Henry Pelham

Henry Pelham (February 14, 1748/49 – 1806) was an American painter, engraver, and cartographer active during the late 18th century. Pelham's many illuminating letters, especially to his half-brother John Singleton Copley, provide an important contemporary perspective of the events of the American Revolution. Early life and education Pelham was born in Boston in the colonial-era Province of Massachusetts in February 1748. His father, Peter Pelham, was a limner, engraver, and schoolmaster, and his mother Mary (Singleton) Copley, was the widow of Richard Copley and mother of John Singleton Copley. His father died in 1751. A small tobacco shop run by his mother provided support for the family until Copley brought prosperity to them all through his portrait painting. Their home was on Lindall Street, at the present-day intersection of Exchange Place and Congress Street in Boston. Pelham then attended the Boston Latin School, where he is believed to have studied drawing and painting with his half-brother. A likeness of Pelham, then aged fifteen or sixteen, is featured in A Boy with a Flying Squirrel, a painting that was exhibited in London in 1766 and brought Copley his first fame abroad. Career