Rachel Bowditch of Taunton

Rachel Bowditch (1756-1827) was the third child of Robert and Mary Pile of Cheddon Fitzpaine, Somerset. In 1779 she married Samuel Bowditch of Taunton, with whom she had four children, Rachel, Hannah, James and Betty.

The family ran a pawnbroking and drapery business in the town. This portrait was painted when she was 65 years old and still actively trading.

Rachel Bowditch was an enterprising woman. She became involved in the pawnbroking business in 1783. It’s not clear whether this was established by her husband before his death. Her son, James, joined the business and they combined the business with general drapery, haberdashery and hosiery. They later gave up the pawnbroking arm.

Stock was mostly purchased in London on buying expeditions. Announcements were then made in The Taunton Courier that the latest fashions for the coming season had arrived in town. These list in great detail the newly arrived stock which ranged from satins, French cambric, bombazine, Welsh, Lancashire and serge flannel, to sarcenet and gingham dresses, ‘the best manufactured Tewkesbury Cotton Hose’, Honiton and Tiverton Lace, ‘India Nankeens, Stout Corduroys, Fustians, Moleskins, Nankeens and Jeans.

They worked together until 1818 when the business was split. James established new premises in Fore Street, and Rachel continued the business from North Street. Rachel retired in 1823 after 40 years in business.

Edward Goldsworthy once owned this painting. He was a chemist, druggist and historian, and published his Recollections of Old Taunton in 1883. In his account of the town, he describes the premises of the Bowditch family in Paul Street, as he remembered them in the 1820s:

‘…and then a draper’s shop, kept by an old Taunton family named Bowditch. Mrs. Bowditch was a very handsome old lady, and was the grandmother of Lady Wheatstone, wife of Sir Charles Wheatstone. Her son Jim was said to be very much like George the fourth. I have a three-quarter size portrait of this old lady, painted by Ponsford, of Exeter, in 1821.’

Portrait research by Stephen Price for the ‘Eye to Eye Project’ in 2006.

Visual description: oil painting of a woman in her sixties in 19th century clothing. Her brown hair is mostly concealed by a white silk cap that is tied in a bow at the front. She is wearing a brown dress, mostly covered by a white shawl draped over her shoulders and completely covering her arms. The edges of the shawl are trimmed with embroidery.