Lot 114: LEMUEL FRANCIS ABBOTT (LEICESTERSHIRE CIRCA 1760-1803 LONDON) Port

LEMUEL FRANCIS ABBOTT (LEICESTERSHIRE CIRCA 1760-1803 LONDON) Portrait of Bryan Edwards, half-length, in a brown coat, seated before a green curtain, a view to a Caribbean landscape beyond oil on canvas 76.3 x 63.3cm (30 1/16 x 24 15/16in).

Provenance The Collection of Zachary Bayly Edwards (younger brother of the sitter) and thence by family descent until Sale, Bonhams, London, 8 December 2010, lot 57 Engraved Thomas Holloway (1748-1827), London, 1800 Born at Westbury, Wiltshire, in 1743, Bryan Edwards was the eldest son of Bryan Edwards and his wife Elizabeth Bayly. Having lost his father at the age of 13, Edwards was later shipped off to Jamaica to live with his maternal uncle, Zachary Bayly, a man of great influence on the island. At his uncle’s death in 1769 Bayly bequeathed various estates to his young nephew, Edwards, who went on to inherit two plantations and a cattle pen from his friend, Benjamin Hume. In 1765, he was elected a member of the house of assembly for the parish of St. George and began his long career in the political life of the colony during a period which saw the American War of Independence, the French Revolution and numerous slave revolts. In 1792 Edwards returned to England to settle in Southampton as a successful West India merchant. Edwards died in on 16 July 1800 at his house near Southampton, leaving one son, Zachary Hume Edwards, who inherited his great wealth.