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 Robert Mackreth (Junior) was born on 23 May 1798, in London. While living in Newcastle he resided with his parents and sisters at 3 High Swinburne Place, but continued to visit London, sometimes for extensive periods. In 1822 he was a committee member of the newly established Northumberland Institution for the Promotion of the Fine Arts in the North of England, based in Newcastle where he met architect John Dobson who was also a  fellow committee member of the Institution. 

Robert Mackreth (Junior) made a number of sketches in 1823 and 1824 for Lord Londonderry's project to build a new harbour at Dalden Ness. Three of these sketches are shown below.

1823 Sketch of proposed inner harbour showing the rock to be removed

1824 sketch of natural cave south of Ness Point

1824 sketch of proposed harbour at low tide

The Northumberland Institution for the Promotion of Fine Arts expressed the view that as picture compositions they were extremely tastless and poor. However, they were painted on the spot and were only intended as plans for the new harbour and in that they were very sucssessful but far below the previous quality of Robert Mackreth's previous work.   

Durham County Advertiser 25th August 1825

As a committee member of the Institution for the Promotion of Fine Art the comments of his own committee must have been quite disappointing. However, It is known that at least four paintings of Seaham Harbour were produced by Robert Mackreth in 1829. These demonstrate the real quality of Robert Mackreth (Junior) as a fine art painter. These are shown below: -

Laying of the foundation stone of Seaham Harbour in 1828

Expanded image showing the central characters

 This painting illustrates the laying of the foundation stone of Seaham Harbour by the 3rd Marquess on 28 November 1828. The Marquess can be seen wearing a blue coat sitting in a special railway carriage along with members of his family including his wife and son on his left. The Marchioness is wearing an elaborate red and white bonnet, and their young son, Lord Seaham, is standing beside them. The railway carriage used to transport Lord Londonderry’s party to the dockside, was mounted on four colliery wagon wheels. It was known as the ‘Wellington Car’ after its initial creation for the Duke of Wellington’s visit in 1827, but was often used afterwards by the Londonderry’s for visiting the harbour and town. The foundation stone for the harbour, seen being lowered in the foreground of the painting, was a block of sandstone from the Penshaw Quarry which belonged to Lord Londonderry, and on its interment the Marquess was presented by his agent, Mr John Buddle of Wallsend, with a silver trowel, the handle of which was formed of polished Rainton coal. John Buddle can be seen in the painting standing on the raised platform holding the trowel. To his left stand William Chapman, the engineer of the harbour, who holds architectural plans, and John Dobson, the architect for the harbour and town, in a yellow waistcoat. The band that played throughout the ceremony was made from workmen from Rainton Collieries. After the laying of the harbour foundation stone, the party moved to the site of the new town where Lord Seaham, then only seven years old, laid the foundation stone of the first house, the trowel he would have used was engraved with the letter V below an earl's coronet for George, 2nd Earl Vane (formerly Lord Seaham). The construction of the harbour lasted three years, finally being completed in 1831 and cost the Londonderry’s a vast sum approaching £200,000. Models of many of the Londonderry ships, which would have sailed from the completed harbour, were displayed at Wynyard Park.

Other paintings produced in 1829 were: -

Painting of spur points of piers and coffer dam

Work in progress on the harbour

Top of pier of inner harbour looking inward