Dictionary of Irish Architects 1720 - 1940

Surveyor and cartographer. Peter Bernard Scalé, who was born in 1738, was a son of Peter Scalé, a Huguenot resident in England. He was a pupil of JOHN ROCQUE JOHN ROCQUE , and, according to Strickland, came to Dublin to assist Rocque in the surveys for his map of Dublin.(1) If this is correct he would have come to Ireland in or soon after 1754, when he was about sixteen. By the autumn of 1758 he had married Rocque's sister and was advertising on his own behalf, informing the public 'That he surveys Counties, Cities, Gentlemen's Estates, &c. topographically, after the Manner of Mr. John Rocque his Brother-in-Law, by whom he was instructed'.(2) After Rocque left Dublin in 1760, Scalé stayed on and established his own successful suveying practice. He exhibited twice at the Society of Artists in Ireland, showing 'Drawings of Surveys' in 1766, and drawings of the demesnes of the Earl of Clanbrassil and of the Duke of Leinster in 1770.(3) His pupils included James Asser, JOHN BROWNRIGG JOHN BROWNRIGG , WILLIAM RICHARDS  WILLIAM RICHARDS and THOMAS SHERRARD THOMAS SHERRARD . He formed partnerships with the latter three of these pupils at various periods. He appears in Wilson's Dublin Directory in partnership with Richards from 1763 to 1767, on his own from 1768 to 1773, in partnership with Sherrard and Brownrigg from 1774 to 1776, with Brownrigg alone in 1777, and on his own again from 1778 to 1779. The register of St Thomas's parish, Dublin, records the baptisms of six children of Bernard and Henrietta Scalé between 1769 and 1773 and the deaths of four of them during the same period.(4)

From 1774 onwards Scalé appears to have been based in England. An advertisement placed in Faulkner's Dublin Journal for 24-29 September 1774, announced that 'instructions from persons residing in England or Foreign parts, will be received by Mr Scalé, at Mangrove near Burnwood [Brentwood], Essex; Domestic Commands as usual by Mssrs Brownrigg and Sherrard at their house, Lower Abbey-Street'. SAMUEL BYRON  SAMUEL BYRON appears to have served his apprenticeship with Scalé at Mangrove before coming to Ireland in 1779 to take up residence 'in the house (no 123 Lower Abbey-street) where Mr Scalé formerly lived'.(5) After 1779 Scale''s name disappears from the Dublin directories. For the rest of his long life he lived at various addresses in Essex. He died at North Hill, Colchester, in 1826.

Scalé's Irish output was very large. In addition to numerous estate, town, district and county maps, he charted the coast from Balbriggan, Co. Dublin, to Wicklow Head in 1765 (with William Richards)(6) and produced a new edition of Rocque's map of Dublin in 1773. In 1767 he published a handsome set of engravings of the Parliament House in Dublin from drawings by ROWLAND OMER.  ROWLAND OMER.

Addresses:(7) George's Lane, Dublin, 1763-67; Lower Abbey Street, 1768-1776; 123 Lower Abbey Street, 1777; 2 Essex Bridge, 1778-1779.(8)



References

All information in this entry not otherwise accounted for is from Peter Eden, ed. Dictionary of land surveyors and local cartographers of Great Britain and Ireland 1550-1850 (1979), 225; see also J.H. Andrews, Plantation Acres (Ulster Historical Foundation, 1985), 162-70, 206, 227, 229,250,254, 278-9, 292, 335, 344, 345, 416.

(1) W.G. Strickland, A Dictionary of Irish Artists (1913), II, 322-4.
(2) Sleater's Public Gazetteer, 23 Sep 1758 (reproduced by Andrews, op. cit., 227).
(3) IALE II, 642.
(4) R. Refaussé, ed., Register of the Parish of St Thomas, Dublin, 1750-1791 (1994), 9,36,40,48,53,56,59,85,91,92,93; the children were William Bernard (1766-69), Henrietta (b. 1767), Bernard (b. 1770), Julia (1771-1772), Charlotte (1772-1773) and Morley (1773).
(5) Faulkner's Dublin Journal 29 May-1 Jun 1779.
(6) Plans of Dublin harbour, British Library Add. MS 35,931; CARD XI, 290.
(7) From Wilson's Dublin Directory. these are possibly business addresses only. The registers of St Thomas's church (see note 3, above) give an entirely different series of addresses for the Scale's when recording the births and deaths of their children, viz: Marlborough St, 1766; Montgomery's St, 1769; Drogheda St, 1770; Meclenburgh St, 1771; Cumberland St, 1772.
(8) The Essex bridge address may be a confusion with Essex in England.