Portrait of Sir Thomas Frankland, 6th Bt. (1750-1831), half-length, in profile

Thomas Frankland was born to Sir Thomas Frankland, 5th Bt., and his wife Sarah, née Rhett in 1750. Following schooling at Eton and Merton College, Oxford, in 1772 he entered Lincoln’s Inn. Between 1774 and 1801 he twice represented Thirsk as a Member of Parliament, first between 1774 and 1780 and again between 1796 and 1801, and in the interim years served as High Sheriff of Yorkshire. In 1775 he married Dorothy Smelt, daughter of William Smelt of Bedale, Yorkshire, with whom he had five children. Following the death of his father in 1784, Frankland succeeded to the baronetcy and Thirkleby Hall. In 1790 Frankland commissioned James Wyatt to rebuild the estate’s house, stables and triumphal arch in a classical style. In addition to his professional pursuits, Frankland was a noted amateur botanist who was selected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1773. In honor of his contributions to the field, the Scottish botanist Robert Brown named the genus Franklandia (lanolin bushes) after him.

This portrait was commissioned in 1777 by Frankland’s friend John Amyand, MP for Camelford. In conjunction with the present painting, Amyand ordered a portrait of Richard Aldworth Neville (A. Kidson, op. cit., II, p. 429, no. 946), for which he paid Romney 35 guineas on July 11. Frankland, Amyand and Neville had been classmates at Eton (Frankland and Griffin matriculated to Merton College together) and entered Parliament following the elections of 1774. Though evidence is scant, the three men may have intended to exchange portraits as tokens of their friendship. Indeed, Kidson notes that more than one version of Neville’s portrait is known and further suggests Frankland’s two documented visits with Romney in March 1780 may relate to a second, unrealized version of his portrait (loc. cit.). No portraits of Amyand – who died prematurely in June of that year – are documented.