Portrait of the Right Hon. James Craggs, seated three-quarter-length, in a blue robe and a blue hat, his left arm resting on a table

The prime version of this portrait (full length, signed and dated 1719) was formerly at Maddingley.

Craggs entered Parliament in 1713, became a Secretary for War in 1717 and the following year, as a supporter of Stanhope, a Secretary of State. He was, however, implicated in the 'South Sea Bubble' scandal of 1721 but died while inquiries were in progress. He was an intimate friend of the poet Alexander Pope, who composed the epitaph for his tomb in Westminster Abbey.