Beau Nash House - Bath, Somerset
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SMacB
N 51° 22.927 W 002° 21.752
30U E 544361 N 5692512
Beau Nash (18 October 1674 – 3 February 1761), born Richard Nash, was a celebrated dandy and leader of fashion in 18th-century Britain. He is best remembered as the Master of Ceremonies at the spa town of Bath.
Waymark Code: WMWKQ3
Location: South West England, United Kingdom
Date Posted: 09/16/2017
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A plaque on the second home of Beau Nash, a celebrated dandy and leader of fashion in 18th-century Britain. He is best remembered as the Master of Ceremonies at the spa town of Bath.
Nash came to Bath in 1705 after less-than-successful careers in the army and the law. His skill and good fortune at gambling enabled him to live in the house now the Garrick's Head pub.
However, a change in the gambling laws in 1739 caused a drastic reduction in his income and he was forced to move in with his mistress, Juliana Popjoy, in the house virtually next door.
The smaller plaque reads:
In this house resided
the celebrated
Beau Nash
and here he died Feby 1761
The larger plaque reads:
This was the splendid
home of Beau Nash,
"The King of Bath,"
and his handsome and
faithful mistress
Juliana Popjoy.
They spent the whole
of the latter part of
their lives here until
the Beau's death,
in 1761 at the age
of 86,
We preserve in this
building all the high
standards Beau Nash
set for Bath.
We think that Juliana
Popjoy approves.
Indeed, she is
occasionally seen her,
dressed in grey, and
we suspect she has an
eye on whether we
are entertaining our
guests as well as she
entertained the Beau's
friends in the same
house 250 years ago.
"Nash was born in Goat Street, Swansea in 1674. He attended Jesus College, Oxford, served as an army officer, and was then called to the bar as a barrister, but made little of either career.
In 1704, he became Master of Ceremonies at the rising spa town of Bath, a position he retained until he died. He lived in a house on Saw Close (now at the main entrance to the Theatre Royal), and kept a string of mistresses. He played a leading role in making Bath the most fashionable resort in 18th-century England.
His position was unofficial, but nevertheless he had extensive influence in the city until early 1761. He would meet new arrivals to Bath and judge whether they were suitable to join the select "Company' of 500 to 600 people who had pre-booked tables, match ladies with appropriate dancing partners at each ball, pay the musicians at such events, broker marriages, escort unaccompanied wives and regulate gambling (by restraining compulsive gamblers or warning players against risky games or cardsharps). He was notable for encouraging a new informality in manners, breaking down the rigid barriers which had previously divided the nobility from the middle-class patrons of Bath, and even from the gentry.
Although the Corporation of the city funded an elaborate funeral for Nash, he was buried in an unmarked pauper's grave. There is a memorial to him at Bath Abbey church in Bath.
His death caused quite a stir at the time, with the celebrated author Oliver Goldsmith being moved to write The Life of Richard Nash as early as 1762.
Nash was a notorious gambler who was forced to move in with his mistress, Juliana Popjoy, due to his debts. Upon his death, Popjoy was so distraught, she spent the majority of her remaining days living in a large hollowed-out tree. Near her death, she moved out of the tree and back to her birth home where she died."
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