George Engleheart received several commissions from the Reid (sometimes mis-spelled Reed in his fee book) Family including these portraits of Harriot Reid and her four-year-old son Nevile both painted in 1793.Harriot Gildart was born in Finchley, north London in May 1763. She was the youngest of the four surviving daughters of Thomas Gildart of Liverpool and Sarah Meyer. Her mother died when she was just four years old; her father did not remarry and indeed outlived Harriot by a decade. In August 1782, aged 20, she married Andrew Reid, a Scottish brewer and distiller. Andrew had spent much of his youth in India. Upon their marriage Andrew was made a partner in his father-in-law’s firm, now re-named Gildart & Reid, a business associated with the opium trade. During the 1790s he became a wine merchant and invested in a brewery. Harriot and Andrew had a large family of four sons and five daughtersThe couple had 4 sons and 5 daughters; her youngest son was born whilst on board the ...