File:Portrait of Robert Devereux, 2nd Earl of Essex (1567–1601) by William Segar (frame).jpg

This painting once formed part of the famous set of paintings assembled by Ralph Sheldon (c. 1537–1613) at Weston Park, Warwickshire, during the 1590s. Sheldon had commissioned a set of at least twenty-two portraits of Kings, Queens, and English and European historical figures. The paintings recognieable by their arched tops and distinctive frames, decorated with linked medallions. reference

Provenance: Commissioned by Ralph Sheldon (c. 1537–1613), by direct descent to William Sheldon (1715–1780);

His posthumous sale ('A catalogue of the Elegant and Rich Houshold [sic] Furniture [... ] pictures [...] of the late William Sheldon, esq; dec. at his seat, called Weston, near Long Compton, in the County of Warwick'), on the premises, Weston House, Warwickshire, Christie's, 27 August – 11 September 1781, lot 45 for £1.1s.0d to W. Selby;

With Horatio Rodd, London, 1824;

With Moon, Boys & Graves, London, 1853 (according to the Scharf sketchbook);

From whom probably acquired by Lady Sarah Sophia Fane, 5th Countess of Jersey (1785–1867), wife of George Child-Villiers, 5th Earl of Jersey and 8th Viscount Grandison (1773–1859), 38 Berkeley Square, London, and Middleton Park, Oxfordshire, where recorded by Sir George Scharf, 23 May 1861, as 'Earl of Essex (Rob.t Devereux) / in Library');

Thence by descent in the family of the Earls of Jersey at Osterley Park, Middlesex, and Radier Manor, Jersey.