Thomas Hazlehurst (ca. 1740 – ca. 1821) was an English miniature painter.
He was born in Liverpool and was a pupil of Joshua Reynolds. He exhibited at the Society for Promoting Painting and Design in Liverpool between 1760 and 1818 and at the Liverpool Academy between 1810 and 1812. He made over £20,000 from his paintings but invested badly and died in poverty.Emma Rutherford, ‘Hazlehurst, Thomas (c.1740–c.1821)’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004 accessed 30 January 2007
His work is highly finished and is said to be of "great excellence". Some of his work is in the British Museum and a collection of his paintings of Lancashire flora is in the City of Liverpool Library.
Personal life Hazlehurst married Martha Bentley at Rostherne, Cheshire by licence on 24 February 1783.Rostherne, Cheshire parish register of marriages (available online at www.findmypast.co.uk) The marriage licence Cheshire Marriage Licence Bonds And Allegations 1606-1905 on www.findmypast.co.uk describes Thomas as a "portrait painter", aged 19, a bachelor, of More, Rostherne, Cheshire, son of John Hazlehurst. It seems likely, therefore, that he was the Thomas Hazlehurst, son of John and Sarah Hazlehurst, baptized at Lymm, Cheshire on 20 Nov 1763.Cheshire Diocese of Chester parish baptisms 1538-1911 on www.findmypast.co.uk (date mis-transcribed).
Hazlehurst died in Liverpool in 1821 and was buried at St. James, Toxteth on 19 June 1821 (age given in the burial register as 59).Ancestry.com. Liverpool, England, Church of England Burials, 1813-1970 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2011. Original data:Liverpool Record Office; Liverpool, England; Liverpool Registers; Reference Number: 283 JAM/4/1
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