In Boston, John Hazlitt attempted to found a drawing school with Joseph Dunkerley, but the pair failed to attract enough subscribers. After trying to earn a living as a painter in Salem, he returned to England with the rest of his family in 1787.Moyne 1970, pp. 34–5. His parents and younger siblings settled at Wem in Shropshire, but Hazlitt moved to London, where he studied painting under Sir Joshua Reynolds and became reacquainted with William Godwin, a radical philosopher and novelist.Bate 2004. Reacquainted, as the association with Godwin may be traced back to a family friendship established before John's birth. The family of John's mother, Grace Loftus, had been friends with the Godwin family in Wisbech, where Godwin's father was a Dissenting minister in the 1750s; the Reverend William Hazlitt briefly served as minister in the same church a few years later. Howe 1949, p. 31. In 1788, he exhibited four miniature portraits derived from the work of Reynolds at the Royal Academy, and would exhibit paintings every year until 1819.W. C. Hazlitt 1911, pp. 327–8, 337–9. In May 1789, he married Mary Peirce of Portsea, Portsmouth at St Anne's Church, Soho, and went on to paint several miniature portraits of her.W. C. Hazlitt 1911, p. 327; Wu 2008, p. 44. He also painted the portraits of Mary Lamb, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Joseph Priestley and Edward Jenner. Furthermore, his acquaintanceship with figures such as John Thelwall, Thomas Holcroft, John Stoddart, Charles Lamb and William Godwin meant that it may have been through his brother that William Hazlitt first encountered men who would have an important influence on his career as a writer.Moyne 1970, p. 39. Jones 1989, p. 6. When William Hazlitt first travelled to London, he lived with his brother John; and it was John who taught him the art of painting, which he would practise with some success.Wu 2008, p. 51; Bate 2004.
