George Phillips Towry (1729-1817), late 18th to early 19th century (oil on canvas)

Creator: Philip Jean The sitter is shown half-length, seated, turned to his left wearing a plain blue coat with brass buttons, against a neutral brown background with an opening to viewer's right, beyond which is a sketchy sunset sea view. He wears either a wig or his own hair dressed and powdered, has blue eyes, strong features and (from appearance only) may at some time have suffered a broken nose. George Phillips Towry was the son of Captain Henry John Phillips (d. 1762), a Royal Naval officer who in 1760 adopted the additional surname of Towry on inheriting the property of his uncle, Captain John Towry (d. 1757), at one time the naval commissioner at Port Mahon, Minorca. George was himself commissioned as a naval lieutenant in February 1757, so had then already spent some years at sea. He presumably came ashore on inheriting what must have been a reasonable estate in or after 1762, and one augmented by his marriage to Elizabeth More at St Martin's in the Fields, Westminster, on 6 June 1766.