Portrait of Anne, Lady Romily (d.1818), bust-length, in a white dress, in a painted oval

The sitter, the eldest daughter of Francis Garbett of Knill Court, Hereford, was married on 3 January 1798 to Sir Samuel Romilly (1757-1818), youngest son of Peter Romilly, a Huguenot, and Margaret, daughter of Aime Garnault, a French emigre. Romilly, who was successively the Member of Parliament for Queensborough, Horsham, Wareham, Arundel and Westminster, was an influential law-reformer and philanthropist, whose political theories were inspired by Jean-Jacques Rousseau. He campaigned vigorously to reduce the number of cases for which the death penalty was applicable and favoured the emancipation of Catholics and slaves. Romilly had six sons and one daughter by his wife, Anne, of which the second, John, was created Baron Romilly.