William Hervey (1619-1642)

British (English) School. Oil painting on canvas (oval), William Hervey (1619-1642), British (English) School, 1640-1642. An oval half-length portrait of a man, turned slighlty to the right, gazing at the spectator, wearing dark clothes, a large grey linen collar and grey linen cuff. Painting inscribed on right hand side 'Mr William Hervey Son of Sir Thomas Hervey'. He was the second son of Sir William Hervey and Susan Jermyn. He died of smallpox at Cambridge, where he was a close friend of Abraham Cowley (1618-1667), who wrote a poem lamenting his early death, in which he describes him as a ‘wondrous young man’. It begins: ‘It was a dismal and fearful night…’, and goes on: “Ye fields of Cambridge, our dear Cambridge, say, Have ye not seen us walking every day? Was there a tree about which did not know The love betwixt us two?” ‘On the Death of Mr William Hervey’ (1656) Ickworth, Suffolk (Accredited Museum)