(?) Colonel William Windham I, MP (1647-1689)

Sir Godfrey Kneller (Lübeck 1646/9 - London 1723). Oil painting on canvas, (?) Colonel William Windham I MP (1647-89), by Sir Godfrey Kneller (Lübeck 1646/9 - London 1723). 1680s. Three-quarter-length portrait of a man in a chestnut cloak over state dress, turned to his right. Behind is a landscape view through an arch. Traditionally, but impossibly, called Sir James Ashe, 2nd Bt (1674-1733), this was painted by Kneller in the late 1680's, around the same time as his portrait of Ashe Windham (1673-1749) in the Dining Room, but clearly shows someone double the age of either of them then. Most probably, therefore, of Ashe's father, William Windham I, in his last years. Typed label on back from RWKC 1955 - portrait is James Ashe of whom a portrait is mentioned in 1764 inventory of Felbrigg Pictures, or it is by Kneller of William Windham 1647-1689. Colonel Wiliam Windham I was the son of Thomas Windham and Elizabeth Mede. William went into the Army, lost a leg at the Battle of Blenheim (1704), but continued to campaign in the rest of the War of the Spanish Succession, finally retiring as Colonel. In 1705 he married Anne Tyrrell, daughter of Sir Charles Tyrrell of Heron Manor, Essex, and at first lived in Braxted in the same county, along with his mother. Unlike his mother and his younger brother James, he came well out of the South Sea Bubble, and was able in 1721 in buy Earsham from its amateur architect, John Buxton, who afterwards boasted that he had been paid "for every nail in it". Felbrigg, Norfolk (Accredited Museum)