William Moseley II (ca. 1635-1671)

William Moseley was the son of William Moseley and Susannah Moseley. They were an English family that emigrated from Rotterdam in the Netherlands in ca. 1749. The family settled in Lynnhaven Parish at an estate that came to be known as Rolleston Hall. They apparently brought at least four family portraits with them, which descended in the family in Norfolk through the nineteenth century. It is assumed that they were painted in Rotterdam before emigrating.

The subject wears a green suit with a large, square, lace collar and tassels. His left hand is on his hip. This portrait was recently on display at the Virginia Beach History Museums.

See: Charles Bolton, The Founders: Portraits of Persons Born Abroad (1919), 175-189; Essex Institute Historical Collection, v. 49 (1913), 178-183; Carolyn J. Weekley, Painters and Paintings in the Early American South (2013), 66-67.