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

Name: Richard Nash
Pseudonym: Beau Nash
Date of birth: 1674
Date of death: 1761
Parent: Richard Nash
Gender: Male
Area of activity: Sports and Leisure Pursuits
Author: Robert Thomas Jenkins

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

Published date: 1959

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