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Charles Long, Baron Farnborough

1760 - 1838

This person is the subject of ongoing research. We have started by researching their relationship to the enslavement of people.

Biographical notes

Politician (MP and Paymaster General). He played a crucial part in the foundation of the National Gallery and negotiated the purchase of 38 paintings from the collection of John Julius Angerstein (q.v.) as the nucleus of a national collection in 1824.

National Gallery Trustee (1824–1838).

Summary of activity

Charles Long was born in London, the fourth surviving son of the West India merchant Beeston Long (UCL Department of History, ‘Beeston Long Senior’, in UCL Department of History (ed.), Legacies of British Slave-ownership [online], London 2020, <https://www.ucl.ac.uk/lbs/person/view/2146644619> accessed 2 August 2021) and Sarah Cropp. His grandfather was Charles Long (1679–1723) of Longville, Jamaica, and Hurts Hall, Suffolk (UCL Department of History, ‘Charles Long’, in UCL Department of History (ed.), Legacies of British Slave-ownership [online], London 2020, <https://www.ucl.ac.uk/lbs/person/view/2146633744> accessed 2 August 2021). Long had a political career, becoming Member of Parliament for Rye in 1789, the first of a number of seats. Under William Pitt he was Lord of the Treasury from 1804–6, and from 1806 he was Paymaster General of the forces. He retired from political life in 1826, at which point he was bestowed the title of 1st Baron Farnborough. In 1793 he married Amelia Hume, eldest daughter of the art collector Sir Abraham Hume.

Long played a crucial part in the foundation of 38 paintings from the collection of John Julius Angerstein (q.v.) as the nucleus of a national collection in 1824. He was among the foundation trustees appointed in 1824.

Long’s father Beeston Long was a partner in the firm of Long, Drake & Long, which held estates and enslaved people as mortgagees-in-possession in the 1780s, but members of the Long family do not appear to have personally held estates or enslaved people, apart from Lord Farnborough’s sister Jane Long (UCL Department of History, ‘Jane Long, née Long’, in UCL Department of History (ed.), Legacies of British Slave-ownership [online], London 2020,<https://www.ucl.ac.uk/lbs/person/view/2146650899> accessed 2 August 2021), who married her first cousin Charles Long of Saxmundham, son of Charles Long of Hurts Hall, and who inherited a life-interest in Norbrook in Jamaica, and the enslaved people attached to it. Long’s brother, Beeston Long junior (UCL Department of History, ‘Beeston Long junior’, in UCL Department of History (ed.), Legacies of British Slave-ownership [online], London 2020 <https://www.ucl.ac.uk/lbs/person/view/2146644617> accessed 2 August 2021), succeeded his father as Chairman of the West India Merchants, he was also Chairman of the London Dock Company, Governor of the Bank of England from 1806–8, and mortgagee of a number of estates which held enslaved people.

Long himself inherited £19,000 under the will of his father in 1785, but there is no evidence at present regarding his being an owner of enslaved people.

Slavery connections

While LBS has not found evidence of Long being an owner of enslaved people, he inherited £19,000 under the will of his father in 1785. The History of Parliament states that ‘with his West Indian background he was, privately, hostile to the abolition of the slave trade’ (Brian Murphy / R. Thorne, ‘LONG, Charles (1760-1838), of Bromley Hill Place, Kent.’, in History of Parliament Trust (ed.), The History of Parliament: British Political, Social & Local History [online], London, 1964 -, 1790-1820 <https://www.historyofparliamentonline.org/volume/1790-1820/member/long-charles-1760-1838> accessed 2 August 2021.)

Abolition connections

No known connections with abolition.

National Gallery painting connections

Donor: presented in 1827: Thomas Gainsborough, The Watering Place (NG109). He bequeathed his own collection of paintings in 1838: Canaletto, Venice: The Upper Reaches of the Grand Canal with S. Simeone Piccolo (NG163); Gaspard Dughet, View of the Roman Countryside, possibly Tivoli (NG161); Style of Anthony van Dyck, The Horses of Achilles (NG156); Nicolaes Maes, A Little Girl rocking a Cradle (NG153), A Woman scraping Parsnips, with a Child standing by her (NG159); Pier Francesco Mola, The Rest on the Flight into Egypt (NG160); Style of Pier Francesco Mola, Leda and the Swan (NG151.1); Aert van der Neer, An Evening View near a Village (NG152); Rubens, A Landscape with a Shepherd and his Flock (NG157); David Teniers the Younger, The Covetous Man (NG155), A Man holding a Glass and an Old Woman lighting a Pipe (NG158); Studio of David Teniers the Younger, Peasants making Music in an Inn (NG154); Willem van de Velde, A Dutch Vessel in a Strong Breeze (NG150) and Studio of Willem van de Velde, Calm: Two Dutch Vessels (NG149).

Donor: bequeathed in 1838 Sir Joshua Reynolds, The Infant Samuel (NG162) (now at Tate, N00162).

Sitter: Long is the subject of a marble bust by Sir Francis Chantrey, which was presented to the NG in 1911 by Mrs Samuel Long (NG2786).

Bibliography

D. B. Brown, 'Long family (1) Charles Long, 1st Baron Farnborough', in J. Turner et al. (eds), Grove Art Online, Oxford 1998-, https://doi.org/10.1093/gao/9781884446054.article.T051759
Checked and found — Item on publisher's website

H. Colvin, 'Long, Charles, Baron Farnborough', in C. Matthew et al. (eds), Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford 1992-, https://doi.org/10.1093/ref:odnb/16962
Checked and found — Item on publisher's website

D. R. Fisher, 'LONG, Charles (1760-1838), of Bromley Hill Place, Kent', in History of Parliament Trust (ed.), The History of Parliament: British Political, Social & Local History, London 1964-, 1820-1832, https://www.historyofparliamentonline.org/volume/1820-1832/member/long-charles-1760-1838
Checked and found — Item on publisher's website

B. Murphy and R. G. Thorne, 'LONG, Charles (1760-1838), of Bromley Hill Place, Kent', in History of Parliament Trust (ed.), The History of Parliament: British Political, Social & Local History, London 1964-, 1790-1820, https://www.historyofparliamentonline.org/volume/1790-1820/member/long-charles-1760-1838
Checked and found — Item on publisher's website

M. H. Port, 'LONG, Charles (?1760-1838), of Trinton Hall, Suff.', in History of Parliament Trust (ed.), The History of Parliament: British Political, Social & Local History, London 1964-, 1754-1790, https://www.historyofparliamentonline.org/volume/1754-1790/member/long-charles-1760-1838
Checked and found — Item on publisher's website

UCL Department of History, 'Sir Charles Long 1st Baron Farnborough', in UCL Department of History (ed.), Legacies of British Slave-ownership, London 2020, https://www.ucl.ac.uk/lbs/person/view/2146638829
Checked and found — Item on publisher's website

Paintings previously owned by Charles Long, Baron Farnborough

(Showing 3 of 14 works)
A Dutch Vessel in a Strong Breeze
A Dutch Vessel in a Strong Breeze
Willem van de Velde
An angry tide surges around two small transport boats heading for disaster under a stormy sky. The crew of the kaag, desperate to avoid collision with the fast approaching smalschip, have released the horizontal spar to take the wind out of the mainsail. This way, the vessel will slow and – with...
Not on display
A Landscape with a Shepherd and his Flock
A Landscape with a Shepherd and his Flock
Peter Paul Rubens
Rubens has created the impression of a wide-open space by depicting a point of interest in the right foreground – the shepherd watching over his sheep – then using the strong diagonal lines of the river, the road, the edges of the clouds and the raking light to trick our eye. Like the shepherd, w...
Room 20
A Little Girl rocking a Cradle
A Little Girl rocking a Cradle
Nicolaes Maes
A little girl looks out at us, as if eager for us to tell her that she’s doing her job well – her smile a little nervous, the hand on the cradle clutching it tight. She looks no more than five years old, but she’s been given the responsibility of looking after the baby that sleeps soundly, button...
Not on display
A Man holding a Glass and an Old Woman lighting a Pipe
A Man holding a Glass and an Old Woman lighting a Pipe
David Teniers the Younger
David Teniers the Younger was one of the most successful Flemish painters of the seventeenth century. His work was prized by important collectors, and he amassed great wealth and attained high status himself: he was awarded a patent of nobility in 1680. At this time there was a fashion for pictur...
Not on display
A River Landscape
A River Landscape
Jan van Goyen
Time has not been kind to Jan van Goyen’s river landscape, and his soft muted colours have been dimmed under a coat of yellowed varnish. But we sense the tranquillity of the scene – the vast sky, the quiet ripple of the water under the small boat heading upriver and the patient cows cropping the...
Not on display
A Woman scraping Parsnips, with a Child standing by her
A Woman scraping Parsnips, with a Child standing by her
Nicolaes Maes
At first glance, this dark room might seem bare and forbidding but the deep brown of the walls encloses the two figures in warmth and serenity. There’s just enough light to reveal them, but Maes doesn‘t show the window, so the comfortable atmosphere isn’t disturbed. The concentration of woman and...
Not on display
An Evening View near a Village
An Evening View near a Village
Aert van der Neer
Although the vast majority of the picture is taken up by the landscape, our perception of it hinges on the two figures standing in the gateway. The angle created by the dead tree and stumps in the left foreground guides our gaze to them, as does the red dress of the milkmaid, which stands out str...
Not on display
Calm: Two Dutch Vessels
Calm: Two Dutch Vessels
Studio of Willem van de Velde
The low horizon gives a vast sky – very much how a sailor in a small boat at sea experiences the world. But the men working on the vessels seem unconcerned with the view: these are inshore working craft.In the centre is a smalschip, a transport vessel carrying a Dutch ensign. Beached on the spit...
Not on display
Peasants making Music in an Inn
Peasants making Music in an Inn
Studio of David Teniers the Younger
An old man playing a lute and wearing a bright blue and yellow minstrel’s outfit is the focus of this gloomy tavern scene by a follower of David Teniers the Younger. He hunches over in concentration as he tunes the strings; to the left, an old woman holds up sheet music, her mouth slightly open a...
Not on display
The Covetous Man
The Covetous Man
David Teniers the Younger
In one of his parables, Christ told of a rich man who squirrelled away his grain and his goods, hoarding them to ensure his future comfort instead of using them for charitable deeds. But God commanded that the man’s time to die had come: ‘Thou fool, this night thy soul shall be required of thee:...
Not on display
The Horses of Achilles
The Horses of Achilles
Style of Anthony van Dyck
Two horses run wild across a flat, earthy plain against a cloudy sunset. These are Xanthus and Balius, the immortal horses of the Greek hero Achilles. They were the offspring of Zephyrus, the god of the west wind, who may be personified by the winged head which is about to expel a mouthful of air...
Not on display
The Rest on the Flight into Egypt
The Rest on the Flight into Egypt
Pier Francesco Mola
The holy family are resting from their travels in this small pastoral scene. The Virgin Mary sits on a rock, absorbed in nursing the Christ Child; a bundle and pitcher lie on the ground beside her. Saint Joseph leans on the rocky ground beyond, looking up at a small cloud above the Virgin’s head,...
Room 37
Venice: The Grand Canal with S. Simeone Piccolo
Venice: The Grand Canal with S. Simeone Piccolo
Canaletto
Canaletto’s sweeping view takes in everyday life on the Grand Canal. A stout helmsman stands aboard a finely decorated passenger barge to the left, while fishermen draw their nets in the centre. A boat carrying two women seems about to collide with one of the fishing vessels.Across the canal to t...
Room 38
View of the Roman Countryside, possibly Tivoli
View of the Roman Countryside, possibly Tivoli
Gaspard Dughet
A wild, mountainous landscape stretches out before us, with sharp snowy peaks silhouetted against the sky. In the middle distance, just beyond the rushing waterfall, a town – complete with campanile (bell towers) and classical buildings – perches on a hilltop. In the foreground, a handful of figu...
Not on display
You've viewed 3 of 14 paintings

Paintings featuring Charles Long, Baron Farnborough

Charles Long, 1st Baron Farnborough
Charles Long, 1st Baron Farnborough
Sir Francis Legatt Chantrey
Dated 1836, this is a replica of the marble bust of Charles Long, 1st Baron Farnborough (1760–1838), commissioned in 1819 by the sitter’s father-in-law, Sir Abraham Hume. The original was exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1820 and is now in the National Portrait Gallery, London. Who commissioned...
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