English School Mid 19th Century

Probably Bernard Frederick Coleridge (1792-1805), third son of Colonel James Coleridge (elder brother of the poet Samuel Taylor Coleridge);
Thence by family descent

Foudroyant—named after a French prize taken in 1758—was launched at Plymouth in 1798. Writing to Nelson, Earl St. Vincent described her as "the most perfect ship that ever swam on salt water". Based on a French design, Foudroyant, an 80-gun two-decker, was said to combine the fighting power of a 98-gun three-decker with the cruising speed of a 74-gun two-decker. She was Nelson’s flagship in the Mediterranean from 8 June 1799 to 29 June 1800 during which time Foudroyant also served as the seat of government for the exiled king of Naples. In this capacity, she played a prominent role in the controversial events surrounding the “liberation” of Naples, hosting the court martial at which Nelson summarily sentenced one of the captured rebels, Francisco Caracciolo, to death. During the king’s occupancy of the ship, Nelson moved to the First Lieutenant’s cabin. The Hamiltons were frequent guests in Foudroyant and it is likely that Horatia, Emma Hamilton’s child by Nelson, was conceived on board the ship in or about April 1800. Foudroyant was sold out of service in 1892 and subsequently wrecked off Blackpool in 1897. 

Bernard Frederick Coleridge, the original owner of the present work, entered as a Volunteer of the First Class in the Royal Navy in June 1804, as a midshipman. He served on H.M.S. Impetueux in which he saw action against the French in the Bay of Biscay.  In October 1805, after visiting his parents in Ottery St. Mary, Devon, he sailed on the 9^th October on H.M.S. Foudroyant.  In December of that yeat, he sadly fell from the topmast of H.M.S. Phoenix and was killed.