Hugh Douglas Hamilton, R.H.A. (Dublin 1739-1808)

The Evelyns of St Clere, Kemsing, near Sevenoaks, were related to the famous 17th Century diarist John Evelyn. The little boy so charmingly depicted by Hugh Douglas Hamilton is William Evelyn, son of William Evelyn, M.P. (circa 1734-1813) of St Clere, and grandson of another William Evelyn of St Clere. He died young and unmarried, in his early twenties. The boy's father was Member of Parliament for Hythe, Kent, between 1768 and 1802, having been introduced to the borough by the then Lord Warden of the Cinque Ports, Lord Holdernesse. His mother was born Susannah Borrett (or Barrett), of Shoreham in Kent.

William Evelyn was born circa 1768, which suggests a date in the early 1770s for the pastel. He matriculated from Trinity College, Oxford, on 5 April 1785 aged 17. He was dead by 1789. The portrait descended in the Boscawen family. William's father had a half-sister Frances (d. 1805) who had married Admiral Edward Boscawen in 1742. She may have commissioned the portrait, or a member of her family may have acquired it at a later date.