The Scotts of Scot's Hall Portraits

The idea for this post came from the discovery that several Scott family portraits are now in the collection of the North Carolina Museum of Art.  These portraits were all among those reproduced as engravings in 1876 for the privately published "Memorials of the family of Scott, of Scot's Hall", so I thought I'd go through the portrait list published in the book and see how many I could track down to the present day.  This does not include any of the family memorials, which presumably have not left the church walls and floors they were placed on!  Where possible, I have provided a link to view the actual portrait, as the quality of the engraved reproductions varies substantially.  The provenance of the portraits at least until 1876 can be relatively assured: it was then that the engravings were reproduced with the permission of the widowed Mrs. Thomas Fairfax Best.  Mrs. Best's deceased husband was the son of Caroline Scott and Mr. George Best (per Burke's Landed Gentry) and a grandson of Edward and Margaret (Sutherland) Scott of Scot's Hall.  Portrait locations will be added as discovered.

Portrait of Reginald Scott, 1542 - NC Museum of Art
Portrait of Sir Thomas Scott, 1585 - unknown, though the engraving matches copies in the NPG from 1803
Portrait of Sir John Scott of Nettlested - NC Museum of Art
Portrait of Lady Elizabeth Scott - NC Museum of Art, identified as Emmeline Scott
Portrait of Lady Catherine Scott - NC Museum of Art
Portrait of the celebrated Mary Honywood - NC Museum of Art
Portrait of Edward Scott, Esq. D.C.L. - unknown
Portrait of George Goring, Earl of Norwich, Commander of Royalist Forces, Kent - unknown
Portrait of the Countess of Norwich -unknown
Portrait of Colonel George Goring (may be misidentified; see NPG collection) - NC Museum of Art
Portrait of Sir Thomas Scott - unknown
Portrait of Lady (Caroline) Scott - unknown
Portrait of George Scott, Esq. of Scot's Hall - unknown
Portrait of Anne Pemberton, 1st wife of George Scott, Esq. - unknown
Portrait of Cecilia Dering, 2nd wife of George Scott, Esq. - unknown
Portrait of Commodore Scott - unknown
Portrait of Margaret Sutherland, wife of Edward Scott, of Scot's Hall - unknown
Portrait of the Honble. Lady Mary Compton, wife of Captain Arthur Scott, R.N. - NC Museum of Art
Portrait of Caroline Scott, wife of Thomas Best, of Chilston Park, Kent - unknown
Portrait of Thomas Best, Esq., M.P., of Chilston Park - last sold in 1997, buyer unknown
Portrait (Medallion), Mrs. George Best, Chilston Park - auctioned; buyer unknown

So now let's talk about the attributions provided by the book.

 The Scott book identifies the artists where possible.  The earliest attribution appears with the three portraits identified as Sir John Scott and Ladies Elizabeth (or Emmeline) and Catherine Scott.  The Scott book identifies the artist of all three as "Zucchero", probably a reference to Federico Zuccaro or Zuccari, an Italian active in England in the mid-1570s, though this may be doubtful.  That of Mary Honywood is attributed to "Cornelius Jansen", as are those of the Earl and Countess of Norwich.  Cornelis Janssens van Ceulen, or Cornelius Johnson, as he is sometimes referred to, was the English-born son of Dutch parents.  His early portraits were painted in an oval shape, which certainly matches that of the Earl of Norwich seen in the Scott book.  Sir Thomas Scott and Lady Caroline Scott are both attributed to John Riley.  George Scott and Anne Pemberton Scott are attributed to Sir Godfrey Kneller, while George's second wife Cecilia was painted by John Vanderbank.  Commodore Thomas Scott is attributed to Richardson (probably Jonathan the elder), as is that of Lady Mary Compton Scott.  Margaret Sutherland Scott's portrait is attributed to Hudson, probably Thomas Hudson who was an apprentice of Richardson's, who in turn had been taught by Riley.  Caroline and Thomas Best are both attributed to "Ramsey", possibly Allan Ramsay, who was taught by Hudson.  Curiously, when the portrait of Thomas Best came up for auction in 1987 and again ten years later, it was attributed to Enoch Seeman by the appraisers of Christie's and Sotheby's.  Interestingly, nearly all of the portraitists the Scott portraits are attributed to served at one time or another as appointed court painters.

My interest in this particular family comes about because as it happens, I also have a line of descent from the Scotts, directly from Sir Reginald through his daughter Mary Scott Argall Washington.  Her daughter Elizabeth Argall married Sir Edward Filmer of East Sutton, Kent, and had 18 children, one of whom was Virginia immigrant ancestor Henry Filmer.  Henry was an ancestor of the Clay family of Virginia,  and subsequently of my 4th great grandmother, Mary Clay Thaxton of Halifax County, Virginia, who died in Independence, Texas in 1882 at the age of 89.  Mary's mother Lucy was one of the Virginia Clays.