Weston Park and the majority of its art collection was gifted to the nation in 1986 by the 7th and present Earl of Bradford. The core of the collection was amassed by Francis Newport (1620–1708), 1st Earl of Bradford of the first creation and his younger son, Thomas Newport (1654–1719), 1st and last Baron Torrington, in the later seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries. Brought to Weston Park from the family’s London properties in 1735, these works include six outstanding Van Dyck portraits and a number of other artists’ depictions of notable sitters from the Restoration period and before. The Bradford family added further family portraits, by artists including Hoppner, Gainsborough, Reynolds, Hayter, Constable, and Grant. A significant group of sporting paintings by Stubbs, the Ferneley family and other equestrian artists can also be found at Weston Park, together with notable old master works.