English School, circa 1630

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Description

Portrait of Sir Hatton Fermor (1584-1640)
Later inscribed l.r.: S^rHatton Farmour of Easton Neston in y^eCounty of / Northampton Kn^tSon and Heir of S George Farmor of / Easton aforesaid Kn^t, by Mary his wife, Daughter and Heiress, / of Thoms Garson Esq. and charged with his coat of arms and those of his descendants
oil on canvas (extended)
236 by 140.5cm.; 93 by 55¼in.

full length, wearing a black doublet with white lace collar and cuffs and wearing boots, resting on a fowling piece gun, standing in the garden at Easton Neston with a view of the deer park beyond

Provenance

By family descent until sold circa 1758 (see Literature) in one of the sales following the death of Thomas Fermor, 1st Earl of Pomfret;
E.J. Wythes, Copped Hall, Essex, his sale, Christie's, 22nd November 1935, lot 43 (with the portrait of her husband), bt. F. Partridge for £105;
Acquired by the 1st Baron Hesketh

Literature

George Vertue, 'Notebooks', Walpole Society, 1936, Vol. IV, p.37 (1732 - 'at Lord Pomfrets.at Easton near Towcester' - 'in the gallery.S^r.Geo.Farmer.at len. 1597.his lady');
Brian Fairfax, A Description of Easton Neston in Northamptonshire...., 1758, p.63 hanging in The Gallery

Catalogue Note

The sitter was the second son of Sir George Fermor and his wife Mary (see lot 164). He was knighted by James I when the King stayed at Easton Neston on his way south to London in 1603. His first wife Elizabeth was the daughter of Sir Edmund Anderson (1530-1605), Lord Chief Justice of the Common Pleas, an important judge in the reign of Elizabeth I. Following her death without issue, he married Anne, daughter of Sir William Cockayne, Lord Mayor of London.

Both his surviving sons were staunch Royalists. His eldest son, William (see lot 169), was created a baronet by Charles I and served with the Earl of Northampton's regiment. His second son, Hatton, was a Major in the Royalist cavalry and was killed at a skirmish at Culham Bridge near Oxford on 11th January 1645. His three surviving daughters married well. The eldest, Mary, married Sir Charles Compton, second son of Spencer Compton, 2nd Earl of Northampton. His daughter Anne married Jonathan Cope of Ranton Abbey, Staffordshire and his daughter Catherine married firstly Sir John Shuckburgh, 1st Bt., of Shuckburgh, Warwickshire, and secondly Sir Roger Norwich, 2nd Bt., of Brampton, Northamptonshire.

Sir Hatton died on 28th October 1640 but plans for a tomb had to be deferred until after the Restoration. Then a magnificent wall memorial was raised with him standing full length in armour to the left.

The sitter is shown holding an English snaphaunce fowling-piece. A similar example is included in a portrait of Captain Sir Thomas Southwell, circa 1630 (Royal Armouries, Leeds).