Beau Nash of Bath
‘Beau Nash’ was an interesting man.
Were you to walk the streets of Bath in the 18thC, you would probably have encountered him standing outside of the Assembly Rooms inviting people people in…to play cards, to drink or to a soirée, the sponsor of which would be him.
He was born as ‘Richard’, in Swansea in South Wales, in 1674, to a man of modest means… a self described pastor who blew glass as a ‘real’ living…glass gin bottles.
Being financially stable, Beau Nash’s father was able to send his son to school, after which he was adept enough to find a place at college in Oxford.
He must have been bright.
Whilst in Oxford, Nash developed a penchant for fine clothes and gaming…. After all he was mixing with some of the countries important young men.
Britain was in the middle of an Industrial Revolution, a social revolution and an Imperial revolution, a country through which eight tenths of the world’s wealth ran…. A wealthy place, for some. I suspect that by mixing with the aristocracy of Empire, he developed a need for it, but he also realised that the ‘glass ceiling’ of society was becoming porous. Some of the young men he mixed with were, scientists, scholars, adventurers, many of whom had also come from a modest background….. he sensed opportunity.
He also loved being surrounded by young men who gamed, drank and caroused with young women. He didn’t enjoy being told what to do by his lecturers!……… no not at all.
Failing to finish his classes at Oxford, he fell back on his father’s generosity again. Plan B for Nash was to be in the military. A commission was purchased, so off he went to barracks to learn the ‘art of war’.
Well , suffice to say, he enjoyed the gaming, the drinking, the fancy uniforms and the attentions of young women…. Women who were found where the money was flowing. Also, suffice to say, he didn’t like his officers barking orders at him…. He left after about three months!
What next ? you may ask.
He entered law school as a student barrister of the Middle Temple in 1693, where he was known for "good manners... his taste in dress, and... leading so gay a life" without any obvious source of wealth that his friends suspected him to be a highwayman. He was in fact making a great deal of money in the card tables of London. Having been selected from amongst the Middle Temple's students to take charge of a pageant exhibited before King William III in 1695, Nash's success led to the offer of knighthood, which he declined on the grounds of his lack of fortune. He would later be offered a knighthood by Queen Anne, but again refused the honour.!……… he was definitely a free thinker.
Every Summer his card playing pals… many of whom were, by now, titled gentry, …. Left to stay in Bath. It had become the fashionable place to be and was a nexus for the nobility of Europe. Nash decided to change his path in life and took a position as the ‘Master of Ceremonies’ at the Assembly Rooms in the city….
So, Beau Nash headed to Bath and took up his new position as ‘Master of Ceremonies’ at the Assembly Rooms. His job was to meet and greet the gentlemen of society, as they entered to drink and game.
He became even more flamboyant with his attire and cosmetics, and he became even more well known.
I’ve mentioned that Nash was a clever chap……. Never to miss an opportunity, he started making lists of the men who attended the Assembly Rooms… their titles, their approx net worth etc. He also started creating lists of young women who had to stay at home ( it was a man’s world, quite literally), but who, when married would bring with them great dowries.
His next move was to rent all of the Assembly Rooms whilst sending out invitations to the young men and women of society, to attend soirées ( young ladies could bring a chaperone.).
In so doing he placed himself in a position whereby he could ‘introduce’ people to each other…. Gaining a percentage of dowries if a marriage came about….
Fabulous wealth was gained from this venture, and his popularity and fame grew.
Along with his gaming, Nash became very wealthy and built himself a house…. Baths Theatre Royal was that house!!!!
Still a man in his prime, he fell in love with a woman called Julianna Popjoy…. A serving girl from one of the grand houses. They both felt it necessary to keep their affair secret, but when they finally started to live together, word got out into high society, that the man they were playing cards and carousing with…. The man who was initiating marriages between great members of society, was indeed, a man from a lower class.
The game was up and ‘societies’ glass ceiling was closed to him… he was shut out.
Fame and wealth dissolved!
Society banished him!
Over the next few years his money evaporated and his lifestyle crumbled. Eventually, in his eighties, Nash died in a humble one room tenement, next door to what was his palatial home, in Bath.
He was a very old man for the times and he had been in obscurity for four decades…… but he and Julianna had remained in love, and loyal to each other… never marrying.
She outlived him, but on his passing, she had already moved back to her home village near Warminster. It was said that she refused to sleep in another bed. Eventually she also passed away and her remains were found in the tree that she had resorted to living in because of her poverty.
You can’t make this story any more interesting…… but if I were to say that upon Nash’s death in 1762, the city of Bath decided to give him a ‘state funeral’. His open casket was displayed in Bath Abbey, whereby many thousands of people, visited to pay their respects. He was then buried in a paupers grave….somewhere.
I feel the city elders had economic reasons for resurrecting the tale of Beau Nash, a man who had made good in their great city…. A place where fortunes could be made. Hence the lavish funeral.
But you be the judge.
His is a great story and Bath is a great city to visit.
As a guide I love to bring Nash and Popjoy to life….. they were people of their ‘time’.
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