The Four Bath Worthies Oil Painting

The Four Bath Worthies on display at the Building of Bath Collection
Anonymous, c.1735
Oil on Canvas
Bath Preservation Trust

The title of this painting, which was found in pencil on the rear of the canvas, refers to the importance and prominence of the Bath men it is believed to depict.

On the right stands John Wood in surveyor's clothes with an architectural drawing or deed tucked under his arm, and next to him sits Robert Gay, who inherited the manor of Walcot in 1699, making him one of Bath's major landowners. To the left of Gay, also seated, is Ralph Allen, the owner of the Combe Down stone quarries and Wood's patron-client. The fourth figure is Richard Jones, the Clerk of Works who eventually replaced Wood as the builder-surveyor of Allen's mansion house, Prior Park.