Thomas Sword Good HRSA, 1789-1872

Born in Berwick-upon-Tweed, Good served an apprenticeship with a painter-decorator in the town before moving to London in 1810 and setting up in business on his own. He returned to Berwick two years later, after the death of his father. Money from his father's estate allowed him to abandon his trade and concentrate on a career as a portrait and genre painter. Good's subjects were drawn mainly from the Berwickshire fishing community, ranging from the life and work of the coastal fisherfolk and the salmon netters on the Tweed estuary to the exploits of smugglers. In many instances members of his immediate family served as models.
Good was a regular exhibitor, showing work in London, Edinburgh and a number of regional centres in Britain until 1834, when he gave up painting as a profession after marrying a local heiress.