Robert Burrows (1810-1883)

Born at Ipswich in 1810, eldest son of Robert Burrows (1782-1863), silversmith in the Old Cattle Market, Ipswich, and his wife Elizabeth née Cordy. Apprenticed to the family trade and in 1847 Robert was carrying on the family business at 40 Silent Street and on 1 November the same year elected, unopposed, a liberal Town Councillor and again, without opposition, in 1850 and 1853 but three years later when opposed, was defeated. In 1832 elected a member of the Ipswich Society of Professional and Amateur Artists alongside Samuel Read [q.v.], Robert Burcham Clamp [q.v.] and Jabez Hare, jun. [q.v.] He exhibited two landscapes at the Royal Academy Scene at Sproughton near Ipswich 1851 and Scene of the banks of the River Orwell 1855 and one at British Institution beween 1851 and 1855. In 1865-68 an artist and agent for London Fire Assurance Co. at 4 St Peter's Street, and St Stephen's churchyard, Ipswich. By 1875 had moved to 14 Silent Street. Burrows enjoyed friendships with other Ipswich artists including Edward Robert Smythe [q.v.], who made a pencil drawing of Robert and his wife, Harriet Batterbee Bowman, daughter of an Ipswich brewer, whom he married at St Nicholas church, Ipswich on 21 May 1835.

He also had an interest in photography and a volume of his photographs are in the Suffolk Record Office, Ipswich. By 1869 he seems to have taken up painting as his full time occupation and In 1874 living at 40 Silent Street, Ipswich and in 1881 at his final address of 9 Norwich Road, Ipswich from where he regularly exhibited at the Ipswich Fine Art Club. His wife was buried in Ipswich cemetery on 20 May 1869, aged 59 and Robert died at his home Park Place, 9 Norwich Road, Ipswich on 10 November 1883.


Information provided by Tony Copsey, researcher of artists in Suffolk County, England