This charming double portrait by Horace Hone depicts Hector and Daniel, the twin sons of the notorious John Toler, 1st Earl of Norbury, Chief Justice of the Common Pleas for Ireland (1800-1827).
In 1805, the boys, with their tutor, left Ireland for a Grand Tour of Europe, but their itinerary was derailed after a ship on which they were travelling sank in the Black Sea. Initial reports indicated that the trio had been drowned, However, they later turned up safe and sound in Constantinople. Daniel (right), the elder of the twins, was subsequently excluded from succession to the Norbury peerage due to mental illness, and died childless.
Hector (left), who became the second Lord Norbury on his father’s death in 1831, was shot and killed by his butler some years later, in circumstances which have never been satisfactorily explained. The Norbury peerage continues to this day through Hector’s descendants.
Image Credit: Wikipedia
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