Edward Lovett Pearce
Sir Edward Lovett Pearce (1699 – 7 December 1733) was an Irish architect, and the chief exponent of Palladianism in Ireland. He is thought to have initially studied as an architect under his father's first cousin, Sir John Vanbrugh. He is best known for the Irish Houses of Parliament in Dublin, and his work on Castletown House. The architectural concepts he employed on both civic and private buildings were to change the face of architecture in Ireland. He could be described as the father of Irish Palladian architecture and Georgian Dublin.
For other people named Edward Pearce, see Edward Pearce (disambiguation).
Sir Edward Lovett Pearce
1699
December 7, 1733 (aged 34)
Architect
Edward Pearce (father)
Frances Lovett (mother)
John Vanbrugh (cousin)
Thomas Pearce (uncle)
Frances (sister)
Christopher Lovett (grandfather)
Early life[edit]
Edward Lovett Pearce was born about 1699 in County Meath and was the only child of General Edward Pearce from Whitlingham, Norfolk, a first cousin of the architect Sir John Vanbrugh, and Frances, daughter of Christopher Lovett, Lord Mayor of Dublin 1676–77 and previously a merchant in Turkey. In that same year Vanbrugh was beginning work on his first great architectural commission of Castle Howard which was the first truly baroque house in England, ironically Vanbrugh's new cousin was to be one of the leading architects whose designs were to overthrow the baroque fashion less than 28 years later.
In 1715 following the death of his father, Pearce became a pupil of his eminent architect cousin, it is therefore likely that Pearce would have had the opportunity to see first hand and study the plans and building of Blenheim Palace, where work, following the death of Queen Anne, had just restarted, and was midway through its fraught and frequently interrupted construction. It seems though, that at this age Pearce was still uncertain if he wanted an architectural career, as aged 17 he joined the army serving as a cornet in the dragoons under the command of a Colonel Morris.
Following his time in the army, he decided circa 1722, to return to his first career and again began to study architecture, he did this by studying the architectural masterpieces of France and Italy. However it was in the Veneto that he found the style of architecture which was to influence him most. He made detailed drawings of many of the great villas designed by Palladio which were to serve as the inspiration for his later work. He met in Italy the Florentine architect Alessandro Galilei, who was working from afar on a vast grandiose mansion near Dublin – Castletown.
He spent some time in Norfolk in the 1720s, where he carried out a number of architectural commissions for local families including for the original iteration of Shadwell Court (1727-29) along with his distant relative, the amateur architect John Buxton.[1]
About 1725 Edward married Ann, his own first-cousin, daughter of General Thomas Pearce and Mary Hewes. They were to have four daughters who inherited great-grandfather Pearce's manor of Whitlingham by Norwich, Norfolk. They were: Mary, Mrs Lewis Thomas then Mrs James Slator but mother of Major-General Lewis Thomas; Anne, Mrs Chambre Hallowes; Frances, Mrs Benjamin Lake; and Henrietta, Mrs Charles Willington. He remained a Captain in Colonel Clement Neville's Dragoons.[2]