Sir Thomas Lawrence P.R.A. 1769-1830

Lord Ronald Sutherland Gower, Sir Thomas Lawrence, 1900, p.121;

Sir Walter Armstrong, Lawrence, 1913, p.124;

Kenneth Garlick, Sir Thomas Lawrence, 1954, p.62;

Kenneth Garlick, Sir Thomas Lawrence, A Complete Catalogue of Oil Paintings, 1989, no.222

A favourite of Charles James Fox and the Prince of Wales, Frances Crewe was one of the leading figures in London society in the late eighteenth century.  The daughter of Fulke Greville of Wilbury and his wife Frances Macartney, she married John Crewe in 1766 and enthusiastically supported his politics.  Crewe was a loyal supporter of Fox and when Fox was re-elected for Westminster in 1784, the Prince of Wales gave a toast at a banquet of 'True Blue and Mrs Crewe'.  Mrs Piozzi commented in a note to Wraxall's Memoirs (Vol.II, p.10) that Fox 'preferred Mrs Crewe to all women living', adding that she 'never lost an atom of character, I mean, female honour; she loved high play and dissipation, but was no sensualist'.  She was renowned both for her learning and for her beauty - Charles Arbuthnot referred to her as someone 'that has read a great deal and is amazingly well informed' and Madame d'Arblay wrote: 'I know not even now any female in her first youth who could bear the comparison'.