John Nelson (1654–1734)

John Nelson (1654–1734)

John Nelson was a prominent and politically connected Boston merchant, militia captain, and enslaver who led an eventful colonial life. He took part in an uprising against royal governor Sir Edmund Andros (1637–1714), was captured by the French for privateering in Nova Scotia, and was later jailed in the Bastille. Nelson’s marriage to Elizabeth Tailer, the daughter of a close business associate, further cemented his position in Boston society. Their daughter, Rebecca Nelson (1688–1728), would form an equally advantageous union with Henry Lloyd I, the second lord of the Manor of Queens Village on Lloyd Neck.

This portrait is a nineteenth-century copy of an original by famed portraitist John Smibert. He was the first European-born painter to work in America and bring to the colonies a sophisticated style of portraiture popular among the British aristocracy. Smibert arrived in Newport, Rhode Island from London via Bermuda in 1729. Three years later, he painted the 78-year-old John Nelson.