Dictionary of Irish Architects 1720 - 1940

Painter, of Dublin. Benjamin Hallam was admitted to the Dublin Society's School of Drawing in Architecture in 1767, to the School of Landscape and Ornament in 1769, and to the School of Figure Drawing in 1771, winning prizes in 1769 and 1770.(1) At Michaelmas 1777 he was admitted a Freeman of the City of Dublin as a member of the Guild of Painters and by virtue of being the eldest surviving son of a Freeman.(2) In 1785 Archbishop Fowler paid one 'Hallam' for painting work at The Pinery, Tallaght. There are several references to Benjamin Hallam as a painter and plasterer in Bryan Bolger's papers. In 1792-95,1800 and 1802 Bolger records measuring various painting, whitening and plastering jobs in Dublin which Hallam had carried out. Among Bolger's papers there is also an undated note and account from Hallam to Bolger, which makes it clear that Hallam carried out measuring work for Bolger.(3)

Hallam married JOHN PENTLAND' JOHN PENTLAND' s sister Catherine on 24 November 1781 and had at least three children: Letitia (b. 1786), Benjamin (b. 1788, who is probably the same person as BENJAMIN HALLAM [2] BENJAMIN HALLAM [2] ) and Catherine (b.1790).(4)

Addresses: Capel Street, <=1781->=1790;  6 Buckingham Street, 1798.



References



(1) Gitta Willemson, The Dublin Society Drawing Schools 1746-1876 (2000), 43.
(2) 'An alphabetical list of the Freemen of the City of Dublin, 1774-1824', The Irish Ancestor XV (1983), Nos. 1 & 2, 59.
(3) Bryan Bolger MSS, NA/PRO 1A 58 124,125.
(4) churchrecords.irishgenealogy.ie (last visited, Mar 2012);  abstract of will of John Pentland, 1 May 1808, in NLI, MS.424, p.270 (will published in Journal of the Irish Memorials Association 12 (No. 6, 1931), 576).