Three years ago, in my article “Picturing the Branfill Family” I wrote about an old photo album containing photos, taken in the 1920s or 1930s or earlier, of various portraits of Branfill family members, including several which hung in Upminster Hall, which was bought on EBay by one of my contacts. This article updates the story about the recent discovery that several of the Upminster Hall paintings were sold at an auction last year, and my subsequent contact with the owner of most of these other paintings.

Just to recap, in 1881 Upminster’s historian T.L. Wilson recorded a list of 23 portraits of the Branfills and other relations which were then hanging in the dining-room, drawing-room and staircases of Upminster Hall.  The photo album which came to light in 2021 had images of just five of these: Capt Andrew Branfill, who bought Upminster Hall in 1686, his son Champion Branfill (1683-1738) and two portraits of his wife Mary née Braund (1693-1769), and possibly her parents Benjamin Braund (described as William) and his wife Ann nee Warner, making seven of the 23 that Wilson listed.

The story resumed a few weeks ago when I was contacted through this site by the new owner of a portrait of Andrew Branfill (1700-1750), the youngest son of Capt Andrew Branfill who bought Upminster Hall in 1686. The person that contacted me had bought this portrait at auction from a Newcastle auction house in July 2023, where he had also bought a 17^th century portrait in the same listed group of auction lots, described as “Portrait of Mrs Aldersey”. Wilson’s listing of the first portrait was “Andrew Branfill ob.1750” while the second  corresponded with the painting listed by Wilson as “Mrs Aldersey, mother of Lady Capel”

The portrait of Andrew Branfill junior matched an unnamed image in the photo album and was described in the auction catalogue as “in the manner of Sir Godfrey Kneller”, the court painter from the 1680s onwards to four sovereigns from King Charles the Second. Kneller’s studio’s prolific output of portraits were produced on an almost industrial style. 

Further searches showed that some of the portraits sold in at the July 2023 Summer Country House and Interiors auction had previously been included in another auction in March 2023, where they had failed to sell. Other portraits from the same collection, however, had sold at the first attempt.

Another pair of portraits, of Capt Andrew Branfill’s son and heir, Champion Branfill (1683-1738) and his wife Mary née Braund (1693-1769), were “attributed to Sir Godfrey Kneller” and were sold at the second time of asking in July 2023.  Both of these paintings were portrayed in the EBay photo album and listed in Wilson as “Champion Branfill, High Sheriff of Essex, 1734” and “Mary, daughter of Benjamin Braund; a well-executed painting”.  On a visit to Upminster Hall by the Essex Field Club in 1888 Wilson had described the portrait of Mary Braund as “said to be the work of Sir Godfrey Kneller”.

Wilson’s list included two busts “in an oval” which were both offered for sale in March 2023. One bust in an oval portrait which sold in March 2023 was of John Branfill, (1686-1725) goldsmith, son of Capt Andrew Branfill. This was listed by Wilson as “John Branfill ob.1723” but was not in the EBay photo album. The second bust in an oval was of Benjamin Branfill (1765-1841), son of Champion Branfill (1712-1770) and Elizabeth James (1736-1813), which was unsold in March 2023 but sold in July 2023.  Wilson listed this as Benjamin Branfill and the annotations to the image in the photo album were unclear as to whether this was of Benjamin Branfill (1725-1780) son of Champion Branfill and Mary Braund, or Benjamin Branfill (1765-1841) son of Champion Branfill and Elizabeth James. The painting itself identifies the subject as the latter, as it bears the words “Benjamin Branfill 1765-1841”, which seems to have been added by Benjamin Aylett Branfill when he was living at Upminster Hall prior to 1881.

Wilson’s list includes two portraits listed consecutively as “William Braund, half-length” and “Mrs Ann Braund, half-length.  Two photos in the EBay album were annotated “Benjamin Braund Citizen & Vintner of London & of Corbets Tie Upminster. Free of Vintners Company. Appren’d 1682” and “Anne Warner wife of Benjamin Braund Citizen & Vintner of London. Mother of Mary Braund b.1693 d.1770, wife of Champion Branfill Esq”.  The description of the gentleman as William, rather than Mary’s father Benjamin Braund (1664 -1738) is almost certainly an error.

Two portraits, identical to those in the photo album, were unsold in March 2023, but sold in July 2023.  A portrait of “William Braund” was said to be of “The circle of Willem Wissing 1656-1687” (Wissing was an assistant to the court painter Sir Peter Lely). The portrait in the EBay album that was identified as Benjamin’s wife Ann Warner is the painting described in the auction as “Portrait of a Noble Woman” from the “School of Sir Peter Lely” (died 1680).

While Benjamin Braund’s son William (1695-1774), who built Hacton House in Upminster, was a rich merchant, he remained unmarried.  Benjamin’s father was also named William but he was a yeoman and saddler who remained in Devon until his death in 1697 and it seems unlikely that he was someone who would have had his portrait painted in a London studio.

The auction descriptions of both portraits suggests that they were painted in the 1670s or 1680s and the auction house attribution was based on the style of Lely and his followers’ work.  Benjamin (1664 -1734) was undoubtedly wealthy as he set up his eldest son Benjamin as commander of an East Indiaman, paid £300 and £200 for the apprenticeships of his other sons William and Samuel, and provided his daughter Mary with a dowry of £2,500 on her marriage to Champion Branfill. As the EBay album indicates he is the more likely candidate to have had his and his wife’s portraits painted

Four other portraits in Wilson’s list can be identified as being offered for sale at the March 2023 auction, in the same listed sequence as the other Branfill and Braund portraits mentioned.  Wilson’s “Lady Capel, widow of Arthur Lord Capel” appears to be the portrait annotated as “Dorothy Aldersey. m. cir: 1620 Sir Henry Capel Father of Arthur Lord Capel (beheaded 1648)”, by a 17^th century British school of artists. 

“Lady Hulse” on Wilson’s list is most likely the portrait “Dorothy Westrow, married circa 1680 Dr Edward Hulse, Father of the Baronet”, by a “Follower of Sir Peter Lely”. Dorothy Westrow (c.1645-1719) was the daughter of Thomas Westrow (1616-1653) and Ann Capel, and she married Dr Edward Hulse (1631-1711), an eminent physician, in London in 1673. Dorothy’s sister Mary Westrow married Thomas Rowe, goldsmith (1637-1695), whose tomb and that of his children is in Upminster churchyard, which I have written about here.

Two other portraits in these auctions were listed by Wilson. “Gibbon, a brother of the Historian” was described as “Richard Gibbon d.1679. He was the 1^st cousin of the Gt Grandfather of Edwd Gibbon, the historian and grandfather of Philip 1^st E. Hardwicke, Lord Chancellor of England”. It’s unclear what relationship, if any, there may have been between the Gibbon family and  the Branfills!

“A Lady with a Lamb” listed by Wilson is almost certainly “Portrait of a Noble Woman in the guise of a Shepherdess” (Circle of Sir Peter Lely). Again, there are no clues as to who this might be or the subject’s links to the Branfill family. . I am in touch with the purchaser of these portraits, who is part of the extended Branfill family.

Two other portraits in the group auction in 2023 were not listed by Wilson.  The first was “Portrait of Mary Anna Branfill”, née Miers, the wife of Benjamin Aylett Branfill, painted by Carl Werner dating from 1866 – Wilson’s list has “Col B.A. Branfill” by Werner, which may be a companion portrait, and the second was B.A. Branfill’s own portrait of his father Champion Edward Branfill (1789-1844), which he annotated that he had “painted from a miniature” in May 1881. This was after the publication of Wilson’s book which included the list of portraits, and before Branfill’s emigration to New Zealand.

Further enquiries have put me in touch with the family member who offered these paintings for sale, who still owns a number of the paintings listed by Wilson.

One is the portrait said to be of Capt Andrew Branfill (d.1709) which can be seen hanging above the fireplace in the Old Hall in the engraving in Wilson’s book.  Another, which the owner knows as “The Rowe Children” is probably the painting described by Wilson as “Two children”, and the family collection also includes a portrait which appears to be that of Jemima Egerton, daughter of the Rev William Egerton. A painting known to the family as “Fête Champetre” and thought to be by Jean-Baptiste Pater, who specialised in paintings of this subject, is probably the painting listed by Wilson as “The Feast of Roses”.  

Another portrait in the owner’s possession is the portrait of Mary Branfill née Braund, who married Champion Branfill in 1711, an engraving of which faces p185 in Wilson’s book.

Finally, and importantly, is the painting of the ship commanded by Capt Andrew Branfill called “The Ship, Champion, off Portsmouth”  described as being “a picture of considerable interest to all the Branfill family”, as the name “Champion” passed down through the family’s male heirs for several centuries.

This sequence of portraits takes the story of the portraits which hung in Upminster Hall another important step forward from the discovery of the photos of some portraits located three years ago. Furthermore, it is exciting that almost all the paintings listed by Wilson as hanging in Upminster Hall over 140 years ago definitely still survive, albeit that much of the collection has been broken up and dispersed among various purchasers. 

Hopefully, the story isn’t over yet!

All images are courtesy of Anderson & Garland Ltd, Auctioneers, Newcastle or by courtesy of the owner’s private Branfill family collection.

Auction References:

Anderson & Garland, Spring Country House & Fine Interiors Auction (March 2023 Lots 642-655)

Anderson & Garland, Summer Country House & Fine Interiors Auction (July 2023 Lots 1054-1060)

Related website articles:

The Branfills of Upminster Hall

Picturing the Branfill Family

See also:

Thomas Lewis Wilson History & Topography of Upminster (1881) pp184-185, 182-189