Jane Pemberton Small

At this time Jane was living in Paddington, in the rectory, a house big enough to have been let to Sir John Popham, the attorney general, in the 1580s.

After her second husband died intestate, her eldest son, Matthew Small, inherited, but only after a court hearing before the Star Chamber.

During this time, her husband accused Katherine of having engaged in adultery with a long-time lover and giving birth to four children by him.

Numerous court cases culminated in 1620 with Samuel More placing the four children with Pilgrims on the Mayflower just prior to its sailing for America.

She has been identified as the subject from the coat of arms painted on a separate piece of vellum at the back of the miniature, that of Robert Pemberton of Lancashire and of Rushden, Northamptonshire, who died in 1594.

In the view of art historian Graham Reynolds: [Holbein] portrays a young woman whose plainness is scarcely relieved by her simple costume of black-and-white materials, and yet there can be no doubt that this is one of the great portraits of the world.

With remarkable objectivity Holbein has not added anything of himself or subtracted from his sitter's image; he has seen her as she appeared in a solemn mood in the cold light of his painting-room.