English School, circa 1600

Catalogue of Portraits, 1920, 'Small Panels', p. 24.

We are grateful to the Librarian and Archivist at Lambeth Palace for suggesting that this painting is in all probability a portrait of an Anglican bishop of the early 17th century and that one plausible candidate might be Robert Abbott (1560-1617), Bishop of Salisbury. Abbott was a noted scholar and writer like his brother George, who became Archbishop of Canterbury during the reigns of James I and Charles I. He was active in Oxford where he became Master of Balliol in 1606 and Regius Professor of Divinity in 1613. Two years later he was consecrated Bishop of Salisbury. Like his brother he was a strong defender of the reformed religion, drawn to Calvinism and deeply anti the Roman Catholic faith.