Notes
This portrait depicts Lieutenant Governor Alexander Spotswood (1676–1740), husband to Anne Butler Brayne Spotswood (1704–1758). Her portrait is also in the Red Hill collection (2021.19.2).
Alexander Spotswood was the colonial lieutenant governor of Virginia from 1710 to 1722. During his tenure, he oversaw the first explorations of the territories beyond the western border and established the Crown’s dominion over the Blue Ridge Mountains and the Shenandoah Valley, among many other successful economic ventures. He married Anne Butler Brayne, the daughter of a London esquire and the godchild of James Butler, 2nd Duke of Ormond (1665–1745), in 1724 at age 48. They had four children. Dorothea Dandridge (1757–1831), the second wife of Patrick Henry, is a granddaughter of the Spotswoods.
The portrait is an early to mid-19th-century copy of an original 18th-century painting. Alexander Spotswood was originally painted by Charles Bridges (1672–1747) in 1736; this portrait is currently in the collection of the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation.
Little is known about this work. Several other copies of Alexander's portraits are known to exist because of the Spotswood family's importance in Virginia’s colonial history. Most copies date to the 19th century, when the U.S. was experiencing renewed interest in its colonial past, coinciding with the centennial of the country in 1876. The portrait in the Red Hill collection dates closer to 1825 based on early 20th-century repairs using a wax lining method, but who commissioned them remains a mystery.
The painting appears in a photograph of the entrance hall inside the Red Hill mansion around 1912. At this time, both Alexander's and his wife's paintings were owned by the great-granddaughter of Patrick Henry, Lucy Gray Henry Harrison (1857–1944). In 1919, the mansion burned down, and these paintings were possibly saved from destruction. It is assumed the portraits left the property after the fire and were dispersed to other Henry family members.
The portraits were donated by Margaret Henry Ottarson (1911–1981) in 1977 to the Patrick Henry Boys Plantation, which later placed them on long-term loan to Red Hill from 1979 to 2020. Upon the closure of the Boys Plantation in late 2020, these paintings were transferred permanently to Red Hill.