Portrait of the Rev. Jacob Bryan, Rector of Kilrush, in the diocese of Meath, half-length, holding a psalter open at psalm 90

The sitter was the elder son of Abraham Bryan, of Dublin, who was a merchant. He was born in Dublin in 1708 and entered Trinity College, Dublin, in 1728, graduating in 1730. He was Rector of Kilrush, in the diocese of Meath, and married Mary, daughter of Isaac Dickinson, of Dublin. Bryan died in 1794 and his elder son Isaac was later Rector of Horetown, Co. Wexford. An inscription on the reverse of this portrait indicates that it was painted in 1789 when the sitter was 75 years old. Gilbert Stuart moved to Ireland from London, where he had run up considerable debts, in 1787.