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Hugh Andrew Johnstone Munro, of Novar

Hugh Andrew Johnstone Munro, of Novar

Male 1797 - 1864  (67 years)

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  • Name Hugh Andrew Johnstone Munro  [1, 2
    Suffix of Novar 
    Born 13 Feb 1797  London, , Greater London, England Find all individuals with events at this location 
    Gender Male 
    Died 22 Nov 1864 
    Person ID I39554  Munro
    Last Modified 15 Jan 2011 

    Father Sir Alexander Munro, of Novar,   b. 1727,   d. 26 Aug 1810  (Age 83 years) 
    Mother Margaret Penelope Johnstone,   b. Abt 1731,   d. 1814  (Age ~ 83 years) 
    Married 17 Jul 1791 
    • Married at Ripon
    Family ID F13455  Group Sheet  |  Family Chart

    Family Penelope Forbes,   b. Est 1799,   d. Yes, date unknown 
    Children 
     1. Hugh Andrew Johnstone Munro, M.A., Ll.D.,   b. 29 Oct 1819, Elgin, , Moray, Scotland Find all individuals with events at this location,   d. 30 Mar 1885, Rome, Italy Find all individuals with events at this location  (Age 65 years)
    Last Modified 15 Jan 2011 
    Family ID F13458  Group Sheet  |  Family Chart

  • Notes 
    • Hugh was passionately devoted to the cultivation and encouragement of the fine arts. He spent a good deal of his time painting and he accumulated in London a costly collection of fine paintings by other artists which became well known in the fine art world as the Novar Collection.

      Hugh was never married, but he left several illegitimate children. It is said that he lived "a sensuous life."

      Ref. (1), p. 537 says his successor inherited portions of Novar in 1864, but p. 538 says he died in 1868.

      **********
      [Sir Alexander Munro] «i»Younger son of Hugh Munro (d. 1756) of Novar Family & Isabella Gordon & brother of General Sir Hector Munro; Consul General of Madrid, knighted 17 March, 1783; Commissioner of Custom Duties for England & Wales 15 Nov., 1786; suceeded Sir Hector died 20 December, 1806 Crown Charter of Achnagall; entailed estates 16 March, 1808; died Ramsgate 26 August, 1810, having married (1) cousin Margret Munro (d.1768), with issue Alexander (Capt. died 1778); (2) at Ripon 17 July, 1791 Margaret Penelope Johnstone (d.1814) with issue Hector Alexander (1792-1811), Hugh Andrew Johnstone (succeeded 1797-1864) & Isabel Margaret (m. 1834 Hon. Henry Alan Butler Johnstone) (1794-1873).

      Munro Tree L/72; Makenzie 536-7; Dictionary of National Biography under Sir Hector died 1809 (wrong); Scots Magazine(1770) 168; (1783) 167; (1786) 572; (1810) 719; (1814) 958; Gents Magazine (1770) 144; (1783) i275; (1791) 360; 1792) 204;(1794) ii 956; J. Barron N. Highlands in 19th Century i 5-6. 37; Register of Great Seal of Scotland (Manuscript in SRO) C2-137-96, 20 Dec.1806; SRO reference RT 1/53/243-69-1808 entail; E.T. Coleridge 'Life of T. Coutts' i165,167,172,239,296,300;British Library Add Manuscript 378,378 for 78; Burke's Landed Gentry (1858) memo of services; Book of Dignities 276; W.A. Shaw 'Knights of England' (1906) ii 297; F. Townsend 'Calendar of Knights'(1828) 42; Session Cases (1868-9) 251; Fortrose (1912) 153; Tain Royal Acad, MS mins ii 45,48; 1816 appeal 17,26; Novar Pedigree (1784) 1st Wife; Hodson 'Officers of the Bengal Army' iii 352.
      «/i»
      (R. W. Munro's genealogical notes)«i»
      «/i»**********
      **********
      «i»Hugh Andrew Johnstone Munro of Novar (13 February 1797 - 22 November 1864) was a Scottish art collector.

      H.A.J. Munro of Novar was born in London, the nephew of Hector Munro, 8th of Novar, and the son of Sir Alexander Munro (d. 1809). On his father's death in 1809 he became the head of the Munros of Novar and succeeded to the estate of Novar House in Ross-shire. He entered Christ Church, Oxford as a gentleman commoner in 1814 and left three years later with no degree. Munro remained unmarried; among his several illegitimate children was Hugh Andrew Johnstone Munro (b. 1819), the classical scholar.

      Munro was one of the most important patrons of J. M. W. Turner, as well as being the painter's close friend and (in 1836) traveling companion. He commissioned Turner's paintings Venice from the Porch of Madonna della Salute (1837) and The Lake of Zug (1843), neither of which pleased him. He gave The Lake of Zug to John Ruskin, his rival as a collector of Turner, who records, "Mr. Munro thought the Zug too blue and let me have it." On another occasion, Munro traded Fluelen: Morning Looking Towards the Lake (1845), another watercolor Swiss subject he had commissioned, for Storm in the St. Gotthard Pass: The First Bridge Above Altdorf (1845), which Ruskin had commissioned but disliked. Turner appointed him one of his executors in 1849. Curiously, a very distant kinsman of Munro's, Dr. Thomas Monro , had been one of the earliest supporters of the young Turner and, according to Ruskin, had exercised a significant influence on his art.

      Munro also collected works by the Old Masters and by other contemporary British artists such as Richard Parkes Bonington, John Constable, and Sir David Wilkie, amassing a collection of some 2,500 works by the time of his death. Auctions of the collection were held at Christie's between 1860 and 1878.«/i»

      (Wikipedia - "Hugh Andrew Johnstone Munro of Novar" - 16 Jan 2011)
      **********

      References:

      (1) "History of the Munros of Fowlis" by A. Mackenzie - Inverness (1898) - p. 536-538

      Compiled and edited by Allen Alger, Genealogist, Clan Munro Association, USA

  • Sources 
    1. [S668] RW Munro's Genealogy Database, Robert William Munro, (The collected genealogy notes of RW Munro, Hon. Historian of Clan Munro (Association) edited by Dr. Jean Munro, transcribed by Charles C. Munroe, III and others. Transcription completed Jan 2009. Original card file is kept at the "Storehouse of Foulis" near Foulis Castle in Scotland.), card 59 (Reliability: 3).

    2. [S783] Wikipedia, Wikipedia.org, (http://www.wikipedia.org/ : continuously updated), accessed 16 Jan 2011), Hugh Andrew Johnstone Munro of Novar (Reliability: 3).