Presented by Paula Bagger, a director of the Hingham Historical Society in Massachusetts, at History Camp 2015 in Boston on March 28, 2015. "Two 18th century portraits that have been on display since the 1920s in the Hingham Historical Society’s house museum, the Old Ordinary, have now been attributed to an enslaved African American artist. Prince Demah‘s short life was eventful and included painting lessons in London, a brief commercial career in Boston, and service in an artillery regiment during the Revolution. The one other known painting by Prince (now in New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art) was found in a family collection in Worcester County, and we know that Prince made other portraits, both as a copyist and painting from life. History Camp will be a great place to spread the news about this previously unknown artist: our area’s small museums and historical societies are the logical place to look for more of his works."

1. Prince Demah, Portrait Painter
Paula Bagger
Hingham Historical Society
Presented at History Camp in Boston on March 28, 2015

2. Portraits of Henry and Christian (Arbuthnot) Barnes
Old Ordinary, Hingham

3. Susan Barker Willard (1850-1926)
Founding member, Hingham Historical Society

4. “Mrs. Henry Barnes, nee Christian
Goldthwait. This portrait painted by
Copley. She was a Loyalist and Tory.
She was a niece or cousin of Miss
Deborah Barker, through whom this
portrait and her husband’s descended
to me. Also the correspondence
written from Bristol in England to her
Barker cousins in Hingham . . .”
Henry and Christian (Arbuthnot) Barnes
Oil Portraits by Prince Demah
Old Ordinary, Hingham

5. Christian Barnes correspondence
at Library of Congress, Massachusetts Historical Society, and
Hingham Historical Society

6. Letter from Daphney to Christian Barnes, May 13, 1787
Hingham Historical Society

7. Portrait of William DuGuid
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York
The Metropolitan Museum of Art

8. “W.D. Aetatis sui 26 1773.
“Prince Demah Barnes Sculpt-- Pinxit Feb’ry 1773”
The Metropolitan Museum of Art
Portrait of William DuGuid (February 1773)

9. Baptismal records, Trinity Church, Boston
May 23, 1745
“Dafney an adult & Prince, negroes”
Records of Trinity Church, Boston, Massachusetts Historical Society

10. C. Hudson, History of the Town of Marlborough (1862)
The
Barnes
Household,
Marlborough,
Massachuse4s
The
Barnes
Estate
Marlborough,
Massachuse4s

11. Henry Barnes purchases Prince (Dec. 1769)
“Mr. Barnes has late made a purchase of Prince not solely with a
view of drawing my picture but I believe he has some design of
improving his genius in painting and as soon as procured some
materials you shall have a sample of his performance. Daphney
appears to be much better reconciled to a state of slavery by her
son’s arrival. Upon the whole I do not believe there is a happier set
of Negros in any kitchen in the Province, and so much for my
domesticks of the lower order.”
— Christian Barnes to Elizabeth Smith (Dec. 23, 1769)

12. Prince in Marlborough, 1769-1770
“My hospital is a snug, warm chamber where I am seated before a good fire with Caty
on one side of me dealing out her sentimentals, Chrisy on the other side entertaining
me with her innocent prattle. Prince is fixed in one corner of the room improving
himself in the art of painting and every two or three hours Mr. Barnes enters with his
cheerful countenances and make us all happy. . . .
[W]ere I only to descant on the qualifications of my limner it would be a subject to fit
several sheets. He is a most surprising instance of the force of natural Genius for
without the least instruction or improvement he has taken several faces which are
thought to be very well done. He has taken a copy of my picture which I think has
more of my resemblance than Copling’s. He is now taking his own face which I will
certainly send you as it must be valued as a curiosity by any friend you shall please to
bestow it upon. . . .”

13. Prince in Marlborough, 1769-1770
“We are at a great loss for proper materials. At present he has worked
only with crayons and them very bad ones and we are so ignorant as not
to know what they are to be laid on. He has hitherto used blue paper but
I think something better may be found out. If you should meet in your
travels with any one who is proficient in the art I wish you would make
some inquiries in these particulars for people in general think Mr.
Copling will not be willing to give him any instruction and you know
there is nobody else in Boston that does anything at the business and I
should likewise be obliged to you if you could employ some friend who
is a judge of these things to purchase a small appointment of Crayons
with other materials proper for the business that he may be kept
employed in this way till he has made some further improvement and
then I intend to exhibit him to the public and don’t doubt he will do
honor to the profession.”

14. Prince in Marlborough, 1769-1770
“You laugh now and think this is one of Mr. Barnes’ Schemes but
you are quite mistaken it is entirely my own and as it is the only one I
ever engaged in I shall be greatly disappointed if it does not succeed.
I cannot dismiss this subject without acquainting you that this
surprising genius has every qualification to render him a good
servant, sober, diligent, and faithful. I believe as he was born in our
family that he is of Tory principles but of that I am not quite so
certain as he has not yet declared himself.”

15. The
Barnes
Household,
Marlborough,
Massachuse4s
Prince’s Pictures Sent to England
1770
“I never dreamed she intended to make him a Limner.
I’ll engadge it would cost her £300 to send him home
for improvement and after all were he to answer her
expectation who in Boston would prefer a Negro to
Copley. . . .
“If I thought it was to fill up his idle time and no more
but if you chuse it I will go to Mr. Strange tho I have
very little acquaintance there & carry the pictures for
his judgment and give him the history of Prince.”
— Janette Barclay to Elizabeth Smith (Summer 1770)
Sir Robert Strange
(1721-1792)

16. Boston Gazette
January 22, 1770
Henry Barnes, Trader
Non-Importation Agreements

17. “Mr. Barnes has taken his
passage with Jacobsen and will
sail in a few days. He carries
Hogarth with him not entirely
in the quality of valet de chambre
but with a view of improving
him in his painting or reaping
some advantage from his
performances.”
— Christian Barnes to
Elizabeth Murray Smith
Oct. 1770
William Hogarth, “Four Times of Day – Noon” (1738)
Prince’s Trip to London
(Nov. 1770 - July 1771)

18. Catherine Macauley
Prince’s Trip to London, 1770-71
Painting lessons with Robert Edge Pine
John Wilkes
“Prince comes on extremely
well. He is with a Mr. Pine
who has taken him purely
for his genius. Mr. Wright
tells me I shall carry him a
Treasure to America . . . .”
— Henry Barnes to
Elizabeth Smith
Feb. 21, 1771

19. George Washington
National Portrait Gallery
Washington
Congress Voting Independence
Independence Hall
Philadelphia
Prince’s Trip to London, 1770-71
Painting lessons with Robert Edge Pine

20. Prince’s Trip to London, 1770-71
Painting lessons with Robert Edge Pine
John Pine, Engraver
(Hogarth)

21. Ignatius Sancho (Gainesborough) Olaudah EquianoQuobna Ottobah Cugoano (?)
(Cosway)
Prince’s Trip to London, 1770-71
Painting lessons with Robert Edge Pine
“I want you should return with Bill for I do not let [Prince] converse with any of
his own colour here. “
— Henry Barnes to Elizabeth Murray Smith
Feb. 21, 1771 (Mass. Historical Society).

22. “ . . . I have met with so many disappointments in life
that tho’ late I have learnt not to be too sanguine in my
expectation. Indeed his life & situation are so precarious
if he should even attempt his Freedom it would give me
such a disgust to him I should not overlook it. . . .”
— Henry Barnes to Elizabeth Murray Smith, Feb. 21, 1771.
Abolition of Slavery in England
Somersett’s Case

23. “As soon as the roads are tolerable I
propose going to Boston in order to
recommend our Limner to the
Publick.”
— Christian Barnes to
Elizabeth (Smith) Inman
Mar. 9, 1772
Prince in Boston, 1772-73
James Murray (Copley) Currier Museum of Art

24. Prince in Boston, 1772-73
Boston News-letter, Jan.-Nov. 1773

25. Prince in Boston, 1772-73
King Street and the Town House

26. “I had a favor to ask which I must now
petition you will grant me which is that if
you have an hour to spare at any time when
you are in Boston you will allow Prince to
make some alteration in the Coppy he has
taken from your Picture which he says he
cannot do but from the life and Please to
give him any directions you think proper as
to the Dress of the Head.”
— Christian Barnes to
Elizabeth Inman
July 22, 1773 (Library of Congress)
Elizabeth Murray Smith (Copley)
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
Prince in Boston, 1772-73
Copies Elizabeth Inman’s Portrait

27. Prince in Boston, 1772-73
Portrait of William DuGuid (February 1773)
Metropolitan Museum of Art

28. Henry Barnes, “Absentee”

29. Prince Demah, Matross
Massachusetts State Train of Artillery

30. Burial records, Trinity Church, Boston
March 18, 1778: “Prince Demiah, a free Negro”

31. Prince’s will, MA State Archives.
“I, Prince Demah of Boston . . . Limner”

32. Bequeaths estate to “my Loving Mother Daphne Demah”
Appoints as executor “my trusty Friend Prince Taylor”

33. Portrait of Christian Barnes
Copy of a Copley
Mrs. Alexander Cumming
(Elizabeth Goldthwait) 1770
Brooklyn Museum of Art

34. Portrait
of
Chris9an
Barnes
Copy
of
a
Copley

35. Portrait of Henry Barnes
Likely Painted from Life

36. Portrait of Henry Barnes
Likely Painted from Life

37. Portrait of Henry Barnes
Likely Painted from Life

38. Poems on Various Subjects, Religious and Moral (1773)
Phyllis Wheatley

39. Joshua Johnson (1763-1824)
The Westwood Children
National Gallery of Art
Mrs. Andrew Bedford Bankson and Son
Art Institute of Chicago

40. Black Artists and Artisans
in Colonial America
Peter Fleet, woodcut engraver
c. 1740
(Harvard Art Museums)

41. Other pictures by Prince?
▫ CB sitting to Prince for her picture (1769)
▫ Prince has taken a copy of her brothers [William Arbuthnot] portrait
(1770)
▫ Prince has taken a copy of Christian’s picture (1770)
▫ He is taking a copy of his own face (1770)
▫ Prince is diligently employed on a picture of CG and she hopes to send
it to London to get an expert appraisal of his gifts. (1770)
▫ “He has taken 5 faces from life” since he returned from England,” three
of them as good as Copling ever took” (1772).
▫ Portrait of William DuGuid (1773)
▫ Possible companion portrait of Mrs. DuGuid (1773)

42. Other pictures by Prince?
▫ Prince copied Elizabeth Murray’s portrait (1772)
▫ Prince made a drawing of Chrisy, which is sent to her in Bristol,
▫ Prince may have copied Dorothy Murray Forbes’ portrait
▫ Painting of Christian Barnes
▫ Painting of Henry Barnes
▫ When Henry Barnes made a claim against the British Treasury for lost
property, he listed “6 valuable family portraits”

43. Prince
Demah,
Portrait
Painter
[c.
1741-­‐1778]
Prince Demah, Portrait Painter
[c. 1741-1778]

44. The Hingham Historical Society
Old Derby Academy
34 Main Street, Hingham

45. The Hingham Historical Society
Old Ordinary House Museum
21 Lincoln Street, Hingham

46. The Hingham Historical Society
For hours and more information
HinghamHistorical.org
781-749-7721
info@hinghamhistorical.org