Prince William Henry, Duke of Gloucester (1743-1805)

British (English) School. Oil painting on panel (oval), Prince William Henry, Duke of Gloucester (1743-1805), British (English) School, 1775-1799. An oval head-and-shoulders portrait of a middle-aged man, left profile, in a interior, wearing a powdered wig, reddish coat and the Garter star on his left breast. He was the third son of Frederick Louis William, Prince of Wales, and younger brother of George III. In 1764 he was created Earl of Connaught (Irish) and Duke of Gloucester and Edinburgh. He was Privy Councillor from that year, Major General in 1767, Lieutenant General in 1770, and Field Marshall in 1793. He received the Order of the Garter in 1762 and was a grand commander of the Order of the Bath. In 1766 he secretly married Maria, widow of James, 2nd Earl Waldegrave, and an illegitimate daughter of Sir Edward Walpole and Dorothy Clements, a milliner's apprentice. Charlotte Walpole (1738-80), wife of Lionel Tollemache, 5th Earl of Dysart (1734-99) was also an illegitimate daughter of Sir Edward Walpole. So presumably Charlotte and Maria must have been sisters. George III's discovery of that marriage in 1772 was a cause of the Royal Marriage Act 1772. Their son, William Frederick, (1776-1834) later became 2nd Duke of Gloucester and Edinburgh and their eldest daughter was called Princess Sophia Matilda (1773-1844) Ham House, Surrey (Accredited Museum)