The Hon. Thomas Hervey, MP (1699-1775)

John Fayram (active c.1713–d.1744). Oil painting on canvas, The Hon. Thomas Hervey, MP (1699-1775) by John Fayram (active c.1713–d.1744), circa 1725-1730. A three-quarter-length portrait of a man, in a powdered wig, wearing an ivory satin suit and a blue cloak, leaning with his left arm on a plinth, adorned with a laurel-crowned profile medallion, his left hand in his waistcoat, his right hand holding a red book. He has a fresh complexion and dark eyes. Landscape with trees and a distant horizon on the left. The second son of the 1st Earl of Bristol by his second wife, Elizabeth Felton. Despite being described as an ‘eccentric man, whose mind was periodically unbalanced’, he sat as MP for Bury from 1733–47, and became Vice Chamberlain of Queen Caroline’s household. He caused a local scandal by eloping with the wife of a Suffolk neighbour, whom he later attacked in a series of satirical pamphlets. Ickworth, Suffolk (Accredited Museum)