Jane Cromwell image

[NNR]

Hi folks,

I'm a direct descendant of Jane Cromwell of Huntingdon. That's Oliver Cromwell's sister. I'd never seen an image of her until someone sent me the below. It's completely unsourced and is apparently something their great Uncle found when doing his research many years ago. Can anyone verify whether this is she or not? Certainly the resemblance to Oliver is pretty close!

[davidft]

It seems John's surname is given alternatively as DESBOROUGH, DESBOROW, or DISBROWE so worth keeping that in mind.

If you have no success here you could try contacting the Cromwell Museum to see if they can identify it

Cromwell Museum
Grammar School Walk
Huntingdon
PE29 3LF

Also are there any marks on the picture that may help eg painters name etc

[NNR]

Thanks! No marks on the pic, no. It looks like a photocopy of a photo of a portrait at best!

[davidft]

Another thought is if you are anywhere near Huntingdon then Huntingdon Library has a shelf or two on everything Cromwellian so might be worth a look there to see if there are any pictures in the books that may help

[dcbnwh]

I can't find a picture of Jane but she does look like her mother:

http://www.magnoliabox.com/index.cfm?event=catalogue.qsearch&searchString=samuel%20rawson&pageStart=31

One of my distant relatives married Jane's sister, Catherine, the widow of Roger Whitestone. He was Col. John Jones, one of the regicides, who is said to have owned the famous portrait of Cromwell by Lely. He also signed the death warrant of Charles and was executed. Pedigrees show that he and Cromwell were distant relatives but I have not found evidence to show that they were aware of this.

This includes a picture of him - http://bcw-project.org/biography/john-jones

David

[davidft]

I have found a couple of citations that appear to refer to this picture

http://booksnow1.scholarsportal.info/ebooks/oca9/31/catalogueofengra02brit/catalogueofengra02brit_djvu.txt

(CATALOGUE OF ENGRAVED BRITISH PORTRAITS

Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2011 with funding from University of Toronto

and then

Page 44 in this link

https://archive.org/stream/catalogueofengra02brit#page/n53/mode/2up

(this is a Catalogue of engraved British Portraits (Prints & Drawings) in the British Museum 1910)

The description accurately describes what you see in the picture.


I guess the next stop is the British Museum, either in person or by post.

Good luck, and if you have any joy with them it would be good to know

Edit:

It also appears on the Royal Collection trust site, although I can not get it to put up a picture or show the page. A cached (?) page states

After William Dobson (1611-46)

Jane Desborough (or Disbrowe), Wife of General John Desborough, Sister of Oliver Cromwell
RCIN 653514

Description
O'D 1: 3/4 length, seated, inclined left, with pearl earrings and necklace, dark gown with white fichu, right arm resting on table beside fruit. "Stowe private plate"; without letters. Watermark - Dupuy

http://www.rootschat.com/links/01fg3/