Francis Brinley (1690–1765) was born in England but moved to Newport, Rhode Island, in 1710 at the request of his grandfather. He eventually settled in Boston, where he married Deborah Lyde, granddaughter of Nathaniel Byfield. In 1719, he inherited a substantial tract of land in Roxbury upon which he built the elaborate Datchet House. Smibert painted this portrait in Boston in May 1729. The background, an early instance of landscape in American painting, represents a view of Boston from Brinley's country home.

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