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2023.100.3,A&B, Portrait
Portrait of Sarah (Sally) Brownley Earle
2023.100.3,A&B, Portrait

Portrait of Sarah (Sally) Brownley Earle

Dateca. 1815
OriginAmerica, Virginia, Warren County
MediumOil on canvas
Credit LineMuseum Purchase, The Friends of Colonial Williamsburg Collections Fund and Partial Gift of Roberta Earle Rowe
Object number2023.100.3,A&B
DescriptionPortrait of a woman in a brown dress seated on a red upholstered chair. She has her arms crossed in front of her body and is wearing an oversized white cap. A portrait miniature hangs from a ribbon around her neck.Label TextEzaias Earle was probably the eldest son of Samuel Earle III and his second wife, Elizabeth Holbrook. He was born at the family homestead of Muddy Run in what is now Warren County, VA around 1758. Earle served in the Revolutionary War in the 51st Militia, Frederick, VA. Following the war, he married Sarah (Sally) Brownley (1767-1840) and together they had 4 children.

In 1842, Ezaias and Sally's eldest son, Col. John Baylis Earle purchased the ca. 1771 stone home known as Mt. Zion in Warren County. The home had been built for Rev. Charles Mynn Thruston. Originally from Gloucester Co., Thruston served as a lieutenant under Washington in 1758 at the capture of Fort Duquesne. He took holy orders in London around 1765 and served as a minister of Petsworth Parish in Gloucester until about 1768 when he moved to Frederick Co., to take up the ministry there. During the Revolution, he raised a company of troops and was wounded at the Battle of Piscataway. He was known as the "Warrior Parson" or the "Fighting Parson." In 1775 and 1776, Thurston represented Frederick Co. in the Colonial Conventions held in Richmond and became a prominent member of the Virginia legislature following the war.

These portraits hung at Mt. Zion from the time it was acquired by the Earle family until the house was sold out of the family in 1990. The portraits did remain in family possession following the sale of the home and descended in the family until they came to Colonial Williamsburg in 2023.


Provenanceca. 1815; Major Ezaias Earle [1758-1826] and Sarah Brownley Earle [1767-1840] (Warren County, VA); by 1840, by inheritance to their son, Colonel Johy Baylis Earle [1787-1860] (Warren County, VA); by 1860, by inheritance to his son, Captain Alexander Miller Earle [1819-1890] (Warren County, VA); by 1919, by inheritance to his son, John Burns Earle [1869-1947] (Warren County, VA); by 1962, by inheritance to his son John Burns Earle, Jr. [1915-1987] (Warren County, VA); by 2012; by inheritance to Colonial Williamsburg's vendor; 2023, partial gift to The Colonial Williamsburg Foundation (Williamsburg, VA)