The following story has been handed down through the family along with the painting. 

This portrait of Frances, then the wife of St. George Tucker of Williamsburg, Virginia, was painted in 1780 by John Durand. He also painted her husband's portrait at that time. Both portraits were sent by ship to his parents in Bermuda. In this way he was able to show them his beautiful bride. John Durand painted other portraits in Colonial Virginia, including those of James Madison and Thomas Jefferson, but Frances Bland Randolph Tucker was surely his most beautiful subject. 

After Frances Tucker died in 1788, her portrait was sent to her son, John Randolph of Roanoke. He never married, but his sister, Anne Tucker, married Judge John Coalter. Their daughter, Elizabeth Coalter, was her Uncle John's special favorite. In 1830 when she became engaged to be married to John Randolph Bryan, the son of John Randolph's good friend, Joseph Bryan, John Randolph gave the portrait to Elizabeth as a wedding present. 

Before the marriage, however, the portrait was sent to Washington to be copied by an artist whose name is now remembered as Wood. He went bankrupt while the portrait was in his possession, and his shop with all its contents, including the portrait, was put under lock and key. Elizabeth Coalter was, of course, beside herself to think that her grandmother's portrait was lost to her! So her fiancé, who was in Washington then, resolved to rescue the painting. It is said that he broke into the artist's shop in the dark of night, retrieved the painting, and triumphantly presented it to his lady on the eve of their wedding! 

The portrait was subsequently restored by the late Stephen S. Pichetto, who had done restoration work for the Metropolitan Museum in New York and the National Gallery in Washington. This photograph is displayed through the kind permission of the owner and with assistance from the Jamestown-Yorktown Foundation.