Benjamin Booth (1732–1806) was an English director of the East India Company and art collector.[1]
He was the fourth son of John Booth of London and his wife Anne Lloyd of Liverpool.[2] He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society, in 1772.[3]
Family and art collection
Booth married Jane Salwey, daughter of Richard Salwey of Moor Park, Shropshire and an heiress, in 1760. They had a son Richard Salwey Booth, who matriculated at Christ Church, Oxford in 1781 and became a clergyman, and three daughters.[2][4][5] The son was an amateur artist, painting watercolours in Wales and Scotland, and an acquaintance of Paul Sandby who showed at the Royal Academy.[6] He is identified by William Prideaux Courtney as a companion in 1797 of Lord Webb John Seymour and Christopher Smyth; and as in the Algernon Graves Royal Academy records from 1796 to 1807.[7]
Their daughter Marianne Booth (1767–1849), known as an artist, married Richard Ford the barrister, and was mother of Richard Ford the writer.[1][8] Another daughter, Elizabeth Mary, was a pupil of John Opie, who asked to marry her in 1797, and was refused.[9] The third daughter was Jane.[2]
The large collection of works by Richard Wilson put together by Booth was still in the Ford family in the 20th century.[10] Etchings of some of the works were published in an 1825 book by Thomas Hastings.[11]