(d 1693). English sculptor and master mason. He was employed under Christopher Wren in London as Master Mason at St Mildred’s, Poultry (1677–9), and as a builder at St Paul’s Cathedral (1679–90), during which time he was paid over £10,000 for various decorative carvings, although apparently Wren found him difficult to work with. Latham was involved in the construction of Temple Bar (1684) and the Royal Exchange (1691–3) and is documented as having built several offices in the City of London. He also served as Mason to the Mercers’ Company from 1682 and City Mason between 1687 and 1693. Latham’s reputation as a sculptor rests on a few notable works. George Vertue noted that Latham added the marble figure of Charles II to a horse already ‘made in Italy’; apparently this work was conceived by an unknown sculptor as an equestrian statue of John Sobieski trampling a Turk but was left unfinished due to lack of funds. The over life-size marble statue was installed on a pedestal in the Stocks Market in the City of London and was the subject of two poems attributed to Andrew Marvell: Upon Sir Robert Viner’s Setting up the King’s Statue and A Dialogue Between Two Horses (1674). It was dismantled in 1738 and is now at Newby Hall, N. Yorks. The monument to Archbishop Sheldon (1683; St John the Baptist, Croydon, Surrey), although greatly damaged by fire, is regarded as Latham’s best work. The lead statue of Captain Richard Maples (1683; London, Trinity House) shows that he was able to handle life-size figures in contemporary dress with considerable panache, although perhaps not quite rivalling contemporary work by John Bushnell and Edward Pierce (ii).