Sir Charles Long 1st Baron Farnborough

MP and Paymaster General, trustee of the National Gallery and the British Museum. Son of the London West India merchant Beeston Long (1710-1785) and grandson of Charles Long of Longville. Left £120,000 at death, 'Jamaica fortune and land, as well as a steady income from political office.'

1. He has an entry in the ODNB as 'politician and connoisseur of the arts', 'born in the City of London in January 1760, the fourth son of Beeston Long, the head of a well-known firm of West Indies merchants in the City. A senior branch of the family, established at Hurts Hall in Suffolk, had owned an estate in Jamaica since the conquest of the island in 1665.' His wife Amelia nee Hume also has an entry as 'water-colour painter'.

2. Will of Charles Long proved 14/04/1838. He left Bromley Hill to his nephew Samuel Long, the son of his deceased brother also called Samuel. He left a specified group of paintings, including a Gaspar Poussin and a Canaletto (in his drawing room in Whitehall Gardens) and the infant Samuel by Sir Joshua Reynolds, 'the picture by Vanderneer and Cuyp', the landscape by Rubens, two pictures by Francesco Mola, and 'the horse by Van Dyke' (all at Bromley Hill) to the British Museum, as well as £3000 to the trustees of the British Museum to extend the collection of manuscripts bequeathed by the Earl of Bridgewater. These paintings are now identifiable in the collection of the National Gallery with one exception (The Infant Samuel by Sir Joshua Reynolds) which is held by Tate Britain. In addition the paintings named in his will, the National Gallery catalogue includes a further seven paintings described as bequeathed by 'Lord Farnborough 1838' (two by Nicolas Maes, two by David Tenier the younger and a further one attributed to him, and one by Willem van de Welde and one ascribed to 'studio of Willem van de Welde).' In addition, the National Gallery catalogue shows a Thomas Gainsborough landscape, The Watering Place as 'presented by Charles Long MP, later Lord Farnborough 1827.'

http://www.historyofparliamentonline.org/volume/1790-1820/member/long-charles-1760-1838; W.D. Rubinstein, Who were the rich? A biographical directory of British wealth-holders Vol. 1 1809-1839 (2009), pp. 477-478, reference 1838/24.

1. Howard Colvin, ‘Long, Charles, Baron Farnborough (1760–1838)’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004; online edn, Sept 2013 [http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/16962, accessed 15 Jan 2015]; Tessa Sidey, ‘Long , Amelia, Lady Farnborough (1772–1837)’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004 [http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/16959, accessed 15 Jan 2015].

2. Will of the Right Honourable Charles Lord Farnborough, PROB 11/1893/320.