Mrs Patrick Blake, Lady Blake (1745 - 1841)

RA Collection: People and Organisations

Annabella Blake was the daughter of the Reverend Sir William Bunbury, 5th Baronet and the sister of the caricaturist William Henry Bunbury. In 1762 she married Sir Patrick Blake (c. 1742-1784) 1st Baronet and later MP for Sudbury in Suffolk. In 1776, Annabella left Sir Patrick Blake for the politician George Boscawen. The Blakes were divorced in 1778 and Annabella married Boscawen in 1779. They lived in France from 1776-79. She died in 1818 and is buried at St Peter in Thanet, Kent.
RA Collections decolonial research: Reynolds’ sitters

Sir Patrick Blake inherited plantation holdings in the Caribbean from his grandfather Patrick Blake of St. Kitts and Monserrat (d. 1745). The latter bequeathed an enslaved woman to one of his beneficiaries as well as granting three enslaved children their freedom and funds to cover their schooling and maintenance up to the age of 15. Lady Annabella and Sir Patrick Blake’s sons, Patrick and James, went on to inherit the family’s properties in the Caribbean.