a "child" and her fur child

thanks the-athenaeum.org (PD)

Here's Henrietta Child (1729-63), who before her marriage was Henrietta Knight.  The only daughter of Robert Knight, 1st Earl of Catherlough, she packed a bit of drama into her short life.  So far I have not found the exact date of this portrait, but it must date past 1753.  By that year she had gotten her divorce from husband #1, Charles Wymansold, and married Richard Child, the son of an earl.  (She may possibly have gotten in a third husband, a French count.)  In this telling portrait by Francis Cotes she's as self-assured as the beribboned kitty on her lap.  They're a sleek pair.  Good for both of them.