Thomas Worlidge

He was born in Peterborough of Roman Catholic parents, and studied art in London as a pupil of the Genoese refugee Alessandro Maria Grimaldi (1659−1732).

In 1763 he settled in Great Queen Street in a large house built by Inigo Jones, adjoining the later site of the Freemasons' Tavern.

A plain marble slab, inscribed with verses by William Kenrick, was placed on the wall of the church; it is now at the east end of the south aisle.

In middle life his most popular work consisted of heads in blacklead pencil, for which he charged two guineas; leaders of fashionable society employed him to make these drawing.

One of Worlidge's most popular plates depicted the installation of John Fane, 7th Earl of Westmorland as chancellor of the university at the Sheldonian Theatre at Oxford in 1761.

The printed catalogue bore the title, ‘A Collection of Pictures painted by Mr. Worlidge of Covent Garden, consisting’ ‘of Histories, Heads, Landscapes, and Dead Game, and also some Drawings.’ The highest price fetched was £51 15s.

It was finished by his pupils William Grimaldi and George Powle, and, printed on satin, was published by his widow in 1768 at the price of eighteen guineas a copy.

[1] The frontispiece, dated 1754, shows Worlidge drawing the Pomfret bust of Cicero; behind on an easel is a portrait of his second wife, Mary.

469) thought Worlidge's plates often inferior to those of Jonathan Spilsbury, and that the descriptions placed below contained some blunders.

He married in 1763 his third wife, Elizabeth Wicksteed, daughter of a toyman of Bath, and apparently sister of the well-known seal engraver there.