Sarah Scott Hussey-Delaval (1751–1829), daughter of George and Sarah Scott of Methley, Yorkshire, was the wife of Edward Hussey Delaval (1729–1814), and mother of Sarah Hussey Delaval (d. 1825). It is not known when Sarah Scott met Edward Delaval, although their daughter was born by July 1789, when Edward bequeathed in his will the interest he had acquired in Doddington to both mother and daughter. There does, however, appear to have been some irregularity about the status of Delaval’s partnership with Sarah Scott, since, in order to secure her title to jointure he underwent a formal ceremony at St Margaret’s, Westminster, on 22 December 1808, at which she was described as Sarah Scott Hussey-Delaval.¹

In the present portrait, the commissioning of which coincided with her husband’s acquisition of Doddington Hall, Mrs Delaval wears a long red velvet dress, similar to the one she wears in the conversation piece in which she appears with her daughter at their London home, Parliament Place, Westminster (DN81). The figures in that picture were also painted by George Joseph. The contrast between the modest conversation piece painted for the family’s London home and the grand full-length portrait intended to grace the dynastic seat at Doddington reflects the different facets of their lives, now divided between town and country.

Sarah Scott Hussey-Delaval outlived both her husband and her daughter, dying in February 1829 aged seventy-eight at her home in Upper Grosvenor Place, London. Although she stipulated in her will that she should be buried at Doddington should she die there, her death in London resulted in her interment at St Margaret’s, Westminster. She bequeathed most of her household goods, including her paintings and china, to her daughter’s friend George Ralph Payne Jarvis (DN44), who had inherited Doddington Hall, on condition that they should remain there.²