Attributed to Sir Martin Archer Shee, P.R.A. (Dublin 1769-1850 Brighton)

William Senhouse was the second son of Humphrey Senhouse of Netherhall, Cumberland, by his wife Mary, daughter and ultimately co-heir of Sir George Fleming 2nd Bt, of Rydal, Bishop of Carlisle. A Lieutenant in the Royal Navy, he married Elizabeth, daughter of Samson Wood, Speaker of the Barbados Assembly, and acquired a plantation in Barbados where he grew indigo, and was to become Surveyor-General. In this portrait he is shown beside a column on a plinth that commemorates Lord Nelson. Senhouse's son Humphrey had followed his father into the Navy in 1797 and may have fought alongside Nelson at the Battle of the Nile in August 1798, which might explain why the sitter chose to be portrayed in this way.