Havell family

The Havell family of Reading, Berkshire, England included a number of notable engravers, etchers and painters, as well as writers, publishers, educators, and musicians. In particular, members of this family were among the foremost practitioners of aquatint; and had a long association with Indian art and culture. They are the English descendants of the aristocratic Hauteville family of Normandy.

The family first came to notice through the brothers Luke Havell (drawing master, 1752?–1810) and Robert Havell the Elder (engraver and publisher, 1769–1832); along with their nephew Daniel Havell (engraver, 1785?–1822).

Luke Havell, born 1752, was lifted from a future life as a farmhand when a local squire recognised his talents and apprenticed him to a signwriter named Ayliffe Cole, from 1762 to 1764. He was appointed drawing-master at Reading Grammar School, where he served under the headmastership of Richard Valpy, and also had a small print shop in the town. He married Charlotte Phillips in 1778, and together they had fourteen children, including the painter William Havell (1782–1857), and Edmund Havell (1785–1864) who took on the print shop, and succeeded his father as drawing master at the school.

Robert Havell, Sr. (29 December 1769 – 21 November 1832) was the proprietor of a printing and engraving shop, with an ancillary business in natural history artifacts, in the Marylebone district of London, in the early decades of the nineteenth century. Robert was the brother of Luke Havell, and named as such in Luke's will; another brother, William, a butcher, was buried in Reading in 1832. In February 1793 Robert married Lydia Miller Phillips at St Sepulchre church in London; their eldest son Robert was born in Reading in December the same year.

By 1801 Havell was established at 3 Chapel Street, off Tottenham Court Road, in London, giving his occupation as "artist". The business, known from 1818 to 1825 as Havell and Son, became well known for its expertise in aquatint engraving and colouring.

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