Billy the Gamekeeper. W.S.
This print is from the last year of Gillray's productive life when he had virtually ceased creating political satires and could only work from the suggestions of others or on social caricatures that had no deadline. Billy the Gamekeeper. W.S. fits into both those categories. According to the publication line, it was "Design'd from Life by R. Frankland Esq. with Gillray serving as etcher/engraver. And as a caricature portrait of a gamekeeper/coachman, there was unlikely to have been any particular urgency.
© Trustees of the British Museum
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Robert Frankland (1784-1849) was the son of Sir Thomas Frankland, a Yorkshire baronet, owner of Thirkleby Hall and sometime member of Parliament. Robert was an amateur artist, and seems to have dabbled in caricature in his teens. There are competent caricatures by Frankland in the Yale Center for British Art: one of Beau Nash dated 1802, the other of an anonymous gentleman undated. He was certainly capable of providing a reasonable drawing for Gillray to start with. But the only preparatory drawing for Billy the Gamekeeper so far identified looks to be by Gillray, not Frankland. So it may be that Gillray re-drew whatever it was that he received. The next year Frankland published a series of hunting prints with Hannah Humphrey which may have been influenced by the earlier North-Gillray series on hounds and fox hunting beginning with Hounds Finding (April 8, 1800). But the 1811 hunting prints were both drawn and etched by Frankland.
© New York Public Library
Photograph © Ersy Contogouris
As a single figure in (mostly) profile, Billy the Gamekeeper belongs to the tradition of portrait caricature. Like traditional portrait caricatures, the title alludes to the identity of the subject, but does not specifically identify him. But in most portrait caricatures the "clues" provided usually lead to a reasonably certain identification. But in this case the title, the dress of the subject, and the publication line have only led to confusion and contradiction.
The title indicates that the subject is named or nicknamed Billy and that he functions as a gamekeeper. The "W.S." would seem to confirm a first name of William (Billy) and a last name beginning with "S" But the subject is dressed not as a gamekeeper but as a coachman. Why such an obvious discrepancy between title and image? Wright and Evans identify the man as Bates, "One of the gamekeepers of George III, said to be a favourite." But that fails to explain why he would be called Billy, and contradicts the suggestion that his last name would begin with S. The McLean commentary in The Genuine Works of Mr. James Gillray (1830) (p. 239), however, identifies the subject as "An old game-keeper, who had long been in the service of the family of the Earl of Aylsford. He subsequently became his lordship's coachman."* It does not mention his name and, like the Bates identification does not explain why or how Frankland would have had any interest in portraying him. In 1810, Frankland was still a country gentlemen probably preoccupied with the set of hunting prints he would publish in 1811. Any dealings with gamekeepers would likely concern his own. As it happens, his own gamekeeper was a man called William Hudson, born in 1770 and therefore 40 years old in 1810. At a small country seat like Thirkleby Hall, I'm guessing that the role of coachman and gamekeeper could be (?) one and the same. If the print depicts William Hudson, Frankland would have had an opportunity and motive to sketch him. But, of course, this theory, like the two previous ones, leaves unanswered the meaning of "W.S." and the identification inconclusive.
* Thanks to Donald Coverdale for providing me with the the McLean commentary on this print.
Sources and Reading
- Commentary from the British Museum on Billy the Gamekeeper. W.S..
- "Sir Robert Frankland-Russell, 7th Baronet," Wikipedia
- Thomas Wright and R.H. Evans, Historical and Descriptive Account of the Caricatures of James Gillray #581.
- Thomas Wright and Joseph Grego, The Works of James Gillray, the Caricaturist; With the History of His Life and Times, p. 370.
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