CATTON, CHARLES, R.A., the elder (1728–1798), painter, born in 1728 at Norwich, one of a family of thirty-five children, was apprenticed to a London coach-painter, and found time also for some study in the St. Martin's Lane academy. He is chiefly known as a landscape and animal painter, but he had a good knowledge of the figure, and a talent for humorous design. In 1786 he published the ‘Margate Packet,’ a clever etching in which these qualities appear. Somewhat early in life he became a member of the Society of Artists, and exhibited various pictures in its galleries from 1760 to 1764. He shone in his own profession, painting ornamental panels for carriages, floral embellishments, and heraldic devices in a highly superior manner. He received the appointment of coach-painter to George III, and was one of the foundation members of the Royal Academy. In 1784 he was master of the Company of Painter-Stainers. He exhibited at the Royal Academy from its foundation to the year of his death, sending altogether a large number of works. These were usually landscapes, but occasionally subject-pieces and animal paintings. A ‘Jupiter and Leda’ and ‘Child at Play’ were his last works. For the church of St. Peter Mancroft, Norwich, he painted an altar-piece, ‘The Angel delivering St. Peter.’ Some years before his death he gave up the practice of his art. He died at his house in Judd Place in the New Road, 28 Sept. 1798, and was buried in Bloomsbury cemetery.
[Redgrave's Dict. of Artists; Graves's Dict. of Artists.]
CATTON, CHARLES, the younger (1756–1819), painter, son of Charles Catton the elder [q. v.], was born in London 30 Dec. 1756. He had the advantage of his father's tuition, and studied also in the Academy schools, where it is stated that he acquired a good knowledge of the figure. He travelled considerably in England and Scotland making sketches, of which some were afterwards engraved and published. He was known as a scene-painter, and also as a topographical draughtsman. In 1775 he exhibited at the Royal Academy a ‘View of London from Blackfriars Bridge,’ and one of ‘Westminster from Westminster Bridge.’ In 1793 he exhibited designs for Gay's ‘Fables,’ together with Burney. These were afterwards published. So also were a number of drawings of animals taken from nature and engraved by himself, 1788. At the Royal Academy he exhibited thirty-seven times altogether from 1776 to 1800. In the latter year he was living at Purley. In 1804 he left this country for America, and settled in a farm upon the Hudson with his two daughters and a son. There he lived until his death, painting occasionally. At South Kensington there are specimens of his work—some drawings of animals done in a neat, wiry manner. He is said to have ‘acquired wealth’ by his painting. He died 24 April 1819.
[Redgrave's Dict. of Artists; Graves's Dict. of Artists; Cat. Eng. Coll. South Kensington Museum.]
CATTON, THOMAS (1760–1838), astronomer, took a degree of B.A. in 1781 from St. John's College, Cambridge, as fourth wrangler and first Smith's prizeman, obtained one of the members' prizes for senior bachelors in 1783, proceeded M.A. in 1784 and B.D. in 1791. He was also a fellow and tutor of his college, and was entrusted with the care of the small observatory situated on one of its towers. Here he observed eclipses, occultations, and other astronomical phenomena from 1791 to 1832 with a 3½-foot transit, a 46-inch, and (after 1811) a 42-inch Dollond's achromatic. The data thus collected were reduced and printed in 1853 under the superintendence of Sir George Airy, at public expense, with the title ‘Astronomical Observations made by the Rev. Thomas Catton, B.D.’ Besides appearing separately, they formed part of vol. xxii. of ‘Memoirs of the Royal Astronomical Society.’ Catton was one of the earliest members of the last-named body, and was also a fellow of the Royal Society. He died at St. John's College, Cambridge, 6 Jan. 1838.
[Annual Register, 1838, p. 194; Gent. Mag. ix. (i.) 216 (new series); Monthly Notices, iv. 110; R. Soc.'s Cat. Sc. Papers.]
CATTON or CHATTODUNUS, WALTER (d. 1343), a Franciscan friar of Norwich, was, according to some authorities, head of the Minorite convent situated between the churches of St. Cuthbert and St. Vedast. He seems to have been an author of some repute in his generation, and was, according to Bale, a great student of Aristotle. Towards the close of his life he was summoned to Avignon by the pope, and died a penitentiary in that city in 1343. The titles of his works have been preserved by Leland, viz. ‘A Commentary on the Sentences of Peter Lombard’ (4 books) and a treatise ‘De Paupertate Evangelica,’ to which Bale adds two other discussions entitled respectively, ‘Adversus Astrologos’ and certain ‘Resolutiones Quæstionum.’ Pits adds that he was a mathematician.
