John (ca 1688–1770) and William Bastard (ca 1689–1766) were British surveyor-architects, and civic dignitaries[1] of the town of Blandford Forum in Dorset.[2] John and William generally worked together and are known as the "Bastard brothers". They were builders, furniture makers, ecclesiastical carvers and experts at plasterwork,[3] but are most notable for their rebuilding work at Blandford Forum following a large fire of 1731,[4] and for work in the neighbourhood that Colvin describes as "mostly designed in a vernacular baroque style of considerable merit though of no great sophistication.".[5] Their work was chiefly inspired by the buildings of Wren, Archer and Gibbs.[6] Thus the Bastards' architecture was retrospective and did not follow the ideals of the more austere Palladianism which by the 1730s was highly popular in England.
The brothers,[7] the sons of Thomas Bastard (died 1720), a joiner and architect, the founder of a family firm of provincial architects in the area. However little remains today of the works of the brothers' ancestors, chiefly as the result of the 1731 fire and a previous fire in the town in 1713.
- ^ Extracts from John Hutchins' History of Dorset records John Bastard was mayor of Blandford Forum in 1729, 1738, 1739, 1750, 1754 and 1759. William was mayor in 1744 and 1756
- ^ Pevsner 1972:95
- ^ Cox 1997
- ^ Geoffrey Webb, "John and William Bastard, of Blandford" The Burlington Magazine for Connoisseurs 47 No. 270 (September 1925, pp. 144–145; 148–150.
- ^ Colvin 1995 sub "Bastard".
- ^ assertion made by Pevsner p 29.
- ^ A third brother, Thomas, who died in 1731 (Colvin 1995, sub "Bastard"), married an heiress and settled down to sire a family, the Horlock-Bastards of Charlton Marshall (Webb 1925).