Sir William Morice, PC, MP (1602 - 1676)
after Jacob Huysmans (Antwerp c.1630 – London 1696)
Category
Art / Oil paintings
Date
1800 - 1899
Materials
Oil on canvas
Measurements
760 x 640 mm (30 x 25 in)
Order this imageCollection
Antony, Cornwall
NT 352384
Summary
Oil painting on canvas, Sir William Morice, Kt (1602 - 1676), after Jacob Huysmans (Antwerp c.1630 – London 1696), 19th cetury. A half-length portrait of the Secretary of State to Charles II, to the right. He was an English statesman and theologian. He served as Secretary of State for the Northern Department and a Lord of the Treasury from June 1660 to September 1668. He was educated at Exeter College, Oxford. Elected MP for Devon to fill a vacancy in 1648, but was excluded in Pride's Purge in December of that year, probably before he had taken his seat. Nevertheless, he was appointed High Sheriff of Devon in 1651, and returned to Parliament as MP for Devon in the First Protectorate Parliament elected in 1654. He subsequently represented Devon again in the Second Protectorate Parliament, and Newport (Cornwall) in the Third Protectorate Parliament. A relation of General Monck, Morice assisted in the Restoration and was knighted in 1660. He was also made a Privy Counsellor and appointed Secretary of State for the Northern Department, an office he held until he resigned in 1668 and devoted hemself thereafter to theology and his library. He was apparently an undistinguished minister, but justified his tenure of office by his usefulness in the House of Commons.He married Elizabeth Prideaux, relation by marriage and they had a number of children. His eldest son, William (c. 1628-1690), was created a baronet in 1661, and was later also a member of Parliament. Mary, his granddaughter, became the third wife of Sir John Carew, 3rd Bt.
Provenance
By inheritance and descent; through his daughter, Anne Morice, Lady Pole; on loan from the Trustees of Antony
Makers and roles
after Jacob Huysmans (Antwerp c.1630 – London 1696), artist