|
The American Antiquarian Society owns three miniature portraits
of Mary
Maccarty Stiles Newcomb, one part of a pair that includes her
husband.
The artist Eliza Goodridge of Templeton, Massachusetts, a neighbor
and
childhood friend, also painted portraits of her parents John and
Mary
Stiles (cats. #107, 108), and her older sister, Lydia, and family.
Children's
books given to Mary by her father and inscribed with her name,
including
Virtue and Vice, Or the History of Charles Careful and Harry
Heedless
(1787) and A New Version of the Psalms of David (1762), that are
part
of the American Antiquarian Society's imprint collection give a
glimpse
of her childhood.
Mary Maccarty Stiles lived with her parents in Templeton until her
marriage
in 1837 and corresponded often with her older sister Lydia around
whom
much of her social life revolved both before and after her
marriage. The
miniature of Mary Maccarty Stiles (cat. #111, painted when she was
around
seventeen years of age, was probably intended to accompany a
similar portrait
of Lydia (cat. #109). The sisters may have exchanged the
miniatures when
Lydia was sent to school in New Hampshire in 1820, or their
parents may
have commissioned the portraits after Lydia completed her formal
education
around 1825.
Lydia worried about her sister's unmarried state and the stresses
she
endured while caring for their aging parents. In a letter to her
husband,
Lydia wrote: 'I hired a sleigh and invited sister Mary to go with
me in
the morning.... She was afraid to go in the afternoon lest she
should
displease Father, and indeed I felt almost frightened that I had
been
instrumental in having her go at all, lest more evil than good
should
come of it; as Father is unwilling she should go out of the
house....
I feel sometimes really griev'd for Mary and I am sure that she
will not
be happy until some change takes place.'(1) This change occurred
in 1836
with the death of their father, after which the daughters
inherited considerable
property.(2)
Lydia Stiles Foster may have commissioned the second portrait of
Mary
Maccarty Stiles (cat. #112) just before her November 1837 marriage
to
Henry Knox Newcomb (cat. #88). Possibly the miniature was intended
as
a parting gift. Lydia wrote to her newly married sister shortly
after
the wedding, 'I have hardly recovered from the excitement of the
few weeks
previous to your leaving us.... I cannot yet realize that you are
not
where a short walk would enable me to see you, believe me that my
affection
for you is strong as it should be towards an only sister and your
absence
is deeply felt by us all.'(3)
The astonishing detail of the background of the Mary Maccarty
Stiles miniature,
with the patterned carpet, painted chairs, and architectural
elements,
is unusual for the era and reflects Goodridge's interest in
interiors.
The lamp on the table is repeated in a second similar miniature of
Mary
which was painted after her marriage and was intended as a pendant
for
a miniature of her new husband (cat. #89).
Henry Knox Newcomb was a merchant and land speculator who first
moved
to Worcester, Massachusetts, in 1822. In the 1830s he established
an importing
business in Key West, Florida, and spent several years travelling
between
the two cities. In the late 1840s he disposed of his southern
interests
and settled permanently in Worcester, where he worked as an
accountant
at the Worcester Bank, served as an officer at the Boston Custom
House,
and became an important voice for the county court. Newcomb, who
was very
active socially in Worcester, was a friend of Christopher Columbus
Baldwin
and is mentioned several times in Baldwin's diaries. American
Antiquarian
Society records indicate that Henry Knox Newcomb gave the library
three
printed Massachusetts sermons in the 1820s, possibly because of
his connection
with Baldwin.(4)
Newcomb's contemporaries remembered him as a 'man of fine
presence,
winning in his manner, and of a most social and genial nature,
very fond
of telling and hearing a good story, and in early life was a great
favorite
in society. He was most kind-hearted, sympathetic and impulsive,
and generous
to a fault, and of too sanguine a temperament to be successful as
a business
man.'(5) Newcomb invested with his brothers in risky land deals
and on
several occasions had to resolve legal problems associated with
the actions
of his younger brother Francis Dana Newcomb (1802-72), who was
arrested
several times for fraud and forgery. His brother's problems became
a financial
strain and in 1854, Newcomb sent him several letters seeking
repayment
of a $5,000 debt.(6) Their detailed correspondence as well as
Newcomb's
account books and business papers are preserved at the Society.(7)
Another
brother, Joseph Warren Newcomb (1804-74), an attorney in
Templeton, may
have introduced Henry K. Newcomb to Mary Stiles. After the
couple's marriage,
they lived for six months in Key West, Florida, but returned to
Worcester
and built a house on Elm Street near the residence of Mary's
sister, Lydia
Stiles Foster. The miniatures (cats. #88, #89) were probably
painted sometime
after the couple's return from the South in June 1838. In it, the
artist
Eliza Goodridge repeated several elements that she had used in an
earlier
portrait, including the table lamp shown in the background.
Goodridge
may have been referring to the commission for this pair of
miniatures
in a letter to Mary Stiles Newcomb listing her numerous sitters
and stating
that she was going to Boston to find additional patrons: 'I shall
probably
go after Mary & Clara Pratt and then go to Templeton where I
have
an application. Now do not fear I have forgotten your pleasure, it
shall
be attended to also.'(8)
|
|
1) Lydia Stiles Foster to Alfred Dwight Foster, February
1833, Foster Family
Papers, 1740-1884, American Antiquarian Society Manuscript
Collection.
2) Alfred D. Foster's memorandum noting the last words of
John Stiles, September
8, 1836, Foster Family Papers. Detailed records about the estate
are preserved
in this manuscript collection as Foster served as his
father-in-law's
executor; see also, Book of Accounts, vol. 4, p. 61, Worcester
County
Probate Court. Lydia Stiles Foster and Mary inherited additional
properties
upon the death of their mother, two years later.
3) Lydia Stiles Foster to Mary Stiles Newcomb, November 17,
1837, Foster
Family Papers.
4) The pamphlets include sermons by James Jackson
(1777-1867), Titus Strong
(1787-1855), and Nathaniel Thayer (1769-1840).
5) Stephen Salisbury, Reminiscences and Biographical
Notices of Twenty-One
Members of the Worcester Fire Society (Worcester: Worcester Fire
Society,
1899), 48.
6) Harry Knox Newcomb to Francis Dana Newcomb, March 8,
1854, Newcomb Family
Papers 1824-1872, American Antiquarian Society Manuscript
Collection.
7) Newcomb Family Papers, 1824-1872.
8) Eliza Goodridge to Mary Stiles Newcomb, November 24,
1837, Foster Family
Papers 1740-1884, American Antiquarian Society Manuscript
Collection.
|
