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Lot Essay
The inscription on the picture is erroneous. The sitter - Marescoe Frederick (1726-1801) - was the fourth son of Sir Thomas Frederick, Kt. (1681-1731), and his wife Mary Moncrieff. He seems to have been named 'Marescoe' in honour of the family of his grandfather's wife Leonora (d.1730), daughter and heir of Charles Marescoe of London (d.1720). The sitter's great-grandfather, Sir John Frederick (1601-1685), was a successful merchant, Sheriff of the City of London in 1655, and Lord Mayor of London in 1662.
Aged only sixteen when this picture was painted, Marescoe Frederick's blue coat is consistent either with the uniform of the Royal Horse Guards or of the court dress loved and worn by King George III. Marescoe Frederick had a long military career, beginning with a commission in the 3rd Guards (now the Scots Guards) in 1745. He was governor of Fort St. David, a British stronghold near the town of Cuddalore, about one hundred miles south of Madras on the southeastern coast of India. The fort was sold by the Mahrattas to the English East India Company in 1690, and in the eighteenth century it became the second centre of British power in southern India (after Madras). The sitter was promoted to the rank of General in 1793. He married Sarah Pickering in 1760 (d. 1774); and secondly married Sarah Davis in 1777.
A group portrait of the sitter's family by Charles Phillips was included in a sale at Christie's on 21 November 1986, lot 83a.
Aged only sixteen when this picture was painted, Marescoe Frederick's blue coat is consistent either with the uniform of the Royal Horse Guards or of the court dress loved and worn by King George III. Marescoe Frederick had a long military career, beginning with a commission in the 3rd Guards (now the Scots Guards) in 1745. He was governor of Fort St. David, a British stronghold near the town of Cuddalore, about one hundred miles south of Madras on the southeastern coast of India. The fort was sold by the Mahrattas to the English East India Company in 1690, and in the eighteenth century it became the second centre of British power in southern India (after Madras). The sitter was promoted to the rank of General in 1793. He married Sarah Pickering in 1760 (d. 1774); and secondly married Sarah Davis in 1777.
A group portrait of the sitter's family by Charles Phillips was included in a sale at Christie's on 21 November 1986, lot 83a.