John Utterson: The Fareham Gentleman Painted by Benjamin West

John Utterson (1739–1804) was a Fareham gentleman whose life left an unexpected mark on the worlds of art and literature. Sources describing his family record that he served as secretary to Sir Edward Vernon, and that he and his wife Elizabeth had eight children. Their eldest son, Edward Vernon Utterson, would later become a lawyer, antiquary, collector and one of the founding members of the famous Roxburghe Club.

John himself has an unusual claim to historical survival. In 1769 he sat for a portrait by Benjamin West, one of the leading painters of the eighteenth century. West had settled in Britain from America, became closely associated with King George III and later served as President of the Royal Academy. The painting is specifically titled Mr John Utterson of Fareham, Hampshire and is now held by the USC Fisher Museum of Art in Los Angeles; it is also recorded in the Smithsonian National Portrait Gallery's catalogue.

That means a man now buried in St Peter & St Paul’s churchyard was painted by one of the most important artists working in Georgian Britain, and his portrait survives more than 250 years later on the other side of the Atlantic.

The Utterson family's cultural story continued through his son Edward, who collected and published rare early English literature and established his own private printing press. John Utterson therefore sits at the beginning of a remarkable Fareham family story connecting St Peter & St Paul’s, Georgian society, Benjamin West and the preservation of early English literature.