When the picture received conservation treatment in 1977 it was found that between 1572 and c.1611 two layers of brown paint had been applied over the damaged green background. The inscription was preserved or copied, and the arms of the Selwyn family of Friston added. The subject may have been John Selwyn of Friston, Sussex, whose younger son was born in 1548. Later this coat of arms was concealed and the inscription Robertus Co: Leicestriae added to increase the historical value of the picture. The 3rd Marchioness of Hertford was George Selwyn’s adopted daughter, to whom he bequeathed Roubiliac’s bust of Charles I (Wallace Collection). The portrait was inventoried at the 3rd Marquess of Hertford’s property, Dorchester House, in 1842 as a ‘Zucchero, Robert Dudley Earl of Leicester’.