JAMES NORTHCOTE R.A. | PORTRAIT OF SIR WILLIAM MOLESWORTH, BART., M.P., HALF LENGTH, IN A BLUE COAT

Bastard Family (according to Northcote's account book);

With Spink & Son, Ltd., London, 1928;

Mr Howard Murray;

By whom sold, New York, Parke Bernet Galleries, 23 October 1941, lot 48;

With Browne Decorations Co., New York.

S. Gwyn, Memorials of an Eighteenth Century Painter, 1898, p. 271, cat. no. 195 (as painted in 1785);

J. Simon, "The Account Book of James Northcote," Walpole Society, vol. 58, 1996, pp. 22, 58, cat. no. 210.

Montreal, Art Association of Montreal, Loan Exhibition of Portraits, 13 February to 2 March 1941, no. 53. 

Sir William Molesworth was the sixth Baronet and M.P. for Cornwall, 1784-1790. His grandson was the famous statesman, the Rt. Hon. Sir William Molesworth. According to Northcote's account book, the present version of his portrait was painted for a local family by the name of Bastard.