William Sancroft

Inscriptionback to top

Signed, by his left shoulder, in monogram: EL.

This portraitback to top

Sancroft appears older than in the Loggan engraving of 1680 and NPG 301 might date from the time of the Seven Bishops episode, as Piper suggested. A signed copy of NPG 301 by G. P. Harding, inscribed from a drawing by Lutterel in the collection at Lambeth Palace, was sold Sotheby’s, 30 January 1991, part lot 22.

Referenceback to top

Bell 1917
C. F. Bell, Wal. Soc., V, 1917, p 13.

Piper 1963
D. Piper, Catalogue of the Seventeenth Century Portraits in the National Portrait Gallery 1625-1714, 1963, p 307.

Provenanceback to top

Archbishop Charles Manners-Sutton (1755-1828); his son the 2nd Viscount Canterbury (1812-69); sold E. & H. Lumley, Mayfair, 1 December 1869, lot 123, bought the Rev. F. O. White, from whom purchased 1870.<sup>1

1</sup> Owing to their continuing dispute concerning the identity of NPG 22, see William Wake, Scharf was rudely treated by the vendor (who ‘even when I paid him the £9 for the Sancroft picture … almost drove me out of the house when I went to examine his Jeffery & the Ld. Kr. Coventry portraits’, letter of 3 January 1871 to W. Smith, copy on file).

Reproductionsback to top

R. White c.1688 (oval, without painter’s name); H. Meyer 1820 as ‘from an Original Painting by Luttrell at Lambeth Palace’ when in the possession of Abp. Manners-Sutton (D’Oyly, Life of Sancroft, 1821).


This extended catalogue entry is from the National Portrait Gallery collection catalogue: John Ingamells, National Portrait Gallery: Later Stuart Portraits 1685–1714, National Portrait Gallery, 2009, and is as published then. For the most up-to-date details on individual Collection works, we recommend reading the information provided in the Search the Collection results on this website in parallel with this text.

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