William Fitzhugh set up a painter in 1698. It is possible that this artist painted the original group of Fitzhugh family portraits which were copied by John Hesselius in 1751.
“Pray by the first conveniency of a London ship bound for this River send me in these things following:…Six three quartered lacker book frames for pictures well burnished, About 40 or 50 shillings worth of colours for painting wt. pencils walnut Oyl & Linseed Oyl proportionable together with half a dox. 3 quarter clothes to set up a painter.” William Fitzhugh to John Cooper, 26 July 1698 in Richard Beale Davis, ed., William Fitzhugh and His Chesapeake World (1963), 367.
