William Coningham

William Coningham (1815 – 20 December 1884) was a British Liberal politician and art collector.

Born in Penzance, he was the son of the Rev. Robert Coningham, a clergyman from County Londonderry, and his wife Louisa née Capper. Louisa was the daughter of Colonel James Capper, an officer in the East India Company Army, and the author of philosophical and poetical works.

William was the Coninghams' only child to survive infancy. His foster-brother was James Fitzjames, one of the leaders of the doomed Franklin Expedition; the parents treated James Fitzjames as if he was their own son and William regarded him as a brother.

Following education at Eton College and Trinity College, Cambridge, Coningham obtained a commission in the 1st (Royal) Regiment of Dragoons in 1834, but bought himself out in 1836. He married Elizabeth Meyrick in Bath, Somerset, on 12 November 1840.

A keen correspondent, he exchanged a number of letters on spiritual matters with his cousin John Sterling. He was subsequently to edit and publish these as Twelve Letters in 1851. He was also a friend of Thomas Carlyle, and a number of letters between the two survive.

Coningham built up a large art collection, principally the work of Italian Old Masters. These included two panels of the Adoring Saints by Lorenzo Monaco, presented to the National Gallery, London in 1848. Other works included Portrait of a Woman by Francesco Montemezzano (now in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York), and Tarquin and Lucretia by Titian (now in the Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge). His collection of drawings is now widely scattered with examples in Princeton University Art Museum and elsewhere, but a group are in the British Museum.

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