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John Middleton
   
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John Middleton
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Unidentified photographer, 1850s (early), Portrait of John Middleton, Daguerreotype, 1/2 plate, Norwich Castle Museum, LL/52911
John Middleton
My Dear Sir
 
Enclosed is a note from Owen about the Great Ex. Series of pictures-you will see by this he will charge you 2/6 each taking the series- I think this rather high but I suppose it does not answer his purpose to do them for less- you will sent me a line if you wish to have them and I will write to Owen-or I can send you his address and you can correspond with him.
 
The Photographic Society met on Friday night and I enrolled you as a Member and paid five shillings-eighteen members had joined and there appears every chance of success-I am one of the Committee-therfore can tell you of our proceedings.
 
I succeeded in obtaining a rare fern-the Cristata from Surlingham and have potted a plant for you, that you may know it if you succeed in finding it at Edgefield Heath near Holt. I shall be glad to hear you have found it as the localities are not numerous.
 
Your coat is come from Theobolds but I thought I would keep it until the box came from Acton. Muskett has no more Cossey views-but will order some. I told him nothing but the best impressions would do.
 
I am serious by contemplating a greenhouse & ferning and have decided on reflection of the fern fever.
 
Remember me to all at home who I hope are well. Respectively
 
Yours very truly…
 
John Middleton.
William Bolding (1840-1860) was William Johnson Jennis Bolding, the son of John and Ester Bolding. He took control of the family business when his father died in 1847 and lived in Weybourne, a seaside village in north Norfolk. Bolding is found listed in directories as a ‘brewer, maltster, landowner, farmer and miller'. He was also involved in shipping. He is also known as an amateur archaeologist, artist, silhouettist and photographer. He joined the Norfolk Archaeology Society in 1849 and made sketches of his findings.Bolding's considerable wealth enabled him to travel widely in the UK making sketches which he also did on a visit to Switzerland in 1850. He was a talented artist, probably sometime tutored by the Norwich artist John Berney Landrooke and painted local landscapes both in oil and watercolour, although his favourite medium seems to have been monochrome brown and white watercolour. His works were exhibited at The Norfolk and Norwich Association for the Promotion of Fine Arts in 1849 and 1853 and also exhibited architectural photographs printed from waxed paper negatives at the 1856 Norwich Photographic Society exhibition. He never married but lived with his sister Hannah who acted as his househeeper in a residence called ‘The House'. He had converted the barn on the property into a photographic studio. Bolding's work includes magnificent photographs of his family members, employees and neighbours.He is exceptional as an early photographer who documented working men and women . He continued photographing throughout his life. Very little has been written about Mr Bolding but an article dated February 11, 2012 mentions that a talk had been scheduled at Norwich Castle about him and that his great great neice was working on a book about him and his career.
 
After his time in London, John Middleton returned to Norwich in 1849 taking up residence with his parents at 63 St Stephen's Street. In 1851 he moved to Surrey Street, Norwich.The 1851 census, taken at Surrey Street lists John Middleton, age 24, a proprietor of houses. Living with him was his widowed mother Mary and three servants.
 
The 1854 White directory lists him as John Middleton, esq., Surrey Street, Norwich. An article about Surrey Street, by Joe Mason, dated Mary 22, 2007 states "Lady Pleasury Smith, wife of Sir James Edward Smith", stayed at 29 Surrey Street, Norwich after her husband's death, finally selling it to John Middleton in 1852 (see 1851 census above). A photograph of 29 Surrey Street is shown opposite, with #29 shown on the right side of the grand entrance. #31 is shown to the left. After his death, his mother Mary continued to live on Surrey Street and she is found there in the 1861 census with the same servants she had at the time of the 1851 census. The loss of her son John at such an early age was a great shock to her, although John must have been ill for some time before his demise.
 
John died of consumption at the early age of just 29 on November 11, 1856 at his Surrey Street residence. His death was published in the Norwich Mercury on November 15 of that year.
 
In 1982 a book by the Royal Society of Painters was published entitled; John Middleton & the Norwich School. Sadly the Biography of National History only lists his name and years of birth and death and states in one line that he was a British watercolour artist who did landscapes. Not much to say about a man who accomplished so much as an artist in an abbreviated career ended by illness.

Genealogy of John Middleton
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