NASH, RICHARD ('Beau Nash '; 1674 - 1761)

Born at Swansea 18 October 1674, died at Bath 12 February 1761, and buried with unusual pomp in Bath Abbey. His remarkable career, and the ways in which he developed Bath into a centre of fashion, are recounted in Thomas Seccombe's article in the D.N.B., and in a host of other books.

His father was Richard Nash, born in Pembroke town, who had settled at Swansea as a partner in glass-works; his mother was a niece of John Poyer of Pembroke. His ancestry is not clear. A family bearing the surname Nash had been squires of Llangwm, Pembrokeshire (W. Wales Hist. Records, ii, 36-7; Laws, Little England, 445); Fenton describes them as newcomers to Pembrokeshire (possibly from Carmarthen town, where, in 1586, there was an important merchant named Richard Nash). It was a family in which the name 'Richard' recurred frequently - but a family which ran out in heiresses. It is yet possible that a cadet of this family had turned to trade and founded a plebeian line which retained the name 'Richard.'

' Beau Nash ' was at Queen Elizabeth's School at Carmarthen, and in March 1691/2 entered Jesus College, Oxford, but he did not graduate.

Author

• Emeritus Professor Robert Thomas Jenkins, (1881 - 1969)

Sources

• Thomas Seccombe, Nash, Richard, Beau Nash (1674–1761)Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, 1894

Further reading

• Philip Carter, Nash, Richard [known as Beau Nash] (1674–1761), Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, 2008
• Wikipedia Article: Beau Nash

Additional Links

• VIAF: 23282729
• Wikidata: Q717787

Published date: 1959

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