Patrickʼs profession, tanning, was among the trades on the move in
Perth,
a self‐styled progressive and modernizing city.
Allegedly,
Patrick was boastful and exaggerated his wealth, however; and
according to a canceled passage of
Praeterita, his death in
1824
left his wife and children with only “a moderate independence, and six children, with whom, leaving the large house and
river‐bank garden of
Bridge End, she crossed the
Tay to
Rose Terrace” (
Ruskin, Works, 35:409;
see
Viljoen, Ruskinʼs Scottish Heritage, 73–74). The impression of
Patrickʼs extravagance is confirmed
by
John Jamesʼs household accounts, which document his financial support to
Jessie and her children after
Patrickʼs death
(
John James Ruskin, Account Book [1827–45]).
Van Akin Burd finds that, in
1818,
Patrick paid only the interest on the purchase of the
Bridge End house,
which in
April 1826 was transferred to the trustees of the estate and sold the following month
(
Burd, ed., Ruskin Family Letters, 101 n. 3).