Sir John Willes

1 portrait by Thomas Hudson

© National Portrait Gallery, London

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Sir John Willes

by Thomas Hudson
oil on canvas, engraved 1744
53 1/4 in. x 40 1/4 in. (1352 mm x 1022 mm)
Given by Society of Judges and Serjeants-at-Law, 1877
Primary Collection
NPG 484

Sitterback to top

Artistback to top

  • Thomas Hudson (1701-1779), Portrait painter and art collector. Artist or producer associated with 182 portraits.

This portraitback to top

The portrait shows Willes in his scarlet robes as a justice, with a collar of ss as an ancient insignia of office. NPG 484 probably represents a second sitting to the leading portrait painter artist, Thomas Hudson, and is a good and perhaps the best of known versions. A few years earlier Hudson had painted a standing portrait of the judge. More detailed information on this portrait is available in a National Portrait Gallery collection catalogue, John Kerslake's Early Georgian Portraits (1977, out of print).

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Events of 1744back to top

Current affairs

John Carteret, 2nd Earl Granville resigns over criticism of his foreign policy. Henry Pelham and Thomas Pelham-Holles, Duke of Newcastle form the 'Broad-Bottom Administration'.
HMS Victory is wrecked on the Casquets in the Channel Islands with the loss of around 900 lives.

Art and science

Philosopher David Hume publishes his Essays Moral and Political.
Poet Alexander Pope dies.
First known Laws of cricket are drawn up by a group of noblemen and gentlemen who use the Artillery Ground in London.

International

Navigator George Anson returns home after sailing around the world.
War of the Austrian Succession: Prussia marches on Prague, initiating the Second Silesian War. British fleet defeated by a Franco-Spanish fleet at the Battle of Toulon. Bad weather causes the French to abandon invasion of Britain with the Scottish pretender Charles Edward Stuart. The Quadruple Alliance of Britain, Austria, Saxony-Poland and the Netherlands is formed against Prussia.

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