A Pilgrim for life

Pellegrino (Pilgrim) Mazzotti is remembered today because he exhibited with the Norwich Society of Artists in the 1820s and because some of his works can be found in several museums in the UK.

Around 1820 he made a bust of John Crome (1768-1821) and Denis Brownell Murphy made Crome's portrait in watercolour and pencil. Pellegrino's potrait, which is the logo of this website, is very similar in style, so it may have been made by the same artist. It has been reproduced on this website by kind permission of Sheila Mazzotti.

Coreglia

Pellegrino came to Norwich as a plaster figure maker. He was born in Coreglia in the province of Lucca, Tuscany, between 1793 and 1796.

In Coreglia plaster figure making was a local industry. Several families in Coreglia specialised in plaster figure making, the Mazzottis among them, and many emigrated. Another Mazzotti, Pietro, left Coreglia at the age of 19 in 1857 and set up his studio in Münster, Germany, where he was followed by his son and grandson, both called Albert. In 1883 a school was founded in Coreglia to teach those who wanted to become figure makers and emigrate. One of the first teachers was Nicolao Mazzotti. Since 1975 Coreglia has a Museum of Plaster Statuettes and Emigration.

Norwich

Why Pellegrino chose Norwich as his destination is still unknown. On 10 February 1822 he married Mary Leeds, by marriage licence acquired on 9 February 1822, and they had four daughters: Maria (°1822), Caroline (°1823), Rosina (°ca 1825) and Teresa (°1827). Two daughters, Caroline and Teresa, were baptised at St John Maddermarket Catholic Chapel, now the Maddermarket Theatre. Of the other daughters no baptismal records have been found.

Pellegrino first had his studio at Charing Cross, most probably at Strangers' Hall, where the Catholic priests rented out part of the building. Another resident was Thomas d'Eterville, a Jesuit, who taught local author George Borrow. From 1830 Pellegrino worked from Goat Lane, where he could still be found in 1839. He appears to have left Norwich by 1841 and by 1842 another Italian figure maker, Giovanni Bianchi, had set up business in Norwich.

Wisbech - Ely - Cambridge

The 1840s were a time of instability both for Pellegrino and his wife and children who stayed behind in Norwich. In 1842 Pellegino donated some of his works to the recently founded museum at Wisbech, but not much more is known about that time.

On 30 November 1849 James Mazotti, a plaster figure maker, died at the Union workhouse on Mill Road, Cambridge, at the age of 45. He had a studio in Cambridge in 1846 at 8, Bridge Street. It was later taken over by Edmund Leeds, born in Norwich, who was probably Pellegrino's nephew. Was James Pellegrino's brother?

Pellegrino, then called Pilgrim Mazotti, had a studio at Bull Lane, Ely, in 1850 and a year later he lived in Cambridge at 9 Black Lion Yard, Silver Street, where he was lodging with Henry Purser, a printer and pressman.

Back in Norwich Pellegrino's family fell on hard times. In 1841 his wife Mary and daughters Maria, Caroline and Rosina still lived in Goat Lane. But in 1844 Maria had a daughter, who died in an accident in 1850, and Caroline became the mother of a son, Charles, in 1845, and of a daughter, Louisa Atkinson, in 1855. In March 1849, Mary, Pellegrino's wife, was admitted to the Bethel Hospital in Norwich. She was diagnosed as 'melancholic, in great fear of coming to want'. Even though she was discharged in August, she was readmitted in July 1850 and remained at the Bethel until her death on 22 December 1861.

During those tragic times, however, the Mazzottis showed great solidarity. In 1851, a girl called Fanny Mazottee, was a housemaid in Ely, at a time when Pellegrino lived and worked in the area. Was she Maria, Pellegrino's eldest daugther? She was a servant on the 1861 and 1871 censuses. Rosina raised Maria's daughter until her fatal accident and Caroline's children until they could go into service, even after her own marriage with Richard Bowles Skipper in December 1852. Charles found a position in South Lynn, near Wisbech, where Pellegrino was residing. And when Caroline died in January 1861, it was at Rosina's house.

Wisbech - Lynn

In 1854 Pellegrino was back in Wisbech. However, he made a bust in Lynn in 1860. On the 1861 and 1871 census returns he was living at Wisbech. He was able to provide for himself at least until 1871, when he lived at 15 Trafalgar Row, Wisbech St Peter. He also knew of his wife's death, because he called himself a widower on the 1871 census. Pellegrino Mazzotti died in the Wisbech workhouse on 22 October 1879. At the time of his death, he still had friends in the area, as his death was announced in The Wisbech Telegraph of Saturday 25 October 1879.

Pellegrino lives on in his works and his descendants. He made busts, vases and death masks. He only worked in plaster. Some of his works are now at Norwich Castle Museum, Wisbech Museum and the National Portrait Gallery. But there may be others that we don't know about.

Even now Pellegrino has descendants called Mazzotti. Charles, Pellegrino's grandson, had two sons, who both had families. Nowadays there are no Mazzottis in Norwich. However, Rosina, who married Richard Skipper, had three children and Louisa Atkinson, who married Walter Harcourt, had twelve, so it is highly likely that some of their descendants still live in the area.

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Source references are included on the pages under 'Work' and 'Life'.