DERICK, JOHN MACDUFF

Architect. According to his obituary in the New York Evening Post, John Macduff Derick, who was born in 1810, was the son of James Derick of Ballymote, co. Sligo, and was descended on his father's side from an old Connaught family and on his mother's from the Macduffs, Earls of Fife.(1) The same source states that he attended Trinity College, Dublin,(2) was a pupil of Sir JOHN SOANE  JOHN SOANE and travelled in Normandy, the south of France and Italy. His professional connection with Oxford began in the 1830s, when he designed the boatmen's floating chapel on the Oxford Canal in the Grecian style.(3) He was one of the original promoters of the Oxford Architectural Society, which in 1841 published his Views and Details of Stanton Harcourt Church, Oxon.. According to his obituarist he developed an extensive, mainly ecclesiastical practice as a young man, and at one time had offices in Oxford, London and Dublin simultaneously.(4) While his principal works in England appear to date largely from the 1840s, it was during the 1850s that Derick was active in Ireland, where he is known to have designed three churches and the castellated gateway at Duckett's Grove, co. Carlow. He exhibited two designs at the National Exhibition in Cork in 1852(5) and five at the Royal Hibernian Academy the following year.(6) He was elected an associate of the Royal Hibernian Academy on 13 October 1854.(7) In December 1856 he read a paper on the monastic remains at Castledermot, Co. Kildare, to the Oxford Architectural Society.(8)

The obituary states that Derick retired early from practice on account of domestic afflictions and failing health but was forced to resume his profession after suffering unforeseen financial losses. In 1858 he emigrated to America, where he died on 20 September 1859. He wife was named Elizabeth Joyce. He is described as modest and cheerful, honourable and generous and is said to have been a friend of AUGUSTUS WELBY NORTHMORE PUGIN  AUGUSTUS WELBY NORTHMORE PUGIN and some of the leading artists and writers of his day.

See WORKS, for Irish work only, and BIBLIOGRAPHY. BIBLIOGRAPHY.

References

The principal source of biographical information about Derick is the obituary which appeared in the New York Evening Post of 23 Sep 1859 and was reprinted in Jackson's Oxford Journal, 29 Oct 1859. A condensed and much belated version of this appeared in B 19, 26 Oct 1861, 743, prompted by the fact that Mrs Derick, who had returned to England to seek treatment for a sick child, was appealing for money to enable her to return to America 'where she anticipates a better opportunity of obtaining a livelihood than in this country'; this was followed by a note on Derick by 'W.P.' in B 19, 2 Nov 1861, 753. For a more detailed account of his career in England, see Phil Mottram, 'John Macduff Derick…a biographical sketch' Ecclesiology Today 32 (Jan 2004), 40-52. For an example of his graphic style, see Roger White, The Architectural Drawings of Magdalen College, Oxford (2001), figs. 77 & 78 (unexecuted designs for Magdalen College school, 1844, 1845).

(1) Could the builder and architect JAMES DERRICK have been his father?
(2) His name does not appear in Alumni Dublinenses.
(3) Information from Howard Colvin (IAA, Edward McParland files, Acc. 2008/44).
(4) There is no record of a Dublin office in the directories in the IAA (1839,1844,1847,1853,1857).
(5) IALE; for details see WORKS.
(6) RHA exhibitors index; for details see WORKS.
(7) W.G. Strickland, A Dictionary of Irish Artists (1913), II, 624; his name disappears from the list of associates after 1857.
(8) B 14, 13 Dec 1856, 680.

18 work entries listed in chronological order for DERICK, JOHN MACDUFF

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Building:	ENGLAND, OXFORD, BOATMEN'S FLOATING CHAPEL
Date:	1830s
Nature:	Grecian style with bellcote, on Oxford Canal.
Refs:	Information given to Edward McParland by Howard Colvin

Building:	ENGLAND, BANBURY (OXFORDSHIRE), ST JOHN'S CHURCH (RC)
Date:	1835-36
Nature:	New Gothic church.
Refs:	Howard Colvin, A Biographical dictionary of British architects 1600-1840 (3rd edn., 1995), 1139 (citing R. Gardner, Gazetteer of the County of Oxford (1852), 417).

Building:	ENGLAND, CHIPPING NORTON (OXFORDSHIRE), HOLY TRINITY CHURCH (RC)
Date:	1836
Nature:	New church.
Refs:	Howard Colvin, A Biographical dictionary of British architects 1600-1840 (3rd edn., 1995), 1139, citing London & Dublin Orthodox Journal IV, 205).

Building:	ENGLAND, OXFORD, MARTYRS' MEMORIAL
Date:	1840
Nature:	Runner-up in competition
Refs:	Howard Colvin, Unbuilt Oxford (1983), 121(illus.)

Building:	ENGLAND, LEEDS (YORKSHIRE), CHURCH OF ST SAVIOUR
Date:	1842-45
Nature:	-
Refs:	Drawing exh. at RHA 1853, 173; Catalogue of the Drawings Collection of the Royal Institute of British Architects: C-F (1972), 81

Building:	ENGLAND, MARCHWOOD (HAMPSHIRE), CHURCH OF ST JOHN (CE)
Date:	1843
Nature:	-
Refs:	Catalogue of the Drawings Collection of the Royal Institute of British Architects: C-F (1972), 81

Building:	ENGLAND, OXFORD, MAGDALEN COLLEGE, CHORISTERS' HALL
Date:	1844
Nature:	Winner of competition but design by J.C. Buckler executed instead in 1849.
Refs:	Roger H. Harper, Victorian Architectural Competitions (1983), 210; drawings exh. at RHA 1853 (nos. 216,389); Howard Colvin, Unbuilt Oxford (1983), 99

Building:	ENGLAND, OVER WORTON (OXFORDSHIRE), CHURCH OF HOLY TRINITY (CE)
Date:	1844
Nature:	-
Refs:	Catalogue of the Drawings Collection of the Royal Institute of British Architects: C-F (1972), 81

Building:	ENGLAND, EISEY (WILTSHIRE), CHURCH OF ST MARY (CE)
Date:	1844
Nature:	-
Refs:	Catalogue of the Drawings Collection of the Royal Institute of British Architects: C-F (1972), 81

Building:	INDIA, COLABA, CHURCH (PROPOSED)
Date:	1844
Nature:	JD's design rejected on grounds of expense in favour of one by Henry Conybeare.
Refs:	Drawing exh. at National Exhibition of the Art, Manufactures & Products, Cork, 1852 (no. 264); Catalogue of the Drawings Collection of the Royal Institute of British Architects: C-F (1972), 41,81

Building:	ENGLAND, ETON (BERKSHIRE), ETON COLLEGE
Date:	1845
Nature:	JD entrant in competition for restoration of chapel.
Refs:	Roger H. Harper, Victorian Architectural Competitions (1983), 210

Building:	ENGLAND, MANCHESTER, BIRCH-IN-RUSHOLME, CHURCH OF ST JAMES (CE)
Date:	1845-6
Nature:	-
Refs:	Drawing exh. at RHA 1853, no. 210; Catalogue of the Drawings Collection of the Royal Institute of British Architects: C-F (1972), 81

Building:	ENGLAND, PENSNETT (STAFFORDSHIRE), CHURCH OF ST MARK (CE)
Date:	1846
Nature:	-
Refs:	Catalogue of the Drawings Collection of the Royal Institute of British Architects: C-F (1972), 81

Building:	CO. GALWAY, CLONBUR, CHURCH (CI)
Date:	1846
Nature:	In process of erection, 1846. For Lady E.S. Clements
Refs:	Drawing exh. RA 1846 (no. 1291); this church is wrongly attr. to William Atkins by Jeremy Williams in his essay on Atkins in A. Bernelle (ed.), Decantations: a tribute to Maurice Craig (1992), 242-3,248.

Building:	CO. CARLOW, CARLOW, CHURCH OF ST ANN OR BRUEN TESTIMONIAL (CI)
Date:	1852-54
Nature:	Design selected in open competition. Decorated. Cruciform. FS laid 21 May 1852. (Church purchased 1929 and moved to Graiguecullen to become Church of St Clare (RC)
Refs:	Drawing of S.E. view exh. RA 1852 (no. 1217) and at RHA 1853 (no. 373); scroll placed in cavity behind stone in SE jamb of doorway in S aisle by his wife, Elizabeth Joyce Derick, May 21st(?) 1852 (photocopy in Jones file D39); B 11, 22 Jan 1853, 60; 12, 21 Jan 1854, 34(illus.); 16, 28 Aug 1858, 591

Building:	CO. CARLOW, DUCKETT'S GROVE
Date:	1853-55
Nature:	Castellated entrance gate covering extent of 240 feet, for John Dawson Duckett. Builders: Kelly & Kinsella.
Refs:	B 13, 1 Dec 1855, 584; J. Williams, Companion guide to Architecture in Ireland 1837-1921 (1994), 38

Building:	CO. FERMANAGH, DRUMINISKILL, CHURCH (CI)
Date:	1855-1860
Nature:	New chapel of ease in parish of Killesher; 'a small but characterful church in red brick with grey stone trim' (Rowan). Completed after JMD's emigration in 1858 and death in  following year(Archts: Carmichael & Jones)
Refs:	Signed, undated drawing in RCB Library, portfolio 20; Alistair Rowan, The Buildings of Ireland: North West Ulster (1979), 301; General Advertiser, 4 Feb 1860; DB 2, l Mar 1860, 225;  illus. in Claude Costegalde & Brian Walker, The Church of Ireland: an illustrated history (2013), 244.

Building:	ENGLAND, STANMORE HALL (MIDDLESEX)
Date:	?
Nature:	-
Refs:	Drawing exh. at National Exhibition of the Art, Manufactures & Products, Cork, 1852 (no. 263)

Author	Title	Date	Details
Derick, John Macduff	Views and details of Stanton Harcourt Church, Oxon.	1841	Oxford: John Henry Parker for the Architectural Society, 1841.
Mottram, Phil	'John Macduff Derick…a biographical sketch'	2004	Ecclesiology Today 32 (Jan 2004), 40-52.