Sir John Talbot (1630-1714), MP

manner of Sir Peter Lely (Soest 1618 – London 1680). Oil painting on canvas, Sir John Talbot (1630 -1714), MP, Sir Peter Lely (Soest 1618 – London 1680) and Studio. Copy of head and shoulders of no.28 in the South Gallery. Son of Sharington Talbot (d.1677) and Jane Lyttelton; married firstly Elizabeth, daughter of Sir John Keyt, and secondly Barbara, daughter of Sir Henry Slingsby. He is said to have been the first person to receive King Charles II upon his landing in England at the Restoration (see J. Britton, The Beauties of Wiltshire: displayed in statistical, historical, and descriptive sketches, London, 1825, vol. III, p.236). In 1668 he acted as a second to his Talbot cousin, Francis, 11th Earl of Shrewsbury (c.1623 – 1668), when he fought a duel with George Villiers, 2nd Duke of Buckingham, his wife’s lover. Buckingham died from his wounds on 16th March. The event was described by Samuel Pepys: “My Lord Shrewsbury is run through the body from the right breast through the shoulder, and Sir Jo. Talbot all along up one of his arms and Jenkins [Buckingham’s second] killed upon the place, and the rest all in a little measure wounded ….”. He died in 1714, when he was succeeded by his grandson, John Ivory Talbot (?1691 – 1772). His monument is in the church at Lacock. This, or the similar picture from Davenport House (after Lely, 29 ½ x 24 ¼ ins., also in a painted oval) now on loan to Lacock, is the original head-and-shoulders from which the three-quarter-length, (no.28), previously tentatively associated with Borsselaer, was worked up at a later epoch. A version was sold by Sotheby King and Chasemore (Pulborough), from the collection of Mrs H.T.B Talbot, on 19-20 June 1980, lot 32, as by Kneller (30 x 25 ins.). This was sold again at Christie’s South Kensington (3rd November 1987, lot 226), as by a follower of Lely (30 x 25 ins.; inscr. middle left: John Talbot of Salwerp Kt.). Lacock, Wiltshire