William Shipley

William Shipley was an English drawing master and social reformer who, in 1754, founded what became the RSA (The Royal Society of Arts, or Royal Society for the encouragement of Arts, Manufactures & Commerce).

William Shipley was born in Maidstone and grew up in the City of London. He worked in Northampton before moving back to the capital. He "ran an art school in the Strand. Some pupils under his charge later became famous artists." [ cite journal|title=William Shipley - Founder of the Royal Society of Arts by D. G. C. Allen |journal=The Burlington Magazine|date=|first=Benedict |last=Benedict Nicolson|coauthors=|volume=Vol. 110|issue=No. 789|pages=707|id= |url=http://links.jstor.org|format=|accessdate=2008-02-25 ] He also trained his students in textiles and machinery as well as other forms of arts and sciences."Every year , prizes were set aside for the most promising child artist,and sculptor, and in 1761 the society opened up its premises in London to the first large-scale public exhibition of domestic art ever organized in London. [ Colley, Linda Britons: Forging a Nation.1707-1837. New Haven, Yale University Press:1992.] . "In London, William Shipley started his private drawing school in 1755 and his pupils competed successfully for the premiums offered for textile design by the Society of Arts, of which Shipley was also the secretary" [ cite journal|title=Printed Textiles. English and American Cottons and Linens 1700-1850|journal=The Burlington Magazine|date=Mar., 1972|first=Florence M. |last=Montgomery|coauthors=|volume=144|issue=829|pages=182–183|id= |url=http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0007-6287%28197203%29114%3A828%3C182%3APTEAAC%3E2.0.CO%3B2-J|format=|accessdate=2008-02-25|month=Mar|year=1972 ] Although Shipley had many students who went on to become famous artists, he himself was not remembered for his artwork. Shipley had the idea to make Great Britain a center for intellectual advancements in the areas of arts and sciences. The society was founded in Rawthmells Coffee house in Covent Garden in London on March 22, 1754. It was first called "Royal Society for the encouragement of Arts, Manufactures & Commerce," but later became known as "The Premium Society." Le Citoyen Chantreau was said to marvel "that such an institution was founded, not by those who held reins of government, but by William Shipley, "cultivateur modeste" [ cite journal|title=The Society of Arts and Government, 1754-1800: Public Encouragement of Arts, Manufactures, and Commerce in Eighteenth-Century England|journal=Eighteenth-Century Studies|date=Summer, 1974)|first=D. G. C. |last=Allan|coauthors=|volume=7|issue=4|pages=434–452|id= |url=http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0013-2586%28197422%297%3A4%3C434%3ATSOAAG%3E2.0.CO%3B2-H|format=|accessdate=|month=Oct|year=1974|doi=10.2307/3031598 ] The society would award premiums for different discoveries and inventions: "There appeared in the daily and evening papers a notice announcing premiums or awards" [ cite journal|title="Dear and Serviceable to Each Other": Benjamin Franklin and the Royal Society of Arts|journal=Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society|date=Sep., 2000|first=D. G. C.|last= Allan|coauthors=|volume=144|issue=3|pages=245–266|id= |url=http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0003-049X%28200009%29144%3A3%3C245%3A%22ASTEO%3E2.0.CO%3B2-V|format=|accessdate=2008-02-25 ] They offered premiums for the discovery of cobalt and the raising and curing of madder, for example.These were not just frivolous concerns but matters of Britain's most important industry, namely, textiles. According to Colley, "Cobalt dyes a brilliant blue and the madder was the principal source of all red dies until the 19th century. Quite simple, the society wanted to enable Britain's most important industry, its textile manufacturers, to be able to dye their cloth at home rather than send it abroad." [ Colley, Linda Britons: Forging a Nation.1707-1837. New Haven, Yale University Press:1992.] Colley goes on to say that the Society was also busy trying to solve the problem of finding enough native timber for the building of ships. This was a matter of Britain's national defense. Without timber, the Royal Navy could not build ships.The Society carried out this purpose by establishing prizes for the growing of trees, such as Oaks, chestnuts, Elms and Firs. [ Colley, Linda Britons: Forging a Nation.1707-1837. New Haven, Yale University Press:1992.] They once offered a premium to anyone able to develop a scheme to transport breadfruit from the East to the West Indies. Shipley raised the money for the endeavor through subscriptions.William Shipley also encouraged people to make new and more accurate maps by awarding special prizes in order to encourage expoloration. [ Colley, Linda Britons: Forging a Nation.1707-1837. New Haven, Yale University Press:1992.] . Shipley's contributions to both England's economy and England's security through the Society were substantial.

Shipley was an inventor in his own right. He came up with ideas on how to provide inexpensive fuel for the poor, a floating light in order to save those lost in the sea, a way to establish new species of fish in ponds around England, and perhaps strangest of all, a method of lining your shoes with tinfoil in order to keep them dry. Why was Shipley so historically significant? This quote might help to shed some light on the question."Shipley's life included in its span the surge of English Commercial self-confidence which Defoe celebrated and which was to be feared by Napoleon, the spectacular first stage of the industrial Revolution from the flying shuttle to steam-powered cotton mills, the flowering of English genius in the arts from Hogarth to Turner, and the growth of English philanthropic endeavor from the first county hospitals to Hannah More's "Age if Benevolence." In the shaping of these momentous developments Shipley which was both distinctive and significant. [Allan, D.G.C.William Shipley: Founder of the Royal Society of Arts; A Biography with Documents. London , England, Hutchinson of London:1968.] Many credit Mr. Shipley with helping to establish the role of private organizations to serve the public; the Crown of England was so preoccupied with war and money dealings, it had little resources to further enhance culture at the time. "Merely by existing,the society challenged the way that the British state was organized. To begin with, by taking on certain tasks, they underlined just how much the state left undone. [ Colley, Linda Britons: Forging a Nation.1707-1837. New Haven, Yale University Press:1992.]

Brief History of his life

William Shipley was baptized on June 2, in 1715. His father died when he was just three years old and William went to live with his maternal grandfather. At the age of 21, he inherited 500 pounds and used that money to practice as a painter and drawing master. At this point, he also joined the Northampton Philosophical Society,where he began his philanthropic life by raising funds in order to buy fuel for the poor. In 1753, William published his proposal for a society for the arts. In 1754, Shipley moves to London and founds "The Society of the Arts" and opens a school. He is then elected to a life membership and awarded a gold medal for his achievements. In 1767, William Shipley married Elizabeth Miller,on November 23rd, and settled in Maidstone, Kent. Their first child was born in 1769 but dies after two months. In 1771, The second child, Elizabeth was born. In 1777, William Shipley receives an award for his floating light(referenced above.) In 1789, he suffers an illness for two years. He recovers somewhat and died in 1803 at Maidstone, on December 28th. [Allan, D.G.C.William Shipley: Founder of the Royal Society of Arts; A Biography with Documents. London , England, Hutchinson of London:1968.]

Famous students of Shipley's Art school

*William Hodges
*Francis Wheatley

Fellows of RSA with Shipley

*Samuel Johnson
*Mr.Benjamin Franklin
*Jonas Hanway
*William Hogarth
*Thomas Hollis

References

Further reading

*

External links

* [http://www.rsa.org.uk/ The Royal Society of Arts]
* [http://www.williamshipleygroup.btik.com/ William Shipley Group for RSA History]