John Singleton Copley, The Copley Family (detail of
Richard Clarke), 1776/77. National Gallery of Art, Andrew W. Mellon Fund,
1961.7.1
Copley's father-in-law, Richard Clarke, was a Boston merchant with strong
Tory affiliations. In 1773, his son Jonathan, in partnership with Brook
Watson, sent a shipment of tea to Clarke and other Boston merchants. It
was this controversial cargo that colonial rebels tossed into the harbor
during the Boston Tea Party.