Portrait of Mark Anthony Mills
Date made: early 19th century
Artist: unknown artist
Description: Oil portrait on wood, said by donor to be 'Mark Anthony Mills'. Mark Anthony Mills was a rather colourful character, by profession a solicitor from Ireland. He arrived in the Isle of Man in 1807 and persisted against the strong, and ultimately successful, opposition of the Manx Bar to secure a licence to practise in the Island. He served a term in Castle Rushen for afronting the court in 1812, and was supposedly whipped in a personal attack by Deemster Heywood (this incident was depicted in a humourous cartoon by Thomas 'Buck' Kewin, who entitled it 'Heywood's Patent for Thrashing Mills'. Heywood was so enraged that he entered Kewin's shop and tore it down.) Mills was proprietor of ‘The Isle of Man Gazette’ from 1815 to May 1821 when his printing press was seized for debt and sold at public aution. In 1821 he had published the very fine ‘Lex Scripta’ (a book chronicling the Manx statutes) according to Cubbon possibly the noblest piece of topographical work produced by a Manx Press.
Measurements: overall: 33 cm x 27 cm
Materials: oil on wood
Object name: painting
Collection: Art Collection
ID number: 1960-0001
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