Portrait of an Elizabethan Gentleman, Edmund Huddleston, Dated 1562; Follower of George Gower (1540-1596), Oil on Panel Painting

This oil on panel work formed part of a collection of family pictures and heirlooms of the Whythes family at Copped Hall, an English country house in Epping close to London. Copped Hall was built in 1758 but it replaced a much earlier dwelling from the 12th century built by the Fitzaucher family, who served the king as huntsmen. The portrait passed through several generations of the family until it was sold recently.

The sitter is Sir Edmund Huddleston of Sawston Hall (c.1537–1606), who was from a family of personal soldiers to Queen Mary I of England, however the Huddleston’s trace their lineage back much further, to the time of William the Conqueror when the family resided at the manor or Huddleston (or Hodylston) in Yorkshire.

Sir Edmund was born in 1537, in Droitwich, Worcestershire, England, and he was the eldest son of Sir John Huddleston (1516-1557), of Sawston Hall and Bridget Cotton. Sir John was a friend and protector of the Princess Mary, later Mary I and he received his knighthood on her ascension to the throne and was made a Privy Councillor and Vice Chamberlain to her husband, Philip of Spain. He was also related to Robert Dudley, the favourite of Queen Elizabeth I.

Our sitter married the heiress Dorothy Beaconsall about 1556; this marriage brought him manors in Lancashire and Essex, and through his wife’s connection in Essex, he became Sherrif of Essex and was knighted in 1578. The couple gave birth to at least one son and one daughter. The couple lived for a time at Weald Hall near Brentford and then at Sawston Hall where he died having lived there for close to half a century.

The Latin inscription on the coat of arms: “Soli Deo Honor Et Gloria” (to the one God honour and glory) was the motto used for centuries by all main branches of the Huddleston family. The inscription: “ANO DNI 1562 AE. SVAE. 25, MENS. NOVEMB / SEXTO” states that the sitter was 25 years of age when the portrait was painted in 1562.

The portrait as in the collection of the Whythes family at Copped Hall, Essex, near London, which was built in 1758 to replace at least two earlier buildings that originated as far back as the 12th century. At that time Copped Hall belonged to the Fitzaucher family, who served the king as huntsmen and later it came into the possession of Henry VIII. In 1548 Henry's son, Edward VI, allowed the future Queen Mary I to live at Copped Hall as a prisoner. In 1564 Queen Elizabeth I granted Copped Hall to one of her closest friends—Sir Thomas Heneage.

In the grounds of Copped Hall there was an avenue of yew trees, with a statue of Henry at one end and his son Edward VI at the other. Allegedly on the morning of May 19th 1536, Henry paced up and down this walk, waiting for the distant sound of a cannon from the Tower of London to signal that his second wife Anne Boleyn had been executed. As the cannon sounded Henry is said to have mounted his horse and ridden off to Theobald’s at Waltham Cross where Jane Seymour waited. The couple were married soon after.

In 1739 Edward Conyers purchased the estate and his son, John Conyers I, replaced the mansion with the present one in 1758. George Wythes Sr. (1811-83) purchased the estate in 1869. He was an extremely wealthy man who had made his fortune as a developer and in the construction of railroads. In 1917 the main 18th century block of the house was largely burned-out in a disastrous fire one; much of the contents were saved and moved to Wood House, another large house on the estate where the family relocated to. Mr Wythes died in 1949, followed by his wife died in 1951.

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