Colonel Sir John Booth, c.1640 (oil on canvas)

Colonel Sir John Booth (1610-1688), style of Edward Bower (fl. London 1629-d.London 1667), circa 1640. Full-length portrait of a man, standing, turned to the right, gazing at the spectator, by a tree in a rocky landscape, gun resting on the ground, supported by his right hand, his left on his hip. The Master of the Armouries, writes: "It depicts an officer of a unit of light cavalry armed with a light gun called a harquebus. You could call him 'An Officer of Harquebusiers'. He is wearing a cuirass over a sleeveless buff-coat, or at least it has not got sleeves of buff-leather. The cloth sleeves may have been permanently attached to the coat or to a separate waist-coat. He is also wearing a long-gauntlet on his left hand, to defend his bridle-arm. He is armed with a basket-hilted sword of a very unusual type, and a harquebus with a miquelet lock, and therefore presumably made in Spain. The object hanging on his right hip is a charging spanner, that is a combination of a powder flask containing the finer powder used for priming a gun, and the spanner used for spanning (winding up the mechanism) of a wheel-lock. Presumably his pistols which would have been in the holsters of his saddle, had wheel-locks. I presume he dates from about 1640-1645." Sir John Booth was the fifth son of Sir George Booth and he married Dorothy, daughter of Sir Anthony St. John. He was knighted by Charles II in 1660.