Thomas Oxenden as a boy of nine

Thomas Oxenden was the son of Henry Oxenden of Barham, near Canterbury, and a member of an old Kent family whose property also included houses at Dene and Broome Park. Thomas is mentioned in the voluminous correspondence of his father, now in the British Library and published as The Oxenden Letters in 1933. Henry Gibbs was a member of a family of artists working in Canterbury in the 17th century. In this portrait he depicts Thomas as a serious boy holding a book, dressed plainly in costume reflective of Puritan times and values.