New research on his origins

Hugh Williams' origins are shrouded in a romantic haze, quite possibly encouraged by the artist in his lifetime and augmented by his family after his death. The best known biography is by James L. Caw in 'Scottish Painting Past and Present' [1908] refined for his DNB entry of the following year which became the basis for all later accounts. According to a letter from Miss Elizabeth Anderson (a distant member of the artist's family) sent to James Caw in 1899, Hugh was the only child of Captain Williams and Miss Lewis, who married while becalmed on a passage between Gibraltar and England before 1771. On the same voyage, Hugh's grandmother (the widow of Col. Lewis, said to have been Deputy Governor of Gibraltar) married Louis Ruffin, and on arrival in England the Ruffin family settled at Wooler in Northumberland. Captain Williams continued at sea, taking his new wife to the West Indies, during which voyage Hugh is said to have been born in 1773. His father, a 'hopeless spendthrift' died before 1780 when Hugh and his mother came to live at Wooler with the Ruffins. His mother died about two years later and the Ruffin family moved to Edinburgh. I have found serious problems with the information in this letter. Col. Lewis was never Deputy Governor of Gibraltar and Louis Ruffin actually married Mary Lewes [or Lewis] on the 22 March 1780, at Wooler. Also, Hugh was not an only child but had a sister Mary, who may have been born at Honiton in Devon in 1771. She married James Charter in 1805 and was living in Exeter at the time of Hugh's death and is mentioned in his testament. A biographical sketch (unknown to Caw) by the artist's close friend, Dr. Anthony Todd Thomson [1778-1849] in which he states that Hugh was 'a native of Devonshire' supports this evidence but here is no record of Hugh's birth in Devon. In 1790 Ruffin was obliged to register in Edinburgh as an alien and in his statement he said that he had left Turin around 1764 and arrived in Edinburgh in 1782. In September that year he tried to set up an academy teaching writing, arithmetic, Italian and French with visiting tutors in riding, fencing, dancing and military exercise. The academy failed but it is clear he could have given Hugh a broad education. He was in financial trouble in 1786, owing a 'habit maker' John Phol, £5 for tailoring, 9/- of which was for britches 'for a boy of 12 years of age who stays with me'. This is almost certainly the young Hugh Williams. Ruffin went on to set up a factory producing white embroidered muslin and this aspect of his career is covered in Margaret H. Swain's 'The Flowerers', published in Edinburgh in 1955. The Board of Manufactures supported him until they became worried about the living conditions of the 72 girls he was employing. Un-daunted, he set up further factories in Musselburgh, Dalkeith and Glasgow but over-stretched, he became bankrupt in 1790. In this year he married Mary Steel - possibly to improve his immigrant as well as his financial situation. In his sequestration papers he declared payments to Alexander Meggatt, bookseller in Dalkeith for 'Hugh Williams boarding' in 1790-91. This is the first evidence for the young artist's presence in Scotland. Ruffini was well connected, being commissioned by the Savoy Court in 1789 to find an expert on coal mining to make a survey of Sardinia. He recommended William Roebuck whose report survives in the Archivo di Stato in Turin. Pursued by creditors Ruffin fled to London in 1804 and nothing further is known of him. His influence on Hugh Williams as a man and an artist was undoubtedly significant. CONTACT ME: joe@tilton.freeserve.co.uk if you require high quality research in Scotland