Daniel Parke II (1664-1710)

Daniel Parke was the son of Daniel Parke and Rebecca Evelyn Parke. He married Jane Ludwell in ca. 1685. His two legitimate daughters who survived to adulthood were Frances Parke (Mrs. John Custis) and Lucy Parke (Mrs. William Byrd II). He left his family in Virginia behind and sought a career in England. He served as aide-de-camp to the Duke of Marlborough and was appointed Governor of the Leeward Islands, where he moved in 1706. This portrait from an English collection was sold by Christie’s on December 16, 2010. There several other portraits of this subject, including two by John Closterman (Virginia Museum of History & Culture and private collection) and one by Sir Godfrey Kneller.

Dimensions: 30 1/8 x 25¼ in (76 x 64.2 cm)

The subject wears a gray wig and his armor with a miniature portrait of Queen Anne surrounded by diamonds hanging on a red ribbon around his neck. He is inside of a painted oval frame. “Coll. Parke” is painted on the portrait.

See: Encyclopedia Virginia