William Haines

William Haines (21 June 1778 – 24 July 1848) was an English engraver and painter. Early life Haines was born at Bedhampton, Hampshire, on 21 June 1778; but taken in infancy to Chichester he always regarded that city as his native place. He was educated at the Midhurst grammar school, witnessing while there the destruction by fire of Cowdray House. Two years after that disaster he was with Thew, the engraver, at Northaw, Hertfordshire, where, when sufficiently proficient, he worked with Scriven and others on the Boydell-Shakespeare plates. Travels In 1800 he went to the Cape of Good Hope; his ship, outsailed by the convoy, successfully resisting on the voyage an attack by a French privateer. At Cape Town and in excursions up the country he made numerous drawings (Caffres, Hottentots, &c.), resembling Catlin's later American pictures. From the Cape he passed to Philadelphia, where he engraved a number of book illustrations (‘Johnson's Poets,’ ‘Bradford's British Classics,’ &c.) and some portraits (Drs. Barton and Rush, Sir W. Jones, Franklin, &c.). Career in England