A Gentleman of the Needham Family of Melton Mowbray

According to a handwritten label on the stretcher this portrait depicts “one of the Needham family of Melton Mowbray”. It also tells us it was “formerly in the collections of the late Lord Kilmorey & of T Kynnersley [sic] of Leighton Hall, Leighton”. The Earldom of Kilmorey, from Kilmorey, co Clare, was created in 1625, for Sir Robert Needham, of Shenton. Shropshire. The Needham or Nedham family have their roots in Shropshire and Cheshire, where they can be traced back to the early twelfth century. They were related to the Kynnersley-Brownes of Leighton Hall, Leighton, Shropshire, where the portrait is said to have hung before its ownership by Stanley Chard.