Henrietta Maria Tilghman Robins Goldsborough

Henrietta Maria Tilghman Robins Goldsborough (1707-1771) and Grandchild, Robins Chamberlain (1768-1773)
Talbot County, Maryland, c. 1770
Artist: John Hesselius (1728-1778), American
Medium: Oil on Canvas P80 Donated by Charlotte Fletcher in 2006

Replicating a likeness of yourself for your children in the days before photography was complicated.

However, if you had the time, money, and a patient painter then it was possible; in 1770 Henrietta Maria had all three and was able to do exactly that.

She wished to give each of her four daughters something to remember her by so she engaged artist John Hesselius for the job. The four paintings of her originally owned by her daughters are attributed to him.

Hesselius was a second-generation portrait painter who made a living painting the elite, working mainly in Maryland and Virginia. In 1763 he married the wealthy widow Mary Young Woodward, who owned Primrose Hill in Annapolis. A year earlier he had been the first professional artist to teach Charles Willson Peale, who went on to become one of America’s foremost portrait painters. By the time Hesselius was working on these paintings, he was well connected in the Annapolis community, and served as a church warden at St. Anne’s on Church Circle.

Henrietta Maria (pronounced Henrietta “Mur-i-ah”) was born on August 18, 1707, to Colonel Richard Tilghman and Anna Maria Lloyd at the “Hermitage” in Queen Anne’s County. By the time of her birth her family had been in the area for three generations and was well established.

Henrietta married George Robins of Talbot County in 1731 and had four daughters and a son Thomas, who died at age 22. After her husband’s death she married Judge William Goldsborough of Easton Maryland in 1747. He was a widower who had been married to Robins’ sister She then lived at a plantation known as “Peach Blossom.”

Hesselius’ four paintings feature a likeness of Henrietta Maria and her grandson, Robins Chamberlaine, born in 1768. However, each painting contains a distinguishing element to differentiate it from the others.

The painting for her daughter Anna Maria Robins Hollyday includes a landscape; it is now owned by the Talbot County Historical Society. Daughter Henrietta Maria’s painting includes “Peach Blossom”, the family home–this is this one owned by the Hammond-Harwood House Museum. Her daughter Susannah Robins received a painting that included a bird; this one is now owned by the Maryland Historical Society. The version for her daughter Margaret Robins Hayward includes a squirrel; it is part of a private collection. In a 1765 letter from Henrietta to her son Thomas, who was studying in England, she said, “I now have a pretty flying squirrel which I would send to you by Captain Montgomery, but Mr. G fears the French will get it.” This could be the same squirrel depicted in Margaret’s copy.

In 2007 the four paintings were brought together for the first time in public for a
special exhibition “Goldsborough Family Portraits” at the Mitchell Gallery at St. John’s College, curated by former Hammond-Harwood House staff member Lisa Mason-Chaney.

This painting now hangs in the ballroom next to a portrait by Charles Willson Peale of Henrietta Maria’s nephew, William Goldsborough. William’s portrait was donated at the same time as Henrietta Maria’s, along with the chair featured in his painting. The two paintings provide a narrative of the relationship between artist and student, as well as of family ties between aunt and nephew.

By Rachel Lovett, Curator