Description 🔉

Object:
A pair of late 18th/early 19th century portraits depict Colonel James Henderson and, reputedly, his wife Eliza Piercy Henderson, traditionally described as “The Beauty of Bath.” The works are oil on canvas and measure 75 x 62 cm (29½ x 24½ in).

The male portrait is believed to be a period copy of the original likeness exhibited at the Royal Academy, possibly made for one of Henderson’s other estates. The female portrait is thought to represent Eliza Piercy and may have been painted after Henderson’s death, as she was approximately forty years his junior.

Biography:
Colonel James Henderson was born circa 1740–1741. According to surviving accounts, he was sent to Jamaica as a boy to live with relatives. He later acquired substantial interests in the island’s sugar economy and became associated with plantation ownership. He is also linked with the development of Port Henderson on the south coast, later used as a port serving Spanish Town.

During wartime, later sources report that Henderson received authority to raise a regiment and equip a vessel named Royal George for service in the Caribbean. By 1790 he had settled at Foswell Bank near Auchterarder. Contemporary records note that he was granted the freedom of Stirling and Dunfermline. To commemorate this honour, a portrait by John Opie was presented to him and later exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1790 (catalogue no. 210). The original has been recorded in a private collection in Suffolk.

Henderson married Eliza Piercy Henderson, reputedly celebrated for her beauty. The couple had three known children: John Piercy Henderson, Eliza Piercy Henderson, and Arabella Hamilton Henderson. Henderson died in 1811 and is recorded as being buried in Auchterarder Cemetery. According to University College London, his estate included several Jamaican plantations and pens. One such property, Goshen Pen, was recorded as holding 144 enslaved people.

Following Henderson’s death, his son John Piercy Henderson inherited family interests connected to the Jamaican estates. These holdings continued through the era of British emancipation in the 1830s, with estate management commonly carried out through attorneys and agents in Jamaica on behalf of absentee proprietors.

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