Thomas Gibson

Richard Temple-Nugent-Bryges-Chandos-Grenville, 2nd Duke of Buckingham and Chandos (1797–1861), Stowe House, Buckinghamshire;

His sale, Christie's, on the premises, Stowe House, 14 September 1848 (15 August – 7 October 1848), lot 303, to R. Berkeley, Esq., for £8.18s.6d.;

Robert Berkeley (1794–1874), Spetchley Park;

Thence by descent to the present owner.

Inventory and Valuation of the furniture and effects at Spetchley Park, Worcester, The Property of R.G. Berkeley, Esquire, December 1949, listed in the 'Middle Hall', p. 117 (as 'Unknown').

A grandson of the 4th Earl of Bedford, Admiral Edward Russell (1653–1727) was a distinguished Royal Navy officer and politician. Following a brief education at St John’s College, Cambridge, he entered the Navy in 1666, aged thirteen, and saw action at the Battle of Solebay in 1672. Promoted to Captain shortly afterwards, he saw service in the Mediterranean in operations against the Barbary pirates. In 1690 Russell was appointed Admiral of the Fleet, a post he held on three separate occasions, and was appointed Commander-in-Chief of the Navy, in which capacity he led the Anglo-Dutch fleet that destroyed the French fleet at the battles of Barfleur and La Hogue in 1692.¹ Most notably, Russell was one of the ‘Immortal Seven’, the group of English noblemen and senior military commanders who issued a letter to Prince William of Orange promising military support in the attempt to depose King James II. Following the Glorious Revolution, in which he played a key part, Russell was elected MP for Portsmouth, later sitting for Cambridgeshire, and in 1697 was created Baron Shingay, Viscount Barfleur and Earl of Orford. In 1691 he married his cousin, Lady Margaret Russell, youngest daughter of the 5th Earl of Bedford, and in 1700 commissioned the building of Orford House at Ugley in Essex. He died, without issue, at Covent Garden in 1727 and was buried in the Russell family vault at St Michael’s Church in Chenies, Buckinghamshire. This portrait is one of a number of paintings acquired by Robert Berkeley in 1848 at the famous Stowe sale, containing property from the collection of the Dukes of Buckingham and Chandos. Another, larger version of this painting by Thomas Gibson is in the collection of the National Maritime Museum, London.²

¹ The latter battle was famously depicted by Benjamin West in a painting now at the National Gallery of Art, Washington https://www.nga.gov/collection/art-object-page.45885.html

² https://www.rmg.co.uk/collections/objects/rmgc-object-14464