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John Smart often made notes in pencil on the reverse of the sketches that he used as the basis for his finished portrait miniatures. These notes often included the name of the sitter, plus colour notes and any requests from the sitter regarding the setting of the finished work. These preparatory sketches were retained by Smart, presumably in several sketch books, which were then distributed among his descendants. In the mid-1930s the great grandchildren of the artist sold the sketches, and it is likely that this sketch was among those lots. Smart’s spelling was often phonetic and it is possibly that the sitter here is Sir James Ibbetson.

The Ibbetson family were descended from Samuel Ibbetson (d.1697), a Leeds cloth merchant who founded the family trading firm. The great wealth generated by his business paved the way for his family to rise in fortune and climb the social ladder. His descendant Henry Ibbetson (1706-1761) raised a force of 100 men at his own expense during the Jacobite rising of 1745, served as High Sheriff of Yorkshire in 1746 and was created a Baronet of Leeds in the County of York in the Baronetage of Great Britain in 1748. He was succeeded by his son James, second Baronet, who is probably the sitter in the present portrait. James married Jane, daughter of John Caygill and his wife Jane Selwin. On his death the title passed in turn to his son, the third Baronet, who was High Sheriff of Yorkshire in 1803, died childless and was succeeded by his younger brother, the fourth Baronet.