Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Malton, Thomas (1726-1801)
MALTON, THOMAS, the elder (1726–1801), architectural draughtsman and writer on geometry, born in London in 1726, is stated to have originally kept an upholsterer's shop in the Strand. He contributed two drawings of St. Martin's Church to the exhibition of the Free Society of Artists in 1761, and also architectural drawings to the exhibitions of the Incorporated Society of Artists in 1766 and 1768. In 1772 and the following years he sent architectural drawings to the Royal Academy. In 1774 he published 'The Royal Road to Geometry; or an easy and familiar Introduction to the Mathematics,' a school-book intended as an improvement on Euclid, and in 1775 'A Compleat Treatise on Perspective in Theory and Practice, on the Principles of Dr. Brook Taylor.' He appears to have given lectures on perspective at his house in Poland Street, Soho. Subsequently, owing to pecuniary embarrassment, it is said, Malton removed to Dublin, where he lived for many years, and obtained some note as a lecturer on geometry. He died at Dublin on 18 Feb. 1801, in his seventy-fifth year. There are four drawings by him in the South Kensington Museum.
His eldest son, Thomas Malton the younger, is noticed separately.
Malton, James (d. 1803), architectural draughtsman and author, was another son. He accompanied his father to Ireland. Like his father, he was a professor of perspective and geometry, and, like his brother, produced some very fine tinted architectural drawings. In 1797 he published 'A Picturesque and Descriptive View of the City of Dublin,' from drawings taken by himself in 1791-5. In 1795 he published 'An Essay on British Cottage Architecture;' in 1800 a practical treatise on perspective, entitled 'The Young Painter's Maulstick,' and in 1802 'A Collection of Designs for Rural Retreats or Villas.' Malton died of brain fever in Norton (now Bolsover) Street, Marylebone, on 28 July 1803. There are specimens of his drawings in the British and South Kensington Museums.
[Redgrave's Dict. of Artists; Graves's Dict. of Artists, 1760-1880; Pasquin's Artists of Ireland; Gent. Mag. 1801 i. 277, 1803 ii. 791, 1804 i. 283; Catalogues of the Royal Academy, &c.]