Portrait of Captain William Kirke (1715-1773), bust-length, in a red military coat and blue waistcoat with gold embroidery

Captain William Kirke of Mirfield Hall, East Markham, Nottinghamshire went up to Trinity, Cambridge, in October 1733, at the age of seventeen. He was a Justice of the Peace for Nottinghamshire and fought the Jacobites at Lauffield and Culloden in the army of the Duke of Cumberland. He died on 25 May 1773, aged fifty-eight, and was buried at Markham, leaving two sons, John and William.

This portrait was painted in March and April of 1760 when Wright stopped at Retford on his tour of the Midland towns to the east of Derby.