Frances Winchcombe (1679-1718), first wife of 1st Viscount Bolingbroke by Michel Dahl

This is one of two portraits of Frances Winchcombe that hang in the Drawing Room at Lydiard House and it is easy to see why she was described as one of the great beauties of her day. With finely modelled features in an oval face and a rather serious expression, Frances has an air of patient resilience, something she would have much need of during her marriage to Henry St. John 1st Viscount Bolingbroke.

Frances was born in 1679, co-heiress and the eldest of Henry Winchcombe and Elizabeth Hungerford’s three daughters. Frances spent her childhood on the Berkshire family estate at Bucklebury.

Henry and Frances were married on May 22, 1701 at St Dunstan’s in the East. Frances was twenty-two and Henry a year older. Following the ceremony the newlyweds drove through London to Chelsea where they were rowed across the river to begin their married life at the St.John's Battersea home under the watchful eye of Lady Johanna. In 1702 they moved into their own home, number 21, Golden Square, Westminster, a property owned by Frances’s grandmother.

Medium - oil on canvas

Measurements - H 123 W 100

Purchased in 1965 from Vernon St.John, 6th Viscount Bolingbroke