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REYNOLDS, Sir Joshua; P. R. A.         1723-1792
Portrait of Mrs. Freeman, Jr.    40x50

Mary, the daughter of John Cutis, Esq., of Butcombe, Somertsetshire, was born in 1758; she married Thomas Edwards Freeman, Jr., M.P. for Steyning, sussex, the only son of Thomas Edwards Freeman, Esq., of Batsford Park, Glouchestershire, She died, at the age of 24, on February 2, 1782, and was buried at Batsford; her husband died March 23, 1788, and his father, Thomas passed to the only daughter of T.E. Freeman, junior, Elizabeth, who married Thomas Heathcote, eldest son of Sir William Heathcote, Bart., M.P., but she dying on March 15 in the same year, without issue, the estates passed to her second cousin, John Mitford, 1st Baron Redesdale, Lord Chancellor of Ireland, who took the additional name and arms of Freeman by royal license January 28, 1809. A tablet in Batsford Church reads as follows:

"Mary (daughter of John Curtis of Butcomb in the County of Somerset) deceased wife of Thomas Edwards Freeman Jun., Esq., died the 2nd February 1782 and was buried in the family vault. Conjugal love endeared her to her very affectionate husband Natural love to her tender brothers Innate goodness of disposition with accomplished manners fixed the esteem of every acquaintance. An infant only daughter (at an age which happily knows no grief on loss of friends) survived her fond and very attentive mother."

EXHIBITED: at the Old Masters Exhibition, Royal Academy, 1889, No. 140.

CATALOGUED: "Reynolds" by Graves and Cronin, Vol. I, p. 339
            "Reynolds" by Sir Walter Armstrong, p. 206

From the Collection of David Bertram Freeman-Mitford, Lord Redesdale, of Batsford Park, Moreton-in-the-Marsh, Gloucestershire.

Lent by the Estate of the late Dorothea B. Harding.