* The portrait, painted in Simla by W. Melville in 1845, belonged to my grandmother, Mabel Ross, so it had to be from the Ross/Tailor root of the family and, as the Tailors were still in England at the time it was painted, the Ross side seemed likelier. But that was as much as we could say until Chelsea provided the further clue of the photograph, and Jane Matilda's entry onto the scene with her three marriages. Aside from the likeness between the lady in the portrait and the lady in the photograph, Chelsea also pointed out that the youth in the photograph had similar features to the gentleman in the companion portrait, and could possibly be his son. If you take the resemblances and all the dates into consideration—first husband James's death in 1841, the portrait's creation in 1845, Jane and John Matthews' marriage in 1846, young James' birth in 1847, and John Matthews' death the following year—a plausible identification can be made.

A further clue is the fact that the lady's portrait is more degraded around the edges than the gentleman's, as if it had been handled and/or been out on display for longer. This would have been the case with Jane, who outlived her second husband and went on to marry for a third time. It is plausible that her portrait continued to be displayed, whereas her second husband's would have been put away and kept safer from the ravages of light and air.