Oil on canvas; 125.7 x 100.3 cm
Jemima Tulikens Jones (c. 1749 - 79) married Charles Cornwallis in 1768. She died 14-Feb-1779 while Cornwallis was at home on leave from the Revolutionary War. Their son, Charles, Viscount Brome, was added to the painting in 1778.
America had a common language, unlike the European nations, none of which was linguistically homogeneous. in 1789 the majority of Frenchmen did not speak French but were divided by a variety of provincial patois. Englishmen from Yorkshire were incomprehensible to those from Cornwall and vice versa. By contrast, Americans could understand one another from Maine to Georgia. It was very obvious why this should be so, said John Witherspoon, president of Princeton. Since Americans were much more unsettled, and move frequently from place to place, they are not as liable to local peculiarities, either in accent or phraseology.