Circle of Robert Walker

By family descent at Littlecote, Wiltshire;
Littlecote House sale, Littlecote House, Sotheby's, 20 November 1985, lot 868 (to Weiss for £17,000);
With The Weiss Gallery, London;
Anonymous sale, London, Sotheby's, 15 November 1989, lot 19;
Anonymous sale, London, Sotheby's, 9 November 1994, lot 22;
Anonymous sale, London, Christie's, 11 June 1999, lot 14;
Anonymous sale ("The Property of a Nobleman"), London, Sotheby's, 29 November 2001, lot 131

General Alexander Popham (1605-1669), Commander of the Littlecote Garrison, was the second son of Sir Francis Popham and his wife Anne, daughter and heiress of John Dudley of Stoke Newington. From 1640 he sat as M.P. for Bath, and on the death of his father in 1640 he succeeded to the Estates at Littlecote, near Hungerford. He was an active Parliamentarian during the Civil War and was appointed a member of the Council of State, becoming in 1657, one of Cromwell’s Lords. However he voted in Parliament for the Restoration, and entertained Charles II at Littlecote in 1663. He married Letitia, daughter of William Carre of Ferniehurst and Groom of the Bedchamber to James I and together they had eight children, five sons, three of whom reached adulthood, Francis, Alexander and George, and three daughters, Essex, Letitia and Anne, as can be seen in the present painting. Of his daughters, Essex married John, 3^rd Baron Poulett (1641-1679), Letitia, married Sir Edward Seymour (1633-1708), Speaker of the House of Commons, and Anne married William Ashe.