| Eastern house. | Western house. | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| 1745–47. | John Williams. | 1745–51. | John Moreton. |
| 1748–51. | Lily Aynscombe. | 1753–58. | Is. Hawkins Browne. |
| 1753–56. | Henry Shiffner. | 1759–68. | Mrs. Mary Clarke. |
| 1758–87. | Joseph Pickering. | 1768–72. | Ch. Raymond. |
| 1787–91. | —— Leverton. | 1772–93. | Joseph Hill. |
| 1791–94. | Wm. Hutchins. | 1793–99. | J. Bower. |
| 1795. | —— Savage. | 1799– | —— Baines. |
| 1795– | —— Dickenson. |
Henry Shiffner, on leaving the house in Great Queen Street, removed to No. 59, Lincoln’s Inn Fields, where he has left permanent traces of his occupation.[[413]]
The “Leverton” whose name appears in connection with the first and fourth (see p. 83) of the houses erected on the site of Conway House for the years 1787–91 and 1791 respectively, was almost certainly Thomas Leverton, the architect. The Royal Academy Catalogues give the addresses of T. Leverton as follows: 1773–78, 1780–83 (Great Queen Street), 1784–5, 1787 (Charlotte Street, Bedford Square), 1794 (Great Queen Street), 1797 (Bedford Square). The Catalogue for 1792 shows “Leverton” (without initial) at 60, Great Queen Street. Unfortunately, his name does not appear in the Catalogues for the period 1787–91, and thus direct confirmation of his identity with the occupier of the houses in question is not possible. It may be added that there is no mention in the ratebook of any “Leverton” at No. 60 in 1792, and Leverton’s residences in Great Queen Street in the other years mentioned[[414]] would seem to have been in lodgings, as no trace of them can be discovered.
Isaac Hawkins Browne, poet, was born in 1705 at Burton-on-Trent, his father being vicar of the parish. Although called to the Bar he did not take up his profession in earnest. He was twice M.P. for the borough of Wenlock. His chief English works were a poem on Design and Beauty, and an ode entitled A Pipe of Tobacco, but his principal achievement was a Latin poem De Animi Immortalitate. He died in 1760. Mrs. Piozzi relates that Dr. Johnson said that Browne was “of all conversers ... the most delightful with whom I ever was in company; his talk was at once so elegant, so apparently artless, so pure, and so pleasing, it seemed a perpetual stream of sentiment, enlivened by gaiety, and sparkling with images.”[[415]] Johnson also used Browne as an illustration of the proposition that a man’s powers were not to be judged by his capacity for public speech: “Isaac Hawkins Browne, one of the first wits of this country, got into Parliament and never opened his mouth.”[[416]]
Browne’s son, also named Isaac Hawkins, must also have been a resident at the house in Great Queen Street, for he was only eight years old at the time of the removal of the family thither in 1753. He represented Bridgnorth in Parliament for twenty-eight years, and though no orator, when he spoke “his established reputation for superior knowledge and judgment secured to him that attention which might have been wanting to him on other accounts.”[[417]] He edited his father’s poems, and also wrote Essays, Religious and Moral, and Essays on Subjects of Important Inquiry in Metaphysics, Morals and Religion. He died in 1818.
In the Council’s collection are:—
[[418]]Ornamental plaster ceiling in Board Room on first floor (photograph).
[[418]]Carved deal chimneypiece in Board Room (photograph).
[[418]]Ornamental plaster ceiling in Grand Secretary’s Room, first floor (photograph).