quarrelled with Carlisle, to whom he revoked a bequest of all his property, and did not seek re-election for Carlisle's borough of Morpeth after the dissolution of 1784.
In September 1781, according to Horace Walpole's testimony, Storer was seized with a passion for collecting books and prints. These expensive tastes and the love of cards kept him in comparative poverty until his father's death. In 1786 he was reading the Latin and Greek writers half the day with Dr. Edward Harwood [q. v.], whose ‘View of the Classics’ was greatly improved, in its fourth edition, from Storer's library. He was desirous in December 1787 of entering the diplomatic service, and in April 1793 he languished for employment; but his father's death in the last year brought him an ample fortune. He purchased Purley Park, between Pangbourne and Reading, and, with the advice of Humphrey Repton [q. v.], expended a considerable sum in improving and ornamenting the grounds. His health was bad; he had been very ill in the winter of 1787–8, and he did not live to complete the house for the estate. But the sum of 20,000l. was set apart by his executors for that purpose, and the present mansion, ‘a large square stone building,’ was erected from the designs of Wyatt (Britton and Brayley, Beauties of England and Wales, i. 175). He died ‘of a deep decline’ at Bristol Hotwells on 28 June 1799, and was buried at Purley, a monument by Nollekens, with a Latin inscription, being erected to his memory in Purley church. His fortune was left to his nephew, Anthony Gilbert, the only son of his brother Thomas James, who had married the Hon. Elizabeth Proby, daughter of the first Lord Carysfort. The only other legacy was the sum of 1,000l. to James Hare [q. v.]
Storer was elected F.S.A. on 11 Dec. 1777, and became a member of the Dilettanti Society on 18 April 1790. His library was rich in old classics, rare books of history and travels, and antique bindings, and it contained two undoubted Caxtons and ‘Les fais du Jason’ (Life of Caxton, 1863, ii. 19, 88, 94). Many of his books were illustrated with prints by himself and drawings by various artists, his copy of Granger being amplified into many large folio volumes. He left his complete library, with the exception of such works as they already possessed, to Eton College, and he also gave the college his beautiful collection of prints. Many sprightly letters by Storer are printed in Jesse's ‘George Selwyn’ (vols. iii. and iv.) and in the ‘Correspondence of William Eden, Lord Auckland.’ Mathias, among others, praises his literary attainments (Pursuits of Lit. Dialogue iv.).
Storer's portrait, a full-length, with an engraving in his left hand, was painted by Sir Martin Archer Shee [q. v.] It remains at Purley, the property of Major Storer. Another portrait of Storer hangs in the college library at Eton.
[Gent. Mag. 1799 ii. 626, 1800 ii. 689; Gibbon's Letters, ed. 1896, ii. 67–8, 86–7; Notices of Soc. of Dilettanti, p. 123; Leslie and Taylor's Sir Joshua Reynolds, ii. 124, 146; Eton Loan Coll. 1891, pp. 3, 5, and 6; Notes and Queries, 6th ser. vol. iii., s. v. Eton Coll. Libr.; Walpole's Letters, viii. 51–2, 125–6; Nichols's Lit. Anecdotes, ii. 660, viii. 657, ix. 508–10; Jesse's Selwyn, ii. 129, iii. 74–6; Rev. J. Richardson's Recollections, ii. 93–4; information from Major Storer of Purley.]
STORER, JAMES SARGANT (1771–1853), draughtsman and engraver, was born in 1771, and devoted himself to the production of works on topography and ancient architecture, the plates in which, drawn and engraved by himself on a small scale, were distinguished for extreme accuracy and beauty of finish. For some years he was associated with John Greig, another topographical artist, in collaboration with whom he published ‘Cowper illustrated by a Series of Views,’ 1803; ‘Views in North Britain illustrative of the Works of Burns,’ 1805; ‘Views illustrative of the Works of Robert Bloomfield,’ 1806; ‘Select Views of London and its Environs,’ 1804–5; ‘The Antiquarian and Topographical Cabinet,’ 10 vols., with five hundred plates, 1807–11; and ‘Ancient Reliques,’ 1812. He was one of the artists employed upon Britton and Brayley's ‘Beauties of England and Wales,’ 1801–1816. From 1814 James Storer worked wholly in conjunction with his eldest son (see below), whom he outlived. He died at his house at Islington on 23 Dec. 1853, and was buried beside his son at St. James's Chapel, Pentonville.
The eldest son, Henry Sargant Storer (1795–1837), produced with his father ‘The Cathedrals of Great Britain,’ 4 vols. 1814–19 (pronounced by Pugin to be the most accurate views of those buildings in existence); ‘Delineations of Fountains Abbey,’ 1820, a work of great excellence; ‘Views in Edinburgh and its Vicinity,’ 1820; ‘The University and City of Oxford displayed,’ 1821; ‘Delineations of Gloucestershire,’ 1824; and ‘The Portfolio: a collection of Engravings from Antiquarian, Architectural, and Topographical Subjects,’ 4 vols., 1823–4. The letterpress of some of these works is believed to have been written by the elder Storer.
