Miniature portraits and photograph: Mrs. John Drayton (Rebecca Perry), Anne Drayton, Edward Perry, and Maria Hopley; with Drayton Hall view
Book 1, Page 619 ·1758–1900
Transcription
A page of small portraits gathered at the top and a printed view of Drayton Hall at the lower right. The captions are partly typed exhibition/loan cards and partly the compiler’s pencil.
Upper left — small oval miniature of a young woman in a high-necked bodice:
Pencilled caption in the compiler’s hand, above the miniature:
“3^{rd} wife of builder of Drayton Hall — Probably painted same date as daughters — Anne & Susanna — 1787 Beuhridge?” B 1758
Typed exhibition card beneath the miniature:
- MRS. JOHN DRAYTON (Rebecca Perry)
Unattributed American Lent by Mrs. Joseph I. Waring
A small pencil note below the card reads:
By James Peale.
Below it — second oval miniature of a younger woman:
Typed exhibition card beneath the miniature:
- ANNE DRAYTON
By John Miller, 1785 Lent by Mrs. Donald Allston
In pencil beneath the card, in the compiler’s hand:
married Edward Perry.
Center — oval miniature of a young man in dark coat with white stock:
Edward Perry married Anne Drayton Born — 1774 — Died June 7^{th} 1800 age. 26 years.
Edward Perry. D. 1800 June 5^
Beneath the miniature, in pencil:
My Junior cousin.
Upper right — larger albumen photograph of an elderly woman in white widow’s cap, dark dress with a white shawl-collar, hands clasped at her lap:
Maria Hopley — M. — 1^{st} Mr. MAUGER. 2^{nd}. Edward Perry { Benjamin Skirving Perry { Maria Anne Perry — 3^{rd}. Col. William Sulles —
[The brace links Edward Perry to the two children of that second marriage. The caption’s “Hopley” is a cursive misread of Hedley (the canonical surname); “Skirving” in earlier transcriptions has resolved to Faneuil — the son is Benjamin Faneuil Dunkin Perry (B. F. D. Perry, Minnie’s father). The third husband recorded here is Col. William Fuller of Beaufort.]
Lower left — three black paper photo corners arranged in a rectangle, marking the place of a fourth print now missing. A fourth empty corner is faintly visible at the lower edge of the rectangle.
Lower right — a sepia half-tone print of a tall brick three-story house seen from the side, almost engulfed in foliage and large live oaks, captioned in the printer’s hand at the lower edge:
Drayton Hall—River Front
AI Notes
An album page with a cluster of small portraits at top and a printed view of Drayton Hall at the lower right; three black photo corners at lower-left mark a missing fourth print. Upper left: oval miniature of a young woman (Mrs. John Drayton — Rebecca Perry, 3rd wife of the builder of Drayton Hall), with both a pencilled caption in the compiler’s hand (‘3rd wife of builder of Drayton Hall — Probably painted same date as daughters — Anne & Susanna — 1787 — Beuhridge? B 1758’) and a typed exhibition card (‘MRS. JOHN DRAYTON / (Rebecca Perry) — Unattributed — Lent by Mrs. Joseph I. Waring — American’); a smaller pencil note reads ‘By James Peale.’ Below it: oval miniature of a younger woman (Anne Drayton, who married Edward Perry), with a typed exhibition card ‘43. ANNE DRAYTON / By John Miller, 1785 / Lent by Mrs. Donald Allston’ and a pencilled ‘married Edward Perry.’ Center: oval miniature of a young man (Edward Perry, d. 2 June 1800 age 26 — the 1797 testator on p. 609), captioned ‘My Junior cousin.’ Upper right: a larger albumen photograph of an elderly woman in white cap — Maria Ann Hedley (the album’s ‘Hopley’ is a cursive misread of Hedley) — three marriages: 1st Mr. Mauger; 2nd Edward D. Perry (B. F. D. Perry’s father; the caption’s ‘Skirving’ for their son is a misread of ‘Faneuil’ — i.e., Benjamin Faneuil Dunkin Perry, with sister Maria Anne Perry); 3rd Col. William Fuller of Beaufort. Lower left: empty photo corners. Lower right: sepia print captioned ‘Drayton Hall—River Front.’
The miniaturist James Peale (1749–1831), younger brother of Charles Willson Peale, was the leading American miniature portraitist of the Federal era; an attribution to him for the Rebecca Perry miniature would be highly distinguished. “Maria Hopley” is a cursive misread of Maria Ann Hedley — the same person the 1830 will (pp. 612–618) names as the intended wife of Edward D. Perry under her married surname Maria Ann Mauger (from her first marriage to Mr. Mauger). The presence here of mounted miniatures alongside an architectural view of Drayton Hall reflects the late-nineteenth-century practice of photographing fragile family miniatures so they could be circulated and displayed in albums alongside other ancestral material.