This celebrated Artist is the youngest of ten children of John West, a person descended from very respectable ancestors, and a native of England. John early embraced the tenets of the people called Quakers. Migrating, in the year 1714, to Pennsylvania, where some members of the same family had arrived with William Penn about fifteen years before, he married and settled in the vicinity of Philadelphia; and there his son Benjamin was born. This gentleman’s residence has been in England, during the last forty-five years: but he left his native country some considerable time prior to that period; having first visited Italy, and some other schools of painting on the continent. When a Society of Artists was instituted in London, a few years after the accession of the present king to the throne, Mr. West (who had then recently arrived in England, on his return from Italy,) became a member of that body. Their exhibitions of painting, sculpture and architectural designs, became objects of attention to men of taste in the fine arts;—“the young Sovereign,” says Mr. West (in a letter to Mr. C. W. Peale, written in 1809,[263c]) “was interested in their prosperity.” After the dissolution of that society, the king desired Mr. West and three other artists to form a plan for a Royal Academy; which having been approved by his majesty, he directed that it should be carried into execution. “Thus,” continues Mr. West, “commenced the institution of the Royal Academy of London[263d]:” And again, speaking of this patronage, he says;—“his majesty, by his regard for the arts, gave a dignity to them, unknown before in the country.” Referring to this meritorious patronage of the fine arts by the present king of England, Mr. Latrobe (in his Anniversary Oration before the Society of Artists in Philadelphia, in May, 1811,) makes this just remark: “Nor ought we to omit mention of the name of George III. by whose patronage, our illustrious countryman, West, has become the first historical painter of the age.” Footnote 263a: Towards the incorporation of either one or the other of these institutions with the present establishment of the Pennsylvania Hospital, the managers possess, also, sixteen shares of stock in the Bank of Pennsylvania, bestowed by the First Troop of Cavalry in Philadelphia. The product of this noble and very valuable donation, and which is considered as being equivalent to a capital stock of $8503.33, will, most probably, be wholly applied to the support of a Lying-in Hospital, as part of the great institution. Footnote 263b: Thirty pounds a year were payable to Mrs. Abington, a daughter of Dr. Chovet, during her life, on account of this purchase. That annuity has very recently been extinguished, by the death of the annuitant. Footnote 263c: See the _Port Folio_, for January, 1810. Footnote 263d: