Ann Simpson, of Sladebank in Cumberland, was a notable housewife and excellent mother to her large family of eleven children. The painter was her second son. Another son, Peter Romney [q. v.], is separately noticed. At a very early age George was sent to school at Dendron, about four miles from Dalton, where the master, the Rev. Mr. Fell, agreed to teach him the humanities for 5s. a quarter, while a certain Mr. Gardner received him as a boarder for 4l. 10s. a year. But so indifferent was his progress that even this modest outlay was voted a useless expense; and when the boy was eleven his father brought him home and turned him into his own workshop. He soon became useful to his father, much of whose mechanical skill he seems to have inherited. In particular he distinguished himself by the manufacture of fiddles, many of which he ornamented with elaborate carving. His passion for music first suggested these experiments, and a fiddle of his own make became a common present to his boyish companions. One such gift to a former schoolfellow named Greene inaugurated a lifelong friendship, of great value to Romney in later years. Greene became an attorney of repute in London, and Romney's chief adviser in all business matters. He audited the painter's confused accounts, and managed all his money transactions.
It seems evident that Romney's inclination for art developed very early. He is said to have amused his father's workmen by drawing their portraits. One of these workmen, Sam Knight by name, took in an illustrated monthly magazine, which he used to hand on to his master's son, who copied the engravings in pencil. Young Romney also made drawings from the prints in a copy of Leonardo's ‘Treatise on Painting.’ Some of the drawings thus made came under the notice of a relative, Mr. Lewthwaite of Millom, who, struck with their merit, strongly urged the elder Romney to train the boy as an artist. Richard Cumberland, in a biographical notice of Romney published in the ‘European Magazine,’ declares that his genius had no early stimulus beyond Knight's encouragement, and that his acquaintance with pictures was confined to the sign of the Red Lion at Dalton. According, however, to Hayley, one John Williams, an eccentric dilettante of the neighbourhood, greatly influenced the youthful artist, encouraging his aspirations and directing his early efforts. Through his persuasion, perhaps, or that of Mr. Lewthwaite, John Romney made up his mind to start his son on the novel career. An itinerant portrait-painter named Edward Steele (d. 1760?) [q. v.] happened at the time to be working in Kendal. To him George Romney was duly apprenticed, his indentures bearing the date 20 March 1755. Steele was not altogether the dauber he has been called, though his character made him anything but an ideal guardian of youth. He seems to have troubled himself little about his pupils, yet he managed to win their affections in spite of, or perhaps by, his foibles (see Romney, Memoirs of George Romney, p. 42). Romney used to complain that he was deprived of all opportunities of self-improvement by incessant studio drudgery, but his enforced application probably stood him in good stead in after years.
While Romney was at Kendal, Steele prevailed upon a young woman of some means, to whom he was giving lessons, to marry him at Gretna Green. Romney was his master's confidant and auxiliary in this affair, and the excitement told so much upon him that he fell into a fever. Throughout his illness he was nursed by one Mary Abbott, his landlady's daughter. She and her mother were poor but decent folks, perhaps of a lower social status than himself, as Mary is said to have been for some time a domestic servant. An attachment sprang up between nurse and patient, and they became engaged. Steele, after his adventurous marriage, had determined to try his fortune in York. He ordered his apprentice to join him there as soon as he was well enough; and Romney, distressed at the approaching separation from his betrothed, determined to make her his wife before leaving Kendal. They were accordingly married on 14 Oct. 1756. The step was imprudent enough to justify the anger expressed by his parents; but Romney assured them that it should prove an incentive to work and a safeguard against youthful follies. He set out immediately afterwards for York, and his wife seems to have returned to service. Romney, still in his apprenticeship, had of course no income, and, indeed, for some time received occasional help from his wife in the shape of half-guineas, sent under the seals of letters. While at York Steele painted a portrait of Sterne. According to a legend, reported by Cumberland but contradicted by Hayley, Sterne was so struck by the talent of Steele's assistant that he wished him to paint the picture, to the master's chagrin. After a stay of nearly a year at York, Steele and his pupil practised for a short time at Lancaster, and here Romney became anxious to bring their connection to an end. He proposed that a sum of 10l. he had lent his master should be taken as a consideration for the cancelling of his indentures. To this Steele
