Robert Gwillym, Elizabeth Gwillym (née Atherton), and Their Family

Elizabeth Gwillym (seated), who must have been born in the second decade of the eighteenth century, was the only surviving child of Richard Atherton of Atherton Hall, Lancashire. All six of her siblings died in infancy, and because her father was the last surviving male heir, the Atherton estate passed to Elizabeth, and thence to her eldest surviving son. Her husband, Robert Gwillym of Langstone, Herefordshire (wearing the tricorn hat), and his father, also called Robert, stand on the left. Her brother-in-law William, a deaf mute, stands on the right. Elizabeth Gwillym's four children (left to right) are baby William, Jane, Robert Vernon Gwillym Atherton (he added his mother's name to his own after he succeeded his mother as squire in 1763), and Elizabeth. The melancholy stumps of felled trees in the foreground may refer to Mrs. Gwillym's two older brothers-in-law, who predeceased her husband and their father.

Gallery label for installation of YCBA collection, 2005