Portrait of Samuel Bagshawe (1689-1712)

Oil on canvas; inscribed verso; held in a 17th century carved giltwood frame

Provenance: By family descent until the 20th century

The Bagshawe family were landowners in Derbyshire who appear to trace their lineage back as early as Nicholas de Bagshawe, who was a Forester in fee in the Peak forest in 1317. The family name seems to originate from Bagshawe in the parish of Chapel-en-le-Frith, no more than half a mile from their later home at Ford Hall.

Samuel Bagshawe was the second son of Samuel Bagshawe (1656-1706) and his wife Sarah, daughter and heiress of Samuel Child of Holmes Hall, near Leeds in Yorkshire. He was described as ‘as a very sensible, serious young man, public-spirited, active for God’; despite this it is recorded that he engaged in some shipping ventures, which unfortunately turned out disastrously resulting in the loss of most of his personal estate as well as a similar sum lent him by his elder brother. He married, 1st May 1711 at Bromborough, Cheshire, Frances (c.1684-1719), daughter of John Hardwarr of Bromborough Court, and with her had a daughter Frances and son Col. Samuel Bagshawe (1713-62) who most notably saw action in India and served as Second in Command of British forces under General Adlercron c.1760.

Painted by one of the ablest provincial followers of Sir Godfrey Kneller, Samuel King was born in 1668 in Coventry the son of Matthew King and his German wife Virgin Rabie. An obscure painter, details of his life and working practice are difficult to assess but he appears to have worked in the Midlands around the last decade of the 17th century. His principal work is the impressive “Children of Theophilus Leigh” at Stoneleigh Abbey painted in 1695.