Painted for the sitter, the Hon. Sir Francis Nathaniel Pierpont Burton Conyngham [1766-1832], County Clare [Ireland]; by descent to his grandson William Conyngham Vandeleur Burton [1846-1919], Carrigaholt Castle, County Clare;[1] from whose estate it was sold to (Tooth Brothers), London, from whom it was purchased 16 March 1920 by (G.S. Sedgwick) for Thomas B. Clarke [1848-1931], New York, as by Gilbert Stuart;[1] sold by Clarke's executors to (M. Knoedler & Co., New York), from whom it was purchased 29 January 1936, as part of the Clarke collection, by The A.W. Mellon Educational and Charitable Trust, Pittsburgh; gift to NGA, 1947. [1] Clarke's purchase from Tooth is according to 1928 Clarke exhibition catalogue annotated with information from files of M. Knoedler & Co., NY (copy in NGA curatorial records and in NGA library). The painting probably passed through William Burton's father, Henry Stuart Burton [d. 1867], and perhaps also through the latter's eldest son, William's older brother Francis Nathaniel Valentine Burton [d. 1883]. See Burke's Peerage, Limited, _Burke's Peerage and Baronetage_, 105th ed. (London, 1970), 627.