Mrs Thorngate’s Villa

Watercolour drawing of a row of brick buildings. Inscribed on the back, ‘Mrs Thorngate’s Villa / From a sketch by [name illegible] / For Mrs McKinley / With her Daughter Elizabeth’s love & duty’. This inscription probably refers to Harriot McKinley (née Hollis, 1769–1855), wife of Admiral George McKinley (1766–1852), and her daughter, Elizabeth Mary McKinley (1804–81). The Hollises, McKinleys and Thorngates were all prominent families in Gosport in Hampshire. This drawing was found loose inside ZBB0353, a sketchbook of drawings by naval officer Aiskew Paffard Hollis (1764–1844), Harriot McKinley’s brother. It testifies to the close connections between the Thorngate, McKinley and Hollis families. For other examples of Aiskew Paffard Hollis’s work, see PAH4885 and ZBB0352–84.