Colonel James Kirkpatrick of the Madras Calvary
by Horace Hone, circa 1780.

James Kirkpatrick (1729-1818) was acclaimed as the "Handsome Colonel," a nickname referring not only to his rakish good looks and "very dark brown eyes." but also to his dynamic social life.  Born in Charleston, South Carolina to Jacobite loyalists who had been implicated in the 1715 uprising and fled to America, Kirkpatrick returned to England before his twentieth birthday. As described by Jane Maria Strachey, the wife of his grandson and family historian, Kirkpatrick led "an adventurous and irregular life more distinguished for its amorous conquests than its military ones."  Kirpatrick, who did take his military career seriously, was the author of a pamphlet on the  Organization of a Body of Light Troops for Detached Service in the East Indies (London, 1769; 2nd edit. 1781). In a critical notice of that work he was described as " a cavalry leader of experience" [Monthly Review, 1769).  Stationed in Sumatra in 1777, Kirkpatrick was in command of the troops at Fort Marlborough.  He returned to Britain in 1779 to his seat at Hollydale, in Kent.  Kirkpatrick's son, James Achilles Kirkpatrick was even more notorious.  A British resident at the court of the Nizam of Hyderabad, he fell in love with the great-niece of the Nizam's prime minister. He converted to Islam in order to marry her and is said to have become a double agent working for the Huderabadis against the East India Company.  Both father and son are chronicled in William Dalrymple's book, White Mugals. 
          
Set in the original gold frame with blue glass border, the reverse with the gold monogram JK on plaited hair within a blue glass border.

1 ½ inches (3.8 cm) high.

Horace Hone, A.R.A. (1754-1825), miniaturist to the Prince of Wales, was the second generation of the Irish artistic dynasty, still flourishing today.  Hone worked in watercolor and enamel, in addition to miniatures.  He first studied with his father, before entering the Royal Academy Schools.  He exhibited at the Royal Academy from 1772 to 1822; elected A.R.A. in 1779.  His distinguished clientele included the Duke of Rutland, Mrs. Siddons, Lord Dungannon, and the Duchess of Buckingham. 

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