Bound in gilt- and blind-tooled brown russia, with marbled end-papers; gilt edges.

Phillipps MS 14941.

In English.

Sir Robert Southwell (1635-1702) was born near Kinsale, Ireland, and educated at Queen's College, Oxford. Knighted in 1665 and appointed envoy to the court of Portugal, Southwell successfully concluded the Peace of Lisbon in 1668. He held several other diplomatic posts under James II, including envoy to Lisbon again, and then to Brussels and Brandenburg. In 1690 he accompanied William III to Ireland and was named principal secretary of state for that kingdom, an office he held until his death. From 1690 to 1695 he was President of the Royal Society. In 1679, Southwell purchased the country estate of Kings Weston, near Bristol, which offered convenient proximity to Ireland and London. Southwell entertained William III at Kings Weston in 1690, and died there in 1702. The earlier Tudor house was replaced circa 1710 with the present mansion, designed by Sir John Vanbrugh.

The collections of the Yale Center for British Art, Department of Prints and Drawings, include original plans by Sir John Vanbrugh for the 1710 replacement building of Kings Weston House (see B1997.14.1235-1239).

Manuscript catalog, in a single hand, of the paintings at Kings Weston House in 1695. The compiler of the manuscript is unidentified, and it appears that the list was never published. The catalog is copied, in pen and brown ink, on leaves of paper that have been mounted on guard stubs, and interleaved with larger blank leaves. The catalog is divided into sections: "In the parlor", "In the drawing roome", "In the matted roome", "In the red room above", "In the white room", "In Sr. Robert's chamber", "Pictures at London" and "Closet pictures" with the individual paintings within each section numbered. Most of the paintings described are copies. Interspersed with the catalog is biographical information on members of the Southwell family. Most of the later entries include provenance and value. The catalog ends with a list of gifts given to Sir Robert Southwell, including "a hair ring with a diamond".

The catalog lists 84 pictures, nearly all family portraits. It records originals by Holbein (not the portrait of Richard Southwell now in the Uffizi which is also mentioned, "lent ... to the Earl of Arundell, he sent it in a present to the great Duke of Tuscany", but one of his brother Robert, Master of the Rolls), Sustermans ("justo of Antwerp painter to the great Duke"), Sir Godfrey Kneller and John Kneller, Lely, Thomas Pooly, "the famous Mr. Cooper", Dr. Digby, Bishop of Limerick, "Mr. Mursey" of Dublin, and five miniatures by "Mrs. Weames", as well as a portrait of "the head done by Sir Peter Lilly in 1680, a little before his death, the drapery by Mr. Sonius". There are also numerous copies by Vandiest after Kneller, Pooly, and John Michael Wright, copies by Sonius and Pooly after Lely, "a Frost peace bought by Sr. Robt. in Flanders", "A chimny peace with a hare &c" and "a Japan Standish set with Corrall and his arms thereon in silver". Also of interest are two portraits: "Signor Bernio a famous Italian sculpture done in creons by Mr. Tillson" (who, we learn from another entry, was in Rome in 1686), and "Dr. Wm. Harvy, given by the Lady Dering, who was his neece, he found out the circulation of the blood".

Southwell, Robert, Sir, 1635-1702 > Art collections > Catalogs.

Southwell family > Portraits.

Kings Weston House > Art collections > Catalogs.

Art > Private collections > Great Britain > Catalogs.

Painting > Private collections > Great Britain > Catalogs.