BACKHOUSE, Benjamin
Benjamin Backhouse was born at Rendham, Saxmundham, Suffolk on 25 April 1802 and baptised at Rendham Independent Church on 12 June 1802, son of Philemon Backhouse (1761-1821), a blacksmith, and his wife Elizabeth. Benjamin married firstly at St Clement's church, Ipswich on 5 April 1822, Mrs Mary Ann Prentice, née Fuller, a widow, (1795-8 September 1842) and secondly in 1849, Mary Ann Branch (1819-). Backhouse was foreman to stonemason James de Carle and had a business at Diss, Norfolk but in 1828 he opened a stone and marble works at 1 St Matthews Street, Ipswich but by 1842 was an architect & surveyor at St Matthews, Ipswich when he took into partnership William Seward, land surveyor. In 1851, Benjamin was a 48-year-old architect & surveyor, living at Whitton Road, Ipswich with his 32-year-old second wife Mary Ann, with four children. A member of the Ipswich Society of Professional & Amateur Artists from 1834, where he was tutored by Henry Davy. Benjamin Backhouse died at his home at Norwich Road, Ipswich on 31 March 1870, aged 68. He was also an estate agent, stonemason and builder and the East Suffolk & Ipswich Hospital, Anglesea Road, Ipswich which was designed by William Parkes Ribbans was erected by Backhouse