William John Seward Webber

Born January 1842
Died 17 March 1919 (Circa)

Active: 1861 - 1911

Country of birth and death: England

Sculptor, stone carver

Born in Exeter, Devon. His grandfather was William J Seward (born c.1791 in west Teignmouth, Devon), Superintendant of an Emigrants' Home in Exeter and his father, William Webber (born 1806 in Teignmouth) was a carver who was working as Depot Master of an Emigrants' Depot, Newport Street, Exeter in 1861. The emigrants at both establishments were Irish.

William was apprenticed as a carver, perhaps to his father or to a stonemason in Plymouth (according to his obituary this was where he received some of his education). Webber entered the studio of the landscape painter John Gendall (1790-1865) who ran a small art school in Exeter. After two years, during which time Webber also studied at Exeter School of Art, he won a Gold Medal awarded by South Kensington. It is probable that Webber received some encouragement from the sculptor Edward Bowring Stephens who also came from Exeter. Stephens had been a student of Gendall's in the 1830s and later helped promote the opening of an art school. Between 1865 and 1870 Stephens carved two statues for the west front of Exeter Cathedral and donated a statue of Prince Albert to the Royal Albert Memorial Museum, Exeter. So it seems very probable that Webber's and Bowring's paths crossed during that time.

By 1870 Webber had secured a post as a sculptor's assistant in London and a place at the Royal Academy Schools where he gained medals for Modelling in the Antique and Life in 1871 and 1873. Two years later Webber was awarded a scholarship of £50 for his composition 'A Warrior and a Wounded Youth'. (He was beaten in the scholarship competition by William Hamo Thornycroft whose work on the same subject was awarded first place.) Thomas Holroyd, a portrait and landscape painter based in Harrogate, commissioned a marble version of 'A Warrior and a Wounded Youth' in 1878 and a steel engraving of Webber's statue was reproduced in the December 1880 issue of the 'Art Journal'.

Between 1870 and 1891 Webber exhibited regularly at the Royal Academy. In about 1887 he was commissioned to make a statue of Queen Victoria for Harrogate's Jubilee Memorial gifted to the town by Mayor Richard Ellis. The architects were H.E. and A. Bown, the contractor was Mr. Richardson of Scarborough and the unveiling took place on 6 October 1887. [Harrogate Advertiser, 8 October 1887.]

The following year Webber moved to Harrogate where he continued to practice as a sculptor for the remainder of his career. Most of his known works are portrait busts but it is possible he also executed architectural sculpture. Many of his sitters were from Harrogate including Samson Fox, George Dawson and his wife (presumed), Richard Ellis, Mrs Ellis and the artists Thomas and James Holroyd who worked from Esplanade Studios. Others were from London, Exeter and Belfast including the artist J.C. Dollman, General Sir Redvers Buller (possibly the memorial tablet with portrait in profile in the South Nave of Exeter Cathedral, 1908) and a memorial to the Reverend John Kinghan for the Ulster Deaf and Dumb Institution (1896).

In 1890 Webber made a bust of Albert Victor, Duke of Clarence. It was commissioned by Samson Fox and in 1894 was given to the Prince of Wales, who was the Duke's father and President of the Royal College of Music. The Prince in turn gave it to the College, where it is on semi-public display.

Between 1901 and 1904 Webber carved a series of busts which were displayed in Harrogate Library: William Shakespeare, Robert Burns, Water Scott, Thomas Carlyle, Alfred, Lord Tennyson, Charles Darwin, John Ruskin and Richard Jefferies. The library opened on 24 January 1906 but it is not yet established whether the busts were in situ at that date or added later. The library was intended to be the first section of a 'Municipal Palace' designed by the architect Henry Hare. This larger scheme foundered but the part of the building containing the library was constructed with a grant of £7,500 from the business tycoon and philanthropist, Andrew Carnegie.

According to a eulogy published in the 'Harrogate Advertiser' on 22 March 1919, Webber was 'a shy unpushful man, careless about money' which inhibited his professional advancement. He was interested in natural history and attended Natural History Society meetings in the Harrogate area. He was religious (Webber's family were non-conformists but he was tolerant of all faiths), and well read, particularly in philosophy. He died in Yorkshire in March 1919 and was buried around 17th of that month.

This record includes information about the bust of Albert Victor, Duke of Clarence submitted by Paul Banks.

Citing this record

'William John Seward Webber', Mapping the Practice and Profession of Sculpture in Britain and Ireland 1851-1951, University of Glasgow History of Art and HATII, online database 2011 [http://sculpture.gla.ac.uk/view/person.php?id=msib4_1256301512, accessed 10 Jun 2023]