Sir Thomas Dalrymple Hesketh, 3rd Baronet Hesketh of Rufford (1777-1842)
John Hayter (London 1800 – 1891)
Category
Art / Oil paintings
Date
1828 (exh at RA)
Materials
Oil on canvas
Measurements
1270 x 1016 mm (50 x 40 in)
Order this imageCollection
Rufford Old Hall, Lancashire
NT 784680
Summary
Oil painting on canvas, Sir Thomas Dalrymple Hesketh, 3rd Baronet Hesketh of Rufford (1777-1842) by John Hayter (London 1800 – 1891). A three-quarter-length portrait of a man, turned to the right, gazing at the spectator, seated, wearing a black suit. The sitter was the son of Captain Thomas Hesketh (1750-1782) and his wife Jacintha Dalrymple, daughter of the Attorney-General of Grenada. His father served in the American War of Independence and he was born in New York in 1777 during the period when British troops had occupied the city. He was brought up at Rufford New Hall, an imposing mansion built in about 1760 by his great grandfather the first baronet. In 1798, shortly after inheriting the title from his grandfather, he married Sophie Hinde, daughter of the Reverend Nathaniel Hinde, a Shropshire clergyman. He spent large sums on extending the New Hall, financed by considerable sales of the estate. Rufford Old Hall's Great Hall, was turned into a village school which he supported, but by 1825 the whole of the Old Hall was refurbished as a home for his son Thomas and his new wife Annette Bomford. Following the death of his first wife in 1817, Sir Thomas married again in 1821. His second wife, Louisa Allemand of Lausanne was said to have been the children's governess.
Provenance
By descent in the Fermor-Hesketh family; hung in the Smoking Room at Rufford Old Hall by 1910; offered for sale at the auction organised by Sotheby's at Easton Neston, Northamptonshire, 17-19 May 2005, lot 134; purchased by the National Trust by private treaty with the help of a grant of £1,500 from the V&A Purchase Grant Fund.
Credit line
Rufford Old Hall, The Hesketh Collection (National Trust)
Marks and inscriptions
Sir Thomas-Dalrymple Hesketh Baronet
Makers and roles
John Hayter (London 1800 – 1891), artist