwriter named Ayliffe Cole, from 1762 to 1764.

[2] He was appointed drawing-master at Reading Grammar School, where he served under the headmastership of Richard Valpy, and also had a small print shop in the town.

Robert Havell Sr. (29 December 1769 – 21 November 1832) was the proprietor of a printing and engraving shop, with an ancillary business in natural history artefacts, in the Marylebone district of London, in the early decades of the nineteenth century.

In 1824, following the marriage of his son, Robert moved the business to 79 Newman Street,[1] where John James Audubon approached him in 1827 to engrave a portfolio of 240 drawings he had brought with him from America.

"[8] The Daniel Havell who was the son of Thomas Havell was baptised on 30 November 1786 at St Mary's, Reading; married Maria Alice Wilmot (1796-1873), daughter of Dr. Samuel and Martha (née Russell) Wilmot on 5 June 1813 at St James's in Paddington; and was buried on 19 May 1822 at Kingston upon Thames, his occupation given as "artist".

Although Havell continued to work in aquatint and engraving (primarily city panoramas), he devoted most of his attention to painting the countryside of the Hudson River valley.