Lot 32: Attributed to John Wright (British, circa 1745-1820) Joseph Pitcairn (1764-1844), wearing grey coat, pale yellow waistcoat, white chemise, stock and cravat, his powdered wig tied with a fine black ribbon bow

Joseph Pitcairn (1764-1844), wearing grey coat, pale yellow waistcoat, white chemise, stock and cravat, his powdered wig tied with a fine black ribbon bow.
Gold frame with blue and white enamel border, the reverse with aperture glazed to reveal a lock of hair partially covered by an old label inscribed with sitter's details.
Oval, 67mm (2 5/8in) high

Joseph Pitcairn was the younger of the two children of Reverend Joseph Pitcairn and his wife, Janet (née McCormack) of Fifeshire. His elder sister, Helen was born in 1763.

Pitcairn went to America and became a diplomat. In 1794, George Washington nominated Pitcairn to be the American Vice-Consul in Paris. He was then appointed full Consul in Hamburg, where he remained until 1802. Pitcairn was also a merchant and carried a respectable business in Hamburg helping needy American soldiers. At the time, there were nearly one hundred American ships arriving in Hamburg every year. In 1801, Pitcairn spent approximately ten dollars per sailor on medicine, board, clothing and when necessary, burial expenses.

Hamburg was a free port, meeting point and spy capital for revolutionaries and French Royalists and it was there that he met and married Lady Pamela Fitzgerald in 1800. She was the widow of the Irish Republican, Lord Edward Fitzgerald (1763–1798), who had been suffering from septicaemia while in hiding from the British Government, then shot and captured before dying of his wounds in Newgate Prison. Lady Fitzgerald had three children by him. At the time of her marriage to Pitcairn, her eldest and youngest children were left behind in England, while her middle child, Pamela (1796-1869) was with her in Hamburg.

It is likely that the Pitcairns met at the Mattison's home. The Mattisons were wealthy bankers and Pamela's cousin had married into their family. Joseph and Pamela had one child in 1803, a daughter, named Helen but shortly after her birth, the couple divorced. Pamela returned to England, later marrying an American of Scottish descent in Brooklyn, while Helen remained with Joseph. He returned to America with her where he used the money he had amassed in Hamburg to buy and develop land in St. Lawrence County, New York. Two small villages there named Pitcairn and East Pitcairn were named after him. He also purchased land in Edward's Township and paid for settlers from his home county of Fifeshire to immigrate and settle there. In 1819, Pitcairn was funding families and individuals from Fife to work on his land for three years, having paid their passage and helped them to obtain homes, land and the means for income. When the three years were up, they were given the opportunity to buy their homes and land from him. Pitcairn never forgot his roots and left a thousand dollars to his father's parish of Carnbee in his will.