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Benjamin Barker - The Pontypool Years

Without the financial resources to practise law, Benjamin looked to one of his hobbies - painting - as a means of earning a living. He had had some success in illustrating his favourite horses after the style of Sartorius and this smattering of art enabled him to find employment in South East Wales as a decorator in the Pontypool Japanware workshops. The products of the Pontypool works commanded high prices, and their durability commended them to the American market. Benjamin seems to have been especially involved in the decoration of commissioned items which might bear, for example, the coat-of-arms of the purchaser, or a view of their residence.

Benjamin lived and worked in Pontypool until 1781, occupying a house near the Trosnant factory where he worked. During his twenty one years or so in the town he met and married his wife Anne, and the couple had four boys and two girls (both of whom died young). Of the boys one son John, drowned in the river Avon during the family's move to the West country, and the others, Thomas, Joseph and Benjamin Junior all followed in their father's footsteps and became artists.

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