Edward Colston

© National Portrait Gallery, London

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Edward Colston

by George Vertue, after Jonathan Richardson
line engraving, published 1722
15 1/8 in. x 10 5/8 in. (384 mm x 271 mm) plate size; 15 3/8 in. x 11 3/8 in. (391 mm x 289 mm) paper size
Reference Collection
NPG D34050

Sitterback to top

  • Edward Colston (1636-1721), Trader of enslaved people; merchant and philanthropist. Sitter in 2 portraits.

Artistsback to top

  • Jonathan Richardson (1667-1745), Portrait painter. Artist or producer associated with 126 portraits, Sitter in 8 portraits.
  • George Vertue (1683-1756), Engraver and antiquary. Artist or producer associated with 865 portraits, Sitter in 7 portraits.

Related worksback to top

Events of 1722back to top

Current affairs

Atterbury Plot discovered; Francis Atterbury, Bishop of Rochester is accused of promoting the Jacobite rising. Other leading Jacobite sympathisers are also arrested and Atterbury is banished the following year.
General Election is won by the Whigs.

Art and science

Daniel Defoe publishes his novel Moll Flanders which traces the redemption of Moll, a penitent prostitute, thief and American convict.
Writer and politician Richard Steele premieres his play The Conscious Lovers at the Drury Lane Theatre, London to great acclaim.

International

In sweeping reforms aimed at modernising Russia, Peter the Great introduces the Table of Ranks; a new meritocratic order of precedence which aims to break the power of the hereditary nobility.
Dutch discover Easter Island, beginning a spate of European discovery in the islands of the Pacific.
Iroquois League of Native Americans becomes known as the Six Nations, after the Tuscarora join the group.


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