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

The sitter was the son of John Stuart, Third Earl of Bute (1713–1792), Prime Minister, and his wife, Mary Wortley Montagu (1718–1794), created Baroness Mount Stuart in 1761. He married Charlotte Jane (1746–1800) daughter of Herbert Hickman Windsor, second Viscount Windsor and Baron Mountjoy (1707-1758) and Alice Clavering (1705-1776). They married at St John's Chapel, Hanover Square, London on 12 November 1766 and had four sons and one daughter. After his wife’s death Bute married Frances (1772/3–1832) daughter and coheir of Thomas Coutts, banker, and his first wife, Susan Starkie. They had a son and a daughter.

Stuart was privately tutored by the Revd James Bladen at Oxford, and in 1761 he left to start his grand tour.  Whilst in Rome he became a close friend of James Boswell, and he spent six weeks in Naples under the eye of William Hamilton.  He returned to England, and following the deaths of his wife's parents he inherited the Windsor estates in South Wales.  He restored Cardiff Castle, and was created Baron Cardiff on 20 May 1776.

He served as ambassador in Spain, and it was as a consequence of his diplomatic service that he was created First Marquess of Bute on 27 February 1796. In 1779 he was sent to Turin as envoy, and in the same year he was made a fellow of the Royal Society, and became a trustee of the British Museum.  In 1800 The Prince of Wales made him a Councillor of State.

We are grateful to Kenneth Garlick for his assistance in cataloguing this lot.